UN condemns Israel for targeting Hezbollah-linked charity branches in Lebanon
6 killed as Israeli strike hits building in densely packed residential area in Baalbek
BEIRUT: Israel has expanded its airstrikes beyond military targets of the Lebanese militant group, hitting a Hezbollah-linked financial institution officially registered as a charity.
Strikes overnight targeted Al Qard Al Hassan branches in Nabatiyeh and Tyre, marking a shift in Israel’s nearly month-long conflict with Hezbollah.
The Israeli military said it conducted a series of strikes against “dozens of facilities and sites” used by Hezbollah in Beirut and southern Lebanon, including branches of the financial institution.
The financial firm, registered as a charity, has been offering customers credit in exchange for gold deposits on an interest-free basis since the 1980s.
Israel accuses Al Qard Al Hassan of funding “Hezbollah’s terror activities,” including the purchase of weapons and payments to militants.
UN condemns 'extensive damage'
The United Nations condemned on Monday Israeli strikes targeting the Hezbollah-linked firm that, it said, caused "extensive damage" to civilian property and infrastructure.
"We condemn the heavy Israeli bombardment of various urban and residential areas... which the IDF (Israeli military) says targeted various facilities affiliated with the Al Qard Al Hassan financial association," the UN Human Rights Office in the Middle East and North Africa said in a statement.
The attacks caused "extensive damage to civilian objects," it said, including "residential properties, civilian infrastructure, and business premises".
Hezbollah fires rocket salvo
Late Monday, Hezbollah announced it fired at Israeli soldiers near an embattled border village in southern Lebanon, where state media reported clashes with troops who had blown up houses.
Hezbollah fighters launched “a rocket salvo” at “Israeli enemy soldiers near the municipality of Aita Al Shaab.” The group also claimed to have targeted the Yoav military camp in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights with what it described as a “large missile barrage.”
6 of family killed in Baalbek
Lebanon's health ministry, meanwhile, said that an airstrike on the eastern city of Baalbek hit a building in a densely packed residential area, killing six people.
“The Israeli enemy strike in Baalbek killed six people, including a child,” the state-run National News Agency reported, adding that all six were from the same family.
Blinken due as 33 more killed in Gaza
In Gaza, at least 33 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks across the Strip on Monday, including 18 in the Jabalia refugee camp, as forced expulsions by troops in the north continued.
“We are now trapped with no food, water, or medicine, facing starvation amid the rubble and destruction,” Ahmad Saleh, 36, from northern Gaza’s Al Tawbah area, told AFP news agency.
A Palestinian Civil Defence team has rescued the woman in Tal Al Hawa, a neighbourhood of Gaza City, five days after her house was bombed.
Rescue teams posted a video on Telegram showing the woman from the Habib family being pulled out from under the rubble of her house, which was bombed by Israeli forces.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected in the region for a renewed push for an elusive Gaza ceasefire two weeks before US elections, seeing a new opportunity following Israel’s killing of Hamas’s leader Yahya Sinwar.
This will be Blinken’s 11th trip to the region since the war broke out a year ago. During his last visit to Israel in August, he warned it might have been the “last chance” for a US-led ceasefire plan.
Spies arrested
Israeli police announced the arrest of a spy network consisting of seven Israeli citizens who were gathering information on Israel’s military bases and energy infrastructure for Iranian intelligence.
The internal security agency and police “successfully dismantled a spy network involving seven Israeli citizens operating on behalf of Iranian intelligence,” the police stated, adding that all seven had been arrested.
The individuals were from Haifa and northern areas of the country.