Israel-Hamas war latest: With nearly 700 killed in a week, Lebanon fears Gaza-level violence

 Jerusalem: Nearly 700 people have been killed in Lebanon this week, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.

 Israel has dramatically escalated strikes, saying it is targeting Hezbollah’s military capacities and senior Hezbollah commanders.

Top Israeli officials have threatened to repeat the destruction of Gaza in Lebanon if the Hezbollah fire continues, raising fears that Israel’s actions in Gaza since October 7 would be repeated in Lebanon.

The International Organisation for Migration estimated on Thursday that more than 200,000 people have been displaced in Lebanon since Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel in support of Hamas after it stormed into Israel, sparking the Israel-Hamas war.

Lebanon says a total of 1,540 people have been killed within its borders in that time.

The United States, France and other allies jointly called for a 21-day cease-fire. Lebanon’s foreign minister said the country welcomed the cease-fire efforts, and decried Israel’s “systematic destruction of Lebanese border villages”.

Israeli military vehicles were seen transporting tanks and armoured vehicles toward the country’s northern border with Lebanon, and commanders have issued a call-up of reservists. Netanyahu says Israel is striking Hezbollah “with full force” and won’t stop until its goals are achieved.

 Here’s the latest:

 Israeli military reports more strikes from Lebanon

 JERUSALEM — Incoming fire from Lebanon into Israel continued Friday, with one man suffering wounds from shrapnel.

The Israeli military said four drones came across the border Friday, all of which were intercepted. Earlier Friday, the Israeli miltiary said another 10 projectiles came into Israel from Lebanon, with some intercepted and others falling into open fields.

Hezbollah claimed it had targeted the Israeli city of Tiberias with missiles.

Israeli strike in Syria kills 5 soldiers

 DAMASCUS — An overnight Israeli airstrike on a military site in the area of Kfar Yabous in Syria near the border with Lebanon killed five Syrian army soldiers and injured another, Syrian state news agency SANA reported Friday, citing an unnamed military official.

Israel’s military did not immediately acknowledge the strike. Israel regularly targets military sites in Syria and facilities linked to Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah but rarely acknowledges them.

Those strikes have become more frequent as Hezbollah has exchanged fire with Israeli forces for the past 11 months against the backdrop of Israel’s war against Hamas — a Hezbollah ally — in Gaza.

Tens of thousands of Lebanese and Syrians have fled across the border from Lebanon into Syria since the beginning of the week amid intense Israeli bombardment that Israel says is targeting Hezbollah militants and weapons. The strikes have killed an estimated 700 people to date, including at least 150 women and children.

 Trade unions file claim at UN for Palestinian workers

 GENEVA — A group of international trade unions on Friday filed a complaint against Israel at the UN’s labour organisation in a bid to win compensatation for 200,000 Palestinians who have gone unpaid or seen their benefits withheld after the October 7 attacks.

The nine unions say the workers from both Gaza and the West Bank had been employed in Israel before the deadly attacks by armed militants, but were barred from entering to go to their jobs afterward.

 As a result, the workers and their familites have faced millions of dollars’ worth of lost income, financial insecurity and no access to remedies through the courts, they said.

“These workers have experienced widespread wage theft due to the suspension of work permits and the unilateral termination of their contracts,” said a joint statement from the unions, whose members are active in industries as diverse as construction, education, journalism, agriculture, hospitality and transportation.

The filing at the International Labor Organization in Geneva, of which Israel is a member country, is based on language in its constitution that seeks to ensure that countries uphold international commitments they have already made.

Such economic woes that many Palestinians have faced come on top of the bloodshed, displacement and other troubles faced by Gaza and the West Bank as Israel continues its campaign against armed Palestinian militants.

 Israeli strike kills a family of 9 in a Lebanese border town, authorities say

 BEIRUT — Authorities in Lebanon say a family of nine was killed in an Israeli airstrike in a town near the border with Israel.

The state-run National News Agency reported the deaths in the strike early Friday in Shebaa. It put the strike at 3 a.M. Local.

The report offered no other details and the Israeli military did not immediately acknowledge the strike.

The Philippines is preparing to evacuate thousands of its citizens from Lebanon

 MANILA — The Philippine government is bracing to evacuate thousands of Filipino workers in Lebanon in case the deadly conflict between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group further escalates, Philippine officials said on Friday.

More than 11,000 Filipinos live and work in Lebanon, often as house cleaners. Philippine officials have not yet ordered a mandatory evacuation of its citizens because it was not yet clear whether a full-scale war would erupt, including an Israeli ground attack.

Many Filipinos were adamant not to leave their jobs in Lebanon and return to uncertainties at home, but they have been told to be ready to evacuate any time, Foreign Undersecretary Eduardo De Vega told a news briefing in Manila.

They say “it’s better for them to die in war than to die of hunger”, De Vega said. But he added without elaborating that the Philippine government prepared a contingency plan for a massive evacuation if widespread ground fighting erupts across Lebanon.

Philippine Ambassador to Lebanon Raymond Balatbat told reporters in Manila via video on Friday that many Filipinos there “will only decide to leave when the situation is so bad, when the war is at their doorsteps”.