Paris Soir - Lebanon says Israeli strikes kill soldiers, as shelters overflow

Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war on March 2 when pro-Iran Hezbollah launched rockets towards Israel in response to US-Israeli strikes that killed Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Israel has responded with intense strikes in multiple Lebanese regions and ground operations in the south, with its finance minister saying this month that Beirut's suburbs would soon "resemble" the badly-damaged Gazan city of Khan Yunis.

From Geneva, the UN rights office said Tuesday that threats by Israeli officials "to impose the same level of destruction on Lebanon as inflicted in Gaza are wholly unacceptable".

- Overcrowded centres -

In the southern city of Sidon, far from the border, displaced people were sleeping in their cars parked along the seafront corniche, according to an AFP team there.

The city "is full, we have no more capacity", said Jihan Kaisi, the director of an NGO that runs a school-turned-shelter, where more than 1,100 people are crammed together.

"Lots of people are coming every day to ask for shelter but we don't have space anymore, we can't accept them," she continued, adding that the road from the south was blocked on Monday with people fleeing north following evacuation warnings.

The Lebanese military said three of its soldiers were killed in two Israeli air strikes in southern Lebanon, while the Israeli army maintained its operations were not directed "against the Lebanese army" and said at least one of them was "under review".

Lebanon's army has tried to stay out of the war, but three of its soldiers were killed by Israeli shelling earlier this month during a failed Israeli commando operation in eastern Lebanon.

Israel conducted an air strike near Beirut's airport in the city's southern suburbs on Tuesday, killing one person and wounding nine, according to the health ministry.

The Lebanese civil aviation authority said in a statement that the airport continued to operate normally and that the road leading to it remained passable.

Hezbollah announced a series of attacks Tuesday, including several on Israeli troops near the border inside south Lebanon.

Early Tuesday morning Israeli aircraft bombed two neighbourhoods of Beirut's southern suburbs, state media said, and also struck Doha Aramoun, south of the capital, wounding an Ethiopian woman.

Israel confirmed the Tuesday strikes, saying it was targeting Hezbollah, as it has since the start of the conflict, a day after announcing "limited" ground operations were underway in southern Lebanon.

Israeli strikes have killed 912 people, including 111 children, since March 2, Lebanon's health ministry said on Tuesday.

Around 14 percent of Lebanese territory is under Israeli evacuation warnings, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council.

Lebanese authorities said more than one million people had registered as displaced since March 2 -- more than a sixth of the country's population -- with more than 130,000 staying in official shelters.

These displaced people "will not return to their homes" in the south as long as the security of residents in northern Israel is not guaranteed, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said this week.

- Ground incursion -

Alongside its massive bombardment campaign, Israel has said it is carrying out ground incursions in the south with troops and armoured vehicles.

On Tuesday the Israeli military said "additional... troops have been deployed in Lebanon, continuing efforts to establish a forward defence posture in order to remove threats and create an additional layer of security for residents of northern Israel against Hezbollah's threat".

Israel's military chief of staff Eyal Zamir said on Monday that "more than 400 terrorists have been eliminated so far".

On Monday evening, the leaders of Germany, Canada, France, Italy and the United Kingdom warned that a large-scale Israeli ground operation in Lebanon "would have devastating humanitarian consequences and could lead to a protracted conflict".

L.Lefevre--PS