Israel-Lebanon live: Netanyahu tells UN Israel will fight for total victory over Hezbollah and Hamas

Australia has urged its 15,000 citizens in Lebanon to leave due to the escalating conflict, warning that Beirut airport may close soon.

With Israel intensifying airstrikes and the possibility of a ground assault, Australia is preparing contingency plans, potentially including evacuations by sea, according to Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese.

He refused to give more details on the evacuation plan.

“We’re looking at every option, but there’s obviously national security issues,” he told Sky News in an interview.

“Given the large numbers we are talking about, this situation will be difficult to resolve,” Mr Albanese said on ABC Television.

“We’ve been meeting on this through appropriate bodies over a period of time, including engaging with our friends and allies,” he added.

Foreign minister Penny Wong also said there is a risk Beirut airport may close for an extended period, and urged Australians who live in Lebanon — around 15,000 — to leave now.

Israel’s air force has struck about 220 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon the past day, the military says.

Among the targets struck were infrastructure sites, launchers from which projectiles were fired toward Israeli territory, Hezbollah operatives and weapons storage facilities in Lebanon, it said.

“The IDF is continuing to operate to degrade and dismantle Hezbollah’s terrorist capabilities and infrastructure,” the Israeli Defence Forces said.

The US Secretary of State has spoken out on the international efforts to achieve a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

The world is speaking clearly on the need for a ceasefire on the Israel-Lebanon border - otherwise known as the Blue Line - he told MSNBC.

Tensions in the Middle East continue to escalate as Israel ramps up its assault on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.

Beginning with a major bombardment on 23 September, Lebanon has now experienced its deadliest attack since the end of the 1975 - 1990 Civil War, with over 90,000 civilians displaced from their homes.

Israel has called the bombardment a “new phase” of its war on Gaza, striking more than 1,000 targets in Lebanon which it says were Hezbollah strongholds or military facilities in homes.

Read the full report from The Independent’s Albert Toth:

An Israeli strike has hit a border crossing bridge between Syria and Lebanon, Lebanese transport minister Ali Hamieh said.

The strike on Thursday hit the Syrian end of the small bridge, Hamieh told Reuters, but it is unclear whether the bridge is still usable.

Israel says its fighter jets hit infrastructure on the border to stop the transfer of weapons from Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

It said it will “continue to strike” on Hezbollah’s attempts to arm itself.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu ruled out a possible ceasefire deal on Thursday.

In resonse to reports that Tel Aviv was open to negotiating, the Prime Minister’s office said: “The news about a ceasefire – not true.

“This is an American-French proposal, to which the prime minister did not even respond.”

Netanyahu will meet fellow world leaders at the United Nations this week.

The bombing campaign in southern Lebanon has continued, with over 600 people in Lebanon killed so far, according to the Lebanese health ministry.

Netanyahu has instructed the military to continue fighting at full power for the moment, Reuters news agency reported.

He added that the fighting in Gaza would continue until Israel has achieved its war aims.

Twenty-three Syrian refugees were killed in Lebanon after an Israeli airstrike destroyed a building housing workers, Lebanon’s state-run news agency reported.

Four more Syrians and four Lebanese were wounded in the airstrike late on Wednesday in the village of Younine.

It comes as Israel’s military chief prepares troops for a potential ground invasion following a heavy bombing campaign across southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah has fired dozens of rockets across the border into northern Israel, most of which have been intercepted by Israeli defence systems.

Israeli strikes killed more than 72 people on Wednesday, bringing the death toll since Monday to more than 630 with more than 2,000 wounded.

The mother of a British teacher in Beirut has shared her “relief” at her son’s escape from Lebanon.

Charlie Peters, 24, from Highgate in north London, worked in a Syrian refugee camp in Lebanon’s capital and has fled the country after the UK government urged British citizens to leave.

His mother, Nicola, said: “I’ve spent three days with the jitters and the jumps and not wanting really to look at the news, but also having to look at the news, and that’s really tricky.

“All those stages of, ‘are you at the airport? Have you got your boarding pass? Are you at gate?’ Because you’re waiting for that sort of news to come through the airport is shot.

“What Charlie was really keen to do is that he did not want to be evacuated

“He was like, ‘we’re edging towards emergency evacuation here. I don’t want to be somebody who’s left it to the point where that’s my only option.”

Nicola said that her son had to wrestle with the decision to leave Lebanon.

“What you have to understand for these people who work in these sort of refugee camp systems is you’re leaving people behind who have no choice,” she said.

Charlie hopes to arrive at London Heathrow this afternoon.