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⚡More updates on the Israeli airstrike on a residential building between Majdel Selm and Safad al-Battikh (Marjayoun):
A Hezbollah official, Ali Jaafar Maatouk, was killed in the airstrike, a security source told our correspondent in South Lebanon.
Three other people were killed in the strike and are currently under the rubble of the targeted building. It is not yet known whether these individuals are civilians or members of Hezbollah.
The strike also injured 12 people in nearby buildings, with injuries described as light and caused by shards of glass and debris.
According to Hussein Fakih, a Lebanese Civil Defense official in South Lebanon, the strike targeted a three-story apartment block that was inhabited.
The number of injured and killed is not yet definitive, as rescue teams are “still working and searching the rubble.” The strike specifically hit an area between Majdel Silm and Safad al-Battikh, in the Marjayoun district.
⚡ Based on the incomplete information gathered by our correspondent from various sources and witnesses on the ground, the strike in Majdel Selm (Marjayoun) resulted in at least 15 casualties — between injured and dead.

Israeli attack on a residence in Majdal Selem (Credit: Muntasser Abdallah)
More updates from South Lebanon:
- Israeli airstrikes bombed a residence on the outskirts of Majdal Selm (Marjayoun), causing a significant explosion. Ambulance crews responded, but casualty information is not yet available.
- Emergency responders, including the Red Cross, Civil Defense, Scouts al-Rissala (affiliated with the Amal movement), and the Islamic Health Committee (affiliated with Hezbollah), evacuated several injured individuals in Majal Zoun, as reported by our correspondent.
Here are the latest Israeli attacks on South Lebanon:
- The army fired heavy machine guns at residential neighborhoods in Kfar Kila (Marjayoun), according to residents.
- Airstrikes targeted the outskirts of Mais al-Jabal (Marjayoun), near an agricultural lake. Emergency responders noted no injuries.
- Airstrikes bombed Shaqra (Bint Jbeil). No reported injuries
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu overruled an order by his defense minister to build a field hospital in Israel to treat sick Palestinian children from Gaza, AFP reports citing Israeli officials.
Netanyahu "does not approve the establishment of a hospital for Gazans within Israeli territory — therefore, it will not be established," his office stated
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant had announced in a statement the previous day that he had given orders to set up a “temporary hospital" in Israel to treat children from Gaza whose pathologies cannot be treated in the war-torn Palestinian territory, where the health system is severely strained due to the ongoing war.
Today the Red Cross reported that the health facilities in southern Gaza are at a "breaking point" due to a surge of casualties from Israeli airstrikes.
Joe Biden is due to receive Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who will be in Washington next week — but this meeting will depend on whether the U.S. President recovers from COVID-19, the White House said.
"We have every expectation that the two leaders will have a chance to see each other while prime minister Netanyahu is in town," National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said, adding that "the president's health and recovery from COVID take priority."
Hezbollah announced two new attacks against northern Israel:
- They attacked “the Filon base, the headquarters of the brigades of the 210th division and its stores in the northern region,” with a drone squadron, hitting it and casing "casualties."
*This is the first time Hezbollah has targeted this base, located 16 km south of the Lebanese border town of Aitaroun (Bint Jbeil), according to our correspondent Mountasser Abdallah.
- The 8th operation of the day targeted the Israeli site of Marj, opposite Markaba (Marjayoun), with Burkan missiles at 5:17 p.m.
Hezbollah announced that it targeted an Israeli "Merkava tank with anti-tank missiles at approximately 05:01 PM" at the Israeli Haddab Yarin site, facing Yarin in the Bint Jbeil district.
Hezbollah announced in two statements that it targeted the Birkat Risha site facing the Lebanese town of Boustan (Sour) and the Israeli Rahab site facing the Lebanese village of Aita al-Shaab (Bint Jbeil) at 4:02 pm with Burkan rockets, causing direct hits and igniting fires at both locations.
Here’s an update on Hezbollah’s attacks against Israeli positions:
- Hezbollah announced that it targeted "surveillance equipment installed at the newly established center for military gathering and reconnaissance teams in the settlement of Metula at 3:30 pm...using a guided missile, hitting it directly and resulting in its destruction."
- Hezbollah targeted "newly installed surveillance equipment on a crane at the Haddab Yarin site [facing the southern town of Yarin in the Sour district] at 2:44 pm."
Here are the latest updates on the security situation in southern Lebanon:
- Heavy Israeli machine gun fire targeted residential neighborhoods in the town of Kfar Kila (Marjayoun), as reported by a security source.
- Israeli artillery shelled the outskirts of the towns of Houla and Markaba, both in the Marjayoun district, from the direction of Wadi Saluki, according to locals.
- Israeli artillery shelling targeted the town of Marwahin (Sour), are reported by residents.
Hezbollah announced the death of its member Hassan Ali Mahanna , born in 1984 in the town of Jabal al-Batm in southern Lebanon, "who ascended as a martyr on the path to Jerusalem." According to our correspondent, he was killed in an airstrike on his car earlier today in Jabal al-Batm.
This raises the total number of Hezbollah members killed, in Lebanon and Syria, since Oct. 8 to 373.
After Jamaa Islamiya, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, also announced the death of Mohammad Gebara, killed by an Israeli strike in the West Bekaa and described as a "gallant knight."
The U.N.’s agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said, in a post on X, that only 10 out of its 26 health centers are currently operational in the Gaza Strip amid sustained Israeli attacks on healthcare facilities in the enclave.
The World Health Organization has documented more than 1,000 attacks on healthcare facilities since Oct. 7.
The Israeli army claimed responsibility for the strike that killed Mohammad Hamed Gebara this morning , a fighter whose death was announced earlier by Jamaa Islamiya, and presented the latter as being a "troublemaker affiliated with Hamas in Lebanon."
"The army killed earlier today in the Bekaa region, a so-called Mohammad Gebara, a troublemaker affiliated with the terrorist Hamas in Lebanon," Avichay Adraee, an Arabic-language spokesperson for the Israeli army, wrote on X. "He planned and executed several terrorist attacks against Israel, some of which were carried out in cooperation with Jamaa Islamiya in Lebanon," the spokesman added.
Earlier in the day, Jamaa Islamiya, a Lebanese Sunni party affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood and involved in the fighting in southern Lebanon, announced the death of Gebara, who was presented as a member of its party and not of Hamas. Adraee also said that the attack targeting Gebara was "part of strikes against Hamas' capabilities."
The man who was in critical condition after an Israeli strike targeted his car in Jbal al-Botm (Sour), succumbed to his injuries, a medical source told L'Orient Today's correspondent. His identity has not yet been revealed.
Ukraine announced that it has delivered the first shipment of 1,000 tons of wheat flour intended for the Palestinian population, caught "in the middle of the conflict between Israel and Hamas" in Gaza. "Palestine has received 1,000 tons of wheat flour as part of the humanitarian program Grain from Ukraine," the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry announced in a statement. According to the source, "This shipment is the first of three deliveries to Palestine from Ukraine as part of this initiative."
The government's health ministry in Gaza announced a new death toll of 38,848 in the Palestinian territory since the start of the war with Israel, now in its tenth month.
At least 54 people have been killed in the past 24 hours, the ministry said in a statement, adding that 89,459 people had been injured in the Gaza Strip since the war began on Oct. 7.
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, a far-right settler accustomed to provocations, released a video this morning filmed on the Jerusalem Mosque compound in which he defies his prime minister, Hamas and the people of Gaza.
"I have come to the most important place of the Jewish people to pray for the hostages, that they return home but not with a surrender agreement: without renunciation," Ben Gvir says in the footage, in which he appears with the Dome of the Rock in the background.
Update on the situation in southern Lebanon:
- An Israeli drone strike targeted an infrastructure of the Green Without Borders association in the Wadi al-Azziyeh region, between the villages of Haniyeh and Zebqine (Sour). Residents reported that the strike did not cause any casualties. Green Without Borders is an association that calls itself "ecological" and is known for its affiliation with Hezbollah. It was sanctioned by the US Treasury in August 2023. The Treasury had then indicated that the NGO "serves as a cover for Hezbollah's activities along the Blue Line."
- Israeli artillery fire targeted Yater (Bint Jbeil). Ambulances rushed to the scene, according to residents.
- The Islamic Mission Scouts Association (affiliated with the Amal movement) reported that it transported wounded from the drone strike on Jbal al-Botm this morning to hospitals in the area. We had reported that one man was in critical condition after the strike.
Jamaa Islamiya, a Lebanese Sunni party affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood and involved in the fighting in South Lebanon, announced the death of one of its fighters, Mohammad Hamed Gebara, presented as a commander within the group and killed Thursday morning in an Israeli strike in West Bekaa.
The fighter was targeted by an Israeli drone strike that hit his car in Ghazzé, in the Bekaa Valley, according to information from L'Orient Tody's local correspondent and the state-run National News Agency.
"The bloodshed in Gaza must stop immediately," said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, adding that "too many children, women and civilians have lost their lives as a result of Israel's response to Hamas' brutal terrorism."
"The people of Gaza can't take it anymore, and humanity can't take it anymore. We need an immediate and lasting ceasefire, we need the release of the Israeli hostages," von der Leyen told the European Parliament in Strasbourg, as Israel stepped up its deadly strikes on the Gaza Strip.
Another Israeli drone strike targeted a car on Jbal al-Botm road (Sour), residents told L'Orient Today's correspondent. At least one person was seriously injured.
Apart from this strike, the following security incidents have marked the last two hours in southern Lebanon, according to local residents:
- Machine gun fire targeted Wazzani (Hasbaya).
- Israeli artillery hit Rmaish (Bint Jbeil).
- Mortar shells hit the outskirts of Shihine (Sour).
All health facilities in the southern Gaza Strip have been pushed "to the breaking point" by Israeli bombardments that are causing a large number of casualties, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said this morning.
"The very high number of casualties resulting from the ongoing hostilities has stretched to the breaking point the capacity of our hospital – and all health facilities in southern Gaza – to treat people with life-threatening injuries," the ICRC's Gaza chief, William Schomburg, was quoted as saying in a statement.
In Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu is facing heavy criticism for failing to reach a deal to free the hostages.
Yesterday, hundreds of people demonstrated in Tel Aviv, shouting "A deal now" to demand that the Prime Minister sign an agreement, at the request of the families.
Dani Meran, whose son Omri, 47, was captured at Kibbutz Nahal Oz on Oct. 7, told AFP that he "supports any agreement that allows the hostages to be released."
Several NGOs, including Doctors Without Borders and Médecins du Monde, denounced this week the increase in strikes which "worsen the humanitarian catastrophe," as well as "the obstacles imposed by the continuation of Israeli military operations." The U.N. Office for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) announced that the Israeli army had yesterday prevented all missions from going to the north of the Gaza Strip and thus reaching "hundreds of thousands of people in need."
The World Health Organization (WHO) representative in the Palestinian Territories, Rik Peeperkorn, said yesterday that only 16 WHO trucks loaded with aid had entered the Gaza Strip in June through the Israeli Kerem Shalom crossing, while dozens more were waiting to pass.
The Israeli army, quoted by AFP, claimed yesterday to have carried out 25 strikes in 24 hours, bombing a rocket launching site and "eliminating terrorist cells."
In Gaza, Israel stepped up its deadly strikes yesterday after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced his intention to "increase military pressure" on Hamas in the Palestinian territory, AFP reports.
Two Palestinians were killed on Wednesday in Israeli airstrikes in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, according to a medical source, and nine others in a drone strike on Gaza City, according to the Civil Defense. In the evening, this source reported several other strikes that targeted the areas of Al-Zawaida and Nuseirat and Al-Shati, killing a total of 15 people. A strike also killed four people, three children and a woman, near Khan Younis, according to the Health Ministry.
"This is the time to increase the pressure" on Hamas, Netanyahu said Tuesday, as he wants to continue the war until Hamas, considered a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel, is destroyed and all hostages are released. "We have it by the throat," he said yesterday.
During the evening in southern Lebanon:
- The Israeli air force struck, around 9 p.m., an area located between Taybeh and Kantara (Marjayoun) according to local residents.
- Shortly after, Aitaroun (Marjayoun) was bombed twice. The first missile launched by the Israeli air force did not explode, according to residents, while the second strike, using two missiles, caused a fire. These strikes did not cause any casualties.
Last night only saw an artillery strike on Aita al-Shaab (Bint Jbeil) at around midnight.
In Lebanon, a targeted Israeli drone strike targeted a car in Ghazzeh, in the Bekaa Valley, at around 7 a.m., according to information from L'Orient Today's local correspondent and the state-run National News Agency (NNA). This strike killed a commander of the Jamaa Islamiya, a Lebanese Sunni party linked to the Muslim Brotherhood and involved in the fighting in southern Lebanon.
Be sure to read the Morning Brief so that you are caught up with what has been happening.
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