International

Gaza: Israel expands war on medics to south Lebanon, rights group alleges

Published

2 years ago

June 4, 2024

Gaza: Israel expands war on medics to south Lebanon, rights group alleges

Most evenings in al-Habbariyeh, a small town in southern Lebanon’s verdant hills, the young volunteers of the Lebanese Emergency and Relief Corps centre liked to get together to play cards or share an argileh (hookah).

On March 26, a clear, brisk night, Abdullah Sharif Atwi, Abdulrahman al-Shaar, Ahmad al-Shaar, Baraa Abu Qais, Hussein al-Shaar, Muhammad al-Farouq Atwi and Muhammad Ragheed Hammoud were in the second-floor hangout.

The Israeli drones hovered overhead, they had been going all day and now their sound was fading almost into the background.

The group was in high spirits, taking videos of themselves and joking about.

About half an hour after midnight, just into March 27, Israel hit the centre with an air strike, levelling the two-storey building.

“People from the village ran down to see what happened,” Ali Noureddine, a journalist and activist from al-Habbariyeh, told Al Jazeera. “It’s a small village,” he said. “We’re all one family.”

The seven young men had been killed and four others badly injured.

Most of the 18-to-25-year-olds had been students.

Hunted health workers

Israel killed a total of 17 people in three different towns just that day, 10 of them medical workers.

The attack made March 27 the deadliest day for medical workers in south Lebanon.

An attack on a cafe in Ras al-Naqoura killed a medical worker from Amal’s Al-Risala Scouts and three others, including one Amal member.

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The third attack that day was in Tayr Harfa which killed two paramedics from Hezbollah’s Islamic Health Association along with four Hezbollah fighters.

The Israeli army spokesperson said the al-Habbariyeh attack successfully targeted a “significant terrorist” in al-Jamaa al-Islamiya.

“They didn’t say who the ‘terrorist’ was,” Mahyaddine Qarhani, director of the Lebanese Emergency and Relief Corps’ Ambulance Association, told Al Jazeera.

Investigations by human rights organisations found no evidence of military activity or fighters on-site.

Human Rights Watch called for the al-Habbariyeh attack to be investigated as a war crime as leading rights groups currently investigate other Israeli attacks on medical workers.

Hezbollah and Israel have been trading attacks across the border since October 8, the day after Israel launched its war on Gaza in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack on Israel in which 1,139 people were killed and about 240 others taken captive.

More than 92,600 people have been displaced from southern Lebanon by the relentless Israeli attacks, according to the International Organization for Migration.

The people still in the south are vulnerable, like the elderly and lower-income people who rely on the medical services the Lebanese Emergency and Relief Corps provides.

Like many services in the country, Lebanon’s healthcare is mostly privatised as the Ministry of Public Health relies on private groups and NGOs to fill the gaps.

The medical situation in Lebanon was already deeply affected by a five-year-old economic crisis, with 80 percent of the population below the poverty line.

Now, the south is also contending with war and with its few medical workers and facilities being targeted by Israel.

Data on the attacks on south Lebanon are hard to find, with locals saying many incidents go unreported.

Al Jazeera collected data from monitoring groups indicating at least 18 Israeli attacks on medical personnel and facilities, resulting in the deaths of 20 health workers, as of May 31.

They include members of Lebanon’s civil defence and health workers for the medical branches of Hezbollah, the Amal Movement and al-Jamaa al-Islamiya.

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Each group has an armed wing engaging with the Israeli military but their healthcare workers are protected by international humanitarian law.

This protection as medical workers lapses only if they participate in military activities.

There has been no evidence that this was the case in any of the attacks on medical workers, multiple sources, including representatives of leading human rights and monitoring agencies, told Al Jazeera.

None of the attacks showed “evidence of any association with the armed wing of these groups”, Ameneh Mehvar, a Middle East specialist at ACLED, told Al Jazeera.

Possible war crimes

The attacks on medical workers in southern Lebanon have gone largely unreported, although they are contributing to significantly degrading the quality of life for the people left there.

Medical personnel cannot be targeted “even if they’re close to military targets”, Shane Darcy, a professor at the Irish Centre for Human Rights, told Al Jazeera.

“Even if there is a Hezbollah [fighter] present, the principle of proportionality means [Israel’s military] has to weigh the impact on civilian proportionality,” a source at a renowned human rights organisation told Al Jazeera, speaking on background.

There is no exact formula for proportionality, Darcy said, but targeting or killing civilians deliberately is a crime.

“There’s a lot of danger [for medical workers],” Dr Wahida Ghalayni, who works at the Ministry of Public Health, told Al Jazeera. “These are direct attacks [on them].”

The pattern of Israel’s lack of accountability and continued attacks leave Lebanon’s medical workers feeling Israel is directly targeting them.

A day before the al-Habbariyeh attack, on March 26, an Israeli air raid hit Tayr Harfa’s civil defence centre, injuring four health workers.

Then two Hezbollah paramedics “were killed in a second strike on the same location during the same day”, according to data collected by ACLED.

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“This is nothing new,” Rabieh Issa, civil defence commissioner for Al-Risala Scouts, told Al Jazeera.

“We don’t normally deploy until 15 minutes after the first hit because they hit again and again. So, for our own security, we wait a bit.”

But it is not only warplanes that the hunted medical personnel need to look out for.

On March 21, Israeli warplanes struck Yarine during fighting with Hezbollah, according to ACLED.

Israel said they were targeting Hezbollah’s military infrastructure but that does not explain why ambulances that rushed in after the attack came under “heavy machinegun fire” from the Israelis.

And there are many more incidents.

On March 4, a medical centre in the Al-Ouwayni neighbourhood of Odaisseh was hit by an Israeli air raid, killing three Hezbollah-affiliated health workers. On February 22, four people from Lebanon’s civil defence were killed in air attacks on Blida. On January 11, two medics were killed in the southern town of Hanin when Israeli jets struck the Islamic Health Society building.

Israel claims it is attacking “Hezbollah cells”. But in many of its attacks on medical workers or facilities, no fighters were killed.

In April, media outlet +972mag reported on Lavender, an artificial intelligence (AI)-supported system Israel uses to select targets for assassination and calculate “acceptable civilian loss” for each killing.

For a low-level Hamas operative, the Israeli army determined that 15-20 civilian deaths are permissible, while “the army on several occasions authorised the killing of more than 100 civilians in the assassination of a single commander”.

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“I’d find it hard for any international humanitarian lawyer to say that’s an acceptable application of proportionality,” Darcy said. “Those are possible war crimes.”

Gaps in the south

Back in al-Habbariyeh, the Israeli attack has left a big hole in the community.

“We’re a small village … all grieving,” Noureddine, who used to visit friends at the centre, said.

“Israel hits whoever they want. I don’t know if tomorrow someone else will die or not.”

But the decimated team has also left a big gap in the community’s medical care.

The Emergency and Relief Corps suspended operations in al-Habbariyeh after the attack, fearing that moving operations would simply attract attacks on civilians in other neighbourhoods.

“We can’t work in that area anymore,” Qarhani said. “Nobody knows why they hit the centre but it’s completely destroyed.”

The outskirts of al-Habbariyeh have been hit as recently as a month ago.

“Israel is still hitting us and if we make a new centre they’ll come and bomb it again,” Noureddine said. “They’re hitting civilians and we don’t have people whose lives we can simply sacrifice.”

“The Americans give Israelis weapons and hit us with them and no one will hold them accountable or will even look at what they’re doing,” Noureddine said.

“No one is held accountable for Israel’s attacks.”

Gaza: Israel expands war on medics to south Lebanon, rights group alleges

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

International

Five Arrested Near US-Used RAF Fairford in UK Terror Probe

Published

8 hours ago

September 27, 2026

Trends Admin

Five Arrested Near US-Used RAF Fairford in UK Terror Probe

British police have arrested five men near RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire over suspected explosives offences, with the suspects subsequently detained on suspicion of preparing a terrorist act.

The arrests followed a report at about 12:45 a.m. on Sunday, September 27, 2026, concerning three suspicious vehicles that appeared to be travelling towards the air base. Armed officers responded and arrested the five men in the nearby Whelford area.

According to Counter Terrorism Policing, the men were initially arrested on suspicion of offences under the Explosives Act before being further arrested on suspicion of preparing a terrorist act contrary to Section 5 of the Terrorism Act. All five remained in custody as investigators continued gathering evidence.

The incident prompted authorities to declare a major incident, with about 85 households evacuated from Whelford as a precaution.

The evacuated residents were taken to a nearby leisure centre while police established a cordon around the vehicles. The Army’s specialist explosive ordnance disposal team was deployed to examine the vehicles and assess any potential threat.

Counter Terrorism Policing said the investigation was still in its early stages and that officers were working with Gloucestershire Police and other agencies to establish the circumstances surrounding the incident.

Police have not publicly confirmed that an attack on RAF Fairford was planned or that the suspects had entered the military installation. Investigators are examining why the vehicles were in the area and what materials, if any, were associated with them.

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The investigation is particularly significant because RAF Fairford is a British military air base used by the United States Air Force. The installation hosts US military personnel and has been used by American aircraft during operations connected with the conflict involving Iran.

The US Air Force said its personnel at Fairford remained vigilant but declined to disclose specific force-protection measures for operational security reasons.

The security operation involved armed police, roadblocks and specialist bomb-disposal personnel. A 400-metre cordon was established around the vehicles while the evacuation was carried out.

Investigators are expected to examine the vehicles, materials and other evidence recovered during the operation as they seek to establish whether there was a planned attack and, if so, its intended target and motive.

The arrests have drawn additional attention because of heightened security around US military installations in Britain. RAF Fairford has become strategically important because of its use by US forces during the conflict involving Iran.

However, British authorities have not publicly linked the five suspects to Iran, any other state or a particular extremist organisation. Any claims about their motive or intended target remain subject to investigation.

The US military has said it remains in close coordination with British authorities and continues to take appropriate measures to protect its personnel and facilities.

British officials have said the incident is believed to be contained, although a substantial security presence is expected to remain in the area while investigators complete their work.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Vicki Evans, the UK Counter Terrorism Policing senior national coordinator, said investigators were still working to establish what happened.

The five men remain in custody and have not been convicted of any offence. The allegations against them will have to be tested through the British legal process as the UK counter-terrorism investigation continues.

Five Arrested Near US-Used RAF Fairford in UK Terror Probe

International

Iran Claims Capture of Second US Underwater Drone in Strait of Hormuz

Published

9 hours ago

September 27, 2026

Trends Admin

Iran Claims Capture of Second US Underwater Drone in Strait of Hormuz

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has claimed that its naval forces captured a second U.S. unmanned underwater vehicle in the strategically important Strait of Hormuz, accusing the vehicle of conducting surveillance activities in the waterway.

The IRGC Navy said on Sunday, September 27, that the Remus 600 autonomous underwater vehicle was intercepted during what it described as a complex operation involving intelligence capabilities and electronic warfare.

According to the Iranian military, the vehicle was operating in the Strait of Hormuz for what it described as espionage purposes when it was captured.

The IRGC said the underwater drone has been handed over to specialists who are working to retrieve and examine information stored on the system. (Arab News)

The claim represents the second reported Iranian capture of a U.S. underwater drone in September, following an earlier incident involving a much larger Dive-LD autonomous underwater vehicle.

On September 8, Iran said its forces had captured the Dive-LD at the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz. The IRGC subsequently released images of the vehicle and described it as an advanced U.S. military unmanned submarine.

The U.S. military acknowledged around that time that one of its underwater drones had malfunctioned while operating in regional waters but did not publicly confirm that Iran had captured it. Reuters footage from the incident showed the vehicle identified by Iran as a Dive-LD. (Reuters Connect)

The latest vehicle, the Remus 600, is substantially smaller than the Dive-LD. It is an autonomous underwater system designed to operate without a crew and can be configured for a range of underwater missions.

Available technical information indicates that the Remus 600 can operate at depths of up to about 600 metres and can remain underwater for extended periods, depending on its configuration and operating conditions.

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The system can be equipped for missions including seabed mapping, mine detection and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR). Its modular design also allows different sensors and equipment to be fitted according to mission requirements.

Reports indicate that the vehicle is about 3.25 metres long and can operate autonomously for up to about 70 hours on a single charge, although actual endurance depends on mission configuration and conditions. (Seoul Economic Daily)

Iran’s latest announcement comes amid heightened military tensions surrounding the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway connecting the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman.

The strait is strategically important to global energy markets because of the large volume of oil and gas shipments that traditionally pass through it.

The ongoing conflict in the region has severely disrupted commercial shipping through the waterway. Iran has said it considers the strait closed and has warned against what it describes as dangerous or unauthorised activity.

In its latest statement, the IRGC again declared the Strait of Hormuz closed and said it would respond to what it considers dangerous movements or unauthorised passage. (ایرنا)

The United States has not publicly provided a detailed account of the latest alleged seizure, leaving important questions about the circumstances of the incident unresolved.

In particular, it remains unclear when and where the Remus 600 was deployed, what mission it was conducting, whether it was operating under direct U.S. military control at the time and how Iranian forces allegedly took possession of it.

Iran’s assertion that the vehicle was conducting espionage also remains an Iranian military claim and has not been independently established.

The seizure claim nevertheless highlights the growing importance of autonomous underwater vehicles in modern military and maritime operations.

Such systems can conduct surveillance, map underwater terrain, detect mines and gather information without placing personnel aboard a conventional submarine.

The reported Iranian effort to retrieve data from the Remus 600 could also provide Tehran with an opportunity to examine the vehicle’s sensors, navigation systems and other technologies if the equipment is intact.

The significance of any information Iran could obtain from the system would depend on the condition of the vehicle and the amount of recoverable data and technology.

The latest development comes as Iran-US tensions remain high over the Strait of Hormuz, with Tehran and Washington pursuing opposing positions on access to the waterway.

For now, the capture of the Remus 600 remains a claim by Iran, while the absence of a detailed U.S. account means that several aspects of the incident cannot yet be independently confirmed.

Iran Claims Capture of Second US Underwater Drone in Strait of Hormuz

International

Milei Slams UN as ‘Useless’ Over Falklands Dispute

Published

4 days ago

September 24, 2026

Trends Admin

Argentine President Javier Milei

Milei Slams UN as ‘Useless’ Over Falklands Dispute

Argentine President Javier Milei has criticised the United Nations, describing the organisation as “useless” and accusing it of failing to make progress on the longstanding Falkland Islands sovereignty dispute between Argentina and the United Kingdom.

Milei made the remarks on Wednesday, September 23, while addressing the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York. He used the speech to renew Argentina’s claim to the islands, which Argentina calls the Malvinas, and demand a peaceful resolution to the dispute.

The Argentine president accused the UN of failing to act on resolutions concerning the Falklands and said the organisation had effectively “looked the other way” while the dispute remained unresolved.

Milei pointed particularly to UN General Assembly Resolution 31/49, adopted in 1976, which called on Argentina and the UK to refrain from unilateral actions that could complicate the sovereignty dispute while negotiations continued. The UN has repeatedly called on both countries to pursue negotiations for a peaceful and lasting settlement.

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The dispute has gained fresh attention amid tensions over offshore oil exploration around the Falkland Islands. Argentina has objected to British-backed oil activities in the area and recently introduced measures aimed at increasing sanctions against companies involved in activities it considers unauthorised.

The UK, however, maintains that the Falkland Islands are British and says the islanders have the right to determine their own future and develop their natural resources. The British government has also rejected Argentine pressure on companies involved in economic activities around the islands.

Milei reaffirmed Argentina’s position that the Falklands are Argentine territory and called for the UK to return to negotiations. He stressed that Argentina’s claim would be pursued peacefully.

The disagreement over the islands dates back decades and led to the Falklands War in 1982, when Argentina invaded the territory and Britain sent military forces to retake it. The conflict ended with Argentina’s surrender after about 10 weeks.

The islands have remained under British administration since then, while Argentina has continued to press its sovereignty claim through diplomatic and international channels.

Beyond the Falklands dispute, Milei used his UN address to criticise the organisation’s broader role in international affairs. He accused the UN of failing to adequately address collective security, human rights, conflict and terrorism, arguing that it had become ineffective in dealing with major global crises.

His latest remarks come as Argentina and the UK remain divided over sovereignty, negotiations and the development of natural resources around the islands. While Buenos Aires continues to demand negotiations over sovereignty, London maintains its position that the Falkland Islanders’ right to self-determination must be respected.

Milei’s intervention has therefore brought the Falklands dispute back into focus at the UN, with the disagreement now also linked to the increasingly contentious issue of offshore oil exploration.