Middle East crisis live: Israel launches more strikes on Beirut as six people reported dead from earlier attack

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Satellite images of Chouaghir, in northern Lebanon, before and after the Israeli strikes this week:

Hezbollah missile unit commander and deputy killed in strikes, IDF claims

The Israeli military claims to have killed who it described as the commander of Hezbollah’s missile unit in southern Lebanon, Muhammad Ali Ismail, and his deputy, Hossein Ahmed Ismail, in fighter-jet attacks.

The Israel Defence Forces also said in the post in Hebrew (translated to English) on X that “with them other commanders and terrorists of Hezbollah were eliminated”.

The IDF also posted that Muhammad Ali Ismail “is responsible for many acts of terrorism from his sector towards the territory of the state of Israel”, including launching rockets towards Israel and launching a surface-to-surface missile towards the centre of the country last Wednesday.

The IDF said:

Their assassination joins the assassination of the head of Hezbollah’s missile and rocket array, the terrorist Ibrahim Muhammad Kabisi, and the assassination of other senior officials in Hezbollah’s missile and rocket array.

The BBC correspondent Nafiseh Kohnavard has posted a photo from Beirut on X saying it was a picture of a strike that just occurred.

Our windows keep shaking.

More strikes are being heard in Beirut’s southern suburbs, Reuters has just snapped, citing a news agency witness.

Hezbollah denied that any weapons or arms depots are located in buildings that were hit in the Israeli strike on Beirut suburbs, Reuters quoted the Lebanese group’s media office as saying in a statement on Saturday.

• This is Adam Fulton picking up our live coverage

Summary of the day so far

Here’s a recap of the latest developments:

• Israel’s military conducted strikes early on Saturday in the south of the Lebanese capital, Beirut, after ordering residents to evacuate and warning it was planning to strike three specific buildings in the area. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) posted a map of certain areas of Dahiyeh and said residents “were obliged to evacuate the buildings immediately and move away from them at a distance of no less than 500 meters”. “In the coming hours we are going to strike strategic capability that Hezbollah placed underground, under three buildings in the heart of the Dahiyeh,” IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari told reporters late on Friday.

• Earlier on Friday, Israel’s military said it struck the central headquarters of Hezbollah in Beirut in its heaviest air attack on Beirut in almost a year of conflict with the Lebanese militant group. Six loud explosions were heard across the Lebanese capital late on Friday afternoon. A number of buildings in the southern suburb of Dahiyeh were levelled. Residents of Dahiyeh and a nearby Palestinian refugee camp, Burj al-Barajneh, fled the area following the strikes.

• Israeli media reported the strike on Beirut as an attempt to kill Hezbollah’s leader and key Iran ally, Hassan Nasrallah. Other media outlets quoted Hezbollah sources saying he was “alive and well”. Hezbollah issued a statement saying there was “no truth to any statement” about the Israeli attack, without specifying what statements it was referring to. IDF spokesperson Hagari said it was still looking into the results of its strike, but that it was “very accurate”.

• At least six people were killed and 91 others were injured by the Israeli strike on Beirut on Friday, according to the Lebanese health ministry, who cautioned that the death toll would likely rise. Some early estimates put the number of dead at 300. More casualties are expected as rescue workers clear rubble.

• Hezbollah responded by bombing Safed, a city in north Israel, with a rocket salvo “in response to Israeli attacks on cities, villages and civilians”. The Iran-backed militant group announced more attacks at Karmiel and Sa’ar, but did not put out a statement regarding the fate of Nasrallah. Israel braced itself for potential retaliation from Hezbollah in Lebanon, as well as from Yemen and Iran, urging residents of Golan Heights, Safed, Merom HaGalil, to stay near protected areas.

• Video of the Israeli strikes on Beirut suggested they were carried out with ground-penetrating munitions known as bunker busters. In some footage, a vertical jet of flame was visible as a bomb appeared to explode beneath the ground.

• Joe Biden, the US president, has directed the Pentagon to “assess and adjust as necessary” American forces in the Middle East, the White House said after a wave of Israeli strikes in Beirut on Friday. Biden earlier on Friday said the US had “no knowledge of or participation” in the massive Israeli airstrike in Beirut. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he had personally approved the strike, and announced that he had cut short his US visit and would return immediately to Israel.

• Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, said Israel’s objective in Lebanon is an “important and legitimate one”. Blinken, at a news conference on Friday, said the US and other countries who have joined calls for a 21-day ceasefire believe that diplomacy and a ceasefire is the best way forward.

• The strikes came shortly after a bellicose speech by Netanyahu in the UN general assembly. Netanyahu shrugged off global appeals for a ceasefire in Lebanon and Gaza, and instead denounced the UN as an “antisemitic swamp” and insisted that Israel is “winning” its wars on multiple fronts. Many national delegations walked out in protest as he took the floor.

• The UN’s secretary general, António Guterres, reiterated his call for a ceasefire in the Middle East. Guterres said; “Gaza remains the epicentre of violence, and Gaza is the key to ending it”. He added: “The death spiral must end for Gaza, for the people of Palestine and Israel, for the region and for the world.”

• Even if he was not harmed in the strike, targeting Nasrallah would mark a staggering escalation on the Israeli side. The Hezbollah leader represents Iran’s most important regional asset and has long been seen as linchpin in the so-called axis of resistance. The presence of Hezbollah’s large rocket arsenal on Israel’s northern border has long acted as a deterrent to an Israeli attack on Iran and its nuclear programme.

• Iran’s embassy in Beirut said the airstrike represented “a dangerous game-changing escalation that changes the rules of the game” and warned that its perpetrator would be “punished appropriately”. Najib Mikati, the caretaker prime minister of Lebanon, said the Israeli attack on Beirut shows that Israel “does not care” about global calls for a ceasefire in Lebanon.

• Palestinian gunmen in the Gaza Strip shot and killed an aid worker from a US based charity, firing on her car in what government officials told her family was a case of mistaken identity. The car in which Islam Hijazi, Gaza programme manager at Heal Palestine, was travelling was intercepted on Thursday in the area of Khan Younis in the south of the Gaza Strip.

Iran’s foreign minister has accused Israel of using US-made “bunker buster” bombs to strike Beirut on Friday, according to Reuters.

Abbas Araghchi reportedly told a UN security council meeting: “Just this morning, the Israeli regime used several 5,000-pound bunker busters that had been gifted to them by the United States to hit residential areas in Beirut.”

Senior Hezbollah commanders were the target of Israel’s attack on the group’s central headquarters in Beirut’s suburbs. The fate of Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s leader, remains unclear.

The Canadian government is booking seats on commercial flights to help its citizens leave Lebanon, the country’s foreign minister said.

Mélanie Joly urged Canadian citizens to leave Lebanon as soon as they can. She said in a statement on social media: “Canada has secured seats for Canadians on the limited commercial flights available. If a seat is available, please take it.”

This week, Israeli airstrikes have killed more than 700 people in Lebanon, an escalation that has raised fears of an even more destructive conflict.

Joly urged Canadians to register with the embassy in Beirut if they needed help leaving and said loans were available to those requiring financial assistance.

Maya Yang

Upon being asked what his message would be to his 20-year old son, Nimrod Cohen, who was kidnapped by Hamas on 7 October, 55-year-old Yehuda Cohen said:

Yehuda Cohen holds a sign showing his son Nimrod Cohen during a rally near Benny Gantz’s home in Rosh Haayin, Israel, on 3 May 2024. Photograph: Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images

“One of the reasons why I’m interviewing everywhere is the chance that he’ll hear from me because I want to give him strength ... He’s having a difficult time there so mentally I want to keep him strong and the only way is for him to hear me, hear his mother, hear his relatives so I’m telling Nimrod, ‘Stay strong, we are fighting for you, all over the world.’”

Cohen, was has been protesting Benjamin Netanyahu’s UN speech outside Netanyahu’s luxury Loews Regency hotel on Park Avenue, added: “I’ve been ... doing interviews just to keep the issue on the table, to keep Nimrod valuable for Hamas to keep him alive and to fight for a hostage deal so my son will be again a free man like he should be.”

Maya Yang

Yehuda Cohen, 55, the father of 20-year-old Nimrod Cohen who was kidnapped by Hamas on 7 October, condemned Benjamin Netanyahu outside his luxury Loews Regency hotel on Park Avenue.

Yehuda Cohen. Photograph: Julius Constantine Motal/The Guardian

“We are here today, this week because Netanyahu is here. Netanyahu wants to … show off. He came here for a speech in the UN while there is an intense war in Israel and he’s dealing with himself,” said Cohen.

“He’s actually ruling on the blood of Israeli civilians, Israeli soldiers and of course the Israeli hostages and we want to make a stop to that. He must either go for a hostage deal or resign and just vanish from our lives,” Cohen continued, adding, “He’s trying to stay forever, he’s trying to break down the [judicial] system in Israel … and stay prime minister forever. He would even take [Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya] Sinwar as his personal assistant if this will help him stay in power. He doesn’t care for Israel.”

Maya Yang

As Netanyahu took the UN stage earlier on Friday, several diplomats walked out in protest. And away from the general assembly, there were further protests against the Israeli leader’s handling of the war in Gaza.

Idit Hertzberg, 74, was one of the approximately two dozen anti-Netanyahu protestors outside his luxury Loews Regency hotel on Park Avenue.

Photograph: Julius Constantine Motal/The Guardian

Speaking about Netanyahu, Hertzberg said: “We want to change his policy and to bring our hostages home. Bring them home, whatever the price would be. If he needs to cease the fire, temporarily or for a long time, we need them home. No way this goes on for more than a year … There are little babies, old people, no way can they go on being in these caves.”

Hertzberg added, “[Netanyahu] is here. We cannot change the fact. He is going to speak … The same degree of speaking, [we want to see him] doing.”

Julius Constantine Motal

Before Israel launched a new air attack against Lebanon on Friday, the last day of the UN general assembly brought together different groups protesting for different causes.

Supporters of the religious movement Falun Gong gathered in a designated protest area near the UN.

Photograph: Julius Constantine Motal/The Guardian

Supporters of embattled Pakistani politician Imran Khan posted a banner calling for his release.

Photograph: Julius Constantine Motal/The Guardian

Supporters of the Bangladesh Nationalist party wore headbands and held a banner.

Photograph: Julius Constantine Motal/The Guardian

Anti-war protesters held Palestinian flags aloft.

Photograph: Julius Constantine Motal/The Guardian

Biden orders US forces in Middle East to 'adjust as necessary', says White House

Joe Biden, the US president, has directed the Pentagon to “assess and adjust as necessary” American forces in the Middle East, the White House said after a wave of Israeli strikes in Beirut on Friday.

A statement by the White House reads:

He has directed the Pentagon to assess and adjust as necessary US force posture in the region to enhance deterrence, ensure force protection, and support the full range of US objectives.

Israel plans to ramp up its strikes on Hezbollah targets in Beirut, according to the Times of Israel.

The report comes after Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it would strike three buildings in the Dahiyeh suburb of southern Beirut.

Citing Israeli military sources, the paper says the IDF plans to strike more Hezbollah sites in Dahiyeh.

The coming days are expected to be complex, the paper writes.

Images and videos are emerging following the latest Israeli air attack on southern suburbs of Beirut early on Saturday.

Smoke billows over Beirut’s southern suburbs, amid ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Sin el Fil, Lebanon, on Saturday. Photograph: Mohamed Azakir/Reuters

From Al Jazeera’s Ali Hashem:

From the BBC’s Nafiseh Kohnavard:

The Israeli military confirmed it was conducting strikes in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

A statement from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reads:

The IDF (military) is currently conducting targeted strikes on weapons belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist organisation that were stored beneath civilian buildings.

Israel conducts new strikes on Beirut

Blasts have been reported in Beirut, after the Israeli military said it was conducting airstrikes in the Lebanese capital’s southern suburbs, where it had warned residents to evacuate.

From the BBC’s Nafiseh Kohnavard:

Death toll in Israeli strike on Beirut rises to six, nearly 100 injured – health ministry

At least six people were killed and 91 were wounded in Israel’s strike on Beirut’s southern suburb on Friday, according to the latest figure by Lebanon’s health ministry.

The Lebanese ministry added that the toll was not final.