October 24, 2024 news on the wars in the Middle East

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

The FBI is zeroing in on a US government office where it believes the leaked US intelligence documents on Israel’s preparations for a possible attack on Iran were printed, a US official and another source familiar with the matter told CNN.

FBI investigators working with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service in recent days have narrowed the focus of the investigation to concentrate on locations where the documents could have been printed before they were leaked last Friday. In the wake of classified document leaks in recent years, the federal government has increased its tracking of when employees access and print classified documents.

Both Israel-related documents that were published on social media last week were widely accessible intelligence products, according to two sources familiar with US intelligence. But at least one appears to be scanned from an officially printed briefing book. Investigators have worked to pinpoint where the documents were printed and who had access to them. The pool of people who printed these pages would be relatively small; sources have said — a key jumping-off point for investigators.

US officials have said it wasn’t what the documents described that is worrying so much as the fact that they leaked at all; the breach has simmered in the background of national security circles in Washington throughout the week.

Read more about the investigation.

The head of the World Health Organization says more than 100 Lebanese health facilities, representing about a third of all the facilities in the country, have been forced to close as Israel heavily bombards the country in its fight against Hezbollah.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus used his appearance at the International Conference in Support of Lebanon’s People and Sovereignty to highlight the devastating impact on the nation’s health care system.

Over 2,500 people have been killed and more than 12,000 injured in Lebanon over the past year of fighting, with most of the casualties occurring since Israel escalated its attacks on September 17, said Tedros, who is commonly known by his first name.

The WHO chief said health workers are overwhelmed, with hospitals under severe strain and being targeted in attacks. The situation is dire, with over 1.2 million people displaced, and a cholera case reported in northern Lebanon due to the deteriorating water and sanitation conditions, Tedros said.

WHO has documented 53 attacks on Lebanese health care in the past year, resulting in the deaths of 99 patients and staff, Tedros said. The crisis poses severe risks of disease outbreaks and complications from untreated medical conditions.

The conference, organized by the French government and hosted in Paris, was designed to “rally the international community to respond to the Lebanese people’s needs for protection and emergency relief and identify ways of supporting Lebanon’s institutions, especially those of the Lebanese armed forces, which guarantee the country’s internal stability,” according to the French foreign ministry.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks at a press conference in Vientiane, Laos, on October 11.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet with his Jordanian and Emirati counterparts and Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister while in London on Friday, a State Department official said.

The conversations with Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi and United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan are likely to focus on efforts to shore up “day after” plans for stability, security and reconstruction in Gaza following the conclusion of the war.

His meeting with Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati is expected to focus on the ongoing Israeli military campaign against Hezbollah, which has taken a massive toll on the civilian population in Lebanon, including in the capital of Beirut.

The conflict at Israel’s northern border has been a focus of Blinken’s conversations throughout his trip to the Middle East.

Israel’s fight against Hezbollah “cannot lead — should not lead — to a protracted campaign” in Lebanon, the top US diplomat said at a news conference Thursday. He urged Israel to take necessary steps to prevent harm to civilians, the Lebanese military and United Nations peacekeepers.

The top US diplomat’s stop in the United Kingdom is the last expected stop on his trip, which included visits to Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar.

More about the trip: A key crux of the trip has been to push forward efforts to try to secure the release of the hostages and reach a ceasefire in Gaza in the wake of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar’s killing. Those efforts seem to have yielded a bit of progress, as Blinken and his Qatari counterpart announced negotiations would resume this weekend. However, there is little expectation of a breakthrough before the US election.

A high-level Egyptian security delegation met with “a delegation of Hamas leaders” in Cairo to discuss the situation in Gaza and explore ways to overcome obstacles hindering calm in the region, Egyptian state-affiliated Al-Qahera News reported Thursday, citing a high-ranking source.

The source said the meeting is part of Egypt’s efforts to restart ceasefire negotiations, and that Egyptian officials used the meeting to reiterate the country’s commitment to increasing humanitarian aid for people in Gaza, according to Al-Qahera.

Another meeting is expected this weekend in Qatar to restart the talks over a possible hostage and ceasefire deal in Gaza, a source familiar with the meeting told CNN earlier Thursday.

Qatar has reengaged with the Hamas political bureau in Doha after the killing of the group’s leader, Yahya Sinwar, in Gaza last week, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said at a news conference in Doha on Thursday.

Smoke rises from an Israeli airstrike on Lebanon's Majdal Zoun village on October 24.

At least six people were killed and several others injured after an Israeli airstrike targeted a house in the town of al-Halaniyeh in the eastern Baalbek region. The wounded have been transferred to Rayak General Hospital, Lebanese state media (NNA) reported Thursday.

Separately, at least four people were killed and several wounded in southern Lebanon following four Israeli air raids on neighborhoods in the town of Kfar Tebnit in Nabatiyeh, according to NNA. The strikes led to the “complete destruction of buildings, turning entire neighborhoods into rubble.”

Additionally, at least two people were killed and five others injured following an Israeli airstrike on Thursday in Majdal Zoun village in the Tyre region of southern Lebanon, according to the country’s health ministry.

Some context: 111 Israeli air raids were recorded in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of attacks since the start of the aggression to 10,950, Dr. Nasser Yassin, coordinator for Lebanon’s emergency committee, who is also Lebanon’s environment minister, said Thursday.

CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment. The IDF has previously said it is striking Hezbollah targets.

The Arabic spokesperson for the IDF issued a warning on social media Thursday, addressing residents of southern Lebanon. The spokesperson urged civilians to avoid moving south and to return to their homes or olive groves in previously evacuated areas, which have now become dangerous combat zones.

Lebanon has opened 1,097 shelters, with 928 at full capacity, as the number of displaced people has reached 191,692, “with the highest percentage of displaced persons recorded in Mount Lebanon Governorate and Beirut, but it is estimated that the number of displaced persons is much higher,” according to Yassin.

Israel’s intelligence chief will attend hostage talks in Doha, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office confirmed in a statement Thursday.

The statement did not specify when, but CNN reported earlier today that a meeting is expected this weekend in Qatar to restart the talks over a possible hostage and ceasefire deal in Gaza, according to a source familiar with the meeting.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed Mossad Director David Barnea to attend the meeting, the Prime Minister’s Office said. Netanyahu said Barnea will be there to “promote a series of initiatives on the agenda, with the backing of the Cabinet members.”

The prime minister said he welcomes “Egypt’s willingness to promote a deal for the release of hostages” following the meetings that took place in Cairo earlier this week.

On Sunday, the director of Israel’s Shin Bet security agency, Ronen Bar, met Egypt’s newly appointed intelligence chief Hassan Mahmoud Rashad and discussed ways to move forward on a ceasefire-for-hostages deal, according to an Israeli official.

Remember: The United States — which is expected to send CIA Director Bill Burns to the meeting this weekend, according to the source — has been trying to create new momentum for a ceasefire deal in the wake of the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

But Hamas has shown no inclination to change its stance on hostage and ceasefire negotiations, and there is little clarity on who now speaks for the militant group. Meanwhile, Israel has continued its relentless military campaign in northern Gaza and shown no signs of letting up on its northern front in Lebanon.

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, on October 24.

Russia is “not interested” in escalating conflict in the Middle East, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday, when asked whether Moscow would provide support to Iran should Israel launch an attack.

Moscow is in touch with Iran, but is focused on compromise and diplomacy, according to Putin, adding that “we see our role as creating conditions for resolving the situation through the search for mutual compromises.”

Putin has long been positioning Russia as a possible neutral mediator in the Middle East, capable of working both with Israel and regional neighbors. He noted that Israel “suffered a terrorist attack in October last year, so we have to go around that in a calm fashion.”

“We have to analyze everything accurately, but we should not condone disproportionate responses to such terrorist attacks,” the Russian leader added.

As CNN has previously reported, observers say Putin and his officials are using the conflict in the Middle East — and anger across the Global South toward the US and its support for Israel as the Gaza death toll rises — to press his argument for a new world order without the US at the helm.

The path out of the conflict, Putin said on Thursday, is to “remove the root causes of this situation, and the main root cause is the absence of a fully-fledged state of Palestine.”

The commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) issued a warning to Israel on Thursday, cautioning against overconfidence in the anti-missile defense system sent by the United States to Israel.

According to Iranian state media, IRGC Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami argued that THAAD, which stands for Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense, is a limited defense and that Israel’s reliance on it would not secure victory against potential “reprisal attacks from the resistance front.”

“Do not trust THAAD’s pipes; these are limited … Shoot as much as you wish, your enemies will shoot many times more than you. You cannot win in this, and we will defeat you,” Salami claimed, the state news agency Press TV reported.

The comments follow the deployment of the US missile defense system to Israel along with scores of US military personnel to operate it “to help bolster Israel’s air defenses following Iran’s unprecedented attacks against Israel on April 13 and again on October 1,” according to the Pentagon. The missile defense system sent by the United States to Israel is “in place” and ready for use when needed, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said Monday.

What is THAAD?: The 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.

CNN’s Natasha Bertrand contributed to this report.

CNN video shows Palestinians surveying the destruction of an Israeli airstrike on Al-Shuhada school, in Nuseirat, in central Gaza, on October 24.

Palestinian men cradle children with severe, bloodied wounds on their faces. Nearby, health workers delicately nurse a girl swaddled in white bandages, her wails echoing through the halls of Al-Awda Hospital in central Gaza.

Video from the hospital on Thursday, filmed by a reporter working for CNN in Gaza, shows dozens of people flooding the courtyard, carrying survivors injured by an Israeli airstrike on a school in the Nuseirat refugee camp.

In the footage, a toddler covered in a thick layer of debris can be seen lying in the back of a truck. He appears to be lifeless, and there are massive open wounds to his abdomen.

Another clip shows a man carrying a visibly shellshocked girl with matted hair, her face covered in blood. Just inside, mothers and fathers crowd the morgue. Relatives kneel next to children killed by the attack, their small bodies wrapped in shrouds.

“I was going up the stairs when I heard a loud explosion,” Baraa Al Far, a Palestinian child, told CNN. “My mother was injured in the head, and my sister was hit by shrapnel in her leg. My other sister is missing.”

Baraa Al Far (left) can be seen with other Palestinian boys in the morgue of Al-Awda Hospital, after an Israeli airstrike in Nuseirat on Thursday.

In the video, Mahmoud Khalifa, a Palestinian man, is shown in Al-Awda Hospital, in Nuseirat, in central Gaza.

Another Palestinian, Mahmoud Khalifa, crouched over the body of a young boy covered in shrouds.

The Israeli airstrike on the Al-Shuhada School sheltering displaced Palestinians killed at least 17 people and wounded 42 others, according to Al-Awda Hospital officials. Most of the casualties from the attack were children and elderly Palestinians, officials added.

The Israeli military said it was targeting “Hamas terrorists” when it hit the school.

(L-R:) Mossad Director David Barnea, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, CIA Director Bill Burns.

A meeting is expected this weekend in Qatar to restart the talks over a possible hostage and ceasefire deal in Gaza, a source familiar with the meeting told CNN.

Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani is expected to host the meeting on Sunday with CIA Director Bill Burns and Mossad Director David Barnea, the source said.

The officials are expected to discuss the prospects of a new proposal, along the parameters of what was being discussed over the summer before the talks fell apart.

It is still unclear who speaks for Hamas in Gaza, the source said, but the militant group’s main point of contact outside Gaza for the negotiations is Khalil Al-Hayya. Since the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, it appears the organization’s political arm has more sway, the source said.

The US believes there is now an opportunity for a ceasefire and hostage deal — “the quickest way” to get the hostages home and bring an end to the war in Gaza — “because the biggest obstacle to concluding that agreement was Sinwar,” Blinken said earlier.

CNN’s Mostafa Salem contributed reporting to this post.

French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Noel Barrot speaks during a press conference at an international aid conference in support of Lebanon, in Paris, France, on October 24.

Dozens of countries and international bodies, including the United States, France and the United Nations, have pledged $1 billion to Lebanon during a humanitarian aid conference hosted by Paris.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said during his closing remarks at the summit on Thursday that 70 countries and 15 UN agencies collectively agreed to provide $800 million in humanitarian assistance and $200 million for security forces.

“This involves ending hostilities on both sides of the border, massively deploying the Lebanese armed forces in the south of the country, strengthening (the UN peacekeeping force’s) capacity to implement its mandate and resolving the dispute over the land border,” he added. “Hezbollah, which bears heavy responsibility for this war, must cease its attacks and comply with United Nations resolutions.”

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati added, “Today, I can truly say that I feel that Lebanon is not alone. … But at the same time, my heart is sad for Lebanon because we have to be increasingly mobilized in favor of this country, which believes in coexistence, freedoms and values to protect it from this unjust Israeli aggression.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States has been “in close coordination with Israel on what is necessary to deter further aggression from Iran and to ensure that any response does not lead to an endless cycle of escalation.”

The top US diplomat, speaking in Qatar Thursday after meetings earlier this week in Israel, stressed that it is “not in anyone’s interest” to see such escalation, but he would not speak to Israel’s planned response to the Iranian ballistic missile attack in early October.

Blinken also did not answer a question about his confidence in Israel’s assurances that its long-awaited response will not spark further conflict. As CNN reported last week, Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have assured the United States that a counterstrike on Iran will be limited to military targets rather than oil or nuclear facilities, according to a person familiar with the discussions.

The US was also working with partners to convey “directly or indirectly” to Tehran that further attacks on Israel “will have deeply negative consequences for Iran’s interests,” Blinken said Thursday.

Wounded people, including children and women, are brought to Al-Awda Hospital for treatment after the Israeli army attacked a school sheltering displaced Palestinians at Nuseirat refugee camp, Gaza, on October 24.

The Israeli military said it “conducted a strike on Hamas terrorists” when it hit a school in central Gaza.

“The command and control center, which was embedded inside a compound that previously served as the ‘Shuhada’ al-Nuseirat’ school, was used by the terrorists to plan and execute terrorist attacks against IDF troops and the State of Israel,” the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement on Thursday.

The Israeli attack on the school killed at least 17 people and wounded 42 others, Al-Awda Hospital officials said in a statement earlier.

Qatar has re-engaged with the Hamas political bureau in Doha after the killing of the group’s leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza last week, according to Qatari Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.

“We had some meetings with them in the last couple of days; I believe that … there is no clarity what will be the way forward,” he told a news conference in Doha on Thursday.

Hamas’s position on the ceasefire and hostage talks has not changed since the last meditation effort, Al Thani said.

Hamas’ demands: Last week, senior Hamas official Khalil Al-Hayya said hostages would only be released if the war in Gaza ends, Israeli forces withdraw from the enclave and Palestinian prisoners are released — relaying the main demands put forth to mediators several times over the past year that have been rejected by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Al Thani said that a Hamas delegation is in Egypt today for “ongoing discussions.”

Negotiating teams from the United States and Israel will visit Doha for a renewed effort for a Gaza deal.

“Ways to reach a breakthrough in these negotiations will be explored,” Al Thani told a news conference alongside US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in Doha, Qatar, on October 24.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he expects “negotiators will be getting together in the coming days” to discuss how to move forward on efforts to get the remaining hostages home from Gaza and reach a ceasefire.

Speaking alongside his Qatari counterpart in Doha, Blinken said part of the way forward “involves an assessment of exactly where Hamas stands in the wake of the death of” Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. He said he and the Qataris had discussed that in their meetings Thursday.

The top US diplomat again stressed that Israel should seize the “pivotal moment” following Sinwar’s killing.

“Israel has accomplished the strategic goals that it set out for itself – making sure that October 7 and the horrors can never happen again, by effectively dismantling the military organization of Hamas – it succeeded in doing that – and bringing to justice its leaders, those who perpetrated the horrors of October 7, notably Sinwar,”  he said.

“Now that that’s been accomplished, this is a moment to work to end this war, to bring make sure all the hostages are home, and to build a better future for people in Gaza,” Blinken said.

A “large portion” of the discussions between Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken focused on reaching a ceasefire in Lebanon, Qatar’s top diplomat said at a Thursday news conference in Doha.

The top diplomats also discussed how Gaza’s “day after” plan might look like and how to reach a “sustainable and stable situation” in Gaza and the West Bank.

“Efforts continue between Qatar, the United States, Egypt and partners in the region to reach a solution to stop the war and release the hostages and prisoners,” Al Thani said.

Remember: Along with the United States and Egypt, Qatar has been acting a mediator in the talks between Hamas and Israel.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, meets with Qatar's Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani in Doha on October 24.

Qatar’s Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, met with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at Lusail Palace in Qatar to discuss the situation in Lebanon, Gaza and the occupied Palestinian territories, according to an official readout by the Qatari Diwan on Thursday.

Additionally, the Qatari Diwan said that the two leaders addressed ongoing diplomatic efforts to secure a ceasefire in the region.

Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people in Nuseirat, Gaza, on October 24.

An Israeli airstrike on a school in central Gaza killed at least 17 people and wounded 42 others on Thursday, Al-Awda hospital officials said in a statement.

Most of the casualties from the attack on Al-Shuhada School, in Nuseirat refugee camp, were children and elderly Palestinians, according to a statement from Al-Awda Hospital.

CNN has reached out to the Israeli military for comment.

Lebanon's Prime Minister Najib Mikati, left, speaks next to France's President Emmanuel Macron during an international press conference in support of Lebanon, in Paris, France, on October 24.

Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati addressed a Paris summit on Thursday, saying his government plans to recruit additional troops and potentially deploy 8,000 soldiers to the south of the country.

On Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron opened an international conference in Paris focused on raising funds and mobilizing humanitarian aid for Lebanon.

Mikati underscored the extensive damage to Lebanon’s infrastructure, including to roads, schools, hospitals, and cultural heritage, and called for international funding to support large-scale reconstruction projects, such as rebuilding the transport network, power grid, and water facilities.

Mikati said that more than 1.2 million Lebanese had been displaced, including 500,000 children, due to Israel’s war in the country, describing the situation as an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. He condemned attacks on healthcare workers and facilities, urging accountability under international law.

Macron said France will contribute a “massive” 100-million-euro aid package to support the war-torn country.