Lebanese Red Cross vehicles parked at a site apparently damaged by an Israeli air strike in the Christian-majority region of Aitou in north Lebanon. /Omar Ibrahim/Reuters
TOP HEADLINES
* U.S. gives Israel 30 day deadline to boost aid to Gaza. READ MORE BELOW
* 21 killed by Israeli strikes on north Lebanese Christian Maronite town. READ MORE BELOW
* U.S. advanced anti-missile systems arrive in Israel. READ MORE BELOW
* China urges Iran and Israel to de-escalate tensions. READ MORE BELOW
* 50 Palestinians die in the latest Israeli Gaza strikes. READ MORE BELOW
* Netanyahu : Israel 'will make our (own) final decisions'. READ MORE BELOW
* Hezbollah deputy chief warns 'we have the right to attack anywhere in Israel.'
* Gunman opens fire killing a policeman and injuring four in Tel Aviv.
* Australia warns citizens to avoid travel to Israel, citing 'serious concerns' over security.
Lebanese army soldiers stand guard near a site of the Israeli air strike in Aitou. /Omar Ibrahim/Reuters
U.S. threatens policy change
Washington has warned Israel that failure to increase aid deliveries to Gaza within 30 days may have implications for American policy in the region.
The U.S. is the major military supplier to Israel and has also shielded it from censure in the UN Security Council, as well as promising protection in the event of an attack on the country.
However, frustration has been building after aid deliveries to the north of Gaza were squeezed in recent days.
In a letter jointly written by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on Sunday, Israeli ministers are warned that Joe Biden's administration is obliged to monitor aid reaching civilians. That dropped to the lowest level so far this year in September.
The letter makes demands around the number of trucks permitted into Gaza and the border crossings which are open to humanitarian organizations.
Israel has not yet commented.
China warns 'vicious cycle' developing
At least 21 people have been killed and eight injured in an Israeli airstrike on a Christian majority town in northern Lebanon. The strike hit a house in the town of Aitou that authorities say was sheltering people who had fled the cross border bombardment further south. Buildings have been flattened, with emergency services searching the rubble. It's the first time a mostly Christian area has been targeted by Israel in a year of hostilities and has raised concerns of the conflict widening across the region.
U.S. advanced anti-missile systems have begun arriving in Israel and should be "fully operational in the near future," according to a Pentagon statement. Additional U.S. military personnel and battery equipment are due to arrive in the coming days. Although the statement added that "for operational security reasons we will not discuss timelines."
The Middle East remains on high alert for Israeli retaliation against Iran after its missile attacks on October 1. The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said his country "will listen to the opinions of the United States, but .. will make our final decisions based on our national interests." Washington has urged Israel to avoid targeting Iranian nuclear and energy facilities.
China's top diplomat has urged Iran and Israel to step back from a further escalation in the conflict. Wang Yi has held phone calls with foreign ministers of both countries, urging an immediate and permanent cease-fire in Gaza and the release of all remaining Israeli hostages. Warning of a "vicious cycle of violence" developing, Wang said "renewed conflict and turmoil in the region serves the interests of no one."
Palestinian child is vaccinated against polio during the second round of a vaccination campaign in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. /Ramadan Abed/Reuters/File
Qatar: 'International inaction' over crisis
At least 50 Palestinians have been killed in the latest wave of Israeli attacks across Gaza. Officials said at least 11 people were killed near the Al-Falouja refugee camp in Jabalia, while 10 others were killed in Bani Suhaila in eastern Khan Younis in the south, when an Israeli missile struck a house. The United Nations human rights office says the Israeli military appeared to be "cutting off North Gaza completely from the rest of the Gaza Strip," with residents in the region facing "unimaginable fear, loss of loved ones, confusion, and exhaustion.”
Qatar's emir accused Israel on Tuesday of exploiting "international inaction" over the crisis in the Middle East to expand 'aggression' to the West Bank and Lebanon. Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani said Israel is "implementing pre-planned (settlement) schemes in Gaza and Lebanon." He added: "destruction will not work with the steadfast Palestinian people who are clinging to their legitimate rights.”
The second phase of Gaza polio vaccination campaign has begun. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society along with the World Health Organisation, UNICEF and UNRWA are inoculating children under the age of ten in the central Gaza Strip. UNRWA has appealed for humanitarian pauses in the fighting to assist the rollout, saying: "We cannot vaccinate children under a sky full of bombs."
A displaced woman holds her child at a gravel lot, where families have taken temporary shelter, amid the ongoing hostilities, in Beirut, Lebanon, /Louisa Gouliamaki/Reuters
UNICEF: 400,000 Lebanese children displaced
More than a quarter of Lebanese territory is now subject to Israeli evacuation orders according to a new report by the United Nations refugee agency (UNRWA). The children's charity UNICEF claims the number includes around 400,000 children, who have lost their homes in the past three weeks, since the offensive began.
UNRWA says Lebanese residents in around twenty border villages have evacuated their homes, "fleeing with almost nothing." Israel says it is acting to secure the return of tens of thousands of its own citizens who have fled their homes in northern border regions due to Hezbollah attacks.
Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has demanded security guarantees for all her country's troops deployed in Lebanon. Confirming that she plans to visit Beirut soon, Meloni described the actions of Israeli forces towards international peacekeepers in the country as "completely unjustified and a clear violation of UN resolution 1701." Italy has around a thousand troops stationed with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected accusations that Israeli troops have deliberately harmed Unifil peacekeepers as "completely false". Speaking after several peacekeepers were wounded by Israeli fire in southern Lebanon on Monday, Netanyahu repeated his calls for UN forces to withdraw from combat zones. The UN has rejected the appeal, saying it is essential that blue helmet forces stay in place, to assist the civilian population.
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