Israel foils Lebanon missile attack, airstrikes on Hezbollah kill over 550
Israeli air defence systems intercepted a missile launched from Lebanon on Wednesday, following sirens in Tel Aviv, the nation’s economic centre, according to the Israeli military.
No casualties or damage were reported, and no changes to civil defence instructions were required, news agency Reuters reported while citing officials.bThousands of people fled southern Lebanon as Israel intensified strikes against the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant organisation, resulting in 558 deaths, according to Lebanon’s health minister, CNN reported.
Amid two days of intense Israeli attacks, panic-stricken civilians continued to flee southern Lebanon, crowding main roads and gas stations en route to the capital. United Nations (UN) and Lebanese officials on Tuesday stated that 27,000 displaced individuals had been settled in temporary shelters, while many others were forced to sleep in cars, parks, and along the beach.
An Israeli airstrike in Beirut on Tuesday killed a senior Hezbollah commander, Ibrahim Qubaisi, heightening fears of a full-scale war in the region as cross-border rocket attacks surged between both sides. Israel stated that Qubaisi headed the group’s missile and rocket brigade.
Israel’s airstrikes since Monday morning have killed 569 people, including 50 children, and injured 1,835 in Lebanon, said Health Minister Firass Abiad, news agency Reuters reported. The current death toll has surpassed that of the 2020 explosion at the Port of Beirut, which claimed nearly 200 lives, injured thousands, and devastated entire neighbourhoods in the Lebanese capital.
Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib stated that he was disappointed by US President Joe Biden’s final address at the UN General Assembly. However, he asserted that the United States is the only country that “can really make a difference in the Middle East and with regard to Lebanon.”
Speaking at an event in New York City hosted by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, he emphasised that the United States “is the key … to our salvation.” In his final address as US President before the United Nations General Assembly, Joe Biden called for peace in the Middle East, adding that full-scale war is not in anyone’s interest.
Hezbollah on Tuesday stated that it struck a naval base on Israel’s northern Mediterranean coast that houses an elite Israeli naval commando unit.
The Shayetet 13 unit that operates out of the Atlit naval base carries out “strategic sabotage activity across enemy lines, including damaging vital structures during wartime and the enemy’s seaports,” CNN reported while citing the Israeli military.
The British government is advising its citizens to leave Lebanon immediately while moving approximately 700 troops to Cyprus to strengthen its military presence in the Middle East. According to a statement from the UK government on Tuesday, the troops are expected to arrive “in the coming hours,” CNN reported.