Israel launches bombing campaign on Lebanon as Hezbollah retaliates

Israel’s intensifying bombardment of Lebanon has killed at least 274 people so far, while Hezbollah retaliates with rockets across Israel. The Israeli army also raided and forcibly shut down the Ramallah office of Al Jazeera.

BY QASSAM MUADDI, MONDOWEISS, SEPTEMBER 23, 2024

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FUNERAL OF HEZBOLLAH COMMANDERS KILLED IN BEIRUT AIRSTRIKE LAST FRIDAY, SEP 23, 2024. (PHOTO: SCREENSHOT FROM VIDEO ON AP YOUTUBE CHANNEL)

Casualties 

• At least 274 killed in Lebanon in Israeli airstrikes, according to Lebanese Ministry of Health.
• 41,455 + killed* and at least 95,878 wounded in the Gaza Strip. 32,280 of the slain have been identified, including 10,627 children and 5,956 women, representing 60% of the casualties, and 2,770 elderly as of August 6, 2024. Some 10,000 more are estimated to be under the rubble*
• 716+ Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. This includes 146 children.**
• Israel revised its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,140.
• The Israeli army recognizes the death of 714 Israeli soldiers and the injury of at least 4,100 others since October 7.***

* Gaza’s branch of the Palestinian Ministry of Health confirmed this figure in its daily report, published through its WhatsApp channel on September 23, 2024. Rights groups and public health experts estimate the death toll to be much higher.

** The death toll in the West Bank and Jerusalem is not updated regularly. This is the latest figure according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health as of September 20, 2024.

*** These figures are released by the Israeli military, showing the soldiers whose names “were allowed to be published.” Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot reported on August 4, 2024, that some 10,000 Israeli soldiers and officers have been either killed or wounded since October 7. The head of the Israeli army’s wounded association told Israel’s Channel 12 that the number of wounded Israeli soldiers exceeds 20,000, including at least 8,000 who have been permanently handicapped as of June 1. Israel’s Channel 7 reported that according to the Israeli war ministry’s rehabilitation service numbers, 8,663 new wounded joined the army’s handicap rehabilitation system since October 7 and as of June 18.

Key Developments 

• Gaza branch of the Palestinian Health Ministry says death toll surpasses 41,455, with 95,878 wounded since October 7, including 33% children, 18.4% women, and 8.6% elderly; at least 115 Palestinian children born and killed by Israeli forces since October 7.
• The Palestinian Health Ministry says that Palestinian death toll by Israeli army or settlers in the West Bank and Jerusalem has reached 716 since October 7.
• The Lebanese Ministry of Health says 274 Lebanese people have been killed, over 1,024 wounded in hundreds of Israeli airstrikes across Lebanon, especially in the south and the Bekaa Valley.
• The spokesperson of the Israeli army says Hezbollah stores missiles in civilian areas, calls on Lebanese civilians — in Hebrew — to “stay away from Hezbollah’s positions.”
• The spokesperson for the Israeli army says “the situation in the northern front is very difficult.”
• Hezbollah’s rocket strikes target Haifa, Afoula, Akka, and Nazareth on Saturday and Sunday for the first time since the beginning of the war on the Lebanese front almost a year ago.
• Hezbollah says its rocket strikes targeted Israeli military manufacturing facilities in Haifa.
• Deputy Secretary General of Hezbollah, Naim Qassim, says Hezbollah’s rocket strikes on Saturday and Sunday are the beginning of the group’s response to the exploding pager and electronics attacks last week; says Hezbollah’s response to Israeli attacks will be “outside the box.”
• Israel kills 22 Palestinians, including at least 13 children, a newborn baby, and 6 women in an airstrike targeting a school sheltering forcibly displaced families in the Zeitoun neighborhood in Gaza City.
• The al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital warns that it will go out of service in the coming hours due to the lack of fuel and medical supplies.
• UNRWA warns of deteriorating living conditions of forcibly displaced Palestinians in Gaza as the rain season begins.
• Israeli forces kill eight Palestinians in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem; seven of the slain were killed in a single raid on Qabatiya in Jenin.
• The Palestinian Jerusalem governorate says Israel has demolished 320 Palestinian properties in Jerusalem since last October, including 87 in the Silwan neighborhood alone.

Lebanese death toll reaches 274 as Israel ramps up attacks

At least 274 Lebanese have been killed and 1,024 have been wounded by Israeli airstrikes, the Lebanese Health Ministry said on Monday as Israeli bombings continue on dozens of Lebanese towns in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley in the eastern part of the country.

On Monday morning, the Israeli army announced that it was going to engage in a “difficult day of fighting” in Lebanon, as its spokesperson claimed that Hezbollah was storing missiles in homes and civilian areas. The spokesperson illustrated a digital drawing made by the army as “proof” of his claims, calling upon Lebanese citizens — in Hebrew — to move away from sites tied to Hezbollah.

The Israeli wave of strikes came on the heels of a two-day wave of Hezbollah rockets launched on northern Israel in retaliation for the exploding pager and electronics attacks last week. On Saturday and Sunday, Hezbollah’s rockets struck Haifa, Afoula, the Krayut area near Akka, and Nazareth. Israeli media reported widespread damage, while the number of Israeli casualties is undisclosed due to Israeli military censorship. Hezbollah’s military arm said in a statement that it had targeted the industrial complex of the Israeli Raphael military manufacturer with dozens of rockets.

Hezbollah’s deputy Secretary General, Naim Qassim, said that the recent salvo of rockets over the weekend was an initial response to the pager and electronics explosion attacks last week, which killed 32 Lebanese people and wounded over 3,000 others.

Qassim delivered his remarks during the funeral ceremony of the 15 members of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force killed in Israel’s strike on Beirut’s southern Dahiya district on Friday. The strike targeted and killed Ibrahim Aqil, the commander of the Radwan Force, alongside several members of Hezbollah’s military leadership. Qassim said that Hezbollah’s fight against Israel had entered a new phase, which he described as an “open account” that would continue alongside Hezbollah’s “support front” for Gaza.

Israel began to transfer army forces to the Lebanese border last week as its cabinet officially declared that the return of evacuated Israelis to the north would be considered a new objective of the ongoing war. The cabinet’s declaration was followed by the exploding pager and electronics attacks across Lebanon as well as the assassination of Aqil and members of the Radwan Force.

On Friday, the White House said that the U.S. administration had no prior knowledge of Israel’s intention to strike the Dahiya district. However, several Israeli outlets reported that Israel’s war minister, Yoav Gallant, informed the U.S. Secretary of Defense that Israel was going to conduct “a difficult operation in Lebanon” ahead of the pager explosions.

On Thursday, Hezbollah’s Secretary General, Hasan Nasrallah, vowed that his organization would continue to operate against Israel in support of Gaza, declaring that evacuated Israelis “will not return to the north” unless the Israeli war on Gaza ends.

Israel commits new massacre against displaced Palestinians in Gaza City

Israel killed 22 Palestinians in an airstrike on Saturday that targeted a school sheltering forcibly displaced families in the Zeitoun neighborhood in Gaza City. Among the victims were 13 children, including a newborn baby and six women, according to the Gaza branch of the Palestinian Health Ministry.

The school, which sheltered thousands of Palestinians, was hit by two Israeli missiles, according to local reporters. The wounded were transferred to the al-Ahli Arab Hospital, the only remaining functioning hospital in Gaza City, after Israel’s destruction of al-Shifa Hospital. Some of the wounded were carried by hand or on carts due to the lack of fuel for ambulances. Most of the wounded in the strike suffered serious injuries, including burns and limb amputations, according to Al Jazeera’s field reporter, Anas al-Sharif.

Israel’s massacre at the Zeitoun neighborhood came less than a week after Israeli warplanes razed an entire residential block of seven buildings in al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, killing 40 Palestinians. According to the Palestinian Civil Defense, Israeli quadcopter drones had opened fire on rescue teams following the bombing, preventing them from digging out survivors who remained trapped under the rubble.

Since the beginning of Israel’s assault on Gaza last October, Israeli forces have systematically targeted residential blocks, especially in the northern Gaza Strip, which is one of the reasons for the high number of civilian deaths.

The number of Palestinians estimated to remain under the rubble is around 10,000 people. Last week, the World Health Organization reported that over 22,500 people, a quarter of them wounded in Gaza since Israel’s assault began, have suffered life-changing injuries requiring rehabilitation services “now and for years to come.” These include limb injuries, amputations, spinal cord trauma, traumatic brain injuries, and major burns.

Israel closes Al Jazeera offices in the West Bank

Israeli forces raided the Ramallah offices of the Qatar-based international news broadcaster Al Jazeera, delivering a military order to shut them down for 45 days.

Al Jazeera’s Ramallah bureau chief, Walid al-Omari, received the order paper from the Israeli army officer on air and read out its contents, which instructed Al Jazeera staff to evacuate the premises with their personal belongings.

In June, Israel’s parliament passed a law, dubbed the “Al Jazeera law,” allowing the Israeli government to ban international media outlets operating in Palestine that Israel finds “threatening.”

Al Jazeera is one of the few international media outlets with reporters on the ground in Gaza, as Israel has banned the entry of international journalists to the Strip since the beginning of its ongoing assault last October.

Since October, Israel has killed at least 170 Palestinian journalists in Gaza, including several Al Jazeera members, including Al Jazeera’s reporter in Gaza City, Ismail al-Ghoul, and his cameraman Rami al-Rifi, who were both killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza City last July.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces have killed eight Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since Thursday, September 19, seven of whom were killed in an Israeli raid on the town of Qabatiya, southwest of Jenin.

The raid, which took place on Thursday, targeted a residential building in Qabatiya where the Israeli army claimed that “wanted” Palestinians were hiding. Video footage circulated on social media and was reported by various outlets showing Israeli soldiers pushing an immobilized, presumably dead Palestinian man’s body off a rooftop’s edge with their boots. Reports said that the man was one of the Palestinians killed in the raid and that he was already dead.

During the raid, several schools in Qabatiya suspended classes and evacuated students. One school next to the targeted building couldn’t evacuate in a timely manner, trapping 1,000 students for hours during the raid.

Since the beginning of Israel’s assault on Gaza last October, 716 Palestinians in the West Bank have been killed by Israeli forces.

Qassam Muaddi
Qassam Muaddi is the Palestine Staff Writer for Mondoweiss. Follow him on Twitter/X at @QassaMMuaddi.