Regional
Israeli airstrikes kill at least 24 in Gaza City, health officials say
Gaza health officials said at least 45 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli military strikes across the densely populated coastal enclave on Tuesday.
Israeli forces killed at least 24 Palestinians in three separate airstrikes on Gaza City early on Tuesday and the dead included a sister of Ismail Haniyeh, the chief of militant Islamist group Hamas, Gaza health officials and medics said.
Israeli tanks also pressed deeper overnight into western areas of Rafah in the enclave's south, blowing up homes, residents said.
Two of the Israeli airstrikes hit two schools in Gaza City, killing at least 14 people, medics said. Another strike on a house in the Shati (Beach) camp, one of the Gaza Strip's eight historic refugee camps, killed 10 others.
The house in Shati belonged to the extended family of Hamas political chief Haniyeh, who is based in Qatar. One of his sisters was killed along with other relatives, family members and medics said.
Haniyeh, who leads Hamas diplomacy and is the public face of the group that has run Gaza since 2007, has lost many relatives in Israeli airstrikes since Oct. 7, including three sons.
Responding to the latest Israeli attack that killed his sister, Haniyeh reaffirmed the group's demands for reaching a ceasefire agreement with Israel and said killing relatives would not influence Hamas actions.
"We still maintain that any agreement that does not guarantee a ceasefire and an end to the aggression is not an agreement. Our position on this will not change at any stage," Haniyeh said in a statement.
Hassan Kaskin, a neighbour, said the Haniyeh family house was hit without advance warning before dawn on Tuesday. Footage obtained by Reuters showed the multi-floor building reduced to rubble.
"They were 10 individuals, three of them were scattered outside the house and seven under the rubble - with no prior warning, with people around them, and there are injuries among the neighbours," Kaskin told Reuters.
Israel's military said its forces had targeted militants overnight in Gaza City who had been involved in the planning of attacks on Israel. The militants, it said, included some who had seized hostages as they took part in the Hamas-led cross-border attack on Israel on Oct. 7 last year.
The Israeli Air Force bombed two structures "used by Hamas terrorists in Shati and Daraj Tuffah in the northern Gaza Strip. The terrorists operated inside school compounds that were used by Hamas as a shield for its terrorist activities", the military said in a statement.
Hamas denies using civilian facilities such as schools and hospitals for military purposes.
Separately, the armed wings of Hamas and the allied Islamic Jihad said in a joint statement their fighters had fired mortar bombs overnight against Israeli forces in the Yibna neighbourhood of eastern Rafah.
In the city of Khan Younis to Rafah's north, medics said Israeli tank shelling killed seven Palestinians and wounded several other people at a tent camp in a western district.
Gaza health officials said at least 45 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli military strikes across the densely populated coastal enclave on Tuesday.
The United Nations Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) said chaos was taking hold in Gaza as smuggling bands form, adding to the difficulties of delivering sorely needed aid to the territory.
A high risk of famine also persists across the Gaza Strip as the conflict rages on unabated and humanitarian access remains restricted, a global hunger monitor said on Tuesday.
HEZBOLLAH CONFLICT
Over eight months into the war, international mediation backed by the U.S. has failed to yield a ceasefire agreement. Hamas says any deal must bring an end to the war and full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, while Israel says it will accept only temporary pauses in fighting until Hamas is eradicated.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday the phase of intense fighting against Hamas would end "very soon", freeing up more forces for deployment on Israel's northern border with Lebanon, where clashes with Iran-backed Hezbollah have escalated.
Israel's national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said on Tuesday it would spend the coming weeks trying to resolve the conflict with Hezbollah and would prefer a diplomatic solution there. Shelling has led to the evacuation of tens of thousands of people on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border.
Israel's ground and air campaign in Gaza was triggered when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing around 1,200 people and seizing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
The Israeli offensive in retaliation has so far killed 37,658 people, the Gaza health ministry said on Tuesday, and has left the tiny, heavily built-up Gaza Strip in ruins.
Since early May, ground fighting has focused on Rafah, abutting Egypt on Gaza's southern edge, where around half of the enclave's 2.3 million people had been sheltering after fleeing other areas. Most have since had to flee again.
Gaza's health ministry said on Tuesday that hospitals and medical centres in the enclave were experiencing a severe shortage of medicines and medical supplies due to the continued Israeli offensive, Israel's control and closure of all crossings and its targeting of the health sector in Gaza.
In particularly short supply are medications needed for emergency, anaesthesia, intensive care and operations, the ministry said in a statement. – Reuters
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Regional
Pakistan capital in lockdown ahead of regional leaders’ meeting
The 23rd meeting of the SCO, which comprises nine full members including China, India, Iran and Russia, is scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday in Islamabad.
Pakistan's capital was under strict security lockdown as Chinese Premier Li Qiang landed in the city on Monday ahead of a heads-of-government gathering of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation this week, Reuters reported.
Li's visit is the first by a Chinese premier to Pakistan in 11 years, Pakistan's Prime Minister's Office said. Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif received Li at the airport.
The government has announced a three-day public holiday in Islamabad, with schools and businesses shut and large contingents of police and paramilitary forces deployed.
Pakistan army troops will be responsible for the security of the capital's Red Zone, the location of the parliament and a diplomatic enclave and where most of the meetings will take place, according to the interior ministry.
The threat alert has been high in the South Asian nation ahead of the SCO summit, especially after the killing of two Chinese engineers and shooting to death of 21 miners, read the report.
Tensions have mounted after jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan called for a protest on Oct. 15 to press for his release and agitate against the coalition government, following violent clashes between his party loyalists and security forces.
Islamabad has sought to curb all movement of Chinese nationals in the city, citing fears they could be targets for violence from separatist militants.
The 23rd meeting of the SCO, which comprises nine full members including China, India, Iran and Russia, is scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday in Islamabad.
As well as attending the SCO summit, Prime Minister Li is also undertaking a four-day bilateral visit to Pakistan from Monday to Thursday, accompanied by senior officials, Pakistan's foreign office said.
Li and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will lead their respective delegations to discuss economic and trade ties and cooperation under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a $65 billion investment in the South Asian country under Chinese President Xi Jinping's Belt and Road Initiative.
Li will also inaugurate the CPEC funded Gwadar International Airport in restive southwestern Balochistan province, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, Pakistan's prime minister's office said.
The SCO participants will be represented by the prime ministers of China, Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan as well as the first vice president of Iran and external affairs minister of India, the foreign office said.
Regional
US officials believe Israel will target military and energy sites in Iran
There is no indication that Israel will target nuclear facilities or carry out assassinations, NBC reported
US officials believe Israel has narrowed down targets in its potential response to Iran's attack this month to military and energy infrastructure, NBC reported on Saturday.
The Middle East remains on high alert for further escalation in a year of war as Israel battles Iran-backed groups Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, Reuters reported.
Israel has repeatedly said it will respond to Iran's October 1 missile barrage, which was launched in retaliation for Israel's military operations in Gaza and Lebanon and the killings of a string of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders.
There is no indication that Israel will target nuclear facilities or carry out assassinations, the NBC report said, citing unnamed US officials and adding that Israel has not made final decisions about how and when to act.
US and Israeli officials said a response could come during the current Yom Kippur holiday, according to the report.
The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah militants erupted a year ago when Hezbollah began launching rockets at northern Israel at the start of the Gaza war, and has sharply escalated in recent weeks.
Reuters reported that Hezbollah said on Sunday it was fighting Israeli forces trying to infiltrate Ramya village in southern Lebanon.
Israel's military said it continues to operate in southern Lebanon to dismantle "terrorist infrastructure".
"Over the past day, the IAF (air force) has struck approximately 200 Hezbollah targets deep in Lebanon and southern Lebanon, including terrorist cells, launchers, anti-tank missile posts, and terrorist infrastructure sites," it said.
Israel also said five launches that crossed from Lebanon were intercepted by the air force.
Regional
US expands sanctions to Iran’s ‘ghost fleet’ of oil tankers
The U.S. Treasury can now “impose sanctions on any person determined to operate in the petroleum and petrochemical sectors of the Iranian economy,” it said in a statement.
The United States expanded sanctions against Iran's petroleum and petrochemical sectors on Friday in response to an Iranian missile attack on Israel, the administration of President Joe Biden said.
The U.S. move adds petroleum and petrochemicals to an executive order that targets key sectors of Iran's economy with the aim of denying the government funds to support its nuclear and missile programs, Reuters reported.
"The new designations today also include measures against the 'Ghost Fleet' that carries Iran’s illicit oil to buyers around the world," Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, said in a statement. "These measures will help further deny Iran financial resources used to support its missile programs and provide support for terrorist groups that threaten the United States, its allies, and partners."
Israel is vowing to respond to Iran's Oct. 1 missile attack, launched in retaliation for Israeli strikes in Lebanon and Gaza and the killing of a Hamas leader in Iran.
The U.S. Treasury can now "impose sanctions on any person determined to operate in the petroleum and petrochemical sectors of the Iranian economy," it said in a statement.
Biden has said Israel should seek alternatives to attacking Iran's oil fields. Gulf states are lobbying Washington to stop Israel from attacking oil sites because they are concerned their own facilities could come under fire from Tehran's proxies if the conflict escalates, three Gulf sources told Reuters.
The Treasury Department also said it was designating 16 entities and identifying 17 vessels as blocked property, citing their involvement in shipments of petroleum and petrochemical products in support of the National Iranian Oil Company.
Concurrently, the State Department took steps to disrupt the money flow into Iran's weapons programs and support for "terrorist proxies and partners."
It imposed sanctions on six entities involved in Tehran's petroleum trade and identified six ships as blocked property.
Iran's oil exports have risen under Biden's tenure as Iran succeeds in evading sanctions and as China has become Iran's major oil buyer.
The Eurasia Group risk consultancy said on Friday the U.S. could cut Iran's oil exports through tighter enforcement of previously imposed sanctions, for instance through satellite imaging for stricter monitoring of tankers that have turned off transponders.
The U.S. could also pressure countries to support enforcement efforts such as Malaysia, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates, it said. But that approach "would require strong diplomatic pressure on two partners, Malaysia and UAE, which are both reluctant to support efforts favoring Israel," it said. Tougher enforcement of sanctions would likely require targeting Chinese firms shipping Iranian crude, it said, as China buys nearly 90% of Iran's crude-oil exports.
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