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

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.

“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.

Barak Deri, an Israeli Defence Force reservist, has been hailed as a hero in his country and is visiting London this week as part of a mission to win support for Israel’s struggle in the ongoing war on multiple fronts in the Middle East.

The 32-year-old, who was wounded and is likely to be disabled for the rest of his life, arrived in the UK with a simple warning that “Israel’s war is the West’s war” and the demand: “We cannot be quiet, we must send a clear message that another Holocaust is not an option.”

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Hezbollah drone attack on an army base in central Israel killed four soldiers and severely wounded seven others, the military said, in the deadliest strike by the militant group since Israel launched its ground invasion of Lebanon nearly two weeks ago. The Iran-backed group called the attack near Binyamina city retaliation for Israeli strikes on Beirut on Thursday that killed 22 people.

It later said it targeted Israel’s elite Golani brigade, launching dozens of missiles to occupy Israeli air defense systems during the assault by “squadrons” of drones.

Israel’s national rescue service said the attack wounded 61.

With Israel’s advanced air-defence systems, it’s rare for so many people to be injured by drones or missiles. Hezbollah and Israel have traded fire almost daily in the year since the war in Gaza began, and fighting has escalated.

Since Israel launched its ground invasion of Lebanon, Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants have clashed along the border while the Lebanese army has largely stood on the sidelines.

It’s not the first time the national army has found itself watching war at home from the discomfiting position of bystander.

Lebanon’s widely beloved army is one of the few institutions that bridge the country’s sectarian and political divides. Several army commanders have become president, and the current commander, Gen. Joseph Aoun, is widely regarded as one of the front-runners to step in when the deadlocked parliament fills a two-year vacuum and names a president.

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The activists who put the photo on the protective glass of Picasso’s 1901 work and dumped red paint on the floor were National Health Services worker Jai Halai, 23, and Politics and International Relations student Monday-Malachi Rosenfeld, 21. The photo they used was taken by Palestinian journalist Ali Jadallah at Al-Shifa Hospital in March.

Museum security detained the activists and took the photo off. The museum confirmed that there was no damage to the artwork.

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