Lebanon’s Hezbollah has chosen Sheikh Naim Kassem to succeed longtime chief Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike final month, because the militant group vowed Tuesday to proceed “till victory is achieved.”
Kassem, 71, who had been Nasrallah’s deputy chief for over three many years, was elected the brand new secretary-general of Hezbollah by its decision-making Shura Council, the group stated in a press release.
Lebanon’s Well being Ministry reported that greater than 2,700 individuals had been killed and almost 12,600 wounded since Oct. 8, 2023, when Hezbollah started firing rockets into Israel, drawing retaliation. Israeli floor forces invaded southern Lebanon firstly of October.
The demise toll from greater than a yr of the Israel-Hamas warfare in Gaza has handed 43,000, Palestinian officers reported Monday, with out distinguishing between civilians and combatants. The Israel-Hamas warfare started after Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 individuals — principally civilians — and abducting 250 others.
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BEIRUT — A minimum of one particular person was killed by two Israeli strikes in Sidon in south Lebanon, marking the second such assault on the historic coastal metropolis because the current escalation between Hezbollah and Israel, Lebanese state media reported.
In response to the Nationwide Information Company, the strikes hit an space housing displaced those that was adjoining to a Hezbollah complicated known as Sayyed Shohada, positioned a couple of hundred meters from a Lebanese military barracks. 4 different individuals had been wounded within the strike. The meant goal of the strikes stays unclear and the variety of casualties is anticipated to rise.
Earlier Tuesday, the Israeli navy had issued evacuation orders for 16 villages in South Lebanon, instructing residents to maneuver north of the Awali River; nonetheless there was no warning issued previous to the strikes in Sidon.
JERUSALEM – Rights group Amnesty Worldwide slammed the Israeli parliament’s resolution to limit operations of the U.N. company serving to Palestinian refugees.
“This unconscionable legislation is an outright assault on the rights of Palestinian refugees. It’s clearly designed to make it unimaginable for the company to function within the occupied Palestinian territory,” Amnesty’s secretary-general, Agnès Callamard, stated. “It quantities to the criminalization of humanitarian support and can worsen an already catastrophic humanitarian disaster.”
Callamard stated UNRWA performs an indispensable position in offering meals, water, medical providers, shelter and training in Gaza. She urged the worldwide group to sentence the laws and press for its repeal.
“This appalling, inhumane legislation will solely exacerbate the struggling of Palestinians, who’ve endured unimaginable hardship because the horrific assaults by Hamas and different armed teams in southern Israel one yr in the past, and whose want for world help is bigger than ever,” she stated.
GENEVA — A number of United Nations businesses rallied Tuesday round their fellow group that gives support to Palestinian refugees after Israel’s parliament took steps to ban it within the coming months.
The World Meals Program is deeply involved concerning the restrictions, spokeswoman Abeer Etefa stated Tuesday when requested whether or not the WFP would possibly take up the work of UNRWA.
“The World Meals Program’s mandate is to ship meals help to individuals in want,” she stated. “WFP can’t substitute the equally vital crucial capabilities of UNRWA in Gaza, together with the operating of shelters and well being clinics.”
Spokesman Tarik Jasarevic of the World Well being Group stated 3,000 of UNRWA’s roughly 13,000 employees are well being staff. These well being employees have offered greater than 6 million medical consultations from its facilities over the past yr. Actions embrace immunizations, illness surveillance, and screening for malnutrition, and UNRWA’s work “couldn’t be matched by any company — together with WHO.”
Spokespeople from U.N. businesses for youngsters, well being and migration had been amongst those that harassed that UNRWA is the “spine” of the world physique’s operations in Gaza,
Jeremy Laurence, spokesman for the U.N. human rights workplace, stated that “with out UNRWA, the supply of meals, shelter, well being care, training, amongst different issues, to most of Gaza’s inhabitants would grind to a halt.”
“Civilians have already paid the heaviest value of this battle over the previous yr,” he stated. “Cruelly, this resolution will solely make issues worse for them”
BEIRUT — Evaluation from a humanitarian group working in Lebanon forecasts two eventualities in its report on the Hezbollah-Israel battle, each predicting a extreme financial contraction in Lebanon by early 2025.
Mercy Corps’ Lebanon Disaster Evaluation Staff says Israel’s continued strikes on suspected Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, with out blocking key infrastructure, will nonetheless convey extreme financial and humanitarian dangers.
Lebanon’s economic system may contract by 12.81% , or $2.305 billion by January 2025, with impacts hitting agriculture, manufacturing, and providers arduous within the South and Bekaa Valley.
Agriculture in South Lebanon, which drives 80% of its economic system, might come to a halt, whereas factories face shutdowns, the report says. “The Bekaa Valley, chargeable for 2% of nationwide GDP, will see related disruptions, with 70% of farmland below risk and plenty of Syrian laborers fleeing,” it provides.
The service sector, significantly tourism, stands to lose $1.256 billion, probably crippling a significant a part of the economic system.
If Israel imposes a stricter blockade and expands bombings to key infrastructure, Lebanon’s financial loss may rise to 21.9% of GDP, or $3.938 billion, in keeping with the report.
Over 1.5 million individuals could possibly be displaced, with political and intercommunal tensions intensifying as Shia Muslims flee to numerous spiritual areas which can be majority Christian, Druze or Sunni Muslim, the report provides.
Already, 1.2 million individuals have been displaced from villages in southern and japanese Lebanon in addition to Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Lebanon, already enduring a five-year financial disaster marked by a extreme forex collapse, had simply begun exhibiting indicators of restoration earlier than the warfare erupted.
PARIS — France “deeply deplores” the adoption by the Israeli Parliament of two payments geared toward banning the actions of the U.N. company for Palestinian refugees on Israeli soil, the French international ministry stated.
“The implementation of those payments would have very severe penalties on the humanitarian state of affairs in Gaza, which is already catastrophic, but additionally all through the occupied Palestinian territories, depriving tons of of 1000’s of civilians of important support by way of shelter, care, training and meals,” the assertion stated.
France “reaffirms its help to UNRWA” and can proceed to “be certain that the reforms wanted” to make sure its neutrality are applied, the French international ministry stated.
VIENNA — Eight Austrian troopers serving within the U.N. pressure in Lebanon had been evenly injured in a missile strike on the Naqoura camp on Tuesday, Austrian authorities stated.
Protection Ministry spokesperson Michael Bauer wrote on social community X that the incident occurred Tuesday lunchtime. He stated it wasn’t instantly clear who was chargeable for the strike.
The accidents had been “mild and superficial scrapes,” Bauer stated.
UNIFIL stated in a press release that the rocket that hit its headquarters in Naqoura this afternoon was fired from the north, “doubtless by Hezbollah or an affiliated group.”
“Peacekeepers weren’t in bunkers on the time. Whereas some peacekeepers suffered minor accidents, happily, nobody was significantly injured,” the assertion added.
UNIFIL spokesperson Dany Ghafary confirmed to the Related Press that it was the identical episode that injured eight Austrian U.N. peacekeepers.
“Now we have opened an investigation into the incident. We remind Hezbollah and all actors of their obligations to make sure the protection and safety of UN personnel and property,” the assertion stated.
TEL AVIV, Israel — The Israeli navy stated that 4 troopers had been killed Tuesday in battle within the northern Gaza Strip.
The navy didn’t disclose the precise circumstances behind the deaths.
Israel has refocused its offensive in Gaza on the territory’s hard-hit north, which was an early goal of the warfare. Troopers have been conducting raids and strikes to focus on what the navy says are pockets of militancy.
Greater than 360 troopers have been killed since Israel launched its floor invasion in Gaza final yr in response to Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 assaults on southern Israel.
NICOSIA, Cyprus — The international ministers of Cyprus and Luxembourg say the U.N. company for Palestinian refugees is “indispensable” to offering meals, training and well being care to Palestinians and that the worldwide group should do no matter it may well to allow the company to proceed its work.
Cyprus’ prime diplomat Constantinos Kombos stated after talks together with his Luxembourgian counterpart Xavier Bettel on Tuesday that the work of UNRWA is “extraordinarily helpful” all through the Center East, calling its supply of humanitarian support to Gaza “crucial.”
Bettel stated “there isn’t a different” to UNWRA’s work to assist individuals in Palestine as a result of with out the company, “there isn’t a training, there isn’t a well being, there isn’t a meals.”
The diplomats made the remarks after the Israeli parliament on Monday handed two legal guidelines that might forestall UNRWA from with the ability to proceed its work. The legal guidelines ban the company from working and lower all ties between it and the Israeli authorities.
Bettel stated his nation would proceed to help UNWRA and would elevate the problem in his conferences together with his Israeli counterpart and the president of the Israeli parliament when he visits Israel later Tuesday. He may also meet with the Palestinian prime minister and UNWRA officers.
GENEVA — A UNICEF spokesman says the transfer by Israeli’s parliament to ban the U.N. company for Palestinian refugees “implies that a brand new approach has been discovered to kill youngsters.”
James Elder says an incapability for the refugee company, UNRWA, to function “would doubtless see the collapse of the humanitarian system in Gaza” and the U.N. youngsters’s company “would develop into successfully unable to distribute lifesaving provides.”
He stated that might impede deliveries of vaccines, winter garments, hygiene kits, well being kits, water, and ready-to-use therapeutic meals to fight malnutrition.
Elder stated a choice just like the one by the Israeli parliament, or Knesset, “all of a sudden implies that a brand new approach has been discovered to kill youngsters.”
GENEVA — The director-general of the Worldwide Group for Migration, Amy Pope, stated that the United Nations physique shouldn’t be able to absolutely filling a spot left by UNRWA, which she described as “completely important.”
“They supply, training. They supply well being care. They supply among the most simple wants, for individuals who have been residing there for many years,” Pope stated of UNRWA. “That’s not one thing that IOM does what IOM does properly.”
She stated IOM is ready to help with ongoing humanitarian help, equivalent to providing assist to displaced individuals and offering shelter and hygiene kits.
“There’s no approach for IOM to step in to do what UNRWA has executed. UNRWA is totally important to the individuals of Gaza, and I don’t wish to depart anybody with the misimpression that IOM can play that position, as a result of we can’t,” she stated.
TEL AVIV, Israel — Israeli authorities stated Tuesday one particular person was killed after a projectile launched from Lebanon slammed right into a northern metropolis.
The Israeli navy stated about 50 projectiles had been launched from Lebanon into Israel. It stated among the launches had been intercepted by Israel’s aerial protection system and others fell within the space.
Israeli police stated they obtained a lot of studies of fallen projectiles, which prompted harm to property, within the metropolis of Maalot-Tarshiha. The Israeli rescue service Magen David Adom stated a person was killed within the strike.
The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah stated it fired rockets towards the realm.
Hezbollah has fired 1000’s of rockets into Israel since Oct. 8, 2023, when it started attacking Israel in solidarity with Hamas a day after its cross-border assault. Combating between Israel and Hezbollah has intensified in current weeks after Israel launched a floor invasion into Lebanon.
ISTANBUL — Turkey’s Overseas Ministry known as Israel’s resolution to ban the United Nations Reduction and Works Company for Palestine Refugees within the Close to East a “clear violation of worldwide legislation.”
In a press release Tuesday, the Turkish Overseas Ministry stated the transfer undermines efforts towards a two-state answer and obstructs the proper of return for Palestinian refugees.
“By concentrating on UNRWA, Israel goals to get rid of the two-state answer and stop the return of Palestinian refugees to their homeland,” the assertion learn.
Israel accuses the company of turning a blind eye to employees members it says belong to Hamas, divert support and use UNRWA services for navy functions. Israel says round a dozen of the company’s 13,000 staff in Gaza participated within the Oct. 7, 2023, assault on southern Israel. The company denies it knowingly aids armed teams and says it acts rapidly to purge any suspected militants amongst its employees.
The company is the most important distributor of support in Gaza and gives training, well being and different primary providers to hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees throughout the area, together with within the Israeli-occupied West Financial institution.
“It’s the authorized and ethical obligation of the worldwide group to take a robust stance towards makes an attempt to ban the actions of UNRWA,” the ministry added, noting that the company was created by a U.N. Common Meeting decision.
Turkey, which presently chairs the UNRWA’s Working Group on Financing, pledged to proceed its help for the company.
JERUSALEM — Christian Assist, a British charity, criticized the Israeli parliamentary resolution to limit the work of UNRWA.
“Severing this lifeline in Gaza as winter threatens to exacerbate an already determined state of affairs is merciless and harmful,” the group’s Center East head, William Bell, stated in a press release Tuesday.
Israeli lawmakers handed two legal guidelines Monday that might threaten the work of the United Nations company for Palestinian refugees. UNRWA is the biggest support supplier in Gaza, however the legal guidelines would sever Israel’s ties with the company and bar it from working on Israeli soil, elevating considerations about whether or not it may proceed to supply primary providers in each Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Financial institution.
Bell alleged that the transfer is a part of Israel’s “ongoing problem to the eligibility of Palestinian refugees to assert the proper of return” in Israel and occupied Palestinian territories.
“As soon as once more worldwide leaders have both been unable or unwilling to guard probably the most primary rights of Palestinians, together with their existence as a sovereign individuals,” he stated.
BEIRUT — Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group says it has chosen Naim Kassem to exchange its slain chief Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in September in an Israeli airstrike.
Kassem, a longtime deputy to Nasrallah, has served because the militant group’s performing chief since Nasrallah’s demise. His appointment to exchange Nasrallah was introduced Tuesday.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — An Israeli strike on a five-story constructing the place displaced Palestinians had been sheltering within the northern Gaza Strip killed at the very least 60 individuals early Tuesday, in keeping with well being officers.
Dr. Marwan al-Hams, director of the sector hospitals’ division on the Gaza Well being Ministry, introduced the toll from Tuesday’s strike within the northern city of Beit Lahiya at a information convention. He says one other 17 individuals are lacking.
The ministry’s emergency service says the useless embrace at the very least 12 girls and 20 youngsters, together with infants.
There was no rapid remark from the Israeli navy, which has been waging a large-scale operation in northern Gaza for greater than three weeks, concentrating on what it says are pockets of Hamas militants who’ve regrouped there.
Dr. Hossam Abu Safiya, the director of the close by Kamal Adwan Hospital, stated it was overwhelmed by the wave of wounded individuals from the strike. Israeli forces raided the medical facility over the weekend, detaining dozens of medics. Israel says it detained scores of Hamas militants within the raid.
The Israeli navy has repeatedly struck shelters for displaced individuals in current months, saying it carried out exact strikes concentrating on Palestinian militants and tried to keep away from harming civilians. The strikes have usually killed girls and youngsters.
UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations chief is warning that if two legal guidelines adopted by Israel’s parliament are applied, the U.N. company offering important providers to Palestinian refugees in Gaza and the West Financial institution would doubtless be prevented from persevering with work that’s mandated by the U.N. Common Meeting.
Secretary-Common Antonio Guterres known as the work of the company often called UNRWA “indispensable,” and stated implementing the legal guidelines “may have devastating penalties for Palestinian refugees within the occupied Palestinian territories, which is unacceptable.”
“There isn’t a different to UNRWA,” he stated in a press release issued Monday night time.
UNRWA was established by the Common Meeting in 1949 to supply aid for Palestinians who fled or had been expelled from their houses earlier than and in the course of the 1948 warfare that adopted Israel’s institution, in addition to their descendants.
The legal guidelines adopted Monday by Israel’s parliament, which don’t instantly go into impact, will sever ties with the company and bar UNRWA from working on Israeli soil. They had been authorized amid an escalating humanitarian disaster in Gaza, now within the second yr of Israel’s navy retaliation following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, assaults in southern Israel.
Guterres known as on Israel “to behave persistently with its obligations” below the U.N. Constitution and worldwide legislation, in addition to the privileges and immunities of the United Nations.
“Nationwide laws can’t alter these obligations,” Guterres harassed. He stated implementing the legal guidelines can be detrimental to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian battle, and extra broadly for peace and safety within the area.
