• At least 87 people were killed or missing under the rubble after an Israeli attack on northern Gaza’s town of Beit Lahiya, the Palestinian enclave’s health ministry said. READ MORE BELOW
• Israel said its airforce attacked Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters in Beirut on Sunday as well as an underground workshop for the production of weapons. READ MORE BELOW
• Israel struck dozens of south Lebanon villages and towns overnight and targeted Nabatiyeh city for a third time this week, Lebanese state media said. READ MORE BELOW
• The U.S. would like to see Israel scale back some of its strikes in and around Beirut, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said, adding the number of civilian casualties was “far too high.” READ MORE BELOW
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attempt of Hezbollah to assassinate him and his wife on Saturday was “a grave mistake,” after his spokesman said a drone was launched from Lebanon at his holiday home.
• Palestinians are living through “unspeakable horrors” in the north of the Gaza Strip, the UN’s top aid official said, as she insisted “these atrocities must stop.”
• The Israeli army ordered civilians located near buildings it said were “affiliated with Hezbollah” in two neighborhoods in south Beirut to immediately evacuate early on Sunday.
• The Israeli military said a sergeant major has died of his wounds after being severely injured during combat in southern Lebanon on October 9.
• The Israeli military has launched an investigation into the death of a Hezbollah detainee while in its custody in Lebanon, Israel’s Army Radio and N12 News reported.
• Supporters of pro-Iran armed groups in Iraq, angered over “terrorist” references, ransacked offices affiliated with a Saudi TV channel in Baghdad, two security sources said.
• German police have arrested a Libyan suspected of links to the Islamic State group and of having planned an attack on the Israeli embassy, federal prosecutors told AFP.
• British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told Israeli counterpart Netanyahu he was “alarmed to hear about the drone launched towards” his residence.
Beit Lahia deaths
Gaza’s Health Ministry claimed more than 40 people were injured in addition to what it says are 87 killed or missing after Israel targeted Beit Lahiya. The Israeli military said they were checking the report.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed at least 42,603 Palestinians and wounded 99,795, it added.
Earlier, it was claimed 73 people had died. Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the civil defence agency, said: “Our civil defence crews recovered 73 martyrs and a large number of wounded as a result of the Israeli air force targeting a residential area… in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza. There are still martyrs under the rubble.”
Israel targets Hezbollah intelligence
In a statement, the Israeli military said its fighter jets killed three Hezbollah commanders, including Alhaj Abbas Salameh, a senior figure in the group’s southern command, Radja Abbas Awache, a communications expert, and Ahmad Ali Hussein, who it said was responsible for strategic weapons development.
It was not clear if the three were killed in the attack on the HQ or in separate actions. Hezbollah made no immediate comment.
Israel’s military said on Saturday it had destroyed tunnel shafts and underground infrastructure in southern Lebanon and killed Hezbollah’s deputy commander of the Bint Jbeil area on Friday.
Early on Sunday, Reuters witnesses saw smoke rising from Beirut’s suburbs but it was not clear if this was a result of the same strike.
Air strikes continue on Sunday
“Warplanes struck… the city of Nabatiyeh seven times” including on an inhabited building, with rescuers still looking for survivors under the rubble, the Lebanese National News Agency said.
The city where Hezbollah and ally Amal hold sway had seen deadly Israeli strikes on Wednesday that killed its mayor, with bloody attacks last week razing its marketplace.
It added Israeli jets “conducted strikes” on more than 50 towns and villages including the border villages of Kfarshuba, Bint Jbeil and Khiam that have seen heavy fighting, reporting casualties.
Israel struck dozens of south Lebanon villages and towns overnight and targeted Nabatiyeh city for a third time this week, Lebanese state media said on Sunday. The troops “bulldozed the cemetery in the village of Blida” nearby, the NNA added.
U.S. calls on Israel to “scale back”
Austin’s comments came hours after Israel carried out heavy strikes on several locations in Beirut’s southern suburbs, leaving thick plumes of smoke over the city horizon throughout the evening. Israel said it struck arms facilities belonging to Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.
Tens of thousands of people have fled the southern suburbs – once a densely populated zone that also housed Hezbollah offices and underground installations – since Israel began regular strikes there about three weeks ago.
“We’d like to see Israel scale back on some of the strikes it’s taking, especially in and around Beirut,” Austin told reporters at a G7 defense gathering in the Italian city of Naples.
“And we’d like to see things transition to some sort of negotiation that will allow civilians on both sides of the border to return to their homes.”
Austin said he had asked his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, about reported Israeli attacks on positions of the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon.
UNIFIL said on Friday it had come under several “deliberate” attacks by Israeli forces in recent days and efforts to help civilians in villages in the war zone were being hampered by Israeli shelling.
The U.S., Israel’s strongest ally, has been urging Israel to do more to safeguard civilians in Gaza and in Lebanon.
But a confidential letter from Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Israeli officials last week demanded concrete measures to address the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza, or face potential restrictions on U.S. military aid.
Source(s): AFP ,Reuters
