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Lebanon complains to UN over latest deadly Israel strike on journalists

By - Oct 28,2024 - Last updated at Oct 28,2024

This photo shows a car marked ‘Press’ at the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted an area where a number of journalists were located in the southern Lebanese village of Hasbaya on Friday (AFP photo)

BEIRUT — Lebanon said on Monday it had submitted a complaint to the United Nations Security Council over an Israeli strike last week that killed three journalists in the country's south.

The strike early Friday hit a complex in the Druze-majority town of Hasbaya in south Lebanon where more than a dozen journalists from Lebanese and Arab media outlets were sleeping.

The Israeli army said on Friday that the strike was "under review", maintaining it had targeted Hizbollah  fighters.

Lebanon submitted "a complaint to the Security Council regarding the latest Israeli attacks that targeted journalists and media facilities in Hasbaya in south Lebanon, and the Ouzai area" in Beirut's southern suburbs, a statement from the foreign ministry said on social media platform X.

"The repeated Israeli targeting of media crews is a war crime" and Israel must be "held to account and punished", the statement added.

Cameraman Ghassan Najjar and broadcast engineer Mohammad Reda from pro-Iran, Beirut-based broadcaster Al Mayadeen, and video journalist Wissam Qassem from Hizbollah's Al Manar television, were killed in the strike on the complex in Hasbaya, relatively far from the Israel-Hizbollah  war's main flashpoints.

Prime Minister Najib Mikati said the attack was deliberate and both he and Information Minister Ziad Makary labelled it a war crime.

Days earlier, Al Mayadeen said an Israeli strike hit an office the broadcaster had vacated near Ouzai in south Beirut.

Israel launched an intense air campaign in Lebanon last month and later launched ground incursions following a year of cross-border clashes with the Iran-backed Hizbollah  group over the Gaza war.

In October last year, Reuters Journalist Issam Abdallah was killed by Israeli shellfire while he was covering southern Lebanon, and six other journalists were wounded, including AFP's Dylan Collins and Christina Assi, who had to have her right leg amputated.

Last November, Israeli bombardment killed Al Mayadeen correspondent Farah Omar and cameraman Rabih Maamari, the channel said.

Lebanese  rights groups said five more journalists and photographers working for local media had been killed in Israeli strikes on the country's south and Beirut's southern suburbs.

 

UN chief 'shocked by harrowing levels of death, injury and destruction' in north Gaza

By - Oct 27,2024 - Last updated at Oct 27,2024

A Palestinian inspects the damage after an overnight Israeli airstrike in Beit Lahia the northern Gaza Strip on Sunday (AFP photo)

 

UNITED NATIONS, UNITED STATES — UN chief Antonio Guterres said Sunday he was "shocked by harrowing levels of death, injury and destruction" in north Gaza, where Israeli forces are carrying out attacks they say aim to prevent Hamas regrouping.

"The plight of Palestinian civilians trapped in North Gaza is unbearable," Guterres's spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

"The Secretary-General is shocked by the harrowing levels of death, injury and destruction in the north, with civilians trapped under rubble, the sick and wounded going without life-saving health care, and families lacking food and shelter."

The spokesman said that according to Gaza's health ministry, hundreds of people have been killed in recent weeks and more than 60,000 others were forced to flee.

"Repeated efforts to deliver humanitarian supplies essential to survive, food, medicine and shelter, \continue to be denied by the Israeli authorities, with few exceptions, putting countless lives in peril," Dujarric said.

"In the name of humanity, the Secretary-General reiterates his calls for an immediate ceasefire, the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, and accountability for crimes under international law."

Lebanon says 8 killed in Israel strike near coastal city of Sidon

War since September 23 has left at least 1,615 people dead in Lebanon

By - Oct 27,2024 - Last updated at Oct 27,2024

A photo taken from the southern Lebanese city of Tyre shows smoke rising from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted a nearby village on October 27, 2024, as the war between Israel and Hezbollah continues (AFP photo)

BEIRUT, LEBNON — Lebanon's health ministry said at least eight people were killed and 25 others wounded Sunday in an Israeli strike near the southern city of Sidon, where an AFP correspondent said a building was targeted.
 
The strike hit a densely-populated area in a Sidon suburb that saw an influx of families displaced from areas further south.
 
It was the first strike there since the Israel-Hizbollah war erupted last month.
 
"The Israeli enemy's raid on Haret Saida resulted in a... toll of eight killed," the health ministry said, revising an earlier toll of two dead.
 
The official National News Agency said a child was among the victims.
 
An AFP correspondent said one apartment was destroyed in the strike on a three-storey residential complex.
 
Surrounding shops and buildings were also damaged, the correspondent said, as paramedics rushed to the site of the attack to search for survivors.
 
The Israeli army had issued an evacuation warning for several areas in south Lebanon on Sunday, but Haret Saida was not listed among the areas to be targeted. 
 
The war since September 23 has left at least 1,615 people dead in Lebanon, according to an AFP tally of nationwide health ministry figures, though the real number is likely to be higher due to gaps in the data.
 
At least 1.3 million people have been displaced, more than 800,000 of them within Lebanon's borders, according to the UN's migration agency.
 
More than half a million people have crossed into Syria, according to Lebanese authorities, most of them Syrians.
 

Egypt's Sisi unveils plan for two-day Gaza truce, release of four hostages

UN chief 'shocked by harrowing levels of death, injury and destruction' in north Gaza

By - Oct 27,2024 - Last updated at Oct 27,2024

Palestinians inspect the damage after an overnight Israeli airstrike in Beit Lahia the northern Gaza on October 27, 2024 amid the ongoing Israeli war on the Strip (AFP photo)

CAIRO — Egypt's President Abdel Fattah El Sisi announced Sunday a proposal for a two-day truce in Israeli war on Gaza that would include a hostage release and could pave the way for a "complete ceasefire".

Sisi, whose government has been involved in mediation efforts to end the Gaza war, proposed a "two-day ceasefire" during which "four hostages would be exchanged for some prisoners in Israeli jails", followed by more negotiations within 10 days aiming to secure "a complete ceasefire and the entry of aid" into the Gaza Strip, the president told a news conference in Cairo alongside his visiting Algerian counterpart.

UN chief Antonio Guterres said Sunday he was "shocked by harrowing levels of death, injury and destruction" in north Gaza, where Israeli forces are carrying out attacks they say aim to prevent Hamas regrouping.

"The plight of Palestinian civilians trapped in North Gaza is unbearable," Guterres's spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

"The Secretary-General is shocked by the harrowing levels of death, injury and destruction in the north, with civilians trapped under rubble, the sick and wounded going without life-saving health care, and families lacking food and shelter."

The spokesman said that according to Gaza's health ministry, hundreds of people have been killed in recent weeks and more than 60,000 others were forced to flee.

"Repeated efforts to deliver humanitarian supplies essential to survive -- food, medicine and shelter -- continue to be denied by the Israeli authorities, with few exceptions, putting countless lives in peril," Dujarric said.

"In the name of humanity, the Secretary-General reiterates his calls for an immediate ceasefire, the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, and accountability for crimes under international law."

Iran warns will defend itself after Israeli strikes

By - Oct 26,2024 - Last updated at Oct 26,2024

Commuters drive along a street in Tehran on October 26, 2024. Residents of Tehran awoke and went about their business as planned on October 26 after their sleep was troubled by Israeli strikes that triggered blasts that echoed across the city (AFP photo)

TEHRAN — Iran warned on Saturday it would defend itself after Israeli air strikes killed at least two soldiers and further stoked fears of a full-scale war in the Middle East.
 
Israel warned Iran would "pay a heavy price" if it responded to the strikes, and the United States, Germany and Britain demanded Tehran not escalate the conflict further.
 
The European Union called for all parties to exercise utmost restraint to avoid an "uncontrollable escalation" in the Middle East, warning: "The dangerous cycle of attacks and retaliations risks causing a further expansion of the regional conflict."
 
Other countries, including many of Iran's neighbours, condemned Israel's strikes and some, such as Russia, urged both sides to show restraint and avoid what Moscow dubbed a "catastrophic scenario".
 
The Islamic republic insisted it had the "right and the duty" to defend itself, while its Lebanese ally Hizbollah said it had already launched rocket salvos targeting five residential areas in northern Israel. 
 
The Israeli army said 80 projectiles were fired across the border on Saturday.
 
Confirming its own strikes after explosions and anti-aircraft fire echoed around Tehran, the Israel military said it had hit Iranian missile factories and military facilities in several regions.
 
The "retaliatory strike has been completed and the mission was fulfilled", while Israeli aircraft "returned safely", a military spokesman said.
 
Iran confirmed Israel had targeted military sites around the capital and in other parts of the country, saying the raids caused "limited damage" but killed two soldiers.
 
Direct attack 
 
Israel had vowed to retaliate after October 1, when Iran fired around 200 missiles in only the second ever direct attack against its arch-foe. Most of those missiles were intercepted but one person was killed.
 
The Israeli retaliation drew condemnation from Iraq, Pakistan, Syria and Saudi Arabia, which warned against further escalation. Jordan said Israeli jets had not used its airspace. Turkey was one of the most outspoken critics, calling for an end to "terror created by Israel".
 
Israel is already engaged in combat on two fronts.
 
Since last month, it has been fighting a war against Hezbollah in Lebanon, including strikes that have killed the group's senior leadership and ground incursions seeking to destroy missile sites. 
 
And, for more than a year since Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack, Israel has been fighting a war in Gaza that has caused mass civilian casualties in the densely populated Palestinian territory. 
 
The United Nations has warned the "darkest moment" of that conflict is unfolding, with Palestinians facing a dire humanitarian crisis and daily Israeli bombing. 
 
Along with Hizbollah and Hamas, Iranian-allied groups in Yemen, Iraq and Syria, have carried out attacks during the fallout from the Gaza war.
 
At roughly the same time as Israel struck targets in Iran, the Syrian state news agency SANA said an Israeli air attack targeted military positions in central and southern Syria.
 
 'Iranian proxies' 
 
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a loose network of pro-Iran factions, claimed responsibility before dawn Saturday for a drone attack against a "military target" in northern Israel.
 
On Friday, two people died from shrapnel wounds after a Hizbollah rocket barrage into Israel's north, Israeli officials said.
 
Hezbollah said it had also fired rockets at Israeli soldiers near the south Lebanon village of Aita Al Shaab and launched drones against an Israeli air base south of Tel Aviv.
 
On Saturday, Lebanon's health ministry said an Israeli strike had killed a Hizbollah-affiliated medic in Bazuriyeh in the south of the country.
 
US National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett said Israel's response to Iran was "an exercise in self-defence".
 
He urged Iran to "cease its attacks on Israel so that this cycle of fighting can end without further escalation".
 
The Israeli military has blamed "Iran and its proxies" in the region for "relentlessly attacking Israel since October 7", when Hamas's attack against Israel triggered the Gaza war.
 
That attack resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
 
Dozens of hostages seized on that day are still held by militants in Gaza.
 
Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed 42,924 people in Gaza, the majority civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry which the United Nations considers reliable.

Tehran presses on, uneasy after Israeli strikes

By - Oct 26,2024 - Last updated at Oct 26,2024

Part of the city skyline is pictured at dawn after several explosions were heard in Tehran on Saturday (AFP photo)

TEHRAN — Tehran carried on largely as normal on Saturday after a night of explosions from Israeli strikes reverberating across the city, accompanied by criss-crossing trails from air defences.
 
By mid-morning the bustling capital had resumed its usual rhythm as buses wove their way through the streets, taking troubled Iranians to work.
 
Iranian officials and media have played down the attack, but on the streets of Tehran many were concerned that it had marked a new escalation and a step towards all-out war.
 
Hooman, a 42-year-old factory employee, was on a night shift when he heard the blasts.
 
"It was an echoing sound... terrible and horrifying," he told AFP. "Now that there is war in the Middle East, we are afraid that we will be dragged into it."
 
Saturday's Israeli attack came in response to Iran's missile strike on October 1, itself a retaliation for the killing of Iran-backed militant leaders and a Revolutionary Guards commander.
 
The latest tit-for-tat moves take place against a backdrop of the ongoing war between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, and which has expanded to include Lebanon's Hezbollah in recent weeks.
 
On Saturday, the Israeli military said it had conducted "precise strikes on military targets in Iran", in response to what it said were "months of continuous attacks from the regime in Iran".
 
It warned Tehran against responding.
 
Iran confirmed Israel targeted military sites in Tehran province as well as other areas, saying the blasts heard were the "activation of the air defence system" intercepting the Israeli attack.
 
At least two Iranian soldiers died in the strikes.
 
 'War is frightening' 
 
Some in Tehran voiced fears over an escalation of the conflict.
 
"If they attack, it will be us who will be crushed," said Moharam, a 51-year-old day labourer.
 
Others, however, said they were entirely unaware an attack had even happened.
 
Iranian media has downplayed the attack, which also targeted areas in the border provinces of Khuzestan and Ilam, and reported it caused "limited damage" thanks to Iran's air defence forces.
 
State media carried footage showing traffic flowing normally in several cities as people went about their daily business.
 
Other TV footage showed Iranians singing, dancing and mocking Israel from a Tehran rooftop during the strikes.
 
Iranian officials emphasised that all school activities and sport events were to be held as scheduled.
 
Flights over Iran were briefly suspended for a few hours following the attack, but later resumed as scheduled.
 
Sepideh, a 30-year-old insurance manager, said she woke up Saturday and hurried to work like usual despite her worries.
 
"War is frightening... but I don't think a terrible war will happen in Iran," she said.
 

Israel army says struck Iran's missile manufacturing facilities

By - Oct 26,2024 - Last updated at Oct 26,2024

A man walks past a mural painting of Iranian flags in a street in Tehran on October 26, 2024. Residents of Tehran awoke and went about their business as planned on October 26 after their sleep was troubled by Israeli strikes that triggered blasts that echoed across the city (AFP Photo)

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM  — The Israeli military said on Saturday it had completed its air attack on Iran, saying it hit the Islamic republic's missile manufacturing facilities, surface-to-air missile arrays and other aerial capabilities across several areas of the country.
 
"Based on intelligence, IAF (air force) aircraft struck missile manufacturing facilities used to produce the missiles that Iran fired at the State of Israel over the last year," the military said in a statement. 
 
Israeli strikes on military targets in Iran are "an exercise of self-defense" following Tehran's ballistic missile attack earlier this month, the United States said late Friday, adding it was informed ahead of the strikes.
 
White House National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett said the "targeted strikes on military targets" are "an exercise of self-defense and in response to Iran's ballistic missile attack against Israel on October 1."
 
The United States was "informed beforehand and there is no US involvement," a US defense official told AFP, under the condition of anonymity.
 
The official did not say how far in advance the United States had been informed or what had been shared by Israel.
 
The Iranian army said two soldiers were killed in Israeli air strikes on military installations in the Islamic republic on Saturday, according to a statement carried by state television.
 
"The army of the Islamic Republic of Iran lost two of its fighters during the night when they faced projectiles from the criminal Zionist regime in defence of its territory," the statement said.

Rescuers say halting work in north Gaza after Israel threats

By - Oct 24,2024 - Last updated at Oct 24,2024

Palestinians transport their belongings as they flee areas north of Gaza City in the northern Gaza Strip on October 12, 2024 (AFP photo)

GAZA - Palestinian Territories — Gaza's civil defence agency said Thursday it can no longer provide first responder services in the north of the territory, accusing Israeli forces of threatening to "bomb and kill" its crews.
 
Since October 6, the Israeli military has mounted a sweeping air and land assault on north Gaza, initially focused on the Jabalia area, describing it as an operation aimed at preventing Hamas militants from regrouping.
 
"We are unable to provide humanitarian services to citizens in the northern governorate of the Gaza Strip due to threats from Israeli occupation forces, who have threatened to kill and bomb our teams if they remain inside Jabalia camp," said Mahmud Bassal, the agency's spokesman.
 
First responders had been "targeted" on several occasions, leaving "several members injured, and others are left bleeding on the streets with no one able to rescue them", he told AFP.
 
Bassal published a photograph of a burnt truck on social media, saying it was "the only civil defence vehicle in the northern Gaza Strip governorate", which includes Gaza City.
 
The truck, he said, was "targeted by the Israeli army" in the northern city of Beit Lahia, just north of Jabalia and near Gaza's northern border with Israel.
 
The Israeli army said it was conducting operations in the Jabalia area and had "eliminated dozens of terrorists".
 
Military activity in adjacent Beit Lahia has also forced Palestinians to flee, including Raghib Hamuda, who moved his family to Gaza City after Israeli forces issued call for the evacuation of a shelter last week.
 
"The military bulldozers demolished the school after evacuating all the displaced people," he told AFP by phone, adding his family faced "checkpoints and gunfire along the way" to Gaza City, where they found shelter in another school.
 
"The shelling is intense, and the army has demolished dozens of houses," he said.
 
Intensified operation 
 
The Israeli army announced it would intensify operations in Gaza's ravaged north on October 6, with troops even encircling Jabalia and adjacent areas.
 
Since then, the military has steadily expanded its assault to other parts in northern Gaza, and just days ago a strike on a residential complex in Beit Lahia killed at least 73 people, according to Gaza's civil defence agency.
 
The military said it had targeted a Hamas command centre.
 
The stated goal of the military's overall assault it says is to destroy the operational capabilities Hamas is trying to rebuild in the north.
 
It has repeatedly told people to evacuate, and to do so they must pass through army-manned checkpoints.
 
Images posted online and verified by AFP show crowds of Palestinians waiting to cross such checkpoints often supported by tanks, and several Palestinians reported mistreatment or detention during the process.
 
The UN refugee agency, UNRWA, says 400,000 people remain in Gaza's north including Gaza City, and that within the governorate, tens of thousands have fled the northernmost areas subject to intensified Israeli operations, most to Gaza City.
 
The Israeli defence ministry body that manages civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories, COGAT, says 250,000 people remain in Gaza's north.
 
The United States has pressured its ally Israel to allow more aid into north Gaza, saying the amount sent so far has "not been sufficient".
 
Israeli officials meanwhile have denied charges Israel was implementing a plan to starve out northern Gaza.
 
The Gaza war began with Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people on Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
 
Israel's retaliatory offensive has until now killed at least 42,847 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry which the United Nations has described as reliable.
 

Kurdish-led Syria force says Turkish strikes kill 12 civilians

By - Oct 24,2024 - Last updated at Oct 24,2024

BEIRUT, LEBANON — The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said on Thursday that Turkish air strikes killed 12 civilians in northeastern Syria, following a deadly attack on a defence firm near Ankara.

"Over the past hours... a new wave of [Turkish] attacks on northern and eastern Syria" killed "12 civilians, including two children", and wounded 25 others, a statement from the US-backed force said.

"In addition to populated areas, Turkish warplanes and UAVs [drones] targeted bakeries, power stations, oil facilities and [Kurdish] Internal Security Force checkpoints," the statement added, also reporting Turkish shelling.

Turkey launched air strikes on Kurdish militants in Iraq and Syria Wednesday blaming them for an attack that killed five people at a defence firm near Ankara.

A further 22 people were wounded in the attack, which the government said was "very likely" carried out by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Hours later, "an air operation was carried out against terrorist targets in the north of Iraq and Syria", the defence ministry said in a statement.

"A total of 32 targets belonging to the terrorists were successfully destroyed."

The US-backed SDF spearheaded the campaign that dislodged Daesh terrorists from their last scraps of Syrian territory in 2019.

Turkey sees the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), which dominate the SDF, as an offshoot of the PKK.

 

Turkish troops and allied rebel factions control swathes of northern Syria following successive cross-border offensives since 2016, most of them targeting the SDF.

 

Hizbollah says clashing with Israeli forces in Lebanon border village

By - Oct 24,2024 - Last updated at Oct 24,2024

This photo taken from Lebanon's Marjayoun shows smoke clouds rising amid ongoing hostilities between Israel and Hizbollah in the village of Kafarkila on Thursday (AFP photo)

BEIRUT, LEBANON— Hizbollah said its fighters were clashing at close range with Israeli forces in a south Lebanon border village on Thursday, weeks after Israel said it launched ground operations against the Iran-backed group.

Hizbollah fighters were engaged in "heavy clashes in the village of Aita al-Shaab" at close range, the Shiite Muslim movement said in a statement, adding that fighters hit a Merkava tank that came to assist the Israeli forces.

A short time earlier, Hizbollah said its fighters had "destroyed" another Israeli tank in the same village.

The group also said its fighters attacked Israeli forces near the border village of Aitarun, after saying a day earlier they repelled soldiers attempting to infiltrate in the area.

After nearly a year of war with Hamas in Gaza, Israel shifted its focus to Lebanon last month, vowing to secure its northern border under fire from Hizbollah.

It has ramped up air strikes on the group's strongholds and sent in ground troops to south Lebanon, in a war that has displaced more than a million people and killed at least 1,580, according to Lebanese authorities.

Hizbollah on Wednesday said the Israeli forces "have not been able to fully establish its control or completely occupy any village" in southern Lebanon.

Footage last week showed an Israeli flag flying over Aita Al Shaab.

A source close to Hizbollah said the village had come under some of the heaviest Israeli fire in a year of confrontations, and also denied Israeli troops had managed to establish positions inside Lebanon.

On Monday, Lebanon's official National News Agency said the Israeli forces blew up houses in Aita Al Shaab, while Hizbollah said its fighters launched "a rocket salvo" at Israeli enemy soldiers near the municipality.

Broadcaster Al Jazeera showed footage of Israeli tanks on the village's outskirts.

Last week, Hizbollah also said its fighters were battling Israeli troops in Aita Al Shaab.

It was across the border from the village that Hizbollah fighters captured two Israeli soldiers in a deadly cross-border raid in July 2006, provoking a devastating month-long war that killed around 1,200 people in Lebanon, mainly civilians, and 160 in Israel, most of them soldiers.

Aita Al Shaab was heavily damaged in the 2006 conflict.

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