By Nadine Osman
LONDON, (The Muslim News): Israeli forces launched fresh attacks across Lebanon and the Gaza Strip on Wednesday as Israel advanced plans for 1,000 new settlement homes in the occupied West Bank, while Lebanon’s army said Israeli forces had violated a US-brokered framework agreement about 7,700 times since it was signed in June.
The escalation came as Israel’s army arrested three Palestinian police officers in the occupied West Bank and US President Donald Trump predicted that the war between Washington and Tehran would “end immediately” after the November 3 US midterm elections.
In southern Lebanon, Israeli artillery shelling struck the Dawha area of Kfar Rumman and the outskirts of Al-Dabsha Hill, while an Israeli warplane targeted Al-Araish between Hadatha and Haris and two airstrikes hit Sarbin and Mansouri, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported.
The Lebanese army said Israeli violations included firing near its personnel and patrols. It said at least 12 people, including women and children, had most recently been killed in what it described as a massacre in Kfar Rumman, in the Nabatieh area.
“These repeated violations have triggered a new wave of displacement from designated safe areas and shown that the Israeli occupation aims to undermine the Lebanese Army’s credibility domestically and internationally,” the army said in a statement posted on X.
The army said it had begun establishing operational control in designated areas under its command plan and in coordination with the military coordination group for Lebanon.
The measures include six checkpoints and 13 observation posts in and around Western Zoutar, Fren and Sarfina, as well as the removal and confiscation of unexploded weapons and ammunition.
The army said it had confiscated approximately 1,818 weapons and ammunition items, including rockets, drones and explosives, and cleared nearly 7.5 miles of roads.
Israel announces 1,000 new illegal Israeli settlement homes in West Bank
In the occupied West Bank, far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced plans for 1,000 new settlement homes, a day after 12 Western countries announced plans to impose trade restrictions on goods originating from Israeli settlements.
Smotrich said 1,665 dunams (411.5 acres) had been added to the Kida and Havat settlements, allowing for the construction of 1,000 new housing units.
He described the move as “another historic step in the settlement revolution”.
“After more than 25 years, the Kida and Havat settlements have finally reached the moment when the government is advancing procedures to legalize their status,” Smotrich said.
Kida and Havat were established in 2003 and 2001 respectively. The Israeli government decided to convert them into recognised settlements in December and March.
Israel has occupied the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since 1967. The international community considers Israeli settlements built on occupied Palestinian territory illegal under international law, a position rejected by Tel Aviv.
The government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that, since taking office in late 2022, it has approved the establishment of 104 new settlements and established 160 agricultural settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank.
Palestinian figures estimate that about 750,000 Israeli occupiers live in 156 settlements and 360 outposts across the occupied West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem.
On Tuesday, the UK, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Sweden announced plans to impose trade restrictions on goods originating from Israeli settlements.
The Israeli army meanwhile said it had arrested three Palestinian police officers over an alleged incident in Area C near Beitunia, claiming they had established a roadblock, stopped an Israeli citizen and assaulted him.
In a statement, the army said its forces had “apprehended 3 Palestinian police officers who were involved in setting up a roadblock in Area C near Beitunia, detaining and assaulting an Israeli civilian”.
It described the incident as an overstepping of the Palestinian police’s authority to operate in the area.
The three officers were being questioned by Israeli security forces, the army said.
The Israeli security establishment described the incident as a “serious overstepping” by Palestinian security services that had “endangered the life of the Israeli civilian and involved the use of severe and excessive force against him”.
Area C accounts for more than 60 per cent of the occupied West Bank and remains under Israeli security and civil control under the Oslo Accords.
The Palestinian police did not immediately comment on the Israeli army’s statement.
In Gaza, seven Palestinians, including two children, were injured in Israeli attacks on residential areas in the north and on displaced Palestinians in Khan Younis in the south, according to medical sources.
A Palestinian girl was injured when an Israeli strike hit a multistorey residential building in the Al-Shati refugee camp west of Gaza City, after residents had been ordered to evacuate a residential block, according to a medical source.
Two Palestinians were also injured, one critically, when an Israeli drone targeted a motorcycle on Al-Rashid Street in the Sheikh Ajlin area south of Gaza City, the source said.
Another two Palestinians were critically injured when an Israeli drone struck a gathering of civilians near the Abu Alaba roundabout in the northern part of Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood.
A woman sustained moderate injuries from Israeli army gunfire in the Al-Zarqa area east of Gaza City, according to a medical source.
In southern Gaza, a Palestinian child was critically injured when an Israeli quadcopter drone opened fire on residential homes in the Al-Mahatta neighbourhood northeast of Khan Younis, according to a medical source at Nasser Hospital.
Witnesses told Anadolu that the Israeli army also fired several smoke grenades towards the Al-Mahatta area, accompanied by heavy gunfire.
The attacks came as Israel continued to violate a Gaza ceasefire that has been in effect since October 10, 2025.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said on Wednesday that Israeli violations of the ceasefire had killed 1,358 Palestinians and injured 4,541 since it took effect.
Since October 8, 2023, Israel’s war on Gaza has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians and injured more than 174,000, according to Palestinian authorities, which also estimate that about 90 per cent of the territory’s infrastructure has been destroyed.
US war on Iran would end after Nov 3 midterm elections
Meanwhile, Trump said the war between the United States and Iran would “end immediately” after the November 3 midterm elections.
“I think the war will end immediately after the election because they can’t hold out any longer,” Trump told reporters before travelling to Dallas, Texas, to address the Republican Party’s first midterm convention.
Trump said Tehran was “desperate to try and affect the election” and said Washington was not seeking a return to nuclear talks.
“We’re not looking for it. Yes, a negotiation could possibly happen, but it’s not something we’re looking at,” he said.
He added that his administration was pursuing “much more than a nuclear deal”.
[Photo: Local Palestinians inspect severe damage inside a family home following an Israeli military raid and siege in the Diriya area, south of Nablus in West Bank, Palestine on September 8, 2026. Israeli forces surrounded the house for hours and deployed reinforcements amid gunfire and explosions after a resident refused to leave, leaving 28-year-old Abdulkarim Muhammad Suleiman dead and large sections of the structure destroyed. Photojournalist: Issam Rimawi/AA]
