Photo : Travelers rush to leave Beirut as tensions in the region escalate
Beirut airport Sunday saw long queues of travelers looking to leave Lebanon after France, the US and the UK issued warnings to their citizens amid soaring regional tensions. Earlier, Hezbollah said it launched dozens of Katyusha rockets at Israel overnight while Yemen’s Houthi rebels struck a Liberian-flagged container ship in the Gulf of Aden.
Here is a summary of current events
Travellers waited in queues at Beirut airport Sunday after France joined the US, UK and other nations to call on its citizens to leave Lebanon “as soon as possible” amid escalating tensions and fears of a broader regional conflict.
Hezbollah said overnight it had launched dozens of Katyusha rockets at Israel, the latest in a series of attacks it says is in support of the Palestinian people.
Two people were killed and three other people seriously wounded in a stabbing attack in a Tel Aviv suburb, Israel‘s emergency medical service said, with police reporting a Palestinian suspect was “neutralised”.
Israeli strikes killed 18 people in Gaza, including four who were sheltering in a tent camp for displaced people.
At least 39,583 Palestinians have been killed and 91,398 injured in Israel‘s war in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run enclave.
The Hamas-led October 7 attacks resulted in the deaths of 1,139 people, according to official Israeli figures. Some 250 people were taken hostage, with about 120 remaining in Gaza. Many have been declared dead by Israeli authorities.
Hezbollah said it launched a drone attack early Monday on northern Israel that the Israeli military said wounded two Israeli troops. The violence came amid fears of an all-out regional war following the killings last week of a senior Hezbollah commander in Lebanon and Hamas’ top political leader in Iran.
The Iranian-backed Hezbollah said it targeted a military base in northern Israel in response to “attacks and assassinations” by Israel in several villages in southern Lebanon. The attack did not appear to be the more intense retaliation that’s expected from Iran and its allied militias.
Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged near-daily strikes for the past 10 months during the war in Gaza. But last week’s assassinations of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran’s capital and Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukur in Beirut sent regional tensions soaring.
The head of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard threatened Israel on Monday over the assassination of Haniyeh, warning that Israel was “digging its own grave” with its actions against Hamas.
Iran’s state news agency says the secretary of Russia’s Security Council, Sergei Shoigu, has arrived in Tehran for talks on bilateral and international issues.
A U.S. defense official says the head of the U.S. Central Command, Gen. Eric Kurilla, is in the Middle East region
Israel’s defense minister says the military is prepared for a “swift transition to offense” as the country braces for an Iranian attack after the killing of Hamas’ political leader in Tehran.
Palestinian officials say an Israeli airstrike has killed five members of Gaza’s Hamas-run police force who were securing an aid convoy. Another two policemen were wounded in Monday’s strike, according to records at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central town of Deir al-Balah, where the casualties were taken.
A Palestinian official says Israel has returned more than 80 bodies to the Gaza Strip. The identities of the deceased and the cause of death were not immediately known. Over the course of its nearly 10-month offensive in Gaza, the military has exhumed remains as it searches for the bodies of hostages taken in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, which ignited the war.
The head of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard threatened Israel on Monday after the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. Gen. Hossein Salami, speaking to journalists at an event, warned that Israel was “digging its own grave” with its actions in its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and that it is suspected of carrying out Haniyeh’s killing.
AFP/ France 24/ AP
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.