Live Updates: Israel Strikes Hezbollah-Affiliated Financial Branches Across Lebanon
The escalation of Israel’s war against the militant group came as rescuers searched for dead and wounded after a devastating Israeli strike in northern Gaza.
Smoke rising near Beirut-Rafic Al Hariri International Airport after Israeli airstrikes.
Hussein Malla/Associated Press
Fire and explosions near Beirut-Rafic Al Hariri International Airport after Israeli airstrikes.
Reuters
Beit Lahia, Gaza
The aftermath of an overnight Israeli strike.
Reuters
Deir el-Balah, Gaza
A young Palestinian man mourns his relatives killed in an Israeli strike.
Abdel Kareem Hana/Associated Press
Beirut
Smoke rising in the southern suburbs of Beirut after multiple Israeli airstrikes.
Diego Ibarra Sanchez for The New York Times
Beirut
People displaced from southern Lebanon shelter in a tent at a seaside promenade.
Diego Ibarra Sanchez for The New York Times
Near Rosh Pina, Israel
Firefighters working to extinguish fires after rockets were launched from Lebanon.
Associated Press
Khan Younis, Gaza
Palestinians sit next to a fire on the rubble of their destroyed home.
The Israeli military conducted a wave of airstrikes across Lebanon on Sunday, targeting branches of Al-Qard al-Hasan, a financial association associated with Hezbollah.
The association operates as a lender and financial services provider for civilians in many areas of Lebanon, where the traditional banking sector is in shambles. Many of its branches are situated on the ground floors of residential buildings.
Israel warned people living near Al-Qard al-Hasan branches to evacuate, prompting many to flee.
In a statement ahead of the strikes, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, an Israeli military spokesman, said the alternative banking system is “being used to finance Hezbollah’s terror activities.” Al-Qard al-Hasan was placed under U.S. sanctions in 2007 for operating as Hezbollah’s de facto banking arm.
Earlier on Saturday, Israeli jets bombed a Hezbollah stronghold near the Lebanese capital, a day after a drone struck a building near the residence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, in what Mr. Netanyahu said was an assassination attempt by Hezbollah.
The attacks came as Israel continued its renewed assault in northern Gaza against Hamas.
Rescue workers in northern Gaza were searching for survivors on Sunday after a major overnight Israeli airstrike that Palestinian officials said killed or wounded dozens of people in the town of Beit Lahia.
The Gazan Health Ministry said that at least 87 people were killed or missing in Beit Lahia, with more than 40 others wounded and a number of people still trapped under the rubble. The Palestinian civil defense, an emergency service, said “tens” of people had been killed and wounded in the attack, which it said hit a residential building just before midnight on Saturday.
There was no immediate comment from Israel’s military, which had earlier said it was examining what had happened and disputed an initial toll from Hamas officials that said dozens of people had been killed.
The fighting has raged on in Gaza and Lebanon in the days since the killing of the Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar, in southern Gaza last week. His death had raised some hopes that cease-fire negotiations to end the war might gain new momentum. But the Israeli government, Hamas, and its ally Hezbollah have all signaled that they will not back down, with attacks over the weekend suggesting the violence might be ramping up.
The Israeli military has been trying to demonstrate that it is taking measures to protect civilians, and it said on Sunday that it had warned people to evacuate in advance. Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III has called for Israel to scale back its strikes in and around Beirut, saying on Saturday that the number of civilian casualties was “far too high.”
Here’s what to know:
Hezbollah attacks: Around 160 rockets or drones fired from Lebanon by Hezbollah had crossed into Israel by 3 p.m. local time Sunday, according to Israel’s military. That followed what Israel’s military said was around 200 “projectiles” fired by Hezbollah into Israel a day earlier. One man was killed and another injured in the attacks on Saturday. Mr. Netanyahu’s office said no one was injured in the drone attack on his residence on Saturday, and neither Mr. Netanyahu nor his wife was home at the time.
Mideast shift: Before Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks, Saudi Arabia was open to forging stronger ties with Israel. Now, a year into the war in Gaza, it is warming up to its traditional enemy, Iran.
Gaza: Israeli forces pounded the northern Gaza town of Jabaliya on Saturday, killing at least 33 people and injuring dozens of others, a Palestinian emergency services group said. The Gazan Health Ministry also reported that Israel had targeted the entrance of the laboratory at a hospital near Jabaliya, killing one person and injuring several others. The Israeli military said it was not aware of any strikes on the hospital.
Gabby Sobelman and Isabel Kershner contributed reporting.
The United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, said in a statement on Sunday that the Israeli military had “deliberately demolished” one of its observation towers and a perimeter fence in Marwahin in southern Lebanon in “a flagrant violation of international law.” It called on Israel to ensure the safety of peacekeepers. The Israeli military said it was looking into the reports.
In recent weeks, UNIFIL has said on several occasions that Israel has targeted its positions, injuring at least four peacekeepers. The U.N. force is in southern Lebanon to monitor a zone between the Litani River and Israel’s northern border. Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has called on the peacekeepers to leave the area. UNIFIL in its statement today rejected that call and said it “will continue to undertake our mandated tasks to monitor and report.”
Smoke rising over the outskirts of Beirut after strikes from Israel on Sunday.Credit...Hussein Malla/Associated Press
The Israeli military conducted a wave of airstrikes across Lebanon on Sunday, targeting branches of Al-Qard al-Hasan, a financial association associated with the militant group Hezbollah.
The organization was placed under U.S. sanctions in 2007 and has been accused by American, Israeli, Saudi Arabian and other officials of operating as Hezbollah’s de facto banking arm. Inside Lebanon, where Hezbollah also functions as a political organization and provides a range of social services, Al-Qard al-Hasan is designated a non-governmental organization and is viewed as a Hezbollah-affiliated charity.
It operates as a lender and financial services provider for civilians in many areas of Lebanon, where the traditional banking sector is in shambles. Many of its branches are situated on the ground floors of residential buildings, and it is deeply embedded in the Shiite Muslim communities it serves.
On social media on Sunday night, Avichay Adraee, the Arabic spokesman for the Israeli military, warned residents of Lebanon to evacuate buildings near the infrastructure of Al-Qard al-Hasan around Beirut and across southern and eastern Lebanon, saying that the organization “is involved in financing the terrorist activities of the Hezbollah organization against Israel.”
Soon after, the sounds of explosions could be heard ringing across Beirut, the Lebanese capital. A New York Times reporter saw dense plumes of black smoke rising in the near distance after the strikes.
The strikes marked an apparent escalation of Israel’s war against Hezbollah, with a senior Israel intelligence official saying the targeting of the banking system — rather than weapons depots or command and intelligence centers — was intended to disrupt Hezbollah’s day-to-day operations, undermine its support in Lebanese communities and hamper its ability to rebuild.
The financial organization has about 30 branches across Lebanon, including in the Dahiya, a densely packed area adjoining Beirut where Hezbollah holds sway.
Israel, the United States and others say that the group, despite its stated aims, serves as a front for Hezbollah financing. The group “purports to serve the Lebanese people” but in practice “illicitly moves funds through shell accounts and facilitators,” the Treasury Department said in 2021 when it was sanctioning individuals involved in what it called Hezbollah’s “shadow banking” network.
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Displaced people shelter on Ramlet al-Baida beach in Beirut on Friday.Credit...Diego Ibarra Sanchez for The New York Times
“In the coming days, we will reveal how Iran funds Hezbollah’s terror activities by using civilian institutions, associations, and NGOs that act as fronts for terrorism,” Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military’s chief spokesman, said in a statement on Sunday evening.
Critics of the group say the organization allows Hezbollah to build up its influence with citizens in Lebanon while hobbling the state and putting Lebanon’s banks at risk of foreign sanctions.
A senior Israeli official speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters said that Israel aims to disrupt Hezbollah’s day-to-day financial operations, including paying salaries of Hezbollah’s operatives, which all run through Al-Qard al-Hasan, and to undermine the trust between Hezbollah and the many Lebanese Shiite Muslims who use the branches as an alternative banking service.
Al-Qard al-Hasan said in a statement on Sunday that Israel had exhausted “its bank of objectives and has chosen to threaten and target Al-Qard al-Hasan, the non-profit organization.”
Lebanon is still reeling from a severe financial and economic crisis that began in 2019.
In October of that year, the country was rocked with protests calling for a new government, leading to the prime minister’s resignation.
But the government and the country have yet to recover — and the financial crisis was exacerbated in the years that followed, first by the Covid-19 pandemic, and then by a massive explosion in the port of Beirut in the summer of 2020. Desperate Lebanese citizens have at times even tried to hold up banks where they are customers in an effort to get their money.
Last year, Hezbollah began launching attacks at Israel in solidarity with Hamas after that group’s Oct. 7 attacks on Israel that ignited the war in Gaza. Israel and Hezbollah traded fire for many months in a steady exchange of strikes that seemed, until last month, to be designed to avoid an all-out war.
But Israel in September stepped up its attacks against Hezbollah, targeting its commanders and infrastructure in a series of intense strikes in and near Beirut and throughout southern Lebanon; more than 2,400 people have been killed in Lebanon since October 2023, with the vast majority of those deaths occurring in the recent uptick in Israeli attacks. In October, Israel also launched a ground invasion into southern Lebanon that has led to the displacement of about a million people in Lebanon, according to local authorities.
On Sunday, residents of areas near branches of Al-Qard al-Hasan began fleeing after the evacuation warnings from Israel. Fatima Jneideh said she had evacuated her home just a few meters from a branch location in the Dahiya, an area near Beirut where Hezbollah holds sway. “My brother is still home,” she said. “He refused to leave.”
Isabel Kershner and Hwaida Saad contributed reporting from Beirut and Jerusalem.
Posters of the Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar; a top Iranian general, Qassem Soleimani; and the head of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, in Tehran on Saturday. All have been killed.Credit...Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times
U.S. officials planned to hold a classified briefing about a leak of American intelligence documents that appear to detail Israel’s plans to retaliate against Iran for a missile salvo earlier this month, the House speaker said Sunday.
“The leak is very concerning,” the speaker, Mike Johnson, Republican of Louisiana, said on CNN on Sunday morning. He said that he would take part in the classified briefing later in the day and that he was following the issue “very closely.”
The leaked documents, which began circulating on Friday on the Telegram app, were prepared in recent days by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which is responsible for analyzing images and information collected by American spy satellites.
The documents, which are highly classified, offer interpretations of satellite imagery that provide insight into a potential strike by Israel on Iran in the coming days.
For weeks, an Israeli attack has been anticipated in retaliation for the Iranian missile assault on Oct. 1. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said that the strike was in retaliation for the assassinations of Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in Lebanon; Hamas’s political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, killed in Tehran in July; and an Iranian commander.
The leaked documents offer a window into intense American concerns about Israel’s plans. U.S. officials are working to ascertain just how much material was leaked, and believe it was disclosed by a low-level government official.
The documents are dated Oct. 15 and represent only what analysts looking at satellite imagery could determine at that time.
Mr. Johnson said that he had spoken to Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, on Saturday “to encourage him,” and said the United States should stand behind Israel.
“We cannot equivocate,” he said. “We can’t appease Iran. Now is the time for a maximum pressure campaign.”
On Friday, President Biden was asked in Germany whether he knew when Israel planned to strike and what kind of targets it had chosen. “Yes and yes,” he said, declining to say more.
But his statement seemed to suggest that he and Mr. Netanyahu had reached some kind of understanding about what kind of targets would be hit; previously, Mr. Biden called on Israel to avoid Iran’s nuclear sites and its energy facilities. The president has repeatedly raised concerns that if those targets, Iran’s crown jewels, were destroyed, the conflict would quickly escalate.
Mr. Johnson’s office did not respond to a request for comment on the briefing on Sunday.
Julian E. Barnes, Ronen Bergman and David E. Sanger contributed reporting.
Some of the Israeli evacuation orders issued tonight in areas near Beirut are inaccurate. One map issued by the Israeli military incorrectly labels a shopping mall as roughly 5 miles from its actual location. Amnesty International has found earlier instances of Israeli evacuation orders being faulty.
In Baalbek, a major city in eastern Lebanon, patients at a government hospital have been transferred to areas of the building away from a branch of Al-Qard al-Hasan next to the hospital, Lebanon’s health ministry said.
The sound of explosions in the Dahiya is ringing across the Lebanese capital. I can see a dense plume of black smoke rising in the near distance after one of the strikes.
Residents near branches of a Hezbollah financial institution Israel is striking have begun fleeing to sidewalks and street corners. Fatima Jneideh said she had evacuated her home just a few meters from a branch location in the Dahiya. “My brother is still home," she said. "He refused to leave.”
Many of the branches of the Hezbollah financial institution being struck by Israel are situated on the ground floors of residential buildings. The institution forms a key component of Hezbollah’s social services network, which many supporters have relied heavily on amid Lebanon’s historic economic collapse. The charity is deeply embedded in the Shiite Muslim communities it serves.
The Israeli military has so far issued more than two dozen evacuation warnings in the Dahiya, near Beirut, along with eastern and southern Lebanon, after announcing strikes on Al-Qard al-Hasan, the Hezbollah-affiliated financial institution. Amnesty International, the human rights group, has previously criticized such warnings as “misleading and inadequate,” saying they do not absolve Israel of its obligations under international humanitarian law to not target civilians.
It appears some of the strikes have already begun. Lebanon’s state-run news agency reported an attack on the Dahiya, the area adjoining Beirut where Hezbollah holds sway.
Al-Qard al-Hasan, the Hezbollah-affiliated charity and the country’s biggest micro credit organization, was placed under U.S. sanctions in 2007. It has been accused by U.S. officials of operating as the group’s de facto banking arm, which “illicitly moves funds through shell accounts and facilitators.” The charity has branches across Lebanon, including in the Dahiya, the densely packed area adjoining Beirut.
The Israeli military will attack “a large number” of economic targets belonging to Hezbollah in Lebanon tonight, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military’s chief spokesman, said in a televised statement on Sunday. The targets of the operation are expected to be multiple branches of a financial association known as Al-Qard al-Hasan Foundation, which a senior Israeli intelligence official described as an alternative banking system run by the Hezbollah organization.
Although the amounts of cash held in the physical branches of Al-Qard al-Hasan are not likely to constitute a significant portion of Hezbollah’s financial assets, Israeli officials said the intent was to hamper Hezbollah’s ability to rebuild and rearm itself, and to undermine the trust between Hezbollah and Lebanon’s Shiite Muslim citizens, many of whom use the association as an Islamic bank.
The Lebanese military said in a statement on Sunday that Israeli troops had targeted one of its army vehicles in southern Lebanon, killing three soldiers. The Israeli military did not provide an immediate comment.
The Lebanese Army is controlled by the state and is not a party to the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. However, there have been increasing casualties among its ranks as a result of Israeli attacks since Israel’s ground invasion in Lebanon began a few weeks ago, including two soldiers killed on Oct. 11, prompting it to return fire on at least one occasion.
The aftermath of an Israeli airstrike in Beit Lahia, Gaza, on Sunday.Credit...Islam Ahmed/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Rescuers were combing the rubble and searching for survivors on Sunday in the town of Beit Lahia, in northern Gaza, where Palestinian officials said an overnight Israeli airstrike hit a residential building and killed dozens of people.
The Gazan Health Ministry said on Sunday that at least 87 people were killed or were missing, with more than 40 others wounded.
“A number of victims are still under the rubble,” it said in a statement, adding that ambulances and rescue workers were having difficulty reaching the site. The Palestinian civil defense, an emergency service, said “dozens” of people had been killed and wounded in the attack, which was reported before midnight on Saturday.
There was no immediate comment from Israel’s military, which late on Saturday issued a statement saying it was examining what had happened. In that statement, it also disputed an initial toll from Hamas officials saying dozens of people had been killed. Those numbers, the military said, “do not align” with its initial assessment.
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Wounded Palestinians receiving treatment at a hospital after an Israeli airstrike in Beit Lahia on Saturday.Credit...Islam Ahmed/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
The Israeli military renewed an offensive earlier this month in northern Gaza, saying it was trying to eliminate a regrouped Hamas presence in the area. Roughly 400,000 people remain in northern Gaza, according to the United Nations, and many have been trapped in their ruined neighborhoods by Israeli airstrikes.
The U.N. special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Tor Wennesland, noted that the Beit Lahia strike came after “weeks of intensified operations that have resulted in scores of civilian fatalities.”
“The nightmare in Gaza is intensifying,” he wrote on social media. “Horrifying scenes are unfolding in the northern Strip amidst conflict, relentless Israeli strikes and an ever-worsening humanitarian crisis.”
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Palestinians combed through rubble looking for survivors after an overnight Israeli airstrike hit a residential building in the town of Beit Lahia, in northern Gaza, killing dozens of people, according to Palestinian officials.CreditCredit...Islam Ahmed/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Al Jazeera broadcast footage on Sunday of the immediate aftermath of the strike, which showed residents and rescue workers pulling limp bodies — including those of small children — from the rubble. Images taken at the scene on Sunday showed what appeared to be a completely flattened building.
Details of the strike were scarce and it was difficult to reach people in northern Gaza by phone. On Saturday, Paltel, a major Palestinian cellular provider, said the renewed Israeli offensive had caused wide-ranging communication blackouts in the northern part of the enclave.
Around 100 rockets or drones fired from Lebanon in two waves have crossed into Israel so far today, according to Israel’s military. There were no immediate reports of casualties, but the military said that emergency workers were working to put out "numerous fires" that ignited as a result of the second wave. Hezbollah has continued to launch barrages of rockets and drones at Israel in the weeks since Israel launched an invasion of southern Lebanon.
Rescuers are combing through the rubble in northern Gaza's town of Beit Lahia, where officials say an overnight Israeli airstrike hit a residential building and killed dozens of Palestinians. The Gazan Health Ministry says that at least 87 people were killed or are missing, with more than 40 others wounded. There was no immediate comment from Israel's military, which had earlier disputed an initial toll from Hamas officials that said dozens of people had been killed.
Thousands joined families of hostages held in Gaza during a protest in Tel Aviv to call on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to reach a cease-fire deal and to push for the release of hostages.CreditCredit...Abir Sultan/EPA, via Shutterstock
The families of several Israeli hostages held in Gaza issued a sharply worded televised statement on Saturday in which they called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to seize the moment after this week’s killing of the Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar, to reach a hostage and cease-fire deal to bring home their loved ones.
“Netanyahu, there are no excuses left,” said Einav Zangauker, whose 24-year-old son, Matan, was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7, 2023, adding, “You got your victory photo in Gaza.”
One by one, the speakers also stressed the danger their family members in Gaza face and voiced their anger at what they see as the abandonment of the hostages by the government. Of the 101 hostages still in Gaza, at least a third are believed to be dead.
“Netanyahu, after Sinwar’s elimination, it’s obvious to everyone that the lives of the hostages are in danger,” said Ifat Calderon, whose cousin Ofer Calderon is being held in Gaza. “We all understand there is a narrow window of opportunity — and maybe the last — to save lives.”
Ms. Zangauker, who has been a vocal critic of Mr. Netanyahu throughout the war, said that the war’s goal, “which was to create the conditions for getting our hostages back, has been achieved.”
Mr. Netanyahu has stated throughout the war that Israel’s goals are to return the hostages and destroy Hamas’s capabilities to ensure Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israelis. During the Hamas-led attacks on Israel last October, about 1,200 people were killed and 250 were taken into Gaza.
Several of the family members said they worried Mr. Netanyahu was dragging his feet on ending the war and that he feared his right-wing coalition partners, who have exhorted him to continue fighting Hamas and without whom Mr. Netanyahu’s coalition might collapse.
Addressing the prime minister, Ms. Calderon said, “If you do not take advantage of the current opportunity, if you do not place a new Israeli initiative on the table, that will clearly mean you have decided to abandon our hostages in order to extend the war and maintain your reign.”
The prime minister’s office could not be reached for comment. But Mr. Netanyahu has repeatedly depicted Hamas as the primary obstacle to an agreement.
“This war can end tomorrow,” Mr. Netanyahu said on Thursday after the death of Mr. Sinwar. “It can end if Hamas lays down its arms and returns our hostages.” On Friday, Mr. Sinwar’s longtime deputy said that Hamas would not soften its demand for a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
But hostage family members stressed on Saturday that Mr. Sinwar’s death was a turning point, and they added that they wanted Mr. Netanyahu to do more to bring their family members home.
“Stop trying to sell your fake spins to the public as if you are doing everything to bring back the hostages,” said Yehuda Cohen, the father of Nimrod Cohen, another Israeli hostage.
The license of MBC Media Group was revoked on Saturday, just hours after supporters of Iranian-backed armed groups stormed its offices.Credit...Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times
Iraqi regulators have suspended the license of a Saudi-owned television channel and are taking steps to terminate its right to operate in Iraq after the channel aired a report describing former leaders of Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran’s Quds Force as “faces of terrorism.”
The suspension of the channel, MBC Media Group, was announced by the Iraqi Communication and Media Commission on Saturday, less than 24 hours after supporters of the Iranian linked armed groups stormed the channel’s offices in Baghdad, filming themselves as they vandalized equipment and smashed computers.
The break-in occurred after a crowd gathered late on Friday in front of the channel’s building, started a fire and chanted, “No, no Al-Saud.”
Among those the MBC report characterized as terrorists were Yahya Sinwar, the military leader of Hamas, who was killed by Israeli forces in Gaza earlier this week; the Iranian Quds Force general, Qassim Suleimani, who was killed in a U.S. strike in Baghdad in 2020; and Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, killed by Israel near Beirut in September. All had been designated as terrorists by the United States, and Hamas and Hezbollah are supported by Iran.
Saudi Arabia’s Media Regulatory Authority said the report also violated its media policy. It said officials there were looking at the country’s own legal procedures to address the violation.
Representatives of MBC in Iraq did not respond to multiple efforts to reach them for comment, but the report appeared to have been taken down.
The government of Iraq is dominated by parties with links to Iran. Many party leaders view the men named in the MBC report as heroes and martyrs, and any public criticism is seen as nearly blasphemous.
In its announcement of MBC’s suspension, Iraq’s Communications and Media Commission said its duty was to “deter violators of national values and public morals” and that MBC had repeatedly violated the rules in “its assaults on the martyrs.”
While the Iraqi government has close ties to Iran in many respects, Iraq’s population is diverse both religiously and ethnically. It has many Sunnis as well as Kurds, the majority of whom are also Sunni, and many in both communities are uncomfortable with the deference shown toward Iran. Many Shia Iraqis also privately express a similar discomfort. However, the armed groups’ ability to threaten violence has created a deep reluctance to speak out.
A member of Parliament, Farouk Hanna, the chairman of the body’s Culture, Media and Antiquities Committee, did not object to the government’s decision to suspend MBC’s license, but he did criticize the mob that vandalized the Saudi channel’s office’s.
“It’s an unjustified act,” he said. “There are legal ways to protest, not by burning and breaking things.”
The Interior Ministry’s spokesman, Muqdad Meri, said the ministry would investigate why the Interior Forces sent to stop the incident were unable to protect the station but made no promise to investigate the perpetrators of the vandalism.
MBC, formerly known as the Middle East Broadcasting Center, is not a stranger to controversy in Iraq. On at least two previous occasions the channel has been a target of criticism for its characterization of figures close to Iran.
While criticizing Israel for high civilian casualties in its attacks on Lebanon, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III also blamed Hezbollah for hiding its weapons and fighters among the civilian population.Credit...Olivier Matthys/EPA, via Shutterstock
Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III said on Saturday that the number of civilian casualties in Lebanon was “far too high” and that he would “like to see Israel scale back some of the strikes it’s taking, especially in and around Beirut.”
Mr. Austin is the most senior U.S. official to make that point publicly and in such strong language. He also blamed Hezbollah for hiding its headquarters, rockets and missiles that Israel is attacking among the civilian population.
Earlier this week, Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, said that his government had received “a sort of guarantee” from the Biden administration that Israel would scale back its attacks on Beirut. The White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, affirmed on Wednesday that the Biden administration had told Israel that it opposed “near-daily strikes” in “densely populated areas of Beirut.”
“We also understand that what they’re conducting — the operations that they’re conducting to destroy Hezbollah infrastructure — is targeted,” Ms. Jean-Pierre said. She added that it was “critical that these operations be conducted in a way” that would not threaten the lives of civilians.
Israel had appeared to limit strikes in and around Lebanon’s capital after Ms. Jean-Pierre’s comments, but on Saturday, the Israeli military struck in the Dahiya, the densely packed urban area near Beirut where Hezbollah holds sway. The attacks appeared to be the heaviest bombardment in the area in days.
After a call with Mr. Austin on Saturday, Israel’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, said in a statement that Israeli forces are committed “to mitigating harm” to both Lebanese civilians and to U.N. peacekeeping troops stationed in the country’s south.
Mr. Austin declined to comment on how long the Israeli aerial assault and limited ground invasion would last, referring questions on timing and objectives to Israeli officials.
Last month, Israel mounted a major offensive in Lebanon, targeting the leaders of Hezbollah, the Shiite militant and political group, and destroying much of its arsenal. The bombing has forced nearly one million people to leave their homes. Israel has said it needs to push Hezbollah fighters north and destroy their arms stockpiles to allow tens of thousands of Israeli residents to return to their homes in the country’s north after fleeing Hezbollah rocket barrages.
Speaking to reporters traveling with him after a security meeting of the Group of 7 in Naples, Italy, Mr. Austin also said “things are being done” to reverse a sharp decline in humanitarian aid to Gaza. He did not elaborate on what improvements had been made in recent days.
Last Sunday, Mr. Austin and Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken wrote in a letter to senior Israeli officials that their nation would face consequences — including the risk of losing U.S. security aid — if humanitarian assistance to Gazans did not increase in the next 30 days.
The State Department said earlier this week that the amount of aid entering Gaza in September was the lowest it had been at any time since the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which set off the Israeli invasion.
The American warning to Israel that it faces potential aid cuts comes as U.S. and U.N. officials say that conditions in Gaza, where most of the population has been displaced, and basic necessities are in short supply, have deteriorated still more in recent weeks. That is particularly the case in the territory’s north, as Israel has placed increasing restrictions on the delivery of international aid.
“We need to bend that curve in the other direction,” Mr. Austin said of the urgent shortages of humanitarian assistance. “We need to make sure these civilians in Gaza are getting what they need to survive.”
Also on Saturday, Mr. Austin told his Israeli counterpart, Mr. Gallant, in a phone call, that he was relieved that no one had been injured by a drone that had been launched from Lebanon toward the private residence of Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in the coastal town of Caesarea, according to the Pentagon press secretary, Maj. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder.
Palestinians fleeing areas north of Gaza City last week.Credit...Omar Al-Qattaa/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Israel’s military operation in northern Gaza was imperiling some of the last functioning hospitals in the area, Gazan health officials said on Saturday, as Israeli forces plowed ahead with what appeared to be one of their fiercest offensives in the enclave in months.
The Gazan health ministry said that Israeli forces had encircled three medical centers in northern Gaza — the Kamal Adwan, al-Awda and the Indonesian Hospital — at roughly midnight. The Israeli military confirmed its forces were operating near the Indonesian Hospital but declined to comment immediately on the other two.
According to the ministry, Israeli forces had fired gunshots and artillery in the direction of the Indonesian Hospital, on the outskirts of Jabaliya, the focus of an intense Israeli raid that has lasted days. More than 40 patients and medical staff were injured in the attacks, and two patients in critical condition died when the hospital lost power, the head of the World Health Organization said in a statement on social media on Saturday.
The Israeli military said it was trying to minimize harm to civilians during its operations near the Indonesian Hospital. “The hospital continues to operate without disruption and in full capacity, and there was no intentional fire directed at it,” the military said in a statement.
In a separate statement, the military said late Saturday that it had evacuated about 100 people from Jabaliya during its operations in Jabaliya and had been working to ensure that hospital emergency services would continue to function. It did not specifically address the Gazan health ministry’s claims that Israeli forces had encircled the Kamal Adwan and al-Awda medical centers.
Israeli forces stormed Jabaliya this month in at least their third major offensive there since the beginning of the war a year ago, in what the military has characterized as an offensive against resurgent Hamas fighters in the area. The operation has pressed ahead in the days since Israel killed Hamas’s leader, Yahya Sinwar, in a firefight in southern Gaza, dampening hopes that his death could pave the way to an easing of the war.
Two Israeli soldiers were killed in Gaza on Saturday, according to Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, an Israeli military spokesman.
Israel issued evacuation warnings in Jabaliya last week, but many people have stayed behind, believing they have nowhere safe to flee to. The United Nations has said that the remaining residents are in effect under siege.
Jonathan Whittall, a senior U.N. humanitarian official in Jerusalem, on Saturday called the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation in northern Gaza “deeply alarming.” Israel has allowed relatively few aid trucks into the area since the beginning of the month, raising the threat of hunger and deprivation.
“Tens of thousands are displaced, and we have received reports today of hospitals under fire with staff and patients injured,” Mr. Whittall said in a statement. “We are ready to provide food and essential supplies, but lives are being lost, and time is running out.”
On Saturday, the fog of war hung over Jabaliya: Many residents were inaccessible by phone or text message. Paltel, a major Palestinian cellular provider, said the Israeli assault had caused wide-ranging communication blackouts in northern Gaza, making it difficult to independently confirm what was taking place within the hospitals.
The Palestinian Civil Defense, an emergency service under the Hamas-run Interior Ministry, said that Israeli strikes overnight had killed or injured dozens of people in Jabaliya.
Hani al-Dibs, a high school teacher from the town, said by phone on Saturday that his family had stayed in their home, feeling that they had nowhere safe to go. If they abandoned their house, Hamas fighters might use it as a military post, leading Israeli forces to bombard it, he said.
Israeli forces have also attacked schools and hospitals where people sought shelter, arguing that Hamas was attempting to operate there unscathed.
“In my home, I know we’re no threat to the Israeli army,” Mr. al-Dibs said. “Any place that we might flee to — how can we be certain we won’t find ourselves next to someone they want?”
For nearly two weeks, he and his family stayed in Jabaliya as the fighting grew more intense. They stayed in the center of the house and avoided its windows and doors, fearing that Israeli soldiers might mistake them for militants, he said.
On Friday morning, an explosion ripped through part of his home, burying several of his relatives, including his mother. Mr. al-Dibs survived but said his wife and two of his four young children were still under the rubble.
Paramedics rushed Mr. al-Dibs and other survivors to the Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City. As for his remaining family members, he said emergency responders had been unable to reach the scene because of the fighting.
While some people have stayed, tens of thousands have fled Jabaliya since Israel began its operation there two weeks ago, including 20,000 on Friday alone, according to UNRWA, the main United Nations agency that aids Palestinians in Gaza.
Even on the edges of town, newly displaced Gazans can still hear constant bursts of shelling and bombardment in Jabaliya.
Montaser Bahja, an English teacher and Jabaliya resident, fled with his wife and children after a relative was wounded by gunfire on one of the first days of the Israeli offensive. Now in Gaza City, he desperately worries about the fate of his house, which he fears may have been bombarded in their absence.
“It feels like Gaza is over, done,” said Mr. Bahja, 50. “Even if the war ends — how could we ever rebuild? Who will want to live here?”
![[object Object]](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2024/10/20/multimedia/20mideast-crisis-carousel-jwlk/20mideast-crisis-carousel-jwlk-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp)
Smoke rising near Beirut-Rafic Al Hariri International Airport after Israeli airstrikes.![[object Object]](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2024/10/20/multimedia/20mideast-crisis-carousel-jwlk/20mideast-crisis-carousel-jwlk-threeByTwoMediumAt2X.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp)
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