Saturday, September 21, 2024
17:47 GMT — Fresh Israeli air strikes target southern Lebanon, Beqaa region
The Israeli army has conducted a series of air strikes on southern Lebanon and the Beqaa region, according to media reports, as fears grew of all-out conflict with Hezbollah.
Israel's military said its air force "struck thousands of launcher barrels that were ready for immediate use to fire toward Israeli territory" as well as "approximately 180" other, unspecified targets, a military statement said.
Meanwhile in Israel, air raid sirens have been activated in Kiryat Shmona and several settlements in the Upper Galilee, the Israeli Army Radio said.
Earlier, Israeli media reported 45 rockets fired from Lebanon toward several settlements in northern Israel in less than an hour.
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17:13 GMT — Germany says 'urgent need' for measures in Mideast
Germany has said there was an "urgent need" for measures to calm tensions in the Middle East as Israel's war on Gaza threatened to spread to Lebanon.
"We have an urgent need for concrete measures in the Middle East to defuse the situation and avoid more civilian victims," the German foreign ministry wrote on X.
16:14 GMT — Sullivan says Israel-Lebanon escalation worrying
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan has said he was worried about escalation between Israel and Lebanon but praised the Israeli killing of a top Hezbollah leader.
Sullivan, speaking with reporters in Wilmington, Delaware, said he still sees a path to a ceasefire in Gaza but that the US is "not at a point right now where we're prepared to put something on the table."
15:08 GMT — Turkish President Erdogan slams Israel for "once again carrying out attacks like a terrorist group"
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has condemned Israel’s attacks in Lebanon, asserting that these attacks have proven Türkiye’s concerns about Israel's ambitions to extend conflict throughout the region.
Speaking to the media in Istanbul ahead of his departure to New York, where he will address the UN General Assembly, Erdogan said that Israel is carrying out attacks like a terrorist group.
“With this attack (pager explosions in Lebanon), Israel demonstrated it has no civilian sensitivities, it can use any means to achieve its hateful ambitions,” he said.
14:25 GMT — Israel kills at least five Health ministry employees
Five employees of the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the ministry’s storage facilities in the Musbah area of Rafah, southern Gaza, the ministry has said.
In a statement, the ministry said that ambulances have been unable to reach the site to recover the bodies or assist the injured and called on international organizations to intervene to protect and rescue those trapped.
13:48 GMT — Death toll from Israel's war on Gaza climbs to 41,391
Israel's military offensive in Gaza has killed at least 41,391 Palestinians and wounded 95,760 since October 7, the Palestinian enclave's health ministry said.
12:47 GMT — Israel bombs Gaza school-shelter, kills at least 21 Palestinians
At least 22 Palestinians, including 13 children, have been killed and several others injured in an Israeli airstrike on a school sheltering displaced people in the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City, according to the government media office in the enclave.
In a statement, the office stated that six women and an unborn child were also among those killed in the strike.
"During the horrific massacre, the occupation killed 16 from among the orphaned children and the widowed women whose fathers and husbands were killed in previous Israeli airstrikes," it noted.
12:00 GMT — Israeli air strike on displaced persons’ tent kills two Palestinians
Two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike targeting a tent that shelters displaced people in the Sheikh Nasser area of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, according to a medical source.
The source at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis told Anadolu that two bodies were brought to the hospital following the Israeli drone strike on the tent.
11:19 GMT — Death toll from Israel's Beirut strike climbs to 31
The death toll from Israel's air strike on a Beirut suburb rises to 31, Lebanon's health minister has said.
Three children were among the killed in Israel's Beirut strike.
The strike marks the third attack by Israel on the southern suburb since an ongoing wave of hostilities began nearly a year ago.
10:14 GMT — Israeli air strike on displaced persons’ tent kills two Palestinians
Two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike targeting a tent that shelters displaced people in the Sheikh Nasser area of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, according to a medical source.
The source at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis told Anadolu that two bodies were brought to the hospital following the Israeli drone strike on the tent.
09:11 GMT — Protests in Morocco in support of Palestinians
More than 100 Demonstrations were organized across Morocco to condemn Israeli attacks on Gaza and show support for the Palestinians.
The Support for Ummah Issues Foundation, a Moroccan civil society group, said 106 protests were held in 50 cities.
Protesters chanted slogans in support of Palestinian resistance and against Israel’s violence in Gaza, the occupied West Bank, and all of Palestine, as well as US and Western backing of Israel and the Arab world's "silence."
08:10 GMT — Hezbollah confirms death of another commander in Israeli strike
Lebanon's Hezbollah group has said that Ahmed Wahbi, a top commander who oversaw the military operations of the Radwan special forces during the Gaza war until early 2024, was killed in an Israel strike on Beirut suburbs on Friday.
An Israeli strike on Beirut left at least 13 dead and nearly 70 wounded. Rescuers were still digging the site for more bodies.
05:00 GMT — Hezbollah confirms top military commander Ibrahim Aqil killed
Lebanon's Hezbollah group has confirmed in the early hours of Saturday that its top military commander Ibrahim Aqil was killed, calling him "one of its top leaders", without providing further details on his killing.
The Israeli military and a security source in Lebanon said Aqil was killed in an Israeli strike on Beirut earlier on Friday that also left 13 other Lebanese dead and nearly 70 wounded. Rescuers were stilling digging the site for more bodies.
04:32 GMT — Lebanon slams Israel at UNSC, displays image of fingerless hand
Lebanon's Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib has told the UN Security Council that "no one in this world is safe anymore" after Israel's pager and walkie-talkie blasts in his country killed dozens and wounded thousands.
Bou Habib accused Israel of "terrorism", saying Lebanon is not seeking revenge but justice. He showed the council a large picture of a bloody hand with missing fingers.
"We came to the council to protect our common humanity and to ask you to condemn the terrorist Israeli attacks clearly and unequivocally, to hold Israel accountable for planning and implementing these attacks and for violating the sovereignty of Lebanon and its territorial integrity," he said.
04:00 GMT — Israel pushing region into war: Macron to Netanyahu
French President Emmanuel Macron has told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that his country is pushing the region into a war, according to Israeli media.
According to the Israeli Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, Macron talked to Netanyahu over the phone following an Israeli air strike on southern Lebanon that killed 14 people and wounded 66 others.
The newspaper quoted Macron as telling Netanyahu that "Israel is pushing the region into war."
Netanyahu told Macron that "instead of putting pressure on Israel, it's time for France to increase the pressure on Hezbollah," according to Yedioth Ahronoth.
The newspaper also quoted a French official, without mentioning his name, who said France believes that the recent developments in Lebanon have further increased the chances of a war.
For our live updates from Friday, September 20, 2024, click here.
