Live: Foreign minister urges Australians to leave Lebanon as hundreds of seats on flights secured

Plan International surveyed almost 10,000 young people aged 15 to 24 across 10 countries including Lebanon, Sudan and the Philippines for its State of the World’s Girls report.

Some 27 per cent of girls and young women in the survey reported sexual and gender-based violence as a “constant risk of every day life”, out of the 104 participants surveyed. 

More than half of the young people surveyed reported high levels of emotional distress including sleep disturbances and constant worrying, while 38 per cent reported feeling unsafe or very unsafe.

Read more on this story from one of our Asia-Pacific journalists, Max Walden, here:

Some 1,700 Australians and their immediate family members are registered with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade who have indicated they wish to depart Lebanon.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong says the government has been working to secure seats on flights out of Beirut.

“I can
confirm that we have secured 80 seats on flights that are leaving today — only 35 of those seats have been taken up,” she says.

An additional 500 seats for Australian permanent residents, and their immediate family members on two flights to
Cyprus which will be leaving on Saturday.

“Obviously, the operation of these flights will be subject to the security situation and, of course, the airport in Beirut remaining open,” she says. 

Senator Wong urges Australians who wish to leave to not wait for their preferred route to open up.

“Please take whatever option is available to you,” she says.

“My message to Australians in Lebanon is do not wait. If you are able to secure a seat on a flight, please take that seat.

“If you have a seat on today’s flight, don’t delay. Now is not the time for you to wait and see, now is the time to leave.”

The IDF says it intercepted a “suspicious” target in Gush Dan, which is the metropolitan area of the Israeli city of Tel Aviv.

This is the update posted to its Hebrew language account a short while ago (this account tends to have updates the quickest compared to its English and Arabic accounts):

“A short time ago, the Air Force intercepted a suspicious aerial target in the maritime space off the coast of Gush Dan. No policy alerts were triggered.”

The government estimates at least 15,000 Australians remain in Lebanon but the true figure could be as high as 30,000.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong says the government has been warning for some time that the number of Australians in the region makes it difficult to assist everyone who wants to leave. 

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“This is why we have been calling for
months now for people to depart and what I would say to Lebanese-Australians is this: This is a deeply distressing time. I also understand there are many people who call Lebanon home, people who have citizenship, Australian citizenship, but reside in Lebanon and people feel very torn,” she says.

“But I
again would say to people – this is really the time to leave. We are very worried about the situation escalating.”

The death toll has risen to five for the people killed in an Israeli air strike on a Hezbollah rescue facility in the heart of Beirut, according to the Lebanese health ministry.

Five people were killed and at least 11 injured in an Israeli raid targeting Bachoura, a district in the centre of the capital, according to a source close to Hezbollah.

It was previously reported that two people were killed in the strike.

AFP journalists in Beirut heard a loud explosion and reported some buildings were shaken in the second strike targeting the capital’s centre this week.

Reporting with Agence France Presse

Foreign Minister Penny Wong says Iran’s strikes on Israel are a “dangerous escalation” and the government “condemns them fully”.

“It is rightly condemned by
all who seek de-escalation and a ceasefire. Under international law, Israel has a right to defend itself against these attacks, and, as you know, Australia always urges adherence to international law,” she told reporters in Geelong this morning.

But she urged all parties to “show restraint and de-escalate” tensions.

“In relation to the situation in Lebanon, obviously overnight we have seen further developments including
deadly clashes in southern Lebanon.

“We have been clear that the cycle of violence cannot continue and we have urged all parties to show restraint and de-escalate.”

Straight after Iran fired its barrage of drones, rockets and ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday night, something was made clear.

“There will be consequences,” said Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, a prominent Israel Defense Forces spokesman.

Here are three things Israel could do next, writes the ABC’s Riley Stuart in Jerusalem:

A US resident from Dearborn, Michigan, has been killed in Lebanon, the American government said on Wednesday, with the man’s friend and neighbours saying he died in an Israeli air strike.

“We are deeply saddened by the death of Kamel Ahmad Jawad and our hearts go out to his family and friends. His death is a tragedy, as are the deaths of many civilians in Lebanon,” a White House spokesperson said.

Earlier in the day, a State Department spokesperson, when asked about reports of an American’s death in Lebanon, said: “It’s our understanding that it was a legal permanent resident, not an American citizen (who got killed in Lebanon) but we obviously offer our sincerest condolences to the family.”

Reuters

At least two people have died and 11 wounded after an Israeli air strike hit central Beirut in the early hours of Thursday.

Lebanon’s health ministry said in a statement the strike targeted the Bachoura neighbourhood.

Australia for UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) is calling for increased aid in Lebanon amid mass displacement of civilians.

Lebanon’s caretake prime minister said last week around 1.2 million people had been affected through the past two weeks of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, in what he said could be the largest wave of displacement ever witnessed in the nation.

Trudi Mitchell, CEO of Australia for UNHCR, said more funding is urgently needed to meet the fast-growing humanitarian crisis.

“A humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding in Lebanon right now. The streets of Beirut are filled with people struggling to find shelters for their families, and we are hearing reports of newly displaced Syrians and Lebanese having to sleep in the open,” she said.

Lebanon hosts an estimated 1.5 million Syrian refugees and over 11,000 refugees from other countries, making it one of the largest refugee-hosting nations per capita in the world. 

An estimated 80 per cent of its population also lives in poverty.

A fireball was visible over the Beirut skyline, with Israeli bombardments inflicting heavy damage on the city.

Multiple reports have come in about an Israeli strike hitting an area close to the Beirut Central District, known as downtown.

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Our Middle East correspondent Allyson Horn joined us from Jerusalem earlier providing insight into regional hostilities as they continue to heighten.

“Israel would be aware that it is walking a pretty delicate line at the moment between making sure it doesn’t provoke Iran too much into escalating this into a further war,” she says.

“Indeed we have heard from Iran’s president who has said any Israeli attack would pre-empt further Iranian response.”

Watch her report below:

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Fire and smoke is pictured rising above Beirut’s southern suburb of Sin El Fil after the recent Israeli strike.

The Israel Defense Forces has posted to X confirming the strike in Beirut we brought you a few minutes ago.

“The IDF is now targeting Beirut. More details below,” it said on its Hebrew language account, without providing details.

Separately, the IDF launched three raids on Beirut’s southern suburbs just before midnight, a source close to Hezbollah said, in the third wave of Israeli strikes against the group in the past 24 hours.

AFP journalists just outside the Lebanese capital could hear the explosions, which were audible kilometres away.

Reporting with Agence France Presse

A massive blast was heard across Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, early on Thursday, witnesses have told news agency Reuters.

It is now just past 12:30am there.

A security source confirmed an Israeli strike had hit the city centre.

We’ll bring you more on this as we have it.

Lebanon’s health ministry has released a statement saying 46 people were killed and 85 wounded in Israeli “raids” on Lebanon in the past 24 hours.

The deaths were reported in towns and villages in southern Lebanon, Nabatieh, Bekaa, Baalbek-Hermel and Mount Lebanon, according to state media.

Overall, more than 1,000 people have died as a result of Israeli air strikes across Lebanon in the past two weeks.

Israel’s military said eight of its soldiers have been killed in southern Lebanon after forces battled Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon.

The soldiers were killed in two separate events, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) officials said, without providing details.

The IDF also reported that seven other soldiers had been seriously injured in the incidents.

Read more in our overnight wrap:

Joe Biden told reporters on Wednesday, local time, that the US would not support an Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear sites, a move the IDF has long threatened.

Although labelling Iran as “way off course”, he said it was important the Israeli response be “proportional”.

“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.”

Asked whether he would back Israel striking Iranian nuclear sites, Mr Biden said “the answer is no”.

Biden said more sanctions would be imposed on Iran and he would speak soon with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu.

Good morning and welcome to our rolling coverage of the war in the Middle East.

Major escalations have taken place in the conflict between Israel and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah in the past day, with Hezbollah’s main backer, Iran getting drawn in.

Iran fired 200 missiles towards Israel on Tuesday night, most said to be intercepted by the IDF’s powerful Iron Dome defences.

Israel also began a ground incursion into southern Lebanon earlier on Monday, local time.

Overnight, eight IDF soldiers were killed in the region, in the deadliest loss suffered by Israel on the Lebanon front in the past year of border-area clashes.

We’ll bring you all the latest updates as we have them.