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Qatari, Lebanese officials meet in Beirut amid Israeli bombing
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s office says in a statement that he received Qatar’s Minister of State for International Cooperation Lolwah bint Rashid Al-Khater at the Grand Serail government palace in Beirut.
Also present at the meeting was Qatar’s ambassador to Lebanon Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and the Lebanese ministers of health and the environment.
“We affirm our firm and steadfast position towards Lebanon, its sovereignty and its right to maintain its security and stability and the security of its citizens as well. We also strongly condemn all attacks against Lebanese civilians”, Qatar’s Al-Khater said after the meeting, according to the statement, reiterating international calls for a ceasefire.
Al-Khater also announced the beginning of an airborne aid campaign from Qatar to Lebanon, as Israel’s relentless attacks continue to hit all areas of the country, including its capital Beirut, and the number of people displaced by those attacks has surpassed one million.
“We expect to send 10 C-17 aircraft loaded with medical supplies, as well as shelter and food supplies, during this month,” she said.
Leaders of US, UK, France and Germany to hold talks on Middle East
The leaders will meet in Berlin on Saturday on the latest developments in the Middle East and the war in Ukraine, according to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s spokesperson.
“The prime minister will travel to a meeting of the Quad in Berlin on Saturday,” the spokesperson told reporters, referring to the “Quad” grouping of Britain, the United States, France and Germany.
UN warns Lebanon could face same ‘spiral of doom’ as Gaza
UN humanitarian officials have called for urgent action to stop the escalating conflict in Lebanon from spiralling into a similar scene of devastation as seen in Gaza.
“We need to do everything we can to stop that from happening,” said Matthew Hollingworth, Lebanon country director for the United Nations’ World Food Programme.
Speaking to reporters in Geneva from Beirut, he said he had spent the first half of the year coordinating WFP’s operations in Gaza before taking the helm of its Lebanon office, and was deeply concerned by the similarities.
“It is in my mind from the time I wake until the time I sleep, that we could go into the same sort of spiral of doom … We shouldn’t allow that to happen,” he said.
Israel’s bombardment of Lebanon has killed more than 1,100 people and displaced upwards of a million in less than two weeks.
James Elder, the spokesperson for the UN children’s agency UNICEF, warned that “the commonalities are unfortunately absolutely there to be seen, whether it is displacement on the ground, impact upon children or language being used … [to] soften the realities on the ground”.
“We are seeing the same patterns that we saw in Gaza,” Jeremy Laurence of the UN rights office added. “The devastation is beyond belief for all people in Lebanon as it is in Gaza. We can’t let this happen again.”
WHO warns of possible disease outbreaks in Lebanon
A World Health Organization official says outbreaks might occur due to crowded conditions in displacement shelters and hospital closures.
“We are facing a situation where there is a much higher risk of disease outbreaks, such as acute watery diarrhoea, hepatitis A, and a number of vaccine-preventable diseases,” WHO’s Ian Clarke, deputy incident manager for Lebanon, told a Geneva news conference by videolink from Beirut.
The UN health agency has already warned that the system is overstretched and so far five hospitals in the country have closed and four are only partly functional, Clarke said.
He added that hospitals had been shut because medics had either fled the fighting or been asked to evacuate by Lebanese authorities.
Israeli forces have begun ground operations in the southwest of Lebanon, escalating a yearlong conflict with the Iran-backed group Hezbollah that has killed more than 1,000 people in the past two weeks and triggered a mass flight.
Images show 40 Israeli military vehicles near UNIFIL headquarters in Lebanon
Satellite photographs show a significant Israeli army presence – including troops and vehicles – near the UN peacekeepers’ base in Maroun al-Ras, southern Lebanon.
Images show 40 military vehicles positioned in earthen fortifications around the UN mission’s headquarters. The area has seen the construction of a road to facilitate movement as well as land being bulldozed near the UN base.
UNIFIL troops raised alarm after the Israeli army deployed near the mission’s post southeast of Maroun al-Ras inside Lebanese territory. Israeli forces stationed themselves behind berms just metres away from the base of Irish peacekeepers.
UNIFIL issued a statement saying it is unacceptable to compromise the safety of UN peacekeepers while they carry out their mandated duties from the UN Security Council.
Using Irish peacekeepers as human shields...
