Hezbollah warns Israel will suffer more ‘pain’ unless it agrees to ceasefire
The deputy leader of Hezbollah has warned Israel it will continue to suffer from attacks unless it agrees to a ceasefire.
Naim Qassem said the group had adopted a new strategy in the past week centred around making Israel feel “pain” – and said it would continue if a deal to pause fighting in Lebanon and Gaza could not be reached.
While he did not provide details, it comes after a Hezbollah drone strike killed four Israeli soldiers at a military base in the town of Binyamina on Sunday.
Qassem, who is also the group’s acting leader following Israel’s assassination of Hassan Nasrallah last month, said: “The solution is a ceasefire. We are not speaking from a position of weakness, if the Israelis do not want that, we will continue.”
He said Israel’s attacks across Lebanon gave Hezbollah the right to respond in equal measures, adding: “We will focus on targeting the Israeli military and its centres and barracks.”
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The pre-recorded televised speech on Tuesday came as funerals took place across the region for those killed in the latest string of attacks.
In Khan Younis, southern Gaza, Palestinians gathered to mourn the deaths of at least 15 people who were killed in overnight Israeli strikes, including six children and two women, according to officials from the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.
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The aftermath of an Israeli airstrike on a residential block in northern Lebanon. Pic: AP
At least 10 people from the same family were reportedly killed in the bombing of a house in the town of Beni Suhaila. A camera operator for the news agency Associated Press counted the bodies at nearby Nasser Hospital.
Another five were killed in nearby Fakhari.
In Israel, funerals were held for several recently killed soldiers, including 19-year-old Sergeant Yoav Agmon, who died in Hezbollah’s attack on Sunday.
In the Iranian capital of Tehran, a service was also held for Iranian Revolutionary Guards deputy commander Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan – who was killed in the same Beirut airstrike that killed Hassan Nasrallah.
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Meanwhile, in Lebanon, work continued on Tuesday to clear the debris following an Israeli strike on the Christian-majority town of Aitou in the north of the country on Monday.
UN human rights office spokesperson Jeremy Laurence said at least 22 people had been killed in the bombing, and that many of the victims were women and children.
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Mr Laurence added: “We understand it was a four-storey residential building that was struck. With these factors in mind, we have real concerns with respect to IHL [International Humanitarian Law], so the laws of war, and the principles of distinction proportion and proportionality.”
The UN also said on Tuesday that Israel had ordered more than 25% of Lebanon’s territory to be evacuated, and that more than 400,000 children in the country had been displaced in the past three weeks alone.
The scene following Tuesday’s shooting of a policeman near Tel Aviv. Pic: AP
In Yavne, near the Israeli city of Tel Aviv, a gunman killed a policeman and wounded four people after opening fire on cars on a motorway, according to Israeli police on Tuesday.
He was shot dead by a passer-by. There was no confirmation of the identity of the gunman, but Israeli officials described him as a “terrorist”.
The image of a person burning alive among tents in a hospital compound in Gaza has been widely shared online.
Warning: This story contains details and images readers may find distressing
The video captures the moments after an Israeli strike on al Aqsa hospital in Deir al Balah on Monday, in which medics said three people were killed and 40 others were wounded.
The person in the flames was 19-year-old Shaban al Dalu. He was just days away from his 20th birthday.
In the footage he appears to be connected to an IV line, though Sky News was unable to independently verify what the object shown is.
Here, Sky News looks at his story, as our analysis reveals the compound had been struck six times this year.
Shaban was sheltering in a tent in the compound of the hospital with his parents and five siblings. In a YouTube video he posted in February speaking from a tent he built, he said they had been displaced five times.
At the time of the strike, Shaban was recovering from an injury he had suffered 10 days ago.
Shaban al Dalu was burnt alive after an Israeli strike on a hospital compound
Shaban’s 16-year-old brother Mohammed identified him in the video of the fire following the strike.
He told Sky News: “My father was busy with my younger brother so I couldn’t help but run towards Shaban to try to help him. People stopped me from getting closer to the danger, saying the civil defence was on its way to put the fire out.
“I kept saying ‘but my brother is on fire! My brother is on fire! Please let me go.’ They wouldn’t let me. My brother was burning in front of my eyes and I couldn’t do anything to help him. It’s an indescribable feeling.”
Their mother, Alaa, was also trapped and died in the inferno.
Shaban, a computer system engineering student, was trying to leave Gaza and had launched a fundraising page online.
“I used to have big dreams, but the war has ruined them. It has taken a toll on me, making me physically and mentally sick… Time feels like it’s stopped in Gaza, and we’re stuck in a never-ending nightmare,” Shaban wrote on his GoFundMe page.
Shaban al Dalu
Shaban and his family before the invasion of Gaza
Shaban’s 14-year-old cousin Tasnim was also at the compound when the Israeli strike hit. He told Sky News: “I really don’t understand what we did to deserve this? We’re displaced families. Moving around from one place to the next. That’s all we can do. What did we do wrong?”
Satellite pictures taken on Saturday shows dozens of tents or makeshift shelters in the grounds. Many displaced Palestinians have sought refuge in hospital grounds since the start of the war.
Satellite imagery showing al Aqsa hospital compound on 12 October. Pic: Maxar
The strike has been criticised by UN acting under secretary general for humanitarian affairs, Joyce Msuya, who said “there seems to be no end to the horrors that Palestinians in Gaza are forced to endure”.
The Israeli military said it was a “precise strike on terrorists” operating in a “command and control centre” in a car park next to the hospital.
Israel accuses Hamas of using civilian facilities like hospitals for military purposes, which Hamas denies.
IDF international spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani, said a “fire ignited” in the hospital’s car park after the strike, adding that it was “most likely due to secondary explosions. The incident is under review”.
Sky analysis of previous attacks on the compound shows it has been hit six times since the end of March.
Locations of attacks in hospital compound over 12 October satellite imagery. Pic: Maxar
The first occurred on 31 March. The IDF hit a location close to the hospital’s main building, claiming it was targeting a command centre used by the Palestinian group Islamic Jihad.
As it does now, the affected area was occupied by tents.
The head of the World Health Organization said that strike caused four deaths and 14 injuries.
The compound was hit again on 22 July. The IDF has not made a public statement on this strike.
Video from the scene shows tents reportedly used by journalists on fire. At the time, Associated Press reported that one person was killed.
On 4 August, the IDF targeted another area of the compound. At least five people were reportedly killed.
In comments to the media, the IDF said the strike was targeting a militant in the area.
On 5 September, an Israeli strike hit an area in the west of the compound. While the IDF did not confirm the strike’s precise location, it claimed it had targeted a Hamas command centre in the area.
Before Monday, the most recent strike at the hospital compound occurred on 27 September, when an area covered in tents was hit.
While the IDF did not comment publicly on this strike, components of a missile are visible in footage from the scene. Markings on the debris identify it as a Hellfire missile, which are used by Israel and other US allies.
Speaking to Sky News, former US army explosive ordnance disposal technician Trevor Ball said the fragment was from a Hellfire missile.
The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.
A man has been rescued after drifting in an inflatable boat for two months – but his brother and nephew were reportedly found dead on the vessel.
He was found by a fishing boat in the Sea of Okhotsk, the coldest sea in east Asia, according to the local prosecutor’s office.
Russian media named him as 46-year-old Mikhail Pichugin and said he had set off along with his 49-year-old brother and 15-year-old nephew on a whale-watching trip to the Shantar Islands in early August.
At the time, a search was launched when they failed to return from Sakhalin Island, but to no avail.
The bodies of his brother and nephew were said to be still in the boat when a fishing boat rescued Mr Pichugin on Monday off the Kamchatka Peninsula.
He reportedly weighed only 50kg (7st 12lbs).
Mikhail Pichugin is transported ashore.
Pic: Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service/AP
Pic: Russian Emergency Ministry Press
Russian media said the trio had a small amount of food and about 20 litres of water left when their engine failed.
It’s currently unclear how the man survived and his relatives died.
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A video released by prosecutors shows Mr Pichugin in a life jacket and desperately shouting “come here!” as the fishing crew approaches.
The boat initially thought the tiny blip on their radar was a buoy or piece of junk.
“I have no strength left,” he said as he was finally rescued.
An investigation has been launched into charges of safety violations resulting in deaths.
North Korea has blown up roads and rail lines that lead up to the border with South Korea – a further sign of its rejection of any possibility of reunification.
South Korea condemned the incident and said it was deplorable that its neighbour was “repeatedly conducting such regressive behaviour”.
Around midday on Tuesday, some parts of rail lines and roads that connected the two countries were destroyed, according to South Korea’s military.
It came after rising tensions on the peninsula, with Pyongyang saying last week it would cut off the linking routes and further fortify areas on its side of the border.
In response to the blasts, South Korean military fired warning shots.
A video released by the military shows a plume of smoke rising above a road in the North following an explosion.
Destroying the roads is in line with Kim Jong Un’s push to cut off ties with South Korea and formally cement it as the North’s principal enemy.
Tensions have been rising on the Korean Peninsula. Pic: Reuters
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It comes after the North accused the South of launching drones over its capital three times this month in order to drop propaganda leaflets.
The country’s military warned of a “horrible disaster” if the drones were located again and said it has put eight-armed artillery units at the border “on standby to open fire”.
According to experts, it is highly unlikely for the North to launch full-scale, pre-emptive attacks as its military is outmatched by the combined US and South Korean forces.
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South Korea has refused to confirm whether it sent drones, but warned it would punish North Korea if the safety of its citizens is threatened.
Officials in the South claim the North has been adding anti-tank barriers, planting mines and reinforcing roads on its side of the border since earlier this year in a likely attempt to boost its frontline security and prevent soldiers and citizens from defecting.
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