Lebanon PM says Israel’s expanded strikes suggest ‘rejection’ of ceasefire
Lebanon’s prime minister Najib Mikati criticised Israel’s “expansion” of its attacks on his country, saying they indicated a rejection of efforts to broker a truce after more than a month of war, AFP reports.
“The Israeli enemy’s renewed expansion of the scope of its aggression on Lebanese regions, its repeated threats to the population to evacuate entire cities and villages, and its renewed targeting of the southern suburbs of Beirut with destructive raids, are all indicators that confirm the Israeli enemy’s rejection of all efforts being made to secure a ceasefire,” Mikati said in a statement after overnight raids hit Beirut’s southern suburbs, in the first such attack this week.
Key events
Rebecca Ratcliffe
Thailand’s labor minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn said he had ordered the evacuation of all Thai workers from the north of Israel to the south, after four Thais were killed by rocket fire while working on farms near Israel’s border with Lebanon.
Maris Sangiampongsa, Thailand’s foreign minister, confirmed the deaths of four workers, and said another had been injured close to the town of Metula near the Israeli-Lebanese border.
Three Israelis were also killed in what was the deadliest cross-border strikes from Lebanon since Israel launched its ground invasion.
The deaths, which follow the killing of another Thai worker in a mortar strike in October near the border with Lebanon, have prompted questions over why workers are being deployed to areas so close to the conflict.
The Hotline for Refugees and Migrants, an Israeli organisation that supports migrant workers, said authorities had put them in danger by allowing them to work along the border without proper protection.
Thai workers have been among the foreign nationals worst affected by the conflict. Before the war, about 30,000 Thai nationals were working in Israel, mostly in agricultural jobs, where the salaries offered are much higher than back home.
Many were killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attacks on 7 October. So far 23 Thai hostages have been released, while a further six remain in Gaza.
Maris, Thailand’s foreign minister, said he had instructed the Thai embassy in Tel Aviv “to extend every and all assistance to the injured and families of the deceased”.
“Thailand continues to strongly urge all parties to return to the path of peace, in the name of the innocent civilians gravely impacted by this prolonged and deepening conflict”, he said.
Lebanon PM says Israel’s expanded strikes suggest ‘rejection’ of ceasefire
Lebanon’s prime minister Najib Mikati criticised Israel’s “expansion” of its attacks on his country, saying they indicated a rejection of efforts to broker a truce after more than a month of war, AFP reports.
“The Israeli enemy’s renewed expansion of the scope of its aggression on Lebanese regions, its repeated threats to the population to evacuate entire cities and villages, and its renewed targeting of the southern suburbs of Beirut with destructive raids, are all indicators that confirm the Israeli enemy’s rejection of all efforts being made to secure a ceasefire,” Mikati said in a statement after overnight raids hit Beirut’s southern suburbs, in the first such attack this week.
Lebanon’s health ministry says an Israeli airstrike on a mountain town overlooking Beirut has killed three people and wounded five, AP reports.
The ministry gave no further details about the airstrike on the edge of Qamatiyeh, southeast of Beirut.
An AP journalist who visited the scene said the strike was closer to the nearby village of Ein al-Rummaneh, adding that it caused minor damage to an apartment on the first floor of a building.
A Reuters report looks at the worsening conditions in Lebanon as looming winter stretches the country’s ability to aid those displaced by Israel’s attacks:
Thousands are seeking refuge from Israeli strikes in the mountainous Christian town of Deir al-Ahmar in eastern Lebanon.
The town was already hosting more than 10,000 displaced people before Israel escalated its strikes on predominantly Shi’ite Muslim Baalbek and nearby towns starting on Wednesday this week.
“If we flee the bombing, are we meant to die of cold?” said Suzanne Qassem, a mother of two at one displacement centre, whose home in Buday had been destroyed. “I’m sick, I’ve been taking medicine for a week and I’m still coughing… If my son gets sick, am I going to be able to get him medicine?”
Temperatures in Deir al-Ahmar are dropping to 6C overnight even before winter fully sets in and the schools have no diesel to run central heating systems.
“At night, we’re shaking. I put my mattress up next to my daughter and tell her to hug me so that we can keep warm. But we’re not keeping warm,” said Neyfe Mazloum, 69.
More than 1.2 million people have been displaced by Israeli strikes on Lebanon over the last year in its campaign against militant group Hezbollah. That includes nearly 190,000 who have sought refuge in shelters. Others are staying with relatives, have rented out homes, or are sleeping in the streets.
Lebanon’s crisis management agency says that out of 1,130 accredited shelters, 948 have reached maximum capacity. Most of the displaced are in the districts of Mount Lebanon and Beirut – easy to reach for most aid organisations – but Deir al-Ahmar is much further afield.
Local volunteers are worried that the looming winter will cut off the only safe route into Deir al-Ahmar, leaving them stranded. “That road will close with the first snow. It will be like a siege,” said Khodr Zeaiter, an aid volunteer.
More images show the level of destruction in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza following Israeli airstrikes overnight.
The first images of the overnight attacks on Lebanon are emerging on the wires …
Forty seven Palestinians were killed and dozens injured, most of them children and women, in overnight Israeli bombardment of the city of Deir Al-Balah, the Nuseirat camp and the town of Al-Zawayda in the central Gaza Strip, the Palestinian news agency WAFA said, Reuters reports.
The Israeli military said its troops had identified and eliminated “several armed terrorists” in central Gaza and had eliminated “dozens of terrorists” in targeted raids in northern Gaza’s Jabalia area.
Israel’s air force pounded Beirut’s southern suburb of Dahiyeh overnight, destroying dozens of buildings in several neighborhoods, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said Friday, AP reports.
The strikes on Dahiyeh — after a four-day lull during which no airstrikes were reported in the suburb — destroyed dozens of buildings and caused fires in the area. There was no immediate word on casualties.
Recently, Israel has intensified its airstrikes on the northeastern city of Baalbek and nearby villages, as well as different parts of southern Lebanon.
Welcome and summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s continuing coverage of the crisis in the Middle East.
Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly told US envoys that Israel’s ability to counter threats to its security from Lebanon and return displaced people to the north were key elements of any ceasefire deal.
The comments came hours before Israel carried out airstrikes early on Friday on Beirut’s southern suburbs, Reuters witnesses said, the first strikes there in nearly a week.
“The main issue is … Israel’s ability and determination to enforce the agreement and thwart any threat to its security from Lebanon,” Netanyahu’s office cited him as telling two US envoys.
The envoys, Brett McGurk and Amos Hochstein, were in Israel on a new push to secure ceasefires in both Lebanon and Gaza. Lebanon’s prime minister on Wednesday expressed hope that a ceasefire deal was imminent.
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Hochstein and McGurk, met the Israeli prime minister on Thursday to talk about a ceasefire proposal for Lebanon. The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said negotiators made “good progress” toward a deal. “We’re hopeful that we will see things transition in Lebanon in a not too distant future,” US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said.
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Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, who had expressed optimism of a speedy settlement “in hours or days” earlier on Thursday, said that Israel’s “ongoing escalation” in his country “does not inspire optimism”. Netanyahu’s office said the prime minister “made it clear that the main point is not this or that agreement on paper but Israel’s ability and determination to enforce the agreement and thwart any threat to its security from Lebanon, in a manner that will return our residents securely to their homes”.
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Thursday marked a day when the most civilians in both Israel and Lebanon were killed since October 2023. The Lebanese health ministry said that Israeli attacks had killed 45 people in the previous 24 hours, amid bombing in the north-east Bekaa valley and infantry battles in the south. In one Bekaa village, eight people were killed from the same family. In northern Israel, seven people were killed by rocket fire from Lebanon, including four Thai agricultural workers.
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The Israeli army’s evacuation call for several areas of south Lebanon on Thursday included a Palestinian refugee camp. Among the areas listed was Rashidieh camp, which houses thousands of Palestinian refugees. Israel issued its second evacuation order for the city of Baalbek and two surrounding villages in the Bekaa valley on Thursday afternoon, carrying out a series of airstrikes on the village of Durous a few hours later. The evacuation orders had prompted a mass exodus of residents from the city, which is home to a Unesco world heritage site.
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Israeli attacks killed at least one child in Lebanon each day and injured 10 others, the UN children’s agency (Unicef) said. Citing the Lebanese health ministry, Unicef said 166 children have been killed since October 2023, while at least 1,168 have been injured. It awrned that the war in Lebanon is “inflicting severe physical wounds and deep emotional scars” on many of the country’s children. Six Lebanese health workers were killed and four wounded in Israeli strikes across south Lebanon on Thursday, the health ministry said in a statement.
