The Guardian

Middle East crisis live: Region close to ‘abyss’ of full-blown war, Jordan warns, as vigils mark 7 October anniversary

By Yohannes Lowe (now) and Helen Livingstone (earlier),

7 hours ago

11.57am BST

We have a little more information on the Jordanian foreign minister’s diplomatic visit to Beirut (see post at 11.28 ) today.

Ayman Safadi arrived on board a plane earlier carrying 13 tonnes of food supplies, relief materials, medication, and medical equipment, Al Jazeera reported.

Safadi will meet Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati, speaker of the country’s parliament Nabih Berri, and Lebanese army commander general Joseph Aoun.

11.44am BST

At least eight people have been killed in an Israeli air attack that targeted a fire station affiliated with the Islamic health authority in the southern Lebanese town of Baraachit , according to a report by Lebanon’s official national news agency.

Updated at 11.53am BST

11.28am BST

'Israeli aggression' pushing region towards the 'abyss' of full-blown war, Jordan's foreign minister warns

During a visit to Lebanon, Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi , has warned that “Israeli aggression” was pushing the region towards the “abyss” of full-blown war.

“The Israeli aggression... which started in Gaza and now has continued into Lebanon is pushing the whole region into the abyss of full-blown regional war,” Safadi told a news conference in Beirut.

At the beginning of the year, Safadi voiced support for South Africa’s case against Israel in the international court of justice which accused the state of committing genocide in its war on Gaza. Safadi said Israeli military actions against civilians in Gaza met the legal definition of genocide.

Updated at 11.30am BST

11.06am BST

The Israel Defense Forces has called on residents of Beit Hanoun , Jabalia and Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip to evacuate southward towards the so-called “humanitarian zone” of al-Mawasi , where an estimated one million displaced people are sheltering.

“Israeli army forces are operating with intensity in the area,” the statement read.

Up to 300,000 people are estimated to have remained in the heavily destroyed north after earlier Israeli warnings that sent around a million people fleeing to the south.

The Israeli military claims its forces are in Jabalia to fight Hamas militants, dismantle military infrastructure and prevent Hamas from regrouping. It was reported yesterday that the Israeli military had carried out intense bombardment of the Jabalia refugee camp, killing at least 17 people.

Al-Mawasi, which has also been the target of deadly Israeli airstrikes , is severely overcrowded and aid agencies struggle to provide even the most basic services. Palestinians are being told to evacuate there, even though it is not safe.

In May, an aid worker described to the Guardian the “horrific and dehumanising” conditions, with limited food, filthy and scarce water, overwhelmed healthcare facilities and almost no sanitation.

Another said the coast was “totally jam packed, with block after block of tents and only narrow gaps between them”.

“There is no infrastructure inside the camps and very limited new supplies getting in of course,” he said.

Updated at 11.44am BST

10.42am BST

Two people were killed after Israeli warplanes bombed a house in the Lebanese town of Qaliya in the western Bekaa valley , Lebanon’s state run national news agency has reported.

10.32am BST

Families of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza – about 100, a third of whom are said to be dead – gathered near Benjamin Netanyahu’s Jerusalem residence and stood during a two-minute siren, replicating a custom from Holocaust Remembrance and Memorial Day. Hamas kidnapped 251 people during the Hamas-led 7 October 2023 attacks, according to Israel’s figures. Our video team has this report on the protest near Netanyahu’s residence:

Updated at 10.36am BST

10.18am BST

Here is the official statement from Spain’s ministry of foreign affairs to mark the anniversary of the 7 October Hamas attacks on southern Israel , in which about 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage:

The government of Spain remembers and reiterates its most vehement condemnation of the atrocious Hamas terrorist attacks of October 7, 2023 and expresses its solidarity with the families and friends of the victims.
It especially remembers Maya Villalobo and Iván Illaramendi, the two Spanish citizens who were killed during terrorist attacks.
One year on, the government expresses its solidarity with the relatives of the hostages who remain in captivity and demands their immediate release.
There needs to be a ceasefire, the release of hostages, access for humanitarian aid to civilians and an end to violence.
The government reiterates its determination to combat anti-Semitism and all forms of hatred and discrimination.
The government is committed to continuing working towards peace in the Middle East and to advancing the solution of two states living side-by-side in peace and security, which is the best guarantee of stability for everyone in the region.

10.10am BST

Death toll in Gaza reaches 41,909, says health ministry

At least 41,909 Palestinian people have been killed and 97,303 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Monday.

The toll includes 39 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry.

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

Updated at 10.38am BST

9.47am BST

Air raid sirens ring in several parts of northern Israel and in Tel Aviv

Air raid sirens were activated in central Israel on Monday after rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip, the army said. The Israel Defense Forces have also said air raid sirens have been ringing in some areas of northern Israel, including Dovev and Misgav Am , and in Tel Aviv . Earlier today, the al-Qassam Brigades , the armed wing of Hamas, said in a post on Telegram it had hit Tel Aviv with a barrage of rockets. There have not been any immediate reports of injuries.

Updated at 10.01am BST

9.43am BST

Kim Willsher is a Guardian foreign correspondent based in Paris

French ministers including prime minister Michel Barnier and former president Nicolas Sarkozy will attend a memorial ceremony for the victims of October 7 on Monday evening.

Around 4,000 people are expected at the Dôme arena at the Porte de Versailles to mark the one year anniversary of the Hamas attacks on Israel and show their support for the hostages still being held in Gaza.

The families of hostages will attend after a meeting with president Emmanuel Macron . France is home to the largest Jewish community in Europe, estimated to number around 500,000 people.

“October 7 was obviously an earthquake for Israel but it was also a shock in France,” Yonathan Arfi , president of the Representative Council for Jewish Institutions in France (Crif), said. He added that he was dismayed by the surge in antisemitism in France over the last year. A total of 887 antisemitic incidents were recorded in the first six months of 2024, according to the interior ministry.

Monday’s event marking October 7 comes days after Jean-Luc Mélenchon , head of the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI), called on university students to “put Palestinian flags everywhere if possible” in response to a memo from higher education minister Patrick Hetzel calling on universities to “keep order” on the one year anniversary of the Hamas attacks.

Arfi accused LFI of stoking antisemitism in France having “hysterically forced the public debate around the issue of Gaza”. He said Mélenchon had given “political backing” to antisemitism.

On Saturday, Macron called for a halt on the delivery of arms to Israel that could be used in Gaza, provoking an angry response from Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu .

Updated at 9.44am BST

9.33am BST

New Israeli military division sent to Lebanon, IDF says

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has said another division was deployed yesterday for “localised operations” in southern Lebanon.

This division is reportedly the third troop grouping at division strength to be used in Israel’s ground invasion of Lebanon, which was launched a week ago when several areas in the south of the country were told to evacuate.

“The soldiers of the 91st division began localised and targeted operational activity in southern Lebanon,” a statement from the Israeli army read.

More than 2,000 Lebanese people have been killed and more than 9,500 injured since 23 September 2024, when Israel started an intense aerial bombing campaign in south Lebanon and the Bekaa valley.

Updated at 11.38am BST

9.18am BST

Early this morning, Israel intercepted two aerial targets launched from the east after sirens went off in the central areas of Rishon Lezion and Palmachim , the military has said.

9.08am BST

Israeli military investigating how Hezbollah-fired missiles broke through defence systems to attack Haifa

As we mentioned in the opening summary , there have been reports that Hezbollah rockets hit Israel’s third-largest city of Haifa early on Monday. Five people were reported to have been injured in the attack in Haifa, with police saying several buildings and properties were damaged.

It was the first direct attack on the northern city that evaded the Israeli military’s usually reliable air defence systems. The military said it is investigating how Hezbollah-fired missiles were able to break through Israel’s air defence systems.

Hezbollah said it targeted a military base south of Haifa with a wave of “Fadi 1” missiles. Media said two rockets hit Haifa - 27 miles (17 km) from the Lebanese border - on Israel’s Mediterranean coast, and five hit Tiberias 65 km (40 miles) away.

Israel’s military confirmed five rockets were launched at Haifa from Lebanon, adding: “Interceptors were fired. Fallen projectiles were identified in the area. The incident is under review.” Israeli media said that overall 10 people were injured in Haifa and Tiberias.

Updated at 9.09am BST

8.47am BST

Hezbollah vows to keep fighting Israeli 'aggression'

Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group, have vowed to keep up the fight against Israeli “aggression” and called Israel a “cancerous gland that must be eliminated, no matter how long it takes”.

Both Hezbollah and the Lebanese people have paid a “heavy price” for the militant group’s decision to open a “support front” for Gaza on 8 October, but “we are confident... in the ability of our resistance to oppose the Israeli aggression”, it said in a statement.

Hezbollah also said the Hamas-led 7 October attacks on southern Israel, in which about 1,200 people were killed, were “heroic”, saying they will have “historic” effects in the region. There “is no place” for Israel there, the militant group said.

Starting on 8 October 2023, a day after the Hamas led assault on southern Israel, which led to Israel launching a war on Gaza, there have been almost daily cross-border hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, Hamas’ ally. The violence forced about 60,000 Israelis to evacuate from northern Israel, and about 100,000 Lebanese people from the south of their country.

The Israeli government said its invasion of (southern) Lebanon was to push Hezbollah back from the border so displaced Israelis could safely come home.

More than 2,000 people have been killed in Lebanon in nearly a year of fighting, most in the past two weeks by Israeli attacks, according to the Lebanese health ministry. 1.2 million Lebanese people are estimated to have been forced to leave their homes due to Israeli bombardment that has targeted large swathes of the small country, including Lebanon’s capital, Beirut.

Updated at 8.49am BST

8.15am BST

Lebanon’s state run national news agency, which posts regular news alerts on X, says there has been an Israeli attack on the outskirts of Qsarnaba , in the east of the country, and a “raid” in the Hamra area between the southern towns of Briqa and Zrarieh.

8.00am BST

Eleven civilians were injured on Sunday evening in Israeli attacks that targeted displaced people in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, and north Gaza’s Jabalia camp , Wafa, the Palestinian news agency, is reporting .

Israeli warplanes reportedly bombed a tent sheltering internally displaced people west of the Nuseirat camp, injuring seven civilians. Four civilians in a centre in the Jabalia camp were injured by Israeli attacks, according to the Wafa report.

Israeli forces have regularly targeted Jabalia, displacing most residents there. Yesterday, the Israeli military said its forces had surrounded the Jabalia area of northern Gaza because of what it claimed was the presence of “terrorists” and their “infrastructure”.

Updated at 8.01am BST

7.43am BST

French President Emmanuel Macron has paid tributes to the victims of the Hamas October 7 attack on southern Israel on its one year anniversary.

“The pain remains, as vivid as it was a year ago. The pain of the Israeli people. Ours. The pain of wounded humanity,” he said in a post on X.

“We do not forget the victims, the hostages, or the families with broken hearts from absence or waiting. I send them our fraternal thoughts.”

Macron called for a halt on arms deliveries to Israel for use in Gaza on Saturday, provoking an angry response from Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu .

“As Israel fights the forces of barbarism led by Iran, all civilised countries should be standing firmly by Israel’s side,” Netanyahu said in a statement. “Yet, President Macron and other western leaders are now calling for arms embargoes against Israel. Shame on them.”

On Sunday, Macron talked by phone with Netanyahu, reaffirming France’s “unwavering commitment” to Israel’s security while insisting on a ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon.

7.32am BST

Israeli jets have bombed a house in the town of Srifa , in south-east Lebanon, killing at least four people, according to local media reports.

Updated at 7.37am BST

7.25am BST

Key event

Idan Shtivi , one of the hostages taken by Hamas from the Supernova music festival on 7 October last year, was killed during the attacks and his “body is still held captive by Hamas”, the Hostages and Missing Families forum has said.

The forum said Shtivi, 28, had just arrived at the festival site when the attack began.

The forum, which is made up of a group of relatives of the abductees who have led the protest movement and calls for a ceasefire deal, said in a statement:

On October 7, Idan arrived at the Nova Festival in the early morning to document his friends’ performances and workshops.
However, he never made it inside. When the attack began, Idan helped two strangers he had just met escape from the site. This selfless choice ultimately led to his abduction.

The announcement came as Israel marked the first anniversary of the 7 October Hamas-led attack, in which about 1,200 people were killed and about 250 taken hostage. Hamas are still holding around 100 hostages inside Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.

Updated at 7.32am BST

7.00am BST

Every day, morning and night, Wiwwaeo Sriaoun prays for the safe return of her son, Watchara. It is now one year since he was taken hostage by Hamas, one of dozens of Thai migrant workers kidnapped from the farms on which they were working in southern Israel on 7 October, last year.

From her home in a sleepy, rural village in Udon Thani, north-east Thailand , Wiwwaeo has followed every development in the devastating and spiralling war that has erupted tens of thousands of miles away since Hamas’s attack on Israel.

“How is he surviving there? Is he safe? Is he still alive? How is he eating? How is he sleeping?” asks Wiwwaeo, 53. The lack of news has been unbearable.

“I have to keeping going because my son still has not returned, and his daughter, my granddaughter, is still little,” she says.

Watchara’s daughter, Irada, whose nickname is Nuu Dee (similar in meaning to “Little Miss Good” or “Little Good Girl”) is now nine years old. At first, she would ask whether her father was still working and when he would return. “She watches the news, and her friends at school ask her about it, and so we told her the truth: that her father was captured, but he is still alive. He’s not dead,” says Wiwwaeo. Someday, they hope, he will come back to pick her up and take her to school again.

Read the full story here:

6.52am BST

Palestinian journalist killed in Israeli strike on Gaza

A 19-year-old Palestinian journalist whose work appeared on Al Jazeera has been killed in an Israeli strike, the Qatar-based network has reported .

Hassan Hamad , a freelance journalist who lived in northern Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp, had reportedly received threats from an Israeli officer via WhatsApp. It was not possible to verify the claim but the Israeli military has been accused of deliberately targeting journalists, which it denies.

In a post on Hamad’s account on Sunday, apparently by a colleague, it said:

Hassan Hamad, the journalist who did not live past the age of 20, resisted for a full year in his own way. He resisted by staying away from his family so they wouldn’t be targeted. He resisted when he struggled to find an internet signal, sitting for an hour or two on the rooftop just to send the videos that reach you in seconds.

The message continued saying:

Yesterday, from 10 PM, he moved between the bombed locations and then returned to search for an internet signal, only to go back and cover the scenes of the scattered remains. He endured the pain of an injury to his leg, yet continued filming.
At 6 AM, he called me to send his last video. After a call that didn’t last more than a few seconds, he said, “There they are, there they are, it’s done,” and hung up. It’s a feeling no human can bear.

Al Jazeera said it had verified footage of Hamad’s body, which was found in pieces and had to be placed into plastic bags and shoe boxes.

Hamad’s colleagues in Gaza posted tributes to him on social media. The Committee to Protect Journalists says at least 128 journalists have been killed by Israel in Gaza since the start of the 7 October conflict.

Updated at 7.49am BST

6.30am BST

Pictures are beginning to come in from the site of the Nova music festival, where about 360 people were shot dead in last year’s Hamas attack, and where family and friends are holding commemorations.

President Isaac Herzog was among those holding a moment of silence there at 6.29am, when the attack began last year.

Updated at 6.32am BST

6.20am BST

US secretary of defence Lloyd Austin has reaffirmed his “unwavering US commitment to Israel’s security, a ceasefire in Gaza, and a diplomatic resolution that enables citizens to return safely to their homes on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border” in a phone call with his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant .

In a statement issued by the Pentagon, Austin also noted that the US maintained a “significant capability” in the region to defend US personnel, support Israel’s “self-defence” and “deter further escalation”.

“The two leaders reiterated their commitment to deterring Iran and Iranian-backed partners and proxies from taking advantage of the situation or expanding the conflict,” the statement added.

The warning against escalation came even as Israel continued to bomb Gaza, where it has killed tens of thousands of people including thousands of children in response to the 7 October Hamas attack, and Lebanon and threatened Iran with retaliatory strikes.

Updated at 6.33am BST

6.04am BST

In her new home in a kibbutz near Netanya, Batsheva Yahalomi knows what it is to see a child released, but also to have a husband who remains missing.

They had lived in Nir Oz kibbutz , where a quarter of the residents were killed or kidnapped. Batsheva’s husband, Ohad, was wounded in the initial attack. In the chaos Batsheva and her two daughters were separated from her teenage son, Eitan, and taken towards the Gaza border by motorbike. She and her daughters managed to escape, but Eitan and Ohad were abducted by different groups of men.

“At the beginning of war, I think the fact of the kidnappings and that children and women were taken was so shocking for everyone that it was urgent to get them out,” she said.

Like many among the families of the remaining hostages, Batsheva has detected a subtle change in attitudes after the impetus for a deal under which more than 100 hostages were released. Support remains still strong, but momentum has faded as other considerations have crept in.

“There are people, I think a small group of people in Israel, radical people, who have accepted situation that the hostages are there and think that there are bigger goals. But most people are supportive.

Read the full story below:

5.56am BST

The Israeli military confirmed early Monday it had carried out strikes on al-Aqsa hospital in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, claiming it had become the base for a Hamas “command and control complex”, without providing any evidence.

Al Jazeera reported that 11 people were injured in the attack, which targeted the tents of displaced people sheltering in the hospitals grounds. It was not possible to verify either report as Israel does not allow foreign journalists into Gaza.

The hospital, the only functioning hospital in central Gaza, has already been the target of multiple deadly Israeli attacks, including at the end of last month and in August, when an Israeli attack killed at least five people and set the tents of displaced people on fire .

Updated at 5.58am BST

5.46am BST

The armed wing of Hamas has claimed it fired rockets into southern Israel on Monday.

The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades said in a statement that its fighters fired the projectiles at “enemy gatherings” at Rafah crossing, Kerem Shalom crossing and kibbutz Holit near the border with Gaza.

The Israeli military meanwhile claimed it had “thwarted an immediate threat” from Hamas, by attacking “launching positions and an underground [Hamas] route” throughout the Gaza Strip. It was not possible to verify the claim.

Updated at 5.51am BST

5.43am BST

In the past year in the Gaza Strip, Israel has bombed more than 40,000 targets, found 4,700 tunnel shafts and destroyed 1,000 rocket launcher sites, the military has claimed on the one-year anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel. Reuters reports further:

Tallying troops whose names it received permission to publish, Israel’s military said 726 Israeli soldiers had been killed since 7 October 2023. Of those, 380 died in the 7 October attacks and 346 in Gaza combat starting 27 October 2023.
Injured troops numbered 4,576 since that date. Fifty-six soldiers died as a result of operational accidents, which the military did not define.
In data to mark the 7 October anniversary, the Israeli military said it enlisted 300,000 reservists since the start of the war – 82% men and 18% women and nearly half of them aged 20 to 29.
Since the start of the war, 13,200 rockets were fired into Israel from Gaza. Another 12,400 were fired from Lebanon, while 60 came from Syria, 180 from Yemen and 400 from Iran, the military said.
It said it killed more than 800 “terrorists” in Lebanon, where 4,900 targets have been struck from the air along with about 6,000 ground targets. Over the past year, Israel arrested more than 5,000 suspects in the West Bank and Jordan Valley.
The military said it killed eight Gaza militant brigade commanders, about 30 battalion commanders and 165 company commanders over the past year.

Updated at 7.50am BST

5.35am BST

Israel bombs Beirut overnight

Israel continued its bombardment of Beirut up overnight, with Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr reporting that the latest attack took place just minutes ago.

Huge balls of fire and smoke were seen rising from Beirut’s southern Dahiyeh suburb, which is regarded as a Hezbollah stronghold. The Israeli military claimed it was targeting Hezbollah’s headquarters and weapons warehouses, without providing any evidence for the claim.

It was not immediately clear if there were casualties from the area, which has become difficult to access due to Israeli strikes.

A separate Israeli strike earlier Sunday in the town of Qamatiyeh southeast of Beirut killed six people, including three children, Lebanon’s health ministry said, according to the Associated Press.

5.18am BST

One Israeli soldier has been killed in combat on the border with Lebanon, the Israeli military has said, naming him as Master Sgt. Etay Azulay. Two other soldiers from his unit were seriously wounded in the same incident, it said.

5.11am BST

Israelis hold vigils, ceremonies as they mark one-year anniversary of Hamas attack

Israelis are expected to flock to ceremonies, cemeteries and memorial sites around the country today, remembering the hundreds of victims, the dozens of hostages still in captivity and the soldiers wounded or killed trying to save them. The Associated Press reports:

At 6.30 am – the exact hour Hamas launched its attack – the families of those killed at the Nova music festival were gathering at the site where almost 400 revellers were gunned down and from where many others were taken hostage.

At that same time, the families of hostages still held in Gaza – about 100, a third of whom are said to be dead – were gathering outside prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Jerusalem residence to stand during a two-minute siren, replicating a custom from the the most solemn dates on the Israeli calendar, Holocaust Remembrance and Memorial Day.

An official state ceremony focusing on acts of bravery and hope is set to be aired on Monday evening. The ceremony was prerecorded without an audience – apparently to avoid potential disruptions – in the southern city of Ofakim, where over two dozen Israelis were killed.

But anger at the government’s failure to prevent the attack and enduring frustration that it has not returned the remaining hostages prompted the families of those killed and taken captive to hold a separate event in Tel Aviv.

That event had been set to draw tens of thousands of people but was scaled back drastically over prohibitions on large gatherings due to the threat of missile attacks from Iran and Hezbollah.

Updated at 7.50am BST

5.04am BST

Opening summary

Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza, invasion of Lebanon and the wider Middle East crisis.

Israel is holding vigils and ceremonies to mark the one-year anniversary of the 7 October Hamas attack on the country – in which about 1,200 people were killed and 250 kidnapped and taken into Gaza – including at the site of the Nova music festival.

Israel is also on high alert for possible terrorist attacks timed to coincide with the anniversary. Fighting meanwhile continues in Gaza and Lebanon, and the conflict appears on the brink of escalating further, as Israeli leaders threaten Iran with further retaliatory strikes.

Early on Monday Israeli media reported that at least five people were injured in Hezbollah rockets attacks on the Israeli city of Haifa and another in the nearby city of Tiberias. Hezbollah said it had targeted an Israeli military base near Haifa in its third attack on a military position in the area in one day.

Israel launched fresh strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs late on Sunday, a day after heavy consecutive strikes on the Lebanese capital.

Israeli jets launched a strike targeting the Saint Therese area, and a second targeting the Burj al-Barajneh area, Lebanese state media reported, as well as two additional strikes, including one it described as “violent”. Pictures and videos showed huge explosions of orange fire and smoke from the southern suburbs.

Lebanese security sources said Israeli strikes since Friday on Dahiyeh – said to be a Hezbollah stronghold and the area where leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed over a week ago – were keeping rescue workers from scouring the site of Thursday night’s attack, which apparently targeted his likely successor.

Israel’s military claimed it was targeting Hezbollah headquarters in Beirut and weaspons storage sites, adding that secondary explosions indicated the presence of weapons.

In other developments:

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) ordered a “closed military zone” around three towns on the border with Lebanon and issued new evacuation orders for areas in southern Lebanon on Sunday. In a statement, the IDF said it is “strictly prohibited” to enter the communities of Manara, Yiftach, and Malkia. The Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesperson ordered residents of about 25 areas in southern Lebanon to head immediately to the north of the Awali river.
Israel expanded its actions in Lebanon, making its first strike in the northern city of Tripoli on Saturday, and Israeli troops launched raids in the south. A Lebanese security official told Reuters that Saturday’s strike on a Palestinian refugee camp in Tripoli killed a member of Hamas, his wife and two children. Media affiliated with the Palestinian group said the strike killed a leader of its armed wing, naming him as Saeed Atallah.
Iranian authorities confirmed the resumption of air traffic after flight cancellations at some airports over “operational restrictions”, state media reported . Flights have been operational again since 11pm (1930 GMT) on Sunday a spokesperson for Iran’s civil aviation organisation said.
The UN’s peacekeeping force in Lebanon (Unifil) has said it is deeply concerned by what it called Israel’s “recent activities” adjacent to the mission’s position inside Lebanon. Unifil said on Sunday that the activities by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are an “extremely dangerous development” as it “urgently” reminded all actors of “their obligations to protect UN personnel and property.” Ireland’s president, Michael D Higgins, said it is “outrageous” for the IDF to have “threatened” Unifil.
More than 2,000 people have been killed in Lebanon nearly a year of fighting, most of them in the past two weeks, according to the Lebanese health ministry. The ministry said on Sunday 23 people had been killed on Saturday.
The latest Israeli strikes on Beirut came after days of Israeli bombing that killed the Hezbollah leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, and possibly his potential successor, Hashem Safieddine. A Lebanese security source said on Saturday that Safieddine had been out of contact since Friday, after an Israeli airstrike near the city’s international airport that was reported to have targeted him. Israeli strikes across the region in the past year, sharply accelerated in the past few weeks, have shattered Hezbollah’s leadership. On Sunday, the Israeli foreign ministry said its air force killed Hezbollah commander, Hader Ali Taweel .
At least 41,870 Palestinians have been killed by Israel’s military offensive in Gaza since 7 October, according to latest figures released by Gaza’s health ministry on Sunday. The health ministry also reported at least 97,166 people have been injured. Thousands more are most likely lost in the rubble of the territory.
Israel issued a new blanket evacuation order for all of the northern Gaza Strip on Sunday, where hundreds of thousands of civilians remain . “We are in a new phase of the war,” the Israeli military said in leaflets dropped over the area. “These areas are considered dangerous combat zones.” Up to 300,000 people are estimated to have remained in the heavily destroyed north after earlier Israeli warnings that sent around a million people fleeing to the south, even though people say there is nowhere safe to go.
For the first time in months, Israel sent a column of tanks into northern Gaza and launched major operations there, surrounding Jabalia, the largest of strip’s eight historic refugee camps. Gaza’s civil defence agency said 24 people were killed and dozens wounded in an Israeli airstrike on a mosque in central Gaza early on Sunday. Witnesses said the number of casualties could rise as the mosque, near the Al-Aqsa hospital in Deir al-Balah, was being used to house displaced people. The Israeli military said it was being used as a Hamas command centre.
Palestinians across northern Gaza have been told to flee to al-Mawasi on the southern coast, a so-called “humanitarian area” where an estimated one million displaced people are sheltering . Mawasi, which has been the target of deadly Israeli airstrikes, is severely overcrowded and aid agencies struggle to provide even the most basic services. In May, an aid worker described to the Guardian the “horrific and dehumanising” conditions, with limited food, filthy and scarce water, overwhelmed healthcare facilities and almost no sanitation.
The UN high commissioner for refugees, Filippo Grandi, said that Lebanon is seeing a “major displacement crisis” as a result of Israel’s escalating airstrikes, some of which have violated international law. About 40% of Lebanon’s 1.25 million school pupils have become displaced by ongoing Israeli attacks, Lebanon’s director general of education, Imad Achkar , said. The Lebanese government has said schools will postpone the start of the academic year due to intensifying Israeli airstrikes. Israeli strikes have forced 1.2 million people – almost a quarter of Lebanon’s population – from their homes, officials say. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) said 20,000 Palestinian refugees have been forcibly displaced by Israeli airstrikes on camps in Lebanon.
Israeli authorities said they were on the lookout for attacks timed to coincide with the first anniversary of the 7 October attacks on Monday. One woman was killed and 10 people were wounded in the suspected terror attack on Sunday at the central bus station in Be’er Sheva, a city in the Negev desert in southern Israel, the second attack in the last week. Israel’s military reportedly said it anticipates possible long-range rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.
Syria’s defence ministry said Israel launched airstrikes on military positions in central Syria on Sunday, causing “material damage”. “Israeli strikes” targeted a “weapons depot south of Homs and a rockets depot in the eastern Hama countryside,” Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights War Monitor, told AFP.
Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, said his country is closely coordinating with the US as it prepares to strike back at Iran, but that Tel Aviv will make its own independent decisions about how to retaliate. Despite the US having made clear that it opposes a strike on Iranian nuclear facilities, Gallant told CNN on Sunday that “everything is on the table”. Gallant is expected to visit the US this coming week where he is scheduled to meet with the US defense secretary, Lloyd Austin. In a statement on Sunday, Gallant warned Iran that it may end up like Gaza or Beirut if it attempts to harm Israel.
The US vice-president, Kamala Harris, said Washington will not stop putting pressure on Israeli and Arab leaders during ongoing diplomatic efforts . Harris was asked, in an interview with “60 Minutes” if the US has a “real close ally” in Netanyahu, to which she responded: “The better question is, do we have an important alliance between the American people and the Israeli people? The answer to that question is yes.”
The last currently scheduled plane for British nationals leaving Lebanon landed in Birmingham airport on Sunday night. The flight was the fourth charter flight to have left Beirut for the UK. There are no further flights scheduled, the UK Foreign Office said, citing a reduction in demand but it said the situation will be “closely” monitored. In addition, the UK has advised its citizens on Sunday against all travel to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
The UK government is advising Israel to show “restraint” as Keir Starmer warned that “sparks”’ from the Middle East conflict could “light touchpapers in our communities at home”. Peter Kyle , a UK cabinet minister, did not rule out the possibility of the UK military helping Israel attack Iran, but noted any “operational decision to be taken” would be based on “delicate negotiations”.
A call by France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, for a halt in arms supplies to Israel for use in Gaza has been met with an angry rebuttal from Benjamin Netanyahu. “As Israel fights the forces of barbarism led by Iran, all civilised countries should be standing firmly by Israel’s side,” Netanyahu said in a statement. The pair spoke on Sunday in a call that the Élysée Palace described as “frank”.
Thousands of protesters took to the streets in major cities around the world for a second day on Sunday to demand an end to bloodshed in Gaza and the wider Middle East as the start of Israel’s war in the Palestinian territory approaches its first anniversary. About 40,000 pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched through central London while thousands gathered in Paris, Rome, Manila, Cape Town, New York City, Sydney and Melbourne.