Israel-Gaza war: Israel launches airstrike on Beirut, Lebanon in retaliation for dead kids
Israel has launched an air strike on Beirut targeting the Hezbollah commander allegedly responsible for the deaths of a dozen Israeli kids.
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The Israeli Defence Force has killed two people in strikes on Beirut, Lebanon in its quest to take out a Hezbollah commander they say gave the order to fire at football field where Israeli kids were playing.
A source close to Hezbollah told AFP the air strike was on the southern Beirut suburbs.
“Two people were killed in the Israeli strike,” said the source requesting anonymity after earlier saying the target was a “leading commander” of the group.
The strike came days after Israel vowed to retaliate over Saturday’s deadly attack on the annexed Golan Heights that killed 12 children blamed on the Iran-backed Hezbollah.
The group had denied any involvement.
Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant posted on X minutes after the strike was carried out.
“Hezbollah crossed the red line,” Gallant wrote.
CEASEFIRE BLAME GAME
Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas have accused each other of stalling a ceasefire deal as international pressure mounts to put an end to the war in Gaza after more than nine months.
Hamas accused Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu of delaying a Gaza ceasefire and hostage exchange deal.
It said he had set new conditions that mark a “retreat” from an earlier draft.
The statement came after Egyptian, Qatari and US mediators met with Israeli negotiators in Rome on Sunday local time.
“We in the Hamas movement have listened to the mediators regarding what transpired recently in the Rome meeting, concerning the ceasefire negotiations and prisoner exchange,” the group said in a statement.
“It is clear from what the mediators conveyed that Netanyahu has returned to his strategy of procrastination, stalling, and evading reaching an agreement by setting new conditions and demands,” it added.
The new terms, Hamas said, represent “a retreat” from an earlier draft communicated by mediators.
However Mr Netanyahu’s office said: “Hamas leadership is preventing an agreement” and denied Israel had made changes to the draft outline.
Mr Netanyahu’s office said it stood by the principles of the original outline, which it said featured “maximising the number of living hostages, Israeli control over the Philadelphi Corridor and preventing the passage of terrorists, weapons and ammunition to the northern Gaza Strip.”
The Hamas attack on southern Israel that started the war resulted in the deaths of 1197 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Militants also seized 251 hostages, 111 of whom are still held captive in Gaza, including 39 the military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has killed at least 39,363 people, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, which does not provide details on civilian and militant deaths.
DUTTON’S SUDDEN VISIT TO ISRAEL
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is part way through a three-day trip to Israel, where he will meet with the senior members of Prime Minister’s Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
Mr Dutton’s trip will stretch from Monday to Thursday August 1, and will involve him meeting hostages impacted by Hamas’ October 7 attacks, and their family.
Shortly after landing on Monday evening, Sky News’ Sharri Markson reported Dutton was meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz, and will then meet with Israeli President Isaac Herzog.
His itinerary also includes a visit to the kibbutzes which have come under Hamas fire, as well as the site of the Nova music festival in Israel’s south, where more than 350 civilian attendees were killed in a surprise attack by Hamas militants.
In a statement announcing his trip, Mr Dutton said the relationship between Australia and Israel is “deep and abiding”.
“Today, Australia and Israel have a strong bilateral relationship traversing trade, agriculture, technology, security and more,” he said.
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AUSSIES WARNED AGAINST LEBANON TRAVEL
Australians are warned not to travel to Lebanon due to fears a conflict with Israel will escalate.
“Australians in Lebanon should leave immediately while commercial flights remain available. The security situation could deteriorate rapidly throughout Lebanon with little or no notice,” the advice on the Australian government’s Smart Traveller site states.
“Some airlines have postponed or cancelled some flights. Further flight cancellations and disruptions could occur with little or no notice.”
We continue to advise that Australians do not travel to Lebanon. Australians in Lebanon should leave immediately while commercial flights remain available (1/2).
— Smartraveller (@Smartraveller) July 29, 2024
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) has said, “The leaders of Australia, Canada and New Zealand made clear on 26 July the grave concerns we hold about further escalation and destabilising actions in the Middle East and the need for involved actors to exercise restraint and de-escalate.
“We continue to advise that Australians do not travel to Lebanon due to the volatile security situation and the risk of the security situation deteriorating further … The Government may not be able to assist Australians to leave in such circumstances.”
Some flights in Lebanon’s capital Beirut have been cancelled or delayed.
German airline group Lufthansa has announced it had suspended its services to Beirut until August 5.
Other companies including Turkish Airlines, Greek airline Aegean Airlines and Ethiopian Air have also cancelled a number of flights into Beirut.
ISRAEL PM VISITS SITE OF SOCCER PITCH ROCKET ATTACK
Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday vowed a “severe” response to a deadly strike that killed youths in the annexed Golan Heights.
On a visit to the site of the rocket strike which killed 12 children in the town of Majdal Shams, Netanyahu said: “The State of Israel will not, and cannot, let this pass. Our response will come and it will be severe.”
He was greeted by protests during the visit, which came after mourners gathered in the Druze Arab town to bury the last victim, 11-year-old Guevara Ibrahim.
Israel’s security cabinet “authorised the prime minister and the defence minister to decide on the manner and timing of the response” on Sunday, Mr Netanyahu’s office said.
Hezbollah has evacuated some positions in south and east Lebanon, a source close to the group told AFP.
ISRAEL VOW RETALIATION OVER KIDS SOCCER PITCH ATTACK
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has vowed to “hit the enemy hard”, raising fears that the war in Gaza will spread.
The rocket strike in the Druze village of Majdal Shams hit a football pitch and killed children who local authorities said were aged 10 to 16.
Large crowds of mourners, many in traditional high white and red Druze headwear, surrounded the coffins as they were carried through the village, territory captured from Syria by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.
“A heavy tragedy, a dark day has come to Majdal Shams,” head of the Majdal Shams local council Dolan Abu Saleh said in comments broadcast on Israeli television.
The families of the children killed in the attack have refused to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Iran warned Israel any new military “adventures” in Lebanon could lead to “unforeseen consequences”.
Western powers, including France, Germany and Britain, condemned the attack and appealed for calm.
The UK also condemned the rocket attack and said it was “deeply concerned about the risk of further escalation and destabilisation”.
The rocket fire came after an Israeli strike killed four Hezbollah fighters in south Lebanon prompting the Iran-backed militant group to announce a flurry of retaliatory rocket attacks against Golan and northern Israel.
However Hezbollah has denied responsibility for the soccer pitch attack.
The rocket fire in Majdal Shams prompted Mr Netanyahu to return early from the United States.
Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib has asked the US to urge restraint from Israel.
‘NEWBORN’ AMONG DEAD IN AIR STRIKE ON TENTS
In Gaza’s southern city of Khan Yunis, the civil defence agency reported five people were killed in an Israeli strike that hit several tents housing displaced Palestinians at a humanitarian zone.
A witness told AFP a newborn was among the dead in Al-Mawasi near Khan Yunis city, where tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians have sought refuge from the war, now nearing its 11th month.
Since last week, Israeli forces have operated in and around Khan Yunis including in parts of the coastal area of Al-Mawasi.
TRUMP SLAMS HARRIS OVER ISRAEL COMMENTS
Former US President Donald Trump slammed Vice President Kamala Harris for her “disrespectful” comments about Israel, as he hosted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
Mr Trump’s comments came after reports that Mr Netanyahu was upset after his first meeting with Ms Harris ended with the vice president vowing she would “not be silent” on “dead children” in Gaza.
“I think her remarks were disrespectful, they weren’t very nice pertaining to Israel. I actually don’t know how a person who is Jewish could vote for her,” Mr Trump, 78, said.
Ms Harris, whose husband Doug Emhoff is Jewish, slammed Israel for killing “far too many” civilians in the Gaza Strip.
After embracing Mr Trump like an old friend, Mr Netanyahu sat opposite the Republican presidential nominee and suggested that Ms Harris’s frank comments could negatively impact the pending US-backed ceasefire plan.
“We’re trying to get [a ceasefire deal] and I think to the extent that Hamas understands that there’s no daylight between Israel and the United States, that expedites the deal. And I would hope that those comments don’t change that,” Mr Netanyahu said.
Mr Trump warned Mr Netanyahu that World War III could break out if he doesn’t defeat Ms Harris in November.
“If we win, it’ll be very simple. It’s all going to work out and very quickly,” Mr Trump told reporters at the start of the meeting. “If we don’t, you’re going to end up with major wars in the Middle East and maybe a third world war.”
In one of her first major appearances on the world stage as the presumptive presidential nominee, Ms Harris highlighted the “images of dead children” in Gaza over the past nine months as “devastating”.
BIDEN, HARRIS PUSH CEASEFIRE
US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris pushed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to a Gaza ceasefire, with friendly greetings masking tense ties.
Just days after the 81-year-old Mr Biden’s stunning announcement that he would not seek re-election, he and Mr Netanyahu put on a good-humoured show in their first meeting at the White House during Mr Biden’s presidency.
“From a proud Zionist Jew to a proud Zionist Irish American, I want to thank you for 50 years of public service and 50 years of support for the State of Israel,” Mr Netanyahu said in tribute to Mr Biden at the start of the Oval Office meeting.
“And I look forward to discussing with you today and working with you in the months ahead.”
But Mr Netanyahu, 74, also met separately with presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Ms Harris – reflecting the new political reality of Mr Biden being a lame duck for the next six months.
Ms Harris signalled a major shift in Gaza policy, telling the Israeli PM she had “serious concern” over casualties and telling him to get a peace deal done.
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