Lebanon says Israeli air strikes have killed leading doctor and paramedics
Paramedics and United Nations peacekeepers have been killed and injured by separate Israeli and Hezbollah air strikes targeting regions in Gaza and north-eastern Lebanon, according to local authorities in those areas.
One air strike in the Baalbek-Hermel province of north-eastern Lebanon on Friday killed Ali Allam, a doctor and the director of a university hospital, as well as six others, state media said.
The attack targeted Dr Allam’s house near the Dar Al-Amal Hospital, which is the largest health centre in the province and has provided health services during Israel’s campaign in Lebanon.
Lebanon’s health ministry described Dr Allam’s death as a “great loss”.
Suburban areas of Beirut and other parts of Lebanon have come under attack during another wave of Israeli air strikes, according to the country’s state media and health ministry. (AP: Bilal Hussein)
In a separate Israeli air strike on Friday, five paramedics working with Hezbollah’s medical arm were killed, according to the health ministry.
In Gaza, the Kamal Adwan Hospital was hit by an Israeli armed drone and air strikes on Friday, injuring nine medical staff and damaging the facility’s generator and oxygen systems, the hospital’s director said.
Hossam Abu Safiya said the strikes landed before dawn and hit the entrance of the hospital’s emergency unit as well as a courtyard.
The Israeli military said it was unaware of a strike in the area of Kamal Adwan Hospital.
Mr Abu Safiya said the hospital was treating 85 injured individuals, including 14 children in the paediatric ward and four newborns in the neonatal unit.
Rescue workers inspect damaged buildings in Chiyah, in southern Beirut. (AP: Bilal Hussein)
The strike is the latest hit on the Kamal Adwan Hospital, which has been targeted several times over the past month and was raided by Israeli troops during an offensive in the nearby Jabaliya refugee camp and the towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya, staff at the hospital said.
The Israeli military said it detained Hamas fighters hiding in the hospital during those raids.
UN says peacekeepers injured in rocket fire
The United Nations on Friday said two rockets that were likely fired by Hezbollah militants hit the headquarters of a peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon on Friday, injuring four Italian peacekeepers.
UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said the rockets hit a bunker and a logistics area in the building, located near the village of Chamaa, north of Lebanon’s border with Israel, sparking a fire in one of the structures that had to be swiftly extinguished.
The Australian government lists Hezbollah as an organised terrorist group.
Mr Dujarric said the four injured peacekeepers were receiving treatment at a medical facility adjoined to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) mission.
“Thankfully, none of the injuries are life-threatening,” Mr Dujarric said.
Large areas of the Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh were covered in thick plumes of smoke after strikes on the city. (AP: Bilal Hussein)
Italian Defence Minister Guido Crosetto described the attack as “intolerable” and said the Italian contingent of peacekeepers was in southern Lebanon “to offer a window of opportunity for peace, and cannot become hostage to militia attacks”.
Mr Dujarric said the latest strike was the third attack on Chamaa in a week and came amid heavy shelling and ground skirmishes in the Chamaa and Naqoura areas in recent days.
The strike on Friday also followed a rocket attack on a UNIFIL base east of the village of Ramyah on Tuesday that injured four peacekeepers from Ghana.
Mr Dujarric said UNIFIL strongly urged Hezbollah and its affiliates and Israel to avoid fighting near its positions, which are supposed to be protected.
“We remind all parties that any attack against peacekeepers constitutes a serious violation of international law and the UN Security Council resolution that ended the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war,” he said.
In a report published on Friday, the World Health Organization (WHO) said nearly half of all attacks on healthcare facilities in Lebanon since October 7, 2023, had resulted in deaths.
“This is a higher percentage than in any active conflict today across the globe,” the report said.
In Lebanon, 226 health workers and patients were killed and 199 were injured between October 7, 2023, and November 18, 2024, according to the WHO.
Lebanon says Israel used bunker buster bombs on Beirut
An air strike launched by Israeli forces on Saturday targeted central Beirut, killing at least four people and injuring 23 others in the neighbourhood of Basta, according to Hezbollah’s al-Manar broadcaster, citing the Lebanese health ministry.
Lebanon’s National News Agency also said that the attack resulted in a large number of fatalities and injuries and destroyed an eight-storey building.
The agency said Israel used bunker buster bombs in the strike, leaving a deep crater and a strong smell of explosives in Beirut hours after the attack.
It marked the fourth Israeli air strike this week targeting a central area of Beirut, where the bulk of Israel’s attacks have targeted the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs.
The strikes, which occurred at about 4am, local time, came after a day of heavy bombardment of Beirut’s southern suburbs and the southern coastal city of Tyre. The Israeli military had issued evacuation warnings prior to those strikes.
ABC/AP
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