Israel strikes Beirut as residents flee and Lebanon border crossing cut off – latest

The South Korean military has evacuated 97 citizens and their family members from Lebanon amid Israel’s invasion and escalating tensions in the region, the country’s foreign ministry said.

A KC-330 aircraft carrying the evacuees, including Lebanese family members, departed from Beirut on Friday and is expected to return to South Korea on Saturday afternoon.

South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol ordered military aircraft to be deployed to rescue citizens from parts of the Middle East affected by the escalating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

Former US president and Republican nominee Donald Trump said Israel should target Iran’s nuclear facilities, days after president Joe Biden said that an “all-out war” in the Middle East should be avoided.

“That’s the thing you want to hit, right?..I mean, it’s the biggest risk we have, nuclear weapons,” Mr Trump said at a campaign event in North Carolina, adding that Israel should “worry about everything else later”.

“If they’re going to do it, they’re going to do it. But we’ll find out whatever their plans are,” he added.

US Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris met with Arab American and Muslim leaders in Flint, Michigan, who are angered by the White House’s support for Israel’s wars in Gaza and Lebanon.

During the meeting, Ms Harris reportedly discussed efforts to prevent a regional war.

“Emgage Action asked Vice President Harris to impress upon President Biden the urgency of bringing an immediate end to the violence,” Wa’el Alzayat, the chief of Emgage Action, a group of organisations seeking to empower Muslim Americans, said.

“She agrees that this war needs to end,” Mr Alzayat added.

Israeli strike in northern Lebanon has killed a leader of Hamas armed wing along with three of his family members, Hamas media said.

Israel stated that it is considering various options in response to Iran’s missile strike on Tuesday, which Iran launched in retaliation for Israel’s invasion of Lebanon.

More than 2,000 people have been killed so far in Israel’s attacks across Lebanon, including 127 children and 261 women, according to the country’s health ministry.

Oil prices have risen on the possibility of an attack on Iran’s oil facilities as Israel pursues its goals of pushing back Hezbollah militants in Lebanon and eliminating their Hamas allies in Gaza.

US President Joe Biden said on Friday he would think about alternatives to striking Iranian oil fields if he were in Israel’s shoes, adding that he thinks Israel has not yet concluded how to respond to Iran.

Many buildings have been reduced to rubble in Hezbollah’s stronghold in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

Nearly all the storefronts in the main market street, Moawad Souk, were damaged and the road filled with broken glass.

“We’re alive but don’t know for how long,” said Nouhad Chaib, a 40-year-old man already displaced from the south.

The Islamic Health Authority, a civil defense agency linked to Hezbollah, said 11 medics had been killed in three separate Israeli attacks across southern Lebanon on Friday.

The Israeli military said that in the past day it had struck several weapons storage facilities, command and control centres, and additional Hezbollah infrastructure sites in the Beirut area.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, visiting Beirut and meeting with top Lebanese officials, said Tehran supported efforts for a ceasefire in Lebanon provided it was backed by Hezbollah and was simultaneous with a Gaza ceasefire.

A bugging device was found in Boris Johnson’s bathroom after a visit by Benjamin Netanyahu when he was foreign secretary, the former prime minister has claimed.

Mr Johnson alleged that his security team had made the discovery when they did a sweep of the toilets after the Israeli premier had used them during a meeting in 2017.

Writing in his memoir, “Unleashed”, the former Tory MP said Mr Netanyahu had excused himself during talks at his old office to use the washroom, described as “a secret annex… a bit like the gents in a posh London club.”

Iran’s missile salvo was partly in retaliation for Israel’s killing of Hezbollah secretary-general Nasrallah, a dominant figure who had turned the group into a powerful armed and political force with reach across the Middle East.

Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told a huge crowd in Tehran Iran and its regional allies would not back down.

Israel’s adversaries in the region should “double your efforts and capabilities… and resist the aggressive enemy,” Khamenei said in a rare appearance leading Friday prayers, at which he mentioned Nasrallah and called Iran’s attack on Israel legal and legitimate. He said Iran would not “procrastinate nor act hastily to carry out its duty” in confronting Israel.

The semi-official Iranian news agency SNN quoted Revolutionary Guards deputy commander Ali Fadavi as saying on Friday that if Israel attacked, Tehran would target Israeli energy and gas installations.

Axios reporter Barak Ravid cited three Israeli officials as saying that Hezbollah official Safieddine, rumoured to be Nasrallah’s successor, had been targeted in an underground bunker in Beirut overnight but his fate was not clear.

Israeli Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said on Friday the military was still assessing the Thursday night airstrikes, which he said targeted Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters.

Earlier the Israeli military reported that it had killed the head of Hezbollah’s communication networks, Mohammad Rashid Sakafi. It declined to comment on the report that Safieddine was targeted.

Hezbollah made no comment on the fate of Sakafi.

Khamenei said assassinations would just spur more attacks. “Every strike launched by any group against Israel is a service to the region and to all humanity,” he said, adding that Afghanistan should join the “defence”.

A blast was heard and smoke was seen over Beirut’s southern suburbs in the early hours of Saturday, Reuters witnesses said, shortly after the Israeli military issued two alerts for residents of the area to immediately evacuate.

The first alert on Saturday called on residents specifically present in a building at Burj al-Barajneh neighborhood. The second alert mentioned those present in a building at Choueifat district.

The strikes on Beirut come as fighting between the Lebanese Hezbollah group and Israel rages amid Israel’s military escalation in the country.