September 30, 2024 - news on the Israel-Hezbollah war

An example of a MQ-9 Reaper drone is seeno on November 04, 2022 at Fort Huachuca, Arizona.

An American drone was shot down over Yemen late Sunday by the Houthis, according to two United States defense officials.

The Iran-backed rebel group claimed the successful downing of the drone.

“The air defenses of the Yemeni Armed Forces shot down an American MQ-9 aircraft while it was carrying out hostile missions in the airspace of Saada Governorate,” Houthi military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Yehya Saree said.

The downing of the US drone came after Israel carried out strikes on the Yemeni port cities of Ras Issa and Hodeidah in response to long-range missiles fired at Israel.

Two weeks ago, the Houthis claimed to have shot down another MQ-9 Reaper with a surface-to-air missile over Dhamar Governorate south of the capital of Sana’a. US defense officials acknowledged a drone had been downed, but the cause remains under investigation.

Since the beginning of the war in Gaza, the Houthis claim to have shot down more than 10 US drones, a number rejected by the Pentagon.

“I can tell you that that number is not accurate,” Pentagon spokesperson Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said at a news briefing after the last drone was downed. “It’s too high.”

This wouldn’t be the first time the Houthis have successfully shot down an MQ-9 Reaper. In November and again in February, US officials acknowledged that the Houthis were able to down the drones. Each MQ-9 costs approximately $28 million, according to the Congressional Research Service.

This comes as fears of a broader regional war in the Middle East have spiked in recent weeks as Israel intensifies its attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon — another Iran-backed group that provides weapons and training to the Houthis, the Congressional Research Service said.

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 on Friday.

Here’s a look at some of the group’s leaders who have been killed.

Read more about the Hezbollah leaders who remain.

Israel should seize its chance to launch a ground offensive in Lebanon while Hezbollah remains weakened by airstrikes, a former senior Israeli military official tells CNN.

Avivi says he believes it is necessary to destroy Hezbollah tunnels, fortified positions and weapons depots near the border – and to push Hezbollah forces back outside the range from which anti-tank missiles could strike communities in northern Israel.

Israel has killed most of Hezbollah’s senior commanders, including its top leader Hassan Nasrallah. This has severely damaged Hezbollah’s operational capabilities, Israeli officials believe, and they also assess that the paramilitary force is in disarray.

Correction: An earlier version of this post misspelled retired Brig. Gen. Amir Avivi’s last name.

The Lebanese army has evacuated observation posts at Lebanon’s southern border with Israel and moved to barracks in the border villages, a Lebanese security source tells CNN.

Some background: Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant earlier told the heads of regional councils in northern Israel that the “next stage” of Israel’s war against Hezbollah will “begin soon.”

It comes after the Israeli military declared a closed military zone around three towns in the far north on its border with Lebanon. Expectations are high of an imminent ground offensive in Lebanon, and presumably, this will be a staging area for the Israeli military.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres leaves a Security Council meeting at United Nations headquarters on Friday, September 27.

The head of the United Nations is opposed to an Israeli ground invasion of Lebanon, his spokesperson said Monday.

“We do not want to see any sort of ground invasion,” Stéphane Dujarric, a spokesperson for UN Secretary-General António Guterres, said during a news conference.

“We all know the devastation that an all-out war, a ground war in Lebanon would bring to the people of Israel and the people of Lebanon,” Dujarric said.

Dujarric said that given the “intensity of the fire” on both sides of the border, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, is unable to carry out patrols and “most of their responsibilities.”

A UNIFIL official told CNN on Monday that the situation at the border “is very tense with serious concerns of escalation and incursions,” and that UNIFIL has not seen incursions as of now.

This post has been updated with additional information from UNIFIL.

CNN’s Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed reporting to this post.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller speaks during a briefing on Monday, September 30.

The Israeli government has informed the United States about “a number of operations,” including ground operations, in Lebanon, the US State Department said Monday.

Still, the US is continuing to focus on a 21-day ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah despite the ongoing military activity, because it ultimately wants “a diplomatic resolution to this conflict,” he added. Miller reiterated that Israel has the “right to defend itself against Hezbollah,” including by “targeting terrorist infrastructure inside Lebanon.”

Miller did not condemn the Israeli government’s ongoing escalations but said that the US has discussed “all the factors” that a so-called escalate to de-escalate campaign entails. He also said the onus is on both the Netanyahu government and Hezbollah to accept the ceasefire proposal.

US officials last week indicated that Israel was prepared to accept. Instead, the Israeli government has very clearly rebuffed a ceasefire and carried out an extensive military campaign in Lebanon over the past several days, including killing Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

The US is “not evacuating American citizens from Lebanon at this time,” Miller said. The State Department is working with commercial airlines flying out of the country, he added, and encouraged Americans in the country to fill out an intake form so that the department can best assist them.

Buildings and structures in Metula, Israel on August 23.

The Israeli military on Monday evening declared a closed military zone around three towns in the far north on its border with Lebanon.

The “next stage” of Israel’s war against Hezbollah will “begin soon,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told the heads of regional councils in northern Israel.

“Following a situational assessment, the areas of Metula, Misgav Am, and Kfar Giladi in northern Israel have been declared a closed military zone,” the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement. “Entry to this area is prohibited.”

This means no civilians are allowed to enter as expectations are high of an imminent ground offensive in Lebanon, and presumably this will be a staging area for the Israeli military.

Those towns make up an area of northernmost Israel that is surrounded on three sides by Lebanon.

This post has been updated with more background on closed military zones.

Israel has been carrying out strikes across Lebanon for days, killing, wounding and displacing many, as it said it was targeting Hezbollah’s leader, commanders and other sites storing weapons.

Here’s a look at the areas it targeted between September 26 and 30.

Israeli fighter jets destroyed a surface-to-air missile launcher positioned by Hezbollah near Beirut’s international airport, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement Monday.

According to the IDF, the launchers have a range of over 50 kilometers (31 miles) and can launch at four targets simultaneously.

The IDF alleged that the missile launchers are “hidden within civilian infrastructure” across Lebanon and “pose a threat to international airspace.” CNN cannot independently verify these claims.

As part of Israel’s military operations, the Israeli Air Force said it struck a range of Hezbollah infrastructure, including headquarters, storage facilities, and missile launchers.

The strikes come as the US believes Israel could imminently launch a more limited ground incursion into southern Lebanon than was originally planned following discussions between the two countries this past weekend, according to a US official. Early Monday morning, sources said Israeli special forces have carried out small raids into Lebanese territory in recent days as part of preparations for a potential Israeli ground offensive.

The Israeli military said Monday that its soldiers have been training near Israel’s northern border to strengthen defense and are “preparing for the next phases of combat.”

Roughly 100 Israeli military vehicles, from tanks to trucks to armored personnel carriers, can be seen in satellite imagery at a makeshift mustering site in a field about five miles from the Lebanon border.

The satellite imagery, provided to CNN by a source, was taken on Sunday. Additional imagery shows that Israel Defense Forces (IDF) vehicles began arriving there after September 26.

CNN is not publishing the satellite imagery to protect the source’s anonymity. The site is made up of two fields previously used for agriculture.

The images show IDF vehicles are still arriving at the site. A large truck, carrying a tank, can be seen on the major highway nearby.

CNN has previously reported that the IDF is beginning preparations for a possible ground incursion into Lebanon.  The IDF would not comment when asked about whether the vehicles were part of a potential invasion force.

Additional videos taken in previous days, posted to social media, as well as others taken by Reuters and CNN, show dozens of vehicles at the site.

Twenty-four wounded and sick children and their companions have been evacuated from Gaza in a joint Israeli-European Union operation, an Israeli official told CNN.

In total, 32 people were evacuated from the enclave.

The Palestinians who were evacuated are being relocated to Romania, according to the Israeli official. The action was directly approved by Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

Some context: One of these children evacuated to Romania was registered with Children Not Numbers, a non-governmental organization, whose founder, Somaya Ouazzani, says evacuating children out of Gaza for medical treatments has become increasingly hard since early May when the Rafah border with Egypt shut down.

“Evacuations are near impossible. They take multi-agency efforts,” she said. “The evacuations do not represent the sickest kids in Gaza.”

Several experts and NGOs also reported similar experiences to CNN, noting that many children with critical cases die while waiting to be evacuated.

Prior to the shutdown, the evacuation process “was still very bureaucratic,” but all NGOs “understood the process and knew the hurdles that were in place,” said Dr. Thaer Ahmad, an emergency medicine physician who has been to Gaza several times. “Now it’s arbitrary.”

Before the Rafah border shut down, the Palestinian Children Relief Fund (PCRF) was seeing “50 or so kids a day approved for evacuation,” according to Tareq Hailat, head of the Treatment Abroad program at PCRF. “Now, we are lucky if we see one.”

The “next stage” of Israel’s war against Hezbollah will “begin soon,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told the heads of regional councils in northern Israel.

In a meeting with the so-called “Confrontation Line” forum on Monday, Gallant discussed the current security situation and said that conflict with Hezbollah was “necessary” for the residents of northern Israel to return home.

Gallant also said he had visited Israeli forces and met with military commanders on the border with Lebanon.

“They are prepared, they are strong, they are in close cooperation,” he said of the troops.

An Israeli official has confirmed to CNN that Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is holding a security consultation with senior security officials, which was expected to begin at 7 p.m. local time (12 p.m. ET).

Netanyahu will later meet with the National Security Cabinet at 9 p.m. local time (2 p.m. ET), according to the official.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in New York in February 2020.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he does not think that an Israeli ground operation into Lebanon would be a “solution to the problem.”

Olmert was prime minister when Israel invaded Lebanon in 2006.

He said what is needed in the north of Israel is a joint coordination with the United States, the United Nations and the Lebanese government to move a “weakened” Hezbollah away from the Litani River in southern Lebanon.

The former prime minister also said Israel should stop its war in Gaza. He told CNN he thinks his country has “reached the objectives that we set out that we could achieve” there.

“There is nothing more that is worth the cost of fighting in the south, particularly the danger to the lives of the hostages, which are still alive and which we may have brought them back in part of an agreement to ceasefire in the south,” he added.

Pentagon Deputy Spokesperson Sabrina Singh at the Pentagon in January 2023 in Arlington, Virginia.

An unspecified number of troops in the US have been put on prepare to deploy orders, Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said on Monday.

Singh also said that additional air defense support going to the region, announced by the Pentagon on Sunday, are units previously scheduled to deploy that will now be joining units already there instead of replacing them.

The reinforcement of air support capabilities, she said, includes “a certain number of units already deployed to the Middle East region that will be extended, and the forces due to rotate into theater to replace them will now instead augment the in-place forces already in the region.” It will include “an additional few thousand” service members in the region, she said.

“I can tell you these augmented forces include F-16, F-15E, A-10, F-22 fighter aircraft and associated personnel,” Singh said.

President Joe Biden at the White House on Monday, Sept. 30, 2024.

US President Joe Biden sharply urged Israel to halt special operations raids in Lebanese territory near Israel’s border Monday.

“I’m more aware than you might know and I’m comfortable with them stopping,” Biden told a reporter when asked if he was comfortable with the operation.

“We should have a ceasefire now,” he added.

Earlier Monday, one US official described those raids to CNN as “very precise, very targeted, very small raids” – of the kind where “you go in, you go out” to specifically target Hezbollah’s capabilities.

The Biden administration is caught in a high-tension balancing act following the Israeli attack that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah: adjusting its military posture amid fears of escalation, while also aiming to deescalate the conflict five weeks before the US election.

Abdul Nasser Awadallah, shown in Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, in Deir al-Balah, said he sustained shrapnel in his neck, arm and back after an airstrike on a market in central Gaza, on September 30.

An Israeli airstrike killed at least one Palestinian and wounded several other people at a food market in Bureij, central Gaza, on Monday, according to health officials.

CNN footage from Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, in Deir al-Balah, showed paramedics wheeling traumatized survivors, swaddled in blankets, on metal stretchers. Many were groaning in pain and covered in a thin layer of dust, with torn clothes and bloodied limbs.

“We were just walking in the middle of the street when a strike hit,” one elderly man, Abdul Nasser Awadallah, told CNN. His grey thobe was covered in flecks of blood. “Some people were torn apart.

In one scene, a rescue worker carried a young girl, with bandages wrapped around her upper torso. Her face was expressionless and her pupils dilated in shock. The video shows a nurse asking the child, who was brought to the hospital alone, where her parents are. But she does not respond.

At least 19,000 children in Gaza have been separated from their parents or caregivers, the UN’s children’s agency reported in August.

Another survivor said he was with his young nephew when the blast went off. “Suddenly we heard an explosion,” Mohammad Al Jiedi recalled, while lying on a hospital gurney. His voice was breathless, as he clutched onto his blood-soaked white vest. “I started running. The market was very crowded.”

CNN has reached out to the Israeli military for comment on the strike.

A screen grab of a video shared by the Israeli military that showed jets it said were used to carry out the attack, which were carrying 2,000-pound bombs.

American-manufactured 2,000-pound bombs were likely used in the Israeli attack that killed Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in Beirut on Friday night, according to a review of footage showing the operation and its aftermath by CNN and munitions experts.

A video published by the Israeli military on Saturday showed jets it said were used to carry out the attack carrying at least 15 2,000-pound bombs, including the US-made BLU-109, according to Trevor Ball, a former senior explosive ordnance technician for the US Army who reviewed the footage for CNN.

The bombs, known colloquially as “bunker busters” for their ability to penetrate deep underground before they detonate, were also fitted with the US-made Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) – a precision guidance kit that converts unguided, or “dumb” bombs, into “smart” munitions that can precisely strike a target – according to Ball. On one plane fitted with bombs, pictured taking off in the video, Ball identified at least four as BLU-109s with JDAM kits.

Other types of large bombs may have been used in the operation, Ball added, but only the BLU-190s were visible in the footage. The munitions contain 535 pounds of explosives, significantly less than MK84s, another type of 2,000-pound bomb frequently used by the Israeli military. “BLU-109s give up explosive weight to be able to penetrate targets better than a MK84,” Ball said.

Read more on what the CNN analysis found here.

It was Naim Qassim’s first speech as Hezbollah’s de facto leader.

The group’s deputy secretary general declared the structure of the organization intact despite the near mortal blows dealt by Israel to its military command and control. He vowed to continue to fight Israel and to follow the goals laid out by the late Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah. He said that the resolve of Hezbollah’s faithful was the lifeblood of the organization, which would be difficult to defeat.

“We are doing everything in our capacity to repair the assassinations in our rank with substitute rank,” he said. “Israel will not be able to reach our military capabilities.”

Qassim was trying to strike a defiant tone, seeking to defuse the specter of the organization’s rapid degradation. But the optics of the speech belied the messaging. For 18 years, Nasrallah delivered his speeches on a near-monthly basis from a TV studio, complete with a green screen with dates and graphics. Qassim’s address was a tight frame, with what appeared to be a wooden closet as his backdrop. His expressions were pained, and he sweated profusely.

In his final speech two weeks ago, Nasrallah, known by his friends and foes as a master orator, could barely disguise the setbacks that the group endured. He spoke candidly about Israel’s profound infiltration of the group’s ranks, which ultimately led to his killing and that of his top military brass in a huge Israeli airstrike earlier.

Qassim’s speech reinforced the idea of a once vaunted militant organization being driven deeper and deeper underground. Beyond the rhetoric about Hezbollah’s faith and resilience, he was scant on the details of how the group would come back from the setbacks. Nasrallah’s successor had not yet been named, he said.

The 71-year-old Shiite cleric also made no mention of the late Hezbollah leader’s funeral plans, another psychological blow to a group that holds the burial rites of those slain by Israel as sacrosanct.

In his final speech, Nasrallah tried to impress upon his followers that his group may have his lost a battle, but not the war. “In times of battle, one day the enemy takes from us, and the next we take from them,” he said.

Qassim and Hezbollah’s surviving leadership will seek to drive that point home, aiming to buoy hope and willpower even as the group’s muscular posture visibly diminishes.

A German military plane landed in Beirut Monday to evacuate non-essential embassy employees and other German nationals, the country’s foreign office and defense ministry said.

Employees of partner organizations and German citizens with medical conditions will be evacuated on the Airbus A321 alongside certain embassy employees and family members, according to the ministries.

The German foreign office said it raised the emergency level for its diplomatic missions in Beirut, Tel Aviv and Ramallah over the weekend. While those missions remain operational, many employees have been told to return to Germany, according to the foreign ministry.

Meanwhile, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot told journalists that a ceasefire with Israel is in Hezbollah’s interest, as he visited Lebanon on Monday.

“Hezbollah carries a heavy response in the current situation for entering into the conflict from October 7,” Barrot said, adding that he had repeated his calls on Israel to refrain from a ground invasion of Lebanon following days of Israeli strikes across the country.

This weekend, France handed over 12 tons of medical aid to the Lebanese medical authorities, the French foreign ministry said, including two mobile medical units that will take care of 1,000 seriously wounded people in Lebanese hospitals.

France also promised 10 million euros ($11.16 million) of emergency humanitarian aid for NGOs in Lebanon.

The Israel Security Agency (ISA) says it has foiled several assassination attempts coordinated by Iran on Israeli territory.

The ISA has been investigating Iranian intelligence services actively trying to recruit Israeli citizens online and in person by offering high cash payments in exchange for “’tasks’ of a dangerous nature.”

“The ISA asks the public to increase attention and take extra caution in any case where suspicion arises… and especially when the sums involved are large and are not adequate to the nature of the requested tasks, or alternatively, as the execution of unusual tasks is requested,” the ISA adds.

Aboard an aging Boeing 707, thousands of feet above the Red Sea, I don a set of high-tech 3D goggles and stare at the small TV monitor recessed in a bank of retro dials and switches.

Saudi Arabia’s amber desert slides by to my right, Egypt’s coast to my left, then a monstrous F35 fighter jet fills the tiny screen.

I am with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) – the first foreign journalist to be taken on a combat mission more than a thousand miles from Israel aboard a fighter jet refuel tanker. 

Israel has been engaged in an escalating war since Hamas’ October 7 attack last year – not just in Gaza, but in Lebanon with Hezbollah, which began attacking Israel October 8; in Yemen with the Houthis, who have launched long-range attacks at Israel’s main population centers; even in the Syrian and Iranian capitals.

Israel’s response to those attacks have killed nearly 42,000 in Gaza and more than 1,000 in Lebanon. Deadly bombing campaigns in Yemen have destroyed critical infrastructure in a war-torn country that has for years been one of the worst humanitarian cases in the world.

Israel’s invitation to join this mission came with no detail about the plane’s destination. As I climb the plane’s rickety steps, I have no idea where I am going or what this IDF flight will reveal about military operations.

Read the full story here.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers a televised speech on September 30.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the Iranian people that “Israel stands with you” in a televised speech on Monday, directly addressing them “without filters, without middlemen.”

Netanyahu repeated previous claims that “there is nowhere in the Middle East Israel cannot reach.”

Throughout his speech, Netanyahu urged the Iranian people to reject their “tyrant” regime that is bringing “the noble Persian people closer to the abyss.”

“If it did care, if it cared about you, it would stop wasting billions of dollars on futile wars across the Middle East,” he said.

Keep in mind: Netanyahu has released similar messages to Iran, which backs Hezbollah, Hamas and Yemen’s Houthi rebels, in recent years, regularly appealing to its citizens to reject the regime.

An Israeli soldier sits on the top of a tank, in northern Israel, on September 30.

The United States believes that Israel could imminently launch a more limited ground incursion into southern Lebanon than was originally planned following discussions between the two countries this past weekend, a US official says.

The limited ground incursion would target Hezbollah infrastructure near the border with Israel.  Israeli special forces have already carried out small raids into Lebanese territory in recent days as part of preparations for a potential Israeli ground offensive, according to US officials and two sources familiar with the matter.

After operations into Lebanese villages along the border – known as the Blue Line - the Israeli troops are expected to pull back into Israel. The US does not believe that the intent looks like Israel’s 34-day operation in Lebanon in 2006, the US official argued, but rather a significantly slimmed down version of that and what was previously being planned.

The source did caution that US officials are concerned that what could start as a limited incursion may transition into a larger operation over a longer term. Those concerns are being discussed with the Israeli side, the US official said.

CNN’s Jeremy Diamond and MJ Lee contributed reporting to this post.

Budget airline Flydubai has canceled flights from Dubai to Beirut up to October 7, while Emirates has extended flight cancellations on this route until October 8 amid fears of escalation in the region.

In a statement to CNN, Emirates said: “The safety of crew and customers is our top priority and will not be compromised.” Both airlines stated they will “continue to monitor the situation closely.”

Qatar Airways has suspended flights to and from Beirut until further notice, citing “the ongoing situation in Lebanon.”

Last week, the Lufthansa Group extended suspensions of flights to Beirut until October 26.

Some background: Airstrikes hit Beirut in the early hours of Monday morning, the first time strikes have landed within the city limits of the Lebanese capital in the current war.

Until now, Israel’s airstrikes on the Beirut have focused on the southern part of the city, the densely populated and predominantly Shia neighborhoods where Hezbollah have a stronghold.

An apartment blocks stands in partial ruins after being hit by an Israeli airstrike on September 30, in Beirut, Lebanon.

Broken pieces of gray concrete littered a street in central Beirut on Monday. Locals’ chatter and car horns pierced the air, as residents surveyed the aftermath of an airstrike in the Lebanese capital.

“We were sleeping. Suddenly, we heard the sound of sirens and an explosion,” said Abu Muhammad, a local resident, told CNN’s Ben Wedeman. “People’s homes were destroyed.”

Abu Mohammad, a local resident, pictured on September 30, told CNN people were sleeping when an airstrike hit an apartment building in central Beirut, Lebanon.

CNN footage showed fallen shop signs near the Cola intersection – where the hollowed-out floor of an apartment block stood in ruins. The attack at 1 a.m. local time marked the first instance where strikes have hit within the city limits of Beirut, since the most recent escalation.

Three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) were killed in the strike early Monday, according to the group. Until now, Israeli strikes have targeted the southern part of the city, in the densely populated and predominantly Shia neighborhoods where Hezbollah have a strong presence. Locals in central Beirut Monday told CNN they did not know who lived in the block.

Another passerby, Muhammad Darwish, said he went to the scene of the attack after his family – who lives on the other side of the building – called him in terror.

Muhammad Darwish, shown in central Beirut, Lebanon, on Monday, says he saw body parts strewn in the street, after an attack on a residential building early Monday.

“It was like the Day of Judgment,” he told CNN. “The sound of the explosion when they bombed shook the whole area… I saw body parts.

“We will survive,” added Darwish. “All they (Israel) care about is killing and causing destruction. They want to cause strife in the country.”

US officials have confirmed that Israeli forces conducted special operations raids in Lebanese territory near the Israel-Lebanon border Monday morning.

One official described those raids to CNN as “very precise, very targeted, very small raids” – of the kind where “you go in, you go out” to specifically target Hezbollah’s capabilities.

US officials are currently not describing these Israeli raids as a ground incursion, even as they continue to carefully brace for the possibility of a limited ground operation that could come in the coming days.

Separately, Secretary of State Antony Blinken denounced slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah as “a brutal terrorist” as he once again called for diplomacy, despite the Israeli government’s continued rejection of US pleas for a diplomatic path forward in either Lebanon or Gaza.

“Lebanon, the region, the world are safer without” Nasrallah, Blinken said in remarks at the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS ministerial.

Blinken again stressed the need for ceasefires on the blue line and in Gaza, saying that “diplomacy remains the best and only path to achieving greater stability in the Middle East.” He said the US is committed to “urgently driving these efforts forward.”

Israeli special forces have carried out small raids into Lebanese territory in recent days as part of preparations for a potential ground offensive, two sources familiar with the matter said.

Israeli commandos infiltrated Lebanese territory, targeting Hezbollah positions near the border to gather intelligence and destroy Hezbollah posts in the area, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military matters.

The Israeli military declined to comment.

The targeted raids are the latest indication that Israel is laying the groundwork for a significant ground incursion into Lebanon, although the Israeli government does not yet appear to have made a final decision about launching such an offensive.

Smoke billows following an Israeli strike over Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, on September 28.

Israel has stepped up strikes on various targets across Lebanon since Thursday September 19 in a series of attacks that have left hundreds of civilians dead and injured, and displaced at least 1 million people across the country.

Israel’s stated war goal is to “ensure the safe return of Israel’s northern communities to their homes,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Thursday, and its military has also said it is striking Hezbollah targets, particularly across southern Lebanon and Beirut.

Hezbollah is the world’s most heavily armed non-state group. It is backed by Iran and is based on the Lebanon-Israel border. It has been firing missiles at Israel since October 8 2023, when Israel invaded Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attacks a day earlier. Hezbollah said the strikes were in solidarity with Palestinians.

The tit-for-tat exchange of missiles escalated in July when Israel said it killed Hezbollah’s most senior military commander, Fu’ad Shukr in a strike on Beirut. In retaliation, Hezbollah launched hundreds of drones and missiles at targets in Israel in August.

The latest escalation started after Israel is believed to have exploded thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies owned by Hezbollah members across the country in mid-September. Hezbollah retaliated, with a missile intercepted near Tel Aviv – the first to reach deep into Israel.

Since then, Israel has been fiercely attacking Lebanon – killing at least 20 Hezbollah fighters on Friday alone, including the group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah and his two close associates.

CNN’s Ben Wedeman is at the scene of the latest Israeli airstrike on a building in the Lebanese capital, Beirut.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in Lebanon said three of its members were killed. It is the first time a location within Beirut’s city’s limits has been hit in the current war.

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02:04 - Source: CNN

On October 7, Israeli Prime Minister’s Benjamin Netanyahu’s self-styled image as “Mister Security” seemed irrevocably shattered by the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust. The Jewish homeland and its leader had failed to protect the people. How could he possibly survive?

The polls told us as much. He had formed an extremist coalition government in November 2022 on the back of the 32 seats his Likud party secured in the 120-seat Knesset. After Hamas’ attack, a string of opinion polls suggested that were elections held, Likud would get just 17 seats, putting the government’s long-term survival in jeopardy.

Nearly a year later, Netanyahu has staged a remarkable turnaround. Though Likud would still struggle to form a government were elections held today, a brutal campaign of airstrikes in Lebanon and assassinations across the Middle East in recent weeks have buoyed the prime minister to heights unimaginable in the immediate aftermath of Hamas’ attacks almost a year ago.

A poll released Sunday by Israel’s Channel 12 showed that Likud would win 25 seats were elections to be held today, making it the largest party. Netanyahu enjoys 38% support, according to the survey.

Read the full story here.

Palestinians inspect a vehicle destroyed following an Israeli attack in Khan Younis, Gaza on September 30.

As Israel expands its war on multiple fronts in the region, strikes in Gaza have shown little sign of abating.

Israeli attacks in Gaza have killed at least 20 Palestinians and injured another 108 people in the past 24 hours, according to the Ministry of Health there. In total, at least 41,615 Palestinians have been killed and another 96,359 people wounded, the ministry reported on Monday.

The ministry said a number of victims are still under debris and on the roads, and ambulance and civil defense crews cannot reach them. At least 10,000 people are missing and believed to be entombed under rubble in Gaza, according to the Government Media Office there.

Relief workers previously told CNN that damaged roads from Israeli strikes have impeded attempts to reach survivors.

CNN is unable to independently confirm the health ministry’s data, which does not distinguish between combatant and civilian deaths.

Despite the escalation in tensions in the oil-rich Middle East, oil prices dipped Monday as investors were chiefly worried about waning demand in China and a glut of supply globally.

The price of a barrel of Brent crude, the global benchmark, rose slightly in early trade but ticked down 0.6% by 7.31 a.m. ET to stand just above $71. West Texas Intermediate, the US benchmark, dropped 0.8% to trade at almost $68.

That’s still well below the $88 and $86 levels the contracts hit respectively in the immediate aftermath of Hamas’ deadly attack on Israel last October.

Israel’s recent airstrikes against Hezbollah and the Houthis do not “materially affect global oil supplies,” Daniel Casali, chief investment strategist at Evelyn Partners in London, wrote in a note Monday.

“However, should Israel strike deep within Iran at its nuclear facilities, then it could lead to a response from Tehran that disrupts the flow of oil and gas from the Middle East… (leading) to much higher oil prices,” he added.

Concerns about weak oil demand in China, the world’s largest oil importer, have helped keep a lid on prices in recent months, as has record output from the United States.

In June, the International Energy Agency said it expects growth in global oil production to “inflate the world’s spare (oil) capacity cushion” to levels seen only once before, during the coronavirus pandemic when oil prices crashed. By 2030, global oil supply will outstrip demand by a “staggering” 8 million barrels per day, the agency also predicted.

Israeli soldiers work on tanks and armoured personnel carriers in northern Israel, on September 30.

Israel’s defense minister has given one of the clearest signs yet that his country intends to launch some form of ground incursion into Lebanon.

“The elimination of Nasrallah is a very important step, but it is not the final one,” Yoav Gallant told Israeli troops on Monday. “We will employ all the capabilities at our disposal, and if someone on the other side did not understand what those capabilities entail, we mean all capabilities, and you are part of this effort.”

Gallant made the remarks while visiting the military’s armored corps in northern Israel, close to the Lebanese border, talking with soldiers serving in brigade 188 and the Golani brigade, an infantry unit.

Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant during a discussion with troops in the IDF’s Armored Corps, deployed to Israel’s northern border in this handout image dated September 30.

It is not the first time an Israeli official has made remarks pointing at such a possibility, but Gallant’s language on Monday took a more direct turn. It is the latest indication that Israel is creeping ever-closer to a ground offensive into southern Lebanon.

Herzi Halevi, chief of the General Staff, last week told troops near Israel’s northern border that jets were striking Lebanon “to prepare the ground for your possible entry and to continue degrading Hezbollah.”

Gallant said Monday that Israel was determined to return citizens forced from their homes in the north of the country.

“We are prepared to make every effort necessary to accomplish this mission,” he said. “We will use all the means that may be required – your forces, other forces, from the air, from the sea, and on land. Good luck.”

People fleeing from Lebanon arrive on the Syrian side of the border with Lebanon in Jdeidat Yabus in southwestern Syria on September 25.

An estimated 100,000 people have crossed the Lebanese border back into Syria since Israel started striking Lebanon, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) told CNN.

UNHCR spokesperson Matthew Saltmarsh described the attacks on Lebanon over the last week of September as “the most intense” since 2006.

Some of those fleeing the country have been directly injured in the strikes.

“The Lebanese have become all too used to their country being a battleground. Refugees who have fled Syria in search of safety and security are now facing the reality of being displaced once again in Lebanon due to ongoing hostilities,” he added.

Most of estimated 100,000 people to have crossed from Lebanon to Syria are women and children, according to UNHCR.

“Among arrivals, some 80% are Syrians and 20% Lebanese,” Saltmarsh said.

“They are exhausted, scared and in need, arriving in a country that has been suffering from its own crisis and violence for more than 13 years, as well as from economic collapse,” he added.

Islam Hijazy, an aid worker who was shot dead in a suspected case of mistaken identity in southern Gaza on Friday, was a “dedicated, hardworking, compassionate” humanitarian and a “proud Arab Palestinian woman,” according to her colleague.

Steve Sosebee, the founder of HEAL Palestine, told CNN he had worked with Hijazy for more than a decade. “She was the mother of two children, that brought her the most joy in life,” he added.

The Israeli offensive displaced Hijazy and her children, Maria and Mohamed, several times, Sosebee said. They fled northern Gaza in the early days of the war, he said, separating her from her husband, who was unable to travel.

“Under bombing by tanks, she escaped with her children, carrying one in each arm, and tanks were firing at the neighborhood, and she lost her shoe, and was so scared that she fled and did not go back to get it.”

Before she was killed by a group of armed men, according to witnesses, Hijazy had told Sosebee the challenges of raising children under Israel’s bombardment, which has triggered mass displacement into tent camps. “She was talking about the tent that her and her family were living in. (It) was flooded from the rains.

People watch Hezbollah deputy leader Sheikh Naim Qassem delivering a televised address, as they sit at a cafe in Beirut, Lebanon, on September 30.

Hezbollah will choose a leader to succeed Hassan Nasrallah – who was killed by an Israeli strike in Beirut on Friday – “as soon as possible,” the group’s highest-ranking official said in a televised speech on Monday.

Hezbollah’s highest-ranking official Naim Qassim vowed to continue the group’s mission to fight Israel and defend Palestinians despite losses incurred by the group in Lebanon.

Israel’s claims about having hit most of the group’s medium- and long-range missiles is a “dream that they have not achieved nor will they achieve,” he said.

Hezbollah will continue its “targets and field goals” as laid out by Nasrallah, he said.

This is the first public address by a figure from the group since the assassination of its leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Lebanon's Hezbollah deputy leader Sheikh Naim Qassem delivers an address from an unknown location, on September 30.

Hezbollah’s highest-ranking official is giving a televised statement, the first public address by a figure from the group since the assassination of its leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Naim Qassim, who was a candidate to lead Hezbollah before Nasrallah’s appointment, is known for his religious knowledge and scholastic prowess. Born in 1953 in the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Kila, Qassim is a well-known member of the old guard. The 71-year-old Shiite cleric helped found Hezbollah in 1982, and has served seven consecutive terms as deputy secretary-general since 1991. He also oversees the group’s parliamentary activities.

He was the group’s second-in-command before Nasrallah was assassinated, often appearing in media interviews. In 2015, he wrote the book “Hezbollah: The Story from Within,” which laid out the group’s political ideology.

Hezbollah’s longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed Friday in an Israeli airstrike on his underground headquarters in Beirut — a significant escalation in the war.

A series of loud explosions rang out and smoke rose from the city’s southern suburbs. Images broadcast on local TV showed a huge crater where six buildings had been, as rescuers navigated the rubble. The strikes crushed residential buildings that sunk beneath the ground, leaving a crater bigger than the size of a soccer field.

Footage of the level of damage indicated that Israel had used 2,000-pound bombs, a weapons expert told CNN.

People gather at the site of the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut's southern suburbs on Sunday.

People gather at the site of the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, on Sunday.

People gather at the site of the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, on Sunday.

A woman reads the Quran at the site of the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, on Sunday.

People gather at the site of the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, on Sunday.

A Syrian refugee family that fled the southern Lebanese city of Nabatiyeh, take sanctuary in a public garden at the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, on September 25.

Syrian refugees who once came to Lebanon fleeing violence are returning home to the unknown.

Roughly 100,000 people — both Lebanese and Syrian nationals — have crossed into Syria to flee Israeli airstrikes, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said.

Israel’s intensified bombardment has displaced one million people in Lebanon, the country’s caretaker prime minister said.

About 1.5 million Syrian refugees live in Lebanon, according to the UNHCR.

“It’s a total tragic situation,” Amin told CNN’s Michael Holmes.

Israel’s targets in Lebonon are constantly changing, making it hard for civilians to find safe spaces to shelter. Residents have been told to avoid areas where Hezbollah operates, but because the group operates in secret, they don’t know where to go.

A lack of shelters means many civilians have resorted to sleeping in the open air, Amin said.

Lebanese authorities say more than 1,000 people have been killed.

Amin said UNHCR staff on the Syrian-Lebanese border are seeing thousands of people crossing into Syria every day.

This post has been updated with more information.

Displaced from Dahiyeh, southern Beirut suburb, Asmaa Kenji, mother of three, helps her son put on his shoes, as they live on the streets of central Beirut after fleeing Israeli air strikes, on September 29.

One million people in Lebanon have “moved from place to place in just a few days,” the country’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said on Monday as Israeli strikes in the country continue.

Mikati said the situation poses issues related to managing food and shelter for those displaced as well as public health and waste management.

Killing Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was a step toward changing “the balance of power in the region for years to come,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared Saturday.

Israel’s leader sees an opportunity opening up for a fundamental reconfiguration of power in Middle East and he may assume that Hezbollah are mortally wounded. Total victory, however, is elusive, and those who get what they wish for often live to regret it.

Since September 17, Israel has dealt the Iran-backed militant group one body blow after another in Lebanon. By Friday evening – when Nasrallah was killed in a bombing that flattened multiple buildings – Hezballah’s senior leadership had been almost totally eliminated.

Yet recent history offers only bitter lessons for Israeli leaders — and others — who entertain grand ambitions for tectonic changes in Lebanon, and in the Middle East in general.

In June 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon with the goal of crushing the Palestinian Liberation Organisation. Beyond that, it hoped to establish a malleable Christian-dominated government in Beirut and to drive Syrian forces out of the country.

It failed at all three. Perhaps the most significant outcome of the 1982 Israeli invasion was the birth of Hezbollah, which went on to wage a relentless guerrilla war that compelled Israel to unilaterally withdraw from southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah went on to fight Israel to a standstill in the 2006 war, and in the following years grew only stronger, with significant Iranian help.

Today Hezbollah is crippled and in disarray, and clearly infiltrated by Israeli intelligence – but still, it would be premature to write its epitaph.

Read the full analysis.

A banner bearing a picture of slain Lebanese Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah hangs in central Tehran, two days after his targeted assassination by Israeli forces in Beirut's southern suburbs, on September 29.

Hezbollah’s continued losses in its war with Israel have created a disastrous situation for Tehran, according to Michael Eisenstadt, director of The Washington Institute’s Military and Security Studies Program.

“It played a major role both in their struggle against Israel and their efforts to create what they call ‘the axis of resistance’ in the region,” he said, referring to the alliance of Islamist militias across Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Gaza and Yemen who give Iran strategic depth against its enemies.

How – or if – Tehran will respond remains unclear.

While this will be a difficult situation for Iran to step back from, it has in the past been known to abandon its allies to their fate, Eisenstadt said.

Iran has also been put in a vulnerable place with one of its main proxies significantly weakened, he said.

Hamas on Monday announced that its leader in Lebanon, Fatah Sharif, also known as Abu Al-Amin, was killed alongside multiple members of his family in an Israeli strike on the south of the country.

The group said his wife, son and daughter were also killed in the same strike, which it said took place in the El Buss refugee camp, on the outskirts of the city of Tyre.

It was not immediately clear how senior Sharif was within Hamas. CNN has reached out to the Israeli military for comment.

The Israeli air force has launched strikes in Lebanon overnight, particularly in the Bekaa valley and southern Lebanon, both Hezbollah strongholds.

The military says it struck locations “including dozens of launchers and buildings in which Hezbollah weapons were stored” in the Bekaa valley.

Lebanon’s national news agency said overnight Israeli strikes targeted areas in the city of Baalbe and villages of Nabi Chit, Alhamoudiyeh, Nabha, the city of Hermel and its surroundings, in the Bekaa valley.

The Israeli military also said it has struck “infrastructure sites used by Hezbollah” in southern Lebanon.

The Biden administration is worried that an attack from Iran is being planned in the wake of Israel’s killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and is working with Israel on defenses, a US official said Sunday night.

Joint defenses are being prepared to ward off an attack with changes in US military posture, the official added.

The Biden administration spearheaded a multi-national defense of Israel in mid-April when Iran launched over 300 drones and missiles at Israel in response to the Israeli bombing of senior Iranian Revolutionary Guard officers in Syria.

The US official declined to say what kind of attack is expected from Iran or specify the moves the US military is making.

Fears of a broader regional war in the Middle East have spiked in recent weeks as Israel intensifies its attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Iran-backed group vows to continue its fight, even as a growing number of its top commander have been killed.

Nasrallah was killed in a massive Israeli bombing in southern Beirut on Friday. He led the most powerful of Iran’s Middle East proxies for decades and his death is a potentially crippling setback for Hezbollah as well as a major blow to Iran’s control in the region.

Read the full story.

Airstrikes hit Beirut early Monday — the first time strikes have landed within the city limits since October 7 — following a weekend of fighting on multiple fronts in the Middle East.

Israel expanded its attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen, stoking fears of a regional war, as Hezbollah pledged to continue fighting even as it faces growing losses in its senior ranks.

Here’s what you need to know:

• Israeli strikes killed over 100 people and wounded over 350 others in Lebanon on Sunday. The Israeli military said it was striking Hezbollah, including in attacks by fighter jets on about 45 targets near a village in southern Lebanon.

• Hezbollah’s leadership is shrinking, with at least three senior commanders confirmed killed Sunday, including Nabil Qaouk, a key commander and member of Hezbollah’s central council. Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed Friday in a strike on the group’s underground headquarters, where 20 Hezbollah members were also present, including the head of Nasrallah’s security unit.

• Israel’s military also struck what it said were power plants and a seaport used by the Houthis in Yemen, killing at least four people and wounding dozens more. The Houthis, like Hamas and Hezbollah, are among the Iran-backed militant groups battling Israel since the war in Gaza began.

• Aid warnings: An escalation of the conflict in Lebanon would have “extremely dire consequences” for the already deteriorating humanitarian situation in the country, the aid agency Relief International said on Sunday. Hundreds of thousands of people have been forced onto the streets as Israeli strikes destroy homes and infrastructure.

• US President Joe Biden said he is “working like hell” with allies to prevent an all-out war in the Middle East. Before Nasrallah’s killing, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu brushed off a ceasefire proposal brokered by the US.

An apartment blocks stands in partial ruins after being hit by an Israeli airstrike on September 30, in Beirut, Lebanon.

Airstrikes hit Beirut in the early hours of Monday morning, the first time strikes have landed within the city limits of the Lebanese capital in the current war.

Videos geolocated by CNN show chaotic scenes on the streets of Beirut following the strike. The footage shows the strikes hit near Cola — a major intersection in the city.

Some context: Until now Israel’s airstrikes on the Beirut have focused on the southern part of the city, the densely populated and predominantly Shia neighborhoods where Hezbollah have a stronghold.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in Lebanon has said three of its members have been killed in the airstrike.

The armed group said those killed were Mohammed Abed Al-Al, a member of its political bureau and head of the military-security department, Imad Odeh, a member of its military department and military command in Lebanon, and Abdul Rahman Abed Al-Al.

The Israeli military told CNN they are looking into the incident.

Deadly fighting between Israel and Iran-backed militant groups has ramped up in recent weeks as the Israeli military expands its attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen.

Along with Hamas, which attacked Israel on October 7, Hezbollah and the Houthis are part of Iran’s “Axis of Resistance,” an alliance of Islamist militias spanning Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Gaza and Yemen. The proxies give Iran strategic depth against its enemies.

In support of Hamas and Palestinians, Hezbollah and the Houthis have launched regular attacks on Israel over the past year. They have vowed to keep fighting until the war in Gaza ends.

Here’s what to know about the groups:

Hezbollah: The Lebanese group is believed to be the most heavily armed non-state group in the world. The Shiite group emerged out of Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982. Israel occupied southern Lebanon for 18 years before it was driven out by Hezbollah. In 2006, Hezbollah and Israel fought a war for 34 days, which ended with no clear victor.

The Houthis: The Shiite group, bolstered by Iranian weapons and technology, has been fighting Saudi-backed forces for more than a decade in Yemen’s civil war. While the Houthis do not pose as much of a threat to Israel as Hamas and Hezbollah, they have wreaked havoc over the past year in the Red Sea, where they have launched strikes at commercial ships they deemed linked to Israel and its allies, threatening to choke global trade.

Hamas: The group emerged in 1987 as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, a Sunni Islamist group from Egypt. Hamas considers Israel’s existence as illegitimate and seeks its destruction. It receives funding, weapons and training from Iran.

The US has designated Hamas, the Houthis and Hezbollah as terrorist organizations.

Correction: An earlier version of this post misstated the length of Israel’s occupation in southern Lebanon. It was 18 years. The description of the goals of Hamas has also been updated to more accurately convey their meaning.

US President Joe Biden says he’ll speak with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu soon as tensions in the Middle East increase following Israel’s assassination of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.

“Yes, I will be talking to him,” Biden said Sunday as he headed for the White House from Dover Air Force Base.

He added “we really have to avoid” all-out war in the Middle East, saying, “We’ve already taken precautions relative to our embassies and personnel who want to leave, but we’re not there yet. But we’re working like hell with the French and many others.”

Some background: Before Nasrallah’s killing, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu brushed off a ceasefire proposal brokered by the United States and France that called for a 21-day pause in fighting across the Israel-Lebanon border, infuriating American officials who had been led to believe he was on board.

Israel informed the US it was launching its major operation in Beirut only after it was underway — again, to the frustration of some American officials.

Already at odds with Netanyahu over the nearly yearlong war in Gaza, Biden is now working to calm two fronts at a moment when his influence on Netanyahu’s decision-making appears to be at an all-time low.

CNN’s Kevin Liptak and MJ Lee contributed reporting to this post.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to bring former rival Gideon Sa’ar into his government is intended to shore up his domestic power base, analysts say.

Nadav Shtrauchler, a political strategist who worked closely with Netanyahu, told CNN that the move was intended to have three effects:

Netanyahu announced Sunday that Sa’ar would join the government as a minister without portfolio.

Sa’ar said Sunday that “there is no point in continuing to sit in the opposition, in a situation where the positions of most of its members on the subject of the war are different and even far from my position. This is a time when it is my duty to try and contribute at the decision-making table.”