Middle East & Arab World Lebanon/Hezbollah/Israel November 2024-

Lebanon files complaint against Israel at UN labour body over pager attacks
Labour Minister Mustafa Bayram says 4,000 civilians were killed or wounded in the September attacks.
(Al Jazeera) Lebanese Labour Minister Mustafa Bayram filed the formal complaint at the UN headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, on Tuesday. Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, he said the attack was an “egregious war against humanity, against technology, against wo

4 November
Israel claims to have killed another senior Hezbollah commander in Lebanon
(The Guardian) Israel’s military has issued a statement in which it claims to have killed “a commander in the Hezbollah Radwan force’s anti-tank missile system.”
Naming him as Riad Rida Ghazzawi, the IDF claimed he “planned and executed a significant amount of terrorist attacks, including firing anti-tank missiles at Israeli civilians and at IDF troops operating in southern Lebanon.”
Lebanese authorities have reported over 2,800 dead in Israeli attacks on Lebanon in the past month.

2 November
Israel’s Peace Talks in Gaza and Lebanon: What to Know
Complex negotiations involving several players are proceeding on two separate but related tracks.
(NYT) Cease-fire talks are underway to resolve two related conflicts in the Middle East that have killed tens of thousands of people and threaten to spiral into a wider regional war.
On Thursday, top U.S. officials held talks in Egypt and Israel in an attempt end the conflicts between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, and between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Envoys from Israel, Egypt, the United States and Qatar also met in Doha, the Qatari capital, on Oct. 28.

18 October
Suspicion, resentment, trauma, destruction – Beirut on the edge
An Al Jazeera cameraman describes his crew’s attempts to report from Beirut, navigating the fear and anger palpable on the bombed-out streets.
No phones!” barks a burly man as he sails past us on his scooter. I’m out in the city working with Al Jazeera’s correspondent, Ali Hashem. His friend and fellow journalist who is with us, has just taken a picture of a beautiful old building, nestled among the usual shopfronts and apartments in a busy street in Basta, central Beirut.
Although the man is clearly a civilian – not an official of any sort – we are quick to heed his order. Our friend apologises and puts his phone away, but the angry man has already turned the scooter around and is approaching, demanding to see the phone and the offending picture.