Summary of the day
An Israeli airstrike in the southern suburbs of Beirut on Friday killed at least 14 people and injured 66 others, in what the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said was a targeted assassination of a senior Hezbollah leader.
Here’s a recap of the latest developments:
At least 14 people were killed and 66 injured as a result of the Israeli strike in Beirut, according to Lebanese authorities. It was the third time that the Lebanese capital has been hit by an Israeli airstrike since fighting between Hezbollah and Israel started in October last year.
The Israeli military said the strike killed Ibrahim Aqil, one of the last founder members of Hezbollah’s military wing to have survived more than 40 years of conflict with Israel. Israel said Aqil, the leader of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan special forces, was killed along with 10 other senior commanders of the unit.
Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, said Israel’s attacks would continue after the Beirut strike. “The sequence of actions in the new phase will continue until our goal is achieved: the safe return of the residents of the north to their homes,” Gallant posted on X.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has postponed his trip to the US by a day due to the security situation in the country’s north. Netanyahu was due to travel to New York on 24 September, during which he is expected to address the annual UN general assembly. He issued a short statement after the Beirut airstrike, saying: “Our goals are clear, and our actions speak for themselves.”
Friday’s strike was the latest in a series of attacks that rocked Lebanon this week. Earlier this week, at least 42 people were killed and more than 3,000 people wounded in a two-stage operation that made thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies commonly carried by Hezbollah members explode simultaneously.
On Thursday night, Israel launched the most intense series of airstrikes in southern Lebanon since October. Israeli warplanes carried out dozens of strikes on border villages across the south, marking what the Israeli defence minister, Yoav Gallant, said was the beginning of a new phase in the war.
The UN’s high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, denounced the pager and walkie-talkie attacks in Lebanon, saying that they violated international law and could constitute a war crime. The UN’s political affairs chief, Rosemary DiCarlo, warned that if violence continues between Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah, then “we risk seeing a conflagration that could dwarf even the devastation and suffering witnessed so far.”
The UK’s foreign secretary, David Lammy, discussed preparations to evacuate remaining Britons from Lebanon, having already urged UK nationals to leave the country given the hostilities with Israel. The White House said Americans were strongly urged not to travel to Lebanon or to leave if they are already there.
Downing Street fears it is to be asked to support the issue of an international criminal court (ICC) arrest warrant for the Israeli leader, Benjamin Netanyahu. Israel submitted on Friday formal challenges to the ICC over its jurisdiction and the legality of arrest warrant requests against Israeli leaders for their conduct of the Gaza war. In the short term, No 10 is said to be most concerned by the explosive political fallout if the ICC issues an arrest warrant for Netanyahu.
The US president, Joe Biden, said a ceasefire deal in Gaza is still realistic amid the escalating tensions in the region. “We’re going to keep at it until we get it done, but we’ve got a way to go,” Biden said in his first comments on the situation since the wave of explosions targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The White House said it has seen “deeply disturbing” footage of Israeli soldiers pushing three apparently lifeless bodies from a rooftop during a raid in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, the latest in a series of suspected violations by Israeli forces since the start of the Israel-Hamas war that rights groups say show a pattern of excessive force toward Palestinians.
The UN’s human rights office in the occupied Palestinian territory has condemned footage showing what appeared to be bodies of Palestinians pushed by Israeli troops from a rooftop during a raid in the occupied West Bank on Thursday.
Posting to X, it said:
Unnecessary or disrespectful treatment of human remains is not consistent with the protection of the basic human dignity of the dead and could amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of the deceased men’s families.
We condemn the desecration of the bodies of Palestinians by Israeli security forces yesterday, 19 Sept, in Qabatiya, Jenin. Videos show bodies being kicked and thrown off the roof for bulldozers to take them away. Unnecessary or disrespectful treatment of human remains is not…
— UN Human Rights Palestine (@OHCHR_Palestine) September 20, 2024
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The US representative to the UN, at an emergency meeting of the UN’s security council, said Washington believes a broader conflict in the Middle East is “neither desirable nor inevitable”.
The US played no role in the latest incidents following the wave of explosions in Lebanon this week, he said.
He emphasised it was “imperative” that all parties “refrain from any actions which could plunge the region into a devastating war.”
We expect all parties will comply with international humanitarian law and take all reasonable steps to minimise harm to civilians, especially those in densely populated areas.
The US continues to believe that a diplomatic resolution is the only way to create the conditions for displaced Lebanese and Israeli civilians to return to their homes safely, he added.
The United States will continue to do everything possible to support deescalation and enduring diplomatic solution.
The UN’s political affairs chief, Rosemary DiCarlo, warned that if violence continues between Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah, then “we risk seeing a conflagration that could dwarf even the devastation and suffering witnessed so far.”
Volker Türk, the UN’s high commissioner for human rights, also speaking at the UN’s security council emergency meeting on Friday, said:
International humanitarian law prohibits the use of booby-trap devices in the form of apparently harmless portable objects.
He said it was “difficult to conceive how, in these circumstances, such attacks could possibly conform with the key principles of distinction, proportionality, and precautions in attack, under international humanitarian law.”
It “is a war crime to commit violence intended to spread terror among civilians,” he added.
Here are some of the latest images from the newswires from Beirut, where the latest death toll from an Israeli airstrike on Friday has reached 14.
Iran’s foreign ministry has condemned the Israeli airstrike on Beirut on Friday.
A statement by the Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanani, reported by AFP, reads:
The brutal and vicious air strike of the Zionist regime on Beirut... is a gross violation of international law and regulations, as well as the violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and national security.
UN security council holds emergency meeting over Lebanon blasts
The UN security council has begun its emergency meeting over the wave of explosions targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon this week.
The meeting was requested by Algeria on behalf of Arab states, and comes after the latest Israeli airstrike on Beirut earlier today that killed at least 14 people and wounded dozens.
Friday’s strike was the latest in a series of attacks that rocked Lebanon this week, after a two-stage operation blamed on Israel left more than 3,000 people wounded and at least 42 dead.
Updated
Death toll in Israeli strike on Beirut rises to 14
Lebanon’s health ministry said 14 people are confirmed dead after an Israeli strike on Beirut on Friday.
Rescue teams continue to search for people under the rubble, it said.
The US secretary of defense, Lloyd Austin, and his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant held a call on Friday, the Pentagon said.
According to a readout of the call, Austin “reiterated his concern over the current escalation of exchanges” between Israel and Hezbollah.
Austin also “strongly reemphasized the importance of reaching a diplomatic resolution that enables residents to return safely to their homes on both sides of the border,” it said.
The US secretary also “urged continued efforts to reach a ceasefire deal in Gaza that would bring home all hostages held by Hamas.” The statement continued:
Secretary Austin reaffirmed the United States’ unwavering, enduring, and ironclad commitment to Israel’s security.
Israeli drones have been operating over the Achrafieh district in east Beirut, Lebanon, according to the BBC’s Nafiseh Kohnavard.
Achrafieh is considered as a mostly Christian populated area and “not a target” for Israel, she writes, noting that Israeli jets have also been flying over the area.
Israeli Drones over Achrafieh, Beirut
— Nafiseh Kohnavard (@nafisehkBBC) September 20, 2024
Achrafieh is considered as a mostly Christian populated area and “not a target” for Israel but we has Israeli jets over it in the morning a few hours before attack on Dahieh and now drones
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has issued a short statement following the Israeli airstrike on Beirut on Friday that it said was a targeted assassination of a senior Hezbollah leader.
Posting to X, Netanyahu said:
Our goals are clear, and our actions speak for themselves.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu:
— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) September 20, 2024
Our goals are clear, and our actions speak for themselves.
Footage of Israeli soldiers pushing bodies of Palestinians off roof 'deeply disturbing', says White House
The White House said it has seen “deeply disturbing” footage of Israeli soldiers pushing three apparently lifeless bodies from a rooftop during a raid in the occupied West Bank on Thursday.
The White House’s national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters that it had demanded an explanation from Israel. Kirby said:
We’ve seen that video, and we found it deeply disturbing. If it’s proven to be authentic, it clearly would depict abhorrent and egregious behavior by professional soldiers.
In the footage, three soldiers can be seen picking up what appears to be a stiff body and dragging it towards the edge of a roof as troops stand on the ground below. The soldiers on the roof peer over the edge before heaving the body off.
On an adjacent rooftop, the soldiers hold another apparently lifeless body by its limbs and swing it over the edge. In a third instance, a soldier kicks a body toward the edge before it falls from view.
The incident took place in the town of Qabatiya in the northern West Bank, where the Israeli military has been carrying out large-scale raids since late August that the Palestinian health ministry says have killed dozens of people.
The UN said it was “very concerned” after Israeli airstrikes hit the Lebanese capital Beirut on Friday, killing at least 12 people and wounding dozens.
A statement from Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN secretary general, António Guterres, reads:
We are, of course, very concerned about the heightened escalation... including the deadly strikes we saw in Beirut today. We urge all parties to deescalate immediately. All must exercise maximum restraint.
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Who is Ibrahim Aqil, the top Hezbollah commmander reportedly targeted in the Israeli strike?
Ibrahim Aqil, who is reported to have been killed by an airstrike in Beirut on Friday, was one of the last founder members of Hezbollah’s military wing to have survived more than 40 years of conflict with Israel.
Aqil, who was in his early sixties, had risen through the ranks and eventually reached a senior position in the organisation. Exact details of his role are unclear, but the Israel Defense Forces described him as “the head of the Hezbollah terrorist organization’s operations team, the acting commander of the Radwan [special forces] unit”.
The US had accused Aqil, as well as Imad Mugniyeh, of being involved in the bombings of the US embassy in Beirut in April 1983, which killed 63 people, and the US Marine Corps barracks in October 1983, which killed 241 US personnel. A French barracks was also bombed at that time, killing 58 people.
A US justice department notice describes him as “ a principal member of Hizballah’s terrorist cell the Islamic Jihad Organization”, which claimed responsibility for the two 1983 bombings in Beirut. The notice also says Aqil directed the taking of US and German hostages in Lebanon and held them there, also in the 1980s.
Read the full profile here: Ibrahim Aqil: a founder member of Hezbollah’s military wing
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Hamas has issued a statement condemning the “brutal” Israeli strike on Beirut on Friday that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) was a targeted assassination of senior Hezbollah leader Ibrahim Aqil.
A statement by Hamas said it “condemns the brutal and terrorist aggression” by Israel, adding that Friday’s attack is “an escalation” of Israel’s “crimes” in Lebanon.
Israel to continue in 'new phase' of war against Hezbollah until 'goal is achieved', says defence minister
Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, said in a statement posted to X that Israel will continue its “sequences of actions in the new phase” of its conflict with Hezbollah until its “goal is achieved” when Israelis displaced by the fighting are able to return to their homes.
Gallant said he had completed a situation assessment with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) chief of staff and senior officials after the assassination of top Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil in Lebanon.
“Even in Dahiyeh in Beirut – we will continue to pursue our enemy in order to protect our citizens,” he wrote, adding:
The sequence of actions in the new phase will continue until our goal is achieved: the safe return of the residents of the north to their homes.
Updated
White House urges US citizens to leave Lebanon
The White House said US citizens were strongly urged not to travel to Lebanon or to leave if they are already there.
White House national security spokesperson John Kirby, speaking to reporters on Friday, said he could not comment on the latest strikes but reiterated that the Biden administration is seeking to avoid an escalation in the region.
As we reported earlier, the White House has repeatedly said that the US had no involvement in the strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon this week.
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Israel says 10 senior Hezbollah commanders killed alongside Aqil
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson said about 10 senior Hezbollah commanders were killed along with Ibrahim Aqil in an Israeli airstrike in southern Beirut on Friday.
Rear Adm Daniel Hagari, at a press conference, said Aqil and other senior members of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan special forces unit were gathered underground when they were targeted and killed.
According to the Times of Israel, Hagari said the individuals targeted in the Israeli strike were “the commanders who drew up and led the Hezbollah terror group’s plan, to be carried out on the day the order was given, to attack into the northern territory of the State of Israel.”
The IDF spokesperson claimed that as part of this invasion, Hezbollah “intended to raid Israeli territory, occupy the communities of the Galilee, and murder and kidnap Israeli citizens — similar to what Hamas did on October 7.”
Updated
Here are some of the latest images from the newswires from Beirut, where authorities say 12 people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Lebanese capital.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has postponed his trip to the US by a day due to the security situation in the country’s north, according to reports.
Netanyahu was due to travel to New York on 24 September, during which he is expected to address the annual UN general assembly.
He will now travel on 25 September, according to reports, and will return to Israel on 28 September.
Death toll rises to 12 in Beirut strike
Israel carried out an airstrike in the southern suburbs of Beirut on Friday which killed at least 12 people and wounded 66, in what it said was a targeted assassination attempt on a top Hezbollah leader.
Joe Biden said “we have to keep at it” when asked whether reaching a ceasefire deal in Gaza was still realistic amid escalating tensions in the region.
In his first comments on the situation since the wave of explosions targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon, the US president told reporters:
We have to make sure that the people of northern Israel as well as southern Lebanon are able to get back to their homes, and get back safely.
Biden added:
The secretary of state, the secretary of defense, our whole team are working with the intelligence community to try to get that done. We’re going to keep at it until we get it done, but we’ve got a way to go.
Updated
IDF confirms death of Hezbollah commander in Israeli airstrike on Beirut
The Israel Defense Forces has confirmed the death of top Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut.
In a statement on X, IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said:
With the precise intelligence direction of the Intelligence Division, air force fighter jets targeted the Beirut area and killed Ibrahim Aqil, the head of the Hezbollah terrorist organization’s operations team, the acting commander of the Radwan [special forces] unit.
In the attack, together with Akil, the top operatives and the chain of command of the Radwan unit were eliminated.”
בהכוונה מודיעינית מדוייקת של אגף המודיעין, מטוסי קרב של חיל האוויר תקפו באופן ממוקד במרחב ביירות וחיסלו את איברהים עקיל, ראש מערך המבצעים של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה, מפקדה בפועל של יחידת רדואן ומפקד "התוכנית לכיבוש הגליל".
— דובר צה״ל דניאל הגרי - Daniel Hagari (@IDFSpokesperson) September 20, 2024
בתקיפה חוסלו יחד עם עקיל צמרת מערך המבצעים ושרשרת הפיקוד של…
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Iran's embassy in Lebanon condemns 'Israeli madness and arrogance'
Iran’s embassy in Lebanon has condemned Israel’s recent attacks on Beirut.
In a post on X, the Iranian embassy wrote:
In the strongest terms the Israeli madness and arrogance that crossed all limits by targeting residential areas in the southern suburbs of Beirut …
We reaffirm once again that such terrorist crimes will not undermine the determination and faith of the Lebanese. Our sincere condolences to the families of the martyrs and our wishes for a speedy recovery for the wounded.”
ندين بأشد العبارات الجنون الإسرائيلي والصلف الذي تجاوز كل الحدود باستهداف المناطق السكنية في الضاحية الجنوبية لبيروت، ما أسفر عن استشهاد وجرح العشرات، بينهم أطفال ونساء. نؤكد مجددًا أن مثل هذه الجرائم الإرهابية لن تنال من عزيمة وإيمان اللبنانيين. خالص العزاء لأهالي الشهداء،…
— السفارة الإيرانية- لبنان (@IranEmbassyLB) September 20, 2024
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An Israeli airstrike in Rafah has killed at least 13 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s media office, Reuters reports.
Speaking with reporters, US national security council spokesman John Kirby once again said that the US had no involvement in this week’s strikes against Hezbollah using booby-trapped electronics and that US intelligence was not involved in providing any targeting or other advice to the Israeli government.
Kirby said that he is not aware of any advance warning from Israel that it planned to carry out Friday’s strike, saying: “That is not atypical.”
However, he declined to answer questions about who was targeted in the strike, and pushed back against questions of whether the Biden administration had exhausted its ability to restrain Israel regarding the conflict in Gaza and the escalation of tensions with Hezbollah.
“We still believe that there is time and space for a diplomatic solution,” he said. “We think that that is the best way forward. War is not inevitable up there at the blue line, and we’re going to continue to do everything we can to try to prevent it.”
Updated
Top Hezbollah commander killed in Israeli airstrikes – report
Top Hezbollah leader Ibrahim Aqil was killed in an Israeli airstrike in southern Beirut on Friday, Reuters reports, citing two security sources.
According to one of the sources, Aqil was killed alongside members of the Hezbollah elite Radwan unit while they were holding a meeting.
The US justice department had designated Aqil as a global terrorist for his alleged role in the 1983 US embassy bombings in Beirut which killed 63 people, as well as the US Marine barracks attacks that year that killed 241 US personnel.
Known also as Tahsin, Aqil allegedly also directed the taking of American and German hostages in Lebanon and held them there in the 1980s, according to the US justice department.
Updated
Eight people killed and nearly 60 wounded in Beirut strike
Eight were killed and 59 wounded in Israel’s airstrike on southern Beirut, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said on Friday afternoon.
Updated
The US justice department is offering $7m on information surrounding top Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil.
On its Rewards for Justice website, the US justice department describes Aqil as:
Ibrahim Aqil, also known as Tahsin, serves on Hizballah’s highest military body, the Jihad Council.
During the 1980s, Aqil was a principal member of Islamic Jihad Organization—Hizballah’s terrorist cell—that claimed the bombings of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut in April 1983, which killed 63 people, and the U.S. Marine barracks in October 1983, which killed 241 U.S. personnel.
In the 1980s, Aqil directed the taking of American and German hostages in Lebanon and held them there.
Updated
A Hezbollah source said that “the search was still under way” when asked if Ibrahim Aqil, a top Hezbollah commander wanted by the US for his alleged role in the 1983 US embassy bombings, was the killed in the Israeli strike.
Updated
Five children killed in Beirut strike – report
William Christou in Beirut has the following report:
Israeli jets carried out a strike on southern Beirut on Friday afternoon in what the Israeli military called a “targeted airstrike” in an announcement.
Four rockets targeted the building in Dahieh, Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reported. Ambulances transported those injured from the scene as Lebanon’s civil defence urged citizens to stay home to keep roads clear for emergency workers.
NNA reports that at least five children have been killed in the strike, with more casualties expected as paramedics arrived at the scene. The attack occurred at rush hour, a little before 4pm.
Videos of the strike showed rubble and burned-out cars strewn across a busy street, as people surrounded a building with smoke billowing out of it. The strike targeted a building near the al-Qaem mosque in the Haret Hreik neighbourhood of south Beirut, a residential area.
Reuters, quoting a Lebanese security source, said that the strike was near a Hezbollah facility.
An Israeli army spokesperson issued a statement, saying it “conducted a precision strike in the Beirut area”, adding that there had been “no change in the home front command’s instructions”.
The strike is the third time Beirut has been hit by an Israeli airstrike since fighting between Hezbollah and Israel started on 8 October after the former launched rockets “in solidarity” with Hamas’s attack the day prior.
It comes two days after a wide-ranging attack targeting walkie-talkies and pagers that injured more than 3,000 and left at least 42 dead. Hezbollah and Lebanon have accused Israel of being behind the attack, but Israel has not commented on the operation.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images on the newswires:
Israeli military says it carried out a 'targeted strike' in Beirut
The Israeli military said it carried out a “targeted strike” in the Lebanese capital Beirut on Friday, according to Reuters.
“The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) conducted a targeted strike in Beirut. At this moment, there are no changes in the home front command defensive guidelines,” the military said, providing no further details.
Updated
Israel submits challenges to ICC on Gaza arrest warrant requests
Israel submitted on Friday formal challenges to the international criminal court (ICC) over its jurisdiction and the legality of arrest warrant requests against Israeli leaders for their conduct of the Gaza war, the foreign ministry said.
Reuters reports that Israel’s filings might further delay a decision on the warrants, requested in May against Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Yoav Gallant.
ICC prosecutor Karim Khan last month urged judges to rule on the warrants, sought also against Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and others in the Palestinian militant group.
The Israeli foreign ministry said that its first legal brief outlined the ICC’s “manifest lack of jurisdiction” in the case. The second paper, it said, argues that the ICC prosecutor breached court rules by “failing to provide Israel with the opportunity to exercise its right to investigate by itself the claims raised by the prosecutor, before proceeding.”
The office of the prosecutor could not immediately be reached by Reuters for comment.
In August, Khan said the court has jurisdiction over any war crimes in occupied Palestinian territories and that rules saying the ICC cannot step in if a country is doing its own genuine investigation do not apply for the warrants sought for Netanyahu and Gallant.
David Lammy is scrutinising contingency plans for evacuating remaining Britons from Lebanon, having already urged UK nationals to leave the country amid hostilities with Israel.
The UK foreign secretary will lead meetings in Whitehall on Friday as officials try to avoid a repeat of the chaos in which British people scrambled to leave Afghanistan when the Taliban took over in 2021.
Lammy expressed concern about “rising tensions and civilian casualties” in Lebanon after Israel carried out airstrikes on Hezbollah targets in the south of the country on Thursday.
He repeated the Foreign Office’s warning to British nationals, urging them to leave Lebanon “while commercial options remain” as the situation “could deteriorate rapidly”.
⚠️ The FCDO continues to advise British nationals in Lebanon to leave.
— Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (@FCDOGovUK) September 20, 2024
🚨 We advise against all travel to Lebanon.https://t.co/MFdJDxEvuZ pic.twitter.com/loJ7jv5x90
Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has vowed to retaliate after the attacks that targeted Lebanese militants with exploding pagers, killing and injuring many people.
On Thursday evening, Lammy said he had spoken to the Lebanese prime minister, Najib Mikati, and “expressed my deep concern over rising tensions and civilian casualties in Lebanon”.
He said that they had discussed “the need for a negotiated solution to restore stability and security” across the border between Israel and Lebanon.
You can read the full piece here:
Updated
There are conflicting reports on the exact number of rockets fired from Lebanon.
The Associated Press (AP) reported that it was 140 rockets, citing the Israeli military and Hezbollah (see 12.47pm BST). However, the Israeli public broadcaster Kan said on Friday that about 150 rockets were fired from Lebanon across the border.
Israeli ambulance service said there were no immediate reports of casualties.
Hezbollah hits northern Israel with more than 100 rockets, says militant group and IDF
Hezbollah pounded northern Israel with 140 rockets today, the Israeli military and the militant group said, the Associated Press reported.
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Reuters, citing two security sources, reports that Hezbollah was still handing its members new Gold Apollo branded pagers hours before thousands blew up this week.
25 organisations have sent a joint letter to the UK government calling on it to suspend its trade agreement with Israel and ongoing negotiations around a deeper free trade agreement, pending the outcome of a review.
Sacha Deshmukh, chief executive of Amnesty International UK, said “the UK’s ‘business as usual’ approach to trade relations with Israel has emboldened Israel to repeatedly cross legal and ethical boundaries in its illegal occupation of Palestinian land, its system of apartheid, and its war crimes and possible genocide in Gaza.”
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Israel’s foreign ministry has shared footage of “northern Israel right now following intensive Hezbollah rocket fire from Lebanon towards Israel.”
“Make no mistake: those who harm the people of Israel will pay the price,” it said.
This is northern Israel right now following intensive Hezbollah rocket fire from Lebanon towards Israel.
— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) September 20, 2024
Make no mistake: those who harm the people of Israel will pay the price. pic.twitter.com/dtXqXlL4Ub
The batteries of the walkie-talkies used by Lebanese armed group Hezbollah that blew up this week were laced with a highly explosive compound known as PETN, a Lebanese source familiar with the device’s components told Reuters.
The way the explosive material was integrated into the battery pack made it extremely difficult to detect, the source said.
Hundreds of walkie-talkies used by the group exploded on Wednesday, a day after thousands of Hezbollah’s pagers detonated across the group’s strongholds in Lebanon.
Pictures of the walkie-talkies that had exploded showed labels reading “ICOM” and “made in Japan”. Icom has said it halted production a decade ago of the radio models identified in the attack, and that most of those still on sale were counterfeit, reports Reuters.
Yoshiki Enomoto, the general manager of Icom’s security and trade division, told Reuters it was possible that an older Icom device had been modified to make a bomb.
It would be difficult to insert an explosive device into the main compartment of the walkie-talkie because its electronics are tightly packed, so it was more likely to have been in the detachable battery pack, Enomoto told the Japanese broadcaster Fuji TV.
The Lebanese source told Reuters that the explosions had occurred even in cases where the battery pack was separated from the rest of the device.
A Lebanese security source had earlier told Reuters that the pagers had been implanted with explosives that were difficult to detect.
Another security source told Reuters that up to three grams (0.11 ounce) of explosives had been hidden in the new pagers, apparently months before the blasts.
Iraq militant killed in Syria strike blamed on Israel
A militant from Iraq’s Hezbollah Brigades armed group was killed Friday in a strike targeting pro-Iran factions in Syria, a group member said, blaming Israel for the attack.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said a Hezbollah Brigades member was killed, but was unable to verify the strike itself, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The UK-based monitor, which relies on a network of sources on the ground in Syria, said the member’s burned-out vehicle was found about 10 kilometres (six miles) from Damascus airport.
AFP reports that the Hezbollah Brigades member said the Israeli raid hit one of the group’s premises, killing Abu Haidar al-Khafaji, a senior member of the group. Another member was reportedly injured in the attack.
The Observatory said the strike occurred about five kilometres from Sayeda Zeinab, on the outskirts of the Syrian capital.
Its director, Rami Abdel Rahman, said a militant was killed but yet to be identified, and the burnt vehicle was found at dawn near the targeted site.
Footage of an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank showed a soldier pushing an apparently dead man off a rooftop, in what the army described on Friday as a “serious incident”, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
AFPTV footage of the operation in the town of Qabatiyah, near Jenin, on Thursday showed an Israeli soldier using his foot to roll the body towards the edge of the roof and then pushing him over, while at least two other soldiers looked on.
Qabatiyah is located in the northern West Bank, where the military has been carrying out large-scale raids since late August that the Palestinian health ministry say has left dozens dead.
The military said in a statement on Friday that four militants were killed “in an exchange of fire” in Qabatiyah, while three were killed in an airstrike on a vehicle.
According to AFP, when asked about the footage showing a soldier pushing a body off a rooftop, the military said the action conflicted with its values.
“This is a serious incident that does not coincide with (Israel Defense Forces) values and the expectations from IDF soldiers. The incident is under review,” it said.
The military said that one of those killed in Qabatiyah was Shadi Zakarneh, who it identified as “responsible for directing and carrying out attacks in the northern West Bank area”. It said he was “the head of the terrorist organisation” in Qabatiyah but did not specify which group he belonged to.
IRC warn that escalating violence in West Bank threatens to collapse health system
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) have warned that escalating violence in the West Bank threatens to collapse the health system.
According to the statement, IRC’s partners are surging medical supplies to the impacted hospitals, but some have been forced to halt their work.
Bart Witteveen, IRC’s country director for the occupied Palestinian territory, said:
Rising violence is undermining the health system in the West Bank, as hospitals are not prepared to handle mass casualty incidents, nor withstand continued attacks on facilities and personnel …
Recently, IRC and its partners launched a programme to enhance emergency preparedness for health services in the West Bank, focusing on Tulkarm and Hebron, some of the areas worst hit by violence in the last year.
We are working to prepare hospitals and communities by surging necessary supplies and training staff personnel to handle increased demand for life-saving services during emergencies via new trauma care protocols as well as first aid training for community volunteers.
Our ultimate goal is to work with our Palestinian partners to strengthen the health system’s capacity and maintain critical health services during crises, saving as many lives as possible.”
The IRC says in its statement:
The fighting is taking place close to hospitals and is obstructing ambulances – which restricts Palestinians’ access to urgent medical care.
The UN reports that in both Tulkarm and Jenin, Israeli Forces surrounded hospitals and obstructed access to patients. The WHO has reported that such attacks on healthcare have increased throughout 2024.”
It also highlights, in its statement, that the West Bank is facing the worst violence since the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) records began in 2005.
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Bulgarian firm not linked to deadly devices sent to Hezbollah, says government
Bulgarian authorities said on Friday a company based in Sofia had nothing to do with the delivery of exploding communications devices to Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Hundreds of pagers and walkie-talkies detonated across Lebanon on Tuesday and Wednesday, killing at least 37 people, injuring nearly 3,000 and generating panic.
Hezbollah and several international media organisations have blamed Israel for sabotaging the electronic devices. Israel has not made any public comment.
“Following verifications, it has been indisputably established that no communication equipment corresponding to those that exploded on 17 September was imported, exported or manufactured in Bulgaria,” the National Security Agency (SANS) said.
The SANS said on Thursday it had launched an investigation after Hungarian website Telex said Norta Global – a company registered in Sofia by a Norwegian, had imported the devices and then delivered them to Hezbollah.
According to the AFP, On Friday the SANS said the company and its owner had “not carried out any transactions linked to the sale or purchase of the merchandise” or that “fall under laws on terrorism financing”.
Norta Global, which was founded in April 2022 by Rinson Jose, last year declared revenue of €650,000 ($725,000) for consulting activities outside the EU, reports the AFP.
Top officials in Taiwan have insisted the communications devices, which carried the brand name of local company Gold Apollo, were not from there (see 6.59am BST).
Gold Apollo head Hsu Ching-kuang instead pointed the finger at Hungary-based partner BAC Consulting KFT, which Gold Apollo had allowed to use its trademark.
But a Hungarian government spokesperson said BAC Consulting KFT was “a trading intermediary, with no manufacturing or operational site in Hungary”.
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In a new challenge to Palestinians displaced in the Al-Mawasi area in southern Gaza, many were concerned about the danger of high waves, reports Reuters. Some tents put up close to the beach flooded last week.
“Enough, enough, enough. We were pushed by the occupation [Israel] to the sea, where we believed it was safe, last week the sea flooded and washed away some tents, and that could happen again, where would we go?” Shaban, 47, an electrical engineer displaced from Gaza City, told Reuters.
Israeli forces killed at least 14 Palestinians in tank and airstrikes across Gaza on Friday, say medics
Israeli forces killed at least 14 Palestinians in tank and airstrikes on north and central areas of the Gaza Strip on Friday, medics said, as tanks advanced further into northwest Rafah near the border with Egypt.
The unrelenting fighting between the Israelis and Hamas militants in the territory carried on even as a parallel conflict in the Lebanon-Israel border area involving Hamas’s allies Hezbollah intensified, reports Reuters.
Meanwhile, according to reporting by Reuters, some Palestinians displaced by the Israeli assault on Gaza said they feared their temporary beachside camp would be inundated by high waves.
Palestinian health officials said shelling by Israeli tanks killed eight people and injured several others in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central area of Gaza, and six others were killed in an airstrike on a house in Gaza City.
In the northern town of Beit Hanoun, an Israeli strike on a car killed and injured several Palestinians, medics said. Reuters reports that it was not clear how many of the casualties were combatants and how many were civilians.
In the southern city of Rafah, where the Israeli army has been operating since May, tanks advanced further to the north-west area backed by aircraft, residents said.
They also reported heavy fire and explosions echoing in the eastern areas of the city, where Israeli forces blew up several houses, according to residents and Hamas media.
“Our fighters are engaged in fierce gunbattles against Israeli fores, who advanced into Tanour neighbourhood in Rafah,” Hamas armed wing said in a statement, according to Reuters.
The Israeli military has said that forces operating in Rafah had in past weeks killed hundreds of Palestinian militants, located tunnels and explosives and destroyed military infrastructure.
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US secretary of state Antony Blinken has shared an update on talks on the Middle East hosted by France that he attended on Thursday.
Blinken wrote on X:
Productive meeting with officials from Italy, Germany, France, and the UK. We discussed the importance of achieving a ceasefire in Gaza, sustained support for Ukraine, and decisive action on Iran. We’re united in our commitment to these critical issues.”
Productive meeting with officials from Italy, Germany, France, and the UK. We discussed the importance of achieving a ceasefire in Gaza, sustained support for Ukraine, and decisive action on Iran. We’re united in our commitment to these critical issues. pic.twitter.com/hG6IGxrE2O
— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) September 20, 2024
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No 10 fears ICC will ask UK to sign Benjamin Netanyahu arrest warrant
Downing Street fears it is to be asked to support the issue of an international criminal court (ICC) arrest warrant for the Israeli leader, Benjamin Netanyahu.
Such support would have to be given at a time when it has not proscribed Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in the UK. There are concerns among some Foreign Office officials whether the position is politically sustainable.
No 10 is said to have been on alert for more than a week about an imminent statement from the ICC that its pre-trial chamber judges have accepted the request of the ICC prosecutor, Karim Khan, to issue arrest warrants for war crimes committed in Gaza.
The request for arrest warrants was issued on 20 May against Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, the defence minister, as well as three Hamas leaders, including Yawar Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh, the now-deceased head of the Hamas political bureau.
In the short term, No 10 is said to be most concerned by the explosive political fallout if the ICC issues an arrest warrant for Netanyahu, especially at such a moment of extreme tension in the Middle East.
Khan told the ICC pre-trial chamber the issue of the arrest warrant was of the utmost urgency nearly a month ago. The chamber of judges has taken much longer to reach a decision than the three weeks it required to accept Khan’s request for an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin, the Russian leader, over his role in orchestrating the abduction of children from Ukraine.
You can read more on this story here:
A pro-Palestinian protester wearing a keffiyeh scarf has been charged with violating a suburban New York City county’s new law banning face masks in public, reviving fears from opponents that the statute is being used to diminish free speech rights, reports the Associated Press (AP).
Police said the 26-year-old North Bellmore resident was arrested on Sunday afternoon during a protest in front of Young Israel of Lawrence-Cedarhurst, an orthodox synagogue near the New York City borough of Queens.
According to the AP, Nassau County police department spokesperson Scott Skrynecki said Thursday that officers questioned the man because he had been concealing his face with a keffiyeh, which has become a symbol of support for Palestinian people.
Police on the scene asked him if he was wearing the garment for medical or religious purposes, which are the two major exceptions to the new ban, according to Skrynecki. When the man confirmed he was wearing it in solidarity with Palestinians and not for either of those reasons, he was placed under arrest, Skrynecki said. He was released with a notice to appear in court on 2 October.
The AP reports that videos showing some of the arrest have been shared on social media. They show the man wearing the keffiyeh around his neck as he is led away by officers in handcuffs and continues to lead others in pro-Palestinian chants.
The man did not respond to the AP’s calls and social media messages seeking comment Thursday.
Rachel Hu, a spokesperson for ANSWER Coalition, which organised a rally this week against the arrest, said the man is now seeking legal counsel and will not be commenting on the case until then.
She added that organisers believe the man was targeted as one of the leaders of Pro-Palestinian protest movements on Long Island.
“We feel that this arrest (and this ban overall) was aimed at intimidating known activists to discourage us from using our first amendment right to protest,” Hu wrote in an email.
The New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations denounced the arrest as proof that the local law was being used as a “silencing tactic” against Palestinian supporters.
“Barring other criminal misconduct, wearing a keffiyeh or a mask does not make you suspicious,” Lamya Agarwala, supervising attorney for the organisation, said in a statement. “Using this policy to arrest protesters is an affront to our fundamental rights as Americans.”
Skrynecki responded that police officers, as with all laws, “enforce the mask transparency act equally and fairly regardless of the demographics of the defendant”.
A spokesperson for Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman didn’t respond to the critiques, according to the AP, but confirmed the Republican, who is Nassau’s first Jewish county executive, was at the synagogue at the time of the protest.
Sunday’s arrest is among the first under the Mask Transparency Act approved by Nassau County’s Republican-controlled legislature and signed into law by Blakeman last month.
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The Guardian picture desk has shared a couple of images that show smoke and flames rising after the Israeli army launched attacks on Al Mahmudiyah, located in southern Lebanon.
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The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) released the below two pictures overnight of Israeli fighter jets taking off from an unidentified location to conduct strikes on Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon.
UN peacekeepers in Lebanon urge immediate de-escalation
The UN peacekeeping force in south Lebanon urged de-escalation on Friday after a big increase in hostilities at the Lebanese-Israeli border, where Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah have been trading fire for almost a year.
The UNIFIL force had witnessed “a heavy intensification of the hostilities across the Blue Line” and throughout its area of operations, spokesperson Andrea Tenenti told Reuters.
“We are concerned at the increased escalation across the Blue Line and urge all actors to immediately de-escalate,” he said.
The Blue Line refers to the frontier between Lebanon and Israel.
Reuters reports that late on Thursday, Israeli warplanes carried out their most intense strikes on southern Lebanon of the conflict.
It followed attacks this week which blew up thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah, killing at least 37 people and injuring thousands more.
On Tuesday, dozens of people were killed when electronic pagers blew up in Lebanon. The next day walkie-talkies exploded.
William Christou, Michael Safi and Julian Borger discuss the news in the latest episode of the Guardian’s Today in Focus:
Israel lifted orders restricting movement and large gatherings issued on Thursday night for a number of communities in northern Israel and the Golan Heights, its military said on Friday, according to Reuters.
The restrictions were ordered after the start of an intense wave of Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon on Thursday afternoon which added to growing fears of a serious escalation in months of conflict along the border.
President of Taiwanese pager company says it did not manufacture devices used in Israeli attack
The president and founder of the Taiwanese pager company linked to pagers used by Hezbollah has been questioned by prosecutors and released, as the hunt for the origins of devices that detonated across Lebanon this week spreads across the globe.
Gold Apollo’s president, Hsu Ching-kuang, has said his company did not manufacture the pagers used in the attack on Tuesday, and that they were made by a Budapest-based company BAC which has a licence to use its brand.
He was questioned in Taiwan on the same day that Icom, a Japanese communication equipment maker whose walkie-talkies are thought to have been detonated in a second wave of attacks on Wednesday, said the units used may have been a discontinued model containing modified batteries.
In Taiwan, Hsu declined to answer reporters questions as he left a Taipei prosecutors office late on Thursday. Taipei prosecutors have not issued any statements so far about their investigations into Gold Apollo.
Taiwan’s government has said it is investigating what happened and police have made several visits to Hsu’s company, in a small, unassuming office in Taipei’s next door city of New Taipei.
On Friday morning Taiwan’s minister of economic affairs said he could say “with certainty” that the components used in the pagers were not made in Taiwan.
US officials doubt Israel-Gaza ceasefire will take place in Biden's term – report
US officials are privately saying they don’t expect a Israel-Gaza ceasefire to take place during President Joe Biden’s term, which ends in January, the Wall Street Journal is reporting.
“No deal is imminent,” one of the US officials quoted by the paper said. “I’m not sure it ever gets done.”
“There’s no chance now of it happening,” an official from an Arab country told the paper shortly after the Israeli pager and walkie-talkie attacks on Hezbollah this week. “Everyone is in a wait-and-see mode until after the election. The outcome will determine what can happen in the next administration.”
While saying it is pushing for a ceasefire the US has continued to supply Israel with billions of dollars worth of bombs and other weapons since 7 October, when the war was triggered by the Hamas attack on Israel. It has also provided diplomatic cover for Israel at the UN security council, where it has vetoed multiple resolutions calling for a ceasefire.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been accused by his own negotiators of sabotaging ceasefire talks because it would collapse his coalition, which relies on the support of far-right allies who want to continue the war, and leave him facing a long-delayed trial on allegations of corruption.
Most recently Netanyahu has been accused of claiming that Israel must retain control of the Philadelphi corridor, which runs between Gaza and Egypt, in order to ensure Israeli security in a bid to stall the talks. The Israeli military itself has dismissed his claim.
Despite this, the WSJ claimed that negotiations were stalling for two main reasons: one major sticking point was the ratio of Palestinian prisoners to Israeli hostages who would be released it said, while the other was that “Hamas makes demands and then refuses to say ‘yes’ after the US and Israel accept them”. It was not possible to independently verify the paper’s claims.
Israel escalates attacks on Lebanon despite warnings from US
Israeli warplanes carried out dozens of strikes across southern Lebanon late on Thursday, hours after Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s leader, threatened “tough retribution and just punishment” for the wave of attacks that targeted the organisation with explosives hidden in pagers and walkie-talkies.
The Israeli military said it had hit hundreds of rocket launchers which it said were about to be used “in the immediate future”.
The bombardment included more than 52 strikes across southern Lebanon, the country’s state news agency NNA said. Three Lebanese security sources told the Reuters news agency that they were the heaviest aerial strikes since the conflict began in October.
As Israeli jets roared over Beirut in a show of force earlier in the day, Nasrallah threatened retribution against Israel “where it expects it and where it does not”.
As tensions in the Middle East spiralled, senior diplomats from the US, Britain, Germany, France and Italy met on Thursday in Paris before a UN security council meeting planned for Friday. Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, was to join his counterparts in the French capital after discussing the possibility of a Gaza truce in Cairo.
US President Joe Biden believes there can still be a diplomatic resolution to escalating tensions between Israel and Hezbollah, his spokesperson said.
The White House warned all sides against “an escalation of any kind”.
The Lebanese foreign minister, Abdallah Bou Habib, warned that the “blatant assault on Lebanon’s sovereignty and security” was a dangerous development that could “signal a wider war”.
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the conflict in the Middle East.
Israeli warplanes carried out late on Thursday their most intense strikes on southern Lebanon in nearly a year of war, heightening the conflict between Israel and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah amid calls for restraint.
The White House said a diplomatic solution was “achievable” and “urgent”, and Britain called for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. The US is “afraid and concerned about potential escalation,” White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre told a briefing.
The intense barrage followed attacks earlier in the week attributed by Lebanon and Hezbollah to Israel that blew up Hezbollah radios and pagers, killing 37 people and wounding about 3,000 in Lebanon.
In Thursday’s late operation, Israel’s military said its jets over two hours struck hundreds of multiple-rocket-launcher barrels in southern Lebanon that were set to be fired immediately toward Israel.
The bombardment included more than 52 strikes across southern Lebanon after 9pm, Lebanon’s state news agency NNA said. Three Lebanese security sources said these were the heaviest aerial strikes since the conflict began in October.
There were no immediate reports of casualties. More on that soon. In other developments:
The leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, threatened Israel with “tough retribution and just punishment” after the unprecedented wave of attacks that targeted the organisation this week. In a televised speech on Thursday, Nasrallah admitted the attacks had been a major blow and threatened retribution against Israel “where it expects it and where it does not”. Israel will face “a crushing response from the axis of resistance”, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Cmdr Hossein Salami told Nasrallah, state media reported.
In his speech, Nasrallah vowed to continue the conflict with Israel until a ceasefire in Gaza was reached. “The Lebanese front will not stop until the aggression on Gaza stops”, despite “all this blood spilt”, he said. In response, Hamas said it “highly appreciates” Hezbollah’s support.
As Nasrallah made his televised remarks, Israeli jets roared over Beirut in a show of force. Late on Thursday, Israeli warplanes carried out dozens of strikes across southern Lebanon, in some of the most intense bombing since the start of the war in October. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its fighter jets struck more than 100 Hezbollah rocket launchers in southern Lebanon in the space of a few hours.
Eight people were reported to have been injured by antitank missiles fired by Hezbollah into northern Israel, and two were hurt in a drone attack. Hezbollah has traded near-daily cross-border fire with Israel since Hamas’s 7 October attacks sparked the war in Gaza. The IDF said two of its soldiers were killed by Hezbollah strikes across the Lebanon border on Thursday.
Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, said Israeli military operations “will continue”, adding that there are “significant opportunities, but also heavy risks” as the country enters a “new phase” of the war. “Our goal is to return the residents of the north to their homes safely. As time goes by, Hezbollah will pay an increasing price,” Gallant said on Thursday.
The speech by the Hezbollah leader on Thursday came amid fears that a full-blown war between Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, and Israel could be imminent. Thousands of pagers used by Hezbollah exploded simultaneously on Tuesday, killing 12 people, including two children, and wounding up to 2,800 others across Lebanon. A day later, 25 people were killed and more than 450 wounded when walkie-talkies exploded in supermarkets, on streets and at funerals. There was no comment from Israel.
Senior diplomats from the US, Britain, Germany, France and Italy met on Thursday in Paris before a UN security council meeting planned for Friday as tensions in the Middle East spiralled. The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, urged against “escalatory actions by any party” in the Middle East and called for restraint, while France’s foreign minister, Stéphane Séjourné, said France and the US were “very worried about the situation” in the Middle East.
The UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, called for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. “We are all very, very clear that we want to see a negotiated political settlement so that Israelis can return to their homes in northern Israel and indeed Lebanese to return to their homes,” Lammy said on Thursday. He urged British nationals in Lebanon to leave the country “while commercial options remain.”
Explosions in booby-trapped radios and pagers in Lebanon “seriously disrupted” the country’s fragile health sector, the head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said. Lebanese authorities on Thursday banned walkie-talkies and pagers from being taken on flights from Beirut airport.
The communications devices that exploded in Lebanon were implanted with explosives before arriving into the country, according to a preliminary investigation by Lebanese authorities. Lebanese authorities determined that the devices were detonated by sending electronic messages to the devices, according to a letter sent by the Lebanese mission to the UN to the UN’s security council.
Six Palestinians were killed and 18 others injured on Thursday by Israeli forces during a military raid in the occupied West Bank city of Qabatiya, the governor of the Jenin area of the occupied West Bank told Reuters. In a statement to AFP, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said an air strike killed militants in Qabatiya “as part of a counterterrorism operation”.
UN children’s rights experts have accused Israel of severe breaches of a global treaty protecting children’s rights, saying its military actions in Gaza had “catastrophic consequences” on children in the Palestinian territory.
A senior Israeli adviser has presented a new proposed ceasefire deal with Hamas to the Biden administration, according to reports. The proposal from Gal Hirsch, a close ally to prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, would see a permanent end to the conflict in Gaza, the release in one stage of all hostages held there in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, and the safe passage for Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar to be exiled out of Gaza, according to reports.
