October 29, 2024 Middle East war news

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A general view of the destruction following the Israeli army's attack on a five-story building in Beit Lahiya, Gaza, on October 29.

An Israeli airstrike on a multistory building killed more than 90 people, including 25 children, in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza on Tuesday, according to Palestinian authorities.

The Israeli military said it was targeting a “suspected terrorist” and is “trying to understand” why so many people were in the area at the time. In a briefing last week, Brig. Gen. Elad Goren, head of the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) civil-humanitarian efforts in Gaza, said that “as we understand, there is no population” in Beit Lahiya.

The strike came one day after Israel banned the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees from operating in the country in a move that sparked an international outcry.

Here’s some of the latest developments:

At least 14 people were killed in Israeli strikes on two locations in southern Lebanon, the country’s health ministry said Tuesday.

One strike, on Sarafand, killed eight people and wounded 21, according to a preliminary casualty count by the ministry.

Another strike, on Sidon, killed at least six people and injured 37. Rescue workers in Sidon have been removing rubble from the site, the ministry said.

CNN has reached out to the Israeli military for comment.

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli air strike on Khiam in southern Lebanon near the border with Israel on October 25.

Israeli attacks in Lebanon killed 82 people and injured 180 on Monday, the Lebanese health ministry said.

Monday’s figure is the highest reported number of fatalities in a single day since September 30, according to a CNN tally of daily statements from the ministry.

Monday night saw successive Israeli strikes on eastern Lebanon, during which multiple cities and towns in the Baalbek-Hermel and Beqaa governorates were targeted, the ministry said.

More than 2,100 people have been killed and more than 10,500 injured in Lebanon since mid-September when Israel stepped up its campaign against Hezbollah, according to CNN’s tally.

Iran rushed to downplay the impact of Israel’s strikes on its territory this past weekend, suggesting that it has taken an off-ramp to avoid a wider war, but the attack set a precedent the Islamic Republic has tried to avoid since its inception 40 years ago.

The adversaries had spent decades avoiding direct confrontation, instead choosing to exchange punches in a shadow war. Israel used clandestine operations to assassinate key Iranian figures and execute cyberattacks on vital facilities as Iran continued activating its Arab proxy militias to attack the Jewish state.

Saturday’s attack marked the first time Israel has acknowledged striking Iran, bringing the shadow war into the open and crossing a threshold that has led some in the Islamic Republic to question the country’s deterrence capabilities.

Shortly after the assault, Iran’s state media published images showing everyday life continuing as usual in its cities. Schools continued operating and Tehran’s streets were shown gridlocked with traffic. Hardline commentators mocked the attack on television and social media memes poked fun at the limited nature of the Israeli response.

In his first comments after the attack, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei opted to give a measured response, saying the strikes should “neither be exaggerated nor downplayed.”

But that initial wave of dismissal eventually dissipated, and an internal debate emerged over whether Iran should deliver a harsh response to prevent Israeli strikes from becoming normalized against a regime focused on its own survival.

“The sense is that if they do not respond they will normalize the idea that Israel can strike Tehran without getting a response,” Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft in Washington, DC said, adding that there is a “fear if they don’t do something now Israel will start treating Iran as they did with Syria which means every once in a while, (Israelis will) strike.”

Read the full story here on CNN.

People search through the rubble of a building after an Israeli strike in Beit Lahia, Gaza on October 29.

The Israeli military says it is “trying to understand” why so many people were in Beit Lahiya at the time of its strike that, according to Palestinian authorities, killed more than 90 people.

At least 93 people, including 25 children, were killed in the strike on a multi-story building on Tuesday, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza. It is thought to be one of the deadliest strikes of Israel’s recent bombing campaign on northern Gaza and has been condemned by human rights groups and NGOs.

But David Avraham, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), told CNN the military was still “trying to understand” why so many people were in the area at the time of the strike, saying that civilians had been ordered to evacuate “several weeks ago.”

Israeli forces were attacking a “suspected terrorist” they had spotted in the area and did not intend to “collapse the building,” Avraham said, before adding that the military is investigating what happened.

During a briefing last week, Brig. Gen. Elad Goren, head of the IDF’s civil-humanitarian efforts in Gaza, said that “as we understand, there is no population” in Beit Lahiya.

UN Human Rights Office spokesperson Jeremy Laurence said the UN was “appalled” by the strike, which he called “one of the deadliest single attacks in Gaza in nearly three months.” Noting Israel’s commitment to investigating the strike, the UN stressed the need for “a prompt, transparent and detailed investigation into the circumstances of this strike and responsibilities for it.”

Jabalia detainees. CNN has added blur to this photo to protect identities.

The photo shows a large crowd of more than 200 people, crouching low amid the rubble of Jabalya in northern Gaza. Mostly men, many are almost naked, some are elderly, some visibly wounded. There’s at least one child among them.

They were detained and most ordered to strip by the Israeli military as they tried to flee their homes in Jabalya refugee camp, then held for hours outdoors in the cold, witnesses told CNN.

Their tired faces give a glimpse into their misery. The men at the front are anxiously staring straight ahead, while those toward the back stretch their necks to see what is going on.

The photo, taken in Jabalya on Friday, shows residents of the refugee camp who tried to leave the area after being forced by the Israeli military to evacuate amid its ongoing ground operation there.

The photo was first shared on an Israeli Telegram channel; while it is unclear who took it, several of the men in the picture told CNN Israeli soldiers were photographing them as they were being detained.

CNN has identified and spoken to five individuals seen in the photograph. One of them, Muhannad Khalaf, said he, his wife and their infant son were trying to escape the camp using a designated safe corridor when the Israeli military stopped them.

Read more on this story here.

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian has praised the new leader of Hezbollah, Naim Qassem, as a “bright figure” who will “strengthen” resistance against the country’s foes, Iranian state media outlet IRNA reported Tuesday.

Hezbollah named the Shiite cleric as its new leader on Tuesday, more than a month after his predecessor Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike. Qassem inherits the leadership of a group once regarded as Iran’s most formidable proxy in its war against Israel but now significantly weakened by Israeli strikes.

Pezeshkian said that in the present context the “defense of Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity” and the support of the “oppressed Palestinian nation” were “of historical importance.”

“I am confident that the presence of a bright figure with clear records like your excellency at the head of the Hezbollah group will strengthen the will in the field of resistance,” Pezeshkian said, addressing Qassem directly.

Messages of congratulation were also sent to Qassem from other high-ranking Iranian officials including Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf and the head of the Iranian judiciary, Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei, IRNA reported.

Palestinians in Gaza are angry and concerned following the Israeli parliament’s ban of UNRWA, the nearly eight-decade-old UN agency that provides essential services for Palestinian refugees.

Several people displaced from northern and elsewhere in central Gaza to Deir al-Balah told CNN the agency had been a lifeline.

Ghalia Abd Abu Amra, 70, said she had been displaced twice since the start of the war and had been dependent on UNRWA for her survival as a refugee ever since. “Who is going to feed us without UNRWA? Who is going to give us flour and medicine? All Arab countries are just watching us and doing nothing,” she said.

Another displaced Palestinian, Hani Abu Amra, said that without UNRWA “we will suffer gravely.”

“I have a one-year-old son. Since the beginning of the war, I would take him every month to UNRWA to feed him, just like it used to feed me when I was a kid. If UNRWA is gone, who is going to feed us?” he asked.

Their experiences underscore the importance of the agency, which was created to provide services for Palestinians who were forcibly evicted from their homes in 1948.

Saleh Shunnar called the Knesset’s vote an “unjust decision” and said the only way Palestinian refugees could survive without UNRWA would be if they were given a state.

“For 75 years, it’s been providing aid to Palestinian refugees. Netanyahu wants to take it away in a day? By taking this decision, Netanyahu is basically saying there is no Palestinian cause,” he said, angrily. “We want a state. But as long as we are refugees, it is incumbent on the entire world to provide for us through UNRWA,” he added.

Video obtained by CNN shows the chaotic aftermath of Israeli airstrikes that killed at least five people at Gaza City’s most popular food market on Tuesday.

The footage shows large crowds of civilians running through the Al-Sahaba Market in the densely populated Al-Daraj neighborhood after two strikes hit a shop and several stalls around 3:30 p.m. (9:30 a.m. ET).

Large piles of debris and rubble on blood-spattered streets can be seen as vendors scramble to retrieve goods from their stalls and shoppers flee.

At least five people were killed by the strikes, according to medical staff at the Al Ahli Baptist Hospital, where the injured are being treated.

“These people were looking for something to eat and [to] live, and they were killed and injured,” another male bystander says in the footage. CNN has reached out to the Israeli military for comment.

Khader Al-Za’anoun of Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency, contributed reporting to this post.

The United States is “deeply troubled” by Israeli legislation banning UNRWA from operating and will “engage with the Government of Israel in the days ahead about how they plan to implement” the ban, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Tuesday. Miller reiterated that its implementation could result in “consequences under US law and US policy.”

“We’re going to watch and see if there are legal challenges to the law and if there’s any impact by those legal challenges, and then we will make our decisions after looking at all those factors,” he said.

Miller stressed that the legislation “poses risks for millions of Palestinians who rely on UNRWA,” specifically those in Gaza. He said UNWRA undertakes a role that “cannot be filled by anyone else.”

Miller also said the US is “deeply concerned by the loss of civilian life” in an Israeli airstrike in northern Gaza and has asked the Israeli government what happened.

Reminder: An airstrike hit a five-story building in Beit Lahiya early Tuesday, killing at least 93 including 25 children. Miller said the US had asked the Israeli government about the “horrifying” incident, before adding that that the high civilian toll is “another reminder of why we need to see an end of this war.”

“I can’t speak to the total death toll, but there are reports of two dozen children killed in this incident. No doubt a number of them are children who have been fleeing the effects of this war for more than a year now,” he said.

Children reach out with bowls during a food distribution in Gaza City on October 21.

A lack of food and humanitarian aid entering Gaza will likely have “catastrophic consequences” as winter approaches, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Tuesday.

Citing a report from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, the WFP said more than 90% of Gaza’s population will face severe food insecurity by November, and that more could be impacted by famine if conditions don’t improve.

The agency called for the opening of more border crossing points into Gaza, saying the movement of humanitarian aid into the strip is facing “severe” restrictions.

“During the month of October, only 5,000 metric tons of food have been delivered into Gaza, amounting to just 20 percent of basic food assistance for the 1.1 million people who depend on the WFP’s lifesaving support,” it said.

WFP also criticized new Israeli legislation that limits the activities of UNRWA, the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, saying the move would have “devastating consequences” for the most vulnerable.

Israel has long sought to dismantle UNRWA, arguing that some of its employees are affiliated with Hamas, and that its schools teach hate against Israel. UNRWA has repeatedly denied those accusations.

Israel insists it is working to facilitate aid deliveries to civilians in Gaza. COGAT, the Israeli agency that manages the flow of aid into the enclave, said on X that 100 humanitarian aid trucks entered Gaza via the Kerem Shalom and Erez crossings on Monday.

Eight Austrian members of the UN peacekeeping force (UNIFIL) stationed in southern Lebanon have sustained minor injuries after being hit by a rocket likely fired by Hezbollah, UNIFIL said Tuesday.

“This afternoon a rocket hit UNIFIL’s headquarters in Naqoura, setting a vehicle workshop on fire. Peacekeepers were not in bunkers at the time,” the UN force said in a series of posts on its official X account.

According to Austrian defense ministry spokesperson Michael Bauer, the eight injured soldiers are all Austrian nationals and members of a maintenance platoon stationed in Lebanon.

The peacekeepers only sustained “minor injuries” with none of them “seriously injured,” UNIFIL said.

The peacekeeping force has opened an investigation into the incident which it said saw a rocket “fired from north of UNIFIL’s headquarters, likely by Hizbullah or an affiliated group.”

The attack was condemned in “the strongest possible terms” by Austrian defense minister Klaudia Tanner, who urged “all sides to immediately cease hostilities in the vicinity of the UN mission sites.”

This is by no means the first time that the UNIFIL headquarters have come under threat. Two UN peacekeepers were injured at the base after an Israeli tank fired toward an observation tower there on October 10, according to UNIFIL.

Naim Qassem delivers a speech during a rally in Beirut on October 13, 2023.

Hezbollah has named Shiite cleric Naim Qassem as leader, over a month after his predecessor Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike.

Qassem now leads a group once regarded as Iran’s most formidable proxy in its conflict with Israel – a force that, in recent weeks, has been significantly weakened by Israeli strikes, with top leaders killed, thousands of fighters wounded, and missile capabilities degraded. The group now faces an intense Israeli military campaign in southern Lebanon.

Born in 1953 in the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Kila, Qassem 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.

The cleric had long been the group’s second-in-command, serving as deputy chief to the late Nasrallah. He is one of the few leaders of the Iran-backed group to survive Israel’s recent onslaught on the organization, which saw some of its key figures assassinated.

“The organization was left with little choices in terms of the top tier clerics,” Mohanad Hage Ali, deputy director for research at the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, told CNN, adding that Qassem was “a known face” and therefore his appointment was “a no-brainer choice for the organization.”

Lebanon's Hezbollah deputy leader Sheikh Naim Qassem attends a memorial service for Taleb Abdallah, a senior field commander in the group who was killed on June 11 alongside three other Hezbollah fighters in an Israeli strike on the south Lebanon village of Jouaiyya, in Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon June 19, 2024. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

Related article Hezbollah names a new leader to replace Nasrallah. Here’s what we know about him

The director of a hospital in northern Gaza has said that more than 90 bodies have been identified following an airstrike on a multi-story building in Beit Lahiya.

Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, of the Kamal Adwan Hospital, said: “More than 90 martyrs have been identified, and over 45 injuries have been admitted.”

But he added that his hospital could not cope with the influx following the strike that hit an apartment block early Tuesday.

“Kamal Adwan Hospital and its surroundings have become closed off and a disaster zone. … The injured are lying on the floors of Kamal Adwan Hospital. … We urgently appeal to the world to open a safe humanitarian corridor and allow specialized medical teams in all specialties of surgery,” Abu Safiya added.

“There are children with bones protruding from their bodies needing orthopedic surgery. There are brain injuries that require neurosurgeons. We’re talking about critical and complex injuries that need specialized medical teams,” he continued.

CNN received video showing many bodies being loaded onto donkey carts after the strike.

“There is not a single ambulance in northern Gaza. We call on the international community, humanitarian organizations and international bodies to bring in ambulances to help transport the injured who are now lying in the streets,” Abu Safiya said.

“Those who can reach Kamal Adwan Hospital receive first aid, but those who cannot die in the streets. This is our reality – an utterly catastrophic situation in every sense of the word.”

Those involved in negotiations for an elusive ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza believe that the key decision maker for Hamas inside the territory is now Mohammed Sinwar, the brother of slain leader Yahya Sinwar, three sources familiar with the negotiations said.

Mohammed Sinwar is viewed as an equally hardline militant as his brother, according to the sources. Hamas has not made any official announcement about Mohammed Sinwar being in charge.

Two sources said that indirect negotiations are once again underway over a deal that would see a temporary ceasefire in exchange for a limited release of hostages.

The central proposal discussed by the United States and Israel in recent days involves a monthlong ceasefire in exchange for the release of some hostages, the sources said, declining to provide additional details due to the sensitivity of the talks.

The numbers of hostages who would be released under the proposal remains fluid, the sources said. The ceasefire would be shorter than the six-week first phase that was previously being discussed before talks last fell apart, those two sources familiar with the talks said.

Qatari negotiators, who along with Egypt are the main interlocutors with Hamas, are currently taking a limited proposal to Hamas, one of the sources said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to refuse to give any concrete assurances of a pathway to a bigger deal to end the war, they added.

A diplomat involved in the talks said that Hamas wants “confirmation that there is Israeli approval on any plan that is presented to them.”

On Sunday, CIA Director Bill Burns was in Doha to meet with Israel’s Mossad Director David Barnea and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammad bin Abdulrahman al Thani in an attempt to restart the ceasefire discussions following the death of Yahya Sinwar which US officials have argued should be a turning point in the Gaza war.

Hours after Hezbollah chose Naim Qassem as its new leader, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has posted a photograph of him on X with the caption: “Temporary appointment. Not for long.”

The post followed Hezbollah’s announcement that its senior council had elected Qassem as the group’s new secretary-general following Israel’s killing of Hassan Nasrallah last month.

Meanwhile, Israeli troops in southern Lebanon continue operations to dismantle and destroy Hezbollah infrastructure, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

The IDF said Tuesday that an underground command center and a site containing half a ton of explosives had been destroyed.

“The infrastructure was excavated by Hezbollah several years ago at the heart of the civilian population of a village in southern Lebanon. The infrastructure and explosives were neutralized and destroyed,” the IDF said.

Four Israeli soldiers were killed and one severely injured in the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement.

The troops who died were between the ages of 20 and 22, according to the IDF.

Israel began a renewed ground and air campaign in northern Gaza at the beginning of the month. During that offensive, scores of Palestinians have been killed and many more injured. Also on Tuesday, at least 93 people, including 25 children, were killed in an airstrike in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza, according to the health ministry in the strip.

Palestinians transport bodies ahead of their funeral in Beit Lahiya, Gaza, on October 29.

The Ministry of Health in Gaza has said that the number of people killed in an airstrike early Tuesday in Beit Lahiya has risen to 93, adding that 25 children are among the dead.

The ministry had previously said that 77 people were killed or missing in the strike in northern Gaza.

According to local journalists, some bodies are being buried immediately in makeshift graves because official burial places are too dangerous to access. One video showed the preparation of a mass burial site in a local market place.

One man, Abu Mohammad Abu Naser, who said he was in a building that was hit, added that there were about 200 people inside, including children and the elderly. He said he had lost his wife and four children, as well as his father and siblings.

“Everyone is gone,” Abu Naser said. He added that most of the occupants were displaced members of one extended family.

CNN is reaching out to the Israel military for comment on the target of the strike. It began a renewed ground and air campaign in northern Gaza at the beginning of the month.

Members of the Israeli police bomb squad work at the site where one person was killed after a projectile launched from Lebanon slammed into Maalot-Tarshiha, Israel, on October 29.

Around 50 projectiles crossed from southern Lebanon into Israeli territory on Tuesday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said, adding that some were intercepted while others impacted.

The projectiles crossed as sirens sounded in Israel’s Upper and Western Galilee areas between 10:37 and 10:39 a.m. local time (4:37 and 4:39 a.m. ET), the IDF said.

One man was killed in the attack in the northern city of Ma’alot-Tarshiha, Israel’s emergency service Magen David Adom (MDA) reported.

There was “huge destruction” at the scene, an MDA medic said.

This post and headline have been updated with additional information.