News Mania / Piyal Chatterjee / 5th October 2024
A Lebanese security source reported that early on Saturday, an Israeli attack struck Tripoli in northern Lebanon for the first time. This came amid more shelling of Beirut’s suburbs and attempts by Israeli troops to make further ground incursions into southern Lebanon.
A Hamas official, his wife, and their two children perished in the attack on a Palestinian refugee camp in Tripoli, the source told Reuters. According to media linked with Hamas, one of the group’s armed wing leaders was killed in the strike.The attack on Tripoli, a port city with a Sunni population, elicited no quick response from the Israeli military.After over a year of gunfire between Israel and Hezbollah, the military group backed by Iran in Lebanon, Israel has increased the scope of its assaults on the country in recent weeks.
Israel has been bombing Hezbollah’s stronghold in the formerly heavily populated southern suburbs of Beirut every night. Following three warnings from a military spokesman for civilians to leave over night, at least one explosion was heard by witnesses.Following several attacks on key Hezbollah members, Israel stated on Friday that it had attacked the organization’s intelligence center in the southern suburbs and was evaluating the damage.In an airstrike on September 27, Israel destroyed a significant portion of Hezbollah’s senior military leadership, including Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.
According to the government of Lebanon, over 2,000 people have died there in the last year, with the majority occurring in the last two weeks. There has also been a rise in strikes against medical personnel and establishments, such as the Red Cross in Lebanon, public hospitals in Lebanon, and Hezbollah-affiliated rescue workers.The United Nations reports that the majority of Lebanon’s displacement shelters are full, while the government of Lebanon claims that over 1.2 million people have been forcibly removed from their homes. The primary border crossing between Lebanon and Syria was closed on Friday due to an Israeli strike. Many had fled north to Tripoli or neighboring Syria.
The cost in terms of civilian casualties in Lebanon was deemed “totally unacceptable” by UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
With reference to the scores of women and children slain, the Lebanese government has charged Israel with deliberately targeting civilians. The overall death toll between Hezbollah combatants and civilians has not decreased.
Israel claims it targets military capabilities and takes precautions to limit the danger of harm to civilians. Hezbollah and Hamas are accused of hiding among civilians, an accusation they refute.Israel declared that Beirut “was not on the table” and that it was focusing on villages close to the border when it started ground operations targeting southern Lebanon this week. However, Israel did not clarify how long the ground incursion would last.
