Palestinian children fill their plastic jerry cans from a water source in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, near the border with Egypt on Dec. 5, 2023. (Credit: Mohammed Abed/AFP)
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Catch up on yesterday's LIVE coverage of Day 60 of the Israel-Hamas war here.
Israeli shelling killed a Lebanese Army soldier and injured three others, drawing condemnation from Lebanese officials and warnings against escalation by the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). The Israeli attack on the site in the al-Owaidah hills resulted in the first casualty from the Lebanese Army, which has not been involved in the fighting since the conflict began. Caretaker Defense Minister Maurice Slim called the attack a “flagrant violation” of UN Security Council Resolution 1701. The military wing of the Jamaa Islamiya, al-Fajr Forces, claimed an attack against northern Israel in response to the strike on the Lebanese Army. A second casualty, a Syrian national who succumbed to wounds from Israeli shelling in southern Lebanon, was also reported.
Israel bombarded more than 30 villages during intensified cross-border attacks. Mais al-Jabal residents could “no longer count” the number of shells falling in their area’s vicinity, said the hospital director in Mais al-Jabal. The border aggressions have resulted in over 110 deaths in Lebanon, the majority of casualties being Hezbollah fighters. Sixteen civilians and three journalists have been killed, according to L'Orient Today's count.
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati announced upcoming UN-mediated negotiations to “establish stability” and settle disputed points along the Lebanon-Israel border. “We hope to achieve, in the next three months, a period of complete stability at our borders,” Mikati told members of Lebanon's consular corps. There are 13 disputed points that were not marked by the UN-drawn Blue Line, which are mainly located in the three occupied villages of Ghajar, Kfar Shouba, and the Shebaa farms. UNIFIL, the Lebanese Army and Israel held tripartite meetings in September to discuss the land border demarcation and were set to continue.
Flooding from heavy rain caused traffic jams across Beirut and its suburbs yesterday. The Traffic Management Center wrote on X that rainwater flooded the Dbayeh-Zalka highway. Roads in Jdeideh as well as those leading to the airport were also flooded by heavy rainfall, TMC said. Heavy rainfall regularly leads to flooding and traffic chaos in Lebanon. Last November, a man died in Kesrouan when he was swept away by floodwaters.
The Israeli military told Reuters yesterday was the “most intense” day of the ground invasion of Gaza, amid simultaneous attacks on Jabalia, Shujaiyya and Khan Younis, the largest city in southern Gaza. Israel updated its estimate on the number of hostages remaining in Hamas captivity to 138 people. Israeli security officials cited by The Washington Post estimated that at least 5,000 Hamas fighters were killed since the start of the fighting. Read a full summary of yesterday’s events from the Hamas-Israel war here.
In case you missed it, here’s our must-read story from yesterday: “Could Lebanon’s dysfunctional state put up a good fight against Israel, without Hezbollah?”
Compiled by Abbas Mahfouz