LAST UPDATE | 24 Sep
OVER 550 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 and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees has said Israel’s bombardment is “relentlessly claiming hundreds of civilian lives” in Lebanon.
The bombs continued to fall across Lebanon as world leaders gave speeches at the UN General Assembly in New York.
Israel’s aggression was repeatedly condemned by many of those who spoke today while US President Joe Biden urged Israel and Hezbollah to resolve the conflict through diplomacy.
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.
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”.
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
Some photos from the roads of Lebanon in the past 24 hours, as people flee villages in the south.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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”.
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.
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.
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.
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”.
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.”
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has said it is “outraged and deeply saddened” after two of its workers, Dina Darwiche and Ali Basma, were killed in Lebanon yesterday.
“The building where Dina, her husband, and two young children reside was hit by an Israeli missile yesterday. Her husband and one of her children were rescued and are being treated in hospital for their serious injuries. Dina and her youngest son’s bodies were tragically recovered today,” UNHCR said in a statement.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is “gradually stepping up its response to the escalating humanitarian needs” in Lebanon, the medical charity said.
Since yesterday, some MSF staff have had to flee their homes, with some spending hours in traffic congestion as they seek refuge in safer locations.
“In south Lebanon and Baalbek-Hermel, areas that continue to experience heavy aerial strikes, MSF staff reported bombardments in close proximity to their homes. Many of our staff there were still sheltering in their homes, while Israeli warplanes continued to fly overhead and throughout the night.”
The King of Jordan, Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein, has delivered a speech in New York and condemned Israel’s war on Gaza and its ongoing bombardment of Lebanon.
He has rejected suggestions made in Israel that Palestinians should be made refugees in neighbouring Jordan.
“That will never happen. We will never accept the forced displacement of Palestinians, which is a war crime.”
He said that escalating Israeli violence “has to stop” and that Israel has for years “rejected peace and chosen confrontation instead” with its Arab neighbours.
He said Israel has been allowed to “cross one red line after another”.
“The brutality of the war on Gaza has forced the world to look closer” at the self-described Western-style democracy in the Middle East, he said.
“It has never been more evident that the current status quo is untenable.”
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi has said Israeli airstrikes “are now relentlessly claiming hundreds of civilian lives” in Lebanon.
He also said he was saddened by the deaths of two UNHCR workers, which were announced this afternoon.
Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon are now relentlessly claiming hundreds of civilian lives.
— Filippo Grandi (@FilippoGrandi) September 24, 2024
And I am very saddened to confirm that two UNHCR colleagues were also killed yesterday.
On behalf of all us at UNHCR, heartfelt condolences to their families, friends and colleagues.
An Israeli airstrike on Ghobeiri in the southern suburb of Beirut pic.twitter.com/ZT7ashUzEN
— Ali Hashem علي هاشم (@alihashem_tv) September 24, 2024
David Mac Redmond signing off here.
Updates on today’s blog also came from Daragh Brophy and Mairead Maguire.
We’re ending this liveblog now – but the team, including our Political Correspondent Jane Matthews at the UN, will be bringing you the latest on the crisis in Lebanon on the main site throughout the rest of the evening.
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