An entrance gate to the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) base in the southern town of Naqoura on Oct. 15, 2023. UNIFIL said in a statement that its headquarters was struck by a rocket in the southern town of Naqoura, adding that no one was hurt and that the force was "working to verify from where" the projectile came. (Credit: AFP)
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Catch up on the weekend’s live coverage of days seven, eight and nine of the Hamas-Israel war.
Hezbollah and the Israeli military continued to exchange fire at Lebanon’s southern border, as guided missiles from Lebanon killed at least four people in Israel while dozens of Israeli artillery strikes hit the vicinity of Aita al-Shaab. A Hezbollah statement said yesterday’s attack on the Israeli border village of Shtula was in retaliation for “the killing of journalist Issam Abdallah and the killing of two residents in Shebaa.” Also yesterday, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) headquarters in Naqoura “was targeted by a rocket,” which caused “no injuries or casualties,” UNIFIL spokesman Andrea Tenenti told L’Orient Today. Hamas announced Saturday that Israeli airstrikes killed three of its fighters after they infiltrated from South Lebanon, succeeding “in blowing up the border fence and reaching a military position within Palestine.” The same day, Hezbollah announced that one of its people, Ali Alaeddine, was killed during clashes. A spokesperson for the group told L'Orient Today that their "military bases in south Lebanon [were] under Israeli attack.” The Lebanese Army said Friday that Israeli strikes destroyed one of their vacant outposts amid an “ongoing clash,” during which Hezbollah said the Israeli army took casualties. The Israeli army claimed its Friday artillery strikes were in response to “an explosion on the border fence.”
Israeli projectiles targeting Lebanon’s southern border killed Lebanese Reuters photo-journalist Issam Abdallah and injured six other journalists on Friday, a Lebanese Army source told L’Orient Today. Approximately 1,000 people attended Abdallah’s funeral in Khiam in southern Lebanon on Saturday. The Lebanese Foreign Ministry has lodged a complaint at the United Nations over the “intentional Israeli murder.” The Lebanese Army said Abdallah’s death was caused by an Israeli “rocket that targeted a civilian press vehicle.” UNIFIL urgently called for a cease-fire, saying it “cannot say with certainty” how the journalists were hit. Approximately 100 people held a sit-in in downtown Beirut on Sunday to protest Abdallah’s killing. “I really believe [the journalists] were targeted,” Florient Zwein, a freelance photographer and close friend of AFP photojournalist Christina Assi, who was wounded in the strike, told L’Orient Today. Israel claimed the strikes that killed Abdallah followed suspicions of an infiltration from southern Lebanon.
Israel’s evacuation order for northern Gaza is “horrendous,” the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said Friday, while the EU’s top diplomat said the displacement of more than a million people in one day would be “impossible” and tantamount to a “humanitarian crisis.” UNRWA spokesperson Adnan Abu Hasna told L’Orient Today “the south of [Gaza] can’t accommodate this huge number of people,” adding that the situation is “very dangerous” amid water, food and fuel shortages. Hamas reiterated its refusal to evacuate northern Gaza, which Israel claims is an attempt to use inhabitants as “human shields.” An AFP image taken Friday shows flyers dropped over Gaza City, warning residents to flee “immediately” to the south. An Israeli army spokesperson yesterday told AFP they were awaiting a “political” decision to invade northern Gaza, as thousands of their troops have encircled the enclave. “Southern Gaza is also being heavily bombarded, and many citizens in the south have been bombed and lost their lives,” Gaza-based photojournalist Momin Faiz told L’Orient Today. Israel’s planned ground invasion of Gaza “could lead to a genocide of unprecedented proportions,” the heads of the Arab League and African Union said Sunday in a joint statement.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said yesterday he had “a very productive” meeting with Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (MBS), a day after AFP reported Saudi-Israel normalization talks were suspended. Blinken is scheduled to return to Israel after an extensive regional tour. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told Blinken that “humanitarian corridors into Gaza must be allowed immediately,” Reuters reported. Aid shipments for Gaza have piled-up in Egypt amid Israel’s bombardments of the Rafah crossing, the only non-Israeli access point to the enclave. Blinken said Sunday the crossing would be reopened. After Israel began a total siege of Gaza, cutting off electricity and obstructing access to water and emergency supplies, AFP yesterday quoted US national security advisor Jake Sullivan as relaying Israel’s claim to have turned on southern Gaza’s water supply. Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, also on a regional tour, said from Doha that “no one” could “guarantee control of the situation” if Israel launched a ground offensive from Gaza.
In case you missed it, here’s our must-read story from over the weekend: “Is Israel's use of white phosphorus in Lebanon and Gaza legal?”
Compiled by Abbas Mahfouz