Thank you for following our live reporting of the Gaza war and its implications on the region, particularly Lebanon
We will resume our coverage starting tomorrow morning.
Here are the latest updates on the situation in South Lebanon:
Hezbollah carried out its 8th and 9th operations of the day in retaliation for the Israeli bombardment of Kfar Kila at dawn.
The first operation targeted buildings used by Israeli soldiers at the Metula site, opposite the Lebanese village of Khiam, while the second targeted buildings used by Israeli soldiers at Manara, opposite the Lebanese village of Houla in the Marjayoun district.
⚡ The Israeli authorities have agreed to a series of "humanitarian pauses" of three days each in central, southern and northern Gaza to enable the polio vaccination campaign for children to begin on Sunday, a World Health Organization official announced on Thursday.
"What we discussed and what was agreed is that the campaign will start on September 1, in central Gaza, for three days, and there will be a humanitarian pause" for several hours each day, said Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative in Gaza, during a video press conference, specifying that the same arrangement is then planned for the south and north of the territory.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that the Israeli army will "bolster its forces and add security measures to schools in northern and southern Israel" to ensure that the school year can begin as scheduled, according to Haaretz.
Citing Gallant's office, Haaretz reported that the Israeli army will "hold an ongoing dialogue with the heads of councils and directors of educational institutions to ensure that students can arrive to school safely and establish a learning routine, even during wartime."
The European Union called for an "immediate" humanitarian truce to allow all children in Gaza to be vaccinated against polio.
"It is worrying to see that polio has been detected and a first case confirmed," said the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell, speaking on behalf of the EU countries.
An epidemic among a population "already weakened by more than 10 months of fighting and displacement, malnutrition, lack of basic health services and deplorable sanitary conditions ... must be avoided," he stressed.
The Israeli army claimed to have killed seven Palestinians today — on the second day of an operation in several towns and refugee camps in the northern occupied West Bank. The operation has reportedly resulted in 16 deaths so far.
The army stated that it "eliminated five terrorists" in the Tulkarem camp, including a commander of Islamic Jihad who was a prominent figure among young fighters in the refugee camps across the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967.
Hezbollah announced that it fired rockets at the Israeli site of Ruwaisat al-Alam in the disputed Kfar Shuba hills at 5:50 p.m.
The death toll of the Aug. 17 Israeli airstrike that targeted a building in an industrial zone between Kfour and Toul (Nabatieh district), rose to 11 Syrian nationals after one of the injured succumbed to his wounds today, according to the Ministry of Health.
This is the deadliest attack in Lebanon since the start of the conflict on Oct. 8, 2023.
More updates on the situation along the Blue Line:
- Hezbollah said it had launched two new "missile" attacks against Israeli positions, at 4.30pm and 4.50pm.
The strikes targeted Israeli soldiers mobilized around "Tallet Tayhat", opposite the Lebanese village of Mais al-Jabal (Marjayoun) and the Dovev barracks, facing the Lebanese town of Rmeish (Bint Jbeil).
- Israeli artillery shells targeted the plain of Khiam (Marjayoun) and the area surrounding its municipality, according to residents.
- Hezbollah announced that it fired rockets that "directly hit" the Israeli Samaqa site in the disputed Kfar Shuba hills at 5:50 p.m.
Hezbollah claimed responsibility for two attacks on Israeli positions in the afternoon:
- They launched missiles at soldiers deployed near the "Zar'it barracks", opposite the Lebanese village of Marwahin (Sour).
- They also launched missiles targeting soldiers near "Kfar Yuval," opposite Lebanese Khiam (Marjeyoun).
Here are the latest updates from South Lebanon:
- Israeli airstrikes targeted Jabal al-Rihan (Jezzine district), security source told our correspondent in the region.
- A house was targeted by an Israeli artillery shell in the village of Kfar Shuba (Hasbaya), according to residents. The house caught fire and teams from the Lebanese civil defense were dispatched to the scene.
- Three Israeli artillery shells fell on the outskirts of Tayr Harfa (Sour district), residents told our correspondent.
In response to the Israeli attacks on the Bekaa and the Masnaa (on the Lebanon-Syria border) Hezbollah announced that it launched an attack with "squadrons of drones on the headquarters of the Golan 210 Division in the Israeli Nafah barracks", which is located 20 km away from the Lebanese-Israeli border. The party said that it targeted the positions of officers and soldiers in the attack.
Citing the Israeli army, Haaretz reported that fires broke out in the annexed Golan region following the interception of aerial targets launched from Lebanon.
Later, sirens sounded in the village of Zarit in Northern Israel near the Lebanese border, according to Haaretz.
In the Gaza Strip, the Civil Defense announced eight deaths in an Israeli strike on Gaza City. A medical source reported to AFP that three Palestinians had died in a drone strike in Rafah. The Israeli army said that it had struck, in the last 24 hours, around 40 "terrorist targets" in the Gaza Strip, where it eliminated "dozens of terrorists." One of the fighters eliminated had participated in the attack of Oct. 7, according to it.
Israeli troops are also continuing their operations in Rafah, in the Khan Younis region and on the outskirts of Deir al-Balah, according to the army.
The Gaza war is forcing the Bank of Israel to maintain high key interest rates until at least 2025, noted Standard & Poor's Global Market Intelligence (S&P GMI), the branch of the American rating agency specializing in the provision and analysis of financial data.
"The central bank will likely keep the policy rate high to prevent the risks of a sudden capital outflow, a sharp depreciation of the shekel and, consequently, an acceleration of inflation," S&P GMI explained in a report published Thursday, repeating the analysis of the institution's deputy governor.
On Wednesday, the Israeli central bank kept its benchmark interest rate at 4.5 percent for the fifth consecutive time, citing concerns about inflation, which has risen to a rate of 3.2 percent.
The Lebanese Ministry of Health denounced in a statement the strike near a health center carried out yesterday by Israel in Blida (Bint Jbeil) and the "insistence" of Israel in targeting health facilities. This attack disabled three vehicles used in the fight against fires and the clearing of roads after the Israeli bombardments specified the ministry, which affirmed that rescuers were "miraculously saved." These attacks constitute "a flagrant violation of all international norms and laws."
The text specifies that they also damaged a relay station of the village's electricity network. This strike was carried out, according to Hezbollah, with "155 mm artillery shells, during the return of a team of volunteers who had left on a mission to reopen a road in Mhaibib."
The Islamic Jihad Movement, a Palestinian faction, organized a march of solidarity through the streets of the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in northern Lebanon in support of "the residents of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, who are enduring ongoing violence and aggression from Israeli forces," the movement said in a statement.
Latest updates from the Lebanese-Israeli border:
- Israeli artillery shelling targeted an area between the villages of Deir Mimas and Kfar Kila (Marjayoun), residents told L'Orient Today's correspondent in the South.
- "Hostile aircraft intrusion sirens" sounded in the towns of Sha'al and Kela in the northern Golan region, according to Haaretz.
Following the discovery of a case of polio in Gaza, the first in 25 years, Israel has reportedly agreed to temporarily suspend some military operations in the enclave to facilitate a vaccination campaign.
Hezbollah said, in a statement, that Israeli artillery shelling targeted the vicinity of a Civil Defense center that belongs to the Hezbollah-affiliated Islamic Health Authority in the village of Blida (Marjayoun) and damaged three vehicles, disrupted a fuel station and the electricity network that feeds the village.
According to L'Orient Today's correspondent in the South, the Israeli bombardment mentioned by Hezbollah happened yesterday.
Hezbollah added that this attack comes in the context of the "aggressive and barbaric practices carried out by Israel as an expression of its impotence and weakness."
The party also provided additional details regarding the incident: "[Israel] targeted the vicinity of the center with 155 mm artillery shells after the [center's] volunteers and vehicles returned from a mission to open a road in the village of Mhaibib, which had been closed due to hostile attacks, leading to the damage of three vehicles dedicated to carrying out firefighting tasks and opening roads."
A volunteer from the Rissala Scout association in a street of Kfar Kila after the strikes that hit the town during the night. (Picture from the Rissala Scouts sent to L'Orient Today's Muntasser Abdallah)
The four Israeli airstrikes that targeted the village of Kfar Kila (Marjayoun), today at dawn, destroyed six houses and some shops, according to L'Orient Today's correspondent in the South. No casualties have been reported.
The "martyr" poster for Islamic Jihad Tulkarm commander Mohammed Jabber (Abu Shujaa). (Credit: Islamic Jihad Media Office)
Islamic Jihad's al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the group, announced the deaths of five of its members, including the commander of its Tulkarm branch Mohammed Jabber, amid raids by the Israeli military in the occupied West Bank.
Jabber, more commonly known by his nom de guerre Abu Shujaa, headed the al-Quds Brigades Tulkarm branch and gained widespread notoriety due to the Israeli military's failed attempts on his life. Most famously, in April, the Israeli army announced that it had killed Abu Shujaa only for the commander to appear live and well at the funerals of other dead fighters.
Gaza's Health Ministry announced that at least 40,602 people have been killed in the enclave since fighting began between Hamas and Israel on Oct. 7 with Israel's offensive killing 68 people in the last 24 hours.
The ministry added that an additional 93,855 people have been wounded in the nearly 11 months of war.
This is what happened last night in southern Lebanon:
- At midnight, Israeli artillery fire targeted the surroundings of Jibbain and Yarine (Sour).
- Also around midnight, Israeli jets flew at low and medium altitudes over the western, central and eastern sectors of south Lebanon.
- At 5:15 a.m., the Israeli air force carried out four heavy airstrikes on the village of Kfar Kila (Marjayoun).
The United States, which says it opposes any expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, announced new sanctions targeting "extremist" Israeli settlers yesterday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu considered "very serious" this "imposition of sanctions against Israeli citizens."
Deemed illegal under international law by the U.N., Israeli colonization in the West Bank has continued under all governments, left and right, after Israel's conquest of this Palestinian territory in 1967. It has intensified with the presence of far-right ministers in the government formed in Dec. 2022 by Netanyahu.
Mediators between Israel and Hamas – Qatar, Egypt and the United States – are still trying to secure a cease-fire in Gaza that would include the release of hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. After talks in Cairo, an Israeli delegation held discussions yesterday in Doha at the "technical level" with the mediators, according to a source familiar with the negotiations.
In Gaza, which Israel continues to bombard, the U.N. World Food Program (WFP) announced yesterday that it was suspending "until further notice" the movements of its personnel after one of its vehicles, "clearly identified" and which had "received multiple authorizations from the Israeli authorities" was hit by Israeli gunfire on Tuesday, without casualties. The army did not immediately comment on the incident.
This morning, the Israeli army claimed to have killed "five terrorists holed up in a mosque" on the second day of the "anti-terrorist operation" in several towns and refugee camps in the north of the occupied West Bank.
On Wednesday, after the first day of Israeli raids in the West Bank, particularly in Jenin, Tulkarem and Tubas, the Palestinian Authority's Health Ministry said that 11 people were killed and another 24 injured in the violence, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent. The Israeli army said it had "eliminated" nine Palestinian fighters.
Among the dead are "children," according to the U.N., whose general secretariat said it was following the situation "with great concern," and deplored "deadly war tactics which appear to exceed international standards for maintaining order."
"The destruction is enormous. [Israeli soldiers] attacked the infrastructure in the Nour Shams camp [destroying] the water and sewage network," Hakim Abou Safiyeh, a municipal employee in Tulkarem, told AFP yesterday.
Israeli raids are a daily occurrence in the West Bank, even though under the Israeli-Palestinian Oslo peace accords, the Israeli army is not supposed to enter autonomous areas under the exclusive control of the Palestinian Authority security forces.
Since the start of the Gaza war, violence in the West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967, has flared up. At least 637 Palestinians have been killed there since that date, according to the U.N., while at least 19 Israelis, including soldiers, have died in Palestinian attacks or during military operations, according to official Israeli data.
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