Israel strikes Lebanon as region braces for response to Iran

Our live coverage of the conflict in the Middle East has moved here.

The death toll from an Israeli strike on a mosque in central Gaza has risen to 21, according to the local Civil Defense and a nearby hospital.

CNN video showed chaotic scenes as bodies were pulled from rubble after the overnight attack on the religious site in Deir el Balah.

The revised death toll – up from 18 – came from Civil Defense and Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, which is right across from the mosque.

Civilians, civil defense, and hospital staff were all working in the dark to retrieve victims from the rubble of the mosque, using only the light from their phones, the CNN video showed.

In the footage, bodies are seen scattered everywhere and people shout for attention with each casualty they find.

“He’s alive, by God he’s alive,” a man yells as he tries to revive another victim, who lies motionless on the ground.

A group of men pull out a man, still alive, who had been trapped under a block. Another seems to have been killed in the attack.

The injured, carried on blankets, are rushed to the nearby hospital, some covered in blood and dust.

The Israeli military confirmed it carried out the strike, calling it “precise” and saying it was targeting a Hamas “command and control” center that was “embedded within the compound.”

Smoke and flames rise after an Israeli airstrike on Dahiyeh neighborhood in the southern Beirut, Lebanon on October 6.

We were preparing to go live on air when the first airstrike hit the southern suburbs of Beirut shortly after 11 p.m. Saturday –?kicking off a night of intense and constant Israeli strikes.

About 30 minutes earlier, I had been sat with a young woman who lives in the southern suburbs, when our phones flashed with a post on X. It was from the Arabic-language spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces, issuing?new evacuation orders for several neighborhoods ahead of what he said would be strikes on Hezbollah targets.

The woman gasped. Her family’s home was within one of the evacuation zones. Like many residents of one of the most densely populated parts of the country, she had fled her home as Israeli strikes intensified in recent days, leaving with very little.

Hours earlier she had wanted to go back home to grab some warm clothes, as winter is approaching. But even during the day a return to the suburbs would have been dangerous, so she decided to take the advice of colleagues and not return home. And as feared, there were multiple strikes with no prior warning.

Saturday night’s strikes were among the most sustained and intense I have witnessed hitting the southern suburbs since this war began. First we heard rumbling sounds, followed by flashes in the distance. Then we heard the blasts. At least two of the strikes triggered what appeared to be secondary explosions – balls of fire that at times would light the night sky, accompanied by blasts that echoed across the city.

Amid the explosions?came another evacuation order and another IDF post on X saying it?is “currently targeting Hezbollah terrorist targets in the Beirut area.”

Many people I have spoken to over the past 10 days do not believe statements about “targeted” and “precise” strikes. They fear this war is going to be as destructive as the war in Gaza, that reduced much of the enclave to rubble and killed more than 41,000 people.

As I am writing this at 3:30 a.m., I hear another big blast rattle the windows of my hotel room. I can still hear the constant buzz of Israeli drones over the city – usually an indication of more strikes to come – and?I can’t help but think of the people of Beirut who have been through so much for so long.

How many casualties are there??Did people evacuate in time? How are parents comforting their children during this long and terrifying night?

Is that young woman’s house still standing?

At least 18 people have been killed in an overnight Israeli strike on Al Aqsa Martyrs Mosque in Deir el Balah in central Gaza, according to Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. The hospital sits right across from the mosque.

A CNN stringer said displaced Palestinians were sheltering there.

The Israeli military confirmed it carried out the strike, calling it “precise” and saying it was targeting a Hamas “command and control” center that was “embedded within the compound.”

“Prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precise munitions, aerial surveillance, and additional intelligence information,” the military said.

Flames and smoke rise in an area targeted by an Israeli air strike on Beirut's southern suburbs, on October 6.

CNN’s team on the ground in Beirut say they have heard constant blasts and explosions over the past two to three hours and they appear to be ongoing.

It’s unclear exactly how many blasts there have been, but a member of the team described the explosions in Beirut’s southern suburbs as one of the most intense sustained periods of strikes they had seen.

At least two of the blasts triggered what appeared to be secondary explosions, according to the team. One of the blasts hit the road to the airport, about 2.5km from the facility.

Approximately 30 projectiles crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory early on Sunday morning local time, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

Some of the projectiles were intercepted and some fell, the IDF said in a statement.

Thirty minutes after midnight, sirens sounded in Israel’s Kiryat Shmona area in the north.

Hezbollah issued?two statements?early Sunday saying it had targeted?Israeli soldiers?in the “Al-Manara settlement” and its surroundings in northern Israel with rockets?in support of the Palestinian people and in defense of Lebanon.

In a third statement, Hezbollah said it had targeted Israeli forces in the same area as they “evacuated the injured and killed soldiers.”

Flames and smoke rise in an area targeted by an Israeli strike on Beirut's southern suburbs early Sunday, local time.

At least five Israeli strikes hit southern Beirut late Saturday night into Sunday, Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reported.

Four of the strikes hit Beirut’s southern neighborhood of Dahiyeh, while a fifth hit Choueifat Al-Amrousieh. Watch CNN’s report from the scene.

A CNN team on the ground saw a series of blasts in southern Beirut that created thick plumes of smoke.

The strikes come shortly after the Israeli military warned residents of some parts of southern Beirut to evacuate immediately.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the Qatari, Saudi and French foreign ministers on Saturday to discuss the evolving situations in the Middle East, according to readouts.

During his phone call with French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-No?l Barrot, Blinken discussed the diplomatic resolution that would allow citizens of Israel and Lebanon to return to their homes.

Blinken also condemned Iran’s military attack against Israel on October 1.

Speaking to Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, Blinken discussed the need to return civilians to their homes, as well as the “urgent humanitarian situation” in Lebanon and the recent US announcement of nearly $157 million in assistance.

During his phone call with Qatar’s Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Blinken and Al Thani discussed the importance of implementing UN Security Council Resolution 1701 in Lebanon to allow civilians to return to their homes.

Blinken discussed the ceasefire and hostage release negotiations in Gaza with all three foreign ministers.

This post has been updated.

Approximately 130 projectiles were fired from Lebanon into Israeli territory Saturday, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

The IDF also said it had struck a Hamas command-and-control center Saturday afternoon in the northern Gaza Strip.

Israel’s Air Force worked with IDF intelligence to locate and destroy the center, which they say was embedded inside a building that previously served as a center for the UN’s agency for refugees (UNRWA).

The IDF said they used “precise munitions, aerial surveillance, and additional intelligence information” to avoid civilian casualties.

There has been heavy shelling and air strikes by the Israeli military in parts of northern and central Gaza after nightfall on Saturday.

A CNN stringer in the area said the strikes had continued for about 90 minutes and were concentrated on eastern Jabalya and Gaza city.

Paramedics from the Palestine Red Crescent Society said two people had been killed and several others taken to the Kamal Adwan hospital after a residential apartment in a building near the UNRWA clinic in Jabalya refugee camp was struck.

UNRWA is the main UN agency in Gaza but has been unable to operate the vast majority of its facilities for much of the last year.

Three more people were killed and others injured in a strike in Bir al-Najjah, west of Jabalya camp.

Witnesses reported the continuous presence of Israeli military drones in western neighborhoods of Gaza City.

The Israeli military said it had conducted a “precise strike” on Hamas militants “who were operating inside a command-and-control center in the area of Jabalya,” and that the center “was embedded inside a compound that previously served as an UNRWA center.”

Smoke and flames rise over Beirut's southern suburbs, as seen from Sin El Fil, Lebanon, on Saturday.

A CNN team in Beirut heard the sound of rumbling and distant blasts in the southern part of the capital about 30 minutes after the Israeli military issued more evacuation warnings late Saturday.

Big red flashes and a ball of flames could be seen erupting in Beirut’s southern suburbs, the team reported. There was also the persistent buzzing of drones, as has become common in recent weeks.

Latest Israeli warnings: A short time before the explosions rocked southern Beirut, an Israeli military spokesperson issued what he called an “additional warning to the residents of the southern suburbs in Haret Hreik and Choueifat Al-Amrousieh.”

Avichay Adraee, the Israel Defense Forces’ Arabic spokesperson, had posted the advisory on the social media platform X, along with images of specific blocks.

“You are located near facilities and interests affiliated with Hezbollah, and the IDF will work against them in the near future,” Adraee said.

Adraee issued an identical warning to residents of Bourj el Barajneh, a densely populated neighborhood that is home to a Palestinian refugee camp and many poorer migrants.

More background: In the past two weeks, such warnings from Israel’s military have immediately preceded airstrikes —?sometimes by a few minutes.

Israel is carrying out an unprecedented bombing campaign on Lebanon as part of its war against Hezbollah. The capital’s southern suburbs are a seat of power for the Iran-backed militant group, but also home to crowded residential neighborhoods, where civilians have been killed or forced to flee the aerial assault.

Demonstrators attend a protest Saturday in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Two days before the anniversary of the Hamas attacks on southern Israel, protesters have taken to the streets in several parts of the country demanding more urgent action to rescue the hostages still held in Gaza.

Protests took place in Tel Aviv, Caesarea, Beersheba, Jerusalem and elsewhere, with the relatives of hostages pleading for a release deal amid growing conflict across the region. The Ayalon highway in Tel Aviv was blocked, according to video footage on social media. The demonstration in Caesarea was held outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s private residence.

The main weekly rallies organized by the Families Forum were called off due to the security situation, with organizers fearing the risk of Hezbollah missiles landing in central Israel.

Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan is among the 101 hostages still held in Gaza, said at a protest at Begin Gate in Tel Aviv: “Why are they still in Gaza? Because of Netanyahu.”

Dani Elgarat, whose brother Itzik is one of the hostages, also blamed Netanyahu, saying a whole year had passed, “during which the hostages became hostages in Netanyahu’s war of personal survival.”

A crowd of protesters marches through Tel Aviv, Israel, on Saturday.

At a rally in Carmei Gat, one of the hostages freed in November, Liat Atzili Benin, acknowledged that mourning loved ones at the attacks’ anniversary was complicated by divided opinions on the path forward for the country.

“There is one thing our community agrees on without dispute,” she added, saying it was the “uncompromising struggle” to return the remaining hostages.

New Israeli airstrikes have struck Beirut’s southern suburbs on Saturday, the scene of daily attacks over the past week.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah has lost contact with a possible successor to its late leader Hassan?Nasrallah, according to a Lebanese security source.

And a leader of Hamas’ military wing in Lebanon was killed in?a rare Israeli airstrike?near Lebanon’s northernmost city of Tripoli.

Here’s what you need to know:

? Fresh airstrikes: Israel has carried out strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, launching several missiles at an area close to the airport. This residential area, which is a Hezbollah seat of power, is where Israel has focused many of its attacks during its escalating war with the Iran-backed paramilitary group. Lebanon’s government says Israel’s extensive bombing campaign has left more than 1,400 people dead and created a spiraling humanitarian crisis. Hezbollah is returning fire across the border, launching about 130 projectiles into Israeli territory Saturday, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

? Lost touch with key Hezbollah leader: The group has not heard from?Hashem Safieddine?since an Israeli strike targeted him in Beirut on Friday, the Lebanese security source told CNN Saturday. Safieddine has been seen as one of the most likely heirs?to the organization’s highest-ranking seat after Nasrallah’s killing.

? Hamas leader killed in north: Hamas confirmed the death of Atallah Ali, who it described as a leader of the Lebanon branch of its military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades. It is believed that Lebanon’s second-largest city, Tripoli, had not previously been targeted since the 2006 conflict between Hezbollah and Israel.

? Rallies around the globe: Thousands of people rallied Saturday in support of Palestinians ahead of the one-year anniversary of Hamas’ October 7 attacks and the ensuing war in Gaza. Marches have been taking place in Paris, Manila, Cape Town and other major cities. In Rome, police fired tear gas at an unauthorized pro-Palestinian protest with about 5,000 people after protesters started throwing objects at authorities.

? Ground operations: Israeli forces have so far destroyed more than 2,000 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon — including weapons,?military buildings and underground infrastructures — according to the IDF’s spokesperson. Israeli authorities said Saturday they were responding to several reports of direct hits to houses and debris falling in northern Israel after a barrage of rockets was fired by Hezbollah.

? Almost a year of war: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says nearly one year after the October 7 attacks, his country is now fighting on seven fronts. Israel is carrying on with its war against Hamas in Gaza, even as attention has turned to its?bombardment of Lebanon. Israeli airstrikes pounded northern and central Gaza after nightfall Saturday, with several people reportedly killed. The Israeli military said it was targeting Hamas militants in the enclave, where tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed, including thousands of children. Hamas, like Hezbollah, is backed by Iran, and Israel’s dual conflicts with the groups have deepened fears of a wider regional war.

UK Foreign Minister David Lammy attends an event during the annual Labour Party conference on September 22 in Liverpool, England.

UK Foreign Minister David Lammy has called reports of Israeli strikes on health facilities and support personnel in Lebanon “deeply disturbing” in a post on X on Saturday.

Lammy also called for an “immediate ceasefire on both sides so Israeli and Lebanese civilians can return home.”

On Thursday, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said 37 health facilities had been forced to close in southern Lebanon and at least 28 health care workers had been killed in the previous 24 hours alone.

On Friday, the Marjayoun Governmental Hospital near the Israel-Lebanon border was evacuated after an Israeli strike hit the area outside its main entrance, killing seven people, the facility’s director, Dr. Mones Kalakish, told CNN. The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment.

Also on Friday, the Israeli military carried out a?strike in the vicinity?of the Martyr Salah Ghandour Hospital in?Bint?Jbeil, after ordering its evacuation, the National News Agency of Lebanon reported. The airstrike hit?a mosque adjacent to the hospital. Israel claimed the mosque was used as a Hezbollah command center.

Nine medical staff were injured and the hospital was evacuated, according to state media.

The Israel Defense Forces is on high alert ahead of Monday’s anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attacks on southern Israel, military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said Saturday.

“We are prepared with reinforced troops, based on the assumption that toward this date, attempted terror attacks will be carried out against the homefront,” Hagari said Saturday.

Hagari said the IDF is coordinating with security agencies and that the military’s forces are “on very high alert.”

Israeli army tanks maneuver in a staging area in northern Israel near the border with Lebanon on October 1.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says nearly one year after Hamas’ October 7 attacks on Israel, his country is now fighting on seven fronts.

“Today, Israel is defending itself on seven fronts against the enemies of civilization,” he said in a video statement Saturday.

He said those include Iranian-backed Hezbollah in the north, Hamas in Gaza, the Houthis in Yemen, “terrorists” in the West Bank, and the Shiite militias in Iraq and Syria.

He said he is maintaining his promise to change the balance of power in the north between Israel and Lebanon, where Iranian-backed Hezbollah has been attacking Israel with rockets, missiles and UAVs since October 8 of last year.

Referring to Gaza, he said that Israel has a right defend itself and that it will not forget the 101 hostages “whom we are committed to with all our might to bring them home.”

He also said “shame on” French President Emmanuel Macron and other countries who call for arms embargoes against Israel.

“Rest assured, Israel will fight until the battle is won — for our sake and for the sake of peace and security in the world,” Netanyahu added.

Remember: The Iran-backed militant groups spread throughout the Middle East have long been at conflict with Israel, but have engaged in intensifying clashes since October 7. Groups like the Houthis and Hezbollah say their attacks are in support of the Palestinians in Gaza, where Israel’s military campaign has killed tens of thousands and led to a humanitarian crisis.

Israeli forces have so far destroyed more than 2,000 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon — including weapons,?military buildings and underground infrastructures — according to the spokesperson for Israel’s military,?Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari.

Hagari said Hezbollah had “invested many efforts and resources to locate its military means under the ground and inside civilian buildings in villages adjacent to the border. Now, we are fiercely operating to dismantle those.”

He said some Hezbollah operatives had been killed in close-quarters combat, and asserted that some 440 Hezbollah fighters had been killed in ground combat or from the air, including about 30 commanders of various ranks.

Hagari added that Hezbollah’s chain of command had been “severely hit … (and) this is painful to the Iranian leadership.”

Israel’s extensive bombing campaign in Lebanon has at times targeted densely populated areas, leaving more than 1,400 people dead and over 1 million displaced, according to the Lebanese health ministry.

On the Iranian attack: Hagari also confirmed that during Iranian ballistic missile attacks against Israel on Tuesday, there were “several hits in central Israel, in civilian areas,” as well as on air bases in Nevatim and Tel Nof. The strikes had not hit planes and did not harm the air force’s operations, Hagari said.

In southern Lebanon: The IDF said Saturday that service members in the Paratroopers Brigade “continue to fight in southern Lebanon, navigating complex, mountainous, and dense terrain.”

The IDF also released details of tunnels it said it had uncovered in southern Lebanon. Troops had destroyed “250 meters of underground terror infrastructure in southern Lebanon,” it claimed.

Asma speaks to CNN standing in the rubble of the struck school in Deir al-Balah, Gaza.

An Israeli airstrike on a school sheltering orphans in central Gaza killed at least one child and wounded 15 other Palestinians on Friday, according to health officials.

CNN footage of the aftermath in Deir al-Balah showed blasted pieces of concrete wall. Young boys knelt barefoot and tried to recover torn books, red rucksacks, empty plastic water bottles and canned food. One survivor told CNN she was awoken by the blast, which happened in the middle of the night, as she frantically searched for her son and daughter.

“We were asleep in this room, which is a room for orphans,” said Asma, a mother whose son and daughter were recovered following the attack. “We are still in a state of shock. There was none other than children here.”

The Israeli military said in a statement that it “struck terrorists who were operating inside a command-and-control center” at the school. CNN cannot independently verify the statement, but the IDF frequently accuses Hamas of using civilian infrastructure for its operations and has struck well over a dozen schools in various parts of Gaza in the past month.

Children look through debris and recover items from the school in Deir al-Balah, Gaza.

CNN video shows scores of children injured by the strike lying on the floor at nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.

Toll on children: Relief workers have repeatedly highlighted the toll of Israel’s military campaign on children in Gaza. The UN children’s agency UNICEF reported on Friday that between 17,000 to 18,000 orphans are unprotected in the besieged strip.

Israeli attacks in Gaza since the Hamas-led October 7 attacks have killed at least 16,891 children, the Ministry of Health there reported on September 25. CNN cannot independently verify the ministry’s figures.

Remember: Israel is carrying on with its military campaign in Gaza even as attention has turned to its bombardment of Lebanon. Hamas and Hezbollah, the militant groups Israel is fighting on each front, are both backed by Iran, and the dual conflicts have deepened fears of a wider regional war.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog has sent a message to Jewish communities around the world marking the upcoming anniversary of last year’s attack by Hamas on Israel, lamenting the antisemitism around the world that has erupted since.

In his message, Herzog said that “in many senses, we are all still living the aftermath of October 7.”

“It is in the ongoing threat to the Jewish state by Iran and its terror proxies, who are blinded by hatred and bent on the destruction of our one and only Jewish nation state,” Herzog added.

But, Herzog continued, “We are a people with the power to keep standing up again and again against hatred.”

Protesters clash with police officers during a demonstration in support of Palestinians on Saturday in Rome.

Police used tear gas and water cannons at a pro-Palestinian protest in Rome with about 5,000 people after protesters started throwing objects at authorities.

At least 30 officers and four protesters were injured after the demonstrations turned violent, according to police.

Demonstrators chanted “vergogna,” which means “shameful” in Italian, and shouted?the names of US President Joe Biden,?Italian Prime Minister Giorgna Meloni and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. They carried signs and yelled, “Stop the genocide in Gaza.”

Police tightly guarded the area in Rome’s Ostiense-Testaccio neighborhoods, as the plan for the unauthorized protest was to march from there to the nearby Colosseum, but heavily armored police cars blocked all the exits from a square. Rome police had denied the request to hold the rally, organized by the Young Palestinians group.

Police officers detain a person at a protest to express support for Palestinians in Gaza on Saturday in Rome.

Around 5 p.m. local time, protesters who were trying to move the demonstration into a march were met with resistance by police in riot gear. The protesters started throwing bottles and rocks, paper bombs and even some street sign poles that had been dislodged at police, who responded with tear gas and water cannons. The protest was eventually dispersed around 6:30 p.m. local time, with five protesters taken into custody, according to a spokesperson for Rome’s municipal police.

Some of the protesters regrouped and carried signs on nearby streets.

Rome police also checked 1,600 people and arrested 19 who were arriving by train at various stations. The arrests were not specified by the police.

Here is what protesters had to say at rallies held around the world today:

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Updated 6:54 AM EDT, Sun October 6, 2024

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Pro-Palestinian rallies staged worldwide ahead of October 7 anniversary

00:38 - Source: CNN

This post has been updated with an injury toll from law enforcement officials.

Israeli airstrikes in?Lebanon killed at least 25 people and injured 127 on Friday, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health.

The ministry said the casualties occurred in towns and villages across southern Lebanon, as well as in the city of Nabatieh, the Beqaa valley, the Baalbek-Hermel region, Mount Lebanon and the capital?of Beirut.

At least 1,426 people have died and 7,597 people have been injured by Israeli military action in Lebanon since September 16, according to a CNN tally based on the ministry’s data.

Israel has launched an unprecedented bombing campaign and a limited ground offensive in the country as it fights the Iran-backed paramilitary group Hezbollah, which is based out of southern Lebanon.

US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

US President Joe Biden told reporters Saturday that he has not spoken to Israel’s Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu yet, after saying in earlier in the week he would be talking to the Israeli leader.

“No,” the president said, when asked by CNN’s Camila DeChalus if he had spoken to the Israeli leader.

Earlier in the week, the president told reporters that he would be speaking to Netanyahu “relatively soon” amid growing escalation in the Middle East.

The president was also asked about his message to the families of hostages being held in Gaza ahead of the one-year anniversary of the October 7?attack in Israel.?Biden, while on the South Lawn, told reporters, “I’ll be talking to a bunch of them.”

People attend at a pro-Palestinian protest in Rome on Saturday.

Thousands of people rallied around the world Saturday in support for people in Gaza ahead of the one-year anniversary of the October 7 attacks.

Marches have been taking place in Paris, Manila, Cape Town and other major cities in the run-up to the anniversary of the Hamas attacks that killed around 1,200 people in Israel, according to Israeli authorities. Israel’s subsequent war in Gaza has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians in the months since, according to the health ministry in the enclave.

“Unfortunately, in spite of all our good will, the Israeli government does not take any notice, and they just go ahead and continue their atrocities in Gaza, now also in Lebanon and in Yemen, and now also probably in Iran,” Agmes Koury, a protester in London, told Reuters while holding a sign reading: “This Holocaust survivor says: Stop the genocide in Gaza.”

Rim Boughanmi, a Tunisian protester who joined Saturday’s march in Rome, told Reuters: “We came here to say no to war, to say no to genocide in Gaza, Lebanon and Yemen, no more war and no more support from the Italian state.”

“I’m here in support of the Palestinian people, especially the children and the women that are being violated and bombed each and every day. It cannot be right that we sit back and watch what Netanyahu is doing. It is enough: Palestine belongs to Palestinian people, not Israelis,” protester Nikewe Jentu told AFP in Cape Town.

In Dublin, hundreds of protesters marched, chanting, “Ceasefire now!” and “Free, Free, Palestine!”

In Israel: The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said Thursday it would not hold its weekly Saturday rallies in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem due to the “security situation” in the region. But dozens of rallies are still set to take place today in other locations.

French President Emmanuel Macron speaks at the Berlin Global Dialogue in Berlin, Germany, on October 2.

French President Emmanuel Macron has called for the complete suspension of the sale of arms used in the war in Gaza, while stressing France has not been involved in their supply.

“Right now, the priority is returning to a political situation, that we stop the delivery of arms being used in the war in Gaza. France is not delivering them,” Macron told French radio station France Inter on Saturday.

Several countries including the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom have been criticized by human rights groups for failing to suspend arms sales to Israel as its bombardment of Gaza has left tens of thousands of Palestinians dead.

France’s defense minister Sébastien Lecornu has repeatedly insisted that the country mainly supplies “spare parts” to Israel — worth 15 million euros in 2022 — and has supplied “no weapons.”

This response has failed to satisfy French and international NGOs, including Amnesty International, whose French chief Jean-Claude Samouillier penned an open letter to Macron earlier this year calling on him to suspend the export of war materials entirely.

Last month, the UK government announced the suspension of a fraction of its licenses for items used by the Israeli military in Gaza, which brought bitter criticism from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Germany put a pause on the approval of new arms export licenses to Israel, according to a Reuters report last week, which cited a source close to the Ministry of Economy.

Macron’s call comes as Israel also engages in an escalating war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, where it has been carrying out a new bombing campaign comparable to its aerial assault on Gaza.

Dubai’s Emirates airline has banned pagers and walkie-talkies from its planes, following last month’s attacks on such devices carried by the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

Dubai’s?Emirates airline has banned pagers and walkie-talkies from its planes, following last month’s attacks on such devices carried by the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

“All Passengers travelling on flights to, from or via Dubai are prohibited from transporting pagers and walkie talkies in checked or cabin baggage,” the airline wrote in a statement posted on its website Friday.

It comes weeks after?pagers exploded simultaneously?across Lebanon, followed by walkie-talkies detonating in a similar fashion. Lebanese officials blamed Israel for the attacks.

Emirates, the region’s largest airline, said in an update Friday that flights from and to Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, remain canceled up until and including October 15.

The Israeli military has published the names of 10 people who it says were killed by a strike on the occupied West Bank on Thursday.

Altogether, according to the Israel Defense Forces, 12 militants were killed in the attack on the Tulkarem area — one of the highest numbers in a single day in the West Bank since last October.

The IDF said the people killed belonged to Hamas and Islamic Jihad, claiming the strike was carried out to thwart an “attack against Israeli civilians in the immediate future,” and that all 12 people were involved in making explosives or “supporting terrorist activities.”

Zahi Yaser Abd al-Razeq Oufi, head of Hamas in Tulkarem, and Jit Radwan, a key operative in the Islamic Jihad in the Tulkarem area, were among those killed, according to the IDF.

The Palestinian health ministry previously said at least 18 people were killed in the strike, and Israeli ally Germany expressed concern over reported civilian deaths in the attack.

Some background: The?West Bank?is a territory that lies between Israel and Jordan, home to?3.3 million?Palestinians living under Israeli military occupation. While Israel fights wars with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, violence has also increased in the West Bank.

Israel has launched large-scale raids in the territory, including one in late August that saw Israel tearing up streets with bulldozers and launching strikes in Tulkarem.

There has also been increasing violence against Palestinians by?Israeli settlers in the West Bank, whose presence is considered illegal under international law.

Lebanon is contending with a “terrible crisis” as it continues to be bombarded by Israeli strikes, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said Saturday.

The high commissioner said that he had traveled to the Lebanese capital “in solidarity with those affected, to support the humanitarian effort and to ask for more international help.”

Remember: As many as a million people have been displaced in Lebanon in recent weeks, according to Lebanese officials, as Israel has ratcheted up its military campaign against Hezbollah. Over 1,400 people in Lebanon have been killed, and a further 7,500 have been injured, according to the country’s health ministry.

Israel has carried out fresh strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, launching several missiles at an area close to the airport.

A CNN camera recorded one of the blasts and a CNN team reported seeing smoke billowing from an area less than a mile from the airstrip.

The Lebanese state-run National News Agency said Israel struck Ain al-Sikka square in the Bourj el Barajneh area with four missiles. Bourj el Barajneh is a densely populated neighborhood that is home to a Palestinian refugee camp and many poorer migrants.

The Lebanese capital’s southern suburbs, an area of residential neighborhoods that’s also a Hezbollah seat of power, is where Israel has focused many of its attacks during its escalating war with the Iran-backed paramilitary group.

Israel has been bombarding Lebanon at a scale that hasn’t been seen outside of Gaza in the last 20 years, according to air warfare experts.

People stand near damaged vehicles at the site hit by an Israeli strike in the northern city of Tripoli, Lebanon, on October 5.

A leader of Hamas’ military wing in Lebanon has been killed in a rare Israeli airstrike near Lebanon’s northernmost city of Tripoli.

In a joint statement, the Israel Defense Forces and Israeli intelligence agency Shin Bet said they killed Saeed Atallah Ali, “a senior member of (the) Hamas Military Wing in Lebanon,” who they claimed “carried out terrorist attacks against Israeli targets and worked to recruit Hamas operatives inside Lebanon.”

It is believed that Lebanon’s second-largest city, Tripoli, has not been targeted since the 2006 conflict between Hezbollah and Israel. Israel’s strikes have largely focused on the south of the country and on Hezbollah strongholds in southern Beirut.

Hamas confirmed the death of Atallah Ali, who it described as a leader of the Lebanon branch of its military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades.

In a statement, the group said that Atallah Ali was killed by “treacherous Zionist bombing that targeted his home in the Beddawi refugee camp” near Tripoli. Ali’s wife and two daughters were also killed in the bombing, the statement said.

The Beddawi refugee camp, housing Palestinian refugees, is located on a hill 5 kilometers (about 3 miles) northeast of Tripoli. Footage from the scene showed the damage sustained to the apartment building targeted in the strike. Outside the building, a cordon blocked off two damaged cars surrounded by piles of rubble. Sheets hung out from the balcony of the fifth floor apartment, attempting to conceal some of the damage caused by the strike.

Remember: Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza has been ongoing for nearly a year, following Hamas’ attacks in Israel on October 7, 2023. Hezbollah and Israel have consistently been exchanging fire since October 8. The Iran-backed?militant group has said that it will not stop striking Israel until a ceasefire in Gaza.

Three people suffered minor injuries in a Hezbollah rocket barrage launched at the Deir al-Assad area of northern Israel today, according to the Galilee Medical Center.

Twelve other people received medical assistance to cope with the shock and anxiety of the incident, the hospital said.

Earlier on Saturday, Israeli authorities said they were responding to several reports of direct hits to houses and debris falling in Karmiel and Deir al-Assad.

Footage shared on social media showed minor damage to some buildings and cries and shouts. Another video showed a fire burning in the distance.

Remember: Hezbollah has been firing rockets and other projectiles into northern Israel as Lebanon endures an unprecedented Israeli air campaign.

The Iran-backed?militant group has said it will not stop striking Israel until a ceasefire in Gaza is reached.

Smoke billows after an Israeli Air Force air strike on a village in southern Lebanon on October 4.

This week saw Israel launch a limited ground incursion into southern Lebanon as it targets Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah. For the first time since 2006, Israel struck central Beirut, with previous attacks being confined to the city’s southern suburbs.

These developments have marked a dramatic escalation in tensions between Israel and Hezbollah, and suggested that fears of an expanded regional war have materialized.

Meanwhile, Iran launched ballistic missiles at Israel, and has pledged it will attack again if necessary.

Here’s a timeline of this week’s key events:

Hundreds of foreign nationals who have been flown out of Lebanon have been repatriated in the last 24 hours.

About 185 people from countries including the Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland and Finland landed in the Dutch city of Eindhoven on Friday night, according to the country’s Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp.

A separate evacuation flight from Lebanon arrived in Cyprus Friday night, carrying 38 Cypriots, 11 Greek nationals, two Poles and 19 Lebanese with permanent residency in Cyprus, the Cypriot foreign ministry?said in a statement.

Several dozen Polish nationals were evacuated from Lebanon, Poland’s foreign ministry said, arriving in Warsaw Friday night. Two hundred and nineteen “particularly vulnerable Germans” were also evacuated from Lebanon Friday, Germany’s foreign office said.

Nigerian nationals in the south of Lebanon have been brought to Beirut and “other safer areas,” Nigeria’s foreign ministry said?Friday. The Nigerian government has “commenced preparation for evacuation of Nigerians in Lebanon back to Nigeria,” the ministry added. Kenya’s government is also evacuating its citizens from Lebanon, it said in a statement Friday.

A charter flight supported by the Australian government left Beirut with 229 passengers on board on Saturday, according to?Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong. Five Malaysians also landed in Kuala Lumpur on Friday after being evacuated from Lebanon, the country’s?foreign ministry said.

Israeli authorities said they were responding to several reports of direct hits to houses and debris falling in Karmiel and Deir al-Assad, northern Israel, after a barrage of rockets was fired by Hezbollah on Saturday.

Footage shared on social media showed minor damage to some buildings. Another video showed a fire burning in the distance.

Israel’s emergency service Magen David Adom (MDA) said it had treated 10 people for shock but reported no physical injuries.

Several fire department crews were deployed preventatively in case people had become trapped and to assist with any possible injuries.

Eight firefighting teams were engaging an “extensive fire” near the town of Rosh Pina, authorities said.

Hashem Safieddine attends a ceremony of the Iran-backed Shiite militant group in Beirut's southern suburbs on May 24.

Hezbollah has lost contact with a possible successor to its late leader Hassan?Nasrallah, according to a Lebanese security source.

The group has not heard from Hashem Safieddine since an Israeli strike in Beirut’s southern suburbs targeted him on Friday, the source told CNN Saturday.

Some background: Safieddine served as head of Hezbollah’s executive council and, until his predecessor’s?death, was seen as one of the most likely heirs?to the organization’s highest-ranking seat.

He is a maternal cousin of Nasrallah, and studied alongside him in Iran in the 1980s.

Following the back-to-back explosions that targeted Hezbollah pagers and walkie-talkies in September, Safieddine said that his organization “will not back down until the end.”

The United States designated Hezbollah a foreign terrorist organization in 1997, and in?2017 designated Safieddine?a foreign terrorist.

CNN’s Nadeen Ebrahim contributed to this report.

A plane carrying 40 tons of urgent medical aid from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) landed in Lebanon Saturday, under the ‘UAE stands with Lebanon’ campaign, a Lebanese Ministry of Health official told CNN.

The UAE launched its relief campaign to support Lebanon on Saturday, its foreign ministry announced.

“The aid aircraft reflects the UAE’s humanitarian efforts and commitment to supporting the people of Lebanon and demonstrates the close fraternal relations between both nations, particularly in the face of such adversity,” the UAE’s foreign ministry said, noting that the country will send $100 million in aid to Lebanon.

“The UAE has previously expressed its deep concern over increased escalation in Lebanon, as well as the repercussions of this dangerous spillover and its impact on regional stability,” the foreign ministry said.

It comes after Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced nearly $157 million in US humanitarian assistance Friday to “support populations affected by conflict in Lebanon and the region.”

As many as one million people have been displaced in the country in recent weeks, according to Lebanon’s crisis management center, as Israel has ratcheted up its military campaign against Hezbollah. This includes more than 200,000 people, mostly Lebanese and Syrians, who have fled across the border into Syria, according to the United Nations.

The Israeli military has claimed to have?dismantled?several Hezbollah weapons storage facilities and tunnels during a series of localized raids in the border region of southern Lebanon, where a ground operation is underway.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that Israeli soldiers are carrying out focused raids on what it said was “terrorist infrastructure” both above and below ground.

According to the IDF, the targets, concealed in mountainous, densely built-up areas rigged with explosives, included weapons caches, observation posts and missile launch sites.

Earlier, Hezbollah said it had attacked an Israeli tank and repelled an Israeli assault on the town of Adaisseh. When asked by CNN, the IDF said it was not aware of these incidents.

New Israeli airstrikes have struck Beirut’s southern suburbs on Saturday, the scene of daily attacks over the past week.

CNN teams saw large plumes of dark smoke coming from the area, while the state-run National News Agency of Lebanon (NNA) also reported on fresh Israeli strikes.

Smoke rises following an explosion over Beirut's southern suburbs after a strike, as seen from Sin El Fil, Lebanon, on Thursday.

Israel has continued to batter Lebanon with strikes into Saturday, in an aerial campaign that has killed over 1,400 people, injured nearly 7,500?others and?displaced more than one million people?in less than three weeks, according to Lebanese officials.

Israel has refused to rule out targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities, while reports from Hamas-linked media have claimed Israeli forces have struck near Lebanon’s second-largest city of Tripoli for the first time.

Here are the latest updates:

More than 200,000 people have fled from Lebanon into Syria since Israel started its bombing campaign inside the country, the United Nations’ High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, said Saturday.

Among those are both Lebanese citizens and Syrians living in Lebanon, Grandi said.

Relief efforts are being carried out by the UN, the Syrian Red Crescent and other organizations at border crossings, he added.

Some context: Lebanese authorities have said that over 1.2 million Lebanese people have been displaced since fighting between Israel and Hezbollah escalated last month. Many families are now living on the streets.

Last week, Lebanon’s country director for Relief International, Giacomo Lapo Baldini, told CNN that hundreds of thousands of people don’t have access to clean water after facilities were hit by Israel.

Hezbollah said it struck an Israeli tank advancing near the outskirts of the?Lebanese village of Maroun early on Saturday.

The militant group said it had hit the tank “directly” with a guided missile.

It also claimed that the Israeli crew members inside the tank were either killed or injured by the strike.

In a separate incident, Hezbollah said it had repelled an overnight assault by Israeli forces near the town of Adaisseh. In its last update on the incident several hours ago, Hezbollah said “clashes are ongoing.”

CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces on these reports but has not heard back.

Israel launched what it calls a “limited” ground incursion into Lebanon earlier in the week.

Destroyed residential buildings are seen after the Israeli military carried out airstrikes on the Dahiyeh area, south of Beirut, on Saturday.

The Israeli bombardment of Lebanon continued Saturday morning, following strikes across the country and at least a dozen air raids on Beirut’s southern suburbs overnight, according to the National News Agency of Lebanon (NNA).

The Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) Arabic-language spokesperson told residents who had previously been ordered to leave their homes?not to return in a statement on Saturday. Israel has hit the southern suburbs of Beirut every day for the past week.

Between 12:50 AM and 2:44 AM local time,?Adraee issued three separate warnings to residents of Beirut’s southern suburbs to evacuate ahead of planned airstrikes.

“You are located near Hezbollah facilities and interests, against which the IDF will operate in the near future,” he wrote in each of the orders, which included maps of the specified areas.

Elsewhere in Lebanon, NNA reported strikes in areas including the Beqaa valley in the east and the city of Tyre on the Mediterranean coast, as well as in southern communities closer to the border with Israel.

Dozens of people took part in a group run in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Saturday, calling for the release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.

The gathering is the group’s fiftieth run since the war began and comes just days ahead of the one-year anniversary of the brutal Hamas attack on Israel on October 7.

Runner Eili David said that he felt “terrible,” adding that he believes the hostages have been living in “inhumane conditions” for the past year and “we still have not brought them back.”

On the possibility of staying hopeful that a hostage deal will be struck, David said he “has to be.”

Another runner said that he thinks about the hostages in Gaza “every day, all day.” He added was still “very hopeful” for their return, saying it was “possible if our leadership wants it.”

People stand at the site hit by an Israeli strike that killed Saeed Atallah Ali in Tripoli, Lebanon, on Saturday.

A leader of the Lebanon branch of Hamas’ military wing, the al-Qassam brigades, was killed by an airstrike near the northern city of Tripoli, according to a media outlet affiliated with the group.

The Israeli military has not commented on the report, which if confirmed would be the first strike in the Tripoli region, Lebanon’s second-largest city.

Hamas has yet to officially comment on the reports.

This post has been updated.

A hospital in southern Lebanon was evacuated following an Israeli strike that left nine medical staff injured, according to state media.

The strike – in the vicinity of the Martyr Salah Ghandour Hospital in Bint Jbeil – came after an evacuation order from the Israeli military, the National News Agency of Lebanon (NNA) reported, citing a statement from the hospital.

The statement added that most of the nine injured workers were in serious condition.

The Israeli military said in a statement on Saturday that it had struck a mosque adjacent to the hospital which it said was being used as a Hezbollah command center.

“Before the strike, notices were sent to residents and conversations were held with significant parties in the villages in which the IDF identified Hezbollah utilizing hospitals in defiance of the laws of armed conflict – demanding that any military activity carried out from the hospitals should stop immediately,” the military said.

One of Lebanon’s southern-most hospitals, the Marjayoun Governmental Hospital, was taken out of service Friday after Israeli strikes hit close to the facility, the hospital director Dr Mones Kalakish told CNN.

Medical facilities impacted: Israeli bombardment has taken a heavy toll on Lebanon’s health infrastructure in recent days.

On Thursday the director-general of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said 37 health facilities had been forced to close in southern Lebanon and 28 healthcare workers had been killed in the previous 24-hours alone.

Smoke billows after an Israeli Air Force air strike on a village in southern Lebanon on Friday.

A surgeon in Beirut has accused Israel of waging a “war on children” in Lebanon, drawing a comparison to how large numbers of young people have faced death and injury during Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.

Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a British-Palestinian surgeon at American University of Beirut Medical Center, who previously worked in Gaza, gave his account from the ground to CNN’s Michael Holmes on Saturday.

“We are seeing [a] similar pattern to what I was seeing in Gaza in October and November last year,” he said.

He said children were being wounded in their homes and in some cases seeing multiple family members killed.

According to UNICEF, more than 690 children in Lebanon have been injured in the past six weeks and at least 100 killed over the past 11 days as Israel has?ramped up strikes against Hezbollah.

Israel says it takes steps to minimize civilian harm, such as making phone calls and sending text messages to residents in buildings designated for attack. Human rights groups like Amnesty International say such warnings do not absolve Israel of responsibilities under international humanitarian law to limit civilian harm.

Abu-Sittah, who serves as director of the Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Department at the prestigious American University hospital, also spoke of the similarities between the injuries inflicted by the two Israeli offensives in Gaza and Lebanon.

More than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza and more than 96,006?injured since Israel launched its war on Hamas following the group’s October 7 attack, according to the Gaza health ministry. The health ministry does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its figures but says most of the dead are women and children.?Israel earlier this year said it had killed more than 17,000 combatants in Gaza since the start of the war. CNN cannot independently verify the ministry’s numbers.

Israel has?not given assurances to the Biden administration?that targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities is off the table in retaliation to the Iranian ballistic missile strikes earlier this week, a top US State Department official told CNN on Friday.

The official added that it is “really hard to tell” if Israel will use the anniversary of Hamas’ October 7 attacks to retaliate.

Earlier this week, President Joe Biden said the?US would not support Israel targeting Iran’s nuclear program.

US officials also do not yet have clarity as to when Israel’s response will be decided upon, or enacted.

Asked whether Israel would use the one year anniversary of the Hamas attack to retaliate against Iran, the official said?“it is really hard to tell.”

“I think in some ways they would want to avoid the seventh, so in my estimation if there is anything it would likely be before or after,” the official said, pointing to the solemnity of that day and any Israeli retaliation potentially taking away from what that day was all about.

The US has been working for almost a year to prevent the conflict from turning into a bigger war — and has so far done so, the official said. Right now,?“this is on the edge,” the official added.

Hezbollah has said it repelled an Israeli incursion near the town of Adaisseh in southern Lebanon with clashes following a second?ongoing, according to two statements on Saturday

The militant group said Israeli infantry first attempted to advance toward the town at 11:00 p.m. on Friday.

The second statement said Israeli soldiers had advanced again toward Adaisseh at 1:50 a.m. on Saturday.

The statement said its fighters “confronted the attempt to advance, and clashes are ongoing.”

CNN has contacted the Israeli military for comment on the reported confrontations.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Friday that two of its soldiers from the Golani Brigade were killed in “northern Israel” in a drone attack that came from the east.

The IDF didn’t specify who it suspects of carrying out the attack but it happened on Wednesday, the same day the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of several Iran-backed militias, said it conducted drone attacks on three targets in what it called ?“separate operations north of our occupied territories.”

Hamas praised the group for their support of Palestinian people, saying the Iraqi Islamic Resistance’s drone operation targeted Israeli forces in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights in the northeast, “resulting in deaths and injuries.”

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq also said it conducted three other drone attacks on Friday in the Golan Heights and Tiberias.

The Golan Heights is a strategic plateau that Israel seized from Syria during the Six-Day War in 1967, before formally annexing it in 1981. It remains under Israeli government control and is considered to be occupied territory by much of the international community.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced nearly $157 million in US humanitarian assistance Friday to “support populations affected by conflict in Lebanon and the region,” as the country continues to voice support for the “limited” Israeli military campaign in Lebanon that has triggered mass displacement.

“This funding will address new and existing needs of internally displaced persons and refugee populations inside Lebanon and the communities that host them,” Blinken said in a statement. “The assistance will also support those fleeing to neighboring Syria.”

Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced in the country in recent weeks as Israel has ratcheted up its military campaign against Hezbollah, including more than 100,000 people, mostly Lebanese and Syrians, who have fled across the border into Syria, according to the United Nations.

US officials say they support Israel’s military campaign, but note they have concerns about the humanitarian impact.

“We?do think it’s appropriate that Israel, at this point, is bringing terrorists to justice and trying to push – trying – and launching these limited?incursions, what at least at this point are limited?incursions, trying to push Hezbollah back from the border,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Thursday.

“Ultimately our goal is a diplomatic resolution,” he said.

Peacekeepers from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) patrol near the Blue Line in Kafarkila, Lebanon, on August 16.

The United Nations refused a request from Israel to move some its peacekeepers near the Lebanese border just days before Israel began its ground operation earlier this week.

United Nations Interim Force In Lebanonn (UNIFIL), the UN’s peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon, received a request from the Israeli military to “vacate” several positions near the Blue Line — the demarcation zone between Israel and Lebanon which has been the center of intense fighting in recent months, according to Jean-Pierre Lacroix, UN Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations.

The UN already anticipated the prospect of Israel carrying out “targeted ground operations” in Lebanon and decided to stay put in such an instance, Lacroix told a briefing Thursday.

“We had made a very considerate, thorough and sorely discussed decision that it would be better for UNIFIL, for peacekeepers, and in terms of our responsibility to the mandate to stay in those positions,” the chief added.

Some context:?UN peacekeepers have been stationed along the roughly 120 kilometer Blue Line since it was drawn up by the UN in 2000 to ensure Israel’s complete withdrawal from Lebanon. UN peacekeepers were drawn from armies of several nations to monitor the situation along the Blue Line which separates the two states.

The Israeli military said it killed at least seven militants, including a senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative, in?Thursday’s strike on the West Bank’s Tulkarem area, using at least one fighter jet.

Israel described Ghaith Radwan as “a key operative” in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad operation in Tulkarem. The group’s military wing, the Al-Quds Brigades, confirmed Radwan’s death, calling him one of the leaders of the Tulkarem Battalion in the occupied West Bank.

The strike killed other Islamic Jihad members as well as operatives of Hamas, the Israeli military said, alleging the militants were gathering to carry out a terror attack against Israel in the “immediate future.”

Hamas confirmed on Friday that one of its commanders, Zahi Yaser Oufi, was among eight members killed in the attack. Israel said Oufi was the leader of Hamas’ network in the Tulkarem area.

At least 18 people were killed in the strike, the Palestinian health ministry said Thursday.

Germany, an ally of Israel, said the high number of civilian victims is shocking.

“In the fight against terror, the Israeli army is committed to the protection of civilians in the West Bank. Palestinians, like the Israelis, have the right to a life of safety,” the German Foreign Office posted to X on Friday.

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah gives a televised address in Lebanon on September 19.

Israel’s assassination of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah last Friday has driven the Iran-backed?group even deeper underground.?A successor has not yet been named. And perhaps most unusually, a funeral — at least a public one — has not yet been held.

Why this matters:?According to Islamic norms, the dead must be laid to rest at the soonest opportunity, normally within 24 hours. That is especially true for Muslims slain by an enemy state. Questions swirled and reports emerged on Friday morning that the late leader had been buried in secret. But a source close to Hezbollah told CNN this was not true. “Nothing has been decided,” the source said, about the time and place of the burial.

Coupled with the lack of a clear successor, this has shrouded the group in more secrecy. For a week, Hezbollah’s public statements have been cursory at best. This strikes a sharp contrast with the Iran-backed Shia group’s practice of shoring up community support with public gatherings, and Nasrallah’s long and rousing speeches.

Still, this all underscores the fact that this is a very different war. During the last all-out war with Israel in 2006, Nasrallah gave televised speeches nearly?every day. The leadership is operating more clandestinely than ever before, after having been confronted?by the most extensive Israeli infiltration of its ranks in its history.

Smoke billows from an Israeli airstrike in Khiam, Lebanon, on October 3.

Israel’s bombardment of Lebanon is heavier than the height of the United States’ fight against ISIS,?data from a conflict monitoring group?shows.

Israel has pummeled Lebanon with an unprecedented airstrike campaign in less than three weeks, killing more than 1,400 people, injuring nearly 7,500?others and?displacing more than 1 million people?from their homes, according to the Lebanese health ministry.

To put that into context, over the course of two days, on September 24 and September 25, the Israel military said it used 2,000 munitions and carried out 3,000 strikes.

In comparison, for most of America’s 20-year war in Afghanistan, the US carried out less than 3,000 strikes a year, barring the first year of the invasion, where around 6,500 strikes were carried out, according to data from Airwars analyzed by CNN.

Israel’s bombardment, which Israel says is targeting Hezbollah strongholds in the country, marks the world’s “most intense aerial campaign” outside of Gaza in the last two decades, Airwars said.