BEIRUT: Israel’s military launched strikes Tuesday on eastern Lebanon, official Lebanese media reported, as Hezbollah fought Israeli soldiers after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed no mercy for the militant group.
The premier’s pledge on Monday came a day after a drone attack by the Iran-backed Lebanese group on an Israeli base killed four soldiers, while volunteer rescuers said another 60 people were wounded.
“We will continue to mercilessly strike Hezbollah in all parts of Lebanon — including Beirut,” Netanyahu said on a visit to the base near Binyamina, south of Haifa.
Hezbollah said its “fighters clashed with” Israeli troops Tuesday who were trying to infiltrate on the outskirts of Rab Tlatin village.
The group also said it launched missiles at soldiers and a barrage of rockets at northern Israel, while the military reported sirens blaring near the border.
Israel’s military, meanwhile, said its “troops eliminated dozens of terrorists in close-quarters combat” and strikes over the past day.
Since Israel last month escalated its bombing in Lebanon before sending ground troops across the frontier, the war has killed at least 1,315 people, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures, though the real toll is likely higher.
Israel launched multiple air strikes early Tuesday in the eastern Bekaa Valley, putting a hospital in Baalbek city out of service, Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) reported.
The International Committee of the Red Cross’s regional director, Nicolas Von Arx, appealed Monday for the protection of ambulances and other health facilities and personnel, calling attacks on them “deeply worrying.”
Israeli strikes have targeted Hezbollah strongholds as well as other parts of Lebanon, including a northern Christian-majority village where at least 21 people were killed Monday, according to the health ministry.
Anis Abla, civil defense chief in the southern border town of Marjayoun, said rescuers were “exhausted.”
“Our rescue missions are becoming more and more difficult, because the strikes are never-ending and target us,” said Abla.
Fierce battles
Israel says it wants to push back Hezbollah in order to secure its northern boundary and allow tens of thousands of people displaced by rocket fire since last year to return home safely.
In Kfar Kara, a village in northern Israel, restaurant manager Yousef was shaken by the deadly Hezbollah strike on a nearby military base.
“Now they know where that base is, what if next time they fire and are slightly off target?” he said, declining to give his full name for safety reasons.
Hezbollah said it had launched the “squadron of attack drones” in response to Israeli attacks, including one last week that Lebanon’s health ministry said killed at least 22 people in central Beirut.
The group says its strikes are also in support of Palestinian militants Hamas who attacked Israel on October 7 last year, triggering the ongoing war with Israel in the Gaza Strip.
The war in Lebanon has displaced at least 690,000 people, according to verified figures last week from the International Organization for Migration.
Israel faced new criticism over injuries and damage sustained by the UN peacekeeping force which has been deployed in Lebanon since 1978, after a previous Israeli invasion.
The UN Security Council for the first time on Monday expressed “strong concerns” over peacekeepers being wounded.
UNIFIL has refused Netanyahu’s request for peacekeepers to “get out of harm’s way,” with UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix saying the blue helmets will stay in their positions.
War on Gaza
While deploying troops into Lebanon, Israel has kept up its bombardment of Gaza where it has been at war since the Hamas attack on southern Israel.
That attack resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures, including hostages killed in captivity.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has killed 42,289 people, the majority civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. The UN has described the figures as reliable.
At a school-turned-shelter hit by an Israeli strike in the central Nuseirat camp, Fatima Al-Azab said “there is no safety anywhere” in Gaza.
“They are all children, sleeping in the covers, all burned and cut up, all burned,” she said following Sunday’s deadly strike.
In northern Gaza, the Israeli military announced it had effectively laid siege to the Jabalia area as it seeks to rout out Hamas fighters.
“The number of dead is high, and people are under the rubble, missing,” said Muhammad Abu Halima, a 40-year-old Jabalia resident.
Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Jabalia’s Kamal Adwan Hospital, confirmed “a blockade on food, medicine, medical supplies and even fuel.”
The Israeli military said it has “eliminated dozens of terrorists over the past day” in Jabalia.
Despite the violence, elsewhere in Gaza the second round of a polio vaccination campaign for hundreds of thousands of children began on Monday.
Since the Gaza war began Israeli forces or settlers have killed hundreds of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, with two more fatalities Monday in the northern city of Jenin.
Fears of regional war
With the war there and in Lebanon showing no sign of abating, fears of even wider regional conflict have seen Iran, which backs Hezbollah and Hamas, engage in diplomatic efforts with allies and other powers.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met a senior official from Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi movement in Oman, his latest stop on a regional diplomatic tour.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II warned of “a regional war that will be costly for everyone,” during a meeting with Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Monday.
Israel is still weighing its response to an October 1 missile attack by Iran, launched in retaliation for Israel’s killing of Tehran-aligned militant leaders in the region, along with a general in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
A counterattack would only target Iranian military sites, not nuclear or oil facilities, US media reported Monday citing US officials.
Israel strikes Lebanon after Netanyahu vows no mercy for Hezbollah
https://arab.news/8n7fh
Israel strikes Lebanon after Netanyahu vows no mercy for Hezbollah
- Hezbollah launched missiles at soldiers and a barrage of rockets at northern Israel
Israel kills at least 40 in Gaza, tanks deepen raid in the north
Israeli strikes kill 40 Palestinians in Gaza
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Israeli forces tighten siege around Jabalia
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The United Nations says 400,000 Palestinians are trapped in the north
GAZA: Israeli military strikes killed at least 40 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip as Israeli forces tightened their squeeze around Jabalia in the north of the enclave on Tuesday, amid fierce battles with Hamas-led fighters.
Palestinian health officials said at least 11 people were killed by Israeli fire near Al-Falouja in Jabalia, the largest of Gaza’s eight historic refugee camps, while 10 others were killed in Bani Suhaila in eastern Khan Younis in the south when an Israeli missile struck a house.
Earlier on Tuesday, an Israeli airstrike destroyed three houses in the Sabra suburb of Gaza City, and the local civil emergency service said they recovered two bodies from the site, while the search continued for 12 other people who were believed to have been in the houses at the time of the strike.
Five others were killed when a house was struck in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza.
Jabalia has been the focus of an Israeli offensive for more than 10 days, with troops returning to areas of the north that came under heavy bombardment in the early months of the year-long war.
The operation has raised concerns among Palestinians and UN agencies that Israel wants to clear residents from the north of the crowded enclave, a charge it has denied.
The United Nations human rights office said on Tuesday the Israeli military appeared to be “cutting off North Gaza completely from the rest of the Gaza Strip.”
“Amid intense ongoing hostilities and evacuation orders in northern Gaza families are facing unimaginable fear, loss of loved ones, confusion, and exhaustion. People must be able to flee safely, without facing further danger,” Adrian Zimmerman, ICRC Gaza head of sub-delegation, said in a statement.
“Many, including the sick and disabled, cannot leave, and they remain protected under international humanitarian law – all possible precautions must be taken to ensure they remain unharmed. Every person displaced has the right to return home in safety,” he added.
The Israeli military has now encircled the Jabalia camp and sent tanks into nearby Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun towns, with the declared aim of stamping out Hamas fighters who are trying to regroup there.
The Israeli military has told residents to leave their homes and head to safety in southern Gaza. Palestinian and UN officials say there was no place safe in Gaza.
Israeli officials said evacuation orders were aimed at separating Hamas fighters from civilians and denied that there was any systematic plan to clear civilians out of Jabalia or other northern areas.
Hamas’ armed wing said fighters were engaged in fierce battles with Israeli forces in and around Jabalia.
Zimmerman also urged for health facilities in the north to be protected, saying hospitals there were struggling to provide medical services.
Gaza’s health ministry said the army ordered the three hospitals operating there to evacuate but medical staffers said they were determined to continue their services even though they are overwhelmed by the growing number of casualties.
On Monday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the level of civilian casualties in northern Gaza.
The northern part of Gaza is home to well over half the territory’s 2.3 million people and hundreds of thousands of residents were forced to flee their homes amidst heavy bombing in the first phase of Israel’s assault on the territory.
Around 400,000 people remained, according to United Nations estimates.
Israel launched the offensive against Hamas after the militant group’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel, in which 1,200 people were killed and around 250 taken hostage to Gaza, by Israeli tallies. More than 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in the offensive so far, according to Gaza’s health authorities.
King Abdullah reaffirms Jordan’s support for Lebanon in meeting with PM Mikati
- At the meeting at Al-Husseiniya Palace, King Abdullah affirmed Jordan’s support for its neighbor’s sovereignty, security and stability
DUBAI: Jordan’s King Abdullah held talks with Lebanon’s Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Monday in Amman on the situation in the latter’s country and Israel’s aggression in the south.
At the meeting at Al-Husseiniya Palace, King Abdullah affirmed Jordan’s support for its neighbor’s sovereignty, security and stability, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported on Monday.
He also expressed Jordan’s readiness to assist Lebanon in alleviating the suffering caused by the ongoing conflict.
“Jordan is working closely with Arab allies and key international players to stop the Israeli war on Lebanon,” King Abdullah said, warning that Tel Aviv’s continued aggression could escalate into a costly regional war.
Mikati thanked King Abdullah for the support, particularly his efforts to halt Israel’s attacks on Lebanon, and for the aid provided for those displaced by the conflict.
The meeting was attended by Crown Prince Al-Hussein bin Abdullah, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, and the Director of the King’s Office Alaa Batayneh.
Israel says to hit back at Iran based on ‘national interest’
- Benjamin Netanyahu: ‘We listen to the opinions of the United States, but we will make our final decisions based on our national interest’
JERUSALEM: Israel will consider the United States’s opinion but will act against an Iranian missile attack based on its own “national interests,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Tuesday.
US President Joe Biden has cautioned Israel against striking Iran’s nuclear or oil facilities to avoid a further regional escalation and amid concerns over global energy prices.
“We listen to the opinions of the United States, but we will make our final decisions based on our national interest,” the office said.
The statement followed a Washington Post report, citing unnamed US officials, that Netanyahu had reassured the White House any counterstrike would be limited to military sites.
The Wall Street Journal, also anonymous US officials, said the assurance was made in a call last week between Netanyahu and Biden, as well as in conversations between US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant.
The plan “was met with relief in Washington,” the Washington Post reported.
Iran launched about 200 missiles at Israel on October 1 in retaliation for an Israeli strike in Beirut that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Iranian general Abbas Nilforoushan.
Israel has vowed to retaliate for the Iranian missile attack, with Defense Minister Gallant saying the response would be “deadly, precise, and surprising.”
Qatar Emir says Israel chose to expand ‘aggression’ to West Bank, Lebanon
- Qatari ruler says Israel had done so ‘because it sees that the scope for that is available’
DOHA: Qatar’s Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, said on Tuesday Israel deliberately chose to expand what he called its “aggression” to implement pre-planned schemes in the West Bank and Lebanon.
Israel had done so “because it sees that the scope for that is available,” he said in his annual speech to open the Shoura Council.
The Council has legislative authority and approves general state policies and the budget, but has no say in the setting of defense, security, economic and investment policy for the small but wealthy gas producer, which bans political parties.
Amendments to Qatar’s constitution will be proposed by the Shoura Council and put to a popular referendum vote, Qatar’s Emir added.
Iran’s Quds Force chief Qaani attends general’s funeral: state TV
- General Abbas Nilforoushan was killed last month alongside Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah
TEHRAN: Iranian commander Esmail Qaani on Tuesday appeared in public after weeks of absence to attend the funeral ceremony for general Abbas Nilforoushan, who was killed last month in Lebanon.
Nilforoushan, a general in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, was killed in an Israeli strike on Beirut alongside Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.
The funeral procession for the slain Iranian general began at the Imam Hossein Square in central Tehran Tuesday morning, according to a live broadcast on state television.
Qaani — who heads the Quds Force, the Revolutionary Guards’ foreign operations arm — had disappeared from public view and was rumored in some media to have been targeted in an Israeli strike on Lebanon.
He appeared Tuesday at the funeral, clad in the Guards’ green military uniform.
Thousands attended the funeral procession in Imam Hossein Square, many of them carrying yellow Hezbollah banners and Iranian and Palestinian flags and chanting “Death to Israel.”
Iran’s foreign ministry said Monday the Islamic republic would use “all its capacities” to bring Israel to account over the deaths.
On October 1, Iran launched 200 missiles on Israel in retaliation for the death of Nilforoushan and Nasrallah, in its second-ever direct attack on its arch-foe.
The attack was also in retaliation for Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in July while he was in Tehran to attend an inauguration ceremony for Iran’s president.
Israel has vowed to retaliate for the missile attack, with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant saying Israel’s response will be “deadly, precise, and surprising.”
Iran has in recent days engaged in high-level diplomatic talks around establishing a ceasefire in Lebanon and Gaza, as well as ways to prevent the conflict from spreading across the region.
On a visit to Baghdad, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Sunday said that Iran was “fully prepared for a war situation,” but added that “we do not want war, we want peace.”
In April Tehran had fired a volley of missiles and drones at Israel in retaliation for a deadly strike on Iran’s consulate in Damascus, blamed on Israel.
