Israel-Lebanon newest: US to deploy Thaad missile system and troops to Israel

Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi yesterday said that the Middle East faces “dangerous challenges” as Tehran anticipates an Israeli strike.

“Iran does not seek war, but we are prepared for war,” Mr Araghchi said at a news conference in Baghdad after meeting with his Iraqi counterpart.

Meanwhile, Iraqi foreign minister Fouad Hussein said Israel was forbidden from using Iraq’s airspace in any possible strike against Iran.

Baghdad’s top diplomat said an outbreak of regional war will create not only a global crisis but also fertile ground for the re-emergence of extremist groups like the Islamic State.“We are trying to keep the conflict away from the region and Iraq,” he said.

US defence secretary Lloyd Austin, in a call with his Israeli counterpart, stressed the importance of Israel taking all necessary measures to ensure the safety and security of UN peacekeepers in Lebanon and the Lebanese Armed Forces, the Pentagon said.

Mr Austin, in the call with Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant, also reinforced the need to pivot from military operations in Lebanon to a diplomatic pathway to provide security for civilians as soon as feasible.

He said that steps must be taken soon to address the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, Pentagon spokesperson Major General Patrick Ryder said in the statement.

An Israeli strike on the central Gaza Strip killed a family of eight, Palestinian medical officials said Sunday, as Israeli forces battled Palestinian militants in the territory’s north and airstrikes destroyed a century-old market in southern Lebanon.

The strike in Gaza late Saturday hit a home in the Nuseirat refugee camp, killing parents and their six children, who ranged in age from 8 to 23, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in nearby Deir al-Balah, where the bodies were taken.

It said a further seven people were wounded, including two women and a child in critical condition. An Associated Press reporter counted the bodies.

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Israeli tanks forcibly entered a UN peacekeeping force base in southern Lebanon yesterday, the organisation said, the latest accusation of violations and attacks by the IDF on the UN.

It comes as Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanded UN forces leave the area.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) said two Israeli Merkava tanks destroyed and burst through the main gate of a base before dawn yesterday.

After the tanks left, shells exploded 100 metres away, releasing smoke that blew across the base and caused UN personnel to fall sick, with 15 requiring treatment despite wearing gas masks, it said in a statement.

Tara Cobham reports.

“To mark the October 7 anniversary, we must launch a campaign to educate young Americans about the Middle East,” the talk show host began the episode by saying.

“And the way I’d like to begin that process is by addressing an open letter to Chappell Roan. Now, to those viewers who aren’t watching this while also looking at your phones, let me explain. … She’s actually a great new artist, who, like a Hezbollah pager, is really blowing up.”

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The UN has warned that attacks against peacekeepers may constitute a “war crime” after five peacekeepers were injured in Israeli gunfire in Lebanon.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement addressed to UN secretary general Antonio Guterres: “The time has come for you to withdraw UNIFIL from Hezbollah strongholds and from the combat zones.”

“The IDF has requested this repeatedly and has met with repeated refusal, which has the effect of providing Hezbollah terrorists with human shields.”Mr Guterres paid tribute to UNIFIL’s peacekeepers who “remain in all positions”, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a statement, adding that “the UN flag continues to fly”.

“Attacks against peacekeepers are in breach of international law, including international humanitarian law. They may constitute a war crime,” Mr Dujarric said.

UNIFIL has said previous Israeli attacks on a watchtower, cameras, communications equipment and lighting had limited its monitoring abilities.

An Israeli air strike has killed at least 20 people, including children, at a school in Gaza, according to two local hospitals.

The school in Nuseirat was sheltering some of the many Palestinians displaced by the war.

Explosions hit early this morning outside Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, killing three people and injuring about 50 others, the hospital said.

Tents caught fire, and residents of the Central Gaza community carried the injured into the hospital.

Israel is continuing to strike what it says are militant targets in Gaza almost daily. The military says it tries to avoid harming civilians and blames their deaths on Hamas and other armed groups because they operate in densely populated areas.

The US is sending a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) battery to Israel, along with US troops to operate it.

The Pentagon made the announcement just hours after Iran warned the US to keep its military forces out of Israel.

Israel is widely believed to be preparing a military response to Iran’s 1 October attack when it fired roughly 180 missiles into Israel.

Israel has been escalating its campaign against Hezbollah with waves of heavy airstrikes across Lebanon and a ground invasion at the border after a year of exchanges of fire. Israel is now at war with Hamas in Gaza and Hamas’ ally Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The Thaad deployment “underscores the United States’ ironclad commitment to the defense of Israel, and to defend Americans in Israel, from any further ballistic missile attacks by Iran”, the Pentagon said in a statement.