Middle East crisis live: Israeli military confirms striking Hezbollah weapons depot in south Lebanon | Middle East and north Africa

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, will fly to the US on Monday morning and meet with the US president, Joe Biden, on Tuesday, according to a statement issued by Netanyahu’s office.

The meeting between the two leaders comes as Biden, who has been recovering from Covid-19 in self-isolation at his home in Delaware, is being urged by many Democrats to drop out of the presidential race.

After weeks of defiantly stating that he will remain the Democratic nominee, despite concerns about his age and mental acuity in the wake of last month’s disastrous debate against Donald Trump, some media outlets have reported that the 81-year-old is now reconsidering his position.

Netanyahu’s visit would be his first visit to the White House since he returned to office in late 2022.

Netanyahu told his Cabinet last month that there had been a “dramatic drop” in US weapons deliveries for Israel’s war in Gaza, underling a strain in the relationship with Washington.

Earlier this month, the Biden administration said it would resume shipping 500-pound bombs to Israel, despite mounting calls by Democratic lawmakers and progressive groups to limit weapons supplies. It said it would continue to hold back on supplying 2,000-pound bombs over concerns about their use in densely populated Gaza.

However, Amnesty International USA has said that US-supplied weapons provided to Israel have already been used in serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law, and in a manner that is inconsistent with US law and policy.

The Israeli military has confirmed it struck Hezbollah weapons storage facilities overnight. The Israeli air force “struck two Hezbollah weapons storage facilities in southern Lebanon, containing rockets and additional weaponry”, the military said in a statement.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) said on Saturday evening that “the Israeli enemy launched a raid” on the town of Adloun, about 30 kilometres (19 miles) from the border with Israel, later saying the target was “an ammunition depot”.

Rockets were still exploding about an hour after the strike was first reported, the NNA said, adding that the blasts “lightly injured three citizens”. The NNA said traffic on the highway linking the southern coastal cities of Sidon and Tyre had been interrupted in both directions.

Earlier on Saturday, Hezbollah said it had launched “dozens of Katyusha rockets” on northern Israel “in response” to a strike blamed on Israel that injured civilians.

The international court of justice’s landmark ruling that Israel’s 57-year occupation of Palestinian land was “illegal” is “largely consistent with EU positions”, Josep Borrell, the bloc’s foreign policy chief, said yesterday (you can read his full statement here).

The EU’s high representative for foreign affairs said that the 27-member bloc had taken “good note” of the court’s ruling and urged further backing for the court’s opinion, which was not binding.

He said:

In a world of constant and increasing violations of international law, it is our moral duty to reaffirm our unwavering commitment to all ICJ decisions in a consistent manner, irrespective of the subject in question.

He added in a statement that the opinion “will need to be analysed more thoroughly, including in view of its implications for EU policy”.

The advisory opinion by judges at the ICJ on Friday carries weight under international law and may weaken support for Israel.

“Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and the regime associated with them, have been established and are being maintained in violation of international law,” President Nawaf Salam said, reading the findings of a 15-judge panel.

The court said Israel’s obligations include paying restitution for harm and “the evacuation of all settlers from existing settlements”.

In a swift reaction, Israel’s foreign ministry rejected the opinion as “fundamentally wrong” and one-sided, and repeated its stance that a political settlement in the region can only be reached by negotiations.

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza and the wider crisis in the Middle East.

Israeli air defences intercepted a surface-to-surface missile fired from Yemen on Sunday, the military said.

Its Arrow 3 missile defence system shot down the projectile before it crossed into Israeli territory, it said.

Air raid sirens sounded earlier on Sunday in the Red Sea port city of Eilat in southern Israel, sending residents running for shelter.

The Houthis said they targeted Eilat with multiple ballistic missiles.

The atttack came a day after Israeli airstrikes rocked the Yemeni port city of Hodeidah following Israeli officials’ vow of revenge for a drone strike that struck Tel Aviv on Friday, killing one person and injuring at least 10.

Powerful strikes hit a refinery and electricity infrastructure on Saturday, sparking a huge fire, in the first direct hit on Yemen since Houthis they began targeting Israel with missiles and drones last year.

The Houthi-run Almasirah TV channel said on Saturday evening that three people had been killed and 87 wounded in the strikes on the Yemeni oil facilities.

In other news:

• Several countries, including Pakistan and Qatar, voiced their support for the international court of justice’s landmark ruling on Friday that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories is against international law.

• In Cairo, international mediators including the US are continuing to push Israel and Hamas towards a phased deal that would halt the fighting and free about 120 hostages in Gaza. The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said the long-sought ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was within sight.

• At least 38,919 Palestinian people have been killed and 89,622 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said. Israeli military strikes across Gaza killed 37 Palestinians over the past 24 hours alone and destroyed several houses, Reuters reported on Saturday. Residents in Rafah said tanks advanced deeper into northern areas of the southern city and took control of a hilltop in the west.

• Among those reportedly killed on Saturday were local journalist Mohammad Abu Jasser, his wife and two children in an Israeli strike on their house in northern Gaza. The territory’s government media office said Abu Jasser’s death raised to 161 the number of Palestinian media personnel killed by Israeli fire since 7 October.