Hezbollah has launched an “unprecedented” rocket attack on northern Israel as the Israeli military pushed further into southern Lebanon on Tuesday.
The Shia militia fired over 100 missiles across the area of Haifa, a port city just 26 miles from the border between Israel and Lebanon, the Israeli military said.
The mayor of Kiryat Motzkin, which is nearby Haifa, described the scale of the barrage - largely intercepted by Israel’s air defence - as unprecedented.
It comes as Israeli troops have moved into south-west Lebanon after nine days of focusing on the south eastern side of the border - where Israel invaded on 30 September.
The 146th reservist division will carry out a “localised” ground operation alongside an artillery brigade against Hezbollah militants in the area, as up to 1.2million people have been displaced across Lebanon.
Overnight, Beirut’s southern suburbs were rocked by fresh Israeli airstrikes, with Israeli forces claiming it killed senior Hezbollah commander Suhail Hussein Husseini.
If confirmed, the death of Suhail Hussein Husseini would be the latest in a string of Israel’s assassinations of leaders and commanders of Hezbollah and its ally Hamas.
Key Points
- Hezbollah launches ‘unprecedented’ rocket attack at Haifa
- Israeli military pushes further into Lebanon
- Beirut rocked by fresh airstrikes
- Pictured: Aftermath of Israeli airstrikes on Beirut
- Israel detects missile fired from Yemen
Israel tightens restrictions on civilians in Haifa area after rocket barrage
16:45
Alexander Butler
Israel’s Home Front Command on Tuesday tightened restrictions on civilians in the Haifa area 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.
Who is Hashem Safieddine, the Nasrallah relative seen as future Hezbollah leader?
16:15
Alexander Butler
Israeli forces have claimed senior Hezbollah commander Hashem Safieddine was likely killed in an overnight airstrike on Beirut.
Safieddine was widely seen as the successor to his slain relative Hassan Nasrallah, who perished in an Israeli airstrike on the Lebanese capital city on 27 September.
He was running Hezbollah alongside the group’s deputy secretary general Naim Qassem since Nasrallah’s assassination just under two weeks ago.
Safieddine has sat on the group’s Jihad Council - the body responsible for its military operations. He was also head of its executive council, overseeing financial and administrative affairs for the Iran-backed group.
While not as well-known to Israelis as Nasrallah, Safieddine is seen by Israel as a leading target in what it deems a terrorist organisation and a proxy for Iran.
Joe Biden called Netanyahu a ‘f***ing liar’, according to upcoming book
16:00
Alexander Butler
US President Joe Biden called prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “f*****g liar” after IDF troops went into Rafah, according to an upcoming book by US journalist Bob Woodward.
After Israel entered Rafah, Biden said of Netanyahu: “He’s a f****** liar.” “That son of a b***h, Bibi Netanyahu, he’s a bad guy,” said Biden privately, according to Woodward. “He’s a bad f*****g guy!”
Pictured: Smoke billows above ancient city of Tyre, southern Lebanon
15:45
Alexander Butler
Pictured: Aftermath of Hezbollah rocket fire in Haifa
15:30
Alexander Butler
Pictured: Commercial plane takes off as smoke billows across the Beirut skyline
15:10
Alexander Butler
Health facilities in Lebanon ‘severely damaged’, WHO says
14:45
Alexander Butler
Health facilities have been severely damaged by Israel’s ongoing bombardment and invasion of Lebanon as it seeks to uproot Hezbollah, the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned.
There have been 36 attacks on health facilities, killing 77 health workers and injuring 74 others over the past year, according to the WHO.
Watch: Starmer’s blunt response to suspended Labour MP’s question on Israel arms sales
14:30
Alexander Butler
Israeli air force strike school being used by Hezbollah, military claims
14:15
Alexander Butler
The Israeli Air Force destroyed a school in southern Lebanon being used by Hezbollah to launch rockets at northern Israel, the Israeli military claimed.
“Over the past few hours, Israeli Air Force fighter jets have continued to strike Hezbollah terror targets in Lebanon, including launchers, terrorist infrastructure sites, and anti-tank missile launchers,” the military said.
“During Israeli military operational activity in the area, the Israeli air force struck Hezbollah observation posts, anti-tank missile launchers, and ambush posts.”
Keir Starmer takes aim at ‘malign’ Iran and vows never to ban all arms sales to Israel
14:00
Alexander Butler
Sir Keir Starmer used the first anniversary of Hamas’s barbaric terrorist attack on Israel to urge the international community to turn its focus on the “malign” regime in Iran.
In a carefully crafted statement in the Commons to commemorate the 7 October atrocity, which sparked war in the Middle East, Sir Keir’s message to MPs was that the ayatollahs who rule Iran must be held to account and forced to take responsibility for the humanitarian crisis unfolding in the region.
He said his government “will never stop selling weapons to Israel”, despite calls from French president Emmanuel Macron for a full arms embargo.
Read the full article here:
Pictured: Hezbollah attacks on northern Israel
13:45
Alexander Butler
Pictured: Aftermath of Beirut strikes
13:30
Alexander Butler
MI5 has thwarted 20 Iran-backed plots since 2022, chief says
13:23
Alexander Butler
British intelligence has thwarted 20 Iran-backed plots that presented “potentially lethal threats” to British citizens since 2022, MI5’s chief said.
“Since 2022 we’ve seen plot after plot here in the UK, at an unprecedented pace and scale,” MI5 director general Ken McCallum said.
“As events unfold in the Middle East, we will give our fullest attention to the risk of an increase in – or broadening of – Iranian state aggression in the UK,” he added.
Supporters of Iran in UK will face full weight of state, MI5 warns
13:20
Alexander Butler
Anyone acting on behalf of Iran, Russia or other hostile state actors in the UK will face the “full weight” of Britain’s national security apparatus, MI5 has warned.
MI5 chief Ken McCallum said: “To those tempted to carry out such tasks, I say this: If you take money from Iran, Russia or any other state to carry out illegal acts in the UK, you will bring the full weight of the national security apparatus down on you. It’s a choice you’ll regret.”
Pictured: Aftermath of Hezbollah rocket attacks
13:15
Alexander Butler
UK facing heightened threat of ‘plot after plot’ from Iran, warns MI5 chief
13:14
Tom Watling, in London
British intelligence is facing a “hell of a job” over rising threats from Iran and Russia, as well as the resurgence of Isis and Al-Qaeda, the head of MI5 has warned.
A day after Sir Keir Starmer called on the international community to focus on the “malign” regime in Iran, which supports proxies across the Middle East including Hamas and Hezbollah, Ken McCallum said British intelligence has thwarted 20 Tehran-backed plots that “presented potentially lethal threats to British citizens” since the start of 2022.
With fears growing of all-out war across the Middle East with Israel expanding a ground invasion in Lebanon against Hezbollah and a year-long war in Gaza against Hamas, after the 7 October terror attack, the director general of MI5 said British intelligence were “powerfully alive to the risk that events in the Middle East directly trigger terrorist action in the UK”.
Read the full article here:
Hezbollah signals interest in ceasefire
13:03
Alexander Butler
Hezbollah has signalled an interest in a ceasefire with Israel after the group’s leadership was wiped out and the Israeli military pusher further into southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah deputy leader Naim Qassem said he supported attempts to secure a truce, and for the first time did not mention the end of war in Gaza as a pre-condition to halting combat on the Lebanon-Israel border.
Qassem said he supported attempts by Lebanon’s speaker of parliament Nabih Berri to seek a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
“We support the political activity being led by Berri under the title of a ceasefire,” Qassem said in his 30-minute televised address.
On the ground: Gaza hostage families blast air raid siren outside Netanyahu’s home as wake up call to agree release deal
12:59
Bel Trew, in Jerusalem
Relatives of hostages still held in Gaza marched to Benjamin Netanyahu’s home in Jerusalem at dawn, blaring an air raid siren to mark the exact time of the Hamas attack a year ago that altered so many lives forever, while warning they “won’t let [Netanyahu] rest until all of them are back”.
In the hopes of getting the Israeli prime minister’s attention, hundreds gathered outside his residence with a desperate plea for a ceasefire and hostage release deal.
They sounded the haunting air raid siren for two minutes at 6.29am – the minute the act of terror by Hamas began, an attack which resulted in the killing of around 1,200 people and the kidnapping of 251. An estimated 97 remain in Gaza, with the fate of most of them unknown.
Hezbollah launches ‘unprecedented’ rocket attack at Haifa
12:54
Alexander Butler
Hezbollah has launched an “unprecedented” rocket attack on northern Israel as the Israeli military pushed further into southern Lebanon on Tuesday.
The Shia militia fired over 100 missiles across the area of Haifa, a port city just 26 miles from the border between Israel and Lebanon, the Israeli military said.
The mayor of Kiryat Motzkin, which is nearby Haifa, described the scale of the barrage - largely intercepted by Israel’s air defence - as unprecedented.
Israeli military ‘takes Hezbollah outpost'
12:05
Bel Trew, in Jerusalem
The Israeli military’s Golani Brigade has claimed to have taken control of a Hezbollah outpost overlooking northern Israel.
The compound, in the southern Lebanese village of Maroun El Ras, is just north of the Israel-Lebanon blue line.
“The Hezbollah combat compound included a residential building and an olive grove, where a launcher, loaded and ready to fire at communities in northern Israel, was found,” the Israeli military said.
It also claimed a stockpile of weapons including guns, camouflage nets, rocket launchers and anti-tank missiles were found at the outpost.
Around 20 Hezbollah rockets fire at Israel
11:59
Bel Trew, in Jerusalem
Around 20 Hezbollah rockets have been fired across northern Israel over the last hour, the Israeli military said.
A number of projectiles were intercepted. Fallen projectiles were identified in the area, the Israeli military added.
Lebanon situation getting worse every day, EU warns
11:55
Alexander Butler
The situation in Lebanon is getting worse by the day, the European Union’s foreign chief Josep Borrell told the European Parliament on Tuesday, adding a ceasefire should be achieved.
According to figures, some 20 per cent of the Lebanese population had been forced to move amid the conflict, he said.
Up to 1.2million people have been displaced across Lebanon and more than 2,080 have been reported killed in total, and a further 9,869 wounded, according to Lebanese authorities.
Why is Israel invading Lebanon?
10:39
Alexander Butler
Israel has claimed the invasion is necessary to destroy Hezbollah’s bases of operations and push the militia out of southern Lebanon, stopping the group’s near-daily rocket fire into northern Israel since 7 October.
Head of the Israeli military’s Northern Command Major General Ori Gordin wants to clear Hezbollah from the border to create a “buffer zone,” which would allow the evacuated Israelis to return home.
Since the Israeli offensive of Lebanon began last month 2,080 people have been killed and a further 9,869 wounded, according to Lebanese health authorities.
Around 1.2million Lebanese people have been displaced across Lebanon since last October - 90 per cent of which have been over the last few weeks, according to the UN.
On the ground: NHS medics volunteering in Gaza warn of catastrophic collapse of healthcare system
10:00
Bel Trew
NHS medics volunteering in Gaza have warned of the “catastrophic” collapse of the healthcare system one year into the war, as they described trying to treat the wounded and sick amid shortages of everything from paracetamol to surgical gauze.
Nurses and doctors working in field hospitals run by the British medical charity UK-Med have called for immediate delivery of supplies and for health workers and facilities to be protected, as the world marks the grim milestone of one year at war.
UK-Med, which runs two facilities in the centre of Gaza, has treated 200,000 people and sees around 1,400 patients a day, but is struggling with overwhelming demand and a punishing lack of supplies.
Pictured: Aftermath of Israeli airstrikes on Beirut
09:35
Alexander Butler
Hamas will rise like the phoenix, says top member
09:30
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar
Hamas’s leader-in-exile Khaled Meshaal said the Palestinian group would rise again and that it continues to recruit fighters and manufacture weapons.
Israel says Hamas no longer exists as an organised military structure and has been reduced to guerrilla tactics. Hamas fighters account for at least a third of the roughly 17,000 Palestinian deaths in Gaza, according to Israeli officials.
“Palestinian history is made of cycles,” Mr Meshaal, 68, a senior figure under overall leader Yahya Sinwar, told Reuters.
“We go through phases where we lose martyrs and we lose part of our military capabilities, but then the Palestinian spirit rises again, like the phoenix, thanks to god.”
Pictured: Displaced children across Lebanon
09:28
Alexander Butler
Beirut rocked by fresh airstrikes
09:07
Alexander Butler
Beirut’s southern suburbs were rocked by fresh Israeli airstrikes overnight, with Israeli forces claiming it killed senior Hezbollah commander Suhail Hussein Husseini.
If confirmed, the death of Suhail Hussein Husseini would be the latest in a string of Israel’s assassinations of leaders and commanders of Hezbollah and its ally Hamas.
More than 2,080 have been reported killed in total, and a further 9,869 wounded, since Israel began its bombing operations in Lebanon last month.
Israeli military pushes further into Lebanon
09:04
Alexander Butler
The Israeli military has pusher further into southern Lebanon as Beirut was rocked by a fresh wave of airstrikes overnight.
Israeli troops have moved into south-west Lebanon after nine days of focusing on the eastern side of the border - where Israel invaded on 30 September.
The 146th division will carry out a “limited, localised, targeted” ground operation against Hezbollah militants in the area, Israel claimed, as up to 1.2million people have been displaced across Lebanon.
In pics: Pro-Palestine solidarity protests in US and Mexico
09:00
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar
Concern over proximity of Israeli tanks near Irish post in Lebanon
08:30
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar
The presence of Israel tanks near an outpost where some Irish troops are stationed is “concerning”, the UN’s mission in Lebanon said.
The UN mission said the position of IDF troops “immediately adjacent“ to the peacekeeping post was “an extremely dangerous development”.
The mission “is deeply concerned by recent activities by the IDF [Israel Defence Forces] immediately adjacent to the Mission’s position 6-52, southeast of Marun ar Ras (Sector West), inside Lebanese territory,” it said in a statement.
“The IDF has been repeatedly informed of this ongoing situation through regular channels,” the mission said.
“UNIFIL urgently reminds all actors of their obligations to protect UN personnel and property.”
Iran says Quds force commander is alive and well
08:00
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar
Ismail Ghaani, the commander of the overseas arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, is alive and well, his Deputy Brigadier General Iraj Masjedi said, dismissing speculations about his death.
Mr Ghani, who leads the Guard’s overseas military service, has been missing from the public eye for more than a week amid speculations about his death in an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon.
His deputy told local reporters yesterday that there was no need for the Guards to release any official statement to shut down the rumours, according to the Financial Times.
“He’s healthy and well and doing his job,” Big Gen Masjedi said of Mr Ghaani, while declining to provide further details.
Watch: ‘This is a tense life’: Teenager speaks from bombed Gaza
07:30
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar
A teenager from north Gaza has shared what her life is like living in a tent after she was displaced under Israeli bombardment.
Enas Tantesh is 17 years old and lives in the Al Mawasi so-called humanitarian zone.
“This is a tense life... You cannot set a routine, you cannot do whatever you want. You might be displaced or even die at any moment,” she said.
Live: View of Gaza's Khan Younis as NHS volunteers warn of catastrophic healthcare collapse
07:05
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar
China to provide emergency medical supplies to Lebanon
07:00
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar
China will provide emergency medical supplies to Lebanon, China’s official foreign aid agency said this morning.
Li Ming, the spokesperson for the China International Development Cooperation Agency, said in a statement that as the fighting escalated recently, explosions and air strikes “have occurred in many places in Lebanon, causing a large number of casualties”.
“At the request of the Lebanese government, the Chinese government has decided to provide emergency humanitarian medical supplies to Lebanon to help Lebanon carry out medical assistance,” the statement said.
No evidence Iran rushing to build a nuclear weapon, says CIA director
06:30
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar
There is no evidence to suggest that Iran has decided to build a nuclear weapon, said CIA director William Burns, adding the US and its allies would be able to detect such a step.
Mr Burns said Iran has advanced its nuclear program by stockpiling uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels and could quickly secure enough fissile material for an atomic bomb.
“No, we do not see evidence today that the supreme leader has reversed the decision that he took at the end of 2003 to suspend the weaponisation program,” Mr Burns said at the Cipher Brief security conference in Sea Island.
Israel claims killing of Hezbollah HQ commander
05:59
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar
The Israeli military today said it killed Suhail Hussein Husseini, the commander of Hezbollah’s headquarters in Beirut.
The military claimed Husseini was a partner in the weapons transfer agreements between Iran and Hezbollah and was responsible for the distribution of the smuggled weapons between the various units in Hezbollah.
US warns Israel not to attack Beirut airport
05:26
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar
The US warned Israel not to attack the airport in Lebanon’s capital or the roads leading to it after Israel intensified its bombardment of southern Beirut around the one-year anniversary of the 7 October Hamas attack.
“We think it’s very important that not only the airport be open, but that the roads to the airport be open,” state department spokesperson Matthew Miller said yesterday.
He added the airport and the road around it needed to be spared so that the American and other foreign citizens “who want to leave can get out” of Lebanon safely.
The Israeli air force yesterday struck the southern suburbs of Beirut, near the international airport, security sources told AFP.
Mr Miller said some 8,500 Americans have contacted the state department to inquire about departure conditions, but this does not mean they all wish to leave.
Trump says Israel has ‘to get smart’ and back him
05:00
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar
One year on from the Hamas terrorist attack that sparked 12 months of intense conflict in the Middle East, Donald Trump has said that Israel needs to “get smart” and support him.
The former president appeared to complain that he was not being backed by Israel, claiming in typical fashion that he had done more for the nation and Jewish people “than anybody.”
Trump phoned into conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt’s show, and was asked if he thought Israel would be able to fully recover after its war. The former president replied that Israel “would be good.”
“I think that Israel has to do one thing. They have to get smart about Trump, because they don’t back me,” he said.
Mike Bedigan reports.
Over 100 Palestinian journalists detained by Israel in a year
04:30
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar
Israel has detained at least 108 Palestinian journalists from Gaza and the occupied West Bank since it launched its war on Gaza a year ago, a rights group has said.
About 58 journalists still remain in Israeli custody, including six women journalists and 22 from Gaza, said the Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, also known as Addameer.
The group said at least 16 journalists were being held under administrative detention.
More than 9000 orders of administrative detention have been issued since 7 October last year, including orders against children and women, the group claimed.
Israeli strikes in Gaza kill 21, including five children
04:15
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar
At least 21 people, including five children and two women, were killed in Israeli airstrikes in central Gaza last night, according to Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital.
The strikes took place on the anniversary of the 7 October Hamas attack in southern Israel.
Two strikes hit houses in the Bureij refugee camp as emergency responders said more people are thought to be under the rubble.
The Palestinian death toll in the war in Gaza is nearing 42,000, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run Strip.
In pics: Israel continues to bomb Beirut
03:45
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar
Full story: Keir Starmer takes aim at ‘malign’ Iran and vows never to ban all arms sales to Israel
03:30
David Maddox
Sir Keir Starmer used the first anniversary of Hamas’s barbaric terrorist attack on Israel to urge the international community to turn its focus on the “malign” regime in Iran.
In a carefully crafted statement in the Commons to commemorate the 7 October atrocity, which sparked war in the Middle East, Sir Keir’s message to MPs was that the ayatollahs who rule Iran must be held to account and forced to take responsibility for the humanitarian crisis unfolding in the region.
He said his government “will never stop selling weapons to Israel”, despite calls from French president Emmanuel Macron for a full arms embargo.
His words came as Sir Keir resisted calls to distance himself from Israel after its prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu opened up a new front in the north against the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorists in southern Lebanon.
David Maddox reports:
NHS medics volunteering in Gaza warn of catastrophic collapse of healthcare system
03:00
Athena Stavrou
NHS medics volunteering in Gaza have warned of the “catastrophic” collapse of the healthcare system one year into the war, as they described trying to treat the wounded and sick amid shortages of everything from paracetamol to surgical gauze.
Nurses and doctors working in field hospitals run by the British medical charity UK-Med have called for immediate delivery of supplies and for health workers and facilities to be protected, as the world marks the grim milestone of one year at war.
Bel Trew reports:
Wife of journalist killed in Gaza wears husband’s press vest as she continues his work
02:00
Athena Stavrou
The wife of a Palestinian journalist described how she feels close to her husband by wearing his press vest as she continues his work in Gazaunder Israeli bombardment.
Filmmaker Shrouq Aila spoke to BBC Panorama for the programme’s episode commemorating the first anniversary of the October 7 attack.
Her husband, journalist Roshdi Sarraj, was hit in the head by shrapnel after an Israeli strike hit his family home in Gaza City and died of his injuries.
Ms Aila decided to carry on her husband’s work documenting the strikes.
She told the BBC: “Every time I wear the vest I remember my husband.
“It crosses my mind lots of times that Dania might lose me the same way she lost her father.”
Israel state ceremony performs dramatisation of moment October 7 attack begins
01:30
Athena Stavrou
A dramatisation of the moment the October 7 attack began was performed at an official Israeli state memorial on the first anniversary.
Video played during the pre-recorded ceremony displayed the date as 7 October 2023 and the time as 6am.
Women in white dresses danced to heavy music before screaming was heard and gunfire sounds played.
Later in the sequence, the dancers fell to the floor.
On Monday, Israel marked one year since Hamas‘ attack, during which the group killed around 1,200 people and took 251 more hostage in Gaza, 101 of which remain in the enclave.
Nearly 42,000 Palestinians have since been killed by Israel’s retaliatory air and ground attack in Gaza, according to the local, Hamas-run health ministry.
Mother of sole British hostage in Gaza pleas for help and her safe return
Tuesday 8 October 2024 00:30
Athena Stavrou
The mother of the sole British hostage still in Gaza a year after she was taken by Hamas has pleaded for her safe return, saying: “I need her back with me now, alive, before it is too late for her.”
Mandy Damari’s plea for her daughter Emily, 28, and the other hostages, was made in a recorded message played on Monday at an evening of commemoration and reflection of the October 7 attacks on Israel.
To an audience which included Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis and former prime minister Rishi Sunak, she said that the recent news of six hostages being murdered in the tunnels beneath Gaza is a “horror beyond imaginable”.
She added: “We have clear photographic evidence of the conditions which Emily and the other hostages are likely living in.
“It is a desperate and living hell.
“I am a mother and it goes against every grain of my being to profess that I need help with the child that I know best, the child that I brought into this world, but I do so desperately need help and I ask you for it now.
“I have always believed in the power of prayer but more importantly, the power of collective prayer.”
Israel ‘endangering’ Irish troops in Lebanon, deputy premier says
Monday 7 October 2024 23:39
Athena Stavrou
Israel has endangered Irish peacekeepers along the border with Lebanon, Ireland’s deputy premier has said.
Micheal Martin made the comments as Irish premier Simon Harris also criticised breaches of the Blue Line by Israeli forces as unacceptable.
It comes amid concern for the safety of Irish peacekeepers involved in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) amid heightened conflict in the region.
Israeli forces have recently breached the Blue Line demarcation between southern Lebanon and Israel, which is observed by the UN peacekeeping unit.
The Irish Defence Forces has said the development raised “significant concerns”, particularly on the breaches which occurred near Irish battalion posts. In a statement, it said sheltering in place remains the “safest option” for Irish troops at this time.
The update follows reports from Lebanese media outlet Al-Mayadeen reported that Hezbollah fighters had been instructed to hold back from engaging with Israeli forces near the Unifil site “to protect the lives of the international personnel”.
The reports also accused the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) of using Unifil peacekeepers as human shields to cover up advances on the ground.
Vigils held for victims of Hamas attack
Monday 7 October 2024 18:01
Athena Stavrou
The victims of the October 7 Ha
