Israel-Hezbollah latest: Israel expands ground invasion of Lebanon amid fresh wave of airstrikes in Beirut
Israel has pushed into south-west Lebanon after days of fighting on the eastern side of the country
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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 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.
It comes as 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.
On Monday, Israeli citizens marked the anniversary of Hamas’s deadly 7 October attacks, during which 1,205 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage. Of those, 101 remain in Gaza.
Nearly 42,000 Palestinians have since been killed by Israel’s retaliatory air and ground attacks, according to the Gazan health ministry.
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Trump says Israel has ‘to get smart’ and back him
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.
Trump says Israel has ‘to get smart’ and back him and whines they don’t support him
During an interview on Monday the former president complained that he had done more for the nation and Jewish people ‘than anybody’ but wasn’t getting the credit he thought he deserved
Over 100 Palestinian journalists detained by Israel in a year
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
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
Full story: Keir Starmer takes aim at ‘malign’ Iran and vows never to ban all arms sales to Israel
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:
Starmer takes aim at ‘malign’ Iran and vows never to ban all arms sales to Israel
Starmer tells MPs: ‘This was not a defensive action by Iran, it was an act of aggression’
NHS medics volunteering in Gaza warn of catastrophic collapse of healthcare system
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:
NHS medics volunteering in Gaza warn of catastrophic collapse of healthcare system
‘The situation is extremely desperate... humanitarian access and supplies remain severely restricted,’ the medics tell Bel Trew
Wife of journalist killed in Gaza wears husband’s press vest as she continues his work
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.”
Wife of journalist killed in Gaza wears husband’s press vest as she continues work
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 Gaza under 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."
Mother of sole British hostage in Gaza pleas for help and her safe return
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
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.
Lammy responds to pressure to proscribe Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation
The Foreign Secretary said the Government was “looking very definitely” at how to deal with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) after facing pressure to proscribe it as a terrorist organisation.
Asked on Channel 4 news why Britain has not proscribed the group, David Lammy said: “In coming into government, we are looking at state threats. We don’t comment on proscription, of course.
“But can I say that we are looking very definitely at this and how – when we’re talking about a state-sponsored organisation as opposed to a terrorist cell organisation – how it is best dealt with… Iran is subject to many, many sanctions under the last government.
“And of course, particularly in the context of their nuclear ambitions, you would expect us to be very, very clear on that issue.”
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