Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted Lebanese villages STR/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock/Shutterstock Israel has dubbed its large-scale strikes on Hezbollah strongholds “Operation Northern Arrows” as it continues to pound targets across Lebanon for a second day.
Lt Gen Herzi Halevi, the IDF’s chief of staff, unveiled the codename for its push to secure the northern border against Hezbollah attacks while he warned Israel was preparing for the next steps of the operation.
Last week, Israel said it was shifting the focus of its firepower from Gaza to its Lebanon front last week, calling it a “new phase” of war with the Iran-backed Lebanese militia.
Israeli strikes killed at least 492 people on Monday, the deadliest day for the country since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war, the Lebanese health ministry said.
Israel launched fresh air strikes on Tuesday prompting thousands more to flee southern Lebanon, while Hezbollah returned fire launching over 60 rockets into northern Israel.
World leaders have expressed alarm over the rapid escalation in fighting, with the EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell warning “we are almost in a full-fledged war”.
Latest updates 11:02AM
Watch: Israel strikes Hezbollah rocket launchers The Israel Defence Forces on Tuesday morning said it struck a Hezbollah cell responsible for launching rockets at the Jezreel Valley and the Afula area in northern Israel overnight.
The launchers used in the barrage were also hit, the military said in a statement.
This morning, the IDF says it struck a Hezbollah cell that had launched rockets at the Jezreel Valley and Afula area overnight.
The launchers used in the barrage were also hit, the military says.
Fighter jets also struck dozens more Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon this… pic.twitter.com/wugCkro1vl
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) September 24, 2024 10:38AM
Kremlin: Israel-Hezbollah strikes risk ‘complete destabilisation of region’ The Kremlin said on Tuesday that the escalation of the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah risks a “complete destabilisation” of the Middle East.
“It is, of course, an event that is potentially very dangerous” that threatens an expansion of the zone of the conflict and “complete destabilisation of the region,” Dmitry Peskov, Kremlin spokesman, told journalists.
10:19AM
UN: ‘Tens of thousands’ have fled strikes in Lebanon The United Nations said Tuesday that tens of thousands of people had fled their homes in Lebanon since Monday, amid Israeli strikes.
“Tens of thousands of people were forced from their homes yesterday and overnight, and the numbers continue to grow,” UN refugee agency spokesman Matthew Saltmarsh told reporters in Geneva, adding that “the toll on civilians is unacceptable”.
9:29AM
Pat McFadden says UK is ‘behind Israel’ Pat McFadden, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, said the the British government is “behind Israel being able to get its citizens back home” following the deadly cross-border attacks between Israel and Lebanon.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he said ensuring Israel’s northern border is “what this is all about. For almost a year, there have been 60,000 Israelis who have not been able to live in Israel.”
“We also want people to be able to live at peace in Lebanon without this two-way threat of shells,” he added.
The MP for Wolverhampton South East called the events a “major escalation” in the conflict in the Middle East and repeated calls for all British citizens to leave Lebanon while commercial flights are still available.
“You cannot guarantee that this remains in the sort of semi-controlled way that it is right now,” he added.
9:11AM
BA cancels flights to Tel Aviv British Airways has cancelled flights to Tel Aviv up to and including Wednesday.
“Safety is always our top priority, and we’re contacting customers to advise them of their travel options,” BA said in a statement.
Wizz Air and Azerbaijan Airlines earlier cancelled flights to and from Tel Aviv.
Many carriers have also cancelled flights to and from Beirut in the wake of the sharp escalation in violence between Israel and Lebanon.
8:55AM
‘Operation Northern Arrows’ IDF is now referring to its attacks against Hezbollah as “Operation Northern Arrows”, presumably a metaphor for the defence of Israel’s northern border.
Israel traditionally names both smaller and larger operations against its enemies. The naming of the operation against Hezbollah marks yet a new development in what can now be referred to be as a war.
8:43AM
Watch: Moment Hezbollah rocket hits highway in northern Israel Dashcam footage shows the moment a Hezbollah rocket hit a highway between Tamra and Kabul in northern Israel on Tuesday morning.
There are currently no reported injuries from the strike.
8:32AM
Border towns in northern Israel come under heavy rocket fire The Israeli military said more than 50 rockets were fired from Lebanon into northern Israel on Tuesday morning after it pounded Hezbollah targets with new strikes.
“The majority of the projectiles were intercepted,” it said in a statement.
A number of rockets targeted the town of Kiryat Shmona and hit a munitions warehouse, while sirens rang out across other border towns, acording to Israeli media reports. Afula, Nazareth and surrounding communities were also attacked this morning.
There are no current reports of injuries.
8:22AM
Watch: Thousands flee southern Lebanon in search of safety
8:04AM
‘We fled in 2006 and we are refugees again’ Having lived through the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah which laid waste to swathes of southern Lebanon, many civilians did not have to be told to flee twice.
“We have lived through this before,” said one woman, who identified herself only as Najat, after she fled the southern city of Tyre with her family.
“We fled in 2006 and we are refugees again — but this time the situation was worse. Tyre was hit more times today than in the whole of that war.”
Until now both Israel and Hezbollah have sought to avoid being drawn into a repeat of the 34-day war of 2006 in which the two sides fought each other to a bloody and inconclusive standstill in the mountains of southern Lebanon.
So far, although a full air offensive seems to be underway, Israel has not yet shown any appetite for a ground invasion of southern Lebanon. Such a move would be risky for an exhausted army stretched thin by continuing war in Gaza and operations in the occupied West Bank.
Read more here.
Smoke billows over southern Lebanon following Israeli strikes early on Tuesday Reuters 7:49AM
Hezbollah fires ‘Fadi 2’ rockets overnight at Israeli explosives factory Hezbollah early on Tuesday morning said it had launched several attacks on Israeli military targets, including an explosives factory 37 miles into Israel, with the “Fadi” series of rockets.
It said it attacked the explosives factory around 4am local time (2am BST) and the Megiddo airfield three separate times overnight.
The Iran-backed armed group began using Fadi1 and Fadi-2 long-range artillery rockets on Sunday.
7:38AM
Watch: Israel strikes Beirut as Netanyahu tells civilians to ‘get out the way’ 7:24AM
Israel hits further Hezbollah targets overnight The Israeli military said Tuesday it hit dozens of Hezbollah targets in several areas of southern Lebanon overnight.
“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.
6:30AM
US opposes Israeli ground invasion of Lebanon The US does not support the escalation between Israel and Hezbollah across the border of Lebanon, nor would it support a ground invasion, a senior State Department official said.
The official added that Washington was going to discuss “concrete ideas” with allies and partners to prevent the war from broadening.
“We obviously do not believe that a ground invasion of Lebanon is going to contribute to reducing tensions in the region,” the spokesman said.
6:20AM
David Lammy ‘deeply alarmed’ by escalation Deeply alarmed by rockets and air strikes in Lebanon and Israel and resulting civilian casualties. Further escalation risks even more devastating consequences.
I repeat my call for an immediate ceasefire on both sides, which I will emphasise when I meet G7 ministers tonight.
— David Lammy (@DavidLammy) September 23, 2024 6:08AM
‘No country stands to gain’ from Middle East escalation G7 nations have warned that “no country stands to gain from a further escalation in the Middle East”, as world leaders gathered in New York for the annual UN General Assembly on Monday.
“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,” a statement from the G7 foreign ministers said, calling for “a stop to the current destructive cycle”.
5:58AM
Thousands flee southern Lebanon Thousands of Lebanese are heeding Benjamin Netanyahu’s warning and fleeing the south of Lebanon.
The main highway out of the southern port city of Sidon was jammed with cars heading towards Beirut on Monday night, in the biggest exodus since 2006.
Traffic clogged up streets in the Lebanese city of Sidon on Monday as residents left in droves AFP Shutterstock 5:40AM
Hamas field commander killed in Israeli strike Hamas field commander Mahmoud al Nader has been killed in an Israeli air strike in southern Lebanon, Hamas’ armed wing said.
Israel said it killed a “large number” of Hezbollah militants when it hit about 1,600 sites in southern and eastern Lebanon on Monday, including a “targeted strike” in Beirut in what the Israeli military called “Operation Northern Arrows”.
Hezbollah said Ali Karake, its third-in-command, was alive and had moved to safety after a source said the strike on the capital targeted him.
The group also launched “volleys” of missiles at Israeli military sites early on Tuesday.
5:35AM
Israeli strikes on Lebanon kill 492 people – Lebanon The death toll from Israel’s strikes on Lebanon has risen to 492 people, including 35 children and 58 women, according to the Lebanese health ministry.
The staggering figure marks the strikes as the deadliest since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war. It is not clear if it includes Hezbollah fighters in the figure.
Some 1,645 people were wounded in Monday’s strikes.
5:27AM
Welcome to our live coverage We will be bringing you the latest on the conflict in the Middle East today following the sharp escalation in violence between Hezbollah and Israel.