Israel Kills 52 in Northeast Lebanon after a Night of Strikes in Beirut

People check the destruction at the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the eastern village of Bazzaliyeh in the Hermel district of Lebanon's Bekaa valley, near the border with Syria, on November 1, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)
People check the destruction at the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the eastern village of Bazzaliyeh in the Hermel district of Lebanon's Bekaa valley, near the border with Syria, on November 1, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)
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Israel Kills 52 in Northeast Lebanon after a Night of Strikes in Beirut

People check the destruction at the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the eastern village of Bazzaliyeh in the Hermel district of Lebanon's Bekaa valley, near the border with Syria, on November 1, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)
People check the destruction at the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the eastern village of Bazzaliyeh in the Hermel district of Lebanon's Bekaa valley, near the border with Syria, on November 1, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)

Rescuers searched for survivors Friday after Israeli airstrikes killed at least 52 people and wounded 72 others across northeastern Lebanon, the country's Health Ministry reported. The wave of bombings pounded villages that had previously been spared the worst of Israel’s air campaign against the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
Israeli warplanes also destroyed dozens of buildings in Beirut’s southern suburb of Dahiyeh, but it appeared most residents had evacuated and there were no reports of casualties, The Associated Press said.
Despite growing pressure from the United States and others in the international community for a cease-fire in Gaza and Lebanon, intensified Israeli strikes against the Hezbollah militant group are expanding beyond Lebanon’s border areas. Israel is also fighting a seemingly endless war against Hamas in northern Gaza.
Since the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah erupted last year, at least 2,900 people have been killed and 13,150 wounded in Lebanon, the Health Ministry reports, not including Friday’s toll. Health authorities say that a quarter of those killed were women and children.
More than a year of Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 43,000, Palestinian health officials say, without distinguishing between civilians and combatants. The war began after Palestinian militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducting 250 others.
 



Israeli Defense Minister Says He Will End Detention without Charge of Jewish Settlers

Palestinians look at damaged cars after an Israeli settlers attack in Al-Mazraa Al-Qibleyeh near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, November 20, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinians look at damaged cars after an Israeli settlers attack in Al-Mazraa Al-Qibleyeh near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, November 20, 2024. (Reuters)
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Israeli Defense Minister Says He Will End Detention without Charge of Jewish Settlers

Palestinians look at damaged cars after an Israeli settlers attack in Al-Mazraa Al-Qibleyeh near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, November 20, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinians look at damaged cars after an Israeli settlers attack in Al-Mazraa Al-Qibleyeh near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, November 20, 2024. (Reuters)

Israel’s new defense minister said Friday that he would stop issuing warrants to arrest West Bank settlers or hold them without charge or trial — a largely symbolic move that rights groups said risks emboldening settler violence in the Israeli-occupied territory.

Israel Katz called the arrest warrants “severe” and said issuing them was “inappropriate” as Palestinian militant attacks on settlers in the territory grow more frequent. He said settlers could be “brought to justice” in other ways.

The move protects Israeli settlers from being held in “administrative detention,” a shadowy form of incarceration where people are held without charge or trial.

Settlers are rarely arrested in the West Bank, where settler violence against Palestinians has spiraled since the outbreak of the war Oct. 7.

Katz’s decision was celebrated by far-right coalition allies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. National Security Minister and settler firebrand Itamar Ben-Gvir applauded Katz and called the move a “correction of many years of mistreatment” and “justice for those who love the land.”

Since Oct. 7, 2023, violence toward Palestinians by Israeli settlers has soared to new heights, displacing at least 19 entire Palestinian communities, according to Israeli rights group Peace Now. In that time, attacks by Palestinian militants on settlers and within Israel have also grown more common.

An increasing number of Palestinians have been placed in administrative detention. Israel holds 3,443 administrative detainees in prison, according to data from the Israeli Prison Service, reported by rights group Hamoked. That figure stood around 1,200 just before the start of the war. The vast majority of them are Palestinian, with only a handful at any given time Israeli Jews, said Jessica Montell, the director of Hamoked.

“All of these detentions without charge or trial are illegitimate, but to declare that this measure will only be used against Palestinians...is to explicitly entrench another form of ethnic discrimination,” said Montell.