Israel expands invasion into southwestern Lebanon; Hezbollah fires rockets at Haifa

The State of Palestine urged the United Nations Security Council in a letter today to end Israel's impunity as it engages in a "genocidal war" in Gaza and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.

Excerpts of the letter were posted to the body's official X account, accusing Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war and purposefully ignoring calls for a cease-fire. The letter also noted the devastation of Gaza's health system, depriving Palestinians in the enclave of lifesaving care.

"Israel proves every day that it does not believe it is bound by international law, that it has no regard for the international community, that it is a rogue State," the letter said.

The letter called Israel’s actions a “mortal threat” to peace and security. It also demanded that the occupation of the Palestinian territories end, saying Israel has no intention of allowing a two-state solution as the government seeks to "annex" Palestinian land.

Israel has repeatedly denied allegations it has violated international law, that it has purposefully blocked aid to Gaza and that it is engaged in a genocide. It has also rejected the International Criminal Court’s determination that its settlements on Palestinian land violate international law.

At least 36 people have been killed today and 150 more have been wounded across Lebanon as Israel continues to attack the country in its fight against Hezbollah.

The Public Health Ministry reported the deaths in the governorates of South Lebanon, Nabatieh, Bekaa, Baalbek-Hermel and Mount Lebanon.

They bring the number of casualties to 2,119 killed in the last year, when Hezbollah began firing at Israel just a day after Hamas' Oct. 7 attack. The majority occurred in the last month, when Israel ramped up its bombings of Lebanon and began a ground invasion of the country.

French, German and British leaders plan to meet in Berlin for discussions about the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East in a talk hosted by U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, his spokesperson told reporters today.

According to Sky News, the meeting Saturday was planned to coincide with President Joe Biden's state visit to Germany so the four countries could speak about recent "concerning development."

But the White House announced today that Biden's trip was had been called off so he can prepare for Hurricane Milton.

It's unclear whether the three European countries will continue without him, Sky News reported.

NAJAF, Iraq — Lubana Ismail had just fled her village in southern Lebanon with her husband and two children when she went into labor. She had swollen veins in her uterus and needed immediate medical supervision to give birth safely.

They searched for a hospital in Beirut or Sidon that would admit her, but all were full of the dead and wounded, she said.

“No hospital accepted me. We were turned away everywhere until my father suggested we go to Iraq,” she said.

So they boarded a flight and flew to Najaf. It was there, in a Shi’ite pilgrimage city in a former war zone 600 miles from home, that Lubana finally delivered Zahraa, healthy and safe.

Father Fouad Youssef recounted the perils of their evacuation.

“At first, we went to Tyre, but a strike hit directly next to us. We decided to go to Beirut, thinking it would be safer, but even on the way, a strike hit near us,” he said.

At least 18 people were taken to the emergency room for treatment today because of fighting with Hezbollah, according to Ziv Medical Center, which is in the northern Israeli town of Safed.

The medical center said in a statement that it discharged eight of those people and that two were admitted for further treatment. The remaining eight were undergoing evaluation at the time of the statement.

It is unclear whether those people were Israeli civilians or soldiers. The IDF did not immediately respond to a request for more information.

Children in Gaza who have spent the last year out of school and under bombardment, many of whom have been separated from their parents, are at risk of becoming "forgotten," the International Rescue Committee said.

Bart Witteveen, the IRC’s director for the Palestinian territories, said children are bearing the brunt of the war against Hamas in Gaza. They face a malnutrition crisis, many of them have lifelong disabilities because of amputation, and at least 17,000 have been separated from their parents or caregivers.

"Children in Gaza cannot wait any longer," and "prolonged restrictions on humanitarian aid and continued fighting means that a generation of children will now experience lifelong health and developmental issues," Witteveen said.

The IRC called for an "immediate and lasting" cease-fire as the only way to scale up humanitarian aid, protect lives and enable the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza.

NBC News’ Gaza crew recording at the Nasser Medical Complex, in Khan Younis, caught a heartbreaking scene of mothers weeping over the bodies of their children, killed in an Israeli airstrike earlier in the day.

Gaza's civil defense crews are working to put out a fire that they say was caused by Israeli shelling at a bakery in northern Gaza.

Civil defense identified it as the Al-Shalfouh bakery in the Al-Faluja area of the Gaza Strip. Journalist Youssef Fares identified it as the only bakery that was still operating in the northern Gaza area.

Thousands of people in Lebanon continue to be displaced as villages are reduced to "nothing more than rubble," according to Matthew Hollingworth, the World Food Program's country director.

Displaced people and families say they've had only a few hours to comply with forced evacuation orders before Israeli bombardments, he said in a statement. Hollingsworth said Lebanon's struggling infrastructure had no capacity to handle the abrupt displacement of the estimated 1.2 million residents displaced over just days.

“It’s impossible to meet the needs of more than a million people who have been suddenly uprooted, displaced and dispossessed without additional resources coming in,” he said.

In addition, Lebanon's agriculture has been damaged. The WFP estimates that 46,000 farmers have been affected as thousands of acres have been either abandoned or burned.

"Olive harvests in the south will not happen — bananas, citrus harvests will not happen,” Hollingsworth said.

Fifty Hezbollah fighters were killed along with multiple commanders in an attack in southern Lebanon yesterday, IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said today.

Hagari said that the IDF stopped the militant group’s plan to cross into Israeli territory in order to “kidnap and murder Israelis.”

NBC News was unable to verify the IDF’s account.

At least seven people were killed and 11 others injured in an Israeli strike on Damascus, Syria's defense ministry said today.

Three missiles launched from the direction of the Israeli-occupied area of the Golan Heights hit the Al-Mazzeh neighborhood in Damascus, the ministry said. Rescue efforts were underway to pull people from the rubble, it added.

Earlier Syrian state media reported that a strike hit a residential building in the neighborhood, which is home to foreign embassies and Syria's presidential palace.

The IDF declined to comment to NBC News about the strikes in Syria.

Israeli forces shot at the administration office at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, the enclave's health ministry said, adding that that the complex was being besieged.

Staff and patients were ordered by Israeli forces to evacuate the hospital, the ministry said. Similar orders were issued at the Indonesian Hospital and the Al-Awda Hospitals, the ministry said. All three are in northern Gaza.

Israeli forces threatened them with arrest if they do not comply, the ministry said, adding that a paramedic was accompanying an intensive care patient was detained.

NBC News has reached out to the IDF for comment.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres once again called for a cease-fire in the Middle East, saying that “there is something fundamentally wrong” with the way this war has been conducted.

Guterres condemned violations of international law in Gaza, specifically calling out the repeated orders for civilians to evacuate northern Gaza for military operations. He also noted that such orders are meaningless if people have no safe place to go and no access to basic needs such as shelter, food, water and medical care.

Warning that the Middle East was a powder keg, with the occupied West Bank on edge and civilian lives in Lebanon being threatened, he said, “We are on the verge of an all-out war in Lebanon with already devastating consequences. But there is still time to stop. The sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries must be respected.” 

He also warned that draft legislation in Israel to ban the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees from Gaza and the occupied West Bank would be a “catastrophe” as Palestinians in Gaza face starvation and disease.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told media today that he will visit several cities in the region to discuss ending the war in Gaza and the invasion of Lebanon.

The discussions will focus on reaching an “acceptable cease-fire,” according to Iranian state news agency IRNA. One of those stops with include Saudi Arabia’s capital, Riyadh.

The governments Iran and Saudi Arabia have had decadeslong hostility toward each other but agreed in a deal brokered earlier this year to re-establish a relationship.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant's trip to Washington was postponed until the country's Cabinet confirms a plan to respond to Iran, an Israeli official who informed was the trip was off, told NBC News.

The official, who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu does not want Gallant to travel to the U.S. until his Cabinet votes on the response to Iran's ballistic missile attack last week.

Netanyahu also wants a conversation with President Joe Biden, the official said, adding that this had been in the planning stages for several days but has not happened. Until that takes place, he does not want Gallant to travel to the U.S., the official said.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s trip to the U.S. this week has been postponed at the request of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a senior Israeli official told NBC News.

A senior U.S. official also confirmed the trip was off. Neither was authorized to speak publicly.

Gallant was scheduled to meet with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin at the Pentagon tomorrow.

An Israeli flag has been planted in Maroun Al-Ras, a village in southern Lebanon. NBC News was able to verify the photos through geolocation of the area.

The United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon said earlier this week that the IDF was operating near one of its outposts in Maroun Al-Ras, adding that the Israeli soldiers operations put the security of peacekeepers at risk.

Israel issued a new round of evacuation orders to people in the southern suburbs of Beirut as it intends to target specific buildings in the neighborhoods.

The warnings were issued by the IDF's spokesperson for Arabic media around 8:30 p.m. local time (1:30 p.m. ET).

Sen. Lindsey Graham, during a visit to Jerusalem today, urged Saudi Arabia and Israel to establish diplomatic ties before the end of the year.

“We can get you a treaty through the Senate between the United States and Saudi Arabia, a defense agreement like you have in Japan and Australia, if you do it on President Biden’s watch,” Graham, R-S.C., said.

The Biden administration has sought to broker a normalization agreement between the two nations, and Graham warned that the next U.S. administration might be unable to secure enough votes in support of a deal.

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said in September that his country would not recognize Israel without the creation of a Palestinian state, although he strongly condemned the “crimes of the Israeli occupation” against Palestinian people.

Hezbollah deputy leader Naim Qassem said today that his movement supports efforts to reach a cease-fire for Lebanon, but for the first time omitted any mention of a Gaza truce deal as a precondition.

Qassem said Hezbollah supported efforts by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally, to secure a halt to fighting, which has escalated in recent weeks with Israeli ground incursions and the killing of some of Hezbollah’s top leaders, including Hassan Nasrallah.

“We support the political activity being led by Berri under the title of a cease-fire,” Qassem said in a 30-minute televised address.

“In any case, after the issue of a cease-fire takes shape, and once diplomacy can achieve it, all of the other details can be discussed and decisions can be taken,” he said. “If the enemy (Israel) continues its war, then the battlefield will decide.”

Hezbollah’s top leaders have repeatedly stated over the last year that the group will not stop its fire until a Gaza cease-fire was reached, but Qassem’s address appeared to mark a departure from that policy.

Explosions have been heard today in Syria's capital, Damascus, the Syrian State News Agency said, indicating that there were “hostile targets in the skies of Damascus.”

Separately, SHAM FM, a state-run radio station, reported that a residential building in the Al-Mazzeh neighborhood was targeted. Preliminary reports suggested there appeared to be injuries, the station said.

Al-Mazzeh, which is home to the Syrian presidential palace, a number of embassies and international organizations, has been hit a number of times in the past.

An Israeli strike on the Iranian consular complex killed seven members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps earlier this year.

The ongoing war in the Gaza Strip makes it impossible for people with special needs to access care, the World Health Organization said today on X.

A lack of food, water and medicines take a toll, the WHO said, adding that those who suffered life-changing injuries and the 180 women giving birth everyday were particularly affected.

Residents in areas surrounding the city of Haifa in northern Israel have been ordered by country’s military to follow its “limited activity” guidelines.

The Israel Defense Forces said it was issuing the order after Hezbollah targeted the region with several attacks.

Limitations include a ban on educational activities and a cap on how many people can be at gatherings.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today that Israel had killed Hezbollah's new secretary general and the man who replaced Hassan Nasrallah after he was assassinated in an airstrike last month.

"We have degraded Hezbollah’s capabilities; we took out thousands of terrorists, including Nasrallah himself, and Nasrallah’s replacement, and the replacement of his replacement," Netanyahu said in a video statement to the Lebanese people.

Hashem Safieddine, a cousin of Nasrallah and overseer of Hezbollah’s political affairs, had been widely expected to succeed the militant and political group’s longtime leader, although no announcement was made.

Safieddine was targeted in a fierce round of strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs last week, but his death has not been confirmed by Hezbollah or the Lebanese government.

At least 250,000 people have crossed Lebanon’s border into Syria since Israel ramped up its assault in its fight against Hezbollah, according to the United Nations.

However, Lebanese officials have suggested the number could be almost twice as high, saying more than 400,000 people had made the border crossing.

Lebanon’s Disaster Risk Management Unit said in a situation report yesterday that more than three quarters of those crossing the border were Syrian nationals, seeking refuge in the country they had fled in the midst of the ongoing civil war there.

One of them, Um Mohammed, said she had been living in Lebanon for 17 years in a video shared by the World Food Program. She added that for her children, life in Lebanon was all they had ever known.

Hezbollah is likely increasingly “fragmented” after Israel killed some of its top commanders, including the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, a military expert told NBC News today.

Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at the Tel Aviv-based Institute for National Security Studies, said in a phone interview that the leaders who were killed could “see the broader picture of the war” with Israel.

“Local commanders cannot see the entire picture, cannot understand the broader context,” said Michael, who is also a member of the Misgav Institute for National Security and Zionist Strategy.

Michael added that he believed Hezbollah will become increasingly “paralyzed” as Israel targets its leadership.

“When they are attacked, they have to reconstitute themselves,” he said.

U.N. officials voiced concerns today that the methods of warfare used by Israel in Gaza are now being used in Lebanon, causing high civilian causalities and destruction.

“It is in my mind, from the time I awake until the time I sleep, that we could go into the same sort of spiral of doom, and we need to do everything we can to stop that from happening in this particular crisis,” the World Food Program's director in Lebanon, Matthew Hollingworth, said today.

Earlier today, the World Health Organization warned of disease outbreaks in Lebanon due to overcrowding in displacement shelters and hospital closures, as has happened in Gaza this past year.

An Israeli airstrike has hit the main water conduit of the Litani River, which supplies a local irrigation project with almost 70 million gallons of water a day, Lebanese state media reported today.

The Litani River Authority said the attack “violates international human law” and left the river unusable in southern Lebanon, the National News Agency said. It added that measures were implemented to divert water and prevent flooding.

NBC News has reached out to the IDF for comment.

Hezbollah is “battered” and “broken” following Israeli’s assassinations of its top leaders, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said today at the military's northern command.

Israel is peeling away Hezbollah’s capabilities, despite years of “huge” investment in the militant group by Iran, Gallant said. He also repeated Israel's stated goal of returning its residents to their communities in northern Israel, while taking a swipe at the Islamic Republic of Iran.

“The actions we are taking are observed all over the Middle East. When the smoke in Lebanon clears, in Iran they will realize that they have lost their most valuable asset — which is Hezbollah,” Gallant said.

Drone video geolocated by NBC News shows extensive damage in the village of Yaroun in southwestern Lebanon after Israeli airstrikes.

Much of the village appears laid to waste, with rubble and wreckage strewn across the ground and plumes of smoke sweeping through the deserted streets as fires burn in some of the buildings that remain.

Israel announced this morning it has expanded its operations into southwestern Lebanon and said it had taken over a Hezbollah command post in nearby Maroun El Ras.

The Israeli military said it has struck “several Hezbollah launchers” that fired projectiles at the city of Haifa earlier today.

Sirens sounded in the port city today and the Israel Defense Forces said it had identified more than 130 rockets crossing into the country's territory, the majority of which had been intercepted.

The IDF said the Israeli Air Force had also struck Hezbollah “observation posts, anti-tank missile launchers, and ambush posts.”

Lebanon has been “kidnapped by Hezbollah" and abandoned by the international community, former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said this morning.

Siniora was president of Lebanon during the nation's last war with Israel in 2006, which lasted just 34 days, but he said there was currently a lack of initiative this time when it come to restoring peace.

“We are now in a very difficult situation that requires real effort locally, as well on the Arab side and internationally," he told the BBC, adding that the U.S. was busy with its own elections.

Inside Lebanon, he said that the current administration was not doing enough to create a distance between the government and Hezbollah, essentially handing control of the country to Iran.

A 12-year-old girl from Gaza City begged rescuers hunting for her family in the rubble of her home, “Help me last — don’t help me first.”

Alma implored rescuers to save her father, mother and five siblings after their home was hit by an Israeli strike, her voice barely perceptible in the haunting video captured on that fateful day.

In the end she would be the only one to survive the devastating blast on Dec. 3.

“When they rescued me, I realized that the body parts around me were all of my family dead,” she told an NBC News’ crew yesterday, at a camp for orphans in Muwasi where she has been sheltering with her aunt.

There is a “much higher” risk of disease outbreaks in Lebanon due to overcrowding in displacement shelters and hospital closures, the World Health Organization warned today.

More than 1 million people have been displaced in Lebanon by Israel’s intensified air and ground offensive in recent weeks, overwhelming the nation’s health service.

“We are facing a situation where there is a much higher risk of disease outbreaks, such as acute watery diarrhea, hepatitis A, and a number of vaccine preventable diseases,” Ian Clarke, the WHO’s deputy incident manager for Lebanon, told reporters today.

Clarke added that five hospitals had closed and four are only partly functioning. Some medics had also fled due to the fighting, he said.

Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant says the potential successor to slain Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah was "probably also eliminated."

In a visit to Israel's northern command, Gallant could not confirm the death of Hashem Safieddine, but said "Hezbollah is an organization without a head. Nasrallah was eliminated, his replacement was probably also eliminated."

He added that Hezbollah was "beat, broken, without command and control capabilities, without significant fire capabilities" and that "when the smoke in Lebanon clears, in Iran they will realize that they have lost their most valuable asset."

Hezbollah deputy leader Naim Qassem said this morning that its soldiers and leadership remain intact, and that Israel’s ground mission was a “failure.”

They were Israel’s eyes on the border with Gaza, but former soldiers from a military observation unit say their warnings about suspicious Hamas activity ahead of the Oct. 7 terror attacks were repeatedly ignored. A year later, they are still seeking answers.

“If I had been valued a little more — not much, just a little — maybe it could have ended differently,” Roni Lifshitz, one of the former observers, told NBC News. “It’s anger and sadness, mainly frustration, because I was there and no one listened to me.”

Read the full story here.

Asked which foreign countries she considers to be the U.S.'s greatest adversaries, Vice President Kamala Harris told CBS’ Bill Whitaker, “There’s an obvious one in mind, which is Iran.”

“Iran has American blood on their hands. OK?” Harris said in an interview that aired yesterday on “60 Minute Overtime.”

“This attack on Israel, 200 ballistic missiles. What we need to do to ensure that Iran never achieves the ability to be a nuclear power — that is one of my highest priorities,” Harris said.

Pressed on whether she would take military action if there’s proof Iran is building a nuclear weapon, Harris declined to answer the question.

“I’m not going to talk about hypotheticals at this moment,” she said.

Harris’ remarks comes as Israel weighs its response to the Iranian missile attack and enters its second year of war in the Middle East. The vice president has continued to defend Israel’s right to defend itself against Iran-backed militant groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah.

Residents inspect damage in an apartment building hit by a rocket in Kiryat Yam near Haifa, Israel, earlier today. Some 135 rockets were fired at northern Israel from Lebanon, according to the Israeli army, with 12 people treated by emergency services.

A year has passed since Hezbollah began launching rockets into Israel in what it said was solidarity with Hamas and the people of Gaza as Israeli forces launched an assault on the enclave following Hamas' Oct. 7 attacks.

In Lebanon, the anniversary was a painful reminder of how much hostilities have escalated since then, with Israel launching a growing aerial and ground offensive that has seen more than 2,000 people killed and more than 1 million displaced from the country.

"We are paying the price of a war that is not ours," Rony Saade, a librarian, told NBC News. “The war is a nightmare, no one wins. People die and get scammed; houses are being destroyed; people are displaced."

"I am not concerned with Israel and Iran. Why do we need to fight them from Lebanon and have people killed and their houses demolished?" Saade said. “In Gaza, it is their decision, that’s their business. Sorry to say that. ... They dragged us into a war that we didn’t want."

Political analyst Michel Maaki said he believed that Hezbollah's support for Hamas was a "mistake" and that "the result did not help Gaza."

"Look where is Gaza is now. As for Lebanon, the result is unfortunate and dangerous ... and we don’t know what’s next."

Britain has faced “plot after plot” from Iran and is battling “newly resurgent” terror groups, the head of Britain’s domestic intelligence service said today. 

In his first public update since 2022, MI5 Director General Ken McCallum said the threat from Iran had increased “at an unprecedented scale,” and that MI5 and the police had responded to 20 potentially lethal Iran-based plots since Jan. 2022.

McCallum added that the most worrisome danger to the United Kingdom was from oversea terror groups, describing the so-called Islamic State and Al Qaeda groups as “newly resurgent.”

He went on to say that Al Qaeda has tried to use the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East to call for for violent action, but that Britain’s security agencies were not yet aware of any significant plots in the country inspired by those events.

“Much of what my teams are seeing and our European counterparts are seeing in their homelands, month by month, predates what happened between Hamas and Israel last October,” he said.

Militant groups launched more than 200 rocket attacks on Israel, while Israel carried out new airstrikes in Lebanon, targeting Hezbollah in the wake of the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 terror attack. 

The U.N.'s special coordinator for Lebanon and the head of the organization's peacekeeping force have called for a diplomatic solution one year on from the start of the current conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

“Too many lives have been lost, uprooted, and devastated, while civilians on both sides of the Blue Line are left wanting for security and stability," Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert and Lt. Gen. Aroldo Lazaro of the U.N. peacekeeping force known as UNIFIL, said in a statement.

"What is also clear is that further violence and destruction will neither solve the underlying issues nor make anyone safer in the long run," they said. “A negotiated solution is the only pathway to restore the security and stability that civilians on both sides so desperately want and deserve."

The Palestinian Ministry of Health has issued a last call before "all hospitals stop providing services in the Gaza and northern governates," due to a lack of fuel.

In a statement issued today it appealed to international and humanitarian institutions to "urgently intervene" and help provide the necessary fuel to operate generators inside health facilities.

Satellite imagery published by Planet Labs today and captured Oct. 5 shows more than 20 vehicles in the vicinity of a United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) position near the southern village of Maroun El Ras.

UNIFIL has said that it is concerned about IDF activity adjacent to the position, known as 6-52, which is overseen by a joint Irish-Polish peacekeeping battalion.

Speaking to Ireland's national broadcaster this morning, IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said that U.N. peacekeepers had been asked to leave their posts while operations targeting Hezbollah were carried out by Israeli forces in the area. "If they stay there, the enemy has no regard for the emblem of the United Nations," he said. The IDF said this morning that it had taken control of a Hezbollah combat compound in Maroun El ras that it said "included a residential building and an olive grove."

Sirens sounded in the northern Israeli port city of Haifa today as the IDF reported a barrage of missiles crossing from Lebanon.

It said that more than 100 rockets were identified crossing into Israeli territory, and that the majority were intercepted. It said fallen projectiles were also identified in the area.

Israel's emergency services said paramedics treated and evacuated 12 casualties, including a 70-year-old woman in "mild to moderate" condition with a shrapnel wound to the hand.

Israel has a "a one-time window of opportunity" to strike Iran's nuclear program, former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said this morning.

Israel is weighing up its response to Iran's ballistic missile attack, with the Islamic Republic's nuclear facilities emerging as a potential target for a more drastic response.

"We have it in our power to severely damage the Iranian nuclear power, which casts a heavy shadow over our future," Bennett said in a video posted on X. "We have both the legitimacy and the ability to severely damage the Iranian regime."

President Joe Biden has said he would not support an attack on Iran's nuclear sites.

Palestinian families forced to flee once again from the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza following fresh evacuation orders and shelling from Israeli forces say they don't know how much more they can take after a year of repeated displacements fleeing Israeli bombardments.

"Yesterday was crazy," Mahmoud Elhawo said a day after fleeing Israeli shelling Sunday. "The shelling was mad and terrifying," he said, describing it as "one of the hardest nights for the northern Gaza Strip."

"Every month, I move to a new place. Today, we are displaced. Praise God, we don’t know where to live or go," another person, who did not provide their name said.

"Where is the world?" one 17-year-old fleeing the area of Jabalia said. "No one stands with us. Only God is standing with us."

Hezbollah soldiers and leadership remain intact and Israel's ground mission is a "failure," Hezbollah deputy leader Naim Qassem said this morning.

Qassem said in a televised statement that its fighters on the front line were "firm," and that its leadership positions were filled after overcoming "painful blows" following the death of former leader Hassan Nasrallah.

He went on to say that Israel had failed to advance since launching their ground invasion of southern Lebanon, and that Hezbollah fighters would meet the Israeli military on the battlefield.

"We want to engage with the Israeli enemy on the battlefronts and in the front lines to prove its failure," he said.

Israeli airstrikes have killed 30 people at the Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said today.

The IDF said in a statement that troops were in Bureij "dismantling terrorist infrastructure sites and eliminating terrorists."

NBC News has reached out to the IDF for further comment.

The Israeli military's orders for people to steer clear of the sea and beach areas along Lebanon's coast south of the Awali River have fueled fears — and sparked confusion — among those in areas that appear to be affected by the evacuation orders.

"This is scary for all of us," Jihan Kaisi, executive director of the Union of Relief and Development Associations, an organization helping displaced families in Lebanon, said of the situation in Sidon, or Saida, a coastal town in southern Lebanon just south of the Awali River.

Kaisi told NBC News that a number of buildings had been evacuated in response to the IDF's orders yesterday — and that fishing boats and displaced civilians who had sought refuge on the beach had cleared the area. A video she took last night showed a beach area along Sidon's coast entirely empty of people.

But, she said in a phone interview this morning, many displaced civilians were confused about whether they should flee certain areas along Sidon's coast. Kaisi said she herself was confused about whether she should return to her own coastal home this evening amid fears of Israeli forces invading from the sea.

"They might use the sea, but we still don't know what might happen," she said. And with little clarity on the IDF's plans, Kaisi said she feared for the safety of the many civilians sheltering in increasingly overcrowded schools in Sidon, with some having little choice but to sleep out on the streets, in playgrounds and in parking lots.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi has warned Israel that "any attack on the infrastructure of the Islamic Republic of Iran will undoubtedly be met with a stronger response."

Ahead of a trip to regional capitals, including Saudi Arabia's Riyadh, Aragchi told reporters that Tehran is "prepared for any scenario."

He said that "our armed forces have identified all necessary targets, and the enemy can test our determination," according to Iranian news agencies.

There is a 'very real danger' of further regional conflict in the Middle East, CIA Director William Burns told a security conference in Georgia last night.

Burns said that neither Iran nor Israel were looking for all-out conflict, and that Israel's leadership was "weighing very carefully" its response to Iran's ballistic missile attack.

But he warned that the risks came from "misjudgments" that could lead to greater escalation, such as a misfiring rocket, and said military action produced an "extremely risky environment."

Burns added that a cease-fire and hostage release deal had been close, but remained "very elusive."

“I’ve learnt not to get my hopes up,” he said.

Read the full story here.

Hamas leader-in-exile Khaled Meshaal said the Palestinian group would rise "like a phoenix" from the ashes despite heavy losses during a year of war with Israel, and that it continues to recruit fighters and manufacture weapons.

One year after the Hamas attack that triggered the war, Meshaal framed the conflict with Israel as part of a broader narrative spanning 76 years, dating back to what Palestinians call the "Nakba" or "catastrophe," when many were displaced during the 1948 war that accompanied the creation of Israel.

"Palestinian history is made of cycles," Meshaal, 68, a senior Hamas figure under overall leader Yahya Sinwar, told Reuters in an interview.

"We go through phases where we lose martyrs (victims) and we lose part of our military capabilities, but then the Palestinian spirit rises again, like the phoenix, thanks to God."

The Israeli military says it has killed Suhail Hussein Husseini, head of Hezbollah’s logistical headquarters, in an airstrike in Beirut yesterday.

Husseini played a "crucial" role in weapon transfers between Iran and Hezbollah and was responsible for coordinating attacks against Israel from Lebanon and Syria, it said.

Additionally, he was a member of the Jihad council, Hezbollah’s senior military leadership council, the statement added.

There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah.

The Israeli military has deployed its first reserve forces to operate against Hezbollah in Lebanon and expanded its invasion into the country's southwest, the IDF said in a statement this morning.

Yesterday, the 146th Division, previously stationed along Israel's northwestern border, "began limited, localized, targeted operational activities against Hezbollah terror targets and infrastructure in southwestern Lebanon," it said.

It added that the new division would be operating alongside the 213th artillery brigade and additional forces in the area.

Displaced children sleep in a parking lot in the centre of Beirut this morning, as Israel expands its invasion into the south of Lebanon.

The day after rockets were fired at Israel from Lebanon and Gaza, Israel issued an evacuation warning to residents along a stretch of the coastline near the Israeli border. 

• In Gaza, children who survive Israel’s assault face a lifetime of trauma
• One year after Hamas attacks, hostages' families are living in limbo but trying to find hope
• A year from Oct 7, tens of thousands killed and fears of a ‘forever war’