The Israel Defense Forces conducted what it called "precise strikes on military targets" in Iran on Friday in response to the Iranian missile strikes earlier this month.
Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes and ground fighting continued in Gaza -- particularly in the north of the strip -- and in Lebanon, with renewed Israeli attacks on Beirut.
Gen. Michael Kurilla -- the commander of the U.S. Army Central Command, or CENTCOM -- visited Israel this weekend to meet with Israel Defense Forces Chief of the General Staff Maj. Gen. Herzi Halevi, the IDF wrote on X Sunday.
The two commanders "held a situational assessment on security-strategic issues and joint preparations in the region, as part of the response to threats in the Middle East, with an emphasis on Iran," the IDF wrote.
During the visit, Kurilla visited the American THAAD air defense battery deployed to Israel to strengthen its defense against ballistic missiles, the IDF said.
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) is calling for an investigation after the car of one of the organization's staff members came under fire while she was working on the polio vaccination drive in Jabalia on Saturday. The woman was not injured in the attack.
The organization said the woman's car was believed to have been targeted by a quadcopter drone.
Overall, UNICEF said 50 children have reportedly been killed in Jabalia during the last two days, alone, amid airstrikes targeting residential buildings in North Gaza.
Three children were also reportedly injured in an attack near a clinic participating in the polio vaccination drive on Saturday. The World Health Organization also said it was looking into reports of this attack.
“Taken alongside the horrific level of child deaths in North Gaza from other attacks, these most recent events combine to write yet another dark chapter in one of the darkest periods of this terrible war," UNICEF said in the statement.
The Israeli military has not commented on any of these incidents.
-ABC News' Victoria Beaulé
Nov 02, 2024, 2:15 PM EDT
Lebanese citizen allegedly 'kidnapped' by Israeli operatives
A Lebanese citizen was was taken from the seaside town of Batroun in northern Lebanon by armed men overnight Friday and into Saturday, a Lebanese security source told ABC News.
A unit of the Israeli Navy led a "special operation" into Batroun where "a senior operative of Hezbollah, who serves as an expert in his field, was apprehended," an Israeli military official told ABC News.
"In a special operation by Shayetet 13 in the Lebanese town of Batroun, a senior operative of Hezbollah, who serves as an expert in his field, was apprehended. The operative has been transferred to Israeli territory and is currently being investigated by Unit 504," the IDF said in a statement.
An investigation is underway to ascertain the facts of what the Lebanese security source referred to as a kidnapping.
Lebanese soldies inspect the beach at a reported landing site for a "naval commando force" which abducted a Lebanese mariner according to a military source, in the northern coastal town of Batroun, Lebanon, Nov. 2, 2024.
Ibrahim Chalhoub/AFP via Getty Images
Hezbollah has not directly commented, only issuing a statement denouncing an Arab media outlet's details on the incident as unfounded, in which it refers to the "Zionist aggression in the Batroun area." The statement does address whether the person taken was a Hezbollah member.
Video circulating online via Lebanese media and geolocated to a building on coast in Batroun, shows about 20 armed men taking a man away from a building near the beach in the middle of the night.
Batroun is north of Beirut on Lebanon's coast, far away from the majority of the fighting and even airstrikes. Due to the naval nature of the raid, UNIFIL, the peacekeeping force in Lebanon which keeps a naval presence under German responsibility, officially denied involvement in the incident.
"UNIFIL has not been involved in facilitating any kidnapping or other violation of Lebanese sovereignty. Disinformation and false rumours are irresponsible and put peacekeepers at risk," a UNIFIL deputy spokesperson Kandice Ardiel told ABC News.
-ABC News' Ghazi Balkiz and Anna Burd
Nov 02, 2024, 11:29 AM EDT
Strike on Beirut kills 1, injures 11
One person was killed and 11 others were injured in an Israeli strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut Saturday afternoon, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health. There was no warning or evacuation order prior to the strike.
The strike hit a building across the street from the Al Hayat hospital.
