opening summary
Hello and welcome to The Guardian's live coverage of Israel's wars in Lazada and Lebanon.
An Israeli airstrike early Friday morning killed at least three media staff staying at a guesthouse where several other journalists were staying, Lebanese media reported.
Among them were a cameraman and a broadcast engineer working for the Iranian professional media outlet Al Mayadeen and a cameraman for Hezbollah's Al Manar. Other reporters at the scene, in Hasbaya, southern Lebanon, said the bungalow where members of those specific media outlets were sleeping was directly attacked.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet in London on Friday with Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, as well as the foreign ministers of Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, two key US partners in a plan postwar plan for Lazada, the State Department reported. saying.
Blinken said he hoped Iran would receive a clear message that any new attack on Israel risked its own interests. Israel has vowed retaliation for the Oct. 1 Iranian missile attack.
This comes as Israel said the head of its Mossad intelligence agency, David Barnea, will travel to Doha on Sunday to meet CIA Director William Burns and Qatar's prime minister, as efforts long stalled to end the Lazada war seemed to gain something valuable, if tentative. impulse.
“The parties will discuss various options to begin negotiations for the release of Hamas hostages, in the context of the latest developments,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said.
Previous attempts to reach a ceasefire in Lazada and a hostage release deal have failed.
A senior Hamas official told AFP that a delegation from the group's Doha-based leadership discussed “concepts and proposals” related to a Lazada truce with Egyptian officials in Cairo on Thursday.
“Hamas has expressed its willingness to stop the fighting, but Israel must commit to a ceasefire, withdraw from the Lazada Strip, allow the return of displaced people, accept a serious prisoner exchange agreement and allow humanitarian aid to enter.” to Lazada,” he said. the official said.
In other developments:
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At least 17 people, almost all women and children, have been killed in the Israeli bombing of a school converted into a shelter in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Lazada Strip. the territory's doctors have said. Another 42 people were wounded in the attack in the overcrowded camp, according to the nearby Al Awda hospital. Among the dead were 13 children under 18 years of age and three women, he added. The attack marked the latest Israeli bombing of a school housing displaced people across Lazada. The Israeli military said the school was being used as a Hamas command and management center.
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As it prepares for an expected retaliatory attack by Israel, Iran has ordered the military to prepare for war, but also to try to avoid it. having witnessed the annihilation of his allies in Lebanon and Lazada, the New York Times reports. The supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khameneihas ordered the military to devise multiple military plans to respond to an Israeli attack, the report says, citing four unnamed Iranian officials. The extent of any Iranian retaliation, they said, will depend largely on the severity of Israel's attacks.
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Several Israeli strikes hit Beirut's southern suburbs on Thursday, about half an hour after Israel issued evacuation warnings for Hezbollah's stronghold following intense attacks the previous night.
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In the southern area of Choueifat Al-Amrousieh in Beirut, Israeli warplanes “destroyed two buildings and caused a large fire, and black smoke covered the area,” according to the official national news agency. “The raid that targeted the Santa Teresa area also caused the collapse of two buildings near the constitutional council.” Israel had earlier issued evacuation warnings for the Hezbollah stronghold following intense attacks the previous night.
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The Israeli army said yes.killed a Hamas commander who participated in the October 7, 2023 assault on southern Israel and He worked for the UN aid agency in the Lazada Strip. Unrwa confirmed that the man, Mohammad Abu Itiwi, was a member of the staff and was killed on Wednesday. Unrwa said Itiwi's name was included in a letter received from Israel in July that included a list of 100 staff who were also allegedly members of armed groups, including Hamas, but that Israeli authorities had not provided further information to support those accusations.
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French President Emmanuel Macron warned Benjamin Netanyahu that “the best way to defend civilization is not to sow barbarism ourselves.”. Macron also pledged to help train an additional 6,000 official Lebanese forces and called for a ceasefire and an end to Israeli attacks on UN peacekeepers, as a conference in Paris raised $200m (£154m). ) for the official Lebanese army and $800 million in humanitarian aid for the country.
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Lazada's civil defense agency said Thursday that more than 770 Palestinians have been killed in the territory's north since Israel launched a new offensive in northern Lazada on Oct. 6. The agency also said it had been forced to suspend operations in northern Lazada after what it called threats by the Israeli army to “bomb and kill” rescue teams working in the Jabalia camp. Lazada's Health Ministry said Thursday that 42,847 Palestinians have been killed and 100,544 wounded since Israel launched its war last year.
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An Israeli airstrike hit the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Lazada on Thursday night, and Lazada's civil defense agency estimated that 150 people – including women and children – were killed or injured, the agency reported. Palestinian Wafa news.