Israel and Hezbollah have reportedly exchanged messages via intermediaries aimed at preventing further escalation after both sides traded heavy fire on Sunday.
The development comes hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned “this is not the end of the verse” after Israel launched “pre-emptive strikes” against Hezbollah in Lebanon in the early hours of Sunday.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said nearly all the targets it struck were short-range rockets aimed at northern Israel.
Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militant group, said it fired drones and hundreds of rockets at Israel on Sunday morning in response to the killing of one of its top commanders in the Lebanese capital Beirut last month.
The group said it had hit an Israeli military intelligence site near Tel Aviv as part of the barrage.
IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the Lebanese group was planning to “harm Israeli civilians” and managed to launch “only about 230 rockets” and around 20 drones.
“Most of them either fell on their way to Israeli territory, landed in open areas, or were intercepted by Israeli air force defence systems and Israeli navy ships,” he said.
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Moment iron dome intercepts missiles
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said the group’s attack against Israel went “as planned” and dismissed IDF statements that its strikes had prevented a larger assault.
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He also said Hezbollah’s attack had been delayed to give Gaza ceasefire talks a chance, and so fellow Iran-backed groups could discuss with Iran whether to attack Israel all at once.
Mr Nasrallah said Hezbollah “will now reserve the right to respond at a later time if the results of Sunday’s attack aren’t sufficient”, adding that allied Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen and Iran had yet to respond.
He told the Lebanese people: “At this current stage, the country can take a breath and relax.”
Hezbollah and Israel said they aimed only at military targets during their attacks.
Israel said no military target was hit by Hezbollah but that one soldier with its navy was killed and two others were wounded either by an interceptor for incoming fire or by shrapnel from one.
Image: Smoke is seen on the Lebanese side of the border after Hezbollah and Israel traded blows. Pic: Reuters
Meanwhile, two Hezbollah fighters and a militant from an allied group were killed in the Israeli strikes, the group said.
Speaking on Sunday afternoon, Mr Netanyahu said: “What happened today is not the end of the verse.
“Hezbollah tried to attack the State of Israel with rockets and drones early in the morning. We instructed the IDF to carry out a powerful pre-emptive strike to remove the threat.
“The IDF destroyed thousands of short-range rockets, and they were all intended to harm our citizens and our forces in the Galilee.
“In addition, the IDF intercepted all the UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] that Hezbollah launched for a strategic purpose in the centre of the country.
“We are hitting Hezbollah with surprising thrusts.”
His comments came before Reuters reported that both sides had exchanged messages in an effort to prevent further escalation at Israel’s border with Lebanon.
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Israeli navy soldier killed
One diplomat told the news agency that the overarching message was that both sides considered the overnight exchange of fire “done” and neither wanted a full-scale war.
World leaders have feared the 10-month Israel-Hamas war conflict spiral into a wider regional conflict between Israel and Iran or Iran-backed proxies.
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Hours after Hezbollah and Israel carried out their strikes, Hamas’s armed wing claimed it had fired a rocket at Tel Aviv.
The militant group says the attack was in response to Israeli “massacres against civilians”.
The latest violence comes after talks in Cairo aimed at negotiating a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza ended with no agreement, Reuters reported, citing two Egyptian sources.
The sources reportedly said that neither Hamas nor Israel agreed to several compromises suggested by mediators.
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How did Israeli and Hezbollah attacks unfold?
Hamas said it has rejected new Israeli ceasefire conditions which it claims deviated from a US proposal which was put forward in July.
The militant group has now accused Israel of backtracking on a promise to withdraw its troops from a narrow stretch of land along Gaza’s southern border with Egypt.
It added that Israeli officials had proposed other new conditions, such as screening displaced Palestinians on their return to northern Gaza.
“We will not accept discussions about retractions from what we agreed to on July 2 or new conditions,” Hamas official Osama Hamdan told its Al Aqsa TV.
A bystander hailed a hero after he tackled and disarmed one of the gunmen in the Bondi Beach shooting is a shop owner.
The man, named by a relative as 43-year-old Ahmed al Ahmed, was seen in a video running up to the attacker from behind and then grabbing the shotgun from his hands before pointing the weapon back at him.
The footage then showed the terrorist heading towards a bridge where another gunman was located, while the bystander placed the gun beside a tree.
Image: Ahmed al Ahmed (in a white T-shirt) is seen in a video running up to a gunman from behind
Mr Ahmed, who was wearing a white T-shirt, was shot twice in the incident and was due to have surgery, his cousin, Mustafa, has revealed.
In a video on 7News, Mr Ahmed appeared to have a bloodied arm and hand, and was helped by other people near the scene in the Australian city.
At least 11 people were killed and 29 others injured in the attack when two gunmen opened fire from a bridge on crowds at a Jewish event around 6pm local time on Sunday evening.
More than 1,000 people had been at the gathering which was celebrating the festival of Hanukkah.
Image: Mr Ahmed manages to get the gun off the terrorist
Image: The bystander then points the weapon at the attacker who moves away towards a bridge
A gunman was killed and another was in a critical condition following the shooting.
One of the suspects was 24-year-old Naveed Akram.
His driver’s licence says he lives in Bonnyrigg, a suburb of Sydney. The identity of the other suspected attacker is not known.
Image: Naveed Akram, 24, was one of the suspects
Mustafa said father-of-two Mr Ahmed, who owns a fruit shop in the Sydney suburb of Sutherland, did not have any experience with guns but was just walking past when he decided to step in.
He told 7News: “He’s in hospital and we don’t know exactly what’s going on inside.
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One of the suspected gunmen has been named as 24-year-old Naveed Akram.
The footage of the bystander’s actions spread quickly on social media as people praised the man for his bravery, saying his actions had potentially saved many lives.
“Australian hero (random civilian) wrestles gun off attacker and disarms him. Some people are brave and then some people are… whatever this is,” one person said on X, sharing the video.
“This Australian man saved countless lives by stripping the gun off one of the terrorists at Bondi beach. HERO,” another said.
Chris Minns, the premier of New South Wales state, where Sydney is located, said it was the “most unbelievable scene I’ve ever seen”.
“A man walking up to a gunman who had fired on the community and single-handedly disarming him, putting his own life at risk to save the lives of countless other people.”
“That man is a genuine hero, and I’ve got no doubt that there are many, many people alive tonight as a result of his bravery,” he added.
The country’s prime minister Anthony Albanese praised the actions of Australians who had “run towards danger in order to help others”.
“These Australians are heroes and their bravery has saved lives,” he told a news conference.
Messages were sweeping across Sydney within minutes of the attack at Bondi Beach.
Parents messaged their children and teenagers, who had been enjoying a late afternoon swim at Bondi.
Witnesses said police were on the scene quickly, and the streets of Sydney’s eastern suburbs were full of police cars and ambulances on their way to Bondi.
When we arrived, there were still dozens of people processing what had happened, and everywhere – shock.
Witnesses told us that when the gunfire started some people took cover in the North Bondi Surf Life Saving Club. Once the threat was over, lifeguards helped the injured and used surfboards to carry them out.
Image: Witnesses tell Sky’s Nicole Johnston of Bondi ‘warzone’
Some people were clearly traumatised and provided graphic detail of witnessing the shooting and seeing people killed in front of them.
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A photographer, Danny, was covering the Jewish holiday event.
He said he “locked eyes” with one of the gunmen, who then fired towards him. Danny said he was grazed by a bullet. He kept filming during the shooting, while taking cover.
Sam, from France, was working at Bondi. He went to the scene of the attack and saw almost a dozen people lying on the ground covered in blood. Sam described it as like a “war zone”.
Rabbi Lei Wolff, from Central Synagogue in Sydney, went to Bondi as soon as he heard about the mass shooting. A dear friend of his, Rabbi Eli Schlanger, was killed in the attack.
Rabbi Wolff has called on people around the world to stand with Australia’s Jewish community against terrorism.
A senior Hamas commander who was one of the architects of the 7 October 2023 attacks on Israel has been killed in a strike on Gaza City, according to the country’s military.
Raed Saad was targeted in response to an attack by Hamas in which an explosive device injured two soldiers on Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a joint statement.
It is the highest-profile killing of a senior Hamas figure since the Gaza ceasefire came into effect in October.
Gaza health authorities said the attack on a car in Gaza City killed five people and wounded at least 25 others, but there has been no confirmation from Hamas or medics that Saed was among the dead.
Image: Raed Saed
Hamas condemned the attack in a statement as a violation of the ceasefire agreement but stopped short of threatening retaliation.
An Israeli military official described Saed as a high-ranked Hamas member who helped establish and advance the group’s weapons production network.
“In recent months, he operated to re-establish Hamas’ capabilities and weapons manufacturing, a blatant violation of the ceasefire,” the official said.
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The 10 October ceasefire has enabled hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to return to Gaza City’s ruins after a war that began after Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and seized 251 hostages in an attack on southern Israel.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 70,700 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to health officials in Gaza.
Israel has pulled troops back from city positions, and aid flows have increased, but violence has not completely stopped.
Palestinian health authorities say Israeli forces have killed at least 386 people in strikes in Gaza since the truce, while Israel says three of its soldiers have been killed.