The Israeli military ordered residents of 23 southern Lebanese villages on Saturday to evacuate to areas north of the Awali River, which flows from the western Bekaa Valley into the Mediterranean.
The order, communicated via a military statement, mentions villages in southern Lebanon that have been recent targets of Israeli attacks, many of which are already almost empty.
The Israeli military stated that evacuations were necessary for the safety of residents due to increased Hezbollah activities, claiming the group is using sites to conceal weapons and launch attacks on Israel. Hezbollah denies concealing its weapons among civilians.
The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, which erupted one year ago when the Iranian-backed group began launching rockets at northern Israel in support of Hamas at the start of the Gaza war, has dramatically escalated over the past month.
Intensified Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley and the southern suburbs of Beirut have forced approximately
1.2 million people
from their homes since Sept. 23, according to the Lebanese government.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Saturday that more Lebanese have now been displaced than during the last major war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, when around 1 million fled their homes. (Reporting by Ahmed Tolba Writing by Adam Makary Editing by Peter Graff)
Israel orders evacuation of more southern Lebanese towns amid rising displacement
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Israel orders evacuation of more southern Lebanese towns amid rising displacement
- Israeli forces continue to “target Hezbollah posts in or near your villages”
- Adraee reiterated an earlier call for health workers and medical teams in southern Lebanon to avoid using ambulances
US forces strike Daesh group in Syria
- US military has around 900 troops in Syria as part of the international coalition against Daesh group
US forces “conducted a series of airstrikes against multiple known Daesh camps in Syria in the early morning of Oct. 11,” the US Central Command said in a statement on X, using an acronym for the Islamist militant group.
“The strikes will disrupt the ability of Daesh to plan, organize, and conduct attacks against the United States, its allies and partners, and civilians throughout the region and beyond.”
The US military has around 900 troops in Syria as part of the international coalition against Daesh group.
The coalition was established in 2014 to help combat the armed group, which had taken over vast swaths of Iraq and Syria.
Anti-IS coalition forces have been targeted dozens of times with drones and rocket fire in both Iraq and Syria, as violence related to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza since last year has drawn in militants across the Middle East, including Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.
US forces have carried out multiple retaliatory strikes against militant factions in both Iraq and Syria.
In September, US forces conducted two separate strikes in Syria, killing 37 “terrorist operatives” including members of IS and Al-Qaeda affiliate Hurras Al-Din.
US Central Command said Saturday that its damage assessments were underway and “do not indicate civilian casualties.”
Iran bans pagers, walkie-talkies on flights after Lebanon attacks
- Ban imposed weeks after deadly sabotage attacks in Lebanon which were blamed on Israel
TEHRAN: Iran has banned pagers and walkie-talkies on all flights, local media reported Saturday, weeks after deadly sabotage attacks in Lebanon which were blamed on Israel.
“The entry of any electronic communication device, except mobile phones, in flight cabins or ... in non-accompanied cargo, has been banned,” ISNA news agency reported, citing the spokesman for Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization Jafar Yazerlo.
The decision came over three weeks since sabotage attacks targeting members of the Iran-allied Hezbollah group in Lebanon that saw pagers and walkie-talkies explode, killing at least 39 people.
Nearly 3,000 others were wounded in the attack, which Iran and Hezbollah blamed on Israel, including Tehran’s ambassador to Lebanon Mojtaba Amani.
Earlier this month, Dubai-based airline Emirates banned pagers and walkie-talkies onboard its planes.
Regional tensions have soared since the outbreak of the Gaza war in October last year, drawing in Iran-aligned groups from Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen.
Multiple airlines have in recent weeks suspended flights to Iran following Tehran’s missile attack on Israel on October 1.
Iran fired some 200 missiles at Israel to retaliate against the killing of Tehran-aligned militant leaders in the region and a general in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
Israel has since vowed to retaliate, with defense minister Yoav Gallant saying the response will be “deadly, precise, and surprising.”
Iran parliament speaker visits site of deadliest Israeli strike in central Beirut
- Israeli air raid on Thursday night in the densely populated Basta area killed at least 22 people
- Attack targeted the Iran-backed group’s security chief Wafiq Safa, but his fate remains unknown
Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf on Saturday denounced Israel’s “crimes” as he visited the site of the deadliest Israeli strike on central Beirut in recent weeks, an AFP photographer said.
A source close to Hezbollah has said that the air raid on Thursday night in the densely populated Basta area, which killed at least 22 people, had targeted the Iran-backed Lebanese group’s security chief Wafiq Safa.
But neither the Israeli military nor Hezbollah confirmed that he was the target of the strike, nor did they remark on his fate.
Speaking to the press, accompanied by two Hezbollah lawmakers, Ghalibaf denounced what he called Israel’s “crimes.”
“International organizations and the UN Security Council have the capability (to stop Israel) but they are unfortunately keeping silent,” he said.
Earlier Saturday, Ghalibaf met Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who told him his government’s priority was “to work toward a ceasefire,” Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) said.
The premier on Friday urged the United Nations to pass a resolution calling for an “immediate” ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
Ghalibaf was also expected to meet his Lebanese counterpart Nabih Berri, a powerful Hezbollah ally, before heading to Geneva later the same day, according to Berri’s office and Iran’s state news agency IRNA.
When he visited Lebanon on Friday last week, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said his country backed efforts for a simultaneous ceasefire with Israel in both Gaza and Lebanon.
Russia, Syria, Iran should take measures after Israel’s strike on Damascus, Erdogan says
ISTANBUL: Russia, Syria and Iran should take more effective measures to protect Syria’s territorial integrity, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said, when asked about Israel’s recent strike on Damascus.
“We will defend an urgent and permanent peace in Syria...Israel is the most concrete threat to regional and global peace,” Erdogan said in an interview with Turkish media.
“It is essential that Russia, Iran and Syria take more effective measures against this situation, which poses the greatest threat to Syria’s territorial integrity,” according to a readout of the interview from the presidency.
Israeli military renews orders for Palestinians to leave northern Gaza
- People asked to head south to Muwasi, a packed area in southern Gaza designed as a humanitarian zone
- Residents said they have been trapped inside their homes and shelters
The Israeli military on Saturday renewed its orders for Palestinian in the northern Gaza Strip to leave their homes and shelters as troops press on a weeklong offensive against militants.
Military spokesman Avichay Adraee told people to leave parts of Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan neighborhood and other areas in and around Jabaliya, the urban refugee camp where Israeli forces carried out several major operations over the course of the war and then returned as militants regroup.
In a post on X, Adraee asked people to head south to Muwasi, a packed area in southern Gaza designed by the military as a humanitarian zone.
Most of the fighting in the past week was centered in and around Jabaliya that was pounded by Israeli war jets and artillery. Residents said they have been trapped inside their homes and shelters. The military also ordered the three main hospitals in northern Gaza to evacuate patients and medical staff.
In Lebanon, authorities said Friday that 60 people were killed and 168 wounded in the past 24 hours, raising the total toll over the past year of conflict between Israel and the militant group Hezbollah to 2,229 dead and 10,380 wounded.
Israel has been escalating its campaign against Hezbollah with waves of heavy airstrikes across Lebanon and a ground invasion at the border, after a year of exchanges of fire. Israel is now at war with Hamas in Gaza and Hamas’ ally Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not say how many were fighters but say women and children make up more than half of the fatalities. The war has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced about 90 percent of its population of 2.3 million people, often multiple times.
It’s been a full year since Hamas-led militants blew holes in Israel’s security fence and stormed into army bases and farming communities, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250. They are still holding about 100 captives inside Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.
