Israeli missile lands near school, Beirut’s airport floods, City Center protest: Everything you need to know to start your Wednesday

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Catch up on yesterday’s LIVE coverage of Day 66 of the Israel-Hamas war here.

Children at a school in southern Lebanon were terrorized by an Israeli interceptor missile that exploded near the establishment, Yater's mayor told L'Orient Today. Missile fragments damaged the school principal's car minutes after she had gotten out of it, the mayor added. Most schools in southern Lebanon have canceled classes since Oct. 7, while thousands of displaced children were temporarily moved to other establishments. Israel and Hezbollah continued to exchange cross-border fire amid reports of shelling around dozens of Lebanese border villages. A Khiam resident whose home was damaged by an Israeli strike yesterday evening interpreted the attacks on civilian homes as attempts to make them flee. More than 40,000 people have been displaced from southern Lebanon, according to International Organization for Migration figures cited by the Lebanese Health Ministry.

Heavy rainfall caused partial flooding at the Beirut International Airport (BIA), suspending flights for half an hour, the Civil Aviation Authority said. Videos circulating on social media showed BIA employees mopping water away from one of the halls. The Civil Aviation Authority said the airport’s water treatment facilities were functioning normally. Heavy rainfall regularly floods roads across Lebanon, sometimes trapping people in their cars. Earlier this month, the Civil Defense announced it rescued schoolchildren from a bus trapped by the rain. Last year, one person died after their vehicle was trapped in a road flooded during a storm.

Dozens of demonstrators encouraged the boycott of brands reportedly supporting Israel, during a protest at the City Center shopping mall in Beirut's southern suburbs. A mall security guard evicted the protesters after they distributed leaflets listing brands sold in the mall, which they claim support Israel. On Monday, public institutions, commercial banks, private schools and a number of businesses closed in observance of an international protest in support of the Palestinian people. After an Israeli franchise of American fast-food chain McDonalds offered free meals to Israeli troops, Miknas Food, a McDonald’s franchisee in Lebanon, pledged a $70,000 donation to an organization offering aid to Palestinians. “Most of the damage is done to Lebanese investors,” Lebanese Franchise Association (LFA) member Tony Nehme told L’Orient Today in November.

Ahead of tomorrow's legislative session to vote for Gen. Joseph Aoun as remaining head of the Lebanese Army for another year, Free Patriotic Movement Leader Gebran Bassil reiterated his party's refusal of the extension. Bassil said Aoun "represents disloyalty and boasts of violating the law," describing the extension as a plot against his party and to retain the army chief as a potential presidential candidate. Aoun is set to retire in January with no successor in place. The Lebanese Forces and the Maronite Patriarch back the extension. Bassil proposed alternatives to another year with Aoun including appointing a new chief for a one year term, or handing the reins to the army leader's next-in-command.

“At least one million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, half of them children, are starving,” Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki told the United Nations at the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Maliki accused Israel of “using starvation as a weapon of war.” The transfer of aid into most areas within Gaza was deemed nearly impossible by international agencies amid heavy Israeli bombardments. Israel said it would double the amount of aid entering Gaza through setting up an additional inspection point. International organizations have repeatedly said the amounts of aid being transferred are meager compared to Gaza’s needs. The World Health Organization (WHO) said that less than one-third of hospitals in Gaza were still operational. Several hospitals have been the targets of Israeli military operations, the most recent of which was a reported raid at the Kamal Adwan hospital, over which WHO director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was “extremely worried.” Nearly 18 percent of Gaza’s pre-conflict buildings have been destroyed or damaged, according to a UN assessment reported by Reuters. Palestinians displaced to southern Gaza after bombardments, and an incursion into the north of the enclave, are being forcibly moved again by fighting in Khan Younis, AFP reported. UN Palestinian Refugee agency chief Philippe Lazzarini described the situation in Gaza as “hell on earth.”

In case you missed it, here’s our must-read story from yesterday: “Ireland’s 2024 Oscar nominee is made in Lebanon”

Compiled by Abbas Mahfouz