Israel-Lebanon latest: Intense Israeli strikes on Hezbollah leave 274 dead – including children – Lebanon says

UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres has made a stark assessment of the Gaza conflict, stating that it’s clear neither side is interested in a ceasefire.

“It is for me clear that both sides are not interested in a ceasefire. And that is a tragedy, because this is a war that must stop,” Mr Guterres told the CNN, adding that “neither the government of Israel nor the Hamas really want the ceasefire.”

Hamas has praised its ally Hezbollah for launching overnight rocket strikes against northern Israel.

In a statement, Hamas expressed solidarity with Hezbollah, saying: “Hamas salutes 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.”

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi has met with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas in New York, expressing “deep concern at the humanitarian situation in Gaza and reaffirmed India’s continued support to the people of Palestine”, according to a government spokesperson.

“Met President Mahmoud Abbas in New York,” Mr Modi wrote on X. “Reiterated India’s support for the early restoration of peace and stability in the region. Exchanged views on further strengthening our long-standing friendship with the people of Palestine.”

During the meeting, Mr Modi conveyed India’s commitment to the Palestinian people, emphasising the need for peace and stability in the region, officials said.

This meeting took place on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu disclosed in a closed Knesset meeting that approximately half of the 97 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza since 7 October are thought to be alive.

“We have information indicating half of the hostages in Gaza are alive,” Mr Netanyahu told lawmakers at the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, according to Army Radio.

Hezbollah launched more than 100 rockets across northern Israel on Sunday as a senior leader declared an “open-ended battle of reckoning”, with both sides appearing closer than ever to all-out war.

Some of the rockets landed near the city of Haifa; one struck near a residential building in Kiryat Bialik, wounding at least three people and setting buildings and cars on fire.

It followed Israeli strikes on Lebanon that have killed dozens, including a veteran Hezbollah commander, and an unprecedented attack targeting the group’s communications devices.

Report:

Israel has denied having any involvement with a deadly exploding pager attack which injured thousands of people across Lebanon and Syria.

Israeli president Isaac Herzog said he “rejects out of hand any connection” to the audacious operation carried out against Hezbollah on Tuesday.

At least 39 people were injured and 3,000 were wounded after the Shi’ite militia’s pagers and walkie-talkies simultaneously detonated across the Middle East.

Hezbollah said it had launched dozens of Fadi 1 and Fadi 2 missiles — a new weapon the group hadn’t used before — at the Ramat David airbase, southeast of Haifa, “in response to the repeated Israeli attacks that targeted various Lebanese regions and led to the fall of many civilian martyrs”.

In July, the group released what it said was video it had taken of the base with surveillance drones.

Hezbollah also said it had targeted facilities of the Rafael defence firm, headquartered in Haifa, calling it retaliation for the wireless devices attack. It didn’t provide evidence, and the Israeli military declined to comment.

Hezbollah vowed to retaliate for a wave of explosions that hit pagers and walkie-talkies belonging to Hezbollah members on Tuesday and Wednesday, killing at least 37 people — including two children — and wounding about 3,000. The attacks were widely blamed on Israel, which hasn’t confirmed or denied responsibility.

An Israeli airstrike on Friday took down an eight-story building in a densely populated Beirut suburb as Hezbollah members met in the basement, according to Israel. Among those killed was Ibrahim Akil, who commanded the group’s special forces unit.

The Middle East is on the edge of disaster, warns Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the UN envoy for Lebanon. The region has seen a significant escalation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, with the conflict in Gaza nearing its one-year mark.

Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging fire since Hamas initiated the conflict with a 7 October attack on Israel last year, resulting in approximately 1,200 deaths and 250 hostages taken. Over 41,000 Palestinians have since been killed, with women and children accounting for more than half of the casualties, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

Families of Israeli hostages and residents of Gaza expressed fears the fighting in Lebanon will divert international attention from their own plights.

“I’m incredibly concerned with the increased tensions with Hezbollah because, my biggest concern is that, all the public’s attention and the world’s attention” would be distracted, said Udi Goren, a relative of Tal Haimi, an Israeli who was killed 7 October and whose body was taken into Gaza.

Enas Kollab, a Palestinian displaced from Gaza, voiced similar fears. “We are afraid that the situation in Lebanon will affect us - that all attention will turn to Lebanon and we will become forgotten,” she said.

The rocket attacks followed an Israeli airstrike Friday in Beirut that killed at least 45 people, including Ibrahim Akil, one of Hezbollah’s top leaders, several other fighters, and women and children.

Hezbollah was already reeling from a sophisticated attack that caused thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies to explode just days earlier. But it faces a difficult balance of stretching the rules of engagement by hitting deeper into Israel, while at the same time trying to avoid large-scale attacks on civilian areas and infrastructure that could trigger a full-scale war that it would rather not start and take the blame for.

Hezbollah’s deputy leader Naim Kassem said Sunday’s rocket attack was just the beginning of what’s now an “open-ended battle” with Israel.

“We admit that we are pained. We are humans. But as we are pained — you will also be pained,” Kassem said at Akil’s funeral.

He vowed Hezbollah will continue military operations against Israel in support of Gaza but also warned of unexpected attacks “from outside the box,” pointing to rockets fired deeper into Israel.

Hezbollah fired over 100 rockets early on Sunday across northern Israel, with some landing near the city of Haifa, as Israel launched hundreds of strikes on Lebanon.

A Hezbollah leader declared an “open-ended battle” was underway as both sides appeared to be spiraling closer toward all-out war.

The overnight rocket barrage was in response to Israeli attacks in Lebanon that have killed dozens, including a veteran Hezbollah commander, and an unprecedented attack targeting the group’s communications devices. Air raid sirens across northern Israel sent hundreds of thousands of people scrambling into shelters.

One struck near a residential building in Kiryat Bialik, a city near Haifa, wounding at least three people and setting buildings and cars ablaze. Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said four people were wounded.

Avi Vazana raced to a shelter with his wife and nine-month-old baby before he heard the rocket hitting. Then he went back outside to see if anyone was hurt.

“I ran without shoes, without a shirt, only with pants. I ran to this house when everything was still on fire to try to find if there are other people,” he said.

Lebanon’s health ministry said three people were killed and four wounded in Israeli strikes near the border, without saying whether they were civilians or combatants.