Middle East

On Monday, Israel struck 1,600 targets across Lebanon, killing 492 people and wounding 1,645, and causing a massive wave of displacement as thousands fled from south Lebanon north. It was a staggering one-day toll that shocked a nation used to war. It was by far the deadliest barrage since the monthlong 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war, when an estimated 1,000 people in Lebanon were killed.

The bulk of the new aid, $5.5 billion, is to be allocated before Monday’s end of the US fiscal year when the funding authority is set to expire. Another $2.4 billion is under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which allows the administration to buy weapons for Ukraine from companies rather than pull them from US stocks.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, heading to New York to address the United Nations, said he had not yet given his response to the truce proposal but had instructed the army to fight on. Hardliners in his government said Israel should reject any truce and keep hitting Hezbollah. Israeli airstrikes overnight hit around 75 Hezbollah targets in the Bekaa Valley and southern Lebanon, including weapons storage facilities and ready-to-fire launchers, the Israeli military said on Thursday.

Israel’s military chief said a ground assault was possible, raising fears the conflict could spark a wider Middle East war. Over the last several months, Washington has been engaging with officials in Israel and Lebanon to reduce hostilities, the senior White House official said.

Smoke billows over southern Lebanon as cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces escalate. This is at Marjayoun, near the border with Israel, on September 24, 2024. Credit: Reuters

Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad said the earlier strikes hit hospitals, medical centers and ambulances. The government ordered schools and universities to close across most of the country and began preparing shelters for the displaced.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, also in New York, described the situation as nearly a full-fledged war. He urged world leaders to do all they could to stop it, adding: “Here in New York is the moment to do that.”

Lebanon and Hezbollah say Israel was behind the attacks. Israel has neither denied nor confirmed involvement. The security official declined to give details on how the IRGC force, comprising 190,000 personnel, are communicating. “For now, we are using end-to-end encryption in messaging systems,” he said.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby told ABC’s “This Week” that the US has been “involved in extensive and quite assertive diplomacy.” He added: “We want to make sure that we can continue to do everything we can to try to prevent this from becoming an all-out war there with Hezbollah across that Lebanese border.”

In a brief statement on Friday evening carried by Israeli media, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel’s goals were clear and its actions spoke for themselves.
Israeli. Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, who said this week that Israel is launching a new phase of war on the northern border, posted on X: “The sequence of actions in the new phase will continue until our goal is achieved: the safe return of the residents of the north to their homes.”