Nine dead, thousands injured after pagers explode across Lebanon: Health officials
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(LONDON) — At least nine people are dead and over 2,750 people were injured after pager devices owned by a large number of workers in various Hezbollah units and institutions exploded on Tuesday, according to Lebanese officials and the group.
Hezbollah blamed Israel for the attack and vowed it would respond. The apparent attack comes amid rising tensions between Israel and Hezbollah.
“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 in a statement. “This treacherous and criminal enemy will certainly receive his just punishment for this sinful aggression, whether he expects it or not.”
The dead and injured included people who are not members of Hezbollah, such as a 10-year-old girl killed in the eastern village of Saraain, according to Hezbollah-owned Al-Ahed News. Two Hezbollah members were also dead, the outlet reported.
“These explosions, the causes of which are still unknown, led to the martyrdom of a girl and two brothers, and the injury of a large number of people with various injuries,” Hezbollah said in a statement.
About 200 of the injuries are critical, meaning they needed surgery, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health. Most of the injuries were to the face, hand or abdomen, officials said.
The Iranian ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, was among those who had one of the pagers and was injured due to an explosion Tuesday, according to Iranian state TV.
Amani said in a phone call after the incident that he was “feeling well and fully conscious,” according to Iranian state TV.
The Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates said it condemned the alleged Israeli attack and have begun preparing a complaint to the Security Council.
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,” adding 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.”
Hezbollah said it is conducting a “security and scientific investigation to determine the causes that led to these simultaneous explosions.”
There have also been high-level contacts between the U.S. and Israel prompted by Tuesday’s incidents in Lebanon, according to a U.S. official.
The U.S. said it had no role in the apparent attack on Hezbollah and no warning that it would happen, according to State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller. He also declined to offer an assessment on who could be behind it, saying only that the administration was “gathering information” on the incident.
Miller wouldn’t say whether the administration had any information to doubt Hezbollah’s claim that Israel was behind the explosions and only said that he didn’t want to offer an assessment “one way or the other.” The Israeli government has declined to comment on the matter.
The White House also said it was not aware the attack was going to happen ahead of time and would not speculate on who was behind it, according to press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
This attack comes as U.S. diplomats have been working intensely to avoid escalation at Israel’s northern border and amid fears that a full-blown war between the country and Hezbollah, which sits on a vast trove of missiles, could engulf the entire region. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is, coincidentally, on his way to the region and scheduled to land in Egypt on Tuesday night.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant spoke again on Tuesday after speaking on Monday.
The latest conversation was intended “to touch base regarding ongoing tensions in the Middle East and the threats facing Israel, to include the Houthi missile attack over the weekend,” according to Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder.
Ryder said America’s focus was to ensure tensions in the region do not escalate.
“We strongly believe that the way to reduce tension along the Israel-Lebanon border is diplomacy,” he said.
Iran and Hezbollah are likely to retaliate for the attack, but it could take them time to do so while they assess what happened, according to a U.S. official. The official also said 50 or more people were targeted in Syria in this attack.
The Lebanese Ministry of Public Health has issued a statement Tuesday instructing all hospitals in various regions of Lebanon to be on maximum alert and raise their level of readiness to meet the rapid need for emergency health services.
The ministry noted that preliminary information indicates “the injuries were related to the explosion of wireless devices that were in the possession of the injured.”
The ministry also asked all citizens who own pagers to throw them away immediately.
The Lebanese Red Cross said it has deployed “more than 30 ambulances” to help treat and evacuate “the wounded as a result of multiple explosions in the South, the Bekaa and the southern suburbs of Beirut,” according to a post on its official X account.
The group also added “50 more ambulances and 300 Emergency Medical Technicians [are] on standby to assist in the evacuation of victims.”
About 100 hospitals took in the wounded, the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said.
Back in February, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah had urged members to stop using mobile phones, saying, “I call for dispensing with cellphone devices at this stage, which are considered a deadly agent.”
ABC News’ Luis Martinez, Shannon K. Kingston and Anne Flaherty contributed to this report
Smoke billows after an Israeli strike near the southern Lebanese village of Al-Mahmoudiye on September 24, 2024. (RABIH DAHER/AFP via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Israeli troops are now active in southern Lebanon in what the Israel Defense Forces called “limited, localized, and targeted ground raids” targeting Hezbollah positions.
Israel believes it has eliminated around 30 top Hezbollah leaders over the last several weeks, including Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut, U.S. and Israeli officials said.
Here’s how the news is developing:
Iran to launch ballistic missiles at Israel ‘imminently,’ US official says
A senior White House official told ABC News on Tuesday that the U.S. “has indications that Iran is preparing to imminently launch a ballistic missile attack against Israel.”
“We are actively supporting defensive preparations to defend Israel against this attack,” the official added.
“A direct military attack from Iran against Israel will carry severe consequences for Iran,” the official said.
Israeli special ops teams active in Lebanon for almost a year, IDF says
Israel special operations teams have been operating in southern Lebanon since November, an Israeli security source said Tuesday, conducting around 70 missions in groups of 20 to 40 operators.
The troops spent around 200 nights inside Lebanon, making it the most intense series of special operations missions in Israel’s history, the official said.
The units operated between 1 and 2 miles inside Lebanese territory, the official said, blowing up and dismantling hundreds of Hezbollah facilities including tunnels.
Some tunnels doubled as weapons caches and others stretched to the Israeli border. Officials said on Tuesday they believed Hezbollah was planning an imminent “Oct.7-style invasion” of northern Israel.
The security source claimed that Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force was at times as little as six hours from launching such an attack. ABC News was not immediately able to independently verify the official’s claims.
The Israeli special operations units operating in southern Lebanon encountered almost no resistance, the official said, and did not suffer any casualties.
Though some 2,000 Radwan troops are believed to be present within 3 miles of Israel’s border — and between 6,000 and 8,000 in southern Lebanon in total — they have not been fighting.
“During these operations, the troops also collected valuable intelligence and methodically dismantled the weapons and compounds, including underground infrastructure and advanced weaponry of Iranian origin,” the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement.
“Some of the weapons were recovered and taken by the soldiers back into Israeli territory.”
Airstrike hits southern Beirut suburb
The southern Beirut suburb of Dahiya was hit by a fresh airstrike early on Tuesday, as Israeli warplanes continued to bomb targets across Lebanon in pursuit of Hezbollah members and resources.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry said Tuesday that the previous 24 hours saw at least 95 people killed and 172 wounded by Israeli strikes in Lebanon’s southern regions, the eastern Bekaa Valley and Beirut.
Hezbollah disputes Israel’s incursion claims
Israeli claims that its soldiers began ground operations inside southern Lebanon “are false,” Hezbollah said in a Tuesday statement.
“No direct ground clashes have yet taken place between the resistance fighters and the occupation forces,” the group said, referring to Israeli troops.
“The resistance fighters are ready for a direct confrontation with the enemy forces that dare or attempt to enter Lebanese territory and inflict the greatest losses on them,” the group added.
Beirut not a target of Israeli ground incursion, official says
The Israel Defense Forces’ operation in southern Lebanon is occurring “right by the border” with no intention of pushing towards the capital Beirut, an Israeli security official said during a Tuesday briefing.
The IDF has three goals, the official said.
The first is to remove the threat of cross-border fire at Israeli citizens, they said. The second is to target senior militant leaders planning such attacks, the official added.
The third goal is to create a situation in which tens of thousands of displaced Israelis can return to their homes in the north of the country.
“We’re talking about limited, localized, targeted rates based on precise intelligence in areas near the border,” the official said when asked about the scope of the operation.
Beirut, they added, is not on the table, though airstrikes are expected to continue across the country and in the capital.
“We’re talking about Hezbollah embedding itself in the Lebanese villages, right by the border,” they said.
“We’re operating at the moment according to the mission we received from the political echelon. We’re acting in a limited area that is focusing on the villages right by the border,” they explained.
IDF claims Hezbollah was planning ‘invasion’ of Israel
Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said Israeli troops were engaged in “limited and targeted raids” in southern Lebanon as of Tuesday morning, alleging that Hezbollah was planning “an Oct. 7-style invasion” into Israeli homes.
“Hezbollah turned Lebanese villages next to Israeli villages into military bases,” Hagari said. “Hezbollah planned to invade Israel, attack Israeli communities and massacre innocent men, women and children.”
“I want to make it clear: our war is with Hezbollah, not with the people of Lebanon,” Hagari continued. “We do not want to harm Lebanese civilians, and we’re taking measures to prevent that.”
More than 700 people were killed by an intensified Israeli airstrike campaign across Lebanon last week. Lebanon’s Health Ministry reported 95 people killed and 172 people by strikes on Monday. Israeli bombing continued overnight into Tuesday morning, including in the capital Beirut.
UK charters flight for citizens in Lebanon, urges Britons to ‘leave now’
The British government announced Monday that it chartered a commercial flight out of Lebanon for citizens wishing to leave the country.
British nationals, their spouse or partner and children under the age of 18 are eligible, a Foreign Office press release said. “Vulnerable” citizens will be prioritized, it added.
The flight is scheduled to depart Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport on Wednesday.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the situation in the country “is volatile and has potential to deteriorate quickly.”
“The safety of British nationals in Lebanon continues to be our utmost priority,” he added.
“That’s why the U.K. government is chartering a flight to help those wanting to leave. It is vital that you leave now as further evacuation may not be guaranteed,” he said.
IDF reports ‘heavy fighting’ in Lebanon border areas
Lt. Col. Avichay Adraee — the Israel Defense Forces’ spokesperson for Arab media — warned residents of southern Lebanon on Tuesday morning that “heavy fighting” is now underway in the region.
“Hezbollah elements,” he said, are “using the civilian environment and the population as human shields to launch attacks.”
Adraee told residents not to move vehicles from the north to the south of the Litani River, which is around 18 miles north of the Israeli border. Israel previously demanded that all Hezbollah forces withdraw north of the waterway in accordance with the United Nations Security Council resolution that sought to end the 2006 border war.
“This warning is in effect until further notice,” Adraee said.
The IDF said Monday that its ground offensive into Lebanon was underway, following a week of punishing airstrikes and targeted killings across the country.
The IDF described the operations as “limited, localized, and targeted ground raids based on precise intelligence against Hezbollah terrorist targets and infrastructure in southern Lebanon.”
A senior U.S. official told ABC News that the incursion is expected to be significant but not “major.” Lebanese leaders, meanwhile, are calling for an immediate ceasefire and the implementation of the 2006 U.N. resolution that would see Hezbollah forces leave southern Lebanon.
10 projectiles fired back at Israel from Lebanon amid ground incursion: IDF
After Israeli forces began the ground incursion into southern Lebanon, at least 10 projectiles crossed over into northern Israel, according to the IDF.
“Following the sirens that sounded in the area of Meron in northern Israel, approximately 10 projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanon,” the IDF said in a statement Monday.
“Some of the projectiles were intercepted and a number of projectiles fell in open areas,” the IDF said.
IDF begins ground incursion into Lebanon
Israeli forces have begun a ground incursion into southern Lebanon, a spokesperson for the IDF said in a statement.
The IDF described the operations as “limited, localized, and targeted ground raids based on precise intelligence against Hezbollah terrorist targets and infrastructure in southern Lebanon.”
“The IDF is continuing to operate to achieve the goals of the war and is doing everything necessary to defend the citizens of Israel and return the citizens of northern Israel to their homes,” the statement said.
95 killed, 172 injured in Lebanon from attacks Monday
The death toll in Lebanon from Israeli attacks rose to 95 on Monday with 172 people injured, the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said in a post on X.
Ground operations in Lebanon will be significant but not ‘major’: US official
The Israel Defense Forces’ ground movement into Lebanon will be significant but not “major,” a senior U.S. official told ABC News.
The operations will be limited to small unit commando teams, the official said, adding that the teams will have air power backup against Hezbollah fighters.
IDF issues ‘urgent warning’ to residents of southern suburbs of Beirut
The Israeli Defense Forces issued an “urgent warning” Monday to residents of the southern suburbs of Beirut.
In a post on X, the IDF urged people in three neighborhoods — Lilac, Haret Hreik and Burj Al-Barajneh — to evacuate.
“You are located near interests and facilities belonging to the terrorist Hezbollah, and therefore the IDF will act against them forcefully,” the IDF wrote. “For your safety and the safety of your family, you must evacuate the buildings immediately, starting at a distance of no less than 500 meters.”
UNRWA chief denies knowing suspended staffer was Hamas leader in Lebanon
On Monday, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini denied having being aware that staffer Fateh Sherif Abu el-Amin had been the head of Hamas’ Lebanon branch.
Abu el-Amin and his family were killed in an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon, a spokesperson for Hamas said Monday.
In his press briefing in Geneva on Monday, Lazzarini said Abu el-Amin had been suspended from his UNRWA position in March after allegations arose that he was involved in Hamas.
-ABC News’ William Gretsky
5 killed, 57 injured in Israeli air strikes on Yemen: Houthi spokesperson
Five people were killed and 57 were injured after Sunday’s Israeli air strikes in Al-Hodeidah, Yemen, the Houthi spokesperson said in a statement Monday.
“This crime will be responded to with escalating military operations against the criminal enemy during the coming period,” the Houthi spokesperson added in his statement.
-ABC News’ Ahmed Baider
12 killed, 20 wounded in Lebanon from attacks Monday
Twelve people have been killed and at least 20 were injured in attacks in Lebanon on Monday, the Lebanese Ministry of Health said.
The number of casualties from strikes in Lebanon on Sunday rose to 118 killed and 376 injured, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health.
Hezbollah and Israel continued to trade attacks on Monday.
Hezbollah issued 10 statements taking responsibility for various attacks on Monday.
The Israeli Defense Forces said they destroyed a “surface-to-air missile launcher storage facility approximately 1.5 kilometers” from Beirut’s international airport in a release Monday.
-ABC News’ Ghazi Balkiz and Jordana Miller
Israeli forces conducting ‘training’ near northern border, IDF says
Israeli forces have been “conducting training near the northern border,” the IDF said in a release Monday.
“As part of increasing readiness for combat, IDF soldiers from the 188th Brigade have been conducting training near the northern border and at the command’s headquarters,” the IDF said in the release.
Sinwar goes radio silent in Gaza cease-fire negotiations
Senior Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, one of the key architects of the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, has gone radio silent, according to an official familiar with negotiations to reach a cease-fire and hostage release deal.
Sinwar’s absence has created another hurdle for U.S. officials who are still trying to complete an overdue “final” proposal for a deal.
It has also sparked speculation that Sinwar is dead, but the official said there is no indication that’s the case.
State Department spokesperson Matt Miller spoke about Hamas’ role in delaying a cease-fire proposal during a briefing Monday, but did not weigh in on Sinwar’s status specifically.
“When it comes to Sinwar, I don’t have any update on his condition at all, one way or the other,” he said, before asserting that Hamas has been unwilling to “engage at all” with Egyptian or Qatari mediators “over the past several weeks.”
“So the reason you have not seen us put forward this proposal is we can’t get a clear answer from Hamas of what they’re willing to entertain and what they’re not willing to entertain,” he said. “We’re going to continue to try to work it.”
-ABC News’ Shannon Kingston
More officials say invasion possibly imminent, US fighter jets heading to region for air defense
Israel’s limited ground incursion into Lebanon could be imminent, two more U.S. officials have told ABC News.
One of the officials said Israel notified the U.S. of its intentions.
Deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh would not confirm as much when repeatedly asked Monday, but did give new details on the additional forces being sent to the region to potentially defend Israel and its own forces.
“These augmented forces include F-16, F-15E, A-10, F 22 fighter aircraft and associated personnel,” Singh said.
The fighter aircraft are to be used for air defense, such as intercepting missiles if needed, according to Singh. There are “an additional few thousand” troops in the region as part of the augmented force, according to Singh.
-ABC News’ Luis Martinez and Matt Seyler
Israel imminently planning limited ground operation in Lebanon: Senior US official
The U.S. expects Israel to imminently begin a limited ground operation into Lebanon that would be targeted, in order to clear out Hezbollah infrastructure near Israeli border communities and then pull their forces back, according to a senior U.S. official.
This could start “immediately,” according to the senior official.
-ABC News’ Selina Wang
Biden tells Israel to stop when asked about possible Lebanon invasion
Speaking to reporters Monday at the White House, President Joe Biden addressed Israel’s continued attacks on Lebanon and reports that they are preparing for a limited ground operation.
The comment, which followed Biden’s remarks on Hurricane Helene, came after a reporter asked if he was aware of and “comfortable” with the possibility of Israel invading Lebanon.
“I’m more aware than you might know, and I’m comfortable with them stopping. We should have a cease-fire now,” Biden replied.
Middle East ‘safer’ without ‘brutal’ Nasrallah, Blinken says
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday that slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was “a brutal terrorist, whose many victims included Americans, Israelis, civilians in Lebanon, civilians in Syria and many others as well.”
During a ministerial meeting on defeating ISIS in Washington, D.C., Blinken said Hezbollah under Nasrallah’s leadership “terrorized people across the region and prevented Lebanon from fully moving forward as a country.”
“Lebanon, the region, the world, are safer without him,” Blinken added.
Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike in southern Beirut on Friday, marking the most significant blow yet to Hezbollah over almost a year of cross-border conflict with Israel.
Israeli airstrikes are continuing across Lebanon and in the capital. A U.S. official told ABC News on Sunday that small-scale cross-border Israeli ground operations may have already begun, as a prelude to a wider offensive into southern Lebanon in pursuit of Hezbollah targets.
Blinken said the U.S. and its partners would continue to work toward a diplomatic solution “that provides real security to Israel, to Lebanon, and allows citizens on both sides of the border to return to their homes.”
“Diplomacy remains the best and only path to achieving greater stability in the Middle East,” he said. “The United States remains committed to urgently driving these efforts forward.”
-ABC News’ Shannon K. Kingston
‘Nowhere’ Israel cannot reach, Netanyahu warns Iran
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appealed to anti-government sentiment in Iran on Monday, telling the Iranian people: “With every passing moment, the regime is bringing you — the noble Persian people — closer to the abyss.”
“Every day, you see a regime that subjugates you make fiery speeches about defending Lebanon, defending Gaza,” the prime minister said in a video statement posted to social media.
“Yet every day, that regime plunges our region deeper into darkness and deeper into war. Every day, their puppets are eliminated.”
“Ask Mohammed Deif. Ask [Hassan] Nasrallah,” Netanyahu said, referring to the Hamas military commander — whose death the group has not confirmed — and the former Hezbollah leader. Israel claims Deif was killed in Gaza in July, while Nasrallah was killed in Beirut on Friday.
“There is nowhere in the Middle East Israel cannot reach,” Netanyahu said.
“Iran’s tyrants don’t care about your future,” Netanyahu continued. “When Iran is finally free — and that moment will come a lot sooner than people think — everything will be different.”
“Our two ancient peoples, the Jewish people and the Persian people, will finally be at peace,” Netanyahu said. “The people of Iran should know — Israel stands with you.”
Tehran has not yet responded to Netanyahu’s statement. But on Monday, the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson said his country would not deploy volunteer troops to Lebanon in response to Israel’s expanding campaign there against Hezbollah.
“We believe that the governments and nations of the region have the necessary ability and authority to defend themselves,” he said. “We have not had any request from anyone, and we know that they do not need deployment of human forces from our side.”
-ABC News’ Joe Simonetti and Somayeh Malekian
Hamas leader in Lebanon killed in airstrike, IDF says
The Israel Defense Forces said Monday it killed Fatah Sharif Abu al-Amine, the head of Hamas’ Lebanon branch, in an overnight airstrike.
“Sharif was responsible for coordinating Hamas’ terror activities in Lebanon with Hezbollah operatives,” the IDF said in a statement.
“He was also responsible for Hamas’ efforts in Lebanon to recruit operatives and acquire weapons.”
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller and Joe Simonetti
Deadly strike hits central Beirut for first time in 18 years
An overnight precision strike on an apartment building in the Cola neighborhood was the first such strike in central Beirut for 18 years.
Four people were killed, including three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine militant group.
Israel did not immediately claim the strike but is widely assumed to have carried it out.
-ABC News’ Joe Simonetti
Hezbollah deputy gives first statement since Nasrallah assassination
Naim Qassem, Hezbollah’s deputy secretary general, addressed followers Monday in the first leadership statement since Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut on Friday.
“The mujahadeen will continue,” Qassem said of the militant group’s fighters, their work informed by “what [Nasrallah] designed.”
Qassem did not announce a replacement for Nasrallah, but said Hezbollah’s next leader will be chosen “sooner rather than later.”
Details of Nasrallah’s funeral are still unconfirmed. A three-day mourning period in Lebanon began on Monday.
-ABC News’ Ghazi Balkiz and Joe Simonetti
IDF confirms new attacks on Hezbollah targets
The Israel Defense Forces said it carried out an operation against more Hezbollah targets early Monday morning local time.
The Israeli Air Force attacked targets in the Bekaa region of Lebanon, the IDF said in a statement.
Targets included launchers and buildings where the IDF said weapons were held.
The Israeli Air Force also attacked what it said were military buildings in southern Lebanon.
-ABC News Will Gretsky
At least 105 people killed Sunday in Lebanon: Ministry of Health
The death toll in Lebanon as a result of Israeli airstrikes Sunday rose to 105, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health.
Nearly 360 individuals were wounded in the strikes, the ministry reported.
The strikes occurred in southern Lebanon, the Bekaa, Baalbek-Hermel and the southern suburbs of Beirut (Dahieh), according to the ministry.
Netanyahu announces former rival Gideon Sa’ar joined Israeli cabinet
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has appointed opposition lawmaker Gideon Sa’ar to rejoin his cabinet, the politicians announced in a joint statement Sunday.
Sa’ar will serve in the Security Cabinet, according to Netanyahu.
“I appreciate the fact that Gideon Sa’ar responded to my request and agreed today to return to the government,” Netanyahu said, noting how the leaders have put aside their disagreements.
“We will work together, and I intend to use him in the forums that influence the conduct of the war,” Netanyahu added.
Sa’ar was once a member of Netanyahu’s Likud Party but defected after an unsuccessful bid for party leadership. He formed his own party in 2020 called New Hope.
“I am joining the government at this stage without a coalition agreement – but with an orderly worldview and with a strong patriotic attitude for our people,” Sa’ar said in the joint statement.
(LONDON) — The U.S. said it is “gravely concerned” following a “large-scale escalation” of fighting in El Fasher, capital of Sudan’s North Darfur state, amid a civil war that has been raging in the North African country for more than a year.
Initial reports of escalating fighting began to surface on Sept, 12 following what eyewitnesses recount as a multidirectional attack on the city by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group.
The shelling has been consistent, with explosions being heard in the city “several times this week,” Salah, a resident of the city, told ABC News on Tuesday. He asked to be identified by only his first name.
“There are casualties and many civilians have been killed and injured,” Salah said. “People are dying of famine and diseases. It’s a literally catastrophic situation. As I am speaking, the RSF shelling is going on.”
An analysis from the Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab confirmed the escalation of fighting, finding “unprecedented,” “high-tempo and intense combat activity” ongoing in the North Darfur capital. The report detected “high tempo aerial bombardment” by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and “structural damage” from RSF bombardment and other combat activity.
“The current levels of high-tempo combat activity are likely to effectively reduce what is left of El-Fasher to rubble,” reads the report.
The U.N. said it has yet to establish the number of civilian casualties in the city.
In a statement, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said she was “gravely concerned about reports of a serious escalation in RSF’s months-long siege on El Fasher.”
That concern was echoed by America’s Special Envoy to Sudan Tom Perriello who said he is “extremely concerned” by the RSF’s repeated attacks on the North Darfur capital.
Two displacement camps — Abu Shouk and Al Salaam — have been shelled in the RSF’s renewed attacks according to US’ Special Envoy to Sudan.
El Fasher is the largest city in Sudan’s Darfur region and the Sudanese Army’s (SAF) last stronghold in the region. The city has been at the center of a fierce battle as warring parties vie for its control, the Rapid Support Forces besieging the city since May of 2024.
The unprecedented escalation brings renewed threat to “hundreds of thousands” of civilians, according to the U.N. That estimate included internally displaced persons who found refuge in the city, many of whom had been displaced from elsewhere through the course of Sudan’s now 17-month civil war.
“The humanitarian situation is so sad,” Yasin told ABC news over the phone from Tawila, a small town in North Darfur where many fleeing the conflict have sought refuge.
He asked to only be identified by his first name for his safety.
“Prices are spiking for food, medicine end fuel is so rare and expensive,” Yasin said.
“Life in El Fasher was scary because every day there are bombs, shelling and crossfire as well as intense clashes,” he said. “Yesterday evening RSF shelled areas like Mawashy Market, Thoura and Mudarag. These areas are filled with civilians, and the number of human losses till no are unknown because people are hiding.”
The U.N. Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan Clementine Nkweta-Salami has expressed “profound sadness and frustration” over the situation, saying the attacks on the city “violate every humanitarian principle.”
“This is heartbreaking and must stop,” Nkweta-Salami said. “There is no excuse for direct attacks on civilians, their assets and essential facilities such as hospitals.”
In a statement sent to ABC News, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), also known as Doctors Without Borders, says nutritional screenings carried out in conjunction with Sudanese health authorities in Zamzam camp, just 15 km south of El Fasher, indicate malnutrition rates that are “likely some of the worst in the world.”
“Not only do the results confirm the disaster that we and other stakeholders have been observing and alerting on for months, they also indicate that every day, things are getting worse and we’re running out of time,” said Michel Olivier Lacharité, head of emergency operations for MSF. “We are talking about thousands of children who will die over the next few weeks without access to adequate treatment and urgent solutions to allow humanitarian aid and essential goods to reach Zamzam.”
The war in Sudan has precipitated one of the world’s worst hunger crises with over 750,000 people experiencing “catastrophic levels of food insecurity.” according to the U.N.
The conflict has killed over 20,000 people according to a senior U.N. official, but local groups warned the true toll is likely much higher. At least 13 million people have been forced to flee their homes since fighting began in April 2023, according to the International Office of Migration (IOM).
“The level of destruction, death, displacement and disease in Sudan is tragic,” said World Health Organisation Director-General Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus on Tuesday.
The WHO chief was in Chad on Tuesday to join the delivery of a medical supplies convoy across the Chadian border of Adré into Sudan.
Recent flooding has hampered the delivery of aid through the Adré border.
“Chad’s valleys are filled with carcasses of trucks. But we are making progress,” said Toby Harward, the U.N.’s deputy humanitarian coordinator for Sudan.
“I urge RSF to halt its attack, including bombardments destroying infrastructure and threatening civilian life, and fulfil its commitments to the international community to protect civilians,” said Thomas-Greenfield.
Photo by Salwan Georges/The Washington Post via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON, D.C) — Federal security agencies are sounding the alarm about alleged hate crimes targeting Muslim Americans and communities perceived to be Muslim, according to a new report obtained by ABC News.
The new joint intelligence bulletin (JIB) – published a week after the anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel that precipitated the ongoing Israel-Hamas war – notes that “these communities are more likely to be attacked during periods of heightened sociopolitical tensions and increased anti-immigrant sentiment,” and are “more likely when perceived as retribution after acts of international terrorism in the United States and abroad.”
The report from the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and the National Counterterrorism Center, comes nearly a year to the day after the Oct. 14, 2023 murder of Wadea Al-Fayoume. The 6-year-old Palestinian boy was fatally stabbed in Plainfield Township, Illinois, in an alleged hate crime linked to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. His 71-year-old landlord, Joseph Czuba, has been criminally charged for allegedly stabbing Wadea 26 times, and his mother a dozen times. Czuba has pleaded not guilty.
Czuba allegedly yelled “you Muslims must die!” during the attack, according to the JIB.
The JIB also cites a woman’s alleged attempt last month in Texas to drown a 3-year-old Palestinian American child at a community pool, a middle school teacher in Georgia allegedly threatening last December to slit a seventh-grade Muslim student’s throat, and the shooting of three college students of Palestinian descent in November 2023 while they were walking in Vermont, leaving one paralyzed from the waist down.
Amid ongoing news and debate concerning the Israel-Hamas war, the Jewish community has also seen a rise in hate crimes, as well as other bias incidents, according to reports.
A recent Anti-Defamation League analysis of FBI data found that reported single-bias anti-Jewish hate crime incidents increased 63% in 2023 to 1,832, compared to the year before – the highest number ever recorded by the FBI since it began collecting data on such incidents in 1991.
“Bias incidents surged after the 7 October HAMAS attack on Israel and have since decreased to levels consistent with reporting prior to the conflict, a trend previously observed with other international conflicts or events,” the JIB further noted.
