Israeli Strike Near Beirut Kills 2 While Raids Target Southern Suburbs

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted an area in Beirut's southern suburbs on March 24, 2026. (AFP)
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted an area in Beirut's southern suburbs on March 24, 2026. (AFP)
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Israeli Strike Near Beirut Kills 2 While Raids Target Southern Suburbs

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted an area in Beirut's southern suburbs on March 24, 2026. (AFP)
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted an area in Beirut's southern suburbs on March 24, 2026. (AFP)

An Israeli strike on Bshamoun, south of Beirut, killed two people on Tuesday, Lebanon's health ministry said, while strikes on the capital's southern suburbs continued throughout the night.

"The Israeli enemy raid on the town of Bshamoun in the Aley district resulted, in a preliminary toll, in the martyrdom of two citizens and the injury of five others," the ministry said in a statement.

Located in the mountainous, Druze-majority Aley district southeast of Beirut, Bshamoun lies outside of Hezbollah's traditional strongholds.

Lebanon was pulled into the Middle East war when Iran-backed Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel on March 2 to avenge the killing of Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei in a US-Israel attack. 

Israel has since launched strikes across Lebanon, killing at least 1,039 people, and sent ground troops into the country's south. 

Separately, Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported that Israel's overnight attacks on Beirut's southern suburbs, where Hezbollah holds sway, had targeted seven areas. 

"Enemy warplanes launched seven raids overnight on the southern suburbs, targeting the areas of: Bir al-Abed, Al-Ruwais -- outskirts of Al-Manshiyya, Haret Hreik, Hadi Nasrallah Highway, Saint Therese, Burj al-Barajneh and Al-Kafaat," NNA said on Tuesday. 

The Israeli military on Monday renewed its calls for residents of the southern suburbs to evacuate. 

A spokesperson for the UN secretary-general estimated this week that the ongoing war has displaced about one in five residents of Lebanon. 

Meanwhile, Israel's military said it captured two Hezbollah members in southern Lebanon.

In a statement on Monday, the Israeli army said that "during an activity to locate weapons in southern Lebanon, (Israeli) troops identified several armed Hezbollah Radwan Force terrorists who were planning to fire an anti-tank missile", referring to the group's commando force.

"After being identified, the terrorists surrendered. They were apprehended by the troops and transferred to Israeli territory for further questioning," it added.

The Israeli military told AFP two Hezbollah members were captured.

- 'Only just begun' -

The two Hezbollah members captured in the south were the latest additions to a list of Lebanese who have been held in Israel since the last war between it and the group.

Hezbollah lawmaker Hussein al-Hajj Hassan said in January that Israel was holding "20 Lebanese prisoners", alleging 10 had been abducted "inside Lebanese territory after the ceasefire" that sought to end the previous conflict in 2024.

The next month, Israeli forces seized a member of the Hamas-allied Jamaa Islamiya in southern Lebanon.

The Israeli army's Arabic-language spokesperson Ella Waweya said on Monday "the battle against Hezbollah... has only just begun".

In a video statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country will "continue to strike both in Iran and in Lebanon".

Israel earlier struck a bridge linking areas in southern Lebanon to the Bekaa Valley in the east of the country, a day after a major bridge in the Tyre region was targeted.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Sunday he and Netanyahu had instructed the military to "destroy all the bridges over the Litani River that are used for terrorist activity".



Israeli Foreign Minister Says No Plans to Deport Palestinians from Gaza

Palestinians look on from the street at the damage to a house that was hit by an Israeli strike following an evacuation warning in the Al-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City on September 8, 2026. (AFP)
Palestinians look on from the street at the damage to a house that was hit by an Israeli strike following an evacuation warning in the Al-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City on September 8, 2026. (AFP)
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Israeli Foreign Minister Says No Plans to Deport Palestinians from Gaza

Palestinians look on from the street at the damage to a house that was hit by an Israeli strike following an evacuation warning in the Al-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City on September 8, 2026. (AFP)
Palestinians look on from the street at the damage to a house that was hit by an Israeli strike following an evacuation warning in the Al-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City on September 8, 2026. (AFP)

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Wednesday that the government does not plan to deport Palestinians from Gaza, after two Israeli ministers this month floated proposals for the mass removal of Palestinians from the coastal territory.

"We are not planning to expel or ‌to deport anyone ‌from (the) Gaza Strip," ‌Saar ⁠told a press ⁠conference in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

"If someone wants to immigrate (on) his own will, and there is a country which is ready to accept him .... we will not oppose that, ⁠but we will (also) not enforce ‌anyone ‌against (their) will," he said.

Saar is in ‌Slovenia to open the ‌Israeli embassy in Ljubljana.

Defense Minister Israel Katz on Wednesday said on September 2 there was "no real solution for ‌Gaza in the end without this migration" of Palestinians.

Far-right ⁠security ⁠minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on September 3 outlined a seven-year plan for removing Gaza's population through what he described as "voluntary emigration."

The US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has said that Israel has no plans to force Palestinians to leave Gaza.

Israel is to hold a general election on October 27.


Lebanon Says One Dead in Israeli Drone Strike

This photograph taken from the southern Lebanese village of al-Hanniyeh shows smoke rising from the site of an Israeli strike that targeted the al-Mansouri village, on September 9, 2026. (AFP)
This photograph taken from the southern Lebanese village of al-Hanniyeh shows smoke rising from the site of an Israeli strike that targeted the al-Mansouri village, on September 9, 2026. (AFP)
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Lebanon Says One Dead in Israeli Drone Strike

This photograph taken from the southern Lebanese village of al-Hanniyeh shows smoke rising from the site of an Israeli strike that targeted the al-Mansouri village, on September 9, 2026. (AFP)
This photograph taken from the southern Lebanese village of al-Hanniyeh shows smoke rising from the site of an Israeli strike that targeted the al-Mansouri village, on September 9, 2026. (AFP)

An Israeli strike killed one person in Lebanon's south, the Lebanese state news agency said on Wednesday, in a region where Israel has intensified attacks despite a ceasefire.

An Israeli drone targeted a motorcycle in Zebdine in the Nabatieh region, killing a man, Lebanon's National News Agency said.

Since announcing last week the capture of the Ali al-Taher ridge, a strategic Hezbollah position in Nabatieh, the Israeli army has stepped up its strikes in the area.

The attacks have killed at least 29 people since Friday, including 12 members of the same family, according to Lebanese authorities and official media.

Fighting in Lebanon had calmed since a US-Iran memorandum of understanding and a framework agreement between Israel and Lebanon were reached in June.

But Beirut still reports recurring Israeli strikes, which it says have killed more than 4,300 people in total since March, and Israeli forces continue to occupy a so-called occupied "security zone" in the south.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday expressed concern about the Israeli "escalation" in southern Lebanon, according to his spokesperson.

In an online petition posted this week, nearly 400 Lebanese public figures, including legal experts and human rights advocates, called for Lebanon's army to be deployed in Nabatieh.

They also voiced concern over a possible "expansion of the Israeli occupation" toward the city, which is about 11 kilometers (seven miles) from the Israeli border.

"This city does not belong to any political group," added the signatories, referring to Hezbollah, which is well established in Nabatieh.

In a statement released on Tuesday, the Lebanese army said its units were "deployed in all areas that Israel does not occupy, particularly in the Nabatieh region".


Warehouse Explosion in Northwestern Syria Kills at Least 14

Members of Syria's security forces inspect damaged weapons and munitions at the site of an explosion at what the Defense Ministry said was a warehouse used to store weapons and munitions near Sarmada, in Idlib province, Syria, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026. (AP)
Members of Syria's security forces inspect damaged weapons and munitions at the site of an explosion at what the Defense Ministry said was a warehouse used to store weapons and munitions near Sarmada, in Idlib province, Syria, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026. (AP)
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Warehouse Explosion in Northwestern Syria Kills at Least 14

Members of Syria's security forces inspect damaged weapons and munitions at the site of an explosion at what the Defense Ministry said was a warehouse used to store weapons and munitions near Sarmada, in Idlib province, Syria, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026. (AP)
Members of Syria's security forces inspect damaged weapons and munitions at the site of an explosion at what the Defense Ministry said was a warehouse used to store weapons and munitions near Sarmada, in Idlib province, Syria, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026. (AP)

An explosion at a weapons warehouse in northwestern Syria killed at least 14 people and injured 11 others, state media reported Wednesday, citing the Health Ministry.

The cause of the blast near the town of Sarmada, in Idlib province, was not immediately clear. Such incidents are a relatively common occurrence in the country, which has been battered by over a decade of war.

The warehouse was used to store weapons and munitions left over from the country's uprising and civil war from 2011 until 2024, the state-run SANA news agency said, citing the Defense Ministry, without providing further details.

Civil Defense and Syrian Red Crescent first-responders are continuing to search for survivors trapped under the rubble. A photographer for The Associated Press at the scene saw bodies being recovered.

Video footage widely circulated after the blast showed a large plume of black smoke, while the sounds of smaller explosions could be heard.