Middle East crisis live: At least 18 people reportedly killed in Israeli strike on Lebanon as US urges citizens to leave now
At least 18 killed in Aitou in northern Lebanon, say Red Cross
Israel has expanded its targets in its war with the Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon on Monday, killing at least 18 people in its first strike on the Christian-majority town of Aitou in the north, the Lebanese Red Cross said.
Reuters reports:
So far the main focus of Israel’s military operations in Lebanon has been in the south, the eastern Bekaa Valley and the suburbs of Beirut.
The strike in the northern region hit a house that had been rented to displaced families, Aitou Mayor Joseph Trad told Reuters. In addition to the deaths, four people were injured, the Red Cross said.
Israel on Monday ordered residents of 25 villages to evacuate to areas north of the Awali River, which flows through southern Lebanon, as it intensifies its attacks in the region.
An Israeli strike killed Muhammad Kamel Naim, the commander of the anti-tank missile unit of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force, in the Nabatieh area of south Lebanon, the military said.
Key events
Sirens sound across Israel as projectiles fired from Lebanon
The IDF said millions of Israelis were rushing to shelters as sirens sounded across central Israel, including Tel Aviv, in response to projectiles fired from Lebanon.
The Israeli military says it has sent out 1.7 million text messages, 3.4 million voice messages and made 3,700 voice calls notifying civilians in Lebanon to evacuate as it continues its ground invasion there, AP reports.
Some 2,300 people have been killed by Israeli strikes in Lebanon since last October, more than three-quarters of them in the past month, according to the Lebanese government. At least 1.2 million people have been displaced — the vast majority since Israel ramped up airstrikes across the country last month.
Israel says it is making an effort to communicate with civilians ahead of airstrikes, but people interviewed by the the AP news agency say that they don’t receive the warnings – or that they come in the middle of the night or don’t adequately cover the area that is struck.
Lebanese sources say the orders often come at very short notice, and it’s not clear where people can go or when they will be able to return home. One quarter of Lebanese territory is now under Israeli military displacement orders, according to the UN’s human rights division.
The United Nations human rights office has said it was appalled by more than a week of heavy Israeli strikes on northern Gaza where it said tens of thousands of civilians are trapped without food or supplies, Reuters reports.
“In the shadow of the escalation of hostilities across the Middle East, the Israeli military appears to be cutting off North Gaza completely from the rest of the Gaza Strip and conducting hostilities with absolute disregard for the lives and security of Palestinian civilians,” the rights office said.
It added in a statement that it had received reports that Israeli forces had erected sand mounds at a key juncture, effectively “sealing off north Gaza” and firing on those attempting to flee.
US embassy strongly urges citizens to leave Lebanon
The US embassy in Lebanon said its citizens were strongly encouraged to leave Lebanon “now”, Reuters reports. The embassy added that additional flights it organised for its citizens traveling out of Beirut would not continue indefinitely.
Two Palestinians shot dead in West Bank
Israeli forces shot dead two Palestinians in the northern West Bank city of Jenin, the Palestinian Health Ministry said, AP reports.
Commenting on the incident, the Israeli army official said its troops exchanged fire with armed militants during what it termed a “counterterrorism operation” in the Jenin area, killing one of the gunmen.
According to Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency, one of the men was 17 years old. Four others were injured by Israeli fire during the raid, it said.
Wafa reported that Israel had deployed their snipers on the roofs of a number of tall buildings in the city.
Lebanese officials say Israeli airstrike struck near aid convoy
Officials said an Israeli airstrike hit near an aid convoy in Lebanon, wounding a driver and lightly damaging the trucks, AP reports.
The humanitarian aid, which reached Beirut on Monday, was marked with the flags of Turkey and the United Arab Emirates as well as the Red Cross insignia.
Governor of the Baalbek-Hermel region, Bachir Khodr accompanied the convoy. He said the airstrike hit as it was passing through northeastern Lebanon. He shared a picture on X taken from inside a vehicle showing a large cloud of smoke on the road ahead.
It was not clear how badly the driver was wounded. The Guardian could not independently verify the image.
غارة اسرائيلية اثناء مرور قافلة المساعدات على مسافة قريبة جداً منا في بلدة العين.
نقوم بهذه الأثناء بالتأكد بأن جميع الأشخاص والآليات بخير.
#بشير_خضر pic.twitter.com/ufQgEhMs92— Bachir Khodr (@BachirKhodr) October 14, 2024
Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant briefed his US counterpart Lloyd Austin on the deadly Hezbollah drone attack on a military base in Israel yesterday and vowed “a forceful response.”
The attack near the city of Binyamina killed four soldiers and wounded 61. It was the deadliest strike by the militant group since Israel launched its ground invasion of Lebanon two weeks ago.
In his talk with Austin, Gallant “highlighted the severity of the attack and the forceful response that would be taken against Hezbollah,” his office said.
He also “reiterated the measures” taken by the military to coordinate with UNIFIL peacekeepers in southern Lebanon and to avoid harming them, after mounting criticism of Israel for repeatedly firing on UN soldiers.
Gallant’s office said he expressed his appreciation to Austin and the US administration for deciding to send a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery – used to shoot down ballistic missiles – to Israel “in the coming days.”
Lisa O’Carroll
Ireland’s prime minister Simon Harris has spoken to the Israeli president Isaac Herzog to speak about the security of Irish and other peacekeeping troops in southern Lebanon.
He relayed the government’s “serious concern about the deteriorating situation” in southern Lebanon as well as emphasising the expectation that Unifil’s mandate was respected.
The Irish government statement said:
The Taoiseach was clear that the deliberate firing at UNIFIL posts is an outrageous and totally unacceptable breach of international law, and a cause of the deepest concern to the Irish people, especially the families of the Irish Defence Forces personnel serving in Lebanon.
He also told Herzog Irish people taken “enormous pride” in their role and their safety was a matter of “the highest priority” for the government.
He also spoke about Gaza, expressing solidarity with the families of hostages, but warning the “scale of a humanitarian catastrophe is unimaginable and that children and civilians are starving and dying”.
The Israeli military said it has intercepted two drones approaching from Syria, a day after a drone attack by Lebanon’s Hezbollah on a base killed four soldiers.
The military said in a statement:
A short while ago, two UAVs that approached Israeli territory from Syria were successfully intercepted by the IAF (air force). The UAVs were intercepted before crossing into Israeli territory.
Israel is fighting a war on two fronts, one on its northern border with Lebanon, the other with Hamas in Gaza, while it also faces attacks from Iran-backed militants in Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
Earlier on Monday, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq – a loose alliance of armed groups backed by Iran – said it had fired drones at Israel in two separate attacks.
The group said in a statement before later announcing a second salvo:
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq attacked at dawn… a vital target in the Jordan Valley in our occupied lands, using drones.
At least 18 killed in Aitou in northern Lebanon, say Red Cross
Israel has expanded its targets in its war with the Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon on Monday, killing at least 18 people in its first strike on the Christian-majority town of Aitou in the north, the Lebanese Red Cross said.
Reuters reports:
So far the main focus of Israel’s military operations in Lebanon has been in the south, the eastern Bekaa Valley and the suburbs of Beirut.
The strike in the northern region hit a house that had been rented to displaced families, Aitou Mayor Joseph Trad told Reuters. In addition to the deaths, four people were injured, the Red Cross said.
Israel on Monday ordered residents of 25 villages to evacuate to areas north of the Awali River, which flows through southern Lebanon, as it intensifies its attacks in the region.
An Israeli strike killed Muhammad Kamel Naim, the commander of the anti-tank missile unit of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force, in the Nabatieh area of south Lebanon, the military said.
Britain has imposed sanctions against Iranian individuals and organisations following Iran’s attack on Israel on 1 October, Britain’s Foreign Office said on Monday.
The sanctions target senior figures in Iran’s army, air force and organisations linked to Iran’s ballistic and cruise missile development.
Hezbollah said its fighters were battling Israeli troops inside a Lebanese border village on Monday, and that they had launched a guided missile at an Israeli troop carrier in the same area.
Hezbollah fighters “are engaged in violent clashes with the Israeli enemy forces… in the village of Aita al-Shaab with… machine guns, rockets and artillery shells,” the group said, later adding it targeted an “Israeli troop carrier with a guided missile” in the village.
Separately, at least nine people were killed and one person was injured on Monday in an initial toll following an Israeli air strike on the Christian-majority region of Aitou in north Lebanon, the Lebanese health ministry said. The Lebanese Red Cross has put the death toll at 18.
Meanwhile, Israel’s defence minister Yoav Gallant told his US counterpart Lloyd Austin that Israel would deliver a strong response to Hezbollah after the Lebanese armed group struck an Israeli army base killing four soldiers.
Gallant spoke to Austin overnight and “highlighted the severity of the attack and the forceful response that would be taken against Hezbollah”, the minister’s office said in a statement.
Israeli minister accuses UNIFIL of being a ‘shield for Hezbollah’ in Lebanon
Israel’s infrastructure minister has responded to the UN in a post on X.
Eli Cohen accused the UN forces of contributing “nothing to maintaining stability and security in the region” but denied Israel was deliberately targeting peacekeepers.
He wrote:
UN Secretary-General Guterres, it’s time for you to respond to the request sent to you, remove UNIFIL from the conflict areas, and stop playing into Iran’s hands.
The State of Israel is not interested in harming UNIFIL forces.
However, these forces have contributed nothing to maintaining stability and security in the region, have not ensured the enforcement of UN resolutions, and serve as a shield for Hezbollah, a terrorist organization…
— אלי כהן | Eli Cohen (@elicoh1) October 14, 2024
What is UNIFIL, the UN force stationed in Lebanon?
AP provides some background …
The UN Interim Force in Lebanon was created in 1978 to oversee the withdrawal of Israeli troops after Israel invaded and occupied southern Lebanon. Israel invaded again in 1982, and it wasn’t until 2000 that it withdrew.
In the absence of an agreed-upon border, the U.N. drew up a boundary between Lebanon and Israel known as the Blue Line, which UNIFIL monitors and patrols.
The United Nations expanded UNIFIL’s mission following the monthlong 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, allowing peacekeepers to deploy along the Israeli border to monitor the cessation of hostilities and patrol a buffer zone along the border.
The force currently has around 10,000 peacekeepers in southern Lebanon drawn from around 50 countries, including 16 European Union countries. The largest contributors of troops are Indonesia, with 1,231 peacekeepers, and Italy with 1,068.
They are lightly armed, and while they have the right to self-defense under certain circumstances, their role is mainly observational. This includes patrols, monitoring and reporting violations of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 fighting. The force also provides support to local communities.
France has joined the chorus of EU voices rejecting demands made by Israel’s prime minister for UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon to pull back from its position in the country.
“The protection of peacekeepers is an obligation incumbent on all parties”, the foreign ministry in Paris said.
Iran has stopped indirect talks with the United States in Oman as tensions remain high over a possible Israeli retaliatory strike on Tehran, AP reports.
Oman has long has been an interlocutor between Iran and the US, particularly in the secret talks that birthed Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.
“For the time being, the Muscat process is stopped because of special situation in the region,” Foreign minister Abbas Araghchi told Iranian state media while still in Muscat, Oman. “We do not see any ground for the talks until we can pass the current crisis.”
The health ministry in the Gaza Strip said it launched the second round of a polio vaccination campaign in the war-ravaged territory.
It said that a second does of the vaccine will be administered to children under 10 in the central part of the territory over the next three days before the campaign is expanded to the north and south.
The campaign began last month after the territory registered its first polio case in 25 years — a 10-month-old boy, now paralysed in one leg.
Health workers succeeded in administering the first dose of the vaccine to around 560,000 children despite challenges, including ongoing fighting, the breakdown of law and order and widespread damage to roads and infrastructure.
The World Health Organization said humanitarian pauses to facilitate the campaign last month were largely observed.
