German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock walks alongside her Lebanese counterpart Abdallah Bou Habib (R) on Jan. 10, 2024 in Beirut, during her regional tour amid continuing battles between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. (Credit: Joseph Eid/AFP)
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Catch up on yesterday’s LIVE coverage of Day 96 of the Israel-Hamas war here.
Hezbollah announced the killing of another of its members in Israeli shelling on Kfar Shouba yesterday amid continued clashes. The party continued to announce cross-border attacks while Israeli strikes were reported across southern Lebanon. Hezbollah warned against Israeli officers pretending to be Lebanese security personnel in phishing attempts on southern Lebanon’s residents to determine potential Hezbollah targets. The party claimed the attacks were prompted by its destruction of Israeli spying devices near the border.
The Lebanese Army uncovered during a joint patrol with the UNIFIL an Israeli pipe reportedly set up to spray flammable material on southern Lebanon and ignite the Raheb forest. Caretaker Environment Minister Nasser Yassin last November announced that 37 percent of Lebanon’s forest fires had been caused by Israeli shelling, which burned swathes of land using banned incendiary weapons.
Lebanon filed its third complaint against Israel before the United Nations. Previous complaints cited Israel’s use of white phosphorus in its attacks on southern Lebanon and the killing of journalists in Israeli strikes.
US Envoy Amos Hochstein is scheduled to meet with caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati today. Mikati previously said that he would discuss a diplomatic solution to the border clashes between Hezbollah and Israel, which have killed over 100 people in southern Lebanon and displaced over 70,000 people from the Lebanese border region. Israeli officials have repeatedly threatened to escalate their attacks if a diplomatic solution is not reached to cease Hezbollah’s cross-border attacks. Hezbollah said it would not stop attacks until the end of Israel’s war on Gaza. Mikati, after a meeting with caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib, expressed Lebanon’s commitment to resolution 1701 and clearing Hezbollah from the border region if Israel withdraws from the Lebanese positions it occupies. Hezbollah party leader Hassan Nasrallah also claimed that the border clashes opened the possibility for negotiations on disputed regions on the Israeli-Lebanese border after the end of the war on Gaza, including regions occupied by Israel — to which northern Ghajar was added after its annexation last year. Kataeb leader Samy Gemayel warned against any compromise in southern Lebanon that would be made "at the expense of Lebanon." Free Patriotic Movement leader Gebran Bassil said that though he would not refuse “anything that serves Lebanon’s interests,” he emphasized that any agreement would require approval from a President — a position that has been vacant for more than a year.
Germany pledged 15 million euros in aid to the Lebanese Army after more than three months of cross-border clashes between Hezbollah and Israel, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock announced. Baerbock emphasized that the funding aims to bolster the Lebanese Army, enabling it to exercise “effective control” over the border region. Since Oct. 7, France has allocated several millions of euros in aid to the Lebanese Army, highlighting the importance of enabling its coordination with UN peacekeepers. Amid continued economic turmoil, the Lebanese Army is heavily reliant on foreign aid and funding.
Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah is scheduled to speak on Sunday to commemorate slain party commander Hassan Tawil, who was killed by an Israeli drone strike Monday. Nasrallah’s third speech in less than two weeks, which would be his fifth since Oct. 7, follows a shift in clashes between the party and Israel from border skirmishes to targeted assassinations by the latter, one of which targeted a Hamas leader in Beirut. In his last speech, Nasrallah vowed to retaliate “on the battlefield” for the assassination of Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri in a drone strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs. The party has since launched barrages on military targets in northern Israel, including a 62-rocket attack on the Meron air base.
At least 23,357 people have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7, the enclave’s health ministry reported. Israeli news source Haaretz, as cited by Reuters, reported that negotiations for a second ceasefire relaunched with a visit by an Israeli delegation to Egypt on Tuesday after talks stalled last week following Israel’s assassination of Hamas deputy political chief Saleh al-Arouri in a drone strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs. The Palestinian Red Crescent announced a strike on one of its ambulances the same day that the World Health Organization (WHO) said it was canceling another planned medical aid mission to Gaza due to security concerns. “Intense bombardment, restrictions on movement, fuel shortage and interrupted communications make it impossible for WHO and our partners to reach those in need,” the WHO said.
In case you missed it, here’s our must-read story from yesterday: “Hezbollah’s strategic shift: Reassessing priorities, but does Lebanon truly take center stage?”
Compiled by Abbas Mahfouz