Arab League Secretary General Calls on International Community to Stand by Lebanon

Smoke rises as a result of an Israeli airstrike near Al Khiam in southern Lebanon, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, northern Israel, 30 September 2024. (EPA)
Smoke rises as a result of an Israeli airstrike near Al Khiam in southern Lebanon, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, northern Israel, 30 September 2024. (EPA)
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Arab League Secretary General Calls on International Community to Stand by Lebanon

Smoke rises as a result of an Israeli airstrike near Al Khiam in southern Lebanon, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, northern Israel, 30 September 2024. (EPA)
Smoke rises as a result of an Israeli airstrike near Al Khiam in southern Lebanon, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, northern Israel, 30 September 2024. (EPA)

Secretary General of the Arab League Ahmed Aboul Gheit expressed on Monday the League's solidarity with Lebanon and the Lebanese people against Israel’s intense attacks.

He urged the international community to support the Lebanese people in confronting the attacks and their repercussions, particularly those that target civilian areas.

In a statement, Aboul Gheit condemned the ongoing series of Israeli attacks on Lebanon, which have resulted in hundreds of casualties and displaced nearly a million people.

He emphasized that such violations of the country's sovereignty could lead to an escalation of the conflict.



Fears for Gaza Hospitals as Fuel and Aid Run Low

The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled. - AFP
The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled. - AFP
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Fears for Gaza Hospitals as Fuel and Aid Run Low

The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled. - AFP
The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled. - AFP

The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled.

The warning came a day after the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant more than a year into the Gaza war.

The United Nations and others have repeatedly decried humanitarian conditions, particularly in northern Gaza, where Israel said Friday it had killed two commanders involved in Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack that triggered the war.

Gaza medics said an overnight Israeli raid on the cities of Beit Lahia and nearby Jabalia resulted in dozens killed or missing.

Marwan al-Hams, director of Gaza's field hospitals, told reporters all hospitals in the Palestinian territory "will stop working or reduce their services within 48 hours due to the occupation's (Israel's) obstruction of fuel entry".

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was "deeply concerned about the safety and well-being of 80 patients, including 8 in the intensive care unit" at Kamal Adwan hospital, one of just two partly operating in northern Gaza.

Kamal Adwan director Hossam Abu Safia told AFP it was "deliberately hit by Israeli shelling for the second day" Friday and that "one doctor and some patients were injured".

Late Thursday, the UN's humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, Muhannad Hadi, said: "The delivery of critical aid across Gaza, including food, water, fuel and medical supplies, is grinding to a halt."

He said that for more than six weeks, Israeli authorities "have been banning commercial imports" while "a surge in armed looting" has hit aid convoys.

Issuing the warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, the Hague-based ICC said there were "reasonable grounds" to believe they bore "criminal responsibility" for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare, and crimes against humanity including over "the lack of food, water, electricity and fuel, and specific medical supplies".

At least 44,056 people have been killed in Gaza during more than 13 months of war, most of them civilians, according to figures from Gaza's health ministry which the United Nations considers reliable.