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(Credit: Aris Messinis/AFP)

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Israeli army 'in the heart of Gaza City': Day 32 of the Hamas-Israel war

What you need to know

In Beirut, US envoy Amos Hochstein urged for calm on Lebanon's southern border with Israel.

Bombings resume in southern Lebanon.

Netanyahu once again rejects the possibility of a ceasefire in Gaza and promises to take “overall responsibility for security” after the war.

Over 10,000 Palestinians, including 4,104 children, have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7.


21:29 Beirut Time

Thank you for following our LIVE coverage of Day 32 of the Hamas-Israel conflict.


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

21:27 Beirut Time

Israel carried out two air strikes on the outskirts of Aita al-Shaab (Bint Jbeil district), two others on the outskirts of Kfarkila and the outskirts of Shebaa and an air raid between the Labouneh and Naqoura areas (Sour district), security sources told our correspondent in the South.


Israeli artillery shelling targeted the outskirts of Aita al-Shaab simultaneously.

21:17 Beirut Time

Red Cross says humanitarian convoy hit by gunfire in Gaza, AFP reports.

20:52 Beirut Time

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ruled out any ceasefire or fuel deliveries to the Gaza Strip until the hostages held there by Hamas are released.


"No fuel, no [Palestinian] workers in Israel and no ceasefire without the release of our hostages," Netanyahu said in a speech quoted by AFP.

20:34 Beirut Time

The United States is opposed to a new long-term occupation of the Gaza Strip by Israel, AFP reports. This follows Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying that Israel will have "overall security responsibility" over the territory following the war.


US State Department spokesman told reporters: "Generally speaking, we do not support the reoccupation of Gaza and neither does Israel." 

20:20 Beirut Time

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu says Hezbollah will make the "mistake of its life" if the group joins the war, AFP reports.

19:55 Beirut Time

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declares that all hostages must leave Gaza before Israel allows a humanitarian pause. He also claims that the chief of Hamas in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, is isolated in his bunker.


Israel "will not rule Gaza after the war, and neither will Hamas," says Gallant. "Pressure on us will mount but we cannot stop fighting until Hamas is defeated and hostages returned."

19:38 Beirut Time

Israeli Defense Minister Gallant says Israel has "no interest in war with Hezbollah," Reuters reports.

19:29 Beirut Time

Israeli Defense Minister Gallant says that Israeli army forces are in the heart of Gaza City, Reuters reports.

19:24 Beirut Time

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel's fighting in the Gaza Strip is a tremendous success, noting that "sometimes there are also very painful losses, but overall the success is phenomenal."


In a conversation with soldiers earlier, Netanyahu said that there is no intention of stopping the fighting: "We intend to continue until the end."

19:09 Beirut Time

"We continue to urge everyone to cease fire and stop any acts that could put civilians or UNIFIL personnel at risk," says UN Interim Force in Lebanon Commander Aroldo Lazaro in a video posted by UNIFIL on Telegram and on X.


General Lazaro also reports having visited several peacekeepers positioned along the Blue Line, "where the peacekeepers have been working in a complex situation and very difficult conditions for the past month." The situation along the Blue Line "is our concern, and the risk of uncontrollable escalation is clear," concludes Lazaro.

19:03 Beirut Time

 The United States has helped more than 400 US citizens, lawful permanent residents, and other eligible people to depart Gaza, according to a US state department spokesperson, Reuters reports.

18:39 Beirut Time

Hezbollah's second-in-command Naim Qassem said that “if [Israel and America] continue in their aggression in this way and escalate this aggression ... it will increase the situation and will lead to a complete confrontation."


Qassem's comments were made during an interview with American TV channel NBC News.

18:08 Beirut Time

Hezbollah releases a statement claiming responsibility for targeting Israel's artillery positions, without specifying the location of the attack.


The statement adds that the attack came in response to Israel's targeting of one of Hezbollah's points in the al-Tuffah region on Monday night.

17:41 Beirut Time

The armed wing of Hamas announced on Tuesday that it was "preparing to free 12 foreign hostages held in Gaza," but that Israel "has put obstacles in the way."


"We continue to affirm that we are ready to free them. But the situation on the ground, and the Israeli enemy threatening their lives, prevents them from doing so," said the al-Qassam Brigades statement published on Telegram.

17:37 Beirut Time

Residents report that the Litani Valley, west of Deir Mimas, was targeted with six shells, according to L'Orient Today's correspondent in the south.


Residents also claim that the bombing targeted some hills west of the town of Qlaya and north of Deir Mimas.


At the same time, the Israeli army says that it detected about 20 rockets launched from Lebanon into Israel and that the army is attacking the source with artillery fire, according to Haaretz.


Six rockets were successfully intercepted and two fell in open areas in Ain Qiniyye, a Druze village in the occupied Golan Heights, Haaretz added.

17:30 Beirut Time

The first group of Canadians has been evacuated to Egypt from the Gaza Strip through the Rafah border crossing, International Development Minister Ahmed Hussen says, according to a report from Reuters.


"They are now safe and sound in Egypt and we're very, very happy," he told reporters.

17:19 Beirut Time

The Lebanese government granted a fund of $11 million to the Lebanese Ministry of Health to "cover the costs of care for the wounded in case of war," announced caretaker Health Minister Firass Abiad during his tour of several hospitals, which started this morning in southern Lebanon.


Abiad added that a loan financed the expenses, bringing the budget of his ministry to $20 million. He also announced the transfer of around LL300 billion to government hospitals and indicated that 300 primary care centers for displaced persons are present throughout Lebanon. 


Throughout the day, the health minister visited Sheikh Ragheb Harb Hospital in Nabatieh and Nabih Berri Hospital. He visited the Turkish hospital in Saida in the morning.


The emergency number established for the needs of displaced people is 1787.

17:19 Beirut Time

Residents of the eastern sector of Nabatieh governorate reported interception missiles in the sky, according to L'Orient Today's correspondent in southern Lebanon.


Rocket sirens were activated in several communities in northern Israel, both in the Galilee and Golan Heights, according to Haaretz.


LBCI reported that eight missiles were launched from southern Lebanon towards Israel.

17:01 Beirut Time

Médecins Sans Frontières has called for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, a necessary condition for organizing the humanitarian response and a matter of "vital urgency" for the population of the Palestinian territory under Israeli fire.

17:00 Beirut Time

More than 100 French citizens have been able to leave the Gaza Strip via the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, the French Foreign Ministry announced.


Two groups of French nationals "were able to leave" on Monday and Tuesday the territory subjected to relentless Israeli bombardment and "are safely in Egypt," the statement said. "This brings to over 100 the total number of exits organized by France."

16:41 Beirut Time

Visiting US envoy Amos Hochstein on Tuesday urged for calm to return to Lebanon's southern border with Israel, after weeks of skirmishes following the start of the Israel-Hamas war.


"The United States does not want to see conflict in Gaza escalating and expanding into Lebanon," Hochstein told a press conference in Beirut.


"Restoring calm along the southern border is of utmost importance to the United States and it should be the highest priority for both Lebanon and Israel," he added.

15:53 Beirut Time

US Special Envoy Amos Hochstein and US Ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea meet with Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati in Beirut, Lebanon Nov. 7, 2023. (Credit: Mohamed Azakir/Reuters)

15:28 Beirut Time

A Hezbollah MP said on Tuesday that the party would respond "double" to any Israeli attacks on civilians following a strike that killed three children and their grandmother while they were in a car in southern Lebanon, Reuters reported.

"The resistance will respond double to any aggression that targets civilians," Ali Fayyad, an MP for the Marjayoun-Hasbaya district, said at the funeral of the four Lebanese killed in the South on Sunday.

"[Hezbollah] hasn't yet shown all its weight," he added

14:48 Beirut Time

Family members mourn over the caskets of civilians killed in an Israeli strike on Nov. 5, in southern Lebanon near the border with Israel, in Bilda, on Nov. 7, 2023. (Credit: Mahmoud Zayyat/AFP)

14:39 Beirut Time

US Special Envoy Amos Hochstein and US Ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea meet with Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, in Beirut, Lebanon Nov. 7, 2023. (Credit: Mohamed Azakir/Reuters)

14:31 Beirut Time

10,328 people have been killed in Gaza since October 7, the Gaza Ministry of Health announced, according to AFP.

Among the deaths recorded to date are 4,237 children and 2,741 women, the ministry added, noting that nearly 26,000 people had been injured.

14:29 Beirut Time

The Council of Ministers said in an open letter to world leaders, published between Monday and Tuesday, that "In a world plagued by indifference, we bear witness to massacres and ethnic cleansing in Palestine of unprecedented magnitude in our modern era. The ominous silence of influential quarters is deafening. How can we ever encapsulate the sheer horror and savagery inflicted upon innocent civilians?"

"We implore world leaders to end these massacres and build a path to peace, granting Palestinians basic rights and human dignity," the statement concluded.

14:01 Beirut Time

A spokesperson for the World Health Organization said that over 16 healthcare workers in Gaza have been killed while on duty since the start of the fighting, Reuters reported.

The spokesperson also called for a lifting of restrictions on medical aid, saying that some doctors have been forced to operate on patients, including amputations, without any anesthetics.

13:55 Beirut Time

Belgium's prime minister, Alexandre De Croo spoke out against Israel's bombing campaign in Gaza, labeling it as "disproportionate," following a meeting with Jordan's King Abdullah in the Belgian capital of Brussels, Reuters reported.

"Bombing down a refugee camp because it allegedly houses one Hamas leader is completely disproportionate. It is never acceptable that so many civilian casualties are caused trying to eliminate one person," De Croo stated. "Civilians and civilian places must be protected, but, of course, Hamas cannot use them as a shelter either because that only complicates matters."

Belgium is one of the countries, along with the United States, that has been calling for a humanitarian pause to the fighting while many other countries have called for a ceasefire.

13:48 Beirut Time

At the start of the afternoon, Israeli bombings targeted the areas around the towns of Boustan, Jebbin, Yarin (in the district of Sour), Haddatha and Marwahin (Bint Jbeil), reports L'Orient Today's correspondent in southern Lebanon.

The surroundings of the village of Tiri (Bint Jbeil) and the area of ​​Birket Rishe, on the edge of Boustan (Sour), were also targeted.

13:46 Beirut Time

At the start of the afternoon, Israeli bombings targeted the areas around the towns of Boustan, Jebbin, Yarin (in the district of Sour), Haddatha and Marwahin (Bint Jbeil), reports L'Orient Today's correspondent in southern Lebanon.

The surroundings of the village of Tiri (Bint Jbeil) and the area of ​​Birket Rishe, on the edge of Boustan (Sour), were also targeted.

13:32 Beirut Time

100 Romanian citizens stranded in Gaza are set to be evacuated on Tuesday through the Rafah border crossing, connecting the enclave to Egypt, as reported by the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, cited by Reuters. Over 260 individuals have asked to leave the Gaza Strip since the start of the conflict.

13:23 Beirut Time

The Israeli Ministry of Justice has released a memorandum allowing the Israeli army and Shin Bet, Israel's internal security service, to access private security cameras and review the footage without the owner's consent for a temporary six-month period. The ministry justified its decision on the grounds of preventing the potential leakage of visual information that could threaten state security and Israeli army operations. The public can provide feedback and objections to this memorandum until Nov. 11 with the main concern being the violation of individual privacy that is captured on these private cameras. The memorandum explains that given the recent terrorist attack and ongoing security concerns, there is a real worry about unauthorized access to stationary camera footage which could pose a risk to state security and the activities of the Israeli army and Shin Bet.

13:13 Beirut Time

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 569 aid trucks have entered Gaza so far, Reuters reports. None of the trucks contain fuel.

13:09 Beirut Time

An aerial view shows the compound of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on Nov. 7, 2023, amid the ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas. (Credit: Bashar Taleb/ AFP)

13:05 Beirut Time

Three armed drones were shot down Tuesday over Irbil airport in northern Iraq where U.S. and other international forces are stationed, Reuters reported, citing a statement from Iraq's counterterrorism services in Iraqi Kurdistan. The drones were launched in "two separate attacks" and the attack has not been claimed.

However, this is the latest in a series launched against American troops in Iraq and Syria, as tensions rise in the Middle East because of the war between Israel and Hamas.

12:44 Beirut Time

The Kremlin on Tuesday called for "humanitarian pauses" during Israel's military operation in the Gaza Strip and described the humanitarian situation as "catastrophic," according to Reuters.

Russia will continue its contacts with Israel, Egypt and the Palestinians to ensure that humanitarian supplies can be delivered to Gaza, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told a news conference.

12:31 Beirut Time

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, began a five-day visit to the Middle East on Tuesday.

Turk landed in Cairo on Tuesday and is set to visit Rafah, Egypt's border crossing with Gaza, on Wednesday before traveling to the Jordanian capital Amman on Thursday. Turk has also initiated efforts to visit Israel, the occupied West Bank, and Gaza.

"It has been a full month of carnage, unceasing suffering, bloodshed, destruction, outrage, and despair," Turk declared in a statement. "Human rights violations are at the root of this escalation, and human rights play a central role in finding a way out of this whirlwind of pain," he added.

12:30 Beirut Time

The Palestinian state news agency Wafa announced Tuesday that one of its journalists in Gaza had been killed in an Israeli strike, in comments reported by AFP. The journalist, Mohammad Abou Hassira, was killed in "an Israeli bombardment which targeted his house near the fishing port west of Gaza City," the agency said.

According to her, 42 members of the journalist's family "including his children and brothers" also died in the strike. According to the press service of the government in Gaza, this bombing took place overnight from Sunday to Monday and the journalist's body was extracted from the rubble on Tuesday morning.

12:26 Beirut Time

The American envoy Amos Hochstein arrived in Beirut on Tuesday. According to L'Orient Today's correspondent, he will meet with the Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri at 1:30 p.m. in Ain el-Tine. He will also be received by caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati at the Grand Serail in the afternoon. 

The envoy could also meet with the army's commander-in-chief, Joseph Aoun, as part of a "swift mission whose purpose is still not known," our correspondent added.

12:11 Beirut Time

Israeli bombings targeted the outskirts of Naqoura in South Lebanon, as confirmed by the village's municipal president and a spokesperson for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), whose headquarters is located in that area.

According to L'Orient Today's correspondent in the south, citing security sources, three rockets targeted the area.

The municipal president of Naqoura, Abbas Awada, stated that the bombing did not cause any injuries or damage. "The rockets fell to the south of Naqoura, near residences that had been evacuated following the outbreak of the conflict," he added.

According to Haaretz, the Israeli army attacked a "terrorist unit trying to launch anti-tank missiles from Lebanon to the Upper Galilee."

"Earlier...[the Israeli army] attacked a Hezbollah post in order to remove the threat," Haaretz reported. 

12:05 Beirut Time

Israel has surrounded Gaza City, the largest city in Gaza, as it prepares to push its ground offensive into the sprawling urban environment.

Hundreds of thousands of civilians are believed to remain in the area, raising concerns that the death toll, which has already surpassed 10,000, could skyrocket.

Read more about what is happening here.

11:14 Beirut Time

Israel has allowed countries with which it maintains diplomatic relations to increase the aid they provide to the civilian population in the Gaza Strip.

According to Haaretz, the Israeli state has approved the decision of the United Arab Emirates to establish a field hospital in the Gaza Strip, in coordination with Israeli political parties and the military.

The United Arab Emirates's state news agency, WAM, reports that Emirati President Mohammad bin Zayed al Nahyan called on Monday evening for the establishment of a 150-bed hospital to provide medical assistance to Palestinians. Five planes carrying equipment and supplies took off from Abu Dhabi International Airport on Monday, with the cargo expected to be unloaded at Al-Arish Airport in Egypt before being transferred to the Gaza Strip.

Furthermore, Israel authorized Jordan, at the end of last week, to airdrop aid packages into the enclave through a coordinated flight by the Jordanian Air Force.

10:38 Beirut Time

“The Israeli security services, including the Mossad…the army, and other security agencies, made a recommendation to stop broadcasting Al-Mayadeen channel inside Israel," the director of Al-Mayadeen in Palestine, Nasser al-Laham, reported.

“It is expected that the Minister of Communications will ask the next cabinet session to approve this recommendation and stop the channel’s work inside Israel,” he concluded.

Al-Mayadeen was launched in 2012 and presents itself as being independent but is largely viewed as being pro-Iran.

10:33 Beirut Time

Israeli airstrikes targeted the outskirts of the villages of Dhayra and Tayr Harfa (Sour district), Aita al-Shaab, Marwahine and Ramieh (Bint Jbeil) this morning, according to L'Orient Today's correspondent in southern Lebanon. A security source informed our correspondent that an Israeli rocket also struck the vicinity of the village of Mhaibib in the Marjayoun district.

10:27 Beirut Time

The caretaker minister of health, Firas Abiad, visited the Turkish Trauma and Emergency Hospital in Saida, South Lebanon, on Tuesday morning. The senior official notably visited the healthcare personnel mobilized as part of the implementation of the emergency plan adopted on Oct. 19 by the government in the event that Lebanon finds itself drawn into a war with Israel.

Other Lebanese leaders and representatives are also planning to travel to southern Lebanon on Tuesday, including Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri, who will go to another hospital at around noon, in Nabatieh. 

10:04 Beirut Time

The spokesperson for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova, stated on Tuesday that the recent statement by Israeli Minister of Heritage Amichai Eliyahu, who had considered using nuclear bombs on Gaza as an "option," raised many questions, including the fact that Israel possesses nuclear weapons, which it has never publicly admitted.

Maria Zakharova's remarks were reported by Reuters, citing the Russian news agency RIA Novosti.

The comment by the Israeli minister was swiftly condemned in the Arab world, stunned the major Israeli television channels and was deemed "shocking" by a U.S. official. Eliyahu was also excluded from government meetings by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

09:48 Beirut Time

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that his country would take control of "overall security" in Gaza following the end of the war.

"Israel will, for an indefinite period, will have the overall security responsibility," Netanyahu stated. "When we don't have that security responsibility, what we have is the eruption of Hamas terror on a scale that we couldn't imagine."

Despite widespread international calls for a ceasefire and call for a humanitarian pause by the United States, Israel has said that it will continue with its goal to destroy Hamas.

On Monday, Gaza's health ministry announced that the death toll since the start of the war on OCt. 7 had surpassed 10,000.

To read more, click here.

09:20 Beirut Time

Indonesia on Tuesday denied an Israeli claim that a hospital built in Gaza with Indonesian funding sits above a network of Hamas tunnels and near a rocket launch pad. Located in Bait Lahia, in the northern Gaza Strip, the hospital was built with donations from Indonesians and several charitable groups in 2011.

09:05 Beirut Time

Good morning,

We're back with our live coverage of the Hamas-Israel war, on its 30th day.

First thing first, click here to be updated on the latest 24-hour developments.