Skip next section Israeli military says strike on Beirut targets Hezbollah commander
07/30/2024July 30, 2024
Israeli military says strike on Beirut targets Hezbollah commander
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they had carried out an airstrike on the city targeting the Hezbollah commander who they said was behind a rocket attack which killed 12 children and teenagers in the occupied Golan Heights over the weekend.
“The IDF carried out a targeted strike in Beirut, on the commander responsible for the murder of the children in Majdal Shams and the killing of numerous additional Israeli civilians,” the IDF said in a statement.
The fate of the commander in question remains unclear.
Lebanon’s state-run national news agency said an Israeli strike had targeted the area around Hezbollah’s Shura Council in the Haret Hreik neighborhood of Beirut.
Witnesses speaking to news agencies reported a plume of smoke rising above the southern suburbs of Beirut on Tuesday evening moments after a loud blast was heard in the Lebanese capital.
The city’s southern suburbs are considered a stronghold of the Iranian-backed militant group, which is designated a terrorist group by the United States, the European Union and others.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had promised a “severe response” to the weekend’s attack, prompting fears of an escalation of the conflict in the region.
https://p.dw.com/p/4ivZX
Skip next section WHO says Gaza polio infections ‘very likely’
07/30/2024July 30, 2024
WHO says Gaza polio infections ‘very likely’
The World Health Organization (WHO) has doubled down on claims by health authorities in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip suggesting the spread of the in the war-torn enclave.
WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier told a UN press briefing on Tuesday that people had probably already been infected in Gaza, but that detecting cases can be tricky due to many cases starting off as asymptomatic.
“Having vaccine-derived polio virus in the sewage very likely means that it’s out there somewhere in people,” he said. “So the risk of [it]… spreading further is there and it would be a setback.”
The Gaza health ministry had announced a “polio epidemic” on Monday, blaming it on the Israeli military operations in the enclave.
James Elder, spokesperson for the UN children’s agency, pointed out a drop in polio vaccination rates from 99% to 89% during the almost 10 months of conflict.
He expressed concern regarding vaccines making their way to those who need them, amid the constraints on humanitarian access.
“The mass displacement, the decimation of health infrastructure, the horrendously insecure operating environment, they will make it much, much more difficult [to do vaccinations,] hence putting more and more children at risk,” he said.
https://p.dw.com/p/4iv6C
Skip next section Gaza health authorities say hundreds killed in Israeli Khan Younis offensive
07/30/2024July 30, 2024
Gaza health authorities say hundreds killed in Israeli Khan Younis offensive
Israel wrapped up a week-long military offensive in Khan Younis on Tuesday, with thousands of civilians returning to the battered city in southern Gaza.
Health authorities in the Hamas-run enclave saying around 300 people had been killed.
The offensive was launched on July 22 with the stated aim of stopping rocket fire from Khan Younis.
The Israeli military announced the completion of the operation on Tuesday, saying “150 terrorists” were killed, with tunnels, infrastructure and warehouses destroyed.
Gaza’s civil defense forces said in a statement it has recovered the bodies of around 300 dead.
https://p.dw.com/p/4iv0o
Skip next section Israeli civilian killed by rocket fired from Lebanon
07/30/2024July 30, 2024
Israeli civilian killed by rocket fired from Lebanon
An Israeli man was killed by a rocket fired from Lebanon, Israeli media reported, citing the military.
The military said 10 rockets were fired from Lebanon, with one hitting Kibbutz Hagoshrim in the north, killing one civilian.
Magen David Adom (MDA), Israel’s national emergency and blood service, said a 30-year-old man was pronounced dead after sustaining shrapnel injuries in the Kiryat Shmona region in northern Israel.
https://p.dw.com/p/4iurZ
Skip next section IDF says 10 Hezbollah targets hit
07/30/2024July 30, 2024
IDF says 10 Hezbollah targets hit
The Defense Forces (IDF) said it struck around 10 targets in seven different areas of southern Lebanon.
The IDF also said it “eliminated” a member of the group in the southern village of Bayt Lif. The military struck a Hezbollah weapons storage facility, infrastructure sites, military structures and a launcher in southern the IDF said.
Border confrontations between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah have been occurring almost daily since the Hamas October 7 attacks on southern Israel prompted the ongoing war in Gaza.
Recently, however, of the conflict. This weekend, 12 teenagers and children were killed in a strike on the Israel-occupied Golan Heights, which Israel blamed on Hezbollah. The group denied responsibility, but Israel has
Some 1,200 were killed in Israel during the Hamas October 7 attacks, with the militant group taking around 250 hostages back to Gaza. Around 115 hostages are still there, though Israel says a third of them are believed to be dead.
Meanwhile, over 39,300 Palestinians have been killed so far in the fighting, health authorities in the Hamas-run strip say.
Both Hamas and by several countries.
https://p.dw.com/p/4iu4t
Skip next section Monitor says Israel strikes Syria air defense bases
07/30/2024July 30, 2024
Monitor says Israel strikes Syria air defense bases
has struck two military bases in the outskirts of Deraa, a UK-based monitor said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported no casualties in the overnight strikes.
https://p.dw.com/p/4iu51
Skip next section US says Israel-Hezbollah confrontation not inevitable
07/30/2024July 30, 2024
US says Israel-Hezbollah confrontation not inevitable
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin does not believe that a confrontation between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah was inevitable, though he was still concerned.
Speaking during a joint press conference in Manila, the Philippines, following security talks with Philippine counterparts alongside US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Austin said he wished to see things “resolved in a diplomatic fashion.”
“While we’ve seen a lot of activity on Israel’s northern border, we remain concerned about the potential of this escalating into a full-blown fight. And I don’t believe that a fight is inevitable,” Austin said.
https://p.dw.com/p/4iu6S
The post Middle East updates: IDF strikes southern Beirut appeared first on Deutsche Welle.
