U.N. inquiry accuses Israel of crime of 'extermination'

In an interview with Al Jazeera today, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi reiterated the Iran's position that it does not seek a wider war but will be ready for any scenario.

"Israel is seeking a large-scale war and dragging countries into it," Araghchi said. "Iran is not the only one that does not want a large-scale war, but everyone knows the catastrophic consequences of such a war."

He criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying he has not achieved his goal of eliminating Hamas in the yearlong war in Gaza and "will face the same situation" against Hezbollah in Lebanon. Araghchi has been touring the region, visiting with officials in Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

He said there is "consensus" on the need to find a diplomatic solution.

"Diplomatic channels are open with America through other countries, and we are exchanging views indirectly," Araghchi said. "The global attention to what is happening in Lebanon and Gaza is the most important outcome of these contacts."

Israel's evacuation orders to Lebanese civilians are "inadequate" and sometimes "misleading," according to an analysis from Amnesty International.

The organization said it examined some of the IDF calls for civilians to leave, particularly in the southern suburbs of Beirut where the Israeli military has leveled buildings in its pursuit of Hezbollah leadership.

One example Amnesty International cited was a Sept. 27 warning for civilians to leave a 500-meter radius around a group of buildings the IDF intended to target. Amnesty said the map showed only a 135-meter radius.

Civilians are often given short notice to leave, it said. It cited a Sept. 30 evacuation order that came only 30 minutes before a series of strikes. Another warning issued Oct. 3 warned residents to leave immediately at 10:51 p.m., and local media reported strikes minutes later, the organization said.

Amnesty International Secretary General Agnès Callamard said the large number of deaths in Lebanon raises the fear that Israeli forces are "flouting their obligation" under the law.

"Having spent the last 12 months investigating Israel’s war crimes in Gaza, Amnesty International is extremely concerned that Israel may be seeking to replicate the approach it followed in Gaza, resulting in unprecedented civilian harm," Callamard said.

The IDF did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A second round of polio vaccinations is scheduled to be given in Gaza next week, and the World Health Organization is urging parties to observe a temporary cease-fire in order for it to happen.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO's general director, posted on X that at least 90% of children need second doses of the vaccine to stop polio transmission. The goal is to vaccinate more than half a million children in Gaza.

"We urge for the commitment on humanitarian pauses to be upheld, especially given the evacuation orders in the north of Gaza which are threatening access to hospitals and protection of health facilities and health and community workers," Tedros said.

Josep Borrell, the European Union's top diplomat, reiterated the body's support for U.N. forces after two peacekeepers were injured in Lebanon.

"Another line has been dangerously crossed in Lebanon: IDF shelling of @UN peacekeepers whose positions are known," Borrell wrote. "We condemn this inadmissible act, for which there is no justification."

The U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon said today that the IDF attacked its peacekeepers and outposts in three incidents in the last day, one of which hospitalized two peacekeepers. The IDF has not responded to the allegation.

Borrell called the attacks unacceptable and said he is seeking "full accountability."

"Any deliberate attack on peacekeepers is a grave violation of International Humanitarian Law and of the UNSC Resolution 1701; Israel has an obligation to respect both," he said.

The U.S. is deeply concerned about reports that Israeli forces fired on U.N. peacekeepers’ positions in southern Lebanon and is pressing Israel for details about the incidents, a White House National Security Council spokesperson said today.

“We understand Israel is conducting targeted operations near the Blue Line to destroy Hezbollah infrastructure that could be used to threaten Israeli citizens,” the spokesperson said.

“While they undertake these operations, it is critical that they not threaten U.N. peacekeepers' safety and security.”

Around 190 "projectiles" were fired at Israel from Lebanon today, according to the IDF.

Hezbollah issued several statements today announcing its projectiles, including rockets launched at soldiers in Kfar Giladi and barracks in Yiftah. The militant group said it also fired at IDF forces in southern Lebanon.

Israel's military said earlier in the day that Hezbollah has fired more than 13,000 rockets, missiles and drones at it since last year.

A strike on a school in central Gaza's Deir-Al-Balah killed at least 20 people, according to Médecins Sans Frontières, also known as Doctors Without Borders.

The organization said 60 more people, including five critically wounded children, were taken to Al-Asqa hospital. The facility is supported by MSF, and nurse Eliza Sabatini said staff members at the hospital were "feeling helpless.

"There are no beds and not enough supplies to treat the wounded," she said. "We don’t even have sterile gauzes left."

The IDF did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for the Israeli military required coordinates for the strike, which NBC News did not have.

The IDF said today it is in constant communication with the U.N. Interim Forces in Lebanon after the U.N. agency accused it of repeatedly hitting a U.N. watchtower in Lebanon, injuring two peacekeepers.

In its first statement since UNIFIL accused it of three separate incidents, the IDF said in a statement that it is constant communication with UNIFIL and confirmed that it was operating in the area of Naqoura today, where UNFIL is headquartered.

"The IDF instructed the UN forces in the area to remain in protected spaces, following which the forces opened fire in the area," the statement said.

UNIFIL alleged that an IDF tank fired a direct hit on its watchtower in Naqoura, causing two peacekeepers to fall and be hospitalized.

Lebanon’s Public Health Ministry reported an initial death toll of at least 22 people and 117 wounded in two separate strikes in central Beirut today.

The strikes were significantly closer to the heart of the capital than the southern suburbs where Israel has been striking in the last few weeks.

According to The Associated Press, the strike in Ras al-Nabaa hit the lower floors of an eight-story apartment building, and the one on Burj Abi Haidar collapsed an entire building, engulfing it in flames.

Just before the strikes, Lebanon's emergency government committee reported that 28 people were killed and 113 others were wounded in the last day.

Israel's military said today that three of its soldiers were killed in combat in northern Gaza, where military operations have intensified once again.

They served in the IDF's 460th Brigade under a logistical support unit.

ROME — Israeli forces have acted illegally by shooting at positions used by U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon, Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said, denouncing it as a possible war crime.

“This was not a mistake and not an accident,” Crosetto said at a news conference. “It could constitute a war crime and represented a very serious violation of international military law.”

Crosetto said he had contacted his Israeli counterpart to protest and had also summoned the Israeli ambassador to Italy to demand an explanation, which he said was not yet forthcoming.

There were two Israeli strikes in central Beirut tonight, one in the Basta neighborhood and the other nearby, in the Ras al-Nabaa area, according to Lebanon's state-run National News Agency.

Ambulances were rushed to both scenes.

Al-Manar, a Hezbollah news station, said multiple injuries were reported after a residential building collapsed.

The IDF did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Israel carried out a “concerted policy to destroy Gaza’s healthcare system” during its war with Hamas, actions amounting to both war crimes and the crime against humanity of extermination, a United Nations inquiry said today. 

The report by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, a fact finding mission set up by the U.N Human Rights Council to investigate war crimes, also said Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups  “committed the war crimes of torture, inhuman or cruel treatment and the crimes against humanity and other inhumane acts” against Israel hostages. 

But it reserved most of its criticism for Israeli forces which it said had “deliberately killed, detained and tortured medical personnel and targeted medical vehicles while tightening their siege on Gaza and restricting permits to leave the territory for medical treatment.”     

NBC News has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment on the report, which was produced by a panel of independent experts who do not speak for the world body and led by Navi Pillay, a former U.N. human rights chief.

The sound of what could be missiles were heard over Beirut just now.

From a hotel in the city, an NBC News crew could see black smoke rising from the direction of a central area of Beirut, though it's not clear yet what the target was. The sound was distinctly different from prior strikes.

Israel is not allowing an aid convoy from the United Nations into northern Gaza to help evacuate critical patients, where the IDF has renewed intense military action.

The U.N.'s Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs for the Occupied Palestinian Territories said in a post on X today that 83% of all humanitarian movements into the north were denied or impeded last month. Georgios Petropoulos, head of the Gaza branch, recorded an attempt yesterday for one of its convoys to help civilians who were given a 24 hour notice to evacuate.

Though the convoy, which included seven ambulances, were coordinated with Israeli authorities as all aid is required to, Petropoulos said they were denied access at a checkpoint.

"We are looking at options, as we do very frequently, of what kind of things we can cut off from this mission," Petropoulos said."Unfortunately, every single component is life saving."

After waiting five hours, Petropoulos' convoy had to return to the south without completing its mission.

It’s renowned for its Armenian cuisine, but this week the menu at Beirut’s Mayrig restaurant is much more basic and much more plentiful as it churns out meals for people who have been displaced by Israel’s invasion of southern Lebanon. 

Walking in the smell of a home-cooked meal hits you right away. The restaurant’s owner Aline Kamakian, 55, and her staff of about 10 are ladling rice and potato stew with minced meat into plastic containers.

Kamakian and her team make 3,500 out of the 50,000 daily meals currently being distributed to some of the 1.2 million people now displaced across the country. 

“Food is home, food is security, food is, you know, it’s comfort. And when you are creating and we are, when you are giving the same food that they are used to, you’re giving some kind of comfort, some kind of security,” Kamakian told NBC News today. 

Kamakian, who has allowed her restaurant to be used by the World Central Kitchen charity added that it was “very important,” for people “especially when you are displaced.”  

Kamakian was in Beirut during Lebanon’s 2006 war with Israel, as well as when the capital’s port exploded in 2020. That blast destroyed her restaurant and left her deaf in her right ear. But, she said this is the worst time she’s ever experienced in her country. 

For now, Kamakian said she found solace in the kitchen and she’s hoping her meals will provide a sense of home for those now displaced. 

“These people had life. These people had careers. These people had families, had homes, they are not refugees,” she said, adding, “Most of them don’t want war. They’re not against anyone. They want just to live in peace and raise their families.”

Ireland's taoiseach, or prime minister, said today that he was hopeful that a “very serious” conversation between President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would secure a cease-fire in the Middle East.

"I made it clear to the president the Irish view, it’s a view I make clear in public and in private, that all countries should be doing everything in their capacity to stop the violence," Simon Harris told reporters after a White House meeting with Biden.

"Of course, in relation to the United States that does involve the issue of arming and providing arms and munitions," he said. 

"The killings, the bombings, the maimings cannot continue. It is utterly disproportionate, and I again made the point to the president that Ireland of all countries knows that the only way you bring about peace is through dialogue and political process," he added.

Evacuees, mostly Turkish citizens, rest on a Turkish military ship in Beirut’s port before leaving for Turkey today.

A Turkish soldier carries a young evacuee onto the ship.

Lebanese residents bristled today at reports that the Biden administration is seeking to use Israel's fight against Hezbollah to spur a presidential election and end the Iran-backed militant group's political dominance.

“I don’t fully agree with the American intervention in the Lebanese political scene,” Khaled Hamade, a military expert and retired brigadier general with the Lebanese army, told NBC News today.

“I don’t think that the election of a president for the republic will overcome or is more important than a cease-fire now,” Hamade, 68, added.

Lebanon has been without a president since the previous leader, Michel Aoun, ended his term in 2022. The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that the U.S. was going to push for someone to take the job after a series of Israeli attacks took out several senior Hezbollah figures, including its leader, Hassan Nasrallah.

In the town of Zouk Mosbeh, north of Beirut, Lebanese citizens are growing increasingly worried as Israel expands its invasion, with some saying they feel “trapped in a war.”

There is “daily destruction, killings and more people on the street,” said one Beirut resident, Hiam Youssef, 32. With the number of people displaced and forced to sleep on the streets, and in parking lots and playgrounds, the question remains of what happens when the weather starts to turn.

“It is going to rain. What will happen to all the people on the streets?” said Youssef, an employee at a supermarket. “What are they going to do? Our Lebanese government is weak, helpless and corrupted, and we’re left to our destiny facing Israel and Hezbollah.”

Mayssa Zeidan, a 40-year-old physiotherapist from Beirut said she was no longer working with her patients as she is afraid of leaving the area in northern Lebanon where she and her children fled to.

“I really don't know if we're safe here," she said. “Didn't you see what happened with Gaza?”

A boy has been arrested in the Kallebäck district in Gothenburg, Sweden, after a shooting at the offices of the Israeli-owned defense company Elbit Systems, Swedish police said, according to Reuters.

While nobody was injured, Swedish police are investigating the shooting as attempted murder and an aggravated weapons offense, according to the Swedish public television station SVT, adding that police have confirmed that the boy is younger than 15 but declined to give an exact age.

This is not the first time Elbit's global subsidiaries have been targeted in recent months. In August, Reuters reported that seven people in the U.K. were charged with violent disorder, burglary and other offenses at a warehouse linked to Elbit in what prosecutors said was an attack by the protest group Palestine Action.

Swedish police in May said they had stepped up security around Israeli and Jewish interests after officers on patrol heard suspected gunshots near Israel’s embassy in Stockholm.

The Israeli military said it is “committed to mitigating civilian harm” in Gaza after authorities there accused the IDF of systematically targeting civilians in its renewed assault on the enclave's north.

The government media office in Gaza accused Israeli forces of “committing murders against civilians in the streets” in an operation that has focused on the area's Jabalia refugee camp where it said at least 125 people had been killed in five days.

In response, the IDF said in its statement that it “is fully committed to respecting all applicable international legal obligations.”

Two separate Israeli airstrikes on shelters for displaced people in Deir Al-Balah and Gaza City left dozens dead and wounded, aid agencies and eyewitnesses said.

Two people working with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon were injured as the Israeli military "repeatedly hit" the force's headquarters in Naqoura in southern Lebanon and nearby positions, the force said today.

"In the past days we have seen incursions from Israel into Lebanon in Naqoura and other areas," UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti said in a statement. "UNIFIL’s Naqoura headquarters and nearby positions have been repeatedly hit."

Tenenti said two UNIFIL members were injured after an IDF tank fired toward an observation tower at UNIFIL's headquarters in Naqoura, directly hitting it and causing them to fall. They did not suffer serious injuries, but were both receiving treatment at a hospital, he said.

UNIFIL said IDF soldiers had also fired on a U.N. position in Ras Naqoura, hitting the entrance to a bunker where it said peacekeepers were sheltering in a strike that damaged vehicles and a communication system.

"We remind the IDF and all actors of their obligations to ensure the safety and security of UN personnel and property and to respect the inviolability of UN premises at all times," Tenenti said, adding that any "deliberate attack on peacekeepers is a grave violation of international humanitarian law and of Security Council resolution 1701."

The IDF did not immediately comment on UNIFIL's allegations.

Lebanese security forces check on displaced people sleeping on the streets of Beirut today. Many have been forced to seek temporary shelter along the coastal promenade after being forced to evacuate their homes due to ongoing Israeli strikes.

A Liberia-flagged tanker was hit by an unidentified projectile in the Red Sea, resulting in some damage, British maritime security agencies said today.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency said a ship was attacked in the Red Sea about 70 nautical miles southwest of Hodeidah, Yemen. The UKMTO said the master of the vessel had reported being hit by an “unknown projectile” and that the vessel had sustained damage, but no casualties were reported.

“The crew are reported safe and the vessel proceeded to its next port of call,” it said, adding that authorities were investigating.

According to Reuters, security firm Ambrey also reported the incident, saying the tanker had been hit on its starboard side while en-route from Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah to Muscat in Oman. “Ambrey assessed the vessel to have a strong affiliation with the Houthi targeting profile,” the security firm said, according to Reuters.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced a huge wave of criticism after Hamas's Oct. 7 terror attacks. While attempts to protest his leadership didn’t really get off the ground — some saw them as unpatriotic at a time of national mourning — his popularity nevertheless suffered a huge blow.

But following several successful strikes on the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah, including the killing of its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, the six-term prime minister has surged in several polls, which suggest that his right-wing Likud party would form the largest single party in Parliament were an election held tomorrow.  

Even so, those polls don't necessarily mean that all the anger towards him has subsided. His Cabinet, a still-uncomfortable alliance of hard-right and religious parties, remains deeply divided.

He still has detractors in the military too, with key figures saying his plan for Gaza lacks an end game, represents an endless war and remains thin on detail. Those divisions are being exposed once again as his government mulls its response to last week’s missile attacks by Iran.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati says diplomatic communications and efforts to bring about a ceasefire intensified in the final hours before yesterday's UN Security Council session.

There has been contact between the U.S. and France to discuss re-establishing a temporary ceasefire, the country's Presidency of the Council of Ministers said on X, quoting Mikati.

Lebanon also stressed the priority of stopping civilian casualties in Gaza during diplomatic discussions, Mikati said.

More than two dozen people have been killed in a strike by Israeli forces in the area near a school sheltering displaced civilians in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said.

The PRCS said that at least 27 people were killed and more than 54 were wounded in the strike on the Rafidah school, with children among those killed. NBC News was not immediately able to independently verify the situation on the ground.

When asked for comment, the IDF said it had conducted a “precise strike” on militants it said were operating inside a command and control center that it said was embedded in the school compound. It said the center was being used by militants to “plan and execute terrorist attacks against IDF troops and the State of Israel.”

The IDF said it had taken “numerous steps” to mitigate the risk of harm to civilians, including using precise munitions, aerial surveillance and additional intelligence.

Five members of the Lebanese Civil Defense were killed Wednesday night, the agency said.

The members of the country's emergency medical service were killed in the town of Dardaghya town in southern Lebanon, the service said in a statement posted on X on Wednesday night.

BEIRUT — According to officials, the Biden administration is worried about how Israel will to respond to last week’s missile attack by Iran and not just because of the soured relations between President Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu.

One domestic fear is that if Israel hits Iranian oil fields or nuclear sites, it could draw the U.S. into the conflict, either by forcing it to maneuver troops or defend against attacks on its bases just before American voters decide the next president in early November. 

That could possibly spur support for former President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly criticized the Biden administration over its handling of wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. 

An Israeli strike on Iranian oil facilities would prompt a sharp rise in the price of oil, analysts say, feeding through into higher gas prices. That, in turn, would allow Trump to complain about the cost of living. Beyond the big regional calculations, America might feel the effects back home too.  

The World Podcast with Richard Engel & Yalda Hakim is out now and a new episode will be ready every Wednesday, wherever you get your podcasts.

Iran's Foreign Minister says his country's diplomatic channels with the U.S. remain open through other countries, according to Al Jazeera.

Abbas Araghchi also told Al Jazeera that Iran is prepared for an Israeli response to the missile attack that Tehran launched last week. "We will assess how the attack unfolds, and based on that, we will carefully determine the nature of our response."

The Israeli military launched aerial strikes on western Syria early Thursday, the Syrian defense ministry said. The ministry added that the strikes hit a military site in Hama and a car assembly plant in Hassia.

Syrian state television also reported that the strikes hit vehicles loaded with medical and relief supplies and ignited a large fire in the area.

In Basra on Wednesday night, members of the Iraqi paramilitary force known as the Popular Mobilization Forces displayed posters of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed last month by an Israeli strike. They also carried flags and placards to protest against ongoing Israeli attacks on Lebanon.

At least a quarter of Lebanese territory is now under Israeli “military displacement orders,” according to the United Nations.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in an update earlier this week that displacement orders had been issued for more than 100 villages and urban neighborhoods across southern Lebanon.

The report cites data from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights showing that more than 1.2 million people have been forced to flee their homes.

Some of those people have been displaced more than once since Israel ramped up its offensive in the country, with a growing number of people sleeping on the streets, in car parks and in playgrounds as shelters continue to fill up.

Israel should take urgent steps to address conditions in Gaza and allow “desperately needed” humanitarian aid to reach civilians, the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. told the organization's Security Council on Wednesday.

“Conditions are catastrophic and will further deteriorate if additional steps are not taken,” Linda Thomas-Greenfield said.

“We are particularly concerned that Palestinian civilians have nowhere safe to go,” she added. “That must change, and now.”

“The U.S. expects Palestinian civilians to be permitted to return home,” Thomas-Greenfield said. “There must be no demographic or territorial change in the Gaza Strip.”

The Israeli military said Thursday that nearly 40 rockets were launched from Lebanon towards Israel. The Israeli Defense Forces said that some of the rockets were intercepted, while others fell in the area.

The IDF said it continued targeting Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, with a number of close-quarters encounters and aerial strikes occurring in the past the day. The Israeli military said it struck more than 110 targets in Lebanon.

A photograph taken shows debris covering wrecked Civil Defense vehicles, after an overnight Israeli airstrike in the early hours of Thursday morning hit its emergency center in the southern village of Derdghaiya.

The Israeli military said Thursday that it killed Moustafa al-Haj Ali, a commander of the Houla Front in Hezbollah in strikes. Ali was responsible for hundreds of missile attacks towards northern Israel, the Israeli Defense Forces added.

The IDF also killed Mohammad Ali Hamdan, a Hezbollah anti-tank unit commander, adding that its air force had also struck ammunition depots in the Dahiyeh suburb of the capital Beirut and weapons storage depots and other military infrastructure in souther Lebanon on Wednesday.

New divisions sent to join an expanding ground invasion, troops raising a flag outside a border village and an unmistakable warning to Lebanese civilians: Israel is sending increasingly mixed signals about the goals of a military operation it had insisted was limited.

Concerns over the country’s plans mounted Wednesday after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested that Lebanese people either rise up against Hezbollah or face destruction like the Gaza Strip.

For many observers, this amounted to a choice between civil war or the same fate as that of Palestinians in the besieged and bombarded enclave.

“You have an opportunity to save Lebanon before it falls into the abyss of a long war that will lead to destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza,” Netanyahu said in a video address Tuesday delivered in English. “It doesn’t have to be that way.”

Read the full story here.

• Destruction like Gaza or civil war? Netanyahu’s warning adds to questions over Israel’s goals in Lebanon
• Israel has not briefed U.S. military officials on its plans for retaliation against Iran, U.S. officials say
• They were Israel’s eyes on the border, but their warnings about Hamas went unheard