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.
Tory shadow foreign sec says Israel should engage in Lebanon ceasefire
The “right approach” to ending conflict in Lebanon is “not a ceasefire”, the Conservative shadow foreign secretary has said.
Andrew Mitchell told the BBC's Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme: “It is a very dangerous crisis in a world that in recent years has become more dangerous than at any time in our lifetime.
“But I think if you focus on what is happening in Lebanon, you see that Israel absolutely has the right of self-defence.
“No government would allow an internationally proscribed terrorist organisation to sit there lobbing rockets over the border and moving its populations, killing its population - more than 60,000 Israelis have had to move south.
“And the right approach is not a ceasefire, actually. The right approach is for Hezbollah and its Iranian masters to abide by United Nations Security Council resolution 1701, and pull back behind the Litani River, and that would end the conflict that's taking place in Lebanon.”
UPD: More than two dozen killed in Israeli srtike on Gaza school and mosque
At least 26 people have been killed in Israeli strikes on a school and mosque in the central Gaza Strip, the local, Hamas-run health ministry has said.
Previously, the authorities’ media office put the death toll from the strikes on Deir al-Balah at 24.
Dozens of people were reported to have been injured. The Israeli military claimed it had targeted Hamas militants in the strikes.
Gaza death toll rises to 41,870, ministry says
At least 41,870 Palestinians have been killed and 97,166 others injured in Israel‘s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October, Gaza’s health ministry has said.
Pro-Gaza protester attempts self-immolation outside White House
Pro-Gaza protester attempts self-immolation outside White House
The self-immolation attempt occurred just days before the anniversary of the October 7 attacks on Israel by Hamas
In pictures: Israel airstrikes hit Gaza and Beirut, killing dozens
Live: Lebanon's Beirut skyline as Israeli military issues evacuation order
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Lebanon health system on 'brink of collapsing'
The health system in Lebanon is starting to collapse, according to the UN.
“Throughout the past days we have been witnessing an alarming increase in attacks against healthcare,” Imran Riza, the UN Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator for Lebanon, said in a post on X.
“Health workers are paying the heaviest price with their lives. The health system is on the brink of collapsing,” Mr Riza said.
The UN called on the international community to protect healthcare workers and civilians and establish an immediate ceasefire.
US pledges $157m in additional aid to Lebanon
Amid Israel’s invasion of Lebanon and strikes on Beirut, US vice president and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris announced that the country would provide nearly $157m in additional assistance to the people of Lebanon.
Ms Harris said the aid would address “essential needs such as food, shelter, water, protection, and sanitation to help those who have been displaced by the recent conflict.”
“I am concerned about the security and well-being of civilians suffering in Lebanon and will continue working to help meet the needs of all civilians there,” she said.
“This additional support brings total US assistance to Lebanon over the last year to over $385 million,” the vice president added.
X users were quick to criticise the move by the US, which accounts for nearly 70 per cent of Israel’s arms imports.
Since Israel invaded Gaza, the US has approved billions of dollars in weapons sales to Israel over the past months.
“I’m no military expert, but lying awake that night in Beirut, you wonder whether the value of the US-produced bombs and aircraft in use here, in the competition between destruction and aid, doesn’t far exceed that sum,” Beirut-based journalist Karim El-Gawhary posted on X.
Thousands protest across world against Middle East war
Thousands of people in major cities worldwide took to the streets on Saturday, demanding an end to Israel’s invasion of Gaza and Lebanon.
Nearly 40,000 people marched through central London, with thousands more in Paris, Cape Town, and New York City, calling for a free Palestine and a swift end to the conflict in the Middle East.
Protesters in New York City gathered at Times Square, shouting slogans like “Gaza, Lebanon, you will rise, the people are by your side”.
Many wore black-and-white keffiyeh scarves and held banners calling for an arms embargo against Israel.
Gaza mosque strike toll rises to 24
An Israeli airstrike on a mosque in the Gaza Strip early on Sunday killed at least 24 people and wounded nearly 100 others, according to the Gaza government's media office. The airstrike, near Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, comes as Israel's invasion of Gaza approaches its first anniversary.
The Israeli military said that the attack was a “precise strike on Hamas terrorists who were operating within a command and control centre embedded in a structure that previously served as the ‘Shuhada al-Aqsa’ Mosque in the area of Deir al-Balah”.
According to Gaza’s health ministry, nearly 42,000 Palestinians have been killed and over 2.3 million people displaced since the start of Israel’s invasion.
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