Middle East War: Israel Bombs Southern Lebanon, Ahead of Iran Response ?

Several Israeli raids target Beirut and southern Lebanon this Wednesday. The IDF bombed the Haret Hreik neighborhood after giving the order to evacuate the area.

The Essentials

• This Wednesday, October 16, just minutes after an order from the Israeli army to evacuate the area, a bombing hit the Shiite neighborhood of Haret Hreik in the south of the Lebanese capital, Beirut, according to images from the Frace-Presse Agency. “You are near Hezbollah-related installations and interests, against which the Israeli army will act in the near future,” the Israeli army said in a statement.
• The United States has threatened Israel with a cutoff of some military assistance if there is no significant improvement in humanitarian aid to Gaza. Washington has given the Hebrew state 30 days to act. The White House has also expressed its disagreement with the bombing of Beirut: “We have made it clear to Israel that we oppose the bombing campaign that has been launched in recent weeks in Beirut", saidé State Department spokesperson.
• The city of Nabatiyeh in southern Lebanon was also hit this Wednesday morning by a dozen Israeli strikes, the governor of the region told AFP. She said there were victims but the toll had not yet been released and spoke of a “ring of fire” around this city in southern Lebanon.
• On Tuesday, the tone rose between Emmanuel Macron and Benyamin Netanyahu. “Mr. Netanyahu must not forget that his country was created by a decision of the UN”, the French president said in the Council of Ministers. And his Israeli counterpart responded with a press release : “A reminder to the President of France: it was not the UN resolution that established the State of Israel, but rather the victory won in the War of Independence with the blood of heroic fighters, many of whom were Holocaust survivors − notably of the Vichy regime in France."

Latest updates

16:23 – An attack on Iranian nuclear sites by Israel ? It is "improbable" for the IAEA

The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) has called an Israeli attack on key nuclear facilities in Iran “highly unlikely,” in an interview with Iran's Nournews news agency. “In the event of an attack on a key site, rest assured it will not succeed,” Iran “can quickly compensate” any potential damage, one can also read.

16:01 – UK considers sanctions against two Israeli ministers

This Wednesday, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer declared, during a debate in the British Parliament, that he was considering imposing sanctions on Israeli ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir for “abhorrent remarks”. The day before, former British Foreign Secretary David Cameron had already judged the two ministers of the Hebrew state to be “extremists”. and “dangerous”. 

"We are looking at this because there are some undoubtedly abhorrent comments  (…)  and other very concerning actions in the West Bank and across the region,” Keir Starmer said, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP). As a reminder, last August, Bezalel Smotrich had declared that “letting the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip starve to death” could “be justified and moral to free the Israeli hostages” held since October 7, 2023. Remarks already condemned, at the time, by the United Kingdom.

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15:37 – Paris confirms that European countries “will remain engaged” in UNIFIL

This Wednesday, the European countries contributing to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), consider that its mission is “essential and fundamental” and that only the UN can decide to end it, indicated the Spanish Minister of Defense. The representatives of the UNIFIL countries have, in this sense, reaffirmed their willingness to maintain the mission of the Blue Helmets in Lebanon. France confirms that countries will “remain engaged in UNIFIL.

14:40 – Iran calls for “pressure” on Israel to stop “killings” in Gaza and Lebanon

“The president (Iranian, Massoud Pezeshkian) asked to put more pressure on the allies of the Zionist regime (Israel) to put an end to the killings in Gaza and Lebanon”, during a call with the Sultan of Oman,  Haïtham ben Tareq Al-Saïd, reports a press release from the Iranian presidency.

12:03 – The new death toll in Gaza

According to the Hamas-controlled health ministry in Gaza, the new death toll in the Palestinian enclave is 42,409 since the start of the war with Israel. In the last 24 hours, 65 people have been killed.

10:37 – Hezbollah arms depot bombed in Lebanon

The Israeli army said on Wednesday that it had bombed an underground Hezbollah weapons depot located under a building in the southern suburbs of Beirut. It had been six days since the IDF had targeted the Lebanese capital. “Prior to the strike, numerous measures were taken to limit the risk of harming civilians, including issuing warnings to the population of the sector,” the Israeli army said.

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42,409. This is the number of deaths in the Gaza Strip since the Hamas terrorist offensive on October 7, 2023 in Israel. A figure communicated by the Ministry of Health of the Hamas government, on Monday, October 14, 2024, which reveals the intensity of the fighting that has now lasted for more than a year. Over the months, tensions have intensified, and as of October 27, 2023, Israel extended its ground operation to Gaza. The goal for Netanyahu and the IDF is clear: to “annihilate” Hamas. A week-long ceasefire was nevertheless in place in November 2023. After a major leap forward, on April 13, 2024, Iran launched its first massive attack on Israel. Allied to Hamas, Iran then fired nearly 350 explosive drones and missiles at the Hebrew state. An attack in response to missiles fired at the embassy in Damascus in Syria on April 1, in which 11 people lost their lives, including seven Islamic Revolutionary Guards.

On Tuesday, September 17, 2024, a new type of attack broke into the war. Hezbollah pagers and walkie-talkies exploded. Twelve dead and nearly 3,000 injured were reported in Lebanon. Since its coordinated explosions, Israel has continued to strike Lebanon with air and ground raids. More than 1,000 people were killed in IDF strikes and thousands of Lebanese were forced to be displaced. On October 1, 2024, Iran responded by sending nearly 200 ballistic missiles directly to Israel. Since then, the two countries have been engaged in a merciless war, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatening on October 8, 2024 that Lebanon would experience “destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza” if the country's population did not “free itself” from Hezbollah. Remarks described as “provocation” by the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot.

On Monday, October 14, 2024, the Lebanese Hezbollah threatened Israel with new attacks in a statement. As a reminder, Hezbollah had struck Haifa two days earlier, killing four Israeli soldiers and injuring no fewer than 60. At the beginning of the week, the terrorist organization indicated that “the resistance (…) promises the enemy”. The raid carried out “south of Haifa is only a foretaste of what awaits it if it decides to continue its aggression against our people”, it threatens. According to Palestinian doctors quoted by the Associated Press, the courtyard of a hospital in the Gaza Strip was then shelled by the Israeli army, killing at least four people and setting fire to a camp for displaced people.