More than 140 killed in Nigerian tanker explosion, officials say
ABC News
(MAIDUGURI, NIGERIA and LONDON) — At least 147 people were killed when a tanker exploded in Nigeria, according to the country’s National Emergency Management Agency.
The petrol tanker exploded after the driver lost control in the town of Majiya, in northwestern Nigeria, late on Tuesday, Shi’isu Adam, a spokesperson for the Jigawa regional police, told reporters on Wednesday.
Distressing videos taken by eyewitnesses at the scene appeared to show large columns of smoke and flames spreading from the overturned vehicle. Eyewitnesses described the scene as that of chaos and despair, with many struggling to rescue the injured amidst the flames.
Jigawa state Gov. Umar Namadi was briefed on the death toll as he visited the scene of the accident in Majiya on Wednesday morning.
A local resident, Sani Umar, who narrowly escaped the inferno, recounted, “It was terrifying. People were running in all directions, screaming for help. The fire spread so quickly that many couldn’t escape.”
The petrol tanker had been heading to Nigeria’s Yobe state before it crashed at around 11:30 p.m. local time after the driver lost control of the vehicle, police said. Soon large crowds began to gather around the tanker at the scene of the accident, with some gathering leaking fuel from the truck when it exploded.
“We are worried that in spite of police warning people to stay clear from scenes of accidents involving fuel tankers, they still engage in such acts,” Adam told reporters on Wednesday. “People gathered around the accident scene; that is the reason for the mass casualties.”
“Numerous” injured individuals were transported to hospitals for treatment, Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency said.
The area remained cordoned off on Wednesday as police continue investigations.
AT Abdullahi, the commissioner of police in Jigawa state, expressed on Wednesday his condolences to the families of the deceased and the entire people of Jigawa.
“This is a heartbreaking moment for us all,” Abdullahi said. “We share in the pain and sorrow of the families affected. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the bereaved.”
A mass burial for the victims is due to take place on Wednesday.
(LONDON and SEOUL) — Refuse carried by a North Korean “trash balloon” landed inside the South Korean presidential compound in the capital city of Seoul on Thursday amid rising tensions between the two neighbors.
The South Korean Presidential Security Service “identified trash that blew up in the air and fell in the office compound early this morning,” the service said in a Thursday statement.
“After a safety inspection, the service collected the fallen objects after confirming they do not contain danger or contagiousness,” the service added. “The service is monitoring the situation in cooperation with the Joint Chiefs of Staff.”
This is the second time one of North Korea’s trash balloons fell inside the South Korean Presidential Office Compound.
Cross-border balloons have been one element of the recent deterioration in inter-Korean relations, with the period of diplomatic thaw from 2017 giving way to new tensions since the election of conservative South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol in the spring of 2022.
The balloons have been found carrying household waste items including paper, vinyl and plastic bottles, according to the South Korean military. Some trash balloons carried manure.
Several fires have also been reported in metropolitan areas attributed to “heat timers” attached to the balloons.
North Korea launched a total of 5,500 trash balloons at South Korea on 22 occasions from May 28 to Sept. 23 this year, Lee Sung-joon — a spokesperson for South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff — said last month.
Seoul estimated that North Korea spent 550 million won — around $411,600 — to produce the balloons, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported.
Lee said in September after 120 balloons were launched that Seoul would consider military action to down them if necessary. “If North Korea’s continued trash balloons are judged to pose a serious threat to the safety of our citizens or to have crossed the line, the military will take stern military action,” he said.
South Korean civic groups have also launched balloons across the border, much to Pyongyang’s chagrin.
Such balloons often carry rice, essential medicine and leaflets critical of leader Kim Jong Un’s regime. North Korea has repeatedly protested such action and threatened a response.
The frontier region has been particularly tense this month. On Oct. 15, Seoul said North Korea blew up two border roads and deployed “heavy equipment” for “further operations.”
South Korean troops along the border fired warning shots in response, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.
The detonations followed a North Korean warning that it intended to permanently seal off border access routes, cutting rail and road connections and reinforcing defensive fortifications.
The explosions came shortly after Kim ordered his artillery forces — traditionally the most potent threat to the capital Seoul, which sits around 35 miles from the frontier — onto full alert, having accused Seoul of flying drones over Pyongyang.
The face-off on the Korean Peninsula may now spread to Ukraine, where Seoul, Kyiv and Washington, D.C. have accused Pyongyang of deploying troops in support of Russia’s invasion.
Yonhap reported that Seoul is now considering sending weapons to Ukraine in response, having so far only provided humanitarian aid.
Yonhap also said South Korea is considering sending military and intelligence personnel to Ukraine to probe North Korean battlefield performance and help with interrogations of captured North Korean fighters.
ABC News’ Ellie Kaufman contributed to this report.
(LONDON) — The Israel Defense Forces continued its intense airstrike and ground campaigns in Gaza — particularly in the north of the strip — and in Lebanon, with Israeli attacks on targets nationwide including in the capital Beirut. The strikes form the backdrop for a fresh diplomatic push by the White House ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the Oval Office in January.
Tensions also remain high between Israel and Iran after the former launched what it called “precise strikes on military targets” in several locations in Iran following Tehran’s Oct. 1 missile barrage.
Netanyahu’s office ‘rejects with disgust’ ICC arrest warrant
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Israel “rejects with disgust the absurd and false actions and charges against it,” after the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for the arrest of the prime minister and his former defense minister.
The arrest warrant issued Thursday morning alleges that Netanyahu and the minister, Yoav Gallant, were party to alleged war crimes in Gaza.
The statement issued by Netanyahu said the court, which is based in The Hague, was “a biased and discriminatory political body.”
“There is nothing more just than the war that Israel has been waging in Gaza since the October 7, 2023, coup, after the terrorist organization Hamas launched a murderous attack against us, committing the greatest massacre committed against the Jewish people since the Holocaust,” his office said.
The statement pointed a finger at Karim Khan, accusing the ICC’s chief prosecutor of bias and describing him as “corrupt.”
– ABC News’ Joe Simonetti and Kevin Shalvey
ICC issues arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants on Thursday for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant.
The Hague issued the warrants for alleged war crimes in Gaza, according to a statement. The ICC said that there were “reasonable grounds” to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant committed war crimes, and added that Israel’s acceptance of the court’s jurisdiction is not required
Dozens killed in massive strike in northern Gaza Dozens of people have been killed and many more are feared dead after a large strike hit a residential neighborhood in northern Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health.
The strike occurred in a neighborhood near Kamal Adwan Hospital, officials said.
-ABC News’ Joe Simonetti and Kevin Shalvey
Israel wants freedom to strike Hezbollah under any cease-fire deal, foreign minister says
Israel wants to “keep the freedom to act if there will be violations” by Hezbollah in any cease-fire agreement reached between Lebanon and Israel, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said in comments Wednesday.
U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein is in Beirut meeting with officials about the proposed cease-fire deal and is expected to travel to Israel Wednesday night to continue discussions.
Israeli forces kill Hezbollah commanders, strike over 100 targets in Lebanon, IDF says
The Israel Defense Forces said it killed Hezbollah’s anti-tank missile and operations commanders “in the coastal area” on Sunday.
Israeli forces “struck over 100 terror targets in Lebanon” in the last day, the Israeli Defense Forces said Wednesday. Israel said it is continuing “limited, localized, targeted raids in southern Lebanon.”
On Tuesday, 14 people were killed, and 87 people were wounded in Lebanon, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
US vetos Gaza UN Security Council cease-fire resolution
The U.S. vetoed another United Nations Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire in Gaza because it did not include a hostage release.
This is the 12th time the Security Council voted on a draft resolution since the war in Gaza started 13 months ago.
At least 43,972 people have been killed in Gaza since October 2023, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health.
In June, the Security Council passed a U.S.-drafted cease-fire deal that President Joe Biden approved. At the time, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield said “we voted for peace.”
US sanctions Hamas leaders as officials say group’s political wing has rebased in Turkey
The U.S. is rolling out sanctions against six senior Hamas leaders accused of facilitating the transfer of weapons and funds into Gaza to support the group’s terror activities as well as smuggling in construction materials to build the underground tunnels critical to its operations, according to the Biden administration.
“There is no distinction between Hamas’ so-called military wing and its political leadership,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement announcing the tranche of sanctions.
Three of the targeted individuals are based in Turkey, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.
Despite the denials coming from Hamas and the Turkish government, two U.S. officials say that the bulk of Hamas’ political wing has now relocated to Turkey following the group’s ouster from Qatar.
The U.S. has turned a blind eye to Hamas’ relationship with NATO ally Turkey for years, which allows the U.S. designated terror group to openly recruit, fundraise and interface with its government officials.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he hopes to strengthen ties with the U.S. when President-elect Donald Trump takes office. However, Trump’s cabinet is expected to feature many staunchly pro-Israel voices who will object to Turkey’s tolerance of Hamas — potentially complicating Erdogan’s plans.
-ABC News’ Shannon K. Kingston
Hospitals in northern Gaza running out of medical supplies, requesting patient transfers as attacks continue
Kamal Adwan Hospital is running out of medical supplies, and more people with cases of malnutrition are arriving at the hospital because of the lack of food and water allowed into northern Gaza, the hospital director said in comments Tuesday.
“There are a number of cases of malnutrition that have begun to arrive, including children and the elderly,” Dr. Hussam Abu Safia, the director of Kamal Adwan hospital said.
“The health system is working under extremely harsh conditions to the point that we have started losing numbers of infected people due to the lack of medical supplies,” Abu Safia added.
At least 50 people were killed, and 110 people were injured in Gaza over the past 24 hours, the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health said.
The International Committee of the Red Cross and the Palestine Red Crescent Society transferred 15 patients from Al Awda Hospital in north Gaza to Al Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City Sunday, the ICRC said in a statement Tuesday. The patient transfers were requested by the hospitals, the ICRC said.
The organizations also delivered medical supplies to three hospitals in Gaza City Monday, the ICRC said in a post on X.
“The delivery and medical transfer came in the wake of another large-scale attack in the Beit Lahia area of the Northern Governorate, in which dozens of people were killed and many more injured,” the ICRC said.
-ABC News’ Diaa Ostaz and Sami Zyara
UN peacekeepers, buildings targeted in 3 incidents in south Lebanon
United Nations peacekeeping forces in Lebanon and facilities were targeted in “three separate incidents in south Lebanon,” Tuesday, UNIFIL said in a post on X.
Four Ghanian peacekeepers on duty “sustained injures as a rocket … hit their base,” UNIFIL said in a post on X. Three of the injured peacekeepers were transferred to a hospital in Tyre, Lebanon for treatment, UNIFIL said.
In a different attack, a UNIFIL building was “impacted by five rockets,” UNIFIL said.
“In another incident, UNIFIL Sector West Headquarters in Shama was impacted by five rockets, which struck the maintenance workshop,” UNIFIL said. “Although it caused heavy damage to the workshop, no peacekeeper was injured. This was the second time this UNIFIL base was impacted by the ongoing clashes in the area in less than a week.”
In a third incident, a UNIFIL patrol was “passing through” a village, and “an armed person directly fired at the patrol,” UNIFIL said. No injuries were reported from this incident.
UNIFIL is investigating the incidents and has informed the Lebanese armed forces about them, UNIFIL said.
“UNIFIL once again reminds all actors involved in the ongoing hostilities to respect the inviolability of United Nations peacekeepers and premises,” UNIFIL said in a post on X.
5 killed, 31 injured after Israeli strike on central Beirut
At least five people were killed, 31 were injured and at least two people remain missing after an Israeli airstrike in the Zuqaq al-Blat neighborhood of central Beirut, the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said.
The Israeli Defense Forces did not issue a warning before conducting this airstrike on central Beirut Monday.
At least 28 people were killed and 107 were wounded across Lebanon from Israeli attacks Monday, the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said.
Overall, 3,544 people have been killed, and 15,036 have been injured since Israel’s increased attacks on the country began in mid-September, the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said in a post on X.
U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein met with Lebanese House Speaker Nabih Berri in Beirut Tuesday, according to Lebanese state media.
After meeting with Hochstein for two hours, Berri said the cease-fire negotiations were “good in principle,” but warned Israel could change its minds about the proposal as it has done before.
Berri said the U.S. is managing guarantees about Israel’s position on the proposal, according to Lebanese state media.
-ABC News’ Morgan Winsor
Israel kills 5 in central Beirut strike, officials say
At least five people were killed and 31 wounded by an Israeli strike in the Zuqaq al-Blat neighborhood of central Beirut on Monday, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health. Two other people are missing.
The Israel Defense Forces did not appear to issue any public evacuation order prior to the strike. ABC News has reached out to the IDF for comment on the target of the strike.
The attack made Monday the second consecutive day of Israeli strikes within central Beirut. To date, the vast majority of airstrikes on the capital have hit the southern Dahiya suburb, known as a Hezbollah stronghold.
Israel has intensified its bombardment in and around Beirut over the past week, while Hezbollah has continued missile fire into Israel. Fresh discussions are ongoing as to a potential cease-fire to end the fighting.
-ABC News’ Morgan Winsor, Jordana Miller and Joe Simonetti
Israel demands ‘immediate’ action against pro-Iran militias in Iraq
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar on Tuesday published a letter sent to the president of the United Nations Security Council in which he called for “immediate action regarding the activity of the pro-Iranian militias in Iraq, whose territory is being used to attack Israel.”
“The Iraqi government is responsible for everything that happens on its territory,” Saar wrote, noting Israel’s right to self-defense.
“I called on the Security Council to act urgently to make sure that the Iraqi government meets its obligations under international law and to make these attacks on Israel stop,” Saar said.
Iran-backed Iraqi militias have been launching drone attacks into Israel from the east in support of Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon, with whom Israeli forces have been engaged since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack into southern Israel.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
Nearly 100 aid trucks looted: UNRWA
The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said Monday their aid convoy was “violently” looted over the weekend, one of the largest such cases of looting since the war began.
The 109-truck U.N. convoy was carrying food supplies to people in Gaza when it was looted on Saturday, UNRWA said.
“The vast majority of the trucks, 97 in total, were lost and drivers were forced at gunpoint to unload aid,” UNRWA said in a statement.
UNRWA said the Israel Defense Forces made the convoy leave a day earlier than planned.
The IDF has not yet commented on this incident.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
Israel’s October attack damaged some of Iran’s nuclear program: Netanyahu
Israel damaged some of Iran’s nuclear program in its October attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday.
Iran’s air defense, ballistic missile production and ability to produce “solid fuel” were impacted, Netanyahu said during remarks to Israel’s parliament.
“There is a certain element of their nuclear program that was damaged in this attack,” he said, though added that its ability to operate “has not yet been thwarted.”
Netanyahu said Iran’s nuclear threat must be dealt with.
“If we don’t deal with the nuclear program, then all the other problems will come back and resurface, both in the axis, and in armaments, and in other things,” Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu also said Israel is “currently talking about possible negotiations for a settlement” to be reached between Israel and Lebanon, but added, “Even if there is a cease-fire, no one says it will last.”
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
US envoy en route to Lebanon for cease-fire talks, official says
U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein is on his way to Lebanon for talks on a cease-fire between Hezbollah and Israel, an official familiar with the plans confirmed to ABC News.
Hochstein left from the U.S. for Lebanon on Monday, the official said.
Israel is getting close to being ready to agree to the U.S.-backed cease-fire proposal, which is very similar to the proposal that was floated by the U.S. at the end of September. The U.S. needs to see how Hezbollah feels about this proposal, which is what Hochstein aims to do during his trip, according to the official.
-ABC News’ Shannon K. Kingston
4 killed in Israeli attack in Beirut: Health ministry
Four people were killed and at least 18 injured in an Israeli attack in Beirut, the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said Monday.
-ABC News’ Ellie Kaufman
1 killed, 10 injured in strike on residential building in Israel: Officials
A woman was killed and 10 people injured after a Hezbollah rocket directly hit a residential building in northern Israel, Israeli emergency services said Monday.
Dozens of projectiles were fired by Hezbollah from Lebanon into Israel Monday afternoon, the Israel Defense Forces said. Not all of the projectiles were intercepted, the IDF said.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
US sanctions entity, 3 individuals tied to West Bank violence
The State Department said Monday it is sanctioning three individuals and one entity for allegedly undermining “peace, security, and stability in the West Bank.”
The department accuses the entity, Eyal Hari Yehuda Company LTD, of having supported Yinon Levi, an Israeli settler who was sanctioned by the Biden administration over accusations of attacks and harassment against Palestinians earlier this year.
The three impacted individuals are Itamar Levi, Shabtai Koshlevsky and Zohar Sabah, the State Department said. Itamar Levi, the brother of Yinon Levi, is being designated for his role as the owner of the aforementioned company, while Koshlevsky is accused of holding a leadership position at Hashomer Yosh, an Israeli nongovernmental organization that provides material support to U.S.-designated outposts in the West Bank and was sanctioned in August of this year.
Sabah is accused of engaging “in threats and acts of violence against Palestinians, including in their homes” as well as “a pattern of destructiveness targeting the livestock, grazing lands and homes of local Palestinians to disrupt their means of support,” the State Department said in a press release.
-ABC News’ Shannon K. Kingston
Hamas denies that leaders relocated from Qatar to Turkey
Hamas denied reports in Israeli media that its leadership has relocated from Qatar to Turkey amid a breakdown in Doha-supported cease-fire talks earlier this month.
Hamas dismissed the news reports as “rumors” spread by Israeli authorities in a statement posted to its official website.
Qatar told Israel and Hamas earlier this month it could not continue to mediate cease-fire and hostage release talks “as long as there is a refusal to negotiate a deal in good faith.”
Doha is under U.S. pressure to expel Hamas leaders. A senior administration official told ABC News earlier this month that the group’s “continued presence in Doha is no longer viable or acceptable.”
-ABC News’ Diaa Ostaz, Shannon K. Kingston and Somayeh Malekian
Gaza death toll nears 44,000, health officials say
The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said Monday that 43,922 people have been killed in Israeli attacks since Oct. 7, 2023, with nearly 104,000 more injured.
Israeli airstrikes killed at least 96 people and wounded at least 60 in Gaza through the weekend, officials said. The dead included 72 people in north Gaza and more than 20 from other areas of the strip.
Most of those killed were displaced women and children sheltering in residential buildings in the northern town of Beit Lahiya, officials said.
Beit Lahiya is at the heart of the Israel Defense Forces’ recent northern offensive, which has been accompanied with sweeping evacuation orders and spiking civilian casualties.
-ABC News’ Samy Zyara and Joe Simonetti
Hezbollah positive on US cease-fire proposal, reports say
Hezbollah responded positively to the U.S.-proposed cease-fire deal between Israel and Lebanon, Israeli and Lebanese media reported Monday.
U.S. special envoy for Lebanon Amos Hochstein is expected to arrive in Beirut on Tuesday to discuss the proposal before heading to Israel to speak with leaders there.
The proposal is reportedly based on the United Nations Security Council’s resolution 1701 that sought to end the last major cross-border conflict in 2006.
That deal ordered Hezbollah to withdraw all military units and weapons north of the Litani River, which is around 18 miles north of the Israeli border. The resolution also prohibited Israeli ground and air forces from crossing into Lebanese territory.
Israeli leaders have demanded open-ended freedom to act against threats in Lebanon, a stipulation reportedly opposed by Hezbollah and Lebanese leaders.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller and Joe Simonetti
Khamenei meets with ambassador injured in pager attacks
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei met with the country’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, as the latter continues his recovery from injuries sustained during Israel’s detonation of Hezbollah communication devices in September.
Khamenei’s official X account posted a short video of their interaction on Monday, in which Amani told the Iranian leader he lost around half of the vision in his right eye in the attack.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
Hezbollah media relations chief killed in Israeli strike
Mohammed Afif, Hezbollah’s media relations chief, was killed in an Israeli strike Sunday, Hezbollah confirmed.
The strike on central Beirut partially collapsed a building and injured three others, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health.
The Israel Defense Forces also confirmed Afif’s death. In a statement, the IDF said he joined Hezbollah in the 1980s and went on to become a “central and veteran figure in the organization who greatly influenced Hezbollah’s military activity.”
Citing one particular incident, the statement claimed that he had played a key role in the drone attack on Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s home in Caesarea in October.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
Pope calls for investigation to determine whether Israeli attacks on Gaza are ‘genocide’
Pope Francis, in an upcoming book to be released ahead of his 2025 jubilee, called for an investigation to determine whether Israel’s actions in Gaza constitute genocide, according to the Vatican.
“In the Middle East, where the open doors of nations like Jordan or Lebanon continue to be a salvation for millions of people fleeing conflicts in the region: I am thinking above all of those who leave Gaza in the midst of the famine that has struck their Palestinian brothers and sisters given the difficulty of getting food and aid into their territory,” he wrote in a passage released by the Vatican.
“According to some experts, what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide,” the pope wrote. “It should be carefully investigated to determine whether it fits into the technical definition formulated by jurists and international bodies.”
People attending a funeral for victims of Tuesday’s pager attacks in Lebanon react after an explosion in a store, in southern Beirut, Sept. 18, 2024. (ABC News)
(LONDON) — Israel launched a series of strikes on Hezbollah targets Thursday as the war against the Lebanon-based group widened in the wake of two consecutive days of deadly explosions triggered in wireless devices.
Israel said it hit at least 30 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, including a weapons storage facility, adding it will continue to “operate against the threat of the Hezbollah.”
“The IDF is currently striking Hezbollah targets in Lebanon to degrade Hezbollah’s terrorist capabilities and infrastructure,” the Israeli army said Thursday afternoon. “The Hezbollah terrorist organization has turned southern Lebanon into a combat zone. For decades, Hezbollah has weaponized civilian homes, dug tunnels beneath them, and used civilians as human shields.”
Two large sonic booms shook buildings in Beirut on Thursday as Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah delivered a speech on this week’s device explosions. The IDF strikes come as Nasrallah said the use of the devices in civilian areas crossed all laws and red lines.
“This criminal act is a major terrorist operation, an act of genocide and massacre and amounts to a declaration of war,” Nasrallah said.
“The only way to return the displaced to the north is to stop the aggression on the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. What you are doing will increase the displacement of the displaced from the north and will remove the opportunity for their return,” Nasrallah said.
The last two days of explosions in Lebanon, triggered remotely with explosives inside pagers or walkie-talkies, have killed at least 37 people and wounded 2,931, Lebanese Health Minister Firass Al-Abyad said in a press conference Thursday.
Prior to announcing the strikes, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu restated his intention of returning tens of thousands of displaced Israelis to their homes in the north of the country, parts of which have been emptied by the threat of Hezbollah attacks.
Two IDF soldiers were killed by Hezbollah rockets in the north on Thursday, the army said.
“This is a new phase of the war, it includes opportunities but also significant risks. Hezbollah feels that it is being persecuted and the sequence of military and defense actions will continue,” Israel Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Thursday following the airstrikes.
The Israeli rhetoric was punctuated by the two waves of explosions in Lebanon.
Pager devices exploded on Tuesday prompting chaos in the capital Beirut and across the Hezbollah militant group’s southern heartland. On Wednesday, walkie-talkies exploded, some during funeral processions being held for militants killed in Tuesday’s explosions.
An ABC News source confirmed that Israel was behind the Tuesday pager attacks. Israeli leaders have not publicly commented on either round of explosions.
The Lebanese Health Ministry said 12 people were killed and 2,323 wounded in Tuesday’s pager detonations, and another 25 people were killed and 608 wounded in Wednesday’s walkie-talkie blasts, according to Al-Abyad.
The Lebanese health minister told reporters that he does not want to comment on security and political matters, but he said “it is certain that what happened in terms of aggression is considered a war crime, as the majority of the injuries were recorded in civilian areas and not in the battlefield, and the government is doing its duty and has called for a meeting of the U.N. Security Council, and human rights organizations are doing their duty on this issue.”
Hezbollah said 20 of its members were killed in Wednesday’s walkie-talkie explosions. Another 11 were killed in Tuesday’s pager explosions in Lebanon and Syria, bringing the overall death toll for the group to 31.
The Iranian-backed group blamed Israel for both waves of explosions and vowed a “reckoning.”
The militant group claimed several retaliatory strikes into Israel this week — including on Thursday morning — with Israel Defense Forces warplanes and artillery responding.
Cross-border fire has been near-constant since Oct. 8, when Hezbollah began attacks in protest of the Israel Defense Forces operation into the Gaza Strip — the response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 infiltration attack into southern Israel.
But as Gallant told reporters on Wednesday, “I believe that we are at the onset of a new phase in this war.”
A source confirmed to ABC News on Wednesday that Israel’s 98th Division is being deployed from Gaza battlefields to the north of the country.
“We are determined to change the security reality as soon as possible,” Maj. Gen. Ori Gordin, head of the IDF’s Northern Command, said. “The commitment of the commanders and the troops here is complete, with peak readiness for any task that will be required.”
The war, U.S. officials have long warned, could spiral into a broader conflict involving Iran — a prime benefactor of both Hezbollah and Hamas.
Notable casualties demonstrated the multinational nature of the crisis. A detonating pager injured at least 14 people in Syria, where both Hezbollah and Iranian forces have been active for several years in support of its President Bashar al-Assad.
Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amini, was also among the thousands injured, Iranian officials said. Tehran “will duly follow up on the attack against its ambassador in Lebanon,” the country’s ambassador to the United Nations said in a letter to U.N. leaders on Wednesday.
Israel and Iran have already exchanged significant strikes since Oct. 7. Israel assassinated a top Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps commander Mohammad Reza Zahedi in Syria in April and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July. Iran fired a huge barrage of drones and missiles toward Israel in response to Zahedi’s killing.
This week’s bombings in Lebanon raised the possibility of further action, whether overt or covert. Police announced on Thursday that an Israeli citizen was arrested on suspicion of working with Iranian intelligence to assassinate leaders including Netanyahu and Gallant.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated U.S. appeals for calm during a press conference in Egypt on Wednesday, where he traveled for fresh Gaza cease-fire talks.
“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.
A conflict spreading to other fronts, he added, is “clearly not in the interest of anyone involved.”
The U.S., Blinken and other American officials said, were not involved in or pre-briefed on the remote explosions that rocked Lebanon on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Gallant spoke with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin three times in two days, the latest conversation on Wednesday reaffirming the “unwavering U.S. support for Israel in the face of threats from Iran, Lebanese Hezbollah, and Iran’s other regional partners” and the need for de-escalation, a Pentagon readout said.
U.S. officials were notified by Israeli counterparts on Tuesday that they were planning an operation against Hezbollah, but did not provide any details about what they were going to do, U.S. officials said.
ABC News’ Ghazi Balkiz, Will Gretsky, Morgan Winsor, Luis Martinez, Shannon K. Kingston, Ellie Kaufman, Nasser Atta, Jordana Miller and Marcus Moore contributed to this report.
