Israel is preparing strikes against Iran, vowing to make the country "pay" for firing a volley of around 200 ballistic missiles toward Tel Aviv and other targets on Tuesday night.
Iran said it targeted three military bases in Tel Aviv using hypersonic missiles in retaliation for the killing of former Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh, former Hezbollah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah, and IRGC Quds Force commander General Abbas Nilforoushan.
The Israeli military's Arabic spokesperson Avichay Adraee issued further expulsion orders against villages and towns across south Lebanon following orders on the Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh, which came under intense Israeli assault overnight.
It comes as Israel continues its push into southern Lebanon with Hezbollah saying it had engaged Israeli troops around the Lebanese town of Adaisseh, causing casualties to the invasion force.
Lebanon's ministry of health announced on Tuesday that 55 people were killed and a further 156 were wounded in Israeli strikes across the country.
Germany summoned the Iranian ambassador to condemn Tehran's missile attack on Israel the previous evening, a government spokesman said Wednesday.
"We summoned the Iranian ambassador," foreign ministry spokesman Sebastian Fischer told reporters, adding that the ambassador himself was not in Berlin and that the charge d'affaires had attended instead.
An Israeli soldier was killed in combat in Lebanon, the army said Wednesday, following an incursion by the Israel army across the border earlier this week to target Hezbollah positions.
"Captain Eitan Itzhak Oster, aged 22... fell during combat in Lebanon," the military said in a statement.
Turkey has suspended flights from Istanbul to Iran, Iraq and Jordan due to escalating regional tensions, state broadcaster TRT Haber reported.
Flights from Istanbul to the three countries were cancelled on the night of 1 October and throughout 2 October, the report said.
It also noted that many international airlines had to change their routes due to the continuing conflict and their planes landed at Istanbul's Sabiha Gokcen Airport.
A Lebanese soldier was injured by an Israeli drone strike on a road between Ebel es-Saqi and Hasbaya, which targeted his unit as it was clearing a road blocked by rubbles from Israeli strikes.
Three people, including a man, his wife and their granddaughter, were killed in a strike in the town of Arab Salim in the southern Nabatiyeh district.
Israeli forces briefly crossed into Lebanese territory before withdrawing, the Lebanese army has said.
"An Israeli enemy force breached the Blue Line approximately 400 metres into Lebanese territory in the areas of Khirbet Yaroun and Odaisseh, then withdrew after a short period," the army said on X.
The Blue Line separates Lebanon from Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
خرقت قوة تابعة للعدو الإسرائيلي الخط الأزرق لمسافة ٤٠٠ م تقريبًا داخل الأراضي اللبنانية في منطقتَي خربة يارون وبوابة العديسة ثم انسحبت بعد مدة قصيرة.#الجيش_اللبناني #LebaneseArmy pic.twitter.com/uqOTVUzyQS
— الجيش اللبناني (@LebarmyOfficial) October 2, 2024
Israel declared UN chief Antonio Guterres "persona non grata" on Wednesday, accusing him of failing to specifically condemn Iran's missile attack on Israel.
"Anyone who cannot unequivocally condemn Iran's heinous attack on Israel does not deserve to step foot on Israeli soil," said Foreign Minister Israel Katz in a statement.
"This is an anti-Israel Secretary-General who lends support to terrorists, rapists, and murderers," he said.
Katz added that Guterres, who he said supported the "murderers of Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and now Iran, the mothership of global terror, will be remembered as a stain on the history of the UN for generations to come".
Following Iran's missile attack on Israel late Tuesday, Guterres condemned the "broadening conflict in the Middle East", slamming "escalation after escalation" in the region.
"This must stop. We absolutely need a ceasefire," said Guterres.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni will host a call of Group of Seven (G7) leaders later on Wednesday to discuss the crisis in the Middle East, her office said.
"Italy will continue to strive for a diplomatic solution, including in its capacity as chair of the G7. I have convened a leaders' level meeting for this afternoon," Meloni was quoted as telling her cabinet.
Italy holds the rotating presidency of the G7 - the club of major Western democracies, which comprises the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.
Meloni told her ministers that there was "deep concern" about latest developments, including Iran's missile attack against Israel and the instability in Lebanon, her office said.
"The goal is the stabilization of the Israeli-Lebanese border through the full implementation of Resolution 1701," she was quoted as saying, referring to the UN resolution which halted the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war in south Lebanon.
"In this framework, Italy has called on the UN Security Council to consider strengthening the mandate of the UNIFIL mission in order to ensure the security of the Israel-Lebanon border," she said.
Italy is a major contributor to the United Nations' peacekeeping force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). Italian media reported on Wednesday that the government was considering pulling its forces out of the area given the recent border violence.
(Reuters)
Lebanon's Hezbollah militants are clashing with Israeli forces infiltrating the border town of Maroun Al-Ras, the militant group said in a statement on Wednesday.
The statement comes after the group claimed to have ambushed Israeli troops in the town of Adaisseh, with Al Jazeera reporting that 2 Israeli soldiers have been killed and 18 wounded in an Hezbollah ambush in the town.
The group also announced it had targeted areas north of Israel's city of Haifa with a large missile salvo.
The groups media chief Mohammad Afif said "we are only in the first round" following the clashes, adding that the group had enough fighters, weapons and ammunition to push back Israeli forces.
Container shipping company Maersk said on Wednesday it continued to serve its customers in Lebanon with two weekly callings in Beirut despite the deteriorating security situation in the country.
"While Maersk's business in the country is impacted, we currently remain in a position to serve our customers," a Maersk spokesperson said in an email.
The company said all staff in both Lebanon and Israel were safe and accounted for.
Maersk's office in Lebanon is located in Beirut and employs 21 people.
(Reuters)
Gaza's ministry of health has said that 51 Palestinians have been killed in the last 24 hours as Israel continues its war on the enclave.
The ministry added that 165 had also been injured, with the total number of killed and wounded now standing at 41,689 killed and 96,625 wounded.
Egypt's cabinet condemned what it called a "dangerous" Israeli escalation in southern Lebanon and rejected any attempts to impose a "new situation" on the ground that violates Lebanese sovereignty, according to a statement released on Wednesday.
(Reuters)
Yemen's Houthis targeted military posts deep in Israel with three winged 'Quds 5' rockets, the group's military spokesperson Yahya Saree said on Wednesday.
There was no announcement from the Israeli military about rocket fire from Yemen on Wednesday.
The Houthi militants, backed by Iran, have repeatedly fired missiles and drones at Israel in what they say is solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
The group said the continuous support to Israel from the United States and the United Kingdom will put their interests 'under fire'.
"We will not hesitate in broadening our military operations against the Israeli enemy and who is behind it until the aggression against Gaza and Lebanon ends," Saree added.
Hezbollah said Wednesday it clashed with Israeli soldiers who tried to infiltrate into Lebanon, and also targeted Israeli troops across the border, according to statements from the Iran-backed Lebanese group.
Hezbollah fighters confronted "an Israeli enemy infantry force that tried to infiltrate into the village of Adaisseh... and clashed with them... and forced them to withdraw", a statement said.
Hezbollah also said its fighters targeted "a large infantry force" in Misgav Am across the border with "rockets and artillery", as well as troop gatherings in three other locations, one with Burkan rockets.
Israel since last week has been heavily bombarding Lebanon, particularly the south, saying it is targeting Hezbollah sites.
Egypt's Mada Masr website said that three family members of its correspondent in Gaza, Hassan Aslih, were killed yesterday.
It added that this had come after the Israeli army "launched a violent attack on several areas in Khan Younis, south of the Gaza Strip".
The Health Ministry in Gaza said that 23 Palestinians were killed and 101 others injured in "four massacres" the Israeli army had carried out against families.
The ministry added that this had raised the total death toll to 41,638 since the start of the war, in addition to 96,460 injuries.
Hamas has welcomed Iran's "heroic launch of missiles" in response to what it said were Israel's "continuous crimes against the peoples of the region" and the killing of Ismail Haniyeh, Hassan Nasrallah and Brig Gen Abbas Nilforoushan, the operations chief and head of the Lebanon division in the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force.
"We stress that this honourable Iranian response is a strong message to the Zionist enemy and his fascist government," Hamas said in a statement on Telegram.
The group urged Arab and Muslim-majority countries to unite and take action to liberate the Palestinian territories.
Abu Ubaida, the spokesman for the group's military wing said: "This is an exceptional day in the history of the conflict."
The Israeli military said on Wednesday that regular infantry and armoured units were joining ground operations in southern Lebanon, but said they would remain limited and localised in scope.
Israel said on Tuesday that commando and paratroop units had crossed a short distance over the border in the first publicly announced ground operation in Lebanon.
It subsequently said that special forces units had been carrying out ground raids against Hezbollah targets across the border for months, during which it uncovered tunnels and weapon caches under homes.
The addition of infantry and armoured troops from the 36th Division, including the Golani Brigade, the 188th Armoured Brigade and 6th Infantry Brigade, suggests that the operation has moved beyond limited commando raids.
The military has said the ground operation is largely aimed at destroying tunnels and other infrastructure on the border and there were no plans for a wider operation targeting Beirut or major cities in southern Lebanon.
(Reuters)
Iran's attack on Israel threatened to ignite a broader conflict in the Middle East, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Wednesday, as he condemned Tehran's missile barrage.
"The Iranian missile attacks on Israel must be condemned in the strongest possible terms. They threaten a further escalation of the already tense situation in the Middle East. Iran risks setting the entire region ablaze", Scholz said in a statement.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol ordered on Wednesday military aircraft to be deployed immediately to evacuate its citizens from Israel and other parts of the Middle East amid escalating tension, his office said.
Yoon met with his national security and economic advisers over the Middle East conflict and called for a swift but measured response to any impact on the country's energy supply, trade and supply chains, his office said.
Yoon said the safety of its citizens in the region is the top priority and all necessary measures must be taken, it said.
Earlier on Wednesday, South Korea's foreign ministry urged its citizens in Israel and Lebanon to immediately leave by any means available.
Government data for 2023 showed there were 572 South Koreans in Israel including permanent residents and Israeli passport holders and 214 in Lebanon.
(Reuters)
