Israel poised for

Israel is poised to launch “deadly” revenge attacks on Iran after its War Cabinet held an emergency vote in favour of military strikes.

Tehran has promised to respond to any Israeli attack.

“They will not understand what happened and how it happened, they will see the results,” Mr Gallant said.

Authorities there said Israeli air strikes on Thursday in central Beirut were the heaviest so far, killing at least 22 people and injured 117 others.

As further loud explosions were heard today from the site of a strike in Bachoura, a small Shia area in the city, the target of the ongoing strikes appeared to be Wafiq Safa, brother-in-law of the already assassinated Heznollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, and now one of Lebanese terror group’s highest-ranking security officials.

But local reports suggested he was still alive.

The targeting prompted Hezbollah’s media relations office to postpone a planned public appearance by its new chief, which had been scheduled for yesterday.

Hajj Mohamad Afif had planned to hold talks with the minister of information, the minister of culture and the speaker of the National Media Council.

But a news conference scheduled for after the talks was also postponed to a date “to be later determined”, the office said in a statement.

The deadliest strikes on Beirut so far came with no warning issued before, hitting residential buildings in two densely packed neighbourhoods in Bachoura – a small Shia area in the capital.

Residents there spoke of their shock and despair today.

One teenager said she had come to check on her grandfather’s house.

Another woman looking at the fruit and vegetable stalls – now all covered in dust, said: “People displaced from their homes came here to seek refuge. How could they have done this?”

A family of five who fled the airstrikes in Tyre in the southern Lebanon were among the people killed in the attack.

It was the third time Israel has launched air strikes on the city outside of the suburb of Dahieh, where it has struck repeatedly.

As it continued its bid to ‘wipe out’ all its enemies, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) also announced it had killed Muhammad Abdullah in the occupied West Bank.

They said that Abdullah was the head of the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad for the Nur Shams refugee camp in Tulkarm.
In a post on X, the IDF said the attack was a joint operation with the Israeli security agency Shin Bet and that weapons and vehicles were confiscated.

Meanwhile, Israel said Hezbollah fired more than 190 projectiles – its term for rockets – from Lebanon into Israel during the previous 24 hours.

Most fell on open ground while others were shot down.

Bt as Israel’s ground offensive continues to surge into Southern Lebanon, there are growing fears for the safety of United Nations staff.

More than 10,000 UN peacekeepers remain in southern Lebanon amid growing concerns for their safety as the cross-border conflict between Israel and Hezbollah escalates.

At a UN Security Council meeting, peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix said 300 Unifil personnel had now been relocated to larger bases due to safety concerns.

His comments came after two Unifil peacekeepers were injured yesterday after an Israeli tank fired at a watchtower at the force’s headquarters in Ras al-Naqoura.

Neither were seriously injured but the UN said the attack, along with other attacks on UN positions in the last 24 hours, were “a grave violation of international law”.

The IDF claimed its troops had fired from the area around the base after ordering members of the base to remain in “protected places”.