Wars 2023 10/08 Monitoring the Israel and Lebanon War

[Saif]

Hezbollah strike on Israel’s military base kills four soldiers

New Age, a Dhaka-based leading English language daily newspaper, is a major source of news of Bangladesh and international affairs

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Hezbollah strike on Israel’s military base kills four soldiers
Agence France-Presse. Jerusalem, Undefined 14 October, 2024, 05:07

An ambulance leaves the scene of a drone strike near the northern Israeli town of Binyamina, on October 13, 2024, amid the continuing war between Israel and Hezbollah. | AFP Photo

The Israeli military said four soldiers were killed by a Hezbollah drone strike Sunday on a military base south of Haifa, amid an escalating conflict with the Iran-backed group in Lebanon.

‘Yesterday, a UAV launched by the Hezbollah terrorist organisation hit an army base adjacent to Binyamina,’ the military said in a statement.

‘Four IDF (army) soldiers were killed in the incident and an additional seven were severely injured.’

Earlier Sunday, the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which is at war with Israel, said it had launched ‘a squadron of attack drones’ at a military training camp in Binyamina, south of Haifa, in response to Israeli air strikes on the country.

The incident comes two days after air raid sirens sounded in central Israel after two aerial drones entered the country from Lebanon. At least one building north of Tel Aviv was damaged during the incident.

Hezbollah has been regularly firing rockets and drones into Israel for more than a year, but has reached further since the fighting escalated in late September.

Israel's air defences, including the Iron Dome system, have intercepted most of the projectiles, with few casualties caused by strikes or falling debris.​

 

[Saif]

Israeli tanks forcibly enter peacekeepers’ premises

UN peacekeepers in Lebanon said Israeli tanks broke through a gate to enter a Blue Helmet position in Lebanon Sunday, after blocking their movement the previous day...

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Israeli tanks forcibly enter peacekeepers’ premises
Agence France-Presse . Beirut 13 October, 2024, 23:52

UN peacekeepers in Lebanon said Israeli tanks broke through a gate to enter a Blue Helmet position in Lebanon Sunday, after blocking their movement the previous day.

‘At around 4:30am, while peacekeepers were in shelters, two IDF (Israeli military) Merkava tanks destroyed the position’s main gate and forcibly entered the position’ in the Ramia area of southern Lebanon, the UNIFIL peacekeeping mission said.

‘They requested multiple times that the base turn out its lights. The tanks left about 45 minutes later after UNIFIL protested through our liaison mechanism.’

A little over two hours later, peacekeepers reported ‘the firing of several rounds 100 metres (yards) north, which emitted smoke’.

‘Despite putting on protective masks, 15 peacekeepers suffered effects, including skin irritation and gastrointestinal reactions, after the smoke entered the camp,’ it said, adding they were receiving treatment.

On Saturday, Israeli soldiers ‘stopped a critical UNIFIL logistical movement near Mais al-Jabal, denying it passage’, the force said, referring to an area in south Lebanon.

UNIFIL asked for explanations from the Israeli army over what it said were violations against their force.

‘We have requested an explanation from the IDF from these shocking violations,’ UNIFIL said.

‘For the fourth time in as many days, we remind the IDF and all actors of their obligations to ensure the safety and security of UN personnel.’

A UNIFIL spokesman told AFP on Saturday that the mission would stay in place despite five of its peacekeepers being wounded and damage to their facilities in the war between Israel and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

UNIFIL said Israeli tank fire on Thursday caused two Indonesian peacekeepers to fall off a watch tower in Naqura.

The following day it said explosions close to an observation tower in Naqura wounded two Sri Lankan Blue Helmets, while Israel said it had responded to an ‘immediate threat’ near a UN peacekeeping position.

On Saturday UNIFIL said a peacekeeper in Naqura ‘was hit by gunfire’ on Friday night.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on the UN chief on Sunday to move peacekeepers deployed in south Lebanon out of ‘harm’s way’, saying Hezbollah was using them as ‘human shields’.

His call to UN chief Antonio Guterres came a day after the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) repeated its refusal to withdraw from the border area after five of its members were wounded in the Israel-Hezbollah war.

‘Mr Secretary General, get the UNIFIL forces out of harm’s way. It should be done right now, immediately,’ Netanyahu said in a video statement issued by his office.

Speaking ahead of a cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said Israeli forces had asked UNIFIL several times to leave, saying that the peacekeepers’ presence had ‘the effect of providing Hezbollah terrorists with human shields’.

‘Your refusal to evacuate the UNIFIL soldiers makes them hostages of Hezbollah. This endangers both them and the lives of our soldiers,’ the premier said.

‘We regret the harm to UNIFIL soldiers and we are doing our utmost to prevent such harm. But the simplest and most obvious way to ensure this is simply to withdraw them from the danger zone.’

UNIFIL has refused to leave its positions in southern Lebanon.

‘There was a unanimous decision to stay because it’s important for the UN flag to still fly high in this region, and to be able to report to the Security Council,’ UNIFIL spokesman Andrea Tenenti told AFP in an interview on Saturday.

He said Israel had asked UNIFIL to withdraw from positions ‘up to five kilometres (three miles) from the Blue Line’ separating both countries, but the peacekeepers refused.

That would have included its 29 positions in south Lebanon.

UNIFIL, a mission of about 9,500 troops of various nationalities, was created following Israel’s 1978 invasion of Lebanon.

It is currently tasked with monitoring a ceasefire that ended a 33-day war in 2006 between Israel and Hezbollah.

Forty contributor nations to UNIFIL said on Saturday that they ‘strongly condemn recent attacks’ on the peacekeepers.

‘Such actions must stop immediately and should be adequately investigated,’ said the joint statement, posted on X by the Polish UN mission and signed by nations including leading contributors Indonesia, Italy and India.

Lebanese prime minister Najib Mikati also condemned the Israeli call on UNIFIL to abandon the south.

‘The warning that Netanyahu addressed to... Guterres demanding the removal of the UNIFIL represents a new chapter in the enemy’s approach of not complying with international’ norms, Mikati said.

Meanwhile, Israel’s defence minister Yoav Gallant on Sunday vowed to prevent Hezbollah from returning to fighting positions along the border, even after the Israeli military withdraws from the area.

‘Even once IDF (military) troops withdraw, we will not allow Hezbollah terrorists to return to these areas,’ said Gallant during a visit to an observation post overseeing southern Lebanon.​

 

[Saif]

Hezbollah, Israeli troops in ‘violent clashes’ after drone strike

Hezbollah said it battled Israeli troops on Monday in south Lebanon, and claimed several new attacks on Israel after its deadliest strike since the start of the war...

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Hezbollah, Israeli troops in ‘violent clashes’ after drone strike
Agence France-Presse . Beirut 15 October, 2024, 01:12

Hezbollah said it battled Israeli troops on Monday in south Lebanon, and claimed several new attacks on Israel after its deadliest strike since the start of the war.

A drone strike on an Israeli base near Binyamina, south of Haifa, killed four soldiers on Sunday night, while another 60 people were treated for mild to critical injuries, according to the Israeli volunteer rescue service United Hatzalah.

Israeli forces on Monday launched a string of new air strikes on targets in Lebanon, including one on the north of the country which killed at least 18 people, according to the Lebanese Red Cross.

Israel also faced new criticism over their alleged attacks on United Nations peacekeepers in southern Lebanon.

In a call with his US counterpart Lloyd Austin, Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant discussed Sunday’s night’s drone attack and ‘the forceful response that would be taken against Hezbollah’, his office said in a statement on Monday.

Just before Sunday’s attack, the Pentagon said it would deploy a high-altitude anti-missile system known as THAAD and its US military crew to Israel to further boost its allies defences against potential Iranian attack.

Israel has vowed to retaliate after two Iranian missile barrages this year.

‘There was a huge boom and then suddenly ambulances started driving past, first one, then two, then three and more and more,’ Yousef, the manager of a restaurant near the Binyamina base, said.

On Monday Iran-backed Hezbollah said its fighters had launched rockets at a naval base near Haifa and were ‘engaged in violent clashes’ in the Lebanese frontier village of Aita al-Shaab where an Israeli troop carrier had been targeted ‘with a guided missile’.

After almost a year of tit-for-tat exchanges between Hezbollah and Israeli forces over the Lebanon border, Israel on September 23 intensified its strikes against targets in Lebanon and sent ground troops across the frontier a week later.

Israel has vowed to secure its northern boundary to allow tens of thousands of people displaced by Hezbollah rocket fire to safely return home.

Hezbollah says its strikes are in solidarity with its Palestinian ally, Hamas, which attacked Israel on October 7 last year, triggering the on-going Gaza war with Israel.

The Lebanon war, which saw an expansion in fighting and air strikes at the weekend, has killed more than 1,300 people, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures.

The International Organisation for Migration said last week it had verified 6,90,000 displaced people in Lebanon

Israel’s deadly air strike in northern Lebanon on Monday marked a departure from the usual pattern, being located far from the main combat area and in a mostly Christian area.

Israel has focused its firepower mostly on Hezbollah strongholds in Shia Muslim-majority areas in the country and in the southern suburbs of Beirut.

An AFP photographer at the site of the strike in Aito said it had levelled a residential building at the entrance to the village.

Body parts were scattered in the rubble, with Red Cross volunteers searching for survivors while ambulances evacuated wounded people.

Lebanon’s health ministry said that among dozens of people killed in Israel’s strikes over the weekend were 16 in Maaysra, a Shiite Muslim village in a Christian-majority area north of Beirut.

Israel continues to face severe criticism over injuries and damage sustained by the UN peacekeeping force which has been deployed in Lebanon since the first of Israel’s four major ground offensives against its neighbour in 1978.

‘An attack against a UN peace mission is not responsible, is not acceptable,’ European Union chief Charles Michel said on Friday on the side-lines of a Southeast Asian summit in Laos.

On Sunday, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on the UNIFIL mission to withdraw for their own safety and said their presence had ‘the effect of providing Hezbollah terrorists with human shields’.

Five peacekeepers were injured in a series of incidents last week, with the latest seeing the UN force accuse Israeli troops of breaking through a gate and entering one of their positions.

The Israeli military later said a tank ‘backed several meters into a UNIFIL post’ while ‘under fire’ and attempting to evacuate injured soldiers.

Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez, whose country is a major troop contributor, said on Monday that there would be ‘no withdrawal’ of the UN peacekeeping force from southern Lebanon.

Under Security Council Resolution 1701, only UNIFIL’s roughly 9,500 troops and the Lebanon’s army should be deployed in Lebanon’s south.

The Hamas attack last year which triggered war in Gaza resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.

The number includes hostages killed in captivity.

Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has killed, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, 42,289 people, the majority civilians. The UN has described the figures as reliable.

Gaza’s civil defence agency late Sunday reported the latest deadly Israeli strike on a school used as a shelter for displaced people.

‘The Al-Mufti school was bombarded with a large volley of Israeli artillery, resulting in an initial death toll of 15 martyrs, including children, women and entire families, and 50 wounded,’ said Gaza civil defence spokesman, Mahmud Bassal.

The Israeli military said it was looking into the reports.

With the wars in Lebanon and Gaza showing no sign of abating, fears of an all-out regional conflict have seen Iran, which backs Hezbollah and Hamas, engage in diplomatic efforts with allies and other powers.

Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi met a senior official from Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi movement in Oman, the latest stop in a wide-ranging diplomatic tour of the region.

Jordan’s King Abdullah II warned of ‘a regional war that will be costly for everyone,’ during a meeting with Lebanon’s prime minister Najib Mikati on Monday.​

 

[Saif]

Hezbollah aims to inflict pain on Israel

Hezbollah’s deputy secretary general Naim Qassem said yesterday his group has adopted “a new calculation” to inflict pain on Israel, even as he called for a ceasefire.

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Hezbollah aims to inflict pain on Israel
Says its deputy chief, calls for ceasefire; the Iran-backed group, Israel trade rocket fire

People gather outside a collapsed building as they attempt to extricate a man from underneath the rubble following Israeli bombardment in the Saftawi district of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip yesterday. Photo: AFP

Hezbollah's deputy secretary general Naim Qassem said yesterday his group has adopted "a new calculation" to inflict pain on Israel, even as he called for a ceasefire.

"The solution is a ceasefire, we are not speaking from a position of weakness," Qassem said. "If the Israelis do not want that, we will continue," he added in a broadcast speech.

Qassem said that residents of northern Israel would be able to return home after a ceasefire deal is reached through an indirect agreement.

But he threatened that more Israelis will be displaced if the war continues, saying that "the number of uninhabited settlements will increase, and hundreds of thousands, even more than two million, will be in danger at any time, at any hour, on any day".

He added that since Israel has attacked all over Lebanon, the group has the right to attack anywhere in Israel. "We will focus on targeting the Israeli military and its centres and barracks," he said.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah launched a barrage of rockets towards the northern Israeli city of Haifa yesterday, as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) bombed south and east Lebanon. It also downed an Israeli drone, without saying where.

Israel expanded its targets in its war with Hezbollah and ordered residents of 25 villages in southern Lebanon to evacuate to areas north of the Awali River, which flows some 60 km north of the Israeli frontier.

The Israeli military said about 115 projectiles fired by Hezbollah crossed from Lebanon into Israel on Monday. At least 21 people killed in an Israeli airstrike in the north, Lebanese health officials said, while millions of Israelis took shelter from projectiles fired back across the border.

As five UN peacekeepers suffered injuries from Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon, UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix said on Monday that the peacekeepers will stay in all positions in Lebanon despite Israeli calls for them to move.

The Middle East remains on high alert for Israel to retaliate against Iran for an October 1 barrage of missiles launched in response to Israel's assaults on Lebanon.​

 

[Saif]

Hezbollah threatens to attack targets as Israel intensifies offensive

Lebanese group Hezbollah threatened Tuesday to attack targets across Israel and said it would not be defeated by on-going intense bombardment of its strongholds and leadership.

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Hezbollah threatens to attack targets as Israel intensifies offensive
Agence France-Presse . Beirut, Lebanon 16 October, 2024, 00:42

Lebanese army soldiers stand by as people clear debris and rubble from the site of a previous Israeli air strike on the village of Aito in northern Lebanon on Tuesday. | AFP photo

Lebanese group Hezbollah threatened Tuesday to attack targets across Israel and said it would not be defeated by on-going intense bombardment of its strongholds and leadership.

In the latest exchanges during the conflict, the group said it launched a barrage of rockets towards the northern Israeli city of Haifa, while Israel carried out air strikes in several areas of Lebanon.

A defiant Hezbollah ‘will not be defeated’ in its war with Israel, the group’s deputy chief Naim Qassem said in a speech.

‘Since the Israeli enemy targeted all of Lebanon, we have the right from a defensive position to target any place’ in Israel, ‘whether the centre, the north or the south,’ he said.

‘I am telling the Israeli home front: the solution is a ceasefire,’ he added.

Iran, which supports Hezbollah, has in recent days engaged in diplomatic talks around establishing a ceasefire in Lebanon and war-battered Gaza amid growing fears of a broader regional conflict.

Lebanon’s prime minister Najib Mikati said that his country was ready to bolster its military presence in the south after any ceasefire, adding that Israeli troops were making brief cross-border incursions.

Security has been tightened in the country’s only airport in Beirut ‘to remove any pretexts’ for an Israeli attack, Mikati added.

Israel has also been intensifying its offensive in the besieged Gaza Strip, which the United Nations warned Tuesday is suffering under its worst aid restrictions since the war there began over a year ago.

Israel is also weighing how to respond to Iran’s decision to launch about 200 missiles at the country on October 1.

Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said that Israel — and not its top ally the United States — would decide how to strike back.

The Iranian barrage was in retaliation for an Israeli strike in Lebanon’s Beirut that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Iranian general Abbas Nilforoushan on September 27.

US president Joe Biden — whose government is Israel’s top arms supplier — has warned Israel against striking Iran’s nuclear or oil facilities in order to avoid broader war.

According to a Washington Post report on Monday citing unnamed US officials, Netanyahu reassured the White House that Israel was only contemplating targeting military sites.

Oil prices — which soared after Iran’s attack on Israel — tumbled by more than five per cent following the report.

A statement from Netanyahu’s office on Tuesday took a different tone.

‘We listen to the opinions of the United States, but we will make our final decisions based on our national interest,’ the statement said.

Also on Tuesday, top Iranian commander Esmail Qaani — whose absence sparked rumours that he could have been killed in an Israeli strike — appeared in public for the first time in weeks when he attended Nilforoushan’s funeral in Tehran.

Israel’s military launched several strikes in Lebanon on Tuesday, including in the eastern Bekaa Valley where a hospital in Baalbek city was put out of service, Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported.

‘It was a violent night in Baalbek, we have not witnessed a similar one since’ the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, 50-year-old resident Nidal al-Solh said.

An Israeli strike on the northern, Christian-majority village of Aito on Monday is believed to have killed 22 people, including 12 women and two children, according to the UN.

The UN rights office called for a ‘prompt, independent and thorough investigation’ of the strike.

At least 1,315 people have been killed in Lebanon since Israel last month escalated its bombing there, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures, though the real toll is likely higher.

The war in Lebanon has displaced at least 6,90,000 people, according to verified figures last week from the International Organisation for Migration.

Israel says it wants to push back Hezbollah in order to secure its northern boundary and allow tens of thousands of people displaced by rocket fire since last year to return home safely.

Hezbollah says its strikes are in support of Palestinian militants Hamas who attacked Israel on October 7 last year, triggering the war with Israel in Gaza.

Despite a desperate need for more aid in Gaza, particularly in the north, UNICEF spokesman James Elder lamented that the situation was the worst since the start of Israel’s offensive.

‘We see now what is probably the worst restrictions we’ve seen on humanitarian aid, ever,’ he said, adding that there were ‘several days in the last week (where) no commercial trucks whatsoever were allowed to come in’.

At a school-turned-shelter hit by an Israeli strike in the central Nuseirat camp, Fatima al-Azab said ‘there is no safety anywhere’ in Gaza.

‘They are all children, sleeping in the covers, all burned and cut up,’ she said.

The October 7 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures, including hostages killed in captivity.

Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has killed 42,344 people, the majority civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. The UN has described the figures as reliable.​

 

[Saif]

Bangladesh to initiate safe return of citizens from Lebanon

The government has taken an initiative to ensure the safe return of Bangladeshis in phases, who got stuck in troubled Lebanon, with the first batch's likely arrival on October 21

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Bangladesh to initiate safe return of citizens from Lebanon

The government has taken an initiative to ensure the safe return of Bangladeshis in phases, who got stuck in troubled Lebanon, with the first batch's likely arrival on October 21.

The first batch may consist of at least 50 Bangladeshis, including injured, women, and children, an official told UNB, adding that they may come to Dhaka via Jeddah, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Around 1,800 Bangladeshis have already shown interest to return and got enrolled with the Bangladesh Embassy.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment are working together for the return of Bangladeshis trapped in war-torn Lebanon.

The government is working closely with all concerned to bring back all the Bangladeshis who wish to return from Lebanon safely, said the foreign ministry.

Earlier, an inter-ministerial meeting was held with the participation of Foreign Secretary Md Jashim Uddin, Expatriates' Welfare Secretary Md Ruhul Amin and Managing Director and CEO of Biman Bangladesh Airlines Limited Dr Md Shafiqur Rahman.

Bangladesh mission heads assigned to the Middle East joined the meeting on the Zoom platform.

The foreign secretary has issued necessary instructions to the Bangladeshi ambassador in Lebanon to take necessary measures for the safe return of the stranded Bangladeshis.

He also gave necessary instructions to ensure the safety of all the expatriate Bangladeshis staying there who do not wish to return to the country.

A notification was issued to enroll Bangladeshis who wish to return from the embassy and initially about a thousand migrant workers are said to be willing to return home.​

 

[Saif]

Netanyahu vows ‘no ceasefire’ in Lebanon after Hezbollah threats

Netanyahu’s comments came as the United States ramped up pressure over Israel’s conduct of the wars in Lebanon and Gaza, criticising the recent bombing of Beirut and demanding that more aid reach the Palestinian territory

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Netanyahu vows ‘no ceasefire’ in Lebanon after Hezbollah threats
AFP
Jerusalem
Published: 16 Oct 2024, 09: 35

People gather outside a collapsed building as they attempt to extricate a man from underneath the rubble following Israeli bombardment in the Saftawi district in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on 15 October 2024 amid the ongoing war in the Palestinian territory between Israel and Hamas AFP

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected Tuesday the idea of a ceasefire in Lebanon that would leave Hezbollah close to his country’s northern border, as the militant group threatened to widen its attacks.

Netanyahu’s comments came as the United States ramped up pressure over Israel’s conduct of the wars in Lebanon and Gaza, criticising the recent bombing of Beirut and demanding that more aid reach the Palestinian territory.

In a call with French president Emmanuel Macron, Netanyahu said he was “opposed to a unilateral ceasefire, which does not change the security situation in Lebanon, and which will only return it to the way it was”, according to a statement from his office.

Netanyahu and the Israeli military have insisted there must be a buffer zone along Israel’s border with Lebanon where there is no presence of Hezbollah fighters.

“Prime minister Netanyahu clarified that Israel would not agree to any arrangement that does not provide this (a buffer zone) and which does not stop Hezbollah from rearming and regrouping,” the statement said.

In a defiant televised speech, Hezbollah’s deputy leader Naim Qassem said the only solution was a ceasefire while threatening to expand the scope of its missile strikes across Israel.

“Since the Israeli enemy targeted all of Lebanon, we have the right from a defensive position to target any place” in Israel, he said.

Early Wednesday Israel’s military reported around 50 projectiles were fired from Lebanon at the country’s north, without any reports of casualties.

Iran-backed Hezbollah said it launched “a large salvo of missiles” at the town of Safed.

Israel’s military bombed several areas in southern and eastern Lebanon on Tuesday, including in the Bekaa Valley where a hospital in Baalbek city was put out of service, Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported.

It also said it had captured three Hezbollah fighters in south Lebanon.

Lebanon’s health ministry said nine people were killed Tuesday evening in strikes on the country’s south, and five others in the east, including three children.

Asked about Israeli air strikes in Lebanon in which residential buildings in central Beirut were hit on 10 October, the US State Department voiced open criticism.

“We have made clear that we are opposed to the campaign the way we’ve seen it conducted over the past weeks” in Beirut, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.

In a letter sent to the Israeli government on Sunday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also warned that the United States could withhold weapons deliveries unless more humanitarian aid was delivered to Palestinians in Gaza.

The letter made “clear to the government of Israel that there are changes that they need to make again to see that the level of assistance making it into Gaza comes back up from the very, very low levels that it is at today,” Miller said.

‘Worst restrictions’

Despite the need for food, medical supplies and shelter in hunger-ravaged Gaza, a spokesman for the UN’s children’s agency UNICEF said Tuesday that aid was facing the tightest restrictions since the start of Israel’s offensive in October last year.

“We see now what is probably the worst restrictions we’ve seen on humanitarian aid, ever,” spokesman James Elder said in Geneva, adding that there were “several days in the last week (where) no commercial trucks whatsoever were allowed to come in”.

For more than a week, Israeli forces have engaged in a sweeping air and ground assault targeting northern Gaza and the area around Jabalia amid claims that Hamas militants were regrouping there.

“The whole area has been reduced to ashes,” said Rana Abdel Majid, 38, from the Al-Faluja area of northern Gaza.

Majid said entire blocks had been levelled by “the indiscriminate, merciless bombing”.

At a school-turned-shelter hit by an Israeli strike in the central Nuseirat camp, Fatima al-Azab said “there is no safety anywhere” in Gaza.

“They are all children, sleeping in the covers, all burned and cut up,” she said.

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza after the 7 October 2023 attack by Hamas that resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures, including hostages killed in captivity.

The Israeli campaign has killed 42,344 people, the majority civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory which the UN considers reliable.

Lebanon strikes

Israel escalated its air campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon from September 23 and then launched a ground offensive a week later intended to push the group back from its northern border.

Hezbollah has been firing thousands of projectiles into Israel over the last year in support of Hamas, displacing tens of thousands of Israelis.

At least 1,356 people have been killed in Lebanon since Israel escalated its bombing last month, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures, though the real toll is likely higher.

The war in Lebanon, which has suffered years of economic crisis, has displaced at least 690,000 people, according to figures from the International Organization for Migration.

Israel is also weighing how to respond to Iran’s decision to launch around 200 missiles at the country on 1 October.

Netanyahu’s office said that Israel -- and not its top ally the United States -- would decide how to strike back.

“We listen to the opinions of the United States, but we will make our final decisions based on our national interest,” it said Tuesday.

The Iranian barrage was in retaliation for an Israeli strike in Lebanon’s Beirut that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, and another that killed Iranian general Abbas Nilforoushan on 27 September.

US President Joe Biden, whose government is Israel’s top arms supplier, has warned Israel against striking Iran’s nuclear or oil facilities.

According to a Washington Post report on Monday citing unnamed US officials, Netanyahu reassured the White House that Israel was contemplating targeting only military sites.​

 

[Saif]

Hezbollah says launching new 'escalatory phase' in Israel war

Lebanon's Hezbollah on Thursday said it was launching a new phase in its war against Israel, saying it has used precision-guided missiles against troops for the first time

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Hezbollah says launching new 'escalatory phase' in Israel war

A man uses his crutches to walk amid the destruction a day after Israeli airstrikes that targeted the southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh on October 17, 2024. Photo: AFP

Lebanon's Hezbollah on Thursday said it was launching a new phase in its war against Israel, saying it has used precision-guided missiles against troops for the first time.

Israel has been pounding south and east Lebanon, areas where Hezbollah holds sway, since all-out war erupted on September 23.

In Lebanese border villages, the rivals have engaged in close-range combat after Israel launched a ground invasion last month.

Hezbollah "announces a transition to a new and escalatory phase in the confrontation with the Israeli enemy, which will be reflected in the developments and events of the coming days," the group said in a statement.

The announcement came after the Israeli military on Thursday said its forces killed Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas, which is a Hezbollah ally.

The statement, however, made no mention of the Hamas chief.

It said "hundreds of fighters...are fully prepared to counter any Israeli ground incursion into southern Lebanese villages," noting that attacks against Israel have increased in recent days.

It said its rocket strikes continue "to escalate day by day," with "precision-guided ones...being deployed for the first time".

Israel killed Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah in a Beirut air strike On September 27. It has has repeatedly called for Hezbollah to be pushed away from the border to ensure its citizens could return to their homes in northern Israel.

Earlier on Thursday, Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said that the Israeli army was not fully in control of any village in south Lebanon.​

 

[Saif]

A city silenced by war

Just a month ago, south Beirut’s bustling streets were packed with traffic, families strolling about and youths in cafes, but now silence dominates the abandoned Hezbollah bastion, interrupted only by the sound of Israeli bombs.

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A city silenced by war

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese border village of Khiam, where the Lebanese official media reported 14 strikes within minutes yesterday. Photo: AFP

Just a month ago, south Beirut's bustling streets were packed with traffic, families strolling about and youths in cafes, but now silence dominates the abandoned Hezbollah bastion, interrupted only by the sound of Israeli bombs.

Escalating Israeli attacks since late September, after nearly a year of low-intensity cross-border exchanges, have reduced much of the Lebanese capital's once densely-packed southern suburbs to rubble and sent many of its residents fleeing.

Braving the smell of rotting flesh that reeks from razed buildings, a few young men stood guard, dressed in black civilian clothes and occasionally driving around the ruins on their motorbikes.

They observed the odd car and the handful of displaced residents who come on foot, hastily checking on their apartment or collecting some belongings before heading back to safety.

"The young people told me not to stay too long because drones were constantly flying over and could strike at any time," said 32-year-old Mohammed, on a brief visit home to get more clothes.

Giving his first name only for security concerns, he said he first left on September 27, days into Israel's intense air campaign on Lebanon.

That day, massive Israeli strikes killed Hezbollah's elusive leader Hassan Nasrallah in the heart of the Iran-backed group's south Beirut stronghold, toppling several apartment buildings and spreading fear of even greater violence.

"We left in a hurry and thought we would never see our house again," said Mohammed, adding that his neighbours had also fled.

The building was still standing, but many others have been damaged or destroyed.

ATTACKS ON INFRASTRUCTURE

Cracks snaked down nearby buildings as torn-off asphalt and burst pipes leaked sewage and tap water.

Generators that long made up for daily power cuts after five years of economic crisis had also been blown to bits.

"About 320 buildings were destroyed in Beirut and its suburbs" in less than a month of war, Mona Fawaz of the Beirut Urban Lab told AFP.

The devastation has surpassed the damage caused by Israel's last war with Hezbollah in 2006, said Fawaz, who records cases of "urbicide", the destruction of cities in conflict, focusing now on Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.

She accused Israel of "deliberate targeting of what allows life to continue," including vital infrastructure unrelated to Hezbollah.

Hezbollah had completely rebuilt Beirut's south based on the existing urban plans from before the 2006 war, which had displaced about 100,000 people from the area.

During that 33-day war, "surveys list 1,332 severely damaged multi-storey apartment buildings, of which 281 were completely razed to the ground" in an area of about 20 square kilometres (eight square miles), said Fawaz.

The Burj al-Barajneh neighbourhood, unscathed in 2006, has been heavily damaged in the bombardment this time around.

CHILDHOOD MEMORIES

Once again, families from south Beirut are forced to seek refuge elsewhere in the country or abroad.

Many live in rented apartments or with relatives, while others are crammed in schools-turned-shelters.

Hassan, 37, grew up in the Mraijeh district of Beirut's south, where Israeli jets targeted Hashem Safieddine, widely seen as Nasrallah's most likely successor.

Despite the bloodshed, he said Mraijeh will always remind him of his "friends, the games we used to play as children, the smell of freshly-baked bread in the morning, neighbours chatting and Ramadan festivities".

The supermarket he used to shop at is in ruins, with nearby shops, schools and buildings also reduced to rubble.

Hassan, who also asked to be identified by first name only, was told his favourite record store was no more.

As the war shows no signs of abating, greater losses are all but certain.

"We are afraid to return after the war only to discover how many of our friends have died, like in 2006," said Hassan with a sigh.​

 

[Saif]

US, Iran in ‘tug of war’ over Lebanon, analysts say

With Iran-backed Hezbollah on the defensive after a series of heavy Israeli blows, the United States and Iran are locked in a showdown over Lebanon’s future, analysts said....

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US, Iran in ‘tug of war’ over Lebanon, analysts say
Agence France-Presse . Beirut, Lebanon 20 October, 2024, 18:22

A fire rages on a hill after rockets were fired from southern Lebanon, on the outskirts of Rosh Pinna in the Upper Galilee on October 20, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. | AFP photo

With Iran-backed Hezbollah on the defensive after a series of heavy Israeli blows, the United States and Iran are locked in a showdown over Lebanon’s future, analysts said.

Hezbollah, the most powerful regional force backed by Iran, which arms and finances it, has long held sway in Lebanon.

But the group’s influence is now in question after Israel’s assassination of its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in a significant setback.

Hezbollah’s losses have left Lebanon in a ‘tug of war between Iran and the United States’, said Michael Young of the Carnegie Middle East Center think tank.

‘The Israelis with the Americans... are trying to use military force to try to transform the balance of power in Lebanon to their advantage,’ he told AFP.

‘There are no signs that the Iranians are going to accept this without a fight.’

Hezbollah is considered better armed than Lebanon’s national military and remains the only group that did not put down its weapons after the 1975-90 civil war.

Last year, it opened a new front with Israel over the conflict in Gaza, in support of its ally Hamas.

It carefully calibrated attacks to avoid a full-blown conflict, which eventually came on September 23 when Israel stepped up bombing of Hezbollah strongholds, including south Beirut.

The United States has pushed for ceasefire, but has also expressed support for Israeli attempts to ‘degrade Hezbollah’s infrastructure’.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said this month that ‘it’s clear that the people of Lebanon have an interest -- a strong interest -- in the state asserting itself and taking responsibility for the country and its future.’

Kim Ghattas, the author of ‘Black Wave’, a book on the Saudi-Iran rivalry, said: ‘Lebanon is caught between Iran and Hezbollah on the one hand, and Israel and the US on the other.’

But ‘Washington’s vision doesn’t necessarily align with Israel’s in terms of war goals and tactics’, she said.

‘The US would certainly like to see a weakening of Hezbollah, maybe even the disarming of the group, but it is wary of Israel going too far with the military campaign.’


Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Lebanon it could face destruction ‘like Gaza’ as Israel vowed to keep fighting Hezbollah until it secures its northern border.

‘I say to you, the people of Lebanon: Free your country from Hezbollah so that this war can end,’ Netanyahu said on October 8.

Iran, for its part, ‘wants to preserve what’s left of its assets in Lebanon and ensure the survival of the regime’, Ghattas said, referring to the Islamic republic.

‘It needs to walk a fine line between continuing to support Hezbollah... while signalling it is ready for diplomacy.’

Iran’s meddling drew a rare rebuke from Lebanon last week, as Prime Minister Najib Mikati accused it of ‘blatant interference’ over remarks attributed to a Tehran official regarding ceasefire terms.

Mikati charged that Iran had attempted ‘to establish an unacceptable guardianship over Lebanon’, after Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf reportedly told France’s Le Figaro newspaper that his government was ready to negotiate on the implementation of a 2006 UN resolution that calls for only the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers to be deployed in southern Lebanon.

As the Israel-Hezbollah war nears its one-month mark, calls have mounted for Lebanon to elect a president after a two-year void due to political deadlock.

The last president, Michel Aoun, was a Hezbollah ally, making the vote a test for the country’s political trends.

In an interview with AFP, Mikati said serious efforts were underway to elect a president, in line with calls from the United States and other Western allies.

Political leaders in Lebanon too have made careful appeals for a new president, trying to avoid impressions they were leveraging Hezbollah’s setbacks for political gain.

‘The Lebanese parties hostile to Hezbollah understand that the situation is very delicate,’ said Young.

‘They don’t want to provoke the Shiite community, which already feels humiliated and angry and isolated and let’s remember, is armed,’ he added.

While suspicion between sects has grown since the Israeli-Hezbollah war forced displaced Shiite communities into Christian-majority areas, many are wary of a repeat of the country’s 15-year war.

The Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 also recalls bitter memories for Lebanese and ultimately led to the creation of Hezbollah, one of Israel’s most formidable foes.

‘It seems that politicians in Lebanon have learned lessons of the past, but the longer this current limbo and war lasts, the harder it will be to keep tensions under control,’ said Ghattas.​