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Iran Parliament Speaker Visits Beirut Site of Deadliest Israeli Strike

Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf after visiting the site of an Israeli air strike on Beirut's Basta neighbourhood - AFP
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf after visiting the site of an Israeli air strike on Beirut's Basta neighbourhood - AFP
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Iran Parliament Speaker Visits Beirut Site of Deadliest Israeli Strike

Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf after visiting the site of an Israeli air strike on Beirut's Basta neighbourhood - AFP
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf after visiting the site of an Israeli air strike on Beirut's Basta neighbourhood - AFP

Iran's parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf on Saturday denounced Israel's "crimes" as he visited the site of the deadliest Israeli strikes on central Beirut in recent weeks, an AFP photographer said.

A source close to Hezbollah had said Thursday night's strikes in the densely populated Basta neighbourhood and the nearby Nweiri district had targeted the Iran-backed Lebanese group's security chief Wafiq Safa.

While neither Israel's military nor Hezbollah confirmed Safa was the target or commented on his fate, Lebanon's health ministry said the strikes killed at least 22 people -- the deadliest inside the capital in weeks of escalation.

"International organizations and the UN Security Council have the capability (to stop Israel) but they are unfortunately keeping silent," he said.

Earlier Saturday, Ghalibaf met Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who told him his government's priority was "to work towards a ceasefire", Lebanon's official National News Agency (NNA) said.

Mikati had on Friday urged the United Nations to pass a resolution calling for an "immediate" ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

Ghalibaf told reporters after meeting his counterpart Nabih Berri, a key Hezbollah ally, that Iran "will certainly support the decisions of the Lebanese government, the Lebanese people, and the resistance (Hezbollah) in this period".

When Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi visited Lebanon last week, he said Tehran backed efforts for a simultaneous ceasefire with Israel in both Gaza and Lebanon.

Ghalibaf was expected to head to Geneva later Saturday to participate in the Inter-Parliamentary Union, according Iran's state news agency IRNA.

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Oxfam: Only 12 Trucks Delivered Food, Water in North Gaza Governorate since October

Israel's government has faced accusations that it systematically hinders aid reaching Gaza. Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP/File
Israel's government has faced accusations that it systematically hinders aid reaching Gaza. Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP/File
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Oxfam: Only 12 Trucks Delivered Food, Water in North Gaza Governorate since October

Israel's government has faced accusations that it systematically hinders aid reaching Gaza. Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP/File
Israel's government has faced accusations that it systematically hinders aid reaching Gaza. Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP/File

Just 12 trucks distributed food and water in northern Gaza in two-and-a-half months, aid group Oxfam said on Sunday, raising the alarm over the worsening humanitarian situation in the besieged territory.
"Of the meager 34 trucks of food and water given permission to enter the North Gaza Governorate over the last 2.5 months, deliberate delays and systematic obstructions by the Israeli military meant that just twelve managed to distribute aid to starving Palestinian civilians," Oxfam said in a statement, in a count that included deliveries through Saturday.
"For three of these, once the food and water had been delivered to the school where people were sheltering, it was then cleared and shelled within hours," Oxfam added.
Israel, which has tightly controlled aid entering the Hamas-ruled territory since the outbreak of the war, often blames what it says is the inability of relief organizations to handle and distribute large quantities of aid, AFP said.
In a report focused on water, New York-based Human Rights Watch on Thursday detailed what it called deliberate efforts by Israeli authorities "of a systematic nature" to deprive Gazans of water, which had "likely caused thousands of deaths... and will likely continue to cause deaths."
They were the latest in a series of accusations leveled against Israel -- and denied by the country -- during its 14-month war against Palestinian Hamas group.
The Gaza war was sparked by Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that claimed the lives of 1,208 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
'Access blocked'
Since then, Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 45,000 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.
Oxfam said that it and other international aid groups have been "continually prevented from delivering life-saving aid" in northern Gaza since October 6 this year, when Israel intensified its bombardment of the territory.
"Thousands of people are estimated to still be cut off, but with humanitarian access blocked it's impossible to know exact numbers," Oxfam said.
"At the beginning of December, humanitarian organizations operating in Gaza were receiving calls from vulnerable people trapped in homes and shelters that had completely run out of food and water."
Oxfam highlighted one instance of an aid delivery in November being disrupted by Israeli authorities.
"A convoy of 11 trucks last month was initially held up at the holding point by the Israeli military at Jabalia, where some food was taken by starving civilians," it said.
"After the green light to proceed to the destination was received, the trucks were then stopped further on at a military checkpoint. Soldiers forced the drivers to offload the aid in a militarized zone, which desperate civilians had no access to."
The UN General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution on Thursday asking the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to assess Israel's obligations to assist Palestinians.