Afternoon summary
It’s now 4pm UK time and 6pm in Beirut. Here’s a summary of the day’s key developments.
Israel army announces night-time curfew in south Lebanon. The Israeli military announced a night-time curfew in south Lebanon on Thursday, a day after a ceasefire with Hezbollah began, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP). “It is strictly forbidden to move or travel south of the Litani River starting from 5:00 pm (1500 GMT) until 7:00 am tomorrow (Friday). Those south of the Litani River must remain where they are,” military spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, said in a post on X.
Israeli military says air force struck Hezbollah facility in southern Lebanon. The Israeli military said on Thursday that the air force struck a facility used by Hezbollah to store mid-range rockets in southern Lebanon, the first such attack since a ceasefire took effect on Wednesday morning.
At least 21 Palestinians killed by Israeli strikes on Thursday, say medics. Israeli military strikes killed at least 21 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, medics said, as forces stepped up their bombardment of central areas and tanks pushed deeper into the north and south of the territory. Reuters reports that the escalation came a day after Israel and Hezbollah began a ceasefire in Lebanon, halting more than a year of hostilities and raising hopes among many Palestinians in Gaza for a similar deal with Hamas.
Israeli foreign minister says ‘no justification’ for ICC to take steps against Israeli leaders. Israeli foreign minister, Gideon Saar, said on Thursday that the ICC had “no justification” for issuing arrests warrants for Israeli leaders, in a joint press conference with Czech foreign minister, Jan Lipavsky. Saar told Reuters Israel has appealed against the decision and that it sets a dangerous precedent.
Hezbollah MP says Israeli attacks on civilians violated ceasefire deal. Hezbollah member of parliament, Hassan Fadlallah, said on Thursday that Israel had violated a ceasefire deal by firing on civilians returning home to their villages along Lebanon’s southern border with Israel, reports Reuters. “The Israeli enemy is attacking those returning to the border villages,” Fadlallah told reporters after a parliament session, adding, “there are violations today by Israel, even in this form”.
Israeli tanks fire on southern Lebanon as officials says ceasefire with Hezbollah violated. Israeli tank fire hit six areas in southern Lebanon on Thursday and the Israeli military said its ceasefire with Hezbollah was breached after what it called suspects, some in vehicles, arrived at several areas in the southern zone, reports Reuters. A ceasefire between Israel and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah took effect on Wednesday under a deal brokered by the US and France, intended to allow people in both countries to start returning to homes in border areas.
Palestinian president names interim successor if he has to leave post. Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, has named a temporary successor who would take over from him should he die or leave his post, addressing concerns of a possible power vacuum after his departure. According to Reuters, in a statement released late on Wednesday, Abbas said the chair of the Palestinian National Council should serve as interim president for no more than 90 days, during which presidential elections should be held.
Updated
A World Health Organization official voiced optimism on Thursday that some of the health facilities in Lebanon shuttered during more than a year of conflict would soon be operational again, if the ceasefire holds.
“Probably some of our hospitals will take some time, but some hospitals probably will be able to restart very quickly,” Abdinasir Abubakar, WHO representative in Lebanon, told an online press conference after a damage assessment this week.
“So we are very hopeful,” he added, saying four hospitals in and around Beirut were among those that could restart quickly.
Speaking at a joint news conference in Ankara with Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said US president Joe Biden’s announcement to launch a new initiative for a ceasefire in Gaza is a belated but important step.
Lebanon’s health ministry said on Thursday that 3,961 people had been killed and 16,520 injured in more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, including two months of all-out war.
“The total number of dead and wounded since the start of the aggression until Tuesday reached 3,961 dead and 16,520 wounded,” a ministry statement said, adding that the increased numbers were also due to “dead being removed from under the rubble”.
At least 44,330 Palestinians have been killed and 104,933 injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October 2023, Gaza’s health ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
The toll includes 48 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry.
Updated
Hezbollah has vowed to continue resisting Israel and is monitoring its army’s withdrawal from south Lebanon “with their hands on the trigger”, said the militia in its first comments since a ceasefire went into effect on Wednesday.
The Iran-allied Shia group did not directly mention the truce, but said its fighters “remain fully equipped to deal with the aspirations and assaults of the Israeli enemy”. Hezbollah also remained committed to the Palestinian cause, said the statement from its operations centre late on Wednesday.
A 60-day staged withdrawal, in which Israel will pull out of Lebanon and Hezbollah will move its fighters and heavy weaponry out of a 16-mile (25km) deep boundary buffer zone, went into effect at 4am local time on Wednesday.
Thousands of displaced people in Lebanon have packed up their belongings and attempted to return to their abandoned homes in the south amid contradictory statements from officials. Lebanon’s speaker of parliament, Nabih Berri, the top interlocutor for Lebanon in negotiating the deal, said that residents could return home, while Israel has warned them not to.
The truce is designed to broker a permanent end to 14 months of fighting and violations will be monitored by a US-led supervisory mechanism, but the situation on the ground remains tense. Israeli tank fire hit three towns along the boundary on Thursday morning, Lebanese security sources and state media said, wounding two people.
There was no immediate comment on the tank rounds from Hezbollah or Israel, who began fighting when the Lebanese militia started firing on its neighbour in solidarity with the Palestinian group Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October 2023. Crucially, Hezbollah dropped its demand that a ceasefire was contingent on an end to fighting in Gaza.
Israel army announces night-time curfew in south Lebanon
The Israeli military announced a night-time curfew in south Lebanon on Thursday, a day after a ceasefire with Hezbollah began, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“It is strictly forbidden to move or travel south of the Litani River starting from 5:00 pm (1500 GMT) until 7:00 am tomorrow (Friday). Those south of the Litani River must remain where they are,” military spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, said in a post on X.
Updated
Israeli military says air force struck Hezbollah facility in southern Lebanon
The Israeli military said on Thursday that the air force struck a facility used by Hezbollah to store mid-range rockets in southern Lebanon, the first such attack since a ceasefire took effect on Wednesday morning.
Reuters has a breaking news line on an Israeli military spokesperson saying that Israel had renewed a curfew for southern Lebanon residents, restricting movement south of Litani River.
We will update with more informations as it comes in.
The nuclear debate inside Iran is likely to shift towards the possession of its own weapons if the west goes ahead with a threat to reimpose all UN sanctions, the country’s foreign minister has said.
Seyed Abbas Araghchi said in an interview that Iran already had the capability and knowledge to create nuclear weapons, but said they did not form part of its security strategy. He also said Tehran was prepared to keep supplying arms to Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Western officials will be concerned by Araghchi’s warning over the reimposition of sanctions, which were lifted when Iran signed the 2015 deal intended to limit its nuclear activities.
Araghchi was appointed foreign minister by Iran’s reformist president, Masoud Pezeshkian, who was elected this year on a promise to improve Iran’s economy by pursuing improved relations with the west.
He was speaking in Lisbon before a meeting between Iranian and European negotiators in Geneva on Friday, which he described as a brainstorming session to see if there was a way out of their impasse. He admitted he was pessimistic about the meeting, saying he was not sure Iran was speaking to the right party.
He said he believed European nations – chiefly the UK, Germany and France – were set on confrontation after a board meeting last week of the UN nuclear inspectorate, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in which a European-tabled censure motion was passed saying Iran had failed to cooperate with inspectors and was building a uranium stockpile that had no peaceful civilian purpose.
Araghchi claimed the IAEA director general, Rafael Grossi, had promised to forestall the censure motion after Iran offered to cap its uranium enrichment at 60% purity, as well as permit four nuclear inspectors to visit its nuclear sites. “He failed because the Europeans had decided on the course of confrontation,” he said.
Iranian Revolutionary Guards Brig General Kioumars Pourhashemi was killed in the Syrian province of Aleppo by “terrorists” linked to Israel, Iran’s SNN news agency reported on Thursday without giving further details.
Reuters reports that rebels led by militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham on Wednesday launched an incursion into a dozen towns and villages in north-west Aleppo province controlled by Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad.
At least 21 Palestinians killed by Israeli strikes on Thursday, say medics
Israeli military strikes killed at least 21 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, medics said, as forces stepped up their bombardment of central areas and tanks pushed deeper into the north and south of the territory.
Reuters reports that the escalation came a day after Israel and Hezbollah began a ceasefire in Lebanon, halting more than a year of hostilities and raising hopes among many Palestinians in Gaza for a similar deal with Hamas.
“I hope a ceasefire will happen like it did in Lebanon … I just want to take my children to see my land, my house, to see what they did to us, I want to live in safety,” Amal Abu Hmeid, a displaced woman in Gaza, told Reuters. “God willing we will have a truce,” she said, sitting in the courtyard of a school sheltering displaced families in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.
“(Life) was beautiful (before the war) … Now there is nothing beautiful, it’s all gone. Our houses are gone, our brothers are gone, and no one is left. Now we hardly get … one meal a day. We can’t even get bread,” Abu Hmeid told Reuters.
Announcing the Lebanon accord on Tuesday, US president Joe Biden said he would now renew his push for a ceasefire agreement in Gaza, urging Israel and Hamas to seize the moment.
Months of efforts to negotiate a ceasefire have yielded scant progress, and negotiations are now on hold.
Germany, France and the UK called on Israel to extend the indemnifications for essential services between Israeli and Palestinian banks for at least a year in a joint statement released by Berlin on Thursday.
According to Reuters, in the statement, the foreign ministers of the three countries called on Israel to immediately extend the indemnifications as the deadline of 30 November approaches.
“The issue of cross-border payments must not be leveraged to undermine the Palestinian Authorities,” said the statement.
Israeli foreign minister says 'no justification' for ICC to take steps against Israeli leaders
Israeli foreign minister, Gideon Saar, said on Thursday that the ICC had “no justification” for issuing arrests warrants for Israeli leaders, in a joint press conference with Czech foreign minister, Jan Lipavsky.
Saar told Reuters Israel has appealed against the decision and that it sets a dangerous precedent.
The foreign minister also said Israel would finish the war in Gaza when it “achieves its objectives” of returning hostages being held by Hamas and ensuring the group no longer controls the strip.
According to Reuters, Saar said Israel does not intend to control civilian life in Gaza and that he believes peace is “inevitable” but cannot be based on “illusions”.
Hezbollah MP says Israeli attacks on civilians violated ceasefire deal
Hezbollah member of parliament, Hassan Fadlallah, said on Thursday that Israel had violated a ceasefire deal by firing on civilians returning home to their villages along Lebanon’s southern border with Israel, reports Reuters.
“The Israeli enemy is attacking those returning to the border villages,” Fadlallah told reporters after a parliament session, adding, “there are violations today by Israel, even in this form”.
The chair of the UK’s international development committee has asked the foreign secretary, David Lammy, how the British government will respond to Israel’s planned ban on the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) which comes into effect on 28 January 2025.
In a letter to Lammy, Sarah Champion wrote:
Israel’s effective legislative ban on Unrwa must not be allowed to be implemented.
A ban would not only risk contravening numerous laws and obligations but would lead to an immediate, potentially irreparable, degradation in the living conditions of Palestinians.”
Last month, Israel’s parliament passed bills banning Unrwa from operating in Israel and the Palestinian territories, designating it a terror organisation, and cutting all ties between the agency and the Israeli government.
In her letter, Champion said that the new laws likely present a breach of several international obligations, including the Charter of the United Nations and the Geneva conventions. It may also violate provisional rulings of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on preventing genocide in Gaza, she said.
Champion also asked Lammy what contingencies are in place if the legislation is implemented and what representations the foreign secretary had made to his Israeli counterparts on the impact of the laws.
My colleagues, Bethan McKernan in Jerusalem, and Oliver Holmes have produced this explainer on what the terms of the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire are. You can read more at the link below:
Here is a video report on families returning to homes in Lebanon and northern Israel after the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire took effect:
Israeli tanks fire on southern Lebanon as officials says ceasefire with Hezbollah violated
Israeli tank fire hit six areas in southern Lebanon on Thursday and the Israeli military said its ceasefire with Hezbollah was breached after what it called suspects, some in vehicles, arrived at several areas in the southern zone, reports Reuters.
A ceasefire between Israel and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah took effect on Wednesday under a deal brokered by the US and France, intended to allow people in both countries to start returning to homes in border areas.
The Israeli military had urged residents of towns along the border strip not to return yet for their own safety.
On Thursday morning, Israeli tank fire hit six areas within that border strip, state media and Lebanese security sources said. The rounds struck Markaba, Wazzani and Kfarchouba, Khiyam, Taybe and the agricultural plains around Marjayoun, all of which lie within two kilometres of the blue line demarcating the border between Lebanon and Israel. One of the security sources said two people were injured in Markaba.
Reuters reports that Lebanese families displaced from their homes near the southern border have tried to return to check on their properties. But Israeli troops remain stationed within Lebanese territory in towns along the border and Reuters reporters heard surveillance drones flying over parts of southern Lebanon.
There was no immediate comment on the tank rounds from Hezbollah or Israel, said Reuters.
Hezbollah has said its fighters “remain fully equipped to deal with the aspirations and assaults of the Israeli enemy.” Its forces will monitor Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon “with their hands on the trigger”, Reuters reports.
Updated
Israel says ceasefire with Hezbollah in Lebanon violated
Reuters is reporting that Israel’s military have said that an arrival of suspects was detected in several areas in southern Lebanon, and called it a violation of a ceasefire with Hezbollah.
More details soon …
Updated
Palestinian president names interim successor if he has to leave post
Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, has named a temporary successor who would take over from him should he die or leave his post, addressing concerns of a possible power vacuum after his departure.
According to Reuters, in a statement released late on Wednesday, Abbas said the chair of the Palestinian National Council should serve as interim president for no more than 90 days, during which presidential elections should be held.
The current chair of the Palestinians’ top decision-making body is Rawhi Fattouh, 75, who also served briefly as a stopgap leader after the death of Yasser Arafat in 2004.
Abbas, 89, has been Palestinian president since 2005 and has had regular health problems in recent years, prompting repeated speculation on who would replace him when he finally stands aside. He does not have a deputy and a source told Reuters earlier this month that Saudi Arabia had pressed him to appoint one.
Reuters reports that Wednesday’s announcement clears up uncertainty over what should happen when he dies, but Fattouh was not named as his deputy, meaning there was still no visibility on who could replace Abbas in the long term.
Israel’s agriculture minister, Avi Dichter, a member of the inner security cabinet, told a group of foreign reporters this week that the Israeli army would take over the West Bank if someone from the militant group Hamas tried to become president.
Abbas was elected to a four-year term in 2005, but no presidential ballot has been held since and he is now deeply unpopular, with a September opinion poll showing 89% of Palestinians in the West Bank wanted him to resign, reports Reuters.
Updated
Israeli tank fire hit three towns along Lebanon’s south-east border with Israel on Thursday, Lebanese security sources and state media said, a day after a ceasefire barring “offensive military operations” came into force.
Reuters reports that tank fire struck Markaba, Wazzani and Kfarchouba, all of which lie within two kilometres of the blue line demarcating the border between Lebanon and Israel. According to the news agency, one of the security sources said two people were injured in Markaba.
A ceasefire between Israel and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah took effect on Wednesday under a deal brokered by the US and France, intended to allow people in both countries to start returning to homes in border areas shattered by 14 months of fighting.
But managing the returns have been complicated, reports Reuters. Israeli troops remain stationed within Lebanese territory in towns along the border, and on Thursday morning the Israeli military urged residents of towns along the border strip not to return yet for their own safety. The three towns hit on Thursday morning lie within that strip.
Reuters said there was no immediate comment on the tank rounds from Hezbollah or Israel.
Under the ceasefire terms, Israeli forces can take up to 60 days to withdraw from southern Lebanon. Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said he had instructed the military not to allow residents back to villages near the border.
Lebanon’s speaker of parliament, Nabih Berri, the top interlocutor for Lebanon in negotiating the deal, had said on Wednesday that residents could return home.
Lebanon’s parliament speaker, Nabih Berri, set a 9 January date for the house to elect the country’s president, the state news agency (NNA) reported on Thursday.
For today’s First Edition newsletter, Archie Bland spoke to the Guardian’s William Christou, as he returned from a reporting trip to the southern border of Lebanon, about what he saw and what comes next after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. You can read the interview here:
An Egyptian security delegation is reportedly expected to arrive in Israel in an effort to reach a Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal, writes the Times of Israel today.
Citing the Hezbollah-linked al-Akhbar news outlet, the Times of Israel reports that officials from Cairo visting Tel Aviv are expected to present a “comprehensive vision” for an agreement.
It adds that al-Akhbar’s report of the plans detail calls for a truce that will initially last a month or two and will see the gradual release of hostages, with first priority given to older captives or those who are sick, the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza to be quickly returned to operation (under the supervision of the Palestinian Authority, with Egyptian oversight), and an increase in humanitarian aid and medications for Gaza.
The Times of Israel write:
The report also says that Israel will initially be permitted to maintain its military positions within Gaza, but without carrying out operations.
While not mentioned in the report, the potential deal is also assumed to include the release of Palestinian prisoners.”
Opening summary
In its first statement since a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect on Wednesday, the Lebanese militia proclaimed “victory” without making any direct mention of the ceasefire.
The militia said its fighters “remain fully equipped to deal with the aspirations and assaults of the Israeli enemy” and that its forces would monitor Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon “with their hands on the trigger”.
The statement came as thousands of people displaced from southern Lebanon began returning home despite warnings from the Israeli military that they should stay away while its forces remained in the area. The Lebanese army asked displaced people to avoid frontline villages and towns near the UN-drawn blue line that separates the two countries.
The 60-day ceasefire agreement brokered by the US between Israel and Hezbollah came into force at 4am local time on Wednesday, and represents a major milestone in the 14-month-old conflict.
Here are some of the latest developments:
The UN’s secretary general, António Guterres, said the Lebanon ceasefire was the “first ray of hope” in the regional conflict after the “darkness of the past months”. “It is essential that those who signed the ceasefire commitment respect it in full,” Guterres said on Wednesday. He reiterated his call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. In a sign of how volatile the situation remains, Israeli forces opened fire on a number of cars that attempted to enter what it said was a restricted area on Wednesday.
Doubts over whether the ceasefire would hold were widespread on both sides. Supporters of Hezbollah, which has suffered heavy losses since October 2023, celebrated the group’s survival and waved its yellow and green flag across southern Beirut on Wednesday. Iran, Hezbollah’s ally, welcomed the end of Israel’s “aggression” in Lebanon. In Israel, the ceasefire has met a more mixed reaction where rightwingers and residents of Israel’s north have criticised the agreement. Dozens of people gathered outside the Israeli army’s headquarters in Tel Aviv on Tuesday night to protest against the ceasefire.
The French government has claimed that Benjamin Netanyahu has immunity from arrest warrants issued by the international criminal court (ICC) for war crimes on the grounds that Israel is not an ICC member. The claim came soon after Netanyahu’s cabinet agreed to a French-backed ceasefire in Lebanon and is in contrast to Paris’s attitude towards last year’s ICC war crimes warrant issued against Vladimir Putin, another leader of a non-member country.
Netanyahu said Israel had submitted to the ICC its intention to appeal against the arrest warrants, and demand a delay in their implementation. In a statement from his office, he said: “Should the ICC reject the appeal, this will underscore to Israel’s friends in the US and around the world how biased the ICC is against the state of Israel.”
The ceasefire in Lebanon came after Israel launched the heaviest day of raids on Beirut, including a series of strikes in the city’s centre. At least 42 people were killed in Israeli strikes on Beirut and the south of Lebanon before the ceasefire began. Hezbollah also fired rockets into Israel, triggering air raid sirens.
In Gaza, the death toll passed 44,282 on Wednesday. Gaza’s health ministry said an additional 104,880 Palestinians have been injured since October 2023. An Egyptian security delegation is reportedly expected to travel to Israel on Thursday to discuss a Gaza ceasefire deal. The US will renew a push for a ceasefire in the Palestinian territory, president Joe Biden said.
At least 12 Palestinians, including children and women, were killed in an Israeli strike on a school in central Gaza City on Wednesday, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa. A pregnant woman and two other Palestinians were killed in Israeli bombing in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza and Khan Younis in the south on Wednesday, Wafa reported.
Two journalists were injured when Israeli forces “opened fire” on a group of journalists covering a border town of Khiam in south-east Lebanon on Wednesday, Lebanon’s National news agency said. A video journalist told AFP that he was shot at while reporting in Khiam and that it was clear that the group were journalists.
The Biden administration is reportedly pushing ahead with a $680m arms sales package to Israel. The package includes thousands of joint direct attack munition kits (JDAMs) and hundreds of small-diameter bombs, Reuters reported.
