Israel-Hamas war latest: Israel intercepts Hezbollah's farthest strike yet in 11 months of exchanges

JERUSALEM: Hezbollah launched dozens of rockets into Israel, including a longer-range projectile that set off air raid sirens in Tel Aviv and across central Israel. It was the group's farthest strike yet in nearly a year of exchanges. Israel said it intercepted the projectile, and there were no reports of casualties or damage.

Hezbollah said it had fired a ballistic missile at the headquarters of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency, which it said was responsible for the targeted killing of its senior leaders. Israel later said it struck the site the missile was launched from in southern Lebanon.

Israel killed a top Hezbollah commander on Tuesday as part of a two-day bombing campaign that left more than 560 people dead and prompted thousands in southern Lebanon to seek refuge from the widening conflict.

Hezbollah has launched hundreds of projectiles towards Israel, causing some damage to buildings and homes and lightly injuring a number of people.

Israel and Hezbollah have been trading fire since the Israel-Hamas war began. Israel's military says it will do “whatever is necessary” to push Hezbollah away from Lebanon's border with Israel.

Meanwhile, 700 British troops were due to arrive on Wednesday to the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus as it prepared for the possible evacuation of its citizens from Lebanon.

Here's the latest:

Gaza adds 28 people to the war's death toll, bringing the total to nearly 41,500

CAIRO The bodies of 28 people killed in Israeli airstrikes were brought to local hospitals over the past day and another 85 people were wounded, the Gaza Health Ministry said on Wednesday.

A total of 41,495 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the start of the Israel-Hamas war nearly a year ago, according to the ministry, which says another 96,006 have been wounded.

The ministry does not distinguish between fighters and civilians in its count. It says women and children make up slightly more than half of those killed.

The Israeli military says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.

The war began with Hamas' October 7 attack into Israel, in which Palestinian militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took around 250 hostages. Around 100 captives are still being held in Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.

Pope Francis asks the international community to help stop escalating tensions in Lebanon

Pope Francis called for a stop to escalating tensions in Lebanon, calling it “unacceptable”.

“I am saddened by the news coming from Lebanon, where intense bombing in recent days has caused much death and destruction," the pope said on Wednesday during a regular audience at the Vatican.

“I hope that the international community will make every effort to stop this terrible escalation. It is unacceptable. I express my closeness to the Lebanese people, who have already suffered too much in the recent past."

Hezbollah launches dozens of rockets into northern Israel

JERUSALEM — Hezbollah has launched dozens of rockets into northern Israel following days of heavy Israeli airstrikes across large parts of Lebanon.

The Israeli military said that at one point on Wednesday, more than 40 projectiles were launched simultaneously, though most were intercepted.

The municipality in the northern city of Safed said a projectile hit a home, causing a fire. There were no injuries as the residents were not there, it said. Safed has been a frequent target for Hezbollah due to military infrastructure in the area.

Earlier on Wednesday, Hezbollah fired a missile at Tel Aviv, triggering air raid sirens. The military said it intercepted the projectile, and there were no casualties or damage.

The military said it was launching “extensive strikes” across southern and eastern Lebanon.

An Israeli airstrike on Beirut killed a top Hezbollah commander on Tuesday, part of a two-day bombing campaign that has killed hundreds of people and prompted thousands in southern Lebanon to seek refuge from the widening conflict.

Israeli warplanes pound southern and eastern Lebanon for a third day

BEIRUT  Israeli strikes on Wednesday hit a town near the northern coastal town of Byblos, Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported.

There were no immediate reported casualties, as Israeli warplanes pound southern and eastern Lebanon for a third day in a new phase of their ongoing conflict with the Hezbollah militant group.

A photo circulated by the NNA and local media shows large plumes of smoke between the houses and green fields of the town of Maisara, a stone's throw away from the Mediterranean Sea.

The renewed strikes come hours after Hezbollah announced it launched a missile toward Tel Aviv, targeting the headquarters of the Mossad intelligence agency that it blames for a string of assassinations of its top commanders and for the explosion of hundreds of pagers and walkie-talkies belonging to members of the group and its civilian institutions that wounded thousands and killed dozens of people.

As thousands of Lebanese flee the airstrikes from the country's southern and eastern provinces, NNA said Israel launched three strikes airstrikes over the northeastern city of Hermel, the town of Labweh, and a handful of towns and villages across the country's southern province.

The Israeli army says it will continue its strikes until it can return the tens of thousands of residents who were displaced from Israel's north, near its border with Lebanon. Israel maintains that Hezbollah is launching rocket attacks in and near civilian areas.

While Lebanon's north has mostly been spared from the strikes, Israel has launched rare strikes near the northern town of Mayrooba and in the outskirts of Qartaba.

The days of strikes have killed over 560 people, in some of Lebanon's deadliest days since Israel's war with Hezbollah in 2006.

Israel is pushing the Middle East into an all-out war, neighbouring countries say

CAIRO Egypt, Jordan and Iraq say Israel is pushing the Middle East into an all-out war and are calling on the United Nations Security Council to intervene.

In a joint statement on Wednesday, the three countries' foreign ministers affirmed that averting a regional war requires the cessation of “the Israeli aggression on Gaza”.

The ministers also condemned the Israeli aggression on Lebanon, and said that “Israel is pushing the region into an all-out war”.

Egypt and Jordan were the first two Arab countries to make peace with Israel. But relations have been strained since the war began in Gaza, triggered by Hamas' October 7 attack.

Iraq has close ties to Iran, which supports both Hamas and the Lebanese militant group. Hezbollah has traded heavy fire with Israel in recent days.

Thousands seek refuge from fighting around the Lebanon-Israel border

BEIRUT Thousands of Lebanese and Syrians have fled from Lebanon across the border to Syria following heavy Israeli bombardment, a United Nations refugee agency official said on Wednesday.

Rula Amin, Middle East and North Africa spokesperson for the agency known as UNHCR, said that families were “arriving in buses and cars, but also travelling by foot”.

“Crowds of people many of whom are women, young children and even infants  continue to await processing for entry,” she said. “Many will have to spend the night outdoors waiting their turn.”

Amin said that UNHCR teams, along with the Syrian Red Crescent, were providing water, mattresses, blankets and food. She noted that the team has “also seen people, including children, bearing injuries suffered from the recent attacks on Lebanon”.

Some 775,000 Syrians are registered with the UN Refugee Agency in Lebanon, and hundreds of thousands more are believed to be unregistered in the country.

A wave of Israeli strikes on Monday and Tuesday killed more than 560 people in Lebanon, including around 150 women and children. It was the highest death toll in nearly a year of clashes between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, and the deadliest Lebanon has seen since a bruising monthlong war in 2006 between Israel and Hezbollah.

A central Gaza hospital receives 3 more bodies from an Israeli strike

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip  A hospital in the central Gaza Strip said on Wednesday it received the bodies of three people who were killed in an Israeli strike the previous day.

The Awda hospital in the Nuseirat refugee camp said the strike late Tuesday hit a civilian vehicle northeast of the camp, and three bodies were recovered Wednesday morning.

The death toll from Tuesday's strike on a house in the Nuseirat camp reached 11 after the body of a woman arrived at the hospital early Wednesday, the facility said. The dead included at least four children, according to the hospital records. The house strikes also wounded 11 people, the hospital said.

Israel intercepts Hezbollah's farthest strike in 11 months of exchanges

JERUSALEM  The Israeli military intercepted a missile launched from Lebanon into central Israel on Wednesday morning in the latest escalation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah.

Israel Rescue Services said there were no injuries or damage reported from the missile, which triggered sirens in Tel Aviv and Netanya, two large cities in central Israel. It was Hezbollah's farthest strike yet in nearly a year of exchanges.

Hezbollah said it had fired a ballistic missile at the headquarters of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency, which it said was responsible for the targeted killing of its senior leaders. Israel said it struck the site the missile was launched from in southern Lebanon.

Tensions between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah have steadily escalated over the past 11 months. Hezbollah has been firing rockets, missiles and drones into northern Israel in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza and its ally Hamas, a fellow Iran-backed militant group.

Israel killed a top Hezbollah commander Tuesday as part of a two-day bombing campaign that left more than 560 people dead and prompted thousands in southern Lebanon to seek refuge from the widening conflict. Hezbollah has launched hundreds of projectiles towards Israel, causing some damage to buildings and homes and lightly injuring a number of people.

Britain sends troops to prepare for possible evacuation of its citizens from Lebanon

LONDON  Britain will send 700 troops to the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus as it prepares for the possible evacuation of its citizens from Lebanon.

Cyprus is located across a strip of water from Lebanon, and Beirut harbour has been used before to evacuate foreign nationals by sea from Lebanon.

During the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war, tens of thousands of foreigners were evacuated by sea to Cyprus in a fleet of commercial and military vessels, many supplied by American, British, European and other naval forces.

The British troops and members of the Border Force were to arrive Wednesday, even as the government made repeated appeals for its nationals to immediately evacuate Lebanon. Britain retains sovereign military base areas in Cyprus, which are considered its territory.

“We continue to urge all sides to step back from conflict to prevent further tragic loss of life. Our government is ensuring all preparations are in place to support British Nationals should the situation deteriorate,” said British Defense Secretary John Healey.

“The Royal Air Force also have aircraft and transport helicopters on standby to provide support if necessary,” Healy said.