Middle East latest: An Israeli airstrike cuts a major highway linking Lebanon with Syria

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said an Israeli airstrike led to the closure of the road near the busy Masnaa Border Crossing, from which tens of thousands of people fleeing war in Lebanon have crossed into Syria over the past two weeks. Associated Press video footage showed that the strikes left two huge craters on each side of the road. (AP video: Hassan Jarah)

11 min ago

Israel says militants fired 2 rockets from Gaza

By JULIA FRANKEL

Israel’s military said Friday that militants in Gaza had fired two rockets into Israeli territory, the first time Israel has seen rocket fire from Gaza in about a month.

The military said one of the rockets was intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system and the other fell in an open area near a kibbutz across the border from Gaza.

The number of rockets fired from Gaza into Israel has slowed considerably since the start of the war.

22 min ago

Israel says it struck an underground tunnel between Lebanon and Syria

By JULIA FRANKEL

Israel’s military said Friday its fighter jets struck an underground tunnel between Lebanon and Syria and areas around a key border crossing used by many in recent days fleeing Israel’s offensive.

Thursday’s strikes around the Masnaa Border Crossing effectively cut off the main highway linking Lebanon with Syria, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported. Tens of thousands of people fleeing fighting in Lebanon have used crossing into Syria over the past two weeks.

The military said that its fighter jets had struck the 3.5 kilometer-long (2.17 miles) underground tunnel between Lebanon and Syria because Hezbollah has used it to smuggle weapons from Iran and other proxies into the country. It said it struck the sites around the Masnaa border crossing because they were being used as militant infrastructure.

There are half a dozen border crossings between the two countries, most of which are still open.

Hezbollah is believed to have received much of its weapons from Iran via Syria.

39 min ago

UN refugee agency says main Lebanon-Syria crossing closed to vehicles

By JAMEY KEATEN

The U.N. refugee agency says Israeli airstrikes overnight near the main border crossing where people have been fleeing from Lebanon into Syria has “put a halt on traffic” and closed the route to vehicles.

UNHCR spokeswoman Rula Amin said the border crossing between Masnaa, Lebanon, and Jdaidit Yabws in Syria has been the main thoroughfare between the two countries, even though three other border crossings remain open.

Amin, a spokeswoman for UNHCR’s Middle East and North Africa operations, also noted government figures that up to 1 million people have fled to places across Lebanon, and more than 185,000 have gone to Syria.

Speaking from Amman, Jordan, to reporters in Geneva on Friday, Amin said most of the nearly 900 government-established collective shelters in Lebanon were full, forcing many people to sleep in the open air -- including along Beirut’s famed seaside Corniche.

She said 60% of people who have crossed from Lebanon to Syria were children or adolescents, some of whom arrived alone.

10:36 AM UTC

Israeli military says it killed Hezbollah communications chief in Beirut

By JULIA FRANKEL

The Israeli military said Friday that a strike in Beirut the day before killed Mohammed Rashid Skafi, the head of Hezbollah’s communications division.

The military said in a statement that Skafi was “a senior Hezbollah terrorist who was responsible for the communications unit since 2000" and was “closely affiliated” with high-up Hezbollah officials.

10:28 AM UTC

Hundreds of Americans leave Lebanon on US contract flights

The U.S. State Department says some 350 American citizens, green card holders and family members have now left Lebanon on US-organized contract flights this week.

The department announced the new number — up by about 100 since Thursday — after another flight from Beirut landed early Friday in Frankfurt, Germany. The flight had the capacity to carry 300 passengers but only 97 people were aboard, it said.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Thursday that the U.S. would continue to organize such flights as long as the security situation in Lebanon is dire and as long as there is demand.

More than 6,000 American citizens have contacted the U.S. embassy in Beirut seeking information about departing the country over the past week since the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah has escalated. Miller said the department understood that some Americans, many of them dual U.S.-Lebanese nationals and long-time residents of the country, may choose to stay.

10:13 AM UTC

Japan prepares to evacuate citizens from Lebanon, urging nationals to leave Iran too

Japan is preparing to evacuate its citizens from Lebanon. The government is also urging those in Iran to leave as soon as possible, while commercial flights are still operating.

Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya told reporters Friday that Japan’s embassy in Iran renewed its safety advisory to Japanese nationals this week after Iran fired missiles into Israel.

On Thursday, the Japanese Defense Ministry dispatched two C-2 transport aircraft to Jordan to stand by for an evacuation of about 50 Japanese nationals from Lebanon. Iwaya said the government has not decided whether to also dispatch defense aircraft to Iran, where about 440 Japanese citizens are based, but “we will do our utmost so that we can respond to any contingency in order to protect the safety of Japanese citizens.”

10:01 AM UTC

Iran’s leader praises missile strike on Israel in a speech at Friday prayers

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was leading Friday prayers and was to deliver a rare public sermon in the Iranian capital, Tehran, that was being watched for signs of what Iran might plan next.

In a 40-minute speech, he praised Tuesday’s missile barrage against Israel as a shining job by Iranian armed forces.

“It will be done in the future again if it becomes necessary,” he said.

There was a commemoration ceremony for the late Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah beforehand. Most high-ranking Iranian officials, including President Masoud Pezeshkian and the Revolutionary Guard’s top generals, attended the ceremony.

7:59 AM UTC

Australia’s prime minister condemns comments by Iranian ambassador praising Hezbollah’s slain leader

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese condemned the Iranian ambassador’s comments praising a recently slain Hezbollah leader, but rejected opposition advice to expel the envoy.

Ambassador Ahmad Sadeghi described Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed by an Israeli missile strike in September in Lebanon, as a “remarkable leader” on social media.

“The government condemns any support for terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah. We condemn the ambassador’s comments,” Albanese told reporters in Sydney.

“Australia has maintained a relationship with Iran since 1968 that has been continuous. Not because we agree with the regime, but because it’s in Australia’s national interest,” Albanese added.

Opposition leader Peter Dutton, who could become prime minister at elections due by May, called for Sadeghi to be expelled over his post. Dutton described Sadeghi’s words as “completely and utterly at odds with what is in our country’s best interests.”

Sadeghi did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.

7:42 AM UTC

Iran’s foreign minister is in Beirut to meet with Lebanese officials

Iran’s Foreign Minister is meeting with Lebanese officials in Beirut to discuss the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah.

Iran is Hezbollah’s main backer. It has sent weapons and billions of dollars to the group over the years.

7:29 AM UTC

Israeli strike cuts a main highway linking Lebanon with Syria

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency says an Israeli airstrike has cut a main highway linking Lebanon with Syria.

Tens of thousands of people fleeing fighting in Lebanon have used the Masnaa Border Crossing into Syria over the past two weeks. The highway closure has effectively cut off this major border crossing.

There are half a dozen border crossings between the two countries, most of which are still open.

Hezbollah is believed to have received much of its weapons from Iran via Syria.

9:35 PM UTC

A series of massive blasts rocks Beirut’s southern suburbs, shaking buildings kilometers away in the Lebanese capital.

By ABBY SEWELL

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reports there were more than 10 consecutive airstrikes in the area. It isn’t clear what was targeted or if there are casualties.

The strikes come amid an ongoing escalation in the yearlong conflict between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

9:27 PM UTC

UN Security Council affirms its full support for Secretary-General Antonio Guterres after Israel bans him from entering the country

In a statement released late Thursday, the 15-member council “underscored that any decision not to engage with the U.N. secretary-general or the United Nations is counterproductive, especially in the context of escalating tensions In the Middle East.”

The U.N.‘s most powerful body also “underscored the need for all member states to have a productive and effective relationship with the secretary-general and to refrain from any actions that undermine his work and that of his office.”

Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz announced Wednesday that Guterres is “persona non grata” – not welcome – in the country, accusing the secretary-general of being biased against Israel.

Israel’s accusations of U.N. bias and antisemitism date back decades but the rift has intensified since Hamas’ Oct. 7 surprise attacks in the country’s south that killed about 1,200 people, mainly civilians.

8:24 PM UTC

The Israeli military says it has killed a senior Hezbollah militant involved in the group’s development of precision guided missiles

It says Mohammed Anisi was killed in a recent airstrike that targeted the militant group’s intelligence branch in Beirut.

Hezbollah has not commented on the Israeli military’s claim. If it is true, it would mark the latest in a string of assassinations of top Hezbollah officials in recent weeks, including its longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah.

8:17 PM UTC

US military leaders have been talking to Israel since Iran’s ballistic missile attack

By TARA COPP

Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh says Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. CQ Brown Jr. spoke with Israeli military’s chief, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, on Wednesday. And Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has held “almost daily” conversations with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant since the attacks, Singh said Thursday.

Iran fired almost 200 ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday, raising concerns about the possibility of all-out war in the region.

“We are discussing with them what a response to Iran should look like,” Singh says. “I certainly think any response, we will be part of those discussions.”

8:02 PM UTC

JUST IN: Palestinian Health Ministry says 14 people have been killed in an Israeli strike on a refugee camp in the northern West Bank

The Israeli army says it carried out a strike in Tulkarem, a militant stronghold.

It says the operation Thursday was carried out in coordination with the Shin Bet internal security service.

The army provided no further details on the target.

Violence has flared across the Israeli-occupied territory since the Israel-Hamas war erupted last October. Tulkarem and other northern cities have seen some of the worst violence.

7:25 PM UTC

Americans continue to leave Lebanon as Israel-Hezbollah conflict escalates

The U.S. State Department says that roughly 250 Americans and their immediate families have left Lebanon in the past two days on government-organized contract flights.

Spokesman Matthew Miller said 134 American citizens and family members left Beirut for Istanbul, Turkey, on Thursday. That’s in addition to more than 100 who left on a similar flight Wednesday.

Miller said the U.S. would continue to organize such flights as long the security situation in Lebanon is dire and as long as there is demand.

More than 6,000 American citizens have contacted the U.S. Embassy in Beirut seeking information about leaving the country over the past week since the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah has escalated.

Miller said the U.S. Embassy in Beirut is prepared to offer loans to those Americans who choose to remain in Lebanon but want to relocate to a potentially safer area of the country.

The embassy is also prepared to provide loans to Americans who wish to leave on U.S.-contracted flights.

Some have complained that fares for air tickets to even relatively close destinations like Cyprus have skyrocketed to unaffordable amounts in recent weeks.

6:57 PM UTC

Report: 1.2 million people have fled their homes in Lebanon

A report issued by Lebanon’s crisis response unit says nearly 1.2 million people are believed to be displaced from their homes in Lebanon as a result of the escalating war between Israel and Hezbollah.

The Lebanese General Security recorded more than 250,000 Syrian citizens and 82,000 Lebanese citizens who have crossed into Syrian territory between Sept. 23 and Sept. 30, the report said.

Nearly 164,000 are living in group shelters in Lebanon.

Among them are Fatima Abdul Nabi and her newborn daughter. Her daughter turned 10 days old on Sept. 23, when Israel began a widescale bombardment of southern Lebanon, which it said was aimed at driving the militant group Hezbollah back from the border.

“They began hitting our village and said we had to leave the village so we fled,” Abdul Nabi said. It took them 11 hours to get to the coastal city of Sidon, about 40 km (25 miles) away.

Now she and the newborn girl are staying with five other families in one room in a shelter.

“When she cries, I feel that she’s bothering everyone — five families and a baby in one room is too much,” Abdul Nabi said.

6:14 PM UTC

Israel says another soldier has been killed in battle in southern Lebanon

The Israeli army says another of its soldiers has been killed in battle in southern Lebanon.

The 21-year-old officer was killed Wednesday, the military said. It did not say how the soldier died.

The latest death brings to nine the number of Israeli soldiers that have been killed battling Hezbollah militants in South Lebanon since it announced a ground incursion there early Tuesday.

Hezbollah claimed to have killed 17 Israeli soldiers on Thursday but did not provide proof.

The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah escalated earlier this month after Israel expanded airstrikes across the country, including southern Lebanon, south Beirut and the eastern Bekaa Valley.

In September, the Israeli government made returning tens of thousands of its evacuated northern residents to their homes one of its country’s war goals.

5:59 PM UTC

Lebanon’s health minister says nearly 2,000 killed in almost a year of conflict with Israel

By SARAH EL DEEB

Lebanon’s health minister says nearly 2,000 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in almost a year of conflict.

Health Minister Firas Abiad said Thursday that more than 9,000 have also been wounded in Israeli attacks since Oct. 8, 2023.

He says of the 1,974 killed, 261 were women, 127 were children, and 102 paramedics and health care workers also died. Most of them were killed in the last month.

“This is a war crime, there is no doubt about that,” Abiad told journalists Thursday. “International laws are clear to protect these people, I mean, paramedics. Who gave Israel the right to be the judge and the executioner at the same time?”

5:50 PM UTC

Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister says the country needs a new president

Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister is calling for a national dialogue that leads to an agreement among the country’s sharply divided political groups on a new president.

Najib Mikati’s call for dialogue on Thursday comes as the war between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah group has intensified in recent days.

Mikati said the priority is to reach a cease-fire along Lebanon’s southern border, to elect a president and to implement a U.N. Security Council resolution that ended a 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006.

The resolution calls for ending Hezbollah’s presence along the border and the deployment of addition Lebanese troops in the area.

The post of president has been vacant since October 2022 when the six-year term of president Michel Aoun ended.

5:39 PM UTC

Turkey calls on U.N. Security Council and others to press Israel to stop attacks

Turkey has called on the U.N. Security Council and others to take “swift” action against Israel, which Ankara says it aiming to widen the current war beyond the Palestinian territories.

Turkey says it will stand by the people and government of Lebanon against “Israel’s inhumane attacks.”

The statement also condemned Israel’s decision to ban U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres from entering the country as the latest example of “Israel’s lawlessness.”

5:03 PM UTC

Israeli army says it rescued a Yazidi woman being held captive in Gaza

The Israeli army said Thursday that its forces rescued an Iraqi Yazidi woman held captive in Gaza.

The woman arrived back in Iraq on Wednesday, Iraqi authorities said.

According to Israel’s military, she was freed in an Israeli-led rescue operation earlier this week that was coordinated with the United States and Jordan.

Islamic State militants killed thousands from the Yazidi religious minority and took thousands of Yazidi women as slaves for rape when they seized much of northern Iraq and eastern Syria in 2014.

The Israeli army and Iraqi government statements named the woman, but The Associated Press does not identify victims of sexual violence.

According to the Israeli army, she was abducted by IS when she was 11 and at some point trafficked to a Palestinian and was brought to Gaza, likely via the Rafah Crossing from Egypt.

4:24 PM UTC

WHO says 28 health workers have been killed in Lebanon in the past day

The World Health Organization says 28 health workers in Lebanon have been killed in the past day, and it called for a cease-fire.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described a dire situation in treating casualties, with three dozen health facilities closed in southern Lebanon and five hospitals either partly or fully evacuated in Beirut.

Tedros says health workers are not showing up at their jobs because they’ve fled areas that have been bombed.

WHO had to scrap plans to fly in medical and trauma supplies Friday because the Beirut airport is mostly closed.

Tedros says Iran’s “dangerous escalation” had serious consequences for the region.

4:17 PM UTC

More than 100 Colombians return to their country from Lebanon

More than 100 Colombians returned Thursday to their country from Lebanon on a flight arranged by their government for those seeking to be repatriated amid the war between Israel and Hezbollah.

The plane brought a total of 117 Colombians, including more than 50 children and minors, according to the government.

“I live in Lebanon completely happy and I had to flee with my children, leaving my husband in great pain there,” Islam el Hamed Mourad, a Colombian married to a Lebanese man, said after arriving at a military base in Bogota in a Colombian Air Force plane.

3:53 PM UTC

Italy arranges a charter flight to repatriate its citizens from Lebanon

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani says a charter flight is being organized to repatriate 180 Italians from Lebanon.

Tajani also told Parliament on Thursday that he hoped they would arrive home “this evening.”

He said the ministry has also recommended that an estimated 700 Italians in Iran leave the country on commercial flights that are gradually resuming.

2:41 PM UTC

Biden doesn’t expect Israel to retaliate against Iran on Thursday

By COLLEEN LONG

President Joe Biden says he doesn’t expect Israel to retaliate immediately against Iran and rejects the suggestion the U.S. would grant permission for such an attack.

Biden was speaking to reporters Thursday, two days after Tehran bombarded Israel with almost 200 ballistic missiles. Israel says it intercepted many of them, while Iran says most of its missiles hit their targets.

Iran said the barrage was in response to Israel’s recent assassination of Iran-backed Hezbollah and Hamas leaders.

Iran’s action has raised concerns about the escalating conflict in the Middle East and the role of the U.S. in Israel’s defense.

“First of all, we don’t ‘allow’ Israel, we advise Israel,” Biden said. “And nothing’s going to happen today.”

2:05 PM UTC

Israel says one of its Gaza airstrikes killed a Palestinian convicted of killing soldiers

Israel says one of its airstrikes in Gaza killed a Palestinian who was convicted in the killing of two Israeli soldiers by an angry crowd in the West Bank at the start of the 2000 uprising.

Abdel-Aziz Salha was in a mob that stormed a Palestinian police station in the West Bank city of Ramallah and killed two Israeli reservists. The two had been detained after accidentally entering an area administered by the Palestinian Authority.

Salha waved his blood-stained hands from the window of the police station in what became one of the defining images of the second intifada, or Palestinian uprising against Israeli rule.

The killing of the reservists marked a major escalation in Israeli-Palestinian tensions as the peace process of the 1990s collapsed.

The military said Thursday that Salha was killed in an overnight strike on the central Gaza town of Deir al-Balah. The military identified him as a Hamas militant.

Salha was arrested by Israeli forces shortly after the killing of the two reservists, convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

He was among more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners released in 2011 in exchange for an Israeli soldier held captive by Hamas in Gaza. One of the other released prisoners, Yahya Sinwar, was one of the masterminds of the Oct. 7 attack and is now the top leader of Hamas.

1:56 PM UTC

Israeli airstrike hits Hezbollah’s media building

An Israeli airstrike on a Beirut southern suburb struck Thursday the building housing the media office of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group.

The airstrike destroyed the building housing the Media Relations office of Hezbollah in the Mawad neighborhood on the southern edge of Beirut.

Hezbollah official told The Associated Press that employees of the group’s media office are fine and no one was hurt.

In southern Lebanon, Israeli fire at a Lebanese army post in the town of Bint Jbeil killed a Lebanese soldier, raising to two the number of members of the Lebanese military killed on Thursday.

The Lebanese army said in a statement that troops “open fire at the source of” the attack. It did not elaborate.

A Lebanese security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of regulations said that the army post was hit by artillery fire.

1:53 PM UTC

Lebanon says border crossings with Syria function under state supervision

Lebanon’s minister of public works and transport says all the country’s border crossings with Syria function under the supervision of state institutions.

Ali Hamie spoke to reporters hours after the Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesman posted on X that Lebanon’s Hezbollah group is trying to transport military equipment through the Masnaa border crossing with Syria.

“All border crossings, the first among them the Masnaa border crossing” are under the monitoring of state institutions including the transport ministry, customs authorities, the General Security Directorate and the Lebanese army.

Israeli military spokesperson, Avchay Adraee, called on Lebanese authorities earlier Thursday to conduct inspections on trucks crossing its eastern border and to turn back any vehicle found to be containing combat equipment.

“The Lebanese State is responsible for its official border crossings and is able to prevent Hezbollah from passing through these crossings,” Adraee said on X.

In the same post, Adraee said Israeli forces bombed a truck on Sunday packed with weapons that Hezbollah was trying to smuggle into Lebanon. No further details about this airstrike were made public.

In recent weeks, the Israeli air force has struck hundreds of targets across Lebanon, including the eastern border area and the Bekaa Valley, areas where Hezbollah has a strong presence.

Analysts have long accused the Iran-backed group of transporting weapons across the porous Lebanese-Syrian border.

12:23 PM UTC

Spain sends two planes to Beirut to evacuate its civilians

Spain’s defense ministry says its two planes sent to Beirut to evacuate Spanish civilians have taken off and are heading to an airbase near Madrid.

Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles said that between 400 and 500 of the around 1,000 Spaniards registered as living in Lebanon are being airlifted out. The government has urged all Spaniards to leave and is offering to assist those who say they want to be evacuated.

Robles said that a third plane could be sent if needed.

Spain also has 676 soldiers in Lebanon deployed under a United Nations peacekeeping mission. Robles said that the troops are staying put until otherwise ordered by the U.N. command.

12:22 PM UTC

Belgian broadcaster says its crew attacked in central Beirut

Belgium’s VTM broadcaster says that one of its television reporters and a cameraman have been attacked in central Beirut while reporting on the war between Israel and Hezbollah.

VTM said that correspondent Robin Ramaekers and cameraman Stijn De Smet were working on a report on Wednesday evening about a bombing in the Lebanese capital when they were attacked in unclear circumstances.

“Stijn is currently in a hospital in Beirut where he is being treated for a leg wound. Robin is also still being cared for, in another hospital, for some fractures to the face,” a statement said. It underlined that the cause of the attack is not yet known.

VTM said the two men have worked in conflict zones for more than a decade. Lebanon’s Information Minister Ziad Makary said only that he is “following” the situation

10:59 AM UTC

Correction: Lebanese Red Cross says Israeli strike injures 4 of its medics and kills a soldier

It says the convoy near the village of Taybeh, which was accompanied by Lebanese troops, was targeted Thursday despite coordinating its movements with U.N. peacekeepers.

Correction : The previous item erroneously reported that the paramedics were killed

10:41 AM UTC

Israel extends evacuation warnings north of UN buffer zone in Lebanon

The Israeli military has ordered the evacuation of villages and towns in southern Lebanon that are north of a United Nations-declared buffer zone established after the 2006 war.

The warning issued Thursday signaled a possible broadening of Israel’s incursion into southern Lebanon, which until now has been confined to areas close to the border.

10:33 AM UTC

Lebanon says at least 9 people killed in an Israeli strike in central Beirut

By KAREEM CHEHAYEB

Lebanon’s Health Ministry Thursday said that at least nine people were killed in an Israeli strike in central Beirut, as it is also running DNA tests on remains they have obtained to identify others.

Hezbollah said that seven paramedics and rescue workers from its medical arm the Islamic Health Committee were killed in the strike that hit its office in Bashoura. The Health Ministry said 14 others were wounded in the strike early Thursday.

Prior to the attack, the ministry said that 55 people were killed and 156 others were wounded in Israeli strikes over Lebanon on Wednesday.

The frequent strikes in Beirut’s southern suburbs as well as occasional strikes in central Beirut have exacerbated Lebanon’s displacement crisis. The government estimated days ago that some one million people are currently displaced in the cash-strapped country.

Environment Minister Nasser Yassin, who is spearheading the government’s response efforts to the war, told local media that some 167,000 Syrians left Lebanon over the past 24 hours alone. The Associated Press could not independently confirm.

9:32 AM UTC

Israeli military says it killed a senior Hamas leader in a Gaza strike earlier this year

The Israeli military said Thursday that it killed a senior Hamas leader in an airstrike in the Gaza Strip around three months ago.

It said that a strike on an underground compound in northern Gaza killed Rawhi Mushtaha and two other Hamas commanders, Sameh Siraj and Sameh Oudeh.

There was no immediate comment from Hamas.

The military said the three commanders had taken refuge in a fortified underground compound in northern Gaza that served as a command and control center.

It said Mushtaha was a close associate of Yahya Sinwar, the top leader of Hamas who helped mastermind the Oct. 7 attack into Israel that triggered the war.

Sinwar is believed to be alive and in hiding inside Gaza.

8:35 AM UTC

UK adds more evacuation flights

The British government chartered more flights to help U.K. nationals leave Lebanon, a day after an evacuation flight left Beirut.

The government said in a statement that the flights will continue as “long as the security situation allows” and that it’s working to increase capacity on commercial flights for British nationals.

U.K. Defense Secretary John Healey on Wednesday visited a British military base on Cyprus where around 700 troops, Foreign Office staff and Border Force officers have been deployed to a British military base in Cyprus to help with evacuation plans.

British nationals and their spouses, partners and children under the age of 18 are eligible. Dependents who aren’t British nationals will need a valid visa granting a maximum six-month stay in the U.K.

8:30 AM UTC

Strike in Beirut suburb killed seven health and rescue workers

An Israeli strike in the Lebanese capital Beirut killed seven health and rescue workers, an Islamic health organization said.

The airstrike in the residential Bashoura district targeted an apartment in a multi-story building that houses an office of the Health Society, a group of civilian first responders affiliated to Hezbollah.

It was the closest strike to the central downtown district of Beirut, where the United Nations and government offices are located.

It was the second airstrike to hit central Beirut this week and the second to directly target the Health Society in 24 hours. No Israeli warning was issued to the area before it was hit. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the strike in central Beirut.

Israel has mostly concentrated its airstrikes in south and eastern Lebanon, as well as the southern suburbs of Beirut where Hezbollah has a strong presence, but its attacks have spanned the entire country and killed many civilians.

Beirut’s southern suburbs also saw heavy bombardment overnight in areas where the Israeli army had earlier issued a warning online for residents to evacuate.

4:26 AM UTC

Japan readies military jets for evacuation flights

Japan on Thursday dispatched two Self Defense Force planes to prepare for a possible airlift of Japanese citizens from Lebanon.

Two C-2 transport aircraft are expected to arrive in Jordan and Greece on Friday, Japan NHK national television reported.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters that there has been no report of injury involving the about 50 Japanese nationals in Lebanon.

Japan dispatched SDF aircraft in October and November 2023 to evacuate more than 100 Japanese and South Korean citizens from Israel.

2:54 AM UTC

Australia plans evacuation flights from Lebanon

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said on Thursday her government had booked 500 seats on commercial aircraft for Australian citizens, permanent residents and their families to leave Lebanon on Saturday.

The seats are available to 1,700 Australians and their families known to be in Lebanon on two flights from Beirut to Cyprus, Wong said.

“What I would say to Australians who wish to leave, please take whatever option is available to you,” Wong told reporters in Geelong, Australia.

“Please do not wait for your preferred route,” she added.

11:22 PM UTC

Lebanon’s Health Ministry raises death toll to 6 from airstrike in central Beirut

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said late Wednesday that at least six people were killed and seven wounded in an Israeli airstrike on an apartment building in central Beirut.

Residents in Beirut reported a sulfur-like smell in the city following the airstrike. Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency later accused Israel of using international banned phosphorous bombs in the airstrike in central Beirut’s Bashoura district.

Human rights groups have in the past accused Israel of using white phosphorus incendiary shells on residential buildings in towns and villages in conflict-hit southern Lebanon.

10:37 PM UTC

Lebanon’s Health Ministry says 2 killed in Israeli airstrike in central Beirut

At least two people were killed and 11 wounded in an Israeli airstrike Wednesday on an apartment building in central Beirut, Lebanon’s Health Ministry says.

The airstrike started a fire in an apartment in a multistory building in the residential Bashoura district, not far from the United Nations headquarters, the prime minister’s office and parliament. Ambulances rushed to the scene.

Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV station says the strike targeted a center of the group’s health unit.

10:11 PM UTC

Airstrike hits an apartment building in central Beirut

An Israeli airstrike hit an apartment building near the center of the Lebanese capital, in the residential Bashoura district.

Ambulances rushed to the scene, but it was not immediately clear whether there were any casualties.

The airstrike hit not far from the United Nations headquarters, the prime minister’s office and parliament.

Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV station said the strike targeted the militant group’s health unit.

9:12 PM UTC

Satellite images appear to show damage to Israeli air base after Iranian attack

By MICHAEL BIESECKER

Satellite images of an aircraft hangar at a key Israeli military air base taken after a massive barrage of Iranian missiles appear to show a large hole in the roof.

Images of the Nevatim air base in southern Israel on Wednesday show the damage to the roof in a row of buildings near the main runway. Large pieces of debris can be seen spread around the building.

It was not clear what caused the damage. Israel’s military did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the satellite images.

Nevatim is home to the Israeli Air Force’s most advanced aircraft, including U.S.-produced F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter jets. It is not clear from the satellite imagery whether any aircraft were in the hangar when it was struck.

7:38 PM UTC

Iran’s U.N. ambassador criticizes U.S. and other Western nations

Iran’s U.N. ambassador accused the United States, along with the United Kingdom and France, of cynically attempting “to justify Israel’s heinous crimes under the guise of self-defense, shifting the blame onto Iran.”

Amir Saeid Iravani told an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council Wednesday that the United States, which has continued to arm Israel since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks on its south, is complicit “in Israel’s crimes.”

Iravani called Iran’s missile barrage targeting Israel on Tuesday “a necessary and proportionate response to Israel’s continued terrorist aggressive acts over the past two months.”

7:33 PM UTC

US military releases video showing Navy destroyer helping intercept Iranian missiles

By COURTNEY BONNELL

In a video released Wednesday by the U.S. military, a Navy destroyer is shown assisting Israel in intercepting missiles during Iran’s attack the day before.

Two Navy destroyers fired about a dozen interceptors and struck five of the incoming Iranian missiles, according to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss battlefield data.

The ships are patrolling the Eastern Mediterranean as part of a bulked-up force response to the escalating violence between Israel, Iran and Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah.

7:26 PM UTC

Israeli ambassador tells UN Security Council ‘time for empty calls’ is over

Israel’s U.N. ambassador told the U.N. Security Council “the time for empty calls for deescalation is over.”

Danny Danon told an emergency meeting of the council on the Middle East Wednesday that “Iran’s true face is one of terror, death and chaos.”

“This is no longer a matter of words,” he said. “Iran is a very real and present danger to the world, and if they are not stopped, the next wave of missiles will not be aimed solely at Israel,” he said.

He called Iran’s missile barrage aimed at Israel on Tuesday “a cold-blooded attack against 10 million civilians” and “an unprecedented act of aggression.”

Danon stressed that Israel will not stop until the 101 hostages held by Hamas and other militants are back in Israel.

“Let the world understand: Israel will defend itself, and we will do so with justice and strength,” he said.

6:37 PM UTC

Lebanon’s U.N. ambassador warns region ‘is burning from all sides’

Hadi Hachem has stressed that the Lebanese government rejects the war between Israel and Hezbollah militants.

He told an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council Wednesday that the implementation of a resolution that ended the last Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006 is the only solution to the ongoing war and Israel’s “barbaric aggression.”

The resolution called for the disarmament of all armed groups, including Hezbollah, and the deployment of Lebanese forces to the southern border with Israel – which has not happened.

Hachem also said they are opening enlistment for 1,500 new soldiers to strengthen the army’s presence in the south.

6:22 PM UTC

About 100 American citizens and family members leave Lebanon

The State Department says they left Lebanon on Wednesday on a flight contracted with a commercial airline.

Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the flight to Istanbul was not a charter flight but was not on the Lebanese national carrier Middle East Airlines, the only commercial airline currently flying scheduled flights in and out of Beirut.

Since Sept. 28, MEA has made about 800 seats on its flights out of Beirut available for American citizens, but Miller could not say how many had taken them.

He said some 6,000 Americans have asked for information from the U.S. Embassy in Beirut on how they might leave the country, but only a small fraction have asked for actual assistance.

5:55 PM UTC

UN calls Israel’s banning Guterres from entering the country a ‘political statement’

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters that Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz’s statement that the U.N. chief is “persona non grata” is also “one more attack on the United Nations staff that we’ve seen from the government of Israel.”

He said in his 24 years at the U.N. he didn’t know of a secretary-general being declared as such.

5:44 PM UTC

Thousands flee from Lebanon to Syria

Thousands of Lebanese and Syrians are pouring into neighboring Syria, fleeing Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon.

An Associated Press team saw hundreds of people Wednesday crowding the Jousieh border crossing, one of several crossings into Syria. Many said they were headed to the central city of Homs which is around 18 miles away.

Dabbah Mashaal, an official at the crossing, said 10,000 displaced Syrians and 7,700 Lebanese have crossed the border in recent days.

Most of those waiting to enter Syria were from eastern Lebanon’s city of Baalbek and surrounding areas, hard hit by Israeli airstrikes in the past days. The militant group Hezbollah has a strong presence in that region, but many of those killed and wounded have been civilians.

Some came from as far as the southern suburbs of the capital Beirut.