Macron addresses Hezbollah, hundreds of shots fired, a catastrophe to be avoided… the latest on the situation in the Middle East

On October 12, 2024, strikes continued in the Middle East. On the one hand, Israel continues its attacks in Lebanon; on the other, ;#39;other, Hezbollah, which is trying to cross the "iron dome". 

280 “terrorist targets”

The Israeli military said its forces targeted some 280 “terrorist targets” in operations in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip during Yom Kippur, from Friday night to sunset Saturday.

The Israeli Air Force has“struck about 280 terrorist targets belonging to Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Among the targets were underground terrorist infrastructures, weapons depots, military command centers, terrorist cells and other terrorist infrastructures,” the army said in a statement.

Nine dead in Lebanon

The Lebanese Health Ministry said nine people were killed Saturday in Israeli raids targeting two villages north and south of Beirut, outside the strongholds of the pro-Iranian Hezbollah.

An Israeli enemy strike on Maaysra, a Shiite village in the predominantly Christian mountain north of Beirut, killed “five people and wounded 14 others”, the ministry said in a statement. “Four people were killed and 14 others wounded” in a separate”Israeli enemy strike” on Barja, a Sunni village in the Chouf region south of the capital.

Emmanuel Macron warns Hezbollah

Emmanuel Macron on Saturday urged Hezbollah to "immediately cease" strikes against Israel, adding that a ceasefire must be "immediately established" in Lebanon.

"A ceasefire must be established immediately in Lebanon", the French president said in an interview with Nabih Berri, Speaker of the Lebanese House of Representatives. Hezbollah's strikes against Israel must "cease immediately", added the head of state. The Israeli army announced that Lebanese Hezbollah fired about 320 projectiles from Lebanon into Israel during Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism, from Friday evening to sunset Saturday.

A disaster to avoid

The spokesman for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), whose soldiers were wounded by Israeli gunfire, told AFP on Saturday that he feared “very soon" a “regional conflict with catastrophic impact on all".

"There is no military solution", believes Andrea Tenenti, arguing for "discussions at the political and diplomatic levels" to "avoid catastrophe". "The conflict between Hezbollah and Israel is not just a conflict between two countries. Very soon, it could be a regional conflict with a catastrophic impact for all", he continues.

Fifth peacekeeper dies

A new peacekeeper has been injured in southern Lebanon, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) announced on Saturday, hit by a bullet from "the origin of which has not yet been determined" as UNIFIL is under crossfire from Israel and Hezbollah.

On Friday evening, “a peacekeeper was hit by gunfire as military action was taking place near UNIFIL headquarters in Ras al-Naqoura”, a statement from the force, which has 10,000 troops in southern Lebanon, reported. On Thursday and Friday, UNIFIL had announced that four of its members, Indonesians and Sri Lankans, had been injured, including at least two in an attack by Israeli troops.

A market attacked by Israel

An Israeli strike targeted Saturday evening a market in the large city of Nabatiyeh, about ten kilometers from the border with Israel in southern Lebanon, reports the official Lebanese news agency ANI.

The Israeli army had recently called on residents of 25 localities, including Nabatiyeh, which has several hospitals and regional administrations, to move north, as it stepped up its strikes and began ground incursions into southern Lebanon.

UNIFIL refuses to withdraw

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has refused to withdraw five kilometers further north into Lebanese territory, as demanded by the Israeli army, which has since targeted it several times, provoking an international outcry, its spokesman said Saturday in l'AFP.

“The Israeli forces asked us to leave our positions along the Blue Line, from the border to five kilometers from the Blue Line (…) but there was a unanimous decision for us to stay, because the UN flag must fly in this area,”, explains Andrea Tenenti, spokesman for the force, which has 10,000 peacekeepers.

New “closed military zones”

The Israeli army on Saturday designated five new areas in the north of the country, along its border with Lebanon, as “military zones closed", as its troops are engaged in ground combat against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

The areas of Zarit, Shomera, Shtula, Netua and Even Menachem in northern Israel have been declared "closed military zones as of 20:00 today" (1700 GMT) and entry is "prohibited", the army said in a statement.

No respite for Gaza

The Health Ministry of the Hamas government in Gaza announced on Saturday a new death toll of 42,175 in the Palestinian territory since the start of the war between Israel and the Islamist movement more than a year ago.

In the past 24 hours, 49 people were killed, a statement from the ministry said, adding that 98,336 people have been injured in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war on October 7, 2023, triggered by an unprecedented attack by Hamas on Israel.