Live blog: At least 13 killed in overnight Israeli attacks across Gaza

Friday, September 20, 2024

At least 13 people have been killed in overnight Israeli attacks across Gaza, according to the Palestinian WAFA news agency.

In Friday early morning attacks, at least six Palestinians were killed in an Israeli bombing that targeted a house in the Gaza City.

On Thursday evening, at least seven Palestinians, including women and children, were killed when an Israeli bombing hit a house in the Daraj neighbourhood in the center of the Gaza City.

Israeli aircrafts also bombed a house in the Beit Lahia town, north of Gaza, resulting in a number of injuries. Rescue workers continue searching for those missing under the rubble.

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0500 GMT — Israel said it struck hundreds of targets in Lebanon, hours after Hezbollah's leader vowed to retaliate for two "unprecedented" rounds of attacks targeting its operatives' communication devices.

Israel has not commented on the explosion of thousands of Hezbollah pagers and radios, which killed 37 people and wounded nearly 3,000 over two days this week, but it has been blamed by the Lebanese group for the attacks.

Speaking for the first time since the deadly device sabotage, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah vowed on Thursday that Israel would face retribution.

Describing the attacks as a "massacre" and a possible "act of war", Nasrallah said Israel would face "tough retribution and just punishment, where it expects it and where it does not".

0230 GMT — Components for pagers used in Lebanon blasts are not from Taiwan, minister says

Components used in thousands of pagers that detonated in Lebanon in a deadly blow to Hezbollah were not made in Taiwan, Taiwan's economy minister said.

Taiwan-based Gold Apollo said this week it did not manufacture the devices used in the attack, and that Budapest-based company BAC to which the pagers were traced has a licence to use its brand.

2315 GMT — Illegal Israeli settlers seize sheep from Palestinian families in southern West Bank

Armed illegal Israeli settlers seized a large number of sheep belonging to Palestinians in the southern occupied West Bank.

The official Palestinian news agency Wafa, citing unnamed local sources, reported that a group of armed settlers attacked Palestinian homes in the community of Haribat an-Nabi in the Masafer Yatta area with protection from the Israeli military.

Masafer Yatta is a cluster of 19 Palestinian villages in Hebron district of the southern West Bank.

According to the agency, the illegal settlers stole many sheep from two Palestinian men, Ali Sabah and Abdul Muhsin Rashid, after detaining their families, searching their homes and barns and wreaking havoc.

2238 GMT — US believes Gaza truce deal unlikely in Biden's term — report

US officials now believe that a ceasefire deal between Israel and Palestinian resistance group Hamas in Gaza is unlikely before President Joe Biden leaves office in January, the Wall Street Journal has reported.

The newspaper cited top-level officials in the White House, State Department and Pentagon without naming them. Those bodies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

"I can tell you that we do not believe that deal is falling apart," Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh told reporters before the report was published.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other US officials have been saying for months that a ceasefire deal had been agreed upon.

2200 GMT — Taiwan questions head of pager firm linked to Lebanon blasts

The president and founder of a Taiwanese pager company linked to the Israeli detonation of thousands of pagers in Lebanon has been questioned by prosecutors and then released.

Taiwan-based Gold Apollo's president and founder Hsu Ching-kuang has said it did not manufacture the devices used in the attack, and that they were made by a Budapest-based company BAC which has a licence to use its brand.

Images of destroyed pagers analysed by the Reuters news agency showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo.

Hsu declined to answer reporters questions as he left one of the Taipei offices of Taiwan prosecutors late on Thursday.

Calls to the prosecutors' office before office hours on Friday were not answered. Taipei prosecutors have not issued any statements so far about their investigations into Gold Apollo.

2215 GMT — Israel says Iran and Hezbollah sent texts to millions of Israelis

Israel has accused Iran and Hezbollah of bombarding millions of Israelis with threatening text messages as the conflict between the Israeli military and the Lebanese group escalated.

Israel's National Cyber Directorate said that a flood of Hebrew-language text messages popped up on cellphones nationwide, falsely purporting to be a communication from the Israeli Home Front Command.

The regime said roughly 5 million suspicious SMS texts were sent to Israelis late on Wednesday.

It determined that Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah hacked an Israeli mobile service provider and exploited its customer accounts. The Israeli regime did not say which provider. It was not immediately clear whether additional customer information was compromised.

"Say goodbye to your loved ones," read one of the messages seen by The Associated Press. "Don't worry, you will hug them in hell."

2030 GMT — Israel and Hezbollah trade missiles, rockets

Israel has heavily bombed several towns in southern Lebanon while Hezbollah group fired rockets on northern Israel in return as fears grow over a wider war in the Middle East.

The Lebanese National News Agency reported that Israeli warplanes "conducted a series of strikes on Mahmoudiyeh area near Aaichiyeh village and Kasarat al-Aroosh in the Jezzine area."

"Israeli enemy aircraft launched ten missiles toward the Birket Jabbour area," it said.

In a separate incident, four people were wounded in an Israeli air strike targeting the town of Hanniyeh in the Tyre district of southern Lebanon, according to the Health Ministry.

Israeli military claimed its fighter jets struck some100 rocket launchers consisting of about 1,000 barrels.

Hezbollah said in a statement that it targeted the Israeli military site of Metula in northern Israel with a barrage of Falaq rockets.

Following the attack, the mayor of Metula said the rockets launched from southern Lebanon resulted in several fires and caused significant damage to homes, according to Yedioth Ahronoth.

In another statement, the Lebanese group said it also struck the command headquarters of the Shomera Battalion in northern Israel with a salvo of Katyusha rockets.

2100 GMT — France, US urge all parties to avoid 'escalatory actions'

France and the US have called on all parties in the Middle East to avoid escalatory actions.

"France and the United States are united in calling for restraint, and urging de-escalation when it comes to the Middle East in general, and when it comes to Lebanon in particular," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a joint news conference after a meeting with his French counterpart Stephane Sejourne in Paris.

"We continue to work to get a cease-fire for Gaza over the finish line … We believe that remains both possible and necessary, but meanwhile, we do not want to see any escalatory actions by any party that makes that more difficult," Blinken added.

Outgoing French Foreign Minister Sejourne said, for his part, that they were "much worried" by the current situation in the Middle East, and reiterated the call for all parties to de-escalate tensions.

"Lebanon matters to France. Lebanon would not recover from a total war," Sejourne stressed, expressing support for the Lebanese people.

For our live updates from Thursday, September 19, 2024, click here.