October 23, 2024 War in the Middle East

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

Israeli airstrikes on Syria killed a soldier and wounded seven others early on Thursday, according to the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA).

The strikes at about 3:40 a.m. local time targeted two points in Damascus’ Kafr Sousa district and a military site in the western region of Homs, SANA reported, citing a military source.

“Material damage” has been reported, it said, without specifying further.

Earlier, SANA said an Israeli airstrike hit a residential building in the Syrian capital.

Israel has not commented on the alleged strikes.

An Israeli airstrike hit a residential building in Damascus on Thursday morning, according to Syria’s state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA).

A number of injuries were reported following the attack on the Syrian capital’s Kafr Sousa neighborhood, SANA reported. The extent of the damage is unknown and no further information was provided.

Israel has not commented on the alleged attack. In recent months, the Israel Defense Forces has said it does not comment on reports in foreign media following allegations it carried out strikes on Syria on multiple occasions.

Some context: Israel has carried out numerous attacks on Syria in recent weeks, targeting what it says are Hezbollah figures and infrastructure used to smuggle weapons into Lebanon. Hezbollah is part of an Iran-led alliance spanning Yemen, Syria, Gaza and Iraq that has attacked Israel and its allies since Israel’s war with Hamas began more than a year ago.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin delivers a speech at the Diplomatic Academy in Kyiv, Ukraine on October 21.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin urged Israel to “seize opportunities” for a ceasefire and hostage deal in a call with his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant on Wednesday, Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said.

The call comes as the White House seeks to move forward on efforts to reach an end to hostilities in Gaza following the recent killing of a top Hamas leader.

Austin also noted the recent deployment of a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery as an example of “ironclad” US commitment to Israel’s defense. Earlier this week, the secretary said the system, one of the US military’s most powerful anti-missile weapons, had arrived in Israel and was ready for operation.

Austin also expressed concern about reports of Israeli strikes against the Lebanese armed forces and stressed the importance of taking steps to ensure the safety of both the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers, the readout said.

Some context: Concern for the safety of UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon has mounted in recent weeks after several UN soldiers were injured by Israeli fire.

The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has condemned the Israeli attacks on its positions, saying “any deliberate attack on peacekeepers is a grave violation of international humanitarian law.” The Israeli military has accused Hezbollah of operating in areas near UNIFIL posts, and said it had asked UNIFIL forces to “remain in protected spaces.”

Al Jazeera has denied Israeli allegations that six of its journalists have ties with terror groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, calling them “unfounded” and “baseless.”

Several Al Jazeera journalists have been killed in Gaza over the past year, while Israel has repeatedly accused the Qatar-based news network of activities related to terrorism.

Earlier, the Israel Defense Forces released a document showing what it claimed were the journalists’ personal details and their alleged rank, training and salary within Hamas and Islamic Jihad. CNN is unable to verify the documents.

Al Jazeera said it “categorically rejects the Israeli occupation forces’ portrayal of our journalists as terrorists and denounces (Israel’s) use of fabricated evidence.”

It added that its journalists are “merely fulfilling their professional duties, documenting and reporting on the devastating impact of the war on the strip’s two million civilians.”

Here’s what two of the six accused journalists have said:

Remember: According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, as of October 23, at least 128 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza, the West Bank, Israel and Lebanon since the war began, making it the deadliest period for journalists since it began gathering data in 1992.

This post has been updated with additional information.

At least one person has been killed and five injured by Israeli airstrikes on a residential complex in Beirut’s southern suburb of Dahiyeh, according to the Lebanese health ministry.

Video footage circulating on social media shows a large fireball rising through buildings near the al-Laylaki area, accompanied by the sound of explosions.

Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) said Israeli warplanes had launched four strikes on the complex late Wednesday evening.

NNA described the strikes as the “most violent” in the area since the conflict began, and said they had destroyed six buildings and caused widespread fires. It added that there had been a total of 17 strikes on Dahiyeh Wednesday evening.

Minutes before the strikes, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Arabic spokesperson Avichay Adraee had warned civilians to stay at least 500 meters away from Hezbollah-affiliated locations in the Burj al-Barajneh and Hadath areas of Dahiyeh, as they were about to be targeted.

The IDF told CNN it did not have additional comments at this time.

Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Khiam on Wednesday.

At least 120 projectiles were fired into Israel from Lebanon on Wednesday, the Israeli military said.

Four projectiles targeted central Israel, of which two were intercepted, the military said. Shrapnel from intercepted rockets fell in the cities of Kfar Saba, in the Sharon region, and Herzliya, in the northern part of Tel Aviv district, police said.

Meanwhile, Israel struck targets in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre as well as in Gaza, according to officials and aid agencies.

Here are the latest headlines:

Two brothers, one of whom worked for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), were killed in an Israeli airstrike while driving a marked aid truck in central Gaza on Wednesday, according to the UN agency and family members of the brothers.

Mohammad Abu Etewi, who had worked for UNRWA in Gaza for five years, and his brother Bilal were on their way to collect food aid for displaced people in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, when the truck they were driving was hit, according to their family members.

A spokesperson for UNRWA confirmed to CNN that one of its vehicles was “directly struck by an Israeli missile (and) one of our staff members was killed.”

What footage shows: Video from the aftermath of the strike shows UNRWA labels on the truck and its license plate. Both the driver and passenger seat of the vehicle were completely burned out in the attack, the footage shows, and damage is visible in the street where it was hit by missiles.

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

Gaza Civil Defense said Wednesday that three of its workers were injured in a strike by an Israeli drone.

Before the strike, it said, Israeli quadcopters had issued a warning via a loudspeaker telling its workers to leave their vehicles and head east to a school near the Indonesian hospital in northern Gaza.

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

A young girl was rescued alive after being stuck for hours under rubble after an Israeli airstrike destroyed her home in northern Gaza Wednesday.

It took six hours to rescue Ghazal Masoud, who was buried under three stories, using “primitive” tools and chisels, according to Gaza’s Civil Defense.

At least 12 of Masoud’s family members were killed by the strike that hit near Al-Fakhoura school in Jabalya, which was housing displaced people, according to the family and aid workers.

What’s happening in Jabalya: Such scenes of horror and death have become synonymous with Jabalya, a refugee camp that has been under intense bombardment for the last 19 days, when Israel launched its latest offensive.

More than 770 people in the camp have been killed and 1,000 others injured since then, according to the Government Media Office in Gaza, with thousands of others forced to leave.

On Wednesday, the Israeli military said it had evacuated more than 20,000 people from Jabalya over the past 24 hours and had arrested 150 “terrorists” as they work to eliminate Hamas.

CNN cannot independently verify how many people have been evacuated.

Brig. Gen. Elad Goren, head of the IDF’s civil-humanitarian efforts in Gaza, said Wednesday that Jabalya’s population had “enough assistance” and “enough food” and were evacuating to Gaza City.

“But most of them are already gone. And they are now in Gaza, and this is the main place that international organizations are giving the aid,” he said.

International aid organizations and the Gaza health ministry vehemently dispute that claim, saying that medical supplies and food have not entered northern Gaza for nearly three weeks.

Four projectiles fired from Lebanon crossed into central Israel on Wednesday evening local time, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

Two projectiles landed in central Israel, while two others were intercepted, the IDF said.

Warning sirens sounded in several areas, according to the military, and no injuries have been reported.

Shrapnel from intercepted rockets fell in the cities of Kfar Saba, in the Sharon region, and Herzliya, in the northern part of Tel Aviv district, police said.

There have been no reports of damage to property, they added.

Police are urging residents to stay in protected areas and not to touch any debris.

Israel’s Magen David Adom (MDA) emergency service said teams were en route to search areas.

This post has been updated with additional information.

Hashim Safieddine delivering a speech on September 18.

Hezbollah has confirmed the death of Hashem Safieddine, one of the candidates possibly slated to take charge of the group following the assassination of leader Hassan Nasrallah.

The Israel Defense Forces said earlier that Safieddine was killed when the Israeli Air Force attacked the underground intelligence headquarters of Hezbollah in Beirut’s southern suburbs about three weeks ago.

Hezbollah said in a statement Wednesday that Safieddine was killed in an Israeli airstrike, without specifying the date.

“His Eminence Sayyed Hashem Safieddine has devoted most of his life to serving Hezbollah, the Islamic Resistance and its society,” the Lebanese militant group’s statement said.

The group has yet to name a successor to Nasrallah.

The United Nations’ child agency, UNICEF, has warned there are only a matter of days left to administer the second dose of the polio vaccine to about 119,000 children across northern Gaza.

“If we don’t reach the roughly 119,000 children targeted for vaccination in the northern parts of Gaza, all these children are still vulnerable to poliovirus. This means they are not protected, they can contract the virus, become paralyzed and spread it to others,” UNICEF spokesperson Joe English told CNN on Wednesday.

A Palestinian child is vaccinated against polio in Jabalya, northern Gaza, on September 10.

The first dose of the polio vaccine was administered to children in the north last month, between September 10 and 12. A second dose should be administered within one to two months to provide adequate immunity to the virus and, critically, stop it from spreading in the community.

On Wednesday, the third phase of the United Nations’ polio vaccination campaign in Gaza was postponed due to “the escalating violence, intense bombardment, mass displacement orders, and lack of assured humanitarian pauses across most of northern Gaza,” according to the World Health Organization.

The WHO’s call for deescalation and humanitarian pauses comes as the Israeli military has ramped up its military operation across the north of the enclave.

The Israeli military said it identified around 20 projectile launches that crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory on Wednesday, adding that “some were intercepted.”

The launches were directed at the Krayot area near Haifa, in northern Israel, where sirens had sounded between 1:40 p.m. and 1:42 p.m. local time.

A few minutes later, some 10 projectile launches crossed into Israel’s border area of Kiryat Shmona, hitting the northern city as sirens sounded between 1:49 p.m. and 1:51 p.m. local time. “Fallen projectiles were identified,” the Israel Defense Forces said.

The attack on Kiryat Shmona triggered a fire in a garage that eight firefights are working to extinguish, according to Yair Eliyakim, the head of the firefighting command in northern Israel, who described the attack as “a direct hit” on the northern city.

Footage shared by the Kiryat Shmona municipality and emergency services showed buildings and cars going up in flames as firefighters worked to extinguish them. In one video, a hole is left in the pavement following what appears to be a hit by a projectile or parts of a projectile. “The rocket is still deep inside (the pavement),” said a man filming the damage.

So far on Wednesday, a total of 120 projectile launches were fired from Lebanon, according to the IDF.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, meets Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on October 23.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman spoke about efforts to end conflicts in the Middle East, according to a State Department readout of their meeting.

“They continued discussions on the need to establish lasting regional stability, including through greater integration among countries in the region,” Wednesday’s statement said in a seeming nod toward normalization efforts.

In addition to talks on Gaza, the two also discussed “efforts toward a diplomatic resolution” to the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Where Blinken is going next: The secretary of state will travel to Qatar after Saudi Arabia, and then to the United Kingdom for more meetings with Arab partners to discuss “bringing the war in Gaza to an end, securing the release of all hostages, and alleviating the suffering of the Palestinian people,” according to a statement from State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller.

Relatives of Palestinians who lost their life after Israeli attacks at Nusierat refugee camp, perform funeral prayer at Al-Awda Hospital, Gaza, on October 15.

Health care officials in northern Gaza warned of severe shortages in medical supplies on Wednesday as Israeli bombardment in the area intensified.

“We smell death everywhere in northern Gaza,” Dr. Mohamed Saleh, acting director of Al-Awda Hospital in Beit Lahiya told CNN over the phone, adding that ambulances are unable to transport the injured due to relentless Israeli attacks. The hospital faces severe shortages in staff, medical supplies, blood units, food for patients and fuel to activate medical devices, he said.

Repeated Israeli bombardment nearby has significantly damaged the hospital, he said, destroying patient accommodations and blocking access for emergency services.

At least 74 Palestinians were killed and 130 injured over the past 24 hours in Gaza, bringing the total death toll to 42,792 since October 7 last year, according to the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza.

Kamal Adwan Hospital, also in Beit Lahiya, is facing severe shortages as well, its director Hussam Abu Safiya told CNN over the phone.

“We are sharing the few remaining items we have, like bread or anything we can find, as our supplies have run out,” he said, calling for  protection for medical teams and the opening of safe corridors to deliver essential medical supplies, food, and fuel “before more lives are lost.”

CNN has reached out to the Israeli military for a comment on the intensive bombardment in northern Gaza.

The third phase of the United Nations’ polio vaccination campaign in Gaza has been postponed due to “escalating violence, intense bombardment, mass displacement orders, and lack of assured humanitarian pauses across most of northern Gaza,” the World Health Organization (WHO) said Wednesday.

The immunization drive was due to kick off on Wednesday, WHO said, and was the final phase of an ongoing campaign that aims to vaccinate nearly 120,000 children across northern Gaza.

The postponement could “seriously jeopardize efforts to stop the transmission of the poliovirus in Gaza,” if “a significant number of children miss out on their second” dose of the vaccine, UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa Adele Khodr warned in a post on X.

Locals describe dire situation on the ground: Residents of northern Gaza are living under deteriorating conditions as Israel ramps up its military operation there, saying Hamas has been regrouping in the area. On Tuesday, the director of Gaza’s health ministry said medicine, medical supplies and food have not entered northern Gaza for 18 days and accused Israel’s military of preventing international aid convoys from reaching the area.

In a news briefing on Wednesday, Col. Elad Goren, the Israeli military’s head of the humanitarian-civil effort in the Gaza Strip, said that residents of Jabalya in northern Gaza, where the Israeli military is operating, “have enough assistance from previous months” and that 90% of the area’s population have evacuated.

CNN cannot verify that claim. Several residents of northern Gaza, including Jabalya, have told CNN they are trapped and under Israeli fire with no access to aid.

Israel’s aid policy in Gaza has not changed since US President Joe Biden’s administration sent a letter last week calling on Israel to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza or risk violating US law, an Israeli military official in said Wednesday.

The October 13 letter, written by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, demanded that Israel act within the next 30 days or risk violating US laws governing foreign military assistance, suggesting US military aid could be in jeopardy.

People attempt to secure aid at a food distribution center in Gaza City on October 21.

Goren said that in the letter, the US “connected some facts,” but “got the wrong picture.” Goren said Israel had closed the Erez border crossing in northern Gaza for “a tactical, operational reasons,” adding that it will open “after there is no threat.” He added that some demands in the US letter were already implemented before the letter was sent, which Israel “will continue to work with them (US) in order to implement and to facilitate, like the number of trucks that needs to enter Gaza.”

Other elements will not be implemented “because of security reasons,” he said, without providing details. Israel nonetheless “took this letter very seriously,” he added.

On Wednesday, Blinken said some progress has been made, “but more needs to be done.”

Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon have killed at least seven high-ranking Hezbollah commanders and officials in recent weeks, including the militant group’s chief Hassan Nasrallah, who was assassinated in a strike on his underground headquarters in Beirut in late September.

As Hezbollah seeks to recuperate from the carnage and vows to continue fighting Israel, here’s a look at some of the group’s leaders who have been killed — and who’s left.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference at the Sheba Tel-HaShomer Medical Centre, in Ramat Gan, Israel, on June 8.

When Israeli forces killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza last week, many inside and outside of Israel hoped it could be the moment Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would declare a victory and scale back the Gaza operation in hopes of securing a ceasefire and hostage release feal.

A week after Sinwar’s death, it is increasingly clear they have been wrong.

Netanyahu, who celebrated his 75th birthday on Monday, is Israel’s longest serving prime minister, steering his country through its longest ever war. Israel’s international allies, as well as many inside the country, are pressuring Netanyahu to end that war now, pointing out that Sinwar’s killing came off the back of other military successes, most notably the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

And he’s under significant domestic pressure with an upcoming trial for several charges of fraud, breach of trust and bribery.

Netanyahu is playing a complicated game, trying to balance the contradictory demands of the many allies he cannot afford to lose. At the same time, Netanyahu needs to consider the demands from the US. The Biden administration has made it very clear it wants Israel to work towards a deal that would end the war.

Read the full analysis of Netanyahu’s endgame as Israel ramps up operations on multiple fronts.