Israel-Lebanon latest: Hezbollah rockets hit Haifa as Israel on high alert for 7 October anniversary
Israel authorities said they were on the lookout for attacks timed to coincide with the October 7 anniversary
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Hezbollah rockets hit Israel’s third-largest city of Haifa on the one-year anniversary of the 7 October Hamas attack, in the first direct strike on the northern city that evaded the military’s usually reliable air defence systems.
Hezbollah said it targeted a military base south of Haifa with a salvo of “Fadi 1” missiles. Two rockets hit Haifa and five hit Tiberias, according to Israeli media.
Israel is on high alert today for possible attacks, military spokesperson Admiral Daniel Hagari said. “We are ready with increased forces in anticipation for this day,” he added.
Thousands of Israelis are holding vigils and somber ceremonies to mark a year since Hamas killed 1,200 people in southern Israel and took 250 others hostage. The attack triggered a war in Gaza, where Israel killed nearly 42,000 Palestinians, according to the health ministry of the Hamas-run Strip.
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.
Mosque lies in ruins as Israel continues Gaza bombardment amid Lebanon strikes
Mosque lies in ruins as Israel continues Gaza bombardment amid Lebanon strikes
Torn copies of the Quran lay amongst the rubble of a destroyed mosque in Gaza following what Palestinian officials said was an Israeli strike that killed at least 19 people on Sunday, 6 October. The religious building in Deir al-Balah lay in ruins as Israel continued its bombardment of northern Gaza and southern Beirut in its widening war on Iran-allied militant groups across the region. Israel's military said it conducted “precise strikes on Hamas terrorists” who were operating within command and control centres embedded in Ibn Rushd School and the Shuhada al-Aqsa Mosque. Israel and Hamas are still in conflict as the first anniversary of the October 7 attack approaches.
Tory shadow foreign sec says Israel should engage in Lebanon ceasefire
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
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
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
Pro-Gaza protester attempts self-immolation outside White House
The self-immolation attempt occurred just days before the anniversary of the October 7 attacks on Israel by Hamas
In pictures: Israel airstrikes hit Gaza and Beirut, killing dozens
Live: Lebanon's Beirut skyline as Israeli military issues evacuation order
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Lebanon health system on 'brink of collapsing'
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
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.”
“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
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.
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