Calls to leave Lebanon grow amid fears of military escalation

According to the Lebanese Ministry of Health, a “Israeli enemy strike” The airstrike that occurred on the night of Sunday 4 to Monday 5 August left two people dead in Houla, in the south of the country. On the Israeli side, sirens sounded again early Monday in Upper Galilee, due to an airstrike “from Lebanon”, the army said, reporting two soldiers injured. While cross-border violence between the Hebrew state and its northern neighbor has continued since the Hamas attack in Israel on October 7 and the start of the Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip, tensions have escalated further in recent days. In this context, France, Sweden, the United States, Great Britain, Jordan and Saudi Arabia called on their nationals to leave the country on Saturday. Follow our live coverage.

G7 foreign ministers meet by videoconference. “With our partners, we have expressed strong concern about recent events that threaten to lead to a regionalization of the crisis, starting with Lebanon”declared in a statement the head of Italian diplomacy, at the end of a videoconference, Saturday evening. Emmanuel Macron and the King of Jordan have for their part called to avoid “at all costs” a military escalation in the Middle East.

New deadly strikes in Gaza. On Saturday, the Civil Defense announced that an Israeli strike on two schools in Gaza City (north) sheltering displaced people had left at least 30 dead, “mainly women and children”The Israeli army confirmed that it had struck the school complex, which it said housed a Hamas command center. Before the strike, the Civil Defense and the Red Crescent had reported 16 Palestinians killed by Israeli shelling in Jabalia (north) and Deir al-Balah (center).

A knife attack near Tel Aviv. Near Tel Aviv, in the suburb of Holon, a stabbing attack carried out, according to police, by a resident of the occupied West Bank, killed a 66-year-old woman and an octogenarian. The assailant was “neutralized”, according to the same source.

• French residents in Iran invited to “temporarily leave the country”. The Foreign Ministry believes that there is a risk of closing Iranian airspace and airports. Two days earlier, Paris had already asked the French people passing through “who were still in Iran” to leave the country.


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