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Red Cross Calls Attacks on Medical Workers in Lebanon 'Gravely Concerning'

Lebanese Red Cross volunteers inspect the damage to their rescue vehicles at the site of an Israeli drone strike that targeted their headquarters in the southern city of Tyre on April 13, 2026. (Photo by Kawnat HAJU / AFP)
Lebanese Red Cross volunteers inspect the damage to their rescue vehicles at the site of an Israeli drone strike that targeted their headquarters in the southern city of Tyre on April 13, 2026. (Photo by Kawnat HAJU / AFP)
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Red Cross Calls Attacks on Medical Workers in Lebanon 'Gravely Concerning'

Lebanese Red Cross volunteers inspect the damage to their rescue vehicles at the site of an Israeli drone strike that targeted their headquarters in the southern city of Tyre on April 13, 2026. (Photo by Kawnat HAJU / AFP)
Lebanese Red Cross volunteers inspect the damage to their rescue vehicles at the site of an Israeli drone strike that targeted their headquarters in the southern city of Tyre on April 13, 2026. (Photo by Kawnat HAJU / AFP)

The International Committee of the Red Cross said it was deeply concerned by attacks on medical workers in Lebanon after a deadly strike on a Red Cross center in the country on Monday and the death of a volunteer a day earlier. 

Lebanon's state news agency reported that Monday's strike, which it said was carried out by Israel, killed one person and damaged Lebanese Red Cross vehicles. 

The ICRC said the Lebanese Red Cross center in the district of Tyre, a city on Lebanon's coast, was hit by the strike. It did not comment on who was responsible or give details of the victim. 

Israel's military it had carried out a targeted strike on a "Hezbollah terrorist" in ‌Tyre on ‌Monday and was investigating reports the strike had caused damage to ‌a ⁠Red Cross center. ⁠The military did not identify the individual who it said it had killed. 

On Sunday, the Lebanese Red Cross said one of its volunteers, Hassan Badawi, had died from his injuries after a strike by an Israeli drone in the district of Bint Jbeil in southern Lebanon. 

Badawi had volunteered for the Lebanese Red Cross since 2022, his friend Ahmed Qassam told Reuters during his funeral on Monday. 

He was buried in a temporary grave in Choueifat, south of Beirut, ⁠as it was not possible to access Badawi's home village of ‌Sultaniyah in Bint Jbeil district, due to intensive ‌fighting there. Israeli troops on Monday launched an attack to seize the key border town in ‌southern Lebanon. 

"I was waiting for a phone call from him to tell me, 'Mother, ‌I'm fine.' He didn't call me. My heart was burning," Badawi's mother, Ahlam Badawi, said. 

"They (the Israeli military) attacked him directly. He was just doing humanitarian work. He was not doing anything more," Badawi's father, Ali Badawi, added. 

The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the accusation. Earlier, it had ‌said it had struck a "Hezbollah terrorist" in the area and that it was reviewing the incident after it received reports of ⁠injury to a ⁠Red Cross team. 

Agnes Dhur, head of the ICRC delegation in Lebanon, said in a statement on Monday: "The loss of those who dedicate their lives to saving others is gravely concerning, given the impact on the civilians who depend on their help." 

"Humanitarian and medical personnel must be protected. They must be allowed to reach and help the wounded, and return unharmed," she added. 

The latest war in Lebanon began on March 2, when Lebanese armed group Hezbollah fired at Israeli positions in support of its patron Iran. 

Israel has since escalated its air and ground campaign in the country where its operations have killed more than 2,000 people, displaced more than 1 million and triggered a warning that hospitals could run out of life-saving supplies. 

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Arab World

Israeli Troops Fire Tear Gas at Palestinian Schoolchildren in West Bank

13 April 2026, Palestinian Territories, Hebron: Members of Red Crescent surround Palestinian children from Khirbet Umm al-Khair after Israeli settlers blocked the only road to their schools. (dpa)
13 April 2026, Palestinian Territories, Hebron: Members of Red Crescent surround Palestinian children from Khirbet Umm al-Khair after Israeli settlers blocked the only road to their schools. (dpa)
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Israeli Troops Fire Tear Gas at Palestinian Schoolchildren in West Bank

13 April 2026, Palestinian Territories, Hebron: Members of Red Crescent surround Palestinian children from Khirbet Umm al-Khair after Israeli settlers blocked the only road to their schools. (dpa)
13 April 2026, Palestinian Territories, Hebron: Members of Red Crescent surround Palestinian children from Khirbet Umm al-Khair after Israeli settlers blocked the only road to their schools. (dpa)

Israeli forces fired tear gas at Palestinian schoolchildren staging a sit-in on Monday in the occupied West Bank, AFP footage showed, after settlers blocked access to their school.

The Israeli military confirmed to AFP it had dispersed an "unusual gathering", but did not specify whether its troops had fired tear gas at the children on the first day of class since the start of the Iran war.

The incident took place at Umm al-Khair, a small village in the southern West Bank region of Masafer Yatta.

Schoolchildren there had been due back in class on Monday for the first time in more than 40 days, after lessons were suspended following the outbreak of the Middle East war on February 28.

A group of schoolchildren and Palestinian residents had gathered near a barbed wire fence erected by Israeli settlers, which blocked access to the school, an AFP journalist reported.

Schoolchildren and some local adults were holding an open-air class as a sit-in to demand access when troops fired the tear gas, witnesses said.

"We were sitting and they threw a grenade (tear gas canister) at us. I got scared and started screaming and ran away," 12-year-old Sarah al-Hathaleen told AFP.

"I started crying. A woman hugged me and stayed with me. We were very scared."

Bassam Jabr, director of education for the Masafer Yatta area, confirmed the children were staging a sit-in at the time of the incident.

"Settlers are trying to tighten the noose on us in every way. One of these methods is cutting off the road for school students and expanding the settlement," Jabr said of settlers from the nearby Carmel settlement whose residents erected the fence.

"Sadly, there are no solutions. We will continue this sit-in today and tomorrow until we find a solution so the students can return to their schools," he said.

Israel's military said troops had been dispatched to the area.

"Soldiers were dispatched to the area of Umm Al-Khair due to reports of an unusual gathering of Palestinians in the area," the military told AFP.

"The gathering was dispersed and no injuries were reported," it said, without specifying whether tear gas had been fired.

AFP footage showed canisters being fired, with children screaming and fleeing.

"Last night we were excited for school today. The Israelis came and closed the road with barbed wire... we want to be back in school," said 11-year-old Rashid al-Hathaleen.

The Masafer Yatta region is a known hotspot for settler violence and Palestinian home demolitions.

It was in Umm al-Khair village that Palestinian activist Awdah Hathaleen was killed by a settler in August 2025.

Settler violence has also surged across the West Bank since the outbreak of the Iran war.

Excluding east Jerusalem, more than 500,000 Israelis now live in the West Bank in settlements that are illegal under international law, among some three million Palestinians.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.

Arab World

Israel Army Ups Hezbollah Death Toll from April 8 Strikes to Over 250

12 April 2026, Lebanon, Beirut: People and civil defense workers search for human remains amid the debris of a collapsed building following an Israeli air strike at the Beirut seafront. (dpa)
12 April 2026, Lebanon, Beirut: People and civil defense workers search for human remains amid the debris of a collapsed building following an Israeli air strike at the Beirut seafront. (dpa)
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Israel Army Ups Hezbollah Death Toll from April 8 Strikes to Over 250

12 April 2026, Lebanon, Beirut: People and civil defense workers search for human remains amid the debris of a collapsed building following an Israeli air strike at the Beirut seafront. (dpa)
12 April 2026, Lebanon, Beirut: People and civil defense workers search for human remains amid the debris of a collapsed building following an Israeli air strike at the Beirut seafront. (dpa)

Israel's military said Monday that a massive wave of strikes in Lebanon last week killed five Hezbollah commanders, as well as more than 250 of the Iran-backed group's fighters.

The Lebanese health ministry has said Wednesday's attacks killed more than 350 people in total and wounded more than 1,200.

Israel had previously put the number of Hezbollah members killed at around 180.

"During the largest strike conducted in Lebanon, more than 250 Hezbollah terrorists and commanders were eliminated" across the country, including in the country's south, the Bekaa region and Beirut, the military said in its statement Monday.

The military named five commanders killed, including Hassen Nasser, chief of Hezbollah's logistics support headquarters, and Abu Muhammad Habib, deputy commander of the group's missile unit.

The army said Monday that it continued to operate in Lebanon, with troops surrounding the southern town of Bint Jbeil.

Last week's punishing wave of strikes came on the same day as the start of a fragile two-week truce agreed between the US and Iran in the Middle East war, which has killed thousands across the region and plunged the global economy into turmoil.

Also on Monday, Israel's military said it had struck around 150 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon over the past 24 hours. 

"In the past 24 hours, approximately 150 Hezbollah terrorist organization targets were struck in numerous areas across southern Lebanon," the military said, adding that the targets included "military structures, anti-tank missile launch points, and terror command centers". 

Lebanon was pulled into the war when Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel on March 2, days after the opening salvo of US-Israeli strikes killed Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

Israel responded with massive strikes and a ground invasion.

While Iran and mediator Pakistan had insisted Lebanon was included under the ceasefire, Israel and the US have disputed this.

Israeli and Lebanese officials are set to hold negotiations on Tuesday in Washington.

Arab World

Israel Presses Assault on Lebanon Border Town Ahead of US-Hosted Talks

Destroyed buildings in Bint Jbeil, southern Lebanon, near the Israel-Lebanon border, as seen from the Israeli side of the border in northern Israel, April 13, 2026. REUTERS/Florion Goga
Destroyed buildings in Bint Jbeil, southern Lebanon, near the Israel-Lebanon border, as seen from the Israeli side of the border in northern Israel, April 13, 2026. REUTERS/Florion Goga
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Israel Presses Assault on Lebanon Border Town Ahead of US-Hosted Talks

Destroyed buildings in Bint Jbeil, southern Lebanon, near the Israel-Lebanon border, as seen from the Israeli side of the border in northern Israel, April 13, 2026. REUTERS/Florion Goga
Destroyed buildings in Bint Jbeil, southern Lebanon, near the Israel-Lebanon border, as seen from the Israeli side of the border in northern Israel, April 13, 2026. REUTERS/Florion Goga

Israeli troops launched an attack on Monday to seize a key town in south Lebanon from Hezbollah fighters holed up there, pressing the war on the Iran-backed group on the eve of rare talks between Israeli and Lebanese government envoys.  

With the Lebanese and Israeli ambassadors to the United States set to meet on Tuesday in Washington, Lebanon's foreign minister said Beirut would use face-to-face negotiations to press for a ceasefire in the war, which has complicated wider diplomacy to halt the conflict in the Middle East.  

But the outlook for the meeting -- an unusual, face-to-face encounter between countries formally in a state of war -- is uncertain. Israel has said it won't discuss a ceasefire while Hezbollah has objected to negotiations with Israel, reflecting sharply worsening political tensions in Lebanon.  

On the ground ‌in south Lebanon, ‌the Israeli military completed its encirclement of the town of Bint Jbeil just over the border ‌and ⁠had begun a ⁠ground assault there, an Israeli military spokesperson and Lebanese security sources said.  

The Lebanese sources said Hezbollah fighters holed up inside were ready to fight to the death, citing the strategic and symbolic significance of Bint Jbeil, a Hezbollah stronghold, provincial capital, and gateway to surrounding villages.  

ISRAEL SEEKS TO SECURE BORDER STRIP  

An Israeli military official said full operational control of Bint Jbeil would be achieved within days, and that only a small number of militants remained in the area.  

On Sunday, Hezbollah said it had attacked Israeli forces in and around Bint Jbeil with rockets, artillery fire and suicide drones.  

One strike hit a Red Cross center where a volunteer died from ⁠their injuries, the Red Cross said. Israel's military later said a Hezbollah rocket struck the northern ‌Israeli city of Nahariyya.  

The country's fire service said it hit a three-storey ‌residential building, while the ambulance service said a woman was lightly injured by glass shattered in the blast.  

The Israeli military also said that ‌it had intercepted more than 10 drones and rockets launched at Israel from Lebanon since the morning.  

A foreign security official ‌based in Lebanon said seizing Bint Jbeil would give Israel better control over the entirety of Lebanon's southeastern border strip, leaving just the western area of the border zone, which is largely forest and harder to clear.  

Hezbollah opened fire on Israel in support of Tehran on March 2, igniting an Israeli offensive that Lebanese authorities say has killed more than 2,000 people and displaced more than 1 million. 

Israel says it aims ‌to occupy south Lebanon up to the Litani River, which meets the Mediterranean about 30 km (20 miles) from Israel's border.  

GROUPS OPPOSE TALKS WHILE PEOPLE 'BEING KILLED' 

Israel and the US ⁠have said the campaign against Hezbollah ⁠was not part of a fragile Iran-US ceasefire, though Pakistan's prime minister had said the truce would include Lebanon.  

While fighting in Lebanon has not stopped, Israel has launched no airstrikes on Beirut since Wednesday, when it pounded the capital during an onslaught that killed hundreds.  

The US ambassador to Lebanon, Michel Issa, will host Tuesday's Washington meeting between Israeli ambassador Yechiel Leiter and his Lebanese counterpart Nada Hamadeh Moawad.  

Lebanese Culture Minister Ghassan Salameh, speaking on Sunday, said seeking a ceasefire was the only substantive issue that Moawad had been authorized to discuss.  

Israel's embassy in Washington last week said the talks would constitute the start of "formal peace negotiations" and that Israel had refused to discuss a ceasefire with Hezbollah.  

Lebanese Foreign Minister Youssef Raggi, a member of the staunchly anti-Hezbollah Lebanese Forces party, said Lebanon was trying to reach a ceasefire through direct negotiations that "effectively established the separation between the Lebanese file and the Iranian track".  

A senior Lebanese political source said the talks were taking place without any national consensus because both Hezbollah and its Shiite ally, parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, opposed negotiations before a ceasefire.  

Another source familiar with their position said Lebanon should not sit at the table with Israel while "our people are being killed".