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Israeli Fighter Jets Hit 1,600 Hezbollah Terror Targets in Lebanon in 24 Hours
Smoke billows over southern Lebanon, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as pictured from Marjayoun, near the border with Israel, Sept. 24, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Karamallah Daher
JNS.org — The Israeli Air Force struck over 1,600 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley over the past 24 hours as part of “Operation Northern Arrows,” according to the Israeli military.
Among the targets hit was a terror cell that launched 20 rockets in three barrages at the Afula and HaAmakim areas in northern Israel overnight Monday. The launchers used in those attacks were also destroyed.
Also overnight, Israel Defense Forces artillery and tanks struck additional Hezbollah targets in the area of Ayta ash Shab and Ramyeh in Southern Lebanon.
The overnight strikes came after Monday’s massive Israeli aerial offensive, during which fighter jets hit rocket launchers, command posts and structures, including civilian residences, used by Hezbollah to store munitions.
According to the Lebanese Health Ministry, 558 people were killed and 1,835 were wounded in the Israeli attacks. The ministry’s figures did not distinguish between combatants and noncombatants.
Thousands of Lebanese have evacuated from the south as Israel’s offensive against Hezbollah terror targets intensifies after the IDF instructed civilians to move away from homes where Hezbollah has stored munitions.
In addition to Southern Lebanon, the IAF continued striking Hezbollah terror targets in the Bekaa Valley deep inside Lebanese territory on Tuesday morning.
Hezbollah continued to launch rocket attacks on Tuesday, firing more than 100 rockets at northern Israel and causing multiple injuries, including a 25-year-old man moderately wounded by shrapnel during a barrage towards the Mount Carmel area.
Sirens sounded in the northern Israeli coastal city of Nahariya and surrounding areas. Two rockets from Lebanon fell into the sea, according to the IDF. There were no injuries or damage.
Rocket alerts were also heard in communities in the Galilee region and near the large port city of Haifa. Rocket fire was reported in Afula and Nazareth.
A 58-year-old woman was lightly injured by shrapnel in the Druze village of Yarka in the Western Galilee, according to the Magen David Adom emergency service. She was transported to the Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya along with a 61-year-old man suffering from anxiety. They were both sitting in a car. MDA teams were also treating several people injured on their way to shelters and additional anxiety cases.
Also, a supermarket was reportedly damaged by shrapnel in the Arab town of Tamra in the Lower Galilee and several fires were reported following a heavy barrage in the area of Kiryat Shmona, including blazes at municipal warehouses. The evacuated border town has been continuously targeted over the past year.
Sirens were also activated in Tel Hai, Kfar Giladi, Metula, and other towns in the region.
Since Friday, Hezbollah has launched hundreds of rockets at Israel, forcing over a million people to run to bomb shelters. On Monday, Iran’s Lebanese terror proxy fired deeper into Israeli territory than it had since joining the war in support of Hamas on Oct. 8, including at Haifa and northern Samaria.
Hezbollah has fired more than 8,800 rockets, missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) toward Israel since Oct. 8. The strikes have forced over 60,000 Israelis to evacuate from northern communities, severely impacting daily life in the region.
Jerusalem has ramped up its rhetoric and escalated attacks on Hezbollah since recently adding the return of residents to the north as an official war goal.
The government on Monday evening approved the declaration of a “special emergency situation” countrywide, granting authorities more powers to ensure the safety of the civilian population. The declaration will expire after 48 hours unless extended by Cabinet ministers.
There were no specific changes to the Home Front Command instructions for areas of Israel outside of the northern region. However, there were changes to some border area communities, with no in-person educational activities in the Megido area, Yokneam Illit, Daliyat al-Karmel and Isfiya. The IDF Home Front Command had already cancelled school for communities from Haifa northwards.
Meanwhile, foreign airlines continue to suspend flights to and from Ben Gurion Airport. Wizz Air, British Airways, and Azerbaijan Airlines canceled flights on Tuesday. The Lufthansa Group, which includes Lufthansa Airlines, SWISS, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, and Eurowings, announced on Monday that it was extending its suspension of flights to Ben Gurion Airport until Oct. 14.
On Monday night, the IDF provided video and photographic documentation of how Hezbollah stores munitions inside the homes of civilians in Southern Lebanon, including images of a long-range missile on a hydraulic system in the attic of a home in the village of Houmine al-Tahta.
“It is ready to launch from an opening in the roof. Under the attic, on the first floor, a Lebanese family lives, serving as a human shield,” IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in a press conference.
“This is an immediate and real threat to Israeli civilians, and we have an obligation to remove it,” he added.
Also, the IDF released video footage of an airstrike against a Lebanese home where Hezbollah had stored munitions. The video shows a rocket flying out of the building after the strike and hitting an adjacent house.
The post Israeli Fighter Jets Hit 1,600 Hezbollah Terror Targets in Lebanon in 24 Hours first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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US House Members Ask Marco Rubio to Bar Turkey From Rejoining F-35 Program
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio attends a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, US, April 10, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Nathan Howard
A bipartisan coalition of more than 40 US lawmakers is pressing Secretary of State Marco Rubio to prevent Turkey from rejoining the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, citing ongoing national security concerns and violations of US law.
Members of Congress on Thursday warned that lifting existing sanctions or readmitting Turkey to the US F-35 fifth-generation fighter program would “jeopardize the integrity of F-35 systems” and risk exposing sensitive US military technology to Russia. The letter pointed to Ankara’s 2017 purchase of the Russian S-400 surface-to-air missile system, despite repeated US warnings, as the central reason Turkey was expelled from the multibillion-dollar fighter jet program in 2019.
“The S-400 poses a direct threat to US aircraft, including the F-16 and F-35,” the lawmakers wrote. “If operated alongside these platforms, it risks exposing sensitive military technology to Russian intelligence.”
The group of signatories, spanning both parties, stressed that Turkey still possesses the Russian weapons systems and has shown “no willingness to comply with US law.” They urged Rubio and the Trump administration to uphold the Countering American Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) and maintain Ankara’s exclusion from the F-35 program until the S-400s are fully removed.
The letter comes after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed during a NATO summit in June that Ankara and Washington have begun discussing Turkey’s readmission into the program.
Lawmakers argued that reversing course now would undermine both US credibility and allied confidence in American defense commitments. They also warned it could disrupt development of the next-generation fighter jet announced by the administration earlier this year.
“This is not a partisan issue,” the letter emphasized. “We must continue to hold allies and adversaries alike accountable when their actions threaten US interests.”
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US Lawmakers Urge Treasury to Investigate Whether Irish Bill Targeting Israel Violates Anti-Boycott Law
A pro-Hamas demonstration in Ireland led by nationalist party Sinn Fein. Photo: Reuters/Clodagh Kilcoyne
A group of US lawmakers is calling on the Treasury Department to investigate and potentially penalize Ireland over proposed legislation targeting Israeli goods, warning that the move could trigger sanctions under longstanding US anti-boycott laws.
In a letter sent on Thursday to US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, 16 Republican members of Congress expressed “serious concerns” about Ireland’s recent legislative push to ban trade with territories under Israeli administration, including the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights.
The letter, spearheaded by Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY), called for the US to “send a clear signal” that any attempts to economically isolate Israel will “carry consequences.”
The Irish measure, introduced by Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Simon Harris, seeks to prohibit the import of goods and services originating from what the legislation refers to as “occupied Palestinian territories,” including Israeli communities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Supporters say the bill aligns with international law and human rights principles, while opponents, including the signatories of the letter, characterize it as a direct extension of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to isolate Israel as a step toward the destruction of the world’s lone Jewish state.
Some US lawmakers have also described the Irish bill as an example of “antisemitic hate” that could risk hurting relations between Dublin and Washington.
“Such policies not only promote economic discrimination but also create legal uncertainty for US companies operating in Ireland,” the lawmakers wrote in this week’s letter, urging Bessent to determine whether Ireland’s actions qualify as participation in an “unsanctioned international boycott” under Section 999 of the Internal Revenue Code, also known as the Ribicoff Amendment.
Under that statute, the Treasury Department is required to maintain a list of countries that pressure companies to comply with international boycotts not sanctioned by the US. Inclusion on the list carries tax-reporting burdens and possible penalties for American firms and individuals doing business in those nations.
“If the criteria are met, Ireland should be added to the boycott list,” the letter said, arguing that such a step would help protect US companies from legal exposure and reaffirm American opposition to economic efforts aimed at isolating Israel.
Legal experts have argued that if the Irish bill becomes law, it could chase American capital out of the country while also hurting companies that do business with Ireland. Under US law, it is illegal for American companies to participate in boycotts of Israel backed by foreign governments. Several US states have also gone beyond federal restrictions to pass separate measures that bar companies from receiving state contracts if they boycott Israel.
Ireland has been one of the fiercest critics of Israel on the international stage since the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, amid the ensuing war in Gaza, leading the Jewish state to shutter its embassy in Dublin.
Last year, Ireland officially recognized a Palestinian state, a decision that Israel described as a “reward for terrorism.”
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US Families File Lawsuit Accusing UNRWA of Supporting Hamas, Hezbollah
A truck, marked with United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) logo, crosses into Egypt from Gaza, at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, during a temporary truce between Hamas and Israel, in Rafah, Egypt, Nov. 27, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
American families of victims of Hamas and Hezbollah attacks have filed a lawsuit against the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, accusing the organization of violating US antiterrorism laws by providing material support to the Islamist terror groups behind the deadly assaults.
Last week, more than 200 families filed a lawsuit in a Washington, DC district court accusing the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) of violating US antiterrorism laws by providing funding and support to Hamas and Hezbollah, both designated as foreign terrorist organizations.
The lawsuit alleges that UNRWA employs staff with direct ties to the Iran-backed terror group, including individuals allegedly involved in carrying out attacks against the Jewish state.
However, UNRWA has firmly denied the allegations, labeling them as “baseless” and condemning the lawsuit as “meritless, absurd, dangerous, and morally reprehensible.”
According to the organization, the lawsuit is part of a wider campaign of “misinformation and lawfare” targeting its work in the Gaza Strip, where it says Palestinians are enduring “mass, deliberate and forced starvation.”
The UN agency reports that more than 150,000 donors across the United States have supported its programs providing food, medical aid, education, and trauma assistance in the war-torn enclave amid the ongoing conflict.
In a press release, UNRWA USA affirmed that it will continue its humanitarian efforts despite facing legal challenges aimed at undermining its work.
“Starvation does not pause for politics. Neither will we,” the statement read.
Last year, Israeli security documents revealed that of UNRWA’s 13,000 employees in Gaza, 440 were actively involved in Hamas’s military operations, with 2,000 registered as Hamas operatives.
According to these documents, at least nine UNRWA employees took part directly in the terror group’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel.
Israeli officials also uncovered a large Hamas data center beneath UNRWA headquarters, with cables running through the facility above, and found that Hamas also stored weapons in other UNRWA sites.
The UN agency has also aligned with Hamas in efforts against the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), an Israeli and US-backed program that delivers aid directly to Palestinians, blocking Hamas from diverting supplies for terror activities and selling them at inflated prices.
These Israeli intelligence documents also revealed that a senior Hamas leader, killed in an Israeli strike in September 2024, had served as the head of the UNRWA teachers’ union in Lebanon, where Lebanon is based,
UNRWA’s education programs have been found by IMPACT-se, an international organization that monitors global education, to contribute to the radicalization of younger generations of Palestinians.