The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced the beginning of “limited, localized, and targeted ground raids” against the militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon on Tuesday. The move comes after two weeks of bombing by the Jewish state that killed over 1,000 people and displaced 1 million more.
During the bombing campaign, the IDF killed several senior Hezbollah members, including the group’s long-time leader, Hassan Nasrallah. The intensification of airstrikes came after thousands of hand-held pagers and radios used by Hezbollah members simultaneously exploded across Lebanon, killing both militants and civilians. Although it was widely reported that Mossad was behind the blasts, Israeli neither confirmed nor denied its involvement.
The goal of the IDF operation is to ensure the safety of citizens living in the northern part of Israel, West Jerusalem said. Hezbollah has been launching barrages of rockets into Israel in what it had said was an act of solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza. Some 70,000 Israelis have been displaced due to Hezbollah attacks.
The IDF occupied parts of southern Lebanon from 1982 to 2000 in what became known as the First Lebanon War in Israel.
Israel invaded Lebanon again in 2006, which resulted in a 34-day conflict with Hezbollah.
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04 October 2024
The US had been concerned about the IDF’s attacks on Gaza almost from the very beginning of the escalation that followed the incursion into Israel by Palestinian armed group, Hamas, on October 7 last year, Reuters has reported after reviewing emails exchanges between officials in Washington.
Then-deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East, Dana Stroul, warned in a message to senior aides to US President Joe Biden on October 13 that the mass evacuation of Palestinians would be a humanitarian disaster and could violate international law, leading to war-crime charges against Israel, the report read.
Reuters also mentioned another email, in which the State Department’s top public diplomacy official, Bill Russo, told senior US officials that Washington’s “lack of response on the humanitarian conditions for Palestinians is not only ineffective and counterproductive, but we are also being accused of being complicit to potential war crimes by remaining silent on Israel’s actions against civilians.”
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has claimed that Hezbollah has been suffering “very severe blows” at the hands of the IDF.
“We eliminated [Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah and we have more surprises in store, some of which have already been carried out and some of which will be carried out,” he said during a visit to the 36th Division’s headquarters in northern Israel.
Hezbollah’s “missile and rocket division suffered a very heavy blow. A significant part was destroyed as a result of a high-quality and precise operation. Command and control headquarters, communications, the entire leadership of [the elite Radwan Force], and in fact the entire second and third tiers of command below Nasrallah were eliminated,” Gallant stated.
During his sermon in Tehran, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called upon Muslim nations to unite against Israel.
“Our enemy is one,” he said, accusing the Jewish state of working “to sow the seeds of division and sedition, to drive a wedge among all the Muslims.”
“Any strikes at the Zionist regime [Israel] from any person and any organization is a service to the whole region and perhaps the whole of humanity,” Khamenei stated.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has insisted that the IDF “cannot seriously harm” Hezbollah and Hamas, as he delivered his first public sermon in five years in Tehran. Israel “will not last long” fighting on several fronts, he claimed.
Khamenei also praised the Iranian missile attack on Israeli territory on Tuesday, calling it a “brilliant action” that was “completely legal and legitimate.”
The IDF has claimed that the head of Hezbollah’s communications division, Muhammad Rashid Sakafi, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Beirut on Thursday.
Sakafi, who had been in the job since 2000, “invested significant efforts to develop communication capabilities between all of Hezbollah’s units in all periods of operation, to maintain the flow of information throughout the terrorist organization,” it said.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has arrived in Beirut, the Lebanese National News Agency has reported. “An Iranian plane has landed at the Rafik Hariri International Airport with Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on board,” the agency said.
The Israeli military has published a series of photos and videos showing the IDF troops involved in the fighting in Lebanon and Gaza celebrating Rosh Hashanah. The holiday, which is the New Year in Judaism, is marked between October 2 and 4 this year.
“Even during Rosh Hashanah, the IDF forces continue their operational activity and remain in full readiness in all sectors – in the north, the south and the center,” the Israeli military said.
The IDF has demanded that Lebanese civilians in another 37 villages and towns in the south of the country “evacuate immediately” and head north of the Awali River.
"Hezbollah’s activity forces the IDF to act against it. The IDF does not wish to harm you,” Colonel Avichay Adraee, the Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesman, wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
Adraee warned that “anyone who is near Hezbollah operatives, their facilities or their weapons, puts themselves at risk.”
Hezbollah has claimed to have targeted Israel’s third largest city, Haifa, with rockets. The strike was carried out in response to Israeli attacks on Lebanon and Gaza, the group said in a post on Telegram. There has so far been no comment from the IDF, or reports of casualties or damage.
The IDF has said it killed senior Hamas commander Zahi Yaser Abd al-Razeq Oufi and several other operatives of the Palestinian armed group in an airstrike on the Tulkarem refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.
Oufi “worked to establish terrorist networks on behalf of Hamas and assisted terror operatives in the area to carry out significant shooting and explosive attacks,” the Israeli military said. The Hamas commander was targeted because he “intended to carry out an attack in the immediate time frame,” it added.
The health ministry in Gaza has said at least 18 people were killed in the airstrike on Tulkarem. According to Al Jazeera, it was the first time in 20 years that Israel had used a fighter jet against a building in the West Bank.
The UN Security Council issued a statement late on Thursday, slamming “any decision not to engage” with Secretary General Antonio Guterres as “counterproductive, especially in the context of escalating tensions in the Middle East.”
The statement came after Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz declared the UN chief “persona non grata” for what he argued was an insufficient condemnation of Iran’s missile attack.
The Islamic Republic fired nearly 200 projectiles at Israel on Tuesday in response to what it said was “genocide” committed by the IDF in Gaza and Lebanon. The barrage caused some damage but did not kill anyone in Israel. The only casualty was a Palestinian man in the West Bank, who was killed by a falling missile fragment.
The IDF struck the Masnaa border crossing between Lebanon and Syria, suspending traffic on the route, the Lebanese news agency Al Mayadeen reported.
According to Al Jazeera, refugees fleeing Israeli strikes in Beirut and elsewhere have been using the crossing to get into Syria.
The Israeli military previously accused Hezbollah of smuggling weapons through Mansaa into Lebanon.
US President Joe Biden told journalists on Thursday that it was still possible to avoid a wider conflict in the Middle East.
“I don’t believe there is going to be an all-out war. I think we can avoid it,” he said, adding that “there is a lot to do yet.”
The New York Times, meanwhile, cited three unnamed Israeli officials as confirming earlier reports by Axios that the IDF had targeted Hashem Safieddine, the likely successor to killed Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
Neither Israel nor Hezbollah have commented on these reports.
03 October 2024
In its latest statement, the Lebanese Health Ministry said that 37 people were killed in Israeli strikes on Thursday and 151 were wounded.
The death toll update comes as more strikes were reported in Beirut in the early hours of Friday.
Israel’s recent strike in Beirut targeted Hashem Safieddine, the cousin and likely successor to slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, Axios reporter Barak Ravid wrote on X, citing two unnamed Israeli officials.
The IDF and Hezbollah have not commented on the report as of yet.
The US backed Israel’s operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon on Thursday. “We do ultimately want to see a ceasefire and diplomatic resolution, but we do think it’s appropriate that Israel, at this point, is bringing terrorists to justice,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.
Miller outlined that the US was “very cognizant” that previous Israeli invasions of Lebanon “turned into full-scale wars and at times occupation.”
“I don’t know what's going to happen. I dare say the Israelis probably don’t know what’s going to happen at this point,” Miller said, adding that the course of the conflict remains “unpredictable.”
The Group of Seven (G7) leaders have expressed “deep concern” and urged “restraint” by all parties in the escalating Middle East conflict.
“A dangerous cycle of attacks and retaliation risks fuelling uncontrollable escalation in the Middle East, which is in no one’s interest,” a G7 statement on Thursday reads. It adds that leaders “call on all regional players to act responsibly and with restraint.”
The statement, released by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office, also condemned Wednesday’s Iranian missile attack on Israel and reaffirmed support for Israel’s defense and security.
At least 16 Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli air raid on a refugee camp in Tulkarem, in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry has said.
The IDF confirmed it used a fighter jet to carry out the raid. The Israeli military rarely uses jets for airstrikes in the West Bank, usually preferring drones and helicopters.
The Palestinian Wafa news agency reported that at least one of the missiles hit a crowded cafe in the camp, according to Al Jazeera.
The World Bank has rerouted $250 million for the aid response to the crisis in Lebanon.
The funds, initially intended to go towards improvements in Lebanon’s electricity infrastructure and renewable energy, will be redirected “to respond to the urgent needs of people in Lebanon,” a World Bank statement said.
More than 1,000 people have been killed amid an ongoing Israeli ground and air campaign in Lebanon targeting the Hezbollah militant group, while 1.2 million people have been displaced.
A massive fire has erupted at an apartment block that was hit by an Israeli airstrike in the Chiyah neighborhood of Beirut earlier on Thursday.
Footage verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad fact-checking agency shows part of the building in flames, with emergency crews mobilized in response.
Israel’s Channel 12 has reported that a “harsh response” to Iran’s attack is being planned and is expected to happen “within days.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will hold top-level security meetings to discuss the details on Thursday evening, the outlet said, according to The Times of Israel.
”Israel will exact a heavy price from the ayatollahs’ regime,” ministerial sources said, adding that the response is being coordinated with US President Joe Biden's administration.
The chief of the IDF’s general staff, Herzi Halevi, has said Israel’s goal is to force Hezbollah out of southern Lebanon.
“We will not allow Hezbollah to position itself in these places in the future,” Halevi said, adding that “severe blows” to the militant group in Beirut and across southern Lebanon “will continue.”
Meanwhile, Hezbollah claimed three more attacks on Thursday evening, saying Israeli soldiers had been targeted with rockets in the Kfar Giladi settlement in the north of Israel, Middle East Eye reported. The group also said it had struck a military site in the town of Metula as well as the city of Safed.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations has said that Tehran will respond to any attack by Israel.
“Our response will be solely directed at the aggressor,” the Iranian mission said in a statement. It added that if any other country should assist Israel, “it shall likewise be deemed an accomplice and a legitimate target.”
US President Joe Biden told reporters on Thursday that potential Israeli strikes on Iranian oil facilities were being “discussed” after Tehran fired ballistic missiles at Israel on Wednesday.
US President Joe Biden has said his administration is “discussing” the possibility of Israeli strikes on Iranian oil facilities after Tehran launched 200 ballistic missiles at Israel on Wednesday.
Oil prices jumped 5% on Thursday following Biden's comments, as concerns grow over a wider conflict breaking out in the Middle East.
Earlier, Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey warned that the escalating conflict could leave the global economy vulnerable to a 1970s-style energy shock, warning that geopolitical concerns are “very serious.”
Russian Ambassador to Israel Anatoly Viktorov has called upon all sides involved in the conflict in the Middle East to cease hostilities and start looking for a diplomatic solution to this “extremely dangerous situation.”
The missile strike on Israel by Iran on Tuesday “cannot cause delight, to put it mildly,” the envoy said. However, he stressed that the attack did not happen “out of the blue,” referring to the actions by the Jewish state in recent months.
Moscow’s stance of the issue is “clear and coherent,” Viktorov said. “We urge all parties ... to show maximum restraint, abandon provocative and hateful statements… stop military action and begin working towards the peaceful, political settlement of this extremely dangerous situation,” he explained.
The IDF has said its jets struck Hezbollah’s intelligence facilities and communication sites in the Lebanese capital, Beirut.
The targets included the group’s intelligence headquarters, its operatives, surveillance equipment and other infrastructure, the Israeli military said in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
According to the IDF, the intelligence headquarters is Hezbollah’s main spying body, which directs its information gathering about Israel and accumulates data obtained by the group.
The Russian Emergencies Ministry has launched a special flight from Beirut to Moscow, carrying the families of Russian diplomats working in Lebanon, it has announced in a statement.
A total of 60 people will be returning to Russia amid the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, it said. The evacuation is being carried out at the behest of Russian President Vladimir Putin, the statement read.
The Lebanese Red Cross says that an Israeli strike has killed four of its paramedics and a Lebanese soldier as they were evacuating the wounded from the south of the country.
The medical convoy accompanied by the troops was hit near the village of Taybeh on Thursday, it said. According to the Lebanese Red Cross, its motorcade was targeted despite its movements being coordinated with UN peacekeepers.
When addressed for comment by the media, the Israeli military said that it was looking into the incident.
The Israeli military has published a video purporting to show an airstrike on a home in the Bint Jbeil municipality of southern Lebanon.
The attack killed 15 “terrorists” who had been holed up inside, the IDF said in a post on X (formerly Twitter). The building in question had been used as a weapon depot, it added.
Hezbollah has said its fighters have prevented a group of Israeli troops from crossing the border into southern Lebanon.
Members of the Lebanese armed group “repelled with artillery fire an attempt by enemy Israeli forces to advance at Fatima’s Gate,” Hezbollah said in a statement. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has yet to comment on the incident.
Fatima’s Gate is a former border crossing between Israel and Lebanon, located not far from the Israeli town of Metula.
The Israeli military has said it can officially confirm that the head of the Hamas government in Gaza, Ruhi Mashtaha, is dead.
He was killed in a joint operation by the IDF and Shin Bet secret service inside the Palestinian enclave “about three months ago,” according to a statement on X (formerly Twitter).
Mashtaha, who was a close associate of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, oversaw the operations of the Hamas government in Gaza and engaged in “terrorist activities” against Israel, the military wrote.
The Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, has called for “serious ceasefire efforts in stopping Israel’s aggression against Lebanon.”
“Collective genocide” is happening in the Middle East, the Qatari leader said during a press conference at the Asia Cooperation Dialogue forum in Doha.
The IDF is acting with “impunity” as it turns Gaza into an “uninhabitable place,” he stressed, adding that a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is “the key to a lasting peace in the region.”
Russia’s Emergencies Ministry has announced that it has delivered 33 tons of humanitarian aid to Lebanon on the instruction of President Vladimir Putin. The cargo included food, essential items, medicine, and mobile power plants, it added.
The Israeli military has warned Lebanese citizens, who were earlier ordered to evacuate from dozens of villagers in southern Lebanon, to “not return home until further notice.”
“Raids are continuing” in the south of the country and “for your safety and the safety of your families,” stay away from the area, the IDF’s Arabic language spokesman, Avichay Adraee, advised residents in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
Yemen-based Houthi forces have claimed that they hit a “vital target” in Israel’s largest city, Tel Aviv, with several UAVs.
“The operation achieved its goals successfully as the drones reached their targets without the enemy being able to confront or shoot them down,” the group’s spokesman, Yahya Saree, said.
The Houthis will continue their attacks on Israel until the country stops its military operations in Gaza and Lebanon, Saree stressed.
The IDF earlier said that at least three drones had approached central Israel from the sea overnight, with two of them being shot down and another crashing in an open area.
The IDF confirmed that eight of its soldiers were killed in Lebanon on Wednesday.
According to the Times of Israel, six commandos from the Egoz units were killed in a firefight with Hezbollah and another five were seriously wounded. Two soldiers from the Golani reconnaissance unit were killed in a separate incident, which also left one service member wounded.
“We are in the middle of a tough war against Iran’s axis of evil, which seeks to destroy us. This will not happen,” Israeli Prime Minister said in a video address released after the casualties were announced.
The White House said that the Biden administration was “deeply saddened” by the death of American citizen Kamel Ahmad Jawad. “His death is a tragedy, as are the deaths of many civilians in Lebanon,” the spokesperson said.
According to Jawad’s family and friends, he was taking care of his elderly mother in Lebanon and was killed in an Israeli airstrike.
02 October 2024
A total of 46 people were killed in Israeli strikes on Wednesday and 85 were wounded, according to the Lebanese health ministry.
The IDF continued its bombing campaign on Thursday, with new strikes reported in central Beirut, as well as its southern suburbs.
The Lebanese broadcaster LBCI said that a residential building housing the Islamic Health Organization was hit.
The US Navy released videos of its destroyers engaging Iranian missiles that were fired at Israel on Tuesday.
Israel has not yet decided how to respond to Tehran’s missile barrage, the New York Times reported, citing six Israeli officials and a senior US official, all anonymous. It is “not currently planning” to strike nuclear facilities, the unnamed officials said, as this would be difficult without US support.
Hamas has claimed responsibility for Tuesday evening’s mass shooting in Tel Aviv, in which seven people were killed and many more wounded. Two gunmen who opened fire on the Jaffa light rail station were Hamas members from Hebron, the Gaza-based Palestinian group said, according to Al Jazeera. The attack came just before Iran launched a barrage of missiles at Israel.
US President Joe Biden would not support Israel striking Iranian nuclear sites, he told reporters in Washington on Wednesday. “We’ll be discussing with the Israelis what they’re going to do, but all seven of us (G7) agree that they have a right to respond but they should respond proportionally.” He added that the US will impose more sanctions on Iran and that he will speak to Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu “soon.”
Russia’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, accused Israel of seeking to instigate a direct conflict between the United States and Iran.
“It’s hard to say whether Washington understands this,” he remarked, while suggesting that the situation is unfolding in line with Israel’s intentions.
Nebenzya cautioned that if Israeli leadership continues with its current strategies, the conflict could escalate to an “unimaginable level,” posing a significant threat not only to the Middle East but to the entire world.
RT has published a feature about the Middle East on the brink of full-scale war. Major international players are increasingly involved, creating a volatile situation that could have global consequences. If you’re interested in understanding the key developments and the possible outcomes of this crisis, read more about the current situation here.
An Israeli infantry force approached the town of Yaroun from Salis Heights. According to Hezbollah, the Islamic Resistance detonated an IED among their ranks, causing deaths and injuries.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have published a video of its warplanes striking military infrastructure of Hezbollah inside Lebanon. The bombardment targeted the armed group’s manpower, arms depots, observation posts and other facilities, the IDF said in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
The Israeli military has confirmed its first fatality in the ground operation in Lebanon. Captain Eitan Itzhak Oster, 22, a team commander in the Egoz Commando Unit, has been killed in the fighting with Hezbollah operatives in a village in the south of the country, the IDF said.
More than a hundred buildings in the town of Hod Hasharon, a suburb of Tel Aviv, suffered some sort of damage during Tuesday’s Iranian missile attack, local authorities have stated.
A few homes were seriously damaged and a dozen more were affected to a lesser degree, the municipality said. Another 100 buildings were hit by shrapnel or falling missile fragments, it added.
The Houthi forces in Yemen “confirm their readiness to participate in any joint operation against the Israeli enemy,” the group’s spokesman, Brigadier General Yahya Saree, has said in a statement. The Yemeni fighters “bless” the missile attack on Israel that Iran carried out on Tuesday, he added.
Saree also said that the Houthis have targeted military sites in Israel with three Quds 5 rockets. “The missiles were able to successfully reach their targets,” he claimed. The IDF has made no announcement so far about rockets being fired from Yemen.
Israeli police have updated the casualty count for the mass shooting which took place in Tel Aviv on Tuesday, saying that seven Israeli citizens were killed and 16 others wounded in the incident. One of the two “terrorists” who carried out the attack was killed and the other severely wounded in the standoff with security forces, they added.
A huge crowd took to the streets of Tehran on Tueady evening to celebrate Iran’s missile attack on Israel earlier that day. People were carrying Iranian national flags, the flags of Palestine and the Lebanese movement Hezbollah as well as portraits of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike last week. The demonstrators chanted slogans, banged the drums and shot fireworks into the air.
Israel could attack Türkiye after its military operations in Gaza and Lebanon, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has suggested.
"Driven by the delusion of a ‘promised land,’ after Palestine and Lebanon, the Israeli government will set its sights on our (Turkish) homeland. Occupation, terror and aggression are right next to us,” he said.
Erdogan slammed Israel, calling it “not… a state bound by law, but a horde of killers that thrives on blood and feeds off occupation.”
Israel will face “definite destruction” if it continues with its aggressive policies in the region, the Commander-in-Chief of the Iranian Army, Major General Abdolrahim Mousavi, has warned. The Jewish state’s infrastructure will be destroyed if it makes the “slightest mistake,” he said in a televised interview.
Addressing the Iranian missile attack on Israel on Tuesday, Mousavi stressed that Tehran “exercised self-restraint for a while, but realized after some time that they [the Israelis] do not rectify their ways and have to receive a definite response.”
Israel will launch a “significant retaliation” within days to the missile attack by Tehran on Tuesday, unnamed Israeli officials have told Axios. The Jewish state could target oil production facilities inside Iran and other strategic sites, they said.
“We have a big question mark about how the Iranians are going to respond to an attack, but we take into consideration the possibility that they would go all in, which will be a whole different ball game,” one of the officials stressed.
According to the sources, all options will be on the table if the situation continues to escalate, including strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
At least 1,873 people have been killed and 9,134 others wounded in Lebanon as a result of Israeli attacks since October 8 last year, the Lebanese Disaster Risk Management Unit has announced. The number of those displaced has exceeded 1 million, with more than 155,600 people registered in shelters, it said.
Danish police have said they are investigating two blasts near the Israeli embassy on the northern outskirts of Copenhagen.
"No one has been injured” in the incident, Copenhagen police announced on X (formerly Twitter). “A possible connection to the Israeli embassy, located in the area, is being investigated,” it added. The police promised to release details of the probe at a press conference later in the day.
Hezbollah announced that its fighters were directly engaging Israeli infantry in the southern Lebanese city of Odaisseh.
The IDF began cross-border raids on early Tuesday morning. The Israeli military said that commandos recovered weapons, including rocket launchers, from Hezbollah-linked sites during nighttime operations.
The rapid escalation in the Middle East signifies “a complete failure” of the policies of US President Joe Biden, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
“The inarticulate statements of the White House demonstrate a complete incompetence when it comes to resolving crises,” she wrote on Telegram, arguing that diplomatic efforts of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken have “led to thousands of casualties and a gridlock.”
The supporters of Iran and Hezbollah gathered in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities to celebrate Tuesday’s missile attacks against Israel. In Baghdad, the demonstration took place outside the Iranian embassy.
Many people participating in the rally were reportedly members of Kataib Hezbollah, an Iraqi-based Shia militant group, which is aligned with the Lebanese-based Hezbollah.
Videos posted to social media purportedly show new Israeli strikes in the southern suburbs of Beirut.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi claimed that Tuesday’s missile barrage targeted “solely military and security sites in charge of genocide in Gaza and Lebanon.”
“We did so after exercising tremendous restraint for almost two months, to give space for a ceasefire in Gaza,” the diplomat wrote on X. He promised a “stronger and more powerful” response if Israel decides to “invite further retaliation.”
Two people received minor injuries from the falling fragments of Iranian missiles in Jordan, the country’s Interior Ministry said, as quoted by the Roya news agency.
Roya cited a military source as saying that the Jordanian Armed Forces have been placed on high alert due to “military escalation in the region.”
PBS correspondent Nick Shifrin said that one of the Iranian ballistic missiles fired on Tuesday fell “about 1,500 feet” from the Mossad headquarters in Tel Aviv.
The missile left a crater that is “about 30 feet deep and maybe 50 feet wide,” Shifrin said.
Iranian officials earlier said that they targeted Mossad facilities, as well as Israeli military sites.
01 October 2024
The IDF said in the early hours of Wednesday that it was “attacking terrorist targets in Beirut.” The Lebanese news website Al Mayadeen, meanwhile, reported that a residential building has been struck.
At least 55 people were killed by Israeli strikes in Lebanon on Tuesday and more than 150 were wounded, according to the Lebanese Defense Ministry.
RT’s Middle East bureau chief, Maria Finoshina, was forced to take cover as air raid sirens rang out across Israel on Tuesday.
The alarm went off as an IDF soldier was checking the journalist documents. An RT cameraman filmed dozens of Iranian missiles illuminating the sky.
Israel “sent clear messages” to Iran that it would hit its “nuclear or oil facilities” if the Islamic republic attacks Israel, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday night, citing Arab officials.
Iran has made a “big mistake tonight,” and will “pay for it,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, adding that the missile attack was “thwarted thanks to Israel’s air defense system.”
“Whoever attacks us – we will attack him,” he warned, according to the Times of Israel. The PM urged the “forces of light in the world” to unite against Tehran.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said Iran’s rocket attack against Israel was “totally unacceptable” and should be condemned by “the entire world.”
According to Blinken, the attack involved around 200 ballistic missiles.
”Initial reports suggest that Israel, with the active support of the United States and other partners, effectively defeated this attack,” he said, adding that Washington had once again demonstrated its “commitment to Israel’s defense.”
Palestinian militant group Hamas has hailed Iran’s “heroic” missile attack on Israel.
“We assert that this honorable Iranian response is a strong message to the Zionist enemy and its fascist government that will help deter and rein in their terrorism,” Hamas said in a statement.
Iran has said Tuesday’s missile barrage was a response to the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas who was killed in July in Tehran, and to the killing in Lebanon last week of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
One Palestinian in the occupied West Bank was killed by shrapnel from an intercepted Iranian missile, Jericho Governor Hussein Hamayel confirmed.
”A Palestinian worker in Jericho was killed when pieces of a rocket fell from the sky and hit him,” Hamayel told AFP news agency.
The man, originally from Gaza, was identified as 38-year-old Sameh Khader al-Asali.
IDF Spokesman Daniel Hagari has said there is no longer any additional threat heading towards Israel from Iran and that civilians have been told that they may leave shelters.
“During the defense, we carried out quite a few interceptions.” Hagari reported, adding: “There are some impacts in the center and areas in the south of the country.”
He also said that Israel is “fully prepared to defend and retaliate” against an Iranian attack in a “timely manner.”
According to the Times of Israel, only two injuries have been reported across Israel as a result of Iran’s missile attack.
Ambulance service Magen David Adom said those two people sustained minor shrapnel wounds in Tel Aviv. Others were injured while running to safety and some were treated for “anxiety,” it added.
Iran’s missile attack against Israel is a response to the recent assassinations of the leaders of Hamas, Hezbollah and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC has said.
In a statement on Tuesday evening, the Iranian mission to the UN said Tehran’s “legal, rational, and legitimate response” to the “terrorist acts of the Zionist regime” has been “duly carried out.”
“Should the Zionist regime dare to respond or commit further acts of malevolence, a subsequent and crushing response will ensue,” the mission added.
Iran has launched missiles at Israel, the IDF has announced, instructing civilians to “remain alert” and proceed to bomb shelters when they hear sirens.
“A short while ago, missiles were launched from Iran towards the State of Israel,” IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said in a video message.
Palestinian journalist Mohammed Khairy, reporting from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, told Al Jazeera Arabic that dozens of missiles could be seen in the sky heading towards Israel.
“The missiles are going almost non-stop. The sirens are still going off. Until this moment, they can be heard over large areas in Israel,” he said.
IDF Spokesman Daniel Hagari has said an anticipated missile attack from Iran is likely to be large in scale.
“We ask the public to follow the Home Front Command guidelines. The fire from Iran could be wide in scope,” he told a press conference. He warned that when a siren sounds, citizens are asked to enter a protected area until notified otherwise.
Earlier reports suggested that the White House had warned Israel that Tehran was preparing for an “imminent” attack.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has called for an “immediate ceasefire” and de-escalation of the conflict in Lebanon amid fears that Israel’s offensive against Hezbollah could push the region into a wider war.
Guterres’ spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the UN chief believes an all-out war “must be avoided in Lebanon at all costs, and the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Lebanon must be respected.”
He added that Guterres spoke with Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Tuesday morning and said the UN’s systems in Lebanon are being mobilized to assist those in need.
A Washington-based non-profit has blasted US President Joe Biden as “reckless” for giving Israel a “blank check” to launch a ground operation in Lebanon. In a statement, Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) said the offensive is an “entirely predictable consequence” of the Biden administration’s “ceaseless coddling” of Israel.
DAWN added that a ceasefire in Lebanon will be “impossible” without first securing a truce in Gaza. Politico reported on Tuesday that the Biden administration secretly gave Israel the green light to invade Lebanon, despite publicly urging a ceasefire.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) has reported more airstrikes in southern Beirut, one of which reportedly occurred near a hospital.
According to Al Jazeera, NNC said a “violent enemy strike” hit a building near the Zahraa Hospital and only 500 meters from a shelter housing displaced people.
A second strike is reported to have hit a building close to the embassy of Kuwait.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has vowed to support Lebanon amid the Israeli ground offensive.
“We will never leave our Lebanese brothers on their own in these difficult days, and will support them with all our means,” Erdogan said in a speech to parliament on Tuesday.
On Monday, Erdogan urged the UN to approve the use of force to stop Israel’s war in Gaza, and accused a “handful of radical Zionist extremists” of setting the “region and the whole world on fire.”
Egypt has condemned Israel’s “serious escalation” in Lebanon, warning that its ground invasion could have “dire security and humanitarian consequences” for the wider region. In a statement, Foreign Minister Badr Abdelaty said Cairo would reject any new status quo that is in violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty.
The US embassy in Israel has instructed all employees and their families to “shelter in place until further notice.” The mission did not cite any specific dangers, but said the security environment “remains complex and can change quickly depending on the political situation and recent events.”
Americans were reminded to treat all alerts as real and seek shelter in case of a rocket or drone strike. The warning comes amid the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and rumors by US officials that Iran is planning ballistic missile strikes on Israel.
A senior White House Official has told AFP that the US has indications that Iran is “preparing to imminently launch a ballistic missile attack against Israel.”
“We are actively supporting defensive preparations to defend Israel against this attack,” the official said in a statement, warning that such a strike would have “severe consequences” for Tehran.
Beijing is “deeply concerned” about the launch of an Israeli ground operation in Lebanon and the escalation of regional tensions, the Chinese Foreign Ministry has said.
“China... opposes infringements on Lebanon’s sovereignty, security, and territorial integrity, and opposes any actions that exacerbate conflicts and lead to a further escalation of the regional situation,” the ministry said.
The Chinese government calls on Israel “to take concrete actions to de-escalate the situation,” it stressed.
UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy has warned Israel against a prolonged ground operation in Lebanon because its “price would be huge for the Middle East and it would have a significant effect on the global economy.”
“None of us want to return to the years in which Israel found itself bogged down in a quagmire in southern Lebanon. None of us want to see a regional war,” Lammy told journalists.
The IDF has said it has carried out more than 70 small-scale raids into Lebanon using special forces since the October 7, 2023 Hamas incursion.
The covert operations were able to reach around 1,000 Hezbollah sites in the south of the country, destroying the militant group’s positions, tunnels and weapons stashes, which could have been used to attack Israeli territory, the IDF said. There were no direct clashes with Hezbollah operatives during any of the raids, it added.
According to the Israeli military, some 2,400 Hezbollah fighters and around 500 members of a Palestinian armed group, Islamic Jihad, were ready to move into Israel from southern Lebanon after October 7, but were prevented from doing so.
Moscow has warned that the Israeli ground operation in Lebanon “will lead to a further escalation of violence in the Middle East.”
“Russia strongly condemns the attack on Lebanon and calls on the Israeli authorities to immediately cease hostilities and withdraw troops from Lebanese territory,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
It urged the Israeli leadership to look for diplomatic means of resolving the conflict.
Moscow expresses solidarity with the authorities and people of Lebanon, who “have been subjected to an armed aggression,” the ministry stated.
The head of Hezbollah’s media office, Mohammad Afif, has denied Israel’s claims of IDF’s special forces units entering Lebanese territory.
Hezbollah had not engaged in “direct ground clashes” with Israeli troops but is ready to do so, Afif said in a written statement to Reuters.
The Lebanese group’s strikes on Israel’s largest city, Tel Aviv, earlier in the day were “only the beginning,” he warned.
According to the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, Avichay Adraee, there is currently “intense fighting in southern Lebanon.”
Ruptly video agency has published footage showing the aftermath of an Israeli airstrike on the home of the head of Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades in the Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon.
The head of the Palestinian armed group, Munir al-Maqdah, was unharmed in the attack, a source told Al Mayadeen broadcaster. The Israeli bombardment in the densely populated area resulted in the deaths of five people, and several others were wounded, the source claimed.
Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon have killed over 1,000 people in the past two weeks alone, the spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Ravina Shamdasani, has said.
Hundreds of thousands in the country have become refugees due to the bombardment, she said, adding that 60,000 have also been displaced in Israel, amid rocket attacks on it by Hezbollah over the past year.
“The prospects that the situation may deteriorate further, with terrible impact on civilians, and that it could rapidly expand to embroil other States in the region, are real,” Shamdasani warned.
The UN High Commissioner has urged all sides to pursue negotiations “to end the current path of destruction and violence,” the spokesperson stressed.
Lebanese armed group Hezbollah has claimed that its rocket barrage into central Israel targeted the Glilot Base near the town of Herzliya, which hosts the IDF’s Unit 8200 and the headquarters of Mossad foreign intelligence service.
The group said it had used its Fadi-4 missiles in the strike. The IDF said earlier that three or four projectiles had targeted central Israel.
According to the Times of Israel paper, at least two people were injured in the attack.
Lebanon faces “one of the most dangerous phases of its history,” Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati has warned during a meeting with UN representatives.
“Around a million of our people have been displaced because of the devastating war that Israel is waging on Lebanon,” Mikati said, as cited by the National News Agency (NNA).
The country needs more aid from the UN to be able to provide basic support to those people, he stressed.
Three or four rockets were launched from Lebanon at central Israel, wounding one person, the IDF has announced.
Several of the missiles were intercepted, but at least one made it through and impacted along Route 6, also known as the Trans-Israel Highway, near the town of Kafr Qasim, some 20km (12 miles) east of Tel Aviv, the Israeli military said.
A 54-year-old man was hospitalized after being moderately wounded by shrapnel in the attack, according to the IDF.
A Times of Israel correspondent has published a video on X (formerly Twitter) allegedly showing the aftermath of the strike.
Yemen’s Houthi forces have targeted Israeli army bases in Tel-Aviv and Eilat with drones, the group’s military spokesman, Yahya Saree, has said. There were no reports of damage or casualties inside Israel.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Tuesday morning that a UAV had been intercepted over the Mediterranean Sea, dozens of kilometers away from the nation’s shores.
The IDF shelled the Yemeni port of Hodeidah on Sunday after the Houthis said they had fired a missile at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport.
A US National Security Council spokesperson said in a statement to the Times of Israel newspaper that the White House considers Israeli raids in Lebanon to be in line with the Jewish state’s right to self-defense.
"We support Israel’s right to defend itself against Hezbollah and all Iranian-backed terror groups,” the statement read.
However, the spokesperson warned that “mission creep can be a risk,” referring to US concerns that the Israeli forces could end up getting bogged down in Lebanon.
"Ultimately, a diplomatic resolution is the only way to achieve lasting stability and security across the Israel-Lebanon border,” the statement added.
Israel has advised civilians in southern Lebanon to refrain from driving in areas south of the Litani River.
"There is intense fighting in southern Lebanon, in which Hezbollah operatives are using civilian environment and you as a human shield to carry out attacks,” Colonel Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, said on X (formerly Twitter).
"For your safety, we ask you to avoid movement in vehicles from the north to the south of the Litani River. This warning is valid until further notice,” Adraee added.
Five rockets have been fired from Lebanon at the communities of Metula and Avivim in northern Israel, the IDF has announced. Some of the projectiles were intercepted by air defenses, while the others landed in open areas, it said. There have been no reports of casualties or damage.
At least ten people have been killed and five wounded in an Israeli airstrike on southern Lebanon, the Lebanese National News Agency (NNA) has reported. A bomb hit a home in the town of Daoudiya, the NNA said, adding that all the victims are believed to be members of one family.
The Israel Defense Forces has published a video on X (formerly Twitter), showing its troops preparing for what it called “limited, localized, targeted operations” inside Lebanon.
The IDF said it will “continue fighting to achieve all goals of the war including dismantling Hamas, bringing our hostages back home and restoring security in northern Israel.”
The United Arab Emirates has expressed “deep concern” over the Israeli ground offensive in Lebanon, calling it a “dangerous situation” that may have an “impact on regional stability.”
“The UAE reaffirmed its unwavering position towards the unity of Lebanon, national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the country’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
The ministry called for “concerted international endeavors” to prevent further escalation between Israel and Lebanon. The UAE will deliver an “urgent” $100 million relief package to the Lebanese people, it added.
A series of blasts could be heard during the live broadcast of RT’s Middle East bureau chief Maria Finoshina who reported from Haifa, some 30 km from the Lebanese border.
Israeli forces entered the West Bank city of Nablus on Tuesday morning, raiding homes, firing live bullets and setting off explosive devices, the Palestinian news agency Wafa has reported.
One Palestinian man sustained a gunshot wound, according to the outlet. The IDF also reportedly detained a Palestinian Red Crescent Society ambulance crew as they tried to treat the injured man. The IDF has not commented on the report.
Video posted online purportedly shows Israeli airstrikes pummeling Lebanon suburbs adjacent to the Beirut International Airport.
The IDF said earlier that it was targeting a Hezbollah missile facility located near the airport.
A video circulating on social media reportedly shows that thousands have gathered at the Western Wall in Jerusalem for prayer shortly after the start of the IDF ground incursion in Lebanon was announced.
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has spoken with his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant over the phone.
According to the Pentagon, Austin reaffirmed US support for Israel’s right to defend itself against Iran, as well as Hamas, Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthis, and “other Iran-backed terrorist organizations.” Austin and Gallant “agreed on the necessity of dismantling attack infrastructure along the border to ensure that Lebanese Hizballah cannot conduct October 7-style attacks on Israel’s northern communities,” the statement read.
At the same time, Austin pointed out that “a diplomatic resolution” would eventually be required to ensure that Israeli civilians could safely return to their homes in the northern part of the country, which borders Lebanon.
Austin also “made clear” that the US would defend its personnel, partners and allies against threats coming from Iran and allied groups in the region.
Canada has reserved 800 seats on commercial flights to evacuate its citizens from Lebanon as many airlines have started to suspend flights to the country amid Israel’s ground operation.
”The security situation in Lebanon is becoming increasingly dangerous and volatile,” Foreign Minister Melanie Joly wrote on X, calling on all Canadians to leave the Middle Eastern country as soon as possible.
At least five people were killed in the Israeli strike on the refugee camp in Sidon, the Al Mayadeen news agency reported.
Palestinian security officials have claimed that Israel’s Tuesday airstrikes on the Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp in Sidon were targeted at Mounir Maqdah, a senior commander of the Lebanese branch of the Palestinian Fatah’ movement’s military wing, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade. Maqdah’s fate remains unknown, according to Reuters.
The Israeli military operation in Lebanon is a “focused and limited mission” with no intention of occupying the southern part of the country, Axios reporter Barak Ravid claimed, citing two unnamed Israeli officials.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett applauded the IDF’s military operation in Lebanon, writing on social media that “enough is enough.” He added that each soldier crossing the border is on a mission “to protect the citizens of Israel.”
Al Jazeera’s Arabic account has shared a video on X purporting to show Israeli tanks amassing on the border with Lebanon.
The IDF conducted a series of airstrikes on the Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp in the coastal city of Sidon in southern Lebanon, Al Jazeera reported.
The news channel MTV Lebanon said that the strike appeared to have “targeted a figure in the camp.”
The Israeli military has said that at least 10 rockets were fired from Lebanon. While some of the rockets were successfully intercepted, others crashed in remote areas, the IDF said. No damage or casualties were reported.
Several people have been killed and wounded in a series of Israeli strikes on the western districts of Damascus, the state Syrian media said.
A Syrian state television channel has also reported that its anchor, Safaa Ahmad, has been killed in the strikes.
According to the Sham FM radio station, the airstrikes were launched simultaneously with the start of the IDF ground raids in Lebanon.
Israel typically neither confirms nor denies its involvement in the strikes in Syria. West Jerusalem, however, has accused Hezbollah and other militants of using Syrian territory for attacks on Israelis.
The IDF said that it intercepted a UAV in the sky over the Mediterranean Sea. The drone was detected several dozen kilometers west of the coast of Israel in the central region of the country, the Israeli military said on X.
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The Syrian state media have reported explosions in the sky over Damascus, with air defense systems intercepting “hostile targets” in the vicinity of the Syrian capital.
On its English-language account on X, the IDF said it is “operating according to a methodical plan set out by the General Staff and the Northern Command” and that Israeli soldiers have been training and preparing for this operation for months.
The British government is chartering a flight to help its citizens leave Lebanon as several airlines have temporarily suspended flights to the region, according to the UK Foreign Office.
”If you are a British national in Lebanon, you should register your presence to receive the latest updates,” it said in a statement on X.
The French Navy has sent a warship to Lebanon’s shores to assist in the potential evacuation of French citizens, the country’s army general staff has announced. The helicopter carrier is expected to reach the area in five to six days.
The IDF has announced the beginning of a ground operation in southern Lebanon in the early hours of Tuesday.
The operation is aimed against the “targets and infrastructure of the terrorist organization Hezbollah, in a number of villages near the border, which pose an immediate and real threat to Israeli settlements on the northern border,” the IDF said in a statement on X.
The IDF added that the ground campaign has been “approved and is being carried out in accordance with the decision on the political level.”
“Operation Northern Arrows continues in accordance with the assessment of the situation” in Gaza and other areas, the Israeli army said, stressing that the operation’s goal is to make the border region safe for displaced Israeli citizens to return to their homes.
Israeli warplanes are flying over Beirut’s southern suburbs, the Lebanese National News Agency (NNA) reported following a series of IDF airstrikes on several neighborhoods in the area.
The NNA added that several residential buildings have been destroyed overnight.
The RIA Novosti news agency released a video of an Israeli airstrike near the international airport in Beirut.
The IDF announced earlier that it hit a Hezbollah “surface-to-air missile launcher storage facility” located some 1.5 km from the airport.
“We recognize that, at times, military pressure can enable diplomacy. That’s true. It is also true that military pressure can lead to miscalculation. It can lead to unintended consequences,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller has said.
An unnamed US official, meanwhile, told the Times of Israel that Washington “understands and accepts what Israel is trying to accomplish with a limited ground incursion into Lebanon” but is concerned that the IDF could be forced to expand the mission once it is set in motion.
A military base hosting US troops in Baghdad has reportedly come under attack according to Reuters. Two Iraqi military officials told the outlet that at least two Katyusha rockets had been fired at the compound but were intercepted by air defenses. It is unclear who had fired the rockets.
Israeli airstrikes have killed 95 and injured 172 people over the past 24 hours, the Lebanese Health Ministry said on Tuesday evening. The report did not break down the death toll between civilians and combatants.
Al Jazeera has reported that Israeli jets have bombed a suburb of Beirut where the IDF has alleged a Hezbollah presence.
The Israeli Security Cabinet approved the ground invasion of Lebanon at a meeting on Monday evening, but several members complained about the US leaking the plan to the media after Washington was given advance notice, the outlet Ynet has reported.
Israel’s planned invasion of Lebanon “grossly violates international law,” Belgium’s deputy prime minister, Petra De Sutter, posted on X. “This is not self-defense, but provoking all-out war,” she added, calling for the EU to respond with “maximum sanctions on Israel.”
Several towns along the Lebanon-Israel border have reported heavy IDF bombardment, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency. Marjayoun and Wazzani have been targeted by artillery, while Kawkaba, Rachaya Al Foukhar, Kfarkela and Khiam have been struck from the air.
Israel has already launched “small special forces operations” into southern Lebanon, ahead of a ground offensive, NBC News has reported, quoting an anonymous Israeli official. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has said the “next phase in the war against Hezbollah will begin soon.”
Meanwhile, the IDF has posted a warning for residents of the Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh to move at least 500m away from three buildings it described as “Hezbollah facilities,” warning that the Israeli military would soon “act forcefully” against them.
“For your safety and the safety of your family members, you must evacuate these buildings immediately,” tweeted Colonel Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman.
While neither the IDF nor Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said anything about the operation in Lebanon, Shas party leader Aryeh Deri posted a traditional Jewish war prayer on X.
The traditional prayer pleads with God to safeguard the troops operating “from the border of Lebanon to the desert of Egypt” and to vanquish their enemies and grant them victory.
UN peacekeepers in Lebanon (UNIFIL) remain in position but have been unable to carry out their mission, Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, told reporters.
“Given the intensity of the rockets going back and forth, they are not able to do patrolling,” Dujarric said, adding that “the intensity of fighting is preventing their movements.”
UNIFIL has been in Lebanon since 1978 and has approximately 10,000 ‘Blue Helmets’ in the country.
EU foreign foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has called an emergency video conference of the bloc’s foreign ministers while visiting Mexico.
“The sovereignty of both Israel and Lebanon has to be guaranteed,” Borrell told reporters afterward. “Any further military intervention would dramatically aggravate the situation and has to be avoided.”
Israel reportedly informed the US of the impending invasion earlier in the day. President Joe Biden told reporters at the White House that he was “more aware than you might know,” but that he wanted the IDF to stop.
“We should have a ceasefire now,” Biden said, before walking away.