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Israel said it killed a top commander with Hezbollah’s missile and rocket unit Tuesday as the Israeli military traded fire with Hezbollah again. Meanwhile, the death toll from a massive Israeli bombing campaign has climbed to nearly 560 people.
Here’s what to know:
Israeli airstrikes in the Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza injure many, including children
By WAFAA SHURAFA
Israeli airstrikes in Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza left multiple Palestinians injured, including children, who were rushed to Awda and Al-Aqsa hospitals.
AP footage shows two children with face injuries rushed inside Al-Aqsa hospital, while a man lying on a stretcher inside an ambulance was wailing in pain as two other men were lying face down. Several children were brought in with injuries to their legs and faces.
At the hospital morgue, a mother is seen crying and bidding farewell to her twin sons, Osama and Bilal Fayad, two young men who were killed in the strikes in Nuseirat.
“I raised those two boys.. they were killed together after being struck,” said their father Ahmed Fayad. “They were born together and died together.”
Over a dozen people gathered outside the hospital to perform a funeral prayer as the bodies of the twins were in front of them on the ground wrapped in white shrouds before they were loaded onto a motorbike to be taken for burial.
The strike that killed the Fayad twins in Nuseirat camp also killed three women and injured over 20 people were also injured, according to Awda hospital, where they were taken.
The Israeli strikes in Nuseirat and Bureij camps on Tuesday killed a total of 29 Palestinians, including 14 children and 6 women, hospital officials told the AP.
Israel’s military identifies 3 drones crossing from Lebanon into Israel
By NATALIE MELZER
The Israeli military says three drones were identified crossing from Lebanon into Israel a short while ago, setting off sirens in coastal towns just south of Haifa — more than 50 km (31 miles) from the border with Lebanon. It said two of the drones were intercepted. There were no reports of injuries.
Altogether, more than 300 projectiles have been launched today from Lebanon at northern Israel, according to the Israeli military.
The army said strikes will continue in Lebanon. In the last two hours, Israeli jets carried out a “number of extensive strikes” on targets in the Bekaa region and in southern Lebanon, according to the army, hitting rocket launchers and infrastructure that the army says was used to store weapons.
Turkey’s president accuses Israel of carrying out ‘a clear genocide’ and calls on UN to impose sanctions
By EDITH M. LEDERER
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly he wanted to state “loudly and clearly” that the Israeli government is disregarding human rights, trampling on international law, and “is practicing ethnic cleansing” against the Palestinians.
He also accused Israel at Tuesday’s opening of the annual global gathering of carrying out “a clear genocide against a nation a people, and occupying their lands, step by step.”
“Israel’s behavior has once again demonstrated that it is imperative for the international community to develop a protection mechanism for Palestinian civilians,” Erdogan said. “70 years ago, just as Hitler was stopped by an alliance of humanity, (Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu and his murder network must be stopped, must be stopped by an alliance of humanity.”
Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon called Erdogan’s remarks “shameful” and told reporters the reference to Hitler is “beyond imagination.”
Erdogan called for the Security Council to impose “coercive measures against Israel” – U.N. language for sanctions – and said the General Assembly should recommend the use of force to achieve an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, the exchange of prisoners, and the unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid.
In language aimed at Israel’s supporters, especially the United States, Erdogan said their backing “is the reason why this aggression is still going on” in Gaza.
While “supposedly working for a cease-fire,” he said, they continue to send arms and ammunition to Israel.
The U.S., Qatar and Egypt have been working for months for a cease-fire in Gaza, and the United States has blamed Hamas for refusing the latest deal. But Erdogan claimed it’s Israel “that doesn’t want peace, by constantly dragging its feet making a settlement much more difficult, almost impossible.”
Israel’s UN envoy says Israel does not want to send troops into Lebanon but will do what’s necessary to halt Hezbollah fire
By JENNIFER PELTZ..
Israel’s envoy to the U.N. says his country doesn’t want to send troops into Lebanon but will do “whatever necessary” to halt the Hezbollah rocket fire that has driven tens of thousands of Israelis from their country’s north.
Asked during at a news conference Tuesday at U.N. headquarters whether Israel was contemplating a ground invasion of its northern neighbor, Ambassador Danny Danon said his country is “not eager to start any ground invasion anywhere.”
“We prefer a diplomatic solution. But if it’s not working, we are using other methods to show the other side that we mean business,” he said.
“We will do whatever necessary to bring the residents back to the north,” he added.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu still plans to come to the U.N. to speak Friday at the General Assembly’s annual meeting of world leaders, Danon said. But he noted that “things are dynamic,” and an update on Netanyahu’s plans could come Wednesday.
Israel’s Defense Minister says forces are ready to carry out more strikes after Hezbollah suffers ‘extremely severe blows’
By NATALIE MELZER
Israel’s Defense Minister said Tuesday that Hezbollah has suffered “extremely severe blows” and Israel has “more strikes ready.”
Speaking to troops after an IDF drill that simulated a ground offensive in Lebanon, Yoav Gallant said “The Hezbollah of today is not the Hezbollah of a week ago. The sequence of blows it faced in its command and control, its operatives, its weapons — all these things are extremely severe blows.”
Mourners carry bodies through Lebanese streets, some draped in Hezbollah flags
By The Associated Press
In the Lebanese village of Saksakieh, some 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of the Lebanon-Israel border, mourners carried 11 bodies through the streets Tuesday, including those of four women, an infant and a 7-year old girl. All had been killed in Israel’s bombardment of the village the day before. Israeli strikes killed more than 560 people across Lebanon in two days.
Some of the bodies were draped in Hezbollah flags, others wrapped in black clothes. A wreath of flowers had been placed on top of the smallest one.
Mohammad Halal, the father of 7-year-old Joury Halal, said his daughter was an “innocent child martyr.”
“She is a martyr for the sake of the south and Palestine,” Halal said and defiantly stated his allegiance to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
A look at the latest round of strikes in Lebanon
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
US Navy replenishment ship operating in Mideast was damaged in an incident, officials say
The damage to the USNS Big Horn came after the oiler supplied the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group and remained in the region amid heightened tensions over the Israel-Hamas war and Israel’s ongoing strikes targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon.
A U.S. Navy official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss matters yet to be made public, said the damage happened in the Mideast, but declined to elaborate on its location. A photo released by the U.S. military dated Sept. 5 showed sailors aboard the Lincoln receiving supplies from the Big Horn, while another on Sept. 11 showed the Big Horn alongside the Lincoln. The Lincoln is patrolling the Arabian Sea.
The official said the Big Horn’s crew was safe and there was no sign of an oil leak from the vessel.
Another U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity for the same reason, said the vessel was being supported by private tugboats and an assessment was still ongoing for the vessel.
▶ Read more about damage to the U.S. Navy ship
WATCH: Recovery underway after Beirut building heavily damaged in Israeli strike
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Emergency services and locals have started the cleanup process in a southern suburb of Beirut on Tuesday where an Israeli airstrike hit a building. Streets were blocked off as rubble was being removed.
US officials in talks with allies to de-escalate tensions between Israel and Hezbollah
By The Associated Press
White House principal deputy national security adviser Jon Finer said Tuesday that Biden administration officials were in talks with allies to help find an off-ramp to the escalating tensions between Israel and Hezbollah.
“We’re working on that in real time right here in New York and in capitals around the world,” Finer said in an appearance at an event hosted by the news site Axios on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York.
“We’re not going to reveal all the details of those sensitive conversations, but we very much want that conflict to de-escalate.”
Finer sidestepped questions about whether the fighting has already become the all-out war that the U.S. had been pressing Israel to avoid with Lebanon as it continues its nearly yearlong conflict in Gaza. But he underscored that a “big war, a wider war” is in neither Israel’s nor Lebanon’s interest.
PHOTOS: Two-day death toll from Israeli strikes in Lebanon reaches 558
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
A new airstrike in central Gaza kills 10 people, hospital says
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Another Israeli airstrike in a central Gaza refugee camp on Tuesday killed 10 Palestinians, including four people from the same family, and injured 11 others, according to Al-Awda Hospital.
The strike hit a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp, where six people including three women were killed in an earlier airstrike.
The dead and wounded were taken to Al-Awda Hospital.
Israeli military says it killed a top commander in Hezbollah missile unit
By The Associated Press
The Israeli military says it has killed a commander with Hezbollah’s missile and rocket unit in a strike in Beirut.
It said Ibrahim Kobeisi, who it said was responsible for launches toward Israel, was killed Tuesday.
The military said “other key commanders” were with Kobeisi at the time of the strike, but it did not say whether any of them had been killed or injured.
Lebanese woman working for UNHCR, her son and a cleaner killed in Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon
The U.N. refugee agency in Lebanon says a Lebanese woman who had been working for the agency for 12 years, one of her sons and a cleaner employed by the agency have been killed in Israeli airstrikes.
The building where Dina Darwiche lived with her family was hit in a strike on Lebanon’s Bekaa region on Monday, UNHCR said. Her husband and another son were seriously injured. Her body and that of her younger son were recovered from the rubble on Tuesday.
Ali Basma, who worked as a cleaner for the agency for seven years, was killed in a separate strike in the south. He worked at UNHCR’s office in the city of Tyre.
The agency said it was “outraged and deeply saddened by the killing of two beloved members of the UNHCR family in Lebanon” and warned that the protection of civilians is a must under international humanitarian law.
Sirens continue almost nonstop across large parts of northern Israel
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Sirens have continued almost nonstop across large parts of northern Israel, warning of incoming fire after Israeli forces carried out what they described as a “targeted strike” on a southern Beirut suburb on Tuesday.
The Israeli military says about 100 rockets were fired from Lebanon into Israel in several barrages over the last two hours, including on the Haifa bay area, the Golan Heights, and the city of Safed. There were no reports of injuries.
Israeli police said there was heavy damage in several places by falling fragments of rockets or interceptors, and a fire was sparked in the Golan Heights.
An Israeli airstrike hits a building in southern Beirut, Hezbollah’s TV station says
By BASSEM MRUOE
An Israeli airstrike hit a building in a southern Beirut suburb on Tuesday afternoon, a Hezbollah TV station reported. There was no immediate word on casualties.
Later, Israel’s military said it had carried out a “targeted strike” in Beirut, without elaborating. Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said “a number of people” were injured in the strike , which destroyed three floors of a six-story apartment building.
Al-Manar TV, which belongs to Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group, said the strike occurred in the suburb of Ghobeiri, without giving any details.
The attack came after a Monday evening airstrike missed Ali Karaki, Hezbollah’s top military commander in south Lebanon, the group said.
An Israeli airstrike on a nearby area on Friday killed 55 people, including top Hezbollah military commander Ibrahim Akil and 15 other Hezbollah members.
Israeli military reports 10 more rockets fired from Lebanon
Israel’s military says that 10 more rockets from Lebanon were fired into Israeli territory on Tuesday afternoon, injuring a reservist and raining shrapnel onto a road in northern Israel.
The rockets came in two volleys, the first targeting the Upper Galilee area and the second an area south of Haifa known as Eliakim. Rocket fragments from a rocket that was intercepted injured the Israeli soldier, the military said.
Hezbollah said it had fired middle-range rockets at an Israeli army position in Eliakim.
Israel’s military has now said that there have been at least 110 rockets fired into Israeli territory from Lebanon since Tuesday morning. Israeli strikes across the border have killed over 550 people in Lebanon since Monday.
Another Israeli strike in central Gaza kills at least 6 people, including 3 women, Gaza medics say
By SAMY MAGDY
Palestinian medical officials say an Israeli airstrike hit a family house in central Gaza on Tuesday afternoon, killing at least six people, including three women.
The strike in the Nuseirat refugee camp also wounded 21 others, according to the Awda hospital in the camp, where the casualties were taken.
Footage circulated online showing a woman screaming and rushing to a building that was hit. A man is seen lying on the ground, without moving and bleeding from his head. There were several other people lying on the ground nearby.
A journalist for a pan-Arab television is killed in an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon
By KAREEM CHEHAYEB
A journalist working for the pan-Arab network Al-Mayadeen has been killed in an Israeli airstrike while he was at his home in southern Lebanon, the network said.
Hadi Al-Sayyed, 22, is the third journalist from the network killed in the ongoing conflict between the Israeli military and Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group. The network said he was wounded on Monday and died of his wounds on Tuesday.
According to the TV station, Al-Sayyed worked for Al-Mayadeen’s online section and was at his house in the town of Burj Rahhal near the southern city of Tyre when it was hit.
Last November, Al-Mayadeen’s correspondent Farah Omar and cameraman Rabih Al-Maamari were killed in an Israeli strike while covering southern Lebanon.
Israeli military says its airstrikes on southern Lebanon are targeting Hezbollah’s infrastructure
Israel’s military says it’s conducting a wave of airstrikes in southern Lebanon, Targeting the militant Hezbollah group’s infrastructure.
It says the strikes have been setting off secondary explosions, which the military claims show there were weapons being housed inside the buildings.
Military spokesperson Avichay Adraee issued a call on X for residents of “Lebanese villages” to evacuate but did not specify which villages.
The strikes came after Israel’s military reported that 100 rockets have been fired at Israeli territory from Lebanon since midnight.
Lebanese officials say two-day death toll from Israeli strikes on the country is now at 558
By BASSEM MROUE
The Lebanese Health Ministry says the death toll from Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon over the past two days of escalation has reached 558, including 50 children and 94 women.
Health Minister Firass Abiad told reporters on Tuesday that 1,835 people have also been wounded since early the previous day. They were taken to 54 hospitals around Lebanon, he said.
Abiad added that four paramedics were among those killed, and 16 paramedics and firefighters were among the wounded.
JUST IN: Lebanon says the death toll has reached at least 558 in two days of Israeli strikes in the country.
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Airlines in the United Arab Emirates and Egypt cancel flights to Lebanon
Airlines in the United Arab Emirates, a key East-West travel hub, have canceled flights to Lebanon over the ongoing cross-border fire between Israel and Hezbollah.
Long-haul carriers Emirates and Etihad canceled their flights on Tuesday, as did FlyDubai, the low-cost carrier.
Egypt’s flagship airliner also canceled its flights to Lebanon on Tuesday. EgyptAir operates two flights daily between Cairo and Beirut.
Also Tuesday, Israeli media reported that Wizz Air, British Airways, Iberia and Azerbaijan Airlines were among several airlines to cancel flights to Israel’s Ben-Gurion airport in Tel Aviv.
A Gaza hospital says two Palestinian children among those killed in latest Israeli airstrikes
By SAMY MAGDY
A hospital in central Gaza says the bodies of two children killed in an Israeli airstrike on Tuesday were brought there.
The Awda hospital in the Nuseirat refugee camp said the strike hit a group of people in the nearby Bureij camp, and also wounded six other Palestinians.
The Health Ministry in the coastal territory, meanwhile, said Gaza’s hospitals received 12 dead and 43 wounded Palestinians over the last 24 hours.
The latest fatalities brought the overall death toll in Gaza since the war began on Oct. 7 to 41,467. That’s according to the ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between combatants and civilians in its count.
Israel’s military says 100 rockets fired from Lebanon since early morning in second day of intense escalation
Israel’s military says that 100 rockets have been fired from Lebanon into northern Israel since early on Tuesday morning, setting several fires and damaging buildings in the country’s north in the second day of much-intensified hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah.
The rockets came in five volleys throughout the morning, the largest of them containing 50 rockets toward the Upper Galilee area. The military said it had struck the launchers where the rockets were fired. Another heavily-targeted area was southeast of the Israeli city of Haifa.
Rocket sirens blared throughout northern Israel. A video circulating on Israeli media shows explosions on a highway, with drivers pulling over and lying on the ground next to their vehicles.
Israel’s military spokesman says the army will do ‘whatever is necessary’ to push Hezbollah away
By JOSEF FEDERMAN
Speaking to foreign reporters, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari claimed Monday’s widespread airstrikes had inflicted heavy damage on Hezbollah. But he would not give a timeline for the ongoing operation and said Israel was prepared to launch a ground invasion of Lebanon if needed.
“We are not looking for wars. We are looking to take down the threats,” he said. “‘We will do whatever is necessary to do to achieve this mission. We hope to do it as shortly as we can.”
Hagari said Hezbollah has launched some 9,000 rockets and drones into Israel since last October, including 700 in the past week alone. He says Israel will fight until Hezbollah moves its forces far from the border, and tens of thousands of displaced Israelis can return to their homes near Lebanon.
Hagari accused Hezbollah of using civilians as “human shields” by hiding weapons in Lebanese villages and displayed videos of what he said were secondary explosions caused by Hezbollah weapons hidden in homes.
He said it was likely that some of the deaths Monday came from secondary explosions, but gave no other evidence.
Thousands flee southern Lebanon as Israeli airstrikes intesify
By FADI TAWIL, MOHAMMED ZAATARI
In Beirut and beyond, schools were quickly repurposed to receive the newly displaced as volunteers scrambled to gather water, medicine and mattresses.
In the coastal city of Sidon, people seeking shelter streamed into schools that had no mattresses to sleep on yet. Many waited on sidewalks outside.
Ramzieh Dawi had arrived with her husband and daughter after hastily evacuating the village of Yarine, carrying just a few essential items as airstrikes boomed nearby.
“These are the only things I brought,” she said, gesturing at the three tote bags she carried.
Fatima Chehab, who came with her three daughters from the area of Nabatieh, said her family had been displaced twice in quick succession.
“We first fled to stay with my brother in a nearby area, and then they bombed three places next to his house,” she said.
▶ Read more about those evacuating from Lebanon
Hezbollah denies reports that its senior commander Ali Karaki was killed in a southern Beirut suburb
By KAREEM CHEHAYEB
“Ali Karaki is fine and God willing is in full health and wellnesses. He has been transported to a safe area,” read a statement from the Iran-backed group on Monday.
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Death toll in Lebanon rises to 356
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Lebanon’s health ministry says the death toll from Israeli strikes in Lebanon on Monday has increased to 356, including 24 children and 42 women.
More than 1,240 people were wounded in the strikes, the health ministry said — a staggering one-day toll for a country still reeling from a deadly attack on communication devices last week.
The death toll surpassed that of Beirut’s devastating port explosion in 2020, when hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate stored in a warehouse detonated, killing at least 218 people and wounding more than 6,000.
Israel’s military spokesman holds press conference
By JOSEF FEDERMAN
Israel’s military spokesman says Israeli warplanes struck 1,300 Hezbollah targets on Monday.
Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari says the strikes destroyed Hezbollah cruise missiles, rockets laden with heavy explosives, long and short-range rockets and attack drones. He said many were hidden in residential areas, showing photos of what he said were weapons hidden in private homes.
“Hezbollah has turned southern Lebanon into a war zone,” he told a news conference.
Biden says he’s working to de-escalate the conflict between Israel and Lebanon
President Joe Biden says he planned to discuss “efforts to end the war in Gaza” during a Monday Oval Office meeting with United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
Biden told his UAE counterpart that he’s been briefed on the latest developments regarding Israel and Lebanon and that his team is “working to de-escalate” in a way that allows people to return to their homes safely.
Israel says its strikes have destroyed rockets in Lebanon
By JOSEF FEDERMAN
Israel’s defense minister says the Israeli offensive in Lebanon has destroyed tens of thousands of rockets in Hezbollah’s formidable arsenal.
Yoav Gallant said during an assessment with military commanders Monday that the results of the Israeli air campaign are “extremely impressive.”
“Today is a significant peak,” Gallant said. “On this day we have taken out of order tens of thousands of rockets and precise munition. What Hezbollah has built over a period of 20 years … is in fact being destroyed.”
Israel estimates that Hezbollah has some 150,000 rockets and missiles, including guided missiles and long-range projectiles capable of striking anywhere in Israel.
Israel urges the UN to implement a resolution for Hezbollah to move its forces far from the Israeli border
By JOSEF FEDERMAN
Israel’s foreign minister has urged the U.N. Security Council to implement a 2006 resolution calling on Hezbollah to move its forces far from the Israeli border.
Resolution 1701 ended a monthlong war between Israel and Hezbollah. The resolution required Hezbollah to move some 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border, but it has refused, accusing Israel of failing to carry out provisions.
In a letter to the council, Foreign Minister Israel Katz said the council “must act to bring about a full implementation” of the resolution. He warned that Israel would not tolerate the “ongoing war of attrition” with Hezbollah.
“Israel is not interested in a full-scale war,” he wrote. “However, we will take all necessary measures to protect ourselves and our citizens in accordance with international law as part of the ongoing armed conflict against Hezbollah.”
He also called for international sanctions against Iran, saying the Tehran government is the “mastermind” behind Hezbollah’s attacks.
Israel’s military chief says Israel is preparing its ‘next phases’ of operations against Hezbollah
By JOSEF FEDERMAN
Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi told soldiers Monday that Israel’s airstrikes were “proactive” and targeting Hezbollah infrastructure built over the past 20 years.
“We are striking targets and preparing for the next phases,” he said, promising to release details in the near future.
He says the goal of the offensive is to allow tens of thousands of displaced Israels to return to their homes in northern Israel.
Is it definitely a war if there’s a ground invasion?
By JOSEPH KRAUSS
Any Israeli decision to send tanks and troops into southern Lebanon would mark a major escalation and lead many to categorize the conflict as a war. But the two don’t necessarily always go hand in hand.
Israel officially declared war in Gaza nearly three weeks before it sent any ground troops in. Israeli ground forces have been operating in the occupied West Bank for decades, and in recent months have routinely launched airstrikes against militants, without anyone suggesting it’s a war.
A limited Israeli ground incursion might still leave room for both sides to back down.
Of course, Lebanon would likely see a ground invasion as a blatant violation of its sovereignty and an act of war. But Beirut already accuses Israel of routinely violating its airspace and of occupying disputed territory along the border.
In fact, the two countries are already officially in a state of war, and have been since 1948.
Six people wounded in strike on southern Beirut suburb, Lebanon’s state media reports
By BASSEM MROUE
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency is reporting an Israeli strike on a southern Beirut suburb with three missiles.
Al-Manar TV of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group said six people were wounded in the strike on the Beir al-Abed neighborhood adding that they were rushed to hospital.
A Hezbollah official confirmed the airstrike without giving further details. The area was cordoned and journalists were not allowed to get close to the building that was hit.
Israeli military says it carried out a targeted strike in Beirut
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
It did not immediately give details.
What might a full-scale war look like?
By JOSEPH KRAUSS
Until recently, experts generally agreed that any future war between Israel and Hezbollah would look like the war they fought in 2006 — but much, much worse.
For years, Israeli officials warned that in any future war with Hezbollah, the army would exact a punishing toll on Lebanon itself, destroying critical infrastructure and flattening Hezbollah strongholds. It came to be known as the Dahiyeh Doctrine, named for the crowded southern Beirut district where the militant group is headquartered, and that suffered heavy destruction in 2006.
Hezbollah, meanwhile, spent years expanding and improving its arsenal, and is believed to have some 150,000 rockets and missiles capable of hitting all parts of Israel.
The military build-up and threats created a situation of mutual deterrence that kept the border largely quiet from 2006 until October of last year. For most of the past year, the region has been braced for the worst, but both sides have showed restraint, and the talk of “all-out war” has been hypothetical.
That could change at any time.
“We’ve gone up a step, but we haven’t yet made it to the penthouse floor,” said Uzi Rabi, the director of the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at Tel Aviv University. “At the end, I don’t see there’s going to be any alternative to a ground operation.”
Israel’s Netanyahu to Lebanese civilians: ‘Take this warning seriously’
By The Associated Press
Israel’s prime minister urged Lebanese civilians to heed Israeli calls to evacuate their homes, saying “take this warning seriously.”
Benjamin Netanyahu issued the warning Monday in a videotaped message his office said was aimed at Lebanese civilians. He spoke as Israeli warplanes continued to strike alleged Hezbollah targets in southern and eastern Lebanon.
Earlier Monday, Israel ordered residents in the targeted areas to leave ahead of the airstrikes. Israeli officials say Hezbollah uses civilian areas to hide weapons.
“Please get out of harm’s way now,” Netanyahu said. “Once our operation is finished, you can come back safely to your homes.”
The US is sending more troops to the Middle East
By The Associated Press
The U.S. is sending additional troops to the Middle East, the Pentagon said Monday.
Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder would provide no details on how many additional forces or what they would be tasked to do. The U.S. currently has about 40,000 troops in the region.
“Due to the unpredictable nature of ongoing conflict between Hezbollah and Israel and recent explosions throughout Lebanon, including Beirut, the U.S. Embassy urges U.S. citizens to depart Lebanon while commercial options still remain available,” the State Department cautioned Saturday.
Why does neither side want to call it a war?
By JOSEPH KRAUSS
Part of the reason neither Israel nor Hezbollah is using the word “war” is because they both hope to achieve their aims without setting off a more severe conflict — or being blamed for one.
“Though tensions are flaring, the situation in southern Lebanon is not that of a full-scale war as both Hezbollah and Israel hope to use limited means to pressure one another,” said Lina Khatib, a Middle East expert at Chatham House.
With its rocket and drone attacks, Hezbollah hopes to pressure Israel to agree to a cease-fire with Hamas — a fellow Iran-backed militant group — and to avoid being seen as bowing to Israeli pressure.
Hezbollah has said it would cease the attacks if there were a truce in Gaza, but the prospects for such a deal appear remote.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to do whatever is necessary to halt the attacks so that displaced Israelis can return to their homes.
“I think the Israelis are trying to either tell Hezbollah, you come to the negotiation table and we’ll settle this through diplomacy, or we’ll push you into a corner until you overreact,” Krieg said. “And that will be the all-out war.”
Is this war? The Israeli-Hezbollah conflict is hard to define — or predict
By JOSEPH KRAUSS
Israel is bombing targets across many parts of Lebanon, striking senior militants in Beirut and apparently hiding bombs in pagers and walkie-talkies. Hezbollah is firing rockets and drones deep into northern Israel, setting buildings and cars alight.
But no one is calling it a war — not yet.
Israeli officials say they are not seeking war with Hezbollah and that it can be avoided if the militant group halts its attacks and backs away from the border. Hezbollah also says it doesn’t want a war but is prepared for one — and that it will keep up the strikes on Israel that it began in the wake of ally Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack until there is a cease-fire in Gaza.
The term “all-out war” hasn’t yet been applied to the current conflict because “there haven’t been any boots on the ground,” but that might be “the wrong metric,” now
expert said.
▶ Read more about the growing fears of an all-out war
Hezbollah launches over 100 missiles toward Israel
Hezbollah launched more than 100 projectiles toward Israel on Monday, the military said, reaching deep into Israel including around the northern city of Haifa and parts of the occupied West Bank.
Most of the missiles were intercepted but two people were lightly injured from falling shrapnel in northern Israel. A number of homes suffered direct hits.
School was canceled in northern Israel on Sunday and Monday and Israelis were instructed to stay close to protected areas.
The Israeli military said they had struck more than 800 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon and were enlarging the operation to include eastern Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley as well.
According to Lebanon’s Health Ministry, more than 180 people were killed and 700 injured, the deadliest barrage since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war.
Death toll climbs in Israeli airstrikes to 274 with 1,000 injured
By The Associated Press
Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad says 274 people have been killed in ongoing Israeli strikes Monday, and more than 1,000 injured.
At a press conference in Beirut, Abiad said thousands of families have been displaced by the attacks. He also said Israeli strikes have hit hospitals, medical centers and ambulances.
The Israeli military announced that it hit some 800 targets Monday, claiming it was going after Hezbollah weapons.
UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon expresses ‘grave concern’ for civilians
The U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon expressed “grave concern” for the safety of civilians in the south following the most intense Israeli bombing campaign since hostilities erupted in October.
“Any further escalation of this dangerous situation could have far-reaching and devastating consequences, not only for those living on both sides of the Blue Line (the border between Lebanon and Israel) but also for the broader region,” it said in a statement.
It added that “attacks on civilians are not only violations of international law but may amount to war crimes.”
Lebanese health officials said more than 180 people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes Monday. It was not immediately clear how many of them were civilians.
The U.N. force, known as UNIFIL, said its commander Lt. Gen. Aroldo Lázaro had contacted Lebanese and Israeli officials to urge de-escalation.
Evacuations underway as Israel warns of more strikes
Thousands of Lebanese fled the south, and the main highway out of the southern port city of Sidon was jammed with cars heading toward Beirut in the biggest exodus since the 2006 fighting.
The government ordered schools and universities to close Tuesday across most of the country and began preparing shelters for people displaced from the south.
The Israeli military said it was expanding the airstrikes to include areas of the valley along Lebanon’s eastern border with Syria. Hezbollah has long had an established presence in the valley, and it is where the group was founded in 1982 with the help of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari repeated warnings urging residents to immediately evacuate areas where Hezbollah is storing weapons, including in the valley.
▶ Read more about evacuations across Lebanon
What to know about the strikes in Lebanon
A series of Israeli airstrikes struck the town of Habbouch in southern Lebanon on Monday. Lebanon’s Health Ministry said the wave of strikes across the country have killed at least 100 people and wounded more than 400. (AP video: Mohammad Zanaty)
Israeli strikes on Monday killed more than 180 Lebanese in the deadliest barrage since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war as the Israeli military warned residents in southern and eastern Lebanon to evacuate their homes ahead of a widening air campaign against Hezbollah.
The Israeli military announced that it hit some 300 targets Monday, saying it was going after Hezbollah weapons sites. Some strikes hit in residential areas of towns in the south and the eastern Bekaa Valley. One strike hit a wooded area as far away as Byblos in central Lebanon, more than 80 miles from the border north of Beirut.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah said in a statement that it fired dozens of rockets at an Israeli military post in Galilee. It also targeted for a second day the facilities of the Rafael defense firm, headquartered in Haifa.
As Israel carried out the attacks, Israeli authorities reported a series of air-raid sirens in northern Israel warning of incoming rocket fire from Lebanon.
▶ Read more about the Israeli strikes in Lebanon
