Sirens sound in southern Israel
For the first time in nearly two months, the Israeli military reports sirens sounding in Gaza border communities in southern Israel.
Meanwhile in the north, firefighters were working to extinguish a forest fire in the Upper Galilee after a rocket from Lebanon fell in the area, according to Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
Approximately 50 instances of rockets or shrapnel falling have been reported in the past 24 hours in Metula, northern Israel, according to the head of the local council.
Islamic Resistance in Iraq says three projectiles launched at Israeli targets
The umbrella group of Iran-aligned armed forces in Iraq says it launched projectiles against three targets in occupied Golan and Tiberias in Israel.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq added in a statement that its forces used drones at the targets, with the attacks taking place at dawn on Friday. It promised to continue “operations to pound the enemy’s strongholds at an escalating pace.
No place for foreign workers being displaced in Lebanon
Displacement in Lebanon has been increasing rapidly amid Israel’s offensive on the country, also affecting foreign workers. About 102,000 people had been displaced in the last 11 months since October. Now that figure is about one million, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Foreign workers, even if they were born and raised in Lebanon, have no place in the authorities’ support programmes during war times.
Migrants in Lebanon
Israeli attacks force 37 healthcare facilities in Lebanon to close
Israeli military attacks on Lebanon have forced the closing of 37 healthcare facilities, including nine supported by the UN Population Fund, the agency aimed at improving reproductive and maternal health worldwide.
According to the organisation, there are about 11,600 pregnant women among the more than one million people who have been forcibly displaced from Lebanon as a result of Israeli assaults.
The agency distributes dignity kits and provides gender-based violence protection, sexual and reproductive health services, and psychological support in various shelters across Lebanon.
🚨 Attacks on healthcare in Lebanon have shuttered 37 facilities, including 9 supported by @UNFPA.
We remain committed to providing life-saving support to pregnant women & GBV survivors. Civilians are NOT a target! #HumanitarianResponse https://t.co/VPiwpVYEyR pic.twitter.com/jFiFSnwUzS
— UNFPA Arab States (@UNFPA_ASRO) October 4, 2024
Attacks on health workers and facilities in Lebanon reminiscent of Gaza
What we’re hearing is that four paramedics were killed in the Marjayoun hospital. It’s a place I’ve spent a lot of time in before we had to evacuate from there.
A Lebanese medical source told Al Jazeera that they were killed after Israeli fighter jets targeted an ambulance belonging to the Islamic health authority in the vicinity of the hospital. After that attack, the decision was made to shutter the hospital.
That’s 38 medical facilities out of 137 that have now been shuttered across the 120-kilometre (75-mile) border. Most of them were very close to the border areas and the doctors and medical staff there felt that those strikes were coming in too close for them to guarantee to be able to operate safely.
And now, this hospital, which is a major one for this entire area, has shuttered its doors, as well. Once again that word keeps coming up when you talk about southern Lebanon: Gaza.
People are looking at the attacks on hospital infrastructure in Gaza which has been completely decimated and wondering how much time is going to take for that to happen here.
Residents run for cover following an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut
Strike near Marjayoun hospital ‘sent shockwaves’ in majority Christian town
Israel’s attack near Marjayoun hospital in southern Lebanon has shaken the majority Christian town, which had been spared in previous conflicts. Israeli jets targeted the area around the government hospital, killing four paramedics and leading to the hospital’s closure.
“If you go back to the war in 2006, Marjayoun was spared,” Al Jazeera’s Assed Baig said. But earlier this year, an Israeli drone strike targeted the town for the first time, he noted.
“It sent shockwaves,” Baig said. “The targeting of this vicinity around the hospital will again shock many people in Marjayoun. Targeting hospitals is an alarming thing for many people in Lebanon.”
Israel’s defence minister says ‘more surprises’ to come
Speaking from Israel’s northern border, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant stated that the military operation in Lebanon will continue “until the removal of combat means”.
“We have more surprises in our arsenal,” Gallant said, according to Israeli media reports.
Earlier today, the Israeli military announced that its Thursday attack in Beirut had killed Mohammad Rashid Sakafi, Hezbollah’s head of communications.
