For today, links to three reports: from Reuters, the Associated Press, and Middle East Monitor, and to commentary from Middle East Eye; other articles are accessible by clicking on their names or initials below. (UKRAINE entry for this date is HERE.) — MCM

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Ceasefire hopes fade as Israel bombards Gaza, Lebanon, by Nidal Al-Mughrabi, Timour Azhari and Laila Bassam | Reuters  Prospects of a ceasefire between Israel and its foes Hamas and Hezbollah ran aground today as Israeli airstrikes killed at least 64 people in the Gaza Strip, according to medics in the Palestinian enclave, and battered Beirut’s southern suburbs. READ MORE . . . Click HERE for report from AP.

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FROM OCT. 31  Rocket fire from Lebanon kills 7 in Israel as U.S. officials try to push for cease-fires, by Melanie Lidman,  Julia Frankel and Fadi Tawil | AP  TEL AVIV — 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 . . .  READ MORE . . .

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Haaretz publisher: ‘Palestinians are freedom fighters.’ From Middle East Monitor.  Israel has launched a crackdown against Haaretz, one of the region’s oldest newspapers founded in 1919 in historic Palestine, after its publisher described Israel as imposing an “apartheid regime” on Palestinians and characterised the current military assault in Gaza as a “second Nakba.” READ MORE . . .

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FROM OCT. 31  Israel’s rising losses in Lebanon and Gaza are proof that this war is unwinnable, by David Hearst | Middle East Eye  There is a simple reason for the renewed interest in ceasefire plans for Gaza and south Lebanon, and the nightly slaughter of Palestinian refugees that accompanies each push for peace. It stares the Israeli army’s high command in the face: October has . . . READ MORE . . .