Israel-Lebanon live: Hezbollah drone attack kills 4 Israeli soldiers as US to deploy Thaad missile system
UN warns attacks against peacekeepers may constitute a war crime
Your support helps us to tell the story
This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.
The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.
Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.
The US is sending a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) battery to Israel along with troops to operate it
The announcement was made on Sunday just hours after Iran warned the US to keep its military forces out of Israel. Thaad deployment “underscores” America’s “ironclad commitment to the defense of Israel, and to defend Americans in Israel, from any further ballistic missile attacks by Iran”, the Pentagon said.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah drone attacks on an army base in central Israel killed at least four soldiers and severely wounded seven others, the military said.
The Iran-backed group called the attack near Binyamina city retaliation for Israeli strikes on Beirut that killed 22 people on Thursday.
The attack comes as Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on the UN chief Antonio Guterres to remove peacekeeping forces in southern Lebanon “immediately”.
“Mr Secretary General, get the UNIFIL forces out of harm’s way. It should be done right now, immediately,” Mr Netanyahu said.
It comes as 40 nations, including the UK, “strongly” condemn the attacks on peacekeepers, after five were injured by gunfire.
A spokesperson for UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres said attacks against peacekeepers might constitute a “war crime”.
Biden administration to send anti-missile system and US troops to Israel
UK government condemns ‘appalling’ Israeli fire on UN peacekeeping HQ in Lebanon
Israel strike on Gaza school kills 28, injures 54, including children
Firing on peacekeepers ‘can never be tolerated’, says Irish premier after IDF reports
UN-backed experts say Israel is destroying Gaza's health sector and both sides have tortured people
Germany’s Nazi history has left it in turmoil over how to treat Israel
Two events took place last weekend in Germany. At a conference in Berlin called The Big Chill, a group of thinkers and activists denounced what they called “anticipatory obedience” in which Germans, including Jews, had been “muted, de-platformed and stigmatised” for criticising Israel’s response to the atrocities of 7 October 2023.
At the same time, in a small town called Zeitz in eastern Germany, 10 “stumbling stones”, small memorial brass plates denoting the homes of Jews taken to be exterminated in concentration camps, were ripped up. “Whoever did this wants to tear the Holocaust out of our memory,” a leading local politician, Götz Ulrich, declared.
The sad fact is both sets of assertions are largely true. And yet, it was a weekend like any other and neither event received particular coverage.
Read the full article here:
As Hezbollah and Israel battle on the border, Lebanon's army watches from the sidelines
Since Israel launched its ground invasion of Lebanon, Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants have clashed along the border while the Lebanese army has largely stood on the sidelines.
It’s not the first time the national army has found itself watching war at home from the discomfiting position of bystander.
Lebanon’s widely beloved army is one of the few institutions that bridge the country’s sectarian and political divides. Several army commanders have become president, and the current commander, Gen. Joseph Aoun, is widely regarded as one of the front-runners to step in when the deadlocked parliament fills a two-year vacuum and names a president.
Read the full article here:
As Hezbollah and Israel battle on the border, Lebanon's army watches from the sidelines
Since Israel launched its ground invasion of Lebanon, Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants have clashed along the border while the Lebanese army has largely stood on the sidelines
Picasso’s ‘Motherhood’ covered with picture of Palestinian mother and child in Gaza protest
Two members of the British civil resistance group Youth Demand have been arrested after they pasted a photo of a mother and child from Gaza over Pablo Picasso’s painting Motherhood at the National Gallery on 9 October to protest arms sales to Israel.
The activists who put the photo on the protective glass of Picasso’s 1901 work and dumped red paint on the floor were National Health Services worker Jai Halai, 23, and Politics and International Relations student Monday-Malachi Rosenfeld, 21. The photo they used was taken by Palestinian journalist Ali Jadallah at Al-Shifa Hospital in March.
Museum security detained the activists and took the photo off. The museum confirmed that there was no damage to the artwork.
Read the full article here:
Picasso’s ‘Motherhood’ covered with picture of Palestinian mother and child
Activists from Youth Demand were protesting British arms sales to Israel
Bill Maher says Chappell Roan would be thrown ‘off a roof’ in Gaza after singer shows support for Palestine
Bill Maher criticized Chappell Roan’s support for Palestine on Friday’s episode of Real Time with Bill Maher.
Maher, an atheist whose mother was Jewish, has frequently defended Israel’s actions since the war with Hamas erupted in Gaza last year.
“To mark the October 7 anniversary, we must launch a campaign to educate young Americans about the Middle East,” the talk show host began the episode by saying.
“And the way I’d like to begin that process is by addressing an open letter to Chappell Roan. Now, to those viewers who aren’t watching this while also looking at your phones, let me explain. … She’s actually a great new recording artist, who, like a Hezbollah pager, is really blowing up.”
Read the full article here:
Bill Maher says Chappell Roan would be thrown ‘off a roof’ in Gaza
Roan recently criticized the Democratic party for failing ‘people like me and you. And more so Palestine. And more so every marginalized community in the world’
UN peacekeepers in Lebanon say Israeli tanks destroyed their main gate
The UNIFIL peacekeeping force in Lebanon said that it had reported additional Israeli violations against its positions in the country, including what it described as the forcible entry of Israeli tanks through its main gate on Sunday.
Netanyahu examining plan to starve out Hamas militants in northern Gaza
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is examining a plan to seal off humanitarian aid to northern Gaza in an attempt to starve out Hamas militants, a plan that, if implemented, could trap without food or water hundreds of thousands of Palestinians unwilling or unable to leave their homes.
Israel has issued many evacuation orders for the north throughout the yearlong war, the most recent of which was Sunday. The plan proposed to Netanyahu and the Israeli parliament by a group of retired generals would escalate the pressure, giving Palestinians a week to leave the northern third of the Gaza Strip, including Gaza City, before declaring it a closed military zone.
Those who remain would be considered combatants — meaning military regulations would allow troops to kill them — and denied food, water, medicine and fuel, according to a copy of the plan given to the Associated Press by its chief architect, who says the plan is the only way to break Hamas in the north and pressure it to release the remaining hostages.
The plan calls for Israel to maintain control over the north for an indefinite period to attempt to create a new administration without Hamas, splitting the Gaza Strip in two.
There has been no decision by the government to fully carry out the so-called “Generals’ Plan,” and it is unclear how strongly it is being considered.
Italy's Meloni tells Israel's Netanyahu attacks on UN peacekeepers are unacceptable
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has told her Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu that attacks on U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon are unacceptable, her office said on Sunday.
“Prime Minister Meloni reiterated the unacceptability of UNIFIL being attacked by Israeli armed forces,” the Italian government said in a statement.
Italy is a significant contributor to the UN mission known as UNIFIL.
In a phone conversation with Netanyahu, Meloni also called for the “full implementation” of the UN’s Security Council Resolution 1701 on Lebanon and stressed the urgent need for a de-escalation of conflict in the region, her office said.
Pope Francis calls for UN peacekeepers to be ‘respected’
Pope Francis reiterated his call on Sunday for an “immediate ceasefire” and asked for the UN peacekeepers in the region to be “respected.”
“I continue to follow with concern what is happening in the Middle East,” the pontiff said during his Angelus prayer from the balcony overlooking St. Peter’s Square.
“Let’s pursue the paths of diplomacy and dialogue to achieve peace,” he added, stressing he feels close to all the peoples involved: Palestine, Israel, Lebanon. He prayed for all the victims, the displaced, the hostages, saying he hoped they would be released “immediately.”
The pope wished “that this great and unnecessary suffering generated by hatred and revenge will soon come to an end.”
Iran warns US not to operate in Israel
Iran on Sunday warned the US to keep its military forces out of Israel.
The comments came in a post on the social platform X and referred to the possibility that the U.S. might send one of its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense systems to Israel.
A move of the complex system, known by the acronym THAAD, to Israel would involve the deployment of soldiers to operate it.
Israel has been escalating its campaign against Hezbollah with waves of heavy airstrikes across Lebanon and a ground invasion at the border after a year of exchanges of fire. Israel is now at war with Hamas in Gaza and Hamas’ ally Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Israeli military orders evacuation of 21 Lebanese villages amid intensified attacks
The Israeli military ordered residents on Sunday of 21 more Lebanese villages to evacuate to areas north of the Awali River which flows through southern Lebanon, as it intensifies its attacks in the region.
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.