Women and children made up the majority of the 22 victims of an Israeli airstrike on the town of Aitou in northern Lebanon yesterday, according to reports to the United Nations.
Twelve women and two children are said to have been killed. The attack is said to have been aimed at a four-storey residential building. Jeremy Laurence, spokesperson for the UN human rights office, questions whether the laws of war are being followed and calls for an independent investigation.
The attack is the first to target a town in northern Lebanon with a Christian majority. AP writes that it is geographically far from the areas where the Iran-backed militia group Hezbollah mainly has its influence.
Israel's military has not commented on the incident or indicated a purpose for the attack, the news agency reports.
The Middle East Crisis • Israel-Hezbollah
Over 400,000 children have fled in three weeks in Lebanon
More than 400,000 children in Lebanon have been forced to flee in the past three weeks. This is stated by the UN according to the news agency AP.
Israel has stepped up attacks against Lebanon-based Hezbollah with airstrikes and ground invasions, after a year of cross-border fire. Ted Chaiban at Unicef warns of the consequences.
- 1.2 million children have been deprived of their education. Their public schools have either become inaccessible, damaged by the war or used as shelters. The last thing this country needs, on top of everything else it's been through, is the risk of a lost generation, says Chaiban.
More than 2,300 people in Lebanon have so far been killed in Israeli airstrikes, according to the country's health ministry. According to Chaiban, more than 100 children have been killed in the past three weeks and over 800 injured.
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The Middle East crisis • The Gaza war
"We don't know who has been killed and who is alive"
New Israeli attacks have killed at least 40 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, Reuters reports. Many of them have been killed in nighttime attacks in the south, writes TT.
At the same time, the Israeli forces' grip on Jabalia in northern Gaza is tightening. The military has surrounded the camp and sent tanks into the nearby towns of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun.
According to the UN, 400 000 Palestinians are stuck and cannot leave. The UN human rights office assesses that Israel's military seems to want to "cut off northern Gaza completely from the rest of the Gaza Strip".
Jabalia resident Ada al-Diqis told AP that his relatives tried to move on Tuesday morning but were fired upon by the military.
- We do not know who was killed and who is still alive.
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