Israeli strike kills Hezbollah commander in Lebanon

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Damage to an apartment building that was destroyed by Israeli airstrikes is shown in Nabatiyeh town, south Lebanon, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. (AP)
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Mohammed Raad, the head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, speaks during a commemoration on the 40-day anniversary of Hezbollah top commander Fouad Shukur, who was killed by an Israeli airstrike in a southern suburb of Beirut, on Sept. 7, 2024. (AP)
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Updated 10 September 2024
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Israeli strike kills Hezbollah commander in Lebanon

  • Mohammad Qassem Al-Shaer, “a field commander” in the group’s elite Radwan Force, “was targeted in an Israeli strike on a motorcycle in the Bekaa” Valley
  • 10 civilians wounded in Israeli raids across south Lebanon, Western Bekaa

BEIRUT: An Israeli strike on Tuesday in eastern Lebanon killed a Hezbollah commander, with the group retaliating by firing rockets at Israeli army targets.

Mohammed Qassem Al-Shaer, 47, was targeted as he rode a motorcycle on the Saghbine road in Western Bekaa.

A civilian car passed at the time of the drone strike, leading to one death and two injuries from the attack, according to the Ministry of Health.

Al-Chaer, aged 47, was from Sohmor, Western Bekaa.

Israeli raids also targeted cities and villages that until now had fallen outside the conflict zone, with southern Lebanon facing intense attacks since the morning.

A military drone targeted one of five floors of a building in Nabatieh with more than four missiles, injuring eight civilians, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health.

The identity of the injured and those targeted is still unknown.

An Israeli military drone later raided an area between Jouaiyya, Wadi Jilou and Mahrouna, targeting it with three missiles and igniting a massive fire.

A drone also targeted the center of Houla’s square.

An Israeli missile struck Khiam in the morning — but failed to detonate — following an Israeli raid at midnight on Monday.

The Israeli army is targeting border villages daily, usually at night, destroying roads and empty residential neighborhoods.

A security source told Arab News that Israel “seeks to form a fire belt in the border region to slow down Hezbollah’s combat movement.”

The source added: “Israel’s hostilities reached 15 km deep into Lebanese territory, targeting villages like Srifa, Froun, Ghandouriyeh and Wadi Al-Houjeir, and focusing its attacks on forest areas and valleys.”

Israel also targeted Lebanese Civil Defense fire brigades, as well as fire services associated with Hezbollah and its ally, the Amal Movement.

The head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, MP Mohammed Raad, said that the party opened a support front in Lebanon “in solidarity with Gaza and its people as a preemptive measure to protect Lebanon from Israeli aggression on its land, its sovereignty and its people.”

He added: “The sacrifices and losses we have endured in this regard are far less than the costs we would have faced if the enemy had achieved its goals in Gaza.”

Raad said that Israel had “reached a point where it can penetrate Gaza and destroy it, but it cannot achieve its objectives, establish its presence, or set up the alternative situation it seeks.”

Israel is “aimlessly circling and deteriorating internally at the security, economic, financial and displacement levels,” Raad said.

He highlighted the “burden of exceptional expenses” on Israel’s economy and the “ugly image that has rendered it a pariah entity worldwide.”

Raad said that Israel was now “operating in lost time, perhaps extending to the US elections and their scheduled date.

“This is why we see it moving from northern Gaza to the south, then turning to the West Bank to ignite a fruitless battle, and then threatening to expand northward toward southern Lebanon,” he added.

“However, it cannot meet its commitment to returning all northern residents to their homes.”

At about 2 a.m., Israeli raids hit the town of Aita Al-Shaab in the central sector, causing material damage to property and infrastructure, particularly to electricity and water networks.

The Israeli army also launched flares at night over border villages adjacent to the Blue Line.

Reconnaissance and drone flights continued throughout the night until morning over the towns of Naqoura, Yarine, Jebbayn, Dhayra, Aita Al-Shaab, Beit Lif and Rmeish.

On Tuesday, Hezbollah’s military media also released a video showing footage of its fighters targeting settlements and army bases in northern Israel.

 


Qatar launches ‘air bridge’ for aid to war-struck Lebanon

Updated 16 min 40 sec ago
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Qatar launches ‘air bridge’ for aid to war-struck Lebanon

  • Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad said the Qatari aid “will help cover shortages of medical, relief and support supplies” and will be “a vital push” for the hundreds of thousands of displaced and injured people

BEIRUT, Lebanon: Doha launched an “air bridge” to transport medical supplies and food aid to Lebanon, a Qatari minister said in Beirut on Tuesday, more than two weeks into intense Israeli strikes on the country.
“Today we launched the air bridge with consecutive planes carrying food, shelter materials and medical supplies,” said Qatar’s Minister of State for International Cooperation Lolwah Al-Khater from a public hospital in Beirut.
She said Doha was working “on medium and long-term plans to contain this humanitarian crisis.”
Since September 23, Israel has launched an intense air campaign mainly targeting Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon, killing more than 1,150 people and displacing upwards of a million people.
Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad said the Qatari aid “will help cover shortages of medical, relief and support supplies” and will be “a vital push” for the hundreds of thousands of displaced and injured people.
Prime Minister Najib Mikati also met the Qatari minister.
A French plane carrying medical aid also landed in Beirut Tuesday, one of several planeloads of aid that arrived at Lebanon’s only international airport since the escalation began.
The United Arab Emirates, Turkiye, Iraq, Egypt, Jordan and Romania are also among the countries that have sent aid to Lebanon.

 


Egypt, Jordan voice support for Lebanon in face of Israeli ‘aggression’

Updated 21 min 30 sec ago
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Egypt, Jordan voice support for Lebanon in face of Israeli ‘aggression’

  • Both Amman and Cairo have repeatedly warned that the region is on the brink of all-out war and have accused Israel of being given impunity by its Western allies to systematically violate international law

CAIRO: The foreign ministers of Egypt and Jordan, the only two Arab countries to have made peace with Israel, expressed solidarity with Lebanon Tuesday in the face of Israel’s widening offensive.
Addressing a joint news conference in Cairo with his Egyptian counterpart Badr Abdelatty, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi called for an end to “Israeli aggression on three fronts” — in Gaza, in the occupied West Bank and now in Lebanon.
“We condemn the Israeli aggression on Lebanon, we condemn Israel’s shelling of the Lebanese capital, we condemn Israel’s killing of Lebanese citizens,” Safadi said.
Both Amman and Cairo have repeatedly warned that the region is on the brink of all-out war and have accused Israel of being given impunity by its Western allies to systematically violate international law.
“You have a country that finds itself above the law and unaccountable,” Abdelatty said.
Israel launched a wave of strikes against Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon on September 23, leaving at least 1,150 people dead since then and forcing more than a million people to flee.
While battling Hamas in Gaza, Israel has vowed to secure its northern border with Lebanon to allow the return home of tens of thousands of Israelis displaced by Hezbollah’s cross-border fire in support of its Palestinian ally.

 


Morocco says ‘ready’ to repatriate irregular migrants in Europe

Updated 26 min 35 sec ago
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Morocco says ‘ready’ to repatriate irregular migrants in Europe

  • Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita on Tuesday said the kingdom was “ready to repatriate any irregular migrant who is certified to be Moroccan and who left from Moroccan territory”

RABAT, Morocco: Morocco on Tuesday said it was ready to take back its nationals who migrated irregularly to Europe, blaming host countries for repatriation delays.
It comes as French lawmakers have called for stricter migration policy after a Moroccan irregular migrant was arrested on suspicion of killing a 19-year-old French student last month.
French authorities had previously ordered his deportation in relation to a previous rape conviction, but Rabat has been blamed for not issuing a laissez-passer document allowing for his repatriation.
Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita on Tuesday said the kingdom was “ready to repatriate any irregular migrant who is certified to be Moroccan and who left from Moroccan territory.”
“Morocco is ready, but is the other party ready?” he said during a press conference, adding that Rabat did not “need to receive lessons” on the fight against irregular migration.
The murder suspect was arrested in Switzerland on September 25, four days after the body of a 19-year-old female student was found in the woods in western Paris.
He had already been convicted of a rape he committed in 2019 and was ordered to leave the country.
After his arrest, French authorities said Morocco did not respond to their request to issue a laissez-passer for his immediate repatriation.
Rabat later said the request had not been correctly issued.
France’s new right-wing government has pledged to clamp down on migration.
French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau has recently vowed to introduce new migration regulations to “protect the French.”
 

 


How Israel’s war on Hezbollah is pushing Lebanon’s health system to the brink of collapse

Updated 14 sec ago
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How Israel’s war on Hezbollah is pushing Lebanon’s health system to the brink of collapse

  • Hospitals already crippled by grinding economic crisis are now overwhelmed by wounded people
  • Israeli airstrikes on Syrian border and close to Beirut’s international airport have further disrupted aid deliveries

LONDON: Lebanon’s healthcare system, already crippled by years of economic crisis, has been brought to the brink of collapse since Israel’s unprecedented attack on Hezbollah’s communications network in mid-September and the wave of airstrikes targeting its leaders and weapons caches.

According to some reports, several health facilities have been damaged by Israeli airstrikes. Last month, the World Health Organization said the “escalation of violence” since Sept. 23 had forced at least 37 health centers to close their doors.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry also said dozens of medical workers have been killed, with the WHO reporting 28 deaths in a single 24-hour period last week.

Lebanon was rocked last month by two attacks on Hezbollah’s communications network, which saw pagers and walkie-talkies carried by militia members explode simultaneously.

The devices, reportedly booby-trapped by Israel, exploded in public areas, killing 20 people, including children, and injuring 450 others, according to the Health Ministry, overwhelming hospitals across Lebanon.

A truck and ambulance burn after Israeli airstrikes hit a group of paramedics outside a hospital in Marjayoun, south Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP)

Soon afterward, Israel began pounding Lebanon in its pursuit of Hezbollah, its leadership, and its weapons. The relentless airstrikes have killed at least 1,250 people and injured more than 5,000, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.

Israel and Hezbollah began trading fire along the Lebanese border on Oct. 8, a day after the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel that killed 1,200 and saw 250 taken hostage, prompting Israel’s retaliatory operation in Gaza.

Hezbollah rocket fire has displaced nearly 60,000 people from Israel’s north. The Israeli government says its stated aim is to push Hezbollah back to the Litani River, about 18 km from the Israeli border, which would allow displaced Israeli civilians to return to their homes.

Over the past two weeks, there have been reports of damage to healthcare facilities in Lebanon. In one such incident earlier this month, an airstrike on Marjayoun Hospital in the south knocked the facility out of service and killed dozens of staff.

Flames and smoke rise from an Israeli airstrike on Lebanon’s Dahiyeh, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP)

Mounes Kalakesh, Marjayoun’s director, told AP news agency that the Israeli military did not warn the government hospital before the strike. Emergency Director Shoshana Mazraani described the facility’s ensuing closure as a “tragedy for the region.”

Israel’s Arabic-language military spokesman, Avichay Adraee, accused Hezbollah of using ambulances to transport weapons and fighters, but he did not provide evidence to support the claim.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said on Oct. 3 that 40 paramedics, firefighters and health workers had been killed in Israeli attacks over a period of three days.

Last week, the International Lebanese Medical Association appealed to the WHO to pressure Israel to halt what it called a “massacre” of Lebanon’s health workers.

IN NUMBERS

  • 37 Lebanese health facilities forced to close owing to Israeli strikes, according to WHO.
  • 97 Rescue workers killed since last October, according to Lebanon’s health minister.

Tania Baban, the Lebanon country director of the US-based charity MedGlobal, said the healthcare situation in Lebanon today is almost indescribable.

“The healthcare system is in a very difficult situation,” she told Arab News, stressing that if further hospitals are knocked out of action, the sector may not be able to respond to the mounting number of wounded.

“Even if they don’t get targeted, if there are still going to be attacks that are this intense on the south and in Dahieh (Beirut’s southern suburbs), that’s going to create a strain.”

Lebanon has suffered successive blows since the 2019 financial crisis, which severely impacted the provision of essential public services.

Ambulances carrying the bodies of civil defense workers killed in an Israeli strike drive amid the destruction in the southern Lebanese town of Tayr Dibba, on September 29, 2024. (AFP)

“The economic crisis caused the devaluation of the local currency and inflation, which caused some serious problems in the procurement of medical equipment and supplies as well as medications,” said Baban.

“When the government announced bankruptcy, it wasn’t able to purchase supplies for the hospitals, so the hospitals were not able to cater for the patients,” she added.

The economic situation also impacted livelihoods, leaving many people in Lebanon unable to afford private medical care.

Lebanon has been in the grips of a financial crisis since late 2019, brought on in part by the mountain of debt the government had built up since the end of the civil war in 1990. In April 2022, Deputy Prime Minister Saade Chami declared the state and its central bank bankrupt.

Ambulances are surrounded by people at the entrance of the American University of Beirut Medical Center, on September 17, 2024. (AFP)

The World Bank reclassified Lebanon as a lower-middle-income country, down from upper-middle-income status in July 2022, after the country’s gross domestic product per capita dropped by 36.5 percent between 2019 and 2021.

Aid agencies in Lebanon are also concerned about the welfare of the approximately 1.2 million people who have been displaced by Israeli strikes and incursions in the south, the Bekaa Valley, Beirut’s southern suburbs, and Baalbek.

MedGlobal’s Baban says the scale of displacement in Lebanon has further strained medical services. Inadequate shelter, overcrowding, and the onset of winter heighten the risk of disease outbreaks.

“We’re worried about infectious diseases,” she said. “Flu season is on the way, COVID, the possibility of hepatitis A if they don’t have access to clean drinking water, and the possibility of, God forbid, cholera.”

Displaced families take refuge on central Beirut's Ain Al-Mreisseh seaside promenade on October 7, 2024. (AFP)

Giacomo Baldini, the Lebanon country director of the non-profit Relief International, said that while his team is providing hygiene kits and medical outreach in Beirut, Tripoli, and the Bekaa Valley, “the need for clean water, hot food, and medical supplies is huge, and will only increase.”

He wrote in a first-hand account from Beirut shared with Arab News: “We are hoping to provide mental health support as soon as possible. There are simply not enough skilled professionals in Lebanon to provide the amount of support needed.”

Baban said: “The Ministry of Health is doing its best to reach out to stakeholders, including international NGOs such as MedGlobal, to bring in supplies from abroad.”

The ministry’s plan is to bring in additional resources while this is still possible, she said. “He (the health minister) doesn’t want people to procure and purchase supplies locally so as not to deplete the supplies we already have in the country.”

A child wounded during Israeli bombardment rests at a hospital in the southern Lebanese village of Saksaqiyeh on September 26, 2024. (AFP)

However, the intensifying Israeli strikes on southern Beirut, where part of the Beirut Rafic Hariri International Airport is situated, pose a significant risk to the delivery of supplies.

“The health system’s capacity in Lebanon is deteriorating,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post on X on Oct. 3. “Medical supplies cannot be delivered due to the almost complete closure of Beirut’s airport.”

He called for the “urgent facilitation of flights to deliver health supplies to Lebanon” as “lives depend on it.”

Baban of MedGlobal said NGOs are struggling to raise sufficient funds to alleviate the pressure on Lebanon’s health system amid the escalating hostilities and worsening humanitarian crisis.

And while there are donors providing “shipments of medical supplies that can be shipped into the country,” the suspension of flights by many carriers has hindered the process.

Israeli airstrikes on the main border crossing between Syria and Lebanon have also obstructed the movement of supplies and medicines into Lebanon.

On Oct. 4, Israeli airstrikes targeted the Masnaa border crossing, impeding civilians trying to flee and disrupting humanitarian operations, the international monitor Human Rights Watch said in a statement.

One of the biggest challenges Lebanon’s hospitals could soon face is maintaining a consistent power supply. Most still have access to fuel for generators and many have installed solar panels. However, as the colder months approach, they may have more challenges.

A man rides his scooter as he drives on the debris of destroyed buildings that were hit by Israeli airstrikes in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP)

“So far, we’re okay with fuel, but if that changes or the prices go up, then it might create a problem because in winter, you can’t depend on solar panels,” said Baban. “If fuel prices go up, it will be expensive to purchase fuel to keep hospitals running.”

The people working tirelessly to keep hospitals operational are also at risk of exhaustion.

Baban warned that while many doctors remain in the country, “they’re obviously already on the brink of being overworked after these sharp and rapid escalations.”

 


WHO warns of possible Lebanon disease outbreaks 

Updated 59 min 47 sec ago
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WHO warns of possible Lebanon disease outbreaks 

GENEVA: A World Health Organization official warned on Tuesday of disease outbreaks in Lebanon due to crowded conditions in displacement shelters and hospital closures as medics have fled Israel’s assault.

Israeli forces have begun ground operations in the southwest of Lebanon, escalating a year-long conflict with Iran-backed group Hezbollah that has killed over 1,000 people in the past two weeks and triggered a mass flight.

“We are facing a situation where there is a much higher risk of disease outbreaks, such as acute watery diarrhea, hepatitis A, and a number of vaccine-preventable diseases,” the WHO’s Ian Clarke, deputy incident manager for Lebanon, told a Geneva press briefing by video link from Beirut.

The UN health agency has already warned that the system is overstretched and so far five hospitals in the country have closed and four are only partly functional, Clarke said. He added that hospitals had been shut because medics had either fled the fighting or been asked to evacuate by Lebanese authorities.