Israel-Gaza war live: Saudi Arabia calls on all citizens to leave Lebanon immediately

Ismaeel Naar reports:

Saudi Arabia has called all its citizens in Lebanon to immediately leave the country and reiterated its previous travel ban , amid rising tensions between the Lebanese armed group Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel, raising fears of a war.

“The Embassy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the Republic of Lebanon is closely following the developments of the current events in southern Lebanon, and confirms its previous call for all Saudi citizens to abide by the decision on its travel ban to Lebanon, and urges citizens who are there to leave Lebanese territory immediately,” the Saudi foreign ministry said.

Kuwait issued a similar call last week and more Gulf countries are expected to follow suit.

The Palestinian NGO Network Rehabilitation Sector has said an estimated 10,000 people are suffering from various disabilities due to the Israeli attacks on Gaza, Wafa news agency reported.

According to a statement released on Saturday, hundreds of people with disabilities have been killed, and thousands more injured as a result of the Israeli onslaught.

The crisis has forced tens of thousands of disabled people to flee, exposing them to harsh displacement conditions and severe psychological trauma, the statement said.

It emphasised that Israeli actions, including the destruction of infrastructure, main roads and rehabilitation centres, have severely restricted the movement and access to services for people with disabilities.

"This has significantly diminished their ability to mobilise, evacuate safely, and has resulted in the loss of crucial assistive devices, abandoned in the face of bombardment," the statement said.

A number of Palestinians were killed and several others injured on Saturday in Israeli air strikes and artillery shelling across Gaza city, Wafa news agency reported.

At least eight people, including children and women, were killed and others injured in Israeli air strikes on two houses in the neighbourhoods of Daraj and Sabra in central Gaza city.

Several were killed and others wounded in an Israeli drone strike that targeted a civilian vehicle with a missile in Sabra.

Israeli artillery targeted a municipal park in central Gaza city, killing and injuring a number of civilians.

Four Palestinians were killed and others injured on Saturday in an Israeli air strike on Al Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, Wafa news agency reported.

Israeli warplanes bombed a residential house, leading to the deaths of four people and injuring several others, Wafa said.

The injured were taken to Al Aqsa and Al Awda hospitals in the province for treatment.

Two people were killed and more were injured by shelling of a tented camp in Al Mawasi, in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, Wafa news agency reported, quoting medical sources.

Rescue teams recovered bodies of five Palestinians in Al Shakoush area in western Rafah after Israeli air strikes, Wafa said.

Israeli tanks also fired at the houses of Palestinians in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, Wafa reported.

A Serbian police officer on Saturday killed an "attacker" who wounded him using a crossbow in front of the Israeli embassy in Belgrade, the Serbian Interior Minister said.

Around 11am, an "unknown person shot a member of the gendarmerie, who was on duty securing the Israeli embassy, from a crossbow and hit him in the neck", said Interior Minister Ivica Dacic, adding that the officer had "used a weapon in self-defence and defeated the attacker, who died as a result of his injuries".

The Gaza Health Ministry said on Saturday that at least 37,834 Palestinians have been killed and 86,858 injured in Israel's war on Gaza since October 7.

In the 24 hours to noon on Saturday, 40 people were killed and 224 injured, the ministry added.

The Israeli army said on Saturday its troops are continuing operations against "terrorist" targets in Gaza city's Shujaiya area, fighting above and below ground. 

It said that over the past day the troops killed a large number of militants and located a weapons storage facility within a school compound.

As part of the operation in the area, warplanes bombed "terror targets and armed terrorist cells, including a terrorist cell that was on its way to fire at IDF troops."

In Rafah, the army said it continues its "intelligence-based operational activity", and that ground troops killed numerous militants in the area, and dismantled "a large amount of terrorist infrastructure, including underground terror tunnel shafts," backed by air strikes.

In central Gaza, it said it killed numerous militants on the ground and in targeted air strikes.

The US military on Saturday said its temporary pier was removed from the coast of Gaza and sent back to the Israeli port of Ashdod because of bad weather and heavy tides.

Officials said Washington may not reinstall it unless aid deliveries – which had been paused because of security concerns – resume.

It is the third time the pier has been detached from the shore because of weather conditions and the Pentagon has said there is no planned date for its reconnection.

“I don’t have a date of when the pier will be reinstalled,” Sabrina Singh, a Pentagon spokeswoman, told reporters on Friday. She said aid was still sitting in a storage yard amid warnings by humanitarian groups of famine in Gaza.

The pier was first anchored to the Gaza coast in mid-May, but was damaged by bad weather later in the month and had to be removed for repairs.

It was then reattached on June 7, but was moved to Ashdod on June 14 to protect it from forecast high seas – a situation that is now being repeated.

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The US military on Saturday said that its forces destroyed seven drones and one ground control station vehicle in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen in the past 24 hours.

The drone and the ground control station "presented an imminent threat to US, coalition forces, and merchant vessels in the region, the US Central Command said.

Israeli warplanes bombed Hezbollah in southern Lebanon last night, the army said.

This included a military site in the area of Zibqin, two "operational infrastructures" in Khiam and Houla, and a military building in Odaisseh.

Tim Stickings reports:

An exclusive poll for The National reveals a generational split in Britain over the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Younger people tend to criticise Britain’s stance on Gaza and say the war will influence their general election vote on July 4.

Older voters are more likely to defend the UK’s policy and look unfavourably on ceasefire protests in Britain.

Our poll also shows the Conservatives cratering among younger generations and barely holding on to their elderly support base. The anti-Tory mood extends well beyond typically left-leaning students and young people to middle-aged Britons who are scathing about Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his economic record.

There is support for recognising Palestine, and halting arms sales to Israel, from all four age groups in the Deltapoll survey.

But millennials (in their late 20s to early 40s) and Generation Z (teenagers and early 20s) tend to take more pro-Palestinian views.

Asked about ceasefire protests in Britain, 59 per cent of those in Gen Z say they should be allowed to continue.

By contrast, 65 per cent of baby boomers (mainly in their 60s and 70s) say future protests should not go ahead.

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The Iranian UN mission in New York on Friday published a message warning that the country would bring about "an obliterating war" if Israel escalates its military operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

It said in a post on X that Israel's recent rhetoric and actions were viewed as "psychological warfare" and "propaganda" about their "intending to attack Lebanon.

Israel has approved plans for a military offensive in Lebanon, and its defence minister signalled to the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group that it could set the country back to the Stone Age.

The Iranian UN mission said, "should [Israel] embark on full-scale military aggression, an obliterating war will ensue".

It added that there are multiple options it is considering, should Israel-Hezbollah tensions intensify, and Iran would respond with all its proxies as one possibility.

"All options, [including] the full involvement of all Resistance Fronts, are on the table."

Palestinians in northern Gaza said intense bombardments have forced many people to flee the Shijaiyah neighbourhood of Gaza city on Friday, as the Israeli military confirmed it had launched another offensive into areas that were heavily bombed and largely emptied early in the war.

Residents described fierce battles in Shijaiyah for a second day in row, driving people to seek safety in western parts of Gaza city.

“It’s like the first weeks of the invasion,” said one man, Mahmoud Al Masry, who left his home on Thursday with his parents and four siblings.

Israel's military said on Friday troops had been active in the Shijaiyah area, both above and below ground, and warplanes bombed dozens of locations that it said were being used by militants, including UN-run schools and facilities.

A Hamas statement Friday reported intense close-quarters combat in Shijaiyah.

There was no immediate word from Gaza’s Health Ministry, which tracks casualties from the conflict.

-AP

Israel’s military said on Friday that about 25 rockets were launched from Lebanon toward northern Israel, damaging a building and setting fires as tensions between Israel and the militant group Hezbollah threaten war.

Israeli artillery bombarded the sources of the rocket fire, and the military said Israeli warplanes also struck what it described as Hezbollah infrastructure in the area of Jabal Safi, north of the city of Nabatieh.

Israel’s air defence system also failed to intercept three drones from Lebanon that flew into Israeli airspace, the military said. Firefighters were sent in the north to try to extinguish the blazes.

-AP