UN Rights Chief Travels to Middle East Amid Gaza Escalation 

Palestinians walk by the buildings destroyed in the Israeli bombardment on al-Zahra, on the outskirts of Gaza City, Friday, Oct. 20, 2023. (AP)
Palestinians walk by the buildings destroyed in the Israeli bombardment on al-Zahra, on the outskirts of Gaza City, Friday, Oct. 20, 2023. (AP)
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UN Rights Chief Travels to Middle East Amid Gaza Escalation 

Palestinians walk by the buildings destroyed in the Israeli bombardment on al-Zahra, on the outskirts of Gaza City, Friday, Oct. 20, 2023. (AP)
Palestinians walk by the buildings destroyed in the Israeli bombardment on al-Zahra, on the outskirts of Gaza City, Friday, Oct. 20, 2023. (AP)

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, began a five-day visit to the Middle East on Tuesday to engage with government officials and civil society on the human rights violations taking place amid Israel's escalation in Gaza.

"It has been one full month of carnage, of incessant suffering, bloodshed, destruction, outrage and despair," Turk said in a statement. "Human rights violations are at the root of this escalation and human rights play a central role in finding a way out of this vortex of pain."

Turk is in Cairo on Tuesday and will visit Rafah, located on the border with Gaza, on Wednesday, before he travels to the Jordanian capital of Amman on Thursday, his office said.



Hezbollah Says Fires Rocket Salvo at Northern Israel

A man checks his shrapnel-poked car near a building hit by a rocket fired from Lebanon in Kiryat Ata in Israel's Haifa district on October 19, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)
A man checks his shrapnel-poked car near a building hit by a rocket fired from Lebanon in Kiryat Ata in Israel's Haifa district on October 19, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)
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Hezbollah Says Fires Rocket Salvo at Northern Israel

A man checks his shrapnel-poked car near a building hit by a rocket fired from Lebanon in Kiryat Ata in Israel's Haifa district on October 19, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)
A man checks his shrapnel-poked car near a building hit by a rocket fired from Lebanon in Kiryat Ata in Israel's Haifa district on October 19, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)

Hezbollah said it fired rockets at northern Israel, including at a military base near the city of Haifa on Saturday after the Israeli army reported a barrage of projectiles launched from Lebanon.

The "large salvo" of advanced rockets hit a military base east of Haifa, said Hezbollah, which has vowed to intensify attacks on Israel weeks into an all-out war that erupted on September 23.

In an earlier statement, the Iran-backed group said it targeted a region north of Haifa city with a rocket salvo.

Five people were injured in Kiryat Ata, in the Haifa district, mostly from shrapnel injuries, said a spokesperson for emergency service provider Magen David Adom.

A rocket damaged a three-storey building and burned two cars in Kiryat Ata, with firefighting teams and ambulances dispatched to the area, AFP footage showed.

The Haifa attacks came as Israel said a drone targeted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's residence in the central Israeli town of Caesarea on Saturday.

Netanyahu's office said the Israeli premier and his wife were not in Caesarea during the drone attack and "there were no injuries".

Throughout the morning, sirens blared in Israel as Lebanese fighters Hezbollah launched projectiles from various locations.

The Iran-backed group on Thursday said it was opening a new "escalatory phase" in its war with Israel.

Late last month, Israel dramatically stepped up its air strikes on Lebanon and sent in ground forces after nearly a year of cross-border exchanges.

Lebanon's health ministry said two people were killed on Saturday in an Israeli strike on a vital highway north of Beirut, in the first attack on the area since Hezbollah and Israel started trading fire last year.

Since late September, the war has left at least 1,418 people dead in Lebanon, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures, though the real toll is likely higher.