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Israel Calls for Evacuations from South Lebanon and Strikes Beirut Suburb
Smoke billows after an Israeli air strike on a village in southern Lebanon, amid cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel, as seen from northern Israel, October 3, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Jim Urquhart
Israel’s military urged residents of more than 20 towns in south Lebanon to evacuate their homes immediately on Thursday as it pressed on with incursions after suffering its worst losses in a year of fighting the Iran-backed terrorist group Hezbollah.
The latest warnings took the number of southern towns subject to evacuation calls to 70 and included the provincial capital Nabatieh, suggesting another Israeli operation that could lead thousands more Lebanese to flee.
Israel says the aim of its operations in Lebanon is to allow tens of thousands of its citizens displaced by Hezbollah bombardment during the Gaza war to return home safely.
More than 1.2 million Lebanese have been displaced by Israeli attacks, the Lebanese government says.
The Lebanese army said two soldiers were killed by Israeli strikes in separate incidents in south Lebanon on Thursday, one in an attack on a military post and another in a strike on a rescue mission with the Lebanese Red Cross.
The army said that it returned fire when the military post was struck, a rare development for a force that has historically stayed on the sidelines of major conflict with Israel.
In Beirut’s southern suburb known as Dahiye, a dense neighborhood where Hezbollah holds sway, several explosions were heard on Thursday and several large plumes of smoke were rising after heavy Israeli strikes.
Hezbollah said it detonated an improvised explosive device against Israeli forces infiltrating a southern Lebanese village and attacked Israeli forces near the border.
Overnight, Israel bombed central Beirut in an attack the Lebanese health ministry said killed nine people.
Reuters witnesses reported hearing a massive blast, which targeted a building in the district of Bachoura a few hundred meters from parliament, the closest an Israeli strike has come to the central downtown district.
A Hezbollah-linked civil defense group said seven of its staff, including two medics, had been killed in the Beirut attack.
Israel also said it struck a municipality building in the southern Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil, killing 15 Hezbollah members and destroying many weapons.
Eight Israeli soldiers were killed in ground combat on Wednesday in south Lebanon as its forces thrust into its northern neighbor.
As it pushes into south Lebanon, Israel is also weighing its options for retaliation against its arch-foe Iran.
ISRAEL VOWS TO STRIKE BACK
The Islamic Republic launched its largest ever assault on Israel on Tuesday in what it said was retaliation for Israel’s assassination of senior Hamas and Hezbollah leaders and its operations in Gaza and Lebanon.
Tehran said its attack was over, barring further provocation, but Israel has promised to hit back hard. The United States has said Iran would face “severe consequences” and that it would work with Israel to “make that the case” while warning Iran not to act against US forces in the region.
A growing number of countries were evacuating citizens from Beirut as governments worldwide urged their citizens to get out.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, speaking at an event in Doha, said Iran would be ready to respond and warned against “silence” in the face of Israel’s “warmongering.”
“Any type of military attack, terrorist act or crossing our red lines will be met with a decisive response by our armed forces.”
Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani called for serious ceasefire efforts to stop Israel’s “aggression” in Lebanon.
What is happening in the Middle East is a “collective genocide” he said at the same Doha event, adding that his country has always warned of Israel’s “impunity.”
The Lebanese border front opened after Hezbollah fired missiles at Israel on Oct. 8 in support of Hamas in its war with Israel in Gaza.
Iran’s other regional allies – Yemen’s Houthis and terrorist groups in Iraq – have also launched attacks in the region in support of Hamas.
SHELTERING IN A NIGHTCLUB
Nearly 2,000 people have been killed, including 127 children, and 9,384 injured since the start of the Israeli attacks on Lebanon over the last year, the country’s health minister Firass Abiad said on Thursday.
Most of the deaths occurred in the last two weeks.
More than 300 of the more than 1 million Lebanese displaced have taken shelter in a Beirut nightclub, once known for hosting glitzy parties and where staff are now using their guest-list clipboards to register residents.
“We’re trying to keep strong,” said Gaelle Irani, who was formerly in charge of guest relations, taking a brief break from finding people a corner to live in.
“It’s just overwhelming. So overwhelming and sad. But just as this was a place for people to come enjoy themselves, it’s now a place to shelter people and we are doing everything we can to help and be there for them.”
Hassan Shaaban, a fisherman from Sidon, said he has been struggling to make a living as the fighting rages.
“What can we do, we need to be able to live, we are working while they are striking, yesterday night was very intense,” he said.
The post Israel Calls for Evacuations from South Lebanon and Strikes Beirut Suburb first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hamas Claims Jaffa Terror Massacre
Israeli forces stand near the scene of a shooting attack in Jaffa, Israel, Oct. 1, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad
i24 News – Hamas on Wednesday claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s terror attack in Jaffa. In an official statement, the military wing of Hamas, The Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, said the terrorists were two of its fighters from the city of Hebron.
The statement detailed: “our fighters were able to infiltrate our occupied territories, stab a soldier and seize his automatic weapon, then carry out the heroic operation in two different locations in the heart of (Tel Aviv), one of them inside a train station, and they eliminated the Zionist usurpers from zero distance.
The Al-Qassam Brigades announce that “the coming days will bring death that will come to you from different areas of the West Bank, at the hands of our fierce fighters, the sons of the leaders Ismail Haniyeh and Saleh Al-Arouri, whom we are preparing and equipping to write with their heroism pages of glory in the Battle of the Flood of Al-Aqsa that will gladden the hearts of our people, God willing. As long as the occupation continues to exterminate our people and children in Gaza.”
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Tehran Says G7 Statement on Iran’s Missile Attack on Israel Is ‘Biased’
FILE PHOTO: A drone view shows people stand around apparent remains of a ballistic missile lying in the desert, following an attack by Iran on Israel, near the southern city of Arad, Israel October 2, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo
Iran views the Group of Seven (G7) condemnation of its attack on Israel as “biased and irresponsible,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said on Thursday.
Iran launched more than 180 missiles at Israel on Tuesday in what it said was retaliation for the killings of terrorist leaders and aggression in Gaza and Lebanon.
Abbas Nilforoushan, a deputy commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, was also killed in an Israeli airstrike on Beirut a week ago that killed Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah.
In a statement on Wednesday, Group of Seven (G7) leaders condemned Tehran’s attack, expressing “strong concern” over the crisis in the Middle East, but said a diplomatic solution was still viable and a region-wide conflict was in no one’s interest.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson “pointed to the definite responsibility of G7 countries, especially the United States, in increasing insecurity and instability in West Asia due to their armament, (and) financial and political support” of Israel, a ministry statement said.
The ministry also said it had summoned the German and Austrian ambassadors on Thursday after Berlin and Vienna summoned Iran’s representatives to condemn Tehran’s missile attack on Israel.
“We believe that if European states had taken effective and practical measures on time, including cutting off financial and weapons support, they would have cut short the killing and genocidal machine of the Zionist regime (Israel) by today and we would not have witnessed such tragedies,” the ministry said.
The post Tehran Says G7 Statement on Iran’s Missile Attack on Israel Is ‘Biased’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Declares UN Secretary-General a Persona Non Grata
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres speaks to members of the Security Council during a meeting to address the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question, at UN headquarters in New York City, New York, US, April 18, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
i24 News – Israel’s foreign minister said on Wednesday that he was barring U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres from entering the country over his failure to unequivocally condemn Iran’s missile barrage on Israel. Guterres has a long catalogue of dubious statements on Israel’s conflict with its Arab and Muslim neighbors.
Iran fired more than 180 ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday, days after an IDF strike in Beirut eliminated the leadership of Iran’s terror proxy in Lebanon, Hezbollah. Many were intercepted in flight but some penetrated missile defenses. The attack’s only victim was a Palestinian man in the West Bank.
Guterres on Tuesday issued a brief statement after the missile attack condemning “the broadening of the Middle East conflict, with escalation after escalation.”
Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz said Guterres’ failure to call out Iran made him persona non grata in Israel.
“Anyone who cannot unequivocally condemn Iran’s heinous attack on Israel, as nearly all the countries of the world have done, does not deserve to set foot on Israeli soil,” Katz said.
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