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.”


Israeli strikes batter Lebanon, killing five medics

Updated 2 sec ago
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Israeli strikes batter Lebanon, killing five medics

Israel has pushed on with its intense military campaign against Hezbollah, tempering hopes that efforts by a US envoy could lead to an imminent ceasefire
Hezbollah said it had fired rockets at Israeli troops east of Khiyam at least four times on Friday

BEIRUT: Israeli strikes battered southern Lebanon and the outskirts of the capital Beirut on Friday, killing at least five medics, as ground troops clashed with Hezbollah fighters in the south.
Israel has pushed on with its intense military campaign against the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah, tempering hopes that efforts by a US envoy could lead to an imminent ceasefire.
US mediator Amos Hochstein said earlier this week in Beirut that a truce was “within our grasp.” He traveled on to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz before returning to Washington, according to the news outlet Axios.
His trip aimed to end more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah along Lebanon’s southern border, which escalated dramatically when Israel ramped up its strikes in late September and sent ground troops into Lebanon on Oct. 1.
Israeli troops have fought Hezbollah in a strip of towns all along the border and this week pushed deeper to the edges of Khiyam, a town some six km (four miles) from the border. Hezbollah said it had fired rockets at Israeli troops east of Khiyam at least four times on Friday.
Lebanese security sources told Reuters that Israeli troops had also advanced in a string of villages to the west as well. They said Israel was most likely trying to isolate Khiyam ahead of a major attack on the town.
Israeli strikes on two other villages in southern Lebanon killed a total of five medics from a rescue force affiliated with Hezbollah, the Lebanese health ministry said.
The more than 3,500 people killed by Israeli strikes over the last year include more than 200 medics, the health ministry said.
Israel says its aim is to secure the return home of tens of thousands of people evacuated from Israel’s north due to rocket attacks by Hezbollah, which began firing across the border in support of Hamas at the start of the Gaza war in October 2023.
Israel also mounted more strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, a once densely populated stronghold of Hezbollah.
It issued evacuation orders on the social media platform X for several buildings in the area on Friday. Reuters footage showed one of the strikes appearing to pierce the center of a multi-story building, sending the whole structure toppling in a massive cloud of smoke.

UN reports heavy clashes between Israeli troops and Hezbollah in south Lebanon

Updated 10 min 25 sec ago
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UN reports heavy clashes between Israeli troops and Hezbollah in south Lebanon

  • “We are aware of heavy shelling in the vicinity of our bases,” UNIFIL spokesman Andrea Tenenti said
  • Asked if the peacekeepers and staff at the headquarters are safe, Tenenti said: “Yes for the moment”

BEIRUT: Israeli troops fought fierce battles with Hezbollah fighters on Friday in different areas in south Lebanon, including a coastal town that is home to the headquarters of UN peacekeepers.
A spokesman for the UN peacekeeping force known as UNIFIL told The Associated Press that they are monitoring “heavy clashes” in the coastal town of Naqoura and the village of Chamaa to the northeast.
UNIFIL’s headquarters are located in Naqoura in Lebanon’s southern edge close to the border with Israel.
“We are aware of heavy shelling in the vicinity of our bases,” UNIFIL spokesman Andrea Tenenti said. Asked if the peacekeepers and staff at the headquarters are safe, Tenenti said: “Yes for the moment.”
Several UNIFIL posts have been hit since Israel began its ground invasion of Lebanon on Oct. 1, leaving a number of peacekeepers wounded.
The fighting came a day after the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defense minister and a Hamas military leader, accusing them of war crimes and crimes against humanity over their 13-month war in Gaza and the October 2023 attack on Israel respectively.
The warrant marked the first time that a sitting leader of a major Western ally has been accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity by a global court of justice.
Israel’s war has caused heavy destruction across Gaza, decimated parts of the territory and driven almost the entire population of 2.3 million people from their homes, leaving most dependent on aid to survive.
Israel launched its war in Gaza after Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250. Around 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel has also launched airstrikes against Lebanon after the Hezbollah militant group began firing rockets, drones and missiles into Israel the day after Hamas’ attack last October. A full-blown war erupted in September after nearly a year of lower-level conflict.


Gaza ministry: hospitals to cut or stop services ‘within 48 hours’ over fuel shortages

Updated 3 min 33 sec ago
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Gaza ministry: hospitals to cut or stop services ‘within 48 hours’ over fuel shortages

  • All hospitals in Gaza would have to stop or reduce services “within 48 hours“

GAZA: The Hamas government’s health ministry warned Friday all hospitals in Gaza would have to stop or reduce services “within 48 hours” for lack of fuel, blaming Israel for blocking its entry.
“We raise an urgent warning as all hospitals in Gaza Strip will stop working or reduce their services within 48 hours due to the occupation’s (Israel’s) obstruction of fuel entry,” Marwan Al-Hams, director of Gaza’s field hospitals, said during a press conference.


Israel says to end ‘administrative detention’ for West Bank settlers

Updated 22 November 2024
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Israel says to end ‘administrative detention’ for West Bank settlers

  • Practice allows for detainees to be held for long periods without being charged or appear in court
  • The Palestinian Prisoners Club advocacy group said in August that 3,432 Palestinians were held in administrative detention

JERUSALEM: Israeli authorities will stop holding Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank under administrative detention, or incarceration without trial, the defense ministry announced Friday.
The practice allows for detainees to be held for long periods without being charged or appear in court, and is often used against Palestinians who Israel deems security threats.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said it was “inappropriate” for Israel to employ administrative detention against settlers who “face severe Palestinian terror threats and unjustified international sanctions.”
But, according to settlement watchdog Peace Now, it is one of only few effective tools that Israeli authorities to prevent settler attacks against Palestinians, which have surged in the West Bank over the past year.
Katz said in a statement issued by his office that prosecution or “other preventive measures” would be used to deal with criminal acts in the West Bank.
B’Tselem, an Israeli rights group, said authorities use administrative detention “extensively and routinely” to hold thousands of Palestinians for lengthy periods of time.
The Palestinian Prisoners Club advocacy group said in August that 3,432 Palestinians were held in administrative detention.
Israeli daily Haaretz reported on Friday that eight settlers were held under the same practice in November.
Yonatan Mizrahi, director of settlement watch for Peace Now, said that although administrative detention was mostly used in the West Bank to detain Palestinians, it was one of the few effective tools for temporarily removing the threat of settler violence through detention.
“The cancelation of administrative detention orders for settlers alone is a cynical... move that whitewashes and normalizes escalating Jewish terrorism under the cover of war,” the group said in a statement, referring to a spike in settler attacks throughout the Israel-Hamas conflict over the past 13 months.
Western governments, including Israel’s ally and military backer the United States, have recently imposed sanctions on Israeli settlers and settler organizations over ties to violence against Palestinians.
On Monday, US authorities announced sanctions against Amana, a movement that backs settlement development, and others who have “ties to violent actors in the West Bank.”
“Amana is a key part of the Israeli extremist settlement movement and maintains ties to various persons previously sanctioned by the US government and its partners for perpetrating violence in the West Bank,” the US Treasury said.
Excluding Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, the West Bank — which Israel has occupied since 1967 — is home to three million Palestinians as well as about 490,000 Israelis living in settlements that are illegal under international law.


UK would arrest Netanyahu over ICC warrant: Senior politician 

Updated 22 November 2024
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UK would arrest Netanyahu over ICC warrant: Senior politician 

  • Emily Thornberry: Britain has ‘obligation under Rome Convention’ to arrest Israeli PM if he enters country 
  • Court: ‘Reasonable grounds to believe’ Netanyahu responsible for war crimes, crimes against humanity in Gaza

LONDON: The UK will arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he enters the country, a senior British politician has said.

The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu on Thursday for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, alongside his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, pertaining to the Gaza war.

Emily Thornberry — Labour chair of the foreign affairs committee, and former shadow foreign secretary and shadow attorney general — told Sky News: “If Netanyahu comes to Britain, our obligation under the Rome Convention would be to arrest him under the warrant from the ICC.

“(It is) not really a question of should — we are required to, because we are members of the ICC.”

UK Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has refused to be drawn on whether Netanyahu would be arrested if he set foot on British soil, saying it “wouldn’t be appropriate for me to comment.”

She told Sky: “We’ve always respected the importance of international law, but in the majority of the cases that they pursue, they don’t become part of the British legal process.

“What I can say is that obviously, the UK government’s position remains that we believe the focus should be on getting a ceasefire in Gaza.”

Netanyahu’s arrest warrant is the first to be issued against the premier of a major Western ally by an international court for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

His office denounced the warrant as “anti-Semitic,” adding that Israel “rejects with disgust the absurd and false actions.” Israel is not an ICC member and rejects the court’s jurisdiction.

US President Joe Biden called the warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant “outrageous,” adding: “Whatever the ICC might imply, there is no equivalence — none — between Israel and Hamas.”

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said he plans to invite Netanyahu to visit Budapest, adding that the arrest warrant will “not be observed” by his government.

The Italian and French governments, however, have indicated that Netanyahu will be arrested if he visits either country.

The ICC said on Thursday it has “reasonable grounds to believe” that Netanyahu and Gallant “bear criminal responsibility” for “the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.”

The court also issued a warrant for Hamas commander Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Israel says Al-Masri, believed to have been the mastermind behind the Hamas attack of Oct. 7, 2023, was killed in Gaza earlier this year.

The ICC said it issued the warrant for his arrest because of insufficient evidence to prove his death.