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Israel-Gaza-Lebanon live updates: Hezbollah confirms top commander killed

Israel has said it is preparing a potential ground invasion into Lebanon.

Last Updated: September 26, 2024, 4:38 PM EDT

Israel and Hezbollah are exchanging hundreds of cross-border strikes in the wake of the shocking explosions of wireless devices across Lebanon last week.

Sep 26, 2024, 4:38 PM EDT

IDF strikes at least 220 Hezbollah targets

Israel struck 220 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon on Thursday, including launchers used to fire projectiles into Israel, weapons storage facilities and Hezbollah members, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

Israel has now struck thousands of Hezbollah targets in Lebanon since Monday.

-ABC News' Will Gretsky

Sep 26, 2024, 1:30 PM EDT

Israel waiting 'years' for opportunity to attack Hezbollah: IDF chief of staff

Israeli officials are insisting they will continue fighting Hezbollah in Lebanon, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shot down a 21-day cease-fire proposal submitted by the U.S. and France.

"We need to continue attacking Hezbollah, we have been waiting for this opportunity for years," Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, the chief of the General Staff for the Israel Defense Forces, said Thursday.

The IDF is working to "eliminate" more Hezbollah senior officials, "thwart the transfer of weapons, to detract from Hezbollah's firepower and to attack it throughout Lebanon," Halevi added.

Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted Beirut's southern suburbs, Sept. 26, 2024.
AFP via Getty Images

After landing in New York before he is set to speak at the United Nations on Friday, Netanyahu doubled down on continuing to fight Hezbollah.

"The policy is clear: we continue to hit Hezbollah with all our might -- we will not stop until we achieve all our goals," Netanyahu said.

-ABC News' Dana Savir

Sep 26, 2024, 7:28 AM EDT

'No cease-fire' in Lebanon, Israel's foreign minister says

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz declared on social media on Thursday that there "will be no ceasefire in the north," as U.S.-led efforts to prevent a full-scale Israeli invasion of Lebanon appeared to fall flat.

"We will continue to fight against the terrorist organization Hezbollah with all our might until victory and the safe return of the residents of the north to their homes," Katz wrote in a post to X.

A man watches as smoke billows over southern Lebanon amid cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces as seen from Tyre, Lebanon on Sept. 26, 2024.
Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters

The statement came shortly after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed reports that the U.S. was gathering international support for a 21-day cease-fire. President Joe Biden said on Wednesday the plan had "significant" backing.

"This is an American-French proposal, to which the prime minister did not even respond," a post to Netanyahu's official X page said.

The Israel Defense Forces continued its bombardment of southern and eastern Lebanon overnight into Thursday while its troops prepared for an expected ground operation.

Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, the chief of the IDF General Staff, told units at the northern border on Wednesday: "We are preparing the process of a maneuver, which means your military boots, your maneuvering boots, will enter enemy territory."

-ABC News' Jordana Miller and David Brennan

Sep 26, 2024, 6:23 AM EDT

IDF continues deadly strikes as ground offensive looms

At least 23 more people were killed as Israeli warplanes continued airstrikes in Lebanon through Thursday morning.

The Israel Defense Forces said its aircraft struck approximately 75 Hezbollah targets in the south of the country and the eastern Bekaa region overnight. The force said it is continuing operations "to dismantle and degrade Hezbollah's capabilities."

An Israeli F-16 fighter jet flies over the northern Israeli city of Haifa on Sept. 26, 2024.
Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images

Since Monday, Israel's intensified air campaign killed nearly 700 people and wounded more than 1,700 others, per data from the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health.

The IDF said Hezbollah fired approximately 45 projectiles into Israel from Lebanon on Thursday morning, some of which were intercepted with the rest falling in open areas.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, dismissed hopes of a U.S.-brokered cease-fire that would forestall Israel's planned ground invasion of southern Lebanon.

Netanyahu "instructed the IDF to continue the fighting with full force and according to the plans presented to him," according to a statement published on his official X page on Thursday.

-ABC News' Jordana Miller and Joe Simonetti