Middle East latest: Over a dozen killed in Israeli strikes near one of main Beirut hospitals

Israeli airstrikes in and around Beirut caused significant damage to the country's largest public hospital and killed more than a dozen people, Lebanese health officials said, as Hezbollah launched a barrage of rockets into central Israel hours before U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in the region.

Lebanon's Health Ministry said that 57 others were wounded in airstrikes late Monday that destroyed several buildings facing the Rafik Hariri University Hospital, located on the outskirts of southern Beirut.

The Israeli military said it struck a Hezbollah target, without elaborating, and said that it had not targeted the hospital itself.

The State Department said that Blinken would focus on ending the war in Gaza, securing the release of hostages held by Hamas and alleviating the suffering of Palestinian civilians.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to annihilate Hamas and recover dozens of hostages held by the group. Hamas says it will only release the captives in return for a lasting cease-fire, a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and the release of Palestinian prisoners.

On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led militants blew holes in Israel's security fence and stormed in, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250. Israel's offensive in Gaza has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not distinguish combatants from civilians. The war has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced about 90% of its population of 2.3 million people.

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Here's the latest:

Israeli airstrike levels building in southern Beirut suburb

BEIRUT — An Israeli airstrike leveled a building in the southern Beirut suburb of Beirut on Tuesday. The strike came 40 minutes after Israeli military Arabic spokesperson Avichay Adraee issued a warning, claiming the two buildings targeted contained “Hezbollah facilities.”

The building stood in a heavily trafficked area across the street from a large park, which has become a refuge for many displaced families. It is also not far from the French ambassador’s residence.

No immediate casualties were reported. The Israeli military did not have immediate comment about the target of the strike.

At the time of the warning, Hezbollah’s chief spokesperson was holding a pre-scheduled press conference just a few hundred meters from the targeted area. The event was quickly cut short, with journalists and the spokesperson evacuating the location.

The Israeli military did not have an immediate comment about the target of the strike.

Amnesty International criticizes Israel's strikes on al-Qard al-Hassan

JERUSALEM — Human rights group Amnesty International has criticized Israel’s targeting of branches of a Hezbollah-linked financial institution, saying the round of strikes this week “likely violates international humanitarian law.”

Amnesty said Tuesday the attack on al-Qard al-Hassan must be investigated as a war crime because financial institutions are considered civilian infrastructure under the laws of war unless they are being used for military purposes.

“Even if as the Israeli military alleges, the institution does provide financing to Hezbollah, it is not likely to meet the definition of a military objective, particularly for branches serving civilian customers,” said Erika Guevara Rosas, Amnesty’s senior director for research, advocacy, policy and campaigns.

Israel's strikes overnight Sunday into Monday hit at least 15 branches of al-Qard al-Hassan in Lebanon. Israel says the bank is used to fund attacks, and it issued evacuation warnings ahead of the strikes. Many ordinary Lebanese keep their savings at the financial institution.

Hezbollah says it was behind drone attack on Netanyahu's house

BEIRUT — Hezbollah’s chief spokesman says the group was behind the weekend drone attack that targeted Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s house without inflicting casualties.

Mohammed Afif told reporters in Beirut Tuesday that if in the previous attack Netanyahu was not hurt, “the coming days and nights and the (battle) fields are between us.” Afif was hinting that Hezbollah might carry out such attempts in the future.

Afif said Hezbollah is fully responsible for the drone attack that targeted Netanyahu's house. He added that the group did it on its own.

Netanyahu’s office said the drone on Saturday targeted his house in the Mediterranean coastal town of Caesarea. Neither he nor his wife was there. It wasn’t clear if the house was hit.

Journalists taken on a tour of the Beirut hospital where Israel claimed Hezbollah stored cash and gold

BEIRUT — An Associated Press team was among journalists taken on a tour inside a hospital in Beirut’s southern suburb where the Israeli army claimed without offering evidence that Hezbollah was storing hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and gold in tunnels underneath.

The Sahel General Hospital had already been emptied of most patients and staff following intense bombardment of the area in recent days, and the few remaining ones were hastily evacuated late Monday after the Israeli claim.

“We have been living in terror for the last 24 hours,” hospital director Mazen Alame said Tuesday. “There is nothing under the hospital.”

Journalists were taken to the two floors under the hospital, the first of which had two rooms for surgeries and the other had oxygen bottles stored inside. The second floor included a morgue with six doors in one room and a giant water tank in another.

Alame said the hospital has no affiliation with any political group or religious institution and has been working under the supervision of Lebanon’s Health Ministry since its founding.

Israel has made similar claims about tunnels used by Hamas militants under hospitals in Gaza. Omar Mneimne, a doctor at the hospital’s emergency department, said he fears a repeat scenario in Lebanon.

“We fear that,” Mneimne said, adding that the international community should act to defend health facilities in Lebanon. “It’s extremely hard. It’s very stressful for the community.”

7 Jerusalem residents arrested over an alleged Iranian-guided plot

TEL AVIV, Israel — Israeli authorities said Tuesday they have arrested seven Jerusalem residents in connection with an alleged Iranian-guided plot to assassinate an Israeli scientist and mayor.

It was the latest in a series of similar alleged spy rings foiled by Israel and blamed on Iran, highlighting the ongoing shadow war between two countries even as their conflict has become more direct during the war in Gaza.

A statement by Israel’s domestic security agency Shin Bet did not name the scientist or the mayor targeted.

It said the seven people arrested were assigned various tasks as part of the alleged plot that also included blowing up a police car and lobbing a grenade to a home. The Iranian agent promised the seven roughly $50,000 dollars in exchange for the acts, the Shin Bet said. It said police found multiple credit cards, tens of thousands of shekels and a fake police car license plate.

The people arrested were not identified but were from a predominantly Palestinian area of Jerusalem, the Shin Bet said.

Tensions between Israel and Iran have soared since the killing in Tehran of Hamas’ leader Ismail Haniyeh, an attack blamed on Israel, and an Iranian missile attack on Israel earlier this month, for which Israel is expected to respond.

Death toll from strike near Beirut hospital rises to 13

BEIRUT — The death toll from Israeli airstrikes late Monday that destroyed several buildings facing one of Beirut’s main hospitals climbed to 13. Lebanon’s Health Ministry said 57 others were wounded in the strikes, including seven who were in critical condition.

It said the airstrikes caused significant damage to the Rafik Hariri University Hospital, the country’s largest public hospital, located on the outskirts of southern Beirut. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

State Department source says progress on day-after plan is key to US hopes for cease-fire

TEL AVIV, Israel — The U.S. is making an 11th-hour effort to resuscitate some aspects of the halted cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas weeks before the presidential election and as Israel’s invasion of neighboring Lebanon intensifies, according to a senior State Department official.

Since negotiations fell apart over the summer, Americans have shifted to focus on a post-war plan for Israel and Gaza. The State Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity late Monday to preview Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s strategy, said that stakeholders have reached consensus on some aspects of the so-called day-after plan and that the U.S. is hopeful that this progress will create goodwill to get parties back to the table on a ceasefire.

The source added that the decision to go to Israel before meeting with Arab partners was a shift in the U.S.'s negotiation strategy.

The U.S. has long pushed for a postwar settlement in which a reformed Palestinian Authority would govern Gaza with help from Arab states and Saudi Arabia would normalize relations with Israel.

But Arab leaders insist such plans would depend on a pathway to Palestinian statehood, something to which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is deeply opposed. He has ruled out any postwar role for the PA and says local Palestinians will administer Gaza, with Israel maintaining open-ended security control.

Blinken also planned to reiterate concerns about the humanitarian aid crisis in Gaza outlined that U.S. officials laid out in a recent letter to Israel, the official said.

But official said that an anticipated Israeli retaliation against Iran is looming over the meeting, which will likely be the last time Blinken and Netanyahu meet before the U.S. presidential election.

— By Farnoush Amiri

Blinken arrives in Israel on mission to restart cease-fire talks

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel on Tuesday on his 11th visit to the region since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, as the U.S. hopes to revive cease-fire efforts after the killing of top Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

Blinken is expected to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top officials. Following Israel, he’s expected to visit a number of Arab countries, likely to include Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

Here more here.

Iran keeps up pressure as Israeli retaliation looms

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran said Tuesday that its Arab Gulf neighbors wouldn’t allow their territory to be used for an expected Israeli strike as the Islamic Republic once again vowed to respond to any attack.

The comments from Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi come as speculation grows over how Israel will retaliate for Tehran’s Oct. 1 ballistic missile attack on Israel.

Speaking in Kuwait as part of a Mideast tour, Araghchi insisted that Gulf Arab neighbors he’s spoken to wouldn’t allow their territory to be used.

“All the neighbors assured us that they will not allow their lands and air to be used against Iran,” Araghchi said, according to the state-run IRNA news agency. “This is an expectation from all friendly and neighboring countries and we consider this a sign of friendship.”

However, many Gulf Arab nations host major U.S. military installations, like Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, as a hedge against any possible attack by Iran. Washington also has based aircraft carriers around the region as tensions have persisted in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and the subsequent wars raging across the Mideast.

Gulf Arab nations have not made any public pledges like those described by Araghchi.

There have been tensions in the Persian Gulf and among Gulf Arab countries since Tehran launched a series of attacks targeting shipping in the region in 2019 over the U.S.'s unilateral withdraw from Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers as well.

Separately, Pezeshkian warned that Israel will face a “corresponding answer” for any attack it carries out.

Another Israeli strike hits Lebanon-Syria border crossing

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s state news agency says another Israeli airstrike has targeted the country’s main border crossing with Syria, leaving a second large crater on the highway running through it.

The National News Agency reported that the early Tuesday airstrike was closer to the Syrian side of the crossing, known as Jdeidet Yabous. Syrian TV also reported an airstrike in the border area.

An Israeli airstrike on Oct. 5 blocked a highway and left a giant crater near the Lebanese side of the crossing, known as Masnaa, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from Beirut.

That strike prevented vehicles from going through the crossing, which tens of thousands of people have used to flee to Syria.

People now have to walk by foot in or around the two large craters several kilometers (miles) away.

The Israeli military has accused the Hezbollah militant group of using the Masnaa crossing to truck in military equipment from Syria. There was no immediate comment on the latest strike.

Hezbollah fires rockets into central Israel

TEL AVIV, Israel — Hezbollah launched a barrage of rockets into central Israel on Tuesday, setting off air raid sirens in the country’s most populated areas but causing no apparent damage or injuries.

The Israeli military said five projectiles were fired from Lebanon into Israel and said most were intercepted by Israel’s missile defense system. One landed in an open area.

Israeli police said there were no reports of damage or injury following the salvo.

The Israeli military said that at the same time, about 15 projectiles were fired from Lebanon into northern Israel.

Earlier Tuesday, air raid sirens went off in the Israeli-occupied West Bank after a rocket was launched from Lebanon, the Israeli military said. Damage was caused to homes in the Palestinian village of Shuqba.

The rocket fire came as Israel stepped up its strikes in Lebanon, targeting a Hezbollah-run financial institution, and as Israeli troops push ahead in their invasion of southern Lebanon.