It has been a devastating week for Hezbollah and the people of Lebanon.
Bombs hidden in the group's pagers and walkie-talkies killed dozens of people and wounded thousands — many of them Hezbollah members. Israeli strikes on Beirut killed two of Hezbollah's top commanders. And Israel has bombed what it said were 1,600 militant sites across large parts of Lebanon, killing hundreds of people and displacing thousands.

From the dais of the U.N. General Assembly just a year ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu triumphantly hailed a new peace he said would sweep through the Middle East. A year later, as he travels back to that same world stage, that vision is in tatters.
The devastating war in Gaza is about to hit the one-year mark. Israel is on the cusp of a wider regional war with Hezbollah. And the country finds itself increasingly isolated internationally and led by a polarizing leader whose handling of the conflict has sparked protests both in global capitals and on the streets of his own country.

Hezbollah launched dozens of rockets into Israel on Wednesday, including a longer-range projectile that set off air raid sirens in Tel Aviv and across central Israel. It was the group’s farthest strike yet in nearly a year of exchanges.
The Israeli military said it intercepted the surface-to-surface missile, which set off air raid sirens in Tel Aviv and across central Israel, and there were no reports of casualties or damage. The military said it struck the site in southern Lebanon from which the missile was launched.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian denounced the United Nations' "inaction" against Israel, describing it as "senseless and incomprehensible", amid surging tensions across the Middle East.
"In my meeting with the Secretary General of the United Nations, I said the UN inaction against the crimes of the occupying regime is senseless and incomprehensible," he said in a post on social media platform X, adding that "I expressed my deep concern about the spread of the conflict in the entire Middle East."

As the escalating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah grabs global attention, Palestinians in Gaza wonder: What will become of their plight after nearly a year of devastating war?
They are petrified that international concern has been diverted, and that a dark possibility looms: abandonment.

A journalist working for the pan-Arab network Al-Mayadeen was killed in Israeli airstrikes while he was at his home in southern Lebanon, the network said Tuesday.
Hadi Al-Sayyed, 22, is the third journalist from the network killed in the ongoing conflict between the Israeli military and Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group. The network said he was wounded on Monday and died of his wounds on Tuesday.

World leaders will open their annual meeting at the U.N. General Assembly Tuesday under the shadow of increasing global divisions, major wars in Gaza, Ukraine and, Sudan and the threat of an even larger conflict in the wider Middle East.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres previewed his opening "State of the World" speech to presidents, prime ministers, monarchs and ministers at Sunday's "Summit of the Future," saying "our world is heading off the rails — and we need tough decisions to get back on track."

Lebanese families displaced from villages farther south slept in shelters hastily set up in schools in Beirut and the coastal city of Sidon. Some who did not find shelter elsewhere slept in cars and parks and on the seaside corniche.
Monday’s heavy bombardment sent thousands fleeing from south Lebanon. Hotels in Beirut were quickly booked to capacity and apartments in the mountains surrounding the capital were snapped up by families seeking safe accommodations.

The U.S. is sending additional troops to the Middle East in response to a sharp spike in violence between Israel and Hezbollah forces in Lebanon that has raised the risk of a greater regional war, the Pentagon said Monday.
Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder would provide no details on how many additional forces or what they would be tasked to do. The U.S. currently has about 40,000 troops in the region.

Israel is bombing targets across many parts of Lebanon, striking senior militants in Beirut's southern suburbs and apparently hiding bombs in pagers and walkie-talkies. Hezbollah is firing rockets and drones deep into northern Israel, setting buildings and cars alight.
But no one is calling it a war — not yet.
