Politics Israel's army and Hezbollah continue to fire at each other

While Israel's political leadership is considering a retaliatory strike following Iran's missile attack, the army is fighting with unchanged ferocity against Tehran's allies in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.

After the end of the highest Jewish holiday, Yom Kippur, the military announced in the evening that it had killed dozens of Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza in the past few hours. A total of 280 targets were attacked during the holiday.

Meanwhile, the Hezbollah militia is continuing its shelling of northern Israel. The sirens continued to wail in the north of the Jewish state during the night. In the evening, the Lebanese Ministry of Health reported more than a dozen dead and dozens injured in Israeli attacks in the country. The information could not initially be independently verified.

Israel's military is said to have attacked a market in the south of the neighboring country, among other things. Israeli warplanes had attacked the market in the center of the village of Nabatija, the Lebanese state news agency NNA reported. Israel's army did not comment at first. Videos showing destruction after the attack were circulating on social media.

USA worried about UN soldiers in Lebanon

Meanwhile, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with his Israeli counterpart Joav Galant and, according to the Pentagon, expressed "deep concern" about reports that Israeli soldiers had fired on UN posts in Lebanon and that two Lebanese soldiers had been killed. Austin emphasized the importance of ensuring the safety of the blue helmets of the UN mission Unifil and the Lebanese armed forces. He also emphasized the need to switch from military operations in Lebanon to a diplomatic approach as soon as possible.

Iran bans radios on flights

Following the apparently coordinated explosions of thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies in Lebanon, the Iranian authorities have banned all passengers from carrying such radios on flights. The new order applies to both hand luggage and checked bags, said a spokesman for the Iranian aviation authority, according to the Isna news agency. Passengers are now only allowed to take their cell phones on board.

In September, numerous pagers and walkie-talkies belonging to the Iran-aligned Hezbollah militia exploded. At least 39 people were killed and around 3,000 injured, some of them seriously. The majority of the victims were Hezbollah members. The Islamic Republic of Iran is Hezbollah's closest ally in the fight against its arch-enemy Israel. Both blamed the Israeli secret service Mossad for the pager attacks.

Following the Iranian missile attack on Israel on October 1, there are fears in Tehran that a similar Mossad operation could also be carried out against Iran. Israel threatened a "deadly and precise" retaliation after the attack with around 200 missiles.

Israeli army: dozens of missiles from Lebanon again

Israel's military announced late in the evening that around 40 missiles had again been fired in several volleys from Lebanon. Some of them were intercepted, the others fell in open areas. Hezbollah had previously fired around 320 rockets and drones at Israel on the Yom Kippur holiday. Here, too, most of them were intercepted by air defenses and the rest fell in open terrain. This information could not be independently verified either. Two Israelis suffered minor injuries from shrapnel near the city of Acre, according to Israeli media reports.

Israel's army has significantly stepped up its fight against the Hezbollah militia since September. This includes massive air strikes and a ground offensive in Lebanon. Over the course of the past day, the troops have "eliminated" 50 terrorists in close combat and with air strikes in "precise" operations in southern Lebanon, the army announced. Underground tunnels, weapons caches, rocket launchers, mortars and anti-tank missiles were discovered. The air force also bombed an underground weapons depot on the Lebanese-Syrian border.

Israeli army also continues its operations in Gaza

At the same time, Israeli troops continued their operations throughout the Gaza Strip. Dozens of terrorists were killed, the military announced. In the area of Jabalia in the north of the sealed-off coastal area, more than 20 terrorists were "eliminated" during the course of the day by tank fire, gunfire at close range and air strikes. Since the beginning of the current operations in this area, around 200 terrorists have been "eliminated", it said. A number of terrorists have also been killed in the central part of Gaza and in the Rafah area in the south.

According to the Pentagon, US Defense Secretary Austin once again pointed out the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the devastated Gaza Strip, which urgently needs to be improved, during the talks with his Israeli counterpart Galant. At the same time, Austin reaffirmed the "steadfast, enduring and ironclad commitment" of the United States to Israel's security. The USA is the Jewish state's most important ally.