Killed Hezbollah chief’s rumoured successor ‘unreachable’ amid intense Beirut airstrikes - Israel-Iran latest

At least 41,825 Palestinians have been killed and an additional 96,910 wounded during the last nearly year of Israel’s ground and aerial war in the enclave, the local Hamas-run health ministry has said.

Israel has ordered Palestinians civilians in two refugee camps in the central Gaza Strip to leave ahead of operations to root out Hamas fighters.

Israeli Arabic-language military spokesperson Avichay Adraee posted a map detailing the areas where Israel is preparing to go in with “great force” imminently.

Addressing Palestiniains directly, he claimed that Hamas is “continuing their terrorist activities within your area”.

Times of Israel military correspondent Emanuel Fabian has an English translation of the order below.

A South Korean military transport aircraft has returned 97 citizens and family members from Lebanon on Saturday as Middle East tensions rise, the foreign ministry has announced.

A KC-330 aircraft left Beirut on Friday afternoon with the evacuees, who include Lebanese family members, and arrived at a military airfield on the south of Seoul, the ministry said.

President Yoon Suk Yeol on Wednesday ordered military aircraft to be deployed to evacuate South Korean citizens from parts of the Middle East as conflict escalates between Israel and Hezbollah, as well as the armed group’s backer, Iran.

South Korea’s defence ministry said it flew a C130J transport plane as backup, which is capable of operating on shorter runways and under fire, as a precaution, and sent 39 military personnel, including mechanics and diplomats.

The government will take further actions to ensure the safety of its citizens, the foreign ministry said without elaborating.

South Korean diplomats stationed in Lebanon remained in the country, Yonhap news agency reported.

US president Joe Biden said he “doesn’t know” whether Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is delaying a ceasefire deal in Gaza to influence next month’s US presidential election.

Some Democrats have voiced similar concerns about Mr Netanyahu escalating tensions in the Middle East.

Democratic Senator Chris Murphy told CNN that he fears the Israeli prime minister may be acting strategically by launching attacks right before the US election.

“I hope this is not true, but it is certainly a possibility that the Israeli government might avoid signing any diplomatic agreement prior to the American election, potentially as a way to influence the result,” Mr Murphy said.

The UN said at least 20 Palestinians sheltering across three schools in Gaza have been killed in the past two days.

“Schools are not a target and cannot be used for any military purposes by anyone,” Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN agency United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said yesterday.

Nearly 90 per cent of school buildings in Gaza have been directly hit or damaged since Israel invaded Gaza, of which a third are UNRWA schools, according to the UN.

Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi has arrived in the Syrian capital Damascus after Israel bombed the Masnaa border crossing between Lebanon and Syria.

Syrian foreign ministry condemned the attack on Facebook, adding that the Israeli bombing cut off access to “hundreds of thousands of displaced Lebanese and Syrian citizens”.

“We condemn this reckless Zionist criminality that has now extended to targeting civil defence teams and humanitarian aid workers,” the ministry said in a statement.

“We call for an immediate halt to these violations and demand accountability for this entity’s crimes, ensuring that it does not escape punishment,” it added.

A top US State Department official told CNN that it is “really hard to tell” if Israel is planning retaliatory attacks on 7 October, marking the anniversary of Hamas’ deadly attacks.

“I think in some ways they would want to avoid the seventh, so in my estimation, if there is anything it would likely be before or after,” the official added.

Israel has also not given any official assurances that it would not target Iran’s nuclear facilities, according to the official.

“We hope and expect to see some wisdom as well as strength, but as you guys know, no guarantees,” the state department official said.

Iran’s leader Ali Khamenei said in a rare public address yesterday that Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza will not back down amid Israel’s invasion and airstrikes over Beirut.

Khamenei defended Iran’s airstrike on Israel as “legal and legitimate”, adding that the country would not “procrastinate nor act hastily to carry out its duty” in confronting Israel.

If Israel attacked, Tehran would retaliate by targeting Israeli energy and gas installations, Iranian Revolutionary Guards deputy commander Ali Fadavi was quoted saying semi-official news agency SNN.

“Every strike launched by any group against Israel is a service to the region and to all humanity,” Khamenei said, adding that assassinations would just spur more attacks.

Shipments carrying first aid from the United Arab Emirates have arrived in Lebanon.

The UAE has pledged $100m in urgent relief to Lebanon amid Israel’s invasion of the country.

UAE’s first plane arrived yesterday with 40 tonnes of medical supplies in Beirut.