William Christou is reporting for the Guardian from Beirut

Initial reports in Israeli media suggest the target of Israel’s strike on Beirut on Sunday afternoon was Abu Ali Rida, the commander of the group’s Bader Unit, which is responsible for the second line of defence in south Lebanon after the initial border zone.

Rida was the last remaining senior military commander of Hezbollah that remained alive, which, if reports of his death were true, would leave Hezbollah without any of its senior military leadership. The Guardian was not able to independently verify Israeli media reports and Hezbollah had not yet issued a statement.

Anti-war rally held in Cyprus

Helena Smith

Over in Cyprus, the EU’s nearest member state to the Middle East, an anti-war rally has been held outside a British Sovereign base that activists have accused of “facilitating” Israel’s armed action.

Hundreds of protestors, chanting “No to war” and “Out, Out, British bases out,” rallied within metres of the gates of RAF Akrotiri amid mounting fears of the Mediterranean island being drawn into a wider conflict if hostilities spiral out of control. The leftwing AKEL party official Haris Karamanou told demonstrators:

We are here, right outside the British Air Force airport in Akrotiri, because from here British spy planes are assisting the occupying forces of Israel in gathering information on the ‘operations’ in Gaza. And because hundreds of tons of bombs and ammunition have passed through here to aid the total destruction of Gaza.

Speaking to the Guardian, Nicoletta Charalambidou, a prominent human rights lawyer also attending the rally said:

The government of Cyprus has failed to take a clear stance against the war and we are against the facilitation it has granted that has allowed the British bases to indirectly support Israel’s war in Palestine, Gaza and Lebanon.

Others activists said they were furious at the growing use “on Cypriot land” of the installation, one of two bases retained by Britain, a former colony.

In a statement urging people to attend Sunday’s protest, the left-wing backed Cyprus Peace Council said it was imperative the island’s government took a clear stance if the country was to avoid becoming a target for attack. It said:

The large military activities carried out these days on the ground and air around the Akrotiri base as well as the large concentration of US military forces in our country to prepare for a broader war, heightens the feeling of concern that Cyprus may become a target for an attack.

The statement came hours after the UK announced it was “bolstering contingency teams” in the region, moving 700 troops to the island in preparation of mass evacuations from Lebanon

Earlier this year protestors conducted a similar rally outside Akrotiri to demonstrate against the British bases being used as an “aggressive launch pad” for the war in Gaza amid revelations of its deployment as a staging point for fighter jets involved in strikes against pro-Palestinian Houthi militia in Yemen.

UK defence officials have robustly denied accusations of the bases being used to funnel weapons to Israel. On Sunday, the Cyprus Mail quoted a British bases spokesperson as saying: “No RAF flights have transported lethal cargo to the Israeli Defence Forces.” It was standard practice the spokesperson said “for the UK Ministry of Defence to routinely authorise requests for a limited number of allies and partners to access the UK’s air bases.”

Under the terms of the bases’ establishment, Britain is not formally obliged to seek permission from Cyprus for operations conducted out of the military installations.

William Christou is reporting for the Guardian from Beirut

Israel has carried out a strike on Beirut, with the sound of a missile flying overhead and an impact being heard by a Guardian correspondent.

A plume of smoke emanated from the outskirts of Chiyah, a section of the city on the borders of Dahiyeh, the southern suburbs of Beirut which have been the main target of Israeli bombing over the past week. The target of the strike was not immediately clear.

Hezbollah has announced the death of senior military commander Ali Karaki on Sunday afternoon, killed in the large Israeli airstrikes on Dahiyeh, the southern suburbs of Beirut. These are the same strikes that killed the former head of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah.

Karaki was a member of the group’s Jihad Council and the commander of the organisation’s southern front. He had escaped death a few days prior, after Israel said it attempted to assassinate him in an airstrike on Dahieh last Monday.

“[Karaki] was directly and on the ground responsible for leading the southern front with all its axes and units in the support front from 8 October, 2023, until his blessed martyrdom”, a statement from Hezbollah read announcing his death.

Karaki was the latest in a series of military commanders to be killed by Israel, leaving Hezbollah’s senior military leadership almost completely wiped out.

• Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araqchi, said the killing of Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan, an Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) deputy commander, by Israel was a “horrible crime” that would not go unanswered. Nilforoushan was killed in the Israeli strikes on Beirut on Friday, in which Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was also assassinated.

• European foreign ministers, including officials from the UK, Germany and France, have stepped up calls for a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah amid fears of the conflict spreading across the region.

• The Israeli military said on Sunday that it killed senior Hezbollah figure Nabil Kaouk in an airstrike in Lebanon yesterday. He was the deputy head of the Lebanese militant group’s central council and was one of the few remaining senior members of the organisation. On Sunday, Israel said it hit “dozens” more Hezbollah targets overnight.

• The Lebanese army said it “calls on citizens to preserve national unity and not to be drawn into actions that may affect civil peace at this dangerous and delicate stage”. The country’s prime minister, Najib Mikati, urged Lebanese people “to come together” to preserve civil order. Diplomatic efforts for a ceasefire with Israel are ongoing.

• The UN World Food Programme (WFP) launched an emergency operation to provide food for up to 1 million people affected by the conflict in Lebanon. More than 1,000 people have been killed in Lebanon and more than 6,000 injured as a result of Israeli attacks in the past two weeks, the health ministry said, and about one million Lebanese people have been displaced by Israeli strikes.

• At least 41,595 Palestinian people have been killed and 96,251 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said.

Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araqchi, said the killing by Israel of an Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) deputy commander was a “horrible crime” that would not go unanswered.

Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan was killed in the Israeli strikes on Beirut on Friday, in which Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah also was assassinated.

“There is no doubt that this horrible crime committed by the Zionist regime (Israel) will not go unanswered,” Araqchi said.

In 2019, Nilforoushan was appointed as the operations deputy of the IRGC, which Iran uses to provide Hezbollah with most of its funding, training and weapons.

European foreign ministers have stepped up calls for a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, amid concern that Israel’s killing of Hezbollah’s longtime leader, Hassan Nasrallah, risks seriously destabilising Lebanon and the region.

Even as Israeli defence officials continued to raise the prospect of a cross-border operation into southern Lebanon, the foreign ministers of France, Germany and the UK voiced alarm over the latest escalation on the Israeli side.

Israel must “immediately stop its strikes in Lebanon”, the French foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, said, adding that his country was opposed to any form of ground operation by the Israelis.

David Lammy, the UK foreign secretary, said on X that he had spoken to the Lebanese prime minister, Najib Mikati. “We agreed on the need for an immediate ceasefire to bring an end to the bloodshed. A diplomatic solution is the only way to restore security and stability for the Lebanese and Israeli people,” Lammy wrote.

The German foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, told the broadcaster ARD that Nasrallah’s killing “threatens destabilisation for the whole of Lebanon”, which “is in no way in Israel’s security interest”.

You can read the full story by my colleagues, Peter Beaumont and William Christou here:

At least 41,595 Palestinian people have been killed and 96,251 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

The health ministry has said thousands of other dead people are most likely lost in the rubble of the enclave.

In a statement, the Lebanese army has said that it “calls on citizens to preserve national unity and not to be drawn into actions that may affect civil peace at this dangerous and delicate stage” following the Israeli strike that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut on Friday, and as Israeli attacks continue.

“The Israeli enemy is working to implement its destructive plans and sow division among Lebanese,” the army statement added.

Lebanon has long been divided along sectarian lines which had contributed to a devastating civil war between 1975-1990.

Hezbollah, the Shiite militant group, wields great power in Lebanon’s south. Its military might dwarfs Lebanon’s national armed forces.

A Lebanese army official told Agence France-Presse (AFP) troops had been deployed since Saturday in Beirut. The country’s prime minister, Najib Mikati, urged Lebanese people “to come together” to preserve civil order.

William Christou has been reporting for the Guardian from Beirut

Lebanese prime minister Najib Mikati will chair a meeting of the government emergency committee this afternoon, along with several ministers.

The meeting comes as Lebanon deals with successive waves of displacement, with 90,000 fleeing Israeli bombardment of the south and the Bekaa Valley last Monday, and many more evacuating the southern suburbs of Beirut after intense Israeli airstrikes on Friday.

Beirut’s public spaces are filled with families, gathered on sidewalks and small parks across the cities with their belongings.

Many have spent the last two nights homeless and hungry, with the Lebanese state unable to respond to the scale of the humanitarian crisis.

Private initiatives have sprung up to fill the gap, with small NGOs and even individuals distributing food and water in areas where the displaced have gathered.