Hezbollah rocket attack kills Israeli civilian
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An Israeli civilian has been killed in a suspected Hezbollah attack.
A 30-year-old man was declared dead after he was hit by shrapnel from a rocket in Hagoshrim, a kibbutz close to Israel’s northern frontier, Israel’s emergency service said.
Ten projectiles were reportedly fired from Lebanon on Tuesday afternoon with Israel’s military confirming it was “striking the sources of fire”.
Hezbollah claimed to have fired at Israeli warplanes that broke the sound barrier in Lebanese airspace, forcing them to turn back.
Tensions have spiked between the Iran-backed terror group and Israel after a deadly rocket attack killed 12 children and teenagers on Saturday in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Israel is still calculating its options for retaliation while Lebanon braces for what Benjamin Netanyahu promised will be a “harsh” response.
03:38 PM BST
Today’s live coverage has ended. Here’s a roundup of the day’s events:
Britain tells all citizens to urgently leave Lebanon
Lammy: It is not the ‘right time’ to recognise Palestinian state
Israeli forces withdraw from Khan Younis’ east ‘leaving 300 bodies’
Hezbollah’s strike on Golan Heights was mistake, says weapons experts
Hamas: Gaza death toll at 39,400
‘Anarchy’ as a second base stormed over arrests of Israeli soldiers
IDF denies troops diverted from Gaza to protect military base
‘We forbid killing’: Druze leaders reject Israeli threats to strike Hezbollah back
US urges Israel not to bomb Beirut or major civilian infrastructure
Meloni tells Israel not to fall into ‘trap’ of retaliation
03:30 PM BST
Nine Israel soldiers due to appear before military court
Tensions have remained high in Israel as nine soldiers were due to appear before a military court on Tuesday over allegations of sexual abuse of a Palestinian inmate at a detention facility.
Hard-line nationalists in Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and others have been involved in the protests against the investigation that saw two military bases overrun on Monday.
Human rights groups have campaigned against the abysmal conditions at the Sde Teiman facility in southern Israel, where most of the thousands detained in Gaza have been held.
Israel, which has generally denied abuses in detention camps for Palestinians, will hold another hearing next week following demands to close the Sde Teiman.
03:22 PM BST
Hezbollah claims it killed Israeli soldiers in drone attack
Hezbollah has claimed it attacked Israel’s al-Sahl Battalion in northern Israel with “suicide drones”, allegedly killing and wounding soldiers.
The Iran-backed, Lebanon-based terror group said on Telegram that the attack was in solidarity with Gazans and in response to an Israeli attack on the Beit Lif village in southern Lebanon.
There has been no immediate comment from Israel.
03:01 PM BST
Britain urges citizens to leave Lebanon
The UK has urged its citizens to leave Lebanon immediately as the country braces for an Israeli retaliation against Hezbollah for Saturday’s deadly rocket strike.
“My message to British nationals in Lebanon is clear – leave,” said David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, in a video message on X.
Mr Lammy, who condemned Hezbollah and called on the Lebanese group to cease, said the risk for Britons in Lebanon was “rising” and warned the situation “could deteriorate”.
He advised against all travel to the country and told citizens in Lebanon to get out while commercial flights are running amid fears of a broader conflict breaking out between Israel and Hezbollah.
02:45 PM BST
Why would Hezbollah strike Golan Heights?
Nearly three days after a rocket slammed into a football pitch in the Israel-controlled Golan Heights, killing 12 children, many questions remain about the attack on the Druze town of Majdal Shams.
Israel accused Hezbollah in Lebanon of deliberately targeting civilians, while Hezbollah quickly issued a rare denial of any responsibility for the attack.
However, weapons experts have revealed the evidence points towards a rocket from Lebanon hitting the field, but raised the possibility it was an accident.
What Hezbollah would gain from attacking a Druze community is unclear.
Many Druze in the Golan see themselves as citizens of Syria, Hezbollah’s ally. A strike on them could hurt the militant group’s standing when it’s trying to keep support in the war.
“These kinds of things happen even with the best trained forces,” said Richard Weir, crisis and weapons researcher with Human Rights Watch. “So it is possible that, given that this is an unguided piece of rocket, that this was a mistake.”
02:16 PM BST
Israel driving for ceasefire breakthrough
Israel’s spy chief has held talks with his US counterpart over the weekend in a renewed push to end the war in Gaza and secure the release of hostages, it has been revealed.
David Barnea, head of Mossad, held talks with CIA chief Bill Burns and Qatari prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani in Rome.
A person with knowledge of the negotiations said that while a deal for Gaza was “likely”, it was “not imminent”.
“There are still significant gaps . . . and will require time to negotiate,” the source told the Financial Times.
01:58 PM BST
Pictured: Pro-Israel demonstrators stage counter-protest outside Houses of Parliament
01:46 PM BST
Rocket fired from Lebanon kills Israeli civilian
A rocket fired from Lebanon killed an Israeli civilian on Tuesday.
A 30-year-old man was declared dead after he was hit by shrapnel, Israel’s emergency service said.
Meanwhile, Israel’s military reported its forces were “striking the sources of fire” after 10 projectiles were fired from Lebanon.
Tension has spiked along the frontier after a rocket Israel said Hezbollah fired killed 12 children and teens on Saturday in the Israeli-held Golan Heights.
01:38 PM BST
Lammy: Not ‘right time’ for UK to recognise Palestinian state
David Lammy has said the Labour government does not believe it is the “right time” to recognise a Palestinian state, but remains committed to a two-state solution.
Pressed on a timeframe, the Foreign Secretary told MPs that he does not believe the recognition “will bring about peace”.
“It is the Biden plan that is on the table at the moment that we would like to see Hamas accept and of course the leadership of Israel accept. That is what will give us a ceasefire and get us to a place where we can get that two-state solution,” he said.
Mr Lammy added that no one has a “veto” on a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine and reiterated that it was a “just cause”.
01:11 PM BST
Pictured: Palestinians in West Bank demand return of prisoners
12:56 PM BST
Hezbollah claims to have fired at Israeli warplanes
Lebanon’s Hezbollah said on Tuesday it fired at Israeli warplanes that broke the sound barrier in Lebanese airspace.
Hezbollah added that it forced the warplanes to turn back.
12:48 PM BST
Hamas says Gaza death toll at 39,400
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says the Palestinian death toll since the terror group launched the October 7 attack on Israel now stands at 39,400.
The figure cannot be independently verified and includes more than 15,000 Hamas gunmen Israel says it has killed in battle. Israel also says it killed some 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.
12:41 PM BST
Palestinians recover dozens of bodies in east Khan Younis
Palestinian rescue workers and civilians are collecting dead bodies from the streets of Khan Younis, now an abandoned battle zone after Israeli forces ended a week-long incursion there.
The Hamas-run Gaza media office said Israel’s eight-day-long raid in eastern areas of Khan Younis killed 300 Palestinians, wounded more than 300 others and left dozens missing since it began on July 22.
The Israeli military said its forces killed more than 150 Palestinian gunmen during the seven-day raid, destroyed militant tunnels and seized weapons.
After the Israeli forces left, people streamed back to their homes on foot and with carts carrying their belongings. Many found their houses damaged or destroyed. The Hamas media office said more than 300 homes had been hit by Israeli fire during the raid.
12:23 PM BST
Palestinian prisoner group demands international inquiry into abuse allegations
The association representing Palestinian prisoners has called for an international inquiry into allegations of abuse of detainees in Israeli jails since the start of the war in Gaza.
Qadura Fares, head of the detainees and ex-detainees affairs commission, said there had been multiple reports of abuse at Sde Teiman, the military facility in southern Israel at the centre of the investigation.
“Every day, as we witness the massacres against our people in Gaza, we hear horrific and harsh testimonies from legal teams and detainees who are released,” he said in a statement.
He said the Israeli investigation and the detention of nine Israeli soldiers was a “farce” aimed at misleading world opinion.
The Israeli military said the investigation into the Israeli soldiers was ordered “following suspected substantial abuse of a detainee”. It provided no further details.
12:11 PM BST
Israel will hold second hearing to close Palestinian detention camp
Israel’s High Court of Justice says it will hold a second hearing on August 7 following demands to close the Sde Teiman detention facility.
The military base has for months been at the centre of allegations of abuse and torture on Palestinian detainees and has faced calls from human rights groups for it to be shut down.
The decision follows an investigation into nine soldiers accused of severe abuse of a Palestinian detainee roughly a month ago and riots at Sde Teiman itself after the soldiers were arrested.
11:49 AM BST
Pictured: 2,000lb bomb replica staged outside Houses of Parliament
11:37 AM BST
‘Anarchy’ as a second base stormed over arrests of Israeli soldiers
An Israeli mob broke into a second military compound following the arrests of nine soldiers accused of abusing a Palestinian inmate.
Crowds of protesters forced their way into two bases on Monday in what Israel’s military chief described as “unlawful behaviours bordering on anarchy”.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) reservists were arrested after a suspected Hamas militant was left unable to walk after reports of severe sexual abuse and injuries.
Rioters and hard-Right MPs from Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition were filmed earlier in the day breaking into the Sde Teiman facility in southern Israel where the soldiers under investigation had barricaded themselves in.
The detention site in southern Israel has for months been at the centre of controversy over allegations of serious abuses against Gazan prisoners since Oct 7.
Protesters later breached the perimeter of the Beit Lid military compound in central Israel, where the soldiers had been taken for questioning. They clashed with security forces before being cleared out, police said.
Lt-Gen Herzi Halevi, Israel’s military chief of staff, denounced the protests, saying: “We are in the midst of a war, and actions of this type endanger the security of the state.”
11:17 AM BST
Hard-Right MP demands to know if Gallant had advance knowledge of Oct 7
Itamar Ben Gvir, Israel’s hard-Right national security minister, called on Benjamin Netanyahu to prove whether Israel’s defence minister had advance warning of Hamas’s Oct 7 attack.
Mr Ben Gvir accused Yoav Gallant of intentionally refraining from bolstering Israeli military presence along the Gaza border.
The minister is currently under fire over allegations that he ordered police not to stop a mob of Right-wing protesters from overrunning two IDF bases on Monday.
11:12 AM BST
Israeli forces withdraw from east Khan Younis
Israel’s military said it has withdrawn from the eastern part of Khan Younis after a week-long incursion into the southern Gazan city.
Amid the operation, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they killed over 150 terror operatives, demolished tunnels and other sites used by Hamas, and recovered the bodies of five hostages.
10:37 AM BST
Druze leaders reject Israeli threats to retaliate for rocket strike
Druze leaders in the annexed Golan Heights have distanced themselves from Israeli threats to retaliate against Lebanon’s Hezbollah group for a deadly rocket strike on a Druze village.
On a visit to Majdal Shams on Monday, Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Israel would deliver a “severe response” to the strike, which killed 12 children aged between 10 and 16 as they played football in the town on Saturday.
In response, religious leaders said the community rejects the “attempt to exploit the name of Majdal Shams as a political platform at the expense of the blood of our children”.
Noting that the Druze faith “forbids killing and revenge in any form”, the Druze community leaders said “we reject the shedding of even a single drop of blood under the pretext of avenging our children”.
Most of Majdal Shams’s around 11,000 mainly Druze residents still identify as Syrian more than half a century after Israel seized the Golan Heights from Syria and later annexed it in a move not recognised by the international community.
10:05 AM BST
IDF denies troops diverted from Gaza to protect military base
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has denied reports that three of its fighting battalions would be transferred to the Beit Lid army base instead of the Gaza Strip in the coming days.
The reports came after a large mob invaded the base late on Monday in response to the arrests of nine IDF soldiers accused of severely abusing a Palestinian inmate.
The break-in at the facility had to be repelled by both the army and police, however sources suggested that further battalions would be relocated to protect the base, where the arrested soldiers are now being questioned, from further threats.
“We are working decisively alongside negotiations with the soldiers to calm the situation, but we will not allow attacks or risks to security forces,” the police said in a statement.
09:44 AM BST
Greece’s Aegean Airlines cancels flights to Beirut
Greece’s Aegean Airlines said on Tuesday that it cancelled flights to Beirut until Aug 1, due to the current situation.
“We are constantly evaluating the developments following the instructions of the competent authorities,” the airlines said.
It follows similar announcements by German airline Lufthansa, which is cancelling all flights to Beirut until Aug 5. Air France also suspended all flights to Beirut for Monday and Tuesday, saying the airline was “monitoring the situation in Lebanon in real time”.
09:43 AM BST
‘Fight between Israel and Hezbollah not inevitable’ - US defence secretary
Lloyd Austin, the US defence secretary, does not believe that a fight between Israel and Hezbollah is “inevitable” and said Washington is pushing for the crisis to be resolved in a diplomatic fashion.
Mr Austin made the comments on Tuesday in Manila following security talks with Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, and their respective Philippine counterparts, Gilberto Teodoro and Enrique Manalo.
09:18 AM BST
‘Don’t bomb Beirut’: US urges Israel to avoid Hezbollah heartland in capital
The US is leading a diplomatic dash to deter Israel from striking Lebanon’s capital of Beirut or major civil infrastructure in response to a deadly rocket attack, sources said late on Monday.
Washington is racing to avert a full-blown war between Israel and Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah, according to five Lebanese and Iranian officials and European diplomats.
The focus of the high-speed diplomacy has been to constrain Israel’s response by urging it against targeting densely populated Beirut, the southern suburbs of the city that form Hezbollah’s heartland, or key infrastructure like airports and bridges, the sources said.
“If they avoid civilians and they avoid Beirut and its suburbs, then their attack could be well calculated,” Elias Bou Saab, Lebanon’s deputy parliament speaker, also told Reuters.
08:57 AM BST
Pictured: Gazans return to their ruined homes in Khan Younis
08:41 AM BST
Israel urges Nato to expel Turkey after invasion threat
Israel’s foreign minister urged Nato to expel Turkey on Monday after Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened his country might enter Israel.
“In light of Turkish President Erdogan’s threats to invade Israel and his dangerous rhetoric, foreign minister Israel Katz instructed diplomats... to urgently engage with all Nato members, calling for the condemnation of Turkey and demanding its expulsion from the regional alliance,” the ministry said.
Mr Erdogan appeared to threaten to invade Israel during a live televised debate on Sunday as he criticised Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza.
“Just like we entered Karabakh, just like we entered Libya, we might do similar to them,” he said.
08:15 AM BST
Meloni tells Israel not to fall into ‘trap’ of retaliation
Giorgia Meloni on Tuesday called on Israel not to fall into the “trap” of retaliation, saying she was “very, very worried” by the situation in Lebanon and the risk of a regional escalation.
Speaking during an official visit to China, the Italian prime minister said the international community should continue sending messages of moderation, and that China could help in these efforts as it has “solid ties” with Iran and Saudi Arabia.
08:13 AM BST
Israel hits air defence bases in Syria
Israeli missiles struck two air defence bases in southern Syria overnight, a war monitor said on Tuesday, as tensions surge on Israel’s northern border after a deadly rocket strike on the annexed Golan Heights.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported no casualties in the overnight strikes in Daraa province, which separates Syrian and Israeli forces on the Golan.
Syria’s state-run media did not report any strikes.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed a “severe” response to Saturday’s strike, which killed 12 youths in a Druze Arab town in the Golan.
“The State of Israel will not, and cannot, let this pass. Our response will come and it will be severe,” he said on a visit to the town of Majdal Shams on Monday.
07:20 AM BST
Watch: Hard-Right Israeli MPs storm controversial detention camp
Hard-Right Israeli MPs stormed a detention centre earlier on Tuesday in protest at the arrest of nine soldiers over the alleged abuse of a Palestinian inmate.
The MPs from Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition broke through the gate of Sde Teiman facility, in the Negev desert, alongside dozens of activists.
The detention site, run by Israel Defense Forces (IDF), has been at the centre of controversy in recent months after reports of severe physical abuse of Palestinian prisoners since Oct 7.
“The people of Israel live,” protesters chanted as they broke through the gate.
07:19 AM BST
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