October 30, 2024 Middle East war news

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Abdulaziz Al-Burdini is comforted by his colleagues after realizing his mother was killed in an Israeli airstrike in central Gaza on October 30.

In the aftermath of an Israeli airstrike that killed three Palestinians, a paramedic was engulfed by grief after finding his mother among the dead.

Abdulaziz Al-Burdini, a Palestinian Red Crescent paramedic, was sent to Al-Maghazi in central Gaza on Wednesday to pick up wounded bodies following an Israeli airstrike that struck a car, according to Al-Aqsa Martyr’s Hospital.

Among the bodies was a woman he did not recognize. He took her to the hospital in an ambulance, but it was not until after the doctors confirmed her death that he looked at her face more closely and realized she was his mother.

CNN footage, taken with the paramedic’s permission, captured the moments soon after the realization.

“Mother… I didn’t know it was you, I swear I didn’t recognize you. I swear I didn’t!” he cries in anguish as he pushes the hospital stretcher carrying her body.

His colleagues approach to comfort him, but he pushes them away.

“I want to see my mother. Leave me, I want to stay with her,” he says, cradling her body.

He then stands weeping on top of her in his bloodied uniform screaming “Oh God, Oh God.”

“What do I tell my siblings now? Why do you all leave me? Why? I can’t hold this anymore. My brothers, my father, and now you? It’s too much for me!” Al-Burdini says, alluding to the death of his other family members during the war.

As his mother’s body is taken away, his friends and colleagues surround and comfort him.

“I didn’t know it was my mother…. she looked like someone I knew. I looked at her details to check if it was my mom,” he says, sobbing.

He then walks back to the morgue with his colleague to see his mother one last time. He sits beside her on the floor for a while, crying and praying. Then her body is taken for burial.

CNN has reached out to the Israeli military for comment on the strike.

Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati attends a press conference in Paris on October 24.

Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati says he feels optimistic for a potential Hezbollah-Israel ceasefire to be struck “within the next few hours or days,” after speaking with US envoy Amos Hochstein, who is expected to be in the region on Thursday.

“We are doing our best and are optimistic that within the next few hours or days we will have a ceasefire,” Mikati said Wednesday in an interview with Lebanese media outlet, Al Jadeed.

“[Hochstein’s] mere movement is a sign of hope. We hope that it will be translated into a ceasefire, and we will see him before the end of the week in Beirut,” Mikati also said.

CNN has reached out to Hochstein’s office for comment.

Hochstein and fellow White House official Brett McGurk will be in Israel Thursday for discussions about Lebanon, Gaza, Iran, the hostages and “other regional matters,” a US official previously told CNN. Separately, CIA Director Bill Burns is expected to be in Cairo.

Israel and the White House had earlier downplayed a reported ceasefire draft proposal circulating in Israeli media. “There are many reports and drafts circulating. None reflect the current state of negotiations,” the Israeli prime minister’s office (PMO) said in a statement to CNN.

The White House gave the same message, with National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett telling CNN that purported drafts shared online do not reflect the current state of ceasefire talks.

Israeli strikes near the city of Baalbek have killed 19 people, according to the Lebanese health ministry.

Eleven people were killed and three wounded by a strike at Salibi farm, the ministry said, adding that the injured had been admitted to intensive care.

In the nearby town of Bednayel, eight people were killed, the ministry said.

CNN has reached out to the Israeli military for comment.

At least 13 people have been killed by an Israeli strike in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza, according to Palestinian health officials, just one day after another Israeli attack in the area killed more than 90 people and drew international condemnation.

The latest strike took place at 1:48 p.m. (7:48 a.m. ET) on Wednesday on a street which used to house one of the area’s main food markets, according to a journalist on the ground working for CNN. Officials at the nearby Kamal Adwan Hospital said at least 13 were killed.

Footage filmed by the journalist shows crowds of people scrambling to help the injured. Civilians can be seen using carts and blankets to carry the wounded through rubble-filled streets to a nearby field hospital operated by the United Arab Emirates (UAE). CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for comment on the strike.

The latest strike comes after an Israeli attack Tuesday on a multi-story building killed more than 90 people including children. The US State Department said Wednesday that the Israeli government had still not given it an explanation for Tuesday’s strike and that it was “not doing enough to get us the answers that we have requested.”

Civilians in northern Gaza have been grappling with hellish conditions for several weeks. The region has been largely cut off from humanitarian supplies for nearly a month and Israel’s relentless bombardment has forced all of the region’s three hospitals to close at one point or another.

The Israeli Air Force has struck “command-and-control centers and terrorist infrastructure” in Baalbek, Lebanon, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Wednesday evening.

Baalbek is located deep inside Lebanon, approximately 40 miles (64 kilometers) northeast of Beirut.

The IDF said that before the strike steps had been taken “to mitigate” civilian harm, including by publishing an evacuation order.

Israel issued an evacuation order for Baalbek earlier, marking the first time it has ordered residents to leave the entire city. One of the areas marked for evacuation is home to Roman ruins, according to a map published by the IDF.

The strikes were first reported shortly after the order was published, according to a statement from Bachir Khodr, the governor of Baalbek-Hermel governorate.

Correction: This post has been updated to reflect the scope of the evacuation order.

White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre answers questions during the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, DC, on October 30.

Iran should not respond to Israel’s strikes on its territory this past weekend, White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Wednesday.

She was answering a question from CNN after the network reported that Israel’s recent strikes will be met with a “definitive and painful” response that will likely come before the US presidential vote, according to a high-ranking source earlier Wednesday.

“Iran should not respond to Israel’s retaliation,” Jean-Pierre said, before adding that “if Iran does choose to respond, however, the US will be standing by to assist Israel in its defense.”

Meanwhile, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller would not offer an assessment about what Iran “may or may not do,” but reiterated that the US believes “they should not respond.”

Miller would not say if the Islamic Republic had conveyed to the US an intention to respond before November 5.

“I’m not going to talk about communications between our two government, real or imagined. But as we have made clear publicly, and I can tell you that Iran knows this message quite clearly, they should not continue to escalate this conflict,” he said at a press briefing Wednesday.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller on October 1 in Washington, DC.

The United States is trying to secure a “diplomatic resolution with all of the relevant parties,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Wednesday ahead of talks between the US and Israel on Lebanon.

“We’re not there yet, but we’re working to get there,” Miller said at a news briefing.

Miller would not comment on reports from CNN and others that Israeli, American and Lebanese officials are pursuing a short-term ceasefire deal that would stop the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah for at least a month.

Miller also claimed that they are not calling for a ceasefire “right now,” but “want to get to the point where we have a ceasefire and a diplomatic resolution.”

“We do ultimately want to see a ceasefire. We want to see a diplomatic resolution that allows civilians, both in Lebanon and Israel, to return to their homes,” Miller said, noting that White House officials Amos Hochstein and Brett McGurk are traveling to Israel to discuss this and other matters.

“One of the things that they are going to discuss is how we can find a diplomatic resolution that fully implements a UN Security Council resolution 1701, something that we have not seen over the past few years,” he said.

Meanwhile, following the beginning of Israeli strikes on the historic city of Baalbek in Lebanon’s north, Miller stressed that the US has “made clear that the campaign they’re conducting in Lebanon should not, cannot, must not look like the campaign that they have conducted in Gaza.”

“We do not want to see that type of widespread damage,” he said. He noted that “it’s critical that civilian infrastructure and significant cultural heritage sites be protected.”

A Palestinian man walks past the UNRWA school in the Al-Amari refugee camp near Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank on October 29.

UN Security Council members have expressed “grave concern” over legislation adopted by the Israeli parliament that bans the main UN agency providing aid to Palestinians from operating in Israel.

In a Wednesday press statement, the members described the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) as the “backbone” of humanitarian efforts in Gaza.

The Israeli ban is expected to severely restrict UNRWA from operating in territories Israel occupies, including Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The move went ahead despite heated opposition from Arab members of the parliament, or Knesset, and strong international pressure from Western nations.

UNRWA provides “education, health, relief and social services programs and emergency assistance” the Security Council members noted. Until now, the agency has received special privileges as the main relief group operating in Gaza.

Israeli ambassador to the UN Danny Danon responded to the Security Council members’ statement, saying “UNRWA has failed in its mission” and alleging that the agency has been a conduit for Hamas to carry out violence. UNRWA has always strongly denied such allegations.

The United States opposes legislation passed by the Israeli parliament that would block the establishment of a US consulate for Palestinians in Jerusalem, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Wednesday.

Miller said the US had conveyed their opposition to the Israeli government. He added that the Biden administration continues “to believe opening a US consulate in Jerusalem would be an important way for our country to engage with and provide support to the Palestinian people.”

“In the meantime, we have a team in Jerusalem in our office of Palestinian affairs that manages our relationship with the Palestinian Authority and Palestinian people,” Miller said at a news briefing.

Some background: The Knesset on Tuesday passed legislation that blocks the establishment of diplomatic missions that are not embassies, such as consulates, in Jerusalem.

Under the Trump administration, the US shuttered its Consulate General in Jerusalem – which provided diplomatic representation to the Palestinians – with the US Embassy in Jerusalem, creating “a single diplomatic mission.”

In May 2021, Secretary of State Antony Blinken pledged to reopen the consulate in Jerusalem. However, there has been no movement toward that reopening in the three years since.

Lebanon's Hezbollah new leader Sheikh Naim Qassem delivers a speech from an unknown location on October 30, 2024 in this still image from video.

Hezbollah is involved not only in a war with Israel, but a global war that involves America and Europe too, according to its new leader.

In his inaugural speech as leader of the Lebanese militant group on Wednesday, Naim Qassem said the group was engaged in a “major project” that was not purely an “Israeli war on Lebanon and Gaza” but rather an “Israeli-American-European-global war.”

He also vowed to “continue to implement the war plan that was developed with the resistance leadership,” saying that Hezbollah would deal “accordingly” with further “developments.”

Reminder: Hezbollah has been dealt a series of blows in recent weeks as Israel has killed several of its key figures including its previous leader, Hassan Nasrallah.

Qassem said Hezbollah needed to bolster its “resistance with a defensive attack” because Israel didn’t “need an excuse” to attack the group or its allies.

“In any case, we consider ourselves to be in the framework of preemptive defense and readiness,” he added.

People search the rubble for missing persons on October 30 at the site of an Israeli strike a day earlier in Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza Strip.

The Israeli government has not given the United States an explanation for the deadly airstrike in northern Gaza on Tuesday, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said. He added that the Israeli government is “not doing enough to get us the answers that we have requested.”

“They said to us what they said publicly, which is they’re investigating the matter,” Miller said at a State Department briefing on Wednesday. He said the US had reiterated its call for answers on Wednesday.

Unanswered questions: At least 93 people, including 25 children, were killed in the strike on a multi-story building on Tuesday, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza. It is thought to be one of the deadliest strikes of Israel’s recent bombing campaign on northern Gaza and has been condemned by human rights groups and NGOs.

The Israeli military said Tuesday it was “trying to understand” why so many people were in Beit Lahiya at the time of its strike. Previously, IDF officials had said the area had been evacuated.

Miller noted that Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in his letter to the Israeli government earlier this month, said the Israeli government needs “to do more to set up a channel so when we have answers to these types of questions, that they provide us with those answers.”

“They also need to provide the public with answers to these questions,” Miller added.

Israel’s recent attacks on Iran will be met with a “definitive and painful” response that will likely come before the US presidential vote, a high-ranking source told CNN on Wednesday.

The remarks signal a departure from Iran’s initial attempts to downplay the severity of the strikes carried out by Israel on October 25, which marked the first time Israel has openly acknowledged striking Iranian targets.

“The response of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the aggression of the Zionist regime will be definitive and painful,” the source, who is familiar with Iran’s deliberations, said.

Although the source did not provide an exact date for the attack, they said it “will probably take place before the day of the US presidential election.”

CNN has reached out to the Israeli military for comment on the remarks.

In his initial response to last weekend’s strikes, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei opted to give a more measured response, saying the strikes should “neither be exaggerated nor downplayed.”

Trucks with aid destined for the Gaza Strip are parked on the side of the road on October 16, in Arish, Egypt.

The amount of aid entering Gaza hit the lowest level since Israel’s war in the enclave started, UN data shows.

Only 836 aid trucks have entered the Gaza Strip so far this month, according to data collected by the UN’s humanitarian aid agency OCHA.

Before the war, 500 trucks of aid and trade would enter the strip on average on a daily basis.

Figures released by COGAT, the Israeli agency that coordinates aid into Gaza, show that dozens of aid trucks enter Gaza daily, but hundreds wait “for collection” inside the territory. On Wednesday, for example, it said on its X account that 670 aid trucks were “waiting for collection,” without specifying the cause of the hold-up.

So far in October, 24,000 tons of aid entered Gaza compared to the year’s high of 137,000 tons in April, according to COGAT.

Some background: Aid figures provided by the UN and COGAT often differ, mainly because they count relief trucks differently.

Israel counts trucks arriving at its crossings for inspection and entry, while UN agencies count trucks inside Gaza that arrive for distribution.

Wednesday’s figures come after the Biden administration sent a letter to the Israeli government earlier this month demanding it act to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza within the next 30 days or risk violating US laws governing foreign military assistance, suggesting US military aid could be in jeopardy.

Smoke seeps out from building rubble at the site of an overnight Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburbs on October 1.

Israeli, American and Lebanese officials are pursuing a short-term ceasefire deal that would stop the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah for at least a month, an Israeli official told CNN on Wednesday.

During that time, negotiations over a final agreement to end the war between the two sides and enforce UN Resolution 1701 would take place.

CNN earlier reported that US envoys Amos Hochstein and Bret McGurk will be in Israel Thursday for discussions about Lebanon.

The Israeli government has decided that now is the right time to pursue a ceasefire in Lebanon, given what the official described as significant achievements reached in weakening Hezbollah and pressure applied on the militant group by the Lebanese government, the Israeli official said.

On Tuesday night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened a small security forum to discuss the progress in negotiations for an international agreement, the official said, adding that it’s clear there is not much more Israel can do in its operation against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The duration of the temporary ceasefire remains a subject of discussion but would last at least a month, the official said.

Israel has begun striking Baalbek after calling on everyone in the historic Lebanese city to evacuate, the local governor said Wednesday.

Israel issued an evacuation order for Baalbek earlier, marking the first time it has ordered residents to leave the entire city.

The city was listed as a UNSECO World Heritage Site in 1984 and is home to an ancient complex with Roman temples.

Correction: This post has been updated to reflect the scope of the evacuation order.

People search the rubble for missing persons at the site of an Israeli strike a day earlier that hit the Al-Loh family home in Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza Strip on October 30.

Israel has ordered residents to evacuate the historic city of Baalbek, as its war against Hezbollah creeps further north in Lebanon.

Meanwhile, the United States has called an Israeli strike in northern Gaza – one of the deadliest in months – as “horrifying,” as US officials head to the Middle East for renewed ceasefire talks.

Here are the latest developments:

• Lebanon evacuation: Residents are fleeing the northeastern Lebanese city of Baalbek – home to the ruins of a Roman temple complex – after Israel issued evacuation orders on Wednesday, Lebanese media reported. The evacuation order for Baalbek was the first time it has ordered residents to leave the entire city.

• Beit Lahiya strike: Israel’s strike on a high-rise building in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza, was “horrifying,” a US State Department spokesperson said. Palestinian health officials say Tuesday’s strike killed at least 93 people, including 25 children. An Israeli military source told CNN the building may have been a “Hamas gathering point.”

• UNRWA ban: Israel’s parliament has voted to ban a nearly eight-decade-old United Nations agency that provides essential services for Palestinian refugees. The head of the agency, UNRWA, has warned the ban will have “grave” consequences for Palestinians and the wider Middle East. A UN official has said life in Gaza will be “near impossible” without UNRWA.

• Jabalya photo: A photo taken Friday in Jabalya, northern Gaza, has offered a glimpse of the misery to which Palestinians are being subjected amid Israel’s renewed ground offensive there. The photo shows a large crowd of more than 200 people – mostly men, many almost naked – crouching in the rubble. Witnesses told CNN they were ordered to strip by the Israeli military as they fled the Jabalya refugee camp. Read the full story here.

• Ceasefire talks: Senior US officials are heading to the Middle East in a renewed push by the Biden administration to resolve the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon, and to deter a further Iranian response to Israel’s strikes last week. White House officials Amos Hochstein and Brett McGuirk are set to arrive in Israel Thursday, while CIA Director Bill Burns will be in Cairo, according to US officials.

Correction: This post has been updated to reflect the scope of the evacuation order.

The Israeli military said it killed Mustafa Ahmad Shahadi, whom it claimed was the deputy commander of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Forces, in an airstrike on the southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh on Wednesday.

Shahadi’s assassination is “part of the effort to degrade Hezbollah’s Radwan Forces’ capabilities to direct and execute terror activities against IDF troops and communities in the northern border,” the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement.

Hezbollah has yet to comment on Israel’s claims.

A group of top US officials are heading to the Middle East as the Biden administration seeks to make progress on resolving the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon, as well as deterring a further Iranian response to Israel’s strikes last week.

White House officials Amos Hochstein and Brett McGurk will be in Israel Thursday for discussions about Lebanon, Gaza, Iran, the hostages and “other regional matters,” a US official told CNN. US mediators have been working on a diplomatic arrangement to stop the hostilities on the blue line between Israel and Hezbollah.

Separately, CIA Director Bill Burns will be in Cairo, the official and another source familiar said.

In addition, CENTCOM Commander Erik Kurilla is traveling to the region “to discuss regional defense,” the US official said. Kurilla will visit Israel to engage with counterparts and US personnel, they added.

The slew of high-level travel comes days after Israel’s response to Iran for a ballistic missile attack on Israel earlier this month. Although US officials have warned that Tehran should not respond, Iranian officials have publicly suggested they plan to do so.

An Israeli military source tells CNN a building in the northern Gaza city of Beit Lahiya that collapsed after an Israeli military strike on Tuesday may have been a “Hamas gathering point.”

The strike on the building killed at least 93 people, including 25 children, Palestinian health officials say.

The source said the incident took place after Israeli forces fired on a Hamas spotter who was seen on the roof of the building, but that the military did not intend to collapse the building.

The US called the strike “horrifying,” and the United Nations said it was one of Israel’s deadliest attacks in Gaza in nearly three months.

The Israeli source said the military is investigating why so many people were inside the building, which was not known to be occupied, in an area that was meant to have been evacuated.

CNN cannot independently verify the claims and has reached out to Palestinian authorities in Gaza for comment.