By The New York Times (World News) | Created at 2024-10-16 10:25:07 | Updated at 2024-10-16 12:31:56
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Israel’s military said it carried out two early morning strikes on Wednesday in the southern outskirts of Beirut where the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah predominates, the first attacks near the city in several days.
The two strikes, in the neighborhood of Haret Hreik, were aimed at underground weapons storage facilities used by Hezbollah, Israel’s military said in a statement. They came about an hour after an Arabic spokesman for the Israeli military had issued a warning urging residents to get at least 500 meters away from a specific building in the area.
A map from the military that accompanied the warning indicated that the building was across the street from a school and less than 200 meters, about 220 yards, from a second school.
There were no immediate reports of fatalities or injuries. Haret Hreik, where Hezbollah is based, was heavily damaged by Israeli airstrikes in the 2006 war between Israel and the Iran-backed group. The area is part of a collection of neighborhoods south of the capital, Beirut, known as the Dahiya, where Hezbollah holds sway. Since last month, Israel has repeatedly struck in and around the area as part of an offensive to kill leaders of the militant group and to take out its arsenal.
On Tuesday, a State Department spokesman, Matthew Miller, told reporters that the United States had conveyed to Israel concerns about the civilian toll of its weekslong bombing campaign in Beirut, during which many of the strikes have been in the Dahiya. Mr. Miller said, “When it comes to the scope and nature of the bombing campaign that we saw in Beirut over the past few weeks, it’s something that we made clear to the government of Israel we had concerns with and we are opposed to.”
Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, also said on Tuesday that the Biden administration had given “a sort of guarantee” that Israel would reduce its attacks on the capital. Lebanese officials have said that Israel’s airstrikes in the country have pushed many of its hospitals to a breaking point.
Here’s what else to know:
Gaza aid: The United States has warned Israel of consequences within 30 days if it does not allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza, the State Department said on Tuesday. Mr. Miller, the State Department spokesman, said that the level of aid into Gaza was the lowest it had been at any point over the past year.
Northern Lebanon: The U.N. human rights office called on Tuesday for an investigation into an Israeli airstrike a day earlier that killed at least 21 people in the Christian village of Aitou in northern Lebanon, citing potential violations of international laws.
Medical evacuations: The Israeli Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the Israeli government to explain why there appeared to be no comprehensive system to facilitate evacuations of sick Gazans who are not involved in the Hamas-Israel war to other countries for treatment.
THAAD crew arrives: A team of U.S. military personnel has reached Israel before the arrival of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, which is intended to thwart attacks by Iran, the Pentagon said in a statement. It did not say when the missile defense system would be operational.
Heavy bombardment in the southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh killed at least five people on Wednesday, the Lebanese health ministry said, adding that local municipality buildings had been targeted. Israel’s military said it had struck “dozens of Hezbollah terrorist targets” in the area. The city — once home to tens of thousands — has seen many of its residents flee in recent weeks after the Israeli military issued evacuation warnings.
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The mayor of Nabatieh, Ahmad Kahil, was among those killed in the strikes, said Hwaida Turk, the regional governor.
Israel’s military said it had carried out two early-morning strikes in the southern outskirts of Beirut where Hezbollah holds sway, the first attacks near the city in several days. The strikes in the Haret Hreik neighborhood were aimed at underground weapons storage facilities used by Hezbollah, Israel’s military said in a statement. They came an hour after an Israeli military spokesman warned residents to move away from a building in the area.
There were no immediate reports of fatalities in the strikes. On Tuesday, a State Department spokesman, Matthew Miller, said that the United States had conveyed to Israel concerns about “the scope and nature” of its weekslong bombing campaign in the Beirut area.
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Israel’s Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the Israeli government to explain why there appears to be no comprehensive system in place to facilitate evacuations of sick Gazans who are not involved in the Hamas-Israel war to other countries for needed treatment.
The order stems from a petition filed by three Israeli human rights groups in early June, following the closure of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt after the Israeli military began assaulting the area in May.
About 50 patients were able to evacuate daily before the closure, said Adi Lustigman, a lawyer for Physician for Human Rights Israel, one of the groups that filed the petition. Even that level was just a drop in the bucket, she said, but the medical evacuations trickled to a halt after Israel closed the border crossing. The petition demands that Israel create a transparent process for applications for medical evacuations.
“People don’t know where to turn,” Ms. Lustigman said. Even when people apply for evacuations, there does not appear to be a reasoned approach to when permission is granted, with some critically ill patients still waiting while less sick individuals who applied later are allowed out, she said.
“We didn’t ask Israel to treat people, just to move them in a humane tempo,” Ms. Lustigman said. The petition did not specifically seek that patients be transferred abroad, only that they not be blocked from access to medical care, but Israel prefers “due to security reasons” that they travel to a third country, she said.
An unstated reason might be Israeli public opinion, she added. “There is a very strong public objection to the petition as it is,” she said.
Nonetheless, Ms. Lustigman argued, Israel has responsibility for civilians because it controls Gaza and its borders. “The state is subject to fundamental principles of Israeli law, the principles of administrative law, the Basic Laws, and the rules of natural justice,” Ms. Lustigman noted, and it has obligations under international treaties.
The Supreme Court set urgent hearings about the matter over the summer. Lawyers for Israel expressed agreement on the need for medical evacuations but sought more time in court to show the state was complying. And some permits were granted in the interim. At least 19 sick children, most of them cancer patients, were permitted to leave Gaza for treatment in late June.
But the court’s order on Tuesday puts the focus on the state, the defense minister and the authority responsible for humanitarian coordination in Gaza, known as COGAT, to clarify how the process works. The state has argued at hearings that there is a system, Ms. Lustigman said, but has yet to convincingly show it.
Israel has until Nov. 11 to provide a response, based on the court’s order. The justice ministry declined to comment on the order. COGAT and the defense ministry did not immediately respond to queries.
“Every day that passes with sick and injured individuals in Gaza left without medical treatment means human lives, children, and infants are in jeopardy,” Ms. Lustigman and her colleague, Tamir Blank, a lawyer for Physicians for Human Rights Israel who worked on the petition, said in a statement on Tuesday. “The state is obligated to allow access to medical treatment so that those who can still be saved may be saved.”
For many patients, it is already too late. After months of waiting, Fida Ghanem, 42, was granted a permit by Israel and Egypt to leave Gaza for urgent lymphoma treatment in the spring, just before Israeli forces seized the Rafah crossing. With the crossing closed, she died in Gaza in June. The border crossing is still shut.
Aaron Boxerman contributed reporting.
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The United Nations’ human rights office called on Tuesday for an investigation into an Israeli airstrike a day earlier that killed at least 21 people in northern Lebanon, saying it posed “real concerns” because it may have violated international laws governing war.
“We understand it was a four-story residential building that was struck,” Jeremy Laurence, a spokesman for the U.N.’s human rights office, said at a news briefing in Geneva. The U.N. had received reports that most of the deaths were of women and children, he said, and added that the strike might have breached laws designed to minimize civilian harm in conflicts.
The Israeli military said without elaborating that it had struck a Hezbollah target and that it was examining reports that Lebanese civilians had been killed. “The incident is being examined,” it said in a statement.
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The Israeli strike on Monday in the normally sleepy hill village of Aitou, more than 70 miles from the Israeli border, was the first known time since the war began a year ago that the largely Christian region had been hit. The region lies far from Hezbollah’s traditional power bases in southern and eastern Lebanon, and the strike has heightened growing fears that no area in the country is safe.
Rema Jamous Imseis, the U.N. refugee agency’s Middle East director, said on Tuesday that more than a quarter of Lebanese territory had come under Israeli evacuation orders. Nearly a million people in Lebanon have already been displaced, according to the United Nations.
“People are heeding these calls to evacuate,” Ms. Jamous said, “and they’re fleeing with almost nothing.”
Johnatan Reiss contributed reporting.
