Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency Said an Israeli Airstrike hit Guesthouses where Journalists were Staying in Southeast Lebanon, Killing Three Media Staffers From Two Different News Agencies Friday

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said an Israeli airstrike hit guesthouses where journalists were staying in southeast Lebanon, killing three media staffers from two different news agencies Friday. In the southern Gaza Strip, an Israeli attack left 38 people dead.

Several journalists have been killed since a near-daily exchange of fire began along the Lebanon-Israel border on Oct. 8, 2023.

Lebanon’s health ministry says the total toll over the past year is over 2,600 killed and 12,200 wounded.

The fighting in Lebanon has driven 1.2 million people from their homes, including more than 400,000 children, according to the United Nations children’s agency.

Israeli strikes have killed much of Hezbollah’s top leadership since fighting ramped up in September.

Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not differentiate between militants and civilians.

The Israel-Hamas war began after Hamas-led militants on Oct. 7, 2023, blew holes in Israel’s security fence and stormed in, killing some 1,200 people mostly civilians and abducting 250 others.

United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Jordan’s Foreign Minister, Ayman Safadi, on Friday in London, where the Arab leader accused Israel of engaging in ethnic cleansing in Gaza.

Safadi did not mince words when describing Israel’s role in the conflicts, saying cease-fire negotiation mediators are trying to “get through the nightmare that the region continues to live in.”

Iran says Israeli strikes targeted military bases in 3 provinces, causing ‘limited damage’
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates Iran’s military said early Saturday that Israeli strikes on the country targeted military bases in Ilam, Khuzestan and Tehran provinces, causing “limited damage.”

The statement from Iran’s armed forces was read aloud on state television, which showed no images of the damage described.

Iran’s military claimed its air defenses limited the damage done by the strikes, without providing additional evidence.

Israel said it launched attacks targeting missile manufacturing plants and other sites in the country.

Israel says it has completed its strikes on Iran, including missile plants
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates Israel said early Saturday it had completed its strikes targeting Iran.

The Israeli military issued a statement saying its planes “have safely returned home.”

Its aircraft “struck missile manufacturing facilities used to produce the missiles that Iran fired at the state of Israel over the last year,” the military said.

“These missiles posed a direct and immediate threat to the citizens of the state of Israel.”

It added that it also “struck surface-to-air missile arrays and additional Iranian aerial capabilities, that were intended to restrict Israel’s aerial freedom of operation in Iran.”

It offered no damage assessment.

Iran acknowledged only “limited damage” to military facilities.

Israel launches airstrikes on targets in Iran, risking an escalation in Mideast war
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates Israel launched airstrikes early Saturday on what it described as military targets in Iran in retaliation for a ballistic missile assault Oct. 1, officials said.

There was no immediate information on damage in the Islamic Republic.

The attack, threatened for weeks by Israel, comes as the Middle East sits on the precipice of a regional war more than a year after an initial attack by the militant group Hamas on Israel.

In the time since, Israel has launched a devastating ground offensive in the Gaza Strip and an invasion of neighboring Lebanon, targeting militants long armed and aided by Tehran.

Israel’s military described the attack Saturday as “precise strikes on military targets in Iran,” without immediately elaborating.

“The regime in Iran and its proxies in the region have been relentlessly attacking Israel since Oct. 7 including direct attacks from Iranian soil,” Israeli military spokesperson Rear Adm.

Daniel Hagari said in a prerecorded video statement.

In Tehran, the Iranian capital, the sound of explosions could be heard, with state-run media there initially acknowledging the blasts and saying some of the sounds came from air defense systems around the city.

UN says it’s alarmed at reported raid on hospital in northern Gaza
UNITED NATIONS The United Nations says it’s alarmed at reports of an Israeli military raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, one of the last functioning medical facilities in an area under a tightening Israeli siege.

U.N. deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said that since Friday morning’s reported raid, the World Health Organization said it has lost touch with hospital staff.

The Israeli military said only that it was “operating in the area” of the hospital based on intelligence that indicated the presence of militants and militant infrastructure.

The Gaza-based Ministry of Health reported that Israeli troops rounded up medical staff and displaced people sheltering at the hospital and forced the men to strip, a common practice that Israel says is meant to ensure detainees do not conceal weapons.

The ministry said some Palestinians were detained, without specifying how many.

A U.N. team from WHO, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the U.N. Mine Action Service along with partners reached Kamal Adwan Hospital on Thursday, Haq said.

The mission delivered 10,000 liters of fuel, 180 units of blood, enough trauma and surgical supplies for 1,600 interventions, and a range of medicines sufficient for about 5,000 patients to Kamal Adwan, he said.

They also took 23 patients and more than two dozen caregivers to Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, he said.

41 people killed in 24 hours in Lebanon, health ministry says
BEIRUT Lebanon’s health ministry said Friday that 41 people were killed and 133 wounded in the past 24 hours, raising the total toll over the past year of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah to 2,634 killed and 12,252 wounded.

Lebanon’s crisis response unit recorded 125 airstrikes and incidents of shelling in the past day, mostly concentrated in southern Lebanon and the Nabatiyeh province.

Several intense airstrikes targeted Khiam village in southern Lebanon, killing four people and wounding four others, Lebanon’s state media said.

Some 1,097 centers are sheltering 190,975 people, including 43,712 families, displaced by the Israeli offensive in Lebanon, the health ministry’s report said.

Among these shelters, 929 have reached full capacity.

The fighting in Lebanon has driven 1.2 million people from their homes, including more than 400,000 children, according to the U.N. children’s agency.

People are also flowing across the border to Syria. Between Sept. 23 and Oct. 25, Lebanese General Security recorded nearly half a million people crossing into Syria, including 348,237 Syrian and 156,505 Lebanese citizens, the report said.

An Israeli airstrike on a journalist compound kills 3 TV staffers, Lebanon’s state news says
BEIRUT An Israeli airstrike on a compound housing journalists in southeast Lebanon has killed three media staffers, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said Friday.

Local news station Al Jadeed aired footage from the scene showing collapsed buildings and cars marked “PRESS,” covered in dust and rubble.

The Israeli army did not issue a warning prior to the strike, which hit a collection of chalets that had been rented by various media outlets.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the strike in Lebanon.

The Beirut-based pan-Arab Al-Mayadeen TV said two of its staffers were among the journalists killed early Friday.

Al-Manar TV of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group said its camera operator was also killed. The airstrike hit early Friday in the Hasbaya region, which had been spared much of the fighting along the border so far.

Several journalists have been killed since a near-daily exchange of fire began along the Lebanon-Israel border on Oct. 8, 2023.

Israel has accused journalists working for Al Jazeera of being members of militant groups, citing documents it purportedly found in Gaza.

The network has denied the claims as “a blatant attempt to silence the few remaining journalists in the region.”