BEIRUT: Israel struck south Beirut on Sunday for the third time since a fragile November 27 ceasefire, prompting Lebanese President Joseph Aoun to call on its guarantors France and the United States to force a halt.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the strike targeted a building used by Hezbollah to store “precision-guided missiles” and vowed to stop the Iran-backed militant group using Beirut’s southern suburbs as a “safe haven.”
An AFP correspondent saw a plume of smoke rising over the building in the Hadath neighborhood after the strike.
Lebanese television channels broadcast images of a fire around the hangar-like building.
The Israeli military had earlier issued a warning to civilians to evacuate the densely populated neighborhood.
“An urgent warning for those in the southern suburbs of Beirut, especially in the Hadath neighborhood: Anyone present in the building marked in red on the attached map as well as the surrounding buildings, is near Hezbollah facilities,” said military spokesman Avichay Adraee on X, adding: “You must evacuate.”
Netanyahu’s office said Israel “will not allow Hezbollah to grow stronger and create any threat against it — anywhere in Lebanon.”
“The Dahiyeh neighborhood in Beirut will not serve as a safe haven for the terrorist organization Hezbollah,” it vowed, using the Arabic name for the southern suburbs.
In a later statement, the military said that “the storage of missiles in this infrastructure site constitutes a blatant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon.”
But the Lebanese president condemned the strike as a new breach of the November 27 ceasefire and urged its guarantors to put a stop to Israel’s continual attacks.
Aoun called on “the United States and France, as guarantors of the ceasefire agreement, to assume their responsibilities and compel Israel to halt its attacks immediately.”
The United Nations special coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, appealed to all sides to halt any actions that could further undermine the ceasefire.
“Today’s strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut generated panic and fear of renewed violence among those desperate for a return to normalcy,” she said in a post.
“We urge all sides to halt any actions that could further undermine the cessation of hostilities understanding.”
The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon also has a seat on the ceasefire monitoring committee, alongside France and the United States and the Israeli and Lebanese governments.
The south Beirut strike was not Israel’s only operation against targets inside Lebanon on Sunday.
The Lebanese health ministry said an Israeli drone strike on the border town of Halta killed one person.
Lebanese media reported that a man was killed while working on his chicken farm. The Israeli military said it killed a Hezbollah militant.
Israel has continued to carry out repeated strikes in Lebanon despite the November truce that sought to halt more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah, including two months of full-blown war.
Under the November deal, Hezbollah was to pull its fighters north of Lebanon’s Litani River, some 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the Israeli border, and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure to its south.
Israel was to withdraw all its forces from south Lebanon, but troops remain in five positions that it deems “strategic.”
Israel strikes south Beirut, prompting Lebanese appeal to ceasefire guarantors
https://arab.news/z5b28
Israel strikes south Beirut, prompting Lebanese appeal to ceasefire guarantors
- Lebanese television channels broadcast images of a fire around the hangar-like building
- Lebanese president condemned the strike as a new breach of the November 27 ceasefire and urged its guarantors to put a stop to Israel’s continual attacks
Israel confirms ban on 37 NGOs in Gaza
- UN has warned that this will exacerbate the humanitarian crisis in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory
- Several NGOS have said the requirements contravene international humanitarian law or endanger their independence
JERUSALEM: Israel on Thursday said 37 humanitarian agencies supplying aid in Gaza had not met a deadline to meet “security and transparency standards,” and would be banned from the territory, despite an international outcry.
The international NGOs, which had been ordered to disclose detailed information on their Palestinian staff, will now be required to cease operations by March 1.
The United Nations has warned that this will exacerbate the humanitarian crisis in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.
“Organizations that have failed to meet required security and transparency standards will have their licenses suspended,” Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism said in a statement.
Several NGOS have said the requirements contravene international humanitarian law or endanger their independence.
Israel says the new regulation aims to prevent bodies it accuses of supporting terrorism from operating in the Palestinian territories.
Prominent humanitarian organizations hit by the ban include Doctors Without Borders (MSF), the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), World Vision International and Oxfam, according to a ministry list.
In MSF’s case, Israel accused it of having two employees who were members of Palestinian militant groups Islamic Jihad and Hamas.
MSF said this week the request to share a list of its staff “may be in violation of Israel’s obligations under international humanitarian law” and said it “would never knowingly employ people engaging in military activity.”
‘Critical requirement’
NRC spokesperson Shaina Low told AFP its local staff are “exhausted” and international staff “bring them an extra layer of help and security. Their presence is a protection.”
Submitting the names of local staff is “not negotiable,” she said. “We offered alternatives, they refused,” hse said, of the Israeli regulators.
The ministry said Thursday: “The primary failure identified was the refusal to provide complete and verifiable information regarding their employees, a critical requirement designed to prevent the infiltration of terrorist operatives into humanitarian structures.”
In March, Israel gave NGOs 10 months to comply with the new rules, which demand the “full disclosure of personnel, funding sources, and operational structures.”
The deadline expired on Wednesday.
The 37 NGOs “were formally notified that their licenses would be revoked as of January 1, 2026, and that they must complete the cessation of their activities by March 1, 2026,” the ministry said Thursday.
A ministry spokesperson told AFP that following the revocation of their licenses, aid groups could no longer bring assistance into Gaza from Thursday.
However, they could have their licenses reinstated if they submitted the required documents before March 1.
Minister of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Amichai Chikli said “the message is clear: humanitarian assistance is welcome — the exploitation of humanitarian frameworks for terrorism is not.”
‘Weaponization of bureaucracy’
On Thursday, 18 Israel-based left-wing NGOs denounced the decision to ban their international peers, saying “the new registration framework violates core humanitarian principles of independence and neutrality.”
“This weaponization of bureaucracy institutionalizes barriers to aid and forces vital organizations to suspend operations,” they said.
UN Palestinian refugee agency chief Philippe Lazzarini had said the move sets a “dangerous precedent.”
“Failing to push back against attempts to control the work of aid organizations will further undermine the basic humanitarian principles of neutrality, independence, impartiality and humanity underpinning aid work across the world,” he said on X.
On Tuesday, the foreign ministers of 10 countries, including France and Britain, urged Israel to “guarantee access” to aid in the Gaza Strip, where they said the humanitarian situation remains “catastrophic.”
A fragile ceasefire has been in place since October, following a deadly war waged by Israel in response to Hamas’s unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
Nearly 80 percent of buildings in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged by the war, according to UN data.
About 1.5 million of Gaza’s more than two million residents have lost their homes, said Amjad Al-Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGO Network in Gaza.
