Tag: lebanon

MARJAYOUN: Israeli strikes killed some 100 Lebanese Monday in the deadliest and most intense barrage in nearly a year as the Israeli military warned residents in southern and eastern Lebanon to evacuate their homes ahead of a widening air campaign against Hezbollah. Thousands of Lebanese fled the south, and the main highway out of the southern port city of Sidon was jammed with cars heading toward Beirut in the biggest exodus since the 2006 Israel–Hezbollah war.

The Israeli military announced that it hit some 300 targets Monday, saying it was going after Hezbollah weapons sites. Some strikes hit in residential areas of towns in the south and the eastern Bekaa Valley. One strike hit a wooded area as far away as Byblos in central Lebanon, more than 80 miles from the border north of Beirut.The military said it was expanding the airstrikes to include areas of the Bekaa Valley, along Lebanon’s eastern border, after targeting more. than 300 sites in southern Lebanon. Israeli military spokesperson Rear Adm.

Daniel Hagari said residents of the valley must immediately evacuate areas where Hezbollah is storing weapons.Meanwhile, Hezbollah said in a statement that it fired dozens of rockets at an Israeli military post in Galilee. It also targeted for a second day the facilities of the Rafael defense firm, headquartered in Haifa.

As Israel carried out the attacks, Israeli authorities reported a series of air-raid sirens in northern Israel warning of incoming rocket fire from Lebanon.Earlier Monday, Israel issued a broad warning urging residents of southern Lebanon to evacuate from homes and other buildings where it claimed Hezbollah has stored weapons. It was the first warning of its kind in nearly a year of steadily escalating conflict and came after a particularly heavy exchange of fire on Sunday.

Hezbollah launched around 150 rockets, missiles and drones into northern Israel in retaliation for strikes that killed a top commander and dozens of fighters.There was no sign of an immediate exodus from the villages of southern Lebanon, and the warning left open the possibility that some residents could live in or near targeted structures without knowing that they are at risk.The increasing strikes and counterstrikes have raised fears of an all-out war, even as Israel is still battling Hamas in Gaza and trying to return scores of hostages taken in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks.

Hezbollah has vowed to continue its strikes in solidarity with the Palestinians and Hamas, a fellow Iran-backed militant group. Israel says it is committed to returning calm to its northern border. Associated Press journalists in southern Lebanon reported heavy airstrikes targeting many areas Monday morning, including some far from the border. Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said the strikes hit a forested area in the central province of Byblos, about 130 kilometers (81 miles) north of the Israeli-Lebanese border, for the first time since the exchanges began in October. No injuries were reported there.

The Chief of the General Staff approves strikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon from the IDF Headquarters Underground Operations Center. So far, more than 300 Hezbollah targets have been struck today. pic.twitter.com/hbNKWJ8QAs — Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) September 23, 2024

Israel also bombed targets in the northeastern Baalbek and Hermel regions, where a shepherd was killed and two family members were wounded, according to the news agency. It said a total of 30 people were wounded in strikes. The Lebanese Health Ministry asked hospitals in southern Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa valley to postpone surgeries that could be done later. The ministry said in a statement that its request aimed to keep hospitals ready to deal with people wounded by “Israel’s expanding aggression on Lebanon.”

An Israeli military official said Israel is focused on aerial operations and has no immediate plans for a ground operation. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity in keeping with regulations, said the strikes are aimed at curbing Hezbollah’s ability to launch more strikes into Israel. Lebanese media reported that residents received text messages urging them to move away from any building where Hezbollah stores arms until further notice.

“If you are in a building housing weapons for Hezbollah, move away from the village until further notice,” the Arabic message reads, according to Lebanese media.Lebanon’s information minister, Ziad Makary, said in a statement that his office in Beirut had received a recorded message telling people to leave the building.

“This comes in the framework of the psychological war implemented by the enemy,” Makary said, and urged people “not to give the matter more attention than it deserves.” It was not immediately clear how many people would be affected by the Israeli orders. Communities on both sides of the border have largely emptied out because of the near-daily exchanges of fire. Israel has accused Hezbollah of transforming entire communities in the south into militant bases, with hidden rocket launchers and other infrastructure.

That could lead the Israeli military to wage an especially heavy bombing campaign, even if no ground forces move in.The military said it had targeted more than 150 militant sites early Monday. Residents of different villages in southern Lebanon posted photos on social media of airstrikes and large plumes of smoke. The state-run National News Agency also reported airstrikes on different areas. An Israeli airstrike on a Beirut suburb on Friday killed a top Hezbollah military commander and more than a dozen fighters, as well as dozens of civilians, including women and children.

Last week, thousands of communications devices, used mainly by Hezbollah members, exploded in different parts of Lebanon, killing 39 people and wounding nearly 3,000. Lebanon blamed Israel for the attacks, but Israel did not confirm or deny any responsibility.Hezbollah began firing into Israel a day after the Oct. 7 attack in what it said was an attempt to pin down Israeli forces to help Palestinian fighters in Gaza.

Israel has retaliated with airstrikes, and the conflict has steadily intensified over the past year.The fighting has killed hundreds of people in Lebanon, dozens in Israel and displaced tens of thousands on both sides of the border. It has also sparked brush fires that have destroyed agriculture and scarred the landscape.

Israel has vowed to push Hezbollah back from the border so its citizens can return to their homes, saying it prefers to do so diplomatically but is willing to use force.Hezbollah has said it will keep up its attacks until there is a cease-fire in Gaza, but that appears increasingly elusive as the war nears its anniversary.

Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250. Some 100 captives are still held in Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead, after most of the rest were released during a weeklong cease-fire in November. Israel’s offensive has killed over 41,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and fighters in its count. It says women and children make up a little over half of those killed. Israel says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.

JERUSALEM: Israel claimed the death of a senior Hezbollah military official after a rare Israeli airstrike on Beirut as the death toll rose Saturday to at least 31 people, with dozens more wounded, shortly after Hezbollah pounded northern Israel with 140 rockets. The strikes are part of a new cycle of escalation between the enemies that has raised fears of a full-out war erupting in the Middle East, particularly after two separate attacks in Lebanon in which communication devices exploded simultaneously around the country, reportedly killing 37 people. and injuring more than 3,400 others.

Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire regularly since Hamas’ October 7 assault on southern Israel ignited the Israeli military’s devastating offensive in Gaza. Gaza’s Health Ministry says more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in the territory during the nearly 1-year-old Israel-Hamas war. The ministry does not differentiate between fighters and civilians in its count but says a little over half of those killed were women and children. Israel says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.

Approx. 180 Hezbollah targets and thousands of launcher barrels, ready for immediate use against Israeli civilians, were dismantled by a number of strikes in southern Lebanon.

The IDF will continue operating to dismantle and degrade Hezbollah’s capabilities and terrorist… pic.twitter.com/lWyQNoydII — Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) September 21, 2024

Here’s the latest:

White House national security adviser calls reported death of Hezbollah commander a good outcome Wilmington – White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan called the reported death of Ibrahim Akil “a good outcome” and said that he planned to speak with Israeli officials later Saturday about the operation. .

Akil, the main target of the Friday strike, had been wanted by the US for years for his alleged role in the 1983 bombing of the US Embassy in Beirut and in taking American and German hostages in Lebanon in the 1980s.

He was under US sanctions and in 2023, the US State Department announced a reward of up to USD 7 million for information leading to his “identification, location, arrest, and/or conviction”. “That individual has American blood on his hands and has a rewards for justice price on his head,” Sullivan told reporters on the sidelines of the Quad summit that US President Joe Biden is hosting in Wilmington, Delaware.

“He is somebody who the United States promised long ago we would do everything we could to see brought to justice.” Sullivan added the moment was also meaningful for the American victims. “You know 1983 seems like a long time ago,” Sullivan said. “But for a lot of families and a lot of people, they’re still living with it every day.”

Israeli strike on a school kills 22 people, Gaza Health Ministry says Deir Al-Balah (Gaza Strip) — Israeli fire killed 22 people in a strike on a school in the north of the enclave, the Gaza Health Ministry said on Saturday. The strike on the school in the Zeitoun area of ​​Gaza City injured another 30, the statement said.

Earlier on Saturday, the Israeli army said it struck a Hamas “command and control centre, which was embedded inside a compound that previously served” as a school. Death toll from Israeli strike on Beirut suburb rises to 31 Beirut — The death toll from an Israeli airstrike on a Beirut suburb has risen to 31, including seven women and three children, Lebanon’s health minister said on Saturday.

Firass Abiad told reporters that 68 people were also wounded in Friday’s airstrike, of whom 15 remain in hospital, in the deadliest Israeli strike on Beirut since the Israel-Hezbollah war in the summer of 2006. Among the dead was Ibrahim Akil, a Hezbollah commander. who was in charge of the group’s elite Radwan Forces, and about a dozen members of the militant group who were meeting in the basement of the building that was destroyed.

Israel launched the rare airstrike in the densely populated southern Beirut neighborhood on Friday afternoon during the rush hour when people were returning home from work and students were leaving schools. On Saturday morning, Hezbollah’s media office took journalists to the site of the airstrike where workers were still digging through the rubble.

Lebanese troops cordoned off the area around the building that was destroyed as members of the Lebanese Red Cross stood nearby to take any recovered bodies from under the rubble. Weaponising ordinary devices violates international law, United Nations rights chief says United Nations — Weaponising ordinary communication devices represents a new development in warfare, and targeting thousands of Lebanese people using pagers, two-way radios and electronic equipment without their knowledge is a violation of international human rights law, the United Nations human rights chief said on Friday.

Volker Turk told an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council there must be an independent and transparent investigation of the two attacks in Lebanon on Tuesday and Wednesday where these devices exploded, reportedly killing 37 people and injuring more than 3,400 others. “Those who ordered and carried out these attacks must be held to account,” he said.

Lebanon has blamed Israel for the attacks, which appeared to target Hezbollah militants but also saw many civilian casualties, including children. Hezbollah has fought many conflicts with Israel, including a war in 2006, and it has conducted near-daily strikes against Israel to support Hamas militants who attacked Israel on October 7.

When reporters asked Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon about speculation Israel was behind the two explosions, he said: “We are not commenting.

BEIRUT: Hezbollah fired a new barrage into northern Israel on Thursday, continuing its drumbeat of exchanges with the Israeli military as fears of a greater war rise. Hundreds of electronic devices used by Hezbollah exploded in Lebanon earlier this week, killing at least 37 people and wounding some 3,000 others. The device explosions appeared to be the culmination of a monthslong operation by Israel to target as many Hezbollah members as possible all at once.

Over two days, pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah detonated, wounding and even crippling some fighters, but also maiming civilians connected to the group’s social branches and killing at least two children. It was unclear how the attack fit into warnings by Israeli leaders in recent weeks that they could launch a stepped-up military operation against Hezbollah, Lebanon’s strongest armed force.

The Israeli government has called it a war aim to end the Iranian-backed group’s cross-border fire in order to allow tens of thousands of Israelis to return to homes near the border. Speaking to Israeli troops on Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said , “We are at the start of a new phase in the war — it requires courage, determination and perseverance.” He made no mention of the exploding devices but praised the work of Israel’s army and security agencies, saying “the results are very impressive.”

Gallant said that after months of fighting Hamas in Gaza, “the center of gravity is shifting to the north by diverting resources and forces.”Hezbollah said early Thursday it had targeted three military positions in northern Israel near the border, two of them with drones. . The Israeli military said the drones crashed near communities.

Hospitals reported they treated at least eight patients lightly or moderately injured. The military said early Thursday it had struck several militant sites in southern Lebanon overnight. The volley of strikes was a signal by Hezbollah that it would continue its near daily fire, which it says is a show of support for Hamas. Israel’s 11-month-old war with Hamas in Gaza began after its militants led the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

Israel has responded to Hezbollah’s fire with strikes in southern Lebanon, and has struck senior figures from the group in the capital Beirut. The exchanges have killed hundreds in Lebanon and dozens in Israel and forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of residents on each side of the border. Israel and Hezbollah have repeatedly pulled back from an all-out war under heavy pressure from the United States, France and other countries.

But in their recent warnings, Israeli leaders have said they are determined to change the status quo dramatically. Israel began moving more troops to its border with Lebanon on Wednesday as a precautionary measure, Israeli officials said. Israel’s army chief, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, said plans have been drawn up for additional action against Hezbollah, though media reported the government has not yet decided whether to launch a major offensive in Lebanon.

Lebanon is still reeling from the deadly device attacks of Tuesday and Wednesday. The explosions have rattled anxious Lebanese fearing a full-scale war. The Lebanese Army said it has been locating and detonating suspicious pagers and communication devices, while the country’s civil aviation authorities banned pagers and walkie-talkies on all airplanes departing from Beirut’s international airport until further notice. The attack was likely to severely disrupt Hezbollah’s internal communication as it scrambles to determine safe means to talk to each other. Hezbollah announced the death of five combatants Thursday, but did not specify if they were killed in the explosions or on the front lines.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was scheduled to speak later Thursday as the group vowed to retaliate against Israel. The blasts went off wherever the holders of the pagers or walkie-talkies happened to be in multiple parts of Beirut and eastern and southern Lebanon — in homes and cars, grocery stores and cafes and on the street, even at a funeral for some killed in the bombings, often with family and other bystanders nearby. Many suffered gaping wounds on their legs, abdomens and faces or were maimed in the hand.

Tuesday’s pager blasts killed 12 people, including two children, and wounded some 2,300 others. The following day’s explosion killed 25 and wounded more than 600, Health Minister Firas Abiad said, giving updated figures. Abiad told reporters that Wednesday’s injuries were more severe than the previous day as walkie-talkies that exploded were bigger than the pagers. He praised Lebanon’s hospitals, saying they had managed to deal with the flood of wounded within hours. “It was an indiscriminate attack. It was a war crime,” he said.