War on Gaza: 9 killed, many wounded in Lebanon deadly pager blasts

TNA’s live coverage of the latest from the war on Gaza concludes for today. Join us again at 0800 GMT for updates from the besieged Palestinian enclave.

Syria expressed solidarity with the Lebanese people, affirming its support for their "right to defend themselves."

The series of pager explosions, according to a statement from the foreign ministry via state news agency SANA, reflects "Israel's desire  to expand the scope of the war and its thirst to shed more blood" in the region.

Syria urged the international community to "unequivocally condemn this aggression."

Lebanon’s Hezbollah group has announced the deaths of seven more members- bringing the group’s total death toll since the ongoing clashes with Israel began in October to at least 450.

Earlier, Hezbollah confirmed the deaths of two other operatives today.

These announcements follow accusations that Israel caused pagers used by the group to explode, killing at least nine people and injuring around 2,750, according to Lebanese officials.

Additionally, at least six Hezbollah operatives were reported killed in Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon today.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi denounced the coordinated explosions of hundreds of pagers in Lebanon on Tuesday, labelling the incident a "terrorist act" and accusing Israel of responsibility.

In a call with Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib, Araghchi expressed condolences and pledged support, according to Tehran's Foreign Ministry.

Iranian media reported that Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon was injured in the explosions but is not in critical condition.

In a separate call, Araghchi inquired about the ambassador's health and the well-being of his wife.

Gaza’s civil defence agency reported that its teams recovered the bodies of two Palestinians killed in an Israeli attack on a home in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighbourhood.

At least eight others were wounded in the incident, raising the total number of Palestinians killed across Gaza today to 22.

The Gaza Health Ministry has stated that over 41,000 Palestinians have died in the territory since October 2023.

The ongoing conflict has resulted in extensive destruction and displaced nearly 90 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents.

The European Union's foreign policy chief called Tuesday for more pressure on Israel and Hamas for a Gaza ceasefire as a deal remained out of reach despite several rounds of talks.

Josep Borrell said Israeli hostages and the people of Gaza could not wait any longer, as the clock ticks down to one year since the October 7 attacks.

"The only thing I can say is that all actors involved have to continue putting pressure on both parties to reach this agreement," he said in Dubai during a visit to the United Arab Emirates.

"But it's coming late. Every day that the agreement is not being reached, it means more hostages will be retained and more people will be killed.

"So it's not a matter of waiting for tomorrow. Tomorrow is already too late."

Mediator Qatar earlier said talks were "ongoing" and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced his 10th visit to the region since the war started.

Months of negotiations brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the United States have failed to halt the conflict, apart from a one-week truce beginning in late November.

Borrell said he also discussed Gaza's future with UAE officials, adding: "If there is not a political project, the war is just a repetition one after another, always the same story."

"The Emirates are doing a lot from a diplomatic point of view and humanitarian point of view," he said.

"And I am sure that for any solution, the day after, they can continue playing an important role."

German airline group Lufthansa on Tuesday said it was suspending all flights to Tel Aviv and Tehran up to and including September 19, as tensions in the region soared following pager explosions across Lebanon.

"Due to the recent change in the security situation, the Lufthansa Group airlines have decided to suspend all connections to and from Tel Aviv (TLV) and Tehran (IKA) with immediate effect," it said in a statement.

"This applies up to and including September 19. During this period, the Israeli and Iranian airspace will also be bypassed by all Lufthansa Group Airlines."

The communication devices that exploded in Lebanon and Syria were reportedly obtained by Hezbollah following a directive from the group's leader in February to cease using mobile phones due to concerns about Israeli intelligence tracking, news agency The Associated Press reports.

An unnamed Hezbollah official informed The Associated Press that the pagers involved were of a new brand, though the official did not disclose how long they had been in use.

Experts suggest that the pager explosions indicate a complex, premeditated operation, potentially involving the infiltration of the supply chain and rigging the pagers with explosives before their importation to Lebanon.

Gaza’s civil defence agency reported that its teams responded to an Israeli attack on a home west of Gaza City, where they retrieved the bodies of several Palestinians who were killed and injured.

The targeted home was identified as belonging to the al-Qouqa family, though further details and exact figures have not yet been provided. 

A later follow-up by Palestinian civil defence agency spokesman Mahmoud Basal illustrated that at least 12 people were killed in three separate attacks in northern Gaza City.

Additionally, seven individuals lost their lives in two attacks in Gaza’s central area, and one body was recovered in Rafah, located in southern Gaza.

Basal also noted several injuries throughout the Strip, although exact figures were not provided either.

Israel's Shin Bet security agency said Tuesday it had foiled a plan by Lebanese group Hezbollah to kill a former security official with a remote-controlled device.

A Shin Bet statement, which said the plot was foiled "in its final stages", was issued before paging devices used by Hezbollah members exploded on Tuesday, in an attack that the Iran-backed group blamed on Israel.

The wave of blasts across Lebanon, which Beirut's health ministry said killed nine people and injured some 2,800 others, added to soaring tensions after nearly a year of cross-border exchanges throughout the Gaza war.

Israeli agents "uncovered a Claymore explosive device, known to be used by Hezbollah, which was intended to target a high-profile individual" in the coming days, said the Shin Bet statement shared with news agency AFP by the Israeli military.

"The device was equipped with a remote activation mechanism, with a camera and cellular technology, enabling it to be activated by Hezbollah from Lebanon," it added.

According to Shin Bet, the same type of explosive device was used by Hezbollah in September 2023 in a failed assassination attempt in Tel Aviv that had similarly targeted a senior Israeli official.

The security agency did not name the targeted official or give details of the planned Hezbollah attack, but said it was "in its final stages of execution".

"The Hezbollah operatives involved in this latest incident were also behind the September 2023 attack," the agency said.

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin discussed heightened Middle East tensions with his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant on Tuesday, saying it is important to reduce them, the Pentagon announced.

The call between the defense chiefs came on the same day that hundreds of pagers used by Hezbollah members exploded in an attack the Lebanese group blamed on Israel, but the Pentagon declined to say whether the explosions were discussed.

"Secretary Austin spoke by phone today with his Israeli counterpart to touch base regarding ongoing tensions in the Middle East and the threats facing Israel," Pentagon spokesman Major General Pat Ryder told journalists.

Austin "reiterated the need for a ceasefire and hostage deal, and the importance of reducing tensions through diplomacy to prevent the potential for a wider regional conflict," he said.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the wave of pager explosions, which killed at least nine people and wounded some 2,800.

The blasts came just hours after Israel announced it was broadening the aims of the war to include the safe return of residents of northern Israel who have been displaced by its fight against Hezbollah along its border with Lebanon.

Jordanian armed forces thwarted an attempt by a drone to cross the kingdom's territory, Jordan's state news agency Petra said on Tuesday, without clarifying the direction from which it was coming. 

Half of the pupils stayed away from classes at an elementary school in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Tuesday, a day after it was attacked by Jewish settlers with wooden bats in violence that has surged since the war on Gaza escalated, news agency Reuters reports.

A video filmed by Israeli activists and posted on social media showed a band of young men striking people who were screaming in the yard of Al-Ka'abneh school during the assault in a Bedouin area near Jericho on Monday.

"Half of the students today did not come to school because of the state of fear and terror they experienced yesterday because of the settlers' attack on the school," Ahmed Nasser, an official at the Palestinian Ministry of Education, told Reuters.

"We were studying as usual in class, then they started saying that settlers attacked the schools, I was able to gather my siblings so that nothing happens to them," said student Aya Mlehat. "I was able to gather them in a classroom, and the settlers started banging on the class trying to open it against our will."

"The army came along with the settlers, we ran and hid in a class with a teacher, and did not go back to the class... He told us to stay low under the tables, we stayed under the table and he told us to be quiet," said student Malak Mlehat.

Palestinians and rights groups regularly accuse Israeli forces of standing by as attacks take place and sometimes even joining in themselves. Legal action against violent settlers is rare.

The United States said Tuesday it was not aware in advance and had no involvement in mass explosions of pagers that targeted Lebanese group Hezbollah.

"I can tell you that the US was not involved in it, the US was not aware of this incident in advance and, at this point, we're gathering information," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.

"We're collecting information in the same way that journalists are across the world, to gather the facts about what might have happened," Miller added.

In response to a question, Miller said the United States was always concerned about any incident that can raise tensions in Middle East and urged Iran not to take advantage of any incident to raise instability.

Miller also said that civilians were not legitimate targets for any type of operation.

Palestinian group Hamas condemned a deadly wave of pager blasts that hit its Lebanese ally Hezbollah on Tuesday, calling it a "Zionist terrorist aggression".

"We... strongly condemn the Zionist terrorist aggression that targeted Lebanese citizens by detonating communication devices in various areas of Lebanese territory," Hamas said in a statement, adding that the attack did not distinguish "between resistance fighters and civilians."

Lebanon’s Health Minister, Firas Abiad, has described Tuesday’s pager explosions, which have claimed at least nine lives and injured around 2,800 people nationwide, as an "ongoing incident."

Abiad anticipates "more accurate numbers and information with time" and confirmed that most injuries are concentrated "either in the face, especially in the eyes, or in the hands, or in the abdomen."

He noted that hospitals and health sector partners have been conducting drills and preparing disaster plans.

"Unfortunately, the geographical distribution of the injuries was quite wide – we saw that there were cases in Beirut, in the southern suburbs; we also had cases in the south, and cases in Bekaa [Valley]," he added.

Lebanon’s Foreign Ministry has announced that it "has begun preparing a complaint to submit to the United Nations Security Council", following explosions involving pagers that injured thousands across the country.

Both Lebanon and Hezbollah are holding Israel responsible, while Israel has yet to comment on the incident.

According to a senior Hezbollah source, Lebanon’s Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was not injured in Tuesday’s explosions involving pagers in southern Beirut, as reported by news agency Reuters.

The Israeli military said on Tuesday that senior commanders, including chief of staff General Herzi Halevi, had held a situational assessment "focusing on readiness in both offense and defense in all arenas" without giving details.

It said there was no change in the instructions to civilians but added: "The public are asked to remain alert and vigilant, and any change in policy will be updated immediately." 

Fourteen people were wounded in Syria on Tuesday when pagers used by Hezbollah exploded, a Britain-based war monitor said, adding to a toll of at least eight dead and 2,750 wounded in Lebanon.

"Fourteen people whose nationalities are unknown have been wounded in Damascus and its countryside after pagers used by Hezbollah exploded," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

A source close to Hezbollah told news agency AFP that some of its members had been wounded in pager blasts in neighbouring Syria, without specifying how many.

Health Minister Firas al-Abyad has confirmed that nine individuals have died following a series of explosions across the country, which targeted various locations.

Among the victims is an eight-year-old girl from the Bekaa Valley.

At least 2,800 people have been injured, with over 200 in critical condition. Most of the injuries reported involve the face, hands, arms, and abdomen, according to al-Abyad.

Israeli artillery shelled areas in the east of Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, The New Arab's Arabic sister service Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported.

Hezbollah blamed Israel for a spree of pager blasts across Lebanon, saying it will get "its just punishment".

"We hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression," the group said in a statement, adding that Israel "will certainly receive its just punishment for this sinful aggression".

(AFP, Reuters)

Developments in Lebanon are extremely concerning, especially given the "extremely volatile" context, said UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric on Tuesday, adding that the UN deplores any civilian casualties.

(Reuters)

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Tuesday that he had discussed the implementation of a US Gaza ceasefire plan with United Arab Emirates' Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed and others, but that "unfortunately we are still not there".

(Reuters)

The Israeli government has stopped giving visas to heads and staff of the international NGO community, UNRWA's commissioner general, Philippe Lazzarini, has said.

Lazzarini said Israel was "phasing out" representation from rights groups and journalists reporting from the ground on "the atrocities of this war" and its impact on civilians.

He warned that humanitarian needs continue to increase, calling for "more" to be done, and not "less".

UNRWA shared his comments in a separate post on X.

"As humanitarian needs continue increasing, we need more humanitarian workers, not less. The opposite is now happening in #Gaza and the #WestBank," UNRWA said.

"This has to end. Let us all do our work."

Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad said eight people were killed and some 2,750 wounded in pager explosions across the country Tuesday, with Hezbollah earlier saying the pagers were used by its members.

The blasts "killed eight people, including a girl", he told a televised press conference.

"About 2,750 people were injured… more than 200 of them critically" with injuries mostly reported to the face, hands, and stomach, he added.

UN member states will debate Tuesday a Palestinian push to formally demand an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestine within 12 months.

The text, which has faced fierce criticism from Israel, is based around an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice calling Israel's occupation since 1967 "unlawful".

"Israel is under an obligation to bring to an end its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as rapidly as possible," read the opinion, requested by the General Assembly.

In response, Arab countries have called for a special session of the assembly just days before dozens of heads of state and government descend on the UN headquarters this month to address the kick off of this year's General Assembly session.

"The idea is you want to use the pressure of the international community in the General Assembly and the pressure of the historic ruling by the ICJ to force Israel to change its behaviour," said Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour, who acknowledged the draft resolution had "shocked many countries".

The draft resolution, due to be voted on late Tuesday or Wednesday, "demands that Israel brings to an end without delay its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory," and that this be done "no later than 12 months from the adoption".

Lebanon's Hezbollah group said exploding pagers used by its members killed three people Tuesday – with a source close to the group saying the blasts that wounded hundreds also killed a lawmaker's son.

"Pagers belonging to employees of various Hezbollah units and institutions exploded," the group said in a statement, adding that the blasts "killed a girl and two of our brothers".

It said it was "conducting a wide-ranging security and scientific probe" into the causes of the "simultaneous" blasts, without mentioning Israel.

The 10-year-old daughter of a Hezbollah member was killed in Lebanon's east when his pager exploded on Tuesday, her family and a source close to the group said.

"A 10-year-old girl was martyred in the Bekaa Valley after her father's pager exploded while he was next to her," her relatives told AFP.

A source close to the group confirmed her death, the first to be reported after exploding paging devices injured hundreds of Hezbollah members across Lebanon.

Lebanon's Internal Security Forces (ISF) have asked for the roads to be cleared for injured people to be taken to hospital.

"Wireless communication devices of certain types in a number of areas of Lebanon, particularly in Al-Dahiyeh Al-Janoubiyeh [southern suburb of Beirut] were subjected to explosions, leading to injuries," ISF said on X.

It added that it was requesting citizens clear the roads to facilitate the wounded being cared for and taken to hospital.

Iran's ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, was injured on Tuesday by the explosion of a pager, Iran's Mehr news agency reported.

(Reuters)

Qatar's foreign ministry said Tuesday efforts to forge a Gaza truce were "ongoing", after several rounds of talks aimed at ending the now 11-month war ended without a breakthrough.

"The efforts are still ongoing and channels of communication remain open… the goals and visits and meetings are ongoing," ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari told reporters.

Months of behind-the-scenes negotiations mediated by Qatar, Egypt, and the United States have been unable to halt the fighting, apart from a one-week truce beginning in late November.

Recent mediation in Doha and Cairo has been based on a framework laid out in May by US President Joe Biden and a "bridging proposal" presented to the warring parties in August.

The US State Department said Monday Secretary of State Antony Blinken would visit Egypt this week to "discuss ongoing efforts to reach a ceasefire", his tenth trip to the region since the Gaza Strip war began last October.

After in-person talks last month in Egypt and Qatar broke up without a final agreement, Washington indicated that mediators were preparing to present another adapted framework for a ceasefire.

US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Monday Washington was working "expeditiously" on a new proposal.

Ansari declined to comment Tuesday on whether any further proposal had been relayed to Israel or Hamas.

"When it comes to the possibility of a deal taking place anytime soon, of course we remain hopeful at every juncture," he said.

"I can't comment on the prospects of a deal taking place right now but I can tell you that we remain hopeful and we continue with our efforts."

Hundreds of members of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, including fighters and medics, were seriously wounded on Tuesday when the pagers they use to communicate exploded, a security source told Reuters.

A Hezbollah official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the detonation of the pagers was the "biggest security breach" the group had been subjected to in nearly a year of war with Israel.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which has been exchanging fire with Hezbollah since last October in parallel with its war on Gaza.

(Reuters)

Dozens of Hezbollah members were seriously wounded on Tuesday in Lebanon's south and the southern suburbs of Beirut when the pagers they use to communicate exploded, security sources told Reuters.

A Reuters journalist saw 10 Hezbollah members bleeding from wounds in the southern suburb of Beirut known as Dahiyeh.

(Reuters)

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said its teams worked with the social development ministry to distribute relief materials to around 750 families in two provinces in northern Gaza.

The supplies given to the families in the Gaza and North Gaza governorates included hygiene kits, blankets, and tarps, the humanitarian group said on social media platform X.

The PRCS Disaster Risk Management teams, in collaboration with the Ministry of Social Development, distributed #relief materials to approximately 750 families in the Gaza and North #Gaza governorates. The supplies included hygiene kits, blankets, and tarps. pic.twitter.com/8Y1uAUTAKE

— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) September 17, 2024

The journalist Mohammed Abu Shouqa and his father were killed in an Israeli attack in Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad's armed wing, Al-Quds Brigades, said an Israeli Merkava tank was destroyed near the Adnan Abu Taha junction, The New Arab's Arabic sister service Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported.

Israel's domestic intelligence agency said on Tuesday that it had foiled a plot by Lebanese group Hezbollah to assassinate a former senior defence official in the coming days.

The Shin Bet agency did not name the official.

It said in a statement that it had seized an explosive device attached to a remote detonation system, using a mobile phone and a camera, that Hezbollah had planned to operate from Lebanon.

Shin Bet said the attempted attack was similar to a Hezbollah plot foiled in Tel Aviv a year ago, without giving further details.

(Reuters)

Nothing justifies Israel's collective punishment of the people of Gaza as they endure "unimaginable" suffering, UN Secretary-General António Guterres told AFP on Monday.

"It is unimaginable, the level of suffering in Gaza, the level of deaths and destruction have no parallel in everything I've witnessed since [becoming] secretary-general," said Guterres, who has led the international organisation since 2017.

"We all condemn the terror attacks made by Hamas, as well as the taking of the hostages, that is an absolute violation of international humanitarian law," he said.

"But the truth is that nothing justifies the collective punishment of the Palestinian people, and that is what we are witnessing in a dramatic way in Gaza," he added, decrying the widespread carnage and hunger blighting Gaza.

German news media outlets on Tuesday called on Israel to grant them access to war-torn Gaza, charging that the "almost complete exclusion of international media… is unprecedented in recent history".

"After almost a year of war, we call on the Israeli government: allow us to enter the Gaza Strip," a group of newspapers, agencies, and broadcasters wrote in an open letter.

They also urged Egypt to permit them entry to the widely devastated Palestinian territory via the Rafah border crossing in the south of the Gaza Strip.

The media organisations wrote that "anyone who makes independent reporting on this war impossible is damaging their own credibility.

"Anyone who prohibits us from working in the Gaza Strip is creating the conditions for human rights to be violated."

The open letter was addressed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi and had been delivered on Monday, they said.

Signatories included editors and reporters from Der Spiegel, Die Welt, public broadcasters ARD and ZDF and the German Journalists Association.

They said they have decades of experience in conflict reporting and wrote: "We know the risk. We are prepared to take it. Grant us access to the Gaza Strip. Let us work, in the interest of everyone."

Around 80 people are trapped under the rubble after Israeli bombing of Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, a spokesperson for civil defence authorities in the strip told The New Arab's sister broadcaster Al-Araby TV.

The number of people killed in Israel's war on Gaza has risen to 41,252, according to the Palestinian enclave's health ministry.

The ministry said Israel had performed three "massacres against the families" in the strip, with 26 killed and 84 injured people arriving at hospitals in the last 24 hours.

It added that 95,497 people had been injured in Israel's war on Gaza, which began in October last year.

Dozens of Palestinians were killed or injured in Israeli bombing of a number of homes in the east of Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza this morning.

Civil defence authorities in Gaza said it was estimated more than 50 people were in the homes targeted by Israel.

Israel targeted the outskirts of the towns of Alma Al-Shaab and Yarine in southern Lebanon with a number of shells, The New Arab's Arabic sister service Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported.

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid called Monday for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to seal a Gaza truce deal immediately, as he met top US officials in Washington.

"I believe that any political interests should be set aside for this. This is way more important," Lapid told reporters outside the State Department after meeting Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

"Israel as a nation will not heal unless we will bring them back home," Lapid said of the hostages. "This is essential to our existence."

"It's doable," he said. "We can do a hostage deal – and we need to do it."

Lapid, a former prime minister, renewed his promise not to work to topple Netanyahu's government – which relies on support from far-right members – if he goes ahead with the deal.

Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar said Monday the Palestinian group had the resources to sustain its fight against Israel, with support from Iran-backed regional allies, nearly a year into the Gaza war.

Sinwar, who last month replaced slain Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, said in a letter to the group's Yemeni allies: "We have prepared ourselves to fight a long war of attrition."

Sinwar, in his letter to Yemen's Houthis, threatened that Iran-aligned groups in Gaza and elsewhere in the region would "break the enemy's political will" after more than 11 months of war.

"Our combined efforts with you" and with groups in Lebanon and Iraq "will break this enemy and inflict defeat on it", he said.