September 24 Israel-Lebanon news

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The death toll from Israel’s airstrikes on Lebanon on Wednesday has risen to 23, according to the country’s Ministry of Public Health.

Most of the deaths were reported in the south of the country: Four were in Joun, three in Ain Qana, two in Tibneen and three in Bint Jbeil.

Another three were killed in the mountain village of Maaysrah north of Beirut. Meanwhile, seven people died in what the ministry described as “consecutive Israeli airstrikes” on towns in the Baalbek-Hermel region in the Beqaa Valley in eastern Lebanon.  

Dozens of people were also injured in the strikes.  

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks during a meeting in Tehran, Iran, on September 25.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei acknowledged that Israel’s killing of Hezbollah leaders is “definitely a loss” for the group — but won’t be enough to destroy it, state-run IRNA news agency reported on Wednesday. 

Khamenei held the United States responsible for Israel’s attacks in Lebanon, saying Washington “pretends that it isn’t involved” but needs Israel to win the war ahead of elections this year.  

Relatives of Palestinian Hussam Al-ejla, who was killed in an Israeli strike, grieve before his funeral, at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al-Balah, Gaza, on September 25.

The death toll from Israel’s war in Gaza has risen to 41,495, with injuries at 96,006 as of Wednesday, the Palestinian health ministry said. 

Twenty-eight people were killed and 85 injured in four major attacks in 24 hours, it said without adding locations. A number of victims remain under the rubble and ambulances and civil defense crews are unable to reach them.

Separately, on Wednesday, in what is believed to be a first, Palestinian authorities in Gaza refused to accept 88 unidentified bodies when they arrived at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.

Remember: Throughout the war in Gaza, Israeli authorities have regularly returned corpses to Gaza, but the bodies are almost always unidentified, making it extremely difficult to return them to their families.

Israel’s military has throughout the conflict exhumed bodies in Gaza and brought them to Israel to confirm they are not hostages before returning them.

Their return in shipping containers is usually a macabre affair. Palestinians crowd the containers in the hope that their missing loved ones’ remains are among the returns. CNN has in the past reported on the transfers.

CNN has asked the Israel Defense Forces about Wednesday’s transfer. It is unclear where the bodies are now.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said it was not involved in the transfer, but said “all families have the right to receive news about their loved ones and bury them respectfully.”

A cloud of smoke erupts during Israeli air strikes on a village south of Tyre, Lebanon, on September 25.

At least 10 people were killed in Lebanon on Wednesday, officials said, as the Israeli military launched “extensive strikes” on Hezbollah in the south and east of the country.  

Three people were killed and 13 injured in the town of Ain Qana in southern Lebanon, Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health said. At least three others were killed and nine injured after a strike on Al-Maaysra in Keserwan, and four more were killed and seven injured in Joun. 

In a post around 11 a.m. local time, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it was “conducting extensive strikes in southern Lebanon and the Beqaa area.” The IDF told CNN it had struck more than 100 targets in Lebanon on Wednesday so far.  

Multiple Israeli airstrikes hit southern and eastern Lebanon on Wednesday morning, including towns and villages near Nabatiyeh in the south and in the Beqaa Valley in the east, according to the Lebanese state news agency NNA. The towns of Nabi Sheet, Tallet Jabal Al-Malah, and Al-Muaisira were subjected to a “wide-scale aerial assault,” NNA reported.

The IDF later posted an update that said around 40 projectiles had crossed from Lebanon into Israel on Wednesday morning.  

Several were intercepted but one hit an assisted-living facility near the northern Israeli city of Safed, the IDF said. “No injuries were reported,” it added.  

Israel and Hezbollah have traded waves of strikes since Israeli attacks targeting the militant group killed more than 500 people on Monday, the deadliest day in Lebanon in more than two decades. 

Protests against Israel’s war in Gaza and military offensive in Lebanon took place across the United States on Tuesday evening.

Here are some photos from the scenes:

Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters are gathered outside of a federal building to protest Israeli attacks on Lebanon and Gaza, in San Francisco, California, on Tuesday.

Demonstrators gather during a protest against Israel's attacks on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon near the White House in Washington DC on Tuesday.

A protester waves a Lebanese flag as demonstrators gather to protest against the war on Gaza and Israeli military strikes on Lebanon in front of the Los Angeles Federal Building on Tuesday.

People gather to protest the escalation of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, in New York City, on Tuesday.

The foreign ministers of Jordan, Egypt and Iraq have “condemned the Israeli aggression on Lebanon” in a joint statement and warned that Israel is pushing the region toward an “all-out war.”

The ministers met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York yesterday, where they urged the international community and the Security Council to “assume their relevant responsibilities to stop the war.”   

Stopping the “ongoing dangerous escalation” in the Middle East “begins with stopping the Israeli aggression on Gaza,” the officials said.

Some background: Israel has vowed to speed up its military offensives against Hezbollah without reprieve as it executes a new war objective: to return tens of thousands of residents evacuated from their homes in the north due to cross-border attacks.  

With the Biden administration pausing work on ceasefire negotiations to end the war in Gaza, Israel’s fresh assaults on Hezbollah in Lebanon this week are adding a layer of complication, making prospects for a near-term deal all the more difficult – if not impossible – at least while the bombs are falling.

In recent days, senior US officials had largely stopped making a vigorous push on the ceasefire negotiations, sources told CNN, having determined there is currently no political will on either side – Hamas or Israel’s – to end the conflict.

Even as President Joe Biden and top aides refuse to abandon the effort entirely, a senior Democrat close to the White House summed up the sentiment among some officials involved in those deliberations this way:

This person also cited a line from former Secretary of State James Baker, who in 1990 said in a message directed at the Israeli government about a Middle East peace deal: “When you’re serious about this, call us.”

Another quote circulating among American officials as they assess the stalled talks is George Mitchell’s description of the process that eventually brought about the Good Friday agreement in Northern Ireland: “We had 700 days of failure and one day of success.”

Ending the Gaza conflict is Biden’s top foreign policy goal as he nears the end of his one-term presidency, but the stalled ceasefire talks are threatening to sink the president’s other priorities in the Middle East.

Read the full story.

Rockets fired from southern Lebanon are intercepted by missiles of Israel's Iron Dome air defence system over Haifa in northern Israel on September 25.

Israel’s military said it had detected about five “projectiles” south of Haifa launched from Lebanon, as Israel and Hezbollah trade waves of strikes. 

The military said several of the projectiles had been intercepted while “a projectile fall” had also been identified in the area. 

The areas covered by warnings were located along Israel’s Mediterranean coast between the cities of Haifa and Tel Aviv. 

The Israeli military said it had struck a rocket launcher in southern Lebanon from which the “numerous projectiles” were fired at Wadi Ara. 

Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference in Jerusalem, on September 4.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has delayed his trip to New York for the United Nations General Assembly debate due to the ongoing fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.

Netanyahu was set to fly today and speak tomorrow, but his office said he would now fly to New York on Thursday and return Saturday. He is expected to speak at the UN on Friday. 

US President Joe Biden only briefly mentioned the widening of fighting in the Middle East in his speech to the UN General Assembly yesterday, which came after cross-border strikes killed hundreds. While acknowledging “the situation has escalated,” Biden said, “a diplomatic solution is still possible.”

A firefighter works at the site of an Israeli strike, in Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, on September 24.

A Hezbollah missile intercepted near Israel’s economic center Tel Aviv is the first fired by the militant group to reach close to the city, the Israeli military said. 

Hezbollah said it had targeted the headquarters of Israel’s intelligence service Mossad, which it blames for attacks targeting its members, including the explosions of thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies last week.

Israel and Hezbollah have traded waves of strikes since Israeli attacks targeting the militant group killed more than 500 people on Monday, the deadliest day in Lebanon in more than two decades.

Here’s what to know: 

The Hezbollah missile intercepted Wednesday near Tel Aviv marks the first time a missile fired by the militant group has reached close to the city, the Israeli military said, marking a new escalatory step in the conflict between the two sides. 

Shoshani described the missile as “heavy” and “long range.”

It is believed to be the first ballistic missile to ever be launched by Hezbollah toward Israel. 

Some background: The Iran-backed militant group’s chief, Hassan Nasrallah, had repeatedly said that any Israeli strike on the Lebanese capital would prompt a Hezbollah attack on Tel Aviv, Israel’s economic center. 

No missiles fired by Hezbollah toward Israel have reached as far south as Tel Aviv during the latest escalation of tensions, nor in the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah. 

There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries after the interception.  

Hezbollah said it launched the Qadr 1 surface-to-surface ballistic missile “in support of our steadfast Palestinian people in Gaza” and in “defense of Lebanon and its people.”   

People sit with their belongings in the back of a truck as they arrive in the coastal town of Naameh, south of Lebanon's capital Beirut on September 24.

The Israeli military has warned displaced residents of southern Lebanon not to return to their homes as it targets militant group Hezbollah in waves of strikes. 

Residents of villages in southern Lebanon began fleeing on Monday after the Israel Defense Forces warned civilians to leave areas in which Hezbollah operates, such as those used to store weapons. 

“To all residents of Lebanese villages who evacuated their homes for their own safety due to the presence of weapons or elements of the terrorist Hezbollah, IDF raids continue,” The Israel Defense Forces Arabic-language spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, wrote on X. 

An estimated half a million people have been displaced in Lebanon, the country’s foreign minister said Tuesday, a day after Israeli strikes killed more than 500 people across the country.

The United Nations refugee agency warned on Tuesday that the number of displaced people in Lebanon is only set to rise. UNHCR spokesperson Matthew Saltmarsh described the situation in the country as “extremely alarming” and “very chaotic.”   

Last week, Israel made the safe return of residents to northern Israel a war goal following nearly a year of cross-border exchanges of fire with Hezbollah. 

Hezbollah on Wednesday said it launched a ballistic missile toward the headquarters of Israel’s intelligence service Mossad near Tel Aviv, shortly after the Israeli military said it intercepted the attack in what is a rare assault far from the frontlines. 

The militant group said it launched a Qadr 1 ballistic missile targeting the Mossad headquarters in the suburbs of Tel Aviv “in support of our steadfast Palestinian people in Gaza” and in “defense of Lebanon and its people.” 

The Israeli military said earlier the missile was intercepted near Tel Aviv and that its air force struck the launcher from which it was fired in the area of Nafakhiyeh in Lebanon. 

CNN’s Nic Robertson.

Speaking from Tel Aviv, CNN’s International Diplomatic Editor Nic Robertson said Israel’s interception of a missile fired from Lebanon near the city is a “very rare occurrence” and may be a first in the latest phase of escalations. 

People in Tel Aviv and Netanya, a central city north of the economic center, woke up to sirens on Wednesday, Robertson said, adding that there have been no reports of casualties or any damage on the ground.

The missile launch aimed at Tel Aviv comes after two days of multiple strikes between the Israeli military and militant group Hezbollah, but those attacks mainly happened near the Israel-Lebanon border, Robertson said.

Israel's defense system intercepts a missile fired from Lebanon as seen from Tel Aviv, Israel, September 25.

A missile fired from Lebanon was intercepted near Israel’s economic center Tel Aviv on Wednesday, Israel’s military said, in a rare attack far from the front lines of the conflict with Hezbollah. 

There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.  

Since the outbreak of conflict between Israel and Hamas last October, Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah has fired hundreds of rockets and drones from Lebanon targeting northern Israel.  

The intercept comes days after Israeli strikes targeting Hezbollah killed more than 500 people across Lebanon. Monday was the deadliest day in Lebanon in nearly two decades. 

Hezbollah has not yet commented on the attempted attack on Tel Aviv.  

Flights at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion international airport continued as usual, the airport’s spokesperson said. 

Sirens were heard Wednesday in the central city of Netanya for the first time since October 7, according to Israeli authorities. 

This post has been updated with more information.

Dr Abu-Sittah speaks during an interview with CNN.

The pattern of injuries among thousands wounded in Lebanon from Israeli attacks is similar to what British-Palestinian doctor Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah saw while working in Gaza. 

Now working at the American University of Beirut Medical Center, Abu-Sittah said there were difficulties getting those wounded to hospital for treatment as roads were congested with people trying to flee from Israeli strikes.

Dr Abu-Sittah also said the healthcare system is “very, very fragile” as it cannot cope with the influx of over 2,000 injuries in two days.

Many children remain “missing under rubble” after Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon, the UN children’s agency warned, as the country suffered its deadliest day since 2006.  

Lebanon's Foreign Affairs Minister Abdallah Bou Habib attends a joint press conference at the ministry's headquarters in Beirut on September 12.

Lebanon’s foreign minister said he was disappointed with US President Joe Biden’s remarks at the United Nations on the escalating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, adding he believes the United States “is the only country that can really make a difference” in the region.

Biden only briefly mentioned the widening of fighting in the Middle East in his final speech to the UN General Assembly, which came as cross-border strikes killed hundreds. 

Referring to the war in Gaza and fears of a wider regional conflict, Bou Habib said Israel’s government “cannot survive except with wars,” and he also criticized the killing of civilians in Lebanon.

An estimated half a million people have been displaced in Lebanon, Bou Habib added. 

Last week, Israel made the safe return of residents to northern Israel a war goal following nearly a year of cross-border exchanges of fire with Hezbollah.

Biden’s comments: “Too many on each side of the Israeli-Lebanon border remain displaced,” he said. “Full-scale war is not in anyone’s interest.”

While acknowledging “the situation has escalated,” he said: “a diplomatic solution is still possible.”

Hezbollah on Tuesday said it targeted a naval base on Israel’s northern Mediterranean coast that houses an elite Israeli naval commando unit. 

The Shayetet 13 unit that operates out of the Atlit naval base carries out “strategic sabotage activity across enemy lines, including damaging vital structures during war time and the enemy’s seaports,” according to the Israeli military. 

Earlier Tuesday, the Israel Defense Forces said sirens were heard in the area of Atlit, south of the city of Haifa. “No injuries were reported,” the IDF said. It did not say whether the naval base was targeted.  

Hezbollah has been trading fire with Israel since Monday, when Israel launched strikes across Lebanon that killed more than 500 people, including women and children.The Israeli military says it is targeting the Iran-backed militant group.  

Earlier Tuesday, the IDF also said it carried out another round of “extensive strikes” on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon. 

Hezbollah previously said it fired multiple rocket barrages into northern Israel overnight through Tuesday, saying it struck the Ramat David Airbase, Megiddo Airfield and the Amos base, all located in the vicinity of the town of Afula, northern Israel. 

Hezbollah has confirmed the death of one of its senior commanders, Ibrahim Qubaisi.  

The militant group said in a statement Tuesday he had been “martyred on the road to Jerusalem,” a reference to those fighting to support people in Gaza, but did not elaborate.  

It also said he was also known as “Abu Musa” and was born in Zebdine, in southern Lebanon, in 1962. 

Earlier, the Israeli military had said Qubaisi was killed in an airstrike along with two other commanders in south Beirut. Qubaisi commanded various missile units of Hezbollah, according to the Israel Defense Forces.