Israeli air raid kills two children, a woman, and a Hezbollah fighter in south Lebanon: Day 131 of the Hamas-Israel war

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(Credit: Jaimee Lee Haddad/L'Orient Today)

At a meeting in Cairo, the first after more than ten years of estrangement, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sissi discussed the war in Gaza, according to a report from AFP.

Erdogan denounced "the policy of occupation and massacres of the government of Benjamin Netanyahu."

Referring to Rafah, the southern Gazan city packed with people sheltering from Israeli aggression elsewhere in the Strip, and on which the Israeli army is threatening to launch an offensive, Erdogan urged the international community "not to allow such madness to occur." He says the attack could "lead to genocide."

Sissi spoke about the obstacles Israel is presenting, such as its blockade of the strip, which means "humanitarian aid is entering Gaza too slowly."

The only gateway in and out of Gaza that isn't controlled by Israel is on the border with Egypt and remains closed except to dual citizens, and Palestinians who can afford to bribe people claiming to have ties with Egyptian authorities and to facilitate their exit from the enclave.

People ride in a cart pulled by a tractor past the rubble of a destroyed building and a mosque minaret in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Feb. 14, 2024 (Credit: Mohammed Abed/AFP)

Today's killing of three civilians in Israeli strikes — a woman and two children — brings the total civilians killed in Lebanon since the start of cross-border fighting with Israel to 30, according to our count.

This doesn't include an additional three journalists who have also been killed by Israeli strikes while reporting in the South.

👉 Read our full report of today's events in southern Lebanon here.

Israel released the identity of the person killed earlier today in the northern Israeli village of Safed, in a rocket strike that was launched from southern Lebanon.

In a statement, the army said a female soldier, Sergeant Omer Sarah Benjo, aged 20, was killed when the Safed military base where she was stationed was targeted.

Citing "no new Hamas proposal" for a hostage exchange, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the Israeli delegation not to return to Cairo to continue negotiations efforts, Haaretz reports.

The delegation was in Cairo yesterday, meeting with US, Qatari, and Egyptian officials, and was scheduled to return to Cairo again tomorrow for further discussions following a Hamas delegations' visit to Cairo today.

Following the announcement, the Hostage and Missing Families Forum said it has organized a demonstration tomorrow in Tel Aviv to protest "the decision to sacrifice the lives of the hostages."

👉 Read our report here about the role of hostages' families in Israel.

Hezbollah announced the death of one of its fighters, Ibrahim al-Dabaq, from the village of Kunin, Bint Jbeil district. Dabaq had been injured several days ago and succumbed to this wounds.

This announcement brings the total number of Hezbollah members killed in Lebanon and Syria since Oct. 8 to 195, according to our count.

The Chairman of Hezbollah's Executive Council, Hashem Safieddine, declared that the Israeli airstrikes that killed four people today in southern Lebanon, including two children and a woman, "will not go unanswered."

"There will certainly be an appropriate response, of the required level," he said, in a statement included in the press release issued by Hezbollah — the first official reaction from the party since today's flare-up in cross-border fighting with Israel.

"Some people imagine that they can achieve goals that they failed to achieve, either in 2006, or between 2006 and 2023 ... But once again they are mistaken," Safieddine says, adding that "the enemy will not achieve any of its objectives as long as the Resistance is present, strong and ready, on all fronts."

Hezbollah has neither announced nor taken responsibility for any attacks on northern Israel since last night. The strike that killed one Israel and wounded eight others in Safed earlier today remains unclaimed by any group.

A recent report in Politico, a Washington-based news outlet, reveals the possibility that US President Joe Biden's administration has no plans to reprimand Israel should it carry out an operation in Rafah with no regard for civilian lives.

Israel's most important ally, the United States, said over the weekend that it will not back any ground operation in Rafah, southern Gaza, without a "credible plan" for protecting civilians. It's estimated that around 1.4 million people are sheltering there, more than half of the population of the entire Gaza Strip.

Three US officials, who spoke to Politico on condition of anonymity, said that there are no plans underway to impose consequences in the case that Israel goes forward with its attack on Rafah without ensuring the protection of civilians sheltering there.

👉 Read the full report here.

Cars damaged by Israeli airstrikes that targeted the village of Adsheet earlier today, killing a Hezbollah member and wounding others. (Credit: Photo sent by residents to L'Orient Today)

Locals and first responders examine the scene of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the village of Adsheet earlier today, killing a Hezbollah member and wounding others. (Credit: Photo sent by residents to L'Orient Today)

Destruction following the Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Adsheet earlier today, killing a Hezbollah member and wounding others. (Credit: Photo sent by residents to L'Orient Today)

Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee announced on X that the Israeli army had completed a wave of extensive airstrikes in Lebanon, including "targets associated with Hezbollah's Radwan force, military buildings, combat operations rooms and terrorist infrastructure in several areas."

Two children, a woman, and one Hezbollah fighter were killed in the strikes.

An Israeli medical team transports someone wounded in the rocket attack fired earlier today from southern Lebanon, at Ziv hospital in Israel's northern city of Safed on Feb. 14, 2024. (Credit: Jalaa Marey/AFP)

Lebanese caretaker Minister of Agriculture Abbas al-Hajj Hassan — with close ties to the Amal Movement — paid tribute to the 13-year-old boy killed earlier today in the Israeli strike that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Souaneh.

In a post published on X, Hassan wrote: "A child from the cubs of the [Amal-affiliated] al-Rissala Scout [Association], was killed by the Israeli enemy in a criminal and barbaric way and in cold blood." The teenager was identified as Hussein Mohsen.

(Credit: Jaimee Lee Haddad/L'Orient Today)

Key points from the afternoon's events in southern Lebanon:

• The Israeli army carried out a series of air strikes on various areas of southern Lebanon in response to rockets fired from Lebanese territory earlier today, which has so far remain unclaimed.

• Israeli media reported that the strike on Safed, in northern Israel, had targeted a military base, but landed close to a medical center, killing one person and wounding eight others. Several Israeli ministers called for a harsh response.

• The Israeli army announced the series of air strikes on Lebanon in the minutes leading up to the operation, which targeted several locations at once.

• The Israeli strikes killed four people: two Lebanese children and their Syrian stepmother in Souaneh, and a Hezbollah fighter in Adsheet.

Hezbollah just announced the death of one of its fighters, Hassan Najem, resident of Adsheet, Nabatieh district. The Israeli army targeted houses on the outskirts of Adsheet earlier today in a series of air raids, killing Najem and wounding others.

According to our count, 194 Hezbollah members have been killed in Lebanon and Syria since the start of cross-border fighting with Israel on Oct. 8.

A two-year-old baby and 13-year-old teenager were killed in the Israeli strike that targeted the village of Souaneh, one of their family members told our correspondent in the South.

Their stepmother was also killed in the strike, which we reported on earlier.

🔴 More details on the strikes that targeted Souaneh and Adsheet:

• A mother and two of her children were killed in the Israeli strike that targeted a building in the village of Souaneh, Bint Jbeil district, according to a source working with the rescue teams, who spoke with our correspondent in the South.

Their bodies were trapped until members of the Amal-affiliated al-Risala Scout Association managed to clear the rubble and pull them out from beneath the collapsed building.

• Rescue teams told L'Orient Today that one person was killed and nine others wounded following the strike that targeted the village of Adsheet, in Nabatieh district.

Some of them were wounded as a result of a road accident that occurred during the raid, when drivers panicked and three cars crashed into each other.

The following areas were just hit during a series of Israeli air raids:

• The outskirts of the southern Lebanese village of Adsheet, in Nabatieh district, where houses were targeted

• The Iqlim al-Tuffah region

• The Bassalia and Sennieh region, in the district of Jezzine

• The Souaneh region, in Bint Jbeil district

• The village of Shehabieh, east of the largest city in the south, Sour.

Our correspondent in the south has reported that several casualties have been transported to hospital.

⚡ Several Israeli strikes have targeted southern Lebanon, according to our correspondent in the south, citing residents and security sources. The Israeli army just moments ago announced it had launched a series of air raids on the country.

🔴 BREAKING: The Israeli military says its fighter jets "began a series of strikes in Lebanon," raising fears of a war between the two countries after months of cross-border fire, AFP reports.

The military gave no further details of the air strikes, which come hours after fire from southern Lebanon wounded multiple people in northern Israel, according to medics.

Israeli National Security Ministry Itamar Ben Gvir says that a strike, launched earlier today from southern Lebanon, killing one and wounding eight others in the northern Israeli town of Safed, signals war with Lebanon.

No one has claimed the attack yet, but Israeli media is pointing the finger at Hezbollah, seen as the only armed group in Lebanon capable of firing rockets within the range of Safed. Various Israeli officials have threatened that the country will return evacuated residents back to the north by force, if Hezbollah does not stand down.

In the wake of news of the attack, the far-right minister posted on his official X account, writing: "This is not a trickle [of rockets], this is war. It's time to leave behind the 'conception' in the North as well."

Israeli TV outlet Channel 12 News reported that Ben Gvir has demanded a meeting with Netanyahu to discuss the escalation of violence in the North.

Times of Israel cited a tweet by Avigdor Liberman, a member of the Knesset, in which he also seems to call for a harsh response. “The red line has turned into a white flag,” he wrote. “The war cabinet has caved to Hezbollah and lost the north.”

According to a report from Haaretz, Israel fears that other countries will join the United States, Britain, France and Canada in imposing sanctions on settlers in the occupied West Bank who are involved in violence against Palestinians, a diplomatic source told the Israeli news outlet.

The source said France's decision yesterday to impose sanctions rather than wait for a European Union decision on the matter could now encourage other EU countries to take similar steps. Israeli authorities in the occupied West Bank have kept a low profile on the imposition of sanctions, Haaretz says, and so far have not commented publicly.

CIA Director William Burns concluded negotiations with top Middle Eastern officials in Cairo yesterday without making any major strides toward a deal between Israel and Hamas that would free hostages and pause fighting in the Gaza Strip, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal, citing officials familiar with the talks.

A Hamas source told AFP that a delegation is on its way to Cairo today to meet Egyptian and Qatari mediators, to review whatever progress may have been made during the previous day's mediation attempts.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, an outspoken critic of Israel's conduct of the Gaza war, is also due in Cairo today for talks with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

David Barnea, head of Israel's Mossad intelligence service, was also involved in yesterday's discussions with Burns, which Egyptian media claims was mostly "positive."

(Photo by the Israeli Army/AFP)

This screengrab from a handout video released by the Israeli army on Feb. 13, 2024, shows what the army claims is Hamas' chief in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, walking in a tunnel along with other people, in the Gaza Strip, according to an AFP report.

Israel's army released a video it said was of Sinwar, filmed on Oct. 10, 2023 with his family members in a tunnel in the Palestinian territory. The video has not been verified.

⚡ An Israeli was killed and eight others were wounded in the northern Israeli town of Safed following a rocket attack fired from southern Lebanon, Haaretz reports, citing Israeli emergency services.

The Israeli army said the rockets were aimed at a base in northern Israel, and announced that it was returning fire.

According to the municipality of Safed, one of the missiles fell near the Ziv medical center. One of the wounded is in "serious condition," another in "moderate condition" and the others were "slightly injured."

Here's what happened at the Lebanon-Israel border this morning:

• A period of calm during the early hours of the day was brought to an end around 9:00 a.m. when the fighting recommenced.

• Machine-gun fire from the Israeli Sammaka site targeted the disputed Kfar Shuba heights, residents told L'Orient Today's correspondent in the South.

• The outskirts of Marwahine, Bint Jbeil district, and Umm al-Tout, Sour district, were targeted by Israeli artillery fire.

Here's what happened at the Lebanon-Israel border over night:

• Between 9:30 and 10:30 in the eveing, Israeli warplanes carried out several raids on the outskirts of the villages of Ramyah, in Bint Jbeil district, and Rashaya Fawqar and Hebbarieh, in Hasbaya district. This area was also targeted by artillery fire, according to security sources. The village of Hula, Marjeyoun district, was also targeted by Israeli shelling.

• Some time after 10:30 p.m., Israeli artillery fire targeted the edges of the Khiam valley, in Marjayoun district.

Hello, welcome to L'Orient Today's LIVE coverage of the war on Gaza.

It's day 131 of the conflict, the Israeli delegation has left Cairo, where it was engaged in further cease-fire and hostage exchange negotiations yesterday. A Hamas delegation is headed there today for the second day of talks.

Also yesterday, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah gave a speech, during which he told Israel that if it widens the war, then Hezbollah "will also widen it."

Reports came out later in the evening of Israeli Defense Ministry Yoav Gallant telling soldiers in northern Israel that its military can reach anywhere "in Lebanon and beyond."

The Israeli army's looming ground incursion into Rafah, in southern Gaza, where more than half of the enclave's population is sheltering, is raising alarm around the world. The UN says it will not participate in the city's forced evacuation which Netanyahu has demanded in preparation for the operation. The packed city, pressed up against the closed border with Egypt, has been experiencing increased Israeli bombardments since the weekend.