The Times of Israel is liveblogging Thursday’s events as they happen.
At least 2 said killed in Israeli strike on central Beirut
At least two were killed and 11 wounded in an Israeli strike on central Beirut’s Bashoura neighborhood early Thursday, the Lebanese health ministry says in a statement.
The airstrike started a fire in an apartment in a multistory building in the residential Bashoura district, not far from the United Nations headquarters, the prime minister’s office and parliament. Ambulances rushed to the scene.
Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV station says the strike targeted a center of the terror group’s health unit.
There was no warning issued ahead of the strike.
Harris’s top security aide discusses Mideast diplomacy with Muslim and Arab community leaders
US Vice President Kamala Harris’s national security adviser Phil Gordon met earlier today with Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian American community leaders, laying out the Biden administration’s efforts to secure diplomatic solutions in Gaza and Lebanon while raising concern regarding destabilizing Israeli actions in the West Bank, the White House says.
The meeting appears to be an attempt to maintain ties with Arab and Muslim communities, whose members have fumed over the administration’s continued support for Israel in the war against Hamas, which has taken the lives of thousands of Palestinian civilians and left an ongoing humanitarian crisis for survivors.
An Arab American Institute survey of 500 eligible Arab voters conducted in late September said that 42 percent back former president Donald Trump in the upcoming election, compared to 41% who support Harris.
While the minority community’s socially conservative leanings would seem to make the Republican Party a more natural home for many, the GOP’s Mideast policies have long kept larger numbers of Arab and Muslim Americans away.
But many in those communities blame US President Joe Biden’s policies for the ongoing war, accusing him of complicity in “genocide.” Accordingly, some of those critics don’t see a difference between Biden and Trump — who has been far more hostile to the Palestinian cause — and are considering voting for the Republican nominee over Harris, who they view as an extension of the current administration.
Building in central Beirut reportedly hit in Israeli strike
A Lebanese security source tells Reuters that an Israeli strike hit within Beirut’s city limits, not far from downtown. Witnesses in the center of the Lebanese capital heard a massive blast.
Some initial images from the Bashoura neighborhood show significant damage to a building, with a fire burning on the third floor.
The strike comes shortly after the IDF announced it was carrying out a “targeted” attack in Beirut and a source close to Hezbollah told AFP that Israel launched three air raids on Beirut’s southern suburbs just before midnight.
AFP journalists just outside Beirut could hear the explosions, which were audible kilometers away.
مشاهد من مكان الغارة التي استهدفت مركز الهيئة الصحية في منطقة #الباشورة قرب #سليم_سلام في #بيروت#ملحق pic.twitter.com/Ops6Al9uIz
— Mulhak – ملحق (@Mulhak) October 2, 2024
‘The time for empty calls for deescalation is over,’ says Israeli UN envoy after Iran missile attack
Israel’s UN ambassador says “the time for empty calls for deescalation is over.”
Danny Danon tells an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council that “Iran’s true face is one of terror, death and chaos.”
“This is no longer a matter of words,” he said. “Iran is a very real and present danger to the world, and if they are not stopped, the next wave of missiles will not be aimed solely at Israel,” he says.
He calls Iran’s missile barrage aimed at Israel on Tuesday “a cold-blooded attack against 10 million civilians” and “an unprecedented act of aggression.”
Danon stresses that Israel will not stop until all of the hostages taken by Hamas and other terrorists are back in Israel.
“Let the world understand: Israel will defend itself, and we will do so with justice and strength,” he says.
Speaking before Danon, the Iranian ambassador claimed Iran had to launch a barrage of missiles at Israel to “restore balance” after a recent series of significant Israeli strikes targeting its regional proxies.
Amir Saeid Iravani describes the missile attack as “a necessary and proportionate response to Israel’s continued terrorist aggressive acts over the past two months.”
He claims Iran has “consistently pursued peace and stability” and that Israel sees Iranian restraint “not as a gesture of goodwill but as a weakness to exploit.”
“Each act of restraint taken by Iran has only emboldened Israel to commit greater crimes and more acts of aggression,” Iravani says. “Consequently, Iran’s response was necessary to restore balance and deterrence.”
Lebanon’s UN ambassador meanwhile says his government rejects the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.
Hadi Hachem says the Lebanese government wants the enforcement of a UN Security Council resolution that was supposed to end the last Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006. It called for all armed groups, including Hezbollah, to be disarmed and the deployment of Lebanese forces to the southern border with Israel. None of this has happened.
The Lebanese ambassador says fully implementing the resolution is the only solution to the ongoing war and Israel’s “barbaric aggression.” He says Lebanon is opening enlistment for 1,500 new soldiers to strengthen the national army’s presence in the south.
“Lebanon today is stuck between the Israeli destruction machine and the ambitions of others in the region,” Hachem says, alluding to Iran’s support for Hezbollah.
Lebanese health ministry reports 46 killed in Israeli strikes on Hezbollah in past day
Forty six people were killed and 85 wounded in Israeli strikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon over the past 24 hours, the Lebanese health ministry says in a statement early Thursday.
IDF confirms ‘targeted’ airstrike in Beirut
The IDF confirms carrying out an airstrike in the Lebanese capital of Beirut a short while ago.
It describes the strike as “targeted,” and says further details will be provided later.
غارتان تستهدفان #الضاحية_الجنوبية pic.twitter.com/ee5nAUKXxJ
— هنا لبنان (@thisislebnews) October 2, 2024
According to Lebanese media, the strike was carried out in the southern suburb of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold known as Dahiyeh.
Report: Brother of slain senior Hezbollah commander killed in IDF strike in Syria
Hassan Qassir — the brother of a senior Hezbollah commander killed by Israel yesterday — was reportedly killed in the alleged IDF strike in Syria earlier today.
Qassir’s brother, Muhammad Ja’far, had headed Hezbollah’s Unit 4400, which is tasked with delivering weapons from Iran and its proxies to Lebanon. He was killed in a strike in Beirut alongside the commander of the Imam Hossein Division, an Iranian militia which operates alongside Hezbollah.
According to various Arab media outlets, Hassan Qassir, who was killed in an alleged Israeli strike in the Mazzeh district of Damascus today, is also the son-in-law of Nasrallah.
Breaking. Target of the Israeli airstrike in #Damascus was Nasrallah's son-in-law, Hassan Qassir. He was killed.
His brother, a prominent Hezbollah financier, was killed few days ago in Beirut. https://t.co/52RzIsQBOP pic.twitter.com/0WoRmP09kv— Qalaat Al Mudiq (@QalaatAlMudiq) October 2, 2024