Israel trying to make Lebanese border towns ‘unlivable’
Al Jazeera correspondent Ali Hashem says Israel’s systematic destruction of Lebanese towns near their shared border indicates that it is trying to make the area uninhabitable.
“In the south, we saw pictures of Israel detonating a whole village, the village of Mhaibib, that’s just on the border,” he reported from Beirut. “That gives an indication that there is an attempt to make the border villages unlivable so that people won’t get back there even if there is a settlement or an end to the hostilities between the two sides.”
A view of a damaged site after an Israeli strike in Nabatieh, southern Lebanon, Wednesday
Death toll from Israeli strike on Nabatieh rises to 16
Lebanon’s Ministry of Health has provided updated casualty figures from an earlier Israeli strike on the city of Nabatieh in the south of the country, saying that the attack killed 16 people and injured 52.
The strike targeted a local municipal building, with the town’s mayor among those killed.
A view of damage as civil defense teams, along with local residents, mobilize to assist in the recovery efforts, working to clear the wreckage of the destroyed buildings and provide aid to those injured
Lebanese Red Cross says two ambulance workers injured by shrapnel
The Lebanese Red Cross has said that two ambulance workers were injured by shrapnel while responding to an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon.
In a social media post on X, the organisation said two of its ambulances arrived in Jwaya to search for casualties following an Israeli raid, in coordination with UNIFIL peacekeepers.
The area was then targeted again, and two ambulance workers were taken to Jabal Amel Hospital with shrapnel injuries. The Red Cross says their condition “is not worrisome”.
The Lebanese health ministry says Israeli strikes in the country have killed over 100 paramedics since October 8, and damaged 10 hospitals and 45 medical centres.
Doctor says Israel enjoys ‘total impunity’ as it continues to attack healthcare
Veteran activist and physician Mads Gilbert says that in the more than four decades since Israel invaded Beirut in 1982, both the “cynicism and the sadism” of Israel’s military operations have increased. So too has the resistance it has faced, both in Palestine and in Lebanon.
“What has not changed is the total impunity of the Israeli violation of international law and all human rights and all human decency,” Gilbert told Al Jazeera.
Following repeated attacks on civilian and medical facilities in Gaza and the West Bank, the Norwegian physician, who carried out many medical missions to Gaza, said a recent UN report assessed that there have been more than 1,000 Israeli attacks on healthcare targets.
“They say there is a pattern. They say Israeli security forces have procedures to attack healthcare,” he said. The Israeli army has often said attacks on such sites in Gaza were operations to target Hamas leaders hiding in such facilities, though medical staff have repeatedly denied they are giving shelter to fighters.
A report published last week by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory found Israel had “perpetrated a concerted policy to destroy Gaza’s healthcare system as part of a broader assault”.
Mads Gilbert says Israel has repeatedly targeted healthcare and emergency workers
