We’re ending our live coverage here, but will return if there is breaking news to bring you. If you want to read more on the strikes in Beirut and the crisis in the Middle East, the latest report from our correspondents on the ground is here:
Lebanon’s government said on Wednesday at least 28 people had been killed by Israeli strikes in the previous 24 hours, raising the total death toll since October 2023 to 2,574.
Arriving in Lebanon for talks on ending hostilities, Germany’s foreign minister Annalena Baerbock said providing arms to Israel posed a dilemma:
On the one hand, Israel is attacked every day and not supporting it would mean that people are not [being] protected ... On the other, it is also Germany’s responsibility to stand up for international humanitarian law.”
Baerbock later warned that a complete destabilisation of Lebanon would be “fatal for the most religiously diverse society in the region.”
Israel’s army has been able to weaken Hezbollah significantly. Now we need a diplomatic solution.”
Syria is teetering on the brink of a “military, humanitarian and economic storm,” a top UN official said on Wednesday, warning of escalating violence within the country and spillover from fighting in neighbouring Gaza and Lebanon.
“The fires of conflict are raging in the occupied Palestinian Territory, including Gaza, and in Lebanon,” Geir Pedersen, special envoy for Syria, told the UN Security Council.
“And the heat is being felt in Syria too,” he added, warning “regional spillover into Syria is alarming and could get much worse.”
While Israel has for years struck Hezbollah positions in Syria, it has increased its air raids as its conflict in Lebanon expands, accusing the group of funnelling weapons to Lebanon from Syria.
“The past month has seen the fastest-paced and broadest-ranging campaign of Israeli airstrikes in the last thirteen years,” Pedersen told the Security Council, adding residential areas, “even in the heart of Damascus,” have been hit.
Meanwhile, airstrikes by Russia, which supports the Syrian government, have resumed for the first time and months, while pro-government forces have “significantly accelerated” their own drone strikes and shelling, Pedersen added.
“We are seeing all the ingredients for a military, humanitarian and economic storm breaking on an already devastated Syria,” he said.
US 'concerned' by reports of Israeli strikes on Lebanese armed forces
Defence secretary Lloyd Austin has told his Israeli counterpart that the US is deeply concerned about “reports of strikes against the Lebanese Armed Forces”.
A Pentagon read out of a conversation between Austin and Israeli minister of defence Yoav Gallant stated that US secretary also “emphasized the importance of taking all necessary measures to ensure the safety and security of the Lebanese Armed Forces and UNIFIL (UN peacekeeping) forces.”
After reaffirming the US’s “unwavering and enduring support for Israel”, Austin urged Israel to “take all necessary steps to address the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, and to work to seize opportunities for the release of hostages and a ceasefire presented by the death of Yahya Sinwar.”
More on the announcement from the World Health Organization that due to the “escalating violence and intense bombardments” in northern Gaza, the third phase of a vital polio vaccination campaign has been postponed.
In a statement, the WHO said a “lack of assured humanitarian pauses across most of northern Gaza” meant the final part of the campaign had to be paused on Wednesday. According to the agency, 119 279 children across northern Gaza were due to be vaccinated.
The current conditions, including ongoing attacks on civilian infrastructure continue to jeopardize people’s safety and movement in northern Gaza, making it impossible for families to safely bring their children for vaccination, and health workers to operate.
Having a significant number of children miss out on their second vaccine dose will seriously jeopardize efforts to stop the transmission of poliovirus in Gaza.”
Earlier we reported that US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said his country was tracking “very, very, very carefully” efforts by Israel to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
He accused Israel of previously having fallen back on promises of sustained deliveries. Blinken said Israel’s success against Hamas had come at “great cost” to Palestinian civilians.
Israel says aid has been delivered in scores of trucks as well as air drops, but Gaza medics say the aid has not reached them.
COGAT, the Israeli military unit tasked with overseeing civilian operations in Gaza, said on Tuesday that 237 trucks containing humanitarian aid from Jordan and the international community had been transferred to northern Gaza over the past eight days.
𝗛𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗻 𝘂𝗽𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲 October 22
— COGAT (@cogatonline) October 23, 2024
🚛104 humanitarian aid trucks entered Gaza via the Kerem Shalom and Erez crossings.
🛻32 trucks were collected from the Gazan side of Kerem Shalom by international organizations. Approx. 700 trucks worth of aid are waiting for… pic.twitter.com/00WRhlZfIr
Palestinian health officials and residents said no aid has been allowed into Jabalia, Beit Hanoun, and Beit Lahiya, three towns on the northern edge of Gaza.
Hezbollah claims to have hit Tel Aviv military factory
Hezbollah has said it struck a military manufacturing firm in the Tel Aviv suburbs with rockets, claiming the hit was accurate. The Iran-backed group said it hit a “military industries company in the suburbs of Tel Aviv with qualitative rockets and hit the target accurately”.
Around the time of Hezbollah’s claim, air raid sirens sounded in Tel Aviv and neighbouring cities.
The Israeli military said four projectiles were identified as having been fired from Lebanon, two were intercepted, one fell in an open area and one was identified as having fallen in the area. There was no immediate indication of any defence facility having been hit around Tel Aviv and no casualties reported according to the IDF.
It comes after Hezbollah said in a statement late on Wednesday that it had escalated its attacks on Israel, using “precision missiles” for the first time and launched new types of drones on Israeli targets, without offering further details.
Summary of the day so far
It’s 1am in Beirut, Gaza and Tel Aviv. Here’s a recap of the latest developments:
Israeli strikes pounded Beirut’s southern suburbs on Wednesday night, levelling several buildings and destroying the offices of a Lebanese broadcaster. Lebanese state media reported 17 Israeli raids with six buildings levelled, marking one of the most violent nights in the area since the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah escalated a month ago. The country’s health ministry said one person was killed and five others, including a child, were wounded. Pro-Iran outlet Al-Mayadeen said an Israeli strike targeted an office it had vacated there.
Israeli forces have killed 2,574 people and wounded 12,001 others since its attacks across Lebanon, the country’s health ministry said in a statement on Wednesday. At least 28 people have been killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanon in the last 24 hours, it said.
Israeli strikes across Gaza killed 42 people on Wednesday as Israeli forces intensified a siege of northern parts of the Palestinian territory. Of at least 42 people reported killed by Israeli military strikes across the territory on Wednesday, 37 deaths were in northern Gaza. The health ministry said at least 650 people had been killed since the new Israeli offensive began in the north of Gaza. Gaza’s civil emergency service said all its operations in northern Gaza were suspended after Israeli forces detained five staff members and bombed the only fire truck.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) said one of its staff members was killed when an Unrwa vehicle was hit in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on Wednesday. Gaza’s civil emergency service said three of its rescuers were wounded in northern Gaza in what it said was a “targeted strike”, that aimed to force them out of Jabalia. Health and civil emergency officials said dozens of bodies of Palestinians killed by Israeli fire in and around Jabalia were scattered on roadsides and under the rubble where medical teams could not reach them.
Israel carried out airstrikes on Wednesday in Tyre, one of the largest cities in southern Lebanon, which had become a refuge over the past year for thousands of families displaced by fighting further south. Israel began to bomb the Unesco-listed city roughly three hours after its military issued an order online for residents to flee central areas. Videos showed large plumes of smoke billowing between residential buildings in the centre of the city.
The Israeli defence minister, Yoav Gallant, said planned airstrikes on Iran will make the world understand Israel’s military might. The Middle East has been braced for more than three weeks for a threatened Israeli response to Iran’s 1 October missile attack, which was in turn a reprisal for Israel’s killing of the Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah. Gallant visited aircrews at Hatzerim airbase on Wednesday and made clear that Israel still intended to strike back.
Hezbollah confirmed the death of Hashem Safieddine, who was expected to be Nasrallah’s successor. Israel claimed Safieddine had been killed in an airstrike earlier this month, alongside Ali Hussein Hazima, the head of Hezbollah’s intelligence unit. The death of Safieddine, the most senior Hezbollah official killed since the killing of Nasrallah, throws the leadership of the group further into question. In a statement on Wednesday, Hezbollah pledged to carry on in “that path of resistance and jihad” that Safieddine had spent his life serving.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said his country is tracking “very, very, very carefully” efforts by Israel to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza. He accused Israel of previously having fallen back on promises of sustained deliveries. Blinken said Israel’s success against Hamas had come at “great cost” to Palestinian civilians.
The US believes there is a greater chance of a hostage release deal between Hamas and Israel now that the Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar, has been killed in Gaza by Israeli forces, Blinken said. Having described Sinwar as “the primary obstacle” to reaching a deal, it was also announced that Blinken would be in London later this week in order to meet with Arab leaders. Senior Hamas official Dr Basem Naim suggested that Blinken had been wasting his time visiting Israel this week.
Rescuers recovered the bodies of a woman and her seven-year-old child after an Israeli airstrike near Lebanon’s largest public hospital in southern Beirut on Monday, according to a Lebanese official. At least 18 people, including four children, were killed and more than 60 others wounded after the Israeli strike hit several buildings near the Rafik Hariri university hospital. The Israeli military said it hit a “Hezbollah terrorist target” near the hospital, without giving details, and insisted that the hospital was not targeted.
The Israel Defense Forces accused six Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza of “military affiliation” to Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reacted with scepticism, saying that “Israel has repeatedly made similar unproven claims without producing credible evidence”.
At least five people were killed and 22 others wounded in an explosion and assault at the headquarters of the national aerospace company, Tusaş, outside Ankara on Wednesday. Turkey’s interior minister, Ali Yerlikaya, said it was likely that the militant Kurdistan Workers’ party, or PKK, was responsible for the attack, without giving evidence. Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said: “I condemn this heinous terrorist attack and wish mercy on our martyrs.”
Updated
Here are some images coming through the newswires from Gaza where Israeli strikes have killed at least 42,800 people while forcibly displacing nearly 2 million survivors in the past year:
Updated
Syrians fleeing Israeli strikes in Lebanon are facing a perilous return to their home country.
Ali Haj Suleiman and Annie Kelly report for the Guardian:
In the past month, Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon have reversed this refugee flow, pushing an estimated 425,000 people – mostly women and children – back over chaotic and overcrowded border crossings, according to the UN.
About 70% of those making the crossing are Syrians, but Lebanese civilians – the majority thought to be from Hezbollah strongholds in south Lebanon and the Bekaa valley – have also sought safety in a country still beset by economic strife, division and violence.
For many of the Syrians returning home after years of living in exile, the journey back home is a perilous one.
At border crossings and checkpoints in regime territory, there have been reports of disappearances, interrogations, detentions, forced conscription, bribery, beatings and harassment of returning refugees.
For the full story, click here:
Israeli strikes destroyed six buildings in Laylaki, a Beirut suburb, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency.
“The Israeli raids on an area surrounding Al-Laylaki destroyed six buildings,” the news agency said on Wednesday, Agence France-Presse reports.
NNA added that the attacks were “the most violent in the area since the beginning of the war”.
Updated
Lebanon health ministry: 2,574 people killed by Israeli forces in recent weeks
Israeli forces have killed 2,574 people and wounded 12,001 others since its attacks across Lebanon, the country’s health ministry said in a new statement on Wednesday.
2574 شهيدا و 12001 جريحا منذ بدء العدوان، وحصيلة يوم أمس 28 شهيدا و 139 جريحا
— Ministry of Public Health - Lebanon (@mophleb) October 23, 2024
صدر عن مركز عمليات طوارئ الصحة العامة التابع لوزارة الصحة العامة بيان أعلن أن غارات العدو الإسرائيلي على لبنان ليوم أمس الثلثاء 22 تشرين الأول 2024 أسفرت عن
الحصيلة التفصيلية التالية:
The updated death toll comes after Israeli strikes in the country yesterday caused:
Eight deaths and 42 injuries in southern Lebanon.
Twelve deaths and 68 injuries in Nabatieh.
Three deaths and 11 injuries in Bekaa.
Five deaths and 17 injuries in Baalbek-Hermel.
One injury in Mount Lebanon.
- الجنوب: 8 شهداء و 42 جريحا
— Ministry of Public Health - Lebanon (@mophleb) October 23, 2024
- النبطية: 12 شهيدا و 68 جريحا
- البقاع: 3 شهداء و 11 جريحا
- بعلبك الهرمل: 5 شهيدا و 17 جريحا
- جبل لبنان: جريح واحد
وهو ما يؤدي إلى الحصيلة الإجمالية التالية ليوم أمس: 28 شهيدا وإصابة 139 بجروح.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images sent from the newswires from Beirut after heavy Israeli airstrikes on the Lebanese capital’s southern suburbs.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) reported at least 10 Israeli strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Four Israeli strikes hit a residential complex near the southern suburb of al-Laylaki, “completely destroying it and causing a large fire”, NNA reported.
Updated
A joint letter signed by the foreign ministers of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden expressed “deep concern” over bills introduced to Israel’s parliament that would prevent the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) from operating in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza.
The Nordic countries urged Israel to ensure that the UN agency has continued and unhindered humanitarian access to Palestinian refugees. The statement reads:
In the midst of an ongoing catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza, a halt to any of the organisation’s activities would have devastating consequences for the hundreds of thousands of civilians served by Unrwa.
It warned that if the UN body was no longer able to exercise its core tasks, it could further destabilize the situation in the region, “and may fundamentally jeopardise the prospects for a two-state solution”.
Updated
Heavy Israeli strikes have been reported in Beirut’s southern suburbs, some reportedly with prior warning and others without.
According to Al Jazeera Arabic, there have been nine strikes in southern Beirut tonight.
Lebanese media said four Israeli strikes destroyed a residential complex in al-Laylaki in Beirut’s southern suburb, AFP reported.
Timour Azhari of Reuters shared footage of the strikes:
Heavy Israeli strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs tonight pic.twitter.com/6j86oTWAn3
— Timour Azhari (@timourazhari) October 23, 2024
Several buildings brought down. pic.twitter.com/knIJhGpA92
— Timour Azhari (@timourazhari) October 23, 2024
Hezbollah said its missile struck a military factory in the Tel Aviv suburbs, claiming the hit was accurate.
The group, in a separate statement on Wednesday, said it used “precision missiles” and new types of drones for the first time in their clashes against Israeli troops.
It said it had been able to push back Israeli troops in clashes in several border villages in southern Lebanon.
Lebanese broadcaster Al Mayadeen says Beirut office hit by Israeli strike
An Israeli strike on Wednesday night hit an office used by the Lebanese broadcaster Al Mayadeen in southern Beirut, according to the outlet.
In a post on X, Al Mayadeen said its office in Beirut was the target of “Israeli aggression”. It said the office had been evacuated before the strike.
لبنان: عدوان إسرائيلي على مكتب قناة الميادين في بيروت
— الميادين عاجل (@AlMayadeenLive) October 23, 2024
The broadcaster’s office was hit in a strike on a multi-storey building in the Lebanese capital’s southern suburbs, Reuters reported, citing sources.
Al Mayadeen has previously accused Israel of deliberately targeting its journalists, citing the channel’s pro-Palestinian stance and pro-Iran’s regional military alliance. Israeli authorities have sought to block Al Mayadeen’s websites and seize equipment linked to the station.
Updated
Lebanese state media reported that an Israeli drone strike hit an apartment in the Jnah neighbourhood in south Beirut on Wednesday.
Lebanon’s National News Agency reported that a strike targeted a residential apartment near the former location of the Iranian embassy.
It also reported other strikes in the Ouzai and Haret Hreik neighbourhoods which were not preceded by an Israeli evacuation warning.
Israeli military issues new evacuation warnings for south Beirut
The Israeli military has issued new evacuation warnings for residents in southern Beirut ahead of expected airstrikes.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Arabic language spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, posted maps of specific buildings in Beirut’s southern suburbs, warning people to leave the area immediately.
#عاجل إلى جميع السكان المتواجدين في منطقة الضاحية الجنوبية وتحديدًا في المباني المحددة في الخرائط المرفقة والمباني المجاورة لها في المناطق التالية:
— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) October 23, 2024
🔸برج البراجنة
🔸حدث بيروت
⭕️أنتم تتواجدون بالقرب من منشآت ومصالح تابعة لحزب الله حيث سيعمل ضدها جيش الدفاع على المدى الزمني… pic.twitter.com/S2mO5qTr71
Updated
China’s president, Xi Jinping, has said that “an early ceasefire and an end of war in Gaza are the key to easing regional tensions”, according to state media.
As we reported earlier, Xi met with his Iranian counterpart, Masoud Pezeshkian on the sidelines of a Brics summit in Russia on Wednesday.
Chinese state media Xinhua reported that Xi made the comments about a Gaza ceasefire during his meeting with Pezeshkian.
Pezeshkian, at a Brics plenary session, urged members to “use all their collective and individual capacities to end the war in Gaza and Lebanon”.
Turkey’s defence minister, Yaşar Güler, earlier also blamed the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK) for the deadly attack at the headquarters of the national aerospace company, Tusaş, outside Ankara on Wednesday.
Without giving evidence, Güler said:
We give these PKK scoundrels the punishment they deserve every time. But they never come to their senses. We will pursue them until the last terrorist is eliminated.
Death toll from Turkish attack rises to five, says interior minister
The number of people killed in an apparent terror attack on a Turkish defence facility in Ankara has risen to five, the country’s interior minister, Ali Yerlikaya, said.
A further 22 people have been injured, with two in critical condition, he told reporters.
Yerlikaya added that the perpetrators of the attack were “most likely” members of the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK).
US 'strongly condemns' attack on defence firm near Ankara, Turkey
The White House’s national security council spokesperson, John Kirby, has told reporters that the US “strongly condemns” the attack at the Turkish defence firm near Ankara on Wednesday. Kirby said:
While we don’t yet know the motive or who is exactly behind it, we strongly condemn this act of violence.
Updated
The Israeli military said air raid sirens were activated across central Israel after they were triggered by four rockets launched from Lebanon.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said some of the projectiles were intercepted and several impacted, without specifying where.
There were no immediate reports of injuries
Rescuers recovered the bodies of a woman and her 7-year-old child two days after an Israeli airstrike near Lebanon’s largest public hospital in southern Beirut, according to a Lebanese official.
At least 18 people, including four children, were killed and more than 60 others wounded after the Israeli strike hit several buildings near the Rafik Hariri university hospital. The hospital suffered “major damage” from the blast.
Saad al-Ahmar, the commander of the Lebanese civil defence’s southern district fire and rescue unit, told Associated Press that the mother and child were from the Mokdad family, seven of whom were killed in Monday’s attack.
He added that four to five Syrians and one Sudanese individual remain unaccounted for.
The Israeli military said it hit a “Hezbollah terrorist target” near the hospital, without giving details, and insisted that the hospital was not targeted.
Germany has condemned what it called a “horrific terrorist attack” at the headquarters of the Turkish defence firm, Tusaş, near Ankara on Wednesday.
“We condemn all forms of terrorism in the strongest possible terms,” the German foreign ministry wrote in a post to X.
Germany has the largest Turkish population outside Turkey.
Four people killed in 'terror attack' at Turkish aerospace company
Away from Israel but in a sign of further instability in the region, here are some of the latest images from Ankara, after four people were killed and 14 others wounded in what Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, described as a “heinous terrorist attack” at the headquarters of the national aerospace company, Tusaş, on Wednesday afternoon.
Turkey’s interior minister, Ali Yerlikaya, blamed a terrorist attack for the explosion and assault at the building, and said two attackers had been “neutralised” and work was under way to determine their identities.
It was not clear who was behind the attack. Kurdish militants, Islamic State and leftist extremists have carried out attacks in the country in the past.
Updated
Four Palestinians have been killed after an Israeli airstrike targeted a house in the Tal al-Hawa neighbourhood, southwest of Gaza City on Wednesday evening, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported, citing medical sources.
There were additional injuries as a result of the Israeli strike, according to Wafa.
Summary of the day so far
It is 8pm in Gaza, Tel Aviv and Beirut. This blog will shortly be handed over to the US team. Here is a summary of the day’s news so far:
Hashem Safieddine, the top Hezbollah official widely expected to succeed slain secretary general Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in an Israeli attack, the group said on Wednesday. Israel had said on Tuesday that a strike carried out in Beirut three weeks ago had killed Safieddine, but Hezbollah did not confirm the news until today.
Heavy Israeli airstrikes have taken place on the historic Lebanese port city of Tyre. Israel began to bomb the Unesco-listed city roughly three hours after its military issued an order online for residents to flee central areas. Huge clouds of thick smoke were seen billowing above residential buildings.
The US secretary of state Antony Blinken said his country is tracking “very, very, very carefully” efforts by Israel to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza. He accused Israel of previously having fallen back on promises of sustained deliveries. Blinken said Israel’s success against Hamas had come at “great cost” to Palestinian civilians.
The US believes there is a greater chance of a hostage release deal between Hamas and Israel now that the Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar has been killed in Gaza by Israeli forces, Blinken said. Having described Sinwar as “the primary obstacle” to reaching a deal, it was also announced that Blinken would be in London later this week in order to meet with Arab leaders.
Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant has told pilots and aircrews at Hatzerim airbase “after we strike in Iran, everyone will understand what you did in the preparation and training process”, according to Israeli media reports. Gallant added: “Anyone who dreamed a year ago of defeating us and striking us has paid a heavy price and is no longer in that dream.”
There are no indications any employees from the Office of the Secretary of Defense are being investigated for the leak of US intelligence about Israel’s preparations to strike Iran, US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said on Wednesday. “There’s no OSD official being named as a part of this investigation,” Austin said while speaking to reporters in Rome. The FBI said on Tuesday it was investigating the public disclosure of a pair of highly classified documents describing Israel’s preparations for a retaliatory strike on Iran. Austin added that he did not have any indication that “any OSD official will be implicated as a part of this”.
Blinken and Jordan’s foreign minister Ayman Safadi discussed, during a call, “the importance of securing the release of all hostages in Gaza, alleviating the suffering of the Palestinian people, and ending the war in a way that provides peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians,” the US state department spokesperson, Matthew Miller, shared. He added that Blinken had thanked Jordan for its “leadership in facilitating the delivery of critical aid to Palestinian civilians in Gaza”.
Senior Hamas official Dr Basem Naim has suggested that Blinken had been wasting his time visiting Israel this week. The interview, shown on the Al Arabiya channel was one of the first interviews with a senior Hamas figure since the killing of Sinwar by Israel.
At least 28 people have been killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanon in the last 24 hours, bringing the total toll since October 2023 to 2,574, the Lebanese government said on Wednesday.
Humanitarian workers face surging violence and worsening working conditions, with intensifying global conflicts and respect for international law on the decline, top Red Cross officials warned on Wednesday. Speaking before the IFRC’s general assembly in Geneva, Forbes voiced alarm that 30 of the network’s volunteers had been killed since the beginning of this year alone.
The war between Israel and armed group Hezbollah is expected to wipe 9% off Lebanon’s national wealth as measured by GDP, the United Nations said on Wednesday, with the scale of hostilities and the economic fallout set to surpass the last war in 2006.
In a statement Hezbollah claimed on Wednesday that it had fired a rocket salvo at an Israeli army base in Haifa.
Israel’s military said in a statement on its official Telegram channel that on Wednesday, as of 3pm local time (noon GMT), it had recorded about 85 projectiles being launched towards Israel from the direction of Lebanon. One Israeli woman was lightly injured by shrapnel on Israel’s coast north of Tel Aviv and 50-year-old man was treated for a shrapnel injury to the head in the Nahariya area by the Magen David Adom ambulance service. Smoke, apparently from an intercepted projectile, could also be seen in the sky above the hotel where Blinken had been staying.
In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Authority minister of health has said that Israel’s actions in Gaza were preventing children from receiving their second dose of the polio vaccine. Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that Majid Abu Ramadan “highlighted the significant risks faced by both children and healthcare workers, which impede their access to vaccination centres” due to “escalating Israeli aggression”, and “emphasised that the second dose of the vaccine is crucial for achieving full immunity against polio”.
Wafa reported that in the past 24 hours, according to medical sources, 74 civilians had been killed and 130 others injured in Gaza in what it described as six separate attacks by Israeli forces. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict.
Western countries have floated the idea of deploying international forces to Lebanon alongside the country’s army in case of a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, a western diplomat told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Wednesday. “What is needed right now is a ceasefire and a presence trusted by both sides – this could be the Lebanese army with international forces,” the diplomat told AFP, requesting anonymity as the matter is sensitive.
China’s embassy in Lebanon has suspended passport, visa and other services.
Germany’s foreign minister said in Beirut on Wednesday that her country was “in a dilemma” when it comes to exporting weapons to Israel, and added that Israel has a responsibility to abide by international law. Annalena Baerbock added that all parties must protect the UN Interim Force In Lebanon (Unifil). Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Qatar’s Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, met in Germany yesterday, and called for intensified diplomatic efforts to achieve a lasting peace in the region
In parliament in London, the UK’s deputy prime minister Angela Rayner said that British support of Israel’s security remained “steadfast”, but that the government would always support Israel in “a manner consistent with our obligations to domestic and international law”. Describing the humanitarian situation in Gaza as “dire”, Rayner said this was a “really serious and important issue”.
Russia’s state-run news agency RIA Novosti reports that a Hamas official was visiting Moscow for talks with officials, according to a diplomatic source.
Iran’s president Masoud Pezeshkian on Wednesday urged members of the Brics grouping to help “end the war” in Gaza and Lebanon. “I call on all members of the influential Brics group to use all their collective and individual capacities to end the war in Gaza and Lebanon,” said Pezeshkian during a speech at a Brics summit in Russia.
Russian president Vladimir Putin on Wednesday told Pezeshkian that he wanted to further “strengthen” ties with Tehran, which has been widely accused of sending weapons to Moscow for use in Ukraine. Pezeshkian also met Chinese president Xi Jinping on the sidelines of a Brics summit in Russia, according to a report by the Chinese state news agency Xinhua.
Israel’s national security council called on Israelis on Wednesday to immediately leave some tourist areas in southern Sri Lanka over the threat of a possible terrorist attack. The agency said the warning pertained to the area of Arugam Bay and beaches in the south and west of Sri Lanka. The security council did not specify the exact nature of the threat and called on Israelis in the rest of Sri Lanka to be cautious and refrain from holding large gatherings in public areas.
Red Cross decries 'surge in violence' against aid workers
Humanitarian workers face surging violence and worsening working conditions, with intensifying global conflicts and respect for international law on the decline, top Red Cross officials warned on Wednesday, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“Today, our work is increasingly difficult,” said Kate Forbes, president of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. She added:
Global conflicts have escalated, endangering civilians and our volunteers, making it even more difficult to deliver humanitarian aid.”
Forbes was speaking before the IFRC’s general assembly in Geneva, bringing together representatives of 191 Red Cross and Red Crescent national societies. Together, they count more than 16 million volunteers worldwide.
AFP reports that Forbes voiced alarm that 30 of the network’s volunteers had been killed since the beginning of this year alone. Many of those were victims of the war Israel is waging against Hamas in Gaza, while others died in Sudan’s civil war.
“Each loss is a deep one for both the communities we serve and for our global network, weakening our ability to support those in need,” Forbes said.
She warned that “the surge in violence against humanitarian workers underscores a decline in the adherence to international humanitarian law and poses a direct threat to our mission”.
According to AFP, Mirjana Spoljaric, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, agreed, arguing the movement was being “confronted with unprecedented challenges to our principles”.
“As we come together today, intense armed conflicts and political turmoil shape the world we operate in,” she told the assembly. She added:
The relevance of impartial, neutral, and independent humanitarian action – which ensure we can reach those most in need – are being tested at an alarming rate.
This is exactly when our commitment to these principles matters most.”
Spoljaric’s ICRC will co-organise an international conference with the IFRC next week in Geneva, due to focus heavily on how to boost compliance with international law. She said the planet’s largest humanitarian network was seeing “the world standing by, allowing for dehumanisation of entire populations”.
“This is precisely when we must work together to put humanity at the centre,” she said.
Faced with the rising death toll, Forbes on Wednesday announced the establishment of “the Red Family Fund”, aimed at providing financial support to the families of those who have died in the line of duty, reports AFP.
“This is a tangible step that demonstrates our commitment to honour those who care for others,” she said.
The war between Israel and armed group Hezbollah is expected to wipe 9% off Lebanon’s national wealth as measured by GDP, the United Nations said on Wednesday, with the scale of hostilities and the economic fallout set to surpass the last war in 2006.
Reuters reports that the UN Development Programme’s (UNDP) rapid appraisal of the conflict’s impact on Lebanon’s gross domestic product was released a day ahead of a summit hosted by France to help drum up international support for Lebanon.
UNDP said it expected the conflict to last until the end of 2024, leading to a 30% jump in the government’s financing needs in a country in dire straits even before violence began.
“GDP is projected to decline by 9.2% compared to a no-war scenario, indicating a significant decline in economic activity as a direct consequence of the conflict (around 2 billion dollars),” the report said.
UNDP said that even if the war ended in 2024, the consequences would persist for years, with GDP likely to contract by 2.28% in 2025 and 2.43% in 2026.
Lebanon was already suffering a four-year-old economic downturn and a political crisis when Hezbollah began firing rockets at Israel last year in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas.
In late September, Israel dramatically ramped up its bombing across Lebanon, with strikes now regularly hitting Beirut’s southern suburbs, major cities in southern Lebanon and parts of the eastern Bekaa valley, including the border with Syria.
Hezbollah and Israel last fought in 2006, when a month-long conflict left much of Lebanon’s south and the capital’s southern suburbs in ruins and required international help to rebuild.
According to Reuters, the UNDP said the damage to physical infrastructure, housing and productive capacities like factories would probably be close to that estimated for the 2006 war, which was between $2.5bn and $3.6bn. But it warned of larger overall damage to Lebanon.
“The scale of the military engagement, the geopolitical context, the humanitarian impact and the economic fallout in 2024 are expected to be much greater than in 2006,” it said.
UNDP’s report said the closure of border crossings critical for trade would bring a 21% drop in trade activities, and that it expected job losses in the tourism, agriculture and construction sectors. It said Lebanon had already sustained “massive environmental losses” over the last year, including due to unexploded ordnance and contamination from possibly hazardous material, particularly the use of white phosphorus across southern Lebanon.
Government revenue is expected to fall by 9% and total investment by more than 6% through both 2025 and 2026.
As a result, increased international assistance will be essential for sustainable recovery in Lebanon, UNDP said – not only to address the spike in humanitarian needs but to stem the long-term social and economic consequences of the conflict.
Lebanon’s minister in charge of its crisis response told Reuters that the country needed $250m a month to help more than 1.2 million people displaced by Israeli strikes.
In southern Lebanon, Agence France-Presse (AFP) correspondents reported several Israeli airstrikes on the coastal city of Tyre, after the military told people to flee before it targets Hezbollah.
The warning sparked a new exodus from the city, where AFPTV footage showed plumes of thick black smoke rising after strikes.
“The situation is very bad, we’re evacuating people,” said Mortada Mhanna, who heads Tyre’s disaster management unit.
“You could say that the entire city of Tyre is being evacuated,” said Bilal Kashmar, the unit’s media officer.
At least 28 people have been killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanon in the last 24 hours, bringing the total toll since October 2023 to 2,574, the Lebanese government said on Wednesday.
Chinese president Xi Jinping on Wednesday met Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian on the sidelines of a Brics summit in Russia, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP) citing Chinese state news agency Xinhua.
China and Iran are political and economic partners, in part due to their stance on the war in Ukraine.
William Christou is a Beirut-based journalist reporting on Lebanon for the Guardian. He has shared the following on Hashem Safieddine’s death:
Hezbollah confirmed in a statement on Wednesday afternoon, the death of Hashem Safieddine, who was presumed to be the next leader of Hezbollah before being killed by an Israeli strike in Dahiyeh, the southern suburbs of Beirut on 3 October. Hezbollah’s statement confirmed Israel’s claims the night prior which said that Safieddine had been killed in the airstrike earlier in the month, alongside Ali Hussein Huzima, head of the group’s intelligence unit.
In the statement, Hezbollah said that Safieddine spent most of his life serving Hezbollah and that he “competently managed” the executive council – the highest political decision-making body in Hezbollah. The group further pledged to carry on in “that path of resistance and jihad”.
The death of Safieddine, who was the senior-most political official killed in Hezbollah since the killing of late-secretary general Hassan Nasrallah, throws the leadership of the group into question.
The current de-facto public face of the group is Naeem Qassem, the deputy secretary general of Hezbollah, but he has not yet been picked as its permanent leader. Despite most of its senior military command and top political leaders having been killed by Israel over the past three months, Hezbollah has said that the organisation retains its ability to fight Israel.
Hezbollah's Hashem Safieddine killed in Israeli attack, group confirms
Hashem Safieddine, the top Hezbollah official widely expected to succeed slain secretary general Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in an Israeli attack, the group said on Wednesday.
Hezbollah confirmed that Safieddine was killed in an Israeli airstrike, reports Reuters.
According to Reuters, Safieddine had been running Hezbollah alongside its deputy secretary general Naim Qassem since Nasrallah’s assassination and was expected to be formally elected as its next secretary general, although no official announcement had yet been made.
A relative of Nasrallah, Safieddine had sat on the group’s Jihad Council – the body responsible for its military operations. He was also head of its executive council, overseeing Hezbollah’s financial and administrative affairs.
According to Reuters, Safieddine assumed a prominent role speaking for Hezbollah during the year of hostilities with Israel that ultimately led to his death, addressing funerals and other events that Nasrallah had long been unable to attend for security reasons.
His killing further erodes the group’s top leadership as Israeli strikes pummel Lebanon’s south, eastern Bekaa valley and southern suburbs of Beirut – all Hezbollah strongholds – and the group’s fighters seek to push back Israeli ground incursions.
Updated
Israel has carried out heavy airstrikes on Tyre, a historic port city in Lebanon. The bombardment of the Unesco-listed city began roughly three hours after the Israeli military issued an order online for residents to flee central areas. Huge clouds of thick smoke can be seen billowing above residential buildings in the below video:
Tens of thousands of people had reportedly fled Tyre in recent weeks as Israel stepped up its aerial campaign in Lebanon. About 1.2 million people have been displaced in total across the country, according to the Lebanese government.
Putin tells Pezeshkian he wants to 'strengthen' ties with Iran
Russian president Vladimir Putin on Wednesday told Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian he wanted to further “strengthen” ties with Tehran, which has been widely accused of sending weapons to Moscow for use in Ukraine, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“One of the main tasks in our relations is to strengthen the emerging positive trend in trade and economic cooperation,” Putin said.
Western countries have floated the idea of deploying international forces to Lebanon alongside the country’s army in case of a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, a western diplomat told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Wednesday.
About 10,000 peacekeepers with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) are already deployed in the country’s south, but the diplomat said a separate multinational troop deployment was under consideration.
“What is needed right now is a ceasefire and a presence trusted by both sides – this could be the Lebanese army with international forces,” the diplomat told AFP, requesting anonymity as the matter is sensitive.
“Partners of Lebanon have already been supporting the Lebanese army and are looking very concretely into how they can support it further … in the context of a ceasefire and long-term diplomatic agreement,” the diplomat added.
UN security council resolution 1701, which ended a 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah and called for the deployment of only Lebanese government forces Unifil peacekeepers in south Lebanon, has come under fire for its limited implementation, reports AFP.
Lebanese media outlets have reported discussions on bolstering the UN resolution’s implementation, dubbing such an option as “1701-plus”.
On a visit to Beirut on Monday, US envoy Amos Hochstein said that “both sides simply committing to 1701 is just not enough.” “We have to put things in place that would allow for confidence that it will be implemented for everyone,” he added.
The western diplomat speaking to AFP said that “the push towards a 1701-plus is a reflection of the reality that neither side implemented” the resolution.
Lebanese prime minister Najib Mikati said this month that Lebanon was ready to bolster the army in the south after any ceasefire was reached.
The Magen David Adom ambulance service has said it is treating a 50-year-old man for a shrapnel wound to the head in the Nahariya area of Israel after rocket fire from the direction of Lebanon.
Earlier, in a separate incident, a woman was injured north of Tel Aviv on Israel’s coast by shrapnel.
The Al Arabiya channel is carrying an interview with senior Hamas official, Dr Basem Naim. In the clip, one of the first interviews with a senior Hamas figure since the killing of Yahya Sinwar by Israel, Naim suggests that Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, has been wasting his time visiting Israel this week.
He says that the trip was “a grand stand to buy more time for the remaining period of the [US] elections, in order to try to contain the situation as much as possible so that they are not getting more, worse pictures from inside Gaza.”
Naim says “Either he comes here to say to the Israelis ‘you have to stop the aggression immediately’, or I would advise him to spare the time to go back to Washington.”
EXCLUSIVE: In Hamas' first interview since the death of Yahya Sinwar, Senior Hamas official Dr. Basem Naim had a message for US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, stating he needs to "tell the Israelis to stop the aggression" or save his time and "go back to Washington". pic.twitter.com/wH4FkkDlST
— Al Arabiya English (@AlArabiya_Eng) October 23, 2024
Naim has been criticised for previously claiming that the 7 October Hamas attack only targeted “Israeli military bases and compounds.”
Here are some of the latest images from Gaza sent to us over the news wires.
Charles Stratford, reporting for Al Jazeera from Beirut, says that today’s Israeli airstrikes on Tyre are likely to lead to further waves of displaced people attempting to find refuge in Lebanon’s capital. He writes:
These developments on Tyre are a clear sign of an escalation by the Israeli military. This of course is of huge concern, even here in Beirut, because it’s expected we’re going to see people potentially arriving from those areas in the coming areas and days.
Although Beirut is managing, at the moment it is under huge pressure to try and accommodate the hundreds of thousands of people who have been displaced [to the capital]. People are being accommodated by friends and relatives, just the generosity of some people willing to accommodate some of these people who have been forced out of their homes, but there are also a lot of people living, for example, on the Corniche in tents without any proper cover.
Israel’s military reports that warning sirens have again sounded in the north of the country.
In a statement Hezbollah has claimed it fired a rocket salvo at an Israeli army base in Haifa.
In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Authority minister of health has said that Israel’s actions in Gaza were preventing children from receiving their second dose of the polio vaccine.
Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that Majid Abu Ramadan “highlighted the significant risks faced by both children and healthcare workers, which impede their access to vaccination centres” due to “escalating Israeli aggression”, and “emphasized that the second dose of the vaccine is crucial for achieving full immunity against polio.”
In August a Palestinian baby in Gaza was left partly paralysed from polio in the first case there for 25 years.
US state department spokesperson Matthew Miller has given details of a call between secretary of state Antony Blinken and Jordan’s foreign minister Ayman Safadi.
He said the pair discussed “the importance of securing the release of all hostages in Gaza, alleviating the suffering of the Palestinian people, and ending the war in a way that provides peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians,” and that Blinken thanked Jordan for its “leadership in facilitating the delivery of critical aid to Palestinian civilians in Gaza.”
They also discussed the situation in Lebanon, where over 2,000 people have been killed and 1.2 million people forced from their homes by Israeli air strikes in recent weeks. Tens of thousands have Israelis have also been forced to flee their home in northern Israel due to almost continuous rocket fire from Hezbollah and other anti-Israeli groups with positions in southern Lebanon.
The US statement said Blinken and Safadi “discussed the need to reach a diplomatic resolution to the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that fully implements UN security council resolution 1701 and allows civilians on both sides of the blue line to return to their homes.”
Israel’s military has said in a statement on its official Telegram channel that on Wednesday, as of 3pm local time (noon GMT), it had recorded about 85 projectiles being launched towards Israel from the direction of Lebanon.
In addition, an earlier statement said that during the course of the day Israel’s military had intercepted five drones attempting to cross into Israel’s airspace.
In parliament in London, the UK’s deputy prime minister Angela Rayner has said that British support of Israel’s security remains “steadfast”, but that the government will always support Israel in “a manner consistent with our obligations to domestic and international law.”
Describing the humanitarian situation in Gaza as “dire”, Rayner said this was a “really serious and important issue,” telling MPs:
The humanitarian situation in northern Gaza is dire, and we need an immediate ceasefire and much more aid allowed to flow in, and an immediate release of all the hostages.
We have suspended UK export licenses to Israel for items which might be used in the current conflict, and this government has concluded that there is a clear risk that items exported to Israel might be used in serious violations of international humanitarian law in Gaza.
This does not change our position, of steadfast support for Israel’s security, but we will always do so in a manner consistent with our obligations to domestic and international law.
Rayner was responding to a question from Labour colleague Dawn Butler, the MP for Brent East in north-west London, who had asked what “tangible, concrete measures” the government would take if the Israeli government would not listen to pleas from prime minister Keir Starmer for more humanitarian assistance to be directed to Gaza. She told MPs:
I watched in horror and condemned the attack on 7 October by terrorist group Hamas. A year later, I watch in horror as 42,000 people are killed in Gaza, 11,000 of them children, people burned alive attached to drips, aid workers killed, and now families are starving.
The prime minister has said that the world will not stand by and see this lack of humanitarian assistance. If the Israeli government will not listen to our Prime Minister’s words, what tangible, measurable actions will we take as the UK British government?
Gallant to Israeli pilots: 'after we strike in Iran, everyone will understand what you did in preparation and training'
Israeli media is reporting that defense minister Yoav Gallant has told pilots and air crews at Hatzerim Airbase “after we strike in Iran, everyone will understand what you did in the preparation and training process.”
He added “Anyone who dreamed a year ago of defeating us and striking us has paid a heavy price and is no longer in that dream.”
Israel has been expected to retaliate for waves of missiles fired at it by Iran on 1 October. One person in the occupied West Bank was killed, and two people in Israel were wounded during the Iranian strikes, which were mostly deflected by air defences. Tehran launched the assault after Israel’s assassination of Hassan Nasrallah, who had led Hezbollah for more than three decades, in a series of strikes on the group’s underground headquarters in Dahieh, a southern suburb of Beirut.
Earlier today, US secretary of state Antony Blinken told the media that Israel must be careful to retaliate in a way that does not further escalate tension in the region.
Updated
US and Israel issue warning over possible terrorist attack in Sri Lanka
Israel’s national security council called on Israelis on Wednesday to immediately leave some tourist areas in southern Sri Lanka over the threat of a possible terrorist attack, Reuters reports.
The agency said the warning pertained to the area of Arugam Bay and beaches in the south and west of Sri Lanka. The security council did not specify the exact nature of the threat and called on Israelis in the rest of Sri Lanka to be cautious and refrain from holding large gatherings in public areas.
The US embassy in Sri Lanka also released a security alert stating it had received “credible information warning of an attack targeting popular tourist locations in the Arugam Bay area”.
Germany’s foreign minister said in Beirut on Wednesday that her country was “in a dilemma” when it comes to exporting weapons to Israel, and added that Israel has a responsibility to abide by international law.
Annalena Baerbock added that all parties must protect the UN Interim Force In Lebanon (UNIFIL).
There are no indications any employees from the Office of the Secretary of Defense are being investigated for the leak of US intelligence about Israel’s preparations to strike Iran, US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said on Wednesday.
“There’s no OSD official being named as a part of this investigation,” Austin said while speaking to reporters in Rome.
The FBI said on Tuesday it was investigating the public disclosure of a pair of highly classified documents describing Israel’s preparations for a retaliatory strike on Iran. Austin added that he did not have any indication that “any OSD official will be implicated as a part of this.”
Iran’s president Masoud Pezeshkian urged Wednesday members of the Brics grouping to help “end the war” in Gaza and Lebanon.
“I call on all members of the influential Brics group to use all their collective and individual capacities to end the war in Gaza and Lebanon,” said Pezeshkian during a speech at a Brics summit in Russia.
Further to our earlier report about air raid sirens in Israel, smoke, apparently from an intercepted projectile, could be seen in the sky above the hotel where US secretary of state Antony Blinken was staying.
Blinken urged Israel to use its recent tactical victories against Hamas to seek a war-ending deal and bring back dozens of hostages, before leaving on Wednesday for Saudi Arabia as part of his 11th visit to the region since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
Summary of the day so far …
Heavy Israeli air strikes have taken place on the historic Lebanese port city of Tyre. Israel began to bomb the Unesco-listed city roughly three hours after its military issued an order online for residents to flee central areas. Huge clouds of thick smoke billowed above residential buildings
The US secretary of state Antony Blinken has said his country is tracking “very, very, very carefully” efforts by Israel to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid into the beseiged Palestinian territory of Gaza. He accused Israel of previously having fallen back on promises of sustained deliveries. Blinken said Israel’s success against Hamas had come at “great cost” to Palestinian civilians
The US believes there is a greater chance of a hostage release deal between Hamas and Israel now that the Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar has been killed in Gaza by Israeli forces, Blinken said. Having described Sinwar as “the primary obstacle” to reaching a deal, it was also announced that Blinken would be in London later this week in order to meet with Arab leaders
Israel’s military has said about 25 projectiles were fired into northern Israel on Wednesday morning from Lebanon. One Israeli woman was lightly wounded by shrapnel on Israel’s coast north of Tel Aviv
Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that in the past 24 hours, according to medical sources, 74 civilians have been killed and 130 others injured in Gaza in what it describes as six separate attacks by Israeli forces. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict
China’s embassy in Lebanon has suspended passport, visa and other services
Germany’s foreign minister Annalena Baerbock is visiting Beirut. Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Qatar’s Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, met in Germany yesterday, and called for intensified diplomatic efforts to achieve a lasting peace in the region
Russia’s state-run news agency RIA Novosti reports that a Hamas official is visiting Moscow for talks with officials, according to a diplomatic source
Israel strikes Lebanon's Unesco-listed port city of Tyre three hours after issuing evacuation order
Heavy Israeli airstrikes have taken place on the historic Lebanese port city of Tyre.
Israel began to bomb the Unesco-listed city roughly three hours after its military issued an order online for residents to flee central areas. Huge clouds of thick smoke billowed above residential buildings.
Reuters reports that tens of thousands of people had already fled Tyre in recent weeks as Israel steps up its aerial campaign in Lebanon. About 1.2 million people have been displaced in total across the country, according to the Lebanese government. Israel claims to be carrying out targeted strikes on what it describes as “Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure.
The port is typically described as a bustling hub, but Israel’s evacuation orders this week for the city have for the first time encompassed swathes of it, including right up to its ancient castle.
Lebanese media continues to report widespread strikes by Israel across the country, with five reported dead in Bint Jbeil, near northern Israel.
Updated
During the last two hours, Israel’s military has reported four separate instances of warning sirens sounding in northern Israel.
Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that in the past 24 hours, according to medical sources, 74 civilians have been killed and 130 others injured in Gaza in what it describes as six separate attacks by Israeli forces.
It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict.
Blinken: US is tracking 'very, very, very carefully' Israeli efforts to facilitate humanitarian aid in Gaza
The US secretary of state Antony Blinken has said his country is tracking “very, very, very carefully” efforts by Israel to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid into the beseiged Palestinian territory of Gaza, accusing Israel of previously having fallen back on sustained deliveries.
In words before he left Israel for Saudi Arabia, Blinken told the media:
It’s absolutely essential that humanitarian assistance get to the people who need it in Gaza. And as you know, a couple of weeks ago defense secretary Lloyd Austin and I wrote to the Israeli defense minister, the strategic affairs minister, with a list of things that need to happen in order for assistance to get more effectively to people who need that assistance.
So we went over that in some detail yesterday, and I can report that there’s progress made, which is good, but more progress needs to be made. And most critically, it needs to be sustained.
We’ve had periods before where the Israelis have increased what they’re doing, only to see it fall back. So we’re tracking this very, very, very carefully, and we went over it in some detail.
Blinken: US believes there is greater chance of hostage release deal now Yahya Sinwar is dead
The US secretary of state Antony Blinken has said he believes there is a greater chance of a hostage release deal between Hamas and Israel now that the Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar has been killed in Gaza by Israeli forces.
Speaking in Israel ahead of visiting Saudi Arabia, Blinken told the media:
When it comes to the hostages, I met again with hostage families last night, including the families of the seven Americans who remain in Gaza. And that reinforces once again for me and for all of us the urgency, the imperative of bringing them home, bringing all of them home.
We talked about the plan that we’ve had on the table and the work that we’re doing on that plan, looking at new frameworks of foreign relations as a possibility.
We talked about the importance of determining whether Hamas is prepared to engage in moving forward, and the Egyptians, the Qataris are doing just that.
But I believe that with [Yahya] Sinwar gone, because he was the primary obstacle for realising the hostage agreement, there is a real opportunity to bring them home and to accomplish the objective.
Blinken is to head for talks in London with Arab leaders later this week, after his visit to the Middle East concludes.
It has generally been understood that the sticking points between the two sides were that Hamas wished the IDF to completely withdraw from Gaza before it would begin the release of hostages, while Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has been insisting that it retain continued control of the Philadelphi corridor in southern Gaza, including the Rafah crossing. For its part, Egypt, one of the countries involved in attempting to broker a deal, has said it would not accept any change in the status of the Rafah crossing which links Gaza and Egypt.
About 100 of the 250 hostages seized and abducted during the 7 October attack are believed to still be held in captivity in Gaza more than a year after the surprise Hamas attack inside southern Israel.
Blinken: Israel's success against Hamas has come at 'great cost' to Palestinian civilians
The US state department has issued a full transcript of secretary of state Antony Blinken’s earlier remarks as he departed Israel to head for Saudi Arabia, during which he said Israel’s success against Hamas had come at a “great cost” to Palestinian civilians in Gaza
During the press briefing, Blinken said:
Israel has achieved most of its strategic objectives when it comes to Gaza, all with the idea of making sure that 7 October could never happen again. It has managed to dismantle Hamas’s military capacity. It has destroyed much of its arsenal. It has eliminated its senior leadership, including, most recently, Yahya Sinwar.
This has come at the cost – the great cost – of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. Now is the time to turn those successes into an enduring strategic success, and there are really two things left to do: get the hostages home and bring the war to an end with an understanding of what will follow. And that’s what we’ve been working on this past day and will continue to work on throughout this trip.
Blinken has now arrived in Riyadh, where he was greeted by the US ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Michael Ratney.
China’s embassy in Lebanon has suspended passport, visa and other services, Reuters reports. It will continue to process travel permits for Chinese nationals in Lebanon.
News wires are now carrying images from the Lebanese city of Tyre, which has been struck by Israeli forces.
Over 2,000 people have been killed by Israeli attacks inside Lebanon in the last few weeks according to the Lebanese government. More than 1.2 million people have been displaced. Israel claims it is carrying out targeted strikes on what it describes as “Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure.”
Unverified images and video are being shared on social media which purport to show the aftermath of Israeli air strikes on the historic Lebanese port city of Tyre. Earlier Israel’s military ordered citizens of the city to evacuate.
تغطية صحفية: الاحتلال ينفذ سلسلة غارات قوية على مدينة صور جنوب لبنان. pic.twitter.com/7etyPQlFU9
— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) October 23, 2024
Within the last thirty minutes Lebanon’s National News Agency has also reported Israeli strikes on Taraya and on Arnon. It also reports that three people have been killed during an Israeli strike on Maarka.
Hamas official making visit for meetings with Russian officials in Moscow – reports
Russian state-run news agency RIA Novosti reports that a Hamas official is visiting Moscow.
On its Telegram channel, the news agency posted:
The deputy head of the Hamas politburo arrives in Moscow on a visit and several meetings with Russian officials are planned, a diplomatic source told RIA Novosti.
Blinken to visit UK later this week for talks with Arab leaders
US secretary of state Antony Blinken will travel to the UK later this week after his Middle East visit concludes.
Reuters reports US state department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Blinken will hold meetings with Arab leaders in London.
Blinken is leaving Israel today to head to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia.
In a statement on its official Telegram channel, Israel’s military has said that about 25 projectiles were fired at central and upper Galilee earlier on Wednesday from the direction of Lebanon.
It said “Most were intercepted, fallen projectiles were identified”. There were no immediate reports of any casualties.
Earlier one Israeli woman was reported lightly wounded by shrapnel after a rocket attack on Israel’s coast north of Tel Aviv.
Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting for Al Jazeera from Deir el-Balah in Gaza has said “words fail to describe what is going on now in northern Gaza.”
Writing for the news network, he said:
Civilians are witnessing brutality in one of the deadliest ethnic cleansing campaigns ever witnessed. Witnesses reported horrific details of what is happening this morning in Jabalia, where Israel is demolishing and burning homes to the ground.
And in Beit Lahiya – now turned into one of the most densely populated areas in Gaza after Palestinians fled there from Jabalia – the situation is dust and smoke coming from every corner with the smell of death everywhere.
Al Jazeera has been banned from operating inside Israel by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
Israel launches airstrikes on Lebanese city of Tyre – reports
Reuters has a quick snap that Israel has launched airstrikes on the port city of Tyre.
Israel’s military earlier issued an order for civilians to disperse from the city in the neighbouring country of Lebanon.
#عاجل بيان عاجل لسكان منطقة صور في لبنان
— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) October 23, 2024
⭕️الانذار موجهة تحديدًا إلى المتواجدون في المباني بين الشوارع: الحيرام, جعفر شرف الدين, أبو ديب و شارع الاثار
⭕️أنشطة حزب الله تجبر جيش الدفاع على العمل ضده وبقوة حيث لا تنوي المساس بكم
⭕️عليكم بالأبتعاد فوراً الى خارج المنطقة المحددة… pic.twitter.com/5ngkUehGJm
Updated
German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock has arrived in Beirut.
Reuters reports in a statement she said “The task now is to work with our partners in the US, Europe and the Arab world to find a viable diplomatic solution that safeguards the legitimate security interests of both Israel and Lebanon.”
Israeli media reports that earlier one woman was “lightly wounded” by shrapnel after a rocket was fired at Herzliya, on Israel’s coast, north of Tel Aviv.
In a statement on its official Telegram channel, Israel’s military has claimed that overnight it struck at weapons storage facilities in Beirut in Lebanon.
In the message, the IDF said the targets were “manufacturing facilities and command centres belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist organization which were located within civilian infrastructure.”
It continued “This strike is part of the efforts to damage Hezbollah’s weapons storage and manufacturing facilities that are embedded beneath residential buildings in the heart of the city of Beirut, endangering the population in the area.”
The claims have not been independently verified.
Lebanon’s government has said that over 2,000 people have been killed and more than 1.2 million people displaced by Israeli airstrikes on the country in recent weeks. Tens of thousands of Israelis have been forced to flee their homes in northern Israel after a year of sustained rocket fire from Hezbollah and other anti-Israeli forces in southern Lebanon aimed at Israel.
The Palestinian Wafa news agency is reporting that “at least eight civilians were killed and others were injured” in ongoing Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday morning.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Lufthansa has, according to Reuters, announced that it is extending the suspension of flights serving Beirut and Tehran until the end of February 2025.
Beirut’s international airport remains open, but Lebanese flag carrier Middle East Airlines is the only airline offering a significant number of departures.
Blinken: US fully rejects idea of permanent Israeli occupation of Gaza
US secretary of state Antony Blinken has said the US fully rejects the idea of Israel permanently occupying Gaza, and said that Benjamin Netanyahu’s government have an opportunity to turn its military campaign against Hamas into “an enduring strategic success”.
Speaking to reporters on his way from Tel Aviv to Riyadh on the next stage of his Middle East visit, Reuters reports Blinken urged Israel on Wednesday to use the opportunity created by its success in dismantling Hamas’ capacity in Gaza and the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar to reach a longer term solution in the conflict.
It quoted him saying:
Now is the time to turn those successes into an enduring strategic success. And there are really two things left to do, get the hostages home and bring the war to an end with an understanding of what will follow.
Blinken said he believed that Israel had made progress in the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza, but that more was needed, and the top US diplomat added that his country is working to get a clear understanding of what Israel plans for the governance of Gaza going forward. He said it was necessary for there to be concrete plans for the way ahead.
Blinken also said that Israel’s expected response to Iran’s 1 October missile attack on the country needed to be done in a way that did not create greater escalation. Earlier this week the FBI launched an investigation into the unauthorized release of classified documents describing Israel’s preparation for a potential retaliatory attack on Iran. Tehran said it launched its attack on 1 October in retaliation for a series of attacks against Iran and the militias it backs across the Middle East, including Hezbollah, and the assassination by Israel of Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut.
Reuters reports that a German government spokesperson has given a readout of a meeting between Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Qatar’s Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.
The pair stressed the importance of a two-state solution in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and called for intensified diplomatic efforts to achieve a lasting peace in the region during talks in Germany on Tuesday, the spokesperson said.
Scholz thanks the Emir for his efforts in negotiating to release Israeli hostages held in Gaza by Hamas for over a year, and said that he hoped the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar by Israel opened up chances for a ceasefire.
Members of Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government in Israel have repeatedly made clear that they are opposed to the creation of a Palestinian state and harbour an ambition to permanently annex the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Hamas has vowed to fight on after the death of Sinwar, who was considered to be behind the surprise 7 October attack inside southern Israel in 2023 which killed about 1,200 people and during which about 250 people were abducted and seized as hostages, many of whom were subsequently killed. About 100 hostages are believed to still be in Gaza, with Israeli authorities believing that not all of them are alive.
Lebanon’s National News Agency has reported an Israeli airstrike in Qana, stating that there were no casualties.
Hezbollah has claimed responsibility for rocket fire towards central Israel on Wednesday, claiming to have targeted an Israeli intelligence base north of Tel Aviv.
Israel’s military, in a statement on its official Telegram channel, has claimed to have killed another senior Hezbollah figure.
Naming Khalil Mohammad Amhaz as “a terrorist operative in Hezbollah’s Aerial Unit” the IDF claimed he was “a significant source of expertise for Hezbollah’s Aerial Unit, which is responsible for developing and launching explosive and intelligence-gathering UAVs into Israel.”
It said he had been killed in the Hermel area of Lebanon, which is in the north-east of the country.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Israel confirms killing of Hashem Safieddine, presumed next leader of Hezbollah
Israel said on Tuesday a strike it carried out in Beirut three weeks ago killed Hashem Safieddine, the presumed successor to late Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was also killed in an Israeli attack last month.
Safieddine was the head of Hezbollah’s highest political decision-making body, the executive council, and was also a cousin of the former secretary general. And as William Christou, who is filing for the Guardian from Beirut writes, he was seen as having much of the same charisma that inspired the cult of personality around Nasrallah.
With the killing of Safieddine, only Naim Qassem, the deputy secretary general of Hezbollah, remains from Hezbollah’s public-facing senior leadership. Qassem has been the face of the group since the assassination of Nasrallah, but he does not enjoy the same popularity among Hezbollah supporters that the late secretary general had.
It remains unknown who will take the helm as the next leader of the group. In a speech two weeks ago, Qassem said that appointing a new leader was a complex procedure and would take some time. Alongside blows to its political leadership, almost all of Hezbollah’s senior military cadre has been killed by Israel in the last three months.
Despite the losses in its command structure, Hezbollah has insisted that the group has retained its organisational strength. The group has said this is evidenced by what it says is Israel’s lack of progress in south Lebanon.
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the Middle East conflict.
Israel said on Tuesday a strike it carried out in Beirut three weeks ago killed Hashem Safieddine, the presumed successor to late Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was also killed in an Israeli attack last month.
“We have reached Nasrallah, his replacement and most of Hezbollah’s senior leadership. We will reach anyone who threatens the security of the civilians of the State of Israel,” said Israeli army chief Lt Gen Herzi Halevi.
There was no immediate response from Hezbollah.
The confirmation of Safieddine’s death came as Antony Blinken was due to visit Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, a last-minute change from plans to head to Jordan attributed to scheduling issues.
In Tel Aviv on Tuesday, the US secretary of state pressed Israel’s leaders to work towards a ceasefire in Gaza, as fighting continued to rage in the territory’s aid-starved north and as Israeli strikes pounded Lebanon.
“I believe very much that the death of Sinwar does create an important opportunity to bring the hostages home, to bring the war to an end and to ensure Israel’s security,” Blinken said as he met Israeli president Isaac Herzog.
Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and strategic affairs minister Ron Dermer told Blinken in their meeting that Israel is not implementing the so-called General’s Plan aimed at isolating and starving out northern Gaza. Blinken urged Netanyahu to clarify this publicly, but the prime minister demurred, according to a US official that briefed reporters on condition of anonymity.
“They said it’s absolutely not our policy,” the US official said, according to AFP, adding that the Israeli officials were told that they should “go to greater lengths to actually sort of say that publicly”.
In other developments:
Israel is weighing the use of private security contractors – possibly involving UK special forces veterans – to deliver aid to Gaza, as conditions in the north of the strip worsen dramatically, the Guardian has learned.
At least three Israeli strikes targeted Beirut’s southern suburbs Tuesday evening, according to Lebanon’s official ANI news agency. Two of the strikes hit the Laylake district, near a stadium. The strikes came shortly after Israel’s military issued new evacuation warnings for residents in specific buildings in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Lebanon’s health ministry on Tuesday revised upward the casualty toll from the Israeli strike near Beirut’s main government hospital on Monday to at least 18 people killed, including four children, and 60 wounded. Israeli jets hit a Hezbollah target close to the Rafik Hariri university hospital in Beirut but did not target the hospital and it was not affected by the strike, the Israeli military said on Tuesday.
At least 63 people were killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanon over the past 24 hours, bringing the total death toll to 2,530, the Lebanese government said on Tuesday. It also said that more than 11,800 people had been wounded by Israeli strikes on Lebanon since October 2023.
Seven Palestinian civilians were killed during Israeli artillery bombardment of a school sheltering displaced people in northern Gaza on Tuesday, Wafa, the Palestinian news agency reported, citing local sources. Separately, at least three Palestinians were killed and several wounded by an Israeli drone strike targeting a group of people in western Gaza City, the Anadolu news agency said.
Palestinians under an Israeli siege in northern Gaza “are rapidly exhausting all available means for their survival”, the UN’s humanitarian office has warned. The UN’s office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (OCHA) accused Israel of denying its requests to deliver life-saving aid to northern Gaza, as well as of denying requests to help rescue dozens of people trapped under their collapsed homes in the Falouja area of the Jabalia refugee camp in the north.
Lebanon will need $250m a month to help more than a million people displaced by Israeli attacks, its minister in charge of responding to the crisis said on Tuesday. Nasser Yassin told Reuters the government response, helped by local initiatives and international aid, only covered 20% of the needs of 1.3 million people.
Keir Starmer has accused Vladimir Putin of disrupting food supplies to Gaza after British intelligence suggested Russia had stepped up its attacks on Ukrainian ports. Starmer said it was clear the Russian president was “willing to gamble on global food security” after several grain ships en route to developing countries were damaged by Russian strikes, and are believed to have delayed a vessel carrying vegetable oil destined for the World Food Programme in Palestine.
The FBI is investigating the leak of a pair of highly classified intelligence documents describing Israel’s preparations for a retaliatory strike on Iran, the Washington Post reported. “The FBI is investigating the alleged leak of classified documents and working closely with our partners in the Department of Defense and Intelligence Community,” the FBI said in a statement.
