Day 3 of carnage: 51 killed in Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon.

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Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Khiam on September 25, 2024. (AFP)
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Lebanese Health Minister Firas Abiad gestures as Turkish medical aid arrives at Beirut International airport, on Sept. 25, 2024. (AP)
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Updated 26 September 2024
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Day 3 of carnage: 51 killed in Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon.

  • Bombings ‘claiming the lives of innocents,’ UNHCR says
  • Hezbollah escalates rocket attacks in ‘defense of Lebanon and its people’

BEIRUT: The Israeli Air Force continued its airstrikes on dozens of towns in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa region on Wednesday, the third day of its war against Hezbollah.

For the first time, the strikes reached deep into Lebanese territory, targeting the predominantly Christian area of Keserwan and the Druze-majority region of Chouf.

The bloody attacks resulted in dozens of civilian casualties and further destruction.

Health Minister Firass Abiad said at least 51 people were killed and 223 wounded in the attacks.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees said: “The devastating bombings in Lebanon are claiming the lives of innocents and forcing thousands to flee,” adding that “the losses inflicted on civilians are unacceptable.”

The attacks have been intense over the past 24 hours, with Israeli planes attacking first southern areas then the Bekaa region. Many towns were shelled for the first time.

On Wednesday morning, Hezbollah escalated its rocket attacks on Israeli targets, introducing a new phrase in its official statements, replacing “in support for the Gaza Strip” with “in defense of Lebanon and its people.”

Hezbollah targeted the vicinity of Tel Aviv with a short-range ballistic missile, an action previously unrecorded in conflicts between Israel and Lebanon.

It also targeted Israeli military bases and army headquarters, demonstrating the effectiveness of its offensive weapons.

On Tuesday, the Israeli army counted more than 400 rockets fired by Hezbollah toward the Israeli side. It said the assault was “the highest rate of shelling since the escalation began on Oct. 8, 2023.”

On Wednesday, the army reported “detecting the launch of 40 rockets from Lebanon toward the Upper Galilee, with some intercepted, while a house in Safed was hit, causing a fire but no injuries.”

Municipal officials in Safed urged residents to stay near shelters, while the Israeli Home Front advised the remaining residents of Kiryat Shmona in the Upper Galilee to do the same.

An Israeli army spokesman said that “some rockets from Lebanon fell in the Carmel area and Wadi Ara south of Haifa, with others hitting Zikhron Ya’akov and Bat Shlomo, also south of Haifa, for the first time.”

Israeli media reported that three people were injured in the settlement of Sa’ar, near Nahariya, one of whom was said to be in a critical condition.

In an official statement, Hezbollah said: “The ballistic missile ‘Qader 1’ was aimed at a Mossad headquarters in the suburbs of Tel Aviv, which is responsible for assassinating Hezbollah leaders and blowing up pagers and walkie-talkies.”

The missile traveled more than 100 km, but the Israeli army intercepted it using the David’s Sling air defense system.

Israeli Channel 13 reported that the surface-to-surface missile launched from Lebanon was directed toward the Glilot base near Herzliya.

The army spokesperson said “the Israeli Air Force detected the surface-to-surface missile launch toward the greater Tel Aviv area this morning and after locating its launch platform in the area of Naffakhiyah in Tyre, it shelled it.”

The Israeli Northern Medical Center said Hezbollah’s attacks resulted in “12 people being lightly injured.”

Hezbollah said it targeted the Hatsor settlement and Dado base “with dozens of rockets.”

Later, Israeli Army Radio reported that about 100 targets in Lebanon were attacked in response to the assault on Tel Aviv.

Israel said its raids targeted Hezbollah artillery sites, which it alleged were situated within residential buildings.

Israeli military resumed shelling villages that had previously been targeted, including ones recently added to the target list in areas north of the Litani line, including the Nabatieh region, Iqlim Al-Tuffah, Zahrani and western, central and northern Bekaa.

For the first time, an Israeli airstrike targeted the town of Al-Maaysra located in the Keserwan District of Mount Lebanon.

The Lebanese Civil Defense reported an initial death toll of three individuals, with nine others injured.

Israel claimed the strike was aimed at Sheikh Mohammed Amr, a Hezbollah official in Mount Lebanon and the north. However, it was later revealed that he was not in the targeted residence, which belonged to his nephew.

The Ministry of Health said that four people were killed and seven injured during an Israeli operation in the mixed-sect town of Joun, located in the Chouf District, predominantly inhabited by Druze.

The raid targeted a three-story residential structure that housed both Lebanese and Syrian residents.

Israeli airstrikes targeted Civil Defense personnel from the Muslim Scout Association in the town of Burj El-Shemali while they were helping residents whose homes had been struck in an earlier attack on the area.

An airstrike targeting the border town of Bint Jbeil resulted in the deaths of three people, while strikes in the Baalbek-Hermel region killed four and injured 38.

Hezbollah mourned the death of three of its members: Abbas Ibrahim Sharaf Al-Din, Hussein Ahmad Awali and Mohammed Hussein Al-Rabbah.

Kamel Karky, a media photographer for Al-Manar TV, affiliated with Hezbollah, was killed in an Israeli airstrike that targeted his home in Qantara.

The Lebanese Red Cross issued repeated calls for blood donations following the depletion of the stocks that had been collected in recent days.

An intense airstrike was carried out by the Israeli military late on Tuesday night against a facility in the coastal town of Jiyeh, 28 km south of Beirut. The repercussions were felt in Beirut, resulting in significant destruction and causing debris and rocks to obstruct the Beirut-South highway for some time.

The Israeli army also conducted an airstrike near the oil facilities in Zahrani, south of Sidon, for the first time.

The Lebanese Ministry of Health reported that an “airstrike on the border town of Tebnine resulted in the deaths of two and injuries to 27 others.”

The Israeli army reiterated in leaflets its request to the residents of the Lebanese border villages who evacuated their homes not to return to them “for your safety due to the presence of weapons or Hezbollah elements, so do not return to your homes until further notice.”

Public education institutions in Beirut and its surrounding areas were transformed into shelters for displaced people, with official agencies estimating their number at about 40,000 since Monday.

There were many complaints regarding a severe shortage of blankets, bedding and other essential supplies.

Maj. Gen. Mohammed Khair, chief of the Lebanese High Relief Commission, said: “Our efforts are focused on meeting essential needs with the resources at our disposal.”

He appealed to “Arab and foreign countries, international organizations and expatriate businessmen to assist the displaced and provide aid to Lebanon during these challenging circumstances.”


Erdogan says Turkiye inflation to fall along with interest rates

Updated 5 sec ago
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Erdogan says Turkiye inflation to fall along with interest rates

ANKARA: President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that Turkiye’s inflation rate will fall alongside its interest rate, adding that “no one should doubt” the steady decline in inflation, which on an annual basis began in May and fell below 49 percent last month.
Erdogan — who in past years was seen as influencing monetary policy — said that economic steps will continue with discipline and determination to ease price pressures, he was reported by broadcaster TRTHaber as telling reporters on a flight.

Nearly 70% of Gaza war dead women and children, UN rights office says

Updated 2 min 42 sec ago
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Nearly 70% of Gaza war dead women and children, UN rights office says

  • UN Human Rights Office: Systematic violation of the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law
  • The youngest victim whose death was verified by UN monitors was a one-day-old boy, and the oldest was a 97-year-old woman
GENEVA: The UN Human Rights Office said on Friday nearly 70 percent of the fatalities it has verified in the Gaza war were women and children, and condemned what it called a systematic violation of the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law.
The UN count covers the first seven months of the Israel-Hamas conflict in the Gaza Strip that began more than a year ago.
The 8,119 victims verified by the UN Rights Office in that seven-month period is considerably lower than the toll of over 43,000 provided by Palestinian health authorities for the full 13 months of conflict.
But the UN breakdown of the victims’ age and gender backs the Palestinian assertion that women and children represent a large portion of those killed in the war.
This finding indicates “a systematic violation of the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law, including distinction and proportionality,” the UN rights office said in a statement accompanying the 32-page report.
“It is essential that there is due reckoning with respect to the allegations of serious violations of international law through credible and impartial judicial bodies and that, in the meantime, all relevant information and evidence are collected and preserved,” United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said.
Israel did not immediately comment on the report’s findings.
Israel’s military, which began its offensive in response to the Oct. 7, 2023 attack in which Hamas fighters killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel and seized more than 250 hostages, says it takes care to avoid harming civilians in Gaza.
It has said approximately one civilian has been killed for every fighter, a ratio it blames on Hamas, saying the Palestinian militant group uses civilian facilities. Hamas has denied using civilians and civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, as human shields.
YOUNGEST VICTIM AGED ONE DAY
The youngest victim whose death was verified by UN monitors was a one-day-old boy, and the oldest was a 97-year-old woman, the report said.
Overall, children represented 44 percent of the victims, with children aged five-nine representing the single biggest age category, followed by those aged 10-14, and then those aged up to and including four.
This broadly reflects the enclave’s demographics, which the report said reflected an apparent failure to take precautions to avoid civilian losses.
It showed that in 88 percent of cases, five or more people were killed in the same attack, pointing to the Israeli military’s use of weapons with an effect across a wide area, although it said some fatalities may have been the result of errant projectiles from Palestinian armed groups.

Khamenei aide warns against impulsive Iran response to Israel attack

Updated 28 min 48 sec ago
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Khamenei aide warns against impulsive Iran response to Israel attack

  • Israel is engaged in conflicts with the Iran-backed Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon
  • Israeli warplanes struck military sites in Iran on October 26 in retaliation for a large Iranian missile attack

TEHRAN: An adviser to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has warned against launching an “instinctive” response to Israeli air strikes on the Islamic republic last month.
Israel, Iran’s sworn enemy, is engaged in conflicts with the Iran-backed Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Israeli warplanes struck military sites in Iran on October 26 in retaliation for a large Iranian missile attack on Israel at the start of the month.
“Israel aims to bring the conflict to Iran. We must act wisely to avoid its trap and not react instinctively,” the adviser, Ali Larijani, told state television late Thursday.
Iran said it fired 200 missiles at Israel on October 1 in response to the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in a strike on Beirut and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh while he was in Tehran.
After Israel hit back, it warned Iran against any counterattack, but the Islamic republic has vowed to respond.
“Our actions and reactions are strategically defined, so we must avoid instinctive or emotional responses and remain entirely rational,” Larijani added.
The former parliament speaker also praised Nasrallah for accepting a ceasefire during the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war rather than making an “emotional decision.”
On Sunday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said a potential ceasefire between Tehran’s allies and Israel could affect Iran’s response to the Israeli strikes.


Hezbollah claims second attack on Israel naval base in 24 hours

Updated 08 November 2024
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Hezbollah claims second attack on Israel naval base in 24 hours

  • The group had on Thursday claimed another attack on the same area
  • Israel has been at war with Lebanon’s Hezbollah since late September

BEIRUT: Hezbollah said it targeted a naval base near the Israeli city of Haifa with missiles Friday, the second such attack in less than 24 hours.
The Iran-backed Lebanese group said it targeted the “Stella Maris” naval base northwest of Haifa with a missile barrage, “in response to the attacks and massacres committed by the Israeli enemy.”
The group had on Thursday claimed another attack on the same area.
In a separate statement, the group claimed that it had also targeted the Ramat David air base, southeast of Haifa, with missiles.
Israel has been at war with Lebanon’s Hezbollah since late September when it broadened its focus from fighting Hamas in the Gaza Strip to securing its northern border.
It escalated its air campaign and later sent in ground forces into the country’s south.
This came after a year of cross-border exchanges with Hezbollah, which has said it was acting in support of Hamas Palestinian militants fighting Israel in Gaza.
The war has killed more than 2,600 people in Lebanon since September 23, according to the Lebanese health ministry.


UAE delivers 288 tonnes of aid for displaced Palestinians in Gaza

Updated 08 November 2024
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UAE delivers 288 tonnes of aid for displaced Palestinians in Gaza

  • UAE’s relief effort, dubbed Operation Chivalrous Knight 3, has so far delivered 121 shipments in Gaza

GAZA: Two shipments of aid from the UAE entered the Gaza Strip this week via Egypt’s Rafah Crossing, state news agency WAM reported on Friday.

The UAE’s relief effort, dubbed Operation Chivalrous Knight 3, has so far sent 121 shipments to ease the plight of Palestinians affected by Israel’s war on Gaza.

Nearly 1.9 million Palestinians, of the 2.3 million population in Gaza, are facing a dire humanitarian crisis.

The UAE’s various initiatives include the opening of a field hospital in Rafah last year, a floating hospital in the Egyptian city of Al-Arish, and a prosthetics project to support those who have lost limbs.

The latest convoys involved 20 trucks carrying over 288 tonnes of aid, including food, medical supplies, children’s nutritional supplements, clothing, shelter materials, and health kits for women.

Operation Chivalrous Knight 3 has so far delivered a total of 17,312 tonnes of aid for Gaza residents.