Middle East crisis live: People killed in Israeli attack on Damascus, Syrian media says

It has just gone 8pm in Beirut, Tel Aviv and Gaza City, 9pm in Damascus, and 9.30pm in Tehran.

These are today’s latest development:

• Fifteen people have been killed and others injured in Israeli attacks that targeted two residential buildings in suburbs of the Syrian capital Damascus on Thursday, Syrian state news agency Sana said.

• Israel’s military has claimed that in the last 48 hours it has struck what it termed 30 “terror targets” in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahieh. Israel’s Arabic-language military spokesperson has again issued orders for residents to evacuate specific locations in southern Beirut. In addition Several blocks of flats have been destroyed by Israeli strikes in Bint Jbeil in southern Lebanon. Israel claims to be targeting Hezbollah facilities.

• Police in Paris are braced for potential violence before Thursday’s France-Israel football match, with police deploying one officer for every five ticket holders at the Stade de France. Speaking to broadcaster BFMTV a few hours before the match, French president, Emmanuel Macron, said “we will not give in to antisemitism”.

• Families of Israeli hostages taken captive to Gaza by Hamas urged US president Joe Biden and president-elect Donald Trump on Thursday to work on a deal to free those still being held before winter. A delegation of former hostages and hostages’ relatives were visiting Rome for meetings including with the local Jewish community and Pope Francis.

• The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) said on Thursday that two or three unknown people fired approximately 30 shots in the direction of peacekeepers, who fired back and moved to safety. No one was hurt and an investigation was launched, Unifil added in a statement.

• Twenty-one people were killed in Israeli attacks on Lebanon on Wednesday, bringing the total killed since October last year to at least 3,386, with 14,417 injured, the Lebanese health ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

• UN undersecretary general for peace operations, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, said the UN remains committed to keeping Unifil in place in all of its positions in southern Lebanon despite intense battles between Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants. Unifil forces “continue to be deployed in all the positions, and we think it is very important to preserve that presence everywhere,” LaCroix said.

• In operational updates posted to its official Telegram channel, the IDF has claimed that in the past week it has killed “over 200” Hezbollah operatives and destroyed 140 rocket launchers in its attacks on southern Lebanon.

• Israel is using evacuation orders to pursue the “deliberate and massive forced displacement” of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, according to a report by Human Rights Watch, which says the policy amounts to crimes against humanity.

• International Atomic Energy Agency director general, Rafael Grossi, has been in Tehran, and said that Iran’s nuclear installations should “not be attacked”. The UN’s atomic energy chief has said it is important to make progress with Iran in order to avoid the possibility of war.

• Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araqchi, said the country was not prepared to negotiate about its nuclear programme while it was “under pressure and intimidation”. The head of Iran’s programme, Mohammad Eslami, issued a warning saying “any interventionist resolution in the nuclear affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran will definitely be met with immediate countermeasures”. The west has accused Iran of enriching uranium for military purposes, which it denies.

• Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Esmaeil Baqaei, has condemned remarks by Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich about Israeli intentions to fully and permanently annex the occupied West Bank.

• More than a year of clashes that recently escalated into war have cost Lebanon more than $5bn in economic losses and damaged nearly 100,000 homes, the World Bank said on Thursday. The report provided estimates for damage between 8 October 2023 and 27 October 2024, saying “the conflict has caused $5.1bn in economic losses”, with damage to physical structures amounting to “at least $3.4bn” on top of that.

• According to a report on Wednesday in the leftwing Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Israeli forces in Gaza are clearing large areas with the apparent intention to remain inside the territory until at least the end of 2025.

• The Washington Post has suggested that Israel is working to time any ceasefire deal with Lebanon so that it appears as a “gift” to incoming US president Donald Trump when he takes office.

• The US government issued fresh “counter-terrorism” sanctions on Thursday related to Syria’s Al-Qatirji company, according to the treasury department’s website. The sanctions targeted 26 individuals, companies and vessels associated with the Syrian company, the treasury department’s website showed.

• Chris Sidoti, Australia’s former human rights commissioner, told a UN press briefing that the ongoing bombardment of Gaza was sowing the seeds for generations of conflict, every day of violence making peace harder to achieve.

Families of Israeli hostages taken captive to Gaza by Islamist group Hamas urged US president Joe Biden and president-elect Donald Trump on Thursday to work on a deal to free those still being held before winter, reports Reuters.

A delegation of former hostages and hostages’ relatives were visiting Rome for meetings including with the local Jewish community and Pope Francis.

Reuters reports that during a press conference, they told reporters a deal was swiftly needed to bring back all the hostages still being held after the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack on southern Israel, and said Biden and Trump should work together.

“We hope Biden and Trump work together now to get the hostages back, before the winter … it has been so tough for them, they cannot be expected to wait another winter,” said Sharon Lifshitz. Lifshitz’s mother, Yocheved, was freed in October last year while her father, Oded, is still captive.

“This is not about the left and right, all people should come together,” she said.

According to Reuters, Norberto Louis Har, who was freed in February by the Israeli armed forces, told reporters he did not care about the political camps but only that those still held were released.

French president, Emmanuel Macron, said “we will not give in to antisemitism” ahead of Israel’s Nations League football match against France in Paris later on Thursday, reports Agence France-Pesse (AFP).

Speaking to broadcaster BFMTV a few hours before the match, which he will attend, Macron said:

We will not give in to antisemitism anywhere, and violence – including in the French Republic – will never prevail, nor will intimidation.”

AFP reports that the Paris police chief, Laurent Nuñez, has described the match at the Stade de France as “high risk” and Israel has urged its citizens to avoid the fixture. The authorities fear it could become another flashpoint after last week’s violence in the Netherlands.

French prime minister, Michel Barnier, will also attend the match, as well as former presidents François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy.

Macron’s presence at the match is aimed at drawing a line after “controversies and misunderstandings” in recent relations between France and Israel, a member of his team said, reports AFP.

The security context has clearly affected the attendance, with only about 13,000 spectators expected at the game in a venue that holds up to 80,000, French interior minister, Bruno Retailleau, has said.

Twenty-one people were killed in Israeli attacks on Lebanon on Wednesday, bringing the total killed since October last year to at least 3,386, with 14,417 injured, the Lebanese health ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

Human Rights Watch said in a report released on Thursday that Israel has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip, including massive forced displacements that amount to ethnic cleansing, reports the Associated Press (AP).

A new report released by the New York-based rights group said people have been killed while evacuating under Israeli orders and in Israeli-designated humanitarian zones, where hundreds of thousands are crammed into squalid tent camps.

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 comment on the report.

Australia’s Chris Sidoti fears war in Gaza could sow seeds for generations of conflict

Ben Doherty

“Kids aren’t terrorists,” Chris Sidoti told the handful of journalists assembled in the quiet of the UN’s New York headquarters.

Thousands of kilometres from the conflict in Gaza he was documenting, Sidoti felt compelled to repeat it: “Kids aren’t terrorists.”

“On 7 October, 38 Israeli children were killed, one of them under the age of two years. Since then, at least … 13,319 children have been killed in Gaza, of whom 786 were under the age of one. In addition, 165 children have been killed in the West Bank,” he said.

It’s a statistic that, to me, says everything.”

Sidoti, Australia’s former human rights commissioner, told Guardian Australia in a subsequent interview this week that he feared an already intolerable conflict would only worsen:

People are still being killed, in particular, kids are still being killed in very large numbers, and the likelihood is it will get worse before it gets better.”

Sidoti was in New York to present a report by the UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel. He is one of the commission’s three members.

He told the UN press briefing the ongoing bombardment of Gaza was sowing the seeds for generations of conflict, every day of violence making peace harder to achieve.

When the current Israeli prime minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu talks about finishing off Hamas, I wonder about what the 1 million children in Gaza will be doing in 20 years’ time. The conflict in Gaza is an Israeli terrorism creation factory and there is no sign of it finishing.”

He said the spiralling cycle of violence could not be arrested by more violence.

There is no end in sight. To help these kids, to help Israel, it’s got to stop. Then, there is a possibility, but until it stops, there is no chance.”

It is approaching 5pm in Beirut, Tel Aviv and Gaza City, 6pm in Damascus, and 6.30pm in Tehran. Here are the headlines …

• 15 people have been killed and others injured in Israeli attacks that targeted two residential buildings in suburbs of the Syrian capital Damascus on Thursday, Syrian state news agency Sana said

• Israel’s military has claimed that in the last 48 hours it has struck what it termed 30 “terror targets” in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahieh. Israel’s Arabic-language military spokesperson has again issued orders for residents to evacuate specific locations in southern Beirut. In addition Several blocks of flats have been destroyed by Israeli strikes in Bint Jbeil in southern Lebanon. Israel claims to be targeting Hezbollah facilities

• In operational updates posted to its official Telegram channel, the IDF has claimed that in the past week it has killed “over 200” Hezbollah operatives and destroyed 140 rocket launchers in its attacks on southern Lebanon

• Israel is using evacuation orders to pursue the “deliberate and massive forced displacement” of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, according to a report by Human Rights Watch, which says the policy amounts to crimes against humanity

• International Atomic Energy Agency director general Rafael Grossi has been in Tehran, and said that Iran’s nuclear installations should “not be attacked”. The UN’s atomic energy chief has said it is important to make progress with Iran in order to avoid the possibility of war

• Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araqchi said the country was not prepared to negotiate about its nuclear programme while it was “under pressure and intimidation”. The head of Iran’s programme, Mohammad Eslami, issued a warning saying “Any interventionist resolution in the nuclear affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran will definitely be met with immediate countermeasures”. The west has accused Iran of enriching uranium for military purposes, which Iran denies

• Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei has condemned remarks by Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich about Israeli intentions to fully and permanently annex the occupied West Bank

• According to a report Wednesday in the leftwing Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Israeli forces in Gaza are clearing large areas with the apparent intention to remain inside the territory until at least the end of 2025

• Overnight the Washington Post has suggested that Israel is working to time any ceasefire deal with Lebanon so that it appears as a “gift” to incoming US president Donald Trump when he takes office

• Police in Paris are braced for potential violence before Thursday’s France-Israel football match, with police deploying one officer for every five ticket holders at the Stade de France