Twelve people, including eight rescuers, were killed Thursday, November 14, 2024 at the end of the day in an Israeli raid that hit a Lebanese civil defense center near the town of Baalbeck, in eastern Lebanon, according to updated reports from the organization and the Ministry of Health.
The Israeli enemy's raid on the Civil Defense center in Douris left 12 dead »,
according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health, specifying that human remains
had been found on the bombed site.
New strikes on Beirut suburbs
New strikes targeted the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital on Friday, November 15, 2024, causing a cloud of gray smoke above Beirut, according to images from theAFPTVafter a call to evacuate published by the Israeli army.
To all residents of the southern suburbs, specifically […] in the Ghobeiry area […] you are located near facilities and interests affiliated with Hezbollah, against which the Israeli Defense Forces will work forcefully in the near future
Avichay Adraee, the Arabic-language spokesperson for the Israeli army, had indicated earlier, inviting residents to evacuate.
The southern suburbs, one of the strongholds of the pro-Iranian Hezbollah movement targeted for several weeks by the Israeli army, has been largely emptied of its residents, even if sometimes, during the day, some return to inspect their homes or businesses.
IDF accuses HRW of “blatant distortions”
The Israeli army on Thursday rejected some glaring distortions
of reality by the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW), which affirmed the same day that the repeated forced displacement of Palestinians in Gaza constituted a “crime against humanity”
.
The HRW report selectively presents information that overshadows the context and also includes some blatant distortions
indicated the army to AFP, accusing the NGO of anti-Israeli bias
and of factual distortions
.
5 billion economic losses in Lebanon
Lebanon, already affected by an unprecedented economic crisis, has experienced economic losses
of more than five billion dollars in a year of cross-border violence between Hezbollah and Israel which degenerated into war, the World Bank said Thursday.
Since October 8, 2023, the conflict also damaged approximately 99,209 homes
damages estimated at nearly $3.4 billion, added the World Bank (WB) in a report.
According to the study which covers the period from October 8, 2023 to October 27, 2024, the conflict caused “economic losses of $5.1 billion”, mainly in the trade, tourism, hospitality and of agriculture.
On the few 99,209 accommodations
damaged, 18% are totally destroyed
. Around 81% of affected households are mainly located in the south of the country, bordering northern Israel.
Former Israeli hostages received at the Vatican
Pope Francis received in audience at the Vatican on Thursday a group of 16 former Israeli hostages who were released after months of captivity in Gaza, the official news site reported Vaticannews.
The group was made up of ten women, four men and two children, according to the same source.
Several of these former hostages showed the Argentine pope signs or photos of their loved ones still in captivity.
The Pope had already received family members of hostages twice, last April and in November 2023, but this is the first time he has received former hostages.
Since the start of the conflict between Israel and Hamas, Pope Francis has repeatedly called for the immediate release of Israeli hostages, but has also denounced the suffering of the Palestinian population.
