UN: Many victims of Israeli strike on northern Lebanon women and children

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights says reports indicate many of the victims of an Israeli airstrike on a mainly Christian-populated area in northern Lebanon were women and children.

At least 21 people were killed on Monday in the Israeli airstrike on the town of Aitou, Lebanon’s Zgharta district, according to the health ministry and the Lebanese Red Cross.

Lebanon’s resistance movement Hezbollah has vowed to defend the innocent people of Palestine and Lebanon against the Israeli barbarism.

Jeremy Laurence, spokesman of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, told a Geneva news briefing, “We understand it was a four-storey residential building that was struck. With these factors in mind, we have real concerns with respect to IHL [international humanitarian law], so the laws of war and the principles of distinction proportion and proportionality.”

At least 18 killed in Israeli strike on Lebanon’s Christian town

Israeli forces launch first deadly airstrike on a Christian town in Lebanon.

UNICEF: 400,000 children displaced in Lebanon in 3 weeks

The UN children’s agency has warned of a “lost generation” in Lebanon grappling with multiple crises, and now the Israeli barbarism.

Nationwide, 1.2 million Lebanese have been forced from their homes, most fleeing to Beirut and elsewhere in the north over the past three weeks.

Ted Chaiban, UNICEF’s deputy executive director for humanitarian actions, visited schools that have been turned into shelters to host displaced families.

“What struck me is that this war is three weeks old and so many children have been affected,” he said.

“As we sit here today, 1.2 million children are deprived of education. Their public schools have either been rendered inaccessible, have been damaged by the war, or are being used as shelters.”

The Lebanese Health Ministry has calculated the death toll from Israeli attacks on Lebanon since October 2023 to be at least 2,309.

In related news, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the military will strike targets everywhere to eradicate all Resistance. “We will continue to hit Hezbollah mercilessly in all parts of Lebanon.”

Israel poses real threat to entire region: Hezbollah's deputy chief

Hezbollah

On Tuesday, Hezbollah’s Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem warned that the Tel Aviv regime’s occupation of the Palestinian land posed a danger not only to the Palestinians, but also to the entire region and beyond.

“Israel and those behind it wage war and commit massacres, leaving us no choice but to take a stand.”

The Hezbollah official also exposed the joint US-Israeli scheme in West Asia. “America, the biggest devil, wants a new Middle East. Netanyahu shares the same vision. This means the US and Israel are deliberately carrying out this genocide.”

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