Israel expands ground offensive in Lebanon

Israeli forces have hoisted Israel’s flag on the ruins of Iran Garden park on the southern outskirts of the Lebanese border village of Maroun Al-Ras, a video circulating on social media and geolocated by CNN shows.

Earlier Tuesday, the Israeli military said it had taken control of a Hezbollah combat compound in the Maroun Al-Ras area.

It’s unclear if the Israeli military is still present in the area. CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment.

Satellite imagery from October 5 appears to show nearly 30 Israeli military vehicles near the Lebanese border village of Maroun Al-Ras, where Israeli soldiers have been filmed hoisting a flag.

While it is unclear when Israeli forces planted the flag, the satellite imagery shared by Planet Labs appears to show the Israeli military vehicles behind berms that surround a base belonging to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

The base is less than half a mile southeast of Iran Garden park, where the Israeli flag was hoisted.

On Tuesday, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said that the “Israeli tanks and other armed elements” had since left the area surrounding the UNIFIL base.

“I strongly appeal — strongly appeal — to both parties to fully respect the safety and security of UNIFIL,” Guterres said.

CNN analysis of the same imagery indicates that Iran Garden was heavily damaged on October 5.

This post has been updated with additional information.

More than 1,000 American citizens, legal permanent residents, and family members have departed from Lebanon on US-government organized flights, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Tuesday.

The US government has organized 10 flights from the nation that has faced mounting Israeli military operations, Miller said. Those flights each had the capacity for 300 passengers. None have been at capacity so far.

The US government has also been working with Middle East Airlines to block off more than 900 seats on their flights for Americans looking to leave, Miller said.

Miller indicated that the US would continue to organize the flights as long as there was demand from American citizens and not enough capacity on commercial flights.

He said 8,800 people are in contact with the US State Department looking for information about leaving Lebanon, but not all of those people have requested assistance to depart.

Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian speaks during a press conference in Doha on Wednesday, October 2.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has accused Israel of indiscriminate attacks on women, children and the elderly in its military operations, and criticized the United States and Europe for supporting what he called a “barbaric government.”

Speaking in Tehran on Tuesday, Pezeshkian claimed Israel was refusing to follow the rules of war and accused its allies of double standards, noting that Iran was often criticized over its human rights record.

“It’s very interesting, they talk about human rights and tell us, ‘why do you execute a murderer?’ But no one asks these unmanly people ‘why do you kill innocent women and children?’” he continued.

Pezeshkian’s remarks came during a ceremony celebrating the return of ancient Persian clay tablets from the United States.

A still from footage by Mohammad Sultan, who said he was fired at while retrieving food, water and blankets.

Palestinians fleeing sites of Israel’s renewed military operation in northern Gaza are being shot at as they evacuate, according to residents there and footage shared with CNN documenting their journey.

Mohammad Sultan, 28, said he and his family fled their house in Jabalya in northern Gaza “due to the intense and continuous bombardments in the area.” When he went back to retrieve food, water and blankets, he and other civilians were fired at, he said.

The shooting took place at Abu Sharkh roundabout in Jabalya, according to Sultan. CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for comment.

Footage taken by Sultan during his journey shows residents walking along a sandy road, surrounded by rubble and half-destroyed buildings. Some, including children, are on foot, struggling to walk with heavy bags. Others are on bicycles or tuk-tuks.

Drones can be heard buzzing in the background as the bullwhip-like sound of bullets piercing the air trigger screams and attempts to shelter.

Read the full report here.

Israel’s Home Front Command has ordered schools in some suburbs of the northern city of Haifa to close after the area was targeted by a rocket barrage from Hezbollah.

The restrictions will affect several communities of Haifa Bay, including Kiryat Yam and Kiryat Motzkin, where at least two buildings were directly hit by rockets on Tuesday, according to the military.

Global oil prices have spiked in recent days as the conflict in the Middle East has reached fever pitch. They could rise yet further if Israel’s widening war embroils the vital Strait of Hormuz off Iran’s southern coast.

The slim waterway — just 21 miles (34 kilometers) wide at its narrowest point — is “the world’s most important oil transit chokepoint,” according to the US Energy Information Administration.

About one-fifth of the world’s global oil trade passes through the strait every day, notes Simone Tagliapietra, a senior fellow at Brussels-based think tank Bruegel. It also accounts for about a quarter of the world’s daily trade in liquefied natural gas.

As the conflict in the Middle East escalates, so does the risk of disruption to the flow of oil through the strait — or even a complete stoppage.

Last week, Iran launched a barrage of missiles at Israel in retaliation for Israel’s killing of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militant group based in Lebanon, as well as others. Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told CNN Sunday that the country was preparing to strike back at Iran and that “everything is on the table.”

Tagliapietra described the febrile situation as “very serious,” adding that any rise in tensions involving the Strait of Hormuz might have consequences resembling the oil shock of the 1970s, when the price of oil went “through the roof.”

Read more here.

Vice President Kamala Harris appears in an interview on “60 Minutes” that aired Monday, October 7.

Vice President Kamala Harris identified Iran as the United States’ greatest adversary, in a portion of her “60 Minutes” interview that did not air on the full broadcast Monday.

Asked by interviewer Bill Whitaker to name the top US foe, Harris said: “I think there’s an obvious one in mind, which is Iran.”

She would not specify whether she would order preemptive action to take out an Iranian nuclear site if presented proof Tehran was building a nuclear weapon.

“I’m not going to talk about hypotheticals at this moment,” she said.

The view from the window of Mohammad Ibrahim, 36, as Israeli forces increase ground and aerial attacks in Jabalya, Gaza, on October 8.

Israeli bombs swirled over Jabalya overnight, and houses trembled from explosions, according to a father staying in the besieged refugee camp in northern Gaza.

Entire streets have been deserted, and bodies are scattered on the ground, the father-of-two recalled, after the Israeli military said it launched aerial and ground assaults on the neighborhood targeting renewed Hamas presence. Hamas militants reported heavy fighting in the area.

Ibrahim, 36, told CNN he had been terrorized by the “deafening” sound of aircraft – describing a key roundabout in the area as a “death trap.”

“I woke up in my room to the sound of gunfire, fearing for my safety,” he said. “The sound of the explosion shook my body… As if my blood wanted to escape from the pressure.

“Even the beginning of the war was not characterized by such franticness and killing.”

Several Jabalya residents previously told CNN they could not be uprooted from their homes in Jabalya again, after Israeli forces issued fresh evacuation orders telling people to move south.

“There is no one in the streets; the city is a ghost town,” the history teacher said. “We do not know where the soldiers are or where the ground invasion points are… We cannot leave the house.”

“The loss of communications and networks also makes it difficult,” he said. “No one knows who survived and who was martyred.”

Around 105 rockets were fired at the northern Israeli city of Haifa and the Galilee area in one hour, the Israeli military said Tuesday.

The rockets were fired from Lebanon in two separate barrages, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said.

While numerous rockets were intercepted or fell in open areas, according to the military, at least two buildings in Kiryat Yam and Kiryat Motzkin were directly hit. Israeli emergency services said that a 71-year-old woman was taken to hospital with a shrapnel injury to her hand while others were treated for injuries sustained while making their way to safety.

Prior to the barrages on Haifa, 25 rockets were fired from Lebanon at the Lower Galilee region, according to the IDF.

Hezbollah announced on Tuesday it had “launched a large rocket barrage at the cities of Haifa and Kiryat.”

Russia's President Vladimir Putin delivers a video address to congratulate teachers on Teacher's Day in Moscow, Russia, on October 4.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to meet his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian for the first time on Friday to discuss the situation in the Middle East, according to Russian state media TASS.

The announcement of their meeting comes as the region is bracing for Israel’s response to Iran’s largest-ever missile attack last week.

Putin’s meeting with Pezeshkian, a reformist who won Iran’s election in July following the death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash, will take place in the Central Asian country of Turkmenistan, on the sidelines of a forum of regional leaders.

Putin may also hold other bilateral meetings on his trip to the capital Ashgabat.