Middle East latest: Israel warns Iran it could end up like Gaza as it considers response to missile attack
Israel claims it is only targeting Hamas and Hezbollah military sites despite significant civilian casualties
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Israel’s defence minister has warned that Iran could end up like Gaza as it considers how to respond to Tehran’s unprecedented ballistic missile attack.
Yoav Gallant, a key ally of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said the Iranian attack, which involved 180 ballistic missiles, had failed to do significant damage.
But warning against further assaults, he added: “Whoever thinks that a mere attempt to harm us will deter us from taking action should take a look at Gaza and Beirut.”
It comes as Israel is considering how to respond to Iran’s missile attack. US president Joe Biden has urged Israel not to hit Iran’s oil facilities for fear of the knock-effect on global oil supplies.
Meanwhile, at least 26 people have been killed and 93 others wounded after Israeli airstrikes targeted a mosque and a school sheltering displaced people in the Gaza Strip, the Hamas-run health ministry has said.
The strikes on the mosque and the school, near the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, came as the war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas in the enclave approaches its first anniversary tomorrow.
Israel responsible for record journalist death toll, says group
Israel is responsible for a record journalist death toll, the Committee Protect Journalists has said, adding that at least 128 journalists and media workers, all but five of them Palestinian, have been killed since 7 October 2023.
That is more journalists killed in the course of any year since they started documenting in 1992, the group added. All of the killings bar two were carried about the Israeli forces.
“By comparison, 56 journalists were killed in Iraq in 2006 – the next deadliest year. The targeted or indiscriminate killing of journalists, if committed deliberately or recklessly, is a war crime,” the group said in a statement.
It added that it found that at least five journalists were specifically targeted by Israel for their work and is investigating at least 10 more cases of deliberate targeting. Two Israeli journalists were killed in the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas militants.
Overnight Saturday another journalist - Hassan Hamad - was killed in north Gaza during a night of heavy Israeli strikes. Maha Hussaini - strategy director at Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor - said on X Hamad had received threats from Israeli numbers, via both text and calls, ordering him to stop filming prior to his death.
In pictures: Families of Israeli hostages hold event near Gaza
We’re stuck in the 7 October 2023, say family of Israeli hostages
The families of the hostages taken on 7 October last year into Gaza gathered on Saturday night just three kilometres from the enclave near the sites of the Hamas attack to demand the Israeli government sign a ceasefire deal immediately.
There they chanted “bring them home now” and held 365 seconds of silence to mark the number of days the remaining 100 or so hostages have been in Gaza.
Kobi Ben Ami, 54 the younger brother of Ohad, 55, who was speaking at the event, told The Independent the families were “stuck in the 7 October 2023" until their loved ones are brought home.
Ohad Ben Ami and his wife Raz, 57, were seized by Hamas militants from their home in Kibbutz Beer’i. The family only realised Ohad was among the hostages when a photo of him being dragged into Gaza in his underwear appeared on social media networks. Raz was released in an earlier prisoner-hostage swap after 54 gruelling days inside Gaza and her family say she is still suffering from medical complications.
“I’m still there in 7 October because it’s been a year and he is still not here,” Kobi said, explaining his house was attacked by militants on 7 October and he survived by hiding in his bomb shelter.
“As long as they are there in Gaza then we are there as well. We don’t have a routine or breaks all we do is work to get him freed,” he added .
“Then facts speak for themselves. We don’t know all the information we are not sitting in the government but the bottom line is it has been a year and they are still not home. As long as the hostages are not here it is the responsibility of the government.”
“People are dying every day - every minute we stand here could be the next murder.”
Israeli strikes batter Beirut in heaviest bombardment so far, witnesses say
Israeli air attacks battered Beirut’s southern suburbs overnight and early on Sunday, the most intense bombardment of the Lebanese capital since Israel sharply escalated its campaign against Iran-backed group Hezbollah last month.
During the night, the blasts sent booms across Beirut and sparked flashes of red and white for nearly 30 minutes visible from several kilometres away.
It was the single biggest attack of Israel‘s assault on Beirut so far, witnesses and military analysts on local TV channels said.
On Sunday a grey haze hung over the city and rubble was strewn across streets in the southern suburbs, while smoke columns rose over the area.
“Last night was the most violence of all the previous nights. Buildings were shaking around us and at first I thought it was an earthquake. There were dozens of strikes - we couldn’t count them all - and the sounds were deafening,” said Hanan Abdullah, a resident of the Burj al-Barajneh area in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Blast heard in Syria's Homs, cause being investigated, state news agency says
A blast was heard in a factory in the Syrian city of Homs, the state news agency reported on Sunday, adding that the cause is still being investigated.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians displaced in Lebanon, says UN
Several injured in suspected shooting attack in southern Israel, police say
Israeli police have said that several people have been injured in a suspected shooting attack in the city of Beersheba in the country’s south, while the ambulance service says the attacker has been killed.
The ambulance service said a seriously injured woman was being treated at the scene while eight other people injured in the attack, including one in a moderate to serious condition, were receiving medical treatment in a nearby hospital.
Israeli ambassador invokes Mahsa Amini’s name in criticism of Iran regime
Israeli ambassador invokes Mahsa Amini’s name in criticism of Iran regime
Israel's ambassador to the UK invoked Mahsa Amini's name in her criticism of the Iranian regime as she defended strikes against Hezbollah. Speaking to Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday’s (6 October) episode of her BBC show, Tzipi Hotovely said the world "needs to prevent [Iran's] nuclear abilities. "If this is what Iran is doing without nuclear abilities, can you imagine what this regime of terror, this regime that killed and executed Mahsa Amini... can do?" Ms Hotovely referenced the 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman who died in police custody in Iran in 2022 after she was arrested for allegedly violating a mandatory headscarf law.
Israeli military issues new evacuation alerts for areas in southern Lebanon
The Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesperson issued new evacuation alerts on Sunday for residents of around 25 areas in southern Lebanon, calling on them to head immediately to the north of the Awali River.
Mosque lies in ruins as Israel continues Gaza bombardment amid Lebanon strikes
Mosque lies in ruins as Israel continues Gaza bombardment amid Lebanon strikes
Torn copies of the Quran lay amongst the rubble of a destroyed mosque in Gaza following what Palestinian officials said was an Israeli strike that killed at least 19 people on Sunday, 6 October. The religious building in Deir al-Balah lay in ruins as Israel continued its bombardment of northern Gaza and southern Beirut in its widening war on Iran-allied militant groups across the region. Israel's military said it conducted “precise strikes on Hamas terrorists” who were operating within command and control centres embedded in Ibn Rushd School and the Shuhada al-Aqsa Mosque. Israel and Hamas are still in conflict as the first anniversary of the October 7 attack approaches.
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