opening summary
Hello and welcome to The Guardian's live coverage of the conflicts in the Middle East.
Air raid sirens sounded in Tel Aviv on Tuesday as Hezbollah shelled the Nirid area on the outskirts of the city with missiles.
The Israeli military said that about 20 rockets were fired in the latest bombardment into Lebanon – five towards central Israel and 15 towards the north – and that attempts were made to intercept them. Police added that they had received reports of interceptor pieces falling in the Tel Aviv area. There were no immediate reports of injuries, Israeli media reported.
it's coming Antonio Blinken Israel was due to arrive on Tuesday, the first stop on a wide-ranging tour of the Middle East aimed at restarting ceasefire talks in Gaza following the death of the Hamas leader. Yahya Chinwar Last week.
The US Secretary of State's visit, the 11th to the region where Hamas militants attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, comes as the Israeli military intensified its campaign against Iran-aligned Hezbollah militants in the Palestinian territories and Lebanon.
Blinken will discuss with Israel and other countries how to find a diplomatic solution to the conflict with Hezbollah and will continue Washington's dialogue with the Israelis over their expected response to Iran's missile attacks, according to reports.
In Lebanon, Israel launched more than a dozen attacks in the southern suburbs of Beirut on Monday night. It was the second night in a row that Beirut came under heavy shelling after Israel carried out more than 15 airstrikes against Hezbollah-linked banking institutions the night before. While most districts in Beirut's southern suburbs have been empty for almost a month, at least three of Monday's attacks hit the densely populated Ouzai neighborhood, which was still packed with people because it had not been hit before. .
At least four people, including a child, were killed and 24 others were wounded when one of the Israeli airstrikes struck outside the entrance to Rafik Hariri University Hospital, Lebanon's largest public hospital. Israel also accused Hezbollah of operating under the Sahel General Hospital in the capital's southern suburbs.
Israel's military spokesman said the bunker containing “millions of dollars in gold and cash” was located directly beneath the Sahel Hospital, which serves as Hezbollah's central financial center and was previously used as a hideout for a former Hezbollah leader. , Hasan Nasrallah. Daniel HagariAn IDF spokesperson did not provide evidence, instead showing animated graphics purportedly showing a bunker beneath the hospital.
Fadi AlameThe hospital director, a member of the Lebanese parliament, said Israel's accusations were unfounded.
“The hospital has operating rooms, it does not have tunnels or bunkers. “It's all pure fiction,” Alame told CNN, while calling on the Lebanese army, the UN and journalists to inspect the hospital to refute Israeli reports.
Among other news:
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Israel said it was planning more attacks on a Hezbollah-run financial institution in Lebanon later on Monday. He said he had been attacked the night before and was using customer deposits to finance attacks against Israel. At least 15 branches of al-Gard al-Hasan were attacked on Sunday night in the southern suburbs of Beirut, throughout southern Lebanon and in the eastern Bekaa Valley, where Hezbollah has a strong presence. An attack leveled a nine-story building in Beirut with a branch inside.
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were Reports say that dozens of Palestinians have been killed, including children. In attacks by Israeli forces in the northern Gaza Strip. At least 10 people were killed in an Israeli attack on the Jabaliya Preparatory School in the Al-Fawqa neighborhood, which served as a UNRWA shelter for displaced people, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.
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Joe Biden's administration There is “deep concern.” About the leak of a couple of top secret intelligence documents The White House outlined Israel's preparations for a retaliatory strike against Iran. A spokesman said there was no indication that additional documents had been compromised and that U.S. officials had been in contact with their Israeli counterparts about the leak.
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Iran warned that the United States would take “full responsibility” for any Israeli retaliatory attack in the Islamic Republic, after US President Joe Biden indicated that he was aware of Israel's plans to do so. Amir Seyed Irani, Iran's ambassador to the United Nations, called Biden's comments “deeply alarming and provocative.”
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The UN warned on Monday that almost no aid had entered the besieged Jabaliya refugee camp. In northern GazaA two-week Israeli military campaign has killed hundreds of people and trapped thousands more.
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Leaders of the United Nations World Food Program and the United Nations children's agency, UnicefCatherine Russell and Cindy McCain personally asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for help to “relieve the suffering of countless civilians” in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon, according to a new letter.
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1,000 women and children Those in need of medical care will soon be evacuated from Gaza to Europe, the head of the European branch of the World Health Organization said. Israel, which is besieging the war-torn Palestinian territory, has “promised 1,000 more medical evacuations to the EU in the coming months,” Hans Kluk said.
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The US military has quickly sent its advanced anti-missile system to Israel, which is now “in place”, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said. THAAD, or Terminal High Altitude Area Defense System, is an important part of the US military's layered air defense systems and adds to Israel's already formidable missile defenses.
