Israel strikes Hezbollah in Lebanon
ADVERTISEMENTThe Israeli army said on Tuesday it had carried out airstrikes in Lebanon targeting Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas.
“Combat aircraft recently attacked infrastructure of the terrorist organisation Hezbollah on the territory of Lebanon,” the army wrote on X.
“Among the infrastructure attacked, weapons, positions and sites used by the organization were destroyed,” it added.
Tensions are soaring on the Israel-Lebanon border, fueling fears the current fighting could spill over into the region.
Hezbollah, backed by Iran, has engaged fire with Israeli forces repetitively since the Israel Hamas war began on 7 October.
The Shiite militants announced on Monday one of its fighters had been killed, bringing the total to 47.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati told the AFP news agency on Monday his country was doing everything possible to avoid being drawn into the conflict.
Current aid system for Gaza ‘doomed’, UN warns
How assistance is provided to the Gaza Strip via the Rafah border crossing is “doomed to failure”, the UN organisation for Palestinian refugees said on Monday.
UNRWA also denounced the “collective punishment” imposed on the besieged enclave by Israel in retaliation to Hamas’s deadly 7 October assault, which killed 1,400 people.
“Let’s be clear: the handful of convoys authorised via Rafah are nothing compared to the needs of more than 2 million people trapped in Gaza,” said Philippe Lazzarini.
He called for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire”, saying it was a matter of “life or death for millions of people.”
“The system in place to allow aid into Gaza is doomed to failure unless there is political will for the flow of aid to be significant, commensurate with the unprecedented humanitarian needs,” Lazzarini continued.
Around 30 trucks carrying water, food and medicine entered Gaza through the Rafah crossing on the Egyptian border on Sunday, the largest amount of aid since 21 October.
Before October 7, around 500 trucks entered the Gaza Strip every day, which even then was considered insufficient by many observers.
Lazzarini called Hamas’ attack on southern Israel earlier this month “horrible” and “shocking”.
“The current siege imposed on Gaza is collective punishment,” he added. “The people of Gaza feel they are not treated like other civilians. Most of them feel trapped in a war with which they have nothing to do with.”
“An entire population is dehumanised.”
Gaza ‘kids amputated without anaesthesia’
Doctors “operate on the ground” and perform cesarean sections or “amputations of children without anaesthesia” due to a lack of medicine, Doctors of the World (MDM) said on Monday.
ADVERTISEMENTThe NGO warned there would be an “exponential” increase in infant deaths, amid Israel’s unrelenting strikes.
Gaza’s Ministry of Health says 8,306 people have been killed, including 3,457 children, since the start of the Israel Hamas war.
Jean-François Corty, vice-president of MDM, worried the situation in the besieged enclave was “critical” in a “long-term perspective”, on RTL radio.
The Israeli army is battering Gaza in response to Hamas’s attack in which 1,400 people – mostly civilians – were shot, burnt or mutilated.
Since October 9, Israel has subjected Gaza to a “complete siege” depriving its 2.4 million inhabitants of water, food and electricity, while limiting international aid to a trickle.
ADVERTISEMENTWhile denouncing Hamas’ “unspeakable atrocities”, MDM’s Corty said “we must also condemn the fact that Israel is bombing thirsty and starving people who have no prospect of leaving.
“We are going from an open-air prison to an open-air mass grave. There are thousands of civilian deaths… who have nothing to do with terrorists who are dying under the bombs,” he said.
Now is not the time for a ceasefire, says White House
A White House spokesperson said Monday that a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was “not the right answer at this time”, claiming the Palestinian Islamist group “would be the only one to benefit from it.”
The US however is in favour of “temporary and localised humanitarian pauses to allow aid to reach certain specific populations and perhaps even to help with the evacuation of people who want to leave” Gaza, said John Kirby, spokesperson for the National Security Council.