Live updates: Israel launches more strikes on Beirut amid ongoing border clashes with Hezbollah

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Syria says 206,000 Lebanese and Syrians living in Lebanon are estimated to have crossed into Syria as they flee Israeli air strikes, an increase of over 20,000 new arrivals from the previous day’s report.

People were fleeing on foot, UNHCR said, after a strike yesterday hit the main border crossing between Lebanon and Syria, destroying a section of the road and cutting off vehicle access.

The IDF says it struck the crossing because Hezbollah was using the route to bring weapons into Lebanon.

The death toll in Gaza since October 7 has risen to over 41,800 people including 23 deaths in the past 24 hours, according to local health officials. 96,900 have been wounded, and thousands remain under rubble.

The United Nations peacekeeping force said it will not leave southern Lebanon despite Israeli requests to “relocate” days before the IDF began its ground invasion.

“On September 30, the IDF [Israeli military] notified UNIFIL of their intention to undertake limited ground incursions into Lebanon,” the UN Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said in a statement.

“They also requested we relocate from some of our positions,” it added, going ton to say that “peacekeepers remain in all positions and the UN flag continues to fly.”

Cities all throughout southern Lebanon will pay an enormous price as Israel and Hezbollah embark on a ground war in the south. The city of Tyre has been almost entirely evacuated, and Israel issues more evacuation orders.

The IDF says it is trying to create a buffer zone in southern Lebanon free of Hezbollah. The group has been battered and hit, but Hezbollah remains in tact. Every day, we’ve been hearing and seeing outgoing Hezbollah fire.

The expectation is that Israel will suffer more casualties and Hezbollah will suffer more casualties.

China, Japan and South Korea have evacuated their citizens, as Israel intensifies its air and ground offensive in Lebanon.

South Korea evacuated 97 citizens by military aircraft, with some 30 South Koreans opting to stay behind.

China evacuated more than 200 citizens, while a Japanese transport plane carrying 11 Japanese and four French nationals from Lebanon landed in Jordan yesterday.

The United Kingdom has chartered a fourth and final flight to leave Lebanon on Sunday, urging any remaining British nationals who want to leave to register immediately.

Governments around the world have advised their citizens leave Lebanon immediately, but thousands have been stranded as the majority of airlines have stopped flights to and from the country.

Republican candidate Donald Trump said yesterday that Israel should strike Iran’s nuclear facilities in retaliation to for the Iran’s recent retaliatory missile barrage on Israel.

President Joe Biden has urged proportionality as Israel weights up its response, saying earlier this week that the U.S. would not support an Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear sites. But Trump mocked the President’s remarks at a campaign event in North Carolina yesterday.

“That’s the thing you want to hit,” Trump said. “Isn’t that what you’re supposed to hit? I mean, it’s the biggest risk we have, nuclear weapons.”

A hospital in southern Lebanon says nine medical and nursing staff were injured, “most of them seriously,” during a “barbaric” Israeli strike yesterday after receiving a warning to evacuate.

A statement issued by Martyr Salah Ghandour Hospital said the hospital evacuated most of its personnel after the attack, but for a number of workers stayed behind to protect the hospital’s property.

The IDF said that the Israeli Air Force struck a Hezbollah command center inside a mosque adjacent to the hospital. It said Hezbollah was using the hospital for military activity, and that notices were sent to residents before the strike.

The IDF has also said that Hezbollah uses ambulances belonging to the Islamic Health Authority for “terrorist purposes.”

A leader of Hamas’ military wing was killed by Israeli strikes in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, Hamas’ Al-Qassem Brigades said in a statement today.

Saeed Atallah Ali was killed with his wife and two daughters during an attack on an apartment in Tripoli’s Beddawi camp.

Dozens of additional fighter jets have been deployed across the Middle East amid Israel’s intensified attacks against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Earlier this week, President Joe Biden also sent thousands of troops to the Middle East to bolster security for troops already in the region, according to the U.S. Department of Defense.

These additional resources would enable the U.S. to assist Israel in its expected retaliatory attack against Iran by providing aircraft or intelligence.

At the White House press briefing, President Biden was asked if he thought Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu was trying to influence the U.S. presidential election by saying he would not sign any diplomatic agreement for peace with Hamas before the election. Biden responded citing how much his administration has aided Israel and that Netanyahu should remember that.

The Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned Israel’s bombing of the Masnaa border crossing between Lebanon and Syria today.

The attack cut off access to the border crossing, which is “the vital artery used by hundreds of thousands of displaced Lebanese and Syrian citizens” attempting to leave Lebanon amid Israeli airstrikes, the ministry said in a statement on Facebook.

“Syria condemns this unbridled Zionist crime that has even begun to affect civil defense crews and humanitarian relief workers, and we call for working to stop it immediately and to ensure that this entity is held accountable for its crimes and that it does not escape punishment,” the ministry said.

The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that it targeted the Lebanon-Syria border because of an underground tunnel allegedly used to smuggle weapons into Lebanon for Hezbollah.