Islam Times - Humanitarian Situation in Lebanon at Critical Point

Islam Times - The humanitarian situation caused by the Israeli attacks on Lebanon has reached a critical point in a way that about one-fourth of the population of the Arab country has been displaced into neighboring states.

Since the genocide in Gaza began, the Israeli regime has also been at war with the Lebanese Hezbollah Resistance Movement, which is an ally of the Palestinian group Hamas and expresses solidarity with the Gazans.

The regime has escalated its air campaign in Lebanon since last September against what it claims are Hezbollah targets in an escalation from year-long cross-border warfare between Zionists and Hezbollah since the start of the Israeli brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023.

The usurping regime expanded the conflict by launching an incursion into southern Lebanon on October 1.

The new fatalities raised the total number of people killed in Israeli attacks in the country since October 2023 to 3,117, with 13,888 others injured, the Lebanese Health Ministry said in a statement on Friday.

The mounting death toll comes as an estimated 1.2 million of Lebanon’s population of 5.8 million have been forcibly displaced from cities, towns, and villages as well as neighborhoods in the capital, Beirut, which Israel has bombed repeatedly and continues to issue forced evacuation orders.

At least 589 women, 185 children killed in Israeli attacks on Lebanon over past 13 months

“Since October 4 of this year, at least one child has been killed and 10 injured daily,” Catherine Russell, UNICEF executive director, said.

“Thousands more children who have survived the many months of constant bombings physically unscathed are now acutely distressed by the violence and chaos around them,” she noted.

Lebanon files complaint against Israel at UN labour body over pager attacks

Lebanon has filed a complaint against Israel with the United Nations’ International Labour Organization over a string of deadly attacks involving exploding pagers in September.

Dozens were killed and some 3,000 injured when thousands of pagers exploded – nearly simultaneously – in Lebanon.

Lebanese Labour Minister Mustafa Bayram has filed the formal complaint at the UN headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, noting that the attack was an “egregious war against humanity, against technology, against work”.

The attack was widely blamed on Israel, which has neither confirmed nor denied the allegation. Bayram said it was “widely accepted internationally … that Israel was behind this heinous act”.

UN peacekeepers say Israel's destruction of their property breaches international law

The United Nations' peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon said on Friday that the Israeli military's "deliberate and direct destruction" of its property was a "flagrant violation" of international law.

The 10,000-strong U.N. mission, known as UNIFIL, is stationed in southern Lebanon to monitor hostilities along the "blue line" separating Lebanon from Israel.

Since Israel launched a ground campaign across the border against Hezbollah fighters at the end of September, UNIFIL has accused the Israel Defense Forces on several occasions of deliberately attacking its bases, including by shooting at peacekeepers and destroying watchtowers.

EU slams Israeli attack on UN peacekeepers

The European Union has denounced an Israeli attack that put at risk the UNIFIL convoy and "left several peacekeepers wounded.”

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell made the statement on Friday, a day after six Malaysian peacekeepers were injured by an Israeli drone strike that killed three Lebanese people in a car nearby.

Borrell said, “All parties must ensure the safety and security of UN personnel and allow them to carry out their vital mission under UNIFIL’s mandate.”

'Enhanced protection' of Lebanon's cultural sites in consideration: UNESCO

The United Nations cultural agency, UNESCO, has made arrangements to consider the "enhanced protection" of Lebanon's cultural sites from Israeli attacks.

The UN agency said on Thursday that it would hold a meeting later this month to consider enhanced protection of cultural sites in Lebanon as the Israeli regime forces continue its ruthless bombardment of Lebanese targets.

The UNESCO committee will hold an extraordinary session at the UN cultural agency's Paris headquarters on November 18 to consider adding the country's heritage sites to UNESCO's international list of structures under "enhanced protection," it said.

On Wednesday, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned that the humanitarian situation caused by the Israeli attacks on Lebanon had “reached a critical point.”

About one-fourth of Lebanon's population has been displaced across Lebanon and into neighboring countries, it said, adding that Lebanese women comprised the majority of those who had been rendered homeless within the country.