BEIRUT/ DUBAI - Three Israeli airstrikes struck the southern suburbs of Beirut Thursday afternoon local time, “one of which targeted (the neighborhood of) Haret Hreik,” Lebanese state media NNA reports. Hezbollah announced shortly after the blasts that its media office was targeted, on a WhatsApp group it shares with reporters.
Lebanon’s health minister said Thursday that more than 40 paramedics and firefighters had been killed by Israeli fire in three days, among 97 killed since Hezbollah and Israel began fighting last October.
Firass Abiad told reporters that in three days 40 people “among those working in ambulances and fire trucks” were killed. He said 97 “paramedics and firefighters” had been killed and 188 wounded since fighting began. The toll includes emergency personnel from organisations affiliated with Hezbollah or other Lebanese factions.
Since the clashes began, 1,974 people have been killed by Israeli fire, 127 of them children, he said. More than 9,350 people have been wounded. Dubai-based Emirates Thursday cancelled flights to Iraq, Iran and Jordan for three days over “regional unrest”, after an Iranian missile strike on Israel stoked fears of a wider war.
“Emirates is cancelling all flights to/from Iraq (Basra and Baghdad), Iran (Tehran), and Jordan (Amman) on 4th and 5th October due to regional unrest” with immediate effect, said the airline.
The Middle East’s biggest airline had previously announced cancellations between Dubai and Beirut until October 8, as several other carriers also put some services on hold.
Israel’s war cabinet is weighing its options and “will not sit idly by” after Iran launched its largest-ever attack on the country, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins.
“What happened last night was an unprecedented response and as I said today in the Security Council that it will be a very strong, painful response. It will be soon.” Danon said Wednesday night. “I think they know that we have the capabilities to reach any destination in the Middle East and it’s up to us to decide how to do it and what to target.”
