Israel defense minister: Israel"s next strike against Iran will be "lethal, precise and surprising" Israel’s defense minister said the next strike against Iran will be “lethal, precise and surprising”. “Our attack will be lethal, precise and above all surprising. They will not understand what happened and how it happened,” Gallant said during a speech to Israeli troops. Last week, Iran launched several dozen missiles towards Israel in a significant escalation between the two countries. Iran has already vowed to respond to any further strike by Israel against it. Biden urges Netanyahu to "minimize harm to civilians" in Lebanon The White House has released a readout of Joe Biden’s call with Benjamin Netanyahu in which the US president emphasized “the need to minimize harm to civilians, in particular in the densely populated areas of Beirut”. In a statement, the White House said: The president affirmed his ironclad commitment to Israel’s security. He condemned unequivocally Iran’s ballistic missile attack against Israel on October 1st. On Lebanon, the president emphasized the need for a diplomatic arrangement to safely return both Lebanese and Israeli civilians to their homes on both sides of the Blue Line. The president affirmed Israel’s right to protect its citizens from Hezbollah, which has fired thousands of missiles and rockets into Israel over the past year alone, while emphasizing the need to minimize harm to civilians, in particular in the densely populated areas of Beirut. On Gaza, the leaders discussed the urgent need to renew diplomacy to release the hostages held by Hamas. The president also discussed the humanitarian situation in Gaza and the imperative to restore access to the north, including by reinvigorating the corridor from Jordan immediately. In the last few weeks, Israel’s deadly bombardment across Lebanon has killed at least 1,200 civilians while forcibly displacing 1.2 million residents. Across the country, thousands of Syrian refugees, in addition to Lebanese residents, have fled into Syria in recent days in attempts to escape Israeli airstrikes. The Biden administration has previously also asked Israel to minimize civilian casualties in Gaza where Israeli forces have killed more than 43,000 Palestinians while displacing nearly 2 million survivors. The Biden administration has also spent a record $17.9bn in military aid to Israel since last October. Five members of Lebanon"s civil defence killed in Israeli airstrike William Christou Five members of Lebanon’s civil defence were killed in an Israeli airstrike on their base in the town of Dardghaya, south Lebanon, on Wednesday night. Pictures of the strike show burnt cars with civil defence written on the side of it, crumpled from the force of the blast. Efforts to locate survivors and bodies are still ongoing. In a statement, the director general of Lebanon’s Civil Defence, Brig Gen Raymond Khattar said that the body would continue working, “no matter how great the sacrifices”. More than 100 paramedics, firefighters and doctors have been killed by Israeli strikes since fighting started in October – the majority of which were killed in the last two weeks. On Sunday, 10 firefighters were killed by an airstrike in the border town of Bint Jbeil. The Union of Municipalities of Bint Jbeil said on Wednesday that rescue crews were still unable to get to the site of the strike due to Israeli strikes in the area and that they were unsure if there were survivors under the rubble. Last week, head of World Health Organization Tedros Ghebreyesus called for the protection of healthcare workers in Lebanon amid the spike in killings in Lebanon. The International Federation of the Red Crescent in the Middle East and North Africa has released the following aid figures from Lebanon this month as Israel continues its strikes across the country: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris had a “productive” conversation with Benjamin Netanyahu, the White House said. In a statement reported by Agence France-Presse, the White House said: “This morning, President Biden spoke with prime minister Netanyahu of Israel. Vice president Harris also joined the call.” The call lasted about 30 minutes and was “direct”, “honest” and “productive”, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, adding: “The US and the Israeli government have had discussions since last week since after the Iran attack. Those discussions continued with the president and the prime minister.” “We’re going to continue to have those discussions with Israel on how they’re going to respond,” she continued. In a press briefing on Wednesday, the US state department spokesperson Matthew Miller said that Israel must avoid conducting military operations in Lebanon like it has in Gaza. In response to question about a video address released by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday in which Netanyahu said: “You have an opportunity to save Lebanon before it falls into the abyss of a long war that will lead to destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza,” Miller said: I’m making very clear that there should be no kind of military action in Lebanon that looks anything like Gaza and leaves a result anything like Gaza. Israel’s war on Gaza, which has largely been funded by US military aid, has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians in the past year while leaving 2 million survivors forcibly displaced amid severe food, water and aid shortages due to Israeli aid restrictions. There are numerous reports that an Al Jazeera cameraperson, Fadi al-Wahidi, has been shot and grievously wounded while covering the Israeli army attacks on the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, where displaced Palestinians have been taking shelter. There is footage on social media of him running amid the gunfire saying (in translation): “The situation is very difficult, Israeli forces have raided the shelters and forced the displaced people out.” He appears to have escaped the loudest bangs and then the next shots show him lying on the ground, reportedly having been shot in the neck by a sniper. The Guardian has not independently verified the details of this incident. Canada will provide C$15m ($11m) in humanitarian assistance to Lebanese civilians who have been affected by Israel’s ongoing strikes across the country. In a statement reported by Reuters on Wednesday, Canada’s foreign minister Mélanie Joly said: Canada is deeply alarmed by the rapid escalation of the crisis in Lebanon. We are mobilizing to ensure that Canada is there to bring much-needed assistance to the Lebanese people. According to Reuters, the new funding brings Canada’s assistance pledge for Lebanese civilians to C$25m. UNRWA chief on Gaza: "We are becoming wordless" Speaking to the BBC about Gaza’s devastation caused by Israel’s attacks in the past year, Philippe Lazzarini, chief of the main UN aid relief organization in Gaza, said: “We are becoming wordless.” Lazzarini added: We soon have exhausted all our vocabulary to try to describe what has become a wasteland … an unlivable area. The war has been the war of all the superlatives, look at the number of civilians and people who have been killed, the number of humanitarian workers, Unrwa workers … [killed], the level of destruction, the number of times people have been moved around … There is a kind of post-apocalyptic atmosphere prevailing in Gaza right now. Here are some images coming through the newswires from Gaza where Unrwa said at least 400,000 Palestinians are trapped by Israel’s latest attacks on Jabaliya refugee camp: Summary of the day so far… It is 8pm in Beirut, Tel Aviv and Gaza, 8.30pm in Tehran, and 1pm in Washington. Here are the headlines … US president Joe Biden and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a 50 minute phone call, in which they were joined by US vice-president Kamala Harris. It was anticipated that they would discuss Israeli plans to retaliate against Iran for a wave of missiles fired by Tehran on 1 October. That attack had been a response, the Iranians said, to the assassination by Israel of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah Israel’s defense minister Yoav Gallant has said the Israeli strike will be “lethal, precise and surprising” and that “they won’t understand what happened and how”. Iran has already vowed it will respond to any Israeli attack The UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (OCHA) has published a flash update about the latest situation in Lebanon which says one quarter of Lebanese territory is now under Israeli military displacement orders. It said “Lebanon’s humanitarian crisis is deteriorating at an alarming rate” as “Israeli airstrikes have not only intensified but also expanded” and are “increasingly targeted critical civilian infrastructure” The governor of Akkar, in the far north of Lebanon, has said there are obstacles to delivering aid to the people who have sought refuge there after being internally displaced by Israeli strikes Hezbollah has said its fighters have fired rockets and artillery shells “as Israeli troops tried to advance in the Mays al-Jabal area from several directions” it said, adding that “clashes are ongoing” Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has condemned Israel’s invasion of Lebanon, saying that the international community should not “remain indifferent” to it Two Israelis were killed in Kiryat Shmona in the north-east of Israel after it was reported to have been hit by a rocket barrage from Hezbollah. Israel’s military says it has destroyed the launcher used for the attack Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli attacks inside the Gaza Strip on Wednesday risen to 60, including in an incident which it reported as “15 civilians were killed today when the Israeli occupation forces bombed the tents of displaced people in Jabalia. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict The IDF has ordered the closure once again of several hospitals in northern Gaza, including the Kamal Adwan, Indonesia and al-Awda hospitals. The Al Mezan Center for Human Rights described the situation as “deja vu” on social media, adding: “We all know the horrors that follow such orders” The International Rescue Committee warned that after a year of conflict, as many as 51,000 children in Gaza could be unaccompanied or separated from their parents or caregivers A number of Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Nablus. Israeli security forces claim they eliminated “five wanted terrorists”, while the Palestinian health authorities said four people had been killed. At least 25 Palestinians have been detained by Israeli soldiers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank over the past day Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova has been highly critical of Israel, saying Benjamin Netanyahu’s government had a desire “expand the geography of armed escalation in the region” Israel defense minister: Israel"s next strike against Iran will be "lethal, precise and surprising" Israel’s defense minister said the next strike against Iran will be “lethal, precise and surprising”. “Our attack will be lethal, precise and above all surprising. They will not understand what happened and how it happened,” Gallant said during a speech to Israeli troops. Last week, Iran launched several dozen missiles towards Israel in a significant escalation between the two countries. Iran has already vowed to respond to any further strike by Israel against it. The number of people killed in the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Nablus remains unclear. Israel’s security forces claim to have killed five people, while Al Jazeera reports that medical sources have confirmed to it that four Palestinians were killed and a fifth wounded. The Times of Israel reports that “Israel Police says no Israeli forces were hurt and that the operation was carried out in coordination with the IDF, Shin Bet and border police. The five armed men presented an immediate threat to Israeli forces during an attempt to arrest them, the police statement says.” Barak Ravid at Axios has this to say about the Biden-Netanyahu-Harris call. He writes: The call was the first between Biden and Netanyahu since Aug. 21, and comes as Israel considers a major attack against Iran that could significantly escalate its regional war. Netanyahu hunkered down for hours on Tuesday night with senior ministers and the heads of Israel’s military and intelligence services to discuss the scope and timing of Israel’s attacks, according to two Israeli officials. Israeli officials say the retaliation is expected to be significant, and will likely include a combination of airstrikes on military targets in Iran and clandestine attacks like the one the killed Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. On Thursday, Netanyahu will convene the security cabinet. Tehran said its [1 October missile attack] response would end there unless Israel attacked Iran. Israel, for its part, has vowed retaliation. Both US and Israeli officials believe the tit-for-tat will continue. Earlier we reported that the Palestinian health authority said that four Palestinians had been killed by Israeli security forces in the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Nablus. In the last few moments a joint statement from the IDF, Israel Police and the Shin Bet has claimed that in an operation Nablus it killed “five wanted terrorists”, including the head of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade in the Balata refugee camp. “The wanted individuals were involved in terrorist activities against Israeli civilians and forces and posed a threat to the forces,” the statement said.