‘An eye for an eye’: Hezbollah targets two Israeli military bases in Safed

Smoke rises near the Israel-Lebanon border, after Hezbollah fired projectiles towards Israel from Lebanon, amid cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in northern Israel, September 12, 2024. 9REUTERS)
Smoke rises near the Israel-Lebanon border, after Hezbollah fired projectiles towards Israel from Lebanon, amid cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in northern Israel, September 12, 2024. 9REUTERS)
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Updated 13 September 2024
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‘An eye for an eye’: Hezbollah targets two Israeli military bases in Safed

‘An eye for an eye’: Hezbollah targets two Israeli military bases in Safed
  • Lebanon Humanitarian Fund allocates $10 million to aid displaced people in southern Lebanon

BEIRUT: Hezbollah launched a swarm of assault drones on Filon Base — the headquarters of Israel’s 210th Division — and its warehouses in the southeast of Safed on Friday, the second attack on Safed in less than 12 hours.

Hezbollah said it had “targeted the positions and locations of the base’s soldiers and officers, striking them directly.”

Israeli media outlets confirmed the attack, stating that “20 rockets were launched from Lebanon toward Safad.”

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UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Lebanon Imran Riza announced the allocation of $24 million as an aid package from the Lebanon Humanitarian Fund ‘to support the country’s most vulnerable groups.’

This came hours after Israeli raids on Friday morning that targeted several houses in Bint Jbeil, the largest city in the area of the Israel-Lebanon border. The impact of the explosions destroyed some residential buildings and caused damage to other structures.

The Israeli army also raided the outskirts of Yaroun and Aita Al-Shaab, with heavy artillery targeting the forests of Alma Al-Shaab and the outskirts of Kfarshouba.

Israeli forces also targeted two motorcycles in Nabatieh on Thursday night, killing three people, including a four-year-old child identified as Mehdi Mubarak, along with his father, Sadeq Mubarak from Markaba, and Sajed Mustafa, Hezbollah announced.

Hezbollah immediately responded by targeting a major air-defense base in Safad with dozens of Katyusha missiles, setting parts of it ablaze and leading to a complete power outage in Safad and nearby areas. Around 50,000 settlers fled to shelters after hearing the sound of sirens, according to Israeli media outlets.

European and US calls to prevent the expansion of war in Lebanon have yet to have any effect.

In his Friday sermon, the head of Hezbollah’s Shariah Council, Sheikh Mohammed Yazbek, said “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, and the initiator is the aggressor.”

He added: “Hezbollah stands up to the Israeli enemy’s attacks, the monstrous and destructive bombing of houses, and killing of civilians, by launching rocket and drone operations against more settlements.”

Yazbek highlighted “the Israeli escalation,” and said that Hezbollah “is fully prepared to teach the enemy a lesson it hasn’t dreamed of, and won’t stop before the attack against Gaza stops.”

Israeli media outlets reported on Thursday night that the US presidential envoy to Lebanon and Israel, Amos Hochstein, will head to Israel with a message calling for it to avoid “carrying out an expanded military operation in Lebanon.”

The Lebanese authorities have yet to receive confirmation of whether Hochstein intends to visit Beirut.

According to Information International, the death toll from confrontations on the southern front between Oct. 8, 2023, and the morning of Sept. 13, 2024, was 626. Among them are 431 Hezbollah members and 97 civilians. A total of 2,050 homes have been completely destroyed, 1,800 homes have been partially destroyed, and around 8,000 homes have suffered minor damage, while more than 110,000 people have been displaced, with many losing their livelihoods.

Meanwhile, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Lebanon Imran Riza issued a statement announcing the allocation of $24 million as an aid package from the Lebanon Humanitarian Fund “to support the country’s most vulnerable groups, and address the needs of those affected by the escalating hostilities in southern Lebanon.”

Riza said: “As the escalation of hostilities in south Lebanon drags on longer than we had hoped, it has led to further displacement and deepened the already critical needs. The long-term consequences on vulnerable groups are particularly worrying — schools are closing, healthcare services are under strain, and basic services are being stretched thin.”

He continued: “We are allocating these funds from the LHF at a time of unprecedented challenges. Lebanon is grappling with multiple crises, which have overwhelmed the country’s capacity to cope. Despite our best efforts, only 25 percent of our annual appeal has been met. We urgently call on the international community for more support.

“The LHF has allowed us to support over 200,000 people, but this is still far from enough. Without sufficient funding, we are not only limited in addressing those immediate needs but also risk weakening our preparedness efforts and our capacity to address the other urgent crises Lebanon is currently facing.”

The LHF clarified that the new funding will “provide urgent support to those in need, including food, shelter, healthcare, WaSH and protection. Specifically, $10 million from the LHF will be directed toward emergency relief for those affected by the hostilities in south Lebanon. “Additionally, $13 million will be allocated to support vulnerable communities across Lebanon, and the remaining $1 million will be dedicated to empowering local NGOs, enhancing their ability to respond effectively to the multifaceted crisis.”

In November 2023, in response to the escalation of hostilities on Lebanon’s southern border, the LHF allocated $4.1 million to support advanced preparedness and immediate response efforts for those displaced and in need. This response was further bolstered in February, when the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund allocated an additional $9 million to address the urgent needs of vulnerable populations, particularly in southern Lebanon.

 


Hezbollah warns Israelis to stay away from army in residential areas

Hezbollah warns Israelis to stay away from army in residential areas
Updated 12 October 2024
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Hezbollah warns Israelis to stay away from army in residential areas

Hezbollah warns Israelis to stay away from army in residential areas
  • Israel has increased its strikes on Lebanon after almost a year of cross-border fire by Hezbollah
  • The escalation has killed more than 1,200 people and displaced around a million from their homes

BEIRUT, Lebanon: Lebanese militant group Hezbollah on Friday warned Israelis to stay away from Israeli army sites in residential areas in the north of the country.
“The Israeli enemy army uses the homes” of Israelis in north Israel, and has military bases inside residential “neighborhoods in major occupied cities such as Haifa, Tiberias, Acre,” it said in a statement in Arabic and Hebrew.
It warned Israelis “from being near these military gatherings in order to preserve their lives.”
After almost a year of cross-border fire, Israel has increased its strikes on what it says are Lebanese militant group Hezbollah sites since September 23.
The escalation has killed more than 1,200 people and displaced around a million from their homes.
Hezbollah has repeatedly announced it has fired rockets at areas in northern Israel.


UAE authorities to probe citizen for violating Lebanon travel ban

UAE authorities to probe citizen for violating Lebanon travel ban
Updated 12 October 2024
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UAE authorities to probe citizen for violating Lebanon travel ban

UAE authorities to probe citizen for violating Lebanon travel ban
  • The citizen had traveled to Lebanon with his family via another country

ABU DHABI: UAE attorney-general Hamad Said Al-Shamsi ordered an immediate investigation into a UAE national who violated the country’s travel ban to Lebanon, state news agency WAM reported on Friday.
The citizen had traveled to Lebanon with his family via another country, overcoming the travel restrictions placed from the UAE.
He will be investigated for endangering his family’s safety amid the escalating violence in Lebanon, WAM said.
“The Attorney-General emphasized the importance of adhering to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ travel advisories, which are designed to protect UAE citizens from potential dangers in certain regions,” read the statement.
Violators will be subject to fines and/or imprisonment according to the UAE Penal Code, warned Al-Shamsi.

Israel has intensified its bombardment on Lebanon, a year after it exchanged almost daily cross-border fire with the militant group Hezbollah since the war in Gaza started last October.

The international community has called for a ceasefire to prevent the outbreak of a wider war in the region.


Israel observes Yom Kippur amid firestorm over Lebanon strikes

An armed man talks to another ahead of evening prayers during the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur in Tel Aviv on October 11, 2024.
An armed man talks to another ahead of evening prayers during the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur in Tel Aviv on October 11, 2024.
Updated 12 October 2024
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Israel observes Yom Kippur amid firestorm over Lebanon strikes

An armed man talks to another ahead of evening prayers during the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur in Tel Aviv on October 11, 2024.
  • Israel’s military campaign has wrought devastation on Gaza and, according to data from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, killed 42,126 people, mostly civilians

JERUSALEM: Israel observed Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, on Saturday amid a firestorm of international criticism over its military offensive in Lebanon and its soldiers firing on peacekeepers.
As the holy day got under way Friday from sundown, Israel faced diplomatic backlash over what it acknowledged was a “hit” earlier in the day on a United Nations peacekeeping position in Lebanon.
Two Sri Lankan peacekeepers were hurt in the second such incident in two days, the UNIFIL mission said Friday.
The military said Israeli soldiers had responded with fire to “an immediate threat” around 50 meters (yards) from the UNIFIL post.
As Israel faced a chorus of condemnation from UN chief Antonio Guterres and Western allies, the military pledged to carry out a “thorough review.”
Lebanese militant group Hezbollah meanwhile warned Israelis to stay away from Israeli army sites in residential areas in the north of the country, alleging the military “uses the homes” of locals and has military bases in residential neighborhoods.
Hezbollah has repeatedly announced it has fired rockets at areas in northern Israel.

The UNIFIL peacekeepers have found themselves on the frontline of the Israel-Hezbollah war, which has killed more than 1,200 people in Lebanon, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures.
The latest incident came a day after two Indonesian soldiers were hurt when, according to UNIFIL, tank fire hit a watchtower.
Sean Clancy, the Irish military’s chief of staff, said he did not believe Israel’s explanation of Friday’s incident.
“So from a military perspective, this is not an accidental act,” said Clancy, whose country has troops in UNIFIL.
Guterres condemned the firing as “intolerable” and “a violation of international humanitarian law,” while the British government said it was “appalled” by reports of the wounded.
US President Joe Biden said Friday he was “absolutely” asking Israel to stop firing at UN peacekeepers, while the French, Spanish and Italian leaders issued a joint statement expressing “outrage.”
French President Emmanuel Macron renewed his call for an end to exports of weapons used by Israel in Gaza and Lebanon, while saying the UN peacekeepers had been “deliberately targeted.”
The incidents came more than two weeks into Israel’s war with Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, which has seen Israeli warplanes conduct extensive strikes since September 23 on the militants’ strongholds, with multiple civilian areas hit, and ground troops deployed across the border.

Israeli and Hezbollah forces fought along the border on Friday, with Israeli air strikes reported in the south and east of Lebanon.
It marked a tense start to Yom Kippur. From sundown on Friday until nightfall on Saturday, Israeli markets are closed, flights stopped and public transport halted as observant Jews fast and pray on the Day of Atonement.
Diplomatic efforts to negotiate an end to the fighting in Lebanon and Gaza have so far failed, but Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said his government would ask the UN Security Council to issue a new resolution calling for a “full and immediate ceasefire.”
Leaders from nine European countries around the Mediterranean Sea on Friday also called for an end to fighting in Lebanon, as well as Gaza.
Mikati said that only the Lebanese military and peacekeepers should be deployed in the south of the country — the essence of existing Security Council Resolution 1701 — and “Hezbollah is in agreement on this issue.”
US special envoy Amos Hochstein said the United States was working “non-stop” toward a ceasefire.
“We want the whole conflict to end,” he told Lebanese television channel LBC from Washington.
Lebanon’s military said an Israeli strike on one of its positions in south Lebanon killed two of its soldiers on Friday.
Hezbollah is heavily armed and controls large swathes of Lebanon, and successive Lebanese governments have failed to subdue it.
The movement also fought Israeli troops during Israel’s last invasion in 2006.

In Beirut, residents of a central area of the capital targeted by twin Israeli air strikes on Thursday night salvaged their possessions and cleared rubble from the devastated streets.
“There are a lot of families living here,” said Bilal Othman, who explained that many people had sought shelter there from southern Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold, which has been pummelled by Israeli raids since last month.
“Do they want to tell us there is no safe place left in this country?” he said.
The Israeli strikes apparently targeted Hezbollah’s security chief Wafiq Safa, a source close to Hezbollah told AFP.
Lebanon’s health ministry said the strikes killed 22 people and wounded more than 100.
Safa was close to Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli strike on south Beirut last month.

Hezbollah began firing on Israel in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas, following the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures, which includes hostages killed in captivity.
Israel’s military campaign has wrought devastation on Gaza and, according to data from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, killed 42,126 people, mostly civilians.
Late Friday, Gaza’s civil defense agency reported 30 people killed in Israeli strikes on Jabalia, north Gaza.
The co-head of a Japanese atomic bomb survivor group awarded the Nobel Peace Prize said the situation for children in Gaza reminded him of the plight of survivors after World War II.
“It’s like in Japan 80 years ago,” Toshiyuki Mimaki said in Tokyo.
 

 


Hezbollah warns Israelis to stay away from army in residential areas

A young boy uses binoculars to watch the port of Haifa from a lookout on October 11, 2024. (AFP)
A young boy uses binoculars to watch the port of Haifa from a lookout on October 11, 2024. (AFP)
Updated 12 October 2024
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Hezbollah warns Israelis to stay away from army in residential areas

A young boy uses binoculars to watch the port of Haifa from a lookout on October 11, 2024. (AFP)
  • After almost a year of cross-border fire, Israel has increased its strikes on what it says are Lebanese militant group Hezbollah sites since September 23

BEIRUT, Lebanon: Lebanese militant group Hezbollah on Friday warned Israelis to stay away from Israeli army sites in residential areas in the north of the country.
“The Israeli enemy army uses the homes” of Israelis in north Israel, and has military bases inside residential “neighborhoods in major occupied cities such as Haifa, Tiberias, Acre,” it said in a statement in Arabic and Hebrew.
It warned Israelis “from being near these military gatherings in order to preserve their lives.”
After almost a year of cross-border fire, Israel has increased its strikes on what it says are Lebanese militant group Hezbollah sites since September 23.
The escalation has killed more than 1,200 people and displaced around a million from their homes.
Hezbollah has repeatedly announced it has fired rockets at areas in northern Israel.
 

 


Many Palestinian camps in Lebanon ‘empty after Israeli strikes’

UNIFIL vehicles drive in Marjayoun, near the border with Israel. (Reuters)
UNIFIL vehicles drive in Marjayoun, near the border with Israel. (Reuters)
Updated 12 October 2024
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Many Palestinian camps in Lebanon ‘empty after Israeli strikes’

UNIFIL vehicles drive in Marjayoun, near the border with Israel. (Reuters)
  • Israel has ramped up strikes across southern Lebanon and on Beirut’s once-densely populated southern suburbs

BEIRUT: Most Palestinian refugees living in camps in southern Lebanon or near Beirut have fled following escalating Israeli strikes, the head of the UN agency on Palestine refugees said on Friday, drawing parallels with mass displacement in Gaza.
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said that the agency continued to provide services to the most vulnerable left behind — and that repeatedly fleeing was sadly “part of the history” of Palestinians. “Now, that’s part, unfortunately, of the plight, but if you compare it with what happened also in Gaza recently, you might have heard me describing how people are constantly being moved like pinballs. And one of the fears is that we replicate a situation similar to the one we have seen until now in Gaza,” he said.
Israel has ramped up strikes across southern Lebanon and on Beirut’s once-densely populated southern suburbs over the last three weeks, issuing evacuation warnings for more than 100 towns in southern Lebanon and neighborhoods near the capital.
They include evacuation warnings and strikes on the Burj Al-Barajneh Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut’s southern suburbs and the Rashidiyeh Palestinian refugee camp near the south coastal city of Tyre. Many of the Palestinians who arrived in Lebanon after Israel’s creation in 1948, and their descendants, were living in 12 refugee camps around the country, which hosted about 174,000 Palestinian refugees.
Israeli leaders have accused UNRWA staff of collaborating with Hamas militants in Gaza, leading many donors to suspend funding.
The UN launched an investigation into Israel’s accusations and dismissed nine staff.
In July, the Israeli parliament gave preliminary approval to a bill that would declare UNRWA a “terrorist organization.”
Asked about the move, Lazzarini said the agency “has never, ever been as much under assault and attack.”
“A year ago, it was primarily a financial existential threat, but today it’s a combination of a political and financial threat. 2025 will be, again, a difficult year,” he said. He said he would have more clarity early next year on whether the US would resume funding.