Israel-Lebanon - latest: Six dead in strike on Beirut that Israeli military says killed Hezbollah commander
The Israeli strike hit Beirut’s southern Dahiyeh district, after 558 people including 50 children in Lebanon were killed since Monday
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A Hezbollah commander has been killed in an airstrike on Beirut, Israel has claimed.
The commander was named by the Israeli military as Ibrahim Qubaisi, a leading figure in Hezbollah’s rocket division.
Lebanese security sources also said Qubaisi was killed in a strike on Beirut, according to Reuters news agency
Six people were killed and 15 injured in the strike, according to the Lebanese health ministry. It hit the typically-busy southern Dahiyeh district of the capital.
Israeli forces confirmed that a Hezbollah commander had been a target of the strike, but have not said whether their target was killed.
It is the second consecutive day that Israel has struck the Hezbollah-controlled area of the capital, as it turns its focus north.
It comes after Lebanese authorities said the death toll has reached 558 including 50 children since Israel launched fresh strikes on Monday, according to the country’s health minister.
A fresh wave of strikes began on Tuesday, after Monday saw the deadliest day of strikes in Lebanon in nearly two decades of the conflict.
Thousands of residents were pictured fleeing southern Lebanon in loaded cars, vans and trucks. Highways north were gridlocked.
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Mapped: Israel strikes on Lebanon targets killing 492
Israel’s airstrikes on Lebanon which killed 492 came after a day after Hezbollah fired over 100 rockets into northern Israel, with some landing near the city of Haifa.
Hezbollah’s rockets were in response to an Israeli airstrike on a Beirut suburb on Friday that killed a top Hezbollah military commander and more than a dozen members, along with civilians including women and children.
Last week, thousands of communications devices, used mainly by Hezbollah members, exploded in different parts of Lebanon, killing 39 people and wounding nearly 3,000. Lebanon blamed the attacks on Israel, but Israel did not confirm or deny its responsibility.
In Pictures: Israeli airstrikes destroy Beirut suburb
This is the damaged vehicle and buildings seen in the southern suburb of Beirut after an Israeli military strike, in Beirut, Lebanon, 23 September 2024.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said they conducted a ‘targeted strike’ in Beirut on 23 September after the Israeli military announced that it launched ‘extensive’ airstrikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.
Lebanese residents of villages in the Beqaa Valley ‘who are inside or near houses where rockets and weapons are stored’ have been warned to ‘move away immediately! For your safety and protection’, the statement added.
Charity suspends work in Bekaa Valley
ActionAid’s partner, The Lebanese Women Democratic Gathering (RDFL), which works in the Bekaa Valley, has had to suspend its activities due to the escalating violence.
RDFL runs two centres providing essential protection services for Palestinian and Syrian refugees, as well as host communities in Lebanon.
Malak, Safe Space Officer from The Lebanese Women Democratic Gathering (RDFL), ActionAid Partner in West Bekaa Valley said people in desperate need of assistance are too afraid to leave their homes amidst the ongoing conflict.
She said: “A significant displacement is underway, with many families fleeing to Jeb Jennine, which is seen as safer than the surrounding villages.
“Schools are being converted into shelters for the displaced, and the air is filled with the constant sound of ambulances. There’s a growing concern that the situation may worsen in the coming hours.
“People are arriving with nothing after being forced to abandon their homes. Their immediate needs must be addressed urgently.”
Lebanese refugees describe fleeing Israeli airstrikes
Ramzieh Dawi had arrived with her husband and daughter after hastily evacuating the village of Yarine, carrying just a few essential items as airstrikes boomed nearby.
“These are the only things I brought,” she said, gesturing at the three tote bags she carried.
Fatima Chehab, who came with her three daughters from the area of Nabatieh, said her family had been displaced twice in quick succession.“We first fled to stay with my brother in a nearby area, and then they bombed three places next to his house,” she said.
Some people waited for hours in gridlocked traffic to get to what they hoped would be safety.
At a public high school in the capital’s Ras al-Nabaa neighborhood, a few dozen men, women and children were milling around as volunteers registered them.
Yahya Abu Ali, who fled with his family from the village of Doueir in Lebanon’s Nabatieh district, struck a defiant tone.
“Don’t think that an airplane or a missile will defeat us, or that a wounded person or a martyr on the ground will weaken us,” he said.
“On the contrary, it gives us strength, determination, and resilience.”
But Abu Ali also admitted that he was worried about his four siblings and their families who remained behind in southern Lebanon.
“God willing, I hope they will make it out,” he said.
US sending more troops to the Middle East as violence rises between Israel and Hezbollah
The US is sending additional troops to the Middle East during a sharp spike in violence between Israel and Hezbollah forces in Lebanon that has raised the risk of a greater regional war, the Pentagon has said.
Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder would provide no details on how many additional forces or what they would be tasked to do.
The US currently has about 40,000 troops in the region.
The new deployments come after significant strikes by Israeli forces against targets inside Lebanon that have killed hundreds and as Israel is preparing to conduct further operations and the State Department is warning Americans to leave Lebanon as the risk of a regional war increases.
Ali Karaki - third highest ranking Hezbollah member - ‘in full health’ after Israeli strikes in Beirut
Hezbollah sources hit back at rumours that Ali Karaki was killed in the latest wave of Israeli air strikes.
They said: “There is no truth to the enemy’s claims of assassinating the Mujahid Ali Karaki, and we confirm that he is in full health and wellness.”
Karaki is in charge of Hezbollah’s so-called “Southern Front,” responsible for the terror group’s military activity in south Lebanon.
He is third in command of Hezbollah’s armed forces and is the most senior figure after the assassinations of commanders Fuad Shukr, and Ibrahim Aqil.
Iran's President accuses Israel of seeking wider Mideast war and laying 'traps' to lead Iran into it
Iran’s president has accused Israel of seeking a wider war in the Middle East and laying “traps” to lead his country into a wider conflict.
Masoud Pezeshkian told about two dozen media representatives that Iran doesn’t want to see the current war in Gaza and airstrikes across the Israeli-Lebanon border expanded.
He said while Israel insists it doesn’t want a wider war, it is taking actions that show otherwise.
Mr Pezeshkian pointed to the deadly explosions of pagers, walkie-talkies and other electronic devices in Lebanon last week, which he blamed on Israel, and the assassination of Hamas’ political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on the eve of his inauguration.
Breaking: Death toll from Lebanon strikes reaches 356
The death toll from Israeli strikes on Lebanon has reached 356, with 1,246 others injured since Monday morning, a statement from Lebanon’s health ministry said.
The statement added that 24 children and 42 women were among the dead.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel’s air strike destroyed tens of thousands of Hezbollah rockets
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant claims Israel’s airstrikes destroyed tens of thousands of Hezbollah rockets, adding to the most difficult week for the Iranian-backed movement since its creation.
“Today is a significant peak. On this day we have taken out of order tens of thousands of rockets and precise munition. What Hezbollah has built over a period of 20 years since the second Lebanon War, is in fact being destroyed by the IDF,” he said in a statement.
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