Photo: Anwar Amro Agence France-Presse In the morning, residents of Basta, one of the two neighborhoods hit by the Israeli strikes, came to inspect the damage, some in tears.
Lisa Golden – Agence France-Presse and Marc Jourdier – Agence France-Presse respectively in Beirut and Jerusalem
Published at 7:24 Updated at 8:42
- Middle East
The Lebanese government called on the UN on Friday to cease fire “immediately” between Israel and Hezbollah, the day after Israeli strikes on Beirut, the deadliest in three weeks of war between the Israeli army and the pro-Iranian movement.
These strikes, which left 22 dead and 117 wounded, according to the Health Ministry, came as Israel prepares to celebrate the Yom Kippur holiday on Friday evening, the most important in the Jewish calendar, while being at war on several fronts for the first time in decades.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati called on the UN to adopt a resolution for a “total and immediate ceasefire.”
Citing the Hezbollah “agreement,” he committed to “full implementation of resolution 1701,” which stipulates that only UN forces and the Lebanese army be deployed in southern Lebanon, from where the Islamist movement has opened a front against Israel for a year in support of its ally Hamas.
Thursday’s raid targeted “the head of Hezbollah’s security apparatus Wafic Safa,” a source close to the pro-Iranian group told AFP, without providing further information on his fate.
In the morning, residents of Basta, one of the two neighborhoods hit by the strikes, inspected the damage, some in tears.
“A lot of families live here,” Bilal Othman said indignantly, amidst piles of concrete and twisted iron, dug up by excavators.
This is the third time that the Israeli army has directly targeted the capital, with Israel concentrating its strikes on the southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold, since September 23.
According to the source close to Hezbollah, Israel “has moved to a new stage, targeting the political leaders” of the movement.
The United States supports Lebanon's efforts to “assert itself” against Hezbollah, which enjoys considerable political influence there, declared for his part Friday the American Secretary of State, Antony Blinken.
On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on Lebanon to “liberate itself” from it, or face the same fate as Gaza, where its army is continuing a devastating war sparked by Hamas’s attack on its soil on October 7, 2023.
Photo: Hassa Ammar Associated Press The Israeli attack in the Lebanese capital left 22 dead and 117 wounded, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
New Israeli fire on UNIFIL
Lebanon on Friday denounced new Israeli fire on a UN peacekeeper position in southern Lebanon, a day after a diplomatic outcry after similar fire wounded two Indonesians.
The Israeli fire against the UN peacekeepers constitutes “a violation of international humanitarian law,” UN chief Antonio Guterres said on Friday.
The Israeli army, which has been conducting ground incursions against Hezbollah in the region since September 30, claimed to have fired on Thursday “next to” the UNIFIL headquarters after warning personnel.
Since October 2023, more than 2,100 people have been killed in Lebanon, including more than 1,200 since September 23, according to an AFP count based on official figures. The UN has counted 600,000 internally displaced people in Lebanon.
Despite the blows to its leadership, Hezbollah claims to continue to resist Israel. On Friday, he announced a drone attack “on an air base in Haifa,” in northern Israel.
A Thai farm worker was killed in the area by an anti-tank missile, rescue workers said, with the army reporting two civilians injured.
In this context, the United States said on Friday that it still hopes to prevent “a wider conflict,” at a time when Israel is preparing, according to its Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, a “deadly, precise and surprising” response to the Iranian missile attack on October 1
Iran reaffirmed on Friday that it is ready to “defend its sovereignty” against Israel, which it claims to have struck to avenge the assassination in Tehran of the leader of Hamas, as well as those of the leader of Lebanese Hezbollah and a general of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in an Israeli strike near Beirut.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called on the international community to stop supplying weapons to Israel, so as not to “contribute […] to the escalation of violence” in the region.
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Gaza “like in Japan 80 years ago”
Israel has concentrated its forces on the Lebanese front, after a year of relentless Hezbollah fire that displaced 60,000 residents of northern Israel.
But citing an attempt by Hamas to rebuild its capabilities in the north of the Gaza Strip, it has surrounded Jabalia there since Sunday, pounding the area.
According to the Gaza Civil Defense, at least 140 people have died there since the start of the operation, and at least 400,000 people are trapped in the area, according to the UN. Washington has expressed concern to its Israeli ally that they are being cut off from humanitarian aid.
The situation in the besieged Palestinian territory is similar to that in Japan, which was devastated by bombs at the end of World War II, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning co-chairman of Nihon Hidankyo, the organization of survivors of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, said Friday.
“It's like Japan 80 years ago,” Toshiyuki Mimaki said.
The war in Gaza was triggered on October 7, 2023, by a Hamas attack that resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli figures and including hostages killed or held captive in Gaza.
At least 42,126 Palestinians have been killed, mostly civilians, in the Israeli offensive in Gaza, according to data from the Hamas government's Health Ministry, deemed reliable by the UN. Almost all of Gazans' 2.4 million people have also been displaced.