UN accuses Israel of firing on Lebanon peacekeepers 

Special Spanish peacekeepers of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon coordinate their patrol with the Lebanese army, in Marjayoun, south Lebanon on October 8, 2024. (AFP)
Spanish peacekeepers of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon coordinate their patrol with the Lebanese army, in Marjayoun, south Lebanon on October 8, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 10 October 2024
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UN accuses Israel of firing on Lebanon peacekeepers 

Spanish peacekeepers of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon coordinate their patrol with the Lebanese army, in Marjayoun
  • UNIFIL announced that its Naqoura headquarters and nearby positions were hit for the first time since confrontations started between the Israeli army and Hezbollah
  • UNIFIL: Two peacekeepers were injured after an IDF Merkava tank fired its weapon toward an observation tower at UNIFIL’s headquarters in Naqoura

BEIRUT: The UN accused Israel of targeting its peacekeeping force near the Lebanese border on Thursday after two soldiers were wounded by tank fire in Naqoura.

Airstrikes on two residential buildings in the Al-Karak area of central Bekaa killed nine displaced people and injured 14 others as they were buried alive under rubble, initial reports said.

UNIFIL announced that its Naqoura headquarters and nearby positions were hit for the first time since confrontations started between the Israeli army and Hezbollah.

The force said: “Two peacekeepers were injured after an IDF Merkava tank fired its weapon toward an observation tower at UNIFIL’s headquarters in Naqoura, directly hitting it and causing them to fall. The injuries are fortunately, this time, not serious, but the soldiers remain in hospital.

“Any deliberate attack on peacekeepers is a grave violation of international humanitarian law and of Security Council resolution 1701,” UNIFIL warned.

In a statement, the peacekeeping force also addressed “incursions from Israel into Lebanon in Naqoura and other areas,” highlighting other attacks on its forces.

“IDF soldiers also fired on UN position 1-31 in Labouneh, hitting the entrance to the bunker where peacekeepers were sheltering, and damaging vehicles and a communications system. An IDF drone was observed flying inside the UN position up to the bunker entrance.

“Yesterday, IDF soldiers deliberately fired at and disabled the position’s perimeter-monitoring cameras. They also deliberately fired on position 1-32A in Naqoura, where regular tripartite meetings were held before the conflict began, damaging lighting and a relay station.”

UNIFIL warned the warring sides of their “obligations to ensure the safety and security of UN personnel and property, and to respect the inviolability of UN premises at all times.”

The force is “following up with the IDF” over the incident and is present in southern Lebanon to “support a return to stability,” the statement said.

Over the past 24 hours, Israel also damaged Lebanese army sites as an Israeli bulldozer demolished an observation tower belonging to the fifth brigade at Naqoura.

The tower was built about five years ago by the army as part of a series of sites along the border in the western sector.

Two residential buildings containing a scientific library collapsed in the Haret Hreik area of Beirut’s southern suburb following a fire caused by airstrikes on Thursday.

The Israeli army claimed to have targeted “depots and combat equipment in Beirut and the south.”

It also claimed the killing of two Hezbollah commanders: Ahmed Mustafa Ali, charged with the militant group’s rocket operations; and Mohammad Ali, chief of Hezbollah’s anti-tank unit.

Seven Israeli airstrikes on the Syrian border town of Hosh Al-Sayyed, near a Lebanese Army checkpoint, wounded several soldiers, with the injuries described as minor.

Airstrikes on the southern town of Mayfadoun caused casualties, while a strike on a home in the town of Mahrouna killed five people.

On Thursday, civil defense teams from the Islamic Mission Scouts Association continued searching for missing people under the rubble of a church and a Lebanese Civil Defense Center.

The two sites were targeted by the Israeli army on Wednesday in the town of Derdghaiya, killing five of the center’s personnel.

Four people were killed after the Israeli army targeted a building in the Boudai valley, west Baalbek, while one critically injured person was transferred to Dar Al-Amal University Hospital.

As Israeli forces continue to mobilize on the Lebanese border, Hezbollah has continuously targeted Kiryat Shmona and the surroundings of Haifa with rocket and missile fire.

The group also announced it had repelled several Israeli incursion attempts.

Hezbollah fighters targeted “Israeli soldiers in Ma’ayan Baruch with rockets, a second soldier gathering in Beit Hillel in the Golan, and a third soldier gathering in Kfar Giladi,” a statement said.

An Israeli tank advancing toward Naqoura was struck by an anti-tank missile, and a medical evacuation force was also targeted, the group said.

Hezbollah also targeted northern Haifa with a large rocket salvo.

Israeli media reported a “direct hit” on a building in the town of Margaliot ,while Kiryat Shmona faced “heavy shelling, and dozens of explosions were heard.”

The Israeli army announced that Sgt. Maj. (res.) Ronny Ganizate, of the 5030th Battalion, 228th Brigade (Alon), was killed on Oct. 9, adding that another reserve soldier from the 5030th Battalion was seriously wounded.

Israeli media outlets reported that 38 Israeli soldiers were injured over the past 24 hours during confrontations with Hezbollah.

Following an exceptional meeting of Lebanon’s Central Internal Security Council, Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi discussed the status of displaced people in Beirut.

He warned of “unacceptable attempts to erect tents and build concrete structures along Beirut’s seaside corniche.

“For those claiming that security forces are absent in Beirut, we assure you that security forces are present and have been reinforced,” he added.

“However, managing the additional influx of displaced people is not an easy task.”

He called for large shelters to be erected in the Lebanese capital, warning that the state “would not tolerate any violation of public property."

He added: “Security forces will carry out their duties as required.” 


Israel wages deadly Gaza strikes as northern areas plead for help

Israel wages deadly Gaza strikes as northern areas plead for help
Updated 27 sec ago
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Israel wages deadly Gaza strikes as northern areas plead for help

Israel wages deadly Gaza strikes as northern areas plead for help
  • Fresh offensive has killed hundreds and helped choke aid supplies to their lowest level

CAIRO/GAZA: Israel pummeled the Gaza Strip with new bombardments that killed at least 20 people on Wednesday, Palestinian medics said, a day after one of the deadliest single strikes of the year-old war killed scores in the north of the enclave.

Eight of Wednesday’s victims were killed in a strike on the Salateen area of Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza. The area is near where medics said at least 93 people were killed or missing on Tuesday in an Israeli strike Washington called “horrifying.”

The Israeli assault that has laid waste to the Gaza Strip and killed tens of thousands of people shows no signs of slowing as Israel wages a new war in Lebanon.

Northern Gaza, where Israel said in January it had dismantled militant group Hamas’ command structure, is currently the focus of the military’s assault. It sent tanks into Beit Lahiya and the neighboring towns of Beit Hanoun and Jabalia earlier this month to flush out Hamas militants who it said had regrouped in the area.

The new operation has killed hundreds of Palestinians, medical workers say, and has helped choke aid and food supplies to their lowest level since the beginning of the war.

Officials in Beit Lahiya issued a statement urging world powers and aid agencies to halt Israel’s attacks and bring in basic medical supplies, fuel and food, saying the latest military actions had left the area “without food, without water, without hospitals, without doctors.”

Dr. Eid Sabbah of Beit Lahiya’s Kamal Adwan hospital said that bodies and injured people remained trapped under rubble.

He said the destruction of hospitals and lack of medical supplies meant doctors and nurses mostly had no chance of saving people who came in with injuries from airstrikes and gunfire.

“Whoever is injured, just lies there on the ground and whoever is killed can’t be transported, except by mule-drawn cart,” he said.

Israel’s decision this week to ban the UN relief agency UNRWA from operating on its territory could have a disastrous impact on humanitarian efforts in Gaza, UN officials said.

Israel presses on with assaults on Gaza despite the killing this month of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, a mastermind of the Oct. 7 attacks whose death was a key aim of the war. Several Israeli soldiers have been killed this month in northern Gaza, the military said on Tuesday.

As families fled the Beit Lahiya area last week, parents wheeled children in prams and wooden carts and dragged suitcases through the mud. Israel earlier in October told residents of northern Gaza to leave their homes or face missile strikes.

Dalia Al-Kharawat, a mother-of-five from Jabalia, begged locals in Gaza City to let her stay and now sleeps in the open-air car park of a destroyed building with her children.

“When we need to sleep, we go here in the rubble, the sand, the broken glass. There is no place at the school shelters,” she said.

Israel has bombed schools where homeless families are staying on a number of occasions, according to Palestinian hospital workers in Gaza.


Lebanon security source says one dead in strike on Hezbollah van

The wreckage of a vehicle lies on the Araya-Kahhale road on October 30, 2024, at the site of an Israeli strike. (AFP)
The wreckage of a vehicle lies on the Araya-Kahhale road on October 30, 2024, at the site of an Israeli strike. (AFP)
Updated 39 min 31 sec ago
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Lebanon security source says one dead in strike on Hezbollah van

The wreckage of a vehicle lies on the Araya-Kahhale road on October 30, 2024, at the site of an Israeli strike. (AFP)
  • “A van belonging to Hezbollah was targeted in an Israeli strike on the Kahhale road and its driver killed,” the official said

BEIRUT: A Lebanese security official told AFP that an Israeli strike on a Hezbollah van carrying munitions near Beirut killed the driver on Wednesday.
“A van belonging to Hezbollah was targeted in an Israeli strike on the Kahhale road and its driver killed,” the official said, adding that the vehicle was carrying munitions.
The official requested anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
An AFP correspondent saw a vehicle on fire and said the Kahhale road, which links Beirut to Damascus, had been blocked in both directions.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) earlier reported an “enemy drone strike” on a vehicle.
An Israeli strike on a four-wheel-drive vehicle in nearby Qmatiyeh, a village in the Aley district, killed another two people, said the security official, who did not identify the casualties.
Last week, the NNA said an Israeli strike targeting a car on the same highway killed two people.
In August 2023, two people were killed in clashes between Hezbollah members and residents of the Christian town of Kahhale, after a truck carrying munitions for the group overturned on the highway.
The war has killed at least 1,754 people in Lebanon since September 23, according to an AFP tally of health ministry figures, though the real number is likely to be higher due to gaps in the data.


Lebanon’s only burn unit treats toddlers after Israeli strikes

Two-year-old Ivana Skayki who suffered burns from an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon, rests in bed at Geitaoui Hospital
Two-year-old Ivana Skayki who suffered burns from an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon, rests in bed at Geitaoui Hospital
Updated 30 October 2024
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Lebanon’s only burn unit treats toddlers after Israeli strikes

Two-year-old Ivana Skayki who suffered burns from an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon, rests in bed at Geitaoui Hospital
  • The unit is the only one across Lebanon equipped to deal with burns and its hallways echo with the screams of children

BEIRUT: Wrapped in gauze from her head to her tiny toes, toddler Ivana Skayki lies nearly motionless in a hospital bed much too big for her. For weeks, she has been treated for severe burns sustained in Israeli strikes on her hometown in southern Lebanon.
Skayki, who turns two next month, sustained burns to nearly 40 percent of her body, including half of her face, her chest and both upper limbs, according to Ziad Sleiman, plastic surgeon at the specialist burn unit in Beirut’s Geitaoui Hospital.
The unit is the only one across Lebanon equipped to deal with burns. Its hallways echo with the screams of children as anxious parents await news from doctors.
Ivana’s father Mohammad told Reuters his daughter was burned in Israeli strikes as they prepared to flee their hometown of Al-Aliyah on Sept. 23, the day that Israel dramatically ramped up its strikes on Lebanon.
More than 550 people were killed that day alone, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.
“There was a hit, the house shook — everything was breaking, the windows, the roof, everything, the blast was in my house,” Skayki recalled. “I thought to myself, ‘this could be it, this could be the end.’“
Israel says it makes all possible efforts to avoid civilian casualties and accuses Hezbollah of deliberately basing its fighters in residential areas and using civilians as human shields. Hezbollah has denied the accusation.
The family managed to flee to the southern port city of Tyre, where Ivana got initial treatment. They moved again to another hospital, but with no department there for burns, Ivana only got partial treatment before they could reach Beirut.
Sleiman said Ivana had received skin-graft operations and could be released within days. She still has deep red marks on her face, where some of her skin is peeling.
The hospital has admitted eight children with third-degree burns to half their bodies. It has had to be selective compared to other patients, Sleiman said, because it is short of space.
Geitaoui Hospital’s burn unit has a typical capacity of nine beds, but has managed to increase to 25 with help from the health ministry to cope with the influx of patients, said the hospital’s medical director Naji Abi Rached.
Most patients stay for up to six weeks because of their critical condition.
“Sometimes the outcome is not positive, due to the extent of the burns,” Abi Rached said.


Security Council warns against any attempt to dismantle UN’s aid agency for Palestinians

Palestinians wait their turn at the UNRWA Japanese Health Center in Khan Yunis on the southern Gaza Strip on October 29, 2024.
Palestinians wait their turn at the UNRWA Japanese Health Center in Khan Yunis on the southern Gaza Strip on October 29, 2024.
Updated 30 October 2024
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Security Council warns against any attempt to dismantle UN’s aid agency for Palestinians

Palestinians wait their turn at the UNRWA Japanese Health Center in Khan Yunis on the southern Gaza Strip on October 29, 2024.
  • After Knesset votes to ban UNRWA operations, council members urge Israeli authorities to abide by international obligations
  • Any interruption to agency’s work will have severe humanitarian consequences for millions of Palestinian refugees, plus regional implications, council warns

NEW YORK CITY: The UN Security Council on Wednesday expressed “grave concern” over the Israeli parliament’s decision to approve a law banning the operations of the UN’s main aid agency for Palestinians.

Council members “strongly” warned against any attempts to dismantle or diminish the operations and mandate of the agency, and said any interruption to or suspension of its work would have severe humanitarian consequences for millions of Palestinian refugees who depend on the services it provides, and could also have implications for the entire region.

The Knesset on Monday approved legislation that prevents the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees from operating in Israel or areas under its control. The ban is set to take effect in 90 days and force the agency to close its offices and other facilities in the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, and Gaza, effectively preventing it from fulfilling the mandate set out by the UN General Assembly in 1949.

Council members underscored the vital role of UNRWA in providing “life-saving” humanitarian assistance to refugees in occupied Palestinian territories, and those living other countries such as Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, not only through emergency aid but also the educational, health, relief and social services programs it offers.

The Security Council said the agency remains “the backbone of all humanitarian response in Gaza” and stressed that no other organization can replace it or its capacity to help civilians in urgent need of life-saving assistance.

It urged the Israeli government “to abide by its international obligations, respect the privileges and immunities of UNRWA, and live up to its responsibility to allow and facilitate full, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian assistance in all its forms into and throughout the entire Gaza Strip, including the provision of sorely needed basic services to the civilian population.”

The agency has faced relentless attacks, on its reputation and its workers, by Israel since the war on Gaza began. About 200 of its employees have been killed in Israeli strikes. In January, Israeli authorities alleged that 12 UNRWA workers participated in the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas, resulting in several investigations including an independent review led by former French minister Catherine Colonna.

Her report in April concluded that Israel had failed to provide any evidence to back up the allegations. Yet the agency was thrown into crisis when the claims emerged, as the US, its single biggest funder, and several other major donors put funding of the organization on hold. In all, 16 UN member states suspended or paused donations and others imposed conditions on contributions, which placed the very future of the agency in doubt. Several subsequently restored their funding.

The Security Council noted that the agency had taken steps to terminate the employment of nine workers, and underscored the important need for “timely measures to address any credible allegations and to ensure accountability for any violations of the agency’s policies related to the principle of neutrality.”


Houthis deploy hundreds of troops and weapons, including missiles, in Taiz province

Houthis deploy hundreds of troops and weapons, including missiles, in Taiz province
Updated 30 October 2024
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Houthis deploy hundreds of troops and weapons, including missiles, in Taiz province

Houthis deploy hundreds of troops and weapons, including missiles, in Taiz province
  • Yemen’s internationally recognized government again appeals to international community for help to stabilize plummeting currency
  • Military official says Houthis are preparing to launch offensive in government-controlled areas and have installed ballistic missile systems in the mountains

AL-MUKALLA: The Houthis have deployed hundreds of fighters and military equipment in Yemen’s southern province of Taiz, the Yemeni army said on Wednesday.

It came as the country’s internationally recognized government repeated an appeal to the international community for financial assistance to stabilize the country’s declining currency.

Abdul Basit Al-Baher, a military official in Taiz, told Arab News that the Houthis deployed fighters equipped with various types of weapons, including drones, tanks, artillery and ballistic missiles, in areas under their control in the north, northeast and west of the province, primarily outside the besieged city of Taiz and areas near government-controlled towns on the Red Sea coast, such as Mocha.

He said he believes the Houthis are preparing to launch an offensive in these areas and have installed ballistic missile systems in underground facilities along the Auman and Al-Ula mountains.

“The goal of the Houthis’ mobilization of forces and weapons may not be Taiz but they will be participating in the battle of Iran, heading to Bab Al-Mandab and Mocha and possibly deploying weapons at the nearest point to the sea to threaten international navigation,” Al-Baher added.

Government troops repelled seven Houthi attacks on their positions in the past three days, he revealed.

The Houthis said they were staging military drills and training exercises, and deploying forces and military equipment in areas under their control as part of their campaign to “fight off Israel and the US.”

Yemeni government officials and critics of the militia have repeatedly accused the Houthis of exploiting the outrage in Yemen over the deaths of thousands of Palestinians as a result of Israel’s war in Gaza to recruit more fighters, deploy forces and weapons in contested areas, and divert attention from the growing public resentment over the Houthi control of parts of the country and their failure to pay salaries to public-sector workers.

Rashad Al-Alimi, chairperson of the nation’s Presidential Leadership Council, once again asked the international community to help his government stabilize Yemen’s currency after the riyal hit a new low against the dollar.

During a meeting in Riyadh on Wednesday with Abda Sharif, the British ambassador to Yemen, Al-Alimi said he is seeking international financial assistance for his government’s plan to rescue the economy and halt the slide of the currency, the official state news agency reported.

In the past two weeks, the riyal has fallen to an all-time low of 2,050 against the dollar in government-controlled areas. It was trading at about 215 to the dollar in 2014 when the war broke out and the Houthis took control of the capital, Sanaa.

The depreciation of the currency has increased the costs of food, fuel and transportation, sparking angry protests. Public employees have said that their salaries are paid weeks late and have lost much of their value because of the high inflation.

The Yemeni government has said it has lost $6 billion in revenue since late 2022, when the Houthis attacked oil terminals in the provinces of Hadramout and Shabwa, halting oil exports.