Middle East conflict live updates: Israeli airstrikes continue to batter Beirut on October 7 anniversary; DFAT hits back at Iran for summoning ambassador

Thanks for joining us today on the blog, that will be all for our Middle East coverage today. Here’s an update of what happened today:

• Prime Minister Anthony Albanese moved a motion to condemn the October 7 attack, which Opposition Leader Peter Dutton opposed because the motion included a call for a ceasefire. The motion still passed with 85 ayes and 54 noes.
• At least 21 people, including five children and two women, were killed in strikes in central Gaza on Monday night, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where the bodies were taken.
• Almost 4000 Australians and their immediate family members are registered with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to depart Lebanon. As of October 8, 1215 Australians, permanent residents and their immediate family members have been assisted by the government to depart Lebanon. Further flights are planned for coming days, but the government continues to repeat that flights out of Beirut are subject to demand, operational capacity and the security situation.
• A barrage of five rockets triggered air-raid sirens in central Israel, which wounded two women and caused minor damage. The Israeli military said the rockets were fired from the area of Khan Younis.
• Across the world, vigils were held to mark the October 7 attack, including hundreds of people gathering at the site of the Nova music festival in Israel to pay tribute.

People on Monday visiting the site of the Nova music festival in southern Israel where hundreds of revelers were killed and abducted by Hamas and taken into Gaza one year ago.Credit: AP

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s motion condemning the October 7 attacks has passed in the House of Representatives despite Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s refusal to support it.

Earlier in the chamber, Albanese moved a motion condemning Hamas’ terror attack while also calling for a ceasefire.

Dutton accused Albanese of speaking “out of both sides of his mouth”, saying it was not something the Coalition would support.

“Today is the day when this parliament was meant to mark what should be a solemn moment, a solemn moment where 1200 people lost their lives and that is the position we put to the house,” Dutton said earlier.

Despite the lack of support from Dutton, the motion passed with 85 ayes and 54 noes after teal and independent MPs backed Labor.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese during a previous Question Time.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has responded to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s motion on the October 7 attacks, saying the Coalition refuses to support it because “this government has sought to walk both sides of the street in relation to what has been a very divisive debate for our country”.

Dutton condemned Albanese for moving a motion that he described as politically motivated.

“So in the motion moved by the prime minister today, is not just words of comfort and words of recognition in relation to October 7, and I acknowledge those words in his motion. But of course, it goes beyond that, and it’s an extension of the way in which the prime minister has conducted the debate himself over the course of the last 12 months, trying to please all people in this debate,” he said.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“Now is not the time to call for [this] as the prime minister does in his motion … there are other sections here, which go well beyond the intent of what should be a motion to mark the loss of life of 1200 people on the first anniversary.

“But of course, the prime minister is trying to speak out of both sides of his mouth, and that is not something that we will support in relation to this debate, none of us supports the loss of civilian life and everybody in this place, I’m sure, condemned the actions of a terrorist organisation.

“Today is the day where this parliament was meant to mark what should be a solemn moment, a solemn moment where 1200 people lost their lives and that is the position that we put to the house.

“We have put to this prime minister a more than reasonable position and the prime minister has rejected that position for his own political domestic advancement and that has been recognised by millions of Australians, and for that, the prime minister should be condemned.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has delivered an impassioned defence of his government’s stance on the widening war in the Middle East as he marked the first anniversary of Hamas’ October 7 attacks.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and some Jewish leaders – including at an October 7 commemoration event attended by Albanese on Monday – have savaged Labor for failing to more explicitly and strongly back Israel.

Albanese pushed back against opposition arguments that Australia had split from the US, whose president Joe Biden consistently called for a ceasefire but also threw his weight behind Israel’s right to take out Hezbollah in Lebanon.

“Let’s be very clear: Australia’s position is consistent with other democratic countries. I’ve issued multiple statements with the prime ministers of Canada and New Zealand,” Albanese said in the House of Representatives.

“We know it’s only through diplomatic efforts as this cycle of conflict and bloodshed can be broken. Escalation denies diplomacy any chance of working.”

Albanese quoted Biden who last week said a ceasefire in Gaza was still necessary despite the metastasising war with Iran and its terrorist proxies.

Australia backed Israel’s right to defend itself, the prime minister said. “We always have and we always will,” he said.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in parliament.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has moved a motion in the House of Representatives condemning the October 7 attacks.

Rising among members of parliament, Albanese said this year has been one of “pain, loss and grief”.

I move that the House of Representatives:

A) reiterates its unequivocal condemnation of Hamas’ terror attacks on Israel, which took place on 7th of October, 2023, in which more than 1200 innocent Israelis were killed.

B) recognises that hundreds more innocent people were subjected to brutality and violence on that day.

C) calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all the remaining hostages.

D) condemns the murder of hostages and the inhumane conditions of violence, including sexual violence, that hostages have experienced.

E) mourns with all impacted by this heinous acts.

F) condemns antisemitism in all its forms and stands with Jewish Australians who have felt the cold shadows of antisemitism reaching into the present day.

G) reiterates Australia’s consistent position is to call for the protection of civilian lives in adherence to international law.

H) mourns the death of all innocent civilians, recognising the number of Palestinian civilians killed in Gaza and the catastrophic humanitarian situation.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.Credit: James Brickwood

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton met this morning to work out a written motion that would commemorate the October 7 Hamas attacks in parliament this week.

The major party leaders want both houses of parliament to agree to a motion expressing sorrow about the massacre of about 1200 people in Israel.

Both men attended vigils with the Jewish community last night, which was the first anniversary of the attack that precipitated Israel’s military operations that have killed tens of thousands in Gaza.

Dutton won a standing ovation at an event in Sydney. Albanese was in the crowd but did not speak at an event in Melbourne.

Peter Dutton at a Jewish vigil to mark October 7.Credit: Wolter Peeters

At least 21 people, including five children and two women, were killed in strikes in central Gaza on Monday night, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital, where the bodies were taken.

The strikes took place on the anniversary of the October 7 militant attack in southern Israel that triggered the war between Israel and Hamas.

Two strikes hit houses in the Bureij refugee camp. An Associated Press journalist counted the bodies along with about a dozen wounded, including several children.

Emergency responders said more people were thought to be under the rubble.

The Palestinian death toll in the war in Gaza is nearing 42,000, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and militants.

AP

Palestinians amongst debris in a tented area following Israeli shelling near the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah on Thursday.Credit: Bloomberg

US vice presidential candidate Tim Walz has visited the Nova Music Festival exhibition in Los Angeles to mark one year of the October 7 attacks.

Walz said in a statement: “It’s time for a hostage deal and ceasefire that ensures Israel is secure, all hostages are released [and] the suffering in Gaza ends.”

Vice Presidential candidate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, visits the Nova Music Festival Exhibition. Credit: AP

Almost 4000 Australians and their immediate family members are registered with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to depart Lebanon.

As of October 8, 1215 Australians, permanent residents and their immediate family members have been assisted by the government to depart Lebanon.

Australian Government officials assist Australian citizens.

This includes six Australian government flights, with two on October 5 carrying 407 passengers, two on October 6 carrying 448 passengers and two on October 7 carrying 311 passengers.

Further flights are planned for coming days but the government continues to repeat that flights out of Beirut are subject to demand, operational capacity and the security situation.

Two more flights are scheduled to leave Beirut on Tuesday.

More than 1000 Australians have now been evacuated from Lebanon, as the first repatriation flight lands in Sydney overnight.

Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth confirmed on Seven’s Sunrise that more than 1000 Australians had left Beirut, but more than 3000 remain in war-torn Lebanon after indicating they would like to leave. Many evacuated Australians are in Cyprus, awaiting return flights to Australia.

“It’s really important that we continue working on this, but we do have to be mindful of the security situation, along with a number of other factors,” Rishworth said.

“My strong message and the message of the government is for people to take any opportunity if they want to leave, to get out, to take the first opportunity that comes their way. But we will keep ... working to support Australians to get out of Beirut.”

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Penny Wong has welcomed the 349 Australians who arrived in Sydney last night.

Wong confirmed another two flights will leave Beirut for Cyprus today.