Beirut airport Sunday saw long queues of travellers looking to leave Lebanon after France, the US and the UK issued warnings to their citizens amid soaring regional tensions. Earlier, Hezbollah said it launched dozens of Katyusha rockets at Israel overnight while Yemen’s Houthi rebels struck a Liberian-flagged container ship in the Gulf of Aden. Follow our liveblog for all the latest developments. Read FRANCE 24's live blog to see how all the day's events unfolded.
Summary:
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Travellers waited in queues at Beirut airport Sunday after France joined the US, UK and other nations to call on its citizens to leave Lebanon "as soon as possible" amid escalating tensions and fears of a broader regional conflict.
- Hezbollah said overnight it had launched dozens of Katyusha rockets at Israel, the latest in a series of attacks it says is in support of the Palestinian people.
- Two people were killed and three other people seriously wounded in a stabbing attack in a Tel Aviv suburb, Israel's emergency medical service said, with police reporting a Palestinian suspect was "neutralised".
- Israeli strikes killed 18 people in Gaza, including four who were sheltering in a tent camp for displaced people.
- At least 39,583 Palestinians have been killed and 91,398 injured in Israel's war in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run enclave. The Hamas-led October 7 attacks resulted in the deaths of more than 1,190 people, mostly civilians, according to official Israeli figures. Some 250 people were taken hostage, with about 120 remaining in Gaza. Many have been declared dead by Israeli authorities.
Yesterday's key developments:
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The US Saturday urged citizens in Lebanon to leave on "any ticket available" amid growing fears of a wider conflict in the Middle East following the death of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh. The UK issued a similar warning to British nationals, telling them to “leave now”.
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Iran's Revolutionary Guards Saturday said that Israel killed Haniyeh using a "short-range projectile" launched from outside of his accommodation in Tehran, contradicting reports earlier in the week that Haniyeh had been killed by a bomb planted months before. Haniyeh was buried Friday at cemetery in Lusail, north of the Qatari capital.
Gaza’s health ministry collects data from the enclave’s hospitals and the Palestinian Red Crescent. For more on the health ministry’s casualty figures, click here.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP & Reuters)
