Terrified families flee their homes in Lebanon amid new Israeli airstrikes
Emergency workers have been struggling to cope with the sudden spike of people fleeing their homes in the south of Lebanon as the Israeli forces continued their campaign of airstrikes across the country.
The capital, Beirut, was struck for the third time in five days as the Israeli military said it had targeted and “eliminated” another key Hezbollah commander.
He was named by Israeli forces as Muhammed Qabisi – Hezbollah’s commander in charge of missiles and rockets – and comes days after the militant group buried another of its top leaders.
There were multiple Israeli airstrikes across the south and in the east for a second day as huge swathes of the population continued fleeing to the north of the country.
Israel-Hezbollah latest updates
We saw terrified and worried families turning up at the emergency centre in Tyre as Israeli jets flew overhead alongside the sounds of Hezbollah rockets being fired into Israel.
“We have nothing left,” a woman called Fatima told us. “We have no food, no water, nothing.”
The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said two of its workers had been killed in airstrikes, including a young mother and her son.
The agency said it was “outraged and deeply saddened” at the deaths.
Dina Daarwiche and her family were at home in the Bekaa Valley when the house was targeted.
She and her youngest son were killed and her husband and second child are critical in hospital.
The second UNHCR worker was named as Ali Basma, who had worked in the agency’s Tyre office for seven years.
The Lebanese Ministry Of Health said the number killed in Monday and Tuesday’s airstrikes included children and many women and had now risen to nearly 600.
UNHCR said in a statement: “The protection of civilians is a must.
“We reiterate the UN secretary-general’s call for urgent de-escalation and calls on all parties to protect civilians, including aid workers in line with obligations under international humanitarian law.”
We’ve been witnessing multiple airstrikes in the south throughout the day and evening with the constant sounds of blasts and ambulance sirens going off.
The head of Tyre’s emergency response, Hassan Dbouk, told us: “Half of the IDPs (displaced people), they slept in the garden, on the beach, without any tent, any cover, any blanket, in the streets and in their cars, that’s a disaster.
“And when you see the eyes of the babies and the women, it’s really a disaster.”
As desperate people turned up at the disaster response centre in Tyre, one man told us his was the only house still standing in his village.
“They hit them all,” Abu Ali said.
Emergency workers have been trying to cope with the huge numbers of people needing help in Lebanon
The Israeli forces say they are targeting Hezbollah weapons stores, fighters and commanders and said the militant group is hiding in residential areas and using Lebanese people as human shields.
But Abu Ali insisted: “That’s not true. Not a single target (in our village) was on a military position.
“They’re only hitting civilians. We don’t have military operations in our village.”
The astonishing movement of tens of thousands of the Lebanese population from the south and along the border comes on the back of nearly a year of Israel saying it wants to create a buffer zone so Hezbollah cannot fire into its northern communities.
Even if the continuous Israeli bombardment of the south and the border is not a deliberate tactic to ensure this happens, that certainly appears to be the growing result.
But despite a range of Israeli attacks on its military command and supporters through the booby-trapped pagers and radios; despite its targeting of key Hezbollah commanders; and despite its aerial bombardment of multiple population centres and significant Hezbollah strongholds, the militant group shows no signs of backing down.
Read more on Sky News:
‘Leave immediately,’ Starmer tells Britons in Lebanon
Litani River: The UN’s attempt at a buffer zone
Roads out of southern Lebanon have been heavily congested as people flee their communities
Instead, the militants are using more of their powerful weapons.
Last night, for the first time, the group used a ballistic missile aimed at the suburbs of Tel Aviv, they say targeting a Mossad building, and in the last few days they have continuously fired their long-range Fadi rockets, which they have been launching deeper and deeper into Israeli territory.
The Iran-allied group, which the UK and US have designated as a terror group, has linked its attacks on Israel since last October to a Gaza ceasefire – and insists it will continue until there is one.
That’s ensured its hero status among its many loyalists and its Hamas allies.
But with a Gaza ceasefire unlikely soon, and with the Israeli forces vowing to increase their onslaught on the militants, Lebanon looks set for a very rough period ahead.
The Sky News team reporting with Alex Crawford from south Lebanon is camera Jake Britton, specialist producer Chris Cunningham and Lebanon producers Jihad Jneid and Sami Zein.
World
‘Widespread sexual violence’ took place during Hamas’s 7 October attacks, report by Israeli experts says
A newly released report led by Israeli legal and gender experts presents detailed evidence alleging “widespread and systematic” sexual violence during the Hamas-led terror attack on 7 October.
Warning: This story contains descriptions of rape and sexual violence
The findings, published by the Dinah Project, argue that these acts amount to conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV), and assert that “Hamas used sexual violence as a tactical weapon of war”.
The report draws on 18 months of investigation and is based on survivor testimonies, eyewitness accounts, and interviews with first responders, morgue personnel and healthcare professionals.
According to the Dinah Project, the documented patterns – such as forced nudity, gang rapes, genital mutilation, and threats of forced marriage – indicate a deliberate and coordinated use of sexual violence by Hamas operatives during the attack.
Reported incidents span at least six locations, including the Nova music festival, and several kibbutzim in southern Israel.
A destroyed car near the police station in Sderot, following the 7 October attacks by Hamas. Pic: AP
One section of the report describes victims “found fully or partially naked from the waist down, with their hands tied behind their backs and/or to structures such as trees and poles, and shot”.
At the Nova music festival and surrounding areas, the investigators found “reasonable grounds to believe” that multiple women were raped or gang-raped before being killed.
The report’s findings are consistent with earlier investigations by the United Nations and the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Read more:
What is the possible Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal?
Israeli soldier describes arbitrary killing of civilians in Gaza
The UN’s Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict previously concluded that there were “reasonable grounds to believe” CRSV took place during the attack.
Destroyed vehicles near the grounds of the Supernova electronic music festival. Pic: AP
Significantly, the Dinah Project urges the international community to officially recognise the use of sexual violence by Hamas as a deliberate strategy of war and calls on the United Nations to add Hamas to its list of parties responsible for conflict-related sexual violence.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
The nature and scale of sexual violence on 7 October have been a subject of intense controversy, with some accusing parties of weaponising the narrative for political ends.
This report seeks to confront what its authors call “denial, misinformation, and global silence,” and to provide justice for the victims.
Hamas has denied that its fighters have used sexual violence and mistreated female hostages.
World
Israeli soldiers ‘psychologically broken’ after ‘confronting the reality’ in Gaza, UN expert says
A UN expert has said some young soldiers in the Israeli Defence Forces are being left “psychologically broken” after “confront[ing] the reality among the rubble” when serving in Gaza.
Francesca Albanese, the UN Human Rights Council’s special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, was responding to a Sky News interview with an Israeli solider who described arbitrary killing of civilians in Gaza.
She told The World with Yalda Hakim that “many” of the young people fighting in Gaza are “haunted by what they have seen, what they have done”.
“It doesn’t make sense,” Ms Albanese said. “This is not a war, this is an assault against civilians and this is producing a fracture in many of them.
“As that soldier’s testimony reveals, especially the youngest among the soldiers have been convinced this is a form of patriotism, of defending Israel and Israeli society against this opaque but very hard felt enemy, which is Hamas.
“But the thing is that they’ve come to confront the reality among the rubble of Gaza.”
An Israeli soldier directs a tank near the border with the Gaza Strip, in southern Israel. Pic: AP
Being in Gaza is “probably this is the first time the Israeli soldiers are awakening to this,” she added. “And they don’t make sense of this because their attachment to being part of the IDF, which is embedded in their national ideology, is too strong.
“This is why they are psychologically broken.”
Jonathan Conricus, a former IDF spokesman who is now a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies, said he believes the Sky News interview with the former IDF solider “reflects one part of how ugly, difficult and horrible fighting in a densely populated, urban terrain is”.
“I think [the ex-soldier] is reflecting on how difficult it is to fight in such an area and what the challenges are on the battlefield,” he said.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Ex-IDF spokesperson: ‘No distinction between military and civilians’
‘An economy of genocide’
Ms Albanese, one of dozens of independent UN-mandated experts, also said her most recent report for the human rights council has identified “an economy of genocide” in Israel.
The system, she told Hakim, is made up of more than 60 private sector companies “that have become enmeshed in the economy of occupation […] that have Israel displace the Palestinians and replace them with settlers, settlements and infrastructure Israel runs.”
Israel has rejected allegations of genocide in Gaza, citing its right to defend itself after Hamas’s attack on 7 October 2023.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
‘Israel has shifted towards economy of genocide’
The companies named in Ms Albanese’s report are in, but not limited to, the financial sector, big tech and the military industry.
“These companies can be held responsible for being directed linked to, or contributing, or causing human rights impacts,” she said. “We’re not talking of human rights violations, we are talking of crimes.”
“Some of the companies have engaged in good faith, others have not,” Ms Albanese said.
Read more:
Israeli soldier describes arbitrary killing of civilians in Gaza
British surgeons on life in Gaza
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
The companies she has named include American technology giant Palantir, which has issued a statement to Sky News.
It said it is “not true” that Palantir “is the (or a) developer of the ‘Gospel’ – the AI-assisted targeting software allegedly used by the IDF in Gaza, and that we are involved with the ‘Lavender’ database used by the IDF for targeting cross-referencing”.
“Both capabilities are independent of and pre-ate Palantir’s announced partnership with the Israeli Defence Ministry,” the statement added.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Sports2 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike