Rafah attack latest: Israel launches strikes on Lebanon as UN warns of ‘slaughter’ in Rafah

Four people have been killed in an “extensive wave” of Israeli air strikes in Lebanon launched after Hezbollah rocket fire killed a soldier in Israel.

A woman and two children were killed in the southern Lebanese town of Souaneh, state media and security sources said.

A man who Hezbollah identified as one of its fighters was killed in Aadchit.

Israel’s military said it hit Hezbollah infrastructure in response to a deadly rocket attack on its base in the northern Israeli town of Safed.

An offensive on the city of Rafah where 1.3 million people have sought refuge would be a humanitarian catastrophe, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Wednesday.

“1.3 million people are waiting there in a very small space. They don’t really have anywhere else to go right now … If the Israeli army were to launch an offensive on Rafah under these conditions, it would be a humanitarian catastrophe,” Baerbock said in a news conference in Jerusalem during her visit to Israel.

International efforts to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas have suffered a setback, withas Israel reportedly recalled its negotiating team and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hamas of hobbling the high-stakes negotiations by sticking to “delusional” demands.

Mr Netanyahu’s remarks came hours after local media reported that the Israeli leader had ordered an Israeli delegation not to continue talks in Cairo, raising concerns over the fate of the negotiations and sparking criticism from the families of the roughly 130 remaining captives, about a fourth of whom are said to be dead.

The relatives of the hostages said Netanyahu’s decision amounted to a “death sentence” for their loved ones.

The Palestinian foreign minister has said that efforts were underway to prevent an “imminent” Israeli attack on the city of Rafah in southern Gaza Strip.

Riyad al-Maliki urged the international community to “stand firm” and “act responsibly” to end the war. He also said there’s “collective responsibility” to prevent the war from either dragging on or expanding to the occupued West Bank or neighboring states like Lebanon.

“We are looking at ways how to prevent that attack on Rafah,” Mr Maliki said after talks with his Cypriot counterpart Constantinos Kombos.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said people in Rafah with nowhere to go “cannot simply vanish into thin air” as Israel prepares an assault on the border city.

“They need safe places and safe corridors to avoid being caught in the crossfire even more,” she said before talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Britain has troops stationed in Saudi Arabia to provide air defence against possible drone and missile attacks by Houthi rebels at a time of growing concern about the escalating conflict in the Middle East.

A unit of around 50 gunners from 12 Regiment Royal Artillery are deployed at a base near Riyadh, as well as well as number of oil installations, in a bilateral defence arrangement with the Kingdom which had led a military alliance against the Houthis in Yemen.

Read more from our World Affairs Editor, Kim Sengupta, here:

In northern Israel, a rocket attack from Lebanon has killed an Israeli woman in a barrage that also hit a military base and wounded several other people on Wednesday, an Israeli government spokesperson has said.

Israel carried out airstrikes in southern Lebanon in response, killing four people, including a Syrian woman and her two Lebanese children, and wounding at least nine, Lebanese security officials and local media said.

Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group, which supports Hamas, have traded fire along the border nearly every day since the start of the war in Gaza, raising the risk of a wider conflict. Hezbollah did not immediately claim responsibility for the rocket attack.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is making his first visit to Egypt since 2012 , taking a big step toward rebuilding relations between the regional powers.

Mr Erdogan has said discussions would focus on Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip. Mr Erdogan and Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, whose relations frayed over Egypt’s 2013 military coup and its fallout for the Muslim Brotherhood, planned to hold a joint press conference later.

The visit caps diplomatic efforts in recent years to thaw the nations’ frosty relations. They mutually appointed ambassadors last year, and this month Turkey said it would provide Egypt with armed drones.

Relations between Ankara and Cairo broke down in 2013 after Egypt’s then-army chief, Mr Sisi, led the ousting of the Brotherhood’s Mohamed Mursi, an ally of Turkey who had become Egypt’s first democratically elected president the year before.

Mr Sisi greeted Erdogan as he emerged from his plane in Cairo with his wife and they conversed as they walked along a red carpet amid a fanfare, live television footage showed.

According to a draft programme, Mr Sisi and Mr Erdogan were to hold bilateral talks before a meeting between the two delegations, with a formal dinner planned.

Mr Erdogan has sought to ease tensions with Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Israel since 2021 – though since October he has publicly sniped with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over Israel’s devastating war against Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza.

Palestinians are increasingly conncerned about an Israeli assault into Gaza, particulary in the wake of there being no major breakthrough in recent ceasefire talks.

“The news was disappointing, we hoped there could be a deal reached in Cairo. We are now counting down the days before Israel sends in tanks. We hope they don’t but who can prevent them?” Said Jaber, a Gaza businessman who is sheltering in Rafah with his family, told Reuters via a chat app. “We’ve lost our homes, our jobs. Isn’t that enough? We’ve had enough of this war, and we will need decades to rebuild Gaza and regain our lives. When will the world stop Israel’s slaughter of our people?”