Middle East crisis live: IDF sends more troops to Lebanon following Iranian missile attack on Israel

Joe Biden, the US president, has said he does not support an attack on Iran’s nuclear sites as Israel vowed to respond to Iran’s missile attack on Tuesday.

“The answer is no,” he said in response to the question.

We’ll be discussing with the Israelis what they’re going to do, but all seven of us [G7 nations] agree that they have a right to respond but they should respond proportionally.

Biden also told reporters that there would be more sanctions imposed on Iran and said he would speak “relatively soon” with the Israeli leader, Benjamin Netanyahu.

Here’s the clip:

Iran’s ambassador to the UN, Amir Saied Iravani, said Tuesday’s missile attacks against Israel were a “proportionate response to Israel’s continued terrorist aggressive acts over the past two months” that was “necessary to restore balance and deterrence”.

The strikes on Tuesday were in full accordance with Tehran’s “inherent right to self-defence under Article 51 of the UN Charter and a direct response to the regime’s repeated acts of aggression against Iran, including the violation of Iran’s sovereignty and territorial integrity during the past months”, the UN reported him saying.

“Experience has proven that Israel only understands the language of force,” he told the council, adding that “diplomacy has repeatedly failed as Israel views restraint not as a gesture of goodwill, but as a weakness to exploit”. He added:

Iran is fully prepared to take further defensive measures, if necessary, to protect its legitimate interests and defend its territorial integrity and sovereignty against any acts of military aggression and the illegal use of force.

He further condemned the “US regime” for their aim to “embolden Israel’s criminal actions” through their military support and political backing, thereby paralysing the security council from effective decision-making, and called on the council to act.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the UN,has urged the UN’s security council to condemn Iran’s “unprovoked” missile attack on Israel and impose “serious consequences”.

Addressing the council on Wednesday, Thomas-Greenfield described Iran’s missile attack on Israel as a “significant escalation” of tensions in the Middle East. She said:

Let me be clear: The Iranian regime will be held responsible for its actions. And we strongly warn against Iran – or its proxies – taking actions against the United States, or further actions against Israel.

She reiterated US support for Israel and blamed Iran’s support of its proxies for contributing to the crises in Gaza and Lebanon.

Hamas’s armed wing, the al-Qassam brigades, has claimed responsibility for a shooting and knife attack in Tel Aviv on Tuesday that killed at least seven people.

Several others were injured when a gunman opened fire at members of the public in the Jaffa area of the Israeli capital.

Local police said the attack began in a rail carriage and continued on the platform. The gunman and another attacker armed with a knife were “neutralised” by members of the public, it said.

In a statement on Wednesday, the al-Qassam brigadessaid it took responsibility for the operation.

Joe Biden, the US president, has said he does not support an attack on Iran’s nuclear sites as Israel vowed to respond to Iran’s missile attack on Tuesday.

“The answer is no,” he said in response to the question.

We’ll be discussing with the Israelis what they’re going to do, but all seven of us [G7 nations] agree that they have a right to respond but they should respond proportionally.

Biden also told reporters that there would be more sanctions imposed on Iran and said he would speak “relatively soon” with the Israeli leader, Benjamin Netanyahu.

Here’s the clip:

Joe Biden joined a call with G7 leaders on Wednesday to coordinate a response to Iran’s attack on Israel, according to the White House.

In a readout of the call, the White House said Biden joined the call with the G7 to discuss the Iranian attack and “to coordinate on a response to this attack, including new sanctions”. It added:

President Biden and the G7 unequivocally condemned Iran’s attack against Israel.

Biden expressed the US’s “full solidarity and support” to Israel and reaffirmed his country’s “ironclad commitment to Israel’s security”, the statement continued.

Here’s a recap of the latest developments:

Israel will respond to Iran’s missile attack and its forces can strike anywhere in the Middle East, its military chief said. “We have the capability to reach and strike every location in the Middle East and those of our enemies who have not yet understood this, will understand this soon,” Herzi Halevi, chief of the general staff,said in a video on Wednesday. “Iran made a big mistake tonight – and it will pay for it,” Benjamin Netanyahu told a meeting of his security cabinet late on Tuesday. Israel’s foreign minister Israel Katz threatened Israeli retaliation for Iran’s “brutal” missile attack.

Iran is bracing itself for likely Israeli attacks on its nuclear sites as the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, urged the west to leave the Middle East. The unprecedented Iranian salvo of more than 180 ballistic missiles came less than 24 hours after the Israeli prime minister Netanyahu ordered the largest ground incursion into southern Lebanon in a generation.

Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, made a round of diplomatic calls, insisting that Iran was not seeking escalation. Unlike Israeli attacks in Lebanon, Iran’s targets had been strictly military and not civilian, he claimed. Part of the purpose of Araghchi’s calls was to convey the limits of the Iranian operation, and to urge the US and Europe to insist in turn that Israel show restraint in its response. At a meeting of the UN security council in New York later on Wednesday Iran is expected to defend its actions in line with the UN Charter.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced that seven more of its soldiers have been killed in a series of clashes with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon on Wednesday. The commandos were all killed during a gun battle with Hezbollah operatives in a southern Lebanon village, according to a report. The deaths mark the first significant casualties taken by the IDF since Israel launched its ground incursion into Lebanon earlier this week. Earlier, the IDF said another soldier had died during the campaign, bringing the total death toll to eight.

The IDF claimed to have destroyed “over 150 terror infrastructures” which it said included “Hezbollah headquarters, weapons storage facilities and rocket launchers” inside Lebanon. Israel’s military also reported a continued barrage of projectiles fired into the country from Lebanon.

Three people have been killed in an Israeli airstrike on a neighbourhood in western Damascus on Wednesday,the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The strike was the second in as many days on the Mezzah suburb in the western part of the Syrian capital. Wednesday’s strike hit about 500 metres from Tuesday’s strike.

Israeli media reported that Israel’s military said Iran did succeed in striking Israeli airbases with missiles during yesterday’s attack, but the attack was “ineffective”. No aircraft were damaged and the Israeli air force (IAF) was able to continue to operate, it said. Impacts were said to have damaged office buildings and other maintenance areas.

António Guterres, the UN secretary-general, on Wednesday condemned Iran’s missile attack on Israel, telling the security council the “deadly cycle of tit-for-tat violence must stop”. “Time is running out,” he told the council. Earlier on Wednesday, Israel’s foreign minister said he was barring Guterres from entering the country because he had not “unequivocally” condemned Iran’s missile attack on Israel.

The US will focus its engagements with the Israelis to try to align its perspectives on any potential response to the Iranian attack on Israel, the US deputy secretary of state, Kurt Campbell, said on Wednesday. He said the Middle East region was at “a moment of peril” and “on a knife’s edge”.

John Healey, the UK defence secretary, said two RAF Typhoon jets were in the air “ready to engage” in the Middle East on Tuesday night as Iran launched a ballistic missile attack on Israel, but they had no suitable targets to hit. In a carefully worded statement on Tuesday night, Healy suggested British forces were involved in thwarting Iran’s missile attack against Israel. He also said he had spoken to his Israeli opposite number, Yoav Gallant, on Wednesday morning and had assured him “we totally condemn the Iranian missile attacks overnight, and we will stand steadfast with Israel in their right to security”.

Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip killed at least 60 Palestinians overnight, including in a school sheltering displaced families, medics in the territory said.The Hamas-led Gaza health ministry said Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed at least 41,689 Palestinians and wounded 96,625 since 7 October.

The UK’s foreign secretary, David Lammy, said on Wednesday the first charter flight taking British nationals out of Lebanon has departed. “We have arranged another flight for tomorrow, and further flights over the coming days for as long as there is demand and it is safe to do so,” he said, adding that British nationals still in Lebanon should register with the Foreign Office and leave the country immediately.

French nationals in Iran have been recommended to leave temporarily once international air traffic resumes. The French embassy in Iran said French citizens who are permanent citizens in the country or visiting Iran should leave immediately. Germany’s foreign ministry also urged its citizens to leave Iran.

Slovakia is preparing to evacuate its nationals from Lebanon, and has received permission from the Lebanese government to use a military plane for the purpose. China’s state-owned news agency Xinhua reported that over 200 Chinese nationals have been evacuated from Lebanon.

Bosnia said it had raised its security alert level for weapons and ammunition storage facilities over concerns that the escalating conflict in the Middle East could affect the Balkan country’s stability. Defence minister Zukan Helez said measures were preventive and “the security situation in our country is stable and there is no information or indication that it will be disturbed”.

Three men have been arrested on suspicion of involvement in two explosions near the Israeli embassy in Copenhagen in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Three people have been killed in an Israeli airstrike on a neighbourhood in western Damascus on Wednesday,the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The strike was the second in as many days on the Mezzah suburb in the western part of the Syrian capital. Wednesday’s strike hit about 500 metres from Tuesday’s strike, AFP reported.

At least three people were killed, two of them foreigners, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. It said:

An Israeli airstrike targeted a flat in a residential building in the Mazzeh neighbourhood frequented by Hezbollah leaders and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.

Six people were killed in the Israeli strike on Tuesday, it said. They included three civilians and three Iran-backed fighters, one of them from Hezbollah, it said.

According to the Syrian state-run Sana news agency, a military source said that “the Israeli enemy launched an airstrike … targeting one of the residential buildings in the Mezzah neighbourhood”.

Three civilians were killed and three wounded, the source said.

The US deputy secretary of state, Kurt Campbell, said the Biden administration will focus its engagements with the Israelis over the next few days to try to align its perspectives on any potential response to the Iranian attack on Israel.

Campbell described the current situation in the Middle East as “a moment of peril” at a virtual event by the Carnegie Endowment on Wednesday, Reuters reported. He said:

I think we recognise as important as a response of some kind should be, there is a recognition that the region is really on a knife’s edge, and real concerns about an even broader escalation or a continuing one.

France’s embassy in Iran recommended on Wednesday that French nationals who are permanent residents in the country should leave temporarily once international air traffic resumes, because of heightened tensions in the Middle East.

The message from the embassy, which also urged French nationals visiting Iran to leave immediately, is similar to messages given earlier this year when tensions increased between Iran and Israel.

John Healey, the UK defence secretary, said that two RAF Typhoon jets were in the air “ready to engage” in the Middle East on Tuesday night as Iran launched a ballistic missile attack on Israel, but they had no suitable targets to hit.

The fighter planes had previously shot down Iranian drones in April, during a previous attack by Tehran, but on this occasion were not needed because Typhoons do not have the capability to eliminate high speed ballistic missiles.

“The nature of the attack was different. Last night, UK planes were in the skies. They were ready to engage. They did not need to do so,” the defence minister said on a visit to the RAF Akrotiri base Cyprus, where British air crews are stationed.

Healey said that he had spoken to his Israeli opposite number Yoav Gallant on Wednesday morning and had assured him “we totally condemn the Iranian missile attacks overnight, and we will stand steadfast with Israel in their right to security”.

The UK’s major concern, he added, was that “to avoid this conflict spiralling into a wider regional war” and he said he urged Gallant to support plans for a 21-day ceasefire, though there is no sign of either side calling a halt to fighting.

Bosnia said on Wednesday it had raised its security alert level for weapons and ammunition storage facilities over concerns that the escalating conflict in the Middle East could affect the Balkan country’s stability.

“Sadly, we are seeing an escalation of war events in the Middle East and in Ukraine, with potential reflections on Bosnia and Herzegovina,” defence minister Zukan Helez wrote in a Facebook post.

“I have ordered increased security measures for command facilities, units, facilities and storage of weapons and ammunition …in order to protect the [personnel], facilities and material assets.”

In his post, Helez said measures were preventive and “the security situation in our country is stable and there is no information or indication that it will be disturbed”.

Hezbollah said on Wednesday it had destroyed three Israeli Merkava tanks with guided rockets in the Lebanese border town of Maroun el-Ras.

Israel will respond to Iran’s missile attack and its forces can strike anywhere in the Middle East, its military chief said on Wednesday.

“We will respond. We can locate important targets and we can hit them precisely and powerfully,” said the Chief of the General Staff Herzi Halevi, in a video from an air force base in central Israel, one day after Iran’s missile attack on Israel.

“We have the capability to reach and strike every location in the Middle East and those of our enemies who have not yet understood this, will understand this soon.”

The Israel Defense Forces have announced that seven more of its soldiers have been killed in a series of clashes with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon on Wednesday.

The deaths mark the first significant casualties taken by the IDF since Israel launched its ground incursion into Lebanon earlier this week. Earlier, the IDF said another soldier had died during the campaign, bringing the total death toll to eight.

The soldiers who were named on Wednesday include four members of a commando unit, two members of a reconnaissance unit, and one member of the engineering corps.

The commandos were all killed during a gun battle with Hezbollah operatives in a southern Lebanon village, according to a report in the Times of Israel. Five other soldiers were seriously wounded in the incident.

Hezbollah earlier on Wednesday claimed that it had killed a “large number” of Israeli soldiers during some of the first direct clashes between the two sides since the Israeli operation began late on Monday evening. A spokesperson for the group accused the IDF of orchestrating a “cover-up” to prevent public opinion from turning against the war.

The ground incursion into southern Lebanon is Israel’s largest since it fought a 2006 war against Hezbollah. That war ended with an Israeli in large part due to mounting casualties among Israeli troops.

United Nations secretary-general António Guterres on Wednesday condemned Iran’s missile attack on Israel, telling the security council the “deadly cycle of tit-for-tat violence must stop.”

“Time is running out,” he told the council.

The 15-member council met after Israel killed the leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah and began a ground assault against the Iran-backed militant group and Iran attacked Israel in a strike that raised fears of a wider war in the Middle East.

“I again strongly condemn yesterday’s massive missile attack by Iran on Israel,” Guterres told the council.

Earlier on Wednesday, Israel’s foreign minister said he was barring Guterres from entering the country because he had not “unequivocally” condemned Iran’s missile attack on Israel, Reuters reported.

In a letter to the security council on Tuesday, Iran justified its attack on Israel as self-defence under article 51 of the founding UN charter, citing “aggressive actions” by Israel including violations of Iran’s sovereignty.

“Iran … in full compliance with the principle of distinction under international humanitarian law, has only targeted the regime’s military and security installations with its defensive missile strikes,” Iran wrote to the council.

The UK’s foreign secretary David Lammy said the first charter flight taking British nationals out of Lebanon has now departed.

“We have arranged another flight for tomorrow, and further flights over the coming days for as long as there is demand and it is safe to do so,” he added.

He urged British nationals still in Lebanon to register with the Foreign Office and leave the country immediately.

 

Updated: Oktober 2, 2024 — 8:21 am

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