October 16, 2024 news on the wars in the Middle East

Our live coverage of the conflict in the Middle East has moved here.

Both US Air Force and Navy assets were involved in the multiple airstrikes on underground Houthi storage facilities, according to a US Central Command news release.

While CENTCOM said the battle damage assessment is ongoing, initial indications do not show civilian casualties, according to the release.

The facilities targeted housed “missiles, weapons components, and other munitions used to target military and civilian vessels” in the Middle East, the release read.

The US targeted five “hardened underground weapons storage locations” in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen in a series of strikes by B-2 stealth bombers, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Wednesday evening, Thursday morning local time.

“The employment of US Air Force B-2 Spirit long-range stealth bombers demonstrate U.S. global strike capabilities to take action against these targets when necessary, anytime, anywhere.”

Austin said he authorized the strikes at the direction of President Joe Biden in order to “further degrade” the Houthis’ ability after more than a year of attacks by the Houthis on US and international vessels in the region. The facilities were holding “various weapons components” of weapons used to target vessels in the Middle East.

The risk of cholera spreading in Lebanon is “very high,” the World Health Organization warned Wednesday, after a case of the deadly disease was detected in the country’s north.

Abdinasir Abubakar, the WHO’s representative in Lebanon, said the organization has been concerned for months about the risk of cholera due to the “deteriorating water and sanitation situations” for refugees and in high-risk areas.

Lebanon suffered its first cholera outbreak in 30 years between 2022 and 2023, mainly in the north.

With the mass displacement of more than a million people caused by the Israel-Hezbollah war, Abubakar highlighted concern, in particular, for communities in southern Lebanon and the Beirut area that have not built up cholera immunity for decades.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the country’s Ministry of Public Health activated emergency protocols to strengthen surveillance and contact tracing after detecting the case.

In August, the ministry launched a cholera vaccination campaign targeting 350,000 people living in high-risk areas, but the campaign was “interrupted by the escalation in violence,” the WHO chief said.

Some background: Cholera, which spreads primarily through contaminated water and food, causes severe diarrhea and dehydration. People who live in areas with shortages of safe drinking water or inadequate sanitation are vulnerable to the disease, which can result from consuming bacteria-contaminated food or water.

Airstrikes were carried out targeting Yemen’s capital city of Sanaa and the city of Saada early on Thursday, Houthi-run Al Masirah TV reported, according to Reuters.

CNN reported earlier that the US carried out a round of strikes in Yemen against the Iran-backed Houthis, according to three US defense officials, targeting weapons storage facilities, including underground facilities.

The strikes were carried out by B-2 Spirit bombers, according to one of the officials, marking the first time the US has used the strategic stealth bomber to attack the Houthis in Yemen since the beginning of the US campaign.

The US carried out strikes in Yemen against the Iran-backed Houthis on Thursday, according to three US defense officials, targeting weapons storage facilities, including underground facilities.

The facilities housed advanced conventional weapons used to target military and civilian vessels in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, the officials said.

The strikes were carried out by B-2 Spirit bombers, according to one of the officials, marking the first time the US has used the strategic stealth bomber to attack the Houthis in Yemen since the beginning of the US campaign. The B-2 is a much larger platform than the fighter jets that have been used so far to target Houthi facilities and weapons, capable of carrying a far heavier load of bombs.

The attack on the Iran-backed proxy group comes at a time of huge tension in the region. Israel is expected to retaliate to Iran’s recent missile barrage before the November 5 US election and its wars with Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza are ongoing.

The strike is the latest in a series of back-and-forth attacks by the Houthis and the US, as the Houthis have carried out regular attacks on commercial shipping and military assets in the region for months.

It also comes as US service members have begun arriving in Israel after the US announced the deployment of an advanced anti-missile system to help protect Israel following Iran’s missile barrage.

Read the full story.

Israeli forces fired at a United Nations peacekeeping position in the village of Kfar Kela in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, damaging a watchtower, according to the United Nations.

In a statement on X, the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said its peacekeepers “observed an IDF (Israel Defense Forces) Merkava tank firing at their watchtower. Two cameras were destroyed, and the tower was damaged.”

It came as Israel’s foreign minister said the country has “no intention” of harming the United Nations’ peacekeeping forces in southern Lebanon. He accused Hezbollah of using UNIFIL personnel as human shields, “deliberately firing at IDF soldiers from locations near UNIFIL positions in order to create friction.”

The UN has said the Israeli military has fired on its peacekeepers multiple times, forcibly entered a base, stopped a critical logistical movement, and injured more than a dozen of its troops in southern Lebanon in recent weeks.

“We remind the IDF and all actors of their obligations to ensure the safety and security of UN personnel and property and to respect the inviolability of UN premises at all times,” the UNIFIL statement read.

This US military file photo shows a US Army Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) launching station in Israel on March 4, 2019.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant spoke Wednesday about Israel’s operations in Lebanon and the deployment of a US-supplied THAAD battery to Israel.

“Secretary Austin and Minister Gallant discussed the deployment of a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery as an operational example of the United States’ ironclad support to the defense of Israel,” Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, Pentagon press secretary, said in a statement.

Austin also “encouraged the Government of Israel to continue taking steps to address the dire humanitarian situation, noting the recent action by Israel to increase the amount of humanitarian assistance entering Gaza,” Ryder’s statement read..

The call comes a day after it was reported Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken sent a letter to their Israeli counterparts over the weekend, suggesting US military aid to Israel could be jeopardized if Israel did not work to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

Remember: The THAAD defense system is one of the US military’s most powerful anti-missile weapons, capable of intercepting ballistic missiles at ranges of 150 to 200 kilometers (93 to 124 miles) and with a near-perfect success rate in testing. It is the only US missile defense system that can engage and destroy short-, medium- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles both inside or outside the atmosphere during their terminal phase of flight — or dive on their target.

Approximately 400,000 children are among the 1.2 million people displaced as a result of the conflict in Lebanon, UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Ted Chaiban said in a statement on Wednesday.

The UNICEF official pointed to the toll the strikes in Lebanon have taken on children so far, with 100 killed and more than 800 injured in the past three weeks — and pointed out the challenges that lay ahead, as temperatures drop.

“Winter is coming, it is getting cold here, it will get cold in Beirut soon enough and we need to be ready to support families as it gets cold,” he said.

Plummeting temperatures have proven fatal for displaced children in the region over the past few years, such as in Syria where children died following heavy winter storms in 2022.

Rescuers at an emergency services center react as smoke billows during Israeli airstrikes in the southern Lebanese city of Nabatiyeh on Wednesday, October 16.

Israel’s plan to respond to Iran’s October 1 attack is ready, a source told CNN, while Israeli strikes continue in Lebanon and Gaza.

US officials expect Israel will retaliate before November 5, sources told CNN — a timeline that would thrust the growing volatility in the Middle East squarely into public view within days of the US presidential election.

Here’s what else you need to know:

In Lebanon:

In Gaza:

Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani adresses a press conference in Brussels on Wednesday, October 16.

There have been no negotiations for a hostage release and ceasefire deal for almost a month, Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani told reporters in Brussels on Wednesday.

A close ally of the United States, Qatar has been coordinating with Washington and Egypt to secure the release of the Israeli hostages held in Gaza, as well as end Israel’s war in the territory.

Al Thani’s comments come just days after a deadly Israeli strike hit the Al Aqsa hospital where thousands of displaced civilians were sheltering. Flames engulfed the camp, burning some civilians alive. The Israeli military said it was targeting a Hamas command and control center embedded in the hospital complex.

While calls for a hostage release and ceasefire deal for Gaza continue, US officials told CNN last month that US President Joe Biden’s national security advisers have no imminent plans to present him with an updated proposal in the Israel-Hamas war ceasefire negotiations.

Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Representative of the United States to the UN, speaks during a United Nations Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East, on Wednesday, October 16.

The United States is watching to ensure Israel doesn’t enact a “policy of starvation” in Gaza, according to Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the United Nations.

“The Government of Israel has said that this is not their policy, that food and other essential supplies will not be cut off, and we will be watching to see that Israel’s actions on the ground match this statement,” she said.

Thomas-Greenfield did note that several dozen aid trucks entered northern Gaza for the first time in several weeks, but stressed that is not enough.

“Many, many more deliveries are needed, and we will continue to push for that,” she said.

Her remarks to the UN Security Council on Wednesday follow a letter from the Biden administration to Israel that suggested US military aid could be in jeopardy if Israel does not act to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza within the next 30 days.

Israel is working with the World Food Programme (WFP) to improve humanitarian infrastructure across the strip, Thomas-Greenfield said, adding that UN convoys will be able to use a new route into southern Gaza. The UN envoy said food supplies need to be surged into Gaza immediately and called for a humanitarian pause across the enclave to allow for vaccinations and aid distribution.

Last week, the WFP warned that no food had entered northern Gaza since the start of October, putting 1 million people at risk of starvation.

Ahmad Al Dalu brought his family to the Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital Complex in Gaza last October because he thought it would be the safest place to shelter. On Sunday, an Israeli strike on the site engulfed his family in fire, killing his wife Alaa and son Shaaban.

Footage of the aftermath of the strike shows Shaaban lying inside the burning tent, with the outline of his arm visible amid the flames and smoke. The teenager was sleeping on the family’s bed after being injured in a strike on the Al Aqsa Martyrs Mosque earlier this month. His father was sleeping on a chair, while Alaa, 37, and their younger children were sleeping on the floor of their tent.

“Suddenly, a lightning strike hit us – a mass of flames. My son remained on the bed, and I fell backward onto the chair. Nothing hit me, but when I saw the flames consuming my children, I went back into the fire,” he told CNN Wednesday, adding he saved three of his children.

Mohammad, Shaaban’s brother, said he tried to help too, but someone held him back for his own safety. “My father’s face and right hand were completely burned, so he couldn’t get my mother or my brother out,” Mohammad said.

His mother, he said, was motionless and did not react to the fire — as if asleep.

“It was incredibly difficult to see my mother and brother burning, but thank God my mother fell asleep and woke up in paradise,” Mohammad said.

The Israel Defense Forces has said it had conducted a “precise strike” on a Hamas command center embedded in the hospital, but has provided no evidence of Hamas’ presence in the complex. It took steps to limit the harm to civilians, the IDF statement also said.

At least seven medical nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have been informed that they will no longer be permitted to enter the Palestinian enclave, according to two sources familiar with the matter. This comes just days after the United States warned Israel that it needs to do more to improve the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza or risk losing military assistance.

The groups, which include FAJR, Glia, the Palestinian American Medical Association and at least four others — all with a long history of operating in the Palestinian territories — were told by the World Health Organization that they had been banned by Israel, the sources said. Members of the now-banned organizations who are already inside Gaza will not be permitted re-entry after they leave, the sources added.

Dorotea Gucciardo, director of development for Glia, confirmed it is among the banned medical aid groups. “Banning healthcare workers from entering Gaza is going to further cripple any ability to provide life-giving and life-saving care to Palestinians, who have already been suffering under the weight of a nearly 20-year military siege,” she told CNN.

CNN has reached out to Fajr, the Palestinian American Medical Association, the World Health Organization, Gaza’s Ministry of Health and Israel’s office for the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories for comment.

Two paramedics were injured by shrapnel while responding to a prior Israeli strike in southern Lebanon, the Lebanese Red Cross posted on X Wednesday.

The medics arrived in the town of Jouaiyya in coordination with UNIFIL, the United Nations’ peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon, to respond to a previous Israeli strike. The area was then targeted again, injuring the paramedics, according to the Lebanese Red Cross. The aid group said the paramedics were taken to the hospital and that their condition “is not worrisome.”

The peacekeeping force “informs the IDF of logistic and humanitarian movements in the area of operations to deconflict activities and mitigate risks. However, we do not receive assurances from the IDF regarding the safety of the convoys,” said Andrea Tenenti, UNIFIL’s spokesperson, without commenting on the specific incident.

CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment.

State Department spokesperson Matt Miller speaks during a press briefing on Wednesday in Washington, DC.

Israel has taken steps to improve the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza after top Biden administration officials sent a letter laying out specific demands on more aid for the enclave, State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said.

Miller pointed to the following actions:

But Miller did not say that the steps taken thus far are adequate enough.

Israel’s commitment will be determined by forthcoming actions, he said.

Fifty humanitarian trucks went into Gaza from Jordan yesterday, Miller said. The administration is pushing for at least 350 humanitarian trucks to be allowed into Gaza daily, according to the letter recently sent to Israeli officials.

The Israeli airstrikes in the southern Lebanese city of Nabatiyeh killed 16 people and injured another 52, the Lebanese Ministry of Health said on X.

The attack included at least 10 airstrikes and created what “resembled a fire belt,” Nabatiyeh Gov. Howaida Turk told Lebanon’s Al-Jadeed TV in a video interview.

Nabatiyeh Mayor Ahmad Kahil and his colleagues were among those killed. The city officials were at a daily crisis management meeting in the city’s municipal building when Israel struck it on Wednesday morning.

The strikes also hit local markets, residential buildings and a university, according to Lebanese state news agency NNA. historic sites including a mosque were also hit, Turk said.

“We condemn the attack that targeted a government building which had been welcoming and providing aid to displaced people,” Turk said.

The Israel Defense Forces said on Wednesday that it struck dozens of Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon’s Nabatiyeh to dismantle what it claims was “underground infrastructure used by Hezbollah’s Radwan Forces.”

United Nations Interim Force In Lebanon (UNIFIL) peacekeeping forces from the Spanish contingent conduct an early morning patrol in the southern Lebanese village of Qliyaa on October 11.

Israel has “no intention” of harming the United Nations’ peacekeeping forces in southern Lebanon (UNIFIL), Foreign Minister Israel Katz said.

Katz said that Israel “places great importance on the activities of (the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) and has no intention of harming the organization or its personnel,” in a post on social media.

The UN has said that the Israeli military has fired on its peacekeepers, forcibly entered a base, stopped a critical logistical movement, and injured more than a dozen of its troops in southern Lebanon in recent weeks.

The European Union’s chief diplomat Josep Borrell said Monday that attacking UN troops was “completely unacceptable.”

Katz alleged Wednesday that Hezbollah is using UNIFIL personnel as human shields, “deliberately firing at IDF soldiers from locations near UNIFIL positions in order to create friction.”

UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer departs 10 Downing Street, London, to attend Prime Minister's Questions at the Houses of Parliament, on October 16.

The United Kingdom is considering placing sanctions on two far-right Israeli ministers, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Wednesday.

The government is “looking at” sanctions against Israel’s Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, Starmer told the House of Commons.

Starmer was responding to a question from Liberal Democrats leader Ed Davey, who pointed to a comment from Smotrich that “starving two million people in Gaza might be justified and moral,” and another from Ben-Gvir, who Davey said “called settlers who killed a 19-year-old on the West Bank ‘heroes.’”

“Will the prime minister now sanction the ministers Ben-Gvir and Smotrich?” Davey asked.

The prime minister said the UK and France have also called an urgent United Nations Security Council meeting to discuss the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

“Israel must take all possible steps to avoid civilian casualties, to allow aid into Gaza in much greater volumes and provide the UN humanitarian partners the ability to operate effectively,” Starmer said.

Israeli ministers condemn Starmer: In a statement, Ben-Gvir said that the British “must realize that the days of the mandate are over,” referring to the period of British administration in the area after World War I. “Just as before the establishment of the Jewish state, the British worked to prevent it, now they continue to do so after its establishment in the midst of a war of existence,” he said.

Smotrich also invoked Britain’s past involvement in the region, saying that while it’s over, “the one-sidedness and hypocrisy remained the same one-sidedness and hypocrisy.”

This post has been updated with responses from Ben-Gvir and Smotrich.

The United States has warned Israel it may stop supplying the country with weapons unless the humanitarian situation in Gaza improves.

This is not the first time Israel’s major ally has threatened to turn off supplies. In May, US President Joe Biden said he would halt some shipments of weapons to Israel if a major invasion of the southern city of Rafah went ahead. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pressed on with the campaign — and the flow of US weapons continued.

Palestinian children carry an empty US ammunition container in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, on May 16.

The United States is overwhelmingly the biggest supplier of arms to Israel. In 2023, 69% of Israel’s arm imports came from the US, according to a report on international arms transfers by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). Germany was the second largest, providing 30%, followed by Italy with 0.9%. The UK, France and Spain were among other minor contributors.

The US-imported weapons “have played a major role in Israel’s military actions against Hamas and Hezbollah,” according to the think tank, noting that at the end of 2023, thousands of guided bombs and missiles were delivered from the US to Israel. F-35 and F-15 fighter jets were also delivered to Israel from the US in January 2024.

Read more about who provides Israel with weapons.