Israel orders more Lebanese residents to flee homes, including from city of Nabatieh – Middle East crisis live

William Christou reports from Beirut for the Guardian

A Lebanese Red Cross convoy accompanied by the Lebanese Army was struck while evacuating wounded from Taybeh, a border-village in southern Lebanon.

Four Lebanese Red Cross volunteers were injured, according to a statement by the Lebanese Red Cross. The Lebanese Red Cross said they had coordinated their movements with UN peacekeepers on the border but were targeted nonetheless. One Lebanese soldier was killed and another wounded, according to a statement by the Lebanese army, which blamed Israel for the attack.

Lebanon’s army has announced that one soldier has been killed, and another wounded, by an Israeli strike.

It said the soldiers were engaged in “carrying out an evacuation and rescue mission with the participation of the Lebanese Red Cross” in Taybeh in southern Lebanon.

Israel has repeatedly claimed it is targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Syria’s state-controlled news agency Sana has reported that Syrian air defences have been confronting “hostile targets” in the skies near Damascus.

More details soon …

Israel’s military has issued another order to residents of neighbouring Lebanon to flee their homes, including from the city of Nabatieh, one of Lebanon’s largest centres of population in the south.

As well as the city, more than 20 other locations are specified. In the message Israel repeated its call that “Hezbollah’s activities force the IDF to act against it forcefully” and that anybody moving southward would be in danger.

Israel has previously ordered 52 other villages inside Lebanon to evacuate.

Earlier Lebanon’s caretaker environment minister said that 1.2 million people have already been displaced from their homes after Israel stepped up its air attacks on Lebanon, which it claims are targeting Hezbollah.

Israel’s military has just announced that in a strike “approximately three months ago” it believes it killed three senior Hamas figures.

It names them as “Rawhi Mushtaha, the head of the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip; Sameh al-Siraj, who held the security portfolio on Hamas’ political bureau and Hamas’ labor committee; and Sami Oudeh, commander of Hamas’ general security mechanism.”

In the statement Israel claims that “Hamas did not announce their deaths as it had done following previous eliminations, in order to prevent loss of morale and functioning of its terror operatives.”

The statement did not explain why Israel had waited to announce the claim. It accused the three men of having conducted terrorism against Israel, and said “The IDF and ISA will continue to pursue all of the terrorists responsible for the 7 October massacre.”

The Lebanese caretaker environment minister Nasser Yassin has said the number of people displaced in Lebanon has exceeded 1.2 million.

In quotes carried by Lebanon’s National News Agency he said:

We are racing against time to house them, and there are now more than 870 shelters, especially in Beirut and Mount Lebanon, where schools have reached their maximum capacity.

On the prospect of a pause in the conflict, he said:

[There are] some ideas that could constitute an entry point to support the diplomatic track regarding Lebanon’s request for a ceasefire, and to stop the machine of destruction and killing to which it is being subjected.

There are Arab initiatives, including those presented by Egypt, Qatar, and other countries, and France always calls for a ceasefire, but it is clear that the Israeli side does not care about international laws and resolution.

We are activating Lebanese diplomatic work at home and abroad to raise awareness of what is happening in Lebanon and focus on how to protect the country and the Lebanese [people].

Lebanese ambassador to UK repeats claim Hezbollah had agreed to ceasefire before Nasrallah assassination by Israel

Patrick Wintour

Patrick Wintour is the Guardian’s diplomatic editor and has this analysis

The Lebanese ambassador to London, Rami Mortada, claimed on Thursday that Hezbollah’s leadership had agreed to a proposed 21 day ceasefire shortly before “hotheads” of Israel blew up the diplomatic path to peace. His comments support a previous assertion made by the Lebanese foreign minister Abdallah Bou Habib.

Mortada, speaking to the BBC, said Hezbollah had come to the table, explaining that after 15 countries, including the US, UK, EU and countries in the Middle East, had issued a ceasefire call “Hezbollah … subscribed to this joint statement, calling for a 21 day ceasefire and immediately starting to look for a diplomatic solution in the framework of the Security Council UN resolution.

“But [Benjamin] Netanyahu,” he continued, “the moment he arrived in New York, he bashed everything [and] made this phenomenal patronising bullying speech at the UN. We were on track trying to discuss a diplomatic alternative to the current abyss, but the hotheads in Israel chose a different path”.

It was known that Israel assassinated Nasrallah shortly after the joint statement calling for a ceasefire, but the claim that Hezbollah’s leadership had come to the negotiating table and actually backed the ceasefire has not been made as clearly before. No statement was issued by Hezbollah at the time, and the focus rapidly shifted to the divisions inside Israel about the ceasefire.

The Lebanese foreign minister, speaking to CNN, said Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah had agreed to a ceasefire shortly before his assassination, saying the Speaker of the Lebanese parliament, Nabih Berry, had consulted with Hezbollah, secured its agreement, and the news was then conveyed to the US and the French.

Both the US and the French, he said, told the Lebanese that Netanyahu had agreed with the ceasefire statement which had been issued by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and US president, Joe Biden.

The US briefed it had issued the statement at the UN about the ceasefire after receiving assurances it was supported by Israel. Netanyahu, faced by a domestic outcry from members of his coalition government, not only backtracked but ordered the assassination of Nasrallah. Far-right interior security minister Itamer Ben-Gvir had threatened to collapse Netanyahu’s coalition if a truce with Hezbollah was agreed.

It is possible the Lebanese are seeking to firm up perception Nasrallah had agreed to de-escalate in order to sharpen the portrait that Netanyahu is the aggressor in this latest spiral of violence.

The Emir of Qatar has sharply criticised Israel, saying that it is carrying out a “collective genocide” on neighbouring countries.

Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani said he called for serious ceasefire efforts to stop what he described as Israel’s “agression” againt Lebanon, and said that no peace is possible in the region unless there is the formation of a Palestinian state.

Several prominent members of Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition have openly said they are against a two-state solution, with finance minister Bezalel Smotrich having said it is his “life’s mission” to thwart the creation of a Palestinian state, and that he is actively working to ensure the occupied West Bank is permanently annexed to Israel.

The emir said he had already warned that Israel has acted with inpunity, and said it was clear that what was happening in the region was a “collective genocide” with an aim of rendering Gaza an uninhabitable place.

Hamas-led authorities in the Gaza Strip have put the death toll from Israel’s military campaign at over 40,000, with over 90,000 injured. The government in Lebanon say that about 1,000 have been killed and 6,000 wounded by Israeli strikes in the last couple of weeks. In recent months Israel has also carried out strikes on targets in Iran, Syria and Yemen. Israel has been targeted by missiles from Iran, repeated rocket fire from Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, and from Yemen’s Houthis. Israel began its military campaign in Gaza after the 7 October surprise attack by Hamas inside southern Israel.

Qatar has, since 7 October 2023, acted as a broker alongside Egypt and the US in trying to organise a ceasefire and hostage exchange between Hamas and Israel. A limited ceasefire and the release of some hostages was achieved towards the end of last year, but negotiations over the last ten months have proved fruitless.