Jets strike south of country after rocket attack that killed 12 children in Golan Heights blamed on Hezbollah
Israeli jets struck southern Lebanon overnight as diplomats worked frantically to prevent a regional war after a rocket strike that killed 12 children in the occupied Golan Heights.
Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, visited the scene of Saturday’s rocket attack in Majdal Shams, a predominantly Druze village, calling the strike “a terrible tragedy”.
Continue reading...Benjamin Netanyahu had vowed revenge for strike on football pitch that left children among the dead
Israeli warplanes carried out attacks against Hezbollah in Lebanon on Saturday night, Israel’s military said on Sunday, in apparent retaliation for a rocket attack on the Golan Heights that killed 12 people, including children.
“Overnight, the IAF struck a series of Hezbollah terror targets both deep inside Lebanese territory and in southern Lebanon, including weapons caches and terrorist infrastructure in the areas of Chabriha, Borj El Chmali, and Beqaa, Kfarkela, Rab El Thalathine, Khiam, and Tayr Harfa,” the military said.
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: Lebanon’s border villages reduced to rubble and 150,000 people displaced in tit-for-tat strikes that commentators say risk turning into a wider conflict
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Good morning. “Nobody wants a war – not Israel, not Hezbollah, not Iran,” military historian Prof Danny Orbach told the Guardian last week. “But it’s very difficult to see how you can solve the situation without one.”
That is the frightening ratchet that has been operating on the border between Lebanon and Israel since the 7 October attacks, where Israel is engaged in tit-for-tat strikes with Hezbollah that have left hundreds of people dead and 150,000 displaced.
UK politics | Keir Starmer has suspended seven MPs from the Labour party in an unprecedented response to an early rebellion supporting an amendment to scrap the two-child benefit limit. The move to suspend MPs from the party’s left, including the former shadow chancellor John McDonnell, drew criticism from some MPs who voted with the government.
Health | The births of babies to black mothers are almost twice as likely to be investigated for potential NHS safety failings, Guardian research has found, in a shocking disparity that has been labelled a “national disgrace”. The head of the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) said the issue was “purely down to institutional racism”.
US news | The director of the US secret service has resigned over security lapses that enabled the assassination attempt against Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania. Kimberly Cheatle quit a day after a contentious House hearing where members of both parties said that she had failed to answer basic questions about a “stunning operational failure”.
Leeds | Roma children who were taken into care, sparking unrest in Leeds last week, have been returned to their extended family. Police and social services removed the four children from a house in Harehills on Thursday to prevent them being taken abroad in breach of a court order.
Monarchy | King Charles is set for a huge £45m pay rise with an increase of more than 50% in his official annual income, official accounts reveal. Profits of £1.1bn from the crown estate mean the sovereign grant, which supports the official duties of the royal family, will rise from £86m in 2024-25 to £132m in 2025-26.
Both sides would prefer to end the fighting so that civilians can return home, but are entangled in a cycle of mutual escalation. ‘What’s going on now is an attrition war,’ says Khalil Helou, a retired Lebanese general. ‘One that we are losing, as Lebanon. And Hezbollah is losing. And Israel is losing.’
Continue reading...Michael Safi travels to southern Lebanon where Hezbollah is trading strikes with Israeli forces and one misstep could result in all-out conflict
Travelling through a village called Kafr Kila in the mountains of southern Lebanon, all Michael Safi could see was destroyed buildings. Twisted wires and rubble littered the landscape and a solitary yellow Hezbollah flag fluttered in the rubble.
It is dangerous territory, patrolled by the UN’s peacekeeping force. Airstrikes from Israeli forces happen every few days and are met with volleys of Hezbollah rockets across the border. Ever since the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, Hezbollah has stepped up its own conflict with Israel. The tit-for-tat attacks are calculated – with neither side wanting to fully escalate. But there is a growing tension and a fear that one misstep could result in all-out war. As Safi tours the country, he finds a population weary of war but also resilient and defiant.
Continue reading...Houthi military spokesperson says there will be ‘no red lines’ in response to Israel after airstrikes hit Hodeidah on Saturday, killing at least six people
In the months before the Israeli invasion, Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah was a lifeline, a place where thousands sought shelter or scrabbled to raise funds to cross into neighbouring Egypt.
Now satellite images and social media video uploaded by Israeli soldiers stationed around the city show roads widened for armoured vehicles surrounded by total destruction, including buildings razed to the ground in the once bustling city.
Continue reading...Houthi military says US ship in Red Sea also targeted after Israeli strikes on oil facilities and power station in Yemen
Israeli forces have said they intercepted a ballistic missile fired by Houthi militants in Yemen targeting the southern city of Eilat, in retaliation for a series of Israeli strikes on the Yemeni port city of Hodeidah.
Meanwhile, forest fires engulfed parts of northern Israel after a barrage of rocket fire from Lebanon.
Continue reading...Attack comes after Israeli fighter jets hit Houthi military targets in Yemen’s Hodeidah, killing three people and wounding 87
Three people were killed and 87 were wounded in Israel’s airstrikes in Hodeidah in Yemen, according to Almasirah TV.
Israel’s military said on Saturday there was no indication of a security incident in the Red Sea port city of Eilat after reports of explosions were heard there, Reuters reports.
Continue reading...As a terrorist attack, a harsh response and an ensuing invasion strike familiar chords, analysts look for lessons from the war of 42 years ago
It started with a terrorist attack, which triggered massive military retaliation, the siege of a city, the deaths of thousands of civilians and devastation and global outrage. If the military operation was a success in tactical terms, it led to strategic failures that scarred the nation and the region for decades to come.
Sounds familiar? Forty-two years later, as a new conflict looms on Israel’s northern borders, historians, analysts and veterans of Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon are looking to that now-distant war for lessons and warnings.
Continue reading...Mossad chief gave mediators list of new demands and it was not clear whether Hamas would accede to them, reports say
The Israeli government has been accused of attempting to sabotage a US-backed ceasefire proposal, according to Israeli media, by introducing new demands despite previously accepting the plan.
Hopes for a ceasefire in Gaza had risen in recent days following reports that Hamas had given initial approval for a new proposal for a phased deal, after ninth months of war since the attack on 7 October.
Continue reading...Netanyahu sends intelligence chief to Qatar to study Hamas proposal, while Hezbollah says it would also stop attacks if hostilities paused
Hopes for a ceasefire in Gaza and de-escalation on the boundary between Israel and Lebanon were raised on Friday, as Israel’s intelligence chief was dispatched by the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to Qatar to resume stalled negotiations as Hamas reportedly told its Lebanese ally Hezbollah it had accepted a ceasefire proposal.
An official for the Lebanese group, which said on Thursday that it had fired 200 rockets into Israel in retaliation for a strike that killed one of its top commanders, also told Reuters that the group would cease fire as soon as any Gaza ceasefire agreement takes effect, echoing previous statements.
Continue reading...Barrage from Lebanon one of group’s largest yet, as Israel discusses Hamas proposals for possible Gaza ceasefire
Lebanon’s Hezbollah says it has fired 200 rockets into Israel in one of its largest barrages yet, as Benjamin Netanyahu told the US that Israel will send a delegation to resume stalled negotiations with Hamas on a possible hostage release deal.
Israel confirmed the Iran-backed militant group had fired “numerous projectiles and suspicious aerial targets” from Lebanon on Thursday towards the occupied Syrian Golan Heights and more than 15 drones into Israeli territory, many of which it said were intercepted. An Israeli military spokesperson said there were no casualties reported.
Continue reading...Harrison Mann, military expert who quit over Gaza, says ruinous war in Lebanon would pull US into regional conflict
Israel risks going to war against Hezbollah to ensure Benjamin Netanyahu’s political survival, but it would be a miscalculation that could lead to mass civilian deaths in both Lebanon and Israel, a former US military intelligence analyst has warned.
Harrison Mann, a major in the Defence Intelligence Agency who left the military last month over US support for Israel’s war in Gaza, also told the Guardian that such a disastrous new war would pull the US into a regional conflict.
Continue reading...Israel’s military says ‘large number’ of militants dead in Shujaiya area near Gaza City amid reports of bodies in streets
In an update to the earlier news about Israeli forces advancing further into Shujaiya, residents said Israeli tanks, which moved back into Shujaiya four days ago, fired shells towards several houses, leaving families trapped inside and unable to leave.
Speaking at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated his position that there was no substitute for achieving victory in the war against Hamas.
Continue reading...This live blog is now closed, you can read more of our coverage on the Middle East here
Continue reading...Yoav Gallant to meet top officials as Benjamin Netanyahu repeats claim of ‘dramatic drop’ in US arms shipments
Israel’s defence minister has flown to meet senior Biden administration officials in Washington for what he has described as “critical” talks over the twin conflicts with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Yoav Gallant, accompanied by the Israel Defense Forces’ deputy chief of staff, will meet the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, as well as the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and Joe Biden’s special envoy, Amos Hochstein.
Continue reading...Militants in Lebanon can fire 3,000 missiles a day, US officials warn as fears grow that the conflict will escalate
Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile batteries risk being overwhelmed in the opening strikes of any significantly escalated conflict with Hezbollah.
The assessment delivered by US officials late last week, echoing recent analysis by experts in Israel and the United States, comes amid fears that a war with Hezbollah could be a far more dangerous undertaking than the devastating 2006 second Lebanon war, when Israeli bombing caused huge destruction in Lebanon.
Continue reading...Officials say Cyprus is ‘pillar of peace’ amid shock at warning it could become a target for Lebanese group
Cypriots have reacted with shock after threats from the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah that Cyprus could become a target if it allows Israel to use its territory in any conflict between the two sides, who diplomats fear are on the brink of a fully fledged war.
Despite the EU expressing unreserved support for its easternmost member, it was clear on Thursday that the Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s warning had set off alarm bells in Nicosia where officials insisted the island republic remained a “pillar of peace” in an otherwise volatile region.
Continue reading...Risk is that miscalculation leads to sudden conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, which is far more powerful than Hamas
A warning from Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, that a decision on “all-out war” with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon is coming soon is almost certainly a fresh attempt at deterrence on his part – not least because both sides well understand how devastating full hostilities would be.
The reality is that Hezbollah, an ally of Iran, is a more powerful adversary than Hamas in Gaza. It is estimated to have between 30,000 and 50,000 fighters available and a similar number in reserve – plus between 120,000 and 200,000 unguided missiles and rockets, plus attack and reconnaissance drones.
Continue reading...Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah warns of ‘war without rules’ if Israel launches full-scale invasion against Lebanese militia
The leader of Hezbollah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, warned of a war “without rules or ceilings” in the event of a full-scale Israeli offensive against the Lebanese militia, as he threatened that Cyprus could become a target if it allowed Israel to use its territory in any conflict.
Cyprus and Israel have a bilateral defence cooperation agreement which has seen the countries conduct joint exercises.
Continue reading...Signoff on planning for a Lebanon offensive follows release of Hezbollah drone footage of Haifa in northern Israel
The Israeli foreign minister, Israel Katz, has said a decision on an all-out war with Hezbollah was coming soon, as Israel generals announced late on Tuesday that they had signed off planning for an offensive into Lebanon.
The escalating rhetoric came after the release of video footage from a Hezbollah surveillance drone’s overflight of the northern city of Haifa, which included images of sensitive sites and civilian neighbourhoods.
Continue reading...