We will be ending this blog shortly and moving to a new one to continue our coverage. Here is a summary of the most recent major developments.
Israel strikes hit south Beirut and its outskirts on Saturday night, official Lebanese media reported. “Israeli enemy warplanes carried out four very violent strikes on [Beirut’s] southern suburbs, and one strike on the Chweifat” area, with ambulances rushing to the site, Lebanon’s National News Agency said. Correspondents in Beirut reported hearing explosions, and Agence France-Presse footage showed plumes of smoke rising from the targeted areas.
Israel’s defence force confirmed it intended to strike a mosque in Gaza which it said was being used by Hamas as a command and control complex. Eyewitnesses told Reuters it was being used to house displaced people. At least five people have been reported killed in the strike.
Earlier on Saturday an Israel military spokesman said the country will retaliate against Iran for the Iranian missile attack at “the timing which we decide”. “The way in which we respond to this disgraceful attack will be in the manner, at the location and the timing which we decide, according to the political leadership’s instructions,” Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a broadcast statement, according to a Reuters report.
Iran said that any attack by Israel will be met with an “even stronger” retaliation, as tensions continue to rise between the two countries. “Our reaction to any attack by the Zionist regime is completely clear,” Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, told reporters in Damascus, Syria. “For every action, there will be a proportional and similar reaction from Iran, and even stronger.”
Benjamin Netanyahu said Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, was a “disgrace” for calling for a halt on arms deliveries to Israel. “The axis of terror stands together. But countries who supposedly oppose this [axis] call for an arms embargo on Israel. What a disgrace,” the Israeli prime minister said. “Well let me tell you this Israel will win with or without their support but their shame will continue long after the war is won.”
The president of Ireland sharply criticised Israel’s demand that UN peacekeepers leave their positions in southern Lebanon. “It is outrageous that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have threatened this peacekeeping force and sought to have them evacuate the villages they are defending,” Michael Higgins said. The IDF had requested that peacekeepers operating on the “blue line” between Israel and the Golan Heights “relocate”.
France’s president Macron has responded to Netanyahu’s criticism of his calls for a halt on arms deliveries to Israel.
Macron told French broadcaster France Inter that calls for a ceasefire were not being heard. “I think that today, the priority is that we return to a political solution, that we stop delivering weapons to fight in Gaza,” he said.
Netanyahu called the comments a “disgrace”, to which Macron’s office responded with a statement of its own later Saturday, describing Netanyahu’s reaction as “excessive and detached from the friendship between France and Israel”.
More details are coming in of the intense Israeli air strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs that began around midnight local time.
Associated Press reports the strong explosions began after Israel’s military urged residents to evacuate areas in Dahiyeh, the predominantly Shiite collection of suburbs on Beirut’s southern edge. AP video showed the blasts illuminating the densely populated southern suburbs, where Hezbollah has a strong presence. Social media videos show multiple huge blasts across the area.
Israel’s military confirmed it was striking targets near Beirut and said about 30 projectiles had crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory, with some intercepted.
A road to Beirut’s airport is among the areas hit, according to correspondents on the ground. Lebanon’s national news agency earlier said air traffic has still been landing. Others reported streams of people fleeing the chaos, including from the Sabra Palestinian refugee camp.
Panicked families fleeing Sabra Palestinian refugee camp in #Beirut tonight as intense air strikes hit the surrounding suburbs.
— Leila Molana-Allen (@Leila_MA) October 5, 2024
📹 @LBCILebanon pic.twitter.com/EVAFLZPjSY
Updated
The Israeli Air Force has confirmed the strike on the mosque in Deir al-Balah where medics say at least five were killed, saying it was being used by Hamas. It also said it struck another site “that was previously used as the Ibn Rushd school”.
“The command and control complexes were used by Hamas terrorists to plan and carry out terrorist operations against the IDF forces and the State of Israel,” it said in a statement published on the Air Force’s X account.
The IAF did not detail casualties. It said that prior to the attack “many steps were taken to reduce the chance of harming civilians, including the use of precision weaponry, aerial surveillance and additional intelligence information.”
Reuters earlier reported at least five people had been killed and more than 20 injured in the strike on the mosque. Eyewitnesses told the news agency the number of casualties could rise as the mosque was being used to house displaced people.
Updated
There are early reports coming in from Reuters that Israeli air strikes on a mosque near the Al-Aqsa Hospital, in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, has killed at least five people and injured 20. The report is citing medics on the ground.
Hezbollah says it has repelled an attempt by Israeli troops to storm into a Lebanese border village in the last few hours, AFP reports.
The fighters launched “artillery shells” at “Israeli enemy soldiers who attempted to infiltrate from... Blida... forcing (them) to retreat,” the group said in a statement.
At least eight strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs late on Saturday including close to the country’s main airport, Reuters reported, after the Israeli military issued warnings to residents of certain buildings in the area.
Summary
•Israel strikes hit south Beirut and its outskirts on Saturday night, official Lebanese media reported.
“Israeli enemy warplanes carried out four very violent strikes on (Beirut’s) southern suburbs, and one strike on the Chweifat” area, with ambulances rushing to the site, Lebanon’s National News Agency said. Correspondents in Beirut reported hearing explosions, and AFP footage showed plumes of smoke rising from the targeted areas.
•Earlier on Saturday an Israel military spokesman said the country will retaliate against Iran for the Iranian missile attack at “the timing which we decide”. “The way in which we respond to this disgraceful attack will be in the manner, at the location and the timing which we decide, according to the political leadership’s instructions,” Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a broadcast statement, according to a Reuters report.
•Iran said that any attack by Israel will be met with an “even stronger” retaliation, as tensions continue to rise between the two countries. “Our reaction to any attack by the Zionist regime is completely clear,” Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, told reporters in Damascus, Syria. “For every action, there will be a proportional and similar reaction from Iran, and even stronger,” he said.
•Benjamin Netanyahu said Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, is a “disgrace” for calling for a halt on arms deliveries to Israel. “The axis of terror stands together. But countries who supposedly oppose this [axis] call for an arms embargo on Israel. What a disgrace. Well let me tell you this Israel will win with or without their support but their shame will continue long after the war is won,” Netanyahu said.
•The president of Ireland sharply criticised Israel’s demand that UN peacekeepers leave their positions in southern Lebanon. “It is outrageous that the Israel Defense Forces have threatened this peacekeeping force and sought to have them evacuate the villages they are defending,” Michael Higgins said in a statement. The Israel Defense Forces had requested that peacekeepers operating on the “blue line” between Israel and the Golan Heights “relocate”.
Updated
Photographers have captured the explosions which struck south Beirut late on Saturday night.
Lebanon’s National News Agency said five Israeli strikes hit south Beirut and its outskirts Saturday, four of them “very violent”.
AFP correspondents in Beirut reported hearing several explosions and witnessed a ball of flame rising up amid thick smoke.
Benjamin Netanyahu said in an address on Saturday evening that Israel will respond to Iran’s attack, following the barrage of missiles fired by Tehran at the country this week.
“Israel has the duty and the right to defend itself and to respond to these attacks and that is what we will do,” Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, said in a televised broadcast.
Earlier today Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, said that for any attack by Israel, “there will be a proportional and similar reaction from Iran, and even stronger”.
Updated
Israeli strikes hit south Beirut - report
Official Lebanese media said five Israeli strikes hit south Beirut and its outskirts Saturday, four of them “very violent”.
“Israeli enemy warplanes carried out four very violent strikes on (Beirut’s) southern suburbs, and one strike on the Chweifat” area, with ambulances rushing to the site, Lebanon’s National News Agency said.
AFP correspondents in Beirut reported hearing several explosions. AFP footage showed plumes of smoke rising from the targeted areas, with one strike creating a ball of flame that rose into the air while flares shot up amid thick smoke.
The National News Agency later said air traffic at Lebanon’s only airport in Beirut was “ongoing despite the Israeli enemy’s aggression on the southern suburbs’.
Updated
Several explosions heard in south Beirut
Explosions have been heard in south Beirut, AFP reported.
The news comes after the Israeli army ordered southern Beirut residents to evacuate on Saturday night as it continued its assault on Lebanon targets.
Israel previously confirmed it had targeted the intelligence headquarters of Hezbollah in Beirut in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Earlier today French president Emmanuel Macron led a group of 88 Francophone countries in calling for an “immediate” ceasefire in Lebanon.
The UK foreign secretary said reports of Israel missile strikes hitting Lebanese hospitals are “disturbing” in a post on X.
“Reports that Israeli strikes have hit health facilities and support personnel in Lebanon are deeply disturbing,” David Lammy said.
“All parties must comply with international humanitarian law. Our priority is an immediate ceasefire on both sides so Israeli and Lebanese civilians can return home.”
Reports that Israeli strikes have hit health facilities and support personnel in Lebanon are deeply disturbing.
— David Lammy (@DavidLammy) October 5, 2024
All parties must comply with international humanitarian law. Our priority is an immediate ceasefire on both sides so Israeli and Lebanese civilians can return home.
Israel orders some Beirut residents to evacuate
The Israeli army ordered southern Beirut residents to evacuate on Saturday night as it continued its assault on Lebanon.
“For your safety and that of your family members, you must immediately evacuate the designated buildings and those adjacent to them and move away from them at least 500 meters,” Avichay Adraee, a spokesman for the Israeli army, said on social media, AFP reported.
More than 2,000 people have been killed and more than 9,535 wounded since fighting started in Lebanon, most of them since 23 September. Israel said it is targeting Hezbollah positions in Beirut.
So it’s finally happening. The wider Middle East conflict that so many feared is igniting. Almost exactly a year after Hamas’s 7 October terrorist atrocities, Israel is fighting on multiple fronts. Iran is now the principal adversary. Israeli leaders, including the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, maintain that it always was. Netanyahu has long sought this showdown.
Self-deluding boasts that Israel is “winning”, bruited about after the assassination of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, drown out calls to halt the madness. Despite their otiose talk of changing the regional balance of power, Netanyahu, his far-right allies and generals lack a credible, long-term political strategy. Their whack-a-mole tactics condemn Israel and neighbours to war without end.
The same may be said of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the religious extremists who dominate Iran’s regime – and the surviving leaders of Iran’s proxies Hamas and Hezbollah. Nor should western reactionaries such as Donald Trump escape blame. All contribute to a destructive continuum of confrontation, violence and misery that is intensifying once again.
[..] Moderate voices, such as Iran’s new president, are shouted down. Hapless Joe Biden is humiliated. The UN is slandered and ostracised, its aid workers killed. Peace becomes a dirty word. As ever, ordinary people suffer most. More than 1 million displaced in Lebanon; at least 1,000 killed in the past fortnight. More than 41,000 Palestinians dead in Gaza; almost the entire population homeless. Israeli citizens murdered, as in Jaffa last week, and thousands forced to flee; 101 hostages still unaccounted for.
How does this end? In short, badly – for all concerned.
The day so far
•Israel will retaliate against Iran for the missile attack launched by Tehran at “the timing which we decide”, a military spokesman said on Saturday. “The way in which we respond to this disgraceful attack will be in the manner, at the location and the timing which we decide, according to the political leadership’s instructions,” Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a broadcast statement, according to a Reuters report.
•Iran said that any attack by Israel will be met with an “even stronger” retaliation, as tensions continue to rise between the two countries. “Our reaction to any attack by the Zionist regime is completely clear,” Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, told reporters in Damascus, Syria. “For every action, there will be a proportional and similar reaction from Iran, and even stronger,” he said.
•Benjamin Netanyahu said Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, is a “disgrace” for calling for a halt on arms deliveries to Israel. “The axis of terror stands together. But countries who supposedly oppose this [axis] call for an arms embargo on Israel. What a disgrace. Well let me tell you this Israel will win with or without their support but their shame will continue long after the war is won,” Netanyahu said.
•At least 41,825 Palestinians have been killed and 96,910 wounded in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October, the territory’s health authorities said on Saturday.
•A series of explosions were heard over Beirut’s southern suburbs early on Saturday after the Israeli military demanded evacuations for some areas while Hezbollah said it was engaged in continued clashes with Israeli troops in the Lebanon border area. Israel said on Friday it had targeted the intelligence headquarters of Hezbollah in Beirut and was assessing the damage after a series of strikes on senior figures in the militant group that Iran’s supreme leader condemned as counterproductive.
•French president Emmanuel Macron said a group of 88 Francophone countries were calling for an “immediate” ceasefire in Lebanon. The 88 members of the International Organisation of La Francophonie, including France and Canada, call for an “immediate and lasting” ceasefire in Lebanon, Macron said, according to AFP.
•The president of Ireland sharply criticised Israel’s demand that UN peacekeepers leave their positions in southern Lebanon. “It is outrageous that the Israeli Defence Forces have threatened this peacekeeping force and sought to have them evacuate the villages they are defending,” Michael Higgins said in a statement. The Israeli Defence Force had requested that peacekeepers operating on the “blue line” between Israel and the Golan Heights “relocate”.
Netanyahu brands Macron 'a disgrace' over call for arms embargo
Benjamin Netanyahu said Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, is a “disgrace” for calling for a halt on arms deliveries to Israel.
Speaking on Saturday, Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, said the country was fighting “against the enemies of civilization”.
“As Israel fights the forces of barbarism led by Iran, all civilized countries should be standing firmly by Israel’s side. Yet President Macron and some other western leaders are now calling for an arms embargo against Israel. Shame on them,” Netanyahu said.
At least 41,825 Palestinians have been killed and 96,910 wounded in Israel’s war on Gaza since 7 October, the territory’s health authorities said on Saturday. Tens of thousands of people protested around the world against Israel’s actions today.
My message to Macron >> pic.twitter.com/BHyh0Fso19
— Benjamin Netanyahu - בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) October 5, 2024
“The axis of terror stands together. But countries who supposedly oppose this [axis] call for an arms embargo on Israel. What a disgrace. Well let me tell you this Israel will win with or without their support but their shame will continue long after the war is won,” Netanyahu said.
“For in defending ourselves against this barbarism, Israel is defending civilizations against those who seek to impose a dark age of fanatisicim on all of us.”
The president of Ireland on Saturday sharply criticised Israel’s demand that UN peacekeepers leave their positions in southern Lebanon.
“It is outrageous that the Israeli Defence Forces have threatened this peacekeeping force and sought to have them evacuate the villages they are defending,” Michael Higgins said in a statement.
“Indeed, Israel is demanding that the entire United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) operating under UN mandates walk away.”
Ireland accounts for 347 of the 10,000 soldiers serving in the UNIFIL forces, which are charged with maintaining peace in the south of Lebanon.
Earlier Saturday, Unifil said it had rejected Israeli demands that it “relocate” some positions ahead of Israeli ground operations against Hezbollah.
Higgins called the demand “an insult to the most important global institution”.
Updated
Israel will respond to Iran attack at 'timing we decide'
Israel will retaliate against Iran for the missile attack launched by Tehran at “the timing which we decide”, a military spokesman said on Saturday.
“The way in which we respond to this disgraceful attack will be in the manner, at the location and the timing which we decide, according to the political leadership’s instructions,” Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a broadcast statement, according to a Reuters report.
Hagari added that two air bases struck in the attack remained fully operational and no aircraft were damaged.
In the aftermath of Iran’s attack on Israel on Tuesday night, Israeli officials claimed their defences had stood firm. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Iran had launched more than 180 missiles, but few details about the damage were released and the US’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said the attack “appears to have been defeated and ineffective”.
But as Israel prepares its retaliation, analysts believe those initial reports could have been misleading – and could change the calculus of Israel’s response if it fears getting into a bout of protracted “missile ping-pong” with Iran, especially should Tehran choose softer targets in the future.
Satellite and social media footage has shown missile after missile striking the Nevatim airbase in the Negev desert, and setting off at least some secondary explosions, indicating that despite the highly touted effectiveness of Israel’s Iron Dome and Arrow air defences, Iran’s strikes were more effective than had been previously admitted.
Experts who analysed the footage noted at least 32 direct hits on the airbase. None appeared to have caused major damage, but some landed close to hangars that house Israel’s F-35 jets, among the country’s most prized military assets.
While those missiles did not appear to hit planes on the ground, they would nonetheless have a deadly effect if fired at a city such as Tel Aviv, or if directed at other high-value targets such as the Bazan Group’s oil refineries near Haifa – potentially creating an ecological disaster next to a big Israeli city.
French president Emmanuel Macron said a group of 88 Francophone countries were calling for an “immediate” ceasefire in Lebanon.
The 88 members of the International Organisation of La Francophonie, including France and Canada, call for an “immediate and lasting” ceasefire in Lebanon, Macron said, according to AFP.
“We have unanimously expressed ourselves in favour of an immediate and lasting ceasefire and have stated our commitment to de-escalating tensions in the region,” Macron told reporters at the end of a “Francophonie” summit. He said France would hold an international conference in support of Lebanon in October.
Earlier today Macron called for a halt to arms deliveries to Israel, which has been criticised over the conduct of its retaliatory operation in Gaza.
“I think that today, the priority is that we return to a political solution, that we stop delivering weapons to fight in Gaza,” Macron told broadcaster France Inter, adding that France was not sending any arms to Israel.
Iran: attack by Israel will be met with 'even stronger' retaliation
Iran said on Saturday that any attack by Israel will be met with an “even stronger” retaliation, as tensions continue to rise between the two countries.
“Our reaction to any attack by the Zionist regime is completely clear,” Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, told reporters in Damascus, Syria.
“For every action, there will be a proportional and similar reaction from Iran, and even stronger,” he said.
He spoke after an Israeli military official told AFP on condition of anonymity, as he was not authorised to discuss the issue publicly, the army was “preparing a response to the unprecedented and unlawful Iranian attack”.
It came as Israel president Isaac Herzog said on Saturday that Iran remains an “ongoing threat” to Israel, a year after the unprecedented October 7 attack by Hamas militants.
“In many senses we are still living the aftermath of October 7... It is in the ongoing threat to the Jewish State by Iran and its terror proxies,” Herzog said in a statement to mark the first anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel.
Speaking to reporters, Araghchi expanded on his remarks earlier on X, when he said Israel could “put our determination to the test”.
Araghchi was in Syria to meet with Bashar al-Assad, the country’s president. Araghchi renewed his call for ceasefires in the Gaza Strip and in Lebanon, saying: “The most important issue today is the ceasefire, especially in Lebanon and in Gaza.”
“There are initiatives in this regard. There have been consultations that we hope will be successful,” Araghchi said.
Earlier on Saturday, Assad’s office quoted him as saying Iran’s missile attack on Israel was “a strong response and taught the Zionist entity a lesson”.
The attack came days after an Israeli air strike in southern Beirut killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Updated
Thousands of protesters took to the streets in several major cities around the world on Saturday to demand an end to bloodshed in Gaza, as the conflict in the Palestinian enclave approaches its first anniversary and spreads in the wider region.
About 40,000 pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched through central London while thousands also gathered in Paris, Rome, Manila and Cape Town.
Israel’s assault on Gaza, which followed the 7 October Hamas attacks, has killed nearly 42,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry, and displaced nearly all of the enclave’s population of 2.3 million.
“Unfortunately, in spite of all our good will, the Israeli government does not take any notice, and they just go ahead and continue their atrocities in Gaza, now also in Lebanon and in Yemen, and also probably in Iran,” said Agmes Koury, who took part in the London protest.
“And our government, our British government, unfortunately is just paying lip service and carries on supplying weapons to Israel,” she added.
In Paris, Lebanese-French protestor Houssam Houssein said:
“We fear a regional war, because there are tensions with Iran at the moment, and perhaps with Iraq and Yemen”.
“We really need to stop the war because it’s now become unbearable,” he added.
In Rome, around 6,000 protestors waved Palestinian and Lebanese flags, defying a ban to march in the city centre ahead of the 7 October anniversary.
In Manila, activists clashed with anti-riot police after they were blocked from holding a demonstration in front of the U.S. embassy in the Philippine capital in protest at the United States supplying Israel with weapons.
Demonstrations to mark the first anniversary were due to take place later on Saturday in other cities across the world, including the United States and Chile. Some demonstrations in support of Israel are also planned over the weekend.
Updated
Iran’s “response to any aggression” by Israel will be “stronger”, Iran’s foreign minister said in a post on X.
Seyed Abbas Araghchi posted a photograph of him and Bashar al-Assad, the president of Syria, following what he said were talks on regional issues.
“Highlighted that Iran will stand with Resistance in any situation. Also made clear that response to any aggression by Israeli regime will be stronger-and they can put our determination to the test,” Abbas Araghchi wrote.
Timely talks with President Assad, PM & FM on bilateral & regional issues.
— Seyed Abbas Araghchi (@araghchi) October 5, 2024
Highlighted that Iran will stand with Resistance in any situation.
Also made clear that response to any aggression by Israeli regime will be stronger-and they can put our determination to the test. pic.twitter.com/QI4xNnwGji
Israel is planning for a “significant and serious” retaliation against Iran for last week’s large-scale ballistic missile attack, my colleague Peter Beaumont reported earlier today.
China has evacuated 215 of its citizens from Lebanon, it said on Saturday, as countries continue to withdraw nationals amid the spiralling conflict.
“So far, 215 Chinese citizens have been safely evacuated from Lebanon in two batches under the organisation and arrangement of the Chinese government,” Beijing’s foreign ministry said in a statement given to AFP.
“The Chinese Embassy in Lebanon continues to carry out its mission in Lebanon and will continue to assist the Chinese citizens there in taking security measures,” it added.
Several countries have launched operations to remove their nationals from Lebanon in the wake of the ground raids, including Russia, France, Spain, Germany and the UK.
On Saturday the UK said it had chartered a new flight to withdraw British nationals from Lebanon on Sunday. More than 250 UK citizens have left Lebanon on government-chartered flights amid the conflict, the Foreign Office said.
Earlier today a South Korean military transport aircraft returned 97 citizens and family members from Lebanon to a military airfield south of Seoul, the South Korean foreign ministry said.
Twenty five people were killed and 127 wounded in Israeli strikes on Lebanon on Friday, the Lebanese health ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
The report of the death toll comes after a series of explosions were heard over Beirut’s southern suburbs overnight, after the Israeli military had demanded evacuations for some areas.
Lebanon faces a “terrible” crisis, Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said.
Grandi said he had arrived in Beirut on Saturday. He said “hundreds of thousands of people” had been left “destitute or displaced” by Israel’s air strikes.
Israel’s attacks on Beirut overnight are part of a wider assault that has driven more than 1.2 million Lebanese from their homes in recent weeks.
I have just landed in Beirut as Lebanon faces a terrible crisis. Hundreds of thousands of people are left destitute or displaced by Israeli air strikes.
— Filippo Grandi (@FilippoGrandi) October 5, 2024
I have come here in solidarity with those affected, to support the humanitarian effort and to ask for more international help. pic.twitter.com/QdZOWAfqRC
Hezbollah has lost contact with senior leader following attacks
A Hezbollah source said it has “lost” contact with Hashem Safieddine, who is considered the most likely candidate to replace Hassan Nasrallah as leader of the organization.
“Contact with Sayyed Safieddine has been lost since the violent strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs” early Friday, the source told AFP, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. The source added: “We don’t know if he was at the targeted site, or who may have been there with him.”
Earlier today three Lebanese security sources told Reuters that Israeli air strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs since Friday have kept rescue workers from searching the site of a strike suspected to have killed Safieddine.
“[Hezbollah] is trying to reach the underground headquarters that were targeted, but every single time Israel starts striking again to impede rescue efforts,” a source told AFP.
Safieddine “was with Hezbollah’s head of intelligence,” known as Hajj Murtada, when the strikes took place, the source said.
Updated
Three hospitals in south Lebanon were forced to close on Friday after Israeli bombings struck two and the other ran out of supplies, displacing a number of doctors from the area and creating concerns around the state of the Lebanese health sector.
Marjayoun governmental hospital and the Salah Ghandour hospital in Bint Jbeil, large healthcare centres along the eastern and western sections of the Lebanese borders, announced their closure after their premises were struck, killing seven and wounding 14 healthcare workers.
“The main hospital of the entrance was targeted as paramedics were approaching. Seven were killed, five were wounded. We considered this a message, so we decided to close,” said Dr Mones Kalakish, the director of Marjayoun governmental hospital. He added that because of the frequent targeting of paramedics in south Lebanon, wounded people had not been able to reach the hospital for the past three days.
“There was no warning to the hospital before they struck. The warning didn’t come over the telephone, it came via bombing,” Kalakish said.
Mays al-Jabal governmental hospital, 700 metres from the Israel-Lebanon border, said on Friday hospital staff could no longer perform their role due to a cutoff of supplies.
“Medical supplies, diesel, electricity, none of it was available. Unifil was bringing us water, and now they are unable to move. How can a hospital operate without water?” said Dr Halim Saad, the director of Mays al-Jabal hospital’s medical services.
The Israeli military said on Saturday it had killed two militants from the armed wing of Hamas operating in Lebanon.
The military named Muhammad Hussein Ali al-Mahmoud, who it said served as the group’s executive authority in Lebanon, as being killed in an Israeli airstrike, Reuters reported. Said Alaa Naif Ali, a member of Hamas’ Military Wing in Lebanon, was also killed in an Israeli operation overnight on Saturday, it said.
The Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, confirmed the deaths of two of its fighters following Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon, but provided different names for them: Mohammed Hussein Al-Louise and Saeed Attallah Ali.
Over the past year, Israel’s military operation across the Gaza Strip has destroyed the majority of its infrastructure.
In its latest analysis released at the end of September, the UN’s satellite image centre estimated that at least 66% of buildings in Gaza had been damaged – 163,778 in total – of which 52,564 buildings have been completely destroyed.
The northern parts of the strip have been the most severely affected, particularly Gaza City. We have gathered these satellite images taken by Planet Labs PBC of the Zeitoun district in Gaza City, its main commercial hub, over the course of the last year.
Updated
Tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters have gathered in central London, with a “significant” policing operation in place across the capital as events mark the anniversary of the 7 October attacks in Israel.
About 200 pro-Palestinian activists convened in Bedford Square on Saturday morning ahead of a planned march amid a heavy police presence, PA Media reported.
Some were holding Lebanese and Iranian flags and banners stating “we do not stand with genocide” and “Zionism is racism”, with many chanting “free, free Palestine”.
A protest leader told activists: “We don’t engage the police and don’t engage counter-protesters. We definitely don’t talk to the blue bibs.
“We do not talk or interact with the police. If I am arrested, no comment. If I am arrested, no caution. If I am arrested, no duty solicitor.
“We are safer when we are together. Only we can keep each other safe.”
This was followed by chants of: “When Palestine is under attack. What do we do? Stand up. Fight back. When Lebanon is under attack. What do we do? Stand up. Fight back.”
A “significant” policing operation is in place across London in response to planned protest and memorial events, the Metropolitan police said.
• This post was updated at 16.50 to refer to tens of thousands of people, rather than hundreds, joining the pro-Palestinian march in central London.
Updated
Macron urges halt to arms deliveries to Israel for use in Gaza
French president Emmanuel Macron on Saturday urged a halt to arms deliveries to Israel, which has been criticised over the conduct of its retaliatory operation in Gaza.
“I think that today, the priority is that we return to a political solution, that we stop delivering weapons to fight in Gaza,” Macron told broadcaster France Inter, adding that France was not sending any arms to Israel.
IDF indicates it will hit back at Iran as 7 October anniversary looms
The Israeli military has indicated it will expand its operations on multiple fronts around the anniversary of the 7 October attacks on Monday, including a “significant and serious” retaliation against Iran for last week’s large-scale ballistic missile attack on Israel.
“The IDF [Israeli military] is preparing a response to the unprecedented and unlawful Iranian attack on Israeli civilians and Israel,” the military official said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak publicly on the issue.
As Israel said it was planning its response to Tuesday’s Iranian missile strikes, which hit on or near a number of key Israeli bases, the US president, Joe Biden, cautioned against striking Iranian oil facilities, a day after he said Washington was “discussing” such action.
Updated
Dubai's Emirates Airlines bans pagers and walkie-talkies after Lebanon attacks
Dubai’s Emirates Airlines has banned passengers from carrying pagers and walkie-talkies on its flights, following last month’s attacks on Lebanese group Hezbollah involving communication devices that exploded, Reuters reported.
“All passengers traveling to, from, or via Dubai are prohibited from transporting pagers and walkie-talkies in checked or cabin baggage,” the airline said in a statement on its website on Friday. It added that any prohibited items found will be confiscated by Dubai Police as part of heightened security measures.
In the deadly September attacks, thousands of booby-trapped Hezbollah pagers and hundreds of radios exploded – attacks that were widely blamed on Israel but which it has not claimed.
The Middle East’s largest airline also announced that flights to Iraq and Iran will remain suspended until Tuesday, while services to Jordan will resume on Sunday.
Flights to Lebanon will remain suspended until Oct. 15 due to escalating Israeli attacks against Iran-backed Hezbollah, including strikes near Beirut’s airport.
Several other airlines have also suspended flights to Beirut and other regional airports amid heightened tensions.
Syrian air defences confronted hostile targets over the city of Homs, Syria’s state news agency SANA said on Saturday.
A slick, high-priced television production. Speeches from top officials. A live audience of thousands. A unified show of collective sorrow and military resolve.
That is how the Israeli government hoped to mark the passing of one year since Hamas’s surprise and bloody attacks last 7 October. But little has gone according to plan.
Many of the families of people killed or taken hostage on that day have come out forcefully against the state-sponsored event, saying pageantry can wait until after the government secures a hostage deal and faces an independent investigation of its own failures before, after and on that day. Some parents have forbidden the government of Benjamin Netanyahu from using their children’s names and images.
Several of the kibbutzim that suffered the greatest losses have said they will boycott. Instead, they will gather in their communities to collectively grieve their loved ones, and remember their hostages, in “intimate, sensitive” rituals. In response, the minister responsible for the ceremony has nixed the live audience while seeming to dismiss the families’ objections as “background noise”. This has led to even fiercer denunciations on social media, with some of Israel’s top celebrities pledging their support to a rival commemoration.
For the government, “everything is a show”, said Danny Rahamim, a member of Kibbutz Nahal Oz.
That may be, but it seems certain that on 7 October, the official show will go on. Indeed it is nearly impossible to imagine a world in which the Netanyahu government – and the legacy Jewish organizations that echo its messaging around the world – would resist the chance to use the potent date as a megaphone to broadcast the same story about the attacks that we have all heard many times before.
Iran’s oil minister Mohsen Paknejad said on Saturday that he was “not worried” about the escalating conflict in the region amid reports that Israel would strike Iran, the ministry’s Shana news site said.
Paknejad’s comments were made during a visit to Assaluyeh, the energy capital of Iran.
Israel 'preparing response' to Iran attack, military official says.
An Israeli official told AFP on Saturday that the military is “preparing a response” to the Iranian missile barrage that targeted Israel earlier this week.
“The IDF (Israeli military) is preparing a response to the unprecedented and unlawful Iranian attack on Israeli civilians and Israel,” the official said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak publicly on the issue. He did not elaborate on the nature or timing of the response.
Updated
The Gaza-based Anadolu Agency photographer Ali Jadallah talks about some of the most powerful images he has taken in the year since the 7 October attack by Hamas that triggered the Gaza war:
Getty Images photographer Amir Levy talks about the personal responsibility he has felt over the last year to ‘tell the stories of those caught in the conflict’.
An Israeli-American photojournalist with 15 years of experience, Levy has been covering the Gaza and Lebanon borders every day since the 7 October attack.
Updated
Justin Trudeau urged Canadian citizens still in Lebanon on Saturday to sign up to be evacuated on special flights which have been chartered amid worsening security in the country.
Canada has 6,000 signed up to leave and officials are trying to reach another 2,500 over the weekend, an official in Trudeau’s office said. More than 1,000 people have already been evacuated.
Speaking at a summit of leaders from French-speaking countries in France, Trudeau urged citizens to “get out of Lebanon while they can”.
Israel has expanded its strikes on Lebanon in recent weeks after nearly a year of exchanging fire with Hezbollah. A series of explosions were heard over Beirut’s southern suburbs early on Saturday after the Israeli military demanded evacuations for some areas.
The attacks followed intense bombardment on Thursday night that reportedly targeted Hashem Safieddine, the most likely candidate to replace Hassan Nasrallah as leader of Hezbollah.
Trudeau said an immediate ceasefire from both Hezbollah and Israel was needed so the situation could be stabilised and United Nations resolutions could begin to be respected again.
The man widely tipped replace Hassan Nasrallah as leader of Hezbollah has been ‘unreachable’ since Friday, it has been reported.
Three Lebanese security sources told Reuters on Saturday that Israeli air strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs since Friday have kept rescue workers from searching the site of a strike suspected to have killed Hashem Safieddine.
One of the sources said Safieddine has been uncontactable since the strike.
Earlier on Saturday we reported that his fate was unclear due to the attacks, which form part of a wider assault that has driven more than 1.2 million Lebanese from their homes.
Updated
The day so far
A series of explosions were heard over Beirut’s southern suburbs early on Saturday after the Israeli military demanded evacuations for some areas while Hezbollah said it was engaged in continued clashes with Israeli troops in the Lebanon border area. Israel said on Friday it had targeted the intelligence headquarters of Hezbollah in Beirut and was assessing the damage after a series of strikes on senior figures in the militant group that Iran’s supreme leader condemned as counterproductive.
Israel has launched fresh airstrikes on Beirut overnight, with a series of loud blasts and huge plumes of smoke reported in the south of the capital in the early hours of Saturday. The Israeli military had earlier demanded the evacuation of parts of Beirut’s southern suburbs.
The attacks, part of a wider assault that has driven more than 1.2 million Lebanese from their homes, followed intense bombardment on Thursday night that reportedly targeted Hashem Safieddine, the most likely candidate to replace Hassan Nasrallah as leader of Hezbollah. His fate remains unclear.At least 41,825 Palestinians have been killed and 96,910 wounded in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October, the territory’s health authorities said on Saturday.
Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi has arrived in Damascus to discuss regional developments and bilateral relations with Syrian officials, the Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson said on Saturday.
This comes after Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, gave a rare public sermon in Tehran on Friday, vowing that Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza will re-emerge strongly with new leaders, and defending the “legal and legitimate” ballistic missile attack on Israel this week.A new flight has been chartered by the UK government for British nationals to leave Lebanon on Sunday, amid the spiralling conflict in the region. More than 250 UK citizens have left Lebanon on government-chartered flights amid the conflict, the Foreign Office said. The UK chartered a fourth flight to leave Beirut-Rafic Hariri airport in Beirut on Sunday.
Hamas said an Israeli strike killed one of its commanders, his wife and two daughters, in a refugee camp in north Lebanon – an area not previously hit by the current conflict. Hamas said Saeed Atallah Ali, his wife, Shaymaa Azzam, and their two daughters, Zeinab and Fatima, were killed in a “Zionist bombardment of his house in the Beddawi camp” near the northern city of Tripoli. The daughters were described as children.
A South Korean military transport aircraft returned 97 citizens and family members from Lebanon on Saturday as Middle East tensions rise, the foreign ministry said. A KC-330 aircraft left Beirut on Friday afternoon with the evacuees, who include Lebanese family members, and arrived at a military airfield on the south of Seoul, the ministry said.
The UN says that its peacekeepers, including an Irish post operating on the “blue line” between Israel and the Golan Heights, remain in all place despite a request by the Israeli Defence Force that they “relocate”. The United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon said Saturday it would not leave positions. “On 30 September, the IDF (Israeli military) notified Unifil of their intention to undertake limited ground incursions into Lebanon. They also requested we relocate from some of our positions,” the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) said.
Up to 500 Australians and their close relatives are due to be boarded on to two charter flights out of Beirut on Saturday, amid increased government efforts to expatriate citizens after Israel’s ground incursion into Lebanon’s south. The first flight was expected to fly out of the Lebanese capital and land in Cyprus at about 11.30am local time (6.30pm AEST). From there, two Qantas flights can take passengers to Sydney on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Media affiliated with Hamas reported on Saturday that a leader of the group’s armed wing was killed with three family members in an Israeli strike on a Palestinian refugee camp in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli. It named the al-Qassam Brigades leader as Saeed Atallah. Israel did not immediately comment on the strike.
At least four hospitals in Lebanon announced the suspension of work amid the ongoing Israeli bombardment. Lebanon’s prime minister, Najib Mikati, urged the international community to pressure Israel “to allow rescue and relief teams to reach bombed sites and allow them to move” casualties.
Israel cut off a key road near to Lebanon’s Masnaa border crossing with Syria that has been used by hundreds of thousands of people to flee Israeli bombardments in recent days. Israel has accused Hezbollah of using border crossings with Syria to bring in weapons. More than 300,000 people – a vast majority of them Syrian – have crossed from Lebanon into Syria over the past 10 days to escape escalating Israeli bombardment, according to Lebanon’s government.
More than 2,000 people have been killed in Lebanon in nearly a year of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, according to figures by the Lebanese government. Most have been killed in the past two weeks.
The UN says that its peacekeepers, including an Irish post operating on the “blue line” between Israel and the Golan Heights, remain in all place despite a request by the Israeli Defence Force that they “relocate”.
The United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon said Saturday it would not leave positions.
“On 30 September, the IDF (Israeli military) notified UNIFIL of their intention to undertake limited ground incursions into Lebanon. They also requested we relocate from some of our positions,” the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) said.
“Peacekeepers remain in all positions and the UN flag continues to fly. Ireland has separately told Israel that the single Irish platoon manning post 6-52 on the blue line would remain in the place as any request to move was a matter for the UN’s force commander on the ground.
The UN peacekeeping operation composes of 10,000 troops from 46 nations and is mandated to protect the south of the country from unauthorised military activity.
Israel said earlier this week that it would start carrying out limited ground incursions into south Lebanon with some of the fighting taking place less than 2 km from the Irish post.
“We continue to urge Lebanon and Israel to recommit to Security Council Resolution 1701 – in actions, not just word – as the only viable solution to bring back stability in the region,” Unifil said.
It added that it had “contingency plans ready to activate if absolutely necessary”.
Israel has intensified its campaign against Lebanese militant group Hezbollah since 23 September, killing more than 1,110 people and forcing hundreds of thousands to flee their homes in a country already mired in economic crisis.
Yesterday, US president Joe Biden took questions from reporters during a rare briefing in which he said he wasn’t sure if the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was delaying a peace deal in the Middle East to influence the outcome of the US election.
You can read more here:
Updated
The Princess 2010 yacht is an impressive specimen of a boat. Before the war, its gleaming white hull could be seen cruising Lebanon’s coastline, revellers making sure they enjoyed every inch of the 24-metre-long vessel they each paid $600 to ride.
Since Israel started an intense bombing campaign across wide swathes of Lebanon on 23 September, the Princess has been making a very different type of journey. The $1.3m craft has been ferrying families from Beirut to Cyprus, bottles of champagne replaced by hastily packed suitcases.
“The trips are fully booked, we have done about 30 trips on our two boats since the bombing started [on 23 September],” said Khailil Bechara, a broker who works with ship captains to transport people to Cyprus.
At $1,800 a head, a seat on a boat bound for Cyprus is not cheap. But demand is high as people desperately try to find any route out of Lebanon.
The artist Maisara Baroud never found living in Gaza easy. The Israeli-Egyptian blockade, imposed in 2007 after Hamas’s violent takeover of the territory, was suffocating, and Rimal, his middle-class neighbourhood in Gaza City, had not been spared from airstrikes in the previous wars with Israel.
Despite everything, he said, his family worked hard to establish a simple, quiet existence after being expelled from their village in what is now Israel in 1948. Baroud, 48, was a lecturer in the fine arts department at Al-Aqsa University, and he, his wife, Khansa, 47, and children Rita, 21, Ilya, 18, and Maria, 14, lived in a flat in the large family building shared with his mother, his siblings and their children. A docile cat and several songbirds completed their home life.
A restless sleeper, he liked to draw late at night, after everyone else had gone to bed.
On 7 October 2023, that world collapsed. Following the Hamas attacks in Israel, the war arrived like “an earthquake that ravaged everything … Since that date, our sole mission has become trying to survive,” he said.
Over the past year, Baroud and his family have been displaced 12 times. Nowhere in Gaza is safe from airstrikes, but encroaching Israeli ground forces have forced them to flee again and again. Each move is more difficult than the last, as options and space in already overcrowded areas dwindle.
A new flight has been chartered by the UK government for British nationals to leave Lebanon on Sunday, amid the spiralling conflict in the region.
More than 250 UK citizens have left Lebanon on government-chartered flights amid the conflict, the Foreign Office said.
The UK chartered a fourth flight to leave Beirut-Rafic Hariri airport in Beirut on Sunday.
The government said there were no further flights scheduled due to “significantly reduced” demand, though it said it would keep the situation under constant review.
The Foreign Office said extra capacity had been arranged “due to high demand for places on commercial flights and has enabled more than 250 additional people to leave in the last week”.
“However, demand has now significantly reduced and this Sunday’s flight is currently the only one scheduled,” it said.
British nationals and their spouse or partner, and children under the age of 18, are eligible to book a place on Sunday.
All passengers must hold a valid travel document and dependants who are not UK citizens will require a valid visa that has been granted for a period of stay in Britain of more than six months.
At the start of Israel’s war on Gaza, when the intensive bombing of civilians began, the thought in my mind was: how will we Palestinians live with the Israelis after this?
Twelve months later, with no relenting in the killings and the destruction of Gaza, with Israel spreading the conflict to the West Bank, where more than 700 Palestinians have been killed, and its escalatory attacks in Lebanon and Iran, the question has only become more pertinent.
In the course of these past 12 months many atrocities have been committed, starting with the killing by Palestinians of 1,200 Israeli soldiers and civilians, followed by the Israeli army killing more than 41,000 Palestinians, including more than 17,000 women and children, 287 aid workers and 138 journalists and media workers.
This does not include those unaccounted for who remain under the rubble of the two-thirds of Gaza’s buildings that have been damaged or destroyed. Here is just one detail from this 12-month war: On 25 September, Israel returned a truck containing 88 bodies with no identifying details to Gaza.
Israel has been under the misguided belief that it could hide these atrocities from the world by limiting access to journalists. It has not allowed outsiders to do independent reporting in Gaza, which has made it easier to dispute Palestinian versions of events and the figures of those killed, and the extent of the damage caused.
To shed further doubt, the tremendous number of lives lost is usually accompanied by the caveat “claims the Hamas-run health ministry”.
At least 41,825 Palestinians have been killed and 96,910 wounded in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October, the territory’s health authorities said on Saturday.
A South Korean military transport aircraft returned 97 citizens and family members from Lebanon on Saturday as Middle East tensions rise, the foreign ministry said.
A KC-330 aircraft left Beirut on Friday afternoon with the evacuees, who include Lebanese family members, and arrived at a military airfield on the south of Seoul, the ministry said.
President Yoon Suk Yeol on Wednesday ordered military aircraft to be deployed to evacuate South Korean citizens from parts of the Middle East as conflict escalates between Israel and Hezbollah, as well as the armed group’s backer, Iran.
South Korea’s defence ministry said it flew a C130J transport plane as backup, which is capable of operating on shorter runways and under fire, as a precaution, and sent 39 military personnel, including mechanics and diplomats, Reuters reported.
The government will take further actions to ensure the safety of its citizens, the foreign ministry said without elaborating. South Korean diplomats stationed in Lebanon remained in the country, Yonhap news agency reported.
Hamas commander killed in Lebanon
Hamas said an Israeli strike killed one of its commanders, his wife and two daughters, in a refugee camp in north Lebanon – an area not previously hit by the current conflict.
Hamas said Saeed Atallah Ali, his wife, Shaymaa Azzam, and their two daughters, Zeinab and Fatima, were killed in a “Zionist bombardment of his house in the Beddawi camp” near the northern city of Tripoli. The daughters were described as children.
Ali was a leader of al-Qassam Brigades, the group’s armed wing. His death had been reported by Hamas-affiliated media earlier today.
Updated
A panel of experts discuss what next for a region on a knife edge:
The United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon said Israel had requested that it “relocate” but that it would not leave positions in the country’s south.
On September 30, the IDF (Israeli military) notified UNIFIL of their intention to undertake limited ground incursions into Lebanon. They also requested we relocate from some of our positions,” the UN Interim Force in Lebanon said in a statement, adding that “peacekeepers remain in all positions and the UN flag continues to fly.”
Updated
Up to 500 Australians and their close relatives are due to be boarded on to two charter flights out of Beirut on Saturday, amid increased government efforts to expatriate citizens after Israel’s ground incursion into Lebanon’s south.
The first flight was expected to fly out of the Lebanese capital and land in Cyprus at about 11.30am local time (6.30pm AEST). From there, two Qantas flights can take passengers to Sydney on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Guardian Australia understands that seats were still available for the flights as of Saturday afternoon (Australian time).
Speaking to reporters on Saturday, the federal infrastructure minister, Catherine King, said the government’s message to Australians in Lebanon was “do not wait”, adding it could not be guaranteed that everyone would be evacuated.
Explosions in Beirut overnight
Here is the Guardian’s latest report on the crisis in the Middle East, including the series of explosions that shook Beirut’s southern suburbs early on Saturday.
A series of explosions were heard over Beirut’s southern suburbs early on Saturday after the Israeli military demanded evacuations for some areas while Hezbollah said it was engaged in continued clashes with Israeli troops in the Lebanon border area.
Israel said on Friday it had targeted the intelligence headquarters of Hezbollah in Beirut and was assessing the damage after a series of strikes on senior figures in the militant group that Iran’s supreme leader condemned as counterproductive.
Media affiliated with Hamas, meanwhile, reported on Saturday that a leader of its armed wing was killed with three family members in an Israeli strike on a Palestinian refugee camp in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli. It named the al-Qassam Brigades leader as Saeed Atallah. Israel did not immediately comment on the strike.
In Beirut’s southern suburbs, a blast was heard and smoke seen early on Saturday, Reuters witnesses said, as the Israeli military issued three warnings for residents of the area to immediately evacuate. The first alert warned residents in a building in the Burj al-Barajneh neighbourhood and the second in a building in Choueifat district, while the third alert mentioned buildings in Haret Hreik as well as Burj al-Barajneh.
Iran-backed Hezbollah said the Israeli army was trying to infiltrate the southern Lebanese town of Odaisseh, where clashes continued.
Updated
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has arrived in Damascus to discuss regional developments and bilateral relations with Syrian officials, the Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson said on Saturday.
This comes after Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, gave a rare public sermon in Tehran on Friday, vowing that Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza will re-emerge strongly with new leaders, and defending the “legal and legitimate” ballistic missile attack on Israel this week.
Updated
Images from news agencies overnight show thick clouds of smoke rising over parts of southern Beirut, after the capital was struck by a series of airstrikes in the early hours of Saturday.
Updated
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to our continuing live coverage of the conflict in the Middle East. Here’s a recap of the latest developments.
Israel has launched fresh airstrikes on Beirut overnight, with a series of loud blasts and huge plumes of smoke reported in the south of the capital in the early hours of Saturday. The Israeli military had earlier demanded the evacuation of parts of Beirut’s southern suburbs.
The attacks, part of a wider assault that has driven more than 1.2 million Lebanese from their homes, followed intense bombardment on Thursday night that reportedly targeted Hashem Safieddine, the most likely candidate to replace Hassan Nasrallah as leader of Hezbollah. His fate remains unclear.
Separately, Hezbollah said it was engaged in ongoing clashes with Israeli soldiers near to Lebanon’s southern border, saying Israeli soldiers had renewed an attempt to advance towards the village of Adaysseh.
In other news:
Media affiliated with Hamas reported on Saturday that a leader of the group’s armed wing was killed with three family members in an Israeli strike on a Palestinian refugee camp in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli. It named the al-Qassam Brigades leader as Saeed Atallah. Israel did not immediately comment on the strike.
At least four hospitals in Lebanon announced the suspension of work amid the ongoing Israeli bombardment. Lebanon’s prime minister, Najib Mikati, urged the international community to pressure Israel “to allow rescue and relief teams to reach bombed sites and allow them to move” casualties.
Israel cut off a key road near to Lebanon’s Masnaa border crossing with Syria that has been used by hundreds of thousands of people to flee Israeli bombardments in recent days. Israel has accused Hezbollah of using border crossings with Syria to bring in weapons. More than 300,000 people – a vast majority of them Syrian – have crossed from Lebanon into Syria over the past 10 days to escape escalating Israeli bombardment, according to Lebanon’s government.
More than 2,000 people have been killed in Lebanon in nearly a year of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, according to figures by the Lebanese government. Most have been killed in the past two weeks.
Gaza’s health ministry said at least 41,802 people have been killed and 96,844 injured in Israeli military attacks on Gaza since last October in its latest update on Friday. The ministry has said thousands are most likely lost in the rubble.
At least 29 Palestinians were killed in Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip on Friday, according to medics. Israeli attacks continued across Gaza on Friday, including in the city of Deir al-Balah, where an Israeli strike on a home has killed at least four people, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa. The military also launched bombs that ignited fires in homes in the Nuseirat refugee camp, while Israeli warplanes struck several sites in the southern city of Khan Younis, “resulting in further casualties and injuries”, Wafa reported.
The northern regions of Israel were targeted by Hezbollah rockets almost continuously throughout Friday. The Israel Defense Forces said Hezbollah had launched about 100 rockets into Israel on Friday.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, vowed that Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza would re-emerge strongly with new leaders. In a rare public sermon in front of tens of thousands in Tehran on Friday, Khamenei defended the “legal and legitimate” ballistic missile attack on Israel this week that Iran has said was in retaliation for the deaths of the Hezbollah secretary general, Hassan Nasrallah, and the Hamas political leader, Ismail Haniyeh.
The US president, Joe Biden, said he didn’t know whether the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was holding up a peace deal in the Middle East in order to influence the outcome of the 2024 US presidential election. Biden earlier urged Israel against striking Iran’s oil facilities.
Israeli soldiers conducted widespread raids in the Hebron province in the occupied West Bank on Friday morning, resulting in the detention of more than 24 people, including “minors”, the Palestinian news agency reported. The majority of those detained were reportedly taken from the town of Beit Ummar. Human rights groups and international organisations have alleged widespread abuse of inmates detained by Israel in raids in the occupied West Bank.
Funerals were held on Friday for some of the 18 people killed in the occupied West Bank in an Israeli airstrike on a refugee camp in Tulkarm. Among the dead, according to Palestinan reports, was a family of four including two children. A spokesperson for the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, described the attack as a “heinous crime” and a “massacre”. The attack was condemned by the UN rights office. Hamas’ armed wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, confirmed that one of its commanders, Zahi Yaser Abd al-Razeq Oufi, and seven other fighters were killed in the Israeli strike.
US forces carried out strikes on 15 targets in areas of Yemen controlled by the Houthi rebels on Friday, the US military confirmed. The media in Yemen reported a new round of airstrikes, including on the capital, Sana’a, and near the airport at the port of Hodeidah, and Israeli strikes continued in Gaza and Lebanon. The strikes were targeted at weapons systems, bases and other equipment belonging to the Iran-backed group, US officials said. The Guardian understands there was no UK involvement in the airstrikes on Friday.
The last UK-government chartered flight for British nationals to leave Lebanon will depart from Beirut on Sunday. More than 250 British nationals have left Lebanon on flights chartered by government, the UK Foreign Office said on Friday. A South Korean military transport aircraft evacuated 97 citizens and family members on Friday.
Updated
