Middle East latest: Fireballs light up Beirut sky during Israeli attacks as Haifa hit by rockets

A senior leader of Hezbollah is “unreachable” after Israeli strikes on Beirut, a Lebanese security source has told Reuters, suggesting that Israel may have killed another key figure from the Iran-backed group.

The source claimed that since strikes on the suburb of Dahieh in Beirut on Friday, senior leader Hashem Safieddine could not be reached.

Subsequent strikes have prevented rescuers from concluding whether Safieddine has been killed, separate sources added.

When asked in a Friday evening briefing about whether Safieddine was killed in the strike, Israeli military spokesperson Nadav Shoshani said that the military was still investigating the outcome of the raid.

“Around midnight, we struck the Central Intelligence headquarters of Hezbollah in Dahieh,” he said. “When we have more information to share about who was there and what the result of the strike was, we will share it.”

He claimed that since beginning the ground invasion into southern Lebanon the Israeli military had killed  250 Hezbollah operatives, including four battalion commanders and nine company commanders.

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah was killed by an Israeli strike last week in Beirut.

Iranian oil minister Mohsen Paknejad has said he is “not worried about crisis” amid reports that Israel could target the country’s oil facilities by way of retaliation to Tehran’s aerial attack on Israel on Wednesday.

Earlier this week, US president Joe Biden sought to dissuade Israel from attacking Iran’s oil fields for fear of it’s impact on global oil prices.

“If I were in their shoes, I’d be thinking about other alternatives than striking oil fields,” he said.

An Israeli strike on a refugee camp in north Lebanon has killed Hamas official Saeed Atallah Ali and his family, the militant group has said.

The early morning strike came a day after another Israeli air strike cut off a main highway linking Lebanon with Syria, leaving two huge craters on either side of the road.

Israel began a ground incursion into Lebanon on Tuesday against the Hezbollah militant group. The Israeli military said nine soldiers have died in the conflict in southern Lebanon.

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.