The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah is promising to retaliate for deadly attacks on its communication devices after Israel’s defense minister announced a “new phase” of the war.
Hezbollah and the Israeli military traded new strikes over the border on Thursday. Fears are increasing that 11 months of exchanges of fire between the two sides will escalate into all-out war.
Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s leader, said Israel crossed a “red line” this week after bombings widely blamed on Israel in which hundreds of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah were remotely detonated in Lebanon and Syria.
Hezbollah began striking Israel almost immediately after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack that sparked the Israel-Hamas war. They have come close to a full-blown war on several occasions.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in the territory since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. The ministry does not differentiate between fighters and civilians in its count but says a little over half of those killed were women and children. Israel says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
Here’s the latest:
JERUSALEM — Israel is accusing Iran and Hezbollah of bombarding millions of Israelis with threatening text messages as the conflict between the Israeli military and the Lebanese militant group escalated.
Israel’s National Cyber Directorate said Thursday that a flood of Hebrew-language text messages popped up on cellphones nationwide, falsely purporting to be a communication from the Israeli Home Front Command.
The government said roughly 5 million suspicious SMS texts were sent to Israelis late Wednesday. It determined that Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah hacked an Israeli mobile service provider and exploited its customer accounts. The Israeli government did not say which provider. It was not immediately clear whether additional customer information was compromised.
“Say goodbye to your loved ones,” read one of the messages seen by The Associated Press. “Don’t worry, you will hug them in hell.”
Israel’s Cyber Directorate described the deluge of texts as an “unsophisticated attempt to incite public panic.” It said Israelis received three versions of the messages, all containing “harmful” links to unknown websites that it said were “rendered inactive within a short period of time.”
There was no immediate response to the Israeli allegations from Hezbollah or Iran.
LONDON — The U.K.’s top diplomat is urging British nationals to leave Lebanon.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the situation could deteriorate rapidly after consecutive rounds of explosive attacks that appeared to target the Hezbollah militant group.
“My message to British nationals in Lebanon is leave while commercial options remain,” he wrote on the X social media platform.
Lammy said he had spoken with the Lebanese prime minister about negotiating a solution to restore stability.
“I spoke with Najib Mikati and expressed my deep concern over rising tensions and civilian casualties in Lebanon,” Lammy said.
The British government has been advising its citizens to leave the country for more than a month.
GENEVA — The head of the World Health Organization says it is working with Lebanon’s Health Ministry as it deals with those wounded by exploding communications devices.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanon Ghebreyesus said the strikes have “severely disrupted Lebanon’s already-fragile health system.”
He said WHO has distributed trauma and emergency surgery supplies and, “We are working to meet immediate needs, including blood supplies and blood testing kits, and monitoring how the health system is functioning.”
Dr. Abinasir Abubakar, the WHO country representative in Lebanon, said at least one health care worker was killed.
WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan said the device explosions “came without warning, and the whole health system came under immense pressure — and very, very quickly.”
JERUSALEM — Israel’s defense minister said Thursday that Hezbollah “will pay an increasing price” as Israel seeks to make conditions near its border with Lebanon safe enough for residents to return to their homes.
Yoav Gallant’s comments came as Israel and Hezbollah exchanged strikes and the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, vowed retaliation against Israel for a mass bombing attack in Lebanon.
“Our goal is to ensure the safe return of Israel’s northern communities to their homes. As time goes by, Hezbollah will pay an increasing price,” said Gallant. “The sequence of our military actions will continue.”
The leader of Hezbollah on Thursday said this week’s deadly attack on the Lebanon-based militant group’s communications devices was a “severe blow” that crossed a “red line.”
Hassan Nasrallah said the group is investigating how the two-day attack, which killed more than 30, wounded thousands and was widely believed to be carried out by Israel.
“Yes, we were subjected to a huge and severe blow,” Nasrallah said. “The enemy crossed all boundaries and red lines,” he added.
As usual, Nasrallah spoke by video from an undisclosed location. Hezbollah typically convenes a rally for supporters to watch his speeches on a big screen, but this time they did not.
PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron has expressed “deepest concern” that unprecedented bombings in Lebanon, which detonated hundreds of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah, will contribute to “a dangerous escalation of tensions in the region,” according to a statement from the French presidency Thursday.
Macron’s comments come after the French leader, who aims to keep France as an important diplomatic player in Lebanon, spoke on the phone with the country’s top political and military officials.
The French president urged them to “act responsibly in order to avoid an escalation.” He also asked them to “send messages of restraint to all Lebanese parties, starting with Hezbollah,” the statement added. Macron will speak about the dangers of an escalation with the Israeli prime minister, the statement also said, adding that “All parties must act to avoid war.”
WASHINGTON —The State Department is urging U.S. citizens in Lebanon to maintain a low profile and review their security awareness following a spate of explosions of pagers and walkie-talkies that targeted members of the militant group Hezbollah.
In alerts sent to the American community in Lebanon on Tuesday and Wednesday, the U.S. Embassy in Beirut repeated existing advice to consider leaving the country and reiterated the State Department’s warning against all travel to the country.
State Department and White House officials say there are long-standing contingency plans for the potential evacuation of Americans in Lebanon but that they have no information to suggest that those will become operational anytime soon.
“We have evacuation plans available for places all over the world,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Wednesday. “But I wouldn’t lead that to believe that we’re in a moment now where we think we need to imminently call for that or act on that right now.”
Previous evacuations of Americans from Lebanon have included the use of military assets but have relied mainly on chartered ferries from Beirut to Cyprus.
There are tens of thousands of Americans living in and visiting Lebanon at any one time, the vast majority of whom are dual U.S.-Lebanon citizens.
MADRID —Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has called for restraint following the wave of explosives attacks in the Middle East, after he received the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Madrid.
“Today the risk of escalation has again dangerously increased. President Abbas and I have been talking about it in Lebanon, so we have to make a new and strong call for restraint, for de-escalation, for peaceful coexistence between countries. In short, to peace,” said Sánchez after a 45-minute meeting with Abbas.
This was the first meeting between the leaders since Spain recognized Palestine as a state on May 28, in a coordinated action with Ireland and Norway. Sanchez mentioned the strong importance that his government gave to the advisory opinion given by the International Court of Justice, which established the illegality of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.
Abbas, for his part, called for a Middle East Peace Conference to be held in Madrid, like the one that took place 33 years ago in the Spanish capital.
BEIRUT — Lebanon’s health minister says 25 people were killed and more than 600 wounded during the second day of exploding device attacks that were blamed on Israel.
Firass Abiad told reporters on Thursday that the injuries were more severe in Wednesday’s attack, since the walkie-talkies that exploded then were bigger than the pagers used a day earlier.
Of the 608 people wounded on Wednesday, 61 remain in intensive care, Abiad said, adding that 141 surgeries were performed.
The number of dead in the first day of attacks, on Tuesday, remained 12, the minister said, noting that more than 1,300 people suffered injuries ranging from mid-level to severe. Abiad said 226 people wounded on Tuesday remain in intensive care and 955 operations have been performed.
The latest death toll raises the number of people killed by exploding devices to 37 since Tuesday, while the number of injured is above 3,000.
Many of those killed and wounded were members of the militant Hezbollah group.
TEHRAN, Iran — The Iranian ambassador to Lebanon, who was injured in the exploding device attacks this week, has been transferred to Tehran, the Iranian Embassy said Thursday.
Ambassador Mojtaba Amani’s general health is “very good,” the embassy said in a statement. Amani along with some 90 injured Lebanese citizens were transferred to Tehran on Wednesday night, it added.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi visited Amani in a Tehran hospital, state media reported.
Iran is the main supporter of Hezbollah, the militant Lebanese group that Israel sees it as its most direct threat. Many of the group’s fighters were killed and injured in the explosions on Tuesday and Wednesday.
ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has described the waves of exploding communication devices as a strategy by Israel to expand the war in Gaza to Lebanon.
Fidan, in an interview with the state-run Anadolu Agency on Thursday, also voiced concerns over a wider regional conflict.
“We have seen that (Israel) has, step by step, started to escalate (the conflict) toward Lebanon,” he said.
Pagers and walkie-talkies used mainly by members of the militant Hezbollah group exploded in different parts of Lebanon over the past two days, killing killing dozens and wounding 3,000 people.
“The escalation in the region is really worrying,” Fidan said. “We have reached the point where these operations being carried out by Israel are increasingly turning more provocative and in return, Hezbollah, Iran and other elements that are close to them are being faced with no other option than to respond.”
JERUSALEM — Hezbollah has struck what it says are military positions in northern Israel as part of its ongoing attacks in support of the Palestinians in Gaza, wounding at least eight people.
The militant group has vowed to continue such operations after several of its members were killed and thousands wounded when their personal devices exploded, in what appeared to be a sophisticated attack by Israel.
Hezbollah claimed to have struck three military positions near the border on Thursday, two of them with armed drones. The Israeli military said the drones crashed near communities and did not report any casualties.
Sharon Koren, a spokesperson for Ziv Hospital, said two people were undergoing orthopedic surgery and four were lightly wounded in the attacks. Avi Weissman, the deputy director of Rambam Hospital, said one person was undergoing surgery and another was in moderate condition.
Hezbollah began striking northern Israel shortly after Hamas’ Oct. 7 surprise attack ignited the war in Gaza. Hezbollah and Hamas are both close allies of Iran.
Israel has responded to the near-daily fire with escalating strikes of its own and in recent days has warned of a wider military operation.
The military said early Thursday that it had struck several militant sites in southern Lebanon overnight.
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — Israeli strikes have killed at least 10 people in the Gaza Strip, including three women and three children.
They were laid to rest Thursday after the overnight strikes in the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Younis. Records at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis confirmed the toll and an Associated Press reporter counted the bodies.
Mohammed Abu Huweij said his wife and three children were killed while he was out getting food.
“The eldest, Mira, was 8 years old and the youngest was 9 months. What did they do?” he said. “I left, and when I came back my entire family had been martyred.”
Israel says it only targets militants and tries to avoid harming civilians in its nearly yearlong campaign against Hamas, which operates in residential areas. The military rarely comments on individual strikes, which often kill women and children.
The war began after Hamas launched a surprise attack into Israel on Oct. 7 in which Palestinian militants killed some 1,200 people and took around 250 hostage.
Israel’s offensive has killed over 41,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. It does not say how many were fighters, but says a little over half were women and children. Israel says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
BEIRUT — Lebanon’s civil aviation authorities have banned pagers and walkie-talkies on all airplanes departing from Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport.
The measure announced Thursday comes after such devices, mainly used by members of the militant Hezbollah group, exploded in different parts of Lebanon, killing dozens and wounding 3,000 people over the past two days.
The authorities called on all airline companies to inform passengers using the airport that carrying pagers and walkie-talkies onto jets is banned “until further notice.” It added that authorities will confiscate such devices found with passengers.
JERUSALEM — Israeli security officials say an Israeli citizen has been indicted for involvement in an Iranian assassination plot against top Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
A statement from the Shin Bet internal security agency on Thursday said that the citizen was recruited by Iranian intelligence to “carry out terrorist activities” on Israeli soil and “promote assassination attacks” on Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and the head of the Shin Bet, Ronen Bar.
It was unclear how far the alleged plot had advanced. The statement did not say whether the Israeli had obtained a weapon or developed a concrete plan.
The statement said the Israeli had traveled to Iran twice — once in August following the assassination of top Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in an explosion in Iran’s capital that was widely blamed on Israel. Israel has not said whether it was involved.
The Shin Bet said the assassination plot was an attempt by Iran to follow through on its pledge to avenge his death.
The statement said the Israeli was paid 5,000 euros ($5,575.60) but had demanded a million dollars before doing anything. The Iranians refused the demand but said they would be in touch, according to the Shin Bet.
SOFIA, Bulgaria — Bulgarian authorities rejected claims that exploding devices have been shipped through the territory of the Balkan country.
“No customs operations with communication equipment (pagers) have been carried out through the territory of Bulgaria,” the state agency for national security said in a statement on Thursday.
It came in response to media reports alleging that a company registered in Bulgaria had supplied the Lebanese organization Hezbollah with the devices, which later exploded in Lebanon and Syria.
The statement added that the agency was carrying out joint checks with the National Revenue Agency and the Ministry of Interior over the alleged involvement of a Bulgarian-registered company in the supply of communications equipment to Hezbollah.
The Sofia-based company Norta Global Ltd., owned by a Norwegian citizen, has been linked by Hungarian media to the sale of the devices that exploded in Lebanon.
Norta Global Ltd. was registered in April 2022 as a project management company, but there is no data available that they produce anything, and there are no records available about their financial operations. It is registered at the same address in downtown Sofia as 196 other companies.
TOKYO — Japanese wireless communication equipment-maker Icom says it cannot confirm whether a walkie-talkie used in the explosive attacks against Hezbollah was related to the company, noting that the production and sales of that device and its battery were discontinued about a decade ago.
The Osaka-based Icom was responding Thursday to a report that said one of the walkie-talkies used in the attacks a day earlier had a sticker with the company’s logo. Icom also noted that the device in question did not have an anti-counterfeit hologram sticker, which all authentic Icom products should be carrying.
Company executive Yoshiki Enomoto told Japanese television NTV he was “surprised” by the news. He said the company could not confirm if the unit in question was Icom-made.
“This specific device had a lot of fake copies out in the market,” he said, adding that company officials could only determine its authenticity if they see its circuits.
Icom said the wireless radio unit IC-V82 was once manufactured for export including to the Middle East from 2004 to October 2014. But the production and shipment of its main unit ended about 10 years ago and batteries for the main units have also been discontinued.
