Middle East crisis live: Hezbollah confirms death of seventh senior leader in Israeli airstrike

1.49pm BST

Hezbollah confirms death of seventh senior leader

Hezbollah has confirmed that Nabil Kaouk , another of its senior leaders, was killed in an Israeli airstrike, the Associated Press are reporting.

The Israeli military said earlier Sunday that it had killed Kaouk in an airstrike the day before.

He is the seventh senior leader of the Lebanese militant group to be killed since Sept. 20, including Hassan Nasrallah , who was Hezbollah’s top leader for more than three decades.

Updated at 1.52pm BST

1.30pm BST

Israeli media reports: Beruit strike target was Abu Ali Rida

William Christou is reporting for the Guardian from Beirut

Initial reports in Israeli media suggest the target of Israel’s strike on Beirut on Sunday afternoon was Abu Ali Rida , the commander of the group’s Bader Unit, which is responsible for the second line of defence in south Lebanon after the initial border zone.

Rida was the last remaining senior military commander of Hezbollah that remained alive, which, if reports of his death were true, would leave Hezbollah without any of its senior military leadership. The Guardian was not able to independently verify Israeli media reports and Hezbollah had not yet issued a statement.

1.22pm BST

Reuters are reporting that French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot will travel to Lebanon on Sunday, according to his office.

It comes as Israel continued to strike multiple targets in the country. The French foreign ministry said:

We confirm that the minister is going to Lebanon this weekend to talk with local authorities and provide French support, particularly humanitarian support

Barrot is one of several European foreign ministers have stepped up calls for a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah [see 11.56 BST ].

Barrot has said Israel must “immediately stop its strikes in Lebanon”, adding that his country was opposed to any form of ground operation by the Israelis.

1.14pm BST

Anti-war rally held in Cyprus

Over in Cyprus , the EU’s nearest member state to the Middle East, an anti-war rally has been held outside a British Sovereign base that activists have accused of “facilitating” Israel’s armed action.

Hundreds of protestors, chanting “No to war” and “Out, Out, British bases out,” rallied within metres of the gates of RAF Akrotiri amid mounting fears of the Mediterranean island being drawn into a wider conflict if hostilities spiral out of control. The leftwing AKEL party official Haris Karamanou told demonstrators:

We are here, right outside the British Air Force airport in Akrotiri, because from here British spy planes are assisting the occupying forces of Israel in gathering information on the ‘operations’ in Gaza. And because hundreds of tons of bombs and ammunition have passed through here to aid the total destruction of Gaza.

Speaking to the Guardian, Nicoletta Charalambidou, a prominent human rights lawyer also attending the rally said:

The government of Cyprus has failed to take a clear stance against the war and we are against the facilitation it has granted that has allowed the British bases to indirectly support Israel’s war in Palestine, Gaza and Lebanon.

Others activists said they were furious at the growing use “on Cypriot land” of the installation, one of two bases retained by Britain, a former colony.

In a statement urging people to attend Sunday’s protest, the left-wing backed Cyprus Peace Council said it was imperative the island’s government took a clear stance if the country was to avoid becoming a target for attack. It said:

The large military activities carried out these days on the ground and air around the Akrotiri base as well as the large concentration of US military forces in our country to prepare for a broader war, heightens the feeling of concern that Cyprus may become a target for an attack.

The statement came hours after the UK announced it was “bolstering contingency teams” in the region, moving 700 troops to the island in preparation of mass evacuations from Lebanon

Earlier this year protestors conducted a similar rally outside Akrotiri to demonstrate against the British bases being used as an “aggressive launch pad” for the war in Gaza amid revelations of its deployment as a staging point for fighter jets involved in strikes against pro-Palestinian Houthi militia in Yemen.

UK defence officials have robustly denied accusations of the bases being used to funnel weapons to Israel. On Sunday, the Cyprus Mail quoted a British bases spokesperson as saying: “No RAF flights have transported lethal cargo to the Israeli Defence Forces.” It was standard practice the spokesperson said “for the UK Ministry of Defence to routinely authorise requests for a limited number of allies and partners to access the UK’s air bases.”

Under the terms of the bases’ establishment, Britain is not formally obliged to seek permission from Cyprus for operations conducted out of the military installations.

1.04pm BST

A school sheltering displaced Palestinians in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip was hit by Israeli strikes earlier, Reuters reported. Four people were killed and several others injured, Gaza medics said.

In another strike, three people were killed in a house in Gaza City , medics said. Four others were reportedly killed in three separate airstrikes in Nuseira t and Khan Younis in central and southern parts of the Gaza Strip.

Updated at 1.07pm BST

12.45pm BST

William Christou is reporting for the Guardian from Beirut

Israel has carried out a strike on Beirut, with the sound of a missile flying overhead and an impact being heard by a Guardian correspondent.

A plume of smoke emanated from the outskirts of Chiyah , a section of the city on the borders of Dahiyeh , the southern suburbs of Beirut which have been the main target of Israeli bombing over the past week. The target of the strike was not immediately clear.

Updated at 12.45pm BST

12.43pm BST

Hezbollah announces death of senior military commander in Israeli airstrike

Hezbollah has announced the death of senior military commander Ali Karaki on Sunday afternoon, killed in the large Israeli airstrikes on Dahiyeh , the southern suburbs of Beirut. These are the same strikes that killed the former head of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah .

Karaki was a member of the group’s Jihad Council and the commander of the organisation’s southern front. He had escaped death a few days prior, after Israel said it attempted to assassinate him in an airstrike on Dahieh last Monday.

“[Karaki] was directly and on the ground responsible for leading the southern front with all its axes and units in the support front from 8 October, 2023, until his blessed martyrdom”, a statement from Hezbollah read announcing his death.

Karaki was the latest in a series of military commanders to be killed by Israel, leaving Hezbollah’s senior military leadership almost completely wiped out.

Updated at 12.45pm BST

12.34pm BST

Summary of the day so far...

• Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araqchi , said the killing of Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan , an Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) deputy commander, by Israel was a “horrible crime” that would not go unanswered. Nilforoushan was killed in the Israeli strikes on Beirut on Friday, in which Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was also assassinated.

• European foreign ministers, including officials from the UK, Germany and France, have stepped up calls for a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah amid fears of the conflict spreading across the region.

• The Israeli military said on Sunday that it killed senior Hezbollah figure Nabil Kaouk in an airstrike in Lebanon yesterday. He was the deputy head of the Lebanese militant group’s central council and was one of the few remaining senior members of the organisation. On Sunday, Israel said it hit “dozens” more Hezbollah targets overnight.

• The Lebanese army said it “calls on citizens to preserve national unity and not to be drawn into actions that may affect civil peace at this dangerous and delicate stage”. The country’s prime minister, Najib Mikati , urged Lebanese people “to come together” to preserve civil order. Diplomatic efforts for a ceasefire with Israel are ongoing.

• The UN World Food Programme (WFP) launched an emergency operation to provide food for up to 1 million people affected by the conflict in Lebanon. More than 1,000 people have been killed in Lebanon and more than 6,000 injured as a result of Israeli attacks in the past two weeks, the health ministry said, and about one million Lebanese people have been displaced by Israeli strikes.

• At least 41,595 Palestinian people have been killed and 96,251 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said .

Updated at 12.36pm BST

12.18pm BST

Iran vows response to killing of Iranian Revolutionary Guards deputy commander

Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araqchi , said the killing by Israel of an Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) deputy commander was a “horrible crime” that would not go unanswered.

Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan was killed in the Israeli strikes on Beirut on Friday, in which Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah also was assassinated.

“There is no doubt that this horrible crime committed by the Zionist regime (Israel) will not go unanswered,” Araqchi said.

In 2019, Nilforoushan was appointed as the operations deputy of the IRGC, which Iran uses to provide Hezbollah with most of its funding, training and weapons.

12.07pm BST

Here are some of the latest images coming out from the newswires:

11.56am BST

European ministers call for immediate ceasefire in Lebanon

European foreign ministers have stepped up calls for a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, amid concern that Israel’s killing of Hezbollah’s longtime leader, Hassan Nasrallah, risks seriously destabilising Lebanon and the region.

Even as Israeli defence officials continued to raise the prospect of a cross-border operation into southern Lebanon , the foreign ministers of France, Germany and the UK voiced alarm over the latest escalation on the Israeli side.

Israel must “immediately stop its strikes in Lebanon”, the French foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot , said, adding that his country was opposed to any form of ground operation by the Israelis.

David Lammy , the UK foreign secretary, said on X that he had spoken to the Lebanese prime minister, Najib Mikati. “We agreed on the need for an immediate ceasefire to bring an end to the bloodshed. A diplomatic solution is the only way to restore security and stability for the Lebanese and Israeli people,” Lammy wrote.

The German foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock , told the broadcaster ARD that Nasrallah’s killing “threatens destabilisation for the whole of Lebanon”, which “is in no way in Israel’s security interest”.

You can read the full story by my colleagues, Peter Beaumont and William Christou here:

Related: European ministers call for immediate ceasefire in Lebanon

11.43am BST

Death toll in Gaza reaches 41,595 says health ministry

At least 41,595 Palestinian people have been killed and 96,251 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

The health ministry has said thousands of other dead people are most likely lost in the rubble of the enclave.

11.31am BST

Lebanon army makes plea for 'national unity' after assassination of Hezbollah leader

In a statement, the Lebanese army has said that it “calls on citizens to preserve national unity and not to be drawn into actions that may affect civil peace at this dangerous and delicate stage” following the Israeli strike that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut on Friday, and as Israeli attacks continue.

“The Israeli enemy is working to implement its destructive plans and sow division among Lebanese,” the army statement added.

Lebanon has long been divided along sectarian lines which had contributed to a devastating civil war between 1975-1990.

Hezbollah, the Shiite militant group, wields great power in Lebanon’s south. Its military might dwarfs Lebanon’s national armed forces.

A Lebanese army official told Agence France-Presse (AFP) troops had been deployed since Saturday in Beirut. The country’s prime minister, Najib Mikati, urged Lebanese people “to come together” to preserve civil order.

Updated at 11.31am BST

11.03am BST

Lebanese PM to chair emergency committee meeting this afternoon

William Christou has been reporting for the Guardian from Beirut

Lebanese prime minister Najib Mikati will chair a meeting of the government emergency committee this afternoon, along with several ministers.

The meeting comes as Lebanon deals with successive waves of displacement, with 90,000 fleeing Israeli bombardment of the south and the Bekaa Valley last Monday, and many more evacuating the southern suburbs of Beirut after intense Israeli airstrikes on Friday.

Beirut’s public spaces are filled with families, gathered on sidewalks and small parks across the cities with their belongings.

Many have spent the last two nights homeless and hungry, with the Lebanese state unable to respond to the scale of the humanitarian crisis.

Private initiatives have sprung up to fill the gap, with small NGOs and even individuals distributing food and water in areas where the displaced have gathered.

Updated at 11.08am BST

10.49am BST

Lebanon’s information minister, Ziad Makary , has said during a cabinet session that diplomatic efforts for a ceasefire with Israel are ongoing.

He said:

It is certain that the Lebanese government wants a ceasefire, and everyone knows that Netanyahu went to New York based on the premise of a ceasefire, but the decision was made to assassinate Nasrallah.

Diplomatic efforts to achieve a ceasefire are ongoing. The prime minister is not falling short, but the matter is not that easy.

Israel rejected global calls on Thursday for a ceasefire with the Hezbollah movement, defying its biggest ally in Washington.

Despite Israel’s stance, the US and France sought to keep prospects alive for an immediate 21-day truce they proposed on Wednesday, and said negotiations continued.

Lebanon’s prime minister Najib Mikati said a ceasefire would mean the UN security resolution 1701 - adopted to end the last Israel-Lebanon war of 2006, but never properly implemented - could be applied.

At least 1,640 people are reported to have been killed in Lebanon since 8 October 2023, including 104 children and 194 women, the majority in Israeli strikes over the last fortnight.

Updated at 12.00pm BST

10.24am BST

We have a little more information on Nabil Kaouk , the high-ranking Hezbollah official the Israeli military said was killed in an airstrike yesterday (see earlier post at 09.41 ).

Kaouk was a veteran member of Hezbollah going back to the 1980s and had previously served as Hezbollah’s military commander in southern Lebanon. The US had announced sanctions against him in 2020.

A source close to Hezbollah confirmed to AFP that Kaouk was killed in a strike on Saturday and identified him as a member of Hezbollah’s central council in charge of security in the group.

Updated at 11.25am BST

10.11am BST

In Gaza, two people were killed in separate strikes this morning in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp in the central part of the enclave. This is according to the nearby Awda hospital , which received the bodies. It said another six people were injured.

In northern Gaza, first responders recovered two bodies after a strike on a house early on Sunday morning, according to the civil defence.

9.57am BST

Israeli airstrike kills 11 people in Lebanon’s Bekaa valley - report

Lebanon’s state news agency reports that an Israeli airstrike on a house in the town of Ain, in the Bekaa valley , eastern Lebanon, killed 11 people earlier today. This figure has not been independently verified by the Guardian yet.

Israeli strikes have increasingly targeted Hezbollah’s strongholds in southern Beirut and the Bekaa valley, where Israel claims the group stores thousands of rockets.

Updated at 9.59am BST

9.41am BST

Israel says it has killed another senior Hezbollah figure

The Israeli military said in a post on X that it killed top Hezbollah leader, Nabil Kaouk , one of the few remaining senior leaders of the organisation. Kaouk was the deputy head of Hezbollah’s central council.

Kaouk was reportedly one of those being considered to succeed Hassan Nasrallah , who was killed by an Israeli airstrike in Beirut on Friday , as the head of Hezbollah.

The choices of who will now lead the organisation are narrowing, with analysts suggesting that Hashim Safieddine , the head of Hezbollah’s executive council, is the favored pick. Naeem Qassem , the deputy secretary general of the organisation, is also reportedly in the running.

Kaouk’s death is a further blow to Hezbollah’s leadership, already decimated from a relentless Israeli assassination campaign.

Updated at 10.12am BST

9.36am BST

UN food agency launches emergency operation in Lebanon

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said it has launched an emergency operation to provide food for up to 1 million people affected by the conflict in Lebanon.

“Further escalation of the conflict this weekend underscores the need for urgent humanitarian response,” the WFP said in a post on X.

The WFP has operated in Lebanon for 10 years. Its says workers are dispatching food, hot meals, “ready-to-eat rations” and cash for civilians, including displaced people who have fled Israeli attacks and those staying in shelters.

As of yesterday, there were well over 200,000 people who had been displaced inside Lebanon, according to the UN high commissioner for refugees.

“Lebanon is at a breaking point and cannot endure another war,” WFP regional director Corinne Fleischer said.

Updated at 11.05am BST

9.17am BST

At least 18 Palestinian people were detained by Israeli forces last night into Sunday morning in a series of raids across the occupied West Bank , Wafa, the Palestinian news agency, reports, citing sources.

The detentions were reported to have taken place in various locations, including Hebron, Bethlehem, Ramallah, Nablus and Jenin. The total number of Palestinians detained in the occupied West Bank since 7 October 2023 is estimated to have risen to well over 10,000.

Human rights groups and international organisations have alleged widespread abuse of inmates detained by Israel in raids in the occupied West Bank, which Palestinians want as the core of a future independent state along with Gaza .

Updated at 9.37am BST

8.52am BST

China says it is “deeply concerned” and is “closely following” soaring tensions in the Middle East, after Israel killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in strikes on Lebanon.

“China is closely following this incident and deeply concerned about the escalation of tensions in the region,” Beijing’s foreign ministry said in a statement. The ministry urged “all parties, particularly Israel, to take immediate steps to cool down the situation.” The ministry said it opposes any violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty.

The world’s second largest economy, China has recently stepped up its involvement in various crises. In July, it hosted talks between Palestinian rivals including Hamas and Fatah in Beijing. Chinese President Xi Jinping helped broker a March 2023 deal to end a diplomatic rift between Saudi Arabia and Iran, leaving the US on the sidelines.

During the UN general assembly on Saturday, China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, called for a cessation of fighting in the Middle East.

Updated at 8.56am BST

8.47am BST

William Christou has been reporting for the Guardian from Beirut

Fighting between Hezbollah and Israel continued through the night and early morning, with Israeli warplanes carrying out airstrikes across south Lebanon and the Bekaa valley .

Hezbollah launched a rocket salvo at the “Ofik base” using the group’s medium range Fadi-1 rockets, according to a statement on Sunday morning. It was not immediately clear if Hezbollah’s attacks resulted in any Israeli casualties.

Among those killed by Israel’s overnight airstrikes were four paramedics while they were working in their medical centre in Tair Dirba , south Lebanon, Lebanon’s national news agency reported on Sunday.

The day prior, Israeli strikes killed 33 people and injured 195, the country’s health ministry reported.

Updated at 11.03am BST

8.33am BST

Opening summary

Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the conflict in the Middle East.

Israel has continued its attacks on Lebanon, with its military claiming to have hit dozens of Hezbollah targets in the past hours, a day after the Lebanese militant group confirmed its leader Hassan Nasrallah had been killed in an Israeli strike on Beirut.

Israel has killed hundreds of people, including children, in its attacks on Lebanon over the past week, which included the massive strike on a densely populated area of south Beirut that is believed to have killed Nasrallah on Friday and levelled several entire apartment blocks.

Iran vowed to avenge his death on Saturday, while US President Joe Biden said his killing provided a “measure of justice for his many victims”. Biden did not mention the many civilians killed by Israel, including children, in this week’s attacks.

Lebanon is to hold three days of official mourning for Nasrallah from Monday, according to the prime minister’s office. Hezbollah has yet to announce a date for his funeral.

In other developments:

• More than 1,000 people have been killed in Lebanon and more than 6,000 wounded as a result of Israeli attacks in the past two weeks, the health ministry said, and about one million Lebanese people have been displaced by the strikes, including hundreds of thousands since Friday, Nasser Yassin, the minister coordinating the government’s crisis response, has told Reuters.

• The Lebanese ministry of public health reported last night that the Israeli attacks across Lebanon yesterday killed 33 people and injured 195 others, according to Wafa, the Palestinian news agency .

• Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has confirmed the death of Brig Gen Abbas Nilforoushan, deputy commander of IRGC operations . He was killed in the Israel’s air strikes on Lebanon on Friday which also killed other senior Hezbollah figures, including the group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah. In its statement mourning Nilforoushan’s killing, the IRGC, a major military, political and economic force in Iran, condemned “crimes of the Zionist regime” in Lebanon and praised his role in defending the “resistance front” and Iran.

• The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan , has said Lebanese people are the new target of “Israel’s policy of genocide, occupation and invasion.” The Turkish leader, who has been highly critical of Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza, said children were among Lebanese civilians who have been “murdered” by “brutal” Israeli strikes conducted on Lebanon this week.

• “By the grace and power of God, the blows struck by the Resistance Front on the worn-out, deteriorating body of the Zionist regime will become even more crushing,” said Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei about Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah. He went on to add: “The foul-natured Zionist regime has not become victorious by carrying out this atrocity.”

• Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, commenting on the killing of Nasrallah, said on Sunday that what Iran terms “resistance groups” will continue to confront Israel with the help of Iran, according to Iranian state media . Iran has called for the UN security council to meet over Israel’s assault on Lebanon and across the region.

• Joe Biden ordered the Pentagon to enhance America’s defence posture in the region. He said: “The United States fully supports Israel’s right to defend itself against Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and any other Iranian-supported terrorist groups.”

• UN secretary general António Guterres said he is “gravely concerned by the dramatic escalation of the events in Beirut in the last 24 hours”. He went on to add: “This cycle of violence must stop now. All sides must step back from the brink.”

Updated at 9.50am BST