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Israeli Woman Killed by Hezbollah Rocket Attack, 10 Wounded

Israeli security inspect damages caused by debris from an intercepted missile, in Ramat Gan, Tel Aviv, Israel, 18 November 2024. (EPA)
Israeli security inspect damages caused by debris from an intercepted missile, in Ramat Gan, Tel Aviv, Israel, 18 November 2024. (EPA)
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Israeli Woman Killed by Hezbollah Rocket Attack, 10 Wounded

Israeli security inspect damages caused by debris from an intercepted missile, in Ramat Gan, Tel Aviv, Israel, 18 November 2024. (EPA)
Israeli security inspect damages caused by debris from an intercepted missile, in Ramat Gan, Tel Aviv, Israel, 18 November 2024. (EPA)

Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue services said one woman was killed and 10 wounded in a Hezbollah rocket attack that hit northern Israel.

According to paramedics who arrived at the scene, one woman was killed instantly and 10 others were injured after a rocket struck a four-story building the northern Israeli city of Shfaram.

The Israeli military said the Lebanese group Hezbollah had launched more than 100 projectiles toward Israel on Monday.

Israeli medical officials also said at least five people in central Israel have been wounded by shrapnel after a missile launched from Lebanon was intercepted.

The missile triggered air raid sirens in the Tel Aviv area before it was shot down. But authorities said shrapnel from the interception hit several people on the ground.

The Magen David Adom rescue service said it treated five people for injuries. Victims were taken to Beilinson Hospital, where one woman was reported in serious condition.

Hezbollah began launching missiles, rockets and drones at Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, in solidarity with Hamas in its war with Israel in Gaza. Israel stepped up their attack against Hezbollah in mid-September.

More than 3,500 people have been killed in Lebanon by Israeli fire — 80% of them in the past eight weeks — according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. In Israel, 77 people, including 31 soldiers, have been killed by Hezbollah.

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Arab World

Iraqis Face Tough Homecoming a Decade after ISIS Rampage

A woman and a boy in the camp near Hassan Shami for the internally displaced. Safin HAMID / AFP
A woman and a boy in the camp near Hassan Shami for the internally displaced. Safin HAMID / AFP
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Iraqis Face Tough Homecoming a Decade after ISIS Rampage

A woman and a boy in the camp near Hassan Shami for the internally displaced. Safin HAMID / AFP
A woman and a boy in the camp near Hassan Shami for the internally displaced. Safin HAMID / AFP

A decade after the ISIS group extremists rampaged through northern Iraq, Moaz Fadhil and his eight children finally returned to their village after languishing for years in a displacement camp.
Their home, Hassan Shami, is just a stone's throw from the tent city where they had been living, and it still bears the scars of the fight against ISIS.
The militants seized a third of Iraq, ruling their self-declared "caliphate" with an iron fist, before an international coalition wrestled control from them in 2017.
Seven years on, many of the village's homes are still in ruins and lacking essential services, but Fadhil said he felt an "indescribable joy" upon moving back in August.
Iraq -- marred by decades of war and turmoil even before the rise of ISIS -- is home to more than a million internally displaced people.
Baghdad has been pushing for the closure of the displacement camps, with the country having attained a degree of comparative stability in recent years.
Most of the camps in federal Iraq have now been closed, but around 20 remain in the northern autonomous Kurdistan region, which according to the United Nations house more than 115,000 displaced people.
But for many, actually returning home can be a difficult task.
After getting the green light from Kurdish security forces to leave the camp, Fadhil moved his family into a friend's damaged house because his own is a complete ruin.
'Beautiful memories'
"Water arrives by tanker trucks and there is no electricity," said the 53-year-old.
Although the rubble has been cleared from the structure he now lives in, the cinder block walls and rough concrete floors remain bare.
Across Hassan Shami, half-collapsed houses sit next to concrete buildings under construction by those residents who can afford to rebuild.
Some have installed solar panels to power their new lives.
A small new mosque stands, starkly white, beside an asphalt road.
"I was born here, and before me my father and mother," said Fadhil, an unemployed farmer.
"I have beautiful memories with my children, my parents."
The family survives mainly on the modest income brought in by his eldest son, who works as a day laborer on building sites.
"Every four or five days he works a day" for about $8, said Fadhil.
In an effort to close the camps and facilitate returns, Iraqi authorities are offering families around $3,000 to go back to their places of origin.
To do so, displaced people must also get security clearance -- to ensure they are not wanted for extremist crimes -- and have their identity papers or property rights in order.
But of the 11,000 displaced people still living in six displacement camps near Hassan Shami, 600 are former prisoners, according to the UN.
They were released after serving up to five years for crimes related to membership of ISIS.
Not that simple
For them, going home can mean further complications.
There's the risk of ostracism by neighbors or tribes for their perceived affiliation with IS atrocities, potential arrest at a checkpoint by federal forces or even a second trial.
Among them is 32-year-old Rashid, who asked that we use a pseudonym because of his previous imprisonment in Kurdistan for belonging to the extremist ISIS group.
He said he hopes the camp next to Hassan Shami does not close.
"I have a certificate of release (from prison), everything is in order... But I can't go back there", he said of federal Iraq.
"If I go back it's 20 years" in jail, he added, worried that he would be tried again in an Iraqi court.
Ali Abbas, spokesperson for Iraq's migration ministry, said that those who committed crimes may indeed face trial after they leave the camps.
"No one can prevent justice from doing its job", he said, claiming that their families would not face repercussions.
The government is working to ensure that families who return have access to basic services, Abbas added.
In recent months, Baghdad has repeatedly tried to set deadlines for Kurdistan to close the camps, even suing leaders of the autonomous region before finally opting for cooperation over coercion.
Imrul Islam of the Norwegian Refugee Council said displacement camps by definition are supposed to be temporary, but warned against their hasty closure.
When people return, "you need schools. You need hospitals. You need roads. And you need working markets that provide opportunities for livelihoods," he said.
Without these, he said, many families who try to resettle in their home towns would end up returning to the camps.