Netanyahu warns Lebanon of destruction ‘similar to what we see in Gaza’

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A quarter of Lebanese territory is now under Israeli military displacement orders, according to the United Nations, a sign of the growing scale of the humanitarian crisis and expansion of Israel’s war against Hezbollah.

On Wednesday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) issued new evacuation orders for specific buildings in the Haret Hreik and Hadath areas of Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut and Hezbollah stronghold, saying it would soon target those sites.

More context: Israel has carried out more than 1,100 airstrikes on southern Lebanon since its ground operations began earlier this month, the IDF said Wednesday.

CNN teams in Beirut reported earlier that many Israeli strikes have hit without warning and that Israel sends evacuation orders by text in the middle of the night, when most people are asleep.

More than 1,400 people have been killed in Lebanon since Israel escalated its war on Hezbollah, according to the Lebanese health ministry. More than 1.2 million people have been displaced since fighting escalated last month, Lebanese authorities have said.

The country’s health sector has been put under “immense pressure of relentless attacks” on health facilities and personnel and its education sector faces “enormous challenges,” the OCHA report?said, with most schools having been repurposed into shelters.

Philippe Lazzarini speaks during an interview in New York on September 24.

A United Nations official warned that its humanitarian response in Gaza “may disintegrate” if the UN agency for Palestinian refugees were to be banned from Israeli territory, citing legislation moving through the Israeli parliament (Knesset).

“If the bills are adopted, the consequences will be severe,” Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of UNRWA, told the UN Security Council on Wednesday.

What’s happening: On Sunday, the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Security Committee moved forward a group of bills which seek to ban the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) from operating in Israeli territory and to forbid any state authority from having any contact with the agency, according to a Knesset statement on X.

“Politically,?the anti-UNRWA legislation, which is part of a broader campaign to dismantle the agency, seeks to strip Palestinians from their refugee status, and change – unilaterally – the parameters for a future political solution,” Lazzarini said.

Remember: The Israeli government in January accused some UNRWA staff members of involvement in the October 7?attacks on Israel. The Israeli government did not make their evidence public, nor – according to UNRWA –?did they share it with the agency. UNWRA in January said it had terminated the accused employees’ contracts.

Added context: Israel’s relations with the UN have sunk to historic lows in the past year, with senior UN officials highly critical of Israel’s war conduct in Gaza. Israeli officials have long criticized UNRWA, which plays a central role in feeding and sheltering hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees.

In the past 12 months, 226 UNRWA personnel have been killed in Gaza and two-thirds of its buildings have been damaged or destroyed, Lazzarini said.

People mourn as they attend funeral ceremony for Al-Aqsa TV cameraman Mohammed al-Tanani, who lost his life during Israeli attack on the Jabalia Refugee Camp, as the body is brought to al-Aqsa Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, Gaza on Wednesday, October 9.

The Israeli military is being accused of firing at a group of journalists in Gaza on Wednesday, killing one person and injuring others, according to Al Jazeera and medical responders.

Al Jazeera said that the Israeli military “targeted a number of journalists” who were working in and near the Jabalya refugee camp in northern Gaza.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said that it transported one injured journalist and the body of a person who was killed to the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City after Israeli forces “targeted a group of journalists at Abu Sharkh roundabout in the northern Gaza Strip.”

However, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told CNN it was “not aware of IDF troops in the specified area” at that time.

Al Jazeera said in a statement that Fadi Al Wahidi, a photojournalist for Al Jazeera, was shot in the neck causing “critical injury.” His condition is now stable, according to one of Al Wahidi’s colleagues, Mohammad Qareqe’e.

Two employees of Al Aqsa, a TV channel affiliated with Hamas, were also shot, Al Aqsa said. One photojournalist, Mohammed Al-Tanani, was killed and a reporter was injured, according to Al Aqsa.

Footage from the scene shows Al Wahidi being carried by a group of men, many of them wearing press vests. Blood is visible on his shirt.

“This incident marks yet another grave violation against journalists in Gaza, where Israeli forces have been increasingly hostile toward media workers,” Al Jazeera said. “The deliberate targeting of journalists is a flagrant violation of international laws protecting the press and humanitarian workers in war zones.”

At least 128 journalists have been killed since the beginning of the war, nearly all of them Palestinian media workers in Gaza killed as a result of Israeli airstrikes, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders.

The Government Media Office in Gaza in a statement Wednesday condemned “in the strongest terms the targeting, killing and assassination of Palestinian journalists.”

A video obtained by CNN shows at least four men standing behind a car while holding assault rifles and shooting at a second car across from them.

Four members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades were killed in an Israeli special forces operation in Nablus, in the occupied West Bank, on Wednesday, the group confirmed.

Among those killed were?field commander Issam Muhammad al-Salaj, one of its leaders in Balata, and field commander Abdul Halim Muhammad Nasser, a leader in Askar, according to the Brigades, a network of Palestinian armed groups.

The group condemned the attack in which Israeli special forces shot at the Palestinians’ car in Nablus,?calling it a “cowardly assassination.”

It’s been two days since fishing boats have left the Tyre port. An Israeli military warning on Monday against operating vessels on the southern Lebanese coast left fisherman here with nothing to do but watch their moored small boats or try their luck with a fishing rod.

“We used to go to the sea to eat, now the sea is off limits. How can we eat?” Abu Ibrahim asked CNN at a seaside cafe. His family is in Beirut in one of the schools-turned-shelters for the displaced.

“Where else can we go? There are no shops open,” he added.

Tony takes his friend on a motorcycle around the marina. He says he is on the motorcycle all day.

The handful of cafes and bars around the port are the only sign of life in what’s become largely a ghost town. Repeated Israeli strikes on the city and its suburbs pushed out residents and the internally displaced people that had previously sought refuge there.

Earlier Israeli warnings against driving south meant that little supplies are reaching Tyre. Most of the shops and restaurants around the city are shuttered.

“Everyone comes here. This a safe spot,” Tony Khatouki, a passerby, told CNN.

He argued that the seaport is its own bubble in a city bearing the fresh scars of an ongoing war.

No boats have left the Tyre port since Israeli warning on Monday.

A smoke cloud erupts following an Israeli air strike on a village near Lebanon's southern city of Tyre on October 9.

Lebanon’s Civil Defense service says five of its members have been killed by an Israeli airstrike in the southern city of Tyre.

The workers were taking emergency calls when the strike hit the Civil Defense Center in the town of Dardghaya, it said in a statement.

Lebanon’s Civil Defense is the public emergency medical service of Lebanon.

The Lebanese Ministry of Health condemned the attack in a post on X, saying Israel was guilty of targeting “rescue and ambulance crews (and) disregarding international laws, norms and humanitarian conventions.”

US President Joe Biden held a “direct” 30-minute phone call with his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, according to press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. This was their first conversation in almost two months, and comes as Israel considers its response to Iran’s missile strikes on October 1.

Elsewhere, Israel has announced it has carried out over 1,100 airstrikes on southern Lebanon since the start of its ground operations, while the head of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has pledged Israel will continue its war on Hezbollah “with intensity, without allowing them any respite or recovery.”

Below are the latest updates:

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has claimed that the hospital it struck in Gaza’s Jabalya refugee camp earlier on Wednesday was a “command and control center used by Hamas terrorists.”

At least?16?people were?killed?and 17 injured in the?attack on the grounds of the Al-Yemen Al-Sa’eed Hospital in Jabalya refugee camp in northern Gaza, hospital officials have said.

When asked by CNN about the attack, the IDF said that it “struck terrorists.”

“Prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precise?munitions,” the IDF said.

US President Joe Biden pressed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the need for diplomatic solutions to conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon, the White House said Wednesday, with the two leaders agreeing “to remain in close contact over the coming days both directly and through their national security teams.

“The president affirmed Israel’s right to protect its citizens from Hezbollah, which has fired thousands of missiles and rockets into Israel over the past year alone, while emphasizing the need to minimize harm to civilians, in particular in the densely populated areas of Beirut.”

CNN reported earlier this week?that the administration has focused on attempting to limit Israeli operations?in Lebanon rather than halting hostilities, two weeks after Israel upended a US-led ceasefire proposal with Hezbollah.

“On Gaza, the leaders discussed the urgent need to renew diplomacy to release the hostages held by Hamas. The president also discussed the humanitarian situation in Gaza and the imperative to restore access to the north, including by reinvigorating the corridor from Jordan immediately,” the White House said.

Earlier Wednesday, Biden told rabbis on a call marking the Jewish High Holidays he conveyed his condolences to Netanyahu on the one-year anniversary of the October 7?attack.

Children play in a school turned into a temporary shelter for displaced people in Beirut, Lebanon, on Wednesday, October 9.

The start of Lebanon’s new school year has been postponed to November 4 “as 75% of the country’s public schools have been converted into shelters,” a United Nations official said Wednesday as he spoke about the impact Israel’s escalating offensive against Hezbollah is having on the country.

“More than 600,000 people” are internally displaced across the country, over half of them women and girls, he said.

Of that figure, “at least 350,000” are children, he said of the evolving humanitarian crisis in which more than 300,000 people have fled to neighboring countries, “crossing over to Syria, and many of them moving on to Iraq or Turkey as well.”

Meanwhile, 185,000 people are seeking refuge in 1,000 shelters, “80% of which are already fully at capacity,” Riza said.

Riza said thousands of others are being displaced “by orders issued with little notice and often past midnight, are left to sleep on the streets or (do) not really know where to go.”

Remember: CNN teams in Beirut have reported that many Israeli strikes happened without warning. Israel also?sends evacuation orders by text in the middle of the night, when most people are sleeping.

Israel will continue to “strike Hezbollah with intensity, without allowing them any respite or recovery,” according to the head of the?Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

Herzi Halevi said Wednesday that Hezbollah had been weakened and was “making efforts to conceal the significant damage” it had suffered.

Also speaking on Wednesday, Israel’s Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant said the recent Iranian attacks on Israel had been “aggressive” but ultimately “failed” since no military assets were damaged.

On the prospect of Israeli retaliation, Gallant said: “Our strike will be powerful, precise, and above all – surprising. They will not understand what happened and how it happened.”

Remember: The Israeli military announced earlier Wednesday that Israel has carried out more than 1,100 airstrikes on southern Lebanon since its ground operations began earlier this month.

US President Joe Biden joined a call marking the Jewish High Holidays Wednesday, in which he expressed his support for Israel, touting “unprecedented action … to successfully assist in the successful defense of Israel,” following attacks by Iran and its proxies, while nodding to the at-times tense relationship between Israel’s leadership and the US.

“You’ve heard me say before that I got very badly criticized as a young senator, saying, ‘I’m a Zionist.’ You don’t have to be a Jew to be a Zionist, that’s not necessary, and the idea, I firmly believe, without an Israel, every Jew in the world’s security is less stable – I mean that,” Biden said.

“It doesn’t mean that Jewish leadership doesn’t have to be more progressive than it is, but it does mean it has to exist, and that’s what worries me most about what’s going on now.”

Remember: Earlier Wednesday, the White House said Biden held a “direct” 30-minute call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with the two leaders discussing “a range of issues,” including Israel’s response to Iran’s ballistic missile attack.

“I just spoke to Prime Minister Netanyahu for about an hour this morning, and offered my condolences on this somber one-year anniversary,” Biden said on Wednesday’s call.

In this handout photo from the Israeli Prime Minister's Office, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his advisers hold a phone call with US President Joe Biden on Wednesday, October 9. Editor's note: Parts of this photo have been obscured by the Israeli Prime Minister's Office.

US President Joe Biden held a “direct,” 30-minute phone call with his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, their first conversation in almost two months and a chance to confer over Israel’s planned response to an Iranian ballistic missile attack.

“They discussed a range of issues,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said after the call ended, promising a more fulsome readout later Wednesday afternoon.

She characterized the conversation as an extension of discussions between US and Israeli officials about Israel’s response to the Iranian attack, which Biden has said should be “proportional.”

But otherwise, Jean-Pierre was tight-lipped about the phone call, which occurred midmorning. Vice President Kamala Harris joined the call from New York on a secure phone line.

Harris declined to elaborate on the conversation in an interview with CNN earlier Wednesday, telling Dana Bash it was classified. Still, she acknowledged the significance of the conversation, the first between Biden and Netanyahu since August 21.

“It was an important call,” she said.

Open question: American officials have been hoping to limit Israel’s response to Iran, with the region on a razor’s edge as fears of a wider war grow. The president has said he opposes strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities and recommended against a strike on Iranian oil reserves.

How much weight Biden’s words will carry is an open question, however, and US officials have grown highly skeptical at Netanyahu’s willingness to listen to Biden’s advice.

Israel has carried out more than 1,100 airstrikes on southern Lebanon since its ground war began earlier this month, its military announced on Wednesday.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement it had attacked “munitions warehouses, launchers, tunnel shafts and observation and sniping positions” in the airstrikes.

IDF aircraft and ground forces are working closely together to multiply force and help “neutralize threats,” it continued.

The United States continues to assess that Israel’s ground operations in Lebanon are “limited,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Wednesday, noting that the “limited” refers to distance from the border not number of Israeli troops on the ground.

“We have seen so far on the ground, limited ground incursions. But as you heard me say previous times at this podium, we are also cognizant of the long history of Israel starting with limited ground operations in Lebanon, turning those into more full-scale ground operations, turning those into occupation, something that we are very clear we are opposed to,” Miller told a State Department briefing.

“We’re going to continue to have the conversations with the government of Israel about that, because I think it’s quite obvious that there is a point at which what they’re doing now turns into something different that has obvious political effects inside Lebanon, as well as humanitarian effects on the Lebanese people,” he added.

Miller described “limited operations” as “Israeli troops going a short distance across the border, conducting operations, not pushing deep inside Lebanon.”

Tens of thousands of people have already been displaced from southern Lebanon amid increasing Israeli military operations.

The Israeli military dropped highly destructive 2,000-pound bombs in “dangerous proximities” to nearly all Gaza’s hospitals during the early weeks of its war in the enclave, according to a?peer-reviewed study?published Wednesday, which cites a CNN?investigation.

Between October 7 and November 17, 2023, Israel deployed 2,000-pound bombs within the “lethal range” of 25% of all hospitals in Gaza, according to an analysis of impact craters by researchers at Harvard and other universities.

The analysis also found impact craters from the bombs within the “infrastructure damage and injury range” of more than 83% of hospitals – 30 out of 36 – in the strip.

The report, published in the journal PLOS Global Public Health, comes as Israel orders the evacuation of three hospitals in northern Gaza amid a renewed military operation in the area. The Gaza health ministry has called for all medical institutions to be protected.

The use of 2,000-pound bombs in such close proximity to hospitals in late 2023 was a “clear violation of international humanitarian law, with tools that the US is supplying,” Dennis Kunichoff, a data analyst at Harvard University and lead author of the study, told CNN.

Responding to a request for comment on the findings, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said “allegations that the IDF fires indiscriminately undermines the significant and unprecedented efforts made by the IDF to accurately strike military infrastructure, objectives, and operatives.” The IDF added that it follows international law and “does not target civilian objects and civilians.”

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller speaks during a breifing on Wednesday, October 9.

The United States government has had “very urgent discussions” with the Israeli government about the humanitarian situation in northern Gaza and the need to comply with international humanitarian law, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Wednesday.

“We have been making clear to the government of Israel that they have an obligation under international humanitarian law to allow food and water and other needed humanitarian assistance to make it into all parts of Gaza, and we fully expect them to comply with those obligations,” he said.

Notably, Miller said the US still does not assess that Israel is intentionally withholding humanitarian aid, which would be a violation of US and international law. However, he suggested that a change in policy is not off the table, saying that “it is urgent that they correct the situation and allow humanitarian aid to get in.”

Miller would not say how the Israeli government responded to the conversations.

Remember: Israeli attacks in Gaza have killed at least 41,965 Palestinians and injured another 97,590, according to the Ministry of Health there, and triggered a dire humanitarian crisis in the enclave. Many of?Israel’s strikes?have hit?civilian infrastructure.

Israel has for years said Hamas fighters use mosques, hospitals and other civilian buildings to hide from Israeli attacks and launch their own. Hamas has repeatedly denied the claims.

More than 1,100 US citizens, legal permanent residents and their family members have left Lebanon on US-organized flights, up from over 1,000 yesterday, as Israel intensifies its war with Hezbollah, according to a?State?Department?spokesperson.

One flight left last night and another this morning from Beirut to Istanbul, according to?State?Department?Spokesperson Matthew Miller, with “a total of 50 people on the flight this morning” and “around 13, 14” people on the flight last night.

Though neither of the flights were near their capacity of 300 per plane, Miller said the US would continue the flights as “we do assess that there is demand.”

The US has reserved a total of around 1,000 seats for American citizens, legal permanent residents and their family members on commercial flights, up from 900 yesterday.

Bahaa Sahel says she prays this would be her last war

Bahaa Sahel picks up items from her damaged shop in Tyre, southern Lebanon. Clothes, footwear and accessories fill a yellow plastic bag too heavy for her to carry over the rubble.

Tyre, Lebanon’s fourth-largest city, has been pummelled by Israeli airstrikes in recent weeks as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched a ground operation into the country’s south.

“We fled the town two hours earlier. If I had stayed, I would have been here,” Bahaa says, pointing to the heaps of crumbled cement behind her.

Two Israeli missiles leveled three adjacent buildings killing at least five people, her neighbors explain.

Hassan, who owns a café down the road, says when the first missile hit, he saw a building blow up in the air. It happened 10 days ago, but he says he is still shaken and traumatized.

A white van was destroyed by the blast is trapped under the rubble.

The blast destroyed vehicles and threw a couple of cars across the street.

Bahaa only got back to her shop and home street on Wednesday to save what she could of her shop before the expected rain. It is a chance to mourn the friends she lost.

“I’ve owned and run this shop for 35 years. These were my neighbors, my friends. I knew the mother, the father and their children,” she says.

It’s not her first war, but she’s praying it will be the last.

“During the Israeli invasion in 1982, a three-story building collapsed over our heads. My cousin died, but God saved my sister and me,” she recalls. She has a similar story for every war Lebanon has gone through.

“So many tragedies,” she says. “I don’t know how many more wars we would live through. But history repeats itself.”

The blast destroyed several vehicles.

Bahaa and her sister walk over the rubble to reach her apartment two blocks down the road. She says she’s leaving again to the mountains near Beirut the following morning even though the sounds of Israeli airstrikes on the capital scare her every night.

“Maybe this war would be the last one. Maybe God would have mercy on us. We can’t take it anymore,” she says.

UN peacekeepers from a Spanish brigade of UNIFIL patrol near the Blue Line on August 16 in Kafarkila, Lebanon.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) told CNN on Wednesday of “IDF [Israel Defense Force] invasions a bit everywhere in the proximity of the Blue Line,” in southern Lebanon.

On Wednesday, Hezbollah said in a statement that it had hit a group of Israeli soldiers with a suicide drone after they tried to enter Lebanon from Ras al-Naqoura, the western-most point of the Blue Line, which marks a buffer zone separating the two countries that is monitored by UNIFIL peacekeepers.

Asked about the incident, a UNIFIL spokesperson confirmed the organization is observing clashes in the direction of Labbouneh, around 2?kilometers (1.2 miles) east of Naqoura. They added, however, that UNIFIL’s “monitoring capabilities are very limited” due to heavy shelling preventing their units from getting close to the area.

CNN has reached out to the IDF for comment.

UNIFIL has a significantly large base in the border town of Naqoura, where the Force Commander and Head of Mission Lt. Gen. Lazaro is based, with around 1,000 staff officers and civilian staff, according to the spokesperson.

Hezbollah fighters had already clashed with Israeli forces near Naqoura earlier on Wednesday. Although other Israeli incursions have been reported along the border, Wednesday marks the first time the IDF is attempting to invade Lebanon from this location since the start of this ground war.

Earlier, the Israeli military told CNN there are “counter-terrorism activities” ongoing in Lebanon but has not commented on specific incidents.

People inspect a bullet-riddled car in Nablus, in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday.

Five Palestinian men were killed by Israeli special forces who shot at their car in Nablus, in the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

A video obtained by CNN shows at least four men standing behind a car while holding assault rifles and shooting at a second car across from them. In a separate video bystanders are seen rushing to the scene after the gunmen left. Another video shows the interior of the car filled with blood.

In a joint statement, the Israeli police and the Shin Bet security agency said they killed five people, including the head of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades – a network of Palestinian armed groups – in Balata.

The statement said those killed were “wanted for terrorist activities” and were “involved in exporting and planning terrorist activities against civilians and IDF forces.”

The Palestinian Ministry of Health named the killed men as: Abdul Halim Muhammad Nasser, Salim Izz al-Din Mahmoud Abu Saada, Naeem Muhammad Raji Abdul Hadi and Issam Muhammad Suleiman Salah.

Hamas condemned the attack in a statement calling on residents of the occupied West Bank to mobilize in “mass angry marches” and “escalate the confrontation and clash with the occupation and its settler gangs in all areas”.

Remember: There has been a surge in Israeli settler violence across the occupied West Bank since the start of Israel’s war in Gaza.

The West Bank lies between Israel and Jordan and is home to?3.3 million?Palestinians living under Israeli military occupation, as well as hundreds of thousands of Jewish Israelis who began settling there some 57 years ago.

Air France has opened an investigation into how a jet flying from Paris to Dubai went over Iraq as?Iranian missiles fired at Israel?crossed the same airspace, the airline said Wednesday.

Iran launched dozens of missiles towards Israel on October 1 in what it said was a response to the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and others in Lebanon. The missiles had to pass through Iraq’s airspace to reach Israel.

Here’s what we know: Air France Flight AF662 was flying over Iraq when the Iranian attack began at around 4:45 p.m. UTC (11.45 a.m. ET) and left Iraqi airspace “shortly before” 5 p.m. UTC (12 p.m. ET), the airline told CNN in a statement.

Iraqi airspace was not officially closed by local authorities until 5:56 p.m. UTC (12:56 p.m. ET), it added.

“Thanks to the information we gathered we were able to identify a forthcoming attack on Israel by Iran, involving the launch of ballistic missiles,” Air France said, adding that as a result the airline suspended the overflight of Iraq’s airspace from 5 p.m. UTC (12 p.m. ET).

French television channel LCI said Air France pilots saw the missiles in the night sky from the cockpit, and that Iraqi air traffic control had wished the pilots “good luck.”

Asked by CNN, an Air France spokesperson would not confirm that the pilots saw missiles fly past.

The incident comes as the conflict in the Middle East further spirals.

Emergency personnel are seen at a site hit by rockets fired from Lebanon in the northern Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona near the Lebanese border on Wednesday.

Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets at northern Israeli cities on Wednesday, killing two people and marking the first civilian deaths in the area since Israel launched its ground war on Lebanon earlier this month.

The rocket fell 20 meters (65 feet) away from the couple, impacting them and the dogs, Silok said. Another rocket fell close to an ambulance, damaging it, Ziporra Barak, an emergency responder for Israel’s emergency services (MDA) said.

Fires broke out across several buildings and open fields around?the city following the rocket fire, the Israel Fire and Rescue Services said.

Ninety rockets were fired by Hezbollah into the Upper Galilee, Western Galilee and southern Golan Heights on Wednesday afternoon, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said. Some were intercepted but other “fallen projectiles were identified,” the IDF said.

In another Israeli city, Safed, footage showed several interceptors shooting down rockets. Safed Municipality also published video showing damage to a building following a rocket strike. No injuries were reported.

Earlier, Israel’s emergency services said six people were injured after rockets fell on Haifa, the largest city in northern Israel.

Several fires also broke out in buildings and open areas as a result of direct missile hits in the Upper Galilee.

Remember: Hezbollah are firing hundreds of rockets as Israel continues what it says are limited operations in southern Lebanon. The IDF posted several videos throughout Wednesday including one that showed a strike on armed fighters emerging from the rubble, and several other strikes on buildings in southern Lebanon.

US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

A phone call between US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is now over, according to a US official.

The call on Wednesday morning lasted little over an hour, according to the official.

Harris has frequently joined previous calls between Biden and Netanyahu, including during their last conversation on August 21st.

According to State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller, Secretary of State Antony Blinken also joined the call from his plane en route to Laos.

Miller would not share details about the call and deferred to the White House.

Biden and Netanyahu were expected to discuss Israel’s response to Iran’s missile attack, according to a person familiar with the plans.

This post has been updated with the latest comments from US officials.

A billboard shows a portrait of slain Lebanese Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Tehran, Iran, on October 3.

Iran‘s capital Tehran is plastered with billboards and posters depicting Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader who was killed in an Israeli air strike in Beirut, Lebanon last month.

The captions vary, some reading: “The beginning of the victory of God,” or “This is the path of jihad. It ends in victory or martyrdom.”

A billboard in Tehran, Iran, on October 9.

The posters are meant to show the unwavering support of the Islamic Republic’s leadership for Hezbollah in the wake of the Nasrallah killing and as the group struggles under Israeli military pressure.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had close personal relations with Hassan Nasrallah. In a rare appearance leading Friday prayers in Tehran last week, he eulogized Nasrallah, while justifying Iran’s missile strikes against Israel on October 1.

A banner reading "The roar of the lions will be your funeral" in Hebrew, Persian and English is hung on a building on Veliasr Square in Tehran, Iran, on October 8.

Iran is now bracing for a possible Israeli response and Tehran’s political leadership has threatened a “crushing response,” if Israel hits targets inside Iran.

Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to join a call between President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu scheduled for Wednesday morning, a source familiar with the plans said.

Harris has frequently joined previous calls between Biden and Netanyahu, including during their last conversation on August 21st.

The call comes a few days after Harris argued the US has had influence on Israel’s decision making. But she also refrained from saying whether she believes the US has a “close ally” in Netanyahu.

More on the phone call: Biden and Netanyahu are expected to discuss Israel’s response to Iran’s missile attack on October 1, according to a person familiar with the plans.

The conversation will be the first known call between the men in 49 days, a striking period of silence for two counterparts who spoke frequently in the weeks after the October 7 attacks by Hamas.

At least 16 people have been killed and 17 injured after an attack on a hospital within the Jabalya refugee camp in northern Gaza, hospital officials have said.

Dr. Hussam Abu Saifiya, director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, told CNN that the bodies of at least 16 of those killed in the strike had arrived at his facility, many of them burnt.

Abu Saifiya said that tents set up on the grounds of the Al-Yemen Al-Sa’eed Hospital were targeted.

CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF)?for comment.

According to its director, Kamal Adwan Hospital is the only fully functioning medical facility remaining in northern Gaza. The hospital, alongside two others in the enclave’s north, have been ordered to evacuate by Israeli military, according to both Doctors Without Borders and the Ministry of Health in Gaza.

Remember: On Sunday, the IDF said that it had “encircled” the Jabalya refugee camp after it said it had detected the presence of Hamas members there.

At least 10 people were killed in a strike on the camp the same day, and a further 20 people were injured, Kamal Adwan Hospital officials said.

On Monday, Abu Saifiya said that the Israeli military had instructed the Kamal Adwan Hospital to evacuate within 24 hours.

Firefighters work as they put out a fire at a residential building in Kiryat Shmona, Israel, on October 9.

A man and a woman were killed from “fatal shrapnel wounds” after rockets struck Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel, the national emergency service Magen David Adom said on Wednesday.

Hezbollah said it had targeted “Israeli enemy forces” in the city with rockets in support of the Palestinian people in Gaza and “in defense of Lebanon.”

“Following the sirens that sounded in Kiryat Shmona, approximately 20 projectile launches were identified crossing from Lebanon, fallen projectiles were identified,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said.

Several buildings caught fire in Kiryat Shmona following the rocket strikes, Israel Fire and Rescue Services said.

Earlier, Hezbollah fired 40 rockets at the Upper Galilee and Haifa, the largest city in northern Israel. A majority were intercepted but “a number” of them fell, IDF said.

Six people were injured in the rocket attack on Krayot near Haifa, MDA said. It was not immediately clear if the injuries were caused by Hezbollah rockets or falling interceptors.

Hezbollah has ramped up rocket attacks on Haifa. On Tuesday the Iran-backed group fired more than 100 rockets on Haifa and the Galilee in one hour, the Israeli military said.

This post has been updated with additional information.

Iran would respond with force to any Israeli attack, Ebrahim Rezaei, a member of Iran’s parliament and spokesperson for its National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, told CNN, adding that?his country may choose to target sites beyond Israeli military positions.

“We have so many missiles,” the spokesperson warned. “In our most recent attack on Israel, we targeted only military sites,”?Rezaei told CNN. “There are other targets that we could hit, and we have the capability to do so.”

Rezaei said that the United States should halt its military support for Israel and push it toward a ceasefire in Gaza. “Stop the arms and the backing of the Zionist regime (Israel),” he said.

Iran is bracing for an Israeli attack in response to a barrage of missiles fired at it by the Islamic Republic on October 1.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran “will pay” for its attack, with the US pledging support for the Jewish state’s response.

US President Joe Biden and Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are expected to discuss Israel’s response to Iran’s missile attack during a Wednesday phone call, according to a person familiar with the plans.

The conversation will be the first known call between the men in 49 days, a striking period of silence for two counterparts who spoke frequently in the weeks after the October 7 attacks by Hamas.

The call is expected to take place on Wednesday morning, according?to a source familiar.

Biden told reporters last week he expected to speak to Netanyahu once Israel had decided on a response to Iran, though it wasn’t clear whether the plans had been finalized.

American officials are hoping to limit Israel’s actions to a proportional response, and Biden was expected to address that with Netanyahu on Wednesday. The president has said he opposes strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities and recommended against a strike on Iranian oil reserves.

How much weight Biden’s words will carry is an open question, and US officials have grown increasingly wary of Netanyahu’s willingness to listen to Biden’s advice.

The call comes after CNN reported that Netanyahu had instructed his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant not to depart Tuesday for the US, where he was scheduled to meet with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Wednesday, saying he wanted to speak with Biden first.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi steps out of his plane upon arrival at Beirut, Lebanon, on October 4.

Iran has significantly increased engagement with Arab states in the past few weeks, with officials shuttling between neighboring countries for consultations as Israel plans a possible strike on the Islamic Republic.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he’s traveling to Saudi Arabia and “other countries” on Wednesday days after holding meetings in Beirut and Damascus. Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, traveled to Qatar a day after Tehran struck Israel with a large salvo of missiles last week.

The trip to Riyadh would mark the third Iranian-Saudi meeting in less than a month. The two countries’ foreign ministers met on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly late last month, then Pezeshkian met the Saudi foreign minister in Qatar earlier this month.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ordered the strike on Israel in response to the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, Iranian commander Abbas Nilforoushan and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. Israel has not yet announced how it will respond but has vowed to strike back.

Araghchi is traveling to Saudi Arabia, a key US ally, to “consult on regional developments” and to “try to stop the crimes of the Zionist regime in Lebanon and Gaza,” he told local media.

Remember: Last year, Iran and Saudi Arabia restored ties after decades of animosity. The two countries reopened embassies in 2023 under an agreement mediated by China.

On the sidelines of an Asia conference in Qatar last week, Pezeshkian and Araghchi met with some of their Arab counterparts. “Our neighbors are our priority—#StrongRegion our goal—#Dialogue is a must,” Araghchi wrote on X at the time.

Israel’s energy minister explicitly said that Israeli soldiers have “occupied” the southern Lebanese village of Maroun Al-Ras, sharing an image of the Israeli?flag raised in the village.

On Tuesday, the Israeli military said it took “operational control of a Hezbollah combat compound” in the village.” An earlier video on social media and geolocated by CNN showed Israeli troops hoisting Israel’s flag on the ruins of Iran Garden Park on the southern outskirts of Maroun Al-Ras.

Israeli forces have hoisted Israel’s flag on the ruins of Iran Garden park on the southern outskirts of the Lebanese border village of Maroun Al-Ras, a video circulating on social media and geolocated by CNN shows.

The Israeli military has insisted that its ground incursions in the south are “limited.” But it is unclear if troops advanced deeper into Lebanese territory or withdrew toward Israel.

Satellite imagery shared by Planet Labs from October 5 appears to show Israeli military vehicles behind berms that surround a base belonging to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said “Israeli tanks and other armed elements” had since left the surrounding area.

On Tuesday, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters the social media footage showing Israeli soldiers in Maroun Al-Ras was “obviously inappropriate,” adding: “We would look to them to comply with what they have said, which these are limited incursions not with the goal of holding territory.”

Palestinian health care workers ordered by Israel to evacuate hospitals say there is “no safe way” to leave and “nowhere to go” as the military once again ramps up its operation in northern Gaza.

Dr. Hussam Abu Saifiya, director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza said the facility was informed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Tuesday that medical staff and patients must evacuate the hospital “within 24 hours.”

In a voice message sent to reporters, Abu Saifiya said the Israeli military called him “directly” and “in threatening language” told him that patients and staff must evacuate or “we would subject our lives to danger.”

The Israeli military has ordered the evacuation of three hospitals in northern Gaza – Kamal Adwan, Al-Awda and the Indonesian Hospital – according to Doctors Without Borders and the Ministry of Health in Gaza.

CNN has reached out to the IDF for comment.

Dr. Abu Saifiya told CNN on Wednesday that Israeli tanks are getting closer to the hospital and that “sounds of explosions can be heard everywhere.” He said his hospital has more than 54 patients, including children, in need of treatment and must be transferred to other hospitals. Some 220 medical workers also remain at the hospital.

Mohammad Salha, acting director of Al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza – which was also ordered to evacuate – said the facility will not evacuate as long as there are patients in need of medical care. Some are undergoing surgery, he said, including women giving birth via cesarean section.

“Where will these people go?” he told CNN. “If the evacuation happens, there will be no one left to provide healthcare services.”

Palestinians conduct a search and rescue operation after bombardment by the Israeli army at Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza on November 1.

Israel’s yearlong offensive in Gaza, launched in the wake of the Hamas-led October 7 attacks, has forced about 1.9 million Palestinians from their homes, decimated the strip’s health care system, damaged cultural sites, eviscerated academic institutions, and spawned a humanitarian crisis of hunger, displacement and disease.

Palestinians say they are barely surviving, let alone able to rebuild, under Israel’s bombardment and siege. Many of?Israel’s strikes?have hit?civilian infrastructure. Israel has for years said Hamas fighters use mosques, hospitals and other civilian buildings to hide from Israeli attacks and launch their own. Hamas has repeatedly denied the claims.

CNN has spoken to people in Gaza’s five governorates – Northern Gaza, Gaza City, Deir al-Balah, Khan Younis and Rafah – whose lives and livelihoods have been turned to rubble, including doctors, shop owners, aid workers and educators.

As the Israeli military intensifies its war on multiple fronts in the region, people in Gaza fear the world’s focus has shifted from their plight.

“Gaza is not just a warzone. It is home to millions of people trying to live their lives, despite unimaginable circumstances,” Samer Abuzerr, a public health scientist and father-of-four displaced in central Gaza.

See CNN’s data-led interactive reporting on the lives in Gaza reduced to rubble.

Hezbollah fighters have clashed with the Israeli military near the border town of Naqoura in southern Lebanon, according to state media.

Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reported Wednesday “an exchange of gunfire between the enemy and the resistance (Hezbollah) in Al-Labbouneh area near the town of Naqoura,” citing its correspondent in the southern city of Tyre.

Hezbollah earlier said its forces had successfully repelled an Israeli advance in the area at about 5 a.m. local time.

“The Islamic Resistance Mujahideen targeted it with artillery shells and rockets and achieved direct hits, which led to its retreat,” the group said.

The Israeli military told CNN there are “counter-terrorism activities” ongoing in Lebanon but has not commented on the specific incident.

On Tuesday, Israel’s military said it had expanded operations into southwestern Lebanon.

The ground incursion in southern Lebanon, which began Oct 1, had previously been focused on the eastern part of the border area.

The Israeli military has ordered the evacuation of three hospitals in northern Gaza – Kamal Adwan, Al-Awda and the Indonesian Hospital – according to both Doctors Without Borders and the Ministry of Health in Gaza.

Kamal Adwan Hospital was given 24 hours to evacuate, according?to?its?director?Hussam Abu Safiya, who said staff had already transferred some patients to other hospitals and would try to evacuate more, due to a lack of fuel. He said the hospital will continue to provide medical services, as so many people were still in need.

The hospital?is the only fully functioning medical facility in northern Gaza, according to Abu Safiya.

Al-Awda Hospital and the Indonesian Hospital are only functioning in a limited?capacity, according to hospital officials there.

A Palestinian family arrives in Gaza City after evacuating their homes in the Jabalia area on October 6.

A leading medical aid group says Israeli evacuation orders for parts of northern Gaza are turning it into an “unliveable wasteland” and “effectively emptying out the whole” area of Palestinians.

Since Sunday, the Israeli military has issued evacuation orders for three large areas in northern Gaza — including Beit Hanoun, Jabalya, and Beit Lahia — saying it launched a new ground offensive there to combat efforts by Hamas to rebuild its capabilities in the area.

Calling the decrees the “latest forced mass displacement” in the area, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said?people in parts of northern Gaza are being “urged to move to the overcrowded, so-called humanitarian zone between Al-Mawasi and Deir Al-Balah, where one million people are already living in inhumane conditions.”

The “zone also remains unsafe for civilians and aid workers, as Israeli forces continue to repeatedly strike the area,” the organization said.

Just last month, an Israeli strike on Al-Mawasi killed at least 19 people and wounded dozens. The Israeli military confirmed the strike and said the operation targeted Hamas fighters there.

CNN has reached out to the Israeli military for comment.

Benjamin Netanyahu delivers a speech at the Palmachim Airbase near the city of Rishon LeZion, Israel, on July 5, 2023.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the Lebanese people they face falling “into the abyss of a long war” as his country escalates its offensive against Hezbollah.

“Christians, Druze, Muslims – Sunnis and Shiites alike – all of you are suffering because of Hezbollah’s futile war in Israel,” Netanyahu said in a video address to the Lebanese people on Tuesday.

Lebanon is already seeing “the same patterns” and “methods of warfare” as Israel has used in Gaza,?officials from the United Nations?said, warning of mass displacement from the ferocity of Israel’s attacks.

Israel’s military offensive has?flattened most of Gaza to rubble, with at least 41,900 dead and up to 1.9 million people – about 90% of the enclave’s population – internally displaced.

Here are the latest developments in the region:

Beirut’s southern suburb of Dahiyeh was being targeted by a series of strikes overnight.

The strikes had caused massive destruction, including the collapse of four adjacent residential buildings in the Burj Al-Barajneh area, Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reported Tuesday.

Earlier, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had told people to evacuate areas around specific buildings in the Haret Hreik and Hadath areas of Dahiyeh, saying it would soon target those sites.

On Monday, 36 people were killed and 150 wounded in strikes on parts of southern Lebanon, the health ministry said.

Israeli Defense Minister?Yoav?Gallant?speaks during a joint press conference at Israel's Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv, Israel, on December 18.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant is “postponing his trip” to Washington, DC, Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said Tuesday.

This comes after Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had instructed Gallant not to depart tonight for the United States, where he was scheduled to meet with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Wednesday, an Israeli official has told CNN.

There were two reasons for Netanyahu’s instructions to Gallant, an Israeli official said. Firstly, Netanyahu wants a phone call with US President Joe Biden before Gallant’s trip, the official said. Also, the prime minister wants the cabinet to vote on the nature of Israel’s response to Iran’s attack before Gallant’s trip, according to the official.

CNN has reached out to the Israeli defense ministry for comment.

Some context:?CNN earlier reported?that senior US officials have?acknowledged that the US has limited leverage over what Israel decides to do against Iran?following Tehran’s missile attack last week.

“The only leverage that the Americans have right now is summoning the defense minister to Washington and buying time,” Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli diplomat, told CNN. With Gallant in Washington, Pinkas says, the US likely believes Israel will wait to attack.

Israel has “eliminated” the successor to the late Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday. But the Israeli military said it is still checking whether a strike on Hezbollah intelligence headquarters in Beirut killed?Hashem Safieddine.

What Netanyahu said:?“We have eliminated thousands of terrorists, including Nasrallah himself, Nasrallah’s successor, and the successor of Nasrallah’s successor,” he said in a video statement.
What the Israeli military said:?Safieddine was present in the building during the strike in the Dahiyeh area of Beirut last Friday but “results of this attack are still being assessed,” chief Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Daniel Hagari told a briefing Tuesday, accusing Hezbollah of “attempting to conceal the details.”

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant also appeared less certain, telling troops at a command post that Safieddine had “probably” been eliminated.

Remember:?On Saturday, a Lebanese security source told CNN that Hezbollah had lost contact with Safieddine?after the Israeli strike. Safieddine was believed to be a possible successor to the Hezbollah leader.

Netanyahu addressed the people of Lebanon directly in the statement Tuesday, urging them to stand up to Hezbollah and “take back your country.”

“Christians, Druze, Muslims – Sunnis and Shiites alike – all of you are suffering because of Hezbollah’s futile war in Israel,” Netanyahu said. “You have an opportunity to save Lebanon before it falls into the abyss of a long war that will bring destruction and suffering similar to what we see in Gaza,” he continued.

Israel’s war on Hezbollah has killed more than 1,400 people in Lebanon, according to the Lebanese health ministry. More than 1.2 million people have been displaced since fighting escalated last month, Lebanese authorities have said.

The Israeli military has ordered the only operating hospital in northern Gaza to evacuate within 24 hours, its director Hussam Abu Safiya said Tuesday.

“The army spoke to me directly in threatening language that tomorrow all the patients will be forced out of Kamal Adwan Hospital … or else we would subject our lives to danger,” Safiya said.

Kamal Adwan Hospital is between Beit Lahiya and Jabalya, two northern Gaza areas that Israel has told residents to evacuate ahead of air and ground operations.

The staff at Kamal Adwan had already transferred some patients to other hospitals and would try to evacuate more due to a lack of fuel, Safiya said.

However, he said the hospital would continue to provide medical services, as so many people were still in need.

“Kamal Adwan Hospital is still the only hospital operating in the north, so putting the hospital out of service would be a big disaster for the people who need (it),” he said.

The Gaza health ministry criticized Israel for the evacuation order and called for all medical institutions to be protected.

CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for comment.

Officials from the United Nations say they fear Lebanon could suffer the same fate as Gaza.

“We are seeing the same patterns that we saw in Gaza, the same means and methods of warfare that are being used,” Jeremy Laurence, spokesperson for the UN’s human rights commissioner, told a press briefing in Geneva Tuesday.

James Elder, spokesperson for the United Nations’ Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said the commonalities between Lebanon and Gaza were “everywhere.”

Palestinian families arrive in Gaza City after evacuating their homes in the Jabalia area on October 6, 2024, after the Israeli army ordered people to evacuate the area north of Gaza. The Israeli military said on October 6, its forces surrounded the Jabaliya area of northern Gaza in response to indications Hamas was rebuilding despite nearly a year of strikes and fighting.

Palestinians fleeing sites of Israel’s?renewed military operation?in northern Gaza are being shot at as they evacuate, according to residents there and footage shared with CNN documenting their journey.

Mohammad Sultan, 28, said he and his family fled their house in Jabalya in northern Gaza “due to the intense and?continuous bombardments?in the area.” When he went back to retrieve food, water and blankets, he and other civilians were fired at, he said.

The shooting took place at Abu Sharkh roundabout in Jabalya, according to Sultan. CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for comment.

Footage taken by Sultan during his journey shows residents walking along a sandy road, surrounded by rubble and half-destroyed buildings. Some, including children, are on foot, struggling to walk with heavy bags. Others are on bicycles or tuk-tuks.

Drones can be heard buzzing in the background as the bullwhip-like sound of bullets piercing the air trigger screams and attempts to shelter.

Read the full report here.