Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
World
Helen Livingstone (now) Léonie Chao-Fong, Tom Ambrose, Martin Belam and Jonathan Yerushalmy (earlier)

Gulf states call on international community to fulfil responsibilities in the region – as it happened

Iran IDF Israel Beirut Benjamin Netanyahu Missile Daniel Hagari Hezbollah Yoav Gallant Lebanon

This blog has now closed. You can follow our new blog here

The coincidental timing of an emergency meeting of Gulf foreign ministers in Doha with a visit to the same city by the Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, for talks with Qatar’s emir raises questions about how the Gulf states will react if Israel pushes ahead with its plan to use its recent military success not just to weaken Iran, but reorder the Middle East.

This Sunni coalition of six Gulf monarchs is not naturally well disposed to Iran or its Shia proxies, and only in 2016 labelled Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation. But they also oppose further Israeli escalation, and believe it is ultimately only Washington that has the means to restrain the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

They insist the establishment of an independent Palestinian state is the only path to regional stability, integration and prosperity.

“Palestinian statehood is a prerequisite for peace, rather than its byproduct,” the Saudi foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan wrote in Wednesday’s Financial Times, without making any reference to the Israeli-Iran conflict, or the likelihood that Joe Biden, in the twilight of his presidency and a month out from an election, is going to put the thumbscrews on Israel.

The reality is that Gulf state leaders, despite popular support in their countries for the Palestinian cause, are unlikely to change their own collective year-long strategy of not providing Palestinians anything other than humanitarian aid and political support.

Almost all of the nearly half a million residents of Beirut’s southern suburbs have fled since last week, escaping Israeli bombing. Lebanese authorities say that nearly 1 million people have been displaced by the bombing over the last two weeks.

“Israel is hitting the civilian population because they think it will break their will. But people don’t want Israel to win, so they are saying that their will won’t break,” said Dr Ali Ahmad, a professor at the Lebanese University and a Dahiyeh resident who had accompanied international journalists on the Hezbollah-organised tour of the Beirut suburb.

Though there was no guarantee of safety as Israeli drones buzzed overhead, many took advantage of the presence of international reporters to check on their homes. One resident, a dental assistant who was displaced to east Beirut by Israeli strikes, said she was hoping to catch a glimpse of her apartment building to see if it was still standing.

Ahmad spoke as he stood at the foot of a building that had housed a Lebanese TV station, al-Sirat TV, levelled in an Israeli airstrike on Monday. Staffers at the channel said they were ordered to evacuate by Israel, which said it was being used to store Hezbollah weapons. Hezbollah’s head of media relations, Mohammad Afif, speaking to the journalists, denied the claims.

Israeli bombing of Dahiyeh has been an almost nightly occurrence since Friday, when dozens of 2,000lb bunker-busters used in airstrikes that killed the Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and flattened a city block signalled the intensified campaign.

Hezbollah leader had agreed to ceasefire days before assassination, Lebanese minister claims

Lebanon’s foreign minister claims that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah had agreed to a 21-day ceasefire pushed by the US and France just days before he was killed by Israel in a massive attack on Beirut.

“He [Nasrallah] agreed, he agreed,” Abdallah Bou Habib told Christiane Amanpour in an interview on CNN broadcast on Wednesday. He continued:

We agreed completely. Lebanon agreed to a ceasefire but consulting with Hezbollah. The [Lebanese House] Speaker Mr Nabih Berri consulted with Hezbollah and we informed the Americans and the French what happened. And they told us that Mr. [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu also agreed on the statement that was issued by both presidents [Biden and Macron.]

Habib said White House senior adviser Amos Hochstein was then set to go to Lebanon to negotiate the ceasefire.

They told us that Mr Netanyahu agreed on this and so we also got the agreement of Hezbollah on that and you know what happened since then.

Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, was reported to have said on Sunday that Iran had refrained from retaliating for the Israeli assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran because of “entirely false” US and European promises that a Gaza ceasefire was imminent.

“Giving such criminals more time will only embolden them to commit even more atrocities,” he told a cabinet meeting according to Turkey’s Anadolu news agency.

Updated

Australia plans evacuation flights from Lebanon

Australian foreign minister Penny Wong has said her government has booked 500 seats on commercial aircraft for Australian citizens, permanent residents and their families to leave Lebanon on Saturday.

The seats are available to the Australians and their families known to be in Lebanon on two flights from Beirut to Cyprus, Wong said.

“What I would say to Australians who wish to leave, please take whatever option is available to you,” Wong told reporters, adding “please do not wait for your preferred route.”

Here’s our full report on the latest developments:

Israeli strikes on a central Beirut medical centre have killed at least six people, after Israel’s military suffered its deadliest day on the Lebanese front in a year of clashes with Iran-backed Hezbollah.

Residents in Beirut heard a missile flying above the city before hearing the sound of the explosion. Videos showed the floor of an apartment building burning. Residents living in nearby areas began to flee, driving away quickly in scooters and cars.

The Israeli strike hit a medical centre belonging to the Hezbollah-linked Islamic Health Organisation in the early hours of Thursday. The attack was the second airstrike on central Beirut this week, with most strikes having previously been confined to suburbs in the city’s south.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it was targeting Beirut and issued evacuation warnings for various locations throughout the night. Three missiles also hit the southern suburb of Dahiyeh, where Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed last week, and loud explosions were heard, Lebanese security officials said.

At least six people were killed and seven wounded, Lebanese health officials said, adding that a further 46 people had been killed in Israeli attacks on the city in the previous 24 hours.

A day after Iran fired more than 180 missiles into Israel, the wider region awaited Israel response to the attack, with US president Joe Biden saying he would not support an Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear sites, as he attempted to contain a rapidly escalating regional conflict.

Francesca Albanese, the UN’s special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian Territories, has offered a full-throated defence of UN security general António Guterres, after Israel announced it was barring him from entering the country on Wednesday.

I express my solidarity to the UN Secretary General @antonioguterres, from the heart of his own country, Portugal - which I am visiting.

We would not be here today, with unrestrained hubris is in full display, had Israel, in 76 years of history, been held accountable at least once. Not once has Israel faced consequences of its intl wrongdoings. Time to act to restore the primacy of intl law is now. A distant tomorrow may be too late.

Israel’s foreign minister Israel Katz declared the UN chief persona non grata and accused him of bias against the country and being an “anti-Israel secretary-general who lends support to terrorists”.

UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric later told reporters that Katz’s declaration was “one more attack on the United Nations staff that we’ve seen from the government of Israel”.

After a fortnight of military triumph, what is Israel’s endgame? Here’s a snippet from Emma Graham-Harrison’s earlier analysis:

The assassination of the Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was a tactical achievement that will hobble the group for now, and may cripple it longer term, but not a strategic one that will eliminate the threat to Israel from inside Lebanon.

Israel has targeted generations of militant leaders, whose organisations survived or evolved after the assassinations. Both Nasrallah and the Hamas political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, killed earlier this year in Tehran, replaced leaders who had also been killed by Israel.

Attacks of the last few weeks have been particularly wide-ranging, taking out whole echelons of Hezbollah commanders. But even if the damage proved fatal to the group in its current form, its collapse would not offer any guarantee of greater security.

After the Palestine Liberation Organisation was forced out of Lebanon in the early 1980s, Hezbollah expanded there. Other conflicts offer grim examples.

Islamic State grew out of al-Qaida in Iraq. The US killed the Taliban leader, Mullah Akhtar Mansoor, in 2016 with a drone, hoping to pave the way for a peace deal; five years later, Taliban fighters swept into Kabul and took control of the country.

Nor do Israel’s destructive opening salvoes against Hezbollah offer any guarantee it will win a longer war. In 2003, the US-led invasion of Iraq swiftly toppled Saddam Hussein but paved the way for a bloody civil war and the rise of factions linked to Washington’s regional foe, Iran.

George W Bush’s declaration of victory under a “Mission Accomplished” banner on an aircraft carrier was intended as an enduring image of American power, and became instead a icon of US hubris.

The Palestinian news agency Wafa has more details on the deaths of Palestinians on Wednesday in Gaza, as Israel continues its deadly onslaught on the devastated territory.

Citing figures from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, Wafa reported that in addition to the massacre in Khan Younis, where at least 12 children were killed, another ten people were killed in Israeli airstrikes on the Nuseirat and al-Bureij refugee camps in the central Strip.

In Gaza City, nine civilians were killed in Israeli strikes on Muscat school and the al-Amal orphanage, which were housing displaced people. At least 20 people were injured in the attacks, Wafa reported.

Another three people were killed in a raid on the town of Khuza’a, east of Khan Younis, Wafa said.

A child was killed and two other civilians injured when Israeli forces shelled a house belonging to the al-Helou family in the Tel Al-Hawa neighbourhood, south-west of Gaza City, on Wednesday evening, Wafa reported.

It is not possible to independently verify death tolls in Gaza as Israel has barred foreign media from entering.

More than 70 killed by Israeli attacks on Gaza on Wednesday, Palestinian officials say

More than 70 people have been killed in a series of intensive ground operations and airstrikes by the Israel Defense Forces in southern Gaza, Palestinian medical officials said on Wednesday.

Israel has continued to strike what it says are militant targets across Gaza nearly a year after Hamas’s 7 October attack triggered the war in the territory, and even as attention has shifted to Lebanon and Iran.

The health ministry in Gaza said at least 51 people were killed and 82 wounded in the operation in Khan Younis that began early on Wednesday. Records at the European hospital show that seven women and 12 children, as young as 22 months old, were among those killed.

Another 23 people, including two children, were killed in separate strikes across Gaza, according to local hospitals.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment but has previously accused Hamas of exploiting civilian facilities for military purposes, a tactic the militant Islamist organisation denies using.

A spokesperson for Nasser hospital said: “Yesterday, the Israeli army started a sudden ground operation in the eastern areas of Khan Younis. The areas were attacked with a very violent aerial bombardment … The martyrs and the wounded arrived at the European hospital and here.”

Residents said Israeli planes had carried out heavy airstrikes as its ground forces staged an incursion into three neighbourhoods in Khan Younis. Mahmoud al-Razd, who said four relatives were killed in the raids, described heavy destruction and said first responders had struggled to reach destroyed homes.

“The explosions and shelling were massive,” he said. “Many people are thought to be under the rubble, and no one can retrieve them.”

US congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian-American in Congress and a fierce critic of US support for Israel, has also made an apparent comment on the death of Kamel Ahmad Jawad, a US resident who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Lebanon. In an Instagram post she said:

We should be saving lives no matter faith or ethnicity. We should have used our leverage to demand a ceasefire. We have already lost one American who was the father of four.

How many more have to die before our country stops sending more US bombs and funding this madness?

Updated

Six killed in Israeli airstrike on medical centre in central Beirut, Lebanon says

If you’re just joining us, Israeli airstrikes are still being reported across Beirut and the Lebanese health ministry says at least six people have been killed and seven injured in an Israeli attack on a health centre in the central suburb of Bachoura. It is a war crime to target health workers.

The medical centre belonged to the Hezbollah-linked Islamic Health Organisation. It is the second time central Beirut has been targeted since Israel began its bombing campaign a couple of weeks ago. The area is home to the Lebanese parliament and the UN’s regional headquarters.

The southern district of Dahiyeh, which is where Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed last week, has also been repeatedly targeted. The IDF has issued warnings to people in several neighbourhoods but in some cases these are reportedly not coming in time for people to flee.

Israeli airstrikes have killed paramedics across Lebanon over the last two weeks, including airstrikes that killed 14 emergency health workers over the weekend. On Monday, six more paramedics were killed in the west Bekaa, all of them belonging to the Islamic Health Organisation.

Israel has also been accused of targeting health workers in Gaza, including by killing them in airstrikes on hospitals and ambulances as well as arresting and torturing them. It denies targeting medics and claims Hamas uses civilians as human shields.

Updated

Al Jazeera has reported some comments from the head of Hezbollah’s media office, Mohammad Afif, in which he says the group is ready to “sacrifice our blood and soul for our homeland by the grace of God”.

Afif said the group had enough fighters, weapons and ammunition to push back against Israel, adding: “We assure you, the enemy, that this is only the first round.

“What happened in … Maroun al-Ras and other areas, including Odaisseh, was nothing but the tip of the iceberg,” he said, referring to villages in southern Lebanon where deadly clashes apparently took place between the two sides on Wednesday.

Afif also said Israel’s air superiority would “turn into losses on the ground”.

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has reiterated its support for Lebanon and called for the implementation of a 2006 UN resolution that calls for Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers to be the only armed forces south of Lebanon’s Litani river.

Neither Israel nor Hezbollah has ever fully respected the resolution, which helped to end their 2006 conflict.

In a statement issued after an extraordinary meeting in Doha, the GCC also noted it support for the 21-day ceasefire plan put forward by the US and France, shortly before Israel escalated the conflict further by launching a massive strike on Beirut that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

The council, which is made up of countries including Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, urged the international community to “fulfill its responsibilities to maintain security and stability in the region”.

It condemned “Israeli aggression” in Gaza and the West Bank and “reaffirmed the centrality of the Palestinian issue, the need to end Israeli occupation, and the support for the sovereignty of the Palestinian people over all Palestinian territories occupied since June 1967.”

The Israeli military says it has intercepted a “suspicious aerial target” off the coast of Tel Aviv.

The death toll in the Israeli attack on a medical centre in the Bashoura neighbourhood of central Beirut has risen to five, AFP reports citing Lebanese health officials.

BBC correspondent Nafiseh Kohnavard is reporting a further two Israeli airstrikes on the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh.

Updated

A US resident from Dearborn, Michigan, has been killed in Lebanon, the American government has said according to Reuters, with the man’s friend and neighbours saying he died in an Israeli airstrike.

“We are deeply saddened by the death of Kamel Ahmad Jawad and our hearts go out to his family and friends. His death is a tragedy, as are the deaths of many civilians in Lebanon,” a White House spokesperson said.

The US has supported Israel in its attacks on Lebanon, even as it calls for diplomacy and even as civilians including children are killed.

Jawad was in Lebanon taking care of his elderly mother, according to the Detroit News. His friend Hamzah Raza and local Dearborn groups said on social media that Jawad was killed in an Israeli air strike and called him “one of the kindest and most generous humans.”

Reuters was unable to confirm the circumstances of Jawad’s death.

Earlier in the day, a state department spokesperson, when asked about reports of an American’s death in Lebanon, said: “It’s our understanding that it was a legal permanent resident, not an American citizen [who got killed in Lebanon] but we obviously offer our sincerest condolences to the family.”

Israel’s recent military campaign in Lebanon has killed hundreds, wounded thousands and displaced over a million. Israel claims it is targeting Iran-backed Hezbollah militants.

Here are some of the latest pictures coming to us of the devastation in Beirut caused by Israeli attacks:

Updated

The IDF’s Arabic language spokesperson has issued another warning to residents of Beirut’s southern suburbs, warning people in the vicinity of a particular building in the suburb of Hadath to flee and posting a map. They have also issued warnings to people in the neighbourhoods of Haret Hreik and Burj al-Barajneh.

Updated

More on that Israeli strike on the medical centre in central Beirut: two people were killed and 11 wounded, according to an initial report by the Lebanese ministry of health.

An apparent Israeli airstrike hit a medical centre belonging to the Hezbollah-linked “Islamic Health Organisation” in central Beirut, in the early hours of Thursday morning. The strike was the second airstrike on central Beirut this week, with most attacks previously having been confined to suburbs south of the city.

Residents of Beirut heard a missile flying above the city before hearing the sound of the explosion. Videos showed the floor of an apartment building burning. Residents living in nearby areas began to flee, driving away quickly in scooters and cars.

Israeli airstrikes have killed paramedics across Lebanon over the last two weeks, including airstrikes that killed 14 emergency health workers over the weekend. On Monday, six more paramedics were killed in the west Bekaa, all of them belonging to the Islamic Health Organisation.

Most of the paramedics killed by Israeli bombing since the beginning of the war were affiliated with Islamic health services, whether Hezbollah or other parties.

International human rights groups have stressed that the killing of any healthcare workers is unlawful, regardless of political affiliation, as long as they are not taking part in combat or facilitating it.

Summary of the day so far

Here’s a recap of the latest developments:

  • Israel launched more airstrikes on Beirut, including in the centre of the Lebanese capital, early on Thursday. Multiple explosions were heard in Dahieh, a suburb in southern Beirut, and one huge blast near the downtown. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it “conducted a precise strike in Beirut”. An apparent Israeli airstrike started a fire in an apartment in the residential Bashoura district, AP reported, not far from the UN headquarters, the prime minister’s office and parliament. There was no warning issued ahead of the strike.

  • Lebanon’s health ministry said 46 people were killed and 85 were wounded in Israeli strikes on Lebanon in the past 24 hours. Israeli strikes have killed more than 1,000 people in Lebanon over the past two weeks, many of them women and children, according to the ministry.

  • Israel will respond to Iran’s missile attack and its forces can strike anywhere in the Middle East, its military chief said. “We have the capability to reach and strike every location in the Middle East and those of our enemies who have not yet understood this, will understand this soon,” Herzi Halevi, chief of the general staff, said in a video on Wednesday. “Iran made a big mistake tonight – and it will pay for it.” Israel’s foreign minister Israel Katz threatened Israeli retaliation for Iran’s “brutal” missile attack.

  • Iran braced itself for likely Israeli attacks on its nuclear sites as the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, urged the west to leave the Middle East. The unprecedented Iranian salvo of more than 180 ballistic missiles came less than 24 hours after the Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the largest ground incursion into southern Lebanon in a generation.

  • Iran’s ambassador to the UN, Amir Saied Iravani, said Tuesday’s missile attacks against Israel were “necessary to restore balance and deterrence”, adding that they were a “proportionate response to Israel’s continued terrorist aggressive acts over the past two months”. “Experience has proven that Israel only understands the language of force,” he told the council as he defend Tehran’s actions in line with the UN Charter. Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, earlier made a round of diplomatic calls, insisting that Iran was not seeking escalation. Part of the purpose of Araghchi’s calls was to convey the limits of the Iranian operation, and to urge the US and Europe to insist in turn that Israel show restraint in its response.

  • Joe Biden, the US president, said he would not support an Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear sites, as the US sought to temper Israel’s response to Iran’s missile attack on Tuesday and contain a rapidly escalating regional conflict. Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, convened a meeting of his top security officials at the Israeli defence headquarters, the Kirya in Tel Aviv, on Wednesday afternoon to discuss the country’s options after a round of conversations with Washington.

  • Biden and G7 leaders “unequivocally” condemned the Iranian missile attack on Israel during a call on Wednesday, the White House said. In a readout of the call, the White House said Biden joined the call with the G7 to discuss the Iranian attack and “to coordinate on a response to this attack, including new sanctions”.

  • More than 70 people have been killed in a series of intensive ground operations and airstrikes by the Israel Defense Forces in southern Gaza, Palestinian medical officials said on Wednesday. The health ministry in Gaza said at least 51 people were killed and 82 wounded in the operation in Khan Younis that began early on Wednesday. Records at the European hospital show that seven women and 12 children, as young as 22 months old, were among those killed. Another 23 people, including two children, were killed in separate strikes across Gaza, according to local hospitals.

  • At least 41,689 Palestinians have been killed and 96,625 others injured in Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip since 7 October, Gaza’s health ministry said on Wednesday. Israel has continued to strike what it says are militant targets across Gaza nearly a year after Hamas’s 7 October attack triggered the war in the territory, and even as attention has shifted to Lebanon and Iran.

  • The son-in-law of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was reportedly killed in an Israeli airstrike. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that Hassan Jaafar Qasir was among three people killed by the attack, which flattened a building in the Mazzeh district, an area favoured by Hezbollah militants and officers of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

  • Hamas’s armed wing, the al-Qassam brigades, claimed responsibility for a shooting and knife attack in Tel Aviv on Tuesday that killed at least seven people. Across the country, there was a sense of apprehension on Wednesday as Israel vowed to retaliate against Iran for the missile strike.

  • Eight Israeli soldiers have been killed and a number of others wounded in three exchanges with Hezbollah in heavy fighting inside Lebanon, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The deaths appeared to signify the first substantial clashes between IDF soldiers and Hezbollah since Israel said it had initiated a limited ground incursion into Lebanon to target Hezbollah’s infrastructure along the border.

  • Hezbollah said it inflicted casualties on a group of Israeli soldiers attempting to assault the Lebanese village of Odaisseh, not far from the border. The Iran-backed group also said its fighters wounded and killed a group of Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon after detonating an explosive device. It also claimed it had destroyed three Israeli Merkava tanks with guided rockets in the Lebanese border town of Maroun el-Ras.

  • The IDF claimed to have destroyed “over 150 terror infrastructures”, which it said included “Hezbollah headquarters, weapons storage facilities and rocket launchers” inside Lebanon. Israel’s military also reported a continued barrage of projectiles fired into the country from Lebanon.

  • António Guterres, the UN secretary-general, on Wednesday condemned Iran’s missile attack on Israel, telling the security council the “deadly cycle of tit-for-tat violence must stop”. “Time is running out,” he told the council. Earlier on Wednesday, Israel’s foreign minister Israel Katz said he was barring Guterres from entering the country because he had not “unequivocally” condemned Iran’s missile attack on Israel. The UN has decried the Israeli government’s decision to ban Guterres from entering the country as a “political statement” and “one more attack on the United Nations staff that we’ve seen from the government of Israel”.

  • A charter flight to evacuate Britons from Lebanon landed in Birmingham late on Wednesday. The Dan Air plane landed at Birmingham international airport just before 8.40pm, having stopped off in Bucharest en route. Beirut’s international airport remains open but ministers and officials are preparing contingency plans for sea and air rescues via Cyprus should the security situation in Lebanon deteriorate to the point at which commercial flights are stopped.

  • Thousands of foreign nationals have left Lebanon since Israel stepped up its campaign against Hezbollah just over a fortnight ago. Slovakia is preparing to evacuate its nationals from Lebanon, and has received permission from the Lebanese government to use a military plane for the purpose. China’s state-owned news agency Xinhua reported that over 200 Chinese nationals have been evacuated from Lebanon. The US state department said it organised a flight from Beirut to Istanbul on Wednesday to allow Americans to leave Lebanon. French nationals in Iran have been recommended to leave temporarily once international air traffic resumes. Germany’s foreign ministry also urged its citizens to leave Iran.

  • Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah to flee Lebanon days before he was killed in an Israeli strike last week, according to a report. In the immediate aftermath of the attack that targeted pagers used by Hezbollah members on 17 September, Khamenei sent a message with an envoy to beseech Nasrallah to leave Lebanon for Iran, a senior Iranian official told Reuters.

Updated

Israeli strike hits central Beirut – reports

An Israeli strike hit within Beirut’s city limits, not far from downtown, a security source told Reuters.

A Lebanese security source told the BBC that a cruise missile was fired from the sea at a “health centre” belonging to Hezbollah in Salim Slam street close to downtown Beirut.

The BBC said Israeli media reported that Israeli warships in the Mediterranean sea are targeting the Lebanese capital.

Updated

Another explosion reported in Beirut

A massive blast was heard across Beirut just now, according to multiple reports.

From Timour Azhari of Reuters:

And the BBC’s Nafiseh Kohnavard:

Updated

Charter flight carrying Britons out of Lebanon lands in UK

A charter plane carrying British nationals from Lebanon has landed in Birmingham.

The plane touched down at Birmingham international airport shortly before 8.40pm local time, PA News reported.

It departed from Beirut early on Wednesday and stopped off in Bucharest. A separate scheduled Middle East Airlines service also brought Britons back to the UK.

Further flights are planned for Thursday and over the coming days, according to the UK’s foreign secretary, David Lammy.

Israeli strikes kill 46 people in Lebanon, says health ministry

Lebanon’s health ministry said 46 people were killed and 85 were wounded in Israeli strikes on Lebanon in the past 24 hours.

Israeli strikes have killed more than 1,000 people in Lebanon over the past two weeks, many of them women and children, according to the ministry.

Updated

The son-in-law of Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah who was killed last week in a massive Israeli strike in Beirut, has also been killed in an Israeli raid in Damascus on Wednesday, according to a report.

Hassan Jaafar al-Qasir was “among two Lebanese victims of the Israeli raid which targeted an apartment in a residential building in the Al Mazzeh district of the Syrian capital”, AFP reported, citing the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

A source close to Hezbollah confirmed the report to the news agency.

Israeli military says it is carrying out airstrike in Beirut

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has confirmed it is carrying out a “targeted” airstrike in Beirut.

“The IDF conducted a precise strike in Beirut,” the IDF said in a statement. It said more details would follow.

Three huge explosions have been reported from Beirut’s southern suburb, with footage posted to social media showing a large plume of smoke over the area.

From AP’s Ali Hashem:

And the BBC’s Nafiseh Kohnavard:

Multiple blasts reported in Beirut

Several loud explosions have been reported in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

Updated

Reports are trickling in that an Israeli airstrike in Damascus today may have killed Hassan Jaafar Qasir, the son-in-law of Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah whom Israel killed last Friday in southern Beirut.

Hassan Jaafar Qasir is the brother of Muhammad Jaafar Qasir. He was killed in another Israeli strike on Beirut yesterday that took place during the brief flurry when Iran launched almost 200 ballistic missiles at Israel, most of which were intercepted.

The Jerusalem Post has just published this snippet, citing Sky News Arabic, and telling its readers to await developments. The Guardian has not yet independently verified this news.

Updated

Hadi Hachem told the emergency meeting of the UN security council today that the Lebanese government wants the enforcement of a UN security council resolution that was supposed to end the last Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006.

It called for all armed groups, including Hezbollah, to be disarmed and the deployment of Lebanese forces to the southern border with Israel. None of this has happened, the Associated Press reports.

The Lebanese ambassador said fully implementing the resolution is the only solution to the ongoing war and Israel’s “barbaric aggression”. He said Lebanon is opening enlistment for 1,500 new soldiers to strengthen the national army’s presence in the south.

Lebanon today is stuck between the Israeli destruction machine and the ambitions of others in the region,” Hachem said, alluding to Iran’s support for Hezbollah.

Updated

Lebanon’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Hadi Hachem, says the country wants to ramp up the nation’s military presence in the south of the country, where Lebanon meets its neighbor Israel, in an effort to end the current conflict with Israel.

Lebanon’s official military is separate from, and much weaker than, the forces of the most potent body in the country, Hezbollah.

Speaking at the UN security council meeting in New York today, convened to try to reduce rising aggression in the Middle East in recent days, Hachem said the Lebanese people and government “reject the war”, referring to the attacks by Israel in response to the many months of weapons launches at Israel by Hezbollah, in solidarity with Hamas in Gaza, its fellow Iran-backed proxy, Al Jazeera reported.

Lebanon wants to deploy troops along “our ground borders”, with the support of the UN, he said.

Updated

Israel's ban on UN chief a 'political statement' and 'one more attack on UN staff'

The UN has decried the Israeli government’s decision to ban its secretary general, António Guterres, from entering the country.

Earlier today, Israel’s foreign minister Israel Katz declared the UN chief persona non grata and accused him of being an “anti-Israel secretary-general who lends support to terrorists”.

UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric later told reporters that Katz’s declaration was “one more attack on the United Nations staff that we’ve seen from the government of Israel”.

Dujarric said that the UN chief has repeatedly condemned the Hamas attacks and sexual violence, and stressed that the UN still engages with Israel “at the operational level and other levels”.

Updated

The UN is making preparations for a second round of polio vaccinations for about 640,000 children in the Gaza Strip to start in mid-October, according to the UN’s spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric.

Updated

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, personally ordered a barrage of about 200 missiles to be fired at Israel on Tuesday, a senior Iranian official told Reuters.

Tuesday’s missile attack on Israel was in retaliation for the deaths of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander Abbas Nilforoushan, the Revolutionary Guards said in a statement.

The news agency reported that sources told them that Nasrallah’s assassination – as well as the weeks of Israeli strikes that have destroyed weapons sites, eliminated half of Hezbollah’s leadership council and decimated its top military command – has led to Iran’s fears for the safety of its supreme leader and loss of trust within Hezbollah and Iran’s establishment.

This has resulted in a situation that could complicate the effective functioning of Iran’s ani-Israel Axis of Resistance alliance, the agency reported.

It is also making it hard for Hezbollah to choose a new leader, fearing the ongoing infiltration will put the successor at risk, according to Lebanese sources.

Nasrallah’s assassination has spread mistrust between Tehran and Hezbollah, and within Hezbollah, an Iranian official told Reuters. “The trust that held everything together has disappeared,” they said.

Khamenei, who has remained in a secure location inside Iran since Saturday, “no longer trusts anyone”, a source close to the Iranian establishment said.

Updated

Iran's supreme leader warned Hezbollah chief of Israeli assassination plot – report

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned the head of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, to flee Lebanon days before he was killed in an Israeli strike last week, according to a report.

In the immediate aftermath of the attack that targeted pagers used by Hezbollah members on 17 September, Khamenei sent a message with an envoy to beseech Nasrallah to leave Lebanon for Iran, a senior Iranian official has told Reuters.

Khamenei, in his message to Nasrallah, cited intelligence that suggested Israel had operatives within Hezbollah and was planning to kill him, the source said.

According to the source, the messenger was a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander, Brig Gen Abbas Nilforoushan, who was with Nasrallah in his bunker when it was hit by Israeli bombs and was also killed.

Updated

US officials are not privately trying to persuade Israel to hold back on retaliating against Iran following Tuesday’s missile attack, CNN is reporting, citing two senior US officials.

A senior Biden administration official said:

No one’s saying don’t respond. No one’s saying ‘take the win.’

The Biden administration currently assesses that it is unlikely Israel would strike Iran’s nuclear sites, CNN reported.

One senior official said Israel still hasn’t decided, adding:

They are doing the smart thing and taking a beat and thinking about it.

“They have the [Rosh Hashanah] holiday so that buys time and space,” one senior US official said.

Iran's president says 'we are not looking for war'

Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, has said that Doha will continue mediation efforts to end the war in Gaza amid a heightening of regional tensions.

The Qatari emir, at a joint press conference on Wednesday with Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, said Doha had warned of escalation in Lebanon since the beginning of the war in Gaza.

Pezeshkian insisted that Iran is “not looking for war” but pledged a stronger response if Israel retaliates for its missile attack. He told reporters:

If [Israel] wants to react, we will have a stronger response, this is what the Islamic Republic is committed to. We are not looking for war, it is Israel that forces us to react.

Updated

A meeting of Israel’s security cabinet convened by Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday agreed that it would respond forcefully to Iran’s missile attack on Tuesday, according to Israeli media.

An image shared by the Israeli prime minister’s office showed Netanyahu meeting with the director of Shin Bet, Ronen Bar; the Mossad director David Barnea; Israel’s chief of staff, Maj Gen Herzi Halevi; and defence minister Yoav Gallant.

Israel’s response to Iran’s missile attack will aim to cause “significant financial damage”, the Times of Israel reported, citing an Israeli source.

The feeling is that the response “must be significant, and it must come soon”, the source said.

Updated

US organises flight to allow Americans to leave Lebanon

The US state department said it organised a flight from Beirut to Istanbul on Wednesday to allow Americans to leave Lebanon.

About 7,000 US citizens in Lebanon had registered with the US government to receive information about leaving the country, US state department spokesperson Matthew Miller said at a briefing.

The flight on Wednesday had a capacity of about 300 and carried about 100 Americans and their family members, he said.

The US hopes to organise more flights in the coming days, he added.

Updated

Iran says missile strikes on Israel were 'necessary' and a 'proportionate response'

Iran’s ambassador to the UN, Amir Saied Iravani, said Tuesday’s missile attacks against Israel were a “proportionate response to Israel’s continued terrorist aggressive acts over the past two months” that was “necessary to restore balance and deterrence”.

The strikes on Tuesday were in full accordance with Tehran’s “inherent right to self-defence under Article 51 of the UN Charter and a direct response to the regime’s repeated acts of aggression against Iran, including the violation of Iran’s sovereignty and territorial integrity during the past months”, the UN reported him saying.

“Experience has proven that Israel only understands the language of force,” he told the council, adding that “diplomacy has repeatedly failed as Israel views restraint not as a gesture of goodwill, but as a weakness to exploit”. He added:

Iran is fully prepared to take further defensive measures, if necessary, to protect its legitimate interests and defend its territorial integrity and sovereignty against any acts of military aggression and the illegal use of force.

He further condemned the “US regime” for their aim to “embolden Israel’s criminal actions” through their military support and political backing, thereby paralysing the security council from effective decision-making, and called on the council to act.

Updated

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the UN, has urged the UN’s security council to condemn Iran’s “unprovoked” missile attack on Israel and impose “serious consequences”.

Addressing the council on Wednesday, Thomas-Greenfield described Iran’s missile attack on Israel as a “significant escalation” of tensions in the Middle East. She said:

Let me be clear: The Iranian regime will be held responsible for its actions. And we strongly warn against Iran – or its proxies – taking actions against the United States, or further actions against Israel.

She reiterated US support for Israel and blamed Iran’s support of its proxies for contributing to the crises in Gaza and Lebanon.

Updated

Hamas' armed wing claims responsibility for deadly Jaffa attack

Hamas’s armed wing, the al-Qassam brigades, has claimed responsibility for a shooting and knife attack in Tel Aviv on Tuesday that killed at least seven people.

Several others were injured when a gunman opened fire at members of the public in the Jaffa area of the Israeli capital.

Local police said the attack began in a rail carriage and continued on the platform. The gunman and another attacker armed with a knife were “neutralised” by members of the public, it said.

In a statement on Wednesday, the al-Qassam brigades said it took responsibility for the operation.

Updated

Biden says he does not support strike on Iran's nuclear sites

Joe Biden, the US president, has said he does not support an attack on Iran’s nuclear sites as Israel vowed to respond to Iran’s missile attack on Tuesday.

“The answer is no,” he said in response to the question.

We’ll be discussing with the Israelis what they’re going to do, but all seven of us [G7 nations] agree that they have a right to respond but they should respond proportionally.

Biden also told reporters that there would be more sanctions imposed on Iran and said he would speak “relatively soon” with the Israeli leader, Benjamin Netanyahu.

Here’s the clip:

Updated

Biden and G7 'unequivocally’ condemn Iran’s attack on Israel, says White House

Joe Biden joined a call with G7 leaders on Wednesday to coordinate a response to Iran’s attack on Israel, according to the White House.

In a readout of the call, the White House said Biden joined the call with the G7 to discuss the Iranian attack and “to coordinate on a response to this attack, including new sanctions”. It added:

President Biden and the G7 unequivocally condemned Iran’s attack against Israel.

Biden expressed the US’s “full solidarity and support” to Israel and reaffirmed his country’s “ironclad commitment to Israel’s security”, the statement continued.

Updated

Summary of the day so far

Here’s a recap of the latest developments:

  • Israel will respond to Iran’s missile attack and its forces can strike anywhere in the Middle East, its military chief said. “We have the capability to reach and strike every location in the Middle East and those of our enemies who have not yet understood this, will understand this soon,” Herzi Halevi, chief of the general staff, said in a video on Wednesday. “Iran made a big mistake tonight – and it will pay for it,” Benjamin Netanyahu told a meeting of his security cabinet late on Tuesday. Israel’s foreign minister Israel Katz threatened Israeli retaliation for Iran’s “brutal” missile attack.

  • Iran is bracing itself for likely Israeli attacks on its nuclear sites as the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, urged the west to leave the Middle East. The unprecedented Iranian salvo of more than 180 ballistic missiles came less than 24 hours after the Israeli prime minister Netanyahu ordered the largest ground incursion into southern Lebanon in a generation.

  • Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, made a round of diplomatic calls, insisting that Iran was not seeking escalation. Unlike Israeli attacks in Lebanon, Iran’s targets had been strictly military and not civilian, he claimed. Part of the purpose of Araghchi’s calls was to convey the limits of the Iranian operation, and to urge the US and Europe to insist in turn that Israel show restraint in its response. At a meeting of the UN security council in New York later on Wednesday Iran is expected to defend its actions in line with the UN Charter.

  • The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced that seven more of its soldiers have been killed in a series of clashes with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon on Wednesday. The commandos were all killed during a gun battle with Hezbollah operatives in a southern Lebanon village, according to a report. The deaths mark the first significant casualties taken by the IDF since Israel launched its ground incursion into Lebanon earlier this week. Earlier, the IDF said another soldier had died during the campaign, bringing the total death toll to eight.

  • The IDF claimed to have destroyed “over 150 terror infrastructures” which it said included “Hezbollah headquarters, weapons storage facilities and rocket launchers” inside Lebanon. Israel’s military also reported a continued barrage of projectiles fired into the country from Lebanon.

  • Three people have been killed in an Israeli airstrike on a neighbourhood in western Damascus on Wednesday, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The strike was the second in as many days on the Mezzah suburb in the western part of the Syrian capital. Wednesday’s strike hit about 500 metres from Tuesday’s strike.

  • Israeli media reported that Israel’s military said Iran did succeed in striking Israeli airbases with missiles during yesterday’s attack, but the attack was “ineffective”. No aircraft were damaged and the Israeli air force (IAF) was able to continue to operate, it said. Impacts were said to have damaged office buildings and other maintenance areas.

  • António Guterres, the UN secretary-general, on Wednesday condemned Iran’s missile attack on Israel, telling the security council the “deadly cycle of tit-for-tat violence must stop”. “Time is running out,” he told the council. Earlier on Wednesday, Israel’s foreign minister said he was barring Guterres from entering the country because he had not “unequivocally” condemned Iran’s missile attack on Israel.

  • The US will focus its engagements with the Israelis to try to align its perspectives on any potential response to the Iranian attack on Israel, the US deputy secretary of state, Kurt Campbell, said on Wednesday. He said the Middle East region was at “a moment of peril” and “on a knife’s edge”.

  • John Healey, the UK defence secretary, said two RAF Typhoon jets were in the air “ready to engage” in the Middle East on Tuesday night as Iran launched a ballistic missile attack on Israel, but they had no suitable targets to hit. In a carefully worded statement on Tuesday night, Healy suggested British forces were involved in thwarting Iran’s missile attack against Israel. He also said he had spoken to his Israeli opposite number, Yoav Gallant, on Wednesday morning and had assured him “we totally condemn the Iranian missile attacks overnight, and we will stand steadfast with Israel in their right to security”.

  • Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip killed at least 60 Palestinians overnight, including in a school sheltering displaced families, medics in the territory said. Gaza’s health ministry said Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed at least 41,689 Palestinians and wounded 96,625 since 7 October.

  • The UK’s foreign secretary, David Lammy, said on Wednesday the first charter flight taking British nationals out of Lebanon has departed. “We have arranged another flight for tomorrow, and further flights over the coming days for as long as there is demand and it is safe to do so,” he said, adding that British nationals still in Lebanon should register with the Foreign Office and leave the country immediately.

  • French nationals in Iran have been recommended to leave temporarily once international air traffic resumes. The French embassy in Iran said French citizens who are permanent citizens in the country or visiting Iran should leave immediately. Germany’s foreign ministry also urged its citizens to leave Iran.

  • Slovakia is preparing to evacuate its nationals from Lebanon, and has received permission from the Lebanese government to use a military plane for the purpose. China’s state-owned news agency Xinhua reported that over 200 Chinese nationals have been evacuated from Lebanon.

  • Bosnia said it had raised its security alert level for weapons and ammunition storage facilities over concerns that the escalating conflict in the Middle East could affect the Balkan country’s stability. Defence minister Zukan Helez said measures were preventive and “the security situation in our country is stable and there is no information or indication that it will be disturbed”.

  • Three men have been arrested on suspicion of involvement in two explosions near the Israeli embassy in Copenhagen in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Updated

Three killed in Israeli strike on Damascus – reports

Three people have been killed in an Israeli airstrike on a neighbourhood in western Damascus on Wednesday, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The strike was the second in as many days on the Mezzah suburb in the western part of the Syrian capital. Wednesday’s strike hit about 500 metres from Tuesday’s strike, AFP reported.

At least three people were killed, two of them foreigners, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. It said:

An Israeli airstrike targeted a flat in a residential building in the Mazzeh neighbourhood frequented by Hezbollah leaders and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.

Six people were killed in the Israeli strike on Tuesday, it said. They included three civilians and three Iran-backed fighters, one of them from Hezbollah, it said.

According to the Syrian state-run Sana news agency, a military source said that “the Israeli enemy launched an airstrike … targeting one of the residential buildings in the Mezzah neighbourhood”.

Three civilians were killed and three wounded, the source said.

Updated

The US deputy secretary of state, Kurt Campbell, said the Biden administration will focus its engagements with the Israelis over the next few days to try to align its perspectives on any potential response to the Iranian attack on Israel.

Campbell described the current situation in the Middle East as “a moment of peril” at a virtual event by the Carnegie Endowment on Wednesday, Reuters reported. He said:

I think we recognise as important as a response of some kind should be, there is a recognition that the region is really on a knife’s edge, and real concerns about an even broader escalation or a continuing one.

France’s embassy in Iran recommended on Wednesday that French nationals who are permanent residents in the country should leave temporarily once international air traffic resumes, because of heightened tensions in the Middle East.

The message from the embassy, which also urged French nationals visiting Iran to leave immediately, is similar to messages given earlier this year when tensions increased between Iran and Israel.

John Healey, the UK defence secretary, said that two RAF Typhoon jets were in the air “ready to engage” in the Middle East on Tuesday night as Iran launched a ballistic missile attack on Israel, but they had no suitable targets to hit.

The fighter planes had previously shot down Iranian drones in April, during a previous attack by Tehran, but on this occasion were not needed because Typhoons do not have the capability to eliminate high speed ballistic missiles.

“The nature of the attack was different. Last night, UK planes were in the skies. They were ready to engage. They did not need to do so,” the defence minister said on a visit to the RAF Akrotiri base Cyprus, where British air crews are stationed.

Healey said that he had spoken to his Israeli opposite number Yoav Gallant on Wednesday morning and had assured him “we totally condemn the Iranian missile attacks overnight, and we will stand steadfast with Israel in their right to security”.

The UK’s major concern, he added, was that “to avoid this conflict spiralling into a wider regional war” and he said he urged Gallant to support plans for a 21-day ceasefire, though there is no sign of either side calling a halt to fighting.

Bosnia said on Wednesday it had raised its security alert level for weapons and ammunition storage facilities over concerns that the escalating conflict in the Middle East could affect the Balkan country’s stability.

“Sadly, we are seeing an escalation of war events in the Middle East and in Ukraine, with potential reflections on Bosnia and Herzegovina,” defence minister Zukan Helez wrote in a Facebook post.

“I have ordered increased security measures for command facilities, units, facilities and storage of weapons and ammunition …in order to protect the [personnel], facilities and material assets.”

In his post, Helez said measures were preventive and “the security situation in our country is stable and there is no information or indication that it will be disturbed”.

Hezbollah said on Wednesday it had destroyed three Israeli Merkava tanks with guided rockets in the Lebanese border town of Maroun el-Ras.

Israel will respond to Iran's missile attack, military chief says

Israel will respond to Iran’s missile attack and its forces can strike anywhere in the Middle East, its military chief said on Wednesday.

“We will respond. We can locate important targets and we can hit them precisely and powerfully,” said the Chief of the General Staff Herzi Halevi, in a video from an air force base in central Israel, one day after Iran’s missile attack on Israel.

“We have the capability to reach and strike every location in the Middle East and those of our enemies who have not yet understood this, will understand this soon.”

Israeli military announces seven more soldiers killed in combat in southern Lebanon

The Israel Defense Forces have announced that seven more of its soldiers have been killed in a series of clashes with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon on Wednesday.

The deaths mark the first significant casualties taken by the IDF since Israel launched its ground incursion into Lebanon earlier this week. Earlier, the IDF said another soldier had died during the campaign, bringing the total death toll to eight.

The soldiers who were named on Wednesday include four members of a commando unit, two members of a reconnaissance unit, and one member of the engineering corps.

The commandos were all killed during a gun battle with Hezbollah operatives in a southern Lebanon village, according to a report in the Times of Israel. Five other soldiers were seriously wounded in the incident.

Hezbollah earlier on Wednesday claimed that it had killed a “large number” of Israeli soldiers during some of the first direct clashes between the two sides since the Israeli operation began late on Monday evening. A spokesperson for the group accused the IDF of orchestrating a “cover-up” to prevent public opinion from turning against the war.

The ground incursion into southern Lebanon is Israel’s largest since it fought a 2006 war against Hezbollah. That war ended with an Israeli in large part due to mounting casualties among Israeli troops.

Updated

United Nations secretary-general António Guterres on Wednesday condemned Iran’s missile attack on Israel, telling the security council the “deadly cycle of tit-for-tat violence must stop.”

“Time is running out,” he told the council.

The 15-member council met after Israel killed the leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah and began a ground assault against the Iran-backed militant group and Iran attacked Israel in a strike that raised fears of a wider war in the Middle East.

“I again strongly condemn yesterday’s massive missile attack by Iran on Israel,” Guterres told the council.

Earlier on Wednesday, Israel’s foreign minister said he was barring Guterres from entering the country because he had not “unequivocally” condemned Iran’s missile attack on Israel, Reuters reported.

In a letter to the security council on Tuesday, Iran justified its attack on Israel as self-defence under article 51 of the founding UN charter, citing “aggressive actions” by Israel including violations of Iran’s sovereignty.

“Iran … in full compliance with the principle of distinction under international humanitarian law, has only targeted the regime’s military and security installations with its defensive missile strikes,” Iran wrote to the council.

Charter flight carrying Britons out of Lebanon departs

The UK’s foreign secretary David Lammy said the first charter flight taking British nationals out of Lebanon has now departed.

“We have arranged another flight for tomorrow, and further flights over the coming days for as long as there is demand and it is safe to do so,” he added.

He urged British nationals still in Lebanon to register with the Foreign Office and leave the country immediately.

Updated

In a statement the UK’s Ministry of Defence has confirmed that two Royal Air Force Typhoon fighter jets and a Voyager air-to-air refuelling tanker took part in defending Israel against Iranian missiles yesterday.

It said:

Last night, two Royal Air Force Typhoon fighter jets and a Voyager air-to-air refuelling tanker played their part in attempts to prevent further escalation in the Middle East, demonstrating the UK’s unwavering commitment to Israel’s security.

Due to the nature of this attack, they did not engage any targets, but they played an important part in wider deterrence and efforts to prevent further escalation.

The defence secretary has thanked our personnel involved in the response.

The UK’s recently appointed defence secretary, John Healey, has been at the UK’s RAF Akrotiri base on Cyprus today.

Here are some of the latest images from Beirut in Lebanon, which has been repeatedly targeted by Israeli airstrikes in the last few days.

Reuters has a quick snap that Slovakia is preparing to evacuate its nationals from Lebanon, and has received permission from the Lebanese government to use a military plane for the purpose.

The IDF has announced that the Home Front Command is relaxing some restrictions in northern Israel and the Golan Heights, permitting gatherings of up to 50 people outside. The previous restriction was 10 people only.

Updated

Hezbollah has claimed, according to reports in Israeli media, that it targeted an Israeli unit with an explosive device near the southern Lebanon border village of Yaroun. It claims there were casualties. Earlier Israel announced the death of one soldier killed in combat inside Lebanon.

More details soon …

An unspecified number of the Iranian missiles fired against Israel on Tuesday night impacted near Israeli airbases, damaging office buildings and other maintenance areas but not aircraft or personnel.

The admission changes the understanding of the Iranian attack, which it said had been aimed at Israeli military facilities including two sprawling major airbases at Nevatim and Tel Nof. Video filmed near the bases on Tuesday night during the attack had suggested some missiles had detonated during the latest Iranian assault.

While Israel and its allies immediately pointed to the Iran attack as a failure, the fact that a number of 181 missiles launched in two large waves managed to reach their targets underscores a long-running concern in Israeli security circles that a large-scale ballistic missile attack launched by Iran, Hezbollah or a combination of Iran and its allies would have the effect of overwhelming Israel’s sophisticated missile air defences, allowing some rockets to get through.

Despite the relatively little damage, the fact that Iran had said the attack was targeting the airbases and managed to strike them will be of concern to Israeli planners in the event of future strikes moving to areas with a high civilian concentration.

Israel’s war time civil planning has seen key health care centres and emergency services trained to anticipate exactly this scenario in the event of urban areas being hit during a mass wave of missiles, with one emergency planner telling the Guardian earlier this year his hospital had been told to anticipate mass casualty events occurring over few hours in such a situation.

“There was no damage that stopped the air force’s operation at any stage,” the military said, adding damage to infrastructure and property in civilian areas were “only minor” and likely caused by shrapnel from the interception of missiles.

According to Haaretz, the military declined to quantify what the interception rate to avoid “giving Iran and Hezbollah information that will help them learn lessons” saying only air defences had “operated impressively, with high rates of interception”.

The read out confirms what observers, including Guardian reporters, could see during the attack; the sheer number of missiles, and so closely grouped, in the two waves meant that not all were intercepted.

According to officials in the air force and the Intelligence corps, the missiles Iran fired on Tuesday were the most advanced type it has, although it did not include claimed hypersonic weapons.

Three men have been arrested on suspicion of involvement in two explosions near the Israeli embassy in Copenhagen in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Police said that two of the men were arrested on a train at Copenhagen central station. The other man was arrested in the Danish capital.

Writing on X, Copenhagen police said: “Following the night’s explosions near the Israeli embassy in Hellerup, we have arrested three people. Two men were arrested on a train at Copenhagen central station. In addition, earlier in the day we arrested a man elsewhere in Copenhagen.”

They added: “We currently have no further comments.”

Updated

Two blasts near the Israeli embassy in Copenhagen on Wednesday were likely caused by hand grenades, a Danish police spokesperson told a press conference.

Summary of the day so far …

It has just gone 3pm in Tel Aviv, Beirut and Gaza City. Here are the latest headlines …

  • Israeli media reports that Israel’s military has said Iran did succeed in striking Israeli airbases with missiles during yesterday’s attack, but the attack was “ineffective”. No aircraft were damaged and the IAF was able to continue to operate. Impacts were said to have damaged office buildings and other maintenance areas

  • Israel’s foreign minister Israel Katz has threatened Israeli retaliation for Iran’s “brutal” missile attack yesterday in a post to social media thanking world leaders for their support One person in the Israeli-occupied West Bank was killed by falling debris from an intercepted missile, and two people were lightly wounded by shrapnel in Tel Aviv

  • Iran’s president Masoud Pezeshkian said “If the Zionist regime does not stop its crimes, it will face harsher reactions”. Pezeshkian has left Tehran for a scheduled visit to Qatar

  • Israel has announced the death of a soldier in Lebanon. It said the 22-year-old, part of a commando brigade, “fell during combat in Lebanon”. Earlier Hezbollah claimed that it had inflicted casualties on Israeli troops it engaged in Maroun al-Ras, a Lebanese village in the south of the country which is opposite Avivim and Yir’on in Israel. Israel has announced that additional troops are to join its ground invasion, and issued another message that residents in over 20 Lebanese villages should flee their homes to avoid being attacked

  • The IDF claims to have destroyed “over 150 terror infrastructures” which it says includes “Hezbollah headquarters, weapons storage facilities, and rocket launchers” inside Lebanon. Israel’s military also reported a continued barrage of projectiles fired into the country from Lebanon. There have been no reports of any casualties today but Israeli media reports that 10 houses have been damaged by rockets or artillery fire in Metula, an Israeli community which is right up against the UN-drawn blue line that separates Israel and Lebanon

  • Israel’s military has said that its chief of staff, the head of Shin Bet and the head of the Mossad all met at the Kirya in Tel Aviv

  • Foreign minister Katz has also said on social media that he has declared UN secretary-general António Guterres a “persona non grata” and banned him from entering the country, although it is unclear whether this is official government policy

  • Germany’s foreign ministry has urged its citizens to leave Iran. China’s state-owned news agency Xinhua reports that over 200 Chinese nationals have been evacuated from Lebanon

  • Russia has said the situation in the Middle East is developing in “the most alarming direction” and Egypt’s cabinet has condemned what it called a “dangerous” Israeli escalation in southern Lebanon

  • Police in Denmark have said they are investigating two blasts in Copenhagen overnight that were near the Israeli embassy

  • Yemen’s Houthis in a statement have said they will not hesitate in broadening their operations against Israel

  • Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip killed at least 60 Palestinians overnight, including in a school sheltering displaced families, medics in the territory said. The Hamas-led Gaza health ministry said Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed at least 41,689 Palestinians and wounded 96,625 since 7 October. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict

Updated

Israel announces death of soldier killed 'during combat in Lebanon'

Israel has announced the death of a soldier in Lebanon during what it has described as its “limited” ground operation inside the neighbouring company.

It said the 22-year-old, part of a commando brigade, “fell during combat in Lebanon.”

Earlier Hezbollah claimed that it had inflicted casualties on Israeli troops it engaged in Maroun al-Ras, a Lebanese village in the south of the country which is opposite Avivim and Yir’on in Israel.

Israel’s military has said that its chief of staff, the head of Shin Bet and the head of the Mossad all met at the Kirya in Tel Aviv. It issued a picture of the meeting, where it was likely the trio were discussing Israeli plans to respond to Iran’s attack yesterday.

Israel says Iran did succeed in striking airbases during attack, but damage was limited

Israeli media reports that Israel’s military has said Iran did succeed in striking Israeli airbases with missiles during yesterday’s attack, but the attack was “ineffective”.

Writing for the Times of Israel, Emanuel Fabian reports:

The impacts damaged office buildings and other maintenance areas in the bases that do not impact the IAF’s functioning, according to the military. No Israeli Air Force aircraft were damaged in the attack and all of the missile impacts in Israeli airbases are deemed by the IDF as “ineffective,” meaning that no harm was caused to the continuous operations of the IAF.

In the report it is noted that the Israeli air force was able to continue activities after the Iranian attack, continuing to launch airstrikes on targets in Lebanon and Gaza.

One person in the Israeli-occupied West Bank was killed by falling debris from an intercepted missile, and two people were lightly wounded by shrapnel in Tel Aviv. Those are the only known casualties of the attack.

Earlier Iran’s defence minister, Brig Gen Aziz Nasirzadeh, had claimed that 90% of Iran’s missiles had been able to breach Israel’s defences, and that it had only targeted military installations.

Updated

Germany’s foreign ministry has urged its citizens to leave Iran, saying the situation there was volatile and could change at any time, Reuters reports.

Reuters is carrying some quotes from Iran’s president Masoud Pezeshkian, who said some words as he departed on a scheduled visit to Qatar.

He told state media in Iran “If the Zionist regime does not stop its crimes, it will face harsher reactions.”

Pezeshkian said one of the goals of the visit to Doha was “to discuss how Asian countries can prevent Israeli crimes in the region, and prevent enemies from causing uproar in the Middle East.”

Earlier my colleague Patrick Wintour put together this article about Iran’s stance since it launched the attack.

Yanir Cozin, who is a diplomatic correspondent at Israeli Army Radio, has suggested on social media that foreign secretary Israel Katz may have jumped the gun earlier in announcing that he had declared UN general secretary António Guterres “persona non grata” and banned him from entering the country.

Cozin reports that sources familiar with the matter at the Population and Immigration Authority have told him that no such decision has been conveyed to them, and that in any instance, it would be down to the interior security minister, not the foreign minster, to make the call.

Israel’s defense minister Yoav Gallant has published a picture of himself visiting Israel’s air defences, which played their part in intercepting Iranian missiles yesterday. Alongside the picture he posted a message saying:

The air defence fighters saved many lives. Thanks to them we can continue our just war, and come to terms with anyone who tries to harm us.

The IDF reports that in the last hour at least 40 projectiles have crossed into Israel from Lebanon. There are no reports of any casualties.

Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the news wires from Gaza, Israel, the occupied West Bank and Lebanon.

My colleague Oliver Holmes has put together an explainer on Iran’s attack on Israel …

Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, is reported to have departed Tehran for a scheduled visit to Qatar. Qatar has been acting as one of the brokers trying to engineer a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

Israel claims to have destroyed 'over 150 terror infrastructures' during ground operation inside Lebanon

Israel’s military has issued an operational update on its campaign inside Lebanon. In it, the IDF claims to have destroyed “over 150 terror infrastructures” which it says includes “Hezbollah headquarters, weapons storage facilities, and rocket launchers.”

The Israeli military has issued photographs which it says show its troops on the ground in unspecified locations during the Lebanese incursion, as well as rocket launchers and other weaponry it says it found in southern Lebanon.

In another image released to the media by Israel’s military, journalists were shown weapons that the IDF claimed were seized Hezbollah weapons, without specifying when and where they were confiscated.

The claims have not been independently verified.

Hezbollah reports clashes with Israeli forces in border village

Hezbollah has claimed that it has inflicted casualties on Israeli troops it engaged in Maroun al-Ras, a Lebanese village in the south of the country which is opposite Avivim and Yir’on in Israel.

Since Monday Israeli troops have been carrying out what the IDF has described as a “limited” operation inside Lebanon, the first time Israeli troops have invaded the neighbouring country since the 2006 war.

Updated

One strange story that has been floating around today was social media rumours that Israel’s ambassador to Cyprus had been kidnapped. He has not, but Oren Anolik has felt the need to publish a video denying the story, describing it as “a very creative way to make the whole world call me and text me and wish me a happy new Jewish year!”

Israel declares UN secretary-general António Guterres 'persona non grata' and bans him from entering country

Israel has declared the UN secretary-general António Guterres a “persona non grata” and banned him from entering the country, and said he would be remembered “as a stain on the history of the UN”.

Announcing the decision on social media, Israel’s foreign minister Israel Katz said:

Today, I have declared UN secretary-general António Guterres persona non grata in Israel and banned him from entering the country. Anyone who cannot unequivocally condemn Iran’s heinous attack on Israel, as almost every country in the world has done, does not deserve to step foot on Israeli soil.

This is a secretary-general who has yet to denounce the massacre and sexual atrocities committed by Hamas murderers on 7 October, nor has he led any efforts to declare them a terrorist organization.

A secretary-general who gives backing to terrorists, rapists, and murderers from Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and now Iran – the mothership of global terror – will be remembered as a stain on the history of the UN.

Israel will continue to defend its citizens and uphold its national dignity, with or without António Guterres.

In October 2023 Guterres said “I have condemned unequivocally the horrifying and unprecedented 7 October acts of terror by Hamas in Israel. Nothing can justify the deliberate killing, injuring and kidnapping of civilians – or the launching of rockets against civilian targets. All hostages must be treated humanely and released immediately and without conditions.”

However, he angered Israelis by, in the same speech, saying “It is important to also recognise the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum. The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation.”

Guterres continued on that occasion to say Palestinians “have seen their land steadily devoured by settlements and plagued by violence; their economy stifled; their people displaced and their homes demolished. But the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas. And those appalling attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”

Last month UN members overwhelmingly backed a non-binding motion calling for Israel to end its near six decade long occupation of the Palestinian West Bank territories.

The Times of Israel reports that overnight the IDF mounted an operation in Israeli-occupied Hebron in the West Bank “to measure the homes of the Palestinian terrorists who carried out the deadly shooting and stabbing attack in Jaffa, ahead of potential demolitions.”

Describing the same operation, Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that five people were detained, and that three Palestinian paramedics were injured by Israeli security forces who “severely beat” them.

The claims have not been independently verified.

Death toll from Israeli military offensive in Gaza Strip rises to 41,689 according to health ministry figures

The Hamas-led Gaza health ministry said Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed at least 41,689 Palestinians and wounded 96,625 since 7 October.

It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict.

In more diplomatic reaction to yesterday’s missile strikes by Iran, only the second time the country has directly attacked Israel, and Israel’s ongoing miltary campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon, Russia has said the situation in the Middle East is developing in “the most alarming direction” and called on all sides to exercise restraint.

Reuters also reports that Egypt’s cabinet has condemned what it called a “dangerous” Israeli escalation in southern Lebanon, and rejected any attempts to impose a “new situation” on the ground that violates Lebanese sovereignty.

Saudi Arabia’s economy minister meanwhile, speaking in Berlin, said his country is hoping for de-escalation and dialogue.

Hezbollah has claimed to have carried out several attacks on Israeli forces involved in the IDF operation in the north of Israel which has seen Israel deploy ground troops into Lebanon for the first time since 2006.

Reporting for Al Jazeera from Hasbaiyya in Lebanon, Imran Khan writes:

Israeli forces came into Lebanese territory [in the town of Odaisseh] but were repelled in ground fighting. It was an ambush that forced the Israelis back. Hezbollah also bombed the Shtula settlement, where Israeli forces are staging on the border, and hit a large infantry force in the Misgav Am settlement with missiles and artillery.

The claims have not been independently verified. Al Jazeera has been banned from operating inside Israel by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

The Sky News security and defence editor Deborah Haynes has posted another video from northern Israel, close to the UN-drawn blue line that separates the country from Lebanon, in which can clearly be heard an ongoing exchange of fire.

China’s state-owned news agency Xinhua reports that over 200 Chinese nationals have been evacuated from Lebanon. The Lebanese government has staed that a fifth of the country’s population – about one million people – have been displaced from their homes by Israeli airstrikes.

Reuters reports that in a statement Hezbollah has claimed to have targeted areas north of Israel’s city of Haifa with a large missile salvo. Warning sirens have been repeatedly sounding in northern Israel.

Israeli media reports that 10 houses have been damaged by rockets or artillery fire in Metula, an Israeli community which is right up against the UN-drawn blue line that separates Israel and Lebanon.

The information minister in Lebanon’s caretaker government, Johnny Corm, has promised that the country is working hard to “avoid communication paralysis” while it is under attack from Israel.

Posting a video of telecomms equipment in south Beirut that had been destroyed in an Israeli airstrike, he said:

This is one of the cellular transmission stations that was destroyed by the Israeli aggression on the southern suburb of Beirut. We strongly condemn this attack and are working hard to ensure that services are provided to citizens and to avoid communication paralysis.

This image sent to us over the news wires shows smoke rising again over Beirut after another Israeli airstrike on Lebanon’s capital earlier today.

At least 60 people killed by Israeli strikes on Gaza overnight – reports

Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip killed at least 60 Palestinians overnight, including in a school sheltering displaced families, medics in the territory said.

Reuters reports that local media said Israeli tanks carried out a raid on several areas in eastern and central Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, before partially retreating, leaving at least 40 people killed and dozens wounded.

At least 22 Palestinians were killed in Gaza City, including a strike on a school sheltering displaced families that killed 17.

Israel’s military has repeatedly claimed to be targeting Hamas rather than civilians in its operation inside Gaza. Palestinian sources put the number of dead in Gaza at well over 40,000. Around 350 Israeli troops have been killed.

It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict.

Updated

Israel’s foreign minister Israel Katz has threatened Israeli retaliation for Iran’s “brutal” missile attack yesterday in a post to social media thanking world leaders for their support.

Katz said:

The support and solidarity from leaders and nations around the world will never be forgotten. We know who our friends are. The Ayatollah regime has crossed the red line – and the state of Israel will not remain silent in the face of Iran’s brutal attack on our citizens. The entire free world must stand with Israel to stop the Iranian axis of evil – before it’s too late.

He was responding to US senator Tom Cotton saying “Pray for Israel and then back Israel to the hilt to destroy our common enemies.”

To date it is known that two Israelis were lightly wounded in the attack yesterday by Iran, and one person was killed in the Israeli-occupied West Bank by the attack.

Israeli media reports that about 100 rockets have been launched into Israel from the direction of Lebanon so far today. There are no reports of any casualties.

AFP reports that Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said Wednesday that Tehran has warned the US against intervening after Iran launched missiles into Israel yesterday.

“We have … warned the US forces to withdraw from this matter and not to intervene,” Araghchi told state television, adding that the message was relayed through the Swiss embassy in Tehran.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Wednesday called on Iran and Hezbollah to immediately end their attacks on Israel and warned that Iran risks inflaming the entire region.

Reuters reports Scholz said “Iran is risking setting the entire region on fire - this must be prevented at all costs. Hezbollah and Iran must immediately cease their attacks on Israel.”

He added that Germany would continue to work with its partners towards a ceasefire.

Israel has vowed to retaliate after Iran launched a barrage of ballistic missiles at targets across Israel. The Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed by an Israeli strike on Beirut on Friday.

Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon, which the IDF says are targeting Hezbollah, have killed about 1,000 people and wounded 6,000 more in the past couple of weeks, with one million people said to be displaced from their homes. Israel has ordered residents of more than 20 villages in the south of Lebanon to flee their homes in order to save their lives.

Authorities in Gaza report that over 40,000 people have been killed there by the Israeli military campaign against Hamas over the last year.

Yemen’s Houthis in a statement have said they will not hesitate in broadening their operations against Israel. Reuters reports they also threatened US and UK shipping interests on account of the nations’ “continuous” support of Israel. The Houthis claim to have targeted a military post deep inside Israel with rocket fire.

Security and defence editor at Sky News, Deborah Haynes, has reported “There seems to be a lot more firing – Israeli outgoing rounds, Hezbollah incoming rockets” in the north of Israel where she is positioned, and she just posted a video of her and her team having to run for cover.

Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that 40 civilians have been killed in Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip, where Israel continues its military campaign against Hamas.

It reports:

Medical teams recovered the bodies of 40 fatalities, most of them children and women, and dozens of causalities after a ground incursion and airstrikes launched by the occupation army on the southeastern areas of Khan Younis. The family of journalist Ahmed al-Zard said that a number of family members were killed, including his brother, uncle and cousins, while Ahmed was seriously injured along with his mother and brother.

The claims have not been independently verified. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict.

Police in Denmark have said they are investigating two blasts in Copenhagen overnight that were near the Israeli embassy. “It is too early to say if there is a link” the police said, adding “nobody was wounded.”

AFP notes the Israeli embassy is among several foreign missions, including Iran, Thailand, Turkey and Romania, that are clustered together in the north of the Danish capital.

Israel has announced that additional troops are to join its ground invasion into southern Lebanon.

In a message posted to its official Telegram channel, the IDF said:

The 36th Division, including soldiers of the Golani Brigade, 188th Armored Brigade, 6th Infantry Brigade, and additional forces are joining the limited, localised, targeted raids on Hezbollah terror targets and terrorist infrastructure in southern Lebanon that began on Monday.

It says, in addition, that “The soldiers are being accompanied by the IAF and the 282nd Artillery Brigade.”

Following our update on airline cancellations: Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways has said it is re-routing a number of its flights on Wednesday in response to airspace restrictions in parts of the Middle East.

Etitad said it is continuously monitoring security and airspace updates as the situation develops.

Meanwhile, all flights in Iran will remain cancelled until 5am Thursday local time, the country’s civil aviation organisation announced.

Israel issues another order telling Lebanese residents to flee villages to save their lives

Israel’s military has issued another message that residents in over 20 Lebanese villages should flee their homes to avoid being attacked.

Avichay Adraee’s message states that “The IDF does not intend to harm you” but claims that “Hezbollah’s activities force the IDF to act against it forcefully” and tells people in the villages listed to “save your lives” by moving, and insists they do not travel south.

It continues:

Anyone who is near Hezbollah elements, installations, and combat equipment is putting their life at risk. Any house used by Hezbollah for its military needs is expected to be targeted. Evacuate your homes immediately. Be careful, you must not go south. Any southward movement may put you in danger.

It ends by telling citizens of a neighbouring sovereign country “We [i.e. the IDF] will let you know when it is safe to return home.”

As we just reported, the scale of the damage on Israel after Iran’s ballistic missile attack remains unclear.

No injuries have been reported in Israel, but one person was killed in the occupied West Bank, authorities there said.

There are however multiple images of craters in central and southern Israel. PBS foreign affairs and defense correspondent, Nick Schifrin posted this report from close to the Mossad headquarters on the outskirts of Tel Aviv, showing a large crater.

How much damage did Iran's missile attack on Israel cause?

There continues to be very little information about how much damage Iran’s missile attack on Israel caused.

In its attack on Tuesday, Iran fired more than 180 ballistic missiles, Israel’s government said. Some of the missile fired by Iran were hypersonic Fattah missiles, with a maximum speed estimated at 10,000mph.

According to the Revolutionary Guards, 90% of its missiles successfully hit their targets. Israel however says most missiles were intercepted by its air defence and that statement appears to be backed up by comments from the UK and US who played a role in Israel’s defence.

Images from central Israel show officials inspecting an impact crater.

No injuries were reported in Israel, but one man was killed in the occupied West Bank, authorities there said. Images show missiles fallen in Ramallah, in the West Bank.

The IDF’s Daniel Hagari said there were “a small number” of hits. The Israeli military published video of a school in the central city of Gadera that was heavily damaged by an Iranian missile.

In the United States, vice-presidential candidates Tim Walz and JD Vance have faced off in the first VP debate of this election. The first question was about the current issues in the Middle East; both candidates were asked whether they would support or oppose a pre-emptive strike by Israel on Iran.

Walz said Israel’s ability to defend itself is “absolutely fundamental” and said “steady leadership” is fundamental. Walz noted that Trump’s former chief of staff, John Kelly, said the president was “the most flawed human being he’d ever met” and that Trump’s secretaries of defence and his national security advisers “said he should be nowhere near the White House”.

For his part, Vance said Donald Trump “consistently made the world more secure” and that Trump, as president, recognised that “you needed peace through strength”.

Vance said that it is up to Israel to do what they need to do to keep their country safe, adding “we should support our allies wherever they are when they’re fighting the bad guys.”

You can follow the ongoing reaction to the debate here.

Reports of fresh clashes in southern Lebanon

Air raid alerts have been issued for several locations in northern Israel, with sirens sounding in a number of towns in the Upper Galilee.

The IDF has issued new warnings for residents in southern Lebanon, saying heavy fighting was taking place against Hezbollah.

Images coming into the newsroom show Israeli mobile artillery units firing from northern Israel towards Lebanon.

Earlier, Hezbollah said it had confronted Israeli forces infiltrating the Lebanese town of Adaisseh and forced them to retreat. Adaisseh sits on the Lebanese side of the border with Israel, just 200 metres from the Israeli town of Misgav Am, where air alert sirens were active in the last few hours.

Blast near Israeli embassy in Copenhagen investigated by Danish police

Danish police said on Wednesday morning that they were investigating two blasts in the vicinity of Israel’s embassy in Copenhagen.

“No one has been injured, and we are carrying out initial investigations at the scene,” Copenhagen police said in a statement. They said a “possible connection” to the Israeli embassy, which is located in the area, was being investigated.

Israel will launch a “significant retaliation” to Iran’s missile attack within days, according to Axios reporter Barak Ravid, who was quoting security officials.

According to Ravid’s report, Israel could target oil production facilities inside Iran and other strategic sites. He quotes security officials as saying the response will be much more significant than the limited strike against Iran that followed the Iranian missile attack on Israel in April.

IDF issues new warning to residents of southern Lebanon

The IDF has issued a new warning, reporting heavy fighting taking place in southern Lebanon against Hezbollah.

For your personal safety, we ask you not to travel by vehicle from the area north of the Litani River to the south of it. The IDF will disrupt the movements of Hezbollah elements and prevent them from carrying out their attacks. This warning is in effect until further notice.

In the last hour, Hezbollah said it had confronted Israeli forces infiltrating the Lebanese town of Adaisseh early on Wednesday early, and forced them to retreat. Adaisseh sits on the Lebanese side of the border with Israel, just 200 metres from the Israeli town of Misgav Am, where air alert sirens were active in the last hour.

Many airlines have suspended flights to the region or are avoiding use of affected air space. Lebanon’s airspace will be closed to air traffic for a two-hour period on Tuesday, transport minister Ali Hamie said on X.

Israel’s neighbours closed their airspace and airline crews sought diversions after Iran fired a salvo of ballistic missiles on Tuesday.

A spokesperson for tracking service FlightRadar24 said flights diverted “anywhere they could”, and a snapshot of regional traffic showed flights spreading in wide arcs to the north and south, with many converging on Cairo and Istanbul.

FlightRadar24 data showed about 80 flights - operated by the likes of Emirates, British Airways, Lufthansa and Qatar Airways – bound for major Middle East hubs such as Dubai, Doha and Abu Dhabi, were diverted to places such as Cairo and European cities.

Iran’s chief of staff has vowed to hit infrastructure across Israel if its territory is attacked, after Tehran fired almost 200 missiles on Tuesday.

The barrage “will be repeated with bigger intensity and all infrastructure of the regime will be targeted”, Maj Gen Mohammad Bagheri said on state TV.

Elsewhere a report on Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency said Iran told the United States not to get involved following its missile attack on Israel, the country’s foreign minister reportedly said.

Updated

Hezbollah has said it confronted Israeli forces infiltrating the Lebanese town of Adaisseh early on Wednesday early, and forced them to retreat. The Guardian was unable to immediately verify these claims.

Adaisseh sits on the Lebanese side of the border with Israel, just 200 metres from the Israeli town of Misgav Am, where air alert sirens were active in the last hour.

Palestinian media report 9 killed in Israeli strike on Gaza school

At least nine Palestinians were killed and 20 injured in an Israeli air strike on a school and institute housing displaced people in Gaza, according to a report from Palestinian news agency WFA.

In a statement earlier, the IDF said the Israeli air force launched strikes on Hamas targets who were “operating in a command and control complex established in the area that was previously used as the Brig High School in the center of the Gaza Strip”.

The IDF claimed that “steps were taken to reduce the chance of harming civilians”.

It is unclear whether the IDF statement refers to the same strike on Gaza that WFA reported as killing 9 people.

US defence secretary tells Israeli counterpart Iran attack an 'outrageous act of aggression'

The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, has said he spoke with the Israeli minister of defence, Yoav Gallant, telling him that the attack from Iran was an “outrageous act of aggression”.

The Minister and I expressed mutual appreciation for the coordinated defense of Israel against nearly 200 ballistic missiles launched by Iran and committed to remain in close contact.

Israel launches at least five strikes on Beirut overnight

At least five Israeli strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs in the early hours of Wednesday, a Lebanese security source told the AFP news agency.

The Israeli military issued multiple evacuation orders for buildings in the city, saying it is targeting Hezbollah sites.

Reuters and AFP correspondents reported multiple explosions and smoke rising in at least one area while a fire appeared to burn.

Israel has repeatedly bombarded Beirut’s southern suburbs since last week.

Welcome and summary

Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s continuing coverage of the crisis in the Middle East.

Israel launched strikes across Beirut’s southern suburbs in the early hours of Wednesday, with the Israeli military issuing multiple evacuation orders for buildings in Beirut, saying it was targeting Hezbollah sites.

The strikes came hours after Iran launched a barrage of ballistic missiles at targets across Israel, in a dramatic intensification of a conflict that some fear could escalate into a regional war.

Meanwhile Benjamin Netanyahu told a meeting of his security cabinet that “Iran made a big mistake tonight – and it will pay for it.”

The regime in Iran does not understand our determination to defend ourselves and our determination to retaliate against our enemies.”

More on that in a moment, first here’s a summary of the day’s other main events.

  • The Israeli military spokesperson, Daniel Hagari, spoke on television reacting to what the country called a “serious attack” on Israel by Iran today. Hagari, the spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), pledged that the attack “will have consequences”. He added that the country remained on high alert.

  • There continues to be very little information about how much damage Iran’s missile attack on Israel caused. In its attack on Tuesday, Iran fired more than 180 ballistic missiles, Israel’s government said. No injuries were reported in Israel, but one man was killed in the occupied West Bank, authorities there said. Images show missiles fallen in Ramallah, in the West Bank.

  • Late on Tuesday, Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said Iran’s action was “concluded unless Israeli regime decides to invite further retaliation”. In a statement on X, he said: “Israel’s enablers now have a heightened responsibility to rein in the warmongers in Tel Aviv instead of getting involved in their folly.”

  • Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, gave the order to launch the missiles at Israel, a senior Iranian official told Reuters, adding that Tehran “is fully ready for any retaliation”. Meanwhile, the Iranian mission to the United Nations has defended the country’s missile launches against Israel today, calling it a response to “terrorist acts” by Israel.

  • US destroyers in the eastern Mediterranean Sea took down multiple missiles launched by Iran, US defence officials said. The UK defence secretary, John Healey, said that British forces “played their part in attempts to prevent further escalation in the Middle East”.

  • Six people were killed and 10 wounded in a shooting and knife attack on the Israeli seaside city of Jaffa that occurred minutes before Iran launched its attack. Five of the wounded were described as being in a serious condition, including an IDF soldier. CCTV footage showed two men, reportedly armed with an assault rifle and a knife, dressed in black emerging from a train near the light-rail stop along Jerusalem Boulevard where they opened fire on passersby as well as on a second nearby street.

  • Emmanuel Macron has condemned Iran’s attack on Israel and said France mobilised its “military resources in the Middle East to counter the Iranian threat.” France’s president also called on Israel to end its military operations in Lebanon “as soon as possible.”

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Middle children are more cooperative than their siblings, study suggests
After decades of debate, one of the largest ever studies on birth order suggests it does actually make a difference
The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Work or play? The rise of online ‘kidfluencers’ is raising complex legal and ethical questions
Videos of children opening boxes of toys and playing with them have become a feature of online marketing – making stars out of children as young as two.
The Conversation
The Conversation
She's here for 'a kitchen pep talk' during the holiday whirlwind
If you’re feeling too overwhelmed to cook during the holidays, maybe a new book by Margaret Eby can help
The Independent UK
The Independent UK
All the celebrities that have supported Blake Lively after Justin Baldoni lawsuit
Lively has received a huge amount of support after filing the lawsuit against Baldoni
The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Where’s Santa? Here’s how to track his journey this Christmas Eve
NORAD’s Santa Tracker website launched this year on December 1
The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Gen Z’s politics are hard to categorize – and a harbinger of a new political order
The great clashes to come will be less between left and right than between those inside and outside a dying establishment
The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.
Download on the AppStore Get it on Google Play