Opening
summary
Hello and
welcome to the Guardian’s continuing coverage of the Middle East crisis amid
Israel’s ongoing wars on Lebanon and Gaza.
The top
commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has warned Israel it
would face “bitter consequences” after its attack on Iranian military sites
early on Saturday, according to local media reports.
The Israeli
airstrikes killed four Iranian soldiers, Iran’s army said. As my colleague
Patrick Wintour writes in this story, a debate has been set off inside Iran on
whether the attack, more limited than some had predicted, warrants a military
response and if the country will be seen as weak if it does nothing.
The Israel’s
airstrikes were in retaliation for the 1 October attack by Iran, which fired
about 200 missiles at Israel, though most were intercepted by the country’s air
defences.
IRGC chief
Maj Gen Hossein Salami was quoted on Monday as having said that Israel had
“failed to achieve its ominous goals” with its air attack on Saturday, calling
it a sign of “miscalculation and helplessness”. He warned that “its bitter
consequences will be unimaginable” for Israel.
The IRGC is
a major military, political and economic force in Iran. It holds significant
power within the country, with its own ground forces, navy and air force.
Here is a
summary of the day’s other main events:
- Israel’s parliament – the Knesset – is expected to vote on Monday on a pair of bills that, if passed, will make it impossible for the UN relief and works agency for Palestinians (Unrwa) to operate in Gaza and the West Bank. One of the bills seeks to ban Unrwa from operating within Israel’s sovereign territory, stating that the agency “shall not establish any representation, provide any services or conduct any activities within the territory of Israel”. This would lead to closure of the Unrwa headquarters in East Jerusalem and end visas for Unrwa staff. The measures look to have a cross-party majority of about 100 of the 120 members, despite widespread opposition from other countries, including most of Israel’s allies.
- At least three people were killed and two others injured by Israeli attacks on the Raml neighbourhood in the Lebanese city of Tyre, according to the country’s national news agency.
- The Lebanese National Agency reports that three people have been killed and two injured following an Israeli airstrike on a home in the Raml neighborhood of Tyre, South Lebanon. pic.twitter.com/thQs3SJOjW
- — Quds News Network (@QudsNen) October 28, 2024
- Approximately 70 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes in the past day, health officials in Gaza said, as Israel’s renewed assault on the north of the strip shows no sign of slowing. Information about the situation in northern Gaza has become increasingly sporadic and difficult to verify as Israel’s new ground and aerial assault focusing on Jabaliya, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun enters its fourth week. Internet and phone services were down for hours at a time, and civil defence workers were unable to reach the sites of recent strikes due to Israeli forces’ ever-tightening siege and attacks on their crews.
- The United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, expressed his shock at the appalling conditions the remaining residents stuck in northern Gaza are in. His spokesperson released a statement, with the UN chief calling the dire situation there “unbearable” as citizens remain trapped in extreme danger and deprivation, under siege by the Israeli military. Guterres was “shocked by the harrowing levels of death, injury and destruction in the north”.
- Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said that his government has proposed a two-day ceasefire in Gaza, after which talks should resume within 10 days in efforts to reach a permanent one. During the two days he suggested a swap of four hostages held in Gaza by Hamas for four Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
- Iran’s leadership has said it is weighing a response to this weekend’s Israeli airstrikes, as the country called on the UN security council to meet on Monday. Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, said Tehran was not looking for a war but would respond “appropriately” to Israel’s strikes. “We do not seek war but we will defend the rights of our nation and country,” Pezeshkian told a cabinet meeting on Sunday. He added: “We will give an appropriate response to the aggression of the Zionist regime.”
- Iraq has submitted a complaint to the UN over Israel’s use of its airspace to strike Iran on Saturday, an Iraqi government spokesperson said on Monday.
- One person was killed when a truck rammed into a bus stop in Ramat Hasharon, north of Tel Aviv, on Sunday, in what Israeli police are treating as a suspected terrorist attack. About 40 people were injured to varying degrees, some seriously, and were taken to nearby hospitals, police said. The Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad praised the suspected attack but did not claim it. The driver of the truck was a Palestinian citizen of Israel, police said, and was “neutralised” by passersby carrying firearms.
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