• US officials see the possibility of a limited Israeli ground incursion into Lebanon, but they stress Israel does not appear to have made a decision yet whether to send troops across the border.
• The strikes that killed Nasrallah targeted a densely populated area and destroyed residential buildings. Israel has carried out more strikes Saturday on what it says are Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, killing at least 33 people and wounding 195, according to the country’s health ministry.
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US sees possibility of limited Israeli ground incursion into Lebanon as IDF moves forces to border
From CNN's Oren Liebermann and MJ Lee
Israeli troops gather in northern Israel on Friday.
Jalaa Marey/AFP/Getty Images
The US sees the possibility of a limited ground incursion into Lebanon as Israel moves forces to its northern border, according to a senior administration official and a US official. But the officials stressed that Israel does not appear to have made a decision on whether to carry out a ground incursion.
The US assessment was based on the mobilization of Israeli troops and the clearing of areas in what could be preparation for the launching of a ground incursion, one of the officials said.
Earlier Saturday, Israel Defense Forces spokesman Peter Lerner said the military was preparing for the possibility of a ground incursion, but it was only one option being considered. Israel’s stated goal is to return more than 60,000 residents to their homes in northern Israel near the border with Lebanon.
And on Wednesday, Israel’s top general, Herzi Halevi, said the country was preparing for the possible entry of ground forces into Lebanon.
Shortly before news of the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, a senior Israeli official said Israel hopes not to carry out a ground incursion into Lebanon.
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Iran calls for UN Security Council meeting to address ‘Israel’s ongoing aggression’
From CNN's Ruba Alhenawi
Iranian Ambassador to the UN Amir Saeid Iravani at the UN headquarters in New York on April 14, 2024.
Charly Triballeau/AFP/Getty Images/File
Iran’s envoy to the United Nations, Amir Saeid Iravani, has requested an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council (UNSC) to “condemn Israel’s actions in the strongest possible terms.”
The letter comes after an Israeli attack in Beirut on Friday that killed Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah and a key Iran ally.
In a letter to the council’s president on Saturday, Iravani urged members of the Security Council to “take immediate and decisive action to stop Israel’s ongoing aggression” and prevent it from “pushing the entire region into an all-out catastrophe.”
“On 27 September 2024, Israel perpetrated a flagrant act of terrorist aggression against residential areas in Beirut, using US-supplied thousand-pound bunker busters to assassinate Seyed Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s leader,” Iravani said, adding that “many innocent people” and an Iranian general were also killed in the attack.
“For a year now, Israel has been committing genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity in Gaza with complete impunity, while the UN Security Council has remained paralyzed due to the United States’ obstruction of an effective decision by that body,” Iravani said.
Iravani also “strongly” warned against “any attack on [Iran’s] diplomatic premises and representatives in violation of the foundational principle of the inviolability of diplomatic and consular premises.”
Some background: In April, Iran accused Israel of bombing its embassy complex in Syria. The airstrike destroyed the consulate building in the capital Damascus, killing at least seven officials including Mohammed Reza Zahedi, a top commander in Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards, and senior commander Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi, according to Iran’s Foreign Ministry.
In response, Iran launched a brief but unprecedented large-scale drone and missile attack at Israel. No one was killed in Israel by the attack.
