A picture taken from southern Lebanon near the border with Israel shows smoke rising near the northern Israeli Kibbutz of Kfar Giladi on Oct. 30, 2023, after Lebanese shelling amid increasing cross-border tensions. (Credit: AFP)
Catch up on our LIVE coverage of Day 24 of the Israel-Hamas war here.
Israeli strikes damaged a house in Alma Shaab, South Lebanon, area residents told L’Orient Today as cross-border fire between Israel and Hezbollah continued. The Israeli military said it was retaliating to rocket strikes from Lebanon, which resulted in missiles hitting the outskirts of Alma Shaab and a house in Shihine, a security source told L’Orient Today’s correspondent in the area. Earlier in the day, Israeli fire targeted the vicinities of Aita al-Shaab, Blida, Deir Mimas, Jibbayn, Kfar Kila, Labbouneh and Odaisseh. Hezbollah said it inflicted damage on military positions during four separate cross-border strikes. Hezbollah also announced the death of one of its fighters, increasing the number of party members killed since Oct. 7 to 49. The Lebanese Army said yesterday that it had seized 21 rocket launchers in Hasbaya and Qleileh in Sour over the past two days. The residents of Alma Shaab and Deir Zahrani yesterday urged Lebanon’s caretaker Energy Minister Walid Fayad to “take swift action to restore power” after the communities endured 21 days of no state-supplied electricity.
The Lebanese Parliament is scheduled to meet today to discuss an emergency plan with the caretaker cabinet. The government previously approved an emergency plan to ensure the continuity of vital services, including keeping Beirut’s international airport operational, in the event of war. Telecoms operators also announced war-readiness measures. “We demand an end to Israeli provocations at the border. The Lebanese people do not want war,” caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati told Sky News Arabia yesterday. Mikati said he has “coordinated with international organizations to put in place an [emergency] plan in case war breaks out.” British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly told Reuters that the UK has made contacts to prevent the spread of the Hamas-Israel war to neighboring countries, including Lebanon. A caretaker cabinet meeting is scheduled for tomorrow, but none of the agenda’s 19 items mention the tense security situation in southern Lebanon.
Hundreds of irregular migrants arrived in Cyprus after departing by sea from Lebanon over the past week, Cypriot authorities said, expecting additional departures, according to AFP. Cypriot Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou said the Hamas-Israel war has hindered Lebanese authorities’ ability to prevent irregular sea migration attempts. In the past week, 458 Syrian nationals who departed from Lebanon arrived in Cyprus. Ioannou previously pleaded with the European Union to provide additional assistance to Lebanon, which he considers a barrier to the influx of irregular migrants. Informal sea crossings are fraught with perils, including interception by authorities, becoming stranded, kidnapping and deadly sinkings. Despite the dangers, irregular sea migration attempts from Lebanon more than doubled in 2022 amid increasingly dire living conditions.
Israel “will not agree to a cessation of hostilities,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday, adding that “even the most just wars have unintended civilian casualties.” Some 8,306 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, including 3,457 children, since Israel launched retaliatory airstrikes on the enclave on Oct. 7, according to Gaza Health Ministry figures reported by Reuters. Ten staff members of the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA, were killed in Gaza over the past 72 hours, the organization said yesterday, adding that 63 of its staff have been killed in the enclave since Oct. 7.
The Israeli military yesterday said it freed one of its members who had been held hostage by Hamas since Oct. 7. Earlier in the day, Hamas released a video purportedly showing three hostages in which a woman criticizes the Israeli government and calls for the release of Palestinian prisoners — a condition the hostage takers have set to free the abductees. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the video “cruel psychological torture.” Israel meanwhile continued its ground incursion into Gaza, which began on Friday. Hamas said it was engaged in armed clashes with Israeli forces in northwestern Gaza, and that it repelled the Israeli army “from all sides and inflicted heavy losses on its members and equipment.” Hamas earlier said that Israeli tanks approaching Gaza city had retreated.
Four Palestinians were killed during an early Monday morning Israeli raid in the northern occupied West Bank city of Jenin, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. According to the official Palestinian agency Wafa, “more than 100 military vehicles and two bulldozers” took part in the raid. Germany yesterday called on Israel to “protect” Palestinians in the occupied West Bank from attacks by “extremist” Israeli settlers. Separately, according to Israeli police, a Palestinian was shot dead after stabbing an Israeli police officer yesterday in annexed east Jerusalem.
In case you missed it, here’s our must-read story from yesterday: “Why has the lira remained stable despite the al-Aqsa Flood?”
Compiled by Abbas Mahfouz