Middle East crisis live: Israel continues Lebanon airstrikes; Iran says attack targeting Hezbollah leader ‘changes rules of the game’ | Israel

At least six people were killed and 91 were wounded in Israel’s strike on Beirut’s southern suburb on Friday, according to the latest figure by Lebanon’s health ministry.

The Lebanese ministry added that the toll was not final.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has warned that it will strike areas of southern Beirut in the “coming hours” and called on civilians to leave those areas.

The statement by IDF spokesperson Rear Adm Daniel Hagari comes after the IDF ordered residents of Dahiyeh, the southern suburb of Beirut, to evacuate certain areas as they were “located near Hezbollah interests”.

A map posted by an Israeli military spokesperson showed different neighbourhoods of Dahiyeh, pointing to specific buildings in al-Laylakeh and al-Hadath, both densely populated areas of Beirut.

Hagari reiterated the warning to residents of three buildings in Dahiyeh to evacuate. He said:

In the coming hours we are going to strike strategic capability that Hezbollah placed underground, under three buildings in the heart of the Dahiyeh.

Israel’s apparent attempt to assassinate Hezbollah’s leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, in a massive strike on an underground headquarters in Beirut’s southern suburbs marks the most alarming escalation in almost a year of war between the Shia militant organisation as Israel.

Immediately after a highly bellicose speech by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the UN general assembly – where he appeared to directly threaten Iran as well as promise to continue “degrading” Hezbollah – the first reports of a massive strike began to emerge.

Within less than an hour, Israeli journalists with connections to the country’s defence and security establishment were suggesting that Nasrallah was the target and that he had been in the area of the headquarters at the time of the strike.

That the strike was regarded as highly significant was quickly confirmed by a series of statements from Israel – including an image showing Netanyahu ordering the attack on the phone from his New York hotel room.

What is clearer than ever, after a series of Israeli escalations against Hezbollah this month – including targeted killings and the explosion of thousands of modified pagers and walkie-talkies supplied to the group – is that the long-understood ground rules governing the balance of deterrence between the two sides has been blown away.

Read the full analysis here: Israel’s strike on Hezbollah leader is an alarming escalation in conflict

Here’s more from US secretary of state Antony Blinken’s news conference in New York.

Blinken said Israel’s objective in Lebanon is an “important and legitimate one”, and that it is about “creating an environment that’s secure enough to enable people to return home”. He tells reporters:

The question is: what’s the best way to do that? What is the most effective, sustainable way to do that?

He says the US and other countries who have joined calls for a 21-day ceasefire believe that the best way is through diplomacy and through a ceasefire.

The Israeli military has warned residents of Dahiyeh, the southern suburb of Beirut, to evacuate certain areas, as they were “located near Hezbollah interests”.

Avichay Adraee, Israel’s Arabic language military spokesperson, posted a map of certain areas of Dahiyeh on a post on X and said residents “were obliged to evacuate the buildings immediately and move away from them at a distance of no less than 500 meters”.

He added that the evacuation orders were for the “safety of your loved ones”.

The map posted by the Israeli spokesperson showed different neighbourhoods of Dahiyeh, pointing to specific buildings in al-Laylakeh and al-Hadath that he said were Hezbollah bases.

Both al-Laylakeh and al-Hadath are densely populated areas of Beirut.

Earlier in the day, crowds of people fled from Dahiyeh and the immediate surrounding area for fear of further Israeli strikes.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it was continuing to strike Hezbollah sites throughout Lebanon.

An IDF statement said it continuing to “attack, damage and degrade the military capabilities and infrastructure” of Hezbollah.

It said Israeli fighter jets attacked “deep in Lebanon and southern Lebanon”, and that it hit Hezbollah targets including launchers that were “directed towards Israeli civilians”.