Flames and smoke rise from Israeli airstrikes in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

An Israeli airstrike on an apartment building in the Lebanese capital killed nine people, according to Lebanon's health ministry. Israel has been pounding areas of the country where the Hezbollah militant group has a strong presence since late September, but has rarely struck in the heart of Beirut.

There was no warning before the strike late Wednesday, which hit the building close to the United Nations headquarters, the prime minister’s office and parliament. Hezbollah’s civil defense unit said seven of its members were killed.

Israel is also conducting a ground incursion into Lebanon against Hezbollah, while also conducting strikes in Gaza that killed dozens, including children. The Israeli military said nine soldiers have died in the conflict in southern Lebanon.

Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire across the Lebanon border almost daily since the day after Hamas’ cross-border attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 Israelis and took 250 others hostage. Israel declared war on the militant group in the Gaza Strip in response. More than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in the territory, and just over half the dead have been women and children, according to local health officials. Nearly 2,000 people have been killed in Lebanon, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.

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Here is the latest:

UN peacekeepers will remain in their positions on Lebanon's southern border — for now

UNITED NATIONS – U.N. peacekeepers are remaining in their positions on Lebanon’s southern border despite Israel’s request to vacate some locations before it launched its recent ground operation, the U.N. peacekeeping chief said.

Jean-Pierre LaCroix said the commander and liaison officers from the force, known as UNIFIL, also remain in constant contact with their counterparts in the Israeli Defense Force and the Lebanese Armed Force, which he called “very important” to protect the U.N.’s more than 10,000 peacekeepers which is paramount.

UNIFIL is also “the only channel of communications between the parties,” he stressed. “The peacekeepers are also working with partners to do what they can to protect the population.”

He told a news conference Thursday that UNIFIL had anticipated the scenario of “a limited, targeted ground operation” by Israel and had thoroughly discussed whether U.N. peacekeepers should stay or not — and they decided to stay for now.

But LaCroix stressed that “we’re constantly reviewing the situation” and contingency plans are ready, both for good and bad scenarios, which he refused to discuss. He stressed that the parties have an obligation to protect the U.N. peacekeepers, “and I want to insist on that.”

Israeli ground forces crossed into southern Lebanon early Tuesday, which marked a significant escalation of its offensive against Hezbollah militants. The offensive also marks a new front against Hezbollah’s Iranian backers following the Israeli airstrike that killed the group’s longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah.

UNIFIL was created to oversee the withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon after Israel’s 1978 invasion. The U.N. expanded its mission following the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, allowing peacekeepers to deploy along the Israeli border.

The U.N. Security Council resolution ending that war demanded that all armed groups — including Hezbollah — be disarmed, and for the Lebanese army to deploy to the Israeli border. After 17 years, neither has happened.

Biden: 'I don't believe there's going to be an all out war'

WASHINGTON — United States President Joe Biden said Thursday that he thought all-out war could be avoided.

“I don’t believe there’s going to be an all out war. I think we can avoid it,” he told reporters as he arrived back to the White House from a trip to areas damaged by Hurricane Helene. “I think we can avoid it, but there’s a lot to do yet. A lot to do yet.”

He added that “we’re going to help Israel.”

Airstrikes slam Beirut’s southern suburbs

BEIRUT — A series of massive blasts has rocked Beirut’s southern suburbs, shaking buildings kilometers away in the Lebanese capital.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reports there were more than 10 consecutive airstrikes in the area late Thursday. It isn’t clear what was targeted or if there are casualties.

The strikes come amid an ongoing escalation in the yearlong conflict between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

United Nations Security Council stresses its support for the UN chief after Israel slight

UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. Security Council has affirmed its full support for Secretary-General Antonio Guterres after Israel banned the U.N. chief from entering the country.

In several messages Thursday almost certainly aimed at Israel, the 15-member council “underscored that any decision not to engage with the U.N. secretary-general or the United Nations is counterproductive, especially in the context of escalating tensions In the Middle East.”

The U.N.'s most powerful body also “underscored the need for all member states to have a productive and effective relationship with the secretary-general and to refrain from any actions that undermine his work and that of his office.”

Switzerland’s U.N. Ambassador Pascale Baeriswyl, the current council president, read the statement to reporters late Thursday.

Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz announced Wednesday that Guterres is “persona non grata” — not welcome — in the country, accusing the secretary-general of being biased against Israel.

Israel’s accusations of U.N. bias and antisemitism date back decades but the rift has intensified since Hamas’ Oct. 7 surprise attacks in the country’s south that killed about 1,200 people, mainly civilians.

Israel says it has killed another senior Hezbollah leader

JERUSALEM — The Israeli military says it has killed a senior Hezbollah militant involved in the group’s development of precision guided missiles.

It says Mohammed Anisi was killed in a recent airstrike that targeted the militant group’s intelligence branch in Beirut.

Hezbollah has not commented on the Israeli military’s claim. If it is true, it would mark the latest in a string of assassinations of top Hezbollah officials in recent weeks, including its longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah.

US and Israel discuss how to respond to Iranian missiles

WASHINGTON — U.S. military leaders have been talking to Israel about how to respond to Iran’s ballistic missile attack, a defense official said Thursday.

Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh says Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. CQ Brown Jr. spoke with Israeli military’s chief, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, on Wednesday. And Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has held “almost daily” conversations with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant since the attacks, Singh says.

Iran fired almost 200 ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday, raising concerns about the possibility of all-out war in the region.

“We are discussing with them what a response to Iran should look like,” Singh says. “I certainly think any response, we will be part of those discussions.”

14 killed in Israeli strike on West Bank refugee camp

JERUSALEM — The Palestinian Health Ministry says 14 people have been killed in an Israeli strike on a refugee camp in the northern West Bank

The Israeli army says it carried out a strike in Tulkarem, a militant stronghold. It says the operation Thursday was carried out in coordination with the Shin Bet internal security service.

The army provided no further details on the target.

Violence has flared across the Israeli-occupied territory since the Israel-Hamas war erupted last October. Tulkarem and other northern cities have seen some of the worst violence.

US Embassy offers loans to Americans needing help to leave Lebanon

WASHINGTON — The State Department says the U.S. Embassy in Beirut is prepared to provide emergency loans to Americans who wish to leave Lebanon on U.S.-contracted flights after the cost of tickets sky-rocketed in recent days.

Some Americans have complained that fares for tickets to even close destinations such as Cyprus have become unaffordable as commercial airline service in and out of Beirut has dwindled. The Lebanese flag carrier Middle East Airlines is the only commercial airline operating international flights.

MEA has set aside about 1,400 seats on its flights for Americans over the past week and several hundred had taken them, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Thursday.

Miller says the U.S. government has no regulatory oversight over MEA flight costs. He says the maximum fare for a U.S.-organized contract flight is $283 per person.

About 250 Americans have left Lebanon in the past 2 days

WASHINGTON — The State Department says roughly 250 Americans and their immediate families, including non-U.S. citizens, have left Lebanon in the past two days on government-organized contract flights.

Spokesperson Matthew Miller says 134 American citizens and family members left Beirut on a flight to Istanbul, Turkey, on Thursday. That’s in addition to more than 100 who left on a similar flight on Wednesday.

Miller says the U.S. will continue to organize such flights as long as the security situation in Lebanon is dire and there is demand. More than 6,000 American citizens have contacted the U.S. Embassy in Beirut seeking information about leaving since the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah began to escalate.

Miller says some Americans, many of them dual U.S.-Lebanese nationals and long-time residents of the country, may choose to stay. He says the U.S. Embassy in Beirut is prepared to offer loans to those who choose to stay in Lebanon but need to relocate to a safer part of the country.

Nearly 1.2 million people have been displaced in Lebanon

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s crisis response unit says nearly 1.2 million people have been displaced from their homes in Lebanon because of the escalating war between Israel and Hezbollah.

Among them are more than 250,000 Syrian citizens and 82,000 Lebanese citizens who have crossed into Syria between Sept. 23 and Sept. 30, according to the report released Thursday, citing figures provided by Lebanese General Security.

Nearly 164,000 are living in group shelters in Lebanon.

Among them is Fatima Abdul Nabi. Her daughter turned 10 days old on Sept. 23, when Israel began a widescale bombardment of southern Lebanon to drive the militant group Hezbollah back from the border.

“They began hitting our village and said we had to leave the village, so we fled,” Abdul Nabi said. It took them 11 hours to get to the coastal city of Sidon, about 40 km (25 miles) away.

Now she and the newborn girl are staying with five other families in one room in a shelter.

“When she cries, I feel that she’s bothering everyone — five families and a baby in one room is too much,” Abdul Nabi said.

Israeli army says it has white phosphorous smoke shells in its arsenal

JERUSALEM — The Israeli army says it does possess smoke shells that contain white phosphorus but has not confirmed that it used phosphorous bombs in a recent attack in the Lebanese capital that killed nine people.

The strike late Wednesday was the closest yet to downtown Beirut. In the hours after the attack, residents reported a sulfur-like smell, and Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency accused Israel of using internationally banned phosphorus bombs.

Seven of those killed were Hezbollah-affiliated civilian first responders

“The primary smoke shells used by the IDF do not contain white phosphorus,” the Israeli army said. “Like many Western militaries, the IDF also possesses smoke shells that include white phosphorus, which are lawful under international law.” The IDF is the Israeli Defense Force.

Human rights groups have accused Israel of using white phosphorus incendiary shells on towns and villages in southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah militants have a strong presence.

Israeli army says another of its soldiers has been killed in southern Lebanon

JERUSALEM — The Israeli army says one of its soldiers was killed in battle in southern Lebanon.

The 21 year-old officer was killed Wednesday. The military did not explain how the officer died.

The military says a total of nine Israeli soldiers have been killed since the army started limited ground incursions in south Lebanon to battle Hezbollah militants earlier this week. Hezbollah says it has killed 17 Israeli soldiers, but has provided no proof.

The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah has escalated in recent weeks as Israel has expanded airstrikes across southern Lebanon, south Beirut and the eastern Bekaa Valley.

Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister wants to resume efforts to find a new president

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister is calling for a national dialogue between the country’s divided political groups to agree on who should become the country’s new president.

Lebanon’s presidency has been vacant since October 2022, when the six-year term of President Michel Aoun ended.

Najib Mikati made his comments Thursday night after meeting Cardinal Bechara al-Rai, the head of the Maronite Catholic church, Lebanon’s largest. It is unclear where such a dialogue would take place or if any political groups would agree to participate.

“We want a president that does not provoke anyone,” Mikati said. Lawmakers have failed to elected a new head of state in more than a dozen sessions over the past two years.

According to Lebanon’s power-sharing agreement, the president should be a Maronite Catholic, the parliament speaker a Shiite Muslim and the prime minister a Sunni Muslim. Christians, Sunnis and Shiites each make about a third of Lebanon’s 5 million people.

Turkey asks the UN to take action to prevent further Israeli violence

ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey is urging the United Nations Security Council and other “actors” shaping global politics to take swift action to prevent further Israeli attacks that it says are escalating conflict in the Middle East.

In a statement issued Thursday, Turkey says it will stand by the people and government of Lebanon against “Israel’s inhumane attacks.”

The statement also condemns Israel’s decision to ban U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres from entering the country as the latest example of “Israel’s lawlessness.”

Lebanon’s health minister says nearly 2,000 killed in almost a year of conflict with Israel

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s health minister says nearly 2,000 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in almost a year of conflict.

Health Minister Firas Abiad said Thursday that more than 9,000 have also been wounded in Israeli attacks since Oct. 8, 2023.

He says of the 1,974 killed, 261 were women, 127 were children, and 102 paramedics and health care workers also died. Most of them were killed in the last month.

“This is a war crime, there is no doubt about that,” Abiad told journalists Thursday. “International laws are clear to protect these people, I mean, paramedics. Who gave Israel the right to be the judge and the executioner at the same time?”

Israeli army says it has rescued a Yazidi woman held captive in Gaza

JERUSALEM — The Israeli army says it has rescued an Iraqi Yazidi woman who was being held captive in Gaza.

Israel’s military said Thursday that the 21-year-old woman was freed in an Israeli-led rescue operation this week that was coordinated with the United States. She arrived back in Iraq on Wednesday.

Islamic State militants enslaved and killed thousands from the Yazidi religious minorities as they seized much of northern Iraq and eastern Syria in 2014.

According to the Israeli army, the woman was abducted by the Islamic State group when she was 11 and at some point was trafficked to a Palestinian member of Hamas and taken to Gaza. How she reached the coastal enclave remains unclear.

The military says the Hamas member was killed, apparently by an airstrike.

Israel’s military says the woman was taken through the Kerem Shalom border, which connects Gaza with Israel. From there she traveled to Jordan and then Iraq, where she was reunited with her family.

The Iraqi government has said only that she was freed “in one of the countries of the region.”

Colombians return to their country as Israel battles Hezbollah in southern Lebanon

BOGOTA, Colombia — More than a hundred Colombians have returned to their country from Lebanon on a flight arranged by the government.

“I live in Lebanon completely happy and I had to flee with my children, leaving my husband in great pain there,” Islam el Hamed Mourad, a Colombian married to a Lebanese man, said after arriving Thursday at a military base in Bogota on a Colombian Air Force plane.

The plane brought a total of 117 Colombians, including more than 50 children and minors, according to the government.

Mourad, who has lived in Lebanon for eight years and has three children, asked the Colombia government to continue with more humanitarian flights to safeguard other Colombians who remain in Lebanon.

“Israel is bombing in an incredible way, without mercy,” said Mourad, who was dressed in a black hijab.

World Health Organization says 28 health workers have been killed in Lebanon in the past day

GENEVA — The World Health Organization says 28 health workers in Lebanon have been killed in the past day, and it called for a ceasefire.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described a dire situation in treating casualties, with three dozen health facilities closed in southern Lebanon and five hospitals either partly or fully evacuated in Beirut.

Tedros says health workers are not showing up at their jobs because they’ve fled areas that have been bombed.

WHO had to scrap plans to fly in medical and trauma supplies Friday because the Beirut airport is mostly closed.

Tedros says Iran’s “dangerous escalation” had serious consequences for the region.

“WHO calls for a de-escalation of the conflict, for health care to be protected and not attacked, for access routes to be secured and supplies delivered,” Tedros said. “And for a ceasefire, a political solution and peace. The best medicine is peace.”

Charter flight is being organized to repatriate Italians from Lebanon

ROME — Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani says a charter flight was being organize to repatriate 180 Italians from Lebanon.

That is what Tajani told Parliament on Thursday. He said he hopes they will arrive home "this evening.”

He said the ministry has also recommended that an estimated 700 Italians in Iran leave the country on commercial flights that are gradually resuming.

Biden says he does not expect Israel to retaliate against Iran on Thursday

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden says he doesn’t expect Israel to retaliate immediately against Iran and rejects the suggestion the United States would grant permission for such an attack.

Biden was speaking to reporters Thursday, two days after Tehran bombarded Israel with almost 200 ballistic missiles. Iran said the barrage was in response to Israel’s recent assassination of Iran-backed Hezbollah and Hamas leaders.

Israel says it intercepted many of the missiles, while Iran says most of them hit their targets.

The barrage has raised concerns about the escalating conflict in the Middle East and the role of the U.S. in Israel’s defense.

“First of all, we don’t ‘allow’ Israel, we advise Israel,” Biden said. “And nothing’s going to happen today.”

Israel says an airstrike in Gaza killed a Palestinian convicted of killing soldiers

JERUSALEM — Israel says one of its airstrikes in Gaza killed a Palestinian who was convicted in the killing of two Israeli soldiers in the West Bank at the start of the 2000 uprising.

Abdel-Aziz Salha was part of an angry mob that stormed a Palestinian police station in the West Bank city of Ramallah and killed two Israeli reservists. The two had been detained after accidentally entering an area administered by the Palestinian Authority.

Salha waved his blood-stained hands from the window of the police station in what became one of the defining images of the second intifada, or Palestinian uprising against Israeli rule.

The killing of the reservists marked a major escalation in Israeli-Palestinian tensions as the peace process of the 1990s collapsed.

The military said Thursday that Salha was killed in an overnight strike on the central Gaza town of Deir al-Balah. The military identified him as a Hamas militant.

Salha was arrested by Israeli forces shortly after the killing of the reservists, convicted and sentenced to life in prison. He was among more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners released in 2011 in exchange for an Israeli soldier held captive by Hamas in Gaza. One of the other released prisoners, Yahya Sinwar, was one of the masterminds of the Oct. 7 attack and is now the top leader of Hamas.

Lebanon says all border crossings with Syria function under state supervision

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s minister of public works and transport says all the country’s border crossing with Syria function under the supervision of state institutions.

Ali Hamie spoke to reporters hours after the Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesperson posted on the social platform X that Lebanon’s Hezbollah group has been trying to transport military equipment through the Masnaa border crossing with Syria.

“All border crossings, the first among them the Masnaa border crossing” are being monitored by state institutions including the transport ministry, customs authorities, the General Security Directorate and the Lebanese army.

Israeli military spokesperson, Avchay Adraee, called on Lebanese authorities earlier Thursday to conduct inspections on trucks crossing its eastern border and to turn back any vehicle found to be containing combat equipment.

“The Lebanese State is responsible for its official border crossings and is able to prevent Hezbollah from passing through these crossings,” Adraee said on X.

Adraee also said Israeli forces bombed a truck on Sunday packed with weapons that Hezbollah was trying to smuggle into Lebanon. No further details about this airstrike were made public.

In recent weeks, the Israeli air force has struck hundreds of targets across Lebanon, including the eastern border area and the Bekaa valley, areas where Hezbollah has a strong presence.

Analysts have long accused the Iran-backed group of transporting weapons across the porous Lebanese-Syrian border.

Lebanese official says Israeli strikes that hit health facilities violate international law

BERUIT — Lebanese Health Ministry Firas Abiad says Israeli strikes that hit health facilities and workers are in “violation of international law and treaties.”

“This is a war crime, there is no doubt about that,” Abiad told reporters Thursday, after an overnight Israeli strike on an apartment building in Beirut hit a Hezbollah health center and killed several civilian first responders affiliated with the group. There was also a separate strike that wounded Red Cross paramedics evacuating wounded people in southern Lebanon.

“The argument that some vehicles or hospitals had weapons or something else in them, these are old false arguments and lies we heard before in Gaza,” Abiad said. “International laws are clear in protecting these people, I mean, paramedics. Who gave Israel the right to be the judge and the executioner at the same time?”

Israeli airstrike hits Hezbollah's media building

BEIRUT — An Israeli airstrike on a Beirut southern suburb has struck the building housing the media office of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group.

The airstrike Thursday destroyed the Hezbollah media relations office in the Mawad neighborhood.

In southern Lebanon, Israeli fire at a Lebanese army post in the town of Bint Jbeil killed a Lebanese soldier, raising to two the number of members of the Lebanese military killed on Thursday.

The Lebanese army said in a statement that troops “opened fire at the source of” the attack. It did not elaborate.

Belgian broadcaster VTM says its crew was attacked in central Beirut

BRUSSELS — Belgium’s VTM broadcaster says one of its television reporters and a camera operator have been attacked in central Beirut while reporting on the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

VTM said correspondent Robin Ramaekers and camera operator Stijn De Smet were working on a report on Wednesday evening about a bombing in the Lebanese capital when they were attacked in unclear circumstances.

“Stijn is currently in a hospital in Beirut where he is being treated for a leg wound. Robin is also still being cared for, in another hospital, for some fractures to the face,” a statement said. It said the cause of the attack is not yet known.

VTM said the two men have worked in conflict zones for more than a decade. Lebanon’s Information Minister Ziad Makary said he is following the situation

Spain sends two planes to Beirut to evacuate its civilians

MADRID — Spain’s defense ministry says two planes it sent to Beirut to evacuate Spanish civilians have taken off and are heading to an airbase near Madrid.

Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles said between 400 and 500 of the around 1,000 Spaniards registered as living in Lebanon are being airlifted out. The government has urged all Spaniards to leave and is offering to assist those who say they want to be evacuated.

Robles said a third plane could be sent if needed.

Spain also has 676 soldiers in Lebanon deployed as part of a United Nations peacekeeping mission. Robles said the troops are staying put until otherwise ordered by the UNIFIL command.

Hundreds of people arrive in Turkey from Lebanon

ISTANBUL — Hundreds of people leaving Lebanon have arrived in southern Turkey.

A ship carrying over 300 passengers who boarded the vessel in the Lebanese city of Tripoli docked at a port in Mersin on the country’s Mediterranean coast on Thursday, according to Turkish news agency IHA.

IHA says the Med Lines ship was the third to arrive at the Mersin port carrying foreign nationals from Lebanon in recent days.

The increasing violence in Lebanon is a significant escalation in the war in the Middle East, this time between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

Lebanese Red Cross says 4 paramedics wounded and a soldier killed in an Israeli strike in the south

BEIRUT —The Lebanese Red Cross says an Israeli strike killed four of its paramedics and a Lebanese soldier as they were evacuating wounded people from the south.

It says the convoy near the village of Taybeh, which was accompanied by Lebanese troops, was targeted Thursday despite coordinating its movements with U.N. peacekeepers.

Israel extends evacuation warnings north of the UN buffer zone in Lebanon

BEIRUT — The Israeli military has ordered the evacuation of villages and towns in southern Lebanon that are north of a United Nations-declared buffer zone established after the 2006 war.

The warning issued Thursday signals a possible broadening of Israel’s incursion into southern Lebanon, which until now has been confined to areas close to the border.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry says at least 9 people were killed in an Israeli strike in central Beirut

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s Health Ministry says at least nine people have been killed in an Israeli strike in central Beirut.

The ministry says it is running DNA tests on remains to identify other possible victims in the attack early Thursday.

Hezbollah said seven paramedics and rescue workers from its medical arm, the Islamic Health Committee, were killed in the strike on its office in Bashoura. The Health Ministry said 14 others were wounded.

Prior to the attack, the ministry said 55 people were killed and 156 others were wounded in Israeli strikes in Lebanon on Wednesday.

The frequent strikes in Beirut’s southern suburbs, as well as occasional strikes in central Beirut, have exacerbated Lebanon’s displacement crisis. The government has estimated that about 1 million people have been displaced in the cash-strapped country.

Environment Minister Nasser Yassin, who is spearheading the government’s response to the war, told local media that some 167,000 Syrians left Lebanon in the past 24 hours. The Associated Press could not independently confirm this detail.

Israel says it killed a senior Hamas leader in an airstrike in Gaza three months ago

JERUSALEM — The Israeli military says it killed a senior Hamas leader in an airstrike in the Gaza Strip around three months ago.

It said Thursday that a strike on an underground compound in northern Gaza killed Rawhi Mushtaha and two other Hamas commanders, Sameh Siraj and Sameh Oudeh.

Hamas has not commented on the report.

The military says the three commanders had taken refuge in a fortified underground compound in northern Gaza that served as a command and control center.

It says Mushtaha was a close associate of Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader who helped mastermind the Oct. 7 attack on Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.

Sinwar is believed to be alive and in hiding inside the Palestinian territory.

UK plans more evacuation flights

NICOSIA, Cyprus — The British government has chartered more flights to help U.K. nationals leave Lebanon, a day after an evacuation flight left Beirut.

The government said in a statement that the flights will continue as “long as the security situation allows” and that it’s working to increase capacity on commercial flights for British nationals.

U.K. Defense Secretary John Healey on Wednesday visited a British military base on Cyprus where around 700 troops, Foreign Office staff and Border Force officers have been deployed to a British military base in Cyprus to help with evacuation plans.

British nationals and their spouses, partners and children under the age of 18 are eligible. Dependents who aren’t British nationals will need a valid visa granting a maximum six-month stay in the U.K.

Strike in Beirut suburb killed seven health and rescue workers

BEIRUT — An Israeli strike in the Lebanese capital Beirut killed seven health and rescue workers, an Islamic health organization said.

The airstrike in the residential Bashoura district targeted an apartment in a multistory building that houses an office of the Health Society, a group of civilian first responders affiliated to Hezbollah.

It was the closest strike to the central downtown district of Beirut, where the United Nations and government offices are located.

It was the second airstrike to hit central Beirut this week and the second to directly target the Health Society in 24 hours. No Israeli warning was issued to the area before it was hit. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the strike in central Beirut or the allegations it used phosphorous bombs.

Israel has mostly concentrated its airstrikes in south and eastern Lebanon, as well as the southern suburbs of Beirut where Hezbollah has a strong presence, but its attacks have spanned the entire country and killed many civilians.

Beirut’s southern suburbs also saw heavy bombardment overnight in areas where the Israeli army had earlier issued a warning online for residents to evacuate.

Japan readies military jets for evacuations

TOKYO — Japan has dispatched two Self Defense Force planes to prepare for a possible airlift of Japanese citizens from Lebanon.

Two C-2 transport aircraft are expected to arrive in Jordan and Greece on Friday, Japan NHK national television reported.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters that there has been no report of injury involving the about 50 Japanese nationals in Lebanon.

Japan dispatched SDF aircraft in October and November 2023 to evacuate more than 100 Japanese and South Korean citizens from Israel.

Australia plans evacuation flights from Lebanon

SYDNEY — Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong says her government had booked 500 seats on commercial aircraft for Australian citizens, permanent residents and their families to leave Lebanon on Saturday.

The seats are available to 1,700 Australians and their families known to be in Lebanon on two flights from Beirut to Cyprus, Wong said Thursday.

“What I would say to Australians who wish to leave, please take whatever option is available to you,” Wong told reporters in Geelong, Australia.

“Please do not wait for your preferred route,” she added.

News from © The Associated Press, 2024