Israeli tanks push deeper into Jabalia as army expands operations in south Lebanon

Israeli forces have taken out the would-be successors of late Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday, without naming them.

"We've degraded Hezbollah's capabilities. We took out thousands of terrorists, including Nasrallah himself and Nasrallah's replacement, and the replacement of the replacement," Netanyahu said in a pre-recorded video message.

Earlier, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Hashem Safieddine, the man expected to replace the slain Nasrallah, had probably been "eliminated". It was not immediately clear whom Netanyahu meant by the "replacement of the replacement".

(Reuters)

The Israeli military said on Tuesday it had detected and intercepted two launches crossing the Gaza Strip, shortly after the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad said it had launched rockets towards Sderot in southern Israel. 

(Reuters)

Doha launched an "air bridge" to transport medical supplies and food aid to Lebanon, a Qatari minister said in Beirut on Tuesday, more than two weeks into intense Israeli strikes on the country.

"Today we launched the air bridge with consecutive planes carrying food, shelter materials and medical supplies," said Qatar's Minister of State for International Cooperation Lolwah Al-Khater from a public hospital in Beirut.

She said Doha was working "on medium and long-term plans to contain this humanitarian crisis".

Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad said the Qatari aid "will help cover shortages of medical, relief and support supplies" and will be "a vital push" for the hundreds of thousands of displaced and injured people.

France and Qatar delivered urgent humanitarian aid to Lebanon on Tuesday, France's foreign minister said, as Paris pushes for broader humanitarian efforts and a ceasefire in the country.

"If we don't do anything, then Lebanon tomorrow could resemble what Syria has become," Jean-Noel Barrot told lawmakers in parliament. "(That is), a hub of instability for smuggling, terrorism and a point of departure for a large migration of civilians seeking refuge in Europe."

French and Qatari military planes delivered some 27 metric tons of medicines and basic necessities, including blankets and hygiene kits, diplomatic sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

(Reuters)

Beirut has received "assurances" that Israel will not target the country's only international airport, Lebanon's transport minister told AFP, but said those fell short of guarantees.

On Monday, the United States warned Israel not to attack the Beirut airport or the roads leading to it after repeated Israeli strikes near the facility.

Lebanon "seeks to keep its public airport, sea ports and land crossings, chief among them the Rafik Hariri International Airport, functional," Minister of Public Works and Transport Ali Hamieh told AFP.

"Ongoing international calls have given us a sort of assurance" the airport will be spared Israeli strikes, he said, however adding that "there is a big difference between assurances and guarantees".

Qatar has launched an airlift on Tuesday between Doha and Beirut to deliver crucial humanitarian aid to Lebanon, which has been facing ongoing Israeli attacks. 

Lolwah Al-Khater, Qatar’s Minister of State for International Cooperation, announced the initiative in a joint press conference with Lebanese Minister of Health Firas al Abiad that ten C-17 planes will be dispatched throughout October, transporting medical supplies, shelter materials, and food to assist those impacted by the ongoing crisis. 

During a meeting with Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati in Beirut, al Khater emphasised Qatar's "firm and steadfast position regarding Lebanon, its sovereignty, and its right to maintain its security and stability and the safety of its citizens." 

Turkey's lawmakers held a closed-door session on Tuesday to discuss the spread of war in the Middle East, a week after President Tayyip Erdogan made an unsubstantiated claim that Israel eventually aimed to encroach on Turkish territory.

Israel has not publicly responded to Erdogan's claim, which analysts and opposition lawmakers say is far-fetched and is intended primarily to deflect public attention away from Turkey's economic woes.

Israel has also not commented publicly on Tuesday's closed-door parliamentary session in Ankara, which is titled "Israel's occupation of Lebanon and developments in the region".

(Reuters)

Israel's Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on Tuesday said Hezbollah had been "battered and broken" following continuous strikes against the group and the killing of its leader, Hassan Nasrallah.

During a briefing with the northern command, Gallant said Hezbollah "is a battered and broken organisation, without significant command and fire capabilities, with a disintegrated leadership following the elimination of Hassan Nasrallah".

Earlier on Tuesday, the military said about 85 projectiles were fired from Lebanon at northern Israel.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Tuesday condemned Cyprus for returning to Lebanon two Syrian refugees who had arrived on a small boat without examining their asylum claim.

In a damning verdict, the ECHR said that Cyprus had committed four violations of the European Convention on Human Rights, which the Strasbourg-based court enforces, by returning the two refugees to Lebanon.

The pair fled the Syrian city of Idlib and the civil war in their home country in 2016, staying in refugee camps in Lebanon. In 2020, they paid a smuggler to take them across the Mediterranean to Cyprus along with over two dozen other migrants, the ECHR said.

The Cypriot maritime authorities intercepted the boat, which they said had entered Cypriot territorial waters without permission. It swiftly returned to Lebanon, where it remains.

Cypriot authorities had essentially returned the pair to Lebanon "without processing their asylum claims and without all the steps required under the refugee law," said the verdict.

Cyprus failed to assess " the risk of lack of access to an effective asylum process in Lebanon or the living conditions of asylum-seekers there," it added.

Nicosia had also not assessed the risk of "refoulement" -- the forcible return of refugees to a country such as Syria where they might be subjected to persecution, it added.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said on Tuesday that it appears that the replacement of slain Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has been eliminated.

(Reuters)

Turkey's exports to Palestinian territories leapt sixfold in the first nine months of the year to $571.2 million, data showed on Tuesday, five months after the country halted trade with Israel in protest over its war on Gaza.

The 526% rise in exports occurred largely after the ban went into effect. In the first four months of the year, Turkish exports to Palestinian territories were up 35% to $49.4 million, according to data from the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TIM).

Turkish opposition lawmaker ​​Mustafa Yeneroglu on Monday submitted questions to parliament about the sharp increase in exports to Palestinian areas and ongoing ship traffic from Turkey to Israel, despite the trade ban.

Yeneroglu asked Trade Minister Omer Bolat to respond to local media reports that trade with Israel was quietly continuing through Palestinian companies, with shipping documents describing goods as going to Palestinian territories when they were actually going to Israel.

Asked for comment by Reuters, the Trade Ministry pointed to previous statements on the issue. On September 18, it denied trade with Israel was continuing, reiterating that it ended on May 2.

It said Palestinian authorities had declared several times that Turkish goods were used exclusively in Palestinian areas.

Fishermen in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon stayed ashore on Tuesday, an AFP journalist reported, after the Israeli military warned of strikes along the coast.

Sidon's typically lively fish market was unusually quiet following the warning issued the previous night.

"The Lebanese army told us we weren't allowed to go out, and we are respecting that," said Mohammed Bidawi, a member of the fisherman's syndicate. "If it continues like this, the market will close too."

The Israeli army warned late Monday that it would expand its operations against Hezbollah to Lebanon's southern coast.

It warned people to stay away from the shore in the area south of the Al-Awali river, which flows into the sea to the north of Sidon.

حذر الجيش الإسرَييلي المدنيين اللبنانيين من دخول البحر أو التواجد على الشاطئ في جنوب لبنان من خط نهر الأولي الواقع شمال صيدا وعلى طول ساحل البحر الأبيض المتوسط ​​حتى الحدود الجنوبية في الناقورة. ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/xKYTp6YsqY

— abdalahaj II (@lbsaj1) October 7, 2024

UN humanitarian officials called Tuesday for urgent action to stop the escalating conflict in Lebanon from spiralling into a similar scene of devastation as seen in Gaza.

"We need to do everything we can to stop that from happening," said Matthew Hollingworth, Lebanon country director for the United Nations' World Food Programme.

Speaking to reporters in Geneva from Beirut, he said he had spent the first half of the year coordinating WFP's operations in Gaza before taking the helm of its Lebanon office, and was deeply concerned by the similarities.

"It is in my mind from the time I wake until the time I sleep, that we could go into the same sort of spiral of doom... We shouldn't allow that to happen," he said.

UNRWA has provided over 5.6 million medical consultations to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since 7 October.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric also said that UNRWA has also reached nearly 1.9 million people with two rounds of flour supplies, adding concerns about the current situation in Gaza.

Over 100 rockets were fired towards Haifa and Acre in Israel by Hezbollah after Hezbollah's deputy chief, Naim Qassem's speech. The rockets targeted the cities as opposed to military sites and impacted the Kirya Am and Kiryat Motzkin settlements.

Videos show rockets being fired in the sky.

Many are calling git one of the heaviest barrages on Israel since the beginning of its war.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">About 100 rockets were fired by Hezbollah from Lebanon towards Haifa and Acre after the end of Naim Qassem&#39;s speech. <a href="https://t.co/RIogdXxqbo">pic.twitter.com/RIogdXxqbo</a></p>&mdash; Clash Report (@clashreport) <a href="https://twitter.com/clashreport/status/1843584806279622967?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 8, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The Gaza Health Ministry said on Tuesday that at least 41,965 people have been killed in Israel's war on Gaza, now in its second year.

The toll includes 56 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry, which said 97,590 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since 7 October.

Gaza's civil defence agency said an Israeli strike killed at least 17 people Tuesday at a refugee camp in the centre of the territory.

"The civil defence teams recovered 17 martyrs, including children, and several others who were wounded from the three-story home of the Abdul Hadi family, which was bombed by a missile from an (Israeli) warplane in Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza," agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said in a statement.

Lebanese group Hezbollah said it had fired rockets at the city of Haifa in northern Israel on Tuesday.

The Iran-backed group said it had launched a "large rocket salvo" at Haifa and its northern suburbs, after the Israeli military said "85 projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanon into Israeli territory".

Hezbollah deputy chief Naim Qassem on Tuesday said the Lebanese militant group supported efforts for a ceasefire with Israel after two weeks of intense Israeli bombardment of Lebanon.

"We support the political efforts that (Lebanese parliament speaker) Nabih Berri is undertaking towards a ceasefire," he said in a televised speech.

A World Food Programme official voiced concern on Tuesday about Lebanon's ability to feed itself, saying thousands of hectares of farmland across the country's south has burned or been abandoned amid escalating hostilities.

"Agriculture-wise, food production-wise, (there is) extraordinary concern for Lebanon's ability to continue to feed itself," Matthew Hollingworth, WFP country director in Lebanon, told a Geneva press briefing, adding that harvests will not occur and that produce is rotting in fields.

At the same briefing, World Health Organisation official Ian Clarke in Beirut warned that there was a much higher risk of disease outbreaks among Lebanon's displaced population.

(Reuters)

The situation in Lebanon is getting worse by the day, the European Union's foreign chief Josep Borrell told the European Parliament on Tuesday, adding a ceasefire should be achieved.

According to figures, some 20% of the Lebanese population had been forced to move, he said.

(Reuters)

Israel sent tanks deeper into Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday and advised people to leave as it pounded the historic Palestinian refugee camp from the air, residents said.

Palestinian medics said casualties had been reported in Jabalia but that they were unable to reach areas under fire.

Israel's army has said its forces are trying to stop fighters from the Hamas militant group staging attacks from Jabalia and want to prevent them from regrouping.

"Jabalia is being wiped out," was repeated in many messages posted on social media by residents of Gaza, who on Monday marked the first anniversary of Israel's war on Gaza.

(Reuters)

Hezbollah's deputy secretary-general of Hezbollah, Naim Qassem, delivers a televised speech on Tuesday.

He highlighted that Israel has "two main goals" in its wars on Gaza and Lebanon.

"First, to completely eliminate the resistance so that there is no longer any resistance to Israel, and the second is to annihilate the Palestinian people, rendering them incapable of generating resistance again or demanding their rights."

He said the Palestinian Al-Aqsa Flood attack on Israel was an "extraordinary and exceptional event".

He said the events of 7 October mark the beginning of a transformation in the Middle East region.

More to follow from this live address.

The Israeli army has said they have killed three who participated in the 7 October attacks.

The military says a strike on a school in Gaza City on 30 September killed Muhammad Rafai and 30 others, who reportedly participated in the attacks in Kfar Aza and Nahal Oz in Israel.

Another strike on 1 October in southern Rafah City killed Muhammad Zenon and Bassel Ahars - who the army claims also took part.

Iran's foreign minister warned Israel against launching an attack, saying on Tuesday any strike on Iranian infrastructure would be met with a stronger retaliation.

Iran attacked Israel last week with a salvo of missiles. Israel has vowed to retaliate.

"We recommend the Zionist regime (Israel) not to test the resolution of the Islamic Republic. If any attack against our country takes place, our response will be more powerful," Araqchi said in a televised speech.

Any attack on Iran's infrastructure will be met with a stronger retaliation, and "our enemies know what kind of targets inside the Zionist Regime (Israel) are in our reach," Araqchi added.

Iran's oil minister landed on Kharg Island, home to the country's main export terminal, and held talks with a naval commander on Sunday, the oil ministry's news website Shana reported, amid concern Israel could attack energy facilities.

US President Joe Biden said on Friday that he did not think Israel had yet decided how to respond.

(Reuters)

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI) group has claimed a new drone attack on a military target in Israel without giving further details.

The group said in a Telegram statement yesterday that the attack was "in support of our people in Palestine and Lebanon and in response to the massacres committed by the usurping entity against civilians, including children, women and the elderly".

The IRI released a video which it said showed the launch of the drone used in the attack.

On 4 October, the Israeli army said that two soldiers had been killed and 24 others wounded at a base in the occupied Golan Heights hit in by an Iraqi drone attack.

The Israeli military says it killed a senior Hezbollah commander in a strike on Beirut.

The military said Tuesday that it killed Suhail Husseini, who it said was responsible for overseeing logistics, budget and management of the militant group.

There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah.

The military said Husseini was involved in the transfer of advanced weapons from Iran and their distribution to different Hezbollah units and that he was a member of the group’s military council.

Turkish navy ships will evacuate Turks who have applied to leave Lebanon by sea on Wednesday, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.

The two ships were expected to set off for Beirut on Tuesday with a total capacity of around 2,000 passengers, the ministry said in a statement.

It said the evacuation process would continue in the following days if necessary, adding that the ships carrying out the evacuation would also transport humanitarian aid to Lebanon.

A foreign ministry source said that around 2,500 Turkish citizens had applied to be evacuated from Lebanon, but after checks, it was determined that a ship with a capacity of 2,000 would be sufficient.

The naval ships will set off on Tuesday from Turkey's eastern Mediterranean province of Mersin, the source said.

Turkey had previously said it was working with around 20 countries on preparing for a possible evacuation of foreign nationals via Turkey.

Hundreds of people of various nationalities arrived in Turkey from Lebanon last week on a commercial ferry.

(Reuters)