Smoke rises after an Israeli airstrike on the village of Khiam near the border with Israel in southern Lebanon on 3 October. (Photo: Stringer / EPA-EFE) 
Civilians were bearing the brunt of a “truly catastrophic” situation in Lebanon, said a senior UN official, urging respect for the rules of war nearly two weeks since Israel launched a major offensive against the armed group Hezbollah.
The International Monetary Fund said on Thursday an escalation of the conflict in the Middle East could have significant economic ramifications for the region and the global economy, but commodity prices remained below the highs of the past year.
Israel strikes Beirut, Hezbollah keeps up cross-border fire
Israel’s military told residents of more than 20 towns in south Lebanon to evacuate their homes immediately on Thursday as it pressed on with its cross-border incursion and struck Hezbollah targets in a suburb of Beirut.
The latest warnings took the number of southern towns subject to evacuation calls to 70 and included the provincial capital Nabatieh, suggesting another Israeli military operation was imminent against the Iran-backed armed group.
Hezbollah also carried out new strikes, targeting what it called Israel’s “Sakhnin base” for military industries in Haifa Bay on the Mediterranean coast of northern Israel with a salvo of rockets.
Israel, which has been fighting Hamas in the Palestinian territory of Gaza for almost a year, sent troops into southern Lebanon on Tuesday after two weeks of intense airstrikes in a worsening conflict that has drawn in Iran and risks sucking in the US.
Israel says the aim of its operations in Lebanon is to allow tens of thousands of its citizens displaced from northern Israel by Hezbollah bombardments during the Gaza war to return home safely.
More than 1.2 million Lebanese have been displaced by Israeli attacks, and nearly 2,000 people have been killed since the start of the Israeli attacks on Lebanon over the last year, most of them in the past two weeks, Lebanese authorities said.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said 28 healthcare workers had been killed in Lebanon in the previous 24 hours. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also said flight restrictions meant the agency would not be able to deliver a large planned shipment of trauma and medical supplies to Lebanon on Friday.
Hezbollah said it had repelled several land operations by Israeli troops, including with ambushes and in direct clashes.
Lebanese security sources say Israeli troops have entered Lebanese territory and been pushed back several times in recent days, without setting up a permanent presence.
Rocket sirens wailed constantly in northern Israeli towns, sending residents running for shelter, as Hezbollah kept up its cross-border fire.
The Lebanese army said two soldiers were killed by Israeli strikes in separate incidents in south Lebanon on Thursday, one in an attack on a military post and another in a strike on a rescue mission with the Lebanese Red Cross.
The army said that it returned fire when the military post was struck, a rare development for a force that has historically stayed on the sidelines of major conflict with Israel.
In Beirut’s southern suburb known as Dahiye, a dense neighbourhood where Hezbollah holds sway, several explosions were heard on Thursday and several large plumes of smoke were rising after heavy Israeli strikes.
Hezbollah said it detonated a bomb against Israeli forces infiltrating a southern Lebanese village and attacked Israeli forces near the border.
Overnight, Israel bombed central Beirut in an attack the Lebanese health ministry said killed nine people.
Reuters journalists reported hearing a heavy blast after a building in the district of Bachoura was targeted a few hundred metres from parliament, the closest an Israeli strike has come to the central downtown district.
A Hezbollah-linked civil defence group said seven of its staff, including two medics, were killed in the Beirut attack.
Israel also said it struck a municipality building in the southern Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil, killing 15 Hezbollah members and destroying many weapons.
As it pushes into Lebanon, Israel is also weighing its options for retaliation against its arch-foe Iran.
Tehran launched its largest-ever assault on Israel on Tuesday in what it said was retaliation for Israel’s assassination of senior Hamas and Hezbollah leaders and its operations in Gaza and Lebanon.
Tehran said its attack was over, barring further provocation, but Israel has said it will hit back. The US has said Iran will face “severe consequences” and that it would work with Israel, while warning Iran not to act against US forces in the region.
Several countries were evacuating citizens from Beirut as governments worldwide urged their citizens to get out.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, speaking in Doha, said Tehran would be ready to respond and warned against “silence” in the face of Israel’s “warmongering”.
"Any type of military attack, terrorist act or crossing our red lines will be met with a decisive response by our armed forces," he said.
The Lebanese border front opened after Hezbollah fired missiles at Israel on 8 October in support of Hamas in its war with Israel in Gaza. Iran’s other regional allies — Yemen’s Houthis and armed groups in Iraq — have also launched attacks in the region in support of Hamas.
Civilians bearing the brunt of Lebanon conflict - UN official
Civilians were bearing the brunt of a “truly catastrophic” situation in Lebanon, said a senior UN official, urging respect for the rules of war nearly two weeks since Israel launched a major offensive against the armed group Hezbollah.
With around one million people in Lebanon affected, Imran Riza, the UN’s resident and humanitarian coordinator, said the pace of displacement since 23 September had exceeded worst-case scenarios, and too much damage was being done to civilian infrastructure.
“What we saw from 23 September on is truly catastrophic,” said Riza in an interview with Reuters on Thursday. He was referring to the day when Israel dramatically ramped up airstrikes in Lebanon, killing more than 500 people in a single day, according to Lebanese government figures.
“The level of trauma, the level of fear amongst the population, has been extreme,” he said.
“You’ve got people being displaced from one place to another, thinking they were going to a safe place, and then that being struck,” said Riza.
Riza said 97 medical and emergency workers had been killed — the majority of them in the last 10 days. There had been too much damage to civilian infrastructure, and civilians had been “bearing the great brunt of what’s been going on”, he said.
He noted that international humanitarian law requires that humanitarians be allowed to access people in need and that civilian infrastructure and water systems be protected.
“This is what we call for when we’re saying respect the rules of war in this,” he said. “Unfortunately, we are seeing a situation where we have to go back to everybody and advocate for these basics in terms of protecting civilians.”
Escalation of conflict ‘poses significant economic risks’ - IMF
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Thursday an escalation of the conflict in the Middle East could have significant economic ramifications for the region and the global economy, but commodity prices remained below the highs of the past year.
IMF spokesperson Julie Kozack told a regular news briefing that the Washington-based global lender was closely monitoring the situation in southern Lebanon with “grave concern” and offered condolences for the loss of life.
“The potential for further escalation of the conflict heightens risks and uncertainty and could have significant economic ramifications for the region and beyond,” said Kozack.
She said it was too early to predict specific impacts on the global economy, but noted that economies in the region had already suffered greatly, especially in Gaza, where the civilian population “faces dire socioeconomic conditions, a humanitarian crisis and insufficient aid deliveries”.
The IMF estimated that Gaza’s GDP declined by 86% in the first half of 2024, said Kozack, while the West Bank’s first-half GDP probably declined by 25%, with prospects of further deterioration.
Israel’s GDP contracted by about 20% in the fourth quarter of 2023 after the conflict began, and the country had seen only a partial recovery in the first half of 2024, she added.
“In Lebanon, the recent intensification of the conflict is exacerbating the country’s already fragile macroeconomic and social situation,” said Kozack.
“The conflict has inflicted a heavy human toll on the country, and it has damaged physical infrastructure.”
Foreigners flee Lebanon as Israeli offensive intensifies
Foreign nationals from Europe, Asia and the Middle East fled Lebanon on Thursday as Israel’s bombing of the capital Beirut intensified and governments worldwide urged their citizens to get out.
Some countries provided air evacuations, while elsewhere hundreds of people boarded crowded ferries or smaller vessels as bombs fell on the heart of the city.
Dozens of Greeks and Greek Cypriots boarded a Greek military aircraft at Beirut airport, many of them children clutching soft toys and school bags. In the cramped conditions onboard, some played with glow sticks, while others slept on their parents’ laps as the plane left behind the smoking city below.
The plane dropped off 38 Cypriots at Larnaca airport in Cyprus, about 200km west of Lebanon, and continued to Athens, where 22 Greek nationals disembarked.
Those onboard, like many fleeing by other means, spoke of the growing chaos and terror caused by the bombing campaign this week.
“We were trapped, there was no other way to leave because Middle East aeroplanes are full and the earliest flight you can get is in 10 days,” Giorgos Seib told Reuters on the runway at Larnaca airport after landing.
“Every day the situation gets worse and we don’t know what will happen tomorrow.”
Nearly 2,000 people have been killed since the start of the Israeli attacks on Lebanon in the last year, including 127 children, Lebanon’s health minister Firass Abiad said on Thursday.
Expatriates have been scrambling to leave and governments from China to Europe have drawn up plans to get their citizens out.
Russia organised a special flight for the family members of Russian diplomats on Thursday. Australia has organised hundreds of airline seats for its citizens to leave.
A Spanish military plane carrying 204 evacuees landed at the Torrejon air base near Madrid on Thursday. Another plane carrying 40 more was expected to arrive later. Defence Minister Margarita Robles has said Spain might send more planes to keep running the evacuation process, possibly including citizens from other countries.
At Turkey’s southern Tasucu port in Mersin, Gretchen, a US citizen who lived in Beirut for five years, said she arrived on an ordinary commercial ferry because flights in Beirut had been cancelled over the last few days.
“We are continuously hearing artillery and shelling and it was just too much,” she said after disembarking. “I just wanted to leave immediately.”
Lebanese nationals were also on the boat. Many who got off in Tasucu said they would transit in Turkey en route to another country. Some said they have a second citizenship elsewhere. DM
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