Middle East crisis live: Israeli airstrike reportedly hits hospital in Beirut’s southern suburbs
Explosions reportedly heard near Beirut’s southern suburbs
A breaking news headline on Reuters citing a witness report: “heavy strike heard near Beirut’s souther suburbs”.
This as AFP reports that the Israeli army has issued a new evacuation call for residents in a southern Beirut suburb. These two notes may well connect and we’ll update things soon.
Other, unverified reports can be seen referring to the Haret Hreik area, between the center of Beirut and the main airport on the outskirts and wire pictures are emerging.
A source at Rafik Hariri hospital has told Reuters that the latest Israeli strike has occurred nearby.
Key events
News is firming up that an Israeli air strike has hit near Beirut’s Rafik Hariri University hospital in the southern suburbs late on Monday, Lebanon’s largest public-sector hospital.
Reuters is citing a hospital source, adding that it appeared the strike hit the hospital’s parking lot. We await more details.
Explosions reportedly heard near Beirut’s southern suburbs
A breaking news headline on Reuters citing a witness report: “heavy strike heard near Beirut’s souther suburbs”.
This as AFP reports that the Israeli army has issued a new evacuation call for residents in a southern Beirut suburb. These two notes may well connect and we’ll update things soon.
Other, unverified reports can be seen referring to the Haret Hreik area, between the center of Beirut and the main airport on the outskirts and wire pictures are emerging.
A source at Rafik Hariri hospital has told Reuters that the latest Israeli strike has occurred nearby.
Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari is claiming that there is a bunker under the Sahel hospital in Beirut filled with cash and gold belonging to the coffers of Hezbollah.
The hospital is currently being evacuated in case of Israeli air strikes, despite Israel’s assertions that it will not attack the hospital.
According to the estimates we have, there is at least half a billion dollars in dollar bills and gold stored in this bunker. This money could and still can be used to rebuild the state of Lebanon,” Hagari said and AFP reports.
Earlier today, Israeli military chief lieutenant general Herzi Halevi said more than two dozen targets belonging to Al-Qard al-Hassan – a financial firm linked to Hezbollah – were hit.
The Israeli military is now saying it will not strike the Sahel hospital in southern Beirut, while emphasizing that it is intent on attacking monetary stashes it cites as being controlled by Lebanon-based Hezbollah.
The Israeli army said today its forces were pummeling Hezbollah’s financial arm, hitting more than two dozen targets including a bunker with tens of millions of dollars in cash and gold, Agence France-Presse reports.
The strikes since Sunday night mark an expansion of Israel’s campaign against the Iran-backed group after a year of cross-border exchanges that escalated in late September into a full-blown war. Israeli forces are now seeking to degrade the Shiite Muslim movement’s ability to fund its operations.
The Israeli air force carried out a series of precise strikes on these Hezbollah financial strongholds. One of our main targets last night was an underground vault with tens of millions of dollars in cash and gold. The money was being used to finance Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel,” Israeli military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a televised briefing.
Hagari then referenced a separate bunker also allegedly filled with cash and gold under a hospital in the capital Beirut, but said the vault had not been targeted yet by the Israeli military.
Beirut hospital evacuated amid claims it is above a Hezbollah bunker
Reports are coming in that a hospital in the southern suburbs of Beirut is being evacuated amid claims by Israel that the building covers a Hezbollah bunker that was used to shield the assassinated head of the militant group, Hassan Nasrallah, and cash for the group.
Fadi Alame, the director of the Sahel hospital, has told Reuters about the evacuation getting underway and also denied that the hospital is cover for Hezbollah.
Owner of Sahel hospital MP Fadi Alame says these allegations are baseless but “we were forced to evacuate the hospital” #Beirut “I ask the Lebanese army to inspect the site” https://t.co/aW7hiKuLHV
— Zeina Khodr (@ZeinakhodrAljaz) October 21, 2024
At least two people were killed and three others injured today in an apparent guided missile attack on a car in the Mazzeh area of Damascus, Syrian state television said, quoting a military source, Reuters reports.
The source attributed the attack to Israel.
The attack occurred near the Eastern Roundabout, close to the Golden Mazzeh Hotel, a high-end establishment in the centre of Syria’s capital, state media added.
An Israeli military spokesman later claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it killed the head of Hezbollah’s money transfers unit.
We will continue to act against Hezbollah in Syria and everywhere else,” Israel’s chief military spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, said in a televised statement.
It looks like more detail may be emerging concerning the short report earlier that at least one person was killed today, probably at least two, in a “guided missile attack” on a car in the Mazzeh area of Damascus, reported a few hours ago by Syrian state television.
The Israel Defense Forces reports via its spokesperson Daniel Hagari that Israel carried out an airstrike in Syria today, where it was targeting the leader of the financial organization funding Hezbollah, directing funds from Iran, the Times of Israel reports, referring to the financial firm Al-Qard al-Hassan.
Hagari has not given a name but indicated the man is newly appointed. Reuters is now issuing some more detail and we’ll bring an update on this news as soon as possible.
The Israeli military has issued a touch of detail to information about the latest air strikes on Lebanon.
The Israel army says it has hit about 300 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon in the past day, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.
The Israeli military said a little earlier today that it struck about 300 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon over the past 24 hours, in a widening air campaign now also targeting the group’s financial operations.
“Approximately 300 targets were hit in the last 24 hours alone,” the military said in a statement after military chief Herzi Halevi said around 30 targets related to Al-Qard al-Hassan, a financial firm linked to Iran-backed Hezbollah.
Antony Blinken is departing today for a week-long trip to Israel and a number of Arab countries on a visit that also comes as Israel weighs retaliation against Iran for a ballistic missile attack earlier this month.
His other stops are likely to include Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, state department officials say, and the Associated Press reports.
Since the Hamas attacks in Israel on 7 October 2023, and the Israeli response, Blinken has traveled to the Middle East 10 other times seeking an end to the crisis. His previous trips have yielded little in the way of ending hostilities, but he has managed to increase aid deliveries to Gaza in the past.
His other stops this trip are likely to include Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, officials say.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken is due to meet Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and president Isaac Herzog tomorrow.
Tuesday’s meetings are the first major items on the agenda as Blinken head for the region today in a fresh effort to kickstart ceasefire talks after Israel last week killed Yahya Sinwar, the head of Hamas.
Secretary Blinken will discuss the importance of bringing the war in Gaza to an end, securing the release of all hostages, and alleviating the suffering of the Palestinian people…He will reaffirm the US commitment to work with partners across the region to de-escalate tensions and provide lasting stability,” US state department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement, the Associated Press reports.
As of last Friday, Blinken was in Germany on a visit with US president Joe Biden.
US ‘deeply concerned’ about intelligence leak revealing Israel’s plans for strike on Iran
The Biden administration remains “deeply concerned” about the leak of a pair of highly classified intelligence documents describing Israel’s preparations for a retaliatory strike on Iran, the White House has said.
There is no indication that additional documents have been compromised and US officials have been in communication with Israeli counterparts about the leak, White House spokesperson John Kirby told reporters.
The following is from a story written by my colleagues Richard Luscombe and Dan Sabbagh who provide more detail on the leaks:
The documents are attributed to the US Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency. They are written in a style similar to documents previously leaked from the Pentagon, using classifications familiar to the national security community.
The first document has the title “Israel: air force continues preparations for strike on Iran and conducts a second large-force employment exercise” and the second “Israel: defense forces continue key munitions preparations and covert UAV activity almost certainly for a strike on Iran”. Both are dated 16 October and were first leaked a day later.
Summary of the day so far…
-
Israel carried out a series of airstrikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut, south Lebanon and the Bekaa valley in the morning, hitting buildings belonging to the Hezbollah-run banking institution Al-Qard Al-Hassan.
-
Lebanese state media reported further airstrikes on southern Lebanon in the last few hours, with reports of people being killed in the attacks and residential neighbourhoods being targeted by the Israeli military.
-
There were reports that at least 29 Palestinians, including children, were killed in attacks carried out by Israeli soldiers in the northern Gaza Strip. Israel has been accused of preventing humanitarian missions from reaching areas of northern Gaza with critical supplies, including water, food and medicine for people under siege.
-
The US says it is intensifying diplomatic efforts to get ceasefires between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon and between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
-
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, was also set to depart for a four-day trip to Israel and other countries in the Middle East on Monday.
-
Israeli authorities are still preventing humanitarian missions from reaching areas of northern Gaza with critical supplies including medicine and food for people under siege, the head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency, Unrwa, said.
The US president’s special envoy to Lebanon, Amos Hochstein, has held talks with Lebanese officials in Beirut today as diplomatic efforts to revive ceasefire talks in both Gaza and Lebanon continue.
Hochstein said that it was “not enough” for Israel and Hezbollah to commit to UN resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war and has since been the framework that governs security dynamics on the Lebanese-Israeli border. It calls for southern Lebanon to be free of any troops or weapons other than those of the Lebanese state. The agreement states that Hezbollah and other armed militias must not be present past the Litani River, about 18 miles (30km) north of the border.
Hochstein said that neither Hezbollah nor Israel had adequately implemented the resolution, and that while it would be the basis for the end to current war, the US was seeking to determine what more needed to be done to make sure it was implemented “fairly, accurately and transparently”.
Speaking in Beirut, where he met Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri, a close Hezbollah ally who has been engaging in diplomatic efforts, Hochstein said:
We are working with government of Lebanon, the state of Lebanon, as well as the government of Israel to get to a formula that brings an end to this conflict once and for all..
The United States wants to end this conflict absolutely as soon as possible. That is what President Biden wants, that is what we all are working towards.
