Lebanese PM Fumes As Israeli Strike Kills City Mayor, 16 Others In Nabatieh
- Alleges “intentional targeting” by IDF
Lebanon’s Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati has accused Israel of “intentionally targeting” the meeting where the Mayor of the Nabatieh Governorate, in southern Lebanon, Ahmad Kheil, and 16 other persons were reportedly killed on Wednesday morning.
Reports said an Israeli airstrike hit the City’s municipal headquarters during a meeting to coordinate aid deliveries to residents and those displaced by the ongoing war.
Reacting to the latest strike, Prime Minister Mikati “condemned the new Israeli aggression against civilians in the city of Nabatieh, which deliberately targeted a meeting of the municipal council that was discussing the city’s services and relief situation”.
Also in his reaction, Nabatieh Governor, Howaida Turk, told AFP; “The Mayor of Nabatieh, among others… was martyred. It’s a massacre”, adding that there were 11 strikes on the city and its surroundings.
The strike, one of a series on Nabatieh on Wednesday morning, also wounded 52 people, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. Similarly, emergency workers in the area said Israeli bombardment also destroyed a medical facility near the municipal building, killing two doctors.
Commenting on the Nabatieh’s strikes, Israel said they were aimed at “Hezbollah targets”, including “military buildings, military headquarters and munitions warehouses” that it said were “placed near civilian buildings”.
The IDF said dozens of Hezbollah targets were hit in the area with its Navy also taking out Hezbollah “launchers, military positions and weapons caches” in Southwest Lebanon.
However, no evidence was provided to support the claim, which has been made in other attacks that have killed large numbers of civilians. Just days ago, Israeli strikes destroyed the city’s main market, with not less than eight persons injured, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
UNIFIL Accuses Israel Of ‘Deliberate Act’
Meanwhile, UN Peacekeeping forces in Lebanon said an Israeli army tank fired at a UNIFIL watchtower in Kafer Kela, a village in south Lebanon, in what it described as a “direct and apparently deliberate” act. However. the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) has denied it was targeting UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) Forces.
The incident is the latest in a string of violations that UNIFIL has blamed on the IDF, prompting international condemnation. Several peacekeepers have been injured since Friday as Israeli ground troops have begun to advance farther north in Lebanon after weeks of intense fighting and airstrikes.
Summary Of Events In The Middle East Crisis
- The US has demanded proof on the ground that Israel does not have a policy of starvation in northern Gaza as it turned up the pressure on the Netanyahu government to allow more aid into the territory. The US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, told the Security Council on Wednesday at a meeting convened by France, the United Kingdom (UK) and Algeria that such a policy “would not just be horrific and unacceptable” but also had “implications under international and US law”.
- The risk of cholera spreading in Lebanon is “very high”, the World Health Organization has warned, after a case of the acute and potentially deadly infection was detected in the conflict-hit country. The WHO highlighted the risk of cholera spreading among hundreds of thousands of people displaced since Israel escalated its campaign against Hezbollah.
Israeli forces have stormed the Jazalone refugee camp in the West Bank and deployed teargas, Al Jazeera reports. A young girl was reportedly treated for breathing issues.
Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, said that there have been no conversations with any parties on a Gaza ceasefire for the last three to four weeks. “On the prospects of the negotiation … basically in the last three to four weeks, there is no conversation or engagement at all, and we are just moving in the same circle with the silence from all parties”, he said.
Shaban al-Dalou, the 19-year-old Palestinian who was burned to death in his makeshift tent when Israel bombed the al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital complex in Deir el-Balah on Monday, would have turned 20 today. “Losing him is an incredibly massive loss,” al-Dalou’s uncle, Mohammed al-Dalou said, adding: “He left a mountain of pain and memories.”
Hezbollah said it targeted “at 6.50 pm (1550 GMT) … the occupied town of Safed with a salvo of rockets” in “defence of Lebanon and its people”. The reported attack marks the third attack in 24 hours which Hezbollah said was a response to Israeli raids across Lebanon which have killed more than 2,300 people in recent weeks.
US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on Wednesday, the Pentagon says, after Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken jointly penned a letter earlier this week urging Israel to improve Gaza’s humanitarian situation. – With The Guardian report
