Middle East latest: Israeli airstrikes pound the eastern Lebanon city of Baalbek

Israeli airstrikes pounded the eastern Lebanese city of Baalbek on Wednesday, according to Lebanon's state-run news agency, hours after the Israeli military issued an evacuation warning for residents in the entire city — including its ancient Roman temple complex inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Hezbollah’s newly named leader Naim Kassem said in his first public comments Wednesday that the militant group will keep fighting in its war with Israel until it is offered cease-fire terms it deems acceptable.

Some 1.2 million people have been displaced by the conflict in Lebanon, according to government estimates. Lebanon's Heath Ministry said more than 2,790 people have been killed and 12,700 wounded since Oct. 8, 2023, when Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel, drawing retaliation. Israeli ground forces invaded southern Lebanon at the beginning of October.

The death toll from more than a year of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza has passed 43,000, Palestinian officials reported Monday, without distinguishing between civilians and combatants. The Israel-Hamas war began after Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducting 250 others.

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Here’s the latest:

Hezbollah chief says group will hold out in its war with Israel for ‘suitable’ cease-fire terms

BEIRUT — Hezbollah’s newly named leader Naim Kassem has said in his first public comments that the militant group will keep fighting in its ongoing war with Israel until it is offered cease-fire terms it deems acceptable.

“If the Israelis decide to stop the aggression, we say that we accept, but according to the conditions that we see as suitable,” Kassem said, speaking from an undisclosed location in a pre-recorded televised address. “We will not beg for a cease fire as we will continue (fighting)... no matter how long it takes.”

The speech comes as international mediators have launched a new push for negotiated cease-fires in Lebanon and Gaza.

Kassem, a cleric and founding member of the Lebanese militant group, was named Tuesday to replace former longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on a Beirut suburb in late September. Kassem had served as Nasrallah's deputy for more than three decades.

Residents decry lethal airstrikes on Lebanese city of Sidon

SIDON, Lebanon — A day after airstrikes shook Sidon, streets in the Lebanese coastal city were still veiled in dust and rubble. Six people were killed and 37 wounded, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.

Excavators sifted through the debris, loading trucks with remnants of destroyed homes. Residents cleared shattered glass and plaster from gaping walls. The airstrikes hit two residential buildings opposite Sayyed Shohada, a Hezbollah-linked complex.

Local resident Abdullah Habli called the attack “a massacre against civilians.”

“This building they bombed had no one in it. It housed poor, struggling people. This street is an ordinary residential street with ordinary, civilian residents. There are no weapons here,” Habli added.

Before the strikes, Israel had warned 16 southern villages to evacuate north of the Awwali River — but Sidon received no such warning.

“I haven’t seen any military activity here at all," said Mahmoud Al Ghoul, displaced from Mays al-Jabal in the Marjeyoun province.

“(Israel) always claims Hezbollah fighters or weapons are in the area. But many of the areas it strikes have no Hezbollah, no Amal movement, or any other party,” said Ali Al-Amin, who had been displaced from Tyre, another Lebanese city.

Main highway linking Syria with Lebanon reopens after strikes

BEIRUT — The main Damascus-Beirut highway reopened after the Lebanese Army cordoned it off following apparent Israeli strikes on two vehicles along the route, Lebanon's Civil Defense said.

In a joint statement, the municipalities of Kahala and Aaraya blamed “the use of international roads and civilian vehicles for the movement of gunmen and the transfer of weapons and ammunition.” The statement said it risks civilian lives and property along the route, and urged the Lebanese Army to intervene.

Along the same highway, another vehicle was struck in the Qmatieh town in the Aley province. Details of the target remain unclear.

The commander of the Lebanese Civil Defense’s southern district fire and rescue unit, Saad Al Ahmar, told The Associated Press that his team participated in extinguishing fires in the areas of both strikes. He said the road has now been reopened.

UN Security Council warns Israel against attempts to dismantle UNRWA

UNITED NATIONS – The U.N. Security Council has warned Israel against any attempts to dismantle the U.N. agency that is a lifeline for Palestinian refugees in Gaza and demanded that all parties allow it to continue working in the embattled enclave.

In a strongly worded statement Wednesday, the U.N.'s most powerful body called the agency, known as UNRWA, "the backbone of all humanitarian response in Gaza."

It stressed that “no organization can replace or substitute UNRWA’s capacity and mandate to serve Palestinian refugees and civilians in urgent need of life-saving humanitarian assistance.”

Council members expressed “grave concern” at legislation adopted by Israel’s parliament on Monday banning UNRWA from operating in the Palestinian territories -- Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The law takes effect in 90 days.

The council urged the Israeli government “to abide by its international obligations, respect the privileges and immunities of UNRWA and live up to its responsibility to allow and facilitate full, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian assistance in all its forms into and throughout the entire Gaza Strip, including the provision of sorely needed basic services to the civilian population.”

Gaza is in the throes of an escalating humanitarian crisis, with virtually its entire 2.3 million population surviving without enough food and the threat of famine looming.

The Security Council emphasized UNRWA’s “vital role” in providing education, health care, relief and social services to Palestinian refugees not only in the Palestinian territories but in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

Israel has alleged that some of UNRWA’s 13,000 staff members in Gaza participated in the Hamas attacks last year that sparked the war in Gaza. It also has said hundreds of UNRWA staff have militant ties and that it has found Hamas military assets in or under the agency’s facilities.

Israeli military says T

uesday’s strike on Gaza building was targeted

JERUSALEM — An Israeli military official says the target of Tuesday’s attack on a five-story building that Gaza health officials reported resulted in scores of deaths was a spotter with binoculars in the building, and that the intent was not to destroy the structure.

The military official agreed to provide details only on condition of anonymity, citing military protocol and the ongoing investigation into the incident.

The official said Wednesday the building was not known to be a shelter for civilians, and that it collapsed as a result of the strike on the spotter.

The Gaza Health Ministry said Tuesday that at least 70 people were killed in the first of two strikes on the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya, and that more than half of the victims were women and children. The Israeli military had earlier said it was investigating the strike. The Gaza Health Ministry’s casualty tolls do not differentiate between civilians and militant fighters.

The official said there were discrepancies between the numbers of victims reported by authorities in Gaza and what Israeli intelligence indicates, and that the victims included known militants. The official did not provide detailed evidence to support that assertion.

The Israeli military has repeatedly struck shelters for displaced people in recent months. It says it carries out precise strikes targeting Palestinian militants and tries to avoid harming civilians, but the strikes often kill women and children.

—By Adam Schreck

Israeli hospital officials say rocket from Lebanon wounded 2

JERUSALEM — Hospital officials in Israel say a rocket fired from Lebanon has wounded two men, one seriously.

The men were wounded by rocket shrapnel on Wednesday in Metula, an Israeli town just across the border from Lebanon, said a spokesperson for the Rambam Hospital, where they were airlifted.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

Hezbollah has fired thousands of rockets into Israel since Oct. 8, 2023, when it opened fire in solidarity with Hamas a day after its cross-border attack from the Gaza Strip. All-out war erupted last month, when Israel carried out large waves of airstrikes and killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and most of his senior commanders. Israel launched a ground invasion at the start of October.

Israel issues an evacuation warning for the entire Baalbek city in eastern Lebanon

BEIRUT — For the first time in the ongoing Israel-Hezbollah war, the Israeli army has issued an evacuation warning for residents in the entire eastern city of Baalbek, along with surrounding areas and key routes in the Bekaa Valley.

Earlier Wednesday, a drone strike targeted a van on Lebanon's Aaraya highway, a major road linking Beirut to the Bekaa, about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the Lebanese capital, resulting in flames, according to Lebanese state media. Another vehicle in Bchamoun, roughly 10 kilometers (6 miles) southeast of Beirut, was also targeted, as reported by the state-run National News Agency. This is the first time in the conflict that the area is targeted.

The number of casualties and the intended targets were not yet known.

The area marked in Wednesday’s evacuation order includes the ancient Roman temple complex, inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. On Oct. 6, an Israeli strike hit some 700 meters (750 yards) away from the ancient citadel, which houses two of the largest Roman temples in the world.

Norway wants clarity on Israel's obligation to Palestinians under international law

OSLO, Norway — Norway is asking for a clarification on Israel’s responsibility under international law when preventing the United Nations, international humanitarian organizations and states from helping Palestinians.

“The international community cannot accept that the U.N., international humanitarian organizations and states face systematic obstacles to being able to work in Palestine and provide humanitarian aid to the Palestinians under occupation,” Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said Wednesday. “It undermines the Palestinians’ right to vital aid. Then we have to react.”

The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, also known as UNRWA, provides essential services to millions of Palestinians across the Middle East and has underpinned aid efforts in Gaza throughout the Israel-Hamas war. Legislation barring it from operating in Israel passed with an overwhelming majority Monday. Israel says UNRWA has allowed itself to be infiltrated by Hamas, with the militants siphoning off aid and using the agency's facilities as shields. UNRWA denies the allegations, saying it is committed to neutrality and acts quickly to address any wrongdoing by its staff.

Norway has called for a resolution in the U.N. General Assembly that asks the International Court of Justice “to give an advisory opinion on the duties of Israel as an occupying power to facilitate aid to the population of Palestine.” Gahr Støre added that a number of countries have expressed support for the initiative, in addition to UNRWA.

Under international law, Israel has an obligation to help the Palestinian population under occupation, Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said.

“With this initiative, Norway wants to establish that no country can rise above its obligations under international law,” Barth Eide said. “We see similar trends in other countries — that leaders try to undermine humanitarian law and aid work in situations of crisis and conflict. We must stop this development.”