Lebanon says Israeli strikes have killed 380 people since truce
Since the ceasefire began, "380 people have been killed and 1,122 wounded," Mr Nassereddine said.
Israeli attacks in Lebanon have killed 380 people since a ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war took effect on 17 April, Lebanon’s Health Minister Rakan Nassereddine said at a press conference, underscoring how violence has continued despite the truce.
Mr Nassereddine said the total number of people killed in Israeli strikes since fighting between Israel and Hezbollah began on 2 March has climbed to 2,882, among them 279 women and 200 children.
- Advertisement -
Since the ceasefire began, “380 people have been killed and 1,122 wounded,” Mr Nassereddine said.
A ministry official told AFP that those killed since the truce include 39 women and 22 children.
Alongside continued airstrikes, Israeli troops have also been operating beyond a so-called “yellow line” running about 10 kilometres north of the border between the two countries.
Mr Nassereddine said 108 emergency and health workers are among those killed since the conflict began, while 249 others have been wounded, and “16 hospitals have been damaged”.
“It’s a massacre… there are no armed men or fighters in these (ambulance) vehicles, just medical equipment and wounded, contrary to what Israel says,” he said.
Israel has said Hezbollah uses ambulances and medical facilities for military purposes, an allegation the group rejects.
Hezbollah pulled Lebanon into the wider Middle East conflict on 2 March when it fired rockets at Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iran’s supreme leader in US-Israeli strikes.
Israel answered with large-scale strikes and a ground offensive in southern Lebanon.
The Iran-backed Hezbollah has said its fighters are included in the Lebanese government’s casualty figures.
Lebanese leaders have called on the United States to press Israel to stop the attacks, which they say have intensified in recent days.
Their appeal came ahead of a third round of direct talks in Washington later this week between Lebanese and Israeli representatives.
Israeli troops conduct raid along south Lebanon’s Litani River
The Israeli military said its forces carried out a days-long raid near the Litani River in south Lebanon, where clashes with Hezbollah have continued despite the ceasefire.
In a statement, it said troops over the past week had carried out a “special operation to clear terrorist infrastructure from the Litani area and establish operational control in the area”.
It said soldiers were operating south of the Israeli-declared “yellow line”, the strip about 10 kilometres north of the border where Israeli forces remain deployed.
Israeli media said troops had moved beyond the Litani River and operated on the outskirts of the town of Zawtar al-Sharqiyah.
Asked by AFP, the Israeli military said it could not confirm whether troops had crossed the Litani, though it released photographs from the operation showing soldiers walking across a bridge over a river.
Additional military images showed tanks and soldiers positioned along the riverbank.
“During the operation, the troops located compounds used by Hezbollah terrorists, underground tunnel routes containing large quantities of weapons, weapons storage facilities, and missile launchers,” the military said, adding that it had hit more than 100 targets.
It also said troops had “struck and eliminated dozens of terrorists in close-quarters combat, alongside aerial support”.
In a separate statement today, the Israeli military said it had detected an “unsuccessful attempt to launch a surface-to-air missile toward an Israeli Air Force aircraft,” adding that there was no damage and no injuries.
The military’s Arabic-language spokesman, Avichay Adraee, issued new evacuation warnings today for several villages in south Lebanon.
Israel approves tribunal law for 7 October Hamas trials
Meanwhile, Israel’s parliament has approved a law creating a military tribunal to prosecute hundreds of Palestinian militants involved in the 7 October 2023 attack on Israel, in a move politicians said would help address the country’s national trauma.
The assault, led by fighters from the Palestinian militant group Hamas, was the deadliest day in Israel’s history and the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust.
At least 1,200 people were killed in Israel, most of them civilians.
Israel responded with an offensive in Gaza that has killed more than 72,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and reduced much of the territory to ruins.
Israel is holding an estimated 200-300 fighters captured inside Israel during the attack, though the exact figure remains classified, and they have not yet been charged.
The special military court created under the new law, to be overseen by a three-judge panel in Jerusalem, could also hear cases against others captured later in Gaza and suspected of taking part in the attack, or of holding or abusing Israeli hostages.
At least 1,200 people were killed in the 7 October 2023 attacks on Israel
The law passed with support from 93 of the Knesset’s 120 members, a rare display of broad political agreement in Israel.
The militants broke through the Gaza border and swept through southern Israeli villages, army bases, roads and a music festival.
In addition to the killings, the fighters seized 251 hostages and took them back to Gaza.
No trial date
Members of both the governing coalition and the opposition drafted the bill, which is intended to ensure all attackers face justice under existing Israeli criminal law for what it describes as crimes against the Jewish people, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Proceedings will be open to the public, with major hearings broadcast live.
Under the law, defendants will appear in person only at key hearings and will join the rest by video, while surviving victims will be permitted to attend in person.
Ya’ara Mordecai, an international law expert at Yale Law School, said the law raised concerns about due process because of the military court framework, and warned of a risk that atrocity proceedings could become politicised or symbolic “show trials”.
Latest Middle East stories
Knesset member Yulia Malinovsky, one of the bill’s authors, said the legislation guarantees a fair and lawful process.
“They will be sentenced by Israel’s judges, not by the street or by what we all feel,” Ms Malinovsky said before the vote.
“At the end of the day, what makes us great is our spirit, our resilience, ability to cope and withstand this immense pain.”
Option of capital punishment
Israel’s penal code allows capital punishment for some of the offences the militants are expected to face.
If a death sentence is imposed, the new law says an automatic appeal would be filed on the defendant’s behalf.
The last execution carried out in Israel was that of Adolf Eichmann, one of the architects of the Nazi Holocaust, who was hanged in 1962 after Israeli agents captured him in Argentina .
Military courts in the occupied West Bank have the authority to hand down death sentences to Palestinian defendants but have never done so.
A separate law passed by Israel in March, which made death by hanging the default sentence for Palestinians convicted in military courts of deadly attacks, drew criticism in Israel and abroad and is widely expected to be overturned by the Supreme Court.
Hamas condemns new law
Hazem Qassem, a Hamas spokesperson in Gaza, said the new law “serves as a cover for the war crimes committed by Israel in Gaza.”
The International Criminal Court is examining Israel’s conduct in the Gaza war and has issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant, as well as three Hamas leaders who have all since been killed by Israel.
Israel is also contesting a genocide case at the International Court of Justice.
Israel has dismissed the accusations as politically motivated and says its war is aimed at Hamas, not the Palestinian people.
