Israel declares a 48-hour state of emergency. The Hezbollah militia launches a retaliatory strike with rockets and drones. All developments in the news blog.
8.40 am: The Hezbollah militia has said it has ended the first part of its retaliatory attack for the killing of a high-ranking military commander. “Our military operation for today is complete,” the Iranian-backed militia said. All missiles were fired at Israeli targets as planned.
8.15 am: Intelligence chief David Barnea will lead an Israeli delegation to talks in Cairo on a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. This is reported by Israeli army radio, citing diplomatic representatives. According to security sources, representatives of the USA and Israel began new talks in the Egyptian capital on Thursday. Egypt, together with the USA and Qatar, is mediating in the ceasefire negotiations that have been ongoing for months.
8.06 am: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced decisive action against the Hezbollah militia. “We are determined to do everything to defend our country, to bring the inhabitants of the north safely back to their homes,” he said in response to previous retaliatory strikes by the Iranian-allied militia. A simple rule will be followed. “Whoever harms us, we harm,” Netanyahu stressed.
7.53 am: One person was killed in an Israeli air strike on a car in the southern Lebanese city of Khiam on Sunday, security sources confirmed to the Reuters news agency.
7.38 am: US President Joe Biden is closely following the current escalation between Israel and Lebanon, according to the White House. He was in contact with his national security team during the course of Saturday evening (local time), a spokesman said. High-ranking officials of the US government are in constant contact with their Israeli counterparts on Biden’s orders. “We will continue to support Israel’s right to self-defense and we will continue to work for stability in the region,” said Sean Savett, a spokesman for the National Security Council in the White House.
7.24 am: According to military sources, around 100 fighter jets were involved in Israel’s attacks in Lebanon. Thousands of launchers belonging to the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah were attacked and destroyed, Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said in an X-post. Most of them were aimed at the north of Israel, but some were also aimed at the center. The Israeli coastal metropolis of Tel Aviv is located in the center of the country.
6.52 am: Despite massive rocket attacks from Lebanon on northern Israel, Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv has reopened. Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari says air traffic has been running as scheduled since 7 a.m. local time (6 a.m. CEST).
Hagari also announced new instructions for civilians from the greater Tel Aviv area to Israel’s northern border. People in the area could go to work normally and send their children to summer camps – on the condition that shelters could be reached within a short time. Up to 30 people could gather outdoors in the areas and up to 300 people indoors, the military said.
6.16 am: The Lebanese Hezbollah militia has declared its first retaliatory attack against Israel to be over for the time being. The “first phase” of its response to the killing of Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr by Israel last month has been completed, the Shiite militia, which is allied with Iran, announced. It previously said it had hit eleven Israeli military facilities, fired more than 320 rockets and sent drones into northern Israel. Security sources initially spoke of more than 100 rockets that Hezbollah had fired into northern Israel.
