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Beirut rocked by Israeli airstrikes as WHO urges cease-fire
Published 6 hours agoPublished 6 hours agolast updated 1 hour agolast updated 1 hour ago
Israel has launched renewed airstrikes on southern Beirut while signaling a widening of its border ground offensive. Meanwhile, the WHO said dozens of health workers in Lebanon have died in the past day. DW has more.
https://p.dw.com/p/4lNvJ
Smoke rises after an Israeli airstrike targeting an area in southern Beirut late on October 3, 2024
Israel’s latest air strikes targeted Beirut’s southern suburb of Dahiyeh, a stronghold of the Iran-backed armed group HezbollahImage: AFP
Skip next section What you need to know
What you need to know
Israel carries out fresh strikes in south Beirut, with explosions near city’s international airport
Israel was targeting Hashem Safieddine, the rumored successor to Hassan Nasrallah, US outlets Axios and The New York Times report
US ‘discussing’ possible Israeli strikes on Iran oil sites
WHO says 28 health workers killed in Lebanon in the past day, urges cease-fire
Israel carries out deadliest air raid in West Bank since 2000
Here’s the latest in regards to the Israel-Lebanon escalation, Gaza and the wider Middle East region for Friday, October 4:
Skip next section Lebanon says Israeli strike cut off road used to flee to Syria
1 hour ago1 hour ago
Lebanon says Israeli strike cut off road used to flee to Syria
Lebanese Transport Minister Ali Hamieh said an Israeli airstrike on the Lebanon-Syria border has cut off the main international road connecting the two countries.
“The road that leads to the main humanitarian crossing for thousands of Lebanese into Syria is now cut off after an Israeli strike,” he said.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) reported that Israeli strikes had hit the Masnaa border crossing, saying the attack resulted in “cutting off the road.”
On Thursday, Israel accused Hezbollah of using the crossing to transport military equipment.
“The IDF will not allow the smuggling of these weapons and will not hesitate to act if forced to do so, as it has done throughout this war,” said Avichay Adraee, the Israeli military’s Arabic language spokesman.
Lebanon estimates 300,000 people, most of whom are Syrian, have crossed that road into Syria over the last 10 days to escape the escalating conflict in Lebanon.
Lebanon estimates 1 million displaced amid Israeli strikes
01:48
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Skip next section Who is Hashem Safieddine?
2 hours ago2 hours ago
Who is Hashem Safieddine?
Senior Hezbollah leader Hashem Safieddine speaks during a conference in southern Beirut in 2022Senior Hezbollah leader Hashem Safieddine speaks during a conference in southern Beirut in 2022
Like Nasrallah, Safieddine wears a black turban denoting descent from Islam’s ProphetMohammedImage: Bilal Hussein/AP Photo/picture alliance
Unconfirmed US media reports have suggested Hezbollah strongman Hashem Safieddine was the target of Israel’s latest strikes on Beirut.
He is the maternal cousin of Hezbollah’s slain leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in a massive Israeli air raid in south Beirut last week.
Safieddine has long been tipped as Nasrallah’s successor after serving in some of Hezbollah’s highest positions for decades.
Unlike Nasrallah, who had lived in hiding to avoid assassination, Safieddine has been a more public Hezbollah figure.
He has close ties to Iran, where he studied. His son is married to the daughter of Qassem Soleimani, an Iranian general who was killed in a US airstrike in Iraq in 2020.
In 2017, the US designated Safieddine a terrorist over his role in Hezbollah, which it considers a terrorist organization.
His fate after the latest strikes in Beirut remains unclear. The Israeli military has not commented on whether Safieddine was targeted by the latest strikes.
Who was Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah?
01:52
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Skip next section US ‘discussing’ possible Israeli strikes on Iran oil sites
6 hours ago6 hours ago
US ‘discussing’ possible Israeli strikes on Iran oil sites
US President Joe Biden has said that Washington is discussing possible Israeli strikes on Iran’s oil facilities as retaliation for Tehran’s missile attack on Israel. “We’re discussing that,” Biden told reporters.
His comments contributed to a surge in global oil prices amid rising fears of potential supply disruptions. Brent, the international benchmark, surged over 5% to $77.62 (€70.3) a barrel, with US contract West Texas Intermediate rising similarly.
Biden, however, added that he thought an all-out war could be avoided.
“I think we can avoid it, but there’s a lot to do yet,” he told reporters, stressing that “we’re going to help
Israel.”
Iran addresses ‘a shared grievance to project its power’
05:04
After Tuesday’s missile attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed retaliation.
The US said it would work with its longtime ally to ensure Iran faced “severe consequences.”
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, meanwhile, said that Tehran would be ready to respond.
“Any type of military attack, terrorist act or crossing our red lines will be met with a decisive response by our armed forces,” he said.
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Skip next section UN Security Council backs Guterres after Israel bars him from country
6 hours ago6 hours ago
UN Security Council backs Guterres after Israel bars him from country
The UN Security Council has affirmed its full support for Secretary-General Antonio Guterres after Israel banned him from entering the country.
The 15-member body said in a statement that “any decision not to engage with the UN Secretary-General or the United Nations is counterproductive, especially in the context of escalating tensions in the Middle East.”
The statement did not name Israel.
The UN’s most powerful body also “underscored the need for all member states to have a productive and effective relationship with the secretary-general and to refrain from any actions that undermine his work and that of his office.”
The UN statement comes after Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz announced Wednesday that Guterres is “persona non grata” — not welcome — in the country.
The Israeli government has accused the UN chief of being biased against Israel.
Iran’s proxies threaten Israel on multiple fronts
03:08
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Skip next section Palestinian officials say 18 killed in Israeli strike on West Bank
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Palestinian officials say 18 killed in Israeli strike on West Bank
At least 18 people were killed at the Tulkarm refugee camp in West Bank following an Israeli airstrike, said the Palestinian Health Ministry.
The Israeli military says the strike killed a local Hamas leader, Zahi Yaser Abd al-Razeq Oufi.
It accused Oufi of participating in numerous attacks in West Bank and said he was in the process of planning another assault.
The air raid was the deadliest in the West Bank since 2000, the AFP news agency quoted a Palestinian official as saying.
The Palestinian movement Fatah, a Hamas rival based in West Bank, called for demonstrations on Friday to honor the “heroic martyrs” of Tulkarm.
Tulkarm was one of the towns and Palestinian refugee camps targeted during a large-scale Israeli military operation in late August against militants based in the West Bank.
Violence in the territory has surged alongside the war in Gaza which began after Hamas, which is designated as a terrorist organization by a number of countries, attacked Israel on October 7.
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Skip next section Israel orders new Lebanon evacuations
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Israel orders new Lebanon evacuations
Israel’s military has ordered residents of more than 20 towns in southern Lebanon to evacuate their homes as it continued with a cross-border incursion.
The latest warnings took the number of southern towns subject to evacuation calls to 70.
Among the towns affected is the provincial capital Nabatieh as well as other communities north of the Litani River, which formed the northern edge of the border zone established by the UN Security Council after Israel and Hezbollah fought a war in 2006.
The announcement suggests the Israeli military may widen a ground operation launched earlier this week against the militant group.
Israeli Arabs fear widening Israel-Hezbollah war
03:01
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Skip next section WHO says 28 health workers killed in Lebanon in the past day
6 hours ago6 hours ago
WHO says 28 health workers killed in Lebanon in the past day
The World Health Organization (WHO) said 28 health workers in Lebanon were killed in the past day, and it called for a cease-fire.
The UN health agency said access to medical care is becoming limited as three dozen health facilities closed in the south and five hospitals were either partly or fully evacuated in Beirut.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described the dire situation, noting that health workers are not showing up at their jobs because they’ve fled areas that have been bombed.
He said WHO had to scrap plans to fly in medical and trauma supplies Friday because Beirut international airport is mostly closed.
DW reporter surveys destruction in Beirut district
02:42
Lebanon’s health minister, meanwhile, said Israeli strikes that hit hospitals and health care centers violate international law.
The Lebanese Red Cross also said an Israeli strike wounded four of its paramedics and killed a Lebanese army soldier as they were evacuating wounded people from the south.
It said the convoy near the village of Taybeh, which was accompanied by Lebanese troops, was targeted Thursday despite coordinating its movements with UN peacekeepers.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
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Skip next section Israeli strikes hit close to Beirut’s international airport
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Israeli strikes hit close to Beirut’s international airport
At least one Israeli strike early on Friday hit outside the perimeter of Beirut’s international airport, Reuters news agency reported, citing a source in the Lebanese Ministry of Transport and Public Works.
Earlier in the evening, a source close to Hezbollah told AFP an Israeli strike had targeted a warehouse next to Beirut airport, in the capital’s south.
The extent of the damage was not immediately clear.
Israel carries out airstrikes near central Beirut
02:16
Israel also launched renewed strikes on Beirut’s southern suburb of Dahiyeh, a stronghold of the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah, near midnight on Thursday.
The air raids targeted Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine, rumored successor to assassinated Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, report Axios and the New York Times.
Safieddine’s fate was not clear, he said.
Israel’s military has not yet commented on whether it targeted Safieddine.
sri/wd (Reuters, AP, AFP, dpa)
