[🇱🇧] Lebanon - Israel Conflict -2024

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40 nations 'strongly condemn' attacks on UN peacekeepers in Lebanon
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The UK is among 40 nations to "strongly condemn" attacks on United Nations (UN) peacekeepers in Lebanon.

On Thursday, two Indonesian peacekeepers were injured falling from an observation tower after Israeli tanks fired towards it.

On Friday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) acknowledged that its troops were responsible for an incident in which two Sri Lankan soldiers, in Naqoura, were injured and that it would be investigated.

And the United Nations, on Saturday, said another peacekeeper was injured by gunfire in the south on Friday, though added it did not know the origin of the fire.

In a joint statement posted on X, external by the Polish UN mission, the countries say attacks on the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) "must stop immediately and should be adequately investigated".

"We consider Unifil's role as particularly crucial in light of the escalating situation in the region," the statement adds.

 

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Fighting in southern Lebanon intensifies​

Sebastian Usher
Middle East editor

Hezbollah says that its fighters have been involved in combat at point-blank range with Israeli troops in a village near the border with Israel.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says that in addition to two severely wounded soldiers, many others have been evacuated to hospital with light and moderate injuries.

The fighting in south Lebanon is intensifying, as Lebanese officials say that Israel has widened its target area in the country.

The IDF says that it's carried out airstrikes on around two-hundred Hezbollah targets in the past twenty-four hours.

In one incident, the Lebanese Red Cross says its volunteers suffered injuries as an Israeli strike hit a building they were searching for casualties in south Lebanon.

The IDF has accused Hezbollah of using ambulances to transport weapons and fighters, without providing any evidence.

Image source, Getty Images
Smoke rising from the site of an Israeli air strike that targeted the Kfar Tibnit in Lebanon on Sunday

 

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Israeli media reports US considering sending THAAD air defence system to Israel
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Wyre Davies
Reporting from Jerusalem

Several reports in Israeli media today suggest the United States is considering transferring an advanced missile defence system, known as THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defence), to Israel.

The system, specifically designed to intercept high altitude ballistic missiles, would add to Israel’s already sophisticated multi-layered missile defence capability. That has been repeatedly deployed with a high level of success against rockets, projectiles and missiles fired from Gaza, Lebanon and Iran.

It is the prospect of conflict with Iran escalating into a wider regional war that has prompted more talk of THAAD being deployed.

Israel is soon expected to respond to Iran’s unprecedented launch of 180 missiles against Israel earlier this month. Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has promised a strike against Iran will be "lethal, precise and surprising".

If president Biden were to approve sending the mobile THAAD system to Israel, from one of the US military bases in the region, it would reportedly require numerous American military personnel to operate the system.

Although the US is already deeply involved in this conflict, supplying much of Israel’s heavy and sophisticated weaponry, the prospect of American military “boots on the ground” would underline just how reliant Israel has become on US military support.

 

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How Israeli strikes changed Lebanon's capital​

Nafiseh Kohnavard
Reporting from Beirut

The face of the Beirut has completely changed.

Streets are packed with cars, some parked in the middle of boulevards.

Hundreds fleeing Israeli operations in the south of the country have fled to the capital’s suburbs, sheltering in schools in “safer” neighbourhoods. Many have found themselves sleeping on the streets.

On the motorway towards the airport and the south, billboards show Hassan Nasrallah’s face. Both pro- and anti-Hezbollah people tell me these feel surreal.

In other areas, posters that previously read “Lebanon doesn’t want war” now say “Pray for Lebanon”.

The city’s iconic Martyrs’ Square - usually host to protests and huge Christmas celebrations - has turned into a tent city.

Makeshift homes stretch from the square all the way down to the sea.

Most of the families here are Syrian refugees, who’ve found themselves displaced again and barred from shelters which are limited to Lebanese nationals. Many Lebanese families have found themselves homeless too.

Just over a kilometre away, 26-year-old Nadine is trying to take her mind off everything for a few hours. She’s one of very few customers at Aaliya’s Books, a bookshop-bar in Beirut’s Gemmayze neighbourhood.

“I don’t feel safe any more,” she tells me. “We keep hearing explosions all night.

 

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Lebanon condemns call for removal of peacekeepers
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Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati has condemned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s call to remove UN peacekeepers from the border.

Netanyahu made the demands earlier on Sunday, adding that it should be done "immediately".

Mikati described the call as a “new chapter in the enemy’s approach of not complying with international norms”.

Clashes between Hezbollah and Israeli forces have intensified in recent days with a number of UN peacekeepers injured. Some 40 countries have strongly condemned the attacks on peacekeepers in Lebanon.