BEIRUT: An Israeli strike killed a Hezbollah commander, two fighters and seven civilians in the southern Lebanese city of Nabatiyeh, a security source said on Thursday, raising fears of further escalation.
Eight civilians were wounded, including an infant who was pulled from rubble. The attack, widely condemned by the Lebanese public, caused panic among the city’s residents.
Universities and schools in Nabatiyeh were closed on Thursday, while the city’s governor closed government offices and businesses in the area.
Najib Mikati, caretaker prime minister, said: “An urgent new complaint will be filed to the UN Security Council against Israel. While we call on all parties to commit to de-escalation, we find the Israeli enemy persisting in its aggression, prompting us to question the international parties concerned with initiatives taken to restrain the enemy.”
Nabatiyeh is situated north of the Litani Line, outside the area where hostile operations between Hezbollah and Israel have been ongoing for 131 days.
The Israeli military has violated the rules of engagement more than once, extending its attacks to the southern suburbs of Beirut.
Rescue and civil defense teams continued to search for missing individuals under the rubble of the targeted three-story building. They pulled alive the infant, Hussein Ali Amer, after more than four hours of searching.
They retrieved five deceased — Hussein Ahmed Daher Berjawi, his daughters Amani and Zeinab, his sister Fatima and his grandson Mahmoud Ali Amer — and transferred them to hospitals in Nabatiyeh.
The search continued for the bodies of Berjawi's wife Amal Mahmoud Audi and his niece Ghadeer Tarhini.
Berjawi’s son-in-law Ali Amer and several wounded individuals were also sent to hospitals in Nabatiyeh.
Israeli bombing of southern Lebanese border towns resumed its previous intensity on Thursday.
Israeli army radio reported: “The security service assessed the internal front’s readiness for the scenario of war in the northern region.”
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant informed his US counterpart Lloyd Austin that “there will be no leniency in responding to Hezbollah attacks.”
According to Al-Arabiya channel, Gallant said: “Our planes in the skies of Beirut carry heavy bombs capable of hitting distant targets, and the current escalation against Hezbollah is only a 10th of what we can do. We can attack up to 50 km deep in Beirut and any other place.”
Hezbollah announced on Thursday that it had targeted “espionage equipment at the Israeli Al-Marj military site, scoring a direct hit.”
It also targeted “the Israeli Zibdin barracks in the occupied Shebaa Farms using a Falaq-1 rocket, resulting in a direct hit,” as well as “espionage equipment at the Israeli military site in the Al-Raheb area with suitable weaponry, also achieving a direct hit,” and “the radar site belonging to the Israeli army in the occupied Shebaa Farms.”
Meanwhile, Hezbollah mourned its members Ali Al-Dabs, Hussein Ahmed Aqil and Hassan Ibrahim Issa.
A flurry of diplomatic efforts has been underway to stave off further escalation. Lebanese Army Commander Gen. Joseph Aoun held discussions with Joanna Wronecka, special representative of the UN secretary-general in Lebanon, on “developments along the southern borders.”
Stephane Dujarric, the secretary-general’s spokesperson, said the “dangerous” escalation “must stop.”
He highlighted observations by the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, indicating a shift in the exchange of fire between Israeli forces and armed groups in Lebanon, with incidents occurring beyond the Blue Line.
UN Humanitarian Coordinator Imran Riza said in a statement: “The deliberate targeting of civilians is deeply troubling. Among the casualties are innocent children, mothers, and grandparents.
“The rules of engagement are crystal clear: all parties involved must safeguard civilians, and these principles must be upheld. Innocent civilians should never be caught in the crossfire.”
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said: “The situation in Lebanon is serious, but it has not yet reached the point of no return. France is actively involved in seeking a resolution to the conflict, aiming to prevent further bloodshed and the onset of a new war in Lebanon.”
Meanwhile, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller voiced “Washington’s apprehension regarding the escalating tensions between the parties involved,” adding: “Diplomatic efforts are underway to quell the situation and find a peaceful resolution.”
Sheikh Nabil Qaouq, a member of Hezbollah’s Central Council, said: “The conflict persists as long as aggression continues against Gaza.”
He highlighted the unwavering resolve of the resistance to counter Israel’s persistent threats with equal measures of escalation, displacement and destruction.
The attack in Nabatiyeh triggered widespread condemnation in Lebanon. Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri labeled it “a premeditated and calculated atrocity, placing responsibility for the victims’ blood squarely on international envoys, the UN, and human rights organizations.
“Urgent action is demanded to halt Israel’s lethal actions and restrain the leaders of the occupying entity, who are steering the region toward a catastrophic war.”
Progressive Socialist Party leader and MP Taymur Jumblatt warned of “the potential expansion of the conflict due to the actions of Israel, the US, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.” Jumblatt highlighted Hezbollah’s efforts “to de-escalate tensions and stabilize the situation.”
Kataeb Party leader and MP Sami Gemayel unequivocally rejected and condemned all Israeli justifications for targeting civilians.
He also highlighted “the toll borne by the Lebanese population due to Hezbollah’s unilateral actions to engage in the southern battle in solidarity with Gaza.”
Lebanese condemn deadly Israeli attack on Nabatiyeh
https://arab.news/6junv
Lebanese condemn deadly Israeli attack on Nabatiyeh
- Strike killed Hezbollah commander, two fighters and seven civilians in the southern Lebanese city
- Nabatiyeh is situated north of the Litani Line, outside the area where hostile operations between Hezbollah and Israel have been ongoing
UN atomic watchdog chief due in Iran as concern grows over nuclear activity
- Visit comes at a time of heightened regional tensions and with IAEA criticizing Iran for lack of cooperation on inspections and other outstanding issues
TEHRAN: UN atomic watchdog chief Rafael Grossi is set to arrive in Iran on Monday, where he is expected to speak at a conference and meet officials for talks on Tehran’s nuclear program.
The visit comes at a time of heightened regional tensions and with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) criticizing Iran for lack of cooperation on inspections and other outstanding issues.
Grossi, head of the IAEA, is expected to deliver a speech at Iran’s first International Conference on Nuclear Science and Technology.
The three-day event, which starts on Monday, is being held in Isfahan province, home to the Natanz uranium enrichment plant and where strikes attributed to Israel hit last month.
The IAEA and Iranian officials reported “no damage” to nuclear facilities after the reported attack on Isfahan, widely seen as Israel’s response to Iran’s first-ever direct attack on its arch foe days earlier, which itself was a retaliation for a deadly strike on Tehran’s Damascus consulate.
During his visit, Grossi is expected to meet with Iranian officials including the Islamic republic’s nuclear chief Mohammad Eslami.
On Wednesday Eslami, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said he was “sure that these negotiations will further help clear ambiguities, and we will be able to strengthen our relations with the agency.”
Iran in recent years has deactivated IAEA monitoring devices at nuclear facilities and barred inspectors, according to the UN agency.
Grossi last visited Iran in March 2023 and met with top officials including President Ebrahim Raisi.
Iran has suspended its compliance with caps on nuclear activities set by a landmark 2015 deal with major powers after the United States in 2018 unilaterally withdrew from the agreement and reimposed sweeping sanctions.
Tensions between Iran and the IAEA have repeatedly flared since the deal fell apart, while EU-mediated efforts have so far failed both to bring Washington back on board and to get Tehran to again comply with the terms of the accord.
Last year, Iran slowed down the pace of its uranium enrichment, which was seen as a goodwill gesture while informal talks began with the United States.
But the Vienna-based UN nuclear agency said Iran accelerated the production of 60-percent enriched uranium in late 2023.
Enrichment levels of around 90 percent are required for military use.
Tehran has consistently denied any ambition to develop nuclear weapons, insisting that its atomic activities were entirely peaceful.
In February, the IAEA said in a confidential report seen by AFP that Iran’s estimated stockpile of enriched uranium had reached 27 times the limit set out in the 2015 accord.
On Sunday, the Iranian official news agency IRNA said Grossi’s visit provides “an opportunity for the two sides to share their concerns,” especially with regard to the IAEA’s inspectors.
Iran in September withdrew the accreditation of several inspectors, a move described at the time by the UN agency as “extreme and unjustified.”
Tehran, however, said its decision was a consequence of “political abuses” by the United States, France, Germany and Britain.
Eslami said the IAEA has “more than 130 inspectors” working in Iran, insisting Tehran remains committed to cooperating with the nuclear watchdog.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah says fired dozens of rockets at Israeli base
- The Israeli army said its warplanes “struck a Hezbollah military structure... deep inside Lebanon,”
The Iran-backed Hezbollah group said it fired “dozens of Katyusha rockets” at an Israeli base in the occupied Golan Heights on Monday in retaliation for a strike in Lebanon’s east.
Earlier, Lebanese official media said three people had been wounded in an Israeli strike early Monday in the country’s east, with the Israeli army saying it had struck a Hezbollah “military compound.”
Hezbollah fighters launched “dozens of Katyusha rockets” targeting “the headquarters of the Golan Division... at Nafah base,” the group said in a statement, saying it was “in response to the enemy’s attack targeting the Bekaa region.”
Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah have exchanged regular cross-border fire since Palestinian militant group Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on southern Israel sparked war in the Gaza Strip.
In recent weeks Hamas-ally Hezbollah has stepped up its attacks on northern Israel, and the Israeli military has struck deeper into Lebanese territory.
“Enemy warplanes launched a strike at around 1:30 am this morning on a factory in Sifri, wounding three civilians and destroying the building,” Lebanon’s official National News Agency said.
Sifri is located in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, near the city of Baalbek, around 80 kilometers from the Israel-Lebanon frontier.
The Israeli army said its warplanes “struck a Hezbollah military structure... deep inside Lebanon,” referring to the location as “Safri.”
Last month, a building in Sifri was targeted in an Israeli raid, according to a source close to Hezbollah, while the Israeli army said it had targeted Hezbollah sites in Lebanon’s east.
East Lebanon’s Baalbek area is a Hezbollah stronghold and has been repeatedly struck by Israel in recent weeks.
On Sunday official media in Lebanon said an Israeli strike on a southern village killed four family members, with Hezbollah announcing retaliatory fire by dozens of rockets toward Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel.
The intensifying exchanges have stoked fears of all-out conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, which went to war in 2006.
In Lebanon, at least 390 people have been killed in nearly seven months of cross-border violence, mostly militants but also more than 70 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
Israel says 11 soldiers and nine civilians have been killed on its side of the border.
Tens of thousands of people have been displaced on both sides.
Israel attacks Rafah after Hamas claims responsibility for deadly rocket attack
- Hamas claims attack on Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza that Israel says killed three soldiers
- Sunday's attack on the crossing came as hopes dimmed for ceasefire talks underway in Cairo
CAIRO: Three Israeli soldiers were killed in a rocket attack claimed by Hamas armed wing, near the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, where Palestinian health officials said at least 19 people were killed by Israeli fire on Sunday.
Hamas's armed wing claimed responsibility on Sunday for an attack on the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza that Israel said killed three of its soldiers.
Israel's military said 10 projectiles were launched from Rafah in southern Gaza towards the area of the crossing, which it said was now closed to aid trucks going into the coastal enclave. Other crossings remained open.
Hamas' armed wing said it fired rockets at an Israeli army base by the crossing, but did not confirm where it fired them from. Hamas media quoted a source close to the group as saying the commercial crossing was not the target.
More than a million Palestinians are sheltering in Rafah, near the border with Egypt.
Shortly after the Hamas attack, an Israeli airstrike hit a house in Rafah killing three people and wounding several others, Palestinian medics said.
The Israeli military confirmed the counter-strike, saying it struck the launcher from which the Hamas projectiles were fired, as well as a nearby "military structure".
"The launches carried out by Hamas adjacent to the Rafah Crossing ... are a clear example of the terrorist organisation's systematic exploitation of humanitarian facilities and spaces, and their continued use of the Gazan civilian population as human shields," it said.
Hamas denies it uses civilians as human shields.
Just before midnight, an Israeli air strike killed nine Palestinians, including a baby, in another house in Rafah, Gaza health officials said. They said the new strike increased the death toll on Sunday to at least 19 people.
Israel has vowed to enter the southern Gaza city and flush out Hamas forces there, but has faced mounting pressure to hold fire as the operation could derail fragile humanitarian efforts in Gaza and endanger many more lives.
Sunday's attack on the crossing came as hopes dimmed for ceasefire talks under way in Cairo.
The war began after Hamas stunned Israel with a cross-border raid on Oct. 7 in which 1,200 people were killed and 252 hostages taken, according to Israeli tallies.
More than 34,600 Palestinians have been killed, 29 of them in the past 24 hours, and more than 77,000 have been wounded in Israel's assault, according to Gaza's health ministry.
Israel army says east Rafah evacuation a ‘limited scope operation’
- More than a million Palestinians are sheltering in Rafah, near the border with Egypt
- Three Israeli soldiers earlier killed in a rocket attack claimed by Hamas armed wing
CAIRO/JERUSALEM: The Israeli army on Monday said its operation to begin evacuating residents of eastern Rafah in the Palestinian territory of Gaza was temporary and limited.
“This morning ... we began a limited scope operation to temporarily evacuate residents in the eastern part of Rafah,” a military spokesman told journalists in an online riefing. “This is a limited scope operation.”
According to a radio report, the evacuations were now focused on a few peripheral districts of Rafah, from which, it said, evacuees would be directed to tent cities in nearby Khan Younis and Al-Muwassi.
Seven months into its offensive against Hamas, Israel has said Rafah harbors thousands of the Palestinian Islamist group’s fighters and that victory is impossible without taking the city.
But with more than a million displaced Palestinians sheltering in Rafah, the prospect of a high-casualty operation worries Western powers and neighboring Egypt.
Three Israeli soldiers were earlier killed in a rocket attack claimed by Hamas armed wing, near the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, where Palestinian health officials said at least 19 people were killed by Israeli fire on Sunday.
Hamas’s armed wing claimed responsibility on Sunday for an attack on the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza that Israel said killed three of its soldiers.
Israel’s military said 10 projectiles were launched from Rafah in southern Gaza towards the area of the crossing, which it said was now closed to aid trucks going into the coastal enclave. Other crossings remained open.
Hamas’ armed wing said it fired rockets at an Israeli army base by the crossing, but did not confirm where it fired them from. Hamas media quoted a source close to the group as saying the commercial crossing was not the target.
More than a million Palestinians are sheltering in Rafah, near the border with Egypt.
Shortly after the Hamas attack, an Israeli airstrike hit a house in Rafah killing three people and wounding several others, Palestinian medics said.
The Israeli military confirmed the counter-strike, saying it struck the launcher from which the Hamas projectiles were fired, as well as a nearby “military structure”.
“The launches carried out by Hamas adjacent to the Rafah Crossing ... are a clear example of the terrorist organisation’s systematic exploitation of humanitarian facilities and spaces, and their continued use of the Gazan civilian population as human shields,” it said.
Hamas denies it uses civilians as human shields.
Just before midnight, an Israeli air strike killed nine Palestinians, including a baby, in another house in Rafah, Gaza health officials said. They said the new strike increased the death toll on Sunday to at least 19 people.
Israel has vowed to enter the southern Gaza city and flush out Hamas forces there, but has faced mounting pressure to hold fire as the operation could derail fragile humanitarian efforts in Gaza and endanger many more lives.
Sunday’s attack on the crossing came as hopes dimmed for ceasefire talks under way in Cairo.
The war began after Hamas stunned Israel with a cross-border raid on Oct. 7 in which 1,200 people were killed and 252 hostages taken, according to Israeli tallies.
More than 34,600 Palestinians have been killed, 29 of them in the past 24 hours, and more than 77,000 have been wounded in Israel’s assault, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
Netanyahu uses Holocaust ceremony to brush off international pressure against Gaza offensive
- The ceremony ushered in Israel’s first Holocaust remembrance day since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that sparked the war, imbuing the already somber day with additional meaning
JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday rejected international pressure to halt the war in Gaza in a fiery speech marking the country’s annual Holocaust memorial day, declaring: “If Israel is forced to stand alone, Israel will stand alone.”
The message, delivered in a setting that typically avoids politics, was aimed at the growing chorus of world leaders who have criticized the heavy toll caused by Israel’s military offensive against Hamas militants and have urged the sides to agree to a ceasefire.
Netanyahu has said he is open to a deal that would pause nearly seven months of fighting and bring home hostages held by Hamas. But he also says he remains committed to an invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah, despite widespread international opposition because of the more than 1 million civilians huddled there.
“I say to the leaders of the world: No amount of pressure, no decision by any international forum will stop Israel from defending itself,” he said, speaking in English. “Never again is now.”
Yom Hashoah, the day Israel observes as a memorial for the 6 million Jews killed by Nazi Germany and its allies in the Holocaust, is one of the most solemn dates on the country’s calendar. Speeches at the ceremony generally avoid politics, though Netanyahu in recent years has used the occasion to lash out at Israel’s archenemy Iran.
The ceremony ushered in Israel’s first Holocaust remembrance day since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that sparked the war, imbuing the already somber day with additional meaning.
Hamas militants killed some 1,200 people in the attack, making it the deadliest violence against Jews since the Holocaust.
Israel responded with an air and ground offensive in Gaza, where the death toll has soared to more than 34,500 people, according to local health officials, and about 80 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are displaced. The death and destruction has prompted South Africa to file a genocide case against Israel in the UN’s world court. Israel strongly rejects the charges.
On Sunday, Netanyahu attacked those accusing Israel of carrying out a genocide against the Palestinians, claiming that Israel was doing everything possible to ensure the entry of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.
The 24-hour memorial period began after sundown on Sunday with a ceremony at Yad Vashem, Israel’s national Holocaust memorial, in Jerusalem.
There are approximately 245,000 living Holocaust survivors around the world, according to the Claims Conference, an organization that negotiates for material compensation for Holocaust survivors. Approximately half of the survivors live in Israel.
On Sunday, Tel Aviv University and the Anti-Defamation League released an annual Antisemitism Worldwide Report for 2023, which found a sharp increase in antisemitic attacks globally.
It said the number of antisemitic incidents in the United States doubled, from 3,697 in 2022 to 7,523 in 2023.
While most of these incidents occurred after the war erupted in October, the number of antisemitic incidents, which include vandalism, harassment, assault, and bomb threats, from January to September was already significantly higher than the previous year.
The report found an average of three bomb threats per day at synagogues and Jewish institutions in the US, more than 10 times the number in 2022.
Other countries tracked similar rises in antisemitic incidents. In France, the number nearly quadrupled, from 436 in 2022 to 1,676 in 2023, while it more than doubled in the United Kingdom and Canada.
“In the aftermath of the October 7 war crimes committed by Hamas, the world has seen the worst wave of antisemitic incidents since the end of the Second World War,” the report stated.
Netanyahu also compared the recent wave of protests on American campuses to German universities in the 1930s, in the runup to the Holocaust. He condemned the “explosion of a volcano of antisemitism spitting out boiling lava of lies against us around the world.”
Nearly 2,500 students have been arrested in a wave of protests at US college campuses, while there have been smaller protests in other countries, including France. Protesters reject antisemitism accusations and say they are criticizing Israel. Campuses and the federal government are struggling to define exactly where political speech crosses into antisemitism.
