Israel kills 2 civilians providing services to UNIFIL forces

Civil Defence teams inspect a charred car that was hit by an Israeli drone strike on the road leading to the southern Lebanese coastal town of Naqoura on the border with Israel on September 2, 2024, as Hezbollah and Israel continued to exchange shelling. (AFP)
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Civil Defence teams inspect a charred car that was hit by an Israeli drone strike on the road leading to the southern Lebanese coastal town of Naqoura on the border with Israel on September 2, 2024, as Hezbollah and Israel continued to exchange shelling. (AFP)
Fire fighters and rescue teams inspect a charred car that was hit by an Israeli drone strike on the road leading to the Lebanese town of Naqoura on the border with Israel on September 2, 2024. (AFP)
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Fire fighters and rescue teams inspect a charred car that was hit by an Israeli drone strike on the road leading to the Lebanese town of Naqoura on the border with Israel on September 2, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 02 September 2024
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Israel kills 2 civilians providing services to UNIFIL forces

Israel kills 2 civilians providing services to UNIFIL forces
  • Hezbollah retaliates against Israeli attacks by targeting buildings used by soldiers

BEIRUT: An Israeli strike on a vehicle in southern Lebanon killed two people on Monday, the Health Ministry said.

The two civilians providing services to UNIFIL were killed in an airstrike conducted by a military drone, which targeted their civilian vehicle on the main road to Naqoura, where UNIFIL headquarters are located.

A fire erupted immediately in the vehicle, resulting in the deaths of Hussein Mahdi and his cousin Ali Mahdi, both of whom were employed by Techno Building Materials, a company based in Mount Lebanon that provides contracted services to UNIFIL.

The two employees were accustomed to commuting to and from UNIFIL headquarters to carry out the duties assigned to them.

BACKGROUND

Israel has been exchanging fire near-daily with Hezbollah since clashes along the border began last October.

The Public Health Emergency Operations Center of the Ministry of Health confirmed the deaths.

In June, three contractors associated with UNIFIL sustained injuries when their vehicle came under gunfire in the town of Chamaa, located in southern Lebanon.

At that time, UNIFIL reported that the contractors were targeted while en route home from the UNIFIL Sector West headquarters in Chamaa. Fortunately, their injuries were not severe.

In its recent vote regarding the renewal of UNIFIL’s mandate for another year, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution that included a call for all relevant parties to take prompt actions aimed at de-escalation and stability along the Blue Line.

UNIFIL “deplores that so many people have been hurt or killed since Oct. 8. Attacks on civilians are violations of international humanitarian law. They must stop,” said UNIFIL spokesperson Kandice Ardiel.

In response to the Naqoura attack, Hezbollah said that it “targeted the settlements of Ein Yaakov, Ja’aton and Yehiam with barrages of Katyusha rockets.”

Reports from Israeli media indicated that sirens were activated in these areas.

The operations center of the Ministry of Public Health said that “Israeli artillery shelling with phosphorus bombs on the town of Khiam resulted in a citizen suffering from suffocation, necessitating treatment at the governmental hospital in Marjeyoun.”

A driver survived after his truck was hit by Israeli machine gun fire while passing on the border road between Kfar Kila and Adaisseh.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant confirmed on Sunday that “confrontations with Hezbollah will continue until the residents of the north are returned to their homes.”

In this context, former Israeli Minister Benny Gantz called on the government to “conclude a deal in the Gaza Strip to release the hostages and focus the military efforts in the north in the face of Hezbollah. Prolonging the war in Gaza and the West Bank will lead to a delay in addressing Hezbollah.”

Israeli media continues to talk about “the possibilities of a war breaking out with Hezbollah and the discussions inside Israel in terms of targeting the group with additional strikes to make it lose much of its military capabilities.”

The town of Yaroun in the Bint Jbeil district was hit with intermittent artillery shelling coming from the Israeli positions on the other side of the border, while an airstrike targeted the town of Aita Al-Shaab.

On the other hand, Israeli Channel 12 reported that five missiles were launched from Lebanon toward Mattat in the Upper Galilee region.

Hezbollah announced a series of attacks that targeted a group of Israeli soldiers located in Har Adir with shells and “achieved a direct hit.”

It also targeted “buildings used by soldiers in the settlements of Avivim and Al-Manara with the appropriate weapons.”

Hostilities between the Israeli army and Hezbollah escalated on the night of Sunday to Monday, leading to deaths and injuries.

Israeli Army spokesperson Avichay Adraee said that air force warplanes carried out strikes targeting Hezbollah military buildings in Yaroun, Aita Al-Shaab, Hanine, Tayr Harfa, and Blida, which are border towns controlled by Hezbollah.

The operations center said that the Israeli strike on Aita Al-Shaab injured four people and that on Beit Yahoun three people. The one that hit Beit Lif killed one person, injuring eight others.

 


Tunisia votes Sunday in its third presidential election since the Arab Spring

Tunisia votes Sunday in its third presidential election since the Arab Spring
Updated 11 sec ago
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Tunisia votes Sunday in its third presidential election since the Arab Spring

Tunisia votes Sunday in its third presidential election since the Arab Spring
  • Tunisia’s President Kais Saied faces few obstacles to winning another term in the country’s presidential election Sunday because his major opponents have been imprisoned or left off the ballot
  • The presidential election is Tunisia’s third since protests led to the 2011 ouster of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali during the Arab Spring
TUNIS: With his major opponents imprisoned or left off the ballot, Tunisian President Kais Saied faces few obstacles to winning reelection on Sunday, five years after riding anti-establishment backlash to a first term.
The North African country’s Oct. 6 presidential election is its third since protests led to the 2011 ouster of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali — the first autocrat toppled in the Arab Spring uprisings that also overthrew leaders in Egypt, Libya and Yemen.
International observers praised the previous two contests as meeting democratic norms. However, a raft of arrests and actions taken by a Saied-appointed election authority have raised questions about whether this year’s race is free and fair. And opposition parties have called for a boycott.
What’s at stake?
Not long ago, Tunisia was hailed as the Arab Spring’s only success story. As coups, counter-revolutions and civil wars convulsed the region, the North African nation enshrined a new democratic constitution and saw its leading civil society groups win the Nobel Peace Prize for brokering political compromise.
But its new leaders were unable to buoy its struggling economy and were plagued by political infighting and episodes of violence and terrorism.
Amid that backdrop, Saied, then 61 and a political outsider, won his first term in 2019. He advanced to a runoff promising to usher in a “New Tunisia” and hand more power to young people and local governments.
This year’s election will offer a window into popular opinion about the trajectory that Tunisia’s fading democracy has taken since Saied took office.
Saied’s supporters appear to have remained loyal to him and his promise to transform Tunisia. But he isn’t affiliated with any political party, and it’s unclear just how deep his support runs among Tunisians.
It’s the first presidential race since Saied upended the country’s politics in July 2021, declaring a state of emergency, sacking his prime minister, suspending the parliament and rewriting Tunisia’s constitution consolidating his own power.
Those actions outraged pro-democracy groups and leading opposition parties, who called them a coup. Yet despite anger from career politicians, voters approved Saied’s new constitution the following year in a low-turnout referendum.
Authorities subsequently began arresting Saied’s critics including journalists, lawyers, politicians and civil society figures, charging them with endangering state security and violating a controversial anti-fake news law that observers argue stifles dissent.
Fewer voters turned out to participate in parliamentary and local elections in 2022 and 2023 amid economic woes and widespread political apathy.
Who’s running?
Many wanted to challenge Saied, but few were able to.
Seventeen potential candidates filed paperwork to run and Tunisia’s election authority approved only three: Saied, Zouhair Maghzaoui and Ayachi Zammel.
Maghzaoui is a veteran politician who has campaigned against Saied’s economic program and recent political arrests. Still, he is loathed by opposition parties for backing Saied’s constitution and earlier moves to consolidate power.
Zammel is a businessman supported by politicians not boycotting the race. During the campaign, he has been sentenced to prison time in four voter fraud cases related to signatures his team gathered to qualify for the ballot.
Others had hoped to run but were prevented. The election authority, known as ISIE, last month dismissed a court ruling ordering it to reinstate three additional challengers.
With many arrested, detained or convicted on charges related to their political activities, Tunisia’s most well-known opposition figures are also not participating.
That includes the 83-year-old leader of Tunisia’s most well organized political party Ennahda, which rose to power after the Arab Spring. Rached Ghannouchi, the Islamist party’s co-founder and Tunisia’s former house speaker, has been imprisoned since last year after criticizing Saied.
The crackdown also includes one of Ghannouchi’s most vocal detractors: Abir Moussi, a right-wing lawmaker known for railing against Islamists and speaking nostalgically for pre-Arab Spring Tunisia. The 49-year-old president of the Free Destourian Party also was imprisoned last year after criticizing Saied.
Other less known politicians who announced plans to run have also since been jailed or sentenced on similar charges.
Opposition groups have called to boycott the race. The National Salvation Front — a coalition of secular and Islamist parties including Ennahda — has denounced the process as a sham and questioned the election’s legitimacy.
What are the other issues?
The country’s economy continues to face major challenges. Despite Saied’s promises to chart a new course for Tunisia, unemployment has steadily increased to one of the region’s highest at 16 percent, with young Tunisians hit particularly hard.
Growth has been slow since the COVID-19 pandemic and Tunisia has remained reliant on multilateral lenders such as the World Bank and the European Union. Today, Tunisia owes them more than $9 billion. Apart from agricultural reform, Saied’s overarching economic strategy is unclear.
Negotiations have long been stalled over a $1.9 billion bailout package offered by the International Monetary Fund in 2022. Saied has been unwilling to accept its conditions, which include restructuring indebted state-owned companies and cutting public wages. Some of the IMF’s stipulations — including lifting subsidies for electricity, flour and fuel — would likely be unpopular among Tunisians who rely on their low costs.
Economic analysts say that foreign and local investors are reluctant to invest in Tunisia due to continued political risks and an absence of reassurances.
The dire economic straits have had a two-pronged effect on one of Tunisia’s key political issues: migration. From 2019 to 2023, an increasing number of Tunisians attempted to migrate to Europe without authorization. Meanwhile, Saied’s administration has taken a harsh approach against migrants arriving from sub-Saharan Africa, many who have found themselves stuck in Tunisia while trying to reach Europe.
Saied energized his supporters in early 2023 by accusing migrants of violence and crime and portraying them as part of a plot to change the country’s demography. The anti-migrant rhetoric prompted extreme violence against migrants and a crackdown from authorities. Last year, security forces targeted migrant communities from the coast to the capital with a series of arrests, deportation to the desert and the demolition of tent camps in Tunis and coastal towns.
Bodies continue to wash ashore on Tunisia’s coastline as boats carrying Tunisians and migrants from sub-Saharan Africa manage only to make it a few nautical miles before sinking.
What does it mean overseas?
Tunisia has maintained ties with its traditional Western allies but also forged new partnerships under Saied.
Much like many populist leaders who’ve taken power worldwide, Saied emphasizes sovereignty and freeing Tunisia from what he calls “foreign diktats.” He has insisted that Tunisia won’t become a “border guard” for Europe, which has sought agreements with him to better police the Mediterranean.
Tunisia and Iran lifted visa requirements and in May announced plans to boost trade ties. It has also accepted millions in loans as part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative to build hospitals, stadiums and ports.
Yet European countries remain Tunisia’s top trade partners and their leaders have maintained productive ties with Saied, hailing agreements to manage migration as a “model” for the region.
Saied has spoken ardently in support of Palestinians as war has swept the Middle East and opposes moves made to normalize diplomatic ties with Israel.

“We don’t want to die here”: Sierra Leone housekeepers trapped in Lebanon

“We don’t want to die here”: Sierra Leone housekeepers trapped in Lebanon
Updated 5 min 46 sec ago
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“We don’t want to die here”: Sierra Leone housekeepers trapped in Lebanon

“We don’t want to die here”: Sierra Leone housekeepers trapped in Lebanon
  • With a change of clothes stuffed into a plastic bag, the 27-year-old housekeeper made her way to the capital Beirut in an ambulance
  • The situation for the country’s migrant workers is particularly precarious, as their legal status is often tied to their employer

Freetown: When an Israeli air strike killed her employer and destroyed nearly everything she owned in southern Lebanon, it also crushed Fatima Samuella Tholley’s hopes of returning home to Sierra Leone to escape the spiralling violence.
With a change of clothes stuffed into a plastic bag, the 27-year-old housekeeper told AFP that she and her cousin made their way to the capital Beirut in an ambulance.
Bewildered and terrified, the pair were thrust into the chaos of the bombarded city — unfamiliar to them apart from the airport where they had arrived months before.
“We don’t know today if we will live or not, only God knows,” Fatima told AFP via video call, breaking down in tears.
“I have nothing... no passport, no documents,” she said.
The cousins have spent days sheltering in the cramped storage room of an empty apartment, which they said was offered to them by a man they had met on their journey.
With no access to TV news and unable to communicate in French or Arabic, they could only watch from their window as the city was pounded by strikes.
The spike in violence in Lebanon since mid-September has killed more than 1,000 people and forced hundreds of thousands more to flee their homes, as Israel bombards Hezbollah strongholds around the country.
The situation for the country’s migrant workers is particularly precarious, as their legal status is often tied to their employer under the “kafala” sponsorship system governing foreign labor.
Rights groups say the system allows for numerous abuses including the withholding of wages and the confiscation of official documents — which provide workers their only lifeline out of the country.
“When we came here, our madams received our passports, they seized everything until we finished our contract” said 29-year-old Mariatu Musa Tholley, who also works as a housekeeper.
“Now [the bombing] burned everything, even our madams... only we survived.”
Sierra Leone is working to establish how many of its citizens are currently in Lebanon, with the aim of providing emergency travel certificates to those without passports, Kai S. Brima from the foreign affairs ministry told AFP.
The poor west African country has a significant Lebanese community dating back over a century, which is heavily involved in business and trade.
Scores of migrants travel to Lebanon every year, with the aim of paying remittances to support families back home.
“We don’t know anything, any information,” Mariatu said.
“[Our neighbors] don’t open the door for us because they know we are black,” she wept.
“We don’t want to die here.”
Fatima and Mariatu said they had each earned $150 per month, working from 6:00 am until midnight seven days a week.
They said they were rarely allowed out of the house.
AFP contacted four other Sierra Leonean domestic workers by phone, all of whom recounted similar situations of helplessness in Beirut.
Patricia Antwin, 27, came to Lebanon as a housekeeper to support her family in December 2021.
She said she fled her first employer after suffering sexual harassment, leaving her passport behind.
When an airstrike hit the home of her second employer in a southern village, Patricia was left stranded.
“The people I work for, they left me, they left me and went away,” she told AFP.
Patricia said a passing driver saw her crying in the street and offered to take her to Beirut.
Like Fatima and Mariatu, she has no money or formal documentation.
“I only came with two clothes in my plastic bag,” she said.
Patricia initially slept on the floor of a friend’s apartment, but moved to Beirut’s waterfront after strikes in the area intensified.
She later found shelter at a Christian school in Jounieh, some 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of the capital.
“We are seeing people moving from one place to another,” she said.
“I don’t want to lose my life here,” she added, explaining she had a child back in Sierra Leone.
Housekeeper Kadij Koroma said she had been sleeping on the streets for almost a week after fleeing to Beirut when she was separated from her employer.
“We don’t have a place to sleep, we don’t have food, we don’t have water,” she said, adding that she relied on passers by to provide bread or small change for sustenance.
Kadij said she wasn’t sure if her employer was still alive, or if her friends who had also traveled from Sierra Leone to work in Lebanon had survived the bombardment.
“You don’t know where to go,” she said, “everywhere you go, bomb, everywhere you go, bomb.”


Israeli strike closes off road used to flee Lebanon to Syria, Lebanese transport minister says

Israeli strike closes off road used to flee Lebanon to Syria, Lebanese transport minister says
Updated 18 min 53 sec ago
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Israeli strike closes off road used to flee Lebanon to Syria, Lebanese transport minister says

Israeli strike closes off road used to flee Lebanon to Syria, Lebanese transport minister says
  • Hamieh had said at a press conference on Thursday that the crossing was subject to the authority of the Lebanese state

BEIRUT: An Israeli strike on Friday morning near Lebanon’s Masnaa border crossing with Syria cut off a road used by hundreds of thousands of people to flee Israeli bombardments in recent days, Lebanon Transport Minister Ali Hamieh told Reuters.
Hamieh said the strike hit inside Lebanese territory near the border crossing, creating a four-meter (12 feet) wide crater.
An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) military spokesman had accused Lebanese armed group Hezbollah on Thursday of using the crossing to transport military equipment into Lebanon.
“The IDF will not allow the smuggling of these weapons and will not hesitate to act if forced to do so, as it has done throughout this war,” IDF spokesman Avichay Adraee said on X.
Hamieh had said at a press conference on Thursday that the crossing was subject to the authority of the Lebanese state.
According to Lebanese government statistics, more than 300,000 people — a vast majority of them Syrian — had crossed from Lebanon into Syria over the last 10 days to escape escalating Israeli bombardment.


Israel deadliest West Bank strike in decades

Israel deadliest West Bank strike in decades
Updated 40 min 9 sec ago
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Israel deadliest West Bank strike in decades

Israel deadliest West Bank strike in decades
  • The Israeli military said its strike in the northern West Bank killed Hamas leader Zahi Yaser Abd Al-Razeq Oufi

BEIRUT: A source within the Palestinian security services told AFP that an air raid on the refugee camp of Tulkarm, killing 18 people, was the deadliest in the occupied West Bank since 2000.
The Israeli military said its strike in the northern West Bank killed Hamas leader Zahi Yaser Abd Al-Razeq Oufi, who it accused of participating in numerous attacks.
Alaa Sroji, a social activist from the area, said an Israeli warplane had “hit a cafeteria in a four-story building.”

Israel, at war in Gaza since Hamas’s October 7 attack, has expanded its military campaign to secure its northern border and ensure the safe return of more than 60,000 people displaced by Hezbollah attacks over the past year.

On the Gaza front, the military said a strike three months ago killed three senior Hamas leaders, including Rawhi Mushtaha, the head of the militant movement’s government in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.
Hezbollah began strikes on Israeli troops a day after Hamas staged its October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures that include hostages killed in captivity.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed at least 41,788 people, the majority of them civilians, according to figures provided by the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The United Nations has described the figures as reliable.
The ministry toll Thursday included 99 fatalities over the past 24 hours.


Iran’s Khamenei to give rare Friday sermon after attack on Israel

Iran’s Khamenei to give rare Friday sermon after attack on Israel
Updated 17 min 32 sec ago
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Iran’s Khamenei to give rare Friday sermon after attack on Israel

Iran’s Khamenei to give rare Friday sermon after attack on Israel
  • The prayer will follow “a commemoration ceremony” for Hassan Nasrallah
  • Khamenei had declared public mourning in Iran for Nasrallah and on Wednesday said that the Hezbollah chief’s death was “not a small matter.”

TEHRAN: Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is set to lead Friday prayers and deliver a public sermon that could shed light on the Islamic republic’s plans after a massive missile attack on enemy Israel.
Khamenei’s rare Friday sermon — a first in almost five years — comes three days before the one-year anniversary of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, triggered by the Iran-backed Palestinian group’s October 7 attack.
The supreme leader, who wields the highest authority in Iran, will lead Muslims in prayer at the Imam Khomeini Grand Mosalla mosque in central Tehran, his official website said.
The prayer will follow “a commemoration ceremony” at 10:30 am (0700 GMT) for Hassan Nasrallah, the slain leader of Tehran-backed Lebanese armed movement Hezbollah.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, who answer to Khamenei, said Tuesday’s barrages of some 200 missiles were in retaliation for Israel’s killing of Nasrallah alongside Guards commander Abbas Nilforoushan in a late September strike on Beirut, and of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July.
Khamenei last led Friday prayers in January 2020 after Iran fired missiles at a US army base in Iraq, in response to a strike that killed revered Revolutionary Guards commander Qasem Soleimani.
In Tehran on Thursday, crowds waving Hezbollah and Iran flags gathered outside the former US embassy building in Tehran to denounce Israeli “crimes” in the Gaza Strip and in Lebanon, Iranian media reported.
Khamenei had declared public mourning in Iran for Nasrallah and on Wednesday said that the Hezbollah chief’s death was “not a small matter.”
Hamas, Hezbollah and other armed groups in the Middle East are part of the Iran-aligned “axis of resistance” opposed to Israel and its ally the United States.
Analysts said Iran’s missile attack — its second-ever directly targeting Israel — was meant to counter a string of setbacks suffered by Tehran and its regional allies.
Iran has said this week’s attack was carried out in “self-defense” and warned of “crushing attacks” on Israel if it retaliated.
The Islamic republic has also warned the US — Israel’s top arms provider — against intervening, threatening “a harsh response” if it did.
Washington has said Iran must suffer “consequences,” which may be coordinated with Israeli officials, for the ballistic missile fire.
US President Joe Biden said Thursday he was discussing possible Israeli strikes on Iranian oil sites.
In April Tehran had sent missiles and drones against Israel in retaliation for a deadly Israeli strike on Iran’s consulate in Damascus.
In both attacks, nearly all missiles were intercepted by Israel or its allies, according to Israeli authorities.