October 20, 2024 - news on the wars in the Middle East

Three Lebanese soldiers were killed by an Israeli strike on the Ain Ebel-Hanin road in the country’s south, Lebanon’s army said in a post on X on Sunday.

CNN has contacted the Israel Defense Forces for comment.

It brings the total number of Lebanese army troops killed since the latest conflict broke out between Israel and Hezbollah to eight, according to a tally by Reuters. Sixteen other Lebanese troops have been killed while off-duty.

Some context: The Lebanese Armed Forces is not part of the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah and has attempted to maintain distance from the conflict.

When Israel launched its ground invasion of Lebanon on September 30, soldiers from the Lebanese army withdrew along the border and moved to barracks in the border villages, according to a Lebanese security source.

The Army Command later denied reports of a withdrawal.

The United Nations says “the nightmare in Gaza is intensifying” after officials in the enclave reported that Israel killed at least 87 people in an airstrike on Beit Lahia, northern Gaza.

“In Beit Lahia last night, dozens were reportedly killed in Israeli airstrikes,” the UN’s special coordinator for the peace process in the Middle East, Tor Wennesland, said in a statement.

“This follows weeks of intensified operations resulting in scores of civilian fatalities and near total lack of humanitarian aid reaching populations in the north.”

Emergency teams in northern Gaza have been working to identify remains pulled from the rubble of the targeted buildings in Beit Lahia. The strike appears to have flattened several multistory apartment buildings.

The UN official stressed that “civilians must be protected wherever they are.”

Some background: Israel launched its renewed military operation in northern Gaza after saying it had seen signs of Hamas regrouping there, despite a year of heavy fighting and widespread bombardment there.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the north of the enclave face starvation, and the latest Israeli incursion has left hundreds dead, according to Gazan officials.

Members of the Israeli forces watch a fire after a rocket, fired from Lebanon, hit an area near Rosh Pinna, Israel, on October 20.

Several major roads have been closed in northern Israel as emergency services try to put out blazes caused by falling rockets.

Approximately 160 rockets have been fired from Lebanon into northern Israel on Sunday, according to the Israeli military.

Near the northern Israeli city of Safed, a police spokesperson said they “received several reports of falls at several locations.” Fires have broken out in open areas in and around Safed and are being put out by the fire brigade, the spokesperson added.

A section of the country’s longest highway, Highway 90, has been intermittently blocked while police and a bomb squad work to remove the risk to the public.

Fifteen teams of firefighters and six helicopters have been engaged in the effort to put out fires, the Fire and Rescue Services for Israel said. There is currently no danger to nearby homes and no evacuation orders have been issued.

Despite the number of projectiles fired into Israel from southern Lebanon — which has increased during Israel’s current conflict with Hezbollah — they typically cause few casualties and only moderate damage.

The Israeli military said it is reviewing reports that one of its shells struck a water maintenance team working in southern Gaza on Saturday.

In a statement sent to CNN, the Israel Defense Forces said one of its tanks fired a shell to disperse “several suspicious figures approximately one kilometer away from the border with Israel in the southern Gaza Strip.”

The military said it was however “aware of reports that the shell struck a Coastal Municipalities Water Utility team that was located in the area, and which had coordinated their arrival with the IDF” and is consequently reviewing the incident.

Munther Shablaq, the head of the Coastal Municipalities Water Utility in Gaza, told CNN that two engineers and two technicians working for his authority “were targeted while performing their duties serving the residents of Khuzaa.”

Their vehicle was “clearly marked with the logo and numbers of the Coastal Municipalities Water Utility, known for its water service operations,” Shablaq added.

Earlier today: Oxfam condemned the killing of four water engineers in Gaza who had been “working on essential services to keep Gaza’s fragile infrastructure running” alongside Oxfam’s partner in the enclave, according to the charity.

Severe restrictions on aid and fuel shortages have jeopardized the supply of clean water throughout Gaza, with concern rising for the northern part of the territory which has received virtually no deliveries since the start of the month.

Hundreds of protesters are seen in Tel Aviv on Saturday.

With the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, many Israelis are sensing a window of opportunity to bring back the hostages still held in Gaza – and they are making their voices heard.

Huge crowds of protesters gathered across several cities in Israel on Saturday, demanding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government make the return of the hostages their top priority — something they believe has not been the case so far.

Sinwar was a hardliner with little interest in negotiating with Israel. The US, which mediated the talks in Cairo, has repeatedly accused him of being one of the main blockers of a ceasefire deal.

His demise could pave the way to a ceasefire agreement. But getting there will depend on Netanyahu.

Read the full story.

Former US President Donald Trump claimed at a campaign rally Saturday night that during a conversation with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister told him he isn’t listening to President Joe Biden.

“Bibi called me today and he said, ‘It’s incredible. What’s happened, they said it’s pretty incredible.’ But he wouldn’t listen to Biden, because if he did, they wouldn’t be in this position,” Trump said, referring to Netanyahu by his nickname.

Asked about the claim, the Israeli prime minister’s office only offered this response: “In his conversation with former US President Donald Trump, Prime Minister Netanyahu reiterated what he has also said publicly: Israel takes into account the issues the US administration raises, but in the end, will make its decisions based on its national interests.”

At least 87 people have been killed and more than 40 injured in an Israeli strike on Beit Lahia in northern Gaza, according to the enclave’s ministry of health.

Fighting continues to rage in both Lebanon and Gaza, with the Israeli military saying it has killed more than 65 Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon over the past day, including some in “face-to-face battles.”

Here’s what you need to know:

Demonstrators dressed up as Naama Levy, an abducted Israeli army soldier, walk during a re-enactment in Tel Aviv, Israel, on October 19.

Dozens of women of all ages lined up patiently to have their faces and bodies smeared with red paint, all wearing the same black top and grey sweatpants Naama Levy was wearing when she was kidnapped by Hamas militants just over a year ago.

Levy, then 18 years old, was serving as a lookout, observing the Gaza Strip from the Nahal Oz military base, when Hamas stormed the area on October 7, 2023. The militants killed many of her friends and colleagues and kidnapped her and six other women into Gaza.

A video of her abduction, showing her badly beaten and wearing pants soaked in blood, became one of the symbols of the horrific violence against women perpetrated by Hamas during the terror attack.

The women who gathered at the Hostage Square in Tel Aviv included Naama Levy’s friends and family, as well as complete strangers who previously served in the military in similar roles.

Amit Frid, the woman who came up with the idea for people to gather wearing the same clothes as Levy, said she felt the need to do something to raise awareness and remind the world that she was still in captivity.

Naama’s father Yoni Levy praised Frid and the other women for fighting for his daughter’s return, although he said the event on Saturday was a difficult one to watch for him.

“This is the last image that that I saw of Naama, so it’s definitely very emotional, but I think it’s important. It’s important for everybody to understand that Naama is alive. She was kidnapped more than a year (ago) and we need her back,” he told CNN.

A doctor at the Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza has warned that staff are “very exhausted” and that there is a “severe shortage” of crucial medical supplies, following a deadly strike in the area.

Many of the victims of the overnight Israeli strike on Beit Lahia, which killed at least 87 people, were taken to the hospital for treatment.

He added that staff are “working under pressure, under fear, under destruction, and under injuries, we have a severe shortage now of all medicines and medical supplies in the hospitals have been exhausted.”

Shamiya said fuel, water and food were also all in short supply.

Shamiya added that after two weeks of intensive Israeli military operations in the north, the area was essentially under siege and unable to obtain fresh supplies.

Palestinians inspect the damage after an Israeli airstrike the previous night in Beit Lahia, Gaza, on October 20.

At least 87 people were killed in an Israeli strike on Beit Lahia, northern Gaza, overnight Saturday, the health ministry in Gaza says.

The number killed included 27 bodies retrieved so far and 60 people under the rubble. More than 40 people had been injured, including a number of very critical cases, the ministry said.

CNN cannot confirm the figures but they match the numbers provided by Kamal Adwan hospital, where victims have been taken.

A woman crying amid the damage said: “We were sitting and talking to each other when suddenly a large concrete block fell on us. What remains? They have killed all the people.”

One unidentified man at the scene said Sunday morning that there were displaced people in four homes that were destroyed.

Video and images from the scene show frantic efforts overnight to rescue those trapped and recover bodies, with no machinery and little light. Many of the bodies being retrieved or brought into Kamal Adwan hospital were those of children. Daylight images appear to show that two or three substantial apartment buildings were flattened.

CNN has asked the Israeli military whether the site of the airstrike in Beit Lahia was within one of the areas included in an evacuation order.

Remember: The Israeli military has issued a number of evacuation orders for northern Gaza this month where it has renewed its ground offensive.

Oxfam has condemned the killing of four water engineers in Gaza, warning their deaths will only “deepen the catastrophic humanitarian crisis” unfolding in the enclave.

The engineers were killed on Saturday. They had been “working on essential services to keep Gaza’s fragile infrastructure running” alongside Oxfam’s partner in the enclave, the charity said.

CNN has reached out to the Israeli military regarding the incident.

The NGO highlighted how “dozens of engineers, civil servants and humanitarian workers have been killed in Israeli airstrikes” during the war in Gaza, stressing that despite efforts to coordinate their movements with Israeli authorities the workers were “still targeted.”

Oxfam called for an “independent investigation” into the killing of the four engineers and “other attacks on essential workers” in Gaza, asserting that “attacks on civilian infrastructure and those who maintain it are clear violations of international humanitarian law.”

Context: Severe restrictions on aid and fuel shortages have jeopardized the supply of clean water throughout Gaza, with concern rising for the northern part of the territory which has received virtually no deliveries since the start of the month.

The Israeli military says that about 70 projectiles were fired from southern Lebanon into Israel on Sunday morning local time – aimed at the Western Galilee and Upper Galilee areas in the north.

Rocket attacks from southern Lebanon have continued despite the Israeli incursion across the border and the targeting of senior Hezbollah commanders.

Yesterday, the Israeli military said its soldiers advanced the furthest into southern Lebanon since a ground incursion targeting Iran-backed Hezbollah began.

According to Lebanese state media, at least two airstrikes hit the southern suburbs of Beirut Saturday.

The Israel Defense Forces said that some of the projectiles fired today were intercepted and that others were identified on the ground.

It added that fire and rescue services were operating to extinguish numerous fires that were ignited in the area as a result of the attack.

A medic administers a polio vaccine to a Palestinian child in Khan Younis, Gaza, on Saturday.

The second phase of the UN-led vaccination campaign against polio is well underway in southern Gaza, with over 140,000 children under 10 vaccinated in the area on Saturday.

UNRWA, the main UN agency in Gaza, has set ambitious targets for the vaccination campaign, which began at the start of September, pledging to immunize 640,000 children in the enclave, equating to over 90% of children under the age of 10.

Health officials have been carrying out the campaign in three-day installments based on geographic area, starting with central Gaza followed by south Gaza and finally north Gaza. Each child is due to receive two doses of the vaccine, administered in two rounds four weeks apart.

On Saturday, 145,202 children under 10 years old received their second polio dose while 119,055 children between 2-10 years received vitamin A supplements in south Gaza, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a post on their official X account.

Facilitated by a series of pauses in fighting agreed to by the Israeli military, the campaign has not been without its challenges. Last week, vaccinations due to take place at a UN school in central Gaza where displaced Palestinians are sheltering had to be canceled after the building sustained “severe damage” from an Israeli airstrike.

Preventing polio in Gaza: More than 560,000 children below the age of 10 in Gaza received their first doses of the vaccine in September, according to WHO. Though Gaza had near-universal polio vaccine coverage before the war, the rate had dropped to below 90% when the vaccination campaign started – made urgent after Israel’s destruction of water and sanitation systems led to a resurgence of the deadly disease in the besieged strip.

Polio mostly affects children under 5 and can cause irreversible paralysis and even death. It is highly infectious and there is no cure. According to WHO, it can only be prevented by immunization.

Mourners react next to the bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes at Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza on Sunday.

A hospital in northern Gaza has reported dozens of casualties following an Israeli air strike in the area of Beit Lahia late Saturday.

Dr. Maher Shamiya at the Kamal Adwan hospital told CNN Sunday that 27 bodies had already been received at the hospital. Graphic footage showed the bodies of several children among the dead, many with extensive injuries. Other video showed numerous body bags at the hospital amid grieving relatives.

Shamiya said that an estimated 60 bodies were still under the rubble of the properties struck.

He added that 40 injured people had been admitted to the hospital.

Video from the scene overnight showed rescue workers combing through tonnes of rubble in the search for survivors and victims.

Amid a communications black-out in northern Gaza, obtaining accurate and verifiable information has become very difficult. But CNN was able to reach one man in the area - Ahmad Abu Asaf.

He said the Israeli military was “in our area [near] the Zayed roundabout, digging near Palestine University. They seem to be searching for tunnels.”

He said a strike near Al-Qassam Mosque had killed all the members of three families. “None of them survived.”

What Israel says: CNN has again reached out to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for further comment on the target of the strike and measures to mitigate civilian casualties.

Earlier Sunday, the IDF responded to a statement from the Hamas-run Government Media Office in Gaza that 73 people had been killed in the strike, saying the numbers were “exaggerated.”

A large number of people have been killed and others injured in an Israeli strike on Beit Lahia in northern Gaza, Kamal Adwan Hospital director Hussam Abu Safiya told CNN.

Those wounded have been transferred to the hospital “amid a severe shortage of medical staff and supplies,” and many of the injured are “facing the risk of death due to the inability to treat them,” Abu Safiya said.

The hospital’s director also said the area around the hospital is coming under “bombardment and direct gunfire.”

Gaza Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Basal also said that a “large number” of people have been killed and injured, adding that there are still people under the rubble.

Residents and journalists in northern Gaza said the airstrikes targeted five houses belonging to the Al-Sharif, Al-Hindi, Al-Kahlout, Al-Diriwi, and Ubaid families.

The Hamas-run Government Information Office in Gaza earlier reported that 73 people had been killed in the strike, but that number has yet to be verified by the Ministry of Health in Gaza.

Remember: Communication and getting information from northern Gaza has been more difficult over the last several days. A complete internet blackout in northern Gaza was confirmed on Saturday by Paltel, Gaza’s primary internet service provider, attributing the blackout to “ongoing military hostilities.”

The UN also reported in the last several days widespread communication and internet disruptions across Gaza City and northern regions, according to Philippe Lazzarini, the Commissioner-General of UN Relief and Works Agency said.

The Israeli military said it has killed more than 65 Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon over the past day, including some in “face-to-face battles.”

The killings came as it targeted about 175 locations in Lebanon and Gaza over the past day, the military said in a statement. Those sites included what it says are Hezbollah “launchers aimed towards Israel’s territory and military buildings.”

The US is investigating a leak of highly classified US intelligence about Israel’s plans for retaliation against Iran, according to three people familiar with the matter. One of the sources confirmed the documents’ authenticity.

The leak is “deeply concerning,” a US official told CNN.

Here’s what else you should know:

Strikes across the region:

Drone launched toward Netanyahu’s home: 

More headlines:

The Israeli military issued evacuation warnings early on Sunday for areas in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

“Urgent warning to the residents of the southern suburb of al Dahiyeh,” the Israeli military’s Arabic spokesperson said on X, referring to attached maps of two buildings, one in Hraik neighborhood and the other in Hadath, both in Beirut.

Avichay Adraee called on residents to evacuate the buildings and the area around them in a radius of at least 500 meters, saying the Israeli military will operate there “in the near future” against what it says are “Hezbollah facilities and interests.”

According to the map posted by Adraee, one of the buildings is near a hospital and a mosque in Hraik neighborhood.

Israeli security forces gather behind a barrier across a street leading to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's residence in Caesarea, Israel, on October 19.

Iran has denied involvement in Saturday’s drone launch toward Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s home in Caesaria, saying it was “carried out by Hezbollah in Lebanon.”

Netanyahu had earlier said that “agents of Iran” were behind the attack and would “pay a heavy price.”

But the Iranian permanent mission to the United Nations dismissed the claim, saying Iran had “already responded to the Israeli regime,” according to state news agency IRNA.

Responding to a question about the attack on Netanyahu’s residence, it said, “The action in question has been carried out by Hezbollah in Lebanon.”

Hezbollah, which is backed by Tehran, has not claimed responsibility.

A member of UNRWA checks the courtyard of a school after an Israeli air strike hit the site, in Nuseirat, Gaza, on September 11.

With Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza in its second year, “people are continuing to go through so much,” according to Sam Rose, the senior deputy director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.

Rose, who is currently in central Gaza, described the harrowing conditions there.

“Every 10 minutes, there are loud explosions, there are bombardments, there are screams of people outside, drones constantly overhead,” Rose told CNN’s Fredricka Whitfield Saturday.

Since Israel began its military operation into Rafah in May, Rose said, regular supplies have “dried up.”

He said people in Gaza are continually facing hunger and that sanitary conditions are worsening. Rose noted that there are trucks containing aid that have not been let into the strip.

“They’re in absolutely desperate conditions. This is completely man-made; the ability to fix it is through food trucks coming in,” he said.

Israel released new video footage it says shows Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar underground in Hamas tunnels “just hours” before the October 7 attacks last year.

Talking over the images of what the IDF says are Sinwar and his children, Israeli military spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said the Hamas leader was hiding alone with his family all night in tunnels below Khan Younis in central Gaza.

“This was a luxury that the people of Gaza did not have as Sinwar always prioritized himself, his money, and Hamas terrorists over the people of Gaza,” Hagari said.

The Israel Defense Forces released similar video in February that appeared to show Sinwar walking in a tunnel with his family just after the October 7 attacks.

Hamas accuses IDF of “blatant lies”: The militant group rejected Hagari’s comments as “a desperate attempt to save face for their defeated army, which was humiliated by Commander Sinwar and his brothers.”

The group said Sinwar was killed while “engaging in the battlefield” after having spent the past year “moving across various combat fronts in the Gaza Strip, at the forefront of our brave people’s resistance.”

CNN’s Mia Alberti and Abeer Salman contributed reporting.

This post has been updated with Hamas’ response.

The US is investigating a leak of highly classified US intelligence about Israel’s plans for retaliation against Iran, according to three people familiar with the matter. One of the people familiar confirmed the documents’ authenticity.

The leak is “deeply concerning,” a US official told CNN.

The documents, dated October 15 and 16, began circulating online on Friday after being posted on Telegram by an account called Middle East Spectator.

They are marked as top secret and have markings indicating that they are only meant to be seen by the US and its Five Eyes allies: Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the UK.

They describe preparations Israel appears to be making for a strike against Iran. One of the documents, which says it was compiled by the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, says the plans involve Israel moving munitions around.

Another document says it is sourced to the National Security Agency and outlines Israeli Air Force exercises involving air-to-surface missiles, also believed to be in preparation for a strike on Iran. CNN is not quoting directly or showing the documents.

Investigation underway: A US official says the investigation is examining who had access to the alleged Pentagon document. Any such leak automatically would trigger an FBI investigation alongside the Pentagon and US intelligence agencies. The FBI declined to comment.

The National Security Council referred CNN to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and Pentagon for comment. The Pentagon and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency declined to comment. CNN has reached out to the National Security Agency for comment.

It is not clear how the documents became public, or whether they were hacked or deliberately leaked.

CNN’s Evan Perez contributed to this report.

Huge crowds of protesters gathered in several cities across Israel Saturday, demanding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government make the return of hostages in Gaza their top priority.

In Tel Aviv, people protested outside the Israel Defense Forces’ headquarters, blocking traffic and chanting anti-government slogans.

Eran Nissan, a peace activist from the progressive Israeli group Mehazkim, has been attending anti-government rallies since January last year. On Saturday, he was handing out T-shirts and stickers with derogatory messages about Israel’s far-right security minister Itamar Ben Gvir.

Nissan said a ceasefire-for-hostages deal was the central demand of the protests. “The issue of hostages is the first, the second and the third priority,” he told CNN, adding that he believed the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar on Wednesday presented an opportunity to finally agree to a deal.

“There’s a solid majority and consensus in the Israeli society on this, 105 hostages have (already) been brought back in a deal,” he said, in a reference to the weeklong ceasefire and hostage exchange that took place last November.

There are 101 hostages still held in Gaza, Israeli authorities say, but as many as one-third of them are thought to be dead.

He added that he believed the current government had an interest in prolonging the war.

“They know that once the war is over, they will have to answer questions about how they were complicit in bringing Israel to the October 7 (terror attack), and that there is going to be a national inquiry, and that there is going to be a demand for elections. And any poll that you see right now shows they’re going to be hit hard,” he said.

The large-scale protests Saturday were among the first in Israel since the government banned large gatherings citing security concerns following the October 1 Iranian ballistic missile attack, which Iran said was a response to the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.