Lebanon’s hospitals given crisis medical supplies ‘in case of war’

Lebanon’s hospitals given crisis medical supplies ‘in case of war’
Workers unload crucial medical supplies delivered by the World Health Organization at Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport on Monday. (AFP)
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Updated 06 August 2024
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Lebanon’s hospitals given crisis medical supplies ‘in case of war’

Lebanon’s hospitals given crisis medical supplies ‘in case of war’
  • 32 tonnes of aid include wound trauma kits
  • Families pack Beirut airport to escape

BEIRUT: The World Health Organization delivered 32 tonnes of emergency medical supplies to Lebanon on Monday amid growing fears of a full-scale war between Israel and Hezbollah.

The aid, which will equip Lebanon’s most under-resourced hospitals, included at least 1,000 trauma kits to treat possible war wounded. “The goal is to get these supplies and medicines to hospitals ... especially in the places most exposed so that we can be ready to deal with any emergency,” Health Minister Firass Abiad said.

Beirut airport’s departure hall was packed on Monday with families fleeing the country after states including Saudi Arabia, France, Britain, Italy and Turkiye urged their nationals to leave. “It is just very sad, oh God, the situation is really sad. We get out of a crisis, we go into another one,” said Sherin Malah, who lives in Italy and decided to return home early after a visit to her mother in Lebanon.

Germany is preparing to move its citizens to safety and has prepared transport aircraft to shuttle them from Beirut to Cyprus. The US urged Americans in Lebanon “to book any ticket available,” the UN asked the families of its staff to leave and the Swedish embassy moved its operations to Cyprus.

Tension has soared since Israel’s assassination last week of senior Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukr in Beirut and Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran a few hours later. Iran said on Monday: “No one has the right to doubt Iran’s legal right to punish the Zionist regime.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was “determined to stand against Iran ... on all fronts.”

Meanwhile Hezbollah and Israel continued their near-daily exchanges of fire. Four people were killed in Israeli airstrikes on the Lebanese border towns of Mays Al-Jabal and Hula, and Hezbollah hit military targets in northern Israel with explosive drones.

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Mediator Qatar confirms ‘technical meetings’ on Gaza truce ongoing

Mediator Qatar confirms ‘technical meetings’ on Gaza truce ongoing
Updated 3 sec ago
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Mediator Qatar confirms ‘technical meetings’ on Gaza truce ongoing

Mediator Qatar confirms ‘technical meetings’ on Gaza truce ongoing
DOHA: Talks aimed at cementing a truce in Gaza between Israel and Hamas are ongoing, with “technical meetings” taking place between the parties, mediator Qatar’s foreign ministry said Tuesday.
“The technical meetings are still happening between both sides,” ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari said, referring to meetings with lower-level officials on the details of an agreement. “There are no principal meetings taking place at the moment.”
Mediators Qatar, Egypt and the United States have been engaged in months of talks between Israel and Hamas that have failed to end the devastating conflict in Gaza.
Ansari said there were “a lot of issues that are being discussed” in the ongoing meetings, but declined to go into details “to protect the integrity of the negotiations.”
Hamas said at the end of last week that indirect negotiations in Doha had resumed, while Israel said it had authorized negotiators to continue the talks in the Qatari capital.
A previous round of mediation in December ended with both sides blaming the other for the impasse, with Hamas accusing Israel of setting “new conditions” and Israel accusing Hamas of throwing up “obstacles” to a deal.
In December, the gas-rich Gulf emirate expressed optimism that “momentum” was returning to the talks following Donald Trump’s election victory in the United States.
A month earlier, Doha had said it was putting its mediation on hold, and that it would resume when Hamas and Israel showed “willingness and seriousness.”

Syrian mayor says Israel collected arms from locals in Golan buffer zone

Syrian mayor says Israel collected arms from locals in Golan buffer zone
Updated 25 min 58 sec ago
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Syrian mayor says Israel collected arms from locals in Golan buffer zone

Syrian mayor says Israel collected arms from locals in Golan buffer zone
  • Some Syrians seized weapons left behind by soldiers and security personnel, Mreiwel said, with the Israeli army dedicating an area for people to hand over those weapons

QUNEITRA: A Syrian mayor told AFP he had meetings with Israeli officers as the military conducted incursions in his village inside a Golan Heights buffer zone, saying they had demanded locals relinquish their weapons.
The Israeli military, contacted by AFP, said it could not comment.
Mohamed Mreiwel, mayor of the village of Jabata Al-Khashab in Quneitra province, said on Monday that he had met three times with Israeli officials who had asked to see him.
Israel, long a foe of Syria, has launched hundreds of strikes on Syrian military sites since the fall of president Bashar Assad on December 8, destroying most of the army’s arsenal, a war monitor has said.
The same day Assad was toppled by Islamist-led forces, Israel also announced that its troops were crossing the armistice line and occupying the UN-patrolled buffer zone that has separated Israeli and Syrian forces on the strategic Golan Heights since 1974.
Mreiwel said that in his first meeting with the Israelis, “they asked for weapons to be handed over to them within 48 hours.”
Residents of the village, which is located in the buffer zone, had complied with the request, he said.
Syria’s army collapsed in the face of the rebel offensive, with thousands of soldiers, policemen and other security officials deserting their posts.
Some Syrians seized weapons left behind by soldiers and security personnel, Mreiwel said, with the Israeli army “dedicating an area for people to hand over those weapons.”
During his latest meeting with the Israelis on Sunday, “we told them that we no longer had any weapons and that if we had any, we would hand them over to the Syrian government,” said Mreiwel.
He added that he told the Israeli officials that “we are not allowed to meet with you,” as Syria and Israel are still technically at war and do not have diplomatic ties.
Israeli troops have conducted patrols on the main street of Jabata Al-Khashab, an AFP correspondent said.
Israeli tanks are also stationed in nearby Baath City, named for the now suspended political party that ran Syria for decades until Assad’s ousting.
Israel seized much of the Golan Heights from Syria in war in 1967, later annexing the territory in a move largely unrecognized by the international community.


Jordan, Syria to combat arms and drugs smuggling, resurgence of Daesh

Jordan, Syria to combat arms and drugs smuggling, resurgence of Daesh
Updated 32 min 28 sec ago
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Jordan, Syria to combat arms and drugs smuggling, resurgence of Daesh

Jordan, Syria to combat arms and drugs smuggling, resurgence of Daesh

DUBAI: Jordan and Syria agreed to form a joint security committee to secure their border and combat the smuggling of arms and drugs as well as cooperating to prevent the resurgence of Daesh, Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said on Tuesday.

During the press conference with his Jordanian counterpart Al-Shibani said that the latest US move to ease sanctions should be a step towards full lifting of sanctions. Shibani said existing sanctions were a main hurdle to the recovery of Syria


Israel calls for pressure on Turkiye to stop attack on Kurds

Israel calls for pressure on Turkiye to stop attack on Kurds
Updated 07 January 2025
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Israel calls for pressure on Turkiye to stop attack on Kurds

Israel calls for pressure on Turkiye to stop attack on Kurds

JERUSALEM: Turkiye must face pressure from world powers to stop attacks on Kurds in northern Syria, a senior Israeli foreign ministry official said on Tuesday.
"The international community must call on Turkey to stop these aggressions and killing. The Kurds must be protected by the international community," foreign ministry director general Eden Bar Tal told reporters.


Palestinian health ministry says 2 killed in Israeli West Bank raids

Palestinian health ministry says 2 killed in Israeli West Bank raids
Updated 07 January 2025
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Palestinian health ministry says 2 killed in Israeli West Bank raids

Palestinian health ministry says 2 killed in Israeli West Bank raids
  • Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 820 Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the war

Ramallah: The Palestinian ministry of health said Israeli forces killed two people on Tuesday in separate raids in the northern West Bank, while the military said it had targeted a “terrorist cell.”
One Palestinian was killed in the town of Tammun, and another in the village of Talouza, the Ramallah-based ministry said.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said its teams had transported the body of an 18-year-old from Tammun who was killed “as a result of shelling,” and that five other people were severely injured during the Israeli raid.
The body was taken to the Turkish Hospital in the nearby city of Tubas, where the director identified the deceased as Suleiman Qutaishat.
The Red Crescent said the other Palestinian was killed in an Israeli raid around the village of Talouza, near Nablus, and was 40 years old.
Residents in the area identified him as Jaafar Dababshe, who they said was shot dead by Israeli forces in front of his house.
The Israeli army when contacted did not offer details, but said on its Telegram channel: “An air force aircraft targeted an armed terrorist cell in the Tammun area” in the early hours of Tuesday.
Violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank has soared since the war in Gaza erupted on October 7, 2023 after Hamas’ attack on Israel.
Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 820 Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the war, according to the Ramallah-based health ministry.
Palestinian attacks on Israelis have also killed at least 28 people in the West Bank in the same period, according to Israeli official figures.
On Monday, three Israelis were killed when gunmen opened fire on a bus and other vehicles in the West Bank, according to medics.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.