Israel-Lebanon latest: Netanyahu warns attacks will continue as Israel unleashes fresh wave of strikes

Speaking at his final UN summit, President Joe Biden said full-scale war between Israel and Hezbollah is “not in anyone’s interest”.

Biden says the US has been working to bring “peace and stability” to the region, calling for a ceasefire agreement to be signed between Israel and Hamas as it nears one year since Israel invaded Gaza following the October 7 attacks by Hamas.

He added that the US is determined to prevent a wider war across the Middle East.

“Full-scale war is not in anyone’s interest … A diplomatic solution is still possible. In fact, it remains the only path to lasting security,” Biden told the summit.

The Israeli military has echoed reports that Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Qubaisi was killed in a strike on Beirut.

The news was first reported by two Lebanese security sources via Reuters news agency.

According to the Times of IsraeI’s military correspondent, Israeli forces said Qubaisi was killed in an airstrike by two fighter jets in the southern Dahiyeh suburb.

It added that other senior officers in Hezbollah’s rocket division were in the apartment when Qubaisi was killed.

Six people were killed and 15 people injured, Reuters reported.

Israel says Hezbollah has launched some 9,000 rockets and drones into Israel since last October, and has increased its capacity to 150,000 rockets in total.

Below, we look at where the strikes have hit over the past few days.

The Independent’s Tom Watling reports:

António Guterres, the UN Secretary-General, said we “can’t go on like this” as the General Assembly’s annual debate between world leaders began.

A growing number of countries believe they should have a “get out of jail free” card, Guterres said according to Reuters.

Guterres did not specify which countries he was referring to, but said: “They can trample international law. They can violate the United Nations Charter.

“They can invade another country, lay waste to whole societies, or utterly disregard the welfare of their own people.

“And nothing will happen. The level of impunity in the world is politically indefensible and morally intolerable.”

Guterres also spoke on Lebanon specifically, stating that Lebanese and Israelis “cannot afford Lebanon to become another Gaza.”

After the deadliest day of airstrikes in Lebanon since 2006, UNICEF warns that many children remain “missing under rubble” and stuck “on dangerous roads”.

More children were killed in Lebanon on Monday than in the entire year leading up to it, UNICEF Deputy Representative for Lebanon Ettie Higgins told a UN briefing, according to CNN.

The UN’s children’s agency said it had received reports of Lebanese children sleeping in cars and on the sides of roads after being displaced from their homes in southern Lebanon.

“We’re also getting reports that hundreds of children are caught en route across dangerous roads across the country.

“If we return to a conflict like those dark days of 2006, we really fear as UNICEF that this time, it could be even worse for the children of Lebanon,” Higgins stressed.

The Israeli strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut killed Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Qubaisi, sources told Reuters.

Qubaisi was a leading figure in Hezbollah’s rocket division, the sources said.

Six people were killed and 15 injured in the strike, according to the Lebanese health ministry.

It is the second consecutive day that Israel has struck the Hezbollah-controlled area of Beirut.

Medics announced that at least 22 Palestinians have been killed on Tuesday by several Israeli airstrikes.

Six people, including three women, were killed in a strike on a house in Nuseirat, one of Gaza’s eight historic refugee camps, health officials said.

It comes as Israeli forces battle Hamas-led fighters in Rafah, near Gaza’s Egypt border.

Israeli tanks advanced in northern and western areas of Rafah. Residents in the area said the Israeli army blew up several homes in eastern and central areas, Reuters news agency reports.

US President Joe Biden “hasn’t given up” on bringing about a ceasefire in Gaza.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Tuesday that the US is “determined to keep at it”.

Biden will gather with world leaders in New York to work on a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza, alongside their attempts to avoid an all-out war in the Middle East as the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah ramps up.

As Israel strikes Beirut for the second time in two days, Israeli spokesperson David Mencer is holding a press conference.

"Lebanon should take this warning extremely seriously," he tells reporters.

"The prime minister has also made clear that once our operation is over, they will be able to return safely to their homes."