October 20, 2024 - news on the wars in the Middle East

The Israeli military has issued evacuation warnings for areas of Beirut’s southern suburbs as it warns of strikes on Hezbollah financial sites.

The Israel Defense Forces’ Arabic spokesperson Avichay Adraee issued a warning on X for four buildings in the municipality of Haret Hriek.

Earlier, another IDF spokesperson, Daniel Hagari, had said: “In a few minutes, we will spread a preliminary evacuation warning to Lebanon, Beirut and other places to evacuate from the sites used to fund Hezbollah terrorist activity. I emphasize anyone who is located near sites used by Hezbollah terrorist activity is required to stay away from them immediately.”

“We will attack a large number of targets in the coming hours and other targets later at night, in the coming days,” Hagari added, saying the military would strike these sites at night and issue an update “in the coming days.”

Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Daniel Hagari speaks to the press in Tel Aviv, Israel, on October 18, 2023.

Israel plans to conduct strikes aimed at hampering Hezbollah’s access to financing, Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Daniel Hagari said at a briefing Sunday.

The strikes will target the Lebanon-based Al-Qard Al-Hassan Association, Hagari said.

The association is a nonprofit financial institution linked to Hezbollah that was founded in 1983, according to the Hezbollah-affiliated TV channel Al-Manar. It offers interest-free loans to alleviate poverty within the Shia community, based on Islamic principles of lending without interest, according to Al-Manar.

Hagari said the IDF plans to target Al-Qard Al-Hassan facilities across Lebanon to disrupt Hezbollah’s financial network and erode trust between the organization and the Shia population.

Hagari said Al-Qard Al-Hassan plays a significant role in funding Hezbollah’s operations.

Hagari said the organization operates like a bank while staying disconnected from SWIFT — a messaging service that connects financial institutions around the world — to avoid sanctions.

He said Hezbollah uses the institution to pay salaries to its operatives and provide support to civilians, with around 300,000 people, mostly Shia, utilizing the system. 

This post has been updated with details on the financial system Israel has said it will target.

An Israeli colonel has died during combat in northern Gaza, becoming one of the country’s highest-ranking officers to be killed in its war with Hamas.

The Israel Defense Forces announced the death of Col. Ehsan Daxa, commander of the 401st “Iron Tracks” Brigade of the 162nd Division, on Sunday.

Daxa is one of the highest-ranking Israeli officers to have been killed in Gaza since Col. Yitzhak Ben Bashet, who died in December last year in the northern Gaza neighborhood of Shujaiya.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described Daxa as “a hero of Israel, a warrior and a commander” who had chosen to “invest all his energy in the security of Israel and its citizens.”

He sent condolences to Daxa’s wife Huda and his children Omri, Rif and Yasmin.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Daxa had died in a “battle against Hamas” in Gaza.

“The state of Israel lost today a bold commander, a brave officer and a man who contributed his energy to the security of the state,” Gallant posted on X.

Rafik Halabi, mayor of Daxa’s hometown Daliyat al-Karmel, said on X, “With sorrow, pain, and much grief, Daliyat al-Karmel, the IDF, the Druze community, and the state of Israel say goodbye to one of its heroes.”

Earlier on Sunday, Hamas said its fighters had hit an Israeli Merkava tank and a Namer armored personnel carrier with missiles near Jabalya camp in northern Gaza. The IDF has not elaborated on the circumstances surrounding Daxa’s death.

Mohammed Ayyad speaks in Khan Younis, Gaza, on October 19.

Family members in central Gaza have described their devastation after an airdropped aid pallet killed their 3-year-old child.

Ayyad and his grandson, also named Sami, ran to their makeshift tent nearby to seek shelter, but a falling pallet hit the boy, killing him instantly, his grandfather said.

“They dropped parachutes of aid, and the aid killed our children … What for? I don’t want aid; my son is gone,” the boy’s father, Mahmoud Ayyad, told CNN.

The boy’s aunt and cousin, who were sheltering inside their tents, were also injured by the airdrop. The cousin suffered injuries to her face, while his aunt’s foot was broken.

Some context: As the humanitarian crisis has deepened in Gaza and overland routes are cut off, countries have used airdrops as a means of getting vital food aid into the enclave. But aid groups say Israel’s allies need to convince Israeli officials to loosen their tight siege on aid entering the enclave by ground to make a significant impact.

Palestinians in Gaza have described the experience of receiving airdrops as dangerous and humiliating, while also voicing practical concerns about the content of the deliveries. Some packages airdropped into Gaza have contained meals which needed to be heated by microwave, for example, a representative for the charity Medical Aid for Palestinians previously told CNN.

It’s not the content of the recent US intelligence leaks about Israel’s war plans that is so damaging — it’s the fact that a leak like this happened at all that is raising concerns in Israel.

The two US documents, marked secret, offering insights into a possible Israeli strike on Iran, were published on a pro-Iranian social media platform this weekend, prompting an apology to Israel from Washington.

The leaks came amid preparations for Israel’s widely expected retaliatory strike on Iran and as the bitter US presidential election campaign enters its last stretch.

The question is, who?

US officials have told CNN an investigation is currently examining who had access to the documents.

No findings have yet been made public, but Israeli sources tell CNN they believe such “a minor leak” is unlikely to have been the work of some Iranian spy who has infiltrated US intelligence.

The two secret documents, which describe satellite images of a recent Israeli military exercise and Israeli military equipment movements, simply don’t seem important enough to risk the exposure of such a well-placed Iranian asset, they said.

It is possible the leak was the handiwork of a disgruntled US official, or a military employee, as was the case with leaks earlier this year and in 2022.

But Israeli media is hinting at more conspiratorial suspicions about the latest US intelligence leaks, even suggesting this could have been a deliberate leak by Washington as the Biden administration tries to contain Israeli military operations.

That is a claim Israeli officials are reluctant to discuss, even in off-record conversations.

But, while unconfirmed, the former senior Israeli intelligence official told CNN the hard-fought US presidential election campaign could help explain the motivation behind the intelligence leak.

Smoke billows over Khiam, Lebanon, after Israeli strikes, as seen from Marjayoun, Lebanon, on October 20.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency has reported a series of airstrikes carried out by Israeli aircraft on the town of Khiam near the Israeli border.

According to the NNA, 14 consecutive airstrikes targeted multiple areas in the town within a span of 15 minutes on Sunday afternoon local time.

Khiam is just 4 kilometers (about 2.5 miles) from the Israeli settlement of Metula on the other side of the border. It is also close to the town of Kfar Kila, which has been left in ruins by the Israeli incursion into southern Lebanon.

CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment on the targets of the airstrikes but has not yet received a response.

The airstrikes came as Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant visited troops at the border.

Remember: Israel is at war with Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group based in southern Lebanon.

While the two sides have long been in conflict, cross-border clashes increased significantly after the outbreak of Israel’s current war with Hamas in Gaza, with Hezbollah saying it was firing rockets into Israel in support of Palestinians.

Israel is now bombarding southern Lebanon at an unprecedented intensity and has launched a ground incursion into the country.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant used a visit to the country’s northern border Sunday to rally his troops fighting Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, telling them they are “moving from defeating the enemy to destroying it.”

Gallant told the soldiers they were moving from a phase of fighting militants in surrounding villages to a “situation of destruction,” blowing up tunnels and ammunition depots, and destroying other Hezbollah infrastructure.

“Our goal is to completely clean this strip so that people can return here (to northern Israel) and establish their lives properly,” Gallant said.

One of Israel’s stated war aims is to return tens of thousands of Israeli civilians who have been displaced from border regions due to cross-border fire with Hezbollah. On the other side of the border, hundreds of thousands of Lebanese civilians have also been displaced as Israel pounds southern Lebanon with airstrikes.

“We said we would return the residents of the north to their homes safely, and this is what we are doing,” Gallant said. “We hurt the enemy and wear him down in order to make this security possible.”

Gallant said the Israel Defense Forces is still “completing the mission” in Lebanon and that the military is “preparing for follow-on missions.”

Smoke and flames rise in Beirut's southern suburbs in Lebanon after Israeli airstrikes, as seen from Sin el Fil, Lebanon, on October 6.

Israel’s foreign ministry is threatening diplomatic and legal action against France after Paris banned Israeli companies whose weapons are being used in Gaza and Lebanon from participating in a top naval warfare trade show.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz announced the move Sunday in a post on X, marking the latest public example of Israel’s increasingly strained ties with European leaders.

From calls for a complete halt of weapons sales to Israel and considering sanctions on far-right Israeli ministers, to talks among European Union members on reviewing Israel’s Association Agreement with the bloc, European leaders are trying to use their leverage to pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into negotiating ceasefires.

The bloc’s position is starkly different to what experts described as unwavering support for Israel from European states on October 7 last year, when Hamas-led militants killed more than 1,200 people in Israel and took more than 250 others hostage.

But as Israel’s retaliation against Hamas morphed into what critics call a “forever war,” killing more than 42,000 people in Gaza, according to Gaza’s health ministry, European countries have sought to distance themselves from Israel.

Read the full story here.

This post has been updated to note the legal action announced by Israel’s foreign ministry.

Eugenia Yosef and CNN’s Tim Lister contributed reporting to this post.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said the leak of highly classified US intelligence on Israel’s plans for retaliating against Iran was “very concerning” and that he will be receiving a briefing later today.

“The leak is very concerning. There’s some serious allegations being made there. Investigation underway, and I’ll get a briefing on that in a couple of hours. There’s a classified level briefing and then another. But we’re following it closely,” Johnson told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.”

Johnson added that he spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday to “encourage him” and said it wasn’t his place to suggest what Israel’s response should be to Iran’s recent attack.

Some context: The Middle East has been bracing for Israel’s response since Iran launched its largest-ever missile attack on its regional adversary earlier this month.

Highly classified documents about Israel’s plans began circulating online Friday, and a person familiar with the matter has confirmed the documents’ authenticity to CNN. They are marked top secret and have markings indicating they are meant to be seen only by the US and its “Five Eyes” allies — Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

The US has since launched an investigation into the leak.

Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli airstrike on Kfar Kila, Lebanon, on September 20.

The town of Kfar Kila has been left in ruins by the Israeli incursion into southern Lebanon, according to videos geolocated by CNN.

Kfar Kila, which is across the Lebanese border from the Israeli settlement of Metula, has been targeted by shelling since cross-border fire between the Israeli army and Hezbollah intensified following the outbreak of the war in Gaza last October. Israeli troops are now on the ground in southern Lebanon fighting the Iran-backed militant group.

In a video from October 16, an unnamed Israel Defense Forces soldier stands next to an Israeli flag hoisted in Kfar Kila saying: “What we see here, you can look around, is truly a huge shout-out to all the IDF soldiers.”

Addressing the residents of Metula, the soldier says the IDF is staying in the area until “there is nothing here, only when they do not return here.”

The official Lebanese National News Agency reported another round of Israeli strikes on the town Saturday. Hezbollah, meanwhile, said it had fired artillery shells at a group of Israeli soldiers at Fatima Gate, the border point in Kfar Kila.