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17-10-2024
BEIRUT: At least 10 people have been killed in Israeli bombings of homes and a healthcare centre in Qana, a Lebanese village that suffered Israeli massacres in 1996 and 2006.
Israeli attacks killed at least 61 people across Gaza on Tuesday, including 10 members of the Abu Taamiya family.
Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem tells Israel in a televised speech that the solution to settlers returning to northern Israel is a ceasefire in Lebanon and Gaza.
In Gaza, at least 42,344 people have been killed and 99,013 injured in Israeli attacks since October 2023. At least 1,139 people were killed in Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, and more than 200 people were taken captive.
People are becoming increasingly desperate in northern Gaza where no aid has arrived at all since the beginning of October.
Now, two top US officials have written to the Israelis outlining specific steps to be taken to alleviate the situation within the next 30 days.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, says it is operating 11 emergency shelters across Lebanon, several of which are at full capacity.
UNRWA added that humanitarian access has been “severely restricted” in the south of Lebanon, where the agency’s work in three Palestinian refugee camps has been limited to providing sanitation and water services.
Lebanon is home to at least 500,000 Palestinian refugees according to the most recent figures from UNRWA. Israel’s military said “about 50 launches” have been detected crossing from Lebanon into northern Israel.
According to the military, “some” of the launches, which can include rockets, attack drones and other projectiles, were intercepted by Israeli aerial defence systems while “crashes were detected in the region”.
The Israeli military did not report on casualties or damage to infrastructure resulting from the attack.
The deployment of an advanced United States anti-missile system to Israel, along with 100 troops to operate it, marks a significant escalation in US entanglement with a widening Israeli war that Washington has already heavily subsidized but the deployment in anticipation of an Iranian response to an expected Israeli attack on Iran also raises questions about the legality of US involvement at a time when the administration of US President Joe Biden is facing growing backlash over its unwavering support for Israel.
It also comes as US officials are seeking to project authority and threatening to at last enforce US law prohibiting military aid to countries that block humanitarian aid, as Israel has regularly done in Gaza.
Two recent developments, the Sunday announcement that the US would deploy troops to Israel and a letter sent by US officials the same day calling on Israel to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza or face unspecified consequences underscore the inconsistent approach of an administration that has effectively done little of substance to rein in Israel’s ever-widening war.
We know this is very much an active scene in Qana. Rescue are workers digging through the rubble to see if there are any more survivors.
We know at least 10 people have been killed and 15 wounded, and a healthcare centre struck. It’s certainly not the first time. Israeli forces have killed dozens of healthcare workers since the beginning of this conflict with Hezbollah and have hit a number of facilities.
At least 37 healthcare facilities have also been closed down. It led the World Health Organization just a couple of weeks ago to warn about the provisions for mass trauma management. (Int’l News Desk)
