Attack with 21 drones and missiles by Iran-backed rebels comes despite planned UN security council vote on Wednesday to potentially demand halt to the assaults
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Hello and welcome to our live reporting of the Israel-Gaza war and the wider Middle East crisis. I’m Adam Fulton and here’s a rundown on the latest news.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels have fired one of their largest barrages of drones and missiles targeting shipping in the Red Sea, forcing the US and British navies to shoot down the projectiles in a major engagement, the US military says.
Israel and Hezbollah edged closer towards full scale war on Tuesday, as the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group launched explosive drones at a key Israeli command base, declaring the attack part of its response to recent high-level Israeli assassinations in Lebanon. Hezbollah said it launched “a number of explosive attack drones” at the Israeli northern military command base in Safed, the first time it has targeted the site. An Israeli army spokesperson said there were no casualties or damage.
Israeli aircraft, drones and artillery struck multiple targets inside southern Lebanon, including a strike on a car during the funeral of a senior commander in Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force, Wissam Hassan al Tawil, who had been killed the day before. Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, said his country was open to negotiations but was being threatened with war.
Hezbollah denied a claim by the Israeli military that it killed the southern Lebanon commander of Hezbollah’s aerial unit in an airstrike on Tuesday. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said Ali Hussein Barji had led dozens of drone attacks on Israel. But Hezbollah said that “the commander was never subjected to any assassination attempt as the enemy claimed”.