Lebanese government accuses Israel of intending to prolong war, expand its scope

Lebanese government accuses Israel of intending to prolong war, expand its scope
The Israeli army intensified its hostilities on Saturday against border villages in southern Lebanon, destroying and flattening several neighborhoods. (AFP/File)
Short Url
Updated 10 August 2024
Follow

Lebanese government accuses Israel of intending to prolong war, expand its scope

Lebanese government accuses Israel of intending to prolong war, expand its scope
  • Israeli airstrikes, shelling target towns in southern Lebanon
  • Hezbollah targets Israeli military gatherings

BEIRUT: The Israeli army intensified its hostilities on Saturday against border villages in southern Lebanon, destroying and flattening several neighborhoods.
The Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned Israel’s “disregard for international law and humanitarian standards” in a statement on Saturday.
It said that “the deliberate killing of large numbers of unarmed Palestinian civilians in the attack against the Al-Taba’een school in the Gaza Strip is clear evidence of Israel’s intention to prolong the war and expand its scope, especially as international mediators intensify efforts to reach a ceasefire.”
The ministry said that the Israeli “occupation army’s systematic and indiscriminate shelling, and the killing of children and civilians, clearly demonstrate the Israeli government’s disregard for international law and humanitarian standards.”
It urged “the international community and relevant countries to take a unified, serious and effective stance to protect the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and put an end to this humanitarian catastrophe.
“The first step to avoiding de-escalation and a wider conflict in the region is to halt the aggression on Gaza and adopt a peaceful diplomatic path by taking serious steps to obligate Israel to accept a two-state solution in line with relevant international resolutions,” the ministry added.
It circulated a document from the Lebanese government to its diplomatic missions abroad, containing “the principles aimed at achieving long-term stability in southern Lebanon.”
The ministry requested its missions to “conduct the necessary communications in their respective countries, both bilaterally and within the councils of Arab ambassadors, to present the Lebanese stance outlined in the document.”
The document stated that “the Lebanese government believes that a full-scale war can still be avoided, and it is committed to protecting the safety and security of its citizens, retaining its right to self-defense under international law.
“At the same time, the government believes that de-escalation is the most appropriate path to avoid a destructive cycle of violence, which would be more challenging to contain.”
The document said that “the government cannot act alone. The international community must play a decisive and immediate role in calming tensions and curbing the ongoing Israeli aggression against Lebanon.”
The text added: “To achieve de-escalation, the Lebanese government proposes a systematic and organized approach that would provide an alternative to the current chaos. This approach would be purposeful, with the primary goal of restoring stability.”
The government statement also demanded the “full and equitable implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701. There is a need for immediate de-escalation and cessation of provocative actions to reduce risks and protect civilians.
“Any activity within this framework should not obstruct the full re-commitment to Resolution 1701 or increase the risk of a full-scale conflict,” it said.
The document also said that “the Lebanese government believes that a ceasefire in Gaza would immediately calm tensions in southern Lebanon, paving the way for long-term sustainable stability. In this context, the Lebanese government supports President Biden’s agreement to ceasefire in Gaza and calls for its immediate implementation following Resolution 2735.”
The Lebanese reaction came as a local TV team survived an Israeli raid on the Majdal Selm village this morning.
Israeli artillery shelling targeted Houla, while Israeli warplanes raided several houses in Tayr Harfa, Tyre.
The Health Ministry emergency operations center said that “the Israeli artillery shelling with phosphorus shells on Kfarkila has resulted in a severe case of asphyxiation for one resident, who required hospitalization.”
The destructive artillery shelling flattened several houses in Aitaroun, while Israeli warplanes hit Aita Al-Shaab.
Hezbollah separately said in a statement that it destroyed “spy equipment in the Israeli military Ramia site with an attack drone.”
Hezbollah released footage of its operation targeting “a newly established Israeli military position in Khirbet Manot.”
It also announced targeting “a gathering of Israeli soldiers in Tel Sha’ar with rocket weapons.”
Israeli warplanes continued to fly at medium altitude over southern villages, extending to Sidon and Beirut.


Israeli forces deepen raid in Rafah, kill 14 people across Gaza

Israeli forces deepen raid in Rafah, kill 14 people across Gaza
Updated 55 min 44 sec ago
Follow

Israeli forces deepen raid in Rafah, kill 14 people across Gaza

Israeli forces deepen raid in Rafah, kill 14 people across Gaza
  • Israeli tanks, warplanes in action across Gaza
  • At least 14 Palestinians killed

CAIRO: Israeli forces killed at least 14 Palestinians in tank and air strikes on north and central areas of the Gaza Strip on Friday, medics said, as tanks advanced further into northwest Rafah near the border with Egypt.
The unrelenting fighting between the Israelis and Hamas militants in the enclave carried on even as a parallel conflict in the Lebanon-Israel border area involving Hamas’ allies Hezbollah intensified.
Meanwhile some Palestinians displaced by the Israeli assault on Gaza said they feared their temporary beachside camp would be inundated by high waves.
Palestinian health officials said shelling by Israeli tanks killed eight people and wounded several others in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central area of Gaza, and six others were killed in an airstrike on a house in Gaza City.
In the northern town of Beit Hanoun, an Israeli strike on a car killed and wounded several Palestinians, medics said.
It was not clear how many of the casualties were combatants and how many were civilians.
In the southern city of Rafah, where the Israeli army has been operating since May, tanks advanced further to the northwest area backed by aircraft, residents said.
They also reported heavy fire and explosions echoing in the eastern areas of the city, where Israeli forces blew up several houses, according to residents and Hamas media.
“Our fighters are engaged in fierce gunbattles against Israeli fores, who advanced into Tanour neighborhood in Rafah,” Hamas armed wing said in a statement.
The Israeli military has said that forces operating in Rafah had in past weeks killed hundreds of Palestinian militants, located tunnels and explosives and destroyed military infrastructure.
Israel’s demand to keep control of the southern border line between Rafah and Egypt has been the focus of an international effort to conclude a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.
The United States and mediators Qatar and Egypt have for months attempted to secure a truce but have failed to bring Israel and Hamas to a final agreement.
Two obstacles have been especially difficult — Israel’s demand that it keep forces in the Philadelphi corridor between Gaza and Egypt, and the specifics of an exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Encroaching Sea
In a new challenge to Palestinians displaced in the Al-Mawasi area in southern Gaza, many were concerned about the danger of high waves. Some tents put up close to the beach flooded last week.
“Enough, enough, enough. We were pushed by the occupation (Israel) to the sea, where we believed it was safe, last week the sea flooded and washed away some tents, and that could happen again, where would we go?” said Shaban, 47, an electrical engineer displaced from Gaza City.
This latest war in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered last Oct. 7 when Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s subsequent assault on the Hamas-governed enclave has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, according to the local health ministry, while displacing nearly the entire population of 2.3 million, causing a hunger crisis and leading to genocide allegations at the World Court that Israel denies.
Israel says it aims to eradicate the Iran-aligned Hamas, which it deems a threat to its own existence.


UN peacekeepers in Lebanon urge immediate de-escalation

UN peacekeepers in Lebanon urge immediate de-escalation
Updated 20 September 2024
Follow

UN peacekeepers in Lebanon urge immediate de-escalation

UN peacekeepers in Lebanon urge immediate de-escalation
  • Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah have been trading fire for almost a year

BEIRUT: The UN peacekeeping force in south Lebanon urged de-escalation on Friday after a big increase in hostilities at the Lebanese-Israeli border, where Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah have been trading fire for almost a year.
The UNIFIL force had witnessed “a heavy intensification of the hostilities across the Blue Line” and throughout its area of operations, spokesperson Andrea Tenenti told Reuters.
“We are concerned at the increased escalation across the Blue Line and urge all actors to immediately de-escalate,” he said.
The Blue Line refers to the frontier between Lebanon and Israel.
Late on Thursday, Israeli warplanes carried out their most intense strikes on southern Lebanon of the conflict.
It followed attacks this week which blew up thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah, killing at least 37 people and wounding thousands more.


Israel pounds Lebanon’s Hezbollah sites

Israel pounds Lebanon’s Hezbollah sites
Updated 20 September 2024
Follow

Israel pounds Lebanon’s Hezbollah sites

Israel pounds Lebanon’s Hezbollah sites
  • Israeli fighter jets roared over Beirut, their sonic booms shaking buildings and sending residents scrambling for cover
  • Israel’s military said its jets hit “approximately 100 launchers and additional terrorist infrastructure sites

Beirut: Israel said it pounded Lebanon’s Hezbollah, just hours after the group’s leader vowed retribution for deadly explosions that targeted its communication devices, killing 37 people and wounding thousands.
The Iran-backed Hezbollah blamed Israel for the explosion of thousands of its operatives’ pagers and radios in attacks that spanned two days this week. Israel has yet to comment on the attacks.
Speaking for the first time since the deadly device sabotage, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah vowed on Thursday that Israel would face retribution.
Describing the attacks as a “massacre” and a possible “act of war,” Nasrallah said Israel would face “just punishment, where it expects it and where it does not.”
As he delivered his address, Israeli fighter jets roared over Beirut, their sonic booms shaking buildings and sending residents scrambling for cover.
Hours later, Israel’s military said its jets hit “approximately 100 launchers and additional terrorist infrastructure sites, consisting of approximately 1,000 barrels” set to be fired immediately.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said Israel struck the south at least 52 times. It was one of the heaviest Israeli bombardments of south Lebanon since the border exchanges erupted last October.
Hezbollah meanwhile said it launched at least 17 attacks on military sites in northern Israel.
The device blasts and Thursday’s barrage of air strikes came after Israel announced it was shifting its war objectives to its northern border with Lebanon where it has been trading fire with Hezbollah.
For nearly a year, Israel’s firepower has been focused on Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza, but its troops have also been engaged in near-daily exchanges with Hezbollah militants.
International mediators have repeatedly tried to avert a full-blown war between Israel and Hezbollah and staunch the regional fallout of the war in Gaza, started by Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel.
Hezbollah maintains its fight is in support of Hamas, and Nasrallah vowed the attacks on Israel will continue as long as the war in Gaza lasts.
The cross-border exchanges of fire have killed hundreds in Lebanon, most of them fighters, and dozens in Israel, including soldiers. Tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border have been forced to flee their homes.
Speaking to Israeli troops on Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said: “Hezbollah will pay an increasing price” as Israel tries to “ensure the safe return” of its citizens to areas near the border.
“We are at the start of a new phase in the war,” he said.
Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said the “blatant assault on Lebanon’s sovereignty and security” was a dangerous development that could “signal a wider war.”
Speaking ahead of a UN Security Council meeting on the attacks set for Friday, he said Lebanon had filed a complaint against “Israel’s cyber-terrorist aggression that amounts to a war crime.”
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Israel faces “a crushing response from the resistance front” after the blasts, which wounded Tehran’s ambassador in Beirut.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who has been scrambling to salvage efforts for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal, called for restraint by all sides.
“We don’t want to see any escalatory actions by any party” that would endanger the goal of a ceasefire in Gaza, he said as he joined European foreign ministers in Paris to discuss the widening crisis.
Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said President Joe Biden still believes a diplomatic solution between Israel and Hezbollah is “achievable.”
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, in Madrid, called for a new peace conference aimed at ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Hamas’s October 7 attacks that sparked the Gaza war resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, on the Israeli side, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures that include hostages killed in captivity.
Out of 251 hostages seized by militants, 97 are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,272 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures provided by the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The United Nations has acknowledged the figures as reliable.
In the latest Gaza violence, the territory’s civil defense agency said an air strike on a house in Nuseirat refugee camp killed eight people. Another six people, including children, were killed in a separate strike on an apartment in Gaza city, it added.
In Lebanon, the influx of so many casualties following the blasts overwhelmed medics and triggered panic.
“What happened in the last two days is so frightening. It’s terrifying,” Lina Ismail told AFP by phone from the eastern city of Baalbek.
“I took away my daughter’s power bank and we even sleep with our mobile phones in a separate room,” she added in a trembling voice.
The preliminary findings of a Lebanese investigation found the pagers had been booby-trapped, a security official said.
The country’s mission to the United Nations concurred, saying in a letter that the probe showed “the targeted devices were professionally booby-trapped... before arriving in Lebanon, and were detonated by sending emails to the devices.”
A source close to Hezbollah, asking not to be identified, said the pagers were recently imported and appeared to have been “sabotaged at source.”
The New York Times reported Wednesday that the pagers that exploded were produced by the Hungary-based BAC Consulting on behalf of Taiwanese manufacturer Gold Apollo. It cited intelligence officers as saying BAC was part of an Israeli front.
A government spokesman in Budapest said the company was “a trading intermediary, with no manufacturing or operational site in Hungary.”


Gaza ceasefire deal unlikely in Biden’s term — report

Gaza ceasefire deal unlikely in Biden’s term — report
Updated 20 September 2024
Follow

Gaza ceasefire deal unlikely in Biden’s term — report

Gaza ceasefire deal unlikely in Biden’s term — report
  • The United States and mediators Qatar and Egypt have for months attempted to secure a ceasefire in Gaza
  • The US has said a ceasefire deal could lower tensions across the Middle East amid fears of a wider conflict

WASHINGTON: US officials now believe that a ceasefire deal between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in Gaza is unlikely before President Joe Biden leaves office in January, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.
The newspaper cited top-level officials in the White House, State Department and Pentagon without naming them. Those bodies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
“I can tell you that we do not believe that deal is falling apart,” Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh told reporters on Thursday before the report was published.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said two weeks ago that 90 percent of a ceasefire deal had been agreed upon.
The United States and mediators Qatar and Egypt have for months attempted to secure a ceasefire but have failed to bring Israel and Hamas to a final agreement.
Two obstacles have been especially difficult: Israel’s demand to keep forces in the Philadelphi corridor between Gaza and Egypt and the specifics of an exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
The United States has said a Gaza ceasefire deal could lower tensions across the Middle East amid fears the conflict could widen.
Biden laid out a three-phase ceasefire proposal on May 31 that he said at the time Israel agreed to. As the talks hit obstacles, officials have for weeks said a new proposal would soon be presented.
The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on Oct. 7 when Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s subsequent assault on the Hamas-governed enclave has killed over 41,000 Palestinians, according to the local health ministry, while displacing nearly the entire population of 2.3 million, causing a hunger crisis and leading to genocide allegations at the World Court that Israel denies.


Trump says Fed’s rate cut was ‘political move’

Trump says Fed’s rate cut was ‘political move’
Updated 20 September 2024
Follow

Trump says Fed’s rate cut was ‘political move’

Trump says Fed’s rate cut was ‘political move’

WASHINGTON: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Thursday the US Federal Reserve’s decision to cut interest rates by half of a percentage point was “a political move.”
“It really is a political move. Most people thought it was going to be half of that number, which probably would have been the right thing to do,” Trump said in an interview with Newsmax.
The Federal Reserve on Wednesday kicked off what is expected to be a series of interest rate cuts with an unusually large half-percentage-point reduction.
Trump said last month that US presidents should have a say over decisions made by the Federal Reserve.
The Fed chair and the other six members of its board of governors are nominated by the president, subject to confirmation by the Senate. The Fed enjoys substantial operational independence to make policy decisions that wield tremendous influence over the direction of the world’s largest economy and global asset markets.