Israel expands attacks on Lebanon and kills Hamas chief, while Macron calls for arms sales in Gaza – at the latest between Israel and Iran

Israel will in due course retaliate against Iran for the rocket attack launched by Tehran, a military spokesman said on Saturday.

“The way we respond to this disgraceful attack depends on the manner, place and timing that we determine in accordance with the instructions of the political leadership,” Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in a broadcast statement.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi says Israel must continue attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon.

“We must continue to pressure Hezbollah and inflict additional and lasting damage on the enemy.

“Without relief and without giving the organization a breathing space,” the IDF said in a statement.

According to the Metropolitan Police, officers have made 15 arrests so far as part of a “significant” policing operation across the capital in response to planned protest and commemoration events.

One person was arrested on suspicion of supporting a banned organization and there were seven arrests on suspicion of public order offenses – three of which were allegedly racially motivated.

Israeli attacks on Lebanon killed 25 people and injured 127 on Friday, the Lebanese Health Ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

Israel expanded its bombing campaign in Lebanon on Saturday, hitting Beirut's southern suburbs with a dozen airstrikes and, for the first time, a Palestinian refugee camp deep in the north, as it targeted both Hezbollah and Hamas militants. Tens of thousands of people in Lebanon, including Palestinian refugees, continued to flee the region's worsening conflict, while rallies took place around the world to mark the upcoming anniversary of the start of the war in Gaza.

Migrant worker Fajima Kamara came to Lebanon from Sierra Leone three years ago, but when Israeli jets began bombing her neighborhood with airstrikes last month, her employers left her jobless and homeless.

The 28-year-old mother of three worked as a domestic helper for a Lebanese family in the eastern city of Baalbek, a Hezbollah stronghold.

When they were evacuated, they told her to look for her “fellow African sisters” in the capital, Beirut, Kamara said.

With her phone and passport still confiscated by her employers and no time to pack, Kamara left Baalbek with nothing but the clothes she was wearing and made her way among the thousands of other displaced people to Beirut, where she hoped to find accommodation.

Rejected by local shelters that took in displaced Lebanese, she soon found herself homeless and living on the city streets.

“I slept on the street for two days. Now I have a fever,” Kamara told reporters between sneezes.

Australia began evacuating its nationals from Lebanon via Cyprus on Saturday. This is the first large-scale operation to remove citizens from the country as Israel attacks the Iranian-backed Hezbollah.

Around 229 people arrived on a commercial airline chartered by Australia on the eastern Mediterranean island, a 40-minute flight from Beirut. A second flight is planned later in the day.

Additional evacuation flights are expected due to demand, Australian and Cypriot officials said.

At Cyprus' Larnaca airport, civilians of all ages were taken off the plane into a terminal and then escorted onto waiting coaches. The children helped themselves to red apples and water provided by Australian military personnel.

“They are exhausted, extremely happy to be here, but heartbroken because they have left their family behind,” said Fiona McKergow, the Australian High Commissioner (Ambassador) to Cyprus.

More and more countries are using nearby hubs like Cyprus to help with evacuations from Lebanon. Israel has sharply stepped up attacks on Hezbollah in recent weeks, with a spate of airstrikes and a ground operation in the south of the country, after nearly a year of lower-level cross-border conflicts paralleling Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza.

Shipments of weapons used in the Gaza conflict should be stopped as part of broader efforts to find a political solution, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Saturday.

According to the Defense Ministry's annual arms export report, France is not a major arms supplier to Israel and supplied military equipment worth 30 million euros ($33 million) last year.

“I think the priority today is to return to a political solution (and) that the weapons used to fight in Gaza are stopped. France is not sending any,” Macron told France Inter Radio.

“Our priority now is to avoid escalation. The Lebanese people, for their part, cannot be sacrificed, Lebanon cannot become another Gaza Strip,” he added.

Macron's comments come as his foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, embarks on a four-day trip to the Middle East, ending in Israel on Monday, as Paris seeks to play a role in reviving diplomatic efforts.