An international conference in Paris has mobilized €800 million ($865 million) in immediate humanitarian aid for Lebanon, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said on Thursday, with a further €200 million pledged to bolster the country’s armed forces.
The conference in the French capital brought together around 70 countries and international organizations.
France, the former mandate power in Lebanon, contributed €100 million of the total, while Germany stumped up €96 million.
“The war must end as soon as possible, we need a ceasefire in Lebanon,” French President Emmanuel Macron said at the gathering.
He assured the country and its people of support in times of need and in rebuilding “a free, sovereign Lebanon.”
The United Nations has estimated the immediate emergency aid needed for the country at €400 million.
Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, said in Paris that Israel’s attacks threatened the country’s existence and have caused massive damage to the infrastructure and economy, in addition to displacing hundreds of thousands of people.
Israeli strikes in Lebanon kill soldiers and civilians
A total of 12 people were killed on Thursday in airstrikes in two areas in eastern Lebanon, the country’s Health Ministry reported, as the country’s Iran-allied Hezbollah movement and Israel are locked in an exchange of fire.
In the first attack, seven people, including three children, were killed and 10 injured in Al Khudr town in the Baalbek-Hermel governorate, the ministry said.
Five others were killed and two injured in an Israeli strike in the town of Helaniya also in Baalbek-Hermel, the ministry added in a statement.
Three Lebanese soldiers were killed in Israeli strikes in the south, the Lebanese army said.
Israel “targetted” Lebanese army personnel in the outskirts of the southern town of Yater while they were evacuating injured people, the army said.
Lebanon’s official NNA news agency reported that an Israeli strike hit a house in Yater, followed by another strike while rescue teams were responding, leaving some medics injured.
Five Israeli soldiers killed in Lebanon
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Thursday said five Israeli soldiers were killed in combat in southern Lebanon on Wednesday.
Four of the men were reservists aged 22 to 42. A further six soldiers had been seriously injured in the engagement and transported to hospitals in Israel, the IDF said. Separately the 23-year-old leader of a canine unit was killed.
Israeli media reported that the reservists had been surprised by Hezbollah militiamen emerging from a shaft who threw hand grenades at them as they entered a village.
The deaths bring the total number of Israeli soldiers killed since the ground offensive into southern Lebanon began three weeks ago to 22, according to media reports.
According to IDF figures, a total of 757 Israeli soldiers have died in combat since the Palestinian Islamist organization Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, massacring some 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostages. On October 8 Hezbollah began firing at Israel in solidarity, it said, with Hamas the Gaza. Israel has responded with massive airstrikes and a ground offensive.
The IDF reported that Hezbollah had fired around 50 missiles at the Galilee region in northern Israel on Thursday morning. It said some missiles had been intercepted, while others hit the ground.
Hezbollah said that it had attacked additional targets in Israel, including areas north of Haifa. It also claimed to have fired rockets at a gathering of Israeli troops in Manara in the border region.
Syrian soldier killed, seven injured in Israeli strikes
One soldier was killed and seven were injured in Israeli strikes targeting several sites in Syria, the official SANA news agency reported on Thursday.
Israeli strikes at dawn targeted two sites in the Kafr Sousa neighbourhood of Damascus and one of the military posts in Homs, a military source said in a statement to SANA.
Israel has been bombing targets in Syria to prevent Iran and its allied militias from expanding their military influence in the war-torn country. Israeli attacks on Syria have increased since the Gaza war began on October 7.
German NGO says Gaza looks like an ‘apocalyse’
The German aid organization Welthungerhilfe (German Agro Action) said in a statement on Thursday that the situation in the Gaza Strip resembles an “apocalypse” after more than a year of war.
“Our experienced colleagues … have never seen such massive destruction and despair among people in any other crisis area in the world,” said the organization’s chairman Mathias Mogge.
“It’s an apocalyptic situation.”
People live in tent camps among completely destroyed buildings, and constant Israeli airstrikes, gunfire and drones circulating above.
The organization reiterated its condemnation of the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. The Hamas-controlled health authority puts the death toll in Gaza at more than 42,000 people. It does not distinguish between Hamas fighters and civilians in its count.
