Middle East crisis live: Israeli military says it is carrying out strikes on military targets in Iran

The Israeli military is now conducting “precise strikes on military targets in Iran”, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) has just posted on X.

The strikes are in response to “months of continuous attacks from the regime in Iran against the state of Israel”, the IDF post says.

It also says Israel’s “defensive and offensive capabilities are fully mobilized”.

The regime in Iran and its proxies in the region have been relentlessly attacking Israel since October 7th – on seven fronts – including direct attacks from Iranian soil.

Like every other sovereign country in the world, the state of Israel has the right and the duty to respond.

Our defensive and offensive capabilities are fully mobilized. We will do whatever necessary to defend the state of Israel and the people of Israel.

At least five explosions have been heard in Iran’s capital, Tehran, and in nearby Karaj city, Reuters has just quoted semi-official Iranian media as saying.

More than half a million people, mostly Syrians, had crossed into Syrian territory since Israel began heavily striking Lebanon late last month, according to figures by the Lebanese authorities on Friday.

A statement from the country’s disaster management unit stated that since 23 September, Lebanon has “recorded the crossing of 348,237 Syrian citizens and 156,505 Lebanese citizens into Syrian territory”.

Meanwhile, as we reported earlier, Israeli bombing has reportedly put a second border crossing between Lebanon and Syria out of service, leaving just one official passage between the two nations operational.

The UN refugee agency (Unhcr) warned that Israel’s overnight airstrike on the Jousieh crossing in Lebanon’s northern Bekaa area jeopardised the main escape route for people fleeing the conflict in Lebanon in search of refuge in Syria.

Unhcr Middle East spokesperson Rula Amin, at a media briefing on Friday, said the crossing “is the only route these people have to escape Lebanon”, adding:

This is hindering and really putting at risk a main lifeline that people use to escape the conflict in Lebanon and cross into Syria.

Amin said the Jousieh strike hit within 500 metres (550 yards) of the immigration office, with no prior notification given.

It is the second such gateway hit by the Israeli army this month. The Israeli military confirmed that it had struck the Jousieh crossing, saying it was being used by Hezbollah to transfer weapons.

It’s 8.30pm in Gaza, Beirut and Tel Aviv. Here’s a recap of the latest developments:

• Israeli military strikes across Gaza have killed at least 72 Palestinians since Thursday night, including strikes on residential areas in southern Gaza that killed 38 people, including 13 children from the same extended family, Palestinian health officials said. Gaza’s health ministry reported that dozens of people were wounded as Israeli airstrikes and shelling pounded the southern city of Khan Younis. Palestinians said the neighbourhood was hit with no warning. Israeli strikes on three houses in Beit Lahiya killed 25 people and wounded dozens more, medics said. Later on Friday, an Israeli airstrike killed nine people in Shati camp in Gaza City, medics said.

• Israeli forces stormed Kamal Adwan hospital, one of the few medical facilities still functioning in north Gaza, on Thursday night, according to reports. “Israeli forces have stormed and are present inside Kamal Adwan hospital” in the city of Jabalia, Gaza’s health ministry said. The World Health Organization said on Friday it lost touch with staff at the hospital, where some had been the night before to deliver supplies and help transfer patients to Shifa hospital in Gaza City. The hospital’s director, Abu Safiya, could not be reached on Friday.

• The UN rights chief, Volker Türk, described Israel’s renewed assault on northern Gaza as the “darkest moment” of the year-long war on the territory so far. “We are facing what could amount to atrocity crimes, including potentially extending to crimes against humanity,” Türk said in a statement on Friday.

• Three journalists from the Hezbollah-affiliated TV stations Al Mayadeen and Al-Manar were killed and several others wounded in an Israeli airstrike on their press station in Hasbaya, southern Lebanon, early on Friday morning. The strikes hit a group of small chalets that 18 journalists from at least seven different media outlets – including Al Jazeera, Sky News Arabia and TRT – were staying in while covering the Israel-Hezbollah war in south Lebanon. Several cars with “Press” signs on them were parked in front of the site. Lebanon’s prime minister, Najib Mikati, said the attack was “deliberate” and “aims to terrorise the media to cover up crimes and destruction”.

• Lebanon’s health minister, Firass Abiad, said more than 163 rescuers and health workers have been killed and 272 injured in Israeli airstrikes during more than a year of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. Abiad, speaking to reporters on Friday, said Israel has carried out attacks on 55 hospitals, 36 of which were directly hit. Eight hospitals have been closed while seven are still partially functioning, he said. Attacks against the medical and paramedic sectors in Lebanon are direct and intentional aggressions,” Abiad said. “This is a war crime.”

• Two people were killed in a strike on Majd al-Krum in northern Israel, Israeli media said on Friday, following a statement from Hezbollah saying that it targeted the northern Israeli town of Karmiel with a large missile salvo.

• UN peacekeepers withdrew from a observation post in Zahajra town in south Lebanon on Tuesday after Israeli forces fired at it, the force said on Friday. Unifil added that the Israeli military has repeatedly demanded that its peacekeepers vacate its positions along the Blue Line and deliberately damaged camera, lighting and communications equipment at some of these positions.

• Lebanon’s transport minister, Ali Hamieh, said Israeli bombing put a second border crossing between the country and Syria out of service –leaving one official passage between the two nations operational. The UN refugee agency (Unhcr) warned that Israel’s overnight airstrike on the Jousieh crossing in Lebanon’s northern Bekaa area jeopardised the main escape route for people fleeing the conflict in Lebanon in search of refuge in Syria. More than half a million people, mostly Syrians, had crossed into Syrian territory since Israel began heavily striking Lebanon late last month, according to figures by the Lebanese authorities on Friday.

• Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, called for pressure on Israel to end what he called the “ethnic cleansing” in Gaza, as he met the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, in London. Blinken, who is still hoping Gaza peace talks can be revived, stopped over in the UK to brief leaders from Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan after he had been unable to meet them on his recent tour of the Middle East.

• Blinken also met with Lebanon’s prime minister, Najib Mikati in London on Friday. The US – Israel’s biggest arms supplier – has stopped short of calling for an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s month of bombing of Lebanon, but is instead calling for a diplomatic resolution. Blinken said Israel “must take the necessary steps to avoid civilian casualties and not endanger UN peacekeepers or the Lebanese armed forces.”