Death toll in Lebanon pager-explosion attack rises to 12

A person is carried on a stretcher outside American University of Beirut Medical Center as people, including Hezbollah fighters and medics, were wounded and killed when the pagers they use to communicate with exploded. (Reuters)
A person is carried on a stretcher outside American University of Beirut Medical Center as people, including Hezbollah fighters and medics, were wounded and killed when the pagers they use to communicate with exploded. (Reuters)
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Updated 18 September 2024
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Death toll in Lebanon pager-explosion attack rises to 12

A person is carried on a stretcher outside American University of Beirut Medical Center.
  • 2 children and a woman among the dead and 300 people are in critical condition in hospital, says health minister
  • Israeli authorities are accused of booby-trapping and detonating 3,000 handheld pager devices used by members of Hezbollah

BEIRUT: A day after thousands of handheld pagers used by members of Hezbollah in Lebanon to communicate with each other exploded simultaneously, the death toll from attack has risen to 12, Lebanese Health Minister Firas Abiad said on Wednesday.

Two children and a woman were among the dead, he added, and the number of people in critical condition in hospital has increased to 300. Hezbollah and Lebanese authorities accuse Israel of carrying out the attack.

A medical source told Arab News that Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Rassoul Al-Aazam Hospital alone has treated 400 injuries out of approximately 2,800 caused by the pager explosions, and St. George Hospital, also linked with Hezbollah, reported 30 cases.

The injured at the hospitals included medical staff, nursing personnel and administrative workers who had pagers. As a result, Al-Rassoul Al-Aazam had to close its doors to other patients while it focused solely on treating injured members of staff. One of its nurses was reportedly among the dead.

Meanwhile other hospitals, of which there are about 100 across the country, the health minister said, faced significant pressure as they attempted to cope with floods of hundreds of patients injured in the explosions.

The medical source exclusively revealed to Arab News that “all the injured individuals presented alternative names instead of their real identities at the hospitals. Some of the injured sustained burns and were transferred to Geitawi Hospital, the only specialized burns hospital in Beirut.”

The source added that a majority of the patients sustained eye injuries and hundreds of them needed emergency surgery. Many of these operations were carried out at a specialist eye hospital in Beirut’s National Museum area, where surgeries continued late into the night on Tuesday.

Ophthalmologist Elias Jradi, who is also an MP, said he “remained in the operating room performing continuous operations for more than seven hours.”

On Wednesday, Abiad said 460 operations were carried out on people injured by the pagers, who suffered various types of injuries affecting “the eyes, head, chest, waist and legs. The fingers and hands of some of the injured who were holding the pagers at the time of their explosion were amputated.”

He added that 750 people were injured in the south of the country, 150 in the Bekaa region, and 1,850 in Beirut and its southern suburbs.

The Iranian ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, sustained facial injuries in the attack and was receiving treatment. Members of Hezbollah in Syria were also injured and treated in hospitals there.

For a second day, urgent calls for blood donations to help treat the injured continued on Wednesday. Meanwhile, accounts of the chaos and confusion that followed the attack continued to emerge.

Hussein, who helped to transport the injured in the southern suburbs of Beirut to the American University Hospital, said: “The scene in the street was terrifying; young people were bleeding and no one understood the cause. Some who were unaware of the situation mistakenly believed that these youths were suicide bombers who had detonated themselves. It was a state of utter chaos. I returned home late, feeling defeated, broken and psychologically shattered.”

Speculation grew in the 24 hours after the attack about the circumstances surrounding the explosions, fueled by media reports and leaked information from Lebanese security agencies, as well as sources in Israel and the US.

Reuters reported that “Mossad planted small quantities of explosives within 5,000 Taiwanese-made pager devices that Hezbollah had ordered months prior to the explosions that occurred. It appears that the conspiracy took several months to prepare.”

The devices carried the logo of Taiwanese company Gold Apollo and the shipment arrived in Lebanon in the spring. However, the company denied that it manufactured the pagers involved in the attack. It said they were made by a separate company in Hungary that had simply licensed the use of the Gold Apollo brand.

Reports suggested that Mossad managed to modify the devices during production by adding between 1 and 3 grams of explosive to the circuit boards. Such a modification would have been extremely difficult to detect, even using scanners. It is believed that an encrypted message triggered the detonation that caused about 3,000 pagers to explode simultaneously.

Hezbollah uses pagers because they are more difficult to track and monitor compared with more sophisticated smart communications devices, to which Israeli authorities have managed to gain access in recent months to target party members.

Citing information provided by intelligence sources, news website Al-Monitor reported: “Israel carried out the attack after it gathered information that Hezbollah suspected the pagers were compromised, prompting Israel to execute the detonation plan before it was too late.”

The sources added: “The original plan was to detonate the devices in case a full-scale war was to happen, in order to have a strategic advantage.”

The situation along the southern Lebanese front remained relatively calm on on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Iraq and Jordan sent medical supplies that arrived via Beirut airport. Aid workers affiliated with the Iranian Red Crescent also arrived in Beirut, as authorities in Iran accused Israel of “mass killing.”

The Russian Foreign Ministry said that the “collective detonation of communication devices requires an international investigation and interest.”

Belgium’s deputy prime minister, Petra De Sutter, said that “the attack against Syria and Lebanon is a brutal escalation of violence,” as she called for “an international investigation and an end to the bloodshed.”

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati received a telephone call from Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid, in which the latter expressed his country’s solidarity with Lebanon. Mikati received a similar message of support from Turkey’s minister of foreign affairs, Hakan Fidan.

Lebanon’s Ministry of Education and labor unions announced a nationwide shutdown following the attack.

Political figures from several parties and factions, including the opposition, visited the home of Hezbollah MP Ali Ammar to offer condolences following the death of his son in the explosions.

The National Disaster and Crisis Response Operations Coordination Committee was on alert in case of any further developments related to the incident.

Nasser Yassin, a government minister, said: “There is a shortage of ophthalmologists and eye surgeons. What happened yesterday was a real war.

“Discussions have mainly focused on housing, in case a new wave of migration takes place amid possible aggression expansion. We identified 100 schools that can be prepared for shelter. These are all potential scenarios that we have discussed to enhance our preparedness.”

On the issue of food security, Yassin said: “Lebanon’s food reserves are sufficient for more than three months, and a ship carrying 40,000 tonnes of wheat and flour is on its way.”


Jordan warns of increasing regional unrest and vows to protect its airspace, borders

Jordan warns of increasing regional unrest and vows to protect its airspace, borders
Updated 7 sec ago
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Jordan warns of increasing regional unrest and vows to protect its airspace, borders

Jordan warns of increasing regional unrest and vows to protect its airspace, borders

CAIRO: Jordan warns of increasing regional unrest and vows to protect its airspace, borders -- Petra news agency


US-Israeli settlers hope to see a second Trump term

US-Israeli settlers hope to see a second Trump term
Updated 32 min 10 sec ago
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US-Israeli settlers hope to see a second Trump term

US-Israeli settlers hope to see a second Trump term
  • Recent polls show that a majority of Israelis dream of the days when the former president inhabited the White House
  • Donald Trump prioritized Israel during his previous term, moving the American embassy to Jerusalem among his other actions

SHILOH, Palestinian Territories: Less than a week before the United States presidential election, Americans living in settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank know exactly who they want to win: Donald Trump.
Recent polls show that a majority of Israelis, 66 percent according to one conducted by Israel’s Channel 12 News, dream of the days when the former president inhabited the White House.
Trump prioritized Israel during his previous term, moving the American embassy to Jerusalem, recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights and helping to normalize ties between Israel and several Arab states under the so-called Abraham Accords.
Now, many Israelis believe Trump will offer yet more support as the country battles Iran-backed militant groups in Gaza and Lebanon, as well as Iran itself.
“I’m proud to tell you that I voted for President Trump,” Eliana Passentin, 50, who moved to Israel from San Francisco as a child, said.
For Passentin, a mother and grandmother, the stakes are higher than for the average Israeli.
For the past 29 years she has lived in Eli, part of a cluster of Israeli settlements located in the heart of the West Bank.
The area has been occupied by Israel since 1967, but it could become Palestinian sovereign territory under a two-state solution favored by the international community.
Passentin is employed by the local regional council.
She recalls how successive administrations in Washington pressured Israel to stop expanding settlements in an attempt to mediate peace between Israelis and Palestinians and reach a two-state solution.
“United States of America, our greatest ally, we thank you, but please understand we know how to run our country,” Passentin said.
In her backyard, with sweeping views of the entire area, Passentin points to nearby Israeli and Palestinian towns.
“I don’t think that Israelis living here are an obstacle to peace. On the contrary, I think that the Israelis living here are building the region for everyone,” she said.
She said the region was a hub for Jews in Biblical times, and claims that under international agreements Israelis have a right to live here.
International law says otherwise, however, and Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are considered illegal by the international community.
Among Israelis who vote for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling right-wing coalition, 93 percent support Trump’s candidacy, according to the Channel 12 poll.
“Things have changed since October 7,” Passentin said, referring to Hamas’s attack on southern Israel on that day in 2023 which sparked the war in Gaza.
“Now it’s a whole different story — it’s not about Judea and Samaria, it’s about Israel,” she said, using the Biblical terms for the southern and northern West Bank.
“We have a right to defend ourselves... and I think President Trump respects and understands that.”
Gedaliah Blum, 45, a neighbor who was born in New Jersey, also said he voted for Trump based on the question of “what kind of future we want to have here in Israel.”
“Do we want a future that has an embargo threatened on Israel every time we defend ourselves?” he asked.
“Trump is not going to pressure Israel to sign a ceasefire that will let Hamas remain in power in Gaza. They’re not going to push Israel to sign a peace agreement with Lebanon that will allow Hezbollah to remain in power.”
With Kamala Harris in the Oval Office, Israel will be under constant “pressure,” Blum said.
“We’re going to get pressure, we’re going to get embargoes, we’re going to get Iranian money in their pockets. It’s not in the best interest of Israel.”
In the nearby settlement of Shiloh, where an estimated 20 percent of residents hold US citizenship, New York-born Yisrael Medad, 77, said he believed Trump would be good not only for America but also for “America’s friends abroad, including Israel.”
“I think the policies that a Republican candidate such as Trump are promoting are most beneficial for the administration, Congress and the American people,” he said.
On Israel, Medad said he believed that Trump would treat Israel more “fairly in terms of not denying its rights to defend itself... not only in a physical sense but also on the ideological front.”
Referring to a recent incident at a Democratic campaign rally in which Harris did not push back against a demonstrator who said Israel was committing a “genocide” in Gaza, Medad said: “That’s not the type of candidate I want in the White House.”


Israel’s path of destruction in southern Lebanon raises fears of an attempt to create a buffer zone

Israel’s path of destruction in southern Lebanon raises fears of an attempt to create a buffer zone
Updated 02 November 2024
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Israel’s path of destruction in southern Lebanon raises fears of an attempt to create a buffer zone

Israel’s path of destruction in southern Lebanon raises fears of an attempt to create a buffer zone
  • Israeli warplanes and ground forces have blasted a trail of destruction through southern Lebanon the past month
  • More than 1 million people have fled bombardment, emptying much of the south

BEIRUT: Perched on a hilltop a short walk from the Israeli border, the tiny southern Lebanese village of Ramyah has almost been wiped off the map. In a neighboring village, satellite photos show a similar scene: a hill once covered with houses, now reduced to a gray smear of rubble.
Israeli warplanes and ground forces have blasted a trail of destruction through southern Lebanon the past month. The aim, Israel says, is to debilitate the Hezbollah militant group, push it away from the border and end more than a year of Hezbollah fire into northern Israel.
Even United Nations peacekeepers and Lebanese troops in the south have come under fire from Israeli forces, raising questions over whether they can remain in place.
More than 1 million people have fled bombardment, emptying much of the south. Some experts say Israel may be aiming to create a depopulated buffer zone, a strategy it has already deployed along its border with Gaza.
Some conditions for such a zone appear already in place, according to an Associated Press analysis of satellite imagery and data collected by mapping experts that show the breadth of destruction across 11 villages next to the border.
The Israeli military has said the bombardment is necessary to destroy Hezbollah tunnels and other infrastructure it says the group embedded within towns. The blasts have also destroyed homes, neighborhoods and sometimes entire villages, where families have lived for generations.
Israel says it aims to push Hezbollah far enough back that its citizens can return safely to homes in the north, but Israeli officials acknowledge they don’t have a concrete plan for ensuring Hezbollah stays away from the border long term. That is a key focus in attempts by the United States to broker a ceasefire.
Orna Mizrahi, a senior researcher at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, said Israel’s immediate aim is not to create a buffer zone — but that might change.
“Maybe we’ll have no other choice than staying there until we have an arrangement that promises us that Hezbollah will not come back to the zone,” she said.
A path of destruction
Troops pushed into southern Lebanon on Oct. 1, backed by heavy bombardment that has intensified since.
Using satellite images provided by Planet Labs PBC, AP identified a line of 11 villages — all within 4 miles (6.5 kilometers) of Lebanon’s border with Israel — that have been severely damaged in the past month, either by strikes or detonations of explosives laid by Israeli soldiers.
Analysis found the most intense damage in the south came in villages closest to the border, with between 100 and 500 buildings likely destroyed or damaged in each, according to Corey Scher of CUNY Graduate Center and Jamon Van Der Hoek of Oregon State University, experts in damage assessments.
In Ramyah, barely a single structure still stands on the village’s central hilltop, after a controlled detonation that Israeli soldiers showed themselves carrying out in videos posted on social media. In the next town over, Aita Al-Shaab — a village with strong Hezbollah influence — bombardment turned the hilltop with the highest concentration of buildings into a gray wasteland of rubble.
In other villages, the damage is more selective. In some, bombardment tore scars through blocks of houses; in others, certain homes were crushed while their neighbors remained intact.
Another controlled detonation leveled much of the village of Odeissah, with an explosion so strong it set off earthquake alerts in Israel.
In videos of the blast, Lubnan Baalbaki, conductor of the Lebanese Philharmonic Orchestra, watched in disbelief as his parents’ house — containing the art collection and a library his father had built up for years — was destroyed.
“This house was a project and a dream for both of my parents,” he told the AP. His parents’ graves in the garden are now lost.
When asked whether its intention was to create a buffer zone, Israel’s military said it was “conducting localized, limited, targeted raids based on precise intelligence” against Hezbollah targets. It said Hezbollah had “deliberately embedded” weapons in homes and villages.
Israeli journalist Danny Kushmaro even helped blow up a home that the military said was being used to store Hezbollah ammunition. In a television segment, Kushmaro and soldiers counted down before they pressed a button, setting off a massive explosion.
Videos posted online by Israel’s military and individual soldiers show Israeli troops planting flags on Lebanese soil. Still, Israel has not built any bases or managed to hold a permanent presence in southern Lebanon. Troops appear to move back and forth across the border, sometimes under heavy fire from Hezbollah.
October has been the deadliest month of 2024 for the Israeli military, with around 60 soldiers killed.
Attacks on UN peacekeeping troops and the Lebanese Army
The bombardment has been punctuated by Israeli attacks on UN troops and the Lebanese Army — forces which, under international law, are supposed to keep the peace in the area. Israel has long complained that their presence has not prevented Hezbollah from building up its infrastructure across the south.
Israel denies targeting either force.
The Lebanese military has said at least 11 of its soldiers were killed in eight Israeli strikes, either at their positions or while assisting evacuations.
The peacekeeping force, known as UNIFIL, said its forces and infrastructure have been harmed at least 30 times since late September, blaming Israeli military fire or actions for about 20 of them, “with seven being clearly deliberate.”
A rocket likely fired by Hezbollah or an allied group hit UNIFIL’s headquarters in Naqoura on Tuesday, causing some minor injuries, said UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti.
UNIFIL has refused to leave southern Lebanon, despite calls by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for them to go.
Experts warn that could change if peacekeepers come under greater fire.
“If you went from the UN taking casualties to the UN actually taking fatalities,” some nations contributing troops may “say ‘enough is enough,’ and you might see the mission start to crumble,” said Richard Gowan of the International Crisis Group.
The future of the territory is uncertain
International ceasefire efforts appear to be centered on implementing UN Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war.
It specified that Israeli forces would fully withdraw from Lebanon while the Lebanese army and UNIFIL — not Hezbollah — would be the exclusive armed presence in a zone about 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the border.
But the resolution was not fully implemented. Hezbollah never left the border zone, and Lebanon accuses Israel of continuing to occupy small areas of its land and carrying out frequent military overflights above its territory.
During a recent visit to Beirut, US envoy Amos Hochstein said a new agreement was needed to enforce Resolution 1701.
Israel could be trying to pressure an agreement into existence through the destruction wreaked in southern Lebanon.
Yossi Yehoshua, military correspondent for the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth, wrote that the military needs to “entrench further its operational achievements” to push Hezbollah, the Lebanese government and mediating countries “to accept an end (of the war) under conditions that are convenient for Israel.”
Some Lebanese fear that means an occupation of parts of the south, 25 years after Israel ended its occupation there.
Lebanese parliamentarian Mark Daou, a critic of both Hezbollah and of Israel’s military operations in Lebanon, said he believed Israel was trying to degrade Hezbollah’s capabilities and turn the Lebanese public “against the will to resist Israeli incursions.”
Gowan, of the International Crisis Group, said one aim of Resolution 1701 was to give the Lebanese army enough credibility that it, not Hezbollah, would be seen “as the legitimate defender” in the south.
“That evaporates if they become (Israel’s) gendarmerie of southern Lebanon,” he said.


Lebanon PM says expanded strikes suggest Israel rejects truce

Lebanon PM says expanded strikes suggest Israel rejects truce
Updated 02 November 2024
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Lebanon PM says expanded strikes suggest Israel rejects truce

Lebanon PM says expanded strikes suggest Israel rejects truce
  • Caretaker PM Najib Mikati on Friday accused Israel of blocking progress in negotiations
  • US envoys have been working to secure truces on both fronts ahead of US election next week

BEIRUT: Israel bombarded the southern suburbs of Beirut on Friday as caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati accused it of “stubbornness” in negotiations.

Israeli attacks came amid stalled talks by two US envoys in Israel in an attempt to reach a ceasefire in Lebanon.

Mikati reaffirmed Lebanon’s continued commitment to UN resolution 1701 and its provisions.

Mikati said he believed that Israel’s “renewed expansion of the scope of its aggression on Lebanese regions, its repeated threats to the population to evacuate entire cities and villages, and its renewed targeting of the southern suburbs of Beirut with destructive raids are all indicators that confirm Israel’s rejection of all efforts being made to secure a ceasefire in preparation for the full implementation of UN Resolution 1701.”

He said: “Israeli statements and diplomatic signals that Lebanon received confirm Israel’s stubbornness in rejecting the proposed solutions and insisting on the approach of killing and destruction.

“This places the entire international community before its historical and moral responsibilities to stop this aggression.”

Mikati denied the claims of two Reuters sources on Friday, which stated that the US “had asked Lebanon to declare a unilateral ceasefire to inject momentum into stalled talks on a deal to end hostilities.”

His media office said that the Lebanese government’s stance was “clear on seeking a ceasefire from both sides and the implementation of Resolution 1701.”

Mikati’s warning came as the Israeli Air Force carried out 14 raids against neighborhoods in Beirut’s southern suburbs after two weeks of cautious calm in the area.

The raids affected Burj Al-Barajneh, Rweis, Haret Hreik, Hadath and the old airport road.

Twelve raids targeted Baalbek-Hermel, causing further casualties, including entire families.

In Amhazieh alone, 12 people died in a raid, most of whom were children, while a woman was killed and five were injured in a raid in Taraya, west of Baalbek.

Three people were killed in Hrabta, while another was killed in Kasarnaba.

Before the raids, Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee sent evacuation warnings to residents at about 3.30 a.m., which was followed by heavy shooting by Hezbollah members to alert sleeping residents in the areas targeted.

People left their homes in pyjamas, carrying their children along the streets near the old airport road, one of the targeted areas

During a week-long period of relative calm, many residents of Beirut’s southern suburbs returned to their homes, which were not affected by previous raids.

The raids caused widespread destruction in these areas, which are considered by the Israeli army as Hezbollah’s security square, although the Lebanese consider the area residential.

In a statement on Friday, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, expressed concern over “the impact of the Israeli operations on civilians and infrastructure in Lebanon.” 

Israeli strikes on the ancient cities of Tyre and Baalbek, home to UNESCO-designated Roman ruins, were endangering Lebanon’s cultural heritage, said UN special coordinator Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert.

“Ancient Phoenician cities steeped in history are in deep peril of being left in ruins,” Hennis-Plasschaert said in a social media post, adding that Lebanon’s cultural heritage “must not become yet another casualty in this devastating conflict.”

Her appeal came as Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said: “Since last September, Israel has wasted more than one opportunity to reach a ceasefire, implement Resolution 1701, restore calm, and return the displaced to both sides of the border.”

He underlined Lebanon’s “commitment to implementing Resolution 1701 as the only option to achieve regional security and stability.”

MP Michel Moussa, a parliamentary Development and Liberation Bloc member, said Berri “has been informed that ceasefire negotiations have reached an impasse.”

Moussa said Israel had shown no intention to negotiate, appearing to await US elections as a “significant turning point.”

During his meeting with US special envoys Amos Hochstein and Brett McGurk,  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that Israel “is determined to confront the threats in the north. Any ceasefire with Hezbollah in Lebanon must guarantee Israel’s security.”

He added: “There is pressure to prematurely achieve a settlement in Lebanon, and reality has proven otherwise.

“I did not set a date for the war’s end, but I set clear goals for victory,” Netanyahu said. “We respect Resolutions 1701 and 1559, but they are not the main thing.”

The Israeli airstrikes, which continued on Friday morning and during the day, targeted a residential apartment in the town of Qmatiyeh in Aley, killing three members of a family living there and wounding five.

They also targeted dozens of towns in the south and northern Bekaa after the city of Baalbek turned into a ghost town as a result of renewed Israeli warnings against the return of those who were displaced from it.

Israeli attacks on Baalbek-Hermel Governorate and Central Bekaa include 1,035 airstrikes, which have killed 528 and 1,069 injured people.

According to a report by the ministerial emergency committee, the toll has risen to 2,822 dead and 12,937 wounded since the first attack by Israel against Lebanon about 14 months.

Hezbollah MP Hussein Hajj Hassan estimated that about “60,000 people were displaced from Baalbek and Hermel, and the figure needs to be updated daily.”

In a report on its field operations against the Israeli army, Hezbollah said that “more than 95 soldiers were killed, 900 others wounded, and 42 Merkava tanks were destroyed” since the ground offensive began. “Three Hermes 450 and two Hermes 900 drones were shot down. Israeli forces are trying not to move or change their positions in the fields, fearing being targeted,” Hezbollah said.

The UNIFIL commander, Gen. Aroldo Lazaro, visited Mikati and Berri on Friday to discuss the ongoing military operations against Lebanon and the difficulties and threats UNIFIL faces while carrying out its mission.

Mikati emphasized the importance of “adhering to the role of UNIFIL, recognizing its importance in the south and not compromising its rules of work and the missions it is carrying out in close cooperation with the Lebanese army.”

In Israel, sirens sounded in several settlements in the Galilee panhandle, coinciding with an Israeli announcement “detecting around 10 rockets being launched from Lebanon, some of which were intercepted and others landed in open areas.”
 
Hezbollah announced targeting “Kiryat Shmona, Hatzor HaGlilit, Kidmat Tzvi, Yesod HaMa’ala and Karmiel,” and a group of soldiers near the Lebanese border town of Khiyam.

Also on Friday, a 17th Saudi relief plane, operated by the Saudi aid agency KSRelief, landed at Rafic Hariri International Airport in Beirut, carrying food, shelter and medical aid, the Saudi Press Agency reported.


Missile strike on central Israel wounds 19

Missile strike on central Israel wounds 19
Updated 02 November 2024
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Missile strike on central Israel wounds 19

Missile strike on central Israel wounds 19
  • Hezbollah also said on Saturday it had launched rockets at an Israeli intelligence base near Tel Aviv

JERUSALEM: A missile strike in Israel’s Sharon area wounded 19 people, police said early Saturday, after the army reported three projectiles were fired from Lebanon into central Israel.

All 19, four of whom were “in moderate condition,” were taken to hospitals for treatment, the Israeli police added.

Israel’s Magen David Adom (MDA) emergency medical service earlier said that several people had been wounded in a strike on the central city of Tira, including “a male around 20 with shrapnel injuries.”

Hezbollah also said on Saturday it had launched rockets at an Israeli intelligence base near Tel Aviv in the early hours of Saturday.

At 2:30 a.m. (00:30 GMT) militants “fired a salvo of rockets at the Glilot base of the 8200 military intelligence unit in the suburbs of Tel Aviv” the Iran-backed group said in a statement.

The militant group frequently claims to have fired rockets at Israeli bases or urban areas in Israeli territory, and has several times claimed the targeting of Glilot.

Videos posted by the Israeli Foreign Ministry on social media showed fire and smoke spilling from a building into the street and emergency responders swarming the site.

“This is the result of a direct hit of a Hezbollah rocket on a building in the Israeli Arab town of Tira, injuring 19 civilians,” the ministry said in the post.

“We cannot and will not rest until Hezbollah is dismantled,” it added.

The Israeli army said on Telegram that it had intercepted some of the three projectiles fired from Lebanon.

Tira, a predominantly Arab town, is located around 25 kilometers (15 miles) northeast of Tel Aviv, near the border with the occupied West Bank.

The war raging in the Gaza Strip has spread to Lebanon, where Israel has been carrying out air strikes against Hezbollah, an ally of Palestinian group Hamas.

According to Israeli figures, at least 63 people have been killed on the Israeli side since cross-border exchanges with Hezbollah erupted following Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

On Thursday, rocket fire from Lebanon killed seven people in Metula, northern Israel, including four Thai farmers.

Hamas’s October attack on Israel resulted in 1,206 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel’s response has killed 43,259 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which are considered reliable by the United Nations.