APPLENEWS - STORY ADD

Israel-Gaza-Lebanon live updates: 'We are winning' Netanyahu tells United Nations

Netanyahu also issued warnings to Iran and the entire Middle East.

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


0

Israeli strikes won't destroy Hezbollah, Iranian leader says

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a series of posts to X on Wednesday that Hezbollah would survive Israel's ongoing airstrike campaign in Lebanon.

Khamenei touted the "organizational and human strength and the authority and ability" of Hezbollah, which is supported by Tehran and coordinates closely with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Israeli attacks "martyred some of the effective and valuable elements of Hezbollah," Khamenei wrote.

"This was definitely a loss for Hezbollah, but it is not to the extent that it destroys Hezbollah," he added.

In a speech to a group of Iran-Iraq war veterans, also on Wednesday, Khamenei said Hezbollah is "victorious" despite its losses. If Israel "had been able to defeat the fighting forces, it would not have needed to show its face by killing women and children," he added.

"The enemy doesn't have the courage to attack Iran's borders, so they show their mischief and enmity in another way," Khamenei continued.

-ABC News' Joe Simonetti and Somayeh Malekian


27,000 people in Lebanon displaced by Israeli bombing, UN says

More than 27,000 people in Lebanon have been displaced by Israeli military action over the past 48 hours, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said Wednesday -- citing Lebanese authorities.

Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said on Tuesday that the country already had around 110,000 people displaced before the intensification of Israeli strikes beginning on Monday.

"Now probably they're approaching half a million" Habib said.

Filippo Grandi, UN high commissioner for refugees, said the "bloodshed is extracting a terrible toll, driving tens of thousands from their homes."

"It is yet another ordeal for families who previously fled war in Syria only now to be bombed in the country where they sought shelter. We must avoid replaying these scenes of despair and devastation. The Middle East cannot afford a new displacement crisis. Let us not create one by forcing more people to abandon their homes. Protecting civilian lives must be the priority."

Lebanon hosts an estimated 1.5 million Syrian refugees and over 11,000 refugees from other countries, per UNHCR's count.

-ABC News' Joe Simonetti and David Brennan


IDF in 3rd day of 'extensive strikes' in Lebanon

The Israel Defense Forces said Wednesday it was again "conducting extensive strikes in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa area" to the east of Beirut.

Almost 600 people -- including at least 50 children -- have been killed by Israeli strikes across Lebanon since Monday, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health.

-ABC News Jordana Miller, Ghazi Balkiz and Joe Simonetti


Hezbollah targets Mossad headquarters in Tel Aviv

Hezbollah claimed the launch of a Qadir-1 ballistic missile targeting the Mossad intelligence agency's headquarters on the outskirts of Tel Aviv on Wednesday morning.

"It is the headquarters responsible for the assassination of leaders and the bombing of pagers and hand-held radios," the militant group said in a statement, referring to last week's communication device explosions in Lebanon and Syria.

Sirens sounded in Tel Aviv amid the attack. "One surface-to-surface missile was identified crossing from Lebanon and was intercepted," the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement.

The IDF later said in a social media post that it destroyed the launcher from which the missile was fired in southern Lebanon.

The launch at Tel Aviv is the first time Hezbollah has attacked the city in central Israel since the war in the Gaza Strip began on Oct. 7.

-ABC News' Jordana Miller, Ghazi Balkiz, Jason Volack and Joe Simonetti