In Lebanon, Hezbollah claimed to have launched artillery shells and rockets against an Israeli force advancing in the south of the country. The Israeli army says it has struck more than 2,000 sites in five days.
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Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has warned that his allies, mainly Lebanese Hezbollah and Palestinian Hamas, will continue the fight against Israel, which has carried out new strikes targeting them in Lebanon and Gaza, amid heightened fears of a conflagration in the Middle East. The Israeli army, for its part, announced that it had killed 250 Hezbollah fighters and struck more than 2,000 sites since it launched a ground offensive against this movement in southern Lebanon on Monday, where nine of its soldiers died in fighting. . Here is what to remember from this new day of conflict.
Several Lebanese hospitals suspend their activities
At least four hospitals in Lebanon, including one near the southern suburbs of Beirut, announced that they were suspending their activity due to Israeli strikes on the country on Friday October 4. The private Sainte Thérèse hospital near the southern suburbs of the capital, announced that it would cease its services due to nearby bombings, and reported“immense damage” in the establishment run by sisters, in a statement reported by the Lebanese national news agency ANI.
The Mais al-Jabal hospital located near the border has “closed all its services”due to Israeli strikes and difficulties in supply and access. The director of a third establishment, Marjayoun hospital, says he was forced to evacuate and close after an Israeli strike targeting rescue workers from an organization affiliated with Hezbollah in front of the hospital entrance, while they were transporting wounded people. The premises of Salah Ghandour hospital in Bint Jbeil were “targeted by Israeli artillery fire”, ANI also reports, and seven members of the medical staff were injured, according to the director.
L’ayatollah Ali Khamenei menace Israel
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, holding a rifle beside him, said the Iranian missile attack on Israel was “totally legitimate”, during a speech to thousands of people in Tehran. Israel “don’t have much longer”added the supreme leader, before warning: Iran’s allies, mainly Lebanese Hezbollah and Palestinian Hamas, “will not back down” facing the Hebrew State. And this, “despite the martyrs”, he added in reference to the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah killed on September 27 in an Israeli raid near Beirut, and that of Ismaïl Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas, killed on July 31 in an attack in Tehran attributed to Israel.
Israel says it hit more than 2,000 sites in Lebanon
The Israeli army claimed to have killed 250 Hezbollah fighters and struck more than 2,000 sites, including infrastructure and weapons, in southern Lebanon since the start of its ground offensive on Monday against the Islamist movement Hezbollah, supported by the ‘Iran. The press release cites “notably terrorists, infrastructure (…), military buildings, weapons warehouses”.
Joe Biden not in favor of Israeli strikes on oil sites in Iran
US President Joe Biden said Israel must “consider other options” than to strike oil sites in Iran, after having admitted the day before that this possibility was in “discussions”. “If I were in their place, I would consider other options than hitting oil fields” in Iran, he declared during an exchange with the press at the White House. The leader, moreover, affirmed that he was trying to “mobilize the rest of the world” to achieve peace in the Middle East. “We’re doing a lot of things. The most important thing we can do is try to mobilize the rest of the world and our allies.” to help ease tensions between Israel and Iran and its regional partners.
Two Israeli soldiers killed by drone
The Israeli army announced that two of its soldiers had been killed by a drone “coming from the east”launched from Iraq and which hit a military base in the Golan, according to Israeli military radio. According to military radio, two drones “were launched from Iraq and entered Israeli territory through the Golan Heights” Syrian annexed and occupied by Israel. In addition to the two soldiers killed, 24 were injured, according to military radio. This is the first time since the start of the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip on October 7 that “fire from Shiite militias in Iraq manages to hit Israeli territory (causing) deaths and injuries”according to military radio.
UN condemns Israeli strike on Tulkarem in occupied West Bank
The United Nations condemned the Israeli airstrike that killed 18 people on Thursday in a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, calling it “illegal airstrike”. This attack “comes in a very worrying context of illegal use of force by Israeli security forces during military-type operations in the West Bank, which caused numerous harm to Palestinians and significant damage to buildings and infrastructure”according to a press release from the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights for the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
The Israeli army said it had “eliminated” a local Hamas leader in an air raid on the refugee camp in the northern West Bank town of Tulkarem in a joint operation by the armed forces and the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency.