“The nightmare in Gaza is intensifying.” Those are the words of a top U.N. official as Israel escalates its attacks amid a devastating siege on northern Gaza. Health officials in Gaza say at least 87 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike on Beit Lahia on Saturday. Survivors said the dead include many women and children.

Ahmed Al Hajeen: “We were asleep around 12 a.m. when it suddenly felt like an earthquake hit the area. Debris was falling on us. We rushed outside after hearing screams of women and children and found that our neighbors had been targeted by massive bombs. Tons of explosives had fallen on a residential neighborhood full of civilians and displaced families. All those who were martyred here are children, women and displaced people who fled from other areas due to heavy strikes, seeking shelter in what they believed to be a safer place.”

Al Jazeera reports another 33 Palestinians have been killed so far today, including 18 in the Jabaliya refugee camp. Israel is also targeting the last three hospitals in northern Gaza: the Indonesian, Al-Awda and Kamal Adwan hospitals. Doctors Without Borders reports more than 350 patients are believed to be trapped inside the hospitals.

Meanwhile, Israel has blocked six medical NGOs from entering Gaza. The groups include Glia and the Palestinian American Medical Association. Israel also killed four water engineers who were traveling to make repairs to the water infrastructure near Khan Younis. According to Oxfam, the engineers were traveling in a clearly marked vehicle when they were attacked.

On Sunday, the Palestinian Authority denounced Israel’s escalating attacks, saying in a statement, “Genocide is unfolding in northern Gaza in its clearest form — in full view of the world — marked by siege, starvation, forced displacement, destruction of buildings, aerial bombardment, targeting of health centres, and mass killings.”

Earlier today, the Palestinian journalist Abubaker Abed reported Farah al-Dalou had died in a hospital. She was the sister of 19-year-old Sha’ban al-Dalou, who burned to death last week in an Israeli strike on Al-Aqsa Hospital. Click here to see our interview with Abubaker Abed on Friday.

Israel has also escalated its assault on Lebanon by attacking nearly a dozen bank branches of Al-Qard al-Hassan, a financial institution with ties to Hezbollah. Many of the banks were located in residential buildings and played a critical role in Lebanon’s financial sector.

On Sunday, the U.N. peacekeeping forces in Lebanon accused Israel of deliberately demolishing another U.N. observation tower in what UNIFIL described as a “flagrant violation of international law.”

U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein is now in Beirut for talks with Lebanese officials over a possible diplomatic deal to end Israel’s attacks. As part of any deal, Axios reports, Israel is insisting it maintain the right to fly its warplanes over Lebanon and that Israeli troops be allowed to keep conducting operations in southern Lebanon. Hochstein’s visit comes two days after a drone from Lebanon hit Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s vacation home in northern Israel. Netanyahu was not home at the time of the incident, which caused only superficial damage to his home.

In a separate attack, Palestinian fighters in Gaza on Sunday killed the commander of the Israeli military’s 401st Brigade, Colonel Ehsan Daqsa. He has been described as the highest-ranking Israeli army officer killed in Gaza over the past year.

The Biden administration has launched a probe after highly classified U.S. intelligence documents were posted online showing that Israel is taking steps to launch a retaliatory attack against Iran. One document came from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the other from the National Security Agency. The documents reference recent drills involving air-launched ballistic missiles, as well as covert drone activity. On Friday, President Biden was asked if he knew how and when Israel would attack Iran. Biden responded by saying “yes and yes.” The leaked documents also confirm Israel has nuclear weapons — a fact that has long been known but has never been acknowledged by Israel.

Donald Trump has doubled down on his threats to deploy the National Guard or military to target domestic critics if he wins. Trump was asked about his threat by Howard Kurtz on Fox News.

Howard Kurtz: “You talk about the enemy within. There’s enemies, America’s enemies” —

Donald Trump: “Yeah.”

Howard Kurtz: — “outside. 'The enemy within' is a pretty ominous phrase if you’re talking about other Americans.”

Donald Trump: “I think it’s accurate. I mean, I think it’s accurate.”

Questions continue to be raised about Trump’s mental state after he held a rally in Pennsylvania in which he called Kamala Harris a “shit vice president.” Harris responded by saying Trump’s personal attack was “demeaning the office” of the president. Trump also made crude comments about the size of the late golf legend Arnold Palmer’s genitalia. Arnold Palmer’s family also criticized Trump’s remarks. One of Palmer’s daughters has said that her father, who died in 2016, was appalled and disgusted by Trump’s first presidential campaign. Peg Palmer said, “What would my dad think of Donald Trump today? I think he’d cringe.”

In other campaign news, legal experts are questioning billionaire Trump supporter Elon Musk’s offer to give a $1 million daily prize to registered voters in swing states who sign his super PAC’s petition. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro has described Musk’s giveaway as “deeply concerning.”

In Indonesia, Prabowo Subianto was sworn in as president on Sunday, eight months after winning the presidential election. Prabowo is a former general who has been implicated in mass killings in East Timor, Papua and Aceh, as well as the kidnapping and torture of activists in Jakarta. Prabowo is a longtime U.S. protégé and the former son-in-law of former Indonesian dictator Suharto. Critics fear his rise to power could result in the return of military rule in Indonesia.

In El Salvador, a court has acquitted and freed a group of environmental activists known as the Santa Marta 5. The five activists were instrumental in pressuring El Salvador to issue the world’s first-ever ban on metal mining in 2017. They were arrested in January of last year and accused of murder in what was widely denounced as political persecution. This is one of the Santa Marta 5, Saúl Rivas, speaking after the ruling Friday.

Saúl Rivas: “We cannot be criminalizing and detaining people for something that happened in the past, when there was an investigation by the Truth Commission after the peace accords and the facts that could be considered as against humanity were cleared.”

In Mexico, the Catholic priest and Indigenous activist Marcelo Pérez was killed by two gunmen Sunday as he left Mass in the southern state of Chiapas. Pérez was a member of the Tzotzil Indigenous group, well known for his activism on behalf of indigenous peoples and farmworkers. This is a community member who had worked with Marcelo Pérez.

Chiapas community member: “We have called on the government to clarify this case and bring justice to Father Marcelo, a great priest who always advocated for the poorest and for the people in need, who always listened and helped and now has been murdered. We demand all the government agencies to cooperate and give answers to clarify all this.”

Tropical Storm Oscar has slammed into Cuba after barreling through the Bahamas as a hurricane. Authorities warned of flash flooding, mudslides and heavy winds as millions in Cuba are already grappling with dayslong power outages as its precarious electric grid continues to falter. In recent days the Cuban government attempted unsuccessfully four times to relaunch its electrical grid. Massachusetts Congressmember Jim McGovern called on the Biden administration to offer assistance to Cuba, posting on X, “U.S. policy has directly contributed to Cuba’s energy problems by sanctioning ships carrying oil to Cuba & starving the country of foreign exchange earnings.”

In Mozambique, opposition presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane has called on his supporters to take to the streets in protest after a lawyer and an official with his Podemos party were shot dead in the capital Maputo. The lawyer, Elvino Dias, was preparing to challenge the results of the October 9 election. Although final results have not been announced, early tallies show Daniel Chapo of the Frelimo party in the lead.

Preliminary results show Moldova has narrowly voted to join the European Union. Near-final results show just over 50% of voters supported joining the EU — a lower tally than expected. In a separate vote, Moldova’s President Maia Sandu failed to win a majority of votes, setting up a runoff on November 3. Sandu has pushed for Moldova, a former Soviet republic, to move further away from Moscow’s influence. She and others have accused pro-Russian groups of meddling and vote buying ahead of Sunday’s polls.

In Australia, Indigenous Senator Lidia Thorpe was removed by force from a Parliament event after she heckled King Charles following his speech to Australian lawmakers. Lidia Thorpe confronted the British royal as she walked toward him, decrying, “You are not our king!”

Sen. Lidia Thorpe: “You are not our king! You are not sovereign! You committed genocide against our people! Give us our land back! Give us what you stole from us — our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people! You destroyed our land!”

Other protests against King Charles’s visit were held today. Australia’s Indigenous peoples never ceded sovereignty after their land was colonized by Britain, and have never signed a treaty with the U.K.

In Arizona, charges have been dropped against a deaf Black man with cerebral palsy who was beaten and tasered by police officers in August after being falsely accused of stealing a cellphone. Newly released video of Tyron McAlpin’s arrest showed officers violently confronting the deaf man, who was unable to hear the officers’ commands. McAlpin was then jailed for 24 days because he could not afford bail.