[🇱🇧] Lebanon - Israel Conflict -2024

Source: https://edition.cnn.com/world/live-news/israel-iran-missile-attack-middle-east-10-02-24-intl-hnk/index.html

Lebanon's military says Israel crossed 400 meters into territory before withdrawing​

From CNN’s Tamara Qiblawi and Mostafa Salem

IDF handout photo geolocated to be in southern Lebanon.

Lebanon’s military said Wednesday an Israeli military force breached the border, reaching 400 meters (about a quarter of a mile) into Lebanese territory before withdrawing.

“An Israeli enemy force breached the Blue Line by approximately 400 meters into Lebanese territory in the areas of Khirbet Yaroun and the Aadeyseh, then withdrew after a short period,” the army said.

The Blue Line is a reference to the demarcation border area that separates Israel and Lebanon.

CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment.

The IDF also released a photo of its troops inside Lebanon that CNN has geolocated to be inside southern Lebanon.

 

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Following the back-to-back explosions that targeted Hezbollah pagers and walkie-talkies, Safieddine said that his organization “will not back down until the end.”

Saffiedine has long been a hawkish critic of US policy, which he sees as aiding and abetting Israel’s actions in Gaza and southern Lebanon.

In 2021, he accused Washington of “interfering” in Lebanese domestic politics, saying that “American tyranny” is “sabotaging” the region’s nations, citing Iraq and Afghanistan among examples.

The United States designated Hezbollah a foreign terrorist organization in 1997, and in 2017 designated Safieddine a foreign terrorist.

 

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Gulf Arab states fear targeting of region’s oil facilities as war escalates, expert says​

From CNN’s Nadeen Ebrahim and Mostafa Salem


Oil producing Gulf Arab states are likely concerned about implications of an Israeli retaliation against Iran, especially if Israel targets Iran’s oil installations, a regional expert told CNN.

Such an attack would cause significant economic damage, threaten other oil facilities in the region, and create an ecological disaster, with oil potentially spilling into the Persian Gulf from damaged Iranian pipelines, said Hasan Alhasan, a senior fellow for Middle East Policy at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).

Concern of a wider war that could involve the targeting of the region’s oil facilities has already sparked a jolt in oil prices.

Iran has signaled in the past that if it can’t sell its oil, then no one else in the region can either, Alhasan said, raising questions about the safety of Gulf Arab oil installations if Iran’s are hit by Israel.

“There are real concerns about the first-order and second-order implications of such an Israeli attack,” he told CNN, noting that as long as Gulf states maintain a line of neutrality, Iran is unlikely to resurface past hostilities that directly target Gulf Arab states.

 

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Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian met with Gulf Arab ministers in Qatar’s capital Doha on Thursday.

“Our neighbors are our priority,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on X. “StrongRegion our goal—#Dialogue is a must,” he said.

A UAE official told CNN that regional discussions are focused on “the necessity of concerted regional and international efforts to halt the escalation and prevent further loss of life.”

Pezeshkian said he told the Qatari ruler in Doha that the “troubles” brought upon the region by Israel are “due to the existence of differences and factions among us,” according to the state news agency IRNA.

 

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Israel says it struck tunnel crossing to prevent “weapon smuggling” into Lebanon from Syria​

From CNN's Tamar Michaelis and Pauline Lockwood


Israel’s military says it struck an “underground tunnel crossing” on the Lebanese-Syrian border on Thursday to “prevent weapons from being smuggled into Lebanese territories”.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the tunnel’s operations were led by “the 4400 Unit, the unit responsible for the transportation of weapons from Iran and its proxies to Hezbollah in Lebanon.”

“Additionally, infrastructure sites adjacent to the Masnaa border crossing between Syria and Lebanon were struck last night,” the IDF added in its statement on Friday.

An Israeli airstrike near the main Lebanon-Syria border crossing halted traffic in both directions, a Lebanese official said on Friday.

The strike, late on Thursday, destroyed the road leading to the Masnaa crossing with Syria, Public Works Minister Ali Hamie told CNN, adding the checkpoint “has been cut off.”

The Masnaa border crossing lies in the Beqaa valley on the Beirut-Damascus international highway, a major transport link for people and goods between the two countries.

The highway has been used by tens of thousands of people to flee Israeli bombardment in recent days.

 

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Iranian foreign minister meets Lebanese prime minister in Beirut a week after Nasrallah’s assassination​

From CNN's Eyad Kourdi

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, left, meets with Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati in Beirut, Lebanon, on October 4.
Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi traveled to the Lebanese capital, Beirut, on Friday for meetings with government officials, a week after the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Araghchi met Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and expressed Iran’s commitment to Lebanon and “its support in the face of Israeli aggression,” the Iranian foreign ministry said in a statement.

Iran’s top diplomat said his country “will launch a diplomatic campaign to support Lebanon and request a meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.”

It is unclear if Araghchi will meet Hezbollah officials during his visit.