Category Archives: Hezbollah

Israel abducts alleged Hezbollah official in unprecedented sea raid

Posted on by

Commandos land in northern Lebanon in highly unusual operation to capture supposed militant group member

The Israeli military abducted who it said was a senior Hezbollah official in an unprecedented operation on Saturday morning during which Israeli commandos landed on the shores of Batroun, northern Lebanon, captured the alleged official and escaped via speedboat.

In a statement, an Israeli military official said its forces captured a “senior operative of Hezbollah” and transferred him to its territory to be investigated by military intelligence. The media outlet Axios cited Israeli sources as saying the captured man – Imad Amhaz – was responsible for Hezbollah’s naval operations.

Continue reading...

Israel captures Lebanese sea captain and claims he is a Hezbollah operative – as it happened

Posted on by

Navy confirms it landed in Batroun, 30km north of Beirut, and took him to Israel to be ‘investigated’

Troops were also operating in central Gaza and Rafah in the territory’s far south, the Israeli military said, while witnesses told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that Israeli drones and boats opened fire on al-Mawasi in south Gaza.

Medics and Gaza’s civil defence rescuers on Saturday reported three people killed in a strike on Nuseirat, in central Gaza, a day after AFP images showed the blood-stained shrouds of several people killed there in an Israeli strike.

The entire Palestinian population in north Gaza is at imminent risk of dying from disease, famine and violence.”

Continue reading...

Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon and Gaza kill dozens as rockets are fired into Israel

Posted on by

Israel targets north-eastern Lebanon and Beirut, while bombardment of Gaza raises fears of worsening humanitarian conditions for civilians

Israeli airstrikes on Friday killed at least 52 people and wounded scores more, the Lebanese health ministry said, while rockets fired from Lebanon fell on Israel on Saturday.

Israeli police said 19 people were injured before dawn on Saturday in the central town of Tira. Three projectiles crossed into Israel from Lebanon, Israel’s military said, and some were intercepted.

Continue reading...

Middle East crisis: North Gaza situation ‘apocalyptic’ with whole population at risk of ‘imminent death’, say UN chiefs – as it happened

Posted on by

This live blog is now closed. You can see all our Middle East coverage here:

The Israel Defence Force has shared pictures of Nazi memorabilia it says it found in “civilian homes exploited by Hezbollah” in Lebanon.

The IDF shared photos of a book with a swastika and the name “Hassan Salih” inscribed on the front, as well as a Nazi pennant flag and figurine of Adolf Hitler, but it did not provide any more evidence or details of the find. The Guardian could not independently verify the images.

Continue reading...

Lebanon’s PM denies US asked him to declare unilateral ceasefire with Israel

Posted on by

Reports of such a request emerge as Israeli jets continues to bombard Beirut’s southern suburb of Dahiyeh

The US asked Lebanon to declare a unilateral ceasefire to revive stalled talks to end hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, according to a report later denied by the Lebanese prime minister

Two unnamed sources, a Lebanese political source and a senior diplomat, made the claim to Reuters, saying the US envoy, Amos Hochstein, had communicated the proposal to Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, this week.

Continue reading...

US attempts to broker ceasefire as civilians killed in Lebanon and Israel

Posted on by

IDF airstrikes kill 45 people while seven die, including four Thai workers, in rocket attack on northern Israel

Senior US officials have held talks in Israel aimed at brokering a ceasefire with Hezbollah in Lebanon, on a day when more civilians in both countries were killed in the year-long war.

Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, who had expressed optimism of a speedy settlement “in hours or days” earlier on Thursday, said that Israel’s “ongoing escalation” in his country “does not inspire optimism”.

Continue reading...

US says Lebanon ceasefire talks making ‘good progress’ – as it happened

Posted on by

US secretary of state and defence secretary express hope of ceasefire in near future as Hamas rules out short-term truce for Gaza

Reuters reports that the Israeli military said on Thursday it had shot down a drone smuggling weapons from Egyptian territory to Israel on Wednesday.

No other information was provided. We will update the blog as more details come in.

Rafael and Lala Goliev … residents of Lod, were arrested after they carried out tasks on behalf of an Iranian cell that recruits Israelis from the Caucasus countries in Israel.”

Continue reading...

World must act to prevent ‘ethnic cleansing’ of Gaza, António Guterres warns

Posted on by

Secretary general makes appeal as civilian casualties mount amid intensive Israeli strikes on north

The UN secretary general, António Guterres has warned Israel could carry out the “ethnic cleansing” of Gaza if the international community does not make a determined stand to prevent it.

Guterres made his appeal at a time of mounting civilian casualties from the Israeli bombardment of northern Gaza. A strike on Tuesday in Beit Lahiya district killed at least 93 people, in what the UN said was just one of at least seven “mass casualty incidents” across Gaza in the past week.

Continue reading...

Middle East crisis: UN security council warns against attempts to dismantle Unrwa – as it happened

Posted on by

This live blog is now closed. For the latest on the Middle East, read our full coverage here.

Under the laws – which will not be implemented for several months – Unrwa could not “operate any institution, provide any service, or conduct any activity, whether directly or indirectly”.

Continue reading...

Hezbollah elects new leader following Israeli strike that killed Nasrallah

Posted on by

Naim Qassem replaces group’s longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah after he was killed by Israel

Hezbollah has elected its deputy secretary general, Sheikh Naim Qassem, as its new head, ending a month-long leadership vacuum after the group’s long time leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed by Israel.

Since Nasrallah’s death, Qassem has filled in for him, giving a public address earlier this month in which he vowed that Hezbollah would continue fighting Israel in what it described as a war of attrition, despite painful losses.

Continue reading...

Iran mocks Israel’s ‘weak’ attacks as hardliners call for reprisal

Posted on by

Political elite under pressure from variety of sources, with US urging Iran to step back from the brink

The Iranian government has belittled the scale and effectiveness of the Israeli attack on its military sites, but hardliners in the parliament insisted the strikes breached Iranian red lines and required a swift response, preferably at a time when Israel is already enmeshed in Lebanon and Gaza.

The internal Iranian debate on how to respond to the long-awaited Israeli attack turns on whether to treat Israel’s breach of Iranian national sovereignty as too grave to be ignored, or instead to heed the advice coming from the region and from the US to acknowledge the relatively limited nature of the attack and to step back from the brink by not launching reprisals.

Continue reading...

Southern Beirut hit by airstrikes – as it happened

Posted on by

This live blog is closed

We’ve launched video footage of the blasts and light flashes in Tehran early today and Iran’s air defences appearing to be at work. See here:

Meanwhile in Gaza, many believe Israel’s new offensive in the north – along with a tightening of its siege – is following a blueprint for removing the remaining population.

Continue reading...

Blasts reported near Imam Khomeini international airport in Iran – as it happened

Posted on by

This blog is closed – follow the news on our new liveblog here

Lebanon’s health minister, Firass Abiad, has told reporters that over 163 rescuers and health workers had been killed and 272 injured in Israeli airstrikes during more than a year of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.

Hezbollah, the Iranian backed Lebanese militant group, began firing rockets into northern Israel in support of Palestinians on 7 October 2023, the day after its ally Hamas’s attack on southern Israel, in which about 1,200 people were killed.

We have been very clear that this cannot lead - should not lead - to a protracted campaign and that Israel must take the necessary steps to avoid civilian casualties and not endanger UN peacekeepers or the Lebanese armed forces.

Continue reading...

US warns against ‘protracted’ campaign in Lebanon as Israel strikes Beirut

Posted on by

In a visit to the region, secretary of state Antony Blinken said the US was working to progress ceasefire talks for Gaza and Lebanon

Israeli strikes hit Beirut on Thursday evening, after the US warned against Israel being led into a “protracted” campaign in Lebanon and efforts got under way to hold renewed talks over a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza.

Lebanese state media said several strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs on Thursday, about half an hour after Israel issued evacuation warnings for the Hezbollah bastion after intense strikes the night before.

Continue reading...

Israeli airstrike reported in south Beirut; Gaza is ‘dying’, aid group chief says – as it happened

Posted on by

This blog has now closed. You can read our full coverage of the continuing conflict in the region here.

Warning sirens have again sounded in northern Israel.

Lebanon’s National News Agency reports that later today India will deliver 33 tons of medical aid to Lebanon.

Continue reading...

Macron warns Netanyahu against ‘sowing barbarism’ in remarks on Lebanon

Posted on by

Conference convened by French president raises $800m in humanitarian aid and $200m to strengthen Lebanese army

Emmanuel Macron has warned Benjamin Netanyahu that “civilisation is not best defended by sowing barbarism ourselves”, as a conference convened by the French president in Paris raised $200m (£154m) for Lebanon’s official military and $800m in humanitarian aid for the country.

Macron also vowed to help train 6,000 extra Lebanese official forces, and called for a ceasefire and an end to Israeli attacks on UN peacekeepers, for which he said there was no justification.

Continue reading...

At least 17 killed in Israeli strike on school turned shelter in Nuseirat

Posted on by

Deaths in central Gaza come as Al Jazeera accuses Israel of targeting its journalists working in the war zone

At least 17 people, nearly all women and children, have been killed in Israeli bombing of a school turned shelter in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, medics in the territory have said.

The strike, the latest bombing of a school sheltering displaced people across Gaza, came as the Qatari television network Al Jazeera accused Israel of turning its journalists reporting from north Gaza into targets after the Israeli military claimed a day earlier that six reporters were members of Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Continue reading...

Israeli assault on northern Gaza forces postponement of polio vaccination campaign

Posted on by

WHO says ‘escalating violence’ in northern Gaza has led to postponement of vaccines to more than 100,000 children

Israeli strikes across Gaza killed 42 people on Wednesday as the military intensified a siege on northern parts of the Palestinian territory, forcing the World Health Organization to pause the latest phase of its polio vaccination campaign, medics and officials said.

Israeli forces began the operation in the north about three weeks ago with the declared aim of preventing Hamas fighters from regrouping. The operation has intensified since the killing of Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar a week ago, despite hopes from the US that his death could provide a fresh impetus for peace.

Continue reading...

Hezbollah claims to have hit Tel Aviv factory – as it happened

Posted on by

This live blog is now closed. You can read the latest report from our correspondent in the region here.

In a statement on its official Telegram channel, Israel’s military has claimed that overnight it struck at weapons storage facilities in Beirut in Lebanon.

In the message, the IDF said the targets were “manufacturing facilities and command centres belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist organization which were located within civilian infrastructure.”

Continue reading...

Israel confirms killing of Hashem Safieddine, presumed next leader of Hezbollah

Posted on by

IDF says strikes in Beirut in early October also killed the head of the militant group’s intelligence branch

Israel has confirmed the killing of the presumed next leader of Hezbollah in an airstrike on southern Beirut earlier in October.

In a statement on Tuesday evening, the Israeli military said strikes in the suburb of Dahiyeh had killed Hashem Safieddine and Ali Hussein Hazima, the head of the militant group’s intelligence branch, three weeks ago.

Continue reading...