Image source, Getty Images

The UK has announced sanctions against Iranian military figures and organisations following its 1 October attack on Israel.

The list includes Abdolrahim Mousavi, the commander of the Iranian army and a member of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, and Hamid Vahedi, commander of Iran's air force.

Individuals sanctioned will be subject to a travel ban and asset freeze, the UK Foreign Office said.

The Iranian Space Agency, which develops technologies that have applications in ballistic missile development, will also be subject to an asset freeze.

Iran launched more than 180 ballistic missiles towards Israel on 1 October.

The Israeli military said most of the missiles were intercepted. The only person reported to have been killed was a Palestinian man in the occupied West Bank.

Jonathan Head
Reporting from Beirut

The Lebanese Red Cross says 18 people were killed in an air strike on a small village called Aitou, up in the mountains in northern Lebanon.

Videos posted on social media show a large column of grey smoke rising above the village, and dead and injured people lying on the ground.

Aitou is known as a Maronite Christian village, with several churches and a resident population of about a thousand.

However there are believed to be a number of people displaced by the war in Lebanon living there.

More now on what Lebanese officials say was an Israeli strike that hit the town of Aitou in the Zgharta region of northern Lebanon.

Lebanon's health ministry has said nine people were killed and one person injured, with rescue operations ongoing. The Lebanese Red Cross has also put out a statement, saying 18 people have been killed and four wounded.

It would be the first time Israel has targeted the Christian-majority region in the year of fighting since the Hamas attacks on 7 October last year.

Israel has not yet commented on the reported strike.

We'll bring you more when we have it.

Reports are coming in from Reuters and Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency of an Israeli strike on the town of Aitou in the Zgharta region of northern Lebanon.

This would be the first time Israel has targeted the Christian-majority northern region in the year of hostilities following Hamas' attacks on 7 October 2023, both news agencies report.

We'll bring you more on this when we have it.

The head of the refugee agency Filippo Grandi insists a ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon "is the only way to break the cycle of violence, of hatred, and of misery".

Speaking at a UNHCR meeting in Geneva, he says only a ceasefire could "stem the tide to a major regional war with global implications".

He also says 226 staff working for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unwra, were killed in Gaza in the past year.

"We cannot accept that the lives of humanitarians are dismissed as mere collateral damage, or worse, maligned as somehow culpable or complicit," Grandi says.

In the past hour, the Israeli military says it shot down two drones heading towards Israel from Syria.

The drones were intercepted by the IDF before they entered Israeli territory, the army says.

In a series of alerts, Lebanese state media says Israel has carried out air strikes in several places in the south of the country.

The towns of Kharayeb, Tyre and Nmairrieh were all hit by strikes on Monday, the National News Agency (NNA) reports.

The Israeli military hasn't given details, but earlier said it "continues operational activity against terrorist infrastructure and operatives in southern Lebanon".

This morning, the IDF ordered people in 25 villages in south Lebanon to evacuate.

"Any movement towards the south could endanger your life," the IDF's Arabic spokesperson Avichay Adraee said.

So far today, we've reported on two Israeli strikes that hit central Gaza yesterday. We're now getting reports from Reuters of an Israeli attack killing 10 people in northern Gaza today.

The news agency says a food distribution centre in the Jabalia refugee camp was hit, with local medics saying another 30 people were injured.

The IDF has not commented. We'll bring you more when we have it.

What went wrong with Israel's drone defences?published at 11:44 British Summer Time 14 October

11:44 BST 14 October

Jonah Fisher
Reporting from northern Israel

Israel has an expensively assembled air defence system and the attack on the Binyamina base has raised fresh questions about its ability to stop relatively unsophisticated drones.

Iron Dome is the best known part of Israel’s air defence and is currently called into action dozens of times a day to intercept rockets that Hezbollah fires from south Lebanon.

And it generally works well. Here in northern Israel we often see white traces in the sky as several rockets are taken down at once.

The success of Iron Dome is due in part to the predictable flightpath of the more basic Hezbollah rockets.

Israeli radar systems analyse them as they launch and calculations are quickly made as to where they’re going to land.

If the rocket is heading towards a population centre an attempt will be made to shoot it down. Israel says it has a success rate of more than 90%.

Drones – with their unpredictable flight paths, and ability to hug the ground at low altitudes - are a different proposition.

"They are slower than missiles, they fly lower than rockets. They are very small," Sarit Zehani from the Alma Research Institute, which specialises in security on the northern border, tells me.

"And when these drones are launched with rockets that are completely different types and capabilities at the same time I can understand why eventually one got through."

Image source, EPA

Image source, Getty Images

• Warning: This post contains distressing details

As we reported earlier, an Israeli air strike on Sunday hit the al-Aqsa Hospital complex in central Gaza, where many displaced Palestinians were sheltering.

The strike killed four people and injured dozens others. Aouni Khattab, who lost his tent and belongings in the strike, says some of those sheltering "were trapped inside the fire".

"We were unable to pull them out," he tells Reuters, adding: "A human being burning alive in front of your eyes, and you can't rescue them."

Another person sheltering at the site says: "I swear there's no safety, whether it's a hospital, a school, or any place. Nearly five days ago, they hit a school, and today they hit the tents."

Israel says it was targeting a "terrorist" command and control centre, adding that it took "numerous steps" to mitigate the risk to civilians.

Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant says they will learn the lessons of Sunday's Hezbollah drone strike that killed four Israeli soldiers.

He has been touring the site where the attack happened near Binyamina - a town around 20 miles (33km) south of the Israeli city of Haifa.

"We must investigate it, study the details, and implement lessons in a swift and professional manner," he says.

"We are concentrating significant efforts in developing solutions to address the threat of UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle] attacks."

Image source, Shachar Yurman /Israeli defence ministry

• Israel's military is investigating how a Hezbollah drone was able to kill four Israeli soldiers at the Binyamina camp, south of Haifa, on Sunday
• Speaking at the base on Monday, Israel's military chief says "we are at war"

• The Lebanese health ministry says 51 people were killed across the country by Israeli air strikes on Sunday
• In Gaza, the Hamas-run health ministry says 62 people were killed by Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours

• The UN agency for Palestinian refugees says Gaza's Nuseirat camp, where 22 Palestinians were reportedly killed, was supposed to be used today to administer polio vaccines
• Meanwhile, an Israeli strike on the al-Aqsa Hospital complex in central Gaza killed four people, according to local officials - Israel says it was targeting a "terorrist command and control centre"

Image source, EPA

We've just had an update from the Israel Defense Forces, which says it is conducting "operational activity against terrorist infrastructure and operatives" in both southern Lebanon and Gaza.

In Lebanon, the IDF says its air force struck 200 Hezbollah targets, while Israeli soldiers "eliminated dozens of terrorists in close-quarters encounters and aerial strikes".

In Gaza, the IDF says its troops are "eliminating terrorists" through air strikes and close-quarters encounters, as well as locating Hamas weaponry and tunnel shafts.

Earlier, we reported that Lebanese authorities say 51 people were killed in Israeli strikes across the country on Sunday, while in Gaza, the Hamas-run health ministry says 62 were killed.

At least 62 people have died and 220 are injured following four Israeli strikes on Gaza in the past 24 hours, the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza says.

Some victims are still trapped under the rubble, the ministry adds.

As we've reported, Israel carried out strikes on al-Aqsa Hospital complex in central Gaza and on the nearby Nuseirat camp on Sunday.

In total, 42,289 people have been killed since Israel began striking Gaza after Hamas's deadly attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023.

We are now receiving photos and video of the aftermath of an Israeli strike on al-Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza, where displaced Palestinians were sheltering in the hospital's grounds.

The strike killed four people and injured dozens of others. Israel says it carried out a "precise strike on terrorists who were operating inside a command and control centre" inside a site previously used as a hospital.

It says before the strike, "numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precise munitions, aerial surveillance, and additional intelligence".

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Hugo Bachega
Middle East correspondent, in Beirut

Image source, Reuters

The last few days have seen several incidents involving the Israeli military and UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, who are part of a 10,000-strong force known as Unifil, as Israel continues its ground invasion against Hezbollah.

Some of the cases, Unifil says, appeared to have been deliberate attacks by Israeli soldiers. They included attacks on a watchtower, cameras and lighting, which have led to international condemnation.

Yesterday, Unifil said Israeli tanks had burst through the gates of one of its bases near the border. The Israeli army said a tank that was trying to evacuate injured soldiers, while still under fire, backed several metres into a Unifil post, and that after the evacuation of the soldiers, the tank left the post.

"It’s very concerning... several attacks against peacekeepers," Andrea Tenenti, a Unifil spokesman, told me last night in Beirut.

"We’re seeing that, the first [attack] injured two peacekeepers inside our headquarters, inside one of the towers inside. That’s a deliberate attack. Attacking and hitting the illumination of our base, the cameras, having a drone going inside a base, close to our bunkers… these are all incidents which are making us think why they’re doing it."

Last night, the UN Secretary General António Guterres reiterated a call that peacekeepers should not be targeted.

"Attacks against peacekeepers are in breach of international law, including international humanitarian law. They may constitute a war crime," his spokesperson said.

His reaction came hours after the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said in a video message, in English, addressed at Guterres: "Mr Secretary General, get the Unifil forces out of harm’s way, it should be done right now, immediately."

Reacting to that, Tenenti said: "We decided just the other day, and it was a unanimous decision, we are here at the request of the Security Council, we cannot let one member state decide the fate of an international organisation, of a peacekeeping mission that is there because of the will of the international community."

In recent days, senior Israeli officials have stepped up their criticism of Unifil - and, this morning, Energy Minister Eli Cohen accused the mission of being a "useless force".

Hezbollah says it launched an attack on the Stella Maris naval base, near the northern Israel port city of Haifa.

It is unclear if the attack, which began at 09:30 local time (06:30 GMT; 07:30 BST), caused any injuries or damage.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said earlier that around 10 projectiles were launched from Lebanon and that most were intercepted.

According to Hezbollah, the strike was in the "service" of Hassan Nasrallah - the group's leader who was killed by Israel last month.

Yolande Knell
Middle East correspondent, in Jerusalem

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, says the school-turned-shelter in Gaza's Nuseirat refugee camp - where at least 22 Palestinians are reported to have been killed by an Israeli air strike yesterday - was supposed to be used today to administer polio vaccines.

The second of the two stages in rollout for the massive UN polio campaign is starting in central Gaza, which is where most residents are now living and where the first case of polio in two decades was recently discovered in an unvaccinated baby.

Local medics and UNRWA workers are leading the effort to give drops of the vaccine to 590,000 children aged under 10. The campaign is being organised by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Unicef.

UN officials are pressing for humanitarian pauses to be respected during the vaccination drive. Last week, Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO representative for the occupied Palestinian territory, told me that the "recent hostilities, specifically the evacuation orders in the north" were "not helpful for any humanitarian activity" - but specifically not for vaccinations in which parents bringing children and medics needed to feel safe.

"We're concerned," he said.

Image source, Reuters

We reported earlier that, on Sunday, the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) accused Israel of forcing its way into a UN base.

Now, in a post on X, Israeli cabinet member Eli Cohen calls Unifil a "useless force".

"The UN is a failed organization and Unifil is a useless force that failed to enforce Resolution 1701, failed to prevent [Hezbollah] from establishing itself in southern Lebanon," Cohen writes.

Resolution 1701 - adopted after the Israel-Hezbollah war in Lebanon in 2006 - called for a demilitarised zone and the disarmament of Hezbollah, among other conditions.

We can now bring you some reaction from the head of the Israeli military to the killing of four Israeli soliders on Sunday.

Speaking on Monday at the base that was hit, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi says, "we are at war, and an attack on a training base in the rear is difficult and the results are painful".

Israeli media report that two Hezbollah drones were tracked by the Israeli Air Force (IAF) on Sunday night - but while one was shot down off the coast near Haifa, the military lost track of the second, external.

The drone was assumed to have crashed or been intercepted after dropping off IAF radars, the reports add.

The strike killed four soldiers - all of them 19 years old - and injured dozens of others.

The IDF says 10 projectiles have crossed into the Haifa area this morning from Lebanon, with no injuries reported.