Israel-Lebanon latest: Intense Israeli strikes on Hezbollah leave 274 dead – including children – Lebanon says
It is the deadliest day in Lebanon since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war
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At least 274 people have been killed and more than 727 wounded, including woman and children, in Israeli strikes that targeted southern Lebanon, the health ministry have said.
The Israeli military said it struck 300 targets in southern and northeastern Lebanon as it steps up pressure against the Hezbollah militant group. It is the the deadliest barrage since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war.
They have unleashed the most widespread wave of air strikes against Hezbollah on Monday and warned Lebanese citizens to evacuate areas where the armed group was storing weapons, moving closer to all-out war.
“We are deepening our attacks in Lebanon, the actions will continue until we achieve our goal to return the northern residents safely to their homes,” Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said.
It was the first warning of its kind in nearly a year of steadily escalating conflict and came after a particularly heavy exchange of fire on Sunday. Israel said it struck around 290 targets inside Lebanon after Hezbollah launched more than 100 rockets at northern Israel.
Meanwhile, Lebanon’s Hezbollah said it launched dozens of rockets at several Israeli military posts in retaliation for the attacks on Southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah attacks were ‘blows it could not have imagined’, Netanyahu says
The Israeli military’s attacks on Hezbollah over the past week were “blows it could not have imagined”, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
Israel killed more than a dozen senior Hezbollah commanders in an air strike on the Shi’ite militia’s stronghold of southern Beirut on Friday.
Top commander Ibrahim Aqil was slain alongside 15 other operatives after multiple missiles tore into the side of the apartment block he was in.
“If Hezbollah has not understood the message, I promise you, it will understand the message,” Mr Netanyahu warned.
Israel will do 'everything necessary' to return evacuated residents to their homes
Israel’s defence minister Yoav Gallant has said that strikes on Lebanon will continue until it is safe for evacuated people in the north of Israel to return to their homes.
“Hezbollah has begun to feel some of the capabilities of the Israel Defence Forces, and there is already a very strong feeling of being persecuted, and we are seeing the results,” he said during a tour of Israeli Air Force facilities.
“These moves will continue until we reach a situation where we safely return the residents of the north to their homes - this is the goal, this is the mission, and we will do everything necessary to meet it,” he added.
Israeli strike kills 7 in Gaza school, ministry says
At least seven people have been killed in an Israeli airstrike on a Gaza school, the Hamas-run health ministry said.
The strike hit Kafr Qasem School in Gaza City at around 11am (8am GMT) local time on Sunday as it was being used to shelter displaced people, the ministry added.
The Israeli military said the strike targeted Hamas fighters and it had used aerial surveillance to limit the risk to civilians.
Lammy ‘deeply concerned’ by violence in West Bank
David Lammy has said he was “deeply, deeply concerned” by events in the West Bank and left the door open for possible sanctions for those engaging in “escalatory behaviour”.
“I’m not announcing further sanctions today but that is kept under close review,” the UK foreign secretary told a Labour Party conference fringe event hosted by Labour Together.
“As you would expect, I’m deeply, deeply concerned by what I’ve seen at this point in time.” Asked whether he was referring to events in the West Bank, he said: “Yes.”
The Foreign Secretary was asked by an audience member at a fringe event at Labour conference when the Government would take the step of introducing a full arms embargo.
“We have suspended those licences that could be used to breach international humanitarian law in Gaza,” he said.
“I don’t think it would be quite right to suspend licences, for example, that the Israelis could use in relation to the Houthis, that Israel may need to use in relation to the challenges it has with other proxies in the area. I think that would be a mistake.
“It would lead to a wider war and an escalation that we here in the UK are committed to stopping, so I’m afraid I disagree with that position.”
What to know about the growing conflict between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah
What to know about the growing conflict between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah
This week saw a dizzying escalation in the 11-month-old conflict between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah
What is Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese group?
What is Hezbollah, the Lebanese group hit in ‘double tap’ pager attacks?
Israel has declared a ‘new phase of war’ on its border with Lebanon
Watch: Israel hit by Hezbollah rockets in biggest attack yet
Israel said it struck around 290 targets inside Lebanon after Hezbollah launched just over 100 rockets at northern Israel in the most intense skirmish since the war in Gaza began almost a year ago.
Israel closed schools and in many northern areas of the country and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights early on Sunday, with reports of rockets hitting Haifa, a port city around 17 miles from the Lebanon border.
In this video from Haifa, northern Israel, a number of vehicles can be seen ablaze on a residential street on Sunday.
Netanyahu says Israel has hit Hezbollah in ways it could not imagine
Israel has in recent days hit Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon in ways it could not imagine, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.
“If Hezbollah has not understood the message, I promise you, it will understand the message,” Netanyahu said, according to a statement from his office.
Israel denies involvement with pager attack
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.
Who is Ibrahim Aqil, the Hezbollah commander killed in an Israeli airstrike?
Just hours after Hezbollah launched around 150 rockets over Lebanon’s southern border into Israel on Friday, an apartment block around 70 miles north in Beirut was flattened by an Israeli airstrike.
The Israeli military said it had carried out a targeted attack, which ended up killing 31 people, including 15 Hezbollah operatives, as well as wounding 68 others.
The strike was the third devastating blow to the Shi’ite militia in four days after the explosion of the group’s pagers and walkie-talkies killed over 30 and wounded hundreds in a suspected Israeli attack.
One of those slain was Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil, after multiple missiles tore into the side of the building he was in the basement of while meeting other Hezbollah members.
Aqil, 61, was described as one of the group’s “top leaders” by Israel.The Independent takes a look at who he was below:
Who is Ibrahim Aqil, the Hezbollah commander killed in an Israeli airstrike?
Ibrahim Aqil was killed after multiple Israeli missiles tore into the side of an apartment block in Beirut on Friday
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