Iran’s Civil Aviation Organisation said flights across Iran will be cancelled until 6am local time (02:30 GMT) on Monday, according to state media, following Israel’s bombardment and invasion of Lebanon to continue its assault on Shia militant group Hezbollah.
The Israeli army has issued a new evacuation order for residents in the southern suburbs of Beirut. It called on civilians inside or near four buildings marked on a map to move away from them “immediately” for a distance of no less than 500 metres.
Since Israel drastically stepped up its aerial bombing campaign across Lebanon two weeks ago, it has repeatedly issued similar warnings often leaving little time for civilians to escape.
In the past two weeks, conflict-related deaths in Lebanon have increased by more than 200 percent, to 1,699 as of October 3, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
A sergeant in the Internal Security Force has died from injuries sustained earlier today during an Israeli military attack on Jdeideh Marjayoun, the National News Agency (NNA) reports.
NNA identified him as Habib Abu Mrad and said he hails from the same town he was injured in.
Iran’s Quds Force commander Esmail Qaani, who travelled to Lebanon after the killing last month of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, has not been heard from since strikes on Beirut late last week, two senior Iranian security officials told Reuters news agency.
One of the officials said Qaani was in Beirut’s Dahiyeh southern suburbs during a strike on Thursday that was reported to have targeted senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine but the official said he was not meeting Safieddine. The official said Iran and Hezbollah had not been able to contact Qaani since then.
The Quds Force, the overseas arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, oversees dealings with armed groups allied with Tehran across the Middle East, including Hezbollah.
Reacting to Israel’s heavy bombardment in Lebanon, the US State Department said that military pressure can enable diplomacy, but can also lead to miscalculations.
“Military pressure can at times enable diplomacy. Of course, military pressure can also lead to miscalculation. It can lead to unintended consequences,” a US State Department spokesperson said in a statement. “Every civilian casualty is one too many.”
The US is Israel’s top weapons supplier. It provides military aid worth more than $3 billion annually. Additional funding has been allocated this year – in August, the US said it was going to send $3.5 billion to Israel to spend on US-made weapons and military equipment. That was part of a $14.5 billion supplemental funding bill for Israel passed by the Congress in April.
In Gaza Israeli forces have killed at least 41,870 people, including at least 17,000 children and 11,487 women
Almost 26,000 children have been orphaned or have had one parent killed by Israeli forces.
