Hezbollah militants carry the flag-draped coffins of civilians killed in an Israeli strike on February 14, during their funeral in the southern Lebanese town of Nabatiyeh, on February 17, 2024. (Credit: Mahmoud Zayyat/AFP)
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Catch up on our LIVE coverage of Day 133, Day 134 and Day 135 of the Israel-Hamas war.
Residents across southern Lebanon continued to report Israeli attacks in their areas while Hezbollah announced dozens of cross-border attacks over the weekend. Hezbollah announced the death of three members Friday raising the party’s death toll in Lebanon and Syria to 206, by our count. Hezbollah Parliamentary bloc chief Mohammad Raad, whose son was killed in an Israeli cross-border strike last November, said the “close to 200” party members killed helped avoid “hundreds of thousands of victims” that would have resulted from Israel underestimating the party’s military ability. Official Hezbollah statements have repeatedly posited the party’s weapons as a deterrent to Israeli military action in Lebanon and as preservers of border stability. During a funeral for three Amal Movement members killed Thursday, raising the number of members killed since Oct. 7 to 11 people, party MP Hani Kobeissy said the organization was ready for “any sacrifice” in order to protect Lebanon.
Hezbollah will “continue and escalate” its cross-border attacks, Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah said Friday vowing to make Israel “pay the price” in an “equation of civilians versus civilians.” Hezbollah’s first response to Israel’s killing of civilians in a Wednesday air raid involved rocket salvos fired at Kiryat Shmona, resulting in property damage. Nasrallah claimed Israel deliberately targeted civilians to pressure Hezbollah into stopping cross-border attacks, noting that such attempts would not dissuade the party from continuing its “support front for Gaza.” Israel framed its Wednesday attack as retaliation for a cross-border strike that killed a soldier the same day. In a speech last Tuesday, Nasrallah undermined Israel’s willingness to expand its conflict with Lebanon while warning that his party would respond in like to any escalation. Hezbollah officials have repeatedly stated the party’s cross-border attacks would stop with the end of the war on Gaza, while Israeli officials link peace on the southern Lebanese border to the return of northern Israel’s more than 80,000 displaced residents. The Israeli army’s Arabic-language spokesperson responded to Nasrallah’s speech in a statement on X addressing the Lebanese people claiming that Hezbollah perturbed a “calm” in Lebanon for the “interests” of Iran. The Israeli military has previously dropped leaflets on southern Lebanon with anti-Hezbollah messages.
The Education Ministry called on public and private schools to commemorate with a “sit-in of solidarity” today between noon and 1 p.m. the victims of Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon. The Ministry’s statement references the children and their families killed last Wednesday by Israel’s bombardment of Nabatieh and Souaneh, along with the victims incurred since the start of the border clashes as well as displaced students and their families. Caretaker Education Minister Abbas Halabi called on educators to devote part of the hour-long sit-in to “explaining the importance of solidarity with students from border villages” and calling on the international community and the UN to pressure Israel “to stop committing massacres of innocent civilians.” According to the International Organization of Migration’s latest estimate, also adopted by the Lebanese Health Ministry, 86,874 people have been displaced from southern Lebanon. Last November, Halabi announced a plan to relocate over 10,000 displaced students, following regular and technical curriculum, across schools in Nabatieh, South Lebanon, and Beirut while providing them with school supplies and transportation allowances — also granted to teachers.
A lawyer representing four Nissan employees told AFP on Saturday they intend to challenge charges from Beirut’s first investigating judge over the alleged theft of documents from former CEO and international fugitive Carlos Ghosn. The Beirut judge charged the four senior Nissan officials with a “number of crimes” including unlawfully entering Ghosn’s Beirut home and office where they allegedly stole and tampered with physical and electronic documents. A Lebanese court recently upheld Ghosn’s right to remain in his Beirut dwelling pending the resolution of a legal battle in which Nissan-affiliated company Phoinos contested ownership of the property. While awaiting trial in Japan for corruption charges filed by Nissan, Ghosn absconded to Lebanon in 2019 claiming to have been “hostage of a biased Japanese judicial system.”
The Ghobeiry municipality intends to sue the owners of a two-floor building in its jurisdiction that partially collapsed on Saturday, municipality chief Mouin Khalil told L’Orient Today. Khalil said the building in Rihab was constructed in violation of property laws and was inhabited by Syrian workers when it collapsed. The Lebanese Association of Properties (LPA) claimed in an Oct. 10 statement that there were 16-18,000 buildings at risk of collapse in Lebanon, further stressed by overdue maintenance works, climate change and improper drainage. The statement added that most buildings built before 2005 do not conform to international safety standards. LPA head Andira Zouhairy said “harsh” weather conditions can heighten the risk of collapse. Last week, residents sensing signs of structural failure evacuated a five-story building shortly before it collapsed. Similar incidents in the past year have caused several injuries and deaths including a teenage student killed by a fallen ceiling in her classroom.
At least 28,985 people have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7, according to the latest figures from the enclave’s health ministry.
Hamas military spokesperson Abu Obeida reiterated the group’s warning on Israeli hostages’ conditions and safety facing Israel’s continued attacks and the resulting “hunger, thirst and lack of medical help,'' experienced by Hamas’s prisoners and Gaza’s residents alike, the statement continued. Thousands of Israeli protesters on Saturday night called on their government to “negotiate” to release hostages.
The Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza’s second largest hospital, went completely out of service yesterday after a weeklong siege and raid by the Israeli army, AFP quoted the Gaza Health Ministry saying. As of Saturday, six patients including one child had been killed by power cuts to the hospital, according to the Gaza Health Ministry as cited by AFP.
On Friday, the Israeli army reportedly began preparations to open a third crossing for aid deliveries into northern Gaza. UN Humanitarian Agency chief Andrea De Domenico told AFP resource shortages in the north are resulting in “pure misery” while residents lamented to AFP that they fear death by starvation more than “bombs or missiles.”
In case you missed it, here’s our must-read story from over the weekend: “Four takeaways from Nasrallah's latest speech”
Compiled by Abbas Mahfouz
