LAST UPDATE | 39 mins ago
OVER 500 PEOPLE have been killed in Lebanon – including 50 children – since the start of Israeli bombardment early yesterday.
Thousands of people are fleeing their homes in the south of the country.
Yesterday was the deadliest day of violence in the country since Hezbollah and Israel went to war in 2006.
The attacks come as world leaders gather in New York for the UN General Assembly.
Updates from Daragh Brophy and Mairead Maguire (earlier) and David Mac Redmond (now).
Christian Aid’s Julie Mehigan has said this is “a terrifying time for Lebanon” and that the charity is trying to help the overwhelmed healthcare system there as Israel continues to bomb the south of the country.
“Nobody knows when the next Israeli air strike will happen or where will be hit. Our local partners in Lebanon have told us that after witnessing the failure to stop the huge numbers killed in Gaza that they fear that they will soon face the same fate.”
A source close to Lebanon’s Hezbollah group has said an Israeli strike on south Beirut killed Ibrahim Kobeissi, one of the group’s top commanders.
“The Israeli strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs killed Hezbollah military commander Ibrahim Kobeissi,” the source told the AFP news agency, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
Earlier, Israel’s army said it “eliminated Ibrahim Mohammed Kobeissi, the commander of the missile and rocket network of the Hezbollah terrorist organisation”.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused Israel of flouting the UN Charter and international law in its war on Gaza and its treatment of captives in prisons, which he said have been turned into “concentration camps”.
He condemned the killing of aid workers and journalists and said Gaza has become “the world’s largest cemetery for women and children”.
He said that in Gaza, the United Nations system “is dying”.
“I am asking you bluntly here, are those in Gaza and the West Bank not human beings?”
He called out the UN Security Coucil’s inaction on the conflict.
“What are you still waiting for to stop them (Israel)?”
Erdogan addressed Israel’s allies, saying: “How long are you going to be able to carry the shame of witnessing this massacre?”
He said Israel is disregarding human rights and “trampling” on international law and that the Palestinians are exercising their right to resist Israel’s occupation and aggression.
He said Israel is only able to continue its aggression because of the support of a small number of countries, who he said are complicit in the “massacre”.
He criticised the “inconsistency and insincerity” of Israel’s supporters who have called for a ceasefire while supplying arms – a reference to the US and other Israeli allies.
He said that “just as Hitler was stopped”, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must be stopped.
He called on the UN to consider authorising the use of force to stop Israel’s attacks.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to press on with the aerial bombing campaign against Hezbollah, as Israeli jets continue to pound southern Lebanon.
“We will continue to hit Hezbollah… the one who has a missile in his living room and a rocket in his home will not have a home,” Netanyahu said in a statement after visiting an Israeli intelligence base.
Joe Biden has called for a diplomatic solution as Israel strikes Hezbollah targets, warning against a “full-scale war” in Lebanon.
“Full-scale war is not in anyone’s interest. Even though the situation has escalated, a diplomatic solution is still possible,” Biden said.
US President Joe Biden has delivered his speech in New York.
He went over the major events he has seen in world politics since he first took office in the 1970s: the Cold War, the American war in Vietnam, 9/11 and the US War on Terror, the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan and now the war in Ukraine.
He said the US would continue to support Ukraine and continue to develop alliances in Asia.
He also said the US wants to bring peace to the Middle East. He condemned the Hamas-led attack on Israel last October. He said the families of hostages in Gaza are “going through hell”, as are the people of Gaza.
He said Gaza must be “free of Hamas’ grip” and that the war must come to an end.
He said the US is “working tirelessly” to avoid a wider regional war and to return people to their homes along the Israel-Lebanon border.
He also addressed the growing violence in the West Bank in Palestine and said the Palestinians should have their own independent state.
Biden also drew attention to the humanitarian crisis caused by the civil war in Sudan.
He said “the world needs to stop arming the generals.”
“End this war now.”
He said people “need more than the absence of war”.
Our political correspondent Jane Matthews reports that as Joe Biden is set to speak next, the noise of helicopters overhead means he’s just arrived in the vicinity and security has locked down the UN complex awaiting his motorcade.
This will be his last UNGA address as US President before the election in under 40 days so there’s a lot of pressure on him.
Earlier today, Ireland’s leaders attended the debate at the Assembly.
They wore earpieces that feed them a translated version of what speakers from around the world said.
Lebanon’s health ministry said six people were killed and 15 were injured in the Israeli strike on Hezbollah’s southern Beirut stronghold, a day after hitting the same area.
The “Israeli enemy raid on Ghobeiri in Beirut’s southern suburbs killed six people and injured 15,” the ministry said in a statement. Hezbollah-affiliated rescuers had earlier reported three dead in the attack.
Israel has also been accused of dropping dangerous leaflets over eastern regions.
Hezbollah urged Lebanese to discard them if they see them, warning against scanning barcodes that it said could compromise personal data.
“Please do not open or circulate the barcode. You must destroy it immediately,” the statement said, warning the code could “take all your information,” the group said.
António Guterres, the UN Secretary General has warned world leaders that Lebanon is on the “brink,” as more than 500 people have been killed by Israel there in the last 24 hours.
“We should all be alarmed by the escalation. Lebanon is at the brink,” Guterres said in his opening statement.
He also said that the situation in war-torn Gaza “is a non-stop nightmare” and condemned the growing “level of impunity” worldwide.
“The level of impunity in the world is politically indefensible and morally intolerable,” he told leaders, adding that “a growing number of governments and others feel entitled to a ‘get out of jail free’ card.”
Our political correspondent Jane Matthews is in New York with other media as they await speeches by UN Secretary General António Gutterres and US President Joe Biden.
A Lebanese security source said an Israeli strike has hit Hezbollah’s south Beirut stronghold.
It is understood that the strike hit a residential building in a suburban area of the Lebanese capital.
“An Israeli strike targeted two floors in a residential building in the Ghobeiri area,” the security source said, requesting anonymity to AFP.
The IDF confirmed the strike but did not immediately give further details.
Some 500 people have crossed from Lebanon to war-torn Syria, a Syrian security official has said, as they try to flee Israel’s bombardment.
They’re among tens of thousands who have left their homes.
Several UN agencies said they were ramping up their aid in Lebanon to address a situation that was already dire before the conflict’s escalation.
“The situation is extremely alarming. It is very chaotic,” UN refugee agency spokesman Matthew Saltmarsh told reporters in Geneva.
“The toll on civilians is unacceptable.”
There was a bombing in Tibnine, South Lebanon earlier, The Journal has learned.
The building pictured above is a Lebanese Red Cross medical facility. It was not hit by the explosions.
Most people in the village fled north to Beirut yesterday, and the rest are following today.
German airline group Lufthansa has said it’s extending the suspension of flights to and from Israel’s Tel Aviv and Iranian capital Tehran up to and including 14 October.
Lufthansa is going to “monitor the situation closely and will assess it further in the coming days”, the group said on its website.
Flights to Beirut remain suspended until 26 October.
Some photos from the roads of Lebanon in the past 24 hours, as people flee villages in the south.
Taoiseach Simon Harris is set to meet President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas today at the UN.
It will be their first meeting since Ireland formally recognised the state of Palestine in May.
Speaking to CNN last night Harris said that the conflict in Lebanon marks the opening of a “potentially catastrophic second front in terms of the war in the Middle East”.
"We cannot have a situation where international law must be applied to some but can be disregarded by others" @SimonHarrisTD tells me. "In our history we know what it's like to struggle for statehood... we felt it was important to say to the people of Palestine, we see you". pic.twitter.com/fHsWw8d9wr
— Christiane Amanpour (@amanpour) September 23, 2024
Israel announced dozens of new air strikes on Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon earlier today.
The strikes came after it said it had killed a “large number” of militants when it hit about 1,600 suspected Hezbollah targets around the country.
Hezbollah said it had launched volleys of missiles at Israeli military bases. The Israeli military said more than 50 projectiles were fired into northern Israel in less than 10 minutes this morning, most of which were intercepted.
It said it had carried out more strikes during the morning targeting Hezbollah infrastructure.
Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad said that most of those killed in yesterday’s strikes were unarmed people killed in their homes.
“Tens of thousands of people were forced from their homes yesterday and overnight, and the numbers continue to grow,” UN refugee agency spokesman Matthew Saltmarsh said, adding that “the toll on civilians is unacceptable”.
In its latest update Lebanon has put the death toll from Israeli bombardment yesterday at 558, including 50 children.
It represents the deadliest day of violence since Hezbollah and Israel went to war in 2006.
Meanwhile leaders are gathering in Manhattan at the United Nations General Assembly.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s spokesman has said he’s “gravely alarmed” at developments in Lebanon.
The EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell warned “we are almost in a full-fledged war”.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas are due to address the UN this week.
This afternoon we’ll have Guterres’s opening speech, followed by an address by US President Joe Biden.
In an update yesterday evening a spokesperson for the Irish Defence Forces said all Irish soldiers currently deployed in Lebanon are “safe and accounted for”.
You can find our early report on the latest attacks in Lebanon on the site here.
We’ll have updates on the situation – including reports from our Political Correspondent Jane Matthews at the UN – throughout the afternoon in this liveblog.
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