Nearly 500 killed as Israel bombards Lebanon

Update Nearly 500 killed as Israel bombards Lebanon
There was no sign of an immediate exodus from the villages of southern Lebanon. (AFP)
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Updated 24 September 2024
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Nearly 500 killed as Israel bombards Lebanon

Nearly 500 killed as Israel bombards Lebanon
  • Israel starts ‘war of extermination against Lebanon’ amid displacement of people in south and Bekaa
  • Lebanese PM urges UN and world powers to deter Israel’s ‘destructive plan’

BEIRUT: Israeli airstrikes killed at least 490 people, including children, in Lebanon on Monday, the Health Ministry said, in what is by far the deadliest cross-border escalation since war erupted in Gaza on Oct. 7.

Monday’s confrontations between Hezbollah and the Israeli army entered a new phase of violence, disregarding all red lines.

The Litani River no longer served as a boundary to Israeli expansion northward.

According to the Lebanese Health Ministry’s health emergency center, the initial toll from more than 350 Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon and the Bekaa region was 356 dead and 1,246 wounded, including children, women, and paramedics.

The battle, which Hezbollah calls the “open-ended battle of reckoning,” has ignited Lebanon from the south to the east, with the Israeli army launching a series of wide-ranging air attacks early in the morning.

Dozens of warplanes simultaneously targeted residential homes, the squares of populated towns, valleys, and forests.

The Israeli military claimed that Hezbollah “uses civilian homes and private civilian facilities as hideouts to launch rockets,” similar to the war scenario in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli army spokesperson Daniel Hagari said that “Hezbollah is hiding guided missiles inside civilian homes.” Meanwhile, an advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu noted: “Hezbollah used Iranian drones against Israel.”

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said that Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah had turned the people of Lebanon into “hostages, placing rockets and weapons inside their homes and towns to threaten Israel’s home front.”

He said the people of Lebanon should evacuate “any house that has become a site for the service of the Hezbollah organization to avoid harm.”

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said that the ongoing Israeli “aggression against Lebanon constitutes a genocide in every sense of the word, as well as a destructive plan aimed at annihilating villages and towns and eradicating all green spaces.”

He reiterated his appeal to “decision-making countries to exert pressure on Israel to cease its aggression, implement UN Security Council resolution 2735, and resolve the Palestinian issue based on the adoption of the two-state solution and a just and comprehensive peace.”

He said: “We reaffirm our full commitment to resolution 1701 and, as a government, we are working to halt the renewed Israeli war while striving to avoid, as much as possible, falling into the unknown.”

Mikati spoke as the Israeli army launched on Monday morning a series of large-scale attacks from Lebanon’s south to east.

The army vowed to target sites deep in the Bekaa Valley in the afternoon.

Dozens of towns in the border region and in the area of Tyre were targeted by airstrikes.

The Israeli army hit a home housing seven people in the town of Barich in the Tyre district, killing five people, including children.

It also targeted the Nabatieh area, western Bekaa (specifically Machghara, Sohmor, and Yohmor), as well as the Jezzine area and Deir Al-Zahrani, all the way to Maghdoucheh and Ghaziyeh on the outskirts of Sidon.

The echoes of Israeli airstrikes on northern Bekaa resonated throughout the region.

People spoke of “highly destructive Israeli missiles.”

Loud explosions shook the Hermel highlands near the Syrian border.

A strike on these highlands killed one person and injured six others, two of whom are in intensive care.

Injured children were separated from their families upon being transferred to hospitals, prompting appeals for anyone with information about their relatives to come forward.

Women who were in their homes were buried under the rubble.

Calls were made through social media for nurses to report to hospitals that had exceeded their capacity to assist in providing care to those in need.

The Ministry of Health has requested that “all hospitals in the southern provinces, as well as in Nabatieh and Baalbek-Hermel, suspend all non-urgent procedures to allocate resources for the treatment of casualties resulting from the ongoing Israeli aggression against Lebanon.”

Israeli media reported that some airstrikes penetrated as deep as 125 km into Lebanese territory.

The Israeli Broadcasting Authority said that the air force “attacked the northern Lebanon Valley area, about 130 km from Israel’s northern border.”

The Israeli army accompanied its aggression with recorded voice messages to Lebanese cell phones in various areas, especially the south and Bekaa, extending to Beirut and Akkar in the north.

The messages urged people to evacuate homes near Hezbollah centers.

The telecom company Ogero reported that Lebanon received “about 80,000 suspected Israeli call attempts.”

The messages instructed people to “evacuate areas where Hezbollah weapons or infrastructure are located within at least 1,000 meters, or head to the local school and not return until further notice.”

The warning was echoed by a similar statement from the Israeli army’s spokesperson, addressing “villages in the Bekaa region.”

The airstrikes and phone threats had an immediate effect, as schools halted operations and urged parents to pick up their children.

Many families quickly fled from southern areas, which until recently were considered safe, heading deeper into Lebanon.

The entrance to Sidon, leading to Beirut, was jammed with thousands of cars carrying families and their belongings.

Displaced people have moved from the south to the predominantly Christian and Druze areas of Mount Lebanon, as well as to Beirut, which has a Sunni majority.

Additionally, some displaced persons have arrived in Akkar, located in the far north of Lebanon, where efforts have been made to provide them with housing.

The spokesperson for the Israeli army, Avichay Adraee, claimed that the military targeted “only the buildings that contain weapons belonging to Hezbollah.”

He addressed the residents of Lebanese villages, asking them to evacuate the homes where Hezbollah had concealed weapons immediately.

He said Hezbollah “is deceiving you and sacrificing you. While Hezbollah claims that you are part of its community and its supporters, it appears that its missiles and drones are more valuable and significant to it than you are.”

Reports on Monday indicated that an Israeli missile fell in a barren area in the Jbeil district in northern Lebanon, predominantly inhabited by Christians, with a Shiite presence.

The Lebanese army investigated the incident, and security sources suggested that the missile might have landed accidentally in the area.

UNIFIL, the UN’s peacekeeping force in Lebanon, asked all its civilian employees to leave with their families to safe areas north of the Litani River.

In response to the Israeli attack, Hezbollah said it “bombed the reserve headquarters of the Israeli army’s northern corps, the Galilee Division Reserve Base, and its stores of logistics at Ami’ad Base as well as Rafael’s military-industrial complexes in Zevulun area, north of Haifa, with dozens of missiles.”

Sirens sounded in Margaliot in the Upper Galilee, as reported by Israeli media.


Residents of Israeli settlement ‘Trump Heights’ welcome Donald’s return to US presidency

Residents of Israeli settlement ‘Trump Heights’ welcome Donald’s return to US presidency
Updated 56 min 45 sec ago
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Residents of Israeli settlement ‘Trump Heights’ welcome Donald’s return to US presidency

Residents of Israeli settlement ‘Trump Heights’ welcome Donald’s return to US presidency
  • During his first term, Donald Trump became the first and only foreign leader to recognize Israel’s control of the Golan Heights
  • Trump’s election has inspired hope in the community that it will attract more members and also more funding for security improvements

RAMAT TRUMP, Golan Heights: Israeli residents of “Trump Heights” are welcoming the election of their namesake, hoping Donald Trump’s return to the US presidency will breathe new life into this tiny, remote settlement in the central Golan Heights.
During his first term, Trump became the first and only foreign leader to recognize Israel’s control of the Golan, which it seized from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war. Israel thanked him by rebranding this outpost after him.
But a large-scale influx of new residents never materialized after that 2019 ceremony, and just a couple dozen families live in Trump Heights, or “Ramat Trump” in Hebrew. Job opportunities are limited, and Israel’s more than yearlong war against Hezbollah militants in nearby Lebanon has added to the sense of isolation.
Trump’s election has inspired hope in the community that it will attract more members and also more funding for security improvements.
“Maybe it can raise more awareness and maybe some support to help here and help our kids here,” said Yarden Freimann, Trump Heights’ community manager.
Ori Kallner, head of the Golan’s regional council, showed off dozens of plots of land, replete with new asphalt roads, lampposts and utility lines, that residents have prepared for future housing developments.
“President Trump’s return to the White House definitely puts the town in the headlines,” he said.
Hanging on while war rages nearby
Kallner stood next to a metal statue of an eagle and a menorah, symbolizing the United States and Israel, as Israeli warplanes flew overhead. Two explosions from rockets fired from Lebanon punched the hills nearby, and just across the border in Lebanon, plumes of smoke rose into the air from Israeli airstrikes.
An enormous sign with the settlement’s name in Hebrew and English gleamed in the sun, while two large sunbaked metal flags of Israel and the United States were faded almost beyond recognition.
Surrounded by ashen ruins of villages fled by Syrians in the 1967 war, the town is perched above the Hula Valley, where Israel has amassed tanks, artillery and troops for its fight in Lebanon. Most towns in the valley have been evacuated. Trump Heights sends its kids to a makeshift daycare in a nearby settlement after the government shuttered all schools in the region in the wake of the Oct. 1 invasion of Lebanon.
“We find ourselves hanging by our fingernails to be in our own community, not be evacuated, and on the other hand, we cannot work, we cannot send our kids to any kind of an education system,” said Freimann.
Trump Heights is only about 12 kilometers from Lebanon and Syria. Alerts for incoming fire gives residents about 30 seconds’ head start to get to a bomb shelter.
Trump broke with other leaders on the Golan Heights
Israel annexed the Golan, a strategic plateau overlooking northern Israel, in 1981 in a move that is not internationally recognized.
That changed in March 2019 when Trump, without notice, tweeted that the US would “fully recognize” Israel’s control of the territory. His announcement drew widespread condemnation from the international community, which considers the Golan to be occupied Syrian territory and Israel’s settlements to be illegal. The Biden administration left the decision intact, but the US remains the lone country to recognize the Israeli annexation.
Kallner said he hopes Trump will now persuade European countries to recognize Israeli sovereignty there.
According to Israeli figures, the Golan is home to about 50,000 people — roughly half of them Jewish Israelis and the other half Arab Druze, many of whom still consider themselves Syrians under occupation.
Israel has encouraged and promoted settlements in the Golan, and the Druze residents operate farms and a tourism and restaurant sector popular with Israelis. But the area has struggled to develop because of its remoteness, several hours from Israel’s economic center in Tel Aviv.
That economic hardship has only worsened during the war as the hospitality sector cratered. On July 28, a rocket killed 12 Druze children on a soccer field in the city of Majdal Shams, about 12 miles (20 kilometers) away. Israel invaded Lebanon months later.
In June 2019, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu led an inauguration ceremony for Trump Heights. The US ambassador at the time, David Friedman, noted that the ceremony came days after Trump’s birthday and said: “I can’t think of a more appropriate and a more beautiful birthday present.”
As president, Trump was close with Netanyahu
The Golan recognition was among a series of diplomatic gifts that Trump delivered to Israel during his first term. They included recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moving the American embassy to the contested city, and a series of diplomatic agreements with Arab countries known as the Abraham Accords.
He has vowed to bring peace to the tumultuous region during his second term, but has not said how.
Netanyahu enjoyed a close relationship with Trump during his first term but ran afoul of the former president when he congratulated Joe Biden on his 2020 victory. The Israeli prime minister announced Tuesday that he was one of the first foreign leaders to call the president-elect and congratulate him on his victory. An official in his office, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal communications, said aides were upbeat and giddy.
“Congratulations on history’s greatest comeback!” the Israeli leader said in a statement. “Your historic return to the White House offers a new beginning for America and a powerful recommitment to the great alliance between Israel and America.”
At Trump Heights, Kallner was optimistic too: “The Golan community is strong and resilient, and people that want to come and live here are from the same material. I believe we will overcome these challenging times and won’t stop growing.”


US says Israel to open new Gaza crossing as aid deadline looms

US says Israel to open new Gaza crossing as aid deadline looms
Updated 08 November 2024
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US says Israel to open new Gaza crossing as aid deadline looms

US says Israel to open new Gaza crossing as aid deadline looms
  • US has given Israel until Nov. 13 to improve humanitarian situation in Gaza
  • The letter calls for a minimum of 350 trucks per day to be allowed into Gaza

WASHINGTON: Israel has informed the United States that it will open an additional crossing for aid into Gaza, the State Department said Thursday, as a US-imposed deadline looms next week.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin have given Israel until November 13 to improve the humanitarian situation in the war-besieged Gaza Strip or risk the withholding of some military assistance from the United States, Israel’s biggest supporter.
They made the demands in a letter before Tuesday’s election of President-elect Donald Trump, who has promised to give freer rein to Israel.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said that Israel, after recently reopening the Erez crossing, has informed the United States that they “hope to open an additional new crossing at Kissufim” in “the next few days.”
“We have continued to press them, and we have seen them, including in the past few days since the election, take additional steps,” Miller told reporters.
He stopped short of saying how the United States would assess Israel’s compliance with the aid demands.
In the letter, Blinken and Austin had urged Israel to “consistently” let aid through four major crossings and to open a fifth crossing.
Kissufim, near a kibbutz across from southern Gaza that was attacked in the October 7, 2023 Hamas assault that sparked the war, has mostly been in disuse except by the military since Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005.
The letter called for a minimum of 350 trucks per day to be allowed into Gaza. Miller said 229 trucks entered on Tuesday.
Outgoing President Joe Biden has repeatedly pressed Israel to improve humanitarian aid and protect civilians, while mostly stopping short of using leverage such as cutting off weapons.
Miller said Blinken hoped to keep using the rest of his term to press for an end to the wars in Gaza and Lebanon.


US says Israel to open new Gaza crossing as aid deadline looms

Children stare at the destruction following an Israeli strike in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on November
Children stare at the destruction following an Israeli strike in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on November
Updated 08 November 2024
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US says Israel to open new Gaza crossing as aid deadline looms

Children stare at the destruction following an Israeli strike in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on November
  • The US has given Israel until November 13 to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza
  • Letter calls for a minimum of 350 trucks per day to be allowed into Gaza

WASHINGTON: Israel has informed the United States that it will open an additional crossing for aid into Gaza, the State Department said Thursday, as a US-imposed deadline looms next week.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin have given Israel until November 13 to improve the humanitarian situation in the war-besieged Gaza Strip or risk the withholding of some military assistance from the United States, Israel’s biggest supporter.
They made the demands in a letter before Tuesday’s election of President-elect Donald Trump, who has promised to give freer rein to Israel.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said that Israel, after recently reopening the Erez crossing, has informed the United States that they “hope to open an additional new crossing at Kissufim” in “the next few days.”
“We have continued to press them, and we have seen them, including in the past few days since the election, take additional steps,” Miller told reporters.
He stopped short of saying how the United States would assess Israel’s compliance with the aid demands.
In the letter, Blinken and Austin had urged Israel to “consistently” let aid through four major crossings and to open a fifth crossing.
Kissufim, near a kibbutz across from southern Gaza that was attacked in the October 7, 2023 Hamas assault that sparked the war, has mostly been in disuse except by the military since Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005.
The letter called for a minimum of 350 trucks per day to be allowed into Gaza. Miller said 229 trucks entered on Tuesday.
Outgoing President Joe Biden has repeatedly pressed Israel to improve humanitarian aid and protect civilians, while mostly stopping short of using leverage such as cutting off weapons.
Miller said Blinken hoped to keep using the rest of his term to press for an end to the wars in Gaza and Lebanon.


France mulling new sanctions on Israeli settlers, minister says in West Bank

France mulling new sanctions on Israeli settlers, minister says in West Bank
Updated 07 November 2024
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France mulling new sanctions on Israeli settlers, minister says in West Bank

France mulling new sanctions on Israeli settlers, minister says in West Bank
  • “France has been a driving force to establish the first sanction regime at the European level,” Barrot said
  • Barrot renewed France’s commitment to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

RAMALLAH: France is mulling new sanctions on those enabling the expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, regarded as illegal under international law, Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on a visit to the territory on Thursday.
“France has been a driving force to establish the first sanction regime at the European level targeting individuals or entities, either actors or accomplices of settlement activities,” Barrot said after talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in Ramallah.
“This regime has been activated two times already and we’re working on a third batch of sanctions targeting these activities that again are illegal with respect to international law.”
Barrot renewed France’s commitment to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and warned settlement activities “threaten the political perspective that can ensure durable peace for Israel and Palestine.”
Before meeting Abbas, Barrot visited the adjacent town of Al-Bireh, where Israeli settlers set fire to 20 cars on Monday, damaging a nearby building.
After speaking with residents and local officials at the scene, Barrot noted that the attack took place in a part of the West Bank where the Palestinians were supposed to enjoy both civil and security control under the Oslo Accords of the 1990s.
“These attacks from extremist and violent settlers are not only completely inexcusable, not only contrary to international law, but they weaken the perspective of a two-state solution,” Barrot said.
Ramallah and Al-Bireh governor Laila Ghannam expressed outrage that settler attacks were “taking place in full view and hearing of the entire silent international community.”
“Perhaps today, with the visit of the French foreign minister, there will be a spotlight here,” she told AFP.
Speaking in Jerusalem earlier Thursday, Barrot said he saw prospects for ending Israel’s wars in Gaza and Lebanon after Donald Trump’s re-election, citing the Republican’s “wish to see the end of the Middle East’s endless wars” as well as recent “tactical successes” for Israel.


Moroccan population grows to 36.8 million in 2024

The Moroccan population grew by 2.98 million since the last census in 2014. (AFP)
The Moroccan population grew by 2.98 million since the last census in 2014. (AFP)
Updated 07 November 2024
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Moroccan population grows to 36.8 million in 2024

The Moroccan population grew by 2.98 million since the last census in 2014. (AFP)

RABAT: The Moroccan population grew to 36.82 million by September 2024, according to the preliminary results of a national census, the spokesman for the government said on Thursday.
Compared with the most recent census in 2014, the Moroccan population grew by 2.98 million or 8.8 percent, spokesman Mustapha Baitas told reporters.
The number of households grew to 9.27 million by September 2024, up 26.8 percent compared to 2014, while the number of foreigners living in the country increased to 148,152, up 71.8 percent, he said.