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.
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.
The Palestinian health ministry said five people were killed in the strikes against two vehicles in Jenin, one of the most turbulent centres of militant activity in the West Bank. Another person was critically wounded.
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.
On Tuesday, air strikes killed five Palestinians in the Al-Bureij camp, in the central Gaza Strip, medics said, while two others were killed in a separate air strike in Rafah, near the southern Gaza border with Egypt.
Hamas does not provide casualty numbers for its fighters.
UN peacekeepers on Israeli-Lebanese border have never been more crucial, says forces chief
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.
But worry has grown of a wider regional conflict, especially after the killing, blamed on Israel, of a top Hamas leader in Iran and an Israeli airstrike that killed a Hezbollah commander in the Beirut southern suburbs last week.
The role of the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, was today “more important than ever”, under secretary-general for peace operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix told AFP.
“It’s the only liaison channel between the Israeli side and the Lebanese side in all its components, such as Hezbollah,” he said.
“It’s fundamental because it allows us to clarify certain things and avoid misunderstandings … miscalculations, uncontrolled and unwanted escalations.”
UNIFIL, which has about 10,000 troops based in south Lebanon, was also key in informing all sides “when, for example, there are people who have been wounded or even killed in the area and someone needs to go in to rescue them or remove the bodies”.
The troops also continued to carry out regular patrols “in liaison with the Lebanese army”, he said.
Lacroix said the peacekeepers were staying in place for now, and only if it became impossible for them to carry out their mission or if there were “very, very serious threats” to their security would their presence be reconsidered.
The peacekeeping force had already seen several of its members wounded, and damage done to some of its camps, he said.
The UN peacekeeping chief said a Gaza ceasefire was key to de-escalation on the Israeli-Lebanon border.
“What we want is a cessation of hostilities in Gaza as well as between Lebanon and Israel straight away, because each day that goes by brings its batch of victims, destruction and displacements, and it cannot last,” he said.
“Every day that goes by also compounds an absolutely terrible risk of uncontrolled escalations, of conflagrations in the entire region.”
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.
The two French airlines first stopped servicing the route after Israel vowed to retaliate following rocket fire from Lebanon that killed 12 people in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights.
Tensions have soared further in the past week as Iran and its allies vowed revenge for the high-profile killings of Hezbollah’s top military commander Fuad Shukr in Lebanon and Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran, both blamed on Israel.
Hezbollah has been exchanging near-daily fire with Israeli forces across the border between Lebanon and Israel.
Air France said it “is constantly monitoring developments in the geopolitical situation of the territories served and overflown by its aircraft, to ensure the highest level of flight safety and security”.
The airline added “the safety of its customers and crews is its number one priority”.
Air France said customers with reservations for flights to or from Beirut scheduled before and including 18 August to postpone or cancel their trip free of charge.
German carrier Lufthansa has suspended flights to Beirut, Tehran and Tel Aviv until 12 August.
Air France said its flights to and from Tel Aviv are operating normally.
The day so far
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.
UN expert condemns Israel's killing of Al-Jazeera journalist and cameraman
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.
The Israel Defense Forces has released a document seized from Hamas computers that it said corroborates its claim, Reuters reported.
“I strongly denounce the deliberate targeting by Israel of two journalists in Gaza, which adds to an already appalling toll of reporters and media workers killed in this war,” Irene Khan, the UN special rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, said in a statement.
Israel’s military said Al-Ghoul belonged to the elite Nukhba unit and was involved in recording and publicizing attacks on Israeli troops.
Al Jazeera rejected what it said were “baseless allegations” and said Al-Ghoul had worked for the network since November 2023 and his only profession was as a journalist.
The IDF said the Hamas documents it had seized in Gaza listed members of the organization’s military wing, and that as of 2021, Al-Ghoul had been an engineer in the Hamas Gaza Brigade.
Khan said journalists are protected as civilians under international humanitarian law and targeting them deliberately was a war crime. That status is only forfeit if they participate directly in hostilities, and Israel had not provided concrete evidence of that, she said.
“Given Israel’s failure to heed earlier calls for accountability, I urge the international criminal court to move swiftly to prosecute the killings of journalists in Gaza as a war crime and call on the international community to urgently consider the use of international mechanisms to investigate crimes against journalists in Gaza,” she added.
Updated
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 working to ensure any response to killing of Hezbollah commander does not trigger total war, says foreign minister
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.
Hezbollah said last week that the Iran-backed group will respond in a studied manner.
Updated
South Korea 'strongly advises' nationals to leave Lebanon and Israel as soon as possible
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.
The assassinations came after a deadly rocket attack in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights late last month.
“South Korea’s government...hopes that diplomatic efforts to de-escalate tensions such as negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage release will not stop,” Lee told a briefing.
Updated
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 US social media company designates Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement that governs Gaza, as a “dangerous organisation” and bans content praising the group. It uses a mix of automated detection and human review to remove or label graphic visuals, Reuters reported.
Anwar posted on Facebook and Instagram on 31 July a video recording of his phone call with a Hamas official to offer condolences over Haniyeh’s death. He also posted a picture from his last meeting with Haniyeh in Qatar in May, along with a condolence message.
Updated
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.
“We strongly oppose Israeli plans that provide for some temporary solutions.”
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.
Tensions keep escalating in the Middle East, bringing it on the brink of a war of unknown proportions.
— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) August 6, 2024
We all must prevent another catastrophe. The way forward is largely consensual: ceasefire in Gaza, now.
All those standing in the way of de-escalation shall be held accountable.
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.
“It will have a negative impact on the ongoing negotiations to end the aggression and withdraw Israeli troops from Gaza.”
Haniyeh was assassinated in the Iranian capital Tehran last week, an attack that drew threats of revenge on Israel and fuelled concern that the conflict in Gaza was turning into a wider Middle East war, Reuters reported.
“We consider this a cowardly act and a dangerous development in Israeli politics,” Abbas said in remarks published in Russian by the RIA agency.
“The Israeli occupation authorities are required to abandon their ambitions and stop their aggressive actions against our people and our cause, to comply with international law and implement the Arab Peace Initiative, as well as an immediate and lasting ceasefire and withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.”
Palestinian officials say that four Palestinians were killed, including three teenagers, and another seven were wounded by Israeli fire during a military raid in the occupied West Bank.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said on Tuesday that the raid was carried out overnight in the village of Aqaaba in the northern West Bank.
Those killed included two 19-year-olds and a 14-year-old, AP reported.
Separately, the Islamic Jihad militant group reported heavy fighting with the army in the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank, a frequent flashpoint.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the crisis in the Middle East.
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.
The casualty count was based on initial reports that could still change, the US officials said.
Iranian-backed Iraqi militias have resumed launching attacks on bases housing US forces in Iraq and Syria after a lull of several months, following a strike on a base in Jordan in late January that killed three American soldiers and prompted a series of retaliatory US strikes.
US defence secretary Lloyd Austin discussed the attack with his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant and the pair agreed that the attack marked “a dangerous escalation”, a Pentagon statement said.
The US last week carried out a strike in Iraq against individuals US officials said were militants getting ready to launch drones and who posed a threat to US and coalition forces.
In other developments:
Iran has called in foreign ambassadors based in Tehran to warn of the country’s moral duty to punish Israel for what it sees as its “adventurism” and law-breaking in assassinating Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader, a week ago in the Iranian capital. Iran has also secured an emergency meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Wednesday where it will try to press Arab states to back its right to take reprisal actions against Israel.
Violence, extreme hunger, humiliation and other abuse of Palestinian prisoners has been normalised across Israel’s jail system, according to Guardian interviews with released prisoners, with mistreatment now so systemic that rights group B’Tselem says it must be considered a policy of “institutionalised abuse”. Former detainees described abuse ranging from severe beatings and sexual violence to starvation rations, refusal of medical care, and deprivation of basic needs including water, daylight, electricity and sanitation, including soap and sanitary pads for women.
Israel’s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said on Monday that allowing 2 million Palestinians to starve to death was the “right and moral” thing to do until Israeli hostages are released but complained that “world won’t let us”. Smotrich, who is actively attempting to annex the occupied West Bank, was speaking at the Katif Annual Conference, which commemorates former Israeli settlements in Gaza, the Haaretz newspaper reported.
The UN has fired nine staff members from its agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, after an internal investigation found they may have been involved in the Hamas-led 7 October attack against Israel. The UN secretary general’s office announced the move in a brief statement on Monday. It did not elaborate on the Unrwa staffers’ possible role in the attack. It said the nine included seven staffers who were fired previously over the claims.
Two people are dead in south Lebanon as a result of an Israel strike on Monday, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. One of those killed was a paramedic, according to Ali Abbas, a rescue worker who spoke to AFP.
The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah hit northern Israel in a drone attack early on Monday, in response to what it called “attacks and assassinations” carried out by Israel in several villages in south Lebanon. The Israeli military says the attack wounded two soldiers and set off a fire.
Israel handed over 80 unidentified Palestinian bodies to the Gaza’s civil defence agency, according to Palestinian officials. Gaza’s civil defence director Yamen Abu Suleiman told AFP that no information was provided with the bodies, and so there is no clear idea where they came from. “We do not know if they are martyrs [killed in Gaza] or prisoners from [Israel’s] jails”, he added.
