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China tells Israel 'humanitarian disasters' in Gaza must end: state media

By - Oct 14,2024 - Last updated at Oct 14,2024

his handout picture provided by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), shows people at the site of an Israeli air strike around tents for displaced people inside the walls of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip early on October 14, 2024 (AFP photo)

BEIJING — Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Monday told his Israeli counterpart that "humanitarian disasters" in Gaza should end, state media said. 

"Humanitarian disasters in Gaza should not continue and...countering violence with violence cannot truly address the legitimate concerns of all parties," Wang told Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz during a phone call, the official Xinhua news agency said.

"The Chinese side believes that renewed conflict and turmoil in the region serves the interests of no one," Wang added.

Beijing also "hopes that all parties will act cautiously to avoid falling into a vicious circle amid tension between Israel and Iran", Xinhua quoted Wang as saying.

He called for "immediate, complete and permanent ceasefire in Gaza and the release of all hostages".

The war in Gaza has killed, according to the health ministry in the territory, 42,289 people, the majority civilians. The UN has described the figures as reliable.

The United Nations acknowledges the figures to be reliable.

Israel has bombarded the Palestinian territory by land, air and sea, displacing almost all of its civilian population of 2.4 million people at least once in the past year.

After almost a year of cross-border fire over the Gaza war, Israel on September 23 launched an intense air campaign mainly targeting Hezbollah's south and east Lebanon strongholds, as well as Beirut's southern suburbs.

The escalation has killed more than 1,300 people, according to an AFP tally of official figures.

China said earlier this month that it had evacuated 215 of its nationals from Lebanon.

Beijing has also repeatedly called for peace talks to resolve the crisis in Gaza.

In July, the country brokered a "national unity" deal between Hamas, Fatah, and other Palestinian organisations to rule Gaza together after the war.

Hizbollah says targeted Israeli naval base near Haifa

By - Oct 14,2024 - Last updated at Oct 14,2024

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Hizbollah said it targeted an Israeli naval base near north Israel's Haifa on Monday, a day after claiming a drone attack near the city that the Israeli military said killed four soldiers.


 
Hizbollah fighters launched "a rocket salvo" at the "Stella Maris" naval base near Haifa, the Lebanese group said in a statement, adding the attack was at the "service" of Hassan Nasrallah, the group's longtime leader who was killed in an Israeli strike on Beirut's southern suburbs last month.
 
The Israeli military said four soldiers were killed by a Hizbollah drone strike Sunday on a military base south of Haifa, amid an escalating conflict with the Iran-backed group in Lebanon.
 


Earlier Sunday, which is at war with Israel, said it had launched "a squadron of attack drones" at a military training camp in Binyamina, south of Haifa, in response to Israeli air strikes on the country.
 


The incident comes two days after air raid sirens sounded in central Israel after two aerial drones entered the country from Lebanon. At least one building north of Tel Aviv was damaged during the incident.
 


Hizbollah has been regularly firing rockets and drones into Israel for more than a year, but has reached further since the fighting escalated in late September.

Israel's air defences, including the Iron Dome system, have intercepted most of the projectiles, with few casualties caused by strikes or falling debris. 
 

Iraq walks fine line with pro-Iran factions to avoid war

By - Oct 13,2024 - Last updated at Oct 13,2024

A paraglider flies a large picture of slain Hizbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah over Tahrir Square in central Baghdad, during a protest against the ongoing Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, on October 11, 2024 (AFP photo)

BAGHDAD — The Iraqi government is struggling to rein in powerful pro-Iran factions that risk pulling Iraq into a regional war, as fighting in Gaza and Lebanon threatens to spread further.
 
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a loose alliance of armed groups backed by Iran, has claimed several drone attacks targeting Israel in recent months, which they say are in support of their Palestinian ally Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
 
While most of the attacks have been intercepted, a drone strike last week that Israel said was launched from Iraq killed two Israeli soldiers. 
 
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu the following day said his country was "defending itself on seven fronts", including against Shiite groups in Iraq.
 
After nearly a year of war in Gaza following Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack, Israel in September escalated its strikes against Iran-backed Hizbollah and sent ground troops into the south of Lebanon.
 
Iran launched its second-ever direct attack on Israel on October 1 this year, firing 200 missiles towards its arch-foe, prompting a promise of retaliation. 
 
With warnings of all-out regional war multiplying, the fact that the Iraqi government is itself led by the Iran-aligned Coordination Framework coalition may make it harder for Baghdad to stay clear of further spillover.
 
Still, after decades of successive wars and crises, Iraq wants to prevent the violence already wracking the region from spreading into its turf.
 
On Sunday, Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein said Baghdad was against any "expansion towards the Islamic Republic of Iran and (Israel's) exploitation of Iraqi airspace", during a visit by his Iranian counterpart.
 
"The continuation of the war and its expansion towards the Islamic Republic of Iran and [Israel's]exploitation of Iraqi airspace as a corridor is completely unacceptable and rejected," he said.
 
 'Spare Iraq' 
 
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al Sudani, on the first anniversary of Hamas's attack on Israel that triggered the Gaza war, said that his government had worked "with great effort to spare Iraq an escalation". 
 
He also called for greater efforts to "save the region from the evils of a war that will leave nothing behind".
 
But according to Iraqi political analyst Sajad Jiyad, Baghdad has realised that it cannot "control events" on its own turf, nor will it be able to "prevent any response from outside the country."
 
A source close to Iraq's pro-Iran groups told AFP that officials in the Coordination Framework recently met "with a number of faction leaders and stressed to them that attacks on Israel expose the country to the risk of air strikes that we can do without."
 
During the meeting, the armed groups reportedly urged the government not to intervene, arguing that they alone would bear responsibility for any consequences, according to the same source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
 
Ahmad al-Hamidawi, secretary-general of Iraqi armed faction Kataib Hizbollah, has said the groups should be readying for an escalation.
 
"The Islamic Resistance is preparing for the possibility of this war expanding and to continue directing precise strikes at the heart" of Israel, he said.
 
Media war? 
 
Iraqi national security adviser Qasim Al Araji told Iraqi television channel Al Rabia last week that Baghdad is exerting "internal and external pressure to reduce the escalation".
 
"The government is the one that exclusively has the authority to issue the decision of war and peace, and Iraq has no intention of entering a war that may have dire consequences," he said. 
 
But Jiyad, a fellow at the New York-based Century International think tank, said that ultimately, it might not be up to Iraq whether or not it gets dragged in.
 
In the event of an Israeli attack on Iraqi infrastructure or oil fields, he said, "the Iraqi government will have no alternative but to support any military response to Israel".
 
After Iran's missile attack on Israel, the pro-Tehran Iraqi Resistance Coordination Committee vowed to target US bases and interests in Iraq and the region if Israel used Iraq's airspace to strike Iran.
 
But according to Iraqi military expert Munqith Dagher, the factions know any confrontation with Israel would not be an equal fight, given its intelligence and military prowess.
 
The Iraqi groups are fighting, in his words, "a media battle", because "they know the limits of their military capabilities".
 
 

40 nations contributing to UN Lebanon peacekeeping force condemn 'attacks'

By - Oct 13,2024 - Last updated at Oct 13,2024

Vehicles from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) patrol in Marjayoun in southern Lebanon on October 12, 2024. UNIFIL, which says it has come under repeated fire in the Israeli war against Lebanon in recent days, has patrolled the troubled border for decades (AFP photo)

UNITED NATIONS, United States — Forty nations that contribute to the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon said Saturday that they "strongly condemn recent attacks" on the peacekeepers.
 
"Such actions must stop immediately and should be adequately investigated," said the joint statement, posted on X by the Polish UN mission and signed by nations including leading contributors Indonesia, Italy and India.
 
Other signatories include Ghana, Nepal, Malaysia, Spain, France and China -- all countries that have contributed several hundred troops to the force.
 
At least five peacekeepers have been wounded in recent days as Israel takes its fight against Hezbollah into southern Lebanon.
 
The peacekeeping mission, UNIFIL, has accused the Israeli military of "deliberately" firing on its positions.
 
The 40 contributing countries "reaffirm our full support for UNIFIL's mission and activities, whose principal aim is to bring stabilization and lasting peace in South Lebanon as well as in the Middle East," the statement read.
 
"We urge the parties of the conflict to respect UNIFIL's presence, which entails the obligation to guarantee the safety and security of its personnel at all times," it added.
 
UNIFIL, which involves about 9,500 troops of some 50 nationalities, is tasked with monitoring a ceasefire that ended a 33-day war in 2006 between Israel and Hezbollah.
 
Its role was bolstered by UN Security Council Resolution 1701 of that year, which stipulated that only the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers should be deployed in south Lebanon.
 
At a summit on Friday, French, Italian and Spanish leaders said the "attacks" on UNIFIL peacekeepers violated Resolution 1701 and must end.
 
UNIFIL said that, in recent days, its forces have "repeatedly" come under fire in the Lebanese town of Naqura where it is headquartered, as well as in other positions.
 
The mission said that Israeli tank fire on Thursday caused two Indonesian peacekeepers to fall off a watch tower in Naqura. 
 
The following day it said explosions close to an observation tower in Naqura wounded two Sri Lankan Blue Helmets, while Israel said it had responded to an "immediate threat" near a UN peacekeeping position.
 
On Saturday UNIFIL said a peacekeeper in Naqura "was hit by gunfire" on Friday night.
 
UNIFIL spokesman Andrea Tenenti told AFP the peacekeeping mission's work had become "very difficult because there is a lot of damage, even inside the bases."
 

Israel fights Hizbollah on the ground, pounds Lebanon from the air

Health ministry in Gaza says war death toll at 42,227

By - Oct 13,2024 - Last updated at Oct 13,2024

A picture taken from the Marjeyoun area shows smoke rising from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Tibnit on October 13, 2024 (AFP photo)

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Israel battled Hizbollah in south Lebanon as the air force expanded its bombardment of the country, with the Iran-backed group reporting "point-blank" fighting and Israel announcing the capture of a fighter.

It came amid sharpening accusations from UN peacekeepers in south Lebanon, who said Israeli troops "forcibly" entered a position, after the Israeli premier called on the force to withdraw from the area.

Israel's recent strikes have increasingly focused on areas beyond Hizbollah's traditional strongholds in the south and east, with the Lebanese health ministry reporting deadly strikes on a Shiite Muslim village in a mostly Christian mountain area and another in the north.

Israeli warplanes also hit a 100-year-old mosque in the village of Kfar Tibnit near the border on Sunday, Lebanon's official National News Agency (NNA) said.

"It was a significant place because families used to gather in the square right next to it [the mosque] on special occasions," Mayor Fuad Yassin told AFP.

AFPTV footage from the northern Deir Billa area showed rescuers and villagers digging through debris left by a strike with their bare hands.

The Israeli military said its 36th division continued "targeted and limited operational activity" against Hizbollah.

The air force hit "Hizbollah launchers, anti-tank missile posts, weapons storage facilities" among other militant targets, and on the ground, soldiers "eliminated dozens" of fighters, it said. 

According to the NNA, Israeli forces have "escalated their attacks" on southern Lebanon, with "successive air strikes from midnight until morning" pounding several border villages.

Hizbollah said it clashed several times with Israeli troops who tried to "infiltrate" border villages.

It later said it shelled Israeli soldiers gathered in the village of Maroun Al Ras, and that in Blida village, its forces engaged Israeli soldiers "with machine guns at point-blank range".

It also said it launched a salvo of rockets at a "base in southern Haifa". Hizbollah has repeatedly fired on targets in the area of Haifa, a major city on Israel's north coast.

The Israeli military said about 115 projectiles fired by Hizbollah crossed into Israeli territory by Sunday afternoon.

A Hizbollah fighter was captured emerging from a tunnel in south Lebanon on Sunday, Israel's military said, the first such announcement since the start of the ground offensive.

UN seeks 'explanation' 

United Nations peacekeepers on Sunday accused Israeli troops of "forcibly" entering one of their positions in south Lebanon.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu had earlier on Sunday called on the UN chief to remove peacekeepers in southern Lebanon out of harm's way, after the force rejected repeated requests to abandon their positions.

He said that the peacekeepers' presence had "the effect of providing Hizbollah terrorists with human shields".

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned Netanyahu's call, saying it "represents a new chapter in the enemy's approach of not complying with international" norms.

UNIFIL, with about 10,000 troops, is in southern Lebanon under the longstanding UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which stipulated that only the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers should be deployed in south Lebanon.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday called it "absolutely unacceptable" that UN troops are "deliberately targeted by the Israeli armed forces".

The health ministry in Gaza says 42,227 people, the majority civilians, have been killed since Israel's military campaign began there. The UN acknowledges these figures to be reliable.

In support of its Hamas, Hizbollah started firing into northern Israel in October last year, triggering a near-daily exchange of fire that even before the current escalation had led to the displacement of tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border.

In September, Israel expanded its Lebanon focus, with Netanyahu vowing to fight Hizbollah until Israelis displaced by the violence could return to their homes. 

Since then, more than 1,200 people have been killed in Lebanon and a million others have been displaced, according to Lebanese officials.

Efforts to negotiate an end to the Lebanon and Gaza wars have so far failed.

Mikati said his government would ask the UN Security Council to issue a new resolution calling for a "full and immediate ceasefire".

 'No red lines' 

Even before the war, Lebanon was facing its worst economic crisis in decades.

Aid arrived in Beirut airport on Sunday from Qatar and Saudi Arabia, the latest assistance to land in the country where the International Organisation for Migration has described the needs as "huge".

In a visit to Baghdad ahead of Israel's expected retaliation for Iran's October 1 missile attack on Israel, Iran's top diplomat Abbas Araghchi on Sunday vowed there would be "no red lines" for Iran in defending its people and interests.

He later said Tehran was "fully prepared for a war situation" but added, "we do not want war, we want peace and we will work for a just peace in Gaza and Lebanon".

In Gaza, Israeli forces have for days essentially besieged an area around Jabalia in the north, with the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, saying the fighting was causing more suffering for hundreds of thousands of people trapped there.

Palestinians trapped in the Gaza Strip, many of whom have been uprooted multiple times by the war, were praying for an end to the violence.

"There is no safe place, neither in the south nor in the north -- everyone is at risk of death," Gaza resident Sami Asliya, 27, told AFP.

UN warns against 'catastrophic' regional conflict

By - Oct 12,2024 - Last updated at Oct 12,2024

United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) spokesperson Andrea Tenenti points at Beirut's southern suburbs from his office at the UNIFIL House in Baabda east of the Lebanese capital on Saturday (AFP photo)

BEIRUT — UN peacekeepers in Lebanon warned Saturday against a "catastrophic" regional conflict as Israeli forces battled Hizbollah  and Hamas militants on two fronts, on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.
 
Israel has faced a fierce diplomatic backlash over incidents in south Lebanon that saw five Blue Helmets wounded.
 
On Saturday, the Lebanese health ministry said Israeli air strikes on two villages located near the capital Beirut killed nine people. 
 
Israel had earlier told residents of south Lebanon not to return home, as its troops fought Hizbollah  militants in a war that has killed more than 1,200 people since September 23, and forced more than a million others to flee their homes.
 
"For your own protection, do not return to your homes until further notice... Do not go south; anyone who goes south may put his life at risk," Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee posted on X.
 
Hizbollah  said Saturday it launched missiles across the border into northern Israel, where air raid sirens sounded and the military said it had intercepted a projectile.
 
In an interview with AFP, UNIFIL spokesman Andrea Tenenti told AFP he feared an Israeli escalation against Hizbollah  in south Lebanon could soon spiral out of control "into a regional conflict with catastrophic impact for everyone".
 
The UN force said five peacekeepers have been wounded by fighting in south Lebanon in just two days, and Tenenti said "a lot of damage" had been caused to its posts there.
 
Around Israel, markets were closed and public transport halted as observant Jews fasted and prayed on Yom Kippur.
 
After the holiday, attention is likely to turn again to Israel's expected retaliation against Iran, which launched around 200 missiles at Israel on October 1.
 
Israel began pounding Gaza shortly after suffering its worst ever attacks from Iran-backed Hamas militants on October 7 last year, and it launched a ground offensive against Hizbollah  in Lebanon on September 30.
 
Deliberately targeted
 
On Friday, Israel faced criticism from the UN, its Western allies and others over what it said was a "hit" on a UN peacekeeping position in Lebanon.
 
Two Sri Lankan peacekeepers were hurt in the second such incident in two days, UNIFIL said Friday.
 
Israel's military said soldiers had responded to "an immediate threat" around 50 metres (yards) from the UNIFIL base in Naqura, and has pledged to carry out a "thorough review".
 
The Irish military's chief of staff, Sean Clancy, said it was "not an accidental act", and French President Emmanuel Macron said he believed the peacekeepers had been "deliberately targeted".
 
Both countries are major contributors to UNIFIL whose peacekeepers are on the front line of the Israel-Hizbollah  war.
 
Efforts to negotiate an end to the fighting have so far failed, but Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said his government would ask the UN Security Council to issue a new resolution calling for a "full and immediate ceasefire".
 
Lebanon's military said Friday an Israeli strike on one of its positions in south Lebanon killed two soldiers.
 
In a show of support for Iran's ally Hizbollah , the speaker of the Iranian parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf visited the site Saturday of a deadly Israeli strike earlier this week.
 
A source close to Hizbollah  said the strike had targeted Hizbollah 's security chief Wafiq Safa, but neither Hizbollah  nor Israel has confirmed he was the target.
 
Ghalibaf's Lebanon visit, a signal of Tehran's defiance, comes after Israel vowed to respond to Iran's second-ever direct attack.
 
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has vowed that the response will be "deadly, precise and surprising".
 
The United States is pushing for a "proportionate" response that would not tip the region into a wider war, with President Joe Biden urging Israel to avoid striking Iranian nuclear facilities or energy infrastructure.
 
Gaza deaths 
 
Iran-backed Hizbollah  began firing on Israel in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas following the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures, which includes hostages killed in captivity.
 
Israel's military campaign in Gaza has wrought devastation and, according to data from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, killed 42,175 people, a majority civilians.
 
Israeli operations in Gaza continue, with the army laying siege to an area around Jabalia in the north, causing more suffering for hundreds of thousands of people trapped there, according to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
 
Adraee, the Israeli military spokesman, posted another evacuation warning Saturday for an area near Jabalia.
 
"The specified area, including the shelters within it, is considered a dangerous combat zone," Adraee said on X, ordering residents to move to the humanitarian zone in southern Gaza.
 
Some residents said they were not prepared to do so.
 
"They tell us to go south, but we won't go because of the dangers and the army is shooting at people there," 27-year-old Sami Asliya told AFP.
 
"There is no safe place, neither in the south nor in the north , everyone is at risk of death," he said.
 
On Friday, Gaza's civil defence agency reported 30 people killed in Israeli strikes in the area, including on schools being used as shelter by displaced people.
 
An AFP journalist in Gaza reported heavy shelling, explosions and gunfire Saturday further south in Gaza City's Zeitoun neighbourhood.
 

Rescuers say Israeli strike on Gaza school kills 28

By - Oct 10,2024 - Last updated at Oct 10,2024

A man carries a child while walking past a collapsed building in the Bureij camp for Palestinian refugees in the central Gaza Strip on October 9, 2024 (AFP photo)

GAZA CITY — Rescuers in Gaza said Israel conducted a deadly air strike Thursday on a school housing families displaced by the war, though the Israeli military said it was a Hamas command centre.
 
While Israel has widened its military operations to Lebanon since last month, pounding Hizbollah strongholds around the country and battling militants near the border, it has also escalated in recent days its strikes on Gaza.
 
The strike on Rafida School in central Gaza, which according to the Palestinian Red Crescent killed 28 people and wounded 54 others, follows the widening of Israeli operations in the north of the territory.
 
The Israeli army said the strike targeted Palestinian militants operating from a command and control centre "embedded inside a compound that previously served as the (Rafida) School".
 
Israel accuses Hamas of hiding in school buildings and other civilian infrastructure where thousands of Gazans have sought shelter -- a charge the Palestinian militants deny.
 
The Gaza war began on October 7 last year, when Hamas militants stormed across the border and carried out the worst attack in Israeli history.
 
The militants took 251 people hostage in an attack that resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
 
According to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry, 42,065 people have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, a majority civilians, figures the UN has described as reliable.
 
Northern Gaza operations 
 
While Israel received international support in its bid to crush Hamas and bring the hostages home, it has faced criticism over its conduct of the war.
 
Speaking to reporters about the humanitarian situation in northern Gaza, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Washington was "incredibly concerned" as Israel tightens its siege.
 
"We have been making clear to the government of Israel that they have an obligation under international humanitarian law to allow food and water and other needed humanitarian assistance to make it into all parts of Gaza," he said.
 
Israel expanded a military operation around Jabalia in northern Gaza, where about 400,000 people are trapped, according to Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
 
Lazzarini said on X there was "no end to hell" in the area and that "recent evacuation orders from the Israeli authorities are forcing people to flee again & again".
 
The army surrounded Jabalia and its refugee camp at the weekend and shelled it on Wednesday, preventing the delivery of aid, Gaza's civil defence agency said.
 
The United States has also urged Israel to avoid Gaza-like military action in Lebanon, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it could face "destruction" like the Palestinian territory.
 
The comments came after a phone call between Netanyahu and US President Joe Biden, their first in seven weeks. 
 
The White House said Biden told Netanyahu to "minimise harm" to civilians in Lebanon, particularly in "densely populated areas of Beirut".
 
"There should be no kind of military action in Lebanon that looks anything like Gaza and leaves a result anything like Gaza," Miller said.
 
Israel has since September 23 pounded Hizbollah strongholds around Lebanon in a campaign that, according to an AFP tally of health ministry figures, has killed more than 1,200 people and displaced more than a million others.
 
On Thursday, the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon accused Israel of firing on an observation tower at its headquarters and wounding two of its members.
 
The Israel-Hezbollah war was sparked by Hizbollah's cross-border fire in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas, following the October 7 attack.
 
The Hizbollah attacks forced tens of thousands of Israelis to flee their homes over the past year, and Netanyahu has promised to fight until they can return.
 
On Tuesday, he said in a video address to the people of Lebanon: "You have an opportunity to save Lebanon before it falls into the abyss of a long war that will lead to destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza."
 
"Free your country from Hezbollah so that this war can end."
 
 'No shame' 
 
In Beirut, many people are sleeping out in the streets after Israeli air strikes.
 
Ahmad, a 77-year-old who did not want to give his family name for fear of reprisals, said he had a message for Hezbollah.
 
"If you can't continue to fight, announce you are withdrawing and that you have lost. There is no shame in losing," he said.
 
But Raed Ayyash, a displaced man from the south of the country, said he hoped Hezbollah would keep fighting.
 
"We hope for victory, and we will never give up."
 
Biden and Netanyahu's call had been expected to focus on Israel's response to last week's missile barrage by Iran, which backs both Hezbollah and Hamas.
 
Iran fired about 200 missiles at Israel in what it said was retaliation for the killing of Hizbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. Most were intercepted by Israel or its allies.
 
Israel's Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said: "Our attack on Iran will be deadly, precise and surprising. They will not understand what happened and how it happened."
 
Biden has cautioned Israel against attempting to target Iran's nuclear facilities, which would risk major retaliation, and opposes striking oil installations.
 
With Hizbollah fighters locked in clashes with Israeli troops in southern Lebanon, the group said it destroyed an Israeli tank advancing on the border on Thursday.
 
A day earlier, two people were killed by suspected Hizbollah rocket fire in the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona, while Israel intercepted two projectiles fired towards the coastal town of Caesarea, officials said.
 
Lebanon's health ministry said at least four people were killed in an Israeli strike on a village southeast of Beirut, an area so far largely spared from Israeli bombing.

Iran top diplomat in Qatar as Israel issues attack threat

By - Oct 10,2024 - Last updated at Oct 10,2024

This handout picture provided by the Iranian foreign ministry on October 10, 2024, shows Qatar's Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani (R) meeting with Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Doha on October 10, 2024 (AFP photo)

DOHA — Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met his Qatari counterpart in Doha on Thursday, his spokesman said, after Israel warned it would retaliate against his country for last week's missile attack.
 
Qatar has played a key role in efforts to secure an elusive ceasefire in Gaza and has called for a truce in Lebanon, where Israel has escalated last month its bombing of strongholds of Iran-backed Hezbollah.
 
The conflict in the region was the subject of "important consultations" between Araghchi and his counterpart Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who also serves as Qatar's prime minister, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said on social media platform X.
 
"It is only responsible for all states to maximise their efforts to shield our region against an imposed catastrophe by stopping genocide in Gaza and aggression on Lebanon," he said after the talks. 
 
Araghchi was expected to hold meetings with Qatari officials on Gaza, Lebanon and efforts to de-escalate regional tensions, a source with knowledge of the meetings told AFP on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of discussions.
 
His visit came after Israel on Wednesday threatened retaliation for last week's massive missile attack by Tehran, stoking fears of a wider war in the region.
 
Israel's Defence Minister Yoav Gallant warned the response against Iran would be "deadly, precise and surprising".
 
On Wednesday, Araghchi was in Saudi Arabia where he met Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and his Saudi counterpart, Prince Faisal bin Farhan.
 
Iran had said the talks were aimed at providing "better conditions" for Palestinians and Lebanese under Israeli attacks.
 
Israel has been waging a year-long war against Hamas in Gaza that was triggered by the Palestinian militant group's unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
 
Hezbollah began firing on northern Israel in the wake of that attack, and since last month, Israel has significantly ramped up its strikes targeting Hezbollah leaders and infrastructure.
 
Iran's president Masoud Pezeshkian travelled to Qatar last week where he insisted Tehran was not looking for war with Israel but vowed a stronger response in the case of an Israeli retaliation for its missile attack.
 

Israeli strike hits road linking Lebanon to Syria - monitor

By - Oct 10,2024 - Last updated at Oct 10,2024

A woman carries a mattress over her head as she enters Syria from Lebanon via the Jusiyeh border crossing with Quseir in Syria's central Homs province on October 2, 2024 (AFP photo)

BEIRUT — An Israeli strike hit a road linking Syria and Lebanon Thursday as Israel tries to cut off supply routes of Lebanese militant group Hizbollah , a war monitor said.
 
Israel has increased it strikes on Syria since it upped its air raids on what it says are targets of Hizbollah  in Lebanon more than two weeks ago, notably killing the leader of the Lebanese militant group.
 
"Israeli aircraft carried out a strike targeting the road linking Syria and Lebanon" in the Quseir region on the Syrian side of the border, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
 
Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the group with a wide network of sources in Syria, said the strike came as part of Israeli attempts "to cut the supply line to Hizbollah ".
 
There were no casualties and it was not immediately clear if the road had been cut off in the strike, he said.
 
Lebanon's National News Agency reported "enemy drone strikes on the border between Lebanon and Syria".
 
The strike comes less than a week after Israeli jets struck the main Lebanon-Syria border crossing of Masnaa in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley, cutting off the road to traffic.
 
The Israeli military said its jets Friday struck Lebanese militant Hizbollah  positions near the border.
 
Human Right Watch on Monday said the strikes near the main Lebanon-Syria border crossing were putting civilians at "grave risk" as they prevented them from fleeing and hampered humanitarian operations.
 
Increased Israeli air strikes against Hizbollah  in Lebanon have killed more than 1,200 people and displaced over a million from their homes, according to official figures.
 
More than 400,000 people , mostly Syrians , who have fled over the frontier into Syria.
 
Since Syria's civil war erupted in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in the country, mainly targeting army positions and Iran-backed fighters, including Lebanon's Hizbollah .
 
Israeli authorities rarely comment on individual strikes in Syria, but have repeatedly said they will not allow arch-enemy Iran to expand its presence there.
 
Israel has struck Syria repeatedly this week.
 
Syrian state media reported an Israeli attack Thursday on the central provinces of Homs and Hama, after an Israeli strike hit the country's south the previous day.
 
The Observatory said they targeted an Iranian car factory in Homs and an area home to air defences and government troops in Hama.
 
The attack came after state media said Israeli bombardment on Wednesday killed a policeman in southern Syria near the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, in a raid the Israeli army said killed a figure from Hizbollah  inside Syria.
 
A day earlier, a strike blamed on Israel in the Damascus neighbourhood of Mazzeh killed seven civilians, authorities said.
 
The Observatory said the strike targeted a building used by Iran's Revolutionary Guards and Hizbollah , killing nine civilians including four children, as well as four others including two Hizbollah  members.
 

UN probe accuses Israel of seeking to 'destroy' Gaza healthcare

By - Oct 10,2024 - Last updated at Oct 10,2024

An injured Palestinian man is wheeled into al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital after an Israeli strike hit a school housing displaced people in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, on October 10, 2024 (AFP photo)

GENEVA — Israel is deliberately targeting health facilities and killing and torturing medical personnel in Gaza, UN investigators said Thursday, accusing the country of "crimes against humanity".
 
"Israel has perpetrated a concerted policy to destroy Gaza's healthcare system as part of a broader assault on Gaza," the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry said in a statement.
 
The country is "committing war crimes and the crime against humanity of extermination with relentless and deliberate attacks on medical personnel and facilities", it added.
 
The three-person commission, established by the UN Human Rights Council in May 2021 to investigate alleged international law violations in Israel and the Palestinian territories, was publishing its second report since Hamas's October 7 attack a year ago, which sparked the ongoing war.
 
The report also highlighted abuse of Palestinian detainees in Israel and of hostages in Gaza, accusing both Israel and Palestinian armed groups of "torture" and sexual and gender-based violence.
 
Israel has accused the commission of "systematic anti-Israeli discrimination" and flatly rejected the findings of its June report, which also accused Israel of committing crimes against humanity, including of "extermination" in Gaza.
 
 'Wanton destruction of healthcare' 
 
"Israel must immediately stop its unprecedented wanton destruction of healthcare facilities in Gaza," commission chair Navi Pillay, a former UN rights chief, said in the statement.
 
By doing so, "Israel is targeting the right to health itself with significant long-term detrimental effects on the civilian population," she said.
 
The report found that Israeli security forces had "deliberately killed, detained and tortured medical personnel and targeted medical vehicles" in Gaza and restricted permits to leave the territory for medical treatment. 
 
Such actions constitute numerous war crimes and "the crime against humanity of extermination", the commission said.
 
Israel's actions had caused "incalculable suffering" among child patients and were "resulting in the destruction of generations of Palestinian children and, potentially, the Palestinian people as a group," it said.
 
The report highlighted the death of Hind Rajab in January as "one of the most egregious cases".
 
The young girl called the Palestinian Red Crescent, pleading to be rescued, after her family's car came under fire in Gaza City.
 
Her body was eventually recovered along with six relatives and two Red Crescent rescue workers sent to find her.
 
The commission said it determined that the Israeli army's 162nd Division was responsible for the deaths, which constitute war crimes.
 
 'Systematic abuse' in detention 
 
The report examined the treatment of Palestinians held in Israeli military camps and detention facilities.
 
It found that thousands of detainees, including children, have been subjected to "widespread and systematic abuse, physical and psychological violence, and sexual and gender-based violence".
 
This amounts "to the war crime and crime against humanity of torture and the war crime of rape and other forms of sexual violence", the investigators said.
 
Male detainees were subjected to rape and attacks on their sexual organs, they added.
 
Detainee deaths as a result of abuse or neglect also amount to the war crimes, the commission said.
 
The report found the "institutionalised mistreatment of Palestinian detainees" took place "under direct orders" from National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, fuelled by Israeli government statements "inciting violence and retribution".
 
Pillay said the "appalling acts of abuse" against detainees required accountability and reparations.
 
 Abuse of hostages 
 
Turning to the Israeli and other hostages held in Gaza by Palestinian armed groups, the report found that many had been subjected to "physical pain and severe mental suffering", including violence, abuse, sexual violence, humiliation and limited food and water.
 
"Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups committed the war crimes of torture, inhuman or cruel treatment, and the crimes against humanity of enforced disappearance and other inhumane acts causing great suffering or serious injury," the commission said.
 
Pillay said all the hostages should be released immediately and unconditionally. 
 
Israel's offensive has killed more than 42,000 people in Gaza, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry that the UN has described as reliable.
 

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