BEIRUT: Lebanon’s state-run media said three Israeli air strikes hit Hezbollah’s south Beirut stronghold on Thursday, the latest raids following a night of intense bombardment.
“Enemy aircraft launched three strikes on (Beirut’s) southern suburbs,” the official National News Agency (NNA) reported.
A source close to the group told AFP the strike “targeted a building housing Hezbollah’s media relations office,” which had already been “evacuated.”
This week, Israel announced that its troops had started “ground raids” into parts of southern Lebanon, a stronghold of Hezbollah, after days of heavy bombardment of areas across the country where the militant group holds sway.
After nearly a year of low-intensity cross-border fighting, Israel has shifted the focus of its operation from Gaza to Lebanon, where heavy bombing has killed more than 1,000 people and forced hundreds of thousands to flee.
Last week, Israel killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in the group’s southern Beirut bastion, a densely packed residential area before residents fled the violence.
Lebanon state media says new Israeli strikes hit south Beirut
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Lebanon state media says new Israeli strikes hit south Beirut
- “Enemy aircraft launched three strikes on (Beirut’s) southern suburbs,” NNA reported
- A source close to the group said the strike “targeted a building housing Hezbollah’s media relations office“
Jordan to establish obstetrics and neonatal field hospital in Gaza by mid-November
- Facility first of its kind in the world to focus specifically on maternal and newborn healthcare in field setting
LONDON: Jordan will set up a field hospital focused specifically on obstetrics and neonatal care to Gaza’s Khan Younis region by mid-November, the director general of the kingdom’s Royal Medical Services said on Thursday.
The deployment will occur in four phases, Dr. Yousef Zureikat said, culminating in the hospital being fully operational and ready to receive patients next month.
The facility will be the first of its kind in the world to focus specifically on maternal and newborn healthcare in a field setting, Jordan News Agency reported.
The project, which comes under a royal directive from King Abdullah II, will be operated with oversight from the Jordan Armed Forces and also in partnership with Pious Projects, a US-based humanitarian organization.
During a press conference at King Hussein Medical City, Zureikat said that the new hospital will be integrated into the existing Jordanian field hospital “Khan Younis 4.”
This facility already provides advanced medical services, including complex surgeries and prosthetic limb fittings, as part of RMS’s “Restoring Hope” initiative, aimed at providing prosthetics to amputees in Gaza.
Zureikat said that the new field hospital will be equipped with four operating rooms — one for cesarean sections, another for natural births — as well as five resuscitation beds, 30 postpartum recovery beds, and 10 neonatal incubators. Solar energy will support the facility to ensure continuous and reliable operations.
Zureikat said the hospital will be staffed by a team of 82 professionals, including 55 from the RMS. While patient numbers are unpredictable, he confirmed that medical teams were fully prepared to manage a range of cases and provide essential care to mothers and newborns.
Siting of the hospital is being coordinated with the Gaza Municipality and other local authorities, with rehabilitation work already in progress.
Lebanon army fires at Israel in first after soldier’s death
- Lebanon says returned Israeli fire for the first time in nearly a year of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah
- Hezbollah says it fought off three bids by Israeli army to infiltrate Lebanese territory, including one near Taybeh
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s army said it returned Israeli fire for the first time Thursday in nearly a year of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, after a second soldier was killed by Israeli fire in a day.
“A soldier was killed after the Israeli enemy targeted an army post in the Bint Jbeil area — in the south, and the personnel at the post responded to the sources of fire,” the army said in a statement.
A military official, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, told AFP this was the first response to Israeli fire since last October because the post had been “directly” hit.
It was the third such killing of a Lebanese soldier since the start of the escalation between the Iran-backed group and Israel on September 23.
Earlier Thursday, the army had said “a soldier was killed and another was wounded as a result of an aggression by the Israeli enemy during an evacuation and rescue operation with the Lebanese Red Cross in Taybeh village.”
The Lebanese Red Cross said four of its volunteers were wounded.
Hezbollah earlier said it fought off three bids by the Israeli army to infiltrate Lebanese territory, including one not far from Taybeh.
The Iran-backed militant group said it “repelled with artillery fire an attempt by enemy Israeli forces to advance at Fatima’s Gate” — a point on the cement and barbed wire wall running along the border.
Hezbollah also said it set off “four explosive devices” against Israeli ground forces attempting to “infiltrate” near the towns of Maroun Al-Ras and Yaroun.
It said it fired a barrage of rockets including at the Israeli city of Tiberias and a base for military industries in the Acre area, in response to the Israeli bombardment of Lebanese “towns, villages and civilians.”
On Monday, a Lebanese soldier was killed in an Israeli strike targeting a motorcycle at a checkpoint in the Wazzani area.
Lebanon army fires at Israel in first after soldier’s death
- “A soldier was killed after the Israeli enemy targeted an army post in the Bint Jbeil area — in the south, and the personnel at the post responded to the sources of fire,” the army said
- This was the first response to Israeli fire since last October because the post had been “directly” hit
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s army said it returned Israeli fire for the first time Thursday in nearly a year of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, after a second soldier was killed by Israeli fire in a day.
“A soldier was killed after the Israeli enemy targeted an army post in the Bint Jbeil area — in the south, and the personnel at the post responded to the sources of fire,” the army said in a statement.
A military official, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, told AFP this was the first response to Israeli fire since last October because the post had been “directly” hit.
It was the third such killing of a Lebanese soldier since the start of the escalation between the Iran-backed group and Israel on September 23.
Earlier Thursday, the army had said “a soldier was killed and another was wounded as a result of an aggression by the Israeli enemy during an evacuation and rescue operation with the Lebanese Red Cross in Taybeh village.”
The Lebanese Red Cross said four of its volunteers were wounded.
Hezbollah earlier said it fought off three bids by the Israeli army to infiltrate Lebanese territory, including one not far from Taybeh.
The Iran-backed militant group said it “repelled with artillery fire an attempt by enemy Israeli forces to advance at Fatima’s Gate” — a point on the cement and barbed wire wall running along the border.
Hezbollah also said it set off “four explosive devices” against Israeli ground forces attempting to “infiltrate” near the towns of Maroun Al-Ras and Yaroun.
It said it fired a barrage of rockets including at the Israeli city of Tiberias and a base for military industries in the Acre area, in response to the Israeli bombardment of Lebanese “towns, villages and civilians.”
On Monday, a Lebanese soldier was killed in an Israeli strike targeting a motorcycle at a checkpoint in the Wazzani area.
Foreigners flee Lebanon as Israeli offensive intensifies
- Dozens of Greeks and Greek Cypriots boarded a Greek military aircraft at Beirut airport
- The plane dropped off 38 Cypriots at Larnaca airport in Cyprus and continued on to Athens, where 22 Greek nationals disembarked
ATHENS/LARNACA: A growing number of countries evacuated citizens from Beirut on Thursday as Israel’s bombing of the Lebanese capital intensified and governments worldwide urged their citizens to get out.
Israel has sent its troops into southern Lebanon after two weeks of intense airstrikes, in an escalating conflict that has drawn in Iran and risks drawing in the United States.
Israel’s military bombed the heart of Beirut on Thursday, after Israeli forces suffered their worst losses on the Lebanese front in a year of clashes with the Iran-backed group.
Dozens of Greeks and Greek Cypriots boarded a Greek military aircraft at Beirut airport, many of them children clutching soft toys and school bags. In the cramped conditions onboard, some played with glow sticks, while others slept on their parents’ laps as the plane left behind the smoking city below.
The plane dropped off 38 Cypriots at Larnaca airport in Cyprus, about 200 km (124 miles) west of Lebanon, and continued on to Athens, where 22 Greek nationals disembarked.
“We were trapped, there was no other way to leave because Middle East aeroplanes are full and the earliest flight you can get is in ten days,” Giorgos Seib told Reuters on the runway at an airport outside Athens after landing.
“Every day the situation gets worse and we don’t know what will happen tomorrow.”
Expatriates in Lebanon have been scrambling to leave and governments from China to Europe have drawn up plans to get their citizens out.
Russia organized a special flight from Beirut on Thursday for the family members of Russian diplomats. Australia said it has organized hundreds of airline seats for its citizens to leave.
This week, life in Lebanon became too traumatic for many as Israel’s military urged residents of more than 20 towns in the south to evacuate their homes immediately. Nearly 2,000 people have been killed over the past year, including 127 children, the country’s health minister Firass Abiad said on Thursday.
“It was very hard, very traumatic I’ve never lived through anything like that before,” Clea Rita Barsamian, a 21-year-old hospitality management student who had been studying in Lebanon for two years, said shortly after landing in Larnaca.
TRAUMA
At Turkiye’s southern Tasucu port in Mersin, Gretchen, an American citizen who lived in Beirut for five years, said she arrived on a regular commercial ferry because flights in Beirut were canceled over the last few days.
“We are continuously hearing artillery and shelling and it was just too much,” she said after disembarking. “I just wanted to leave immediately.”
Many hope to return to Lebanon, where they have built their lives. Others are too traumatized to say.
Gigi Khalifa, a Libyan Cypriot, moved to Lebanon four years ago so her two children could learn Arabic.
“The bombing was very close, it was very traumatic,” she said, her voice breaking in the arrivals hall of Larnaca airport.
“I just feel bad, you know? For all those people left behind. My friends, my kids’ friends. I don’t know if we will ever see them again.”
Israel says kills Palestinian involved in soldier murder
- Abdelaziz Salha was killed when an Israeli strike hit a tent in a displacement camp in central Gaza’s Deir Al-Balah early on Thursday
- Salha in 2004 was sentenced to life for his part in the killing of Israeli soldier Vadim Norzich in the West Bank
JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said a strike on Gaza on Thursday killed a Palestinian who had waved his blood-stained hands at a crowd after a deadly attack on Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank more than two decades ago.
The civil defense agency in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip confirmed Abdelaziz Salha’s death, saying he was killed when an Israeli strike hit a tent in a displacement camp in central Gaza’s Deir Al-Balah early on Thursday.
Salha in 2004 was sentenced to life for his part in the killing of Israeli soldier Vadim Norzich in the West Bank city of Ramallah four years earlier, in an incident caught on camera by an Italian television crew and broadcast across the globe.
A second soldier, Yossi Avrahami, was also killed in the October 2000 attack.
The widely shared footage — one of the most well-known images from the start of the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising — showed Salha standing in an upstairs window of the Ramallah police station, waving his blood-stained hands at a crowd.
Announcing his death in an air strike, the military said that since his release from prison in 2011 and “over the past few years, Salha was involved in terrorist activity” in the West Bank.
The army statement said he was “involved in Hamas terrorist activity to this day.”
Salha was sent to Gaza by Israeli authorities after being released from jail, one of 1,027 Palestinians freed in exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit who was taken hostage by Gaza militants in 2006.
