Health workers, journalists bear brunt of Israeli strikes in Lebanon

Armored vehicles of the UNIFIL patrol the Marjayoun area in southern Lebanon on Oct. 24, 2024. (AFP)

• Mikati denounces ‘Israeli aims to intimidate media and obscure their crimes’
• UN peacekeepers say Israeli troops fired at Lebanon post

BEIRUT: Lebanon accused Israel of targeting journalists in a “deliberate” attack that killed three people in the country’s south on Friday, calling the incident a “war crime.”
Prime Minister Najib Mikati said the strike “targeting journalists” was “a war crime committed by Israel without any deterrent or international voice to halt the ongoing atrocities.”
He added that the “deliberate aggression aims to intimidate the media and obscure the crimes and destruction being perpetrated.”
Mikati said he had directed the Foreign Ministry “to include this latest crime in a series of documented files of Israeli crimes to be submitted to relevant international authorities, with the hope that global conscience will intervene to stop the ongoing violence.”
Al-Mayadeen TV channel confirmed the deaths of broadcast technician Mohammed Rida and camera operator Ghassan Najjar, while Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV mourned the death of camera operator Wissam Qassim in the Israeli strike on a hotel in Hasbayya.
Several other people including media personalities Zakaria Fadel, Hussein Hoteit, and Ali Chaib were injured in the blast.
Survivors appeared on their respective TV channels covered in dirt in the aftermath, stressing that they did not have any weapons and that there “weren’t any armed people” at the hotel.
They added that they only had “their cameras and microphones and that their movement was clear to everyone,” according to Al-Jadeed correspondent Mohamed Farhat and Al-Mayadeen reporter Fatima Ftouni, who showed her shrapnel-torn protective shield.
The number of journalists, technicians, and photographers caught by Israeli hostilities since Oct. 8, 2023, has risen to 13.
Lebanon’s Health Minister Firas Abiad said Israeli strikes killed more than 160 rescuers and health workers in the past year of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.
At a press conference on Friday, Abiad said 55 attacks on hospitals had been recorded, including 36 direct hits.
Eight hospitals were forcibly closed down, while seven are partially operating.
The attacks resulted in “the martyrdom of 12 health workers, the injury of 60 people and the damage of 24 vehicles,” Abiad said.
According to the minister, the latest Israeli attacks targeted “201 emergency response teams, bringing the total of casualties in the health and hospital sector to 163 martyred and 272 injured.”
He said 51 emergency response centers, 158 ambulances, 57 fire trucks, and 15 rescue vehicles have been targeted.
“Two weeks ago, eight paramedics were martyred in the triangle of Odaisseh-Taybeh-Rab El-Thalathine. Their bodies are still in three ambulances due to the enemy’s refusal to allow the retrieval of their bodies. In addition, six firefighters are still under the rubble in Baraachit,” Abiad said.
The Israeli military has targeted health workers, claiming that Hezbollah “uses ambulances to transport members and weapons.”
Avichay Adraee, spokesperson for the Israeli military, warned on Friday that troops could target medical personnel carrying out their duty of helping the injured in southern Lebanon.
Adraee called on medical personnel to “avoid engaging with Hezbollah members and cooperating with them. Otherwise, necessary action will be taken against any vehicle transporting armed people regardless of its type.”
Adraee’s warning came as the UN Interim Force in Lebanon said that its peacekeepers withdrew from a watchtower in one of its posts near Dhayra in south Lebanon on Tuesday, after Israeli forces fired at it.
UNIFIL senior leadership announced in a statement on Friday that “peacekeepers on duty at a permanent observation post near Dhayra were observing Israeli soldiers conducting house clearing operations nearby.”
The statement added: “Upon realizing they were being observed, the soldiers fired at the post.”
UNIFIL clarified that the duty guards “withdrew following the incident to avoid being shot.”
It also pointed out that the Israeli military had “repeatedly demanded that UNIFIL vacate its positions along the Blue Line and has deliberately damaged camera, lighting, and communications equipment at some of these positions.”
UNIFIL added: “Despite the pressure exerted on the mission and our troop-contributing countries, peacekeepers remain in position and on task.
“We remind the Israeli army and all actors of their obligations to ensure the safety and security of UN personnel and property. Any deliberate attack on them is a grave violation of international humanitarian law and Resolution 1701.”
These developments were preceded and followed by Israeli raids on the southern suburbs of Beirut and towns in the south, in addition to the shelling of a second border crossing between Lebanon and Syria in the Qaa region in the Bekaa.
The Masnaa border crossing was targeted once again, which limited the movement of cars and trucks between Lebanon and Syria to one crossing in northern Lebanon after the raids blocked traffic on the Masnaa crossing.
People could only cross the border on foot and under the surveillance of Israeli reconnaissance aircraft.
Hezbollah, meanwhile, launched a series of military operations targeting northern Israel. Israeli media reported that “a state of emergency was declared in Nahariya Hospital due to a security event in Shomera in Western Galilee.”
The party said it hit “a gathering of soldiers who were sheltering inside a place considered to be safe. Additionally, a truck and several vehicles were hit by rockets launched from Lebanon.”
Israeli media reported that “four wounded people were in critical condition, in addition to other injuries of varying degrees, as a result of rockets fired by Hezbollah on the Shomera area.”
Fires were still raging in the morning after Israeli airstrikes on Thursday night in El-Aamroussieh, Haret Hrek, and the Sainte Therese area, reaching Burj Al-Barajneh in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
In the south, the Israeli military used
phosphorous bombs to burn forests and olive groves in the border areas in the western sector.
An airstrike on a house in the town of Bazourieh killed three people, whilst clashes between Hezbollah and Israel continued in the towns of Aitaroun, Taybeh, and Marwahin.
Hezbollah said that it targeted Israeli military sites in the settlements of Al-Malikiyah and Al-Baghdadi.
Relief efforts between Lebanon and international partners continued as a UAE ship docked at Beirut Port, delivering 2,000 tons of aid.
This shipment, provided by the UAE, includes food supplies and essential equipment for shelter centers, offering critical support to the people of Lebanon.
The Army Command announced the arrival of a donation from the Malta-Lebanon Organization to the Lebanese Army.
A UNHCR spokeswoman estimated that around one-fifth of the Lebanese population has been displaced from their homes so far.
She said the government-run displacement centers in Lebanon had become overcrowded, and that the number of people fleeing from Lebanon to Syria had reached 430,000.
The Crisis and Disaster Management Room in the Beirut Governorate — in collaboration with the Farah Al-Ataa Association, a civil society organization, successfully relocated displaced people from tents along the Beirut waterfront to a shelter center in the Karantina area.
In the initial phase, more than 400 displaced people were transferred, with the second phase set to be completed in the coming days.