Live blog: Fires erupt in southern Lebanon towns from 50+ Israeli strikes

Saturday, September 21, 2024

1801 GMT — Israeli warplanes have launched a series of strikes in southern Lebanon, causing fires in several towns.

An Israeli military statement said fighter jets conducted a new wave of strikes on Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon.

Social media accounts circulated images of fires in the southern towns following the strikes.

According to Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency, Israeli warplanes conducted over 50 airstrikes on border towns in southern Lebanon.

More updates 👇

1753 GMT — Israel military says 'dozens' of warplanes striking 'widely' in southern Lebanon

The Israeli military has said dozens of warplanes were striking Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, as cross-border exchanges intensify amid growing fears of all-out war.

"In the last hour we are attacking widely in southern Lebanon following the identification of Hezbollah's preparations to fire into Israeli territory," military spokesman Daniel Hagari said in a televised statement, adding that "dozens of air force aircraft" were involved in the operation.

1724 GMT — UNICEF 'horrified' by Israeli killing of children in Lebanon

UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) Executive Director Catherine Russell has expressed concern over the killing of children in recent attacks in Lebanon.

"Horrified by reports of at least 5 children killed and several injured in attacks this week in #Lebanon," Catherine Russell said on X.

She said at least 25 children have reportedly been killed and over 200 others injured in the past 11 months.

"The escalation puts more children at risk of death, injury, and fear. The rise in hostilities threatens children in Lebanon and beyond. It must stop, now," Russell added.

1557 GMT — Israel employs advanced technology in security violations: Lebanese minister

In its recent attacks on Lebanon, Israel used sophisticated technological tools, Lebanese interior minister has said, warning that the security situation is "serious and critical."

"The Israeli enemy is using advanced technologies in its operations against Lebanon," Bassam Mawlawi said in an extraordinary meeting of the country's Central Internal Security Council.

The meeting had been prompted by a series of Israeli strikes on various Lebanese regions, with Mawlawi saying there had been a significant security breach.

He urged all security forces to remain vigilant and monitor any suspicious activities due to the heightened security risks.

1447 GMT — Fresh Israeli air strikes target southern Lebanon, Beqaa region

The Israeli army has conducted a series of air strikes on southern Lebanon and the Beqaa region, according to media reports, as fears grew of all-out conflict with Hezbollah.

Israel's military said its air force "struck thousands of launcher barrels that were ready for immediate use to fire toward Israeli territory" as well as "approximately 180" other, unspecified targets, a military statement said.

Meanwhile in Israel, air raid sirens have been activated in Kiryat Shmona and several settlements in the Upper Galilee, the Israeli Army Radio said.

Earlier, Israeli media reported 45 rockets fired from Lebanon toward several settlements in northern Israel in less than an hour.

1423 GMT — Germany says 'urgent need' for measures in Mideast

Germany has said there was an "urgent need" for measures to calm tensions in the Middle East as Israel's war on Gaza threatened to spread to Lebanon.

"We have an urgent need for concrete measures in the Middle East to defuse the situation and avoid more civilian victims," the German foreign ministry wrote on X.

1404 GMT — Sullivan says Israel-Lebanon escalation worrying

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan has said he was worried about escalation between Israel and Lebanon but praised the Israeli killing of a top Hezbollah leader.

Sullivan, speaking with reporters in Wilmington, Delaware, said he still sees a path to a ceasefire in Gaza but that the US is "not at a point right now where we're prepared to put something on the table."

1208 GMT — Turkish President Erdogan slams Israel for "once again carrying out attacks like a terrorist group"

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has condemned Israel’s attacks in Lebanon, asserting that these attacks have proven Türkiye’s concerns about Israel's ambitions to extend conflict throughout the region.

Speaking to the media in Istanbul ahead of his departure to New York, where he will address the UN General Assembly, Erdogan said that Israel is carrying out attacks like a terrorist group.

“With this attack (pager explosions in Lebanon), Israel demonstrated it has no civilian sensitivities, it can use any means to achieve its hateful ambitions,” he said.

1059 GMT — Iran calls on international community to take ‘decisive action’ to stop Israeli attacks

Iran has condemned Israel's air strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs that left 31 people dead and called on the international community to take "decisive action" to stop Israeli attacks.

In a statement, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said that such attacks represent a violation of international law and Lebanon’s sovereignty.

"There is no doubt that the Zionist regime is attempting to escalate tensions in the region and expand the scope of war and conflict, contrary to the overwhelming majority of governments and nations calling for an immediate cease-fire," he said.

1055 GMT — Israel kills at least five Health ministry employees

Five employees of the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the ministry’s storage facilities in the Musbah area of Rafah, southern Gaza, the ministry has said.

In a statement, the ministry said that ambulances have been unable to reach the site to recover the bodies or assist the injured and called on international organizations to intervene to protect and rescue those trapped.

0948 GMT — Death toll from Israel's war on Gaza climbs to 41,391

Israel's military offensive in Gaza has killed at least 41,391 Palestinians and wounded 95,760 since October 7, the Palestinian enclave's health ministry said.

0947 GMT — Israel bombs Gaza school-shelter, kills at least 21 Palestinians

At least 22 Palestinians, including 13 children, have been killed and several others injured in an Israeli airstrike on a school sheltering displaced people in the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City, according to the government media office in the enclave.

In a statement, the office stated that six women and an unborn child were also among those killed in the strike.

"During the horrific massacre, the occupation killed 16 from among the orphaned children and the widowed women whose fathers and husbands were killed in previous Israeli airstrikes," it noted.

0844 GMT — Israeli air strike on displaced persons’ tent kills two Palestinians

Two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike targeting a tent that shelters displaced people in the Sheikh Nasser area of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, according to a medical source.

The source at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis told Anadolu that two bodies were brought to the hospital following the Israeli drone strike on the tent.

0839 GMT — Death toll from Israel's Beirut strike climbs to 31

The death toll from Israel's air strike on a Beirut suburb rises to 31, Lebanon's health minister has said.

Three children were among the killed in Israel's Beirut strike.

The strike marks the third attack by Israel on the southern suburb since an ongoing wave of hostilities began nearly a year ago.

0551 GMT — Protests in Morocco in support of Palestinians

More than 100 Demonstrations were organized across Morocco to condemn Israeli attacks on Gaza and show support for the Palestinians.

The Support for Ummah Issues Foundation, a Moroccan civil society group, said 106 protests were held in 50 cities.

Protesters chanted slogans in support of Palestinian resistance and against Israel’s violence in Gaza, the occupied West Bank, and all of Palestine, as well as US and Western backing of Israel and the Arab world's "silence."

0530 GMT — Hezbollah confirms death of another commander in Israeli strike

Lebanon's Hezbollah group has said that Ahmed Wahbi, a top commander who oversaw the military operations of the Radwan special forces during the Gaza war until early 2024, was killed in an Israel strike on Beirut suburbs on Friday.

An Israeli strike on Beirut left at least 13 dead and nearly 70 wounded. Rescuers were still digging the site for more bodies.

2109 GMT — Hezbollah confirms top military commander Ibrahim Aqil killed

Lebanon's Hezbollah group has confirmed in the early hours of Saturday that its top military commander Ibrahim Aqil was killed, calling him "one of its top leaders", without providing further details on his killing.

The Israeli military and a security source in Lebanon said Aqil was killed in an Israeli strike on Beirut earlier on Friday that also left 13 other Lebanese dead and nearly 70 wounded. Rescuers were stilling digging the site for more bodies.

2032 GMT — Lebanon slams Israel at UNSC, displays image of fingerless hand

Lebanon's Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib has told the UN Security Council that "no one in this world is safe anymore" after Israel's pager and walkie-talkie blasts in his country killed dozens and wounded thousands.

Bou Habib accused Israel of "terrorism", saying Lebanon is not seeking revenge but justice. He showed the council a large picture of a bloody hand with missing fingers.

"We came to the council to protect our common humanity and to ask you to condemn the terrorist Israeli attacks clearly and unequivocally, to hold Israel accountable for planning and implementing these attacks and for violating the sovereignty of Lebanon and its territorial integrity," he said.

2028 GMT — Israel pushing region into war: Macron to Netanyahu

French President Emmanuel Macron has told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that his country is pushing the region into a war, according to Israeli media.

According to the Israeli Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, Macron talked to Netanyahu over the phone following an Israeli air strike on southern Lebanon that killed 14 people and wounded 66 others.

The newspaper quoted Macron as telling Netanyahu that "Israel is pushing the region into war."

Netanyahu told Macron that "instead of putting pressure on Israel, it's time for France to increase the pressure on Hezbollah," according to Yedioth Ahronoth.

The newspaper also quoted a French official, without mentioning his name, who said France believes that the recent developments in Lebanon have further increased the chances of a war.

2022 GMT — Israel kills 44 Palestinians in Gaza in 24 hours

At least 44 Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded in Israeli air strikes and raids across the war-torn Gaza in last 24 hours.

Civil Defence spokesman Mahmoud Basal said two Palestinians were killed in a pair of strikes on a home and a car in northern Gaza.

Gaza City witnessed the highest fatalities, as 18 Palestinians, including three children and two women, were killed in six Israeli air strikes on homes and gatherings of people across the city.

Basal said 10 people were killed in the central Gaza area in two Israeli strikes on a home and a building that shelters displaced people.

Fourteen Palestinians were killed in Rafah, the southernmost of the enclave, in two Israeli strikes on a home that left 13 dead, including children and women, and on a motorcycle that left one Palestinian dead.

2011 GMT — UN warns Middle East violence could escalate into devastating conflagration

A senior United Nations official told the Security Council that further violence between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon risked igniting a far more damaging conflict.

"We risk seeing a conflagration that could dwarf even the devastation and suffering witnessed so far," UN political affairs chief Rosemary DiCarlo told the 15-member council, which met about attacks this week on Hezbollah.

"It is not too late to avoid such folly. There is still room for diplomacy," she said. "I also strongly urge Member States with influence over the parties to leverage it now."

For our live updates from Friday, September 20, 2024, click here.