A summary of today's developments
Lebanon’s Hezbollah launched over 100 rockets early on Sunday across a wide and deep area of northern Israel, with some landing near the city of Haifa. The barrage came after an Israeli airstrike in Beirut on Friday killed at least 45 people, including one of Hezbollah’s top leaders, as well as women and children.
The Israeli defence minister, Yoav Gallant, said Israeli strikes on Lebanon would continue until it was safe for evacuated people in the north of Israel to return. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel has in recent days dealt Hezbollah “a series of blows it could not have imagined”. Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, meanwhile, claimed that Israel does not want a war with Lebanon but stressed it has a right to self-defence.
Hezbollah’s deputy secretary-general Naim Qassem said that the Lebanese militant group had entered a new phase of its conflict with Israel which he described as an “open-ended battle of reckoning”.
Israel’s civil defence agency ordered all schools in the north of the country to close.
Israeli forces raided the office of global news channel Al Jazeera in the occupied West Bank on Sunday and issued a 45-day closure order. The Israeli military said that it closed the Al Jazeera TV office in Ramallah because it incited “terror”, an accusation the network vehemently denies.
The United Nations special coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, warned of an “imminent catastrophe” in the Middle East.
At least 41,431 Palestinian people have been killed and 95,818 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said.
An Israeli airstrike killed at least seven people in the Kafr Qasem school in Beach camp – which was sheltering displaced families – in Gaza City on Sunday, Palestinian health officials said.
Twelve people were arrested in six different Iranian provinces for being “operatives collaborating with the Zionist regime (Israel)“ and planning acts against the country’s security, the Revolutionary Guards said, according to the Student News Network.
Israel’s chief of the general staff Herzi Halevi said in a televised statement the military was well-prepared for the next stages of fighting, which were coming in the next few days, but did not say what this would entail.
“We will do whatever it takes to removes threats against Israel,” Halevi said.
So serious were the exchanges of fire between Israel and Hezbollah this weekend, it is hard to be sure that the two sides have not already crossed the threshold of “all-out” war.
Israel’s air force said it had struck 290 targets in southern Lebanon on Saturday, killing at least three. Hezbollah responded by launching 150 missiles, rockets and drones into Israel overnight, the deepest seen since violent hostilities broke out when the Iran-aligned group began launching rocket attacks in support of Hamas after 7 October.
Missiles reached the suburbs of Israel’s northern city of Haifa, and while casualties were modest – rescue teams treated a number of wounded – residential buildings were hit in Kiryat Bialik. Thousands of civilians were forced to seek shelter.
Israel is examining a plan to use siege tactics against Hamas in northern Gaza, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was quoted by several Israeli media outlets as saying.
Netanyahu’s office did not respond to a request for comment. The reports cited unnamed sources at a closed parliament committee meeting.
The plan, published by retired military commanders and floated by some parliament members this month, suggests Palestinian civilians would be instructed to evacuate northern Gaza, which would then be declared a closed military zone.
An estimated 5,000 Hamas militants remaining there would then be put under siege until they surrender. Army Radio reported that Netanyahu told lawmakers at parliament’s Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee that it was being examined.
Public broadcaster Kan quoted Netanyahu as saying that the blueprint “makes sense” and that “it is one of the plans being considered but there are others as well.”
Seven people have been killed after an Israeli airstrike hit a school housing displaced people in western Gaza City, Palestinian health officials said, amid fears that Gaza’s worsening humanitarian crisis might be forgotten as tensions boil between Hezbollah and Israel.
The strike hit Kafr Qasem school in Beach camp on Sunday morning, officials in Gaza said. Among those killed was Majed Saleh, the director of the Hamas-run public works and housing ministry, they added.
Israel’s military said the strike had targeted Hamas fighters and that it had used aerial surveillance and taken other steps to limit the risk to civilians.
Gaza’s schools closed after the 7 October attack on Israel by Hamas, and most have been transformed into shelters. About 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million has been displaced, often multiple times.
Six other Palestinians were killed in separate airstrikes in central and southern parts of Gaza, the medics said.
Iran arrests 12 people for 'collaborating with Israel'
Twelve people were arrested in six different Iranian provinces for being “operatives collaborating with the Zionist regime (Israel)“ and planning acts against the country’s security, the Revolutionary Guards said, according to the Student News Network.
The Israeli health ministry on Sunday urged hospitals in northern Israel to transfer their operations to facilities with extra protection from rocket and missile fire.
Rambam hospital in Haifa would transfer patients to its underground, secure facility, the ministry said.
The Guardian obtained pictures of hospitals in the north of the country, preparing the sheltered areas for receiving patients from unsheltered departments.
“In light of the new directives issued this morning, Tzafon Medical Center is taking immediate steps to prioritize the safety and well-being of our patients and staff amidst the escalating conflict,” Dr. Noam Yehudai, from Tzafon Medical Center said.
“We are discharging patients whose medical condition allows for safe discharge to their homes, canceling all elective surgeries until further notice'’.
Updated
Labour government ministers could be referred to police for potential complicity in war crimes in Gaza, the head of a Palestinian rights group said.
Tayab Ali is chairman of the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP), an independent organisation of lawyers, politicians and academics who aim to protect the rights of Palestinians through the law.
Ali, who is also head of international law at London law firm Bindmans LLP, told a fringe event at the Labour Party conference that he will add Labour ministers to a list the organisation has already sent to Scotland Yard in relation to arming Israel.
Earlier this year the ICJP handed evidence to Scotland Yard in relation to alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Gaza under applicable UK legislation.
Evidence was provided in relation to senior UK politicians, who have remained anonymous, but Ali said the names of five Conservative former ministers had been supplied.
Labour MP for Brent West Barry Gardiner attended the fringe event and asked the panel about “the ramifications of complicity by the UK Government”.
Ali said their case against the previous government had been based on article 25 of the Rome statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) which outlines individual criminal responsibility for war crimes.
He said: “What’s really important about that? Because when you talk about the ICC, it sounds like a foreign institution, but the Rome statute is incorporated in British law, so it makes it a crime here in the UK to be complicit in the same way.
“And actually even further, because in the UK, in domestic law, we have not just complicity in – and I’ll read out the pertinent words – facilitating the commission of a crime, aids, abets or otherwise assists in its commission or its attempted commission, including providing the means for its commission.
“Really important keywords there, but also in domestic legislation, is the offence of conspiracy.”
Ali added: “If a person is about to do a bank robbery, they come to me and I think they’re a bank robber, and they ask me to supply them with a weapon, a shotgun for example, I am conspiring with that person to commit that bank robbery. I am complicit in that.
“I see the same framework for supplying parts for F-35s. At the moment ICJP is looking very carefully at the Labour Party in Government.
“If we find sufficient evidence that Labour Party Government ministers have been complicit in war crimes then we will add to our complaints already with Scotland Yard.
“Believe me, I don’t want to do that. I’d much rather the Government, and even the last government, comply with international law.”
Lebanon’s top Christian cleric Bechara Boutros al-Rai said in his sermon on Sunday that Lebanon was “deeply saddened” by the casualties among civilians and within Hezbollah in this week’s attacks, in a very rare case of the Christian leader expressing condolences to the group.
“We direct an appeal to the [UN security council] to put an end to this war by all available means,” Rai said.
Updated
Israeli forces raided the Al Jazeera bureau in the West Bank on Sunday and issued a 45-day closure order, the Qatari broadcaster said. Footage showed heavily armed and masked troops entering the premises in Ramallah.
The European Union said it is “extremely concerned” by the escalation of violence between Israel and Hezbollah, and is calling for an “urgent” ceasefire.
A statement from the EU read: “The European Union is extremely concerned by the escalation in Lebanon, following Friday’s attacks in Beirut - where at least three children were also killed - and the increasing cross border violence between Israel and Hezbollah.
“Heavy attacks are reported also today, both in Israel and Lebanon. A ceasefire is urgent, across the Blue Line as in Gaza.
“Civilians on both sides are paying a high price. They will also be the ones suffering once again the most in a full-blown war that must be averted, including by renewed intense diplomatic mediation efforts.”
It added peace efforts will be high on the EU’s agenda at the UN General Assembly.
A regional military escalation is not in Israel’s “best interest,” White House National Security spokesperson John Kirby said on Sunday.
“We don’t believe that escalating this military conflict is in their best interest,” Kirby said on ABC’s This Week, adding that the United States was “saying this directly to our Israeli counterparts.”
Kirby added: “The tensions are much higher now than they were even just a few days ago.”
But he added “we still believe that there can be time and space for a diplomatic solution here and that’s what we’re working on.”
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Sarah Kiperwas, from Krayot, told the Guardian: “I heard a big blast around 6.30am.
“From our balcony, I could see flames and then they told us that someone got hurt.
“I am 68 years old and I have lived in this neighbourhood all my life. This is the fourth time in my life that my city has been hit.
“This time I believe it will be harder than the others. Hezbollah had been there for almost a year waiting to make our lives impossible. But we are ready to fight and finish it.
“No one in the world would stand by if the enemy continues to bomb us.”
Updated
Hamas, the Palestinian militant group, has praised its ally, Hezbollah, after the Lebanese group launched overnight rocket strikes at northern Israel.
Hamas said in a statement:
Hamas saluted the resistance fighters in Lebanon for their resilience and bravery in facing the Zionist war machine and for their determination to continue fighting in support of the Palestinian people and their resistance in Gaza and the West Bank.
Here are some more comments from Hezbollah’s deputy leader Naim Qassem.
“We admit that we are pained. We are humans. But as we are pained — you will also be pained,” Kassem said at the funeral of top Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Akil, who reportedly led the Radwan Force, a special forces unit tasked with cross-border attacks on Israel.
He said a barrage of rockets fired by the group deep into Israel early on Sunday was only the beginning, vowing to destroy Israel’s economy.
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Hezbollah deputy leader says confrontation with Israel is now 'open-ended battle of reckoning'
We have this snap from the Reuters news agency. Hezbollah’s deputy secretary-general Naim Qassem has said that the Lebanese militant group had entered a new phase of its conflict with Israel which he described as an “open-ended battle of reckoning”.
“Threats will not stop us... We are ready to face all military possibilities,” he added.
The comments were made earlier today during a funeral for a top commander killed in an Israeli strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs on Friday.
Updated
Kenneth Roth, the former Human Rights Watch executive director, has said Al Jazeera has been one of the most important sources of information throughout Israel’s war on Gaza, given the fact foreign journalists banned from entering the strip. Roth said Israel shut Al Jazeera’s bureau in Ramallah because the network has exposed “Israeli repression - the apartheid” in the occupied West Bank.
He wrote in a post on X:
Al Jazeera has been one of the most important sources of information on Israeli bombing and starving Palestinian civilians in Gaza and repression in the West Bank, so Israel shuts down its Ramallah bureau after already have shut its East Jerusalem bureau.
Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territory, reposted Roth’s message, saying: “no witnesses allowed”.
No witnesses allowed. https://t.co/jrZSRT8ONq
— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) September 22, 2024
Al Jazeera TV denounces Israel’s 'criminal' raid on West Bank office
Qatar-based media outlet Al Jazeera has condemned a raid by Israeli forces on its office in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank and the issuing of a 45-day closure order. The Israeli military said, without providing evidence, that it closed the Al Jazeera TV office in Ramallah because it incited “terror”.
The closure order was signed after a legal opinion and intelligence assessment “determined that the offices were being used to incite terror, to support terrorist activities and that the channel’s broadcasts endanger the security and public order in both the area and the state of Israel as a whole,” a military statement said.
Al Jazeera, which says it has no affiliation with militant groups, has denounced the raid as a “criminal act” by Israeli forces and has said it would take legal action to protect it rights and promised to continue its coverage.
The network said:
Israel’s ongoing suppression of the free press is blatantly aimed at concealing its actions in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank, in contravention of international and humanitarian law.
Israel’s direct targeting and killing of journalists, along with arrests, intimidation, and threats, will not deter Al Jazeera from its commitment to coverage.
The Israeli government in May banned Al Jazeera from operating inside Israel, in a move authorised by an Israeli court, and raided a Jerusalem hotel the network used as its office, saying its broadcasts threatened national security. Al Jazeera has vehemently denied accusations by Israel that it is a terrorist mouthpiece. The network says that Israel systematically targets its employees in the Gaza Strip. Four of Al Jazeera’s journalists have been killed since the war in Gaza began last October.
As of 20 September 2024, preliminary investigations conducted by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) showed at least 116 journalists and media workers have been killed since the war began, making it the deadliest period for journalists since CPJ began gathering data in 1992.
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The Israeli military has repeatedly accused journalists from Al Jazeera, a Qatari-based network, of links to Hamas, the Palestinian militant group, or its ally Islamic Jihad.
Al Jazeera has fiercely denied Israel’s accusations and said Israel systematically targets its employees in the Gaza Strip.
Four of Al Jazeera’s journalists have been killed since the war in Gaza began last October, and the network’s office in Gaza was bombed.
The broadcaster said the soldiers did not provide a reason for the closure order on Sunday.
“There is a court ruling for closing down Al Jazeera for 45 days,” an Israeli soldier told Al Jazeera’s West Bank bureau chief Walid al-Omari in a conversation broadcast live on the network.
“I ask you to take all the cameras and leave the office at this moment,” the soldier said, according to the footage.
Omari said the order accused the network of “incitement to and support of terrorism”, according to Al Jazeera.
“Targeting journalists this way always aims to erase the truth and prevent people from hearing the truth,” Omari said.
Israeli forces carrying guns have entered Al Jazeera’s offices in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, ordering staff to vacate and imposing a 45-day closure. pic.twitter.com/zqJYStVkDG
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) September 22, 2024
Updated
The Foreign Press Association (FPA) has said it is “deeply concerned” over the Israeli raid this morning that forced the closure of Al Jazeera’s Ramallah bureau in the occupied West Bank.
The Qatar-based channel aired live footage of the Israeli troops storming the channel’s office and handing over a military closure order to one of the Al Jazeera TV staff before the broadcast was disrupted.
In a statement posted to X, the FPA said:
The Foreign Press Association is deeply troubled by this escalation, which threatens press freedom, and urges the Israeli government to reconsider these actions. Restricting foreign reporters and closing news channels signals a shift away from democratic values.
FPA Statement on raiding and closure of Al Jazeera offices in Ramallah pic.twitter.com/Zk548emNdp
— Foreign Press Assoc. (@FPAIsPal) September 22, 2024
Summary of the day so far...
Lebanon’s Hezbollah launched over 100 rockets early on Sunday across a wide and deep area of northern Israel, with some landing near the city of Haifa. The barrage came after an Israeli airstrike in Beirut on Friday killed at least 45 people, including one of Hezbollah’s top leaders, as well as women and children.
The Israeli defence minister, Yoav Gallant, said Israeli strikes on Lebanon would continue until it was safe for evacuated people in the north of Israel to return. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel has in recent days dealt Hezbollah “a series of blows it could not have imagined”. Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, meanwhile, claimed that Israel does not want a war with Lebanon but stressed it has a right to self-defence.
Israel’s civil defence agency ordered all schools in the north of the country to close.
The United Nations special coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, warned of an “imminent catastrophe” in the Middle East.
At least 41,431 Palestinian people have been killed and 95,818 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said.
An Israeli airstrike killed at least seven people in the Kafr Qasem school in Beach camp – which was sheltering displaced families – in Gaza City on Sunday, Palestinian health officials said.
Al Jazeera said armed and masked Israeli forces raided its office in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on Sunday and issued a 45-day closure order.
A Hezbollah spokesperson has said the war between the militant group and Israel has now entered a '“new phase” and confirmed that they would keep up their attacks until these is a ceasefire in the war in Gaza.
Speaking at a funeral for a Hezbollah member on Sunday, in quotes reported by the Associated Press, Hassan Fadlallah said: “We have a strong and capable resistance. All of [Hezbollah’s] options are on the table, and it is prepared for any scenario, war or confrontation.”
Britain will keep under review possible new sanctions against Israeli settlers in the West Bank and will act if it has to, foreign minister David Lammy said on Sunday, adding he was concerned by actions that were inflaming tensions.
Britain announced sanctions against Israeli settlers in February and May this year over what it said was extremist groups perpetrating settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.
Lammy, who became foreign minister in July after a Labour election victory, indicated the new government would take a similar approach and said that further sanctions were possible.
“We are very worried about escalatory behaviour, very worried about inflamed tensions,” he said. “I’m absolutely clear: if we have to act, we will act, and I’m in discussions with G7 partners particularly and European partners on that.”
Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon to continue until residents in north safe to return, Gallant says
The Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant has said Israeli strikes on Lebanon would continue until it was safe for evacuated people in the north of Israel to return.
“Hezbollah has begun to feel some of the capabilities of the Israel Defense Forces … and we are seeing the results,” Gallant said during a tour of the Israeli Air Force’s command and control room.
“These moves will continue until we reach a situation where we safely return the residents of the north to their homes. This is the goal, this is the mission, and we will do everything necessary to meet it,” he added, in comments reporting by the Times of Israel.
Hezbollah has vowed to fight on until a ceasefire in the war in Gaza, setting the stage for a long conflict.
Updated
Israel’s communications ministry has said it is working closely with telecommunications firms to “ensure the continuation of landline, cellular and internet connections everywhere” across the country.
“As part of the ministry’s preparations for an emergency, and under the direction of communications minister, the ministry distributed about 440 satellite phones to the heads of (local) councils and security officials,” the ministry said in a statement, adding that it is “prepared for an emergency and will continue to conduct regular situation assessments”.
It comes after Hezbollah responded to Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon with four rocket barrages early on Sunday morning and more than 140 rockets and drones fired into Israel’s Jezreel Valley.
Updated
Death toll in Gaza reaches 41,431 says health ministry
At least 41,431 Palestinian people have been killed and 95,818 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Sunday. The toll includes 40 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry.
The health ministry has said thousands of other dead people are most likely lost in the rubble of the enclave.
Updated
We have some more information on the Israeli airstrike that Palestinian health officials said killed seven people in the Kafr Qasem school (in Beach refugee camp) in Gaza City on Sunday (see post at 10.28).
Officials have said among those killed was Majed Saleh, the director of the public works and housing ministry. Israel’s military claimed that the strike, that happened around 11am local time (0800 GMT), targeted Hamas fighters there. Hundreds of displaced Palestinian people were sheltering at the school.
Updated
Netanyahu says Israel has hit Hezbollah in ways it could not imagine
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has issued a statement form his office. In it, he said Israel has in recent days dealt Hezbollah “a series of blows it could not have imagined”.
“If Hezbollah has not understood the message, I promise you, it will understand the message,” Netanyahu said, as he promised the return of northern residents who were evacuated due to attacks by Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“No country can tolerate firing on its citizens, on its cities, and us – the State of Israel – will not tolerate it. We will do everything necessary to restore security,” Netanyahu was quoted as saying.
Updated
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, has been speaking to the media in New York ahead of the UN general assembly. According to the Hareetz reporter Allison Kaplan Sommer, he said Israel “has created a real hell in Gaza” and that “the crimes of the Zionist regime in Lebanon, even though they are being committed out of frustration, will not be left without response”.
“The main hurdle in achieving ceasefire and stopping this war has really been the support provided by the US and Western countries,” Araghchi said, as he blamed western support for Israel being able to continue its devastating military actions.
Gaza rescuers say Israeli strike on school shelter kills seven people
Al Jazeera has quoted Gaza’s civil defence as saying that seven people have been killed by Israeli bombing of the Kafr Qasim school in western Gaza City, which has been housing hundreds of displaced people.
Civil defence agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal reported “seven martyrs and a number of wounded, including serious cases, as a result of Israeli shelling of Kafr Qasim school” in the refugee camp.
It follows reports of an attack yesterday on the al-Falah school in the al-Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City, in which 21 people, including 13 children, were killed, according to Wafa, the Palestinian news agency.
Updated
Trevor Phillips puts it to Isaac Herzog that Israel has been widely accused of being behind the deadly pager and walkie-talkie explosions in Lebanon last week, in which children were among those who were killed. Philips asks the Israeli president if this was a “legitimate way to prosecute a war”, given the fact there was no way of ensuring civilians were not killed in the attack. “I reject out of hand any connection to this or that source of operation,” Herzog said. He did not answer the question directly, but instead talked about the rocket attack – which Israel blamed on Hezbollah – that struck the predominantly Druze town of Majdal Shams in the mountainous Golan Heights, close to the border with Syria, in July, in which at least 12 people, including children, were killed. Herzog said that Israel, as a sovereign nation, has a right to defend itself.
"We have the inherent right to defend ourselves."
— Sky News (@SkyNews) September 22, 2024
Israeli president @Isaac_Herzog refuses to deny Israel was behind the exploding pagers attack against Hezbollah.#TrevorPhillips https://t.co/fhIHlpTGAF
📺 Sky 501, Virgin 602, Freeview 233 and YouTube pic.twitter.com/EBZwHkrln9
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Israel does not want war with Lebanon, Israeli president says
Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, has been interviewed by Sky News’ Trevor Phillips on his Sunday morning politics programme in the UK. Herzog says that Israel “does not want war” with Lebanon, claiming that the conflict was “instigated” by Iranian proxies in the region, including Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthis, as well as Hamas in Gaza.
“Israel is fighting for its well being, its existence, its citizens. That’s what we are doing. And we are doing whatever is the right thing to do,” he said, adding that Lebanon has been hijacked by Hezbollah, which he described as a “terror organisation”.
“It is being armed to its teeth by the Iranian empire of evil,” he said, stressing that Israel wants to bring Israeli hostages back from Gaza and to return Israeli citizens “back to their homes on the border with Lebanon”.
.@TrevorPTweets: "Is Israel now at war with Lebanon?"@Isaac_Herzog: 'Israel is not interested to be at war with Lebanon - but Lebanon has been hijacked by a terror organisation, it's been armed to its teeth by the Iranian Empire of Evil'#TrevorPhillips https://t.co/fhIHlpTGAF pic.twitter.com/4YOblhLBtw
— Sky News (@SkyNews) September 22, 2024
Israel’s military said on Sunday that it intercepted a “suspicious aerial target” launched from the east, and that no damage or injuries were reported.
Earlier, an official in the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a loose coalition of Iranian-backed militias that oppose US support for Israel in the war on Gaza, said they launched cruise missile and explosive drone attacks at Israel.
Pro-Iranian militias in Iraq have claimed responsibility for drone attacks on Israel multiple times since the outbreak of war in Gaza almost a year ago.
You can read more about who the Islamic Resistance in Iraq are in this useful explainer by the Guardian’s defence and security editor, Dan Sabbagh, here:
Updated
Hezbollah strikes Israeli defence company's industrial complexes in 'initial response' to pager attacks
William Christou is reporting from the Lebanese capital, Beirut
Hezbollah has said it has struck industrial complexes belonging to Israeli defence company Rafael, just near Haifa, in northern Israel, early on Sunday morning.
The group said in a statement said the attack was part of an “initial response” to the pager and walkie-talkie attacks which left more than 3,000 wounded and 42 dead across Lebanon on Tuesday and Wednesday. It is widely believed that Israel was behind the attacks, though it has not publicly claimed responsibility.
Fighting in south Lebanon and north Israel reached its most intense yet overnight, with Israel launching wide-ranging air strikes which it said targeted Hezbollah missile launchers across Lebanon’s south.
Videos of the resulting explosions with visible shockwaves being filmed from afar widely circulated Lebanese social media. At least one was killed and another injured in the strikes, the Lebanese ministry of health said.
In turn, Hezbollah shot a barrage of rockets at north Israel overnight, targeting Ramat David airbase south east of Haifa in the early hours of Sunday morning — the furthest the group has hit since fighting began in October.
The renewed fighting comes days after Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant said Israel was approaching a “new phase” in the war with Hezbollah. Secretary general of Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah said in a Thursday speech that the intensified Israeli attacks would not stop the group from continuing its attacks on Israel, until a ceasefire in Gaza was reached.
Here are some of the latest images coming out of the newswires from northern Israel, where Hezbollah says it has fired rockets:
The Israeli army have continued attacks across southern and central Gaza today, killing at least seven Palestinians, according to Wafa, the Palestinian news agency.
Israeli artillery reportedly targeted the town of Khuza’a, east of the southern city Khan Younis, killing two people.
Emergency teams from the Palestinian Red Crescent later recovered the bodies of four people from the al-Attatirah area east of Rafah, after Israeli airstrikes.
In another attack, Wafa reports that one person was killed after an Israeli army quadcopter – a drone with four propellers - opened fire on civilians west of the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. These reports have not yet been independently verified by the Guardian.
Middle East is on brink of 'imminent catastrophe', UN official warns
The United Nations special coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, has warned of an “imminent catastrophe” in the Middle East.
“With the region on the brink of an imminent catastrophe, it cannot be overstated enough: there is no military solution that will make either side safer,” she wrote in a brief statement on X.
“With the region on the brink of an imminent catastrophe, it cannot be overstated enough: there is NO military solution that will make either side safer.” - @UN Special Coordinator for #Lebanon @JeanineHennis. pic.twitter.com/CNXSO4VhTF
— UNSCOL (@UNSCOL) September 22, 2024
Overnight barrage of Hezbollah rockets launched into Israel, IDF says
Welcome to our live coverage of Israel’s war in Gaza and the wider Middle East crisis.
Hezbollah launched more than 100 rockets early on Sunday from Lebanon targeting a wide area of northern Israel, according to Israel’s military, with some landing near the city of Haifa.
The rocket barrage overnight set off air raid sirens across northern Israel, sending thousands of people scrambling into shelters. The Israeli military said rockets had been fired “toward civilian areas”, pointing to a possible escalation after previous barrages had mainly been aimed at military targets.
In posts on X, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Lebanon launched two waves of attacks – the first about 85 rockets where some of them were intercepted, including crashes detected in the areas of Kiryat Bialik, Tzur Shalom and Moroshet. The second attack included 20 rockets after alerts were issued in the in the Jezreel Valley area, according to the IDF.
Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said it treated four people for shrapnel wounds, including a 76-year-old man who suffered minor injuries in Kiryat Bialik, a community near Haifa where buildings were damaged and cars set on fire. It was not immediately clear if the damage was caused by a rocket or an Israeli interceptor.
Earlier, the Israeli military said it launched airstrikes on hundreds of targets in southern Lebanon in the wake of the deepest rocket attacks by Hezbollah into Israel since the start of the war in Gaza last October. The IDF said on Saturday night it launched two wave of attacks – one attacking about 290 targets, and a second targeting 110 sites.
Earlier, Hezbollah posted on its Telegram channel that it had targeted the Israeli Ramat David airbase near Haifa on Saturday night with dozens of missiles in response to what it described as “repeated Israeli attacks on Lebanon”.
The airbase is the furthest target the Lebanese group has hit in Israel since October, about 50km from the Lebanon-Israel border.
Here is a recap of the latest developments:
Hospitals in northern Israel have been instructed to transfer their operations to facilities with extra protection from rocket and missile fire, the health ministry said on Sunday. Rambam hospital in Haifa will transfer patients to its underground, secure facility, the ministry said. Meanwhile, the military’s Home Front Command said schools and other educational institutions and activities would not be permitted in the north until at least Monday at 6pm local time.
The death toll from an Israeli airstrike that targeted Hezbollah military commanders in Beirut’s southern suburbs has risen to 45, Lebanon’s health ministry said on Sunday, updating an earlier toll of 37 from the Friday attack.
News broadcaster Al Jazeera said on Sunday morning that Israeli forces raided its bureau in the West Bank’s Ramallah city with a military order to close it for 45 days. The Qatar-based channel aired live footage of the Israeli troops entered the channel’s office and handed over a closure order to one of the Al Jazeera TV staff. Al Jazeera’s West Bank bureau chief, Walid al-Omari, reported that Israeli troops brought a truck to confiscate documents, devices and office property. In a statement, the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate condemned the raid, saying “this arbitrary military decision is considered a new violation against journalistic and media works”.
The US state department has urged Americans in Lebanon to leave the country while commercial options remain available. “At this time, commercial flights are available, but at reduced capacity. If the security situation worsens, commercial options to depart may become unavailable,” it added.
The death toll from an Israeli strike on Saturday on a school-turned-shelter in Gaza city included “13 children and six women”, one of whom was pregnant, said civil defence agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal. The Gaza health ministry said at least 22 had died as a result of the strike.
US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said he was worried about escalation between Israel and Lebanon. Sullivan, speaking with reporters in Wilmington, Delaware, said yesterday that he still sees a path to a ceasefire in Gaza but that the US is “not at a point right now where we’re prepared to put something on the table”.
Attacks on Lebanon this week showed that the Israeli government planned to spread the war to the region, Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said, calling on western countries to take “deterrent steps” against Israel’s actions. Erdoğan told a press conference that Israel’s war in Gaza will top the agenda of his speech at the UN general assembly on Tuesday. “It is time for all countries with the mission of protecting world peace to come up with solutions that will stop Israel,” Erdoğan said.
Iran unveiled its “jihad” single-stage liquid-fuel ballistic missile with a high-explosive detachable warhead and a range of 1,000km, according to state TV. The missiles were displayed on Saturday, along with other military hardware, during a parade marking the anniversary of the start of the 1980-88 war with Iraq.
At least 41,391 Palestinians have been killed and 95,760 injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October, Gaza’s health ministry said on Saturday. Gaza’s ministry of health does not distinguish between civilians and militants in its count.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, 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.”
