Israel-Hezbollah conflict – latest: Israel strikes Lebanon as Hezbollah says device blasts are ‘act of war’

Germany has put a hold on new exports of weapons of war to Israel while it deals with legal challenges, according to a Reuters analysis of data and a source close to the Economy Ministry.

A source close to the ministry cited a senior government official as saying it had stopped work on approving export licences for arms to Israel due to legal and political pressure from legal cases arguing that such exports from Germany breached humanitarian law.

The Economy Ministry said on Thursday there was no ban on arms exports to Israel and there would not be one, with decisions made case-by-case after careful review, adding that international law, foreign and security policy were key factors in their assessments.

"There is no German arms export boycott against Israel," a spokesperson for government said on Wednesday, commenting on the report.

Last year, Germany approved arms exports to Israel worth 326.5 million euros ($363.5 million), including military equipment and war weapons, a 10-fold increase from 2022, according to data from the Economy Ministry, which approves export licences.

However approvals have dropped this year, with only 14.5 million euros' worth granted from January to Aug. 21, according to data provided by the Economy Ministry in response to a parliamentary question.

Of this, the weapons of war category accounted for only 32,449 euros.

In its defence of two cases, one before the International Court of Justice and one in Berlin brought by the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, the government has said no weapons of war have been exported under any licence issued since the 7 October Hamas attacks on Israel, apart from spares for long-term contracts, the source added.

No case challenging German arms exports to Israel has yet succeeded, including a case brought by Nicaragua at the ICJ.

The Japanese maker of the brand of walkie-talkies linked to explosions targeting the Hezbollah armed group that killed 20 people in Lebanon and injured hundreds of others said it could not have made the exploding devices.

"There’s no way a bomb could have been integrated into one of our devices during manufacturing. The process is highly automated and fast-paced, so there’s no time for such things," Yoshiki Enomoto a director at ICOM told Reuters outside the company's headquarters in Osaka, Japan on Thursday.

The detonation of hand-held radios used by Hezbollah on Wednesday in Beirut's suburbs and the Bekaa Valley, followed a series of electronic pager explosions on Tuesday that killed at least 12 people, including two children, and injured 3,000 others.

ICOM has said it halted production of the radio models identified in the attack a decade ago and that most of those still on sale were counterfeit.

"If it turns out to be counterfeit, then we'll have to investigate how someone created a bomb that looks like our product. If it's genuine, we'll have to trace its distribution to figure out how it ended up there," Enomoto said.

The arrest of an Israeli citizen on suspicion of involvement in an Iranian-backed assassination plot highlights an intelligence war running alongside the escalating conflict on Israel's border with southern Lebanon.

The arrest over the alleged plot targeting prominent people, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, took place last month, according to a joint statement by Shin Bet and the Israeli police issued on Thursday.

It comes after Shin Bet last week uncovered what it said was a plot by Lebanese militant group Hezbollah to assassinate a former senior defence official, who was subsequently identified as the former army Chief of Staff and Defence Minister Moshe Ya'alon.

Meanwhile, Israel has a long history of intelligence operations in Iran, allegedly including the assassination in July of Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas in a Tehran state guesthouse.

Shin Bet said the latest arrest showed the efforts Iran was making to recruit Israelis to gather intelligence and carry out terrorist missions in Israel, including by using individuals with criminal backgrounds.

According to the Shin Bet statement, the plot went back to April this year when the Israeli, who has not been identified, agreed to meet a wealthy businessman living in Iran for business purposes.

After being told by representatives that the businessman, identified only as Adi, could not leave Iran, the Israeli man was smuggled into Iran from eastern Turkey, where he met Adi and others, including a man identified as an Iranian security official, the statement said.

The Iranians proposed that he carry out tasks for Iran including transferring money or a gun, photographing crowded places or threatening other Israeli civilians operating on behalf of Iran who did not carry out the requested missions, it continued.

He returned to Israel but went back to Iran for a second time in August, smuggled in a truck, the statement said.

On the second visit, it said Iranian officials asked him to carry out terrorist attacks for Iran and made proposals for assassinating Netanyahu or Gallant or Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar as well as other operations.

It added that the Israeli man asked for a payment of $1 million, but Iranian officials refused the request, saying however they would remain in touch and paying him 5,000 euros ($5,570.50) for joining the meetings.

Benjamin Netanyahu has accused Labour of “sending mixed messages” over the UK’s support for Israel and of “undermining” his country’s right to self-defence.

The Israeli prime minister also told the Daily Mail that Sir Keir Starmer’s administration has been making “misguided” decisions and is “sending a horrible message” to Hamas.

It comes after the British government suspended around 30 of its 350 arms export licences to Israel amid fears they could be used to breach international humanitarian law relating to the treatment of Palestinian detainees and the supply of aid to Gaza.

Handheld radios used by Hezbollah exploded across Lebanon on Wednesday in a second wave of deadly blasts as Israel’s defence minister declared his country was entering a “new phase of war” on its northern border.

At least 20 people were killed and 450 injured by the detonations, Lebanon’s health ministry said.

It came 24 hours after thousands of exploding pagers killed 12 and injured almost 3,000 others in an unprecedented attack that Hezbollah has blamed on Israel.

Chief international correspondent Bel Trew and Chris Stevenson report:

Israeli security services said they had arrested an Israeli citizen on suspicion of involvement in an Iranian-backed assassination plot targeting prominent people including the prime minister.

It said the person was a businessman with connections in Turkey who had attended at least two meetings in Iran to discuss the possibility of assassinating Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant or the head of the Shin Bet intelligence agency.

The Israeli military launched air and artillery strikes on multiple targets in southern Lebanon overnight, targeting Iranian-backed Hezbollah strongholds.

The strikes, confirmed by the Israeli military on Thursday, hit key locations including Chihine, Tayibe, Blida, Meiss El Jabal, Aitaroun, and Kfarkela.

A Hezbollah weapons storage facility in Khiam was also targeted.

Reports suggest Israeli civilians were injured by anti-tank missile fire from Lebanon, although officials have yet to confirm.

This latest escalation follows months of cross-border exchanges between Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants. On Wednesday, Hezbollah fired around 20 projectiles into Israel, with most intercepted by air defence systems.

The Golan Heights, a strategic area with key Israeli surveillance and air defence installations, was also targeted with around 10 missiles.Tensions along the Lebanon-Israel border continue to spiral, sparking concerns of a broader conflict.

A British-educated businesswoman has denied suggestions that her company manufactured the pagers used in an audacious attack against Hezbollah.

The handheld devices killed at least 12 people and injured 3,000 after they simultaneously detonated across Lebanon and Syria on Tuesday afternoon in a suspected Israeli operation.

The Taiwanese company whose branding was on the technology claimed Budapest-based firm BAC Consultancy made the devices under a three-year brand licensing agreement.

Report:

Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian is set to meet European officials at the UN General Assembly in New York next week, marking a crucial test of whether the two sides can revive diplomatic efforts over Iran’s nuclear programme.

The talks will come amid high tensions in the Middle East, only made worse by the explosions of pagers and hand-held radios used by the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Mr Pezeshkian’s visit, his first to the West since his election in July, takes place just six weeks before the US presidential election, which could see former president Donald Trump, a staunch opponent of compromise with Iran, return to office. According to three Iranian officials, Mr Pezeshkian will convey that “Tehran is open to diplomacy” but will not succumb to pressure.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, rather than Mr Pezeshkian, holds the authority on Tehran’s nuclear and foreign policy. An Iranian official told Reuters, “Iran’s rulers believe that the tense standoff with the West over Iran’s nuclear programme should end... but through negotiations from a position of power, not pressure”.