Israel-Hezbollah latest: Iran’s leader vows Tehran won’t back down as Hezbollah successor ‘targeted in Beirut’

US president Joe Biden said yesterday he did not believe there is going to be an “all-out war” in the Middle East, amid Israel’s assault on Lebanon and Gaza and rising tensions with Iran.

Asked how confident Mr Biden was that such a war can be averted, he told reporters: “How confident are you it’s not going to rain? Look, I don’t believe there is going to be an all-out war. I think we can avoid it.”

“But there is a lot to do yet, a lot to do yet,” he added.

As Israel attacks targets in central Beirut, the UK Foreign Office has run the first evacuation flight from Lebanon to help British citizens, their spouses and children under 18 to leave the country.

The plane from Beirut touched down at Birmingham airport on Wednesday evening carrying “more than 150 British nationals and dependents”, according to the Foreign Office.

More evacuation flights are planned. The government says they “will continue for as long as the security situation allows”.

But the Foreign Office warns: “Do not rely on FCDO being able to evacuate you in an emergency.”

Simon Calder has more.

A British man has said he will be stranded in Israel for weeks because of a lack of commercial flights out of the country to the UK.

Keith Ottaway, 46, originally planned to return to the UK on September 24 after visiting his partner in Israel, but successive flights were cancelled.

He said the next available ticket with Israeli flag carrier airline El Al is not until 21 October.

Sam Hall reports:

United Nations peacekeepers in southern Lebanon remain in place - despite Israel asking them to move - and provide the only communications link between the countries' militaries, the UN peacekeeping chief said on Thursday.

"Peacekeepers continue to do their best to implement their Security Council mandate in obviously very difficult conditions," UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix told reporters, adding that contingency plans were ready for both good and bad outcomes.

The mission, known as UNIFIL, is mandated by the Security Council to help the Lebanese army keep the area free of weapons and armed personnel other than those of the Lebanese state. That has sparked friction with Iran-backed Hezbollah, which effectively controls southern Lebanon.

The Israeli military asked UN peacekeepers earlier this week to prepare to relocate more than 5 km (3 miles) from the border between Israel and Lebanon - known as the Blue Line - "as soon as possible, in order to maintain your safety," according to an excerpt from the message, seen by Reuters.

"The peacekeepers are currently staying in their position, all of them," Lacroix told reporters. "The parties have an obligation to respect the safety of and security of peacekeepers, and I want to insist on that."

Lacroix said UNIFIL was continuing to liaise with both countries, describing the mission as "the only channel of communication" between them. The mission was working to protect civilians and support the safe movement of civilians and delivery of humanitarian aid.

The UN peacekeepers operate between the Litani River in the north and the Blue Line in the south. The mission has more than 10,000 troops from 50 countries and about 800 civilian staff, according to its website.

Israel's military told residents of more than 20 towns in south Lebanon to evacuate their homes immediately on Thursday as it pressed on with its cross-border incursion and struck Hezbollah targets in a suburb of Beirut.

The United Nations Security Council on Thursday expressed its full support for Secretary-General Antonio Guterres after Israel's foreign minister said he was barring him from entering the country.

The 15-member council said in a statement that any decision not to engage with the UN Secretary-General or the United Nations is counterproductive, especially in the context of escalating tensions in the Middle East.

The statement did not name Israel. Such statements by the council are agreed by consensus.

The Biden administration believes it is appropriate for Israel to continue with its ground and air attacks on Hezbollah for now, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Thursday, even as he acknowledged the risk of the operation in Lebanon expanding beyond Israel's current aims.

Israel sent troops into southern Lebanon on Tuesday after two weeks of intense airstrikes in a worsening conflict that has drawn in Iran and risks sucking in the United States.

Speaking at a regular press briefing, Miller said the nature of all conflicts was "fluid" and "unpredictable" and therefore it was impossible to say how long it would take Israel to achieve its stated goal of clearing Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon, allowing it to return Israelis displaced from their homes across the border by months of rocket fire.

"We do ultimately want to see a ceasefire and diplomatic resolution, but we do think it's appropriate that Israel, at this point, is bringing terrorists to justice," Miller said.

Washington has repeatedly warned Israel against escalating the conflict, but a three-week ceasefire proposal put forward by the US and other countries last week was quickly dismissed by Israel in favor of intensified operations.

More than 1.2 million Lebanese have been displaced by Israeli attacks, and nearly 2,000 people have been killed since the start of the Israeli attacks on Lebanon over the last year, most of them in the past two weeks, Lebanese authorities said.

The United States has continued to provide Israel with arms despite tensions during the past year over the conduct of its war in Gaza, which started when Palestinian Hamas militants attacked southern Israel on 7 October, 2023.

Washington has raised concerns about the civilian toll of that conflict and at times urged Israel to restrain its forces to calm international outrage.

Israeli strikes on Lebanon have left 37 people dead and 151 wounded in the past 24 hours, the Lebanese health ministry said in a statement early on Friday.

An Israeli strike on Beirut targeted senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine, Axios reporter Barak Ravid said in a post on social media platform X early on Friday, citing an Israeli source.

Safieddine is the man widely regarded as the heir of slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Reuters could not confirm the information in the social media post and there was no immediate official statement from any side.

The Pentagon said on Thursday that it was in discussions with Israeli officials about their possible response to Iran's missile attack earlier this week but declined to offer more details on those talks.

"We are certainly talking to them about their response, but what their response might be, I'm just not going to speculate further on. But we do continue to engage with them," said Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh.