Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati is calling for a U.N. resolution demanding an “immediate” ceasefire as Israel intensifies its assault on Lebanon. Israeli airstrikes on Thursday killed at least 22 people and injured more than 100 others in a crowded residential area of Beirut. Survivors recounted the terror of Israel’s overnight strikes as they surveyed the damage to their homes.

Ala’a Baydoun: “I was praying. We heard the first strike, and I thought it was in my house. The second one was much more powerful than the first one. People went down barefoot. They were screaming. We didn’t know anything at the start. I went to see where the strike was, and I saw that in my house the glass and windows had shattered. We came and saw the scene. It was a horrifying scene. It was something unbelievable.”

Meanwhile, U.N. chief António Guterres condemned multiple targeted shootings of U.N. peacekeepers by Israel in southern Lebanon. At least two peacekeepers have been injured. Such attacks violate international law. A U.N. official warned the safety of more than 10,400 peacekeepers in Lebanon was “increasingly in jeopardy” from Israel’s attacks. This is Andrea Tenenti, spokesperson for the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon.

Andrea Tenenti: “We are there because the Security Council has asked us to be there. So we are staying, until the situation becomes impossible for us to operate. … This is not a conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. This is becoming a regional conflict, something that we have been saying for a very long time. And if it’s a regional conflict, everybody will be involved. So it’s a duty for everyone to stop it, because we’ve already seen just in the last few weeks how many people have been killed here — more than the conflict in 2006 in just a few weeks.”

This comes amid fresh warnings of a deteriorating health crisis in Lebanon due to massive displacement and the Israeli targeting of health facilities and workers. After headlines, we’ll speak with a U.S. doctor in Beirut who has been volunteering in Gaza and Lebanon.

In Gaza, medical authorities report Israeli attacks killed at least 63 Palestinians Thursday as Israel continues its siege on the northern strip. The situation at three hospitals in northern Gaza remains critical as medical workers struggle to respond to forced expulsions ordered by Israel. Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, filmed this video from inside the intensive care unit Thursday.

Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya: “We are here under threat, because our hospital will go out of service due to the continuous threats to evacuate the hospital and due to the lack of entry of fuel to the Kamal Adwan Hospital. From here, from the middle of the intensive care unit, I call on all the international organizations and humanitarian organizations and the international community to stop the occupiers from implementing their decision to evacuate the Kamal Adwan Hospital and ceasing its services. Stopping the Kamal Adwan Hospital from providing services means the ending of these children’s lives.”

A United Nations commission has concluded for the second time this year that Israel is “committing war crimes and the crime against humanity of extermination with relentless and deliberate attacks on medical personnel and facilities.”

In related news, the Belgium-based Hind Rajab Foundation this week filed what it called an “unprecedented and historic complaint” with the International Criminal Court against 1,000 Israeli soldiers for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Gaza.

Al Jazeera says its camera operator Fadi al-Wahidi remains in critical condition after he was shot in the neck by an Israeli sniper while reporting from Jabaliya. It’s been a bloody week for media workers in Gaza. Journalist Omar Al-Balaawi, who was also a celebrated teacher to Gaza’s children, was shot and killed by Israeli forces, also in Jabaliya, on Wednesday. Over the past year, Al-Balaawi kept his beloved English classes going amid displacement, the destruction of his home and the death of his family members.

In Israel, a court has reportedly ordered the release of U.S. journalist Jeremy Loffredo after he was detained earlier this week and held on alleged “suspicion of serious security offenses” after he reported on Iran’s ballistic missile attacks on military and intelligence sites in Israel. Four other journalists were also detained with Loffredo but released soon after. Loffredo is reportedly being barred from leaving Israel for now.

A Ukrainian journalist who went missing more than a year ago while reporting from eastern Ukraine has died in Russian custody. Victoria Roshchyna last made contact with her editors in August of 2023 while reporting from the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia region. Her father says he received notice she died in a Russian prison on September 19 and that her body would be returned to Ukraine; no other details of her death were provided. The Committee to Protect Journalists reports at least 16 media workers have been killed covering the war in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in 2022.

In Florida, more than 2.5 million customers remained without power this morning as the damage from Hurricane Milton became clearer: at least 16 people killed, widespread wind and water damage to homes and businesses, and “severe” levels of erosion that will permanently alter Florida’s coastline. The Fitch Ratings group warns Milton could cause Florida property owners up to $50 billion in insured losses. This is Calvin Lee Hamilton, a resident of St. Lucie County on Florida’s Atlantic coast, where tornadoes spawned by Milton tore through a retirement community, killing six people.

Calvin Lee Hamilton: “I tried to get prepared for the hurricane. Then the tornado hit. I’m like, the tornado hit before the hurricane. This is a double disaster.”

Colombian election officials have requested an investigation into the 2022 campaign of leftist President Gustavo Petro over alleged violations of financing limits. Officials are also accusing Petro of receiving funds from “prohibited sources of financing.” President Petro has denied the accusations and warned of a plot to remove him from power through the courts.

In Haiti, heavily armed gunmen invaded the coastal town of Arcahaie on Thursday, burning homes and firing on residents. The attack came just one week after gang members massacred at least 115 people in the nearby town of Pont-Sondé. Over 700,000 people have been displaced by gang violence in Haiti, triggering the largest food crisis in the Western Hemisphere with over 5 million Haitians — or nearly half the population — going hungry. Earlier today, Kenya’s President William Ruto met with Haitian Prime Minister Garry Conille in Nairobi; after the talks, Ruto said he would send another 600 police officers to Haiti to bolster a Kenyan-led, U.N.-authorized mission to fight Haitian gangs.

A new report from the United Nations children’s agency finds one out of every eight girls alive today — some 370 million people — will experience rape or sexual assault before they turn 18. That shocking figure is even worse for girls living in so-called fragile settings like refugee camps or conflict zones, where one in four face sexual violence. UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell called the findings a “stain on our moral conscience” and warned rape and gender-based violence are often used as weapons of war.

The Justice department says TD Bank will pay more than $3 billion in fines after pleading guilty to federal money laundering charges. Two TD Bank employees have also been criminally charged. Federal prosecutors say TD Bank became the go-to institution for narcotraffickers and human smugglers, including one case where workers received tens of thousands of dollars in gift cards as bribes from a man who laundered more than $470 million in illicit funds through TD Bank branches in the U.S.

In Texas, two people were killed and nearly three dozen treated for chemical exposure Thursday following a leak of toxic hydrogen sulfide gas at a Houston-area oil refinery operated by Pemex, the Mexican state-owned petroleum company. Authorities issued a shelter-in-place order for Deer Park and neighboring Pasadena for several hours, telling residents to seal doors and windows and turn off air conditioners. Thursday’s disaster comes less than a month after hundreds of Deer Park families were forced to evacuate their homes after a pipeline explosion sent a massive column of fire and toxic smoke into the sky.

In Ithaca, New York, a Ph.D. student is no longer at risk of deportation for his Gaza solidarity activism after Cornell allowed him to reenroll, thereby extending his visa. Cornell had suspended Momodou Taal for taking part in a campus protest calling on Cornell to divest from Israel, but a public pressure campaign demanded the Ivy League school end their political campaign against Taal. In a statement, Momodou Taal said, “I have no regrets. There will never come a time where I say to myself that I went too hard for Gaza. We still haven’t done near enough to stop the genocide.”

Students are continuing to organize across college campuses with protests, vigils and other actions under the banner of a “Week of Rage” to mark one year of war against Gaza.

The 2024 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to the Japanese group Nihon Hidankyo, a grassroots organization of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The anti-nuclear activists, known as hibakusha, are being recognized for their “efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again.” After the prize was announced, the co-chair of Nihon Hidankyo, Toshiyuki Mimaki, spoke to reporters in Tokyo and said, “In Gaza, bleeding children are being held [by their parents]. It’s like in Japan 80 years ago.” We’ll have more on this year’s Nobel Peace Prize later in the broadcast.