Summary
Here’s a look at where things stand:
The US government is investigating an alleged leak about classified US intelligence on Israel’s strikes against Iran, CNN reports, citing people familiar with the matter. CNN reports that the documents which date from 15 and 16 October started circulating on Friday on Telegram through an account called the Middle East Spectator.
Israeli airstrikes on Beit Lahiya in Gaza have killed at least 73 people, Gaza’s health ministry said on Saturday evening. In addition to several houses being destroyed by Israeli forces, multiple people have been injured, according to emerging reports.
In a new statement on Saturday, Benjamin Netanyahu said: “The attempt by Iran’s proxy Hezbollah to assassinate me and my wife today was a grave mistake.” Netanyahu vowed that Iran and its proxies would “pay a heavy price”, adding that Israel would continue to “eliminate the terrorists and those who dispatch them”.
The UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, spoke to Benjamin Netanyahu after reports of an attempted drone attack on the Israeli prime minister’s holiday home in Saturday. According to a Downing Street spokesperson, Starmer told Netanyahu that he was alarmed to hear about what Netanyahu called an “assassination attempt” on his life.
In a joint statement released on Saturday, G7 defence ministers expressed their concern over Israel’s latest attacks on Unifil in Lebanon. The group, which has been meeting in Naples, Italy, said: “We … are concerned by the latest events in Lebanon and the risk of further escalation. We express concern over all threats to Unifil’s security.”
The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, spoke to his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, on Saturday, reviewing US forces’ “posture adjustments”. Those include the recent deployment of an anti-missile system to reinforce Israel’s defences against regional threats, the Pentagon said in a statement.
The US would like to see Israel scale back some of its strikes in and around the Lebanese capital of Beirut, Austin said. “The number of civilian casualties have been far too high,” Austin told reporters at a G7 defence gathering in the Italian city of Naples.
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The history of “decapitation strategies” tells us it is almost impossible to know what effect assassinating a key figure such as Yahya Sinwar will have, the Guardian’s Jason Burke reports:
Israelis and others have welcomed the killing of Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas and the mastermind of the 7 October 2023 attacks, as an “Osama bin Laden moment”. This reflects how many in Israel feel about the death of a man responsible for the murder of 1,200 people, mostly civilians and their compatriots, but terrorism experts have long debated the efficacy of eliminating the leaders of violent extremist groups, with some suggesting the strategy is counter-productive.
The truth is that no one is sure.
There are some cases where the elimination of a leader has brought definitive success. When the Mossad killed Wadie Haddad, leader of a breakaway faction of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and responsible for a string of spectacular terrorist attacks in the 1970s, probably with poisoned chocolates, his group disintegrated. Hijackings and bombings continued, but were carried out by others.
Read the full story below:
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