Live updates: Israel plans swift retaliation for Iran missile attack; eight Israeli soldiers killed in clashes with Hezbollah

A pregnant woman who has been displaced by violence in southern Lebanon spent a week sleeping on the street before she reached a United Nations shelter just north of Sidon, also known as Saida.

Midwives with Medical Aid for Palestinians were visiting shelters when the woman, who wasn't identified, gave her story to the organization. She told the group that she hasn't been able to sleep because of the noise from strikes and bombings.

"We left with nothing but the clothes we were wearing. We just wanted to escape and left everything behind," she said.

She said that at one point she was terrified because she couldn't feel her son moving and that she was relieved to have gotten medical care.

"Thank God, I made it this far and nothing happened to me on the way. Thank God, I'm in a school, safe shelter," she said.

Hezbollah said in a statement that it had fired at Hanita in northern Israel earlier.

The group said it made a direct hit and was targeting a group of Israeli forces. Israel's military announced sirens were blaring in Hanita but has not released additional details.

Lebanon's health ministry is reporting that at least five people were killed in a late strike in Beirut's Bachoura neighborhood, the deepest area of the capital city to be hit yet.

Bachoura is in central Beirut, just minutes from Martyrs Square where many of those displaced from Beirut's southern suburbs have recently spent nights waiting out bombings.

Bachoura is within walking distance to the Lebanese prime minister's headquarters, as well as many foreign embassies, including those belonging to Great Britain and Australia.

A total of 46 people have been killed across southern and eastern Lebanon today, according to a death toll from the country's health ministry.

Another 85 have been injured in recorded strikes in the governorates of Nabatieh, Bekaa, Baalbek-Hermel and Mount Lebanon. According to the ministry's tally, Nabatieh accounted for half of the death toll and just shy of half the injuries.

This tally appears to be from before an Israeli strike in Beirut's southern suburbs, which occurred around midnight local time.

The Israel Defense Forces said it conducted a strike in Beirut but did not provide additional details.

An NBC News crew in Beirut heard loud explosions just before the IDF released its statement. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported that a strike was reported in the southern suburbs, where Israel has previously hit.

Representatives for Israel and the Islamic Republic of Iran laid blame on each other for the rising violence in the Middle East in their addresses to the United Nations Security Council today.

Israel's envoy, Danny Danon, insisted that Iran must pay a "heavy price" for its ballistic missile attack yesterday. Danon described it as a "cold-blooded" assault on Israeli civilians, though Iranian officials said it targeted Israel's military bases. No Israelis were killed in the attack but one Palestinian man was reportedly killed by shrapnel.

"Let me be clear, Israel will defend itself. We will act," Danon said. "And let me assure you, the consequences Iran will face for their actions will be far greater than they could ever have imagined."

Amir Saeed Iravani, who represents the Islamic Republic, said Iran has only responded to Israel's escalations. Israel is currently at war with Hamas, an Iran-backed militia in Gaza that led the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, and is fighting fellow Iran-backed militia Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Iravani accused Western countries of giving Israel a "carte blanche" for aggressive and "sinister" behavior that has destabilized the region. He said that the Islamic Republic is willing to take "further defensive measures" against military aggression.

"Diplomacy has repeatedly failed as Israeli views restraint not as a gesture of goodwill, but as a weakness," Iravani said. "Each act of restraint taken by Iran has only emboldened Israel to meet even greater crimes and more act of aggression."

Sameh Khadr Hassan Al-Asali, 38, had been staying in a Palestinian security forces compound in the occupied West Bank when he was killed by falling debris from an Iranian missile during yesterday's attack on Israel.His father said that he couldn't recognize his son after he was killed.

As the focus of the war moves to Lebanon and Iran, negotiations over the hostages still held in Gaza are at a virtual standstill, a Hamas official told NBC News in an interview today.

Basem Naim said he did not know how many of the hostages remain alive, saying the captives are "in different areas with different groups, in a very complicated security situation."

According to Israel, there are just over 100 hostages still held, and about a third of them are believed to have died.

State Department spokesperson Matt Miller told reporters the U.S. was aware of reports that an American greencard holder had been killed in Lebanon.

Miller did not identify the person, but described them as an "LPR," or legal permanent resident, rather than an American citizen.

Multiple people on social media reported that a man named Kamel Jawad, who lived in Dearborn, Michigan, was killed while visiting his hometown in southern Lebanon. The Dearborn-based Islamic Center of America announced his death yesterday. He is survived by four children.

As international attention remains heavily focused on Lebanon and the threat of a wider regional conflict, in Gaza, Israeli forces have continued their nearly yearlong offensive, striking what they said was a Hamas command and control center at a school in the area of Nuseirat.

The IDF said the center was embedded inside the Nuseirat Girls School and was used to plan attacks against Israeli forces and Israel.

According to Gaza's civil defense, at least three people were killed and more than a dozen injured. Schools across Gaza have for months been transformed into makeshift shelters and Israeli strikes on such facilities have repeatedly taken a deadly toll on sheltering civilians.

The IDF said "numerous steps" were taken to mitigate the risk to civilians, including the use of "precise munitions, aerial surveillance and additional intelligence."

Khawla was fleeing Lebanon for Syria and had just crossed over the border when she began to go into labor with her fourth child.

"I was giving birth on the border, surrounded by displaced families who shared the same pain and fear," Khawla said. "But when I heard my daughter’s cry, everything stopped.

Her story was shared by the United Nations' Population Fund, or UNFPA, and she was not identified by surname. According to the UNFPA, Khawla was taken to a Damascus hospital where she named her newborn daughter Amal — the Arabic word for "hope."

An estimated 11,600 pregnant women are in desperate need of medical care and basic needs as thousands flee Israeli bombings in Lebanon, according to the UNFPA. Laila Baker, the agency's regional director, described the situation as "heart-wrenching" as it says 520,000 women and girls are at risk.

"The interruption of essential life-saving health services for women and girls is deeply concerning. The need for protection is urgent," Baker said. "It is a matter of life or death, including for U.N. staff.”

The United States organized a flight from Beirut to Istanbul on Wednesday to allow Americans to leave Lebanon amid the escalating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said.

Miller told a press briefing that around 7,000 U.S. citizens in Lebanon had registered with the U.S. government to receive information about leaving the country, although not all of those are looking for assistance to leave.

The flight on Wednesday had a capacity of about 300 and carried around 100 Americans and their family members, Miller said, adding Washington had been working with airlines since Saturday to make seats available to Americans on commercial flights.

Hamas' military wing, Al-Qassam Brigades, took responsibility for the terror attack in Tel Aviv yesterday, a stabbing and shooting that killed seven people and injured several others.

Israeli police said yesterday that two suspects attacked civilians at a rail station in Jaffa, adding that both suspects were "neutralized." Al-Qassam said that one of its members stabbed an Israeli soldier and took the weapon used in the attack.

President Joe Biden told reporters as he boarded Air Force One today that he does not support an attack on Iran’s nuclear sites.

He added that the Group of Seven nations are all in agreement regarding what the nature of Israel's response should be to Iran's ballistic missile attack yesterday.

“We’ll be discussing with the Israelis what they’re going to do, but all seven of us agree that they have a right to respond but they should respond proportionally,” Biden said.

Biden added that he would speak soon with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and that he plans to announce new sanctions on Iran, aligning with Israel's demand for "immediate, crippling sanctions" on the country. 

“Obviously, Iran is way off course,” Biden said.

Iran's new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, reiterated his assertion that the Islamic Republic does not want to be at war and blamed Israel for escalating violence in the region.

If Israel “persists in its actions, we will respond with greater force, Pezeshkian said. “The crimes committed by Israel are unmatched in history.”

Pezeshkian made the comments in a state media broadcast during a visit to Qatar, where he is meeting with the emir as part of his first trip to Doha since his presidency. He reiterated comments that Iran's attack on Israel yesterday was a reaction to the attack in Tehran in late July that killed a Hamas leader who was there for Pezeshkian's inauguration, as well as attacks that targeted Hezbollah's Hassan Nasrallah, and high-ranking Iranian officials.

Biden's administration is "handicapped" by the situation in the Middle East, and it's likely Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is "going to exploit" that fact, former defense secretary William Cohen told MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell.

Cohen, who served during the Clinton administration, said that Biden does not want to appear to be restraining Netanyahu, but with the price of oil already high, striking Iran oil refineries is a risk.

If Iranian oil takes a hit, there will be "ramifications for the world economy," Cohen said, noting the current stress domestically in the wake of Hurricane Helene and a global shipping strike.

“This is where the debate, I think, is taking place, behind closed doors, in terms of what the Israelis were prepared to do,” Cohen said. He speculated that “the Israelis will take this opportunity and use the chance they have right now to inflict far more serious damage on Iran than ever before.”

A man walks with a dog past the rubble of a destroyed building in Hod HaSharon, Israel.

Children stand on the remains of an Iranian missile in Israel's Negev desert, near Arad.

A damaged classroom at Shalhavot Chabad elementary school in Gedera, Israel.

Palestinians take photos with the debris of an Iranian missile in the West Bank city of Hebron.

Displaced families across Lebanon are struggling to have their most basic needs met, with civilians struggling to get access to food, shelter and medical care, the International Rescue Committee has warned.

The IRC said it conducted a rapid needs assessment surveying more than 200 newly displaced families representing over 1,200 people, of which almost half were children. Among those surveyed, at least 90% said they were not having their most basic needs met, including "food, shelter and healthcare," with fresh evacuation orders from the Israeli military, along with airstrikes and clashes on the ground causing further displacement within the country.

As many as 1 million people are believed to have been displaced by the escalating violence, according to Lebanese officials.

And Juan Gabriel Wells, the IRC country director in Lebanon warned: "The situation will further deteriorate unless immediate action is taken. Families are already battling extreme financial hardships, constant insecurity, and the lack of basic supplies like food and medications. Without an immediate cessation of hostilities, the number in need of assistance will only continue to rise.”

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, urged the Security Council to enact sanctions on the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps following yesterday's ballistic missile attack on Israel.

Thomas-Greenfield accused Iranian leadership of spreading "propaganda" when it says it was acting in Iran's defense. She blamed Iranian proxy militias for directly contributing to the violence in the Middle East and said the attack was in defense of terrorist leaders.

"The decision to launch nearly 200 ballistic missiles at Israel was not in any way defensive," Thomas-Greenfield said. "The IRGC was not protecting Iran from threats from another member state."

Israel has struck Iranian soil this year, assassinating Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July, as well as striking an Iranian consular complex in Syria in April. Iran's president said earlier today that the regime held back from retaliation for the Tehran strike because American and European officials assured them that peace was coming, but Israel's "massacres" only expanded.

Thomas-Greenfield also said in her address that the world must "double down" on a cease-fire and diplomatic solutions. Israel's prime minister did not respond to the U.S. proposal for a 21-day cease-fire in Lebanon last week and instead ordered airstrikes in Beirut that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, as the Israeli army stepped up airstrikes and launched a ground invasion into Lebanon this week.

Iran did not retaliate after the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July because diplomats assured them that peace was on its way, but it never came, Masoud Pezeshkian, president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, said in a statement today upon arrival for talks in Doha, Qatar.

Pezeshkian said that Israel, the U.S. and Europeans urged the regime to refrain from retaliation in order to support the cease-fire negotiations at the time. He said that the reasoning was that "peace would be achieved in Gaza in a week."

"We waited for them to bring peace, but they expanded their massacres and became even more aggressive," Pezeshkian said.

State Department spokesperson Matt Miller responded to a question about Iran's statements about the failed peace promises yesterday, declining to give details on U.S. communications with Iran, but said it was made clear through "diplomatic channels" that Iran should not do anything to "upset" the delicate cease-fire negotiations.

The alleged mastermind of the Oct. 7 terror attacks is still alive and communicating with both Hamas’ leadership and his forces on the ground, one of the militant group’s senior officials told NBC News Wednesday. 

Yayha Sinwar “is still in control,” Dr. Basem Naim said in an interview in Qatar’s capital, Doha, where part of the group’s political wing is based. 

“He’s still alive,” Naim said. ”He is still communicating with his people on the ground. He’s still communicating with the leadership outside.” 

Sinwar was made political head of the militant group after its leader, Ismail Haniyeh, was assassinated in July in Tehran after he participated in the inauguration ceremony of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. 

Naim also insisted that Mohammed Deif, the head of Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ military wing, was still alive. Israel announced his death in July.

A Lebanese politician based in Baabda, southeast of Beirut, called on the international community to put more pressure on Israel and Hezbollah to agree to cease-fire deal to end hostilities and prevent a wider war in the region.

"The situation is very tense," Michel Helou, the secretary general of the independent National Bloc party in Lebanon, said in a phone interview today. He said he feared the possibility of a wider regional war, with Israel vowing revenge after Iran launched an attack that it said was in retaliation to the killing of senior leaders in Hamas and Hezbollah, including Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

"We need a cease-fire. We need pressure on all parties to stop," he said, adding: "We don't need these crazy escalations."

Helou further warned that he believed Israel's continued attacks in Lebanon, killing more than 1,000 people and displacing as many as 1 million, according to local officials, would likely only rally support for Hezbollah.

"This will basically grow support for an armed resistance against Israel, but the reality is that the balance of power is not in our favor," he said.

At least three people were killed in an attack in a residential building in Damascus' Al-Mazzeh neighborhood, according to the Syrian Ministry of Defense.

According to the ministry, the attack was caused by an Israeli airstrike and left three other people injured in addition to causing damage to nearby private property.

The explosion was at a three-story building near a mosque in the neighborhood, Syrian radio reports. Al-Mazzeh is the same area where Israel struck the Iranian consular building in April.

NBC News has reached out to the IDF for comment.

Iran’s attack on Israel has escalated an already tense situation in the Middle East, prompting fears of a regional war. NBC News chief international analyst and former supreme allied commander of NATO, Adm. James Stavridis, breaks down the chances of an all-out regional war in the Middle East. 

The Israel Defense Forces announced that seven of its soldiers were killed in southern Lebanon, bringing the total to eight.

Those killed were identified as Capt. Harel Ettinger, Capt. Itai Ariel Giat, Maj. Noam Barzilai, Maj. Or Mansour, Maj. Nezer Itkin, soldier Makarit Ata, and Sgt. Ido Broyer. They were all 21 to 23 years old, according to the IDF.

Additionally, five members of the IDF's Egoz ground unit were severely injured.

Dozens of people have taken shelter in a monastery in south Lebanon, with hopes of being able to move farther north as clashes break out with Hezbollah.

“Today, the situation is not good at all," the head of Our Lady of Annunciation Monastery in the Lebanese border town of Rmeish told NBC News in a phone interview. "Are you hearing the bombs?" he asked as blasts rang out over the phone.

The priest, who spoke on the condition of anonymity over fears for his safety, said the monastery was preparing a convoy to help the displaced civilians sheltering there move farther north.

"So far, in Rmeich, the situation is stable," he said, but he said the hope was to get displaced civilians in the south to at least Beirut "since the bombing is very close."

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday condemned Iran’s missile attack on Israel, telling the Security Council the “deadly cycle of tit-for-tat violence must stop.”

“Time is running out,” he told the council.

The 15-member council met after Israel killed the leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah and began a ground assault against the Iran-backed militant group and Iran attacked Israel in a strike that raised fears of a wider war in the Middle East. 

With the outer walls blasted out by an Iranian strike overnight, it was possible to look right into some of the classrooms of the Shalhavot Habbad school in the town of Gedera in central Israel. 

“We were all astonished to see what happened,” Deputy Mayor Dorit Ben Mohar told NBC News today. “We couldn’t ignore the huge crater that erupted and the windows and walls that collapsed and only to think that two hours prior we had kids here in the school,” she added.   

Mohar said they were hoping to reopen the school on Sunday. 

“We’re teaching the kids to be strong. No matter what is happening, we’re teaching them to keep a routine because routine is the key to life,” she added. 

Hezbollah fighters inflicted “many casualties” among Israeli troops this morning during an “ambush” inside Lebanese territory, a politician who represents the group in Lebanon’s Parliament told NBC News. 

“Israeli squadron tried to storm into one of the villages bordering occupied Palestine," Ibrahim Mousawi said, referring to Israeli territory.

Israel announced today that one soldier was killed in the firefight — thought to be the first in Lebanese territory since the last full-fledged Israeli combat operations inside Lebanon since 2006.

The encounter represented Hezbollah’s “readiness” to fight back, said Mousaw. He did not say whether Hezbollah fighters had been killed or wounded.

Humanitarian workers in Lebanon have warned of an "apocalyptic" situation mounting across the country, including in its capital, Beirut, where thousands have fled in search of safety amid Israeli airstrikes and a burgeoning ground invasion.

“Every time I drive out of my house, it’s just an apocalyptic scene,” Dr. Tania Baban, MedGlobal’s Lebanon country director, said in a phone interview today. “I’ve only ever used this to describe the sight of the blast,” she said, referring to the 2020 Port of Beirut explosion.

“I can’t believe what I’m seeing. It’s just, it’s still very difficult,” Baban said, describing seeing children sleeping out on the streets. “It’s like you’re detaching and you’re seeing a movie.”

Countries are planning for potential large-scale evacuations of their citizens from Lebanon in case the conflict worsens.

While preparing for possible evacuations, many governments have already asked their citizens to depart Lebanon via commercial air travel in recent weeks and months.

Some have also chartered flights or sent military aircraft in recent days while Beirut airport is open for now.

Cyprus could be a potential hub as it processed around 60,000 citizens during the 2006 conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. The government spokesman there said in an post on X that it has fully implemented its plan to support the repatriation of third-country citizens through Cyprus but that “so far no requests have been made to initiate large-scale evacuation operations.”

The Turkish foreign ministry announced yesterday that it is prepared to support other countries in possible evacuations from Lebanon via sea and air. “Guidelines for the evacuation of citizens of third countries via Türkiye have also been identified, and necessary preparations are underway in cooperation with nearly 20 countries that have requested support,” the ministry said in a statement.

Israeli troops have had "close-range engagements" in southern Lebanon with Hezbollah fighters, the Israeli military said in a statement this morning.

The IDF said the 98th paratrooper division continued to launch targeted operations in "several areas" of Lebanon's south, while forces from the Commando Brigade, including soldiers from the elite Egoz Unit located and destroyed Hezbollah infrastructure.

The Israeli military said troops had killed a number of Hezbollah militants and dismantled the group's infrastructure through "precision-guided munitions and close-range engagements."

Yesterday, the IDF shared video of soldiers with the 98th Division preparing for what it said were "limited, localized targeted operations," though it was not clear when exactly the video was taken.

An Israeli response to Iran's missile attack is "almost inevitable," said Matthew Savill, military sciences director at the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based think tank.

"Israel can’t be in the position of tolerating direct attacks from ballistic missiles on its territory," he said in an analysis today. "Especially if those attacks increase in scale and begin to put pressure on the missile defense system."

An Israeli response, he said, could range from striking military targets such as missile defense and radar sites, all the way to Iran's nuclear facilities.

However, Savill said, "if the scale of any strikes against the wider military or leadership makes it thinks the threat is existential," Iran could be encouraged to believe that nuclear weaponization might be the final defense.

"Nonetheless, the mood in Israel may encourage some to believe that setting the Iranians back by years is a prize for which it is worth taking some risks."

An NBC News crew in Gaza witnessed street celebrations as Palestinians in Khan Younis watched Iranian missiles target Israel.

Israel will retaliate swiftly against Iran for its ballistic missile attack yesterday, an Israeli official has told NBC News. 

Prime Minister Netanyahu and Israel’s military and intelligence leaders were meeting at the defense ministry today to discuss the response.

The official said the timeline on when exactly to strike was complicated by Rosh HaShana, the Jewish New Year, which begins this evening and is followed soon after by other Jewish holidays. But Israel is determined to hit back quickly, they said.

Hezbollah hasn’t provided any details about the funeral of its former leader, Hassan Nasrallah, but diplomatic and military sources in the region are suggesting that there could be an uptick in violence in Lebanon and elsewhere in the Middle East when it takes place.  

In the meantime, Iran and Hezbollah are playing last night’s strikes on Israel as a massive success. On Lebanese TV they’re showing footage of explosions alongside imagery of Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike Friday, and Hamas political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in July in Iran’s capital, Tehran.

The region is tense as it awaits Israel’s response to the Iranian attacks. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned of “consequences” despite the launches seemingly doing little damage. 

While almost everyone is calling for a diplomatic solution, Israel’s response will ultimately decide whether this is a capping moment or just the start of another new cycle. I personally am hoping for the former but suspect the latter. 

In the midst of Israeli bombings and with much of the country displaced, few people in Lebanon have been able to sleep through the night in recent days.

Residents told NBC News this morning of their experiences, including cheers and celebratory gunfire in the streets of Beirut after yesterday's Iranian attack on Israel.

“We didn’t sleep all night," Eliane Matta, a media coordinator living near the southern Beirut suburb of Dahieh, told NBC News. Instead, she said she spent the early hours on her balcony, watching as buildings burned in the distance after the blasts of airstrikes rang out. "Honestly, we are not afraid anymore. I have to stay at home, I have no other place to go to, and no other choice," said Matta, 45.

Matta said it was also the cheers of people in the street that kept her awake, with some filling city streets to celebrate Iran's retaliatory strikes against Israel after its escalated attacks in Lebanon, including the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the Israeli Defense Ministry's headquarters in Tel Aviv today for discussions with security officials, his office said in a statement.

The meeting at the HQ, known as the Kirya, comes after Netanyahu vowed revenge against Iran after it launched a ballistic missile attack yesterday in response to Israel's ongoing offensive in Lebanon, including the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Netanyahu's office did not expand on what was discussed in the meeting with security chiefs.

Damage caused by shockwaves from the Iranian missile attack in Hod HaSharon, central Israel, last night.

Russia called on all sides in the Middle East crisis for restraint and condemned actions that resulted in civilian deaths today, while accusing the U.S. of pushing the region to the brink of war.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said the U.S. role as a peacemaker has pushed the Middle East to “the edge of the cliff” once again.

If the U.S. would have opposed a “certain side” or used force to resolve the conflict when it broke out, it would have been “one conversation,” she told state media Sputnik.

“But they came in as a peacemaker. And this role of a peacemaker has once again pushed this region to the edge of the cliff,” she continued.

Video from the town of Tubas in the occupied West Bank showed the remnants of an Iranian missile that was among the barrage fired at Israel yesterday. One person — a Palestinian man in the occupied West Bank — has been confirmed killed in the attack.

The Israeli military has announced the first death of a soldier in Lebanon since launching a ground invasion of its neighbor's south targeting Hezbollah this week.

The death of the squad commander was revealed this morning, hours after Hezbollah said its fighters had engaged in the first armed clashes with Israeli forces in Lebanon.

"Captain Eitan Itzhak Oster, aged 22, from Modi’in Maccabim Re’ut, a Squad Commander in the ‘Egoz’ Unit, Commando Brigade, fell during combat in southern Lebanon," the IDF said in its statement.

Despite nearly 200 bus-sized Iranian missiles launched at Israel last night, one thing was clear: Although one person, a Palestinian man, was killed, it could've been much worse.

Still, the biggest attack by Iran on Israel could have enormous consequences on the region.

Iran says it attacked Israel in retaliation for the killing of a Hamas leader in Tehran and Hezbollah's leader in Beirut. Now the entire Middle East is on edge, expecting an Israeli reprisal.

The majority (90%) of Jewish Israelis say Israel was correct to launch its offensive against Hezbollah last week, according to polling released yesterday, while the largest share of Arab Israeli respondents — 47% — say it was not.

The survey was conducted from Sept. 26 to 29 by the Viterbi Family Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research at the Israel Democracy Institute, with a representative sample of 600 Jews and 150 Arabs.

More than 600 of the respondents were surveyed before the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah became known, the organization said, while the rest were surveyed afterward.

More than 70% of those polled overall said they thought both the Israel Defense Forces and Israel’s civilian population would be able to withstand an extended war on two or more fronts. But there was significantly less confidence among Arab Israeli respondents, only 27% of whom held that view.

A woman holds her cat in front of a destroyed building in the Lebanese capital today, after a series of Israeli airstrikes leveled what appears to be an apartment complex in the Dahiyeh district of Beirut overnight.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett called for Iran's nuclear facilities to be destroyed after the Iranian attack on Israel yesterday.

"The leadership of Iran, which used to be good at chess, made a terrible mistake this evening," he wrote in a post on X, adding, "We must act *now* to destroy Iran’s nuclear program, its central energy facilities."

Earlier this month, Tehran insisted it was open to negotiating its nuclear program, even though Iran has continued enriching Uranium, the nuclear-fuel critical for producing warheads.

Around 128,000 people have fled to Syria from Lebanon since the conflict escalated between Israel and Hezbollah, UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency, said today in a report.

Nearly 70% of the evacuees were Syrians, while the rest were Lebanese nationals, it said, adding that most of the evacuations came along Lebanon's eastern border with Syria.

Medical emergencies from exhaustion and dehydration were also frequent due to the long journey, the report said.

All flights in Iran will remain suspended until 5 a.m. tomorrow local time (9:30 p.m. today ET), local media reported, citing the country’s Civil Aviation Organization.

Hours after Iran launched strikes against Israel, a senior Hamas official has told NBC News it has been let down by its Arab neighbors in the wake of the Oct. 7 terror attacks. 

“We are disappointed by the action of the region, of countries in the region,” said Dr. Basem Naim who is part of the militant group’s political wing based in Qatar. He added that “Iran was maybe the only country regarding supporting the resistance.” However, he added that other countries had supported Hamas politically and financially.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps said in a statement that the assault on Israel was a response to the death of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Friday and the killing of Hamas political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran in July.

But Naim said Iran was “an independent state.” with its “own interests.” He added that Iran was “calculating very well what to do and what not to do.”

Hezbollah said its clashes with Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon this morning dealt "big losses" to Isrrael.

"We’re in the first round of war, it is the beginning of what happened in Odaisseh today," Hezbollah spokesperson Mohammad Afif told reporters at a news conference in Dahiya. "Our forces and resistance fighters are fully prepared to confront and resist the enemy," he added.

Hezbollah said earlier today it repelled Israeli forces during clashes in the town. "The number of enemy casualties in today’s battles is very large and there is a blackout by the enemy," Afif said.

The Israeli military has not commented, and NBC News has not independently verified the claims.

Israel has banned United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres from entering the country and declared him persona non grata, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said in a post on X.

"Anyone who cannot unequivocally condemn Iran’s heinous attack on Israel, as almost every country in the world has done, does not deserve to step foot on Israeli soil," he said.

Israel has frequently criticized the international body, which has urged it to stop its assault in Gaza and refrain from a full-scale invasion of Lebanon. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also refused to meet with Guterres since Oct. 7.

Guterres prompted anger yesterday when he did not criticize Iran's missile barrage, and instead condemned "the broadening of the Middle East conflict with escalation after escalation."

"This must stop," he said in a post on X. "We absolutely need a ceasefire."

The U.S. vice presidential debate began last night with a question about whether the candidates would support a pre-emptive strike by Israel on Iran, which neither of them directly answered.

“Israel’s ability to be able to defend itself is absolutely fundamental,” along with securing the release of the remaining hostages and ending the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, said Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic nominee.

Sen. JD Vance, the Republican nominee, said, “It is up to Israel what they think they need to do to keep their country safe, and we should support our allies wherever they are when they’re fighting the bad guys.”

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said this morning that the U.S. and its European allies should "get lost" from the region so that "undoubtedly these conflicts, wars, and clashes would completely cease."

“The countries of the region are capable of managing their own affairs, governing their region, and living together in peace and security,” he was quoted as saying by the semiofficial Mehr news agency today.

Meanwhile, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian vowed that Israel will receive a "far more crushing response" if it makes a "mistake" and retaliates for Iran's missile attack.

"No one should mess with the pride and honor of the Iranian nation," he said at a Cabinet meeting this morning.

At least 51 people have been killed and 82 more injured in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip, in a large Israeli air and ground operation in the southern city of Khan Younis.

A number of victims were still trapped under the rubble and emergency responders have not been able to reach them, it added.

Israel’s military has yet to comment on the operation, which began early today.

This takes the death toll in Gaza since Oct. 7 to 41,689 and 96,625 injuries, the Health Ministry said.

U.S. forces in the Middle East intercepted multiple missiles launched toward Israel amid Iran's attack, Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin said.

"We fulfilled our commitment to partner with Israel in its defense," Austin said in a statement, condemning the Iranian attack as "outrageous act of aggression" and urging Iran to halt further attacks.

Austin and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant “expressed mutual appreciation” for the coordinated defense in a call. The defense measures “helped prevent significant casualties and damage,” the Defense Department said in a readout.

Austin also expressed condolences to Gallant over a shooting and stabbing attack in Tel Aviv yesterday in which six people were killed, which Israeli police have called a terrorist attack.

The United Nations Security Council has scheduled an emergency meeting on the escalating situation in the Middle East for 10 a.m. today at the request of France and Israel.

Danny Danon, the Israeli ambassador to the U.N., said he had called for the emergency session “to discuss this unprecedented attack and to issue a clear, unequivocal condemnation of Iran.”

The council also held emergency sessions Sept. 20 and 24 to discuss the situation in Lebanon.

The IDF issued an evacuation warning for dozens of villages in southern Lebanon today, saying "any home used by Hezbollah for its military needs is expected to be targeted."

“You must immediately head north of the Awali River,” the IDF said, referring to the river that is nearly 50 miles from the Israeli border and one third of the way into Lebanon's entire length.

The warning was issued for residents of 21 villages and towns, with the IDF's Arabic spokesperson Avichay Adraee saying on X, "Anyone who is near Hezbollah members, installations, and combat equipment is putting their life at risk."

"Save your lives and evacuate your homes immediately," he said, "We will inform you of the safe time to return to your homes."

Buildings are reduced to rubble this morning, as rescue workers search through the wreckage left after an overnight Israeli airstrike in Beirut’s southern suburb of Shayyah.

Three people were injured last night in Jordan from the fragments of the Iranian missiles that were launched toward Israel, government spokesperson Mohammed al-Momani told the state-owned Al-Mamlaka TV.

Jordan allowed U.S. forces to fly and shoot down Iranian missiles within the Arab country’s airspace, a U.S. official and a senior Jordanian official told NBC News.

The Jordanian official confirmed the news and added that Jordan would do the same for “any other missile flying over our airspace.”

Oil prices jumped by over a dollar today because of rising concerns Middle East tensions could escalate, potentially disrupting crude output from the region, following Iran’s biggest ever military blow against Israel.

Brent futures leapt $1.08, or 1.47%, to $74.64 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude spiked $1.12, or 1.6%, to $70.95 at 2:50 a.m. ET.

During trading yesterday, both crude benchmarks surged more than 5%.

Australian police are seeking to block two pro-Palestinian assemblies Oct. 6 and 7, one year after Hamas launched a terrorist attack on Israel in which officials say about 1,200 people were killed and Israel launched its military offensive in the Gaza Strip that local officials say has killed more than 41,000 people.

After negotiations with protest organizers, police in the state of New South Wales are “not satisfied that the protest can proceed safely,” they said in a statement, and will apply to the state Supreme Court to stop the two events from going forward.

“The first priority for the NSW Police Force is the safety of the participants and the wider community,” the statement said, adding that the force supports the rights of free speech and peaceful assembly.

In response, Palestine Action Group Sydney called the move an “attack on fundamental democratic rights.”

“We have a right to demonstrate,” the group said on Facebook. “The Palestine Action Group unequivocally opposes this attempt to silence protests.”

Anti-war protesters clashed with police in Melbourne last month, leaving two dozen officers injured.

Danish authorities are investigating two blasts near the Israeli Embassy in the capital, Copenhagen police said in a statement on X.

Nobody was injured, the police said.

The Israeli Embassy said explosions were heard nearby overnight. "The embassy was closed, the embassy staff is unharmed and there is no damage to the embassy building," the embassy said in a post on X today.

"Shocked by the appalling incident near the embassy a few hours ago. We have full confidence in the Danish authorities and the police in their investigation," Israeli Ambassador David Akov said.

A soldier was severely injured yesterday in a stabbing and shooting attack in Tel Aviv that killed seven people and has been called terrorism by Israeli police.

The soldier was one of 12 people wounded in the attack, six of them seriously. She was evacuated to a hospital to receive medical treatment and her family has been notified, the Israel Defense Forces said.

The Palestinian Mujahidin Movement, also known as Palestinian Islamic Jihad, took responsibility for the attack, in which both suspects were killed.

Israeli strikes were reported in Beirut overnight as the Israeli military said this morning it had conducted a series of "targeted strikes" on weapons production sites in the Lebanese capital in the past few days.

Hezbollah has "deliberately" embedded its weapons production facilities beneath residential buildings in populated areas in Beirut, according to the statement.

Warnings were advanced to civilians to mitigate the risk of harming them prior to the strike, it added.

Lebanese officials say more than 1,000 people have been killed and more than 1 million displaced in the country by weeks of Israeli airstrikes.

A group of young Palestinian men take photos of a fallen rocket shell, believed to have been fired by Iran, in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank last night.

Though Israel will decide when and how to respond to the Iranian missile attack, its response “will be noticed,” said Danny Danon, the Israeli ambassador to the U.N. “It will be painful.”

“And I think that the people of Iran who are watching us understand that it’s not against the Iranian people, it’s against the radical regime that led the Iranian people into the situation,” he added.

The U.S. Embassy in Israel has lifted its shelter-in-place order for U.S. government employees and their family members, saying the threat of missile barrages has diminished. It said previous travel restrictions remain in place.

“The U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem is continuously and closely monitoring the security situation,” the State Department Bureau of Consular Affairs said in a post on X.

Hezbollah said its fighters forced an Israeli infantry force to retreat from Lebanon's southern town of Adaisseh today.

The Israeli soldiers tried to "infiltrate" Adaisseh but Hezbollah clashed with them, "inflicting losses" on the force and eventually repelled them, the Iran-backed militant group said in a statement.

The IDF has not yet commented on the claims, which would represent the first known clashes between the two sides on the ground in Lebanon.

The Israeli military says that infantry and armored units will join its invasion of southern Lebanon targeting Hezbollah.

"The 36th Division, including soldiers of the Golani Brigade, 188th Armored Brigade, 6th Infantry Brigade, and additional forces are joining the limited, localized, targeted raids on Hezbollah terror targets and terrorist infrastructure in southern Lebanon that began on Monday," the IDF said in a post on Telegram.

"The soldiers are being accompanied by the IAF and the 282nd Artillery Brigade."

Iran has “no intention of continuing” its strikes, foreign minister Abbas Aragchi said today, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency, adding that its strikes on Israel last night were “a legitimate defensive right.”

"Any new move by the regime or its supporters will face an even tougher response from Iran," he said. Aragchi said Iran, via a message to the Swiss embassy, also warned the U.S. to "step aside and not interfere." He said later on state TV that there was no exchange of messages with the U.S. prior to the attack.

Iran launched nearly 200 missiles at several Israeli military targets overnight, which Aragchi said, can restore "geopolitical deterrence in the region."

Israeli officials say Iran launched 180 ballistic missiles on Israel after days of Israeli attacks on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon. A large number of the missiles were intercepted by Israeli and U.S. defenses. Israeli officials said they were unaware of any casualties. In Tel Aviv, a terrorist attack killed six people, Israeli police said. 

• Israel says its operation is ‘limited’ — but Lebanese fear repeat of past Israeli invasions
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