Two more rockets fired from Lebanon at Israel land in the sea

The Times of Israel, citing the Israeli military, said two rockets fired from Lebanon at the northern city of Nahariya have fallen into the sea. There were no reports of damage or injuries.

The latest salvo came after Hezbollah claimed five separate attacks on Israeli airbases, including three missile assaults on the Megiddo Airfield and another on the Ramat David Airbase.

Israel claims attacks on Hezbollah launchers

The Israeli military says it bombed the Hezbollah launchers used in the missile attacks aimed at the Megiddo Airfield, located near the city of Afula. The military, writing on X, said it also attacked dozens of Hezbollah “targets” in several areas of southern Lebanon.

Civil defence tackled 176 fires across Lebanon in 24 hours

Lebanon’s civil defence says its crews have tackled 176 fires amid Israeli strikes across the country. It said it responded to blazes in agricultural land in Harf Miziara and Qartaba and in a landfill in Mashha, among others.

The Israeli military said it hit dozens of “Hezbollah targets” in several areas of southern Lebanon overnight.


_{Flames and smoke rise from an Israeli airstrike on the Mahmoudieh mountain, south Lebanon}

Israel says over 50 projectiles fired from Lebanon

The Israeli military says more than 50 projectiles were fired from Lebanon into northern Israel this morning. The sirens sounded between 09:42 (06:42 GMT) and 09:44. “The majority of the projectiles were intercepted,” the army said in a statement.

Approximately five projectiles also targeted the HaAmakim area, in central Israel, at about 09:36.

Hezbollah claims to have attacked Israel’s Ramot Naftali base

Lebanon’s Hezbollah armed group says its fighters have attacked the logistical warehouses of the 146th Division in the Ramot Naftali military base with a missile salvo. The group did not elaborate on the timing and results of the attack.

Earlier today, it said volleys of Hezbollah rockets bombed the Kiryat Shmona settlement in northern Israel.

Israel claims strikes target Hezbollah weapons, infrastructure

The Israeli army says approximately 10 projectiles were launched from Lebanon towards the HaAmakim area in northern Israel at about 10:30am local time (07:30 GMT). The military added in a statement that it launched several strikes in southern Lebanon targeting “launchers, terrorist infrastructure sites and buildings in which weapons were stored”.

Israel using displacement as a weapon of war

This conflict has been going on for 11 months now. It had been confined to military targets, but the past week has been very difficult, with a very high casualty toll among civilians.

Civilians were hurt in last week’s pager and walkie-talkie explosions, as well as in that massive strike in Beirut’s southern suburb, in a residential district. And dozens of women and children were killed in Israeli strikes yesterday.

Israel employs a military strategy called the Dahiya doctrine, which refers to Beirut’s southern suburbs. They employed this during the 2006 war. It’s about pressuring Hezbollah by targeting civilian infrastructure, and it seems this is what they’re trying to do now. No doubt those strikes are also about degrading the group’s military capabilities, but they are also about displacement as a weapon of war.

The message of the Israelis is this: “If we cannot return our citizens to northern Israel, then your citizens will be displaced.” And what Israel has been doing is concentrating these strikes in areas where Hezbollah has a presence, where Hezbollah supporters live, south Lebanon and the east of the country,

They’ve still not carried out that kind of wave of attacks in Beirut’s southern suburbs. Because if they do that, then the equation changes between these warring sides. Hezbollah will target Tel Aviv.


_{Smoke billows over southern Lebanon following Israeli strikes as seen from Tyre, southern Lebanon September 23}

Israel aiming to break up Hezbollah and Hamas with Lebanon attacks

This is the largest military campaign Israel has launched into Lebanon in a generation.

Netanyahu’s stated aim has been that he wants to get Israelis back into their homes in northern Israel and military pressure may bring Hezbollah leader Nasrallah back to the negotiating table.

Israel wants to negotiate a deal from a position of strength and cut off the renewed relationship between the Lebanon front and the Gaza front, between Hezbollah and Hamas, since the war in the Strip began almost a year ago.

But Hezbollah has shown that it remains capable of launching strikes deeper inside Israel even though it suffered some of its biggest losses. It has driven the cabinet to approve a “special situation” across the country and that will include curfews and forced evacuations.

Lebanon sets up 89 temporary shelters

Nasser Yassin, the Lebanese minister coordinating the crisis response, told Reuters that the 89 temporary shelters were set up in schools and other facilities. He said the shelters can house more than 26,000 people who have fled “Israeli atrocities”.


_{Children play as they take shelter in a school in Beirut}

Ex-Israeli army spokesman warns against ground offensive in Lebanon

Brigadier-General Ronan Manelis has told the Maariv newspaper that if Israel sends ground troops into Lebanon, it will be fulfilling the “biggest dream” of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.

“We are trying to push Nasrallah to raise the white flag, which is probably not characteristic of him,” he said, adding that the belief that the war will end quicker if Israel exercises maximum force is a fundamental mistake.

Israel’s stated objectives could have been achieved through diplomacy

Gideon Levy, a columnist with Israeli newspaper Haaretz, says that Israel claims the attack on Lebanon aims to secure the return of 60,000 displaced people to northern Israel.

“But this could have been achieved by a deal if Israel had agreed to a ceasefire in Gaza,” he said. “Israel was not ready to put an end to the war in Gaza, so here we are now in another war on a very big scale,” Levy added.

He also warned that the war in Lebanon was “just beginning”, but even after months of attacks “nothing will be achieved”. “Even if anything is achieved, it will be the same that could have been achieved yesterday through diplomacy.”

Belgium’s deputy PM slams Israel’s ‘horrendous’ attacks

Petra de Sutter said she was “shocked” by the toll from Israel’s attacks on Lebanon on Monday.

“492 lives lost in Lebanon. +1600 injured. Tens of 1000s were ordered to flee their homes. In 1 day,” she wrote on X.

“This horrendous attack by Israel won’t lead to any solution for the region. Only diplomacy will bring citizens home safely. Only a ceasefire will end the suffering,” she added.

I’m shocked.
492 lives lost in Lebanon. +1600 injured. Tens of 1000s were ordered to flee their homes. In 1 day.

This horrendous attack by Israel won’t lead to any solution for the region.

Only diplomacy will bring citizens home safely. Only a ceasefire will end the suffering. https://t.co/Gd7Q7lOw0R

— Petra De Sutter (@pdsutter) September 24, 2024

Qatar Airways suspends flights to Beirut

The Qatari national carrier said it has “temporarily suspended flights to and from Beirut Rafic Hariri International Airport” until Wednesday. It cited the “ongoing situation in Lebanon”.

“The safety of our passengers remains our highest priority,” it added.

Germany’s Lufthansa, Air France and Delta Air Lines of the United States have also suspended flights to Beirut in recent days with some carriers’ services to Israel and Iran also affected.

Israeli army warns Lebanese villagers again

Spokesperson Avichay Adraee has issued an “urgent” statement warning residents of Lebanese villages to move at least 1km (0.6 miles) away from buildings it claimed are being used by Hezbollah.

The statement by the Israeli army also said that the air attacks continue.

As we previously reported, cars carrying Lebanese families fleeing Israel’s attacks, as well as ambulances and fire department vehicles, were hit on Monday, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.

Lebanese lives ‘don’t matter as much as Israeli lives’ to Western world

Antony Loewenstein, journalist and author of The Palestine Laboratory, says much of the Western world does not regard “Arab Muslim lives as valuable”.

“I think what we’ve seen in the last 24 hours is reflected on how much of the Western world has responded since October 7, which is that Arab and Palestinian lives or Lebanese lives don’t matter,” he told Al Jazeera from Sydney. “They don’t matter as much as Israeli lives, as Jewish lives.”

Loewenstein added that the administration of US President Joe Biden does not have “the guts” to stop Israel and is “actually supporting” it.

“In some ways, the US sees what Israel is doing is doing the US’s bidding, that there’s been a long desire to take on Hezbollah and Iran militarily,” he said. “And Israel is doing that bidding and America is backing them up.”

Israeli army says it will ‘accelerate offensive actions’ in Lebanon today

The Jerusalem Post has quoted the Israeli army Chief of the General Staff Herzi Halevi as saying that the military will “accelerate offensive actions today and reinforce all units.”

“We must not give Hezbollah a break,” Halevi said at a situational assessment, according to the newspaper. “We will continue to operate at full strength.” “The current situation requires continued intensive operations across all fronts,” he added.

Hundreds cross into Syria from Lebanon: Report

Some 500 people have crossed from Lebanon to war-torn Syria, a Syrian security official told AFP news agency, fleeing the deadliest Israeli bombardment since Hezbollah and Israel fought a devastating war in 2006.

“Around 500 people crossed the border through the Qusayr and Dabousiya crossings between 4 pm (1300 GMT) and midnight,” Monday, the security official told AFP, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

“Vehicles were still crossing in the early hours of the morning,” he added.

‘This violence has to stop immediately’: UNICEF

UNICEF has warned that a further escalation in the conflict will “catastrophic” for children in Lebanon, particularly those who have been forced into displacement by Israel’s attacks.

“This violence has to stop immediately or the consequences will be unconscionable,” said Ettie Higgins, the UN agency’s deputy representative to Lebanon.

“Schools are closed today across the country, leaving children at home in fear. Their caregivers are themselves afraid of the uncertainty of the situation.

UN spokesperson says region can’t afford full-scale war

Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, has told Al Jazeera, “It is not too late to go back to diplomacy.” “It’s clear that the people of Lebanon, the people of Israel and of the region cannot afford a full-scale war,” he said.

He added that UN representatives were on the ground to push for a diplomatic solution.

White House says US determined to de-escalate Israel-Lebanon tensions

US President Joe Biden is determined to bring about a Gaza ceasefire and captive deal with Hamas while it also seeks to de-escalate tensions on Israel’s border with Lebanon, according to White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan.

“He absolutely hasn’t given up,”  Sullivan said in an interview with MSNBC. He said there have been challenges getting both sides across the line, “but we’re determined to keep at it”.

White House urges Americans to leave Lebanon

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby says Americans in Lebanon should leave now while flights are still available.

“We want to make sure that there are still commercial options available for Americans to leave, and they should be leaving now while those options are available,” Kirby told ABC News’s “Good Morning America” programme, adding that US officials have been in constant contact with Israeli counterparts.

Looks like the de-escalation attempts are only for show again.

Israel ’emboldened’ by US support

One of the major issues being pointed out by analysts, by experts, by regional leaders concerned about this escalation is that Israel is able to do so because there is no proportional military deterrent.

But there is a presence of a massive US military war machine off the Mediterranean providing cover for Israel in the event that any regional actors may want to get involved in the conflict. So that military cover, political cover on the international stage has emboldened Israel to continue to do what they’re doing.

And every attack that happens where there is no international condemnation only emboldens them further towards the next one.

UN chief warns Lebanon is on the ‘brink’ after Israeli attacks

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres tells world leaders that Lebanon was “at the brink” and warned against allowing the country to turn into “another Gaza,” a day after Israeli attacks killed more than 550 people there.

“Gaza is a nonstop nightmare that threatens to take the entire region with it. Look no further than Lebanon,” Guterres said at the opening of the UN’s annual gathering as hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, an Iran-backed armed group, threatened to plunge the region into all-out war.

“We should all be alarmed by the escalation. Lebanon is at the brink. The people of Lebanon, the people of Israel, and the people of the world cannot afford Lebanon to become another Gaza.”

War featured prominently in the UN chief’s remarks, with references to Gaza, Lebanon, Ukraine, Sudan, and other continuing conflicts. You can follow our live coverage of the UN General Assembly 2024 here.

Iran president says Hezbollah ‘cannot stand alone’ against Israel: Report

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian says that its ally Hezbollah “cannot stand alone” against Israel.

“Hezbollah cannot stand alone against a country that is being defended and supported and supplied by Western countries, by European countries and the United States,” Pezeshkian said in an interview with CNN, translated from Farsi to English.

He called on the international community to “not allow Lebanon to become another Gaza,” in response to a question on whether Iran would use its influence with Hezbollah to urge restraint.

Iran called on the UN Security Council to “take immediate action” against the “insane” Israeli escalation.

Israel carries out air raid on southern suburbs of Beirut

The Israeli military says it has carried out a “targeted strike” on the southern suburbs of Beirut. Footage shared online has captured the moment of the Israeli air attack on southern Beirut.

غارة إسرائيلية على منطقة الغبيري في الضاحية الجنوبية لبيروت #lebanon24 pic.twitter.com/dkYJ9SXmZw

— Lebanon 24 (@Lebanon24) September 24, 2024

_{A residential building whose top floors were hit by an Israeli attack in the Ghobeiri area}

Six killed, 15 injured in Beirut strike: Ministry

Lebanon’s Health Ministry says at least six people have been killed and 15 wounded in an Israeli air attack targeting Beirut’s southern suburb of Ghobeiri. The initial toll is expected to rise as emergency services continue their work at the scene.

Lebanon schools, nurseries to remain shut

Authorities in Lebanon have extended the closure of schools and universities until the end of the week due to Israel’s attacks. Nurseries across the country will also remain shut over the same period.

Hezbollah claims strike on Israeli base south of Haifa

The Lebanese group has said in a statement it bombed Israel’s Elyakim military base, south of Haifa, with Fadi 2 missiles. The Israeli army said five projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanon into Israeli territory at around 1:07pm (11:07 GMT).

Some were intercepted and fragments were retrieved in the area of Elyakim, it said, adding that a reservist soldier was lightly injured and taken to hospital.

According to the statement, the Israeli air forces “struck and dismantled the launcher from which the projectiles were fired”.

Israel has set a ‘trap’ for Hezbollah

Raymond Murphy, a professor at the University of Galway’s Irish Centre for Human Rights, says the situation in Lebanon is “extremely dangerous” and that Israel has attacked to not only defeat Hezbollah but provoke it to respond with increasing force.

“And as a consequence, possibly to bring Iran into the conflict, as well as the Houthis in Yemen, which would force the hand of the United States,” the former UN peacekeeper told Al Jazeera from Galway, Ireland.

“So if the situation escalates and Hezbollah falls for what is essentially a trap that’s being set by the Israelis and responds very forcefully … then the United States will also step in in defence of Israel,” he added.

Murphy said that the situation is already out of control and escalation could lead to unknown consequences.

“So it’s really important to put pressure on the Israelis to cease the current round of hostilities,” he said. “And the only country that can really do that, though, is the United States.”

Iran’s Pezeshkian condemns ‘senseless’ UN inaction against Israel

The Iranian president has denounced the UN’s “inaction” against Israel, describing it as “senseless and incomprehensible”.

“In my meeting with the Secretary General of the United Nations, I said the UN inaction against the crimes of the occupying regime is senseless and incomprehensible,” Masoud Pezeshkian said in a post on X, adding that “I expressed my deep concern about the spread of the conflict in the entire Middle East.”

2 UN refugee agency staff members killed by Israeli strikes on Lebanon on Monday, commissioner says

Two staff members of the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) were among the 558 people killed in Lebanon on Monday, the organization’s chief confirmed on Tuesday.

Dina Darwiche was killed alongside her youngest son when an Israeli missile struck the building they lived in on Monday, the agency told CNN. She worked for the UN for 12 years in Beqaa.

Darwiche’s husband and one of her children were rescued and are in hospital receiving treatment for “serious injuries,” it added. Ali Basma, the other staff member killed by the strikes, had worked for the UN for seven years in Tyre, a coastal town south of Beirut. Basma was buried on Tuesday morning.

“UNHCR is outraged by the killing of our colleagues, and we extend our deepest sympathies to their families and loved ones,” it said.

In a post to X, UNHCR Commissioner Filippo Grandi took aim at Israeli airstrikes which he said were “relentlessly claiming hundreds of civilian lives.” “On behalf of all us at UNHCR, heartfelt condolences to their families, friends and colleagues,” he added.

Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon are now relentlessly claiming hundreds of civilian lives.

And I am very saddened to confirm that two UNHCR colleagues were also killed yesterday.

On behalf of all us at UNHCR, heartfelt condolences to their families, friends and colleagues.

— Filippo Grandi (@FilippoGrandi) September 24, 2024

Many children still "missing under rubble" in Lebanon, UNICEF warns

Many children remain “missing under rubble” and caught “on dangerous roads” after Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon, the UN children’s agency warned, as the country suffered its deadliest day since 2006. 

More children were killed in Lebanon in one day on Monday than in the entire past year, Ettie Higgins, UNICEF Deputy Representative for Lebanon Ettie Higgins told a UN briefing Tuesday. 

UNICEF has received reports that many Lebanese children “slept in cars and on the sides of roads” on Monday night after thousands of families were displaced from their homes in southern Lebanon, Higgins said.

“We’re also getting reports that hundreds of children are caught en route across dangerous roads across the country,” she added.

The agency was also asked for the first time on Monday to provide mobile mortuary vehicles to store the remains of children, Higgins added. 

“If we return to a conflict like those dark days of 2006, we really fear as UNICEF that this time, it could be even worse for the children of Lebanon,” Higgins stressed.  

_{A man checks the damage to a building hit in an Israeli airstrike in the southern village of Akbieh, Lebanon, on September 24}

Guterres highlights ‘impunity, inequality, and unpredictability’ facing the world

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres opened the General Assembly saying, “We are edging towards the unimaginable. A powder keg which risks engulfing the world.”

“Meanwhile, 2024 is the year that half of humanity goes to the polls, and half of humanity will be affected. I stand before you in these whirlwinds convinced of two arriving truths,” he said.

“First, the state of our world is unsustainable, we can’t go on like this. And second, the challenges we face are solvable, but that requires us to make sure the mechanisms of international problem-solving actually solve problems. The Summit of the Future was the first step, but we have a long way to go.

“Getting there requires confronting three major drivers of unsustainability: a world of impunity where violations and abuses threatened the very foundation of international law and UN charter.

“A world of inequality where injustices and grievances threaten to undermine countries or even push them over the edge. And a world of uncertainty where unmanaged global risks threaten our future in unknowable ways.”

UN chief denounces ‘age of impunity everywhere’

“These worlds of impunity, inequality and uncertainty are connected and colliding,” Guterres said.

“Excellencies, the level of impunity in the world is politically indefensible and morally intolerable. Today, a growing number of governments and others feel entitled to get-out-of-jail-free cards. They can trample international law, they can violate the United Nations charter, they can turn a blind eye to international human rights conventions or the decisions of international courts.

“They can thumb their nose at international humanitarian law, they can invade another country, lay waste to all societies or utterly disregard the welfare of their own people and nothing will happen.

“We see this age of impunity everywhere – in the Middle East, in the heart of Europe, in the Horn of Africa and beyond.”

‘No sign’ of end to Ukraine war

Guterres says the war in Ukraine is continuing with “no signs of letting up”.

‘Lebanon is at the brink,’ warns UN secretary-general

“Gaza is a nonstop nightmare that threatens to take the entire region with it,” UN’s Guterres says.

He added:

‘Humanitarian catastrophe unfolding’ in Sudan

In Sudan, a power struggle has “unleashed horrific violence including widespread rape and sexual assault”, Guterres says.

“A humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding as famine spreads, yet outside powers continue to interfere with no unified approach to finding peace,” he said.

He added in the Sahel, the “dramatic and rapid expansion of the terrorist threat requires a joint approach rooted in solidarity, but regional cooperation has broken down”.

“From Myanmar to Democratic Republic of the Congo, to Haiti, to Yemen and beyond, we continue to see appalling levels of violence and human suffering in the face of a chronic failure to find solutions.”

‘Global reflection of collective action’: UNGA President Yang kicks off General Debate

UN General Assembly President Philemon Yang, of Cameroon, has kicked off the General Debate portion of the gathering, in which world leaders will deliver often wide-ranging speeches.

“The general debate remains one of the world’s most inclusive, represented, representative and authoritative platforms for global reflection of collective action,” he said.

He called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, warned of the continued threat of nuclear war, called for gender equality and support for human rights, reform of the international financial system, and support for the fast-growing population of Africa.

“Within this hall are the leaders and representatives of the world’s nations, the very people with the authority and responsibility to shape the cause of our shared future,” he said.

Brazil’s Lula begins speech with hat tip to Palestinian delegation

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva began his speech specifically addressing the Palestinian delegation and President Mahmoud Abbas who are “taking part in this opening session for the first time, albeit as an observer member”.

He then called for more international action, pointing out that even after the global COVID pandemic, worlds leaders have not boosted cooperation. He highlighted high global military spending, arguing that “these resources could have been used to finance the fight against hunger and climate change.”

Lula decries war in Gaza, Lebanon; calls for resolution in Ukraine

The Brazilian president, who has been critical of Israel, said that what began as “a terrorist action by fanatics against innocent Israeli civilians has become a collective punishment for the entire Palestinian people”.

“The right to defense has become the right to vengeance,” he said, adding he was also concerned about the escalation in Lebanon.

He referenced the soaring number of displaced people across the globe, fuelled by conflicts like the wars in Yemen and Sudan.

He took particularly time focusing on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in which Brazil has sought to take on the role of peace broker. “Creating conditions for resuming direct dialogue between the parties is crucial at this time,” he said.

‘Fed up with unfulfilled climate agreements’

Brazil is home to large swaths of the Amazon rainforest, and Lula entered office pledging to counter deforestation and climate change. He has faced many domestic barriers to the pledge.

“The planet is no longer waiting to demand payment for the next generation, and is fed up with unfulfilled climate agreements, and it’s tired of neglected carbon-reduction targets and financial aid to poor countries that does not arrive,” said Lula.

“My government does not outsource responsibility, nor does it abdicate its sovereignty. We have done already a lot, but we know that much more needs to be done.”

He appealed for countries to meet global climate pledges, while saying he would “not tolerate” environmental crimes and continued deforestation in Brazil.

Lula calls for fight against global inequality and UN reform

The Brazilian leader ended his speech by taking aim at global inequality, saying leaders must “no longer accept hunger, inequality, unemployment and violence in a globalised world”.

“It makes no sense to resort to false patriots and isolationists,” he said. He pointed to the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty, a Brazilian-led task force set to launch in November, as one area of possible cooperation.

Lula also noted the United Nations is “about to turn 80” and yet “the United Nations Charter has never undergone comprehensive reform.”

“When the UN was founded we were 51 countries. We are now 193 countries. Several countries, mainly on the African continent, were under colonial rule when the UN was founded and had no say over its goals and functioning.

“There is no gender balance in the highest positions, the position of secretary-general has never been held by a woman,” Lula noted.