Middle East live: Israel says it killed two more Hezbollah commanders in Lebanon as Biden and Netanyahu speak
US President Joe Biden and Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu discussed a response to the Iranian missile attack over the phone
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The Israeli military said it killed two more Hezbollah commanders in southern Lebanon and its fighter jets attacked ammunition depots in Beirut.
Israeli troops also killed a member of Hezbollah's "Golan Terrorist Network" in the area of Quneitra in Syria, the military said.
The strikes took place as US president Joe Biden and Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu discussed a potential Israeli response to Iran’s missile attack in a 30-minute phone call.
The “direct and very productive” conversation yesterday came after the Israeli defence minister, Yoav Gallant, reiterated to his country’s media plans for a “deadly, precise and above all surprising” strike against Iran.
Iran launched a missile attack last week following an escalation of Israeli attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon. Israel has since vowed retaliation, with some analysts predicting Israel is most likely to respond by targeting Iranian military installations.
Mr Biden reportedly urged Mr Netanyahu to minimise civilian casualties in Lebanon, where the government health minister says more than 2,000 people have been killed in Israeli attacks.
One Israeli soldier killed in southern Lebanon, says military
The Israeli military said one of their reserve soldiers was killed during fighting with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
Sgt Maj Ronny Ganizate of the Alon Brigade’s 5030th Battalion is the 12th Israeli soldier killed in the ground invasion in Lebanon.
Another reserve soldier from the same battalion was critically wounded in the fighting and rushed to a hospital, the Israel Defense Forces said.
One Palestinian journalist killed as Israel ‘directs gunfire’ at reporters in Gaza
At least one journalist was killed in northern Gaza as the Israeli army was accused of attacking a group of reporters in Jabalia refugee camp.
Al-Aqsa TV photojournalist Mohammad Al-Tanani was killed and reporter Tamer Lubbad was injured in the Abu Sharakh roundabout area of Jabalia, the network said yesterday.
Qatar-based Al Jazeera said its photojournalist Fadi Al-Wahidi was also injured by Israeli army gunfire while reporting on the latest ground invasion.
The “gunfire was directed at the Al Jazeera team, injuring its photojournalist Fadi Al-Wahidi with a bullet to the neck during coverage,” said Anas Al-Sharif, an Al Jazeera correspondent.
Israel says it killed two more Hezbollah commanders
The Israeli military said it has killed two Hezbollah commanders in southern Lebanon and its fighter jets attacked ammunition depots in the Beirut area and ammunition depots and other military infrastructures in southern Lebanon
.Ground clashes between Israeli forces and Hezbollah, which is also backed by Iran, spread along southern Lebanon’s mountainous frontier yesterday as the Middle East was on high alert awaiting Israel’s response to an Iranian missile strike last week.
Israel’s bombardment of Lebanon has killed more than 2,100 people, most of them in the last few weeks, and forced 1.2 million from their homes, according to the Lebanese government.
Naim Kassem: The former teacher now leading Hezbollah
Naim Kassem: The former teacher now leading Hezbollah
Kassem is widely seen as lacking Hassan Nasrallah’s charisma and oratory skills
Hezbollah drops Gaza truce as condition for Lebanon ceasefire
Hezbollah has dropped the demand for a truce in Gaza as a condition for reaching a ceasefire in Lebanon, rowing back from an often-repeated promise to keep fighting until Israel halts its offensive against Hamas.
Ever since Hezbollah began launching missiles across Lebanon’s border, Hezbollah officials have consistently said they would not stop until Israel ended the war in Gaza.
Naim Qassem, the deputy leader of Hezbollah, broke that link in a televised speech, even as he promised to continue to stand with Hamas and Palestinians in their battle with Israel.
“We support the political activity being led by [Nabih] Berri under the title of a ceasefire,” Qassem said. “If the enemy (Israel) continues its war, then the battlefield will decide.”
400,000 trapped in hell of northern Gaza, says UN
At least 400,000 people remain trapped in northern Gaza, the UN has said, as Israeli forces press on with a raid on the Jabalia refugee camp.
The commissioner general of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, has warned that tens of thousands of people have nowhere to go despite evacuation orders from the Israeli army.
The Israeli military says the raid, now in its fifth day, is intended to stop Hamas fighters staging further attacks from Jabalia and to prevent them regrouping.
Rachel Hagan reports.
400,000 trapped in hell of northern Gaza, UN says, as death toll passes 42,000
Up to 51,000 children in the besieged Gaza strip could be unaccompanied or separated from their parents
Lebanon arrests Syrians for allegedly spying for Israel
Lebanon yesterday said it arrested two Syrians on suspicion of being spies for Israel as Benjamin Netanyahu’s troops continue to pound southern Beirut.
The Lebanese army intelligence arrested two Syrians “for photographing different places... and documenting the results of enemy air strikes”, the military said on X.
The Lebanese army said the arrests were “a result of surveillance and follow-up of Israeli spy networks and enemy agents”.
The duo had documented “search and rescue operations and the recovery of bodies” at Israeli strike sites and were “recruited through social media”, it added.
Turkey begins evacuation of its citizens from Beirut
Over 2,000 Turkish citizens and some foreign nationals started boarding a Turkish military ship that brought in aid last night and will take them out of Lebanon.
Zehra Cibbin, an ethnic Arab from the southeastern Turkish city of Mardin who lives in Beirut with her Lebanese husband, got off a bus packed with the other evacuees, her two children in tow and luggage in hand.
“It’s indescribable. They bombed the street below our house. From that moment on, it was over for me, I said I didn’t want to stay in Beirut anymore,” Ms Cibbin, 46, told the Associated Press.
Apart from the Turkish citizens, people from Bulgaria, Romania and Kazakhstan were among those who applied to evacuate on the ships.
Officials did not provide numbers.“Israel’s aggression has severely impacted Lebanon and our brothers here,” said Ali Baris Ulusoy, the Turkish ambassador to Lebanon.
UK facing heightened threat of ‘plot after plot’ from Iran, warns MI5 chief
MI5: UK facing threat of ‘plot after plot’ from Iran, Russia and Isis
Ken McCallum says Russian intelligence agencies are also on a ‘sustained mission to generate mayhem on British and European streets’ with ‘arson, sabotage and more’
Dozens killed as Israeli troops pound central and northern Gaza
Israeli airstrikes have killed about 40 people in Jabaliya and another 14 from farther north between Sunday and Tuesday, Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said yesterday.
The toll is likely higher as there are bodies buried under the rubble and in areas that can’t be accessed, it said.
Israel’s military spokesperson Rear Adm Daniel Hagari said that Israeli troops were operating in Jabaliya to prevent Hamas from regrouping and had killed about 100 militants, without providing evidence.
Israel’s bombardment of Gaza has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, the health ministry said.
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