Beirut hit by multiple Israeli air strikes as claims of journalists working for Hamas labelled 'fabricated'
Israel struck at least six buildings in southern Beirut on Wednesday night.
In short:
Israeli accusations against six Palestinian journalists have been labelled "fabricated" by the Al Jazeera media network after Israel claimed some of its staff members were working for Hamas.
Israel began bombing central areas of the ancient Lebanese city of Tyre after issuing evacuation orders to residents.
What's next?
Another round of Israeli strikes on Beirut killed at least one person overnight, with the Laylaki and Jnah neighbourhoods targeted.
Israel has accused six Palestinian journalists of working for Hamas and Islamic Jihad, claims which the Al Jazeera media network has rejected as an attempt to silence them.
"Al Jazeera condemns Israeli accusations against its journalists in Gaza and warns against (this) being a justification for targeting them," the network said in a statement on Wednesday.
The Israeli military published documents which it said it had found in Gaza that proved the men had a military affiliation to the groups. Reuters was not able to immediately verify the authenticity of the documents.
The six journalists — Anas al-Sharif, Talal Aruki, Alaa Salama, Hosam Shabat, Ismail Farid, and Ashraf Saraj — have covered Israel's invasion and occupation of Gaza since the October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks, in which 1,200 Israelis were killed and 250 taken hostage.
Almost 43,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli invasion of Gaza since, with thousands more missing and injured.
"The network views these fabricated accusations as a blatant attempt to silence the few remaining journalists in the region, thereby obscuring the harsh realities of the war from audiences worldwide," Al Jazeera said.
The Committee to Protect Journalists said it was aware of the claims against the six journalists, and said "similar unproven claims" without credible evidence had been made by Israeli authorities against other members of the press such as Al Jazeera correspondent Ismail Al Ghoul, who was killed in July.
Foreign journalists and press have been barred from entering Gaza since October 2023, with Palestinian journalists working for local and international outlets the only source of news inside the territory aside from Israeli military spokespeople.
Al Jazeera said three of its staff had been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, with more than 100 journalists killed in total over the past year.
In September, Israeli forces stormed Al Jazeera's offices in the West Bank and ordered them to shut down operations for at least 45 days.
Six buildings destroyed in Beirut, one dead
Lebanon state media reported 17 Israeli raids on Beirut's southern suburbs, with six buildings levelled and the vacated offices of a pro-Iran broadcaster hit on Wednesday.
AFPTV footage showed a massive explosion followed by smaller blasts in the embattled southern suburbs after the Israeli army issued an evacuation warning for the area.
Six buildings were destroyed around the suburb of Laylaki, the official National News Agency (NNA) reported, calling the raids "the most violent in the area since the beginning of the war".
The strikes came shortly after the Israeli military's Arabic-language spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, issued evacuation warnings on social media platform X.
There was no warning, however, for a strike that hit the Jnah neighbourhood in southern Beirut.
That strike killed one person and wounded five others, according to Lebanon's health ministry.
Pro-Iran broadcaster Al-Mayadeen on Wednesday said an Israeli strike targeted an office it had vacated there, adding that it holds the Israeli army "responsible".
The office was hit by two rockets and "completely destroyed" in the strike, which sparked a blaze inside, NNA added.
Israel strikes historic Lebanese city Tyre
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken pushed on Wednesday for a halt to fighting between Israel and militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah, but heavy Israeli air strikes on a large historic Lebanese port city demonstrated there was no respite.
Israel began to bomb the UNESCO-listed port of Tyre in south Lebanon roughly three hours after issuing an order online for residents to flee central areas. Huge clouds of thick smoke billowed above residential buildings.
The buildings struck on Wednesday were between several heritage sites.
There were no reports of casualties.
Smoke billows after an IDF strike in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre.
Tens of thousands of people had already fled Tyre in recent weeks as Israel steps up its campaign to destroy Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.
The port, about 80km south of Beirut, is typically a bustling hub for the region, with fishermen, tourists and even UN peacekeepers on a break from deployments near the border spending time there by the sea. But Israel's evacuation orders this week have for the first time encompassed swathes of Tyre, right up to its ancient castle.
The city is in southern Lebanon, where the Shiite Muslim Hezbollah has a strong presence, and its legislators are members of the group or its allies. But Tyre is also home to civilians with no ties to the group, including a sizable Christian community.
Elsewhere, Lebanon's health ministry said Israeli air strikes killed 10 people and wounded 31 others in the country's south Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley. The areas targeted included the Baalbeck-Hermel province, and Ksar Zaatar neighborhood in the Nabatiyeh province.
Intensifying attacks on northern Gaza
In Gaza, where Israel has intensified an assault on the northern edge of the territory since killing the leader of Hamas last week, health authorities reported at least 20 people killed in fresh Israeli strikes, most in the north.
Mr Blinken's trip to Israel is the last major US peace push before the November 5 presidential election pitting Vice-President Kamala Harris against former president Donald Trump, which could scramble American policy in the Middle East.
Washington hopes the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza last week can provide an impetus for a ceasefire.
But Gaza residents say since Sinwar's death, Israel has only intensified an assault on northern areas where it says Hamas fighters are regrouping.
Hospitals in the area have ceased functioning and were running out of coffins and shrouds for the dead.
An emergency UN-backed polio vaccination campaign, launched after a Gaza baby was paralysed by the disease for the first time in 25 years, was halted.
"We call on the world, which has failed to provide protection and shelter for our people and has been unable to deliver food and medicine, to make an effort to send shrouds for our fallen," the Gaza health ministry said in a statement.
The UN estimates more than 4 million Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank will be living in poverty by the end of 2024 as the war enters its second year with the economy faltering and unemployment rising.
Almost all Gazans are living in poverty after a year of war.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah confirmed the death of the man expected to succeed slain leader Hassan Nasrallah.
"We mourn … the head of the Executive Council of Hezbollah, his eminence the scholar Sayyed Hashem Safieddine," the Iran-backed group said in a statement, released on Wednesday, local time.
It added that he was killed by "a criminal and aggressive Zionist raid" alongside other Hezbollah fighters, without providing further details.
Earlier on Wednesday, the IDF said that it had killed Hashem Safieddine in a raid three weeks ago.
Terror alert for Sri Lanka
Israel's national security council has called on Israelis to immediately leave some tourist areas in southern Sri Lanka over the threat of a possible terrorist attack.
The agency on Wednesday said the warning pertained to the area of Arugam Bay and beaches in the south and west of Sri Lanka, and stemmed from "current information about a terrorist threat focused on tourist areas and beaches".
The security council did not specify the exact nature of the threat and called on Israelis in the rest of Sri Lanka to be cautious and refrain from holding large gatherings in public areas.
"The Israeli security establishment … is in close contact with the security authorities in Sri Lanka and is following the developments," it said.
The US embassy in Sri Lanka also released a security alert stating it had received "credible information warning of an attack targeting popular tourist locations in the Arugam Bay area".
"US citizens are strongly urged to avoid the Arugam Bay area until further notice," it added but did not give details.
Police security has been beefed up in the area and officials are on high alert, police spokesperson Nihal Thalduwa said in a video statement released in Colombo.
"This area is a popular spot for surfing and this has attracted a large number of Israeli tourists. We are working to ensure they remain safe," Mr Thalduwa said.
In the first eight months of this year, 1.5 million tourists arrived in Sri Lanka, including a total of 20,515 from Israel, government data showed.
Reuters/AP/AFP
By：https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-10-24/al-jazeera-israel-journalists-claims-working-for-hamas/104509836(责任编辑：admin)
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