Live updates (closed)
The Times of Israel liveblogged Saturday’s events as they happened.
Medics: Man in his 60s lightly injured by shrapnel following rocket interception over Lower Galilee
The Magen David Adom ambulance service says that a man in his 60s suffered very minor injuries after being scratched by shrapnel following an interception over the Lower Galilee.
He is being treated at the scene and is listed in good condition, MDA says.
IDF: Some 10 rockets launched from Lebanon deep into northern Israel; no immediate reports of injuries
According to the IDF, some 10 rockets were launched from Lebanon at areas deep in northern Israel a short while ago.
There have been no immediate reports of injuries in the attack, which set off sirens in Afula, Yokneam, Nazareth, and many other communities.
Shrapnel from an intercepted rocket reportedly landed in the Nazareth area.
The remains of a Hezbollah rocket that was intercepted, reportedly from the Nazareth area. pic.twitter.com/PradZaKNjR
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) September 21, 2024
US State Department urges citizens to leave Lebanon while commercial flights remain available
People inspect the site of an Israeli strike in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon, in which Hezbollah military commander Ibrahim Aqil was killed, September 20, 2024. (Reuters / Mohamed Azakir)
WASHINGTON – The US State Department has urged Americans in Lebanon to leave the country while commercial options remain available, as the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah flares.
“Due to the unpredictable nature of ongoing conflict between Hezbollah and Israel and recent explosions throughout Lebanon, including Beirut, the US Embassy urges US citizens to depart Lebanon while commercial options still remain available,” the State Department says in an updated advisory.
“At this time, commercial flights are available, but at reduced capacity. If the security situation worsens, commercial options to depart may become unavailable,” the statement adds.
In late July, the US raised its travel advisory for Lebanon to its highest “do not travel” classification, after Israel killed a top Hezbollah commander in a strike on southern Beirut.
Yesterday, Israel struck southern Beirut again, this time assassinating the head of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force and several other commanders.
The US State Department reiterates that Americans should “immediately” leave southern Lebanon, as well as areas near the Syrian border and refugee settlements.
Family of Carmel Gat: ‘Victory won’t be measured by how many terrorists we eliminate, but by how many hostages we bring home’
Carmel Gat was taken captive by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023 from her parents' home in Kibbutz Be'eri. She was murdered by her Hamas captors in a Gaza tunnel in late August 2024. (Courtesy)
In a statement after the IDF announced tonight that two terrorists who likely murdered six Israeli hostages in a tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip last month were killed by Israeli troops, the family of one of the six, Carmel Gat, says, “Israel’s victory will not be measured by how many terrorists we eliminate, but by how many hostages we bring home.”
The family thanks the IDF soldiers for “risking their lives in impossible conditions for 11 months,” and adds: “It would have made no difference to Carmel if those who murdered her, or murdered her mother [Kinneret at Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7], are alive or dead. She would have wanted to know that the hostages returned home alive.”
“There is no comfort in revenge,” the family adds. “The answer to Carmel’s murder is not revenge against the murderers. The answer to death is not more death; it is life.
“The only response to the murder of Carmel must be a deal that brings the hostages home, and prevents regional escalation before it is too late,” the family adds. “That’s the difference between us and our enemies. They sanctify death. We sanctify life.”
Rocket sirens sounding across northern Israel in what appears to be a major attack from Lebanon
Incoming rocket sirens are sounding across northern Israel, in what appears to be a major attack from Lebanon.
The alerts are activated in the cities of Afula, Yokneam, Nazareth, and many other communities.
🔴 Rocket Alert [01:09:53] (76):
• HaCarmel — Yearot HaCarmel, Daliyat al-Karmel, Damon Priosn, Kishon Prison, Isfiya, Givat Wolfson
• HaMifratz — Kfar Hassidim, Yagur, Rechasim
• תחנת רכבת כפר ברוך
• Center Galilee — Yodfat, Kfar Manda
Population: 570,000 pic.twitter.com/MTRRRZqCDs— ILRedAlert (@ILRedAlert) September 21, 2024
Iron Dome interceptor missiles can be seen over northern Israel.
Iron Dome interceptor missiles are seen over northern Israel. pic.twitter.com/8Owl7KtCFS
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) September 21, 2024
IDF: Jets struck over 100 targets in south Lebanon in last few hours, including rocket launchers
Israeli fighter jets in the last few hours struck some 110 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, including rocket launchers, the IDF says.
The latest strikes come after several waves of attacks on Hezbollah sites in Lebanon earlier today.
According to the IDF, the earlier strikes hit some 290 Hezbollah targets, including rocket launchers and other facilities.
In all, thousands of rocket launcher barrels were hit in the strikes, the IDF says.
It publishes footage of the strikes.
The military vows to continue striking Hezbollah to “dismantle and degrade” Hezbollah’s capabilities.
מטוסי קרב של חיל-האוויר, בהכוונת אמ"ן ופיקוד הצפון, תקפו כ-290 מטרות, בהם משגרים ואלפי קנים, לצד תשתיות צבאיות נוספות במספר מרחבים בדרום לבנון משעות אחר הצהריים.
במהלך השעות האחרונות, צה"ל תקף ברצף תקיפות נוסף כ-110 מטרות של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה, בהם משגרים ותשתיות צבאיות במספר… pic.twitter.com/98OnOndIrE
— Israeli Air Force (@IAFsite) September 21, 2024
IDF cancels planned draft day scheduled for today, amid escalating fighting with Hezbollah
The IDF says it has canceled a planned draft day scheduled for today, amid escalating fighting with Hezbollah.
Recruits who were supposed to draft on Sunday will be given a new date at a later time.
Additionally, the military says its induction centers in Haifa and Tiberias will not be accepting draftees for initial screening processes.
The move comes following a new assessment held in the IDF a few hours ago.
Report: Ben Gvir, Smotritch, invited to join tonight’s security consultations with Netanyahu, top defense brass
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir (R) with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich (L) at a 'Victory Conference' calling for renewed Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip, at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem, January 28, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Far-right ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich were reportedly invited to join security consultations Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is holding tonight with ministers and top defense officials as the country braces for the possibility of a large-scale assault from Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The meeting comes hours after the Israel Defense Forces carried out a wave of airstrikes against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon in the afternoon and evening and after officials issued new restrictions on residents of the Haifa area and northward.
While Ben Gvir and Smotrich are not usually invited to such security consultations, the Ynet News site report includes a reaction from Netanyahu’s office denying that the invitations are out of the ordinary: “As we have been saying all along – there is no new limited security forum. Various ministers are invited to consultations as relevant.”
Netanyahu disbanded the war cabinet, a small forum created on October 11 to manage the campaigns against Hamas and Hezbollah, after National Unity leader Benny Gantz bolted the coalition in June.
Former IDF chief joins protesters in blocking road near PM’s Caesarea home, is removed by cops
Video shows police picking up and removing former IDF chief of staff Dan Halutz from among a group of protesters sitting on a road near Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s home in Caesarea.
שוטרים מפנים בכוח את רא"ל (מיל.) דן חלוץ מחסימת הכביש בקיסריה.
בני משי צילם pic.twitter.com/Sf8UOjWKKQ— לירי בורק שביט (@lirishavit) September 21, 2024
Meanwhile, demonstrators — including Labor MK Gilad Kariv — surround a police cruiser in Tel Aviv and block it from moving after officers arrest a nephew of slain hostage Avraham Munder.
המשטרה עצרה בהפגנה בתל אביב את שחר מור זהירו, אחיינו של אברהם מונדר שגופתו חולצה מעזה. המפגינים חסמו בגופם את הרכב אליו הוכנס@OferHalfonKan pic.twitter.com/SUpNdVombe
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) September 21, 2024
Report: Hezbollah pagers were detonated individually; attackers knew who and where the target was
A video shows a man, left, just before he was injured by an explosion in a market in Beirut on September 17, 2024, as pagers used by Hezbollah exploded across Lebanon. (Screen capture: X)
Each of the pagers that exploded on their Hezbollah owners across Lebanon on Tuesday, injuring thousands of the terror group’s operatives, was individually detonated, with the attackers knowing who was being targeted, where he was, and whether others were in close proximity, Channel 12 claims.
In a lengthy report quoting Israeli and foreign sources, the TV channel says those behind the attack were determined to ensure that only the person carrying the pager would be hurt by the blast.
“Each pager had its own arrangements. That’s how it was possible to control who was hit and who wasn’t,” it quotes an unnamed foreign security source saying.
The report says: “They knew who he was with and where he was, so that the vegetable seller in the supermarket would not be hurt” when a pager exploded on a man alongside him. This is a reference to footage from the pager explosions in which a man is apparently blown up by his pager next to a fruit and vegetable stand.
A video circulating on social media purports to show the moment that a pager used by a Hezbollah operative exploded in Lebanon. According to Lebanese media, dozens were injured after Israel allegedly hacked the devices and detonated them. https://t.co/1RMiF8wqAA pic.twitter.com/b07wTuRQ0N
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) September 17, 2024
The TV report adds several other new details to what has been uncovered so far regarding the unprecedented attack, which Hezbollah has blamed on Israel and Israel has not officially confirmed.
It quotes an unnamed foreign security saying “tens of thousands of pagers” were produced, and manufactured with the knowledge that the client would check them carefully. Therefore, the pagers had to work properly and betray no indication that they had been primed with explosives. Their appearance and weight had to be unchanged.
Interviewed in the report, Ronen Bergman, an investigative reporter for The New York Times and Yedioth Ahronoth, says the whole scheme was dreamed up by a brilliant female intelligence operative, aged less than 30, somewhere in the Middle East.
Whoever was responsible, the report says, decided to set up a factory to build the devices from scratch — so that “it won’t be a device that we will tamper with; it will be a device that we will produce.” The New York Times came to the same conclusion in a report on Thursday.
The ability to supply the device to Hezbollah was helped by the fact that the terror group cannot make purchases on the open market, because of suppliers’ fears of US sanctions, and therefore must routinely work with intermediary suppliers.
Channel 12’s report says that when, on October 10, the IDF and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant had pressed for Israel to attack Hezbollah, rather than focus initially on Hamas after its October 7 invasion and massacre, “it is reasonable to assume” that buttons detonating these devices would have been pressed, and very heavy air strikes on Hezbollah would have followed.
In the event, the IDF focused first on Gaza, and Hezbollah has been pounding northern Israel ever since.
The report, which was approved by the Israeli military censor, says Hezbollah bought more pagers after its military chief Fuad Shukr was killed in a targeted IDF strike in Beirut in July, and thereafter used pagers even more widely because of its growing wariness about using mobile phones. Hezbollah, the report says, long assumed that Israel would be a threat to its cellphone communications in the event of a major escalation, and thus widely integrated the use of pagers.
While Channel 12 repeats the widely reported assessment that the pagers were detonated this week because of a fear that the Trojan Horse devices were about to be exposed by Hezbollah, it also quotes a foreign security source saying this was not the case, and that Israel decided it needed to step up its actions against Hezbollah.
Amos Yadlin, a former IDF intelligence chief, says more broadly that Israel’s goal is to cause Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah to realize that his attacks on the north “are costing him more than he’s gaining,” including in terms of support within Lebanon.
The report says it was regarded as “preferable” that the large number of Hezbollah fighters whose devices exploded be badly injured rather than killed, in part because of the immense strain this placed on health services in Lebanon, and by extension the raised domestic pressure on Hezbollah.
A foreign security source tells Channel 12 that the detonating pagers operation is by no means considered a strategic attack, and that Israel has much more dramatic capabilities.
The source says Israel has spent years developing these far more extensive capabilities for use against Hezbollah and Iran, but not as regards to Hamas — apparently because it underestimated the danger posed by Hamas — and that this partly explains the failure to prevent the October 7 catastrophe. The capabilities used thus far in Lebanon are “relatively low-level,” the source says.
Eyal Hulata, a former National Security Adviser, tells Channel 12 after the report airs that thousands of Israelis have been working for years to create capabilities to ensure security for Israel. “There are more capabilities like these,” he says, referencing the recent events in Lebanon. Given the collapse of public faith in the security establishment after the October 7 failure, it is important for Israelis to know this, says Hulata, who is also a former head of the Mossad’s technological branch.
Hezbollah announces operative killed in Israeli strike
The Hezbollah terror group announces the death of a member killed “on the road to Jerusalem,” its term for operatives slain in Israeli attacks.
He is named as Muhammad Ubaid, from the Baalbek District village of al-Ansar.
His death brings the terror group’s death toll during the ongoing fighting with Israel since October to at least 502.
The circumstances of his death are not published by Hezbollah.
Only northern schools with sufficient shelter space to hold in-person classes tomorrow
Schools in the north will hold classes tomorrow only if the locations have sufficient protected areas for students and staff to shelter, the Education Ministry announces.
Otherwise, classes are to be held remotely.
Shuttles to and from schools are to operate normally, but trips and other sponsored activities taking place off of school grounds will be canceled.
Schools in the rest of the country will function as usual. The security situation will be again assessed tomorrow evening, the ministry says.
Traffic resumes on Tel Aviv’s Begin Road as protesters march home
The protest for the return of the hostages has wrapped at Tel Aviv’s Begin Road, as the surrounding streets are filled with flag-waving marchers heading home.
Traffic is back on the street, with the last group of protestors standing to the side as busses and cars resume using the road.
Gallant meets with IDF chief, other top defense officials as fighting with Hezbollah intensifies
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant holds security consultations with IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi and other senior defense officials on September 21, 2024. (Ariel Hermoni/Defense Ministry)
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant is holding an assessment with IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi and other top defense officials, his office says.
The meeting comes as fighting escalates between Israel and the Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon.
Hostage’s father pleads for forgiveness from his daughter, as large crowds rally for a deal
Crowds demonstrate on Begin Street in Tel Aviv on September 21, 2024, in support of a hostage-ceasefire deal to enable the release of hostages held captive by Hamas in Gaza since October 7, 2023. (Eitan Slonim / Hostage Families Forum)
Thousands of Israelis are demonstrating in Tel Aviv, and other protests are being held in multiple locations nationwide, in support of a hostage-ceasefire deal to enable the release of hostages held captive by Hamas in Gaza since October 7, 2023.
Organizers claim there are hundreds of thousands at the Tel Aviv protests and tens of thousands more nationwide. There are no official figures on the turnout.
“Despite the tensions in the north, hundreds of thousands are taking part” in the Tel Aviv demonstrations, the Hostage Families Forum says. “The people of Israel are voting with their feet in favor of the return of the hostages by means of a deal — the living hostages to rehabilitation and the dead to an appropriate burial in their land.”
Eli Elbag, whose daughter Liri is held hostage by Hamas, speaks at a demonstration in Tel Aviv on September 21, 2024, in support of a hostage-ceasefire deal. (Paulina Patimer / Hostage Families Forum)
Eli Elbag, whose daughter Liri is held hostage, tells the Tel Aviv rally that far-right ministers in the coalition are preventing a deal. “It’s clear to us all that Hamas is to blame, but throughout the year there were opportunities for a deal, and you [the government] didn’t take them.”
He pleads with all 120 Knesset members to raise their voices in support of a deal.
Crowds demonstrate on Begin Street in Tel Aviv on September 21, 2024, in support of a hostage-ceasefire deal to enable the release of hostages held captive by Hamas in Gaza since October 7, 2023. (Hostage Families Forum)
He says he and the other families have never forgotten all those who were murdered by Hamas on October 7, “or the soldiers who have been fighting every day, every hour, for a year.”
Elbag denounces the government for only now tackling the Hezbollah attacks in the north: “A year has passed, and now you remember to deal with the north? Where have you been for a year, while the north has burned? he asks. “They’ve been battered by missiles every day.”
Elbag asks for his daughter’s forgiveness and that of the other hostages “that you are suffering in the tunnels. On Yom Kippur [next month], the entire nation will ask for your forgiveness.”
The Hostages Families Forum, meanwhile, issues a statement hailing MK Gideon Sa’ar’s announcement that he won’t, after all, accept Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus offer to become defense minister in place of Yoav Gallant.
Sa’ar, the statement says, “is among the opponents of the sacred obligation for a deal to return the hostages.” A man like Sa’ar, it says, “cannot serve as Israel’s defense minister and cannot lead the Israel Defense Forces, whose entire ethos is based on mutual obligation and the imperative to leave nobody behind.”
Protesters in Netanya urge a hostage-ceasefire deal, September 21, 2024. (Adar Eyal / Hostage Families Forum)
Large protests are also being held outside Netanyahu’s home in Caesarea, and in Jerusalem, Netanya and numerous other locations.
Protesters sit on a road in Caesarea in a protest demanding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sign a deal to bring the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza back home, and calling for his removal as prime minister. (Amos Gil / Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)
Relatives of hostages have said in recent days that they are increasingly pessimistic about the prospects for a deal, in part because of the shift in the focus of the war to the north, with no substantive contacts currently between Israeli negotiators and the mediators of a deal. Families of hostages with dual Israeli-American citizenship who held talks with US officials in recent days have also said that the Americans are not optimistic, although the Biden Administration is still trying to push for a deal.
Channel 12 news tonight says that the IDF’s point man in the negotiations told relatives of hostages in recent days: “We are in the midst of the final efforts to revive the deal.”
Netanyahu to hold security talks with ministers and defense brass later tonight
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to hold security consultations later tonight with ministers and top defense officials, according to Hebrew media reports.
While turning down defense portfolio, Sa’ar doesn’t rule out joining government in another role
New Hope MK Gideon Sa'ar addresses an Israel Bar Association conference in Tel Aviv, September 3, 2024. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)
Despite announcing he will not take up the post of defense minister in light of the recent escalation in the north, New Hope chairman Gideon Sa’ar defends his qualifications to serve in the role.
In a lengthy statement, the hawkish opposition politician argues that he has a “deep familiarity with Israel’s national security challenges” based on his time serving in the security cabinet and Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, and that he remains “convinced of my ability to successfully fulfill the role of minister of defense, as I have excelled in all my ministerial roles.”
Asserting that his security positions have been vindicated by developments, Sa’ar says that Israel requires “an up-to-date security concept” and a rebuilding of the armed forces to allow it to meet future challenges and insists that a veteran of the security establishment, “contaminated with failed concepts” cannot be the person to enact the necessary changes to the military — without actually naming Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
Citing the conclusions of the Winograd Commission, which probed the failure of the Second Lebanon War, Sa’ar says that it is advantageous to have an outsider “deep knowledge of political-security issues and experience as a member of the government” as defense minister.
Arguing that he has such experience, Sa’ar links a number of Israel’s historic security achievements to civilian defense ministers while contending that “the greatest military and strategic disasters in the history of the State of Israel occurred during the time of security ministers who were former IDF.”
These include “the October 7 massacre, the Yom Kippur War, the reckless unilateral withdrawals from Gaza and Lebanon, [the] Oslo Accords. [All] events which resulted in the greatest bloodshed in Israel’s history,” he says.
Despite turning down what he says was Netanyahu’s offer to replace Gallant, Sa’ar doesn’t rule out joining the government in another capacity while vowing to continue promoting his security vision and expressing hope that the recent escalation in the north “will rise another level to the level of damage to Hezbollah’s strategic capabilities.”
IDF says it killed 2 Hamas terrorists who likely murdered the 6 Israeli hostages
This combination of six undated photos shows hostages, from top left, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Ori Danino, Eden Yerushalmi; from bottom left, Almog Sarusi, Alexander Lobanov, and Carmel Gat. (The Hostages Families Forum via AP)
IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari says the two terrorists who likely murdered hostages Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Ori Danino, Alex Lobanov, Carmel Gat, and Almog Sarusi in a tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip were killed by Israeli forces.
“A day after the murder of the hostages, forces with the 162nd Division identified two terrorists emerging from a nearby tunnel in the Tel Sultan area, and killed them in an exchange of fire,” Hagari says in a press conference.
“After we investigated the findings from the tunnel and equipment from the terrorists, we found DNA and several items that belonged to the terrorists that we killed,” he says.
Hagari says that the findings reveal that the two terrorists were inside the tunnel where the six hostages were murdered, during the murder.
“We are checking their involvement in the murder,” he adds.
Two unnamed Hamas terrorists who are believed to have murdered six Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip, are seen in a handout image released by the IDF on September 21, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)
New restrictions imposed on Haifa, areas north of it as Israel braces for Hezbollah response
A general view shows a refinery installation in Haifa on August 13, 2024. (Menahem Kahana / AFP)
IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari says the Home Front Command is issuing new restrictions on civilians from the Haifa area and northward, as fighting escalates in northern Israel.
He says educational activities and workplaces can operate only if an adequate shelter is nearby and can be reached in time.
There are also restrictions on gatherings in the same area: Up to 30 people outdoors and 300 people indoors.
The changes come as the IDF carries out widespread airstrikes against Hezbollah sites and rocket launchers in southern Lebanon this evening.
Hagari says that the strikes come after the military identified Hezbollah preparations to launch rockets at Israel.
He says that today, more than 400 Hezbollah rocket launchers have been struck.
Hagari says there may be additional changes to the Home Front Command guidelines depending on the developments, warning that rockets could be launched at Israel in the coming hours.
“If there are any further changes, overnight or tomorrow, we will update immediately. It is possible that in the immediate time frame, rockets and other threats may be launched at Israel. We ask of you to follow the Home Front Command guidelines,” he says.
Gideon Sa’ar says he won’t take up offer to replace Defense Minister Gallant
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks with Gideon Sa'ar at a Likud party meeting in the Knesset, March 2, 2009. (Miriam Alster / FLASH90)
MK Gideon Sa’ar announces he will not take up the post of defense minister, which he says for the first time was offered to him by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Sa’ar, head of the New Hope party and a former Likud MK, says it is inappropriate that alongside the current defense minister, Yoav Gallant, there be a defense minister “on the shelf,” waiting to take over.
“I will always strengthen Israel,” he says, and will “never be among those who weaken it.”
Sa’ar says he had agreed to take the job “about a week ago,” but that he has changed his mind in light of the latest developments on the northern border.
Reports that Netanyahu was planning to boot Gallant — who he briefly fired in March 2023 and with whom he has a fraught relationship — and install Sa’ar have prompted a political and public outcry in recent days, with critics denouncing the prime minister for seeking to oust the defense minister in mid-war. Sa’ar, a bitter Netanyahu critic in recent years, has no substantial security expertise.
Sa’ar, in a very lengthy statement, does not rule out bringing his four-member New Hope party into the coalition.
Netanyahu is widely reported to be determined to oust Gallant, who has publicly distanced himself from Netanyahu’s handling of efforts to reach a hostage-ceasefire deal in Gaza. Gallant is also refusing to advance draft legislation, demanded by the ultra-Orthodox parties in the coalition and backed by Netanyahu, that would broadly maintain the exclusion of the ultra-Orthodox from military or national service. Without the support of the ultra-Orthodox parties, some of whose key figures have threatened to bolt the coalition over the issue, Netanyahu would lose his governing majority.
The prime minister has several potential replacements for Gallant within the existing coalition, including Likud party loyalists Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter, a former head of the Shin Bet security agency, and Foreign Minister Israel Katz.
IDF says Lebanon strikes aimed at countering Hezbollah plans for major rocket attacks
The IDF’s widespread airstrikes in Lebanon this evening come after the military says it identified Hezbollah preparations to launch major rocket attacks.
The strikes are targeting Hezbollah rocket launchers and other sites, military sources say.
Footage published by Lebanese media show the large strikes.
الاحتلال يشن غارات عنيفة مستمرة تستهدف عدة مناطق جنوب لبنان. pic.twitter.com/Fy2gcRkgMF
— فلسطين بوست (@PalpostN) September 21, 2024
Gallant: Killing of Hezbollah commanders ‘an important settling of scores’ for me personally
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant says the killings of top Hezbollah commanders Ibrahim Aqil and Ahmed Wahbi is “an important settling of scores’ for not only Israel but him personally.
According to Gallant, Aqil and Wahbi commanded an ambush in 1997 during which 11 commandos from the IDF’s elite naval commando unit were killed in Lebanon. Gallant had served as head of the Shayetet 13 unit until being promoted earlier that year.
“This is our duty to the fallen and their loved ones, this our duty to the residents of the north and a clear message to those who wish us ill,” Gallant says in a statement.
IDF announces fresh wave of airstrikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon
The IDF announces that it is carrying out a new wave of airstrikes against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.
No further details are given.
IDF says soldier seriously hurt during counter-terror operation in Jenin
A soldier with the Kfir Brigade’s Haruv reconnaissance unit was seriously wounded this morning during a counterterrorism operation in the Jenin area of the northern West Bank, the IDF says.
He was taken to a hospital for treatment, the military adds.
Northern Command head meets with senior officers amid ‘widening of the fighting’ against Hezbollah
IDF Northern Command chief Maj. Gen. Ori Gordin meets with officers in northern Israel, September 21, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)
The head of the IDF Northern Command, Maj. Gen. Ori Gordin held an assessment with senior officers in northern Israel earlier today, which the military says is “part of the widening of the fighting” against Hezbollah.
The military says Gordin met with the commanders of the 300th “Baram” and 769th “Hiram” regional brigades, and the commanders of other IDF brigades and units deployed to northern Israel.
“In recent days, the commanders of the divisions and brigades under the Northern Command carried out situation assessments and additional tours in the region, as part of preparations for the widening of the fighting in the area,” the IDF adds.
IDF lifts order for Upper Galilee and Golan residents to remain near bomb shelters
Communities in the Upper Galilee and Golan Heights say the IDF has lifted orders put in place this morning instructing residents to remain near bomb shelters, amid intensified fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.
The announcements come after numerous rocket barrages were fired from Lebanon throughout the day and as the IDF struck Hezbollah targets.
German soccer team honors murdered hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin ahead of match
Banners reading 'Shalom, salam, peace' and showing the colors and symbol of the Hapoel Jerusalem club's fan group 'Brigade Malcha' are held by fans of SV Werder Bremen in memory of murdered Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, prior to the German first division Bundesliga soccer match between SV Werder Bremen and FC Bayern Munich in Bremen, northern Germany, September 21, 2024. (Axel Heimken/AFP)
Supporters of Germany’s SV Werder Bremen soccer club pay tribute to murdered Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin ahead of today’s friendly against Bayern Munich.
The fans hold a giant poster of Hersh alongside banners reading “shalom, salam, peace” and “may your memory be a revolution, achi!”
The banners are in both green and white, the colors of SV Werder Bremen, and red and black, the latter of which represent the Hapoal team that Goldberg-Polin was a fan of.
Hostage’s mom: Sinwar is seeking a multi-front war, Netanyahu ‘giving him what he wants’
Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan Zangauker is held hostage by the Hamas terror group in Gaza, speaks at a press conference with other hostages' loved ones in Tel Aviv on September 14, 2024. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)
Demonstrators calling for a hostage deal rally outside President Isaac Herzog’s home in Tel Aviv, urging him to declare the return of the captives held by Hamas as the top priority in the ongoing Gaza war.
Meanwhile, the families of hostages rally outside the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv, delivering their weekly statements to the press.
“[Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu does not have a mandate to abandon the hostages under the cover of a war in the north,” declares Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan has been held captive in Gaza since October 7.
She also accuses Netanyahu of “collaborating” with Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar by “giving him what he wants: A multi-front war.”
Germany cites ‘urgent need for concrete measures in Mideast to defuse the situation’
Germany says there is an “urgent need” for measures to calm tensions in the Middle East as Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza threatens to spread to Lebanon following nearly a year of cross-border skirmishes with Hezbollah.
Attacks carried out by Israel or blamed on the country, including airstrikes and the explosions of hand-held communications devices distributed to members of the Lebanese terror group, have killed dozens and injured thousands in Lebanon since Tuesday.
The Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel have been engaged in near-daily fighting since the former began attacking Israeli communities and military posts a day after its ally Hamas’s October 7 terror onslaught.
“We have an urgent need for concrete measures in the Middle East to defuse the situation and avoid more civilian victims,” the German foreign ministry writes on X.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has been in contact with her Israeli and Lebanese counterparts to discuss the next steps, it adds.
The German federal government says it’s “deeply concerned” by the recent escalation in the region but adds that it’s not “inevitable.”
“A diplomatic solution to the conflict must be possible,” government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit says in a statement.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s office warns that a regional conflagration would “have terrible and lasting consequences for the populations of the whole region,” resulting in “catastrophic” destruction.
IAF chief says air force ‘maintaining the highest possible level of readiness’
IAF chief Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar speaks in a video published by the military on September 21, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)
The chief of the Israeli Air Force says the IAF is on the highest possible level of alert amid increased tensions with Hezbollah.
“We are continuing to maintain the highest possible level of readiness in the Air Force. Especially in defense, but this has been for a while, and in the offense,” Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar says during a meeting with IAF commanders, in a video distributed by the military.
“We placed all the Air Force’s capabilities… on the shelf. Everything is ready. Now, in accordance with the developments, we are taking the plans that are most suitable for the context,” he adds.
IDF says thousands of Hezbollah rocket launcher barrels destroyed in past few hours
Israeli fighter jets struck some 180 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon in the past few hours, taking out thousands of rocket launcher barrels, the IDF says.
The military says the rocket launchers were primed for imminent attacks on Israel.
It publishes footage of the strikes.
בשעות האחרונות, מטוסי קרב של חיל האוויר תקפו בהכוונת פיקוד הצפון ואמ״ן, אלפי כני שיגור שהיו מוכנים לשיגור מיידי לשטח מדינת ישראל.
בנוסף, בוצע ירי ארטילרי לעבר מספר מרחבים בדרום לבנון.
צה"ל ממשיך לפגוע ולגרוע יכולות טרור ותשתיות צבאיות של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה pic.twitter.com/WJ6tsWU0dN
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) September 21, 2024
Over 20 Gazans said killed in IDF strike targeting Hamas command center inside school
An Israeli strike on a school in northern Gaza on Saturday killed at least 22 people, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health Ministry, while the Israel Defense Forces says it targeted a Hamas command center in what used to be a school.
The IDF said earlier today that it struck Hamas’s “command and control center, which was embedded inside a compound that previously served” as a school. It said steps were taken to limit harming civilians, including the use of precise munitions and aerial surveillance.
“The Hamas terrorist organization systematically violates international law by operating from inside civilian infrastructure,” the army said.
US’s Sullivan: Killing of Hezbollah commander ‘a good outcome,’ but escalation worrying
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan speaks during a press conference at the US embassy in Beijing on August 29, 2024. (Adek Berry/AFP)
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan says he is worried about escalation between Israel and Lebanon but that the Israeli killing of a top Hezbollah leader and other senior commanders brought justice to the Iran-backed terror group.
Sullivan calls the killing of Ibrahim Aqil “a good outcome” and says that he plans to speak with Israeli officials later today about the operation.
“That individual has American blood on his hands and has a rewards for justice price on his head,” Sullivan tells reporters on the sidelines of the Quad summit that US President Joe Biden is hosting in Wilmington, Delaware. “He is somebody who the United States promised long ago we would do everything we could to see brought to justice.”
Sullivan adds the moment was also meaningful for the American victims.
“You know 1983 seems like a long time ago,” he says. “But for a lot of families and a lot of people, they’re still living with it every day.”
Sullivan also says he still sees a path to a ceasefire in Gaza but that the US is “not at a point right now where we’re prepared to put something on the table.”
Lebanon PM cancels trip to UN General Assembly after attacks
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati says he had canceled a trip to the United Nations General Assembly and decries “horrific massacres” after deadly attacks targeting Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon blamed on Israel.
Mikati says in a statement that he canceled his trip “in light of the developments linked to the Israeli aggression on Lebanon,” after this week saw an Israeli strike that killed top Hezbollah commanders in Beirut’s southern suburbs and widespread attacks on Hezbollah communications devices blamed on Israel.
Nearly 100 rockets launched from Lebanon at Israel in past hours — army
Nearly 100 rockets were launched from Lebanon at northern Israel in the past few hours, according to the IDF.
The first barrage at around 2 p.m., toward Safed and Kiryat Shmona, included some 25 rockets.
Over the following hour, a barrage of 10 rockets was fired at the Arab al-Aramshe area, and another 25 were launched toward the Golan Heights, the IDF says.
Shortly after 3 p.m., a barrage of 10 rockets was fired at the Upper Galilee, and at 3:19 p.m., another 20 rockets were launched at the same area, according to the military.
There are no reports of injuries in the attacks, claimed by Hezbollah.
IDF names top Radwan commanders killed in Beirut strike, says they led Galilee invasion plans
An IDF infographic shows senior commanders in Hezbollah's Radwan Force killed in a September 20, 2024 strike in Beirut. (Israel Defense Forces)
The IDF names the top leadership of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force who were killed alongside senior commander Ibrahim Aqil in yesterday’s airstrike in Beirut.
Aqil was the head of Hezbollah’s military operations, the acting commander of the Radwan Force, and the head of a long-gestating plan to invade the Galilee.
Aqil had been meeting with the senior commanders of the Radwan Force under a residential building in Beirut when the IDF carried out its strike. The top commander and 15 other Hezbollah officers were killed in the strike.
Among the dead was Ahmed Wahbi, identified by Hezbollah and the IDF as the head of the terror group’s training unit and a former commander of the Radwan Force. The IDF says Wahbi was among those involved in the planning of a Hezbollah invasion of the Galilee, and was also involved in “advancing Hezbollah’s entrenchment in southern Lebanon, while attempting to improve the organization’s ground combat capabilities.”
Over the years and during the first months of the war, the military says Wahabi was involved in planning and carrying out rocket fire and infiltration attacks.
Other top Radwan Force commanders killed in the strike are identified by the IDF as: Samer Halawi, commander of the coastal region; Abbas Muslimani, commander of the Qana region; Abdullah Hijazi, commander of the Ramim Ridge region; Muhammad Reda, commander of the Khiam region; Hassan Madi, commander of the Mount Dov region; Hassan Abd al-Satar, head of operations; and Hussein Hadraj, chief of staff.
“These commanders had been leading and planning the Radwan Force’s attack and infiltration plan into Israeli territory for years, to be executed when given the order,” the military says.
“Aqil and the commanders eliminated in the strike were responsible for planning, advancing, and executing hundreds of terrorist operations against Israel, including the planning of Hezbollah’s murderous scheme to raid the communities of the Galilee,” the IDF adds.
Hezbollah announces death of another operative
The Hezbollah terror group announces the death of a member killed “on the road to Jerusalem,” its term for operatives slain in Israeli attacks.
His deaths bring the terror group’s death toll during the ongoing skirmishes with Israel since October to at least 501.
The circumstances of his death are not published by Hezbollah.
The announcement comes after yesterday’s Israeli strike on Beirut, killing top Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil and at least 15 other officers.
Thousands of Hezbollah members were also wounded this week when pagers and walkie-talkies used by the terror group exploded, in an alleged Israeli attack.
Barrage of 25 rockets fired at north cause damage, spark fires; no injuries
A barrage of some 25 rockets was fired from Lebanon at northern Israel a short while ago, according to the IDF.
Police say they have received reports of rocket impacts that caused damage and sparked fires.
There are no reports of injuries in the attack.
Video posted to social media appeared to show several attempted missile interceptions.
The barrage came moments after the IDF said it was carrying out a wave of air strikes on Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon.
כ-25 רקטות נורו מלבנון, שריפות פרצו בשלושה מוקדים, דווח על נפילות | תיעוד יירוטים בצפת@ItayBlumental @CBeyar
(צילום: יובל אפריאט) pic.twitter.com/rPBoXNhyVp— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) September 21, 2024
Rocket warning sirens sound in northern Israel
As the IDF carries out airstrikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon, sirens warning of incoming rocket fire sound in numerous towns in northern Israel.
The alerts are activated in Safed, Kiryat Shmona, and many other communities in the Galilee.
🔴 Rocket Alert [13:59:22] (19):
• Confrontation Line — HaGoshrim, Ramot Naftali, Beit Hillel, Kerem Ben Zimra, Misgav Am, Ramat Dalton Industrial Zone, Kfar Giladi, Dishon, Jish (Gush Halav), Zarit, Kiryat Shmona, Dalton, Tel Hai, Zivon
• צפת – עיר
Population: 37,000 pic.twitter.com/h3wug1QWsf— ILRedAlert (@ILRedAlert) September 21, 2024
IDF says it’s carrying out wave of airstrikes against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon
The IDF announces that it is carrying out a wave of airstrikes against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.
No further details are given.
تغطية صحفية :مراسل المنار: سلسلة غارات ينفذها طيران الاحتلال في محيط مجرى نهر الليطاني قرب الخردلي بلبنان. pic.twitter.com/By52uVnwT5
— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) September 21, 2024
IDF warns residents of Safed, other northern communities to remain close to bomb shelters
Smoke rises from a large fire after missiles launched from Lebanon hit the Biriya Forest in Northern Israel, on September 20, 2024. (David Cohen/Flash90)
The IDF Home Front Command has instructed residents of the northern city of Safed and several other communities in northern Israel to remain close to bomb shelters until further notice.
The move comes as Israel expects rockets by Hezbollah from Lebanon, following the killing of top commander Ibrahim Aqil and at least 15 other operatives in Beirut yesterday.
Hezbollah said to appoint two top Jihad Council members to replace slain commander
Rescuers sift through the rubble at the scene of an Israeli strike that targeted Hezbollah terror group commanders meeting in Beirut's southern suburbs a day earlier, as search and rescue operations continue on September 21, 2024. (AFP)
Hezbollah has appointed senior officers Ali Karaki and Talal Hamiya to lead the terror group’s operations division following the assassination of Ibrahim Aqil in Beirut yesterday, the Saudi news outlet Al-Hadath reports.
Both officers already sit on the Jihad Council, Hezbollah’s top military body.
Karaki is the head of Hezbollah’s southern command, responsible for the terror group’s military activity in south Lebanon, and Hamiya is the head of Hezbollah’s Unit 910, the terror group’s foreign operations unit, responsible for attacks abroad.
The Jihad Council was believed to have had seven members, although now it is down to five following the killings of Aqil, head of Hezbollah operations and the Radwan Force, and Fuad Shukr, Hezbollah’s military chief, who was killed in July.
Iran withheld launchers from ballistic missiles supplied to Russia — report
A 'Fattah' missile is displayed during the annual military parade marking the anniversary of the outbreak of Iran's 1980-1988 war with Saddam Hussein's Iraq, in Tehran on September 21, 2024. (Atta Kenare/AFP)
Iran did not include mobile launchers with the close-range ballistic missiles that Washington last week accused Tehran of delivering to Russia for use against Ukraine, according to three sources with knowledge of the matter.
The sources – a European diplomat, a European intelligence official and a US official – say it was not clear why Iran did not supply launchers with the Fath-360 missiles, raising questions about when and if the weapons will be operational.
The US official, who like the other sources spoke on condition of anonymity, said Iran had not delivered the launchers at the time of the US announcement about Iran’s delivery of the weapons. The European intelligence official said without elaborating that they did not expect Iran to provide launchers.
Reuters first reported Iran’s plan to send the missiles to Russia.
Two experts tell Reuters there could be several reasons why the launchers were not sent. One is that Russia may plan to modify trucks to carry the missiles, as Iran has done. Another is that by withholding the launchers, Iran is allowing space for new talks with Western powers on easing tensions.
The Russian defense ministry declined to comment.
Israel limits access to airspace in north
An agricultural aircraft sprays crops with fertilizers, pesticides, and fungicides. (Doron Horowitz/Flash90)
The airspace from the coastal city of Hadera and northward is closed, according to a NOTAM, or “notice to airmen,” issued by Israel’s aviation authority this morning.
The move comes as Israel steps up its military campaign against the Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon, which has been firing rockets into Israel since October 8.
The notice is valid for 24 hours and largely only affects recreational and agricultural flights.
It does not apply to emergency fights by the military, police, firefighters, medical evacuations or flights servicing oil rigs.
Ben Gurion Airport is unaffected by the closure, as commercial flights generally do not fly north of Hadera to reach the airport near Tel Aviv.
Protesters accompany Edelstein on walk to synagogue, a week after women arrested for distributing hostage flyers there
MK Yuli Edelstein walks to his synagogue while demonstrators protest against him, in Herzliya, on September 21, 2024, a week after 3 women were arrested for distributing hostage flyers at the house of worship(Flash90)
Hundreds of people again protest as MK Yuli Edelstein walks to synagogue in Herzliya, a week after three women were arrested yesterday for putting flyers calling for a hostage deal on seats in the house of worship, the Ynet news site reports.
Footage from the scene shows Edelstein surrounded by police officers as demonstrators walk near him waving Israeli flags and shouting “shame” and “forsaker of Zion.”
The chant is a reference to the fact that the Likud lawmaker was a Prisoner of Zion — a Jewish refusenik jailed in the Soviet Union in the 1980s.
This is the second week that demonstrators have targeted Edelstein after three women were arrested, shackled and questioned for eight hours for placing the flyers in the synagogue.
The flyers showed the pictures of four of the female soldiers taken hostage by Hamas on October 7, along with Ariel and Kfir Bibas, the two young children who remain captive in Gaza.
In the center is a picture of Edelstein from his time in a Soviet prison, with the caption “Let my people go,” a popular rallying cry by supporters of Jewish refuseniks.
Among those taking part in the protest was Chen Arad, brother of missing Israeli airman Ron Arad.
“Ron is not here. I respect those who expect the families of the hostages to sit at home and obey instructions from the system, but the families need to worry only about themselves, to safeguard their loved ones and act according to their conscience,” he tells Ynet.
Air Force navigator Ron Arad bailed out of his plane during a mission over southern Lebanon in 1986. Despite decades of efforts Israel was unable to locate him and his final fate remains a mystery, although he is presumed dead.
IDF says airstrike targeted Hamas command room in a Gaza school; Palestinians say 10 killed
The IDF says it carried out an airstrike against a group of Hamas operatives at a command room embedded within a former school in Gaza City in the past hour.
According to the military, Hamas was using the al-Falah School in the Zeitoun neighborhood to plan and carry out attacks against IDF troops and against Israel.
The school has been serving as a shelter for displaced Gazans, and Palestinian media report at least 10 deaths in the strike.
The IDF says it took steps to mitigate civilian harm in the strike, and accuses Hamas of “systematically” using civilian sites for terror.
The IDF has repeatedly hit Hamas operatives operating out of schools, civilian shelters and hospitals, frequently drawing international condemnation.
Tehran unveils new drone, missile, claims Israel deterred by its power
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian (R) and commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Aerospace Force Amir Ali Hajizadeh look on as Iran's new Shahed 136-B drone is displayed during the annual military parade marking the anniversary of the outbreak of the 1980-1988 war with Saddam Hussein's Iraq, in Tehran on September 21, 2024. (Atta Kenare/AFP)
Iran unveiled a new ballistic missile and an upgraded one-way attack drone at a military parade on Saturday, state media said, amid soaring regional tensions and allegations of arming Russia.
New Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian attended the annual parade in Tehran, commemorating the 1980-88 war with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.
“Today, our defensive and deterrent capabilities have grown so much that no demon even thinks about any aggression towards our dear Iran,” he says.
“With unity and cohesion among Islamic countries… we can put in its place the bloodthirsty, genocidal usurper Israel, which shows no mercy to anyone, women or children, old or young.”
The comments come as Israel has stepped up its fight against Iran’s main proxy, the Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon.
Iran stands accused by Western governments of supplying both drones and missiles to Russia for use in its war with Ukraine, a charge it has repeatedly denied.
The solid-fuel Jihad missile was designed and manufactured by the aerospace arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and has an operational range of 1,000 kilometers (more than 600 miles), state news agency IRNA said.
The Shahed-136B drone is an upgraded version of the Shahed-136, with new features and an operational range of more than 4,000 kilometers (2,500 miles), it adds.
Drone strike hits gunmen trying to loot Gaza aid convoy
Troops of the Givati Brigade operate in southern Gaza's Rafah, in a handout image published September 21, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)
The Israeli military releases footage showing gunmen climbing onto trucks carrying humanitarian aid in the Rafah area of the southern Gaza Strip.
The IDF says the gunmen were trying to loot the truck while it was driving along a designated route.
Troops of the Givati Brigade’s Tzabar Battalion, who had spotted the gunmen, directed a drone strike against them after they tried to flee in a car. Another gunman was killed while trying to flee the scene.
According to the IDF, Hamas operatives frequently try to hijack aid deliveries before they can be distributed to civilians.
Lebanon says death toll in Israeli strike on Hezbollah commanders in Beirut rises to 31
Lebanese army soldiers and Red Cross rescuers gather at the barriered area of the scene of an Israeli strike that targeted Hezbollah commanders in southern Beirut a day earlier, as search and rescue operations continue on September 21, 2024. (AFP)
At least 31 people were killed, including three children and seven women, in an Israeli strike on a meeting of Hezbollah commanders in Beirut’s suburbs on Friday, the Lebanese health ministry tells a televised news conference.
Hezbollah has said at least 16 of its operatives, including two of its most senior commanders, were killed in the strike.
Israel says the commanders of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force were meeting in an underground room in the residential building.
Firass Abiad tells reporters that 68 people were also wounded in the strike, of whom 15 remain in hospital.
IDF says leading Hamas intel officer killed in Gaza airstrike
IDF troops are seen operating in the Gaza Strip in this handout photo published on September 21, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)
A prominent Hamas intelligence officer was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip, the IDF says.
The military says Muhammad Mansour was a “significant source of technological knowledge in Hamas’s military intelligence.”
Over the past day, some 20 targets were struck by the Israeli Air Force across Gaza, including buildings used by the terror group and operatives, the IDF says.
Meanwhile, the IDF’s 162nd Division continues to operate in southern Gaza’s Rafah, where in the past day the military says troops located weapons, killed gunmen, and destroyed sites used by Hamas.
In the Netzarim Corridor of central Gaza, the IDF’s 5th and 14th reserve brigades were recently deployed there to operate under the 252nd Division, swapping out the Jerusalem and Harel reserve brigades.
US said to agree on withdrawal of troops from Iraq by end of 2026
File - US army soldiers, part of the US-led coalition against the Islamic State (IS) group, walk around at the K1 Air Base northwest of Kirkuk in northern Iraq before a planned US pullout on March 29, 2020. (Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP)
The US and Iraq have reached an agreement for the withdrawal of US and other foreign troops from Iraq by the end of 2026, US defense officials tell The Wall Street Journal.
The report says US and coalition troops based in Baghdad, western Iraq and other parts of the country would leave by next September, followed by a drawdown of forces in the northern Iraqi city of Erbil by the end of the following year, the officials say.
However, a small group of advisers could remain beyond 2026, the report says, adding that the deal will likely be publicly announced next week once the final details have been ironed out.
Hezbollah names 15 more members killed in airstrike, including a senior commander
A poster announcing the death of the Hezbollah official Ahmed Wahbi, September 21, 2024.
Overnight, Hezbollah named 15 members of the terror group killed in yesterday’s Israeli airstrike in the Lebanese capital of Beirut, alongside top commander Ibrahim Aqil.
One of those named by Hezbollah, Ahmed Wahabi, is identified by the terror group as a “commander.” Hezbollah rarely refers to its senior operatives slain in Israeli strikes as commanders.
Previously, the only other operatives referred to as commanders were Taleb Abdullah, the commander of the Nasr regional division; Muhammad Nasser, the commander of the Aziz regional division; and Wissam al-Tawil, the deputy head of the terror group’s elite Radwan Force.
Hezbollah says Wahabi was the head of the terror group’s “central training unit,” and was previously a top commander in the elite Radwan Force, heading their fighting against Israel until the beginning of this year. Like other Hezbollah officers, Wahabi was also involved in fighting for the Assad regime in Syria during the civil war.
Aqil, and fellow slain member of the Jihad Council, Fuad Shukr — killed in July — have been referred to as “great jihadist leader.”
Hezbollah has named 500 members who have been killed by Israel during the ongoing fighting since October.
Tlaib slams cartoon of her with exploding pager
Palestinian-American member of US Congress Rashida Tlaib condemns a cartoon published in a conservative magazine that depicted her next to an exploding pager.
The cartoon, published Thursday in the National Review, referred to a wave of exploding communication devices this week in Lebanon.
The blasts that killed at least 37 people and wounded nearly 3,000 on Tuesday and Wednesday targeted pagers and walkie-talkies used by the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group, which blamed Israel for the attacks.
“Our community is already in so much pain right now,” Tlaib, a Democratic representative from the state of Michigan, writes on X.
She adds: “This racism will incite more hate + violence against our Arab & Muslim communities, and it makes everyone less safe. It’s disgraceful that the media continues to normalize this racism.”
In the cartoon, a woman identified as Rep. Tlaib is seen sitting at a desk next to an exploding electronic device while a speech bubble reads “Odd. My pager just exploded.”
Cartoon: Tlaib Pager Hamashttps://t.co/wdwWCbCgmj pic.twitter.com/8AF3kA8Llk
— Henry Payne (@HenryEPayne) September 19, 2024
Lebanese authorities also blamed Israel for the attack and have said the targeted devices were booby-trapped before they entered the country.
Japan’s Icom says highly unlikely it made the exploding walkie-talkies with its logo
A man holds a walkie-talkie device with the logo of Japanese firm Icom, after he removed the battery during the funeral of persons killed when pagers distributed to Hezbollah operatives exploded across Lebanon the previous day, in an attack blamed on Israel, in Beirut's southern suburbs on September 18, 2024. (Anwar Amro/AFP)
TOKYO — Japan’s Icom says it’s highly unlikely that wireless devices that exploded in Lebanon were the company’s products.
Pictures of the walkie-talkies used by Lebanese armed group Hezbollah that exploded on Wednesday showed labels reading “ICOM” and “made in Japan.”
“In light of multiple pieces of information that have been revealed so for, chances are extremely low that the wireless devices that exploded were our products,” Icom says in a statement dated on Friday.
Hamas warns Israel will pay price for ‘folly’ of killing top Hezbollah commander
The Palestinian terror group Hamas mourns Hezbollah’s top commander, Ibrahim Aqil, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Lebanese capital Beirut on Friday, describing it as a “crime” and “folly” that Israel will pay the price for.
US Mideast czar says ‘nobody shedding a tear’ for Hezbollah commander but hints at unease over killing
White House Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa Brett McGurk arrives at the US Capitol on April 18, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images/AFP)
White House Mideast czar Brett McGurk says the Biden administration is not shedding a tear over Israel’s killing of top Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil, but he indicates that the US might not agree with the move given the risk it brings for regional escalation.
“Ibrahim Akil, who was killed today, was responsible for the Beirut barracks and embassy bombing 40 years ago. So nobody sheds a tear for him,” McGurk says while addressing the Israeli-American Council’s conference in Washington.
“That said, we have disagreements with the Israelis on tactics and how you kind of measure escalation risk… It is a very concerning situation. I’m very confident that through diplomacy, through deterrence and other means we’ll work our way out of it,” he adds.
“We do not think a war in Lebanon is the way to achieve the objective, to return people to their homes. We also fully stand with Israel in their defense of their people and their territory against Hezbollah,” McGurk continues. “We want a diplomatic settlement to the north. That is the objective, and that’s what we’re working towards.”
WH coordinator for the ME at the @israeliamerican conference on Lebanon:
“We do not think a war in Lebanon is the way to achieve the objective, to return people to their homes. We also fully stand with Israel in their defense of their people and their territory against Hezbollah.… pic.twitter.com/COtwEXTNkq— יונה לייבזון yuna leibzon (@YunaLeibzon) September 20, 2024
Accused Hezbollah financier pleads guilty in US to evading sanctions
A former Lebanese diplomat accused of being a financier for the Iranian-backed Hezbollah pleads guilty to evading US financial sanctions against him and his terror organization.
Mohammad Ibrahim Bazzi, 60, who holds Lebanese, British and Belgian citizenship, pleads guilty in a federal court in New York to conspiracy to conduct unlawful transactions with an international terrorist, according to a statement from the US Department of Justice.
Bazzi had “accepted responsibility for his role in conspiring to secretly move hundreds of thousands of dollars from the United States to Lebanon in violation of sanctions placed on him for assisting the terrorist group Hezbollah,” US prosecutor Breon Peace says.
Bazzi faces up to 20 years imprisonment, as well as deportation and forfeiture of the $828,528 involved in illegal transactions.
No sentencing date has been set.
The State Department in May 2018 had declared Bazzi to be a “specially designated global terrorist” and offered a $10 million reward for information leading to his capture.
The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control has said Bazzi “has provided millions of dollars to Hezbollah over the years, generated from his business activities in Belgium, Lebanon, Iraq and throughout West Africa.”
In February 2023, he was arrested in Romania and extradited to the US.
The US attorney’s statement says Bazzi had worked with an accomplice, Talal Chahine, who remains on the loose in Lebanon.
According to investigative journalism outlet ProPublica, Bazzi was appointed honorary consul in Lebanon by the government of Gambia in 2005. The volunteer diplomat role helped him access unique connections and benefits, which can be ripe for abuse.
Hezbollah confirms death of top commander Ibrahim Aqil after Israeli airstrike
Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil in an undated photo released by the terror group on September 21, 2024. (Hezbollah media office)
The Hezbollah terror group releases a statement confirming the death of top commander Ibrahim Aqil.
Aqil was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut earlier today, alongside at least 10 other top commanders in the terror group.
According to the IDF, Aqil was the head of Hezbollah’s military operations, the acting commander of the terror group’s elite Radwan Force, and the head of a plan to invade the Galilee.
Since October, Hezbollah has named 484 members killed by Israel.
Lebanese media reports body of Ibrahim Aqil identified at site of Beirut strike
Lebanese media reports that the body of senior Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil has been identified following the IDF strike in Beirut’s Dahiyeh suburb earlier today.
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