Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant announced today the beginning of a new phase of the war as Israel focuses on the northern front against Hezbollah extremists in Lebanon.
Speaking to Israeli soldiers, Galant did not mention the mysterious explosions of electronic devices in Lebanon in recent days, but praised the work of the army and security agencies, saying "the results are very impressive".
He said that after several months of war against the Hamas extremists in Gaza, "the center of gravity is shifting to the north by diverting sources and forces."
"We are at the beginning of a new phase in the war. It requires courage, determination and perseverance," said the Israeli minister, the Associated Press reported.
Earlier today, the 98th Division of the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) was deployed to the north of Israel, after several months of fighting in the Gaza Strip.
Galant added that the goals of the war in the north are clear and simple, to return the residents of the northern cities safely to their homes, Israeli media reported.
"We have not forgotten the hostages and our tasks in the south. This is our duty and we are fulfilling it at the same time," said the Israeli minister, alluding to the detainees kidnapped by Palestinian Hamas in the attack on the south of Israel on October 7, which triggered the war in He treads.
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US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that 15 of the 18 paragraphs of the cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas have been agreed upon, the Guardian reports.
He insisted that progress had been made in the talks over the past few weeks, despite the fact that there had been no lull in Israel's bombardment of the Gaza Strip and no sign of an imminent release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas.
Speaking in Cairo, where he described Egypt as a key partner in the ceasefire talks, Blinken said agreement on the final three paragraphs was a matter of political will.
Blinken also said that the United States had no advance knowledge of the pager blasts in Lebanon and that his country was still gathering information about the blasts.
In a joint address with Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelati in Cairo, Blinken warned all parties in the region to avoid steps that could escalate the conflict.
Israeli media reports that Israel is deploying its 98th Division to the north of the country, closer to Lebanon.
This division was previously deployed to the Gaza Strip, where it participated in the fighting in Khan Yunis until the end of August. Israel's Haaretz newspaper reports that the goal of the deployment is to "prevent a widespread attack" by Hezbollah in the north.
Hezbollah has threatened revenge for the pager explosions in Lebanon, which it has attributed to Israel. The division is believed to have between 10.000 and 20.000 soldiers.
Meanwhile, Lebanon's Ministry of Health said between 2750 and 2800 people were wounded in the blasts, 300 of them in critical condition, up from the 200 previously reported.
In the UK, the recently elected chair of the Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee suggested that Israel's allies should ask: "What on earth are you doing?" after the pager explosion in Lebanon, widely attributed to Israel.
"We are really concerned about what is happening in Lebanon now. I think the big question is: why? Why is this happening now? And what will be the result of this?
This appears to be another escalation of the conflict taking place in the Middle East, which will affect us all. And that's really very worrying, of course it is. What will the answer be? Is this the first step and what will Israel do next? Is it part of a bigger plan?
It is very worrying and I would certainly expect the friends of Israel to have a very serious talk with them and say, 'What on earth are you doing? Why is this happening now?'" said Labor MP Emily Thornber.
The death toll from exploding pagers in Lebanon has risen to 12, including two children, Lebanese Health Minister Firas Abijad said on Wednesday, according to Reuters.
About 3.000 people, including civilians, were injured in the wave of explosions that hit Lebanon yesterday. Although there was no official claim of responsibility, the attack, which apparently primarily targeted Hezbollah operatives, was widely attributed to Israel.
Today, Lebanon received medical aid from Iran, Iraq and Jordan, while Egyptian President Abdel Fatah Al Sisi stated that his country rejects any attempt at escalation in the region, and offered support to Lebanon.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed his sadness over the deadly pager blasts in a conversation with Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati. The Anadolu news agency reports that Erdogan told Mikati that Israel's attempts to spread the conflict from Gaza to the wider region are dangerous and that efforts to stop Israel will continue.
Israel is pushing the entire Middle East to the brink of a regional conflict by maintaining a dangerous escalation on multiple fronts, Reuters reported a statement by Jordan's foreign minister on Wednesday.
Speaking after a meeting in Amman of the Islamic and Arab Ministerial Contact Group, which is lobbying for a ceasefire in Gaza, Ayman Safadi said peace will not prevail without a two-state solution. Safadi retained his post as foreign minister in the new Jordanian cabinet appointed today.
Lebanon's information minister said the country was preparing to file a complaint with the UN Security Council over yesterday's mass pager detonations that killed at least nine people and injured nearly 3.000.
Although there was no official claim of responsibility, the attack was widely attributed to Israel.
Lebanon's state news agency reports that Ziyad Makari described the explosions as a clear attack on Lebanon's sovereignty, which targeted civilians, not just Hezbollah members.
"What we fear is not Hezbollah, but Israeli criminality, whether in Gaza or Lebanon. Lebanon is preparing a complaint to be submitted to the UN Security Council, and the ambassadors of some countries concerned with this endless conflict between Lebanon and Israel's enemy will be invited. The enemy does not he doesn't care about anyone, not even about the constant and public American pressure. American diplomacy must increase its pressure on Israel before Hezbollah and Lebanon," Makari said.
The spokeswoman of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova, stated in St. Petersburg for the Russian media that what happened in Lebanon yesterday requires investigation and international attention.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said the attack on the Lebanese group Hezbollah and others using exploding pagers was designed to provoke a major war in the Middle East.
"We believe that this is another act of hybrid war against Lebanon, which has harmed thousands of innocent people. It seems that the organizers of this high-tech attack deliberately wanted to provoke a major armed confrontation in order to provoke a major war in the Middle East," Zakharova said.
At least nine people were killed and nearly 3.000 injured in the pager detonation, which was attributed to Israel. Among the wounded was the Iranian envoy to Beirut.
The Kremlin also announced that this incident could become a trigger for a wider regional conflict.
"The causes and circumstances of the incident must be determined, and those responsible must be identified," Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the media in Moscow.
"Of course, this should be the subject of expert study in order to take measures to eliminate similar risks here and in other places," he added, according to the Tass agency.
Reuters reports a statement from the Egyptian presidency, which said President Abdel Fatah Al Sisi told US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken that Egypt rejects any attempt to escalate in the region and supports Lebanon after the pager blast incident.
Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that medical teams found ten bodies in areas north of Rafah in the Gaza Strip.
In a statement on its official Telegram channel, the Israeli military claimed that on Tuesday its air force attacked "Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure in five different locations in southern Lebanon" and that additional artillery struck several locations in southern Lebanon.
In a statement, the Israeli army stated that it "will continue to act against the threat of the terrorist organization Hezbollah in order to defend the state of Israel," reports the Guardian.
Thousands of people in Israel and Lebanon have been displaced from their homes following months of firefights between Hezbollah and Israel across the UN-defined blue line that separates the two countries.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani condemned the pager detonations in Lebanon as a terrorist operation, which he described as a form of mass murder and a violation of international humanitarian law.
"The terrorist operation in Lebanon was carried out as a continuation of the combined operations of the Zionist regime and their mercenary agents. It violates all moral and human principles, international law, especially international humanitarian law, and deserves an international criminal investigation, trial and punishment.
This combined terrorist act, which is actually a form of mass murder, once again clearly shows that the Zionist regime, in addition to committing war crimes and genocide against the Palestinian people, has seriously threatened regional and international peace and security. Accordingly, confronting the regime's terrorist activities and threats emanating from it is an obvious necessity, and the international community must act quickly to prevent impunity for Zionist criminal officials," he said, according to Iran's Tasnim news agency.
The Iranian government has pledged support for Lebanon, and Al Jazeera reports that the Iranian Red Crescent has sent a medical delegation to Beirut to help the injured. A shipment of medical aid from Iraq also arrived at Beirut International Airport. At least 200 of the nearly 3.000 wounded in the attack are said to be in critical condition.
The Lebanese Minister of Culture, Mohamed Wissam Al Mortada, published a statement on social networks this morning in which he said that Israel's days were numbered after yesterday's attack.
"In our battle with Israel's enemy, there are two truths: that his evil is limitless and that our victory is unquestionable. What Israel did yesterday offers proof after proof of its hostility to humanity and the resistance movement's ability to persevere on its way to victory. Israel's days are numbered. May God have mercy on the martyrs, heal the wounded and comfort the hearts," he wrote.
Images of the pagers that exploded in the Hezbollah attack emerged shortly after the attack, with stickers on the back matching pagers made by Taiwan company Gold Apollo, a Reuters analysis showed.
The company's founder, Hsu Ching Kuang, denied that they manufactured the pagers, saying they were made by a company in Europe that had the right to use their brand.
Local Palestinian media reports that Israeli security forces killed a 17-year-old boy near Ni'lin, west of Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the Guardian reports.
During the night, the Israeli army announced that four soldiers were killed.
This brings the total number of soldiers who Israel claims have died in action since the beginning of the ground offensive in Gaza to 346, the Guardian reports.
Major airlines Lufthansa and Air France announced the suspension of flights to Tel Aviv, Tehran and Beirut until Thursday, after tensions in the region escalated over pager blasts in Lebanon.
The German group Lufthansa announced that it was suspending all flights to Tel Aviv and the Iranian capital Tehran, while the French airline Air France suspended flights to the Israeli city and the Lebanese capital Beirut.
"Due to the recent change in the security situation, Lufthansa Group airlines have decided to suspend all connections to and from Tel Aviv and Tehran. This is valid until September 19," Lufthansa said in a statement.
"Due to the security situation at these destinations, Air France is suspending flights from Paris to Beirut (Lebanon) and Tel Aviv (Israel) until September 19," the French company announced in a statement to AFP.
Air France said it would assess the situation in the Middle East on a daily basis and insisted that the safety of its passengers and crew was an absolute priority.
Gaza's health ministry has identified 34.344 Palestinians killed by Israeli strikes in the territory, releasing a list of names, ages, genders and identification numbers covering more than 80 percent of Palestinians killed in the war so far.
The remaining 7.613 people included in the total death toll, which now exceeds 41.000, are Palestinians whose bodies have arrived at hospitals and morgues, but whose identities have not yet been confirmed, the Guardian reports.
Among those identified are 169 babies born after the Hamas attack on October 7, when the war began, and one man born in 1922, who survived more than a century of war and turmoil.
The document spans 649 pages, and the deceased are listed mostly by age group. The population of Gaza is young, and this registry highlights the high cost that Israeli attacks are taking on Palestinian children. More than 100 pages are filled with the names of victims under the age of 10, and the first names of adults do not appear until page 215.
Israeli officials have questioned the death toll given by Gaza authorities, arguing that because Hamas controls the government there, Gaza health authorities cannot provide reliable figures.
However, doctors and civil servants in that territory have a credible record from previous wars. After several conflicts between 2009 and 2021, United Nations investigators compiled their own death tolls and found that they largely matched those from Gaza.
"Unfortunately, we have a sad experience in coordinating with the ministry of health on the number of victims every few years. Their numbers have turned out to be generally accurate," said Farhan Haq, a spokesman for the UN secretary-general.
The Palestinian Authority regularly updates lists of those whose deaths have been confirmed. This latest release adds more than 2.000 names.
No distinction is made between civilians and combatants, but most of the 34.344 dead can be identified as civilians based on age and gender alone, including 11.355 children, 2.955 people over 60, and 6.297 women. There are also many civilians, men of fighting age, who have died.
Israel claims to have killed 17.000 fighters, without providing evidence. It does not give an estimate of the number of civilians killed in Gaza.
The official death toll given by health authorities does not fully reflect Palestinian losses, as it excludes people buried under the rubble of collapsed buildings and those not directly killed by bombs or bullets.
About 10.000 people killed in the airstrikes are likely still buried in the rubble of collapsed buildings because there is not enough heavy equipment or fuel to dig through the steel and concrete rubble in search of them, health workers say.
Hunger, lack of shelter and medicine, the rapid spread of infectious diseases, and the collapse of the health system claimed many more lives. The Palestinian Authority plans to count those casualties when the fighting stops, said Marwan Al Hams, director of field hospitals at the health ministry.
Lebanon's Islamist movement Hezbollah said today it will continue its actions in support of Gaza, despite pager blasts that killed nine people and wounded 2.800.
Hezbollah blamed Israel for the attacks.
In a message on Telegram, Hezbollah, an ally of the Palestinian Hamas warring against Israel, said today that it will continue operations in support of Gaza.
Hamas, for its part, condemned yesterday's "Zionist terrorist attack".
And the Government of Lebanon blamed Israel for a series of simultaneous pager explosions.
It is a "criminal Israeli aggression", said Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati.
The Israeli army said it would not comment on the pager incidents.
The explosion of the pager slightly wounded the ambassador of Iran, a country that supports Hezbollah.
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