Middle East crisis live: UN rights chief says ‘darkest moment’ of Israel’s war on Gaza is unfolding in the north

More than half a million people, mostly Syrians, had crossed into Syrian territory since Israel began heavily striking Lebanon late last month, according to figures by the Lebanese authorities on Friday.

A statement from the country’s disaster management unit stated that since 23 September, Lebanon has “recorded the crossing of 348,237 Syrian citizens and 156,505 Lebanese citizens into Syrian territory”.

Meanwhile, as we reported earlier, Israeli bombing has reportedly put a second border crossing between Lebanon and Syria out of service, leaving just one official passage between the two nations operational.

The UN refugee agency (Unhcr) warned that Israel’s overnight airstrike on the Jousieh crossing in Lebanon’s northern Bekaa area jeopardised the main escape route for people fleeing the conflict in Lebanon in search of refuge in Syria.

Unhcr Middle East spokesperson Rula Amin, at a media briefing on Friday, said the crossing “is the only route these people have to escape Lebanon”, adding:

This is hindering and really putting at risk a main lifeline that people use to escape the conflict in Lebanon and cross into Syria.

Amin said the Jousieh strike hit within 500 metres (550 yards) of the immigration office, with no prior notification given.

It is the second such gateway hit by the Israeli army this month. The Israeli military confirmed that it had struck the Jousieh crossing, saying it was being used by Hezbollah to transfer weapons.

It’s 8.30pm in Gaza, Beirut and Tel Aviv. Here’s a recap of the latest developments:

• Israeli military strikes across Gaza have killed at least 72 Palestinians since Thursday night, including strikes on residential areas in southern Gaza that killed 38 people, including 13 children from the same extended family, Palestinian health officials said. Gaza’s health ministry reported that dozens of people were wounded as Israeli airstrikes and shelling pounded the southern city of Khan Younis. Palestinians said the neighbourhood was hit with no warning. Israeli strikes on three houses in Beit Lahiya killed 25 people and wounded dozens more, medics said. Later on Friday, an Israeli airstrike killed nine people in Shati camp in Gaza City, medics said.

• Israeli forces stormed Kamal Adwan hospital, one of the few medical facilities still functioning in north Gaza, on Thursday night, according to reports. “Israeli forces have stormed and are present inside Kamal Adwan hospital” in the city of Jabalia, Gaza’s health ministry said. The World Health Organization said on Friday it lost touch with staff at the hospital, where some had been the night before to deliver supplies and help transfer patients to Shifa hospital in Gaza City. The hospital’s director, Abu Safiya, could not be reached on Friday.

• The UN rights chief, Volker Türk, described Israel’s renewed assault on northern Gaza as the “darkest moment” of the year-long war on the territory so far. “We are facing what could amount to atrocity crimes, including potentially extending to crimes against humanity,” Türk said in a statement on Friday.

• Three journalists from the Hezbollah-affiliated TV stations Al Mayadeen and Al-Manar were killed and several others wounded in an Israeli airstrike on their press station in Hasbaya, southern Lebanon, early on Friday morning. The strikes hit a group of small chalets that 18 journalists from at least seven different media outlets – including Al Jazeera, Sky News Arabia and TRT – were staying in while covering the Israel-Hezbollah war in south Lebanon. Several cars with “Press” signs on them were parked in front of the site. Lebanon’s prime minister, Najib Mikati, said the attack was “deliberate” and “aims to terrorise the media to cover up crimes and destruction”.

• Lebanon’s health minister, Firass Abiad, said more than 163 rescuers and health workers have been killed and 272 injured in Israeli airstrikes during more than a year of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. Abiad, speaking to reporters on Friday, said Israel has carried out attacks on 55 hospitals, 36 of which were directly hit. Eight hospitals have been closed while seven are still partially functioning, he said. Attacks against the medical and paramedic sectors in Lebanon are direct and intentional aggressions,” Abiad said. “This is a war crime.”

• Two people were killed in a strike on Majd al-Krum in northern Israel, Israeli media said on Friday, following a statement from Hezbollah saying that it targeted the northern Israeli town of Karmiel with a large missile salvo.

• UN peacekeepers withdrew from a observation post in Zahajra town in south Lebanon on Tuesday after Israeli forces fired at it, the force said on Friday. Unifil added that the Israeli military has repeatedly demanded that its peacekeepers vacate its positions along the Blue Line and deliberately damaged camera, lighting and communications equipment at some of these positions.

• Lebanon’s transport minister, Ali Hamieh, said Israeli bombing put a second border crossing between the country and Syria out of service –leaving one official passage between the two nations operational. The UN refugee agency (Unhcr) warned that Israel’s overnight airstrike on the Jousieh crossing in Lebanon’s northern Bekaa area jeopardised the main escape route for people fleeing the conflict in Lebanon in search of refuge in Syria. More than half a million people, mostly Syrians, had crossed into Syrian territory since Israel began heavily striking Lebanon late last month, according to figures by the Lebanese authorities on Friday.

• Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, called for pressure on Israel to end what he called the “ethnic cleansing” in Gaza, as he met the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, in London. Blinken, who is still hoping Gaza peace talks can be revived, stopped over in the UK to brief leaders from Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan after he had been unable to meet them on his recent tour of the Middle East.

• Blinken also met with Lebanon’s prime minister, Najib Mikati in London on Friday. The US – Israel’s biggest arms supplier – has stopped short of calling for an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s month of bombing of Lebanon, but is instead calling for a diplomatic resolution. Blinken said Israel “must take the necessary steps to avoid civilian casualties and not endanger UN peacekeepers or the Lebanese armed forces.”

Lebanon has been placed on a so-called ‘grey list’ of countries under special scrutiny by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the financial crime watchdog said on Friday, despite requests for leniency from Lebanese officials.

The FATF said Lebanon had made progress on several recommended actions and would continue to implement reforms, Reuters reported.

Lebanon has been in a financial crisis since 2019 and faces destruction from Israeli military operations against armed group Hezbollah. The grey-listing is likely to further deter investment and could affect the links between some Lebanese banks and the global financial system.

The UN rights chief, Volker Turk, has issued a statement in which he describes Israel’s renewed assault on northern Gaza as the “darkest moment” of the year-long war on the territory so far.

He said:

Unimaginably, the situation is getting worse by the day. The Israeli government’s policies and practices in northern Gaza risk emptying the area of all Palestinians.

We are facing what could amount to atrocity crimes, including potentially extending to crimes against humanity.

Turk said “more than 150,000 people are reportedly dead, wounded or missing in Gaza” since the war was launched last October.

“My gravest fear is, given the intensity, breadth, scale and blatant nature of the Israeli operation currently underway in North Gaza, that number will rise dramatically,” he said.

Israeli forces began the devastating offensive in the north about three weeks ago with the declared aim of preventing Hamas fighters from regrouping. Residents, however, say the troops have besieged shelters, levelled civilian infrastructure, forced displaced people to leave with nowhere safe to go, while killing many civilians in deadly airstrikes. Medics say at least 800 Palestinians have been killed in northern Gaza since the new offensive was launched.

‘We stand at the brink of regional war’, Jordan’s foreign minister warns as Israeli attacks intensify

Patrick Wintour

Patrick Wintour is the Guardian’s diplomatic editor.

Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, has called for pressure on Israel to end “ethnic cleansing”, as he met US secretary of state Antony Blinken in London.

Blinken stopped over in London to brief leaders from Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan after he had been unable to meet them on his recent tour of the Middle East. Blinken is still hoping the Gaza peace talks can be revived.

Deploring the humanitarian situation in northern Gaza, Safadi told Blinken: “We do see ethnic cleansing taking place, and that has got to stop.”

He added:

We really stand at the brink of regional war now. The only path to save the region from that is for Israel to stop the aggressions on Gaza, on Lebanon, stop unilateral measures, illegal measures, in the West Bank, that is also pushing the situation to an abyss.

On 13 October, Blinken wrote jointly with the US defence secretary Lloyd Austin to Israel urging the country to increase the number of aid trucks entering Gaza to 350 per day within 30 days. But since then no day has seen the number of trucks exceed 114, whilst the number of trucks inside Gaza but unable to distribute aid has risen 470 to 700.

The amount of aid entering Gaza is at record low levels in October, and although Blinken in the Middle East claimed to have seen an improvement, Arab diplomatic sources said the figures are nowhere near the level the Biden administration previously said in its letter that would be required for the US administration to stop supplying Israel with arms.

Separately in talks with Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati, Blinken said: “We have a sense of real urgency in getting to a diplomatic resolution and the full implementation of UN security council resolution 1701, such that there can be real security along the border between Israel and Lebanon.”

He said it was important so “people at both sides of the border can have the confidence to be able to return to their homes.”

His remarks stop short of a call for an immediate ceasefire, the position adopted by the French since the US believes that if Hezbollah can be weakened further the political deadlock that prevents the formation of a full government can be broken.

Resolution 1701, approved in 2006 after an earlier war, calls for the disarmament of non-state groups in Lebanon – including to the Hezbollah group, which effectively runs its own armed militia – and for a full Israeli withdrawal from the country.

One precondition for a full implementation of 1701 is strengthening the official Lebanese armed forces. On Thursday, at a Paris Conference, the international community pledged to pay €200m to strengthen the Lebanese army, in particular by recruiting soldiers. A further €800m was raised to help the humanitarian crisis.

Mitaki said his government’s priority is reaching “a ceasefire and deterring the Israeli aggression”. He added there are more than 1.4 million people who have been displaced from the areas that are being attacked by Israel. “Israel is also violating international law by attacking civilians, journalists and medical staff,” he said.

He said “what is required is a real commitment from Israel to a ceasefire, because the previous experience regarding the American-French call, supported by the Arabs and the international community, for a ceasefire affected everyone’s credibility.” Mitaki was referring to a proposal for an initial 21-day truce agreed at the UN general assembly in the false belief that it had the support of the Israelis.