By The Telegraph (World News) | Created at 2024-09-29 08:35:31 | Updated at 2024-09-30 05:20:42
20 hours ago
Israel said it was carrying out new air raids against “dozens” of Hezbollah targets in Lebanon on Sunday, pressing the Iran-backed group as it mourns its leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
The Israeli military said its air force had “struck dozens of Hezbollah terror targets in Lebanon, including launchers that were aimed toward Israeli territory, structures in which weapons were stored and additional Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure”.
Lebanon’s state news agency said an Israeli airstrike early Sunday on a village in northeast Lebanon destroyed a home, killing 11 people. Since hostilities broke out on Oct 8 more than 1,670, including 104 children, have been killed, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.
The number of those displaced by the conflict from southern Lebanon has also more than doubled and now stands at more than 211,000, according to the United Nations.
Lebanon has announced three days of mourning for Nasrallah, starting Monday. Hezbollah has yet to announce the date of his funeral, but it could be as soon as today.
Thousands gather across Iran
Thousands of people have gathered across Iran to protest the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli airstrike.
State TV aired footage of protests in several major cities on Sunday. At Iran’s parliament, lawmakers chanted “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.”
Iran helped establish Hezbollah in the 1980s and has provided the Lebanese militant group with sophisticated weaponry and training.
UN sends emergency food aid for one million Lebanese
The World Food Programme on Sunday said it had launched an emergency operation to provide meals for one million people affected by the escalating conflict in Lebanon.
“A further acceleration of the conflict this weekend underscored the need for an immediate humanitarian response,” the Rome-based agency said in a statement, announcing that it was distributing ready-to-eat food rations, bread, hot meals and food parcels to shelters across the country.
Ongoing bombing in Lebanon is “compounding the fragility of a population burdened by accumulated crises”, the WFP said.
“In just a few days, WFP assistance has reached thousands of newly displaced people,” the programme’s country director for Lebanon, Matthew Hollingworth, said in the statement.
“As the crisis deepens, we are preparing to assist up to one million people through a mix of cash and food support,” he added, calling on the international community to mobilise $105 million to fund the operation through to the end of the year.
Displaced families sleep on benches
In Beirut, displaced families spent the night on the benches at Zaitunay Bay, a high-end string of restaurants and cafes on Beirut’s waterfront.
Families with nothing more than a duffle bag of clothes had rolled out mats to sleep on and were pouring tea for themselves.
“You won’t be able to destroy us, whatever you do, however much you bomb, however much you displace people - we will stay here. We won’t leave. This is our country and we’re staying,” said Francoise Azori, a Beirut resident jogging through the area.
El-Sissi warns Israeli operations threaten the region
Egypt’s president warned that Israeli military operations in the Palestinian territories and Lebanon are pushing the region to the brink and called for international action.
Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, one of the mediators between Israel and Hamas, called for “an immediate and comprehensive cease-fire” in both Gaza and Lebanon amid an unprecedented escalation between Israel and Hezbollah. His remarks came after Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, was killed in an Israeli airstrike.
El-Sissi’s comments came in a phone call late Saturday with Lebanese caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati, according to a statement from the Egyptian president’s office. He also gave orders to send medical and humanitarian aid to Lebanon immediately.
Along with the United States and Qatar, Egypt has for months spearheaded negotiations between Israel and Hamas to end the war in Gaza. But negotiations have repeatedly stalled amid mounting fear of an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas. Diplomats see a cease-fire in Gaza as the best way to avert a regional war.
