Israel’s siege of Gaza Strip, sparked by Hamas’ Oct 7 attack, nearing a year
Gaza civilian infrastructure decimated in Israeli strikes, leading to return of polio after decades
Starving Palestinians surviving on less than 3pc of daily water needs
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Tehran; Yahya Sinwar named successor
After deadly pager attacks, Israel extends its bombing to Lebanon, killing more than 550 people on Sept 23
A Palestinian armed group has said that three of its leaders were killed in an Israeli strike on Beirut, the first attack within city limits as Israel escalated hostilities against Iran’s allies in the region, Reuters reports.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) said the three leaders were killed in a strike that targeted Beirut’s Kola district.
The strike hit the upper floor of an apartment building in the Kola district of Lebanon’s capital, Reuters witnesses said. The PFLP is another armed group taking part in the fight against Israel.
There was no immediate comment from Israel’s military.
Monday’s attack in the Kola district appeared to be the first strike within Beirut’s city limits. Syrians living in southern Lebanon who had fled Israeli bombardment had been sleeping under a bridge in the neighbourhood for days, residents of the area said.
Saudi Arabia has said it stands by the Lebanese people in light of current events, making its first comment since Israel’s killing of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah but making no mention of him.
According to Reuters, in a statement, the Saudi foreign ministry emphasised that Lebanon’s sovereignty must be preserved.
In Lebanon, authorities said at least 105 people had been killed by Israeli air strikes on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the United States has urged a diplomatic resolution to the conflict in Lebanon but has also authorised its military to reinforce in the region, Reuters reports.
US President Joe Biden, asked if an all-out war in the Middle East could be avoided, said: “It has to be.” He said he would be talking to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israel on Sunday launched airstrikes against the Houthi militia in Yemen and dozens of Hezbollah targets throughout Lebanon after earlier killing the Hezbollah leader.
The Yemenese health ministry said at least four people were killed and 29 wounded in airstrikes on Yemen’s port of Hodeidah, which Israel said were a response to Houthi missile attacks. Lebanon’s Health Ministry has said more than 1,000 Lebanese have been killed and 6,000 wounded in the past two weeks.
A second French national has been killed in Lebanon, France’s foreign ministry has said, as Israel carried out fresh strikes against Hezbollah, AFP reports.
“We confirm the death of a second French national,” said the foreign ministry statement, adding that they would release more details later.
Last Monday, an 87-year-old French woman was killed when her home collapsed following an explosion in the south of the country.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has said that Israel would strike at foes no matter the distance after the military targeted Houthi sites in Yemen, AFP reports.
“Our message is clear — for us, no place is too far,” Gallant said in a statement issued by his office after he monitored the strikes from an air force command and control room about 2,000 kilometres from Yemen.
The Israeli military claimed to strike several Houthi rebel targets in Yemen, including power stations and a seaport, using dozens of aircraft, AFP reports.
“In a large-scale air operation today, dozens of Air Force aircraft, including fighter jets, refuelling planes, and reconnaissance aircraft, attacked military-use targets of the Houthi terrorist regime in the Ras Issa and Hodeidah areas of Yemen,” military spokesman Captain David Avraham said in a statement to AFP.
“The IDF (military) targeted power stations and a seaport used for oil imports,” a military statement said.
The Houthi-controlled Al-Masirah station Sunday that Israeli strikes targeted “the ports of Hodeidah and Ras Issa” as well as two power stations after previously announcing “Israeli aggression on Hodeida”.
Thousands of people protested across Pakistan after Hezbollah confirmed that its longtime chief had been killed by an Israeli air strike in Lebanon, AFP reports.
Around 4,000 people gathered in Islamabad and 3,000 in Karachi during rallies and funeral prayers for Nasrallah led by Shia Muslim groups.
“We stand against what Israel is doing in Palestine and Lebanon, this is why we are here today,” 27-year-old Taskeen Zafar said during the rally in Islamabad.
Israel will not be able to safely get people back into their homes in the north of the country by waging an all-out conflict with Hezbollah or Iran, Reuters reports quoting White House national security spokesman John Kirby.
Kirby also told CNN that the United States was continuing to talk to Israel about what the right next steps in Lebanon were.
Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip have killed at least 11 Palestinians, health officials in the enclave said on Sunday, as Israeli planes bombarded several northern, central and southern areas, Reuters reports.
A school sheltering displaced Palestinians in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip was among the buildings hit, killing four people and wounding several others, Gaza medics said.
The Israeli military claimed it struck Hamas militants operating from a command centre embedded in a compound that had previously served as Um Al-Fahm School.
It also said troops discovered and dismantled an underground tunnel route that is approximately 1 kilometre long near residential buildings and civilian spaces in central Gaza, adding that they found several rooms and equipment used by Hamas for prolonged periods.
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The Israeli military has claimed that the strike that killed Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut also “eliminated” more than 20 other members of the Lebanese group, AFP reports.
“More than 20 other terrorists of varying ranks, who were present at the underground headquarters in Beirut located beneath civilian buildings, and were managing Hezbollah’s terrorist operations against the state of Israel, were also eliminated,” the military said in a statement.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot will travel to Lebanon this evening, Al Jazeera reports according to a statement issued by his office.
“We confirm that the minister is going to Lebanon this weekend to talk with local authorities and provide French support, particularly humanitarian support,” the statement added.
Pope Francis called for an immediate ceasefire in “martyred” Lebanon and the wider Middle East as he ended a three-day visit to Belgium, AFP reports.
“I call on all parties to immediately cease fire in Lebanon, Gaza, the rest of Palestine and Israel,” the Argentinian pontiff, 87, told an open-air mass in Brussels, as Israel continued to target the Hezbollah armed group in Lebanon.
The Israeli military has said it is carrying out fresh strikes targeting Hezbollah’s weapons storage facilities and infrastructure sites in Lebanon, AFP reports.
“Over the last few hours, IDF (military) fighter jets struck Hezbollah terror targets in Lebanon, including launchers directed toward Israeli territory, weapons storage facilities, and terrorist infrastructure sites,” the military said in a statement.
The body of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has been recovered from the site of an Israeli air attack on Beirut’s southern suburbs and is intact, a medical source and a security source told Reuters.
While Hezbollah’s statement on Saturday confirming Nasrallah’s death did not say how exactly he was killed nor when his funeral would be, the two sources said his body had no direct wounds and that it appeared the cause of death was blunt trauma from the force of the blast.
The health ministry in Gaza has said that at least 41,595 people have been killed in fighting between Israel and Hamas, now in its 12th month, AFP reports.
The toll includes nine deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry, which said 96,251 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since fighting broke out on October 7.
US President Joe Biden called Israel’s killing of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah “a measure of justice” for his many victims, and said Washington fully supported Israel’s right to defend itself against Iran-supported groups, Reuters reports.
In a statement released by the White House, Biden said he had directed Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to further enhance the defense posture of US military forces in the Middle East to deter aggression and reduce the risk of a broader conflict.
Ultimately, Biden said, the US aimed to de-escalate ongoing conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon through diplomatic means.
“It’s time for a ceasefire,” Biden said, when asked by reporters in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware if an Israeli ground incursion into Lebanon was inevitable.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi sought to burnish his country’s credentials as a global peacemaker at the United Nations General Assembly, calling for a cessation of fighting in the Middle East and touting Beijing’s diplomatic efforts on Russia’s war in Ukraine, Reuters reports.
Wang spoke after Israel killed the leader of Iran-aligned Hezbollah with a massive airstrike in Beirut on Friday, raising fears of a wider regional conflict in addition to the conflict between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza that began nearly a year ago.
“The question of Palestine is the biggest wound to human conscience. As we speak, the conflict in Gaza is still going on, causing more casualties with each passing day. Fighting has started in Lebanon again, but might cannot replace justice,” Wang said.
“There must not be any delay in reaching a comprehensive ceasefire, and the fundamental way out lies in the two-state solution.”
The Israeli military said that it killed senior Hezbollah figure Nabil Kaouk amid an ongoing exchange of strikes between the two sides, Reuters reports.
Hezbollah has not yet commented on Kaouk’s fate, but supporters have been posting mourning messages for him since Saturday.
The World Food Programme said it had launched an emergency operation to provide meals for one million people affected by the escalating conflict in Lebanon, AFP reports.
“A further acceleration of the conflict this weekend underscored the need for an immediate humanitarian response,” the Rome-based agency said in a statement, announcing that it was distributing ready-to-eat food rations, bread, hot meals and food parcels to shelters across the country.
The bombing in Lebanon is “compounding the fragility of a population burdened by accumulated crises”, the WFP said.
“In just a few days, WFP assistance has reached thousands of newly displaced people,” the programme’s country director for Lebanon, Matthew Hollingworth, said in the statement.
“As the crisis deepens, we are preparing to assist up to one million people through a mix of cash and food support,” he added, calling on the international community to mobilise $105 million to fund the operation through to the end of the year.
“Lebanon is at a breaking point and cannot endure another war,” said WFP regional director Corinne Fleischer
Lebanon’s top Christian cleric urged diplomacy in the conflict between Israel and Lebanese group Hezbollah, and said Israel’s killing of the group’s chief, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, had wounded the hearts of the Lebanese people, Reuters reports.
Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagheri Ghalibaf, a former IRGC commander, said Hezbollah has built its structure over decades in a way that deaths of leaders and commanders would not lead to its collapse, Al Jazeera reports.
“The resistance front will emerge victorious in the war, and we will see that the different pillars of resistance, with the help of the Islamic Republic of Iran, will continue to confront the regime in a unified and strong manner, continuing the regime’s defeat in the field of battle,” he said during an address to parliament in reference to Israel.
A large image of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah was erected on the parliament floor as lawmakers convened this morning.
China said it was “deeply concerned” and “closely following” soaring tensions in the Middle East, after Israel killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in strikes on Lebanon, AFP reports.
“China is closely following this incident and deeply concerned about the escalation of tensions in the region,” Beijing’s foreign ministry said in a statement, urging “all parties, particularly Israel, to take immediate steps to cool down the situation. “
Four people have been killed and several others injured in an Israeli bombing of the town of Tayr Debba in the southern district of Tyre, Lebanon, according to Lebanese state-run National News Agency (NNA), Al Jazeera reports.
Israeli warplanes reportedly targeted a civil defence centre, NNA added.
The Israeli military said it conducted strikes against “dozens” of Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, two days after an airstrike killed the group’s chief Hassan Nasrallah, AFP reports.
The Israel Defense Forces “attacked dozens of terrorist targets in the territory of Lebanon in the last few hours,” the army said in a statement on Telegram.
The statement said the strikes targeted “buildings where weapons and military structures of the organisation were stored”.
Israel has attacked “hundreds” of Hezbollah targets in the last day, it added, as it aims to disable the group.
Trinidad and Tobago’s foreign minister has blasted developed countries’ “double standards and continued resourcing” of Israel’s “violations of international law” in a speech to the UN General Assembly, Al Jazeera reports.
“Only someone absolutely bereft of humanity would think that it is lawful and just, and even godly, to respond to atrocities committed on one awful day of terror by, in turn, committing atrocities after atrocities,” Amery Browne told the annual meeting of world leaders in New York.
Browne also questioned how some countries appeared to be glossing over the killing of innocent civilians including women, children and UN staff in Gaza and Lebanon, stating: “International law is not a tool of mere convenience to be muted for friends and trumpeted against enemies.”
“This is not being done in secret. The entire world is watching and the Global South in, particular, is appalled,” he said.
