Israeli warplanes target Lebanon as Iran and Hezbollah threaten retaliation for deadly blasts – live

The UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, has called for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

Lammy, speaking to Reuters on Thursday after meeting his French, US and Italian counterparts for talks in Paris, said:

We are all very, very clear that we want to see a negotiated political settlement so that Israelis can return to their homes in northern Israel and indeed Lebanese to return to their homes.

As we reported earlier, Lammy has urged British nationals in Lebanon to leave the country “while commercial options remain”, warning that “tensions are high and the situation could deteriorate rapidly”.

Here’s more from the US state department’s briefing on Thursday, in which its spokesperson said Washington was still working for a normalisation deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

On Wednesday, the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, said the kingdom would not recognise Israel without a Palestinian state. He said:

The kingdom will not stop its tireless work towards the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, and we affirm that the kingdom will not establish diplomatic relations with Israel without that.

US state department spokesperson Matthew Miller played down the remarks, noting that Saudi Arabia has long made clear it wants a two-state solution and a ceasefire in Gaza.

“Every day that goes by, it gets tougher to accomplish anything. That’s just a temporal fact,” Miller told reporters.

We continue to believe, however, that long term, of course, normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel is in the interests of both countries” and the region.

“We are obviously quite aware of the challenges that we face in getting to those [goals] now. The fighting in Gaza continues to wage on. We continue to work to get a ceasefire,” he added.

The UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, has called for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

Lammy, speaking to Reuters on Thursday after meeting his French, US and Italian counterparts for talks in Paris, said:

We are all very, very clear that we want to see a negotiated political settlement so that Israelis can return to their homes in northern Israel and indeed Lebanese to return to their homes.

As we reported earlier, Lammy has urged British nationals in Lebanon to leave the country “while commercial options remain”, warning that “tensions are high and the situation could deteriorate rapidly”.

Delta Air Lines announced it would pause its flights between New York and Tel Aviv through 31 December, citing the “ongoing conflict in the region”.

The Lebanese mission to the UN said a preliminary investigation into the communications devices that exploded in Lebanon this week found that they were implanted with explosives before arriving into the country, according to a letter seen by Reuters.

Lebanese authorities determined that the devices, which included pagers and walkie-talkies, were detonated by sending electronic messages to the devices, according to the letter sent to the UN’s security council.

The letter claims Israel was responsible for the planning and execution of the attacks, according to Reuters. Israel has not directly commented on the attacks.

The UN’s security council is scheduled to meet on Friday over the blasts in Lebanon that killed at least 37 people and wounded thousands across the country.

The US state department also held a briefing on Thursday to discuss the latest developments in the Middle East following the wave of explosions targeting devices in Lebanon.

US state department spokesperson Matthew Miller referred to remarks made earlier today by the head of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, who vowed to keep fighting Israel “until the aggression on Gaza stops”. Miller said:

Nasrallah could stop the terrorist attacks across Israel, and I guarantee you, if he did that, we would be impressing upon Israel the need to maintain calm on their end. Bottom line is, he hasn’t stopped those terrorist attacks.

“So as long as Hezbollah is launching terrorist attacks across the border, of course Israel is going to launch military action to defend itself, as any country would,” he said. However, he added:

We will continue to stand by Israel’s right to defend itself, but we don’t want to see any party escalate this conflict, period.

Miller acknowledged the limits of US diplomacy, adding: “Ultimately every country is responsible … for the actions that they take.”

White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said the US would continue to work on a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, which she said would help with “lowering the temperature” in the region.

“We are working around the clock” along with Egypt and Qatar to reach a diplomatic resolution in the region, she said.

The US believes that a diplomatic solution in the Middle East is “achievable” and “urgent”, the White House has said.

The White House’s spokesperson, Karine Jean-Pierre, said on Thursday that the US’s commitment to Israel’s security against “all Iran-backed threats, including Hezbollah” was “unwavering”.

She told reporters that the US will “continue to have those diplomatic conversations”, adding:

The conflict along the blue line has gone on for far too long, and it needs to get to a resolution quickly.

“We still believe a diplomatic resolution is the way forward here. We still believe that it is possible,” she added.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, said Israeli fighter jets are flying over south-western Syria.

A meticulous manufacturing operation, probably controlled by an Israeli front company, is emerging as the most likely way thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies containing hidden explosives ended up in the hands of Hezbollah operatives this week.

Experts said the sabotaged devices appeared to use small amounts of military-grade plastic explosives that could be carefully assembled only over a period of time, amid reports that they were manufactured by an Israeli front company with links to Europe.

“It looks like what was used was a high-grade plastic military explosive,” said Trevor Lawrence, the head of Cranfield University’s Ordnance Test and Evaluation Centre, which tests bombs on Britain’s Salisbury Plain. “You only need around 5g, but it is a complex job to insert them into the pagers and ensure they still worked.”

Military plastic explosives are not commercially available, but are able to kill and cause significant injuries if they are close to a person, particularly their head and torso, Lawrence said. This tallies with the injuries caused in Lebanon this week. “Causing injury with explosives is all about proximity,” he added.

Read the full story: Israeli front-controlled manufacturing process likeliest explanation for attacks on Hezbollah

Israel carried out dozens of strikes on Thursday across southern Lebanon, Reuters is reporting, citing Lebanese security sources.

According to the sources, the strikes marked some of the most intense bombing since the start of the war in October.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it hit about 30 Hezbollah rocket launchers along with other “infrastructure” in airstrikes carried out in Lebanon on Thursday. An IDF statement reads:

With the direction of IDF (military) intelligence, the IAF (air force) struck approximately 30 Hezbollah launchers and terrorist infrastructure sites, containing approximately 150 launcher barrels that were ready to fire projectiles toward Israeli territory.

 

Updated: September 19, 2024 — 4:58 pm

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