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BEIRUT, Lebanon — Israel conducted deadly strikes on Lebanon Saturday in response to a rocket attack from across the border, as Hizbollah denied responsibility for the launch.

Lebanon's official National News Agency reported one girl among two killed in an Israeli strike on the southern town of Touline, amid the largest escalation of attacks since a November 27 ceasefire.

The Israeli army had said earlier Saturday that three rockets, all of which were intercepted, were fired from Lebanon into northern Israel, setting off air raid sirens in the region for the first time since November.

"Hizbollah denies any involvement in the rocket fire from southern Lebanon into the occupied Palestinian territories (Israel)," the Iran-backed group said in a statement, calling Israel's accusations "pretexts for its continued attacks on Lebanon".

The Iran-backed group said that it stands "with the Lebanese state in addressing this dangerous Zionist escalation on Lebanon".

While Hizbollah has long held sway over areas of Lebanon bordering Israel, other Lebanese and Palestinian groups have also carried out cross-border attacks.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam warned the country risked being dragged into a "new war" after months of relative calm.

But Israeli defence chiefs said they held the Lebanese government responsible for all hostile fire from its territory regardless of who launched it.

"We cannot allow fire from Lebanon on Galilee communities," Defence Minister Israel Katz said, referring to towns and villages in the north, many of which were evacuated after Hizbollah began firing on Israel in support of Hamas in October 2023.

"The Lebanese government is responsible for attacks from its territory. I have ordered the military to respond accordingly," Katz said.

Armed forces chief Eyal Zamir warned the military would "respond severely".

NNA said Israeli air strikes and shelling had targeted several areas of the south.

One Israeli strike killed two people including a girl in Touline, NNA reported. It had earlier reported Israeli strikes wounded two people in the border village of Kfarkila.

UN 'alarm' 

The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon said it was "alarmed by the possible escalation of violence" following the morning's rocket fire.

"We strongly urge all parties to avoid jeopardising the progress made, especially when civilian lives and the fragile stability observed in recent months are at risk," it said.

The Lebanese prime minister meanwhile "warned against renewed military operations on the southern border, because of the risks they carry of dragging the country into a new war," his office said.

Hizbollah has long held sway in much of south and east Lebanon, as well as south Beirut, but the group was dealt devastating blows, including the killing of longtime chief Hassan Nasrallah, during its war with Israel.

Under the terms of the ceasefire, Hizbollah is supposed to pull its forces back north of the Litani River, some 30 kilometres from the Israeli border, and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure in the south.

Israel is supposed to withdraw its forces across the UN-demarcated Blue Line, the de facto border but has missed two deadlines to do so and continues to hold five positions it deems "strategic".

Israel has carried out repeated air strikes during the ceasefire that it said targeted Hizbollah military sites that violated the agreement.

The Lebanese army said it had dismantled three makeshift rocket batteries in an area north of the Litani on Saturday.

Gaza assault enters day five 

Saturday's flare-up on the Lebanese border came five days into Israel's renewed offensive against Hamas militants in Gaza, which shattered the relative calm that had reigned since a January 19 ceasefire.

Israel's defence minister said Friday that he had ordered the army to "seize more territory in Gaza".

"The more Hamas refuses to free the hostages, the more territory it will lose, which will be annexed by Israel," Katz said.

The return to military operations was coordinated with US President Donald Trump's administration but drew widespread condemnation.

Hamas took issue Saturday with Washington's characterisation of its position, insisting that it stood ready to release all its remaining hostages as part of a promised second stage of the ceasefire.

"The claim that 'Hamas chose war instead of releasing the hostages' is a distortion of the facts," the group said.

When the first stage of the ceasefire expired early this month, Israel rejected negotiations for the promised second stage, calling instead for the return of all its remaining hostages under an extended first stage.

That would have meant delaying talks on a lasting ceasefire, and was rejected by Hamas as an attempt to renegotiate the original deal.

KHARTOUM — Sudan's military said on Saturday it seized several key buildings in central Khartoum from paramilitary control after army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan promised "full liberation" following the recapture of the presidential palace.

Army spokesman Nabil Abdallah said the military was "continuing to pressure" the Rapid Support Forces throughout the city centre, giving a list of buildings recaptured including the central bank, state intelligence headquarters and the Sudan National Museum.

Sudan's national institutions in the city centre were all overrun and looted by paramilitaries in the first weeks after fighting erupted in April 2023.

On Friday, the army and allied armed groups retook the presidential palace from the RSF, which retaliated with a drone strike that killed three journalists and several army personnel.

The paramilitaries had used the palace to house their elite forces and stockpile ammunition, according to military sources.

The battle for Khartoum's government and financial district could consolidate the military's hold on the capital. It would provide a significant advantage in the country's devastating two-year war, but is unlikely to end it.

With its advance on Friday, the army has taken the entire left bank of the Blue Nile. It has also secured the main road route across the White Nile from the city centre to Khartoum's sister city of Omdurman.

Since April 2023, the military led by army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan has fought the RSF, headed by his former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

After a year and a half of humiliating defeats, the tide seemed to turn late last year, when an army counteroffensive through central Sudan led to its recapture of much of Khartoum.

 'We will continue' 

Army chief Burhan said his forces were "advancing with steady steps towards the full liberation of Sudan", in a video shared by the army on Saturday.

"The battle is not over, we will continue," he said to cheers and ululations in Al-Kamlin, a town some 100 kilometres southwest of Khartoum, the day before.

The RSF did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment on Saturday. But it too had vowed on Friday that the battle for the palace was "not over".

Army sources said the paramilitaries withdrew into buildings in Al-Mogran, an area just west of the palace housing banks and business headquarters.

The paramilitaries posted snipers in the district's high-rises, which overlook both Omdurman and the ministries of central Khartoum.

"Our forces in central Khartoum are continuing to pressure the Daglo thugs ... [who] are trying to escape from our forces," army spokesman Nabil Abdallah said.

He said the army had "eliminated hundreds of militia members who tried to escape through pockets in central Khartoum."

Analysts cautioned that even if the army went on to recapture the whole of greater Khartoum, it would not spell an end to Sudan's brutal war, which has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted more than 12 million.

Africa's third largest country remains effectively split in two, with the army holding the east and north while the RSF controls nearly all of the western region of Darfur and parts of the south.

NIAMEY - Niger's government announced Friday three days of mourning after 44 civilians were killed in the country's southwest by "terrorists" belonging to the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara group.

The victims were killed in a "savage" attack on a mosque in the Fonbita quarter of the rural town of Kokorou, the interior ministry said in a statement broadcast on state television.

It said another 13 people were wounded.

The attack occurred early in the afternoon as people were attending a prayer service at the mosque, the ministry statement said.

"The heavily armed terrorists surrounded the mosque to carry out their massacre with unusual cruelty," it said, adding that the attackers also set fire to a local market and homes.

The ministry vowed to hunt down the perpetrators and put them on trial.

The attack occurred in an area close to the borders with Burkina Faso and Mali, a region in which jihadists affiliated with the Islamic State group and Al-Qaeda have been active for years.

The military of Niger's junta-run government frequently fights jihadists in the region, and civilians are often victims in the violence.

Since July 2023, at least 2,400 people have been killed in Niger, according to the database of the ACLED, a non-governmental organisation that gives armed conflict location and event data.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Israeli defence minister Israel Katz threatened Friday to annex parts of the Gaza Strip unless Hamas militants release the remaining Israeli hostages held in the war-battered Palestinian territory.

The warning came as Israel stepped up the renewed assault it launched on Tuesday, shattering the relative calm that had reigned in the war-battered territory since a January 19 ceasefire.

Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli strikes killed 11 people on Friday -- three in pre-dawn strikes and eight more during the daytime. 

On Thursday, it had reported a death toll of 504 since the bombardment resumed, one of the highest since the war began more than 17 months ago with Hamas's attack on Israel.

"I ordered (the army) to seize more territory in Gaza... The more Hamas refuses to free the hostages, the more territory it will lose, which will be annexed by Israel," Katz said in a statement.

Should Hamas not comply, Katz also threatened "to expand buffer zones around Gaza to protect Israeli civilian population areas and soldiers by implementing a permanent Israeli occupation of the area".

The military urged residents of the Al-Salatin, Al Karama and Al Awda areas of southern Gaza to evacuate their homes on Friday ahead of a threatened strike. 

"For your safety, head south toward the known shelters immediately," Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a post on X.

AFP images from northern Gaza showed donkey carts piled high with belongings as residents fled their homes along rubble-strewn roads. 

‘Pressure points' 

Israel resumed intensive bombing of Gaza on Tuesday, citing deadlock in indirect negotiations on next steps in the truce after its first stage expired early this month.

Its resumption of large-scale military operations was coordinated with US President Donald Trump's administration but drew widespread condemnation.

Turkey condemned what it said was a "deliberate" attack by Israel on a Turkish-built hospital in Gaza. "We strongly condemn the destruction by Israel of the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital," its foreign ministry said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed "concern" over the fresh Israeli assault in a telephone call Friday with the ruler of Qatar, one of the mediators of the January ceasefire.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog expressed concern about the government's actions in a video statement on Thursday, saying it was "unthinkable to resume fighting while still pursuing the sacred mission of bringing our hostages home". 

Thousands of protesters have rallied in Jerusalem in recent days, accusing prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu of resuming military operations without regard for the safety of the hostages.

Of the 251 hostages seized during Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack, 58 are still held by Gaza militants, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

The Israeli military said on Thursday that it had closed off the territory's main north-south route as it expanded the ground operations which resumed on Wednesday.

Projectiles from Gaza 

Israel's military said it intercepted two projectiles fired from northern Gaza on Friday, after air raid sirens sounded in the southern city of Ashkelon. 

On Thursday, sirens went off in central Israel as Hamas said it fired rockets at Tel Aviv in its first military reponse to Israel's resumed offensive. The military said it intercepted one rocket, while two hit an uninhabited area.

"We will intensify the fight with aerial, naval and ground shelling as well as by expanding the ground operation until hostages are freed and Hamas is defeated, using all military and civilian pressure points," Katz said.

He said these included implementing Trump's proposal for the United States to redevelop Gaza as a Mediterranean resort after the relocation of its Palestinian inhabitants to other Arab countries.

When asked if Trump was trying to get a Gaza ceasefire back on track Thursday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that the president "fully supports" Israel's renewed Gaza operations.

Israel rejected negotiations for a promised second stage of the truce, calling instead for the return of all of its remaining hostages under an extended first stage.

That would have meant delaying talks on a lasting ceasefire, and was rejected by Hamas as an attempt to renegotiate the original deal.

KHARTOUM — The Sudanese army recaptured the presidential palace in Khartoum from the Rapid Support Forces on Friday, dealing a major blow to the paramilitaries who responded with deadly drone attacks.

State television had broadcast scenes of fighters celebrating in the palace, before three of its journalists and a number of army personnel were killed in a drone strike, an army source reported.

They were "covering the army retaking the Republican Palace" when an RSF one-way attack drone struck the complex, the source told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Information Minister Khalid Al Aiser said state television's producer, video journalist and driver were among the dead.

In a statement shared to Telegram, the RSF said it had launched a "lightning operation" around the palace which "killed more than 89 enemy personnel and destroyed various military vehicles".

"The battle for the Republican Palace is not over yet," the RSF vowed, adding that their fighters remained nearby.

Witnesses reported multiple drones targeting the area, where soldiers had celebrated through the blackened halls of the palace.

In video footage broadcast by state television, young men in yellow bandanas -- volunteer fighters who had taken up arms alongside the army -- waved flags and ululated behind shattered windows.

The devastating battle for power between Sudan's rival generals began on April 15, 2023, when much of Khartoum quickly fell to the RSF.

The infantrymen of the regular army had proved no match for the highly mobile paramilitaries in the battle for the capital's streets.

‘Massive blow' 

In the nearly two years since, the war has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted more than 12 million, including more than half of the estimated pre-war population of greater Khartoum.

After months of humiliating defeats for the army, the tide of the war seemed to turn late last year when the army launched a counteroffensive in the central farming state of Al-Jazira, taking advantage of the defection of a local commander.

The recapture of the presidential palace, an emblem of Sudanese sovereignty, "is a massive blow for the RSF, in addition to a huge symbolic victory for the armed forces," said International Crisis Group Horn of Africa director Alan Boswell.

"This is a huge turning point in the war. It'll be very hard for the RSF to claim these are tactical withdrawals or to put a brave face on this defeat."

Sudan's army-aligned government, based in Port Sudan on the Red Sea, hailed the victory.

The information minister praised the "heroes" fighting alongside the army, a motley crew of groups including former democracy activists, Islamist militiamen and defectors from the RSF.

A retired Sudanese general said that the RSF's withdrawal from greater Khartoum was "only a matter of time" after the army "broke their power and destroyed their equipment".

But RSF fighters are still scattered around the city centre, hiding in nearby buildings and stationed in part of the bombed out airport, military sources said.

The paramilitaries have kept up their shelling of army-held neighbourhoods from their remaining positions in the city's western and southern outskirts, the sources added.

‘Complete' victory?

A military expert told AFP that the RSF had lost elite fighters in the battle for the presidential palace. 

"With the army entering the Republican Palace, which means control of central Khartoum, the militia has lost its elite forces," the expert said, requesting anonymity for their safety.

"Now the army has destroyed equipment, killed a number of their forces and seized control of one of its most important supply centres in Khartoum."

The army announced an operation to "cleanse" the city centre of holdout RSF fighters.

Army spokesman Nabil Abdallah said troops would "continue to progress on all fronts until victory is complete and every inch of our country is purged of the militia and its supporters".

The army's retaking of the presidential palace may lead to its recapture of greater Khartoum but the vast western region of Darfur and much of the south remain largely in RSF hands.

DAMASCUS - Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock officially reopened her country's embassy in war-ravaged Syria during a one-day visit to Damascus on Thursday.

Baerbock reopened the mission, which closed in 2012 amid the Syrian civil war, on her second visit there since the fall of president Bashar Al Assad over three months ago.

Her trip also came weeks after violence incidents claimed more than 1,500 lives on Syria's Mediterranean coast.

"The horrific outbreaks of violence two weeks ago have caused a massive loss of trust," said Baerbock. "The targeted killing of civilians is a terrible crime."

She called on the transitional government of interim president Ahmed Al Sharaa to "control the actions of the groups within its own ranks and hold those responsible accountable."

But she stressed that "we want to support the Syrians together with our European partners and the United Nations" as they rebuild their country.

Germany on Monday announced 300 million euros ($325 million) for reconstruction aid in Syria, as part of a donor conference that gathered total pledges of 5.8 billion euros.

A German foreign ministry source said Berlin had officially reopened its embassy in Syria, with an initially small diplomatic team working in Damascus.

Consular affairs and visas would continue to be handled from the Lebanese capital Beirut for practical reasons and due to the security situation in Syria.

‘New start' 

The ministry source said that "Germany has a paramount interest in a stable Syria. We can better contribute to the difficult task of stabilisation on the ground.

"We can build important diplomatic contacts and thus, among other things, push for an inclusive political transition process that takes into account the interests of all population groups." 

The source added that "with our diplomats on the ground, we can now also once again engage in important work with civil society. And we can respond directly and immediately to serious negative developments."

Baerbock in her statement warned Syria's interim authorities that a "new start" with Europe was conditional on it delivering security to all Syrians, regardless of faith, gender or ethnicity. 

She said many Syrians "are scared that life in the future Syria will not be safe for all Syrians". 

In the days after March 6, Syria's coast was gripped by the worst wave of violence since Assad's overthrow. 

Since Assad's overthrow, Israel has launched hundreds of strikes on military sites in Syria, arguing the weapons must not fall into the hands of the new authorities whom it considers jihadists, and deployed troops to a UN-patrolled buffer zone on the Golan Heights.

Baerbock said "the influence of foreign actors has brought nothing but chaos to Syria in the past". 

"Even today, attacks on Syrian territory threaten the country's stability. All sides are called upon to exercise maximum military restraint and not to torpedo the intra-Syrian unification process."