Middle East crisis live: Hezbollah rocket hits Haifa after IDF bombards Beirut; Israel marks 7 October anniversary
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) ordered a “closed military zone” around three towns on the border with Lebanon and issued new evacuation orders for areas in southern Lebanon on Sunday. In a statement, the IDF said it is “strictly prohibited” to enter the communities of Manara, Yiftach, and Malkia. The Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesperson ordered residents of about 25 areas in southern Lebanon to head immediately to the north of the Awali river.
Israel expanded its actions in Lebanon, making its first strike in the northern city of Tripoli on Saturday, and Israeli troops launched raids in the south. 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.
Iranian authorities confirmed the resumption of air traffic after flight cancellations at some airports over “operational restrictions”, state media reported. Flights have been operational again since 11pm (1930 GMT) on Sunday a spokesperson for Iran’s civil aviation organisation said.
The UN’s peacekeeping force in Lebanon (Unifil) has said it is deeply concerned by what it called Israel’s “recent activities” adjacent to the mission’s position inside Lebanon. Unifil said on Sunday that the activities by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are an “extremely dangerous development” as it “urgently” reminded all actors of “their obligations to protect UN personnel and property.” Ireland’s president, Michael D Higgins, said it is “outrageous” for the IDF to have “threatened” Unifil.
More than 2,000 people have been killed in Lebanon nearly a year of fighting, most of them in the past two weeks, according to the Lebanese health ministry. The ministry said on Sunday 23 people had been killed on Saturday.
The latest Israeli strikes on Beirut came after days of Israeli bombing that killed the Hezbollah leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, and possibly his potential successor, Hashem Safieddine. A Lebanese security source said on Saturday that Safieddine had been out of contact since Friday, after an Israeli airstrike near the city’s international airport that was reported to have targeted him. Israeli strikes across the region in the past year, sharply accelerated in the past few weeks, have shattered Hezbollah’s leadership. On Sunday, the Israeli foreign ministry said its air force killed Hezbollah commander, Hader Ali Taweel.
At least 41,870 Palestinians have been killed by Israel’s military offensive in Gaza since 7 October, according to latest figures released by Gaza’s health ministry on Sunday. The health ministry also reported at least 97,166 people have been injured. Thousands more are most likely lost in the rubble of the territory.
Israel issued a new blanket evacuation order for all of the northern Gaza Strip on Sunday, where hundreds of thousands of civilians remain. “We are in a new phase of the war,” the Israeli military said in leaflets dropped over the area. “These areas are considered dangerous combat zones.” Up to 300,000 people are estimated to have remained in the heavily destroyed north after earlier Israeli warnings that sent around a million people fleeing to the south, even though people say there is nowhere safe to go.
For the first time in months, Israel sent a column of tanks into northern Gaza and launched major operations there, surrounding Jabalia, the largest of strip’s eight historic refugee camps. 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. Witnesses said the number of casualties could rise as the mosque, near the Al-Aqsa hospital in Deir al-Balah, was being used to house displaced people. The Israeli military said it was being used as a Hamas command centre.
Palestinians across northern Gaza have been told to flee to al-Mawasi on the southern coast, a so-called “humanitarian area” where an estimated one million displaced people are sheltering. Mawasi, which has been the target of deadly Israeli airstrikes, is severely overcrowded and aid agencies struggle to provide even the most basic services. In May, an aid worker described to the Guardian the “horrific and dehumanising” conditions, with limited food, filthy and scarce water, overwhelmed healthcare facilities and almost no sanitation.
The UN high commissioner for refugees, Filippo Grandi, said that Lebanon is seeing a “major displacement crisis” as a result of Israel’s escalating airstrikes, some of which have violated international law. About 40% of Lebanon’s 1.25 million school pupils have become displaced by ongoing Israeli attacks, Lebanon’s director general of education, Imad Achkar, said. The Lebanese government has said schools will postpone the start of the academic year due to intensifying Israeli airstrikes. Israeli strikes have forced 1.2 million people – almost a quarter of Lebanon’s population – from their homes, officials say. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) said 20,000 Palestinian refugees have been forcibly displaced by Israeli airstrikes on camps in Lebanon.
Israeli authorities said they were on the lookout for attacks timed to coincide with the first anniversary of the 7 October attacks on Monday. One woman was killed and 10 people were wounded in the suspected terror attack on Sunday at the central bus station in Be’er Sheva, a city in the Negev desert in southern Israel, the second attack in the last week. Israel’s military reportedly said it anticipates possible long-range rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.
Syria’s defence ministry said Israel launched airstrikes on military positions in central Syria on Sunday, causing “material damage”. “Israeli strikes” targeted a “weapons depot south of Homs and a rockets depot in the eastern Hama countryside,” Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights War Monitor, told AFP.
Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, said his country is closely coordinating with the US as it prepares to strike back at Iran, but that Tel Aviv will make its own independent decisions about how to retaliate. Despite the US having made clear that it opposes a strike on Iranian nuclear facilities, Gallant told CNN on Sunday that “everything is on the table”. Gallant is expected to visit the US this coming week where he is scheduled to meet with the US defense secretary, Lloyd Austin. In a statement on Sunday, Gallant warned Iran that it may end up like Gaza or Beirut if it attempts to harm Israel.
The US vice-president, Kamala Harris, said Washington will not stop putting pressure on Israeli and Arab leaders during ongoing diplomatic efforts. Harris was asked, in an interview with “60 Minutes” if the US has a “real close ally” in Netanyahu, to which she responded: “The better question is, do we have an important alliance between the American people and the Israeli people? The answer to that question is yes.”
The last currently scheduled plane for British nationals leaving Lebanon landed in Birmingham airport on Sunday night. The flight was the fourth charter flight to have left Beirut for the UK. There are no further flights scheduled, the UK Foreign Office said, citing a reduction in demand but it said the situation will be “closely” monitored. In addition, the UK has advised its citizens on Sunday against all travel to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
The UK government is advising Israel to show “restraint” as Keir Starmer warned that “sparks”’ from the Middle East conflict could “light touchpapers in our communities at home”. Peter Kyle, a UK cabinet minister, did not rule out the possibility of the UK military helping Israel attack Iran, but noted any “operational decision to be taken” would be based on “delicate negotiations”.
A call by France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, for a halt in arms supplies to Israel for use in Gaza has been met with an angry rebuttal from Benjamin Netanyahu. “As Israel fights the forces of barbarism led by Iran, all civilised countries should be standing firmly by Israel’s side,” Netanyahu said in a statement. The pair spoke on Sunday in a call that the Élysée Palace described as “frank”.
Thousands of protesters took to the streets in major cities around the world for a second day on Sunday to demand 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.