CrossFireArarbia

Iranian Missiles Destroy 1000 Flats in Tel Aviv

CrossFireArabia
April 19, 2026

CROSSFIREARABIA – Mayor of Tel Aviv Ron Huldai, said Sunday, that 1000 apartments in the Greater Tel Aviv areas, which covers around 1500 kilometers have been left uninhabitable because of the recent US-Israel war on Iran.

His statement is reverberating in the Hebrew media, being picked up internationally, and repeated on the social media.

“More than 1000 apartments in Tel Aviv are no longer fit for living,” he told the Israeli Channel 12.

The destruction is caused by the 39-day war that resulted in Iranian missiles and debris falling on different parts of the sprawling city.

This war, started through a US-Israeli alliance on Iran on 28 February, was precedented in its destruction across the Middle East region with Lebanon, the Gulf and Israel, as well as Iran itself taking a major battering.

Israel has been particularly hit on a daily basis through ballistic missiles, ordinary missiles and drones with Tel Aviv and its surrounding cities like Ramat Gan and Bnei Brak at the receiving end of theses projectiles.

Some of these missiles weighed up to one and two tons, similar to those Israel used on the people of Gaza, in its two-year genocide starting soon after 7 October, 2023.

Iran fired 650 missiles on Israel according to the Times of Israel. Sources say many, 92 percent of these were intercepted. However, 77 missiles landed on different parts of Israel.

But the extent of the damage increases when it is realized that the debris from those that were intercepted represent significant fall down on different Israeli towns, cities, military bases and infrastructure.

For Israel this war came at a great cost. The Israeli Ministry of Finance estimates that the war on Iran and Lebanon has cost its treasury $17.5 billion. Added to this, and that is yet to be included, is the cost of the destruction, like the 1000 apartments and other destroyed infrastructure.

Israeli media sources report that 30,000 Israelis have filed for compensation from the Israeli Tax Authority because of direct damages to their apartments and buildings, machinery and cars. The filing for the latter stood 6617.

The amount of compensation is aggregated to stand at $2.2 billion, a far higher figure than June 12-day war in 2025 were insurance companies forked out $1 billion in compensation.

Marwan Asmar is a writer from Amman and blogs for crossfirearabia.com

Culture

Beirut Weeps For a Poet

CrossFireArabia
April 16, 2026

Lebanon mourns Khatoun Salma, a Lebanese national poet who was killed along with her husband in an Israeli airstrike that targeted their home in the Tallet al-Khayat neighborhood of Beirut Wednesday, 8 April.

Rasha al-Amir, publisher of Dar al-Jadeed, announced that the bodies of Khatoun and her husband were recovered from the rubble, Thursday morning.

Lebanese journalist Maha Salma also mourned her sister Khatoun on her Instagram account, writing: “My dear sister is in God’s care. May God grant me patience in the pain of her loss and the burning of my heart and soul.”

Poet and playwright Yahya Jaber wrote a tribute to Khatoun on Facebook, saying: “Yesterday, the Israeli airstrike cut down a poet with its sharp scissors, a poet of delicate Arabic.” Under the rubble, the conjunction “waw,” the plural “waw,” the feminine plural “nun,” the feminine suffix “ta,” the definite article “al-“: a massacre of language at the hands of language. Jaber attached a picture of the building where Khatoun lived to his post, saying:

“Here is the Khayat Hill building, and here on one of these balconies, we used to stay up late with Khatoun and her husband, Muhammad Karsht, in the late 198s, spinning yarns of laughter and sewing memories. We would recite poetry and remember our city, Tyre, and love Beirut, the capital.”

Lebanese poet Majida Dagher wrote on her Facebook page in mourning for Khatoun: “Under the rubble of her house in Khayat Hill, they found a poet lying among her shattered rhymes. The death of a poet in an airstrike on Beirut makes you feel that war is very, very close. The sound of bones breaking has become louder, and the smell of blood deeper.

Salma fell from the heights of poetry before she could bid farewell to ‘the last inhabitant of the moon.'” She thought Beirut was her tent, Beirut the roof of her poem, where she would hide, “embracing a woman waiting” for the dust to settle. But the dust became the tent of a new Beirut, a Beirut weeping, broken, martyred.

Salma, who studied Arabic literature at the American University of Beirut, published two collections of poetry, “I Embraced a Woman Waiting” in 2009 and “The Last Inhabitants of the Moon” in 2012, both with the Lebanese publishing house Dar Al-Jadeed. She first gained recognition in the 1970s, during her secondary school years, when she won a poetry prize. Later, at the beginning of this century, she became known in cultural circles for her relatively small but distinguished poetic output and her academic pursuits, which included studies in Sufism and Sufi mystics.

She combined profound knowledge with poetic sensitivity. She left her mark on the Lebanese cultural scene with a unique poetic voice, manifested in her literary works that carried the pain of humanity, exile, and memory. With her tragic passing, Lebanon loses a literary and human figure who wrote of the wound in a language that resembled nothing but truth.

News

350 Palestinian Kids Held in Israeli Jails

CrossFireArabia
April 16, 2026

The Palestinian Ministry of Education and Higher Education announced, Thursday, about 350 Palestinian children are currently held in Israeli jails.

This statement was made in a statement by the ministry on the eve of Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, which falls on 17 April of every year.

The ministry stated the arrest of students and their denial of their right to education constitutes a systematic policy pursued by Israel, which continues to target them.

The ministry affirmed that the issue of prisoners “will remain present in the conscience of the Palestinian people and at the heart of the educational mission, especially with the continued targeting of students.”

It explained approximately 350 children are being held in Israeli prisons under “harsh conditions that violate international laws and conventions,” and are subjected to policies including nighttime arrests, harsh interrogations, solitary confinement, denial of education, medical neglect, and ill-treatment.

It added that based on documented testimonies, a number of children were arrested from their homes at night, handcuffed and blindfolded, while others were prevented from continuing their education and detained in conditions lacking the most basic necessities.

These practices are a “flagrant violation” of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and that the targeting of students are not isolated incident, but part of a policy to undermine their awareness and future.

Ministry officials stress the arrest of students constitutes a “direct attack” on Palestinian education system and an attempt to sabotage the future of generations, affirming their continued support for imprisoned students and commitment to strengthening their resilience.

Further, they called on international and human rights organizations to assume their responsibilities and work to stop the violations, demanding the immediate release of all prisoners, especially children and school students, and ensuring their safe return to their studies.

The Ministry affirmed that education will remain a “tool for survival and development” despite the challenges.

Palestinians commemorate “Prisoners’ Day” every year with events and marches in solidarity with prisoners in Israeli jails. This day was designated by the Palestinian National Council in 1974.

More than 9,600 Palestinians are currently imprisoned in Israel, including 350 children and 73 women. They suffer torture, starvation, and medical neglect, which has led to the deaths of dozens, according to Palestinian and Israeli human rights organizations. Anadolu

News

MSF: ‘Health in Gaza Catastrophic’

CrossFireArabia
April 16, 2026

An official with Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said about 60 percent of the cases treated at the organization’s facilities in the Gaza Strip over the past six months were direct injuries. She explained that the situation for Palestinians has not changed significantly since the ceasefire signed at the end of last year.

Shaimaa Awda, head of the organization’s mental health support department, described the health situation in the Gaza Strip to Anadolu Agency as “suffocating.”

Despite the ceasefire agreement in Gaza coming into effect on 10 October, 2025, living and health conditions remain dire for the 2.4 million Palestinians in Gaza, including for the 1.4 million internally displaced persons.

Israel continues to renege on its commitments under the ceasefire agreement, including opening the crossings and allowing the entry of the agreed-upon quantities of food, relief supplies, medical aid, and shelter materials.

It also continues to commit daily violations of the ceasefire agreement, resulting in the deaths of 765 Palestinians and injuries to 2,140 others, according to a Gaza Ministry of Health statement.

A Dire Health Situation

Awda says that the organization’s teams have treated hundreds of dead and thousands of wounded, noting that injuries continue to arrive daily at its hospitals in Deir al-Balah and Gaza City.

She adds: “The violence continues, and the Gaza Strip is witnessing repeated incidents, the latest of which occurred in al-Maghazi camp, where medical teams received dozens of wounded, including critical cases.”

On 6 April, approximately 10 Palestinians were killed and others wounded by Israeli drone strikes and gunfire targeting a gathering of civilians east of al-Maghazi camp in the central Gaza Strip.

Awda explains that restrictions on the entry of medical supplies have severely impacted health services, pointing to the difficulty in providing essential medications, especially for chronic diseases such as insulin.

She also notes a severe shortage of surgical instruments, sterilization materials, and infection control supplies, which has negatively affected the quality of medical care and the teams’ ability to treat patients.

Diseases Spreading

Awda warns of outbreaks of diseases linked to deteriorating living conditions, such as skin diseases, diarrhea, and respiratory illnesses, resulting from the scarcity of clean water and inadequate sanitation services.

She emphasizes that diseases like scabies have become more prevalent, especially among children in shelters and tents, due to the lack of hygiene and adequate healthcare.

These statements coincide with warnings issued by the WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean, Hanan Balkhi, in an interview with Anadolu Agency on Monday, that the spread of diseases in Gaza threatens the entire region due to ongoing Israeli restrictions on the entry of medical aid, which hinders the health response.

Increasing Cases

Awda points out that children are the most vulnerable group, with medical facilities receiving increasing cases of respiratory illnesses and infections, including meningitis, in addition to worsening skin diseases.

She adds that some families delay seeking treatment due to the social stigma associated with skin diseases, which exacerbates the children’s health conditions.

She stressed the need for “real political pressure” on Israeli authorities to allow the urgent entry of medical and food supplies, warning that the continuation of the current situation threatens dire humanitarian consequences.

She affirmed that “the suffering of the population continues despite talk of a truce, amid a severe shortage of resources and a decline in basic services,” calling for immediate international action to save what remains of the health sector in Gaza.

The ceasefire agreement was reached after two years of a genocidal war launched by Israel in Gaza on October 8, 2013, with US support. The war continued in various forms afterward, leaving more than 72,000 Palestinians dead and over 172,000 wounded, and causing widespread destruction affecting 90 percent of the civilian infrastructure.

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