The Israeli military launched strikes in south Beirut on Wednesday after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a ceasefire in Lebanon that would leave Hezbollah close to his country's border.
Israeli jets struck the southern suburbs of Beirut early on Wednesday for the first time in six days, Lebanese state media reported. The casualty count was not yet clear.
The attack comes just one day after caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said the United States government gave him some assurances of Israel easing its strikes in the Lebanese capital.
Separate strikes late on Tuesday in the southern town of Qana killed at least 15 people, according to Lebanon's Civil Defense.
UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert said on Wednesday that civilian suffering was reaching an unprecedented level after an Israeli strike in the south killed at least six people and hurt 43, according to Lebanon's health ministry.
(Reuters)
The Lebanese Ministry of Health announced on Wednesday that six people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Nabatieh Municipality and the Federation of Municipalities buildings.
In a statement reported by the National News Agency, the Ministry's Public Health Emergency Operations Center said: "The Israeli enemy raid... on two buildings, that of the Nabatiyeh municipality and the union of municipalities, killed six people and injured 43," the health ministry said.
The statement added, "The removal of rubble is ongoing."
Al-Araby Al-Jadeed's correspondent reported that Nabatieh Mayor Ahmad Kahil was among those killed.
The UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) is close to a possible breaking point for its operations in the Gaza Strip due to increasingly complicated conditions, its head said on Wednesday.
"I will not hide the fact that we might reach a point that we won't be able anymore to operate," UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini told journalists at a news conference in Berlin.
"We are very near to a possible breaking point. When will it be? I don't know. But we are very near of that," he said.
He said the agency was facing a combination of financial and political threats to its existence and difficulties in day-to-day operations, as aid is even more desperately needed against the danger of disease and famine.
He said there was a real risk that, heading into winter, with people's immune systems weakened, famine or acute malnutrition could become a likelihood.
(Reuters)
Britain's foreign secretary said on Wednesday that his country, along with France and Algeria, had called an urgent meeting at the United Nations Security Council to discuss the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
David Lammy said in a statement Israel must ensure civilians were protected and routes were open to allow life-saving aid through, and that the United Nations meeting would address these issues.
"The humanitarian situation in Northern Gaza is dire, with access to basic services worsening and the United Nations reporting that barely any food has entered in the last two weeks," Lammy added.
(Reuters)
Palestinian health officials called on Wednesday for a humanitarian corridor to three hospitals in northern Gaza that have come close to collapse as Israeli troops have cut off the area during almost two weeks of bombardment.
Doctors at the Kamal Adwan, Al-Awda and the Indonesian hospitals have refused to leave their patients despite evacuation orders issued by the Israeli military at the start of a major push into the Jabalia area of northern Gaza 12 days ago.
"We are calling on the international community, the Red Cross and the World Health Organization, to play their humanitarian role by opening up a corridor towards our healthcare system and allow the entry of fuel, medical, delegations, supplies and food," said Hussam Abu Safiya, director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital.
"We are talking about more than 300 medical staff working at Kamal Adwan Hospital, and we can't provide even a single meal for them to be able to offer medical services safely."
(Reuters)
The UN special coordinator for Lebanon urged the protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure after deadly Israeli strikes hit municipality buildings in the southern city of Nabatiyeh on Wednesday.
"Today, Israeli air strikes hit the town of Nabatiyeh in southern Lebanon, yet again," Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert said in a statement, adding that "civilians and civilian infrastructure must be protected at all times".
Egypt's Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said on Wednesday divisions between European states over Israel's war on Gaza and Lebanon sent wrong messages to Israel and Arab countries, saying it was unacceptable for splits to continue.
(Reuters)
Two US officials who resigned last year in protest over President Joe Biden's policy on Israel's war on Gaza have launched a lobbying organisation and a political action committee to advocate for a revamp of Washington's long-standing stance on Israel and Palestine.
Josh Paul, a former State Department official and Tariq Habash, who used to work as a policy advisor at the US Department of Education, said the American public is no longer in favour of unconditionally sending US weapons to Israel but that elected officials have lagged.
Their PAC, called "A New Policy", would support candidates whose positions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict centre on aligning US policies with human rights and equality and ensuring that US arms transfers to all countries in the Middle East, including Israel, comply with both US and international law.
(Reuters)
Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian on Wednesday called for more pressure on Israel's backers to end the bloodshed in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon.
"The president... demanded more pressure on the supporters of the Zionist regime (Israel) to stop the killings" in Gaza and Lebanon, Pezeshkian said during a phone call with Oman's Sultan Haitham bin Tariq, according to a presidency statement.
Hezbollah said it targeted an Israeli army tank near a border village with a guided missile on Wednesday, as attacks escalated after Israel intensified its bombing of the country last month.
Hezbollah fighters "targeted a Merkava tank near the village of Ramia... with a guided missile", the Iran-backed group said in a statement, adding the attack was "in defence of Lebanon and its people".
The Israeli army on Wednesday said its forces hit dozens of Hezbollah targets in the Lebanese city of Nabatiyeh as the military presses its air and ground campaign on Lebanon.
"The IDF army struck dozens of Hezbollah terrorist targets in the Nabatiyeh area and dismantled underground infrastructure used by Hezbollah's Radwan Forces in southern Lebanon," the army said in a statement.
Lebanese official media reported on Wednesday that Israeli jets caused two sonic booms over Beirut and the surrounding area, with AFP journalists in the capital hearing loud bangs.
"Enemy aircraft violently broke the sound barrier twice in the airspace of (Beirut's) southern suburbs" and surroundings areas, the National News Agency said.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned deadly Israeli strikes Wednesday on the southern city of Nabatiyeh, saying they intentionally targeted a municipality meeting.
Mikati "condemned the new Israeli aggression against civilians in the city of Nabatiyeh, which deliberately targeted a meeting of the municipal council that was discussing the city's services and relief situation," he said in a statement. A local official said the city mayor was among the dead.
The Gaza Health Ministry said on Wednesday that at least 42,409 people have been killed in the war between Israel and Palestinian militants.
The toll includes 65 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry, which said 99,153 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli navy forces say they have struck dozens of Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon in cooperation with troops on the ground, Israel's military said on Wednesday.
(Reuters)
Iran Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi is visiting Jordan, Egypt and Turkey as part of Iran's diplomatic reach-out to countries of the region "to end genocide, atrocity and aggression", the Iranian foreign ministry's spokesperson said on Wednesday in a post on X.
Iran's diplomacy is at work with respect to regional peace and stability.
— Esmaeil Baghaei (@IRIMFA_SPOX) October 16, 2024
FM #Araghchi will be visiting #Jordan، #Egypt and #Türkiye as part of our diplomatic reach-out to countries of the region to end genocide, atrocity and aggression. pic.twitter.com/s0hzn80R2D
(Reuters)
Iran's top diplomat on Wednesday warned UN chief Antonio Guterres it is ready for a "decisive and regretful" response if Israel attacks the Islamic republic in retaliation for a barrage of missiles.
"Iran, while making all-out efforts to protect the peace and security of the region, is fully prepared for a decisive and regretful response to any adventures" by Israel, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said, quoted by his office.
Lebanon’s Civil Defense said the death toll from an Israeli strike on the southern town of Qana has risen to 15.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the strike late Tuesday.
Qana was the site of an Israeli artillery strike on a United Nations compound in 1996 that killed dozens of civilians.
Five people were killed in an Israeli air strike on the municipal building of the southern Lebanese town of Nabatieh, the country's health ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
(Reuters)
The mayor of Nabatiyeh was among those killed Wednesday in Israeli strikes on the municipality of the southern Lebanese city, where Hezbollah and its ally Amal hold sway, authorities said.
"The mayor of Nabatiyeh, among others... was martyred. It's a massacre," Nabatiyeh governor Howaida Turk told AFP, adding he had been in the municipality building. Hezbollah-affiliated rescuers also said several people were killed in the strike on the municipality building, including Mayor Ahmad Kahil.
A Lebanese official said Israel carried out 11 air strikes on Nabatiyeh and surrounding areas on Wednesday, days after strikes destroyed the southern city's marketplace.
"For now, 11 strikes have mainly hit Nabatiyeh but also its surroundings," Nabatiyeh governor Howaida Turk told AFP when asked about Israeli strikes, adding that the intense raids "formed a kind of belt of fire" in the area. She reported casualties but could not provide a precise toll.
European Union countries that contribute to UN peacekeeping force UNIFIL in Lebanon have no intention of pulling back from the south of the country despite Israeli calls to do so, Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said.
Since an Israeli ground invasion on 1 October, UNIFIL positions have come under fire, and two Israeli tanks burst through the gates of one of its bases, the UN says. Five peacekeepers have been injured.
Sixteen EU countries, including Austria, contribute to UNIFIL, and the recent incidents have sparked widespread alarm among European governments.
On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on the UN to withdraw UNIFIL "from Hezbollah strongholds and from the combat zones".
But Schallenberg, summarising a discussion among EU foreign ministers on Monday, said European nations were not minded about pulling troops back or out.
"There was no debate about pulling back or whatever," he told Reuters in an interview in Brussels.
"They are there to stay but the security and the safety of our troops is paramount and has to be ensured by everybody," said Schallenberg, whose country has about 160 soldiers in UNIFIL.
(Reuters)
The Israeli army claims it hit an underground strategic weapons storage depot of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah in its Beirut stronghold of Dahieh on Wednesday.
It said advance warnings were given to civilians before the strike.
(Reuters)
A strike hit south Beirut on Wednesday, AFPTV footage showed, less than an hour after the Israeli military ordered residents to leave part of the Lebanese capital.
Black smoke billowed from between buildings in Haret Hreik after the strike, which followed Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee telling people to leave the area.
The Israeli military on Wednesday ordered residents to leave part of southern Beirut, a warning which usually precedes strikes on the area pinpointed in the Lebanese capital.
"You are located near facilities and interests affiliated with Hezbollah, which the IDF (Israeli military) will work against in the near future" in the Haret Hreik area, Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee wrote in Arabic on X.
#عاجل ‼️ انذار عاجل جديد إلى سكان الضاحية الجنوبية وتحديدًا المتواجدين في المبنى المحدد في الخارطة والواقع في حارة حريك
— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) October 16, 2024
🔴أنتم متواجدون بالقرب من منشآت ومصالح تابعة لحزب الله حيث سيعمل ضدها جيش الدفاع على مدى الزمني القريب
🔴من أجل سلامتكم وسلامة أبناء عائلتكم عليكم اخلاء هذا… pic.twitter.com/cigjAse6iL
![The leader of planned Albanian Muslim mini-state expresses support for Israel [Getty]](/sites/default/files/styles/image_684x385/public/2171709386.jpeg?h=0e714722&itok=RErwaBrE)
