Lebanese Residents Flee City of Baalbek Amid New Focus of Israeli Campaign
Israeli air strikes and evacuation orders in the eastern Lebanese city of Baalbek have prompted more than twenty thousand residents to flee to the nearby town of Deir al-Ahmar, a local official said yesterday; Israel’s strikes on what it said were Hezbollah targets in Baalbek come as talks about a potential cease-fire between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah continue—and as Iran itself signals a readiness to respond to last Saturday’s Israeli attack (NPR)
Three Iranian officials including the top commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said separately yesterday that Iran will retaliate against Israel’s strikes on its military facilities (Al-Arabiya, AFP)
It was not immediately clear if Iran would do so before the U.S. election next week; oil prices rose slightly today following the news (FT)
Lebanese Prime Minister ‘Cautiously Optimistic’ About Cease-Fire Deal
Prime Minister Najib Mikati told Lebanese broadcaster Al-Jadeed yesterday that a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah could be reached within “hours or days;” Israel’s public broadcaster published details of what it said was a draft truce drawn up by Washington, including a provision banning Hezbollah from having a presence south of the Litani River (Times of Israel). U.S. CIA leader William J. Burns is in Cairo for talks today while White House envoys Amos Hochstein and Brett McGurk are in Israel (CNN)
UN Peacekeepers Withdraw from Dhayra
The UN Interim Force in Lebanon withdrew peacekeepers from a watchtower in Dhayra after Israeli troops fired on their forces; UNIFIL said in a statement that despite violent escalations by Israel, their “peacekeepers remain in position and on task” (Reuters)
France Hosts Aid Conference for Lebanon
France pledged upwards of $100 million in humanitarian aid to kick off today’s conference in Paris, which aims to raise the $426 million that the United Nations has said is needed in urgent humanitarian aid for the country (AP)
Economic losses from the Israeli bombing of Lebanon could top $20 billion, an independent task force of Lebanese economists and public policy specialists found (L’Orient)
Israel Strikes Lebanese Coastal City of Tyre
Israel extended its campaign against Hezbollah to the Lebanese port city of Tyre today, carrying out multiple strikes after warning residents to evacuate; tens of thousands have fled the city in recent weeks over fears of Israel’s heightened invasion (BBC)
The bombings came after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss the ongoing hostilities in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, postwar governance and reconstruction in Gaza, and the need for more humanitarian aid to reach the enclave; Blinken traveled to Saudi Arabia today (NYT)
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock warned that Lebanon “is on the brink of collapse” while in Beirut today, and that “any deliberate attack on UN peacekeepers violates international humanitarian law” (France 24)
Israel has been accused of forcibly entering a UN base in Lebanon and injuring its workers, according to a leaked report seen by the Financial Times (FT)
Hezbollah also claimed responsibility for an attack on Netanyahu’s home over the weekend (Al Jazeera)
Israel, meanwhile, said yesterday it killed an apparent heir to slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in an air strike (Reuters)
Israel Steps Up Assault on Hezbollah Targets in Lebanon
The Israeli military said it hit three hundred targets in the previous twenty-four hours; Hezbollah said it launched an attack on an Israeli base near Tel Aviv dedicated to their slain leader Hassan Nasrallah (France 24)
Israel Targets Hezbollah-Linked Financial Institutions
On Saturday, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Washington would like to see Israel scale back some of its strikes on Beirut, as the number of civilian casualties was “far too high” (NYT). U.S. officials planned to hold a classified briefing on an intelligence leak about what appeared to be Israeli preparations to attack Iran; the documents were posted to Telegram (Reuters)
Israel’s Strikes on Lebanon Continue to Expand
An attack in the southern town of Nabatieh killed a mayor and fifteen others, according to Lebanese officials (Reuters)
UN Refugee Agency: More Than 25 Percent of Lebanon Under Israeli Evacuation Orders
Lebanon’s public health minister said that at least 150 medical and rescue workers have been killed in the past three weeks in what one Lebanese official called a “systematic targeting” of health care; Israel’s military said it provides notices to residents before the strikes and accused Hezbollah of using “civilian infrastructure” to transport “operatives and ammunition” (Reuters,FT)
Israeli Strikes Extend to Lebanon’s North
The expanded targeting of Hezbollah militants in Lebanon hit the town of Aitou, killing at least twenty-one people and injuring eight, according to the Lebanese health ministry; millions of Israelis also sheltered as Hezbollah launched retaliatory projectiles into Israel, the Israeli military said in a statement (Reuters)
Israel’s military operations had previously concentrated on southern Lebanon near its border with Israel, with Israeli officials ordering the evacuation of residents to the north (WaPo)
United Nations Accuses Israel of Running Tanks Through Peacekeeping Missions in Lebanon
The UN called it a “flagrant violation” of international law (FT)
Israel disputed the UN account; Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Lebanese militant group Hezbollah of using the UN mission as “human shields” and urged that peacekeepers be moved out of harm’s way (Times of Israel)
A Hezbollah strike on Sunday killed four Israeli soldiers and injured roughly sixty in what is considered one of the group’s deadliest attacks on Israel since last October (FT)
Israel Strikes Beirut, Killing at Least Twenty-Two
Israeli air strikes in central Beirut yesterday appeared to be the deadliest attack on Lebanon’s capital since fighting broke out more than a year ago, killing at least 22 people and wounding at least 117, Lebanese officials said (BBC)
Israel did not immediately comment, nor was it immediately clear if the apparent target of the strikes survived (NYT)
The strikes came hours after the United Nations said that Israel had fired on peacekeeping posts in Northern Lebanon; Israel said Hezbollah operates from areas near the posts (Axios)
Israel Expands Ground Campaign Against Hezbollah in Lebanon
Countries and aid organizations have ramped up humanitarian assistance to Lebanon as the Israeli raids target the country’s south and prompt widespread evacuations (FP)
U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said yesterday that “there should be no kind of military action in Lebanon that looks anything like Gaza and leaves a result [that is] anything like Gaza” (Reuters)
Meanwhile, over two thousand Turkish citizens departed Lebanon via military ship amidst Israeli bombardment of Beirut; currently, six Turkish ships have been tasked with civilian evacuation as they return from a humanitarian mission to deliver three hundred tons of supplies to Lebanon (AP)
Israeli Defense Minister Postpones DC Trip Amid Lebanon Ground Campaign
Yoav Gallant pushed a trip to Washington that would have included talks at the Pentagon today, a U.S. military spokesperson said (NYT)
Hezbollah launched some 180 projectiles yesterday, while Syria and Iran blamed Israel for a strike in Damascus that reportedly killed seven people and wounded eleven others; Israel did not immediately comment on the strike (WaPo)
Israel Expands Lebanon Ground Campaign
The Israeli military reported continued air strikes, the deployment of another division of troops into southern Lebanon, and the killing of a senior Hezbollah official in Beirut, the latest steps in its campaign against the militant group (NYT)
Hezbollah deputy leader Naim Qassem said the group would “overcome all the blows” that have been dealt against it in a televised address today, adding that he supported efforts to secure a cease-fire; in a departure from Hezbollah’s previous public statements, he did not mention an end to the war in the Gaza Strip as a precondition to ending fighting on the Lebanon-Israel border (Reuters)
Israel’s defense minister is due to participate in talks at the Pentagon tomorrow (The Hill)
Meanwhile, the U.S. Treasury yesterday announced new sanctions on Hamas (Reuters)
Israeli Strikes in Southern Beirut Target Potential Successor to Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah
The World Health Organization (WHO) director reported that at least twenty-eight healthcare workers were killed between Wednesday and Thursday in Lebanon, while Lebanon’s military reported the first deaths of its soldiers in Israel’s ground offensive (CNN;WaPo)
Israel Orders More Evacuations in Lebanon as Strikes Continue on Iranian Proxies
Israel warned residents of more than twenty towns in southern Lebanon to evacuate their homes immediately today amid its direct ground clashes with Hezbollah in the area (Reuters)
An Israeli strike in Beirut overnight killed a reported nine people, while eight Israeli soldiers were reported killed in southern Lebanon clashes yesterday (NYT)
Israeli officials continue to weigh their response to Iran’s Tuesday missile barrage against Israel, with U.S. President Joe Biden warning yesterday against an Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities (AP)
Lebanese Politicians Hold Talks on Filling Leadership Vacuum Amid Conflict
The country has lacked a president and empowered cabinet since 2022 in a power struggle that includes Shiite militia Hezbollah; a Hezbollah ally, Druze, and Sunni leaders met and issued a joint statement calling for a “consensus president,” without naming candidates (Reuters)
Israeli Operation Continues in Lebanon as Tensions Rise With Iran
Israeli forces and Hezbollah are engaging in direct clashes near the Israel-Lebanon border as Israeli airstrikes continue in Beirut (NYT)
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have reportedly issued evacuation orders to fifty-one villages in southern Lebanon, comprising roughly a quarter of all Lebanese territory (CNN)
Following the missile attack by Iran Tuesday night, Israeli airstrikes targeting locations in southern Beirut killed 55 people and injured 156 more, the country’s health ministry said (NBC)
According to The Washington Post, over 1,400 people have been killed and more than 900,000 displaced across Lebanon due to Israeli strikes targeting over 3,600 Hezbollah-linked locations in the past ten days (WaPo)
Iran Fires Missiles at Israel in Response to Operations in Lebanon
Iran launched approximately 180 ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday in response to Israeli military operations in Gaza and Lebanon including the September 27 assassination of Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah(Al Jazeera)
Despite some missiles making impact in central and southern Israel, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) reported no known Israeli casualties after a successful air defense operation executed by Israel with the help of the United States (NYT). One Palestinian civilian was killed in the West Bank when pieces of an intercepted rocket fell on him from the sky (Times of Israel)
Israel Sends Ground Troops Into Lebanon in Continued Targeting of Hezbollah
Israel’s military launched ground raids into southern Lebanon early today as part of what Israel called “limited, localized, and targeted” raids against Hezbollah in the country; the operation was the first incursion of Israel Defence Forces (IDF) entering on the ground into Lebanon since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war (AP)
It was not immediately clear how many troops had entered the country; Israel’s military ordered the evacuation of nearly two dozen Lebanese communities, which came in the hours after it sent its forces over the border (AP)
The United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon and countries including Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom (UK) called for de-escalation of the conflict, with UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy saying the costs of a regional Middle East war would be “huge” (Reuters)
Israeli forces are continuing to amass in the country’s north, near its border with Lebanon, while Hezbollah said that it had fired missiles at a target on the outskirts of Tel Aviv, near where Israeli intelligence is headquartered; Israel’s military also announced restrictions in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv that include limits on public gatherings (NYT)
Israeli Continues Strikes on Lebanon Following Nasrallah’s Death
An Israeli strike hit a building inside Beirut’s city limits today for the first time in nearly a year of war; the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said the strike killed three of its members (AP)
A separate Israeli strike killed a Hamas commander in southern Lebanon (Reuters)
Meanwhile, a U.S. official confirmed that Israel informed the United States about an impending ground operation in Lebanon that could begin as soon as today (BBC)
Hezbollah’s deputy leader gave his first comments since Israel’s Friday killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, saying the group is ready for any potential Israeli ground invasion (Reuters)
Countries including the United States and the United Kingdom (UK) continued to call for a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah over the weekend (NPR)
Amid escalating violence, one million Lebanese (one-fifth of the country’s population) have fled their homes in recent days, Lebanon’s government said (Reuters)
Israel’s targeting of Iranian proxies this weekend also included a strike on Houthis in Yemen (WaPo)
The U.S. military yesterday said it was boosting air support capabilities in the Middle East and heightening readiness for troop deployment (Reuters)
Hezbollah Confirms Death of Leader in Israeli Strike
The militant group confirmed that Hassan Nasrallah, leader and co-founder of the organization, was killed yesterday in an Israeli airstrike in southern Beirut (AP)
In a statement, U.S. President Joe Biden called Nasrallah’s death a “measure of justice,” reiterating U.S. support for Israel’s right to self-defense and calling for de-escalation in Lebanon and Gaza (White House)
Meanwhile, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei announced five days of mourning in commemoration of Nasrallah and vowed that his death “will not go unavenged” (BBC)
Israeli airstrikes continued into the night on Friday, prompting evacuations from the residential area of Dahiya in southern Beirut; Lebanon’s Health Minister Firass Abiad said that eleven people had been killed and more than one hundred injured (NYT)
Israel Targets Hezbollah Leader in Beirut
Israeli and American officials indicate the strikes were intended to target Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary general of Hezbollah, at the group’s headquarters in southern Beirut (NYT)
A source close to the militant group and Iranian news agencies are reporting Nasrallah is safe, but his status remains unverified (Reuters)
The initial strikes destroyed several residential buildings and the Israeli military has issued warnings to residents to evacuate the surrounding area (NYT)
U.S. President Joe Biden claimed the United States had “no knowledge of or participation” in the attack (CNN)
The strikes shortly followed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s remarks at the UN General Assembly during which he vowed to continue Israel’s military operation in Lebanon (WaPo)
Israeli PM Says Talks on Potential Cease-Fire Will Continue in Coming Days
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said early today that it “appreciates the U.S. efforts” toward a cease-fire with Hezbollah and will discuss them in the coming days; Hezbollah was not formally asked to accept the proposal put forth by Washington and allies for a cease-fire and did not publicly respond (NYT)
Yesterday, Netanyahu said Israel would keep striking the militant group; fire between Israel and Hezbollah continued today (ABC)
Meanwhile, in New York today, Netanyahu will address the UN General Assembly (CNN)