Middle East: Netanyahu says Hezbollah tried to kill him

Israel struck branches of a Hezbollah-linked financial association in the Lebanese capital Beirut late Sunday, Lebanese state media said.

The official National News Agency (NNA) reported several strikes in the city's southern suburbs targeting Al-Qard Al-Hassan, which Israel says is financing Hezbollah's operations.

NNA also reported similar targets in Hermel and Baalbek in the Bekaa Valley region in Lebanon's east. One of them was a commercial market housing a building formerly used by the financial association.

Ahead of the strikes, Israel's military issued evacuation calls for several buildings in Beirut, warning it would attack the branches of the financial body, the Bekaa Valley and southern Lebanon.

Al-Qard Al-Hassan provides interest-free loans and essentially acts as a bank, despite not being registered as such.

The firm was described by a senior Israeli intelligence official as an integral component of a financial network that helps fund Hezbollah's operations.

The Israeli military said on Sunday night it would target Hezbollah's financial arm with strikes on a "large number of targets" in Beirut and elsewhere.

"In the coming hours we will issue an evacuation warning to Lebanese residents in Beirut and other locations to evacuate from sites that are used to fund Hezbollah's terrorism activities," Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said.

The Israeli military's Arabic spokesperson Avichay Adraee told civilians near a firm accused of financing Hezbollah to evacuate.

"Al-Qard Al-Hassan is involved in financing Hezbollah's terrorist operations against Israel. Therefore, the IDF (military) has decided to target this terrorist infrastructure," Adraee said on social media.

Hezbollah is an Iran-backed political party and militia in Lebanon. Some countries, including the US and Germany, have classified Hezbollah as a terror group while the EU considers only Hezbollah's armed wing to be a terror group.

The United Nations peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon, UNIFIL, accused the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) of demolishing a watchtower and fence at one of its positions.

"Earlier today, an IDF bulldozer deliberately demolished an observation tower and perimeter fence of a UN position in Marwahin," UNIFIL said in a statement on Sunday.

"Yet again, we remind the IDF and all actors of their obligations to ensure the safety and security of UN personnel and property and to respect the inviolability of UN premises at all times."

UNIFIL vowed to continue its mission.

"The IDF has repeatedly demanded that UNIFIL vacate its positions along the Blue Line and has deliberately damaged UN positions," it said.

"Despite the pressure being exerted on the mission and our troop-contributing countries, peacekeepers remain in all positions."

Israel did not immediately comment on the accusations. Israel has disputed the UN's account of events during previous incidents.

Fourteen Israeli strikes were reported on the Lebanese border village of Khiam over just a few minutes, Beirut-based state media reported.

"Enemy aircraft launched 14 consecutive strikes on Khiam... in 15 minutes," the state-run National News Agency said.

The media outlet added that Israel had also launched its first raid on the town of Marjeyoun, which sits close to the joint border.

The Israeli military has continued to pound Hezbollah targets in south Lebanon and Beirut throughout Sunday.

The Lebanese army says three of its soldiers have been killed in an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon.

The Israeli military struck an army vehicle near Ain Ebel, not far from the border with Israel, according to Lebanese military officials.

Lebanon's army has largely kept to the sidelines in the war between the pro-Iranian Hezbollah militia and Israel.

However, there have been repeated strikes in which several Lebanese soldiers have been killed and injured.

Lebanon's military is seen as a respected institution domestically but is not considered powerful enough to impose its will on Hezbollah or defend the country from an Israeli invasion.

The United Nations peacekeeping mission to Lebanon (UNIFIL) said it was struggling to gain access to clean water supplies, partly due to blocked roads from Israel's war with Hezbollah.

"Yesterday, peacekeepers in Meiss ej Jebel ran out of water after weeks without resupply. Access to positions near the Blue Line has been tough. While most positions have enough food and water for over 10 days, this one hadn't received supplies since September 29 due to blocked roads," UNIFIL wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

The UN children's agency UNICEF, meanwhile, highlighted the danger of cholera outbreaks along the Blue Line between Israel and Lebanon that UNIFIL monitors. 

"Continued bombardment is disrupting vital water and sanitation services across Lebanon, increasing the risk of cholera outbreaks, especially for young children in vulnerable communities," UNICEF added.

It said that at least 28 water supply facilities had been damaged, impacting supply to 360,000 people, mainly in southern Lebanon.

Israel plans to start legal proceedings against French President Emmanuel Macron after France banned Israeli firms from participating in next month's naval trade show in Paris, Foreign Minister Israel Katz said.

"The boycott of Israeli companies for the second time, or the imposition of unacceptable conditions, are undemocratic measures that are not acceptable between friendly nations. I urge President Macron to cancel them entirely," Katz said on the social media platform X.

He continued: "Israel is the only state on the front lines in the fight against the radical Islamic regime, and France, along with the entire Western world, should stand with us — not against us."

The organizer of Salon Euronaval, which runs from November 4-7, said the French government ordered it not to allow Israeli delegations to rent stands or show equipment — a decision it said affected seven companies.

Euronaval said Israeli delegates could still attend the show, the world’s largest naval weapons fair, which will host nearly 500 companies.

Macron's government has been increasingly outspoken about Israel's conduct in the wars in Gaza and Lebanon. The French leader earlier this month called for an arms embargo on Israel.

In June, a French court reportedly banned Israeli firms from attending the Eurosatory international arms fair, which was overruled on appeal.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a phone call with Donald Trump this week in which he told the US presidential candidate that, while Israel will listen to the United States, it will continue to act in its own interests.

A statement from Netanyahu's office said the prime minister "reiterated what he has also said publicly," namely: "Israel takes into account the issues the US administration raises but, in the end, will make its decisions based on its national interests."

Speaking at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, Republican candidate Trump had also referred to the call, claiming Netanyahu had told him: "It's incredible what's happened."

He then claimed that the Israeli prime minister "wouldn't listen to [incumbent President Joe] Biden."

On Friday, Trump told reporters that "[Netanyahu] is doing a good job" and claimed that "Biden is trying to hold him back ... and he probably should be doing the opposite."

Trump said he was glad that Netanyahu "decided to do what he had to do."

It wasn't completely clear what exactly any of the remarks explicitly referred to, although the latter may have been a reference to Israel's assassination of Hamas leader Yahya al-Sinwar last week.

The UN's Middle East envoy, Tor Wennesland, has condemned the Israeli airstrikes on the town of Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza in a message posted to X.

He said the territory's north was experiencing "horrifying scenes" as well as an "ever-worsening humanitarian crisis."

The comments came after Israeli strikes on Beit Lahiya overnight left 87 dead or missing, and 40 wounded, according to a tally provided by the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.

"This follows weeks of intensified operations resulting in scores of civilian fatalities and near total lack of humanitarian aid reaching populations in the north," he said.

He called for an end to attacks on civilians, for more humanitarian aid to be allowed into Gaza, and for a halt to the displacement of Palestinians.

He also called for hostages taken in Hamas' October 7 terror attack on Israel to be released.

Israeli strikes on the town of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip overnight into Sunday have left at least 87 people dead or missing, according to Gaza's Hamas-run Health Ministry.

It said another 40 people were wounded in the strikes.

The Israeli military said it was investigating reports of the incident. Earlier, it said the figure of 73 dead — a previous toll provided by the Gaza health authorities — appeared to have been exaggerated, considering the munitions it used in the attack.

For the last two weeks, Israel has been carrying out a large-scale operation in the Palestinian territory's north to attack what it says are Hamas targets.

Gaza's Health Ministry said rescue operations were being hampered by communications problems and that the Israeli military operation was still ongoing in the area.

"Victims are still under the rubble and on the road and ambulance teams and civil emergency can't reach them," a ministry statement said.

Lebanese paramilitary group Hezbollah said on Sunday that it had launched large-scale rocket attacks on Israeli army bases near Haifa, Safed and Tiberias in northern Israel.

Describing the Safed strike, the Iran-backed group said it had fired "a big rocket salvo," which it said was "in defense of Lebanon" and "in response to the Israeli enemy's attacks on villages and homes."

Hezbollah claimed that it was the seventh such attack on Safed and its surrounding areas in the last two days. No casualties have yet been reported.

Earlier on Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that "around 70 projectiles" had been fired from southern Lebanon towards the regions north of the Sea of Galilee, of which "a certain number" were intercepted.

A further 200 rockets had been fired towards the region on Saturday, the IDF said.

On Thursday, Hezbollah had vowed to launch a new "escalatory phase" in its war with Israel.

The United Nations has called for Israel to open more routes into the Gaza Strip to allow humanitarian aid to be delivered.

"In Gaza, we can't run a humanitarian operation at the scale needed with just a few unreliable and poorly accessible crossing points," the UN's humanitarian affairs office (OCHA) said on X, formerly Twitter.

"Aid has only been facilitated when it has reached the people who need it, when they need it," OCHA said.

Israel's military launched a fresh offensive against Palestinian militant group Hamas in the north of the Gaza Strip two weeks ago.

Aid organizations have repeatedly called on Israel to open the border routes it controls, warning that tens of thousands of civilians are facing catastrophic conditions and hunger.

Israel's offensive in Gaza since the October 7 terror attacks has killed at least 42,603 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory's Health Ministry.

There were at least 84 deaths in the past 24 hours, a ministry statement said, adding that 99,795 people have been wounded since the latest conflict began.

The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants, but the UN and multiple humanitarian organizations consider the casualty numbers broadly reliable.

Around half of Gaza's 2.3 million inhabitants are children and the UN says the majority of civilians killed have been women and children. 

Israel launched its Gaza operation after the Hamas attacks in southern Israel that killed some 1,200 people on October 7, 2023. 

Israel says its air force carried out an attack against a Hezbollah command center in Beirut early Sunday.

An army statement said Israeli jets also attacked an underground workshop for producing weapons.

The information could not be independently verified.

A video of the attack posted by the Israeli army on social media appeared to show a multi-story building being struck.

Earlier on Sunday, Lebanese state media reported two Israeli strikes in the Hezbollah stronghold of Dahiyeh in southern Beirut.

The Israeli army ordered civilians located near buildings it said were "affiliated with Hezbollah" in southern Beirut to evacuate early Sunday.

The warning was followed by airstrikes in the area, according to Lebanese state media.

Lebanon's National News Agency said Israeli warplanes carried out two strikes, one of which hit a residential building in the neighborhood of Haret Hreik.

Earlier, the Israeli military's Arabic spokesman Avichay Adraee issued an "urgent warning" on social media for civilians near specific buildings in the neighborhoods of Haret Hreik and Hadath to relocate.

"You are located near facilities and interests affiliated with Hezbollah, which the IDF (Israeli army) will work against in the near future," he said.

"For your safety and the safety of your family members, you must evacuate the building and those adjacent to it immediately and move away from it for a distance of no less than 500 meters."

The reported airstrikes came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the Iran-backed Hezbollah group of trying to assassinate him by attacking his residence.