Beirut looks more and more like Gaza, with debris forming hills in many parts of the city as a result of the constant bombings.
Israel claims Hezbollah hides weapons and hundreds of millions of dollars under homes and hospitals across the Lebanese capital. “You still don’t know why we are operating there? Because that is where Hezbollah hides, organizing the murders of Israelis”, highlights the Israeli army, among other things, in its video and reveals the organization’s hiding places.
Still don’t know why we are operating in Dahieh? Watch this: pic.twitter.com/MUXqMbQQBH
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 21, 2024
The Israeli military said on Monday that it had struck 300 targets linked to the Hezbollah movement in Lebanon in 24 hours, as it decided to expand its offensive against the Iran-aligned group, targeting its financial system, while the US assured that it was working to end the war “as quickly as possible”.
New bloodshed
The bombings took place last night near Hariri Hospital, the country’s largest public health center, killing at least four people and injuring 24 others, in the south of Beirut, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health.
Earlier, the ministry reported that six dead, including a child, in Baalbek (east) and four Hezbollah-linked first aid workers were killed in 24 hours in the south, which was swept by Israeli airstrikes.
Targeting underground shelters
The Israeli military said it targeted an underground shelter of the Shi’ite movement that contained “tens of millions of dollars” in a “series of precision strikes against Hezbollah’s financial interests.”
Additionally, according to an AFP source in the Lebanese security forces, who spoke on condition of anonymity, national carrier Middle East Airlines had to move its aircraft landings to another runway at Beirut International Airport because the facility’s corridor is located near a site where Israeli bombing was launched in a southern suburb of the Lebanese capital.
An Arabic-speaking Israeli army spokesman, Avihai Andrai, previously demanded that residents leave two sectors of this area, referring in particular to a perimeter near the airport.
The blow to the powerful bank
Previously, the Israeli army announced that it had struck around 30 targets linked to the Al-Qard al-Hassan bank, a Hezbollah institution, which it had targeted across Lebanon since Sunday. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights condemned the “extensive damage to civilian facilities”.
Under US sanctions, this financial institution is part of a network of institutions, schools and hospitals created by Hezbollah.
Hezbollah’s powerful bank: How the organization is getting rich while Lebanon sinks into poverty
The list of victims is growing
At least 1,489 people have been killed in Lebanon since September 23, according to an AFP count based on official data. In mid-October, the UN counted around 700,000 internally displaced people in the country, days after the start of Israeli ground operations in southern Lebanon on September 30.
Israel says its aim is to neutralize the Shiite movement in areas close to the border between the two states to allow the safe return of some 60,000 residents of border areas in the north who have been forced to flee their homes due to incessant rocket fire from Shia militants. in the last year.
The attitude of Americans
On a visit to Beirut, US special envoy Amos Hoxtyn assured that Washington is working to end the war “as quickly as possible”, based on UN Security Council Resolution 1701 (2006), which dealt with the end of the previous war between Israel and Hezbollah.
The decision stipulated that non-state armed organizations must withdraw from southern Lebanon, where – at least in theory – only the workers’ militia and the Lebanese army can be deployed.
While the head of North American diplomacy begins a new trip in Israel today — the eleventh since October 2023 — to the region, Tehran issued a warning to the United States, stressing that it will assume “full responsibility” and will be “an accomplice” in the case. of an Israeli “attack”.
The Iranian diplomatic mission to the United Nations reacted this way to a statement by US President Joe Biden: it told the press that it knows how and when Israel will retaliate for Iran’s attack on October 1.
In Washington, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced that the advanced missile defense system sent to Israel was now “in position”.
After Israel, Anthony Blinken plans to travel to Jordan, in particular to discuss with the Jordanian authorities the delivery of humanitarian aid to the residents of the Gaza Strip, an American official who was on the plane told the press yesterday, on condition of anonymity. . US Secretary of State travels.
Sources: APE – MEB, Reuters, BBC