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Summary
We’re about to launch a fresh blog on this morning’s retaliatory Israeli strikes on Iran. In the meantime here’s a recap of the latest developments. And all our coverage of the crisis in the Middle East can be seen here.
Israel launched airstrikes against Iran early on Saturday, with at least seven explosions reported over the capital, Tehran, and nearby Karaj just after 2.30am local time.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed it had begun to launch “precise strikes on military targets in Iran” in response to “months of continuous attacks” from Iran against Israel.
Iranian state TV reported several strong explosions heard around Tehran. There were no casualties, the state news agency IRNA said.
Fresh blasts were reportedly heard around Tehran on Saturday shortly after reports of earlier ones. Continuous explosions and light trails were visible across the sky in central Tehran, Agence France-Presse said.
A US official confirmed that Israel notified Washington before carrying out the strikes, and that the US had no involvement in Israel’s military operation. The White House said it understood Israel was conducting the strikes “as an exercise of self-defence”.
There was no immediate official Iranian comment about the source of explosions, which Iranian news outlets reported were under investigation.
Some of the blasts reportedly occurred near Imam Khomeni international airport. Iran’s Tasnim news agency said civilian flights were operating normally as of Friday morning.
Analysis: There was little doubt that Israel would eventually launch Saturday’s counterstrike against Iran in the latest tit-for-tat exchange between the two largest militaries in the Middle East.
But the scale and targets of that attack has been the subject of intense diplomatic wrangling between Israel and Washington, as the Biden administration hoped that it could restrain Benjamin Netanyahu from launching a devastating reprisal that could spiral into an all-out war.
What the White House hopes is that Israel can fulfil a declaration by defence minister Yoav Gallant to make the world “understand [Israel’s] might” but not humiliate Iran to the degree that it would launch an even greater retaliation. But that is a difficult balance to strike and a slight miscalculation could lead to devastating consequences for the region.
It will still take some time before the precise targets of the pre-dawn raids are confirmed. Israel said they were in part a response to Iran’s launching of more than 180 ballistic missiles at Israel, which in turn was a response to Israel’s assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Explosions were reported over Tehran and nearby Karaj, as well as possibly at sites in Isfahan, Mashhad and Kurdistan province. Some of the explosions took place near Imam Khomeni international airport, according to reports, although civilian flights were operating normally as of Saturday morning, according to the Tasnim news agency.
Overall, the strikes appeared to target military bases, including a barracks and a military warehouse in Tehran, according to the US broadcaster NBC citing defence sources. A source in Israel told the outlet that it was not targeting nuclear or oil facilities.
Biden administration officials will hope that they have dissuaded Israel from targeting some of Iran’s most sensitive infrastructure, including the oil production facilities and those tied to Iran’s nascent nuclear program.
Updated
Fresh blasts heard in Tehran – reports
New blasts have reportedly been heard around the Iranian capital on Saturday, shortly after reports of earlier ones.
Continuous explosions and light trails were visible across the sky in central Tehran, according to Agence France-Presse reporters.
Updated
Vice-president Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee for next month’s US election, has been briefed on the Israeli strikes on Iranian military targets, a White House official said.
She is closely following developments and will continue to be updated.
As we reported earlier, the White House said it understood Israel was conducting the strikes “as an exercise of self-defence”.
Updated
Iranian state TV is saying the explosions heard were due to the “activation of air defence system”, Agence France-Presse reports.
Updated
As our just-updated full report says, at least seven explosions were heard over Iran’s capital, Tehran, and nearby Karaj just after 2.30am local time on Saturday, as Israeli jets struck what were described as “military targets” in the country.
It was not immediately clear if that marked the end of the attack.
Iran’s state TV reported several strong explosions heard around Tehran, while the state news agency, IRNA, said there had been no casualties.
There was no immediate official comment about the source of explosions, which Iranian news outlets reported were under investigation.
In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed it had begun to launch strikes against Iran.
Updated
Iraq has suspended flights in all its airports until further notice, Reuters cites the state news agency as saying.
For more background on today’s strikes, Israel and Iran have been locked in a years-long shadow war.
As the Associated Press reports:
Israel and Iran have been bitter foes since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Israel considers Iran to be its greatest threat, citing its leaders’ calls for Israel’s destruction, their support for anti-Israel militant groups and the country’s nuclear program.
A suspected Israeli assassination campaign has killed top Iranian nuclear scientists. Iranian nuclear installations have been hacked or sabotaged, all in mysterious attacks blamed on Israel. Meanwhile, Iran has been blamed for a series of attacks on shipping in the Middle East in recent years, which later grew into the attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on shipping through the Red Sea corridor.
But since Hamas’ 7 October attack, the battle has increasingly moved into the open. Israel has recently turned its attention to Hezbollah, which has been firing rockets into Israel since the war in Gaza began. Throughout the year, a number of top Iranian military figures have been killed in Israeli strikes in Syria and Lebanon.
Iran fired a wave of missiles and drones at Israel last April after two Iranian generals were killed in an apparent Israeli airstrike in Syria on an Iranian diplomatic post. The missiles and drones caused minimum damage, and Israel – under pressure from western countries to show restraint – responded with a limited strike.
But after Iran’s early October missile strike, Israel promised a tougher response.
Updated
Israel’s strikes on Iran occurred just as the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, was arriving back in the US after a tour of the Middle East where he urged Israel to respond to Iran in a way that would not further escalate the conflict in the region and would exclude nuclear sites in Iran.
The Associated Press also reports that the White House’s National Security Council spokesman, Sean Savett, said it understood Israel was conducting the strikes against Iranian military targets and referred reporters to the Israeli government for more details on their operation.
Iranian media says no fires or explosions were reported at a key Tehran refinery.
The Tasnim news agency was referring to a key oil refinery south of the capital, Agence France-Presse reports.
The Israeli military posted on X that Lieut Gen Herzi Halevi, the chief of the general staff, is commanding the strike on Iran from the Israeli air force underground command centre in Camp Rabin with the commander of the Israeli air force, Maj Gen Tomer Bar.
Updated
Here’s our full report, just sent live, on Israel’s strikes on Iran early today.
Updated
Several bases in Tehran targeted – Iranian media
Several military bases in Iran’s west and south-west of Tehran have been targeted by Israel, Reuters cites the semi-official Iranian news agency Fars as reporting.
Updated
A resident in Tehran says at least seven explosions could be heard and they rattled the Iranian’s capital’s surrounding area.
Associated Press reports the resident spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
Iranian state-run media in Tehran initially acknowledged the blasts and said some of the sounds came from air defence systems around the city.
Meanwhile in Syria, state media described its air defences as targeting “hostile targets” there as well.
US not involved in Iran strikes, says Washington
A US official says the United States has no involvement in Israel’s military operation against targets in Iran.
Reuters also cites the White House as saying it understood that Israel was conducting the strikes against military targets “as an exercise of self-defence”.
A US official confirmed that Israel notified Washington before carrying out the strikes.
Updated
For some background, Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant said this week that its planned airstrikes on Iran would make the world understand Israel’s military might
As Julian Borger and William Christou reported, 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 Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
Gallant visited aircrews at Hatzerim airbase on Wednesday and made clear that Israel still intended to strike back.
“After we attack in Iran, they will understand in Israel and elsewhere what your preparations have included,” Gallant told the crews in a video distributed by his office.
On X, Gallant added more about his exchange with the air force personnel, saying:
In my conversation with them I emphasised – after we attack Iran, everyone will understand your might, the process of preparation and training – any enemy that tries to harm the state of Israel will pay a heavy price.
The Guardian’s report continued:
The extent of Israel’s target list has been the subject of protracted conversations between Israeli leaders and the Biden administration, which has urged them not to strike Iran’s oil industry infrastructure or its nuclear programme. Washington fears a cycle of escalation, particularly in the last two weeks before the US presidential election.
The White House was notified shortly before Israel carried out the airstrikes on Iran, Reuters quotes Fox News as reporting.
Israel striking targets in Iran – IDF
The Israeli military is now conducting “precise strikes on military targets in Iran”, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) has just posted on X.
The strikes are in response to “months of continuous attacks from the regime in Iran against the state of Israel”, the IDF post says.
It also says Israel’s “defensive and offensive capabilities are fully mobilized”.
The regime in Iran and its proxies in the region have been relentlessly attacking Israel since October 7th – on seven fronts – including direct attacks from Iranian soil.
Like every other sovereign country in the world, the state of Israel has the right and the duty to respond.
Our defensive and offensive capabilities are fully mobilized. We will do whatever necessary to defend the state of Israel and the people of Israel.
In response to months of continuous attacks from the regime in Iran against the State of Israel—right now the Israel Defense Forces is conducting precise strikes on military targets in Iran.
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 25, 2024
The regime in Iran and its proxies in the region have been relentlessly attacking… pic.twitter.com/OcHUy7nQvN
Updated
Iran’s state TV has reported several strong explosions being heard around Tehran but that there is no official comment about the source of explosions, Reuters is reporting.
Semi-official Iranian media said the cause of the blasts was unknown.
Israel has been planning a response to a ballistic-missile barrage carried out by Iran on 1 October, Tehran’s second direct attack on Israel in six months.
Israeli journalist Barak Ravid, who works for Axios, just posted on X that Israel has conducted airstrikes in Iran, citing two sources as telling him.
🚨🚨🚨🇮🇱🇮🇷Israel conducted air strikes in Iran, two sources with knowledge told me
— Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) October 25, 2024
It has just passed 2.50am in the Iranian capital.
Updated
Multiple blasts heard in Tehran
At least five explosions have been heard in Iran’s capital, Tehran, and in nearby Karaj city, Reuters has just quoted semi-official Iranian media as saying.
This is Adam Fulton restarting our live coverage of the Middle East crisis
Updated
We’re pausing this blog for the moment but will bring you latest breaking news as it happens.
You can read all our latest coverage from the region here:
The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said journalists are “paying a heavy price” while covering the conflict in the Middle East.
Posting to X after three journalists were killed and several others wounded in an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon this morning, Borrell said:
Press freedom and access must be guaranteed & journalists protected, always.
Journalists are paying a heavy price while covering the Middle East conflict. Three have been killed today in an IDF strike in Lebanon; almost 130 the victims in the last year in Gaza. We condemn this.
— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) October 25, 2024
Press freedom and access must be guaranteed & journalists protected, always.
Israeli strike on Syria-Lebanon crossing 'puts at risk main lifeline for people to escape conflict', warns UN
More than half a million people, mostly Syrians, had crossed into Syrian territory since Israel began heavily striking Lebanon late last month, according to figures by the Lebanese authorities on Friday.
A statement from the country’s disaster management unit stated that since 23 September, Lebanon has “recorded the crossing of 348,237 Syrian citizens and 156,505 Lebanese citizens into Syrian territory”.
Meanwhile, as we reported earlier, Israeli bombing has reportedly put a second border crossing between Lebanon and Syria out of service, leaving just one official passage between the two nations operational.
The UN refugee agency (Unhcr) warned that Israel’s overnight airstrike on the Jousieh crossing in Lebanon’s northern Bekaa area jeopardised the main escape route for people fleeing the conflict in Lebanon in search of refuge in Syria.
Unhcr Middle East spokesperson Rula Amin, at a media briefing on Friday, said the crossing “is the only route these people have to escape Lebanon”, adding:
This is hindering and really putting at risk a main lifeline that people use to escape the conflict in Lebanon and cross into Syria.
Amin said the Jousieh strike hit within 500 metres (550 yards) of the immigration office, with no prior notification given.
It is the second such gateway hit by the Israeli army this month. The Israeli military confirmed that it had struck the Jousieh crossing, saying it was being used by Hezbollah to transfer weapons.
Updated
Summary of the day so far
It’s 8.30pm in Gaza, Beirut and Tel Aviv. Here’s a recap of the latest developments:
Israeli military strikes across Gaza have killed at least 72 Palestinians since Thursday night, including strikes on residential areas in southern Gaza that killed 38 people, including 13 children from the same extended family, Palestinian health officials said. Gaza’s health ministry reported that dozens of people were wounded as Israeli airstrikes and shelling pounded the southern city of Khan Younis. Palestinians said the neighbourhood was hit with no warning. Israeli strikes on three houses in Beit Lahiya killed 25 people and wounded dozens more, medics said. Later on Friday, an Israeli airstrike killed nine people in Shati camp in Gaza City, medics said.
Israeli forces stormed Kamal Adwan hospital, one of the few medical facilities still functioning in north Gaza, on Thursday night, according to reports. “Israeli forces have stormed and are present inside Kamal Adwan hospital” in the city of Jabalia, Gaza’s health ministry said. The World Health Organization said on Friday it lost touch with staff at the hospital, where some had been the night before to deliver supplies and help transfer patients to Shifa hospital in Gaza City. The hospital’s director, Abu Safiya, could not be reached on Friday.
The UN rights chief, Volker Türk, described Israel’s renewed assault on northern Gaza as the “darkest moment” of the year-long war on the territory so far. “We are facing what could amount to atrocity crimes, including potentially extending to crimes against humanity,” Türk said in a statement on Friday.
Three journalists from the Hezbollah-affiliated TV stations Al Mayadeen and Al-Manar were killed and several others wounded in an Israeli airstrike on their press station in Hasbaya, southern Lebanon, early on Friday morning. The strikes hit a group of small chalets that 18 journalists from at least seven different media outlets – including Al Jazeera, Sky News Arabia and TRT – were staying in while covering the Israel-Hezbollah war in south Lebanon. Several cars with “Press” signs on them were parked in front of the site. Lebanon’s prime minister, Najib Mikati, said the attack was “deliberate” and “aims to terrorise the media to cover up crimes and destruction”.
Lebanon’s health minister, Firass Abiad, said more than 163 rescuers and health workers have been killed and 272 injured in Israeli airstrikes during more than a year of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. Abiad, speaking to reporters on Friday, said Israel has carried out attacks on 55 hospitals, 36 of which were directly hit. Eight hospitals have been closed while seven are still partially functioning, he said. Attacks against the medical and paramedic sectors in Lebanon are direct and intentional aggressions,” Abiad said. “This is a war crime.”
Two people were killed in a strike on Majd al-Krum in northern Israel, Israeli media said on Friday, following a statement from Hezbollah saying that it targeted the northern Israeli town of Karmiel with a large missile salvo.
UN peacekeepers withdrew from a observation post in Zahajra town in south Lebanon on Tuesday after Israeli forces fired at it, the force said on Friday. Unifil added that the Israeli military has repeatedly demanded that its peacekeepers vacate its positions along the Blue Line and deliberately damaged camera, lighting and communications equipment at some of these positions.
Lebanon’s transport minister, Ali Hamieh, said Israeli bombing put a second border crossing between the country and Syria out of service -leaving one official passage between the two nations operational. The UN refugee agency (Unhcr) warned that Israel’s overnight airstrike on the Jousieh crossing in Lebanon’s northern Bekaa area jeopardised the main escape route for people fleeing the conflict in Lebanon in search of refuge in Syria. More than half a million people, mostly Syrians, had crossed into Syrian territory since Israel began heavily striking Lebanon late last month, according to figures by the Lebanese authorities on Friday.
Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, called for pressure on Israel to end what he called the “ethnic cleansing” in Gaza, as he met the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, in London. Blinken, who is still hoping Gaza peace talks can be revived, stopped over in the UK to brief leaders from Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan after he had been unable to meet them on his recent tour of the Middle East.
Blinken also met with Lebanon’s prime minister, Najib Mikati in London on Friday. The US – Israel’s biggest arms supplier – has stopped short of calling for an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s month of bombing of Lebanon, but is instead calling for a diplomatic resolution. Blinken said Israel “must take the necessary steps to avoid civilian casualties and not endanger UN peacekeepers or the Lebanese armed forces.”
Updated
Israeli strikes have killed 38 people, many of them children, in Gaza as well as three journalists in Lebanon, as worries grow about supply shortages in Gaza and international pressure for a ceasefire increases.
The deaths reported by Gaza health officials were the latest in the southern Gaza City of Khan Younis, where people have in recent days lined up for bread outside the city’s only bakery in operation, AP reported.
They come a day after US secretary of state Antony Blinken said that Israel had accomplished its objective of “effectively dismantling” Hamas and implored both sides to revive negotiations.
Hours before Mr Blinken was set to meet with Arab leaders in London on Friday, an Israeli airstrike on guesthouses where journalists were staying in south-east Lebanon killed three members of staff.
Two people were killed in a strike on Majd al-Krum in northern Israel, Israeli media said on Friday, following a statement from Hezbollah saying that it targeted the northern Israeli town of Karmiel with a large missile salvo.
Lebanon has been placed on financial crime watchlist, international body says
Lebanon has been placed on a so-called ‘grey list’ of countries under special scrutiny by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the financial crime watchdog said on Friday, despite requests for leniency from Lebanese officials.
The FATF said Lebanon had made progress on several recommended actions and would continue to implement reforms, Reuters reported.
Lebanon has been in a financial crisis since 2019 and faces destruction from Israeli military operations against armed group Hezbollah. The grey-listing is likely to further deter investment and could affect the links between some Lebanese banks and the global financial system.
The international criminal court (ICC) on Friday said it would replace one of its judges on health grounds, in a move that could further delay a decision on the prosecution’s request to issue an arrest warrant for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In May, prosecutors asked for warrants for Netanyahu and his defence minister Yoav Gallant as well as three Hamas leaders, saying there were reasonable grounds that the men had committed war crimes and crimes against humanity, Reuters reported.
The president of the ICC said the presiding judge in the case, Romanian magistrate Iulia Motoc, had asked to be replaced on health grounds on Friday and was immediately replaced with Slovenian ICC judge Beti Hohler.
The replacement is expected to further delay a decision on possible warrants in the case looking at the Gaza conflict as the new judge will need time to catch up on the filings.
Updated
The Israeli military said on Friday that three of its soldiers were killed in combat in northern Gaza Strip.
UN rights chief says 'darkest moment' of Israel's war on Gaza is unfolding in the north
The UN rights chief, Volker Turk, has issued a statement in which he describes Israel’s renewed assault on northern Gaza as the “darkest moment” of the year-long war on the territory so far.
He said:
Unimaginably, the situation is getting worse by the day. The Israeli government’s policies and practices in northern Gaza risk emptying the area of all Palestinians.
We are facing what could amount to atrocity crimes, including potentially extending to crimes against humanity.
Turk said “more than 150,000 people are reportedly dead, wounded or missing in Gaza” since the war was launched last October.
“My gravest fear is, given the intensity, breadth, scale and blatant nature of the Israeli operation currently underway in North Gaza, that number will rise dramatically,” he said.
Israeli forces began the devastating offensive in the north about three weeks ago with the declared aim of preventing Hamas fighters from regrouping. Residents, however, say the troops have besieged shelters, levelled civilian infrastructure, forced displaced people to leave with nowhere safe to go, while killing many civilians in deadly airstrikes. Medics say at least 800 Palestinians have been killed in northern Gaza since the new offensive was launched.
'We stand at the brink of regional war', Jordan's foreign minister warns as Israeli attacks intensify
Patrick Wintour is the Guardian’s diplomatic editor.
Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, has called for pressure on Israel to end “ethnic cleansing”, as he met US secretary of state Antony Blinken in London.
Blinken stopped over in London to brief leaders from Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan after he had been unable to meet them on his recent tour of the Middle East. Blinken is still hoping the Gaza peace talks can be revived.
Deploring the humanitarian situation in northern Gaza, Safadi told Blinken: “We do see ethnic cleansing taking place, and that has got to stop.”
He added:
We really stand at the brink of regional war now. The only path to save the region from that is for Israel to stop the aggressions on Gaza, on Lebanon, stop unilateral measures, illegal measures, in the West Bank, that is also pushing the situation to an abyss.
On 13 October, Blinken wrote jointly with the US defence secretary Lloyd Austin to Israel urging the country to increase the number of aid trucks entering Gaza to 350 per day within 30 days. But since then no day has seen the number of trucks exceed 114, whilst the number of trucks inside Gaza but unable to distribute aid has risen 470 to 700.
The amount of aid entering Gaza is at record low levels in October, and although Blinken in the Middle East claimed to have seen an improvement, Arab diplomatic sources said the figures are nowhere near the level the Biden administration previously said in its letter that would be required for the US administration to stop supplying Israel with arms.
Separately in talks with Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati, Blinken said: “We have a sense of real urgency in getting to a diplomatic resolution and the full implementation of UN security council resolution 1701, such that there can be real security along the border between Israel and Lebanon.”
He said it was important so “people at both sides of the border can have the confidence to be able to return to their homes.”
His remarks stop short of a call for an immediate ceasefire, the position adopted by the French since the US believes that if Hezbollah can be weakened further the political deadlock that prevents the formation of a full government can be broken.
Resolution 1701, approved in 2006 after an earlier war, calls for the disarmament of non-state groups in Lebanon – including to the Hezbollah group, which effectively runs its own armed militia – and for a full Israeli withdrawal from the country.
One precondition for a full implementation of 1701 is strengthening the official Lebanese armed forces. On Thursday, at a Paris Conference, the international community pledged to pay €200m to strengthen the Lebanese army, in particular by recruiting soldiers. A further €800m was raised to help the humanitarian crisis.
Mitaki said his government’s priority is reaching “a ceasefire and deterring the Israeli aggression”. He added there are more than 1.4 million people who have been displaced from the areas that are being attacked by Israel. “Israel is also violating international law by attacking civilians, journalists and medical staff,” he said.
He said “what is required is a real commitment from Israel to a ceasefire, because the previous experience regarding the American-French call, supported by the Arabs and the international community, for a ceasefire affected everyone’s credibility.” Mitaki was referring to a proposal for an initial 21-day truce agreed at the UN general assembly in the false belief that it had the support of the Israelis.
Updated
Israel’s military humanitarian unit, Cogat, which oversees aid and commercial shipments to Gaza, said earlier today it had allowed the transfer of 23 patients out of the Kamal Adwan hospital the previous night by Palestinian ambulances and UN vehicles.
Cogat said it had allowed the transfer of one fuel truck, “180 blood units and a truckload of medical equipment” donated by UN agencies.
Hundreds of patients and staff 'detained' at Kamal Adwan hospital after Israeli raid
In an earlier post, we referenced reports that Israeli troops surrounded Kamal Adwan hospital – the last functioning hospital in Gaza’s north – last night.
Gaza’s health ministry said hundreds of patients and staff have been detained in north Gaza’s last functioning hospital.
“Israeli forces have stormed and are present inside Kamal Adwan Hospital” in the city of Jabalia, the ministry said in a statement.
“They are detaining hundreds of patients, medical staff and some displaced individuals from neighbouring areas who sought refuge in the hospital from continuous bombardment,” it added.
The director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said his staff have lost contact with personnel at the facility since reports of the Israeli raid surfaced this morning.
He described this as a “deeply disturbing” development as there were many injured patients being treated there and others sheltering from relentless Israeli bombardments in the area.
In a post on X, in which he reiterated calls for an immediate ceasefire, the WHO chief added:
Kamal Adwan hospital has been overflowing with close to 200 patients - a constant stream of horrific trauma cases.
It is also full of hundreds of people seeking shelter. Accessing hospitals across Gaza is getting unbelievably harder and exposes our staff to unnecessary danger.
Kamal Adwan has been struggling with shortages since the start of war, but these have been worsened by a renewed Israeli assault on northern Gaza in recent weeks that the IDF says was launched to stop the regrouping of Hamas fighters there.
“There has been no supply or provision of food, medicine, or essential medical supplies needed to save the lives of the injured and sick in the hospital,” Gaza’s health ministry said, calling the situation inside “catastrophic in every sense of the word”.
About 770 people have been killed in Jabalia, along with other parts of the Palestinian territory’s north, since the offensive was launched on 6 October, Gaza’s civil defence reported.
“Since the start of operational activity in Jabalia, approximately 45,000 Palestinian civilians have evacuated, and IDF (Israeli army) troops have eliminated hundreds of terrorists”, the Israeli military said.
Updated
At least nine Palestinians were killed and several were injured on Friday in an Israeli airstrike on Al-Shati, one of the Gaza Strip’s eight historic refugee camps, medics told Reuters.
Updated
Peacekeepers of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon withdrew from a observation post in Zahajra town in south Lebanon on Tuesday after Israeli forces fired at it, the force said on Friday.
The UN mission, known as Unifil, is stationed in southern Lebanon to monitor hostilities along the demarcation Blue Line with Israel – an area that has seen fierce clashes this month between Israeli troops and Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters.
The mission said that when Israeli soldiers conducting house-clearing operations nearby realised they were being observed they fired at the post, which prompted the duty guards to withdrew to avoid being shot.
It added that the Israeli military has repeatedly demanded that Unifil vacate its positions along the Blue Line and has deliberately damaged camera, lighting and communications equipment at some of these positions.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images coming out of Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, where Palestinian officials said Israeli military strikes have killed at least 38 people since Thursday night:
The Israeli military has confirmed reports that it had struck a border crossing between Syria and Lebanon that it claimed was being used by Hezbollah to transfer weapons.
The airstrike hit Hezbollah “infrastructure” at the Jousieh crossing (known as Qaa on the Lebanese side) in Lebanon’s northern Bekaa area overnight, the military said.
It said Hezbollah “exploits the Jousieh civilian crossing, which is under the control of the Syrian regime and is operated by Syrian military security, to transfer weapons”.
מטוסי קרב של חיל האוויר, בהכוונת אגף המודיעין תקפו במהלך הלילה תשתיות צבאיות של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה במעבר הגבול ג׳וסיה בצפון הבקעא>> pic.twitter.com/klvzlajAtP
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) October 25, 2024
Lebanon’s transport minister Ali Hamieh said earlier that the strike had knocked the crossing out of service. This means both Lebanon’s eastern crossings are closed, leaving the northern route as the only way to Syria.
The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said the strikes were hindering refugees’ attempts to flee. UNHCR spokesperson Rula Amin said about 430,000 people have crossed to Syria since Israel’s assault on the country started.
“The attacks on the border crossings are a major concern,” Amin said. “They are blocking the path to safety for people fleeing conflict.”
Updated
Lebanon’s prime minister, Najib Mikati, has reacted to the news that three journalists were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Hasbaya, south-eastern Lebanon, this morning (see post at 08.12 for more details).
In a statement, he said “the new Israeli aggression targeting journalists” was among the “war crimes committed by the Israeli enemy”, adding that the attack was “deliberate” and “aims to terrorise the media to cover up crimes and destruction”.
Those killed were camera operator Ghassan Najjar and engineer Mohamed Reda from Lebanese news channel Al Mayadeen, as well as camera operator Wissam Qassem from Al-Manar, another TV outlet.
Five journalists had been killed in prior Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon, according to the BBC.
Updated
Eid Sabbah, Kamal Adwan hospital’s director of nursing, sent a voice note to Reuters, after Israeli forces stormed the facility.
“Since last night, at midnight, the occupation army tanks and bulldozers reached the hospital. The terrorising of civilians, the injured and children began as they (the Israeli army) started opening fire on the hospital,” Sabbah said.
He said when the army retreated, a delegation from the World Health Organisation arrived with an ambulance and evacuated 40 patients from the northern Gaza hospital.
But Israeli tanks returned and opened fire on the hospital, which has run out of medical supplies, striking its oxygen stores, before raiding the building and ordering staff and patients to leave, Sabbah told Reuters.
Updated
Summary of the day so far...
An Israeli airstrike killed at least three journalists and injured several others as they slept in guesthouses in southern Lebanon on Friday, Lebanon’s health ministry said, in what Lebanon’s information minister declared a war crime. The Israeli military has not yet commented on the attack.
Lebanon’s transport minister said Israeli bombing put a second border crossing between the country and Syria out of service - leaving one official passage between the two nations operational.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, vowed to work with “real urgency” for a diplomatic resolution to end Israel’s war on Lebanon, but did not call for an immediate ceasefire. Blinken is in London meeting Arab leaders, including Lebanese prime minister Najib Mikati, and Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, who told him: “We do see ethnic cleansing taking place, and that has got to stop,” referring to Israel’s renewed assault on northern Gaza.
Northern Gaza’s Kamal Adwan hospital has now run out of medical supplies and the Israeli military is conducting mass arrests of men inside of the facility, Al Jazeera reported.
The Associated Press reported that 38 people were killed in Israeli attacks in the southern city of Khan Younis in Gaza overnight into Friday, citing health officials.
The Israeli army said five soldiers were killed and two others seriously injured in fighting in southern Lebanon.
Israeli attacks kill 38 Palestinian people overnight in Khan Younis - report
In an earlier post, we cited reporting from Palestinian news agency Wafa that said Israeli airstrikes on Khan Younis killed 28 civilians this morning. The Associated Press is reporting that 38 people were killed overnight into Friday, citing health officials.
Palestinians who were killed or injured were taken to the European and Nasser Hospitals. Records from the European hospital obtained by the AP showed at least 15 members from al-Farra family were killed, including 13 children.
Gaza Civil Defence spokesperson Mahmoud Bassal posted a video on Friday morning of rescuers recovering the bodies of 9 children from the al-Farra family in al-Manara neighborhood.
The Israeli attack, which included airstrikes and shelling, according to health officials, targeted several residential buildings in neighborhoods east of Khan Younis. Six members of the Abdeen family were also killed, according to health officials.
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Israel must stop 'ethnic cleansing' in Gaza, Jordan foreign minister tells Antony Blinken
As we reported in an earlier post, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has met with the Lebanese prime minister, Najib Mikati, in London, as efforts to bring about a diplomatic resolution to Israel’s war continue. Blinken also met with Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, who brought up the devastating Israeli offensive in northern Gaza, where many civilians have been killed and infrastructure levelled in an intense military siege by the Israeli military over recent weeks. Safadi told Blinken: “We do see ethnic cleansing taking place, and that has got to stop.”
Blinken is in the UK meeting Arab leaders, following a diplomatic tour of the Middle East earlier this week, his first to the region since Israel killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, suspected mastermind of the 7 October attack last year.
“We have a sense of real urgency in getting to a diplomatic resolution and the full implementation of UN security council resolution 1701, such that there can be real security along border between Israel and Lebanon,” Blinken said. He was referring to the resolution that ended the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war and has since been the framework that governs security dynamics on the Lebanese-Israeli border.
“Meanwhile, we want to make sure we want to see civilians protected. We want to make sure that Lebanese armed forces are not caught in the crossfire,” Blinken added.
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Lebanon says 163 rescuers and health workers killed in year of Israeli airstrikes
Lebanon’s health minister, Firass Abiad, has told reporters that over 163 rescuers and health workers had been killed and 272 injured in Israeli airstrikes during more than a year of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.
Hezbollah, the Iranian backed Lebanese militant group, began firing rockets into northern Israel in support of Palestinians on 7 October 2023, the day after its ally Hamas’s attack on southern Israel, in which about 1,200 people were killed.
More than 2,500 people are reported to have been killed in Lebanon since then, many of whom were civilians, including 1,900 in the past five weeks. Israel unleashed its assault on Lebanon last month, claiming its aim was to return tens of thousands of people evacuated from homes in northern Israel due to the cross-border hostilities.
US secretary of state meets Lebanese prime minister in London
US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has met with Lebanon’s prime minister, Najib Mikati in London.
The US – Israel’s biggest arms supplier – has stopped short of calling for an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s month of bombing of Lebanon, but is instead calling for a diplomatic resolution.
Speaking in Doha, the Qatari capital, Blinken said yesterday:
We have been very clear that this cannot lead - should not lead - to a protracted campaign and that Israel must take the necessary steps to avoid civilian casualties and not endanger UN peacekeepers or the Lebanese armed forces.
The US has called for Lebanon’s central government to take charge of security and for the disarmament of Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Shiite movement that effectively has its own military.
Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza has ran out of medical supplies - report
Northern Gaza’s Kamal Adwan hospital, along with the nearby Indonesian and al-Awda hospitals, have reported dire shortages of fuel and other supplies amid relentless Israeli attacks in the area over recent weeks.
Sweeping evacuation orders for the hundreds of thousands people estimated to be still living in the northern third of the territory, the blockage of aid and food deliveries and the targeting of civilian infrastructure have led to accusations that Israel is committing the war crime of seeking to forcibly displace the remaining population.
Al Jazeera reports that the Kamal Adwan hospital has now run out of medical supplies and its warehouse is empty. Hussam Abu Safia, director of the hospital, told Al Jazeera yesterday that most of the surgeons have been arrested by Israeli troops, meaning urgent surgeries cannot be performed.
Last night, the Israeli military surrounded the hospital and directly fired shells at the building causing severe damage to the ICU and the emergency department.
The bombing also damaged the oxygen station and disrupted the flow of oxygen supplies to the incubators and the ICU, threatening the lives of 150 wounded people and 14 newborns.
We can confirm that the Israeli military is conducting mass arrests of men inside Kamal Adwan Hospital and leading them to an unknown area for interrogation.
The Israeli military targeted a group of homes on al-Hawaja Street in Jabalia refugee camp, killing and wounding many Palestinians.
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The Guardian’s diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour, has explored how the deterioration in the relationship between the Israeli government and the UN could affect aid delivered by the UN relief and works agency for Palestinians (Unrwa) in the Gaza Strip:
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Israeli military says five soldiers killed in fighting in southern Lebanon
The Israeli army said five soldiers were killed and two others seriously injured in fighting in southern Lebanon.
The soldiers “fell during combat in southern Lebanon” the previous day, the army said, bringing the total number of Israeli soldiers killed in Lebanon to 32 since 30 September.
Israeli airstrike puts second Syria crossing out of service, Lebanese minister says
Lebanon’s transport minister, Ali Hamieh, has told AFP that Israeli bombing put a second border crossing between the country and Syria out of service - leaving one official passage between the two nations operational.
“The Qaa crossing has been put out of service after an Israeli strike on Syrian territory, hundreds of metres from Syrian border guards,” Hamieh said.
The UN said on 22 October that an airstrike on the main road at the Masnaa border crossing between Lebanon and Syria left it “impassable”. The crossing was the main route for people in Lebanon to flee to Syria to escape Israeli bombardments (hundreds of thousands of people have done so). Israel’s war has displaced upwards of one million people, according to Lebanese officials.
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Journalists from other media organisations, including Lebanese broadcaster Al-Jadeed, Sky News Arabic and Al Jazeera English, were also resting nearby when the deadly Israeli airstrike hit Hasbaya overnight, Agence France-Presse (AFP) is reporting.
Israel’s killing of three journalists in Hasbaya is a 'war crime', minister says
Lebanon’s information minister, Ziad Makary, has described the Israeli attack – that reportedly killed at least three journalists as they slept in guesthouses used by media in Hasbaya, southern Lebanon – as a “war crime”.
In a post on X, he wrote:
The Israeli enemy waited for the journalists’ nighttime break to betray them in their sleep... This is an assassination, after monitoring and tracking, with prior planning and design, as there were 18 journalists there representing seven media institutions. This is a war crime.
انتظر العدو الاسرائيلي استراحة الصحافيين الليلية لكي يغدر بهم في منامهم، وهم لم يتوقفوا خلال الأشهر الماضية عن تغطية الخبر في الميدان ونقله كشفاً عن جرائمه الموصوفة.
— Ziad T. Makary (@ZiadMakary) October 25, 2024
هذا اغتيال، بعد رصد وتعقب، عن سابق تصور وتصميم، إذ كان يتواجد في المكان ١٨ صحافياً يمثلون ٧ مؤسسات إعلامية.
هذه…
Lebanese television channel Al Mayadeen said its cameraman Ghassan Najjar, as well as broadcast engineer Mohammad Reda, were killed in the Israeli airstrike on Hasbaya.
Al Mayadeen said Najjar “was a father who risked his life for a just cause, dedicated to revealing the truth, and was killed in cold blood”.
Another TV outlet, al-Manar, which is run by Hezbollah, said its photographer Wissam Qassem was also killed in the Israeli airstrike in Hasbaya.
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Israeli airstrike on Khan Younis kills 28 civilians - report
There are reports of an Israeli airstrike hitting the southern city of Khan Younis this morning, killing at least 28 Palestinian civilians.
Wafa, the Palestinian news agency, reported that the attack, which left dozens of people injured, targeted a residential home in the al-Manara neighbourhood of the city.
It was among a series of deadly attacks launched by the Israeli military across the Gaza Strip over the last day.
According to Al Jazeera, Israeli forces destroyed over 10 residential buildings in Jabalia, which has become the epicentre of a renewed assault on northern Gaza over the past few weeks. Israel claims to be trying to prevent Hamas fighters from regrouping.
Al Jazeera said there were “massive casualties” from the attack that Gaza’s civil defence agency was reported to have described as a “major massacre”.
The outlet also reported that an “unspecified number of children” were killed after the Israeli military bombed the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza. The Guardian has not independently verified the figures provided in either report.
Israeli airstrike reportedly kills three journalists in southern Lebanon
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of Israel’s wars on Gaza and Lebanon.
An Israeli airstrike early on Friday morning killed at least three media staff staying at a guesthouse in Lebanon where several other reporters were staying, Lebanese media reported.
Those killed were camera operator Ghassan Najjar and engineer Mohamed Reda of the Lebanese TV channel Al-Mayadeen and camera operator Wissam Qassem, who worked for Hezbollah’s Al-Manar, the outlets said in separate statements.
Other reporters at the scene, in Hasbaya in southern Lebanon, said the bungalow where members of those specific outlets were sleeping was directly targeted.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken is set to meet with Lebanese prime minister Najib Mikati in London on Friday, as well as with the foreign ministers of Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, two key US partners in a postwar plan for Gaza, the state department said.
Blinken said he hoped Iran was getting a clear message that any further attacks on Israel risked its own interests. Israel has vowed retaliation for an Iranian missile barrage on 1 October.
It comes as Israel said the chief of its Mossad intelligence agency David Barnea will travel to Doha on Sunday to meet with CIA director William Burns and Qatar’s prime minister as long-stalled efforts to end the Gaza war appeared to gain some precious, if tentative, momentum.
“The parties will discuss the various options for starting negotiations for the release of the hostages from Hamas captivity, against the backdrop of the latest developments,” the office of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
Previous attempts to reach a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal have fallen short.
A senior Hamas official told AFP that a delegation from the group’s Doha-based leadership discussed “ideas and proposals” related to a Gaza truce with Egyptian officials in Cairo on Thursday.
“Hamas has expressed readiness to stop the fighting, but Israel must commit to a ceasefire, withdraw from the Gaza Strip, allow the return of displaced people, agree to a serious prisoner exchange deal and allow the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza,” the official said.
In other developments:
At least 17 people, nearly all women and children, have been killed in Israeli bombing of a school turned shelter in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, medics in the territory have said. Another 42 people were injured in the strike in the overcrowded camp, according to nearby al-Awda hospital. Among the dead were 13 children under the age of 18 and three women, it said. The strike marked the latest Israeli bombing of a school sheltering displaced people across Gaza. Israel’s military said the school was being used as a Hamas command and control centre.
As it braces for an expected retaliatory strike from Israel, Iran has ordered the armed forces to be prepared for war but also to try to avoid it, having witnessed the decimation of its allies in Lebanon and Gaza, the New York Times is reporting. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has ordered the military to devise multiple military plans for responding to an Israeli attack, the report says, citing four unnamed Iranian officials. The scope of any Iranian retaliation, they said, will largely depend on the severity of Israel’s attacks.
Several Israeli strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs on Thursday, about half an hour after Israel issued evacuation warnings for the Hezbollah bastion after intense strikes the night before.
In Beirut’s southern Choueifat Al-Amrousieh area, Israeli warplanes “destroyed two buildings and ignited a large fire, and black smoke covered the area,” according to the official national news agency. “The raid that targeted the Saint Therese area also caused the collapse of two buildings near the constitutional council.” Israel had earlier issued evacuation warnings for the Hezbollah bastion following intense assaults the night before.
Israel’s military said it had killed a Hamas commander who took part in the 7 October 2023 assault on southern Israel and worked for the UN aid agency in the Gaza Strip. Unrwa confirmed the man, Mohammad Abu Itiwi, was a staff member and was killed on Wednesday. Unrwa said Itiwi’s name was included in a letter received from Israel in July that included a list of 100 staff members who were also allegedly members of armed groups, including Hamas, but that Israeli authorities had not provided more information supporting those allegations.
France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, warned Benjamin Netanyahu that “civilisation is not best defended by sowing barbarism ourselves”. Macron also vowed to help train 6,000 extra Lebanese official forces, and called for a ceasefire and an end to Israeli attacks on UN peacekeepers, as a conference in Paris raised $200m (£154m) for Lebanon’s official military and $800m in humanitarian aid for the country.
Gaza’s civil defence agency said on Thursday that more than 770 Palestinians have been killed in the north of the territory since Israel launched a new offensive in northern Gaza on 6 October. The agency also said it had been forced to suspend operations in northern Gaza after what it called threats from the Israeli military to “bomb and kill” rescue crews working in Jabalia camp. Gaza’s health ministry said on Thursday that 42,847 Palestinians have been killed and 100,544 injured since Israel launched its war last year.
An Israeli airstrike struck the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza on Thursday night, with Gaza’s civil defence agency estimating that 150 people – including women and children – were killed or injured, the Palestinian news agency, Wafa reported.
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