At least 22 people died in two Israeli bombings against the center of Beirut this Thursday (10), in the deadliest attack against the Lebanese capital since Israel and the Hezbollah entered into an open war.
According to Lebanon’s Ministry of Health, 22 people were killed and 117 injured in the airstrikes, which, according to the official news agency ANI, hit two densely populated residential neighborhoods.
Images broadcast live by AFPTV showed two columns of smoke rising over the Lebanese capital, with six million inhabitants.
This is the third time that Israeli aviation has attacked the center of Beirut since September 23, when the escalation between Israel and the pro-Iranian Lebanese movement Hezbollah intensified. Israel normally focuses its attacks on the southern suburbs of the capital, a stronghold of the armed militia.
The Palestinian Red Crescent announced that 28 people died and 54 were injured in an Israeli bombing attack on a school housing displaced families in the Gaza Strip, where Israel has once again intensified its bombings and ground operations.
The Israeli Army reported having carried out a “precision” attack against terrorists operating “in a building that was previously” a school.
In Lebanon, Unifil, the UN force deployed between the two countries, reported that two peacekeepers were injured by “fire from an Israeli tank”, which generated a wave of condemnation.
Unifil, which has around 10,000 peacekeeping troops in southern Lebanon, is persistently calling for a truce.
Italy, the Western country that contributes the most troops to this contingent, with around 900 soldiers mobilized, assessed that the actions of Israeli troops could “constitute war crimes”.
“We are under siege”
After weakening Hamas in its offensive in Gaza, the Israeli Army moved, in mid-September, most of its operations to Lebanon, with the aim of combating Hezbollah and allowing the return of those displaced by violence on its border. north.
Israel also bombs southern and eastern Lebanon, Hezbollah strongholds, according to ANI.
A year ago, the Lebanese Islamist movement opened a front to support Hamas in its war against Israel.
The Israeli Army, which launched “limited” ground operations against Hezbollah in the south of the neighboring country on September 30, said it had hit “more than 110 targets” since Wednesday.
“We don’t want to be part of the conflict”, but “we are under siege”, lamented Joseph Jarjour, 68, in the village of Rmeich, two kilometers from the border.
Since the start of artillery clashes between Israel and Hezbollah, more than 2,000 people have died in Lebanon, of which 1,200 have lost their lives since the intensification of Israeli bombings on September 23, according to an AFP survey based on official figures.
During a telephone conversation on Wednesday, US President Joe Biden called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “limit the impact” on civilians as much as possible.
“Incessant”
Israeli military operations also continue in Jabaliya in northern Gaza, where Israeli troops launched a ground attack.
“It’s incessant: every minute there are bombs, rockets and shots at buildings and everything that moves,” Areej Nasr, a woman in her 30s who fled Jabaliya to Gaza city, told AFP.
According to Gaza Civil Defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal, at least 140 people have died in Jabaliya since the start of the Israeli operation, and “a large number” of civilians remain trapped under the rubble, without rescue teams being able to intervene. due to the security situation.
The Israeli Army announced that three of its soldiers died in the north of the Gaza Strip, bringing its losses to 353 soldiers in the last year.
The conflict between Israel and Hamas broke out after the unprecedented attack by Islamist militiamen on Israeli soil, which caused the death of 1,206 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP survey based on official Israeli figures.
In response, Israel launched a relentless offensive into the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. The Israeli military campaign has killed more than 42,065 Palestinians, mainly civilians, according to data from the Ministry of Health in the Palestinian territory, considered reliable by the UN.
