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Holding the maps, Netanyahu said the world must choose between a “blessing” and a “curse”.

The first one showed Israel’s potential Arab allies in the region, while the second, Iran and its allies. Both the maps expunged Gaza and the West Bank.

Netanyahu issued stern warnings to Iran, saying: “I have a message for Tehran, if you strike us, we will strike you.”

“There is no place in Iran that the long arm of Israel cannot reach, and that’s true of the entire Middle East,” he added.

Microsoft is co-sponsoring a conference in Israel to celebrate the 65th anniversary of the Israeli military's Center of Computing and Information Systems unit, known by its Hebrew acronym Mamram. The conference, called "I Love Mamram," is now scheduled to be held in Tel Aviv in November, after the "security situation" (presumably the growing conflict with Lebanon) pushed the date from September.

Mamram is not merely a banal IT service provider for the Israeli military. This summer, as reported by the Israeli news outlet +972 Magazine, a commander in the unit confirmed that it was providing cloud data services and artificial intelligence support for the Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip. In a speech at the "IT for IDF" conference held just outside of Tel Aviv this July, Racheli Dembinsky, a colonel in the Israeli army and commander in the information systems unit, confirmed that Mamram was assisting the offensive in Gaza through the provision of internal cloud services that she referred to as a "weapons platform" helping facilitate the campaign. Amid the war, Mamram was providing support to the Israeli military in conducting mass surveillance on the population of Gaza in addition to "marking targets for bombings, a portal for viewing live footage from UAVs over Gaza’s skies, as well as fire, command, and control systems," +972 reported.

In the same speech, Dembinsky indicated that cloud services from civilian tech giants, including Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure, were being employed by the unit for military tasks. After the military's existing technological infrastructure was overwhelmed by the amount of data and intelligence information flowing in during the conflict, services available on contract from tech companies became a stopgap to allow the military to continue operating its platforms. “The crazy wealth of services, big data and AI—we’ve already reached a point where our systems really need it,” Dembinsky said, adding that the services provided “very significant operational effectiveness” during the fighting in Gaza.

Algeria announced on Thursday it will reestablish visa requirements for Moroccan nationals effective immediately, accusing its North African neighbour of deploying "Zionist intelligence agents". In a statement, the Algerian foreign ministry accused Morocco of taking advantage of the visa exemption arrangement to "engage in various actions detrimental to the stability of Algeria and its national security".

Algiers' decision comes after several people, including four Moroccans, were arrested in the city of Tlemcen, in western Algeria, early in September over accusations of being part of "a spy network" aimed at "undermining Algerian security and administrative institutions".

In August 2021, Algeria broke off diplomatic relations with Morocco, accusing its neighbour of "hostile acts". At the time, the head of Algerian diplomacy also accused Morocco of spying on Algerian officials with the Israeli Pegasus software and failing in its bilateral obligations, including in regards to the Western Sahara, where Algiers supports the Polisario Front, an independence movement.

The Israeli Defense Tech Conference, aimed at tech companies working with the Israeli military, was scheduled for November at the Google for Startups campus in Tel Aviv.

The event, according to a listing posted on the event management app Luma, was pitched at “founders, investors and innovators” looking to network and learn more about the defense tech space. It was co-sponsored by Google; Fusion Venture Capital; Genesis, a startup accelerator; and the Israeli military’s research and development arm, known as the Directorate of Defense Research and Development (DDR&D, or Ma’fat).

Google was not only listed as the physical host of the event and one of its sponsors, but the event listing also included a notice that attendees “approve of sharing [their] details with the organizers (Fusion & Google)” as part of signing up.

When The Intercept contacted Google and the other companies and venture capital firms on the event page, the event page disappeared. Google spokesperson Andréa Willis told The Intercept in an email, “Google is not associated with this event.” Willis did not respond when asked how this could be possible if Google is hosting and co-sponsoring the event, or why the event page went down. None of the other companies or venture capital firms on the event page responded to requests for comment.

On Friday, Houthi insurgents announced their "largest naval operation" aimed at halting the progress of US Navy guided-missile destroyers headed for Israel.

Despite claims by the Yemen-based militants of hitting one of the ships, military officials have refuted this, stating no vessels were damaged.

Houthi forces launched a total of twenty-three ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones, reports the Express US.

Israel has launched its heaviest air attack on Beirut in almost a year of conflict with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, levelling a number of buildings in a southern suburb in what Israeli media reported as an attempt to kill Hezbollah’s leader and key Iran ally, Hassan Nasrallah.

Six loud explosions were heard across the Lebanese capital late on Friday afternoon, and multiple vast plumes of smoke were visible from as far as Batroun, a city an hour’s drive away.

Video of the strikes suggested they were carried out with ground-penetrating munitions known as bunker busters. In some footage, a vertical jet of flame was visible as a bomb appeared to explode beneath the ground.

The strikes came shortly after the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, told the UN general assembly in a bellicose speech marked by the walkout of dozens of diplomats that Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah would continue despite international efforts to secure a three-week ceasefire.

Israeli media reported that Nasrallah was the target and that the military was checking whether he had been hit. Sources close to Hezbollah told Reuters he was alive.

Credit Andy Singer 2024

An Israeli air attack at around 3am on the southern Lebanese town of Shebaa killed nine people from the same family, including four children.

The director of Bint Jbeil hospital, 4km away from the border with northern Israel, told Al Jazeera that the facility shut down due to heavy Israeli bombardment.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces struck several areas in Gaza, including an air raid on Jabalia refugee camp which killed a man, his wife and their two disabled children.

Houthis target Tel Aviv: The attacks came after Yemen's Houthis fired a missile towards Tel Aviv early on Friday morning, which Israel said it intercepted with the 'Arrow' air defence system.

More than half the people in this nation of 50 million are suffering from severe hunger. Hundreds are estimated to be dying from starvation and hunger-related disease each day.

But life-saving international aid – cooking oil, salt, grain, lentils and more – is unable to reach millions of people who desperately need it. Among them is Raous Fleg, a 39-year-old mother of nine. She lives in a sprawling displaced persons camp in Boram county, in the state of South Kordofan, sheltering from fighting sparked by the civil war between the Sudanese army and a paramilitary called the Rapid Support Forces.

Since Fleg arrived nine months ago, United Nations food aid has gotten through only once – back in May. Her family’s share ran out in 10 days, she said. The camp, home to an estimated 50,000 people, is in an area run by local rebels who hold about half the state. The Sudanese army won’t let most food aid cross the lines of control into the area, aid officials say.

In February, Moody's downgraded Israel's rating to A2. The upcoming change reflects not only the geopolitical escalation but also Moody's lack of confidence in the Israeli government's ability to manage fiscal consolidation and reduce debt.

Credit rating agency Moody's is set to release an updated rating on Friday which is expected to downgrade Israel's credit rating to A3, equivalent to an A- rating by other agencies.

The announcement came as Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas hit out at Washington in his address to the UN General Assembly in New York, accusing it of providing Israel with the "deadly weapons that it used to kill thousands of innocent civilians, children and women".

"The package includes $3.5 billion for essential wartime procurement ... and $5.2 billion designated for air defence systems, including the Iron Dome, David's Sling and an advanced laser system," the ministry said in a statement.

Some $3.5 billion had already been received "for critical acquisitions", it said.

A Taiwanese pager company was identified last week in connection to Israel's terrorist attack on Lebanon, in which booby-trapped pagers were detonated, killing at least 32 people and injuring thousands more.

Israeli-Taiwanese relations warmed considerably after Israel launched its genocidal war against the Palestinian people in Gaza last October. Taiwan rushed to condemn the Palestinian operation of 7 October and donated more than half a million dollars to fund services to Israeli soldiers and their families.

The subsequent genocide did not alter Taiwan's stance, as expressed by its foreign minister, Joseph Wu, in a March meeting with Israeli academics in Taipei: "We condemn the Hamas terrorist attack and stand in solidarity with Israel. Our position hasn't changed."

The Taiwanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs supported the visit. After Iran's 13 April retaliation against Israel for the latter's attacks on its consulate in Damascus, Taiwan quickly moved to condemn Iran. Two days later, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen met with a delegation of Israeli Knesset members led by Boaz Toporovsky, the head of the Israel-Taiwan interparliamentary friendship group, and expressed her country's solidarity with Israel.

Even though Taiwan was a close friend of all conservative anti-communist Arab regimes, especially Saudi Arabia and Jordan, in 1975, Israel secretly transferred US missile technology to Taiwan and began to sell it Israeli missiles to the tune of half a billion dollars. Indeed, the Israeli defence ministry established a permanent station in Taipei to facilitate military cooperation. Weapons cooperation and sales included artillery guns, mortars, missile boats, rifles, and submachine guns.