Lebanon: Israeli attacks signal 'rejection' of truce push

Lebanon's National News Agency (NNA) said at least 10 people were killed and 26 injured in Israeli strikes on the country's northeast. 

The agency said four airstrikes hit villages in the region. Rescuers were still searching for survivors under the rubble of a targeted house in the Bekaa Valley town of Younine, according to NNA. 

Hussein Haj Hassan, a lawmaker from the region, said 60,000 people had already fled their homes in the area amid the Israeli bombardment.

The Israeli Cabinet has approved a 607.4 billion shekel ($162 billion/€149 billion) national budget for 2025, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said. 

"The main objective of the 2025 budget is to maintain the security of the state and achieve victory on all fronts, while safeguarding the resilience of the Israeli economy," far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said.

The Cabinet scrapped a proposal to slash the benefits of Holocaust survivors and families of fallen soldiers. The Defense Ministry had rejected the proposal, saying it opposed "any violation" of its soldiers' families' rights, "certainly in a time of war and in a year when, unfortunately, the circle of those affected has painfully expanded."

According to Israeli media, allotted defense spending is at least $27.2 billion (€25 billion) but could increase to $40 billion pending further government discussions.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute estimated that Israel spent $27.5 billion on defense last year. 

Netanyahu said Smotrich had put together "an important, difficult but necessary budget in a year of war."

Opposition leader Yair Lapid criticized the budget, saying it would end up costing the average household in Israel an extra "20,000 shekels per year" and that it had earmarked billions for "10 redundant ministries." 

The budget, which Smotrich said was expected to be approved by parliament by January, raises value-added tax or sales tax by one percentage point, to 18.5%.

On Friday, Prime Minister Najib Mikati accused Israel of rejecting efforts for a cease-fire by renewing its attacks on Lebanon. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had met visiting US officials a day earlier for talks on a possible deal to halt fighting in Lebanon. 

Mikati said Israel's "renewed expansion" of its attacks on Lebanese regions, "threats to the population to evacuate" entire areas and hitting Beirut's southern suburbs showed Israel's "rejection of all efforts being made to secure a cease-fire."

The Lebanese prime minister said actions on the diplomatic front also indicated Israel's refusal. 

"Israeli statements and diplomatic signals that Lebanon received confirm Israel's stubbornness in rejecting the proposed solutions and insisting on the approach of killing and destruction," Mikati said in a statement.

Lebanon's speaker of Parliament, Nabih Berri, echoed the prime minister's comments, accusing Israel of squandering chances for a cease-fire.

"Israel has wasted ... more than one real opportunity to secure a truce ... and return calm and displaced persons to both sides of the border," he said in a statement carried by the official National News Agency.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has voiced alarm over "rising attacks" on health care workers and facilities in Lebanon.

"Overall we've had 55 attacks verified," WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris told a press briefing in Geneva. "But the Ministry of Health is reporting that there are much higher numbers, as many workers are being killed and injured while off duty — and this matters because health systems are already overstretched.

"We are deeply concerned about the rising attacks on health workers," she said, adding that 102 deaths had been recorded in such incidents.

"So we are continuing to lose health workers at the very time when they are needed most," Harris said. "We are again and again and again emphasizing that health care is not a target; health workers are not a target."

Israel has been carrying out frequent airstrikes on what it describes as Hezbollah targets in Lebanon. Hundreds of people have died and more than a million have been displaced as a result, according to Lebanese authorities.

At least 47 people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes in central Gaza overnight, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.

According to the agency, the strikes hit the Nuseirat refugee camp and the towns of Deir al-Balah and Zawayda.

"Search and rescue operations are ongoing, as efforts continue to locate missing individuals trapped under the rubble," WAFA reported, adding that most of the dead were women and children.

The Israeli military said it was checking the reports and that its operations were continuing in the central Gaza Strip.

"The troops identified and eliminated a number of armed terrorists operating in the area," the Israel Defense Forces posted on X.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has said Israeli bulldozers left its office in the Nur Shams camp in the occupied West Bank heavily damaged.

"The office can no longer be used. It was the hub to deliver basic services to more than 14,000 Palestine Refugees in the camp, including learning for children, health, sanitation & social protection," UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini said in a post on X.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF), however, has denied it was responsible for damage to the building.

"Terrorists planted explosives in the proximity of the UNRWA offices that were then detonated in an attempt to harm IDF soldiers. The explosives likely caused damage to the structure," an IDF statement said.

The cause of the damage could not be independently confirmed.

Israeli troops raided the Nur Shams refugee camp overnight, reporting that they were battling Palestinian militants in the area.

It comes after Israel's parliament voted this week to effectively ban UNRWA's operations in Israel.

Thailand's foreign minister has said four Thai citizens working in northern Israel were killed by rocket fire from Lebanon.

At least three Israelis were also killed in the rocket attack, which hit the town of Metula on Thursday.

It was the deadliest such attack since Israeli troops invaded Lebanon in early October.

"Thailand continues to strongly urge all parties to return to the path of peace, in the name of the innocent civilians gravely impacted by this prolonged and deepening conflict," Thai Foreign Minister Maris Sangiampongsa posted on the social media platform X on Friday.

He said he was "deeply saddened" by the deaths, adding that another Thai citizen had been injured.

Before the conflict began, around 30,000 Thai nationals worked in Israel, mainly in the agricultural sector.

Thirty Thai citizens were taken hostage and 46 were killed during Hamas' terror attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023.

Israel carried out a series of airstrikes in Beirut's southern suburbs early on Friday after issuing evacuation orders to residents.

The Israeli military said it was targeting facilities and assets belonging to Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah. It published two maps with the targets and called on residents to keep a distance of at least 500 meters (1,640 feet) from the buildings.

"The raids left massive destruction in the targeted areas, as dozens of buildings were leveled to the ground, in addition to the outbreak of fires," said Lebanon's National News Agency (NNA). There were no details about casualties.

The strikes came a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with US officials to discuss a possible deal to end the wars in Gaza and Lebanon.

According to Israeli media reports citing government sources, the plan would see Israel withdraw from Lebanon and Hezbollah militants retreat 30 kilometers (about 18.6 miles) from the border, north of the Litani River. Lebanon's army would then take control of the border, with support from UN peacekeepers.

Israel has carried out frequent air raids in southern Beirut, considered a Hezbollah stronghold, but Friday's strikes were the first reported in the Lebanese capital in several days.

Israel has vowed to cripple Lebanon-based Hezbollah, which is considered a terrorist organization by the US, Germany and several Sunni Arab countries.

Hundreds of people have been killed and more than a million have been displaced by Israel's airstrikes in Lebanon.

Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged frequent cross-border fire since October last year.

The war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza began on October 7, 2023, after the Palestinian militants launched a series of terror attacks on Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking some 250 others hostage. Israel responded with an offensive in Gaza that has killed more than 43,000 people, according to local health authorities.

Hamas is considered a terrorist organization by Germany, the EU, the US and several other governments.

nm/kb (Reuters, AFP, AP, dpa)