Thank you for following our live reporting of the Gaza war and its far-reaching implications.
We will continue our coverage of the conflict tomorrow morning.
Thank you for following our live reporting of the Gaza war and its far-reaching implications.
We will continue our coverage of the conflict tomorrow morning.
Metula Regional Council Head David Azulay reported that a rocket fell near a house in the council's area, causing significant damage and sparking a fire. Shrapnel from the rocket also ignited a fire in a nearby nature reserve. The Israeli army confirmed that one projectile was launched into the region.
Amos Hochstein, President Biden's envoy, met with senior officials in Israel and clarified to his counterparts that the United States does not believe that a broader conflict in Lebanon will assist in returning the residents of the north to their homes, Haaretz has learned.
According to him, an escalation in fighting could expand into a regional conflict. Hochstein added that the U.S. remains committed to a diplomatic solution on the Israel-Lebanon border, with or without a deal in Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein at the Israeli defense headquarters in Tel Aviv that the return of northerners to their homes was "not possible without a fundamental change in the security situation," Haaretz reported.
Netanyahu's office added that he assured Hochstein that "Israel appreciates and respects the support of the United States, but ultimately it will do what is necessary to ensure its security and allow the people of the north to return home safely."
Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar said the Palestinian Islamist movement was ready for a "long war of attrition" against Israel, in a message to Yemen's Houthi rebels, who carried out a rare missile attack on central Israel on Sunday.
"We have prepared to wage a long war of attrition," Sinwar said, promising that "resistance" groups in Gaza, Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen would "break the will of Israel," according to the message released by the Houthis.
Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar said the Palestinian Islamist movement was ready for a "long war of attrition" against Israel, in a message to Yemen's Houthi rebels, who carried out a rare missile attack on central Israel on Sunday.
"We have prepared to wage a long war of attrition," Sinwar said, promising that "resistance" groups in Gaza, Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen would "break the will of Israel," according to the message released by the Houthis.
The Israeli army claimed that its jets attacked Hezbollah weapons depots and military structures in the areas of Tayr Harfa, Adaysse, Blida and Kfar Shouba in southern Lebanon.
U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein met with senior officials in Israel and made clear to his counterparts that the United States did not believe a broader conflict in Lebanon would contribute to the return of northerners to their homes, Haaretz reported.
He said an escalation of fighting could turn into a regional conflict. Hochstein added that the United States remained committed to a diplomatic solution on the Israeli-Lebanese border, with or without a deal in Gaza.
(Photo provided by L'Orient Today's correspondent Muntasser Abdallah)
The Lebanese Union of Palestinian Committees for the Right of Return held a sit-in in front of a clinic of the United Nations Office for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) in the Ain al-Helweh camp, to demand more U.N. support for refugees.
Israel broke the sound barrier over Saida and the West Bekaa, according to L'Orient Today's correspondents.
Here’s an update on the Hezbollah attacks against Israeli positions:
*Hezbollah stated that, in retaliation for the Israeli strike on Houla in the Marjayoun district, which killed one person and injured four, it targeted the Israeli Ramim barracks, located opposite the Lebanese village of Markaba in the Marjayoun district, with a "salvo of Katyusha rockets."
*Hezbollah targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers at the Israeli Metat base at 4:35 pm.
*The party also targeted the Israeli Rwaisat al-Alama site in the disputed Kfar Shuba hills at 4:35 pm, and the Samaka base in the disputed Kfar Shuba hills at 5 p.m.
Here’s an update on the security situation in southern Lebanon:
*One Hezbollah member was killed and four people were injured in the Israeli strike against Houla in the Marjayoun district earlier today, the Health Ministry said.
*Israeli phosphorus shelling targeted the Sarda farm in the Wazzani area, in the Hasbaya district, local residents reported.
Hezbollah said it targeted the Israeli Metula site, facing Khiam in the Marjayoun district, at 4:25 p.m.
The Palestinian Action Committee in Lebanon is urging Palestinians to participate in a peaceful sit-in on Tuesday, Sept. 17, to express their rejection of punitive measures taken by UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) against employees based on their nationality. The sit-in also aims to demand improvements in UNRWA's health, education and relief services.
The sit-in will take place at 10 a.m. in front of the UNRWA headquarters in Beirut, across from the Sports City, according to the statement released for the event.
The "Jewish Chronicle," the world's oldest continuously published Jewish newspaper — operating for 183 years — has acknowledged publishing false information about the war in Gaza, according to Le Monde. The management dismissed Elon Perry, a newly hired journalist, suspected of spreading "fake news" that supported Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's stance against Hamas, the newspaper detailed.
On Sept. 5, Perry published claims about a supposed plan by Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar to flee Gaza through the Philadelphi Corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border, which seemingly reinforced Netanyahu's statements made the previous day. Netanyahu had emphasized the need to maintain Israeli military presence at the Gaza-Egypt border, a stance many in Israel view as an obstacle to reaching a cease-fire and freeing hostages held in Gaza.
Here’s an update on the security situation in southern Lebanon:
*Israeli artillery shells targeted Kfar Kila (Marjayoun district), local residents reported.
*Israeli warplanes conducted airstrikes on Tayr Harfa (Sour district), Kfar Shuba (Hasbaya district), Blida and Adaisseh (both located in the Marjayoun district) according to local residents.
Here’s an update of the Hezbollah attacks against Israeli positions:
*Hezbollah launched an "aerial attack using a precision drone strike on a gathering of Israeli soldiers near the [Israeli] Metula site," facing Khiam in the Marjayoun district.
*The party also announced that it launched a rocket attack on Israeli artillery positions in Zaarourah, located in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights at 2:30 pm.
Hezbollah announced the death of one of its fighters, Mohammad Ibrahim Yassine, born in 1993 in the village of Houla.
According to our correspondent, the victim was killed in an Israeli strike that targeted a house in the village of Houla (Marjayoun) earlier in the day, which also injured two others.
"A rocket that was launched from Lebanon has ignited a fire in an open area in northern Israel near Kibbutz HaGoshrim," Haaretz reported.
"According to the Israel Fire and Rescue Services, six firefighting teams are on scene," according to Haaretz.
Tehran has not supplied hypersonic missiles to Yemen's Houthis, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said during a televised press conference reported by Reuters. His statement came a day after the Iran-backed group claimed that a missile it fired at Israel was hypersonic.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had warned that Israel would exact a "heavy price" on the Houthis, who control northern Yemen, after they struck central Israel with a missile on Sunday for the first time.
"It takes a person a week to travel from Iran to Yemen, so how could this missile have gotten there? We don’t have such missiles to provide to Yemen," Pezeshkian insisted.
The Israeli army "targeted Hezbollah military buildings in Houla (Marjayoun) in southern Lebanon," Avichay Adraee, an Arabic-language spokesperson for the Israeli army, wrote on X.
"Following alerts issued in the Upper Galilee region, at 2:19 p.m., several rockets were fired from Lebanon, some of which were intercepted and the others fell in open areas without causing any injuries," Adraee wrote.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly preparing to fire Defense Minister Yoav Gallan amid disagreements over an imminent offensive in Lebanon, several Israeli media outlets reported Monday. He is reportedly considering appointing center-right MK and former Justice Minister Gideon Saar to the post, according to government sources cited by national broadcaster Kan.
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew said there were "signs of flexibility" from Israel in negotiations over the release of the hostages and the cease-fire with Hamas, Haaretz reported.
Lew added that while it remains to be seen whether Hamas is willing to accept the deal, "we are all pushing to find common ground ... Ultimately, someone on the Hamas side has to decide, and this is what it takes to get them to do it," Lew said.
Here’s an update on Hezbollah’s attacks against Israeli positions:
- Hezbollah targeted the Israeli site Birkat Risha, located opposite the Lebanese town of Boustan (Sour), with artillery shells at 1:45 pm.
- The group also stated that its fighters targeted Israeli soldiers' positions around the Metula site, facing Khiam (Marjayoun), with rocket fire.
One person was killed and two were injured as a result of the Israeli strike on Houla (Marjayoun), the Public Health Emergency Operations Center of the Ministry of Public Health announced.
U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein is expected in Israel today as part of the Biden administration's efforts to try to prevent the opening of a second front with Lebanon, according to the New York Times.
"One of President Biden's most trusted advisers is expected to arrive in Israel on Monday, amid growing concerns that months of cross-border violence between Israel and Hezbollah could escalate into a wider regional war," the newspaper reported.
Hochstein's visit is part of the Biden administration's efforts to prevent "an escalation and expansion of this conflict," White House spokesman John Kirby told reporters last week.
The recent Israeli attack on Houla (Marjayoun) targeted a house, L'Orient Today's correspondent reports. Ambulances headed to the scene.
Photo sent by residents to L'Orient Today's correspondent
Latest developments in southern Lebanon:
- Israeli shelling targeted the town of Hanine (Bint Jbeil), according to residents.
- Israeli planes attacked Houla (Marjayoun), also according to statements from residents.
The Gaza health ministry said 41,226 Palestinians have been killed and 95,413 wounded in the Israeli military offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, according to Reuters.
The Civil Defense in the Gaza Strip has reported at least 18 dead and several injured in Israeli airstrikes on the war-torn Palestinian territory, AFP reports.
Ten people died after a strike hit the home of the al-Qassas family in the Nusseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, a doctor at al-Awda hospital where the bodies were taken told AFP.
The Civil Defense confirmed the death toll in the strike at 10, adding that six other Palestinians were killed in an airstrike on a house belonging to the Bassal family in the Zeitoun neighborhood (southern Gaza City). Two people were also killed in an airstrike on a house belonging to the Abu Shaar family in Rafah, in the far south of the Gaza Strip, according to the Civil Defense.
Latest developments in southern Lebanon:
- Israeli artillery fire targeted the outskirts of Kfar Shouba (Hasbaya), according to residents quoted by L'Orient Today's correspondent.
- An Israeli drone dropped a bomb on two Syrian farmers in the Wazzani area (Marjayoun), but none of them were injured, according to residents. Yesterday, the Israeli army had dropped leaflets over Wazzani, ordering residents to leave the area.
Photo provided by Hezbollah media office
Sheikh Abdelkarim Abid, a member of Hezbollah's Executive Council, said that the "Israeli enemy can only be confronted through resistance. [Israel's] main characteristic is killing children and women, because it is incapable of confronting men on the battlefield," he continued.
Speaking from Zebdine (Nabatieh) at a memorial ceremony for a fallen Hezbollah member, he said: "No matter how long the Zionist aggression lasts, it will not undermine the will of the Lebanese and Palestinian people, whether in the tenacity of Gaza or the West Bank and its resistance, or in southern Lebanon."
The Arabic-language spokesperson for the Israeli army, Avichay Adraee, said last night, on his X account, that "the army bombed Hezbollah missile launch pads in the area of Rashaya al-Foukhar in southern Lebanon." Explosions followed this bombing, "which proves the presence of missiles on the site," he added, attaching to his tweet satellite images of what he claims is the bombing of this launch pad.
Yemen's Houthis say they shot down a U.S. MQ-9 drone in Yemen's southwestern province of Dhamar, the Iran-allied group's military spokesperson Yahya Saree was quoted as saying by Reuters.
The Israeli Defense Ministry said new equipment and weapons have been distributed to 97 security brigades in northern Israeli communities near the border with Lebanon, Haaretz reported.
Affected villages, including Kiryat Shmona and Nahariya, received kits including combat gear, medical equipment, protective gear and more.
The ministry also said that in the coming weeks, communities in the northern Golan Heights will also be re-equipped, bringing the number of re-equipped security squads to 120 in total.
The ministry added that it would purchase about 9,000 Arad-type rifles for security teams in communities in Israel's border regions, at a cost of about $13.4 million. This purchase is in addition to the approximately 5,000 rifles purchased by the Defense Ministry at the start of the war.
The latest developments on the Lebanese-Israeli border this morning:
- The Israeli army said several soldiers were lightly injured overnight by two drones that exploded in the northern Golan Heights, which is partly occupied by Israel. The soldiers were treated on the spot and did not need to be evacuated, according to the army statement.
- Warning sirens sounded in Metula and Kfar Giladi in northern Israel.
- A rocket and an anti-tank missile fired from Lebanon landed near Metula in northern Israel this morning. The attack caused material damage, but no casualties were reported.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told his American counterpart Lloyd Austin that "the possibility of a settlement of the situation in northern Israel is disappearing" and that "Hezbollah continues to ally itself with Hamas," adding that "the direction is clear," according to Haaretz.
In a statement released by Gallant's office, the Israeli defense minister said in a phone call with Austin Sunday night that Israel "must keep Hezbollah out of southern Lebanon" and ensure that citizens of northern Israel can return home.
Gallant also said that the Israeli defense would continue to work by all means to destroy Hamas and bring the hostages held by Hamas home.
The village of Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights announced that its schools will be closed for the next two days due to the current security situation after two drones exploded less than 10 km from the town, Haaretz reports.
A rocket attack killed 12 children and teenagers in Majdal Shams in late July. Israel blamed it on Hezbollah, which Hezbollah denied carrying out the strike.
In a statement released this morning, Hezbollah praised the attack carried out by Yemeni Houthi rebels on Sunday against the Israeli capital Tel Aviv, carried out "with great precision, in a complicated military context."
Such an attack "contributes to revealing the fragility of this enemy at all levels," the text continued.
According to Hezbollah, this Yemeni attack "is a courageous decision " that "proves the unity of the axis of resistance" and shows that "the fronts of support for the Palestinian people remain active."
Here is what happened in southern Lebanon last night and this morning:
- An Israeli bombardment of residential neighborhoods in the village of Kfar Kila (Marjayoun), in retaliation for an attack on the Israeli region of Metula this morning, which has not yet been claimed.
- After 7 p.m. Sunday, Hezbollah claimed responsibility for a suicide drone attack on a barracks in Yardan, in the occupied Golan, in response to "the attack on the Bekaa the day before, which left several people injured, including children."
- After 8 p.m. on Sunday, Hezbollah issued another statement announcing that it had targeted Israeli artillery positions in Dayshum at 7:20 p.m.
The missile strike claimed by Yemen's Houthi rebels that targeted central Israel on Sunday caused no casualties, according to the Israeli army. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that the Houthis will pay "a heavy price" for their "attempt to harm" Israel.
"The conclusion of the missile examination shows that the target was hit by an interceptor, which led to the fragmentation of the target, but it was not destroyed," an army official told AFP on Sunday evening.
The Houthis claimed that the attack was carried out "with a new hypersonic ballistic missile" that reached its target, a military position in Jaffa, in the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. According to their leader, Abdel Malek al-Houthi, the missile "pierced" the Israeli defenses. "The Israeli enemy must expect other strikes," they warned.
In the Gaza Strip, Israel is continuing its offensive, including new airstrikes. At least 35 people were killed this weekend across the besieged Palestinian territory, according to reports from the Hamas government's Health Ministry, Civil Defense, the Red Crescent and medical sources.
Be sure to read the Morning Brief so you are caught up with what has been happening.
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