23 September 2024 Lebanon strikes

23 September 2024 Lebanon strikes
Part of the Israel–Hezbollah conflict (2023–present)
Type	Airstrikes
Location	Southern Lebanon, Beqaa Valley and Beirut, Lebanon
Date	23 September 2024 (2024-09-23) – ongoing 06:30 – (EET)
Executed by	Israel Defense Forces
Outcome	Ongoing
Casualties	492+ killed 1,645+ injured

On 23 September 2024, Israel conducted hundreds of airstrikes targeting Hezbollah positions in Lebanon, in an operation codenamed Operation Arrows of the North, killing at least 492 people and injuring more than 1,645 others. Hezbollah responded by launching 35 drones and rockets into northern Israel.

Background

See also: Israel–Hezbollah conflict (2023–present) and 2024 Lebanon pager explosions

On 8 October 2023, a day after the Hamas-led attack on Israel, Hezbollah joined the conflict in support of Hamas, by firing on northern Israeli towns and other Israeli positions. Since then, Hezbollah and Israel have been involved in cross-border military exchanges that have displaced entire communities in Israel and Lebanon, and caused significant damage to buildings and land along the border.

On 17 and 18 September 2024, thousands of handheld pagers and walkie-talkies exploded in a series of coordinated explosions. The attacks killed 42 people and injured at least 3,500, with both Lebanese civilians and Hezbollah members affected. Many have reported that Israel was behind the explosions, although Israeli officials have denied involvement. Hezbollah has described the act as a possible declaration of war by Israel and launched a rocket attack on northern Israel a few days later.

Prior to the strikes, Israel ordered citizens in Lebanon to evacuate.

Strikes

Lebanon

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that it had attacked 1,300 Hezbollah military sites in southern Lebanon and Beqaa Valley. One strike hit as far as Byblos, north of Beirut. The first wave of strikes began at 06:30 EET and hit hospitals and ambulances according to Firass Abiad, the Lebanese Health Minister.

Six people were injured when three missiles struck the Beir al-Abed neighborhood of Beirut. Israeli officials said that the attack targeted Ali Karaki, whom Israel says is the commander of Hezbollah's Southern Front, but Hezbollah said that he survived the attack.

Israel reportedly launched five attacks in Qaliya, in the western Beqaa Valley, one of which hit a residential home, killing a father and his daughter.

Israel

Hezbollah fired a total of 150 rockets into Israel, the West Bank, and Golan Heights, injuring five people. It first fired 35 rockets into northern Israel targeting IDF bases and warehouses, lightly injuring a man in the Lower Galilee. It later fired around 80 rockets, targeting several locations including Ariel and Karnei Shomron in the occupied West Bank. The missile and artillery battalion's HQ in the Yoav barracks was hit with dozens of rockets as well as warehouses at the Nimra military base.

Casualties

At least 492 people were killed and 1,600 were injured, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health. The ministry added that 35 children, 58 women, and a number of medics were also killed, but did not clarify how many of the casualties were militants. Lebanese University announced that two female students were killed in an attack. The strikes were the deadliest attack in Lebanon since the end of the 1975–1990 Lebanese Civil War.

Ali Aburia and Mohammad Saleh, both senior Hezbollah commanders, were killed in the airstrikes. Mahmoud al Nader, a field commander of Hamas' al-Qassam Brigades, was also killed in southern Lebanon.

Reactions

Following the strikes, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu postponed a flight to New York where he was due to attend the seventy-ninth session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). He later said that his country was "chang[ing] the security balance, the balance of power in the north". An Israeli official later accounted to CNN that there was "great satisfaction" from among the political spectrum for the IDF's performance. Opposition leader Yair Lapid also expressed his support for the operation.

A Lebanese representative at the UNGA, standing in for Prime Minister Najib Mikati, described the strikes as having "threatened social order". All non-essential judicial work in Lebanon was suspended on 24 September.

International

In Iraq, Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' Al Sudani announced that the country would provide humanitarian aid to Lebanon. Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's highest Shia cleric, said in a statement that "every possible effort" should be made to stop "the ongoing barbaric aggression" of Israel in Lebanon. Sistani also called on "believers to do what contributes to alleviating their suffering and securing their humanitarian needs." Sudani endorsed Sistani's statement, announcing his cabinet's plan to establish air and land bridges to deliver aid to Lebanon and open Iraqi hospitals "to receive the injured and wounded". Sudani also called on leaders of Arab delegations at the UNGA to hold an urgent meeting.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian accused Israel of "dragging" Iran into a wider conflict, adding that "there is no winner in warfare." The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Syria condemned what it said was an "Israeli brutal aggression on the Lebanese brotherly people under the protection of USA", according to the country's state news agency.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Egypt called on "international powers and the United Nations Security Council to intervene immediately" to stop "the dangerous Israeli escalation in Lebanon". King Abdullah II expressed his country's "absolute support for Lebanon, its security, its sovereignty and the safety of its citizens" during a phone call with Mikati, while foreign minister Ayman Safadi called on the United Nations Security Council to intervene to "curb Israeli aggression and protect the region from its disastrous consequences." The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkey described the attacks as "a new phase in [Israel's] efforts to drag the entire region into chaos", and accused Israeli allies of supporting Netanyahu "for his political interests".

The foreign minister of France, Jean-Noël Barrot, called for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council and urged the end of such strikes. A United States Department of State official said the United States did not see Israel's reported strategy of "escalate to de-escalate" as being effective during the conflict. The foreign ministers of Australia and Canada, Penny Wong and Mélanie Joly, reiterated warnings for their countries' citizens in Lebanon to leave the country immediately.

The European Union's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, expressed concern over the situation, describing Israel and Hezbollah as "almost in a full-fledged war". A spokesperson for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said it was "extremely concerned" about the risk of escalation in the conflict.