Israel-Iran latest: Hamas leader killed in Lebanon as Israeli strikes pummel Beirut suburbs
Iran vows to not back down as tensions escalate across Middle East
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Israeli strikes have pummelled Beirut for another day as residents were seen running for shelter and blasts echoed through the southern suburbs, sending huge plumes of smoke and flames into the night sky.
As buildings shook miles away from the explosions on Friday, Israel also cut off the main border crossing between Lebanon and Syria, which is used by the tens of thousands of people fleeing the Israeli bombardment of Hezbollah.
Beirut was also rocked by huge explosions the previous night, amid reports Israeli strikes targeted senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine, who is regarded as the successor to the militant group’s leader Nasrallah Hassan after he was killed in an Israeli strike.
Following the reported targeting of its allies’ next leader, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed his country and his regional proxies across the Middle East would carry on fighting Israel, as tensions escalate across the region.
“The brilliant action of our armed forces a couple of nights ago was completely legal and legitimate”, Khamenei said of a massive missile barrage that saw Iran launch around 180 rockets at Israel.
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Biden says he would weigh alternatives to striking Iranian oil if he were in Israel's shoes
US President Joe Biden has said he would think about alternatives to striking Iranian oil fields if he were in Israel's shoes, adding he thinks Israel has not yet concluded how to respond to Iran.
"The Israelis have not concluded what they are going to do in terms of a strike. That's under discussion," Biden said in remarks to reporters at a White House press briefing on Friday.
"If I were in their shoes, I'd be thinking about other alternatives than striking oilfields," the president added.
Tensions between Iran and Israel have been high as Israel has been weighing options to respond to Tehran's ballistic missile attack on Tuesday, which Iran had carried out in response to Israel's military action in Lebanon.
Biden was also asked if he thought that by not engaging in diplomacy, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was trying to influence the 5 November US election in which Republican former President Donald Trump faces Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.
"Whether he is trying to influence the election, I don't know, but I am not counting on that," Biden said in response. "No administration has done more to help Israel than I have."
Full story: Israel launches fresh strikes on Beirut as Iran’s leader vows Hezbollah and Hamas won’t back down
Israel has claimed to have targeted Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters in Beirut as it carried out strikes against the militant group’s leadership – with Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowing that Tehran and its proxies will not back down.
The air attack on Beirut, part of a wide assault that has driven more than 1.2 million Lebanese residents from their homes, is reported to have targeted the potential successor to Hassan Nasrallah, the longtime leader of Hezbollah who was assassinated by Israel a week ago.
Hashem Safieddine’s fate is unclear, and neither Israel nor Hezbollah has offered any comment. Israeli Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said on Friday afternoon that the military was still assessing the damage caused by the airstrikes in southern Beirut. He added that the army had “eliminated” approximately 250 Hezbollah operatives, including four battalion commanders and nine company commanders.
The Independent’s international correspondent Bel Trew reports from Jerusalem along with international editor Chris Stevenson:
Israel launches fresh strikes on Beirut as Iran vows it won’t back down
Israel’s military said to have targeted Hezbollah’s new leadership amid humanitarian crisis in Lebanon
Deadly Israeli strike in West Bank shows how war is spreading
The ruins of a coffee shop in the West Bank city of Tulkarm show the force of the airstrike on Thursday night that killed at least 18 people including a senior local commander of the militant group Hamas.
The strike in Tulkarm refugee camp, one of the most densely populated in the occupied West Bank, destroyed the ground floor shop entirely, leaving rescue workers picking through piles of concrete with the smell of blood still hanging in the air.
Two holes in an upper level show where the missile penetrated the three-storey building before reaching the coffee shop, where a mechanical digger was clearing rubble on Friday.
The strike by the Israeli air force was the largest seen in the West Bank during operations that have escalated sharply since the start of the war in Gaza almost a year ago, and one of the biggest since the second "intifada" uprising two decades ago.
"We haven't heard this sound since 2002," said Nimer Fayyad, owner of the cafe, whose brother was killed in the strike. "There is no safe place for the Palestinian people. The Palestinian people have the right to defend themselves."
The Israeli military said the strike killed Zahi Yaser Abd al-Razeq Oufi, head of the Hamas network in Tulkarm, a volatile city in the northern West Bank that has seen repeated clashes between the Israeli army and Palestinian fighters.
Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee said the military had verified that at least seven militants were killed in the attack, including Ghaith Radwan, a prominent commander from the Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad militant group.
He said the strike had been carried out "as they met to plan a terrorist attack against the State of Israel in the immediate term".
The United Nations Human Rights Office said the attack was "part of a highly concerning pattern of unlawful use of force" by Israel in the West Bank.
French minister heads to Middle East amid worsening crisis
France's Foreign Minister will head to Saudi Arabia on Friday evening, beginning a four-day trip that will end in Israel and the West Bank as Paris seeks to revive stalled diplomatic efforts in the region.
Jean-Noel Barrot will be in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Jordan over the weekend before arriving in Israel ahead of 7 October when Israel will mark a year since Palestinian Islamist group Hamas attacked the country, a French diplomatic source said.
He is also due to travel to the West Bank.
UN says civilian toll in Lebanon from Israeli campaign is ‘totally unacceptable'
The toll on civilians in Lebanon from Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah is “totally unacceptable”, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on Friday.
”All parties must do whatever they can at all times to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure and ensure that civilians are never put in harm's way,” Dujarric told reporters.
Two Israeli soldiers killed in combat, military says
Israel's military announced on Friday that two of its soldiers from the Golani Brigade had been killed in combat, and two others severely wounded.
Israeli media reported that the two soldiers were killed in a drone attack launched from Iraq at the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
The Golan Heights were captured from Syria by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed in a move not recognised by most countries.
The Iran-backed Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a coalition of Shi'ite armed factions opposed to US and Israeli presence in the region, claimed responsibility for three dawn attacks on sites in the Golan Heights and the Tiberias region.
Plane carrying Poles from Lebanon lands in Warsaw
A plane carrying several dozens of Poles and citizens of other countries who wanted to leave Lebanon landed in Warsaw on Friday, the Polish Foreign Ministry said on social media platform X.
Western nations have drafted contingency plans to evacuate citizens from Lebanon after a dramatic escalation in the conflict between Israel and the Lebanese armed movement Hezbollah, coupled with Iran's missile attack on Israel on Tuesday.
No country has launched a large-scale military evacuation yet, though some are chartering aircraft as Beirut airport stays open.
It’s clear we are already in a Middle East war – one that will be difficult to stop
It’s clear we are already in a Middle East war – one that will be difficult to stop
World leaders, UN officials and experts all agree that only the most determined diplomatic efforts, only a multilateral ceasefire, can be the parachute to slow this nightmare down, writes Bel Trew
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Exclusive: Key flights are tracking south of the conflict zones, typically adding 30 minutes to journey times and jeopardising connections
Israeli bombardment kills 29 people in Gaza while militants renew rocket fire into Israel
Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip killed at least 29 Palestinians on Friday, medics said, and sirens blared in southern Israel in response to renewed rocket fire from militants in the Palestinian enclave.
The new rocket salvoes indicated that Hamas-led militant factions in Gaza are still able to fire projectiles into Israel despite a year-long Israeli aerial and ground offensive that has turned wide areas of the enclave into wasteland.
On Friday, the Israeli military said sirens sounded in southern Israel for the first time in around two months.
"Almost a year after 7 October, Hamas is still threatening our civilians with their terrorism and we will continue operating against them," it added, referring to the anniversary of Hamas' cross-border attack that touched off the Gaza war.
In Gaza City in north Gaza, Palestinian health officials said one Israeli aerial strike on a house killed at least seven people. Four people including two women and a baby were killed in the bombing of a home in the southern city of Khan Younis.
The rest were killed in airstrikes on several areas across the densely populated coastal enclave. Residents said Israeli forces operating in Gaza City's Zeitoun suburb and in Rafah, near the southern border with Egypt, blew up clusters of homes.
Israel's military says Hamas combatants use crowded, built-up residential neighbourhoods as cover. Hamas denies this.
Israel media, reporting on the rocket fire, said one rocket was intercepted by air defence and another crashed in an open area. There were no reports of casualties or notable damage.
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