Reuters' journalist Issam Abdallah in Maras, Turkey, in Feb. 11, 2023. Mr. Abdallah was killed while working in southern Lebanon on Oct. 13.STAFF/Reuters
One journalist was killed and six others injured in southern Lebanon after a deadly escalation between the Israeli army and Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group, which warned it is prepared to enter war with Israel at any moment.
Video from a Reuters livestream on Friday showed a border wall that separates Lebanon from Israel. Sounds of gunfire were audible before an explosion rocked the camera. Reuters confirmed that the blast killed one of its videographers, Issam Abdallah. The Committee to Protect Journalists said it is investigating reports of a targeted attack on journalists.
The shelling was part of one of the worst clashes between Israel and Lebanon-based Hezbollah since they fought a 34-day war in 2006. Hezbollah said in a statement on Friday that it had responded to Israeli attacks “with direct and appropriate weapons,” while Israel’s army said it had used a drone to strike Hezbollah targets. An Associated Press report said it was an Israeli shell that struck the group.
Israel’s United Nations ambassador, Gilad Erdan, told reporters Israel does not target news media, but said, “We’re in a state of war, things might happen.” He added that the country would investigate.
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Student Ahmad Al Batyah attends a rally of support for Palestinians in Sidon on Oct. 13.Nathan Vanderklippe/The Globe and Mail
The deadly exchanges took place on the same day Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian met in Beirut with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Najib Mikati, Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister.
Mr. Abdollahian warned it is possible for new fronts to be opened against Israel, if Israel continues to commit what he called “war crimes.”
Israel is amassing troops and military hardware around the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian enclave controlled by Hamas, the militant group that carried out an assault last weekend that sparked the war and has led to the deaths of at least 1,300 Israelis, including children. Israel has told more than a million Palestinians to leave northern parts of Gaza.
“If the Americans want to prevent the war in the region from developing, they must control Israel,” Mr. Abdollahian said, according to reports in Lebanese media. His comments suggested Iran, which wields considerable influence among Israel’s neighbours, is not now urging Hezbollah into the conflict.
The deputy chief of Lebanon's Shiite militant group Hezbollah, Sheikh Naim Qassem, delivers a speech during a rally in Beirut on Oct. 13.ANWAR AMRO/AFP/Getty Images
Lebanon is nevertheless girding itself for a war many don’t want, with hospitals preparing for mass casualties and many thousands joining demonstrations across the country Friday to show solidarity with Palestinians.
“We are fully ready,” Hezbollah deputy chief Naim Qassem told a crowd gathered outside a southern Beirut mosque after Friday prayers.
Demands by the United States, the United Nations and other Arab countries “telling us not to interfere will have no effect,” Mr. Qassem declared, adding that Hezbollah is watching what Israel is doing.
“And when the time comes, we will enter the war,” he said. In response, the crowd roared labbayka, “we are ready.” Some carried Palestinian flags, while others held signs accusing Israel of brutality for blocking Gaza’s access to medicines.
“War is definitely coming,” said Mostafa Zaiter, a Lebanese lawyer and restaurant owner. He attended the Beirut rally to “support the Palestinians that are being massacred every day, women and children,” he said.
“We won’t let them fight the war by themselves,” he added. The crowd, at times, chanted “Death to Israel.”
Israel laid siege to Gaza after Hamas’s co-ordinated attacks on Oct. 7. On Friday, demonstrators across the Middle East gathered to show support for Palestinians after Hamas called for a “day of rage.”
In Jordan, security forces deployed tear gas after thousands marched toward the border with Israel. In Bahrain, protesters trampled Israeli and American flags. In Baghdad, hundreds of thousands gathered in Tahrir Square, chanting, “No to the occupation! No to America!”
These chants have not been matched by clear indications of an armed response from other countries, said Maha Yahya, director of the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut.
“The rhetoric is really high right now,” she said. “But to my mind, nobody really wants a full-blown escalation – local conflict that can become a regional conflict that in time actually will have global implications.”
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Hezbollah fighters stand guard on a building rooftop to protect their supporters during a protest to show their solidarity with the Palestinians, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, on Oct. 13.Hussein Malla/The Associated Press
Iran, in particular, has little incentive to place at risk the “family assets” it has spent decades building up across the region, she said, in part by arming and supporting groups like Hezbollah. Even the recent violence between Hezbollah and Israel has not led to a broader conflagration. “It has been controlled, to some extent,” she said. (Israeli Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told reporters the clashes have been “isolated incidents.”)
But much depends on what Israel does, and a large ground invasion into Gaza may change the calculus for others, Ms. Yahya said – even if it remains unclear what Israel would hope to secure with such a military operation.
“Because violence is only going to beget more violence,” she added.
In Lebanon, which is reeling from a financial crisis that has massively devalued its currency and impoverished its people, many hope they will not see a reprise of the 2006 fighting that killed more than 150 Israelis and more than 1,000 in Lebanon.
Ousama Saad, a Lebanese MP who was once allied with Hezbollah but has distanced himself from the group, was among those who attended a demonstration organized by Palestinians in the southern Lebanon city of Sidon.
“It’s better for Lebanon to give political support” than to make an armed response, he said.
Soon after, though, a group of young men walked past waving a Hamas flag and chanting, “We will give our lives for Aqsa,” a reference to the operational name for the Hamas attack on Oct. 7. Another group drew cheers as it slowly drove through the crowd displaying a mock rocket, like those manufactured by Hamas.
“It’s a message that they are willing to defend their land,” said Ahmad Al Batyah, a business student. He pledged to support Palestinians “with money, with prayers – and we will even go and fight side-to-side with them.”
Hezbollah supporters wave Lebanese, Palestinian and their group flags, as they hold pro-Gaza placards during a protest to show their solidarity with the Palestinians, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, on Oct. 13.Hussein Malla/The Associated Press
In Beirut, more tangible signs of preparation were visible at the St-Therese Medical Centre, a large private hospital. Administrators, doctors and nurses there have begun to ready their plan blanc, a set of procedures for triaging and treating patients in a major emergency. The plan was first drafted for the 2006 war.
The hospital has ordered double its normal stocks of medicine and sent home patients considered medically stable, to ensure it has open beds.
The hospital is located in Beirut’s southern suburbs, where Hezbollah is active.
“If anything is going to happen, it’s going to happen over here,” said Elie Hachem, the hospital’s executive director. “Sadly we are used to bad things – war and killings.”
Lebanon, he said, can’t take a war. “If we get bombarded, it will be very hard for us to come out of this – to rise again.”