Portal:Current events/2023 October 17

October 17, 2023 (Tuesday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

2023 Brussels shooting
- Police in Brussels, Belgium, shoot and kill the Islamic State sympathizer who killed two Swedish tourists yesterday. (BBC News)
Arab–Israeli conflict
- Gaza-Israel conflict
  - Israel–Hamas war
    - Al-Ahli Arab Hospital explosion
      - At least 471 people are killed and 314 others are injured by an explosion at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health, saying it was caused by a Israeli airstrike. The casualties are transported to Gaza City’s main hospital, al-Shifa. (Reuters) (AP)
      - The Israel Defense Forces claims to have evidence that the explosion was caused by a Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket failure. A spokesman for Islamic Jihad calls the Israeli statement "a lie and fabrication." (Reuters) (AP) (The Times of Israel)
      - Palestine’s Permanent Observer Mission to the United Nations sends a statement to media organisations challenging the veracity of comments from Israel after the explosion. (Al Jazeera)
      - The Organization of Islamic Cooperation releases a statement denouncing Israel for the hospital explosion and the international community for its “impunity” in the war in Gaza. (Al Jazeera)
      - U.S. President Joe Biden postpones an upcoming visit to Jordan following the explosion. (Politico)
    - 2023 Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip, Gaza Strip evacuations
      - The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights says that Israel's blockade of Gaza and its evacuation order in northern Gaza may amount to a forcible transfer of civilians, which is a violation of international law. (The Washington Post) (Reuters)
    - October 2023 UNRWA school airstrike
      - An Israeli airstrike hits a United Nations school inside a refugee camp in Gaza, killing at least six of the more than 4,000 people sheltering there. Dozens more are injured, including UNRWA staff. (United Nations)
      - The Israeli Ministry of Health says that 4,399 people in Israel have been injured since the start of the war. (The Times of Israel)
      - The World Health Organization says that 2,800 people have died and 11,000 have been injured in Gaza since Israeli air strikes began, with about half of those being women and children. (Reuters)
      - The World Health Organization says that there have been 51 attacks against healthcare facilities in Gaza, killing 15 health workers and injuring 27 others, and that "we have seen consistent attacks on healthcare in the occupied Palestinian territory." (Reuters) (United Nations)
      - Hamas announces that Ayman Nofal, a member of the general military council and commander of the central command in the Al-Qassam Brigades, was killed in an Israeli airstrike. (AFP via Al Arabiya)
  - 2024 Iran–Israel conflict, Israel–Hezbollah conflict
    - Five Hezbollah fighters are killed by Israeli soldiers when trying to cross a barrier at the border with Lebanon. (Reuters)
    - Lebanese state media reports that villages Dhayra and others were "continuous(ly)" bombarded by the IDF overnight, allegedly using White phosphorus munitions.(France24) In the early morning it was reported that multiple people were suffering from symptoms of suffocation after the IDF allegedly fired white phosphorus shells on the village. (Efe)
    - Three people injured from a Hezbollah missile strike on the Metula, northern Israel.(APNews)
Russian invasion of Ukraine
- 2023 Ukrainian counteroffensive
  - Ukraine launches ATACMS tactical ballistic missiles at Russian bases in Berdiansk and Luhansk, saying that they destroyed nine helicopters and a supply depot and killed several Russian military personnel. (BBC News) (AP)

International relations

Hungary–Russia relations
- Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Russian President Vladimir Putin hold talks at the Belt and Road Initiative forum in Beijing, China. (AP)
Russia and weapons of mass destruction
- The State Duma votes unanimously to revoke Russia's ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. (AFP via The Moscow Times)

Law and crime

LGBT rights in India
- The Supreme Court of India refuses to legalize same-sex marriage, saying that this is a decision that needs to be made by parliament. (AP)
Killing of Wadea al-Fayoume
- The Diocese of Joliet, Illinois, confirms that Joseph Czuba, the man charged with killing a 6-year-old Palestinian Muslim Wadea al-Fayoume and injuring the boy's mother, is a member of a local Catholic Church parish. (America)

Politics and elections

October 2023 Speaker of the United States House of Representatives election
- The Republican majority fails to deliver enough votes for Jim Jordan to become House Speaker on the first vote, with 20 members of the Republican party voting against him. (CNN)