Israel launches attacks on Houthi targets in Yemen; Hezbollah confirms a 7th top commander was killed | Sept 29 highlights

President Joe Biden said Sunday he would speak with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and believes that an all-out war in the Middle East must be avoided. “It has to be,” Biden told reporters as he boarded Air Force One for Washington. “We really have to avoid it.”

The president’s statements come as Israeli airstrikes across Lebanon killed dozens of people on Sunday. He would not say when he planned to speak with Netanyahu. The Hezbollah militant group sustained a string of deadly blows to its command structure, including the killing of its overall leader, Hassan Nasrallah.

- AP

A second French national has been killed in Lebanon, France’s foreign ministry said Sunday, as Israel carried out fresh strikes against the country’s Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group.

The announcement came as French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot flew into Beirut Sunday evening for talks with the authorities there and to bring humanitarian aid.- AFP

The bomb that Israel used to kill Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut last week was an American-made guided weapon, a U.S. senator said on Sunday.

Mark Kelly, chair of the Senate Armed Services Airland Subcommittee, said Israel used a 2,000-lb (900-kg) Mark 84 series bomb during an interview with NBC. His statement marks the first U.S. indication of what weapon had been used.

“We see more use of guided munitions, JDAMs, and we continue to provide those weapons,” Mr. Kelly said, using an abbreviation that stands for Joint Direct Attack Munitions. “That 2,000-pound bomb that was used — that’s a Mark 84 series bomb to take out Nasrallah,” he said.

- Reuters

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin on Sunday appointed a former rival, Gideon Saar, as a member of his Cabinet.

The move expands Mr. Netanyahu’s governing coalition and helps entrench the Israeli leader in office.

Under their agreement, Mr. Netanyahu said Mr. Saar would be given a spot in the Security Cabinet, the body that oversees the management of the ongoing war.

Mr. Saar had hoped to replace Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, another rival of Mr. Netanyahu’s. But a deal to become Defence Minister fell through several weeks ago after fighting intensified with Hezbollah. 

- AP

Four people were killed and 29 wounded in Israeli strikes on Yemen on Sunday, the Houthi-run Health Ministry said in a statement.

- Reuters

Iran condemned strikes by Israel on Yemen’s Hodeidah port on Sunday, saying they targeted a power plant and fuel tanks, the country’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Nasser Kanaani, said in a statement.

- Reuters

An Israeli attack on Sunday on the city of Baalbek-Hermel in eastern Lebanon killed 21 people and wounded 47 others, according to a preliminary toll, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said in a statement.

- Reuters

The United Nations’ refugee agency says 70,000 people have crossed from Lebanon into Syria to escape Israeli bombardment.

The total includes both Lebanese citizens and Syrians who had moved to Lebanon but are now returning.

- AP

“At least 24 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes that hit two adjacent buildings east of the southern city of Sidon,” the Lebanese Health Ministry said.

The consecutive strikes on Sunday on Ain el-Delb, east of Sidon, were caught on camera by neighbours in the area. The Health Ministry said the strikes also injured at least 29 people.

In the video verified by The Associated Press, one strike caused a huge plume of smoke. The second one hit an adjacent building, causing it first to sway to the right before collapsing.Israeli airstrikes have intensified in Lebanon’s south and the Bekaa region on Sunday, with local media reporting relentless airstrikes in the daytime.

- AP

Pope Francis suggested on Sunday that Israel’s attacks in Gaza and Lebanon have been “immoral” and disproportionate, saying its military dominance has gone beyond the rules of war.

Pope Francis was asked en route home from Belgium about Israel’s targeted killing of one of Hezbollah’s founding members, Hassan Nasrallah. Friday’s strike in Beirut targeted an area greater than a city block and reduced several residential buildings to rubble, and at least six other deaths have been confirmed.

He didn’t mention Israel by name and said he was speaking in general terms. But he said that “the defense must always be proportionate to the attack.” 

“When there is something disproportionate, there is a dominating tendency that goes beyond morality,” he said. “A country that does these things — and I’m talking about any country — in a superlative way, these are immoral actions.” He said that even if war itself is immoral, there are rules that “indicate some morality.” “But when you don’t do this … you see the bad blood of these things,” he said.

- AP

Israeli air force launches attacks on Houthi targets in Yemen, a statement said.

Airstrikes were launched at Yemen’s Hodeidah port on Sunday, with targets including fuel tanks, two sources at the port told Reuters.

Asked whether the Israeli military was carrying out an attack in Yemen, a military spokesperson declined to comment.

- Reuters

“Israel will not be able to safely get people back into their homes in the north of the country by waging an all-out war with Hezbollah or Iran,” White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said on Sunday.

Israel struck more targets in Lebanon on Sunday, pressing Hezbollah with new attacks. Israel’s stated goal is to make its northern areas safe from Hezbollah rocket fire and allow thousands of displaced residents to return.

“An all-out war with Hezbollah, certainly with Iran, is not the way to do that. If you want to get those folks back home safely and sustainably, we believe that a diplomatic path is the right course,” Mr. Kirby told CNN.

The United States is watching to see what Hezbollah does to try to fill its leadership vacuum “and is continuing to talk to the Israelis about what the right next steps are,” he said.

- Reuters

Fourteen medics have been killed over the course of two days of Israeli strikes, the Lebanese health ministry said in a statement on Sunday (September 29, 2024).

- Reuters

The Israeli military said Sunday it has killed another high-ranking Hezbollah official in an airstrike as the Lebanese militant group was reeling from a string of devastating blows and the killing of its overall leader, Hassan Nasrallah.

The military said Nabil Kaouk, the deputy head of Hezbollah’s Central Council, was killed on Saturday. Hezbollah confirmed his death, making him the seventh senior Hezbollah leader slain in Israeli strikes in a little over a week. They include founding members who had evaded death or detention for decades.

- AP

The World Food Program says it has launched an emergency operation to provide food to up to 1 million people displaced by violence in Lebanon.

The U.N. agency said on Sunday it distributes ready-to-eat food rations, bread, hot meals and food parcels to families in shelters across the country.

The agency says it needs $105 million to help it continue the work until the end of the year and has urged the international community to support the humanitarian response.

Corinne Fleischer, the agency’s regional director for the Middle East, North Africa, and Eastern Europe, said: “Lebanon is at a breaking point and cannot endure another war.”

Lebanese Environment Minister Nasser Yassin said the government estimates that about 250,000 people are in shelters, while four times as many may be displaced outside the shelters.

- AP

Israel carried out a fresh attack Sunday on Hezbollah’s southern Beirut bastion, a Lebanese security official told AFP, with the Israeli military announcing a “precise strike”.

The latest attack came days after a similar strike killed the group’s powerful leader Hassan Nasrallah.

“Israel carried out an air strike on Beirut’s southern suburb,” said the Lebanese official, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

AFP correspondents heard a loud explosion and saw smoke billowing from the area.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported a “violent raid carried out by Israeli warplanes”, adding that ambulances had rushed to the area of Beirut’s southern suburbs.

- AFP

Hezbollah has confirmed that one of its senior commanders, Ali Karaki, died in the Israeli airstrike that killed its top leader, Hassan Nasrallah, on Friday.

Israel has killed several top commanders in the Lebanese militant group in recent weeks in a series of strikes.

Earlier on Sunday, Israel said it killed another senior commander, Nabil Kaouk, the day before. Hezbollah has not yet confirmed his death.

- AP

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot will travel to Lebanon on Sunday, his office said, as Israel continues to strike multiple targets in the country.

“We confirm that the Minister is going to Lebanon this weekend to talk with local authorities and provide French support, particularly humanitarian support,” the Foreign Ministry said.

- Reuters

China on Sunday (September 29, 2024) called on “parties concerned, especially Israel”, to immediately take actions to cool down tensions to prevent the conflict in West Asia from going out of control in the aftermath of the killing of Iran-backed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli bombing.

“China is closely following the incident and is deeply concerned over the escalation of tensions in the region,” a Chinese Foreign Ministry statement said.

Separately, China also issued an advisory asking its citizens not to travel to Lebanon due to the intensification of the conflict.

Read the full story below

China calls on all parties, 'especially Israel', to deescalate tensions after Nasrallah's killing

China urges de-escalation in West Asia, condemns violence, and advises citizens against travel to Lebanon.

A medical source claims that the body of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has been recovered. 

While Hezbollah’s statement on Saturday confirming Nasrallah’s death did not say how exactly he was killed nor when his funeral would be, the two sources claim that his body has no direct wounds and that it appeared the cause of death was blunt trauma from the force of the blast. 

-Reuters

Prime Minister Najib Mikati says intense Israeli attacks have forced up to a million people to flee parts of Lebanon in possibly the worst displacement crisis in the country’s history.

Mr. Mikati says, “The estimated number is very high and may reach one million” which would amount to roughly a sixth of Lebanon’s population.

“It is the largest displacement movement that may have happened... in Lebanon,” he adds.

-AFP

The Gaza Health Ministry confirms atleast 41,595 Palestinians have been killed and 96,251 others injured in Israel’s military offensive in Gaza since October 7. 

-Reuters

Palestinian officials say Israeli strikes have killed at least four people in the Gaza Strip.

Officials say, “Two people were killed in separate strikes early Sunday in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.” 

It says six people were wounded.

In northern Gaza, first responders recovered two bodies after a strike on a house early Sunday, according to the Civil Defense, which operates under the Hamas-run government.

-AP

Jordan’s military says a Grad missile fired from Lebanon fell in an open area without causing casualties or damage.

The missile was likely fired at Israel by Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group, which has intensified its rocket attacks after its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Friday.

-AP

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi says, Israel’s killing of Revolutionary Guards Deputy Commander Abbas Nilforoushan in Lebanon “will not go unanswered”

-Reuters

The Israeli military claims that its air force had struck “dozens of Hezbollah terror targets” after carrying out “hundreds” of strikes on Friday and Saturday.

Lebanon’s National News Agency reports a string of raids in and around the city of Baalbek in the east, with “factories, warehouses” and residential areas among the targets.

At least six people were killed in a strike on a house in the northeastern Hermel region, the agency reports, while an emergency response group affiliated with Hezbollah ally Amal movement said five of its rescuers were killed in the south.

The Israeli military reports “approximately eight” launches from Lebanon that fell in unpopulated areas near the Israeli-annexed territory.

-AFP

Lebanon’s army warns citizens against actions that would disturb public order in the crisis-hit country after Israel’s killing of Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the powerful Iran-backed group Hezbollah.

The army in statement says, that it “calls on citizens to preserve national unity and not to be drawn into actions that may affect civil peace at this dangerous and delicate stage”.

“The Israeli enemy is working to implement its destructive plans and sow division among Lebanese,” the army statement adds. 

-AFP