Israel’s prime minister says he will “respond with force” after Hezbollah fired towards an Israeli military post in disputed territory in Lebanon.
Two projectiles fell in open areas and no injuries were reported.
Israel said they had been launched toward Mount Dov, a disputed Israeli-held territory known as Shebaa Farms in Lebanon, where the borders of Lebanon, Syria, and Israel meet.
Hezbollah said it fired projectiles as a “defensive and warning response” after what it called “repeated violations” of the ceasefire deal by Israel. The attack was Hezbollah’s first since the ceasefire was enacted last week.
It said complaints to mediators tasked with monitoring the ceasefire “were futile in stopping these violations”.
Earlier, Lebanese authorities said at least two people had been killed in the southern part of the country while the state-run National News Agency reported that an Israeli strike injured people in the town of Talousa.
Lebanon has also accused Israel of violating the truce more than 50 times in recent days, including allegedly demolishing of homes in border villages, persistently flying Israeli reconnaissance drones, and launching airstrikes that have caused casualties.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Hezbollah’s projectile firing was “a serious violation” of the ceasefire.
“Israel will respond to it with force,” he said.
“We are determined to continue enforcing the ceasefire and to respond to any violation by Hezbollah, whether minor or severe.”
Escalation as a form of deterrence could have uncontrollable consequences
Israel has struck Hezbollah positions a number of times since the ceasefire came into force at 4am last Thursday – only today, two people were killed by an Israeli attack in southern Lebanon.
Now Hezbollah has fired two mortars into Israel close to the border in response.
No one was hurt and, compared to the hundreds of rockets and drones the group was previously firing into Israel, it is reasonably insignificant, except it does underscore just how fragile the truce is.
Both sides accuse the other of violating the ceasefire but neither seems eager to collapse it just yet. The United States, charged with monitoring the truce, says it is holding.
The IDF briefed from the off that they were prepared for some small skirmishes as both sides manage their withdrawals and Lebanese civilians have flooded south to return home.
That prediction appears to be playing out, but as long as calm heads remain there should be no reason for these incidences to threaten the ceasefire.
Benjamin Netanyahu has described Hezbollah’s mortar attack as a “serious violation” and has vowed to respond “with force” – that feels like an overreaction although could be designed to make Hezbollah reconsider any further attacks.
With things as tense as they are though, even a calibrated escalation as a form of deterrence, could have uncontrollable consequences.
Meanwhile, Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz promised “a harsh response”.
“What was, will no longer be,” he said.
It comes as the US defence department said the ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel was mostly holding.
Air Force Major General Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, said: “Broadly speaking, it is our assessment that despite some of these incidents that we are seeing, the ceasefire is holding,”
The US and French-brokered ceasefire came into effect on Wednesday. It called for a 60-day halt in fighting, aiming to end more than a year of exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and Israel.
Both the US and France are tasked with monitoring compliance with the accord. Israel says that it reserves the right under the truce to respond to perceived ceasefire violations.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.
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.