Thank you for joining us for today's live coverage of the Gaza war, make sure to tune in tomorrow for all the latest updates.
The European Union's head of diplomacy, Josep Borrell, posted on his X account that he had discussed with caretaker Foreign Affairs Minister Abdallah Bou Habib "ways of ensuring immediate de-escalation along the Blue Line and strengthening efforts towards a political solution acceptable to all."
"Lebanon, Israel and the region cannot afford another war," said Borrell, "The EU would also be affected." He also said he had "reiterated the EU's strong support for Lebanon and the Lebanese people."
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said there had been "significant progress" on the issue of U.S. arms transfers to Israel, after talks with officials in Washington.
Hezbollah announced in a press release that its fighters targeted the Israeli position of al-Assi (opposite the Lebanese town of Mais el-Jabal, in the Marjayoun district) with missiles at 7.30 p.m. and "hit it directly." The party also adds that 15 minutes later, its fighters targeted Zebdine's position in the disputed Shebaa farms "with artillery shells."
The German Foreign Ministry advised its nationals today to avoid traveling to Lebanon and recommended that those in the country leave.
"The security situation in the region is highly volatile; military clashes in the border area between Lebanon and Israel have become even more intense in recent weeks," reads the ministry's website. "A further worsening of the situation and an extension of the conflict cannot be ruled out. This applies in particular to the southern parts of Lebanon up to and including the urban areas of southern Beirut, as well as to the Bekaa plain, including the Baalbek-Hermel district."
"A further escalation could also lead to a complete halt to air traffic. It would then no longer be possible to leave Lebanon by air," it added.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant meet today in Washington for wide-ranging talks about the ongoing war in Gaza and rising tensions on the Israeli-Lebanon border.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby stressed that the Biden administration continues to express concerns to Israeli officials that a second front opening in Mideast conflict is not in Israel’s best interests.
Asked if Biden would back Israel should they launch an incursion into Lebanon against Hezbollah, Kirby said that the administration is “going to continue to make sure Israel has what it needs to defend itself.”
“We want to see no second front opened, and we want to see if we can resolve the tensions up there through diplomatic processes,” Kirby added.
Here’s an update on the security situation, along the Lebanese-Israeli border, where the intensity of cross-border fire has increased this afternoon:
*Hezbollah said its fighters targeted the Israeli town of Avivim, located less than one kilometer from the Blue Line, in response "particularly" to the attacks on Bint Jbeil.
*Israel targeted Maroun al-Ras (Bint Jbeil district,) residents reported.
Photo sent by residents of Kfar Kila to L'Orient Today
Here’s an update on the security situation along the Lebanese-Israeli border:
*Hezbollah said that in response to Israel's attack on Aita al-Shaab its fighters targeted a building used by Israeli soldiers in the town of "Evin Menahem (located in the Western Galilee) with appropriate weapons, hitting it directly."
*Israeli artillery targeted Kfar Kila (in the Marjayoun district) and destroyed the tombs of Hezbollah members killed in the town's cemetery, as reported by residents.
*Israeli artillery targeted Odaisseh (Marjayoun district) with several shells, according to residents.
Arab League Deputy Secretary-General Hossam Zaki met several Lebanese political leaders in Beirut on Wednesday, including Speaker of the House Nabih Berry, Kataeb party leader Samy Gemayel and Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) leader Gebran Bassil, reports the official National News Agency (NNA).
"We are ready to deal with any emergency," said caretaker Health Minister Firas Abiad estimating that all public and private hospitals were ready in the event of a widening of the conflict in Lebanon. "When the port explosions took place, we treated 6,000 wounded in one night. We proved what we're capable of," he added.
Israeli artillery shelling targeted the center of Khiam (Marjayoun district,) with heavy artillery, residents reported. "Six shells have fallen so far. Initially, we thought it was airstrikes targeting the town, only to realize heavy-caliber shells were exploding in the neighborhoods, shaking walls with their intensity," one resident told L'Orient Today's correspondent in the south.
*Hezbollah said it targeted at 4:30 pm espionage equipment near the Israeli site of Birkat Risha, facing the Lebanese town of Boustan (Sour district) with "appropriate weapons, hitting it directly and resulting in its destruction."
*In response to the Israeli attack “targeting buildings in the towns of Khiam [Marjayoun district] and Kfar Shuba [Hasbaya district],” Hezbollah “targeted buildings used by [Israeli] soldiers in the Metula settlement [opposite Khiam] with appropriate weaponry, directly hitting them, resulting in them catching fire and casualties among those inside, including fatalities and injuries."
At around 3:52 pm a security source had told L’Orient Today that rockets were launched towards Metula. Haaretz had also reported siren sounds in northern Israel.
Civil Defense personnel, affiliated with the Islamic Mission Scouts and the Amal Movement, participated in firefighting operations following the Israeli bombardment with phosphorus shells on the town of Kounin in the Bint Jbeil district. (Credit: Islamic Mission Scouts)
The Health Ministry in Gaza has announced a new death toll of 37,718 in the Palestinian territory since the start of the war with Israel over eight months ago.
At least 60 people have been killed in the last 24 hours, it said in a statement, adding that 86,377 people had been wounded in Gaza since Oct. 7.
The UN's humanitarian affairs chief, Martin Griffiths, warned that an extension of Israel's war on Gaza into Lebanon would be "potentially apocalyptic."
"I see this as the spark that will ignite the powder keg," Griffiths, whose mandate ends at the end of the month, warned journalists in Geneva.
"The Israeli army can destroy Hezbollah’s military capabilities in a matter of days," Israeli National Unity Party leader Benny Gantz said on Tuesday while speaking at a conference at Reichman University in Tel Aviv, according to the Jerusalem Post.
Gantz said a major challenge for Israel is to “return the southern and northern residents to their homes, even at the price of escalation," the JP reported. “We cannot let Hezbollah keep threats close to the northern border,” Gantz added, “we need to get the [northern] residents back by September 1.”
*Rockets were launched from southern Lebanon towards Metula (facing Khiam in the Marjayoun district,) a security source told L’Orient Today.
*Israeli artillery shelling targeted the center of Khiam (Marjayoun district) with three shells so far, residents reported.
Here’s an update on the security situation in southern Lebanon:
*Israel targeted the border village of Kfar Shuba (Hasbaya district) three times this afternoon. One of the strikes destroyed a local home, residents reported to our correspondent in the area.
*Israeli artillery shelling targeted the outskirts of the villages of Kfar Kila, Burj al-Malook and Khiam (all located in the Marjayoun district) and Helta (Hasbaya district) with several shells. Israel also targeted the Aziza Hill close to Khiam, residents reported.
Israeli political Ehud Olmert — prime minister from 2006 to 2009 — accused current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of "betrayal," adding "Netanyahu must stand trial in the court of the people of Israel" in an opinion piece published on Haaretz.
Most notably, he accused Netanyahu of abandoning the hostages, prolonging the war in Gaza and seeking to expand it to Lebanon with Hezbollah. He claimed that Netanyahu's actions would escalate violence in the West Bank and "trigger the expansion of war crimes against Palestinians."
He concluded "Netanyahu does not want the war to end, he does not want the hostages to return home alive and he does not want an arrangement in the north that will return residents to their homes. He does not want to stop the mistreatment and killing of Palestinian residents of Judea and Samaria. Netanyahu wants a war that never ends while weakening Israel's relationships with its neighbors and with the United States."
"Netanyahu wants to destroy Israel, nothing less. The time has come to expel him."
Gaza’s Health Ministry announced a new death toll of 37,718, while 86,377 have been wounded since Oct. 7.
The ministry adds that Israeli attacks in the strip have killed 60 people and injured 140 in the last 24 hours.
Hamas leaders accuse the U.S. of not working to reach a cease-fire, but rather stalling until the military operations in Rafah are complete, according to a Palestinian official who spoke to Haaretz.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused Western countries of "supporting" an Israeli offensive in Lebanon.
“Israel, which devastated Gaza, is now setting its sights on Lebanon and we see that Western powers behind the scenes are patting Israel on the back and even supporting it,” the Turkish president told his party's deputies in parliament.
The Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) issued a travel advisory today recommending against travel to Lebanon, citing heightened tensions between Hezbollah and Israel.
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In the latest updates on developments in Gaza, Reuters reported:
- Residents reported intense overnight clashes in Rafah, South Gaza. Also, fighting intensified in the Tel Al-Sultan, western Rafah, with tanks attempting to advance north amid heavy clashes.
- Hamas and Islamic Jihad's military wings reported engaging Israeli forces using anti-tank rockets and mortar bombs yesterday night.
- Israeli forces conducted airstrikes across Gaza today
- Palestinian medics reported two Palestinians killed earlier today in an Israeli missile strike in Rafah.
- In Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, an Israeli airstrike destroyed a residence, resulting in the deaths of four Palestinians and injuries to several others, as confirmed by medical sources.
- The Israeli army said in a statement that it killed a Hamas militant involved in weapons smuggling along the Rafah-Egypt border. The statement added that Israeli jets targeted numerous militant targets in Rafah overnight, including fighters, military structures, and tunnel entrances.
Updates on the southern Lebanese-Israeli border:
- Israeli artillery shelled the entrances to the town of Bint Jbeil, and the vicinity of Kounine village, both in Bint Jbeil district, residents told our correspondent.
- Israeli artillery fire also targeted the areas of Kfarshouba (Hasbaya), Mais al-Jabal (Marjayoun) and Khiam (Marjayoun), locals told our correspondent.
- Earlier, farmers working in the Wazzani orchards reported narrowly escaping machine-gun fire from Israeli positions overlooking the area.
Caretaker Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Minister Abdullah Bou Habib departed Beirut this morning for Brussels to meet with European Union officials.
Following his visit to Brussels, he will travel to the United States, where he plans to meet with American officials in Washington and U.N. representatives in New York. Next, Bou Habib will visit Canada to meet with his Canadian counterpart.
Bou Habib's tour aims to "monitor Lebanon's efforts to prevent a large-scale war in the South that could escalate into a regional war, and to outline the government's approach to the Syrian refugee issue in Lebanon, along with its proposed solutions."
The house destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in Khiam, Marjayoun. Photo provided by our correspondent, Mountasser Abdallah
An Israeli airstrike targeted and destroyed a house in Khiam (Marjayoun). No casualties have been reported, according to our correspondent.
Shortly after, Israeli artillery fire targeted the Wazzani area (Marjayoun), residents told our correspondent in South Lebanon.
Smoke billows after the Israeli airstrike on the village of Khiam in South Lebanon. Photo provided by our correspondent, Mountasser Abdallah
Today, an Israeli airstrike targeted Aita al-Shaab (Bint Jbeil) and Khiam (Marjayoun), residents told our correspondent in South Lebanon.
Several fires blazed in southern Lebanon due to Israeli fire, according to a statement from the Islamic Health Committee, a Hezbollah-affiliated relief organization. Throughout the day and evening, the association's firefighters extinguished eight fires caused by Israeli artillery fire, in Ramiyeh, Taybeh, Dhaira, Odaisseh, Blida and Kfar Kila, according to a statement issued yesterday at around 10 pm.
The Lebanese Civil Defense announced on X that it had extinguished fires that broke out in three houses yesterday night in Shebaa (Hasbaya district) due to Israeli artillery fire.
On the Lebanese-Israeli border, several Israeli strikes were reported by security sources yesterday night.
- At 10 p.m., Israeli strikes targeted a house in Dhaira (Sour district).
- Around midnight, a house in Shebaa (Hasbaya) caught fire after being bombed by Israeli aircraft.
- Israeli artillery fire also targeted the outskirts of Ramiyeh, Jabal Blat and Aita al-Shaab, all in Bint Jbeil district.
The Lebanese Civil Defense announced on X that it had extinguished fires that broke out during the night in three houses in Shebaa (Hasbaya district) due to Israeli artillery fire.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin conveyed to Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant that a war between Israel and Hezbollah "would be catastrophic for Lebanon, and it would be devastating for innocent Israeli and Lebanese civilians."
During their meeting at the Pentagon yesterday, they discussed "efforts to de-escalate tensions along the Israel-Lebanon border, to surge more humanitarian aid into Gaza, and to stand together against Iranian and Iranian-supported attacks against Israel and destabilizing activities throughout the Middle East," according to a Pentagon statement.
Austin emphasized that "Hezbollah's provocations threaten to drag the Israeli and Lebanese people into a war that neither of them wants."
He further underscored that diplomacy is the only way to prevent further escalation in the region.
The Israeli army's Arabic-speaking spokesman, Avichay Adraee, stated on X that a drone destined for Israeli territory crashed into the sea near the city of Eilat.
Haaretz reported that the drone did not cross into Israeli territory
"Throughout the incident, the defense forces tracked the drone, which did not breach Israeli airspace. An interceptor missile was fired," the spokesman noted, emphasizing that "the alert was activated following procedure."
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq claimed the attack and stated that it was "in retaliation for the massacres committed" by Israel against civilians in Gaza.
Norway's largest pension fund —distinct from the sovereign wealth fund — has announced that it is divesting from U.S. company Caterpillar due to concerns over the potential use of its equipment by the Israeli army in Gaza, reported AFP.
“For a long time, Caterpillar has supplied bulldozers and other equipment that has been used to demolish Palestinian homes and infrastructure to clear the way for Israeli settlements,” stated Kiran Aziz, head of responsible investments at KLP, in a press release.
She added that "it has been alleged that the company's equipment" is being used by the Israeli Army in its military campaign in Gaza.
For these two reasons, Caterpillar "may be contributing to human rights abuses and violation of international law in the West Bank and Gaza", she concluded.
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Thank you for joining our coverage of day 264 of the war on Gaza & day 263 of the conflict on the Lebanese-Israeli borders.
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