Israeli Military Says it Has Intercepted 2 Suspicious Drones 

People wait for a bus near images of those taken hostage or killed during the deadly October 7 attack, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Tel Aviv, Israel September 17, 2024. (Reuters)
People wait for a bus near images of those taken hostage or killed during the deadly October 7 attack, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Tel Aviv, Israel September 17, 2024. (Reuters)
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Israeli Military Says it Has Intercepted 2 Suspicious Drones 

People wait for a bus near images of those taken hostage or killed during the deadly October 7 attack, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Tel Aviv, Israel September 17, 2024. (Reuters)
People wait for a bus near images of those taken hostage or killed during the deadly October 7 attack, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Tel Aviv, Israel September 17, 2024. (Reuters)

Israel’s military said they had intercepted two suspicious drones that approached Israel from Lebanon and Iraq on Wednesday morning, the day after pagers used by the group Hezbollah exploded in Lebanon and Syria, killing at least nine people, including an 8-year-old girl, and wounding nearly 3,000. Hezbollah and the Lebanese government blamed Israel for what appeared to be a sophisticated remote attack. 

On Wednesday, the Israeli military said they intercepted a drone launched from Lebanon over the Mediterranean Sea near the coast of northern Israel. Another drone launched from Iraq was intercepted by Israeli air force fighter jets. There were no injuries or damage reported. 

Israel also began moving more troops to the northern border with Lebanon in preparation for a possible retaliation. 

As a precautionary measure, the Israeli military moved its 98th division to the northern border, an official said. The division, which includes infantry, artillery and commando units, has until recently been fighting in Gaza. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. 

Hezbollah began firing rockets over the border into Israel on Oct. 8, the day after a deadly Hamas-led attack in southern Israel triggered a massive Israeli counteroffensive and the ongoing war in Gaza. Since then, Hezbollah and Israeli forces have exchanged strikes near-daily, killing hundreds in Lebanon and dozens in Israel and displacing tens of thousands on each side of the border. 



Israeli Strike Kills 23 Syrians in Lebanon’s Younine

Smoke billows after an Israeli strike on Baalbek, in Lebanon's Bekaa valley, on September 25, 2024. (Photo by AFP)
Smoke billows after an Israeli strike on Baalbek, in Lebanon's Bekaa valley, on September 25, 2024. (Photo by AFP)
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Israeli Strike Kills 23 Syrians in Lebanon’s Younine

Smoke billows after an Israeli strike on Baalbek, in Lebanon's Bekaa valley, on September 25, 2024. (Photo by AFP)
Smoke billows after an Israeli strike on Baalbek, in Lebanon's Bekaa valley, on September 25, 2024. (Photo by AFP)

At least 23 people, all of them Syrian and most of them women or children, were killed in an Israeli strike on a three-story building in the eastern Lebanese town of Younine late on Wednesday, Mayor Ali Qusas told Reuters.

Lebanon is home to around 1.5 million Syrians who fled the civil war there.

Lebanon's state-run news agency said the airstrike occurred near the ancient city of Baalbek, in the eastern Bekaa Valley running along the Syrian border.

The agency quoted Qusas as saying that the bodies of 23 Syrian citizens were pulled from under the rubble. He said four Syrians and four Lebanese were wounded.

Israeli airstrikes overnight hit around 75 Hezbollah targets in the Bekaa Valley and southern Lebanon, including weapons storage facilities and ready-to-fire launchers, the Israeli military said on Thursday.

Israel has made a priority of securing its northern border and allowing the return there of some 70,000 residents displaced by near-daily exchanges of fire, which Hezbollah initiated a year ago in solidarity with the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza.

Israel widened its airstrikes in Lebanon on Wednesday and at least 72 people were killed, according to a Reuters compilation of Lebanese health ministry statements. The ministry earlier said at least 223 were wounded.

Around half a million Lebanese have fled their homes and hospitals have been overwhelmed with the wounded.

Israel's military chief said a ground assault was possible, raising fears the conflict could spark a wider Middle East war.