October 25, 2024 Israel strikes Iran in high-stakes retaliation

The “several sounds of explosions” heard in Tehran were related to the country’s air defense systems, Iranian state-run Press TV reported Saturday, citing security sources.

Iranian state news IRNA said that the situation at Mehrabad and Imam Khomeini airports is normal.

Israel’s military said that it is “conducting precise strikes on military targets in Iran” following initial reports of explosions in the Iranian capital.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu monitors the attack on Iran from an undisclosed location. Parts of the image were obscured by the Israel Defense Forces.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in a bunker in Tel Aviv’s Kirya military base early Saturday local time during the attack in Iran, according to the prime minister’s Office.

The image shared by the Netanyahu’s office shows him sitting next to Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and other military officials.

The United States is not participating in the Israeli military’s operations against Iran, a senior administration official said Friday.

Israel did give the White House a heads up in advance of the strikes, according to a source familiar with the notification.

President Joe Biden is currently in Wilmington, Delaware, and his advisers are currently not planning to convene in the Situation Room. The president has been briefed on the strikes, though, and is closely following developments, a White House official said.

The Israeli Defense Forces, announcing the moves on X, described the action as “precise strikes on military targets” in Iran, though it remained unclear which specific sites were targeted.

Some background: In recent weeks, top US officials made clear their views that Israel’s response — both in character and the sites targeted — should avoid being unduly escalatory or impacting the global economy, according to a source familiar with the discussions.

Biden and his top national security advisers, in a series of regular discussions, made clear they did not support strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities or oil reserves. While officials believed that other oil producers could easily make up the roughly 1 million barrels per day that Iran produces, they worried more about the market’s interpretation of such a strike and the possibility of a surge in energy prices around the world as US voters went to the polls.

“The psychology is more substantive than the reality,” the source tells CNN, pointing to the mere suggestion of a strike on oil facilities sending market prices up by more than 4%.

CNN has reported that Israeli officials provided assurances to the US that the response target military assets — not nuclear or oil sites — after the Biden administration raised concerns about further provocation and ramifications at home.

This post has been updated with additional information.

IDF Spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari speaks during a video statement.

Israel’s military is “conducting precise strikes on military targets in Iran,” it said in a statement early on Saturday local time, after reports emerged of explosions heard in Tehran.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that the strikes are a response to Iran, which has been “relentlessly attacking” Israel since October 7th “on seven fronts – including direct attacks from Iranian soil.”

The IDF also warned that its “defensive and offensive capabilities are fully mobilized.”

Remember: Earlier in October, Iran fired a barrage of missiles at Israel after the killing of Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah and others. The region has been bracing for Israel’s response for weeks.

People take shelter during an air raid siren after Iran fired a salvo of ballistic missiles at Israel on October 1.

As reports emerge on multiple explosions in Iran, here’s a recap of the October 1 attacks from Iran on Israel.

Iran launched dozens of missiles toward Israel on October 1 in what it said was a response to the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and others — potentially taking the region closer to a wider conflict.

Remember: Hezbollah is an Iran-backed militant group in Lebanon.

On October 1, CNN teams on the ground in multiple locations in Israel observed dozens of missiles piercing through the skies as sirens blasted across the country.

One Palestinian was killed in Jericho as a result of the attacks, Nadav Shoshani, the international spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces, told CNN at the time.

Israel’s response was heavily anticipated: Israel had vowed to respond to the attack — sparking worries among its allies that the conflict in the Middle East could escalate further.

Speaking hours after the assault, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “Iran made a big mistake tonight — and it will pay for it. The regime in Iran does not understand our determination to defend ourselves and our determination to retaliate against our enemies.”

The US had engaged in diplomacy with Israel, urging it to stay away from attacking Iran’s oil or nuclear sites.

Some background: Israel and Iran, two regional powerhouses, have long been enemy states engaged in a decades-long shadow war.

Over the years, Israel has carried out covert operations against the Islamic Republic. Meanwhile, it has also fought an indirect war against several militant and Islamist groups across the region — including Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen — many of whom are believed to be funded and armed by Iran.

Together, these groups are known as the “Axis of Resistance” — but Iran’s control over them varies.

These groups have also ramped up attacks against Israel since the war in Gaza began, vowing to keep up the fight as long as Israel’s devastating war in Gaza continues. Those battles, which span the Middle East including Iraq and Syria, grow in complexity the longer they go on.

CNN’s Ivana Kottasová, Jeremy Diamond, Kevin Liptak, MJ Lee, Arlette Saenz, Kylie Atwood and Jennifer Hansler contributed to this reporting.

Syrian air defenses have confronted “hostile targets” around Damascus, according to Syria’s state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) early on Saturday local time.

Earlier, SANA reported that explosions heard in the skies around the Syrian capital were being investigated.

Israel has begun its retaliatory strikes on Iran following an attack from Tehran earlier this month, according to an official familiar.

The semi-official Tasnim news agency reported that several explosions were heard west of the Iranian capital.

Several explosions were heard in Tehran on Saturday morning local time, according to the Iranian semi-official Fars news agency.

The semi-official Tasnim news agency reported that several explosions were heard west of the Iranian capital.

Several explosions were heard in Tehran on Saturday morning local time, according to the Iranian semi-official Fars news agency.

The explosions come as the region has braced for Israeli response to Iran’s attack earlier this month.

After an hours-long communication blackout, the director of northern Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital told CNN that Israeli troops are still present on the ground, describing the situation as “truly terrifying.”

Israeli troops were still present in the hospital when its director, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, spoke to CNN shortly after 3 p.m. ET on Friday, recounting how “intense bombardment” of the building had caused “glass to shatter everywhere and doors to break.”

Abu Safiya said the Israeli military were currently in the process of “searching all the rooms, evacuating the displaced people and removing 44 staff members.”

At least 600 staff, patients and family members are currently in the hospital, said the Gaza Ministry of Health, describing the situation as “deteriorating” at an alarming rate.

Israeli forces cut off the hospital’s electricity and solar power supply and prevented staff from accessing the water well, he said.

Two children on ventilators died after the Israeli military blew up the hospital’s oxygen supply, Abu Safiya said.

He said children residing in the nursery also had to be urgently transferred to the ICU area after Israeli soldiers opened fire on the facility. Three members of the hospital’s nursing staff were injured by sniper fire with facial, neck and chest injuries. A cleaner was also shot in the face, he added.

The Israeli military said in an earlier statement Friday that its forces are operating in the area of the Kamal Adwan Hospital “based on intelligence information regarding the presence of terrorists and terrorist infrastructure.” It claimed the military had helped patients evacuate the area in the weeks prior.

COGAT, the Israeli agency that manages the flow of aid into the strip, said on Friday that with the help of United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund and World Health Organization, several patients and their escorts were evacuated from the facility. The hospital was also given fuel, blood units and medical equipment.

But WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated on X that the hospital is housing about 200 patients, along with hundreds more seeking shelter there.

Hezbollah carried out 48 attacks against Israel and its troops in southern Lebanon on Friday, the militant group said in a statement released in the early hours of Saturday local time.

The attacks involved rockets, missiles and drones and were carried out in support of Palestinians in Gaza and the “defense of Lebanon and its people,” the statement read.

Hezbollah said it had confronted Israeli forces attempting “to advance” on the Lebanese border, and it had also conducted “operations against the sites, bases, and deployment of the Israeli enemy army and settlements in the north (of Israel).”

The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that Hezbollah had on Friday fired “approximately 65 projectiles” that “crossed from Lebanon into Israel.”

“The IDF will continue to defend the state of Israel and its people against the threat posed by the Hezbollah terrorist organization,” the Israeli military said.

People inspect the damage at the site of an Israeli strike in Khan Younis, Gaza, on Friday.

Israel is continuing its attacks on Gaza and Lebanon as the Middle East also braces for a possible Israeli response on Iran.

The United States’ top diplomat met with Middle East leaders on Friday, the diplomacy seeking to rein in the wars in Lebanon and Gaza. It comes as talks about a ceasefire and hostage deal are expected to resume on Sunday in Qatar.

Here’s what to know:

A still from a video obtained by CNN shows aftermath a strike on a guesthouse in Hasbaiya that killed three journalists.

The Israeli military is reviewing an overnight airstrike that killed three journalists in Lebanon after the deadly incident drew outrage from the Lebanese government and press freedom groups.

In a statement sent to CNN, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said earlier on Friday it struck a Hezbollah military structure in the town of Hasbaiya where it claimed Hezbollah militants “were operating.”

The IDF said the strike was conducted while the Hezbollah members were “inside the structure.” Several hours later “reports were received that journalists had been hit during the strike,” it wrote, adding that “the incident is under review.”

Footage geolocated by CNN showed that the IDF strike targeted a guesthouse in Hasbaiya. In the video, a blue press helmet and a vest could be seen among the rubble of a damaged building.

Two of the journalists killed worked for Lebanon-based TV channel Al-Mayadeen, while the third was a journalist for the Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Manar TV, according to the Lebanese state-run news agency, NNA.

Reaction: The attack was condemned by a host of Lebanese officials including Information Minister Ziad Makary who described it as a “deliberate assassination” in a post on X Friday. The country’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati called the attack a “deliberate attempt” to intimidate journalists trying to cover the conflict between Israel and Lebanon.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) also issued a statement “strongly condemning” the attack, calling on the international community to urgently address Israel’s “long-standing pattern of impunity” when it comes to the killing of journalists.

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United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk listens during a press conference in Guatemala City on July 19.

The United Nations’ human rights chief warned Friday that “one of the darkest moments of the Gaza conflict” is taking place in the north of the strip, which he said could amount to “crimes against humanity.”

He said the situation in northern Gaza “is getting worse by the day,” adding that “Israeli government’s policies and practices risk emptying the area of all Palestinians.”

“We are facing what could amount to atrocity crimes, including potentially extending to crimes against humanity,” Türk said, while also calling on world leaders to act, saying it was their duty to respect international humanitarian law.

He accused the Israeli military of striking hospitals and schools and killing hospital staff, patients, and journalists. Türk also said “Palestinian armed groups” are operating from civilian facilities, which he called “totally unacceptable.”

What is happening in northern Gaza: It has been 21 days since Israel ramped up its military operations in northern Gaza. Authorities in Gaza say the Israeli military has stopped aid from reaching parts of the area and displaced many of its residents. Israel says it is preventing Hamas from regrouping.

People carry their belongings while crossing from Lebanon into Syria on October 14.

More than half a million people have fled from Lebanon into Syria since September 23 as Israel has intensified strikes in the country, according to Lebanon’s Disaster Risk Management Unit.

Of those crossing the border, 348,237 are Syrian citizens and 156,505 are Lebanese citizens, according to the DRMU.

Authorities have recorded at least 190,975 internally displaced people “in approved shelters,” but the numbers are likely much higher.

The DRMU said psychosocial support programs and activities, as well as protection for children, women, people with disabilities and the elderly have been set up in the shelters.

People walk at a shelter housing displaced people who fled from Lebanon to Syria in Herjelleh, Syria, on October 15.

The unit also said that over the past 24 hours, “125 airstrikes and shelling were recorded in various areas of Lebanon, mostly concentrated in the South and Nabatiyeh, bringing the total number of attacks since the beginning of the aggression to 11,085.”

The Lebanese health ministry issued a statement earlier Friday saying over the past 24 hours, at least 41 people have been killed and 133 others injured in Israeli strikes across the country.

Cross-border strikes: Israel and Hezbollah have been carrying out strikes against each other for over a year. On Friday afternoon, the Israel Defense Forces said approximately “45 projectiles that were fired by the Hezbollah terrorist organization crossed from Lebanon into Israel.”

Israel says some 60,000 people have been evacuated from northern Israel since Hezbollah began firing barrages of rockets on October 8 of last year in support of Hamas in Gaza, after the militant group launched deadly attacks against Israel a day earlier.

Closures: Earlier, Israeli airstrikes near Lebanon’s eastern border crossings with Syria led to the closure of Al-Qaa and the Masnaa border crossings, according to a Lebanese official and the United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Israel said it was targeting Hezbollah infrastructure.

US President Joe Biden said Friday that the killing of people in Gaza “has to stop.”

He made the remarks during an event formally apologizing for the federal government’s role in Native American boarding schools. The president’s speech was interrupted by two pro-Palestinian protesters.

One protester unfurled a Palestinian flag and could be heard shouting: “What about the people in Gaza; what about the people in Palestine?”

A few attendees in the crowd could also be heard shouting, “Get out of here.”

A medical aid worker was killed in Israeli military operations in southern Gaza Thursday night, according to Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), also known as Doctors Without Borders.

The organization said Hasan Suboh, 41, was killed in Khan Younis and leaves behind his wife and seven children.

“This is our eighth colleague killed in Gaza since 7 October 2023, and the second in two weeks,” according to MSF. Suboh had worked with MSF since 2019.

According to Gaza’s health ministry, recent Israeli airstrikes have led to more than 33 civilian deaths, 14 of them children, and scores of injuries, primarily among women and children.

MSF condemned the attack, urging an immediate end to violence against civilians in Gaza.

In a statement on Friday morning, the Israeli military said its troops had continued combat operations in the southern Gaza Strip, targeting Hamas “from the air and ground” over the past day.

Displaced Palestinians set up tents to be used as temporary shelters at the Yarmouk Sports Stadium, once a football arena, in Gaza City on Friday.

Palestinians living in a tents at a soccer stadium in Gaza City called on the international community to stand with them as Israel continues to strike the enclave.

Displaced people sheltering there are from northern Gaza, including Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun, and Jabalya, as Israel has stepped up its operations in the area over the past two weeks amid a deteriorating humanitarian situation.

“Everyone loves life there,” Khadra Nabhan said about her home in Beit Lahiya. “We call on the world and the international community and the Arab world to stand with us and stop this war, to return us to our homes, and to protect our children from hunger and starvation.”

Nabhan said her family has been displaced more than 10 times from Beit Lahiya “while under fire,” adding that “our home was destroyed.”

Hussein Nabhan, who is also at the camp, echoed those sentiments, saying, “We urge the world to stand by us as we endure these dire conditions.”

United States Air Force F-16 fighter jets arrived in the Middle East from Germany on Friday, according to US Central Command, as the region braces for a possible Israeli attack on Iran.

The arrival of the F-16s is part of the US’ efforts to bolster its firepower in the region ahead of the potential Israeli strike, which would be in retaliation for an Iranian missile attack on Israel on October 1.

The Pentagon announced in September that it would be sending additional fighter aircraft to the Middle East, reinforcing its air defenses and deploying additional troops ahead of a possible escalation between Israel and Iran.

The aircraft include F-16, F-15E and F-22 fighter aircraft, as well as A-10 attack aircraft and associated personnel, the Pentagon said.

Rescue workers work at the scene of an attack following a barrage of incoming rockets on Friday in Majd Al-Krum, Israel.

Two people were killed in an attack on the Arab town of Majd al-Khrum in northern Israel on Friday, according to the local hospital.

Israeli police said earlier that several people in Majd al-Krum were injured following a barrage of rockets fired from Lebanese territory.

A 22-year-old man and 25-year-old woman were pronounced dead after being transported to the Galilee Medical Center in critical condition on Friday, a spokesperson for the hospital, Gal Zeid, said.

A further 25 injured people are being treated at the medical center, including two adults with shrapnel injuries and two children experiencing anxiety attacks, the spokesperson added.

Hezbollah on Friday claimed responsibility for attacking the nearby Israeli town of Karmiel “with a large salvo of rockets” at roughly the same time that Majd al-Krum was hit.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz blamed the attack on Hezbollah, saying the attack on a Muslim town “proves that Iran’s proxies kill Jews, Christians, Muslim Arabs, Bedouins, Druze, and anyone different from them.”

Of the 2,500 children in Gaza that urgently need medical care, fewer than one child per day is being evacuated from the strip, according to United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) spokesperson James Elder.

On Wednesday, the director of Gaza’s health ministry told CNN that medicine, medical supplies and food had not entered northern Gaza for over two weeks. Hospitals across the strip are overwhelmed and running out of supplies.

Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya speaks to CNN at Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza.

Israeli forces entered the compound of northern Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital and opened fire after days of laying siege to the facility, health authorities in the enclave said.

Health officials in Gaza have told CNN over the past few days that the facility is running low on supplies and in desperate need of aid as injured people from neighboring areas pour in.

Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the hospital director, said in a video that Israeli tanks and bulldozers entered the hospital compound late Thursday and began firing at parts of the complex, adding that “all departments of the hospital are under direct shelling.”

Kamal Adwan is one of three minimally operational hospitals in northern Gaza, and the closest to Israeli military activity in Beit Lahiya and the Jabalya refugee camp. Despite its limited capacity, it has been receiving most of the injured from the surrounding fighting.

The Israeli military said in a statement Friday that its forces are operating in the area of the Kamal Adwan Hospital “based on intelligence information regarding the presence of terrorists and terrorist infrastructure,” adding that in the weeks preceding the operation, “the IDF facilitated the evacuation of patients from the area while maintaining emergency services.”

Here’s everything we know about the situation at Kamal Adwan Hospital.

The World Health Organization has “lost touch with the personnel” at Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza following an Israeli raid on Friday, according to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

The UN body said recent developments at the hospital are “deeply disturbing given the number of patients being served and people sheltering there.”

Prior to Friday’s raid, Tedros said the WHO and its partners managed to reach Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahiya area “amid hostilities in the vicinity, and transferred 23 patients and 26 caregivers to Al-Shifa Hospital.”

“We call for an immediate ceasefire; and protection of hospitals, patients, health professionals and humanitarians,” the WHO chief said on X.

The hospital is treating about 200 patients, Ghebreyesus said, as well as sheltering hundreds of other people.

The Israeli military twice entered the hospital compound in the past 24 hours and fired at parts of the complex, the Gaza health ministry and the hospital’s director told CNN.

Relatives and colleagues of three journalists killed in an Israeli strike in the southern Lebanese village of Hasbaiya gather around a Red Cross ambulance as their bodies arrive at a hospital in Beirut on October 25.

Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati issued a strong statement on Friday condemning the recent Israeli strike on journalists in the southern Lebanese city of Hasbaya, describing it as “another chapter in the war crimes that the Israeli enemy commits without deterrent or international voice to put a stop to these actions.”

Mikati asserted in the statement posted to the prime minister’s website that the attack was a “deliberate attempt” to intimidate the media and obscure ongoing crimes and destruction. He announced that he has directed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants to add this incident to Lebanon’s documented files on alleged Israeli crimes, which will be submitted to international authorities, expressing hope that the “global conscience” will intervene.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) also issued a statement “strongly condemning” Israel for the killing of three journalists in Hasbaya.

More on the strike: A cameraman and a broadcast engineer working for Lebanon-based TV channel Al Mayadeen were killed, the media outlet said. Another cameraman working for Hezbollah-affiliated TV channel Al-Manar was also killed, the outlet said.

The Israeli military told CNN they were “looking into the reports.”

Mossad Director David Barnea visited Cairo on Thursday and met with his Egyptian counterpart Hassan Mahmoud Rashad ahead of a trip to Doha to revive Gaza hostage-ceasefire talks, an Israeli official told CNN, asking not to be named.

A high-level Egyptian security delegation also 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 TV reported Thursday, citing a high-ranking source.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has instructed Barnea to attend the talks in Doha, according to a statement from the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office Thursday.

The talks are expected to resume on Sunday in Qatar.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) issued a statement “strongly condemning” Israel after reports of the killing of three journalists in southern Lebanon on Friday.

CPJ called for urgent international intervention, urging the global community to address what it described as Israel’s “long-standing pattern of impunity” in cases involving the deaths of journalists.

The CPJ is an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting press freedom and defending the rights of journalists worldwide.

Lebanese state-run National News Agency reported Friday that three journalists were killed overnight in an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon.

According to the outlet, two of those killed worked for Lebanon-based TV channel Al Mayadeen, while the third was a journalist for the Hezbollah-affiliated Al Manar TV.

Israel’s most senior military commander has said there is a possibility that the war in Lebanon could be brought to a “sharp conclusion.”

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has met with Middle East leaders in London, in the latest flurry of diplomacy seeking to rein in the wars in Lebanon and Gaza.

Here are the latest developments:

Lebanon war: Herzi Halevi, Israel’s Chief of the General Staff, said “there’s a possibility of reaching a sharp conclusion” to the war in Lebanon, since Israel has “thoroughly dismantled Hezbollah’s senior chain of command.”

Border closed: Israeli strikes near Lebanon’s eastern border with Syria have led to the closure of the Al-Qaa and Masnaa crossings, Lebanese and United Nations officials said. The Mansaa crossing was the only route for Lebanese fleeing war into neighboring Syria. The Israeli military claimed Hezbollah used the Al-Qaa crossing to transfer weapons.

US diplomacy: The Biden administration is “working to seize” the moment of “importance and urgency,” Blinken said during talks in London about ending the war in Gaza, with Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi and Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati.

Northern Gaza: Safadi told Blinken that ethnic cleansing is taking place in Gaza, warning that Israel’s government “is not listening to anybody.” Following a renewed Israeli bombardment on the north of the Strip, Halevi said the city of Jabalya is “failing, both physically and psychologically.” Elsewhere, Gaza health officials say the Israeli military has fired on and entered the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahiya.

Southern Gaza: At least 26 Palestinians were killed in overnight strikes on Khan Younis in southern Gaza, emergency response officials said. Fourteen bodies were recovered from the home of the Al-Farra family after it was struck by an Israeli missile in the Al-Manara area south of the city center, according to the Gaza Civil Defense.

Israeli reservists: Some 130 Israeli reservists have signed an open letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant stating that they refuse to serve in the military unless a deal is signed to end the war and bring back the 101 hostages still in Gaza.

UN peacekeepers stationed at a permanent observation post near Dhayra in southern Lebanon came under fire from Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers on Tuesday, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said in a statement on Friday.

According to UNIFIL, the soldiers opened fire upon noticing that peacekeepers were observing their nearby house-clearing operations. The UN duty guards at the post withdrew to avoid being hit.

UNIFIL also said that the IDF has “repeatedly” pressured the peacekeeping mission to vacate its posts along the Israel-Lebanon border and has “deliberately” damaged essential equipment, including cameras, lights, and communications systems, at several observation points.

Remember: Previous UNIFIL reports indicate that at least four peacekeepers were injured in early October over a two-day period in two separate Israeli attacks.

Israel has accused Hezbollah of operating in areas near UNIFIL posts. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned two weeks ago that UN peacekeeping forces in Lebanon are in “harm’s way.” He expressed regret that some UN peacekeepers had been injured earlier in October and called on UN Secretary-General António Guterres to withdraw the peacekeepers “immediately.”

The Harry S. Truman Federal Building, headquarters of the U.S. Department of State, in Washington D.C., on October 8.

The US State Department issued a “Worldwide Caution” alert Thursday, advising US citizens to “avoid rallies and demonstrations whenever possible” noting recent social media posts that are calling for demonstrations at US and Israeli facilities Friday.

The alert came after Hamas issued a call on Thursday for “Friday of Rage for Gaza” protests worldwide. This appears to be the first such call for protest following the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

Although there have not been major protests in the region as of Friday morning ET, the issuance of such an alert demonstrates the concern of the US government about the potential that such gatherings could prove dangerous for American citizens.

The State Department’s latest worldwide caution alert noted that “social media posts on various platforms are calling for demonstrations at U.S. and Israeli facilities on Friday, October 25, 2024.” In addition to advising US citizens to avoid demonstrations, it reminds US citizens to “exercise caution when in the vicinity of any large gatherings as even peaceful demonstrations have the potential to turn violent without warning.”

More on the caution alert: The State Department considers a number of factors when issuing a worldwide caution alert, including when social media posts or information suggests protests specifically at US diplomatic facilities. The hashtag associated with the Friday call for protest was seen across a number of countries, posted by Hamas and Hezbollah, Houthi-affiliated groups, and named a specific date for the planned demonstrations.

Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi has claimed that ethnic cleansing is taking place in northern Gaza and the Israeli government is “not listening to anybody.”

Safadi said the situation in northern Gaza is “getting worse, unfortunately, every time we meet, not for lack of us trying, but because we do have an Israeli government that is not listening to anybody – and that has got to stop.”

The pair also discussed the war in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah. Safadi stressed that Lebanon’s government wants to implement United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, which helped end the 2006 Lebanon War, calling for a permanent ceasefire in the country and stipulating that Hezbollah must withdraw north of the Litani River.

Implementing the resolution could help save “hundreds, thousands of lives,” Safadi said.

Blinken said the US was “intensely engaged” in “conversations about ending the war in Gaza and charting a path for what comes next.”

“This is a moment of importance and urgency that we’re working to seize,” Blinken said.

Correction: A previous version of this post misattributed quotes from Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi to Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati. This has been corrected.

A photo taken from the Syrian side of the border with Lebanon shows the aftermath of an Israeli strike on the Jusiyeh border crossing in Syria's central Homs province on October 25.

Israeli airstrikes near Lebanon’s eastern border crossings with Syria have forced the vital routes shut, according to a Lebanese official and the United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The strikes have led to the closure of Al-Qaa and the Masnaa border crossings.

Ali Hamieh, Lebanon’s transport minister, said that Al-Qaa was forced shut on Friday after Israel struck the Syrian side of the border, just “hundreds of meters” away from the crossing.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it struck “Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure sites in the Jousieh border crossing the northern Beqaa area” referring to the Al-Qaa border crossing. The IDF accused Hezbollah of exploiting the civilian crossing to transfer weapons.

Key context: The Mansaa crossing was the only route for Lebanese fleeing war into neighboring Syria.

One functional route: Hamieh said that the Israeli strikes now leave only one operational passage between Syria and Lebanon – the Arida border crossing in northern Tripoli, in the north-west of Lebanon.

In recent weeks, around 425,000 people, including 300,000 Syrians, have crossed into Syria from Lebanon in attempt to flee the war with Israel, according to the UN.

A relief worker has warned that women and girls displaced by the Israeli military campaign in Lebanon are at “high risk” of facing rape, harassment or gender-based violence.

Those seeking refuge from bombardment often arrive at makeshift shelters with little access to privacy, sanitation facilities, or enough food and water, according to Maya Andari, the director of program quality at the Lebanon office of the humanitarian agency CARE International.

Vulnerable members of the population, including pregnant women, the elderly and people with disabilities, are less likely to be able to access assistive devices in overwhelmed facilities, she told CNN.

Some background: More than 1 million people have been displaced in Lebanon, including 11,600 pregnant women, about 10% of whom are expected to give birth soon, the UN’s sexual and reproductive health agency UNFPA said on October 23. Tens of thousands of women and girls have arrived at collective shelters since September 17, UNFPA reported, after Israel launched an intensive aerial campaign that it says is targeting the militant group Hezbollah.

“Healthcare providers are being targeted and healthcare facilities are shutting down,” said Andari. “What we have here is not enough.”

The Gaza health ministry and the director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza, have told CNN that the Israeli military twice entered the hospital compound over the past 24 hours and fired at parts of the complex.

Communication with the hospital is reported to have been cut off.

Maher Shamiya, a health ministry official, told CNN Friday that the Israeli military had demolished parts of the hospital’s wall. The oxygen station had also been damaged by Israeli fire, he said.

Shamiya also claimed that the military had entered the hospital yard for a second time on Friday morning and had begun separating men from women.

“After that, it became impossible to communicate with anyone.”

Earlier, the hospital’s director, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, said that Israeli tanks and bulldozers entered the compound late Thursday and began firing at parts of the complex.

“Everyone in the hospital gathered in the stairwell; it was a very distressing scene,” he said.

The health ministry in Gaza told CNN Friday that 23 injured people had been evacuated in six ambulances. Abu Safiya said there were 70 critically injured people at the hospital needing evacuation.

CNN has reached out to the Israeli military for a response on its operations in and around the hospital.

People attend the funeral of Israeli soldier Warrant Officer Guy Idan, who was killed fighting in southern Lebanon, in Shomrat, Israel, on October 25.

Ten Israeli soldiers were killed in southern Lebanon between Thursday and Friday, according to Israel Defense Forces (IDF) data.

Five soldiers were killed in southern Lebanon on Thursday and another five were killed Friday, the IDF said.

Israel launched a ground operation into southern Lebanon October 1, saying it is fighting to eliminate the Iran-backed Hezbollah group.

More on casualties: A total of 890 Israeli soldiers and other security personnel have died since October 7, according to the Israeli defense ministry. It is unclear if the five soldiers announced dead on Friday are included in this figure.

In Lebanon, more than 2,500 people have been killed and over 12,000 wounded, according to the Lebanese ministry of health. The health ministry and doctors who CNN has spoken to say hundreds of the casualties have been civilians, including women, children, the elderly, as well as scores of medics. Some 1.2 million Lebanese have been displaced during the war, and around 63,500 Israelis displaced in northern Israel on the other side of the border.

People inspect the damage at the site of an Israeli strike in Khan Younis, Gaza, on October 25.

At least 26 Palestinians were killed in overnight strikes on Khan Younis in southern Gaza, according to emergency response officials.

Fourteen bodies were recovered from the home of the Al-Farra family after it was struck by an Israeli missile in the Al-Manara area south of the city center, according to the Gaza Civil Defense.

Video recorded inside the European Hospital early Friday morning and obtained by CNN showed a large number of bodies, including children, arriving from the site of the strike.

Six members of the Abdeen family were killed by Israeli strikes on their homes in the areas of Al-Manara and Kizan al-Najar south east of Khan Younis, according to hospital officials.

Two men stand next to the bodies of Palestinians killed following an Israeli airstrike, inside the European Hospital, Gaza, on October 25.

Two attacks south of the city center struck tents housing displaced Palestinians in the early hours of Friday morning.

Three people were killed and 20 wounded, most of them children, by Israeli artillery shelling southeast of Khan Younis, according to medical officials at the Nasser Medical Complex, where the dead and wounded arrived.

Another three people were killed and several others wounded by an Israeli missile strike on a separate tent camp housing displaced people southwest of the city, according to Palestinian Red Crescent Society paramedics.

The Israeli military said Friday morning that its troops had continued combat operations in the southern Gaza Strip “from the air and ground” over the past day.

Khader Al-Za’anoun of Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency, contributed to this article from Gaza City.

Destroyed cars at the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted an area where a number of journalists were located in the southern Lebanese village of Hasbaiya on October 25.

A senior Lebanese official has accused Israel of carrying out what he said was a “deliberate assassination” of media workers in an airstrike in southern Lebanon.

Three journalists were killed and three others injured in the Israeli attack on a guesthouse in the town of Hasbaiya overnight, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.

Lebanon’s Information Minister Zaid Makary described the strike as a “deliberate assassination,” in a post on X on Friday, and said it came after “monitoring and tracking, with premeditation and intent.”

The Israeli military has told CNN it is “looking into the reports” of the strike.

The attack is the first time Israeli forces have struck Hasbaiya since the outbreak of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah last October.

A witness near the scene told CNN it appeared the target of the strike was the Hasbaiya Village Club resort, a base for many media organizations since the start of the war between Israel and Hezbollah. CNN analysis of images from the aftermath of the attack confirmed the location.

About 18 journalists from seven media organizations were present at the location at the time of the attack, according to Makary, the information minister.

Two of those killed in the strike worked for Lebanon-based TV channel Al-Mayadeen, while the third worked for Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Manar TV, according to the outlets.

The attack comes after Israel struck the office of Al-Mayadeen, a pro-Hezbollah station, in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Wednesday.

Israeli Chief of the General Staff Herzi Halevi attends a wreath-laying at the World Holocaust Remembrance Centre, in Jerusalem, on May 6.

Israel’s most senior military commander said there was the possibility of a sharp conclusion to the military’s war against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

“In the north (of Israel), there’s a possibility of reaching a sharp conclusion,” Chief of the General Staff Herzi Halevi told soldiers yesterday during a visit to northern Gaza, referring to Lebanon.

Halevi also referenced ongoing offensive in northern Gaza, where Israeli forces have been deployed for most of the month in Jabalya and surrounding areas.

“Another achievement — Jabalia is falling,” Halevi said, referring to the northern Gaza city.

Foreign countries should stop supplying arms to Israel and Palestinian armed groups fighting in Gaza or risk complicity in its horrors, a program director at Human Rights Watch said.

Speaking from the West Bank, Sari Bashi said both sides have flouted basic protections for civilians since hostilities began.

“And despite that, Iran, the United States, the UK are continuing to supply them with weapons that risks complicity in those grave abuses,” Bashi told CNN’s Paula Newton.

Who supplies Israel with weapons? The US is overwhelmingly the biggest supplier of arms to Israel.

US President Joe Biden has at times paused ammunition and heavy bomb shipments to Israel, and his administration continues to threaten to pause arms transfers unless the humanitarian situation in Gaza improves.

But Bashi said “those warnings are not enough” and “action needs to be taken.”

Israeli authorities have alleged that a worker for the UN’s Palestinian aid agency killed in central Gaza on Wednesday was also a Hamas commander.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Israeli Security Agency alleged that Mohammad Abu Etewi “was involved in the murder and abduction of Israeli civilians on October 7 and was simultaneously employed by UNRWA,” referring to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.

The Israeli authorities said that Abu Etewi led an attack on a bomb shelter in Re’im, southern Israel, on October 7, 2023, and alleged that he continued to direct and carry out attacks on IDF troops as the war continued.

An UNRWA spokesperson confirmed to CNN on Friday that Abu Etewi was on a list of employees that Israel alleged to be members of the military wing of Hamas. But she said that when the agency requested more information to investigate, Israel failed to provide it.

Israeli authorities also released two photos of a man that they say is Abu Etewi allegedly partaking in the October 7 attacks. The man is seen wearing a head covering and holding what appears to be a gun. CNN cannot independently verify the images.

IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said Thursday that a bomb shelter that Abu Etewi allegedly attacked was where the hostages Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Alon Ohel, Or Levi and Eliya Cohen were taken captive.

On Wednesday, members of Abu Etewi’s family spoke to CNN about his killing and said he had no connection to Hamas.

Yotam Vilk poses for a picture.

When Hamas attacked Israel on October 7 last year, reservist Yotam Vilk wasn’t called up for military service — he volunteered. Since then, he has spent more than 230 days serving with the Israeli military in Gaza.

Now, he is refusing to serve again.

After completing his second round of reserve duty in Gaza, he decided he would refuse to go back if he were asked. He believed military action was justified in some cases, but that it should only be used as a tool to reach diplomatic solutions that work towards peace.

He didn’t believe in the government’s will to achieve that, despite “the destruction in Gaza getting harder, the lives of Palestinians getting harder and the lives of Israeli hostages getting harder.”

On October 9, Vilk, along with more than 130 other Israeli reservists, signed an open letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant stating that they refuse to serve unless a deal is signed to end the war and bring back the 101 hostages still in Gaza.

Read the full story.

Lebanese state media has said an Israeli airstrike killed three journalists in southern Lebanon overnight.

The attack struck a guesthouse in the town of Hasbaiya, footage geolocated by CNN showed. A blue press helmet and a vest could be seen among the rubble of a damaged building.

A cameraman and a broadcast engineer working for Lebanon-based TV channel Al Mayadeen were killed, the media outlet said.

Another cameraman working for Hezbollah-affiliated TV channel Al-Manar was also killed, the outlet said.

The Israeli military told CNN they were “looking into the reports.”

Earlier this month, the International Federation of Journalists said Israeli bombardment had killed at least five journalists and media workers in southern Lebanon since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7, 2023.

Two of them had been killed since Israel’s most recent escalation began last month.

Palestinians make their way in a devastated neighborhood, in Gaza City, on October 24.

Nearly 43,0000 Palestinians have been killed and over 100,000 wounded since Israel launched its war on Gaza on October 7 last year, according to the Health Ministry in the enclave.

Here are the latest developments on the ground:

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

Talks on a possible hostage and ceasefire deal in Gaza are expected to resume this weekend, though there is little expectation of a breakthrough before the US presidential election, sources tell CNN.

Top negotiators from the United States, Israel and Qatar are slated to meet in Doha on Sunday to discuss efforts to reach an agreement, the first high-level gathering in more than two months, as US officials have argued for renewed momentum following Israel’s killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been meeting with leaders in the Middle East this week to try and advance the talks and cool regional tensions.

Here’s who Blinken met with:

Here’s what else we know about the ceasefire talks: