Israeli fire kills Lebanese soldiers – DW – October 24, 2024

Germany has announced that it will give Lebanon an additional 96 million euros ($103.57 million) in humanitarian and development aid.

Ahead of an aid conference for Lebanon in the French capital Paris, he said: Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Germany wanted to show that it was actively responding to the current Middle East crisis.

“We make it clear that these days we not only see the suffering in Lebanon, but we also take action; We support the local people, most of whom only want one thing: to live in security and peace in the future, just like so many people in Israel,” said Baerbock.

The German foreign minister added that “everything must be done” to prevent the outbreak of a new war between Israel and Lebanon.

“That’s exactly what we’re continuing to work on, even though it has become significantly more difficult,” she said.

The French Foreign Ministry hopes that the meeting of around 50 delegations will raise around 500 million euros in humanitarian aid.

Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced the support late on Wednesday in a phone call with Lebanese interim Prime Minister Najib Mikati, said government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit.

Three Lebanese soldiers, including an officer, were killed by Israeli fire while helping evacuate wounded people in southern Lebanon, the Lebanese army said in a statement on Thursday.

“The Israeli enemy attacked Lebanese army personnel near the village of Yater in the Bint Jbeil area in the south while carrying out an operation to evacuate wounded, which resulted in the death of three martyrs, including an officer,” the statement said .

Israel has carried out attacks on Lebanon, particularly in the south, in response to cross-border attacks by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia.

A residential area in Damascus and a military base in Homs were hit by Israeli air strikes, and Syrian state media reported the death of a soldier.

The Israeli army “launched an attack from the occupied Syrian Golan and northern Lebanon, targeting two locations” in the Kafr Sousa district of Damascus and a military site near Homs, the official SANA news agency reported, citing a military source.

SANA said one soldier was killed and seven others were injured in the attack in Homs, while there were unconfirmed reports from the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights of “human casualties” in the attack in Damascus.

Israel has intensified its years-long campaign of attacks against Iran-linked targets in Syria since the Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked Israel on October 7 last year, triggering the Gaza war.

tj/wmr (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)