Middle East crisis live: Israeli strike on Gaza residential building kills at least 73 people, officials say | Israel-Gaza war
Key events
The Israeli military said it has carried out a strike on a Hezbollah command centre and underground weapons facility in Beirut, Lebanon’s capital.
In a statement, the military said:
Earlier this morning (Sunday), the IAF (Israeli air force) conducted an intelligence-based strike on a command centre of Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters and an underground weapons workshop in Beirut.
The Israeli air force said fighter jets killed Alhaj Abbas Salama, who it described as a senior member of Hezbollah’s southern front command, in the Tebinin area of Lebanon, and killed two other Hezbollah figures.
מטוסי קרב תקפו בשעות הבוקר, בהכוונה מודיעינית של אגף המודיעין, מפקדה של מטה המודיעין של חיזבאללה וסדנת נשק תת קרקעית בביירות.
טרם התקיפה ננקטו צעדים רבים על מנת לצמצם את הסיכוי לפגיעה באזרחים, הכוללים אזהרות מקדימות לאוכלוסייה.
Two Beirut neighbourhoods were warned by the Israeli military this morning to evacuate immediately, signalling the resumption of intense airstrikes on the city for a second day. Beirut’s southern suburbs, in particular, have been repeatedly bombed by the Israeli military over the past weeks, killing many civilians.
At least 759 Palestinian people in the occupied West Bank have been killed by Israeli forces since last October, Wafa, the Palestinian news agency, cited the territory’s health ministry as saying. The ministry said among the victims were 165 children and 18 women. There were over 6,500 recorded injuries. Most of the Palestinians killed in the last year there were killed by Israeli troops and some by settlers, according to local health officials.
Israeli forces have intensified their nearly daily search and arrest raids in the West Bank since its war on Gaza was launched following the Hamas-led 7 October attacks on southern Israel in 2023. The number of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank – which are considered illegal under international law – have hit new records. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu governs with the support of far-right parties that advocate more Israeli settlements in the West Bank and outright annexation.
Israeli strike on Gaza multi-storey residential building kills 73 people - officials
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of Israel’s wars on Gaza and Lebanon.
In northern Gaza, an Israeli airstrike hit several houses and a multi-storey residential building in the town of Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza on Saturday night, killing at least 73 people, officials said.
The Hamas media office said at least 73 people had been killed. Medway Abbas, a senior health ministry official, said these figures were accurate. There were also reports of more potential casualties trapped under rubble in the densely populated area.
Palestinian health officials said rescue operations were being hampered by the cut-off telecommunication and internet services that have been down for a second day.
Israeli air strike on Beit Lahiya kills at least 73 Palestinians.
Warplanes carried out strikes on residential areas in northern Gaza, late on Saturday, killing and wounding over 100 people. pic.twitter.com/zl7YrHgfyj
The US government is investigating an alleged leak about classified US intelligence on Israel’s strikes against Iran, CNN reports. CNN reports that the documents which date from 15 and 16 October started circulating on Friday on Telegram through an account called the Middle East Spectator. The investigation is also examining how the documents were obtained – including whether it was an intentional leak by a member of the US intelligence community or obtained by another method, like a hack – and whether any other intelligence information was compromised, the Associated Press reports.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s house in the seaside town of Caesarea was hit by a drone on Saturday, causing superficial damage and no casualties. Neither Netanyahu nor his wife, Sara, were home at the time. “The attempt by Iran’s proxy Hezbollah to assassinate me and my wife today was a grave mistake,” Netanyahu said in a statement, vowing that Iran and its proxies would “pay a heavy price”.
The UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, spoke to Benjamin Netanyahu after reports of an attempted drone attack on the Israeli prime minister’s holiday home in Saturday. According to a Downing Street spokesperson, Starmer told Netanyahu that he was alarmed to hear about what Netanyahu called an “assassination attempt” on his life.
G7 defence ministers expressed their concern over Israel’s latest attacks on Unifil in Lebanon. The group, which has been meeting in Naples, Italy, said: “We are concerned by the latest events in Lebanon and the risk of further escalation. We express concern over all threats to Unifil’s security.”
The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, spoke to his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, on Saturday, reviewing US forces’ “posture adjustments”. Those include the recent deployment of an anti-missile system to reinforce Israel’s defences against regional threats, the Pentagon said in a statement.
The US would like to see Israel scale back some of its strikes in and around the Lebanese capital of Beirut, Austin said. “The number of civilian casualties have been far too high,” Austin told reporters at a G7 defence gathering in Naples.
Two Israeli airstrikes targeted south Beirut early on Sunday, Lebanese state media reports. “Enemy (Israeli) airplanes carried out two strikes this morning on Beirut’s southern suburbs, one of them hitting a residential building in Haret Hreik” near a mosque and a hospital, the National news agency reported. There were no immediate details of casualties or property damage.
The Israeli army ordered civilians located near buildings it claimed were “affiliated with Hezbollah” in two neighbourhoods in south Beirut to immediately evacuate early this morning.
