Flights from Iran cancelled as Israeli strike on Gaza kills 21 and attack on Beirut intensifies

LAST UPDATE | 5 hrs ago

FLIGHTS FROM A number of Iran’s airports have been cancelled until Monday morning, according to reports from state media. 

Because of those restrictions, “the flights at some airports of the country will be cancelled from 21:00 [local time] tonight, Sunday, October 6, until 6:00 am tomorrow, October 7,” according to IRNA state news agency citing Iran’s Civil Aviation Organisation spokesman, Jafar Yazarloo.

Iran on Tuesday launched around 200 missiles in its second direct attack on Israel, in what it said was retaliation for the killing of Tehran-aligned militant leaders in the region, along with a general in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

Ever since, Israel has said that it will respond to Iran’s attack.

On Tuesday night, Iran closed its airspace for less than two days until Thursday morning.

The aviation body announced then that both domestic and international flights were grounded for security reasons until the reopening.

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency has advised European airlines to avoid Iranian airspace until October 31, with the situation under ongoing review.

Earlier today, Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah said it launched attack drones at an Israeli military base near the northern city of Haifa, the latest hostilities since Israel began intense air strikes on Lebanon last week.

Fighters from Hezbollah “launched an air assault with a squadron of attack drones on the maintenance and rehabilitation base south of Haifa,” the group said in a statement.

Early this morning, an Israeli strike on a mosque in the Gaza Strip killed at least 21 people, Palestinian officials said, as Israel intensified its bombardment of northern Gaza and southern Beirut in its widening war on Iran-allied militant groups across the region.

Israel is still battling Hamas in Gaza nearly a year after its 7 October attack, and has opened a new front against Hezbollah in Lebanon, which has been trading fire with Israel along the border since the war in Gaza began.

A huge fireball lit up the night sky and plumes of smoke rose over south Beirut early today as Israel unleashed intense air strikes targeting Hezbollah.

Israeli strikes in Lebanon yesterday killed 23 people, according to the country’s health ministry.

Iranian-backed Hezbollah, the strongest armed force in Lebanon, began firing rockets into Israel almost immediately after Hamas’s 7 October attack, calling it a show of support for the Palestinians.

Hezbollah and Israel’s military have traded fire almost daily since but Israel has since escalated the tit-for-tat strikes.

Close to 350 Irish troops are in Lebanon as part of UNIFIL peacekeeping missions in the country, and President Michael D Higgins yesterday said it was “outrageous that the Israeli Defence Forces have threatened” peacekeepers in Lebanon.

Israel’s military said it “conducted a series of strikes on a number of weapons storage facilities” and infrastructure, stressing it had taken “numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians”.

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UNIFIL said yesterday that on 30 September, the “IDF notified UNIFIL of their intention to undertake limited ground incursions into Lebanon”.

“They also requested we relocate from some of our positions,” UNIFIL said.

However, UNIFIL said “peacekeepers remain in all positions and the UN flag continues to fly”.

“We are regularly adjusting our posture and activities, and we have contingency plans ready to activate if absolutely necessary,” it added.

President Higgins yesterday said “Israel is demanding that the entire UNIFIL operating under UN mandates walk away” and added that this was “an insult to the most important global institution to which 193 members are committed”.

Vows to strike Iran

Israel has also vowed to strike Iran itself after it launched a ballistic missile attack on the country last week.

The widening conflict risks drawing in the United States, which has provided crucial military and diplomatic support to Israel, as well as US-allied Arab countries that host American forces.

Iran-allied militant groups in Syria, Iraq and Yemen have also joined in with long-distance strikes on Israel.

The strike in Gaza hit a mosque where displaced people were sheltering near the main hospital in the central town of Deir al-Balah.

Gaza’s civil defence agency said the Israeli strike on a mosque-turned-shelter killed 21 people, while Israel’s military said it had targeted a Hamas command and control centre embedded among civilians, without providing evidence.

An Associated Press journalist counted the bodies at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital morgue. Hospital records showed that the dead were all men, while another man was wounded.

Israel also once again ordered evacuations in northern Gaza, where it has repeatedly carried out major air and ground operations against Hamas only to see the militants regroup.

“We are in a new phase of the war,” the military said in leaflets dropped over the area. “These areas are considered dangerous combat zones.”

Avichay Adraee, a spokesman for the Israeli military, said it has expanded the so-called humanitarian zone in southern Gaza, urging people to head there.

The zone includes sprawling tent camps where hundreds of thousands of people have already sought refuge, and Israel has carried out strikes inside it against what it says are fighters sheltering among civilians.

Palestinian residents reported heavy Israeli strikes across northern Gaza.

The Civil Defence, first responders who operate in Gaza, said several homes and buildings had been hit and they were not able to reach them because of the bombardment.

Many posted about the air strikes and mourned their relatives on social media. Imad Alarabid said in a Facebook post that an air strike on his home in Jabaliya killed a dozen of his family members, including his parents.

The latest strikes add to the mounting Palestinian death toll in Gaza, which is nearing 42,000, according to the Health Ministry.

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The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and militant deaths, but many of the dead were women and children and the UN describes the figures as reliable.

Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people in the 7 October attack and took another 250 hostage. They are still holding around 100 captives, a third of whom are believed to be dead.

Beirut strikes

In Beirut, air strikes lit up the skyline and loud explosions echoed across the southern suburbs, known as the Dahiyeh, throughout the night, as Israel struck what it said were Hezbollah militants sites.

The strikes reportedly targeted a building near a road leading to Lebanon’s only international airport and another formerly used by the Hezbollah-run broadcaster Al-Manar.

Israel’s military confirmed it was striking targets near Beirut and said about 30 projectiles had crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory, with some intercepted.

Hezbollah said it successfully targeted a group of Israeli soldiers in northern Israel “with a large rocket salvo, hitting them accurately”. It was not possible to confirm the claim.

At least 1,400 Lebanese, including civilians, medics and Hezbollah fighters, have been killed and 1.2 million driven from their homes in less than two weeks.

Israel says it is aiming to drive the militant group away from its border so that tens of thousands of Israeli citizens can return to their homes.

Last week, Israel launched what it said was a limited ground operation into southern Lebanon after a series of attacks killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and most of his top command.

The fighting is the worst since Israel and Hezbollah fought a month-long war in 2006.

Nine Israeli soldiers have been killed in ground clashes that Israel says have killed 440 Hezbollah fighters.

It is not possible to verify battlefield reports from either side.

Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, told reporters in Damascus that “we are trying to reach a ceasefire in Gaza and in Lebanon”.

The minister said Middle Eastern and other countries have put forward initiatives, without elaborating.

He spoke a day after the supreme leader of Iran praised its recent missile strikes on Israel and said it was ready to do it again if necessary.

On Saturday evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “Israel has the duty and the right to defend itself and respond to these attacks, and it will do so.”

On Lebanon, he said: “We are not done yet.”

-With additional reporting from Diarmuid Pepper