Closing summary
It’s just gone 5pm in Tel Aviv, Gaza City and Beirut and we’re wrapping up today’s live coverage of the crisis in the Middle East.
Earlier today Israeli forces reached their deepest point in Lebanon since they invaded six weeks ago, before pulling back after fierce battles with Hezbollah, Lebanese state media reported. Israeli troops captured a strategic hill in the southern Lebanese village of Chamaa, about three miles from the Israeli border, the state-run National News Agency reported. It said Israeli troops were later pushed back.
Here’s a round-up of today’s other key events:
Airstrikes hit the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital Beirut this morning, shortly after the Israeli army issued a new call to evacuate the area. The Israeli military said its aircraft had targeted “a weapons storage facility” and a Hezbollah “command centre”. Israel also said Hezbollah had fired more than 60 projectiles at the country today.
Lebanon’s National News Agency also reported a strike on the southern city of Tyre. Elsewhere in south Lebanon, the health ministry said Israeli strikes killed two rescuers affiliated with Hezbollah and its ally Amal.
Gaza’s civil defence agency reported 11 people killed in strikes across the territory earlier today. The Gaza health ministry said at least 35 people were killed in the territory in the previous 24 hours, taking the overall death toll in more than 13 months of war to 43,799.
An Italian air force plane took off earlier today carrying more than 13 tonnes of humanitarian aid to be delivered to the population in Gaza, a defence ministry statement said. “Italy is doing and will continue to do everything possible to alleviate the suffering of the civilian population in Gaza,” defence minister Guido Crosetto said.
Two senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad members were killed in an Israeli strike on Syria on Thursday, a source from the Palestinian group said earlier today. The figures were Abdel Aziz Minawi, a member of Islamic Jihad’s political bureau, and the group’s foreign relations chief Rasmi Abu Issa, who were killed in the strike on Qudsaya, in the Damascus area.
An Iranian official met with Elon Musk to discuss Iran’s nuclear program, its support for anti-Israel groups throughout the Middle East and prospects for improved relations with the US, according to a US official. Iran later denied the reports.
Israel said Hezbollah had fired more than 60 projectiles into Israel today, as Israeli troops pushed the furthest they have been into Lebanon since its ground invasion began last month.
Israeli troops captured a strategic hill in the southern Lebanese village of Chamaa, about 5km (3 miles) from the Israeli border, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported. It said the troops were later pushed back.
Israel’s military said its troops “continue their limited, localised and targeted operational activity in southern Lebanon”.
Updated
