Lebanon rocked by deadly walkie-talkie and pager attacks

Our live coverage of the Israel-Hezbollah conflict has moved here.

Former President Donald Trump speaks at an antisemitism awareness event in Washington, DC, on September 19.

Former President Donald Trump called the upcoming US election “the most important” in Israel’s history, saying that the Jewish state would be “eradicated,” “wiped off the face of the earth,” and “cease to exist” if Vice President Kamala Harris won the presidency.

Speaking at an antisemitism event in the US, Trump appeared preoccupied with what he described as ingratitude from Jewish voters, whom he said should be supporting him in greater proportions because of his record on Israel.

Amy Spitalnick, the CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and a former aide to Democratic officials in New York, accused Trump of using “a speech about antisemitism as an opportunity to embrace antisemitic tropes and attack the American Jewish community.”

Read the full story.

The Israeli military continued to strike Hezbollah sites on Thursday, saying it hit approximately 100 rocket launchers.

In addition to the launchers, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement that it struck “additional terrorist infrastructure sites, consisting of approximately 1000 barrels that were ready to be used in the immediate future to fire toward Israeli territory.”

Each rocket launcher consists of a multi-barreled weapon that can fire unguided rockets.

According to Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency, Israel carried out at least 52 strikes in the south of Lebanon between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. local time.

The Iranian-backed Hezbollah group earlier on Thursday said it launched at least 17 attacks on military sites in northern Israel.     

Israel’s military has released instructions for the communities in several areas in northern Israel, instructing civilians to minimize movements in the areas to avoid gatherings and to stay close to shelters.  

People watch a televised speech by the leader of the Hezbollah movement Hassan Nasrallah inside a house in the southern Lebanese village of Zawatar on September 19.

Hezbollah is on the backfoot. The first sign of that was the absence of a public gathering – typically consisting of high-level party officials and supporters – to watch the militant group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah deliver a televised speech on Thursday.

The second sign was that Nasrallah’s address – his first since two waves of attacks detonated thousands of Hezbollah wireless devices earlier this week – was very possibly pre-recorded.

The leader of the powerful militant group has not delivered a speech in person since the start of Lebanon’s last all-out war with Israel in 2006. But he will often make a point of proving that his broadcasts are being carried by a live transmission. In his speech last month, for example, Nasrallah referenced two sonic booms caused by Israeli jets that had broken the sound barrier over Beirut. These happened in the seconds leading up to the start of his address.

Read more analysis on the state of Hezbollah after the deadly attacks

The father of an American hostage still being held in Gaza by Hamas criticized the deadly attacks in Lebanon that caused pagers and walkie-talkies to explode killing dozens, saying that “this pager, Mission Impossible action, it’s like treating agony with more agony.”

Adi Alexander, whose son Edan Alexander is being held, said in an interview on “The Lead with Jake Tapper,” that “this vicious cycle of violence needs to stop.”

Israel has not officially taken credit for the attacks, but CNN has reported that Tuesday’s operation was a joint effort between the IDF and Mossad.

Alexander sat down with Tapper along with other family members of Americans being held by the terror group on Wednesday as the 1-year anniversary of Hamas’s brutal October 7 attack approaches. As it stands the prospects of a deal being agreed that would free the hostages and halt the fighting in Gaza seem remote.

Instead, the conflict appears to be spreading. On Thursday, Israel launched airstrikes against Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon and on Wednesday Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant stated a “new era” of war is beginning.

Read more about what the families said

At least two soldiers have been killed in combat in northern Israel, the Israeli military said on Thursday without elaborating on the circumstances of their deaths.

A third soldier was severely injured and taken to a hospital for treatment, it also said.

Israel and Hezbollah were engaged in cross-border strikes on Thursday.

Israel said it conducted strikes against several Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon, across Israel’s northern border. Hezbollah meanwhile said it launched at least 17 rocket and drone attacks into northern Israel on Thursday. 

The State Department said that the United States was not involved in the walkie-talkie attacks in Lebanon on Wednesday, but wouldn’t say that the US was not aware of it.

National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby on Wednesday also would only say the US was not involved in that attack or the pager attacks a day prior.

CNN reported Wednesday that Israeli officials notified the US that the country was going to carry out an operation in Lebanon on Tuesday but did not give any details about what they were planning, according to three sources familiar with the matter, including in a call between Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant early Tuesday morning.

On Tuesday, following the explosion of pagers in Lebanon in an attack carried out by Israel, Miller said that “the US was not aware of this incident in advance.”

Miller on Thursday doubled down on that statement, saying it was “absolutely accurate.”

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller speaks during a news briefing in Washington, DC in 2023.

The United States does not want to see “any party escalate this conflict,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said after the Israeli defense minister spoke of a “new phase in the war” and the Israel Defense Forces announced strikes against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.

“It continues to be a very dangerous situation,” Miller said, but noted that the risk of escalation has been present since October 7, 2023. 

The US has stressed the need for a diplomatic solution to the situation on Israel’s northern border both publicly and privately with Israeli officials, Miller said, claiming the Israeli government still wants a diplomatic solution.

“You can look at their public statements and judge for yourself where they’re going, but we still do hear them say that they prefer a diplomatic resolution,” he said at a news briefing.

Asked repeatedly if the US is prepared to continue to back Israel if they open another front in the war, Miller said the US is “committed to the defense of Israel against terrorist organizations, that includes Hamas, includes Hezbollah, includes other Iranian proxies.” 

The Israeli military said it struck dozens of Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon on Thursday.

Israel’s Air Force hit 30 launchers and “terrorist infrastructure sites” containing more than 100 launcher barrels. The Israeli aerial attack also hit a weapons storage facility, it said.

The strikes follow Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s vow on Thursday that Israeli military action against Hezbollah in Lebanon will continue.

Hezbollah’s response: The Iran-backed group launched at least 17 attacks into northern Israel on Thursday, according to its statements on Telegram. In a series of statements claiming each attack, the group said it struck Israeli military targets with drones and rockets. At least six of those attacks were launched after 12:30 p.m. ET.

This latest escalation comes after Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah earlier in the day hinted at retaliation against Israel for this week’s deadly pager and walkie-talkie explosions targeting Hezbollah members. 

This post has been updated with statements from Hezbollah.

Rockets fired from southern Lebanon are intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome air defense system over northern Israel, on August 4.

Israel and Hezbollah — a powerful Iran-backed paramilitary group in Lebanon — have been at conflict for decades, but the two have ramped up cross-border attacks on each other since last October when the war in Gaza began.

This week’s events in Lebanon, which saw a pair of deadly attacks using explosives planted in wireless devices carried by Hezbollah fighters, have drawn sharper focus to the long-simmering conflict.

Israel’s defense minister says a “new era” of war is beginning and “the center of gravity is moving north,” referencing the country’s border with Lebanon. Hezbollah’s leader says the wireless device attacks “crossed all the red lines” and has hinted at possible retaliation.

Here’s how we got to this point:

A “supportive front” for Gaza: Hezbollah is part of a larger Iran-led axis across the Middle East spanning Yemen, Syria, Gaza and Iraq that has engaged in increased clashes with Israel and its allies over the past 10 months.

The axis has said they will continue striking Israeli targets as long as the war in Gaza goes on, rebranding themselves as a “supportive front” for Palestinians in the strip, as described by a senior Hezbollah leader.

Killing of key leader: After months of tit-for-tat exchanges, tensions rose further when Israel said it killed Hezbollah’s most senior military commander with a strike on Beirut, Lebanon, in late July.

Israel held the commander, Fu’ad Shukr, responsible for a deadly attack on the Israeli-occupied town of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights, which Hezbollah has denied responsibility for.

In retaliation, Hezbollah launched more than 300 drones and missiles at targets in Israel on August 25. Israel denied any important targets were struck, and no evidence has been made public to contradict that denial.

Displaced residents: The increase in cross-border fighting has forced people from their homes in both northern Israel and southern Lebanon.

On Tuesday, Israel made it a new war objective to return tens of thousands of Israel’s northern residents to their homes near the border. Officials and residents from the northern region have placed increasing pressure on the Israeli government about the need to return.

Meanwhile, more than 100,000 people have been displaced from southern Lebanon, according to the Lebanese health ministry.

Hezbollah’s arsenal: Hezbollah is believed to be the most heavily armed non-state group in the world. Though no match for Israel’s military might, the group’s increasingly sophisticated arsenal has the potential to inflict significant damage.

With that said, Hezbollah has been backed into a corner by Israel’s latest attacks, with its credibility as the most well-equipped, well-trained and highly disciplined of Iran’s proxies now at risk, CNN’s Ben Wedeman writes.