The D Brief: ‘Staggering’ toll in Lebanon; Deal averts shutdown; Zelenskyy visits Scranton; Chinese-car-software ban; And a bit more.

For the fourth consecutive day, Israeli warplanes are attacking suspected Hezbollah positions across Lebanon in a series of strikes that have killed at least 274 people so far, according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Health. “For context, that’s ~20% of the total death toll from the entire 2006 [Israeli-Hezbollah] war, which lasted 34 days,” says Charles Lister of the Middle East Institute. 

Reuters describes the attacks as the most intense since the end of Lebanon’s civil war in 1990. (For a longer history of Israel-Lebanon violence stretching back more than 75 years, Reuters offers this abbreviated timeline.) More than 1,000 others have been wounded in the Israeli air attacks, which the Associated Press describes as “a staggering one-day toll for a country still reeling from a deadly attack on communication devices last week.” 

The weekend strikes have targeted more than 400 rocket launchers, thousands of rocket barrels, and suspected Hezbollah facilities in multiple waves of airstrikes that have continued through Monday morning, according to the Israeli military. 

But Hezbollah militants continue to launch rockets into northern Israel, including another barrage Monday around the northern city of Haifa. The Iran-backed terrorists launched at least three separate rocket attacks Saturday, with targets including Israel’s northernmost Ramat David airbase. Nearly 90 more short- and medium-range Hezbollah rockets targeted Israeli defense firm Rafael Advanced Defense Systems near Haifa on Sunday as well. (Rafael makes the Iron Dome air defense system.)

For what it’s worth, “these latest Hezbollah attacks are slightly smaller in scale than previous retaliatory attacks the group has conducted,” analysts at the Institute for the Study of War, based in Washington, said Sunday evening. During one recent such attack, “Hezbollah fired between 200 and 300 projectiles, including around 20 one-way attack drones, on August 24 in retaliation to Israel killing [a] top Hezbollah commander.”

Israel’s stated goal with these attacks: Degrade Hezbollah enough to allow 60,000 people who have been displaced from northern Israel to return to their homes. It’s not at all clear how soon that goal could be achieved, as the BBC’s Daniel De Simone notes from Jerusalem. 

The Israelis say Hezbollah has turned several homes across southern Lebanon into storage sites for weapons, including one house that allegedly hid a Russian-made cruise missile before it was blown up in an Israeli strike several weeks ago. Here’s a video illustrating that allegation. 

Bibi: “No country can accept the wanton rocketing of its cities,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video Sunday evening. “We will take whatever action is necessary to restore security and to bring our people safe back to their homes,” he promised. 

SecDef Austin’s calls with Gallant: Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin rang his Israeli counterpart twice over the course of Israel’s hectic weekend, with calls on Saturday and Sunday. In both calls, Austin conveyed U.S. support for Israel’s right to defend itself and he “stressed the importance of finding a path to a diplomatic solution” as well as a ceasefire eventually. 

Austin also rang Saudi military chief Khalid bin Salman on Friday to chat about “reducing tensions across the region.” Tiny bit more in the Pentagon’s readout, here. 

Developing: World leaders are en route to the United Nations HQs in New York for the annual General Assembly, with six days of major speeches scheduled to begin Tuesday. 

Reminder: Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza is still ongoing, and has created an enormous challenge for aid workers in the region, UN agency chiefs said in a joint statement Monday. 

“These atrocities must end,” they pleaded. “Allowing the abhorrent, downward spiral caused by this war in the Occupied Palestinian Territory to continue will have unimaginable, global consequences,” they warned. 

Additional reading: 

---

Welcome to this Monday edition of The D Brief, brought to you by Ben Watson with Bradley Peniston. Share your newsletter tips, reading recommendations, or feedback here. And if you’re not already subscribed, you can do that here. On this day in 1926, John William Coltrane was born in Hamlet, North Carolina. He enlisted in the Navy the same day the U.S. bombed Hiroshima, and later used his G.I. Bill to enroll in Philadelphia’s Granoff School of Music en route to becoming the legendary saxophonist he’s recognized as today.

Ukrainian President Zelenskyy visited an artillery production factory in Pennsylvania on Sunday. His message: “I am grateful to the people of Scranton, Pennsylvania, and all the states where Americans are building this incredible arsenal of global freedom,” he said on social media, with video of his trip. 

“I emphasized the dedication of the workers, which is truly inspiring—they are helping Ukraine stand strong in our fight for freedom,” Zelenskyy wrote. Zelenskyy is visiting the U.S. for the UN General Assembly this week in New York. 

Zelenskyy’s also reportedly carrying a “victory plan” for his visit with President Biden and VP Harris on Thursday, Reuters reported Monday from Kyiv. During that meeting, “The leaders will discuss the state of the war between Russia and Ukraine, including Ukraine’s strategic planning and U.S. support for Ukraine in its defense against Russian aggression,” the White House said last week. 

Related reading: 

• “Another arms depot in northwestern Russia on fire after Ukrainian drone strike,” AP reported Saturday; the BBC has video of the explosions from that strike here; 
• “Iran gave Russia missiles but no launchers, sources say,” Reuters reported Saturday; 
• “Europe’s New Defense Chief: ‘A King Without a Kingdom’?” the New York Times reported Friday in a bit of analysis; 
• “With $39 Billion Loan for Ukraine, Europe Moves Ahead Without U.S.,” the Times reported separately Friday from Kyiv; 
• “Ammunition from India enters Ukraine, raising Russian ire,” Reuters reported last week; 
• “Ukraine’s Gun-Armed Ground Robot Just Cleared A Russian Trench In Kursk,” Forbes reported last week; 
• In U.S. arms sales, Bulgaria wants more than 200 Javelins for about $114 million; and Sweden wants radio systems at a cost of about $31.5 million;
• Read about “Why Putin’s Attempt to Rewire Global Trade Is Faltering,” via the Wall Street Journal, reporting last week; 
• And in a notable instance of cooperation, AP reports today, “Capsule carrying 2 Russians and 1 American returns to Earth from space station.”

Lawmakers announce deal to fund federal government into December, averting shutdown. Like most continuing resolutions—the legislation Congress uses to fund government operations after it fails to approve a budget on time—this one prevents new program starts and holds funding to 2024 levels, with a few exceptions.

The big one is adding $240 million for the Secret Service in the wake of two apparent assassination attempts on GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump. Also: “additional money was added to aid with the presidential transition, among other things,” AP reports.

The deal pushes the deadline for negotiations on 2025 spending past the November election—but not into the new calendar year, as House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, had wanted. That lengthier timeline would have hindered national security, CSIS’ Seamus P. Daniels and AEIs’ Todd Harris argued last week.

It also represents a defeat for Trump, who loudly pushed vote-fraud myths as he pressed Johnson and House GOPers to allow a shutdown unless a controversial voting law were passed.

Update: The U.S. Army lifted its stop work order on a $990 million contract for loitering munitions from AeroVironment, according to a filing on Monday by the company. The Army had briefly stopped work due to a protest from Mistral, an industry executive previously told Defense One’s Sam Skove.

From Defense One’s Lauren C. Williams: 

And lastly: The White House on Monday announced new plans to ban Russian and Chinese-made software and parts for smart cars in the U.S. “Many of these technologies collect large volumes of information on drivers,” National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters on Sunday. “For that reason, connected vehicles and the technology they use bring new vulnerabilities and threats, especially in the case of vehicles or components developed in the P.R.C. and other countries of concern,” he said. 

“It doesn’t take much imagination to understand how a foreign adversary with access to this information could pose a serious risk to both our national security and the privacy of U.S. citizens,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in a statement. 

About the ban, according to the New York Times: 

• It “would apply to all wheeled vehicles on the road, including cars, trucks and buses. It would exclude vehicles not used on public roads, like those for agriculture or mining.”
• And “The ban on Chinese- or Russian-origin software in connected and autonomous vehicles would start in model year 2027,” and “would also ban hardware integrated into vehicle connectivity systems beginning in model year 2030.”

Read more in the White House’s fact sheet, here. 

Defense One