Israel-Lebanon live: Netanyahu says ceasefire talks to continue as deaths nears700

Lebanon’s World Health Organisation (WHO) representative has slammed the attacks on healthcare facilities as “unacceptable.”

Posting on X, Abdinasir Abubakar said 27 health workers have been killed and 55 injured by recent Israeli strikes, adding that health care sites “should be protected at all times”.

He wrote: “Attack on health care is on the rise as the crisis in Lebanon continued to escalate in recent days.”

An Israeli strike on Friday killed nine members of a family, including four children and a pregnant mother, in the Lebanese border town of Shebaa, mayor Mohammad Saab told Reuters.

The Philippines says it will evacuate 11,000 citizens from Lebanon the moment Israeli forces cross the border and launch a ground offensive, The Times of Israel has reported.

“A ground invasion will lead to mandatory repatriation,”

Foreign Undersecretary Eduardo de Vega reportedly said at a press conference in Manila: “A ground invasion will lead to mandatory repatriation.” He said the plan would be to move thousands out of the country via the sea without providing further details.

More than 33,000 Filipino citizens were living in Lebanon as of January 2020, according to the Philippines‘ Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

Nearly 700 people have been killed in Lebanon this week, according to Lebanon’s health ministry the Associated Press reports. About a quarter of them are women and children.

On Monday, about 600 people were killed and almost 2,000 injured from Israeli bombing marking the deadliest single day in Lebanon since the country’s civil war.

An Israeli strike killed nine people from the same family in the southern Lebanese border-town of Shebaa, including four children, on Friday morning mayor Mohammad Saab told Reuters news agency.

Nearly 700 people have been killed in Lebanon this week, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.

Hezbollah said it had fired rockets into Israel on Friday at Kiryat Ata near the city of Haifa, around 20 miles from the border, and the city of Tiberias.

The Israeli military said four drones came across the border on Friday and were all intercepted by the military’s defences, adding that several rockets were also intercepted.

As we’ve been reporting, nearly 700 people have died in Lebanon as a result of Israeli attacks this week, according to local officials.

Here are some pictures from inside the country:

An overnight Israeli airstrike on a military site near Kfar Yabous, close to the Lebanese border, killed five Syrian soldiers and wounded another, Syrian state news agency SANA reported Friday, citing an unnamed military official.

Israel’s military has not officially acknowledged the strike, although it regularly targets military positions in Syria, including facilities linked to Iran and Hezbollah. Israel rarely confirms these incidents.

The frequency of such strikes has increased in the past 11 months, coinciding with Hezbollah’s ongoing clashes with Israel’s military, against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza.

Since the beginning of the week, tens of thousands of Lebanese and Syrians have fled across the Lebanon-Syria border due to heavy Israeli bombardment.

Israeli teams had meetings to discuss the U.S. ceasefire proposals with Lebanon on Thursday and will continue discussions in the days ahead, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday, adding that he appreciated the U.S. efforts.

“Our teams met (Thursday, Sept. 26) to discuss the U.S. initiative and how we can advance the shared goal of returning people safely to their homes. We will continue those discussions in the coming days,” he said in a statement.

The comments came after Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz said on Thursday there would be no ceasefire in the north, where Israeli jets have been carrying out the heaviest bombardment against the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement in decades.

On Thursday, after Netanyahu left for New York where he is attending the United Nations General Assembly, his office issued a statement saying the prime minister had ordered Israeli troops to continue fighting with full force in Lebanon.

Mr Netanyahu is giving his address to the UN at 2.30pm.

Nearly 700 people have been killed in Lebanon this week, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.

Israel has dramatically escalated strikes, saying it is targeting Hezbollah’s military capacities and senior Hezbollah commanders.

Top Israeli officials have threatened to repeat the destruction of Gaza in Lebanon if the Hezbollah fire continues, raising fears that Israel‘s actions in Gaza since Oct. 7 would be repeated in Lebanon.

The International Organization for Migration estimated Thursday that more than 200,000 people have been displaced in Lebanon since Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel in support of Hamas after it stormed into Israel, sparking the Israel-Hamas war.

Lebanon says a total of 1,540 people have been killed within its borders in that time.