Summary of the day
Here’s a recap of the latest developments:
The leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, threatened Israel with “tough retribution and just punishment” after an unprecedented wave of attacks targeted the organisation this week. In a televised speech on Thursday, Nasrallah admitted the attacks had been a major blow and threatened retribution against Israel “where it expects it and where it does not”. Israel will face “a crushing response from the axis of resistance”, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Cmdr Hossein Salami told Nasrallah, state media reported.
In his speech, Nasrallah vowed to continue the conflict with Israel until a ceasefire in Gaza was reached. “The Lebanese front will not stop until the aggression on Gaza stops”, despite “all this blood spilt”, he said. In response, Hamas said it “highly appreciates” Hezbollah’s support.
As Nasrallah made his televised remarks, Israeli jets roared over Beirut in a show of force. Late on Thursday, Israeli warplanes carried out dozens of strikes across southern Lebanon, in some of the most intense bombing since the start of the war in October. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its fighter jets struck more than 100 Hezbollah rocket launchers in southern Lebanon in the space of a few hours.
Eight people were reported to have been injured by antitank missiles fired by Hezbollah into northern Israel, and two were hurt in a drone attack. Hezbollah has traded near-daily cross-border fire with Israel since Hamas’s 7 October attacks sparked the war in Gaza. The IDF said two of its soldiers were killed by Hezbollah strikes across the Lebanon border on Thursday.
Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, said Israeli military operations “will continue”, adding that there are “significant opportunities, but also heavy risks” as the country enters a “new phase” of the war. “Our goal is to return the residents of the north to their homes safely. As time goes by, Hezbollah will pay an increasing price,” Gallant said on Thursday.
The speech by the Hezbollah leader on Thursday came amid fears that a full-blown war between Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, and Israel could be imminent. Thousands of pagers used by Hezbollah exploded simultaneously on Tuesday, killing 12 people, including two children, and wounding up to 2,800 others across Lebanon. A day later, 25 people were killed and more than 450 wounded when walkie-talkies exploded in supermarkets, on streets and at funerals. There was no comment from Israel.
Senior diplomats from the US, Britain, Germany, France and Italy met on Thursday in Paris before a UN security council meeting planned for Friday as tensions in the Middle East spiralled. The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, urged against “escalatory actions by any party” in the Middle East and called for restraint, while France’s foreign minister, Stéphane Séjourné, said France and the US were “very worried about the situation” in the Middle East.
The UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, called for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. “We are all very, very clear that we want to see a negotiated political settlement so that Israelis can return to their homes in northern Israel and indeed Lebanese to return to their homes,” Lammy said on Thursday. He urged British nationals in Lebanon to leave the country “while commercial options remain.”
The US believes that a diplomatic solution in the Middle East is “achievable” and “urgent”, the White House said on Thursday. A US state department spokesperson called on Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah to stop “terrorist attacks” in Israel. The US has not changed its military posture following recent attacks in Lebanon targeting Hezbollah devices, the Pentagon said. The US secretary of defense, Lloyd Austin, has reportedly postponed a planned trip next week to Israel due to the escalation on the Israeli-Lebanese border.
Explosions in booby-trapped radios and pagers in Lebanon “seriously disrupted” the country’s fragile health sector, the head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said. Lebanese authorities on Thursday banned walkie-talkies and pagers from being taken on flights from Beirut airport.
The communications devices that exploded in Lebanon were implanted with explosives before arriving into the country, according to a preliminary investigation by Lebanese authorities. Lebanese authorities determined that the devices were detonated by sending electronic messages to the devices, according to a letter sent by the Lebanese mission to the UN to the UN’s security council.
Six Palestinians were killed and 18 others injured on Thursday by Israeli forces during a military raid in the occupied West Bank city of Qabatiya, the governor of the Jenin area of the occupied West Bank told Reuters. In a statement to AFP, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said an air strike killed militants in Qabatiya “as part of a counterterrorism operation”.
UN children’s rights experts have accused Israel of severe breaches of a global treaty protecting children’s rights, saying its military actions in Gaza had “catastrophic consequences” on children in the Palestinian territory.
A senior Israeli adviser has presented a new proposed ceasefire deal with Hamas to the Biden administration, according to reports. The proposal from Gal Hirsch, a close ally to prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, would see a permanent end to the conflict in Gaza, the release in one stage of all hostages held there in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, and the safe passage for Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar to be exiled out of Gaza, according to reports.
Six Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in Qabatiya in West Bank – report
The governor of the Jenin area of the occupied West Bank said six Palestinians were killed and 18 others injured on Thursday by Israeli forces during a military raid in the occupied West Bank city of Qabatiya.
Kamal Abu al-Rub told Reuters that four of the injured were in critical condition, and that Israeli forces withdrew from Qabatiya after destroying infrastructure in the area.
In a statement to AFP, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said an air strike killed militants in Qabatiya “as part of a counterterrorism operation”.
The news agency reported seeing two male bodies on the roof of a building in Qabatiya, and a third corpse lying on a sheet of metal one floor below.
Al Jazeera reported that a video showed Israeli soldiers pushing dead bodies off a roof in a raid in Qabatiya. It said that the Israeli military opened fire on a group of journalists filming the raid from a nearby building.
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The US has not changed its military posture following recent attacks in Lebanon targeting Hezbollah devices, the Pentagon said.
Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh, at a briefing on Thursday, told reporters:
I am not tracking any force posture changes in the Eastern Med or in the Central Command area of responsibility.
Asked about the status of a potential Gaza ceasefire deal amid escalating regional tensions, Singh said the US did not believe that a deal was falling apart.
The US has kept an increased military presence in the Middle East throughout much of the past year, according to Associated Press.
About 40,000 US forces, at least a dozen warships and four US air force fighter jet squadrons are spread across the region both to protect allies and to serve as a deterrent against attacks, US officials have told AP.
IDF says it destroyed more than 100 Hezbollah rocket launchers
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its fighter jets struck more than 100 Hezbollah rocket launchers in southern Lebanon in the past few hours.
The IDF said that since Thursday afternoon, fighter jets struck about 100 rocket launchers consisting of about 1,000 barrels that were set to be used to immediately fire toward Israeli territory.
From the Times of Israel’s Emanuel Fabian:
Israeli fighter jets in the last several hours struck over 100 Hezbollah rocket launchers in southern Lebanon that were primed for immediate attacks on Israel, the military says.
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) September 19, 2024
The IDF says that in total, the launchers included around 1,000 launch barrels.
The strikes began… pic.twitter.com/nHoxC7nRQs
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UN experts say Israel's military actions in Gaza have 'catastrophic consequences' on children
UN children’s rights experts have accused Israel of severe breaches of a global treaty protecting children’s rights, saying its military actions in Gaza had “catastrophic consequences” on children in the Palestinian territory.
The UN committee on the rights of the child published their findings on Thursday after a review of Israel’s compliance with the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child.
“The outrageous death of children is almost historically unique. This is an extremely dark place in history,” Bragi Gudbrandsson, vice-chair of the committee, told reporters, Reuters reported.
I don’t think we have seen before, a violation that is so massive, as we are seeing in Gaza now ... These are extremely grave violations that we do not often see.
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Here’s more from the US state department’s briefing on Thursday, in which its spokesperson said Washington was still working for a normalisation deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
On Wednesday, the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, said the kingdom would not recognise Israel without a Palestinian state. He said:
The kingdom will not stop its tireless work towards the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, and we affirm that the kingdom will not establish diplomatic relations with Israel without that.
US state department spokesperson Matthew Miller played down the remarks, noting that Saudi Arabia has long made clear it wants a two-state solution and a ceasefire in Gaza.
“Every day that goes by, it gets tougher to accomplish anything. That’s just a temporal fact,” Miller told reporters.
We continue to believe, however, that long term, of course, normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel is in the interests of both countries” and the region.
“We are obviously quite aware of the challenges that we face in getting to those [goals] now. The fighting in Gaza continues to wage on. We continue to work to get a ceasefire,” he added.
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UK calls for immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah
The UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, has called for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
Lammy, speaking to Reuters on Thursday after meeting his French, US and Italian counterparts for talks in Paris, said:
We are all very, very clear that we want to see a negotiated political settlement so that Israelis can return to their homes in northern Israel and indeed Lebanese to return to their homes.
As we reported earlier, Lammy has urged British nationals in Lebanon to leave the country “while commercial options remain”, warning that “tensions are high and the situation could deteriorate rapidly”.
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Delta Air Lines announced it would pause its flights between New York and Tel Aviv through 31 December, citing the “ongoing conflict in the region”.
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Exploding devices in Lebanon 'detonated by electronic messages' – report
The Lebanese mission to the UN said a preliminary investigation into the communications devices that exploded in Lebanon this week found that they were implanted with explosives before arriving into the country, according to a letter seen by Reuters.
Lebanese authorities determined that the devices, which included pagers and walkie-talkies, were detonated by sending electronic messages to the devices, according to the letter sent to the UN’s security council.
The letter claims Israel was responsible for the planning and execution of the attacks, according to Reuters. Israel has not directly commented on the attacks.
The UN’s security council is scheduled to meet on Friday over the blasts in Lebanon that killed at least 37 people and wounded thousands across the country.
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US calls on Hezbollah to stop 'terrorist attacks' against Israel
The US state department also held a briefing on Thursday to discuss the latest developments in the Middle East following the wave of explosions targeting devices in Lebanon.
US state department spokesperson Matthew Miller referred to remarks made earlier today by the head of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, who vowed to keep fighting Israel “until the aggression on Gaza stops”. Miller said:
Nasrallah could stop the terrorist attacks across Israel, and I guarantee you, if he did that, we would be impressing upon Israel the need to maintain calm on their end. Bottom line is, he hasn’t stopped those terrorist attacks.
“So as long as Hezbollah is launching terrorist attacks across the border, of course Israel is going to launch military action to defend itself, as any country would,” he said. However, he added:
We will continue to stand by Israel’s right to defend itself, but we don’t want to see any party escalate this conflict, period.
Miller acknowledged the limits of US diplomacy, adding: “Ultimately every country is responsible … for the actions that they take.”
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White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said the US would continue to work on a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, which she said would help with “lowering the temperature” in the region.
“We are working around the clock” along with Egypt and Qatar to reach a diplomatic resolution in the region, she said.
Updated
US believes diplomatic resolution in Middle East 'achievable' and 'urgent', says White House
The US believes that a diplomatic solution in the Middle East is “achievable” and “urgent”, the White House has said.
The White House’s spokesperson, Karine Jean-Pierre, said on Thursday that the US’s commitment to Israel’s security against “all Iran-backed threats, including Hezbollah” was “unwavering”.
She told reporters that the US will “continue to have those diplomatic conversations”, adding:
The conflict along the blue line has gone on for far too long, and it needs to get to a resolution quickly.
“We still believe a diplomatic resolution is the way forward here. We still believe that it is possible,” she added.
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The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, said Israeli fighter jets are flying over south-western Syria.
— المرصد السوري لحقوق الإنسان (@syriahr) September 19, 2024
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A meticulous manufacturing operation, probably controlled by an Israeli front company, is emerging as the most likely way thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies containing hidden explosives ended up in the hands of Hezbollah operatives this week.
Experts said the sabotaged devices appeared to use small amounts of military-grade plastic explosives that could be carefully assembled only over a period of time, amid reports that they were manufactured by an Israeli front company with links to Europe.
“It looks like what was used was a high-grade plastic military explosive,” said Trevor Lawrence, the head of Cranfield University’s Ordnance Test and Evaluation Centre, which tests bombs on Britain’s Salisbury Plain. “You only need around 5g, but it is a complex job to insert them into the pagers and ensure they still worked.”
Military plastic explosives are not commercially available, but are able to kill and cause significant injuries if they are close to a person, particularly their head and torso, Lawrence said. This tallies with the injuries caused in Lebanon this week. “Causing injury with explosives is all about proximity,” he added.
Read the full story: Israeli front-controlled manufacturing process likeliest explanation for attacks on Hezbollah
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Israel conducts 'major intensification of bombing' in southern Lebanon – report
Israel carried out dozens of strikes on Thursday across southern Lebanon, Reuters is reporting, citing Lebanese security sources.
According to the sources, the strikes marked some of the most intense bombing since the start of the war in October.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it hit about 30 Hezbollah rocket launchers along with other “infrastructure” in airstrikes carried out in Lebanon on Thursday. An IDF statement reads:
With the direction of IDF (military) intelligence, the IAF (air force) struck approximately 30 Hezbollah launchers and terrorist infrastructure sites, containing approximately 150 launcher barrels that were ready to fire projectiles toward Israeli territory.
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France’s foreign minister, Stéphane Séjourné, speaking in a joint press conference with his US counterpart, Antony Blinken, said France and the US were “very worried about the situation” in the Middle East.
The two countries were coordinating to “send messages of de-escalation” to the parties, Séjourné told reporters, adding:
Lebanon would not recover from a total war.
France’s president Emmanuel Macron held phone calls with Lebanon’s top political and military leaders during which he urged restraint following the wave of explosions on Tuesday and Wednesday.
In a statement by his office, Macron asked Lebanon’s leaders to pass on messages to local groups including Hezbollah to avoid further escalation amid fears of a wider war.
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France and US 'united in calling for restraint' in Middle East, says Blinken
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has urged against “escalatory actions by any party” in the Middle East and called for restraint following the explosions of devices targeted at Hezbollah in Lebanon, attacks that have been blamed on Israel.
Blinken, at a news conference on Thursday after talks in Paris with his French counterpart, Stéphane Séjourné, said:
France and the United States are united in calling for restraint and urging de-escalation when it comes to the Middle East in general and when it comes to Lebanon in particular.
He said he did not want any “escalatory actions” that could make a ceasefire deal in Gaza even “more difficult”:
We continue to work to get a ceasefire for Gaza over the finish line ... We believe that remains both possible and necessary.
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Hamas on Thursday said it “highly appreciates” Hezbollah’s support after its leader Hassan Nasrallah vowed to keep fighting Israel until a ceasefire in Gaza is reached.
According to Agence France-Presse, Hamas said Nasrallah and Hezbollah’s position frustrated “plans to undermine the support front of our people and resistance in the Gaza Strip”.
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The UN is set to deliver micronutrients along with its second round of polio vaccinations to children in Gaza who have been forcibly displaced and malnourished due to Israel’s war on the Strip.
On Thursday, Ted Chaiban, Unicef’s deputy executive director for humanitarian action and supply operations said: “There are over 44,000 children born in the last year and who haven’t received their basic immunization,” Reuters reports.
He added that discussions were under way about adding additional vaccinations to the campaign including measles immunization.
Israel’s aid restrictions into Gaza have resulted in the spread of various diseases across the Strip that could have otherwise been prevented through basic hygiene measures including soap access and clean water.
Last month, the World Health Organization confirmed that a baby was left partially paralyzed by polio, the first case to emerge in the territory in 25 years.
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UK foreign secretary tells British nationals to leave Lebanon 'while commercial options remain'
The UK foreign secretary has urged British nationals in Lebanon to leave the country “while commercial options remain”.
In a post on X, David Lammy wrote:
“My message to British nationals in Lebanon is leave while commercial options remain.
Tensions are high and the situation could deteriorate rapidly.”
2/2
— David Lammy (@DavidLammy) September 19, 2024
My message to British nationals in Lebanon is leave while commercial options remain.
Tensions are high and the situation could deteriorate rapidly.
See the latest travel advice: https://t.co/oeWXh6FKnA.
He added that he spoke with Lebanon’s prime minister and expressed his “deep concern over rising tensions and civilian tensions” in the country.
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US defence secretary postpones Israel trip
The US secretary of defense, Lloyd Austin, has postponed a planned trip next week to Israel due to the escalation on the Israeli-Lebanese border, Axios is reporting, citing Israeli sources.
🚨🚨BREAKING: Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has postponed his visit to Israel planned for early next week due to the escalation on the Israeli-Lebanese border, two Israeli officials briefed on the matter told me
— Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) September 19, 2024
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Spain’s foreign ministry has condemned the attacks targeting explosive devices in Lebanon, saying they constituted a violation of international humanitarian law and threatened the region’s stability.
“We call for restraint on the part of all actors,” the ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
It’s necessary to avoid a further escalation of violence and the risk of open war with unforeseeable consequences.
The statement followed a meeting between Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, and the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, in Madrid earlier today. It was the first meeting between the two leaders since Spain recognised Palestine as a state.
Sánchez, speaking to reporters after the meeting, said:
Today the risk of escalation has again dangerously increased. President Abbas and I have been talking about it in Lebanon, so we have to make a new and strong call for restraint, for de-escalation, for peaceful coexistence between countries. In short, to peace.
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Israel's defence minister says military actions will continue with 'heavy risks'
Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, has said that there are “significant opportunities, but also heavy risks” as the country enters what he described as a “new phase” of the war.
Gallant, addressing top Israel Defense Forces (IDF) officials in comments carried by the Times of Israel, said:
This is a new phase in the war, it has significant opportunities, but also heavy risks. Hezbollah is feeling chased and the sequence of our military operations will continue.
“Our goal is to return the residents of the north to their homes safely. As time goes by, Hezbollah will pay an increasing price,” he added.
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The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said explosions in booby-trapped radios and pagers in Lebanon “seriously disrupted” the country’s fragile health sector.
Ghebreyesus, at a press conference on Thursday, said the WHO had distributed blood supplies and trauma kits in the country.
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Lebanon’s prime minister, Najib Mikati, has called on the UN to take a “firm stance” against Israel ahead of a meeting of the UN security council on Friday.
“This matter does not only concern Lebanon but all of humanity,” Mikati said in a statement.
Israel will face 'crushing response from axis of resistance', says Iran's Revolutionary Guards chief
Israel will face “a crushing response from the axis of resistance”, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Cmdr Hossein Salami told the head of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, Reuters is reporting, citing Iranian state media.
Two Israeli soldiers killed in Hezbollah strikes, says IDF
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says two of its soldiers were killed by the latest Hezbollah strikes across the Lebanon border.
From the Times of Israel’s Emanuel Fabian:
Two Israeli soldiers were killed and several others were wounded in Hezbollah missile and drone attacks on northern Israel today, the IDF announces.
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) September 19, 2024
The slain soldiers are named as:
Maj. (res.) Nael Fwarsy, 43, a logistics company commander in the 300th "Baram" Regional… pic.twitter.com/Dh11bSi9SO
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Nasrallah says Lebanon attacks will meet a 'just punishment'
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, addressing Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, says Israel will not be able to return its residents to the north.
You will not be able to return the people of the north to the north … No military escalation, no killings, no assassinations and no all-out war can return residents to the border.
He says the attacks this week targeting his group will be met with “just punishment”.
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Israeli fighter jets break sound barrier over Beirut as Nasrallah gives speech
Israeli fighter jets carried out mock air raids and broke the sound barrier over Beirut, Lebanon, as the secretary general of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, spoke for the first time since the pager explosions this week.
The low-flying jets brought residents out of their homes and into the streets as they looked to the sky and watched the remnants of flares dissipate.
While sonic booms have become common in Lebanon over the last two months, the mock air raid over Beirut on Thursday was the lowest jets have flown over the city since the beginning of fighting in October.
A series of airstrikes were also carried out in several areas in south Lebanon to coincide with the beginning of Nasrallah’s speech. The Israeli military said it was targeting Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.
“For decades, Hezbollah has weaponized civilian homes, dug tunnels beneath them, and used civilians as human shields,” the Israeli military said.
Nasrallah said the pager explosions, which injured more than 3,000 and killed more than 32 people, crossed “all red lines”.
He insisted that despite the attack, Hezbollah would not stop fighting on the Lebanese front until the war in Gaza stops.
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Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah says the attacks across Lebanon this week were targeted to undermine the group’s infrastructure and for the group to defy the leadership.
He says the “Israeli enemy” had planned for the attacks to drive a wedge between the group and cause division.
But he says the top Hezbollah officials did not carry the model of the pagers that exploded.
“Our infrastructure has not been shaken,” he says, adding that instead it was “robust, mighty, coherent and cannot be shaken by such an attack”.
Let the enemy know what happened did not shake our faith, conviction, resolve, preparedness or infrastructure. On the contrary, this turned us more resolved, more robust and more adamant. If the Israeli’s objective was to separate us from what’s taking place in Gaza, it failed.
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Nasrallah says Lebanese front will not stop until the war in Gaza ends
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah says the group will not “abandon” their “fellow resistance fighters” in Gaza and the population in Gaza and West Bank.
Nasrallah says the aim of the attacks in Lebanon this week were aimed to “bring Hezbollah to their knees” and to surrender.
Addressing Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, he says Hezbollah operations in southern Lebanon will not come to a halt until the war in Gaza comes to an end.
I say it clearly: no matter what the consequences are, no matter what the sacrifices are, no matter what scenarios would unfold, the resistance in Lebanon will not stop supporting the resistance in Gaza and the West Bank and all the aggrieved in the occupied territories.
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Mutiple sonic booms reported over Beirut as Nasrallah speaks; Israel says it is striking Hezbollah targets
As Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has been speaking, multiple huge sonic booms from Israeli jets have been reportedly been heard over Beirut.
#Israeli warplanes have just broke sound barrier over #Beirut as #Hezbollah leader gives a speech
— Bassem Mroue باسم مروه (@bmroue) September 19, 2024
As we reported earlier, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it was striking Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.
Israel’s military chief of staff, Lt Gen Herzi Halevi, had approved plans for Israel’s north, which borders Lebanon, according to an IDF statement.
“For decades, Hezbollah has weaponized civilian homes, dug tunnels beneath them, and used civilians as human shields,” it said.
The IDF is operating to bring security to northern Israel in order to enable the return of residents to their homes, as well as to achieve all of the war goals.
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Nasrallah says Hezbollah was dealt 'unprecedented blow'
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah says the group has been dealt a “very hard” blow, describing the attacks as “unprecedented” in Lebanon.
Nasrallah said investigation committees have been formed to study how the explosions happened, and that he will wait until he sees the assessments of those investigations. He says:
We have received a very hard hit. But this is a state of a war.
Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, says the pager attacks were intended to “kill 4,000 people in one moment”. “This was the intention of the enemy, and this is the scale of criminality”.
What can we call this kind of criminal action. Is it a big operation? Is it genocide? Is it a massacre?
Nasrallah says medics among blast victims and claims Israel has 'crossed all the red lines'
Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, says the “Israeli enemy” had “crossed over all the red lines” and targeted many of the pages in Lebanon earlier this week.
The explosions happened in hospitals because some medics were carrying them, he said.
He said the blasts also occurred in pharmacies, hospitals, markets, shops, houses, cars and in the streets where many civilians were.
There were women and children and thousands were injured, different kinds of wounds.
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Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah delivers remarks after deadly blasts
The head of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, has started speaking in his first public address since the deadly explosions on Tuesday and Wednesday across Lebanon.
The Israeli Defense Forces’ chief of the general staff has “recently completed approval of plans for the northern arena,” the military said.
The IDF also said it is striking Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.
The Chief of the General Staff, LTG Herzi Halevi, recently completed approval of plans for the northern arena. pic.twitter.com/B8VEZMZC9T
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) September 19, 2024
צה״ל תוקף כעת מטרות חיזבאללה בלבנון לפגיעה ולגריעת יכולות טרור ותשתיות צבאיות של הארגון.
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) September 19, 2024
ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה הפך את דרום לבנון למרחב לחימה, וחימש לאורך עשרות שנים את בתיהם של האזרחים באמצעי לחימה, חפר תחתיהם מנהרות ועשה בהם שימוש כמגן אנושי>>
Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the news wires of funerals being carried out in Lebanon after two waves of attacks, widely regarded to be by Israel, detonated pagers and walkie-talkies.
Lebanon bans pagers and walkie-talkies being taken on flights from Beirut
Lebanese authorities on Thursday banned walkie-talkies and pagers from being taken on flights from Beirut airport, Reuters reports.
Citing the Lebanese national news agency, it notes the Lebanese civilian aviation directorate asked airlines operating from Beirut to tell passengers that walkie-talkies and pagers were banned until further notice. Such devices were also banned from being shipped by air, the Lebanese state news agency reported.
At least 37 people were killed and more than 3,000 wounded when pagers and walkie-talkies were detonated in two waves of attacks widely attributed to Israel. Those killed or wounded included Hezbollah fighters, medics and administrative staff. At least two of Tuesday’s dead were children.
The impact of the attack on civilian life will add further to criticism that the attack bore the hallmarks of “wanton disregard” for civilian life, as Irish Tánaiste Micheál Martin said earlier in the week.
Reuters spoke to a Beirut resident, Mustafa Sibai, who said “Of course we’re scared, my children, my siblings’ children, all of us. Who can feel safe in this situation? When I heard about what happened … I left my phone on my motorcycle and walked away.”
Mustafa Jemaa, who owns an electrical shop in Sidon, told the news agency he had removed some stock. “We had some devices here that we believed were 100% safe, but out of caution, we removed them ... because we got worried,” he said.
Earlier today the Lebanese army said it was carrying out controlled demolition of suspicious electronic devices. Lebanon’s information minister Ziad Makari said panic was to be expected, noting that the attack was “a new type of crime to the Lebanese” and that it had struck people at home, at work and during their daily lives.
Lebanon’s state-owned NNA news agency reports that French president Emmanuel Macron phoned Lebanese caretake prime minister Najib Mikati today.
Israeli media is reporting that Israel has submitted a new ceasefire proposal to Joe Biden’s administration in the US.
Jonathan Lis reports for Haaretz that it is has been put forward by the government official responsible for returning the hostages and missing persons, Gal Hirsch. Lis writes:
All hostages held in Gaza would be released in one phase, in exchange for ending the war. As part of Hirsch’s proposal, Israel would agree that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, his family, and thousands of operatives of his choice would leave Gaza for a third country. According to the proposal, this move would not be defined as a “surrender” or “exile” and would allow Hamas leaders to leave through a safe passage. Sources familiar with the initiative stated that the move is intended to “unblock” the deadlock imposed by the crisis in the negotiations.
Earlier this week, while visiting Cairo, the US secretary of state Antony Blinken claimed that 15 out of 18 paragraphs of a ceasefire agreement had been settled upon, and that progress had been made in the last few weeks, despite there being no imminent sign of Israel relenting in its bombardment of Gaza or the impending release of any of the hostages who have been held by Hamas for approaching a year.
Egypt’s foreign minister, Badr Abdelatty, said at the same press conference that his country would not accept any changes to the pre-7 October security arrangements for the border between Egypt and Gaza, including for the Rafah crossing. Benjamin Netanyahu appears to have been insisting that as part of any deal Israel must retain control of the Philadelphi corridor, the strip of land running along the Egypt-Gaza border. Israel’s military seized control of the Rafah crossing in May.
Turkey's military reviewing security of communication devices after Lebanon pager and walkie-talkie detonations
Turkey is reviewing its measures to secure the communication devices used by its armed forces after the deadly blasts in Lebanon, a Turkish defence ministry official said on Thursday.
The Turkish government has put the blame for the 37 people killed and thousands injured in the explosions firmly at the door of Israel, with foreign minister Hakan Fiden earlier today saying “The escalation in the region is alarming. We see Israel mounting its attacks towards Lebanon step by step. We have come to a point where these operations carried out by Israel have become increasingly provocative.”
Reuters reports a Turkish official, speaking to the news agency on condition of anonymity, said Turkey’s military exclusively used domestically produced equipment but Ankara had additional control mechanisms in place if a third party is involved in procurement or production of devices.
“In the context of this incident, we as the defence ministry are carrying out the necessary examinations,” the person added
In interviews in the UK this morning Jonathan Reynolds, the business minister, said that he rejected “very much” a claim by Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, that the UK government’s decision to suspend some arms sales to his country was a boost to Hamas.
Netanyahu made the claim in an interview with the Daily Mail. He told the paper:
They say that Israel has the right to defend itself, but they undermine our ability to exercise that right both by reversing Britain’s position on the absurd allegations made by the ICC [international criminal court] prosecutor against Israel and by blocking weapons sales to Israel as we fight against the genocidal terrorist organisation that carried out the 7 October massacre.
The new UK government suspended 30 arms licences to Israel, days after Hamas executed six Israeli hostages, sending a horrible message to Hamas.
Asked how he reacted to Netanyahu saying Labour was sending a “horrible message to Hamas”, Reynolds said:
I would respectfully reject very much that position and say the decision we took was fair, was proportionate, was consistent with international law, and, fundamentally what we need, what everyone needs in the Middle East is a ceasefire in that conflict. That is in Israel’s interest. I think it’s in everyone’s interest to make sure we get there. But we will always comply with international law as a government. I think you’d expect that of the UK government.
A funeral has been taking place in Ghobeiry in Beirut’s southern suburbs for two Hezbollah members. In an earlier update Lebanon’s health minister Firass Abiad gave the casualty figures from the two waves of attacks that exploded electrical devices as 12 people killed and 2,323 admitted to hospital on Tuesday, and 25 people killed and 708 wounded on Wednesday.
A UN committee has condemned Israel for committing “severe violations” of a global treaty protecting children’s rights, saying its military actions in Palestine since last October has had a “catastrophic” impact on them.
“The committee condemns in the strongest terms the severe violations of rights under the convention in the OPT (Occupied Palestinian Territories), including the tremendous loss of life as a result of the state party’s military actions,” the four-person committee said in a document, referring to the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Israel’s delegation argued in a series of UN hearings earlier this month that the treaty did not apply in Gaza or the West Bank and said that it was committed to respecting international humanitarian law.
Three Palestinians killed by Israeli fire in West Bank
Three Palestinians have been killed and four others were injured by Israeli fire during a military raid in the occupied West Bank’s city of Qabatiya, Reuters reports, citing the Palestinian official news agency WAFA.
Death toll from walkie-talkie explosions in Lebanon rises to 25, health minister says
The death toll from Wednesday’s blasts targeting walkie-talkies across Lebanon has risen to 25, the country’s health minister Firass Abiad has said. Speaking at a press conference, he also said 608 others had been injured.
Lebanon’s state-owned news agency NNA, citing a Lebanese military statement, reports that pagers and other electronic devices are being detonated in a controlled fashion as a precautionary measure.
It quotes the military saying that specialised units are “detonating pagers and suspicious communication devices in various regions” and called on citizens “to stay away from the detonation scenes and to report any suspicious device or object.”
Al Jazeera is carrying an additional quote from Turkey’s foreign minister Hakan Fidan, who said that “Iran, Hezbollah and elements close to them have no choice” but to respond to recent actions widely attributed to Israel. He said “We have come to a point where these operations carried out by Israel have become increasingly provocative.”
Israel’s military evacuated injured people by helicopter after an anti-tank missile was fired into northern Israel from Lebanon this morning. Reports in Israeli media suggest at least eight people were wounded.
The man that Israeli security forces say they have arrested for plotting assassinations against senior political figures in Israel has been named as 73-year-old Moti Maman. Maman, from Ashkelon, was arrested last month and indicted this morning. The Shin Bet and Israeli police have claimed that Iran was backing the plot.
Turkey: Israel mounting attacks against Lebanon 'step by step'
Hakan Fidan has said it is “alarming” that conflict appears to be escalating in the Middle East. The Turkish foreign minister is reported by AFP as saying “The escalation in the region is alarming. We see Israel mounting its attacks towards Lebanon step by step.”
Hezbollah and Israel have repeatedly exchanged fire since the surprise Hamas attack in southern Israel in October 2023, and thousands of Israelis and Lebanese people have fled their homes to avoid the crossfire over the UN-drawn blue line that separates the two countries.
Israeli media reports that at least eight people were injured by an anti-tank guided missile attack from Lebanon on what Hezbollah has claimed was an IDF position in northern Israel.
More details soon …
Lebanon’s state-owned news agency NNA reports that there have been fires inside Lebanon near the UN-drawn blue line that separates Israel and Lebanon as a result of fire from Israel. It also reports that Israeli drones and reconnaissance planes have been overflying southern Lebanon.
Lorenzo Tondo reports from Jerusalem for the Guardian:
The head of the UN relief agency for Palestinians, Unrwa, said in a statement on Thursday that “too many of our staff are being killed as our buildings are attacked’’ in Gaza.
Commissioner general of Unrwa, Phlippe Lazzarini, says that the UN agency “continues to be the target of a barrage of misinformation & disinformation.”
In the statement he said:
This includes attempts to justify the killing of staff by labelling them operatives of armed groups like Hamas. Such horrific claims, made publicly, are not backed by evidence and are dangerous. Most importantly, they instigate fear among our humanitarian frontline workers in Gaza.
Several colleagues told us they no longer feel safe to put on the Unrwa vest. Their children are begging them not to go to work fearing they might be killed while in Unrwa buildings. The misinformation attacks are not about the neutrality of Unrwa or our humanitarian workers.
Lazzarini said these attempts were aimed at
creation of a distraction from the atrocities of this war
dehumanisation by rendering the unbearable justifiable
undermining and eliminating Unrwa
He added “Everyone has a responsibility to control the spread of inaccurate or malicious information. Before sharing, check the facts to avoid the trap of putting the lives of others at risk.”
Last week, Unrwa said six staff members had been killed in two airstrikes that hit al-Jaouni school in Nuseirat, in central Gaza – the highest death toll among its staff in a single incident. The Israel Defense Forces claimed the strikes killed nine Hamas members, three of whom had doubled as Unrwa workers.
Unrwa, one of the UN’s largest agencies, has 13,000 staff working in Gaza and more than 30,000 in the region providing health and educational facilities to Palestinian refugees.
Lazzarini called for an independent investigation, pointing out the total number of Unrwa staff killed in the conflict since 7 October last year had reached 220.
Allegations of the involvement of Unrwa staff in the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel led major donors in January to cut their funding to the agency, the main channel of humanitarian support not only to Palestinians in Gaza but to Palestinian refugee communities across the region.
In August, the UN fired nine staff members from Unrwa, after an internal investigation found they may have been involved in the Hamas-led 7 October attack against Israel.
The UN secretary general’s office announced the move in a brief statement on Monday. It did not elaborate on the Unrwa staffers’ possible role in the attack. It said the nine included seven staffers who were fired previously over the claims.
In our First Edition newsletter today, my colleague Heather Stewart has spoken to our defence and security editor Dan Sabbagh. Here is a snippet:
Targeting Hezbollah directly is not new: Benjamin Netanyahu’s government claimed to have killed a Hezbollah leader in an airstrike on Beirut in July, for example. But the widespread and indiscriminate nature of Tuesday’s blasts represented a significant escalation.
Israel’s much-feared intelligence agency, the Mossad, has a long history of meticulously planned assassinations. But as Dan points out, the sophistication required to plant explosives, physically, inside what appears to have been a job lot of deadly devices, is on a different level.
When Hezbollah opted to switch to the low-tech option of pagers, he says, it was “so well penetrated by Israeli intelligence,” that they knew the changeover was happening, and were able to “physically compromise the supply chain,” to put explosives inside the devices.
Add in the reports suggesting the US was tipped off that something was about to happen, says Dan, and “all in all, it looks like a state operation. It looks like Israel. It looks like Mossad”.
It is unclear, Dan says, what strategic aim Israel’s scattergun attacks achieved, unless they were simply intended as a provocation.
“Hezbollah will be under some pressure to respond: and it raises the question, does Israel want Hezbollah to respond? Does Israel want Hezbollah to make a move that will force Israel, in turn, into an even more aggressive move, and perhaps start a war?”
Read more here: Thursday briefing – what the attack on Hezbollah means for a fractious Middle East
Senior Hezbollah figure Hassan Nasrallah is expected to make a speech later today, after the explosions in Lebanon over the past two days which have left some of its members dead.
Reporting from Beirut for Al Jazeera, Zeina Khodr says that the group faces “one of its biggest challenges yet”, writing for the news network:
Hezbollah has suffered setbacks in the last 48 hours, to say the least. Its communications network has been compromised. The group is in a very difficult position. It has been trying a difficult balancing act: to maintain deterrence while avoiding – or not giving Israel a pretext – to widen the conflict. Nasrallah will not just be sending messages to Israel. He will be speaking to his own supporters who are asking a lot of questions, including whether the command and control of the organisation is still intact.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has banned Al Jazeera from operating inside Israel.
Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that Israeli security forces are staging a raid in Hebron and in the town of Idhna, west of Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
In a joint statement the Shin Bet and Israel’s police have claimed that last month an Israeli civilian was arrested for allegedly being recruited by Iran to assassinate Israel’s prime minister, defense minister, or the head of the Shin Bet, as well as undertaking other esponiage and sabotage missions.
The Times of Israel reports that the suspect, who security forces claim had been smuggled in and out of Iran during the plotting, was not named, and was indicted on Thursday.
Impossible to know if walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah were 'from our company’, says Japanese firm
Justin McCurry is the Guardian’s Tokyo correspondent
Icom, the Japanese communication equipment maker whose walkie-talkies are thought to have been detonated in Lebanon on Wednesday, said the devices may have been a discontinued model containing modified batteries.
“We can’t rule out the possibility that they are fakes, but there is also a chance the products are our IC-V82 model,” Icom’s director, Yoshiki Enomoto, said, according to the Kyodo news agency. The firm sold around 160,000 units of the model in Japan and overseas before ending production and sales in 2014.
Images of the devices used in the Lebanon attacks showing damage to their battery area indicated the power packs may have been replaced with those that had been modified to explode, Enomoto said.
The Osaka-based company said it was not clear how the devices had ended up in the Middle East. “It is difficult to determine the distribution channels without checking the serial numbers,” Kyodo quoted Enomoto as saying.
Icom said the IC-V82 handheld radio had been exported overseas, including to the Middle East, between 2004 and 2014.
“The production of the batteries needed to operate the main unit has also been discontinued, and a hologram seal to distinguish counterfeit products was not attached, so it is not possible to confirm whether the product shipped from our company,” it said in a statement on its website. It added that products for overseas markets are sold exclusively through its authorised distributors, and that its export programme is based on Japanese security trade control regulations.
Icom said all of its radios are manufactured “under a strict management system” at a subsidiary production site in Wakayama prefecture in western Japan. “No parts other than those specified by our company are used in a product,” it said. “In addition, all of our radios are manufactured at the same factory, and we do not manufacture them overseas.”
Updated
In the last hour Haaretz has reported “several Israelis wounded” by anti-tank missiles fired from Lebanon into northern Israel.
More details soon …
Here is a reminder of the statements, via Reuters, from Japan’s ICOM, the company linked to the walkie-talkies that exploded in Lebanon yesterday.
They said it was not possible to confirm whether the radio product reportedly related to Lebanon explosions was shipped by the company. They said the batteries required to operate the device, for which sales had been discontinued about 10 years ago, had also already been discontinued. They also stated that their products had undergone a strict regulatory process set by the Japanese government.
Australia was one of 43 countries that abstained in a non-binding UN vote urging Israel to cease “its unlawful presence in the occupied Palestinian territory as soon as possible and stop all settlement activity there immediately”.
It was the first resolution tabled by Palestine since the UN general assembly voted in May by 143 to nine to upgrade Palestine’s UN observer status by giving the Palestinian delegation the right to submit resolutions.
Australia’s UN ambassador, James Larsen, told the UN general assembly that Australia “supports many of the principles of this resolution” and was “already doing much of what it calls for” he argued that the vote “distracts from what the world needs Israel to do.”
The latest resolution urges member states to end the import of products originating in the Israeli settlements and to stop the provision of arms, munitions and related equipment to Israel “if it is reasonable to suspect that they may be used in the occupied Palestinian territory”.
Over 530 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank between 7 October 2023 and 8 July of this year.
In its latest operation update, Israel’s military has claimed that its airforce has struck overnight at what it called “Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure” in six areas of southern Lebanon, and also struck at what it called a “Hezbollah weapons storage facility.”
Israel’s military also claimed to have used artillery fire on southern Lebanon.
Thousands of people in Lebanon and Israel have been forced to flee their homes due to the frequent exchanges of fire between Israel and anti-Israeli forces in the region.
Israel’s claims have not been independently verified.
Welcome and summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s continuing coverage of crisis in the Middle East.
After a second wave of device explosions suspected to be an Israeli attack targeting Hezbollah members in Lebanon killed 20, focus is now turning to the manufacturer of the walkie-talkies reportedly used in the blasts.
Images of the exploded walkie-talkies examined by Reuters showed an inside panel labeled “ICOM” and “made in Japan.” However Icom has said it stopped producing the model of radios reportedly used in the blasts about 10 years ago.
“The IC-V82 is a handheld radio that was produced and exported, including to the Middle East, from 2004 to October 2014. It was discontinued about 10 years ago, and since then, it has not been shipped from our company,” Icom said in a statement.
Wednesday’s blasts, came a day after the simultaneous explosion of hundreds of paging devices used by Hezbollah killing 12 people, including two children. Hezbollah blamed the unprecedented attack on Israel.
More on this in a moment, first here’s a summary of they day’s other main events.
Israel has not claimed responsibility for the attacks in Lebanon on Tuesday and Wednesday. Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, vowed in a brief statement on Wednesday to return tens of thousands of residents evacuated from northern border areas to their homes.
Israel’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, declared the start of a “new phase” of the war with a focus on the northern front. Gallant, speaking to Israeli troops on Wednesday, did not mention the explosions of devices in Lebanon but he praised the work of Israel’s army and security agencies, noting that the “results are very impressive”.
Hezbollah on Tuesday promised a “fair punishment” for the explosions. Lebanon’s Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah is expected to give a speech on Thursday. Reports suggest Israel managed to place explosives in thousands of pagers bought by Hezbollah.
The US was not involved “in any way” in the wave of explosions that took place in Lebanon on Tuesday and Wednesday, the White House claimed. National security adviser John Kirby told reporters on that it was “too soon to know” if the explosions aimed at Hezbollah across recent days would have an impact on a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.
Hezbollah said it had attacked Israeli artillery positions with rockets on Wednesday in the first cross-border attack since the Tuesday pager blasts. An Israeli journalist said a barrage of 10 rockets was fired from Lebanon at western Galilee, causing no injuries.
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, was “deeply alarmed” by reports that a large number of communication devices exploded across Lebanon and Syria on Tuesday and Wednesday. The UN security council will meet on Friday to discuss the wave of device explosions across Lebanon targeting Hezbollah. The UN’s high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, said those responsible for the explosions “must be held to account”.
The EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, described the pager detonations in Lebanon as “extremely worrying”, and said they had caused “heavy, indiscriminate collateral damages among civilians”. Irish foreign minister Micheál Martin said the pager detonations showed a “wanton disregard” for the lives of civilians.
In a symbolic step exposing Israel’s continued international isolation, the UN general assembly has voted overwhelmingly to direct Israel to leave the occupied Palestinian territories within a year. The non-binding vote follows a historic advisory ruling in July by the international court of justice (ICJ) urging Israel to cease “its unlawful presence in the occupied Palestinian territory as soon as possible and stop all settlement activity there immediately”.
