Live updates: Israel strikes central Beirut, killing 9, as region braces for response to Iran attack

The IDF hit residents of Beirut's southern suburbs with more evacuation warnings this evening, urging people in the Burj al-Barajneh neighborhood to leave immediately.

The warning, which was issued just before 11 p.m. local time, signals another sleepless night for civilians in Beirut, who were kept awake by bombings the night before.

LONDON — Group of Seven leaders today reiterated their deep concern over the crisis in the Middle East and called on players in the region to “act responsibly” and with restraint while repeating their backing for Israel’s security.

“We, the Leaders of the G7, express deep concern over the deteriorating situation in the Middle East. ... We unequivocally reiterate our commitment to the security of Israel,” a G7 statement provided by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office read.

“A dangerous cycle of attacks and retaliation risks fuelling uncontrollable escalation in the Middle East, which is in no one’s interest. Therefore, we call on all regional players to act responsibly and with restraint.”

Along with Britain, the G7 comprises the U.S., Canada, Italy, France, Germany and Japan.

At least 10 consecutive strikes were recorded in the suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said.

It characterized the hits as some of the strongest to strike the southern suburbs so far. One of the strikes was in the area of St. Georges Hospital in Hadath, NNA reported.

Reuters video showed explosions close to the Beirut airport just as a Middle East Airlines flight was landing.

An American citizen, Hajj Kamel Ahmad Jawad, of Dearborn, Michigan, was killed by an airstrike in Lebanon on Tuesday, his family said in a statement.

The State Department first said that Jawad was a U.S. legal permanent resident but that now it is looking further into his citizenship status.

“I saw the article quoting @StateDept claiming he wasn’t an American,” Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., said on X. “All this while the family is mourning and having services for Hajj Kamel in our community this week.”

The State Department said today that it sees Jawad as an American either way.

“I see now that the family has described him as a U.S. citizen. That may very well be true. We are looking through our records now to verify whether he was an American citizen or whether a legal whether he’s a legal permanent resident,” spokesperson Matthew Miller said.

“Either way, he’s an American, and his death was a horrific tragedy,” he said.

At least 28 health care workers have been killed in 24 hours, the World Health Organization said.

As Israel continues its heavy bombardment of Lebanon, 37 medical facilities in southern Lebanon have closed and three hospitals in Beirut have been forced to evacuate patients and staff members. Paramedics were killed by rounds of airstrikes as they rescued victims of earlier strikes.

"Health and humanitarian workers, including WHO staff, have done incredible work under very difficult and dangerous conditions, with limited supplies," said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO’s director-general. "And yet healthcare continues to come under attack."

Lebanese Health Minister Firas Abiad called Israel's killing of paramedics a war crime. Echoing the accusation, the European Union's top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said he condemned the violation of international humanitarian law.

The Israel Defense Forces said one of its soldiers died fighting in southern Lebanon.

Israel's military said that Capt. Ben Zion Falach, 21, a member of a paratrooper unit, "fell yesterday during combat in southern Lebanon." It did not provide additional details.

Yesterday, the IDF identified eight soldiers who were killed fighting in southern Lebanon.

U.S. crude oil prices rose more than 4% today, on pace for a third consecutive session of gains on fears that Israel could strike Iran’s oil industry in retaliation for Tehran’s ballistic missile attack this week.

Asked by reporters this morning whether the U.S. would support an Israeli strike on Iranian oil facilities, President Joe Biden said: “We’re discussing that. I think that would be a little — anyway.” He added that “there’s nothing going to happen today.”

The White House did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

Biden’s comments were the catalyst that moved prices higher, said Daniel Ghali, senior commodity strategist at TD Securities. “Geopolitical risks in the Middle East are probably at their highest levels since the Gulf War,” Ghali told CNBC.

The U.S. benchmark hit an intraday high of $73.95 per barrel, a gain of about 5.5%. West Texas Intermediate is ahead more than 7% this week.

Read the full story on CNBC.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said today that Israeli bombardment has destroyed 90% of the infrastructure in the Gaza Strip in the last year, according to the WAFA News Agency.

Abbas made the assertion in a speech at the Asia Cooperation Dialogue in Doha, Qatar, where he spoke about the difficulties Palestinians face to persevere.

He emphasized that "peace and tolerance cannot co-exist with occupation, racial discrimination, ethnic cleansing, oppression and injustice," WAFA reported.

In a report in August, the Global Education Cluster research group said nearly 93% of education infrastructure in Gaza have had "some level of damage to their buildings."

A second private charter organized by the U.S. Embassy has left Lebanon, the State Department said today, bringing to 250 the number of Americans and their immediate family members who have left the country on U.S.-facilitated flights.

The U.S. has also worked with airlines to make 1,400 seats available for U.S. citizens on existing commercial flights, but not all of those tickets are affordable.

In a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said U.S. families were having “severe difficulty in finding safe travel routes home from Lebanon,” with some flights costing up to $8,000 a ticket. The State Department said today it was aware of the high prices and that they among the reasons for organizing the private charters.

Qatari Emir Tamir bin Hamad pledged his support to Lebanon's humanitarian crisis and condemned the international community.

“The failure of the international community to stop the war on Gaza was a green light to expand the conflict without the slightest degree of responsibility by the aggressors,” he said on X.

He said he has directed all resources necessary to help Lebanon's displaced citizens as the country contends with "the brutal attacks they are being subjected to."

The Israel Defense Forces said it struck the main intelligence headquarters belonging to Hezbollah in Beirut.

It was allegedly the site that housed Hezbollah intelligence-gathering and command centers, according to the IDF statement.

Iran views the Group of Seven (G7) condemnation of its attack on Israel as “biased and irresponsible," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said today.

Baghaei “pointed to the definite responsibility of G7 countries, especially the United States, in increasing insecurity and instability in West Asia due to their armament, (and) financial and political support” of Israel, a ministry statement said.

“We believe that if European states had taken effective and practical measures on time, including cutting off financial and weapons support, they would have cut short the killing and genocidal machine of the Zionist regime (Israel) by today and we would not have witnessed such tragedies,” the ministry said.

An estimated 1.2 million people have been displaced within Lebanon, according to Najib Mikati, the country’s prime minister.

Mikati spoke in an interview yesterday with the American Task Force on Lebanon, noting that the government's resources to help the displaced are "very modest."

He accused Israeli officials of choosing war, urging the neighboring state to end the destruction. Mikati said that Hezbollah has agreed to language that would restore an end of hostilities in accordance with United Nations Resolution 1701.

"Why is Israel not accepting a cease-fire today? They, they are looking for war," Mikati said. "We are looking to have a diplomatic solution, a diplomatic to be a win-win."

At least five loud explosions could be heard just now in the Lebanese capital.

The Hezbollah member allegedly responsible for a strike in Majdal Shams has been killed, Israel Defense Forces said today.

Israel's military announced it had killed Khider al-Shaebia, the Hezbollah member responsible for rockets fired at the areas of Har Dov, Mount Hermon and the northern Golan Heights.

Hezbollah said it did not fire the strike at Majdal Shams, which killed 12 children playing soccer. The group rarely denies responsibility for attacks.

As tensions between Israel and Iran rise, former NBC News Tel Aviv bureau chief Martin Fletcher weighs in with the historical context of the turmoil in the Middle East.

He said unrest in the region has not been this heated since the Yom Kippur War, which started in 1973.

The European Union's foreign policy chief has called Israel’s overnight attack on Lebanon’s capital a “violation of international humanitarian law” in a post on X.

It came after the Lebanese health ministry said in a statement that the death toll from the strike that hit an apartment block overnight had risen to nine people, with 14 injured.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations today said that any country providing assistance to Israel will become a “legitimate target,” and advised other governments to stay out of the conflict.

“Our response will be solely directed at the aggressor. Should any country render assistance to the aggressor, it shall likewise be deemed an accomplice and a legitimate target,” the mission said in a statement. “We advise countries to refrain from entangling themselves in the conflict between the Israeli regime and Iran and to distance themselves from the fray.”

Countries in the region such as Jordan have helped Israel repel incoming missiles and drones by allowing the U.S. to use their airspace. The U.S. also has a number of military bases in Arab countries.

The statement added that the only communication channel between the U.S. and Iran was the Swiss Embassy in Tehran.

President Joe Biden said "nothing" will happen today when asked by a reporter on the White House lawn whether his administration would “allow Israel to strike back against Iran.”

“First of all, we don’t allow Israel, we advise Israel,” he said. “And there’s nothing going to happen today.”

A woman who was kidnapped by the Islamic State terror group more than 10 years ago has been rescued in Gaza, the Israeli military said in a statement today.

Fawazia Amin Sido was kidnapped "when she was only 11 years old,” the IDF said, adding that “ISIS terrorists trafficked her to a Hamas terrorist affiliated with ISIS in the Gaza Strip where she was held in captivity.”

Sido, a “21-year-old woman of Yazidi origin,” was “freed this week from captivity and returned home to Iraq,” the IDF said. The person holding her was likely killed in an Israeli strike, it added.

The operation to free her was “complex,” the IDF said, adding that the “secret mission” was coordinated by Israel, the United States and other international actors.  

ISIS was known to have taken Yazidi women against their will for the purpose of sexual servitude or forced marriages, according to many accounts from Yazidi women and human rights groups.

Bassem Naim, a Hamas political official, denied the allegations, sayin the woman was brought over to Gaza from Iraq by a Palestinian man. To his knowledge, she married the man and had two children with him before the man left her in Gaza with his family. Naim alleges that the government in Gaza tried to help her return to Iraq but she had no documentation.

He also said that separating children from their mothers is not within the group’s morals. "If this story is true, as I said, we condemn this act and we categorically reject it," Naim said.

Overnight Israeli strikes in Lebanon have become increasingly commonplace in central Beirut, fueling fears across the country and ruining sleep patterns.

Striking at night typically “privileges the side which has trained and prepared to do so, with sensors, visual aids and other technologies,” Matthew Savill, the director of military sciences at the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based think tank, told NBC News today.

During Israel’s 2006 war with Hezbollah, the Israel Defense Forces “were surprised to find Hezbollah ‘special forces’ who were equipped like their own specialists, including with night-vision goggles,” he said.

“This time round, with Hezbollah communications compromised, the Israelis no doubt calculate they can gain an additional advantage, though the complexity of night-fighting shouldn’t be under-estimated,” he added.

Lebanon's Army said today it had returned fire at Israel for the first time, after IDF forces targeted one of its posts in the south and killed a soldier.

"One of our soldiers was martyred," it said in a post on X. "The post's personnel responded to the sources of the fire," it added.

It came after the army and the Lebanese Red Cross said a soldier was killed and another injured by Israeli forces as they were carrying out an evacuation and rescue mission in the southern town of Taybeh.

The Lebanese Health Ministry says that 1,974 people have been killed by Israeli attacks in the country since Oct. 8, 2023.

This includes 107 children and 202 women, the health ministry said today, while some 9,375 people have been injured.

The Israeli military and Hezbollah have exchanged cross-border fire for nearly a year, but the last few weeks have seen the death toll soar as Israel has intensified its attacks.

The latest from the Lebanese capital, Beirut, on the new wave of Israeli strikes in the city and on the direct military engagements between Israel Defense Forces and Hezbollah. 

Two senior Lebanese officials have said that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah agreed to a 21-day cease-fire with Israel days before he was killed in an Israeli attack.

The temporary ceasefire was proposed by the U.S., France and other allies last week.

"They [the US and France] told us that Mr. Netanyahu agreed on this and so we also got the agreement of Hezbollah on that and you know what happened since then," Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour yesterday.

And this morning, the country's ambassador to the U.K. said the same.

"Hezbollah … subscribed to this joint statement that was issued calling for a cease-fire, 21-day ceasefire, and immediately after starting to look for a diplomatic solution in the framework of the security council resolution," Ambassador Rami Mortada told the BBC.

“We were on track trying to discuss a diplomatic alternative to the current abyss, but the hotheads in Israel chose a different path,” he said.

Videos appear to show Israeli soldiers and IDF helicopters conducting military ground operations in southern Lebanon.

In one video, it appears a casualty evacuation process is underway as IDF helicopters land in the Kfar Gil’adi area. The video circulated yesterday, as the IDF announced the deaths of 8 soldiers and many more injuries.

The killing of eight Israeli soldiers during the military's invasion of southern Lebanon will likely be a "wake-up call" for Israel as it takes stock of the success of its offensive, a security expert told NBC News.

Mahdi Ghuloom, a regional security analyst at Le Beck International, said Israel will have anticipated the risk of casualties in its ground offensive into territory that Hezbollah will inevitably be more familiar with. But, he said the IDF's claims to have been covertly launching cross-border raids for months prior to its announcement of ground operations, indicates that "familiarity with the terrain is increasing based on intelligence obtained from these raids."

Still, Ghuloom said, the deaths of eight soldiers in a relatively short time "is certainly a wake-up call for Israel that advancing quite rapidly into Lebanon would be costly.”

Israel launched another deadly airstrike in Beirut and carried out new attacks in the Gaza Strip while also preparing its response to the unprecedented missile attack from Iran. Meanwhile, the United Nations Security Council held an emergency meeting to address the conflicts in the Middle East. 

Three loud explosions could be heard just now in the Lebanese capital.

A Lebanese army soldier has been killed and another injured by Israeli forces while evacuating casualties in the country's south, the Lebanese army and the Lebanese Red Cross said.

They were carrying out an evacuation and rescue mission in the southern town of Taybeh when they were attacked by Israeli forces, the Lebanese army said.

The Lebanese Red Cross said that four of its paramedics were also injured, according to The Associated Press. The AP previously reported that it said four paramedics were killed.

It said the convoy for wounded residents was targeted despite coordinating its movements with U.N. peacekeepers.

NBC News has reached out to the IDF for comment.

More women and children have been killed by Israel's assault in the Gaza Strip over the past year than in any other conflict over the past two decades, aid groups say.

Conservative estimates show that more than 6,000 women and 11,000 children were killed in Gaza over the last 12 months, according to Oxfam and Action on Armed Violence (AOAV).

In comparison, the two figures are both higher than those from existing records. The highest number of women killed in a single year of conflict was more than 2,600 in Iraq in 2016, while an average of more than 4,700 children died in the Syria conflict, the new analysis said, citing previous reports.

It was another sleepless night for many across Lebanon as the sound of Israeli strikes rang out into the early hours, with a strike in central Beirut killing at least nine people and injuring several others.

"It was a nightmare," said Hiam Khoury, 50, who lives in Hadath, a municipality in the Baabda District, about 4 miles south of Beirut. "We didn’t sleep. How can you do it, even if the bombing stops?" she told NBC News.

Khoury said she woke up at around 2 a.m. to the sound of a strike. "Everything was shaking. The house, us." She said it had become a daily routine to "wake up in the middle of the night" and "stay up, traumatized."

"In the morning, we clean the smoke residues from our balconies and houses. We go to work, pass by buildings with broken glass, or hit," she said. "I don’t know how long this is going to last. We don’t have a place to go to and we don’t want to leave our house and stay on the street. We are exhausted."

Relatives and friends mourn by the grave of Israeli soldier Eitan Itzhak Oster who was killed during fighting in the with Hezbollah yesterday. The IDF announced that eight of its troops were killed, a day after Israel launched an invasion of southern Lebanon.

Japan today has dispatched two of its military transport aircraft to Jordan and Greece, the Japanese broadcaster NHK reported, as it prepares for a potential airlift of its citizens from Lebanon.

Meanwhile, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong announced today the government has booked 500 seats on commercial airlines for Australian citizens to leave Saturday along with their families.

“What I would say to Australians who wish to leave, please take whatever option is available to you,” Wong told reporters.

The British government said it was chartering additional flights, a day after an evacuation flight had left Beirut with 150 British nationals onboard.

The Israel Defense Forces issued another evacuation warning today in southern Lebanon, ordering 27 villages to be evacuated.

Israel has urged the residents of the villages to head north of the Awali River, the IDF’s Arabic spokesperson Avichay Adraee said in a post on X, referring to the river that is a third of the way into Lebanon's entire length.

The orders cover areas that are located north of a United Nations-declared buffer zone that was established after the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war, potentially signaling an expanding Israeli incursion. 

Earlier today, he had urged residents in southern Lebanon who had already been asked to evacuate not to return as fighting was still ongoing.

At least nine people have now been killed in the Israeli airstrike that hit central Beirut overnight, Lebanon's Health Ministry said today.

The death toll was updated from six, and the ministry said another 14 people were injured in the airstrike on the neighborhood of Bachoura, which is within walking distance of the prime minister’s headquarters, as well as many foreign embassies, including those of the United Kingdom and Australia.

Beirut's famous Skybar club has become a makeshift shelter for displaced families fleeing their homes as Israel targets the Lebanese capital with airstrikes.

The CIA is releasing instructions in Farsi, Mandarin and Korean to allow people to share information with the agency without running afoul of authoritarian regimes.

“People are trying to reach out to us from around the world and we are offering them instructions for how to do that safely,” the CIA said in a statement yesterday. “The security of those willing to reach out to us around the world is of paramount importance to us, and we want them to do so as safely as possible.”

Farsi is spoken by more than 100 million people in Iran and nearby countries, while Mandarin, with more than 1 billion speakers, is the majority language in China.

Read the full story here.

More than 1.4 million people in the besieged Gaza Strip did not receive their food rations in September, up from 1 million people the month before, Philippe Lazzarini, chief of U.N.'s agency in Gaza, UNRWA, said in a post on X yesterday.

"Again & again hunger is spreading in Gaza," he said, adding nearly 70% of crop field have been destroyed in the enclave. "An entire population is forced to exclusively rely on humanitarian aid."

Lazzarini said that more than 110,000 tons of food supplies are stranded outside of Gaza due to access restrictions and damaged roads.

"Restrictions and delays in aid deliveries only worsen an already dire situation for displaced families," he said.

The Israeli military said it killed the head of the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip, Rawhi Mushtaha, and two other Hamas leaders in a strike approximately three months ago.

The three Hamas leaders were "hiding in a fortified and equipped underground compound in the northern Gaza Strip," the IDF said today in a statement.

The IDF said Mushtaha was one of “Hamas’ most senior operatives" and served as the right-hand man of Hamas' leader, Yahya Sinwar. The IDF has vowed to hunt down Sinwar for orchestrating the Oct. 7 attacks.

Along with Mushtaha, two security leaders Sameh al-Siraj and Samih Oudeh were killed in the strike, the IDF said. Hamas has not announced the deaths.

Yemen's Houthi rebels said today they launched a number of drones toward Tel Aviv.

"The operation successfully achieved its goals, with the drones reaching their targets without the enemy being able to intercept or down them," the Iran-backed militia group said in a statement.

Photos show the aftermath of an overnight Israeli airstrike that targeted the neighborhood of Moawwad in Beirut's southern suburbs.

Israel has warned residents of Lebanese villages in the south to not return to their homes, saying Israeli military raids were still continuing.

"For your safety and the safety of your families — do not return home until further notice," IDF Arabic spokesperson Avichay Adraee said in a post on X today.

The IDF had yesterday announced evacuation orders for 21 villages in southern Lebanon.

Vice President Kamala Harris said she does not foresee the need for American troops to enter into combat in Israel.

“I will be unwavering in my commitment to Israel’s ability to defend itself and to take seriously the need to deal with Iran in terms of the threat that it poses to U.S. interests, to our allies and to stability in the region,” she said in an interview with KDKA, the CBS affiliate in Pittsburgh.

Asked whether U.S. forces might be drawn into the escalating conflict, Harris said, “No, absolutely not.”

Satellite photos appear to show damage at an Israeli military air base after Iran's ballistic missile attack.

Images of the Nevatim air base in the country's south, taken yesterday, seemingly show a hole in the roof of an aircraft hangar, according to The Associated Press. Large pieces of debris can be seen spread around the building, it adds.

It was not clear exactly what caused the damage and Israel’s military did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the AP about the satellite images.

Israeli strikes in the heart of the Lebanese capital killed at least six people and wounded seven overnight, health officials said.

The strikes hit Beirut’s central neighborhood of Bachoura, which is within walking distance of the prime minister’s headquarters, as well as many foreign embassies, including those of the United Kingdom and Australia.

Three people were killed immediately while three more died because of their severe injuries afterward, according to the country's Health Ministry.

Oil prices jumped today as tensions escalate in the Middle East, which drives concerns that crude oil supplies might be disrupted.

One possible target for an Israeli retaliatory attack on Iran is the country's oil facilities, analysts have said.

Brent crude futures were up 92 cents, or 1.24%, to $74.82 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were up 95 cents, or 1.36%, to $71.05.

Hezbollah said it targeted northern Israel early today, claiming to have hit Israeli soldiers.

The Iran-backed militant group said it targeted two Israeli forces at Hanita and Misgav Am respectively.

The Israeli military said this morning that "two UAVs were identified crossing from Lebanon. The IAF intercepted a UAV off the coast of Nahariya and a fallen projectile was identified in an open area. No injuries were reported. No sirens were sounded in accordance with protocol."

It also said that "following the sirens that sounded in the Upper Galilee area, approximately 25 projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanon. Some of the projectiles were intercepted and fallen projectiles were identified."

Israel is preparing for its response to Iran’s missile attack, Israeli and U.S. officials say. President Joe Biden said he supports Israel’s right to respond. Eight Israeli soldiers were killed in combat in southern Lebanon. 

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