Israel-Lebanon latest: Israeli jets strike Beirut targeting Hezbollah commander as 558 killed in two days
The Israeli strike killed a Hezbollah commander in Beirut’s southern Dahiyeh district
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Israel has carried out a strike targeting a Hezbollah commander in Beirut, according to Reuters news agency.
It is unclear whether the strike - carried out in a typically-busy southern area of the capital - killed its intended target.
Security sources in Lebanon told Reuters that Israel had targeted the commander, which Israeli forces confirmed.
It is the second consecutive day that Israel has struck the Hezbollah-controlled area of the capital.
It comes after Lebanese authorities said the death toll has reached 558 including 50 children since Israel launched fresh strikes on Monday, the country’s health minister said.
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.
After almost a year of war against Hamas in Gaza on its southern border, Israel is shifting its focus to the northern frontier, where Hezbollah has been firing rockets into Israel in support of Hamas, also backed by Iran.
It comes as thousands were pictured fleeing southern Lebanon in loaded cars, vans and trucks. Highways north were gridlocked.
Israeli airstrikes kill nearly 500 and injure 1,600, Lebanon says – in deadliest day for country since 2006
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Is this war? The Israeli-Hezbollah conflict is hard to define — or predict
Will Gaza sink Joe Biden’s foreign policy legacy?
Watch: Dashcam footage captures moment Hezbollah rocket hit city in northern Israel
Netanyahu says Israel is changing security balance on northern border
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel faced “complicated days” as it stepped up strikes against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and he called on Israelis to stay united as the campaign unfolded.
“I promised that we would change the security balance, the balance of power in the north - that is exactly what we are doing,” he said in a message issued following a situational assessment at military headquarters in Tel Aviv.
At least 21 children and 31 women among the 274 dead from Israeli airstrikes, Lebanese health minister says
At least 274 people, including 21 children and 31 women, were killed and 1,024 wounded in Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon on Monday, the country’s health minister said during a press conference.
Explainer: What happened during 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war?
The 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war was a 34 day armed conflict in Lebanon, northern Israel and the Golan Heights.
The conflict, primarily fought between Hezbollah and the Israeli military, began on 12 July 2006, and continued until a UN-brokered ceasefire came into effect on 14 August.
It is estimated some 1,300 Lebanese people were killed during the war, and 165 Israelis, according to a report by The Independent at the time.
Around one million Lebanese people were displaced during the war.
Today’s strikes on Southern Lebanon from Israel is the deadliest barrage since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war.
Comment: Why has Israel’s president denied the pager attack on Hezbollah?
The Israeli president has said that he “rejects out of hand any connection” between his state and the wave of detonating pagers and walkie-talkies that hit Lebanon’s Hezbollah in particular, but a lot of bystanders too.
It is not clear what led Isaac Herzog to contradict that otherwise universally accepted connection, which has been cheered on by some, and deplored by others.
Read the full Voices article by Mark Almond below:
Why has Israel’s president denied the shocking pager attack on Hezbollah?
Tensions within the country’s political elite have bubbled to the surface over the presentation of its strategy against insurgents, writes Mark Almond
Top UN officials say ‘atrocities must end’ in Gaza
Top United Nations officials have demanded “an end to the appalling human suffering and humanitarian catastrophe” in the Gaza Strip nearly one year into the war between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas.
“These atrocities must end,” the heads of UN agencies said in a statement as world leaders gathered in New York for the annual UN General Assembly.
Pictured: Israeli jets amid most widespread wave of air strikes in southern and northeastern Lebanon
Israel says it is preparing to attack Hezbollah targets in Bekaa
Israeli aircraft are preparing to attack Hezbollah strategic weapons stashed in houses in Lebanon's Bekaa valley, the Israeli military spokesperson has said, calling on civilians to evacuate immediately.
"The sights now from south Lebanon are of secondary explosions of Hezbollah weapons, which are exploding inside houses. In every house we are attacking there are weapons. Rockets, missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles that were meant for and aimed at killing Israeli civilians," Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a televised statement.
Iran ready for nuclear talks in New York 'if other parties are willing', foreign minister says
Iran is ready to start nuclear negotiations on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York if “other parties are willing”, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Monday in a video published on his Telegram channel.
The United States, under then-President Donald Trump, withdrew in 2018 from a nuclear accord signed in 2015 between Iran and six world powers, which restricted Tehran’s nuclear programme.
Indirect talks between the US and Tehran to revive the deal have stalled. Iran is still part of the agreement but it has decreased its commitments due to US sanctions imposed on it.
“I will stay in New York for a few more days than the president and will have more meetings with various foreign ministers. We will focus our efforts on starting a new round of talks regarding the nuclear pact,” Mr Araqchi said.
Mr Araqchi added that messages have been exchanged and a “general declaration of readiness” issued, but cautioned that “current international conditions make the resumption of talks more complicated and difficult than before.”
The Biden administration has said the United States was not ready to resume nuclear talks with Iran.
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