August 2024 Israel–Lebanon strikes | |||||||
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Part of the Israel–Hezbollah conflict and the Middle Eastern crisis (2023–present) | |||||||
Israeli Defence Forces officials during the strikes | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Hezbollah Amal Movement | Israel | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Units involved | |||||||
320+ Katyusha rockets | 100 fighter jets | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
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1 Syrian national and 1 Israeli civilian injured |
On 25 August 2024, Israel struck targets in southern Lebanon, followed by strikes by Hezbollah. [2] [3]
Israel framed its strikes as preemptive. According to Lebanese officials, the Israeli military struck forty locations in southern Lebanon with about 100 fighter jets. Shortly after, according to Hezbollah, it launched over 320 rockets at northern Israel as "the first phase" of its response to Israel's July assassination of senior commander Fuad Shukr. [4] [5] [6] [7]
On 30 July 2024, Fuad Shukr, a Hezbollah militant leader, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut. Israel has previously accused Shukr of involvement in the Majdal Shams attack three days prior that killed twelve children and young adults in the disputed Golan Heights.
On 31 July 2024, Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas, was killed in a guesthouse in Tehran. In response to the assassination, Iran has stated that it would respond militarily, accusing Israel of Haniyeh's death; [2] Hezbollah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah stated that the organization had entered new phase in its conflict with Israel in response to Shukr and Haniyeh's deaths. [8]
In the days preceding the strikes, the US and Israel received intelligence showing Hezbollah was preparing to initiate an attack. [9]
Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari stated that domestic intelligence believed that Hezbollah was intending to initiate an imminent "extensive attack"—including rockets, missiles, and drones—on Israel and fired counterstrikes against long-range missiles Hezbollah intended to use. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu managed the operation from Tel Aviv with defense minister Yoav Gallant; Netanyahu convened his security cabinet at 7 a.m. [10]
According to an Israeli official, the U.S. was informed of the operation. [9] According to a U.S. defense official, the United States helped Israel track incoming Hezbollah attacks. [11] According to The New York Times , Hezbollah intended to fire rockets at 5 a.m. and Israel destroyed Hezbollah's missile launchers. [12] Israel sent a hundred fighter jets during its operations. [13] Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant described the strikes as "very successful", stating that "over fifty percent, maybe two-thirds" of Hezbollah's strikes were prevented. [14]
Hezbollah stated the organization began its response to the assassination of Fuad Shukr, targeting a "special military target", Iron Dome platforms, and other sites. [15] [16] [17] In its first stage, Hezbollah claimed that it had fired over 320 rockets at nearly twelve Israeli military bases and positions. [6] [18] [19]
Two Hezbollah militants were killed and one Hezbollah militant and a Syrian national were injured in southern Lebanon, one critically. [20] [21] The Amal movement said one of its fighters from Khiam was killed. [7] Hezbollah confirmed death of their six militants on 25 August. [22]
An Israeli Navy officer was killed by a malfunctioning missile launched by the Iron Dome that struck a Dvora-class fast patrol boat off the coast of Nahariya, northern Israel and two others were injured. [1] [23] [24] A woman was slightly injured by a missile in northern Israel. [25] [26]
Departures and arrivals were canceled at Ben Gurion Airport until 10 a.m.; [2] two El Al flights were diverted. [10] The Golan Regional Council instructed residents of the Golan Heights to remain in their shelters. [27] Yoav Gallant declared an "emergency situation" for two days. [28]
In a conversation with Gallant, U.S. secretary of defense Lloyd Austin discussed avoiding escalating the Israel–Hamas war, according to Gallant. [29] United States National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett stated that president Joe Biden was "closely monitoring events in Israel and Lebanon" and reaffirmed Israel's right to defend itself. [30]
Several incidents have taken place on the Israeli–Syrian ceasefire line during the Syrian Civil War, straining the relations between the countries. The incidents are considered a spillover of the Quneitra Governorate clashes since 2012 and later incidents between Syrian Army and the rebels, ongoing on the Syrian-controlled side of the Golan and the Golan Neutral Zone and the Hezbollah involvement in the Syrian Civil War. Through the incidents, which began in late 2012, as of mid-2014, one Israeli civilian was killed and at least 4 soldiers wounded; on the Syrian-controlled side, it is estimated that at least ten soldiers were killed, as well as two unidentified militants, who were identified near Ein Zivan on Golan Heights.
An armed conflict between Israel and Hamas-led Palestinian militant groups has been taking place in the Gaza Strip and Israel since 7 October 2023. It is the fifth war of the Gaza–Israel conflict since 2008, and the most significant military engagement in the region since the Yom Kippur War in 1973. It is the deadliest war for Palestinians in the history of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.
A 14-month-long conflict between the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Israel began on 8 October 2023, when Hezbollah launched rockets and artillery at Israeli positions following the 7 October Hamas-led attack on Israel. The conflict escalated into a prolonged exchange of bombardments, leading to extensive displacement in Israel and Lebanon. The conflict, part of the broader Middle Eastern crisis that began with Hamas' attack, marked the largest escalation of the Hezbollah–Israel conflict since the 2006 Lebanon War.
Events of the year 2024 in Israel.
Events in the year 2024 in Lebanon.
The Middle Eastern crisis is a series of interrelated conflicts and heightened instability in the Middle East which began with the Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, a retaliation to the escalating Israeli violence against Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. Israel then began a destructive bombing campaign and invasion of the Gaza Strip. The war's spillover resulted in a major escalation of existing tensions between Israel and Iran. This has resulted in several proxy conflicts breaking out across the Middle East involving both sides, such as Red Sea crisis, the 2024 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, and the Israeli invasion of Syria.
In 2024, the Iran–Israel proxy conflict escalated to a series of direct confrontations between the two countries. On 1 April, Israel bombed an Iranian consulate complex in Damascus, Syria, killing multiple senior Iranian officials. In response, Iran and its Axis of Resistance allies seized the Israeli-linked ship MSC Aries and launched strikes inside Israel on 13 April. Israel then carried out retaliatory strikes in Iran and Syria on 19 April.
On 30 July 2024, Israel conducted an airstrike on an apartment building in Haret Hreik in the suburbs of the Lebanese capital of Beirut, killing Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr, Iranian military adviser Milad Bedi, as well as five Lebanese civilians, including two children, and wounding 80 others.
Fuad Shukr was a Lebanese militant leader who was a senior member of Hezbollah. A member of Hezbollah's founding generation, Shukr was a senior military leader in the organization from the early 1980s. For over four decades, he was one of the group's leading military figures and was a military advisor to its leader Hassan Nasrallah.
On August 17, 2024, Israel attacked a warehouse in Nabatieh in southern Lebanon, killing at least 11 people and injuring four others. All people killed in the attack were Syrian refugees.
This timeline of the Israel–Hezbollah conflict covers the period from 27 July 2024, when a Hezbollah rocket struck a soccer field in Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights, killing 12 children, to 16 September 2024, one day before the explosion of Hezbollah pagers and walkie talkies.
Ibrahim Aqil was a Lebanese militant leader who served as commander-in-chief of Hezbollah's special operations unit, the Redwan Force. He was a member of the Jihad Council, which oversees the military operations of the organisation. Some considered Aqil as the de facto Chief of Staff of Hezbollah.
On 23 September 2024, Israel began a series of airstrikes in Lebanon as part of the ongoing Israel–Hezbollah conflict with an operation it code-named Northern Arrows. Since then, Israel's attacks have killed over 800 people, injured more than 5,000, and displaced hundreds of thousands of Lebanese civilians. The attacks are the deadliest in Lebanon since the end of the Lebanese Civil War, and began five days after Israel performed a deadly pager and walkie-talkie attack on devices intended for Hezbollah members, and three days after Israel performed an airstrike on an apartment complex in Beirut which killed Redwan Force commander Ibrahim Aqil as well as 54 others.
This timeline of the Israel–Hezbollah conflict covers the period from 17 September 2024, when Hezbollah pagers exploded throughout Lebanon and Syria to the present. Beginning 23 September, Israel began its airstrikes in Lebanon, on 27 September, they assassinated Hassan Nasrallah, and on 1 October, they invaded Lebanon.
On 1 October 2024, Israel invaded Southern Lebanon, marking the sixth Israeli invasion of Lebanon since 1978. The invasion took place after nearly 12 months of Israel–Hezbollah conflict. On 26 November, Israel and Lebanon signed a ceasefire agreement, mediated by France and the United States. The ceasefire went into effect on 27 November, though some attacks continue. Israel has reported 56 of its soldiers and 3,500 Hezbollah militants killed in the invasion, while the Lebanese government has reported Israel killing 2,720 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians.
A battle has been taking place in Maroun al-Ras in southern Lebanon since 2 October 2024, when the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) attempted to enter the village, amid the 2024 Israeli invasion of Lebanon.
The 2024 Kafr Kila clashes began in the southern Lebanese village on 1 October 2024, amid the 2024 Israeli invasion of Lebanon.
The Israeli army says Hezbollah has failed to strike a military intelligence base near Tel Aviv that the Lebanese armed group's leader says was the target of a rocket and drone barrage.
Hezbollah said six of its fighters were also killed.