Hezbollah confirms top commander killed after Israeli airstrike in Beirut

Our live coverage from the Middle East has concluded for the day. Please scroll through the post below for all the developments on Friday.

Amir Saeed Iravani, the Iranian envoy to the United Nations, said on Friday that Israel crossed a “red line” by targeting the Iranian ambassador in Lebanon.  

Mojtaba Amani, Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, was among those wounded in Beirut following Tuesday’s wave of deadly pager explosions, along with two embassy employees, according to Iranian state media.   

Amani sustained a superficial injury and received medical attention, Iranian state news agency IRNA said, citing the ambassador’s wife. 

Speaking in the United Nations Security Council on Friday, Iravani also accused the United States and its allies, namely the United Kingdom, of creating an “environment of impunity” for Israel.

Powerful Iran-backed Shia militia groups in Iraq have vowed to avenge Friday’s deadly Israeli strike in Beirut targeting a top Hezbollah commander.  

Iran-backed groups have carried out dozens of attacks against US forces in Iraq and Israel since the Israel-Hamas war started, to which the US has responded with airstrikes. 

These groups are considered the most powerful armed factions in the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed militias in the country.

Lebanon and Israel’s envoys clashed at the United Nations Security Council on Friday, following a series of Israeli attacks in Lebanon targeting the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.

Speaking in the council, Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib warned that no one in the world would be safe following the detonation of pagers and walkie-talkies in his country, calling the wave of exploding communications devices a “terrorist attack.” 

At least 37 people were killed in this week’s attacks targeting communications devices held by Hezbollah members, including some children, and more than 3,000 were injured. 

Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon responded, criticizing Bou Habib for not mentioning the Iran-backed Hezbollah in his remarks.

In his own address to the council, Danon accused Hezbollah of violating international law. While Israel does not seek a wider regional conflict, it will not allow the group to continue what he called “provocations,” he said.

Some context: Israel and Hezbollah have been trading fire across the Israel-Lebanese border for nearly a year, forcing tens of thousands of Lebanese and Israeli residents to flee the border areas. 

Danon said if Hezbollah does not retreat from Lebanon’s southern border with Israel, back to the north of the Litani River through diplomatic efforts, Israel would use any means to defend its citizens.

The Israeli envoy referenced UN resolution 1701 – which stipulates that Hezbollah forces must withdraw north of the Litani River, and that only the Lebanese military should hold positions in the border area. 

Hezbollah has confirmed that a senior commander, Ibrahim Aqil, was killed on Friday.

Some context: Israel claimed Aqil was among the top operatives killed Friday in an airstrike on a residential building in a southern suburb of Beirut. At least 14 people died and 66 were wounded in the strike, Lebanon’s health ministry had said.

The US has accused Aqil of involvement in the 1983 embassy strike, which killed 63 people, as well as the Hezbollah bombing of the Beirut Marine barracks, which killed 241 US personnel later that year. Read more here about Aqil.

The post was updated with more from the Hezbollah statement.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a news conference in Jerusalem on September 2.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is shortening a planned trip to the US next week, Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon confirmed on Friday. 

Netanyahu was originally scheduled to arrive Tuesday, the first day of the high-level week when world leaders gather in New York City.  

Danon told journalists at the UN headquarters in New York that the trip would be delayed, and that developments at home may determine Netanyahu’s travel schedule.  

Danon also raised the possibility that the Israeli leader might not come at all that week, adding, “we will know when he is coming or if he is coming.” 

Earlier on Friday, Netanyahu’s office said that the prime minister’s flight to New York will be delayed by one day. He is due to speak at the UN General Assembly next week. 

Hezbollah is an Iran-backed Islamist movement with one of the most powerful paramilitary forces in the Middle East. The group’s main base is on the Israel-Lebanon border, where the fallout from the Israel-Hamas war has been palpable — Hezbollah and Israel have been engaged in skirmishes since the war began, putting the entire region on a knife’s edge with fears it could spark a wider regional conflict.

Here’s what to know about Hezbollah

Origins: The group emerged from the rubble of Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon, when Israeli forces took almost half of Lebanon’s territory. This included Beirut, where Israeli forces, along with right-wing Israel-allied Christian Lebanese militias, laid siege to the western part of the capital to drive out Palestinian militants.

Israel’s operation resulted in more than 17,000 deaths, according to contemporary reports, and an Israeli inquiry into a massacre at the Beirut refugee camp of Sabra and Shatila. It’s one of the bloodiest events in the region’s recent history. The investigation, known as the Kahan Commission of Inquiry, held Israel indirectly responsible for the massacre that was carried out by the right-wing Christian Lebanese fighters. Estimates for the number of deaths at Sabra and Shatila vary between 700 and 3,000.

As droves of Palestinian fighters left Lebanon, a band of Shia Islamist fighters trained by the nascent Islamic Republic of Iran burst onto Lebanon’s fractious political landscape. The ragtag group had an outsized and violent impact. In 1983, two suicide bombers linked to the faction attacked a US marine barracks in Beirut, killing almost 300 US and French personnel, plus some civilians.

A year later, Iran-linked fighters bombed the US Embassy in Beirut, killing 23 people. In 1985, those militants coalesced more formally around a newly founded organization: Hezbollah.

Support from Iran: The group made no secret about its ideological allegiance to Tehran and received a steady flow of funds from the Islamic Republic. This helped propel Hezbollah to prominence. It became a participant in Lebanon’s civil war, which ended in 1990, and led a fight against Israeli forces occupying southern Lebanon, ultimately driving them out in 2000.

A terror designation: In Lebanon, Hezbollah is officially considered a “resistance” group tasked with confronting Israel, which Beirut classifies as an enemy state. Yet much of the Western world has designated Hezbollah a terrorist organization, largely since Argentina blamed the group for the 1992 attack on the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, killing 29 people, and the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center, killing 85, also in the capital. Both Iran and Hezbollah denied responsibility for those attacks.

Read more about Hezbollah here.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for an urgent phone consultation with some ministers and security officials, an Israeli official confirmed to CNN.

Official meetings are unusual during Shabbat but not unprecedented during wartime. 

Shabbat begins each Friday at sunset and ends at sundown the following day.

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin spoke with his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant for at least the third time this week, and he “reiterated his concern over the current escalation of exchanges” between Israel and Hezbollah, according to a Pentagon statement.

Austin’s flurry of calls with Gallant come as Israel has ramped up attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon, including an airstrike in Beirut on Friday. 

Remember: Thousands of Israeli and Lebanese citizens have been forced from their homes since last October as a result of repeated cross-border exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and the Israel Defense Forces, which flared up after Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.

“The Secretary also urged continued efforts to reach a ceasefire deal in Gaza that would bring home all hostages held by Hamas. Secretary Austin reaffirmed the United States’ unwavering, enduring, and ironclad commitment to Israel’s security,” the readout added.

Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said operations in the “new phase of the war” will continue, after an Israeli airstrike destroyed a residential building in a southern suburb of Beirut on Friday, killing at least 14, according to the Lebanese health ministry.

The strike in Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut, killed a senior Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil and other elite force operatives, according to Israel’s military. Hezbollah however has not confirmed the deaths. 

Gallant’s remarks echoed his comments earlier this week that warned of a “new era” in Israel’s war effort.

At least 14 people have died in Israel’s airstrike Friday in Beirut, according to the Lebanese health ministry. 

The strike hit a multistorey residential building in the southern part of the city. 

Top Hezbollah military figure Ibrahim Aqil and other senior Hezbollah elite force members were killed, according to the Israeli military.

Hezbollah has not confirmed the deaths.

The walkie-talkies and pagers that exploded earlier this week in Lebanon were tampered with by “foreign entities,” according to a letter from Lebanon’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations.

The letter was presented to UN Security Council members ahead of a Friday afternoon meeting about the attacks. 

More context: On Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant tacitly acknowledged his country’s role in the twin attacks, saying a “new era” in Israel’s war effort is beginning on the northern front.

The pager explosions came after Israel on Monday voted to add another war objective to its conflict with Iran-backed Hamas and Hezbollah: ensuring the safe return of residents from communities along its northern border with Lebanon to their homes.

Iran’s embassy in Lebanon accused Israel of crossing “all boundaries” following a deadly strike in southern Beirut on Friday that destroyed at least one residential building. 

The Israeli military said the strike killed senior Hezbollah military figure Ibrahim Aqil along with other top operatives and leaders in the chain of command of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan unit. Hezbollah has not commented on the Israel claim.

One multi-story residential building collapsed in the Jamous area of Beirut’s southern suburbs following the attack, Lebanon’s Civil Defense said, revising an earlier statement by the group that described two collapsed buildings.

CNN’s Sarah El Sirgany contributed reporting to this post.

The Israeli military claimed that it killed Hezbollah military official Ibrahim Aqil in a strike in Lebanon on Friday. Senior operatives in Hezbollah’s operations staff and commanders from Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force were also killed, it said.

At least 12 people have died and 66 others have been wounded in the “targeted” strike in southern Beirut.

Here are the key things to know:

Senior operatives in Hezbollah’s operations staff and commanders from Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force were killed in Israel’s strike in southern Beirut, the Israeli military claimed on Friday.

Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Daniel Hagari said that “about 10 commanders” were killed.  

The military claimed earlier that senior Hezbollah military official Ibrahim Aqil was also killed in the strike.

Allegations of a raid: The military alleged that Aqil and the commanders were the architects of a plan to raid and occupy communities in Galilee in northern Israel and kill civilians and Israeli soldiers, comparing it to the October 7 attacks carried out by Hamas last year. 

“They were underground underneath a residential building in the heart of the Dahya neighborhood, using civilians as a human shield,” Hagari said at a news conference on Friday. “They were coordinating terror operations against Israeli citizens.” 

In its statement, the military also accused Aqil of promoting or taking part in other attacks against Israel.

There has been no confirmation from Hezbollah of the deaths.

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon speaks during a United Nations Security Council meeting on September 19 in New York.

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations will tell the Security Council the “diplomatic window of opportunity is closing” to condemn and restrain Hezbollah and Iran, the country’s mission to the UN said. 

The Security Council is due to meet later Friday for an emergency discussion on “recent developments in Lebanon.” 

Danny Danon will say that “the Security Council must strongly condemn Iran and Hezbollah; the time has come to move to action — words are not enough.” 

He is set to tell the meeting that for too long UN resolutions have been ignored, citing UN resolution 1701 – which stipulates that Hezbollah forces must withdraw to north of the Litani River, and that only the Lebanese military should hold positions in the border area. 

“It is time that Hezbollah and Iran will bear the severe consequences for their actions. Hezbollah must be disarmed and Iran must be held accountable for destabilizing the region,” Danon will say at the meeting, according to Israel’s UN mission. 

People gather near a damaged building at the scene of an Israeli missile strike in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon, on Friday.

The death toll has risen to at least 12 from Israel’s strike on southern Beirut, Lebanon’s health ministry says. 

A further 66 people were injured, including nine people in critical condition.

At least two residential buildings collapsed in the Jamous area of the city’s southern suburbs following an Israeli strike targeting a top Hezbollah commander.

President Joe Biden speaks during a Cabinet meeting inside the West Wing of the White House on Friday.

US President Joe Biden didn’t directly respond when asked what Israel’s strikes in Lebanon mean for the peace process in the Middle East, only saying his administration wants to get people back to their homes safely and voicing optimism that a ceasefire and hostage deal could get done. 

The president said the administration wanted to “make sure that both people in northern Israel as well as southern Lebanon are able to go back to their homes and go back safely.”  

Asked if that was realistic, Biden responded, “If I ever said it’s not realistic, we might as well leave.”

“A lot of things lot of things don’t look realistic until we get them done,” he said. “We have to keep at it.”

Where things stand: CNN has reported that despite months of feverish work, there has been growing skepticism within the administration about whether a deal can be struck for a ceasefire deal in Gaza before the end of the president’s term in January.

Top officials increasingly question whether either Hamas or Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are interested in striking a deal at all, leading to questions about how to proceed. 

Biden’s national security advisers have no imminent plans to present the president with an updated ceasefire proposal, a sign of the stalled talks.

The Lebanese government has requested an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council following the latest Israeli strike in Beirut, accusing Israel of carrying out acts “akin to genocide” on Lebanese soil.

The Lebanese caretaker cabinet said in a statement posted on X that Friday’s “targeting of a populated residential area once again proves that the Israeli enemy has no regard for humanitarian, legal, or moral considerations, but continues what resembles genocide.”

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati and his ministers were informed of the strike during a cabinet meeting, at which he said the latest Israeli attacks in Lebanon — including the pager explosions this week — were “a disgraceful and condemned criminal act, akin to genocide and a horrific massacre.”

While urging the international community to act in the face of Israeli military action, Mikati said Lebanon has received calls from international senior officials confirming that Israel “has crossed the red lines.”

Mikati also announced he will travel to New York on Friday to address the United Nations directly, and he will file a bid to “introduce international laws to safeguard civilian technologies from being used for military purposes.”

An undated photograph shows Ibrahim Aqil.

The Israeli military has claimed it assassinated senior Hezbollah military figure Ibrahim Aqil in Friday’s strike in southern Beirut.

The military said Aqil was part of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force.

A multistory residential building collapsed in the Jamous area of Beirut’s southern suburbs following an Israeli strike targeting a top Hezbollah commander, according to Lebanon’s Civil Defense.

A previous statement by the group described two collapsed buildings. 

Earlier, it also said search and rescue teams were on their way to search for those under the rubble, and instructed people to evacuate the site of the destruction.

A CNN team on the ground saw part of an empty plot left behind by a destroyed building.

Clarification: This post has been updated with the revised statement from Lebanon’s Civil Defense.

Ambulances arrive at the scene of an Israeli missile strike in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon, on September 20.

At least nine people have died and 58 others have been injured in a strike on southern Beirut, Lebanon’s health ministry said.

At least eight of the hospitalized are in critical condition, it said. 

The strike flattened a multistory building in a residential neighborhood.

A CNN team at the scene saw a frantic mass effort to rescue people from underneath the rubble.

The number of dead and injured has been updated in this post.

Sources told CNN that senior Hezbollah military figure Ibrahim Aqil was the target of Israel’s strike on southern Beirut that leveled a building, killing at least eight people and injuring dozens of others.

Last year, to mark the 40th anniversary of Hezbollah’s bombing of the US Embassy in Beirut in 1983, the US State Department announced a reward of up to $7 million for information on Aqil, a key leader of the militant group.

The US has accused Aqil of involvement in the 1983 embassy strike, which killed 63 people, as well as the Hezbollah bombing of the Beirut Marine barracks, which killed 241 US personnel later that year.

Rewards for Justice, a State Department body that offers rewards for information on terrorists, claims Aqil serves on the Jihad Council, Hezbollah’s highest military body.

In the 1980s, he was a member of Islamic Jihad, the militant group that claimed the two 1983 attacks.

Where just over an hour ago there was a multistory building, now there is destruction.

As ambulances and fire trucks rushed to the scene, a CNN team in Beirut saw one car fleeing with suitcases strapped onto it. After days of exploding devices and, now, airstrikes, no one knows what might happen next.

Police have cordoned off the area and just told the CNN team to leave as a frantic rescue effort played out.

Two severely wounded people have been carried to one of 10 nearby ambulances, and a corpse in a body bag was rushed away on a quad bike.

Witnesses described nearby buildings shaking nearly half an hour after the strike.

A White House spokesperson was “not aware” of any advance notice from Israel to the US ahead of Friday’s strike in southern Beirut targeting a senior Hezbollah official.  

“I am certainly not aware of any brief notification of those strikes,” White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters during a call Friday, adding the lack of notice was “not atypical.” 

He said he would “let the IDF speak to their operations.”  

Ibrahim Aqil, a senior Hezbollah military figure, was the target of Israel’s airstrike in southern Beirut on Friday, sources familiar with the matter told CNN.

Aqil is the head of Hezbollah special operations and one of the most senior military commanders in the organization, a source familiar with the matter tells CNN.

This post has been updated with more information about Aqil.

At least three people were killed and 17 others injured in the Israeli strike on southern Beirut, Lebanon’s health ministry said. 

Lebanese media, including the official National News Agency, reported several casualties from the attack, which reportedly targeted a senior Hezbollah figure.

An ambulance arrives at a hospital after an Israeli strike in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon, on September 20.

Ambulances are transporting the victims, both the dead and the injured, from the area, including a large number of children and women, NNA reported.

The building is located in a densely populated area, which is also a Hezbollah stronghold.

People check the damage at the scene of an Israeli strike in Beirut's southern suburbs on September 20.

The target of Israel’s strike in southern Beirut on Friday was a senior Hezbollah official, according to a Lebanese security source and CNN’s Israeli affiliate Kan.

Israeli media and Axios report that the target was Ibrahim Aqil, a senior Hezbollah military figure.

The US government has offered a $7 million bounty for Aqil, whom it accused of playing a role in the 1983 Beirut bombing.

A senior Hezbollah official was targeted in the Israeli airstrike on southern Beirut, a Lebanese security official told CNN.

We’ll bring you more as we get it.

People inspect the site of an Israeli strike in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon, on September 20.

Israeli strikes on the Lebanese capital of Beirut are rare.

Friday’s is the third in nearly a year of cross-border strikes with militant group Hezbollah since the conflict began last October.

In January, an Israeli airstrike killed Saleh Al-Arouri, deputy head of Hamas’ military wing, who had been living in Beirut.

In July, a second Israeli strike on Beirut killed Hezbollah’s most senior military official, Fu’ad Shukr.

People inspect the site of an Israeli strike in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon, on September 20.

Video and images from the scene show extensive destruction on a street of high-rise apartment buildings in Beirut following an Israeli strike.

A number of vehicles were destroyed and thick smoke hung in the air. 

One video, filmed on one of the streets in the southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold, shows what appears to be the ground floor of a building destroyed, with several demolished cars and debris scattered around.

Many residents gathered in an attempt to clear the rubble. 

Smoke rises from Beirut southern suburbs, Lebanon, on September 20.

The Israel Defense Forces reported Friday it carried out what it called a “targeted” strike in the Lebanese capital, Beirut. 

There are no details about the target or casualties. 

“At this moment, there are no changes in the Home Front Command defensive guidelines. We will update regarding any changes,” the IDF said, referring to security precautions in force in Israel itself. 

Civil Defense first-responders carry a wounded man whose handheld pager exploded, at al-Zahraa hospital in Beirut, Lebanon, on September 17.

Some 3,000 people were treated in Lebanon for injuries sustained in the immediate aftermath of the pager and walkie-talkie explosions this week, the country’s health minister said Friday. 

Firass Abiad told reporters that doctors worked non-stop for 48 hours, with some patients being transferred for treatment outside Lebanon. 

Some patients were taken to Syria, he added, “particularly in the Bekaa region, it was easier for them to go to Damascus due to the chaos that occurred.” 

Other patients went to Iran but “98% of the patients were treated in Lebanon by our Lebanese doctors and specialists,” the minister said. 

Youssef Bakhash, president of the Medical Association, told the news conference that “many of the injuries to hands would need at least one year to fully recover.” 

 “Today, we confirm that all the injured have received the necessary initial treatment, whether it was for facial and eye injuries, hand and finger injuries, or abdominal injuries.” 

Israeli President Isaac Herzog said Friday that his country did not want war but was entitled to live in security and tranquility. 

Herzog posted on X that: “We did not want this war. We do not want war – not today, not ever. But we are entitled to the most basic rights of any nation to live like any other people, in peace, security, and tranquility, and to bring our sons and daughters back home – the hostages back to their families, and the displaced citizens from the north and south to their homes, schools, and businesses.” 

He said Israeli air force strikes in southern Lebanon overnight had been “precise and impressive” and added that “we reaffirm our resolve to overcome in the face of terror.” 

Earlier, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) urged residents of several towns in the north of the country to take additional security precautions as fears grow of an intensification of cross-border attacks between Israel and Hezbollah. 

In a Friday statement, the IDF said residents of the town of Safed and other areas were requested to limit movement in the area, avoid gatherings and stay near protected spaces. 

Relatives of the deceased mourn by their shrouded bodies after the victims of an Israeli attack are brought to Al Awda Hospital in Jabalia, Gaza, on September 20.

Multiple people were killed across Gaza, officials said Friday, after they reported several airstrikes on parts of Gaza City and northern Gaza over the past 24 hours. 

Six people were killed in an airstrike on a residence near the Municipal Park in Gaza City, Gaza Civil Defense said, and seven people, including two women, were killed in a strike on a house in the Al-Daraj area, in central Gaza City, just before midnight local time on Thursday. 

Hospital authorities provided CNN with the identities of eight people killed in an airstrike on a house in Nuseirat refugee camp early Friday. The list of those killed included three children.

CNN saw the bodies being brought into Al Awda hospital and is reaching out to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for comment on the strike. One person was also killed in an Israeli airstrike on a house in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip. 

In Bureij in central Gaza, CNN filmed rescue operations Thursday – two days after several buildings there were struck. 

More than 50 people were reported missing or trapped under the rubble of a four-story building, according to Civil Defense. CNN has approached the IDF for comment on the Bureij strikes. 

About 130 rockets have been fired into northern Israel from Lebanon on Friday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said. 

Merom HaGalil Regional Council said sirens had been activated in a number of locations, but no casualties had been reported and there were no impacts reported within settlements. 

Ten firefighting teams were sent to locations near the town of Safed and Kibbutz Ortal in the Golan Heights to tackle wildfires that broke out following rocket fire from Lebanon. 

Meanwhile, Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) said Israel launched more airstrikes Friday. Israeli aircraft targeted the town of Yaroun in the Bint Jbeil district around noon local time. 

NNA also reported that the Zibqin Valley in the western sector – some 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) from the border with Israel – was subjected to artillery fire. 

It comes after Israel launched audacious, coordinated attacks targeting Hezbollah members with explosives hidden inside pagers and walkie-talkies, events that have brought the Middle East to the brink of a wider conflict nearly a year after Palestinian militant group Hamas’ October 7 assault on Israel that resulted in the war in Gaza.

Israel’s audacious, coordinated attacks, which targeted Hezbollah members with explosives hidden inside pagers and walkie-talkies, have once again brought the Middle East to the brink of a wider conflict nearly a year after Palestinian militant group Hamas’ October 7 assault on Israel that resulted in the war in Gaza.

Focus is now on what Hezbollah and Israel’s next moves will be, with the United Nations Security Council due to hold an emergency meeting Friday to discuss the situation.

Uncertainty remains over whether Israel’s attacks are a precursor to a ground invasion across its northern border into Lebanon and to what extent Iran-backed Hezbollah, one of the most powerful paramilitary forces in the region, is capable of responding even as its leader vowed that a “reckoning will come.”

Here’s what we know:

What’s the fallout?

At least 37 people were killed in the explosions, including children, and nearly 3,000 wounded. Hezbollah said at least 38 of its members had been killed since Tuesday.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah condemned the twin attacks, calling them “massacres” that “crossed all the red lines” because the devices exploded in public areas, with civilians among those harmed.

What’s Israel’s plan?

Israel has signaled its readiness for war with Hezbollah. The Israeli defense minister’s warning that a “new era” of war was beginning was followed by the military confirming its top commander had “completed approval of plans for the northern arena” along the Lebanon border.

The refocus north comes after Israel made it a new war objective to return displaced residents to their homes near the northern border after being evacuated due to Hezbollah attacks.

How could Hezbollah respond?

Hezbollah’s leader hinted at retaliation for the twin attacks, but it’s unclear what capacity the group might have if many of its members are wounded and key communication methods are no longer reliable.

Despite appearing weakened, Hezbollah is still believed to be the most heavily armed non-state group in the world, with an increasingly sophisticated arsenal that has the potential to inflict significant damage on Israel.

There are, however, signs the already secretive group may have been driven deeper underground. 

Read the full story.

The Israeli military is investigating soldiers for throwing bodies from a rooftop in the northern occupied West Bank on Thursday.

The incident comes amid an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) incursion in the area that left seven dead, according to the Palestinian government, and has seen clashes and intense gunfire with militants. 

The incident was filmed from several angles by residents of Qabatya, near Jenin, and witnessed by an Associated Press reporter.

The longest video shows three Israeli soldiers standing on a rooftop. They can be seen pushing a body over the edge of the building. The feet of the body get stuck in what appears to be electrical or telephone cables, and it dangles over the edge, headfirst. One of the soldiers then reaches over to dislodge the person’s feet, and the body tumbles to the ground. 

Approaching a second body on the roof, a soldier picks up the person’s hands and another picks up the feet. They swing the body back and forth, then toss it over the side. Finally, a soldier uses his feet to kick a third body over the side of the building. 

Under international law,militaries are required to treat the bodies of enemy soldiers with respect, prevent them from being mutilated, and return them to the deceased’s family. The Israeli military often confiscates the bodies of militants killed in battle. 

Read the full story.

Rockets fired from southern Lebanon are intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome air defence system over the Upper Galilee region in northern Israel on September 18.

Israel and Hezbollah — a powerful Iran-backed paramilitary group in Lebanon — have been in conflict for decades, but the two have ramped up cross-border attacks on each other since the war in Gaza began.

This week’s deadly attacks in Lebanon, in which explosives were planted in devices carried by Hezbollah fighters, have drawn sharper focus to the long-simmering conflict.

Israel’s defense minister says a “new era” of war is beginning, and “the center of gravity is moving north,” referencing the country’s border with Lebanon. Hezbollah’s leader says the unprecedented attacks “crossed all the red lines.”

How we got here:

A “supportive front” for Gaza: Hezbollah is part of a larger Iran-led alliance of militant groups spanning Yemen, Syria, Gaza, and Iraq that has engaged in increased clashes with Israel and its allies since the war with Hamas started.

The alliance said they will continue striking Israeli targets as long as the war in Gaza goes on, rebranding themselves as a “supportive front” for Palestinians in the strip, as described by a senior Hezbollah leader.

Killing of key leader: After months of tit-for-tat exchanges, tensions escalated when Israel said it killed Hezbollah’s most senior military commander with a strike on Beirut, Lebanon, in July.

Israel held the commander, Fu’ad Shukr, responsible for a deadly attack on the Israeli-occupied town of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights, which Hezbollah has denied responsibility for.

In retaliation, Hezbollah launched hundreds of drones and missiles at targets in Israel in August. Israel denied any important targets were struck, and no evidence has been made public to contradict that denial.

Displaced residents: The increase in cross-border fighting has forced people from their homes in both northern Israel and southern Lebanon.

On Tuesday, Israel made it a new war objective to return tens of thousands of Israel’s northern residents to their homes near the border. Officials and residents from the northern region have placed increasing pressure on the Israeli government about the need to return.

More than 100,000 people have been displaced from southern Lebanon, according to the Lebanese health ministry.

Hezbollah’s arsenal: Hezbollah is believed to be the most heavily armed non-state group in the world. Though no match for Israel’s military might, the group’s increasingly sophisticated arsenal has the potential to inflict significant damage.

But Hezbollah has been backed into a corner by Israel’s latest attacks, with its credibility as the most well-equipped, well-trained and highly disciplined of Iran’s proxies now at risk.

Smoke rises after an Israeli airstrike in Tyre, Lebanon, on September 19.

Israel’s attacks on Hezbollah’s operatives and commanders this week are a signal that its war is moving north, according to Steven Cook, senior fellow for Middle East and Africa Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

From Israel’s perspective, Hezbollah has been firing on Israeli civilians as cross-border skirmishes ramped up over the past year, forcing them to evacuate from their homes.

At least 37 people were killed in the pager and walkie-talkie explosions this week, including children, and nearly 3,000 wounded. Hezbollah said at least 38 of its members had been killed since Tuesday.

Israel perceives the attack as “a precise operation against their enemies” and has been “unapologetic” in the face of massive criticism that their actions could violate the rules of war, Cook said.

Israel has made the return of displaced residents to the north of the country near its border with Lebanon an official war goal, which has been met with support by displaced Israelis who were evacuated due to the risk of Hezbollah attacks.

Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said this week that a “new era” of war was beginning and that “the center of gravity is moving north,” referencing the country’s border with Lebanon. 

Some context: Officials and residents from Israel’s northern region have become increasingly vocal about the need to return to their homes and piled pressure on the government to act against the threat of Hezbollah’s rockets from southern Lebanon. 

More than 62,000 people from the north of the country have been internally displaced since hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah ramped up after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel, according to Israeli government data shared with CNN last month.

Across the border in Lebanon, more than 94,000 have been displaced, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.

Right-wing Israelis with relatives held hostage by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and their supporters, rally in Jerusalem, on Sept.ember 19.

As Israel’s military turns its focus north to the border with Lebanon, some of its residents fear how the change in strategy will impact its war against Hamas and its effort to free the hostages in Gaza.

Families of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza have held regular protests across the country, piling pressure on the government to secure their release.

A group that represents the relatives of some hostages protested near the Knesset in Jerusalem on Thursday evening, asking to support the families of abductees.

Tikva (Hope) Forum — a smaller, right-wing group not associated with the larger Hostages Families group — said they “want our abductees home and quickly, only crushing Hamas will bring them back.” 

The families from the Tikva Forum are publicly against a ceasefire deal.

Riki Baruch, sister-in-law of Israeli hostage Uriel Baruch, said she appealed to the government to “use all levers of pressure on Hamas, including stopping the humanitarian aid.”

Ambulances are surrounded by people at the entrance of the American University of Beirut Medical Center, on September 17, after paging devices exploded simultaneously across Lebanon.

The deadly explosions of pagers and walkie-talkies across Lebanon this week revealed an unprecedented infiltration of militant group Hezbollah’s critical command and control networks.

The explosions killed at least 37 people, including children, and wounded more than 3,000 others.

Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate against Israel, but questions remain on how the compromised Iran-backed paramilitary group will respond.

Israel’s defense minister has said a “new era” of its war is beginning and “the center of gravity is moving north,” referencing the country’s border with Lebanon, tacitly acknowledging the military’s role in the device attacks.

This week’s stealth attacks risk pushing the embattled region to the brink of wider conflict.

Here’s what to know:

Smoke and fire rise from the site of an Israeli strike on the southern Lebanese border village on September 19. The Israeli military said it had hit Hezbollah rocket launchers.

The Israeli military continued to strike Hezbollah sites on Thursday, saying it hit approximately 100 rocket launchers.

In addition to the launchers, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement that it struck “additional terrorist infrastructure sites, consisting of approximately 1000 barrels that were ready to be used in the immediate future to fire toward Israeli territory.”

Each rocket launcher consists of a multi-barreled weapon that can fire unguided rockets.

According to Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency, Israel carried out at least 52 strikes in the south of Lebanon between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. local time.

The Iranian-backed Hezbollah group earlier on Thursday said it launched at least 17 attacks on military sites in northern Israel.     

Israel’s military has released instructions for the communities in several areas in northern Israel, instructing civilians to minimize movements in the areas to avoid gatherings and to stay close to shelters.  

Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a "Fighting Anti-Semitism in America Event" in Washington, DC, on September 19.

Former President Donald Trump called the upcoming US election “the most important” in Israel’s history, saying that the Jewish state would be “eradicated,” “wiped off the face of the earth,” and “cease to exist” if Vice President Kamala Harris won the presidency.

Speaking at an antisemitism event in the US, Trump appeared preoccupied with what he described as ingratitude from Jewish voters, whom he said should be supporting him in greater proportions because of his record on Israel.

“You have to defeat Kamala Harris more than any other people on earth,” Trump said, addressing the Jewish voters in the audience.

“And I’ve never said this before: More than any people on earth, Israel has to defeat her.”

He then promised to “make Israel great again.”

Amy Spitalnick, the CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and a former aide to Democratic officials in New York, accused Trump of using “a speech about antisemitism as an opportunity to embrace antisemitic tropes and attack the American Jewish community.”

“Treating Jews and Israel as political footballs makes Jews, Israel and all of us less safe,” Spitalnick added.

Read the full story.

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is pictured in a file image from April 2022.

A senior adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has presented to the Biden administration a new proposed ceasefire and hostage deal with Hamas, an Israeli official told CNN.

The proposal from Gal Hirsch, a close Netanyahu ally who serves as Israel’s coordinator for hostages and the missing, would see a permanent end to the conflict in Gaza, the release in one stage of all hostages held there in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, and the safe passage for Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar to be exiled out of Gaza, according to Kan 11, an Israeli national broadcaster and CNN affiliate.

Reactions to the proposal have widely been that it will be a non-starter for Hamas, which has not commented on it.

It is unclear whether the proposal addresses the presence of Israeli troops in Gaza after a ceasefire and hostage deal – a key sticking point in stalled negotiations. And the idea that Sinwar would leave Gaza is seen as unlikely by American officials.

A separate Israeli source familiar with the negotiations said the proposal was not being discussed among the Israeli negotiating team as a basis for new negotiations with Hamas, which have been at a standstill for weeks now.

The Hostages Families Forum initially praised the outline, but later on Thursday called it a “cynical and cheap manipulation.”

Read more on the ceasefire negotiations.

People watch a televised speech by the leader of the Hezbollah movement Hassan Nasrallah inside a house in the southern Lebanese village of Zawatar on September 19.

Hezbollah is on the back foot. The first sign was the absence of a public gathering – typically of high-level party officials and supporters – to watch the militant group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, deliver a televised speech on Thursday.

The second sign was that Nasrallah’s address – his first since two waves of attacks detonated thousands of Hezbollah wireless devices earlier this week – was very possibly pre-recorded.

The leader of the powerful militant group has not delivered a speech in person since the start of Lebanon’s last all-out war with Israel in 2006. But he will often make a point of proving that his broadcasts are live.

Thursday’s speech was billed as live, but about 20 minutes in, Israel dropped flares over the Lebanese capital and sent windows shaking with a fresh wave of sonic booms. The roar reverberated throughout the city, but the Beirut-based militant leader neither flinched nor referenced the incident.

Israel’s fighter jets seemed intent on underscoring the gains of the attacks on Hezbollah’s wireless devices: the group had been driven deeper underground.

Nasrallah vowed a “reckoning” but was scant on the details. The attack “will be met with a reckoning and fair punishment in ways that they expect and don’t expect,” he said.

Read the full analysis.