BEIRUT: Nearly 16 hours after an Israeli airstrike hit across the street from Beirut’s main public hospital, rescuers were still removing debris Tuesday from the overcrowded slum area. An excavator was digging at one of the destroyed buildings, picking out twisted metal and bricks in search for bodies.
Residents standing on mounds of debris said an entire family remained missing under the rubble.
Mohammad Ibrahim, a Sudanese national, came looking for his brother. “His mobile phone is still ringing. We are trying to search for him,” he said. “I don’t know if he is dead or alive.”
Hours later, health officials said five bodies had been recovered from under the rubble. At least 18 people were killed, including four children, and at least 60 wounded in the strike that also caused damage across the street at the Rafik Hariri University Hospital, the capital’s main public medical facility.
Jihad Saadeh, director of the Rafik Hariri Hospital, said the strike broke several glass windows and the solar panels of the medical facility, which continued to operate despite the damage and the panic. None of the staff was injured.
Saadeh said the hospital received no warning of the impending strike, just a few meters (yards) across the street. Neither did the residents of the slum area, where several buildings were crammed and which houses several migrant workers as well as working class Lebanese.
The Israeli military said it struck a Hezbollah target, without elaborating. It added had not targeted the hospital itself.
It was hard for rescue equipment to reach the area of clustered settlements and dusty narrow roads.
Nizar, one of the rescuers, said he had been at the site of the explosion since Monday night. “It was too dark and there was so much panic,” he said, giving only his first name in line with the rescue team’s regulations. “People didn’t understand yet what had happened.”
The overcrowded slum was covered in debris, furniture and remains of life poking out of the twisted metal and broken bricks. Residents who survived the massive explosion were still in shock, some still searching through the debris with their hands for their relatives or what is left of their lives. Gunmen stood guard at the site. The Lebanese Civil Defense said Tuesday five buildings were destroyed and 12 sustained severe damage. The dead included one Sudanese and at least one Syrian.
“This is a very crowded area; buildings are very close. The destruction is massive,” Nizar said, explaining that the scale of the damage made their rescue effort harder.
Across the street, the hospital was still treating a few of the injured. The morgue had received 13 bodies.
Hussein Al-Ali, a nurse who was there when the attack happened, said it took him a few minutes to realize it was not the hospital that was hit. Dust and smoke covered the hospital lobby. The glass in the dialysis unit, the pharmacy and other rooms in the hospital was shattered. The false roof fell over his and his colleagues’ heads.
“We were terrified. This is a crime,” said Al-Ali. “It felt like judgment day.”
It took only minutes for the injured from across the street to start streaming in. Al-Ali said he had little time to breathe or reassure his terrified colleagues and the rattled patients.
“Staff and patients thought the strike was here. We fled outside as the injured were coming in,” he said. And when he was done admitting the injured, “we came out to carry our (killed) neighbors. They are our neighbors.”
Ola Eid survived the strike. She helped dig out her neighbors’ children from under the rubble, before realizing she herself was injured.
“The problem is we didn’t feel it. They didn’t inform us. We heard they want to strike Al-Sahel hospital,” said Eid, bandaged and still in shock sitting at the hospital gate. Israel had hinted another hospital miles away could possibly be a target, alleging it is housing tunnels used by the Hezbollah militant group.
Eid, an actor, said she was playing with her neighbor’s kids when the first explosion hit. It knocked her to the floor and scattered the candy she was handing out to the kids. She stood up, not believing she was still alive, to find her neighbor’s kid soaked in blood. One was killed immediately; the other remained in intensive care.
“I looked ahead and saw the kids torn apart and hurt,” she said. “The gas canisters were on fire. I didn’t know what to do — put out the fire or remove the kids.”
Desperation amid search for survivors of an airstrike on a crowded area near major Beirut hospital
https://arab.news/63axg
Desperation amid search for survivors of an airstrike on a crowded area near major Beirut hospital
- Residents standing on mounds of debris said an entire family remained missing under the rubble
Israeli military intercepts two UAVs in the area of Eilat, army says
CAIRO: The Israeli military intercepted two drones that were launched from the east and crossed into Israel’s waters in the area of Eilat, the army said in a statement on Wednesday.
Israeli assault sends terrified Palestinians fleeing north Gaza
GAZA CITY: Trapped for days as Israeli forces unleashed a sweeping assault, then rounded up and searched by troops who told them to leave, thousands of war-weary Palestinians have fled north Gaza.
Online videos verified by AFP showed dozens of displaced Gazans funnelling on Monday into a checkpoint manned by soldiers in Jabalia, the focus of the massive Israeli military operation since early October.
Walking past an Israeli tank on a rubble-strewn dirt road, they were checked before being allowed through in a single file.
Paramedic Nevin Al-Dawasah said she was trapped for 16 days in a shelter for displaced people in the Jabalia refugee camp.
Eventually, she told AFP, an Israeli army drone equipped with loudspeakers was “telling us that the Israel Defense Forces were asking us to evacuate.”
“We responded and... evacuated the shelter, but suddenly there was shelling” that killed some people and wounded others, said Dawasah.
She said she felt compelled to take videos of the wounded because “there are no journalists in the north,” already ravaged by successive Israeli operations during more than a year of war triggered by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
The Gaza civil defense agency said last week that at least 400 people have been killed in the ongoing Israeli assault, which began on October 6.
The military says it is targeting Hamas militants who have regrouped in the area.
Though not a formal Israeli policy, analysts have told AFP that proposals for a full siege of northern Gaza to close in on militants were gaining traction.
And some members of the Israeli government have openly called for the resettlement of the Gaza Strip, which Israel occupied in 1967 and maintained troops and settlements there until 2005.
Many Palestinians in northern Gaza said they felt trapped and powerless amid the widespread destruction and soaring deaths.
Saida, 46, has fled with her mother and four children from a UN school-turned-shelter in Jabalia.
She said Israeli soldiers made her wait three hours at a checkpoint and detained her son.
“They took my 15-year-old son, Amjad, and forced him to strip naked,” Saida, who gave her first name only for security reasons, told AFP by phone.
She said the troops were “questioning him and asking if he knew anyone from Hamas.”
Dawasah also said she had to pass through an Israeli checkpoint as she was leaving Jabalia.
“When we left the shelter, the Israeli occupation set up checkpoints and separated the women and men on each side and searched them,” she said.
More checkpoints have been set up on main roads, often surrounded by tanks and armored vehicles. Fleeing Palestinians also saw observation towers equipped with cameras and automatic weapons.
“They were telling us to go... and saying we deserve to be beaten. They repeated it more than hundred times from the top of the tank,” said Dawasah, who added that she saw several men being detained.
“We were very afraid.”
The Hamas government has downplayed the scale of the displacement, claiming most Palestinians have stayed in the north.
Government spokesman Ismail Thawabteh told AFP that “only a small number of citizens” were responding to the army’s calls to evacuate.
“The (Israeli) occupation is killing many displaced young men and arresting them in humiliating ways,” he said.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, estimates that about 400,000 people remain in Gaza’s north, which includes Gaza City.
UNRWA spokeswoman Louise Wateridge said on Monday that “tens of thousands of people have been displaced from northern areas” including Jabalia to Gaza City or other parts of the territory’s north spared the worst of the violence.
The Hamas government media office urged international action to “stop the crimes of forced displacement, ethnic cleansing and massacres being carried out” in northern Gaza.
Frequent Israeli shelling and damaged roads have made it nearly impossible for paramedics and ambulances to reach the wounded and dead.
“We have injuries and martyrs every moment,” said civil defense paramedic Motaz Ayoub.
But “anyone who is injured continues to bleed until they die,” Ayoub told AFP.
With little access to the besieged north, already dire shortages have been made worse.
The Palestinian health ministry reported that all hospitals in northern Gaza but one were out of service.
The only medical facility still only partially functioning in the area affected by the Israeli assault has “no medicine or medical supplies,” said Kamal Adwan hospital director Hossam Abu Safia.
“People are being killed in the streets, and we can’t help them. Bodies are lying on the streets.”
Israel confirms killing Hashem Safieddine, potential successor of slain Hezbollah chief Nasrallah
- The Israeli army also confirmed the killing of Ali Hussein Hazima, the head of Hezbollah’s Intelligence Directorate
JERUSALEM: Israel’s army confirmed Tuesday it “eliminated” Hezbollah’s Hashem Safieddine, apparent successor of slain leader Hassan Nasrallah, in a strike in a southern Beirut suburb three weeks ago.
“It can now be confirmed that in an attack approximately three weeks ago, Hashem Safieddine, the head of Hezbollah’s Executive Council, and Ali Hussein Hazima, the head of Hezbollah’s Intelligence Directorate, were killed along with other Hezbollah commanders,” the army said in a statement.
Hezbollah has not yet issued a statement regarding the claim.
On October 8, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the military has “taken out” Safieddine, without specifically naming him.
In an address to the people of Lebanon, Netanyahu said Israeli forces “took out thousands of terrorists, including (Hezbollah leader Hassan) Nasrallah himself and Nasrallah’s replacement and the replacement of his replacement.”
Late on Tuesday, the army said that Israel’s air force “conducted a precise, intelligence-based strike on Hezbollah’s main intelligence headquarters,” in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh, Hezbollah’s stronghold in the Lebanese capital three weeks ago.
The statement added that over 25 Hezbollah militants were present in the headquarters during the strike, “including Bilal Saib Aish, who was in charge of aerial intelligence gathering.”
A member of Hezbollah’s decision-making body and a distant relative of Nasrallah, Safieddine was out of contact since Israeli strikes on Beirut weeks ago, a high-level Hezbollah source said at the time.
A source close to Hezbollah told AFP in early October that the deeply religious cleric Safieddine, who had good relations with Hezbollah backer Iran, was the “most likely” candidate for the party’s top job.
Grey-bearded and bespectacled, Safieddine bore a striking resemblance to his distant cousin Nasrallah, but was several years his junior, aged in his late 50s or early 60s.
“We have reached Nasrallah, his replacement and most of Hezbollah’s senior leadership,” the Israeli army’s chief Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said in a statement late on Tuesday after the confirmation of Safieddine’s death.
After nearly a year of war with Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in Gaza, Israel shifted its focus to Lebanon in late September, vowing to secure its northern border threatened by cross-border fire from Hamas’s Lebanese ally Hezbollah.
Israel ramped up its air strikes on Hezbollah strongholds around the country and sent in ground troops late last month, in a war that has killed at least 1,552 people since September 23, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures.
The Israeli military issued new calls for residents to evacuate areas in the southern suburbs of capital Beirut on Tuesday evening, warning of imminent attacks.
In recent days the military has targeted Hezbollah’s financial assets across the country.
Hezbollah, meanwhile, has continued to fire rockets and missiles at Israel.
“As of 23:00 (2000 GMT), approximately 140 projectiles that were fired by the Hezbollah terrorist organization have crossed from Lebanon into Israel today,” the military said in a statement late on Tuesday.
Israel defence minister says US should stand with Israel when it attacks Iran
JERUSALEM: Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told visiting US top diplomat Antony Blinken that his government expects Washington’s support when it attacks Iran in response to a missile strike earlier this month.
“The United States’ stance with Israel following our attack on Iran will strengthen regional deterrence and weaken the axis of evil,” Gallant said according to a statement from his office, referring to Tehran-aligned armed groups in the Middle East, after Israel has vowed retaliation for the October 1 missile attack.
The little airline that could — Lebanon’s national carrier braves Israeli airstrikes
- Middle East Airlines is the only commercial airline still operating out of the Beirut airport
- Capt. Mohammed Aziz said the airline has received assurances that Israel won’t target its planes or the airport as long as they are used solely for civilian purposes
BEIRUT: Since Israel began bombarding Beirut’s southern suburbs as part of its offensive against the Hezbollah militant group, Lebanon’s national air carrier has become a local icon simply by continuing to do its job.
Middle East Airlines is the only commercial airline still operating out of the Beirut airport, located on the coast next to the densely-populated suburbs where many of Hezbollah’s operations are based.
Unlike the bruising monthlong war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, in which an Israeli strike almost immediately took Lebanon’s only commercial airport out of commission, it has not been targeted in the current conflict.
Capt. Mohammed Aziz, adviser to MEA chairman Mohamad El-Hout, said the airline has received assurances that Israel won’t target its planes or the airport as long as they are used solely for civilian purposes. The carrier conducts a risk assessment each day to determine if it’s safe to fly, he said.
“As long as you see us operating, it means our threat assessment says that we can operate,” Aziz said. “We will never jeopardize the life of anyone.”
Still, the sight of jetliners rising and descending as fire and clouds of smoke blacken the Beirut skyline can be alarming.
Some of the most dramatic images making the rounds on social media depicting jets landing in fiery hellscapes have been AI-generated. And, Aziz said, the plumes of smoke that appear in news footage are often farther away from the airport than they appear.
Still, some strikes have landed too close for comfort. On Monday night, one hit the coastal area of Ouzai, about 200 meters (650 feet) from one of the runways. There were no planes in the area at the time.
Since the escalation began, many embassies have chartered extra commercial flights to get their citizens out. Other flights have carried Lebanese citizens to nearby destinations like Turkiye and Cyprus to wait out the conflict.
The number of daily MEA flights ranges from 32 to 40 — not much below the usual number for this time of year, Aziz said. The difference: now the flights usually depart Beirut full and return two-thirds or three-quarters empty.
While many Lebanese have fled, others continue to fly in and out for business or family reasons.
Elie Obeid, a business consultant, was scheduled to fly to Brussels this month for a seminar. After his original flight on Turkish Airlines was canceled, he booked on MEA.
As his return flight was landing Saturday, heavy airstrikes were underway in the surrounding area. Onboard, Obeid was unaware of what was happening until the plane landed and he opened his phone to a barrage of messages.
He said he had mixed feelings about the experience.
“I do appreciate the fact that they are still flying, since that’s our only connection with the outer world currently,” he said. “But at the same time it is very risky. We should have been told that strikes were happening, and maybe even they could have told the pilot to request to land in Cyprus for a while until the strikes ended.”
John Cox, a US-based former airline pilot who is now an aviation-safety consultant, said when there’s a potential threat, it’s the captain’s call whether or not to proceed, and it’s not unusual for passengers to be left in the dark.
Telling them about a threat they can’t control “doesn’t really do any good, and it stresses them out. So, I would be very hesitant to do that,” he said.
But, he added, “I’m not sure that I want to fly into an area of open conflict like that with passengers on board.”
It is “pretty unusual,” Cox said, for a commercial airline to decide that operating in an active war zone is an “acceptable level of risk.”
“When you’re in an area with ongoing military operations there’s an awful lot of variables,” he said. “Even just keeping the airplanes ... so that they’re not in the same airspace at the same time, that becomes very difficult.”
Aziz said the airline is in “continuous coordination” with the Lebanese government and security agencies, and attempts to mitigate the risk by spacing out flights so the airport is not too crowded at any given time. About 20 percent of its fleet is parked outside of Lebanon to reduce potential damage.
They have also taken measures to adjust for the frequent GPS jamming that is used by Israel to ward off missile and drone attacks but also disrupts civilian navigation technology.
Other airlines have different considerations, Aziz said. Their trips to Lebanon might be “one flight out of 200 or 300 flights per day, so spending two or three hours a day just to make a risk assessment for one flight is a waste of time for them,” he said.
“But for us it’s a necessity, because if we don’t do it we’ll stop operation completely.”
He added, “It’s our duty, of course, to maintain this link between Lebanon and the outside world.”
For many, having that link is a comfort — even if the journey might be harrowing.
Marie-Jose Daoud, editor-in-chief of an online journalism platform, flew to Cyprus with her parents a few days after the massive strike in Beirut’s southern suburbs that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
As they were waiting for their flight, she saw on the news that the Israeli military had issued evacuation notices for two areas close to the airport. Soon after, she heard the muffled sounds of airstrikes through the airport’s soundproofed walls.
As the plane took off, the crew and most of the passengers remained calm. One man pointed out the window to show his young son the smoke rising. The plane made it safely to Cyprus.
Daoud said her parents want to return home despite the risks, so she is traveling back with them in a few days. She plans to leave again soon after, but she knows she can “come back at a day’s notice” if her family needs her.
“As long as the airport is open, I know that (MEA) are going to be flying,” she said.
