The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has voiced concerns over the high logistical costs associated with purchasing petrol from the Dangote refinery, leading members to seek more affordable alternatives at other depots nationwide.

IPMAN Secretary Suleiman stated, “If Dangote sets a price at N1,000 per litre and another supplier offers it for N900, we can’t prioritize our relationship with Dangote over profitability. We have to buy where the prices are lower.” He noted that last week, Dangote’s price was N995 per litre, while crude prices globally are on the decline. With additional transport and loading costs, he questioned how they could sell at competitive prices.

Suleiman emphasized the need to support Nigerians during tough economic times by sourcing cheaper fuel. He also criticized Aliko Dangote for not engaging with key stakeholders in the fuel supply chain, which he believes has hindered independent marketers’ access to the refinery.

“Dangote should convene a stakeholders’ meeting with IPMAN, MOMAN, and DAPMAN to collaboratively address these issues,” Suleiman urged. He argued that direct sales to IPMAN at a fair price would significantly reduce fuel costs across Nigeria.

Despite repeated attempts to engage with Dangote, Suleiman lamented that IPMAN’s outreach efforts have gone unanswered, as they seek a partnership that could benefit both the refinery and the marketers.

On October 29, Dangote announced that the refinery has over 500 million litres of petrol available, but oil marketers have not been purchasing the product. In a rebuttal, IPMAN claimed its members have faced delays in loading petrol, alleging that a N40 billion payment to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) was made.

In response, the Dangote refinery stated it has not received any payment from IPMAN for refined products, underscoring the ongoing tension between the two parties.

Ceasefire hopes fade as Israel bombards Gaza, Lebanon

Prospects of a ceasefire between Israel and its foes Hamas and Hezbollah ran aground on Friday as Israeli airstrikes killed at least 68 people in the Gaza Strip, according to medics in the Palestinian enclave, and bombed Beirut's southern suburbs.

The Israeli military said it killed senior Hamas official Izz al-Din Kassab in an airstrike in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis and described him as one of the last surviving high-ranking members of Hamas responsible for coordinating with other groups in Gaza.

U.S. envoys had been working to secure ceasefires on both fronts ahead of the U.S. presidential election next Tuesday.

But Hamas does not favour a temporary truce, its Al-Aqsa Hamas television reported on Friday. The ceasefire proposals failed to meet its conditions that any deal must end the year-long war in Gaza and include a withdrawal of Israeli forces from the devastated Palestinian enclave, it said.

Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his priority was to enforce security "despite any pressure or constraints".

His office said he relayed this message to U.S. envoys Amos Hochstein and Brett McGurk in Israel on Thursday. Israel meanwhile pressed on with its military offensives against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon on Friday.

Medics in Gaza said about 68 people were killed and dozens injured overnight and into Friday morning in Israeli strikes on the city of Deir Al-Balah, the Nuseirat camp and the town of Al-Zawayda, all in Gaza's central area, as well as in its south.

Fourteen people were killed by an Israeli strike at the gate of a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in Nuseirat, according to medics at the camp's Al-Awda Hospital. Another 10 were killed in a car in Khan Younis, medics said.

Hours later, residents said Israeli tanks advanced on the northern and eastern sides of Nuseirat, and medics said an Israeli airstrike killed four people, including three children.

The Israeli military said its troops killed what it called armed terrorists in central Gaza and the northern Jabalia area. It had no immediate comment on the reported school strike, although it habitually denies deliberately attacking civilians.

The heads of U.N. humanitarian agencies said on Friday the situation in north Gaza was "apocalyptic" with the entire Palestinian population there at "imminent risk of dying from disease, famine and violence" as Israel pursues its offensive against regrouping Hamas militants in the area.

Israel also pummelled Beirut's southern suburbs on Friday morning with at least 10 strikes, Reuters journalists said. It was the first bombardment of the area - once a densely packed district and Hezbollah stronghold - in nearly a week.

The strikes came after Israel issued evacuation orders for 10 separate neighbourhoods of the Lebanese capital.

Hassan Saad, speaking on a Beirut street, told Reuters: "This is a brutal war and Israel does not have the right to do this...There must be a limit put for Israel because it does not abide by any of the laws or human morality."

Another Beirut man, Ali Ramadan, said he believed the Israeli airstrikes were a way to put pressure on Lebanon in the ceasefire negotiations.

The hostilities have undermined hope a truce could be reached before the U.S. presidential election on Tuesday.

Hamas television, quoting a leading source in the group, said the ceasefire proposals did not meet its conditions for a permanent end to hostilities, withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and the return of displaced people.

Nor did they address Palestinians' need for security, relief and reconstruction and the full reopening of border crossings, the source said.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer on Friday discussed a diplomatic solution to the conflict in Lebanon as well as ending the war and addressing dire humanitarian conditions in Gaza, the State Department said in a statement.

'ISRAELI STUBBORNNESS'

Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Friday accused Israel of blocking any progress in the negotiations.

"Israeli statements and diplomatic signals received by Lebanon confirm the Israeli stubbornness in rejecting the proposed solutions and insisting on the approach of killing and destruction," he said.

Lebanon's health ministry said 52 people were killed on Friday in Israeli strikes on more than a dozen towns in the Baalbek region, which has UNESCO-listed Roman ruins.

An Israeli strike on Friday in Syria near northeast Lebanon forced a border crossing to shut, Lebanon Transport Minister Ali Hamieh told Reuters. Israeli bombing closed the crossing last month and it had partly reopened before the latest strike.

Hezbollah began firing rockets at Israel in solidarity with Palestinians a day after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel's retaliatory offensives have killed more than 43,000 Palestinians and reduced most of Gaza to rubble, as well as killed at least 2,897 people in Lebanon, its health ministry said in an update on Friday.

Reuters

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Russian missile destroys ‘police building’ – Ukrainian officials

Russian troops have struck a police building in Ukraine’s second-largest city of Kharkov on Friday, killing at least one officer and injuring dozens, Ukrainian officials said.

According to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, a Russian S-400 missile hit an unspecified “facility that housed police officers.” A 43-year-old police colonel has been killed, while 30 police officers, a first responder and nine civilians were injured, the ministry said. Interior Minister Igor Klimenko wrote on Facebook that some of the wounded officers are in critical condition.

Russian military blogger Boris Rozhin wrote on Telegram that Kharkov’s police headquarters had been hit. As of early Saturday morning, Ukrainian officials did not reveal which police site was targeted.  

The Kharkov regional governor, Oleg Sinegub, wrote on Telegram that the city was struck with an S-300 missile on Friday, and that four civilians were injured. He added that 20 apartment blocks and individual houses were damaged. 

Although the S-400 and the S-300 are both surface-to-air missiles, Ukrainian experts previously claimed that Russia was using anti-air missiles to strike ground targets.

Moscow has not commented on its most recent strikes. The Russian Defense Ministry has said in the past that it only targets military and military-linked sites.

In its latest daily briefing, the MOD said that the Russian forces carried out 44 “group strikes”between October 26 and November 1, hitting airfields and railroads that were used to transport troops, as well as energy infrastructure sites that powered “Ukraine’s military-industrial complex.” 

On Friday, the MOD said that the Russian military had struck a drone command and control center in Kiev, along with drone manufacturing sites and UAV stockpiles. 

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine's mortar shell production surge stymied by explosives shortage

Ukraine has increased production of mortar shells from zero before Russia's invasion to millions per year now, but a global explosives shortage is constraining the push to ramp up the weapons industry, Kyiv's top arms official said.

Ukraine is trying to reduce its heavy reliance on Western military aid. Mortar shells, which are cheaper and work at shorter ranges than artillery, are an important weapon against the infantry-led assaults Russia uses to advance in the east.

Herman Smetanin, who was appointed strategic industries minister overseeing wartime arms production in September, told Reuters that Ukraine had increased production across various types of artillery as well as mortar rounds.

"However, this is still not enough," he said in his first published interview in Kyiv as minister.

Smetanin, just 32, was appointed after rising rapidly through the ranks at Ukroboronprom, the state-owned defence industry giant, where he became its chief in June 2023.

Ukraine, he said, had the capacity to make more shells but was being held back by global production bottlenecks and high demand that has created a shortage of explosives.

"The main problem we have now are powders and explosives. However much explosive comes into Ukraine, that's how many shells we will have."

Ukraine has tried to expand almost all aspects of its domestic defence industry since 2022, as its troops are stretched over a 1,000 km (620 miles) front by a much larger foe equipped by a much bigger military industrial complex.

The production figures represent a rapid increase for a country that did not produce any artillery or mortar ammunition before Russia's full-scale invasion.

Ukraine, Smetanin said, was now producing its own artillery shells, including the coveted 155mm calibre used by heavy artillery pieces donated to Ukraine by allied NATO countries. He declined to provide figures.

Ukraine's fledgling shell production is still far less than the output in Russia, which has been investing heavily in its military for years under Vladimir Putin and also inherited vast Cold War-era production capacity.

According to a CNN report in March citing NATO estimates and an anonymous European official, Russia was able to make 3 million shells a year, nearly triple the combined capacity of the United States and Europe.

Artillery, sometimes known as the "king of battle", has been the most important commodity on the front for most of the war.

Ukrainian commanders told Reuters earlier in 2024 they estimated about 80% of casualties on both sides since the war's beginning came from artillery.

Smetanin said that one of his main goals was to build up serial production of Ukrainian missiles, although he conceded this also faced global supply chain barriers which he did not go into detail on.

Ukraine announced earlier this year that it had successfully used both its own ballistic missile and a "drone missile" dubbed the Palyanytsia, which the arms minister compared to a cruise missile.

RT/Reuters

American start-up Heliospect Genomics is charging wealthy parents-to-be up to $50,000 to screen their embryos for IQ and other desirable traits.

Wish you could ensure your unborn child has a higher-than-average IQ? Well, apparently now you can, with the help of genetic enhancement technology. This is controversial territory, as it tends to normalize the idea of superior” and “inferior” humans, but according to undercover video footage obtained by the campaign group Hope Not Hate, at least one genomic prediction company has begun selling its services to parents who can afford them. Heliospect Genomics has apparently already offered its services to over a dozen parents undergoing in-vitro fertilization, charging them up to $50,000 to screen 100 embryos for IQ and other traits and boasting that their technology could help select children with IQ scores six points higher than those conceived naturally.

Footage obtained by Hope Not Hate and reviewed by The Guardian appears to show Heliospect Genomics employees pitching the company services to prospective clients, claiming that they could screen up to 100 embryos based on “IQ and the other traits that everybody wants”, including sex and height, as well as risk of obesity or risk of mental health problems.

News of the controversial service went viral last month, with several geneticists and bioethicists saying that it raised numerous moral and medical issues. Some argued that it reinforced the idea that social inequality is related to biological causes rather than social ones, while others simply said that it is a grey area that the general public hasn’t even had the chance to really think about.

Asked to comment, a Heliospect Genomics spokesperson said that the US startup is currently in “stealth mode” and still developing, but added that it is preparing for a public launch. The company also stated that it would not condone industrial-scale egg or embryo production or elite selection, and would not offer testing for “dark triad” traits or beauty.

“All we mean by liberal eugenics is that parents should be free and maybe even encouraged to use technology to improve their children’s prospects once it’s available,’ Jonathan Anomaly, an academic on the board of Heliospect Genomics, said.

“Everyone can have all the children they want, and they can have children that are basically disease-free; it’s going to be great,” Michael Christensen, Heliospect’s CEO, and a former financial markets trader said during a November 2023 video call recorded by a Hope Not Hate researcher.

Apart from the controversy around “designer babies, Heliospect Genomics also raised concerns about the way it sources data, with several outlets reporting that its prediction tools are based on data from the UK Biobank, a publicly funded genetic repository mainly used for health-related research.

Oddity Central

The National Economic Council (NEC) has recommended the withdrawal of the Tax reforms bill already at the National Assembly.

The NEC headed by Vice-President Kashim Shettima has governors as members.

Speaking to state House Correspondents after a NEC meeting, on Thursday, Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State said following the controversies that arose as a result of the bills, NEC decided to withdraw them so that stakeholders could be carried along.

Arising from a meeting on Sunday, the Northern Governors’ Forum (NGF) chaired by Governor Inuwa Yahaya of Gombe State, announced rejection of the derivation-based model for Value Added Tax (VAT) distribution in the new tax bills.

Later Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa clarified the position of governors from the region, saying they were against the VAT bill because it would be unfair to the north.

Sule said that the governors were not against President Bola Tinubu, saying they brought him into power.

He said, “We can’t bring in Tinubu and then oppose him. If you look at the composition of the meeting you will see that there are people from the APC and the PDP. Some don’t even have a political party. We sat down and took the decision together.

“Some are traditional rulers. If you look at the law, it will be unfair to the north. By the time you say you are going to take something out of the sharing of the FAC and then say you are going to share something similar to something like that because that is the understanding we have based on the proposal. It’s going to be another 13% derivation.

“So, the states that have almost no VAT at the moment will end up actually with the shorter area of the stick. And you know, the 19 states of the north are generating very little when it comes to VAT at the moment.

“It’s very clear. I worked for some of these multinationals. I know how VAT is paid. When we were importing raw material at Dangote at Apapa port, we paid VAT first and then the finished product had VAT added to it.”

Earlier, on Thursday, Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, had spoken about the “misunderstandings and misgivings around the tax reform already embarked upon by the administration.”

Speaking specifically on the proposed derivation-based VAT distribution model, Onanuga stressed that the new proposal, as enunciated in the Bill, is designed to create a fairer system.

“The current model for distributing VAT is based on where the tax is remitted rather than where goods and services are supplied or consumed. The ongoing tax reform seeks to correct the inherent inequity in the current derivation model as a basis for distributing VAT revenue.”

“The new proposal before the National Assembly outlines a different form of derivation which considers the place of supply or consumption for relevant goods and services. This means that states in the Northern region that produce the food we eat should not lose out just because their products are VAT-exempt or consumed in other states,” he had said.

Daily Trust

Banks’ credit to the government surged to a record N42 trillion in September 2024, amid growing money supply (M3).

According to data from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), credit to the government rose by 89.8 percent year-on-year to reach N42.01 trillion in September 2024, up from N22.13 trillion in September 2023.

This significant increase highlights the growing reliance on bank financing by the government.

On a monthly basis, commercial banks’ credit to the government also recorded a sharp rise. In August 2024, this figure was N31.15 trillion but jumped 34.86 percent by September. This monthly increase shows a rising pattern in government borrowing.

Implications of Rising Credit to Government

When government credit levels rise, it indicates that it is increasingly borrowing from the financial sector, particularly from domestic banks and other lenders. This rise in borrowing generally reflects an increase in government debt, as funds are sought to finance various operations such as infrastructure projects, social programmes, and budget deficit coverage.

Higher Demand for Government Bonds

One key mechanism for government borrowing is through the issuance of bonds. An increase in credit to the government often means that banks and financial institutions are purchasing more government bonds, which in turn contributes to the overall level of national debt.

Money Supply Reaches a Historic Peak

The money supply, measured broadly as M3, rose to N109 trillion in September 2024. This figure represents a 1.68 percent increase from the N107.19 trillion recorded in August 2024. The CBN data also revealed a year-on-year increase of 62.8 percent in M3, up from N66.94 trillion in September 2023.

Crowding Out Effect of Increased Government Credit

As government borrowing increases, a phenomenon known as *crowding out* can occur. This happens when banks focus more on lending to the government, potentially reducing the funds available for loans to businesses and individuals. This effect can slow down growth in the private sector, as businesses may find it harder to secure financing.

Continued Growth in Credit to Private Sector

Despite the rise in government borrowing, credit to the private sector also expanded. The CBN data shows that credit to the private sector grew by 27.46 percent year-on-year, reaching N75.84 trillion in September 2024, compared to N59.50 trillion in September 2023. On a monthly basis, private sector credit rose by 1.48 percent, from N74.73 trillion in August 2024.

Rise in Currency in Circulation and Currency Outside Banks

Currency in circulation increased by 56.2 percent year-on-year to N4.31 trillion in September 2024, up from N2.76 trillion in September 2023. On a monthly basis, this figure rose by 4.1 percent from N4.14 trillion in August 2024.

Additionally, the currency outside banks surged to N4.02 trillion in September 2024, marking a 66.8 percent increase from N2.41 trillion in September 2023. This rise reflects a growing amount of currency being held outside of the banking system, a trend that could indicate shifts in public spending or saving habits.

On a month-on-month basis, money outside banks rose from N3 86 trillion in August 2024.

Businessday

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has alerted Nigerians to the recall of Nivea BLACK&WHITE Invisible Roll-on deodorant 50ml by the European Union’s (EU) rapid alert system for dangerous non-food products (RAPEX) in Brussels.

In a notice on Thursday, NAFDAC said the recalled Nivea product contains 2-(4-tert-Butylbenzyl propionaldehyde) (BMHCA), a chemical prohibited in cosmetics products due to its ability to harm the reproductive system, impair the health of an unborn child, cause skin irritation, and cause burns to users.

The agency said the product, produced in Germany, is marked ‘48H protection in African climate’, with batch number: 93529610 and bar code number: 42299882.

“Importers, distributors, retailers, and consumers are advised to exercise caution and vigilance within the supply chain to avoid the importation, distribution, sale, and use of the above-mentioned Nivea Roll-on with the affected batch,” the alert reads.

“Members of the public in possession of the affected batch of product should discontinue the sale or use and submit stock to the nearest NAFDAC office.

“Healthcare professionals and consumers are encouraged to report adverse events experienced with the use of regulated products to the nearest NAFDAC office, via This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., E-reporting platforms available at www.nafdac.gov.ng or via the Med-safety application for download on android and iOS stores.”

The Cable

Taiwo Akinola, presiding Bishop of Rhema Christian Church & Towers announced the organization's upcoming 33rd World Convention, scheduled for November 3-10, 2024, while delivering a comprehensive address that touched on pressing national and global issues.

The convention, themed "Exceeding Grace," will bring together Christian leaders, gospel ministers, and participants from around the world at the church's headquarters in Ogun State. Notable attendees will include Francis Wale Oke, Joseph Ojo, and other prominent Christian leaders.

Convention Highlights

The week-long event will feature daily programs including:

- Prayer sessions

- Specialized seminars

- Ministers' conference

- Miracle services

- A high-praise night featuring gospel artists like Mike Abdul.

Notably, the convention will mark significant milestones for the church, including the consecration of two new Bishops and Bishop Akinola's formal installation as a Charismatic Archbishop.

Akinola used the press conference to address several critical national challenges, including:

Economic Struggles

- Nigeria's inflation rate reached 34.2% in June 2024

- Fuel price hikes causing significant economic strain

- Naira devaluation and its impact on citizens

Security Issues

- Ongoing challenges with banditry and kidnappings

- Average of 13 persons kidnapped daily

- Negative impact on food security and economic investment

Youth Unemployment

- Alarming unemployment rates

- Increasing brain drain

- Impact on national development and family structures

Infrastructure

- Insufficient road infrastructure

- Only 30% of national budget allocated to infrastructure

- Call for increased government investment

Global Perspective

The Bishop also commented on international conflicts, including:

- The ongoing Russian-Ukraine war

- Conflicts in the Middle East

- Calling for dialogue and peaceful resolution

Invitation and Hope

"We invite all to participate in this Convention of 'Exceeding Grace'," Akinola stated. "We believe God will bring dramatic solutions to life's challenges and usher in divine interventions."

The convention will offer additional community services, including:

- Food distribution to the needy

- Camping facilities

- Free medical consultations

The event runs from November 3-10, 2024, at the Rhema Christian Church headquarters in Sango-Ota, Ogun State.

Rocket fire from Lebanon kills 7 in Israel as US officials try to push for cease-fires

Rocket barrages from Lebanon into northern Israel killed four foreign workers and three Israelis on Thursday, Israeli medics said, the deadliest cross-border strikes in Israel since it invaded Lebanon. Israel kept up airstrikes it says targeted Hezbollah militants across Lebanon, where health authorities on Thursday reported 24 people killed.

U.S. diplomats were in the region pushing for cease-fires in both Lebanon and Gaza, hoping to wind down the wars in the Middle East as the Biden administration enters its final months. Pressure has been building ahead of the U.S. election next week.

In northern Gaza, Israeli forces struck one of the last functioning hospitals, according to the World Heath Organization said, destroying much-needed supplies that the U.N. agency had delivered to the facility. The strikes set off a fire that affected the dialysis unit, destroyed water tanks, damaged the surgery building and injured four medics trying to extinguish the blaze, said the hospital’s director, Hussam Abu Safiya.

The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment about a strike on the hospital, which it stormed last week after alleging it was harboring Hamas militants. Gaza’s Health Ministry on Thursday condemned Israeli attacks on the hospital and called on the international community to safeguard medical facilities in Gaza.

Back-to-back deadly rocket attacks hit Israel

Projectiles from Lebanon crashed into an agricultural area in Metula, Israel’s northernmost town, killing four foreign workers and an Israeli farmer, local officials said Thursday.

Hours later, the Israeli military reported another volley of some 25 rockets from Lebanon, striking an olive grove in a suburb of the northern Israeli port city of Haifa. That strike killed a 30-year-old man and 60-year-old woman while wounding two others, said Magen David Adom, Israel’s main emergency medical organization.

Both Hezbollah and Hamas are backed by Iran, Israel’s regional adversary. Hezbollah did not immediately claim responsibility for Thursday’s rocket fire. Israel’s military said 90 projectiles were fired from Lebanon on Thursday.

Hezbollah has been firing thousands of rockets, drones and missiles into Israel —and drawing fierce Israeli retaliatory strikes — over the past year since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack out of the Gaza Strip triggered Israel’s devastating war in the Palestinian enclave.

The residents of Metula evacuated in October 2023, and only security officials and agricultural workers remain. The Hotline for Refugees and Migrants, an Israeli organization that advocates for foreign workers, said authorities had put them in danger by allowing them to work along the border without proper protection.

Agricultural areas near Israel’s border are closed military zones that can only be entered with official permission. For the few remaining residents, the thump of interceptions by Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system and wailing air raid sirens punctuate daily life.

Nonetheless, local officials largely support continuing a ground operation in southern Lebanon.

“If the Israeli government accedes to an agreement brought by (the Biden administration) ... we will not have it because for us this is rehabilitating Hezbollah again on our borders,” said Eitan Davidi, the mayor of the northern town of Margaliot.

Israeli bombs across Lebanon after evacuation warnings

Israeli strikes killed 24 people in Lebanon on Thursday, among them 13 people in the country’s eastern Bekaa Valley, according to Lebanon’s state-run National News agency, a day after the Israel’s military warned residents there to evacuate.

The warnings sent thousands of people fleeing and spread panic across the city, known for its colossal Roman ruins.

The Lebanese Health Ministry reported that over the last 24 hours, Israeli bombardments killed 45 people and wounded 110 in various parts of the country.

Jean Fakhry, a local official in the Deir al-Ahmar region in the Bekaa Valley, said Israeli airstrikes pummeling the area turned the main highway “a parking lot” of fleeing cars stuck in traffic.

Around 12,000 displaced people are staying in the area, he said, with most taking refuge in private homes. At one of the shelters in Deir al-Ahmar, families with luggage were still arriving Thursday.

“Our homes were destroyed,” said Zahraa Younis, from the village near Baalbek. “We came with nothing — no clothes or anything else.”

US officials are in the region seeking a cease-fire

Senior White House aides Brett McGurk and Amos Hochstein were in Israel Thursday for talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and senior officials about the conflicts with Hamas and Hezbollah.

The meetings focused on efforts to secure a cease-fire deal in Lebanon and to assess new proposals floated by mediators to free Israeli hostages being held in Gaza, according to a U.S. official familiar with planning for the talks who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly. The meetings were attended by Netanyahu as well as Yoav Gallant, the Israeli defense minister; David Barnea, the director of the Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence agency; and other officials.

But with the U.S. election on Tuesday, hopes for immediate progress appeared remote — particularly in Gaza where Israel has come under criticism for not letting more humanitarian aid into the besieged north.

The death toll from more than a year of war in Gaza passed 43,000 earlier this week, Palestinian health officials reported.

The Awda Hospital in central Gaza said late Thursday it had received 16 bodies of people killed by Israeli bombardment of two houses in Nuseirat refugee camp. The hospital said more than 30 others, including a medic and two journalists, were wounded.

Over the past year, the broadening Israeli campaign in Lebanon against Hezbollah has killed 2,865 people there, wounded over 13,000 and devastated Lebanese towns near the border.

Some 1.2 million people in Lebanon have been displaced since Israel escalated the conflict into a full-blown war last month, when it launched a wave of heavy airstrikes that killed Hezbollah’s top leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and most of his deputies.

A year of Hezbollah rocket attacks have also forced 60,000 Israelis to evacuate from near the border.

AP