Lebanon says more than 270 killed in Israeli airstrikes with over 1,000 injured – Middle East crisis live

News is coming over the international wires that the Israeli military offensive in nextdoor Lebanon is now targeting Beirut.

The Israeli military has announced this, Reuters is now reporting, and the agency cited an unnamed security source to say that the latest Israeli strikes have hit Beirut’s southern suburbs.

Israel described the new wave of bombardment as a “targeted strike”, without so far specifying what the target was.

We’ll bring more details as soon as we get them. Tens of thousands of Lebanese are currently trying to evacuate from the south of the country.

Vice-President Kamala Harris plans to discuss efforts to secure a Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal in her meeting today with the United Arab Emirates president, according to a White House official.

Harris and US president Joe Biden are meeting separately with UAE president Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the first in what are expected to be a series of foreign leader gatherings during the week of the United Nations general assembly, Reuters reports.

They give Harris an opportunity to demonstrate national security chops at a time the Democratic administration is under increasing pressure to contain strife in the Middle East.

Since she became the Democratic party’s nominee for president in this November’s US elections, Harris has spoken more forcefully than Biden about the need for a ceasefire and of the brutal toll on civilians of Israel’s war in Gaza, the Guardian adds. She has not flagged a fundamental change in US policy, such as an arms embargo on ally Israel, she has reiterated the government’s position that Israel has the right to defend itself (after the Hamas-led attack of last 7 October), but that how it does so is crucial.

The Israeli military has said it struck about 800 targets connected to the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group in southern Lebanon and the area of the Bekaa valley on Monday.

“Among the targets struck were buildings where Hezbollah hid rockets, missiles, launchers, UAVs and additional terrorist infrastructure,” the military said in a statement reported by Reuters.

The United States has said the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) raid and shutdown of the media network Al Jazeera’s office in the West Bank city of Ramallah, is “inconsistent with US support for freedom of the press in the West Bank and all over the world”.

The state department spokesperson said the US was still gathering information about the IDF operation on Sunday.

Israeli forces raided the office of Al Jazeera in the occupied West Bank on Sunday and issued a 45-day closure order, the Qatari broadcaster said, with footage showing heavily armed and masked troops entering the premises in Ramallah.

“There is a court ruling for closing down Al Jazeera for 45 days,” an Israeli soldier told Al Jazeera’s West Bank bureau chief, Walid al-Omari, the network reported, citing the conversation which was broadcast live. “I ask you to take all the cameras and leave the office at this moment,” the soldier said.

Al-Omari reported that Israeli troops brought a truck to confiscate documents, devices and office property.

The broadcaster said the soldiers did not provide a reason for the closure order.

Al Jazeera denounced the raid as “a criminal act” and said in a statement it held the Israeli government responsible for the safety of its journalists.

Sources quoted by Israeli media have said Benjamin Netanyahu is considering a plan to force Palestinian civilians out of northern Gaza and put Hamas militants who remain in the area under siege in order to force the release of hostages, Lorenzo Tondo reports from Jerusalem.

The plan, published by retired military commanders and floated by some parliament members this month, calls for the area to be declared “a closed military zone” after civilians have been told to leave.

The Israeli national broadcaster, Kan, quoted the Israeli prime minister as saying the blueprint “makes sense” and that it was “one of the plans being considered”. An Israeli official quoted by CNN confirmed the veracity of the quote, but said: “Seeing it positively does not mean adopting it.”

According to the UN, between 300,000 and 500,000 Palestinians, most of them displaced, are living in the northern part of Gaza.

Lebanon’s health minister Firas Abiad has said that 274 people have been killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanon, including 21 children and 31 women. More than 1,000 people have been injured, the health minister added.

Abiad said Israeli airstrikes targeted “hospitals, medical centers and ambulances.” At least two ambulances were damaged and destroyed, and one member of Lebanon’s civil defence was injured by Israeli airstrikes today.

These figures come on top of the dozens killed and thousands injured last week when pagers and walkie-talkies were detonated inside Lebanon in what is widely attributed to have been an Israeli attack attempting to target Hezbollah operatives.

The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon (Unifil) issued a statement on Monday afternoon expressing “grave concern for the safety of civilians in southern Lebanon amidst the most intense Israeli bombing campaign since last October and urging the need for de-escalation from both Hezbollah and Israel.

“Any further escalation of this dangerous situation could have far-reaching and devastating consequences, not only for those living on both sides of the Blue line, but also for the broader region,” the statement read. Unifil also added that “attacks on civilians are not only violations of international law, but may amount to war crimes” in unusually stern wording for the peacekeeping body.

The UN statement came after Israel carried out its most intense aerial bombardment of Lebanon yet, striking what the Israeli military said were over 300 targets in south Lebanon and the Bekaa. Over 180 have been killed and over 700 wounded in Lebanon and a new wave of displacement heading northwards was triggered by the Israeli barrage.

Warning sirens have sounded in the northern part of the occupied West Bank amid reports of a new Hezbollah rocket attack.

Alarms were also sounded in areas across northern Israel, the military said.

Senior UN officials have called for the immediate end to the conflict in Gaza on the eve of the UN General Assembly meeting in New York, saying in a statement: “These atrocities must end.”

“We urgently call for a sustained, immediate and unconditional ceasefire. This is the only way to end the suffering of civilians and save lives,” reads the statement. “All hostages and all those arbitrarily detained must be released immediately and unconditionally.”

The statement calls for humanitarian agencies to have safe and unimpeded access and says ongoing violence is preventing aid from reaching its destination.

It is estimated that a quarter of the injured in Gaza, or around 22,500 people, will require lifelong specialized rehabilitation and assistive care including individuals with severe limb injuries, amputations, spinal cord damage, traumatic brain injuries, and major burns.

More than 2 million Palestinians are without protection, food, water, sanitation, shelter, health care, education, electricity and fuel – the basic necessities to survive. Families have been forcibly displaced, time and time again, from one unsafe place to the next, with no way out.

Women and girls’ dignity, safety, health and rights have been severely compromised.

The statement warns of the risk of famine and the dangers to health and criticises “unnecessary and disproportionate force unleashed in the West Bank, combined with escalating settler violence, house demolitions, forced displacement and discriminatory movement restrictions.”

It also makes clear that close to 100 hostages remain in Gaza and says “freed hostages have reported ill treatment, including sexual violence.”

The parties’ conduct over the last year makes a mockery of their claim to adhere to international humanitarian law and the minimum standards of humanity that it demands.

Civilians must be protected and their essential needs must be met. There must be accountability for serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law.

The statement calls on world leaders “to wield their influence to ensure respect for international humanitarian law, international human rights law and the rulings of the International Court of Justice – through diplomatic pressure and cooperation in ending impunity.

Let us be clear: The protection of civilians is a bedrock principle for the global community and in all countries’ interest. Allowing the abhorrent, downward spiral caused by this war in the Occupied Palestinian Territory to continue will have unimaginable, global consequences.

Israel has begun airstrikes in the Beqaa valley, carrying out four airstrikes in a neighbourhood near Baalbek, east Beqaa, a Hezbollah source told The Guardian. A spokesperson for the Israeli military had told residents to evacuate the area some two hours before, warning that Israel would soon commence airstrikes against Hezbollah targets there.

Israel’s air force has provided an operation update on rocket fire aimed at Israel and Israeli-occupied territory in the last hour. It said:

Following the alerts that were activated at 16:15 in the Carmel area, about five launches were detected that crossed the territory of Lebanon, the air defense fighters successfully intercepted several launches, crashes were detected.

Following the warnings that were activated at 16:15 in the area of ​​the Upper Galilee, the valleys and the gulf, about five launches were detected that crossed the territory of Lebanon, the air defense fighters successfully intercepted several launches, crashes were detected in an open area.

Following the alerts that were activated at 16:24 in the area of ​​the central Galilee and the lower Galilee, about 25 launches were detected that crossed the territory of Lebanon, the air defense fighters successfully intercepted several launches, crashes were detected in an open area.

Firefighters have been working in northern Israel to contain a fire after a rocket hit an open area near Kahal.

William Christou reports from Beirut for the Guardian

Two ambulances belonging to an Islamic health service were damaged by Israeli airstrikes, Ali Abbas, an official within the health service told the Guardian.

One ambulance was blown up by an airstrike in the town of Haris, south Lebanon, while another in the town of Ain Aata had its windshield broken by an airstrike in front of it, Abbas said. No one was injured in the strike, though some paramedics have been injured by airstrikes as part of the widespread Israeli bombing campaign in south Lebanon.

We are beginning to get images sent over the news wires of people in Lebanon in heavy traffic as they attempt to flee the areas of southern and eastern Lebanon being targeted by Israel in a series of airstrikes that have left over 180 people dead with more than 700 wounded.

Israel’s prime minister, in his first statement since Israel launched a wave of attacks across Lebanon which have left at least 180 people dead, has told the Israeli citizens that he had promised Israel would change the balance of power in the north, and that is what the IDF is doing.

Benjamin Netanyahu said the missions being carried out were aimed at destroying what he claimed were thousands of missiles and rockets aimed at Israeli cities. Netanyahu said there were complicated days ahead, and urged Israeli citizens to follow home front defence guidelines.

In recent weeks Israel explicitly added to its war goal returning displaced people from northern Israel back to their home. About 60,000 Israelis have been forced to flee homes in northern Israel because of sustained exchanges of fire between the IDF and Hezbollah.

Earlier Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer said “Israel will do whatever it takes through diplomacy – or through military means – to secure our northern border. It is what any other country would do.”

The IDF military spokesperson Daniel Hagari warned resident of eastern Lebanon to evacuate if they were near areas storing Hezbollah weapons. Lebanon’s interior ministry is setting aside schools as temporary shelters for displaced people.

An Israeli military official, speaking to Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said Israel is focused on aerial operations and has no immediate plans for a ground operation. They said the strikes today, which have killed at least 180 people, are aimed at curbing Hezbollah’s ability to launch more strikes into Israel.

While Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged near constant fire since the 7 October Hamas attack inside Israel, the two sides have generally avoided incursions across the UN-drawn blue line that separates the two countries.

Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer has claimed that in launching a wide-ranging assault on Lebanon against what it deems to be Hezbollah targets, Israel is “doing precisely what any other country would do.”

Mencer said Hezbollah’s military actions firing into Israel had displaced over 60,000 Israelis from their homes, “becoming refugees here in our own homeland.”

Mencer claimed that Hezbollah had not stopped attacking Israel “not for a single day” since 8 October, the day after the Hamas attack in southern Israel. “No country can accept the wanton rocketing of its cities,” he said.

Lebanon’s health ministry has said that over 180 have been killed and more than 700 wounded in today’s Israeli airstrikes on the country. The IDF claims to have struck more than 300 targets. The interior ministry in Lebanon has said it is opening up school in Beirut and Tripoli to act as temporary shelters for displaced people.

Citing UN resolutions 1559 and 1701 which called for peace and the disarming of militias in Lebanon, and saying they have never been implemented, Mencer said “Hezbollah needs to move behind the Litani River and our northern border needs to be secured, which is precisely what is happening right now”. Israel’s UN ambassador, Danny Danon, described a recent UN vote for Israel to end its decades-long occupation of the West Bank as “a shameful decision”.

Mencer went on to say, in reply to a question from the Breitbart website asking whether “the third Lebanon war had started”, that:

We will always prefer a peaceful settlement through negotiations, but that has not borne fruit in 11-and-a-half months now. So Israel will do whatever it takes through diplomacy – or through military means – to secure our northern border. It’s what any other country would do.

Answering a later question he added “Let me caveat that – no other country would wait for 11-and-a-half months, 11-and-a-half-months, to deal with this sort of aggression against our people”. He purposefully said the length of time twice to emphasise it.

Mencer also made a direct reference to Iran backing Hezbollah, telling the media:

Iran, of course, is behind Hezbollah. We know that any country which Iran gets involved in becomes a failed state. Lebanon is just such an example. Because of Iran’s meddling through their local proxy, Hezbollah, the country has become a failed state. We believe that the majority of Lebanese people are against Hezbollah. Hezbollah needs to be ejected from your politics, from your country, Lebanon. And peace needs to be restored to our northern border.

At least 182 people were killed and 727 were wounded, including women, children and medics, in Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon on Monday, Reuters reports, citing the country’s health ministry.

These figures come on top of the dozens killed and thousands injured last week when pagers and walkie-talkies were detonated inside Lebanon in what is widely attributed to have been an Israeli attack attempting to target Hezbollah operatives.

Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer is giving an English-language briefing. He has begun by listing some specific damages he claims were caused inside Israel and Israeli-controlled territory by Hezbollah rockets over the last few days and said that as Israel’s prime minister and defense minister have made clear “Israel’s patience is not inexhaustible”.

He outlined a number of measures he said Israel had taken “to get civilians out of harm’s way in Lebanon”, and, echoing comments from the IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari, said:

Hezbollah endangers the people of Lebanon. They use civilian civilians as human shields to hide its weaponry and carry out attacks against Israel from within that country. Israel could not be clearer to Lebanese civilians [that] if you live next to properties or homes in which Hezbollah is hiding its rocket launchers and weaponry you should evacuate immediately.

Mencer is taking questions from the international media in English. I will bring you any key lines that emerge.