(NEW YORK) — A government plan to pave a highway in the Amazon rainforest is prompting concerns from environmentalists who say the development will cause more wildfires in the region.
But for those who live in remote areas of northwest Brazil, the highway could serve as a lifeline to modern civilization, experts argue.
The current road is 560 miles long and mostly dirt. It connects the Amazon-adjacent states of Amazonas and Roraima to the rest of the country.
The road is difficult for most vehicles to navigate, Nauê Azevedo, a litigation specialist for the Climate Observatory in Brazil, a network of 119 environmental, civil society and academic groups, told ABC News. The unpaved road has led to a lack in modern development in many rural areas, he added.
Paving the road, however, would pose dire consequences for the already degrading rainforest, Azevedo said.
The construction of BR-319, the formal government nomenclature, would likely lead to a “fishbone pattern” of deforestation extending from the roadway, Rachael Garrett, a professor of conservation and development at the University of Cambridge, told ABC News.
Moreover, the exposure to outside communities could harm indigenous groups living in the Amazon, Garrett said.
Added Azevedo: “From an environmental standpoint, paving this road will be so detrimental for the Amazon rainforest, which we all know is crucial — both to Brazil and the world in general.”
Aside from the further deforestation, environmental crimes, such as illegal logging and mining, would likely increase without proper governance in the region, Azevedo pointed out. Criminals would have easier access to remote areas and authorities would not be able to stop illegal activities, he said.
Brazil is experiencing one of the worst drought emergencies in history, according to the Pan American Health Organization. Rapid deforestation in the Amazon is reducing the amount of rainfall, therefore exacerbating the drought and risk of extreme wildfires.
Paving the road, however, would have social benefits for the residents nearby, according to Garrett, who has heard concerns from residents about having access to hospitals, schools and goods.
“There are really good, moral reasons, from the perspective of people living in this region, to have roads being paved,” she said.
The controversy over the construction of BR-319 has been going on for years. In 2022, a permit to pave the highway was issued by former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, whose administration favored development in the Amazon.
But in July, a federal court suspended the permit following a lawsuit by the Climate Observatory, citing the need for protective measures to be put in place to control deforestation before paving begins.
“We asked the judiciary branch to stop this licensing process,” Azevedo said. “The pathway is still there, but they will not be … allowed to build anymore. So, it will stay as it is right now.”
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva promised last week to pave the road while on a visit to an indigenous community in the state of Amazonas.
“We can’t leave two capitals,” Lula said, adding that the construction will be done “with the utmost responsibility.”
Lula’s administration has appealed to reinstate the permit suspended by a federal judge.
Ensuring governance surrounding the construction of the highway is of the utmost importance, Azevedo said, adding that the health of the rainforest depends on it.
“We can’t undo the damage that has already been done, but we could probably conserve and preserve what’s the left of it,” he said.
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) — The threat of a wider war is looming over the Israel-Lebanon border after two consecutive days of explosions across Lebanon and in Syria, confirmed to have killed at least 32 people.
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.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, meanwhile, said the “center of gravity” of Israel’s 11-month-old war against Hamas and its backers “is shifting” from the Gaza Strip to the northern border with Lebanon.
The Israeli rhetoric was punctuated by 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 that at least 32 people — including two children — were killed across the country. More than 3,250 people were injured, it said.
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.” Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is due to address the situation in a public address on Thursday afternoon.
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 IDF 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.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a news conference in Jerusalem on September 2, 2024. (OHAD ZWIGENBERG/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
(LONDON) — Israeli police and intelligence services said they foiled an Iranian plot to assassinate top leaders including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Moti Maman, a 73-year-old Israeli businessman from the city of Ashkelon, is accused of twice smuggling himself into Iran via Turkey to meet with intelligence officials directing would-be plots from Tehran.
The discussions allegedly included potential plans to attack Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Shin Bet intelligence chief Ronen Bar and former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, among others.
Police and Shin Bet said the alleged plots were intended as retaliation for the killing of Hamas chief Ismail Hanieyh in Tehran in July, which Iran blamed on Israel.
A joint police and Shin Bet statement also accused Maman of discussing the possibility of acting as a money courier for others in Israel, locating Russian and American elements for the elimination of Tehran’s opponents in Europe and the U.S. and recruiting a Mossad “double agent.”
Maman’s purported contacts were an Iranian businessman named only as Eddie, a man named Hajjah who was presented as an Iranian intelligence agent and other unnamed intelligence personnel.
The 73-year-old is alleged to have traveled to Iran twice — in May and August 2024 — following preparatory meetings with representatives of Eddie in Turkey, the first of which took place in the southern city of Samandag in April 2024, police said.
Maman was smuggled through the Turkey-Iran border twice, the second time “hidden inside a truck cabin,” the statement said.
“The Israeli citizen demanded an advance payment of $1 million dollars before performing any action,” police and Shin Bet said. “Iranian agents refused his request and informed him they would contact him in the future.”
Maman allegedly received the equivalent of about $558,000 in euros for attending the meetings with Iranian intelligence personnel.
Authorities indicted Maman on Sept. 19.
A senior Shin Bet official described the case as “very serious,” adding that security assessments “suggest that Iranians will continue their efforts to recruit operatives in Israel for intelligence gathering and carrying out terrorist missions in Israel, including approaching individuals with criminal backgrounds to fulfill these tasks.”
This image from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, acquired May 13, 2018, during winter at the South Pole of Mars, shows a carbon dioxide ice cap covering the region. As the sun returns in the spring, “spiders” begin to emerge from the landscape. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona)
(NEW YORK) — Over two decades since NASA researchers first saw images of mysterious, spider-like formations across the southern hemisphere of Mars, the space agency announced it’s recreated the planet’s “spiders” here on Earth.
Dubbed “araneiform terrain,” the formations span over a half-mile long and have hundreds of branches that resemble spider legs, according to NASA.
Theories surrounding the Red Planet’s “spiders” date back to 2003, when researchers got a glimpse of the terrain via Mars orbiters, with many believing they are formed through carbon dioxide ice, which doesn’t occur naturally on Earth.
To confirm this hypothesis, researchers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California said they recreated the formation process in a simulated Mars environment that mimicked the planet’s air pressure and temperature.
The simulation chamber — called the Dirty Under-vacuum Simulation Testbed for Icy Environments, or DUSTIE for short — uses liquid nitrogen to reach temperatures as low as minus 301 degrees Fahrenheit, according to NASA.
Results from the five-year study were published this month in The Planetary Science Journal.
“The spiders are strange, beautiful geologic features in their own right,” JPL researcher Lauren Mc Keown said in a Sept. 11 press release. “These experiments will help tune our models for how they form.”
Researchers found that when sunlight heats soil underneath slabs of carbon dioxide ice that form on the surface of Mars each winter, the soil absorbs the heat and causes the ice closest to it to turn directly into carbon dioxide gas, according to NASA.
This process, called “sublimation,” causes the ice to crack and brings dust and soil to the surface of the ice, according to the agency.
“When winter turns to spring and the remaining ice sublimates, according to the theory, the spiderlike scars from those small eruptions are what’s left behind,” researchers wrote in the study.
To recreate the formation process in DUSTIE, researchers said they analyzed simulated Mars soil that was contained and submerged into a liquid nitrogen bath.
Matching the reduced air pressure to match that of Mars’ southern hemisphere, researchers said they watched as carbon dioxide gas then flowed into the chamber and condensed into ice over a period of three to five hours.
Researchers then placed a heater inside the chamber below the simulated soil to warm it up and crack the ice.
Mc Keown said she was “ecstatic” when the theories were proven by seeing a carbon dioxide gas plume erupt from within the Mars soil simulation.
Lab experiments and orbiter images are the closest look NASA has at these unique Martian spiders, with the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers exploring far from the region where they occur.
So far, a spacecraft has yet to land on the Red Planet’s southern hemisphere.
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 20 more people were killed and 450 injured in Lebanon on Wednesday after a series of new explosions of wireless devices 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.
Members of the Lebanese Civil Defense are working to extinguish fires that broke out inside homes, cars and shops in the Bekaa, the South, Mount Lebanon and the southern suburbs due to the explosions, officials said.
All walkie-talkie devices were taken from security services members at the Rafiq Harir International Airport in Beirut after news of the devices exploding.
Pagers explode across Lebanon on Tuesday
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.
Israel was behind the deadly explosion of pagers across Lebanon on Tuesday, sources told ABC News on Wednesday.
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 explosions
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.
Fears grow of Israel-Hezbollah escalation
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 cellphones, 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.”
World reacts to pager attacks
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, Morgan Winsor, Anne Flaherty, Nasser Atta, Joe Simonetti, Jordana Miller and Helena Skinner contributed to this report.
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 14 more people were killed and 450 injured in Lebanon on Wednesday after a series of new explosions of wireless devices 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.
Members of the Lebanese Civil Defense are working to extinguish fires that broke out inside homes, cars and shops in the Bekaa, the South, Mount Lebanon and the southern suburbs due to the explosions, officials said.
All walkie-talkie devices were taken from security services members at the Rafiq Harir International Airport in Beirut after news of the devices exploding.
Pagers explode across Lebanon on Tuesday
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.
Israel was behind the deadly explosion of pagers across Lebanon on Tuesday, sources told ABC News on Wednesday.
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 explosions
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.
Fears grow of Israel-Hezbollah escalation
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 cellphones, 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.”
World reacts to pager attacks
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, Morgan Winsor, Anne Flaherty, Nasser Atta, Joe Simonetti, Jordana Miller and Helena Skinner contributed to this report.
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.
Catherine, Princess of Wales attends day fourteen of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club on July 14, 2024 in London. (Karwai Tang/WireImage via Getty Images, FILE)
(LONDON) — Kate, the princess of Wales, held a meeting Tuesday at Windsor Castle, marking a milestone in her recovery from cancer.
The meeting, which focused on Kate’s passion project of early childhood development, was officially recorded in the court circular, the official record of engagements carried out by working royal family members.
It is the first meeting recorded for Kate since she announced in March that she had been diagnosed with cancer.
Kate, the wife of Prince William, shared in a video message released on Sept. 9 that she has completed chemotherapy.
In her message, Kate, a mom of three, said her focus has now shifted to staying “cancer free” and gradually returning to work.
“Doing what I can to stay cancer free is now my focus. Although I have finished chemotherapy, my path to healing and full recovery is long and I must continue to take each day as it comes,” she said. “I am however looking forward to being back at work and undertaking a few more public engagements in the coming months when I can.”
Kate announced her cancer diagnosis in March after undergoing what the palace described at the time as “planned abdominal surgery” in January.
She has not revealed publicly what type of cancer she faced, nor exact details of her treatment beyond that she was undergoing “preventative chemotherapy.”
Since March, she has been seen only a few times publicly, including attending Trooping the Colour in June and watching the men’s singles final at Wimbledon in July alongside her daughter Princess Charlotte.
Ambulances are being dispatched to the area in Beirut, Lebanon while security forces take precautions after at least eight people, including a child, were killed in a mass explosion of wireless communication devices known as pagers on September 17, 2024. (Houssam Shbaro/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(LONDON) — Thousands of people were injured across Lebanon and Syria on Tuesday by an Israeli covert operation that remotely detonated pagers, ABC News sources confirmed.
A source described the attack as a “huge operation” that took between six and 12 months to plan, involving the use of informants and collaborators. Explosives were implanted inside the beepers, the source added.
The attack killed at least 12 civilians — among them an 8-year-old girl and an 11-year-old boy — according to Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad.
At least 2,800 people were injured, Abiad said. More than 460 people underwent surgery for serious injuries, the minister added. Most victims are suffering from eye and facial injuries, while others suffered injuries to hands and fingers, he said.
The Hezbollah militant group confirmed that 11 of its members were killed on Tuesday, though did not specify the manner of their deaths.
At least 14 people were also injured in targeted attacks on Hezbollah members in Syria, according to the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Hezbollah vowed a “reckoning” for Israel. Leader Hassan Nasrallah is due to speak on the situation on Thursday afternoon.
The pagers began exploding around 3:30 p.m. local time, according to Hezbollah officials. An intelligence source familiar with the situation told ABC News that Israel has long been working to perfect this type of “supply chain interdiction attack.”
Responding to media reports that the explosives were concealed inside its AR-924 pager model, Taiwan-based beeper maker Gold Apollo told ABC News it was not responsible for the design or manufacture of the item.
“According to the cooperation agreement, we authorize BAC to use our brand trademark for product sales in designated regions, but the design and manufacturing of the products are solely the responsibility of BAC,” they said.
ABC News has contacted BAC for comment. The company is based in Budapest, Hungary.
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 called the operation 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.
U.S. officials said Washington, D.C., had no role in — or pre-knowledge of — the attack. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told journalists on Tuesday that the administration was “gathering information” on the incident.
The U.S. and the European Union have both designated the Hezbollah militant group a foreign terrorist organization.
(NEW YORK) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Egypt on Wednesday for fresh talks on an Israel-Hamas cease-fire, and as tension with Hezbollah persists at the Israel-Lebanon border.
Here’s how the news is developing:
Israel moves troops toward Lebanon border
The Israel Defense Forces’ 98th Division will be deployed to the northern part of the country close to the border with Lebanon, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to ABC News.
The division was previously active in the Gaza Strip and is being deployed to the north amid rising tensions and ongoing skirmishes between the IDF and the Hezbollah militant group operating from southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah has vowed retaliation for Israel’s exploding pager attack that killed at least 12 people and injured at least 2,800 in Lebanon and Syria on Tuesday.
Israel behind Lebanon pagers attack, sources confirm
Sources confirmed to ABC News that Israel was responsible for the explosion of pagers across Lebanon on Tuesday.
The pagers began exploding around 3:30 p.m. local time, according to Hezbollah officials. An intelligence source familiar with the situation told ABC News that Israel has long been working to perfect this type of “supply chain interdiction attack.”
At least nine civilians were killed and more than 2,750 injured by the explosions, Lebanese health authorities said.
Hezbollah said 11 of its members were killed on Tuesday, though did not disclose the circumstances of their deaths. The militant group vowed retaliation against Israel.
Four Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza, IDF says
The Israel Defense Forces said four of its soldiers were killed fighting in southern Gaza on Tuesday.
Capt. Daniel Mimon Toaff, Staff Sgt. Agam Naim, Staff Sgt. Amit Bakri and Staff Sgt. Dotan Shimon were killed in combat, the IDF said in a statement.
One officer and two soldiers from the Shaked Battalion, Givati Brigade, were “severely injured” during the same incident, the statement said. Another two soldiers were “moderately injured.”
An officer from the Givati Reconnaissance Unit was also “severely injured” in southern Gaza, the IDF said.
Hezbollah vows ‘reckoning’ for pager explosions
In a Wednesday morning statement, the Hezbollah militant group said it would continue operations to “support Gaza” and vowed a “reckoning” for Israel after Tuesday’s “massacre” when more than 2,750 people were injured by exploding pagers in Lebanon.
Hezbollah blamed Israel for the operation, which killed at least nine civilians. Eleven Hezbollah members died on Tuesday, the group said, though — as is typical in its statements — did not specify how they died.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is set to speak on Thursday afternoon to address the situation.
Israel has not commented on its alleged involvement in Tuesday’s explosions in Lebanon.
IDF strikes Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon
The Israel Defense Forces said warplanes hit Hezbollah targets in six locations in southern Lebanon into Wednesday. Artillery strikes were also conducted, it added.
Israeli aircraft bombed “Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure” in the areas of Majdal Selm, Odaisseh, Markaba, Blida, Maroun El Ras and Chihine in southern Lebanon, the IDF said in a statement.
Air France, Lufthansa, British Airways cancel all flights to Israel
Three major European airlines have canceled all flights to Israel hours after a deadly attack on Hezbollah left at least nine people dead and over 2,700 people injured.
Air France has canceled flights to Tel Aviv for Sept. 18 and 19, according to the flight status board on their website. Lufthansa has canceled flights to Israel through Sept. 19 and British Airways has canceled flights to Israel through Sept. 27.
Netanyahu undermining security with ‘petty politics,’ political rival alleges
Benny Gantz — the leader of the centrist National Unity coalition — on Tuesday accused rival Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of endangering Israeli security “in the most tangible way that I can remember being done by a prime minister during a war, and in general.”
In a public statement — later also published on his X page — Gantz accused the prime minister of “security recklessness” over reports that Netanyahu is preparing to replace Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who is a major critic of the prime minister’s approach to cease-fire negotiations in Gaza.
Gantz said the alleged political maneuvering is particularly dangerous ahead of a potential expansion of the conflict in the north of the country, where the Israel Defense Forces has been engaged in cross-border fighting with the Iran-backed Lebanese Hezbollah militia since Oct. 8.
“Human lives and the future of the nation are at stake,” Gantz said, describing the situation as the “dictionary definition of petty politics, at the expense of national security.”
11,000 students killed in Gaza, education ministry says
The Palestinian Ministry of Education said Tuesday that some 11,000 students have been killed and more than 17,000 others have been injured in the Gaza Strip since Israel’s campaign there started on Oct. 7.
The ministry also said 500 schools and universities have been bombed across the territory in almost one year of war.
Islamic Jihad rocket commander ‘eliminated’ in Gaza, IDF says
The Israel Defense Forces said it “eliminated” the head of the Islamic Jihad militia group’s southern rocket and missile unit in a Monday airstrike on a humanitarian zone in southern Gaza.
Ahmed Aish Salame al-Hashash was the commander of the Islamic Jihad’s rocket forces in the southern Rafah area, the IDF said in a statement. He was “an important source of knowledge of rocket fire within the Islamic Jihad terror organization in Gaza,” the IDF added.
Al-Hashash was killed while “operating inside the Humanitarian Area in Khan Younis,” the IDF said, referring to one of the areas designated by the Israeli military as safer locations for civilians amid the devastating campaign in Gaza.
“Prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precise munitions, aerial surveillance, and additional intelligence,” the IDF said.
The IDF often launches strikes inside Gaza humanitarian zones in pursuit of militant leaders.
Gaza Health Ministry identifies more than 34,300 people killed
The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry published a 649-page document identifying 34,344 people killed in the strip between Oct.7, 2023 and Aug. 31, 2024.
The document includes the name, age, gender and identification number of each person killed.
The first 13 pages of the document include names of people all under 1 year old.
The document only includes the names of those the Health Ministry said it has been able to identify. Thousands more who are a part of the overall death toll are considered missing, the ministry said.
The current death toll in Gaza is 41,226 as of Sept. 16, according to the Hamas-run ministry.
Blinken to travel to Egypt
Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Egypt this week to discuss efforts to reach a Gaza cease-fire and hostage release deal, the State Department said.
Blinken will travel to Egypt Wednesday through Friday to co-chair the opening of the U.S.-Egypt Strategic Dialogue with Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty, the department said.
He will also meet with Egyptian officials “to discuss ongoing efforts to reach a ceasefire in Gaza that secures the release of all hostages, alleviates the suffering of the Palestinian people, and helps establish broader regional security,” the State Department said in a statement.
State Department doesn’t have timeline on new cease-fire proposal
State Department spokesperson Matt Miller declined to predict when a new Gaza cease-fire and hostage release deal proposal might be ready.
“We continue to engage with our partners in the region, most specifically with Egypt and Qatar, about what that proposal will contain, and making sure — or trying to see that it’s a proposal that can get the parties to an ultimate agreement,” Miller told reporters Monday.
“I don’t have a timetable for you other than to say that we are working expeditiously to try to develop that proposal, try to find something that would bring both the parties to say yes and to formally submit it,” Miller added.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken had previously said more than a week ago that a proposal would be presented to both Israel and Hamas “in the coming days.”
Miller said Monday that — just like in the negotiations overall — the main hurdles for creating the new proposal were the security situation in the Philadelphi corridor and the number of hostages and Palestinian prisoners that would be released.
‘Trajectory is clear’ at Israel-Lebanon border: Gallant
Time is running out for a diplomatic solution to the ongoing conflict at the Israel-Lebanon border, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin in an overnight phone call.
“Hezbollah continues to ‘tie itself’ to Hamas — the trajectory is clear,” Gallant told Austin per a readout from the Israeli Defense Ministry.
Gallant “reiterated Israel’s commitment to the removal of Hezbollah presence in southern Lebanon, and to enabling the safe return of Israel’s northern communities to their homes,” the defense ministry said.
Cross-border fighting between the Israel Defense Forces and Hezbollah — which is aligned with Iran and Hamas through the so-called “Axis of Resistance” — has been near-constant since Oct. 8.
Tens of thousands of Israelis have left their homes in the north of the country amid the fighting, with Israeli leaders repeatedly threatening a significant military operation to pacify Hezbollah forces operating in southern Lebanon.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a Sunday statement that the “current situation will not continue. This requires a change in the balance of forces on our northern border. We will do whatever is necessary to return our residents securely to their homes.”
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
Israel now says Houthi missile was hit by interceptor
A missile described by the Houthis as a “new hypersonic ballistic missile” was hit by an Israeli interceptor, Israeli military officials said Sunday, after initially saying it got through its defenses and fell in an open area.
An Israeli interceptor hit the missile fired into central Israel from Yemen, causing it to fragment, according to Israeli officials. The missile was not destroyed, but caused no damage, the Israeli officials said.
“The conclusion into the review of the surface-to-surface missile that was fired this morning is that there was a hit on the target from an interceptor, as a result of which the target fragmented but was not destroyed,” an Israeli military official said in a statement.
The Houthi movement claimed responsibility for the missile attack, claiming in a statement that it was aimed at an “important military target” in the Tel Aviv region. The Houthis claimed the missile flew some 1,267 miles in less than 12 minutes and that Israeli anti-missile defenses “failed to intercept” the weapon.
The Israel Defense Forces initially confirmed to ABC News that its defenses failed to intercept the missile but changed its conclusions upon further investigation.
-ABC News’ Victoria Beaule
IDF: ‘High probability’ 3 hostages were killed by Israeli airstrike in November
On Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces released the results of its investigation into the circumstances surrounding the deaths of three hostages, whose bodies were recovered from Gaza by IDF forces in December.
The three hostages — two soldiers, Ron Sherman and Nik Beizer, and civilian Elia Toledano — were killed “as a byproduct” of an Israeli airstrike on the compound where they were being held, according to the investigation. The IDF said the strike was targeting a Hamas commander, and that they believed the hostages were being held elsewhere.
“The findings of the investigation suggest a high probability that the three were killed as a result of a byproduct of an IDF airstrike, during the elimination of the Hamas Northern Brigade commander, Ahmed Ghandour, on November 10th, 2023,” the IDF said Sunday in a statement.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
Netanyahu vows to inflict ‘high price’ for Houthi missile attack
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to retaliate against the Houthi movement after a missile fired from Yemen fell in central Israel on Sunday morning.
“This morning, the Houthis launched a surface-to-surface missile from Yemen at our territory,” Netanyahu said before a cabinet meeting. “They should know that we exact a high price for any attempt to attack us.”
“Whoever needs a reminder of this, is invited to visit the port of Hodeidah,” the prime minister added, referring to Israel’s bombing of the strategic Yemeni port in July after a Houthi drone strike killed one person in Tel Aviv.
“Whoever attacks us will not evade our strike,” Netanyahu said.
