Israel is on high alert for possible attacks on the one-year anniversary of the 7 October Hamas assault on southern Israel.
“We are ready with increased forces in anticipation for this day,” said military spokesperson Admiral Daniel Hagari, adding that there could be “attacks on the home front”.
Israel’s military today revealed that 726 of their soldiers had been killed in a year of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war on Gaza. Of those, 380 died in the 7 October attacks last year and 346 in the subsequent ground invasion of Gaza.
Israel intensified its airstrikes on Gaza and Lebanon on the eve of the anniversary, with fireballs and loud booms seen over the darkened skyline of Beirut.
Palestinian officials said a strike on a mosque in Gaza earlier in the day killed at least 19 people.
Rocket sirens and blasts were also heard in Haifa in northern Israel late on Sunday, with Hezbollah claiming the attack which injured at least 10. Israel’s military said at least five projectiles were identified coming from Lebanon in the incident.
Key Points
- Israel intensifies bombing of Gaza and Lebanon
- Israel on high alert for one-year anniversary of 7 October attacks
- In pictures: Israel airstrikes hit Gaza and Beirut, killing dozens
- 'Israel will retaliate against Iran when the time is right’
Qatar, Oman and the UAE travel advice
06:00
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar
Thousands of people have died in the humanitarian crisis unfolding in the Middle East. The conflict involving Israel, Gaza, Lebanon and Iran threatens to engulf the region. The missile attack by Iran on Israel has already caused widespread disruption to flights – and has raised concerns for tourists planning to visit destinations in the Gulf.
These are the key warnings made by the UK Foreign Office for the Gulf region, and individual advice for Qatar, Oman and the UAE (including Dubai) from the US State Department and the Government of Canada.
The Independent has also assessed current flight plans in and out of major airports, sampling typical routings for overnight flights from the UK arriving in the Gulf area.
Key flights are tracking south of the conflict zones, typically adding 30 minutes to journey times in either direction – or an hour for round-trips – and jeopardising connections at hub airports.
Simon Calder has more.
726 Israeli soldiers died in one year of Gaza combat, says military
05:30
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar
Israel today claimed 726 of its soldiers had died in the year-long war in Gaza.
Of these, 380 were killed during the 7 October Hamas attacks last year, and the other 346 died in the subsequent Gaza ground offensive starting 27 October 2023.
At least 56 soldiers died as a result of “operational accidents”, which the military did not define.
Since the start of the war, 13,200 rockets were fired into Israel from Gaza, the military said. Another 12,400 were fired from Lebanon, while 60 came from Syria, 180 from Yemen and 400 from Iran, it added.
Israel will decide independently about Iran retaliation, says minister
05:00
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar
Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant Israel would decide independently how to respond to Iran even though it was closely coordinating with longtime ally the US.
Iran launched a missile attack on Israel last week in response to its operations in Lebanon and Gaza, where Hezbollah and Hamas militants are Tehran’s allies in the “Axis of Resistance”.
“Everything is on the table,” Mr Gallant, who is due to meet US defence secretary Lloyd Austin on Wednesday.
“Israel has capabilities to hit targets near and far areas, we have proved it,” the minister told CNN.
While the US has said it would not support strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, president Joe Biden said last week that Israeli attacks on Iran’s oil facilities were being discussed.
Israel snubbed a US-backed push for a ceasefire in launching ground operations in Lebanon.
Israel on high alert for one-year anniversary of 7 October attacks
04:48
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar
Israel is on high alert for possible attacks on the one-year anniversary of the 7 October Hamas assault on southern Israel.
“We are ready with increased forces in anticipation for this day,” said military spokesperson Admiral Daniel Hagari, adding that there could be “attacks on the home front”.
Israel will today hold memorials for the victims of the Hamas attack.
The war in Gaza was triggered when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 as hostages, according to Israeli tallies. More than 100 hostages remain held by Hamas.
Israel’s subsequent military assault on Gaza has killed nearly 42,000 Palestinians, according to the health ministry of the Hamas-run Strip.
One year on from the horrors of 7 October, Israel must work to secure a peaceful future
04:00
Barney Davis
One year after the atrocities committed by Hamas, 7 October 2023 remains a date that will live in infamy. It is a moment to remember and commemorate all those innocents who lost their lives and suffered terrible injuries, who were taken hostage and orphaned, and who suffered other bereavements then and in the wars that have followed and continue still.
There are more than 40,000 dead in Gaza, and thousands more elsewhere as there seems no end to the slaughter. Gaza has been reduced to rubble, and everywhere there is disease and starvation. These are the facts of this war.
Israel intensifies bombing of Gaza and Lebanon
03:58
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar
Israel bombed targets in Lebanon and Gaza on the eve of the first anniversary of the Hamas attack on southern Israel that sparked its war on the Strip.
Hezbollah rockets launched last night got past Israeli air defence systems and landed in Haifa, Israel’s third-largest city, causing damage to buildings, police said. Israeli media reported 10 people wounded in rocket strikes in Haifa and the city of Tiberias.
Israeli air strikes battered Beirut’s southern suburbs yesterday in the most intense bombardment of the Lebanese capital since Israel sharply escalated its campaign against Iran-backed group Hezbollah last month.
Large fireballs lit the darkened skyline and booms reverberated across Beirut.
PM says ‘we must stand with Jewish community’ as he marks October 7 anniversary
03:00
Barney Davis
Sir Keir Starmer has said that “we must unequivocally stand with the Jewish community” and reiterated his calls for a ceasefire as he marked the first anniversary of the October 7 attacks.
Monday is one year since the Hamas attacks in Israel, which triggered Israel’s subsequent conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon.
Sir Keir described October 7 2023 as “the darkest day in Jewish history since the Holocaust” and said that “collective grief has not diminished” in the year since.
“Over a thousand people were brutally murdered. Men, women, children and babies killed, mutilated, and tortured by the terrorists of Hamas. Jewish people murdered whilst protecting their families, young people massacred at a music festival, people abducted from their homes,” the Prime Minister said.
“Agonising reports of rape, torture and brutality beyond comprehension which continued to emerge days and weeks later.
“As a father, a husband, a son, a brother – meeting the families of those who lost their loved ones last week was unimaginable. Their grief and pain are ours, and it is shared in homes across the land.
“A year on, that collective grief has not diminished or waned.”
More than 30 strikes on Beirut overnight - casualties unclear
01:54
Barney Davis
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported more than 30 strikes overnight into Sunday.
Israel’s military confirmed it was striking targets near Beirut and said about 130 projectiles had crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory.
“It was very difficult. All of us in Beirut could hear everything,” resident Haytham Al-Darazi said.
Another resident, Maxime Jawad, called it “a night of terror.”One strike killed three sisters and their aunt in the coastal village of Jiyyeh. “This is a civilian home, and the biggest evidence is those martyred are four women,” said a neighbour, Ali Al Hajj.
19 killed at mosque strike in Gaza
01:00
Barney Davis
An Israeli airstrike hit a mosque in central Gaza and Palestinian officials said at least 19 people were killed early Sunday.
The strike in Gaza hit a mosque where displaced people were sheltering near the main hospital in the central town of Deir al-Balah. Another four people were killed in a strike on a school sheltering displaced people near the town.The Israeli military said both strikes targeted militants, without providing evidence.
Ten injured in strikes on Haifa
Sunday 6 October 2024 23:36
Barney Davis
Hezbollah rockets hit Haifa, Israel’s third-largest city, Israeli police said early on Monday, and Israeli media reported 10 people were injured in the country’s north.
Hezbollah said it targeted a military base south of Haifa with a salvo of “Fadi 1” missiles. Media reports said two rockets hit Haifa.
Police said that some buildings and properties were damaged, and that there were several reports of minor injuries.
Israel bombards southern Beirut
Sunday 6 October 2024 23:26
Barney Davis
Beirut’s skyline lit up again late Sunday with new airstrikes, a day after Israel’s heaviest bombardment of the southern suburbs known as the Dahiyeh since it escalated its air campaign on September 23.
It was not immediately clear if there were casualties.Israel confirmed the strikes and says it targets Hezbollah.
UK advises against all travel to Israel and Gaza
Sunday 6 October 2024 22:50
Barney Davis
Britain advised citizens on Sunday against all travel to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs) due to a heightened state of tension and violent clashes in the region.
“FCDO advises against all travel to the area close to the border with Gaza and all but essential travel to the rest of Israel and the OPTs,” it said.
It came as the fourth and final charter flight for Britons wanting to leave Lebanon has left Beirut.
Who is Esmail Qaani?
Sunday 6 October 2024 21:50
Barney Davis
Iran’s Quds Force commander Esmail Qaani has not been heard from since Israeli strikes on Beirut late last week. Qaani travelled to Lebanon after the killing last month of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli airstrike.
Here are some facts about Qaani:
- Tehran named Qaani the head of the Revolutionary Guards Corps’ overseas military-intelligence service after the United States assassinated his predecessor Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike in Baghdad in 2020.
- Part of Qaani’s task in that post has been to manage Tehran’s paramilitary allies across the Middle East, as well as in other regions around the world.
- According to people familiar with both Qaani and Soleimani, as well as Western military and political analysts, Qaani has never commanded the same respect as his predecessor Soleimani or maintained the same close relationships among Iran’s allies in the Arab world.
- While Soleimani held the reins of the Quds Force during a time when Iran’s proxies - from Lebanese Hezbollah to Iraqi Shi’ite Muslim militias to the Houthis of Yemen - grew their power in the Middle East, Qaani has presided over their battering at the hands of Israeli spies and warplanes.
- Qaani became deputy commander of the Quds Force, the overseas arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, in 1997 when Soleimani became the Force’s chief commander.
- Qaani, 67, was born in Mashhad, a conservative Shi’ite Muslim religious city in northeastern Iran. He fought for the Revolutionary Guards during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.
- Qaani has also had experience of overseas operations beyond Iran’s eastern borders, including Afghanistan and Pakistan. He does not speak Arabic, unlike Soleimani who spoke fluently with Iraqi militias and Hezbollah commanders.
Hezbollah official says Israel obstructing search for missing senior leader
Sunday 6 October 2024 21:02
Barney Davis
Israel is not allowing a search for senior Hezbollah leader Hashem Safieddine to progress after it bombed Beirut’s southern suburbs on Thursday, a Hezbollah official said on Sunday.
Safieddine’s fate remains unclear.
The group’s political official Mahmoud Qmati told Iraqi state television that picking a new Hezbollah head would take some time.
Iran’s Quds Force commander Esmail Qaani, who travelled to Lebanon after the killing last month of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli airstrike, has not been heard from since strikes on Beirut late last week, two senior Iranian security officials told Reuters.
One of the officials said Qaani was in Beirut’s southern suburbs, known as the Dahiyeh, during a strike that was reported to
Fourth flight leaves Beirut
Sunday 6 October 2024 20:40
Barney Davis
The fourth charter flight for Britons wanting to leave Lebanon has left Beirut, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has said.
In a post on X on Sunday evening, the FCDO said that in the last week the UK has “helped over 430 people to leave Lebanon”.
“Our fourth UK charter flight has now left Beirut. Due to reduced demand, no further flights are scheduled, but we will continue to monitor the situation closely,” the post said.
Hamas claims Israel still blocking ceasefire agreement nearly year on from October 7
Sunday 6 October 2024 20:00
Barney Davis
A year since the start of the war in Gaza, Israel is still blocking a ceasefire agreement despite Hamas’s flexibility, Hamas chief negotiator and deputy Gaza chief Khalil Al-Hayya said in a televised speech shown on Hamas Aqsa television on Sunday.
He urged countries to stop what he called their “double-standards” over Gaza and Lebanon.
UN peacekeepers in Lebanon ‘deeply concerned’ by Israeli military activities
Sunday 6 October 2024 18:59
Barney Davis
The U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said in a statement on Sunday it was deeply concerned by what it called Israel’s “recent activities” adjacent to the mission’s position inside Lebanon.
It came after Israeli air attacks battered Beirut’s southern suburbs overnight and early on Sunday in the most intense bombardment of the Lebanese capital since Israel sharply escalated its campaign against Iran-backed group Hezbollah.
During the night, the blasts sent booms across Beirut and sparked flashes of red and white for nearly 30 minutes visible from several kilometres away.
It was the single biggest attack of Israel’s assault on Beirut so far, witnesses and military analysts on local TV channels said.
“Last night was the most violence of all the previous nights. Buildings were shaking around us and at first I thought it was an earthquake. There were dozens of strikes - we couldn’t count them all - and the sounds were deafening,” said Hanan Abdullah, a resident of the Burj al-Barajneh area.
Israel responsible for record journalist death toll, says group
Sunday 6 October 2024 16:02
Tom Watling
Israel is responsible for a record journalist death toll, the Committee Protect Journalists has said, adding that at least 128 journalists and media workers, all but five of them Palestinian, have been killed since 7 October 2023.
That is more journalists killed in the course of any year since they started documenting in 1992, the group added. All of the killings bar two were carried about the Israeli forces.
“By comparison, 56 journalists were killed in Iraq in 2006 – the next deadliest year. The targeted or indiscriminate killing of journalists, if committed deliberately or recklessly, is a war crime,” the group said in a statement.
It added that it found that at least five journalists were specifically targeted by Israel for their work and is investigating at least 10 more cases of deliberate targeting. Two Israeli journalists were killed in the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas militants.
Overnight Saturday another journalist - Hassan Hamad - was killed in north Gaza during a night of heavy Israeli strikes. Maha Hussaini - strategy director at Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor - said on X Hamad had received threats from Israeli numbers, via both text and calls, ordering him to stop filming prior to his death.
In pictures: Families of Israeli hostages hold event near Gaza
Sunday 6 October 2024 15:29
Tom Watling
We’re stuck in the 7 October 2023, say family of Israeli hostages
Sunday 6 October 2024 15:01
Bel Trew
The families of the hostages taken on 7 October last year into Gaza gathered on Saturday night just three kilometres from the enclave near the sites of the Hamas attack to demand the Israeli government sign a ceasefire deal immediately.
There they chanted “bring them home now” and held 365 seconds of silence to mark the number of days the remaining 100 or so hostages have been in Gaza.
Kobi Ben Ami, 54 the younger brother of Ohad, 55, who was speaking at the event, told The Independent the families were “stuck in the 7 October 2023" until their loved ones are brought home.
Ohad Ben Ami and his wife Raz, 57, were seized by Hamas militants from their home in Kibbutz Beer’i. The family only realised Ohad was among the hostages when a photo of him being dragged into Gaza in his underwear appeared on social media networks. Raz was released in an earlier prisoner-hostage swap after 54 gruelling days inside Gaza and her family say she is still suffering from medical complications.
“I’m still there in 7 October because it’s been a year and he is still not here,” Kobi said, explaining his house was attacked by militants on 7 October and he survived by hiding in his bomb shelter.
“As long as they are there in Gaza then we are there as well. We don’t have a routine or breaks all we do is work to get him freed,” he added .
“Then facts speak for themselves. We don’t know all the information we are not sitting in the government but the bottom line is it has been a year and they are still not home. As long as the hostages are not here it is the responsibility of the government.”
“People are dying every day - every minute we stand here could be the next murder.”
Israeli strikes batter Beirut in heaviest bombardment so far, witnesses say
Sunday 6 October 2024 14:31
Tom Watling
Israeli air attacks battered Beirut’s southern suburbs overnight and early on Sunday, the most intense bombardment of the Lebanese capital since Israel sharply escalated its campaign against Iran-backed group Hezbollah last month.
During the night, the blasts sent booms across Beirut and sparked flashes of red and white for nearly 30 minutes visible from several kilometres away.
It was the single biggest attack of Israel‘s assault on Beirut so far, witnesses and military analysts on local TV channels said.
On Sunday a grey haze hung over the city and rubble was strewn across streets in the southern suburbs, while smoke columns rose over the area.
“Last night was the most violence of all the previous nights. Buildings were shaking around us and at first I thought it was an earthquake. There were dozens of strikes - we couldn’t count them all - and the sounds were deafening,” said Hanan Abdullah, a resident of the Burj al-Barajneh area in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Blast heard in Syria's Homs, cause being investigated, state news agency says
Sunday 6 October 2024 14:01
Tom Watling
A blast was heard in a factory in the Syrian city of Homs, the state news agency reported on Sunday, adding that the cause is still being investigated.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians displaced in Lebanon, says UN
Sunday 6 October 2024 13:43
Tom Watling
As violence escalates in #Lebanon, around 20,000 Palestine Refugees have been forcibly displaced following Israeli airstrikes on camps.@UNRWA activated emergency shelters for over 4,300 displaced people, including Palestine Refugees, Lebanese and Syrians. The Agency stands… pic.twitter.com/MNNri19dMw
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) October 6, 2024
Several injured in suspected shooting attack in southern Israel, police say
Sunday 6 October 2024 13:18
Tom Watling
Israeli police have said that several people have been injured in a suspected shooting attack in the city of Beersheba in the country’s south, while the ambulance service says the attacker has been killed.
The ambulance service said a seriously injured woman was being treated at the scene while eight other people injured in the attack, including one in a moderate to serious condition, were receiving medical treatment in a nearby hospital.
פיגוע קשה ומשולב של ירי ודקירה - בשלוש נקודות שונות בתחנה המרכזית בב"ש. במד"א מדווחים על 9 פצועים בדרגות חומרה שונות, בהן אחת במצב אנוש ואחת במצב קשה עד בינוני | כל העדכוניםhttps://t.co/NfqMFekXZX pic.twitter.com/hGQvsn1F6k
— החדשות - N12 (@N12News) October 6, 2024
Israeli ambassador invokes Mahsa Amini’s name in criticism of Iran regime
Sunday 6 October 2024 13:02
Tom Watling
Israeli military issues new evacuation alerts for areas in southern Lebanon
Sunday 6 October 2024 12:31
Tom Watling
The Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesperson issued new evacuation alerts on Sunday for residents of around 25 areas in southern Lebanon, calling on them to head immediately to the north of the Awali River.
Mosque lies in ruins as Israel continues Gaza bombardment amid Lebanon strikes
Sunday 6 October 2024 12:01
Tom Watling
Tory shadow foreign sec says Israel should engage in Lebanon ceasefire
Sunday 6 October 2024 11:29
Tom Watling
The “right approach” to ending conflict in Lebanon is “not a ceasefire”, the Conservative shadow foreign secretary has said.
Andrew Mitchell told the BBC's Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme: “It is a very dangerous crisis in a world that in recent years has become more dangerous than at any time in our lifetime.
“But I think if you focus on what is happening in Lebanon, you see that Israel absolutely has the right of self-defence.
“No government would allow an internationally proscribed terrorist organisation to sit there lobbing rockets over the border and moving its populations, killing its population - more than 60,000 Israelis have had to move south.
“And the right approach is not a ceasefire, actually. The right approach is for Hezbollah and its Iranian masters to abide by United Nations Security Council resolution 1701, and pull back behind the Litani River, and that would end the conflict that's taking place in Lebanon.”
UPD: More than two dozen killed in Israeli srtike on Gaza school and mosque
Sunday 6 October 2024 11:01
Tom Watling
At least 26 people have been killed in Israeli strikes on a school and mosque in the central Gaza Strip, the local, Hamas-run health ministry has said.
Previously, the authorities’ media office put the death toll from the strikes on Deir al-Balah at 24.
Dozens of people were reported to have been injured. The Israeli military claimed it had targeted Hamas militants in the strikes.
Gaza death toll rises to 41,870, ministry says
Sunday 6 October 2024 10:28
Tom Watling
At least 41,870 Palestinians have been killed and 97,166 others injured in Israel‘s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October, Gaza’s health ministry has said.
Pro-Gaza protester attempts self-immolation outside White House
Sunday 6 October 2024 10:02
Tom Watling
In pictures: Israel airstrikes hit Gaza and Beirut, killing dozens
Sunday 6 October 2024 09:28
Tom Watling
Live: Lebanon's Beirut skyline as Israeli military issues evacuation order
Sunday 6 October 2024 08:59
Tom Watling
Lebanon health system on 'brink of collapsing'
Sunday 6 October 2024 08:30
Vishwam Sankaran
The health system in Lebanon is starting to collapse, according to the UN.
“Throughout the past days we have been witnessing an alarming increase in attacks against healthcare,” Imran Riza, the UN Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator for Lebanon, said in a post on X.
“Health workers are paying the heaviest price with their lives. The health system is on the brink of collapsing,” Mr Riza said.
The UN called on the international community to protect healthcare workers and civilians and establish an immediate ceasefire.
US pledges $157m in additional aid to Lebanon
Sunday 6 October 2024 08:00
Vishwam Sankaran
Amid Israel’s invasion of Lebanon and strikes on Beirut, US vice president and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris announced that the country would provide nearly $157m in additional assistance to the people of Lebanon.
Ms Harris said the aid would address “essential needs such as food, shelter, water, protection, and sanitation to help those who have been displaced by the recent conflict.”
The people of Lebanon are facing an increasingly dire humanitarian situation. I am concerned about the security and well-being of civilians suffering in Lebanon and will continue working to help meet the needs of all civilians there.
— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) October 5, 2024
To that end, the United States will provide…
“I am concerned about the security and well-being of civilians suffering in Lebanon and will continue working to help meet the needs of all civilians there,” she said.
“This additional support brings total US assistance to Lebanon over the last year to over $385 million,” the vice president added.
X users were quick to criticise the move by the US, which accounts for nearly 70 per cent of Israel’s arms imports.
Since Israel invaded Gaza, the US has approved billions of dollars in weapons sales to Israel over the past months.
“I’m no military expert, but lying awake that night in Beirut, you wonder whether the value of the US-produced bombs and aircraft in use here, in the competition between destruction and aid, doesn’t far exceed that sum,” Beirut-based journalist Karim El-Gawhary posted on X.
Thousands protest across world against Middle East war
Sunday 6 October 2024 07:30
Vishwam Sankaran
Thousands of people in major cities worldwide took to the streets on Saturday, demanding an end to Israel’s invasion of Gaza and Lebanon.
Nearly 40,000 people marched through central London, with thousands more in Paris, Cape Town, and New York City, calling for a free Palestine and a swift end to the conflict in the Middle East.
Protesters in New York City gathered at Times Square, shouting slogans like “Gaza, Lebanon, you will rise, the people are by your side”.
Many wore black-and-white keffiyeh scarves and held banners calling for an arms embargo against Israel.
Gaza mosque strike toll rises to 24
Sunday 6 October 2024 07:21
Vishwam Sankaran
An Israeli airstrike on a mosque in the Gaza Strip early on Sunday killed at least 24 people and wounded nearly 100 others, according to the Gaza government's media office. The airstrike, near Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, comes as Israel's invasion of Gaza approaches its first anniversary.
The Israeli military said that the attack was a “precise strike on Hamas terrorists who were operating within a command and control centre embedded in a structure that previously served as the ‘Shuhada al-Aqsa’ Mosque in the area of Deir al-Balah”.
According to Gaza’s health ministry, nearly 42,000 Palestinians have been killed and over 2.3 million people displaced since the start of Israel’s invasion.
Potential Hezbollah successor missing after Israeli airstrikes in Beirut
Sunday 6 October 2024 07:00
Vishwam Sankaran
The potential successor to Hezbollah’s slain leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, has been unreachable since Friday after Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon, Reuters reported, citing a Lebanese security source.
Israel has been conducting large-scale strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs since Thursday, causing thousands to flee their neighbourhoods.
One of the attacks targetted Hashem Safieddine, the potential successor to Hezbollah’s leadership, who was believed to be in an underground bunker.
Rescue workers are reportedly searching the site of the attack, but Hezbollah has not commented on his whereabouts.
Israel invasion of Lebanon in pictures:
Sunday 6 October 2024 06:30
Vishwam Sankaran
Fire and smoke rise at areas targeted by Israel in southern Beirut early Sunday
At least 18 killed in airstrike on Gaza mosque
Sunday 6 October 2024 06:00
Vishwam Sankaran
At least 18 people were killed and dozens injured in an Israeli airstrike on a mosque in Gaza, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa.
Israel’s military said it “conducted a precise strike on Hamas terrorists who were operating within a command and control center embedded in a structure that previously served as the ‘Shuhada al-Aqsa’ Mosque in the area of Deir al Balah.”
The number of casualties may rise since the mosque, near the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, was reportedly used to house displaced people.
ICYMI: Macron calls for arms embargo to Israel
Sunday 6 October 2024 05:30
Vishwam Sankaran
French president Emmanuel Macron called for the end of weapon shipments to Israel following IDF’s incursion into Lebanon.
“The priority is that we return to a political solution, that we stop delivering weapons to carry out fighting in Gaza,” Mr Macron said, adding that “terrorism should not be fought by “sacrificing a civilian population”.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticised leaders calling for an “arms embargo on Israel”.
“Israel will win with or without their support, but their shame will continue long after the war is won,” he said.
Iran urges India to convince Israel to stop genocide in Gaza
Sunday 6 October 2024 05:00
Vishwam Sankaran
Iran’s ambassador to India, Iraj Elahi said New Delhi can play a constructive role in convincing Israel to stop killing civilians in Gaza.
“We believe that India can play constructive role despite India has good relations with Israel, so it can convince Israel to stop genocide in Gaza,” Mr Elahi told Indian news agency ANI.
More than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Israel invaded the strip in October 2023.
Israel says violent strikes will continue 'without respite' as explosions rock Beirut
Sunday 6 October 2024 04:30
Vishwam Sankaran
Israel continued airstrikes in Lebanon yesterday as explosions rocked suburbs in southern Beirut for hours.
“We must continue exerting pressure on Hezbollah and creating additional and lasting damage to the enemy. Without relief and without allowing a respite for the organisation,” IDF chief of staff Lt Gen Herzi Halevi said.
Dozens of people were killed in the airstrikes which Lebanon’s National News Agency described as “very violent”.
Two Hamas officials killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon
Sunday 6 October 2024 04:00
Barney Davis
An Israeli strike on a refugee camp in north Lebanon has killed Hamas official Saeed Atallah Ali and his family, the militant group said Saturday. Hamas later said another military wing member was killed in an Israeli strike in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley.
Israel began a ground incursion Tuesday into Lebanon against the Hezbollah militant group.
The Israeli military said nine soldiers have died in the conflict in southern Lebanon.Nearly 2,000 people have been killed in Lebanon in the latest conflict, most of them since Sep
