Middle East crisis live: strikes by Israeli air force hit Yemen; more than 50 killed in Lebanon

8.00pm BST

Here are some of the latest images coming through the news wires from Lebanon, where Israeli attacks across the country have killed more than 50 people over the past 24 hours:

Updated at 8.08pm BST

7.37pm BST

Lebanese health ministry: Over 50 killed in latest Israeli strikes

Over 50 people have been killed in Israel’s latest strikes on Lebanon, according to the Lebanese health ministry.

On Sunday, the health ministry reported that 21 people have been killed while 47 others wounded in Israeli attacks on Baalbek-Hermel in eastern Lebanon.

The ministry also reported that 32 people have been killed with another 53 wounded in Ain al-Delb, a rise from the ministry’s previously reported numbers of 24 people killed and 29 people wounded in the southern village.

Updated at 7.55pm BST

7.19pm BST

The death toll on Israel’s attack on Ain el-Del b, a southern village in Lebanon, has risen to 32, according to the Lebanese health ministry.

Earlier today, the health ministry said Israeli airstrikes have killed 21 people on Sunday in Baalbek-Hemel, east Lebanon .

Updated at 7.24pm BST

6.57pm BST

Four killed and at least 30 injured in Israeli strikes on Yemen – report

Houthi-run media is reporting that four people have been killed while at least 30 have been injured in Israel’s latest strikes on Yemen, according to Agence France-Presse.

Among the four people killed were a port worker and three engineers, Al-Masirah TV reports.

Thirty-three people have been wounded in the “initial toll”, the outlet added.

Updated at 7.00pm BST

6.44pm BST

Houthi media is reporting that four people have been killed in the latest Israeli airstrikes, according to Agence France-Presse.

6.26pm BST

Violent clashes between members of Jamaat-e-Islami and Pakistani security forces have taken place in Pakistan following Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah’s assassination:

6.03pm BST

Lebanese health ministry: Israeli airstrikes kill 21 people in Baalbek-Hemel

Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli airstrikes have killed 21 people on Sunday in east Lebanon, Agence France Press reports.

“The Israeli enemy raids on Baalbek-Hemel have killed 21 people and wounded 47,” the ministry said, giving a provisional toll.

5.44pm BST

The bomb that Israel used to kill Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah was US-made, according to US senator Mark Kelly.

On Sunday, Kelly, chair of the US Senate armed services airland subcommittee, told NBC that Israel used a 2,000lb (900kg) Mark 84 series bomb.

“We see more use of guided munitions, JDAMs [Joint Direct Attack Munitions], and we continue to provide those weapons,” Kelly said, Reuters reports.

“That 2,000lb bomb that was used, that’s a Mark 84 series bomb, to take out Nasrallah.”

The Israeli military has not commented on the weapons that were used in the attack that killed Nasrallah and levelled at least six residential buildings, killing several people and injuring dozens more.

Updated at 5.51pm BST

5.28pm BST

Here are some images coming through the newswires of the Israeli strikes on the Yemeni port of Hodeidah:

5.12pm BST

The Israeli Air Force l said that the raid on Yemen had been carried out by F-15s from Israel’s Tel Nof airbase which were accompanied by support aircraft.

4.55pm BST

Posting on X, Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant , said the raid proved that no location was too far away for Israel to hit.

“‘I will hunt down my enemies and I will overtake them and I will not return until their end’ (Psalms, chapter 18, verse 38),” wrote Gallant.

”I followed the attack against the Houthis from the control room of the air force. The message is clear – for us, no place is too far,” he added.

Updated at 5.11pm BST

4.51pm BST

As well as striking Houthi targets, it seems clear that the large and sophisticated air raid on Yemen was designed to send a message to Iran that the Israeli Air Force was willing and able to launch air raids from a significant distance away.

Updated at 4.53pm BST

4.40pm BST

Senior Houthi official Nasr ad-Din Amer, who also serves as the head of the Saba Yemeni news agency, posted on Twitter/X:

The attacks failed. Precautions were taken, the oil tanks were emptied in advance at the port of Ras Issa and Hodeidah, and there was an emergency plan. The Zionists will not stop our operations under any circumstances, we will make them more qualitative.

Updated at 4.53pm BST

4.34pm BST

While Israeli air strikes have hit Yemen before in response to drone and missile attacks, this appears to have been the largest Israeli raid on Yemen involving a large number of aircraft and hit up to 10 targets.

Images from Hodeidah showed parts of the city covered in a massive pall of dust, and towering explosions seen from a distance.

4.32pm BST

Israeli strikes on Yemen's Hodeidah port carried out with US Centcom - report

Axios is reporting that an Israeli official said that the latest Israeli strikes on Yemen’s Hodeidah port was carried out with US Central Command (Centcom).

According to Israeli officials, the strikes were in retaliation for the long-range ballistic missile attacks launched by Houthis on Tel Aviv in recent weeks.

Updated at 4.39pm BST

4.15pm BST

IDF confirms Israeli raid on Yemen

A statement released by the IDF described dozens of Israeli aircraft involved in the raid.

Here are some of the lines from the statement:

The Israeli Air Force struck Houthi terror targets in Yemen – 1,800km from the State of Israel …

Today [Sunday], during an extensive, intelligence-based aerial operation, dozens of IAF aircraft – including fighter jets, mid-air refueling aircraft, and intelligence aircraft struck military targets belonging to the Houthi terrorist regime in the Ras Isa and Hudaydah areas of Yemen. The targets included power plants and a seaport used to import oil, which were used by the Houthi terrorist regime to transfer Iranian weapons to the region, in addition to military supplies and oil.

The strikes were carried out in response to the recent attacks by the Houthis against the State of Israel …

Over the past year, the Houthis have been operating under the direction and funding of Iran, and in cooperation with Iraqi militias in order to attack the State of Israel, undermine regional stability, and disrupt global freedom of navigation …

The IDF is determined to continue operating at any distance – near or far – against all threats to the citizens of the State of Israel.

Updated at 4.54pm BST

4.00pm BST

Peter Beaumont is a senior international reporter for the Guardian

Israeli and Yemeni media are reporting a significant air strike on the Yemeni port of Hodeidah. Video posted on social media and also shared by Israeli publications suggests that oil storage facilities at the port were in an air strike. Images showed a very large explosion and a towering column of black smoke over the city.

The explosion in Hodeidah follows the targeting of Israeli with a ballistic missile fired from Yemen on Saturday, with the Iran backed Houthis said was aimed at Tel Aviv’s international airport. The missile was intercepted outside Israel’s airspace.

3.52pm BST

Airstrikes launched at Yemen's Hodeidah port

There are reports of an airstrike on the the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah in Yemen. Reuters reports that fuel tanks were hit.

Hodeidah, which has been under Houthi control since 2021, is critical for delivering food and other necessities to the Yemeni population, who depend on imports. The Iran-backed Houthis have launched missiles and drones at Israel and disrupted global trade through the Red Sea in response to Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza.

Updated at 5.20pm BST

3.49pm BST

In his interview with CNN, John Kirby , the White House national security spokesperson, said that nobody is mourning the death of Hassan Nasrallah , the Hezbollah leader killed in Israeli airstrikes in Beirut on Friday. He said:

I don’t think anybody’s mourning the loss of Mr Nasrallah, a known terrorist, a guy with American blood on his hands, as well as Israeli blood on his hands. This is a terrorist organization. He was the leader of it. And I think people are safer without him walking around.

When asked what the civilian death toll of the strike was, Kirby said: “We can’t quantify that right now.”

In a newly released statement, the Pentagon says the US “retains the capability to deploy forces on short notice” and is determined to prevent Iran and Iranian-backed partners and proxies from “exploiting the situation or expanding the conflict”. The US says its priority is ensuring the protection of US citizens and forces in the region, defending Israel and cooling tensions across the region through “deterrence and diplomacy”.

Updated at 3.54pm BST

3.47pm BST

US says full-scale war is not the way to return people to homes in northern Israel

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby has said Israel will not be able to safely get people back into their homes in the north of the country by waging a full-scale war with Hezbollah or Iran.

Israel has claimed that its goal is to make its northern areas safe from Hezbollah rocket fire and allow thousands of displaced residents to return.

“An all-out war with Hezbollah, certainly with Iran, is not the way to do that. If you want to get those folks back home safely and sustainably, we believe that a diplomatic path is the right course,” Kirby told CNN.

The US is watching to see what Hezbollah does to try to fill its leadership vacuum “and is continuing to talk to the Israelis about what the right next steps are”, he said after news that much of Hezbollah’s leadership has been killed by the Israeli military.

“We have made no bones about the fact that we don’t necessarily see the tactical execution the same way that they do in terms of protection (of civilians),” Kirby said. He added that the US’s support for Israel remains intact. Washington is by far the biggest arms supplier to Israel.

Updated at 3.54pm BST

3.38pm 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.

• Nasrallah’s body has been recovered intact from the site of Friday’s strike, a medical source and a security source told Reuters .

• Israel said that it killed 20 Hezbollah figures alongside Nasrallah in its attack on the group’s underground headquarters on Friday. Ali Karaki , leader of Hezbollah’s southern front, and Ibrahim Hussein Jazini , head of Nasrallah’s security unit, were also among those killed, the IDF said.

• The Israeli military also said on Sunday that it killed senior Hezbollah figure Nabil Kaouk in an airstrike in Lebanon yesterday. Hezbollah later confirmed his death. He is the seventh senior leader of the Lebanese militant group to be killed since 20 September.

• The Israeli military has carried out new attacks on Lebanon today, including on Dahiyeh , a southern suburb of the capital, Beirut, and on Bekaa Valley in north-eastern Lebanon. Hezbollah was reported to have fired rockets at the Ofek military base in northern Israel earlier today and has been targeting Israel’s Sa’ar settlement with rocket strikes.

• 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 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 3.41pm BST

3.24pm BST

The Lebanese health ministry has said that 14 paramedics had been killed in two days of intense Israeli bombardment in Lebanon’s east and south and in Beirut, the capital.

“This series of attacks killed 14 paramedics in two days,” the ministry said in a statement, adding it “condemns in the strongest terms the Israeli enemy’s repeated attacks on medical centres” and that “paramedics do not participate in hostilities”.

3.22pm BST

The Israeli military has carried out new attacks on Lebanon today, including on Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of the capital, Beirut, and on Bekaa Valley in north-eastern Lebanon.

3.02pm BST

Hezbollah has denied Israeli claims to have assassinated Abu Ali Rida , the commander of the group’s Bader Unit in south Lebanon (see earlier post at 13.30 for more details).

“There is no truth to the Zionist propaganda about the assassination of the brother and fighter Abu Ali Rida, he is alive and well,” the group said in a statement to the press.

Updated at 3.36pm BST

2.45pm BST

Lebanon’s environment minister, Nasser Yassin , said the government estimates that about 250,000 people have left their homes and taken refuge in government-run shelters and informal ones. However, he told the Associated Press the total number is about “four times as many directly affected and/or displaced outside the shelters”.

Figures quoted by the country’s state run news agency show more than 36,000 Syrians and 41,300 Lebanese people crossed the border into Syria territory between last Monday and today.

The Lebanese government has converted schools and other facilities into temporary shelters, but many people are sleeping on the streets and have nowhere safe to stay.

As my colleague William Christou explains in this story , Lebanon’s state was already overwhelmed by a previous wave of people who fled an intense Israeli aerial campaign in south Lebanon and the Bekaa valley, which started last Monday and killed about 700 people.

2.33pm BST

Body of Hezbollah leader has been recovered - report

The body of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has been recovered from the site of the Israeli airstrike on Beirut’s southern suburbs and is intact, sources have told Reuters. The Guardian has not yet been able to verify this information.

Nasrallah, who led Hezbollah for more than three decades, was killed by Israel in a series of strikes on the group’s underground headquarters in Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut, on Friday.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, yesterday announced five days of national mourning to honour what he called the “martyrdom of the great Nasrallah”. Israel’s military said Nasrallah had “the blood of thousands... on his hands”.

2.23pm BST

Israeli army says over 20 Hezbollah members killed alongside group's leader in Beirut airstrike

The Israeli military says it killed over 20 Hezbollah members of different ranks when they assassinated the Lebanese Shiite militant group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah , at Hezbollah’s headquarters in Beirut on Friday .

“More than 20 other terrorists of varying ranks, who were present at the underground headquarters in Beirut located beneath civilian buildings, and were managing Hezbollah’s terrorist operations against the state of Israel, were also eliminated,” the military said.

Some of the Hezbollah figures the military says were killed include:

• Ali Karaki , a member of Hezbollah’s Jihad council and the commander of the organisation’s southern front.

• Ibrahim Hussein Jazini , head of Hassan Nasrallah’s security unit.

• Samir Tawfiq Dib , who the IDF describes as “Nasrallah’s long-time confidant and adviser”.

Updated at 2.25pm BST

2.11pm BST

Hezbollah says it has fired rockets at the Ofek military base in northern Israel today and has been targeting Israel’s Sa’ar settlement with rocket strikes, according to reports.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said this afternoon that 10 rockets were fired into Israel from Lebanon.

Updated at 3.36pm BST

2.07pm BST

An Israeli strike on Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley earlier today killed a senior figure in the Sunni Jama’a Islamiya group, Mohammad Dahrouj , two security sources told Reuters.

The group has fired rockets on Israel over the past year and the Israeli military has previously conducted strikes targeting other leading figures from the group.

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 on 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 20 September, including Hassan Nasrallah , who was Hezbollah’s top leader for 32 years.

Updated at 2.12pm BST

1.30pm BST

Israeli media reports: Beirut 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.

Updated at 2.46pm BST

1.22pm BST

Reuters is reporting that France’s foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot will travel to Lebanon on Sunday.

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.

Updated at 2.04pm BST

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.

Updated at 2.05pm BST

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 2.13pm 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