Today is
Tuesday October 01, 2024
(TEL-AVIV, Israel) -- Israel said it killed another top Hezbollah commander -- Muhammad Hussein Srour, the commander of Hezbollah's Aerial Command -- in a "precise" strike on Beirut Thursday.
At least two people were killed, and 15 others were injured in a strike on Dahieh in Beirut, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health. Hezbollah has not yet commented on the death of its commander.
This comes hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel will "continue the fighting with full force."
At least 23 people were killed -- including 19 Syrian refugees -- and four others were injured after Israel struck a building on the Syrian-Lebanese border in another strike Thursday, officials said.
Nearly 700 people were killed in Israeli attacks on Lebanon since Monday, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health. Strikes this week follow the explosion of pagers and walkie-talkies throughout the country last week.
Netanyahu shot down the possibility of a cease-fire that could end fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon after the U.S. and France said they have put a proposal on the table for a 21-day stop in fighting. He also said fighting in Gaza will continue until the goals of the war are achieved.
Despite the proposal on the table, all signs point to Israel preparing for a possible ground invasion into Lebanon.
President Joe Biden told reporters on Wednesday that there is global support for a 21-day cease-fire proposal that he and other leaders have called for.
"We were able to generate significant support from Europe, as well as the Arab nations. It's important this war not widen," Biden told reporters as he returned to the White House Thursday.
The president was returning from the U.N. General Assembly, where he met with French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday to discuss details of a joint statement announcing the proposal, according to senior administration officials.
The Israel Ministry of Defense secured a $8.7 billion U.S. aid package from Washington to support its ongoing military efforts. The package includes $3.5 billion for essential wartime procurement, which has already been transferred, and $5.2 billion designated for air defense systems, according to the Ministry of Defense.
Israel has said it is attacking Hezbollah in order to allow residents to return to the north.
As tensions continue to rise in the region, Iran "will not remain indifferent in case of a full-scale war in Lebanon," the Iranian Foreign Minister said in comments to reporters Wednesday on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York.
He also warned Israel's "crimes will not go unpunished," and said the Middle East region "risks full-scale conflict" if the U.N. Security Council does not "act now to halt Israel's war and enforce an immediate cease-fire."
"The Israeli leaders must understand that their crimes will not go unpunished. The path to de-escalation is clear. Israel must immediately stop its attacks on Gaza and Lebanon. Without a cease-fire in Gaza, there will be no guarantee of peace in the region," Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Wednesday.
"Iran will not remain indifferent in case of a full-scale war in Lebanon. We stand with the people of Lebanon with all means," he added.
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(TEL-AVIV, Israel) -- Israel is preparing for a potential ground operation as its war with Hezbollah intensifies, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
"Today, we will continue, we are not stopping; we keep striking and hitting them everywhere," Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, the chief of the General Staff, said Wednesday. "The goal is very clear -- to safely return the residents of the north. To achieve that, we are preparing the process of a maneuver, which means your military boots, your maneuvering boots, will enter enemy territory, enter villages that Hezbollah has prepared as large military outposts, with underground infrastructure, staging points and launchpads into our territory and carry out attacks on Israeli civilians."
Israel continued its offensive against Hezbollah on Wednesday, conducting "extensive strikes" in southern Lebanon and the Begaa area, east of Beirut. The Israeli army said it struck 260 targets in Lebanon on Wednesday and attacked more than 2,000 Hezbollah targets in the last three days.
"We are continuing to attack, weāre not stopping, the opposite: we are in parallel preparing to continue," IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said Wednesday.
On Wednesday, at least 81 people were killed and 403 were wounded in Israeli strikes, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health.
In total, more than 650 people -- including at least 50 children -- have been killed and over 1,700 others injured since Monday, according to the ministry.
Israel also called up thousands of troops to northern Israel on Wednesday, "for operations duties along the northern front that will allow us to continue the war,ā according to Hagari.
Hezbollah fired a long-range ballistic missile at Tel Aviv for the first time on Wednesday, targeting Mossad headquarters, according to the group. Hezbollah said it blames Mossad for the recent assassinations of its top leaders and explosions of membersā pagers and hand-held radios.
The missile was intercepted by aerial defense systems, according to the IDF. Israel also said it took out the missile launcher inside Lebanon.
Over 90,000 people in Lebanon have been displaced over five days of Israeli airstrikes, according to the United Nations.
The number of displaced people in Lebanon as a result of the war could approach 500,000, Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib warned Tuesday, stressing that "the war in Lebanon will not help the Israelis return to their homes and negotiations are the only way to do so."
As strikes continue to hit Lebanon, its largest hospital -- Rafik Hariri University Hospital in Beirut -- is preparing for the worst, reopening multiple wings and organizing a massive triage unit. Flags were placed on the roof of the hospital with the letter "H," to identify it for planes flying overhead.
"I'm asking for this hospital not to be shelled," Dr. Jihad Saade, the general director of the hospital, said Wednesday. "We don't want the problem of Gaza to be repeated here, regarding shelling and bombing of hospitals. It's very dangerous if this hospital is targeted."
At least two people were injured after Iraq said it fired two drones at the Israeli port of Eilat "in support of our people in Palestine and Lebanon." One of the drones was struck down and another drone hit near the port.
International leaders gathering at the United Nations General Assembly in New York this week have called for deescalation between Israel and Hamas as well as Israel and Hezbollah, calling for a cease-fire agreement to end the war with Hamas and a diplomatic resolution to end the widening conflict with Hezbollah.
Mediators between Israel and Hamas are now as far from a cease-fire deal as they have ever been, multiple senior U.S. officials told ABC News.
The foreign ministers of Egypt, Iraq and Jordan issued a rare joint statement on Wednesday, condemning "the Israeli aggression against Lebanon," warning that "Israel is pushing the region into an all-out war."
Halting "the dangerous escalation ... begins with stopping the Israeli aggression against Gaza," the ministers said in a statement released after they met on the sidelines of the U.N. on Tuesday.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a key financial backer of both Hamas and Hezbollah, also warned Wednesday that killing members of Lebanon's Hezbollah will not bring the group to its knees.
ABC News' Will Gretsky, Morgan Winsor and Somayeh Malekian contributed to this report.
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