Lebanese hospitals evacuated in south as Israel presses assault
Lebanon evacuated three hospitals in the country's embattled south on Friday as Israel continued to press its assault.
Marjayoun governmental hospital closed its doors and evacuated its staff after an Israeli air strike targeted the facility's main entrance, killing four paramedics, according to the National News Agency.
Mounes Kalakesh, the hospital’s director, said the air strike targeted ambulances at the hospital's main entrance, causing panic among the medical staff and employees.
"We had been providing medical services to the area since the war began, but with the shortage of staff, today’s bombing hastened the closure of the hospital," he said.
According to Kalakesh, the hospital had been operating "for four days without an anaesthesiologist or lab specialists due to the displacement of people".
An estimated 1.2 million people have been displaced by the Israeli invasion and bombing campaign.
With repeated strikes on paramedics in various areas, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati announced a series of diplomatic contacts to "pressure the Israeli enemy to allow rescue and relief teams to reach the sites of air strikes and to facilitate the transport of victims and the wounded".
Mikati condemned "the Israeli enemy's violations of international laws and humanitarian norms".
Almost 2,000 people have been killed by Israel in Lebanon since October 2023, the majority in recent weeks.
Israeli forces have fought with Hezbollah on the ground, while the air force has continued to pummel the south, the eastern Bekaa Valley and the capital Beirut.
Lebanon’s minister of transport, Ali Hamieh, told Al Jazeera that Israel is imposing “an unannounced siege” on Lebanon.
On Friday morning, an Israeli strike near Lebanon's Masnaa border crossing with Syria cut off a road used by hundreds of thousands of displaced people fleeing Israeli bombardments over the past four days.
Hamieh said the strike created a four-metre wide crater. The Israeli army has claimed that Hezbollah used the crossing to transport military equipment to Lebanon.
Israel's army radio reported on Friday that a drone launched from Iraq earlier in the week had killed two soldiers and wounded 24 others in the occupied Golan Heights.
An Israeli army probe concluded that two explosive-laden drones were launched from Iraq in the attack on Tuesday, one was shot down by air defences and the second hit an army base.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella body of armed groups in Iraq, has launched sporadic attacks against Israel since 7 October in solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza.
Tuesday's attack is the first by Iraqi groups to cause Israeli fatalities.
At least 41,802 Palestinians have been killed and 96,844 wounded in Israeli military attacks on Gaza since October, the Palestinian health ministry said on Friday.
The ministry reported that in the most recent 24-hour period, 14 Palestinians were killed and 50 others wounded by Israeli attacks.
As fears continue to grow over a possible full-blown war between Israel and Iran in the wake of a ballistic missile attack on Israel by the latter earlier this week, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei delivered a Friday sermon in which he defended actions against Israel by the Palestinians and their allies.
“The Palestinian people have a lawful right to defend themselves, to stand up to those criminals - the occupation forces," he said, addressing a large crowd of Iranians in the capital Tehran.
"There is not a single court or international organisation that can blame the Palestinian people for simply defending their homeland."
This marked the first public sermon for the 85-year-old leader since the start of the Gaza war and the recent attacks on Lebanon by Israel.
In a massive show of force, Iran fired at least 180 ballistic missiles shortly after 8pm local time on Tuesday, with dozens of projectiles seen streaming over the skies of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
Though there were no reported fatalities, subsequent satellite images appear to show significant damage at Israeli military sites.