Breaking Middle East News: Panicked crowds flee as Israel bombs bank branches in Lebanon | World news

Good morning and welcome back to our live broadcast. Before we continue, we’ve put together the bigger picture of what you need to know heading into the new week.

Over the past seven days, conflicts in the Middle East have developed rapidly. In Gaza, where Israel fought a war with Hamas militants last year, more areas in the north have been ordered to evacuate, suggesting that the area could see further Israeli military action.

In Lebanon, where Israel says it is targeting Hezbollah militants (who, like Hamas, are backed by Iran), strikes continue as IDF troops continue ground operations.

Meanwhile, the world is also awaiting Israel’s response to the Iranian missile attack on the country earlier this month.

Here are the key events of the past week…

Sinvar killed

More than a year later, the man believed responsible for organizing the October 7 attacks on Israel was killed by the military in a random encounter.

Yahya Sinwar was brought from Rafah, where he died, to Israel for a thorough examination to establish his identity.

The US and Israel hailed the killing as a great victory, while Hamas and Iran vowed it would inspire further “resistance”.

Read more about what this could mean for the conflict in the Middle East here…

Air campaigns continue – at great cost

Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon continue to cost civilians dearly.

About 25% of Lebanon’s population has been ordered to evacuate by Israel, resulting in the displacement of more than 400,000 children, according to the UN.

More than 42,000 people have been killed in Gaza in the year since the Oct. 7 attacks, according to Hamas-led authorities.

Israel says it continues to target Hezbollah and Hamas militants, infrastructure and weapons sites and is doing everything possible to avoid civilian casualties, including issuing warnings.

Hezbollah becomes bolder, signaling new tactics

By killing several senior commanders, including its top leader, Hezbollah signaled it was changing its tactics.

This includes striking targets deep inside Israel.

On Saturday, it emerged that a drone fired from Lebanon (not yet claimed by Hezbollah) had reached Caesarea in central Israel and was targeting the home of Benjamin Netanyahu.

Four Israeli soldiers were killed over the weekend in a Hezbollah drone attack on a military base in the city of Binyamina.

It reportedly hit the cafeteria as it was filling up for lunch, and emergency services said 61 people were injured.

Israel returns to old battlefields with obvious objective shift

In the Gaza Strip, Israel has returned to several areas in which it operated at the beginning of the war.

Our military analyst Sean Bell stated that limiting Hamas’s military capabilities is no longer Israel’s main goal.

In recent weeks, IDF troops have operated in the Jabaliya refugee camp and further south in Magazi, both locations that saw heavy fighting early in the war.

“The Israelis were originally looking to degrade Hamas’s ability to fight and govern, but it looks like they are turning the tables – essentially destroying Hamas’s ability to fight (entirely),” Bell says.

See more about this here…