September 2024 Israeli Attacks Against Lebanon

Hezbollah began launching projectiles into Israel on October 8, 2023, initiating nearly a year of cross-border fire before the September 2024 escalation.[2] On September 16, Israel’s government added the safe return of northern residents to their homes to its official war objectives.[1] This objective placed the security of communities near the Lebanese border at the center of the ensuing operations against Hezbollah.[1]

Israeli strikes against Hezbollah infrastructure were already taking place before the better-known operations of the second half of September.[5] On September 14, the Israeli military said its aircraft had attacked weapons depots in the Bekaa Valley and Baalbek, as well as a military structure and weapons depots at seven locations in southern Lebanon.[5] Additional reported targets in the south included a military structure in Blida.[5]

Israeli leaders subsequently described the campaign in terms of changing the security situation along the northern frontier and reducing Hezbollah’s ability to threaten Israeli communities.[1] Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said its aims included distancing Hezbollah from the border and degrading its capabilities, while stating that Israel preferred to avoid an all-out war.[1] Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said operations would continue until the objective of returning northern residents safely to their homes had been achieved.[1]

A November retrospective by the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs characterized September as the point when Israel decided to change the rules of engagement and begin an offensive campaign intended to enable about 80,000 displaced Israelis to return to communities near Lebanon.[6] Its discussion encompassed a broader campaign of air and ground attacks, rather than September’s air operations alone.[6]

On September 17, pagers used by Hezbollah personnel exploded across Lebanon, including in Beirut’s Dahiyeh district, the Bekaa Valley, and southern Lebanon.[7] Explosions were also reported in Syria, and the devices were associated with Hezbollah’s internal communications network.[1] Early Lebanese Health Ministry figures put the number injured at approximately 2,800, with around 200 in critical condition and at least eight people killed.[7] Another contemporaneous account reported at least 2,800 injured and additional fatalities, without specifying a death toll.[8]

Subsequent reporting gave at least 12 deaths and thousands of injuries from the September 17 explosions in Lebanon and Syria.[1] The Iranian ambassador to Lebanon was among those injured.[7] In a September 19 commentary, the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs described thousands of pagers detonating in about a dozen Hezbollah centers, alleging that the devices had been smuggled into Lebanon and Syria and distributed among officers and allies.[9] The same commentary reported that the son of Hezbollah parliamentarian Ali Ammar had been killed.[9]

On September 18, walkie-talkies belonging to Hezbollah members also exploded in Lebanon.[10] An initial account citing Lebanon’s Health Ministry reported 20 deaths and more than 300 injuries in this second wave.[10] Across both days, a subsequent reported total was 37 people killed, including at least two children, and 2,931 injured.[2]

The pager and walkie-talkie explosions disrupted Hezbollah’s communications and caused injuries that included severe damage to eyes and limbs.[1] A Hezbollah official later put the number of personnel too seriously injured to fight at 1,500.[1] Hezbollah blamed Israel for the explosions and vowed retaliation, while contemporary reporting recorded no immediate official Israeli acknowledgment.[7][10] Gallant described the situation on September 18 as “a new stage of the war.”[10]

On September 19, the Israeli military said it struck about 100 Hezbollah launchers containing approximately 1,000 launch barrels that were ready for immediate use against Israel.[11] The attacks also included ammunition depots and other military infrastructure.[11]

Before those strikes, Hezbollah fired rockets toward Metula.[11] Seven impacts were reported in the area, including a hit on a house and a reported direct hit on a Magen David Adom station.[11] The Israeli military presented the attacks on launchers as an effort to remove weapons prepared for use against Israel.[11]

On September 20, an Israeli airstrike hit a meeting site beneath a residential building in Dahiyeh al-Janoubia, Beirut’s southern suburb, killing Ibrahim Aqil and other Hezbollah commanders.[1][12] Aqil was identified as Hezbollah’s head of operations and acting commander of its Radwan Force.[12] Israel said the commanders were planning an attack similar to October 7.[1]

The strike killed senior members of Hezbollah’s operations structure and the Radwan command chain.[12] Hezbollah announced the deaths of 14 other commanders alongside Aqil.[13] Initial Lebanese Health Ministry reporting gave eight deaths and 59 injuries, followed by an update of nine deaths and 59 injuries, including eight people in critical condition.[12] A separate later account cited a ministry update putting the total killed at 50, with rubble clearance still underway.[13]

Cross-border exchanges continued over the following days.[14] In reporting published on September 22, the Israeli military counted 150 rockets, unmanned aircraft, and cruise missiles launched from Lebanon during the previous night, while Israeli aircraft carried out strikes in Lebanon.[14] These exchanges followed both the communications-device explosions and the killing of Aqil and other commanders in Beirut.[14]

On September 23, Israel launched Operation Northern Arrows and began wide-ranging air attacks against Hezbollah targets across Lebanon.[3] Gallant announced what he called a “new stage” in the war, while Israeli ground forces mobilized near the border.[1] The Israeli military described the air campaign as preemptive and intelligence-based, with the purpose of removing threats to Israeli civilians and degrading Hezbollah’s military capabilities.[3]

The principal reported target areas included southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley.[3] The military said it was attacking buildings containing rockets, missiles, launchers, unmanned aircraft, and other military infrastructure.[3] Subsequent reporting on the September 23–30 operations described thousands of targets attacked from the air, including missile capabilities and weapons stored in civilian buildings and facilities.[15] Reported weapons categories included cruise missiles and shore-to-sea missiles.[15]

The scale of the September 23 campaign expanded through successive military updates.[3] Early reporting gave more than 300 targets struck, followed by approximately 800 and later approximately 1,300.[3] By evening, the military said aircraft had flown about 650 strike sorties in the preceding 24 hours and used more than 1,400 munitions against over 1,100 targets.[3]

Israeli leaders said the campaign was removing capabilities Hezbollah had built over two decades.[3] Netanyahu described the policy as changing the security balance by “eliminating senior figures, terrorists and missiles.”[3] The campaign combined attacks on weapons and launch infrastructure with continued strikes against Hezbollah’s leadership.[3]

Before and during the September 23 attacks, the Israeli military called on residents to leave buildings where it said Hezbollah was storing weapons.[1][3] Warnings addressed residents of southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley, and the military said it sought to destroy strategic weapons stored in civilian buildings while minimizing harm to civilians.[3] Text messages urged evacuation, and reporting described convoys leaving Sidon and other southern areas toward Beirut and northern Lebanon.[3]

Lebanon’s Health Ministry repeatedly increased its casualty figures during September 23, with reported deaths rising through 100, 182, 274, and 356 before reaching 492 killed and 1,645 wounded.[3] That total did not include a civilian-versus-combatant breakdown.[3] The earlier afternoon figure of at least 100 killed and more than 400 injured represented an interim update rather than the final reported toll for the day.[3]

On September 24, Israeli strikes killed Ibrahim Qubaisi, identified as the head of Hezbollah’s rocket and missile division.[1] The air attacks continued against command centers, missile launch sites, and weapons storage facilities, with secondary explosions reported at some buildings.[1] A senior Israeli officer described the strikes as the most extensive the Israeli Air Force had conducted.[1]

Israel also warned Lebanese civilians on September 24 to move at least one kilometer away from Hezbollah buildings or buildings used to store weapons, or to leave their villages.[1] Lebanon’s Foreign Ministry reported that nearly half a million people had already been displaced from southern Lebanon.[1] The warnings and continued attacks therefore unfolded alongside an expanding movement of civilians away from the principal strike areas.[1]

Further strikes in Beirut’s southern suburb targeted senior Hezbollah figures during the last week of September.[15] Muhammad Hussein Srour was killed on September 26.[15] The following day, Israeli aircraft attacked Hezbollah’s central headquarters in Dahiyeh, killing secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah, Ali Karki, other Hezbollah figures, and Iranian general Abbas Nilforushan.[4][1]

The September 27 attack was designated Operation New Order in the Israeli military’s announcement the following day.[4] The military described the target as an underground headquarters beneath a residential building, where Hezbollah leaders were meeting to coordinate activities against Israeli civilians.[4] Its account said the air force dropped more than 80 bombs, each weighing approximately one ton.[4] Nasrallah had led Hezbollah for 32 years, and Hezbollah confirmed his death on September 28.[4][1]

Initial reporting after the headquarters strike included uncertainty about whether Nasrallah had been present or survived.[16] Lebanon’s Health Ministry initially reported six deaths and 91 injuries, while reports said people remained trapped beneath the rubble.[16] Accounts differed on the extent of structural damage: Ynet reported that nearby buildings were barely damaged, while Globes relayed reports that six buildings had been flattened.[4][16]

Israeli strikes continued after Nasrallah’s death.[15] Hassan Khalil Yassin was killed on September 28, and Nabil Qaouk on September 29; both were identified as senior Hezbollah figures.[15] On September 30, Hamas announced that Fateh Sherif Abu al-Amin, identified as the head of its Lebanese arena, had been killed in an Israeli airstrike.[15][17] Hamas said his family had been killed with him, and the Israeli military also confirmed his death.[15][17]

By the end of September, the operations had killed Hezbollah’s secretary-general and numerous senior commanders, while attacks on communications devices and military infrastructure had disrupted the organization’s personnel and capabilities.[1][4] The leadership losses extended from Aqil and the Radwan command structure to Nasrallah, Ali Karki, Qubaisi, and other senior figures targeted during the final week of the month.[15][12] Israel continued to frame the campaign around the return of displaced northern residents rather than treating the killing of any single commander as its stated endpoint.[1]

Lebanon’s health minister reported 1,640 people killed and 8,408 injured from the beginning of the fighting on October 8, 2023, through September 27, 2024.[15] The reported dead included 104 children and 194 women.[15] Within that cumulative total, the minister identified 610 deaths from October 8, 2023, through September 15, 2024, followed by 1,030 additional deaths between September 16 and 27.[15] He also said more people were dead or missing beneath the rubble.[15]

These figures covered the wider period of fighting rather than constituting a separately identified total for individual September strikes.[15] They therefore had a different scope from the reported 37 deaths in the September 17–18 device explosions, the September 20 Beirut strike toll, or the September 23 daily casualty reports.[2][15] The reported September 23 total of 492 deaths likewise did not identify how many of those killed were civilians and how many were Hezbollah personnel.[3]

Displacement expanded rapidly during the escalation.[17] The World Health Organization was reported as estimating 118,466 new displacement cases between September 23 and 27.[17] It also warned that Lebanon’s health system was affected by the escalation and that conditions in shelters could increase the risk of disease.[17] These concerns accompanied the movement of people out of southern Lebanon and other affected areas following evacuation warnings and airstrikes.[3]

On September 29, interim prime minister Najib Mikati said 118,000 displaced people were staying in 778 shelters.[15] He cautioned that the actual number displaced could be considerably higher and might reach one million.[15] Approximately 100,000 people were also reported to have crossed from Lebanon into Syria to escape the Israeli attacks.[15] By September 30, the reported estimate for displacement associated with the September operations and other attacks was as high as one million Lebanese.[18]

The fighting continued beyond the month covered by these operations, with an Israeli ground incursion beginning on October 1.[19] A later reported conflict-period total gave 3,961 people killed and 16,520 injured between October 8, 2023, and November 28, 2024.[19] Those figures encompassed the broader air campaign and ground fighting, did not separate civilians from Hezbollah personnel, and were not a September-only casualty count.[19]

The September sequence encompassed several distinct forms of operation: the explosion of Hezbollah-associated communications devices, large-scale attacks on weapons and launch infrastructure, and targeted strikes against senior leaders.[2][3] The campaign’s chronology moved from the September 17–18 device explosions and September 20 killing of Aqil to the September 23 expansion of airstrikes and the September 27 killing of Nasrallah.[1][4] These operations were connected by Israel’s declared goal of enabling residents displaced from its northern communities to return safely.[1]

The killing of Nasrallah removed a leader who had headed Hezbollah for 32 years.[4] It followed attacks on the Radwan command structure and preceded further strikes against senior Hezbollah figures, giving the final weeks of September a pronounced focus on the organization’s leadership as well as its weapons capabilities.[15][12] At the same time, the communications-device explosions had consequences beyond leadership losses, including the disruption of Hezbollah’s internal communications and large numbers of personnel suffering disabling injuries.[1]

A November commentary by the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs interpreted the offensive as a change in the rules of engagement, emphasizing that attacks extended beyond Hezbollah positions immediately adjacent to the Israeli-Lebanese border and involved intensive bombardments across Lebanon.[6] Its assessments of destruction and displacement concerned the wider campaign, including developments beyond September.[6]

The month’s reported numerical record contains several different measures of the campaign: military target and sortie counts, daily casualty updates, cumulative conflict deaths, shelter populations, and broader displacement estimates.[3][15] The September 23 operational figures, for example, rose through successive updates rather than representing a single fixed tally issued at the start of the day.[3] Similarly, the shelter population reported on September 29 represented people accommodated in shelters, while the estimate approaching one million concerned a much broader displaced population.[15]

The humanitarian consequences formed a substantial part of the campaign’s immediate legacy: hundreds of reported deaths on September 23, further casualties in Beirut and elsewhere, evacuation convoys, and pressure on health services and shelters.[3][17] Israel’s stated security rationale remained the removal of threats to its civilians and the degradation of Hezbollah’s ability to attack, with the safe return of northern residents serving as the declared war objective.[3][1]

Responsibility for the September 17–18 device explosions was presented differently across accounts. The U.S. State Department described them as alleged Israeli attacks, while a later Jewish Virtual Library account presented the pager operation as a Mossad operation involving devices secretly rigged with explosives before their sale to Hezbollah.[2][1] Hezbollah and Lebanese officials blamed Israel, but contemporaneous reporting recorded no official Israeli acknowledgment.[7][10] Claims that Mossad and intelligence Unit 8200 participated relied on attributed security sources; the same reporting included a former Israeli intelligence official’s statement that Unit 8200’s involvement had not been confirmed.[20]

Civilian harm was also disputed, particularly around the communications-device explosions and attacks on sites beneath or within residential buildings.[2][4] Hezbollah and aligned commentators accused Israel of knowingly causing civilian deaths.[9] A Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs commentary relayed journalist Ibrahim al-Amin’s characterization of the pager operation as an extraordinary military action and his allegation that Israel knowingly caused civilian deaths; those statements were attributed allegations rather than established findings.[9] Israel said its air campaign targeted Hezbollah’s military infrastructure and that evacuation warnings were intended to minimize civilian harm.[3]