Tuesday 15 October
22:45 The United States warned Israel on Tuesday that it could withhold some of its billions of dollars in military assistance unless it improves aid delivery to the war-battered Gaza Strip within 30 days.
In a letter sent Sunday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin made "clear to the government of Israel that there are changes that they need to make again to see that the level of assistance making it into Gaza comes back up from the very, very low levels that it is at today," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.
The letter pointed to US law requiring that "recipients of US military assistance do not arbitrarily deny or impede provisioning of US humanitarian assistance."
"Our hope is that Israel will make changes that we have outlined and that we have recommended, and as a result of those changes will be a dramatic increase in humanitarian assistance."
The letter addressed to Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant was first reported by Axios, with the State Department saying it was intended to remain private.
In the letter, Blinken and Austin urge Israel to let at least 350 trucks of aid enter per day, to open a fifth crossing into Gaza and to rescind evacuation orders to Palestinians when there is no operational need.
The State Department said that earlier US pressure allowed the entry of 300 to 400 trucks per say but that overall aid has fallen by more than 50 percent from its peak.
21:45 The United States said Tuesday it has voiced concern to its ally Israel over bombings of Beirut in its campaign in Lebanon against Hezbollah.
"We have made clear that we are opposed to the campaign the way we've seen it conducted over the past weeks" in Beirut, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.
20:30 Sirens sound in Matat on Lebanon border, Beit Jann and Rama in Upper Galilee, Israeli Yedioth Ahronoth reported
19:35 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday said he was opposed to agreeing to a "unilateral ceasefire" in Lebanon during a call with French President Emmanuel Macron, according to a statement released by his office.
"The prime minister said in the conversation that he is opposed to a unilateral ceasefire, which does not change the security situation in Lebanon, and which will only return it to the way it was," Netanyahu said, according to a statement.
19:15 In a closed session of the Council of Ministers held this Tuesday, the French president said that “Netanyahu must not forget that his country was created as a result of a resolution adopted by the United Nations,” referring to the resolution adopted in November 1947 by the United Nations General Assembly on the plan to partition Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state.
“Therefore this is not the time to disregard the decisions of the UN,” Macron added.
These remarks refer to the situation in southern Lebanon, a few days after the Israeli ambassador to France was summoned, and Israel repeatedly fired on UN peacekeepers. Four of them were killed.
Last Friday, Emmanuel Macron judged it “totally unacceptable” that this UN force should be “deliberately targeted by Israeli armed forces”, and warned that “France will not tolerate any further firing”.
18:30 Lebanon's health ministry said on Tuesday that 41 people had been killed in Israeli strikes a day earlier, more than half of them in a northern Christian village outside Hezbollah's traditional strongholds.
"41 people have been killed and 124 injured" the ministry said, in "Israeli strikes on Lebanon yesterday," including 21 in the northern village of Aito. The newest figures bring the overall death toll since Israel on September 23 launched an intense air campaign in Lebanon to 1,356.
17:50 In a statement echoed by Israeli Channel 12, Defense Minister Benny Gantz asserts that Israel is not seeking to open any new fronts or engage in further warfare.
Israeli Broadcasting Corporation cites Gantz, stating that any attempt to undermine Israeli sovereignty and its citizens will not be tolerated.
Gantz, alongside the Prime Minister and the Chief of Staff, reportedly advocates for a proportional response to Iran, emphasizing a tit-for-tat approach.
Al Jazeera reports Israeli artillery shelling on the town of Ayta ash Shab in southern Lebanon.
A correspondent for Al Jazeera notes Israeli artillery strikes on the town of Kafr Shuba in southern Lebanon.
7:20 Hezbollah deputy chief Naim Qassem warned Israelis on Tuesday that the only solution to the current war is a ceasefire, saying the Iran-backed group would not be defeated.
"Since the Israeli enemy targeted all of Lebanon, we have the right from a defensive position to target any place" in Israel, "whether the centre, the north or the south", Qassem said in the speech, adding "I am telling the Israeli home front: the solution is a ceasefire... the resistance (Hezbollah) will not be defeated because this is its land".
16:45 Turkey's foreign minister on Tuesday called for sanctions against Israel, urging the international community to cut support over the conflict in the Middle East.
"We have reached the limit of words, diplomacy and international politics. We must start with sanctions," Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told ruling party delegates at a meeting about the future of Palestine.
Fidan said Israel had not so far responded to calls to halt the Gaza war, meaning "the international community must now resort to legal action. Israel needs to be boycotted," he said.
Israel was "not paying any price economically, politically, or militarily" for its actions in Gaza, and the only way that would change was if the world "cut off support".
"If we cannot, Israel will continue the genocide and massacre in Gaza," he said.
16:30 Reports from Ma'ariv indicate that the Israeli military has initiated operations to eliminate members of Hezbollah's Unit 127 following the recent attack on the Golani base.
According to the Israeli Army radio, the 210th Division has commenced limited ground operations in the Shebaa Farms area along the eastern border with Lebanon.
Further announcements from the Israeli Army radio reveal that a fifth military division has joined in ground operations in southern Lebanon.
Meanwhile, Yedioth Ahronoth highlights tensions within the Egoz unit coinciding with the redeployment of officers as replacements for casualties in clashes with Hezbollah.
Concerns among Egoz fighters, an elite unit of the Israeli military trained in fighting guerilla warfare, reportedly revolve around service conditions and tactics employed during recent confrontations.
Members of the Egoz unit have expressed apprehensions regarding decision-making processes within the unit amid engagements with Hezbollah.
15:20 Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said she would visit Lebanon, where Italian troops are part of a UN mission that has accused Israeli forces of firing on peacekeepers.
"It is already planned that I will go to Lebanon," she told the Senate, without giving a date.
15:00 Israeli police spokesman clarified that the shooting at Ashdod, "wounded five people, including a policeman who was critically injured and then died later."
The assailant had approached the main road on foot, fatally wounding the policeman before going on a shooting rampage and wounding others.
An Israeli paramedic at the scene killed the attacker, according to Zaki Heller, a spokesman with emergency service provider Magen David Adom.
14:30 Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati stated to Al Jazeera news network that the Lebanese government has taken a significant step by officially requesting the United Nations Security Council to intervene and halt the ongoing ceasefire breaches.
Emphasizing the urgent need for a cessation of hostilities, Mikati stressed the importance of implementing UN Resolution 1701 and urged for the election of a new President for the Republic to help stabilize the situation.
The Prime Minister expressed confidence in the Lebanese Armed Forces' capacity to enforce Resolution 1701 alongside the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) to maintain peace and security in the region.
Resolution 1701 is a United Nations Security Council resolution that called for a ceasefire in the 2006 Lebanon War and outlined steps for a lasting peace in the region.
Furthermore, Mikati said that the Lebanese government has secured assurances from the United States to help mitigate any potential escalation of Israeli actions in Beirut and its southern suburbs.
Mikati dismissed any talk of Resolution 1559. Resolution 1559 is another United Nations Security Council resolution that called for the disarmament of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias operating in Lebanon, with a particular focus on Hezbollah, and the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Lebanon.
13:50 Al Jazeera news network reported an Israeli airstrike targeted the town of Ayta ash-Shab in southern Lebanon.
Israeli airstrikes were reported in the vicinity of Baalbek and the region of Riyak in the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon, according to Al Jazeera.
Al Jazeera further reported that the Israeli artillery shelling hit the outskirts of the town of Chebaa in southern Lebanon.
The Israeli military issued a statement through their Arabic spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, urging residents in southern Lebanon to refrain from traveling southwards and returning to their homes or olive fields.
The statement again accused Hezbollah, withouth evidence, of Hezbollah's alleged use of ambulances to transport combatants and weapons.
13:30 The UNICEF and the World Food Programme stated that close to 190,000 displaced persons are currently seeking refuge in more than 1,000 shelters across Lebanon.
The dire situation has prompted urgent calls for humanitarian intervention in Lebanon, with families facing precarious conditions and in desperate need of assistance.
The UNICEF and the World Food Programme stressed the critical importance of upholding international humanitarian law and giving top priority to safeguarding civilians in Lebanon.
Meanwhile, the impact of the ongoing conflict in Lebanon has been staggering, with over 1.2 million individuals directly affected by the crisis, according to the UNICEF and the World Food Programme.
Previosuly, the UNICEF's Deputy Executive Director Ted Chaiban called for an end to violations on international law and the proections of civilians and infrastructure in Lebanon.
13:15 The UN called for a "prompt, independent and thorough investigation" into an Israeli strike in the northern Lebanese village of Aito which had killed 22 people.
"What we're hearing is that amongst the 22 people who were who were killed were 12 women and two children," UN rights office spokesman Jeremy Laurence told reporters about Monday's strike, adding that this raises "real concerns with respect to ... the laws of war and principles of distinction, proportion and proportionality".
13:10 Hezbollah said it carried out a rocket attack targeting the suburbs of the Israeli city of Tel Aviv a day earlier.
Hezbollah fighters launched "a rocket barrage at Tel Aviv's suburbs" on Monday night, a statement said, adding that the attack came "in defence of Lebanon and its people, and responding to Israeli" attacks on "cities, villages and civilians".
12:54 Hezbollah said it downed an Israeli drone, without saying where, as the group battles Israeli troops near the border and as Israel bombs south and east Lebanon.
Hezbollah fighters from the group's "air defence units... downed an Israeli Hermes 450 drone" just after midnight, the armed movement said in a statement.
12:45 One person was killed and another wounded in a shooting attack near the southern Israeli city of Ashdod on Tuesday, a hospital said.
"A short time ago, two injured people from the shooting incident on Route 4 were taken to the hospital. One patient died on his way to the hospital," the Assuta hospital said in a statement.
Police said officers were at the scene of the shooting near the Yavne South interchange, which is about 30 kilometres (18 miles) south of the Israeli commercial hub Tel Aviv.
"The circumstances surrounding the incident are still under investigation, and the motive has not yet been established," police said in a statement.
The shooting comes just days after one person was killed and five wounded during a stabbing rampage in four different locations in the central town of Hadera on Wednesday before the assailant was "neutralised".
9:45 Former UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron told BBC he was working up a plan to sanction two Israeli ministers until the UK election this summer intervened.
Cameron, who served in the last Conservative government, believes that Labour should pursue action against Israel's Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir - the minister for national security.
"I think there are other things we can do to put pressure on [Israel's PM] Netanyahu and say, 'Of course we respect your right to self-defence but we do want you to act within the law'," he said.
"Saying to Netanyahu, 'Yes we support your right to self-defence, no we're not going to end our sale of arms, but actually when there are ministers in your government who are extremists and act in this way, we're prepared to use the sanctions regime to say this simply isn't good enough and has to stop'."
He said he's "concerned that nothing has happened" since he was foreign secretary and the government "needs to look again at this sanctions issue".
"We all want to see this conflict end, but it's got to end in a way that's sustainable," he added, saying it's right to back Israel's right to self-defence, but it's not "a blank cheque".
It's important that aid gets into Gaza and that UN peacekeepers in Lebanon are respected, he said.
9:30 Israel has assured the White House that a planned attack on Iran won't target nuclear or oil facilities, US media reported.
Israel has vowed to counterattack after Iran fired ballistic missiles at the country on October 1.
Citing unnamed US officials, the Washington Post said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had reassured the White House that a strike it is contemplating would target only military sites.
The Wall Street Journal, also citing US officials speaking on condition of anonymity, said the pledge came in a call between US President Joe Biden and Netanyahu last week, as well as in conversations in recent days between US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant.
The plan "was met with relief in Washington," the Washington Post reported.
Biden has warned Israel against striking Iran's nuclear or oil facilities to avoid a further expansion of regional war and amid worries of a spike in global energy prices.
9:20 Iranian commander Esmail Qaani attended the funeral in Tehran for slain general Abbas Nilforoushan who was killed last month alongside Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.
The funeral procession for Nilforoushan, a general in Iran's Revolutionary Guards, began at the Imam Hossein Square, according to a live broadcast on state television.
Qaani -- who heads the Quds Force, the Revolutionary Guard's foreign operations arm -- had disappeared from public view and was rumoured in some media to have been targeted in an Israeli strike on Lebanon before reappearing.
9:15 The United Nations says its peacekeepers in southern Lebanon will stay in their positions, despite repeated demands by Israel that they should move out of the way of its forces there.
The head of UN peacekeeping operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix told journalists in New York that the decision to keep the Unifil force in place had the full backing of the UN Security Council and the member states contributing troops.
On Sunday Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bluntly warned the UN to move from its bases in southern Lebanon, which he said were providing a human shield to Hezbollah fighters.
But the UN is standing firm. Its head of peacekeeping said it was essential that the blue helmets stay in place, to carry out the mandate the UN Security Council gave them and to assist the civilian population.
Israel argues that the UN has failed to stop Hezbollah from building tunnels and positioning weapons like rockets and missiles near the border, in violation of the agreement which ended the last war there 18 years ago.
The UN says its mission is to support the parties to the conflict, not to enforce the agreement.
It has accused Israel of deliberately targeting its bases, with five peacekeepers injured in the past week, an accusation rejected by Netanyahu.
In another statement last night he said Israel would do its utmost to prevent such incidents, but that UN peacekeepers needed to get out of harm’s way.
9:00 Israel launched multiple air strikes in the eastern Bekaa Valley, putting a hospital in Baalbek city out of service, Lebanon's official National News Agency (NNA) reported.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah said its "fighters clashed with" Israeli troops Tuesday who were trying to infiltrate on the outskirts of Rab Tlatin village.
The Lebanese group also said it launched missiles at Israeli soldiers and a barrage of rockets at northern Israel, while the military reported sirens blaring near the border.
Monday 14 October
22:31 The International Committee for the Red Cross called on Monday for Lebanon's health care system to be protected after reports that Israeli strikes hit medical staff during Israel's attacks.
"I really... appeal for the protection of healthcare workers, for ambulances, for hospitals, for primary health centres," said Nicolas Von Arx, the ICRC's regional director for the Near and Middle East.
"Attacks on health facilities are deeply worrying," he added.
Such strikes mean "a hospital that doesn't function anymore. That means thousands, tens of thousands of people who cannot get healthcare, who cannot deliver in a safe place, who cannot get their wounds treated," he said.
Of the 207 primary healthcare centres in Lebanon's conflict areas, 100 are now closed due to the escalating violence, the World Health Organization says.
Five hospitals have shut "as a result of structural damage following attacks", while attacks on health workers and facilities in Lebanon have caused almost 100 deaths in a year.
"We are very, very concerned about the displacements, about the functioning of health care systems, about the continuous suffering now in Lebanon," Von Arx said.
Von Arx added that ICRC now had problems working in southern Lebanon.
"It's very difficult to get there," he said.
He spoke on the day an Israeli strike hit an east Lebanon town as an aid convoy drove through it, injuring one of its drivers, according to a governor and official media.
"Humanitarian workers should be respected, must be respected, so that they can do their vital work", Von Arx said.
22:20 Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hit out at the United Nations for failing to prevent Israel from firing at its peacekeepers in southern Lebanon.
Erdogan said the UN was also to blame for failing to sanction Israel over its wars in Gaza and Lebanon.
"The image of the UN which cannot protect its own personnel is shameful and worrying," Erdogan said in a televised address.
"Frankly, we ask ourselves what the (UN) Security Council is waiting for to stop Israel.
"Can you believe it? The Israeli tanks penetrate into the UNIFIL zone, attack peacekeeping soldiers, even wounding some of them, but the UN Security Council decides to just watch all this criminality from its stands -- that's what we call powerlessness."
The UN condemned the attacks with Secretary-General Antonio Guterres saying they "may constitute a war crime".
He said that Israeli soldiers had "deliberately breached" a UNIFIL compound.
21:38 Syrian media outlets reported powerful explosions heard near the Conoco gas field in northeastern Deir El-Zor, attributed to Israeli rocket strikes on the area.
Meanwhile, Al Jazeera correspondents reported Israeli airstrikes on the town of Al-Baisariyeh in the Sidon district, as well as on the Jarmash area and Qal'at al-Sab'a near the Lebanese-Syrian border in the Bekaa Valley.
20:55 Hezbollah has announced a series of rocket attacks targeting Israeli army positions, specifically hitting the Zrarit barracks and a gathering of Israeli forces and vehicles in Khallat Wardeh.
The group also announced it targeted Israeli forces at the Zrarit barracks with a barrage of rockets.
20:50 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly held a secret meeting with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi to discuss a potential attack on Iran, according to Yedioth Ahronoth.
According to the Israeli broadcasting authority, Israel is also preparing for a wide-ranging offensive in Lebanon, including strikes on Beirut.
The authority noted that Netanyahu has sought approval for military action in Beirut.
20:30 The Permanent Mission of Lebanon to the United Nations has submitted a formal complaint to both UN Secretary-General António Guterres and the UN Security Council in response to repeated Israeli attacks targeting UNIFIL positions in southern Lebanon, the Lebanese news outlet El Nashra said.
Lebanon has called for a firm and decisive stance against these aggressions, categorizing them as war crimes that require condemnation and accountability.
Additionally, Lebanon presented a second complaint to the Security Council regarding the impact of Israeli aggression on the educational sector, according to El Nashra.
The Lebanese mission urged immediate international intervention to halt the ongoing Israeli aggression, which has deprived approximately 1.4 million students of their fundamental right to education, jeopardizing the future of entire generations.
20:00 Protestors took to the streets in Udine, Italy before a football match between Israel and Italy, which has been condemned by the citizens of the Italian city.
Chants in the protests included a plea to "'kick Israel's team."
Francesca Feruglio, a Program Director at the International Network for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, commented that "In a heavily militarized Udine hundreds take the streets to protest demand FIFA bans Israel and call for an end to the genocide."
The Italian city had been put on high alert with a heavy police presence earlier in the day, before the match.
19:50 The death toll from the Israeli airstrike on an apartment building in northern Lebanon has risen to at least 21 people, according to the Lebanese Red Cross.
The strike hit a small apartment building in the village of Aito, which is part of the country's Christian heartland in the north.
Videos from Lebanese media showed a large plume of smoke rising from the hilly village, with several destroyed cars next to a severely damaged building, as people tried to remove bodies from beneath rubble and trees.
Israel has killed at least 2,300 people since October 2023, according to the country's Health Ministry. More than three-quarters of the deaths occurred in the past month.
19:47 The Rambam Hospital in Haifa has reported the arrival of 12 Israeli soldiers yesterday, one of whom has died, while the others sustained injuries ranging from serious to moderate.
The hospital is currently treating a total of 20 Israeli soldiers and six civilians who have been injured over the past weeks after Israel escalated attacks on Lebanon.
Additionally, the Ziv Medical Center in Safed has received seven soldiers injured during today’s clashes in southern Lebanon.
19:45 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to strike Hezbollah without mercy following a drone strike on an army base in Israel, and retaliation would extend to targets in Beirut, in a video released by his office.
"We will continue to mercilessly strike Hezbollah in all parts of Lebanon -- including Beirut. All this according to operational considerations. We have proven it recently and we will continue to prove it in the days to come," he said while visiting the military base hit by a Hezbollah drone on Sunday night.
19:40 Hezbollah has announced a series of rocket attacks targeting Israeli army positions, including a gathering of forces at the Roisat Al-Alam site in the occupied Kfarshouba Hills and in the Lebanese Shebaa Farms.
The group said to have also hit three Merkava tanks advancing towards Aita al-Shaab, resulting in casualties among the Israeli crews.
The Israeli army reported that approximately 15 rockets were launched from Lebanon towards the Upper Galilee, with some intercepted while others fell in open areas. Sirens have been activated in several towns near the Sea of Galilee, as well as in Safed and surrounding areas.
Israel's army also reported sirens sounding in multiple locations, including Misgav and Margaliot in the north.
Israeli media said that one person was severely injured east of Tel Aviv.
19:00 Hezbollah said it launched a barrage of rockets at the north Israeli town of Safed, more than three weeks after Israel intensified its air attack on Lebanon.
Hezbollah fighters fired a "big rocket salvo" at Safed, the group said in a statement, adding it was "in defence of Lebanon" and in response to Israeli attacks on Lebanese "cities, villages and civilians".
18:10 Al Jazeera reported that the US Embassy in Lebanon has urged its citizens to leave the country "now" amid escalating Israeli attacks.
The embassy's statement emphasized that the flights arranged for American citizens departing from Beirut will not be available indefinitely, highlighting the urgency of the situation.
18:02 Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araghchi slammed as "a disaster" the US obstruction of the United Nations Security Council in relation to the wars in Lebanon and Gaza.
In a phone call with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, Araghchi welcomed efforts by China, a permanent member of the council, to "stop the warmongering and the crimes of the Zionist regime (Israel)" in Gaza and Lebanon and described the "inaction of the UN Security Council due to the obstruction of the United States as a disaster".
17:50 The Israeli army on said air raid sirens were activated across central Israel, including the commercial hub of Tel Aviv, as projectiles were fired across the border from Lebanon.
"Sirens sounded in a number of areas in central Israel due to projectiles fired from Lebanon into Israeli territory," the army said in a statement.
Al Jazeera reported that more than two million Israelis rushed to shelters as air-raid sirens were sounded in more than 182 cities and towns in central and northern Israel.
Hezbollah has stated that its missile and air forces continue to target bases and settlements in northern occupied Palestine.
Air traffic has also stopped at Ben Gurion Airport, Israel's busiest airport located south of the city of Or Yehuda, in the Tel Aviv district of Israel.
17:40 Sirens blared in multiple locations across northern Israel, including Margaliot, Akka, Haifa, and Shatula.
This follows a recent statement from Hezbollah saying to have targeted an Israeli army gathering east of the town of Markaba with a rocket barrage.
17:30 Al Mayadeen TV shared a video published by Hezbollah's military media wing saying that their fighting capabilities remained strong.
The short video closed with the statement "Our capabilities are fine a thousand times."
The video showed men in military overalls operating rockets and missiles as well as documenting Hezbollah's vast arsenal of munitions.
17:05 Iran said it currently sees "no grounds" for its indirect talks with the United States via intermediary Oman, citing the crisis in the Middle East.
In June, Tehran said it had engaged in indirect talks with Washington via Muscat, despite the two countries having no diplomatic relations.
On Monday, Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi visited the Gulf sultanate as part of a regional tour in which he met allies and Middle East powers after Israel vowed to attack Tehran following Iran's recent retaliatory attack against Israel.
"Currently, we don't see any grounds for these talks, until we can get past the current crisis," Araghchi told reporters in Muscat.
The talks, he said, had been halted "due to the specific conditions of the region".
Iran fired 200 missiles at Israel on 1 October in retaliation for the assassination in Teheran of Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas political leader, that of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah in Beirut, and of a general in Iran's Revolutionary Guards in Damascus.
16:40 Sirens were activated in the Israeli towns of Avivim and the Upper Galilee region, signalling an attack, reported Al Jazeera.
Hezbollah claimed responsibility for retaliatory actions, saying that they targeted an Israeli gathering in Tsafit with a significant rocket barrage.
Additionally, Hezbollah reported launching rockets at the Israeli settlement of Kiryat Shmona.
This alert follows reports of renewed Israeli airstrikes targeting the southern Lebanese town of Aita al-Shaab, as confirmed by Al Jazeera.
16:30 Mohsen Rezai, Secretary of the Iranian Expediency Discernment Council, said on X that Hezbollah has successfully restructured its military framework in response to the Israel recent assassinations of its leaders.
He emphasized that Hezbollah's military machine is now operational, warning that "the Zionists will face difficult days ahead."
16:20 Local sources told Al Jazeera that two Israeli tanks crossed the ceasefire line with Syria, positioning themselves near the village of Kodna in the Quneitra countryside.
This follows US airstrikes against multiple Islamic State (IS) group sites in Syria on Saturday.
16:30 Israel’s army claimed the killing of Hezbollah Radwan Force Anti-tank Missile Unit commander Muhammad Kamel Naeem by an airstrike on Monday afternoon, in Lebanon's Nabatia region.
He was responsible for planning and carrying out many attacks on Israel, including firing an antitank missile, it said.
The Israeli Air Force also said that about 15 launches were detected that crossed into the country from Lebanon. Most of the launches were intercepted, it claimed.
16:00 An Israeli airstrike hit an apartment building in northern Lebanon on Monday, killing at least 18 people, the Lebanese Red Cross said.
The strike hit the apartment building located in the village of Aito, a Christian-majority area, far from Hezbollah main strongholds in the south and east of the country.
An AFP photographer at the site of the strike said it had levelled a residential building at the entrance to the village.
Body parts were scattered in the rubble, with Red Cross volunteers searching for survivors in the wreckage while ambulances evacuated wounded people.
The Lebanese army imposed a security cordon in the area, where the strike had also sparked a fire, he said.
Paramedics with the Lebanese Red Cross transport a body unearthed from the rubble at the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the northern Lebanese village of Aito on October 14, 2024. AFP
15:45 Irish Foreign Minister Micheál Martin is accusing Israel of trying to prevent the world from seeing what its troops are doing in Lebanon and Gaza, and of working to undermine the United Nations.
Asked what Israel’s aim might be in demanding that UNIFIL peacekeepers leave their bases after a series of attacks, Martin said: “essentially to drive the eyes and ears out of south Lebanon and to give itself free rein,” the AP reported.
“We cannot have an undermining and a chipping away of the status or the credibility or structures of the United Nations and particularly its peacekeeping forces,” Martin said in Luxembourg, where EU foreign ministers are meeting.
“We see what’s happening in northern Gaza, for example, in terms of the necessity of eyes and ears on the ground. The world has really no full picture of what’s happening in Gaza,” he told reporters.
Martin added that “Israel is essentially now undermining (not only) the United Nations and the United Nations peacekeeping force, but the very rules-based international order and it needs to step back.”
He called on his EU counterparts “to stand up now on the side of what’s right and proper and moral in terms of humanity.”
15:15 Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Monday said there would be "no withdrawal" of the UN peacekeeping force from southern Lebanon after Israeli attacks and calls to leave.
Spain condemns Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's call on Sunday for the force to pull back "because there will be no withdrawal of UNIFIL," Sanchez told a forum in Barcelona.
The force, which involves about 9,500 troops from some 50 nations led by a Spanish general, has in recent days reported multiple Israeli attacks that injured five of its troops and sparked international condemnation.
On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on UNIFIL to withdraw.
Sanchez affirmed his commitment to a 2006 UN Security Council resolution agreed after the last major Israeli war on Lebanon, which stipulated that only the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers should be deployed in south Lebanon.
Israel's committed an "unacceptable" violation of international law and Spain will continue contributing to the force "because we have a firm and clear commitment to peace", Defence Minister Margarita Robles told reporters in Madrid.
15:05 The Israeli police annonced it has received "numerous reports concerning multiple projectile impact sites in the Karmiel area and surrounding locations."
"These impacts have resulted in property damage, and preliminary reports suggest there may be casualties at the scene," it said on X.
15:00 Sirens sounded in central Israel due to several projectiles fired from Lebanon, the Israeli military said.
"Following the sirens that sounded a short while ago in the areas of Sharon, Menashe, and Wadi Ara, several projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanon into Israeli territory," the military said, adding that all of the projectiles had been intercepted.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah said it launched a salvo of rockets at an Israeli army base east of Netanya in central Israel on Monday, the latest attack claim after a deadly drone strike a day earlier.
14:00 An Israeli strike hit an east Lebanon town as an aid convoy drove through it, injuring one of its drivers, a governor and the state news agency said.
The governor of Baalbek, Bachir Khodr, on X, reported: "An Israeli strike very close to an aid convoy as it drove through the town of Ain" on its way to Ras Baalbek.
Israeli strikes hit Ain during "the passage of a convoy consisting of three trucks" heading towards the town of Ras Baalbek, said the National News Agency (NNA).
Meanwhile, Israel has carried out air strikes in several places in the south of Lebanon.
The towns of Kharayeb, Tyre and Nmairrieh were all hit by strikes on Monday, the NNA reported.
The Lebanese Health Ministry said Sunday that 2,306 people had been killed by Israeli strikes in the country since 8 October, 2023.
More than 1,600 of those people were killed in the past month alone since Israel began its military escalation into Lebanon.
The Ministry said at least 333 women and children were among the dead between 16 Sept. and 3 Oct.
This picture taken from Lebanon's southern city of Tyre shows a cloud of smoke erupting following an Israeli air strike on the village of Deir Qanoun on October 14, 2024. AFP
13:45 The UN stressed on Monday the urgent need for ceasefires in both Lebanon and Gaza to avert a broader regional conflict with ramifications for the whole world.
"A ceasefire that is sustained by a meaningful peace process ... is the only way to break the cycle of violence, of hatred, of misery," said UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi.
Speaking at the start of the UNHCR refugee agency's annual executive committee meeting in Geneva, he insisted that only a ceasefire could "stem the tide to a major regional war with global implications".
12:45 Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Monday urged other members of the European Union to respond to Madrid and Ireland’s request to suspend the bloc’s free trade agreement with Israel over its actions in Gaza and Lebanon, reported the Guardian.
For months, both Spain and Ireland have been in talks with other EU countries who want a review of the EU-Israel Association Agreement on the basis that Israel may be breaching the agreement’s human rights clause.
12:00 Hezbollah said it launched a rocket salvo at the Stella Maris naval base near Haifa on Monday morning.
The announcement came hours after Hezbollah drone retaliatory attack on the Benyamina military base near Haifa killed four soldiers and wounded 61 late Monday evening.
11:45 Israel's army chief said Monday a Hezbollah drone strike on an army training base that killed at least four soldiers was "difficult and painful".
"We are at war, and an attack on a training base on the home front is difficult and the results are painful," Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi told soldiers during a visit to the Golani Brigade training base that was hit Sunday night in the area of Binyamina, south of the city of Haifa.
11:00 An Israeli airstrike on Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital courtyard in the Gaza Strip early Monday killed at least four Palestinians and sent flames sweeping through a packed tent camp for displaced people, leaving dozens with severe burns, according to Palestinian medics.
Medical sources said that four people, including a woman and a child, were killed and about 70 others were injured after Israeli jets bombed a tented camp housing displaced Palestinians inside the grounds of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, according to media reports.
The Israeli strike sparked a massive fire that spread across roughly 30 tents, Al Jazeera reported.
According to witnesses, the blaze spread rapidly due to the tents being made of highly flammable nylon and fabric.
They said the fire raged for 45 minutes before civil defence crews managed to bring it under control.
The bodies of the deceased were completely charred, while most of the injured suffered second and third-degree burns, medics told Anadolu News Agency.
10:35 The European Union’s member states have taken too long to condemn Israel’s attacks on UNIFIL soldiers in Lebanon, the European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Monday, describing the attacks as “completely unacceptable”.
Speaking at an EU ministerial meeting in Luxembourg, he said: "The 27 members agreed on asking Israel to stop attacking Israel," he said.
"It is quiet evident that we should be against Israeli attacks against UNIFIL. Our soldiers are there, many soldiers are there."
EU countries, led by Italy, France and Spain, have thousands of troops in the 10,000-strong peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon, which has said it has repeatedly come under attack from Israeli forces in recent days.
10:00 UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Sunday denounced attacks that have injured several peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, his spokesman said, as Israeli forces move against Hezbollah militants.
"UNIFIL personnel and its premises must never be targeted," Stephane Dujarric said, referring to the blue-helmeted international force.
"Attacks against peacekeepers are in breach of international law...(and) may constitute a war crime."
"In a deeply worrying incident that occurred today, the entrance door of a UN position was deliberately breached by IDF armoured vehicles," he added in a statement.
At least five peacekeepers have been wounded in recent days as Israel targets Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
UNIFIL, a mission of about 9,500 troops of various nationalities created following Israel's 1978 invasion of Lebanon, has accused the Israeli military of "deliberately" firing on its positions.
Dujarric urged "all parties, including the IDF, to refrain from any and all actions that put our peacekeepers at risk," referring to Israel's army.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on Guterres on Sunday to move peacekeepers deployed in south Lebanon out of "harm's way", saying Hezbollah was using them as "human shields".
UNIFIL has refused to leave its position.
00:45 The Israeli army has announced that four of its soldiers were killed and 61 others were wounded in a Hezbollah drone attack on the Binyamina military base on the outskirts of Haifa Sunday night.
It was the deadliest Hezbollah attack on an Israeli base since the start of the intense Israeli bombing of Lebanon in mid-September.
Hezbollah earlier claimed responsibility and called the attack on the base next to Binyamina city retaliation for Israeli strikes on Beirut on Thursday that killed 22 people.
Sunday 13 October
23:00 Lebanon's health ministry on Sunday said Israeli strikes across Lebanon a day earlier killed 51 people.
After nearly a year of cross-border fire, Israel on September 23 escalated its campaign targeting in Lebanon.
Saturday's death toll included at least 22 people killed in three areas outside Hezbollah's traditional strongholds.
Among those were 16 people killed in Maaysra, a Shia village in a Christian-majority area north of Beirut, the ministry said.
Rescuers found two dead and "body parts" in Deir Billa, near the northern town of Batroun.
The strikes also killed four people in Barja in the Shouf district south of the capital.
In the country's south, the ministry said strikes killed 10 people in the Nabatiyeh area, whose main market was ravaged in strikes late Saturday.
Israeli strikes have killed more than 1,300 people since September 23, according to an AFP tally of official figures.
Most strikes have targeted south and east Lebanon, as well as the densely populated Beirut southern suburbs where Hezbollah holds sway.
But several air raids have also hit areas in central Beirut.
21:25 Israeli Army Radio: Three dead and 24 injured, including nine in critical condition, following a drone explosion in Binyamina, south of Haifa.
21:20 Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said it launched a drone attack against an Israeli military training base south of the city of Haifa on Sunday evening.
The group launched "a squadron of attack drones at a training camp... in Binyamina, south of Haifa," it said, in "response to Zionist attacks" including Israeli air strikes in the central Beirut neighbourhoods of Basta and Nweiri that killed 22 people on Thursday.
21:00 The Pentagon said Sunday it will deploy a high-altitude anti-missile system and its US military crew to Israel to help the ally protect itself from potential Iranian missile attacks.
At the direction of US President Joe Biden, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin "authorized the deployment of a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery and associated crew of US military personnel to Israel to help bolster Israel's air defences following Iran's unprecedented attacks against Israel on April 13 and again on October 1," Pentagon press secretary Pat Ryder said in a statement.
20:00 Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, Commander of Iran's IRGC Aerospace Force, emphasized that the IRGC Aerospace Force, along with other branches of the Islamic Republic's armed forces, remains vigilant and fully prepared to deliver a decisive and regretful blow to their "decaying enemy" in the event of any misstep.
19:00 Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Sunday vowed to prevent Hezbollah from returning to fighting positions along the border, even after the Israeli military withdraws from the area.
"Even once IDF (military) troops withdraw, we will not allow Hezbollah terrorists to return to these areas," said Gallant during a visit to an observation post overseeing southern Lebanon.
18:00 Reuters reported that Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz reiterated on Sunday his decision to declare UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres persona non grata, citing Guterres' alleged failure to condemn Iran's missile attack and what Katz described as "antisemitic and anti-Israel conduct." On 2 Oct, Katz announced that he was barring Guterres from entering Israel.
On Sunday, Katz posted on X, stating, "Guterres can continue seeking support from UN member states, but the decision will not change."
17:00 UN peacekeepers in Lebanon reported that Israeli tanks breached a gate to enter a Blue Helmet position on the Lebanese side of the border on Sunday, after having blocked their movement the previous day.
"At around 4:30 a.m., while peacekeepers were in shelters, two IDF Merkava tanks destroyed the position's main gate and forcibly entered," UNIFIL said, describing the incident in the Ramia area. The tanks left 45 minutes later. On Saturday, Israeli soldiers had "stopped a critical UNIFIL logistical movement near Mais al-Jabal, denying it passage."
At 6:40 a.m. (03:40 GMT), peacekeepers reported hearing several rounds fired about 100 metres (328 feet) north of their position, in what appeared to be an attack involving some chemical agent.
"Despite putting on protective masks, 15 peacekeepers experienced effects including skin irritation and gastrointestinal reactions after the smoke entered the camp. The peacekeepers are receiving treatment."
"We have requested an explanation from the Israeli army for these shocking violations against our forces," UNIFIL said in a statement.
15:39 Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Sunday that his country was ready for a "war situation" while insisting that his government wanted peace.
"We are fully prepared for a war situation. We are not afraid of war, but we do not want war, we want peace and we will work for a just peace in Gaza and Lebanon," he said while on a visit to the Iraqi capital.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein said Baghdad was against a regional war spreading to Iran, ahead of Israel's expected attack for Teheran's recent retaliatory offensive in Israel.
"The continuation of the war and its expansion towards the Islamic Republic of Iran and Israel's exploitation of Iraqi airspace as a corridor is completely unacceptable and rejected," he said during a press conference with his Iranian counterpart.
14:48 At least 25 Israeli soldiers were injured, some in serious condition, due to ongoing fighting in southern Lebanon, the Israeli website Walla reported.
The wounded soldiers were transferred to hospitals across the country, with several in critical condition.
"Starting this morning, 17 injured soldiers from the fighting in southern Lebanon were taken to Galilee Medical Centre in Nahariya. Four others were airlifted to Rambam Hospital, and another four were sent to Sheba Hospital."
An Israeli army spokesperson reported earlier that a reservist from Battalion 9220 was seriously injured in the battle in southern Lebanon. In another incident, a combat officer from the same battalion was also seriously wounded.
Hezbollah, in separate statements, announced that its fighters detonated two explosive devices against Israeli soldiers attempting to infiltrate the town of Ramieh, causing casualties. They also indicated that their fighters engaged in clashes with an enemy infantry unit during an attempted infiltration of the town of Qawzah, with fighting ongoing.
14:39 Hezbollah accused Israeli forces of using internationally banned cluster bombs in strikes on the area between the towns of Hanin and Tayri in southern Lebanon.
"The enemy's army targeted the towns of Hanin and Tayri with missiles carrying cluster munitions, which are prohibited under international law," Hezbollah said in a statement.
The Lebanese resistance group expressed no surprise at what they described as a "new barbaric crime" added to a series of ongoing Israeli crimes against both the Lebanese and Palestinian people.
The group also said that Israel, backed by the US, only dared to take such action due to the perceived inaction of the international community and global organizations.
Destroyed shops and buildings at a commercial street hit by Israeli airstrikes, in Nabatiyeh town, south Lebanon. AP
14:30 Hunger and malnutrition rates could rise “exponentially” in Lebanon if Israel follows through with threats to escalate the current army attack which has so far killed more than 2,000 and displaced as many as a million people, Michael Fakhri, the UN special rapporteur on the Right to Food said.
The Guardian cited Fakhri as saying: “Israel can starve Lebanon – like it has starved Palestinians in Gaza”.
“If you look at the geography of Lebanon, Israel has the power to put a stranglehold on the food system. There is a huge risk of hunger and malnutrition rates skyrocketing very quickly in Lebanon.”, he added.
“Famines are human-made and are always the result of one group starving another; therefore they should always be understood as a political problem,” said Fakhri.
“There is clear evidence that Israeli officials have used starvation both as a war crime and as a crime against humanity – which are fundamental violations of international law with no exceptions. Famine causes lasting physical and psychological harm to survivors and may cause harm for generations to come. You cannot turn starvation on and off like a ceasefire.”
14:18 Al Arabiya TV said at least five Israeli soldiers were killed, and 26 injured in two separate incidents in southern Lebanon battles. Earlier, an Israeli reservist soldier and an officer were seriously injured by Hezbollah anti-tank missile fire.
Hezbollah said its fighters had been fighting for nearly an hour with Israeli troops at a Lebanese border village, as incursions increased two weeks into Israel's ground invasion of the country.
"During an attempt by an Israeli enemy infantry force to infiltrate the village of Al-Qawzah from the southern side at 13:15 (1015 GMT)" Hezbollah fighters "clashed with them using machine guns and the clashes are still ongoing," the group said in a statement.
13:43 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on the UN chief to remove UN peacekeepers deployed in southern Lebanon.
"Mr Secretary General, get the UNIFIL forces out of harm's way. It should be done right now, immediately," Netanyahu said in a video statement issued by his office.
At least five UN peacekeepers have been wounded in recent days as Israeli forces attack Lebanon.
A spokesman for UN peacekeepers, Andrea Tenenti said on Friday that Israel wanted the force to leave its positions in south Lebanon, but they had refused.
They asked us to withdraw “from the positions along the blue line … or up to five kilometres (three miles) from the blue line,” Tenenti told AFP, using the term for the demarcation line between both countries. “But there was a unanimous decision to stay,” he said.
Spanish peacekeepers of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) coordinate their patrol with the Lebanese army, in Marjayoun in south Lebanon. AFP
13:37 Pope Francis asked for "respect" for UN peacekeepers in Lebanon who have accused the Israeli army of deliberately firing on their positions.
"I am close to all the people involved, Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, where I ask that the UN peacekeepers be respected," Francis said at the Vatican.
The peacekeeping mission, UNIFIL, has said that its forces have repeatedly come under Israeli fire in the Lebanese town of Naqura where it is headquartered, as well as in other positions.
At least five UN peacekeepers have been wounded as Israeli forces invade the south border of Lebanon.
"I once again call for an immediate ceasefire on all fronts that the paths of diplomacy and dialogue be pursued to achieve peace," Francis said at the end of the Angelus prayer.
13:32 Iran's top diplomat vowed there would be "no red lines" for the country in defending its people and interests, ahead of Israel's expected operation for Iran's recent retaliatory attack.
"While we have made tremendous efforts in recent days to contain an all-out war in our region, I say it clearly that we have no red lines in defending our people and interests," Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote in a post on X.
He also said that the US has been delivering a record amount of arms to Israel.
"It is now also putting the lives of its troops at risk by deploying them to operate US missile systems in Israel," he added.
12:32 Hezbollah said it clashed at "point-blank range" with Israeli troops at a Lebanon border village of Blida on Sunday after earlier saying they launched a rocket salvo at a base in southern Haifa.
Meanwhile, an Israeli reservist soldier and an officer were seriously injured by Hezbollah anti-tank missile fire in southern Lebanon, the Israeli army said.
Simultaneously, the army said its troops in Lebanon captured a Hezbollah fighter in an underground bunker in south Lebanon, the first such announcement since Israel launched its ground offensive into the Lebanese territory.
The fighter was stripped to his underwear and taken to a detention facility inside of Israel.
A picture released by the Israeli army shows Israeli troops operating on the ground near the border with Israel in southern Lebanon. AFP
12:20 Israeli Yedioth Ahronoth reported that recent Iranian missile retaliatory attacks on Israel have caused major damage to 10 sites, including several military bases. The damage to civilian properties in the Iranian attack marked the largest single-day losses since the beginning of the conflict, it added. Israel’s Tax Authority estimated the damage to civilian infrastructure at between $40 and $53 million.
On 1 October, Iran launched a retaliation missile against Israel in retribution for Israel’s dual assassinations of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and Hezbollah’s chief, Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut.
11:32 US officials believe Israel has narrowed down its potential attack on Iran, to military and energy infrastructure, according to NBC.
There is no indication that Israel will target nuclear facilities or carry out more assassinations. Still, US officials stressed that the Israelis have not decided how and when to act.
The officials stressed that the US has no information to indicate the response will come today but admitted that Israel has not shared a specific timeline with them — and it is not clear Israeli officials have even agreed on one yet.
11:00 US Biden administration is considering sending one of its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) systems to Israel, US officials said.
A US official said there were ongoing discussions late last week about deploying a THAAD to Israel. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
The US has a wide range of missile defence systems arrayed across the Middle East and Europe, including Patriot systems.
Officials have been discussing for months what types of air defence systems to deploy to the region and where to put them.
Any move of a THAAD to Israel would involve deploying soldiers to operate the complex system.
10:13 The Lebanese Red Cross said its paramedics were hit by an Israeli strike on Sunday while attending the site of an earlier attack in the south, leaving them lightly injured.
"Following the air strike on a house in Sirbin... Lebanese Red Cross ambulance teams were dispatched to the scene in coordination with UN peacekeepers", the Red Cross said in a statement.
"As the team was searching for casualties to rescue, the house was hit for a second time resulting in concussions to the volunteers and damage to the two ambulances," it added.
The World Health Organization spokesperson Christian Lindmeier said that since 17 September, there had been 18 attacks on health facilities in Lebanon, killing 72 health workers.
The UN human rights office said that over 100 medics and emergency workers had been killed in Lebanon since a conflict between Israel and Hezbollah began a year ago.
09:33 The Israeli military said it intercepted about five projectiles fired from Lebanon on Sunday shortly after air raid sirens blared in several northern areas of the country.
Sirens also sounded in and around the northern city of Haifa, a day after the army said Hezbollah had fired around 320 projectiles into Israel.
09:10 An Israeli air strike Sunday had destroyed a mosque in the south, Lebanese official media said.
"At around 3:45 am (1245 GMT) enemy aircraft carried out an airstrike targeting the old mosque in the centre of the village of Kfar Tibnit, destroying it," the National News Agency reported.
09:00 Hezbollah said it clashed twice with Israeli troops who attempted to infiltrate near a Lebanese border village on Sunday after several other attacks overnight.
Hezbollah fighters detonated explosive devices at Israeli soldiers and "clashed with them as they attempted to infiltrate" twice near the Lebanese village of Ramia, the resistance group said, reporting fighting that lasted about an hour.
The group also said it carried attacks on Israeli troops in Lebanon and on the Israeli side of the border.
The Israeli army said the 8th Brigade forces engaged in face-to-face clashes with Hezbollah fighters.
Mourners pray over the shrouded bodies of five people killed in an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Bazuriyeh a day earlier, ahead of their funeral on October 12, 2024. AFP
Saturday 12 October
22:50 The Lebanese Health Ministry said Israeli air strikes on two villages located near the capital Beirut killed nine people.
Official media later reported an Israeli strike targeted a market in Nabatiyeh, an important southern city.
Israel had earlier told residents of south Lebanon not to return home, as its warplanes continued pummeling various towns and villages in the area.
More than 6,000 Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon have destroyed hundreds of residential buildings and homes, killed more than 1,400 people, wounded thousands of others since mid-September, and forced more than a million others to flee their homes, according to Lebanese authorities.
22:00 34 UNIFIL-contributing countries have signed a joint statement reaffirming the protection of UNIFIL peacekeepers in Lebanon and condemning the latest attacks against them.
The letter, which was initiated by Poland, comes after five peacekeepers in Lebanon were wounded in recent days by Israeli gunfire.
It comes amid intense Israeli airstrikes on the south of the country and demands by Tel Aviv on UNIFIL peacekeepers to step aside to allow an Israeli ground invasion of the country.
“We consider UNIFIL’s role as particularly crucial in light of the escalating situation in the region. We therefore strongly condemn recent attacks on UNIFIL peacekeepers. Such actions must stop immediately and should be adequately investigated,” the letter said.
21:30 Israel's army said that five new areas along its border with Lebanon had been declared a closed military zone, as its troops battled Hezbollah forces inside Lebanese territory and its airforce pounded the entire country.
"Following a situational assessment, the areas of Zarit, Shomera, Shtula, Netua, and Even Menachem in northern Israel will be declared a closed military zone as of 20:00 today (17:00 GMT)," an army statement said.
20:30 More than one million Israelis spent the Jewish religious holiday of Yom Kippur in shelters as Hezbollah fired more than 320 rockets on various targets in northern Israel over the weekend, according to the Israeli website Ynet.
Sirens went off in 80 towns and cities in south, central, and northern Israel over the weekend, according to Ynet.
19:45 The Lebanese Health Ministry said that 2,255 have been killed and 10,524 wounded since the start of Israeli strikes on Lebanon on 8 October 2023.
18:30 Israeli warplanes and artillery pounded various towns and villages in southern Lebanon all day Saturday.
These included Kfar Shuba, Mahrouna, Wadi Jilo, Shaqra, Shihin, Shabaa, and Eita alShaab, and the Mansoury, Labouna and Mahmoudiya areas, according to Al Jazeera.
Friends and relatives mourn on October 12, 2024, during the funeral of five people killed in an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern village of Bazuriyeh a day earlier. AFP
18:15 US forces have conducted airstrikes against multiple Islamic State (IS) group sites in Syria, the army said, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
US forces “conducted a series of airstrikes against multiple known ISIS camps in Syria in the early morning of Oct. 11,” the US Central Command (Centcom) said in a statement on X, using an acronym for the Islamist militant group.
“The strikes will disrupt the ability of ISIS to plan, organise, and conduct attacks against the United States, its allies and partners, and civilians throughout the region and beyond.”
The US announcement of strikes in Syria comes as Washington declared its readiness to defend Tel Aviv against any retaliation from Tehran against an anticipated Israeli strike on Iran.
17:30 Rami Mortada, Lebanon's ambassador to the UK describes UNIFIL forces to BBC as the "backbone" of any post-war arrangement.
He is pressed on his stating as fact that Israel is deliberately targeting UN peacekeepers, but goes on to say it's "clear this is a pattern of behaviour".
Mortada said the recent incidents of Israeli attacks against UNIFIL soldiers raise questions about Israel's aims in south Lebanon.
It is "clear this is a pattern of behaviour," he said.
"As long as Israeli aggression is continuing, I don't think there is room for negotiation now," he added.
Vehicles from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) patrol Marjayoun in southern Lebanon on October 12, 2024. AFP
16:30 A spokesman for UN peacekeepers in Lebanon said he feared an Israeli escalation against Lebanon's south could soon spiral out of control.
This risks "turning very soon into a regional conflict with catastrophic impact for everyone," UNIFIL spokesman Andrea Tenenti told AFP, calling for a diplomatic solution.
UNIFIL said that unknown gunfire a day earlier hit a peacekeeper, the fifth wounded in south Lebanon near the Israeli border in just two days.
"Last night, a peacekeeper at UNIFIL's headquarters" in Naqoura "was hit by gunfire due to ongoing military activity nearby... We do not yet know the origin of the fire," a statement said, adding that the peacekeeper was "stable."
On Friday, two Sri Lankan members of the UNIFIL were injured when the Israeli army opened fire near the peacekeeper’s base in Naqoura.
Tenenti said that Israel wanted the force to leave its positions in south Lebanon, but they had refused.
They asked us to withdraw “from the positions along the blue line … or up to five kilometres (three miles) from the blue line,” Tenenti told AFP, using the term for the demarcation line between both countries. “But there was a unanimous decision to stay,” he said.
United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) spokesperson Andrea Tenenti gave an interview at the UNIFIL House in Baabda east of Beirut on October 12, 2024. AFP
15:30 Iran has banned pagers and walkie-talkies on all flights, local media reported, weeks after deadly sabotage attacks in Lebanon orchestrated by Israel.
"The entry of any electronic communication device, except mobile phones, in-flight cabins or ... in non-accompanied cargo, has been banned," ISNA news agency reported, citing the spokesman for Iran's Civil Aviation Organisation Jafar Yazerlo.
The decision came over three weeks since sabotage attacks targeting members of the Hezbollah resistance group in Lebanon that saw pagers and walkie-talkies explode, killing at least 39 people.
15:00 Hezbollah said it launched a drone attack on a military base in north Israel's Haifa a day earlier.
Hezbollah fighters at 8:00 pm (1700 GMT) on Friday launched "an air attack with a swarm of explosives-laden drones on an air defence base" in Haifa, a statement from Hezbollah said.
14:00 Israel warned residents of south Lebanon "not to return" to their homes as Hezbollah said it launched missiles across the border on Yom Kippur, one of the holiest days in the Jewish calendar.
In cities around Israel, markets were closed, and public transport halted as observant Jews fasted and prayed.
But with the country at war, troops remained engaged in combat in Gaza and southern Lebanon, a traditional Hezbollah stronghold, amid a firestorm of criticism over the wounding of four UN peacekeepers.
In a message addressed to south Lebanese, Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee wrote on X: "For your protection, do not return to your homes until further notice... Do not go south; anyone who goes south may put his life at risk."
12:00 Iran's parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf denounced Israel's "crimes" as he visited the site of the deadliest Israeli strike on central Beirut in recent weeks, an AFP photographer said.
A source close to Hezbollah has said that the air raid on Thursday night in the densely populated Basta area, which killed at least 22 people, had targeted Hezbollah's security chief Wafiq Safa.
But neither the Israeli military nor Hezbollah confirmed that he was the target of the strike, nor did they remark on his fate.
Speaking to the press, accompanied by two Hezbollah lawmakers, Ghalibaf denounced what he called Israel's "crimes".
"International organisations and the UN Security Council have the capability (to stop Israel) but they are unfortunately keeping silent," he said.
Earlier, Ghalibaf met Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who told him his government's priority was "to work towards a ceasefire", Lebanon's official National News Agency (NNA) said.
The premier urged the United Nations to pass a resolution calling for an "immediate" ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
Ghalibaf was also expected to meet his Lebanese counterpart Nabih Berri, a powerful Hezbollah ally, before heading to Geneva later the same day, according to Berri's office and Iran's state news agency IRNA.
When he visited Lebanon on Friday last week, Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said his country backed efforts for a simultaneous ceasefire with Israel in both Gaza and Lebanon.
Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf (2-R) visits the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted Beirut’s Basta neighbourhood, on October 12, 2024. AFP
10:00 Hezbollah fighters struck a base "south of the city of Haifa, targeting the explosives factory there with a salvo of... missiles", the group said in a statement.
This picture taken from the northern Israeli port city of Haifa shows smoke billowing near the northern Israeli city of Tamra from rockets fired from Lebanon on October 12, 2024. AFP
09:00 US Secretary of State Antony Blinken voiced hope for a diplomatic solution in Lebanon and preventing a broader conflict, as he backed efforts by the fragile state to assert itself against Hezbollah.
Blinken again said that Israel, which has been carrying out deadly strikes on Lebanon, "has a right to defend itself" against Hezbollah, but said he was alarmed by the worsening humanitarian situation.
"We continue to engage intensely to prevent broader conflict in the region," Blinken told reporters after an East Asia Summit in Laos.
"We all have a strong interest in trying to help create an environment in which people can go back to their homes, their safety and security, kids can go back to school," he said.
"So Israel has a clear and very legitimate interest in doing that. The people of Lebanon want the same thing. We believe that the best way to get there is through a diplomatic understanding, one that we've been working on for some time, and one that we focus on right now."
Later in the day, Blinken spoke by phone with Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati and parliament speaker Nabih Berri, according to a statement from the US State Department.
Lebanon's presidency has been vacant for two years and Blinken stressed "the need to empower leadership that reflects the will of the people for a stable, prosperous, and independent Lebanon".
He claimed that "Lebanon cannot allow Iran or Hezbollah to stand in the way of Lebanon's security and stability".
The statement did not mention discussions on a possible ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
Blinken said the United States would work to support the fragile Lebanese state to build itself up after Hezbollah's long-held sway.
"It's clear that the people of Lebanon have an interest -- a strong interest -- in the state asserting itself and taking responsibility for the country and its future," he said.
He also said that the United States was voicing concern directly to Israel on the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
"I have a real concern about the inadequacy of the assistance that's getting to them," Blinken said, adding that the United States has been "very directly engaged with Israel" on the topic.
Friday 11 October
17:30 Lebanon's military said an Israeli strike on one of its positions in south Lebanon killed two of its soldiers.
"The Israeli enemy targeted an army post in Kafra, killing two people and wounding three," it said, bringing to four the number of Lebanese troops who have been killed by Israel since its military escalation in Lebanon on 23 September.
17:15 Ireland's foreign minister Micheal Martin condemned the attack on UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon while Prime Minister Simon Harris said he was "deeply concerned" at the reports.
Martin, who is also deputy prime minister, went further, calling it "an extraordinary development, quite shocking" about the attack that wounded two Blue Helmets on Thursday.
"This marks a very serious intensification of IDF hostility towards UN forces and UN posts. Absolutely unacceptable. What happened over the last 48 hours before this was reckless and intimidatory," he said.
Ireland accounts for 347 of the 10,000 soldiers serving in the UNIFIL forces, which are charged with maintaining peace in the south of Lebanon.
Speaking to reporters in southwest Ireland Martin called on the international community to "really put down a marker to Israel that this is unacceptable behaviour".
"The international community now need to collectively engage with Israel and put pressure on Israel to desist from this activity, to stop it, and to ensure that UN peacekeepers are not put in harm's way," he said.
Last weekend, UNIFIL said they were concerned that Israeli troops were near an outpost manned by Irish troops.
17:00 France summoned the Israeli ambassador after UN peacekeepers in Lebanon said Israeli fire on their headquarters wounded two staff.
"The Israeli authorities must explain themselves. France is therefore summoning today the Israeli ambassador to France."
France, which has had a military presence in Lebanon since 1978, contributes about 700 troops to the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, according to the French Defence Ministry.
"We pay tribute to all UNIFIL personnel, to our French contingent and all contingents, for their ongoing commitment and professionalism under these difficult conditions," the French foreign ministry said.
Paris reiterated "the urgent need for a cessation of hostilities and a diplomatic settlement."
Israel acknowledged its forces had opened fire in the area, claiming the Hezbollah militants on whom it is waging an escalating war operate near UN posts.
Italy, a major contributor of troops to the force, said the acts "could constitute war crimes" while Washington said it was "deeply concerned."
UNIFIL, which has approximately 10,000 peacekeepers stationed in southern Lebanon, has called for a ceasefire since Israel's military escalation on September 23, following a year of cross-border fire between Israel and Hezbollah.
16:00 Human Rights Watch said the Israeli military's deliberate and repeated attacks on the UN peacekeeping mission in south Lebanon are unlawful and amount to war crimes.
“Any targeting of UN peacekeepers by Israeli forces violates the laws of war and dangerously interferes with UNIFIL’s civilian protection and aid work,” said Lama Fakih, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch.
“With over 2,000 people killed and over a million people displaced in Lebanon since mid-September, it is crucial for UNIFIL to be allowed to fulfil its civilian protection and humanitarian functions,” Fakih said.
15:30 A UN migration official has said the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people in Lebanon is "devastating" and warned international support was falling short of the needs, amid intense Israeli bombing.
"With this wave of displacement, we see huge needs... the situation is devastating," said Othman Belbeisi, the International Organization for Migration's Middle East and North Africa director.
"Lebanon needs more support. What has been offered so far is minimal and does not match the needs," he told AFP on Thursday during a visit to Beirut.
The IOM has "verified and tracked" some 690,000 internally displaced people in Lebanon, Belbeisi said, noting about 400,000 others had reportedly fled the country, many of them for neighbouring Syria.
Around a quarter of the displaced in Lebanon, or more than 185,00 people, are in official shelters such as schools, according to the IOM.
Around another a quarter have rented accommodation, while some 47 percent are living in "host settings", the IOM said.
15:15 The UK government condemned firing by Israeli forces on a United Nations peacekeeper base in Lebanon, urging all parties in the conflict to "comply with international law".
"We were appalled to hear those reports and it is vital that peacekeepers and civilians are protected," a spokeswoman for Prime Minister Keir Starmer told reporters.
15:00 The United Nations came down heavily on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for threatening the people of Lebanon with ‘Gaza-like destruction’.
The UN said it was "appalled" by inflammatory language surrounding the war between Israel and Hezbollah and asked leaders to end their "bellicose posturing".
Netanyahu this week urged the Lebanese people to rise against Hezbollah, or risk a similar fate to Gaza.
"We are appalled by sweeping inflammatory language on multiple sides," UN Human Rights Office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told a media briefing in Geneva.
"Recent language threatening Lebanese people as a whole and calling on them to either rise against Hezbollah or face destruction like Gaza, risks being understood as encouraging or accepting violence directed against civilians and civilian objects, in violation of international law."
She also decried as "unacceptable" the "ongoing denigration of the UN, in particular UNRWA", the UN agency supporting nearly six million Palestinian refugees spread across Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
"This kind of toxic rhetoric, from any source, must stop," she said.
14:15 US Secretary of State Antony Blinken voiced hope for a diplomatic solution in Lebanon and averting a broader conflict.
"We continue to engage intensely to prevent broader conflict in the region," Blinken said.
14:00 Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati urged the United Nations to pass a resolution calling for an "immediate" ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
In a televised address, Mikati emphasised his government's commitment to deploy the army on the border with Israel as part of a cessation of hostilities and said Hezbollah agreed on the matter.
Mikati said Lebanon's foreign ministry would ask the UN Security Council to issue a resolution calling for a "full and immediate ceasefire".
He said his government was committed to "the full application of Resolution 1701", which was adopted in 2006 and called for the Lebanese army and peacekeepers to be the only armed forces deployed in the south of the country.
Lebanon is committed to "the deployment of the army in the south and the bolstering of its presence along the border", he said.
"Hezbollah agrees on this issue," he added.
Previously, Hezbollah had said it would only accept a truce if there was also one with its Palestinian ally Hamas in Gaza.
Mikati also condemned attacks on the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon as a "crime", with peacekeepers targeted two days in a row by Israeli forces, according to Lebanese official media and the foreign ministry.
13:00 Deadly Israeli strike on Beirut likely targeted Hezbollah security chief, a source close to the Lebanese group said, requesting anonymity to discuss the matter.
"The head of Hezbollah's security apparatus, Wafiq Safa, was targeted," the source said.
Israel appeared to target Hezbollah's security chief in air strikes on Beirut that killed at least 22 people and injured dozens, in the deadliest raid on the centre of Lebanon's capital since Israel's escalation began weeks ago.
Safa was close to Hezbollah's late leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli strike on south Beirut last month that also toppled at least 6 residential buildings.
There has been no official confirmation from either Hezbollah or Israel that Safa was targeted in the attack that Lebanon's health ministry said killed at least 22 people and injured more than 117.
Thursday's raid was the third such attack on central Beirut since then. It was also its deadliest.
11:00 The co-head of the new Nobel Peace Prize winner Nihon Hidankyo said the situation for children in Gaza is similar to the situation in Japan at the end of World War II.
"In Gaza, children in blood are being held. It's like in Japan 80 years ago," Toshiyuki Mimaki told a news conference in Tokyo.
The remarks on Gaza come as the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the Japanese anti-nuclear group Nihon Hidankyo, a grassroots movement of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, also known as Hibakusha.
9:15 Lebanon's foreign ministry condemned the Israeli attack that wounded United Nations peacekeepers in the country's south after Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported a new attack on Friday.
The ministry condemned "the targeting... carried out by the Israeli army" on the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, most recently "the bombing that targeted watchtowers and the main UNIFIL base in Ras Naqura, and on the Sri Lankan battalion's base, which led to several wounded", a statement said.
9:00 UN chief Antonio Guterres condemned Israeli forces firing on a peacekeeper base in Lebanon as a breach of international humanitarian law.
"I condemn the fact that there was a shooting against a UN premise, wounding two peacekeepers, which is a violation of international humanitarian law," the UN secretary-general told reporters at a summit in Laos.
8:55 The UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon says new explosions hit its headquarters, injuring two peacekeepers, a day after Israeli forces struck the same position.
The force, known as UNIFIL, said the explosions went off close to an observation tower at its headquarters in the southern Lebanese town of Naqoura. One of the injured peacekeepers was taken to a hospital in the nearby city of Tyre, while the other was treated at the site. It did not specify the cause of the blasts.
It also said an Israeli army bulldozer hit the perimeter of another of its positions in southern Lebanon while Israeli tanks moved nearby. Additional peacekeepers were sent to reinforce the position, it said.
The role of UN peacekeepers stationed at Lebanon's border has come into focus during the latest escalation, particularly after Israeli forces repeatedly targeted their positions and wounded two of their members on Thursday.
The UN peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon had weeks earlier refused orders from Israel to relocate its peacekeepers, stationed near the Lebanese border, just days before Israel launched its ground invasion of the country.
Thursday 10 October
23:21 The Lebanese health ministry said that at least 22 people were killed and 117 injured by Israeli strikes in Beirut.
22:00 Lebanon's health ministry said Thursday that at least 18 people had been killed and 92 others injured in Israeli strikes on the centre of the capital Beirut.
"The Israeli enemy's attacks on the capital Beirut this evening killed, according to a preliminary toll, 11 people and injured 48 others," the ministry said in a statement.
Rescue efforts are still ongoing, the Lebanese ministry said.
21:20 Lebanon's health ministry said Thursday that at least 11 people had been killed and 48 others injured in Israeli strikes on the centre of the capital Beirut.
"The Israeli enemy's attacks on the capital Beirut this evening killed, according to a preliminary toll, 11 people and injured 48 others," the ministry said in a statement.
20:40 At least two large airstrikes were carried out in the city of Beirut on Thursday night, striking the Basta neighbourhood in central Beirut, a working-class area that has hosted many displaced people since 23 September.
The blasts were heard across Beirut, shaking windowpanes at least a mile away. The target of the strikes was unclear.
The strikes were the third time that Beirut has been targeted since the Hezbollah-Israel war started a year prior.
Israel has largely contained its strikes to Dahiyeh, the southern suburbs of the city.
19:50 Lebanon’s crisis response unit said 28 people were killed and 113 wounded in the past 24 hours, the country’s health ministry said on Thursday.
This brings the total figure to 2,169 killed and 10,212 wounded over the past year of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, according to the ministry, AP reported.
The report also recorded 61 airstrikes and incidents of shelling in the past day, mostly concentrated in southern Lebanon, the southern suburbs of Beirut and the Bekaa Valley.
18:45 The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has condemned the shelling of UN peacekeepers by Israeli forces in Lebanon, adding that there was “no justification” for such an “inadmissible” act.
In a post to X on Thursday, he said the EU “reiterates its full support” to the UN peacekeeping mission, UNIFIL.
18:20 Irish troops based in Lebanon are safe and accounted for after Israeli troops opened fire at three positions held by UN peacekeepers on Thursday, the Irish government has said.
The taoiseach, Simon Harri, warned that firing on peacekeepers “can never be tolerated or acceptable”.
Micheál Martin, Ireland’s foreign minister said a drone was operational and Indonesian soldiers were injured.
“This is unacceptable. Peacekeeping is the noblest thing anyone can do. Our soldiers are there, UN peacekeeping soldiers are there to keep the peace at the invitation of both sides to this conflict, and Israel has an obligation to make sure that no UN peacekeeper gets into harm’s way”, Ireland’s foreign minister said.
17:30 The Lebanese Ministry of Public Health says an Israeli air strike on the village of Karak in eastern Lebanon has killed four people.
It adds that 17 people were also wounded in the strike. Work to lift debris resulting from the strike is still ongoing, it adds.
14:30 The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon said Thursday that two of its members were wounded when its positions came under fire in the country's south, where Israel and Hezbollah are fighting.
"Three positions were hit by fire and two peacekeepers were injured," a UNIFIL spokeswoman said after Lebanon's official National News Agency said a watchtower of the peacekeeping force was hit in the Ras Naqura area.
13:20 Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met his Qatari counterpart in Doha on Thursday, his spokesman said, after Israel warned it would retaliate against his country for last week's missile attack.
Qatar has played a key role in efforts to secure an elusive ceasefire in Gaza and has called for a truce in Lebanon, where Israel has escalated last month its bombing.
The conflict in the region was the subject of "important consultations" between Araghchi and his counterpart Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who also serves as Qatar's prime minister, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said on social media platform X.
"It is only responsible for all states to maximise their efforts to shield our region against an imposed catastrophe by stopping genocide in Gaza and aggression on Lebanon," he said after the talks.
Araghchi was expected to hold meetings with Qatari officials on Gaza, Lebanon and efforts to de-escalate regional tensions, a source with knowledge of the meetings told AFP on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of discussions.
His visit came after Israel on Wednesday threatened retaliation for last week's massive missile attack by Tehran, stoking fears of a wider war in the region.
Israel's Defence Minister Yoav Gallant warned the response against Iran would be "deadly, precise and surprising".
On Wednesday, Araghchi was in Saudi Arabia where he met Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and his Saudi counterpart, Prince Faisal bin Farhan.
Iran had said the talks were aimed at providing "better conditions" for Palestinians and Lebanese under Israeli attacks.
13:00 Hezbollah said it destroyed an Israeli tank advancing on Lebanon's southern border on Thursday.
The Lebanese group fired rockets at "an Israeli tank as it advanced towards Ras al-Naqura, leading to its burning and destruction," it said, claiming casualties.
12:00 An Israeli strike hit a road linking Syria and Lebanon Thursday as Israel tries to cut off supply routes of Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, a war monitor said.
Israel has increased its strikes on Syria since it upped its air raids on what it says are targets of Hezbollah in Lebanon more than two weeks ago, notably killing the leader of the Lebanese militant group.
"Israeli aircraft carried out a strike targeting the road linking Syria and Lebanon" in the Quseir region on the Syrian side of the border, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the group with a wide network of sources in Syria, said the strike came as part of Israeli attempts "to cut the supply line to Hezbollah".
There were no casualties and it was not immediately clear if the road had been cut off in the strike, he said.
Lebanon's National News Agency reported "enemy drone strikes on the border between Lebanon and Syria".
The strike comes less than a week after Israeli jets struck the main Lebanon-Syria border crossing of Masnaa in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley, cutting off the traffic road.
11:00 Syrian state media reported an Israeli attack early Thursday on the central provinces of Homs and Hama after an Israeli strike hit the country's south the previous day.
"At around 1:00 am (2200 GMT Wednesday), the Israeli enemy launched an air attack... targeting a car assembly factory in the industrial area of Hassia in Homs province" and a military position in Hama, state news agency SANA said, citing a military source.
Hassia is about 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of the city of Hama.
"The losses were limited to material damage," the report said.
Citing the manager of the industrial area in Hassia, SANA reported the attack targeted not only the factory but also vehicles "loaded with medical and relief supplies... which led to a large fire" that firefighters were working to extinguish.
10:00 An Israeli strike hit a road linking Syria and Lebanon Thursday as Israel tries to cut off supply routes of Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, a war monitor said.
Israel has increased its strikes on Syria since it upped its air raids on what it says are targets of Hezbollah in Lebanon more than two weeks ago, notably killing the leader of the Lebanese militant group.
"Israeli aircraft carried out a strike targeting the road linking Syria and Lebanon" in the Quseir region on the Syrian side of the border, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the group with a wide network of sources in Syria, said the strike came as part of Israeli attempts "to cut the supply line to Hezbollah".
There were no casualties and it was not immediately clear if the road had been cut off in the strike, he said.
Lebanon's National News Agency reported "enemy drone strikes on the border between Lebanon and Syria".
The strike comes less than a week after Israeli jets struck the main Lebanon-Syria border crossing of Masnaa in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley, cutting off the traffic road.
09:00 Israel's military chief, Herzi Halevi, vowed to keep bombing Hezbollah targets, a campaign that has killed more than 1,200 people since September 23, "without allowing them any respite or recovery".
The comments came after a phone call between Netanyahu and US President Joe Biden, their first in seven weeks. The White House said Biden told Netanyahu to "minimise harm" to civilians in Lebanon, particularly in "densely populated areas of Beirut".
"There should be no kind of military action in Lebanon that looks anything like Gaza and leaves a result anything like Gaza," said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.
Netanyahu said in a video address to the people of Lebanon on Tuesday: "You have an opportunity to save Lebanon before it falls into the abyss of a long war that will lead to destruction and suffering as we see in Gaza."
He added: "Free your country from Hezbollah so that this war can end."
Wednesday 9 October
22:45 The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has released a flash update detailing the escalating situation in Lebanon, revealing that one-quarter of the country's territory is currently under Israeli military displacement orders.
The report highlights that "Lebanon’s humanitarian crisis is deteriorating at an alarming rate," citing a significant increase in Israeli airstrikes that have not only intensified but also expanded in scope, targeting critical civilian infrastructure.
Since 8 October, approximately 2,083 individuals have been killed, with 9,869 injured and 608,509 internally displaced. The report notes that 180,700 people are currently seeking refuge in 978 collective shelters, with 775 of these (or 80 percent) already at full capacity.
UNICEF has reported that around 350,000 children have been displaced due to the ongoing conflict in Lebanon, underscoring the dire impact of the violence on the nation’s youth.
21:30 "We soon have exhausted all our vocabulary to try to describe what has become a wasteland … an unlivable area," UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini told the BBC about devastation caused by Israel’s devastating war on the strip in the past year on Wednesday.
"The war has been the war of all the superlatives," Lazzarini, who has been denied access to Gaza and the occupied territories by Israel for his relentless condemnation of the Israeli war on Gaza, added.
"Look at the number of civilians and people who have been killed, the number of humanitarian workers, UNRWA workers … [killed], the level of destruction, the number of times people have been moved around … There is a kind of post-apocalyptic atmosphere prevailing in Gaza right now."
21:00 The Lebanese government said Wednesday it was mulling establishing at least two pre-fabricated "villages" to help shelter some of the hundreds of thousands of civilians displaced by intense Israeli bombing.
Environment Minister Nasser Yassin, who heads the government's disaster management unit, said a "working paper" outlined options for shelters, including "setting up ready-made homes on some open, public land."
"The matter depends on several criteria... related to the question of infrastructure as well as social and security" issues, he said in a statement released by Prime Minister Najib Mikati's office.
"There are two locations... where pre-fabricated houses can be set up in cooperation with friendly countries, including Arab countries that have expressed readiness to cover the construction of these villages," he said, without specifying which countries.
It is the first time such a proposal has been floated since nearly a year of cross-border exchanges between Israel and Hezbollah escalated dramatically last month.
Israeli bombardment of Lebanon has killed and wounded thousands, and forced some 1.2 million people to flee their towns and villages, according to Lebanese officials.
More than 400,000 people have sought refuge in neighbouring Syria, according to Lebanese figures.
Meanwhile, Israel's military chief Herzi Halevi vowed on Wednesday to keep targeting Hezbollah, saying strikes would continue "without respite" to prevent the group from recovering.
"We will continue to strike Hezbollah with intensity, without allowing them any respite or recovery," Halevi said in a statement.
Many of those displaced inside Lebanon are staying with relatives or renting accommodation, but those with no alternative are sleeping on the streets.
21:00 Israeli Channel 12 reported that the phone call between Biden and Netanyahu to review the Israeli plans for the under-planning strike against Iran was "positive."
The US president told Netanyahu that Israel has to start making plans for the stage of post-war in the north.
20:00 Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has been quoted by media in Israel as saying that the next strike against Iran will be “lethal, precise, and surprising."
Kann News reports that Gallant added: “They won’t understand what happened and how.”
Earlier, on the other side, a senior commander with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said Iran is prepared to mount operations much larger than the one last week if attacked by Israel, Al Jazeera reported.
“If we hit 200 there, we’re now prepared to land hundreds or thousands of missiles in their occupied territories and hit their security, military, and economic centres,” said Ebrahim Jabbari, an advisor to IRGC chief commander Hossein Salami.
According to Al Jazeera, he pointed out that Israel is very small in geographical size compared to Iran, and must therefore be careful about the ramifications of an Iranian retaliation.
“We are a vast country. We have created the capability to strike from other points in the country if any of our points are hit. But what are they going to do? The US won’t dare enter into battle with us, but we can quickly plough that little territory,” Jabbari said about Israel.
19:00 Israeli warplanes pounded Dahiyeh in Beirut and various towns in southern Lebanon, including Eit aShaab and Naqoura.
The Lebanese Ministry of Public Health has said that 2,141 people have been killed and 10,099 wounded since the beginning of Israel’s bombing campaign on 8 October 2023.
It also said that 22 people were killed and 80 injured across Lebanon on Tuesday.
18:45 France will hold an international ministerial conference over the crisis in Lebanon on 24 October that will focus on the political situation and humanitarian aid in Lebanon, the Foreign Ministry has said.
“Its objective will be to mobilize the international community to respond to the protection and emergency relief needs of the Lebanese population and to identify ways of supporting Lebanon’s institutions, in particular the Lebanese Armed Forces, which are the guarantors of the country’s internal stability,” the ministry said in a statement.
The ministry said the conference would include regional and international partners of Lebanon, the UN, as well as civil society partners.
“With Lebanon facing a serious and profound political and humanitarian crisis, France will recall through this conference the urgency of a cessation of hostilities and a diplomatic solution,” it said, adding that the appointment of a president should be a first step.
17:00 President Joe Biden is set to speak with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday as Israel expands its ground incursion into Lebanon and considers how to respond to Iran's recent ballistic missile attack.
16:00 Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez described Israel's military offensives in Lebanon as an "invasion" on Wednesday, saying that the international community had to act.
"It is clear that there has been an invasion by a third country of a sovereign state such as Lebanon, and therefore the international community cannot remain indifferent," the Socialist premier told parliament.
"We denounced (this situation) in Ukraine, we also denounced it in Gaza and now we are also denouncing the invasion of Lebanon," he added.
15:00 Israeli emergency responders said two people were killed Wednesday in a rocket attack on the northern city of Kiryat Shmona, as the army and Lebanon's Hezbollah exchanged fire along the border.
"We found a man and a woman aged around 40 years old, unconscious and injured by shrapnel. We carried out medical examinations, but their injuries were serious and we had to declare them dead on the spot," said emergency service provider Magen David Adom in a statement.
Hezbollah said it was fighting Israeli troops in a border area in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, as Israel intensified its ground offensive in Lebanon.
The Lebanese group fired rockets and artillery shells "as Israeli troops tried to advance in the Mays al-Jabal area from several directions", it said.
14:30 Hezbollah said it was fighting Israeli troops in a border area in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, after announcing it had repelled two previous infiltration attempts near other frontier villages.
The Lebanese militant group fired "rockets and artillery shells", "as Israeli troops tried to advance in the Mays al-Jabal area from several directions", it said. "Clashes are ongoing."
14:00 The Lebanese Health Ministry said at least four people were killed in an Israeli strike on a hotel-turned-shelter for displaced people in southern Lebanon.
Ten others were wounded in the strike that hit the building in Wardaniyeh in Lebanon’s Chouf province.
An Associated Press reporter in a nearby town heard two sonic booms and an explosion from Israeli jets before the strike, followed by plumes of black and white smoke rising from the building.
13:30 The European Union said Wednesday it had launched a "humanitarian air bridge" to fly aid to Lebanon.
The European Commission said three initial flights were scheduled to carry supplies from Italy and Dubai to the conflict-wracked country, with the first arriving in Beirut on Friday.
"The EU stands by the people affected by the crisis in Lebanon," commission president Ursula von der Leyen wrote on X.
Last week, the EU said it was ramping up spending on humanitarian assistance to Lebanon by 30 million euros ($33 million) in response to the unfolding violence.
13:00 Turkey on Wednesday sent ships to evacuate around 2,000 of its citizens from Lebanon, with its Beirut envoy saying it would be "the biggest" evacuation of its type from the war-torn country.
A Turkish diplomatic source told AFP two naval ships carrying the evacuated nationals and their families would arrive at the southern Turkish port of Mersin "in the early hours" of Thursday morning.
The two ships set sail overnight for the Lebanese capital whose southern suburbs were hit overnight by fresh Israeli bombardments.
"These ships, with a capacity of around 2,000 people, will be ready to take those of our citizens who requested it from Lebanon to Mersin port," Turkish ambassador Ali Baris Ulusoy told TRT Haber public television.
Turkey, estimated to have 14,000 citizens registered with its consulate in Lebanon, announced the move on Tuesday because of the deteriorating security situation in Lebanon.
12:30 Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is heading to Saudi Arabia Wednesday for talks on efforts to end the Israeli war on Gaza and Lebanon, his ministry said.
Araghchi will visit the Gulf kingdom "in furtherance of our diplomatic efforts, in coordination with countries of the region", ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei posted on X.
He said the trip would focus on stopping "the Israeli regime's genocide & aggression and to alleviate the pain and suffering of our brothers and sisters in Gaza and Lebanon".
12:00 Israeli bombardment on Wednesday killed a policeman in the south of Syria near the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, state media said, the day after a deadly air strike on the capital.
Israel has repeatedly struck Syria throughout the civil war that started in 2011, but it has ramped these up in recent weeks as it also pounds Lebanon.
Citing a police official, the official SANA news agency reported "the death of a security force member and wounding of another in an Israeli strike" on the outskirts of Quneitra city.
It comes after a strike in the Damascus neighbourhood of Mazzeh late Tuesday, that a war monitor said targeted a building used by Iran's Revolutionary Guards and Lebanon's Hezbollah.
The Syrian government said it killed seven civilians.
11:00 US President Joe Biden is expected to hold a phone call on Wednesday with Benjamin Netanyahu about any plans to strike Iran, Axios reported late on Tuesday, citing three unnamed US officials.
The call would be the first between Biden and Netanyahu since August and comes as Israel considers major attacks against Iran that could significantly escalate its regional war.
An official told Axios the US wants to make sure Israel attacks targets in Iran that are significant, without being disproportionate.
Reuters also reported, citing an unnamed source, that the two leaders are also expected to discuss the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon.
10:00 Having weakened Hamas, the Israeli military is now focused on Hezbollah, the Lebanese ally of the Palestinian group.
In a statement issued after midnight, Hezbollah said its fighters detonated an explosive device targeting Israeli forces and engaged in combat with them as they "attempted to infiltrate the border town of Blida" in the southeast.
In another statement, Hezbollah said its fighters targeted Israeli soldiers with artillery "and rocket-propelled weapons" as they attempted to advance towards the border area of Labouneh at 4:55 am.
The group says it has thwarted several such infiltration attempts since the Israeli military launched ground operations in Lebanon on 30 September.
Tuesday 8 October
22:30 Hezbollah deputy chief Naim Qassem said Tuesday the group supported Lebanese efforts for a ceasefire with Israel, after two weeks of heavy Israeli strikes that killed its leader.
"We support the political efforts that (Lebanese Parliament Speaker) Nabih Berri is undertaking towards a ceasefire," Qassem said in a televised speech.
"Once a ceasefire is achieved, diplomacy can look into all the other details," Qassem said on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Berri, a powerful Shiite ally of Hezbollah, have for days been striving for an immediate truce between Israel and Tehran-backed Hezbollah, independent of Gaza truce efforts.
Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that Tehran backed efforts for a "simultaneous" ceasefire in both Lebanon and the Palestinian territory.
US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told journalists that Washington wants to see a diplomatic resolution, but expressed support for Israeli efforts against Hezbollah.
"For a year, you had the world calling for this ceasefire, you had Hezbollah refusing to agree to one. And now that Hezbollah is on the back foot and is getting battered, suddenly they've changed their tune and want a ceasefire," Miller said.
"We support Israel's efforts to degrade Hezbollah's capability, but yes, ultimately, we do want to see a diplomatic resolution to this conflict," he added.
Qassem, who has taken over until a new Hezbollah leader is announced, said the group's military capacities and leadership were still strong despite the heavy Israeli bombardment.
22:00 The Syrian defence ministry said seven people, including women and children, were killed in an Israeli air strike on a residential building in Damascus on Tuesday.
"The Israeli enemy launched an aerial aggression ... targeting a residential and commercial building in the densely populated Mazzeh neighbourhood of Damascus killing seven civilians, including children and women," the ministry said.
It said the toll was preliminary as rescuers were still searching for survivors under the rubble.
21:00 At least 1,473 people have died in Lebanon since mid-September when the Israeli army dramatically escalated its attacks, according to the latest figures from the Lebanese Health Ministry.
Since Israel and Hezbollah began exchanging fire across the border one year ago today, at least 2,083 people have been killed, including 127 children and 261 women, and 9,869 have been wounded, the ministry said.
The Health Ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its counts of those killed.
20:00 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the people of Lebanon they could face "destruction and suffering" like the Palestinians in war-battered Gaza if they don't "free" the country from Hezbollah.
"You have an opportunity to save Lebanon before it falls into the abyss of a long war that will lead to destruction and suffering as we see in Gaza," Netanyahu said in a video address directed to the people of Lebanon.
"I say to you, the people of Lebanon: Free your country from Hezbollah so that this war can end."
Netanyahu said Israeli forces "took out thousands of terrorists, including (Hassan) Nasrallah himself and Nasrallah's replacement and the replacement of his replacement."
19:00 Hezbollah has claimed that they have carried out 3194 operations against Israeli sites and targets from 8 October until today, according to Al Jazeera.
Additionally, Hezbollah's operations have led to the evacuation of 100 settlements and the displacement of over 300,000 Israelis, reported Al Jazeera.
Meanwhile, Israeli Channel 12 reports that the rocket barrage targeting Kiryat resulted in damages to the electricity network at three locations.
In response, the Israeli Home Front Command has issued instructions to halt classes tomorrow in the city of Kiryat in the Haifa Bay area.
Furthermore, the Israeli Broadcasting Authority reports that Netanyahu has summoned ministers for security consultations this evening in light of the escalating situation.
18:30 Beirut has received "assurances" that Israel will not target the country's only international airport, Lebanon's transport minister told AFP, but said those fell short of guarantees.
Since 23 September, Israel has launched an intense air campaign mainly targeting Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon including Beirut's southern suburbs, adjacent to the airport.
On Monday, the United States warned Israel not to attack the Beirut airport or the roads leading to it, after repeated Israeli strikes near the facility.
Lebanon "seeks to keep its public airport, sea ports and land crossings – chief among them the Rafik Hariri International Airport – functional," Minister of Public Works and Transport Ali Hamieh told AFP.
"Ongoing international calls have given us a sort of assurance" the airport will be spared Israeli strikes, he said, however adding that "there is a big difference between assurances and guarantees".
Hamieh denied Israeli accusations that Hezbollah was using the airport and border crossings to smuggle weapons.
18:20 The media wing of the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon has published a segment titled "366 Days - In Support of Our Resilient Palestinian People and Solidarity with Their Brave and Noble Resistance, Defending Lebanon and Its People."
The video is a compilation of attacks launched by Hezbollah on Israel, over the past year.
Since the start of the Israeli war on Gaza, Hezbollah and Israel have been exchanging cross-border violence which has recently spiked with an Israeli attempted ground operation into southern Lebanon after systematic attacks targetting the resistance group's leadership.
18:00 Hezbollah said it had forced Israeli troops to retreat Tuesday after they crossed into Lebanon near a UN peacekeeping post following Israel's announcement last week it was conducting ground incursions.
Hezbollah fighters fired at "an Israeli enemy force that infiltrated from behind the international forces' position in Labboune," a border village, the group said, adding they "forced the infiltrating enemy force to withdraw behind the border strip".
17:50 Israeli Minister of Energy, Eli Cohen, has declared that Israeli soldiers have occupied the Maroun al-Ras area and destroyed houses from which Hezbollah launched missiles towards Israel.
Reports from Israel's Walla state that soldiers from the 210th Brigade in the Golan Heights are criticizing the Israeli army's insufficient protection against threats posed by Iraqi drones.
Israeli media outlets have reported alarm sirens in Yiftah in Upper Galilee, indicating a state of alert in the area.
In another development, Hezbollah has announced that they targeted an Israeli military forces gathering in the settlement of Metula with rocket fire.
17:15 Quds News Network has reported that five civilians, including women and children, were tragically killed in Israeli airstrikes targeting a residential building in Khodor, Lebanon.
According to Al Jazeera, the Israeli military has confirmed the launch of 10 missiles from Lebanon towards Ras al-Naqoura, with some intercepted by Israeli air defences.
Israeli Channel 12 has reported the detection of around 25 rockets launched from Lebanon towards Upper Galilee, with some successfully intercepted.
Al Jazeera further reports that Hezbollah has claimed to have targeted an enemy force advancing towards the border of Labouna, causing confirmed casualties and forcing a retreat.
Alarm sirens were heard in the Israeli town of Metula in Upper Galilee.
16:40 Reports from Al Jazeera's correspondent indicate Israeli airstrikes in the vicinity of the city of Tyre in southern Lebanon.
Further Israeli airstrikes have been reported on the town of Khodr in the Bekaa Valley, east of Lebanon.
In addition, Israeli airstrikes have targeted the towns of Tir Harfa, Ansariya, and Sadiqin in southern Lebanon.
Israeli airstrikes have also hit the towns of Al-Qulai'a and Aytit in the Tyre region of southern Lebanon.
Meanwhile, Al-Mayadeen, a news outlet associated with Hezbollah, reports that the commercial port of Sidon is devoid of commercial boats and ships following Israeli threats against activities along the southern coast.
According to Quds News Network, civil defence teams are actively engaged in removing rubble and rescuing casualties resulting from Israeli airstrikes on a residential building in the town of Khodr, east of Baalbek in Lebanon.
16:30 Hezbollah's deputy leader Naim Qassem said Tuesday that the group had "moved beyond" painful blows inflicted by Israel, as Israeli forces began ground operations in the southwest of Lebanon, expanding its incursions into a new zone.
16:00 The Israeli occupation army reports 47 soldiers injured, including 7 in critical condition, at multiple fronts of war during the previous 24 hours, according to Quds News Network.
14:50 Recent reports from Israeli Channel 12 indicate that rockets and shrapnel have been detected in approximately 150 locations in the regions of Haifa and Kiryat following missile strikes.
At least 12 individuals have sustained minor injuries in Haifa and Kiryat after the missile attack from Lebanon.
Hezbollah has claimed responsibility for launching rockets towards Haifa, stating it was part of a significant rocket barrage targeting the city and its outskirts.
14:20 The Biden administration is becoming increasingly wary of Israel's military and diplomatic plans, Axios reported citing American officials
The Biden administration does not oppose Israel's response to Iran retaliatory attacks but emphasizes the need for a cautious approach, according to Axios.
A US official stated that trust in Israelis is currently very low for a valid reason.
The Biden administration has been caught off guard multiple times by Israeli military or intelligence operations.
There have been instances where Washington was not consulted or informed shortly before operations were carried out, US officials told Axios.
US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin expressed anger when Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant informed him of an operation to assassinate Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah just minutes before it occurred, viewing it as a breach of trust, according to the officials speaking with Axios.
The US officials added that it was communicated to Austin by Galant that orders had been received from Netanyahu not to notify Washington before the assassination of Nasrallah.
14:10 According to a tally by Hezbollah-affiliated news outlet Al-Mayadeen, the current Israeli strike on the Lebanese capital is the 26th such attack over the past 24 hours.
14:00 The Emirates airline has cancelled all its flights to and from Iran, Reuters reported.
13:55 The mayor of Kiryat Motzkin, located on Israel’s west coast, slightly to the north of Haifa, told Israeli media that barrages fired at that area were “unprecedented” in their number.
A first barrage of about 85 projectiles was followed by a second barrage of about 20, according to the Israeli media and statements from Israel’s military.
One woman has sustained slight shrapnel injuries, and some buildings have been damaged.
13:45 The Islamic Resistance in Iraq group claimed responsibility for what it said were five drone attacks against military targets in Israel. Israel’s military has on occasion reported intercepting UAVs heading towards the country from the east, according to The Guardian.
13:30 “An Israeli airstrike hits the Lebanese capital of Beirut”, Quds News Network said on X.
13:00 Hezbollah said it fired rockets at the city of Haifa in northern Israel.
The group said it launched a "large rocket salvo" at Haifa and its northern suburbs after the Israeli military said "85 projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanon into Israeli territory".
12:35 Deputy Secretary-General of Hezbollah Naim Qassem said in a speech commemorating one year of Hezbollah-Israel fighting that the group will not engage in any discussions before a ceasefire in Lebanon is achieved, but that the group supports political efforts towards a ceasefire.
Qassem added that despite “painful blows” to the group’s leadership, the group is still “strictly organized.”
The question of who will succeed Nasrallah remains undecided, with Qassem saying the group will choose a new leader soon but that it is a complex procedure.
Qassem stated that Hezbollah has so far prevented Israel’s intrusion into south Lebanon and that the Israeli army would “suffer great losses.”
Since announcing its ground incursion into Lebanon last week, Israel has set up at least two positions inside the Lebanese territory, in the border villages of Maroun Al-Ras and Yaroun.
Hezbollah has killed at least 10 Israeli soldiers in clashes on the border, while Israel claims it has killed 250 members of the group – a claim Hezbollah denies.
12:30 Fishermen in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon stayed ashore, an AFP journalist reported, after the Israeli military warned of strikes against militants along the coast.
Sidon's typically lively fish market was unusually quiet following the previous night's warning.
"The Lebanese army told us we weren't allowed to go out, and we are respecting that," said Mohammed Bidawi, a member of the fisherman's syndicate.
"If it continues like this, the market will close too," he added.
12:20 The Israeli army said it identified about 25 projectiles, usually meaning rockets, crossing from Lebanon into Israel just after 11:00 local time (09:00 BST).
Some of the projectiles were intercepted, while others fell in the Lower Galilee area, it added.
12:10 The European Union’s top diplomat Josep Borrell told the European Parliament that the situation in Lebanon is getting worse every day.
Noting that 20 per cent of the Lebanese population has now been displaced from their homes due to Israeli airstrikes and the orders of Israel’s military for Lebanese civilians to flee from the south of the country, Borrell said it was important to achieve a ceasefire.
He also warned that the Lebanese army remained a weak outfit that could not act as a counterweight to Hezbollah, cautioning that it is not in a position to ensure the territorial integrity of Lebanon.
Earlier, the Lebanese army issued a statement saying it was ready to defend Lebanon against “the increasing barbaric attacks by the Israeli enemy on various Lebanese regions.”
10:15 As Israel says it's expanding its ground operation in Lebanon, there are new figures on the impact of the conflict on the Lebanese people.
About 1.2 million have been displaced within the country since Israel stepped up airstrikes in September.
The Lebanese government says 179,500 people are in approved centres for displaced people, stressing that 773 of those 977 centres are at capacity.
In addition, more than 400,000 people have fled Lebanon into Syria, including 300,744 Syrian nationals and 100,203 Lebanese.
More than 1,400 people have died in Lebanon since intense Israeli attacks started three weeks ago, the country's Ministry of Public Health says.
10:00 Tehran has warned Israel that any attack on Iran’s infrastructure will be met with retaliation.
Reuters reported that Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, made the statement on Tuesday morning.
On Monday evening, Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported that Tehran’s military had prepared at least 10 scenarios for an expected Israeli attack.
It quoted a military source saying: “Iran’s response will not be necessarily reciprocation at the same level of the Israelis’ action, but it may be harsher and aim for different targets that would intensify the effectiveness of the response.”
09:50 The Israeli army announced it began a "limited, localised, targeted" ground operation against Hezbollah in the western part of south Lebanon.
The Israeli ground operation in southern Lebanon began on 30 September; until now, it had been focused on the eastern side of the border.
The Israeli army also said it was the first time a reserve Israeli army division has been used in combat operations in southern Lebanon.
09:40 Over 400,000 people in Lebanon have fled across the border to Syria to escape Israeli strikes, according to the Lebanese government.
More than three-quarters of those fleeing are from Syria, most of which sought sanctuary in Lebanon after fleeing the country's civil war, which began in 2011.
The rest are thought to be from Lebanon.
More than one million people across Lebanon have been displaced by the escalating fighting between Hezbollah and Israel, the government said.
9:30 Turkey is sending ships to evacuate around 2,000 of its citizens from Lebanon on Wednesday, the foreign ministry said.
Two Turkish navy ships will leave a port in the southern Turkish province of Mersin for Beirut on Tuesday, the ministry said in a statement.
9:25 "We face the very real danger of a further regional escalation of conflict," the director of the CIA, the American foreign intelligence service, said at a conference in the US state of Georgia on Monday.
William J. Burns said the CIA did not assess that either Israel or Iran were looking for an all-out conflict, but there remained a risk.
The risks, he added, came from misjudgments by leaders or events like a military strike that was designed to be precise leading to unexpected casualties.
He said Israel had done "enormous damage" to Hezbollah.
Burns has been involved in negotiations over a ceasefire and captives' release in Gaza. He said a deal had sometimes been close but had remained "very elusive."
There is currently an "extremely risky environment" dominated by military action. When asked if he expected a deal in the coming months, Burns said: “I’ve learnt not to get my hopes up.”
09:20 Hezbollah said it fired more rockets into northern Israel overnight.
The group said it targeted Israeli artillery positions in Dishon and Dalton in northern Israel "with a rocket barrage."
It added that it fired rockets at a "gathering of enemy forces" in Yir'on, another settlement in Israel's north, near the Lebanese border.
Earlier in the night, Hezbollah targeted Israeli settlements further west, the group said on its English-language Telegram channel.
On Monday, Hezbollah said it targeted an Israeli army base near Tel Aviv, with damage reported in central Israel. In total, Israel says Hezbollah fired about 190 rockets into its territory on Monday.
09:15 Lebanese state media said new strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs overnight.
An AFP correspondent saw smoke rise from the suburbs, and the Lebanese National News Agency reported that the area was “the target of two raids.”
Israel launched an intense wave of air raids on southern Lebanon on Monday, with 100 aircraft targeting about 120 sites in the space of an hour, according to the Israeli military.
The Israeli army's Arabic spokesperson issued an urgent warning to Lebanese civilians to avoid being on the beach or boats on the coast from the Awali River southward until further notice.
On Monday evening, sirens sounded in central Israel after several projectile launches were identified crossing from Lebanon. The Israeli military said some projectiles were intercepted, while the rest fell in open areas.
09:10 Israel's army said it killed a Hezbollah commander in a strike late Monday in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
The Israeli army claimed Suhail Hussein Husseini played a "crucial" role in transporting weapons between Iran and Hezbollah. However, there was no confirmation of his death from Hezbollah.
There were more explosions last night in Lebanon's capital, with Lebanese media reporting at least 10 airstrikes in Dahieh — the southern suburb of Beirut considered a Hezbollah stronghold.
In northern Israel, rocket warning sirens continued overnight, and several more towns were declared closed military zones.
Hezbollah said earlier it had targeted the outskirts of Tel Aviv with rockets, and Israel said Hezbollah had fired 190 projectiles by late on Monday.
17:40 Sirens blared in multiple locations across northern Israel, including Margaliot, Akka, Haifa, and Shatula.
This follows a recent statement from Hezbollah, which claimed to have targeted an Israeli military gathering east of the town of Markaba with a rocket barrage.
17:30 Hezbollah's military media wing has shared a video stating that their fighting capabilities remained strong.
The short video closed with the statement "Our capabilities are fine a thousand times."
The video showed men in military overalls operating rockets and missiles as well as documenting Hezbollah's vast arsenal of munitions.
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