Timeline of the Israel–Hezbollah Conflict, September–November 2024

The escalation followed nearly a year of cross-border fighting initiated by Hezbollah on 8 October 2023. Hezbollah launched thousands of projectiles at Israel, and approximately 68,500 Israelis were displaced from communities along the border. On 17 September 2024, Israel’s political-security cabinet added the safe return of northern residents to the war’s objectives.[3][4]

The effects extended across Lebanon. The U.S. State Department, citing the International Organization for Migration, recorded 899,725 internally displaced people in Lebanon between 8 October 2023 and 25 November 2024. These figures cover a longer interval than the timeline but illustrate the humanitarian and security pressures behind the September escalation.[3]

Accounts of targets, casualties and operational results frequently originated with the IDF, Hezbollah or Lebanese authorities. The chronology therefore attributes disputed claims and distinguishes between reported estimates rather than treating them as a single independently reconciled record.[3]

Communications Explosions and the Air Campaign

On 17 September, thousands of pagers associated with Hezbollah exploded across Lebanon and parts of Syria; walkie-talkies exploded the following day. The State Department later described the incidents as alleged Israeli attacks on Hezbollah affiliates and reported 37 people killed, including at least two children, and 2,931 injured. A later Ynetnews account gave an approximate combined toll of 30 killed and 3,000 injured. The reports used different dates, sources and victim classifications and are not directly interchangeable.[3][5]

On 19 September, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah acknowledged that the organization had suffered a severe blow and promised retaliation. On 20 September, an Israeli strike in Beirut’s Dahiyeh district killed Hezbollah operations chief Ibrahim Aqil and other commanders from the Radwan Force chain of command. Lebanon’s Health Ministry reported at least 37 deaths, while the IDF said 16 of those killed were senior Radwan commanders.[4]

Hezbollah fired 115 rockets toward the Jezreel Valley, the Krayot and the Sea of Galilee area during the early hours of 22 September. On 23 September, Israel announced Operation Northern Arrows and substantially expanded its air campaign. Israeli reports placed the number of targets struck that day between approximately 1,300 and 1,600; the IDF said the sites included rockets, launchers and other Hezbollah military assets and issued warnings to civilians near some targets.[6][4]

On 24 September, an Israeli strike killed Ibrahim Qubaisi, identified by the IDF as head of Hezbollah’s rocket and missile division. Hezbollah fired more than 150 rockets that day, reaching areas south of Haifa, while Lebanese authorities reported that nearly half a million people had been displaced from southern Lebanon.[7]

On 25 September, Hezbollah said it fired a ballistic missile at Mossad headquarters near Tel Aviv. Israel intercepted the missile with the David’s Sling system; the intended target was Hezbollah’s claim. The United States and France also proposed an immediate 21-day ceasefire, later joined by nine other countries and the European Union, but Israel and Hezbollah rejected the proposal.[7]

On 26 September, an Israeli strike killed Hezbollah aerial-unit commander Muhammad Srour. On 27 September, Israel struck Hezbollah’s underground central headquarters in Dahiyeh and killed Nasrallah, southern-front commander Ali Karki and Iranian general Abbas Nilforoushan. The IDF called the operation “New Order,” and Hezbollah confirmed Nasrallah’s death the next day.[4]

On 28 September, Israeli attacks killed Hezbollah intelligence official Hassan Khalil Yassin and senior official Nabil Qaouk, according to Israeli reporting.[4]

Ground Operations and Early October

Israeli ground operations began overnight on 30 September–1 October. Mako reported that the 98th Division entered Lebanon on the evening of 30 September and began moving through villages and Hezbollah positions on 1 October. The operation was described as limited and focused on removing sniper, anti-tank and other threats to northern Israeli communities, with air, drone and artillery support.[4][8]

Nine Israeli soldiers were killed in three clashes with Hezbollah on 2 October. On 3 October, Israeli strikes targeted Hezbollah’s main intelligence headquarters in Dahiyeh, where Hashem Safi al-Din, head of the Executive Council and a possible successor to Nasrallah, was believed to be. The IDF later confirmed that Safi al-Din and intelligence commander Hussein Ali Hazima were killed in the attack.[4]

On 7–8 October, Israeli reporting announced the death of Hezbollah headquarters official Suhail Hussein Husseini and described further ground advances. The IDF said it found a tunnel extending about ten metres into Israeli territory near Zar’it, although it was not open on the Israeli side. Hezbollah fired more than 100 rockets toward Haifa on 8 October; seven homes were hit and one person was injured by shrapnel, according to the cited account.[4][7]

On 13 October, a Hezbollah UAV struck the Golani Brigade training base near Binyamina, killing four Israeli soldiers. Ynet reported seven severely wounded and 51 other wounded soldiers, while the Jewish Virtual Library reported 67 injuries. Hezbollah claimed responsibility, and the Israeli Air Force subsequently said it would intensify operations against the group’s drone capabilities.[4][7]

Between 14 and 17 October, the IDF reported striking approximately 490 Hezbollah targets from the ground and air. Troops also reported finding tunnels, weapons and underground facilities and capturing Hezbollah personnel.[9]

The fighting caused additional civilian casualties. Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health said a 16 October strike on Nabatieh’s municipal building killed Mayor Ahmad Kahil and 15 others and injured 52. A 25 October strike on a residence housing journalists in Hasbaya killed three media workers. Israeli officials said Hezbollah terrorists were present at the sites and that the incidents were under review.[3]

Continued Fighting in Late October

On 19 October, a drone launched from Lebanon struck a bedroom window at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence in Caesarea. Netanyahu and his family were absent and no one was injured. Hezbollah claimed responsibility, while Israel blamed Iran.[7]

Israel began striking branches of Al-Qard al-Hassan on 21 October. Israel described the organization as part of Hezbollah’s financial network and said the operation was intended to disrupt the terrorist organization’s wartime activity and ability to rebuild and rearm.[7]

Hezbollah launched about 140 projectiles on 22 October, an estimated 135 on 23 October and a 50-rocket barrage at northern Israel on 24 October. Israelis were injured, and Israeli troops reported finding rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and anti-tank missiles in southern Lebanon.[10]

On 29 October, Hezbollah named Naim Qassem as its new secretary-general. That day, a Hezbollah rocket struck the UNIFIL compound at Naqoura and wounded eight Austrian peacekeepers. On 31 October, Hezbollah rocket fire killed seven people: five in an agricultural area near Metula and two while harvesting olives near Haifa.[10]

November and the Ceasefire Decision

Hezbollah fired more than 100 rockets and drones per day on 2 and 3 November. On 2 November, a rocket directly hit a residential building in Tira and wounded 19 people; Israeli naval commandos also raided Batroun in northern Lebanon and captured Hezbollah operative Imad Amhaz.[10][4]

Between 5 and 8 November, Hezbollah fired about 400 rockets, including long-range rockets reaching central Israel. It launched around 200 projectiles and numerous drones on 11 November. On 12 November, the IDF said it had dismantled most Hezbollah weapons-storage and missile-manufacturing facilities beneath Beirut’s Dahieh district. Six soldiers from the Golani Brigade’s 51st Battalion were killed in southern Lebanon on 13 November.[10][10]

An Israeli strike killed Hezbollah media-relations chief Mohammad Afif on 17 November, when a rocket barrage also damaged a synagogue in Haifa without causing injuries. Israel expanded its ground operations and Beirut airstrikes on 18 November. On 19 November, U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein met Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Najib Mikati and said there was a real opportunity to end the conflict.[7][4]

Hezbollah launched long-range rockets toward central Israel and drones and shorter-range rockets toward the north on 24 November. Ynet recorded more than 540 sirens that day and damage in northern Israel, Petah Tikva and Moshav Rinatya. On 25 November, a direct rocket hit in Nahariya damaged 54 apartments, critically wounded Tamar Edri and lightly wounded three others.[10][4]

On 26 November, Israeli troops reached the Litani River. Before the ceasefire, Israel carried out waves of strikes in Beirut, the Bekaa Valley and near the Syria–Lebanon border. Ynet described a four-hour attack on an underground precision-missile-component production site about 1.5 kilometres long.[4]

Israel’s cabinet approved the U.S.- and French-brokered arrangement that day by a 10–1 vote, with National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir the sole opponent. President Joe Biden announced that Israel and Lebanon had accepted the proposal and that the cessation would begin at 4 a.m. local time on 27 November.[1][2]

The formal agreement also specified 4 a.m. as the commencement time. An American Jewish Committee explainer instead stated 10 a.m.; the formal text and the contemporaneous White House announcement support 4 a.m.[11][12]

The agreement was scheduled to commence on 27 November, one day after the cabinet decision and outside the timeline’s principal date range. Lebanon committed to preventing Hezbollah and other armed groups from conducting operations against Israel, while Israel committed to refraining from offensive military operations against targets in Lebanon. The arrangement affirmed both countries’ right of self-defence consistent with international law.[12]

Lebanon’s official military and security forces were to become the only authorized armed forces in the designated Southern Litani Area. Lebanon committed to controlling arms imports and production, dismantling unauthorized military infrastructure, confiscating unauthorized weapons and deploying state forces along borders and crossing points.[12]

Israel was to withdraw from southern Lebanon in phases as the Lebanese Armed Forces deployed, with the process not to exceed 60 days. A U.S.-chaired mechanism hosted by UNIFIL and including France was tasked with monitoring and assisting implementation. Biden described the arrangement as “designed to be a permanent cessation of hostilities” and said civilians could return as Lebanese state forces deployed and Israel withdrew.[1]

The text did not require Hezbollah’s disarmament throughout Lebanon or explicitly prohibit all Hezbollah members from returning near the border. Ynet also reported Netanyahu’s position that Israel retained freedom of action against renewed threats. Compliance and enforcement therefore remained central to the arrangement’s practical significance.[2]

The period marked a shift from prolonged cross-border exchanges to a sustained Israeli air campaign, the destruction of Hezbollah military infrastructure, ground operations in southern Lebanon and an internationally brokered cessation arrangement. It also produced extensive displacement in both countries and attacks reaching well beyond the immediate border area.[3][6]

Israeli strikes killed much of Hezbollah’s senior leadership, including Aqil, Qubaisi, Srour, Nasrallah and Safi al-Din. Hezbollah nevertheless continued rocket and drone attacks and appointed Qassem as secretary-general, showing that leadership losses did not immediately end its ability to attack Israel.[4][10]

Sources differ on casualty totals from the communications-device explosions, whether the ground operation began on 30 September or 1 October, and how some events should be dated. The ceasefire-time discrepancy is clearer: the formal agreement and White House announcement state 4 a.m. on 27 November, while an AJC explainer gives 10 a.m.[11][12]

The agreement made implementation central to the period’s legacy. Its framework combined Lebanese state deployment, a phased Israeli withdrawal, restrictions on unauthorized military infrastructure in the Southern Litani Area and international monitoring. Whether those provisions would prevent Hezbollah’s rearmament or renewed attacks lay beyond this timeline.[12][1]