By 1news.co.nz and is republished with permission
- An Israeli airstrike on an apartment in central Beirut has killed nine people, including seven Hezbollah-affiliated civilian first responders.
Israel has been pounding areas of the country where the militant group has a strong presence since late September but has rarely struck in the heart of the capital.
There was no warning before the strike, which hit an apartment not far from the United Nations headquarters, the prime minister’s office and parliament.
Residents reported a sulphur-like smell following the strike in Beirut, and Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency — without providing evidence — accused Israel of using phosphorous bombs, which would be a violation of international law.
Human rights groups have in the past accused Israel of using white phosphorus incendiary shells on towns and villages in southern Lebanon. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Hezbollah has an armed wing with tens of thousands of fighters, but it also has a political movement and a network of charities staffed by civilians.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization reported that 28 health workers were killed in the past day in Lebanon. The announcement of the deaths comes after three dozen health facilities were closed in the south, and five hospitals were either partly or fully evacuated in Beirut.
Israeli strikes that hit health facilities and workers violate international law and treaties, Lebanese Health Ministry Firas Abiad said.
“This is a war crime, there is no doubt about that,” Abiad said. “International laws are clear in protecting these people — I mean, paramedics. Who gave Israel the right to be the judge and the executioner at the same time?”
The Lebanese Red Cross said an Israeli strike wounded four of its paramedics and killed a Lebanese army soldier as they were evacuating wounded people from the south. It said the convoy near the village of Taybeh, which was accompanied by Lebanese troops, was targeted on Friday despite coordinating its movements with UN peacekeepers. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
Another Lebanese soldier was killed by Israeli fire at an army post in the southern town of Bint Jbeil, according to the Lebanese military, which said it returned fire. A Lebanese security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity according to regulations, said the army post was hit by artillery fire.
Fighting escalates in southern Lebanon
The Israeli military said on Friday that it had struck around 200 Hezbollah targets across Lebanon, including weapons storage facilities and observation posts. It said the strikes killed at least 15 Hezbollah fighters.
Hezbollah said its fighters detonated a roadside bomb when Israeli forces entered the Lebanese border village of Maroun el-Ras, killing and wounding soldiers. It was not possible to independently confirm the claims made by either side.
So far, ground clashes between Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants have been confined to a narrow strip along the border.
But hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes, as Israel has warned people to evacuate from dozens of villages and towns in the south, telling them to relocate to areas that are around 60km from the border and considerably farther north than the Litani River.
Under UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the monthlong 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, the militants were to withdraw north of the Litani, and Lebanon’s armed forces were to patrol the border region along with UN peacekeepers.
Neither Lebanon’s army nor the peacekeepers were capable of imposing any agreement on Hezbollah by force, and Israel says it defied the resolution and built extensive military infrastructure in towns and villages near the border. Lebanon has accused Israel of violating other parts of the resolution.
Israel has told people to leave Nabatieh, a provincial capital, and other communities north of the Litani River, which formed the northern edge of the border zone established by the UN Security Council after the two sides fought a war in 2006. Each side accuses the other of violating the resolution.
At least eight Israeli soldiers have been killed in clashes with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, where Israel announced the start of what it says is a limited ground incursion earlier this week. The region was meanwhile bracing for Israeli retaliation following an Iranian ballistic missile attack.
Israel said it is targeting Hezbollah after nearly a year of rocket attacks that began October 8 and displaced some 60,000 Israelis from communities in the north. Israel has carried out retaliatory strikes over the past year that have displaced tens of thousands on the Lebanese side.
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In recent weeks, Israeli strikes in Lebanon have killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and several of his top commanders. Hundreds more airstrikes across large parts of Lebanon since mid-September have killed at least 1276 people, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.
The vast majority of recent strikes have been in areas where Hezbollah has a strong presence, including the southern suburbs of Beirut known as the Dahiyeh. But Israel has also carried out strikes in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, and a strike in central Beirut earlier this week killed three members of a leftist Palestinian militant group.
