Middle East crisis live: Israel strikes Beirut; IDF may be destroying population in north Gaza, UN body says

The US military has rushed its advanced anti-missile system to Israel and it is now “in place”, defence secretary Lloyd Austin said.

THAAD, or the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, is a critical part of the US military’s layered air defence systems and adds to Israel’s already formidable anti-missile defences.

“The THAAD system is in place,” Austin said, speaking to reporters before his arrival in Ukraine on Monday.

He declined to say whether it was operational, but added: “We have the ability to put it into operation very quickly and we’re on pace with our expectations.”

President Joe Biden said the THAAD’s deployment, along with about 100 US soldiers, was meant to help defend Israel, which is weighing an expected retaliation against Iran after Tehran fired more than 180 missiles at Israel on 1 October.

Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the conflict in the Middle East.

Israel launched a wave of attacks on buildings belonging to al-Qard al-Hassan, a US-sanctioned financial organisation that has more than 30 branches across Lebanon including 15 in densely populated parts of central Beirut and its suburbs.

Lebanon’s national news agency reported 11 strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs late on Sunday. Other strikes hit the association in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa valley and in the country’s south, NNA added. One strike hit close to Beirut’s airport.

The Israeli military had earlier issued a warning that it would begin attacks on infrastructure belonging to the association and ordered people to evacuate those areas, causing panicked crowds and traffic jams to clog the streets of the Lebanese capital.

Meanwhile, the UN human rights office (OHCHR) warned that Israel may be causing the “destruction of the Palestinian population in Gaza’s northernmost governate through death and displacement” with its latest military campaign there.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has made life in north Gaza “impossible” for Palestinians, many of whom were already facing starvation, while also ordering their displacement and preventing supplies from entering, it said in a statement.

Israel has “continued to relentlessly bomb and attack the area” making it “extremely dangerous” for civilians to flee, the body wrote, adding that it had received reports of civilians being deliberately targeted. It added:

Many Palestinians in the north have also expressed fears that should they flee; they will never be allowed to return to their homes in north Gaza.

Israel has attacked two of the three main hospitals in the area – which were already damaged in previous attacks – and also bombed schools serving as shelters for displaced people, with many casualties appearing to be women and children, the OHCHR said.

The statement ended by reminding Israel of the provisional measures ordered by the international court of justice in January, which said Israel must ensure it did not commit acts of genocide in Gaza and reminded it that as an occupying power, it has a duty to ensure the provision of food, medicine and shelter to the population.

The IDF have nominally held complete control of northern Gaza since January, but launched a new assault on the area two weeks ago that they said was aimed at stopping Hamas militants from regrouping.

In other developments:

• Several Palestinians were reportedly killed and others injured late on Sunday when Israeli airstrikes hit two schools housing displaced people in Jabalia, the area in northern Gaza that Israel has placed under siege for more than two weeks. Other deadly Israeli attacks took place in Beit Lahia and Gaza City’s al-Tuffah neighbourhood, both in northern Gaza, and in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa.

• Israeli forces have “deliberately demolished an observation tower and perimeter fence of a UN position in Marwahin,” Unifil said on Sunday. The UN peacekeeping mission added: “Yet again, we remind the IDF and all actors of their obligations to ensure the safety and security of UN personnel and property and to respect the inviolability of UN premises at all times.”

• The commander of the Israeli armoured brigade that was leading the Israeli offensive on Jabalia has been killed in northern Gaza, the Israeli military (IDF) has said. Col. Ehsan Daxa, the commander of the 401st Armored Brigade, is the highest ranking Israeli officer to have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its war on the Palestinian territory last year, according to Israeli media.

• The US government is investigating an unauthorised release of classified documents that assess Israel’s plans to attack Iran. The US House speaker, Mike Johnson, confirmed the investigation in remarks to CNN’s State of the Union program on Sunday, saying “the leak is very concerning.”

• Médecins Sans Frontières has condemned Israel’s siege on the last remaining hospitals in Gaza, saying: “This is purely and simply a collective punishment imposed on Palestinians in Gaza, who must choose between being forcibly displaced from the North or killed. We fear that this will not stop.”

• Hezbollah said on Sunday that it launched rockets at Haifa in Israel after the latest Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon, Agence France-Presse reports. According to the group, its fighters launched a “rocket salvo” at the “city of Haifa,” adding that it was “in response to the aggressions on [Beirut’s] southern suburbs” from Sunday morning.