Israel and Hezbollah trade fire in major flare-up

A woman walks next to a wall of posters showing Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas in Tel Aviv, Israel, on August 21.

Discussions to try to finalize the Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal will continue over the coming days, with teams remaining in Cairo to iron out remaining issues, a US official said Sunday.

Talks ended Sunday without a resolution, and with Hamas continuing to publicly suggest it would not agree to a proposal meant to bridge remaining differences. The group has insisted it will only agree to the plan previously backed by US President Joe Biden.

More on the process: On Thursday, the US and Egypt met with Israel to try to narrow remaining gaps and clarify issues in the text of bridging proposal, according to a source familiar with the matter. The US and Egypt met again Friday to discuss and prepare for the high-level talks this weekend.

Yesterday, Qatar and Egypt met with senior representatives of Hamas and went through each paragraph of the proposal in detail to identify any remaining issues or questions to clarify, the source said.

The source did not get into details about the outstanding issues, but CNN has reported that the presence of Israeli forces in the Philadelphi corridor, a key strip of land along the border with Egypt, is among the key matters still in contention.

The United States helped Israel track incoming Hezbollah attacks early Sunday morning, according to a US defense official, but the US was not involved in Israel’s strikes in Lebanon.

The US has assets for intelligence-gathering and reconnaissance in the region, including destroyers in the eastern Mediterranean Sea and drones that can monitor the area.

The official stressed that the US was not part of Israel’s strikes on the paramilitary group.

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has ordered two aircraft carrier strike groups to remain in the region. The USS Abraham Lincoln arrived in the Middle East last week, joining the USS Theodore Roosevelt.

Austin notified Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant of the decision to leave the carrier groups in place during a call Sunday where they discussed the overnight strikes.

The USS Wasp amphibious ready group is already in the Mediterranean Sea. Advanced F-22 fighter jets have also arrived in US Central Command in recent weeks.

This post has been updated with details about plans for the US aircraft carrier strike groups in the Middle East.

CNN’s Aileen Graef contributed to this report.

The Hamas delegation, which has now left negotiations in Cairo on Sunday, emphasized that it only wants to implement US President Joe Biden’s proposal for a Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal, which it agreed to on July 2.

Hamas demanded that Israel “be bound by what was agreed upon on July 2, based on what was stated in Biden’s speech and the Security Council resolution,” Izzat al-Rishq, a member of the Hamas political bureau, said in a statement.

Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told Al Aqsa TV last Tuesday that Israel has “set new conditions for accepting the agreement and has retracted what it had previously agreed to.”

According to Hamdan, those new conditions included Israeli troops repositioning in the Philadelphi corridor, a key strip of land along the border with Egypt, and non-Palestinian management of the Rafah crossing with Egypt.

The Hamas negotiating delegation left Cairo Sunday evening local time after meeting with mediators for the renewed talks.

In his statement, Al-Rishq stressed Hamas’ position that any agreement must include “a permanent ceasefire, a complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, the freedom of return of residents to their areas, relief and reconstruction, and a serious exchange deal.”

A Hezbollah UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) is intercepted by Israeli air forces over northern Israel following what Israel called preemptive strikes against the militant group on Sunday, August 25. 

Hezbollah’s attack on Israel has been completed, but further strikes could be carried out in the future, the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, said in a televised speech Sunday evening.

Hezbollah launched its attack in retaliation for Israel’s assassination of its most senior military official, Fu’ad Shukr, in late July. 

Nasrallah said the militant group had delayed its response until Sunday to give “sufficient opportunity” for Gaza ceasefire negotiations to take place, to impose greater “mental and financial strain” inside Israel, and to ensure the attack’s success.

Details on the attack: Hezbollah’s plan was to launch 300 Soviet-era Katyusha rockets to occupy Israel’s defense systems, Nasrallah said.

Fighters were instructed to target military infrastructure and avoid civilians, according to the Hezbollah chief. The two main targets were Israel’s Glilot Military Base and Ein Shemer Airfield, he said.

Israel has said that during the flurry of rockets, Hezbollah also launched drones at targets in central Israel, but that its defenses were able to knock the uncrewed craft out of the sky.

Nasrallah said Hezbollah would assess the attack’s results before determining whether they would launch further strikes.

Israel’s strikes in Lebanon: The Hezbollah chief said Israel began striking Lebanon about 30 minutes before Hezbollah’s operation began. The Israeli military deemed the attack “preemptive” and said it destroyed rocket launchers that would have been used to strike Israel.

The militant group’s leader praised the “patience and courage” of people living in southern Lebanon, which was on the receiving end of much of Israel’s strikes. 

What Israel is saying: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu indicated Sunday that the fighting may not be done. “This is not the end of the matter,” he said in a video message.

Despite the two leaders’ rhetoric, it appears they have each backed away from the brink of a wider regional war for now.

Displaced Palestinians carry belongings as they evacuate Deir al-Balah, Gaza, on August 25.

While Israel trades fire with Hezbollah at its northern border, it continues to wage war on another Islamist militant group, Hamas, in Gaza.

Israel’s widespread bombing and ground campaign in the enclave after Hamas’ October 7 attacks, along with a tight siege on aid flowing into the territory, has led to a spiraling humanitarian crisis there.

Hezbollah has said its recent attacks on Israel are in solidarity with Hamas and the Palestinians in Gaza.

Here’s what happened in the enclave Sunday:

Mass evacuation: Israel’s military told thousands more Palestinians sheltering in parts of Deir al Balah in central Gaza to evacuate.

Journalist Mohammad Al Sawalhi told CNN there are five school shelters in the area, known as block 128, along with tents and houses. Altogether, the area has approximately 40,000 people, many of whom already fled fighting in Rafah or elsewhere in the strip.

It’s unclear how many people are currently aware of the evacuation order. Al Sawalhi told CNN that whoever had an internet connection took a screenshot of the post or SMS messages and circulated it on WhatsApp to others.

CNN obtained a video showing the aftermath of a strike that hit an area near Al Aqsa Hospital just moments before the evacuation order came out.

Polio vaccine arrives: Polio vaccines for more than 1.2 million people have been delivered to the Gaza Strip, according to the Palestinian health ministry and the Israeli agency responsible for coordinating the delivery.

Polio was detected in Gaza’s sewage water last month, meaning that thousands of Palestinians are now at risk of contracting the disease, which can cause paralysis. 

More Palestinians killed in airstrikes: The Ministry of Health in Gaza says at least 71 people were killed by Israeli military operations over the 24 hours preceding Sunday morning. Another 112 people have been wounded, according to the ministry.

An Israel Defense Forces spokesperson denied that strikes launched by Hezbollah against the country overnight damaged Israeli military bases.

“In contradiction of the claims by Hezbollah, there was no damage to IDF bases, not in the north and not in the center,” Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said earlier today that the militia’s flurry of strikes had mainly targeted Israel’s Glilot Military Base and Ein Shemer Airfield.

Hagari said most of Hezbollah’s rockets and drones were intercepted or fell in open areas.

Nasrallah has said the Islamist militant group will assess the damage it caused to Israeli assets before determining whether Hezbollah will launch further attacks in retaliation for the killing of its most senior military official last month.

Smoke billows from an area targeted by an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon on August 25.

The government of Jordan is warning that the heavy exchange of fire overnight between Israel and Lebanon could lead to a long-feared wider war in the Mideast involving Israel, Iran and its proxies.

The ministry’s spokesperson, Ambassador Sufian Qudah, urged countries to observe United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, which calls for a series of de-escalating actions in southern Lebanon, where the Islamist paramilitary group is based.

Protesters attend a demonstration calling for a hostage deal on August 24, in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Gaza ceasefire and hostage talks in Cairo are continuing as planned today, a US official said, even as a major flare-up between Israel and Hezbollah deepened fears of a broader regional conflict.

Hamas and Israel each sent negotiators to Egypt for the talks on Sunday.

The negotiations have been slow-moving, and key sticking points remain.

An Israeli naval soldier died after sustaining shrapnel wounds on Sunday as Israel traded fire with Hezbollah across its northern border with Lebanon, the Israeli military said.

The soldier, 21-year-old David Moshe Ben Shitrit, was one of three people injured “either directly from an Iron Dome interceptor or from falling shrapnel from the interceptor” that hit his unit’s boat, an army official told CNN. The Iron Dome refers to Israel’s multi-layered, world-class air defense system.

The official said these were preliminary findings and the soldier’s death is still under review.

The Galilee Medical Center in northern Israel said it treated three young men with shrapnel injuries on Sunday morning, which were “a result of interception fragments in the Nahariya area.”

The hospital described efforts to save a 21-year-old’s life, but said he was pronounced dead at the medical center.

First fatality: Shitrit is the first reported fatality on the Israeli side since Sunday’s major flare-up began.

The Lebanese Ministry of Health said earlier that three people were killed in southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah also announced after the fighting Sunday that two of its militants had been killed, but it did not specify where they had died or if it had been in today’s strikes.

People look at an information board showing some cancelled flights in Beirut, Lebanon, on August 25.

European carriers have begun canceling flights to the Middle East in response to Sunday’s increased fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.

French national carrier Air France has suspended all flights to Tel Aviv and the Lebanese capital of Beirut until “at least” Monday, according to CNN affiliate BFMTV.

The airline may prolong the cancellation. It has promised to provide an update on Monday.

Meanwhile, British Airways has canceled all their flights in and out of Tel Aviv through Wednesday, a spokesperson for the airline said Sunday.

“Safety is always our top priority, and we’re contacting customers to advise them of their travel options,” the spokesperson said.

This post has been updated with an additional airline.

Israeli strikes hit southern Lebanon on Sunday, August 25.

For nearly a month, people in Lebanon and Israel have braced for a wider war.

On Sunday morning, Hezbollah delivered what it called the “first phase” of its anticipated response to the killing of a top commander last month, launching hundreds of drones and rockets toward Israel.

Israel said it had preemptively struck Hezbollah targets overnight to prevent a much wider attack, saying it hit many rocket launchers in Lebanon.

The cross-border fire Sunday morning marked a significant escalation after 11 months of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel. But fears of a wider war appear to have been dampened, for now.

In Israel, authorities soon lifted security restrictions in the country’s northernmost territory, known as the upper Galilee. In Lebanon, Hezbollah said it had concluded attacks on Israel for the day.

This signals the resumption of the low-intensity conflict at the border. It also seems to mark the conclusion of an anticipated escalation from Hezbollah that brought the Middle East, once again, to the brink of all-out war.

Hezbollah has said this was the “first phase” of its response but has been scant on the details of a follow-up. The phrase may be rhetorical — the group is prone to keeping its threats open-ended.

Netanyahu made a similarly open-ended vow Sunday, saying, “This is not the end of the matter.”

And even if Hezbollah’s promised response is largely out of the way, Israel must continue to wait for another threat to transpire: Iran’s vowed “revenge” for the killing of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, which it blamed on Israel.

Read more here on what the latest strikes mean for the region.

Polio vaccines for more than 1.2 million people have been delivered to the Gaza Strip, according to the Israeli agency responsible for coordinating the delivery.

Polio was detected in Gaza’s sewage water last month, meaning that thousands of Palestinians are now at risk of contracting the disease, which can cause paralysis. 

The 25,100 vials of the vaccine were delivered via the Kerem Shalom Crossing, near the border with Egypt, according to officials with Israel’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT).

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah has confirmed the doses arrived in Gaza. It noted earlier Sunday that the necessary equipment was in place to keep the vaccines cold during transportation.

COGAT said local and international medical teams would administer vaccines to unvaccinated children in Gaza “in the coming days” and would coordinate with the Israeli military to use “humanitarian pauses” allowing people to reach medical centers and get vaccinated.

The Palestinian health ministry called on international organizations to pressure Israeli authorities to halt their military operations in Gaza, stressing that it is essential for medical teams to vaccinate children and stop the spread of the polio virus.

Remember: Israel’s widespread bombing and ground offensive in Gaza after Hamas’ October 7 attacks, along with a tight siege on aid flowing into the territory, has led to a spiraling humanitarian crisis in the enclave.

Israel’s campaign to destroy Hamas continues in Gaza as it battles another Islamist militant group, Hezbollah, to the north in Lebanon.

Correction: A previous version of this post misstated where the vaccines were taken en route to Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks in Jerusalem on July 16.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video message Sunday that the Israel Defense Forces had used its “intense preemptive attack” on Hezbollah sites in Lebanon overnight to destroy thousands of rockets “intended to harm our citizens and our forces.”

Sunday’s flare-up in the long-running clashes between Israel and Hezbollah began when Israel carried out strikes against the Islamist militant group. Israel alleged that Hezbollah was preparing to launch a barrage of missiles and rockets at Israeli targets, a charge the group denies.

Netanyahu hinted that more fighting may be on the way, saying in his message that, “What happened today is not the end.”

Drone intercepts: Drones launched by Hezbollah to attack a “strategic target” in central Israel were all intercepted by the country’s military, Netanyahu said in his message.

He did not clarify what the target was.

Palestinians inspect damage following an Israeli raid in Khan Younis, Gaza, on August 24.

The Ministry of Health in Gaza says at least 71 people have been killed as a result of Israeli military operations in the enclave over the past 24 hours.

Another 112 people have been wounded, the ministry said Sunday.

The ministry does not distinguish between civilian casualties and those sustained by Hamas, but it previously asserted that about 70% of casualties in the war have been women and children.

The ministry said the cumulative toll from Israeli military operations in Gaza since October 7 is now at least 40,405 killed and 93,468 injured.

An Israeli Air Force fighter jet fires flares as it flies to intercept an aircraft launched from Lebanon on August 25.

Israel’s chief military spokesperson on Sunday said Hezbollah had intended to launch several hundred rockets at northern Israel and target the center of the country with drones. 

The military has called its strikes on Hezbollah “preemptive.”

The Israel Defense Forces targeted and destroyed hundreds of rocket launchers armed with thousands of launch pads, Hagari claimed.

Speaking in Tel Aviv, Hagari said that the Home Front Command had decided to remove restrictions, including the limitation of gatherings, for most of northern Israel, except for the immediate border area with Lebanon and some settlements in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. 

A view of Cairo on Sunday, August 25.

Negotiators are in the Egyptian capital Cairo for a renewed push to secure an end to fighting in Gaza in exchange for the release of hostages, the latest in a stuttering series of efforts to secure a deal between Israel and Hamas.

Heightened tensions between Israel and Iran have brought a fresh sense of urgency to bring the 10-month war to an end. Iran has been threatening to retaliate against Israel since a string of figures in Iran-backed militant groups were killed over a span of weeks, including the assassination of Hamas’ political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.

Overnight, the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah said it carried out the first phase of its retaliation for the killing of a top commander, but the strikes have not impacted talks.

Here’s what we know:

What’s happening? Hamas representatives arrived in the Egyptian capital on Saturday evening, where negotiators from Israel, the US, Egypt and Qatar have been holding talks. The delegation will hear from mediators about the latest in the deal talks, Izzat al-Rishq, a member of the Hamas political bureau, said in a statement on Saturday. Israeli negotiators are also attending.

What’s on the table? A three-phase peace plan was first laid out by US President Joe Biden in May, which sees a release of hostages combined with a “full and complete ceasefire.” The White House is pushing to get the deal across the line and has previously insisted the deal has been accepted by Israel, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says fundamental issues remain.

What are the key sticking points? There remain significant gaps between the two sides. Israel has made it clear that following the initial six-week phase, a break in the fighting may be just that and it is not ready to agree to a permanent ceasefire. Hamas has indicated it is unhappy with the latest proposal as it didn’t include a permanent ceasefire and introduced new conditions on the exchange of prisoners. Another major sticking point is the future of the Philadelphi corridor in southern Gaza. Israel has demanded maintaining control of the border zone, whereas Hamas has said Israeli troops must withdraw from the area.

Is a deal likely? The US has been optimistic about the latest phase in negotiations. Biden last week said “we are closer than we’ve ever been.” But the talks have been underway for months and it remains the case that there are major differences to overcome. Haniyeh played a pivotal role for Hamas in the talks, while Netanyahu is under competing pressures from families of hostages to secure a deal and from his cabinet to defeat Hamas.

Smoke and fire are seen on the Lebanese side of the border with Israel, after Israel said it carried out strikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon on August 25.

Sunday morning in the Middle East began with a massive exchange of fire between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah, escalating tensions between the sides which had spiked after the October 7 terror attack on Israel.

Here’s what’s happened so far: 

An Israeli Air Force fighter jet fires flares as it flies to intercept a hostile aircraft that launched from Lebanon on August 25.

The Israeli military said Hezbollah was planning a “wide attack” on targets in both northern and central Israel, but was unsuccessful, spokesperson Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said. 

Hezbollah was “targeting mostly the north, but they also had a few targets in central Israel that they were not able to carry out with our self defense operation this morning,” Shoshani said.

Israel said it carried out preemptive strikes on Hezbollah to thwart a major attack. The Shia militant group, meanwhile, said its operation so far had been a “complete success.”

Israeli strikes in Lebanon: Shoshani said the Israel Defense Forces were focused on areas in southern Lebanon where there’s a “large concentration of rocket launchers.”

At least three people were killed in the strikes, Lebanon’s Ministry of Health said in a statement.

No bases appear hit: The Israeli military said it is unaware of any impacts on military bases or targets in central Israel following the strikes. The Israeli Defense Forces told CNN that “very little damage was sustained” due to the rocket attack. 

In northern Israel, images show some damage to homes in the municipality of Acre. 

Hezbollah is believed to be the most heavily armed non-state group in the world.

Backed by Iran and based in Lebanon, the Shia Islamist group has been engaged in confrontations with Israeli forces on Lebanon’s southern border since October 8.

Though no match for Israel’s military might, Hezbollah’s increasingly sophisticated arsenal has the potential to inflict significant damage on Israel and its allies in the region.

In the event of a major flare-up, Israel would also have to contend with Hezbollah’s strategic depth. The group is part of an Iran-led axis of militants spanning Yemen, Syria, Gaza and Iraq. Some of these groups have increased coordination significantly since October, when Israel launched a war in Gaza after Hamas-led militants attacked the country. This axis is known in Israel as the “ring of fire.”

Throughout its decades-long conflict with Israel, Hezbollah has been engaged in asymmetric warfare. It has sought to grow its political and military might, while seeking to establish deterrence despite Israel’s military superiority.

But Hezbollah threads the needle carefully. Provoking Israel’s full firepower could significantly degrade the group’s capabilities, setting it back years – if not decades – and destroying large parts of Lebanon, which has buckled under the weight of its years-long financial crisis.

Hezbollah’s chances of survival in an all-out war with Israel hinged on whether or not it could outsmart these systems, which have, in recent months, intercepted thousands of airborne weapons from Iran, Gaza, and Lebanon.

See our visual guide to Hezbollah’s weapons.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Amsterdam on March 10.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog said that Israeli strikes on Lebanon early Sunday “epitomized” the country’s right to self-defense.

Herzog’s statement followed the Israeli military launching preemptive strikes against what it said were “terror targets in Lebanon” after it claimed to have identified Hezbollah “preparing to fire missiles and rockets toward Israeli territory.”

The Islamist militant group called the accusations “baseless.” Hezbollah responded with strikes of its own, which it said was the “first phase” of its response to Israel. Hezbollah called the salvo a “complete success.”