JUST IN: Israel bombs Beirut while generating a new exodus in Lebanon | International
Global Update:
The following report highlights an important international development currently attracting worldwide attention.
Israel continues to climb steps in its military escalation against Lebanon and this Thursday it bombed a residential building in a suburb of Beirut, the capital. The attack, which according to the Qatari newspaper Al Araby Al Jadeed has caused one death and multiple injuries, advances the dismantling of the ceasefire that the United States imposed in April between Israel and the Shiite militia party Hezbollah. One of its main pillars of that truce was to safeguard Beirut and its surroundings from new attacks. The aggression, which the Israeli army has described as “precision”, takes place the day before Lebanon and Israel resume negotiations in Washington to try to make the ceasefire stick. Further south, Israel continues with a large-scale offensive that it has maintained since Tuesday, when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he had ordered to “step on the accelerator” against the pro-Iranian organization. Since then, the hostilities of the Israeli troops are causing dozens of fatalities daily, and they have ordered the complete evacuation of everything that remains south of the Zahrani River. This is a waterway located 40 kilometers from Israel, north of an area equivalent to 14% of Lebanon, where there are some 300 municipalities and where Israel has maintained daily attacks despite the truce. That southern region, which Israel considered on Wednesday as a “combat zone” and which includes cities such as the ancient Tire (about 200,000 residents) or Nabatie, has registered in recent days a new exodus amid bombings, in a country where 1.2 million people (a quarter of the national population) were already displaced before the recent escalation. The Lebanese newspaper l’Orient Today estimates that Israel has launched attacks on 39 municipalities in the last few hours. Tire and the surrounding area, where Palestinian refugee camps are located and where thousands of people forcibly displaced from border villages are staying, have received a dozen attacks since Wednesday night. Tension remained high during the early hours. The Arabic spokesman for the Israeli troops, Avichay Adraee, issued two statements on his social networks at three in the morning warning of imminent bombings against specific buildings, at a time when the offensive had already partially damaged the electrical networks and the internet connection. Two hours later, a burst of seven bombings moved the city at dawn, in a city that was quite empty after the majority had abandoned it the day before. The Ministry of Health has reported eleven fatalities in several attacks on the Tire area, including three dead and 37 wounded, including eight children and 13 women, in an attack on Al-Bass, to the east of the municipality. Further north, in Adloun, a hillside 39 kilometers from the border, the ministry reports a bombing against a vehicle that has killed six people, including two children, their father and mother. The Lebanese state news agency had earlier reported “a massacre” in the area, where “a drone attacked a family while trying to flee villages threatened” by Israel.
Global Impact:
Experts suggest the long-term impact of these developments may become clearer as more information emerges.
Additional reactions from governments and international institutions are expected as the situation evolves.
More details may emerge as official sources continue releasing new information.
Source: This article was originally published by Internacional en EL PAÍS and adapted for our international English-speaking audience.
Read the original article here.