Israel intensifies southern Gaza demolitions, continues blocking aid

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Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani and Lebanese Interior Minister Ahmed Hajjar discussed ways to enhance bilateral cooperation between their countries in the security and political fields.

This took place during a meeting in the Bahraini capital on the sidelines of the Manama Dialogue 2025 forum, according to the Syria's official news agency SANA.

The agency reported that the two sides discussed ways to strengthen bilateral cooperation in the security and political spheres "in a manner that serves the common interests of the two brotherly nations."

Israel on Sunday signalled it could intensify operations in Lebanon against Hezbollah, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused of rearming, urging Beirut to disarm the Iran-backed group.

"Hezbollah is playing with fire, and the president of Lebanon is dragging his feet," Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a statement.

"The Lebanese government's commitment to disarm Hezbollah and remove it from southern Lebanon must be implemented. Maximum enforcement will continue and even intensify - we will not allow any threat to the residents of the north."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Hezbollah was attempting to "rearm" itself.

"We expect the Lebanese government to fulfil its commitment - to disarm Hezbollah - but it is clear we will exercise our right of self-defence under the terms of ceasefire," Netanyahu told the cabinet at its weekly meeting on Sunday.

"We will not allow Lebanon to become a renewed front against us, and we will act as necessary," he said, according to a statement issued by his office.

Israel says the Red Cross has received the remains of three captives in Gaza and they will be handed over to Israel’s military.

A Hamas statement earlier said the remains were found Sunday in a tunnel in southern Gaza.

Since the ceasefire in Gaza took effect on October 10, Palestinian militants had released the remains of 17 captives, with 11 remaining in Gaza.

Militants have released one or two bodies every few days. Israel has urged faster progress, and in certain cases it has said the remains aren’t of any captive. Hamas has said the work is complicated by widespread devastation.

A US federal court has questioned the legality of detaining British journalist Sami Hamdi, known for his pro-Palestine reporting, according to the advocacy group CAIR.

The court has barred the Department of Homeland Security’s ICE from transferring Hamdi out of California while his case continues. CAIR said the ruling acknowledged that Hamdi’s lawyers raised concerns about whether his detention was retaliation for protected First Amendment speech.

Hussam Ayloush, CAIR’s Southern California executive director, described the decision as “an important first step,” emphasising that the case highlights serious constitutional issues and ensures Hamdi remains accessible to his legal team.

Hamdi’s family previously reported he was experiencing severe pain on his left side in detention, prompting on-site medical treatment.

Hamas' armed wing said it would hand over the bodies of three Israeli captives later on Sunday as part of the ongoing hostage-prisoner exchange under a ceasefire agreement for Gaza with Israel.

"The Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades will hand over the bodies... that were found earlier today along the route of one of the tunnels in the southern Gaza Strip at 8:00 pm Gaza time (1800 GMT)," the group said on its Telegram channel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has described the release of a video showing a Palestinian detainee allegedly raped by Israeli soldiers as a major blow to Israel’s image.

During a cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said the footage from the Sde Teiman detention centre had caused "enormous reputational damage to Israel and to the army."

"This is perhaps the most severe public relations attack that the state of Israel has experienced since its establishment – I don’t remember one focused with such intensity," he stated.

His comments followed the resignation of Major-General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, the army’s chief legal adviser, who admitted to leaking the footage to the press.

The incident has provoked backlash from far-right Israeli politicians, including Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu, who joined others in storming the Sde Teiman facility in protest at the soldiers’ arrest.

The Balfour Declaration, issued on 2 November 1917, marked a pivotal moment in the history of Palestine. In this brief statement, Britain pledged to support the establishment of “a national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine, which was then under Ottoman rule.

The declaration laid the groundwork for the mass displacement of Palestinians and the eventual creation of the state of Israel in 1948. For many Palestinians, it represents the beginning of more than a century of colonial injustice, dispossession, and occupation.

Critics argue that the Balfour Declaration was made without consulting the indigenous Palestinian population, who formed the vast majority of the inhabitants at the time. It is seen as a colonial promise that ignored the rights and aspirations of the Arab people of Palestine, leading to decades of conflict and suffering.

The anniversary of the Balfour Declaration remains a deeply controversial reminder of Britain’s role in shaping the modern Middle East- a legacy that continues to influence the struggle for Palestinian statehood and justice.

Remembering the Balfour Declaration: 108 years since a defining colonial promise

Today marks the 108th anniversary of the infamous Balfour Declaration, issued on November 2, 1917, by the British government, which granted Jews the right to establish a national home in Palestine.… pic.twitter.com/XTAzrn257s

— Palestine in the UK (@PalMissionUK) November 2, 2025

Gaza’s Health Ministry has issued a statement, saying that more than 500 bodies have been recovered since the US-brokered ceasefire took effect.

The ministry added that Israeli attacks have killed 236 Palestinians and wounded around 600 others during the truce period.

Hundreds of people gathered in south Lebanon's Nabatiyeh on Sunday to mourn five Hezbollah members killed in recent Israeli attacks, according to AFP news agency, as Israel warned of intensifying attacks against the Iran-backed group.

On Saturday, an Israeli strike killed four people in Kfar Rumman, Nabatiyeh district, the Lebanese health ministry and the Israeli military said.

Israel said the four were members of Hezbollah's elite Radwan Force.

The attack came a day after the Israeli military said it had killed "a Hezbollah maintenance officer" working to re-establish the group's infrastructure sites in southern Lebanon in a strike on the same district.

 AFP reported that hundreds of people gathered at the funeral in Nabatiyeh city to mourn the five.

The men's coffins were draped in Hezbollah's flag while mourners threw petals and chanted "death to Israel, death to America".

Hezbollah fighters in military garb were present, swearing loyalty to Hassan Nasrallah, the group's former leader killed by Israel in September 2024, and to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Some held pictures of relatives killed by Israel, he added.

"This is a price the south is paying on a daily basis," Rana Hamed, mother of one the five men killed, told AFP.

"We know that Israel has been our enemy for decades."

An Israeli airstrike killed a Palestinian man in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, health authorities said- while the Israeli military claimed that its aircraft struck a combatant who was posing a threat to its forces.

Al-Ahli Hospital said one man was killed in the airstrike near a vegetable market in the Shujayea suburb of Gaza City.

His identity was not immediately known. The Israeli military said on Saturday that its troops were attacked by fighters in areas of Gaza where its forces are still deployed as part of the US-backed ceasefire agreement.

Hamas did not immediately respond to the latesr developments.

In a separate statement, it listed a series of what it said were Israeli violations of the ceasefire agreed in October, which have killed more than 200 people. At least 236 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed in Israeli strikes since the ceasefire took effect, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

According to The New Arab’s Arabic-language sister site Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, members of Hamas’ armed wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, entered the Shujaiya neighbourhood in eastern Gaza along with Red Cross representatives and engineering vehicles to search for the bodies of Israeli prisoners.

The Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip announced on Sunday that seven Palestinians were killed in the past 24 hours- three newly reported deaths, three bodies recovered from under the rubble, and one person who succumbed to their injuries.

Six others were wounded with varying degrees of severity.

In a statement, the Ministry said the death toll since the ceasefire began on 11 October has risen to 236, with 600 injured, while the bodies of 502 people have been recovered since the agreement took effect.

It added that the total number of Palestinians killed since Israel’s war on Gaza began on 7 October 2023 has reached 68,865, with 170,670 wounded- the majority being women, children, and the elderly.

The Ministry noted that these figures come amid ongoing violations of the ceasefire by Israeli forces, who continue to carry out sporadic airstrikes and targeted killings across the Strip.

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid has commented on reports that the army’s chief legal officer leaked a video depicting the sexual assault of a Palestinian detainee by soldiers at the Sde Teiman detention centre.

Lapid told Israel’s public broadcaster that the leak was a "serious matter that needs to be addressed", but added, "Israel does not behave that way. We are a state of law, and that is the difference between us and our enemies."

Nevertheless, numerous human rights organisations maintain that the torture of Palestinians by Israeli forces is a widespread and systemic practice.

Israel warned Sunday that its military would step up its attacks against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, a day after the Lebanese health ministry reported four people killed in an Israeli air strike.

Despite a November 2024 ceasefire with the Lebanese group, Israel maintains troops in five areas in southern Lebanon and has kept up regular strikes.

"Hezbollah is playing with fire, and the president of Lebanon is dragging his feet," Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a statement.

"The Lebanese government's commitment to disarm Hezbollah and remove it from southern Lebanon must be implemented. Maximum enforcement will continue and even intensify -- we will not allow any threat to the residents of the north."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Hezbollah was attempting to "rearm" itself.

"We expect the Lebanese government to fulfil its commitment -- to disarm Hezbollah -- but it is clear we will exercise our right of self-defence under the terms of ceasefire," Netanyahu told the cabinet at its weekly meeting on Sunday.

"We will not allow Lebanon to become a renewed front against us, and we will act as necessary," he said, according to a statement issued by his office.

Israel’s public broadcaster has reported that Defence Minister Israel Katz is set to meet the army’s Chief of Staff, Eyal Zamir, today to discuss the appointment of a successor to Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, who has resigned as military prosecutor.

The appointment is seen by experts as a key test of how the army will handle discipline and apply the laws of war amid growing concerns over impunity.

The Gaza Government Media Office has rejected claims by the US Central Command (CENTCOM) that Hamas fighters looted an aid vehicle, following the release of a video purporting to show the incident.

On Saturday, US CENTCOM released what it described as drone footage showing "suspected Hamas elements" seizing an aid truck in Khan Younis, southern Gaza.

"We affirm that this accusation is completely false and fabricated from its very foundation, and comes within the framework of a systematic media disinformation campaign aimed at distorting the image of the Palestinian police forces, which are carrying out their national and humanitarian duty in securing aid and protecting relief convoys," the media office said in a statement.

It added that the "police system is making every effort to control matters despite the continued ‘Israeli’ meddling in the internal arena, with several objectives including engineering starvation by obstructing the delivery of aid."

Syria's president will discuss issues including lifting remaining sanctions, reconstruction and counter-terrorism when he becomes the country's first leader to pay an official visit to Washington later this month, the foreign minister said Sunday.

Ahmed al-Sharaa is expected in the US capital in early November, Syria's top diplomat Asaad al-Shaibani told a panel at the Manama Dialogue in Bahrain.

"This visit is certainly historic," he said.

"Many topics will be discussed, starting with the lifting of sanctions," Shaibani said, adding: "Today we are fighting (the Islamic State)... any effort in this regard requires international support."

Discussions will also revolve around reconstruction after more than a decade of war, he said.

The foreign ministry in Damascus confirmed the trip would be the first ever visit to the White House by a Syrian president.

Israeli police have announced the arrest of 11 people, including children, over the past two weeks in occupied East Jerusalem. Those detained are accused of setting rubbish bins on fire, throwing stones, and hurling firebombs at police officers.

According to the Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem, as of the end of 2024, 206 minors were being held in Israeli custody, 113 of them on “security grounds”.

Defence for Children International, an NGO focused on children’s rights, reported that as of June, 41 percent of 360 detained Palestinian children were being held without charge.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan is expected to call at a meeting in Istanbul on Monday for arrangements to be made as soon as possible to ensure the security and administration of Gaza by Palestinians, a foreign ministry source said on Sunday.

The foreign ministers of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Pakistan and Indonesia are set to join the meeting on ceasefire developments and the humanitarian situation in Gaza, the Turkish foreign ministry source said.

The source said Fidan was expected to "emphasise the importance of coordinated action by Muslim countries for the ceasefire to evolve into a lasting peace."

Countries taking part in the Istanbul talks all attended a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump in New York in September on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.

The source said Fidan is set to tell the meeting that Israel is "making excuses" to end the ceasefire and emphasise the need for the international community to "take a resolute stance against Israel's provocative actions".

He was also set to say that humanitarian aid entering Gaza is insufficient and Israel has not fulfilled its obligations in this regard.

Relations between Turkey and Israel have hit new lows during the Gaza war, with President Tayyip Erdogan harshly criticising Israel's attacks on the enclave.

Turkey helped persuade Hamas to accept Trump's peace plan and has expressed a willingness to take part in an international task force to monitor ceasefire implementation.

However, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said last Monday that Israel won't accept the presence of Turkish armed forces in Gaza under the U.S. plan to end the war.

The Gazan residence of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat stands in ruins, like most other buildings in the devastated territory, but the remains of the once-lavish villa now also host several displaced families.

The house, converted into a museum after the Palestinian leader's death in 2004 and bearing murals in his honour, is surrounded by rubble.

Located in the Rimal neighbourhood in Gaza City, the house was heavily damaged by Israeli strikes during the two years of war that followed Hamas's unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

Ashraf Nafeth Abu Salem, a university professor who found shelter in the residence with his own and other families, told AFP news agency he had decided to clean up the rubble inside the house's courtyard, which was "largely destroyed and burned".

A metal door that opens from the villa onto the street is adorned with a poster of Arafat, wearing his trademark keffiyeh and sunglasses. Behind him in the image is a smaller picture of the current president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas.

Abu Salem leafed through an old, yellowed book bearing Arafat's portrait.

"We belong to the generation of the first intifada (in 1987). We grew up throwing stones," he told AFP.

"For us, President Abu Ammar was a model and a symbol of the Palestinian national struggle," the professor said, referring to Arafat by the affectionate name used by supporters.

Syrian Foreign Minister Asad al-Shaibani confirmed on Sunday that President Ahmed al-Sharaa will visit the White House in early November and discuss the reconstruction of Syria.

U.S. Special Envoy Tom Barrack said the previous day that Sharaa would visit Washington, with a White House official later saying the visit would happen around November 10.

"There will be many issues on the table, starting with the lifting of sanctions and opening of a new chapter between the United States and Syria. We want to establish a very strong partnership between the two countries," Shibani added.

According to the U.S. State Department, no previous Syrian president has paid an official visit to Washington. Sharaa addressed the U.N. General Assembly in New York in September.

Washington’s special envoy for Syria has described Lebanon as "a failed state", reflecting the United States’ growing frustration with Beirut’s paralysed political system while reaffirming strong support for Israel’s regional actions.

Tom Barrack criticised Lebanon as the only country in the region "not falling in line" with what he called a new Middle East order. "The state is Hezbollah," he said, claiming the group has filled the vacuum left by a government unable to provide electricity, water, or other essential services.

"It is really up to the Lebanese," he continued. “America is not going to get more deeply involved when a foreign terrorist organisation and a failed state dictate the pace and demand more resources, money, or assistance."

Barrack added that while the US would refrain from direct involvement in regional conflicts, it would lend support "if Israel becomes more aggressive towards Lebanon".

Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv to commemorate the assassination of former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

Rabin was killed in 1995 by a far-right Israeli extremist opposed to the Oslo Peace Accords- an initiative aimed at resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through a two-state solution.

On 4 November 1995, Rabin was shot during a peace rally in Tel Aviv by Yigal Amir, who opposed the negotiations between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

After 30 years since Rabin’s assassination, those who incited his murder and the ideology behind it are now governing Israel. https://t.co/8WhGcqnGkQ

— Khalil Sayegh (@KhalilJeries) November 1, 2025

Humanitarian aid deliveries into Gaza remain severely limited, despite some improvement in food distribution, according to the United Nations.

In a report released last Thursday, the UN said that only 149 aid trucks were offloaded at Gaza’s crossings the previous day, citing congestion and ongoing delays caused by the Israeli military.

The Gaza Media Office stated that an average of just 145 trucks per day have entered the enclave since the ceasefire began- far below the 600 agreed upon.

The UN attributed the restrictions to the "highly congested and narrow Philadelphi Corridor", describing it as unsuitable for large aid convoys.