Beirut, Lebanon - October 02, 2024

Lebanese Environment Minister Nasser Yassin has urged Israel to "stop the insanity of war" on Lebanon and denounced the indiscriminate Israeli attacks as "genocidal".

Yassin said the intensified Israeli bombardment and ground offensive against Lebanon in the past two weeks has triggered an "unprecedented" displacement of the Lebanese population that is akin to the devastating aftermath of a major earthquake.

Lebanon is in urgent need of whatever humanitarian assistance it can get to help the massive number of civilians driven away from their homes, said the minister.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday delivered a video message to Lebanese civilians, in which he called on them to "save Lebanon" from the hands of Hezbollah or face the "destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza".

Responding to this threat, Yassin said Israel is committing war crimes in Lebanon, despite what it claimed to be "limited, localized and targeted ground raids" against Hezbollah targets.

Since Oct. 8, 2023, the ongoing Israeli air and ground raids have killed 2,141 people and injured 10,099 others in Lebanon alone as of Tuesday, according to the Lebanese health ministry.

Shotlist:
Beirut, Lebanon - Oct 2, 2024:
1. Various of smoke rising from rubble, damaged buildings, vehicle, civilians;
Beirut, Lebanon - Oct 9, 2024
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Nasser Yassin, Lebanese Environment Minister:
"The most important thing now is to help people who've been displaced by this war machine, by the aggression and war waged on us by Israel for the past months, but particularly for the past two weeks or so. We have more than 1.2 million Lebanese displaced. This is unprecedented by any scale. You only see this level, this sheer number as well as pace and speed of kicking people out of their places, their safe homes, into another area, of this scale, of 20 percent to 25 percent of the Lebanese. You only see it in major earthquakes. What we are going through is like a major earthquake that Lebanon has been facing, but because of an aggressive war on us and war machine that has been waged on us. You can hear now the drones 24 hours over our land and [in] our skies.";
Masnaa, Lebanon – Oct 2024
3. Refugees walking toward Lebanon-Syria border gate;
4. Various of refugees walking past crater caused by Israeli attack;
Beirut, Lebanon - Oct 9, 2024
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Nasser Yassin, Lebanese Environment Minister:
"We appreciate all sorts of aid, particularly medical and non-medical items, for the relief. We need anything, because we have 250,000 people in collective shelters, in 1,000 schools. This is also something of a huge scale for a small country like Lebanon -- to have 1,000 collective shelters distributed across the country.";
Beirut, Lebanon - Sept 24, 2024
6. Entrance to temporary shelter;
7. Various of displaced people;
8. Staff members delivering relief supplies;
Beirut, Lebanon - Oct 9, 2024
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Nasser Yassin, Lebanese Environment Minister (partially overlaid with shots 10-11):
"He needs to stop the insanity that Israeli leaders have been going through for many, many years, but particularly recently, in resorting only to wars. They consider this precise, they consider this surgical, they send warnings, as if they are showing to be a professional army, but this has been all war crimes waged on Lebanon, all the acts that they've been doing, genocidal. They don't differentiate between civilians or non-civilians. We have babies, kids, women, families who have been killed in the past few weeks, 125 health workers have been killed and we are still counting. I think they need to ask themselves, rather than lecture others, on the need to stop the insanity of war they've been waging on Lebanon.";
[SHOTS OVERLAYING SOUNDBITE]
Beirut, Lebanon - Oct 3, 2024
10. Various of damaged residential area, debris, national flag of Lebanon, people searching through debri;
Beirut, Lebanon - Oct 9, 2024
11. Reporter;
[SHOTS OVERLAYING SOUNDBITE]
Masnaa, Lebanon - Oct 2024
12. Various of displaced families at border checkpoint.

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