For today, links to nine reports: from the Associated Press, Reuters, National Public Radio, Morning Star, and Truthout, and to commentary from ScheerPost; other published matter is accessible by clicking on their names or initials below. (UKRAINE entry for this date is HERE.) — MCM
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Israel strikes Lebanon, hitting Beirut suburbs and the north, by Melanie Lidman and Bassem Mroue | AP TEL AVIV — Israel expanded its bombardment in Lebanon today, hitting Beirut’s southern suburbs with 12 airstrikes and striking a Palestinian refugee camp deep in northern Lebanon for the first time. READ MORE . . .
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Israel expands airstrikes to north Lebanon as people try to flee from the south. Reported by Jane Arraf and Scott Simon | NPR People in Lebanon are fleeing Israeli airstrikes in the south but Israel has now conducted strikes in the north as well. Click HERE to listen and read.
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A Hamas official is killed in an Israeli strike on a refugee camp. From AP. An Israeli strike on a refugee camp in north Lebanon has killed Hamas official Saeed Atallah Ali and his family, the militant group said today. The early morning strike came a day after another Israeli airstrike cut off a main highway linking Lebanon with Syria. READ MORE . . .
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Nasrallah’s possible successor out of contact since Friday, Lebanese source says, by Maya Gebeily, Timour Azhari and Maayan Lubell | Reuters BEIRUT / JERUSALEM —The potential successor to slain Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has been out of contact since Friday, a Lebanese security source said today, after an Israeli airstrike that is reported to have targeted him. READ MORE . . .
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FROM OCT. 3 Hezbollah leader agreed to ceasefire hours before assassination, Lebanese foreign minister says. From Morning Star. Hezbollah agreed to a ceasefire hours before its leader Hassan Nasrallah was assassinated in an Israel air strike on Beirut, Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said on Thursday in an interview with Christiane Amanpour on US broadcaster CNN. READ MORE . . . Click HERE for report from Truthout.
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FROM OCT. 4 Israeli politician and retired general reflects on a year of war. Reported by Mary Louise Kelly, Michael Levitt and Courtney Dorning | NPR Yair Golan, an Israeli general now in the reserves talks about how conflicts in the Middle East have escalated since Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7, 2023. Click HERE to listen and read.
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The strikes in Lebanon may be helping Netanyahu’s popularity as a wartime leader. Reported by Scott Simon of NPR asks reporter Anshel Pfeffer, author of the biography “Bibi,” how Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is navigating this moment of conflict in the Middle East. Click HERE to listen and, later, read.
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FROM OCT. 4 U.S. citizens are advised to leave Lebanon amid conflict with Israel. Reported by Matt Ozug, Juana Summers and Justine Kenin | NPR Israel’s airstrikes in Lebanon have forced more and more people from their homes. The U.S. State Department is urging American citizens in Lebanon to leave the country all together. Click HERE to listen and, later, read.
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FROM OCT. 3 ‘Who do you want to win?’ by Patrick Lawrence | Original to ScheerPost A piece by a Times of London columnist merits careful consideration. Matthew Syed titles his commentary, “Israel–Hezbollah conflict hinges on a crude question: Who do you want to win?” He proposes we consider Israel’s barbarities another case of the West against the rest. Russia will invade Europe when it finished in Ukraine. China . . . READ MORE . . .