Image source, Reuters

Yahya Sinwar was named the overall chief of Hamas in August after the killing of his predecessor Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.

He previously served as the group's leader inside the Gaza strip, a position he took on in 2017.

Sinwar currently tops Israel’s most-wanted list. The country's security agencies believe he masterminded the planning and execution of the unprecedented 7 October 2023 attacks on southern Israel, which killed over 1,200 people and 251 taken back into Gaza as hostages.

He was born in Khan Younis refugee camp in southern Gaza in 1962.

In the late 1980s, Sinwar founded the Hamas security service known as Majd, which among other things targeted alleged Palestinian collaborators with Israel.

He has spent much of his life in Israeli jail - and after his third arrest in 1988 he was sentenced to four life terms in prison.

Sinwar was among 1,027 Palestinian and Israeli Arab prisoners released by Israel in the 2011 exchange for Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier held captive for over five years in Gaza by Hamas.

If you're just joining us, or are in need of a recap, here's the latest from the Middle East conflict:

In Gaza:

• The Israeli military says it's checking possibility that the leader of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar, has been killed- without making clear when or where this took place
• This comes after the IDF conducted what it called a “precise strike” on a compound in Jabaliain the north, with reports of at least 22 killed and dozens wounded
• The EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said “too many people” will diein the one-month timeframe the US has given Israel to improve aid access

In Lebanon:

• The Israeli military issued several evacuation warnings to people inside or near buildings in southern and eastern Lebanon today
• Strikes were reported in the village of Tamnin al-Fawqa, in the southern Bekaa region, as well as a village near the coastal city of Tyre
• The Israeli military also said it “struck and eliminated” a Hezbollah battalion commander, Hussein Muhammad Awada, in the south

Away from Gaza, a UN peacekeeping ship brought down a drone off the coast of Lebanon this morning.

Unifil spokesperson Andrea Tenenti confirms it is the first incident of its kind during the ongoing conflict between Hezbollah and Israel.

He says a drone of "unknown origin" approached a Unifil ship off the southern Lebanese coast.

Tenenti adds the ship used "electronic countermeasures" which caused the drone to fall and explode on its own and Unifil are "looking into the matter".

Tensions between the UN force and the Israeli military have grown in recent days, with UNIFIL accusing Israel of deliberately attacking its infrastructure and injuring peacekeepers as part of its ground invasion of southern Lebanon.

Israel says it is fighting Hezbollah in positions that have been established near Unifil bases and denied deliberate strikes, as well as calling for the UN troops to withdraw from the south - which Unifil has rejected.

Image source, Reuters

The Israeli military says it's checking the possibility that the leader of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar, has been killed in Gaza.

In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces says the identity of "three dead terrorists" had yet to be confirmed.

"In the building where the terrorists were eliminated, there were no signs of the presence of hostages in the area," the IDF adds.

We'll bring you more on this as we have it.

Before the school strike that killed nearly two dozen people was reported, the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza released an update saying 29 people had been killed in Gaza in the last 24 hours - with 93 others injured.

It also says at least 42,438 Palestinians have been killed as a result of Israeli military action in Gaza since the 7 October Hamas-led attack on Israel, with 99,246 wounded.

Hamas has issued a statement condemning the Israeli strike on a school building in Jabalia, northern Gaza.

The group rejects Israel's claim that the school was a Hamas command centre as "mere lies".

Yolande Knell
Middle East correspondent, in Jerusalem

At least 22 people are reported to have been killed and dozens wounded in an Israeli air strike on a school building in northern Gaza, according to Gaza's Hamas-run Civil Defence Agency.

The Israeli military says the site in Jabalia was being used as an operational meeting point for Hamas and Islamic Jihad operatives.

Footage from the school-turned-shelter in Jabalia shows blood on the floor and fires among the tents - with a local official saying there’s no water to put out the blaze.

Israel’s military began a ground offensive in the area two weeks ago, saying it was rooting out regrouping Hamas fighters. It’s released names of a dozen of those it says were at the scene when it attacked in what it described as a “precise” strike.

UN officials say there are tens of thousands of Palestinians who are stuck in Jabalia in increasingly desperate conditions; with food running out.

In the last hour, the Israeli military says it has conducted a "precise strike" on a compound in Jabalia, northern Gaza, that it says was previously the Abu Hassan School.

Multiple sources, including the UN, are reporting that there have been multiple casualties in the strike.

The IDF says "dozens of terrorists" were in the compound at the time, and that they were operating a command and control centre used "to plan and execute terrorist attacks" against Israel.

We'll bring you more as soon as we get it.

Returning to events unfolding in Lebanon, the Israeli military has reportedly struck a village near the coastal city of Tyre in the south of the country.

This comes after the Israeli military warned residents in and near a building in al-Hawsh, just south of Tyre, to evacuate.

The IDF has issued a total of seven evacuation warnings to people inside or near buildings in southern and eastern Lebanon today so far, saying it is targeting Hezbollah facilities in these areas.

Image source, Reuters

On Sunday

The US sent a letter to the Israeli government giving it 30 days to boost humanitarian access to Gaza, or risk having some military assistance cut off.

It accused Israel of halting commercial imports to Gaza, denying or impeding nearly 90% of humanitarian movements between the north and south in September, placing excessive restrictions on dual-use goods, and bringing in new customs requirements for humanitarian staff.

Israel insists that aid lorries are getting through and says shortages are being caused by Hamas hijacking supplies and selling it on for inflated prices.

On Monday

The first aid in two weeks entered Gaza. The UN confirmed that almost 30 lorry loads entered the north on Monday and another 12 lorry loads the following day.

But the UN's acting humanitarian chief Joyce Msuya described it as a "trickle" and said that “all essential supplies for survival are running out” in the territory.

On Wednesday

The US ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the Security Council the US was watching to ensure Israel’s actions in Gaza do not amount to a “policy of starvation”.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu previously dismissed accusations that Israel was starving Gazans as “an absurdity”.

The Israeli military says it has “struck and eliminated” a Hezbollah battalion commander, Hussein Muhammad Awada, in southern Lebanon.

The Israel Defense Forces also say they have “eliminated more than 45 terrorists".

Operations are continuing in Gaza, they say, with troops on the ground throughout the region.

Image source, Reuters

The EU's foreign policy chief has appeared to criticise the one-month timeframe the US has given Israel to improve aid access in Gaza, saying "too many people" will die in the region in that time.

As we've been reporting, the US sent a letter on Sunday telling Israel it had 30 days to boost aid access in Gaza, or it would risk losing some US military assistance.

Speaking to reporters earlier ahead of an EU leaders' summit in Brussels, Josep Borrell said: "The US has been saying to Israel that they have to improve humanitarian support to Gaza, but they gave one month delay."

"One month delay at the current pace of people being killed. It's too many people," he added.

Jeremy Bowen
International editor

The first aid in two weeks has gone into northern Gaza following a letter from the US that gave Israel 30 days to boost humanitarian access, or risk having some military assistance cut off.

The letter is the Biden administration’s most detailed public criticism yet of the way Israel has blocked humanitarian aid to Gaza. It was signed by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin and was supposed to be private, until it was leaked to Israeli journalists., external

It is a blueprint for an entirely different approach by Israel to the aid operation in Gaza - expediting it, rather than imposing restrictions. The letter is a line-by-line examination of Israel’s obstruction of aid deliveries – and the way its forcible relocation of civilians has exposed 1.7 million Palestinians to serious risk of disease.

It even challenges Israel’s long-standing attack on Unrwa, the UN agency that looks after Palestinian refugees.

The US is “very concerned” about proposed new laws that would “remove certain privileges and immunities”. An Israeli government minister wants to confiscate Unrwa's headquarters in occupied East Jerusalem to use the land for a Jewish settlement.

The US says it acknowledges Israeli concerns about Unrwa, but that restrictions on it would “devastate” the humanitarian effort in Gaza and the education and welfare of tens of thousands of Palestinians in East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank.

Continue reading here.

Yolande Knell
Middle East correspondent, in Jerusalem

Image source, Reuters

Senior US officials have reiterated their demand for Israel to increase the amount of aid entering the Gaza Strip, following on from a letter warning that American weapons funding could be affected if there were not improvements.

Over the past three days, aid has been able to reach northern Gaza after a two week stretch in which the UN says none was delivered there.

The US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin was a co-signatory of the sharply-worded letter calling on Israel to make specific steps to address the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza.

The Pentagon - like the State Department - has acknowledged improvements in aid deliveries this week - but is continuing to reinforce the message.

Aid was again discussed in an overnight call between Austin and the Israeli defence minister.

Earlier, the US ambassador to the UN told the Security Council that Washington was watching to make sure that Israel’s actions on the ground did not amount to what she called “a policy of starvation.”

Israel denies there’s been a plan to block food entering northern Gaza where it began a new ground offensive two weeks ago against what it says are regrouping Hamas fighters.

Jabalia, in the north, remains encircled by Israeli troops with residents saying they’ve run out of food.

In our last post, we shared details of a fresh Israeli evacuation order for two villages in eastern Lebanon.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency is now reporting a strike in one of the villages, Tamnin al-Fawqa, about an hour after the warning telling residents to evacuate from a building was posted

We'll bring you more on this when we have it.

The Israeli military has issued an evacuation warning to residents in two villages in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa region.

One warning, posted on X by the IDF's Arabic language spokesman, Avichay Adraee, tells people to move at least 500m away from a building in the village of Sareen al-Tahta.

Adraee says people in the area are located near "Hezbollah facilities" that the IDF will "operate" against in the near future.

The second warning, also issued in the past hour, applies to Tamnin al-Fawqa, in which similar orders are repeated.

Warnings like these, which Israel issues regularly, usually precede Israeli airstrikes. Today's comes after reports of heavy strikes on Lebanon's eastern borders overnight.

Image source, Reuters

The commander-in-chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC), Maj-Gen Hossein Salami, says it will strike Israel "painfully" if it attacks Iranian targets.

"If you make a mistake and attack our targets, whether in the region or in Iran, we will strike you again painfully," Salami says at the funeral of an IRGC general killed in an Israeli strike in Lebanon last month, which also killed Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.

His comments come after Israel earlier this week said it will listen to the US, but any decision on how it responds to Iran's attack earlier this month will be based on its "national security needs".

Iran launched almost 200 ballistic missiles towards Israel on 1 October. Most of the projectiles were intercepted and, at the time, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran had made a "big mistake" and would "pay for it".

Syrian state-run media has reported an overnight Israeli strike on the coastal city of Latakia. It says the strike injured two civilians and caused "material damage" to properties in near the city's south-eastern entrance.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the Israeli raid targeted a weapons depot in the city.

The Israeli military has not yet commented on the strikes, which come one week after Syrian media reported Israeli attacks on a car factory and military position in the central Homs and Hama regions.

The US has launched what it calls "precision strikes" on five weapons storage facilities in parts of Yemen controlled by the Iranian-backed Houthi group, with no reported civilian causalities.

In a statement overnight, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin says US forces targeted several "underground facilities" housing weapons used by the Houthis to target "civilian and military vessels" in the region.

Since last November, the Houthis have launched attacks on around 100 ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, sinking two vessels, which the group says are retaliation for Israel's military campaign in Gaza.

Overnight, Houthi-run Al Masirah TV reported that the capital city of Sanaa and the city of Saada had been targeted by the strikes.

• Who are the Houthis and why are they attacking Red Sea ships?

Image source, EUNAVFOR ASPIDES / REUTERS

Hugo Bachega
Middle East correspondent, in Beirut

Image source, Reuters

Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati has issued a strong statement after an Israeli attack on a government building in Nabatieh yesterday, saying Israel had "deliberately targeted" a meeting by local authorities, while criticising the international community for its "silence" about Israel’s attacks on his country.

The attack in Nabatieh, one of the largest cities in the south of the country, killed 16 people, including the city’s mayor, Ahmed Kahil. According to Mikati, the airstrike happened as they were discussing the city’s "service and relief situation".

It was the first time a Lebanese government building was hit - and destroyed - by the Israeli military in this conflict.

"This new aggression, coupled with all the crimes committed by the Israeli enemy against civilians, is a mark of a world that is deliberately silent about the crimes of the occupation, which encourages it to persist in its aggression and crimes," Mikati said.

"What solution can be hoped for in light of this reality?"

The main headline in Lebanon's Al Nahar newspaper is "Devastation and massacre", while Al Diar newspaper says "Israel’s scorched-earth tactics".

The French-language newspaper L’Orient-Le Jour says "Israel blows up southern Lebanon".

The Israeli military said it had targeted infrastructure used by Hezbollah in Nabatieh and surrounding areas, describing the sites hit as "command centres" and “weapons storage facilities".

It accuses Hezbollah of embedding its infrastructure in civilian areas. But the military has not commented specifically about the attack on the municipal building, and why a functioning government facility was considered a legitimate target.

Dozens of civilians have been killed as Israel carries out widespread airstrikes across Lebanon. They include emergency responders, medical teams, and displaced residents. In several occasions, the Israeli military has not explained what or who was targeting.