What we know about Israel’s kidnapping in Lebanon’s Batroun
- Mikati, Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, has asked his Foreign Ministry to submit an urgent complaint to the UN Security Council after Israeli forces kidnapped a Lebanese citizen from the coastal town of Batroun.
- The Lebanese government identified the victim as Imad Amhaz, a civilian naval officer, and said he was kidnapped 100 metres (109 yards) from his place of residence.
- The Lebanese National News Agency (NNA) said the abduction took place at dawn on Friday, when heavily armed Israeli forces landed on the beach of Batroun and seized Amhaz. They took him away on speedboats, it reported.
- An Israeli military official said its naval forces “apprehended” a “senior operative of Hezbollah”, according to Reuters. The official said the operative had been transferred to Israeli territory and was being interrogated.
Fighting on the ground in southern Lebanon continues
Over the last few hours and into the overnight, Israel struck several targets across southern Lebanon, keeping the pressure on Hezbollah.
It said two of those strikes killed senior Hezbollah commanders. Hezbollah hasn’t confirmed that as of yet.
The fighting on the ground is still continuing. Israel hasn’t changed its strategy; it’s still coming to border areas, it’s trying to clear villages near the Blue Line and the border area, and what we’re seeing and what we’re hearing is widespread destruction taking place.
“Widespread destruction” is the term that UNIFIL, the UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, actually use.
All those air strikes are still coming in Khiam particularly, but also Kfar Kila and Aadaysit and in other parts of southern Lebanon.
Bangladeshi worker killed in air attack in Lebanon
Bangladesh’s ambassador to Lebanon, Javed Tanveer Khan, has said in a statement that Mohammad Nizam, 31, was killed on Saturday afternoon during a raid as he stopped at a coffee shop on the way to work in Beirut.
The Foreign Ministry estimates that between 70,000 and 100,000 of its nationals are working in Lebanon, many as labourers or domestic workers.
Dhaka’s government, with the UN’s International Organization for Migration, organised the first flight to bring Bangladeshi citizens home from Beirut last month.
However, Nizam’s older brother, Mohammad Jalaluddin, told the AFP news agency that his brother had not been among the estimated 1,800 Bangladeshis registered for an evacuation flight home.
“We want to bury him in our ancestral home, and are now waiting for the government’s response,” Jalaluddin told AFP.
Thailand submits protest letter to Israel over death of four workers in Metula
The Thai government has sent a letter of protest to Israel requesting that their nationals no longer be sent to high-risk areas to work following a recent rocket attack that killed four Thai workers and injured one, the Bangkok Post reported.
Foreign Affairs Minister Maris Sangiampongsa announced that the letter had been sent on Saturday following the deaths of the workers, which were caused by a rocket fired by Hezbollah near the northern city of Metula on Friday.
The minister said Thailand was urging all parties in the conflict to pursue a path to peace. The Foreign Ministry discussed with the Royal Thai Embassy in Tel Aviv a reduction in the number of Thai workers entering Israel for employment.
The protest letter comes after reports of some Israeli employers still bringing Thai workers to high-risk workplaces on short-term contracts.
