Israel’s merciless overnight pounding in Lebanon against the subsidiaries of the Al-Qard al-Hassan financial company that allegedly finances Hezbollah.
As CNN reports, Al-Qard was founded in 1983 and is a non-profit financial institution linked to Hezbollah that provides interest-free loans, based on Islamic lending principles, to the Shiite community.
Israel says Hezbollah uses the agency to pay salaries to its operatives and provide support to civilians while avoiding sanctions.
BREAKING: BEIRUT BEING BOMBED RIGHT NOW pic.twitter.com/iDkSvtm1Qs
— Sulaiman Ahmed (@ShaykhSulaiman) October 20, 2024
IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari had warned civilians: “Anyone who finds himself near the sites used to finance Hezbollah’s terrorist activity must stay away from them.”
IDF Spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari:
In the past 24 hours, dozens of projectiles have been fired at northern Israel. In the next minutes, we will issue an advance evacuation warning to residents of Beirut and other areas in Lebanon to evacuate locations being used to… pic.twitter.com/hjVAhdDwRz
— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) October 20, 2024
Bombing near the airport
An AFP source in Lebanon’s security forces reported a bombing near Beirut’s international airport, a short distance from the southern suburbs. An AFP reporter saw plumes of smoke rising in the area.
The airport, which is located a short distance from the southern suburbs of Beirut, which were hit last night by new Israeli bombardments, still operates international flights to Lebanon
Several of the Airstrikes tonight against Southern Beirut, are only Meters away from Rafic Hariri International Airport. pic.twitter.com/0Vp5pntBNl
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) October 20, 2024
The strikes against Hamas
For its part, the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon accused the Israeli armed forces of “deliberately” destroying a blue helmet “observatory” in southern Lebanon.
Earlier the Israeli military said it had targeted a Hezbollah “command center” near the capital and hit dozens of communities in the south.
As it continues its war on two fronts, Israel’s military continues operations against Palestinian Hamas in the Gaza Strip, where shelling killed at least 73 people on Saturday in Beit Lahia (north), according to civil protection, while Israel disputes the toll. .
He also announced that he had intercepted a drone in Syrian airspace that was approaching Israeli territory “from the east.”
“Our army destroys Hezbollah”
After roughly a year of exchanging fire with Hezbollah, and after believing it had weakened Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military shifted the focus of the war to Lebanon in mid-September, carrying out intensive bombings against Hezbollah since September 23 and ground operations from 30th in its southern part.
Over 50 locations were shelled yesterday along the border with Israel, according to ANI, which also reported that the Israeli army was “dynamiting” houses in villages.
The Lebanese army – which does not take part in the hostilities – announced the death of three of its members in an Israeli bombardment in the southern part of the country.
During a visit to his men in northern Israel, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallad assured that his army was “destroying” Hezbollah in “all the villages along the border”.
Israel says its aim is to neutralize the Shiite movement in areas near the border between the two states to allow the safe return of some 60,000 residents of border areas in the north who have been forced to flee their homes by incessant rocket fire by Shiite militants. .
Hezbollah, for its part, claimed responsibility for new fire, particularly against three military bases near the northern Israeli cities of Haifa and Safed, as well as against Israeli troops in southern Lebanon. He also confirmed that he shot down an Israeli Hermes 450 drone, without specifying where.
Hundreds of thousands displaced
At least 1,470 people have been killed in Lebanon since September 23, according to an AFP count based on official data. In mid-October, the UN counted some 700,000 internally displaced people in the country.
The day before Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the Lebanese Shiite movement of trying to assassinate him with a drone that targeted his private residence in Caesarea, a coastal city in central Israel, while he was away.
Hezbollah did not claim responsibility for the attack, however Iran’s permanent mission to the United Nations said the Lebanese movement was indeed behind the attack.
At the same time, the Israeli army is intensifying its new offensive in the northern Gaza Strip against Hamas, a few days after its men killed, last Wednesday, the head of Yahya Sinwar. He announced on Sunday that he was conducting operations “in the north, in the center and in the south”.
Yesterday, families mourned their dead relatives in a bombing in Beit Lahia at Kamal Antoine Hospital, one of the largest health facilities in the region.
The Israeli military said it hit a “target” belonging to Hamas and that the casualty count released by the Palestinian Authority “does not match” the information it has.
Even before this bombardment, civil protection spoke of “more than 400 dead” in the northern Gaza Strip after the Israeli army began its new operation on October 6, initially focused on and around Jabalia.
“We are trapped, without food, without water, without medicine, we are at risk of starvation in the rubble and destruction,” said 36-year-old Ahmad Saleh in Beit Lahia.
The numbers
Hamas, in power in the Gaza Strip since 2007, insists it will continue fighting, despite the death of Yahya Shinwar, who was described by Israel as the mastermind of the Islamist movement’s military arm’s unprecedented raid on southern Israel on the 7th. October 2023, which triggered the war.
That raid killed 1,206 people in Israel, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official data, which includes hostages killed in captivity.
Of the 251 people abducted during the raid, 97 are still being held hostage in the Gaza Strip, but 34 of them have been declared dead by the Israeli army.
At least 42,603 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have died in the wide-scale Israeli military retaliatory operations in the Gaza Strip, according to figures from the Hamas government’s health ministry, which the UN considers reliable.
Source: CNN, APE-MPE, AFP
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