Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed Defence Minister Yoav Gallant over a breakdown in trust during the Gaza bombardment, his office said according to AFP.
“Over the past few months that trust has eroded. In light of this, I decided today to end the term of the defence minister,” Netanyahu said in a statement issued by his office, adding that he had appointed Foreign Minister Israel Katz to take his place.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has appointed Foreign Minister Israel Katz as the country’s new defence minister, while appointing Gideon Saar in Katz’s former position, Al Jazeera reports.
This comes less than 24 hours after Gallant approved the Israeli army’s recommendation to send out 7,000 more draft orders to ultra-Orthodox men.
The issue of drafting ultra-Orthodox men has been a sticking point between Gallant and Netanyahu, whose coalition is dependent on a right-wing bloc.
In a post on X, immediately after news broke out of his ouster, Gallant wrote, “The security of the State of Israel was and will always remain my life’s mission.”
Israel’s recent destruction of villages in southern Lebanon, similar to its “industrial scale” demolition of civilian infrastructure in Gaza, constitutes “domicide” and should be treated as a crime against humanity, a UN expert has said.
Domicide — the systematic destruction of homes to expel civilian populations and render areas uninhabitable — is not recognised as a distinct crime under international law, Prof Balakrishnan Rajagopal, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to housing, told The National in an exclusive interview.
Prof Rajagopal, who teaches law and development at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US, has been actively campaigning for an amendment since October 2022, when he presented a report to the UN General Assembly after the widespread destruction of homes in Ukraine by Russia.
Now, Israel is committing similar crimes in Lebanon and Gaza with impunity, he said.
“I have been advocating for the inclusion of domicide as a crime against humanity because such destruction is not incidental or inadvertent,” he said.
“It’s intentional, widespread and often conducted to ensure that people cannot return to their homes. What was going on in Gaza was not even warfare, it was just wanton destruction of buildings and indiscriminate bombing of residential areas.”
A preliminary probe found that Israeli commandos used a speedboat equipped with radar-jamming devices to abduct a Lebanese man accused of being a Hezbollah operative, a Lebanese judicial official told AFP.
The initial findings suggest that “the Israeli army used a high-speed vessel equipped with advanced devices capable of jamming radars” belonging to the United Nations peacekeeping force (Unifil) that monitors the Lebanese coast, the official said, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
The probe into the abduction operation on Saturday is jointly conducted by the Lebanese police and judiciary.
Lebanese authorities “cannot probe Unifil forces or request they provide information or footage captured by their radars because they have immunity”, the judicial official said.
The official called the abduction “a war crime that violated national sovereignty” because it involved the kidnapping of a Lebanese citizen in an area far from the fighting.
A UN peacekeeper vehicle drives in Marjayoun, near the border with Israel, amid ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, southern Lebanon on October 29. — Reuters
Municipal workers began demolishing seven homes in occupied east Jerusalem’s Silwan neighbourhood, Palestinian residents and the municipality said, after an Israeli court called their construction illegal, AFP reports.
“This morning the Jerusalem Municipality, with a security escort from the Israel police, began its enforcement against illegal buildings in the Al-Bustan neighbourhood in Silwan,” Jerusalem’s Israeli-controlled city hall said in a statement.
Activist Fakhri Abu Diab, one of those affected by the demolition, confirmed that “at least seven homes have been demolished, and the operation is ongoing”.
He said that both houses and apartments were affected.
“They demolished my home, which I had renovated after it was previously demolished earlier this year, as well as my son’s house, Haitham Ayed’s family home, and four homes belonging to the Al-Ruwaidi family,” Abu Diab told AFP.
Ireland accepted the appointment of a full Palestinian ambassador for the first time, after Dublin formally recognised a Palestinian state earlier this year, AFP reports.
Senior ministers confirmed that Jilan Wahba Abdalmajid would step up from her current position as Palestinian Head of Mission to Ireland.
In May Dublin said it was recognising Palestine as “a sovereign and independent state” comprising the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and agreed to establish full diplomatic relations.
Last month, the Palestinian Authority formally notified Dublin of its intention to upgrade its representation in Ireland from a diplomatic mission to a resident embassy under the 1961 Vienna Convention which guarantees protection for diplomatic staff.
The upgrade means that the diplomatic mission will now have the full range of privileges and immunities applicable under the Vienna Convention.
At least seven people were killed during an Israeli military raid and airstrikes on the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said, Reuters reports.
Five of the seven people were killed in two separate Israeli attacks in and near the city of Qabatiya, while the two others were killed in the Tammoun area, the ministry said.
The Israeli military said its aircraft had targeted a group of gunmen and that its forces had arrested 60 militants.
The Islamic Jihad’s armed wing, Al-Quds Brigades, said its fighters had clashed with Israeli forces in both Qabatia and the Tamoun areas.
An American soldier has died after being injured during Washington’s problem-plagued operation to establish a temporary aid pier on the coast of Gaza, the US military said, AFP reports.
“It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Sgt. Quandarius Davon Stanley, a recently retired motor transport operator,” Captain Sheila Milford-Glover, spokesperson for the 3rd Expeditionary Sustainment Command, said in a statement.
She did not say when Stanley died or what kind of injury he had sustained, specifying only that the soldier had been receiving treatment in a long-term care facility.
He was one of three US military personnel who suffered non-combat injuries at sea during the pier operation. The two others suffered minor injuries, a sprained ankle and a hurt back, the military said in May.
At least one Israeli airstrike hit an apartment building in a beach town south of Beirut, Lebanese state media said, as other deadly strikes hit scattered locations across the country and armed group Hezbollah launched rockets into Israel, Reuters reports.
The attack on the beach town of Jiyyeh left a massive smoke column billowing out of an apartment building. It was not immediately clear if the strike was an assassination attempt, and no evacuation warning was given before it was carried out.
Israeli strikes also killed five people near the city of Baalbek in the Bekaa Valley, including two killed in a strike on a car, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.
Lebanon’s state news agency said that it estimated Israeli air strikes and widespread detonation of homes had destroyed more than 40,000 housing units in the country’s border region.
Dr Hossam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, has shared a live video documenting Israel’s bombardment of the medical facility in northern Gaza today, which instilled panic and fear among patients and staff, Al Jazeera reports.
The video, verified by Al Jazeera’sSanad fact-checking agency, was posted on Abu Safiya’s Instagram account.
It captures the upper floor of the hospital being bombed by Israeli forces with nurses and wounded patients fleeing as the bombardment intensifies.
“Patients and children run amid the Israeli occupation bombing the hospital and water tanks! As if the siege is not enough and patients and doctors must die of thirst,” Abu Safiya wrote.
At least four people have been killed in Israeli shelling of the Alami area in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, according to Al Jazeera Arabic.
Meanwhile, in southern Gaza, Israeli shelling targeted a motorcycle, killing two Palestinians and injuring an unknown number of others in Khirbet al-Adas, north of Rafah.
According to medical sources, 44 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli raids in Gaza since dawn, 30 of them in northern Gaza.
The Palestinian Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs has reported a worsening policy of deliberate medical negligence toward injured and sick inmates in Israeli prisons since the Gaza war began last year, according to the Wafa news agency, Al Jazeera reports.
Commission’s lawyers who visited various Israeli prisons to assess the conditions of sick Palestinians there have reported that significant medical neglect, malnutrition, and physical violence had led to severe weight loss and overall deterioration in the health of the inmates, Wafa said.
Kamal Adwan Hospital has been targeted by Israeli quadcopters. Injuries have not been confirmed yet, but this is not the first time the hospital has been targeted, Hind Khoudary reports for Al Jazeera.
“There are people still trying to rescue and pull more bodies from the al-Masry family house in Beit Lahiya, where at least 25 Palestinians were killed, including 13 children,” she said.
There have been no ambulances, and no civil defence teams for the past 24 hours after Israeli forces forced them to evacuate, Khoudary said, adding that leaflets have been dropped asking the people in Beit Lahiya to evacuate from that area.
“There is only one hospital working in the northern Gaza Strip, and that is Kamal Adwan. It has no water or medicine,” she added.
At least 43,391 people have been killed in the year-old Gaza conflict, the health ministry said in a statement, AFP reports.
The toll includes 17 deaths in the previous 24 hours, the statement added, which said 102,347 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the conflict began on October 7, 2023.
A child salvages items from the rubble of a building destroyed in Israeli strikes in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on November 5. — AFP
Palestinians mourn relatives killed in an Israeli strike on displacement tents in the vicinity earlier, at the Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on November 5. — AFP
Palestinians mourn relatives killed in an Israeli strike on displacement tents in the vicinity earlier, at the Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on November 5. — AFP
Palestinian boys scrape flour off the ground after a bag fell from an aid truck driving down the Salaheddin road in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on November 5. — AFP
A pro-Palestinian activist in France has been sentenced to three years in prison for “glorifying terrorism” on social media, reported, Anadolu Agency reports, citing broadcaster France 3.
Amira Zaiter, an activist from the southern city of Nice, was placed into custody on Sept. 19 for the glorification of terrorism, glorification of crimes against humanity, and hate speech on social media, the channel said.
The founder of De Nice a Gaza organization (From Nice to Gaza) was sentenced to three years of imprisonment, with two years suspended and one year under an electronic bracelet.
Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth reports that the Israeli army has withdrawn several brigades from southern Lebanon amid progress in efforts to reach a deal, Al Jazeera reports.
Citing informed sources, it said officials involved in negotiations assess a deal to be reached with Hezbollah within a week and a half to two weeks.
In the meantime, Israeli forces are waiting for a decision from the political echelon in Jerusalem, the newspaper said.
Iran is not seeking “escalation” but has the right to “legitimate defence”, its foreign minister said in Pakistan, vowing to respond to last month’s Israeli strikes on its military sites, AFP reports.
“Unlike Israel, the Islamic Republic of Iran doesn’t seek escalation, however, we reserve our inherent right to legitimate defence,” Abbas Araghchi said during a news conference, alongside his Pakistan counterpart.
“We will certainly respond to the Israeli aggression in a proper time and in a proper manner,” and “in a very measured and well-calculated manner”, said Araghchi who is on a two-day official visit to Pakistan.
Since the strikes, Israel has warned Iran against retaliating, while Tehran vowed to respond.
The death toll from an Israeli air attack on the al-Masry family home in the town of Beit Lahiya in besieged northern Gaza has risen to 25, according to the Wafa news agency, Al Jazeera reports.
The report citing medical sources said the victims included 13 children and that more people are still under the rubble.
The area has been under intense bombardment since October 6, when Israel’s military began a sweeping air and ground assault in northern Gaza, focusing on the towns of Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoon.
Smoke billows following Israeli bombardment on Beit Lahiya, in the northern Gaza Strip, on November 4 — AFP
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi condemned Israel’s unrestrained military aggression in the Middle East and its “genocidal actions” against civilians, calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
“I and my dear brother Foreign Minister both condemned Israel’s unrestrained military aggression in the Middle East, its genocidal actions against innocent civilians and its illegal measures in occupied territories … and constitute the root cause of all tensions in the Middle East,” FM Ishaq Dar said speaking at a joint press conference in Islamabad with the Iranian FM.
FM Dar reiterated Pakistan’s call for establishing a viable, independent and contiguous State of Palestine based on the Pre-1967 borders with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.
FM Ishaq Dar and Iranian FM Abbas Araghchi speaking at the joint press conference in Islamabad on November 5. — Radio Pakistan
More than 100 patients including children suffering from trauma injuries and chronic diseases will be evacuated from Gaza in a rare transfer out of the besieged enclave, a World Health Organisation official said, Reuters reports.
“These are ad hoc measures. What we have requested repeatedly is a sustained medevac (medical evacuation) outside of Gaza,” said Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, adding that 12,000 people were awaiting transfer.
The patients will travel in a large convoy via the Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel before flying to the United Arab Emirates, he added, and then a portion will travel to Romania.
Egypt has condemned Israel’s decision to ban the United Nations agency for Palestinians, calling it an “unacceptable disregard” for the UN, its agencies and the international community, AFP reports.
Israel officially informed the United Nations on Monday of its decision to cut ties with UNRWA, following a vote by Israeli lawmakers to bar the organisation, which is seen as vital for Palestinians.
“Egypt strongly condemns Israel’s withdrawal from the agreement governing the operations of UNRWA and its formal suspension of operations,” Egypt’s foreign ministry said in a statement posted on Facebook late Monday.
The ministry called the move a “dangerous development” aimed at erasing the Palestinian cause, particularly the issue of refugees and their right of return.
It added that the decision represented “a new chapter in Israel’s blatant and systematic violations of international law and international humanitarian law”.
France’s foreign minister will travel to Israel and the Palestinian territories on Wednesday seeking to press Israel to engage diplomatically to end the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon after the US presidential election is over, Reuters reports.
“The United States plays an essential role in ending the Israeli-Arab conflict,” Jean-Noel Barrot said on France 2 television when asked whether a win for former President Donald Trump could boost Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“We are alongside the US, notably on Lebanon, to propose peace formulas to ensure a lasting peace in the region.”
“The war has lasted far too long and the use of force must give way to the use of dialogue and diplomacy,” Barrot said.
