Category Archives: Israel

Could Saudi-Iran talks prevent Lebanon from turning into a second Gaza?

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Hezbollah has been a past source of tension between the two countries, but Riyadh wants to improve relations with Tehran

The Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, will meet his counterpart in Saudi Arabia to discuss the growing threat of an Israeli attack on Tehran and what steps, if any, the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group in Lebanon can take to secure a ceasefire in the face of growing evidence that the US supports Israel’s efforts to dismantle Hezbollah and force it to disarm.

In what is becoming a multifront war, Iran and Saudi Arabia are probably the two key regional players. Araghchi, who has already been to Beirut and Damascus, has been playing his cards close to his chest but he is seen as critical to any decision that Hezbollah needs to step back, regroup and prevent Lebanon from turning into a second Gaza.

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Israeli military deploys fourth division in Lebanon ground offensive

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Hezbollah acting leader says its military capabilities still ‘fine’ as Israel sends more troops and keeps up airstrikes

Israel has said it is expanding its ground operation in Lebanon with the deployment of a fourth division after another night of intense airstrikes across the south and east of the country.

The reservist 146th division was sent to southern Lebanon overnight, hours after Israel announced the mobilisation of a third standing division, meaning the number of troops on the ground is now likely to number 15,000.

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Middle East crisis: Lammy to visit Bahrain and Jordan – as it happened

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This blog has now closed. You can see all our coverage of the Israel-Gaza war here, and our latest report on Israel’s attacks on Lebanon here.

Turkey will evacuate its citizens who have applied to leave Lebanon by sea on Wednesday, the Turkish foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

Reuters reports it said in a statement that two Turkish navy ships were expected to set off for Beirut on Tuesday with a total capacity of about 2,000 passengers, adding that the evacuation process will continue in the following days if necessary.

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Trump marks 7 October anniversary and criticizes ‘weak’ Biden and Harris

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Republican nominee says attack – ‘one of the darkest days in all history’ – would not have happened if he were president

Donald Trump marked the first anniversary of the 7 October Hamas terrorist attacks, which he called “one of the darkest days in all of history”, with a commemoration for victims and hostages at his golf resort in Miami on Monday night, but swiftly turned the event into an attack on Kamala Harris.

He also repeated a previous claim that the attack on Israel would never have happened if he was still in the White House.

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Kamala Harris pays tribute to victims of 7 October attacks on first anniversary

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Vice-president commits to ‘always’ support Israel’s defense as Biden condemns ‘vicious surge in antisemitism’ in US

US politicians on both sides of the aisle issued statements marking the anniversary of the 7 October attacks, with Kamala Harris paying tribute to the victims and calling, in their honor, to “never lose sight of the dream of peace, dignity, and security for all”.

Outside the vice-presidential residence, Harris, accompanied by her husband, spoke of the nearly 1,200 people, including 46 Americans, killed in Israel one year ago.

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World leaders mark first anniversary of 7 October attack on Israel

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Pope and UN secretary general call for end to fighting as governments and individuals commemorate attack by Hamas

The US president, Joe Biden, has condemned the “unspeakable brutality” of the 7 October attacks launched by Hamas on Israel as world leaders, governments and individuals around the globe marked their first anniversary in commemorations ranging from official statements to formal ceremonies and small private vigils.

The attack killed nearly 1,200 people, according to Israeli government figures, including hundreds at a music festival near the Israel-Gaza border, and saw about 250 hostages taken to Gaza.

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‘The pain will never leave’: Nova massacre survivors return to site one year on

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Low sobs and prayers for those killed by Hamas punctuated by sound of artillery fire towards nearby Gaza

One year ago, nearly 400 young Israelis were massacred at the site of the Nova music festival during the 7 October Hamas attack. As mourners gathered at the site of the festival to commemorate the victims on Monday, their low sobs and murmured prayers were punctuated by the sound of artillery and machine guns being fired by soldiers into nearby Gaza.

Perhaps no single scene across Israel more expressly exhibited the horrific violence meted out against hundreds of civilians by Hamas, and the subsequent ferocity of the Israeli response against that organisation and millions of people inside of Gaza.

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‘They told us a big attack wouldn’t happen’: the intelligence failures before 7 October

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A year on, there are still bitter recriminations over warnings missed by Israeli military and intelligence services

In the late afternoon on 7 October, an Israeli software engineer in his mid-30s found himself driving down a deserted road parallel to the perimeter fence that separated Gaza from Israel. He had been fighting for hours with an AK-47 taken from a dead Hamas militant. Now he and three friends were headed to the town of Ohad to search for relatives who had gone missing.

“Only when we set off south did we understand how big this was. It was like an apocalypse,” the engineer, who did not want to be named, said last week. “There were hundreds of bodies of civilians inside their cars or on the road, hundreds of dead terrorists with their pickup trucks or motorbikes. There were dead police, army vehicles on fire. We were alone.”

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Israel launches intense wave of airstrikes on 120 sites in Lebanon

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Military says 100 aircraft used in attack on targets in south of country as Israeli operations expand on multiple fronts

Israel launched an intense wave of air raids on southern Lebanon on Monday, with 100 aircraft targeting about 120 sites in the space of an hour, according to the country’s military.

An IDF Arabic spokesperson issued an urgent warning to Lebanese civilians to avoid being on the beach or on boats on the coast from the Awali River southward until further notice.

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Israel marks October 7 with memorials and protests, as attacks on Lebanon and Gaza continue

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The Israeli military said it struck Hezbollah intelligence and weapons storage, as rocket hits Haifa injuring at least 5 people

Ceremonies were held across Israel on Monday as the country marked the first anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attacks, with the war it launched in response raging in Gaza and escalating in Lebanon, while conflict threatened to spread across the Middle East.

In the hours leading up to the anniversary, Israel bombed targets in Beirut and Gaza, while Hezbollah rockets struck Haifa, Israel’s third-largest city, causing damage to buildings, police said. Israeli media reported 5 people were wounded in rocket attacks in Haifa and the city of Tiberias.

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7 October, one year on: a return to kibbutz Nir Oz – podcast

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Bethan McKernan visits Nir Oz in southern Israel to talk to survivors about Hamas’s attack on 7 October last year, and to discuss what has happened to their kibbutz and the wider region since

About a quarter of kibbutz Nir Oz’s population was killed or kidnapped by Hamas on 7 October last year. Proportionally, nowhere in Israel was affected more.

Twelve months later, our Jerusalem correspondent, Bethan McKernan, travels down southern Israel to visit the settlement, just a few miles away from the Gaza Strip, to talk to survivors.

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‘A year is just too long’: relatives of Gaza hostages speak of their anguish

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Many are deeply sceptical of the argument that only more military pressure will bring their loved ones back

Eli Albag had been fighting for the release of his daughter from captivity in Gaza for almost a year when he was pelted with eggs and verbally abused.

The father of Liri Albag, who is held hostage by Hamas, was protesting recently outside a political event attended by Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in the coastal city of Netanya.

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Israel on high alert for 7 October as it escalates Gaza and Lebanon conflicts

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Overnight Israeli strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs, while at least 10 people were reportedly injured after a Hezbollah rocket hit the city of Haifa

Israel will hold memorials for the first anniversary of the October 7 attacks on Monday as the war it launched in response escalates on two fronts, with heavy bombing raids and mass evacuation orders issued in Lebanon and Gaza amid the growing possibility of a retaliatory airstrike against Iran.

As Israelis across the country prepared to mark one year since Hamas launched its devastating attack, a region that has spiralled into unprecedented crisis was on high alert. In Israel, authorities said they were on the lookout for attacks timed to coincide with the anniversary after a gunman opened fire on pedestrians in a central bus station in a city in the Negev desert, killing one and wounding 10 in the second attack in the last week.

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Middle East crisis: Iran confirms resumption of air traffic – as it happened

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This blog has now closed. You can see all our coverage of the Israel-Gaza war: one year on here and all our coverage of the Israel-Lebanon conflict here.

The death toll from the Israeli strike on the Gaza mosque has risen to 24, according to local authorities. The Hamas-run Gaza government media office said 93 people were also wounded in the strikes on the mosque and the school, near the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.

The al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital told the Associated Press that the strike hit a mosque sheltering displaced people. Eyewitnesses told Reuters the same. However Israeli forces say the mosque was being used as a Hamas command and control centre “to plan and carry out terrorist operations against the IDF forces and the State of Israel”, and that it took steps to reduce the chance of harming civilians. An AP reporter counted 18 bodies at the hospital morgue, and said hospital records listed all those killed as men.

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Netanyahu hits out at Macron over call for halt to arms exports to Israel

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Israeli prime minister turns on French counterpart’s continuing efforts towards a ceasefire and end to violence in Lebanon

A call by Emmanuel Macron for a halt in arms supplies to Israel for use in Gaza has been met with an angry rebuttal from the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

The French president’s comments were directed mainly at the US and were part of continuing French efforts to revive its call for a ceasefire in Lebanon.

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Dutton ‘intentionally lying’ about Australia’s stance on Middle East crisis, Marles says

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Opposition leader’s claim Labor is ‘at odds with our allies’ an attempt to sow division, deputy prime minister says

The federal government has hit back at Peter Dutton’s claims that Australia is at odds with its allies over the conflict in the Middle East, characterising this as “an intentional lie” that aims to fuel division.

With more Australians expected to fly out of Lebanon on Sunday as Israel steps up strikes in southern Beirut, the government said it was “deeply anxious” about the “extraordinary loss of innocent life in Gaza” and the prospect of the conflict spreading.

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Faith leaders unite to reject prejudice on eve of 7 October anniversary

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Muslim and Jewish figures join archbishop in first act of high-level solidarity

Muslim and Jewish leaders today unite around an unprecedented joint statement calling the assaults on Israel on 7 October last year “brutal Hamas terrorist attacks” that led to a “devastating war in Gaza and beyond” which together have caused “horrific” human suffering.

Joined by the archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby in the first high-level act of inter-faith solidarity in the year-long conflict, they say in a letter to the Observer: “Our faiths and our humanity teach us that we should mourn for all the innocent people who have lost their lives.

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Escalation with Iran could be risky: Israel is more vulnerable than it seems

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Intelligence analysis of Tehran’s attack suggests that much-touted Israeli missile defences are not, in fact, impregnable

In the aftermath of Iran’s attack on Israel on Tuesday night, Israeli officials claimed their defences had stood firm. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Iran had launched more than 180 missiles, but few details about the damage were released and the US’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said the attack “appears to have been defeated and ineffective”.

But as Israel prepares its retaliation, analysts believe those initial reports could have been misleading – and could change the calculus of Israel’s response if it fears getting into a bout of protracted “missile ping-pong” with Iran, especially should Tehran choose softer targets in the future.

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Three hospitals in Lebanon forced to close amid Israeli bombing

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Healthcare workers have been displaced and paramedics killed in the south of the country

Three hospitals in south Lebanon were forced to close on Friday after Israeli bombings struck two and the other ran out of supplies, displacing a number of doctors from the area and creating concerns around the state of the Lebanese health sector.

Marjayoun governmental hospital and the Salah Ghandour hospital in Bint Jbeil, large healthcare centres along the eastern and western sections of the Lebanese borders, announced their closure after their premises were struck, killing seven and wounding 14 healthcare workers.

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Israel ‘preparing response’ to Iran attack as 7 October anniversary looms

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Military also ordering civilians in two Gaza camps to evacuate, while operations in Lebanon continue to ramp up

The Israeli military is expanding its operations on multiple fronts around the anniversary of the 7 October attacks on Monday, including planning for a “significant and serious” retaliation against Iran for last week’s large-scale ballistic missile attack on Israel.

Signs of imminent Israeli retaliation against Iran came as the French president, Emmanuel Macron, called for an international embargo on arms delivered to Israel for use against Gaza, where authorities say more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s year long assault.

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