Hi from CNN, this is Madeline Thompson with five things you need to know for Monday, September 30th.

Speaking to reporters today, President Joe Biden urged Israel to halt special operations raids in

Lebanese territory. After the Israeli attack that killed Hezbollah leader

Hassan Nasrela, Biden's administration is caught in a high tension balancing act just five weeks before election day.

Biden administration officials are defending their decision to announce the quote

breakthrough of a ceasefire proposal last week that ultimately tanked.

CNN's M.J. Lee explains.

You look at the past couple of days and they've been actually a bit of an embarrassment

for the Biden administration.

You know, when they came out last week

hailing this ceasefire proposal they basically very strongly suggested that

they expected Hezbollah and Israel to be on board.

And then it was a couple hours later that we had Benjamin Dett and

Yahoo come out and say, actually, no, I'm not on board at all.

And now here we are a couple days later.

We appear to be on the verge of a ground incursion though US sources are

saying that it's likely to be limited at least in the beginning and you have to

imagine that there is a lot of growing frustration right now.

Certain rescue efforts are underway in the aftermath of Helene, the storm made landfall

as a hurricane last week, slamming into Florida's Big Bend region.

Officials say Helene's death toll has risen to at least 119 people in six states,

with hundreds believed to be unaccounted for.

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