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☆ Lebanon sees deadliest day of conflict since 2006 as Israeli strikes kill more than 356
▼ + stars: | 2024-09-23 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

The Israeli military said Monday evening it had carried out a targeted strike in Beirut. Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad told a news conference in Beirut the earlier strikes hit hospitals, medical centers and ambulances. The Israeli military announced it hit some 800 targets, saying it was going after Hezbollah weapons sites. Meanwhile, Hezbollah said in a statement that it fired dozens of rockets toward Israel, including at military bases. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said the strikes hit a forested area in the central province of Byblos for the first time since the exchanges began.

Persons: Rabih Daher, Benjamin Netanyahu, Netanyahu, Abed, Hezbollah's, Firass Abiad, Mahmoud Zayyat, Daniel Hagari, Herzi Halevi, Israel, Halevi, Rafael, Ibrahim Aqil Organizations: Afp, Getty, Lebanese, National News Agency, Lebanese Health, Iran's, Guards, Hezbollah, Sunday, Hamas, Associated Press, Fighters Locations: Marjayoun, Lebanon, Israel, Sidon, Beirut, Lebanon's, Bekaa, Byblos, Lebanese, Syria, Haifa, Gaza, Iran, Beirut's

☆ Lebanon: More explosions one day after blasts injure thousands, state media reports
▼ + stars: | 2024-09-18 | by ( Rob Picheta | Tamara Qiblawi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

CNN —Dozens of walkie talkies exploded across Lebanon on Wednesday, a security source told CNN, one day after blasts targeting the pagers of Hezbollah members injured thousands. Preliminary information suggested that there were between 15 and 20 explosions in southern suburbs of Beirut, and a further 15 to 20 blasts in southern Lebanon, the source said. At least three people were killed in Sahmar in Rashaya and Western Bekaa in southern Lebanon, state media outlet NNA reported. Hassan Hankir/ReutersThe latest blasts come almost exactly 24 hours after the near-simultaneous explosions targeting pagers of the militant group Hezbollah, exposing a massive security breach among its members. Hezbollah on Tuesday vowed to respond to what it called an Israeli attack, which killed multiple people and injured thousands across Lebanon on Tuesday.

Persons: “, Hassan Hankir, Firass Abiad, … Organizations: CNN, Army Command, Lebanese Army, Lebanese Health Locations: Lebanon, Beirut, Sahmar, Rashaya, Sidon, Gaza

☆ Dozens wounded after pagers detonate in Lebanon, media and security officials say
▼ + stars: | 2024-09-17 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Dozens of people were wounded in Beirut's suburbs and other parts of Lebanon after their handheld pagers exploded Tuesday, Lebanese state media and security officials said. Photos and videos from Beirut's southern suburbs circulating on social media and in local media showed people lying on the pavement with wounds on their hands or near their pants pockets. The news agency reported that in Beirut's southern suburbs and other areas "the handheld pagers system was detonated using advanced technology, and dozens of injuries were reported." A Hezbollah official said that at least 150 people, including members of the group, were wounded in different parts of Lebanon when the pagers they were carrying exploded. He added that the new pagers that Hezbollah members were carrying had lithium batteries that apparently exploded.

Persons: pagers, Hassan Nasrallah, —, Israel Organizations: Hezbollah, Associated Press, Lebanon's Health, National News Agency Locations: Beirut, Lebanon, Israel, Beirut's, Lebanese, Israeli, Bekaa, —, Gaza

☆ Israel Returns Fire After Deadly Rocket From Lebanon Hits Soccer Field
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-28 | by ( Patrick Kingsley | More About Patrick Kingsley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Israeli military said on Sunday morning that it had conducted overnight strikes in Lebanon, hours after a rocket fired from its northern neighbor killed at least 12 people in an Israeli-controlled town. Israel blamed Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed Lebanese group that has been attacking Israel in solidarity with Gaza, for Saturday’s deadly rocket attack. The Israeli strikes appeared to stop short of a major escalation, amid fears that the rocket launch would prompt all-out war. Still, there were strong expectations on Sunday morning that Israel still might mount a bigger response. For months, as Israel has fought Hamas in Gaza, it has also been trading fire with Hezbollah.

Organizations: Lebanese Locations: Lebanon, Israeli, Israel, Iranian, Gaza, Tyre, Bekaa

☆ F-16s headed to Ukraine this summer will face their most dangerous battlefield ever
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-27 | by ( Jake Epstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

Ukraine is slated to receive its much-anticipated fleet of F-16 fighter jets this summer. AdvertisementThe long-awaited delivery of F-16s to Ukraine is on the horizon, and these advanced American-made fighter jets can't come soon enough for its forces. The fighter jets are expected to arrive at some point this summer, reportedly as early as June. Romanian air force F-16 fighter planes fly above the Baza 86 military air base, outside Fetesti, Romania, Monday, Nov. 13, 2023. US Air Force F-16's stand ready with bombs loaded to take off during the first daylight attack to liberate Kuwait in 1991.

Persons: —, Falcon, SAMs, Alexandru, Egypt —, John Baum, Russia —, Baum, KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV Russia's, Tannehill, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Mark Rutte, Peter Dejong Organizations: Service, Russia's, Rygge Air Force Base, OLE BERG, Getty, NATO, Kyiv, Israeli Air Force, AP, US Air Force, Operation, Allied Force, Yugoslavia, Air Force, Defense Technical Information, Reuters, Storm, Russia, Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, US Navy, SA, Russian, AIM, INA Locations: Ukraine, Balkans, Kyiv, Romania, Norway, AFP, — Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, Europe, Lebanon's, Israel, Yom, Romanian, Fetesti, Storm, Iraq, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, Afghanistan, Islamic, Kuwait, Russian, Zhukovsky, Moscow, Bekaa, East, Syria, Russia, Ukrainian, Eindhoven, Rzeszow, Jasionka, Poland, Crimean

☆ Terry Anderson, Reporter Held Hostage for Six Years, Dies at 76
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-21 | by ( Sam Roberts | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Terry Anderson, the American journalist who had been the longest-held Western hostage in Lebanon when he was finally released in 1991 by Islamic militants after more than six years in captivity, died Saturday at his home in Greenwood Lake, N.Y., in the Hudson Valley. The cause was apparently complications of recent heart surgery, said his daughter, Sulome Anderson. Mr. Anderson, the Beirut bureau chief for The Associated Press, had just dropped his tennis partner, an A.P. The same car had tried to cut him off the day before as he returned to work from lunch at his seaside apartment. The militants, supported by Iran, were retaliating against Israel’s use of American weapons in earlier strikes against Muslim and Druze targets in Lebanon.

Persons: Terry Anderson, Sulome Anderson, Anderson, Reagan Organizations: Islamic, Associated Press, Benz, Islamic Jihad Organization Locations: American, Lebanon, Greenwood Lake, N.Y, Hudson, Beirut, South Lebanon, Iran, Nicaragua

The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah fired more than 100 rockets into northern Israel on Tuesday morning, according to Israel’s military. Israel’s military said its fighter jets had retaliated by striking a number of sites linked to Hezbollah in Lebanon. The group is a key ally of Hamas, whose Oct. 7 attacks on Israel led to the war in Gaza. Since Israel’s bombardment of Gaza began, Hezbollah has been firing rockets into northern Israel on a near-daily basis. The Israeli military regularly responds with strikes against Hezbollah-linked targets inside Lebanon.

Persons: Hassan Nasrallah, Khalil al, Euan Ward, Adam Sella Organizations: Hamas’s Locations: Lebanese, Israel, Gaza, Lebanon, Lebanon’s Bekaa, Cairo, United States, Egypt, Qatar, Iran

Israeli airstrikes inside Lebanon on targets associated with the Hezbollah militia hit deeper than any in recent years on Monday, targeting an area close to the Syrian border. The Israeli military said that its fighter jets had struck Hezbollah air defenses in the Bekaa Valley, about 60 miles from the Israeli border. It said that the strikes were in response to a surface-to-air missile attack that downed an Israeli drone over southern Lebanon. At least two Hezbollah fighters were killed in the Israeli airstrikes and at least six other people were wounded, according to Bachir Khodor, mayor of the nearby city of Baalbek. The fighting has displaced more than 150,000 people on both sides of the Lebanese-Israeli border and left hundreds dead.

Persons: Bachir Khodor Organizations: Mr, Lebanese Locations: Lebanon, Bekaa, Baalbek, Israel, Lebanese

☆ Clashes on border with Israel uproot thousands in Lebanon - again
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-23 | by ( John Davison | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

[1/4] Children look out from balconies in Shatila Palestinian refugee camp, in Beirut suburbs, Lebanon November 21, 2023. Rostom is Lebanese, Mashouz is a refugee from Syria and Hajeh is a Palestinian refugee. Hajeh has fled his crowded refugee camp four times this year during fighting between militant groups. Since the Israel-Hamas war began seven weeks ago in Gaza, the clashes on Lebanon's border with Israel have displaced nearly 50,000 people, according to U.N. figures, and at least 13 civilians have been killed in Lebanon, Lebanese officials say. Hajeh, the Palestinian refugee, left Yarmouk refugee camp in Syria in 2013 under the bombs of Syrian warplanes.

Persons: Mohamed Azakir, Rose Rostom, Nahida Mashouz, Ammar Hajeh, Rostom, Mashouz, we'd, We've, Jacob Boswall, Ziad Makary, We're, Charbel Alam, Hajeh, Timothy Organizations: REUTERS, Palestinian, Islamic, Hamas, Islamic State, Mercy Corps, Timothy Heritage, Thomson Locations: Beirut, Lebanon, Gaza, Israel, Lebanon BEIRUT, Syrian, Islamic State, Western, Iran, Rostom, Syria, Palestinian, Hajeh, Sidon, Raqqa, Rostom's, Europe, tatters, Lebanese, Rmeich, Yarmouk, Ain El, Ain El Hilweh

☆ What to know about Hezbollah, the powerful Iran-backed group on Israel’s border
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-19 | by ( Cnn Staff | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

CNN —Hezbollah is an Iran-backed Islamist movement with one of the most powerful paramilitary forces in the Middle East. The origins of the groupHezbollah emerged from the rubble of Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon, when Israeli forces took almost half of Lebanon’s territory. This included Beirut, where Israeli forces, along with right-wing Israel-allied Christian Lebanese militias, laid siege to the western part of the capital to drive out Palestinian militants. A terror designationIn Lebanon, Hezbollah is officially considered a “resistance” group tasked with confronting Israel, which Beirut classifies as an enemy state. Hezbollah is a group from the Shia branch of Islam, while Hamas is Sunni.

Persons: Israel –, –, Sabra, Shatila, Hassan Nasrallah, Marwan Naamani, Israel, Mustafa Badreddine, Hamas haven’t, Bashar al, Assad, Nasrallah, Francesca Volpi, ’ Organizations: CNN, Commission, Christian Lebanese, Embassy, Hezbollah, Hamas, Gaza, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Israel’s Locations: Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Hamas, Gaza, Beirut, Lebanese, Palestinian, Islamic Republic, Tehran, Argentina, Buenos Aires, East, Syria, Iraq, Islam, Baalbek, Lebanon's Bekaa, Israel’s, Golan

Israel has the right to defend itself and its people, full stop. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was at the White House for meetings and spoke to Israel's president and foreign minister, while Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with Israel's defense minister. But given the scale of the Hamas attacks and Israel's military response, the officials said they were not optimistic about any short-term solution. Zelenskyy, who is Jewish and had relatives who died in the Holocaust, said “Israel’s right to self-defense cannot be questioned." In Lebanon’s Palestinian refugee camps, hundreds took to the streets to celebrate the operation by Hamas.

Persons: Joe Biden, Biden, Benjamin Netanyahu, United States “, There’s, ’ ’, ” Biden, Netanyahu, King Abdullah II, Antony Blinken, Lloyd Austin, Israel, ” Netanyahu, We’ll, ”, – “, It’s, ’, Blinken, “, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ursula Von Der Leyen, OIaf Scholz, Karl Nehammer, Rishi Sunak, ” Nehammer, Mikhail Bogdanov, Bogdanov, Israel ”, Nasser Kanaani Organizations: WASHINGTON, Hamas, Israeli, White House, Defense, Pentagon, ”, United Arab, Telegram, Jewish, British, Austrian, Foreign Ministry, Tass, Saudi Foreign Ministry, Iranian Foreign Ministry, Associated Press Locations: Israel, United States, U.S, Kippur, Gaza, ’ ’, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Austrian, Vienna, Moscow, Iran, “ Israel, Palestine, Beirut, Tripoli

☆ Cash is king in Lebanon as banks atrophy
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Maya Gebeily | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

SummarySummary Companies Cash economy replaces once lauded-banking sector'Impossible' for state to collect taxes in cash economy - traderWest frets over money laundering, terrorism finance - diplomatCHTAURA, Lebanon, Jan 31 (Reuters) - The money exchange shop in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley was buzzing with business. Cash is now king in Lebanon, where a three-year economic meltdown has led the country's once-lauded financial sector to atrophy. Even the largely paralysed Lebanese state is moving towards the cash economy: the finance ministry has considered requiring traders to pay newly-increased customs tariffs partly in cash. Paul Abi Nasr, CEO of a textile company, said the cash economy made it "practically impossible" to enforce taxes "because everything can simply stay outside of the banks". "The transformation to a cash economy means the collapse of the economy," said Mohammad Chamseddine, an economic expert at Lebanese research group Information International.

☆ Cholera outbreak hits Syrian refugees sheltering in camps in Lebanon
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( Maya Gebeily | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Syrian refugee children stand near water way at an informal camp in Qab Elias, in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley October 18, 2022. REUTERS/Mohamed AzakirQUB ELIAS, Lebanon, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Syrian refugees in displacement camps are falling victim to a cholera outbreak in Lebanon, already suffering from an economic meltdown that has slashed access to clean water and strained hospitals. Lebanon recorded its first cholera case in early October -- signalling the return of the bacteria for the first time in 30 years. WHO country director Abdinasir Abubakar told Reuters cholera posed a "very high risk" for Lebanon – and that transmission to other countries was likely. "Now it's affecting more Syrian refugees, but sooner or later we will see more cases for Lebanese,” Abubakar said.

☆ Lebanon to resume sending refugees back to war-damaged Syria
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-12 | by ( Timour Azhari | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Lebanon hosts the highest number of refugees per capita in the world. The plan would not involve the United Nations, which maintains that conditions in Syria do not allow for the large-scale return of refugees. The Lebanon office of the U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, said it was "not facilitating or promoting the large-scale voluntary repatriation of refugees to Syria." New York-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in July that "Syria is anything but safe for returnees". In its September report, the United Nations' Syria commission said the country was still not safe for returnees.

George Haj of the bank employees syndicate said the holdups were misguiding anger that should be directed at the Lebanese state, which was most to blame for the crisis, and noted some 6,000 bank employees had lost their jobs since it began. Authorities have condemned the holdups and say they are preparing a security plan for banks. "They are all in cahoots to steal from us and leave us to go hungry and die slowly," she said. To aid her escape, Hafiz posted on Facebook that she was already at the airport and on her way to Istanbul. Abdallah Al-Saii, an acquaintance of Hafiz who held up a bank in January to get some $50,000 of his own savings, said more hold-ups were coming.

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