At least 22 killed in Israeli strike on central Beirut

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U.S. vice president and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris said on Thursday that de-escalation was needed in the Middle East, a region which has been on edge for months amid Israel's wars in Gaza and Lebanon.

Harris made the remarks to reporters in Las Vegas.

A Lebanese security source told AFP that Israel targeted Hezbollah official Wafiq Safa with its central Beirut strikes on Thursday, but it was unclear if he was among the 22 killed.

"The target of the attacks is a Hezbollah figure," the official said, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

Israeli army drones Thursday evening targeted several locations to the east of the occupied West Bank city of Tulkarm, killing 2 people, as reported by WAFA and the Palestinian health ministry.

She said that Israeli occupation drones launched a series of airstrikes targeting several locations between the Thannaba neighbourhood and the Nur Shams refugee camp as well as others in the camp’s An-Nasr Mount.

She added that ambulances rushed to the scene of the attack.

"Israel's assault on UN forces, following its attacks on civilians in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon, reflects its belief that it can act with impunity," stated a release from the Turkish Foreign Ministry.

"The international community has a responsibility to ensure that Israel complies with international law," it continued.

Earlier today, Israeli forces opened fire on UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, injuring two, an action that has sparked widespread condemnation globally.

Regarding Israel’s Attack on the Headquarters of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) https://t.co/HdGMMJobbI pic.twitter.com/PuUL8JEmZB

— Turkish MFA (@MFATurkiye) October 10, 2024

"France calls for an immediate ceasefire," declared the permanent representative of France to the UN, Nicolas de Rivière, assuring that the proposal for a 21-day ceasefire in Lebanon, launched from the UN in September, was "still on the table." This proposal was rejected by Israel, which has intensified its strikes and carried out ground incursions.

Canada, which has been largely supportive of Israel's military offensive in Lebanon, on Thursday said an incident in which Israeli troops fired on U.N peacekeepers was "alarming and unacceptable."

The UNIFIL force said two of its peacekeepers were injured when an Israeli tank fired at a watchtower at the force's main headquarters in Ras al-Naqoura.

"Canada calls for the protection of peacekeepers and humanitarian workers, and for all parties to comply with international humanitarian law," the foreign ministry said in a statement posted on social media platform X. 

United Nations peacekeepers are determined to remain at their posts in southern Lebanon despite Israeli attacks in recent days and orders by Israel's advancing military to leave, the force's spokesperson said on Thursday.

Andrea Tenenti said the Israeli attacks on the peacekeeping force, known as UNIFIL, on Wednesday and Thursday had wounded two of their members and knocked out some of their monitoring capabilities.

"Definitely, this is probably one of the most serious events or incidents that we've been witnessing in the last 12 months," Tenenti said in an interview, referring to exchanges of fire between Israeli troops and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.

The force's 50 contributing countries had agreed on Thursday to keep deploying more than 10,400 peacekeepers between the Litani River in the north and the U.N.-recognized boundary between Lebanon and Israel known as the Blue Line in the south.

"We are there because the (U.N.) Security Council has asked us to be there. So we are staying until the situation becomes impossible for us to operate," Tenenti added.

According to an update from the Lebanese Ministry of Health, the Israeli bombing of the Ras el-Nabaa and Basta neighborhoods in the heart of Beirut has left at least 22 dead and 117 injured.

Three Israeli soldiers have been killed amid fighting with Hamas in the northern Gaza Strip.

The Israeli military says the men died during fighting in the besieged enclave’s north and their families have been notified.

Two of the men, both 32 years old, were of the rank of master sergeant while the other, aged 37, was a major from Jerusalem.

An initial official report has been released regarding the Israeli strikes on Beirut: 11 dead and 48 injured. “No blood donations are needed” at the moment, the Ministry of Health adds in its statement.

The ministry “asks the media and social networks to stop making calls to hospitals for blood donations as this could cause confusion in rescue and emergency operations.”

Spain on Thursday said that shots fired on the headquarters of United Nations peacekeepers in Lebanon -- which the peacekeepers blame on Israel -- were a "grave violation of international law".

"The Spanish government strongly condemns the Israeli fire that hit the UNIFIL headquarters in Naquras," the foreign ministry said in a statement, demanding that the security of the peacekeepers be "guaranteed".

State media said an Israeli strike hit the central area of Lebanon's capital on Thursday, the third such attack on Beirut since Israel escalated its air campaign last month.

Israel has repeatedly pounded southern Beirut suburbs, the bastion of Lebanon's Hezbollah movement, bastion for more than two weeks but strikes have rarely hit in the city's centre.

"An enemy strike targeted the area of Ras al-Nabaa-Nweiri" residential neighbourhoods, adding that ambulances rushed to the targeted sites.

An AFP journalist in Beirut heard three loud explosions.

A security official, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, told AFP that the strikes hit two locations in the area of Nweiri.

AFP live footage showed two plumes of smoke billowing in between densely-packed buildings where lights were still on in the windows.

Israel is focused on fighting Hezbollah and recommends that the United Nations peacekeeping force (UNIFIL) in southern Lebanon move north, Israel's U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon said on Thursday after Israeli forces fired on several U.N. positions.

"Our recommendation is that UNIFIL relocate 5 km (3 miles) north to avoid danger as fighting intensifies and while the situation along the Blue Line remains volatile as a result of Hezbollah's aggression," Danon said in a statement.

He claimed that "Israel has no desire to be in Lebanon, but it will do what is necessary" to force Hezbollah away from its northern border so 70,000 residents can return to their homes in northern Israel.

France said it was waiting for explanations from Israel after U.N. peacekeeping troops were targeted in Lebanon on Thursday and that it was an obligation to ensure their safety.

"France expresses its deep concern following the Israeli shots that hit the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and condemns any attack on the security of UNIFIL," the foreign ministry said in a statement, adding that none of its 700 troops in the mission had been wounded.

"We await explanations from the Israeli authorities. The protection of peacekeepers is an obligation that applies to all parties to a conflict."

Amnesty International accused Israel on Thursday of "misleading" and sometimes inadequate calls for residents to evacuate parts of the country, expressing concern the warnings intend to massively uproot southerners.

"Warnings issued by the Israeli military to residents of Dahiyeh, the densely populated southern suburbs of Beirut, were inadequate," Amnesty chief Agnes Callamard said in a statement.

The group said it analysed more than a dozen evacuation warnings and maps and conducted interviews with residents of south Beirut and south Lebanon.

Callamard said the warning included "misleading maps" and were issued "at short notice -- in one instance less than 30 minutes before strikes began -- in the middle of the night, via social media" when many are asleep, she added.

Italy says Israeli shooting at UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon could potentially mount to war crimes.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday that the "genocide" in Gaza is the "shame of humanity" as he called for renewed efforts to secure a permanent ceasefire.

Erdogan, a vocal supporter of the Palestinian cause, renewed his attacks on Israel as he arrived in Tirana, the first stop of a Balkan tour that will also take him to Serbia.

"The international community, we must do our best to urgently guarantee a permanent ceasefire and exert the necessary pressure on Israel," he told a joint press conference with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama.

"The genocide that has been going on in Gaza for the past year is the common shame of all humanity," he added.

Erdogan has branded Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the "butcher of Gaza" and compared him to Nazi Germany's Adolf Hitler.

"The aggression led by the Netanyahu government now threatens the world order beyond the region," Erdogan said.

Humanitarian pauses in the war in the Gaza Strip have been agreed to allow a second round of polio vaccinations targeting 590,000 children under the age of 10 to start on October 14, the head of the U.N. children's agency UNICEF said on Thursday.

"Area-specific humanitarian pauses have been agreed. It is critical that these pauses are respected by all parties. Without them, it is impossible to vaccinate the children," UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said in a statement.

"UNICEF will include Vitamin A supplements to strengthen children's immune systems. Children in Gaza live in extremely dire hygiene and sanitation conditions," Russell said.

"With the additional vaccine equipment and cold boxes that arrived yesterday, UNICEF is ready to deliver and vaccinate children to stop the transmission of polio," she said. "The success of the first round shows that when agreements are respected, we can get the job done."

A Belgian military plane has evacuated 111 people from Lebanon, Hadja Lahbib, the Belgian minister of Foreign Affairs said on Thursday.

The flight from Beirut to Brussels was carrying 58 Belgian nationals and those with residence rights and 53 Europeans, Lahbib said on social media platform X.

As Israel ramped up its ground and air assault on Lebanese armed group Hezbollah in recent weeks, several countries have have sought to get citizens out, sometimes relying on commercial flights via Turkey.

Lebanon and other states called for more pressure on Israel to end its military campaigns in the Middle East at a meeting at the U.N. in Geneva on Thursday, saying that it was repeating its Gaza methods in Lebanon with catastrophic consequences.

Pakistan, as head of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, hosted the meeting to examine the humanitarian situation a year into the Gaza war.

Addressing assembled U.N. officials and ambassadors, the Palestinian ambassador said the pain of a year of conflict in Gaza was "indescribable", while Lebanon's envoy accused Israel of using the "same sinister playbook" in his country as in Gaza.

Italy's defence minister on Thursday slammed the shooting at the headquarters of the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon as "intolerable", after the force said it had been hit by Israeli tank fire.

Defence minister Guido Crosetto said he "protested" to Israel's defence minister and summoned the Israeli ambassador over the incident.

"The shooting at the UNIFIL headquarters" and other incidents involving "small arms fire" are "intolerable, they must be carefully and decisively avoided", Crosetto said in a statement.

"For these reasons, I protested to my Israeli counterpart and the Israeli ambassador to Italy," he said.

Crosetto said he told Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant "that what is happening... starting from the shooting at the UNIFIL headquarters is, for me and for the Italian government, unacceptable.

"Any possible error that could put the soldiers, both Italian and UNIFIL, at risk must be avoided," he said.

More than 1,000 Americans and their dependents have fled war-hit Lebanon aboard U.S. chartered flights in the last week, arriving in Turkey for a temporary stay, the top U.S. diplomat in Istanbul said on Thursday.

"It's the fastest, safest way to get Americans out of harm's way," Consul General Julie Eadeh said in an interview in Istanbul.

"The security situation is dynamic, so we have been planning for months for all contingencies. Given the airport in Beirut remains operational and open, our focus is on facilitating departures by air."

Ten of 12 U.S. chartered flights from Beirut have arrived in Istanbul carrying 1,025 citizens and immediate family members since October 2, according to another U.S. official.

Italy's defence minister summoned the Israeli ambassador Thursday, a government source told AFP, after the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon said it had been hit by Israeli tank fire.

The UNIFIL force, which has some 10,000 peacekeepers in south Lebanon, said that deliberate and repeated Israeli tank fire on its headquarters wounded two members, as Israeli troops battle Hezbollah fighters on the border.

Israel is deliberately targeting health facilities and killing and torturing medical personnel in Gaza, UN investigators said Thursday, accusing Israel of "crimes against humanity".

"Israel has perpetrated a concerted policy to destroy Gaza's healthcare system as part of a broader assault on Gaza," the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry said in a statement.

Israel's finance ministry has said that the government's budget deficit is increasing as the government continues to finance its war effort in Gaza and south Lebanon.

Figures released by the ministry show that in September the budget deficit rose to NIS 8.8 billion, or 8.5 percent of GDP. The figure marks a sixth month that the budget deficit is over the government target of 6.6 percent of GDP

Israel's security cabinet is set to convene and vote on Thursday evening on how the military will respond to Iran's ballistic missile attack on 1 October, according to CNN citing an unnamed Israeli official. 

Israeli publication Maariv is also reporting that the security cabinet meeting is scheduled for 8:30pm local time (6:30 BST). 

Lebanese authorities detained a US-Israeli national in Beirut last week and later deported him, Lebanese security and judicial sources said on Thursday.

"Joshua Samuel, a US-Israeli journalist, was detained on October 5 and deported the following day," a judicial official said, requesting to remain anonymous.

A security official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said Hezbollah members detained a man called "Joshua Samuel Tartakovsky with US and Israeli passports" and handed him over to the military intelligence, but said he was not a journalist.

He had gone to Beirut's southern suburbs, which Israel has pounded in recent weeks, presenting himself as a "supporter of Gaza and Hezbollah", the security source said. He claimed he wanted to tell Hezbollah about "Israeli army tactics", the source said.

A spokeswoman at the US embassy told AFP: "We are aware of the arrest and due to privacy reasons have no further information to provide."

The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon said Thursday two of its members were wounded when its positions came under repeated fire by Israeli forces in the country's south.

"Three positions were hit by fire and two peacekeepers were injured," a UNIFIL spokeswoman said, after Lebanon's official National News Agency said a watchtower of the peacekeeping force was hit in the Ras Naqoura area.

UNIFIL said the Israeli military "deliberately fired at and disabled" UN security cameras.

Israeli troops opened fire at three positions held by U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon on Thursday, according to a U.N. source who was not immediately able to specify the type of fire.

The source said one of the locations fired at was UNIFIL's main base at Naqoura.

There was no official statement from UNIFIL or immediate comment from the Israeli military.

UNIFIL had said on Sunday that it was "deeply concerned by recent activities" by the Israeli military near a peacekeeper position in southwestern Lebanon.

It did not provide details, but said the activities were dangerous and that it was "unacceptable to compromise the safety of U.N. peacekeepers carrying out their Security Council-mandated tasks".

In a letter to Israel's military dated October 3 and seen by Reuters, UNIFIL had objected to Israeli military vehicles and troops positioning themselves "in immediate proximity" to U.N. positions, "thereby endangering the safety and security of UNIFIL personnel and premises".

Israel is committing the most horrific acts of genocide and displacement in the northern Gaza Strip to sabotage any chances of a ceasefire, the Palestinian Authority's foreign ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

The Palestinian Red Crescent says 28 people were killed and at least 54 other wounded in an Israeli airstrike on a school sheltering displaced people in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.

More than 42,065 Palestinians have been killed and 97,886 injured in Israel's military offensive on Gaza since October 7 last year, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

A ship was struck and damaged by an "unknown projectile" in the Red Sea, a British maritime agency said on Thursday, following months of attacks by Yemen's Houthi rebels.

"The master of the vessel reports being hit by unknown projectile and the vessel has sustained damage, no fires or casualties reported," said the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO), which is run by the British navy.

Ambrey, a maritime security firm, said the Liberia-flagged chemicals tanker was hit on its bridge, "causing light damage", 73 nautical miles southwest of Hodeida, a port city held by the Houthis.

The ship, which was travelling from Jeddah in Saudi Arabia to Muscat in Oman, later reported two more explosions nearby, UKMTO and Ambrey said.

"The crew are reported safe. Vessels are advised to transit with caution and report any suspicious activity," UKMTO added.

Palestinian medical officials say the death toll from an Israeli strike on a school-turned-shelter in the Gaza Strip has climbed to 21.

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central town of Deir al-Balah confirmed the toll, and an Associated Press reporter counted the bodies.

Witnesses say the strike on Thursday appeared to target a makeshift post manned by police inside the school.

Hezbollah said it destroyed an Israeli tank advancing on the southern border on Thursday, amid clashes with Israeli forces trying to push deeper into south Lebanon.

The Iran-backed group fired rockets at "an Israeli tank as it advanced towards Ras al-Naqoura, leading to its burning and destruction," it said, claiming casualties.

Diplomatic communications have intensified in the past hours, before a UN Security Council meeting discussing the situation in the Middle East, Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said in a statement on X on Thursday.

"There are contacts taking place between the United States and France with the aim of reviving a ceasefire declaration for a specific period in order to resume the search for political solutions," he was quoted as saying.

An Israeli strike hit a road linking Syria and Lebanon Thursday as Israel tries to cut off supply routes of Hezbollah, a war monitor said.

"Israeli aircraft carried out a strike targeting the road linking Syria and Lebanon" in the Quseir region on the Syrian side of the border, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the group with a wide network of sources in Syria, said the strike came as part of Israeli attempts "to cut the supply line to Hezbollah".

There were no casualties and it was not immediately clear if the road had been cut off in the strike, he said.

Lebanon's National News Agency reported "enemy drone strikes on the border between Lebanon and Syria".

Hamas accused Israel of killing a cameraman for a television station it operates in the Gaza Strip, while Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera also blamed Israeli forces for wounding one of its journalists in the territory's north.

Muhammad al-Tanani, a cameraman for Al-Aqsa TV, was buried Wednesday afternoon by colleagues at the Al-Ahli Arab hospital in northern Gaza City, according to AFP journalists.

In a statement, Hamas's press office called his killing an "despicable crime" and said the Israeli army was "fully responsible", without offering details of the circumstances of his death.

استشهاد المصور الصحفي محمد الطناني وإصابة الصحفي تامر لبد، برصاص الاحتلال، في محيط دوّار أبو شرخ، غرب معسكر #جباليا

أطلقت قوات الاحتلال الإسرائيلي الرصاص بشكل مباشر على الصحفييْن، بينما كانا يؤدّيان عملهما الصحفي بتغطية أحداث الاجتياح والقصف والنزوح شمال القطاع pic.twitter.com/oZMv3EZYcR

— بيســــان (@Bisan_Shrafi) October 9, 2024

Al Jazeera, meanwhile, said Wednesday that one of its cameramen, Fadi al-Wahidi, was "injured by Israeli gunfire in northern Gaza, becoming the second Al Jazeera cameraman to be injured in an Israeli attack this week".

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met with his Qatari counterpart and Qatar's prime minister on Thursday.

Syrian state media reported an Israeli attack early Thursday on the central provinces of Homs and Hama, after an Israeli strike hit the country's south the previous day.

"At around 1:00 am (2200 GMT Wednesday), the Israeli enemy launched an air attack... targeting a car assembly factory in the industrial area of Hassia in Homs province" and a military position in Hama, state news agency SANA said, citing a military source.

Hassia is about 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of the city of Hama.

"The losses were limited to material damage," the report said.

Citing the manager of the industrial area in Hassia, SANA reported the attack targeted not only the factory but also vehicles "loaded with medical and relief supplies... which led to a large fire" that firefighters were working to extinguish.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said an "Iranian car factory" in Hassia was targeted "directly", while the strikes in Hama province targeted an area home to air defences and government troops.

Israel's military said it had eliminated a Hezbollah member in Syria who relayed intelligence against Israel in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The Israeli army said on Wednesday it had eliminated Adham Jahout, a member of Hezbollah’s "Golan Terrorist Network" in the area of Quneitra in Syria.

The army said Jahout's role was to relay information from Syrian regime sources to Hezbollah and transmit intelligence gathered on the Syrian front to facilitate operations against Israel in the Golan Heights.

Over 2,000 Turkish citizens and some foreign started boarding a Turkish military ship late Wednesday that brought in aid and will take them out of a country being hit by Israeli airstrikes.

They are part of a six-ship convoy including escorts that set sail from the southern Turkish port of Mersin early Wednesday, transported 300 tons of humanitarian supplies, including food, hygiene kits, kitchenware, tents, beds and blankets.

Besides the Turkish citizens , people from Bulgaria, Romania and Kazakhstan were among those who applied to evacuate on the ships. Officials did not provide numbers.

#Turkiye has sent two navy ships to a port in Beirut to evacuate 2,000 Turkish citizens from #Lebanon and deliver humanitarian aid amid #Israel's attacks. pic.twitter.com/O09bmT5hhv

— Al-Estiklal English (@alestiklalen) October 9, 2024

The Lebanese army said Wednesday it had arrested two Syrians on suspicion of having been recruited to work for Israel, amid its military offensive in Lebanon.

Lebanese army intelligence arrested two Syrians "for photographing different places... and documenting the results of enemy air strikes", an army statement on social network X said.

The arrests were "a result of surveillance and follow-up of Israeli spy networks and enemy agents", it said in the statement.

The pair had also documented "search and rescue operations and the recovery of bodies" at Israeli strike sites and were "recruited through social media", the statement said, adding that judicial authorities were investigating.

United Nations officials warned Wednesday that Lebanon was staring down a "catastrophic" humanitarian crisis as the number of internally displaced people hit 600,000 and Israel presses its offensive against Hezbollah.

"Lebanon finds itself facing a conflict and a humanitarian crisis of catastrophic proportions," Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon, told a briefing.

She expressed "hope that Israel too will now be ready to add its support to the many calls and appeals that are out there" for de-escalation.

Lebanon's state civil defence body said an Israeli strike on Wednesday killed five of its personnel in the country's south, with the health ministry condemning the latest deadly strike on rescue workers.

Five personnel "were killed in an Israeli strike that targeted the civil defence centre in the village of Derdghaiya as they were inside on the alert to receive emergency calls," a statement from the body said.

Lebanon's health ministry said the toll of five was provisional, calling on the international community to take a "firm position" after Israel "renewed its targeting of rescue and ambulance teams".

استشهاد خمسة مسعفين على الأقل من #الدفاع_المدني_اللبناني وكشافة الرسالة الإسلامية جراء الغارة التي استهدفت مراكزهم في محيط كنيسة #دردغيا pic.twitter.com/f59YlyjR7b

— امال خليل (@AmalKhalil83) October 9, 2024