Civilians feel nowhere is safe as Israel expands and intensifies strikes in Lebanon

Israel is stepping up its bombardment of Gaza and Lebanon as it wages a multi-front war against Hamas and Hezbollah. In southern Lebanon, an Israeli airstrike on a century-old market killed one person and wounded several others, as Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu called for the withdrawal of U.N. peacekeepers from the region. John Yang speaks to special correspondent Leila Molana-Allen in Beirut.

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John Yang: Good evening. I’m John Yang. The Pentagon said today it’s sending Israel in an advanced missile defense system and the 100 U.S. troops needed to operate it. The announcement came just hours after Iran warned the United States to keep forces out of Israel.

The move bolsters Israel’s protection against a missile barrage like the one Iran launched two weeks ago. It comes as Israel steps up its assault on Gaza and Lebanon. In Gaza, late today, at least 13 people died when a tank shelled a school sheltering displaced people.

Overnight in central Gaza, an airstrike killed a family of eight, including six children. Israel warned people in northern Gaza to leave, but residents say there’s nowhere to go, and they’re running out of supplies.

In southern Lebanon today, an Israeli air strike on a century old market killed one person and wounded several others. Israel said it struck more than 200 Hezbollah targets as it told more villages to evacuate. Doctors in southern Lebanon report an increase in premature births due to stress. Mothers worry about the effects on newborns.

Tahani Yassine, Patient: It’s very difficult on the pregnant mothers listening to war and the noise they listen to because this stresses the baby as well. If they give birth in that situation, the baby will suffer from stress. The mother will be depressed and will suffer from health problems. Maybe the pollution in the air can affect the baby. If one could not be in the country, they would leave.

John Yang: Late today in central Israel, rescue services say a drone attack injured about 40 people, three of them critically. It’s one of those serious attacks on Israel in a year of war. Hezbollah has claimed responsibility. Special correspondent Leila Molana-Allen has been following all of this from Beirut.

Leila, I know there was an unusual bombing in central Beirut on Thursday, and you went to see the aftermath. What did you see?

Leila Molana-Allen: I did initially, when we were seeing strikes in Beirut, they were all, of course, in the southern suburbs that are run by Hezbollah here. That has changed in the past week. We’ve seen a few strikes in central Beirut, but this series of strikes on Friday. Really was a new front in this war, an incredibly central area, really just half a mile from where I’m standing right now. I’m right next to the Lebanese Parliament buildings and several western embassies.

It happened just after eight o’clock at night on Thursday night, and several high rise residential apartment blocks in this area were hit. One was brought completely to the ground. 12 levels of apartments. 22 people were killed, 120 injured, very severe injuries. And what made it even worse was that many people who’d evacuated from the south of Lebanon, which is being hit heavily, had come to this area because they thought they were safe there because nobody ever imagined this area would be struck.

The man that Israel says they were trying to target, Wafiq Safa, he survived this attack. They weren’t able to get him. He wasn’t where they thought they were that he would be which, of course, again, raises questions both over how good their intelligence is, but also whether it’s legitimate to target this many civilians to be able to get one Hezbollah operative.

The reality for the civilians in that area, desperate grandmothers, mothers, fathers, children killed and wounded. Parents killed and wounded. I was walking through the rubble of childhood bedrooms. The level to which civilians are now suffering and on the run in this country is escalating by the day. And really, people feel that there’s nowhere safe for them to go inside Lebanon.

JJohn Yang: Israel, not only expanding the area where it’s bombing, but intensifying the attacks in southern Lebanon. What’s the situation down there?

Leila Molana-Allen: The situation now is really something that looks like a moonscape. I know these towns and villages in the South of Lebanon very well. It’s a densely populated part of the country, agricultural landscape, huge mix of Shia, Sunni, Christian villages across that southern area, very important agricultural land.

We’ve now seen today the destruction in Nabatieh, one of the major towns in the south, of more than 100 year old soups there, sukhamis (ph), where all the farmers would come to bring their wares. Also a century old mosque there as well. These areas are being completely flattened, and we’ve seen footage from drones. It’s very hard to access the area because the strikes are happening so heavily, and the IDF have warned that any car driving south now is at risk of being targeting with no permissions made for either the Lebanese Armed Forces or medics or journalists.

The entire population of southern Lebanon, a third of the country has now been asked to leave, told to evacuate, told it’s not safe to go home until the IDF says they can. Now, of course, Lebanon is sovereign territory, but the issue also there is that they are now seeing that their homes have been completely flattened and there will be nothing for them to go back to.

John Yang: In southern Lebanon, some U.N. peacekeepers have been wounded in the fighting. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that they are human shields for Hezbollah and wants them — says they should be withdrawn. What’s the reaction from the UN?

Leila Molana-Allen: The reaction from the U.N. has been anger and frustration. So the reason these uniform troops are there. They’ve been there nearly 50 years, but in this current iteration, they’ve been there since 2006 the end of the war between Lebanon and Israel. They were a key part of ending that war, and they’re there for three major reasons.

Firstly, to try and get Hezbollah to lay down their weapons and withdraw further up the country, and to allow the Lebanese armed forces to be the main authority in the South of Lebanon. What we’ve seen over the last week is Israeli tanks embedding — bedding down next to uniform bases and then starting to fire on those bases. Several peacekeepers have been injured. They also breached compound, a uniform compound, yesterday and today, and entered inside.

Now, that’s completely against international law. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement saying that the U.N. must withdraw its peacekeepers for the risk to their lives. But they are saying, no, we’re here under international mandate. We’re here to try and deconflict. It’s actually your responsibility under this agreement, both for Israel and Lebanon, to keep these peacekeepers safe, and if they withdraw, that’s the last chance for any form of international mediation in the south.

So thus far, they’re staying there, but they’re extremely concerned about the safety of these peacekeepers, because they’re not allowed to fight back.

John Yang: The news that the United States is sending the sophisticated missile defense system and the soldiers, the U.S. soldiers, to operate it. How is it going to complicate things to have us boots on the ground, and sort of the talks about a ceasefire?

Leila Molana-Allen: So firstly, in terms of the missile defense system, that in itself doesn’t really complicate this conflict further, in fact, firstly, that’s very clearly defensive. Most people would agree that nobody is looking for Israeli citizens to try and to be injured in this situation. So providing increased defensive capability to Israel to protect its people, to make it feel less threatened, to ideally mean that it will deescalate its hostilities in Lebanon because its people are safer can only be a good thing.

However, that isn’t all that the United States are supplying. They’ve just agreed to another $8.7 billion in military aid to Israel, at about half of which will be used for further military procurement. But then they also said that they’re going to give $157 million to Lebanon to deal with the displacement crisis and the damage to the infrastructure.

So we’re now in this extremely odd situation where the United States is both funding the bombs which are devastating Lebanon, and then funding the reconstruction and the crisis response.

John Yang: Leila Molana-Allen in Beirut tonight. Thank you very much.

Leila Molana-Allen: Thanks. John.