Arab League holds emergency meeting to discuss Israeli offensive on Lebanon

By Ibrahim al-Khazen

ISTANBUL (AA) – The Arab League held an emergency meeting in Cairo on Thursday to discuss the ongoing Israeli attacks on Lebanon amid rising regional tensions.

The meeting was called by Iraq to discuss “the Israeli military escalation against Lebanon, its humanitarian repercussions and means of providing medical and food aid to those affected,” according to Egypt’s state news agency MENA.

Participants will discuss issuing a call for the international community “to stand by the Lebanese people and contribute with international organizations to deliver urgent aid as quickly as possible," MENA said.

Israel has launched massive airstrikes since Sept. 23 on what it calls Hezbollah targets across Lebanon that have killed so far more than 1,100 victims, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.

The aerial campaign was an escalation in yearlong cross-border warfare between Israel and Hezbollah since the start of Tel Aviv’s brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip that has killed nearly 41,800 people, mostly women and children, since a Hamas attack last year.

At least 1,928 people have since been killed, over 9,200 injured, and 1.2 million others displaced, according to Lebanese authorities.

The international community has warned that Israeli attacks in Lebanon could escalate the Gaza conflict into a wider regional war.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar