The earthquake had a significant impact in the affected areas, but no details of any material damage or casualties are available at the moment. Local authorities are monitoring the situation and assessments are underway to determine the extent of damage.
Epicentre Zone Zaghreen, the Syrian locality closest to the epicentre, may have suffered the worst consequences of the earthquake. Inhabitants of the area reported strong tremors, but further data are still being collected.
Monitoring and Updates The emergency services in the affected countries have been alerted and are ready to intervene if necessary. The authorities have urged the population to follow safety instructions and to remain vigilant for any aftershocks.
Augustine2244: Story! The US won't be able to do anything once Mother Turkey decides to fully discipline the animalistic genocidal Israeli government. PM Netanyanhu is the worst leader in Israeli history,an animal who would prolong the Gaza war even to the detriment of the hostages still in Hamas detention. Already some of the remaining hostages have died in captivity amidst the Gaza bombing. This human animal is prolonging the Gaza war, with an impossible mission of totally eliminating Hamas,all to just to save his political career. And he recently visited the US to address the Congress, and those animalistic American politicians couldn't seriously pressure him to cease his Gaza bombing campaign. Take it or leave it, America is steadily losing her geopolitical influence, and will keep losing it. Turkey needs to intervene militarily as soon as possible to cure Netanyanhu of his madness and teach Israel a lesson. It's laughable that Jewish soldiers touted as the most moral military are raping Palestinian prisoners. Animals worse than savage wolves. Genocidal animals.
The U.S. is shifting more troops and other military assets to the Middle East to defend Israel and American forces against what is expected to be a complex attack by Iran and its proxies, according to defense officials.
The movement of what will likely be a mix of fighter aircraft, ships and air defense systems would mark the second time since April that the Pentagon acted quickly to defend Israel after it conducted targeted assassinations of Iranian officials and militant groups they support.
The U.S. forces in the region include ground and air forces as well as newly deployed destroyers, amphibious ships and an aircraft carrier to help repel attacks from Iran, Yemen or Lebanon.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is preparing “multiple forthcoming force posture moves to bolster force protection for U.S. forces” and Israel, Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said Friday.
The mobilization comes after the assassination of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders in Beirut and Tehran over the past week. Israel has claimed credit for the former but has not commented publicly on the latter.
The assassinations are an embarrassment for Iran’s leaders, particularly the killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran at a government-run guest house that was supposed to be highly secure.
Concern is high that Iran’s response to the killing of Haniyeh and high-ranking Hezbollah operative Fuad Shukr in Beirut will provoke a more unpredictable response than Iran’s massive April 13 assault on Israel, which was telegraphed in advance in a way that enabled the U.S., France and the U.K. to help Israel repel over 300 missiles and drones.
One U.S. defense official, who was granted anonymity to discuss an evolving issue, said details about the increased military assets are expected soon, given the unpredictability of the Iranian response.
In a phone call Thursday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Joe Biden said the U.S. would provide additional military assets to “support Israel’s defense against threats,” according to a summary of the call.
Iranian proxies Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen could hit Israel from multiple directions simultaneously, complicating defenses already strained by the ongoing war in Gaza and months of missile and rocket attacks from in Lebanon.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah suggested this week that a coordinated attack on Israel could be in the plans. “Because they have picked a fight with everyone, they don’t know where the response will come from,” he said. “The response will come separately or coordinated.”
Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi on Thursday threatened a “military response to these crimes, which are shameless and dangerous, and constitute a major escalation by the Israeli enemy.”
The U.S. carried out what it called a “self-defense” strike on Tuesday in Iraq, targeting Iran-backed militants who were preparing to launch a drone attack near an American base.
The Israel Defense Forces confirms that top Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Lebanese capital of Beirut earlier this evening.
In a statement, the IDF says that Shukr, also known as Hajj Mohsin, is Hezbollah’s most senior military commander.
Shukr sat on the Jihad Council, Hezbollah’s top military body, and was considered to be the head of its strategic division.
The IDF says he was also a senior military advisor to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, describing him as his “right-hand man.”
Since Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, Shukr has been managing Hezbollah’s attacks against Israel, including the deadly strike in Majdal Shams over the weekend that killed 12 children, according to the military.
The IDF says he was “responsible for the majority of Hezbollah’s most advanced weaponry, including precise-guided missiles, cruise missiles, anti-ship missiles, long-range rockets, and UAVs” and for the terror group’s “force build-up, planning, and execution of terror attacks against the State of Israel.”
He joined Hezbollah in 1985 and has held several senior positions. The IDF says that in the 1990s he advanced numerous attacks against the IDF and allied South Lebanon Army, and in 2000, was involved in the abduction of three Israeli soldiers in an attack in the Mount Dov area.
Four Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas from the Nova music festival during the group’s 7 October attacks have been rescued, Israel’s army has announced.
Those rescued are Noa Argamani, 25, Almog Meir Jan, 21, Andri Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 40, the Israel Defense Forces said.
They were rescued in a joint “complex” daytime operation, conducted with Israel Securities Authority and Israel Police, from two separate locations in Nuseirat, central Gaza, the IDF said.
They are in good medical condition and have been transferred to the 'Sheba' Tel-HaShomer Medical Center for further medical examinations, the IDF said.
Argamani, a Chinese-born Israeli citizen, was also kidnapped from the festival. Video footage - verified by her father Yaakov Argamani to Israel's Channel 12 - shows the 25-year-old being taken away on the back of a motorbike screaming, "Don't kill me!"
Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry says dozens of people, including children, have been killed and injured in the operation. Staff at the Al-Aqsa hospital are said to be struggling to treat the casualties.
Rioters on Tuesday set fire to the Israeli Embassy in Mexico during a protest ostensibly against the Israeli military operation in the southern Gazan city of Rafah.
Masked protesters threw stones at security forces who had created a barricade preventing access to the diplomatic mission in the Mexico City’s Lomas de Chapultepec neighborhood.
Around 200 people participated in the “Urgent Action for Rafah” demonstration, dozens of whom attempted to break down the barriers, according to AFP.
Video posted to social media showed fires raging outside the embassy complex.
There were unverified reports of several people injured in the chaos.
The riot came after Mexico filed a declaration of intervention in South Africa's "genocide" case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.
The ICJ, the principal United Nations judicial arm, located in The Hague, issued a 13 to two ruling on Friday that the Jewish state must “immediately halt its military offensive and any other action in the Rafah governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”
On Sunday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the IDF would continue to press its offensive in Rafah in order to free the hostages held by Hamas and destroy the Palestinian terrorist group.
Israeli officials insist that the military operations in the enclave are being conducted in conformity with Friday’s ICJ ruling.
“The War Cabinet unanimously decided that Israel would continue the operation in Rafah to apply military pressure on Hamas to promote the release of our hostages and achieve the other objectives of the war,” read a statement from the office of PM Benjamin Netanyahu.
“At the same time, although Hamas's proposal is far from Israel's requirements, Israel will send a delegation of mediators to exhaust the possibility of reaching an agreement under terms acceptable to Israel.”
Senior Israeli officials claimed to Ynet on Monday night that "the Egyptian-Qatari cease-fire proposal accepted by Hamas had no input from Israel and was not acceptable."
The officials called it "an exercise and a unilateral proposal without Israeli involvement."
An Israeli official speaking on condition of anonymity told the Telegraph: "Hamas’s acceptance of an Egyptian-Qatari peace deal is a “ruse” designed to make Israel look like it is obstructing peace."
Earlier in the evening, Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the Political Bureau of Hamas informed in phone calls to the Head of the Egyptian General Intelligence Service Abbas Kamel and Qatar Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani that the movement has accepted their proposal for a ceasefire in the Gaza war.
On Monday morning, Israel ordered the evacuation of civilians from eastern Rafah before carpet bombing whole residential blocks in the area ahead of an imminent ground invasion of the southernmost city in the strip where 1.5 million residents and displaced Palestinians have been sheltering from Israeli bombing since 7 October.
The evacuation and bombing sent thousands of panicked Palestinians fleeing for their lives out of eastern Rafah.
Shortly after the Israeli army spokesperson announced the start of the tank attack on Rafah, Secretary-General of the Arab League Ahmed Aboul-Gheit said: "Israel's manoeuvres despite Hamas acceptance of the Egyptian-Qatari ceasefire offer indicate its ill intentions."
"I call on the Security Council, especially the United States and Western countries supporting Israel, to bear their responsibilities and restrain the occupation forces to prevent further escalation as it is the Palestinian civilians who pay the price," Aboul-Gheit wrote on his social Media account.
Earlier in the day, the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday warned of the dangers of a possible Israeli military operation in the Palestinian Rafah area in the south of the Gaza Strip.
The foreign ministry said any such military operation would pose significant humanitarian risks and threaten more than a million Palestinians in that area.
Egypt called on Israel to exercise the utmost restraint and avoid further escalation at this sensitive time during ceasefire negotiations, and to stop the shedding of Palestinian civilian blood who have been facing an unprecedented humanitarian disaster since the start of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip.
The statement reaffirmed Egypt’s continued communication around the clock with all parties to prevent the situation from worsening or spiralling out of control.
Terms of a deal
On Monday evening, shortly before the start of the Israeli tank movement into Rafah, Khalil Al-Hayya, deputy head of the Hamas Political Bureau, revealed to Al Jazeera details of the ceasefire deal proposed by Egypt and Qatar and accepted by the movement.
The proposal presented to us by Egyptian and Qatari mediators includes three stages each stage lasting 42 days, Al-Hayya, who is based in Doha, explained to Al Jazeera.
Al-Hayya said the text of the ceasefire proposal includes the interconnectedness of the three stages of implementation.
The mediators told us that the US President has committed clearly to guaranteeing the agreement's implementation.
Shortly after Haniyeh's announcement, US State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller confirmed that the US has received a response from Hamas on ceasefire-for-hostages in Gaza and will be reviewing that response with its partners Egypt and Qatar and discussing it with Israel.
Miller said a deal is in the best interests of Israel, securing the release of hostages and ensuring more humanitarian aid flows into Gaza.
President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi stated on Monday evening that he "closely monitors" the positive developments in the ongoing Israel-Hamas negotiations, brokered by Cairo and Doha, calling on all parties to exert more effort to reach an agreement.
“I closely monitor the positive developments in the current negotiations to reach a comprehensive ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. I call on all parties to exert more effort to reach an agreement that will end the humanitarian tragedy suffered by the Palestinian people and complete the exchange of hostages and prisoners,” El-Sisi wrote on his official Facebook page.
Egyptian-Qatari truce efforts
Security officials from Egypt, Qatar and the US have been mediating to reach a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel to end the seven-month-old Israeli war on Gaza.
The last round of negotiations was held in Cairo over the weekend.
On Sunday, the Hamas delegation left the Egyptian capital to consult with the leadership in Doha on the most recent proposals for a truce deal.
Earlier today, Al-Qahera News reported that the Hamas delegation was set to return to Cairo for talks on Tuesday.
International alarm
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Monday said Israel’s evacuation order for Palestinians in Rafah is "unacceptable" as France said "the forced displacement of a civilian population constitutes a war crime."
"Israel's evacuation orders to civilians in Rafah portend the worst: more war and famine. It is unacceptable. Israel must renounce to a ground offensive," Borrell said, calling on Israel to "implement UN Security Council Resolution 2728," which demanded an immediate ceasefire in Israel's war on Gaza during Ramadan.
“The EU, with the International Community, can and must act to prevent such scenario,” he added in the post on social media.
Meanwhile, Germany on Monday called on all parties to continue with negotiations towards a truce in Gaza shortly after Israel issued evacuation orders to Palestinians in eastern Rafah.
"The negotiations must not be jeopardised and all sides must make maximum efforts to ensure that the people in Gaza are supplied with humanitarian goods... and that the hostages are freed," a foreign ministry spokeswoman told a government press briefing.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Monday said Germany has been doing "everything we can for months to finally alleviate the immeasurable suffering of the people in Gaza".
France said it was "strongly opposed" to Israel's Rafah offensive, ahead of an expected ground assault in the southern city of the Gaza Strip.
"France reiterates that it is strongly opposed to an Israeli offensive on Rafah, where more than 1.3 million people are taking refuge in a situation of great distress," the foreign ministry said in a statement.
"The forced displacement of a civilian population constitutes a war crime."
Earlier in the day, the Israeli army said it ordered the evacuation of 100,000 people from eastern Rafah, ahead of an expected ground assault in the southern city of Gaza.
About 1.2 million people are currently sheltering in Rafah, according to the World Health Organization, most having fled there from elsewhere in Gaza during the seven-month Israeli war on the strip.
Various world capitals and international organizations have warned that an assault on the densely populated city would have catastrophic consequences for a civilian population on the verge of starvation.
UNICEF: No where for children to go!
There is ‘nowhere safe to go’ for the 600,000 children of Rafah, warned UNICEF in a statement on Monday shortly after the Israeli evacuation order for eastern Rafah was issued.
"With hundreds of thousands of children in Rafah injured, sick, malnourished, traumatized or living with a disability, UNICEF calls for children to not be forcibly relocated, and the vital infrastructure on which children rely to be protected."
With the unfolding humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip continuing to deteriorate, UNICEF is warning that a military besiegement and ground incursion in Rafah would pose catastrophic risks to the 600,000 children currently taking shelter in the enclave.
Following October evacuation orders to move to the south, it is estimated that there are now about 1.2 million people sheltering in Rafah, once home to about 250,000 people. As a result, Rafah (20,000 people per km2) is almost twice as densely populated as New York City (11,300 people per km2), and about half the population is children, many of whom have been displaced multiple times and are sheltering in tents or informal and unstable housing.
Given the high concentration of children in Rafah – including many who are highly vulnerable and at the edge of survival – as well as the likely intensity of the violence, with potential evacuation corridors likely mined or littered with unexploded ordnance; and shelter and services in areas for relocation very likely to be limited – UNICEF is warning of a further catastrophe for children, with military operations resulting in very high civilian casualties and the few remaining basic services and infrastructure they need to survive being totally destroyed.
“More than 200 days of war have taken an unimaginable toll on the lives of children,” said Catherine Russell, UNICEF Executive Director. “Rafah is now a city of children, who have nowhere safe to go in Gaza. If a large scale military operations start, not only will children be at risk from the violence, but also from chaos and panic, and at a time where their physical and mental states are already weakened.”
Satellite imagery released over the past 24 hours has revealed evidence of probable damage at an Iranian air base following an Israeli strike in the early hours of Friday morning.
BBC Verify has analysed two images showing part of an air-defence system at an airfield in Isfahan was damaged.
US officials say Israel carried out a missile strike although there has been no official Israeli confirmation.
Tensions between the bitter rivals intensified in recent weeks.
An earlier, suspected Israeli strike on an Iranian consulate in Syria at the beginning of the month was followed by a retaliatory attack by Iran on Israel on 13 April.
Ever since news of Friday's Israeli strike in Isfahan - the cradle of Iran's nuclear programme - there has been speculation about the likely target and extent of the damage.
Iran says the attack involved drones that were neutralised by air defences.
While it remains unclear what weapon or weapons were used in the attack, satellite imagery has detected evidence of damage at the air base.
BBC Verify made this assessment through analysis of optical and Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite imagery captured over Isfahan on Friday.
Optical imagery will be familiar to anyone who regularly uses tools like Google Earth - essentially a photograph of the land below.
SAR technology uses radio waves to build an image of the Earth's surface. One advantage it has over more conventional satellite technology is its ability to capture images at night or through cloud.
The imagery it collects is rendered in black and white but at high resolution.
It therefore cannot detect changes in colouration on the ground - such as burn marks - but can display material damage to structures, vehicles etc.
One such image captured by Umbra Space on 15 April shows an S-300 air defence system located at the north-western corner of the Shikari air base.
The system comprises several vehicles equipped with radar, distinctive missile launchers and other equipment.
An Umbra Space image captured after Friday's strike shows damage and debris around one component - probably a radar - which has also shifted position slightly.
Other vehicles have been moved away from the site.
This assessment was confirmed by an optical satellite image captured by Planet which, despite low resolution, shows a scorch mark at the same location.
This mark was not evident in images captured on 11 and 15 April.
The military base itself does not show any signs of material damage in the available imagery, but further analysis of higher resolution optical captures will be required to make that conclusion.
As yet there is no available imagery from Isfahan's nuclear facilities.
The UN's International Atomic Energy Agency has said there was "no damage to Iran's nuclear sites".
THE US paraded almost its entire fleet of nuclear stealth bombers in a massive show of force as the Middle East teeters on a knife edge.
The B-2 Spirits - saved only for the "most important missions" - are "ready to execute a global strike anytime, anywhere," the US Air Force warned.
The B-2 Spirit is a multi-role, heavy bomber capable of delivering both conventional and nuclear warheads.
The 1000kmh beasts are designed to be virtually invisible to radar and are the world's most expensive aircraft, estimated to cost £1.6billion each.
The two-pilot jet has an unrefueled range of 6,000miles and is specifically built for intercontinental missions.
As tensions spiralled earlier this week as Israel promised it would carry out a "significant response" to Iran's aerial attack last weekend, the US was testing its stealth bombers.
Twelve of the entire fleet of 20 B-2 Spirit's performed a fearsome so-called "elephant walk" and flight routine.
The rarely-seen aircraft were amassed as part of the "Spirit Vigilance" training exercise which focuses on increasing the readiness of the airmen to carry out a stealth bomber mission.
The impressive aeronautic challenge involves the jets taxiing together in close formation and a minimal interval takeoff.
The aircraft, assigned to the 509th Bomb Wing, were seen on the runway at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri on Monday.
The US Air Force said: "The routine training ensures that Airmen are always ready to execute global strike operations… anytime, anywhere."
Speaking about "Spirit Vigilance", Col. Geoffrey Steeves, commander of the 509th Operations Group, said: "This is a reminder that the B-2 Spirit bomber is the visible leg of nuclear triad.
"Simply put, the B-2 is the world's most strategic aircraft.
"It is the only aircraft on the planet that combines stealth, payload, and long-range strike.
"We are charged with delivering the nation's most powerful weapons for our most important missions."
The spectacular show of American airpower comes as Israel launched its much-awaited revenge attack on Iran this morning after repeated calls from the US for restraint.
The precision strike hit a major Iranian air force base next door to one of its prized nuclear sites near the city of Isfahan - just days after Tehran unleashed an unprecedented missile and drone blitz.
Iranian state TV launched into damage control claiming three drones were "destroyed" by its air defence batteries and no ground damage was caused.
However, the fresh attack threatens to further push relations between the two arch-foes to the brink amid fears of an all-out war breaking out across the tinderbox of the Middle East.
Russia has made clear to Israel that Iran "does not want escalation", Moscow's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday, after reports Israel had carried out retaliatory strikes against its arch-rival.
"There have been telephone contacts between the leadership of Russia and Iran, our representatives and the Israelis. We made it very clear in these conversations, we told the Israelis that Iran does not want escalation," Lavrov said in an interview with Russian radio stations.
Iran closed down its nuclear facilities amid fears of an Israeli attack, the United Nations has revealed.
Inspectors were blocked from the sites on Sunday, Rafael Grossi, the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency chief, said.
The shutdown came as Israel’s war cabinet was locked in talks over how to respond to Iran’s first direct attack on its territory.
Experts have warned Iran is on the “threshold” of becoming a nuclear power and could build a bomb in six months to a year. Uranium enrichment is accelerating as the regime faces calls to create a deterrent.
There is limited evidence the Islamic Republic wants to create a nuclear bomb, and Israel is not understood to be preparing an imminent attack on nuclear facilities.
Rafael Grossi, the International Atomic Energy Agency chief, said inspectors had been turned away. But Mr Grossi said UN inspectors in Iran “were informed by the Iranian government that… all the nuclear facilities we are inspecting every day would remain closed on security considerations” following the Iranian strikes.
He added that the facilities reopened on Monday but the inspectors would not be coming back there until some time on Tuesday.
The UN inspections are a legacy of the now defunct Iran nuclear deal, which exchanged sanctions relief for curbs and monitoring of the nuclear programme to prevent Tehran getting the bomb.
Inspectors this year found Iran was scaling up production of nuclear fuel approaching weapons grade uranium.
They also found newly installed equipment, ever faster speeds of uranium enrichment, and a planned expansion to double output.
The country’s Atomic Energy Organisation also used the term “deterrence” in relation to its nuclear programme earlier this year.
Kelsey Davenport, the director for Nonproliferation Policy at the Arms Control Association, said, “Iran is sitting on the threshold of nuclear weapons; it can build a bomb more quickly than at any point in its history.”
Ms Davenport warned that Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities would be “counter-productive”.
“A strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities should be off the table,” she said. “Targeting Iranian nuclear sites in reaction to a drone and missile attack that did minimal damage to Israel would be a reckless and irresponsible escalation that increases the risk of a wider regional war.
“A large-scale attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities is more likely to push Tehran to decide that developing nuclear weapons is necessary to deter future attacks.”
Iranian officials have always insisted that Tehran is pursuing its nuclear programme for civilian needs.
But the Islamic Republic has warned of a “severe” and “painful” response to any Israeli retaliation as the regime’s supporters urged it to build the weapons of mass destruction.
Abolfazl Amoei, the spokesman for the Iranian parliament’s national security committee, said: “We are prepared to use weapons we haven’t used previously, and we have strategies for every possible scenario. The Zionists should be careful.”
On social media, Madhi Mohammadi, an adviser to the speaker of the Iranian parliament, posted: “In addition to its missile programme, Iran also has a nuclear programme.”
Ebrahim Raisi, the president of Iran, said in a call on Monday with the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani: “We firmly declare that the slightest action against Iran’s interests will definitely be met with a severe, extensive and painful response.”
Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday summoned the Israeli war cabinet for the second time in less than 24 hours, amid pressure from Joe Biden, the US president, and European allies to show restraint.
Hardliners tell Netanyahu to ‘go berserk’ The Israeli prime minister is also under pressure from hardliners in his own Likud party and hard-Right ministers to “go berserk”, despite fears of the Israel-Hamas war escalating into a regional conflict.
“This launch of so many missiles, cruise missiles and drones into Israeli territory will be met with a response,” Herzi Halevi, the Israeli military’s chief of staff, said after most of the drones and missiles dispatched in n Iran’s first ever direct attack on Israel were shut down.
“If this government gives in to Biden’s demands, and doesn’t use this golden opportunity to attack Iran and eliminate the Iranian threat – as far as I’m concerned, this government no longer deserves confidence,” said Tally Gotliv, a Likud MP.
“Every Israeli will rue for years every passing minute it doesn’t attack Iran [...] If the government is led by cowards, it will be guilty of the inferno, God forbid, afflicted on Israel in the future.”
Yoav Gallant, the defence minister, has urged a more cautious approach. Benny Gantz, the most popular politician in the country and the main opposition to Mr Netanyahu, has also called for restraint.
Foreign Affairs › Breaking - 5.4 Magnitude Earthquake Rattles Lebanon And Syria by SeeThisLoser(op): 10:29pm On Aug 12, 2024
