Region

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Lebanon said Israel struck locations across the country on Tuesday, killing one person, as the Israeli military said it struck a Hizbollah weapons depot in a Syrian town near the Lebanese border.

The strikes came more than a month into the Hizbollah-Israel war which has left at least 1,964 dead in Lebanon since September 23, according to an AFP tally of health ministry figures.

Lebanon's health ministry said one person was killed and 20 others were wounded following an Israeli strike on the coastal town of Jiyeh, south of Beirut.

A security source, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said the raid targeted an apartment used by Hizbollah in Jiyeh.

The strike destroyed the top floor of a four-storey complex, said an AFP correspondent.

Israeli raids also hit southern Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley on Tuesday, according to the official National News Agency (NNA), as operations were underway to retrieve corpses from flashpoint areas.

The Lebanese Red Cross and the army retrieved seven corpses from a village in the southern region of Tyre following heavy raids in the area in recent weeks, according to NNA, which said the bodies appeared decomposed.

In a separate mission, the Lebanese Red Cross was also working on Tuesday to retrieve more than a dozen corpses that had been trapped in the flashpoint border town of Khiam for more than one week, NNA said.

Rescuers first entered on Sunday, having previously been unable to reach the area, where Hizbollah has said it is battling Israeli ground forces, according to NNA.

Hizbollah, meanwhile, claimed rocket and drone strikes at northern Israel, as well as on Israeli troops near the border inside Lebanon.

Syria strike 

Also on Tuesday, the Israeli military said it "conducted an intelligence-based strike on weapons storage facilities used by Hezbollah's munitions unit in the area of Al Qusayr" in Syria, near the border with Lebanon.

"Hizbollah's munitions unit is responsible for the storage of weapons in Lebanon and has recently expanded its activities into Syria in the area of Al Qusayr," it added.

Syria's official SANA news agency said: "An Israeli aggression targeted the industrial zone in Al Qusayr.

"The Israeli aggression also targeted some residential buildings surrounding the industrial zone," it added.

It did not report any casualties.

Areas along the Syria-Lebanon border have come under mounting attack as Israel has sought to prevent Hizbollah from replenishing its arsenal after the conflict escalated in September.

The main border crossing, known as Masnaa on the Lebanese side, was put out of service by an Israeli strike last month.

On Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 10 people were killed in Israeli strikes on Al Qusayr.

The Britain-based war monitor said the dead were mostly civilians but also included three Syrian fighters for Hizbollah.

CAIRO — Egypt has condemned Israel's decision to ban the United Nations agency for Palestinians, calling it an "unacceptable disregard" for the UN, its agencies and the international community.

Israel officially informed the United Nations on Monday of its decision to cut ties with UNRWA, following a vote by Israeli lawmakers to bar the organisation, which is seen as vital for Palestinians.

"Egypt strongly condemns Israel's withdrawal from the agreement governing the operations of UNRWA and its formal suspension of operations," Egypt's foreign ministry said in a statement posted on Facebook late Monday.

The ministry called the move a "dangerous development" aimed at erasing the Palestinian cause, particularly the issue of refugees and their right of return.

It added that the decision represented "a new chapter in Israel's blatant and systematic violations of international law and international humanitarian law".

Israel's parliament passed a law last week prohibiting UNRWA activities in Israel and east Jerusalem, where the agency operates schools, healthcare centres and other essential services.

A second law forbids Israeli officials from engaging with UNRWA, which is likely to severely impact the organisation's operations and humanitarian efforts.

Egypt's foreign ministry warned of "serious consequences for innocent Palestinian civilians", saying the decision could lead to "the complete collapse of humanitarian efforts and vital services" provided by UNRWA.

The ministry held the Israeli government "fully responsible for the repercussions of this decision" and emphasised UNRWA's role "cannot be replaced or dispensed with".

Arab League chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit on Sunday said there was "no alternative" to the role of UNRWA in supporting Palestinian refugees.

UNRWA was established in December 1949 by the UN General Assembly after the first Arab-Israeli conflict following Israel's creation a year earlier.

It aids nearly six million Palestinian refugees across Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.

PORT SUDAN, SUDAN  — Sudan's army leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, at war with paramilitaries, has announced a cabinet reshuffle that replaces four ministers including those for foreign affairs and the media.

The late Sunday announcement comes with the northeast African country gripped by the world's worst displacement crisis, threatened by famine and desperate for aid, according to the UN.

In a post on its official Facebook page, Sudan's ruling sovereignty council said Burhan had approved replacement of the ministers of foreign affairs, the media, religious affairs and trade.

The civil war that began in April 2023 pits Burhan's military against the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitaries under the command of his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo. 

Since then, the army-aligned Sudanese government has been operating from the eastern city of Port Sudan, which has largely remained shielded from the violence.

But the Sudanese state "is completely absent from the scene" in all sectors, economist Haitham Fathy told AFP earlier this year.

The council did not disclose reasons behind the reshuffle but it coincides with rising violence in al-Jazira, south of the capital Khartoum, and North Darfur in Sudan's far west bordering Chad. 

On Friday the spokesman for United Nations chief Antonio Guterres said he condemned attacks by paramilitaries in al-Jazira, after the United States made a similar call over the violence against civilians.

Among the key government changes, Ambassador Ali Youssef al-Sharif, a retired diplomat who previously served as Sudan's ambassador to China and South Africa, was appointed foreign minister.

He replaces Hussein Awad Ali who had held the role for seven months.

Journalist and TV presenter Khalid Ali Aleisir, based in London, was named minister of culture and media.

The reshuffle also saw Omar Banfir assigned to the trade ministry and Omar Bakhit appointed to the ministry of religious affairs.

Over the past two weeks, the RSF increased attacks on civilians in al-Jazira following the army's announcement that an RSF commander had defected.

According to an AFP tally based on medical and activist sources, at least 200 people were killed in al-Jazira last month alone. The UN reports that the violence has forced around 120,000 people from their homes.

In total, Sudan hosts more than 11 million displaced people, while another 3.1 million are now sheltering beyond its borders, according to the International Organisation for Migration. 

OCCUPIED JESRUALEM — Israel said Monday it had formally notified the United Nations of its decision to sever ties with UNRWA, the agency supporting Palestinian refugees, after lawmakers voted to ban the organisation.

"On the instruction of Foreign Minister Israel Katz, the ministry of foreign affairs notified the UN of the cancellation of the agreement between the State of Israel and UNRWA," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

"UNRWA, the organisation whose employees participated in the October 7 massacre and many of whose employees are Hamas operatives, is part of the problem in the Gaza Strip and not part of the solution," Katz was quoted as saying.

Israel's parliament last month approved a proposal to shut down UNRWA's operations in Israel and occupied east Jerusalem, despite condemnation from the international community, including its ally the United States.

The ban on the UN agency -- which has provided essential aid and assistance across Palestinian territories and to Palestinian refugees elsewhere for more than seven decades -- would be a blow to humanitarian work in Gaza if implemented, according to experts.

But Katz dismissed the argument, saying only a part of aid was being delivered into Gaza by UNRWA.

"The State of Israel is committed to international law and will continue to facilitate the entrance of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip in a manner that does not harm the security of the citizens of Israel," Katz said.

In January, Israel accused a dozen of UNRWA's Gaza employees of involvement in the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas, which sparked the deadliest war in the territory.

A series of probes found some "neutrality related issues" at UNRWA, and determined that nine employees "may have been involved" in the October 7 attack, but found no evidence for Israel's central allegations.

The ban has also raised fears UNRWA employees in the occupied West Bank could potentially face problems moving from one place to another as well as accessing east Jerusalem or Israel because they would lose their ability to coordinate with the Israeli authorities to cross checkpoints. 

The same fears apply to visas and permits delivered by Israeli authorities. 

UNRWA and other humanitarian agencies have accused Israeli authorities of restricting aid flows into Gaza, where almost all the territory's 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once during the war.

TEHRAN — Thousands of Iranians rallied Sunday by the former US embassy in Tehran to mark the 1979 hostage crisis, burning American flags and ridiculing Joe Biden and Donald Trump just two days before the US presidential election.

"There's no difference between Biden and Trump, between the donkey and the elephant," said protester Saber Danaie, 23, of the animal mascots that represent the Democratic and Republican parties in the United States. 

"They both follow the same policy," said the construction worker, as a giant puppet meant to represent US President Joe Biden hung over the crowd.

A picture of his predecessor Donald Trump, who hopes to beat his rival Kamala Harris and win the American presidential election on Tuesday, lay trampled on the ground.

Sunday's rally commemorated the 1979 hostage crisis, which began nine months after the Islamic revolution led by Iran's late supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ousted the Western-backed Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi.

Students loyal to Khomeini stormed the embassy compound and held 52 staff hostage for 444 days while demanding that Washington hand over Iran's recently toppled shah, who was being treated in the United States for cancer.

Washington officially broke off relations with Tehran in 1980, midway through the crisis, and they have been frozen ever since.

Iran celebrates the event every year in Tehran in front of the former embassy that has been transformed into a museum known as the "Den of Spies".

 'Destruction of Israel' 

"Death to America, death to Israel!" chanted crowds of Iranians, including many schoolchildren and students, as they sang revolutionary songs outside the building.

The embassy's seizure has shaped relations between the United States and Iran for decades, with Tehran considering it an act of defiance against what they describe as the "global arrogance" of the West.

Israel's war with Palestinian militants Hamas and Lebanon's Hezbollah, two militant groups supported financially and militarily by Tehran, took centre stage at the rally.

Demonstrators brandished portraits of prominent figures, including slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, killed by an Israeli strike in Beirut, as well as Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

"I am here for the destruction of Israel and America," Hassani, a 42-year-old civil servant who did not wish to give his full name, told AFP.

"Criminal America is at the root of all these wars and all this hatred" in the region, he said.

Nearby, a mural depicted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu digging his country's grave.

Iran does not recognise Israel and considers it an extension of the United States in the Middle East.

 Difficult relations 

Iranian leaders have made support for the Palestinian cause one of the pillars of their foreign policy since the Islamic Republic was established in 1979.

The presidential campaigns of both Harris and Trump have been closely followed in Iran.

However, most of the Iranians AFP spoke to on Sunday said the vote's outcome is unlikely to mend relations between the two countries.

"Relations between Iran and America cannot return to normal," said Mohammadi, a 40-year-old housewife, who gave only her last name.

"We have repeatedly shown America our honesty" to improve relations "but America does not care," she said, cloaked in a black chador.

Iran, subject to significant international sanctions, reached an agreement with the major powers in 2015 to limit its nuclear programme in exchange for a gradual lifting of sanctions.

But the pact was torpedoed three years later under Trump whose administration withdrew from it and reimposed sanctions.

"It doesn't matter who the next American president is," said a woman at the protest, who asked that AFP not identify her.

"We have never liked any of them and that won't change now." 

PORT SUDAN, Sudan — At least 13 people were shot dead on Sunday in an attack blamed on Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Al-Jazira state south of Khartoum, a medical source told AFP.

"Thirteen people were killed as a result of the Rapid Support Forces opening fire on civilians in the town of Al-Hilaliya in eastern Al-Jazira state," about 70 kilometres  north of the state capital Wad Madani, the source said on condition of anonymity.

Sudan's Al-Jazira state has become a key battleground following the defection of RSF commander Abu Aqla Kaykal.

Kaykal recently joined the Sudanese army, along with what the military described as "a large number" of his troops, in the first high-ranking defection from the RSF. 

According to the United Nations humanitarian coordinator in Sudan, Clementine Nkweta-Salami, the RSF launched major attacks across eastern parts of Al-Jazira state between October 20 and 25.

The paramilitaries allegedly committed mass killings, sexual assaults, extensive looting of markets and homes and widespread farm burnings, Nkweta-Salami said.

The UN official described these "atrocious crimes" as mirroring those documented in Darfur last year, where the RSF was accused of human rights abuses such as "rape, targeted attacks, sexual violence and mass killings".

The conflict in Sudan erupted in mid-April 2023 between the regular army led by the country's de facto leader, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the RSF led by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

The conflict has triggered one of the world's worst humanitarian crises, killing tens of thousands and displacing more than 11 million.