Drones kill 3 as Israel widens southern Lebanon attacks 

Husain Saleh was killed in Sunday’s drone attack. (Supplied)
Husain Saleh was killed in Sunday’s drone attack. (Supplied)
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Updated 26 May 2024
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Drones kill 3 as Israel widens southern Lebanon attacks 

Husain Saleh was killed in Sunday’s drone attack. (Supplied)
  • Strike near UN peacekeeping base in Naqoura kills Hezbollah member
  • ‘We are waiting for you,’ Lebanese MP says after Israeli threat of ‘open war’

BEIRUT: Three people, including two civilians, were killed in drone strikes on Sunday as the Israeli army stepped up its attacks on Hezbollah and its ally in southern Lebanon.

The first strike, near a UNIFIL site in Naqoura, killed a Hezbollah member later identified as Mohammed Baydoun.

A second Israeli drone targeted a motorcycle in Aita Al-Shaab, killing a civilian named as Rafik Hassan Kassem, and badly injuring another man, Hussein Saleh, who later died from his wounds.

Saleh, a mechanic with no political affiliations, used to travel to nearby towns to feed domestic animals left behind by owners who fled the region. Arab News had previously interviewed him.

People close to Saleh said that “everyone advised him to stop visiting border villages in fear of being targeted, but he insisted on fulfilling his humanitarian duty.”

An Israeli drone also struck Jabal Al-Blat, opposite Israel’s Zar’it settlement, targeting a transmission tower for Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV Channel.

As hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel entered their 231st day, Khiam village was subjected to heavy Israeli raids, with military drones striking four targets.

In less than 48 hours, Israeli shelling reached the outskirts of Chihine, Majdal Zoun, Kfarhamam in Wadi Hamoul, Zebqine, and Naqoura.

Shelling subsequently reached the villages of Rachaya Al-Foukhar, Hamoul, Zebqine, Labbouneh, the Makraba forest, and the eastern outskirts of Khiam.

A fire erupted after a number of shells landed on the outskirts of Rab Al-Thalathine, near Al-Taybeh village.

Israeli raids on Aita Al-Shaab in the central sector caused serious damage to property, infrastructure and homes.

Hezbollah also announced the deaths of two people in Israeli raids on Aitaroun late on Saturday night.

One of the victims was named as Bilal Amin Mourad, a former principal in the Aitaroun public vocational school. Caretaker Minister of Education Abbas Halabi mourned Mourad’s death on Sunday.

Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee said that the military struck Hezbollah targets in five regions in southern Lebanon.

He said that warplanes raided Hezbollah’s infrastructure and military buildings in Khiam and Aita Al-Shaab, adding that several areas in Khiam, Houla, Markaba and Kfarkila were also bombed.

Sirens sounded in Israeli settlements adjacent to the Lebanese border, including Shlomi, Betzet, Hanita, Ras Naqoura in western Galilee, Avivim in the upper Galilee, and Kiryat Shmona and its surroundings.

Meanwhile, missiles landed in an Israeli army site near Shlomi.

Israeli Army Radio announced that “two anti-armor missiles were launched from Lebanon toward Margaliot in the Galilee panhandle.”

The Israeli Channel 12 said “about 10 missiles were launched from Lebanon toward the Zar’it settlement in the upper Galilee, with no casualties reported.”

Hezbollah’s operations targeted “technical systems in the Israeli Al-Abad site with appropriate weapons, striking it directly and completely destroying it.”

The militant group also struck “a Merkava tank with a direct missile in the Al-Marj site, destroying it and killing and injuring its members.”

It subsequently targeted the Zibdine site in the Shebaa farms and a building for the Israeli soldiers in the Al-Manara settlement. It also hit two buildings for the Israeli soldiers in the Metula settlement and two other buildings for the Israeli soldiers in the Shtula settlement.

MP Mohammed Raad, head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, responded on Sunday to Israeli statements threatening to wage open war on Lebanon, saying: “We know your situation accurately, and we know who you are and we are waiting for you.”

In response to those criticizing the attacks in southern Lebanon in support of the Gaza Strip, Raad said: “When criminals take their crimes too far, they don’t spare anyone. That’s why we should prevent the enemy from looking for another target, so we don’t wind up being the other victims.”  

Referring to the kamikaze drones used to strike Israeli targets, Sheikh Nabil Kaouk, a member of Hezbollah’s Central Council, promised further operations that will “surprise and humiliate the enemy.”

He said: “For the first time in the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict, Lebanese planes raid Israeli sites in occupied Palestine.”


Health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says war death toll at 41,825

Health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says war death toll at 41,825
Updated 36 sec ago
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Health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says war death toll at 41,825

Health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says war death toll at 41,825
  • Toll includes 23 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry
GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories: The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Saturday that at least 41,825 people have been killed in almost a year of war between Israel and Palestinian militants.
The toll includes 23 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry, which said 96,910 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7.

Israeli strike hits north Lebanon as raids pummel Beirut suburbs

Israeli strike hits north Lebanon as raids pummel Beirut suburbs
Updated 4 min 7 sec ago
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Israeli strike hits north Lebanon as raids pummel Beirut suburbs

Israeli strike hits north Lebanon as raids pummel Beirut suburbs
  • Israeli strike hits Tripoli in north Lebanon, source says
  • More nightly raids hit Beirut’s southern suburbs

BEIRUT/JERUSALEM: An Israeli strike hit Lebanon’s northern city of Tripoli for the first time early on Saturday, a Lebanese security source said, after more bombardment hit Beirut’s suburbs and Israeli troops sought to make new ground incursions into southern Lebanon.
The source told Reuters a Hamas official, his wife and two children were killed in the strike on a Palestinian refugee camp in Tripoli. Hamas-affiliated media said the strike killed a leader of the group’s armed wing.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strike on Tripoli, a Sunni-majority port city.

Israel army struck Hezbollah fighters inside mosque

The Israeli military said Saturday its forces struck Hezbollah fighters inside a south Lebanon mosque overnight, the first such strike since clashes erupted between Israel and the militants last year.
“Overnight, with the direction of IDF (army) intelligence, the IAF (air force) struck Hezbollah terrorists who were operating within a command center that was located inside a mosque adjacent to the Salah Ghandour Hospital in southern Lebanon,” the military said in a statement.
“The command center was used by the Hezbollah terrorists to plan and execute terrorist attacks against IDF troops and the state of Israel.”
Israel has sharply expanded its strikes on Lebanon in recent weeks after nearly a year of exchanging fire with Lebanon’s Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah. Fighting had been mostly limited to the Israel-Lebanon border area, taking place in parallel to Israel’s year-old war in Gaza against Hamas.
Israel has been carrying out nightly bombardment of Beirut’s once densely populated southern suburbs, a stronghold of Hezbollah. Overnight, a military spokesman issued three alerts for residents there to evacuate, and Reuters witnesses then heard at least one blast.
On Friday, Israel said it had targeted Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters in the southern suburbs and was assessing the damage after a series of strikes on senior figures in the group.
Israel has eliminated much of Hezbollah’s senior military leadership, including Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in an air attack on Sept. 27.
Lebanon’s government says more than 2,000 people have been killed there in the past year, most in the past two weeks. Strikes on medical teams and facilities, including the Lebanese Red Cross, Lebanese public hospitals and rescue workers affiliated to Hezbollah, have also increased.
Lebanon’s government says more than 1.2 million Lebanese have been forced from their homes, and the United Nations says most displacement shelters in the country are full. Many had gone north to Tripoli or to neighboring Syria, but an Israeli strike on Friday closed the main border crossing between Lebanon and Syria.
UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric called the toll on Lebanese civilians “totally unacceptable.”

Iran defiant, Israel weighs options
Israel has been weighing options in its response to Iran’s ballistic missile attack on Tuesday.
Oil prices have risen on the possibility of an attack on Iran’s oil facilities as Israel pursues its goals of pushing back Hezbollah militants in Lebanon and eliminating their Hamas allies, also backed by Tehran, in Gaza.
US President Joe Biden on Friday urged Israel to consider alternatives to striking Iranian oil fields, adding that he thinks Israel has not yet concluded how to respond to Iran.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a rare appearance leading Friday prayers, told a huge crowd in Tehran that Iran and its regional allies would not back down.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi landed in Syria on Saturday for talks after a visit to Lebanon, in which he reiterated support for Lebanon and Hezbollah.
In Hezbollah’s stronghold in Beirut’s southern suburbs, many buildings have been reduced to rubble. “We’re alive but don’t know for how long,” said Nouhad Chaib, a 40-year-old man already displaced from the south.
On Friday, Hezbollah fired more than 200 rockets into Israel, according to the Israeli military, and air raid sirens continued to sound in its north on Saturday.
The latest bloodletting in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered by the Palestinian Hamas group’s attack on Oct. 7, 2023, that killed 1,200 and in which about 250 were taken as hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s subsequent assault on Gaza has killed over 41,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry, and displaced nearly all of Gaza’s population.

Ground operations
The Lebanese government has accused Israel of targeting civilians, pointing to dozens of women and children killed. It has not broken its total death toll down between civilians and Hezbollah fighters.
Israel says it targets military capabilities and takes steps to mitigate the risk of harm to civilians. It accuses Hezbollah and Hamas of hiding among civilians, which they deny.
Israel, which began ground operations targeting southern Lebanon this week, says they are focussed on villages near the border and has said Beirut “was not on the table,” but has not specified how long the ground incursion would last.
It says the operations aim to allow tens of thousands of its citizens to return home after Hezbollah bombardments, which began on Oct. 8, 2023, forced them to evacuate from its north.
Iran’s missile salvo was partly in retaliation for Israel’s killing of Nasrallah, a dominant figure who had turned the group into a powerful armed and political force with reach across the Middle East.
Axios cited three Israeli officials as saying that Hashem Safieddine, rumored to be Nasrallah’s successor, had been targeted in an underground bunker in Beirut on Thursday night, but his fate was not clear.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz posted a photo of Safieddine and Nasrallah on X on Saturday and urged Khamenei to “take your proxies and leave Lebanon.”


Hamas says Israel Lebanon strike kills commander, family

Hamas says Israel Lebanon strike kills commander, family
Updated 05 October 2024
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Hamas says Israel Lebanon strike kills commander, family

Hamas says Israel Lebanon strike kills commander, family
  • Hamas has announced the deaths of at least 18 of its militants in Lebanon

BEIRUT: Palestinian militant group Hamas said an Israeli strike killed one of its commanders in a refugee camp in north Lebanon Saturday, the first time the area had been hit since the start of the Gaza war.
“Commander” Saeed Attallah Ali, his wife and two daughters were killed in “Zionist bombardment of his house in the Beddawi camp” near the northern city of Tripoli, it said.
Israel has repeatedly targeted Hamas officials in Lebanon since the Gaza war erupted almost a year ago.
Hamas has announced the deaths of at least 18 of its militants in Lebanon since then.
The group said an air strike on Monday killed its leader in Lebanon Fatah Sharif Abu Al-Amine in his home in the Al-Bass camp in south Lebanon.
In August, an Israeli strike on a vehicle in the south Lebanon city of Sidon killed Hamas commander Samer Al-Hajj.
A strike in January, which a US defense official said was carried out by Israel, killed Hamas deputy leader Saleh Al-Aruri and six other militants in Hezbollah’s south Beirut stronghold.
Lebanon’s dozen Palestinian refugee camps were created for those who were driven out or fled during the 1948 war that accompanied Israel’s creation.
By longstanding convention, the Lebanese army stays out of the camps and leaves the Palestinian factions to handle security.


UN says Lebanon peacekeepers ‘remain in all positions’ despite Israel request

UN says Lebanon peacekeepers ‘remain in all positions’ despite Israel request
Updated 40 min 52 sec ago
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UN says Lebanon peacekeepers ‘remain in all positions’ despite Israel request

UN says Lebanon peacekeepers ‘remain in all positions’ despite Israel request
  • ‘Peacekeepers remain in all positions and the UN flag continues to fly’

LEBANON: The United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon said Saturday it would not leave positions in the south despite what it said was an Israeli request to “relocate.”
“On September 30, the IDF (Israeli military) notified UNIFIL of their intention to undertake limited ground incursions into Lebanon. They also requested we relocate from some of our positions,” the UN Interim Force in Lebanon said.
“Peacekeepers remain in all positions and the UN flag continues to fly.
“We are regularly adjusting our posture and activities, and we have contingency plans ready to activate if absolutely necessary,” it added.
Israel has intensified its campaign against Lebanese militant group Hezbollah since September 23, killing more than 1,110 people and forcing hundreds of thousands to flee their homes in a country already mired in economic crisis.
Israel said earlier this week that it would start carrying out limited ground incursions into south Lebanon.
“We continue to urge Lebanon and Israel to recommit to Security Council Resolution 1701 — in actions, not just word — as the only viable solution to bring back stability in the region,” UNIFIL said.
UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, stipulated that only the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers should be deployed in south Lebanon.


More than 200 Chinese citizens evacuated from Lebanon, foreign ministry says

More than 200 Chinese citizens evacuated from Lebanon, foreign ministry says
Updated 05 October 2024
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More than 200 Chinese citizens evacuated from Lebanon, foreign ministry says

More than 200 Chinese citizens evacuated from Lebanon, foreign ministry says
  • The move comes after conflict in the Middle East has intensified following Iran’s missile strike on Israel
  • A South Korean military transport aircraft also flies out 97 nationals out of Lebanon

BEIJING: More than 200 Chinese citizens have been safely evacuated from Lebanon, China’s foreign ministry said on Saturday.
“These people, who have been evacuated in two batches, include three Hong Kong residents and one Taiwan compatriot,” the ministry said in a statement in response to a Reuters query on the situation.
“The Chinese Embassy in Lebanon remains firm in Lebanon and continues to assist Chinese citizens remaining there in taking security measures,” it added.
The move comes after conflict in the Middle East has intensified following Iran’s missile strike on Israel on Tuesday and Israel’s incursion into Lebanon.
On Wednesday, China’s official Xinhua news agency said more than 200 Chinese citizens had been safely evacuated from Lebanon by the government.
Taiwan’s foreign ministry said three Taiwanese in Lebanon were expected to return to the island this month and that two others had opted to stay for family reasons.
The ministry added that another Taiwanese decided late last month to take a boat out of the country arranged by China, and that the de facto Taiwan embassy in Jordan was aware of that process. It did not elaborate.
China claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory and considers the island’s people to be Chinese citizens, a position the government in Taipei strongly objects to.

A South Korean military transport aircraft returned 97 citizens and family members from Lebanon on Saturday as Middle East tensions rise, the foreign ministry said.

A KC-330 aircraft left Beirut on Friday afternoon with the evacuees, who include Lebanese family members, and arrived at a military airfield on the south of Seoul, the ministry said.

President Yoon Suk Yeol on Wednesday ordered military aircraft to be deployed to evacuate South Korean citizens from parts of the Middle East as conflict escalates between Israel and Hezbollah, as well as the armed group’s backer, Iran.

South Korea’s defense ministry said it flew a C130J transport plane as backup, which is capable of operating on shorter runways and under fire, as a precaution, and sent 39 military personnel, including mechanics and diplomats.

The government will take further actions to ensure the safety of its citizens, the foreign ministry said without elaborating.

South Korean diplomats stationed in Lebanon remained in the country, Yonhap news agency reported.