Israeli attacks leave no beds for intensive care, dialysis patients in Lebanon

Smoke rises from Beirut's southern suburbs after a strike, amid the ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Hadath, Lebanon. (Reuters)
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Updated 06 October 2024
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Israeli attacks leave no beds for intensive care, dialysis patients in Lebanon

  • Heavy strikes shake southern Beirut
  • Airstrikes on edge of Baalbek Citadel force refugees from Palestinian camps out onto the streets

BEIRUT: Heavy Israeli airstrikes continued in Lebanon on Sunday, hitting Beirut and the Bekaa Valley.

The Ministry of Health recorded at least 23 deaths along with 93 injuries in a single day of airstrikes.

The Order of Nurses in Lebanon issued an urgent appeal to the international community, the World Health Organization, and the International Council of Nurses “to intervene quickly and pressure Israel to shield the healthcare sector from the devastating war that has spared neither people nor buildings.”

It warned that “the attacks have reached the healthcare sector, targeting hospitals that are beginning to go out of service, and targeting doctors, nurses, and paramedics in a blatant defiance of international laws and conventions.”

It also cautioned that “the rapid developments, which have so far claimed many lives of healthcare workers and paramedics, have made it very difficult to remain in hot areas to rescue the wounded, especially as the lives of nurses are now at risk.”

Suleiman Haroun, head of the private hospital owners’ syndicate in Lebanon, warned on Sunday that the hospital sector had “entered a danger zone.”

He said the crisis was fuelled by Israeli shelling near hospitals in the south and Beirut’s southern suburbs amid the massive displacement of people.

Haroun said: “The problem we currently face is providing beds for intensive care patients, ventilators, and beds for dialysis patients.

“We have been affected by the massive displacement of residents from the South, Bekaa, and Beirut’s southern suburb.

“The capacities of hospitals in safer areas have become less than what is needed.

“Hospitals still operating in the areas under Israeli attacks are evacuating their patients to other hospitals to make room for more wounded.”

Lebanon has 125 private hospitals providing medical services to many Lebanese citizens alongside government hospitals.

Twenty of these hospitals are in the country’s south, a similar number in Bekaa, and five in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

These hospitals have been subjected to Israeli shelling, reducing their operations to minimal levels, focusing only on emergency cases, Haroun said.

For instance, 19 patients are on ventilators in Al-Rassoul Al-Aazam Hospital.

Haroun said there was “no problem securing medical supplies or oxygen, as two factories are providing it, and they are outside the areas of the attacks.”

A witness told Arab News that streets once known for their dense buildings had become empty squares filled with rubble.

“The destruction seems infinite, and it is impossible to recognize any landmarks,” said the resident.

“We find ourselves unable to sleep as we constantly check our phones, awaiting Israeli alerts directed at the residents of the area after midnight, instructing us to evacuate,” the witness said.

“We place our hands over our hearts, fearing that our homes, which are all we have left, may be targeted. They claim to be concerned for our safety.

“Yet they seek revenge against us and punish the wounded by obstructing ambulances from reaching the sites of the bombings ... this is the pinnacle of criminality,” the witness added.

Emergency responders continue to face challenges in reaching targeted areas due to the surveillance of drones monitoring any movement in the vicinity, particularly in the southern suburbs.

The South Lebanon Water Establishment mourned the death of three staff members —Ali Sobhi Mansour, Hussein Raslan from Taybeh, and Karim Darwish from Nabatieh — who all died while working.

Israeli raids targeting the vicinity of the Palestinian refugee camps in Burj Al-Barajneh and Shatila facing the Ghobeiry area, meanwhile, led to the displacement of camp residents.

Refugees and a mix of non-Lebanese camp residents spread out on the roads in the heart of Beirut and around Horsh Beirut, where they sat in the open.

Israeli airstrikes resumed on Sunday afternoon on the southern suburbs, targeting the areas of Burj Al-Barajneh and Chiyah-Ghobeiry, following a morning airstrike on an area between Al-Laylaki and Mrayjeh.

A residential building collapsed in Burj Al-Barajneh as a result of the strike’s damage.

The Israeli airstrikes targeted the vicinity of the historic Roman Baalbek Citadel, with plumes of smoke observed ascending from the area.

The governor of Baalbek-Hermel, Bachir Khodr, verified that an assessment of the strike site revealed it was 600 meters from the citadel.

Airstrikes targeting a residential building in the town of Shmustar collapsed the structure, bringing it down on the heads of women, children and the elderly within.

Israeli airstrikes also targeted Qasr Naba, Talia, Temnin El-Fawqa, the town of Douris east of Baalbek, and Ali El-Nahri in the central Bekaa region.

Hezbollah reported ongoing military operations on the southern front against Israeli military installations, including “an aerial assault utilizing a squadron of suicide drones on the Samson base, which serves as a command supply center and regional supply unit, aiming at the positions of Israeli officers and soldiers.”

The group also targeted “the movement of Israeli troops at the Biyad Blida site with artillery fire,” “the Hadab Yarin site using rocket munitions,” and “the Shlomi settlement.”

Furthermore, when an Israeli unit attempted to infiltrate Khallet Shuaib in Blida, Hezbollah responded with artillery fire, compelling the unit to withdraw and resulting in casualties.

Hezbollah said it launched a rocket barrage against Israel’s operation on Sunday to evacuate wounded and deceased soldiers from the Manara settlement. 

The Israeli military announced on Sunday that around 40 rockets were fired from Lebanon targeting northern Israel.

Sirens were sounded in the Metula and Kiryat Shmona areas.

Some rockets were intercepted, while others landed in the vicinity.

Israeli army radio announced the interception of two ballistic missiles that were launched from Lebanon.

It said debris from one of the missiles fell in southern Haifa and appeared to be of the Fateh 110 type.


Egypt, Iran foreign ministers discuss rising Middle East tensions to avert regional war

Updated 24 min 24 sec ago
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Egypt, Iran foreign ministers discuss rising Middle East tensions to avert regional war

CAIRO: Egyptian foreign minister Badr Abdelatty has reiterated to his Iranian counterpart on Monday the urgency of de-escalating Middle East tensions to avert a regional war. 
During a phone call, Abdelatty discussed with Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi Egypt’s concerns of allowing the region to descend  into a full-scale regional war amid rising tensions in the Middle East.
Araghchi has met with Cairo officials last month in what was considered the first visit by a top Iranian official to the North African nation in around a decade.

The visit focused on efforts to deescalate Israel’s conflicts against Gaza and Lebanon.


Two Iran Guards killed in helicopter crash in province bordering Pakistan

Updated 04 November 2024
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Two Iran Guards killed in helicopter crash in province bordering Pakistan

  • “Ultra-light gyroplane” met accident while conducting combat operations in Sistan-Baluchestan
  • Province has experienced recurring clashes between Iranian security forces and Baloch rebels

TEHRAN: An Iranian Revolutionary Guards general and pilot were killed in a helicopter crash during an anti-terror operation in the country’s restive southeast, state media reported on Monday.

The “ultra-light gyroplane” of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps “had an accident while conducting combat operations” in a border area, IRNA news agency said.

It said the crash happened in Sirkan, a city in Sistan-Baluchistan province, and identified the dead as General Hamid Mazandarani, the commander of the Nineveh Brigade of Golestan province, and Hamed Jandaghi, a pilot of the IRGC ground forces.

Iran’s armed forces have been mounting an operation in the region since October 26, when 10 police officers were killed in an attack claimed by Sunni Muslim militants.

They have killed several militants and arrested others during the operation, according to Iranian media outlets.

Sistan-Baluchistan borders Pakistan and Afghanistan, and is one of the most impoverished provinces in the Islamic republic.

It is home to a large number of the Baloch minority, an ethnic group spread between Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan who practice Sunni Islam in contrast to the country’s predominantly Shiite population.

The province has experienced recurring clashes between Iranian security forces and rebels from the Baloch minority, radical Sunni groups and drug traffickers.

Helicopter accidents are a rare sight in Iran, but former president Ebrahim Raisi was killed when his helicopter crashed into a mountainside in May, triggering snap elections in the country.

The ultra-conservative president was accompanied by then foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and six other people who were all killed.


Jordan, UN aid body discusses urgent needs in Palestinian refugee camps

Updated 04 November 2024
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Jordan, UN aid body discusses urgent needs in Palestinian refugee camps

  • Israel’s actions against UN workers condemned by Jordan, other officials

AMMAN: Jordan’s Department of Palestinian Affairs and the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East held talks on Sunday to address the growing needs and challenges of the displaced and vulnerable in camps across the country.

During the meeting, Department of Palestinian Affairs Director-General Rafiq Khirfan condemned what he described as a “systematic campaign and political assassination” aimed at weakening UNRWA’s role, according to reports.

He pointed to Tel Aviv’s recent actions, including a decision by the Israeli Knesset to restrict UNRWA activities in the occupied Palestinian territories, such as East Jerusalem, and to withdraw diplomatic privileges from its staff.

Khirfan said the measures were a violation of international law and an attempt to undermine UNRWA’s mission of supporting Palestinian refugees, advocating for their right to return, and compensation.

Despite these challenges, Khirfan underscored Jordan’s continued commitment to backing UNRWA at regional and international levels, recognizing the agency’s critical role in providing services and stability for Palestinian refugees.

UNRWA’s Jordan Affairs Director Olaf Becker thanked Amman for the ongoing support of the agency’s work in the refugee camps.


Israel says top Hezbollah commander killed in Lebanon strike

Updated 41 min 59 sec ago
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Israel says top Hezbollah commander killed in Lebanon strike

  • Abu Ali Rida, the Hezbollah commander of the Baraachit area in southern Lebanon, was “eliminated” in an air strike
  • Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group said it fired rockets at the northern Israeli city of Safed

BEIRUT: The Israeli military said on Monday it had killed a top Hezbollah commander it accused of overseeing rocket and anti-tank missile attacks against Israeli forces in southern Lebanon.
Abu Ali Rida, the Hezbollah commander of the Baraachit area in southern Lebanon, was “eliminated” in an air strike, the military said, without specifying when he was killed.
Rida “was responsible for planning and executing rocket and anti-tank missile attacks on IDF (military) troops and oversaw the terrorist activities of Hezbollah operatives in the area,” the military said in a statement.
Israel has continued to pound Hezbollah targets in Lebanon since the war between the two sides broke out in late September.

Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group said it fired rockets at the northern Israeli city of Safed on Monday, the latest attack in more than a month of war.
Hezbollah fighters launched a “big rocket salvo” at the city, the group said in a statement.

In recent weeks, Israel has killed several of the movement’s militant commanders and top leaders, including former chief Hassan Nasrallah.
The war began after nearly a year of cross-border skirmishes between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, with the Lebanese group firing rockets into northern Israel almost daily in support of its ally in Gaza, Hamas.
Israel is fighting its deadliest war in Gaza against Hamas after the Palestinian militant group launched an attack on southern Israel on October 7 last year.


Iran executes Jewish Iranian man in murder case: NGO

Updated 04 November 2024
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Iran executes Jewish Iranian man in murder case: NGO

  • Arvin Ghahremani was hanged in prison in the western city of Kermanshah after being convicted of a murder during a street fight
  • Ghahremani’s mother, Sonia Saadati, had asked for his life to be spared

PARIS: Iran on Monday executed a member of the country’s Jewish minority who had been convicted of murder, an NGO said, at a time of rising tensions with Israel.
Arvin Ghahremani was hanged in prison in the western city of Kermanshah after being convicted of a murder during a street fight, said the Norway-based Iran Human Rights group.
“In the midst of the threats of war with Israel, the Islamic republic executed Arvin Ghahremani, an Iranian Jewish citizen,” said IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, adding the legal case had “significant flaws.”
“However, in addition to this, Arvin was a Jew, and the institutionalized anti-Semitism in the Islamic republic undoubtedly played a crucial role in the execution of his sentence,” Amiry-Moghaddam added.
The once sizeable Jewish community in Shiite Muslim-dominated Iran has dwindled since the 1979 Islamic Revolution but remains the largest in the Middle East outside Israel.
While Jewish Iranians were executed in the immediate aftermath of the revolution, the execution of a Jewish Iranian is unprecedented in recent years.
Ghahremani’s mother, Sonia Saadati, had asked for his life to be spared.
His family urged the victim’s relatives to accept blood money under Iran’s Islamic law of retribution (qesas), which permits this alternative.
The Mizan Online website of the Iranian judiciary confirmed Ghahremani’s execution, saying the victim’s family had “refused to give consent” to such a deal.
Iran and Israel have traded unprecedented air attacks this year following the outbreak of Israel’s wars with armed groups backed by the Islamic republic in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon.