October 6, 2024 - Israeli strikes pound Beirut and Hezbollah rockets hit Haifa

The Israeli military has called for the evacuation of residents from an additional 19 villages in southern Lebanon, located within 30 kilometers (18 miles) of the border with Israel.

The military told residents to move about 50 kilometers (31 miles) further into the country.

“You must immediately move to the north of the Awali River. Save your lives and evacuate your homes immediately,” Avichay Adraee, the Israel Defense Forces’ Arabic spokesperson, said on X on Sunday.

This announcement follows a series of Israeli evacuation warnings over the past week, which now affect a total of 124 villages.

The Awali River is north of the city of Sidon, and just south of Beirut. The total land mass south of the river to the Israeli border represents a quarter of Lebanese territory.

The IDF spokesperson also reiterated previous advice for residents to avoid traveling “using vehicles” further into southern Lebanon from north of the Litani River, which lies roughly 18 miles from the border.

Some background: In the past two weeks, evacuation warnings from Israel’s military have immediately preceded airstrikes in southern Lebanon — sometimes by a few minutes.

Israel is carrying out an unprecedented bombing campaign on the country as part of its war against Hezbollah. The bombardment has at times targeted densely populated areas, where Israel says the militant group has intentionally embedded itself in the civilian population, destroying homes and forcing residents to flee.

More than 1,400 people have been killed and over 1 million displaced by the Israeli campaign, according to the Lebanese government.

Smoke billows following an Israeli airstrike near the ruins of the ancient Roman Temple of Bacchus in Baalbek, Lebanon, on October 6.

An Israeli strike landed close to Roman ruins in the Lebanese city of Baalbek, raising warnings from local officials on the structural integrity of the site.

The Israeli attack did not target the historic complex, Baalbek-Hermel Governor Bachir Khodr said — but it struck nearby.

“It is 500 to 700 meters away from it, but raids near it will have negative repercussions on it,” Khodr said in a post on X Sunday.

Khodr shared an image showing smoke rising behind what appears to be the monoliths of the ancient complex. It is unclear what the Israeli military was targeting in the area. CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces.

More on the historic significance of site: The ancient complex — a UNESCO World Heritage Site — contains the ruins of some of the largest and best-preserved Roman temples. It has survived many natural disasters and conflicts over centuries, most recently the 2006 Israeli-Hezbollah conflict and a 15-year civil war that started in 1975.

The city of Baalbek has a Hezbollah presence and is located northeast of Lebanon. It has been targeted by Israel several times over the past year.

The Israeli military has been carrying out its current bombing campaign in Lebanon at an unprecedented intensity. The Lebanese government says strikes have killed more than 1,400 people and forced hundreds of thousands of civilians to flee residential areas, where the IDF says the militant group is operating.

A police officer has been killed and 10 people have been injured in a shooting attack at a bus station in the southern Israeli city of Be’er Sheva on Sunday, according to emergency services.

The officer killed has been identified by Israeli law enforcement as Shira Suslik. Suslik was an officer in Israel’s Southern Border Police, a police spokesperson said, announcing her death “with great sadness and grief.”

The spokesperson said that Suslik “fell in an encounter with a terrorist in the attack.”

Israel’s Magen David Adom (MDA) emergency services said the people injured in the attack were taken to Soroka Medical Center, including one person who is in moderate-to-serious condition with gunshot wounds.

Four others are in moderate condition with gunshot wounds, and five are in mild condition with bruises and injuries from glass shards, MDA said.

The attacker was killed, an Israeli police spokesperson said.

“The terrorist has been neutralized, and numerous police forces from the southern district are present at the scene,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

This post has been updated with details about the officer killed in the shooting.

Hassan Nasrallah gestures as he addresses his supporters at an Ashura ceremony in Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon on October 23, 2015.

The Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom, Tzipi Hotovely, has denied Lebanon’s assertion that the late Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah accepted a ceasefire deal before his assassination.

“Let’s not speak about the good intentions of a terror organization. They have zero good intentions,” she said.

Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib previously told CNN that Nasrallah had agreed to a US-backed 21-day ceasefire just days before he was assassinated by Israel, something reiterated by Rami Mortada, Lebanon’s ambassador to the UK.

“We expressed our agreement to this scheme that was laid out by the US, UK and 15 other nations. Unfortunately … when (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu reached New York, he just rebuffed all this peace plan and he’s still doing that,” Mortada told Sky News on Sunday, referring to Netanyahu’s combative speech at the United Nations General Assembly in New York last month.

Mortada said the ceasefire plan is “a text that is still binding” to Lebanon. He added that it is “a statement of fact that is known to everyone” that prospects for a ceasefire were derailed by the assassination of Nasrallah.

“We are dealing with a war-mongering Israeli government,” Mortada said.

The Israeli military has reinforced soldiers near the Gaza Strip ahead of the ceremonial events that will mark one year since the Hamas-led October 7 attacks into southern Israel.

Additional troops have been deployed at border communities for both “defensive and offensive scenarios,” according to a statement by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

“The soldiers are fully equipped to defend the region in coordination with local security forces, the Israel Police, and Magen David Adom, ensuring a comprehensive response to any incidents that may arise,” the IDF said on Sunday.

One year on, Israeli residents from Kibbutz Be’eri – one of more than a dozen border communities raided by Hamas – told CNN they are scarred by the horrors of October 7 last year, when 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 others abducted, according to Israeli authorities.

Multiple fronts of war: Israel has since intensified its war in different arenas in the Middle East, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying Saturday that his country is “defending itself” on seven fronts – including against Hamas in Gaza, and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

But as scenes of carnage, blasted buildings and mass displacement emerge from Gaza and Lebanon, analysts and human rights workers have issued dire warnings over the human toll in an increasingly fragile region.

Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed at least 41,870 Palestinians and injured another 97,166 people, according to the ministry of health there. The ministry does not distinguish between combatant and civilian deaths.

In Lebanon, more than 1,400 people have been killed by Israeli strikes, and nearly 7,500 injured, according to the Lebanese health ministry.

CNN’s Matthew Chance, Yon Pomrenze and Sana Noor Haq contributed reporting.

Children sit with their baggage as they wait to cross the border from Lebanon into Syria on October 5, in Masnaa, Lebanon.

Lebanon has postponed the start of the school year until November 2 as a protective measure amid the escalating fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.

Some 400,000 students and 40,000 teachers have been displaced from their homes across the country following the fighting, Lebanese education minister Abbas Halabi said on Sunday.

The majority of private schools have requested a postponement of the school year due to the “(Israeli) hostility, the displacement and the mental state of the students,” he said.

The minister said the “situation is complex” and the authorities needed time to apply a plan for a virtual school year.

“In-person attendance has security dangers and mental obstacles stopping families from accepting that their children will be traveling on roads to go to their classes,” Halabi said.

Lebanese authorities say over 1.2 million people have been displaced since fighting escalated last month. Many have been housed temporarily in schools across the country, or camped out on sidewalks, in parks, churches and mosques.

“We hope new centers will be found to receive the displaced instead of schools,” Halabi said.

Universities could decide whether students are allowed to return back to the educational facilities starting Monday, Halabi said.

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted a neighbourhood in Beirut's southern suburb on October 6.

The Israeli military has continued to bombard Lebanon’s capital, in what it said was a “series of targeted strikes” on weapons storage facilities and other parts of Hezbollah’s infrastructure. Israeli strikes across the country on Saturday killed 23 people and injured 93, according to the Lebanese health ministry.

Elsewhere, Israel has said that it has “encircled” the Jabalya refugee camp in northern Gaza, after detecting the presence of Hamas members in the area. Strikes on a mosque in central Gaza have killed at least 25, hospital officials said.

Meanwhile, as the anniversary of Hamas’ October 7 attacks on Israel nears, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that his country “is defending itself on seven fronts.”

Here’s what you need to know:

• Strikes on Beirut: Israel pounded the city with heavy airstrikes overnight. CNN’s Jomana Karadsheh is on the ground in the capital and said that Saturday night’s strikes were among the most sustained and intense she has seen since the war between Israel and Hezbollah began. The number of casualties from the strikes is not yet known.

• Gaza refugee camp surrounded: The Jabalya refugee camp in northern Gaza has been “encircled,” the Israeli military said, after it launched both air and ground operations targeting what it says was military infrastructure. At least two people were killed and several others taken to hospital after an apartment in the camp was struck, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said.

• Strike on Gaza mosque: At least 25 people have been killed in an overnight Israeli strike on the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Mosque in central Gaza, according to hospital officials. A journalist working for CNN said that displaced Palestinians were sheltering at the mosque when it was struck. The Israeli military said the strike was targeting a Hamas “command and control” center. Footage from the scene shows people working in the dark to find victims in the rubble, using the light from their phones to see. A further four people were killed in a strike on a nearby school, the hospital officials said.

• War on multiple fronts: Netanyahu has said that Israel is fighting “against the enemies of civilization” on seven fronts, including Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, the Houthis in Yemen, and Iran itself. “Rest assured, Israel will fight until the battle is won – for our sake and for the sake of peace and security in the world,” he said.

• Global protests: Thousands of people around the world took to the streets Saturday in support of Palestinians in Gaza. Demonstrations took place in London, Dublin, Paris, Manila, Cape Town, Rome and other major cities, calling for an end to the war. Meanwhile, in Israel, protesters across the country are demanding more urgent action to rescue the hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza.

• Key Hezbollah leader missing: Hezbollah has lost contact with a possible successor to its late leader Hassan Nasrallah, a Lebanese security source told CNN Saturday. Hashem Safieddine was targeted in an Israeli strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs on Friday.

At least 25 people are confirmed dead after Israeli airstrikes hit a mosque and a school in central Gaza, hospital officials say.

Rawiya Musabbeh, the mother of a 26-year-old man who was killed in the strikes, said that he had been sheltering in Al-Aqsa Martyrs Mosque in Deir el Balah when it was hit.

“My son was injured in the north and came to the south for medical treatment. He had no other place to sleep, so he had been sleeping in the mosque for the last nine months,” Musabbeh said on CNN video from Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, which lies across the street from the mosque.

Nabil Nadda, who was near the mosque when it was struck, said that he heard a “big boom that shook us all, both children and adults,” during the night.

“The mosque was a shelter for displaced people, there are no militants or anything inside,” he said. “Just people who have no shelter, tents, or homes, so they sheltered in the mosque.”

The Israeli military confirmed it carried out the strike, calling it “precise.” It said it was targeting a Hamas “command and control” center that was “embedded within the compound.”

Lebanon is coming to terms with new devastation inflicted on southern Beirut by heavy overnight Israeli strikes.

CNN’s international correspondent Jomana Karadsheh, who was on the ground in Beirut at the time, described Saturday night’s attacks as among the most sustained and intense she has witnessed on the city’s southern suburbs since this war began.

Clouds of smoke could be seen billowing above the Lebanese capital on Sunday morning, as Israel continues its offensive against Hezbollah.

The damage in Dahiyeh neighborhood, southern Beirut, Lebanon, on October 6.

A man rides a scooter through the debris of destroyed buildings in Dahiyeh on Sunday.

Rubble is scattered along a street in the aftermath of Israeli airstrikes on the Mreijeh neighborhood in Beirut's southern suburbs on October 6.

Heavy smoke rises from a building that was set ablaze.

People take photos as smoke and flames rise following an Israeli airstrike on the Dahiyeh neighborhood early on Sunday.

Israeli strikes across Lebanon on Saturday killed 23 people and injured 93, the Lebanese health ministry has said.

People were killed in strikes that targeted cities and villages in southern and northern Lebanon, including in Nabatieh, Bekaa, Baalbek and Mount Lebanon, the ministry said.

It’s unclear if the death toll includes strikes on Beirut on Saturday night, in which buildings were heavily damaged. At least two of the blasts triggered what appeared to be secondary explosions, according to the CNN team on the ground. One of the blasts hit the road to the airport.

On Sunday morning, a large plume of smoke rose into the Lebanese capital’s skyline after a strike targeted the city’s suburbs. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it would not comment on what it was targeting in the area.

Palestinian families arrive in Gaza City after evacuating their homes in the Jabalya area on October 6.

Dozens of families in northern Gaza have packed up their belongings and fled once again after a warning from the Israeli military of a fresh ground operation against Hamas in the Jabalya area.

“People left their homes this morning, and they don’t know where to go, carrying some simple belongings. There are no means of transportation,” Abu Alaa Asaf, a resident of Beit Lahiya, said.

The Israeli military called on Palestinian residents to evacuate areas in the north, which is home to Gaza’s biggest refugee camp, before announcing that two brigades of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) encircled Jabalya to stop Hamas from rebuilding its operational capabilities.

Before this, airstrikes were carried out, hitting “dozens of military targets,” the Israeli military said. Hamas’s military wing, the Al Qassam Brigades, said Saturday it was engaged in “fierce fights” with Israeli forces in northern Gaza.

“We heard the sounds of explosions all night long as if the war started today,” Asaf said.

Ismail Zaida, a resident of the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in the north, saw “hundreds” of people fleeing towards Gaza City, also in northern Gaza.

Some northern residents are refusing to move to Al-Mawasi, an Israeli-designated humanitarian zone in the south. Last month, Israel struck the area, killing at least 19 people, according to Gaza health authorities.

“People would rather die at home than get humiliated here and there,” Zaida said.

“Where do we go? From one death to another? Death is everywhere whether in the south or north,” Zaida said.

In this screengrab taken from a video, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a meeting with his political-security Cabinet on October 1.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that nearly one year after Hamas’ attacks on Israel, his country is now fighting on seven fronts.

“Today, Israel is defending itself on seven fronts against the enemies of civilization,” he said in a video statement Saturday. He said those include Iranian-backed Hezbollah in the north, Hamas in Gaza, the Houthis in Yemen, “terrorists” in the West Bank and the Shiite militias in Iraq and Syria.

He said he is maintaining his promise to change the balance of power in the north between Israel and Lebanon. Israel has launched nearly 9,000 attacks into Lebanon since October 8 and Hezbollah launched 1,500 attacks in that same time frame, according to the ACLED data.

Referring to Gaza, Netanyahu said that Israel has a right defend itself and that it will not forget the 101 hostages “whom we are committed to with all our might to bring them home.” At least 41,825 people have been killed in Gaza since October 7 last year, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

Netanyahu said “shame on” French President Emmanuel Macron and other countries who call for arms embargoes against Israel. “Rest assured, Israel will fight until the battle is won – for our sake and for the sake of peace and security in the world,” Netanyahu added.

More than 1,400 people have been killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon in the last month, and nearly 7,500 injured, according to the Lebanese health ministry.

Flames and smoke rise in an area targeted by an Israeli air strike on Beirut's southern suburbs, on October 6.

We were preparing to go live on air when the first airstrike hit the southern suburbs of Beirut shortly after 11 p.m. Saturday – kicking off a night of intense and constant Israeli strikes.

About 30 minutes earlier, I had been sat with a young woman who lives in the southern suburbs, when our phones flashed with a post on X. It was from the Arabic-language spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces, issuing new evacuation orders for several neighborhoods ahead of what he said would be strikes on Hezbollah targets.

The woman gasped. Her family’s home was within one of the evacuation zones. Like many residents of one of the most densely populated parts of the country, she had fled her home as Israeli strikes intensified in recent days, leaving with very little.

Hours earlier she had wanted to go back home to grab some warm clothes, as winter is approaching. But even during the day a return to the suburbs would have been dangerous, so she decided to take the advice of colleagues and not return home. And as feared, there were multiple strikes with no prior warning.

Saturday night’s strikes were among the most sustained and intense I have witnessed hitting the southern suburbs since this war began. First we heard rumbling sounds, followed by flashes in the distance. Then we heard the blasts. At least two of the strikes triggered what appeared to be secondary explosions – balls of fire that at times would light the night sky, accompanied by blasts that echoed across the city.

Amid the explosions came another evacuation order and another IDF post on X saying it is “currently targeting Hezbollah terrorist targets in the Beirut area.”

Many people I have spoken to over the past 10 days do not believe statements about “targeted” and “precise” strikes. They fear this war is going to be as destructive as the war in Gaza, that reduced much of the enclave to rubble and killed more than 41,000 people.

As I am writing this at 3:30 a.m., I hear another big blast rattle the windows of my hotel room. I can still hear the constant buzz of Israeli drones over the city – usually an indication of more strikes to come – and I can’t help but think of the people of Beirut who have been through so much for so long.

How many casualties are there? Did people evacuate in time? How are parents comforting their children during this long and terrifying night?

Is that young woman’s house still standing?

Palestinians migrate toward areas they believe to be safer as the Israeli army intensifies its attacks in Jabalia, Gaza on October 6.

The Israeli military says it has “encircled” Jabalya in northern Gaza and is “continuing to operate in the area.”

Ahead of the ground operation in the refugee camp, airstrikes were carried out overnight, the military confirmed, including against what it says are “weapons storage facilities, underground infrastructure sites, terrorist cells, and additional military infrastructure sites.”

A journalist in the area told CNN the strikes lasted about 90 minutes and were concentrated on eastern Jabalya and nearby Gaza City.

Paramedics from the Palestine Red Crescent Society said two people had been killed and several others taken to hospital after an apartment in a building near the UNRWA clinic in Jabalya refugee camp was struck. UNRWA is a relief organization working in the Palestinian territories.

In a statement, the military said it had detected the presence of Hamas members in the area, as well as efforts by them “to rebuild its operational capabilities in the area,” and was moving forward with the operation to “dismantle” that infrastructure in the area, saying it will “continue as long as required in order to achieve its objectives.”

In May, CNN reported that the Israeli military had renewed its fighting in northern Gaza where it had claimed, in January, to have dismantled Hamas’ command structure. During that period, the Israeli military said Hamas was trying to “reassemble” in the area, raising doubts about whether Israel’s goal of eradicating the group in the enclave is realistic.

Earlier on Sunday, the Israeli military warned residents in northern Gaza to evacuate.

The Arabic-speaking spokesperson for the Israeli military Avichay Adraee said the military is “publishing a new evacuation map for the northern Gaza Strip.”

Adraee also said the military has expanded the scope of the “humanitarian area” in Al-Mawasi, including the routes to get there. The area indicates places the Israeli military says civilians can safely travel.

“The expanded Humanitarian Area includes field hospitals that have been established since the outbreak of the war, tent compounds, and supplies of food, water, medicine, and medical equipment,” the military said.

A journalist in Gaza told CNN Palestinians have been evacuating the area since late Saturday and moving toward Gaza City.

Senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, Steven Cook, speaks during an interview with CNN.

As the world awaits Israel’s response to Iran’s ballistic missile attack, Israel is not going to take advice from US President Joe Biden or former President Donald Trump, said Steven Cook, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Biden has said Israel should not target Iran’s nuclear or oil facilities, while Trump – currently running to succeed Biden in the presidential election – has suggested Israel should do so.

“The Israelis are not going to be limited by what the president and former president have to say,” Cook told CNN’s Michael Holmes.

“They are going to target those facilities and weaponry in Iran that are the most dangerous to Israel.”

“The real question is how far up the escalation ladder will the Israelis go, and whether the Iranians feel compelled to then respond,” Cook added.

Israel’s goal will be to intimidate Iran, which has already pledged to retaliate if Israel attacks.

“There you see the direction that this conflict could go,” Cook said.

There are risks of going too far, he said, adding that as long as the war continues, Israel risks radicalizing communities in Lebanon, which it has already done in Gaza.

Hezbollah, the militant group Israel is fighting, was born out of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982.

However, Israel has shown in past weeks it is willing to take considerable risks, Cook said.

“This is a very dangerous moment in the Middle East.”

Arwa Damon, president of the International Network for Aid, Relief and Assistance, speaks during an interview with CNN.

Days into Israel’s bombing campaign, most people in Lebanon are “stuck in the freeze traumatic response,” unable to grasp the scale of the destruction, said Arwa Damon, president of the International Network for Aid, Relief and Assistance.

Many in the country have watched over the past year as Gaza has been reduced to rubble and are wondering whether Lebanon will face a similar fate, Damon told CNN’s Michael Holmes.

“I can’t even begin to describe to you, Michael, the depth and breadth of the fear that exists here, because everyone has been watching what’s been happening in Gaza,” said Damon, a former CNN journalist whose organization helps children in disaster zones.

Humanitarian workers have had to rush to respond to an unprecedented crisis all while living through it themselves, she added.

Many have lost loved ones or been forced to flee their homes, along with roughly one fifth of Lebanon’s population, Damon said.

“The psychological toll of all of this is just devastating, never mind the physical one.”

Flames and smoke rise from an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, early Sunday.

The Israeli military has confirmed it “conducted a series of targeted strikes” in the area of Lebanon’s capital Beirut overnight, saying it targeted “weapons storage facilities” and other parts of Hezbollah’s infrastructure.

The Arabic-language spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces issued new evacuation orders for several neighborhoods ahead of what he said would be strikes on targets belonging to the Iran-backed militant group.

Earlier, CNN’s team on the ground in Beirut said they heard constant blasts and explosions for a few hours.

CNN’s Jomana Karadsheh said Saturday night’s strikes were among the most sustained and intense she has witnessed hitting the southern suburbs since the war began. First the team heard rumbling sounds, followed by flashes in the distance, then they heard the blasts. At least two of the strikes triggered what appeared to be secondary explosions – balls of fire that at times would light the night sky, accompanied by blasts that echoed across the city.

The number of casualties is not yet clear.

A man looks at smoke billowing from building rubble at the site of overnight Israeli airstrikes in Beirut's southern suburbs on October 4.

Last week Israel launched a limited ground incursion into southern Lebanon as it ratchets up its war with the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.

For the first time since 2006, Israel struck central Beirut, with previous attacks being confined to the city’s southern suburbs. Israel is now pounding Lebanon with a level of bombardment not seen outside of Gaza in the last 20 years, according to air warfare experts.

It all amounts to a dramatic escalation in the Middle East, and suggests fears of an expanded regional war have been realized.

Those fears have only been deepened by Iran’s largest-ever missile attack on Israel — which also came last week. The region is bracing for Israel’s response, and Tehran has already pledged it will attack Israel again if it deems that necessary.

Here’s a timeline of last week’s key events:

Palestinians carry one of the victims of an Israeli strike that targeted a mosque-turned-shelter in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, in the courtyard of the al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital during the night of October 6.

The death toll from an Israeli strike on a mosque in central Gaza has risen to 21, according to the local Civil Defense and a nearby hospital.

CNN video showed chaotic scenes as bodies were pulled from rubble after the overnight attack on the religious site in Deir el Balah.

The revised death toll – up from 18 – came from Civil Defense and Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, which is right across from the mosque.

Civilians, civil defense, and hospital staff were all working in the dark to retrieve victims from the rubble of the mosque, using only the light from their phones, the CNN video showed.

In the footage, bodies are seen scattered everywhere and people shout for attention with each casualty they find.

“He’s alive, by God he’s alive,” a man yells as he tries to revive another victim, who lies motionless on the ground.

A group of men pull out a man, still alive, who had been trapped under a block. Another seems to have been killed in the attack.

The injured, carried on blankets, are rushed to the nearby hospital, some covered in blood and dust.

The Israeli military confirmed it carried out the strike, calling it “precise” and saying it was targeting a Hamas “command and control” center that was “embedded within the compound.”

This post has been updated.

Palestinians inspect the rubble of mosque, which was damaged in Israeli attack in Deir al-Balah, Gaza on October 6.

At least 18 people have been killed in an overnight Israeli strike on Al Aqsa Martyrs Mosque in Deir el Balah in central Gaza, according to Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. The hospital sits right across from the mosque.

A CNN stringer said displaced Palestinians were sheltering there.

The Israeli military confirmed it carried out the strike, calling it “precise” and saying it was targeting a Hamas “command and control” center that was “embedded within the compound.”

Flames and smoke rise in an area targeted by an Israeli air strike on Beirut's southern suburbs, on October 6.

CNN’s team on the ground in Beirut say they have heard constant blasts and explosions over the past two to three hours and they appear to be ongoing.

It’s unclear exactly how many blasts there have been, but a member of the team described the explosions in Beirut’s southern suburbs as one of the most intense sustained periods of strikes they had seen.

At least two of the blasts triggered what appeared to be secondary explosions, according to the team. One of the blasts hit the road to the airport, about 2.5km from the facility.

Approximately 30 projectiles crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory early on Sunday morning local time, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

Some of the projectiles were intercepted and some fell, the IDF said in a statement.

Thirty minutes after midnight, sirens sounded in Israel’s Kiryat Shmona area in the north.

Hezbollah issued two statements early Sunday saying it had targeted Israeli soldiers in the “Al-Manara settlement” and its surroundings in northern Israel with rockets in support of the Palestinian people and in defense of Lebanon.

In a third statement, Hezbollah said it had targeted Israeli forces in the same area as they “evacuated the injured and killed soldiers.”

CNN asked followers on social media if they had questions about the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East.

From your responses, we picked some of the most-asked topics and put the key questions to CNN’s Diplomatic Editor Nic Robertson.

Here, we ask about the capabilities of Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system:

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CNN answers questions on Israel’s Iron Dome

02:05 - Source: CNN