Israel’s military has once again invaded the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, its third such offensive in the last year. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society says the assault has left dozens of people dead or injured, as soldiers “fire at anyone who moves.” The Palestinian Ministry of Health reports Israeli troops surrounded the Kamal Adwan Hospital and gave medical workers 24 hours to completely empty the hospital of patients and staff. Israel issued similar orders to the Indonesian and Al-Awda hospitals. The orders threaten to collapse the healthcare system for an estimated 400,000 Palestinians who remain trapped in northern Gaza.

In central Gaza, mourners gathered in Deir al-Balah earlier today to pray for 17 people killed when Israel bombed tents housing displaced people in the Nuseirat and Bureij refugee camps. This is Ragab al-Khalidy, who carried the body of his young nephew Hossam, who was killed in the attack. 

Ragab al-Khalidy: “They were sleeping safely. Why are they targeted with two rockets? What fault did they commit to be targeted with two rockets? Why should we have to get them out of the fire?”

Israel’s military continued its devastating attacks on Lebanon overnight, with massive explosions reported in Beirut’s southern suburbs and the Beqaa Valley. The bombings compounded the misery of displaced families, many of whom have been forced to find shelter in open-air encampments in Beirut’s streets.

Rabih Ayoub: “We fled from the bombing, from the rockets that were coming at us. Our homes were destroyed. Come and see the people who are displaced here. They have been humiliated.”

Amira: “Is there anyone who is not scared of war? Especially that we have a child with us. God help us, and God help the people.”

Earlier today, Hezbollah said its fighters repelled two incursions of Israeli troops attempting to invade southern Lebanon. Hezbollah’s deputy leader Naim Qassem said in a statement the group was prepared to negotiate a ceasefire with Israel. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu directly addressed the people of Lebanon in an English-language video message, boasting that Israel had killed Hashem Safieddine, who was meant to replace assassinated Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Netanyahu warned Lebanon’s nearly 6 million inhabitants they could face “destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: “Do you remember when your country was called the pearl of the Middle East? I do. So, what happened to Lebanon? A gang of tyrants and terrorists destroyed it. That’s what happened. Lebanon was once known for its tolerance, for its beauty. Today, it’s a place of chaos, a place of war.”

Syrian media is reporting seven civilians were killed and 11 others injured Tuesday in an Israeli airstrike on a residential building in a suburb west of the capital Damascus. Women and children were reportedly among the dead. Israeli officials claimed the attack was aimed at killing a Hezbollah official involved in weapons trafficking.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres says he’s written directly to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warning him against dismantling the U.N. agency tasked with providing food, healthcare and social services to Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. Two bills under consideration in Israel’s parliament would prevent UNRWA from continuing its essential work. Guterres said passage of the legislation would “be a catastrophe in what is already an unmitigated disaster.”

Secretary-General António Guterres: “Without UNRWA, the delivery of food, shelter and healthcare to most of Gaza’s population would grind to a halt. Without UNRWA, Gaza’s 660,000 children would lose the only entity that is able to restart education, risking the fate of an entire generation. And without UNRWA, many health, education and social services would also end in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.”

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has canceled plans to travel to Washington, D.C., to meet with his U.S. counterpart, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. Israeli media is reporting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blocked Gallant’s visit because he first wants to speak with President Biden about Israel’s plans to attack Iran, in response to Iran’s missile attack last week.

One of the largest evacuations in Florida’s history is underway after officials urged 5.5 million people along Florida’s Gulf Coast to seek shelter ahead of Hurricane Milton’s expected landfall near Sarasota this evening. As it approached Florida, Milton once again strengthened into a “catastrophic” Category 5 storm. It’s forecast to double in size as it crosses the Florida Peninsula, triggering deadly storm surges, winds and torrential downpours. The National Weather Service has warned Milton could be “the most powerful hurricane to hit Tampa Bay in over 100 years.” Mass evacuations across Tampa and other areas have clogged highways, with reports of widespread price gouging as more than 1,000 gas stations ran out of fuel. Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, a climate crisis denier, warned people to stock up on food and water and to prepare for power outages that could last weeks.

Meanwhile, Florida’s Department of Corrections says it evacuated at least 4,600 incarcerated people, including many prisoners who’d been tasked with cleaning up debris following Hurricane Helene. The Manatee County Jail, however, has refused to evacuate the approximately 1,200 people in its custody despite the life-threatening risks.

Early Wednesday, Milton churned over the northeast of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula with maximum wind speeds of about 160 miles per hour. Residents are calling on the Mexican government to help with recovery and to spray against mosquitoes carrying disease. This is a fisherman from Celestún, Yucatán.

Ismael Valencia: “We demand support for the most vulnerable people and, above all, to fumigate, because now there will be a lot of illnesses — dengue, Zika — a lot of illnesses. I would demand authorities not to abandon the Celestún port.”

In Bolivia, new data show wildfires have burned a record 25 million acres this year, driven by hot and dry conditions due to the climate crisis. On Tuesday, officials in Bolivia’s hard-hit city of Santa Cruz advised residents to stay indoors and wear face masks in open areas, as wildfire smoke blanketed the region, triggering air quality alerts. Airline flights were delayed due to poor visibility, while school district officials canceled classes.

Valeria Vargas: “We have many breathing problems. This makes learning more difficult, because the students have coughs, sore throats, headaches and itchy eyes. Then it’s impossible to hold in-person lessons now.”

Bolivia’s record wildfires come as a scientific study by the organization Forest Declaration Assessment found deforestation soared in 2023, with nearly 16 million acres of forest chopped down or burned — an area roughly the size of Ireland. That puts the world behind a target for eliminating deforestation by 2030, agreed to by 140 countries at the U.N. climate conference in Glasgow three years ago.

In Ukraine, two people were killed and more than 30 others injured Tuesday as Russian warplanes bombed Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city. Survivors say the attack came almost without warning.

Nataliia Khudoba: “I heard that something was flying through the air. I grabbed my child to run away toward a pit behind the building. I sat down and protected her like this, and I heard a shattering sound, and glass shards were everywhere.”

On Monday, Ukraine’s military said it had struck a major oil terminal in the Russian-annexed Crimean Peninsula. Meanwhile, Russia used a hypersonic missile to strike a major air base in western Ukraine and attacked two civilian cargo ships in the Black Sea grain export hub of Odesa.

On Tuesday, the White House said President Joe Biden would skip a planned four-day trip to Germany to respond to Hurricane Milton. Biden had been expected to attend a summit with Western leaders at the U.S. air base in Ramstein to discuss Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s so-called victory plan.

Here in New York, one of Mayor Eric Adams’s closest allies has resigned from her role as first deputy mayor, making Sheena Wright the seventh senior official to leave the Adams administration amid multiple federal investigations. Wright’s husband, New York City Public Schools Chancellor David Banks, announced last month he would step down, just weeks after the FBI raided his home. Wright’s resignation comes as Adams’s former chief liaison to Muslim New Yorkers, Mohamed Bahi, was arrested and indicted on federal charges of witness tampering and destruction of evidence. This comes as Eric Adams continues to face mounting calls to resign after becoming New York’s first sitting mayor to be federally charged in a bribery and wire fraud scheme spanning nearly a decade.

The Biden administration has finalized a rule requiring cities to replace nearly all lead pipes within a decade. Public health experts hailed the move as a long-overdue measure to protect children — particularly in low-income communities of color whose tap water is far more likely to contain lead. A recent study in the journal JAMA Pediatrics found more than two-thirds of children 6 years old and younger in Chicago have been exposed to lead-contaminated drinking water.

Prominent Palestinian human rights defender Issa Amro has received the 2024 Right Livelihood Award for the work of his organization, the Hebron-based Youth Against Settlements. The group, based in the occupied West Bank, was recognized for its “steadfast non-violent resistance to Israel’s illegal occupation, promoting Palestinian civic action through peaceful means.” Amro has been detained by Israeli forces several times over his activism, beaten and tortured in Israeli prisons. Other Right Livelihood winners include British Israeli architect Eyal Weizman, who accepted the award on behalf of Forensic Architecture, which has mapped out possible war crimes committed by the Israeli occupation in the Gaza Strip and Palestinian territories. Click here to see our interviews with Eyal Weizman and Issa Amro. The other Right Livelihood Award laureates for 2024 are Indigenous human rights and environmental activist Joan Carling of the Philippines and Anabela Lemos, a Mozambican environmental activist.