Israel’s military launched airstrikes on Gaza and Lebanon overnight as it prepared for a “significant” response to Iran’s recent missile attack.
At least 26 people were killed and more than 90 wounded when a mosque and school were hit in the centre of Gaza.
Large explosions were also seen in southern Beirut as Israel continued to target the Iranian-backed militants Hezbollah on the eve of the anniversary of the October 7 attacks.
It was Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, in Tel Aviv and everything was a little too beautiful. The men and women who jogged along the promenade at Frishman Beach looked like animated Greek statues. Someone’s corgi licking the hot air looked so spruce and done up it could have belonged to the late Queen.
As the sun fell below the Mediterranean waterline, Rabbi Assaf Tabachnik raised the shofar, a ram’s horn, to his mouth and blew. Its insistent staccato whines were lost in the din of the holiday crowds.
The technical term for what Tabachnick was doing to the horn is “blasting” it. In the shofar, rabbis have heard everything from an allusion to the ram Abraham sacrificed instead of his son Isaac to a reference to Mount Moriah, where a ram’s horn was blasted as God delivered his divine covenant to the Israelites. What did Tabachnick hear?
• Read in full: They watch the skies for Iranian missiles
Deadly shooting in Israel
A 25-year-old woman has been killed in an attack by a gunman at a bus station in southern Israel, local media reported.
As many as 11 people were injured in the city of Beersheba.
The attacker was killed, the ambulance service said. Police were investigating whether he used a knife as well as a gun during the rampage.
Israel’s warning for Iran
Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defence minister, has suggested that Iran will face the same consequences as Gaza and Beirut.
He said of last week’s missiles from Tehran, which hit two Israeli air force bases: “The Iranians did not touch the air force’s capabilities — no aircraft was damaged, no squadron was taken out of order.
“Whoever thinks that a mere attempt to harm us will deter us from taking action should take a look at … Gaza and Beirut.”
The Mreijeh neighbourhood in Beirut’s southern suburbs was among those hit by IDF airstrikes
ANWAR AMRO/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
Israel has issued more evacuation orders for people in southern Lebanon.
The military’s Arabic-language spokesperson told residents from about 25 areas to leave their homes immediately and go north of the Awali River.
“Anyone who is near Hezbollah members, installations or weapons is putting his life in danger,” Avichay Adraee said. “Village residents, you must evacuate your homes.”
More people continue to make their way along the rubble-strewn road to Beirut’s international airport.
A shuttle bus at Larnaca International Airport in Cyprus carries Australian nationals flown out of Lebanon
REUTERS/YIANNIS KOURTOGLOU
Israel remembers its victims
A woman visits an installation honouring those who were killed and kidnapped at the Supernova music festival on October 7
MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
Aviva and Keith Siegel were among the hostages seized on October 7. She was released after 51 days, but he remains missing.
Read more: Venetia Menzies’ dispatch from Israel
Former head of MI6 expects strike on nuclear sites
Israel will “punish Iran heavily and damn the consequences” despite pressure from President Biden to show restraint, the former head of MI6 has said.
Sir Richard Dearlove said that he believed Israel would probably try and attack Iran’s missile and nuclear capabilities as part of an attempt to destabilise the Tehran regime.
“There’s a pattern about conflict in the Middle East,” he told Times Radio. “We’ve had a series of conflicts, compromise, build up to another conflict … the question now is, are we on the threshold of something different or is this just a repetition of the pattern? I’m probably of the view at the moment that something fundamental is changing.”
Protesters praising Hezbollah face arrest
Police have the government’s “full support” if they prosecute protesters for holding placards backing Hezbollah, a cabinet minister said.
Peter Kyle, the science and technology secretary, told the BBC that while Saturday’s demonstration in London included “a lot” of peaceful protesters, there were also people carrying signs in support of the Iranian-backed militant group. “That is a criminal act,” Kyle said. “Supporting a proscribed terrorist organisation such as Hezbollah is a criminal act.”
The Metropolitan Police said two people were arrested on suspicion of supporting a proscribed terrorist organisation. One related to alleged shouts of support for Hezbollah near a pro-Israel counter-demonstration, while the other was for wearing a parachute — allegedly indicating support for Hamas by alluding to the October 7 attackers who used paragliders to cross the border.
Police in London lead away a suspect arrested on suspicion of supporting a proscribed terrorist organisation
X.COM/HEIDIBACHRAM
Return to schools postponed in Lebanon
Abbas Halabi, Lebanon’s education minister, has said the beginning of the autumn term for about one million pupils would be pushed back to November 4 due to ongoing “security risks”.
In addition to airstrikes, Israel has launched what it called a “limited” ground offensive across the border.
On Saturday the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said it had dismantled a 250m-long underground complex in southern Lebanon which Hezbollah had planned to use to invade Israel.
Israel vows to ‘dismantle threat’ from Iran
Asked whether she would rule out an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, Tzipi Hotovely, the Israeli ambassador to the UK, told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme: “We will dismantle the threat. This is for the [Israeli] cabinet to decide how.”
She said the world needed to prevent Iran’s “regime of terror” from gaining “nuclear abilities”.
Ceasefire ‘not the right approach’
Andrew Mitchell, the shadow foreign secretary, has said hostilities in Lebanon would end if Hezbollah pulled back behind the Litani River — something called for by the United Nations in 2006.
The Tory MP told the BBC: “I think if you focus on what is happening in Lebanon, you see that Israel absolutely has the right of self-defence. And the right approach is not a ceasefire, actually. The right approach is for Hezbollah and its Iranian masters to abide by United Nations Security Council resolution 1701.”
Sir Keir Starmer has called for a ceasefire in Lebanon to prevent an all-out war in the Middle East.
UN warning over Lebanese hospitals
Twenty-three people were killed and 93 injured in “Israeli raids” across Lebanon on Saturday, the country’s ministry of public health has said.
The United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimates that there have been at least 1,699 deaths in Lebanon since September 23. More than 280,000 people have fled the country.
Imran Riza, the UN humanitarian co-ordinator for Lebanon, reported an “alarming increase in attacks against healthcare” in the past week. “The health system is on the brink of collapsing,” he said.
More UK citizens to leave Lebanon
The UK military could evacuate more British citizens from Lebanon, a cabinet minister has said.
A fourth charter flight is scheduled to set off today. More than 250 people have already left the country on three previous flights.
Peter Kyle, the secretary of state for science, innovation and technology, told the BBC: “If the demand is there we will use whatever is needed, whether it’s more chartered flights or whether it’s the military … but the vast bulk of people who have requested to leave we have managed to deal with.”
Britain urging Israel to show restraint
The British government is advising Israel to show “restraint” in its response to the Iranian missile attack, Kyle said.
The cabinet minister told Sir Trevor Phillips on Sky News that the UK wants a “political diplomatic solution”. Asked what Britain would do if Israel did attack Iran, Kyle responded: “I’m not in the business of predicting the future.”
He said: “Israel is a sovereign state, we can advise as allies. What we can’t do is dictate … we are advising restraint. We are using all the influence we do have which is diplomatic.”
Further explosions were seen in southern Beirut after the strikes overnight. Israel’s military said it was targeting munitions warehouses and other sites used by Hezbollah.
Najib Mikati, the prime minister of Lebanon, has repeated calls for a ceasefire and urged western nations to exert “pressure” on Israel. He said he backed efforts by the US and France to establish a truce.
Protests around the world
Thousands took part in pro-Palestinian protests on Saturday in cities including Paris, Rome, Berlin, Jakarta and Cape Town.
In Washington DC a man claiming to be a journalist set his arm on fire, shouting: “We spread the misinformation.”
Police moved in after the man set himself on fire in Washington DC
EPA/ANNA ROSE LAYDEN
Another protester near the White House held a portait of Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader
REUTERS
A march in central London was attended by an estimated 40,000 demonstrators, with 17 people arrested in relation to offences of assault, public disorder and supporting a proscribed organisation.
Gaza before and after October 7
Following the brutal attacks on Israel’s border communities on October 7 by Hamas, including the killing of 1,200 people and the kidnapping of 251 hostages, the IDF launched an intensive aerial and ground assault in Gaza in its pursuit of Hamas.
The death toll stands at over 41,400, including 11,300 children, according to the Hamas-run ministry of health. The IDF says that at least 10,000 of these casualties were Hamas fighters.
Aerial pictures and scorched earth show how the Israel-Hamas war has rendered this strip of land almost unrecognisable.
Read more: Gaza before and after — the images of destruction since October 7
Israel braced for anniversary of attacks
Israel has placed its forces on alert ahead of the anniversary of the October 7 attacks.
Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, a spokesman for the military, warned there could be “attacks on the home front”.
He said in a televised briefing: “We are prepared with increased forces in anticipation for this day.”
More than 30 Israeli airstrikes hit Beirut and its suburbs overnight, according to Lebanon’s state-run news agency.
Several large explosions were seen in the southern area of the city. It has been reported that the strikes targeted a building near a road leading to the international airport and the former site used by a Hezbollah-run TV station, Al-Manar.
Israel’s military said fighter jets targeted munitions warehouses and other sites used by Hezbollah.
26 killed in Gaza airstrike, says Hamas
Israeli airstrikes on a mosque and a school in Gaza early on Sunday morning killed at least 26 people, according to Hamas officials.
More than 90 others were wounded in the attack near the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza strip.
The Israeli military said it had used “precise strikes” to target Hamas command centres embedded in the Ibn Rushd School and the Shuhada al-Aqsa Mosque.
The Shuhada al-Aqsa Mosque was struck in the early hours
APAIMAGES/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK