JERUSALEM/BEIRUT: Israel’s military said on Tuesday it struck dozens of Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon overnight, a day after it launched a wave of airstrikes against the Iran-backed group’s sites in Lebanon’s deadliest day in decades.
Hezbollah on Tuesday morning said it had attacked several Israeli military targets, including an explosives factory 60 km (37 miles) into Israel, with the Fadi series of rockets.
It said it attacked the explosives factory around 4 a.m. (0100 GMT) and the Megiddo airfield three separate times overnight.
After almost a year of war against Hamas in Gaza on its southern border, Israel is shifting its focus to the northern frontier, where Hezbollah has been firing rockets into Israel in support of Hamas, also backed by Iran.
The Israeli military said it struck a Hezbollah militant cell and its artillery and tanks hit other Hezbollah targets in the south. Police in northern Israel said fragments of interceptor missiles were found in various areas.
Lebanese authorities said Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon on Monday had killed nearly 500 people and sent tens of thousands fleeing for safety.
After some of the heaviest cross-border exchanges of fire since hostilities flared in October as the Gaza war erupted, Israel warned people in Lebanon to evacuate areas where it said the armed movement was storing weapons.
Families from south Lebanon loaded cars, vans and trucks with belongings and people young and old. Highways north were gridlocked.
The Lebanese minister coordinating the crisis response, Nasser Yassin, told Reuters 89 temporary shelters in schools and other facilities had been set up, with the capacity for more than 26,000 people as civilians fled what he called “Israeli atrocities.”
Israel’s military said it struck Hezbollah in Lebanon’s south, east and north, including rocket launchers, command posts and militant infrastructure. The Israeli Air Force struck about 1,600 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley, it said.
Lebanon’s health ministry said at least 492 people had been killed, including 35 children, and 1,645 wounded. One Lebanese official said it was Lebanon’s highest daily death toll from violence since the 1975-1990 civil war.
Israel and Hezbollah exchange fire after Lebanon suffers huge casualties
https://arab.news/jss5f
Israel and Hezbollah exchange fire after Lebanon suffers huge casualties
- Hezbollah attacks explosives factory 60 km into Israel with the Fadi series of rockets
- Israeli military said it struck a Hezbollah militant cell and its artillery and tanks hit other Hezbollah targets in the south
Kremlin says Israeli strikes on Lebanon risk destabilizing the Middle East
MOSCOW: The Kremlin warned on Tuesday that Israeli strikes on Lebanon had the potential to destabilize the Middle East and said it was very concerned by the evolving situation.
Israel struck Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon and the Iran-backed group attacked military facilities in northern Israel on Tuesday, increasing fears of a full-blown conflict after Lebanon suffered its deadliest day in decades.
Iran president tells CNN Hezbollah ‘cannot stand alone’ against Israel
TEHRAN: Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said Tuesday that its ally Hezbollah “cannot stand alone” against Israel, which killed nearly 500 people in Lebanon the previous day in its deadliest bombardment since 2006.
“Hebzollah cannot stand alone against a country that is being defended and supported and supplied by Western countries, by European countries and the United States,” Pezeshkian said in an interview with CNN translated from Farsi to English.
Arab League calls for end to Gaza war, establishment of Palestinian state
- Israel’s wars undermine global stability, says Hossam Zaki
- UN ‘paralysis’ must end, more proactive measures needed
Washington: The UN should be more proactive in its efforts to end conflicts and wars ravaging the Middle East because global stability was at stake, said a senior Arab League official at the world body’s Summit of the Future in New York on Monday.
Assistant Secretary-General Hossam Zaki, delivering the league’s position at the summit held on Sept. 22 and 23, said the world was now at a dangerous “crossroads.”
The Summit of the Future is an annual meeting of UN member states that adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015.
Zaki was speaking in the wake of Israel launching airstrikes on targets in southern Lebanon and Beirut killing at least 500 people and injuring more than 2,000, according to the country’s Ministry of Health.
Zaki said that with no end in sight to Israel’s aggression against the Palestinian people in Gaza, the world’s ability to end the conflict decreases.
Since Hamas’ attacks on Oct. 7 last year, Israeli forces have killed more than 41,000 people in the Gaza Strip, mostly women and children.
Israel has also destroyed the majority of homes and civilian infrastructure throughout Gaza.
Zaki said the UN has failed to act since Israel intensified its bombardment.
“For a whole year, we in the Arab region had felt this unfortunate paralysis, as months had passed by before the UN Security Council was able to pass a resolution last June calling for (a) ceasefire and the end of the Israeli aggression on Gaza,” he said.
“This paralysis that effected the UN system has caused deep frustrations among many member states,” he added.
He accused the international community of having double standards with regard to Israel’s actions against the Palestinian people in Gaza.
“Disgraceful silence regarding what’s happening in Gaza while massive support to nations in conflict elsewhere.”
While Zaki stressed the league’s support for the UN system, he expressed dismay at the world body’s inability to recognize Palestine as a full member state.
The fact that 149 member states recognize Palestine constitute an internal consensus that the UN has to take into consideration, he added.
He said “the current UN structure stands against the international consensus of establishing an independent Palestinian state.”
Australian woman detained in Turkey over alleged links to Kurdish insurgents
ISTANBUL: An Australian women was arrested in Turkey over her alleged links to a Kurdish militant group in a joint operation by anti-terrorist police and intelligence officers, Turkish media said.
Cigdem Aslan, 51, was detained at Istanbul airport after an investigation found she was “actively involved in the Australian structure of the terrorist organization,” according to a report by the state-run Anadolu news agency.
Anadolu, citing unnamed security sources, did not specify the nature of her alleged involvement with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK. She was brought before a court and sent to prison awaiting trial.
The PKK has fought an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984. The conflict has led to tens of thousands of deaths and the group is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States, the European Union and Australia.
The Anadolu report said she was arrested as she waited to board a plane for Australia and had been followed by Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization, or MIT. It did not specify when she was initially detained.
Anadolu said Saturday that Aslan had had contact with “high-level” PKK members. The agency’s report included photographs purportedly showing Aslan posing in front of a PKK flag and portrait of the group’s imprisoned leader Abdullah Ocalan.
According to the English-language Daily Sabah newspaper, Aslan was traveling under a passport in the name of Lenna Aslan. It said she worked as the co-chair of a “PKK-linked association in Australia and was active in events organized by a Melbourne-based center serving as a mouthpiece of the terrorist group.”
The newspaper said she had been involved in protests against Turkey’s cross-border operations against the PKK. Turkish troops are involved in an ongoing campaign against the PKK in northern Iraq and Ankara frequently carries out airstrikes in northern Syria against an associated group known as the People’s Defense Units, or YPG.
Australian media reported that Aslan is listed as a bilingual health educator by the Multicultural Centre for Women’s Health in Melbourne.
Its website says she is a single mother with two daughters and is passionate about “human and women’s rights, community volunteering and advocating for minorities."
Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said Tuesday it was “providing consular assistance to an Australian woman detained in Turkey.”
