Closing summary
UN peacekeepers on the Israeli-Lebanese border have never been more crucial, the force’s global chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix said on Tuesday, as fears soared of an escalation in the Middle East. Since Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October, sparking a war in the Gaza Strip, Israel and Lebanese movement Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, have traded near-daily cross-border fire.
Israeli forces backed by drone strikes killed at least 12 people in the occupied West Bank, medics said on Tuesday, after raids around two flashpoint cities in the north led to gunbattles with Palestinian militants. The Israeli military said it conducted two separate air strikes in the volatile city of Jenin, hitting armed militant cells, but gave no details.
Israeli forces killed 45 Palestinian fighters in Gaza over the past day, the military said on Tuesday, after heavy fighting in which militant group Hamas said it destroyed two armoured personnel carriers during an ambush near the city of Rafah. The Israeli military said the Hamas official in charge of smuggling operations was among those killed and that his death significantly hit their ability to bring weapons and military equipment into the besieged enclave.
Air France said Tuesday that its flights and that of its low-cost subsidiary Transavia to Beirut will be suspended through at least Thursday because of fears that the Gaza war could spread. The resumption of flights to Lebanon’s capital, which have been halted since 29 July, “will be subject to a new assessment of the local situation,” the airline told AFP.
At least five US personnel have been injured in an attack against a military base in Iraq on Monday, US officials have told US media, as the Middle East braces for a possible new wave of attacks by Iran and its allies following last week’s killing of senior members of militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah by Israel. Two Katyusha rockets were fired at al Asad airbase in western Iraq, two Iraqi security sources told Reuters. One Iraqi security source said the rockets fell inside the base. It was unclear whether the attack was linked to threats by Iran to retaliate over the killing of the Hamas leader.
A United Nations expert on Tuesday condemned Israel’s killing last week of Al Jazeera journalist Ismail Al-Ghoul and cameraman Ramy El Rify in Gaza and urged that the deaths be prosecuted as a war crime. The two men died in a 31 July airstrike by the Israeli military, which said Al-Ghoul was a Hamas operative who took part in the October attack against Israel.
More than 39,653 Palestinians have been killed and 91,535 have been wounded in the Israeli military offensive on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
Lebanon is working to ensure any response to the Israeli killing of a top Hezbollah commander in Beirut does not trigger total war in the Middle East, its foreign minister Abdallah Bou Habib said on Tuesday. Tensions in the region have spiralled in the last week following the killing in Tehran of Palestinian militant group Hamas’ leader, and an Israeli strike on Beirut’s suburbs that killed the senior commander Fuad Shukr.
South Korea’s foreign ministry on Tuesday “strongly advised” its nationals in Lebanon and Israel to leave as soon as possible because of escalating tensions in the Middle East. The travel advisory was issued after a commander of the Iran-aligned Lebanese group Hezbollah and the head of the political wing of Hamas, the group that runs the Gaza Strip, were killed, Lee Jae-woong, a ministry spokesperson said.
Meta Platforms apologised on Tuesday for erroneously removing Malaysian prime minister Anwar Ibrahim’s social media posts in which he expressed condolences to a Hamas official about the assassination of the group’s leader Ismail Haniyeh. Meta was sorry for “an operational error”, adding that the content had been restored with “the correct newsworthy label,” a Meta spokesperson told Reuters.
The Gaza Strip must be transferred to the control of legitimate Palestinian authorities, and Israeli plans for temporary control of the enclave are unacceptable, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas told Russia’s RIA news agency in remarks published on Tuesday. “Gaza must be governed under the auspices of the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) and the legitimate Palestinian government,” Abbas told the state RIA agency in an interview that was published in Russian.
The EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, has said the Middle East is on the “brink of a war of unknown proportions” in a post on X, adding that there is consensus on the need for a ceasefire in Gaza to “prevent another catastrophe.” Borrell said all those obstructing “de-escalation” efforts will be held to account.
The killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was intended to prolong the conflict in Gaza and will complicate talks on resolving the crisis, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas told Russia’s RIA state news agency in remarks published on Tuesday. “There is no doubt that the purpose of Mr. Haniyeh’s assassination is to prolong the war and expand its scope,” RIA cited Abbas as saying.
That’s it from the Middle East crisis live blog for today. Thanks for following along.
