Israel Lebanon news live: US raises alarm on escalating Middle East conflict

Israel Lebanon news live: US secretary of state Antony Blinken expressed significant concern over the potential for conflict to escalate in the Middle East during the East Asia Summit in Laos. He emphasised Washington’s commitment to diplomacy to manage the situation amid calls from the U.N. chief to prevent “all-out war” in Lebanon, highlighting the role of an Iranian-led axis of resistance.

Israel Lebanon news live: The UN migration official described the displacement of hundreds of thousands in Lebanon as “devastating,” highlighting that international support is not meeting the urgent needs amid ongoing intense Israeli bombings. Following a year of cross-border conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, which has attacked Israel in solidarity with Hamas in Gaza, Israel intensified its strikes last month on what it identifies as Hezbollah targets in southern and eastern Lebanon, as well as south Beirut.

Israel Lebanon news live: India Friday said it was “concerned” at the “deteriorating” security situation in parts of West Asia, amid reports that United Nations peacekeepers have been caught in the intensified fighting in southern Lebanon. In a statement, the ministry of external affairs also said New Delhi continues to monitor the situation closely.

Israel Lebanon news live: Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez condemned the attacks by Israel’s armed forces on the United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon and called on the international community to halt weapon sales to Israel.

Israel Lebanon news live: Warning Israel against repeating an “intolerable” incident, UN chief Antonio Guterres emphasised on Friday that its forces should not open fire on peacekeepers in Lebanon again, after two were injured in a previous incident.

Israel lebanon news live: Israel, on Friday, refuted a UN probe which concluded it was deliberately seeking to destroy healthcare in the Gaza Strip and abusing Palestinian detainees, branding the findings “outrageous”.

The United Nations said Israel had “perpetrated a concerted policy to destroy Gaza’s healthcare system”.

The country is “committing war crimes and the crime against humanity of extermination with relentless and deliberate attacks on medical personnel and facilities”, it added, in a report released Thursday.

Israel said rejected all allegations and accused the UN inquiry committee of bias.

Israel lebanon news live: The Iranian Red Crescent says Israel has hit its field hospital on the Syria-Lebanon border, leading to no fatalities but damage to medical items and supplies, reported Al Jazeera.

The director of the organisation, Pir Hossein Kolivand, said the attack destroyed the medical facility along with ambulances, medical supplies and equipment, which were marked with Red Crescent flags and identifiable as a healthcare facility.

Israel lebanon news live: One person has been killed and several wounded in an Israeli bombing that targeted a house in al-Saftawi neighborhood in northern Gaza City, sources told Al Jazeera.

The bombing is one of many strikes launched in Gaza and the West Bank on Friday as the Israeli offensive amps up.

Israel lebanon news live: The US has spent at least $17.9 billion on military aid to Israel since the war in Gaza began and led to escalating conflict around the Middle East, according to a report for Brown University’s Costs of War project, released on Monday.

The report shows the extent to which the US has been complicit in aiding all military actions undertaken by the state of Israel.

Israel lebanon news live: Israeli forces have arrested eight Palestinians on Thursday and Friday in the occupied West Bank, reported Al Jazeera.

Soldiers raided different areas of occupied Jerusalem to arrest the citizens but did not give any further information about the nature of the arrests.

Earlier on Friday, Israeli forces launched strikes across Gaza which led to two deaths, reportedly of a head of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group and one other person.

Israel lebanon news live: Indonesia, on Friday, confirmed two of its UN peacekeepers were injured in Israeli fire in Lebanon, and called the attack a violation of international law.

UN peacekeepers said Israeli troops opened fire on their headquarters in south Lebanon on Thursday, saying that they were targeting Hezbollah militants near UN posts

The attack came after the peacekeeping mission rejected Israeli demands to “relocate” from some of its positions.

Israel lebanon news live: The United States has raised concerns on the lack of humanitarian aid entering the north of the Gaza Strip, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday, after an East Asia Summit in Laos.

“I have real concern about the inadequacy of the assistance that’s getting to them,” Blinken told reporters, adding that the United States has been “very directly engaged with Israel” on the issue.

He also stated that Israel would have to ensure the safety of civilians amid the growing conflict in the Middle East.

Israel lebanon news live: CIA Director William Burns, said the United States had not seen any evidence Iran’s leader Ayatollah had reversed his 2003 decision to suspend their nuclear weaponisation program. This was also echoed by two other senior intelligence officials.

The US had also earlier in the week asked Israel to back off attacking any oil or nuclear reserves in Iran.

Israel lebanon news live: Israel has announced that it has killed the head of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group in an airstrike in the Nur Shams refugee camp in the central West Bank on Thursday, The Times of Israel reported.

The IDF said that alongside Muhammad Abdullah, another terrorist was killed but would not reveal his name.

Abdullah was made the head of the Iran-backed terror group in the Tulkarem-area camp after his predecessor Muhhamad Jabber was killed in a gunbattle in August.

Israel lebanon news live: The first of two naval ships evacuating Turkish citizens and their families from war-torn Lebanon docked at a port in southern Turkey late on Thursday.

Turkey is estimated to have 14,000 citizens registered with its consulate in Lebanon and has pledged to carry out more evacuations if necessary

Israel lebanon news live: Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian is scheduled to meet with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Turkmenistan’s capital Ashgabat today.

During the meeting with Pezeshkian, Putin plans to discuss the abruptly escalated situation in West Asia.

Israel lebanon news live: Canada, on Thursday said that Israeli troops firing on U.N peacekeepers was “alarming and unacceptable.”

The UNIFIL force said two of its peacekeepers were injured when an Israeli tank fired at a watchtower at the force’s main headquarters in Ras al-Naqoura.

“Canada calls for the protection of peacekeepers and humanitarian workers, and for all parties to comply with international humanitarian law,” the foreign ministry said in a statement on X.

Israel lebanon news live: European Union chief Charles Michel condemned Israel’s attacks on UN peacekeepers headquarters in south Lebanon.

“An attack against a UN peace mission is not responsible, is not acceptable and that’s why we call on Israel and we call on all sides to fully respect international humanitarian law,” he told AFP on the sidelines of a Southeast Asian summit in Laos.

: Israel’s security cabinet met on Thursday night to discuss how to retaliate against Iran for its missile attack last week.

A final decision on the timing of the strike was to be made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, public broadcaster Kan said.

Key ally, USA, has tried to persuade Israel to use “appropriate force”, however they have refused to stand down until their military goals are achieved.

Israel lebanon news live: A series of strikes hit Gaza on Thursday, killing at least 27 and injuring several others.

The first strike, on a school sheltering the displaced in the Gaza Strip, killed a child and seven women, Palestinian officials said.

Israel continues to fire at what it says are militant targets across Gaza.

22 people were also killed in Israeli airstrikes in Beirut on the same day.

Israel lebanon news live: France, US have backed the UN’s call for strengthening Lebanon’s army.

United Nations Security Council, along wit the US and France, has said it is key to provide peace on the country’s border with Israel.

Deputy U.S. ambassador Robert Wood told a meeting of the 15-member Security Council that the international community must focus its efforts on strengthening Lebanese state institutions.

“The solution to this crisis is a not a weaker Lebanon. It’s a strong and truly sovereign Lebanon, protected by a legitimate security force, embodied in the Lebanese Armed Forces,” he said.

Israel lebanon news live: U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris said on Thursday that de-escalation was needed in the Middle East, amid Israel’s aggression against Gaza and Lebanon.

We have got to reach a ceasefire,” Harris told reporters as she departed Las Vegas. Previous talks of a ceasefire mediated by the US government fell through after strikes and counterstrikes by Israel and Iran.

Israel lebanon news live:Israeli airstrikes hit two neighbourhoods in Beirut on Thursday evening, killing 22 people and wounding 117, Lebanon’s health ministry said.

The air raid targeted two neighbourhoods – Ras al-Nabaa area and Burj Abi Haidar area, and brought down one eight-story building.

The air raids were, reportedly, an attempt to kill Wafiq Safa, a top security official with the militant group, though Hezbollah’s Al Manar TV confirmed that Safa was not in the buildings that were bombed.

Israel lebanon news live: After the death of top Hezbollah leaders, including Hassan Nasrallah, IRGC chief Brigadier Esmail Qaani is being interrogated on suspicion of being a mole for Israeli forces, reported UK newspaper the Sun.

Qaani has been missing after the deaths of Hassan Nasrallah and Hashem Saffiedine and sources told The Sun that Qaani was being questioned while under house arrest, under suspicion of spying for Israel.

: On Thursday, the Israeli military also fired on UN peacekeeper headquarters in the town of Naqoura, hitting an observation tower and wounding two peacekeepers, who had to be hospitalized.

Israeli forces have been at odds with the UNIFIL, UN’s peacekeeping force in Lebanon, after it started a ground invasion on October 1, which was obstructed by peacekeepers on the border who refused to budge.