What we know
- The Israel military struck Beirut overnight and into this morning, issuing evacuation orders for Dahiya, the Hezbollah stronghold in the city's southern suburbs.
- President Joe Biden said the U.S. is in constant contact with Israeli officials, who have not decided on its response to Iran's retaliatory missile attack earlier this week, saying he was "thinking of other alternatives" to strikes on Iran's oil assets.
- In a rare sermon, Iran's supreme leader issued warnings against further escalation yesterday, as its foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, visited allies in the region, landing in Syria today after a diplomatic visit to Beirut.
- U.S. Central Command said it struck Houthi targets in Yemen yesterday. The U.S. military has sent dozens of fighter jets and thousands of troops to the Middle East as tensions rise.
- Sirens sounded in northern Israel this morning. The IDF counted 122 missiles launched from Lebanon yesterday, and reported that two soldiers were killed by a drone strike in the Golan Heights.
- More than 2000 people have been killed in Lebanon since Oct. 8, most of them in the last two weeks, and more than 1 million displaced by Israel's intensified air and ground offensive.
IDF says security bolstered in Israel ahead of Oct. 7 anniversary
The Israel Defense Forces has increased security ahead of the one-year anniversary of the deadly Oct. 7 terrorist attacks on Israel, a spokesperson said.
"We are prepared with increased forces in the assumption that towards the anniversary, they will try to carry out attacks on the home front," IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said in reference to Hamas.
This week Israel killed the head of a Hamas network in Tulkarm and 14 others who were planning to carry out an attack inspired by Oct. 7, Hagari said.
Man sets himself on fire at pro-Palestinian demonstration in Washington
Reporting from Washington, D.C.
A man set himself on fire at a pro-Palestinian demonstration near the White House this evening, according to three eyewitnesses and video shared with NBC News.
The witnesses said the person made various pro-Palestinian exclamations as he set himself on fire. In witness video, fire can be seen on the man’s left arm before being extinguished with the help of surrounding bystanders.
Law enforcement monitored activity and remained at the periphery of the demonstration, which had been peaceful, and moved in once the man set himself on fire and a path was cleared for the ambulance that took him from the scene.
“We responded at 5:56pm for a call described as advanced life support injury," D.C. Fire and EMS spokesperson Vito Maggiolo said. "The patient has been transported to an area trauma center. Medical privacy laws do not allow me to describe the injuries, but I do not believe they are life threatening.”
Witnesses told NBC News they smelled gasoline before seeing the man, who at some point shouted "Free Palestine," set his arm on fire. The witness video shows law enforcement officers and bystanders quickly put the fire out with water and cloth.
A coalition of pro-Palestinian organizations based in the D.C.-Maryland-Virginia region held the demonstration with the moniker “One Year of Genocide, One Year of Resistance,” to mark one year since the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel and the subsequent Israel-Hamas war.
Israel will retaliate against Iran when the time is right, IDF spokesperson says
The Israel Defense Forces addressed action the country may take in response to Iran's ballistic missile attack this week.
The attack, which hit parts of the country and air force bases, did not result in any casualties, Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Daniel Hagari said.
“The manner in which we will respond to the criminal attack will be in the manner, place and time we decide, in accordance with the guidance of the political echelon," Hagari said in a statement.
Israel’s soldiers are continuing to fight in Lebanon “to destroy Hezbollah’s weapons and infrastructure in the villages,” he said.
Hagari said “440 terrorists, of which 30 were commanders of various ranks,” have been killed since fighting began and more than 2,000 Hezbollah targets have been destroyed.
He added that the IDF attacked the main intelligence headquarters of Hezbollah “in the heart of the Dahia” yesterday, but is still “checking the results of the attack.”
Flashes and flares seen over Beirut tonight
Reporting from Beirut
At least 20 large flashes were seen over Beirut tonight, coloring the skies over Dahyeh bright orange. The flashes were very large, the largest that a NBC News crew in the area has seen during the nighttime strikes so far.
Booms from explosions were heard following the flashes. Between bombings, a Middle East Airlines flight landed at Hariri International Airport in Beirut.
At least two plumes of black smoke was seen rising from the area where an apparent strike hit. Buzzing Israeli drones were also heard circling over Dahyeah as more loud booms were heard.
After two more large flashes, yet another big boom was heard, followed by a flight seen taking off from the airport seconds later.
The Israel Defense Forces said it is "currently striking terror targets belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist organization in the area of Beirut.”
Israelis, former hostages call for release of remaining captives in Gaza
Israelis across the country took to the streets tonight to call for the return of the remaining hostages through a deal, the Hostages and Families Forum said in a statement just two days before the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks.
"The hostages have no time to wait — every day in the Hamas hell is an eternity where the captives face immediate danger of death," the forum said in the statement.
Liat Atzili Benin was captured by Hamas on Oct. 7 and released in a prisoner swap in November after 54 days in captivity, the forum said. Upon her release, she learned her husband, Aviv, was murdered that day and that his body is still being held in Gaza.
"I wish that was the extent of my loss, but I lost many more things that day," Benin said in a statement provided by the forum. Prior to the attacks, she said her "anchors in life" were her husband, her kibbutz — Nir Oz — and her work at the Nofei HaBsor school.
"Now, these three things are gone," Benin said. The school reopened on Sept. 1, "but Aviv is gone, the kibbutz is still in ruins, and our small community is being torn apart from within."
"How can one continue to live after what happened? How can a community mourn so many friends? Opinions are divided, souls are bruised, anger is high, and a sense of helplessness is paralyzing," Benin wrote, adding "there is one thing our community agrees on without dispute. We all know, from young to old, that our most urgent mission is an uncompromising struggle to return the remaining 101 hostages in the Gaza Strip, 29 of whom are from Nir Oz."
Benin said her wish for next year, when the Jewish new year rolls around again is that she will "sit on the porch of my new home in Nir Oz."
When she attends the holiday gathering on the kibbutz's dining room lawn, "everyone will be there, those who returned to live in Nir Oz and those who built their homes elsewhere. The guests of honor will be the hostages who were returned."
Netanyahu: 'We have clearly changed the course of the war'
In an public address today, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu highlighted the significant military actions taken against Hamas and Hezbollah, including the elimination of key commanders and the destruction of missile stockpiles and tunnels created near the borders.
"Although we have not yet completed the removal of the threat, we have clearly changed the course of the war and the balance of the war," he said today.
While he didn't provide information on timing of a response to Iran, Netanyahu said Israel will defend itself against all attacks.
Netanyahu emphasized the commitment to return the 101 hostages in Gaza and to ensure the safety of residents living along the Lebanese border.
IRC urges international community to stand in solidarity with Lebanon
The International Rescue Committee is calling on the international community to "use all influence" to bring about a ceasefire, saying Lebanon is facing its worst humanitarian crisis in decades.
The IRC say hundreds of thousands have been newly displaced over the last two weeks, many of which are spread across more than 700 collective shelters, including schools.
The IRC says they surveyed more than 1,500 individuals, nearly half being children, and found that around 80% are unable to meet their basic needs.
"Every day, the parents we meet at the shelters tell us about the trauma their children experience when they hear the strikes and drones and how this prevents them from sleeping at night," said Juan Gabriel Wells, the Country Director of IRC Lebanon.
A veterinary opens at a displacement camp in Gaza
Israeli military says 12 were killed by strikes on West Bank
The IDF and Israel's security agency, Shin Bet, said today that at least 12 people were killed during a strike on the West Bank city of Tulkarem last week.
The IDF and ISA had previously said that it had killed two senior Hamas and Islamic Jihad officials during the strike.
They released a list of ten additional names today of people it said were killed during Thursday's strikes, including nine people it claims were affiliated with Hamas.
Targeted, killed and threatened: hostilities are impeding Lebanon's beleaguered rescue teams, officials say
Reporting from Zouk Mosbeh, Lebanon
Strike upon strike by Israel has killed and injured dozens of rescue and emergency workers in the two weeks since the country has stepped up its attacks on Lebanon.
In Beirut this morning, Walid Al-Hachach, head of the service and operations unit for the Lebanese Civil Defense told NBC News that a rescue team, escorted by the Lebanese Army, tried to enter the heavily bombed southern suburb of Dahiya, only to be repelled by heavy shelling.
"We had to withdraw," Al-Hachach said.
So far, seven members of Lebanese civil defense, the country's emergency services, have been killed on duty and 29 injured. Al-Hachach added that they are investigating a threat earlier this week telling one of the rescue workers to leave Dahiya, "otherwise we will attack you."
"We follow the internationally practiced protocol, when it comes to saving peoples’ lives. We are at an equal distance; our role is humanitarian," Al-Hachach said.
In southern Lebanon, Abdallah Nour el Dine, a regional director for the Civil Defense Islamic Health Authority, said that 47 staff members had been killed in the last ten days, 40 ambulance hit and 35 health centers destroyed.
"The Israeli enemy is forbidding us from reaching the casualties," he said. "We are continuing regardless of the sacrifices we’re having.”
In an interview to local media, Lebanese lawyer and former minister Ziad Baroud said, “preventing ambulance crews from carrying out their role constitutes a violation of the humanitarian law,” echoing repeated concerns by Lebanese and international officials that the attacks on emergency workers and the health system violate international humanitarian law.
The IDF says that Hezbollah uses ambulances and hospitals for military purposes, opening them to attack.
U.S. providing nearly $157 million to support humanitarian needs in Lebanon
The U.S. is providing nearly $157 million to address humanitarian needs in Lebanon and the region affected by the current hostilities, USAID and the State Department said in statements yesterday.
This financing will help the U.N., other international organizations, and NGOs provide food assistance and critical relief items, improve collective shelters, offer health services and support humanitarian coordination.
"The United States is deeply concerned about the humanitarian impact of the recent escalation in conflict in Lebanon, which has resulted in at least a thousand deaths and the displacement of more than one million people, internally and to neighboring Syria," USAID's statement read.
This investment brings the total humanitarian assistance provided to support vulnerable populations in Lebanon and Syria to nearly $386 million as of fiscal year 2024.
'Stop delivering weapons to fight in Gaza,' says French president Macron
French President Emmanuel Macron has urged an end to weapons deliveries to Israel for use in Gaza.
“I think that today, the priority is that we return to a political solution, that we stop delivering weapons to fight in Gaza,” Macron told broadcaster France Inter.
The United Kingdom suspended some arms sales to Israel earlier this month after concluding there was a real risk that weapons could be used to commit serious violations of international law.
Macron said that France was not sending any arms to Israel.
A Lebanese chef rushes to keep pace with a conflict that's displacing people even faster
Reporting from Beirut, Lebanon
At one of World Central Kitchen’s distribution points in central Beirut, the pace was fast because Lebanon’s crisis is quickly growing worse.
“We were preparing for the escalation, but we were not expecting this fast everywhere,” said Aline Kamakian, a “Chef Corps” member for the group’s operations in Lebanon and the owner of Mayrig, one of Beirut’s most celebrated restaurants. “We were expecting for the escalation to have around 800 [thousand] people. But today we are at 1.2 or 1.3 [million] internally displaced people.”
Despite a year-long low-level fight between Hezbollah and Israel, the sudden speed with which Israel turned its guns from the Gaza Strip to its northern border with Lebanon last month appears to have caught the international community by surprise. The World Food Programme, the International Office for Migration, and UNICEF are among several international aid organizations that have launched emergency appeals over the past few weeks.
Yesterday, the U.S. Department of State announced that it will give nearly $157 million in new humanitarian assistance to support Lebanon’s legions of displaced.
Kamakian and her team of volunteers were spending their Saturday morning quickly ladling bulgar and rice with shredded chicken into tin foil food containers — a “Lebanese classic” that Kamakian called comfort food as she swiped a taste from the rice pot.
Today’s task: 3,000 hot meals — a drop in the bucket among the 50,000 meals WCK prepares each day in some 18 kitchens like this one across Lebanon.
The challenge isn’t just the immense size of the displacement crisis, but the speed and scale at which it worsened and the precarious political background in which Lebanon has been mired for years.
“Imagine the situation is really getting harder and harder,” she said as she pressed “World Central Kitchen” labels on to each container before they were stacked into cardboard boxes and hurried out the door. “And above that every night we don’t sleep. We’re bombarded everywhere. So some of our employees cannot make it. Some of the distributors of food, we cannot make it.”
World Central Kitchen began its work in Lebanon in 2020, when an enormous explosion at Beirut’s port killed hundreds of people and levelled parts of the city’s downtown. Kamakian’s Armenian restaurant in the tony Gemmayze neighborhood was among the victims: several of her staff were badly injured and Kamakian herself lost hearing in one ear.
Then as now, Kamakian jumped into action to help feed hundreds of thousands of displaced people.
And then, as now, Lebanon’s fractured government was largely absent. But entrepreneurs like Kamakian are used to filling the void.
“Everything you’re seeing is on individuals, the private sector and NGOs,” she said. Lebanese people “are doers. They love Lebanon.”
A young girl recounts her father's last words
Joud Mohammed Al-Farra, 11, cried as she remembered her father’s last words: “I’m cold, I’m cold,” he said, as he lay dying, injured by an Israeli airstrike on their home near Khan Younis yesterday.
"We covered him, he said he was cold," Joud told the NBC News crew, as she wiped away tears. "When the ambulance came, he was dead."
She had been sleeping, and hid under the bed when the shelling began, but her father had taken her two brothers to go pray. "When they went to pray, the strike occurred, and all of them died," she said.
Her two brothers Abdelhadi, 14, and Nasar Allah, 7, were also killed. They are survived by Joud, their sister Nagham, 16, and their mother.
Hostage’s family holds hope for father’s return one year later
Reporting from Nir Oz
As Israel prepares to commemorate the Oct. 7 attacks, more than 100 hostages, including several Americans, remain in Gaza.
Avital Dekel-Chen, the wife of American hostage Sagui Dekel-Chen, says that she believes her husband is still alive and is hopeful he will return.
"We miss him so much," Avital, who gave birth to their second child in December, told NBC News. '"My daughters ask about him every single day."
Sagui's father, Jonathan, has campaigned tirelessly for his son's freedom, and said that there was "absolutely not justification" not to bring them home as talks continue to stall on a cease-fire deal.
Iran's oil minister 'not concerned' by Israel conflict
Iranian oil minister, Mohsen Paknejad, says he is "not concerned" about the escalating conflict in the region, amid reports that Israel could strike Iran, the ministry's Shana news site said.
Paknejad has been traveling to the south of Iran where most of the country's oil facilities are located.
Israel is weighing up its retaliation to the barrage of missiles sent by Iran last week, triggering a jump in global oil prices as Iran's oil industry emerged as a potential target.
Three airstrikes heard in Beirut
Reporting from Zouk Mosbeh, Lebanon
There were three loud explosions over Beirut just now, after a night of strikes that continued until dawn.
U.N. says over 200,000 have fled Lebanon for Syria
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Syria says 206,000 Lebanese and Syrians living in Lebanon are estimated to have crossed into Syria as they flee Israeli air strikes, an increase of over 20,000 new arrivals from the previous day's report.
People were fleeing on foot, UNHCR said, after a strike yesterday hit the main border crossing between Lebanon and Syria, destroying a section of the road and cutting off vehicle access.
The IDF says it struck the crossing because Hezbollah was using the route to bring weapons into Lebanon.
Gaza death toll rises to over 41,800, health ministry says
The death toll in Gaza since Oct. 7 has risen to over 41,800 people including 23 deaths in the past 24 hours, according to local health officials. 96,900 have been wounded, and thousands remain under rubble.
UN peacekeepers rejected Israeli request to leave southern Lebanon
The United Nations peacekeeping force said it will not leave southern Lebanon despite Israeli requests to "relocate" days before the IDF began its ground invasion.
“On September 30, the IDF [Israeli military] notified UNIFIL of their intention to undertake limited ground incursions into Lebanon," the UN Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said in a statement.
"They also requested we relocate from some of our positions,” it added, going ton to say that “peacekeepers remain in all positions and the UN flag continues to fly.”
The southern city Tyre is nearly empty as civilians flee
Reporting from Tyre
Cities all throughout southern Lebanon will pay an enormous price as Israel and Hezbollah embark on a ground war in the south. The city of Tyre has been almost entirely evacuated, and Israel issues more evacuation orders.
The IDF says it is trying to create a buffer zone in southern Lebanon free of Hezbollah. The group has been battered and hit, but Hezbollah remains in tact. Every day, we've been hearing and seeing outgoing Hezbollah fire.
The expectation is that Israel will suffer more casualties and Hezbollah will suffer more casualties.
More countries evacuate citizens as bombings intensify in Lebanon
China, Japan and South Korea have evacuated their citizens, as Israel intensifies its air and ground offensive in Lebanon.
South Korea evacuated 97 citizens by military aircraft, with some 30 South Koreans opting to stay behind.
China evacuated more than 200 citizens, while a Japanese transport plane carrying 11 Japanese and four French nationals from Lebanon landed in Jordan yesterday.
The United Kingdom has chartered a fourth and final flight to leave Lebanon on Sunday, urging any remaining British nationals who want to leave to register immediately.
Governments around the world have advised their citizens leave Lebanon immediately, but thousands have been stranded as the majority of airlines have stopped flights to and from the country.
Trump says Israel should strike Iranian nuclear facilities
Republican candidate Donald Trump said yesterday that Israel should strike Iran's nuclear facilities in retaliation to for the Iran's recent retaliatory missile barrage on Israel.
President Joe Biden has urged proportionality as Israel weights up its response, saying earlier this week that the U.S. would not support an Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear sites. But Trump mocked the President's remarks at a campaign event in North Carolina yesterday.
“That's the thing you want to hit,” Trump said. “Isn’t that what you’re supposed to hit? I mean, it’s the biggest risk we have, nuclear weapons."
Lebanon hospital says nine staff injured in Israeli strike
A hospital in southern Lebanon says nine medical and nursing staff were injured, "most of them seriously," during a "barbaric" Israeli strike yesterday after receiving a warning to evacuate.
A statement issued by Martyr Salah Ghandour Hospital said the hospital evacuated most of its personnel after the attack, but for a number of workers stayed behind to protect the hospital's property.
The IDF said that the Israeli Air Force struck a Hezbollah command center inside a mosque adjacent to the hospital. It said Hezbollah was using the hospital for military activity, and that notices were sent to residents before the strike.
The IDF has also said that Hezbollah uses ambulances belonging to the Islamic Health Authority for "terrorist purposes."
Leading Hamas figure killed in strikes, says military wing
A leader of Hamas' military wing was killed by Israeli strikes in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, Hamas’ Al-Qassem Brigades said in a statement today.
Saeed Atallah Ali was killed with his wife and two daughters during an attack on an apartment in Tripoli's Beddawi camp.
U.S. military adds dozens of fighter jets to Middle East as tensions rise
Dozens of additional fighter jets have been deployed across the Middle East amid Israel’s intensified attacks against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Earlier this week, President Joe Biden also sent thousands of troops to the Middle East to bolster security for troops already in the region, according to the U.S. Department of Defense.
These additional resources would enable the U.S. to assist Israel in its expected retaliatory attack against Iran by providing aircraft or intelligence.
Biden says Netanyahu should remember how much he’s aided Israel
At the White House press briefing, President Biden was asked if he thought Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu was trying to influence the U.S. presidential election by saying he would not sign any diplomatic agreement for peace with Hamas before the election. Biden responded citing how much his administration has aided Israel and that Netanyahu should remember that.
Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemns Israeli strike targeting Lebanon-Syria border crossing
The Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned Israel’s bombing of the Masnaa border crossing between Lebanon and Syria today.
The attack cut off access to the border crossing, which is “the vital artery used by hundreds of thousands of displaced Lebanese and Syrian citizens” attempting to leave Lebanon amid Israeli airstrikes, the ministry said in a statement on Facebook.
“Syria condemns this unbridled Zionist crime that has even begun to affect civil defense crews and humanitarian relief workers, and we call for working to stop it immediately and to ensure that this entity is held accountable for its crimes and that it does not escape punishment,” the ministry said.
The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that it targeted the Lebanon-Syria border because of an underground tunnel allegedly used to smuggle weapons into Lebanon for Hezbollah.