'Massive destruction' as Israel pounds Beirut suburbs, Bekaa Valley

Hamas' leader Yahya Sinwar has reportedly revived suicide bombings - according to the Wall Street Journal.

Arab intelligence officials told the publication that Sinwar gave the directive to relaunch suicide bombings to Zaher Jabrin - a Hamas fundraiser.

Gaza’s Health Ministry says the Palestinian death toll from the war in Gaza has passed 42,000.

It said Wednesday that 42,010 Palestinians have been killed and 97,720 wounded since 7 October.

Tehran has told Gulf Arab states it would be "unacceptable" if they allowed the use of their airspace or military bases against Iran and warned that any such move would draw a response, a senior Iranian official said.

The comments come amid growing concern over possible Israeli retaliation for last week's Iranian missile attack, as Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi headed to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states for talks on Wednesday.

They followed discussions between Iran and Gulf Arab capitals last week on the sidelines of an Asia conference in Qatar when Gulf states sought to reassure Iran of their neutrality in any conflict between Tehran and Israel.

"Iran made it clear that any action by a Persian Gulf country against Tehran, whether through the use of airspace or military bases, will be regarded by Tehran as an action taken by the entire group, and Tehran will respond accordingly," the senior Iranian official told Reuters.

"The message emphasised the need for regional unity against Israel and the importance of securing stability," he said.

"It also made clear that any assistance to Israel, such as allowing the use of a regional country's airspace for actions against Iran, is unacceptable."

(Reuters)

Palestinian officials say Israeli strikes in central and northern Gaza killed at least 18 people, including five children and two women.

Two strikes hit tents for displaced people in the urban Nuseirat and Bureij refugee camps in central Gaza early Wednesday. The bodies of nine people, including three children, were brought to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the nearby town of Deir al-Balah. An Associated Press journalist saw the bodies at the morgue.

In northern Gaza, an Israeli strike hit a family home in the Jabalia refugee camp, killing at least nine people, according to the Civil Defense, a rescue agency operating under the Hamas-run government. The dead were taken to the Al-Ahly Hospital, which said two women and two children were among those killed.

Footage shared by the Civil Defense showed first responders recovering dead bodies and body parts from under the rubble.

The Israeli military said it intercepted two projectiles fired from Lebanon on Wednesday shortly after air raid sirens blared in and around the coastal town of Caesarea, south of Haifa.

Sirens were also sounded elsewhere in northern Israel, a day after the army said Hezbollah had fired 180 projectiles into Israel, mainly at Haifa and the north.

Hezbollah said Wednesday that its fighters repelled two Israeli army attempts to infiltrate southern Lebanon as Israel intensifies its ground offensive against the Iran-backed armed group.

In two separate statements, the Lebanese group said Israeli troops had tried to enter border areas near Blida in the southeast and Labouneh in the southwest but were driven back.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delayed the departure of Defence Minister Yoav Gallant to Washington last night, demanding that he first speak with US President Joe Biden himself, Israeli media reported. 

Netanyahu's phone call with Biden, the first in two months, was scheduled prior to him delaying Gallant's trip, according to Walla news site.

The Haaretz daily said that Netanyahu had demanded that the security cabinet approve a planned retaliation on Iran after last week's missile attack on Israel before Gallant departs to meet US Secretary of Defence Llyod Austin. 

Citing unnamed Israeli officials, Walla said that the Israeli response was expected to be "significant" and would likely include a combination of air strikes on military targets in Iran and covert attacks, similar to one that killed Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.

The Syrian foreign ministry has strongly denounced a deadly Israeli strike in the capital Damascus yesterday, which killed at least seven civilians, including women and children, and injured a dozen others.

In a statement, the ministry said that Israel had launched three missiles at a building in the "densely populated" Mezzeh suburb of Damascus, describing the attack as a "savage crime" against civilians.

Mezzeh is an upscale residential area housing several embassies and diplomatic facilities, including the Iranian embassy compound targeted in an Israeli strike earlier this year.

Thirty-six people were killed and 150 others wounded in Israeli attacks across Lebanon on Monday, the Lebanese health ministry said on Tuesday.

(Reuters)

Lebanese state-run media reported a series of Israeli strikes on south Beirut on Tuesday, causing "massive destruction" and razing four buildings after the Israeli army warned residents to evacuate.

"Beirut's southern suburbs are still being subjected to a series of strikes, the latest of which hit the main road at Al-Kafaat and caused massive destruction" in several south Beirut neighbourhoods, the National News Agency said.

The NNA said "four adjacent residential buildings collapsed in the Burj al-Barajneh area after the recent Israeli strike," and had earlier reported several "enemy" strikes in the area.

Beirut's southern suburbs have been the target of intense Israeli strikes for several consecutive days.