The government of Nicaragua has stated that it is breaking off diplomatic relations with Israel over the ongoing genocidal war against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, which has killed over 42,000 people, more than half of them women and children.

Nicaraguan Vice President Rosario Murillo announced the move to state media on Friday.

The Central American nation’s Congress had, earlier in the day, passed a resolution requesting Nicaragua take action to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the Gaza war.

The conflict, the Nicaraguan government said, now also “extends against Lebanon and gravely threatens Syria, Yemen and Iran.”

Murillo, who is President Daniel Ortega’s wife, said her husband instructed the government to sever diplomatic relations with the “fascist” and “genocidal” Tel Aviv regime.

A United Nations inquiry said Thursday it found Israel carried out a concerted policy of destroying Gaza's health care system in the Gaza war, actions amounting to both war crimes and the crime against humanity of extermination.

"Children, in particular, have borne the brunt of these attacks, suffering both directly and indirectly from the collapse of the health system," said Pillay, whose report will be presented to the U.N. General Assembly on Oct. 30.

Israel says that Gaza's militants operate from the cover of built-up populated areas including private homes, schools and hospitals and that it will strike them wherever they emerge, while also trying to avoid harming civilians.

Hamas denies hiding militants, weapons and command posts among civilians.

Israel has detained American Grayzone journalist Jeremy Loffredo while he was on assignment in Israel.

According to social media posts, Loffredo was detained on Tuesday along with four other journalists who were “beaten, blindfolded, and taken to an Israeli military base.” They also had their phones confiscated. Loffredo remains in custody, while the others, including Andrey X, were released 11 hours later.

Loffredo’s last video posted on X reported the damage caused by the Iranian missile strikes on Israel’s military sites on 1 October. Social media users believe this is the reason for his detention as no local news organisations have covered the damage from the attack.

The Israel Land Authority is set to seize the land on which UNRWA’s headquarters lie in occupied East Jerusalem to build housing for illegal settlers.

According to information released today, the UNRWA headquarters are set to be converted into 1,440 housing units.

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In the aftermath of Israel’s war in Gaza, Blinken conducted a whirlwind trip through the Middle East, trying to negotiate humanitarian assistance for Gaza.

By the time Blinken arrived in Saudi Arabia to meet MBS, he was exhausted, journalist Bob Woodward writes in his new book, “War,” which was obtained by CNN ahead of its October 15 release.

But the crown prince, a “night owl,” kept Blinken and his team up all night before finally meeting. Woodward quotes Blinken saying, “MBS was nothing more than a spoiled child.”

“Do I want it?” MBS said and tapped his heart, Woodard writes. “It doesn’t matter that much. Do I need it? Absolutely.”

Woodward also recounts a meeting that Graham, the South Carolina senator, had with the crown prince in March.

“Hey, let’s call Trump,” Graham said to MBS while visiting with the Saudi leader in March.

Woodward also writes that the Saudi leader operates and communicates with various world leaders and government officials. Woodward says bin Salman had an aide bring over a bag with about 50 burner phones, pulling out one labeled “TRUMP 45.”

Among the others in the bag, Woodward writes, was a burner labeled “JAKE SULLIVAN.”

Swedish police said on Thursday that they are investigating a shooting near an “Israeli target” in Gothenburg, which the national broadcaster said was a unit of Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems, Reuters has reported. There were no reports of any injuries.

A young suspect was apprehended at the scene and a preliminary investigation into suspected attempted murder and serious weapons crime has been initiated, added police.

A police spokesperson declined to comment on the suspected target. Elbit Systems in Sweden did not immediately respond to a request from Reuters for comment.

Bolivia has formally joined South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), according to the court in The Hague.

The South American nation filed an application on Tuesday to intervene in the case, which accuses Israel of perpetrating “genocidal acts” in violation of the Genocide Convention in its war on Gaza.

08 Oct 2024 - Israeli occupation forces have intensified their siege of the Jabalia camp and the surrounding neighborhoods, including Tal al-Zaatar, al-Sikka, Beit Hanoun, and Beit Lahia. The Israeli forces have also taken up positions in the western region of the Gaza Strip, advancing as far as the Jaffa Cemetery and the Tawam Junction.

With airstrikes, fire belts, and artillery shelling—including bombing homes over the heads of their occupants—the Israeli occupation forces have been occupying large portions of northern Gaza since Saturday evening, 5 October. Dozens of people have been killed and injured as a result of this ongoing invasion.

Initial reports confirmed that five citizens—including a woman, a man, and his son—were executed by the occupation forces for trying to escape the Jabalia camp while waving white flags.

Saudi Arabia has executed 213 people so far in 2024, more than it has in any other calendar year on record, as the kingdom competes for a seat at the UN Human Rights Council (HRC). According to the London-based rights group Reprieve, which documents the death penalty worldwide, the largest recorded figure prior to this year was 196 in 2022, followed by 184 in 2019.

“As the world's attention fixates on horror elsewhere in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia is clearing death row with a bloodbath,” Reprieve’s deputy director, Harriet McCulloch, told MEE.

“The Kingdom smashed its own grim record for most people executed in a year in the first nine months of 2024,” she added. “With 213 executions and counting, death row prisoners are at greater risk than ever before, their families desperately awaiting news of their fate in the news.”

The executions are taking place under the government of Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman, the kingdom’s prime minister and de facto leader, who pledged in a 2018 interview to minimise capital punishment.

Last week, Hurricane Helene battered the southeastern United States after the storm ravaged the Caribbean and parts of Central America. Making first landfall in the Florida panhandle before raging across another eleven states, the hurricane caused extreme levels of devastation as it tore through Georgia, the Carolinas, Tennessee, and Virginia with torrential rainfall that caused major flooding.

With upward of 230 confirmed deaths and many still unaccounted for, including workers at a Tennessee plastic factory who were forced to work through the hurricane, the damage and loss from Helene has made it one of the deadliest hurricanes of the century in the United States. As if Helene’s devastation weren’t enough, another similarly powerful storm, Hurricane Milton, is currently barreling down a similar path.

Yet on the same day that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced a $9 billion shortfall in funding desperately needed to address the damages from Helene, Israel publicized that it had secured another $8.7 billion aid package from the United States to “significantly strengthen critical systems such as [the] Iron Dome and David’s Sling while supporting the continued development of an advanced high-powered laser defense system.” This latest aid package does not include the nearly $18 billion provided to Israel in military aid since October 2023, on top of the additional $20 billion that was approved this August.

It was not until October, amid fierce backlash, that the government announced a onetime assistance package of $750 to victims of Helene, a meager amount for victims and survivors relative to the losses they have incurred.

Hweihi was forced to hastily flee the tent the family set up in the courtyard of a school-turned-shelter in northern Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp.

This was because Israeli troops had suddenly begun to fire live bullets inside the school ahead of storming it during a devastating three-week assault on the camp in May.

Duaa, who was unable to speak or move, was left behind inside the tent because her father couldn’t carry her.

After the soldiers entered the school under the cover of heavy fire, men and women were separated.

Moments later, a soldier poured gasoline on dozens of tents in courtyards before setting them on fire.

His voice drowned out by the hammering blast of tanks and heavy gunfire, Hweihi stood watching silently and hopelessly.

“She was burnt alive while we couldn't move,” he said.