Israel-Hamas war live: no ceasefire until hostages released, Netanyahu says; Hezbollah threatens to escalate fighting

Lebanon’s Hezbollah says cross-border fighting with Israel could escalate

The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah said on Friday that his powerful militia is engaged in cross-border fighting with Israel that is unprecedented since 1948 and threatened further “realistic escalation”.

In a widely anticipated speech, Hassan Nasrallah stopped short of announcing that Hezbollah has fully joined the Israel-Hamas war, but added the fighting on the Lebanon-Israel border would “not be limited” to the scale seen until now.

Nasrallah said Hezbollah operations had been increasing “day by day”, even as Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Hezbollah against testing Israel or “they would pay dearly”.

He made clear that Hezbollah’s intention was to tie down Israeli troops who could otherwise be deployed in Gaza, warning that further escalation in the north was a “realistic possibility”.

He also suggested his militia had had no part in the 7 October attacks, telling flag-waving supporters: “This great, large-scale operation was purely the result of Palestinian planning and implementation.”

Nasrallah’s speech had been keenly anticipated throughout the region as a sign of whether the Israel-Hamas conflict would spiral into a regional war, following daily exchanges across Israel’s northern border between Israel and Hezbollah and other factions in southern Lebanon.

Since the beginning of the war, Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, had taken calculated steps to keep Israel’s military busy on its border with Lebanon, but not to the extent of igniting an all-out war.

Israel considers the Iran-backed Lebanese Shia militant group its most serious immediate threat, estimating that Hezbollah has around 150,000 rockets and missiles aimed at Israel, as well as drones and surface-to-air and surface-to-sea missiles.

But a full-on conflict would also be costly for Hezbollah, which fought a 34-day war with Israel in 2006 that ended with a draw — but not before Israeli bombing reduced swaths of southern Lebanon, the eastern Bekaa Valley and Beirut’s southern suburbs to rubble.

A new all-out war would also displace hundreds of thousands of Hezbollah’s supporters and cause wide damage at a time when Lebanon is in the throes of a historic four-year economic meltdown.

Updated at 11.17 EDT

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The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has ended his trip to Israel where he met with the country’s war cabinet to urge it to show greater restraint in its campaign to destroy Hamas.

Blinken said he urged Israeli leaders to allow more aid to enter Gaza and to implement humanitarian pauses to secure the release of hostages.

But in a televised statement a short time later, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed back on the idea of a temporary ceasefire. In a statement to reporters, Netanyahu said Israel is continuing with “all of its power” and “refuses a temporary ceasefire that doesn’t include a return of our hostages”.

US secretary of state Antony Blinken walks on the tarmac to board a plane as he departs en route to Jordan, in Tel Aviv, Israel. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/APIsraeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken during a meeting in Tel Aviv, Israel. Photograph: GPO/AMOS BEN GERSHOM HANDOUT/EPAUS Secretary of State Antony Blinken (L) stands next to Israeli President Isaac Herzog, as he holds in his hand a copy of a pamphlet that he said was sent to Palestinians in Jabalia asking them to vacate before military action. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/AFP/Getty ImagesBlinken speaks during a press conference in Tel Aviv. Photograph: Gil Cohen-Magen/AFP/Getty Images

We reported earlier that scores of Palestinians were reportedly killed and injured on Friday in Israeli targeting of an ambulance convoy carrying critically wounded people in Gaza, according to Reuters.

That report had originally cited the Gaza health ministry, but has since been corrected to cite Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa TV quoting the health ministry.

The UK Labour leader, Keir Starmer, sought to portray the Labour party as unified over its position on the Israel-Hamas conflict, as he insisted calls for a ceasefire and humanitarian pauses were “coming from the same place”.

A number of senior Labour MPs do not feel Starmer’s comments on the Middle East conflict this week have done enough to “hold the parliamentary Labour party together”, given “the level of anger within Labour’s grassroots”.

The Labour leader faced accusations from senior colleagues that his previous comments on the conflict lacked “empathy” and “humanity”.

Starmer, in an address to the North East Chamber of Commerce in County Durham on Friday, said he was “not surprised that people are trying to go for any option that they think would alleviate the awful situation”, adding: “I don’t think that should be taken as great division.”

“That is a human emotion,” the Labour leader said.

What I’ve done is share that emotion, when I see children dying. I have two children. I know exactly how this goes to the heart.

Keir Starmer defends call for humanitarian pause in Gaza – video

Senior Labour figures had sought to play down the idea of permanent divisions emerging within the party, saying that disagreements over the party’s stance on Israel and Gaza was not unique to Labour, with many organisations including universities also coming under pressure.

Starmer once again made it clear he would not be sacking any frontbenchers who have deviated from the party’s position on humanitarian corridors and called for a ceasefire.

Instead it appears the Labour leader believes the best way to demonstrate his authority over the party is to focus on “the most practical way to alleviate the situation on the ground”, which he believes means staying aligned with the US president, Joe Biden, and leaders in the Middle East so they can work together and “say the same thing at the same time”.

Lebanon’s militant group Hezbollah should not try to take advantage of the conflict between Israel and Hamas, a spokesperson for the White House’s National Security Council said on Friday.

The United States does not want to see the conflict expand into Lebanon, the spokesperson said.

Doctors and aid workers in Gaza say they have been abandoned by the international community to a “humanitarian tragedy” as they “fight to survive” after almost four weeks of war between Israel and Hamas.

With widespread destruction in urban areas and basic services collapsing amid continuing airstrikes, artillery bombardments and close-quarters fighting, little remains of the former lives of the 2.3 million inhabitants of the territory, said many of those who spoke to the Guardian.

Israel has placed Gaza under a near total blockade since it launched its effort to destroy Hamas after the murderous attacks by the Palestinian militants in southern Israel on 7 October that killed 1,400 people, mostly civilians. Hamas also seized more than 240 hostages, including infants and elderly people.

Israel’s military said on Friday it was looking into a report by the health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip that scores of Palestinians were killed and wounded in an Israeli strike on an ambulance convoy.

Reuters could not immediately verify the health ministry’s report.

Scores dead or injured after Israel targeted ambulance convoy, says Hamas-affiliated outlet

The health ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza said scores of Palestinians were killed and injured on Friday in Israeli targeting of an ambulance convoy carrying critically wounded people in Gaza.

The health ministry spokesman, Ashraf Al-Qudra, earlier said they would send critically injured Palestinians who needed to be urgently transferred for treatment in Egypt from Gaza city and the north to the south, Reuters reported.

Updated at 12.21 EDT

Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy chief, has spoken to Israel’s foreign minister, Eli Cohen, “to express EU solidarity and commitment to Israel’s security, as well as support for mediation efforts to free hostages, and to stress the need to protect civilians, avoid civilian casualties and improve humanitarian access”.

“Humanitarian pauses are urgently needed to ensure safe delivery of aid,” Borrell said, adding: “The EU is ready to support stabilisation efforts in Gaza and remains committed to the two-state solution as the only viable option to achieve lasting peace.”

Lebanon’s Hezbollah says cross-border fighting with Israel could escalate

The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah said on Friday that his powerful militia is engaged in cross-border fighting with Israel that is unprecedented since 1948 and threatened further “realistic escalation”.

In a widely anticipated speech, Hassan Nasrallah stopped short of announcing that Hezbollah has fully joined the Israel-Hamas war, but added the fighting on the Lebanon-Israel border would “not be limited” to the scale seen until now.

Nasrallah said Hezbollah operations had been increasing “day by day”, even as Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Hezbollah against testing Israel or “they would pay dearly”.

He made clear that Hezbollah’s intention was to tie down Israeli troops who could otherwise be deployed in Gaza, warning that further escalation in the north was a “realistic possibility”.

He also suggested his militia had had no part in the 7 October attacks, telling flag-waving supporters: “This great, large-scale operation was purely the result of Palestinian planning and implementation.”

Nasrallah’s speech had been keenly anticipated throughout the region as a sign of whether the Israel-Hamas conflict would spiral into a regional war, following daily exchanges across Israel’s northern border between Israel and Hezbollah and other factions in southern Lebanon.

Since the beginning of the war, Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, had taken calculated steps to keep Israel’s military busy on its border with Lebanon, but not to the extent of igniting an all-out war.

Israel considers the Iran-backed Lebanese Shia militant group its most serious immediate threat, estimating that Hezbollah has around 150,000 rockets and missiles aimed at Israel, as well as drones and surface-to-air and surface-to-sea missiles.

But a full-on conflict would also be costly for Hezbollah, which fought a 34-day war with Israel in 2006 that ended with a draw — but not before Israeli bombing reduced swaths of southern Lebanon, the eastern Bekaa Valley and Beirut’s southern suburbs to rubble.

A new all-out war would also displace hundreds of thousands of Hezbollah’s supporters and cause wide damage at a time when Lebanon is in the throes of a historic four-year economic meltdown.

Updated at 11.17 EDT

The Institut Français in Gaza has been hit by an Israeli airstrike, but no injuries have been reported among staff at the site, the French foreign ministry has said, while the Gaza office of the news organisation Agence France-Presse (AFP) was also hit.

The French ministry added it had asked Israeli authorities to provide the “tangible” reasons that motivated the strike on the institute “without delay”.

In a separate statement, the ministry also expressed “very strong concerns” over the number of civilian victims in Gaza.

AFP said on X, formerly Twitter, that its office in the Gaza Strip was shelled by the Israeli army and seriously damaged on Thursday by a strike.

None of the eight AFP staff members or permanent employees normally based in Gaza were on site at the time of the impact. All were evacuated to the south of the Gaza Strip on 13 October, it added.

“AFP condemns in the strongest terms this strike on its office in Gaza City,” it said. (Via Reuters)

Updated at 10.46 EDT

Here’s a quick wrap from AP on the latest words from Nasrallah and Netanyahu

The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah said on Friday that his powerful militia is engaged in unprecedented cross-border fighting with Israel and threatened escalation.

In a widely anticipated speech, Hassan Nasrallah stopped short of announcing that Hezbollah is fully engaging in the Israel-Hamas war.

Nasrallah said in a televised speech that the fighting on the Lebanon-Israel border would “not be limited” to the scale seen until now.

Meanwhile, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has ruled out a temporary cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, saying he will press ahead with a devastating military offensive until hostages held by the Hamas militant group are released.

Netanyahu spoke Friday shortly after meeting the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, who pressed Israel for a temporary pause in its offensive in order to improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza. Blinken also urged Israel to do more to protect civilians from its attacks.

In a statement to reporters Friday, Netanyahu said Israel is continuing with “all of its power” and “refuses a temporary cease-fire that doesn’t include a return of our hostages”.

Nasrallah said that while Hezbollah’s actions against Israel on the Lebanese border may seem modest, they were “very important”.

Nasrallah also said developments in Gaza would dictate whether there are escalations in Lebanon, saying “all scenarios are open on our Lebanese southern front”, and adding: “We can adopt any option at any time.”

He has also warned the US that its threats against Lebanon – and the presence of US warships in the region – were pointless, and goaded the US about its withdrawal from Afghanistan and the outcomes of its military operations in Iraq and elsewhere.

Israel will not agree to any temporary ceasefire until hostages released, Netanyahu says

Israel will not agree to any temporary ceasefire with Hamas until the more than 240 hostages seized during the attacks on 7 October are released, the country’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said.

“Israel refuses a temporary ceasefire that does not include the return of our hostages,” he said during a televised address. (Via Reuters)

Updated at 10.23 EDT

Nasrallah has warned people “not to lose sight” of two short-term goals: ending the war in Gaza, and enabling the “resistance” in Gaza – including Hamas – “to triumph”.

Such a triumph, he said, would be a victory for all the people in the region – for the people of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and “before all that, it is a national patriotic interest for Lebanon”.

He said Arab and Muslim states “should spare no efforts to put an end to the war”, adding they should cut off oil and food exports to Israel.

It’s also worth noting that Nasrallah is insisting that Hezbollah played no part in Hamas’s terrorist attacks on Israel on 7 October, saying that the mission had been planned and developed with the utmost secrecy:

This great, large-scale operation was purely the result of Palestinian planning and implementation. The great secrecy made this operation greatly successful.

Nasrallah said the attacks had been “100% Palestinian”.

He also thanked groups in Yemen and Iraq, which are part of what is known as the “Axis of Resistance”. It includes Shia Muslim Iraqi militias which have been firing at US forces in Syria and Iraq, and Yemen’s Houthis, who have joined in the conflict by firing drones at Israel.

Updated at 10.02 EDT