Lebanon
65 more Bangladeshis return from war-torn Lebanon; 31 others on the way
Sixty-five more Bangladeshi nationals evacuated from Lebanon arrived in Dhaka on Wednesday by a Saudi Arabian commercial flight.
The aircraft, SV-810, carrying the Bangladeshis, including women and children, landed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) this evening via Jeddah, according to a press release.
Besides, 31 more Bangladeshis have already left for Dhaka in SV-802 of the same airline.
On arrival at Dhaka airport, the repatriated Bangladeshi citizens were welcomed by the officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment, and the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Each repatriated Bangladeshi received financial assistance of Tk 5,000, along with food items and medical care.
1 day ago
Desperation grows in search for survivors of Beirut airstrike
Nearly 16 hours after an Israeli airstrike hit across the street from Beirut’s main public hospital, rescuers were still removing debris Tuesday from the overcrowded slum area. An excavator was digging at one of the destroyed buildings, picking out twisted metal and bricks in search for bodies.
Residents standing on mounds of debris said an entire family remained missing under the rubble.
Mohammad Ibrahim, a Sudanese national, came looking for his brother. “His mobile phone is still ringing. We are trying to search for him,” he said. “I don’t know if he is dead or alive.”
Hours later, health officials said five bodies had been recovered from under the rubble. At least 18 people were killed, including four children, and at least 60 wounded in the strike that also caused damage across the street at the Rafik Hariri University Hospital, the capital’s main public medical facility.
Jihad Saadeh, director of the Rafik Hariri Hospital, said the strike broke several glass windows and the solar panels of the medical facility, which continued to operate despite the damage and the panic. None of the staff was injured.
Saadeh said the hospital received no warning of the impending strike, just a few meters (yards) across the street. Neither did the residents of the slum area, where several buildings were crammed and which houses several migrant workers as well as working class Lebanese.
The Israeli military said it struck a Hezbollah target, without elaborating. It added had not targeted the hospital itself.
It was hard for rescue equipment to reach the area of clustered settlements and dusty narrow roads.
Nizar, one of the rescuers, said he had been at the site of the explosion since Monday night. “It was too dark and there was so much panic,” he said, giving only his first name in line with the rescue team’s regulations. “People didn’t understand yet what had happened.”
The overcrowded slum was covered in debris, furniture and remains of life poking out of the twisted metal and broken bricks. Residents who survived the massive explosion were still in shock, some still searching through the debris with their hands for their relatives or what is left of their lives. Gunmen stood guard at the site. The Lebanese Civil Defense said Tuesday five buildings were destroyed and 12 sustained severe damage. The dead included one Sudanese and at least one Syrian.
“This is a very crowded area; buildings are very close. The destruction is massive,” Nizar said, explaining that the scale of the damage made their rescue effort harder.
Across the street, the hospital was still treating a few of the injured. The morgue had received 13 bodies.
Hussein al-Ali, a nurse who was there when the attack happened, said it took him a few minutes to realize it was not the hospital that was hit. Dust and smoke covered the hospital lobby. The glass in the dialysis unit, the pharmacy and other rooms in the hospital was shattered. The false roof fell over his and his colleagues' heads.
“We were terrified. This is a crime,” said al-Ali. “It felt like judgement day.”
It took only minutes for the injured from across the street to start streaming in. Al-Ali said he had little time to breathe or reassure his terrified colleagues and the rattled patients.
“Staff and patients thought the strike was here. We fled outside as the injured were coming in,” he said. And when he was done admitting the injured, “we came out to carry our (killed) neighbors. They are our neighbors.”
Ola Eid survived the strike. She helped dig out her neighbors’ children from under the rubble, before realizing she herself was injured.
“The problem is we didn’t feel it. They didn’t inform us. We heard they want to strike al-Sahel hospital,” said Eid, bandaged and still in shock sitting at the hospital gate. Israel had hinted another hospital miles away could possibly be a target, alleging it is housing tunnels used by the Hezbollah militant group.
Eid, an actor, said she was playing with her neighbor’s kids when the first explosion hit. It knocked her to the floor and scattered the candy she was handing out to the kids. She stood up, not believing she was still alive, to find her neighbor’s kid soaked in blood. One was killed immediately; the other remained in intensive care.
At least 22 killed in airstrikes in central Beirut, with Israel also firing on UN peacekeepers
“I looked ahead and saw the kids torn apart and hurt,” she said. “The gas canisters were on fire. I didn’t know what to do — put out the fire or remove the kids.”
1 day ago
Israel says more strikes coming against Hezbollah-run financial institution
Israel said late Monday it planned to carry out more strikes in Lebanon against a Hezbollah-run financial institution that it targeted the night before and which it says uses customers' deposits to finance attacks against Israel.
At least 15 branches of Al-Qard Al-Hasan were hit late Sunday in the southern neighborhoods of Beirut, across southern Lebanon and in the eastern Bekaa Valley, where Hezbollah has a strong presence. One strike flattened a nine-story building in Beirut with a branch inside it.
The Israeli military issued evacuation warnings ahead of the strikes, and there were no reports of casualties.
UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon staying put despite Israeli warnings to move
Associated Press journalists witnessed strikes late Monday in the coastal region of Ouzai, near Beirut’s airport, and Lebanon’s Health Ministry said an airstrike near Beirut’s largest public hospital killed four, including a child, and wounded 24. It was the first strike on the Lebanese capital in 10 days.
Israeli ground forces invaded Lebanon earlier this month. The military said it aims to push Hezbollah out of southern Lebanon so that tens of thousands of Israelis can return to their homes nearby after more than a year of cross-border rocket and drone attacks. Israeli airstrikes have pounded large areas of Lebanon for weeks, forcing over a million people to flee their homes.
Hezbollah has been launching rockets into Israel nearly every day since Hamas' deadly raid into Israel last year that sparked the war in Gaza.
The United States is hoping to revive diplomatic efforts to resolve both conflicts after the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar last week, but so far all sides appear to be digging in.
Hezbollah-run lender filled gaps left by Lebanon's troubled banksThe Arabic language spokesman for the Israeli military, Avichay Adraee, said — without providing evidence — that Hezbollah stores hundreds of millions of dollars in the branches of Al-Qard Al-Hasan and that the money is used to purchase arms and pay fighters. The strikes were aimed at preventing the group from rearming, he said.
The institution, which has more than 30 branches across Lebanon, tried to reassure customers, saying it had evacuated all branches and relocated gold and other deposits to safe areas.
Many customers are civilians unaffiliated with Hezbollah. Al-Qard Al-Hasan, which is sanctioned by the United States and Saudi Arabia, has long served as an alternative to Lebanon's banks, which have imposed restrictions on customers since a severe financial crisis that began in 2019.
Israeli military spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said late Monday that Israel planned more strikes on Al-Qard al-Hasan.
Hagari said Iran funds Hezbollah by sending cash and gold to the Iranian embassy in Beirut, though he did not provide any evidence.
Hagari also said, without providing evidence, that Israeli intelligence had discovered a bunker belonging to former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah that is now being used as a vault under a hospital in southern Beirut. He said it held millions of dollars of gold and cash.
A member of Lebanon’s parliament who is the director of the hospital, Fadi Alameh, denied the claim, and said the hospital has underground operation rooms. Alameh said the hospital was being evacuated in anticipation of strikes.
Hagari said Israeli strikes in Beirut in early October and in Syria on Monday had also killed people responsible for transferring money between Iran and Hezbollah. Syrian state media said an Israeli airstrike hit a car in the capital of Damascus, killing two people and wounding three.
Israeli airstrikes killed 17 people in Lebanon on Monday, including four first responders, according to the country's health ministry. The Israeli military said Hezbollah fired 170 projectiles into Israel on Monday.
US envoy says UN resolution that ended past war is ‘no longer enough’U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein, who has spent much of the past year trying to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah, was back in Lebanon on Monday for talks with senior officials.
He said U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, was “no longer enough” to ensure peace and a new mechanism was needed to enforce it.
The resolution called for Hezbollah to withdraw from the border with Israel and for U.N. peacekeepers and the Lebanese army to control southern Lebanon, without any Hezbollah or Israeli presence.
Israel says the resolution was never implemented and that Hezbollah built up extensive military infrastructure right up to the border. Lebanon has long accused Israel of violating its airspace and failing to abide by other provisions of the resolution.
US tries to revive Gaza cease-fire talks after Sinwar’s deathThe United States has expressed hope that last week's killing of Hamas leader Sinwar could give new impetus for a cease-fire in Gaza, which would give a major boost to parallel efforts to halt the fighting in Lebanon.
The head of Israel’s Shin Bet security agency, Ronen Bar, visited Egypt for the second time in less than a week and met with Egyptian officials on Sunday, according to an Egyptian official who was not authorized to brief media and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The official said Egypt, a key mediator between Israel and Hamas, remains opposed to any Israeli presence along the Gaza-Egypt border, a key sticking point in talks that sputtered to a halt in August.
Hamas has said its demands remain unchanged after the killing of Sinwar. The militant group has said it will only release dozens of Israeli hostages in return for an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, a lasting cease-fire and the release of a large number of Palestinian prisoners.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to destroy Hamas and recover all the captives, and says Israel must maintain an open-ended security presence in Gaza to keep Hamas from rearming.
On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led militants blew holes in Israel’s security fence and stormed in, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250. Around 100 captives are still being held in Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who don’t distinguish combatants from civilians but say most of the dead were women and children. The war has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced about 90% of its population of 2.3 million people.
2 days ago
Govt to bring back willing expats in Lebanon first: Foreign Adviser
Foreign Affairs Md Touhid Hossain saidcon Thursday the government would bring back documented Bangladeshis first from Lebanon who want to return voluntarily.
Briefing reporters at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hossain said there are some Bangladeshis who are not willing to return despite knowing the danger as they are thinking of income sources once they return.
He also said there are some Bangladeshis who are not willing to return as they are working in safe areas.
The Adviser said the government is exploring both air and sea routes to ensure the safe return of Bangladeshis in phases, who got stuck in troubled Lebanon.
The Adviser said they are seeking cooperation from the International Organisation of Migration (IOM) in this regard.
Bangladesh to take steps to bring Hasina back following arrest warrant: Foreign Adviser
There are 70,000 to 1 lakh Bangladeshis in Lebanon and around 1800 got enrolled to return to Bangladesh.
Each batch of the returnees may consist of at least 50 Bangladeshis.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment are working together for the return of Bangladeshis trapped in war-torn Lebanon.
The government is working closely with all concerned to bring back all the Bangladeshis who wish to return from Lebanon safely, said the foreign ministry.
Earlier, an inter-ministerial meeting was held with the participation of Foreign Secretary Md Jashim Uddin, Expatriates’ Welfare Secretary Md Ruhul Amin and Managing Director and CEO of Biman Bangladesh Airlines Limited Dr Md Shafiqur Rahman.
Bangladesh's mission heads assigned to the Middle East joined the meeting on the Zoom platform.
Steps taken to ensure the safe return of Bangladeshis from war-hit Lebanon, said the ministry.
Italy suspends validity of work permit for Bangladeshis, other nationals
The Foreign Secretary has issued necessary instructions to the Bangladeshi Ambassador in Lebanon to take necessary measures for the safe return of the stranded Bangladeshis.
He also gave instructions to ensure the safety of all the expatriate Bangladeshis staying there who do not wish to return to the country.
A notification was issued to enroll Bangladeshis who wish to return from the embassy and initially about a thousand migrant workers are said to be willing to return home.
1 week ago
Bangladesh to initiate safe return of citizens from Lebanon
The government has taken an initiative to ensure the safe return of Bangladeshis in phases, who got stuck in troubled Lebanon, with the first batch's likely arrival on October 21.
The first batch may consist of at least 50 Bangladeshis, including injured, women, and children, an official told UNB, adding that they may come to Dhaka via Jeddah, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Around 1,800 Bangladeshis have already shown interest to return and got enrolled with the Bangladesh Embassy.
Israeli strikes kill at least 15 in Qana, Lebanon
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment are working together for the return of Bangladeshis trapped in war-torn Lebanon.
The government is working closely with all concerned to bring back all the Bangladeshis who wish to return from Lebanon safely, said the foreign ministry.
Earlier, an inter-ministerial meeting was held with the participation of Foreign Secretary Md Jashim Uddin, Expatriates’ Welfare Secretary Md Ruhul Amin and Managing Director and CEO of Biman Bangladesh Airlines Limited Dr. Md. Shafiqur Rahman.
Bangladesh mission heads assigned to the Middle East joined the meeting on the Zoom platform.
Steps taken to ensure safe return of Bangladeshis from war-hit Lebanon: MoFA
The Foreign Secretary has issued necessary instructions to the Bangladeshi ambassador in Lebanon to take necessary measures for the safe return of the stranded Bangladeshis.
He also gave necessary instructions to ensure the safety of all the expatriate Bangladeshis staying there who do not wish to return to the country.
A notification was issued to enroll Bangladeshis who wish to return from the embassy and initially about a thousand migrant workers are said to be willing to return home.
1 week ago
Israeli strikes kill at least 15 in Qana, Lebanon
Israeli airstrikes have claimed the lives of at least 15 people in the southern Lebanese town of Qana, a location historically linked to civilian casualties from Israeli attacks. This marks a significant escalation, as Israel also targeted Beirut's southern suburbs early Wednesday for the first time in nearly a week.
The strikes in Qana occurred late Tuesday, with Lebanon's Civil Defense reporting that 15 bodies were recovered from the rubble and rescue operations were ongoing. The Israeli military has not commented on the incident.
Qana has a tragic history; in 1996, an Israeli attack on a UN compound in the town resulted in the deaths of over 100 civilians. During the 2006 conflict, another strike killed nearly three dozen people, including many children, with Israel claiming it targeted a Hezbollah launcher.
In Beirut, the recent strikes followed a six-day hiatus and came after assurances from the United States to Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati that Israel would reduce its attacks on the capital. The strikes reportedly targeted an arms warehouse beneath a residential building, though the military did not provide evidence for this claim.
Read more: UN says deadly Israeli strike in northern Lebanon should be investigated
Hezbollah has intensified its rocket attacks on Israel since October 8, in support of Hamas following the latter's surprise assault that ignited the current war in Gaza. Ongoing hostilities have displaced around 1.2 million people in Lebanon, with about 2,300 fatalities reported from Israeli strikes, primarily in the past month.
Hezbollah has vowed to continue its attacks until a cease-fire in Gaza is achieved, a resolution that seems increasingly unlikely after stalled negotiations.
Meanwhile, in Gaza, the death toll from Israeli operations has surpassed 42,000, with a significant portion being women and children. Hospitals have reported around 350 bodies received since the escalation began on October 6, with many casualties remaining trapped under rubble.
The situation remains dire, as extensive military actions have devastated large areas, displacing 90% of Gaza's population.
1 week ago
UN says deadly Israeli strike in northern Lebanon should be investigated
An Israeli airstrike on an apartment building in northern Lebanon that killed at least 22 people needs to be independently investigated, the United Nations’ human rights office said Tuesday.
“We have real concerns with respect to … the laws of war,” Jeremy Laurence, a spokesperson for the U.N.'s human rights office said a day after the strike, as rescue workers searching through the rubble found more bodies and remains. Laurence said the U.N. had received credible reports that a dozen women and children were among the dead.
The Israeli military said it “struck a target belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist organization" and that it would look into reports of civilian deaths.
The apartment building hit in the airstrike was in the small village of Aito, in the country’s Christian heartland and far from Hezbollah’s main areas of influence in Lebanon's south and east. The strike was a shock to residents, and it exacerbated fears that Israel would expand its offensive deeper into Lebanon.
“I heard a loud noise, like a boom,” said Dany Alwan, who lives next door. “We ran outside, I saw the dust and the smoke and the rubble. There was a body here, another one there. It was a really ugly and painful scene.”
The three-story building had been rented out to the Hijazi family, which fled their home in the southern village of Aitaroun, according to Elie Alwan, Dany Alwan's brother and the building's owner. Some 1.2 million people have fled southern and eastern Lebanon, where the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has been concentrated.
Read: Israeli strike in northern Lebanon kills at least 21 people
As rescue workers rummaged through the debris on Tuesday, they found the body of a child, and later a small leg and other remains that they put together in a white bag. The Lebanese military watched as a bulldozer cleared heaps of twisted steel, destroyed olive trees, and crushed rocks.
Hezbollah's acting leader vows to step up strikes against Israel
Earlier on Tuesday, the acting leader of Hezbollah said the militant group would fire rockets into more areas of Israel until it ceases its airstrikes and ends its ground invasion of Lebanon.
Naim Kassem said Hezbollah is focused on “hurting the enemy,” comments made in a pre-recorded televised speech delivered on the same day the United States said it sent a small team of troops to Israel to support an American-made missile-defense system.
Hezbollah has fired thousands of rockets into Israel over the past year in support of Hamas' war with Israel in Gaza. Tens of thousands of northern Israelis have been displaced from their homes by those attacks — and Israel has said its war with Hezbollah is aimed at stopping those rockets so families can return home.
On Tuesday, Kassem signaled that Hezbollah would ramp up attacks further south in Israel, which it has already done by targeting Tel Aviv and Haifa. Kassem has headed the militant group since Sept. 27, when its longtime leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was assassinated in an Israeli airstrike.
Hezbollah began targeting Israel with rockets on Oct. 8, 2023, a day after the Hamas attack on Israel that left 1,200 dead and 250 as hostages in Gaza.
Israel's ensuing war against Hamas has left more than 42,000 people dead in Gaza, according to local health officials. They do not differentiate between fighters and civilians, but have said a little more than half the dead are women and children. Hezbollah has insisted it will continue to target Israel until a cease-fire in Gaza is reached.
“We cannot separate Lebanon from Palestine, or Palestine from the world,” Kassem said.
Read more: Israeli strike in Beirut kills 9 as troops battle Hezbollah in southern Lebanon
Also on Tuesday, Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder announced the arrival of U.S. troops in Israel on Monday. The team will operate a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense battery there to defend against ballistic missile attacks from Iran, which backs both Hezbollah and Hamas, and has launched two missile attacks on Israel.
“Over the coming days, additional U.S. military personnel and THAAD battery components will continue to arrive in Israel,” Ryder said.
Iran has warned U.S. troops would be in harm’s way if they launch another attack.
In Lebanon, Israel's bombardment and ground invasion have displaced more than 400,000 children in the past three weeks, according to Ted Chaiban, deputy executive director at UNICEF, the U.N. children's agency.
1 week ago
UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon are in the crosshairs of Israel’s war on Hezbollah
The U.N. peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon said Israeli tanks “forcibly entered” one of its positions on Sunday, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanded it leave the area.
International criticism is growing after Israeli forces have repeatedly fired on U.N. peacekeepers since the start of its ground operation in Lebanon. Five peacekeepers have been wounded in attacks that struck their positions in recent days, most of them blamed on Israeli forces.
As Israel escalates its ground invasion against Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon, the 10,000-strong peacekeeping force is increasingly in the crosshairs.
Relations have worsened between Israel and the United Nations over the way Israel has conducted its war in Gaza. In an unprecedented move, Israel earlier this month said the U.N. secretary-general was persona non grata in Israel.
The spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres called Sunday's events “deeply worrying.” Netanyahu called for UNIFIL to heed Israel’s warnings to evacuate, accusing them of “providing a human shield” to Hezbollah.
Read: Heavy Israeli bombardment in northern Gaza as UN peacekeepers in Lebanon hit again
Here’s a look at the U.N. force and the latest developments:
What is UNIFIL?
The U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon was created in 1978 to oversee the withdrawal of Israeli troops after Israel invaded and occupied southern Lebanon. Israel invaded again in 1982, and it wasn't until 2000 that it withdrew.
In the absence of an agreed-upon border, the U.N. drew up a boundary between Lebanon and Israel known as the Blue Line, which UNIFIL monitors and patrols.
The United Nations expanded UNIFIL’s mission following the monthlong 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, allowing peacekeepers to deploy along the Israeli border to monitor the cessation of hostilities and patrol a buffer zone along the border.
The force currently has around 10,000 peacekeepers in southern Lebanon drawn from around 50 countries. They patrol, monitor and report violations of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 fighting. The force also provides support to local communities.
What are the latest developments?
Tensions have been mounting since Israel launched its ground invasion of Lebanon earlier this month. Israel asked UNIFIL to move its personnel further north, and the peacekeeping force refused.
On Thursday, UNIFIL said an Israeli tank “directly” fired on its headquarters in the town of Naqoura, knocking down an observation tower and injuring two Indonesian peacekeepers. It said its headquarters and nearby positions “have been repeatedly hit” and Israel “deliberately” fired on and disabled the headquarters’ monitoring cameras.
On Friday, UNIFIL said new explosions hit its headquarters, injuring two peacekeepers, although it did not directly blame Israel. It also said an Israeli army bulldozer hit the perimeter of another position in southern Lebanon while Israeli tanks moved nearby.
On Saturday, UNIFIL said its headquarters in Naqoura was hit again, with a peacekeeper struck by gunfire late Friday and in stable condition. It wasn’t clear who fired.
On Sunday, UNIFIL said two Israeli tanks broke into a base and later fired smoke rounds near peacekeepers there. It said 15 U.N. peacekeepers had skin irritation and gastrointestinal reactions. The Israeli troops stayed for 45 minutes, putting the mission in danger, the statement said.
What has Israel said?
The Israeli army has expressed deep concern over Thursday's incident and said it is conducting a thorough review at the highest levels of command. On Friday, it said its soldiers were responding with fire to an immediate threat against them. It didn't respond to questions Saturday.
On Sunday, Israel’s military said a tank trying to evacuate wounded soldiers backed into a U.N. post while under fire. It said a smoke screen was used to provide cover.
Read more: At least 22 killed in airstrikes in central Beirut, with Israel also firing on UN peacekeepers
Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, an army spokesman, asserted that Israel has only aimed at Hezbollah, and said Israel has tried to maintain constant contact with UNIFIL.
The military has asserted that Hezbollah operates in the vicinity of the peacekeepers, without providing evidence. Late Sunday, it asserted that Hezbollah had launched about 25 rockets and missiles from compounds near UNIFIL posts in the past month, with one attack killing two soldiers.
“We regret the injury to the UNIFIL soldiers, and we are doing everything in our power to prevent this injury," Netanyahu said Sunday. "But the simple and obvious way to ensure this is simply to get them out of the danger zone,” he added in a video addressed to the U.N. secretary-general.
Israel has long accused the United Nations of being biased against it, and relations have plunged further since the start of the war in Gaza.
On Sunday, Israel's military showed The Associated Press what it said was a pair of tunnel entrances and a small arms cache used by Hezbollah a few hundred meters (yards) from UNIFIL watchtowers along the border. Brig. Gen. Yiftach Norkin said it should have been visible to UNIFIL.
The entrances were also within sight of an Israeli military outpost on the border. The entire AP visit was under military escort.
How does this affect the mission?
Israel's demands for the peacekeepers to evacuate the border area and move north would effectively impede the force from doing its mission.
The U.N. peacekeeping chief, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, told the U.N. Security Council on Thursday that UNIFIL wouldn't evacuate its personnel, but because of air and ground attacks it can't conduct patrols.
He said UNIFIL operations have virtually come to a halt since late September, when Israel expanded its campaign against Hezbollah. He added that the security environment has also challenged the resupply of fuel, food and water for U.N. positions.
Lacroix later said 300 peacekeepers in front-line positions had been temporarily moved to larger bases. He said UNIFIL had decided to reduce its footprint “at the most affected U.N. positions by 25%.” On Oct. 3, he told reporters that in some places in southern Lebanon, the number of peacekeepers had been reduced by about 20%.
1 week ago
UN official appeals for Lebanon's ports and airport to be spared as Israel presses its offensive
A top United Nations official said during a visit to Beirut Saturday that he is concerned that Lebanon's ports and airport might be taken out of service, with serious implications for getting food supplies into the county, as Israel continues its offensive against the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
“What I have seen and heard today is devastating, but the sense is that this can get much worse still, and that needs to be avoided,” said Carl Skau, deputy executive director of the U.N. World Food Program, in an interview with The Associated Press.
He appealed for “all diplomatic efforts possible to try to find a political solution” to the war and for supply lines to remain open.
“We have huge concerns and there are many, but one of them is indeed that we need the ports and we need the supply routes to continue to be able to operate,” Skau said.
In Gaza, where Israel has been at war with Hamas since the Palestinian militant group launched a deadly incursion into southern Israel a year ago, hunger has skyrocketed as humanitarian organizations have complained of major obstacles to getting food and other supplies into the blockaded enclave.
Skau said he believes that Israeli authorities had given “commitments” that in Lebanon, the ports and airport would not be taken out of commission.
“But of course, this is a very changing environment. So we don’t take anything for granted,” he said.
In recent weeks, Israel has escalated its aerial bombardment and launched a ground invasion in Lebanon.
Read: Heavy Israeli bombardment in northern Gaza as UN peacekeepers in Lebanon hit again
About 1.2 million people are displaced in Lebanon, according to government estimates, of whom some 200,000 are staying in collective shelters, where the WFP is supplying them with meals.
Skau noted that food prices have already increased as a result of the conflict, although Lebanon's sole international airport and its main sea ports are still functioning. The WFP had stocked up enough food to supply 1 million people -- about one-fifth of Lebanon's population -- for up to a month, he said, but now is trying to build up supplies that could feed that number through the end of the year.
“We will, of course, be having to restock, and for that, the ports will be critical and other supply lines,” he said.
For instance, the agency has been bringing food in from Jordan through Syria into Lebanon by land, he said. Earlier this month, an Israeli strike on the road to the main border crossing between Lebanon and Syria cut off access to that crossing.
Since the Masnaa crossing was struck, people fleeing Lebanon have continued to cross on foot, while vehicles -- including those bringing supplies for the WFP -- have had to use another crossing in the far north of the country, making the journey more arduous and expensive.
Skau appealed for the Masnaa crossing to be reopened.
Lebanese General Security, which oversees border crossings, has recorded 320,184 Syrians and 117,727 Lebanese citizens crossing into Syria since Sept. 23, when the major escalation in Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon started.
Read more: At least 22 killed in airstrikes in central Beirut, with Israel also firing on UN peacekeepers
The influx comes at a time when the WFP has reduced its food assistance in Syria as a result of funding shortages.
“We’ve gone over the past two years from assisting some 6 million people to around 1.5 (million),” Skau said. “And with that, of course, our capacity has been tightened and now we need to scale up again.”
1 week ago
Heavy Israeli bombardment in northern Gaza as UN peacekeepers in Lebanon hit again
Palestinians in northern Gaza described heavy Israeli bombardment Saturday in the hours after airstrikes killed at least 22 people, as Israel warned people there and in southern Lebanon to get out of the way of offensives against the Hamas and Hezbollah militant groups.
In Lebanon, the U.N. peacekeeping force said its headquarters in Naqoura was hit again, with a peacekeeper struck by gunfire late Friday and in stable condition. It wasn’t clear who fired. It occurred a day after Israel’s military fired on the headquarters for a second straight day. Israel, which has warned peacekeepers to leave their positions, didn’t immediately respond to questions.
Hunger warnings emerged again in northern Gaza as residents said they hadn't received aid since the beginning of the month. The U.N. World Food Program said no food aid had entered the north since Oct. 1. An estimated 400,000 people remain there.
Israel’s military renewed its offensive in northern Gaza almost a week ago while escalating its air and ground campaign against the Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon. Amid Israel's war with Hezbollah, a top U.N. official, Carl Skau, told The Associated Press he's concerned that Lebanon’s ports and airport might be taken out of service. More than 1 million people have been displaced.
Israel’s military said Hezbollah fired more than 300 projectiles over Yom Kippur, the holiest and most solemn day on the Jewish calendar. Hezbollah claimed a series of rocket strikes on Israeli military positions and said fighters engaged an Israeli infantry unit attempting to enter Lebanese territory.
Israel's military also said it killed 50 militants in Lebanon. Claims on either side couldn’t be verified.
Israeli airstrikes on Saturday hit multiple areas in southern and eastern Lebanon, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. Nine were killed in Maisra village in the northeast. Four were killed in an apartment building on the edge of Barja south of Beirut. Rayak and Tal Chiha hospitals in the Bekaa Valley were damaged. In Nabatieh, eight people were wounded.
The total toll in Lebanon over the past year of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah is now 2,255 killed, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. More than 1,400 people have been killed since mid-September. It isn't clear how many were fighters.
Read: Israel intensifies bombardment of Gaza and southern Lebanon ahead of Oct. 7 anniversary
“We will keep standing with the Lebanese people during these difficult circumstances and also with the Palestinian people,” the speaker of Iran’s parliament, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, said Saturday while touring the scene of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut.
Some Gaza residents are trapped
In northern Gaza, residents told the AP many were trapped in their homes and shelters with dwindling supplies while seeing bodies uncollected in the streets as the bombing hampered emergency responders.
Those who rushed to the scene of the latest deadly airstrikes in the urban refugee camp of Jabaliya found a hole 20 meters (65 feet) deep where a home once stood.
At least 20 bodies were recovered while others likely were under rubble, emergency service officials said.
Elsewhere in Jabaliya, a strike on a home killed two brothers and wounded a woman and newborn baby, the officials said. An afternoon strike on a home killed at least four people, including a woman, said Fares Abu Hamza, an official with the emergency service.
Israel’s military said it killed more than 20 militants in the Jabaliya area over the past day.
Military spokesperson Avichay Adraee told people in parts of Jabaliya and Gaza City to evacuate south to an Israeli-designated humanitarian zone as Israel plans to use great force “and will continue to do so for a long time.”
Israel has repeatedly returned to parts of Gaza as Hamas and other militants regroup. The war has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced around 90% of its population of 2.3 million people, often multiple times.
Once again, some families moved south on foot, in donkey carts or crowded in vehicles that navigated piles of rubble. Others refused to go.
“It’s like the first days of the war,” said a Jabaliya resident, Ahmed Abu Goneim. “The occupation is doing everything to uproot us. But we will not leave.”
The 24-year-old said Israeli warplanes and drones struck many neighboring houses in the past week. He counted 15 relatives and neighbors, including four women and five children as young as 3, killed in neighboring homes.
Read more: Israel expands its bombardment in Lebanon as thousands flee widening war
Hamza Sharif, who stays with his family in a school-turned-shelter in Jabaliya, described “constant bombings day and night.”
He said the shelter hasn't received aid since the beginning of the month and that families “will run out of supplies very soon.”
Food is running out
The World Food Program said it was unclear how long the limited food supplies it distributed in northern Gaza earlier will last.
The U.N.’s independent investigator on the right to food last month accused Israel of carrying out a “starvation campaign” against Palestinians, which Israel has denied.
Israel's offensive in Gaza started after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, when militants stormed into Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250 others.
Israel’s offensive has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who don't specify between combatants and civilians. Gaza’s Health Ministry said that hospitals had received the bodies of 49 people killed over the past 24 hours.
The U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III spoke with Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant on Saturday to express his “deep concern” about reports that Israeli forces fired on UN peacekeeping positions in Lebanon, as well as the reported death of two Lebanese soldiers, according to a Pentagon statement.
Austin said it was important to ensure the safety and security of UNIFIL forces and Lebanese Armed Forces, and “reinforced the need to pivot from military operations in Lebanon to a diplomatic pathway as soon as feasible," according to the statement.
The U.S. Secretary of Defense also said steps must be taken to address the humanitarian situation in Gaza, and reaffirmed the United States' “unwavering, enduring, and ironclad commitment to Israel's security,” according to the statement.
1 week ago