Israel-Palestine latest news: Iran ordered Hezbollah to attack border, says Israel

 

The Israeli army has claimed that Iran ordered attacks by Hezbollah on the Lebanese-Israeli border yesterday which killed a soldier and a civilian and injured three others.

“Hezbollah carried out a number of attacks yesterday in order to try to divert our operational efforts [away from the Gaza Strip], under the direction and backing of Iran, while endangering the state of Lebanon and its citizens,” chief military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said at a briefing with reporters.

Mr Hagari did not provide any evidence for his claim that Iran ordered the attacks. Hezbollah took responsibility for the attacks on the village of Shtula and the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) posts yesterday, later saying that it was not an indication that it was entering the war, but a “warning”.

“If Hezbollah dares to test us, the reaction will be deadly. The United States is giving us full backing,” Mr Higari said. 

As the ground offensive looms, analysts fear a ground invasion of Gaza may be the red line that prompts Hezbollah to fully enter the conflict and open the war on another front.

Iran last night warned Israel of regional war. “If the Zionist aggressions do not stop, the hands of all parties in the region are on the trigger,” Iranian foreign minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian, s

16 October 2023 • 11:32am

11:32AM

Blinken faced stiff reaction trying to whip up support for Israel in tour of the Arab world

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is reported to have faced a stiff resistance on his tour of the Arab World as he tried to stop any spillover of the conflict and rally condemnation of Hamas from some of the most staunch supporters of the Palestinian cause. 

In Riyadh, the Washington Post reported, Mohammed bin Salman kept Blinken waiting several hours for a meeting presumed to happen in the evening but which the crown prince only showed up for the next morning.

Once the meeting began, Mohammed “stressed” the need to stop the military operations “that claimed the lives of innocent people” and lift the “siege of Gaza”, according to the Post. 

During Blinken’s meeting in Cairo yesterday, Egypt’s Abdel Fatah El-Sisi said Israel’s assaults have exceeded “the right of self-defense,” and turned into “collective punishment.”

11:27AM

US State Department warns diplomats against using language that would urge peace

In messages circulated on Friday, the US State Department asked diplomats working on the Middle East to avoid including three specific phrases in press material: “de-escalation/ceasefire,” “end to violence/bloodshed” and “restoring calm,” according to HuffPost. 

The Washington Post also confirmed the reporting. The phrases, they said, did not comply with current US policy. 

11:09AM

Watch: Hamas' attack on Israel's Kibbutz Sufa

11:06AM

UN aid chief to travel to Middle East to negotiate aid into Gaza

UN aid chief Martin Griffiths has said he will be travelling to the Middle East tomorrow to support negotiations on getting aid into the blockaded Gaza Strip.

“I shall be going myself tomorrow to the region to try to help in the negotiations, to try to bear witness and to express solidarity with the extraordinary courage of the many thousands of aid workers who have stayed the course and who are still there helping the people in Gaza and in the West Bank,” he said in a statement.

Griffiths said his office was in “deep discussions” with Israel, Egypt and other parties.

11:00AM

Israeli air strikes continue for 10th day around Rafah

Civil defense teams and residents launch a search and rescue operation around the rubbles of destroyed buildings as Israeli attacks continue on the 10th day in Rafah, Gaza on October 16, 2023. CREDIT: Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu via Getty Images

Palestinians inspect their destroyed car after an Israeli airstrike in the Rafah refugee camp in the southern of Gaza Strip, on October 16, 2023 CREDIT: MOHAMMED ABED/AFP via Getty Images

A Palestinian boy carries salvageable items amid the rubble of buildings destroyed during Israeli airstrikes in the Rafah refugee camp in the southern of Gaza Strip, on October 16, 2023 CREDIT: MOHAMMED ABED/AFP via Getty Images

10:56AM

Israel has not allowed Rafah crossing to open, says Egypt

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said today that the Israeli government had yet to take a stance that allowed the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip to open.

Egypt has aimed since the conflict broke out to keep the Rafah crossing operational, Shoukry said, calling the situation faced by the Palestinian people in Gaza “dangerous”.

Reports had said Israel, Egypt and the US had agreed the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt would be opened for several hours Monday in a one-off move to allow foreign nationals to flee and aid goods to enter. The Israeli prime minister denied the reports at the time the border was supposed to open. 

People are still believed to be waiting at the Rafah border crossing hoping for news – likely dual nationals. 

10:51AM

Israel evacuates villages along Lebanese border

The Israeli defence ministry has announced that it will evacuate residents who live within two kilometres of the Lebanese border as concerns Hezbollah will enter the fray mount.

There are 28 villages within the two kilometre zone that will be evacuated and put up in state-funded guesthouses.

One of the villages, Shtula, came under attack from Hezbollah yesterday with one person killed and three others injured.

Iran-backed Hezbollah said it had also targeted barracks in Israel’s Hanita with guided missiles and said it had inflicted casualties on “the enemy ranks”.

Israel retaliated on Hezbollah positions in Lebanon as the worst border violence since the fatal 2006 war continued into a second week. The UN peacekeeping force UNIFIL also said that its base had been hit by an unidentified rocket last night but no one sustained injuries.

As the ground offensive looms, analysts fear a ground invasion of Gaza may be the red line that prompts Hezbollah to fully enter the conflict and open the war on another front.

Israeli soldiers patrol in armoured personnel carriers at an undisclosed position in northern Israel near the border with Lebanon on October 15, 2023 CREDIT: ARIS MESSINIS/AFP via Getty Images

10:07AM

Watch: Israeli ground forces stage near Gaza border

10:06AM

Blinken returns to Israel following Arab tour

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken returned to Israel this morning for talks on the conflict with Hamas following a tour of six Arab countries in a bid to stop the conflict from expanding. 

The top US diplomat, who was in Israel on Thursday on a solidarity visit, landed in Tel Aviv and was expected to again meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken departs Jordan, Monday Oct. 16, 2023, en route to Israel. CREDIT: Jacquelyn Martin/Pool via REUTERS

His arrival comes shortly after the Israeli prime minister denied that there would be any temporary ceasefire to allow aid into the Gaza Strip and allow foreigners out across the Rafah crossing. 

9:28AM

At least 199 people being held hostage, Israel says

The Israeli army has revised the number of confirmed hostages taken to Gaza by Hamas as 199, up from the previous estimate of 126. 

9:24AM

111 attacks on Palestinian health care since fighting began: World Health Organisation

More than 1,000 missing in Gaza

According to the Palestinian Civil Defense, the number of missing people who are presumed to be trapped beneath rubble could exceed 1,000 people.

8:28AM

Israeli soldier killed in Hezbollah attack yesterday

An Israeli officer was killed in Hezbollah’s attack on IDF positions yesterday. 

The IDF said the officer was killed in one of the anti-tank guided missile attacks from Lebanon yesterday. They had gagged the news until the family were informed. 

8:17AM

Israeli cabinet ministers reject aid entering Gaza

Israeli cabinet ministers have spoken out against aid getting to civilians in Gaza.

Energy Minister Israel Katz says he “bitterly opposes the opening of the blockade and the introduction of goods into Gaza on humanitarian grounds... Our commitment is to the families of the murdered and kidnapped hostages — not to the Hamas murderers and those who helped them,” Times of Israel quoted him as saying.

Culture Minister Miki Zohar also objected: “Those who massacre children, rape women and kidnap babies do not deserve any mercy.”

Israel has faced repeated criticism against the use of “collective punishment” of Palestinian civilians for the actions of Hamas last week. 

8:08AM

Clarifications on US claims that Israel will reopen water taps for southern Gaza

An update from the UN last night shows that just one line is being reopened for water:

“Today (Sunday), Israel renewed its water supply for one line servicing eastern Khan Younis. The precise volume and impact of this supply is still unclear. On the other hand, the remaining seawater desalination plant servicing central and southern Gaza shutdown today due to lack of fuel.”

8:03AM

Israel denies reports that Rafah crossing will open for aid in return for allowing foreigners out of Gaza

Abbie Cheeseman here, taking over the live blog from Beirut. 

Reports this morning again suggested that the Rafah crossing with Egypt would open today to allow foreign passport holders out of Gaza in return for the first convoys of aid getting in. 

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has just denied that an agreement was reached. 

“There is currently no truce and humanitarian aid in Gaza in exchange for getting foreigners out,” a statement from his office said.

A view of trucks carrying humanitarian aid for Palestinians, as they wait for the re-opening of the Rafah border crossing to enter Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in the city of Al-Arish, Sinai peninsula, Egypt, October 16, 2023.

7:50AM

Pictured: Heartbreak in Gaza

Members of a Palestinian civil emergency team react after several colleagues were killed in Israeli strikes, at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City October 16, 2023. CREDIT: REUTERS/Mohammed al-Masri

A Palestinian man walks amid the rubble of buildings destroyed during Israeli air strikes near his home in the Rafah refugee camp in the southern of Gaza Strip, on October 16 CREDIT: MOHAMMED ABED/AFP via Getty Images

Palestinians search for casualties under the rubble of a house destroyed in Israeli strikes in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip October 16, 2023. CREDIT: REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa

Palestinians gather at a site of Israeli strikes in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip October 16, 2023 CREDIT: REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa

7:46AM

Fuel reserves at Gaza hospitals set to run out in 24 hours

Thousands of patients could die as dangerously low fuel reserves at Gaza hospitals are expected to run out in 24 hours, the UN has warned. 

Gaza’s sole power plant shut down after Israel sealed off the 25-mile long territory following Hamas’s attack, with hospitals packed with wounded people now short on fuel and basic supplies.

“Fuel reserves at all hospitals across Gaza are expected to last for about additional 24 hours,” the UN’s humanitarian office (OCHA) said in its latest update on Sunday. 

“The shutdown of backup generators would place the lives of thousands of patients at risk.”

An Egyptian-controlled border crossing into Gaza is set to reopen to evacuate foreigners and transport the first convoys of aid into a Gaza, which is on the verge of an abyss.

It comes as Israel prepares to launch a brutal ground invasion to “demolish” Hamas.

6:48AM

'We are not trying to strike civilians'

Israel has denied targeting civilians in Gaza, saying it is striking infrastructure and hunting Hamas commanders. 

“We strike Hamas, we strike their infrastructure and we are hunting their commanders,” Israel Defence Forces spokesperson Jonathan Conricus said a few hours ago in an update. 

“Categorically we are not trying to strike civilians.”

The Gaza Health Ministry said 2,670 Palestinians have been killed, hundreds of them children, and 9,600 wounded since the fighting last week.

6:01AM

Israeli missions in China step up security after knife attack

Israel has stepped up security at its missions in China after a knife attack on an embassy official in Beijing at the weekend, writes Asia correspondent Nicola Smith.

Staff in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong have been told to get security approval before going out after an employee was injured outside a supermarket by a man wielding a knife, reported the South China Morning Post.

It said the Chinese police have yet to release details of a foreign suspect in custody over the assault, apart from revealing he is a 53-year-old involved in the “small goods business.”

The Israeli embassy said the victim was being treated in hospital and reportedly told diplomats and their families to stay at home over the weekend. 

Israel continued its air strikes on Sunday while Hamas militants fired numerous rockets into various parts of Israel.

More than one million people out of the Gaza Strip's population of 2.3 million have been forced from their homes by Israeli air strikes, the United Nations said.

Has a ceasefire been agreed?

Reuters reported on Monday that Egypt, Israel and the US have agreed to a ceasefire in southern Gaza that would coincide with the reopening of the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza, the only crossing into the territory not controlled by Israel.

However, both Hamas and the Israeli government said there had been no truce.

Israel had previously told one million people in the north of Gaza to leave their homes and move south, but Hamas urged them to stay put, saying roads out are unsafe.

The United Nations says so many people cannot be safely moved within Gaza without causing a humanitarian disaster.

Watch: Thousands attend pro-Palestine march in London as Gaza braces for invasion