The Israeli military said on Saturday that special forces were carrying out ground raids against Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon, destroying missiles, launchpads, watchtowers and weapons storage facilities
Updated – October 05, 2024 08:08 pm IST
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has killed at least 41,431 Palestinians, the majority of them civilians, according to figures provided by the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. | Photo Credit: AFP
Hezbollah said on Saturday (October 5, 2024) its fighters were confronting Israeli troops in Lebanon’s southern border region, where the Israeli military said it struck militants from the Iran-backed movement at a mosque.
The Salah Ghandour Hospital, which is run by the Hezbollah-affiliated Islamic Health Committee, said nine of its medical and nursing staff were wounded by heavy strikes, most of them seriously, after it received an Israeli warning to evacuate.
Also Read Editorial: Inflection point: On the escalation in the multi-party West Asia conflict
Iran’s oil minister Mohsen Paknejad said on Saturday that he was “not worried” about the escalating conflict in the region amid reports that Israel would strike Iran, the Ministry’s Shana news site said. Mr. Paknejad’s comments were made during a visit to Assaluyeh, the energy capital of Iran.
Also Read: Top 10 key developments since the October 7 attacks on Israel
The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Saturday (October 5, 2024) that at least 41,825 people have been killed in almost a year of war between Israel and Palestinian militants.
The toll includes 23 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the Ministry, which said 96,910 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7.
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October 05, 2024 20:07
Australia starts evacuating nationals from Lebanon via Cyprus
Australia started evacuating its nationals from Lebanon via Cyprus, in the first large-scale operation to get citizens out of the country.
Some 229 people arrived on the east Mediterranean island, which lies a 40-minute flight time from Beirut, on a commercial airline chartered by Australia. A second flight is scheduled later. More evacuation flights could be expected based on demand, Australian and Cypriot officials said.
At Cyprus’s Larnaca airport, civilians of all ages transferred from the aircraft into a terminal and then escorted onto waiting coaches. Children helped themselves to red apples and water provided by Australian military staff.
Cyprus had been used to evacuate close to 60,000 people from Lebanon in the last serious escalation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006. Some of those evacuated today said they did not think they would ever return to Lebanon.
– AP
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October 05, 2024 19:55
IDF says it targets command headquarters and structures of the Hezbollah Intelligence Branch in Beirut
The Israel Defence Force (IDF) spokesperson Avichay Adraee announced on his official X handle that IDF continues the attack on Lebanon.
It said on the post that IDF it is targeting command headquarters and structures of the Hezbollah Intelligence Branch in Beirut.
“A short while ago, Air Force warplanes carried out precise raids on additional command headquarters and terrorist structures of Hezbollah’s intelligence wing in the Beirut area,” he said in the post.
“Prior to the raids, steps were taken to reduce the likelihood of harm to civilians, including the use of precision munitions, evacuation orders, and aerial reconnaissance,” the post further said.
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October 05, 2024 19:47
Iranian envoy Iraj Elahi says India can play constructive role, convince Israel to stop genocide in Gaza
Iranian ambassador to India, Iraj Elahi, said today that New Delhi can play a constructive role in the peace process and can convince Israel to stop genocide in Gaza.
“We believe that India can play a constructive role despite India has good relations with Israel, so it can convince Israel to stop genocide in Gaza, to stop escalation in the region,” Mr. Ilahi told ANI. The Iranian envoy also mentioned that India is an emerging and big power that has big responsibility on its shoulders.
“India is founder of NAM. India claims autonomous Strategy And recently India raised the flag of voice of the south So, this puts some responsibility on the shoulder of India,” he added.
– ANI
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October 05, 2024 19:40
‘We had no choice but to defend and deter Israel,’ Iranian envoy on ballistic missile attack
Iran’s Ambassador to India, Iraj Elahi, has described Iran’s ballistic missile attack on Israel “retaliation” and stressed that former Tehran had no option other than to defend and deter Tel Aviv from repeating such a crime.
In an interview with ANI, Elahi said that the genocide in Gaza has been going on and Western nations are silent and are making no effort to stop the crimes of Israel in the region.
When asked what prompted Iran’s ballistic missile attack on Israel, he said, “Just retaliation, just one thing retaliation. Israel has assassinated leader of Hamas inside Tehran, capital of Iran, and it violated Iranian sovereignty. So, we had no choice just to defend and deter Israel from repeating such a crime.”
Iran launched approximately 200 ballistic missiles at targets in Israel on October 1.
– ANI
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October 05, 2024 19:16
Two senior members of Hamas’ military wing in Lebanon eliminated
Israeli Army eliminated two senior members of Hamas’ military wing, according to a post on social media platform X by the Israeli Defence Force.
Muhammad Hussein Ali al-Mahmoud and Said Alaa Naif Ali are the members who were killed, according to the post.
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October 05, 2024 18:46
Macron urges halt to arms deliveries to Israel for use in Gaza
French President Emmanuel Macron today urged a halt to arms deliveries to Israel, which has been criticised over the conduct of its retaliatory operation in Gaza.
“I think that today, the priority is that we return to a political solution, that we stop delivering weapons to fight in Gaza,” Macron told broadcaster France Inter, adding that France was not sending any arms to Israel.
– AFP
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October 05, 2024 18:18
China says it evacuated 215 nationals from Lebanon
China said that it has evacuated 215 of its nationals from Lebanon on Saturday (October 5, 2024), where Israel has been carrying out intense airstrikes for more than a month, resulting in over 1,100 deaths.
“So far, 215 Chinese citizens have been safely evacuated from Lebanon in two batches under the organisation and arrangement of the Chinese Government,” Beijing’s foreign ministry said in a statement given to AFP. “The Chinese Embassy in Lebanon continues to carry out its mission in Lebanon and will continue to assist the Chinese citizens there in taking security measures,” it added.
However, the ministry did not say where the evacuated Chinese nationals had been taken.
– AFP
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October 05, 2024 18:01
Dubai’s Emirates Airlines bans pagers, walkie-talkies after Lebanon attacks
Dubai’s Emirates Airlines has banned passengers from carrying pagers and walkie-talkies on its flights, following last month’s attacks on Lebanese group Hezbollah involving communication devices that exploded.
“All passengers traveling to, from, or via Dubai are prohibited from transporting pagers and walkie-talkies in checked or cabin baggage,” the airline said in a statement on its website yesterday. It added that any prohibited items found will be confiscated by Dubai Police as part of heightened security measures.
– Reuters
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October 05, 2024 17:49
Iran’s oil minister ‘not worried about crisis’ amid Israeli threats
Mohsen Paknejad, Iran’s oil minister, said on Saturday (October 5, 2024) that he was “not worried” amid the escalating conflict in the region, the ministry’s Shana news site said, after reports that Israel may strike Iran.
“I am not worried about the crises that the enemies of the revolution are creating, and this trip is considered a normal work trip,” Mr. Paknejad was quoted by Shana as saying.
Mr. Paknejad’s comments were made during a visit to Assaluyeh, a centre for Iranian installations exploiting the world’s largest offshore gas field, which Iran shares with Qatar across the Gulf.
– Reuters
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October 05, 2024 17:44
Israel strikes hit Beirut suburbs and north Lebanon
Israel expanded its bombardment in Lebanon on Saturday (October 5, 2024), as it hit Beirut’s southern suburbs with 12 airstrikes and a Palestinian refugee camp deep in northern Lebanon for the first time.
In a statement, the Palestinian militant group said, “The attack near the northern city of Tripoli on the Beddawi refugee camp killed an official with Hamas’s military wing, along with his wife and two young daughters. Tripoli is much farther north than the majority of Israel’s strikes, which have been concentrated in southern Lebanon and Beirut.”
At least six people were killed in more than a dozen Israeli airstrikes overnight and into Saturday (October 5, 2024), according to National News Agency, Lebanon’s official news agency.
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October 05, 2024 17:38
Syrian air defences confront hostile targets: State news
According to Syria’s state news agency SANA, Syrian air defences confronted hostile targets over the city of Homs, said on Saturday (October 5, 2024).
– Reuters
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October 05, 2024 16:56
Israel military official says ‘preparing response’ to Iran attack
An Israeli official told AFP on Saturday that the military is “preparing a response” to the Iranian missile barrage that targeted Israel earlier this week.
“The IDF (Israeli military) is preparing a response to the unprecedented and unlawful Iranian attack on Israeli civilians and Israel,” the official said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak publicly on the issue. He did not elaborate on the nature or timing of the response.
– AFP
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October 05, 2024 16:44
Canadian PM urges citizens to leave Lebanon as evacuations top 1,000
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urged Canadian citizens still in Lebanon on Saturday to sign up to be evacuated on special flights which have already helped more than 1,000 leave as security there deteriorates.
Canada has 6,000 signed up to leave and officials are trying to reach another 2,500 over the weekend, an official in Trudeau’s office said, adding that more flights were being added for Monday and Tuesday.
“We’ve still got seats on airplanes organised by Canada. We encourage all Canadians to take seats on these airplanes and get out of Lebanon while they can,” Trudeau said at a summit of leaders from French-speaking countries in France.
– Reuters
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October 05, 2024 16:22
Iran’s oil minister ‘not worried about crisis’ amid Israeli threats
Iran’s oil minister Mohsen Paknejad said on Saturday that he was “not worried” about the escalating conflict in the region amid reports that Israel would strike Iran, the Ministry’s Shana news site said.
Mr. Paknejad’s comments were made during a visit to Assaluyeh, the energy capital of Iran.
– Reuters
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October 05, 2024 15:56
Hezbollah’s Safieddine ‘unreachable’ since October 4
Israeli air strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs since Friday have kept rescue workers from searching the site of an Israeli strike suspected to have killed Hezbollah’s anticipated next leader, three Lebanese security sources told Reuters on Saturday.
One of the sources said Safieddine, widely expected to succeed slain leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, had been unreachable since the strike on Friday.
– Reuters
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October 05, 2024 15:51
At least nine people killed in Israeli strikes: Palestinian medical officials
Palestinian medical officials say Israeli strikes in northern and central Gaza early Saturday have killed at least nine people, including two children.
One strike hit a group of people in the northern town of Beit Hanoun, killing at least five people, including two children, according to the Health Ministry’s Ambulance and Emergency Service.
Another strike hit a house in the northern part of Nuseirat refugee camp, killing at least four people, the Awda hospital said. The strike also left a number of wounded people, it said.
– AP
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October 05, 2024 14:13
Hezbollah battles troops on border as Israel pounds Lebanon
Hezbollah said on Saturday (October 5, 2024) its fighters were confronting Israeli troops in Lebanon’s southern border region, where the Israeli military said it struck militants from the Iran-backed movement at a mosque.
Rapidly escalating violence in recent days saw intense Israeli strikes on Hezbollah strongholds across Lebanon as ground troops conducted raids near the border, transforming nearly a year of cross-border exchanges into full-blown war.- AFP
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October 05, 2024 14:09
Hezbollah says fires rockets at north Israel air base
Hezbollah said its militants launched Fadi-1 rockets on Saturday (October 5, 2024) at Israel’s Ramat David air base near the northern city of Haifa, about 45 kilometres (30 miles) from the Lebanese border.
In a statement, the Iran-backed group also said its fighters hit an Israeli tank in south Lebanon, near the border, with a missile. – AFP
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October 05, 2024 14:06
Palestine and Lebanon have been turned to ‘places without civilians’: UN special rapporteur
Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories said that Palestine and Lebanon have a become a place “without civilians”. Condemning the indiscriminate killing of people in both the countries by Israel, she commented that even women, children, men are being treated as terrorist by Israel. She demanded an end to the atrocities on common people.
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October 05, 2024 13:46
Nine Hezbollah medical and nursing staff were wounded by heavy strikes
The Salah Ghandour Hospital, which is run by the Hezbollah-affiliated Islamic Health Committee, said nine of its medical and nursing staff were wounded by heavy strikes, most of them seriously, after it received an Israeli warning to evacuate.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported that the grounds of the hospital in the southern town of Bint Jbeil were “subjected to Israeli shelling”.
The hospital’s director Mohammed Sleiman told AFP that it took a direct hit and was evacuated.- AFP
People stand at the site hit by an Israeli strike that, according to a security source, killed Saeed Atallah, a leader in Hamas’ armed wing al-Qassam brigades, with three family members, in the northern city of Tripoli, Lebanon October 5, 2024.
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October 05, 2024 13:17
Health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says war death toll at 41,825
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Saturday (October 5, 2024) that at least 41,825 people have been killed in almost a year of war between Israel and Palestinian militants.
The toll includes 23 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry, which said 96,910 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7.- AFP
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October 05, 2024 13:12
Israel army says struck Hezbollah fighters inside south Lebanon mosque
The Israeli military said on Saturday (October 5, 2024) that its forces struck Hezbollah fighters inside a south Lebanon mosque overnight, the first such strike since clashes erupted between Israel and the militants last year.
“Overnight, with the direction of IDF (army) intelligence, the IAF (air force) struck Hezbollah terrorists who were operating within a command centre that was located inside a mosque adjacent to the Salah Ghandour Hospital in southern Lebanon,” the military said in a statement.- AFP
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October 05, 2024 12:17
UN says Lebanon peacekeepers ‘remain in all positions’ despite Israel request
The United Nations peacekeeping force it Lebanon said Saturday it would not leave positions in the country’s south despite what it said was an Israeli request to “relocate”.
“On September 30, the IDF (Israeli military) notified UNIFIL of their intention to undertake limited ground incursions into Lebanon. They also requested we relocate from some of our positions,” the UN Interim Force in Lebanon said in a statement, adding that “peacekeepers remain in all positions and the UN flag continues to fly.”- AFP
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October 05, 2024 12:13
A Hamas official is killed in an Israeli strike on a refugee camp
An Israeli strike on a refugee camp in north Lebanon has killed a Hamas official and his family, the militant group said Saturday (October 5, 2024).
Hamas said in a statement that the early Saturday strike on the Beddawi refugee camp struck the home of Saeed Atallah Ali, an official with Hamas’s military wing, the Qassam Brigades. Ali’s wife, Shaymaa Azzam, and their two daughters, Zeinab and Fatima — whom the statement described as children — were also killed in the attack.
As the Israel-Hamas war reaches the one-year mark, more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in the territory, and just over half the dead have been women and children, according to local health officials.- AP
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October 05, 2024 12:07
Biden says he doesn’t know whether Israel holding up peace deal to influence 2024 US election
President Joe Biden had terse words for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday (October 4, 2024), and said he did not know whether the Israeli leader was holding up a Mideast peace deal in order to influence the outcome of the 2024 US presidential election.
“No administration has helped Israel more than I have, none. None, none. And I think Bibi should remember that,” he said, referring to the Israeli leader by his nickname. “And whether he is trying to influence the election, I do not know but I am not counting on that.”
Mr. Biden has long pushed for a diplomatic deal, and he and his aides have indicated several times over the past few months that such an agreement was close. But it never seems to materialise, and in some cases, Mr. Netanyahu has publicly resisted the prospect while US and Israeli officials continue to talk in private about eking out a deal. – AP
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October 05, 2024 11:33
The Israeli army says its forces had hit more than 2,000 ‘military targets’ during its four-day incursion
The Israeli army on Friday (October 4, 2024) said its forces had hit more than 2,000 ‘military targets’ during its four-day incursion into southern Lebanon targeting Hezbollah positions.
Meanwhile, Lebanon Health Ministry has announced more than 2,000 people have been killed in Lebanon since the pager explosion and the barrage of airstrikes on Lebanon including the ground operation.
Smoke billows over Beirut’s southern suburbs after overnight strikes, amid ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Sin El Fil, Lebanon October 5, 2024.
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October 05, 2024 11:11
Iran says its allies ‘will not back down’ in war with Israel
Iran’s supreme leader vowed in a rare address on Friday (October 4, 2024) that his allies around the region would keep fighting Israel, as he defended his country’s missile strike on its foe.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s address in Tehran followed Iran’s second-ever direct attack on Israel. It was also the first since exchanges of fire between Tehran-backed Hezbollah fighters and Israeli troops escalated into full-blown war in Lebanon.
Read the full story
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October 05, 2024 11:04
American killed in Lebanon was a US citizen, State Dept says
An American killed in Lebanon this week was a U.S. citizen, a State Department spokesperson said on Friday (October 4, 2024), adding that Washington was working to understand the circumstances of the incident.
Kamel Ahmad Jawad, from Dearborn, Michigan, was killed in Lebanon in an Israeli airstrike on Tuesday, according to his daughter, a friend and the U.S. congresswoman representing his district.
“We are aware and alarmed of reports of the death of Kamel Jawad, who we have confirmed is a U.S. citizen,” the spokesperson said.- Reuters
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October 05, 2024 10:58
South Korea military aircraft evacuates 97 from Lebanon amid escalating tension
A South Korean military transport aircraft is evacuating 97 citizens and family members from Lebanon amid escalating tension and will return to South Korea on Saturday afternoon, the country’s foreign ministry said.
A KC-330 aircraft landed in Beirut on Friday morning and departed in the afternoon with the evacuees, who include Lebanese family members, and will arrive at a military airfield on the south of the capital, Seoul, it said.- Reuters
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October 05, 2024 10:54
Israel should ‘hit’ Iran nuclear facilities, says Donald Trump
The former president, speaking at a campaign event in North Carolina, referred to a question posed to Democratic President Joe Biden this week about the possibility of Israel targeting Iran’s nuclear program.
“They asked him, what do you think about Iran, would you hit Iran? And he goes, ‘As long as they don’t hit the nuclear stuff.’ That’s the thing you want to hit, right?” Mr. Trump told a town hall style event in Fayetteville, near a major U.S. military base.
Read the full story,
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October 05, 2024 10:41
Biden warns Israel against Iran oil strikes as war fears mount
U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday advised Israel against striking Iran’s oil facilities, saying he was trying to rally the world to avoid the escalating prospect of all-out war in the Middle East.
But his predecessor Donald Trump, currently campaigning for another term in power, went so far as to suggest Israel should “hit” the Islamic republic’s nuclear sites.
Making a surprise first appearance in the White House briefing room, Mr. Biden said that Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu “should remember” U.S. support for Israel when deciding on next steps.
“If I were in their shoes, I’d be thinking about other alternatives than striking oil fields,” Biden told reporters, when asked about his comments a day earlier that Washington was discussing the possibility of such strikes with its ally.
– AFP
Published – October 05, 2024 10:41 am IST
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