Friday, September 20, 2024

Updates: Times of Israel Liveblogging Friday’s Events


150 rockets fired at north after IDF renews call for residents to stay near shelters

Times of Israel is liveblogging Friday


Kata’ib Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy operating in Iraq and Syria, announces the death of a member in an alleged Israeli airstrike near Damascus this morning.

The terror group in a statement says Abu Haidar al-Khafaji served as a security advisor in the Damascus area.



Pentagon officials are increasingly concerned that Israel may launch a ground war in southern Lebanon in the near future, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The paper says US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin made comments to that effect in discussions earlier this week, and that the attacks on Hezbollah communications devices, widely attributed to Israel, had elevated such apprehensions.

Israel has warned over 11 months of Hezbollah cross-border attacks that full-scale war is increasingly possible if the terror group does not end its assaults on the north and withdraw from the border region.

The report says Austin and the State Department have continued to urge Israel to give more time for diplomacy. But the US fears things could soon spiral out of control.

Lebanese envoy warns of ‘doomsday’ Israel-Lebanon war

Lebanon’s Ambassador to the UK has warned that an Israeli ground incursion will lead to a “doomsday” regional war.

Rami Mortada tells The Times that Lebanon’s armed forces, which have stood by as Hezbollah has attacked Israel for 11 months, will not do so if Israel launches a major assault on the ground or from the air.

“We are facing all the risks of an all-out regional conflict and that’s what we have been tirelessly trying to avoid,” he says, calling the terror group a “formidable fighting force” and warning Jerusalem to learn from “humiliating” defeats of the past.

A war would “definitely [be] a doomsday for Lebanon but Lebanon will not hurt alone in this war. That’s what recent history taught us. So all efforts should be focused on avoiding such an outcome.”

Lebanese media report new Israeli airstrikes in south Lebanon

Lebanese media report a new wave of Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon.

The strikes are reported in Mays al-Jabal, Aitaroun, and Kafr Kila.

IDF renews call for many northern residents to stay close to bomb shelters

The IDF again calls on civilians in numerous communities and cities in northern Israel to remain close to bomb shelters until further notice.

Sirens warning of rocket fire from Lebanon sound in northern towns

Rocket interceptions seen over the city of Safed

Some 60 rockets launched from Lebanon at northern Israel

Another 70 rockets fired at Israel for a total of 130

Another 20 rockets launched at Mount Meron



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