22/10/2024 05:46
The Guardian
Israeli military said about 20 rockets were fired with many intercepted; US secretary of state Antony Blinken due to land in Israel for talksSee all our Middle East coverageAir raid sirens sounded in Tel Aviv on Tuesday after Hezbollah said it bombed the Nirit area in the city’s suburbs with missiles.The Israeli military said about 20 rockets were fired in the latest barrage from Lebanon – five toward central Israel and 15 toward the north, and that attempts were made to intercept them. The IDF said there were no immediate reports of injuries.Israel said late Monday it planned to carry out more strikes in Lebanon against a Hezbollah-run financial institution that it targeted the night before and which it says uses customers’ deposits to finance attacks against Israel. At least 15 branches of Al-Qard Al-Hasan were hit late Sunday in the southern neighbourhoods of Beirut, across southern Lebanon and in the eastern Bekaa valley, where Hezbollah has a strong presence. One strike flattened a nine-story building in Beirut with a branch inside it.There were reports that dozens of Palestinians, including children, were killed in attacks carried out by Israeli soldiers in the northern Gaza Strip. Among the casualties were at least 10 people killed in an Israeli attack on Jabalia Preparatory School in Al-Fawqa area, which was functioning as an Unrwa shelter for displaced people, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.Joe Biden’s administration remains “deeply concerned” about the leak of a pair of highly classified intelligence documents describing Israel’s preparations for a retaliatory strike on Iran, the White House has said. There is no indication that additional documents have been compromised and US officials have been in communication with Israeli counterparts about the leak, a spokesperson said.Iran warned the US would bear “full responsibility” in case of a retaliatory attack by Israel on the Islamic Republic, after US president Joe Biden indicated he was aware of Israeli plans to do so. Amir Saeid Iravani, Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, called Biden’s remarks “profoundly alarming and provocative”.The UN warned Monday that almost no aid is entering the besieged Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, where a two-week Israeli military campaign has killed hundreds of people and left thousands trapped.The heads of the United Nations World Food Programme and UN children’s agency Unicef, Catherine Russell and Cindy McCain, have privately appealed to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu for help “alleviating the suffering of countless civilians” in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon, according to a new letter.Up to 1,000 women and children needing medical care will shortly be evacuated from Gaza to Europe, the head of the World Health Organization’s Europe branch said. Israel, which is besieging the war-devastated Palestinian territory, “is committed to 1,000 more medical evacuations within the next months to the European Union,” Hans Kluge said.The US military has rushed its advanced anti-missile system to Israel and it is now “in place”, defence secretary Lloyd Austin said. THAAD, or the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, is a critical part of the US military’s layered air defence systems and adds to Israel’s already formidable anti-missile defences. Continue reading...
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