Lebanon reports over 50 dead in Israeli raids

More than 50 people died Saturday in Israeli strikes in Lebanon, including in Beirut, according to the Ministry of Health, with Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz saying his country would continue to act “with determination” against Hezbollah.

Israel says it wants to disable Lebanese Hezbollah and Palestinian Hamas, allies of its enemy Iran. He vowed to destroy Hamas after the Islamist movement's unprecedented attack on his soil on October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in Gaza, and seeks to halt Hezbollah's rocket fire on his territory.

Before dawn, Beirut residents woke up to the sound of large explosions after Israeli strikes destroyed a building in the Basta neighborhood in the heart of Beirut, causing a huge crater.

– Search continues –

The Lebanese Ministry of Health reported at least 15 dead and 63 injured. Search operations are continuing to find victims under the rubble.

The Israeli army did not immediately comment on the strikes.

“We were sleeping and suddenly we heard three or four missiles. The strike was so powerful that I thought the building was going to collapse on us,” Samir, a resident of Basta, told AFP.

A Lebanese security source said that a “senior Hezbollah official was targeted” in the raid — without being able to say whether he had died — but a Hezbollah MP, Amin Cherri, denied that a Hezbollah leader had been targeted in Basta.

In recent months, Israel has virtually decimated the leadership of the armed movement by killing several of its leaders.

Rescuers carry the body of a victim from the rubble of a building destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in the Basta neighborhood in central Beirut, on November 23, 2024 © AFP – –

Several Israeli strikes also targeted the southern suburbs of Beirut, after calls to evacuate, according to the National News Agency (ANI).

In a statement, the Israeli army said it had targeted “Hezbollah command centers and other terrorist infrastructure” in the southern suburbs.

– “Act with determination” –

At least 38 people were also killed in Israeli strikes in the east and southern Lebanon, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health.

On October 8, 2023, the day after Hamas' attack on Israel, Hezbollah opened a “support front” for its Palestinian ally.

After a year of cross-border violence and after weakening Hamas in Gaza, which was constantly bombed, Israel shifted the heart of the fighting to Lebanon by launching an intense bombing campaign starting on September 23 on Hezbollah strongholds.

On September 30, the Israeli army began a ground offensive in southern Lebanon. A soldier was seriously injured Saturday in fighting in this region, according to her.

A cloud of smoke rises from the site of an Israeli strike in the southern suburbs of Beirut, from where the runways of the Lebanese capital's international airport can be seen, on November 23, 2024 © AFP – IBRAHIM AMRO

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Since October 8, 2023, more than 3,640 people have been killed in Lebanon, according to the health ministry, most since September 23.

Israel says it wants to push Hezbollah away from the border areas of southern Lebanon to allow the return of some 60,000 residents of the north of the country displaced by rocket fire.

In Lebanon, tens of thousands of residents have also been moved.

U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein traveled to Lebanon and Israel this week to try to secure a ceasefire.

On Saturday, in a telephone conversation with his American counterpart Lloyd Austin, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Israel would continue to “act decisively” against Hezbollah.

Mr. Austin reaffirmed that his country, Israel's main ally, was in favor of a “diplomatic solution in Lebanon.”

He also called on Israel to “improve the terrible humanitarian situation” in the Gaza Strip, where the approximately 2.4 million inhabitants besieged by Israel for more than a year are threatened with famine according to the UN.

– “Let them kill us all!” –

Palestinians search through the rubble of a building after an Israeli strike, on November 22, 2024 in Gaza City in the Gaza Strip © AFP – Omar AL-QATTAA

In the Gaza Strip, located on the southern border of Israel, the Israeli army carried out new bombardments that killed 19 Palestinians, according to the Defense civil.

“Our life is nothing but misery. Let them kill us all to relieve us of this suffering,” exclaimed Umm Mohammad Abu Sabla, the sister of one of the victims killed in a strike in Khan Younis.

On Saturday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan praised the “courageous decision” of the International Criminal Court, which issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, accused of crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza.

The court also issued an arrest warrant for Mohammed Deif, considered one of the masterminds of October 7, 2023. Israel announced that it had killed him in July in Gaza, but Hamas has not confirmed his deaths.

Hamas, which seized power in Gaza in 2007, is considered a terrorist group by Israel, the European Union and the United States.

In response to the Hamas attack, Israel launched a devastating military offensive in Gaza that left at least 44,176 people dead, mostly civilians, according to data from Hamas' health ministry, deemed reliable by the UN.

A Palestinian woman and girl cry outside the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, where the victims of an Israeli strike on Nousseirat were transferred, on November 21, 2024 © AFP – Bashar TALEB

The October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official data, including hostages killed or killed in captivity. That day, 251 people were kidnapped, 97 of whom remain hostages in Gaza, including 34 declared dead by the army.

The armed wing of Hamas announced on Saturday the death, in a combat zone in northern Gaza, of a hostage, a claim not confirmed by the Israeli army.

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