Yoopya with Associated Press
Nearly 700 people have been killed in Lebanon this week, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. Israel has dramatically escalated strikes, saying it is targeting Hezbollah’s military capacities and senior Hezbollah commanders.
Top Israeli officials have threatened to repeat the destruction of Gaza in Lebanon if the Hezbollah fire continues, raising fears that Israel’s actions in Gaza since Oct. 7 would be repeated in Lebanon.
The International Organization for Migration estimated Thursday that more than 200,000 people have been displaced in Lebanon since Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel in support of Hamas after it stormed into Israel, sparking the Israel-Hamas war. Lebanon says a total of 1,540 people have been killed within its borders in that time.
The United States, France and other allies jointly called for a 21-day cease-fire. Lebanon’s foreign minister said the country welcomed the cease-fire efforts, and decried Israel’s “systematic destruction of Lebanese border villages.”
Israeli military vehicles were seen transporting tanks and armored vehicles toward the country’s northern border with Lebanon, and commanders have issued a call-up of reservists. Netanyahu says Israel is striking Hezbollah “with full force” and won’t stop until its goals are achieved.
Here’s the latest:
Houthi rebels claim missile attack targeting Israel
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Yemen’s Houthi rebels have claimed a missile attack that targeted Israel early Friday morning.
Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, a Houthi military spokesman, claimed the attack in a pre-recorded statement released by the Houthis. He claimed the rebels launched both a missile and drone. The missile targeted Tel Aviv while the drone targeted another city, though Israel did not acknowledge the drone. No injuries were reported.
Israel’s military said earlier Friday it used an Arrow interceptor missile to down the Houthi missile, which saw some shrapnel fall.
It’s the second attack by the Houthis to target Tel Aviv in recent weeks. Friday’s launch comes amid Israel’s intensified airstrike campaign targeting Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia. Both Hezbollah and the Houthis are backed by Iran.
UN: More than 30,000 people crossed from Lebanon into Syria in 3 days
GENEVA — The U.N. refugee agency says “well over 30,000” people have crossed from Lebanon into neighboring Syria over the last 72 hours in the wake of fighting between the militant group Hezbollah and Israeli forces in Lebanon.
Gonzalo Vargas Llosa, the representative for refugee agency UNHCR in Syria, said roughly half of the people who have fled were children and adolescents.
He said about 80% were Syrians returning to their home country and the rest were Lebanese.
“Now these, of course, are people who are fleeing bombs and who are crossing into a country that has been suffering from its own crisis and violence for 13 years now,” he told reporters in Geneva by video from the Lebanon-Syria border. Syria is facing “economic collapse,” he said.
“I think that this just illustrates the kind of extremely difficult choices both Syrians and Lebanese are having to make,” he said.
Israeli strike kills a family of 9 in a Lebanese border town, authorities say
BEIRUT — An Israeli airstrike on a border village has killed nine members of the same family, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said Friday.
NNA said nine people were killed in the early Friday airstrike on the village of Chebaa that destroyed their three-story building.
Chebaa is in an area where the borders of Syria, Israel and Lebanon meet, and was struck several times in recent months.
On Friday, Israeli warplanes struck towns and villages in southern Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley, according to NNA.
Israeli military reports more strikes from Lebanon
JERUSALEM — Incoming fire from Lebanon into Israel continued Friday, with one man suffering wounds from shrapnel.
The Israeli military said four drones came across the border Friday, all of which were intercepted. Earlier Friday, the Israeli military said another 10 projectiles came into Israel from Lebanon, with some intercepted and others falling into open fields. It said it later targeted launchers in Lebanon behind the missile attacks.
Hezbollah claimed it had targeted the Israeli city of Tiberias with missiles.