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Israeli Shells Hit Southern Lebanon in Second Day of Violence after Israel-Hamas Truce Ends

Smoke and fire rise from a building following an Israeli strike on what the Israeli military says are Hezbollah targets in a location given as Lebanon, amid the ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in this screengrab taken from an undated handout video released on November 24, 2023. Israeli army/Handout via REUTERS
Smoke and fire rise from a building following an Israeli strike on what the Israeli military says are Hezbollah targets in a location given as Lebanon, amid the ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in this screengrab taken from an undated handout video released on November 24, 2023. Israeli army/Handout via REUTERS
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Israeli Shells Hit Southern Lebanon in Second Day of Violence after Israel-Hamas Truce Ends

Smoke and fire rise from a building following an Israeli strike on what the Israeli military says are Hezbollah targets in a location given as Lebanon, amid the ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in this screengrab taken from an undated handout video released on November 24, 2023. Israeli army/Handout via REUTERS
Smoke and fire rise from a building following an Israeli strike on what the Israeli military says are Hezbollah targets in a location given as Lebanon, amid the ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in this screengrab taken from an undated handout video released on November 24, 2023. Israeli army/Handout via REUTERS

Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants exchanged fire across the Israel-Lebanon border on Saturday in a second day of hostilities after the collapse of a truce in Gaza between Palestinian group Hamas and Israel.
Iran-backed Hezbollah said in a statement that one of its fighters was killed but did not specify when. Three people in south Lebanon were killed by Israeli shelling on Friday in south Lebanon, according to Lebanon's state news agency. Hezbollah said two of the dead were its fighters, Reuters reported.
Hezbollah also said it fired rockets at an Israeli position. Israel's military said two mortar bombs launched from Lebanon fell in open areas in Shomera, across the border from the south Lebanon village of Marwahin. The military said it responded by attacking the launch site and elsewhere in south Lebanon.
Earlier on Saturday, shelling from Israel hit close to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) headquarters near the coastal town of Naqoura and around the border village of Rmaych, a UNIFIL spokesperson said.
The Israeli military said it carried out shelling near Naqoura after spotting "unusual activity" in the area.
UNIFIL also detected fire around 11 a.m. (0900 GMT) from the area of Tayr Harfa, about a mile from the Israeli frontier, toward Israel, the spokesperson said.
Following the eruption of the Hamas-Israel war on Oct. 7, Hezbollah mounted near-daily rocket attacks on Israeli positions at the frontier while Israel waged air and artillery strikes in south Lebanon. But the border was largely calm during the week-long truce in the Gaza war.
It has been the worst fighting since the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, a Hamas ally.
Just over 100 people in Lebanon have been killed during the hostilities, 83 of them Hezbollah fighters. Tens of thousands of people have fled both sides of the border.

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Arab World

Gaza Healthcare Nearing ‘Total Collapse’ Due to Israeli Strikes, Warns UN

A Palestinian takes shelter from the rain at a makeshift camp housing displaced Palestinians in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip on December 31, 2024, amid the continuing war between Israel and the Hamas group. (AFP)
A Palestinian takes shelter from the rain at a makeshift camp housing displaced Palestinians in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip on December 31, 2024, amid the continuing war between Israel and the Hamas group. (AFP)
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Gaza Healthcare Nearing ‘Total Collapse’ Due to Israeli Strikes, Warns UN

A Palestinian takes shelter from the rain at a makeshift camp housing displaced Palestinians in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip on December 31, 2024, amid the continuing war between Israel and the Hamas group. (AFP)
A Palestinian takes shelter from the rain at a makeshift camp housing displaced Palestinians in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip on December 31, 2024, amid the continuing war between Israel and the Hamas group. (AFP)

A United Nations report published Tuesday found that Israeli strikes on and near hospitals in the Gaza Strip had left healthcare in the Palestinian territory on the verge of collapse.

The report by the UN human rights office said such strikes raised grave concerns about Israel's compliance with international law.

"Israel's pattern of deadly attacks on and near hospitals in Gaza, and associated combat, pushed the healthcare system to the brink of total collapse, with catastrophic effect on Palestinians' access to health and medical care," the UN human rights office said in a statement.

Its 23-page report, entitled "Attacks on hospitals during the escalation of hostilities in Gaza", looked at the period from October 7, 2023 to June 30, 2024.

It said that during this time, there were at least 136 strikes on 27 hospitals and 12 other medical facilities, claiming significant casualties among doctors, nurses, medics and other civilians and causing significant damage to, if not the complete destruction of, civilian infrastructure.

- 'Death trap' -

The report noted that medical personnel and hospitals are specifically protected under international humanitarian law, provided they do not commit, or are not used to commit, acts harmful to the enemy outside their humanitarian function.

It found that Israel's repeated claims that Gaza hospitals were being improperly used for military purposes by Palestinian groups "vague".

"Insufficient information has so far been made publicly available to substantiate these allegations, which have remained vague and broad, and in some cases appear contradicted by publicly available information," the report said.

UN human rights chief Volker Turk said Gaza hospitals had become a "death trap".

"As if the relentless bombing and the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza were not enough, the one sanctuary where Palestinians should have felt safe in fact became a death trap," he said.

"The protection of hospitals during warfare is paramount and must be respected by all sides, at all times."

- Call for investigations -

The Gaza war was triggered by the unprecedented Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

That resulted in 1,208 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory military campaign has killed more than 45,500 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry that the UN considers reliable.

The report concluded with a call for credible investigations into the incidents detailed, and said they had to be independent given the "limitations" of Israel's justice system in respect of the conduct of its armed forces.

"It is essential that there be independent, thorough and transparent investigations of all of these incidents, and full accountability for all violations of international humanitarian and human rights law which have taken place," said Turk.

"All medical workers arbitrarily detained must be immediately released.

"It must also be a priority for Israel, as the occupying power, to ensure and facilitate access to adequate healthcare for the Palestinian population, and for future recovery and reconstruction efforts to prioritize the restoration of the medical capacity which has been destroyed over the last 14 months of intense conflict."