Lebanese Christian Joseph Jarjour was hoping for a peaceful retirement at home in south Lebanon, but has instead found himself caught in the crossfire of the Israel-Hezbollah war.
"We're trapped," said the 68-year-old retired teacher in the southern village of Rmeish, around two kilometers (one mile) from the Israeli border.
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Hezbollah senior leader Wafiq Safa was seriously injured and is in critical condition following the deadly Israeli airstrikes that targeted two buildings in Beirut’s Noueiri and Bourj Abi Haidar areas, sources told Sky News Arabia on Friday.
Full StoryRescue workers searched through the rubble of a collapsed building in central Beirut on Friday morning, hours after two Israeli strikes hit the Lebanese capital, killing at least 22 people and wounding dozens.
The air raid was the deadliest attack on central Beirut in over a year of war, hitting two residential buildings in neighborhoods that have swelled with displaced people fleeing Israeli bombardment elsewhere in the country.
Full StoryCaretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Friday urged the United Nations to pass a resolution calling for an "immediate" ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
Mikati told reporters the foreign ministry would ask the U.N. Security Council to issue a resolution demanding a "full and immediate ceasefire" and that his government was committed to Resolution 1701 which was adopted in 2006 and called for the Lebanese army and peacekeepers to be the only armed forces deployed in the south of the country.
Full StoryHezbollah said it launched a drone attack Friday on a military base in north Israel's Haifa, a day after deadly strikes in the heart of Beirut and as the group battles Israeli forces on the border.
Hezbollah launched "an air attack with a group of explosive-laden drones" towards the "air defense command base" in Haifa, "responding to" Israeli attacks on "cities and villages and civilians," the group said in a statement.
Full StoryAn anti-tank missile fired from Lebanon killed a young man from Thailand in the north of Israel early Friday, Israel’s paramedic service said.
Magen David Adom, the paramedic service, said that the 27-year-old was killed by a missile that hit agricultural land.
Full StoryIsrael is recommending that the U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon move 5 kilometers (3 miles) north to avoid intensified fighting between its forces and Hezbollah fighters.
Israel’s U.N. Ambassador, Danny Danon, announced the recommendation in a statement following the wounding of two U.N. peacekeepers from the force known as UNIFIL as a result of Israeli tank fire. UNIFIL also reported that its headquarters and nearby positions “have repeatedly been hit” by Israeli forces.
Full StoryThe White House says it is “deeply concerned” about a report from the United Nations peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon that Israeli forces opened fire on locations where peacekeepers were working and injured two of them.
“We are deeply concerned about reports that Israeli forces fired on two positions and a tower used by U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon,” a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council said in a statement Thursday. “We reached out immediately to our Israeli counterparts about it, and pressed them for more details.”
Full StoryThe U.N. peacekeeping chief says 300 peacekeepers in frontline positions on southern Lebanon’s border have been temporarily moved to larger bases, and plans to move another 200 will depend on security conditions as the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah escalates.
Jean-Pierre Lacroix told an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Thursday that peacekeepers with the U.N. force, known as UNIFIL, are staying in their positions but because of air and ground attacks they cannot conduct patrols.
Full StoryLebanon’s U.N. ambassador is calling for an immediate cease-fire, but Israel’s envoy says its military operation will continue until Hezbollah’s control of the south is dismantled and it can’t attack Israelis across the border.
Lebanon’s U.N. Ambassador Hadi Hashem told an emergency meeting of the Security Council called by France that Israel’s bombings and invasion won’t provide security, safety and stability for its people.
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