UN says war has killed one child a day in Lebanon in past month
Israeli strikes on three locations in south Lebanon kill six rescuers
BEIRUT/JERUSALEM: The United Nations children’s agency said on Thursday that the Israel-Hezbollah war has killed at least one child a day in Lebanon over the past month.
“Since October 4th of this year, at least one child has been killed and 10 injured daily,” UNICEF said, adding that “the ongoing war in Lebanon is upending children’s lives”.
41 killed in Gaza in 24 hours
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Thursday that at least 43,204 people have been killed in the year-long war between Israel and Palestinian militants.
The toll includes 41 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry, which said 101,641 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.
Meanwhile, the Lebanese health ministry said Israeli strikes on three locations in south Lebanon on Thursday killed six rescuers affiliated with Hezbollah or its ally Amal.
The strikes killed five paramedics with the Hezbollah-affiliated Islamic Health Committee and one with the Amal-linked Risala Scouts, the health ministry said.
The deaths raised to 178 the number of rescuers and paramedics killed since Hezbollah and Israel started trading cross-border fire in October last year.
Lebanon PM calls Israel evacuation warnings a ‘war crime’
Lebanon’s prime minister condemned Israel Thursday for issuing evacuation warnings for entire areas and called for diplomatic pressure for a halt to its strikes more than a month into the war.
“The threats issued by the Israeli enemy against Lebanese civilians to evacuate entire cities and leave their areas and homes are an additional war crime added to the series of crimes committed by the enemy,” Najib Mikati said in a statement, adding that he is “requesting intensified pressure on Israel to stop its aggression”.
Lebanon rocket fire kills five in northern Israel
The head of the regional council in the northern Israeli town of Metula said five people were killed on Thursday by a rocket strike from Lebanon.
Regional council head David Azoulai told AFP that five people, a local farmer and four foreign farm workers, had been killed. Moments earlier, the army had said that “two projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanon into an open area” of Metula.
Strikes near Lebanon’s Tyre after Israel evacuation call
Strikes rocked a village near the southern Lebanese city of Tyre on Thursday, state media said, after Israel issued an evacuation call for the area.
The strikes on Al Hawsh coincided with an exodus of civilians from the Rashidieh camp for Palestinian refugees near Tyre which was also covered by the evacuation warning, the official National News Agency said.
The camp, located about five kilometres (three miles) from Tyre, is one of the largest and most overcrowded in Lebanon.
Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee posted the evacuation call for the Rashidieh camp and other nearby villages and towns on X, telling residents to move “north of the Awali river”.
Hours later, Adraee also issued an evacuation call for the people of Baalbek and its surroundings, with Lebanese official media later reporting Israeli strikes near the main eastern city.
“Enemy aircraft launched four strikes on the village of Douris and the surroundings of the city of Baalbek,” the National News Agency said.
The war in Lebanon began late last month, nearly a year after Hezbollah began low-intensity cross-border fire into Israel in support of Hamas following its October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
At least 1,784 people in Lebanon have been killed in Israeli strikes since September 23, according to an AFP tally of health ministry figures, though the real number is likely to be higher due to gaps in the data.
Netanyahu to US envoys: Any Hezbollah ceasefire must guarantee Israel security
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told visiting US envoy Amos Hochstein and US Middle East adviser Brett McGurk on Thursday that any ceasefire deal with Lebanon’s Hezbollah would have to guarantee Israeli security.
“The prime minister specified that the main issue is not paperwork for this or that deal, but Israel’s determination and capacity to ensure the deal’s application and to prevent any threat to its security from Lebanon,” Netanyahu’s office said after the meeting took place in Jerusalem.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant met the envoys separately Thursday for a discussion which he said in a statement focused on “security arrangements as these relate to the northern arena and Lebanon, and efforts to ensure the return of 101 hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza”.
Mideast conflicts to leave ‘lasting scars’: IMF
Gaza, Lebanon and Sudan will take decades to recover from the conflicts raging on their soil, the International Monetary Fund said on Thursday after downgrading the region’s growth forecast.
Israel’s military actions against Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Sudan’s civil war would have enduring impacts, the IMF said.
“The damage caused by these conflicts will leave lasting scars at their epicentres for decades,” the global lender said in a statement.
The IMF has lowered its predicted growth for the Middle East and North Africa to 2.1 percent for 2024, a drop of 0.6 percent due to the wars and lower oil production.
Depending on the conflicts, growth should rise to 4.0 percent next year, according to the IMF’s Regional Economic Outlook which was compiled in September.
“This year has been challenging with conflicts causing devastating human suffering and lasting economic damage,” Jihad Azour, the IMF’s Middle East and Central Asia Department director, told reporters in Dubai.
“The recent escalation in Lebanon has greatly increased the uncertainty in the whole MENA region.”
IMF forecasts for Lebanon, where conflict with Israel has sharply escalated this month, have been suspended. But “conservative” estimates show a 9.0-10 percent contraction this year, Azour said.
“The impact (on Lebanon) will be severe and it will depend how long this conflict will last,” said the former Lebanese finance minister.
Saudi-led oil cuts through the OPEC+ cartel, aimed at propping up prices, “are contributing to sluggish near-term growth in many economies”, the IMF said.
For the region’s oil exporters, “medium-term growth is projected to moderate, as economic diversification reforms will take time to yield results”, it added.
Downside risks continue to dominate, the lender said, including fluctuating commodity prices, conflicts and climate shocks.