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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives in Israel on Tuesday on a new push for an elusive Gaza ceasefire two weeks before the US elections, seeing a new opportunity from Israel’s killing of Hamas’s leader. It will be the 11th trip to the Middle East by the top US diplomat since the war broke out a year ago. Follow our liveblog for the latest updates on the Middle East crisis.
Hezbollah says it launched rockets at Israeli naval base in Haifa
Lebanon’s Hezbollah group said it launched early Tuesday rockets at a “naval base” near the northern Israeli city of Haifa, shortly after it said it targeted positions in Tel Aviv’s suburbs.
A “salvo of rockets” targeted the “Stella Maris naval base northwest of Haifa”, the Iran-backed group said in a statement, shortly after saying it launched rockets at two positions “in the suburbs of Tel Aviv”.
Hezbollah says it targeted Israeli ‘intel base’ in Tel Aviv suburbs
Lebanon’s Hezbollah group said it targeted on Tuesday two positions in the suburbs of Israel’s commercial hub Tel Aviv, including an intelligence base for the second time in a few hours.
A “salvo of rockets” was fired against the “Glilot base of the 8200 military intelligence unit”, the Iran-backed group said in a statement, after having claimed on Monday night similar attacks on the same position. Also Tuesday, the group said it fired rockets at another position in Tel Aviv’s suburbs.
Sirens sounded in central Israel, army says
Sirens sounded in central Israel as a projectile was identified crossing from Lebanon and falling into open ground, the army said on Tuesday.
Alerts sounded in the Samaria area and in Modi’in Illit, the Israeli military added in a statement.
Israel’s multi-layered air defences have intercepted the vast majority of missiles and drones fired at it since the start of the Gaza war.
- US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives in Israel on Tuesday, the first stop of a wider Middle East tour aimed at reviving Gaza ceasefire talks
- At least 42,603 Palestinians have been killed and 99,795 wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began on October 7, 2023, according to the Gaza health ministry
Israel says more strikes are coming against a Hezbollah-run financial institution
Israel said late Monday it planned to carry out more strikes in Lebanon against a Hezbollah-run financial institution that it targeted the night before and which it says uses customers’ deposits to finance attacks against Israel.
At least 15 branches of Al-Qard Al-Hasan were hit late Sunday in the southern neighborhoods of Beirut, across southern Lebanon and in the eastern Bekaa Valley, where Hezbollah has a strong presence. One strike flattened a nine-story building in Beirut with a branch inside it.
The Israeli military issued evacuation warnings ahead of the strikes, and there were no reports of casualties.
Blinken heads to Middle East to push for Gaza truce
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken left for the Middle East Monday on a new push for an elusive Gaza ceasefire two weeks before US elections, seeing a new opportunity from Israel’s killing of Hamas’s leader.
It will be the 11th trip to the Middle East by the top US diplomat since war broke out a year ago, with Blinken on his last visit to Israel in August warning it may have been the “last chance” for a US-led ceasefire plan.
That push did not succeed, and the conflict has escalated and expanded since then, with Israel pounding Hezbollah targets in Lebanon and warning of a new strike directly on Iran, whose clerical leaders back both Hamas and Hezbollah.
Summary
- Lebanon‘s health ministry said four people including a child had been killed on Monday evening in Israeli strikes near the country’s biggest public hospital close to the southern suburbs of Beirut.
- Israeli media said last week that two men killed alongside Hamas head Yahya Sinwar were his bodyguards, and that one of them worked for UNRWA.
- Two Hamas sources said the Palestinian militant group was moving towards appointing a Doha-based ruling committee rather than a single successor to its chief Yahya Sinwar, who was killed by Israeli troops last week.
- Visiting US envoy Amos Hochstein said Monday the basis of a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah was a 2006 United Nations resolution but that it would require more than just commitments from the warring parties.
- The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Saturday that at least 42,519 people have been killed in the war between Israel and Palestinian militants, although the toll did not incorporate a strike that killed 33 people overnight.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP, and Reuters)
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