At Least 11 Killed In Israeli Strikes In Beirut As Government Officials Demand Ceasefire

BEIRUT, Lebanon – Israeli airstrikes on Saturday killed at least 11 people and wounded scores more in central Beirut, officials said, as diplomats tried to defuse the conflict.

The Ministry of Health in Lebanon said the death toll could rise as emergency workers dig through the rubble in search of survivors. DNA is being used to identify the victims, it said, adding that 63 people were injured. The strikes were the fourth in the Lebanese capital in less than a week.

The tension comes after US ambassador Amos Hochstein visited the region this week in an effort to broker an agreement to end more than 13 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, which has erupted into full-scale war in the past two days. months.

Israeli bombings have killed more than 3,500 people in Lebanon and injured more than 15,000, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health. The war has displaced an estimated 1.2 million people, or a quarter of Lebanon’s population. On the Israeli side, about 90 soldiers and nearly 50 civilians have been killed by rockets, drones and missiles in northern Israel and in fighting in Lebanon.

Israel’s war with Hamas also shows no signs of abating. The Gaza Health Ministry said at least 80 people died between Thursday and Friday in several strikes in the northern Enclave, including the Kamal Adwan and Al-Ahli hospitals. A number of people are still trapped under the rubble, the statement said.

Dawn airstrikes reduce the building to rubble

The 4 am strikes destroyed an eight-story building in central Beirut and left a hole in the ground. Also on Saturday, an airstrike killed two people and wounded three in the southern port city of Tyre, according to the National News Agency.

Hezbollah lawmaker Amin Shiri said on Saturday that the targeted building was a residence and there were no Hezbollah officials inside.

Mohammed Bikai, spokesman for the Fatah Palestinian group in the Tire area, said that those killed were Palestinian refugees who were fishermen living in the nearby al-Rashidieh camp. He said the father of one of the men was injured.

Despite the warning issued last month by the Israeli army telling people not to fish off the southern coast of Lebanon, Bikai said Palestinians continued to go out to sea. “You can’t tell someone who needs food that you can’t fish,” he said.

The Israeli army did not issue a warning to residents before the strikes in central Beirut and did not comment on casualties. It warned residents on Saturday in the southern parts of Beirut that they live near Hezbollah bases, which the army will soon target. The warning, posted at X, told people to get at least 500 meters (yards) away.

The army said the previous day it had carried out intelligence-based strikes on Hezbollah targets in Dahiyeh, an area south of Beirut, where Hezbollah has a strong presence. It said it hit several command centers and weapons depots.

At least 6 including children were killed in southern Gaza

The strikes continued in Gaza on Saturday. At least six people, half of them children including two women, were killed in the southern city of Khan Younis, according to AP reporters and staff at Nasser Hospital.

The death toll from the 13-month war in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas passed 44,000 this week, according to local health officials. The Gaza Health Ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count, but said more than half of the dead were women and children. The Israeli army claims to have killed more than 17,000 soldiers, without providing evidence.

The war began when militants led by Hamas invaded southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killed about 1,200 people, most of whom were civilians, and captured another 250. There are about 100 hostages in Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead. Most of the others were released during the ceasefire last year.

Israel’s invasion of Gaza has caused extensive damage to coastal areas, leading many to wonder when and how it will ever be rebuilt. About 90 percent of the 2.3 million people have been displaced, often multiple times, and hundreds of thousands live in squalid tent camps with little food, water or basic amenities.

In Deir al-Balah, local bakeries have been closed for five days this week and the price of a bag of bread has risen above $13, as bread and flour disappear from the shelves before other items arrive.

At least two women were shot and killed Saturday while waiting for bread in the city, relatives and witnesses told the AP.

Heba Ajam, who was waiting at the bakery, saw the shooting, and said that one person was shot in the head and the other in the neck. It was not clear who shot them and why. Lack of food and security have forced some bakeries to close in central and southern Gaza.

Reactions are ongoing to ICC warrants

The Gaza strikes came days after the International Court of Justice issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant, based on “reasonable grounds” for war crimes and crimes against humanity. people in Gaza. The court also issued a warrant for senior Hamas official Mohammed Deif, whom Israel says he killed.

Netanyahu condemned the mandate, saying that Israel “abhorrently rejects senseless and false actions.”

The global reaction has been mixed.

The UK reiterated its support for the court but stopped short of saying whether it would arrest Netanyahu if he visited. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office has indicated that Britain will abide by its legal obligations under domestic and international law, but refused to get into the issues considered about individuals.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Friday declined to comment, saying the court’s decisions were “irrelevant” to Russia, which does not recognize its power.

White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, said that the United States rejects the court’s decision. He said the Biden administration is “deeply concerned about the prosecutor’s rush to seek warrants and the troubling procedural errors that led to this decision.”

The US is one of the many countries that has not signed and does not accept the jurisdiction of the court. Others include Israel, Russia and China.

Nomi Bar-Yaacov, a fellow at the International Security Program at Chatham House in London, said that even if Netanyahu cannot go to many European countries, he will go to the United States. That will bring him closer to President-elect Donald Trump.

“I don’t think that Netanyahu will be arrested because he will not risk going to any country that will be able to issue an arrest warrant. So in that sense, it reduces his freedom of movement, but that will strengthen his relationship with Donald Trump,” he said.

—-

Correspondents Fadi Tawil in Tire, Lebanon, Ibrahim Hazboun in Jerusalem, Wafaa Shurafa in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Mohammad Jahjouh in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, and Danica Kirka in London contributed to this report.