Beirut/New York — Lebanon’s health ministry said Thursday at least 25 people had been killed and 120 injured in Israeli strikes on Beirut — the third such attack on the capital since Israel escalated its air campaign last month.
Israel has repeatedly pounded southern Beirut suburbs, believed to be the bastion of Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement, for more than two weeks but strikes have rarely targeted the city center.
“The Israeli enemy’s attacks on the capital Beirut this evening killed, according to a preliminary toll, 25 people and injured 120 others,” the ministry said in a statement.
Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) said the strikes hit the densely populated neighborhoods of Nweiri and Basta.
“The first strike in Beirut targeted the third floor of an eight-story building” in the Nweiri area, and a second strike hit “a four-story building… in al-Basta al-Fouqa, which completely collapsed,” the NNA.
An AFP photographer at the site of the strike in the Basta area said two old buildings had collapsed, while the windows of surrounding homes had been blown out with the force of the explosion.
Civil defense members and residents were attempting to pull survivors out of the mountain of rubble, with some of them carried away on stretchers.
Firefighters were working to put out a blaze in a “residential building” hit in the Nweiri area, with residents being evacuated from the upper floors using a ladder, NNA reported.
Immediately after the raids, AFP live footage showed two plumes of smoke billowing in between densely packed buildings.
Earlier this month, Israel carried out a deadly air raid in Beirut, hitting an emergency services rescue facility, and killing seven workers, the service said.
On September 30, an Israeli drone strike on a building in Beirut’s busy Cola district killed three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the leftist armed group said.
BIDEN LASHES OUT AT NETANYAHU – IN PRIVATE
Meanwhile, in New York, the award-winning American journalist Bob Woodward, who exposed President Nixon’s corrupt practice termed the Watergate Scandal in 1972, has written a new book titled War that offers a remarkable look behind the scenes at President Joe Biden’s blunt, profanity-laced assessments and interactions with the world leaders who have shaped his presidency, especially Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, per CNN report.
A report published on the CNN website quoted: “That son of a b*tch, Bibi Netanyahu, he’s a bad guy. He’s a bad f**king guy!”
President Biden declared privately about the Israeli prime minister to one of his associates in the spring of 2024 as Israel’s war in Gaza intensified, wrote Woodward, per CNN report.
The report further says: “In the aftermath of the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, Woodward describes the roller-coaster relationship between Biden and Netanyahu. While Biden supported Israel publicly, he fought with Netanyahu behind the scenes over how Israel was conducting the war in Gaza.
“What’s your strategy, man?” Biden asked Netanyahu during an April phone call, Woodward reports.
“We have to go into Rafah,” Netanyahu said.
“Bibi, you’ve got no strategy,” Biden responded.
That same month, Israel launched a strike in Syria that killed a top general in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, prompting Iran to launch more than 100 missiles in response, the first time that Iran had fired rockets from its territory directly at Israel.
The US, along with Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and other US allies, came to Israel’s defense. While nearly all of the Iranian missiles were intercepted, Netanyahu wanted to retaliate.
Biden told Netanyahu on a call to “take the win,” though the Israeli prime minister pushed back. “You don’t need to make another move. Do nothing,” Biden said.
In the end, Israel launched a limited, calibrated strike against Iran, which Biden considered a win.
“I know he’s going to do something but the way I limit it is tell him to ‘Do nothing,’” Biden told his advisers, according to Woodward.
But Biden’s frustration with Netanyahu boiled over as the war continued to escalate.
“He’s a f**king liar,” Biden said privately of Netanyahu after Israel went into Rafah, Woodward writes.
“Bibi, what the f*ck?” Biden yelled at Netanyahu in July after an Israeli airstrike killed a top Hezbollah military commander and three civilians in Beirut, according to Woodward.
“You know the perception of Israel around the world increasingly is that you’re a rogue state, a rogue actor,” Biden said to Netanyahu. Netanyahu responded that the target was “one of the leading terrorists.”
“We saw an opportunity and took it,” Netanyahu said. “The harder you hit, the more successful you’re going to be in the negotiation,” he said, the report CNN says quoting Woodward’s book.
ISRAEL ISSUES MISLEADING EVACUATION ORDERS
Amnesty International accused Israel on Thursday of “misleading” and sometimes inadequate calls for residents to evacuate parts of the country, expressing concern the warnings intend to massively uproot southerners.
Since September 23, Israel has launched an intense air campaign that has killed more than 1,200 people in Lebanon and displaced over a million more from their homes, according to official figures.
“Warnings issued by the Israeli military to residents of Dahiyeh, the densely populated southern suburbs of Beirut, were inadequate,” Amnesty chief Agnes Callamard said in a statement.
The group said it analyzed more than a dozen evacuation warnings and maps and conducted interviews with residents of south Beirut and south Lebanon.
Callamard said the warning included “misleading maps” and were issued “at short notice — in one instance less than 30 minutes before strikes began — in the middle of the night, via social media” when many are asleep, she added.
The Israeli military’s Arabic spokesperson has been routinely issuing evacuation orders online ahead of expected strikes mainly targeting Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon.
“Israel’s warnings in southern Lebanon covered large geographical areas, raising concerns as to whether they were designed instead to trigger mass relocation,” Amnesty said.
“The conditions being created by Israel’s actions in south Lebanon risk forcibly displacing the majority of the civilian population there,” it added.
Last week, Israel also announced it was conducting “targeted” ground incursions in Lebanon’s south.
Analysts had previously told AFP Israel’s aim in expanding its activity at the border could be to create a buffer zone in Lebanon’s south, where Hezbollah holds sway.
Israel has issued calls to evacuate 118 south Lebanon towns and villages in the first week of October, Amnesty said.
The group warned that evacuation calls “do not make south Lebanon a free-fire zone” where remaining civilians as seen as targets and urged Israel to abide by international law to minimize harm to civilians.
One-quarter of Lebanese territory is under Israeli military displacement orders, according to the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
On September 27, an Israeli air strike killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who had led the group for 32 years, in the group’s south Beirut stronghold.
The latest escalation followed a year of near-daily fire between Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel, which the group launched in support of ally Hamas after its October 7, 2023 attack on Israel triggered war in Gaza.
ISRAEL TARGETS UNITED NATIONS PEACEKEEPERS
In Washington D.C., the White House is “deeply concerned” by reports Israel fired on UN peacekeeper headquarters in south Lebanon, a National Security Council spokesperson said Thursday.
“We understand Israel is conducting targeted operations near the Blue Line to destroy infrastructure that could be used to threaten Israeli citizens,” the spokesperson said, referring to the demarcation line between Israel and Lebanon. “While they undertake these operations, it is critical that they not threaten UN peacekeepers’ safety and security.”
The Israeli military said its forces opened fire Thursday in the area where UN peacekeepers have their headquarters in south Lebanon, insisting that Hezbollah fighters were operating nearby.
“This morning, IDF (Israeli military) troops operated in the area of Naqura, next to a UNIFIL base,” the military said, referring to the UN peacekeepers’ headquarters.
In Beirut, the UN peacekeepers said Israeli fire on their headquarters in south Lebanon Thursday left two Blue Helmets injured, sparking condemnation from European members of the mission.
Italy said the acts “could constitute war crimes”.
It is the most serious incident reported by the peacekeeping mission since it said last week it had rejected Israeli demands to “relocate” from some of its positions.
UNIFIL, which has about 10,000 peacekeepers stationed in south Lebanon, has called for a ceasefire since an escalation between Israel and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah on September 23, after a year of cross-border fire.
“This morning, two peacekeepers were injured after an IDF Merkava tank fired its weapon toward an observation tower at UNIFIL’s headquarters in Naqura, directly hitting it and causing them to fall,” the mission said, using an acronym for the Israeli military.
The peacekeepers did not suffer serious injuries, “but they remain in hospital,” it said.
A UNIFIL spokeswoman said they were Indonesian.
EUROPEAN LEADERS CONDEMN ISRAEL
The defense minister of Italy, which along with Indonesia is among UNIFIL’s largest troop contributors, said the attack and other incidents UNIFIL blames on Israel “could constitute war crimes”, and had asked for an explanation because “it was not a mistake”.
Guido Crosetto described the “shooting” as “intolerable” and said he “protested to my Israeli counterpart and the Israeli ambassador to Italy”.
The French foreign ministry also said it expected “explanations from the Israeli authorities” after the incident, adding: “The protection of UN peacekeepers is an obligation for all parties in a conflict”.
Spain’s foreign ministry said it “strongly condemns the Israeli firing that hit the UNIFIL headquarters” which it called a “grave violation of international law”.
Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris, whose country has about 370 troops in the mission, said “any firing in the vicinity of UNIFIL troops or facilities is reckless and must stop”.
According to UNIFIL, the Israeli military also hit another position in Ras Naqura, further to the south, on Thursday.
UNIFIL said it hit “the entrance to the bunker where peacekeepers were sheltering, and damaging vehicles and a communications system”.
The mission added that an Israeli military drone “was observed flying inside the UN position up to the bunker entrance.”
UNIFIL headquarters and nearby positions “have been repeatedly hit,” the mission said.
On Wednesday, “IDF soldiers deliberately fired at and disabled” perimeter-monitoring cameras around a position, UNIFIL added.
UNIFIL last week said the Israeli military, before it began ground operations inside Lebanon, had asked the peacekeepers to “relocate” from some positions.
The peacekeeping mission rejected the demand, which Ireland’s President Michael Higgins, called “an insult to the most important global institution”.
On Sunday UNIFIL warned that Israeli operations near one of its positions southeast of Maroun al-Ras were “extremely dangerous” and compromising the Blue Helmets’ safety.
Maroun al-Ras is about 27 kilometers (17 miles) east of Naqura.
Earlier on Thursday, Hezbollah said that it has destroyed an Israeli tank advancing towards Ras al-Naqura, and fired rockets at Israel troops in another Lebanese area along the frontier, Mais al-Jabal.
It also said it launched rockets at several areas in northern Israel, including one area north of the city of Haifa.
UNIFIL was set up in 1978 to monitor the withdrawal of Israeli forces after they invaded Lebanon in reprisal for a Palestinian attack.
It was bolstered in Security Council Resolution 1701 after Hezbollah and Israel fought a war in 2006, and its peacekeepers are tasked with monitoring the ceasefire between the two sides.
ERDOGAN CRITICIZES ISRAEL OVER “GENOCIDE”
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan renewed his attacks on Israel as he arrived in Tirana Thursday, the first stop of a Balkans tour that will also take him to Serbia.
Repeating his claim that Israel’s actions in Gaza constituted “genocide”, he branded it the “shame of humanity”, at a joint press conference with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama.
“The international community, we must do our best to urgently guarantee a permanent ceasefire and exert the necessary pressure on Israel,” he added.
“The genocide that has been going on in Gaza for the past year is the common shame of all humanity,” he added.
Erdogan has branded Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the “butcher of Gaza” and compared him to Nazi Germany’s Adolf Hitler.
“The aggression led by the Netanyahu government now threatens the world order beyond the region,” Erdogan said.
Later Thursday Erdogan, accompanied by Prime Minister Edi Rama, inaugurated the Great Mosque of Tirana.
The largest Muslim place of worship in the Balkans, it has a capacity of up to 10,000 people. The project, funded by Turkey, cost 30 million euros.
Turkey is also a major employer in Albania. As Erdogan said in February, over 600 Turkish companies operate in the country, providing jobs to more than 15,000 workers.
It is also one of the five biggest foreign investors in Albania, he said, with $3.5 billion (3.2 billion euros) committed.
The two NATO member countries also have close military ties, with Turkey supplying Tirana with its Bayraktar TB2 drones.
For the second stage of his tour Erdogan traveled from Albania to Serbia, where he was greeted at Belgrade airport by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.
Turkey made a diplomatic comeback here in 2017 when Erdogan made a landmark visit to Belgrade.
The five-century Ottoman presence in Serbia has traditionally weighed heavily on Belgrade-Ankara relations.
Another source of tension has been Turkey’s historic ties with Serbia’s former breakaway province of Kosovo. Kosovo declared independence in 2008, a move Belgrade still refuses to recognize.
Erdogan’s 2017 visit repaired the relationship with Serbia, Belgrade analyst Vuk Vuksanovic told AFP.
But Belgrade was furious last year when Turkey sold drones to Kosovo, something Serbia said was “unacceptable”.
The row could however still be patched up, Vuksanovic insisted.
“I would not be surprised if we see a military deal at the end of this visit,” he said.
He expected talks in Belgrade on Friday to focus on “military cooperation, the position of Turkish companies — and attempts by Belgrade to persuade Ankara to tone down support for Kosovo”.
While the rapprochement is relatively new, economic ties between the two countries are already significant.
Turkish investment in Serbia has rocketed from $1 million to $400 million over the past decade, the Turkey-Serbia business council told Turkey’s Anadolu news agency.
Turkish exports to Serbia hit $2.13 billion in 2022, up from $1.14 billion in 2020, according to official Serbian figures.
Turkish tourists are also important for Serbia, second only to visitor numbers from Bosnia.