Iran warns its allies ‘will not back down’ in conflict with Israel

Iran's supreme leader vowed in a rare address on Friday that his allies around the region would keep fighting Israel, as he defended his country's missile strike on its foe.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's address in Tehran follows Iran's second ever direct attack on Israel. It was also the first since exchanges of fire between Tehran-backed Hezbollah fighters and Israeli troops escalated into full-blown war in Lebanon.

Speaking ahead of the first anniversary of Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel that triggered the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip, Khamenei defended the Palestinian group's "logical and legal" actions and hailed its "fierce defence" against Israeli forces.

The unprecedented Hamas attacked resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people and has drawn global condemnation.

Beyond Tehran, crowds of protesters gathered in Jordan and in Bahrain, which both have ties with Israel, after Friday prayers in a show of support for Iran-backed Hamas and Hezbollah.

In Amman, demonstrators carried portraits of militant leaders killed by Israel and posters hailing the October 7 attack as a "sign of pride, glory and dignity".

Nearly a year into the Gaza war, Israel has shifted its focus to securing its border with Lebanon, aiming to allow tens of thousands of Israelis displaced by cross-border Hezbollah rocket attacks to return home.

The Israeli military launched an intensified wave of strikes on Hezbollah strongholds around Lebanon, killing more than 1,000 people since September 23, according to Lebanese authorities, and forcing hundreds of thousands to flee their homes in a country already mired in economic crisis.

The attacks have killed an Iranian general, a host of Hezbollah commanders and, in the biggest blow to the group in decades, assassinated its leader, Hassan Nasrallah.

"The resistance in the region will not back down with these martyrdoms, and will win," Khamenei said, speaking in Arabic.

The Iranian leader charged that Israel was a "malicious regime" which "will not last long".

There was no immediate response from Israeli leaders as much of the country celebrates the Jewish new year.

Khamenei's address came as Israel weighs retaliation for Iran's missile attack on Tuesday which Tehran said was revenge for the killing of Nasrallah and other top figures.

Israel said it intercepted most of the missiles. One person was reported killed.

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi visited Beirut and said his government backs "the efforts for a ceasefire" that would be acceptable to Hezbollah and come "simultaneously with a ceasefire in Gaza".

US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators tried unsuccessfully for months to reach a Gaza ceasefire.

 Border crossing closed  

The escalation has left people in Lebanon fearful that there will be no swift end to the violence engulfing their country.

In Beirut, 35-year-old displaced nurse Fatima Salah said people were "scared for our children, and this war is going to be long".

Israel and its ally the United States have vowed a response to the Iranian missile attack, which sparked fear in Israel.

"Everything right now hinges on Israel's response, whether it escalates into a regional war," Sina Toossi, a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy in Washington, told AFP.

In Lebanon, Israeli bombardment has put three hospitals out of service, and on Friday a first delivery of medical aid organised by the United Nations reached Beirut airport.

Lebanon said an Israeli strike on Friday cut off the main international road to Syria, with Israel saying Hezbollah was transporting weapons through the country's principal land border crossing.

The strike came after 310,000 people, mostly Syrians, fled in recent days from Lebanon for relative safety in neighbouring Syria.

On the Israel-Lebanon border, the Israeli military said its forces had killed 250 Hezbollah fighters this week and hit "over 2,000 military targets".

In Hezbollah's main bastion in Beirut's southern suburbs, US and Israeli media reports said intense bombardment overnight targeted the militant group's potential successor, Hashem Safieddine, a week after Nasrallah's killing.

The Israeli military has not commented on that strike, which destroyed at least five buildings and left a huge crater in the road, an AFP photographer said.

 Gaza vaccination drive  

Israel announced this week that its troops had started ground raids into parts of southern Lebanon, a Hezbollah stronghold.

Hezbollah said it shelled Israeli troops in a border area of south Lebanon Friday, in the latest such clash on the frontier.

The militant group also said it kept up its rocket fire. Sirens warning of incoming fire blared in northern Israel.

The Islamic Health Committee, a Hezbollah-affiliated emergency service, reported 11 of its personnel killed Friday by Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon.

The Israeli military said nine soldiers have been killed in combat in Lebanon.

Separately a drone launched "from the east" killed two Israeli troops, the army said Friday. An Israeli public broadcaster said the strike originated in Iraq.

In the Israel-occupied West Bank, which has endured intense military raids throughout the war, the Palestinian health ministry said an air strike killed 18 people in Tulkarem refugee camp.

The United Nations rights office decried the strike as an "unlawful" use of force by the Israelis, who said it targeted a local Hamas leader.

In Gaza, Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 41,802 people, the majority of them civilians, according to figures provided by the Hamas-run territory's health ministry. The United Nations has described the figures as reliable.

The war has left Gaza in a dire humanitarian crisis, and in August, the first polio case in 25 years was confirmed.

The World Health Organization said it hopes to give hundreds of thousands of children in Gaza a second dose of polio vaccine from October 14, after a first round last month.

An official with Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) told AFP life was becoming "impossible" in Gaza, urging greater humanitarian efforts.

In a separate statement, MSF denounced the "scandalous inaction and duplicity" of the international community.

In Yemen, Al-Masirah TV run by Iran-backed Huthi rebels -- who have fired missiles at Israel -- said US and British forces struck four rebel-run provinces.