DAMASCUS: The Syrian government said seven civilians were killed in an Israeli air strike in Damascus Tuesday, that a war monitor said targeted a building used by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
The defense ministry said women and children were among the dead in the strike on a residential and commercial building in the Mazzeh neighborhood of the capital which is home to embassies and security headquarters.
It said the toll was preliminary as rescuers were still combing the rubble.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said: “Israel targeted a building frequented by senior Revolutionary Guards and Hezbollah operatives, as well as a car parked in front of the building.”
Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said nine people were killed, five of them civilians including a child.
At least two of the dead were foreigners, the Observatory said, without specifying their nationality.
None of the dead were Iranian, the embassy said.
AFPTV footage from the scene showed a building engulfed in smoke, with rubble and torn metal strewn on the ground.
Electrician Adel Habib, 61, who lives in the building which was hit, said the strike was like “Judgment Day.”
“I was on my way home when the explosion happened and communications and electricity were cut off so I could no longer contact my family” inside the building, Habib said.
“These were the longest five minutes of my life until I heard the voices of my wife, children and grandchildren.”
Syrian state television said the strike caused “extensive” damage.
An AFP correspondent said the first three floors of the building had been destroyed and counted about 20 cars damaged by falling debris.
Last week, the Observatory said an Israeli strike on Mazzeh killed four people, including the son-in-law of the late Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, killed in an Israeli air strike on south Beirut last month.
Israeli authorities rarely comment on individual strikes in Syria, but have repeatedly said they will not allow arch-enemy Iran to expand its presence.
Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah have been among the Syrian government’s most important allies in the country’s more than decade-old civil war.
More than 400,000 people, most of them returning Syrian refugees, have crossed into Syria over the past two weeks, fleeing heavy Israeli air strikes on Lebanon.
Syria says seven civilians killed in Israel Damascus strike
https://arab.news/6pkdh
Syria says seven civilians killed in Israel Damascus strike
- The defense ministry said women and children were among the dead in the strike on a residential and commercial building in the Mazzeh neighborhood of the capital
Qatar launches ‘air bridge’ for aid to war-struck Lebanon
- Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad said the Qatari aid “will help cover shortages of medical, relief and support supplies” and will be “a vital push” for the hundreds of thousands of displaced and injured people
BEIRUT, Lebanon: Doha launched an “air bridge” to transport medical supplies and food aid to Lebanon, a Qatari minister said in Beirut on Tuesday, more than two weeks into intense Israeli strikes on the country.
“Today we launched the air bridge with consecutive planes carrying food, shelter materials and medical supplies,” said Qatar’s Minister of State for International Cooperation Lolwah Al-Khater from a public hospital in Beirut.
She said Doha was working “on medium and long-term plans to contain this humanitarian crisis.”
Since September 23, Israel has launched an intense air campaign mainly targeting Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon, killing more than 1,150 people and displacing upwards of a million people.
Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad said the Qatari aid “will help cover shortages of medical, relief and support supplies” and will be “a vital push” for the hundreds of thousands of displaced and injured people.
Prime Minister Najib Mikati also met the Qatari minister.
A French plane carrying medical aid also landed in Beirut Tuesday, one of several planeloads of aid that arrived at Lebanon’s only international airport since the escalation began.
The United Arab Emirates, Turkiye, Iraq, Egypt, Jordan and Romania are also among the countries that have sent aid to Lebanon.
Egypt, Jordan voice support for Lebanon in face of Israeli ‘aggression’
- Both Amman and Cairo have repeatedly warned that the region is on the brink of all-out war and have accused Israel of being given impunity by its Western allies to systematically violate international law
CAIRO: The foreign ministers of Egypt and Jordan, the only two Arab countries to have made peace with Israel, expressed solidarity with Lebanon Tuesday in the face of Israel’s widening offensive.
Addressing a joint news conference in Cairo with his Egyptian counterpart Badr Abdelatty, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi called for an end to “Israeli aggression on three fronts” — in Gaza, in the occupied West Bank and now in Lebanon.
“We condemn the Israeli aggression on Lebanon, we condemn Israel’s shelling of the Lebanese capital, we condemn Israel’s killing of Lebanese citizens,” Safadi said.
Both Amman and Cairo have repeatedly warned that the region is on the brink of all-out war and have accused Israel of being given impunity by its Western allies to systematically violate international law.
“You have a country that finds itself above the law and unaccountable,” Abdelatty said.
Israel launched a wave of strikes against Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon on September 23, leaving at least 1,150 people dead since then and forcing more than a million people to flee.
While battling Hamas in Gaza, Israel has vowed to secure its northern border with Lebanon to allow the return home of tens of thousands of Israelis displaced by Hezbollah’s cross-border fire in support of its Palestinian ally.
Morocco says ‘ready’ to repatriate irregular migrants in Europe
- Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita on Tuesday said the kingdom was “ready to repatriate any irregular migrant who is certified to be Moroccan and who left from Moroccan territory”
RABAT, Morocco: Morocco on Tuesday said it was ready to take back its nationals who migrated irregularly to Europe, blaming host countries for repatriation delays.
It comes as French lawmakers have called for stricter migration policy after a Moroccan irregular migrant was arrested on suspicion of killing a 19-year-old French student last month.
French authorities had previously ordered his deportation in relation to a previous rape conviction, but Rabat has been blamed for not issuing a laissez-passer document allowing for his repatriation.
Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita on Tuesday said the kingdom was “ready to repatriate any irregular migrant who is certified to be Moroccan and who left from Moroccan territory.”
“Morocco is ready, but is the other party ready?” he said during a press conference, adding that Rabat did not “need to receive lessons” on the fight against irregular migration.
The murder suspect was arrested in Switzerland on September 25, four days after the body of a 19-year-old female student was found in the woods in western Paris.
He had already been convicted of a rape he committed in 2019 and was ordered to leave the country.
After his arrest, French authorities said Morocco did not respond to their request to issue a laissez-passer for his immediate repatriation.
Rabat later said the request had not been correctly issued.
France’s new right-wing government has pledged to clamp down on migration.
French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau has recently vowed to introduce new migration regulations to “protect the French.”
WHO warns of possible Lebanon disease outbreaks
GENEVA: A World Health Organization official warned on Tuesday of disease outbreaks in Lebanon due to crowded conditions in displacement shelters and hospital closures as medics have fled Israel’s assault.
Israeli forces have begun ground operations in the southwest of Lebanon, escalating a year-long conflict with Iran-backed group Hezbollah that has killed over 1,000 people in the past two weeks and triggered a mass flight.
“We are facing a situation where there is a much higher risk of disease outbreaks, such as acute watery diarrhea, hepatitis A, and a number of vaccine-preventable diseases,” the WHO’s Ian Clarke, deputy incident manager for Lebanon, told a Geneva press briefing by video link from Beirut.
The UN health agency has already warned that the system is overstretched and so far five hospitals in the country have closed and four are only partly functional, Clarke said. He added that hospitals had been shut because medics had either fled the fighting or been asked to evacuate by Lebanese authorities.
Israel army says dismantled Hezbollah tunnel that crossed into Israel
- “Tonight, we reported that we located and dismantled a tunnel of about 25 meters long,” military spokesman Daniel Hagari said
JERUSALEM: The Israeli army said its forces dismantled a Hezbollah tunnel that crossed into the country’s territory, as its troops continued to carry out ground operations in southern Lebanon.
“Tonight, we reported that we located and dismantled a tunnel of about 25 meters long, which crossed the border fence about 10 meters ... into Israeli territory,” military spokesman Daniel Hagari said in a televised briefing.
“We detected this a few months ago, we identified and investigated it using technological means, we did not let Hezbollah know that we knew about it and now we can confirm that we are also dismantling it.”
In a separate statement, the military said the tunnel crossed from the Marwahin area in Lebanon into Israeli territory near the Zarit community.
During the operation, the army located weapons, explosive devices and anti-tank missiles in the tunnel, it said.
Hagari said Israeli troops continue to search for other tunnels along the “entire” border and in villages in southern Lebanon.
“The tunnel was under full operational control until the arrival of the soldiers in the area to prevent its use for terrorist activities,” the army said.
“For years, Hezbollah’s southern front has built an extensive network of underground infrastructure and command centers in southern Lebanon, aimed at attacking IDF (army) soldiers during combat and executing attack plans against communities in northern Israel,” it said.
Israel has intensified its campaign against Hezbollah since late September, launching continuous air strikes against the group’s strongholds in southern and eastern Lebanon and in Beirut.
Its troops have meanwhile pressed a ground offensive in southern Lebanon.
