Israel launches more airstrikes in Lebanon and Gaza

 

Israel may be destroying Palestinian population in northern Gaza through "death and displacement," UN says

Israel’s military offensive in northern Gaza may be destroying the Palestinian population through “death and displacement,” the United Nations Human Rights Office has warned, as it urged Israel to follow a top UN court order to prevent genocide in the enclave.

The statement by OHCHR Sunday is the latest in a string of warnings from UN agencies about the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, where Israeli military operations have intensified in recent weeks following a year of bombardment that has killed more than 42,000 people and left swathes of the territory in ruins.

Since October 6, the Israeli military has made life in northern Gaza “impossible for Palestinians,” many of whom were already facing starvation and repeated displacement, OHCHR said.

“While the Israeli military has demanded that all civilians leave north Gaza, it has continued to relentlessly bomb and attack the area, especially in and around Jabalya Camp,” it said.

The manner of the Israeli hostilities, “may be causing the destruction of the Palestinian population in Gaza’s northernmost governate through death and displacement,” OHCHR said.

“This is particularly the case around Jabalya, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun.”

OHCHR noted provisional measures ordered by the International Court of Justice in January that stated Israel “must take all measures within its power” to prevent “genocide in relation to Palestinians in Gaza.”

CNN has reached out to the Israeli military for comment.

Remember: Israel’s relations with the United Nations have reached an all-time low during the war in Gaza. Earlier this month, a UN inquiry accused Israel of carrying out a “concerted policy” of destroying the health care system in the territory in attacks it said amount to war crimes. The Israeli foreign ministry called those accusations “outrageous.”

 

Video shows scenes of devastation at central Gaza hospital following deadly Israeli strike

From Mohammad al-Sawalihi and CNN’s Abeer Salman and Irene Nasser

Palestinians carry the bodies wrapped in shroud to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital after an Israeli attack on Deir al Balah, Gaza on October 21. 

Ashraf Amra/Anadolu/Getty Images

Casualties of a deadly Israeli airstrike were rushed to a hospital in central Gaza on Sunday, where video seen by CNN shows devastating scenes in the aftermath of the attack.

At least six Palestinians were killed in the Israeli strike on a civilian car in Deir al-Balah refugee camp, according to medical sources at the Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.

Outside the medical facility, video shows an elderly man struggling to get out of an ambulance, injuries evident on his leg. Inside, wounded people covered in blood, including young boys, are being treated on the floor.

“My love, my son, my love. Are you leaving me alone?!” another elderly man wails over the body of a young man. A teenage boy sitting next to him says:

“My father is gone, my father is gone.”

An eyewitness to the aftermath of the Israeli strike said he was in the refugee camp when he heard an explosion.

“We ran over, we found people injured on all sides, and we started carrying them to provide first aid,” Mohammad Taha said. “The most serious injury I saw was a woman in her sixties. They put an oxygen mask on her, but she passed away there, and we brought her here to Al-Aqsa Hospital.”

The strike comes after the United Nations warned that “the nightmare in Gaza is intensifying” amid Israel’s renewed military offensive in the north of the enclave.

CNN has reached out to the Israeli military for comment on the strike in central Gaza.

 

Israeli military apologizes for "unwanted circumstances" in killing of Lebanese soldiers

From CNN's Eugenia Yosef

Israel’s military has apologized for what it described as “unwanted circumstances” that led to the killing of three Lebanese soldiers in an Israeli strike on Sunday.

In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it struck a Lebanese army truck in Hanine, southern Lebanon after the vehicle arrived in an area where the Israeli military had earlier struck a Hezbollah truck carrying weapons.

“The arrival of a truck owned by the Lebanese army was unknown to the IDF,” the statement said. “The IDF is not operating against the Lebanese Army and apologizes for these unwanted circumstances.

The Lebanese army is not part of the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, but since the latest round of fighting broke out between Israel and Hezbollah, eight Lebanese army soldiers have been killed, according to a tally by Reuters. Sixteen other Lebanese army troops have been killed while off-duty.

 

Death toll from Israeli strikes in Lebanon passes 1,800, health ministry says

From Eyad Kourdi

Smoke billows over Beirut's southern suburbs after Israeli strikes on October 20. 

Mohammed Yassin/Reuters

Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon killed at least 16 people and injured 59 on Saturday, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health.

Most of the deaths were in southern Lebanon and Nabatiyeh, with additional injuries in the Beqaa region, the ministry said Sunday.

Since Israel ramped up its strikes against Hezbollah on September 16, at least 1,802 people have been killed and 9,330 injured, according to a CNN tally of health ministry figures.

The heavy bombardment continued Sunday, with Israel launching strikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut and in towns near the Lebanese-Israeli border.

 

6 hr 30 min ago

Hezbollah fired about 200 projectiles into Israel on Sunday, military says

From Eugenia Yosef

About 200 projectiles fired by Hezbollah crossed into Israel on Sunday, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

“The IDF will continue to defend the state of Israel and its people against the threat posed by the Hezbollah terrorist organization,” the military said in a statement.

While Hezbollah frequently fires clusters of rockets into Israel from southern Lebanon, they typically cause few casualties and only moderate damage, in part due to Israel’s extensive air defenses.

Sunday’s rocket fire came as Israel pounded southern Lebanon with airstrikes throughout the day, and launched a new series of strikes on a Hezbollah-linked financial institution in the evening.

 

6 hr 35 min ago

Israeli airstrikes hit Hezbollah-linked financial sites in Beirut, Lebanese state media says

From CNN’s Kareem El Damanhoury, Eyad Kourdi and Charbel Mallo

Israeli airstrikes hit three branches of a Hezbollah-linked financial institution in Beirut on Sunday evening, according to Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency.

The strikes hit Al-Qard Al-Hassan branches in the Hay Al-Sellom, Burj Al-Barajneh and Ghobeiry areas of Beirut’s southern suburbs, NNA reported.

The news agency reported that evacuations were underway in Hermel, where buildings near an Al-Qard Al-Hassan branch were being cleared. Elsewhere, the Baalbek Government Hospital in the Beqaa region moved patients to “safer rooms” further away from a building associated with the financial institution across the street, the Lebanese Ministry of Health told CNN. The ministry said the hospital continues to operate normally.

Earlier Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces had warned it planned to carry out strikes on locations belonging to the Al-Qard Al-Hassan Association to block Hezbollah’s access to financial resources. It has since issued evacuation warnings for parts of Beirut, along with several other areas in southern and eastern Lebanon.

Some background: Founded in 1983, Al-Qard Al-Hassan is a nonprofit financial institution linked to Hezbollah that provides interest-free loans, based on Islamic lending principles, to the Shia community.

Israel says Hezbollah uses the organization to pay salaries to its operatives and provide support to civilians, while avoiding sanctions.

This post has been updated with more details on the impact of the strikes on the ground.

 

6 hr 25 min ago

Top Israeli and Egyptian intelligence officials discuss stalled hostage negotiations

From Eugenia Yosef

The director of Israel’s Shin Bet security agency, Ronen Bar, met Egypt’s newly appointed intelligence chief Hassan Mahmoud Rashad in Cairo on Sunday, according to an Israeli official.

The two discussed how to move forward with negotiations on a ceasefire-for-hostages deal, the official said. Egypt has served as one of the key intermediaries between Israel and Hamas for years, especially since the October 7 terror attacks.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi appointed Rashad as head of the powerful general intelligence agency on Wednesday.

 

7 hr 52 min ago

Israeli military issues evacuation warnings for parts of southern and eastern Lebanon

From Eyad Kourdi

The Israeli military has issued evacuation warnings across Lebanon as it launches strikes targeting what it says are key Hezbollah financial sites.

Israel Defense Forces Arabic spokesperson Avichay Adraee shared the notices in posts on the social media platform X, highlighting specific buildings and surrounding structures, which were marked on maps.

In eastern Lebanon: The warnings affected residents in three key areas of the Beqaa region: Baalbek, Hermel and Haret al-Fekani.

In southern Lebanon: The warnings affected residents in parts of Tyre, Nabatiyeh, Mashghara, Tair Zibna (Al-Shahabiya) and Houmin Al-Fawqa.

The evacuation warnings followed similar notices for residents in the southern suburbs of Beirut — densely populated areas where Hezbollah has an established presence.

“You are located near Hezbollah facilities and interests that will soon be targeted by the IDF,” Adraee said in the messages accompanying the warnings.

The IDF urged residents to “immediately evacuate these buildings and those nearby and move at least 500 meters away” for their safety.

Adraee has shared similar warnings for residents in Lebanon throughout Israel’s unprecedented bombardment of the country. Israeli strikes have killed more than 1,500 people since Israel ramped up its war against Hezbollah last month, according to the Lebanese government.

This post has been updated with additional areas included in the warnings.

 

6 hr 37 min ago

Airstrikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs, Lebanon’s state news agency reports

From Eyad Kourdi

Smoke rises from an Israeli airstrike on Beirut's southern suburbs on Sunday, October 20. 

Hussein Malla/AP

Airstrikes have hit Beirut’s southern suburbs, according to Lebanese state media, shortly after the Israel Defense Forces warned it would be striking the area, targeting Hezbollah’s financial sites.

“Hostile aircraft carried out an airstrike on the southern suburbs,” Lebanon’s official National News Agency said.

The IDF had just issued evacuation warnings for the Haret Hriek neighborhood in the suburbs.

 

Israeli military issues evacuation warnings for areas of Beirut's southern suburbs

From Eugenia Yosef

The Israeli military has issued evacuation warnings for areas of Beirut’s southern suburbs as it warns of strikes on Hezbollah financial sites.

The Israel Defense Forces’ Arabic spokesperson Avichay Adraee issued a warning on X for four buildings in the municipality of Haret Hriek.

Earlier, another IDF spokesperson, Daniel Hagari, had said: “In a few minutes, we will spread a preliminary evacuation warning to Lebanon, Beirut and other places to evacuate from the sites used to fund Hezbollah terrorist activity. I emphasize anyone who is located near sites used by Hezbollah terrorist activity is required to stay away from them immediately.”

“We will attack a large number of targets in the coming hours and other targets later at night, in the coming days,” Hagari added, saying the military would strike these sites at night and issue an update “in the coming days.”

 

Israel will target Hezbollah's financial resources with strikes, military says  

From Eyad Kourdi and Eugenia Yosef

Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Daniel Hagari speaks to the press in Tel Aviv, Israel, on October 18, 2023. 

Gil Cohen-Magen/AFP/Getty Images/File

Israel plans to conduct strikes aimed at hampering Hezbollah’s access to financing, Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Daniel Hagari said at a briefing Sunday.

The strikes will target the Lebanon-based Al-Qard Al-Hassan Association, Hagari said.

The association is a nonprofit financial institution linked to Hezbollah that was founded in 1983, according to the Hezbollah-affiliated TV channel Al-Manar. It offers interest-free loans to alleviate poverty within the Shia community, based on Islamic principles of lending without interest, according to Al-Manar.

Hagari said the IDF plans to target Al-Qard Al-Hassan facilities across Lebanon to disrupt Hezbollah’s financial network and erode trust between the organization and the Shia population.

Hagari said Al-Qard Al-Hassan plays a significant role in funding Hezbollah’s operations.

Hagari said the organization operates like a bank while staying disconnected from SWIFT — a messaging service that connects financial institutions around the world — to avoid sanctions.

He said Hezbollah uses the institution to pay salaries to its operatives and provide support to civilians, with around 300,000 people, mostly Shia, utilizing the system. 

This post has been updated with details on the financial system Israel has said it will target.

 

Colonel killed in Gaza is one of Israel's highest-ranking casualties of current war

From Eugenia Yosef and Eyad Kourdi

An Israeli colonel has died during combat in northern Gaza, becoming one of the country’s highest-ranking officers to be killed in its war with Hamas.

The Israel Defense Forces announced the death of Col. Ehsan Daxa, commander of the 401st “Iron Tracks” Brigade of the 162nd Division, on Sunday.

Daxa is one of the highest-ranking Israeli officers to have been killed in Gaza since Col. Yitzhak Ben Bashet, who died in December last year in the northern Gaza neighborhood of Shujaiya.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described Daxa as “a hero of Israel, a warrior and a commander” who had chosen to “invest all his energy in the security of Israel and its citizens.”

He sent condolences to Daxa’s wife Huda and his children Omri, Rif and Yasmin.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Daxa had died in a “battle against Hamas” in Gaza.

“The state of Israel lost today a bold commander, a brave officer and a man who contributed his energy to the security of the state,” Gallant posted on X.

Rafik Halabi, mayor of Daxa’s hometown Daliyat al-Karmel, said on X, “With sorrow, pain, and much grief, Daliyat al-Karmel, the IDF, the Druze community, and the state of Israel say goodbye to one of its heroes.”

Earlier on Sunday, Hamas said its fighters had hit an Israeli Merkava tank and a Namer armored personnel carrier with missiles near Jabalya camp in northern Gaza. The IDF has not elaborated on the circumstances surrounding Daxa’s death.