Renewed tension in southern Lebanon; Blinken warns Iran at UN: Israel-Hamas war, Day 18

Thank you for following our LIVE coverage of Day 18 of the Hamas vs Israel conflict.

We'll be back tomorrow with more news updates and analysis, right here at L'Orient Today.

Saudi Arabia evacuated 66 family members of its diplomatic staff in Beirut on Tuesday, confirmed Director of Civil Aviation at Beirut International Airport Fady Hassan.

"These individuals were evacuated [via Beirut Airport] aboard two Saudi military aircraft," said Hassan.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday that the Hamas attack had been traumatic for Israel but that it also was a disaster for the Palestinian people.

"Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people," Macron told reporters alongside Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, in the West Bank. 

An Israeli military spokesperson said more fuel will not enter Gaza, reports Reuters.

The United Nations said 20 trucks that had been due to deliver aid to the besieged Gaza Strip via the Rafah crossing from Egypt on Tuesday had not entered the enclave.

"We hope the materials can enter Gaza tomorrow," UN aid spokesperson Eri Kaneko said.

Senior UN aid official Lynn Hastings earlier told the UN Security Council that 20 trucks were due to cross on Tuesday. Since Saturday, 54 trucks have crossed into Gaza carrying food, medicine and water, which UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described as "a drop of aid in an ocean of need." 

The southern villages of Naqoura and Rmeish are being shelled by the Israeli army, a UNIFIL spokesperson told L'Orient Today.

Foreign ministers from Palestine, Egypt and Saudi Arabia call for immediate ceasefire in Gaza, reports Reuters.

UNRWA says its Gaza operation will end tomorrow if it doesn't receive more fuel.

"If we do not get fuel urgently, we will be forced to halt our operations in the Gaza strip as of tomorrow night," UNRWA announced on X.

Lebanon should not face a shortage of domestic gas, Jean Hatem, president of the association of gas cylinder distributors, told L’Orient-Le Jour.

"Deliveries are continuing as planned, with a 5,000-ton ship expected on Friday," said Hatem, adding that the Lebanese market has sufficient gas reserves for winter. "If there is a blockade, we have sufficient stocks," he said.

American Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at least 33 Americans were killed in the Hamas attack, reports Reuters.

A public elementary school in the southern village of Aita al-Shaab was hit by Israeli bombardment, though no casualties were recorded, the village's mayor confirmed to L'Orient Today.

"It is the nature of Israel to bring chaos and terrorize the people," said Mayor Mohamad Srour.

The Palestinian Authority's foreign minister on Tuesday deplored inaction by the UN Security Council to stop "massacres" in Gaza by Israel, which has retaliated for a massive attack by Hamas that largely killed civilians.

"The ongoing massacres being deliberately and systematically and savagely perpetrated by Israel — the occupying power against the Palestinian civilian population under illegal occupation — must be stopped," Riyad al-Maliki told a special Security Council session.

"It is our collective human duty to stop them," he said. "Continued failure at this council is inexcusable."

A senior UN aid official says 20 more aid trucks are due to enter Gaza from Egypt on Tuesday, reports Reuters.

As the UN negotiates with Israel on fuel deliveries to Gaza, a senior UN aid official said 400,000 liters of fuel are ready to go, reports Reuters.

From Beirut, Hamas on Tuesday called for the opening of "permanent humanitarian corridors" in Gaza.

"Opening the Rafah crossing to bring in minimal quantities of aid is no way to deal with the war of extermination," said Osama Hamdan, a Hamas senior member in Lebanon, at a press conference.

He asked for fuel for Gaza's hospitals and bakeries, medicines and equipment to clear the rubble and remove the bodies that have still not been recovered by Palestinian rescue workers.

The Hamas executive also called on "Arab and Islamic countries and the UN to assume their responsibilities and take measures to stop the hostilities."

The Greek Embassy of Beirut recommends to all Greek visitors passing through and currently in Lebanon to leave the country given the situation, the embassy announced on X.

Lebanon's caretaker Economy Minister Amin Salam assured a conference that reports of a nationwide spike in the price of consumer goods were "not true."

He also pointed out that "foodstuffs are stored in warehouses in Beirut and Mount Lebanon," far from "at-risk" areas.

Hezbollah announced the death of one of its fighters, Hassan Badih Achour, from the southern Lebanese village of Chakra.

The party said he was killed "while performing his jihadist duty," without giving further details. A total of 36 Hezbollah militants have been killed since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7, Hezbollah confirmed to L'Orient Today.

The Israeli army bombarded an area between Houla and Mays al-Jabal in South Lebanon, a senior Lebanese army source confirmed to L'Orient Today.

"IDF aircraft attacked militants in Lebanon in the Mount Dov area and destroyed their weapons," Haaretz reported.

Anti-tank missiles were reportedly fired from Lebanon toward the Manara kibbutz in north Israel, but there were no casualties.

According to Haaretz, the Israeli army is retaliating with artillery fire toward the source of the shooting.

Fuel shipments to Lebanon are continuing but at a slower pace due to the risks associated with the Israel-Hamas war, a spokesman for the Association of Hydrocarbon Importing Companies in Lebanon (APIC) told L'Orient-Le Jour.

Two tankers are expected by the end of the week to resupply the Lebanese market with gasoline and diesel.

The prices of petrol, diesel and domestic gas — regulated by the Ministry of Energy and Water — have been declining for almost three weeks.

Turkey's Erdogan tells Russia's Putin that Western silence is worsening the humanitarian situation in Gaza, according to a statement from the Turkish presidency.

After Jerusalem, French President Emmanuel Macron will head to Amman to "probably" visit King Abdallah II and "maybe" other leaders, the Elysée Palace announced, according to AFP. Macron also plans to visit the West Bank on Tuesday.

Hezbollah announced the killing of one of its fighters, Hassan Said Naim.

The party did not specify the place or date of his death but said he was from the southern village of Salaa.

Three airstrikes on Southern Lebanon

A senior security source told L'Orient Today that a drone fired three missiles between the towns of Hebbarieh and Shebaa in southern Lebanon.

Meanwhile, Al-Manar's correspondent reported that Israel fired four missiles at the heights of Jabal Sidana, located north of the town of Kfarshouba.

Jabal Sidana is close to Kfarchouba, Hebbarieh and Shebaa.

The World Health Organization (WHO) remains unable to distribute fuel, essentials, life-saving health supplies to major hospitals in northern Gaza due to a lack of security guarantees, reports Reuters.

Tensions rise again on Lebanon-Israel border

An Israeli army spokesperson says that anti-tank missiles have been fired at an Israeli town near the Lebanese border but no casualties have been reported, according to Haaretz.

Meanwhile, Al-Jadeed reports an Israeli raid on the outskirts of the town of Yaroun, adding that a car was targeted in the area.

In an unrelated event, the Red Cross and the Lebanese Army, in cooperation with UNIFIL, evacuated a body and two wounded persons from an area between Kfar Shuba and the Bastra Farm, according to local residents. It is still unclear when these people were injured.

Hezbollah announces a new death among its fighters: Nagib Zahr, who died "while fulfilling his duty." The party earlier today announced three other deaths in its ranks.

The Kremlin reports that no progress has yet been made towards the release of the Russian hostages kidnapped by Hamas during its attack on Israel on Oct. 7.

Russia, which has maintained relations with Hamas for many years and does not consider the group to be "terrorist," unlike the United States, also does not know exactly how many Russian nationals are prisoners of the Palestinian movement.

"For the time being, we have not succeeded [in freeing any hostages], but we will continue these efforts," Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, according to AFP.

"We are worried about our compatriots. At the moment, we have no precise information on when and how they may be freed," he said, adding that he did not know the "precise number" of Russian hostages.

Russia had previously reported at least 20 Russian-Israeli dual nationals killed and two taken hostage in Hamas attacks.

They fled for safety, and now they worry — all while an unwanted war looms. Lyana Alameddine speaks to some of the people displaced in south Lebanon about the ongoing conflict and the burdens they carry. Click here to read what they had to say. 

Image: Wafaa, originally from Dhayra, is sheltering in a public school in Sour. (Credit: Lucile Wassermann/L'Orient-Le Jour)

Mikati, Aoun comment from southern Lebanon

During his visit to the south today, Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said, "We came to our beloved south, which is paying today, as it has always paid, the tax of defending the entire territory of the nation against a usurping entity that knows no mercy, to affirm Lebanon’s respect ... for all resolutions of international legitimacy and the commitment to implement UN Security Council Resolution No. 1701," the Lebanese state-run National News Agency reports.

Mikati and army commander Joseph Aoun inspected the western sector area of southern Lebanon to review the situation there and the tasks that the army is carrying out in cooperation with UNIFIL forces.

Aoun, for his part, stressed that "defending Lebanon is a natural and legitimate duty for the army in the face of the dangers that threaten it, most notably the Israeli enemy." He added that "the military institution follows the developments of the situation and maintains its readiness at the southern border."

The Israeli army has dropped leaflets in the Gaza Strip calling on its inhabitants to give it any information they might have on Israeli hostages held by Hamas, in exchange for a financial reward, AFP reported.

The leaflets were dropped by Israeli aircraft before landing on the ground in Khan Younis, in the south of the Gaza Strip. "If you want a better future for yourself and your children, do the right thing and send us safe and useful information about kidnapped people in your area," reads the leaflet, which is written in Arabic.

"The Israeli army promises to do everything in its power to keep you and your homes safe, as well as [provide] a financial reward," the leaflet adds. "We guarantee total discretion," it notes. The document provides a phone number and Telegram, WhatsApp, and Signal messengers on which it can be reached with any information related to the hostages.

The Israeli army confirmed in a statement that it had dropped the leaflets "as part of intense efforts to free Israeli and foreign hostages held by the Hamas terrorist organization in Gaza."

The Israeli Army says its air force has killed a person who tried to fire a rocket from Lebanon towards the Western Galilee, Haaretz reports.

Earlier today, Hezbollah's al-Manar channel and Saudi Arabia's al-Hadath reported that Israel fired machine guns towards open Lebanese territory after suspecting movement opposite the “Misgav Am” settlement. The Lebanese Army was not immediately available for comment.

President Macron has called on "Hezbollah, the Iranian regime and the Houthis in Yemen" not to "take the unconsidered risk of opening up new fronts." The call comes as the situation on the border with Lebanon remains tense. Following the attack on Oct. 7, Macron said he feared "a regional conflagration from which everyone would lose out."

UPDATE: 704 Palestinians have been killed in the last 24 hours in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run enclave says, according to Reuters. This brings the death toll in Gaza to 5,791 since the bombardment began on Oct. 7.

In Jerusalem, Emmanuel Macron proposed that the international coalition currently deployed in Iraq and Syria to fight the Islamic State "could also fight Hamas," AFP reports.

After a bilateral meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the French president assured the Israeli people of France's "solidarity," saying that with 30 French dead, the attack was "a black page in our own history." Macron also called for "a decisive relaunch of the political process with the Palestinians," and will discuss this later today in Ramallah with the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas.

"The Palestinian cause must be heard with reason .... I'll be with several regional leaders tomorrow to make concrete progress on the agenda we've set ourselves," he said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meanwhile said that "Hamas is a challenge to the West and to civilization," while also adding, "If Hezbollah intervenes, the devastation will be unimaginable," Reuters reports. "Israeli children hide from Hamas as Anne Frank did; Hamas are the new Nazis, they threaten Europe too," he said.

An Israeli hostage released by Hamas claims to have been "beaten" during her abduction but "well treated" during her captivity of more than two weeks in the Gaza Strip, AFP reports.

"They kidnapped me, I was taken away on a motorcycle .... I was lying on the motorcycle, my body on one side and my legs on the other ... Palestinians beat me on the way, they didn't break my ribs but they hurt me a lot and I had trouble breathing," she told journalists. In front of the press in Tel Aviv, she then added: "They made sure we didn't need anything. They treated us well."

Emirates airline is extending the suspension of its flights to and from Tel Aviv until Nov. 14, according to a statement reported by Reuters.

Israeli universities to remain closed until December

The Israeli Committee of University Presidents announced that the academic school year in Israel will not resume before December, according to al-Jazeera and the Times of Israel.

The decision was reportedly caused by the war in Gaza and the high number of students among reservists.

If Israel attacks, 'we'll be obliged to defend ourselves': Bassil

"Our course of action today is national unity and the protection of Lebanon [but] we must stand with the Palestinian people who are being massacred," said Gebran Bassil, head of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) from Ain al-Tineh, following a meeting with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.

"No one can drag us into a war unless the Israeli enemy attacks us. If that's the case, we'll be obliged to defend ourselves," he continued. "All Lebanese agree that they don't want war, but they don't want us to allow ourselves to be attacked without responding," added Bassil, who also urged the quick election of a new Lebanese president. Lebanon has been without a president since Oct. 31, 2022.

WHO, meanwhile, said medicines and health supplies had been delivered to three key referral hospitals in southern Gaza but that it still needed to reach the north of the Palestinian enclave, one of the most densely populated places in the world. 

"We still have not been able to reach the hospitals in the north with the medical supplies or the desperately needed fuel," Reuters quotes Dr Rick Brennan, WHO Regional Emergencies Director for Eastern Mediterranean Region, as saying.

Brennan said one-third of hospitals in the Gaza Strip were now non-functional at a time when the medical burden is enormous, and that some two-thirds of clinics are not functioning.

"We are on our knees asking for that sustained, scaled up, protected humanitarian operation," he said. "We appeal to all of those in a situation to make a decision or to influence decision-makers to give us the humanitarian space to address this human catastrophe." 

UNRWA says fuel, which has not been sent to the Gaza Strip along with the humanitarian aid, is crucial, Reuters reports.

"Fuel is extremely urgent because without fuel, the trucks themselves cannot move," UNRWA spokesperson Tamara Alrifai is quoted as saying. "Without fuel, the generators cannot produce electricity for hospitals, for bakeries and for the water desalination plant."

For insurance companies, Lebanon is no longer a country at risk, it is already at war. Tatiana Krotoff writes about the toll this will take on movement and business in this time of great uncertainty. Click here to read her report. 

Image: Shells fired by the Israeli army explode near the village of Dhayra, in southern Lebanon, Oct. 16, 2023. (Credit: AFP)

In case you missed it: Our journalists Laure-Maïssa Farjallah and Amélie Zaccour ask how Gulf states' priorities might shift amid the Israel-Hamas war. Click here to read their report.

Image: The flags of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries before a summit in Kuwait City in 2017. (Credit: AFP/File photo)

Meanwhile, in Geneva, the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) calls for an unimpeded flow of humanitarian assistance to Gaza, trapped in a humanitarian crisis after two weeks of intense Israeli attacks, Reuters reports. 

"We call for an unimpeded and continuous flow of humanitarian assistance and medical assistance to continue coming into Gaza," the agency quotes Tamara Alrifai, UNRWA spokesperson, as saying.

"The trucks that have come in so far are just a trickle in the face of the immense needs of people on the street."

UNWRA has told L'Orient Today that it is "doing everything possible" to provide assistance to people in need across the Gaza Strip.

The UN body was responding to criticism from dozens of Palestinian refugees who held a sit-in in front of the headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in Beirut on Monday. The protesters denounced what they described as the "inability" of the United Nations to assist Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. "We call on UNRWA to fulfill its humanitarian role more effectively," read a sign held by the protesters at the sit-in.

"UNRWA has been doing everything possible to provide assistance to people in need across the Gaza Strip. We have left no stone unturned to advocate for the protection of civilians and our own staff and facilities," said the agency's spokesperson Juliette Touma.

"UNRWA is overstretched, given our own staff in Gaza have themselves been impacted. Many have become displaced. Many lost loved ones. Many, many are still on the ground providing the very little assistance we still have. They are truly our unsung heroes," she added.

Image: Palestinian refugees protest in front of the main UNWRA building in Beirut. (Credit: Mohammad Yassin)

Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said the al-Ahli Arab hospital bombing in Gaza last week was not caused by an Israeli missile, and also questioned the death toll reported by Palestinian officials, according to Reuters.

"We need to avoid the negative impact of propaganda because that missile that was said to have caused 500 deaths, in reality it was around 50 people ....was not launched by Israel," Reuters cites Tajani as telling the Sky TG24 news channel.

Tajani did not provide evidence for his statement. According to the Gaza Health Ministry, 471 people were killed in the bombing.

Image: A Palestinian girl clutches salvaged books as people look for survivors in the rubble of a destroyed building hit in an Israeli strike in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on Oct. 24, 2023. (Credit: Mahmud Hams/AFP)

Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and army commander Joseph Aoun are visiting the UNIFIL headquarters in Naqoura this morning to meet UNIFIL commander Gen. Aroldo Lazaro, the Lebanese state-run National News Agency reports.

Mikati went to Sour earlier this morning to visit a Lebanese Army barracks, where he was welcomed by Aoun.

Releasing hostages held by Hamas must be the "first objective" of the war in Gaza, France's President Emmanuel Macron says during his solidarity visit to Israel.

"The first objective we should have today is the release of all hostages, without any distinction, because this is an awful crime to play with the lives of children, adults, old people, civilians and soldiers," AFP cites Macron as saying after meeting Israel's President Isaac Herzog. Macron added that the campaign must be fought without "enlarging this conflict."

BREAKING: Israel is not seeking war with Hezbollah on its northern border but is focusing instead on fighting Hamas in the Gaza Strip, says Israeli President Isaac Herzog during his meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, quoted by Reuters.

"I want to make it clear that we are not looking for confrontation on our northern border or with anyone else … But if Hezbollah drags us into a war, it must be clear that Lebanon will pay the price," added Herzog.

France will stand in solidarity with Israel in its fight against terrorism, President Emmanuel Macron said as he met with his Israeli counterpart Isaac Herzog in Jerusalem this morning, Reuters reports.

"What happened will never be forgotten," Reuters quotes Macron as saying in referance to the assault on Israel in which the militant group Hamas reportedly killed over 1,400 people. "I am here to express our solidarity," the president added.

Image: French President Emmanuel Macron (left) shakes hands with Israel's President Isaac Herzog during a meeting in Jerusalem, on Oct. 24, 2023. (Credit: Christophe Ena / POOL / AFP)

Disruptions to Middle East Airlines' regular flight schedule continue. Click here for changes affecting flights scheduled for today, tomorrow and Thursday.

"The West has built a wall between itself and the Arab and Islamic peoples that will never fall," Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh says, according to a press statement broadcast by the Quds Press Agency this morning.

According to the statement, Haniyeh also said that the West is no longer human following its positions "in support of the genocidal war in the Gaza Strip.”

He also addressed the leaders of the Arab and Islamic countries, saying, "How much blood and massacres do you need in order for you to become angry … and take a historical stand in the face of the [killing] of children, women, and the elderly of Gaza?"

BREAKING: French President Emmanuel Macron is set to meet Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah later today, the Palestinian Authority says, according to AFP.  The agency add that the French presidency did not immediately confirm the meeting.

Qatar's ruling emir has urged the international community not to grant Israel "unrestricted authorization to kill" Palestinians in its fight against Hamas, in what he called a dangerous escalation that threatens global security, Reuters reports.

"We say enough. Israel shouldn't be granted an unconditional green light and unrestricted authorisation to kill," Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani said in an annual speech to open the Gulf Arab state's advisory Shura council, his first public comments since Qatar began its most recent efforts to mediate between Israel and Hamas.

"We call for a serious regional and international stance against this dangerous escalation that we are witnessing, which threatens the security of the region and the world,” Sheikh Tamim continued. "We do not accept double standards and acting like the lives of Palestinian children aren't accounted for, as if they don't have faces or names."

The Israel-Hamas war risks "serious" economic damage, the World Bank's president has said, according to AFP. 

The war between Israel and Hamas could deal a "serious" blow to global economic development, the president of the World Bank told an investor conference in Saudi Arabia today.

"What just happened recently in Israel and Gaza — at the end of the day you put all this together, I think the impact on economic development is even more serious," Ajay Banga said, adding: "I think we're at a very dangerous juncture." 

Image: A petrol station hit in an Israeli strike in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on Oct. 24, 2023. (Credit: Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters)

Hezbollah has announced three new deaths among its ranks, naming those killed as Ibrahim Qashmar, Ali Artil and Moustapha Nazha.

Hezbollah is also reporting "three attacks" by the Israeli air force targeting several areas in southern Lebanon: the vicinity of Kfar Killa, Wazzani (Marjayoun region) and Aitaroun (Bint Jbeil region). No further details on the circumstances of these strikes were reported.

At least 10 British nationals have been killed in the conflict between Israel and Hamas and a further six remain missing, junior British finance minister Victoria Atkins told Times Radio on Tuesday, according to Reuters.

Image: French President Emmanuel Macron meets with Israeli-French nationals who have lost loved ones, as well as families of hostages, at the Ben Gurion airport, on Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2023 in Tel Aviv. Emmanuel Macron is traveling to Israel to show France's solidarity with the country and further work on the release of hostages who are being held in Gaza. (Credit: Christophe Ena/Pool via Reuters)

French President Emmanuel Macron has arrived in Tel Aviv this morning to express his country's "full solidarity" with Israel, AFP reports.

Some 30 French citizens were among those killed when Hamas stormed into Israel on Oct. 7.

Macron is due to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to express France's "full solidarity" with Israel after the attack, the French presidency said.

He was also expected to call for the "preservation of the civilian population" in Gaza, amid Israel's relentless bombardment, and as it prepares for a ground invasion of the overcrowded Palestinian enclave.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati traveled to Sour in South Lebanon this morning to visit a Lebanese Army barracks, where he was welcomed by army chief Joseph Aoun.

The Grand Serail has not yet communicated the details of this visit to South Lebanon.

Image: Courtesy of Michel Hallak

Israeli strikes killed 140 people overnight, according to Hamas, AFP reports.

7- Casualties: On Monday, Hamas claimed that 5,087 Palestinians, the majority of them civilians, including 2,055 children, had been killed by Israel's retaliatory bombing since the start of the conflict. More than 1,400 people were killed in Israel, most of them civilians who were shot, burned or mutilated on Oct. 7, the day of the Hamas attack, according to Israeli authorities.

6 - International: Russian President Vladimir Putin also called for “unimpeded” access for humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip and a “rapid cease-fire.”

The Chinese foreign minister, whose country has not explicitly condemned the Hamas attack, told his Israeli counterpart on Monday that "all countries [have] the right to defend themselves" during the first call between the senior diplomats of these nations since the start of the conflict. “The most urgent task now is to prevent the situation from worsening and leading to a more serious humanitarian catastrophe,” Wang Yi also told Eli Cohen, according to a statement from his ministry.

The Israeli army continues its preparations for a ground offensive, massing soldiers on the outskirts of the Gaza Strip and carrying out limited ground incursions there to target Hamas infrastructure and seek to locate missing or kidnapped people. This prospect worries the international community, which fears an escalation of the conflict. This weekend, Iran warned that the situation risked getting “out of control” in the Middle East. As for the United States, it has strengthened its military presence in the region. An initiative that runs the risk of an “escalation” of the conflict, according to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who was in Tehran yesterday.

5 - South Lebanon: In Lebanon, more than 19,000 people have been displaced after an increase in clashes between the Israeli army and Hezbollah on the border between the two countries, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). The border area on the Israeli side have also evacuated.

Yesterday, an uneasy calm dominated the morning before being broken late in the afternoon by new incidents in several different areas along the south Lebanon border. The surroundings of the localities of Rmaish, Bani Hayyan and Tallousseh were targeted by the Israeli army, while the Israeli site of Ibad, opposite the locality of Houla and the locality of Kiryat Shmona, was targeted, notably by Hezbollah. On the Israeli side, the army claims to have neutralized a drone and two “units” that left Lebanese territory, particularly in the region of Mount Dov and Mattat. Overall, however, the intensity of the clashes yesterday remained much less than that of the weekend.

4 - Humanitarian aid: International aid began to trickle into Gaza since Saturday via Egypt. On Monday, a third convoy crossed the border at Rafah, the only crossing point into Gaza not under Israeli control. In total, around 50 trucks have been able to enter in three days, but according to the UN at least 100 are needed per day.

The United States, which obtained the agreement of Israel and Egypt to allow the aid to flow, announced on Sunday “that there would henceforth be a continuous flow” of aid. But the EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell says “more aid, more quickly” is needed, as well as a “humanitarian pause” to allow its distribution.

3 - Strikes against Gaza: Israeli strikes on the besieged Gaza enclave have intensified in recent days. The Israeli army announced that it had struck “more than 320 military targets” during the night from Sunday to Monday, saying these targets were infrastructure belonging to Hamas and its ally Islamic Jihad.

“We want to completely dismantle Hamas — its leadership, its military wing and its operating mechanisms,” said Israeli army chief of staff Herzi Halevi n a video posted on X by the Israeli army during the night from Monday to Tuesday.

Since Oct. 15, the Israeli army has called on civilians in the north of the Gaza Strip, where the bombardments are most intense, to flee to the south. However, strikes also continue to affect the south, close to the Egyptian border, where the displaced are massed by the hundreds of thousands.

2- Cease-fire: For the United States, Hamas must release all the people kidnapped during its deadly attack against Israel on Oct. 7 before any discussion on a truce can begin. “The hostages must be released, then we can talk,” US President Joe Biden said yesterday.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, yesterday called for an “immediate humanitarian cease-fire” in Gaza, where 35 humanitarian workers have died there since the start of the conflict, including six in the last 24 hours, according to the UN agency in charge of Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).

We begin the day with a recap:

1- Hostages: Hamas released two new hostages yesterday evening. Those released are two women, of Israeli nationality, from kibbutz Nir Oz, according to the Israeli prime minister's office, which gave their identities as Yocheved Lifschitz, 85, and Nourit Kuper, 79. Their husbands are still detained. This release comes three days after that of an American woman and her daughter.

“I don’t know where I was taken,” Lifschitz is quoted by the Israeli news site Ynet as saying. “They made me get on the side of a motorbike so I wouldn't fall, with one terrorist holding me from the front and the other from the back. They crossed the border fence into the Gaza Strip and first detained me in the town of Abasan, near Be'eri. Then I don’t know where I was taken.”

The spokesperson for Hamas's military wing, Abu Obeida, said earlier in a statement that the two women had been released "for pressing humanitarian reasons" thanks to mediation by Qatar and Egypt.

Around 220 Israeli, foreign or dual national hostages have been identified by Israel as having been taken by Hamas men in the Gaza Strip during the deadly attack on Oct. 7 that launched the current conflict.

Good morning,

Here we are on day 18 of the war between Israel and Hamas, resuming our live coverage of events affecting Israel, Gaza and Lebanon.