22 more people were killed in Lebanon in the last 24 hours and 153 were wounded, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry, as the Israeli invasion and occupation of the south of the country continues to grow.
The Health Ministry has documented 1,094 people as having been killed in the Israeli war, since it began at the beginning of March. That toll included 81 women and 121 children. 3,119 people have been wounded.
The IDF has claimed that “at least 700” of the slain were Hezbollah members, though they offered essentially no evidence to support that claim, and many of the attacks they carried out were on plainly civilian targets, as with today’s IDF release of video footage of them blowing up gas stations they claimed, again without evidence, were being used by Hezbollah to refuel their vehicles.
Aftermath of bombing on health center in Burj Qalawiyeh | Image from Reuters
Israel has come under fire of late for deliberately attacking press crews and healthcare facilities, and has issued evacuation orders that led to over a million people being displaced, while destroying bridges across the Litani River explicitly so civilians won’t be able to return to their homes in southern Lebanon.
In the city of Tyre, mourners buried Ahmed Ibrahim Deeb, a paramedic killed in an Israeli airstrike the day prior. He is the 42nd paramedic to have been killed in Israeli strikes since the war began, with international organizations faulting the attacks on healthcare workers in general.
Israel’s aggressive invasion of Lebanon has fueled growing international disquiet, with Spanish premier Pedro Sanchez saying he believes Israel intends to inflict the same level of damage on Lebanon as they already have on the Gaza Strip, and the German Foreign Ministry saying they oppose calls by Israeli ministers to annex southern Lebanon, saying Germany would not recognize such annexations.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged both sides to refrain from “bellicose rhetoric” on the grounds that the world simply can’t afford to have Lebanon turn into another Gaza.
