Lebanon-Israel live: Netanyahu calls up reserve troops after Tel Aviv targeted by Hezbollah

Hezbollah said it launched a surface-to-surface rocket targeting Mossad headquarters near Tel Aviv, saying the Israeli intelligence agency was responsible for assassinating its commanders and blowing up its pagers and walkie-talkies.

The Iran-backed group said it fired a Qadr-110 medium-range ballistic missile to target the headquarters this morning, in its first attack on central Israel since the Gaza war began last October.

Israel said the projectile was intercepted by its air defences.

The Israeli military has been conducting its heaviest airstrikes of the war this week on Lebanon, targeting Hezbollah leaders and hitting hundreds of targets deep inside the country. More than 560 people were killed and 1,800 wounded in strikes on Monday and Tuesday alone.

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has compared Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler at the UN General Assembly, urging world leaders to stop what he described as the Israeli prime minister’s aggression in the Middle East.

“Just as Hitler was stopped by the alliance of humanity 70 years ago, Netanyahu and his murder network must also be stopped by the alliance of humanity,” Mr Erdogan said yesterday as he criticised the UN for becoming “a dysfunctional structure”.

“I call out the United Nations Security Council, what are you waiting for to prevent the genocide in Gaza? To put a stop to this cruelty and this barbarianism?” he asked.

Israel’s airstrikes have killed more than 41,400 Palestinians and injured over 95,800 others in Gaza in 11 months. The war began in retaliation against Hamas’s surprise attack on southern Israel on 7 October, which killed nearly 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians.

A journalist in Lebanon sustained injuries after his house was struck by an Israeli projectile while he was broadcasting live.

Fadi Boudia, the editor-in-chief of the Maraya International network, suffered injuries when the blast shattered the windows of his house in eastern Lebanon’s Al-Bekaa region.

The video of the incident is now viral on social media.

Mr Boudia was speaking live on the Iraqi channel iNews about Israel’s bombings in Lebanon, which has killed more than 560 people, Middle East Monitor reported.

Protesters in some US cities demonstrated yesterday against American military support for Israel amid concerns of a wider war in the Middle East, with anti-war activists demanding an arms embargo against the US ally.

Dozens of protesters gathered in Herald Square in New York City on Tuesday evening and carried banners that read “Hands off Lebanon now” and “no US-Israeli war on Lebanon,” according to the ANSWER coalition group, which stands for “Act Now to Stop War and End Racism”.

Protesters chanted “Hands off the Middle East”, “Free Palestine” and “Biden, Harris, Trump and Bibi; none are welcome in our city,” referring to US president Joe Biden, vice president Kamala Harris, former president Donald Trump and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

A smaller protest with similar slogans and banners was also seen near the White House in Washington last evening.

“Israel’s attacks in Lebanon and the ongoing siege and genocide in Gaza are made possible by the huge amount of bombs, missiles and warplanes provided by the US government,” the ANSWER coalition group said in a statement.

It said protests were also being organised in other cities including San Francisco, Seattle, San Antonio and Phoenix.

The UK already has a significant diplomatic and military presence in the region, including RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus and British ships RFA Mounts Bay and HMS Duncan, which have remained in the eastern Mediterranean over the summer.

The Royal Air Force has planes and transport helicopters on standby to provide support if necessary.

The deployment to Cyprus comes as the government begins the first stage of its contingency plan, with the military team supported by Border Force and Foreign Office officials.

Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged fire of thousands of rockets, forcing tens of thousands to flee their homes, with the Israeli strikes on Lebanon being particularly intense, leaving more than 550 people dead and 1,800 injured in less than two days.

The Israeli military said warplanes struck 1,600 targets on Monday, claiming that they were being used by the Iran-backed Hezbollah Many, the military said, were hidden in residential areas and they called on resiudents to evacuate. Israeli warplanes resumed aerial attacks in the early hours of Tuesday.

Rocket sirens were sounded across Tel Aviv this morning as the Israeli military said it intercepted a surface-to-surface missile fired from Lebanon.

This is the first time Hezbollah has targeted Tel Aviv in central Israel since it began launching attacks on the north of Israel this year following Benjamin Netanyahu’s war on Gaza.

Israel’s two-day-long bombing of Lebanon has killed more than 560 people, including 50 children, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. Israel claims it was targeting Hezbollah hideouts.

Lebanon’s health minister has described the incessant Israeli airstrikes as “carnage”, which killed more than 560 people, including 50 children in just two days.

Firass Abiad said it was “clear” that about 550 people killed on Monday were civilians and not Hezbollah militants.

“If you look at the people who were brought to the emergency rooms it’s clear that they’re civilians. They are not the combatants that the Israelis claim they are,” he told BBC.

“We know about the victims of the attacks because our ambulances are the ones that transferred them to hospitals,” he added.

“[They were] civilians who were doing their normal things.”

Israel says it is acting in self defence against Hezbollah, which has been firing rockets into northern Israel for almost a year now since the start of the Gaza war.

Tens of thousands of people have fled southern Lebanon after Israel’s two-day-long incessant bombing killed more than 560 people, including 50 children, according to the health minister.

Families that fled southern Lebanon flocked to Beirut and the coastal city of Sidon, sleeping in schools turned into shelters, as well as in cars, parks and along the beach.

Some sought to leave the country, causing a traffic jam at the border with Syria, Associated Press reported.

Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned that attacks will continue on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon. But a military spokesperson said Israel aims to keep them “as short as possible, that’s why we’re attacking with great force”.

“At the same time, we must be prepared for it to take longer,” he said.

The UN’s high commissioner for refugees in Lebanon said one of its staffers and her young son were among those killed on Monday in the Bekaa region, while a cleaner under contract was killed in a strike in the south.