10 killed in Israeli strike on southern Lebanon – Technologist

The Lebanese Ministry of Public Health announced on Saturday, August 17, that an Israeli strike in the Nabatieh area in the south of the country had left 10 people dead and five wounded. The Israeli army, in turn, reported hitting “a Hezbollah weapons storage facility” in the area, as well as “military structures” of the Lebanese Islamist movement in the Hanine and Maroun al-Ras regions, near the border. According to the Lebanese National News Agency, those killed were Syrian refugees employed in a “cement factory” that was hit by Israeli aircraft.

The pro-Iranian Hezbollah opened a front against Israel on October 8. It claims to be supporting Hamas and the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where Israel launched a war against the Palestinian Islamist movement on October 7, 2023, in retaliation for its unprecedented attack on Israeli soil on the same day.

The almost daily exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and the Israeli army intensified with the assassination, blamed on Israel, of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Teheran on July 31, and the death of the Lebanese Islamist movement’s military chief, Fuad Shukr, in an Israeli strike near Beirut the previous day.

Teheran and Hezbollah have threatened Israel with reprisals, raising fears of a regional military escalation that international diplomacy is trying to prevent by stepping up efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza after more than 10 months of war.

New proposed agreement for a ceasefire in Gaza

On Friday, the United States presented a revised proposal for a ceasefire agreement in Gaza, following two days of negotiations in Qatar. The possibility of a truce has never been “closer,” asserted US President Joe Biden, who called on all parties not to “undermine” the talks. But two Hamas figures told French news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) that the Islamist movement was rejecting “new conditions” from Israel, including keeping Israeli troops along the border between Gaza and Egypt, as well as veto power over the release of certain Palestinian prisoners.

The negotiations are based on a proposed plan announced by Biden on May 31. The agreement provides for an initial six-week truce, accompanied by an Israeli withdrawal from densely populated areas of Gaza and the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly stated his intention to continue the war until Hamas is destroyed.

In Gaza, rescue workers report 15 members of the same family killed in an Israeli strike

In Gaza, the war unleashed by the unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 continues unabated. Civil defense authorities reported on Saturday that 15 members of the same family, including nine children, had been killed in an Israeli strike during the night in the center of the Palestinian territory.

On Friday, the Israeli army issued new evacuation orders. These orders, which concern areas of Deir al-Balah (center) and Khan Yunis (south), caused “thousands” of inhabitants to flee, forced to “leave in a hurry with nowhere to go being surrounded by death and destruction,” according to the United Nations (UN).

The Palestinian Authority, based in the occupied West Bank, has reported the first case of polio in Gaza, affecting a 10-month-old child, while the UN has called for “humanitarian pauses” to vaccinate children.

The war between Israel and Hamas has claimed more than 40,000 lives in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to the Palestinian Islamist movement’s Ministry of Health. On the Israeli side, 1,198 people died – also mostly civilians – in the October 7 attack, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli sources. According to the Israeli army, 690 Israeli soldiers have also been killed since then.

Violence continues in the occupied West Bank

Violence is also flaring up in the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967, where a murderous attack by Jewish settlers has caused an outcry.

On Thursday evening, dozens of Israeli settlers, one of whom was arrested, set fire to buildings and vehicles in the northern village of Jit, according to the army. The Palestinian Authority reported that one Palestinian had been shot dead and denounced “state terrorism.” Israeli President Isaac Herzog “condemned” the attack, which was also strongly denounced internationally.

The UN, which considers Israeli colonization of the West Bank to be illegal, condemned “the impunity that the perpetrators of such actions have been enjoying.” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell will propose sanctions against Israeli officials.