Israel-Iran latest: Israel strikes Beirut as eight IDF soldiers killed fighting Hezbollah in Lebanon
Israel strikes central Beirut, killing six and leaving seven wounded
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Israel has suffered its first military casualties in its ground invasion of southern Lebanon, with eight Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers killed in intense clashes against Hezbollah.
Those losses came as Israel struck central Beirut, with an airstrike not far from Lebanon’s parliament resulting in at least six deaths and seven injuries.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to defeat Iran’s “Axis of Evil”, saying: “We are at the height of a difficult war... we will stand together and with God’s help, we will win together.”
Hezbollah confirmed it was engaged in clashes with Israeli forces, claiming to have destroyed three Israeli Merkava tanks. Lebanon’s health ministry reported 46 deaths from Israeli airstrikes in the last 24 hours.
Meanwhile, US president Joe Biden stated that the US will not support an Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear sites, saying, “the answer is no” following Iran’s missile attacks on Israel after its invasion of Lebanon.
And the UN has hit back at Israel’s foreign minister Israel Katz for banning its secretary-general Antonio Guterres and declaring him “persona non grata”.
Biden says he doesn’t back Israeli strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities as tension in Middle East grow
President Joe Biden said he would not support strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities by Israel even as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised to retaliate against Tehran for the ballistic attacks that were largely repelled on Tuesday.
Asked on Wednesday whether he would endorse Israel going after Iranian facilities as he boarded Air Force One, Biden told reporters: “The answer is no.”
He also reiterated what he described as “full solidarity and support to Israel and its people” on the part of the United States.
Andrew Feinberg reports:
Biden says he doesn’t back Israeli strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities
Israel has vowed to retaliate against Tehran for ballistic missile attacks that were largely repelled on Tuesday
Charter plane carrying British nationals from Lebanon lands in Birmingham
A charter plane carrying British nationals from Lebanon has landed in Birmingham.
The Dan Air plane touched down at Birmingham International Airport shortly before 8.40pm, having departed from Beirut and stopped off in Bucharest, Romania, on its journey.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy said earlier on Wednesday that further flights were planned for Thursday and over the coming days.
Air France passengers endure eight-hour trip to nowhere as Iran sparks chaos
Tens of thousands of airline passengers are waking up where they did not expect to be after carriers diverted many planes in response to Iran’s overnight attack on Israel.
The normal flightpath from Europe and North America to the Gulf and south Asia is to fly to the southeast corner of Turkey and then head southeast over either Iran or Iraq.
But as missiles were fired from Iran over Iraq towards Israel, the airspace of both countries was closed. Jordan’s skies were also closed temporarily.
Travel Correspondent Simon Calder reports:
Air France passengers endure eight-hour flight to nowhere after Iran attacks Israel
Exclusive: UK passengers to the key Gulf hubs touched down at Vienna, Cairo or Jeddah, while Air France travellers from Paris to Mumbai endured an eight-hour ‘flight to nowhere’
Iran is on course to build a nuclear bomb and enter a high-stakes gamble
Only historians will be able to tell us whether the Middle East is now facing its most dangerous moment since the Yom Kippur war in 1973, writes former foreign secretary Jack Straw. It easily could be, and it certainly feels that both sides are gambling with much higher stakes than ever.
The leaders on both sides are under great personal pressure. For all its shortcomings (and there are many under Bibi Netanyahu, who heads up a fragile coalition and is subject to corruption charges), Israel is a democracy. Iran is not.
Part of its government is elected. But its defence, intelligence, and security apparatus are under the direct control of its supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, aged 85, who has never once been out of Iran since he assumed office in 1989. He’s propped up by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and an extensive network of true believers across Iran. Their blind faith and fanaticism has to be seen to be believed.
Read more here:
Jack Straw: Iran is on course to build a nuclear bomb and enter a high-stakes gamble
As someone who has negotiated with some of the Iranian leaders still in power today, Jack Straw, the former foreign secretary, explains why he believes they have the capacity to build and launch nuclear warheads, and why their recent actions suggest they have decided to go for broke…
Watch: Trump compares Israel and Hezbollah to ‘two kids fighting in the schoolyard’
US State Department says Israel’s decision to bar UN’s chief ‘not productive'
The US State Department has said Israel’s decision to bar the UN’s chief from entering the country is “not productive”.
Israel's foreign minister said on Wednesday that he was barring U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres from entering the country because he had not "unequivocally" condemned Iran's missile attack on Israel.
Asked about the move at a press briefing, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said: "Steps like these are not productive to (Israel) improving its standing in the world."
US ‘makes clear’ to Israel it does not want civilians targeted in Lebanon
The US State Department has said it has “made clear” to Israel that the US does not want to see civilians or civilian infrastructure targeted in Lebanon.
Iran's Khamenei warned Nasrallah of Israeli plot to kill him, sources say
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned Hezbollah leader Syyed Hassan Nasrallah to flee Lebanon days before he was killed in an Israeli strike and is now deeply worried about Israeli infiltration of senior government ranks in Tehran, three Iranian sources said.
In the immediate aftermath of the attack on Hezbollah's booby-trapped pagers on 17 September, Khamenei sent a message with an envoy to beseech the Hezbollah secretary general to leave for Iran, citing intelligence reports that suggested Israel had operatives within Hezbollah and was planning to kill him, one of the sources, a senior Iranian official, told Reuters.
The messenger, the official said, was a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander, Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan, who was with Nasrallah in his bunker when it was hit by Israeli bombs and was also killed.
Khamenei, who has remained in a secure location inside Iran since Saturday, personally ordered a barrage of around 200 missiles to be fired at Israel on Tuesday, a senior Iranian official said. The attack was retaliation for the deaths of Nasrallah and Nilforoushan, the Revolutionary Guards said in a statement.
The statement also cited the July killing of Hamas Leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, and Israel's attacks on Lebanon. Israel has not claimed responsibility for Haniyeh's death.
Lebanon is in immediate need of a ceasefire, caretaker PM says
Lebanon's caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati said Lebanon was in need of a ceasefire to end intensified hostilities between Israel and armed group Hezbollah, saying around 1.2 million across Lebanon had been displaced by Israeli attacks.
"Stop fighting. We don't need more blood. We don't need more destruction," Mikati said in a briefing organized by the American Task Force on Lebanon, a U.S.-based lobby group. "There is an immediate need for a ceasefire," he added.
US organized a flight out of Beirut as Americans seek to leave Lebanon, says State Dept
The United States organized a flight from Beirut to Istanbul on Wednesday to allow Americans to leave Lebanon amid the escalating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said.
Miller told a press briefing that around 7,000 US citizens in Lebanon had registered with the US government to receive information about leaving the country, although not all of those are looking for assistance to leave.
The flight on Wednesday had a capacity of about 300 and carried around 100 Americans and their family members, Miller said, adding Washington had been working with airlines since Saturday to make seats available to Americans on commercial flights.
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