Women react as they check the rubble of a building in Bint Jbeil in southern Lebanon near the border with Israel, following Israeli bombardment the previous night, on Dec. 27, 2023, amid ongoing cross-border tensions as fighting continues between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza. (Credit: AFP)
Here’s what happened yesterday and what to expect today, Thursday, Dec. 28
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Catch up on yesterday’s LIVE coverage of Day 82 of the Israel-Hamas war here.
Hezbollah yesterday surpassed its previous number of cross-border attacks in a single day since Oct. 8, security sources told Reuters, after Israeli strikes overnight killed two civilians and a party member. Hezbollah’s announcement of one of its rocket barrages, consisting of 30 Katyusha rockets, said the attack was in response to “the repeated crimes of the [Israeli] enemy targeting civilian homes in Bint Jbeil.” An overnight Israeli strike killed an Australian-Lebanese man who had returned to Lebanon a few days prior to take his wife abroad with him. The strike also killed his wife, and his brother, a reported Hezbollah member. By our count, 129 Hezbollah members have been killed since the start of the fighting. Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen threatened Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah saying he would be “next” — after a commander from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards killed in Syria — if the clashes continued. Israel’s Defense Minister echoed statements from Israeli officials over the border clashes with Lebanon, warning that time for diplomacy is running out.
Lebanese Jewish Community Council president Isaac Arazi died on Tuesday. Arazi had pushed for the renovation of Beirut’s abandoned synagogue, preserving a trace of Lebanon’s Jewish community which dwindled from over 20,000 people before the 1975-1990 civil war to around 30 people.
21,110 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7, the enclave’s health ministry reported. US officials tried to push Israel towards targeted attacks that minimize civilian casualties and discussed ways to maximize the distribution of humanitarian aid in Gaza, AFP reported. The Israeli army’s chief of staff echoing other Israeli military officials said the war would endure for several months. France expressed its grave concern over reports of the war’s prolongation, calling for an immediate truce and condemning “systematic bombing that has again left many civilian victims in recent days.”
In case you missed it, here’s our must-read story from yesterday: “Lebanon’s invisible killer: Stray bullets”
Compiled by Abbas Mahfouz