5 Paramedics Killed In Israeli Airstrike On a Civil Defense Center in Southern Lebanon

An Israeli airstrike hit a Lebanese Civil Defense center Wednesday in the town of Dardghaya in southern Lebanon, killing five members who were stationed there, civil defense spokesperson Elie Khairallah told The Associated Press.
The Lebanese Health Ministry also confirmed the news in a statement, saying Israel has “renewed its targeting of rescue and ambulance crews tonight, disregarding international laws, norms and humanitarian conventions.”
There was no immediate statement from the Israeli military.
Among the victims was Abdullah Al-Moussawi, head of the Tyre Regional Center in the Lebanese Civil Defense, Khairallah said.
The Lebanese Health Ministry said teams continued to search for survivors in the rubble.
Israel's defense minister warned on Wednesday that his country's retaliation for a recent Iranian missile attack will be “lethal” and “surprising,” while the Israeli military pushed ahead with a large-scale operation in northern Gaza and a ground offensive in Lebanon against Hezbollah militants.
On the diplomatic front, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Joe Biden held their first call in seven weeks, with a White House press secretary saying the call included discussions on Israel's deliberations over how it will respond to Iran's attack.
“It was direct, it was productive,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said of the 30-minute call.
The Israeli operation in northern Gaza left dozens of people dead and threatened to shut down three hospitals over a year into the war with Hamas, Palestinian officials and residents said.
The continuing cycle of destruction and death in Gaza, unleashed by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, comes as Israel expands a weeklong ground offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon and considers a major retaliatory strike on Iran following Iran’s Oct. 1 missile barrage.
“Our strike will be lethal, precise and above all, surprising. They won’t understand what happened and how. They will see the results,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said during a speech to troops. “Whoever strikes us will be harmed and pay a price.”
Iran fired dozens of missiles at Israel on Oct. 1 which the United States helped fend off. Biden has said he would not support a retaliatory strike on sites related to Tehran’s nuclear program.
On Wednesday, Hezbollah claimed a rocket attack that killed two people in the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona. The town’s acting mayor, Ofir Yehezkeli, said the two killed were a couple walking their dogs.
On Tuesday, Netanyahu said Lebanon would meet the same fate as Gaza if its people did not rise up against Hezbollah.
Video verified by The Associated Press shows what appears to be a group of Israeli soldiers raising an Israeli flag in a village in southern Lebanon.
In the video, which appears to have been filmed in Maroun A-Ras, three soldiers are seen hoisting up a flag atop a pile of debris. A soldier off camera speaks in Hebrew and refers to the nearby Israeli village of Avivim. The date it was filmed wasn't immediately known.
The video follows other similar acts that took place throughout Israel’s ground offensive in Gaza. The Israeli military had no immediate comment.
An Israeli strike killed four people and wounded another 10 at a hotel sheltering displaced people in the southern Lebanese town of Wardaniyeh on Wednesday, Lebanon's Health Ministry said.
An Associated Press reporter in a nearby town heard two sonic booms from Israeli jets before the strike. Plumes of smoke rose from the building after the explosion.
In recent weeks Israel has waged a heavy air campaign across large parts of Lebanon, targeting what it says are Hezbollah rocket launchers and other militant sites. A series of strikes had killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and most of his top commanders.
The Israeli military said Wednesday that Hezbollah has fired more than 12,000 rockets, missiles and drones at Israel in the past year.

Former Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki announced on Tuesday that he had been informed his case had been transferred to the Anti-Terrorism Judicial Unit. He now faces 20 charges, including inciting internal unrest and spreading false information.
Marzouki wrote on X that his brother, Mokhles, was summoned on Monday to the police station of El Kantaoui (governorate of Sousse) to sign a document stating that Moncef Marzouki’s case had been referred to the Anti-Terrorist Judicial Unit.
Marzouki wrote that he had already been convicted to four and eight years in prison in two separate cases.
He concluded his post with a famous quote borrowed from Abu al-Qasim al-Shabi, “Night will no doubt dissipate.”
Last February, a Tunisian court sentenced former president Moncef Marzouki to eight years in prison in absentia.
The charges against Marzouki, who lives in Paris, stemmed from remarks he made that authorities said violated laws and triggered incitement to overthrow the government.
Marzouki served as the first democratically elected president of Tunisia from 2011 to 2014.
This is the second time Moncef Marzouki has been sentenced for comments made at demonstrations and on social media. In December 2021, he received a four-year sentence for undermining state security.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Defence Minister Khaled S'hili announced that Tunisia's national army had dismantled terrorist camps, neutralized 62 landmines, and seized various materials and equipment in 2024, as part of ongoing efforts in the fight against terrorism.
As of October 31, the Tunisian army had conducted 990 anti-terrorist operations in suspected areas, including large-scale operations in the country's mountainous regions. These operations involved over 19,500 military personnel, according to Defense Minister Khaled S'hili, speaking at a joint session of the two chambers of parliament.
He then confirmed that these operations led to the arrest of around 695 smugglers and the seizure of 375,000 drug pills.

5 Paramedics Killed In Israeli Airstrike On a Civil Defense Center in Southern Lebanon