Human Rights Watch says Israel is committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip, including massive forced displacements that amount to ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from parts of Gaza.

Palestinians have been killed while evacuating under Israeli orders and in Israeli-designated humanitarian zones, where hundreds of thousands are crammed into squalid tent camps, according to the report released Thursday by the New York-based rights watchdog.

The report said the widespread, deliberate demolition of homes and civilian infrastructure throughout Gaza, particularly in a military road that cuts Gaza in half as well as a buffer zone along the border, was likely to “permanently displace” many Palestinians.

Israel's military said the report distorts the facts and leaves out important context, blaming civilian casualties on Hamas operating in residential areas and emphasizing that Israel does not deliberately target civilians.

Israel’s blistering 13-month war in Gaza has killed over 43,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to local health officials who do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

Israel has also been striking deeper inside Lebanon since September as it escalates the war against Hezbollah. After 13 months of war, more than 3,300 people have been killed and more than 14,400 wounded, Lebanon's Health Ministry says.

The Israel-Hamas war began after Palestinian militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducting 250 others. Lebanon's Hezbollah group began firing into Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, in solidarity with Hamas in Gaza. Since then, the fighting has left some 76 people dead in Israel, including 31 soldiers.

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Here's the latest:

Israeli strike kills at least 12 Lebanese rescuers in a civil defense center

BEIRUT — An Israeli airstrike on a civil defense center in eastern Lebanon killed at least 12 emergency rescue workers on Thursday, the Health Ministry said.

In a statement, Lebanon's civil defense said the strike completely destroyed its center in Douris in Baalbek province with a number of members inside, “ready to receive calls for relief and immediate intervention to provide assistance to citizens.”

Three members were wounded in the strike, the statement said, adding that rescue operations were ongoing to look for more people under the rubble.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli army. Lebanon's civil defense forces have no affiliation with the militant group Hezbollah, and provide crucial rescue and medical services in one of the world’s most war-torn nations.

The Health Ministry condemned what it called a “barbaric attack on a Lebanese state-run health center,” adding that “it is the second Israeli attack on a health emergency facility in less than two hours.”

In South Lebanon, an Israeli strike on Arabsalim village targeted the Health Authority Association, a civil defense and rescue group linked to Hezbollah, killing six people, including four paramedics, the Health Ministry said.

The ministry said that since Oct. 8, 2023, 192 medical and rescue workers have been killed while 308 have been wounded. Additionally, 88 medical and ambulatory centers have been affected, along with 65 hospitals, while 218 medical organizations have been targeted.

Elsewhere in Baalbek-Hermel province, Israeli strikes killed four more people in two different villages, the Health Ministry said.

In southern Lebanon, Israeli strikes killed 11 more people in six different villages in Tyre province, according to the ministry.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said Thursday that the death toll in Lebanon since the war began on Oct. 8, 2023 has reached 3,386 while the number of wounded climbed to 14,417. This includes 658 women and 220 children killed.

A top aide to Israel's Netanyahu is investigated over altering Oct. 7 phone records

JERUSALEM -- Israeli media say that a top aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is suspected of altering official phone records connected to the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks to benefit his boss.

Multiple reports on Thursday said that Netanyahu’s chief of staff, Tzachi Braverman, is suspected of changing the time stamp of a conversation the prime minister held with his military secretary in the first minutes of the attack.

The reports were confirmed by an Israeli official who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing investigation.

According to the reports, Netanyahu spoke to the military official at 6:29 a.m. on a standard phone line and then again at 6:40 a.m. on a special secure line.

Braverman is suspected of changing the time stamp of the second conversation, in which the extent of the attack became clearer to the two men, to 6:29 a.m.

It was not immediately clear why Braverman made the change. He was reportedly questioned for three hours on Thursday. Netanyahu’s office had no immediate comment.

The allegations come as another Netanyahu aide, Eli Feldstein, is suspected of leaking classified documents to foreign media. Critics have said the leaks were meant to bolster Netanyahu as cease-fire talks with Hamas were collapsing.

Netanyahu, who already is on trial in a series of corruption cases, has not been named as a suspect in the latest scandals.

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Associated Press writer Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed.

UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon are shot at by unknown individuals; no casualties reported

BEIRUT — Unknown individuals opened fire on a convoy of United Nations peacekeepers in southern Lebanon on Thursday, the U.N. force said.

None of the U.N. peacekeepers or their vehicles were harmed by around 30 shots fired in their direction, according to a statement from the mission known as UNIFIL. The patrol returned fire from their vehicles and was able to leave the area.

The attack came shortly after the peacekeepers discovered a cache of ammunition near the roadway and informed the Lebanese Armed Forces, UNIFIL said. The patrol had stopped to clear debris from the road in Qalaouiyeh village in Bint Jbeil province, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) east of the port city of Tyre.

Despite ongoing combat between Israeli troops and Hezbollah militants, the U.N. remains committed to keeping UNIFIL in all of its positions in southern Lebanon, U.N. peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix told reporters in Lebanon on Thursday.

The peacekeeping mission urged Lebanese authorities to ensure the safety of its peacekeepers, requesting a thorough investigation into the episode.

UNIFIL has monitored the escalating violence along the Blue Line despite Israeli calls for a 5-kilometer pullback. In recent weeks, the mission has reported that Israeli forces allegedly destroyed U.N. observation equipment, and several peacekeepers have been injured in the ongoing crossfire.

Hospital director in northern Gaza tells of desperate conditions during Israeli siege

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — The director of the recently raided and barely functioning Kamal Adwan Hospital in northernmost Gaza described dire conditions on Thursday as Israeli forces conduct a major offensive and allow virtually no food or humanitarian aid into the area.

“We cannot provide even a single meal to the patients, which prolongs wound healing, nor can we offer a meal to the healthcare workers who work around the clock,” said Dr. Hossam Abu Safiya in a statement.

The hospital is seeing cases of both kids and adults who are malnourished and dehydrated, he said, and is running extremely low on medical supplies. Last week, experts from a panel that monitors food security said famine is imminent in the north or may already be happening.

Abu Safiya said the hospital gets phone calls from civilians trapped alive under buildings destroyed by Israeli bombardments, but there's no way to rescue them because there aren't any ambulances or equipment.

“Sadly, the next day, their voices were gone, and they were counted among the dead, with their homes becoming their graves,” the doctor said. “This scene is repeated daily.”

UN says an aid convoy in Gaza was fired on and food stolen in an episode of lawlessness

UNITED NATIONS – The United Nations says 14 trucks in a 20-truck convoy carrying humanitarian aid were shot at and the food stolen in central Gaza, injuring three drivers.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters Thursday the trucks collected aid from the newly opened Kisufim border crossing with Israel and were heading to a warehouse in Deir Al-Balah when the shots rang out.

He called it a “law and order” episode — not the result of firing from either of the parties to the war in Gaza.

Dujarric said the six other trucks reached the warehouse.

“As we’ve said repeatedly, it is also critical that Israeli authorities facilitate the movement of aid workers and supplies across the Gaza Strip,” he said.

“For months we’ve been calling for the opening of more land routes, both into and within Gaza,” Dujarric said. “But we also need increased access and security assurances as well as more supplies so they can quickly reach all people across Gaza at necessary scale.”

The U.N. spokesman said “It is also vital that essential commercial goods enter the Gaza Strip.”

Freed Israeli hostages meet with Pope Francis, calling for a deal to free loved ones held in Gaza

ROME — A delegation of former Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza and their relatives met Thursday with Pope Francis and expressed hope that the incoming and outgoing U.S. administrations would work together bring the remaining 101 hostages home.

The former hostages included Yelena Troufanov, who was released last November but whose son Sasha is still in Gaza and appeared in a video released Wednesday by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group.

“You see in the picture how my child has changed over the course of this year,” Yelena Troufanov told a press conference in Rome after the papal audience. “I am very worried about his condition, I see that he is not in a good mental state and not in a good physical state.”

She and the other former hostages and relatives renewed their calls for a deal to bring the remaining hostages home, especially with winter approaching. They said they hoped the incoming Trump administration would work with the Biden administration to push the process forward.

Israel-Hezbollah war has cost Lebanon $8.5 billion in physical damages and economic losses, World Bank says

BEIRUT — The World Bank estimated Thursday that Lebanon has been hit by $8.5 billion in physical damages and economic losses from 13 months of Israel's war against the Hezbollah militant group.

Damages to physical infrastructure alone were valued at $3.4 billion, while economic losses totaled $5.1 billion, according to the World Bank’s assessment. Housing has borne the brunt of the destruction with nearly 100,000 units damaged, totaling $3.2 billion in destruction and losses.

Lebanon was already reeling from a severe economic crisis that has gripped the country since 2019. The war is expected to shrink Lebanon’s real GDP growth by at least 6.6% in 2024, worsening an already dire economic situation after five consecutive years of steep recession, the report said.

The World Bank’s report also said that approximately 166,000 individuals have lost their jobs, resulting in an estimated $168 million in lost earnings.

Other sectors have suffered as well, with commerce losses nearing $2 billion due to disrupted businesses and agricultural losses reaching $1.2 billion as crops, livestock, and farmers have been severely impacted, the report said.

In comparison, after the monthlong war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006, the World Bank had estimated damage from the hostilities at $2.8 billion, “with indirect damages accounting for another US$700-$500 million in losses.”

Peacekeeping chief says UN remains committed to operating in Lebanon

BEIRUT — United Nations peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix said the U.N. remains committed to keeping its peacekeeping force, known as UNIFIL, in place in all of its positions in southern Lebanon despite intense battles between Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants.

UNIFIL has continued to monitor the escalating conflict between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah across the boundary known as the Blue Line despite Israeli calls for peacekeepers to pull back 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the border. UNIFIL has accused Israel of deliberately destroying observation equipment, and 13 peacekeepers have been injured in the fighting.

Lacroix visited some of the wounded peacekeepers during his trip to Lebanon Thursday.

UNIFIL forces “continue to be deployed in all the positions, and we think it is very important to preserve that presence everywhere,” LaCroix said. He added that had UNIFIL vacated its positions, they might have been taken over by one of the warring parties.

“We have a responsibility to make sure that the U.N. continues to be seen as neutral and impartial,” he said.

Lebanon reports 9 killed in airstrike on eastern city; strikes continue targeting Beirut suburbs

BEIRUT — An Israeli airstrike hit a building in Baalbek city in eastern Lebanon, killing at least nine people and wounding five others, Lebanon’s state media said.

The strike on Baalbek came without warning. The Israeli military did not immediately comment and the target was not clear.

Israeli warplanes intensified airstrikes on Thursday, targeting various areas in southern and eastern Lebanon, including the outskirts of the southern port city of Tyre city and the Nabatieh province, the National News Agency said.

Throughout the day, sporadic airstrikes targeted Beirut’s southern suburbs in a clear uptick in attacks on the area over the past two days, with the Israeli army issuing evacuation warnings for several locations and buildings in the suburbs.

The Israeli military said it carried out strikes on Hezbollah targets in the Dahiyeh area, including weapons storage facilities and command centers.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said the death toll in Lebanon since the war began on Oct. 8, 2023 has reached 3,365 while those wounded are 14,344. Nearly 1.2 million people have been displaced in Lebanon.

Before the war intensified on Sept. 23, Hezbollah had said that it had lost nearly 500 members but the group has stopped releasing statements about their killed fighters since

2 Israeli airstrikes in Syria kill at least 15, state media report

DAMASCUS, Syria — Syria’s state news agency says Israel carried out two airstrikes on a western neighborhood Damascus and one of the capital’s suburbs, killing at least 15 people.

One of the strikes targeted an office of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group. Sixteen people were also wounded in the airstrikes, state news agency SANA said, quoting an unnamed military official.

SANA said the airstrikes on the Mazzeh neighborhood in Damascus and the suburb of Qudsaya northwest of the capital struck two buildings. An Associated Press journalist at the scene in Mazzeh said a five-story building was damaged by a missile that hit the basement.

An official with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Group said the strike in Mazzeh targeted one of their offices, and that several members of the group were killed. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media about the group’s affairs.

SANA said Syria’s air defenses were activated against a “hostile target” south of the central city of Homs. It gave no further details.

Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Syria targeting members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah and officials from Iranian-backed groups.

— By Albert Aji

2 Israeli airstrikes hit Syrian capital Damascus and suburb, Syrian state media say

DAMASCUS, Syria — Syria’s state news agency says Israel carried out two airstrikes on a western neighborhood of the capital Damascus and one of its suburbs. At least two people were killed.

State news agency SANA said the airstrikes on the Mazzeh neighborhood in Damascus and the suburb of Qudsaya northwest of the capital struck two buildings. An Associated Press journalist at the scene said two bodies were removed from the five-story building.

SANA said the country’s air defenses were activated against a “hostile target” south of the central city of Homs. It gave no further details. The agency later reported an explosion near Damascus, adding that the cause of the blasts was not immediately clear.

Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Syria targeting members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah and officials from Iranian-backed groups.

EU's top diplomat proposes suspending political dialogue with Israel

BRUSSELS — The European Union’s top diplomat is proposing that the bloc suspend political dialogue with Israel over concerns about human rights abuses and breaches of international law in its war against Hamas.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell will put the proposal to foreign ministers from the 27 member countries at a meeting he will chair in Brussels on Monday.

Borrell “will ask ministers to consider whether Israel is violating human rights, whether Israel is respecting or not international humanitarian law, and he will invite the ministers to express their views on his proposal to suspend political dialogue,” his spokesman said.

The EU is deeply divided over Israel and the Palestinians and it’s unlikely that all the ministers would agree to halt the dialogue.

“Any kind of decisions regarding the political parts of this agreement are subject to unanimity of all the member states,” the spokesman, Peter Stano, told reporters on Thursday.

Under the pact, the dialogue covers “all subjects of common interest, and shall aim to open the way to new forms of cooperation with a view to common goals, in particular peace, security and democracy.” It’s meant to strengthen EU-Israeli relations.

Israeli police complete demolition of Arab Bedouin village in the Negev Desert

JERUSALEM — Israeli police completed the demolition of the Arab Bedouin village of Umm Al-Hiran Thursday, ending a years-old legal battle.

Many in the minority community had seen the village as a symbol of their larger struggle against Israeli plans to relocate them.

On Thursday, Israeli bulldozers entered the 400-person village in the Negev Desert and demolished the last building left standing –- the mosque.

Residents had dismantled their makeshift homes earlier this week to avoid having to pay fees for the state to demolish them.

Israel says the hundreds of villagers were squatting on public land and has offered them plots in a nearby Bedouin township. The villagers accuse the authorities of forcibly displacing them so the land can be developed for Israel’s Jewish majority.

Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, celebrated the move, posting on X that there has been a 400% increase in the issuance of such demolition orders so far this year.

“Proud to lead a strong policy of demolishing illegal houses in the Negev!” he wrote.

Or Hanoch, an Israeli activist who witnessed the demolition, said drones and helicopters hovered overhead as seven police bulldozers took down the mosque.

“After the mosque was demolished, the rest of the heavy machinery started re-destroying the rest of the houses, which were already demolished," Hanoch said.

Three members of the village council were arrested early Thursday before the demolition began, said Nati Yefet, the spokesperson for the Regional Council for Unrecognized Villages in the Negev. The council has accused Israel of clearing the land for the construction of a Jewish community.

“The destruction of Umm al-Hiran to make way for the settlement of Dror is part of a systematic population replacement program in the Negev,” it said. Four other Bedouin villages have been demolished this year as part of a larger plan to raze unrecognized villages and build new Jewish communities in their place, it said.

Umm al-Hiran was founded in its current location in 1956, after the Israeli military relocated the village clan multiple times following the 1948 war that led to Israel’s creation.

Israel’s more than 200,000 Bedouin are the poorest members of the country’s Arab minority, which also includes Christian and Muslim urban communities. Israel’s Arab population, which makes up roughly 20% of the country’s 10 million people, are citizens with the right to vote but often suffer discrimination and tend to identify with Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Syrian state media report explosions near Damascus and Homs

DAMASCUS, Syria — Syrian state media are reporting explosions near the capital, Damascus, and the central city of Homs in what appeared to be Israeli airstrikes.

State news agency SANA said the country’s air defenses were activated against a “hostile target” south of Homs on Thursday. It gave no further details.

The agency later reported an explosion near Damascus, adding that the cause of the blasts was not immediately clear.

Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Syria targeting members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah and officials from Iranian-backed groups.

Israel says it has allowed 15 trucks carrying aid into northern Gaza

JERUSALEM — Israel says 15 trucks loaded with aid have been allowed into northern Gaza, where aid groups have warned that a monthlong offensive could cause a famine.

The military body handling aid deliveries into the territory, COGAT, said the 15 trucks entered Gaza on Wednesday with aid shipped in by sea by the United Arab Emirates. It said the aid consists of food and water, as well as hygiene, shelter and medical supplies.

U.N. agencies did not immediately confirm that the aid was delivered to its destination inside northern Gaza.

Over the past week, the U.N. says aid trucks have entered the north but have not reached their final destinations due to Israeli movement restrictions and hungry crowds taking items from the trucks.

Israel has scrambled to ramp up aid to Gaza after a monthlong stretch during which aid plunged to its lowest levels this year.

The U.S. Biden administration warned Israel to increase the aid last month, saying a failure to do so could lead to a reduction in military support. The White House backed down this week, citing some improvements and ruling out any reduction in arms supplies, even after international aid groups said Israel had fallen far short of the American demands.

Human Rights Watch accuses Israel of war crimes, crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip

JERUSALEM — Human Rights Watch says Israel has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip, including massive forced displacements that amount to ethnic cleansing.

A report released by the New York-based rights group on Thursday says Israeli evacuation orders have often caused “grave harm” to civilians. People have been killed while evacuating and in Israeli-designated humanitarian zones, where hundreds of thousands are crammed into squalid tent camps.

“The Israeli government cannot claim to be keeping Palestinians safe when it kills them along escape routes, bombs so-called safe zones, and cuts off food, water, and sanitation,” said Nadia Hardman, refugee and migrant rights researcher at Human Rights Watch.

The report said the widespread, deliberate demolition of homes and civilian infrastructure in Gaza -– some of them to carve a new road bisecting the territory and establish a buffer zone along Israel’s border -– was likely to “permanently displace” many Palestinians.

“Such actions of the Israeli authorities amount to ethnic cleansing,” Human Rights Watch said.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.

Human Rights Watch called on governments to stop supplying weapons to Israel and to comply with a July opinion by the International Court of Justice saying Israel’s presence in the Palestinian territories is unlawful and must end.

The group says its researchers interviewed 39 displaced Palestinians in Gaza, reviewed evacuation orders Israel has released throughout the war and analyzed satellite imagery and video of attacks along evacuation routes and in “safe zones.”

US military says it conducted strikes against Houthi rebels

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The U.S. military says it has conducted several days of strikes targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

The strikes included U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy aircraft, including the Navy’s F-35C stealth fighter jet, it said Thursday.

The military also released video showing a strike by an MQ-9 Reaper drone on a mobile missile launcher placed on the back of what appeared to be a truck. A person standing next to the launcher is seen running away after the strike.

“This targeted operation was conducted in response to the Houthi’s repeated and unlawful attacks on international commercial shipping, as well as U.S., coalition and merchant vessels in the Red Sea, Bab al-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden,” the U.S. military’s Central Command said. “It also aimed to degrade the Houthi’s ability to threaten regional partners.”

The strikes happened Saturday and Sunday.

The Houthis launched an attack this week targeted two U.S. Navy destroyers entering the Red Sea. The Americans said they “engaged and defeated” eight bomb-carrying drones, five anti-ship ballistic missiles and four cruise missiles that the Houthis used to target the vessels.

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