This morning an Israeli airstrike rocked the Lebanese capital of Beirut for the first time in several days. In Washington, the Biden administration has told Israel it has 30 days to improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza, or else risk a cut to military funding.
Wednesday 16 October 2024 06:58, UK
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
These images show smoke rising as a result of this morning’s Israeli strike on a Beirut suburb.
The Israel Defence Forces’ Arab spokesperson warned civilians in the area of Dahieh – thought to be a Hezbollah stronghold – that the air force was targeting a building.
Witnesses this morning heard a blast and saw a plume of smoke, while the IDF said it was targeting a weapons facility.
In case you missed it, last night we learned that the US had issued senior Israeli officials with an ultimatum.
Israel now has 30 days to improve the flow of humanitarian aid reaching Gaza or risk losing military support.
In a letter addressed to Israel’s defence minister Yoav Gallant and strategic affairs minister Ron Dermer, the US says Israel must allow at least 350 trucks a day to enter Gaza through all four major crossings.
It also recommends opening a fifth crossing.
Israel must also implement “humanitarian pauses” across Gaza to enable humanitarian activities, including vaccinations and aid distribution, for at least the next four months.
“Failure to demonstrate a sustained commitment to implementing and maintaining these measures may have implications for US policy… and relevant US law,” the letter said.
Not even 24 hours before this morning’s strike on Beirut, the Lebanese prime minister described what he called a “kind of guarantee” that Israel would reduce its strikes on the capital and its southern suburbs.
Speaking around lunchtime yesterday, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said he had received the promise-of-sorts via contacts in the US.
Israel has made no such pledge publicly, with the IDF putting out regular statements saying it will continue to operate against Hezbollah targets across Lebanon.
Shortly after Mr Mikati’s statement, state department spokesperson Matthew Miller said the US had expressed its concerns to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration on the recent strikes.
“When it comes to the scope and nature of the bombing campaign that we saw in Beirut over the past few weeks, it’s something that we made clear to the government of Israel we had concerns with and we were opposed to,” he told reporters, adopting a harsher tone than Washington has taken so far.
Additionally, the US has issued Israel with an ultimatum – giving it 30 days to improve the desperate humanitarian situation in Gaza, or else face a military aid cut.
For the first time in several days, an Israeli strike has rocked the Lebanese capital.
The Israel Defence Forces’ Arab spokesperson warned civilians in the area of Dahieh – thought to be a Hezbollah stronghold – that the air force was targeting a building.
It’s the first strike near the capital since two attacks killed 22 people in a densely-populated neighbourhood on 10 October.
Witnesses this morning heard a blast and saw a plume of smoke, while the IDF said it was targeting a weapons facility.
“These weapons were stockpiled by Hezbollah in an underground storage facility in the area of Dahieh, a key Hezbollah terrorist stronghold in Beirut,” it said in a statement.
These maps show where Beirut lies in the region, and points out the Dahieh suburb.
Welcome back to our live coverage of the conflicts in the Middle East.
Here’s a round-up of the biggest stories from the last 24 hours:
The US has given Israel 30 days to improve the flow of humanitarian aid reaching Gaza or risk losing military support.
Among the demands from the US are that Israel must allow at least 350 trucks a day to enter Gaza through all four major crossings, as well as opening a fifth.
It must also implement humanitarian pauses across Gaza to enable humanitarian activities, including vaccinations and aid distribution, for at least the next four months.
Meanwhile, the US has reportedly received assurances from Israel that it will not strike Iranian nuclear or oil facilities when it responds to the ballistic missile attack launched by Tehran last month.
However, the two officials, speaking to the AP news agency on the condition of anonymity, cautioned the assurance from Israel is not ironclad and that circumstances could change.
In other news:
That’s all for our coverage of the Middle East today.
Before we go, here’s a round-up of today’s biggest stories:
US warns Israel over Gaza aid
UK announces sanctions on Israeli settlers
US ‘receives assurances from Israel’ over Iran response
Israel ‘will make its own decisions’
UK considered sanctioning Israeli cabinet ministers
The letter sent by the US to Israel demanding it improve the flow of humanitarian aid reaching Gaza is being “thoroughly reviewed” by Israel, according to one of its officials.
The US has given Israel 30 days to implement several measures or risk losing some of the military support it receives from Washington.
An Israeli official in the US capital said Israel is taking the matter seriously and intends to address the concerns raised in the letter with US counterparts.
Israel’s military says it has noted the launch of approximately 95 projectiles fired into the country from Lebanon today.
That number has fallen slightly from yesterday, when the IDF said 115 rockets were fired at Israel from Lebanese territory.
“The IDF will continue to defend the State of Israel and its people against the threat posed by the Hezbollah terrorist organisation,” it added in a statement.
Earlier we reported on a speech given by Hezbollah’s acting leader, who said the militant group had adopted “a new calculation” to inflict pain on Israel (see 13.35 post).
Reacting to those comments from Naim Kassem, Israeli President Isaac Herzog has said: “His day will come.”
Mr Herzog was speaking while visiting the Haifa area of northern Israel where a Hezbollah drone strike killed four Israeli soldiers and injured dozens more on Sunday.
“I heard Naim Qassem’s speech – he is wrong just like his predecessors and those who came before them,” he said, according to the Times of Israel.
“Not only is he wrong – I presume his day will come as well.”
He added: “He is trying to make people forget the bitter truth – he and his friends have brought disaster upon Lebanon.”
US President Joe Biden has the opportunity to command leverage over Israel with its military support, according to a former US official.
Laura Blumenfeld worked in the US state department as a senior policy adviser on the Israel-Palestine negotiating team.
She tells Sky News that Mr Biden has been “on a tightrope” since the Israel-Hamas war broke out last year but that Washington can now demand Israel increases its flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza or risk losing America’s military support.
This week, the US announced it was sending a highly advanced anti-missile system to Israel but also threatened to withdraw military assistance if Israel did not allow more aid to reach Palestinian civilians.
“At this point Israel is so heavily dependent, especially on this advanced missile defence system being deployed as we speak,” Ms Blumenfeld told Kamali Melbourne on The World.
“This is the opportunity for the US to deliver the riot act to Israel and say ‘here are our demands – the survival of Palestinian or Lebanese civilians for your own survival’. It’s an opportunity for leverage.”
Will Israel listen to the US over its response to Iran?
Another key conversation between the US and Israel in recent weeks is how Benjamin Netanyahu will respond to the missile attack from Iran against his country last month.
Today, it was reported that Israel has offered assurances to the US that it will not strike Iranian nuclear or oil sites (see 17.35 post).
That’s a “very big concession” for Israel, says Ms Blumenfeld.
“Those would be the two go-to targets,” she adds.
“I think what they’re trying to do is pace their escalation. They’re going to maybe go halfway and see whether they can get Iran to back down.
“And if Israel doesn’t get the results they want, then they will feel justified to go the next step, which is for the jugular, which is really that opportunity Netanyahu has been talking about for decades. We’ll see if he takes it.”
Be the first to get Breaking News
Install the Sky News app for free