Israeli sniper wounds barber on Lebanon border

Civil Defense teams inspect a charred car that was hit by an Israeli drone strike on the road leading to the southern Lebanese coastal town of Naqoura, on the border with Israel, Sept. 2, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 03 September 2024
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Israeli sniper wounds barber on Lebanon border

  • A civilian who works as a barber contracted with the Spanish battalion in UNIFIL was wounded by Israeli sniper fire on the Abil Al-Qamh road
  • Hezbollah MP: If the party’s drones reached the outskirts of Tel Aviv once, they can reach it anytime

BEIRUT: The Israeli army has begun using snipers across the land border with Lebanon to target passersby on adjacent roads after it paralyzed life in the border villages through the systematic destruction of their neighborhoods with airstrikes, drones, and incendiary bombs for nearly 11 months.

On Tuesday, a civilian who works as a barber contracted with the Spanish battalion in UNIFIL, the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, was wounded by Israeli sniper fire on the Abil Al-Qamh road.

The barber was hit by several bullets in his side while waiting in a Rapid-model car with a private license plate at a specific point, where a patrol from the Spanish battalion was supposed to pick him up, as usual, and take him to his workplace at the UNIFIL headquarters opposite the Metula settlement.

He was transported to Marjayoun Governmental Hospital for treatment.

This is the second time contractors working with UNIFIL have been targeted in less than 24 hours.

On Monday morning, two civilians working for a company providing services to UNIFIL were killed on the Naqoura road by an Israeli drone strike that targeted their car.

Hostile operations between the Israeli army and Hezbollah have continued at a relatively lower rate.

Israeli airstrikes targeted the outskirts of the towns of Aita Al-Shaab and Markaba, while another strike hit the heights of Jabal Al-Rihane.

The Israeli army also opened fire with heavy machine guns at dawn toward Ras Naqoura and Labouneh. The town of Khiam was subjected to heavy artillery shelling.

Hezbollah’s military media announced that the party targeted in the afternoon “surveillance equipment at Al-Jardah site with appropriate weapons, hitting it directly and destroying it.”

MP Hassan Ezzeddine, a member of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, said the party “managed to impose a deterrence equation with the Israeli enemy through its response to the assassination of military commander Fuad Shukr after the party’s drones reached the outskirts of Tel Aviv.” He added: “Whoever reaches there once, can reach it every time.”

Meanwhile, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs stated in an updated report on the situation in southern Lebanon that “the total number of civilian deaths since Oct. 8, 2023, has reached at least 133, while the Lebanese Ministry of Health reported that the total number of casualties since that date has reached 2,412, including 564 deaths.”

The report revealed that “the number of displaced individuals from the border towns has increased to 111,940, with 94 percent of them originating from the districts of Bint Jbeil, Marjeyoun, and Tyre.”

According to the report, “tensions in southern Lebanon reached a critical level over the past three weeks as the conflict intensified, increasing the risk to civilians.

“The security situation along the Blue Line remains unstable, with approximately 150,000 residents living within 10 km of the border facing daily shelling and airstrikes.”

The report indicates that “the Inter-Sector Coordination Groups have been working since August to develop a contingency plan in response to the escalating situation in southern Lebanon.

“The groups are focusing their efforts on assessing the capabilities of various sectors. The UN (Office) for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has assisted in humanitarian sectors to address the current circumstances in Lebanon.

“This includes cash assistance to 290 farmers (80 in the south and 210 in Nabatieh) to support their livelihoods and agricultural assets.

“Additionally, 6,700 individuals received emergency cash assistance since June, while 1,614 Lebanese citizens and 778 Syrian refugees were granted cash aid to secure shelter from October 2023 until the report’s preparation date.”

The assistance extended to the education sector, where 10,250 displaced children received emergency scholarships and were re-enrolled in schools to resume their educational programs.

Additionally, food aid was provided to displaced individuals residing in refugee centers, as well as those who were taken in by relatives and families in the regions of Tyre, Sidon, Nabatieh, Beirut, Mount Lebanon, and Baalbek-Hermel.


Over 100 patients to be evacuated from Gaza, WHO says

Updated 7 sec ago
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Over 100 patients to be evacuated from Gaza, WHO says

GENEVA: More than 100 patients including children suffering from trauma injuries and chronic diseases will be evacuated from Gaza on Wednesday in a rare transfer out of the war-ravaged enclave, a World Health Organization official said.
“These are ad hoc measures. What we have requested repeatedly is a sustained medevac (medical evacuation) outside of Gaza,” said Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, adding that 12,000 people were awaiting transfer.
The patients will travel in a large convoy on Wednesday via the Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel before flying to the United Arab Emirates, he added, and then a portion will travel to Romania.

Iran says two French detainees held in good conditions

Updated 05 November 2024
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Iran says two French detainees held in good conditions

  • In recent years, Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards have arrested dozens of dual nationals and foreigners, mostly on charges related to espionage and security

DUBAI: Two French citizens detained in Iran since May 2022 are in good health and being held in good detention conditions, Iran’s judiciary spokesperson Asghar Jahangir said on Tuesday, according to state media.
Last month, France’s foreign ministry said the conditions that three of its nationals were being held in by Iran were unacceptable.
“According to the relevant authorities, these two people have good conditions in the detention center and are in good health, so any claim regarding their conditions being abnormal is rejected,” Jahangir said.
The spokesperson was referring to Cecile Koehler and Jacques Paris, who he said were arrested on charges of espionage and will have their next court hearing on Nov. 24.
Jahangir did not mention the third French national detained in Iran. French media have disclosed only his first name, Olivier.
In recent years, Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards have arrested dozens of dual nationals and foreigners, mostly on charges related to espionage and security.
Rights groups have accused Iran of trying to extract concessions from other countries through such arrests.


Israeli airstrikes kill at least 30 Palestinians in Gaza, medics say

Updated 05 November 2024
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Israeli airstrikes kill at least 30 Palestinians in Gaza, medics say

  • Airstrikes in Gaza kill at least 30, Palestinian medics and media say
  • Israeli military says it ‘eliminated terrorists’ in latest operations

CAIRO: Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip have killed at least 30 Palestinians since Monday night, Palestinian media and medics said on Tuesday, as the Israeli army tightened its siege on northern areas of the enclave.
An airstrike damaged two houses in the town of Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, where the army has carried out new operations since Oct. 5, and killed at least 20 people late on Monday, the Palestinian official news agency WAFA and Hamas media said.
The Gaza health ministry did not immediately confirm the toll. Four other people were killed in the central Gazan town of Al-Zawayda around midnight on Monday, medics said.
Palestinian health officials said six people had also been killed in two separate Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City and Deir Al-Balah in the central area of the narrow enclave.
The Israeli military said, without giving details, that its forces had “eliminated terrorists” in the central Gaza Strip and Jabalia area. Israeli troops had also located weapons and explosives over the past day in the southern Rafah area, where “terrorist infrastructure sites” had been eliminated, it said.
Palestinians said the new attacks and Israeli orders for people to evacuate were aimed at emptying two northern Gaza towns and a refugee camp to create buffer zones.
Israel says its forces have killed hundreds of Palestinian gunmen and dismantled military infrastructure in Jabalia in the past month.
More than 43,300 Palestinians have been killed in more than a year of war in Gaza, the authorities in Gaza say, and much of the territory has been reduced to ruins.
The war began after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.


Sudan paramilitaries kill 10 civilians: activists

Updated 05 November 2024
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Sudan paramilitaries kill 10 civilians: activists

PORT SUDAN: Ten civilians were killed in the central Sudanese state of Al-Jazira, pro-democracy activists said on Tuesday, in an attack they blamed on the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
The Madani Resistance Committee, one of hundreds of volunteer groups coordinating aid across the country, said the RSF carried out the killings on Monday night in the village of Barborab, about 85 kilometers (50 miles) northeast of the state capital Wad Madani.


Gaza aid situation not much improved, US says as deadline for Israel looms

Updated 05 November 2024
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Gaza aid situation not much improved, US says as deadline for Israel looms

  • Washington told Israel on Oct. 13 it had 30 days to take steps to address humanitarian crisis in Gaza
  • Israel on Monday announced cancelling agreement with UN relief agency for Palestinians (UNRWA)

WASHINGTON: Israel has taken some measures to increase aid access to Gaza but has so far failed to significantly turn around the humanitarian situation in the enclave, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Monday, as a deadline set by the US to improve the situation approaches.
The Biden administration told Israel in an Oct. 13 letter it had 30 days to take specific steps to address the dire humanitarian crisis in the strip, which has been pummeled for more than a year by Israeli ground and air operations that Israel says are aimed at rooting out Hamas militants.
Aid workers and UN officials say humanitarian conditions continue to be dire in Gaza.
“As of today, the situation has not significantly turned around. We have seen an increase in some measurements. We’ve seen an increase in the number of crossings that are open. But just if you look at the stipulated recommendations in the letter, those have not been met,” Miller said.
Miller said the results so far were “not good enough” but stressed that the 30-day period had not elapsed.
He declined to say what consequences Israel would face if it failed to implement the recommendations.
“What I can tell you that we will do is we will follow the law,” he said.
Washington, Israel’s main supplier of weapons, has frequently pressed Israel to improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza since the war with Hamas began with the Palestinian militant group’s Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on southern Israel.
The Oct. 13 letter, sent by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, said a failure to demonstrate a sustained commitment to implementing the measures on aid access may have implications for US policy and law.
Section 620i of the US Foreign Assistance Act prohibits military aid to countries that impede delivery of US humanitarian assistance.
Israel on Monday said it was canceling its agreement with the UN relief agency for Palestinians (UNRWA), citing accusations that some UNRWA staff had Hamas links.
UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini said Israel had scaled back the entry of aid trucks into the Gaza Strip to an average of 30 trucks a day, the lowest in a long time.
An Israeli government spokesman said no limit had been imposed on aid entering Gaza, with 47 aid trucks entering northern Gaza on Sunday alone.
Israeli statistics reviewed by Reuters last week showed that aid shipments allowed into Gaza in October remained at their lowest levels since October 2023.