IDF says its killed 250 Hezbollah fighters since start of ground invasion
TEL AVIV — As many as 250 Hezbollah fighters have been killed during Israel's ground invasion in southern Lebanon, the IDF said today, adding that its forces had also found "more and more evidence of a plan to infiltrate Israel."
Speaking at a news conference today, IDF spokesman Nadav Shoshani said at least nine commanders were among the 250 Hezbollah members killed in the first days of the ground operation, adding that at least 100 fighters had been killed within the last 24 hours by forces on the ground, with aerial support.
Shoshani said Israeli forces had discovered "an area saturated with weapons," but did not say where exactly that was. He said they had found "more and more evidence of a plan to infiltrate Israel."
NBC News was not able to independently verify the claims.
Shoshani said there was "no specific timeline" for Israel's ground invasion, during which at least eight Israeli soldiers have been killed, but said the "mission is to make sure Hezbollah is not there."
Iran threatens Israeli oil refineries, gas fields if attacked
Iran could target Israeli oil refineries and gas fields if Israel launches a retaliatory attack on Iranian territory, the deputy commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said.
Ali Fadavi warned Israel against making a "mistake," saying Iran "will target all its energy sources, stations, refineries and gas fields," the semi-official Iranian news agency SNN reported.
"Iran is a large and vast country with many economic centers," he said, warning it could strike Israel's power stations and refineries "all at at once."
Iran's foreign minister also warned that Tehran will retaliate harshly if Israel attacks.
“If the Israeli entity takes any step or measure against us, our retaliation will be stronger than the previous one," Abbas Araghchi said, according to the AP.
Freed Yazidi woman is reunited with her family after 10 years
Video shared by an Israeli diplomat is said to show a Yazidi woman from Iraq reuniting with her family after being freed this week from captivity in the Gaza Strip. The Israel Defense Forces say she was kidnapped as a child over a decade ago by the Islamic State terrorist group and trafficked to a member of Hamas.A Hamas official disputed the account, saying the woman was brought to Gaza from Iraq by a Palestinian man whom she had married and had two children with before he left her in Gaza with his family. ISIS is known to have taken Yazidi women against their will for the purpose of sexual servitude or forced marriages.
NBC News has not independently verified where and when the video was filmed.
Displaced Lebanese reminded of past Israeli invasions
ZOUK MOSBEH, Lebanon — For many of the nearly 1 million people who have been displaced from their homes in Lebanon amid Israel's offensive, the horrors of having to flee in search of safety are all too familiar.
"The south always pays the bill for the Arab-Israeli conflict, the most difficult of which is the forced displacement from villages," Mohamad Jomaa, an insurance broker from Ansar in southern Lebanon, told NBC News. "We left our home in 1982, 1993, 1996, 2006 — and now."
Israel has said its ground invasion in Lebanon would be "limited," but memories of past invasions have fueled fears across the country.
Jomaa, 62, who has sought shelter in the southern city of Saida with his mother, wife and six children, recalled a Lebanese proverb: "'The cat holds its kitten with her teeth, from one place to another.' ... Well, we are like that cat."
"People are on the streets and in schools, waiting for somebody to feed them and offer them covers and mattresses," he said. "How can you handle the same situation over and over? I wish it was a dream, in fact it is a real nightmare."
"I don’t know if we will be able to go back to our house and life," Nabil El Hajj Ali, 60, who fled from Al-Abbasiya in southern Lebanon, said in a separate interview. "The whole south is destroyed. It is sad. It is catastrophic."
Lebanese hospital treats 'polytrauma' patients amid Israeli strikes
A stream of "polytrauma" patients has flooded into one Lebanese hospital amid Israel's ramped up airstrikes in Lebanon, which have killed hundreds of people and displaced as many as 1 million.
"We are receiving many cases of severe polytrauma patients, specifically traumatic brain injuries, acute abdomen," Dr. Bachar Moubayyed, an intensive care doctor and anaesthesiologist at the hospital in Tyre, a town on the Mediterranean coast of southern Lebanon, told NBC News.
Moubayyed said doctors at the hospital have been providing patients with emergency care and then transferring them to other facilities once they are in stable condition due to the "quantity of the patients we are receiving," though he said the number had declined in recent days. He said the patients were of "all ages," including children.
Seeing young people rushed into the hospital, he said, "it's genocide. They are killing all the civilians. Bombs, everywhere." Moubayyed said he did not know what lay ahead, but he said doctors at the hospital would continue "trying to do our work, our job — saving lives."
From missile batteries to oil refineries to nuclear labs, Israel could hit a wide range of targets in Iran
With its vastly superior air force and Iran’s relatively weak air defenses, Israel could hit a wide range of targets in Iran if it wanted to, including military and intelligence sites, senior commanders, oil terminals and refineries or even nuclear sites. Israel would also be likely to get a helping hand from U.S. intelligence collected via satellites and other sources.
“There are so many things they can hit, and they’re going to be able to hit all those with great effectiveness. Iran’s not going to be able to stop them,” said a former senior U.S. military officer with experience in the region.
But Israel will have to balance the potential reaction from Iran, including the risk that Tehran could choose to launch attacks on Arab Gulf states that host U.S. air bases or choose to plant sea mines in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway between the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean through which a fifth of the world’s oil passes.
Thousands cross from Lebanon into Syria despite Israeli strikes
People carry their belongings as they flee eastern Lebanon through the rubble at Masnaa border crossing with Syria this morning.
Thousands of people continue to flee amid Israel’s ongoing offensive, with as many as 185,000 people having crossed the border since Israeli forces ramped up strikes and launched a ground invasion into the country, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency, or UNHCR.
Many of the people crossing the border will be Syrian refugees returning to the country they once fled after seeking safety in Lebanon amid Syria’s ongoing civil war. On Wednesday alone, UNHCR in Syria said at least 14,000 Syrians and 3,000 Lebanese nationals made the crossing at the Jdaidet Yabous border point.
The UNHCR in Syria shared the estimates this morning as it expressed “extreme concern” over airstrikes that it said had hit “no man’s land” along part of the border between Lebanon and Syria, which it noted has “been the main route for Syrian and Lebanese fleeing into Syria. The strikes left one crossing closed, while others have remained open.
There have been repeated Israeli strikes in the border area in recent days, despite reports of thousands crossing the border in search of safety.
97 more Americans and family members evacuate Lebanon on U.S. flights
A third State Department flight departed Beirut yesterday, landing in Frankfurt early this morning carrying approximately 97 Americans and their family members, a spokesperson said today.
As was the case with the first two flights, the U.S. government-organized charter had the capacity to carry 300 passengers.
To date, the State Department has assisted approximately 350 U.S. citizens, U.S. Lawful Permanent Residents (LPRs), and their immediate family members to depart Lebanon via organized flights.
Why oil prices haven’t skyrocketed on Middle East supply fears — yet
Oil prices have jumped more than $5 a barrel since the start of the week amid intensifying fears that Israel could launch an attack on Iran’s energy infrastructure.
The rally, which puts crude futures on track for gains of around 8% week-to-date, has surprised many market observers in that it appears to be somewhat subdued given what’s at stake.
Energy analysts have questioned whether oil markets are being too complacent about the risk of a widening conflict in the Middle East, particularly given that the fallout could disrupt oil flows from the key exporting region. Iran, which is a member of OPEC, is a major player in the global oil market. It’s estimated that as much as 4% of global supply could be at risk if Israel targets Iran’s oil facilities.
Goldman Sachs says a sustained fall in Iranian output could send oil prices up $20 a barrel, while Swedish bank SEB has warned that crude futures could rally to more than $200 a barrel in an extreme scenario.
Israel's Nevatim air base hit with 32 missiles, analyst says
Out of the nearly 200 missiles launched by Iran earlier this week toward Israel, 32 of them struck the Nevatim Air base, assessed Jeffrey Lewis, a professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Canada.
Satellite images have shown damage at the military air base which is in Israel's south. The images showed a hole in the roof of an aircraft hangar, according to The Associated Press. Large pieces of debris can be seen spread around the building, it adds.
NBC News has not verified the claims and the Israeli military has not commented on the damage.