9 more dead, 300 injured as new round of explosions rock Lebanon: Health officials
Ambulances rush wounded people to a hospital in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon on September 17, 2024. (MAHMOUD ZAYYAT/AFP via Getty Images)
(LONDON) — At least nine more people were dead and 300 injured in Lebanon on Wednesday after a series of new explosions rocked the South, the Bekaa and the southern suburbs of Beirut, according to the Ministry of Health and the Lebanese Red Cross.
More than 30 ambulances are providing treatment and evacuations to wounded people in Lebanon on Wednesday, the Lebanese Red Cross said.
The Lebanese Army command has asked citizens not to gather in places witnessing security incidents to allow medical teams to arrive.
Israel was behind the deadly explosion of pagers across Lebanon on Tuesday, sources told ABC News on Wednesday.
At least 12 civilians were killed and at least 2,800 people injured in the explosions that took place Tuesday, according to Lebanese authorities. Around 460 of the injuries were critical and required surgery, Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad said. Most victims are suffering from eye and facial injuries, while others suffered injuries to hands and fingers, he said.
The Hezbollah militant group said it is conducting a “security and scientific investigation” into the explosion of pagers across Lebanon on Tuesday.
Hezbollah said 11 of its members were killed on Tuesday, though — as is typical in its statements — did not specify how they died.
“We hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression, which also targeted civilians and led to the deaths of a number of martyrs and the injury of a large number with various wounds,” Hezbollah said of the pager explosions in a Tuesday statement.
In a Wednesday morning statement, Hezbollah said it would continue operations to “support Gaza,” and vowed a “reckoning” for Israel for the “massacre on Tuesday.”
The dead and injured included people who are not members of Hezbollah. Lebanese officials said that an 8-year-old girl and an 11-year-old boy are among the dead.
Israel has not commented on its alleged involvement in the apparent attack, which prompted chaos in the capital Beirut and elsewhere in Hezbollah’s south Lebanon heartland.
Around 100 hospitals received wounded people, the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said, with hospitals in Beirut and its southern suburb quickly filling to capacity. Patients were then directed to other hospitals outside the region.
The Iranian ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, was among those who had one of the pagers and was injured in an explosion Tuesday, according to Iranian state TV. The diplomat said in a phone call that he was “feeling well and fully conscious,” according to Iranian state TV.
“I am proud and honored that my blood has become one with the blood of the honorable Lebanese people, as a result of the horrific terrorist crime that targeted our brotherly Lebanon yesterday. This noble country has stood with dignity and pride since the first day of al-Aqsa Storm,” Amani said Wednesday.
At least 14 people were also injured in targeted attacks on Hezbollah members in Syria, according to the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The alleged Israeli operation has again piqued fears of escalation in the Israel-Hezbollah conflict ongoing since Oct. 8, when members of the Iranian-backed group began cross-border attacks in support of Hamas’ war with Israel in the Gaza Strip.
Frontier skirmishes, Israeli strikes and Hezbollah rocket and artillery salvoes have been near-constant through 11 months of war in Gaza. Israeli officials have repeatedly threatened to launch a new military operation against Hezbollah along the Israel-Lebanon border. Tens of thousands of Israelis have left their homes in border regions due to the fighting.
The Israel Defense Forces said warplanes hit Hezbollah targets in six locations in southern Lebanon overnight into Wednesday. Artillery strikes were also conducted, it added.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is due to make a public address on Thursday afternoon to address the situation. In February, Nasrallah urged members to stop using their cell phones, describing the technology as “a deadly agent.”
Schools across Lebanon will be closed on Wednesday, Lebanese state media reported, citing the country’s Minister of Education. Schools and offices closed include public and private schools, high schools, technical institutes, the Lebanese University and private higher education institutions, Lebanese state media reported.
The Lebanese Council of Ministers collectively condemned “this criminal Israeli aggression, which constitutes a serious violation of Lebanese sovereignty and a crime by all standards.”
It added that “the government immediately began making all necessary contacts with the countries concerned and the United Nations to place it before its responsibilities regarding this continuing crime.”
The United Nations special coordinator for Lebanon condemned the attack on Lebanon, calling it an “extremely concerning escalation in what is an already unacceptably volatile context,” in a statement released by the U.N. Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary General.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during a press conference in Egypt on Wednesday that the U.S. “did not know about and was not involved” in Israel’s pager attacks in Lebanon and Syria — but said that officials were still gathering information and did not directly blame Israel.
“Broadly speaking, we’ve been very clear, and we remain very clear about the importance of all parties avoiding any steps that could further escalate the conflict that we’re trying to resolve in Gaza,” Blinken said. Its spread to other fronts, he added, is “clearly not in the interest of anyone involved.”
A cease-fire deal in Gaza, Blinken added, would “materially improve the prospects of defusing the situation” on the Israeli-Lebanese border and allow thousands of people living near the area on both sides of the divide to return home.
The U.S. and the European Union have both designated the Hezbollah militant group a foreign terrorist organization.
ABC News’ Luis Martinez, Shannon K. Kingston, Ghazi Balkiz, Nadine El-Bawab, Morgan Winsor, Anne Flaherty, Nasser Atta, Joe Simonetti, Jordana Miller and Helena Skinner contributed to this report.
The remains of exploded pagers are seen in Beirut’s southern suburbs Sept 18, 2024, after hundreds of pagers used by Hezbollah members exploded across Lebanon on Sept. 17, 2024, killing at least nine people. (AFP via Getty Images)
(LONDON) — The unassuming pager took its place in the annals of Israeli covert operations history in September, when thousands of the credit card-sized devices served as tiny Trojan horses for explosive charges as they were held by likely Hezbollah operatives.
The pager detonations in Lebanon and Syria on Sept. 17 were followed by the explosion — around 24 hours later — of walkie-talkies, used by Hezbollah as a communications network after its beepers were compromised.
The attacks, which killed 37 people and wounded 2,931 according to Lebanese authorities, were several years in the making, a source told ABC News.
“The disruption and damage they wrought was unprecedented in the history of the resistance in Lebanon,” Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah — himself killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut on Sept. 27 — said.
Sources confirmed to ABC News that Israel was responsible for the pager explosions.
Israel — which rarely confirms or denies responsibility for covert operations or attacks on foreign soil — offered no confirmation of responsibility for the attacks. President Isaac Herzog even told Sky News he “rejects out of hand any connection to this or that source of operation.”
Orna Mizrahi of the Institute for National Security Studies think tank in Israel told ABC News that the communication devices operations stand out due to “the amount of people that were eliminated.”
“We don’t call it assassination; we call it elimination,” said Mizrahi, who previously served in the Israel Defense Forces’ Military Intelligence Research Division and in the prime minister’s office as deputy national security adviser for foreign policy.
The attacks represent a world-first, Mizrahi said.
“It’s a real invention,” she said.
As to the criticism of the mass detonation of the devices, Mizrahi responded: “The terrorists are the only ones that used them. So, it is like a bullet in the hand of your enemy. But it wasn’t a bullet. It was something that was exploding in their hands.”
The operation drew on a long history of audacious — though not always successful or discriminate — covert Israeli targeted killings all over the Middle East. Though Israel generally does not confirm involvement in such operations, top Israeli officials have made clear their position against what they deem to be threats to national security.
As Israel’s outgoing spy chief Yossi Cohen said in 2021 regarding reported targeted killings in Iran: “If the man constitutes a capability that endangers the citizens of Israel, he must stop existing.”
Mizrahi said those conducting such “elimination” operations usually do so based on one or more of three criteria. The target might be a “very important terrorist” with significant influence and capabilities, she said.
The target may be a long-standing one, with plans put in place and those executing them waiting for the right moment to strike, Mizrahi added.
Or, the eventual target may be identified as part of an imminent attack “and you want to intercept it and to stop it,” she added.
“It’s always people that are from what we understand is a terror organization, that are threatening Israel or in the midst of launching some kind of attack against Israel,” Mizrahi said.
“We don’t eliminate people just like that,” she added, noting that Israeli forces will “usually” want to ensure “there is very little collateral damage, not too many civilians.”
Past operations have been abandoned due to the likelihood of civilian casualties, Mizrahi said.
“When you are in a war, you cannot be so cautious,” she added.
A bloody history
Within years of the country’s bloody, but ultimately successful, War of Independence in 1948, Israel’s clandestine services were waging assassination campaigns against the many surrounding forces and states deemed threats to the young nation’s survival.
Its military and intelligence services were staffed by many who participated in the Jewish insurgency against the entity known as Mandatory Palestine, the British-run territory designated by the League of Nations in the aftermath of World War II.
In 1956, for example, parcel bombs were used to kill Egyptian military officials Col. Mustafa Hafez and Lt. Col. Salah Mustafa in Egypt and Jordan, respectively, both of whom organized Palestinian militant raids into Israel.
As Israeli identity and policy were forged in the crucible of war, insurgency and terrorism, the country’s clandestine operations took on greater ingenuity and complexity — though direct methods of killing have remained in regular use through the nation’s 76 years, spanning the technological spectrum from shootings to airstrikes.
September’s explosions in Lebanon will go down as one of the most unusual attacks in Israeli — or wider international covert operations — history, given the delivery method of the explosives, the number of those killed or wounded and the intimate access to Hezbollah it demonstrated.
But it was not the first time Israel sought to turn everyday items into weapons. In 1972, for example, Palestine Liberation Organization cadre Bassam Abu Sharif — a former senior advisor to PLO chief Yasser Arafat — lost four fingers plus the use of one ear and one eye when a book sent to him by Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, exploded in his hands in Beirut. Israel never officially took responsibility.
The killing of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics by the Palestinian Black September militant group set in motion a brutal and sprawling revenge campaign — known as Operation Wrath of God — that would see Mossad operatives turn unassuming items into weapons.
Mossad’s long-established policy of public silence meant it never claimed even the most sophisticated assassinations credited to the agency. But David Kimche, the former deputy head of Mossad, explained of the retaliation campaign: “The aim was not so much revenge but mainly to make them frightened.”
“We wanted to make them look over their shoulders and feel that we are upon them. And therefore, we tried not to do things by just shooting a guy in the street — that’s easy,” he said.
Mahmoud Hamshari — the PLO’s representative in Paris — for example, died of wounds sustained in his Paris apartment in December 1972, when Mossad agents detonated explosives packed into the base of his telephone.
Hussein Al Bashir, a representative of Palestinian group Fatah, was killed the following month in Cyprus by a bomb concealed in his hotel bed.
Death by communication device was a common theme in the years after Hamshari’s killing.
In 1996, for example, internal security agency Shin Bet tricked Yahya Ayyash — an infamous Hamas bombmaker accused of killing dozens of Israelis — into accepting a call using a cellphone given to him by a Palestinian collaborator. The phone detonated as he held it to his head, killing him instantly.
Samih Malabi, a member of Fatah’s Tanzim militant wing, was also killed by an exploding cellphone in 2000.
Another three Palestinians and alleged militants — Osama Fatih al-Jawabra, Iyad Mohammed Hardan and Muhammad Ishteiwi Abayat — were killed by explosions in phone booths in 2001 and 2002.
Among one of the highest profile assassinations was a joint Mossad-CIA operation targeting Imad Mughniyah — Hezbollah’s international operations chief — who was killed in a suburb of Damascus in 2008. Neither Mossad nor the CIA ever took credit publicly.
A bomb concealed in a car’s spare tire exploded as Mughniyah walked past. It was detonated remotely by agents in Tel Aviv, using operatives on the ground in the Syrian capital to guide the plot’s final execution, according to a Washington Post report citing five former U.S. intelligence officials.
In Iran, too, the hand of Israeli intelligence is credited with several high-profile killings. Israel was behind a rash of assassinations of nuclear scientists between 2007 and 2012 — often using magnetic car bombs or via drive-by shootings, according to Iran.
So, too, was it responsible for the killing of the alleged head of Iran’s nuclear weapons program, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, reportedly assassinated on a highway outside Tehran by a remote-controlled machine gun in 2020.
Israel’s highest-profile recent killing — that of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July — reportedly relied not on an innocuous item but on deep penetration of enemy security networks.
Haniyeh was killed by a bomb planted in a guesthouse he often used when visiting the Iranian capital.
The operation bypassed the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ protection of the building, emplacing the device two months before Haniyeh’s visit, according to reporting in the The New York Times citing five anonymous Middle Eastern officials.
Blowback and civilian casualties
For all their ingenuity, Israel’s targeted killings also brought civilian casualties, political embarrassment and diplomatic blowback.
It remains unclear how many civilians were among the thousands injured in the recent device explosions in Lebanon and Syria. At least two children were among the dead. Additional civilians were killed in the subsequent Beirut airstrike that assassinated Hezbollah operations chief Ibrahim Aqil and 14 other members, Lebanese authorities said.
Among the most infamous bungled efforts was Israel’s attempted assassination of Hamas political leader Khaled Mashaal in Jordan in 1997. Mossad agents using fake Canadian passports poisoned Mashaal outside of Hamas’ office in the capital Amman by holding a device to his ear.
Several agents were subsequently captured and, as Mashaal’s condition deteriorated, Jordan’s King Hussein — with the backing of then President Bill Clinton — pressured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into providing the antidote and saving Mashaal’s life.
Israel’s Wrath of God operations from 1972 onwards caused several notable civilian casualties. The commando squads hunting Palestinian militant leaders in Beirut in April 1973 killed two Lebanese police officers and one Italian citizen in their search for targets. Among them was Black September operations leader Muhammad Youssef al-Najjar, whose wife was also killed.
In July 1973, Mossad brought chaos to the small Norwegian town of Lillehammer in their search for Black September operations chief Ali Hassan Salameh.
Ahmed Bouchiki, a Moroccan waiter, was shot dead after agents falsely identified him as Salameh. Five Mossad agents were eventually convicted of the killing, and not returned to Israel until 1975.
A follow-up effort took place at a house in the southern Spanish city of Tarifa. Mossad agents reportedly killed a security guard but did not locate Salameh.
Israel finally killed Salameh in Beirut in 1979, detonating a bomb attached to a parked car as his convoy passed. Salameh died shortly after in hospital.
As well as his four bodyguards, the blast killed four bystanders and injured 16 more. Among the dead were a British student and a German nun.
(LONDON) — The Israel Defense Forces continued intense air and ground campaigns against Hezbollah in Lebanon and against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The uptick in offensive operations came after Israel marked the anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault, and as Israeli leaders planned their response to Iran’s latest ballistic missile attack.
US troops arrive in Israel to support THAAD deployment
Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said in a statement Tuesday that American troops are already in Israel to support the deployment of a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery to the country.
“An advance team of U.S. military personnel and initial components” required to operate the system arrived in Israel on Monday, Ryder said.
“Over the coming days, additional U.S. military personnel and THAAD battery components will continue to arrive in Israel,” he added.
“The battery will be fully operational capable in the near future, but for operations security reasons we will not discuss timelines,” Ryder said.
-ABC News’ Luis Martinez
10 members of 1 family killed in Khan Younis strike
Ten members of the same family were killed in an airstrike in southern Gaza early on Tuesday, a health ministry official told ABC News.
The strike hit a house in Bani Suhaila, east of Khan Younis, at 12:30 a.m. local time Tuesday morning, local health officials said.
Ten members of the Abu Tai’ma family were killed, including three children aged 7, 8 and 11, a spokesperson for the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry told ABC News.
The Israel Defense Forces is yet to comment on the strike.
-ABC News’ Dia Ostaaz and Guy Davies
Israeli police officer killed in shooting attack
The Israel Police said in a statement Tuesday that an officer was killed in a shooting attack near the southern city of Ashdod.
The attacker shot the officer and then “continued on a shooting spree and wounded four more civilians,” police said. The attacker was then “neutralized by a civilian,” police said.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
Netanyahu listening to US ‘opinions’ in Iran attack planning
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday “our national interests” will be the prime consideration in Israel’s response to Iran’s Oct. 1 ballistic missile attack.
Netanyahu was responding to a Washington Post report suggesting he had assured the U.S. that Israel would target Iranian military — and not nuclear or oil infrastructure — targets in its planned retaliation for Tehran’s recent missile barrage.
“We listen to the opinions of the United States, but we will make our final decisions based on our national interests,” the prime minister’s office said in a post on X.
Iran accuses Israel, US of ‘psychological operation’
Iran’s mission to the United Nations has denied “any role in the planning, decision-making, or execution” of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack against Israel, as Tehran braces for an expected Israeli response to its Oct. 1 ballistic missile attack.
In a statement posted to social media, the mission said Iran’s assistance to the “Resistance Front” — which includes forces like Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis in Yemen — is “a matter of common knowledge and an obvious fact.”
“However, dragging Iran or Hezbollah into the Oct. 7 operation represents a fabricated conclusion and a cynical attempt to mislead public opinion — all aimed at covering up the Israeli regime’s major intelligence failure in relation to Hamas,” the mission said.
The mission accused “certain American media outlets” of having “morphed into tools for disseminating this psychological operation.”
Hezbollah began firing into Israel on Oct. 8 in support of Hamas. The group has vowed to continue its attacks until Israeli forces conclude a cease-fire in Gaza and withdraw from the devastated Palestinian territory.
Israel targeting civilian infrastructure in north Gaza, UNRWA chief says
Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, said Tuesday that “two long weeks” of Israeli military operations have “all but collapsed” the health system in northern Gaza.
“Hundreds of Palestinians are reported killed, among them children,” Lazzarini wrote on X. “More than 400,000 people continue to be trapped in the area.”
“We are not able to reach our teams due to telecommunications cuts,” he added. “The U.N. has not been allowed to provide any assistance, including food” since Sept. 30, he said. “The two crossing points into northern Gaza have been closed since.”
The Israel Defense Forces is pressing its operation in north Gaza around the Jabalia refugee camp, which the Palestinian Civil Defense said has been put under “complete siege.” The IDF said Tuesday it had “eliminated dozens of terrorists over the past day” there with the assistance of airstrikes.
Lazzarini said the camp is the worst affected part of northern Gaza. Around 50,000 people have fled, while basic UNRWA services have been interrupted or forced to halt, he added.
“Such attacks, the sabotage of civilian infrastructure and the deliberate denial of critical assistance continue to be used as a tactic by the Israeli authorities to force people to flee,” he said.
“Civilians are given no choice but to either leave or starve.”
“In Gaza, too many red lines have been crossed,” Lazzarini said. “What might constitute war crimes can still be prevented.”
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
IDF claims 230 strikes in Lebanon, Gaza in 24 hours
The Israel Defense Forces said in a Tuesday statement it struck “over 230 terrorist targets throughout the past day” as it continues its operations in Lebanon and Gaza.
The force claimed to have “eliminated dozens of terrorists in close-quarters combat” and airstrikes in southern Lebanon, along with the dismantling of “Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure” and the discovery of “vast quantities of weaponry.”
In north Gaza, the IDF continued its intense operation around the Jabalia refugee camp. The Palestinian Civil Defense said the area has been put under “complete siege.”
The IDF said its forces “have eliminated dozens of terrorists over the past day” with the assistance of airstrikes.
Fighting is also ongoing in the south of the strip. There, “troops eliminated multiple terrorists and dismantled terrorist infrastructure,” the IDF said.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
100 US soldiers will go to Israel with THAAD deployment
On Monday, U.S. Army leaders said the deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery to Israel will include approximately 100 soldiers to operate it.
“The THAAD deployment is going to have about 100 soldiers who will go over to Israel,” Christine Wormuth, the secretary of the U.S. Army said at the Army’s annual AUSA conference.
Wormuth did not provide operational or timing details about the deployment of the THAAD system or its deployment for security and force protection reasons.
“I think we should view this THAAD deployment as for what it is, which is another visible statement of our commitment to the security of Israel as it deals with everything that’s coming at it from Hamas and Hezbollah in Lebanon,” said Wormuth.
A U.S. official told ABC News that discussions about deploying the THADD system to Israel in order to shore up its defenses against ballistic missile barrages have been underway for months.
-ABC News’ Luis Martinez and Shannon Kingston
Northern Gaza still waiting for food supplies, group says
Thirty trucks carrying flour and food entered Gaza on Monday, according to Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the Israeli agency that oversees logistical coordination within the Gaza Strip.
This aid was meant for northern Gaza, COGAT said. However, a spokesperson for the World Food Programme told ABC News it has not yet reached the people there.
“Israel is not denying the entry of humanitarian aid, with an emphasis on food, into the Gaza Strip,” COGAT said in response to an inquiry from ABC News.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller and Guy Davies
IDF claims it killed head of Hamas Aerial unit
Samer Abu Daqqa, the head of Hamas’ Aerial Unit, has been killed, the Israel Defense Forces claimed in a statement Monday.
Abu Daqqa was killed during an Israeli airstrike in September, the IDF said, but did not say where the attack took place.
— ABC News’ David Brenna and Julia Reinstein
54 killed, 258 wounded in Lebanon in past 24 hours
In the past 24 hours, 54 people have been killed and 258 have been wounded in Lebanon, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health.
The total number of casualties since Israel’s increased attacks on Lebanon in mid-September is now 2,309 people killed and 10,782 people injured, the ministry said.
A situational report from the Lebanese Prime Minister’s Office on Monday said 200 airstrikes and shellings were recorded in various parts of Lebanon over the past 48 hours.
The Israel Defense Forces said in a release Monday that they found an underground compound in southern Lebanon stocked with “weapons, ammunition and motorcycles ready to be used in an invasion into Israel.”
-ABC News’ Ghazi Balkiz and Jordana Miller
Netanyahu: ‘We will continue to hit Hezbollah mercilessly in all parts of Lebanon’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel “will continue to hit Hezbollah mercilessly in all parts of Lebanon” while visiting the Golani camp, which was hit by a Hezbollah drone Sunday evening, killing four IDF soldiers and injuring dozens.
“I want to make it clear: We will continue to hit Hezbollah mercilessly in all parts of Lebanon — also in Beirut, all according to operational considerations. We have proven this in recent times, and we will continue to prove it in the coming days as well,” Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu extended his condolences to the families of the fallen soldiers and said he would visit the injured later on Monday.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
Doctors Without Borders staffer killed in northern Gaza
A Doctors Without Borders staffer has been killed in northern Gaza, the organization announced Monday.
Nasser Hamdi Abdelatif Al Shalfouh, 31, was struck by shrapnel Tuesday and died of injuries to his legs and chest two days later, according to the organization.
He is survived by his wife and two children.
In a statement, Doctors Without Borders condemned Israeli forces for having “systematically dismantled the health system in Gaza, impeding access to life-saving care for people.”
“He was unable to receive the necessary level of care due to the hospital’s lack of capacity and an overwhelming number of patients in the facility,” the organization said of Al Shalfouh.
Al Shalfouh joined Doctors Without Borders as a driver in March 2023, but had not been able to work for them recently as operations have been impacted by the war, the group said.
He is the seventh Doctors Without Borders staffer to be killed in Gaza since the war began, the organization added.
“We are horrified by the killing of our colleague which we strongly condemn and call yet again for the respect and protection of civilians,” the NGO said. “In this tragic moment, our thoughts are with his family and all colleagues mourning his death.”
Americans in Lebanon should ‘depart now,’ embassy says
American citizens in Lebanon “are strongly encouraged to depart now,” the U.S. Embassy in Beirut said in a new alert Monday.
The embassy has been urging Americans to depart Lebanon via commercial flights in recent weeks. Monday’s warning was the starkest yet.
The embassy noted it had helped add thousands of extra seats to commercial flights to help Americans leave amid the escalating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.
“Much of this capacity has gone unused,” Monday’s alert said. “Please understand that these additional flights will not continue indefinitely.”
“U.S. citizens who choose not to depart at this time should prepare contingency plans should the situation deteriorate further,” the embassy said.
“These alternative plans should not rely on the U.S. government for assisted departure or evacuation,” the notice read.
The embassy has been warning citizens not to travel to Lebanon since July.
Airstrike kills 18 in north Lebanon, Red Cross says
Eighteen people were killed and four wounded in an airstrike in the town of Aitou in northern Lebanon on Monday, the Lebanese Red Cross wrote on X.Seven Red Cross teams were dispatched to the area in the Zgharta district, the organization said. “Our teams are working to provide first aid and evacuate the wounded,” it added.
-ABC News’ Ghazi Balkiz and Guy Davies
Hezbollah launches dozens of cross-border attacks, marking daily record
Hezbollah issued 38 statements claiming cross-border attacks into Israel on Sunday — the highest tally since renewed fighting began on Oct. 8, 2023, per ABC News’ count.
The attacks included the drone strike on an Israel Defense Forces training base in northern Israel, which killed four soldiers and injured 55.
Hezbollah has expanded its attacks into Israel despite the IDF’s monthslong campaign of targeted killings of top commanders and airstrikes on Hezbollah military facilities and weapons caches.
-ABC News’ Ghazi Balkiz and Guy Davies
IDF claims killing of Hezbollah anti-tank commander
The Israel Defense Forces said Monday it killed a Hezbollah commander responsible for anti-tank missile forces.
The IDF said in a statement posted to social media that Muhammad Kamal Naim was killed in an airstrike in the Nabatieh region of southern Lebanon.
Naim, it said, was responsible for the elite Radwan Force’s anti-tank weapons.
Naim “was responsible for planning and carrying out many terrorist plots, including firing anti-tank missiles at the Israeli rear,” the IDF wrote.
Israel kills 20 in strike on UNRWA school, health ministry says
At least 20 people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East school-turned-shelter in central Gaza, the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza said.
The school was being used to shelter displaced people in Nuseirat camp, health authorities said. It was bombed on Sunday.
The school was earmarked for use in the planned second round of the Gaza polio vaccination campaign, which was due to begin on Monday.
-ABC News Diaa Ostaz and Guy Davies
10 killed amid ‘total siege’ in northern Gaza
Ten people were killed in shelling at an aid distribution center in the Jabalia camp in northern Gaza on Monday morning, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in the strip.
The area has been the focus of intense recent Israeli military activity, with the Israel Defense Forces reporting fierce fighting with Hamas militants there.
The IDF has ordered residents of northern Gaza — of whom there are an estimated 200,000 to 400,000 — to leave the region, which it has classified as a military zone.
Hamas is urging residents to stay, suggesting Israel will not allow those who leave to return.
Gaza’s Civil Defense said there was a “complete siege” of Jabalia. Aid agencies have said that no food has been allowed to enter the north of Gaza since Oct. 1.
-ABC News’ Nasser Atta and Guy Davies
Israel to probe deadly drone attack on troops, Gallant says
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant visited the scene of a deadly Hezbollah drone strike in northern Israel on Monday, telling soldiers there the incident “was a difficult event with painful results.”
Four troops were killed and 55 wounded in Sunday’s attack on the Golani Training Base close to the town of Binyamina, some 20 miles south of Haifa.
“We must investigate it, study the details and implement lessons in a swift and professional manner,” Gallant said, according to a Defense Ministry readout.
“We are concentrating significant efforts in developing solutions to address the threat of UAV attacks,” he added
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
IDF claims 200 strikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon
The Israel Defense Forces said Monday its warplanes targeted around 200 “Hezbollah terror targets” in its continuing operation against the Iranian-backed group in southern Lebanon.
The targets included “launchers, anti-tank missile launch posts, terrorist infrastructure and weapons storage facilities containing launchers, anti-tank missiles, RPG launchers and munitions,” the IDF wrote on X.
Ground forces, meanwhile, “eliminated dozens of terrorists in close-quarters encounters and aerial strikes” in their ongoing cross-border incursion, the force reported.
The IDF is still describing its ground operation as consisting of “limited, localized, targeted raids” in southern areas close to the border.
Airstrikes, though, continue across southern Lebanon. Around a quarter of all Lebanese territory is under IDF evacuation orders and some 1.2 million civilians are displaced, according to the government in Beirut.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
Hezbollah drone attack on IDF base ‘painful,’ commander says
The Israel Defense Forces identified the four soldiers killed in a Hezbollah drone attack on a training base in the north of the country on Sunday.
Sgt. Omri Tamari, Sgt. Yosef Hieb, Sgt. Yoav Agmon and Sgt. Amitay Alon were killed, an IDF press release said. The strike occurred at the Golani Training Base close to the town of Binyamina, some 20 miles south of Haifa.
Around 55 more are reported to have been injured.
IDF Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Herzi Halevi addressed Golani Brigade troops on Sunday night following the attack.
“We are at war, and an attack on a training base in the rear is difficult and the results are painful,” the commander said according to a post on the IDF’s official Telegram channel.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
Israel strike on Gaza hospital kills 4, wounds dozens
At least four people were killed and 40 others wounded Monday in an Israeli airstrike on tents housing displaced Palestinians inside the Al-Aqsa Hospital in the central Gaza’s city of Deir al-Balah, health officials said.
The Israeli military said it targeted militants operating from a command center inside the compound. Israel accuses Hamas of routine use of civilian facilities such as hospitals for military purposes — a charge Hamas denies.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
Defense Secretary Austin discusses safety of UNIFIL forces with Israel’s Gallant
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant by phone on Sunday to express his condolences for the IDF soldiers killed in a Hezbollah drone attack and discuss the IDF’s military operations in Lebanon.
According to a readout of the call from the Pentagon, Austin, “reinforced the importance of Israel taking all necessary measures to ensure the safety and security of UNIFIL forces and Lebanese Armed Forces, and the need to pivot from military operations in Lebanon to a diplomatic pathway to provide security for civilians on both sides of the border as soon as feasible.”
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) is a peacekeeping mission in Lebanon established by the U.N. Security Council.
The conversation comes after the IDF has repeatedly fired on the UNIFIL headquarters in southern Lebanon.
Additionally, Secretary Austin “reaffirmed the deep U.S. commitment to Israel’s security,” which he says is demonstrated by the deployment of the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD).
According to the Department of Defense, THAAD employs interceptor missiles, using “hit-to-kill” technology, to destroy threat missiles.
During the call, Austin “again raised concern for the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza and stressed that steps must be taken soon to address it,” the Pentagon said.
At least 3 killed in IDF strike on Gaza hospital
At least three people were killed and dozens more were injured after Israel Defense Forces struck Al Aqsa Hospital in Gaza on Sunday.
(RIO DE JANEIRO) — Scientists have quantified how much more fire-prone South America has become in recent decades, as several parts of the continent experience severe wildfires.
Some regions in South America are experiencing many more days with extreme fire conditions, putting some of the continent’s most important ecosystems — such as the Amazon rainforest and the Gran Chaco forest — in grave danger of a single spark starting an uncontrollable wildfire, according to a study published Thursday in Communications Earth & Environment journal.
Since 1970, the number of days per year that are extremely hot, dry and have conditions of high fire risk, such as heavy winds, have tripled — even quadrupled — in some parts of South America, the researchers found. Millions of square kilometers have experienced the high increase to fire risk, Raul Cordero, a climate scientist at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands and lead author of the study, told ABC News.
A concurrence of a drought and heat wave is a “horrible” cocktail for the onset of a wildfire, Cordero said. While the conditions have existed in South America before, the frequency at which the fire-risk days are happening today “cannot be compared what used to be normal in the 80s,” Cordero said.
“If somebody sets a fire, it’s going to make it quite hard to control the propagation of that fire,” Cordero said.
The researchers calculated the number of days per year that each 30-by-30 kilometer grid cell on the South American continent experienced simultaneous hot, dry and flammable extremes between 1971 and 2022. The extremes for each condition were measured by daily maximum temperature records, 30-day rainfall averages and daily fire weather index records, according to the paper.
The frequency of these simultaneous extremes increased across the entire continent during the time frame, the data showed.
There are four fire-prone “hotspots” in South America that researchers found to have particularly increasing risk for fire: the Amazon rainforest in most of its nine-country span; the border between Venezuela and Colombia; the Gran Chaco, the second-largest forest on the continent located in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, and Paraguay; and central Chile, which experienced severe wildfires in February, Cordero said.
The main driver to the increase of fire conditions is climate change, Cordero said.
Places like the Amazon rainforest have been experiencing persistent drought for the last two decades, while the global temperature has been increasing simultaneously, he said.
When agricultural fires are set, it gives way for the fires to get out of control, and fast, Cordero said. Agricultural fires are typically set by farmers aiming to clear the land before the next season but also for illegal activity, such as logging, he said.
“Because of the weather conditions are so extreme, they set the fire, and then the propagation on the fire can’t be controlled,” he said. “That’s the problem.”
In addition, the warm El Niño phase increased the fire risk in the northern Amazon region, while the cooler La Niña phase led to increased fire risk in central South America, the paper found.
Several parts of South America are currently experiencing record-breaking wildfires, including the Amazon rainforest, the Cerrado tropical savanna and the Pantanal wetlands.
Further deforestation in the region will lead to more severe wildfires in the future, experts say.
