Lebanese army says it has returned fire at Israel for first time
William Christou
William Christou is reporting for the Guardian from Beirut
The Lebanese army said that it returned fire at Israeli forces after one of its soldiers was killed in an Israeli strike, marking the first time that the Lebanese army participated in the fighting against Israel.
Until now, Hezbollah has been fighting Israel and the Lebanese army has made it clear that it is not a party to the conflict. The Lebanese army has denied claims it pulled back its forces from the border ahead of Israel’s ground invasion of Lebanon on Monday night.
The Lebanese army said on a post on X that the army “returned fire at the sources of fire” after Israel targeted an army installation in the Lebanese border village of Bint Jbeil.
It’s not believed the exchange will lead to further fighting between Israel and the Lebanese army. The Lebanese state has called for an end to fighting between Hezbollah and Israel and says it does not want a war.
Key events
At least 28 health workers in Lebanon have been killed in the last 24 hours, the World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has told reporters. Speaking at a press conference, he was quoted by BBC News as saying that many health workers are also “not reporting to duty as they fled the areas where they work due to bombardment”.
‘Phase of unilateral self-restraint has ended’, Iran reportedly tells US
An Iranian source has told Al Jazeera that Iran has sent a message to the US, via Qatar, saying that “the phase of unilateral self-restraint has ended”.
It also reportedly said any Israeli attack would meet an “unconventional response” that includes targeting Israeli infrastructure.
The indirect message stressed that Iran does not want a regional war, the source told Al Jazeera. The US president, Joe Biden, who has insisted on Israel’s “right to defend itself”, has publicly repeated his call for a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
Biden, in the last months of his presidency, has failed to exercise much US leverage – as Israel’s biggest arms supplier and diplomatic shield at the UN – over Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israeli attacks have killed 1,974 people in Lebanon since last October, health minister says
Lebanon’s health minister has said over 40 rescuers and firefighters have been killed by Israeli attacks over the last three days.
Firass Abiad said 97 “paramedics and firefighters” had been killed and 188 injured since 8 October 2023, when cross-border fighting between Israel and Hezbollah escalated after the Hamas-led 7 October attack on southern Israel.
Since last October, 1,974 people have been killed by the Israeli military, including 127 children, Abiad said, adding that more than 9,350 have been injured.
Summary of the day so far …
It is approaching 5pm in Beirut, Tel Aviv and Gaza City. Here are the latest headlines …
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Multiple airstrikes were heard in Beirut on Thursday afternoon, with one of them reportedly hitting the office of Hezbollah’s media department in Dahiyeh, the southern suburbs of Beirut. An official from the media office said they were safe, despite the blast. Israel said it had targeted Hezbollah’s intelligence operation
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The EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, has described Israel’s strike on Beirut which is now known to have killed paramedics, as a “violation of international humanitarian law”. At least seven people are known to have died in the strike on Hezbollah-linked Islamic Health Organisation in the early hours of Thursday. The attack was the second Israeli airstrike on central Beirut this week
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Israel’s military has issued another order to residents of neighbouring Lebanon to flee their homes, including from the city of Nabatieh, one of Lebanon’s largest centres of population in the south. As well as the city, more than 20 other locations are specified. In the message Israel repeated its call that “Hezbollah’s activities force the IDF to act against it forcefully” and that anybody moving southward would be in danger. Israel has previously ordered 52 other villages inside Lebanon to evacuate
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The Lebanese caretaker environment minister Nasser Yassin has said the number of people displaced in Lebanon has exceeded 1.2 million. He said “We are racing against time to house them, and there are now more than 870 shelters”
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Hezbollah has claimed that it confronted an attempt by Israeli forces to cross into Lebanon at the Fatima Gate, to the west of the Israeli community of Metula. There has been no comment on the claim from Israel’s military
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The Lebanese army said that it returned fire at Israeli forces after one of its soldiers was killed in an Israeli strike, marking the first time that the Lebanese army participated in the fighting against Israel. The soldier was killed when a Lebanese Red Cross convoy accompanied by the Lebanese Army was struck while evacuating wounded from Taybeh, a border-village in southern Lebanon
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Lebanon’s transport minister, Ali Hamieh, has said that all border crossings were under government monitoring after Israel accused Hezbollah of smuggling weapons from Syria through the Masnaa border crossing
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The Lebanese ambassador to the UK, Rami Mortada, claimed on Thursday that Hezbollah’s leadership had agreed to a proposed 21 day ceasefire shortly before “hotheads” of Israel blew up the diplomatic path to peace by assassinating leader Hassan Nasrallah. Mortada’s comments support a previous assertion made by Lebanese foreign minister Abdallah Bou Habib
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Spain’s defence ministry has said that its two planes sent to Beirut to evacuate Spanish civilians have taken off and are heading to an airbase near Madrid. Russia has evacuated 60 nationals from Beirut
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Syria’s state-controlled news agency Sana has reported that Syrian air defences have been confronting “hostile targets” in the skies near Damascus
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France has said Israel Katz’s announcement yesterday that Israel’s foreign minister was declaring António Guterres “persona non grata” was “unjustified”
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Israel’s military has announced that in a strike “approximately three months ago” it believes it killed three senior Hamas figures. It named the most senior of them as “Rawhi Mushtaha, the head of the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip”
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The death toll in Gaza has risen to 41,788 reported fatalities with 96,794 people wounded, according to the latest figures from the Hamas-led health authority in the territory
Israel has claimed that one of its strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut was aimed at “targets belonging to Hezbollah’s Intelligence Headquarters in Beirut, including terror operatives belonging to the unit.”
The claims have not been independently verified.
Lebanese army says it has returned fire at Israel for first time
William Christou
William Christou is reporting for the Guardian from Beirut
The Lebanese army said that it returned fire at Israeli forces after one of its soldiers was killed in an Israeli strike, marking the first time that the Lebanese army participated in the fighting against Israel.
Until now, Hezbollah has been fighting Israel and the Lebanese army has made it clear that it is not a party to the conflict. The Lebanese army has denied claims it pulled back its forces from the border ahead of Israel’s ground invasion of Lebanon on Monday night.
The Lebanese army said on a post on X that the army “returned fire at the sources of fire” after Israel targeted an army installation in the Lebanese border village of Bint Jbeil.
It’s not believed the exchange will lead to further fighting between Israel and the Lebanese army. The Lebanese state has called for an end to fighting between Hezbollah and Israel and says it does not want a war.
Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, yesterday declared UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres persona non grata and banned him from entering Israel.
“Anyone who cannot unequivocally condemn Iran’s heinous attack on Israel, as almost every country in the world has done, does not deserve to step foot on Israeli soil,” Katz wrote on X.
Today, I have declared UN Secretary-General @antonioguterres persona non grata in Israel and banned him from entering the country.
Anyone who cannot unequivocally condemn Iran’s heinous attack on Israel, as almost every country in the world has done, does not deserve to step…
— ישראל כ”ץ Israel Katz (@Israel_katz) October 2, 2024
The foreign ministry claimed the decision was a reaction to Guterres’s response after Iran’s missile attack on Tuesday, “in which he failed to mention Iran by name and did not unequivocally condemn its grave aggression”.
France has now responded to Israel’s move, saying the decision was “unjustified”.
“France regrets the unjustified, serious and counter-productive decision taken by Israel to declare the secretary general of the United Nations, Mr Antonio Guterres, persona non grata,” the French foreign ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
Lebanon’s transport minister, Ali Hamieh, has said that all border crossings were under government monitoring after Israel accused Hezbollah of smuggling weapons from Syria through the Masnaa border crossing.
Col Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesperson, said that this past week, the IDF struck a truck ferrying “sensitive weapons” to Hezbollah via one of the crossings between Syria and Lebanon. This claim has not been independently verified by the Guardian.
Spain’s defence ministry has said that its two planes sent to Beirut to evacuate Spanish civilians have taken off and are heading to an airbase near Madrid, the Associated Press reports.
The country’s defence minister, Margarita Robles, said that between 400 and 500 of the around 1,000 Spaniards registered as living in Lebanon are being airlifted out.
Like many other governments, including the UK, Australia and Canada, the Spanish government has urged all its citizens to leave and is offering to assist those who say they want to be evacuated.
Spain also has 676 soldiers in Lebanon deployed under a UN peacekeeping mission. Robles said that the troops are staying in the country until otherwise ordered by the UN command.
Middle East’s biggest airline halts Iran, Iraq and Jordan flights over ‘regional unrest’
Emirates airlines, the Middle East’s biggest airline, has cancelled flights to Iraq, Iran and Jordan for three days over what it called “regional unrest” amid Israel’s invasion of Lebanon.
“Emirates is cancelling all flights to/from Iraq (Basra and Baghdad), Iran (Tehran), and Jordan (Amman) on 4th and 5th October due to regional unrest,” said the Dubai-based airline, which also halted services to the destinations on Thursday.
The Emirates airline had previously announced cancellations between Dubai and Beirut until 8 October, as several other carriers put services to the region on hold.
On Tuesday, German airline group Lufthansa said it was suspending flights to Beirut up to and including 30 November.
Lufthansa group flights to Tel Aviv will be cancelled until 31 October, while trips to Tehran are closed until 14 October.
Lebanese officials said overnight Israeli air strikes on central Beirut killed at least nine people. Israel began a ground invasion of the southern part of the country this week, marking the first time Israeli troops have launched sustained operations in Lebanon since 2006.