Israel mobilizes three reserve battalions for central command in West Bank
The decision was made ahead of a period of Jewish holidays when tensions often escalate in Jerusalem and the West Bank
Updated 28 September 2024
Reuters
(Repeats with amended slug; no change to story text)
Sept 28 : Israel’s military said on Saturday it was mobilizing three reserve battalions to bolster the defenses of its central command, whose areas of operation includes the occupied West Bank .
The decision was made ahead of a period of Jewish holidays when tensions often escalate in Jerusalem and the West Bank, where conflict with Palestinian militants has resurged during Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza.
“In accordance with the situational assessment, the IDF is calling up three reserve battalions for operational activities and to strengthen the defense in the Central Command,” the military said. It provided no further details.
Lebanon’s health minister: Israeli attacks on medics constitute a war crime
Dr. Firass Abiad says Monday’s airstrikes created “environment of terror,” spurring mass flight from targeted areas
He made the comments during an appearance on the Arab News current affairs program “Frankly Speaking”
Updated 44 min 53 sec ago
Arab News
DUBAI: Dr. Firass Abiad, Lebanon’s minister of public health, has strongly condemned Israeli attacks on healthcare workers and medical infrastructure, describing them as war crimes under international humanitarian law.
“Do we consider this a war crime? Of course, we consider this a war crime,” said Abiad, adding that this was not just the view of the Lebanese government but echoed by international legal bodies.
“When we listen to the International Court of Justice, these are the experts on what is international humanitarian law and whether it has been violated. So, these are the experts telling us that what Israel is doing constitutes war crimes.”
Abiad made the comments during an appearance on the Arab News current affairs program “Frankly Speaking” amid escalating violence between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia, which now threatens to spill over into a major regional war.
Abiad told Frankly Speaking that the Lebanese government had established 400 public shelters, which currently house about 70,000 people, amid the Israeli bombardment. (AN Photo)
On Saturday, Hezbollah confirmed that its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in an Israeli strike on the group’s Dahiyeh stronghold in Beirut. The attack follows days of Israeli strikes across Lebanon, which have left 1,030 people dead — including 156 women and 87 children.
Hezbollah began rocketing northern Israel last October in solidarity with the Palestinian militant group Hamas, whose Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel triggered the war in Gaza. Israel retaliated by mounting strikes on Hezbollah targets, including its leadership.
In early September, the tit-for-tat suddenly escalated when Hezbollah communication devices, including pagers and walkie-talkies, suddenly exploded simultaneously in a sophisticated coordinated attack blamed on Israel.
Since then, Israeli strikes on Hezbollah targets across the country have rapidly escalated, with significant collateral damage to residential areas. Health workers and medical infrastructure have not been spared amid the carnage.
“This is something that did not start these past few weeks,” Abiad told “Frankly Speaking” host Katie Jensen. “This is something that we have seen from the start of the hostilities, since last October.
“Even before the detonation of communication devices, we had recorded 25 healthcare professionals who had been killed, whether they were paramedics or whether they were healthcare professionals. And unfortunately, in the past two weeks, we have seen that number rise to almost 40 healthcare workers who have been killed in the atrocious attacks.”
The ongoing conflict has created a massive humanitarian crisis, with widespread displacement across the country. According to the Lebanese government’s estimates, nearly 500,000 people have been forced to flee their homes due to escalating violence.
Abiad explained the magnitude of the displacement. “Before the attacks, the number released by the disaster management side was 130,000 displaced,” he said.
“Remember that by that time, there was an escalation of hostilities by Israel, and the populations were internally displaced still into southern areas.”
However, last Monday’s airstrikes, which saw the killing of approximately 600 people, including nine healthcare workers and two UN staff, in the single deadliest day in Lebanon since the 2006 war, was a watershed moment in the long-running crisis.
“That created this environment of terror, and really, this is where we saw people leave en masse from the targeted areas,” said Abiad.
A man walks on the rubble of damaged buildings in the aftermath of Israeli air strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon Sept. 28. (Reuters)
Lebanese highways were quickly overwhelmed with people fleeing their homes, causing massive traffic jams. Many spent up to 18 hours on the road, desperately seeking safety.
Abiad said the Lebanese government has established 400 public shelters, which currently house about 70,000 people. However, he said the total number of displaced people is far higher.
“We estimate that usually, from our past experience in the 2006 war, the number of people, whether they are living with friends, family, in homes they rented, or even across the border into neighboring countries, is four to five times as many as there are in shelters,” he said.
“And that’s why we really believe that the tally of people who have been displaced is probably around 400,000 to 500,000.”
Biden describes Israeli strike that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah as ‘measure of justice’
President says US will ‘further enhance defense posture’ in the Middle East to deter aggression
Nasrallah responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans, Israelis, and Lebanese civilians, Biden says
Updated 28 September 2024
Arab News
LONDON: US President Joe Biden on Saturday described the Israeli strike that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah as a “measure of justice” for his thousands of victims.
Biden was speaking after Hezbollah had earlier confirmed that Nasrallah, one of the group’s founders, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut the previous day.
Biden said “taking out” Nasrallah happened in the broader context of the conflict that began with Hamas’ massacre of Israelis on Oct. 7 last year.
“Nasrallah, the next day, made the fateful decision to join hands with Hamas and open what he called a ‘northern front’ against Israel,” Biden said in a statement.
He also noted that Hezbollah under Nasrallah’s watch has been responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans, Israelis, and Lebanese civilians.
Biden said that he had directed US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to “further enhance the defense posture of US military forces in the Middle East region to deter aggression and reduce the risk of a broader regional war.”
Washington’s goal was to “deescalate the ongoing conflicts in both Gaza and Lebanon through diplomatic means,” he added.
However, Biden and his administration have repeatedly said that they had no prior knowledge of the latest Israeli attack, a strike that some officials have spoken out against.
“Nasrallah was a bad guy, but it is frustrating that the Israelis are doing this without consulting us and then ask that we clean up when it comes to deterring Iran,” one US official told Axios.
Another American official said “Nasrallah has blood on his hands,” but that the Biden administration did not see how Israel’s “whack-a-mole” approach will address the larger strategic picture, Axios added.
Hashem Safieddine: possible successor to Hezbollah chief Nasrallah
Safieddine bears a striking resemblance to his charismatic maternal cousin Nasrallah
Safieddine has strong ties with Iran after undertaking religious studies in the holy city of Qom.
Updated 28 September 2024
AFP
BEIRUT: Hashem Safieddine, a potential successor to his slain cousin Hassan Nasrallah, is one of Hezbollah’s most prominent figures and has deep religious and family ties to the Shiite Muslim movement’s patron Iran.
Safieddine bears a striking resemblance to his charismatic maternal cousin Nasrallah but is several years his junior, aged in his late 50s or early 60s.
A source close to Hezbollah, requesting anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the media, said the grey-bearded, bespectacled Safieddine was the “most likely” candidate for party’s top job.
The United States and Saudi Arabia put Safieddine, who is a member of Hezbollah’s powerful decision-making Shoura Council, on their respective lists of designated “terrorists” in 2017.
The US Treasury described him as “a senior leader” in Hezbollah and “a key member” of its executive.
While Hezbollah deputy chief Naim Qassem automatically takes over the Hezbollah leadership after Nasrallah’s death, the Shoura Council must meet to elect a new secretary-general.
Safieddine has strong ties with Iran after undertaking religious studies in the holy city of Qom.
His son is married to the daughter of General Qasem Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ foreign operations arm who was killed in a 2020 US strike in Iraq.
Safieddine has the title of Sayyed, his black turban marking him, like Nasrallah, as a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad.
Unlike Nasrallah, who lived in hiding for years, Safieddine has appeared openly at recent political and religious events.
Usually presenting a calm demeanour, he has upped the fiery rhetoric during the funerals of Hezbollah fighters killed in nearly a year of cross-border clashes with Israel.
Nasrallah said his forces were acting in support of Palestinian Hamas militants fighting Israel in Gaza.
Amal Saad, a Lebanese researcher on Hezbollah based at Cardiff University, said that for years people have been saying that Safieddine was “the most likely successor” to Nasrallah.
“The next leader has to be on the Shoura Council, which has a handful of members, and he has to be a religious figure,” she said.
Safieddine “has a lot of authority... he’s the strongest contender” she added.
Hezbollah was created at the initiative of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and gained its moniker as “the Resistance” by fighting Israeli troops who occupied southern Lebanon until 2000.
The movement was founded during the Lebanese civil war after Israel besieged the capital Beirut in 1982.
In July in a speech in Beirut’s southern suburbs, Safieddine alluded to how Hezbollah views its leadership succession.
“In our resistance... when any leader is martyred, another takes up the flag and goes on with new, certain, strong determination,” he said.
Over 50,000 have fled Lebanon for Syria amid Israeli strikes: UN
Filippo Grandi said “well over 200,000 people are displaced inside Lebanon“
A UNHCR spokesman said the total number of displaced in Lebanon had reached 211,319
Updated 28 September 2024
AFP
GENEVA: The UN refugee chief said Saturday that more than 50,000 people had fled to Syria amid escalating Israeli air strikes on Lebanon.
“More than 50,000 Lebanese and Syrians living in Lebanon have now crossed into Syria fleeing Israeli air strikes,” Filippo Grandi said on X.
He added that “well over 200,000 people are displaced inside Lebanon.”
A UNHCR spokesman said the total number of displaced in Lebanon had reached 211,319, including 118,000 just since Israel dramatically ramped up its air strikes on Monday.
The remainder had fled their homes since Hezbollah militants in Lebanon began low-intensity cross-border attacks a day after its Palestinian ally Hamas staged its unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, triggering war in the Gaza Strip.
Israel has shifted the focus of its operation from Gaza to Lebanon, where heavy bombing has killed more than 700 people, according to Lebanon’s health ministry, as cross-border exchanges escalated over the past week.
Most of those Lebanese deaths came on Monday, the deadliest day of violence since Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war.
“Relief operations are underway, including by UNHCR, to help all those in need, in coordination with both governments,” Grandi said.
Israel army says Nasrallah’s death makes world safer
“Nasrallah was one of the greatest enemies of the State of Israel of all time... his elimination makes the world a safer place,” military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said
“We continue, even at this very moment, to strike, eliminate and kill the commanders of the Hezbollah organization “
Updated 28 September 2024
AFP
JERUSALEM: Israel’s military said on Saturday that its killing of one its “greatest enemies” Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah made the world safer, while vowing to go after other senior members of his Iran-backed group.
“Nasrallah was one of the greatest enemies of the State of Israel of all time... his elimination makes the world a safer place,” military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told a televised briefing.
“We continue, even at this very moment, to strike, eliminate and kill the commanders of the Hezbollah organization, and we will continue to do so,” Hagari said of the Lebanese armed movement, an ally of Palestinian group Hamas.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, in a statement directed to the people of Lebanon, said: “Our war is not with you.”
“To our enemies I say: We are strong and determined,” Gallant added.
With tensions soaring since the deadly Friday strike on Hezbollah’s south Beirut stronghold that killed Nasrallah, Israeli authorities have announced new public safety regulations.
The military’s Home Front Command announced that gathering of more than 1,000 people would be banned in central Israel, far from the Lebanese border.
The change is likely to affect weekly demonstrations that have been taking place on Saturdays throughout the war in Tel Aviv, Israel’s commercial hub, and other locations.
The anti-government protests have sought to highlight the plight of hostages held in the Gaza Strip since Hamas’s October 7 attack that triggered the ongoing war, urging the Israeli government to agree a truce and hostage release deal.
