Israel issues evacuation orders, airstrikes heard across Lebanon

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Hezbollah said it had downed an Israeli drone Sunday, without saying where, after Lebanon state media reported heavy Israeli strikes across the country targeting branches of a financial institution linked to the militants.

Hezbollah fighters from the group's "air defence units... downed an Israeli Hermes 450 drone", the armed movement said. The official National News Agency had reported Israeli bombardment in Beirut, south Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley.

In Gaza, the civil defence agency said an Israeli air strike on a residential area killed at least 73 Palestinians in Beit Lahia in the territory's north.

"Our civil defence crews recovered 73 martyrs and a large number of wounded as a result of the Israeli air force targeting a residential area... in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza," said agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal.

At Kamal Adwan Hospital, which was flooded with wounded from the strike, many patients had to be treated on the floor while nearby the dead were wrapped in white burial shrouds and placed in neat rows where relatives gathered to grieve.

The Israeli military said it struck a "Hamas terror target" in Beit Lahia. It added that the toll figures given by Gaza authorities "do not align" with the information it possessed.

The Jeddah-based Organisation of Islamic Cooperation "condemned the strike in the strongest terms" and called Israel's actions in Gaza a "stain on the conscience of humanity".

A building in Chiyyah south Beirut collapsed on Sunday night after it was reportedly struck by an Israeli airstrike.

Footage being shared by local media outlet Al Jadeed shows a building blow up and collapse in smoke.

لحظة الغارة التي استهدفت مبنى في منطقة الشياح قرب مركز الأمن العام pic.twitter.com/SmxtwF3uSj

— Al Jadeed News (@ALJADEEDNEWS) October 20, 2024

A Lebanese security source said Israeli strikes on Sunday landed near the country's only airport, as AFP footage showed large plumes of smoke rising close to the facility.

The security source, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said two strikes landed near the airport, as Israel pounded nearby areas in the southern suburbs of Beirut after issuing several evacuation orders, according to Lebanese state media.

AFP footage showed large plumes of smoke rising close to the facility.

The strikes came after Israel said it had hit dozens of targets during air raids on Lebanon earlier Sunday, as Hezbollah claimed numerous rocket strikes over the border and clashes with Israeli ground troops.

Israel has been targeting sites in south Beirut on Sunday with multiple neighbourhoods issuing evacuation orders for Bourj el-Barajneh, Haret Hreik and Chiyyah.

Videos being shared online, not independently verified by The New Arab, show a fire breaking out as a result of a strike in Bourj el-Barajneh. Another video purportedly shows a residential building collapsing in Chiyyah.

An image from the wires agency AFP shows smoke rising an area hit by an airstrike in Beirut's southern suburb tonight.

The Lebanese Ministry of Public Health issued its daily update on the number of dead and wounded as a result of Israeli attacks with a further 16 killed and 59 injured in Lebanon on Saturday.

This brings the total number of dead to 2,464 and the wounded to 11,530 since October 2023.

The fatalities were recorded in the south, Nabatieh and Bekaa.
 

Lebanese state media reported an Israeli strike on east Lebanon's Bekaa Valley on Sunday, saying a Hezbollah-linked financial association was hit, after the Israeli military issued evacuation orders for the area.

The strike on the Hermel region hit a branch of Al-Qard Al-Hassan, which Israel accuses of financing Hezbollah, the National News Agency reported, after the Israel army warned it would imminently begin attacking the association.

UN peacekeepers in Lebanon on Sunday said the Israeli army "deliberately" damaged one of their positions in southern Lebanon, in the latest incident reported by the force that remains deployed in all positions.

An Israeli "army bulldozer deliberately demolished an observation tower and perimeter fence of a UN position in" southern Lebanon, UNIFIL said in a statement, adding that its forces remain in all positions "despite the pressure being exerted".

The Israeli army issued urgent evacuation orders for some 24 towns and villages across Lebanon on Sunday night after they said they would be hitting branches of Al Qard Al Hassan a financial institute affiliated with Hezbollah.

Local media reported roads filling up with cars in south Beirut as people fled homes. Israel has issued dozens of evacuation orders throughout the war which has since displaced some 1 million people inside the country.

#عاجل إلى جميع السكان المتواجدين في منطقة الضاحية الجنوبية وتحديدًا في المباني المحددة في الخرائط المرفقة والمباني المجاورة لها في الغبيري

⭕️أنتم تتواجدون بالقرب من منشات ومصالح تابعة لحزب الله سوف يعمل ضدها جيش الدفاع على المدى الزمني القريب

⭕️من أجل سلامتكم وسلامة أبناء… pic.twitter.com/KHNwU440wE

— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) October 20, 2024

A blast was heard and smoke was seen over Beirut's southern suburbs, Reuters witnesses reported on Sunday, less than an hour after the Israeli military warned it was about to launch a new set of strikes targeting Al Qard Al Hassan a financial instution affiliated with Hezbollah.

It is the country's largest micro-credit provider and there are fears the attacks will cause millions of dollars worth of damage. Al Qard Al Hassan has branches across the country with several in Beirut's suburb known locally as Dahiyeh.

The Israeli military also issued a set of evacuation orders for neighbourhoods in Dahiyeh, as well as Chouifet a town just outside Beirut, and several locations in Baalbek city in east Lebanon.

Israel will carry out targeted strikes on sites belonging to Hezbollah's financial arm in Lebanon in coming hours and Lebanese residents have been urged to evacuate areas close to those facilities, Israeli chief military spokesperson said on Sunday.

"We will attack a number of targets in the coming hours," spokesperson Daniel Hagari told a news briefing.

(Reuters)

The Lebanese border village of Shebaa has been under heavy artillery fire since Sunday morning, local media outlets have reported.

The village which sits in a valley next to the Israeli border has also been facing airstrikes. The village is recognised as a Muslim Sunni town therefore not affiliated with Hezbollah.

Hezbollah's media channel Al-Manar reported that the group was firing rockets at the Israeli army's advance in Shebaa.

There have been dozens of strikes across Lebanon throughout Sunday.

The Israeli army said on Sunday that its elite Golani Brigade have been in close-quarter combat with fighters and have destroyed "dozens of Hezbollah" infrastructure and killed 60 Hezbollah fighters.

Five soldiers and commanders from the Golani "Reconnaissance Battalion" were killed in a fight on Wednesday in which its troops were attacking Hezbollah fighters in a tunnel shaft, the army said.

It follows the death of a senior commander Colonel Ehsan Daxa who was killed fighting in northern Gaza, the army said.

A 41-year-old Israeli colonel was killed in combat in northern Gaza, the Israeli military said in a statement on Sunday.

The United Nations agency OCHA said it is unable to run a sufficient humanitarian operation amid what it called "a few unreliable and poorly accessible crossing points".

"Many routes must open for critical supplies/services. Aid has only been facilitated when it has reached the people who need it, when they need it," OCHA said.

UN officials have been asking Israeli authorities since Friday :to urgently facilitate our access to North Gaza, to support rescuing dozens trapped under rubble".

"Aid has only been facilitated when it has reached the people who need it, when they need it," OCHA said.

Israel's Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said on Sunday that the military was stepping up its strikes targeting Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon near the Israeli border.

"Not only are we defeating the enemy, but we are destroying them in all the villages along the border, in the places that Hezbollah planned to use as launchpads for attacks against Israel," Gallant told troops during a visit to the border.

The Israeli military presence in the border area was "overwhelming the terrorists", he said.

Gallant's comments came after Lebanese official media reported 14 Israeli strikes within minutes on the border village of Khiam, and as Israel kept hammering Hezbollah targets elsewhere in Lebanon.

The defence minister said the intense military action in Lebanon since late September could eventually allow Israelis displaced by the violence to return home.

"Our goal is to completely clean the area (of Hezbollah) so that Israel's northern communities may return to their homes and rebuild their lives," Gallant said.

Lebanese official media reported 14 Israeli strikes within minutes on Sunday on the border village of Khiam, as Israel pounded Hezbollah targets in south Lebanon and in Beirut.

"Enemy aircraft launched 14 consecutive strikes on Khiam... in 15 minutes," the state-run National News Agency said.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on Sunday he had ordered his ministry to start legal proceedings against French President Emmanuel Macron after Paris banned Israeli firms from participating in an upcoming military naval trade show.

The armed wing of Hamas, the Al-Qassam Brigades, said its fighters hit two Israeli army personnel carriers, killing two Israeli soldiers in the Jabalia refugee camp, Al Jazeera reported.

An aid worker from the the aid group Mercy Corps was killed following an Israeli attack in Gaza on Friday, the organisation confirmed.

The worker was named as Mahasin Khatee.

"We are grieving and send our deepest condolences to her family … our team in Palestine, and to all those who have lost family members and loved ones to violence over the last year of war and unimaginable suffering in Gaza," a statement by the NGO said.

Hezbollah said it launched rocket salvos on Sunday at Israeli troops in two villages inside Lebanese territory, near the southern border, nearly three weeks after Israel announced ground incursions into neighbouring Lebanon.

Fighters from the Iran-backed group launched "a rocket salvo" at Israeli "enemy forces" on the outskirts of the village of Markaba, as well as on soldiers nearby, "west of the village of Adaisseh", the group said.

The Lebanese army said three soldiers where killed Sunday in an Israeli strike that "targeted" their vehicle in the country's south, where Israel says it is pounding Hezbollah strongholds.

The troops were killed on a road connecting the border village of Ain Ebel to the nearby town of Hanin, the army said. The latest deaths bring the number of troop casualties to eight killed since all-out war erupted between Israel and Hezbollah last month.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with former U.S. President Donald Trump, the prime minister's office said on Sunday.

"Prime Minister Netanyahu reiterated what he has also said publicly: Israel takes into account the issues the US administration raises, but in the end, will make its decisions based on its national interests," it said.

Hezbollah said it launched rockets on Sunday at an Israeli army base east of the northern town of Safed.

Hezbollah fighters fired "a big rocket salvo" at an Israeli army base east of Safed, the group said, adding the attack was "in defence of Lebanon" and "in response to the Israeli enemy's attacks on villages and homes".

U.N. Special Coordinator Tor Wennesland condemned on Sunday Israeli airstrikes in Gaza's Beit Lahia a day earlier that have killed at least 87 Palestinians, and he called for an end to attacks on civilians and urged that displaced Palestinians be protected.

At least five people in Lebanon have been killed by separate Israeli strikes on a house in Srifa, Sour district and on a house in Kfar Dounin in the Bint Jbeil district.

Israel carries out strikes in the Bekaa Valley, targeting the towns of Sharbine, Zeghrine and Hermel, L'Orient Today said, citing its correspondent. 

Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed at least 42,603 Palestinians and wounded 99,795 the Gaza health ministry said.

A total of 87 people were killed or missing under the rubble after an Israeli attack on Saturday on northern Gaza's town of Beit Lahia, the Palestinian enclave's health ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

More than 40 others were injured, it added.

The Israeli military said they were checking the report.

More than 30 Palestinians in the West Bank have been arrested by Israeli forces over the past two days, the Palestinian Prisoners' Society and the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs said.

The arrests took place in several governorates, including Hebron, Nablus, Ramallah, Jenin, Jericho, Jerusalem, and Salfit.

The arrests were carried out amid widespread raids, assaults, threats against detainees and their families as well as the vandalism of homes.

Over 11,300 detentions have been documented in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, since the start of Israel's war in the Gaza Strip on October 7 last year.

The Israeli military said  its air defences intercepted a rocket launched from Lebanon as two others landed in open areas in northern Israel, targeting the Haifa area, Haaretz said.

Hostile aircraft warnings were activated in the Gulf, Carmel and Upper Galilee areas, the army added.

Israel said its air force had attacked on Sunday Hezbollah's intelligence headquarters and an underground workshop for the production of weapons in Beirut.

Two Israeli air strikes targeted south Beirut on Sunday after the Israeli army warned civilians to evacuate the stronghold of Lebanon's Hezbollah movement, state media said.

"Enemy (Israeli) airplanes carried out two strikes this morning on Beirut's southern suburbs, one of them hitting a residential building in Haret Hreik" near a mosque and a hospital, the National News Agency reported.

Hundreds of Israeli settlers stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Sunday morning under the presence of Israeli police forces, Palestinian media said.

Eyewitnesses told the Palestinian Wafa agency that over 430 settlers broke into the mosque, performed religious rituals, while one individual blew a shofar in the compound.

The storming of the religious site coincides with the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.