Thank you for following our LIVE Blog. We will back tomorrow with more LIVE coverage.
Hezbollah urges Israelis to stay away from military sites in residential areas:
Hezbollah urged Israelis on Friday to stay away from military sites in residential areas in the northern part of the country.
"The enemy's army uses homes as gathering centers for its officers and soldiers" in several regions of northern Israel and has "military bases" in major northern cities such as "Haifa, Tiberias, and Acre," Hezbollah stated in a message broadcast in Arabic and Hebrew. The party warned "residents who might be near these military gatherings to preserve their lives."
In the last hour, Hezbollah claimed responsibility for three attacks:
- The first at 10:40 PM targeted Israeli soldiers near the Fatmeh Gate, at the village of Kfar Kila (Marjeyoun), using artillery fire. One hour earlier, the fighters from the Shiite party had launched an initial attack on the same location with a barrage of shells.
- In its 25th statement of the day, the Shiite party claimed to have attacked a gathering of Israeli soldiers at the Hounine barracks (facing Houla) "with a barrage of rockets."
- Finally, the Hezbollah stated that its fighters targeted at 9:15 PM "a gathering of enemy Israeli forces in Kfar Giladi," a locality in northern Israel near the border with Lebanon, with "a barrage of rockets."
In an updated report, the Lebanese Ministry of Health stated that three people were killed and six others were injured in the Israeli attack on Baissariyeh, in the Saida district. Earlier, the ministry had specified that among the victims were a two-year-old child and a 16-year-old teenager.
The ministry also reported that on Friday, three people were killed and five others injured in an Israeli strike in Ansariyeh. In Ghaziyeh, one person was killed, while another was injured in Adloun.
The Civil Defense in the Gaza Strip reported on Friday evening that 30 people had died throughout the day in a series of Israeli airstrikes on the city and the Palestinian refugee camp of Jabalia in the northern war-torn territory, according to AFP.
12 people including women and children were killed in Jabalia, according to the organization affiliated with Hamas. Prior to that, Ahmad al-Kahlout, the director of Civil Defense for northern Gaza, reported to AFP that there were 18 deaths from several strikes that took place throughout the day in the city and the Jabalia refugee camp, which notably affected "eight schools" located in the camp that were serving as shelters for displaced persons.
The Israeli army, which did not announce any strikes in the Jabalia area during the day, did not respond to AFP's questions regarding the strikes reported by Mr. Kahlout against the eight schools in the camp.
American envoy Amos Hochstein gave an interview to the Lebanese channel LBCI. Here are his main statements:
- “Neither the United States nor I have given any green light for military operations in Lebanon. No green light has been given for military operations.”
- “I can assure you that President Joe Biden is focused on seeking a ceasefire. We want to work with the institutions of the Lebanese government, including the army, to end this conflict.”
- “UN Security Council Resolution 1701 succeeded in ending the 2006 war, but it is clear that it has not been well implemented (...) We need to focus on a solution that involves the full implementation of Resolution 1701. This must be part of a comprehensive effort to strengthen the Lebanese armed forces. They need to be deployed in the south of the country and should serve as the main security mechanism to defend Lebanon along its borders.”
- “We must stop this conflict, seek a diplomatic solution, choose a new president, form a new government, and strengthen the Lebanese armed forces. All of this must happen simultaneously, and we must all work together to achieve this goal right now. We are in constant communication with the Lebanese government. However, the choice of a president does not fall to the United States.”
- “Lebanon, like any other country, must be able to secure its borders. Once we manage to end the conflict, there will be a significant deployment of the Lebanese armed forces in the south.”
French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday reiterated his call for an end to arms exports to the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, adding it was the sole means at hand to end the two conflicts pitting Israel against Iran-backed Hamas and Hezbollah.
"This is in no way a call to disarm Israel (...) but a call to stop any destabilization in this part of the world", said Macron at a press conference in Cyprus at the end of a meeting of Med9, which brings together the EU's Mediterranean countries.
"We have reiterated the need for a ceasefire, and this ceasefire is essential both in Gaza and in Lebanon. It is necessary now both for our hostages and the civilian population who are victims of the violence, and to avoid regional contamination", he said.
The Lebanese Ministry of Health reports that Israeli airstrikes have killed five people and injured five others in the Baalbeck-Hermel region: four killed in Boudai, one killed and three injured in Kfardane, and two injured in Kayal.
Warning sirens sounded in several cities north of Tel Aviv, according to Israel’s Home Front Command, with the military linking the alert to the "intrusion of an enemy aircraft," AFP reported.
As Israel observed the Yom Kippur holiday from sunset, the sirens were heard in Herzliya shortly before 10:00 p.m. (7:00 p.m. GMT), according to the Home Front Command. "Following the intrusion of an enemy aircraft, there were interception attempts," a military statement said, warning that "additional explosions may be heard due to interceptions or falling debris."
The Lebanese Ministry of Health has confirmed that three people were killed and three others injured in an Israeli attack on Baissariyah in the Saida district. The ministry specified that one of the victims was a two-year-old child and another was a 16-year-old teenager.
More details on the deadly Israeli strike on Baissariyah:
The soldier killed, Hussein Chami, is the brother of the sheikh whose house was targeted, our correspondent reports. His two daughters, Daha and Fatima, were killed. As for the sheikh and his wife, they are currently being treated by emergency services, while searches continue under the rubble.
Hezbollah claimed responsibility for two new attacks in the last hour:
• At 9:20 p.m., the party reported firing artillery shells at Israeli soldiers in the area around the Lebanese village of Blida, in the Marjayoun district.
• Shortly afterwards, at 9:24 p.m., Hezbollah fired more artillery shells at Israeli soldiers operating at the Fatmeh gate in the village of Kfar Kila, in Marjayoun district, southern Lebanon.
A house targeted by an Israeli strike in Baissarieh, southern Lebanon, on Oct. 11, 2024. (Photo sent by residents to our correspondent)
⚡ A third Lebanese Army soldier has been killed in an Israeli strike, this time on a residential building in Baissarieh, in Saida district. His two children were also killed and six people injured in the attack and rescue workers are still working to clear away the rubble, according to our correspondent in the south, Muntasser Abdallah.
Elsewhere in southern Lebanon, Israeli aircraft struck Qana and an area near the Antonine Sisters College in Nabatieh, and Dhayra and Jibbayn, in Sour district, while Israeli tanks shelled Kfar Kila and Khiam in Marjayoun district.
Iran announced that it had found the body of General Abbas Nilforoushan, killed in the massive Israeli bombardment of Beirut's southern suburbs that targeted Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Sept. 27, AFP reports.
"The body of the martyred Abbas Nilforoushan has been found thanks to continuous efforts," the Revolutionary Guards, Iran's ideological army, announced in a statement, adding that the date for the repatriation of the body and the funeral would be announced at a later time. The attack used dozens of 2,000-pound bombs, also known as "bunk-busters" and leveled four residential buildings, killing a yet unknown number of civilians. Nilforoushan, whose body was under the rubble for two weeks, was one of the main commanders of the al-Quds Force, the elite unit of the Revolutionary Guards.
According to our correspondents in the South and the Bekaa, Israeli airstrikes have targeted the following areas in the last hour:
• In Baalbeck district: Nabi Sheet, Boudai, Kfardan, Janta and Sarhine, and later again on Sarhine, near the Civil Defense center
• Nabatieh district: Nabatieh, and the area between Mayfadoun and Zawtar Gharbieh, and later on Zefta and Zebdine
• Saida district: Bassatin area and the village of Baissarieh
• Sour district: Deir Qanoun al-Nahr
During a meeting at the White House today, U.S. President Joe Biden was asked if he was "asking Israel to stop hitting U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon," AFP reports, to which he answered, "Absolutely, absolutely."
An update from southern Lebanon and the Bekaa, where Israeli airstrikes targeted the following villages and areas, according to reports gathered by our correspondent in the south.
• In Baalbeck district: Tamnin al-Fawq, Nabi Sheet, Tamnin, Hallanieh, Ali al-Nahri, Douri,and Ain Bourdai road
• In Saida district: Jbaa and the area around Ghazieh
• In Nabatieh district: the Ain al-Samahiya area between Zawtar Sharqieh, Nabatieh al-Fawqa and Arab Selim,
• In Bint Jbeil district: Khirbet Selm
• In Sour district: al-Maaliyah
Hezbollah claimed responsibility for six more attacks this afternoon:
The first, at 3 p.m., targeted Israeli soldiers stationed in Kfar Giladi, northern Israel. The second took place around 3:30 p.m. and targeted Israeli forces in Zvulun, an Israeli town north of Haifa, with "a large salvo of missiles." The third, at 4:40 p.m., targeted a Israeli soldiers near Blida, a village in southern Lebanon's Marjayoun district, using missiles. The fourth, at 5 p.m., targeted Israeli soldiers at the headquarters of the 7th Armored Division command at the Katsavia barracks, in the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights. The fifth, also at 5 p.m., targeted soldiers "west of Kiryat Shmona," a small city in northern Israel. And the sixth and final attack, again at 5 p.m., targeted Israeli soldiers in Kfar Yuval, a village in northern Israel opposite Wazzani.
Air raid sirens sounded in dozens of towns in north-west Israel this afternoon as the country prepares to celebrate Kippur, with the Israeli army reporting "around 80 projectiles" fired from Lebanon. Between 5:21 and 5:24 p.m., "around 80 projectiles" were identified over Israeli territory after crossing over the border from Lebanon, the Israeli army announced.
The Israeli army says that it troops had opened fire at a "threat" near a UNIFIL peacekeepers' position in southern Lebanon during an "incident" that injured two peacekeepers earlier today, AFP reports.
"Israeli soldiers operating in southern Lebanon identified an imminent threat against them and responded by opening fire in its direction," the army said a statement. "An initial examination indicates that a UNIFIL post located about 50 meters from the source of the threat was hit during the incident, which resulted in two injuries among UNIFIL ranks," the army claims.
Shortly before releasing this statement, the army had announced that it was "conducting a thorough review at the highest level" after UNIFIL announced the incident in which two explosions hit near the observation tower at its Naqoura headquarters.
The Israeli army claimed it "expresses its deep concern about incidents of this kind and is currently conducting a thorough review at the highest command level to establish the details of what happened."
In a statement published on its X account, the Lebanese Army confirmed that two of its soldiers had been killed and three wounded in an Israeli attack that targeted an army center in the southern Lebanese village of Kafra earlier this evening.
Hezbollah has claimed responsibility for three attacks against Israel in recent hours.
The first, at around 3 p.m., targeted a deployment of Israeli soldiers in Ras Naqoura, in southern Lebanon's Sour district.
The second targeted Israeli soldiers stationed in the Shomera region of northern Israel, located opposite Sour district's village of Marwahin, using a salvo of rockets, at 3:25 p.m.
The third attack announced by Hezbollah targeted, also at 3:25 p.m., Israeli soldiers in the Tell Shaar area, opposite the Lebanese village of Rmeish, in Bint Jbeil district.
More updates from southern Lebanon, as per our correspondent in the region:
A series of Israeli raids targeted the villages of Yater and Kafra, in Bint Jbeil district, shortly before 4 p.m. The strikes in Yater killed three people and hit a medical center run by the Hezbollah-affiliated Islamic Health Committee.
Israeli strikes also hit the Bint Jbeil district villages of Kherbet Selm and Beit Lif, and the Marjayoun village of Mais al-Jabal, around 4:20 p.m.
⚡ The recent Israeli strike in Kafra, in southern Lebanon's Bint Jbeil district, killed two Lebanese Army soldiers and wounded three others, according to a security source cited by our correspondent. The strike targeted a building located at a close distance from an army checkpoint. The army has neither released a statement nor responded to request for comment on the matter.
Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris said he was "deeply concerned" about the attack on UNIFIL, while Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin, who is also deputy prime minister, condemned it and called it an "an extraordinary development, quite shocking."
"This marks a very serious intensification of [Israeli army] hostility towards U.N. forces and U.N. posts," Martin said. "Absolutely unacceptable. What happened over the last 48 hours prior to this was reckless and intimidatory."
Ireland, which has been a prominent pro-Palestine voice on the European stage, accounts for 347 of the 10,000 soldiers serving in the UNIFIL forces charged with maintaining peace in the south of Lebanon.
This picture shows the destruction at the site of an overnight Israeli airstrike in Lebanon's eastern city of Baalbeck on Oct. 11, 2024. (Credit: AFP)
Two UNIFIL peacekeepers were injured by explosions that hit close to the force's Naqoura headquarters' observation tower this morning, according to a statement released by the international peacekeeping mission. One of the wounded was taken to a hospital in Sour.
The statement also details an incident in which a bulldozer belonging to the Israeli army knocked down several "T-walls" at U.N. Position 1-31 near Labbouneh, southern Lebanon, and Israeli tanks moved "in the proximity of the U.N. position."
"Our peacekeepers remained at the location, and a UNIFIL Quick Reaction Force was dispatched to assist and reinforce the position," the UNIFIL statement reads, adding that these actions, described as "a serious development," have put its personnel "at very serious risk."
The mission reiterated that any deliberate attack on the peacekeepers is a "grave violation of international humanitarian law and Security Council Resolution 1701," created in 2006 to facilitate the withdrawal of Israel from southern Lebanon and the demilitarization of Hezbollah.
The Israeli army's international spokesperson Colonel Nadav Shoshani posted a video of himself on X, in which he claims to be in a border village in southern Lebanon, though he doesn't specify which, in a “civilian house” where there are “Hezbollah weapons that could potentially be used for an invasion or attack against Israel.” In the background, various weapons and small rockets could be seen.
“Seeing the reality of southern Lebanon with my own eyes, seeing how Hezbollah embeds itself within houses, was baffling,” Shoshani said.
Yesterday another Israeli army spokesperson Daniel Hagari, also posted a video purporting to be in southern Lebanon, showing viewers inside a house “for a civilian Shiite in southern Lebanon.” In the video he begins opening closets and drawers, taking out weapons and heavy guns which he claims Hezbollah wanted to use against Israel and that the group is “hiding them in between civilian houses.”
The Israeli army made similar allegations after its raids against hospitals in Gaza. Several fact-checking teams, including BBC Verify, found the footage the army released of Hamas weapons in hospitals was flawed or weak evidence of Hamas command centers the army claimed to be attacking.
Here is an update from southern Lebanon and the Bekaa.
In Sour district, Israeli air raids hit Batoulieh and Bazourieh. In Nabatieh district, Israeli jets targeted the village of Arnoun.
In the Bekaa, Israel bombed two buildings in Karak, which had already been hit yesterday, completely destroying them. Another strike also targeted an area between Yohmor and Sohmor, in the western Bekaa.
The death toll from the morning's air strike on Boudai, in Baalbeck district, has risen to five.
During a press conference following the announcement of this year's Nobel Peace Prize, the co-head of the prize winning Japanese anti-nuclear group Nihon Hidankyo said that children in Gaza are suffering a situation similar to that suffered by children in Japan after World War II, when the country was decimated by bombardments, notably by two atomic bombs dropped by the U.S. that killed over 150,000 people, mostly civilians.
"In Gaza, children in blood are being held," said Toshiyuki Mimaki in Tokyo. "It's like in Japan 80 years ago." The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the grassroots movement of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, also known as Hibakusha.
The group, founded in 1956, received the honor "for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again," said Jorgen Watne Frydnes, the chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo.
The United Nations human rights office has said that more than 100 doctors and paramedics have been killed in Lebanon since the start of the war.
"In total, more than 100 doctors and rescue workers have been killed in Lebanon since October last year," spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani told a U.N. briefing, without giving details of when and where they died.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has described as "intolerable" the shooting attributed to Israel that wounded two peacekeepers in Lebanon on Thursday, stressing that it must "not be repeated."
"There was naturally a reaction from many parties in solidarity with the peacekeepers who were wounded, and to say very clearly to Israel that this incident is intolerable and cannot be repeated," the leader told reporters from Laos, where he attended a regional summit.
The situation in south Lebanon and the Bekaa, according to local sources from our correspondents Mountasser Abdallah and Sarah Abdallah:
In south Lebanon, air strikes targeted the outskirts of Zawtar Gharbieh, in Nabatieh, Houla (Marjayoun) and a house in Bourj Qalaway (Bint Jbeil). In Bourj Qalaway, three people were killed, according to a source in the emergency services.
In the Bekaa, a strike on Boudai killed at least four people.
Tehran will not hesitate to take “stronger defensive measures” if Israel retaliates against Iran's missile attack last week, said Abbas Araqchi, Iran's Foreign Minister, quoted by Reuters.
Iran is “fully prepared to take stronger defensive measures, if necessary, in response to any further aggression, and will not hesitate to do so,” he warned in a letter to his foreign counterparts, according to a message from the Ministry on X.
In particular, the latter considers that the missile attack launched by the Islamic Republic on Oct. 1 was in line with “its right to self-defense under international law” and that it had shown “great restraint” with a view to obtaining a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip.
For his part, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declared on Thursday that Israel would strike Iran in a “lethal, precise and surprising” manner.
Lebanon's outgoing Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, called on the U.N. to adopt a resolution for an “immediate cease-fire” in the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.
Mikati assured a cabinet meeting that his government was “committed to the full implementation of Resolution 1701,” which calls for a cessation of hostilities on both sides of the border, and stipulates that only U.N. peacekeeping forces and the Lebanese Army should be deployed in southern Lebanon. In this context, Beirut is “determined to defend its rights and its land,” he said, announcing that the government is committed to “strengthening the army's presence in the south of the country."
Another Israeli shell hit the main entrance to the headquarters of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in Naqoura, while an Israeli Merkava tank hit a peacekeepers' watchtower on a road between Sour and Naqoura, the official National News Agency (NNA) and the Lebanese Foreign Ministry reported on Friday.
Hezbollah claimed responsibility for a new attack using “drone bombs” on the “air defense headquarters in Kiryat Eliyezer,” a neighborhood near the port of Haifa. This strike took place at 8:30 a.m., at the same time as the one targeting Zvulun, north of Haifa.
At 10:50 a.m., the party fired rockets at “the village of Kfar Szold," some ten kilometers from the Blue Line, close to the occupied Syrian Golan Heights.
Hezbollah claimed responsibility for an 8:30 a.m. rocket attack on Israeli soldiers deployed in Zvulun, north of Haifa.
Hezbollah claimed responsibility for a second strike, carried out at 7:20 this morning against “technical equipment located at the al-Abad site," which faces Houla (Marjayoun). This site was hit with a “guided missile,” according to the party.
The situation in south Lebanon:
An Israeli strike targeted Blat, in the Marjayoun district, as well as Kfar Tebnit, in Nabatieh. In this village, a series of strikes destroyed several houses.
A Belgian military aircraft repatriated around 100 European nationals from Lebanon last night, including some 60 Belgians and 11 French nationals, the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs told AFP on Friday.
In Basta, a member of the Civil Defense confides, on condition of anonymity, that there are still five missing in the rubble.
"We've worked in the southern suburbs of Beirut, so we're used to seeing scenes like this, dead people and body parts. It's difficult, but we're used to it. On the other hand, the civilians present are not as used to it as we are," he laments.
He says that fires are still burning in the rubble, from which smoke can be seen billowing. "These are residential buildings that have been hit. Here, as in Ras al-Nabaa, these are residential areas."
In Basta, a member of the Civil Defense confides, on condition of anonymity, that there are still five missing in the rubble.
"We've worked in the southern suburbs of Beirut, so we're used to seeing scenes like this, dead people and body parts. It's difficult, but we're used to it. On the other hand, the civilians present are not as used to it as we are," he laments.
He says that fires are still burning in the rubble, from which smoke can be seen billowing. "These are residential buildings that have been hit. Here, as in Ras al-Nabaa, these are residential areas."
A testimony from Basta
Around the building razed to the ground by the Israeli strike in Basta, all the apartments were damaged.
A 36-year-old local man, who preferred to remain anonymous, tells L'Orient-Le Jour that he "saw hell" after the strike. "There was black smoke everywhere, I saw bloodied and wounded people, everyone was running in all directions," he recounts. "I checked on my family and stayed in the neighborhood, I saw a baby and two other children aged two or three pulled out of the rubble, I also saw a small body, maybe of a teenager, placed in a body bag," he adds.
Describing the strike as a "massacre," he explains that, while in the neighboring Ras el-Nabaa district the airstrike was "targeted," the one aimed at his street "brought down an entire building," in a "densely populated" area. "Nothing worse can happen now," he believes, claiming he ‘never thought it could have happened on our street."
"There are only civilians here, nothing to do with Hezbollah," he concludes.
(Photo credit: Mohammad Yassine/L'Orient-Le Jour)
In the Basta district, in the vicinity of the building razed to the ground last night by an Israeli strike in the heart of Beirut.
(Credit: Lyanna Alameddine)
In south Lebanon, an Israeli strike on Majdal Zoun caused casualties, according to information from local sources reported by our correspondent Mountasser Abdallah. Another strike targeted an area between Kfar Hammam and Halta.
In the Bekaa, an air raid targeted the outskirts of al-Ain, north of Baalbeck.
Hezbollah claimed responsibility for a strike "with a large barrage of rockets" on a deployment of Israeli soldiers "in and around the Yiftah barracks," which faces the Lebanese village of Blida (Bint Jbeil).
A Thai foreign worker, aged 27, was killed and another injured by an anti-tank missile fired at Yiron, in northern Israel, below the Lebanese village of Maroun al-Ras (Bint Jbeil district), according to Haaretz.
At a summit in Laos with the leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed the various issues on which U.S. diplomacy was engaged, including the Middle East, where "the United States still hopes to avoid a wider conflict," he said, while Israel's response to Iran's missile attack was still pending.
"For the Lebanese people, it's important to have a head of state, it's up to the Lebanese people to decide," said the head of diplomacy in particular, who added that "The United States and many other countries want to help Lebanon."
Blinken also expressed his “real concerns” about the “critical situation” of the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip and the lack of humanitarian aid being delivered to the Palestinian enclave, and said he had “made this known” to Israel.
Warning sirens sounded around 8:30 a.m. in the northern Israeli cities of Acre and Haifa, following the intrusion of a "hostile flying vehicle," according to Haaretz.
Two hours earlier, the Israeli army announced that it had intercepted a drone over Ashkelon, a town in southern Israel just north of the Gaza Strip.
In southern Lebanon, between 7 a.m. and 7.30 a.m., an Israeli air strike targeted the outskirts of Zrarieh, in the Saida district. Another bombardment targeted Jibsheet, in the Nabatieh district, killing at least one person, according to our correspondent in the south, Mountasser Abdallah.
Prior to this, the night had been relatively quiet between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m., with no security incidents reported in the south.
Between 10 and 11 p.m., a series of bombardments targeted Naqoura, Beit Lif, Chakra, Khiam, Maaroub, Shaatiyeh, Bourj Qalaway and Anqoun.
In the evening, the Israeli army's Arabic-speaking spokesman, Avichay Adraee, had issued warnings to residents of two buildings in Haret Hreik, in the southern suburbs of Beirut. However, no strikes were reported in the area overnight.
This is the third time that the Israeli air force, which concentrates its raids on the southern suburbs of Beirut, has directly targeted the capital since launching its massive strikes in Lebanon on Sept. 23.
Last night, strikes on the Basta and Ras al-Nabaa neighborhoods in inner Beirut left at least 22 people dead, according to a provisional death toll from the Lebanese Health Ministry.
According to Israeli media and Reuters security sources, the bombing targeted the head of Hezbollah's coordination unit, who escaped.
In central Beirut, Basta district, near the building razed to the ground last night by an Israeli strike, our reporter on the scene Lyana Alameddine reports scenes of desolation.
"Wherever you turn your head, there's rubble, burnt-out or destroyed cars. Everything is covered in dust," describes our journalist.
You have reached your article limit
Get the biggest stories at the smallest price!
Limited offer: $6.9/month instead of $12.9
This article is only available to L’Orient Today subscribers.
Already have an account? Login here