Tensions on Lebanon-Israel border: Civilians being evacuated
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Israel ready for ‘all-out war’ in Lebanon
Israel is ready for an “all-out war” in Lebanon and has plans approved for an offensive targeting Hezbollah, officials said.
Israel ready for 'all-out war' in Lebanon
Say officials after Hezbollah releases threatening drone footage of the Israeli port city of Haifa
Israel is ready for an "all-out war" in Lebanon and has plans approved for an offensive targeting Hezbollah, officials said.
The claims from Israel's foreign minister and military late on Tuesday followed Hezbollah's release of threatening drone footage. The climbing tension conflicts with United States efforts to avert an escalation amid months of low-level hostilities across the Israel-Lebanon border.
The nine-minute drone footage of the Israeli port city of Haifa filmed in daytime, showed civilian and military areas, including malls and residential quarters, in addition to a weapons manufacturing complex and missile defence batteries.
Israel's Foreign Minister Israel Katz responded vehemently in a post on X, calling out Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah for boasting about filming the ports of Haifa, which are operated by foreign companies from China and India.
"We are very close to the moment of decision to change the rules against Hezbollah and Lebanon. In an all-out war, Hezbollah will be destroyed and Lebanon will be severely hit," he wrote.
More than 400 people have been killed in Lebanon over the past eight months, with 25 deaths in Israel.
Later, the Israeli military said in a statement that Ori Gordin, head of its Northern Command, which includes the front line with Hezbollah, has approved plans to mount a ground assault across Israel's northern border, reports Al Jazeera online.
"As part of the situational assessment, operational plans for an offensive in Lebanon were approved and validated, and decisions were taken on the continuation of increasing the readiness of troops in the field," it said.
Israel and Hezbollah have been engaged in border fighting since the start of the offensive on Gaza on October 7. The confrontation is increasingly expanding, with both sides saying they are ready to go to war. Nasrallah has said in the past that Hezbollah will only stop its attacks if Israel halts its invasion of Gaza.
Hezbollah recently said that it has carried out more than 2,100 military operations against Israel since October 8 in what it says is an effort to support Palestinians.
More than 400 people have been killed in Lebanon over the past eight months, with 25 deaths in Israel. At least 90,000 people have been displaced in Lebanon, and more than 60,000 have been forced from their homes in northern Israel.
Say officials after Hezbollah releases threatening drone footage of the Israeli port city of Haifa
Israel is ready for an "all-out war" in Lebanon and has plans approved for an offensive targeting Hezbollah, officials said.
The claims from Israel's foreign minister and military late on Tuesday followed Hezbollah's release of threatening drone footage. The climbing tension conflicts with United States efforts to avert an escalation amid months of low-level hostilities across the Israel-Lebanon border.
The nine-minute drone footage of the Israeli port city of Haifa filmed in daytime, showed civilian and military areas, including malls and residential quarters, in addition to a weapons manufacturing complex and missile defence batteries.
Israel's Foreign Minister Israel Katz responded vehemently in a post on X, calling out Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah for boasting about filming the ports of Haifa, which are operated by foreign companies from China and India.
"We are very close to the moment of decision to change the rules against Hezbollah and Lebanon. In an all-out war, Hezbollah will be destroyed and Lebanon will be severely hit," he wrote.
More than 400 people have been killed in Lebanon over the past eight months, with 25 deaths in Israel.
Later, the Israeli military said in a statement that Ori Gordin, head of its Northern Command, which includes the front line with Hezbollah, has approved plans to mount a ground assault across Israel's northern border, reports Al Jazeera online.
"As part of the situational assessment, operational plans for an offensive in Lebanon were approved and validated, and decisions were taken on the continuation of increasing the readiness of troops in the field," it said.
Israel and Hezbollah have been engaged in border fighting since the start of the offensive on Gaza on October 7. The confrontation is increasingly expanding, with both sides saying they are ready to go to war. Nasrallah has said in the past that Hezbollah will only stop its attacks if Israel halts its invasion of Gaza.
Hezbollah recently said that it has carried out more than 2,100 military operations against Israel since October 8 in what it says is an effort to support Palestinians.
More than 400 people have been killed in Lebanon over the past eight months, with 25 deaths in Israel. At least 90,000 people have been displaced in Lebanon, and more than 60,000 have been forced from their homes in northern Israel.
D
Deleted due to Error (Muji Iqbal)
Hopefully the Arab countries will be united against Israel because of Israhell's transgressions.
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Iran warns Israel of obliterating war if Lebanon attacked
Iran on Saturday warned that ‘all resistance fronts’, a grouping of Iran and its regional allies, would confront Israel if it attacks Lebanon...
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Iran warns Israel of obliterating war if Lebanon attacked
Agence France-Presse . Tehran 29 June, 2024, 23:56
Supporters and activists of Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba take part in a demonstration to express their solidarity with the Palestinians, in Karachi Saturday amid the ongoing genocide of Palestinians by Israel. | AFP photo
Iran on Saturday warned that 'all resistance fronts', a grouping of Iran and its regional allies, would confront Israel if it attacks Lebanon.
The comment from Iran's mission to New York comes with fears of a wider regional war involving Israel and Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah movement. The two sides have engaged in near-daily exchanges of fire since the war in Gaza began.
Such exchanges have escalated this month, alongside bellicose rhetoric from both sides. Israel's military said plans for a Lebanon offensive had been 'approved and validated', prompting Hezbollah to respond that none of Israel would be spared in a full-blown conflict.
In a post on social media platform X, the Iranian mission said it 'deems as psychological warfare the Zionist regime's propaganda about intending to attack Lebanon'.
But, it added, 'should it embark on full-scale military aggression, an obliterating war will ensue. All options, incl. the full involvement of all Resistance Fronts, are on the table.'
The war in Gaza began in October when Hamas Palestinian militants attacked southern Israel.
Iran, which backs Hamas, has praised the attack as a success but has denied any involvement.
Alongside Hezbollah's attacks on northern
Israel, Iran-backed rebels in Yemen have repeatedly struck commercial ships in the Red Sea area in what they say are acts of solidarity with the Palestinians.
Iran also backs other groups in the region.
The Islamic republic has not recognised Israel since the 1979 revolution that toppled Iran's United States-backed shah.
Fears of regional war also soared in April, after an air strike that levelled Iran's consulate in Damascus and killed seven Revolutionary Guards, two of them generals.
Iran hit back with an unprecedented drone and missile attack on Israel on April 13-14.
Iran's state media later reported explosions in the central province of Isfahan as US media quoted American officials saying Israel had carried out retaliatory strikes on its arch-rival.
Tehran downplayed the reported Israeli raid.
Agence France-Presse . Tehran 29 June, 2024, 23:56
Supporters and activists of Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba take part in a demonstration to express their solidarity with the Palestinians, in Karachi Saturday amid the ongoing genocide of Palestinians by Israel. | AFP photo
Iran on Saturday warned that 'all resistance fronts', a grouping of Iran and its regional allies, would confront Israel if it attacks Lebanon.
The comment from Iran's mission to New York comes with fears of a wider regional war involving Israel and Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah movement. The two sides have engaged in near-daily exchanges of fire since the war in Gaza began.
Such exchanges have escalated this month, alongside bellicose rhetoric from both sides. Israel's military said plans for a Lebanon offensive had been 'approved and validated', prompting Hezbollah to respond that none of Israel would be spared in a full-blown conflict.
In a post on social media platform X, the Iranian mission said it 'deems as psychological warfare the Zionist regime's propaganda about intending to attack Lebanon'.
But, it added, 'should it embark on full-scale military aggression, an obliterating war will ensue. All options, incl. the full involvement of all Resistance Fronts, are on the table.'
The war in Gaza began in October when Hamas Palestinian militants attacked southern Israel.
Iran, which backs Hamas, has praised the attack as a success but has denied any involvement.
Alongside Hezbollah's attacks on northern
Israel, Iran-backed rebels in Yemen have repeatedly struck commercial ships in the Red Sea area in what they say are acts of solidarity with the Palestinians.
Iran also backs other groups in the region.
The Islamic republic has not recognised Israel since the 1979 revolution that toppled Iran's United States-backed shah.
Fears of regional war also soared in April, after an air strike that levelled Iran's consulate in Damascus and killed seven Revolutionary Guards, two of them generals.
Iran hit back with an unprecedented drone and missile attack on Israel on April 13-14.
Iran's state media later reported explosions in the central province of Isfahan as US media quoted American officials saying Israel had carried out retaliatory strikes on its arch-rival.
Tehran downplayed the reported Israeli raid.
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In order for Arab countries to be united, Saudi Arabia and UAE need to stop ass licking of Israel and the USA.
D
Deleted due to Error (Muji Iqbal)
Well you cannot blame what Saudi Arabia and UAE are doing in their national interests. Same goes for Egypt and Jordan.
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10 Syrian refugees killed in Israeli strike on Lebanon
Lebanon’s health ministry said an Israeli air strike on Saturday in southern Lebanon killed 10 Syrians, as the Israeli military reported hitting weapons stores of the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement.
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10 Syrian refugees killed in Israeli strike on Lebanon
Agence France-Presse . Beirut 17 August, 2024, 23:41
Relatives mourn over the bodies of four members of the same family, including two children, killed in an Israeli strike in the Wadi al-Kafur area of the southern Lebanese Nabatiyeh district on Saturday. | AFP photo
Lebanon’s health ministry said an Israeli air strike on Saturday in southern Lebanon killed 10 Syrians, as the Israeli military reported hitting weapons stores of the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement.
The toll from the strike in the Wadi al-Kafur area of Nabatieh is one of the largest in southern Lebanon since Hezbollah and Israeli forces began exchanging near-daily fire over their border after war in the Gaza Strip began in October.
International mediators have been trying to reach a Gaza ceasefire between Israel and Hamas Palestinian militants, which diplomats say could help to avert a wider war in which Lebanon would be on the front line.
The death toll from the latest strike included ‘a woman and her two children’ while five other people were wounded, most of them also Syrian, Lebanon’s health ministry said in a statement.
The official Lebanese National News Agency reported that the casualties were Syrian refugees and workers.
Israel’s military, on its Telegram channel, said the air force had struck a weapons storage facility of Lebanon’s Hezbollah overnight ‘in the area of Nabatieh’, which is about 12 kilometres (seven miles) from the nearest point of the Israeli border.
Following the deaths in Wadi al-Kafur, Hezbollah said it responded with a volley of Katyusha rockets on Ayelet HaShahar, a community in northern Israel.
None of the roughly 55 projectiles caused any reported injuries but they sparked ‘multiple fires’, Israel’s military said.
Earlier, around 20 kilometres to the north ‘a projectile that crossed from Lebanon’ wounded two soldiers, one of them severely, in the Misgav Am area, Israel’s military said.
The killings in quick succession in late July of Fuad Shukr, a top operations chief of Hezbollah in south Lebanon, and Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh, led to vows of vengeance from Hezbollah, Iran and other Tehran-backed groups in the region which blamed Israel.
The cross-border violence between Lebanon and Israel has killed 580 people in Lebanon, mostly Hezbollah fighters but including at least 128 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
On the Israeli side, including in the annexed Golan Heights, 22 soldiers and 26 civilians have been killed, according to army figures.
Hezbollah and Israel fought a war in 2006.
Agence France-Presse . Beirut 17 August, 2024, 23:41
Relatives mourn over the bodies of four members of the same family, including two children, killed in an Israeli strike in the Wadi al-Kafur area of the southern Lebanese Nabatiyeh district on Saturday. | AFP photo
Lebanon’s health ministry said an Israeli air strike on Saturday in southern Lebanon killed 10 Syrians, as the Israeli military reported hitting weapons stores of the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement.
The toll from the strike in the Wadi al-Kafur area of Nabatieh is one of the largest in southern Lebanon since Hezbollah and Israeli forces began exchanging near-daily fire over their border after war in the Gaza Strip began in October.
International mediators have been trying to reach a Gaza ceasefire between Israel and Hamas Palestinian militants, which diplomats say could help to avert a wider war in which Lebanon would be on the front line.
The death toll from the latest strike included ‘a woman and her two children’ while five other people were wounded, most of them also Syrian, Lebanon’s health ministry said in a statement.
The official Lebanese National News Agency reported that the casualties were Syrian refugees and workers.
Israel’s military, on its Telegram channel, said the air force had struck a weapons storage facility of Lebanon’s Hezbollah overnight ‘in the area of Nabatieh’, which is about 12 kilometres (seven miles) from the nearest point of the Israeli border.
Following the deaths in Wadi al-Kafur, Hezbollah said it responded with a volley of Katyusha rockets on Ayelet HaShahar, a community in northern Israel.
None of the roughly 55 projectiles caused any reported injuries but they sparked ‘multiple fires’, Israel’s military said.
Earlier, around 20 kilometres to the north ‘a projectile that crossed from Lebanon’ wounded two soldiers, one of them severely, in the Misgav Am area, Israel’s military said.
The killings in quick succession in late July of Fuad Shukr, a top operations chief of Hezbollah in south Lebanon, and Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh, led to vows of vengeance from Hezbollah, Iran and other Tehran-backed groups in the region which blamed Israel.
The cross-border violence between Lebanon and Israel has killed 580 people in Lebanon, mostly Hezbollah fighters but including at least 128 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
On the Israeli side, including in the annexed Golan Heights, 22 soldiers and 26 civilians have been killed, according to army figures.
Hezbollah and Israel fought a war in 2006.
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Hezbollah claims attacks on north Israel
Lebanese group Hezbollah said yesterday two of its fighters were killed and claimed attacks on northern Israel, including with drones, the latest cross-border violence amid fears of full-blown war.
Hezbollah claims attacks on north Israel
Says two of its fighters killed
Lebanese group Hezbollah said yesterday two of its fighters were killed and claimed attacks on northern Israel, including with drones, the latest cross-border violence amid fears of full-blown war.
The powerful Iran-backed group has exchanged regular cross-border fire with Israeli army in support of ally Hamas since the Israeli offensive in Gaza began on October 7.
Hezbollah said two of its fighters were "martyred on the road to Jerusalem", the phrase it has used to refer to members killed by Israeli fire since October.
The Israeli military said air forces struck "Hezbollah terrorists" in the Hula area and "Hezbollah military structures" elsewhere in south Lebanon.
Lebanon media reported Israeli shelling and raids on several southern areas.
Says two of its fighters killed
Lebanese group Hezbollah said yesterday two of its fighters were killed and claimed attacks on northern Israel, including with drones, the latest cross-border violence amid fears of full-blown war.
The powerful Iran-backed group has exchanged regular cross-border fire with Israeli army in support of ally Hamas since the Israeli offensive in Gaza began on October 7.
Hezbollah said two of its fighters were "martyred on the road to Jerusalem", the phrase it has used to refer to members killed by Israeli fire since October.
The Israeli military said air forces struck "Hezbollah terrorists" in the Hula area and "Hezbollah military structures" elsewhere in south Lebanon.
Lebanon media reported Israeli shelling and raids on several southern areas.
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Israel strikes on Lebanon kill 7
Lebanon’s health ministry said on Friday Israeli strikes killed seven people including a child in different parts of the south, with Hezbollah saying three of its fighters were...
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Israel strikes on Lebanon kill 7
Agence France-Presse . Beirut 23 August, 2024, 23:02
Lebanon’s health ministry said on Friday Israeli strikes killed seven people including a child in different parts of the south, with Hezbollah saying three of its fighters were among the dead.
Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, has exchanged regular fire with Israel in support of its ally Hamas since the Palestinian militant group’s October 7 attack on Israel sparked the Gaza war.
The health ministry said an ‘Israeli enemy drone strike’ killed two people including a ‘seven-year-old’ in Aita al-Shaab, and two other ‘Israeli’ strikes killed five people in three other locations in the south.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said a ‘hostile drone’ targeted a house in Aita al-Shaab with ‘two guided missiles’.
The health ministry said Israeli strikes included a raid ‘on the village of Tayr Harfa that killed three people’, with Hezbollah later mourning three fighters killed by Israeli fire, including a man from that same village.
A source close to the group said that the three fighters were killed in the Tayr Harfa strike.
Israel’s military said its aircraft ‘eliminated’ members of ‘a terrorist cell that was planning to fire projectiles from the area of Tayr Harfa’.
On Friday morning, Hezbollah said it had targeted the northern Israel base of Meron ‘in response to the enemy’s attacks on southern villages and homes’.
The threat of full-blown war grew after Iran and Hezbollah vowed to avenge the killings last month, blamed on Israel, of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and top Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in south Beirut.
Cross-border violence since the Gaza war started has killed 600 people in Lebanon, mostly Hezbollah fighters but including at least 131 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
The Israeli authorities have announced the deaths of at least 23 soldiers and 26 civilians since the escalation began.
Agence France-Presse . Beirut 23 August, 2024, 23:02
Lebanon’s health ministry said on Friday Israeli strikes killed seven people including a child in different parts of the south, with Hezbollah saying three of its fighters were among the dead.
Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, has exchanged regular fire with Israel in support of its ally Hamas since the Palestinian militant group’s October 7 attack on Israel sparked the Gaza war.
The health ministry said an ‘Israeli enemy drone strike’ killed two people including a ‘seven-year-old’ in Aita al-Shaab, and two other ‘Israeli’ strikes killed five people in three other locations in the south.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said a ‘hostile drone’ targeted a house in Aita al-Shaab with ‘two guided missiles’.
The health ministry said Israeli strikes included a raid ‘on the village of Tayr Harfa that killed three people’, with Hezbollah later mourning three fighters killed by Israeli fire, including a man from that same village.
A source close to the group said that the three fighters were killed in the Tayr Harfa strike.
Israel’s military said its aircraft ‘eliminated’ members of ‘a terrorist cell that was planning to fire projectiles from the area of Tayr Harfa’.
On Friday morning, Hezbollah said it had targeted the northern Israel base of Meron ‘in response to the enemy’s attacks on southern villages and homes’.
The threat of full-blown war grew after Iran and Hezbollah vowed to avenge the killings last month, blamed on Israel, of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and top Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in south Beirut.
Cross-border violence since the Gaza war started has killed 600 people in Lebanon, mostly Hezbollah fighters but including at least 131 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
The Israeli authorities have announced the deaths of at least 23 soldiers and 26 civilians since the escalation began.
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UN peacekeepers worried in south Lebanon crossfire
On the deserted border between Lebanon and Israel, Spanish UN peacekeepers have for more than 10 months effectively been caught in a war zone.
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UN peacekeepers worried in south Lebanon crossfire
Agence France-Presse . Palestine 24 August, 2024, 23:10
On the deserted border between Lebanon and Israel, Spanish UN peacekeepers have for more than 10 months effectively been caught in a war zone.
Several Blue Helmets have been wounded in the crossfire between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement, which has also left dozens of Lebanese civilians dead in fallout from the war between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza.
‘Sometimes we need to shelter because of the shelling... sometimes even inside the bunkers,’ said Alvaro Gonzalez Gavalda, a Blue Helmet at Base 964 of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon.
To reach the base, AFP journalists escorted in a UNIFIL convoy passed through virtually deserted villages. Only the occasional grocer or automotive repair shop were still open along the road where fields have been left charred by bombardment.
The base, surrounded by barbed wire and protected with heavy stone-filled berms, is not far from the town of Khiam, where dozens of houses have been destroyed or damaged, about five kilometres (three miles) from the border.
Over a wall that marks the frontier, the Israeli town of Metula is clearly visible. It has also been emptied of residents, as have other communities on both sides of the boundary.
From a watchtower, binoculars help the peacekeepers see further—into the Golan Heights annexed by Israel. The area has been a frequent target of Hezbollah fire.
Spanish Lieutenant Colonel Jose Irisarri said their mission, under Security Council Resolution 1701, is to ‘control the area’ and help the Lebanese government and armed forces establish control south of the Litani River, which is around 30 kilometres from the border with Israel.
The resolution ended a war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006.
It called for all armed personnel to pull back north of the Litani, except for Lebanese state security forces and United Nations peacekeepers.
While Hezbollah has not had a visible military presence in the border area since then, the group still holds sway over large parts of the south.
When Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip attacked Israel on October 7, triggering war with Israel, Hezbollah opened what it calls a ‘support front’ a day later, launching rockets and other fire from southern Lebanon against Israeli positions.
Israel has hit back with air strikes and artillery fire.
‘Some of these villages are completely empty. There is no one living there because of the risk and the constant attacks they are suffering,’ Irisarri said.
The Security Council first established UNIFIL in 1978 after Israel invaded south Lebanon. Its mission was expanded after the 2006 war.
Now, with fears of a wider regional war in which Lebanon would be on the front line, the UN’s Under Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix said UNIFIL’s role is ‘more important than ever’.
Spain’s contingent of 650 soldiers, based at several positions, are among around 10,000 troops from 49 countries in the mission.
‘It’s the only liaison channel between the Israeli side and the Lebanese side in all its components, such as Hezbollah,’ Lacroix told AFP in early August.
UNIFIL’s mandate expires at the end of August and Lebanon has asked for its renewal.
Cross-border violence since the Gaza war started has killed 601 people in Lebanon, mostly Hezbollah fighters but also including at least 131 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
The Israeli authorities have announced the deaths of at least 23 soldiers and 26 civilians since the fighting began, including in the annexed Golan Heights.
The Spaniards don’t just limit themselves to their core mission. They also give ‘support and some help’ to the local population, Irisarri said.
As an example, he said their psychological team assists students with special needs.
AFP was unable to visit the school during its tour on Friday, after the Spanish contingent raised the security level following exchanges of fire in the area.
Israeli strikes in Lebanon’s south on Friday killed seven Hezbollah fighters and a local child, according to Hezbollah and Lebanon’s health ministry. Israel said its military aircraft had hit ‘terrorist’ targets.
The peacekeepers have little time to rest, but have the company of two adopted dogs.
When they do have leisure time, ‘we go to the gym to keep fit and also we enjoy watching movies and talking to some friends’, said Gavalda.
He has been in Lebanon since May.
‘We miss our families,’ but internet enables them to stay in touch almost daily, Gavalda said.
Surrounded by death, the soldiers have set up on their grounds a small statue of the Virgin Mary inside a protective glass case.
Agence France-Presse . Palestine 24 August, 2024, 23:10
On the deserted border between Lebanon and Israel, Spanish UN peacekeepers have for more than 10 months effectively been caught in a war zone.
Several Blue Helmets have been wounded in the crossfire between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement, which has also left dozens of Lebanese civilians dead in fallout from the war between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza.
‘Sometimes we need to shelter because of the shelling... sometimes even inside the bunkers,’ said Alvaro Gonzalez Gavalda, a Blue Helmet at Base 964 of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon.
To reach the base, AFP journalists escorted in a UNIFIL convoy passed through virtually deserted villages. Only the occasional grocer or automotive repair shop were still open along the road where fields have been left charred by bombardment.
The base, surrounded by barbed wire and protected with heavy stone-filled berms, is not far from the town of Khiam, where dozens of houses have been destroyed or damaged, about five kilometres (three miles) from the border.
Over a wall that marks the frontier, the Israeli town of Metula is clearly visible. It has also been emptied of residents, as have other communities on both sides of the boundary.
From a watchtower, binoculars help the peacekeepers see further—into the Golan Heights annexed by Israel. The area has been a frequent target of Hezbollah fire.
Spanish Lieutenant Colonel Jose Irisarri said their mission, under Security Council Resolution 1701, is to ‘control the area’ and help the Lebanese government and armed forces establish control south of the Litani River, which is around 30 kilometres from the border with Israel.
The resolution ended a war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006.
It called for all armed personnel to pull back north of the Litani, except for Lebanese state security forces and United Nations peacekeepers.
While Hezbollah has not had a visible military presence in the border area since then, the group still holds sway over large parts of the south.
When Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip attacked Israel on October 7, triggering war with Israel, Hezbollah opened what it calls a ‘support front’ a day later, launching rockets and other fire from southern Lebanon against Israeli positions.
Israel has hit back with air strikes and artillery fire.
‘Some of these villages are completely empty. There is no one living there because of the risk and the constant attacks they are suffering,’ Irisarri said.
The Security Council first established UNIFIL in 1978 after Israel invaded south Lebanon. Its mission was expanded after the 2006 war.
Now, with fears of a wider regional war in which Lebanon would be on the front line, the UN’s Under Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix said UNIFIL’s role is ‘more important than ever’.
Spain’s contingent of 650 soldiers, based at several positions, are among around 10,000 troops from 49 countries in the mission.
‘It’s the only liaison channel between the Israeli side and the Lebanese side in all its components, such as Hezbollah,’ Lacroix told AFP in early August.
UNIFIL’s mandate expires at the end of August and Lebanon has asked for its renewal.
Cross-border violence since the Gaza war started has killed 601 people in Lebanon, mostly Hezbollah fighters but also including at least 131 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
The Israeli authorities have announced the deaths of at least 23 soldiers and 26 civilians since the fighting began, including in the annexed Golan Heights.
The Spaniards don’t just limit themselves to their core mission. They also give ‘support and some help’ to the local population, Irisarri said.
As an example, he said their psychological team assists students with special needs.
AFP was unable to visit the school during its tour on Friday, after the Spanish contingent raised the security level following exchanges of fire in the area.
Israeli strikes in Lebanon’s south on Friday killed seven Hezbollah fighters and a local child, according to Hezbollah and Lebanon’s health ministry. Israel said its military aircraft had hit ‘terrorist’ targets.
The peacekeepers have little time to rest, but have the company of two adopted dogs.
When they do have leisure time, ‘we go to the gym to keep fit and also we enjoy watching movies and talking to some friends’, said Gavalda.
He has been in Lebanon since May.
‘We miss our families,’ but internet enables them to stay in touch almost daily, Gavalda said.
Surrounded by death, the soldiers have set up on their grounds a small statue of the Virgin Mary inside a protective glass case.
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Israel strikes Lebanon
Israel launched air strikes into Lebanon on Sunday, saying that it had thwarted a large-scale Hezbollah attack, while the Lebanese group announced its own cross-border raids to avenge a top commander’s killing...
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Israel strikes Lebanon
Agence France-Presse . Jerusalem 26 August, 2024, 00:38
Israel launched air strikes into Lebanon on Sunday, saying that it had thwarted a large-scale Hezbollah attack, while the Lebanese group announced its own cross-border raids to avenge a top commander’s killing.
The Israeli military said its fighter jets had destroyed ‘thousands’ of Hezbollah rocket launchers ‘aimed toward northern Israel and some were aimed toward central Israel’, far from the border.
Hezbollah, the powerful Iran-backed Lebanese armed group, countered that Israel was making ‘empty claims’ of having thwarted a larger attack, and said its own operation for Sunday ‘was completed and accomplished’.
The office of the United Nations special coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, and the UNIFIL peacekeeping force urged ‘all to cease fire and refrain from further escalatory action’.
Hezbollah said its leader Hassan Nasrallah was due to speak on the ‘latest developments’ at 6:00pm (1500 GMT).
The group has traded near-daily cross-border fire with Israeli forces throughout the Gaza war, in a campaign Hezbollah says is in support of Palestinian ally Hamas.
But fears of a wider regional conflagration soared after attacks in late July blamed on Israel killed Iran-aligned militant leaders, including Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr, prompting vows of revenge.
Hezbollah, which last fought a major war against Israel in 2006, said its militants launched ‘a large number of drones’ and ‘more than 320’ Katyusha rockets targeting ‘enemy positions’ across the border.
The Lebanese movement said its attack was an ‘initial response’ to Shukr’s killing, adding that it had ‘ended with total success’, although the extent of the damage on the Israeli side was not immediately clear.
Lebanon’s health ministry reported at least three dead in Israeli strikes in the country’s south. No casualties were immediately reported in Israel.
Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said his country’s strikes were meant ‘to remove the threats aimed at the citizens of Israel’.
Another military spokesman, Nadav Shoshani, said Hezbollah’s strikes were ‘part of a larger attack that was planned and we were able to thwart a big part of it this morning’.
Israeli authorities declared a 48-hour state of emergency but later relaxed most of the restrictions.
By 7:00am (0400 GMT) flights had resumed at Israel’s main international airport after a brief suspension, the aviation authority said.
In Lebanon, Beirut airport did not close but some airlines, including Royal Jordanian and Etihad Airways, cancelled flights.
Air France said it was suspending flights to Tel Aviv and Beirut for at least 24 hours.
The United States, Israel’s top arms provider, said its military was ‘postured’ to support its ally.
The Israel-Hamas war, triggered by Hamas’s October 7 attack, had already drawn in Iran-backed groups like Hezbollah and Yemen’s Huthi rebels.
The Huthis hailed the Hezbollah attack and declared that their own response for an Israeli strike on a key Yemeni port on July 20 was ‘definitely coming’.
The fighting between Israeli forces and Hezbollah has killed hundreds, mostly in Lebanon, and displaced tens of thousands of residents in both southern Lebanon and northern Israel.
Some 605 people have been killed on the Lebanese side, mostly Hezbollah fighters, but including at least 131 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
On the Israeli side, including in the annexed Golan Heights, authorities say 23 soldiers and 26 civilians have been killed.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened his security cabinet and vowed ‘to do everything to return the residents of the north safely to their homes’ after more than 10 months of violence.
Lebanese prime minister Najib Mikati told an emergency cabinet meeting he was in contact with ‘Lebanon’s friends to stop the escalation’.
In a call with Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant, his US counterpart Lloyd Austin reaffirmed ‘ironclad commitment to Israel’s defence against any attacks by Iran and its regional partners and proxies’, the Pentagon said.
Shukr’s death last month and an attack hours later that killed Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran ratcheted up concerns that the Gaza war could spiral into a broader conflict.
Hamas said Hezbollah’s Sunday attack was ‘strong’, hailing it as ‘a slap in the face’ for Israel.
In recent weeks, Western and Arab diplomats have sought to head off a broader response to the killings, as mediators were making their latest push towards a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal.
An official from Netanyahu’s office said a decision would be made later about whether Israeli spy chiefs would attend planned talks in Cairo on Sunday.
Hamas has said a delegation would go to Cairo but only to meet Egyptian officials, rather than participate in the discussions.
On the ground in the besieged Palestinian territory, an AFP correspondent reported strikes and shelling in Gaza City, where rescuers said at least three people were killed.
Witnesses said battles raged in the area of Deir al-Balah, further south.
Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,199 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 40,405 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which does not break down civilian and militant deaths. The UN rights office says most of the dead are women and children.
Out of 251 hostages seized by Palestinian militants in their attack, 105 remain in Gaza including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
Agence France-Presse . Jerusalem 26 August, 2024, 00:38
Israel launched air strikes into Lebanon on Sunday, saying that it had thwarted a large-scale Hezbollah attack, while the Lebanese group announced its own cross-border raids to avenge a top commander’s killing.
The Israeli military said its fighter jets had destroyed ‘thousands’ of Hezbollah rocket launchers ‘aimed toward northern Israel and some were aimed toward central Israel’, far from the border.
Hezbollah, the powerful Iran-backed Lebanese armed group, countered that Israel was making ‘empty claims’ of having thwarted a larger attack, and said its own operation for Sunday ‘was completed and accomplished’.
The office of the United Nations special coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, and the UNIFIL peacekeeping force urged ‘all to cease fire and refrain from further escalatory action’.
Hezbollah said its leader Hassan Nasrallah was due to speak on the ‘latest developments’ at 6:00pm (1500 GMT).
The group has traded near-daily cross-border fire with Israeli forces throughout the Gaza war, in a campaign Hezbollah says is in support of Palestinian ally Hamas.
But fears of a wider regional conflagration soared after attacks in late July blamed on Israel killed Iran-aligned militant leaders, including Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr, prompting vows of revenge.
Hezbollah, which last fought a major war against Israel in 2006, said its militants launched ‘a large number of drones’ and ‘more than 320’ Katyusha rockets targeting ‘enemy positions’ across the border.
The Lebanese movement said its attack was an ‘initial response’ to Shukr’s killing, adding that it had ‘ended with total success’, although the extent of the damage on the Israeli side was not immediately clear.
Lebanon’s health ministry reported at least three dead in Israeli strikes in the country’s south. No casualties were immediately reported in Israel.
Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said his country’s strikes were meant ‘to remove the threats aimed at the citizens of Israel’.
Another military spokesman, Nadav Shoshani, said Hezbollah’s strikes were ‘part of a larger attack that was planned and we were able to thwart a big part of it this morning’.
Israeli authorities declared a 48-hour state of emergency but later relaxed most of the restrictions.
By 7:00am (0400 GMT) flights had resumed at Israel’s main international airport after a brief suspension, the aviation authority said.
In Lebanon, Beirut airport did not close but some airlines, including Royal Jordanian and Etihad Airways, cancelled flights.
Air France said it was suspending flights to Tel Aviv and Beirut for at least 24 hours.
The United States, Israel’s top arms provider, said its military was ‘postured’ to support its ally.
The Israel-Hamas war, triggered by Hamas’s October 7 attack, had already drawn in Iran-backed groups like Hezbollah and Yemen’s Huthi rebels.
The Huthis hailed the Hezbollah attack and declared that their own response for an Israeli strike on a key Yemeni port on July 20 was ‘definitely coming’.
The fighting between Israeli forces and Hezbollah has killed hundreds, mostly in Lebanon, and displaced tens of thousands of residents in both southern Lebanon and northern Israel.
Some 605 people have been killed on the Lebanese side, mostly Hezbollah fighters, but including at least 131 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
On the Israeli side, including in the annexed Golan Heights, authorities say 23 soldiers and 26 civilians have been killed.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened his security cabinet and vowed ‘to do everything to return the residents of the north safely to their homes’ after more than 10 months of violence.
Lebanese prime minister Najib Mikati told an emergency cabinet meeting he was in contact with ‘Lebanon’s friends to stop the escalation’.
In a call with Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant, his US counterpart Lloyd Austin reaffirmed ‘ironclad commitment to Israel’s defence against any attacks by Iran and its regional partners and proxies’, the Pentagon said.
Shukr’s death last month and an attack hours later that killed Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran ratcheted up concerns that the Gaza war could spiral into a broader conflict.
Hamas said Hezbollah’s Sunday attack was ‘strong’, hailing it as ‘a slap in the face’ for Israel.
In recent weeks, Western and Arab diplomats have sought to head off a broader response to the killings, as mediators were making their latest push towards a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal.
An official from Netanyahu’s office said a decision would be made later about whether Israeli spy chiefs would attend planned talks in Cairo on Sunday.
Hamas has said a delegation would go to Cairo but only to meet Egyptian officials, rather than participate in the discussions.
On the ground in the besieged Palestinian territory, an AFP correspondent reported strikes and shelling in Gaza City, where rescuers said at least three people were killed.
Witnesses said battles raged in the area of Deir al-Balah, further south.
Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,199 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 40,405 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which does not break down civilian and militant deaths. The UN rights office says most of the dead are women and children.
Out of 251 hostages seized by Palestinian militants in their attack, 105 remain in Gaza including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
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Israel strikes Gaza after Lebanon flare-up
Israel’s military struck the Gaza Strip on Monday a day after truce talks in Cairo coincided with a major but brief cross-border escalation involving Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon...
www.newagebd.net
Israel strikes Gaza after Lebanon flare-up
Agence France-Presse . Palestinian Territories 26 August, 2024, 23:52
Israel’s military struck the Gaza Strip on Monday a day after truce talks in Cairo coincided with a major but brief cross-border escalation involving Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The Gaza war, triggered by Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, has drawn in Tehran-aligned armed groups across the Middle East, repeatedly heightening fears of a broader regional conflagration.
In the latest flare-up between Israel and Hamas-ally Hezbollah, the Lebanese group on Sunday launched rockets and drones in retaliation for a top commander’s killing as Israel carried out air raids the military said thwarted a larger attack.
Israel swiftly revoked a state of emergency declared early on Sunday, and Hezbollah said its operation was ‘completed’.
Intense diplomacy has sought to head off a broader retaliation for the late July killings of senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in an Israeli strike on Beirut, and of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.
Mediators held meetings in the Egyptian capital on Sunday but reported no breakthrough in months of protracted negotiations to end the Gaza war as the fighting raged on.
A key sticking point has been Israel’s insistence that it keep control of several strategic areas, including the so-called Philadelphi Corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border, to stop Hamas from re-arming, something the militant group has refused to countenance.
Cairo, which has been mediating the talks alongside Qatar and the United States, made clear on Monday it would not support continued Israeli control of the corridor, according to state-linked media.
Egypt ‘reiterated to all parties that it will not accept any Israeli presence’ along the corridor, Al-Qahera news reported, citing a high-level source.
On the ground, witnesses and AFP correspondents reported air strikes and shelling in Gaza City and other parts of the besieged Palestinian territory overnight and Israel’s military said it had struck militants in the south.
Medics said an air strike on a Gaza City house killed at least five people, with two rescuers telling AFP more victims may be buried in the ruins in Al-Rimal neighbourhood.
‘There are still martyrs and body parts under the rubble,’ ambulance driver Hussein Muhaysen said.
An Israeli military statement said troops had ‘eliminated’ dozens of militants over the past day in the southern areas of Khan Yunis and Rafah, and near Deir al-Balah in central Gaza.
Hamas’s October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,199 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 40,435 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which does not break down civilian and militant deaths. The UN rights office says most of the dead are women and children.
Out of 251 hostages seized by Palestinian militants in their attack, 105 remain in Gaza including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
Hezbollah has traded near-daily fire with Israeli forces throughout the war, in what the group says is support for its Palestinian ally Hamas.
After weeks of retaliation threats, Hezbollah early on Sunday launched what it said was part of its response to Shukr’s killing.
Speaking hours after Hezbollah announced its attacks on Israel with hundreds of rockets and drones, the group’s chief Hassan Nasrallah said the ‘main target’ was an intelligence base outside Tel Aviv, more than 100 kilometres from the Lebanese border.
Israel’s military said there were ‘no hits’ on the Glilot intelligence complex, which according to Israeli media is home to the headquarters of the Mossad spy agency.
Israeli air strikes at the same time hit more than 270 targets in Lebanon, ‘90 per cent’ of which were rockets ‘aimed at northern Israel’, the military said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his cabinet the strikes were ‘not the final word’ in the campaign against Hezbollah.
Nasrallah appeared to suggest Hezbollah’s retaliation for Shukr’s killing might be over, saying ‘if the result is satisfactory’ then its response ‘has been accomplished’.
Iranian foreign minister Nasser Kanani praised the Hezbollah attack, saying the ‘strategic balance has undergone fundamental changes’ to the detriment of Israel.
A Hamas official said that a delegation from the group met mediators in Egypt’s capital on Sunday. Israeli negotiators were also scheduled to go to Cairo.
The talks have been based on a framework laid out in late May by US president Joe Biden and a ‘bridging proposal’ Washington put forth earlier this month with support from Qatari and Egyptian mediators.
More than 10 months of war have left large parts of Gaza in ruins, ravaged its healthcare system and sparked a dire humanitarian crisis and warnings of famine.
A batch of polio vaccines entered Gaza on Sunday, Israeli authorities said. UN agencies have planned a mass inoculation drive after the first case there in 25 years was confirmed.
Successive Israeli evacuation orders have forced many Gazans, most of whom have already been displaced at least once by the war, to move again.
Speaking to AFP on Sunday from her hospital bed outside the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, Tamam al-Raei said she did not know where to seek safety.
‘I have a war injury. I have broken bones and have had an amputation, and I have been receiving treatment for that,’ she said.
‘But now they’re telling us to evacuate Al-Aqsa. Where do we go? Where do I get treatment?’
Agence France-Presse . Palestinian Territories 26 August, 2024, 23:52
Israel’s military struck the Gaza Strip on Monday a day after truce talks in Cairo coincided with a major but brief cross-border escalation involving Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The Gaza war, triggered by Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, has drawn in Tehran-aligned armed groups across the Middle East, repeatedly heightening fears of a broader regional conflagration.
In the latest flare-up between Israel and Hamas-ally Hezbollah, the Lebanese group on Sunday launched rockets and drones in retaliation for a top commander’s killing as Israel carried out air raids the military said thwarted a larger attack.
Israel swiftly revoked a state of emergency declared early on Sunday, and Hezbollah said its operation was ‘completed’.
Intense diplomacy has sought to head off a broader retaliation for the late July killings of senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in an Israeli strike on Beirut, and of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.
Mediators held meetings in the Egyptian capital on Sunday but reported no breakthrough in months of protracted negotiations to end the Gaza war as the fighting raged on.
A key sticking point has been Israel’s insistence that it keep control of several strategic areas, including the so-called Philadelphi Corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border, to stop Hamas from re-arming, something the militant group has refused to countenance.
Cairo, which has been mediating the talks alongside Qatar and the United States, made clear on Monday it would not support continued Israeli control of the corridor, according to state-linked media.
Egypt ‘reiterated to all parties that it will not accept any Israeli presence’ along the corridor, Al-Qahera news reported, citing a high-level source.
On the ground, witnesses and AFP correspondents reported air strikes and shelling in Gaza City and other parts of the besieged Palestinian territory overnight and Israel’s military said it had struck militants in the south.
Medics said an air strike on a Gaza City house killed at least five people, with two rescuers telling AFP more victims may be buried in the ruins in Al-Rimal neighbourhood.
‘There are still martyrs and body parts under the rubble,’ ambulance driver Hussein Muhaysen said.
An Israeli military statement said troops had ‘eliminated’ dozens of militants over the past day in the southern areas of Khan Yunis and Rafah, and near Deir al-Balah in central Gaza.
Hamas’s October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,199 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 40,435 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which does not break down civilian and militant deaths. The UN rights office says most of the dead are women and children.
Out of 251 hostages seized by Palestinian militants in their attack, 105 remain in Gaza including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
Hezbollah has traded near-daily fire with Israeli forces throughout the war, in what the group says is support for its Palestinian ally Hamas.
After weeks of retaliation threats, Hezbollah early on Sunday launched what it said was part of its response to Shukr’s killing.
Speaking hours after Hezbollah announced its attacks on Israel with hundreds of rockets and drones, the group’s chief Hassan Nasrallah said the ‘main target’ was an intelligence base outside Tel Aviv, more than 100 kilometres from the Lebanese border.
Israel’s military said there were ‘no hits’ on the Glilot intelligence complex, which according to Israeli media is home to the headquarters of the Mossad spy agency.
Israeli air strikes at the same time hit more than 270 targets in Lebanon, ‘90 per cent’ of which were rockets ‘aimed at northern Israel’, the military said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his cabinet the strikes were ‘not the final word’ in the campaign against Hezbollah.
Nasrallah appeared to suggest Hezbollah’s retaliation for Shukr’s killing might be over, saying ‘if the result is satisfactory’ then its response ‘has been accomplished’.
Iranian foreign minister Nasser Kanani praised the Hezbollah attack, saying the ‘strategic balance has undergone fundamental changes’ to the detriment of Israel.
A Hamas official said that a delegation from the group met mediators in Egypt’s capital on Sunday. Israeli negotiators were also scheduled to go to Cairo.
The talks have been based on a framework laid out in late May by US president Joe Biden and a ‘bridging proposal’ Washington put forth earlier this month with support from Qatari and Egyptian mediators.
More than 10 months of war have left large parts of Gaza in ruins, ravaged its healthcare system and sparked a dire humanitarian crisis and warnings of famine.
A batch of polio vaccines entered Gaza on Sunday, Israeli authorities said. UN agencies have planned a mass inoculation drive after the first case there in 25 years was confirmed.
Successive Israeli evacuation orders have forced many Gazans, most of whom have already been displaced at least once by the war, to move again.
Speaking to AFP on Sunday from her hospital bed outside the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, Tamam al-Raei said she did not know where to seek safety.
‘I have a war injury. I have broken bones and have had an amputation, and I have been receiving treatment for that,’ she said.
‘But now they’re telling us to evacuate Al-Aqsa. Where do we go? Where do I get treatment?’
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9 dead, 2,800 hurt as Hezbollah hit by pager blasts
Hundreds of pagers used by Hezbollah members exploded across Lebanon yesterday, killing at least nine people and wounding some 2,800 in blasts the Iran-backed militant group blamed on Israel.
9 dead, 2,800 hurt as Hezbollah hit by pager blasts
Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli strike on the southern Lebanese village of Taybeh on September 16, 2024, amid ongoing cross-border clashes between Israeli troops and Lebanon's Hezbollah fighters. Photo: AFP
Hundreds of pagers used by Hezbollah members exploded across Lebanon yesterday, killing at least nine people and wounding some 2,800 in blasts the Iran-backed militant group blamed on Israel.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the wave of explosions, which came just hours after Israel announced it was broadening the aims of the war sparked by Hamas's October 7 attacks to include its fight against Hezbollah along its border with Lebanon.
The sons of Hezbollah lawmakers Ali Ammar and Hassan Fadlallah were among the dead, a source close to the group told AFP, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
The blasts "killed nine people, including a girl", Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad said in a casualty update.
He added that some "2,800 people were injured, about 200 of them critically" with injuries mostly reported to the face, hands and stomach.
The 10-year-old daughter of a Hezbollah member was killed in east Lebanon's Bekaa Valley when his pager exploded, the family and a source close to the group said.
Tehran's ambassador to Beirut was also wounded in a pager explosion but his injuries were not serious, Iranian state media reported.
In neighbouring Syria, 14 people were wounded "after pagers used by Hezbollah exploded", said a Britain-based war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Hezbollah blamed Israel for the blasts and warned it would be punished.
"We hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression," the group said in a statement, adding that Israel "will certainly receive its just punishment for this sinful aggression".
The United States, Israel's top arms provider and close ally, was "not involved" and "not aware of this incident in advance", said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.
The afternoon blasts hit Hezbollah strongholds across Lebanon and dealt a heavy blow to the militant group, which already had concerns about the security of its communications after losing several key commanders to targeted air strikes in recent months.
Hezbollah had instructed its members to avoid mobile phones after the Gaza war began and to rely instead on the group's own telecommunications system to prevent Israeli breaches.
"Hundreds of Hezbollah members were injured by the simultaneous explosion of their pagers" in the group's strongholds in Beirut's southern suburbs, in south Lebanon and in the eastern Bekaa Valley, a Hezbollah source said, requesting anonymity.
AFP journalists saw dozens of wounded being taken to hospital in Beirut and in the south, where dozens of ambulances rushed between the cities of Tyre and Sidon in both directions.
Education Minister Abbas Halabi announced the closure of schools and universities on Wednesday "in condemnation of the criminal act committed by the Israeli enemy".
Israel expands war aims
Earlier Tuesday, Israel announced it was broadening the aims of the war sparked by the Hamas attacks to include its fight against Hezbollah along its border with Lebanon.
To date, Israel's objectives have been to crush Hamas and bring home the hostages seized by Palestinian militants during the October 7 attacks that sparked the war.
"The political-security cabinet updated the goals of the war this evening, so that they include the following section: the safe return of the residents of the north to their homes," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement.
Since October, the unabating exchanges of fire between Israeli troops and Hamas ally Hezbollah in Lebanon have forced tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border to flee their homes.
Not formally declared as a war by Israel, the exchanges of fire between Israeli troops and Hezbollah have killed hundreds of mostly fighters in Lebanon, and dozens on the Israeli side.
On Monday, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant warned that failing a political solution, "military action" would be "the only way left to ensure the return of Israel's northern communities".
Hezbollah, which like Hamas is backed by Israel's regional arch-foe Iran, claimed a dozen attacks on Israeli positions on Monday and three more on Tuesday.
Before the wave of pager explosions, Israel said it killed three Hezbollah members in a strike on Lebanon on Tuesday.
"The possibility for an agreement is running out as Hezbollah continues to tie itself to Hamas," Gallant's office quoted him as telling visiting US envoy Amos Hochstein.
Netanyahu later told Hochstein he was seeking a "fundamental change" in the security situation on Israel's northern border.
Hezbollah deputy chief Naim Qassem said at the weekend that his group had "no intention of going to war", but that "there will be large losses on both sides" in the event of all-out conflict.
Blinken headed back to region
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was due back in the region to try to revive stalled ceasefire talks for the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
After months of mediated negotiations failed to pin down a ceasefire, Washington said it was still pushing all sides to finalise an agreement.
US officials have expressed increasing frustration with Israel as Netanyahu has publicly rejected US assessments that a deal is nearly complete and has insisted on an Israeli military presence on the Egypt-Gaza border.
The October 7 attack on southern Israel that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Militants also seized 251 hostages, 97 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel's retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,252 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry, which does not provide a breakdown of civilian and militant deaths.
On Tuesday, UN member states were debating a draft resolution demanding an end to the Israeli occupation of all Palestinian territories within 12 months.
General Assembly resolutions are not binding, but Israel has already denounced the new text as "disgraceful".
In Gaza, rescuers said several Israeli air strikes killed at least seven people overnight.
Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli strike on the southern Lebanese village of Taybeh on September 16, 2024, amid ongoing cross-border clashes between Israeli troops and Lebanon's Hezbollah fighters. Photo: AFP
Hundreds of pagers used by Hezbollah members exploded across Lebanon yesterday, killing at least nine people and wounding some 2,800 in blasts the Iran-backed militant group blamed on Israel.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the wave of explosions, which came just hours after Israel announced it was broadening the aims of the war sparked by Hamas's October 7 attacks to include its fight against Hezbollah along its border with Lebanon.
The sons of Hezbollah lawmakers Ali Ammar and Hassan Fadlallah were among the dead, a source close to the group told AFP, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
The blasts "killed nine people, including a girl", Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad said in a casualty update.
He added that some "2,800 people were injured, about 200 of them critically" with injuries mostly reported to the face, hands and stomach.
The 10-year-old daughter of a Hezbollah member was killed in east Lebanon's Bekaa Valley when his pager exploded, the family and a source close to the group said.
Tehran's ambassador to Beirut was also wounded in a pager explosion but his injuries were not serious, Iranian state media reported.
In neighbouring Syria, 14 people were wounded "after pagers used by Hezbollah exploded", said a Britain-based war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Hezbollah blamed Israel for the blasts and warned it would be punished.
"We hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression," the group said in a statement, adding that Israel "will certainly receive its just punishment for this sinful aggression".
The United States, Israel's top arms provider and close ally, was "not involved" and "not aware of this incident in advance", said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.
The afternoon blasts hit Hezbollah strongholds across Lebanon and dealt a heavy blow to the militant group, which already had concerns about the security of its communications after losing several key commanders to targeted air strikes in recent months.
Hezbollah had instructed its members to avoid mobile phones after the Gaza war began and to rely instead on the group's own telecommunications system to prevent Israeli breaches.
"Hundreds of Hezbollah members were injured by the simultaneous explosion of their pagers" in the group's strongholds in Beirut's southern suburbs, in south Lebanon and in the eastern Bekaa Valley, a Hezbollah source said, requesting anonymity.
AFP journalists saw dozens of wounded being taken to hospital in Beirut and in the south, where dozens of ambulances rushed between the cities of Tyre and Sidon in both directions.
Education Minister Abbas Halabi announced the closure of schools and universities on Wednesday "in condemnation of the criminal act committed by the Israeli enemy".
Israel expands war aims
Earlier Tuesday, Israel announced it was broadening the aims of the war sparked by the Hamas attacks to include its fight against Hezbollah along its border with Lebanon.
To date, Israel's objectives have been to crush Hamas and bring home the hostages seized by Palestinian militants during the October 7 attacks that sparked the war.
"The political-security cabinet updated the goals of the war this evening, so that they include the following section: the safe return of the residents of the north to their homes," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement.
Since October, the unabating exchanges of fire between Israeli troops and Hamas ally Hezbollah in Lebanon have forced tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border to flee their homes.
Not formally declared as a war by Israel, the exchanges of fire between Israeli troops and Hezbollah have killed hundreds of mostly fighters in Lebanon, and dozens on the Israeli side.
On Monday, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant warned that failing a political solution, "military action" would be "the only way left to ensure the return of Israel's northern communities".
Hezbollah, which like Hamas is backed by Israel's regional arch-foe Iran, claimed a dozen attacks on Israeli positions on Monday and three more on Tuesday.
Before the wave of pager explosions, Israel said it killed three Hezbollah members in a strike on Lebanon on Tuesday.
"The possibility for an agreement is running out as Hezbollah continues to tie itself to Hamas," Gallant's office quoted him as telling visiting US envoy Amos Hochstein.
Netanyahu later told Hochstein he was seeking a "fundamental change" in the security situation on Israel's northern border.
Hezbollah deputy chief Naim Qassem said at the weekend that his group had "no intention of going to war", but that "there will be large losses on both sides" in the event of all-out conflict.
Blinken headed back to region
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was due back in the region to try to revive stalled ceasefire talks for the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
After months of mediated negotiations failed to pin down a ceasefire, Washington said it was still pushing all sides to finalise an agreement.
US officials have expressed increasing frustration with Israel as Netanyahu has publicly rejected US assessments that a deal is nearly complete and has insisted on an Israeli military presence on the Egypt-Gaza border.
The October 7 attack on southern Israel that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Militants also seized 251 hostages, 97 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel's retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,252 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry, which does not provide a breakdown of civilian and militant deaths.
On Tuesday, UN member states were debating a draft resolution demanding an end to the Israeli occupation of all Palestinian territories within 12 months.
General Assembly resolutions are not binding, but Israel has already denounced the new text as "disgraceful".
In Gaza, rescuers said several Israeli air strikes killed at least seven people overnight.
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Israel widens focus of war to include Lebanon front
Israel announced the expansion of its war aims on Tuesday, widening its nearly year-long fight against Hamas in Gaza to focus on Hezbollah along its northern border with Lebanon...
www.newagebd.net
Israel widens focus of war to include Lebanon front
Agence France-Presse . Jerusalem 17 September, 2024, 23:55
Israel announced the expansion of its war aims on Tuesday, widening its nearly year-long fight against Hamas in Gaza to focus on Hezbollah along its northern border with Lebanon.
The announcement came with US secretary of state Antony Blinken due back in the region this week to try to revive stalled ceasefire talks for the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
Until now, Israel’s objectives have been to crush Hamas and to bring home the hostages taken by Palestinian militants during the October 7 attacks that sparked the war.
While the focus of the war has been on Gaza, the unabating exchanges of fire between Israeli troops and Hamas ally Hezbollah in Lebanon have forced tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border to flee their homes.
‘The political-security cabinet updated the goals of the war this evening, so that they include the following section: the safe return of the residents of the north to their homes,’ Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement early Tuesday.
Not formally declared as a war, the exchanges of fire between Israeli troops and Hezbollah have killed hundreds of mostly fighters in Lebanon, and dozens of civilians and soldiers on the Israeli side.
On Monday, Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant said ‘military action’ was the ‘only way left to ensure the return of Israel’s northern communities’.
Hezbollah, which like Hamas is backed by Israel’s regional arch-foe Iran, claimed a dozen attacks on Israeli positions on Monday and three more on Tuesday.
An Israeli strike on Tuesday killed three people in Lebanon, according to the Lebanese health ministry, with Israel saying they were Hezbollah members.
‘The possibility for an agreement is running out as Hezbollah continues to tie itself to Hamas,’ Gallant was quoted as telling visiting US envoy Amos Hochstein in a statement from his office.
Netanyahu later told Hochstein he was seeking a ‘fundamental change’ in the security situation on Israel’s northern border.
Hezbollah deputy chief Naim Qassem said at the weekend that his group had ‘no intention of going to war’, but that ‘there will be large losses on both sides’ in the event of all-out conflict.
For now, it is unlikely Israel’s battle with Hezbollah will end.
‘Without a ceasefire in Gaza, there will be no agreement on the question of the border with Lebanon,’ said Michael Horowitz, of the Le Beck International security consultancy.
Israel’s aim in expanding the war would be to ‘create a ‘buffer zone’ in southern Lebanon’, Horowitz added.
Hamas, meanwhile, said it was readying for more war, with assistance from fighters and support from across the region.
In a letter to the group’s Yemeni allies, the Iran-backed Huthis, Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar said: ‘We have prepared ourselves to fight a long war of attrition.’
‘Our combined efforts with you will break this enemy and inflict defeat on it’, Sinwar said.
While months of mediated negotiations have failed to pin down a ceasefire, the United States said it was still pushing all sides to finalise an agreement.
To bridge the remaining gaps, Washington was working ‘expeditiously’ on a new proposal, said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.
Miller said Blinken would discuss during a visit to Egypt this week ‘on-going efforts to reach a ceasefire in Gaza that secures the release of all hostages, alleviates the suffering of the Palestinian people, and helps establish broader regional security’.
US officials have increasingly expressed their frustrations with Israel as Netanyahu has publicly rejected US assessments that the deal is nearly complete and has insisted on an Israeli military presence on the Egypt-Gaza border.
Mounting pressure has failed to sway him to agree to a hostage release deal that has wide support from the Israeli public.
The October 7 attack on southern Israel that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Militants also seized 251 hostages, 97 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,252 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which does not provide a breakdown of civilian and militant deaths.
On Tuesday, UN member states will debate a draft resolution demanding an end to the Israeli occupation of all Palestinian territories within 12 months.
General Assembly resolutions are not binding, but Israel has already denounced the new text as ‘disgraceful’.
In Gaza, rescuers said several Israeli air strikes killed at least seven people overnight.
‘This war has left nothing untouched and has killed everything in us, our mental and physical health, our social fabric, our future and our dreams,’ Ola Halilo, a 32-year-old Gazan woman living in a makeshift displacement camp.
‘It has separated us from our loved ones, destroyed everything that was beautiful in our lives.’
Agence France-Presse . Jerusalem 17 September, 2024, 23:55
Israel announced the expansion of its war aims on Tuesday, widening its nearly year-long fight against Hamas in Gaza to focus on Hezbollah along its northern border with Lebanon.
The announcement came with US secretary of state Antony Blinken due back in the region this week to try to revive stalled ceasefire talks for the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
Until now, Israel’s objectives have been to crush Hamas and to bring home the hostages taken by Palestinian militants during the October 7 attacks that sparked the war.
While the focus of the war has been on Gaza, the unabating exchanges of fire between Israeli troops and Hamas ally Hezbollah in Lebanon have forced tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border to flee their homes.
‘The political-security cabinet updated the goals of the war this evening, so that they include the following section: the safe return of the residents of the north to their homes,’ Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement early Tuesday.
Not formally declared as a war, the exchanges of fire between Israeli troops and Hezbollah have killed hundreds of mostly fighters in Lebanon, and dozens of civilians and soldiers on the Israeli side.
On Monday, Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant said ‘military action’ was the ‘only way left to ensure the return of Israel’s northern communities’.
Hezbollah, which like Hamas is backed by Israel’s regional arch-foe Iran, claimed a dozen attacks on Israeli positions on Monday and three more on Tuesday.
An Israeli strike on Tuesday killed three people in Lebanon, according to the Lebanese health ministry, with Israel saying they were Hezbollah members.
‘The possibility for an agreement is running out as Hezbollah continues to tie itself to Hamas,’ Gallant was quoted as telling visiting US envoy Amos Hochstein in a statement from his office.
Netanyahu later told Hochstein he was seeking a ‘fundamental change’ in the security situation on Israel’s northern border.
Hezbollah deputy chief Naim Qassem said at the weekend that his group had ‘no intention of going to war’, but that ‘there will be large losses on both sides’ in the event of all-out conflict.
For now, it is unlikely Israel’s battle with Hezbollah will end.
‘Without a ceasefire in Gaza, there will be no agreement on the question of the border with Lebanon,’ said Michael Horowitz, of the Le Beck International security consultancy.
Israel’s aim in expanding the war would be to ‘create a ‘buffer zone’ in southern Lebanon’, Horowitz added.
Hamas, meanwhile, said it was readying for more war, with assistance from fighters and support from across the region.
In a letter to the group’s Yemeni allies, the Iran-backed Huthis, Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar said: ‘We have prepared ourselves to fight a long war of attrition.’
‘Our combined efforts with you will break this enemy and inflict defeat on it’, Sinwar said.
While months of mediated negotiations have failed to pin down a ceasefire, the United States said it was still pushing all sides to finalise an agreement.
To bridge the remaining gaps, Washington was working ‘expeditiously’ on a new proposal, said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.
Miller said Blinken would discuss during a visit to Egypt this week ‘on-going efforts to reach a ceasefire in Gaza that secures the release of all hostages, alleviates the suffering of the Palestinian people, and helps establish broader regional security’.
US officials have increasingly expressed their frustrations with Israel as Netanyahu has publicly rejected US assessments that the deal is nearly complete and has insisted on an Israeli military presence on the Egypt-Gaza border.
Mounting pressure has failed to sway him to agree to a hostage release deal that has wide support from the Israeli public.
The October 7 attack on southern Israel that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Militants also seized 251 hostages, 97 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,252 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which does not provide a breakdown of civilian and militant deaths.
On Tuesday, UN member states will debate a draft resolution demanding an end to the Israeli occupation of all Palestinian territories within 12 months.
General Assembly resolutions are not binding, but Israel has already denounced the new text as ‘disgraceful’.
In Gaza, rescuers said several Israeli air strikes killed at least seven people overnight.
‘This war has left nothing untouched and has killed everything in us, our mental and physical health, our social fabric, our future and our dreams,’ Ola Halilo, a 32-year-old Gazan woman living in a makeshift displacement camp.
‘It has separated us from our loved ones, destroyed everything that was beautiful in our lives.’
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Initial probe shows Lebanon pagers booby-trapped: security source
A preliminary investigation has found hundreds of pagers that exploded across Lebanon, killing at least 12 people and wounding up to 2,800, had been booby-trapped, a security official said on Wednesday
Initial probe shows Lebanon pagers booby-trapped: security source
Photo: AFP
A preliminary investigation has found hundreds of pagers that exploded across Lebanon, killing at least 12 people and wounding up to 2,800, had been booby-trapped, a security official said on Wednesday.
Lebanon opened a probe into the explosions on Tuesday, a judicial official said, adding security services were working to determine the cause of the blasts which have been blamed on Israel.
On Wednesday, a new wave of exploding hand-held devices, this time walkie-talkies, killed nine people and wounded more than 300 wounded across Lebanon, the health ministry said.
"Data indicates the devices were pre-programmed to detonate and contained explosive materials planted next to the battery," the official said about Tuesday's blasts, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
Some of the devices that exploded were being inspected, the security official said, but "most of them were destroyed and burned".
The official said it was unlikely the lithium batteries inside the devices had heated up and exploded.
"Exploding lithium batteries cause a fire-like incident... that may cause minor burns, but the blast from these devices resulted from highly explosive materials," he told AFP.
Photo: AFP
A preliminary investigation has found hundreds of pagers that exploded across Lebanon, killing at least 12 people and wounding up to 2,800, had been booby-trapped, a security official said on Wednesday.
Lebanon opened a probe into the explosions on Tuesday, a judicial official said, adding security services were working to determine the cause of the blasts which have been blamed on Israel.
On Wednesday, a new wave of exploding hand-held devices, this time walkie-talkies, killed nine people and wounded more than 300 wounded across Lebanon, the health ministry said.
"Data indicates the devices were pre-programmed to detonate and contained explosive materials planted next to the battery," the official said about Tuesday's blasts, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
Some of the devices that exploded were being inspected, the security official said, but "most of them were destroyed and burned".
The official said it was unlikely the lithium batteries inside the devices had heated up and exploded.
"Exploding lithium batteries cause a fire-like incident... that may cause minor burns, but the blast from these devices resulted from highly explosive materials," he told AFP.
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