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Hezbollah launches ‘suicide’ drones at Israeli army base near Haifa
Hezbollah fighters have initiated “an air attack with a swarm of explosives-laden drones” on an Israeli military base south of Haifa.
Israel strikes on Lebanon finance firms ‘illegal’: UN expert
Ben Saul, the United Nations special rapporteur on the protection of human rights while countering terrorism, says Israel’s bombing of branches of a Hezbollah-linked financial firm in Lebanon this week is a clear violation of international law.
Israeli strikes hit al-Qard al-Hassan branches in Beirut, Nabatieh and Tyre on Monday. The institution offers microcredit in a country where the traditional banking system collapsed five years ago at the start of a crushing economic crisis.
It is sanctioned by the United States, which accuses Hezbollah of using it as a cover to mask the group’s financial activities and gain access to the international financial system.
“International humanitarian law does not permit attacks on the economic or financial infrastructure of an adversary, even if they indirectly sustain its military activities,” Saul said in a statement. “Unlike fighters or weapons, the mere economic activities of an adversary do not effectively contribute to military action.”
Israeli targeting hospitals and Lebanese civilians is a ‘war crime’
The Sahel hospital in Beirut, which the Israeli military bombed on Monday, was not “a legitimate target”, says Omar Nashabe, a criminal justice analyst and a former human rights adviser to the Lebanese government.
The targeting of a hospital with civilians inside is a “war crime”, he told Al Jazeera. “It is the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court to look into these crimes and prosecute those who actually commit these crimes,” Nashabe said.
He added Israel is not adhering to the two vital principles of international humanitarian law, “proportionality and precaution” in Lebanon.
“You can see the extent of destruction of villages and towns … This seems to be like mass destruction. That is against the law. In these villages, there are community centres, there are places of worship, there are also healthcare centres that are being destroyed.”
Hezbollah says it killed about 70 Israeli soldiers in weeks of clashes
Hezbollah says its fighters killed more than 70 Israeli troops in its clashes with Israeli forces, updating a statement from last week saying 55 were killed since a ground invasion was launched earlier this month.
Israel has said it lost about 20 soldiers inside Lebanon since its ground operations began, and 30 more in Hezbollah attacks on northern Israel.
Hezbollah says launched rockets at Tel Aviv suburbs
Lebanon’s Hezbollah says it struck a military manufacturing firm in the Tel Aviv suburbs with rockets, claiming the attack was successful. It hit a “military industries company in the suburbs of Tel Aviv with qualitative rockets and hit the target accurately”, the group said.
Hezbollah also said the Israeli army is not fully in control of any village in southern Lebanon where the group has been fighting Israel’s forces at close range. “The enemy army has not been able to fully establish its control or completely occupy any village” in southern Lebanon, a statement said.
