By The Associated Press
An Israeli airstrike on an apartment in the Lebanese capital has killed nine people, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. Israel has been pounding areas of the country where the Hezbollah militant group has a strong presence since late September, but has rarely struck in the heart of Beirut.
There was no warning before the strike late Wednesday, which hit the building close to the United Nations headquarters, the prime minister’s office and parliament. Hezbollah’s civil defense unit said seven of its members were killed.
Israel is also conducting a ground incursion into Lebanon against Hezbollah, while also conducting strikes in Gaza that killed dozens, including children. The Israeli military said nine soldiers have died in the conflict in southern Lebanon.
Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire across the Lebanon border almost daily since the day after Hamas’ cross-border attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 Israelis and took 250 others hostage. Israel declared war on the militant group in the Gaza Strip in response. More than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in the territory, and just over half the dead have been women and children, according to local health officials. Nearly 2,000 people have been killed in Lebanon, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
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Here is the latest:
Nearly 1.2 million people have been displaced in Lebanon
BEIRUT — Lebanon’s crisis response unit says nearly 1.2 million people have been displaced from their homes in Lebanon because of the escalating war between Israel and Hezbollah.
Among them are more than 250,000 Syrian citizens and 82,000 Lebanese citizens who have crossed into Syria between Sept. 23 and Sept. 30, according to the report released Thursday, citing figures provided by Lebanese General Security.
Nearly 164,000 are living in group shelters in Lebanon.
Among them is Fatima Abdul Nabi. Her daughter turned 10 days old on Sept. 23, when Israel began a widescale bombardment of southern Lebanon to drive the militant group Hezbollah back from the border.
“They began hitting our village and said we had to leave the village, so we fled,” Abdul Nabi said. It took them 11 hours to get to the coastal city of Sidon, about 40 km (25 miles) away.
Now she and the newborn girl are staying with five other families in one room in a shelter.
“When she cries, I feel that she’s bothering everyone — five families and a baby in one room is too much,” Abdul Nabi said.
Israeli army says is has white phosphorous smoke shells in its arsenal
JERUSALEM — The Israeli army says it does possess smoke shells that contain white phosphorus but has not confirmed that it used phosphorous bombs in a recent attack in the Lebanese capital that killed nine people.
The strike late Wednesday was the closest yet to downtown Beirut. In the hours after the attack, residents reported a sulfur-like smell, and Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency accused Israel of using internationally banned phosphorus bombs.
Seven of those killed were Hezbollah-affiliated civilian first responders
“The primary smoke shells used by the IDF do not contain white phosphorus,” the Israeli army said. “Like many Western militaries, the IDF also possesses smoke shells that include white phosphorus, which are lawful under international law.” The IDF is the Israeli Defense Force.
Human rights groups have accused Israel of using white phosphorus incendiary shells on towns and villages in southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah militants have a strong presence.
Israeli army says another of its soldiers has been killed in southern Lebanon
JERUSALEM — The Israeli army says one of its soldiers was killed in battle in southern Lebanon.
The 21 year-old officer was killed Wednesday. The military did not explain how the officer died.
The military says a total of nine Israeli soldiers have been killed since the army started limited ground incursions in south Lebanon to battle Hezbollah militants earlier this week. Hezbollah says it has killed 17 Israeli soldiers, but has provided no proof.
The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah has escalated in recent weeks as Israel has expanded airstrikes across southern Lebanon, south Beirut and the eastern Bekaa Valley.
Lebanon’s caretaker PM wants to resume efforts to find a new president
BEIRUT — Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister is calling for a national dialogue between the country’s divided political groups to agree on who should become the country’s new president.
Lebanon’s presidency has been vacant since October 2022, when the six-year term of President Michel Aoun ended.
Najib Mikati made his comments Thursday night after meeting Cardinal Bechara al-Rai, the head of the Maronite Catholic church, Lebanon’s largest. It is unclear where such a dialogue would take place or if any political groups would agree to participate.
“We want a president that does not provoke anyone,” Mikati said. Lawmakers have failed to elected a new head of state in more than a dozen sessions over the past two years.
According to Lebanon’s power-sharing agreement, the president should be a Maronite Catholic, the parliament speaker a Shiite Muslim and the prime minister a Sunni Muslim. Christians, Sunnis and Shiites each make about a third of Lebanon’s 5 million people.
Turkey asks the UN to take action to prevent further Israeli violence
ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey is urging the United Nations Security Council and other “actors” shaping global politics to take swift action to prevent further Israeli attacks that it says are escalating conflict in the Middle East.
In a statement issued Thursday, Turkey says it will stand by the people and government of Lebanon against “Israel’s inhumane attacks.”
The statement also condemns Israel’s decision to ban U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres from entering the country as the latest example of “Israel’s lawlessness.”
Lebanon’s health minister says nearly 2,000 killed in almost a year of conflict with Israel
BEIRUT — Lebanon’s health minister says nearly 2,000 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in almost a year of conflict.
Health Minister Firas Abiad said Thursday that more than 9,000 have also been wounded in Israeli attacks since Oct. 8, 2023.
He says of the 1,974 killed, 261 were women, 127 were children, and 102 paramedics and health care workers also died. Most of them were killed in the last month.
“This is a war crime, there is no doubt about that,” Abiad told journalists Thursday. “International laws are clear to protect these people, I mean, paramedics. Who gave Israel the right to be the judge and the executioner at the same time?”
WHO says 28 health workers have been killed in Lebanon in the past day
GENEVA — The World Health Organization says 28 health workers in Lebanon have been killed in the past day, and it called for a ceasefire.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described a dire situation in treating casualties, with three dozen health facilities closed in southern Lebanon and five hospitals either partly or fully evacuated in Beirut.
Tedros says health workers are not showing up at their jobs because they’ve fled areas that have been bombed.
WHO had to scrap plans to fly in medical and trauma supplies Friday because the Beirut airport is mostly closed.
Tedros says Iran’s “dangerous escalation” had serious consequences for the region.
“WHO calls for a de-escalation of the conflict, for health care to be protected and not attacked, for access routes to be secured and supplies delivered,” Tedros said. “And for a ceasefire, a political solution and peace. The best medicine is peace.”
Biden says he does not expect Israel to retaliate against Iran on Thursday
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden says he doesn’t expect Israel to retaliate immediately against Iran and rejects the suggestion the U.S. would grant permission for such an attack.
Biden was speaking to reporters Thursday, two days after Tehran bombarded Israel with almost 200 ballistic missiles. Iran said the barrage was in response to Israel’s recent assassination of Iran-backed Hezbollah and Hamas leaders.
Israel says it intercepted many of the missiles, while Iran says most of them hit their targets.
The barrage has raised concerns about the escalating conflict in the Middle East and the role of the U.S. in Israel’s defense.
“First of all, we don’t ‘allow’ Israel, we advise Israel,” Biden said. “And nothing’s going to happen today.”
Israel says an airstrike in Gaza killed a Palestinian convicted of killing soldiers
JERUSALEM — Israel says one of its airstrikes in Gaza killed a Palestinian who was convicted in the killing of two Israeli soldiers in the West Bank at the start of the 2000 uprising.
Abdel-Aziz Salha was part of an angry mob that stormed a Palestinian police station in the West Bank city of Ramallah and killed two Israeli reservists. The two had been detained after accidentally entering an area administered by the Palestinian Authority.
Salha waved his blood-stained hands from the window of the police station in what became one of the defining images of the second intifada, or Palestinian uprising against Israeli rule.
The killing of the reservists marked a major escalation in Israeli-Palestinian tensions as the peace process of the 1990s collapsed.
The military said Thursday that Salha was killed in an overnight strike on the central Gaza town of Deir al-Balah. The military identified him as a Hamas militant.
Salha was arrested by Israeli forces shortly after the killing of the reservists, convicted and sentenced to life in prison. He was among more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners released in 2011 in exchange for an Israeli soldier held captive by Hamas in Gaza. One of the other released prisoners, Yahya Sinwar, was one of the masterminds of the Oct. 7 attack and is now the top leader of Hamas.
Lebanon says all border crossings with Syria function under state supervision
BEIRUT —Lebanon’s minister of public works and transport says all the country’s border crossing with Syria function under the supervision of state institutions.
Ali Hamie spoke to reporters hours after the Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesman posted on the social platform X that Lebanon’s Hezbollah group has been trying to transport military equipment through the Masnaa border crossing with Syria.
“All border crossings, the first among them the Masnaa border crossing” are being monitored by state institutions including the transport ministry, customs authorities, the General Security Directorate and the Lebanese army.
Israeli military spokesperson, Avchay Adraee, called on Lebanese authorities earlier Thursday to conduct inspections on trucks crossing its eastern border and to turn back any vehicle found to be containing combat equipment.
“The Lebanese State is responsible for its official border crossings and is able to prevent Hezbollah from passing through these crossings,” Adraee said on X.
Adraee also said Israeli forces bombed a truck on Sunday packed with weapons that Hezbollah was trying to smuggle into Lebanon. No further details about this airstrike were made public.
In recent weeks, the Israeli air force has struck hundreds of targets across Lebanon, including the eastern border area and the Bekaa valley, areas where Hezbollah has a strong presence.
Analysts have long accused the Iran-backed group of transporting weapons across the porous Lebanese-Syrian border.
Lebanese official says Israeli strikes that hit health facilities violate international law
BERUIT — Lebanese Health Ministry Firas Abiad says Israeli strikes that hit health facilities and workers are in “violation of international law and treaties.”
“This is a war crime, there is no doubt about that,” Abiad told reporters Thursday, after an overnight Israeli strike on an apartment building in Beirut hit a Hezbollah health center and killed several civilian first responders affiliated with the group. There was also a separate strike that wounded Red Cross paramedics evacuating wounded people in southern Lebanon.
“The argument that some vehicles or hospitals had weapons or something else in them, these are old false arguments and lies we heard before in Gaza,” 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?”
Israeli airstrike hits Hezbollah’s media building
BEIRUT — An Israeli airstrike on a Beirut southern suburb has struck the building housing the media office of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group.
The airstrike Thursday destroyed the Hezbollah media relations office in the Mawad neighborhood.
A Hezbollah official told The Associated Press that no one was hurt.
In southern Lebanon, Israeli fire at a Lebanese army post in the town of Bint Jbeil killed a Lebanese soldier, raising to two the number of members of the Lebanese military killed on Thursday.
The Lebanese army said in a statement that troops “opened fire at the source of” the attack. It did not elaborate.
A Lebanese security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of regulations, said the army post was hit by artillery fire.
Belgian broadcaster VTM says its crew was attacked in central Beirut
BRUSSELS — Belgium’s VTM broadcaster says one of its television reporters and a cameraman have been attacked in central Beirut while reporting on the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.
VTM said correspondent Robin Ramaekers and cameraman Stijn De Smet were working on a report on Wednesday evening about a bombing in the Lebanese capital when they were attacked in unclear circumstances.
“Stijn is currently in a hospital in Beirut where he is being treated for a leg wound. Robin is also still being cared for, in another hospital, for some fractures to the face,” a statement said. It said the cause of the attack is not yet known.
VTM said the two men have worked in conflict zones for more than a decade. Lebanon’s Information Minister Ziad Makary said he is following the situation
Israel extends evacuation warnings north of the UN buffer zone in Lebanon
BEIRUT — The Israeli military has ordered the evacuation of villages and towns in southern Lebanon that are north of a United Nations-declared buffer zone established after the 2006 war.
The warning issued Thursday signals a possible broadening of Israel’s incursion into southern Lebanon, which until now has been confined to areas close to the border.