JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said it struck weapons depots belonging to the armed group Hezbollah in southern Lebanon on Sunday.
“A short while ago, the IDF (Israeli military) struck Hezbollah weapon storage facilities in southern Lebanon. These weapon depots were used by the terrorist organization to advance and carry out terror attacks against the State of Israel,” the military said in a statement.
Despite a November ceasefire that ended over a year of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel, the latter has kept up regular strikes on Lebanon and still has troops positioned at five border points inside Lebanon.
Hezbollah, meanwhile, is under intense pressure to hand over its weapons, with the Lebanese army having drawn up a plan to disarm it, beginning in the south.
Lebanon itself is facing pressure to act from the United States, as well as from the ongoing Israeli strikes.
But on Saturday, Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem said the group would not allow itself to be disarmed as he addressed supporters while marking one year since the killing by Israel of his predecessor, Hassan Nasrallah.
Hezbollah was the only major armed group allowed to keep its weapons following Lebanon’s civil war, because it was fighting continued Israeli occupation of the south.
The group’s heartlands are in mainly Shiite southern and eastern Lebanon, as well as south Beirut.
In October 2023, it began launching rockets at Israel in support of Hamas in Gaza. Months of exchanges escalated into all-out war in September 2024, before a ceasefire was agreed two months later.
Israel army says struck Hezbollah weapons depots in south Lebanon
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Israel army says struck Hezbollah weapons depots in south Lebanon
- Despite a November ceasefire that ended over a year of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel, the latter has kept up regular strikes on Lebanon
WHO alarmed by health workers, civilians ‘forcibly detained’ in Sudan
- The WHO counts and verifies attacks on health care, though it does not attribute blame as it is not an investigation agency
GENEVA: The World Health Organization voiced alarm Tuesday at reports that more than 70 health workers and around 5,000 civilians were being detained in Nyala in southwestern Sudan.
Since April 2023, Sudan’s regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been locked in a brutal conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced 12 million more and devastated infrastructure.
“We are concerned by reports from Nyala, the capital of Sudan’s South Darfur state, that more than 70 health care workers are being forcibly detained along with about 5,000 civilians,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X.
“According to the Sudan Doctors Network, the detainees are being held in cramped and unhealthy conditions, and there are reports of disease outbreaks,” the UN health agency chief said.
The RSF and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North faction allied earlier this year, forming a coalition based in Nyala.
“WHO is gathering more information on the detentions and conditions of those being held. The situation is complicated by the ongoing insecurity,” said Tedros.
“The reported detentions of health workers and thousands more people is deeply concerning. Health workers and civilians should be protected at all times and we call for their safe and unconditional release.”
The WHO counts and verifies attacks on health care, though it does not attribute blame as it is not an investigation agency.
In total, the WHO has recorded 65 attacks on health care in Sudan this year, resulting in 1,620 deaths and 276 injuries. Of those attacks, 54 impacted personnel, 46 impacted facilities and 33 impacted patients.
Earlier Tuesday, UN rights chief Volker Turk said he was “alarmed by the further intensification in hostilities” in the Kordofan region in southern Sudan.
“I urge all parties to the conflict and states with influence to ensure an immediate ceasefire and to prevent atrocities,” he said.
“Medical facilities and personnel have specific protection against attack under international humanitarian law,” Turk added.
