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[VIDEOS] Hezbollah, resistance force from Lebanon: A decades-long conflict with Israel
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China reacts to killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Israeli airstrike
China has voiced serious concern following reports of an Israeli airstrike on Beirut that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on September 27.In a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry, China expressed deep concern over the escalating tensions in the region and called for restraint from all parties involved, particularly Israel.
The Chinese government condemned the violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty and security, as well as any actions targeting innocent civilians. "China opposes any move that fuels antagonism and escalates regional tensions," the Foreign Ministry spokesperson said, urging all parties to take immediate steps to de-escalate the conflict and prevent it from spiraling out of control.
Beijing emphasized that the ongoing tensions between Lebanon and Israel are a spillover effect from the Gaza conflict.
China called for the swift implementation of relevant UN Security Council resolutions to end the violence in Gaza and restore peace and stability in the Middle East.
Source: SAMAA
Zaz
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For the Israeli terrorists to do what they are doing to hezobollah someone internally clearly has sold the leadership out.
Nevertheless the gloves are off now. Israel clearly has no regard for innocent human life and will go to any genocidal extent and kill many as collateral so why should Hezbollah back down esp when they are being hunted down.
They have the firepower to overwhelm israeli defences and cities with their arsenal of rockets.
I expect a barrage and chaos to ensue on the israeli cities now
Nevertheless the gloves are off now. Israel clearly has no regard for innocent human life and will go to any genocidal extent and kill many as collateral so why should Hezbollah back down esp when they are being hunted down.
They have the firepower to overwhelm israeli defences and cities with their arsenal of rockets.
I expect a barrage and chaos to ensue on the israeli cities now
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Zaz
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You seem to forget or arent aware this isn't a Muslim vs Jewish cause
It's a national liberation movement vs a Israeli occupier. Palestinians and Lebanese include many Christians freedom fighters too over the years
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New Israeli strikes target Beirut’s southern suburbs
The Israeli military has carried out new attacks on Lebanon, including Dahiyeh, the southern suburb of the capital, Beirut.
It also claimed to target Hezbollah’s weapons storage facilities and infrastructure sites in the country.
A Lebanese security official confirmed the Beirut strike to AFP, with a loud explosion heard and smoke seen billowing from the area.
We’ll bring you more details as they emerge.
Al Jazeera
The Israeli military has carried out new attacks on Lebanon, including Dahiyeh, the southern suburb of the capital, Beirut.
It also claimed to target Hezbollah’s weapons storage facilities and infrastructure sites in the country.
A Lebanese security official confirmed the Beirut strike to AFP, with a loud explosion heard and smoke seen billowing from the area.
We’ll bring you more details as they emerge.
Al Jazeera
HalBass9
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What about Palestinian hostages that were taken when they were not even teenager.
Doesn’t that give Palestinian give a right to level Israel if we were to go by your logic?
Hitman
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Fine. Enjoy watching the destruction continue.
HalBass9
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Only Hindutva would enjoy the genocide of Muslims.
Most of the global south are against the genocide and they understand the concept of resistance against colonialism and occupation.
Hitman
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It was a tongue in cheek comment. What I intended to mean is the hostages should be released, and the war needs to stop.
HalBass9
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From the very beginning, Muslims have consistently called for the release of hostages, including the many Palestinian children taken over the years. The occupation must come to an end, and the only viable solution is the two-state solution, which Polish Ashkenazi occupiers seem to ignore, convinced that their 'chosen people' status gives them a free pass for greater territorial expansion.
When a group starts labeling themselves as the 'chosen people' while committing genocide, that's a clear signal for the rest of the world to step up. But, of course, the rampant Muslim-hating narrative in India has dulled any moral compass.
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Apartment building in Beirut hit as Israel widens air campaign
An apartment building in Beirut was hit by an Israeli airstrike on Monday, according to Reuters witnesses, in the first attack within city limits as Israel escalated hostilities against Iran's allies in the region.
The strike hit the upper floor of an apartment building in the Kola district of Lebanon's capital, Reuters witnesses said.
A security source told Reuters that at least two people were killed.
An apartment building in Beirut was hit by an Israeli airstrike on Monday, according to Reuters witnesses, in the first attack within city limits as Israel escalated hostilities against Iran's allies in the region.
The strike hit the upper floor of an apartment building in the Kola district of Lebanon's capital, Reuters witnesses said.
A security source told Reuters that at least two people were killed.
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French foreign minister calls for ‘immediate halt’ to Israeli attacks on Lebanon
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot is in Lebanon.
He’s the first senior foreign diplomat to visit the country since Israel stepped up its attacks a week ago.
He met Prime Minister Najib Mikati after arriving on Sunday night and said Paris sought “an immediate halt” to Israeli strikes.
Barrot is due to meet the UN special coordinator for Lebanon and members of the UN peacekeeping force in the south. He arrived shortly after France confirmed a second French citizen had been killed in Lebanon.
Al Jazeera
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot is in Lebanon.
He’s the first senior foreign diplomat to visit the country since Israel stepped up its attacks a week ago.
He met Prime Minister Najib Mikati after arriving on Sunday night and said Paris sought “an immediate halt” to Israeli strikes.
Barrot is due to meet the UN special coordinator for Lebanon and members of the UN peacekeeping force in the south. He arrived shortly after France confirmed a second French citizen had been killed in Lebanon.
Al Jazeera
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Israeli drone kills 3 people in southern Lebanon
The Israeli drone fired on the group at the junction of the towns of Arzoun and Chehour in the Tyre district of southern Lebanon. Three people are confirmed dead and one is wounded.
We will bring you more information on this incident when we have it.
Al Jazeera
The Israeli drone fired on the group at the junction of the towns of Arzoun and Chehour in the Tyre district of southern Lebanon. Three people are confirmed dead and one is wounded.
We will bring you more information on this incident when we have it.
Al Jazeera
Kroll
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Ground invasion of Lebanon has begun. C'mon the Hezbollah! Alas they're no match for the Israeli onslaught but hope they put up a good fight.
I see no sense in innocent people losing their lives. Hezbollah and Israel have to leave their egos at the table and start conversations and negotiations.
Kroll
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Israel has no penchant for negotiations, it wants blood and to massacre innocent people knowing it has the full backing of the US to continue its bloodbath unabated.
Hitman
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Hmm, I agree. Israel knows it doesn't have to face any consequences for their actions.
You come to negotiations before you blow up the deal. Hezbollah could have come to the table earlier and the US could have put pressure on Israel to deal as well. But now, with elections in a month in the US , the US will merely be just a watcher till elections are done. Mediation could have happened much earlier. And there was no reason for Hezbollah to poke its nose in the Gaza war. Now they are reaping the adverse consequences with no end in sight and more tragic loss of lives
sweep_shot
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Indeed.
Israel doesn't seem to want any ceasefire or a 2-state solution. They seem like they want to expand their border. Greater Israel Project.
Kroll
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Nothing to do with what Hezbollah does or doesn't do, all the strings are pulled by Iran hence them not getting involved directly as this would pull in the US.
Kroll
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Well they are essentially a European colonial outpost. The guy that dreamed up the idea of the Zionist state in Palestine was as European as they come. Theodor Herzl was a Hungarian Jew with no ties to the Middle East.
Now like all colonial/imperial powers, they do want to expand and grab as much land as possible while culling as much of the local population as possible.
it's a shame as these people as well as the Iranians are all nice people, their only crime is they wanted to stop the colonists from killing and booting them off their own land.
But not a lot they can do unfortunately since this zionist terrorist entity is flooded with unlimited weapons and finance from the US and is basically stopping Iran from getting involved directly.
JaDed
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They have started the ground invasion as expected.. they will be stuck here but the damage is done, Lebanon and Iran’s bluff called out.
It was foolish of anyone to think Israel wouldn’t attack.
It was foolish of anyone to think Israel wouldn’t attack.
Kroll
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Also killed a female TV anchor in Damascus as well as two others. Why go killing innocent people in Damascus? The thirst for blood by these murdering terrorists is off the scales.
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Israel launches 'ground raids' against Hezbollah
Israel has launched what it has described as "limited, localised and targeted ground raids" in southern Lebanon, marking an escalation in its continuing offensive against Hezbollah.
Lebanese civilians are being warned not to use vehicles to travel south across the Litani river, which is 20 miles north of the Israel-Lebanon border.
According to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the operation is aimed at the Iran-backed group's "infrastructure", which it says poses "an immediate threat to Israeli communities in northern Israel".
Hezbollah's deputy leader said the group was prepared for any Israeli operation inside Lebanon.
The group said it targeted Israeli troops with a “rocket barrage” on the Israeli town of Metula and the Avivim area, close to the Lebanon border.
Israel's Defence Minister Yoav Gallant earlier implied the army was ready for a ground operation, telling troops near the Lebanese border Israel was prepared to use forces "from the air, sea and land" to target Hezbollah.
In a statement posted on X at 02:00 local time on Tuesday morning, the IDF confirmed troops had moved across the border following a build-up of tanks and other armour in northern Israel.
The Lebanese army is pulling back troops stationed on its southern border to at least 5km (3 miles) north, according to Reuters news agency, which cited a Lebanese security source.
On Monday, Gallant told Israeli troops at the border that Israel's military would use all "the means at our disposal" to allow displaced people to return home in the north of the country.
In a short video, he said the "elimination" of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut on Friday "is a very important step, but it is not everything".
He added that "everything that needs to be done - will be done" and that "we will use all the forces from the air, sea and land".
The Israeli government has pledged to make it safe for tens of thousands of its citizens to return to their homes after nearly a year of cross-border fighting, which began with Hezbollah firing rockets at the start of the war in Gaza.
The Lebanese armed group - which is proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the US, UK and other countries - is known to have extensive tunnel networks as well as bunkers and other military infrastructure just over the border from Israel.
Hezbollah's deputy chief Sheikh Naim Qassem said the group - which is thought to have tens of thousands of well-trained fighters - was ready for an Israeli ground offensive. He described their attacks on Israel so far as the "minimum", adding that the battle could be long.
Hezbollah - which is backed by Iran - has experienced mass casualties from exploding pagers and walkie-talkies, a wave of assassinations of its military commanders and devastating air strikes which have killed civilians, as well as the use of bunker-busting bombs in Beirut, which killed the group's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, on Friday.
Explosions lit up the night sky on Monday as airstrikes hit Hezbollah’s stronghold of Dahieh, in Beirut's southern suburbs, near the airport.
The attacks came shortly after the Israeli military warned residents to evacuate buildings it said were linked to the group.
In southern Lebanon, there were reports of heavy shelling in the border town of Aita al-Shaab.
And near the city of Sidon, officials say a strike hit a building in a crowded Palestinian refugee camp, the first time it has been attacked in this conflict.
Lebanese officials say more than 1,000 people have been killed in the past two weeks, while up to a million may now be displaced.
On Monday, US President Joe Biden said "we should have a ceasefire now".
"I'm more aware than you might know and I'm comfortable with them stopping," Biden told reporters when asked if he was comfortable with Israeli plans for a cross-border incursion.
UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy spoke to his US counterpart Antony Blinken on Monday, with the US State Department saying they discussed efforts to resolve the conflict. Both men stressed the need for a ceasefire and that the hostages taken by Hezbollah's Palestinian ally Hamas in the 7 October attack on Israel need to be returned home.
The European Union's member states have called for an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said "any further military intervention would dramatically aggravate the situation and it has to be avoided".
Meanwhile, Israel and Hamas have both confirmed the killing of the head of Hamas in Lebanon, Fateh Sherif Abu el-Amin, in Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon.
Israel's military said Sherif was "responsible for co-ordinating Hamas's terror activities in Lebanon with Hezbollah operatives".
Another Israeli strike in the central Beirut neighbourhood of Kola early on Monday killed three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the Palestinian armed group said in a statement.
The statement named those killed as military security chief Mohammad Abdel-Aal, military commander Imad Odeh and fighter Abdel Rahman Abdel-Aal.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) director of communications for Lebanon, Jinane Saad, told the BBC that “we don’t really know where is safe or not” after the strike on the Kola neighbourhood.
“What is safe today might not be safe in an hour or tomorrow,” she said.
The previously sporadic cross-border fighting between Israel and Hezbollah escalated on 8 October 2023 - the day after the unprecedented attack on Israel by Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip - when Hezbollah fired at Israeli positions, in solidarity with the Palestinians.
BBC
Israel has launched what it has described as "limited, localised and targeted ground raids" in southern Lebanon, marking an escalation in its continuing offensive against Hezbollah.
Lebanese civilians are being warned not to use vehicles to travel south across the Litani river, which is 20 miles north of the Israel-Lebanon border.
According to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the operation is aimed at the Iran-backed group's "infrastructure", which it says poses "an immediate threat to Israeli communities in northern Israel".
Hezbollah's deputy leader said the group was prepared for any Israeli operation inside Lebanon.
The group said it targeted Israeli troops with a “rocket barrage” on the Israeli town of Metula and the Avivim area, close to the Lebanon border.
Israel's Defence Minister Yoav Gallant earlier implied the army was ready for a ground operation, telling troops near the Lebanese border Israel was prepared to use forces "from the air, sea and land" to target Hezbollah.
In a statement posted on X at 02:00 local time on Tuesday morning, the IDF confirmed troops had moved across the border following a build-up of tanks and other armour in northern Israel.
The Lebanese army is pulling back troops stationed on its southern border to at least 5km (3 miles) north, according to Reuters news agency, which cited a Lebanese security source.
On Monday, Gallant told Israeli troops at the border that Israel's military would use all "the means at our disposal" to allow displaced people to return home in the north of the country.
In a short video, he said the "elimination" of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut on Friday "is a very important step, but it is not everything".
He added that "everything that needs to be done - will be done" and that "we will use all the forces from the air, sea and land".
The Israeli government has pledged to make it safe for tens of thousands of its citizens to return to their homes after nearly a year of cross-border fighting, which began with Hezbollah firing rockets at the start of the war in Gaza.
The Lebanese armed group - which is proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the US, UK and other countries - is known to have extensive tunnel networks as well as bunkers and other military infrastructure just over the border from Israel.
Hezbollah's deputy chief Sheikh Naim Qassem said the group - which is thought to have tens of thousands of well-trained fighters - was ready for an Israeli ground offensive. He described their attacks on Israel so far as the "minimum", adding that the battle could be long.
Hezbollah - which is backed by Iran - has experienced mass casualties from exploding pagers and walkie-talkies, a wave of assassinations of its military commanders and devastating air strikes which have killed civilians, as well as the use of bunker-busting bombs in Beirut, which killed the group's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, on Friday.
Explosions lit up the night sky on Monday as airstrikes hit Hezbollah’s stronghold of Dahieh, in Beirut's southern suburbs, near the airport.
The attacks came shortly after the Israeli military warned residents to evacuate buildings it said were linked to the group.
In southern Lebanon, there were reports of heavy shelling in the border town of Aita al-Shaab.
And near the city of Sidon, officials say a strike hit a building in a crowded Palestinian refugee camp, the first time it has been attacked in this conflict.
Lebanese officials say more than 1,000 people have been killed in the past two weeks, while up to a million may now be displaced.
On Monday, US President Joe Biden said "we should have a ceasefire now".
"I'm more aware than you might know and I'm comfortable with them stopping," Biden told reporters when asked if he was comfortable with Israeli plans for a cross-border incursion.
UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy spoke to his US counterpart Antony Blinken on Monday, with the US State Department saying they discussed efforts to resolve the conflict. Both men stressed the need for a ceasefire and that the hostages taken by Hezbollah's Palestinian ally Hamas in the 7 October attack on Israel need to be returned home.
The European Union's member states have called for an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said "any further military intervention would dramatically aggravate the situation and it has to be avoided".
Meanwhile, Israel and Hamas have both confirmed the killing of the head of Hamas in Lebanon, Fateh Sherif Abu el-Amin, in Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon.
Israel's military said Sherif was "responsible for co-ordinating Hamas's terror activities in Lebanon with Hezbollah operatives".
Another Israeli strike in the central Beirut neighbourhood of Kola early on Monday killed three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the Palestinian armed group said in a statement.
The statement named those killed as military security chief Mohammad Abdel-Aal, military commander Imad Odeh and fighter Abdel Rahman Abdel-Aal.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) director of communications for Lebanon, Jinane Saad, told the BBC that “we don’t really know where is safe or not” after the strike on the Kola neighbourhood.
“What is safe today might not be safe in an hour or tomorrow,” she said.
The previously sporadic cross-border fighting between Israel and Hezbollah escalated on 8 October 2023 - the day after the unprecedented attack on Israel by Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip - when Hezbollah fired at Israeli positions, in solidarity with the Palestinians.
BBC
Cpt. Rishwat
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The only way to come to the conclusion that israel has successfully called out Iran/Lebanon's bluff is to go into Lebanon and finish the job. I assumed that must be their endgame anyway assuming they have one. Otherwise we have been here before with the same promises of sorting it out once and for all.
JaDed
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They retracted an article where they implied Lebanon as part of promised Israel.. India and Pakistan will keep talking about AKhand Bharat or Ghwaz-Hind, Israel on other hand is dangerously attached to their delusions that they even carry out irrespective of consequences.
What is sorting out, Israel has done the damage to innocents in front of UN, US has vetoed and the Five Eyes has completely backed their atrocity.
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Israel war on Gaza, Lebanon : Hezbollah denies Israel ground raid claim
- Israel says its ground troops have entered southern Lebanon but Hezbollah denies they have crossed into the territory.
- Prime Minister Najib Mikati says Lebanon faces “one of the most dangerous phases of its history”.
Cpt. Rishwat
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That has been the ongoing situation anyway, only difference is scale of engagement. I guess if Iran withdraws from Lebanon then israel can claim a victory, otherwise it will be rinse and repeat.
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Hezbollah claims strikes against Israel
Hezbollah says it carried out a series of attacks against Israel this morning, including a rocket attack on an Israeli military barracks.
In three attacks that occurred between 07:15 to 07:20 local time, missiles struck Israeli troops gathered in the settlements of Shtula and Maskaf Am and "a gathering of the Israeli enemy forces in the Shomera barracks", according to statements released Hezbollah in the last few minutes.
The group says that the strikes achieved several "direct" and "accurate" hits.
This comes shortly after Hezbollah said it repelled forces at the Lebanese town of Adaisseh.
Israel has not yet commented on Hezbollah's claims.
BBC
Hezbollah says it carried out a series of attacks against Israel this morning, including a rocket attack on an Israeli military barracks.
In three attacks that occurred between 07:15 to 07:20 local time, missiles struck Israeli troops gathered in the settlements of Shtula and Maskaf Am and "a gathering of the Israeli enemy forces in the Shomera barracks", according to statements released Hezbollah in the last few minutes.
The group says that the strikes achieved several "direct" and "accurate" hits.
This comes shortly after Hezbollah said it repelled forces at the Lebanese town of Adaisseh.
Israel has not yet commented on Hezbollah's claims.
BBC
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Three killed in Israeli air strike on border village – Lebanese state media
Lebanon's state-run National News Agency (NNA) reports that three people were killed in an early morning Israeli air strike on the village of Debel, close to the Israeli border.
It also says one person was killed in an Israeli air strike that targeted a town further north, in West Bekaa.
BBC
Lebanon's state-run National News Agency (NNA) reports that three people were killed in an early morning Israeli air strike on the village of Debel, close to the Israeli border.
It also says one person was killed in an Israeli air strike that targeted a town further north, in West Bekaa.
BBC
aboveandbeyond
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ZIONEST cowards won't dare carry Out ground invasions. They will get massacred like the cowards they are. Hezbollah are born and bred fighters like the Afgan Mujahideen and are experts in Guirrella warfare
The zionests achievements are dropping bombs on innocent children and women. COWARDS.
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Hezbollah says it can push back Israel, has sufficient resources
The head of Hezbollah’s media office, Mohammad Afif, says the group has enough fighters, weapons and ammunition to push back Israel.
He was speaking to reporters in an area hit by Israeli raids in southern Lebanon. We will bring you more shortly.
We now have more lines from Hezbollah’s Mohammad Afif.
“We assure you, the enemy, that this is only the first round,” Afif told reporters in southern Lebanon, adding that the group was ready to “sacrifice our blood and soul for our homeland by the grace of God”.
“What happened in … Maroun al-Ras and other areas, including Odaisseh, was nothing but the tip of the iceberg,” he added.
Moreover, Afif said Israel’s air superiority will “turn into losses on the ground”.
Al Jazeera
The head of Hezbollah’s media office, Mohammad Afif, says the group has enough fighters, weapons and ammunition to push back Israel.
He was speaking to reporters in an area hit by Israeli raids in southern Lebanon. We will bring you more shortly.
We now have more lines from Hezbollah’s Mohammad Afif.
“We assure you, the enemy, that this is only the first round,” Afif told reporters in southern Lebanon, adding that the group was ready to “sacrifice our blood and soul for our homeland by the grace of God”.
“What happened in … Maroun al-Ras and other areas, including Odaisseh, was nothing but the tip of the iceberg,” he added.
Moreover, Afif said Israel’s air superiority will “turn into losses on the ground”.
Al Jazeera
Kroll
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Some close quarters fighting going on with the HB at the border, the heat is on.
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Israeli military announces first soldier killed inside Lebanon
The death of the first Israeli soldier killed inside Lebanon since the ground invasion has been confirmed.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) announced in a statement that Captain Eitan Yitzhak Oster, 22, was killed inside Lebanon on Wednesday.
The 22-year-old was a team commander in the Egoz unit, an elite commando unit specialising in guerrilla warfare, the IDF says.
BBC
The death of the first Israeli soldier killed inside Lebanon since the ground invasion has been confirmed.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) announced in a statement that Captain Eitan Yitzhak Oster, 22, was killed inside Lebanon on Wednesday.
The 22-year-old was a team commander in the Egoz unit, an elite commando unit specialising in guerrilla warfare, the IDF says.
BBC
Kroll
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More casualties inflicted upon the Israelis
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IDF says seven soldiers wounded, in addition to eight killed
We bring you more detail now on the deaths of seven more Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon.
The IDF says three were from the Egoz unit, the same unit to which Eitan Yitzhak Oster - the first soldier confirmed killed today - belonged.
It also says seven soldiers have been injured.
In total, eight Israeli soldiers have been reported killed in combat - the first inside Lebanon since the invasion began.
BBC
We bring you more detail now on the deaths of seven more Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon.
The IDF says three were from the Egoz unit, the same unit to which Eitan Yitzhak Oster - the first soldier confirmed killed today - belonged.
It also says seven soldiers have been injured.
In total, eight Israeli soldiers have been reported killed in combat - the first inside Lebanon since the invasion began.
BBC
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At least five people have been killed and eight wounded in Israeli air strikes targeting central Beirut overnight.
A further 46 people were killed and 85 injured in Israeli attacks across Lebanon in the previous 24 hours, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said.
Al Jazeera
A further 46 people were killed and 85 injured in Israeli attacks across Lebanon in the previous 24 hours, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said.
Al Jazeera
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China urges UN Security Council to de-escalate Middle East crisis
China called on the United Nations Security Council to take "urgent actions" to de-escalate the situation in the Middle East as Israel launched fresh air strikes in Lebanon.
China's permanent representative to the U.N., Fu Cong, said during a Security Council briefing on Wednesday, that it needed to make clear and unequivocal demands to stop the cycle of violence over the Israeli-Lebanon conflict.
"The Security Council bears the primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security," the official Xinhua news agency reported Fu as saying, noting that all parties concerned "must return to the track of political and diplomatic solutions".
Israel's latest missile strikes in central Beirut come after Iran fired more than 180 missiles into Israel on Tuesday. Israel has also sent infantry and armoured units into Lebanon with reports of fighting with the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah.
Iran said on Wednesday its missile volley - its biggest ever assault on Israel - was over barring further provocation, but Israel and the United States promised to hit back hard.
Iran's missile attack and Israel's pledge of retaliation have raised concerns that the oil-producing Middle East could be caught up in a wider conflict.
Warning that the current situation is "hanging by a thread," Xinhua cited Fu as saying that any "passive procrastination would be irresponsible, and any rhetoric of condoning further military adventurism would send a wrong message".
Fu said the spreading Middle East conflict had already caused an unprecedented humanitarian disaster, with Gaza having become a "hell on earth," and over 1.2 million people displaced in Lebanon.
China's Foreign Ministry has urged all parties and especially Israel to immediately cool things down to prevent the situation getting out of control. Beijing has also said it opposes any violation of Lebanon's sovereignty.
REUTERS
China called on the United Nations Security Council to take "urgent actions" to de-escalate the situation in the Middle East as Israel launched fresh air strikes in Lebanon.
China's permanent representative to the U.N., Fu Cong, said during a Security Council briefing on Wednesday, that it needed to make clear and unequivocal demands to stop the cycle of violence over the Israeli-Lebanon conflict.
"The Security Council bears the primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security," the official Xinhua news agency reported Fu as saying, noting that all parties concerned "must return to the track of political and diplomatic solutions".
Israel's latest missile strikes in central Beirut come after Iran fired more than 180 missiles into Israel on Tuesday. Israel has also sent infantry and armoured units into Lebanon with reports of fighting with the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah.
Iran said on Wednesday its missile volley - its biggest ever assault on Israel - was over barring further provocation, but Israel and the United States promised to hit back hard.
Iran's missile attack and Israel's pledge of retaliation have raised concerns that the oil-producing Middle East could be caught up in a wider conflict.
Warning that the current situation is "hanging by a thread," Xinhua cited Fu as saying that any "passive procrastination would be irresponsible, and any rhetoric of condoning further military adventurism would send a wrong message".
Fu said the spreading Middle East conflict had already caused an unprecedented humanitarian disaster, with Gaza having become a "hell on earth," and over 1.2 million people displaced in Lebanon.
China's Foreign Ministry has urged all parties and especially Israel to immediately cool things down to prevent the situation getting out of control. Beijing has also said it opposes any violation of Lebanon's sovereignty.
REUTERS
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Israeli army claims deadly strike on municipality building in south Lebanon
The Israeli army says it struck the municipality building in the town of Bint Jbeil, in southern Lebanon, killing 15 people.
The military claimed those killed were Hezbollah fighters and the building was used to store weapons.
In Israel’s 2006 war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Israeli military deployed a strategy of disproportionate attack by hitting neighbourhoods and destroying civilian infrastructure as a means of putting pressure on its enemies. This strategy came to be called the “Dahiyeh doctrine”.
Al Jazeera
The Israeli army says it struck the municipality building in the town of Bint Jbeil, in southern Lebanon, killing 15 people.
The military claimed those killed were Hezbollah fighters and the building was used to store weapons.
In Israel’s 2006 war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Israeli military deployed a strategy of disproportionate attack by hitting neighbourhoods and destroying civilian infrastructure as a means of putting pressure on its enemies. This strategy came to be called the “Dahiyeh doctrine”.
Al Jazeera
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Israeli attack on central Beirut killed 7 health and rescue workers
The Israeli raid on the Lebanese capital Beirut killed seven health and rescue workers, a medical organisation says.
The air attack on the residential Bashoura district hit an apartment in a multi-story building that houses an office of the Health Society, a group of civilian first responders. It was the closest attack yet to the central downtown district of Beirut, where the United Nations and government offices are.
This was the second attack against the Health Society in 24 hours. No Israeli warning was issued to the area before it was hit. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
Al Jazeera
The Israeli raid on the Lebanese capital Beirut killed seven health and rescue workers, a medical organisation says.
The air attack on the residential Bashoura district hit an apartment in a multi-story building that houses an office of the Health Society, a group of civilian first responders. It was the closest attack yet to the central downtown district of Beirut, where the United Nations and government offices are.
This was the second attack against the Health Society in 24 hours. No Israeli warning was issued to the area before it was hit. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
Al Jazeera
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Hezbollah claims 7 separate attacks on Israeli forces
Lebanon’s Hezbollah says its fighters have targeted Israeli soldiers “with a rocket salvo” near the Adamit settlement and with two Burkan missiles in the vicinity of the Raheb military site, both in northern Israel.
Shortly before the two attacks, Hezbollah claimed to have hit Israeli troops in an area between Shtula and Raheb. The fourth attack of the day came “with artillery shells” fired at the Fatima Gate, a former border crossing between Lebanon and Israel, where Hezbollah said the Israeli soldiers were attempting to advance.
At 09:15am (06:15 GMT), there was another Hezbollah rocket salvo, this time targeting Israeli forces in the settlement of Yarin in Upper Galilee.
Shortly before that attack, Hezbollah claimed to hit Israeli soldiers in the Misgav Am settlement with a missile, and shelled another group of Israeli forces at the Hanita military base.
Al Jazeera
Lebanon’s Hezbollah says its fighters have targeted Israeli soldiers “with a rocket salvo” near the Adamit settlement and with two Burkan missiles in the vicinity of the Raheb military site, both in northern Israel.
Shortly before the two attacks, Hezbollah claimed to have hit Israeli troops in an area between Shtula and Raheb. The fourth attack of the day came “with artillery shells” fired at the Fatima Gate, a former border crossing between Lebanon and Israel, where Hezbollah said the Israeli soldiers were attempting to advance.
At 09:15am (06:15 GMT), there was another Hezbollah rocket salvo, this time targeting Israeli forces in the settlement of Yarin in Upper Galilee.
Shortly before that attack, Hezbollah claimed to hit Israeli soldiers in the Misgav Am settlement with a missile, and shelled another group of Israeli forces at the Hanita military base.
Al Jazeera
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Israel has ‘a lot of options’ against Iran: Israel’s UN ambassador
Israel has ‘a lot of options’ against Iran: Israel’s UN ambassador
Israel’s ambassador to the UN has said his country will respond to Iran’s missile attack, even though it does not want all-out war with the country.
“We have a lot of options … so it’s [up to] us to decide where and when we want to attack, but they are vulnerable. They know that,” Ambassador Danny Danon told CNN.
“We would have to make it a calculated response because we don’t want to see full war with Iran. And believe me, they also don’t want to see it,” he added. “They better look at what happened in Beirut and in Gaza before they start a war with us.”
Source: Al Jazeera
offstump
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Well there you go. Israel is finally talking some sense as they, nor anyone else want a full scare war with Iran.
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Multiple Israeli strikes on Beirut target Nasrallah’s likely successor: Source
At least one Israeli strike early on Friday hit outside the perimeter of Beirut’s international airport, according to a source in Lebanon’s ministry of transport and public works.
The Israeli strike on Beirut targeted senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine, Axios reporter Barak Ravid said in a post on social media platform X early on Friday, citing an Israeli source.
Safieddine is the man widely regarded as the heir of slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Reuters could not confirm the information in the social media post and there was no immediate official statement from any side.
A source close to Lebanon’s Hezbollah group said Israel had conducted 11 consecutive strikes on the group’s south Beirut stronghold, with AFP correspondents in the capital and beyond hearing the loud bangs.
“Israel struck the southern suburbs 11 consecutives times,” the source said on the condition of anonymity. The bombardment was so intense that car alarms went off and buildings shook in Beirut and its outskirts.
At least one Israeli strike early on Friday hit outside the perimeter of Beirut’s international airport, according to a source in Lebanon’s ministry of transport and public works.
The Israeli strike on Beirut targeted senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine, Axios reporter Barak Ravid said in a post on social media platform X early on Friday, citing an Israeli source.
Safieddine is the man widely regarded as the heir of slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Reuters could not confirm the information in the social media post and there was no immediate official statement from any side.
A source close to Lebanon’s Hezbollah group said Israel had conducted 11 consecutive strikes on the group’s south Beirut stronghold, with AFP correspondents in the capital and beyond hearing the loud bangs.
“Israel struck the southern suburbs 11 consecutives times,” the source said on the condition of anonymity. The bombardment was so intense that car alarms went off and buildings shook in Beirut and its outskirts.
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Massive blasts in Beirut after renewed Israeli air strikes
Israeli bombing caused large explosions just outside Beirut's international airport during a further night of air strikes targeting Hezbollah in the city.
The target was unclear but the airport borders Dahieh - Hezbollah's stronghold in the capital. Plumes of smoke could be seen over the city as dawn broke on Friday.
Lebanon's public health ministry said 37 people had been killed in Israeli ground and air attacks in the last 24 hours while 151 others had been wounded.
Elsewhere, the Lebanese army said two of its soldiers had been killed in the country's south as Israeli forces pressed on with their invasion against Hezbollah and ordered another 20 towns and villages to evacuate.
The Israeli military has not commented, but did say its troops had killed Hezbollah fighters near the border. Hezbollah said it had targeted Israeli troops on both sides of the frontier.
The two fatal attacks on the Lebanese army soldiers were just hours apart on Thursday, the third full day of the invasion.
In the first incident, the army said, one soldier was killed and another was wounded “as a result of an aggression by the Israeli enemy during an evacuation and rescue operation with the Lebanese Red Cross in Taybeh village".
The Red Cross said four of its volunteers were also lightly wounded, and that their movements had been co-ordinated with UN peacekeepers.
The army said that in the second incident another soldier was killed “after the Israeli enemy targeted an army post in the Bint Jbeil area”.
“The personnel at the post responded to the sources of fire,” the Lebanese army added, marking a rare involvement in a conflict in which it has not engaged.
Unlike the communities ordered to evacuate on Tuesday, they are all located north of the Litani river, which lies about 30km (18 miles) from the border.
Before the invasion, Israel had demanded that Hezbollah’s withdraw to the Litani, in accordance with a UN Security Council resolution that ended their last war in 2006.
Speaking to the BBC from Beirut, the World Food Programme's country director in Lebanon, Matthew Hollingworth, described the situation there as “horrific”.
“There is black smoke billowing over the southern suburbs and we see it each morning when we come to work and we see it all day long. And there's a striking number of people who are displaced around the city.”
“There are these cars everywhere that are from people that have fled the fighting in the south of the country and the southern suburbs. There's traffic everywhere, people sleeping outside.”
Juan Gabriel Wells, Lebanon country director with the International Rescue Committee, said nearly half of displaced people surveyed by his organisation in shelters run by the government were children under the age of 15.
Israel's latest air strikes on Beirut come 24 hours after a residential building in the centre of the capital was hit. A civil defence agency linked to Hezbollah also said seven of its first responders were among nine people killed in the strike.
Lebanon’s health minister later said more than 40 paramedics and firefighters had been killed by Israeli fire in the past three days.
The Israeli Air Force carried out air strikes during Thursday against targets it said belonged to Hezbollah including the group's intelligence headquarters, weapons production sites, weapons storage facilities.
Two weeks of Israeli strikes and other attacks targeting Hezbollah have killed more than 1,300 people across Lebanon and displaced more than one million, according to local authorities.
Israel went on the offensive after almost a year of cross-border hostilities sparked by the war in Gaza, saying it wanted to ensure the safe return of residents of border areas displaced by Hezbollah rocket, missile and drone attacks.
Hezbollah is a Shia Islamist military, political and social organisation that wields considerable power in Lebanon. It is designated as a terrorist organisation by Israel, the US, the UK and other countries.
The IDF also announced on Thursday that its aircraft had struck 200 Hezbollah “terrorist targets” in southern Lebanon and elsewhere overnight, including weapons storage facilities and observation posts. About 15 Hezbollah fighters were killed when the municipality building in Bint Jbeil was hit, it said.
Later, it said a structure housing three Hezbollah commanders had been destroyed during a joint operation carried out by the air force and infantry.
Hezbollah said on Thursday evening that its fighters had “repelled failed attempts” by Israeli commandos to advance into some border villages during the day.
The group also said it had targeted “enemy gatherings” and homes on the other side of the frontier, while also continuing to fire rockets deep into northern Israel.
The IDF said more than 230 projectiles had been launched into Israeli territory over the course of the day. Most were intercepted or fell in open areas, and there were no casualty reports.
The communities sitting along Israel’s northern border fence are now a closed military zone.
Dean Sweetland, a former British soldier who moved to Israel eight years ago, is one of the few people still living in a near-empty kibbutz within sight of the Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil.
He told the BBC that his house shook several times a day with rocket and anti-tank missiles fired from Lebanon, some of them intercepted by Israel’s air-defences overhead.
“We can’t continue this for another year, having Hezbollah sitting on our border just waiting to do an October 7th on us,” he said, referring to Hamas’s deadly attack on southern Israel last year that triggered the Gaza war.
“But my son is in the army, and do we want our kids to be in there, slaughtered, where Hezbollah has been waiting for us to go in for nearly 20 years?”
“It’s not going to be pretty,” he continued, “but if that’s what it takes, then that’s what it takes.”
BBC
Israeli bombing caused large explosions just outside Beirut's international airport during a further night of air strikes targeting Hezbollah in the city.
The target was unclear but the airport borders Dahieh - Hezbollah's stronghold in the capital. Plumes of smoke could be seen over the city as dawn broke on Friday.
Lebanon's public health ministry said 37 people had been killed in Israeli ground and air attacks in the last 24 hours while 151 others had been wounded.
Elsewhere, the Lebanese army said two of its soldiers had been killed in the country's south as Israeli forces pressed on with their invasion against Hezbollah and ordered another 20 towns and villages to evacuate.
The Israeli military has not commented, but did say its troops had killed Hezbollah fighters near the border. Hezbollah said it had targeted Israeli troops on both sides of the frontier.
The two fatal attacks on the Lebanese army soldiers were just hours apart on Thursday, the third full day of the invasion.
In the first incident, the army said, one soldier was killed and another was wounded “as a result of an aggression by the Israeli enemy during an evacuation and rescue operation with the Lebanese Red Cross in Taybeh village".
The Red Cross said four of its volunteers were also lightly wounded, and that their movements had been co-ordinated with UN peacekeepers.
The army said that in the second incident another soldier was killed “after the Israeli enemy targeted an army post in the Bint Jbeil area”.
“The personnel at the post responded to the sources of fire,” the Lebanese army added, marking a rare involvement in a conflict in which it has not engaged.
Unlike the communities ordered to evacuate on Tuesday, they are all located north of the Litani river, which lies about 30km (18 miles) from the border.
Before the invasion, Israel had demanded that Hezbollah’s withdraw to the Litani, in accordance with a UN Security Council resolution that ended their last war in 2006.
Speaking to the BBC from Beirut, the World Food Programme's country director in Lebanon, Matthew Hollingworth, described the situation there as “horrific”.
“There is black smoke billowing over the southern suburbs and we see it each morning when we come to work and we see it all day long. And there's a striking number of people who are displaced around the city.”
“There are these cars everywhere that are from people that have fled the fighting in the south of the country and the southern suburbs. There's traffic everywhere, people sleeping outside.”
Juan Gabriel Wells, Lebanon country director with the International Rescue Committee, said nearly half of displaced people surveyed by his organisation in shelters run by the government were children under the age of 15.
Israel's latest air strikes on Beirut come 24 hours after a residential building in the centre of the capital was hit. A civil defence agency linked to Hezbollah also said seven of its first responders were among nine people killed in the strike.
Lebanon’s health minister later said more than 40 paramedics and firefighters had been killed by Israeli fire in the past three days.
The Israeli Air Force carried out air strikes during Thursday against targets it said belonged to Hezbollah including the group's intelligence headquarters, weapons production sites, weapons storage facilities.
Two weeks of Israeli strikes and other attacks targeting Hezbollah have killed more than 1,300 people across Lebanon and displaced more than one million, according to local authorities.
Israel went on the offensive after almost a year of cross-border hostilities sparked by the war in Gaza, saying it wanted to ensure the safe return of residents of border areas displaced by Hezbollah rocket, missile and drone attacks.
Hezbollah is a Shia Islamist military, political and social organisation that wields considerable power in Lebanon. It is designated as a terrorist organisation by Israel, the US, the UK and other countries.
The IDF also announced on Thursday that its aircraft had struck 200 Hezbollah “terrorist targets” in southern Lebanon and elsewhere overnight, including weapons storage facilities and observation posts. About 15 Hezbollah fighters were killed when the municipality building in Bint Jbeil was hit, it said.
Later, it said a structure housing three Hezbollah commanders had been destroyed during a joint operation carried out by the air force and infantry.
Hezbollah said on Thursday evening that its fighters had “repelled failed attempts” by Israeli commandos to advance into some border villages during the day.
The group also said it had targeted “enemy gatherings” and homes on the other side of the frontier, while also continuing to fire rockets deep into northern Israel.
The IDF said more than 230 projectiles had been launched into Israeli territory over the course of the day. Most were intercepted or fell in open areas, and there were no casualty reports.
The communities sitting along Israel’s northern border fence are now a closed military zone.
Dean Sweetland, a former British soldier who moved to Israel eight years ago, is one of the few people still living in a near-empty kibbutz within sight of the Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil.
He told the BBC that his house shook several times a day with rocket and anti-tank missiles fired from Lebanon, some of them intercepted by Israel’s air-defences overhead.
“We can’t continue this for another year, having Hezbollah sitting on our border just waiting to do an October 7th on us,” he said, referring to Hamas’s deadly attack on southern Israel last year that triggered the Gaza war.
“But my son is in the army, and do we want our kids to be in there, slaughtered, where Hezbollah has been waiting for us to go in for nearly 20 years?”
“It’s not going to be pretty,” he continued, “but if that’s what it takes, then that’s what it takes.”
BBC
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Israel says it killed Hezbollah’s communications leader in airstrikes
Israel’s military said it killed the head of Hezbollah’s communication unit in strikes on southern Beirut Thursday afternoon local time.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Arabic spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, said Mohammad Rashid Skaafi had been leading the group’s communications since 2000.
Hezbollah has not yet made any announcements about casualties following Thursday’s Israeli strikes in the southern suburbs of Beirut.
Some background: Israel’s barrage of strikes across Lebanon on Thursday killed at least 37 people and wounded 151, the Lebanese health ministry said. The Israeli military said Thursday it had hit Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters in Beirut.
The IDF has pledged to continue to strike Hezbollah targets in Beirut, the Bekaa valley and southern Lebanon.
CNN
Israel’s military said it killed the head of Hezbollah’s communication unit in strikes on southern Beirut Thursday afternoon local time.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Arabic spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, said Mohammad Rashid Skaafi had been leading the group’s communications since 2000.
Hezbollah has not yet made any announcements about casualties following Thursday’s Israeli strikes in the southern suburbs of Beirut.
Some background: Israel’s barrage of strikes across Lebanon on Thursday killed at least 37 people and wounded 151, the Lebanese health ministry said. The Israeli military said Thursday it had hit Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters in Beirut.
The IDF has pledged to continue to strike Hezbollah targets in Beirut, the Bekaa valley and southern Lebanon.
CNN
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Hezbollah is prepared for Israeli ground advances’: Senior official
The deputy leader of Hezbollah’s political council, Mahmoud Qatami, spoke to our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic. Here were his main points:
Hezbollah prevented Israeli forces from infiltrating into Lebanese territory.
Hezbollah missiles reached a range of 150km (93 miles) while maintaining the pace of their launch.
Hezbollah is prepared for Israeli ground advances.
Any territory Israel tries to claim will turn into a graveyard for its soldiers and tanks.
Today, the Iranian foreign minister met with Hezbollah to say Tehran stands with Lebanon. Hezbollah is busy on the battlefield and will not enter negotiations while under fire.
It is Israel that has rejected a ceasefire.
Israel and Netanyahu do not want to stop this war.
Source: Al Jazeera
The deputy leader of Hezbollah’s political council, Mahmoud Qatami, spoke to our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic. Here were his main points:
Hezbollah prevented Israeli forces from infiltrating into Lebanese territory.
Hezbollah missiles reached a range of 150km (93 miles) while maintaining the pace of their launch.
Hezbollah is prepared for Israeli ground advances.
Any territory Israel tries to claim will turn into a graveyard for its soldiers and tanks.
Today, the Iranian foreign minister met with Hezbollah to say Tehran stands with Lebanon. Hezbollah is busy on the battlefield and will not enter negotiations while under fire.
It is Israel that has rejected a ceasefire.
Israel and Netanyahu do not want to stop this war.
Source: Al Jazeera
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Hezbollah's Safieddine 'unreachable' since Friday, source says
Israeli air strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs since Friday have kept rescue workers from searching the site of an Israeli strike suspected to have killed Hezbollah’s anticipated next leader, three Lebanese security sources told Reuters on Saturday.
One of the sources said Safieddine, widely expected to succeed slain leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, had been unreachable since the strike on Friday.
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Lebanon hospitals close as Israeli strikes hit health facilities
At least four hospitals in Lebanon announced on Friday that they were suspending work because of Israeli strikes, while a Hezbollah-affiliated health organisation said that 11 paramedics had been killed in the past 24 hours.
The four closures capped two weeks of Israeli strikes on hospitals and healthcare workers in Lebanon that have shuttered at least 37 facilities and killed dozens of medical staff, according to the World Health Organisation.
Late on Friday night, the Israeli army issued a statement alleging that Hezbollah was using medical vehicles to transport fighters and weapons, warning that it would strike any vehicle it suspected of being used for military purposes.
Hospital staff in southern Lebanon told the BBC that health facilities treating wounded civilians had been hit with direct Israeli strikes. The BBC has approached the IDF for comment.
Dr Mounes Kalakish, director of the Marjayoun governmental hospital in southern Lebanon, told the BBC that the hospital had no choice but to close on Friday after an airstrike hit two ambulances at the hospital’s entrance way on Friday, killing seven paramedics.
“The nurses and doctors were terrified,” he said. “We tried to calm them and carry on working, but it was not possible.”
The emergency director of the hospital, Dr Shoshana Mazraani, said she was sitting at the front of the building when the strike happened. She said that she heard the cries of the paramedics who were hit and ran towards the damaged ambulances, but was warned to stay back by colleagues fearful of a follow up strike.
The Marjayoun hospital had already been hanging on by a thread, Dr Mazraani said, with a core team of just 20 doctors remaining from the centre’s usual 120 staff. The closure on Friday was a “tragedy for the region”, she said.
“We serve a huge population here, many villages. We had 45 inpatient beds, all now empty. We were the only hospital providing dialysis in the region, for example. We have had to turn away emergency patients and tell others to leave.”
Rita Suleiman, the nursing director at the Saint Therese hospital, on the edge of Beirut’s southern suburbs, told the BBC that the hospital had also struggled on after being badly damaged by a strike on Friday but was later forced to suspend all services.
Other hospitals were carrying on with severely limited services. Dr Mohammed Hamadeh, director of the Tebnine hospital, told the BBC on Friday a nearby strike had rocked the building.
“The blast was very close,” he said. “We are still trying to operate but we cannot leave the confines of the hospital because it is too dangerous.”
Late on Friday night, the Salah Ghandour hospital in Bint Jbeil announced it had closed after being “violently shelled”, following an order from the Israeli army to evacuate.
The Israeli army said it was targeting a mosque adjacent to the hospital which it claimed was being used by Hezbollah fighters.
The strikes on healthcare facilities have not been limited to the south of Lebanon. Israel hit a medical centre in central Beirut on Thursday belonging to the Hezbollah-linked Islamic Health Organisation, killing nine and wounding 14. The Israeli army said the strike targeted "terror assets".
The Lebanese Red Cross said on Thursday that four of its paramedics were wounded in a strike on a convoy evacuating patients, despite the organisation co-ordinating with the Israeli army.
Gabriel Karlsson, country manager in Beirut for the British Red Cross, told the BBC: "Health and aid workers must be able to help those in need without fearing for their own safety. Teams from the Red Cross and Red Crescent are a lifeline, supporting communities tirelessly - they must be protected.”
World Health Organisation director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Thursday that 28 healthcare workers had been killed in Lebanon over the previous 24 hours, and many other healthcare staff were no longer reporting for work because of the strikes.
Dr Kalakish, the director of the Marjayoun hospital, told the BBC that prior to the strike that closed his hospital it was already operating with no anaesthesiologist or other specialists.
Some staff had fled the bombardment for their own safety, he said, while others had been prevented from reaching the hospital because of air strikes on nearby roads.
Lebanon's Health Minister Firass Abiad said on Thursday that 97 rescue workers had been killed since Hezbollah and Israel began fighting last October.
More than 40 of those – paramedics and firefighters – were in just three days this past week, he said.
BBC
At least four hospitals in Lebanon announced on Friday that they were suspending work because of Israeli strikes, while a Hezbollah-affiliated health organisation said that 11 paramedics had been killed in the past 24 hours.
The four closures capped two weeks of Israeli strikes on hospitals and healthcare workers in Lebanon that have shuttered at least 37 facilities and killed dozens of medical staff, according to the World Health Organisation.
Late on Friday night, the Israeli army issued a statement alleging that Hezbollah was using medical vehicles to transport fighters and weapons, warning that it would strike any vehicle it suspected of being used for military purposes.
Hospital staff in southern Lebanon told the BBC that health facilities treating wounded civilians had been hit with direct Israeli strikes. The BBC has approached the IDF for comment.
Dr Mounes Kalakish, director of the Marjayoun governmental hospital in southern Lebanon, told the BBC that the hospital had no choice but to close on Friday after an airstrike hit two ambulances at the hospital’s entrance way on Friday, killing seven paramedics.
“The nurses and doctors were terrified,” he said. “We tried to calm them and carry on working, but it was not possible.”
The emergency director of the hospital, Dr Shoshana Mazraani, said she was sitting at the front of the building when the strike happened. She said that she heard the cries of the paramedics who were hit and ran towards the damaged ambulances, but was warned to stay back by colleagues fearful of a follow up strike.
The Marjayoun hospital had already been hanging on by a thread, Dr Mazraani said, with a core team of just 20 doctors remaining from the centre’s usual 120 staff. The closure on Friday was a “tragedy for the region”, she said.
“We serve a huge population here, many villages. We had 45 inpatient beds, all now empty. We were the only hospital providing dialysis in the region, for example. We have had to turn away emergency patients and tell others to leave.”
Rita Suleiman, the nursing director at the Saint Therese hospital, on the edge of Beirut’s southern suburbs, told the BBC that the hospital had also struggled on after being badly damaged by a strike on Friday but was later forced to suspend all services.
Other hospitals were carrying on with severely limited services. Dr Mohammed Hamadeh, director of the Tebnine hospital, told the BBC on Friday a nearby strike had rocked the building.
“The blast was very close,” he said. “We are still trying to operate but we cannot leave the confines of the hospital because it is too dangerous.”
Late on Friday night, the Salah Ghandour hospital in Bint Jbeil announced it had closed after being “violently shelled”, following an order from the Israeli army to evacuate.
The Israeli army said it was targeting a mosque adjacent to the hospital which it claimed was being used by Hezbollah fighters.
The strikes on healthcare facilities have not been limited to the south of Lebanon. Israel hit a medical centre in central Beirut on Thursday belonging to the Hezbollah-linked Islamic Health Organisation, killing nine and wounding 14. The Israeli army said the strike targeted "terror assets".
The Lebanese Red Cross said on Thursday that four of its paramedics were wounded in a strike on a convoy evacuating patients, despite the organisation co-ordinating with the Israeli army.
Gabriel Karlsson, country manager in Beirut for the British Red Cross, told the BBC: "Health and aid workers must be able to help those in need without fearing for their own safety. Teams from the Red Cross and Red Crescent are a lifeline, supporting communities tirelessly - they must be protected.”
World Health Organisation director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Thursday that 28 healthcare workers had been killed in Lebanon over the previous 24 hours, and many other healthcare staff were no longer reporting for work because of the strikes.
Dr Kalakish, the director of the Marjayoun hospital, told the BBC that prior to the strike that closed his hospital it was already operating with no anaesthesiologist or other specialists.
Some staff had fled the bombardment for their own safety, he said, while others had been prevented from reaching the hospital because of air strikes on nearby roads.
Lebanon's Health Minister Firass Abiad said on Thursday that 97 rescue workers had been killed since Hezbollah and Israel began fighting last October.
More than 40 of those – paramedics and firefighters – were in just three days this past week, he said.
BBC
sweep_shot
Test Star
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Seems like Israel wants to destroy entire of Lebanon. Same thing they did in Gaza.
Cowards.
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Hezbollah continues to fire rockets into Israel
Here in northern Israel we have heard the latest volley of rockets that Hezbollah continues to fire into Israel.
One explosion was about a hundred metres away.
People living here typically have about 10 to 15 seconds to reach a shelter before rockets land - or more often, are intercepted by the Iron Dome.
This has become a daily occurrence for nearly a year since Hezbollah said it began firing in solidarity with Hamas in Gaza.
The constant stream is the central justification for the Israeli ground invasion into south Lebanon this past week.
The prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the objective is to push Hezbollah back and destroy their weapons, and create a buffer zone so that thousands of Israeli families near the border can return home.
The IDF says Hezbollah has fired more than 700 rockets in the last four days.
BBC
Here in northern Israel we have heard the latest volley of rockets that Hezbollah continues to fire into Israel.
One explosion was about a hundred metres away.
People living here typically have about 10 to 15 seconds to reach a shelter before rockets land - or more often, are intercepted by the Iron Dome.
This has become a daily occurrence for nearly a year since Hezbollah said it began firing in solidarity with Hamas in Gaza.
The constant stream is the central justification for the Israeli ground invasion into south Lebanon this past week.
The prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the objective is to push Hezbollah back and destroy their weapons, and create a buffer zone so that thousands of Israeli families near the border can return home.
The IDF says Hezbollah has fired more than 700 rockets in the last four days.
BBC
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Two Hamas leaders killed in Lebanon
The Israeli military says it has killed two senior Hamas figures who were operating in Lebanon.
Muhammad Hussein Ali al-Mahmoud was killed in an air strike earlier today, the IDF says, describing him as the groups "executive authority' in Lebanon.
It also says Said Alaa Naif Ali was killed in an overnight Israeli operation in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli.
Hamas's armed wing confirmed the deaths of two of its members following Israeli strikes in Lebanon, but provided different names for them: Mohammed Hussein Al-Louise and Saeed Attallah Ali.
As we reported this morning, Hamas-affiliated media said a commander named Saeed Atallah had been killed in an Israeli drone strike.
BBC
The Israeli military says it has killed two senior Hamas figures who were operating in Lebanon.
Muhammad Hussein Ali al-Mahmoud was killed in an air strike earlier today, the IDF says, describing him as the groups "executive authority' in Lebanon.
It also says Said Alaa Naif Ali was killed in an overnight Israeli operation in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli.
Hamas's armed wing confirmed the deaths of two of its members following Israeli strikes in Lebanon, but provided different names for them: Mohammed Hussein Al-Louise and Saeed Attallah Ali.
As we reported this morning, Hamas-affiliated media said a commander named Saeed Atallah had been killed in an Israeli drone strike.
BBC
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Israeli airstrikes killed at least 25 people in Lebanon on Friday, ministry says
Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon killed at least 25 people and injured 127 on Friday, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health.
The ministry said the casualties occurred in towns and villages across southern Lebanon, as well as in the city of Nabatieh, the Beqaa valley, the Baalbek-Hermel region, Mount Lebanon and the capital of Beirut.
At least 1,426 people have died and 7,597 people have been injured by Israeli military action in Lebanon since September 16, according to a CNN tally based on the ministry’s data.
Israel has launched an unprecedented bombing campaign and a limited ground offensive in the country as it fights the Iran-backed paramilitary group Hezbollah, which is based out of southern Lebanon.
Source: CNN
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Heavy strikes hit southern Beirut and Gaza mosque as Israel targets Hamas and Hezbollah
Heavy consecutive strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs from late Saturday into Sunday, witnesses said, while Gaza’s civil defence agency said 24 people were killed and dozens wounded in an Israeli airstrike on a mosque in central Gaza early on Sunday.
The strike on the mosque, near the Al-Aqsa hospital in Deir al-Balah, came as the war between Israel and Hamas in the Palestinian territory approaches its first anniversary on 7 October. Witnesses said the number of casualties could rise as the mosque was being used to house displaced people, while the Israeli military said it was being used as a Hamas command centre.
In the Lebanese capital, the Israeli strikes sent booms across the city and sparked flashes of red and white for nearly 30 minutes visible from several kilometres away.
The strikes came after days of Israeli bombing of Beirut suburbs considered strongholds for the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah, killing its leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, and possibly his potential successor. A Lebanese security source said on Saturday that Hashem Safieddine, the potential successor, had been out of contact since Friday, after an Israeli airstrike near the city’s international airport that was reported to have targeted him.
Lebanese security sources said Israeli strikes since Friday on Dahiyeh, a residential area and Hezbollah stronghold south of central Beirut, were keeping rescue workers from scouring the site of Thursday night’s attack.
Safieddine’s loss would be another blow to the Hezbollah and its patron Iran. Israeli strikes across the region in the past year, sharply accelerated in the past few weeks, have shattered Hezbollah’s leadership.
Israel has been expanding its actions in Lebanon. On Saturday, it made its first strike in the northern city of Tripoli, a Lebanese security official said, and Israeli troops launched raids in the south.
At least eight strikes rocked Beirut’s southern suburbs late on Saturday including close to the airport, according to Reuters witnesses, after the Israeli military warned some residents to flee. Before the recent upsurge, exchanges of fire between Israel and Hezbollah had been mostly limited to the Israel-Lebanon border area, in parallel to Israel’s year-old war in Gaza against Palestinian group Hamas.
Israeli military spokesperson R Adm Daniel Hagari said on Saturday that Israel had killed 440 Hezbollah fighters in its ground operations in southern Lebanon and destroyed 2,000 Hezbollah targets. Hezbollah has not released death tolls.
Israel says it stepped up its assault on Hezbollah to enable the safe return of tens of thousands of citizens to homes in northern Israel, bombarded by the Lebanon-based group since last 8 October. Israeli authorities said on Saturday that nine Israeli soldiers had been killed in southern Lebanon since the operation began.
The Israeli assault has also killed hundreds of Lebanese civilians, Lebanese officials say, and forced 1.2 million people – almost a quarter of the population – from their homes.
A Lebanese security official told Reuters that Saturday’s strike on a Palestinian refugee camp in Tripoli killed a member of Hamas, his wife and two children. Media affiliated with the Palestinian group said the strike killed a leader of its armed wing, naming him as Saeed Atallah.
Israel said it killed two Hamas members operating in Lebanon, but did not say whether they had been in Tripoli. There was no immediate comment from Hamas.
In northern Israel, air raid sirens on Saturday sent people running for shelters amid rocket fire from Lebanon. Hezbollah said it had fired missiles at what it called “ATA company for military industries near Sakhnin base”, close to Haifa.
The Israeli army said two projectiles had crossed from Lebanon, one of which was intercepted while the other landed but caused no damage.
The violence came as thousands of protesters took to the streets in major cities around the world on Saturday demanding an end to bloodshed in Gaza and the wider Middle East as the start of Israel’s war in the Palestinian territory approaches its first anniversary.
About 40,000 pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched through central London while thousands gathered in Paris, Rome, Manila, Cape Town, New York City, Sydney and Melbourne. Demonstrations were also held near the White House in Washington, protesting against US support for its ally Israel in military campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon.
The top US general for the region, Gen Michael “Eric” Kurilla, was travelling in the Middle East, a US defence official said on Saturday, declining to specify which country or to confirm Israeli media reports that he had arrived there for consultations with Israeli military officials.
SOURCE: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...as-21-reportedly-killed-in-gaza-mosque-attack
Heavy consecutive strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs from late Saturday into Sunday, witnesses said, while Gaza’s civil defence agency said 24 people were killed and dozens wounded in an Israeli airstrike on a mosque in central Gaza early on Sunday.
The strike on the mosque, near the Al-Aqsa hospital in Deir al-Balah, came as the war between Israel and Hamas in the Palestinian territory approaches its first anniversary on 7 October. Witnesses said the number of casualties could rise as the mosque was being used to house displaced people, while the Israeli military said it was being used as a Hamas command centre.
In the Lebanese capital, the Israeli strikes sent booms across the city and sparked flashes of red and white for nearly 30 minutes visible from several kilometres away.
The strikes came after days of Israeli bombing of Beirut suburbs considered strongholds for the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah, killing its leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, and possibly his potential successor. A Lebanese security source said on Saturday that Hashem Safieddine, the potential successor, had been out of contact since Friday, after an Israeli airstrike near the city’s international airport that was reported to have targeted him.
Lebanese security sources said Israeli strikes since Friday on Dahiyeh, a residential area and Hezbollah stronghold south of central Beirut, were keeping rescue workers from scouring the site of Thursday night’s attack.
Safieddine’s loss would be another blow to the Hezbollah and its patron Iran. Israeli strikes across the region in the past year, sharply accelerated in the past few weeks, have shattered Hezbollah’s leadership.
Israel has been expanding its actions in Lebanon. On Saturday, it made its first strike in the northern city of Tripoli, a Lebanese security official said, and Israeli troops launched raids in the south.
At least eight strikes rocked Beirut’s southern suburbs late on Saturday including close to the airport, according to Reuters witnesses, after the Israeli military warned some residents to flee. Before the recent upsurge, exchanges of fire between Israel and Hezbollah had been mostly limited to the Israel-Lebanon border area, in parallel to Israel’s year-old war in Gaza against Palestinian group Hamas.
Israeli military spokesperson R Adm Daniel Hagari said on Saturday that Israel had killed 440 Hezbollah fighters in its ground operations in southern Lebanon and destroyed 2,000 Hezbollah targets. Hezbollah has not released death tolls.
Israel says it stepped up its assault on Hezbollah to enable the safe return of tens of thousands of citizens to homes in northern Israel, bombarded by the Lebanon-based group since last 8 October. Israeli authorities said on Saturday that nine Israeli soldiers had been killed in southern Lebanon since the operation began.
The Israeli assault has also killed hundreds of Lebanese civilians, Lebanese officials say, and forced 1.2 million people – almost a quarter of the population – from their homes.
A Lebanese security official told Reuters that Saturday’s strike on a Palestinian refugee camp in Tripoli killed a member of Hamas, his wife and two children. Media affiliated with the Palestinian group said the strike killed a leader of its armed wing, naming him as Saeed Atallah.
Israel said it killed two Hamas members operating in Lebanon, but did not say whether they had been in Tripoli. There was no immediate comment from Hamas.
In northern Israel, air raid sirens on Saturday sent people running for shelters amid rocket fire from Lebanon. Hezbollah said it had fired missiles at what it called “ATA company for military industries near Sakhnin base”, close to Haifa.
The Israeli army said two projectiles had crossed from Lebanon, one of which was intercepted while the other landed but caused no damage.
The violence came as thousands of protesters took to the streets in major cities around the world on Saturday demanding an end to bloodshed in Gaza and the wider Middle East as the start of Israel’s war in the Palestinian territory approaches its first anniversary.
About 40,000 pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched through central London while thousands gathered in Paris, Rome, Manila, Cape Town, New York City, Sydney and Melbourne. Demonstrations were also held near the White House in Washington, protesting against US support for its ally Israel in military campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon.
The top US general for the region, Gen Michael “Eric” Kurilla, was travelling in the Middle East, a US defence official said on Saturday, declining to specify which country or to confirm Israeli media reports that he had arrived there for consultations with Israeli military officials.
SOURCE: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...as-21-reportedly-killed-in-gaza-mosque-attack
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Israeli strikes batter Beirut in heaviest bombardment so far
Israeli air attacks battered Beirut's southern suburbs overnight and early on Sunday in the most intense bombardment of the Lebanese capital since Israel sharply escalated its campaign against Iran-backed group Hezbollah last month.
During the night, the blasts sent booms across Beirut and sparked flashes of red and white for nearly 30 minutes visible from several kilometres away.
It was the single biggest attack of Israel's assault on Beirut so far, witnesses and military analysts on local TV channels said.
Israeli air attacks battered Beirut's southern suburbs overnight and early on Sunday in the most intense bombardment of the Lebanese capital since Israel sharply escalated its campaign against Iran-backed group Hezbollah last month.
During the night, the blasts sent booms across Beirut and sparked flashes of red and white for nearly 30 minutes visible from several kilometres away.
It was the single biggest attack of Israel's assault on Beirut so far, witnesses and military analysts on local TV channels said.
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Hezbollah says it targeted areas north of Israeli city of Haifa, a day after an attack on Haifa in northern Israel injured at least 10 people.
Hamas fires a volley of rockets at Tel Aviv on the one-year anniversary of the October 7 attacks with Israelis holding memorials to mourn the victims of the deadly assault.
Al Jazeera
Hamas fires a volley of rockets at Tel Aviv on the one-year anniversary of the October 7 attacks with Israelis holding memorials to mourn the victims of the deadly assault.
Al Jazeera
Kroll
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Due to Israel's unopposed air power, this conflict is extremely lop sided with Israel bombing Gaza and now Lebanon to smithereens.
Russia should send some Sukhois to HB, so at least there can be some sort of defence, although they wouldn't be able to match the zionists F35s.
This war as shown that its too risky going into battle without any sort of air defence. If any militias or states are planning to go to war with the zionists, then they really need to start thinking and adopting a strategy to negate or at least hit back at that air power.
Russia should send some Sukhois to HB, so at least there can be some sort of defence, although they wouldn't be able to match the zionists F35s.
This war as shown that its too risky going into battle without any sort of air defence. If any militias or states are planning to go to war with the zionists, then they really need to start thinking and adopting a strategy to negate or at least hit back at that air power.
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Israel says it is expanding its offensive into southwestern Lebanon
Israel’s military said it has expanded its “limited, localized, targeted operations” into southwestern Lebanon.
Israel’s 146th Division targeted operational activities against Hezbollah targets and infrastructure in southwestern Lebanon, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced Tuesday.
“The 146th Division is the first reserve division to operate in southern Lebanon as part of the ongoing operations against Hezbollah in the northern arena,” the IDF said, adding that the division “has served as a defensive regional brigade and its forces were deployed in northern Israel, the Gaza Strip” and the occupied West Bank.
The division will be working alongside the 213th Artillery Brigade.
The Israeli military’s ground incursion in southern Lebanon, which began a week ago, had been focused on the eastern part of the border area.
CNN
Israel’s military said it has expanded its “limited, localized, targeted operations” into southwestern Lebanon.
Israel’s 146th Division targeted operational activities against Hezbollah targets and infrastructure in southwestern Lebanon, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced Tuesday.
“The 146th Division is the first reserve division to operate in southern Lebanon as part of the ongoing operations against Hezbollah in the northern arena,” the IDF said, adding that the division “has served as a defensive regional brigade and its forces were deployed in northern Israel, the Gaza Strip” and the occupied West Bank.
The division will be working alongside the 213th Artillery Brigade.
The Israeli military’s ground incursion in southern Lebanon, which began a week ago, had been focused on the eastern part of the border area.
CNN
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Israel tightens restrictions on civilians in Haifa area after Hezbollah rocket attack
Israel’s Home Front Command has tightened restrictions on civilians in the port city of Haifa in the wake of a barrage of rockets launched by Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“The activity scale will be changed from partial activity to limited activity, meaning educational activities are prohibited,” the military said, adding that the rest of the country’s guidelines remain unchanged.
Hezbollah said earlier today it had fired rockets towards the Haifa and Krayot area in northern Israel, having launched “a large salvo of missiles”. About seven people were injured in the attack, according to reports.
The Israeli military said “85 projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanon into Israeli territory”, with the IDF later saying a further 20 projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanon into Israeli territory.
Hezbollah rockets also hit Haifa early on Monday morning, in what was the first direct attack on the city that evaded the military’s usually reliable air defence systems. Several people were reported to have been injured in that attack.
Haifa is Israel’s biggest port and contains petrochemical plants and oil refineries, making it a target for Hezbollah to try to strike.
Source: The Guardian
Israel’s Home Front Command has tightened restrictions on civilians in the port city of Haifa in the wake of a barrage of rockets launched by Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“The activity scale will be changed from partial activity to limited activity, meaning educational activities are prohibited,” the military said, adding that the rest of the country’s guidelines remain unchanged.
Hezbollah said earlier today it had fired rockets towards the Haifa and Krayot area in northern Israel, having launched “a large salvo of missiles”. About seven people were injured in the attack, according to reports.
The Israeli military said “85 projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanon into Israeli territory”, with the IDF later saying a further 20 projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanon into Israeli territory.
Hezbollah rockets also hit Haifa early on Monday morning, in what was the first direct attack on the city that evaded the military’s usually reliable air defence systems. Several people were reported to have been injured in that attack.
Haifa is Israel’s biggest port and contains petrochemical plants and oil refineries, making it a target for Hezbollah to try to strike.
Source: The Guardian
Kroll
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Sad to say but looks like HB on their last legs. Zionist murderers and baby killers on the rampage.
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Israel says it has killed slain Hezbollah leader's successors
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday Israeli airstrikes had killed two successors to Hezbollah's slain leader, as Israel expanded its ground offensive against the Iran-backed group with a fourth army division deployed into south Lebanon.
Netanyahu spoke in a video released by his office hours after the deputy leader of Hezbollah, which is reeling after a spate of killings of senior commanders in Israeli airstrikes, left the door open to a negotiated ceasefire.
"We've degraded Hezbollah's capabilities. We took out thousands of terrorists, including (Hassan) Nasrallah himself and Nasrallah's replacement, and the replacement of the replacement," Netanyahu said, without naming the latter two.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Hashem Safieddine, the man expected to succeed Nasrallah, had probably been "eliminated". It was not immediately clear whom Netanyahu meant by the "replacement of the replacement".
Later, Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said Israel knew Safieddine was in Hezbollah's intelligence headquarters when fighter jets bombed it last week and Safieddine's status was "being checked and when we know, we will inform the public."
Safieddine has not been heard from publicly since that airstrike, part of an escalating Israeli offensive after a year of border clashes with Hezbollah. The group is the most formidably armed of Iran's proxy forces across the Middle East and has been acting in support of Palestinian militants fighting Israel in Gaza.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday Israeli airstrikes had killed two successors to Hezbollah's slain leader, as Israel expanded its ground offensive against the Iran-backed group with a fourth army division deployed into south Lebanon.
Netanyahu spoke in a video released by his office hours after the deputy leader of Hezbollah, which is reeling after a spate of killings of senior commanders in Israeli airstrikes, left the door open to a negotiated ceasefire.
"We've degraded Hezbollah's capabilities. We took out thousands of terrorists, including (Hassan) Nasrallah himself and Nasrallah's replacement, and the replacement of the replacement," Netanyahu said, without naming the latter two.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Hashem Safieddine, the man expected to succeed Nasrallah, had probably been "eliminated". It was not immediately clear whom Netanyahu meant by the "replacement of the replacement".
Later, Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said Israel knew Safieddine was in Hezbollah's intelligence headquarters when fighter jets bombed it last week and Safieddine's status was "being checked and when we know, we will inform the public."
Safieddine has not been heard from publicly since that airstrike, part of an escalating Israeli offensive after a year of border clashes with Hezbollah. The group is the most formidably armed of Iran's proxy forces across the Middle East and has been acting in support of Palestinian militants fighting Israel in Gaza.
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Israeli military deploys fourth division in Lebanon ground offensive
Israel has said it is expanding its ground operation in Lebanon with the deployment of a fourth division after another night of intense airstrikes across the south and east of the country.
The reservist 146th division was sent to southern Lebanon overnight, hours after Israel announced the mobilisation of a third standing division, meaning the number of troops on the ground is now likely to number 15,000.
Launching what it has called Operation Northern Arrows last week, the Israeli army said the ground offensive would involve “limited, localised and targeted raids” to remove Hezbollah infrastructure along the disputed de facto border between the two countries, known as the blue line.
However, the rapid deployment of four divisions operating across south Lebanon, alongside evacuation orders for Lebanese villages on the coast upwards of 20 miles from the blue line and the intensive bombing of the country’s south and east and the capital, suggests Israel is preparing for a wider push north against the Lebanese militia.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday threatened Lebanon with “destruction” such as Israel has already wreaked in Gaza.
“You have an opportunity to save Lebanon before it falls into the abyss of a long war that will lead to destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza,” he said in a video address directed to the people of Lebanon. “I say to you, the people of Lebanon: Free your country from Hezbollah so that this war can end.”
In a defiant speech on Tuesday, Hezbollah’s acting secretary general, Naim Qassem, said the group’s military capabilities were still functional despite two weeks of heavy Israeli airstrikes, including Beirut bombings that killed the group’s longtime leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and much of the militia’s top command.
“You see that our daily accomplishments are great. Hundreds of rockets and dozens of aircraft [drones], a great number of [Israeli] settlements and cities have come under rocket fire … I would like to reassure you that our capabilities are fine,” he said.
Hezbollah had replaced all of its senior commanders, he said, and Israeli ground troops had not made any advances after a week of fighting.
However, Netanyahu, claimed the IDF had killed Hashem Safieddine, the man expected to replace the late Nasrallah.
“We’ve degraded Hezbollah’s capabilities. We took out thousands of terrorists, including Nasrallah himself and Nasrallah’s replacement, and the replacement of the replacement,” Netanyahu said in a pre-recorded video message. It was not immediately clear whom Netanyahu meant by the “replacement of the replacement”.
Hezbollah has not confirmed Safieddine’s death.
The IDF said that it had also killed Suhail Husseini, responsible for overseeing logistics, budget and management, the night before. There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah, but about 85 projectiles were launched towards the northern Israeli city of Haifa from Lebanon on Tuesday morning. Most of the projectiles were intercepted by Israel’s air defence systems.
Two Israeli airstrikes hit Beirut’s Shia-majority southern suburbs almost immediately after Qassem’s speech. There were reports of a “massive airstrike” in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, about 30km east of Beirut, on Tuesday night, and at least four strikes on Dahiyeh, the southern suburb of Beirut where Nasrallah was killed.
Elsewhere, the Syrian government said seven civilians were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Damascus, that a war monitor said targeted a building used by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
The defence ministry said women and children were among the dead and the toll was preliminary as rescuers were still combing the rubble. None of the dead were Iranian, the Iranian embassy in Damascus said.
At least 1,400 Lebanese people, including civilians, medics and Hezbollah fighters, have been killed and 1.2 million – about a quarter of the population – have been driven from their homes since fighting escalated three weeks ago.
The Lebanese health ministry said at least 36 people had been killed in Israeli attacks over the past 24 hours, with 150 people being injured.
Israel says the operation’s goal is to allow approximately 60,000 displaced people to return to their homes across northern Israel after a year of simmering cross-border fighting.
Hezbollah began firing on Israel in solidarity with its Palestinian allies a day after Hamas’s 7 October attack last year that triggered the new war in Gaza and now threatens to drag in Iran and the US.
In a statement on Tuesday, the anniversary of Hezbollah’s involvement, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the UN’s special coordinator for Lebanon, and Lt Gen Aroldo Lázaro of Unifil, the head of the peacekeeping force on the blue line, called for a “negotiated solution” to end the latest round of violence.
“Near-daily exchanges of fire have escalated into a relentless military campaign whose humanitarian impact is nothing short of catastrophic,” the statement said.
“A negotiated solution is the only pathway to restore the security and stability that civilians on both sides so desperately want and deserve … The time to act is now.”
The region is still waiting for Israel’s response to an unprecedented missile attack from Iran last week, launched in support of its Lebanese ally after Israel’s ground invasion.
Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, said in an interview with CNN late on Monday: “Everything is on the table. Israel has capabilities to hit targets near and far – we have proved it.”
Israel is consulting Washington, its most important ally, over how to retaliate against Tehran without triggering an even stronger response. The New York Times, citing US officials, said the US believed Israel would prioritise attacking military bases and intelligence sites before nuclear facilities.
A Pentagon spokesperson announced on Tuesday night that Gallant had cancelled plans for a visit to Washington to meet his US counterpart, Lloyd Austin, on Wednesday.
Netanyahu reportedly told Gallant his trip would not be approved until the Israeli prime minister has a phone call with Joe Biden to discuss the response to Iran’s missile attack, and until the Israeli security cabinet approves the plan.
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, earlier warned against a new Israeli attack. Fighting also continues to rage in Gaza. Israeli airstrikes killed 17 people in a refugee camp in the centre of the Palestinian territory on Tuesday, medics said.
At least 15 people, including two women and four children, were killed on Tuesday in ground fighting in the Jabaliya neighbourhood of Gaza City, the nearby Kamal Adwan hospital said, after new Israeli evacuation orders for the city were issued on Monday. The IDF has intensified bombing of the area and moved in tanks.
The Israeli military said it killed about 20 militants in Jabaliya and located a large quantity of weapons, including grenades and rifles.
Abu Obeida, a spokesperson for Hamas’s armed wing, said in a speech on the anniversary of the 7 October attack that the group would “keep up the fight in a long war of attrition, one that is painful and costly for the enemy”.
Hamas fired a barrage of longer-range rockets at Tel Aviv on Monday’s anniversary, underscoring that the group’s military capabilities are eroded but not yet defunct after a year of war.
A total of 1,205 people were killed on 7 October and 251 taken hostage. Another 41,965 people have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory war in Gaza over the past year, which has also drawn in militia groups allied to Iran in Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
Israeli media outlets reported earlier this week that government officials have not met to discuss the stalled ceasefire and hostage swap negotiations aimed at ending the war in Gaza for more than two weeks.
THE GUARDIAN
Israel has said it is expanding its ground operation in Lebanon with the deployment of a fourth division after another night of intense airstrikes across the south and east of the country.
The reservist 146th division was sent to southern Lebanon overnight, hours after Israel announced the mobilisation of a third standing division, meaning the number of troops on the ground is now likely to number 15,000.
Launching what it has called Operation Northern Arrows last week, the Israeli army said the ground offensive would involve “limited, localised and targeted raids” to remove Hezbollah infrastructure along the disputed de facto border between the two countries, known as the blue line.
However, the rapid deployment of four divisions operating across south Lebanon, alongside evacuation orders for Lebanese villages on the coast upwards of 20 miles from the blue line and the intensive bombing of the country’s south and east and the capital, suggests Israel is preparing for a wider push north against the Lebanese militia.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday threatened Lebanon with “destruction” such as Israel has already wreaked in Gaza.
“You have an opportunity to save Lebanon before it falls into the abyss of a long war that will lead to destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza,” he said in a video address directed to the people of Lebanon. “I say to you, the people of Lebanon: Free your country from Hezbollah so that this war can end.”
In a defiant speech on Tuesday, Hezbollah’s acting secretary general, Naim Qassem, said the group’s military capabilities were still functional despite two weeks of heavy Israeli airstrikes, including Beirut bombings that killed the group’s longtime leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and much of the militia’s top command.
“You see that our daily accomplishments are great. Hundreds of rockets and dozens of aircraft [drones], a great number of [Israeli] settlements and cities have come under rocket fire … I would like to reassure you that our capabilities are fine,” he said.
Hezbollah had replaced all of its senior commanders, he said, and Israeli ground troops had not made any advances after a week of fighting.
However, Netanyahu, claimed the IDF had killed Hashem Safieddine, the man expected to replace the late Nasrallah.
“We’ve degraded Hezbollah’s capabilities. We took out thousands of terrorists, including Nasrallah himself and Nasrallah’s replacement, and the replacement of the replacement,” Netanyahu said in a pre-recorded video message. It was not immediately clear whom Netanyahu meant by the “replacement of the replacement”.
Hezbollah has not confirmed Safieddine’s death.
The IDF said that it had also killed Suhail Husseini, responsible for overseeing logistics, budget and management, the night before. There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah, but about 85 projectiles were launched towards the northern Israeli city of Haifa from Lebanon on Tuesday morning. Most of the projectiles were intercepted by Israel’s air defence systems.
Two Israeli airstrikes hit Beirut’s Shia-majority southern suburbs almost immediately after Qassem’s speech. There were reports of a “massive airstrike” in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, about 30km east of Beirut, on Tuesday night, and at least four strikes on Dahiyeh, the southern suburb of Beirut where Nasrallah was killed.
Elsewhere, the Syrian government said seven civilians were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Damascus, that a war monitor said targeted a building used by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
The defence ministry said women and children were among the dead and the toll was preliminary as rescuers were still combing the rubble. None of the dead were Iranian, the Iranian embassy in Damascus said.
At least 1,400 Lebanese people, including civilians, medics and Hezbollah fighters, have been killed and 1.2 million – about a quarter of the population – have been driven from their homes since fighting escalated three weeks ago.
The Lebanese health ministry said at least 36 people had been killed in Israeli attacks over the past 24 hours, with 150 people being injured.
Israel says the operation’s goal is to allow approximately 60,000 displaced people to return to their homes across northern Israel after a year of simmering cross-border fighting.
Hezbollah began firing on Israel in solidarity with its Palestinian allies a day after Hamas’s 7 October attack last year that triggered the new war in Gaza and now threatens to drag in Iran and the US.
In a statement on Tuesday, the anniversary of Hezbollah’s involvement, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the UN’s special coordinator for Lebanon, and Lt Gen Aroldo Lázaro of Unifil, the head of the peacekeeping force on the blue line, called for a “negotiated solution” to end the latest round of violence.
“Near-daily exchanges of fire have escalated into a relentless military campaign whose humanitarian impact is nothing short of catastrophic,” the statement said.
“A negotiated solution is the only pathway to restore the security and stability that civilians on both sides so desperately want and deserve … The time to act is now.”
The region is still waiting for Israel’s response to an unprecedented missile attack from Iran last week, launched in support of its Lebanese ally after Israel’s ground invasion.
Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, said in an interview with CNN late on Monday: “Everything is on the table. Israel has capabilities to hit targets near and far – we have proved it.”
Israel is consulting Washington, its most important ally, over how to retaliate against Tehran without triggering an even stronger response. The New York Times, citing US officials, said the US believed Israel would prioritise attacking military bases and intelligence sites before nuclear facilities.
A Pentagon spokesperson announced on Tuesday night that Gallant had cancelled plans for a visit to Washington to meet his US counterpart, Lloyd Austin, on Wednesday.
Netanyahu reportedly told Gallant his trip would not be approved until the Israeli prime minister has a phone call with Joe Biden to discuss the response to Iran’s missile attack, and until the Israeli security cabinet approves the plan.
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, earlier warned against a new Israeli attack. Fighting also continues to rage in Gaza. Israeli airstrikes killed 17 people in a refugee camp in the centre of the Palestinian territory on Tuesday, medics said.
At least 15 people, including two women and four children, were killed on Tuesday in ground fighting in the Jabaliya neighbourhood of Gaza City, the nearby Kamal Adwan hospital said, after new Israeli evacuation orders for the city were issued on Monday. The IDF has intensified bombing of the area and moved in tanks.
The Israeli military said it killed about 20 militants in Jabaliya and located a large quantity of weapons, including grenades and rifles.
Abu Obeida, a spokesperson for Hamas’s armed wing, said in a speech on the anniversary of the 7 October attack that the group would “keep up the fight in a long war of attrition, one that is painful and costly for the enemy”.
Hamas fired a barrage of longer-range rockets at Tel Aviv on Monday’s anniversary, underscoring that the group’s military capabilities are eroded but not yet defunct after a year of war.
A total of 1,205 people were killed on 7 October and 251 taken hostage. Another 41,965 people have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory war in Gaza over the past year, which has also drawn in militia groups allied to Iran in Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
Israeli media outlets reported earlier this week that government officials have not met to discuss the stalled ceasefire and hostage swap negotiations aimed at ending the war in Gaza for more than two weeks.
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Two people killed in Israel’s Kiryat Shmona by Hezbollah rocket fire, medics say
Israeli emergency responders said two people were killed Wednesday in a rocket attack on the northern city of Kiryat Shmona, as the army and Lebanon’s Hezbollah exchanged fire along the border.
“We found a man and a woman aged around 40 years old, unconscious and injured by shrapnel,” said emergency service provider Magen David Adom in a statement.
“We carried out medical examinations, but their injuries were serious and we had to declare them dead on the spot.”
The incident is the first involving civilian deaths since Israel sent ground troops into southern Lebanon and began targeting Hezbollah positions with regular airstrikes on Beirut.
Kiryat Shmona has been declared a closed military zone because of its proximity to the Lebanese border, and is a frequent target of Hezbollah rocket salvos.
The Israeli military said approximately 20 projectile launches were identified crossing from Lebanon after air raid sirens were activated in Kiryat Shmona.
Israel expanded operations in Lebanon nearly a year after Hezbollah began cross-border fire in support of its ally, Hamas, following the Palestinian group’s deadly attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
While battling Hamas in Gaza, Israel has vowed to secure its northern border with Lebanon to allow tens of thousands of Israelis displaced by Hezbollah fire to return home.
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Lebanon's Hezbollah said on Wednesday its fighters had pushed back advancing Israeli forces in clashes along the border, including in a village where Israeli troops had been filmed hoisting an Israeli flag
The ground clashes, which are spreading along Lebanon's mountainous frontier with Israel, took place with the Gaza war still raging and as the Israeli government prepares to retaliate against Iran for a missile attack last week.
U.S. President Joe Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about Israel's plans in a call. The Middle East has been on edge awaiting Israel's response to the strike, which Tehran carried out in retaliation for Israel's escalation in Lebanon, aimed at degrading Iran-backed Hezbollah.
The White House and Netanyahu's office both reported the phone call without giving any immediate details on what was discussed.
"Our attack will be deadly, precise and above all surprising, they will not understand what happened and how it happened, they will see the results," Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said in a video published on Israeli media.
Lebanon's Hezbollah and Hamas in Gaza are both parts of Iran's network of allied armed movements across the Middle East. Israeli assassinations of Hezbollah leaders have dealt a blow to Iran but the group has vowed to fight on.
Source: Reuters
The ground clashes, which are spreading along Lebanon's mountainous frontier with Israel, took place with the Gaza war still raging and as the Israeli government prepares to retaliate against Iran for a missile attack last week.
U.S. President Joe Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about Israel's plans in a call. The Middle East has been on edge awaiting Israel's response to the strike, which Tehran carried out in retaliation for Israel's escalation in Lebanon, aimed at degrading Iran-backed Hezbollah.
The White House and Netanyahu's office both reported the phone call without giving any immediate details on what was discussed.
"Our attack will be deadly, precise and above all surprising, they will not understand what happened and how it happened, they will see the results," Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said in a video published on Israeli media.
Lebanon's Hezbollah and Hamas in Gaza are both parts of Iran's network of allied armed movements across the Middle East. Israeli assassinations of Hezbollah leaders have dealt a blow to Iran but the group has vowed to fight on.
Source: Reuters
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Hezbollah fires dozens more rockets into Israel
In the last few hours, Hezbollah has been firing more rockets into northern Israel.
The Israeli army says it detected 40 projectiles – which are generally rockets or missiles – fired from Lebanon into the Upper Galilee area. Some were intercepted by Israel's missile defence system but others fell into the area, it says.
Hezbollah confirms it fired rockets at Israeli soldiers in the Ma'ayan Baruch kibbutz and in Beit Hillel - both close to the Lebanon border.
It also says it has fired more rockets tat Kiryat Shmona, where yesterday two Israeli civilians were killed.
BBC
In the last few hours, Hezbollah has been firing more rockets into northern Israel.
The Israeli army says it detected 40 projectiles – which are generally rockets or missiles – fired from Lebanon into the Upper Galilee area. Some were intercepted by Israel's missile defence system but others fell into the area, it says.
Hezbollah confirms it fired rockets at Israeli soldiers in the Ma'ayan Baruch kibbutz and in Beit Hillel - both close to the Lebanon border.
It also says it has fired more rockets tat Kiryat Shmona, where yesterday two Israeli civilians were killed.
BBC
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Lebanon state media says Israeli strike hits central Beirut
State media said an Israeli strike hit the central area of Lebanon’s capital on Thursday, the third such attack on Beirut since Israel escalated its air campaign last month.Israel has repeatedly pounded southern Beirut suburbs, the bastion of Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement, bastion for more than two weeks but strikes have rarely hit in the city’s center.
“An enemy strike targeted the area of Ras Al-Nabaa-Nweiri” residential neighborhoods, adding that ambulances rushed to the targeted sites.
An AFP journalist in Beirut heard three loud explosions.
A security official, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, told AFP that the strikes hit two locations in the area of Nweiri.
AFP live footage showed two plumes of smoke billowing in between densely-packed buildings where lights were still on in the windows.
Last month, Israeli bombing killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in south Beirut.
Source: Arab News
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At least 11 killed in Beirut attack
At least 11 people have been killed and 48 more injured in reported Israeli strikes on Beirut this evening, according to Lebanon's health ministry.
The attack after nightfall reportedly targeted at least one senior Hezbollah figure, security sources told Reuters.
According to an Associated Press photographer at the scene, the first strike in the area of Ras al Nabaa seemingly hit the lower half of an eight-story apartment building.
A large number of ambulances were at the scene.
A separate strike, reportedly in the area of Burj Abi Haidar, destroyed an entire building which was engulfed in flames, the photographer said.
Israel's military has not yet commented.
SKY News
At least 11 people have been killed and 48 more injured in reported Israeli strikes on Beirut this evening, according to Lebanon's health ministry.
The attack after nightfall reportedly targeted at least one senior Hezbollah figure, security sources told Reuters.
According to an Associated Press photographer at the scene, the first strike in the area of Ras al Nabaa seemingly hit the lower half of an eight-story apartment building.
A large number of ambulances were at the scene.
A separate strike, reportedly in the area of Burj Abi Haidar, destroyed an entire building which was engulfed in flames, the photographer said.
Israel's military has not yet commented.
SKY News
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Senior Hezbollah official survives Israeli assassination attempt, sources say
A senior Hezbollah official eluded an Israeli assassination attempt on Thursday in Beirut, three security sources said, as Israeli strikes there killed 22 people and the U.N. said its peacekeepers in southern Lebanon were in growing danger.
Wafiq Safa, who heads Hezbollah's liaison and coordination unit responsible for working with Lebanese security agencies, was targeted by Israel on Thursday night but survived, the security sources said.
Earlier on Thursday, a Lebanese security source told Reuters that Israeli airstrikes on central Beirut targeted at least one senior official in Iran-backed Hezbollah.
The Israeli strikes hit a densely packed residential neighbourhood of apartment buildings and shops in the heart of Beirut. Israel had not previously struck the area, which is removed from Beirut's southern suburbs where Hezbollah's headquarters have been repeatedly bombed by Israel.
A senior Hezbollah official eluded an Israeli assassination attempt on Thursday in Beirut, three security sources said, as Israeli strikes there killed 22 people and the U.N. said its peacekeepers in southern Lebanon were in growing danger.
Wafiq Safa, who heads Hezbollah's liaison and coordination unit responsible for working with Lebanese security agencies, was targeted by Israel on Thursday night but survived, the security sources said.
Earlier on Thursday, a Lebanese security source told Reuters that Israeli airstrikes on central Beirut targeted at least one senior official in Iran-backed Hezbollah.
The Israeli strikes hit a densely packed residential neighbourhood of apartment buildings and shops in the heart of Beirut. Israel had not previously struck the area, which is removed from Beirut's southern suburbs where Hezbollah's headquarters have been repeatedly bombed by Israel.
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Hezbollah says it's targeted Israeli troops in northern Israel
Hezbollah's military media office says the group launched an aerial attack on a "gathering" of Israeli soldiers in northern Israel at 08:30 local time (06:30 BST) this morning.
In an update on Telegram, the groups says it targeted an Israeli air defence command base in Kiryat Eliezer in Haifa, northern Israel.
It adds that it also targeted more Israeli soldiers with rockets in Kfar Szold, a kibbutz in northern Israel, at 10:50 local time (08:50).
Hezbollah's military media office says the group launched an aerial attack on a "gathering" of Israeli soldiers in northern Israel at 08:30 local time (06:30 BST) this morning.
In an update on Telegram, the groups says it targeted an Israeli air defence command base in Kiryat Eliezer in Haifa, northern Israel.
It adds that it also targeted more Israeli soldiers with rockets in Kfar Szold, a kibbutz in northern Israel, at 10:50 local time (08:50).
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Beirut strikes: Rescue workers search for signs of missing under rubble
Amid acrid smoke and cries from residents, rescue workers were searching Friday morning for signs of anyone left trapped in the rubble from two Israeli air strikes that hit central Beirut overnight.
According to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health, 22 people died and 117 were wounded, making these the deadliest strikes in central Beirut of the recent escalation.
At the site of the heaviest of the two, in the Shia neighbourhood of Basta, the head of the Civil Defence rescue team Youssef Al-Mallah told the BBC that five people were still unaccounted for.
The Civil Defence has appealed for family members of the missing to come forward with any information on their whereabouts.aa
Unconfirmed reports Friday said that Wafiq Safa, the head of Hezbollah’s liaison and coordination unit, was the target of one of the strikes but managed to survive.
Israeli authorities have not commented. They issued no warnings ahead of the strikes, as they have in some instances.
Both the strikes on Beirut hit residential buildings in densely packed neighbourhoods. The missile that hit Basta destroyed a four-storey building completely and severely damaged or destroyed at least three adjacent buildings.
The other strike, on the mostly Shia neighbourhood of Nweiri, hit the third floor of an eight-storey building, ejecting large pieces of rubble into the streets and destroying cars and shopfronts below.
The timing of the strikes - at about 20:00 local time, 18:00 BST - meant that many residents of the neighbourhoods were at home or on the street in the vicinity.
Hassan Jaafar, a 22-year-old security guard, was at home just 50m from the Basta strike. He told the BBC they heard a "roar that seemed to grow closer with every second".
"The shockwave knocked us off our feet, sending us backwards as dust and debris filled the air," he said. "For a moment, everything vanished in a cloud of ash."
Jaafar said he and his friends were bruised and cut in the strike by flying debris and glass. "In that moment, it felt like the war had expanded into our lives," he said.
On the massive pile of rubble left by the strike on Friday morning, distraught residents looked on at their destroyed apartments and pleaded with members of the Civil Defence team to help them retrieve surviving possessions.
One group of women was searching for a missing relative - a mother of young children who was last seen on a stretcher at the site. The Civil Defence team told the group they needed to check at every hospital in person.
“If she left here on a gurney she will be at a hospital somewhere,” a rescue worker said.
Ibtisam Mazloum, 42, was in her building nearby when the strike hit. “If they want to fight they should fight at the border,” she said, angily. “The civilians in Beirut are not part of this.”
At the site of the Nweiri strike, Musa Araf, who works for the Civil Defence, described being in his apartment on the sixth floor of the target building when the missile hit.
“I didn’t panic because of my job, I am used to it,” he said. “But my children were screaming and clinging on to me. One of my grandchildren was cut by flying glass.”
This is the third time Israel has launched air strikes on Beirut outside of the city’s southern suburb of Dahieh, where the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah has a strong presence.
The previous strikes on central Beirut targeted members of Hezbollah and the People’s Front for the Liberation of Palestine, according to the IDF. One hit a health clinic which the IDF described as Hezbollah-affiliated and killed nine people.
Hezbollah said on Friday it had launched an attack on an Israeli military base in the northern city of Haifa using explosive-laden drones.
The Iran-backed group said the attack was a retaliation for Israeli strikes on Beirut.
BBC
Amid acrid smoke and cries from residents, rescue workers were searching Friday morning for signs of anyone left trapped in the rubble from two Israeli air strikes that hit central Beirut overnight.
According to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health, 22 people died and 117 were wounded, making these the deadliest strikes in central Beirut of the recent escalation.
At the site of the heaviest of the two, in the Shia neighbourhood of Basta, the head of the Civil Defence rescue team Youssef Al-Mallah told the BBC that five people were still unaccounted for.
The Civil Defence has appealed for family members of the missing to come forward with any information on their whereabouts.aa
Unconfirmed reports Friday said that Wafiq Safa, the head of Hezbollah’s liaison and coordination unit, was the target of one of the strikes but managed to survive.
Israeli authorities have not commented. They issued no warnings ahead of the strikes, as they have in some instances.
Both the strikes on Beirut hit residential buildings in densely packed neighbourhoods. The missile that hit Basta destroyed a four-storey building completely and severely damaged or destroyed at least three adjacent buildings.
The other strike, on the mostly Shia neighbourhood of Nweiri, hit the third floor of an eight-storey building, ejecting large pieces of rubble into the streets and destroying cars and shopfronts below.
The timing of the strikes - at about 20:00 local time, 18:00 BST - meant that many residents of the neighbourhoods were at home or on the street in the vicinity.
Hassan Jaafar, a 22-year-old security guard, was at home just 50m from the Basta strike. He told the BBC they heard a "roar that seemed to grow closer with every second".
"The shockwave knocked us off our feet, sending us backwards as dust and debris filled the air," he said. "For a moment, everything vanished in a cloud of ash."
Jaafar said he and his friends were bruised and cut in the strike by flying debris and glass. "In that moment, it felt like the war had expanded into our lives," he said.
On the massive pile of rubble left by the strike on Friday morning, distraught residents looked on at their destroyed apartments and pleaded with members of the Civil Defence team to help them retrieve surviving possessions.
One group of women was searching for a missing relative - a mother of young children who was last seen on a stretcher at the site. The Civil Defence team told the group they needed to check at every hospital in person.
“If she left here on a gurney she will be at a hospital somewhere,” a rescue worker said.
Ibtisam Mazloum, 42, was in her building nearby when the strike hit. “If they want to fight they should fight at the border,” she said, angily. “The civilians in Beirut are not part of this.”
At the site of the Nweiri strike, Musa Araf, who works for the Civil Defence, described being in his apartment on the sixth floor of the target building when the missile hit.
“I didn’t panic because of my job, I am used to it,” he said. “But my children were screaming and clinging on to me. One of my grandchildren was cut by flying glass.”
This is the third time Israel has launched air strikes on Beirut outside of the city’s southern suburb of Dahieh, where the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah has a strong presence.
The previous strikes on central Beirut targeted members of Hezbollah and the People’s Front for the Liberation of Palestine, according to the IDF. One hit a health clinic which the IDF described as Hezbollah-affiliated and killed nine people.
Hezbollah said on Friday it had launched an attack on an Israeli military base in the northern city of Haifa using explosive-laden drones.
The Iran-backed group said the attack was a retaliation for Israeli strikes on Beirut.
BBC
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Hezbollah forges new command for crucial ground war after heavy Israeli blows
Hezbollah is preparing for a long war of attrition in south Lebanon, after Israel wiped out its top leadership, with a new military command directing rocket fire and the ground conflict, two sources familiar with its operations said.
Hezbollah has been diminished by three weeks of devastating Israeli blows - most notably the killing of its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. Friends and foes alike are now watching how effectively it resists Israeli troops that have crossed into Lebanon with the stated aim of driving it away from the border.
The Iran-backed group still has a considerable stockpile of weapons, including its most powerful precision missiles which it has yet to use, four sources familiar with its operations said, despite waves of airstrikes that Israel says has severely depleted its arsenal.
Hezbollah's command was disrupted for the first few days after Nasrallah's Sept. 27 assassination until Shi'ite militants established a new "operations room" 72 hours later, the two sources - a Hezbollah field commander and a source close to the group - told Reuters.
Nasrallah was killed, along with other Hezbollah leaders and an Iranian commander, when Israel located and bombed his deep bunker below Beirut.
The new command centre has kept functioning despite subsequent Israeli attacks, meaning fighters in the south are able to fire rockets and fight according to centrally issued orders, according to the sources, who asked not to be named in order to discuss sensitive matters.
A third source, a senior official close to Hezbollah, said the group was now waging a war of attrition.
Avraham Levine, an analyst with Israeli think-tank Alma, said it should be assumed Hezbollah was "well prepared and waiting" for Israeli troops and that it was no easy target.
"The fact that the chain of command has been damaged does not take away the ability to shoot Israeli communities or try to hit" Israeli forces, Levine told Reuters, describing Hezbollah as "the same powerful terror army we all know."
Fighters have the flexibility to carry out orders "according to the capabilities of the front," the Hezbollah field commander said. He described the new command as "a narrow circle" in direct contact with the field. It is rare for a Hezbollah field commander to speak to international media.
He said the new command operates in total secrecy and gave no further details about its communications or structure. Hezbollah has not named a new leader after Nasrallah, with the most likely successor also killed. The Shi'ite group's deputy leader Sheikh Naim Qassem said this week he supported ceasefire efforts, but maintained that the group's capabilities remained intact.
Another source familiar with Hezbollah's operations said the group's dedicated, fixed-line phone network was "essential" to current communications. Sources have said the network survived attacks on the group's communications in September.
A statement this week signed by the "operations room of the Islamic Resistance" said fighters were resisting incursions and "watching and listening" to Israeli troops where they least expect it — an apparent reference to concealed Hezbollah positions. The statement, the first public acknowledgment of the existence of a new command, did not name its members or say when and in what context it was established.
Hezbollah's media office did not respond to a request for comment ahead of publication, which included a detailed summary of the information provided by the field commander and other sources. After this story was published, Hezbollah's media office said in a written statement that the part of Reuters' story "attributed to a Hezbollah field commander is completely false" and that there are "no sources in Hezbollah."
Asked about the situation in Lebanon, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) referred Reuters to previous public statements.
Tunnel Warfare
Israel announced on Oct. 1 that ground forces had entered southern Lebanon, initially with commando units, followed by regular armored units and infantry. Reservists from the 146th Division are now on the ground, the military said on Tuesday, bringing to four the number of divisions on Lebanese soil.Israel has not said how many soldiers are on the ground, but an Israeli division usually consists of more than 1,000 fighters. The troops are engaged in close-quarters battles with Hezbollah units, Israel says. Twelve Israeli soldiers have been killed in southern Lebanon or northern Israel since the start of the operation, according to Israel.
Hezbollah possesses an extensive tunnel network in southern Lebanon, according to both the group and Israel. The tunnels expanded after the group's 2006 war with Israel, according to a 2021 report by the think tank Alma. Israel estimates they extend for hundreds of kilometers.
The Hezbollah field commander said the tunnels "are the foundation of the battle." Hezbollah had toiled for years to build them, he added. "Their time has come," he said.
Israel's military has released video footage it says shows deep tunnels captured by its soldiers. One video released on Oct. 5 appears to show an underground room equipped with fixed-line telephones. Reuters could not verify the date or location of the footage.
The source close to Hezbollah said the tunnels detected by Israel were built for its Radwan special forces units to one day enter the Galilee region of northern Israel. The source claimed Israel did not know the full extent of the tunnels.
Down but Not Out
Andreas Krieg, a senior lecturer at the School of Security Studies at King's College London, said Hezbollah's capabilities had been degraded, but it was still able to fire rockets with intensity onto Israel while keeping their ballistic missiles as weapons of last resort. Hezbollah claims to have increased fire in recent days.Prior to the latest conflict, the World Factbook of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency said Hezbollah possessed upwards of 150,000 missiles and rockets. The two sources said Hezbollah had chosen not to use its most potent rockets — including precision-guided missiles — to keep something in reserve for a long war and to avoid giving Israel a pretext to widen its strikes to Lebanese infrastructure, such as Beirut airport, roads, and bridges.
The third source said the group had not targeted Israel's cities, such as Tel Aviv, with its most powerful weapons because such a move would give Israel a reason to hit Lebanon even harder.
There is no doubt Israel has inflicted enormous damage on Hezbollah. In September, thousands of booby-trapped communications devices used by Hezbollah members were detonated — an attack for which Israel has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility.
Beginning Sept. 23, Israel dramatically escalated airstrikes, claiming to have destroyed tens of thousands of Hezbollah rockets, mostly in southern Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley, and Beirut's southern suburbs. Israeli officials have said that the fact Hezbollah has been firing 100-200 missiles and rockets a day on average, and not the thousands expected, shows significant weakening.
Estimates have varied about the scale of Hezbollah's losses, with one Western diplomat saying that prior to Nasrallah's killing, up to 25% of their missile capacity had been lost. Reuters has previously reported that Iran had offered to restock its ally but faced challenges in supply routes.
The Israeli military says it has killed hundreds of Hezbollah fighters, including most of the senior command of the Radwan special forces. The United States, which deems Hezbollah a terrorist group, said deputy leader Qassem's call on Tuesday for a ceasefire showed it was on the back foot.
Guerrilla Tactics
In one deadly engagement last week, concealed Hezbollah fighters attacked Israeli troops as they advanced in the area of Odaisseh, a village in the south, just after Israel had pounded it with artillery and airstrikes, the source close to Hezbollah said.The Hezbollah fighters used mines and Russian-made Kornet anti-tank missiles in their ambush — the types of weapons used against Israeli forces in southern Lebanon during the 2006 war.
The source appeared to be referring to an incident in which the Israeli military said five soldiers from a commando unit were killed and five others severely wounded in a gun battle on Oct. 2. The Israeli military declined to give details beyond its already published statements. That same day, two other soldiers were killed in a separate incident announced by the Israeli army.
Israel says it aims to secure the return of tens of thousands of people who evacuated northern Israel after Hezbollah began firing rockets a year ago in solidarity with Hamas in Gaza. Lebanese authorities say Israel's offensive has uprooted more than 1 million people in Lebanon — predominantly members of the Shi'ite community from which Hezbollah draws support.
Mohanad Hage Ali of the Beirut-based Carnegie Middle East Center said he expected Israeli forces to advance. "The question is how costly will Hezbollah make it for them?"
The south is steeped in symbolism for Hezbollah. The group was founded by Iran's Revolutionary Guards in the early 1980s, in part to fight an Israeli invasion. It subsequently battled Israel's years-long occupation.
"Fighting Israel on the ground is Hezbollah's bread and butter," said Krieg. "This is what they have trained to do and most of their defenses on the ground were designed" for this, he said.
He said Hezbollah wants to send a clear message to Israel, but also to its constituents in Lebanon and allies in the Iran-backed Axis of Resistance that it is still intact and "can inflict considerable harm" on Israel's forces.
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Israel says soldier killed in southern Gaza fighting
The Israeli military has confirmed that Staff Sargeant Ittai Fogel of an armoured brigade has been killed in fighting in the southern Gaza Strip.
It did not provide details about how he died. The soldier was from an illegal settlement in the occupied West Bank and served as a tank commander in the besieged enclave.
Al Jazeera
The Israeli military has confirmed that Staff Sargeant Ittai Fogel of an armoured brigade has been killed in fighting in the southern Gaza Strip.
It did not provide details about how he died. The soldier was from an illegal settlement in the occupied West Bank and served as a tank commander in the besieged enclave.
Al Jazeera
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Israel says UN peacekeepers ‘inadvertently hurt’ during its attack
The Israeli military says it was “conducting a thorough review” to determine details of attacks on UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, after mission members were injured on consecutive days.
The military said it was notified “that two UN peacekeepers were inadvertently hurt during [Israeli military] combat against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
The [Israeli military] expresses deep concern over incidents of this kind and is currently conducting a thorough review at the highest levels of command to determine the details,” the army said in a statement.
Al Jazeera
The Israeli military says it was “conducting a thorough review” to determine details of attacks on UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, after mission members were injured on consecutive days.
The military said it was notified “that two UN peacekeepers were inadvertently hurt during [Israeli military] combat against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
The [Israeli military] expresses deep concern over incidents of this kind and is currently conducting a thorough review at the highest levels of command to determine the details,” the army said in a statement.
Al Jazeera
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Hezbollah denies report about a ‘new military command’
Hezbollah has rejected a report by the Reuters news agency that cites an unnamed field commander and another source close to the group as saying a new centralised command structure is allowing the group to carry out attacks against Israel despite the killing of its top leaders.
“This report is nothing more than the imagination of Reuters writers, journalists and security consultants, and certainly what it attributed to a field commander in Hezbollah is completely false,” the group said in a statement.
“Our policy, as has become known and may be necessary to emphasise again, is that there are no sources in Hezbollah, let alone a field commander, that would provide such dangerous information attributed to him.”
Reuters claimed that the Lebanese group is now firing rockets and fighting according to centrally issued orders, and is planning to wage a war of attrition.
Al Jazeera
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Spanish PM demands ‘end to all violence’ against UNIFIL
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has demanded an “end to all violence” against UN peacekeepers in Lebanon after Israeli fire wounded two mission members near the Israeli border for the second consecutive day.
“This is absolutely unacceptable. It is totally unacceptable, and we demand an end to all violence, which, unfortunately, the Blue Helmets are suffering,” Sanchez said at a summit of European and Mediterranean leaders in Cyprus.
Source: Al Jazeera
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has demanded an “end to all violence” against UN peacekeepers in Lebanon after Israeli fire wounded two mission members near the Israeli border for the second consecutive day.
“This is absolutely unacceptable. It is totally unacceptable, and we demand an end to all violence, which, unfortunately, the Blue Helmets are suffering,” Sanchez said at a summit of European and Mediterranean leaders in Cyprus.
Source: Al Jazeera
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Southern Europe pledges support for Lebanese army
The leaders of nine southern European Union countries have pledged support for Lebanon's armed forces to reassert control over the country's southern territory.
The MED9 - Italy, Spain, France, Greece, Malta, Cyprus, Slovenia, Portugal and Croatia - made a joint statement, with French President Emmanuel Macron saying the restoration of Lebanese sovereignty was "essential to its peace and stability".
Mr Macron didn't specify what form that support would take, but said a Paris conference on 24 October would aim to ramp up aid deliveries to Lebanon and bolster the country's military and internal security forces.
The Lebanese Army is a separate entity from Hezbollah and is not party to the conflict with Israel - though an Israeli airstrike killed two of its soldiers today.
SKY News
The leaders of nine southern European Union countries have pledged support for Lebanon's armed forces to reassert control over the country's southern territory.
The MED9 - Italy, Spain, France, Greece, Malta, Cyprus, Slovenia, Portugal and Croatia - made a joint statement, with French President Emmanuel Macron saying the restoration of Lebanese sovereignty was "essential to its peace and stability".
Mr Macron didn't specify what form that support would take, but said a Paris conference on 24 October would aim to ramp up aid deliveries to Lebanon and bolster the country's military and internal security forces.
The Lebanese Army is a separate entity from Hezbollah and is not party to the conflict with Israel - though an Israeli airstrike killed two of its soldiers today.
SKY News
If Europe was so concerned about Lebanese army, they should have supported them in eliminating Hezbollah from their country.
Lebanon was used as a base to target Israel for decades by Hezbollah and Europe is now waking up to it
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US urges Israel to stop shooting at UN peacekeepers in Lebanon
US President Joe Biden has said he is "absolutely, positively" urging Israel to stop firing at UN peacekeepers during its conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon, following two incidents in 48 hours.
On Friday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its troops were responsible for the incident, in which two Sri Lankan soldiers for the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) were injured.
IDF soldiers operating around the Unifil base in Naqoura identified a threat and opened fire, the Israeli army said, adding the incident would be investigated "at the highest levels".
On Thursday, Unfil's two Indonesian soldiers were injured falling from an observation tower after an Israeli tank fired towards it.
The leaders of France, Italy and Spain issued a joint statement condemning Israel's actions, saying they were unjustifiable and should immediately come to an end.
Sri Lanka's foreign ministry said it "strongly condemns" the IDF attack which injured two of its soldiers.
The head of UN peacekeeping said there was reason to believe some firing on UN positions in southern Lebanon had been direct, though he did not ascribe responsibility for the incidents.
"For example we have a case where a tower was hit by a fire and also damages to cameras at one of the positions - which obviously to us very much looked like direct fire," Jean-Pierre Lacroix told the BBC's Newshour programme.
As Israel's invasion of southern Lebanon continues, the IDF and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah continued to fire missiles and rockets across the Israel-Lebanon border.
The IDF said it had detected about 100 rockets crossing into northern Israel from Lebanon within the space of half an hour on Friday. Two unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) were detected crossing from Lebanon, one of which was intercepted, the IDF said.
The Lebanese ministry of health said three people, including a two-year-old girl, were killed in an Israeli raid on the city of Sidon in southern Lebanon. Two Lebanese soldiers were killed after Israeli forces targeted an army post in the town of Kafra in southern Lebanon, the Lebanese army said.
In the capital, Beirut, emergency workers continued to comb through the wreckage of buildings hit by two Israeli air strikes on Thursday.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said the attacks came with no warning and killed 22 people, all civilians, and injured another 117. Israel has not commented.
Israeli forces launched a ground invasion into southern Lebanon last month as they escalated their response to rocket fire from Hezbollah.
Hezbollah and Israel have been trading near-daily cross-border fire since last October, when the Palestinian armed group Hamas in the Gaza Strip carried out a deadly attack in southern Israel.
The IDF has said the UN post struck in Naqoura on Friday was about 164ft (50m) away from the source of the threat identified by soldiers. It said it had told peacekeeping troops to stay in protected spaces at the time.
Unifil said Israeli military vehicles had knocked over barriers at another UN site in Labbouneh, closer to the border with Israel.
The incidents represented a "serious development", it said.
Mikati said Friday’s attack was "a crime which is directed at the international community".
Israel argues that Unifil has failed to stabilise the region, and has asked peacekeepers to withdraw northwards so it can confront Hezbollah.
The Israeli ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, has reiterated Israel's call for Unifil personnel to withdraw north by 5km (3 miles) to "avoid danger," but the UN's Jean-Pierre Lacroix said they would remain in position.
About 10,000 peacekeepers from 50 countries are stationed in Lebanon, alongside around 800 civilian staff.
Since 1978, they have patrolled the area between the Litani River and the UN-recognised boundary between Lebanon and Israel, known as the "Blue Line".
Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel on 8 October last year, the day after Hamas's deadly attack on southern Israel. The Iran-backed group says it is acting in solidarity with the Palestinians and has said it will stop firing if there is a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
Over the past three weeks, Israel has dramatically escalated its campaign against Hezbollah, intensifying air strikes against southern Lebanon and southern parts of Beirut, assassinating Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah and launching a ground invasion.
Lebanon says more than 2,000 people have been killed, mainly in the recent escalation, and hundreds of thousands have been displaced. This week Hezbollah rocket fire has killed two Israeli civilians and a Thai national, Israeli authorities say.
In a separate development on Friday, Gaza's Hamas-run civil defence agency was quoted by the AFP news agency as saying at least 30 people were killed in Israeli strikes in the Jabalia town and refugee camp in the north of the Palestinian enclave.
The IDF has not commented on the issue.
Meanwhile, the medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said "thousands are trapped" in the Jabalia refugee camp, including five of its staff.
The MSF said Israeli forces had issued evacuation orders on 7 October in Jabalia, "while carrying out attacks at the same time", meaning people could not leave safely.
Dr Mohammed Salha, the acting director of the al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia, told the BBC's Newshour programme the area had been under siege for seven days.
He warned that the hospital would run out of fuel on Saturday, as Israeli forces were "cutting Jabalia from the rest of Gaza".
"No medication, no medical supplies, no healthy water, no fuel, so pressure, pressure on these people to move and go directly to the south," Dr Salha said.
Israel has been conducting a new ground operation in the area, saying it is targeting regrouping Hamas fighters who aim to launch attacks, with dozens of people reportedly killed or wounded in northern Gaza in recent days.
BBC
US President Joe Biden has said he is "absolutely, positively" urging Israel to stop firing at UN peacekeepers during its conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon, following two incidents in 48 hours.
On Friday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its troops were responsible for the incident, in which two Sri Lankan soldiers for the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) were injured.
IDF soldiers operating around the Unifil base in Naqoura identified a threat and opened fire, the Israeli army said, adding the incident would be investigated "at the highest levels".
On Thursday, Unfil's two Indonesian soldiers were injured falling from an observation tower after an Israeli tank fired towards it.
The leaders of France, Italy and Spain issued a joint statement condemning Israel's actions, saying they were unjustifiable and should immediately come to an end.
Sri Lanka's foreign ministry said it "strongly condemns" the IDF attack which injured two of its soldiers.
The head of UN peacekeeping said there was reason to believe some firing on UN positions in southern Lebanon had been direct, though he did not ascribe responsibility for the incidents.
"For example we have a case where a tower was hit by a fire and also damages to cameras at one of the positions - which obviously to us very much looked like direct fire," Jean-Pierre Lacroix told the BBC's Newshour programme.
As Israel's invasion of southern Lebanon continues, the IDF and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah continued to fire missiles and rockets across the Israel-Lebanon border.
The IDF said it had detected about 100 rockets crossing into northern Israel from Lebanon within the space of half an hour on Friday. Two unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) were detected crossing from Lebanon, one of which was intercepted, the IDF said.
The Lebanese ministry of health said three people, including a two-year-old girl, were killed in an Israeli raid on the city of Sidon in southern Lebanon. Two Lebanese soldiers were killed after Israeli forces targeted an army post in the town of Kafra in southern Lebanon, the Lebanese army said.
In the capital, Beirut, emergency workers continued to comb through the wreckage of buildings hit by two Israeli air strikes on Thursday.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said the attacks came with no warning and killed 22 people, all civilians, and injured another 117. Israel has not commented.
Israeli forces launched a ground invasion into southern Lebanon last month as they escalated their response to rocket fire from Hezbollah.
Hezbollah and Israel have been trading near-daily cross-border fire since last October, when the Palestinian armed group Hamas in the Gaza Strip carried out a deadly attack in southern Israel.
The IDF has said the UN post struck in Naqoura on Friday was about 164ft (50m) away from the source of the threat identified by soldiers. It said it had told peacekeeping troops to stay in protected spaces at the time.
Unifil said Israeli military vehicles had knocked over barriers at another UN site in Labbouneh, closer to the border with Israel.
The incidents represented a "serious development", it said.
Mikati said Friday’s attack was "a crime which is directed at the international community".
Israel argues that Unifil has failed to stabilise the region, and has asked peacekeepers to withdraw northwards so it can confront Hezbollah.
The Israeli ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, has reiterated Israel's call for Unifil personnel to withdraw north by 5km (3 miles) to "avoid danger," but the UN's Jean-Pierre Lacroix said they would remain in position.
About 10,000 peacekeepers from 50 countries are stationed in Lebanon, alongside around 800 civilian staff.
Since 1978, they have patrolled the area between the Litani River and the UN-recognised boundary between Lebanon and Israel, known as the "Blue Line".
Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel on 8 October last year, the day after Hamas's deadly attack on southern Israel. The Iran-backed group says it is acting in solidarity with the Palestinians and has said it will stop firing if there is a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
Over the past three weeks, Israel has dramatically escalated its campaign against Hezbollah, intensifying air strikes against southern Lebanon and southern parts of Beirut, assassinating Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah and launching a ground invasion.
Lebanon says more than 2,000 people have been killed, mainly in the recent escalation, and hundreds of thousands have been displaced. This week Hezbollah rocket fire has killed two Israeli civilians and a Thai national, Israeli authorities say.
In a separate development on Friday, Gaza's Hamas-run civil defence agency was quoted by the AFP news agency as saying at least 30 people were killed in Israeli strikes in the Jabalia town and refugee camp in the north of the Palestinian enclave.
The IDF has not commented on the issue.
Meanwhile, the medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said "thousands are trapped" in the Jabalia refugee camp, including five of its staff.
The MSF said Israeli forces had issued evacuation orders on 7 October in Jabalia, "while carrying out attacks at the same time", meaning people could not leave safely.
Dr Mohammed Salha, the acting director of the al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia, told the BBC's Newshour programme the area had been under siege for seven days.
He warned that the hospital would run out of fuel on Saturday, as Israeli forces were "cutting Jabalia from the rest of Gaza".
"No medication, no medical supplies, no healthy water, no fuel, so pressure, pressure on these people to move and go directly to the south," Dr Salha said.
Israel has been conducting a new ground operation in the area, saying it is targeting regrouping Hamas fighters who aim to launch attacks, with dozens of people reportedly killed or wounded in northern Gaza in recent days.
BBC
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Israeli military orders 22 villages in southern Lebanon to evacuate
The Israeli military has ordered residents of 22 southern Lebanese villages to evacuate immediately.
People have been urged to move north of the Awali river.
Israel Defence Forces spokesman Avichay Adraee said the military "does not seek to harm" civilians and was taking action against the Hezbollah militant group.
"For your own safety, you must evacuate your homes immediately. Anyone who is near Hezbollah elements, facilities or weapons is putting his life at risk," he added.
He said people were prohibited from heading south, warning residents that doing so "poses a danger" to their life.
Earlier this morning, evacuation orders were also issued to people in northern Gaza, where Israeli forces say they have been combatting another militant group backed by Iran, Hamas.
Sky News
The Israeli military has ordered residents of 22 southern Lebanese villages to evacuate immediately.
People have been urged to move north of the Awali river.
Israel Defence Forces spokesman Avichay Adraee said the military "does not seek to harm" civilians and was taking action against the Hezbollah militant group.
"For your own safety, you must evacuate your homes immediately. Anyone who is near Hezbollah elements, facilities or weapons is putting his life at risk," he added.
He said people were prohibited from heading south, warning residents that doing so "poses a danger" to their life.
Earlier this morning, evacuation orders were also issued to people in northern Gaza, where Israeli forces say they have been combatting another militant group backed by Iran, Hamas.
Sky News
offstump
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Israel has the right to defend itself
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