BEIRUT: The Israeli military on Sunday called for the evacuation of the Baalbek area in eastern Lebanon, warning that it was ready to strike Hezbollah targets there and in nearby Douris. The latest evacuation call came as the military's Home Front Command activated sirens at regular intervals along the border as dozens of projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanon into Israeli territory since Sunday morning.
The military said its forces continued to carry out "targeted raids" in southern Lebanon aimed at eliminating Hezbollah fighters. "You are currently located near the facilities and assets associated with Hezbollah, which the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) will be targeting in the near future," the Israeli military's Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a post on X addressed to residents of Baalbek and Douris. The Israeli air force intercepted several projectiles that were fired from Lebanon into Israeli territory, while some fell in open areas, the military said in a statement.
Israel and the Lebanese armed movement Hezbollah have been locked in a deadly war since September 23 that has killed more than 1,900 people in Lebanon, according to Lebanese health ministry figures. Israel's military says 38 soldiers have been killed in the Lebanon campaign since it began ground operations on September 30.
Meanwhile in Gaza, the World Health Organization said four children were among six people wounded on Saturday in a strike on a polio vaccination centre. "We have received an extremely concerning report that the Sheikh Radwan primary health care centre in northern Gaza was struck today while parents were bringing their children to the life-saving polio vaccination in an area where a humanitarian pause was agreed to allow vaccination to proceed," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. "Six people, including four children, were injured."
Tedros did not specify who carried out the strike but a source in Gaza's civil defence agency said that it was "an Israeli quadcopter that fired two missiles which hit the wall of Sheikh Radwan clinic". The WHO launched the second round of child polio vaccinations in northern Gaza on Saturday after Israeli bombing halted an earlier attempt.
"A WHO team was at the site just before" Saturday's strike, Tedros said. "This attack, during humanitarian pause, jeopardises the sanctity of health protection for children and may deter parents from bringing their children for vaccination," he added. The WHO says some 119,000 children in the north are awaiting their second dose, while 452,000 have been vaccinated in central and southern Gaza. — AFP
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