Israel’s airstrikes on Lebanon are hitting people indiscriminately killing numerous innocent civilians with many of those attacks being premeditated, Lebanese Minister of Health Dr. Firass Abiad told Al Arabiya News on Wednesday.
“(…) when you look at the targeting of, you know, for example, healthcare professionals or healthcare vehicles, I mean, we’ve reported on Monday the attack on 19 ambulances and firefighting engines. Now, Israel cannot claim that it doesn’t have good intelligence on what’s happening in Lebanon. They seem to have excellent intelligence on what’s happening,” he said during an interview on GNT with Rosanna Lockwood.
On the same show, Itamar Rabinovich, former Israeli Ambassador to the US and Chief Negotiator with Syria from 1993 to 1996, contradicted that accusation saying that the Iran-backed Hezbollah group was in fact using the civilian population as human shields.
“(…) part of the tactics of organizations like Hezbollah and Hamas is to embed themselves in the midst of civilian populations and institutions in an effort to protect themselves or to make it more difficult for the other side to deal with them. That’s been the case for more than 20 years now,” Rabinovich said.
Abiad for his part earlier rebuked that claim repeatedly made by Israeli representative calling it baseless and further accusing the Israeli side of blatant lies.
“And here in Lebanon, some of what they are saying, for example, you know, people hiding cruise missiles in their homes. I mean, that is an insult to our intelligence, to be honest, just to think that people can hide these weapons in their homes. Or, for example, when they’ve hit today… a Christian area which is politically diametrically opposite to Hezbollah and say that Hezbollah is using that particular area to hide its weapons.”
No end in sight
Since last week, Israel has launched airstrikes on targets in the Lebanese capital Beirut and the south of Lebanon which is a major stronghold of Hezbollah. The strikes have killed over 600 people, wounded thousands and displaced tens of thousands.
The airstrikes followed two series of explosions of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah members killing at least 39 and wounding around 3000. Although Israel has refused to comment on the explosions, the Middle Eastern country was widely accused of being behind them.
Abiad further stressed the efforts undertaken by Lebanon for a ceasefire but said that he was not optimistic about it being implemented in the foreseeable future blaming the Israeli side.
“Unfortunately, I believe that the Israelis have made their intentions clear. It’s clear that they are intent on escalating, and therefore, we need to prepare for the worst.”
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