Lebanon Receives First UN Aid Plane since Israel's War

Staff unload a medical aid shipment at the Beirut International Airport - AFP
Staff unload a medical aid shipment at the Beirut International Airport - AFP
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Lebanon Receives First UN Aid Plane since Israel's War

Staff unload a medical aid shipment at the Beirut International Airport - AFP
Staff unload a medical aid shipment at the Beirut International Airport - AFP

A delivery of medical supplies from the United Nations reached Lebanon on Friday, a first since last week's Israeli war on Lebanon, said a UN agency and a Lebanese minister.

"An airlift... landed in Beirut earlier this morning with 30 metric tonnes of trauma and surgical supplies, enough to treat tens of thousands people," the World Health Organization's regional director Hanan Balkhy said on social media platform X.

"More flights are arriving later today and tomorrow, carrying trauma supplies, cholera supplies and mental health supplies," she added, AFP reported.

Rapidly escalating Israeli strikes since September 23 on Lebanon have killed more than 1,100 people in and wounded hundreds more, according to an AFP tally of official figures.

Lebanese authorities said the violence has also displaced more than one million people from their homes in the tiny Mediterranean country, already mired in economic and political crises.

Health Minister Firass Abiad was at the Beirut airport on Friday to receive the aid organized by the World Health Organization and UN refugee agency UNHCR and funded by the United Arab Emirates.

"We are receiving the first shipment out of many," he said.

The shipment included "many trauma kits that will be crucial to support the hospitals as they receive the casualties from the Israeli attacks on Lebanon," he added.



Israeli Troops Wound a Protester in Newly Captured Syrian Territory

An Israeli soldier mans a machine gun atop a military vehicle as they leave the buffer zone on the border between Israel and Syria, near the Druze village of Majdal Shams, in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, 20 December 2024. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
An Israeli soldier mans a machine gun atop a military vehicle as they leave the buffer zone on the border between Israel and Syria, near the Druze village of Majdal Shams, in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, 20 December 2024. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
TT

Israeli Troops Wound a Protester in Newly Captured Syrian Territory

An Israeli soldier mans a machine gun atop a military vehicle as they leave the buffer zone on the border between Israel and Syria, near the Druze village of Majdal Shams, in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, 20 December 2024. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
An Israeli soldier mans a machine gun atop a military vehicle as they leave the buffer zone on the border between Israel and Syria, near the Druze village of Majdal Shams, in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, 20 December 2024. EPA/ATEF SAFADI

The Israeli military said its soldiers shot and wounded a protester Friday in the Syrian village of Maariyah.
Since the fall of Bashar Assad’s government in Syria, Israel’s military has occupied several locations in the country along the border with Israel.
During a protest Friday by dozens of Syrians against the Israeli presence in Maariyah, soldiers shot at one man who the military said had approached their position, wounding him in the leg, The Associated Press said.
It said the troops acted “in accordance with standard operating procedures.”
The military said that the Israeli army “is not interfering in events taking place in Syria”.Residents in the area previously told The Associated Press that Israeli forces were preventing farmers from reaching their fields.
Israeli leaders say they will remain in the area indefinitely.