Israel has set a ‘trap’ for Hezbollah
Raymond Murphy, a professor at the University of Galway’s Irish Centre for Human Rights, says the situation in Lebanon is “extremely dangerous” and that Israel has attacked to not only defeat Hezbollah but provoke it to respond with increasing force.
“And as a consequence, possibly to bring Iran into the conflict, as well as the Houthis in Yemen, which would force the hand of the United States,” the former UN peacekeeper told Al Jazeera from Galway, Ireland.
“So if the situation escalates and Hezbollah falls for what is essentially a trap that’s being set by the Israelis and responds very forcefully … then the United States will also step in in defence of Israel,” he added.
Murphy said that the situation is already out of control and escalation could lead to unknown consequences.
“So it’s really important to put pressure on the Israelis to cease the current round of hostilities,” he said. “And the only country that can really do that, though, is the United States.”
Iran’s Pezeshkian condemns ‘senseless’ UN inaction against Israel
The Iranian president has denounced the UN’s “inaction” against Israel, describing it as “senseless and incomprehensible”.
“In my meeting with the Secretary General of the United Nations, I said the UN inaction against the crimes of the occupying regime is senseless and incomprehensible,” Masoud Pezeshkian said in a post on X, adding that “I expressed my deep concern about the spread of the conflict in the entire Middle East.”
2 UN refugee agency staff members killed by Israeli strikes on Lebanon on Monday, commissioner says
Two staff members of the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) were among the 558 people killed in Lebanon on Monday, the organization’s chief confirmed on Tuesday.
Dina Darwiche was killed alongside her youngest son when an Israeli missile struck the building they lived in on Monday, the agency told CNN. She worked for the UN for 12 years in Beqaa.
Darwiche’s husband and one of her children were rescued and are in hospital receiving treatment for “serious injuries,” it added. Ali Basma, the other staff member killed by the strikes, had worked for the UN for seven years in Tyre, a coastal town south of Beirut. Basma was buried on Tuesday morning.
“UNHCR is outraged by the killing of our colleagues, and we extend our deepest sympathies to their families and loved ones,” it said.
In a post to X, UNHCR Commissioner Filippo Grandi took aim at Israeli airstrikes which he said were “relentlessly claiming hundreds of civilian lives.” “On behalf of all us at UNHCR, heartfelt condolences to their families, friends and colleagues,” he added.
Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon are now relentlessly claiming hundreds of civilian lives.
And I am very saddened to confirm that two UNHCR colleagues were also killed yesterday.
On behalf of all us at UNHCR, heartfelt condolences to their families, friends and colleagues.
— Filippo Grandi (@FilippoGrandi) September 24, 2024
Many children still "missing under rubble" in Lebanon, UNICEF warns
Many children remain “missing under rubble” and caught “on dangerous roads” after Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon, the UN children’s agency warned, as the country suffered its deadliest day since 2006.
More children were killed in Lebanon in one day on Monday than in the entire past year, Ettie Higgins, UNICEF Deputy Representative for Lebanon Ettie Higgins told a UN briefing Tuesday.
UNICEF has received reports that many Lebanese children “slept in cars and on the sides of roads” on Monday night after thousands of families were displaced from their homes in southern Lebanon, Higgins said.
“We’re also getting reports that hundreds of children are caught en route across dangerous roads across the country,” she added.
The agency was also asked for the first time on Monday to provide mobile mortuary vehicles to store the remains of children, Higgins added.
“If we return to a conflict like those dark days of 2006, we really fear as UNICEF that this time, it could be even worse for the children of Lebanon,” Higgins stressed.
A man checks the damage to a building hit in an Israeli airstrike in the southern village of Akbieh, Lebanon, on September 24
