BEIRUT: Residents and traders in southern Lebanon have accused Israel of adopting a “scorched earth policy” amid continuing hostilities in the region.
A security source said on Saturday that Israel was setting out to destroy residential houses and neighborhoods, as well as industrial and commercial facilities, while public and secondary roads were also being blocked to hinder the arrival of supplies.
Mohammed Saleh, president of the Chamber of Commerce, Industry, and Agriculture in southern Lebanon, said that Israeli forces “no longer spare industrial and commercial institutions,” adding: “This is certain, and we are confident of it.”
Saleh told Arab News that the army was resorting to burning trees and crops with phosphorous shells, a policy that was avoided in previous wars.
Almost 100,000 people displaced from the border area did not know the fate of their properties and homes, he said.
“They rely on what is reported by some people who dare to reach their isolated villages, or those who insist on participating in the funeral processions of the dead in the towns for a few hours before returning to their displacement areas.”
Saleh said: “It is difficult to determine the full extent of the losses in the southern region, as the repercussions have extended beyond the border area, including areas north of the Litani River, when the Israeli enemy bombed the industrial zone in the coastal town of Ghaziyeh weeks ago.”
Israeli fighter jets flying at low altitudes also spread fear among people and affected productivity, he added.
“The percentage of losses exceeds 45 percent. The south’s agriculture, industry, and commerce have declined by more than 50 percent. The decline in exports ranges from agricultural products to the food industry and other goods.
“Factories in the border region are entirely shut down. Machines have stopped working, and so have power generators.”
He said that in areas close to the border, work has decreased by 60 percent due to the security situation.
Saleh’s remarks came as an Israeli missile landed near a Lebanese army site south of the border town of Rmaych. No casualties were reported.
Israeli artillery also targeted the Marjayoun-Khiam Valley.
Israeli raids and shelling resumed in the villages of Markaba, Al-Wazzani, Marwahin, Tayr Harfa and Dhahira, reaching Naqoura, Alma Al-Shaab, Aita Al-Shaab, Mays Al-Jabal, the entrance of Odaisseh, Houla and Kfarkila.
A Merkava tank in the Metula settlement launched missiles at an area between Deir Mimas and Kfarkila on Saturday afternoon.
A resident in one of the villages said that Israeli shelling had become sporadic, targeting civilians working on their land.
Israeli “aggression is no longer limited to Hezbollah members as it has been the past five months,” he said.
Hezbollah said that it had struck the Israeli military outpost of Al-Baghdadi with missiles, and also hit the Ramim outpost with two Burkan missiles.
Israel accused of ‘scorched earth’ tactics in southern Lebanon
https://arab.news/y2rz6
Israel accused of ‘scorched earth’ tactics in southern Lebanon
- Agriculture, industry, commerce targeted in random attacks, residents and traders say
- Factories shut down, exports plummet as border hostilities take toll on productivity
Israel’s former defense chief Gallant quits politics
Gallant was fired from the government in November by Netanyahu, after months of disagreements over the conduct of the war against Hamas in Gaza, but kept his seat as an elected member of the Knesset.
“Just as it is on the battlefield, so it is in public service. There are moments in which one must stop, assess and choose a direction in order to achieve the goals,” Gallant said in a televised statement.
Gallant had often broken ranks with Netanyahu and his coalition allies of far-right and religious parties, including over exemptions granted to ultra-Orthodox Jewish men from serving in the conscript military — a hot button issue.
In March 2023, Netanyahu fired Gallant after he urged a halt to a highly contested government plan to cut the Supreme Court’s powers. His dismissal triggered mass protests and Netanyahu backtracked.
The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Gallant and Netanyahu, along with a Hamas leader, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza conflict, which Israel has contested.
Israeli strikes kill 12 in Gaza as war grinds into the new year with no end in sight
- One strike hits home in Jabaliya area of northern Gaza, killing seven people
- Israel’s air and ground offensives have killed over 45,000 Palestinians since 2023
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza: Israeli strikes killed at least 12 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, mostly women and children, officials said Wednesday, as the nearly 15-month war ground on into the new year with no end in sight.
One strike hit a home in the Jabaliya area of northern Gaza, the most isolated and heavily destroyed part of the territory, where Israel has been waging a major operation since early October. Gaza’s Health Ministry said seven people were killed, including a woman and four children, and at least a dozen other people were wounded.
Another strike overnight in the built-up Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza killed a woman and a child, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, which received the bodies.
The military said militants fired rockets at Israel from the Bureij area overnight and that its forces responded with a strike targeting a militant. The military also issued evacuation orders for the area that were posted online.
A third strike early Wednesday in the southern city of Khan Younis killed three people, according to the nearby Nasser Hospital and the European Hospital, which received the bodies.
The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and abducting around 250. About 100 hostages are still held in Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel’s air and ground offensive has killed over 45,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. It says women and children make up more than half the fatalities but does not say how many of those killed were militants.
The Israeli military says it only targets militants and blames Hamas for civilian deaths because its fighters operate in dense residential areas. The army says it has killed 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
The war has caused widespread destruction and displaced some 90 percent of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million, many of them multiple times.
Hundreds of thousands are living in tents on the coast as winter brings frequent rainstorms and temperatures drop below 10 degrees Celsius (50 F) at night. At least six infants and another person have died of hypothermia, according to the Health Ministry.
American and Arab mediators have spent nearly a year trying to broker a ceasefire and hostage release, but those efforts have repeatedly stalled. Hamas has demanded a lasting truce, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanayhu has vowed to keep fighting until “total victory” over the militants.
Israel sees net departure of citizens for a second year
More than 82,000 Israelis moved abroad in 2024 and only 33,000 people immigrated to the country, Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics said. Another 23,000 Israelis returned after long periods abroad.
It was the second year in a row of net departures, a rare occurrence in the history of the country, which was founded by immigrants from Europe and actively encourages Jewish immigration. Many Israelis, looking for a break from the war, have moved abroad, leading to concern about whether it will drive a “brain drain” in sectors like medicine and technology.
Last year, 15,000 fewer people immigrated to Israel than in 2023. The Bureau of Statistics changed its reporting methods in mid-2022 to better track the number of Israelis moving abroad.
Military blames ‘weakening of discipline’ in death of archaeologist who entered Lebanon with troops
In a separate development, the Israeli military blamed “operational burnout” and a “weakening of discipline and safety” in the death of a 70-year-old archaeologist who was killed in southern Lebanon in November along with a soldier while visiting a combat zone.
According to Israeli media reports, Zeev Erlich was not on active duty when he was shot, but was wearing a military uniform and had a weapon. The army said he was a reservist with the rank of major and identified him as a “fallen soldier” when it announced his death.
Erlich was a well-known West Bank settler and researcher of Jewish history. Media reports at the time of his death said he entered Lebanon to explore an archaeological site. The family of the soldier who was killed with him has expressed anger over the circumstances of his death.
The military launched an investigation after the two were killed in a Hezbollah ambush. A separate probe is looking into who allowed Erlich to enter.
The military said the entry of civilians who are not military contractors or journalists into combat zones is not widespread. Still, there have been multiple reports of Israeli civilians who support a permanent Israeli presence in Gaza or Lebanon entering those areas.
Syrian civil war killed more than 528,500: monitor
- Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says 6,777 people, more than half of them civilians, were killed in 2024
- The overall toll includes thousands killed since 2011 that were only confirmed dead recently
DAMASCUS: More than 528,500 people were killed in the Syrian civil war, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said on Wednesday.
The overall toll includes thousands killed since 2011 that were only confirmed dead recently, with access to detention centers and mass graves easier following the rebel overthrow of Bashar Assad.
The Britain-based monitory said 6,777 people, more than half of them civilians, were killed in 2024 in fighting in Syria.
AFP was unable to independently verify these figures.
Syria’s civil war erupted in 2011 after the government brutally repressed pro-democracy protests triggering a devastating conflict that pushed millions to flee abroad and drew in foreign powers.
Last year, 3,598 civilians, including 240 women and 337 children were killed across Syria, according to the Observatory.
In addition, 3,179 combatants were killed, the monitor said, including soldiers from “the old regime,” but also “Islamist armed groups” and jihadists.
In 2023, the Observatory reported 4,360 people killed, including nearly 1,900 civilians.
In December, Islamist-led rebels overthrew Assad, seizing power in a rapid offensive that ended more than 50 years of the family’s iron-fisted rule.
Since 2011, the monitor with a network of sources inside Syria has recorded more than 64,000 deaths in Assad’s prisons “due to torture, medical negligence or poor conditions” in the jails.
Gaza population down by 6 percent since start of war — Palestinian statistics bureau
- Around 45,500 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, have been killed since the war began but another 11,000 are missing
JERUSALEM: The population of Gaza has fallen 6 percent since the war with Israel began nearly 15 months ago as about 100,000 Palestinians left the enclave while more than 55,000 are presumed dead, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS).
Around 45,500 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, have been killed since the war began but another 11,000 are missing, the bureau said, citing numbers from the Palestinian Health Ministry.
As such, the population of Gaza has declined by about 160,000 during the course of the war to 2.1 million, with more than a million or 47 percent of the total children under the age of 18, the PCBS said.
It added that Israel has “raged a brutal aggression against Gaza targeting all kinds of life there; humans, buildings and vital infrastructure... entire families were erased from the civil register. There are catastrophic human and material losses.”
Israel’s foreign ministry said the PCBS data was “fabricated, inflated, and manipulated in order to vilify Israel.”
Israel has faced accusations of genocide in Gaza because of the scale of death and destruction.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ), the United Nations’ highest legal body, ruled last January that Israel must prevent acts of genocide against Palestinians, while Pope Francis has suggested the global community should study whether Israel’s Gaza campaign constitutes genocide.
Israel has repeatedly rejected accusations of genocide, saying it abides by international law and has a right to defend itself after the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023 killed 1,200 Israelis and precipitated the current war.
The PCBS said some 22 percent of Gaza’s population currently faces catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity, according to the criteria of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a global monitor.
Included in that 22 percent are some 3,500 children at risk of death due to malnutrition and lack of food, the bureau said.
Israel warns it will step up Gaza strikes if Hamas keeps up rocket fire
JERUSALEM: Defense Minister Israel Katz warned Wednesday that Israel will step up its strikes in Gaza if Hamas keeps up its rocket fire at Israel.
“I want to send a clear message from here to the heads of the terrorists in Gaza: If Hamas does not soon allow the release of the Israeli hostages from Gaza... and continues firing at Israeli communities, it will face blows of an intensity not seen in Gaza for a long time,” Katz said in a statement after visiting the Israeli town of Netivot, which was recently targeted by rocket fire from nearby Gaza.
At least 12 Palestinians, mostly women and children, were killed in Gaza by airstrikes, officials in the territory said on Wednesday.
More than 45,500 people have been killed during Israel's 15-month military campaign in Gaza.
