A man inspects his damaged car following an Israeli airstrike in central Beirut, 18 November. (Photo: Wael Hamzeh / EPA-EFE) 
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that Israel’s air attack on Iran last month hit an element of Tehran’s nuclear programme while degrading its defence and missile production capabilities.
The US Senate could vote as soon as Wednesday on legislation that would block arms sales to Israel, backed by legislators who say Israel is obstructing aid shipments desperately needed by Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
Israeli strike kills four in central Beirut
An Israeli airstrike killed four people in a central Beirut neighbourhood on Monday, said Lebanon’s health ministry, the second day in a row Israel has hit a target within the capital as it presses its campaign against the Iran-backed Hezbollah.
Another 18 people were wounded in the attack, said the ministry.
Smoke was seen rising from the location of the strike in the Zuqaq al-Blat area, a short distance from the central Beirut district where the Lebanese government is headquartered. The strike was also near to the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia building.
Israel has intensified its bombardment of targets in and around the Lebanese capital over the last week, an escalation that coincided with signs of movement in US-led diplomacy aimed at reaching a ceasefire.
Israel has dealt big blows to Hezbollah since late September, killing its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, pounding wide areas of Lebanon with airstrikes, and sending troops into southern Lebanon. Hezbollah has kept up rocket fire into northern Israel, where sirens sounded again on Monday.
In Israel, a woman was killed when a rocket struck a building in a town in the north, reported Israel’s Army Radio. The Israeli military said about five projectiles had been fired from Lebanon.
Since Israel launched its major offensive against Hezbollah, the bulk of its airstrikes in the Beirut area have targeted the group’s strongholds in the southern suburbs.
But on Sunday, Israel hit targets in the Beirut city limits for the first time in more than five weeks, killing 10 people in two separate strikes, including Hezbollah’s top media official.
Israel’s October attack hit component in Iran’s nuclear programme - Netanyahu
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that Israel’s air attack on Iran last month hit an element of Tehran’s nuclear programme while degrading its defence and missile production capabilities.
“It’s not a secret,” said Netanyahu in a speech in parliament. “There is a specific component in their nuclear programme that was hit in this attack.”
He did not identify the component, but added that Iran’s path to a nuclear weapon had not been blocked.
On 26 October, Israeli fighter jets carried out three waves of attacks on Iranian military targets, a few weeks after Iran had fired a barrage of about 200 ballistic missiles against Israel.
This followed a previous exchange of direct attacks in April.
Netanyahu, in his speech, offered a few more details on what Israel had targeted.
Israel’s April strike, he said, was narrower, taking out one of four Russian-supplied S-300 surface-to-air missile defence batteries around Tehran, the Iranian capital.
He said that in October, Israel destroyed the remaining three batteries and caused serious damage to Iran’s ballistic missile production capabilities and its ability to produce solid fuel, which is used in long-range ballistic missiles.
US Senate to consider measures blocking some weapons sales to Israel
The US Senate could vote as soon as Wednesday on legislation that would block arms sales to Israel, backed by legislators who say Israel is obstructing aid shipments desperately needed by Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
The “resolutions of disapproval’ were filed by Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats. Strong bipartisan support for Israel means the resolutions are not expected to pass, but backers hope they will encourage Israel’s government and President Joe Biden’s administration to do more.
Most of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people has been displaced and the enclave is at risk of famine. Gaza health officials say more than 43,922 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s 13-month-old offensive.
“This war has been conducted almost entirely with American weapons and $18-billion in US taxpayer dollars. Israel has dropped US-provided 2,000-pound bombs into crowded neighbourhoods, killed hundreds of civilians to take out a handful of Hamas fighters, and made little effort to distinguish between civilians and combatants,” said Sanders in a statement.
“These actions are immoral and illegal,” he said.
Biden, whose term ends in January, has strongly backed Israel since Hamas-led gunmen attacked in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
The Biden administration in October told Israel that it had 30 days to improve the flow of aid to Gaza or risk consequences to US military aid.
After that period, Washington said on 12 November it concluded that Israel had made progress and was not currently impeding assistance to Gaza. Many aid groups disagreed.
Israel says it has been working to address humanitarian needs and the main problem with aid deliveries was UN distribution challenges.
Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen on Monday said he supported the joint resolutions of disapproval, as did Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren last week.
US law gives Congress the right to stop major foreign weapons sales by passing resolutions of disapproval. Although no such resolution has both passed Congress and survived a presidential veto, the law requires the Senate to vote if a resolution is filed. Such resolutions have at times led to angry debates embarrassing to past presidents.
Lebanon submits written response to US truce proposal
Lebanon has submitted a written response to a US truce proposal, said a Lebanese official source and Lebanese broadcaster Al-Jadeed on Monday.
There was no immediate response from the US Embassy in Beirut to a Reuters request for comment.
Members of UN Security Council call for surge in assistance to Gaza
Members of the United Nations Security Council called on Monday for a surge in assistance to reach people in need in Gaza, warning that the situation in the Palestinian enclave was getting worse.
British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said there needed to be a “huge, huge rise in aid” to Gaza, where most of the population of 2.3 million people has been displaced and the enclave’s health officials say more than 43,922 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s offensive.
“The situation is devastating, and frankly, beyond comprehension, and it’s getting worse, not better. Winter’s here. Famine is imminent, and 400 days into this war, it is totally unacceptable that it’s harder than ever to get aid into Gaza,” said Lammy.
US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the Security Council that Washington was closely watching Israel’s actions to improve the situation for Palestinians and engaging with the Israeli government every day.
“Israel must also urgently take additional steps to alleviate the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza,” she said.
EU will not suspend dialogue with Israel, says Poland’s Sikorski
European Union foreign ministers did not agree on Monday to suspend political dialogue with Israel, said Poland, following a proposal to do so from the bloc’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell.
Borrell had written to EU foreign ministers ahead of Monday’s meeting in Brussels, citing “serious concerns about possible breaches of international humanitarian law in Gaza”.
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski told reporters in Brussels that he and counterparts from other EU states had not agreed to this proposal.
“We know that there are tragic events in Gaza, huge civilian casualties, but we do not forget who started the current cycle of violence,” said Sikorski.
“And I can tell you that there was no agreement on the idea of suspending negotiations with Israel.”
Nearly 100 food aid trucks looted in Gaza, say UN agencies
Nearly 100 trucks carrying food for Palestinians were violently looted on 16 November after entering Gaza in one of the worst aid losses during 13 months of war in the enclave, where hunger is deepening, two UN agencies told Reuters on Monday.
The convoy transporting food provided by the UN agencies Unrwa and the World Food Programme was instructed by Israel to depart at short notice via an unfamiliar route from the Kerem Shalom border crossing, said Louise Wateridge, Unrwa’s senior emergency officer.
Ninety-eight of the 109 trucks in the convoy were raided and some of the transporters were injured during the incident, she said, without detailing who carried out the ambush.
“This ... highlights the severity of access challenges of bringing aid into southern and central Gaza,” she told Reuters.
“The urgency of the crisis cannot be overstated; without immediate intervention, severe food shortages are set to worsen, further endangering the lives of over two million people who depend on humanitarian aid to survive.”
The Hamas TV channel Al-Aqsa quoted Hamas interior ministry sources in Gaza as saying that more than 20 gang members involved in looting aid trucks were killed during an operation carried out by Hamas security forces in coordination with tribal committees.
US sanctions Israeli settler group over West Bank violence
The US imposed sanctions on Monday on the Israeli settler group Amana, accusing the organisation of helping perpetrate violence in the occupied West Bank, which has seen a rise in settler attacks on Palestinians.
Amana provides support to unauthorised settler outposts that are used to expand Jewish settlements and seize Palestinian land, said the Treasury Department in a statement announcing the sanctions, calling the group “a key part of the Israeli extremist settlement movement”.
The sanctions also target a subsidiary of Amana called Binyanei Bar Amana, described by the Treasury as a company that builds and sells homes in Israeli settlements and settler outposts.
The sanctions block Americans from any transactions with Amana and freeze its US-held assets. The UK and Canada have also imposed sanctions on Amana.
The Treasury Department said Amana maintained ties to other people targeted in previous rounds of US sanctions, including by providing loans to settlers who set up farms in the West Bank from which settlers commit violence.
“More broadly, Amana strategically uses farming outposts, which it supports through financing, loans, and building infrastructure, to expand settlements and seize land,” it said.
The latest measures taken against Israeli settlers by the Biden administration could be quickly reversed under President-elect Donald Trump, whose incoming administration is expected to be pro-settler.
Israel has settled the West Bank since capturing it during the 1967 Middle East war. Palestinians say the settlements have undermined the prospects for the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem as its capital.
No alternative to Unrwa in Gaza besides Israel, says agency chief
The only alternative to the UN Palestinian relief agency in Gaza was to allow Israel to run services there, said its chief on Monday, repeating calls for states to resist an Israeli ban.
Philippe Lazzarini, the head of Unrwa, was in Geneva for a strategy meeting with donors after Israel banned the agency from operating on its territory last month in what he said was the darkest moment in Unrwa’s 75-year history.
“I keep being asked either yes or no [is there] a plan B? There is no plan B," Lazzarini told reporters on the sidelines of the meeting. “If there is no UN or international community response, the responsibility will go back to the occupying power, being Israel.”
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency provides aid and shelter to many Gazans made homeless by the 13-month war which Palestinian authorities say has killed more than 43,000 people and reduced most of the enclave to rubble.
Israel has repeatedly accused Unrwa of being implicated in the October 2023 Hamas-led attacks on Israel that triggered the war.
A UN investigation found that nine Unrwa staff may have been involved and fired them. The crisis caused some donors to temporarily suspend funding although most has since been restored, with major donor Washington a notable exception.
Lazzarini said he called on countries at the Geneva meeting to try to halt the Israeli parliament Bill, due to take effect in late January. “We will be operating until the day we cannot operate any more, and meanwhile, we will exhaust all possible diplomatic avenues,” he said.
Palestinian NGO to ask UK court to block F-35 parts to Israel
Britain is allowing parts for F-35 fighter jets to be exported to Israel despite accepting they could be used in breach of international humanitarian law in Gaza, lawyers for a Palestinian rights group told a London court on Monday.
West Bank-based Al-Haq, which documents alleged rights violations by Israel and the Palestinian Authority, is taking legal action against Britain’s Department for Business and Trade at London’s High Court.
Israel has been accused of violations of international humanitarian law in the Gaza war, with the UN Human Rights Office saying nearly 70% of fatalities it has verified were women and children, a report Israel rejected.
Israel says it takes care to avoid harming civilians and denies committing abuses and war crimes in the conflicts with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Al-Haq’s case comes after Britain in September suspended 30 of 350 arms export licences, though it exempted the indirect export of F-35 parts, citing the impact on the global F-35 programme.
Al-Haq argues that the decision was unlawful as there is a clear risk that F-35s could be used in breach of international humanitarian law.
A full hearing of Al-Haq’s legal challenge is likely to be heard early in 2025. DM
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