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Israel-Lebanon latest: Israel strikes central Beirut for first time in 18 years as death toll passes 1,000

The number of displaced people in Lebanon has surged from 300,000 to nearly one million

Jane Dalton,Maroosha Muzaffar
Monday 30 September 2024 07:07
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Multiple explosions in Beirut during Israeli strikes on Hezbollah targets

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Israel intensified its military campaign across the Middle East on Monday, striking central Beirut for the first time since 2006.

The attack brings the death toll from Israeli airstrikes across Lebanon to over 1,000 people in the last two weeks, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.

In just a few hours this weekend, the number of displaced people in Lebanon surged from 300,000 to nearly one million, said Nasser Yassin, Lebanon’s head of emergency disaster management.

A drone attack also reportedly killed three senior leaders of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a militant group involved in the ongoing conflict with Israel.

Earlier, Israel said it bombed Houthi targets in Yemen, expanding its confrontation with Iran’s allies in the region, in response to Houthi missile attacks on Israel in recent days.

It stoked fears that Middle East fighting could spin out of control and draw in the United States.

On Monday Hamas said its leader in Lebanon had been killed in an Israeli strike. That adds to the seven Hezbollah commanders killed in targeted strikes in the past two weeks, as Israel seeks to wipe out the Iran-backed militia groups’ leadership structures.

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Pope suggests Israel’s actions ‘disproportionate and immoral'

Pope Francis suggests Israel's actions in Gaza and Lebanon are disproportionate and immoral

Pope Francis is suggesting that Israel has used an “immoral” and disproportionate response in its attacks in Gaza and Lebanon

Jane Dalton29 September 2024 17:05
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New Israeli attack ‘kills 24 people'

An Israeli attack on the city of Ain Deleb in southern Lebanon has killed 24 people and wounded 29 others, according to a preliminary toll, Lebanon‘s Health Ministry says.

Jane Dalton29 September 2024 16:26
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Israel claims mass attack on Houthi sites in Yemen

The Israeli military says dozens of its aircraft have struck Houthi targets in Yemen in response to a recent attack on Israel.

The military said it targeted power plants and sea port facilities in the city of Hodeida.

The Houthis launched a ballistic missile attack on Ben Gurion airport on Saturday when prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was arriving.

Yemenis stand in front of a portrait of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, in Sanaa, Yemen
Yemenis stand in front of a portrait of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, in Sanaa, Yemen (AP)
Jane Dalton29 September 2024 16:21
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Israeli airstrike on northeast Lebanon kills 11

Israel-Hamas war latest: Israeli airstrike on northeast Lebanon kills 11

An Israeli airstrike on northeast Lebanon has killed 11 people Sunday morning, a day after the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah confirmed the death of multiple commanders, including longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah

Jane Dalton29 September 2024 15:58
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US campuses prepare for anniversary of Hamas attack on Israel

College officials are trying to avoid a repeat of scenes when thousands of students were arrested and learning was disrupted after Israel began its retaliation for the 7 October Hamas attack:

Here’s how college campuses are prepping for October 7 anniversary

As universities look to beef up security and warn of risks ahead of anniversary of Israel-Hamas war, some students say new protest restrictions are shutting them off campus entirely—and silencing their free speech.

Jane Dalton29 September 2024 15:21
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Seventh Hezbollah chief killed

The militant group Hezbollah has confirmed another of its senior leaders has been killed in an Israeli airstrike - the seventh senior leader of the Lebanese militant group to be killed in eight days, including Hassan Nasrallah.

Nabil Kaouk was killed on Saturday, the Israeli military said.

Hezbollah also confirmed on Sunday that Ali Karaki died in the same attack as Nasrallah in Beirut on Friday.

Nabil Kaouk
Nabil Kaouk (AP)
Jane Dalton29 September 2024 14:29
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Top Islamist group member ‘killed in Israeli strike'

An Israeli strike on Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley has killed a senior figure in the Sunni Jama’a Islamiya group, Mohammad Dahrouj, two security sources claim.

The Sunni Islamist political group has fired rockets on Israel over the past year and Israel has previously conducted strikes targeting other leading figures from the group.

Jane Dalton29 September 2024 14:15
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Residents flock to site of destruction

More than two days after a massive Israeli airstrike that killed the leader of the Hezbollah militant group, smoke is still rising from the smoldering wreckage.

People flocked to the site, some to check on what was left of their homes, others to pay respects and pray, and others simply to see the destruction.

Residents of Beirut heard up to 10 explosions following the Friday strike that targeted an area greater than a city block, reducing several residential buildings to a jumble of pancaked concrete and twisted steel. The buildings sank into the ground, leaving a cleared-out area nearly the size of a football field.

Weapons experts said the blasts and destruction left behind were consistent with the 2,000lb-class bombs (900kg).

Onlookers at the site today clambered over slabs of concrete, surrounded by piles of twisted metal and wreckage. Several craters, likely to be used by rescuers to penetrate under the site of the explosion were visible, some of them apparently up to 30m (100ft) deep.

A few Hezbollah workers were using a bulldozer to excavate around one of the craters. State security and investigators were nowhere to be seen.

Rescuers at the scene of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut’s suburb of Ghobeiri
Rescuers at the scene of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut’s suburb of Ghobeiri (AP)
Jane Dalton29 September 2024 13:58
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Tory leadership contender says immigrants who see Israel as enemy ‘not welcome’ in UK

Immigrants who see Israel as enemy 'not welcome' in UK says Kemi Badenoch
Andy Gregory29 September 2024 13:36
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Supporters of Nasrallah mourn loss of slain leader

Supporters of Hezbollah and other Lebanese people who hailed the group’s role fighting Israel mourned the death of its leader Hassan Nasrallah.

“We lost the leader who gave us all the strength and faith that we, this small country that we love, could turn it into a paradise,” Sophia Blanche Rouillard, a Lebanese Christian who carried a black flag to work in Beirut on Sunday, told Reuters.

An Arab Barometer poll in Lebanon earlier this year found that just 30 per cent trusted Hezbollah, whereas 55 per cent said they did not trust the group at all.

Those who said they trust the group rose to 85 per cent among Shia Muslims, but was just 9 per cent of Sunnis and Druze, and 6 per cent of Christians.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Friday, prompting fears the conflict could escalate into a regional war (Mohammed Zaatari/AP)
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Friday, prompting fears the conflict could escalate into a regional war (Mohammed Zaatari/AP) (AP)
Andy Gregory29 September 2024 13:20

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