Israel-Hezbollah conflict live updates: Nearly 500 dead in Israel’s biggest airstrike on Lebanon since Gaza war

Lebanon’s health ministry said six people were killed and 15 injured Tuesday in an Israeli strike on Hezbollah’s southern Beirut stronghold, a day after hitting the same area.

The “Israeli enemy raid on Ghobeiri in Beirut’s southern suburbs killed six people and injured 15,” Lebanon’s health ministry said in a statement. Hezbollah-affiliated rescuers had earlier reported three dead in the attack. (AFP)

Israel’s ports in the northern city of Haifa were operating at normal capacity despite an escalation in fighting with Hezbollah in nearby Lebanon and the city being targeted by rocket fire, Israeli authorities said on Tuesday.

Haifa is Israel’s third largest city and handles much of the country’s vital seaborne trade. On Monday, sirens sounded across the city for the first time after months of border-area conflict and the military’s defence systems fired interceptors at Hezbollah rockets above the Haifa bay. No damage was caused. (Reuters)

Some 500 people have crossed from Lebanon to war-torn Syria, a Syrian security official told AFP Tuesday, fleeing the deadliest Israeli bombardment since Hezbollah and Israel fought a devastating war in 2006.

“Around 500 people crossed the border through the Qusayr and Dabousiya crossings between 4 pm (1300 GMT) and midnight,” Monday, the security official told AFP, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. “Vehicles were still crossing in the early hours of the morning,” he added. (AFP)

Israel announced dozens of new air strikes on Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon Tuesday, a day after 558 people, including 50 children, were killed in the deadliest bombardment since a devastating war in 2006.

Israel’s overnight strikes on southern Lebanon came after it said it had killed a “large number” of militants when it hit about 1,600 suspected Hezbollah targets around the country. (AFP)

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said Tuesday that its ally Hezbollah “cannot stand alone” against Israel which carried out its deadliest day of air strikes on Lebanon since 2006.

“Hebzollah cannot stand alone against a country that is being defended and supported and supplied by Western countries, by European countries and the United States,” Pezeshkian said in an interview with CNN translated from Farsi to English. (AFP)

The Kremlin warned on Tuesday that Israeli strikes on Lebanon had the potential to completely destabilise the Middle East and widen the conflict there.

Israel struck Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon and the Iran-backed group attacked military facilities in northern Israel on Tuesday, increasing fears of a full-blown conflict after Lebanon suffered its deadliest day in decades. (Reuters)

The United Nations said Tuesday that tens of thousands of people had fled their homes in Lebanon since Monday, amid Israeli strikes.

“We are gravely concerned about the serious escalation in the attacks that we saw yesterday,” UN refugee agency spokesman Matthew Saltmarsh told reporters in Geneva.

“Tens of thousands of people were forced from their homes yesterday and overnight, and the numbers continue to grow,” he said. (AFP)

The Israeli military said on Tuesday it carried out more air strikes on Hezbollah weapons facilities and warehouses as it bombarded southern Lebanon.

“Over the past few hours, the IAF struck Hezbollah terror targets in southern Lebanon including launchers, terrorist infrastructure sites and buildings in which weapons were stored,” the military said in a statement, referring to the Israeli air force.

Israel-Hezbollah conflict live updates: China’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday that it was “deeply shocked” by Israel’s air strikes on Hezbollah’s strongholds in Lebanon after 492 people were killed in a deadly airstrike.

Israel-Hezbollah conflict live updates: More than 30 flights to and from Beirut on Tuesday have been cancelled, according to the Rafic Hariri International Airport’s website.

The site showed that 15 outgoing flights and 29 incoming flights from a variety of airlines, including Qatar Airways, various airlines from the United Arab Emirates and Turkish Airways were cancelled.

Etihad Airways in a statement said flights have been cancelled due to “ongoing regional developments”.

Israel-Hezbollah conflict live updates: Oil prices rose on Tuesday on news of monetary stimulus from top importer China and concerns that tensions in the Middle East could hit regional supply, while a major hurricane loomed over the United States, the world’s biggest crude producer. Read more

Israel-Hezbollah conflict live updates: The Lebanese minister Nasser Yassin, coordinating the crisis response, told Reuters that 89 temporary shelters in schools and other facilities had been set up, with the capacity for more than 26,000 people as civilians have fled what he called “Israeli atrocities”.

Israel-Hezbollah conflict live updates: Militant group Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV reported that the group has attacked an explosive factory 60 km inside Israel with “Fadi 2” rockets.

Israel-Hezbollah conflict live updates: “Overnight …the IAF (air force) struck dozens of Hezbollah targets in numerous areas in southern Lebanon,” the military said in a statement, adding that its artillery and tanks struck additional “terrorist targets” in the area of Ayta al-Shab and Ramyeh. (AFP)

Israel-Hezbollah conflict live updates: Speaking on the plans ahead, an Israeli military official said the country is focused on an aerial campaign to degrade Hezbollah’s military capabilities, suggesting a major ground invasion was not imminent.

But a senior US official, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity, said it’s important to take seriously Israel’s preparations for an invasion and that the US is focused on breaking the escalatory cycle.

Israel-Hezbollah conflict live updates: China’s top diplomat Wang Yi expressed support for Lebanon and condemned what he termed “indiscriminate attacks against civilians”.

“We pay close attention to developments in the region, especially the recent explosion of communications equipment in Lebanon, and firmly oppose indiscriminate attacks against civilians,” he said in a meeting with his Lebanese counterpart in New York.

Israel-Hezbollah conflict live updates: As the escalating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah grabs global attention, Palestinians in Gaza wonder on their plight after nearly a year of devastating war. They are petrified that international concern has been diverted, and that a dark possibility of abandonment looms.

Israel-Hezbollah conflict live updates: Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Monday marked a “significant peak” in the nearly year-long conflict.

“On this day we have taken out of order tens of thousands of rockets and precise munition. What Hezbollah has built over a period of 20 years since the second Lebanon War is in fact being destroyed by the IDF,” he said in a statement, referring to the Israel Defence Forces.

Israel-Hezbollah conflict live updates: Families from south Lebanon continued to flee in loaded vehicles with belongings. As bombs rained down, children crammed onto parents’ laps and suitcases were tied to car roofs, reported Reuters. Highways leading to the country’s north continue to remain gridlocked.

Israel-Hezbollah conflict live updates: A shocking video shows a journalist getting thrown off balance as he was on air broadcasting from his home in Lebanon’s Baalbek. The journalist in the video has been identified as Fadi Boudiya, the editor-in-chief of the Miraya International Network. He has been reportedly injured after the impact. Watch here

Israel-Hezbollah conflict live updates: The United States said it was going to discuss “concrete ideas” with allies and partners to prevent the war from broadening. President Biden said that the US was trying to calm the situation in Lebanon.

Israel-Hezbollah conflict live updates: Foreign ministers of the G7 grouping warned on Monday that actions and counteractions in the Middle East risks the escalation of an all-out war from which no country would gain anything.

“Actions and counter-reactions risk magnifying this dangerous spiral of violence and dragging the entire Middle East into a broader regional conflict with unimaginable consequences,” the G7 said in a statement after meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

Israel-Hezbollah conflict live updates: EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said the clashes threaten to push the region into an “all-out war”. “I can say we are almost in a full-fledged war. We’re seeing more military strikes, more damage, more collateral damage, more victims,” Borrell said ahead of a gathering of world leaders at the UN.

Israel-Hezbollah conflict live updates: United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he is “gravely alarmed by the escalating situation” in Lebanon. He expressed alarm on both Israel’s bombing campaign and Hezbollah’s continued strikes into Israel. “All efforts must be devoted to a diplomatic solution,” he said.

Israel-Hezbollah conflict live updates: Iran President Masoud Pezeshkian warned of “irreversible consequences and accused Israel of wanting to drag the entire Middle East into a full-blown war. “We do not wish to be the cause of instability in the Middle East as its consequences would be irreversible,” he said.