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BEIRUT, Lebanon - An Israeli drone strike in southern Lebanon on Sunday killed one person, the health ministry said, the latest attack more than three months into a ceasefire between Israel and Hizbollah.

The strike, which also wounded one person, targeted a four-wheel-drive vehicle near Yater in Bint Jbeil district at around 2:00 am, the official National News Agency reported.

"The Israeli enemy's air strike on a vehicle in the town of Yater resulted in the martyrdom of a citizen and the injury of another," the ministry said in a statement carried by NNA.

It comes a day after the ministry said one person was killed in an Israeli strike on a vehicle in the southern border town of Burj Al Muluk.

And on Tuesday, the Israeli military said it carried out a strike in southern Lebanon that killed a senior Hizbollah member.

That came as Lebanon received four detainees who had been taken to Israel during fighting with Lebanon's Iran-backed Hizbollah group, with a fifth detainee, a soldier, released on Thursday after he was taken earlier this month.

A November 27 truce largely halted more than a year of hostilities between Hizbollah and Israel, including two months of full-blown war in which Israel sent in ground troops.

Israel has continued to carry out periodic strikes on Lebanese territory since the agreement took effect.

Israel had been due to withdraw from Lebanon by February 18 after missing a January deadline, but it has kept troops at five locations it deems "strategic".

The ceasefire also required Hizbollah to pull back north of the Litani River, about 30 kilometres from the border, and to dismantle any remaining military infrastructure in the south.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM - Israel and Hamas are set for more indirect talks Sunday on the Gaza ceasefire, but deep divisions persist between the two warring sides on the terms of the fragile truce.

Mediated by Qatar, Egypt, and the United States, the initial phase of the ceasefire took effect on January 19, largely halting 15 months of deadly fighting in Gaza triggered by Hamas's October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

That phase ended in early March, and though both sides have since refrained from all-out war, they have been unable to agree on the next stage of the ceasefire in the Palestinian territory.

Late on Saturday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed Israeli negotiators to continue the talks, his office said.

But he directed the team to base its negotiations on a proposal by US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff that calls for the "immediate release of 11 living hostages and half of the deceased hostages".

That came after Hamas said it was ready to release a living Israeli-US hostage, Edan Alexander, along with the bodies of four other Israeli-Americans in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

A Hamas delegation, which left Cairo for Doha where the movement is based, said the proposal to hand over the five had also been put forward by the United States.

But the United States, the key military ally of Israel, has since criticised Hamas' insistence on that proposal.

"The delegation held fruitful discussions with our Egyptian brothers, focusing on ways to advance the implementation of the ceasefire agreement in light of Hamas's acceptance of the updated American proposal" reportedly put forward by US hostage envoy Adam Boehler, a Hamas official said, referring to the five.

"The delegation asked mediators and guarantors, the United States, to compel the occupation (Israel) to implement the humanitarian protocol, immediately allow humanitarian aid into Gaza Strip, and begin the second phase of negotiations," the official said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak publicly on the Gaza truce.

Deadlock

During the first phase of the truce agreement, Hamas released 33 hostages, including eight deceased, while Israel freed around 1,800 Palestinian detainees.

Since then, Hamas has consistently demanded that negotiations for the second phase, which include a permanent end to the war, a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, the reopening of border crossings for aid, and the release of remaining hostages.

Israel, however, seeks to extend the first phase until mid-April and insists that any transition to the second phase must include "the total demilitarisation" of Gaza and the removal of Hamas, which has controlled the territory since 2007.

The ceasefire negotiations are now at an impasse, with both sides holding firm in their positions and accusing each other of obstructing progress.

The October 7 attack resulted in 1,218 deaths on the Israeli side, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
In response, Israel launched a large-scale offensive in Gaza, which has killed at least 48,572 people, the majority of them civilians, according to figures from the territory's health ministry, which the United Nations considers reliable.

Despite the fragile truce still holding, the Israeli military continues to conduct near-daily air strikes in Gaza.

On Saturday, strikes in north Gaza's city of Beit Lahia killed nine people, including four Palestinian journalists, according to the territory's civil defence agency, marking the deadliest attack on a single site since January 19.

Hamas condemned the attack as "a horrible massacre" and "a blatant violation of the ceasefire".

The Israeli military said it hit "a terrorist cell" in Beit Lahia, adding the militants were operating a drone intended to carry out "terrorist attacks" against its troops in Gaza.

It said in a statement that the drone was being used regularly by Islamic Jihad militants, who have been fighting alongside Hamas against Israeli forces in Gaza.

DAMASCUS — Syrians gathered on Saturday to commemorate the 14th anniversary of their uprising in public demonstrations in Damascus for the first time since President Bashar Al Assad was toppled.

The demonstration in Damascus's Umayyad Square is the first in the capital after years of repression under Assad, during which the square was the sole preserve of the ousted president's supporters.

Activists also called on people to gather in the cities of Homs, Idlib and Hama at demonstrations under the slogan "Syria is victorious".

By the afternoon, dozens of people had gathered in the capital's Umayyad Square, amid a heavy security presence and with military helicopters overhead dropping leaflets bearing the slogan "there is no room for hate among us".

Security forces were stationed at all entrances to the square, with some of them handing out flowers to demonstrators while speakers blared revolutionary and Islamic songs.

Many attendees waved the Syrian flag, officially changed from one used under Assad to the design from the independence era,  and held signs reading "the revolution has triumphed".

Hanaa Al Daghri, 32, was among those in the square and told AFP "what is happening now is a dream we never dared to imagine".

"I left Damascus 12 years ago because I was wanted, and I would have never had any hope of returning were it not for the liberation," she said.

"We are missing many friends who are no longer with us, but their bloodshed brought us to where we are today."

Under bright sunlight, Abdul Moneim Nimr, 41, stood surrounded by his friends who raised a large flag and began dancing and singing.

"We used to celebrate the anniversary of the revolution in northern Syria and today we are celebrating in Umayyad Square. This is a blessed victory," he said.

 'Justice, dignity and peace' 

Syria's conflict began with peaceful demonstrations on March 15, 2011, in which thousands protested against Assad's government, before it spiralled into civil war after his violent repression of the protests.

This year's commemoration marks the first since Assad was toppled on December 8 by Islamist-led rebels.

Ahmed Al Sharaa, who headed the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al Sham [HTS] which spearheaded the offensive, has since been named interim president.

Hundreds also gathered at the main square in the rebels' former stronghold of Idlib, an AFP journalist saw, raising the flags of Syria and HTS amid a heavy security presence and despite the Ramadan fast and relatively hot weather.

On Thursday, Sharaa signed into force a constitutional declaration regulating a five-year transition period before a permanent constitution is to be put into place.

It also came a week after Syria's Mediterranean coast, the heartland of Assad's Alawite minority, was gripped by the worst wave of violence since his overthrow.

The United Nations special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, said on Friday: "It is fourteen years since Syrians took to the streets in peaceful protest, demanding dignity, freedom and a better future."

He added in a statement that despite the brutal civil war, "the resilience of Syrians and their pursuit of justice, dignity and peace endure. And they now deserve a transition that is worthy of this."

He called for "an immediate end to all violence and for protection of civilians".

On the occasion of the anniversary, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Council in northeast Syria reiterated its objection to the constitutional declaration, saying it "did not adequately reflect the aspirations of the Syrian people to build a just and democratic state".

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories — Gaza's civil defence agency said nine people including journalists were killed in Israeli strikes on Saturday, attacks which could further endanger the fragile truce in the Palestinian territory.

Following the reported strikes, the deadliest since the ceasefire took hold on January 19, Hamas accused Israel of a "blatant violation" of the truce which largely halted more than 15 months of fighting.

The first phase of the truce ended on March 1 without agreement on the next steps, but both Israel and Hamas have refrained from returning to all-out war.

A senior Hamas official said on Tuesday fresh talks had begun in Doha, with Israel also sending negotiators.

On Saturday, Gaza civil defence spokesman Mahmoud Bassal told AFP that "nine martyrs have been transferred [to hospital], including several journalists and a number of workers from the Al Khair Charitable Organisation".

He said the killings were "as a result of the occupation [Israel] targeting a vehicle with a drone in the town of Beit Lahia, coinciding with artillery shelling on the same area".

The health ministry in Gaza said "nine martyrs and several injured, including critical cases" were taken to the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza.

Israel has carried out near-daily air strikes in Gaza since early March, often targeting what the military said were militants planting explosive devices.

"The occupation has committed a horrific massacre in the northern Gaza Strip by targeting a group of journalists and humanitarian workers, in a blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement," Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said in a statement.

 'Systematic targeting' 

A separate Hamas statement said the attack was "a dangerous escalation", adding that it "reaffirms [Israel's] intent to backtrack on the ceasefire agreement and intentionally obstruct any opportunity to complete the agreement and carry out the prisoner swap".

During the truce's initial six-week phase, militants released 33 hostages, including eight who were deceased, in exchange for about 1,800 Palestinian detainees held in Israeli prisons.

Hamas said Saturday that "the ball is in Israel's court" after offering to release an Israeli-US hostage and return the bodies of four others as part of the truce talks.

Gaza's civil defence agency said that among the nine killed were at least three photo journalists, one a drone photography specialist, and a driver.

It said two of the photographers worked for the Oman-based Ayn television channel.

Two members of the Al Khair charitable organisation were killed, including a spokesperson, the civil defence agency said.

"This heinous crime comes in the context of the systematic targeting of Palestinian journalists, who pay with their lives to convey the truth and expose the crimes of the occupation to the world," a Palestinian Journalists Syndicate statement said.

"The continuation of these brutal attacks against journalists constitutes a war crime and a blatant violation of international laws, especially the Geneva Convention, which guarantees the protection of journalists during conflicts."

The director of Hamas-affiliated media in Gaza, Ismail Thawabteh, told AFP that local photo journalists were killed while "using a drone to capture images of a Ramadan dining table in Beit Lahia".

He said they were "directly targeted by the occupation in two air strikes, despite their work being clear".

The Committee to Protect Journalists said in February that a total of 85 journalists had died in the Israeli-Hamas war, "all at the hands of the Israeli military", adding that 82 of them were Palestinians.

In November, Reporters without Borders said that more than 140 journalists had been killed in Gaza by the Israeli military since Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel which sparked the war.

The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, while Israel's military retaliation in Gaza killed more than 48,543, according to figures from the two sides.

There are still 58 hostages held in Gaza, 34 of whom the Israeli army has declared dead.

MAJDAL SHAMS — Dozens of Syrian Druze clerics crossed the armistice line on the Golan Heights into Israel on Friday for their community's first pilgrimage to a revered shrine in decades.

On board three buses escorted by Israeli military vehicles, the clerics crossed at Majdal Shams in the Golan, and headed to northern Israel.

According to a source close to the group, the delegation of around 60 clerics is due to meet the spiritual leader of Israel's Druze community, Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif, in northern Israel.

They are then set to head to the tomb of Nabi Shuaib in the Galilee -- the most important religious site for the Druze.

Followers of the esoteric monotheistic faith are mainly divided between Syria, Lebanon, Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

In Majdal Shams, the visitors were met by scores of Druze residents who sang songs to welcome them.

Young boys waved the green, red, yellow, blue and white Druze flag, while the men wore traditional black garb and white and red headwear.

"We've been waiting to meet them for many years, it is a very emotional moment," said Jamal Ayub, a 61-year-old farmer who had travelled from the Galilee to welcome his uncle.

The visit followed an invitation from the Druze community in Israel, according to a source close to the delegation, but has been met with opposition from other Druze in Syria.

The minority accounts for about three percent of Syria's population and are heavily concentrated in the southern province of Sweida.

In Israel and the occupied Golan Heights, there are around 150,000 Druze, with most of those living in Israel holding Israeli citizenship and serving in the army.

However, of the some 23,000 living in the occupied Golan Heights, most do not hold Israeli citizenship and still see themselves as Syrian nationals.

Residents of Hader village in Syria, from where the clerics departed on Friday, condemned the trip, saying in a statement that the clerics "represent only themselves".

They accused Israel of "exploiting this religious visit as a tool to sow division" and of "seeking to use the Druze community as a defensive line to achieve its expansionist interests in southern Syria".

Israel seized much of the strategic Golan Heights from Syria in a war in 1967, later annexing the area in 1981 in a move largely unrecognised by the international community.

 'Bold alliance'

The pilgrimage comes as Israel has voiced support for Syria's Druze and mistrust of the country's new leaders.

Following the ouster of longtime Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in December, Israel carried out hundreds of air strikes on Syria and sent troops into the demilitarised buffer zone of the Golan in southwest Syria.

Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said on Thursday that 10,000 humanitarian aid packages had been sent to "the Druze community in battle areas of Syria" over the past few weeks.

"Israel has a bold alliance with our Druze brothers and sisters," he told journalists.

During a visit to military outposts in the UN-patrolled buffer zone between Israel and Syria on Tuesday, Defence Minister Israel Katz said that Israel would remain in the area and ensure the protection of the Druze.

In early March, following a deadly clash between government-linked forces and Druze fighters in the suburbs of Damascus, Katz said his country would not allow Syria's new rulers "to harm the Druze".

Druze leaders immediately rejected Katz's warning and declared their loyalty to a united Syria.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that southern Syria must be completely demilitarised, warning that his government would not accept the presence of the forces of the new Islamist-led government near its territory.

Damascus — Syrian leader Ahmed Al Sharaa hailed the start of a "new history" for his country on Thursday, signing into force a constitutional declaration regulating its five-year transitional period and laying out rights for women and freedom of expression.

The declaration comes three months after Islamist-led rebels toppled Bashar Al Assad's repressive government, leading to calls both inside and outside the country for an inclusive new Syria that respects rights.

The new authorities repealed the Assad-era constitution and dissolved parliament.

Interim President Sharaa on Thursday said he hoped the constitutional declaration would mark the beginning of "a new history for Syria, where we replace oppression with justice... and suffering with mercy", as he signed the document at the presidential palace.

The declaration sets out a transitional period of five years, during which a "transitional justice commission" would be formed to "determine the means for accountability, establish the facts, and provide justice to victims and survivors" of the former government's misdeeds.

The declaration enshrines "women's right to participate in work and education, and have all their social, political and economic rights guaranteed", said Abdul Hamid al-Awak, a member of the committee that drafted the declaration.

It maintains the requirement that the president of the republic must be a Muslim, with Islamic jurisprudence set out as "the main source" of legislation.

It also stipulates the "absolute separation of powers", Awak said, pointing to toppled president Assad's "encroachment" on other branches of government.

It gives the president a sole exceptional power: declaring a state of emergency.

Awak added that the people's assembly, a third of which will be appointed by the president, would be tasked with drafting all legislation.

A supreme electoral committee would be formed to oversee the election of members of the legislature.

Cannot be impeached 

Under the declaration, the legislature cannot impeach the president, nor can the president dismiss any lawmakers.

Executive power would also be restricted to the president in the transitional period, Awak said, pointing to the need for "rapid action to confront any difficulties".

He added that the declaration also guarantees the "freedom of opinion, expression and the press".

The declaration affirms the independence of the judiciary and prohibits "the establishment of extraordinary courts", under which many Syrians suffered for decades, Awak said.

He said a committee would be formed to draft a new permanent constitution.

The declaration becomes effective as soon as it is officially published.

Sharaa, who led the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which spearheaded Assad's overthrow, was appointed interim president in late January.

He promised to issue the constitutional declaration to serve as a "legal reference" during the transition period, later announcing the formation of a committee to draft it that included two women.

‘Proper implementation' 

A UN spokesman quoted special envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen on Thursday as saying he "hopes the (constitutional) declaration can be a solid legal framework for a genuinely credible and inclusive political transition", adding "proper implementation will be key".

Thursday's declaration comes a week after a wave of deadly violence broke out on Syria's Mediterranean coast, in what analysts described as the gravest threat so far to the transitional process.

Mass killings mainly targeted members of Assad's Alawite minority in their coastal heartland, resulting in at least 1,476 civilian deaths, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

In a statement, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Thursday: "Nothing can justify the killing of civilians... there must be a credible, independent, impartial investigation of violations and those responsible must be held accountable."

He added the UN was ready to work with Syrians towards "an inclusive political transition that ensures accountability, fosters national healing, and lays the foundation for Syria's long-term recovery".

BEIRUT, Lebanon - A delegation of Syrian Druze clerics is planning to visit a pilgrimage site in Israel on Friday for the first time since Israel's creation in 1948, a source close to the group said.

"A delegation of dozens of Druze clerics will visit Israel on Friday," the source said, adding that it follows an invitation from the Druze community in Israel.

"The delegation is waiting for the green light" from Israeli authorities, he told AFP, noting the clerics planned to cross the land border from Syria.

The pilgrimage would be to the Tomb of Nabi Shuaib in the Galilee, the source said, adding the delegation would meet the spiritual leader of the Druze community in Israel, Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif.

The source said however that the visit had been met with "strong opposition" from other members of Syria's Druze community.

The Druze are divided between Syria, Israel, Lebanon and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

They account for about three percent of Syria's population and are heavily concentrated in the southern province of Sweida.

Following the ouster of longtime Syrian president Bashar Al Assad in December, Israel sent troops into the demilitarised buffer zone of the Golan in southwest Syria.

Israel's Druze community has also sent food aid to their Syria counterparts twice through the land border, the same source told AFP, adding the latest delivery arrived Wednesday.

In early March, following a deadly clash between government-linked forces and Druze fighters in the suburbs of Damascus, Israeli defence minister Israel Katz threatened military action in Syria.

A defence ministry statement quoted Katz as saying his country would not allow Syria's new rulers "to harm the Druze".

Druze leaders immediately rejected Katz's warning and declared their loyalty to a united Syria.

Having largely remained on the sidelines of Syria's 13-year civil war, Druze forces focused on defending their territory from attacks and largely avoided conscription into the Syrian armed forces.

Druze representatives are currently in negotiations with Syria's new leaders for a deal that would see the integration of their armed groups in the country's security forces.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM - Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday condemned as "false and absurd" a UN investigation that found Israel had committed "genocidal acts" in the Gaza Strip.

"The anti-Israeli circus known as the UN Human Rights Council has long been exposed as an anti-Semitic, corrupt, terror-supporting, and irrelevant body," Netanyahu said in a statement issued by his office.

"Instead of focusing on crimes against humanity and the war crimes committed by the Hamas terrorist organisation in the worst massacre against the Jewish people since the Holocaust, the UN once again chooses to attack the state of Israel with false accusations, including absurd claims" of destroying sexual and reproductive healthcare facilities in Gaza, he said.

Earlier on Thursday, the UN Commission of Inquiry said Israel had "intentionally attacked and destroyed" the Palestinian territory's main fertility centre, and had simultaneously imposed a siege and blocked aid including medication for ensuring safe pregnancies, deliveries and neonatal care.

The commission found that Israeli authorities "have destroyed in part the reproductive capacity of Palestinians in Gaza as a group through the systematic destruction of sexual and reproductive healthcare", it said in a statement.

It said this amounted to "two categories of genocidal acts" during Israel's offensive in Gaza, launched after the attacks by Hamas militants on Israel on October 7, 2023.

The three-person Independent International Commission of Inquiry was established by the UN Human Rights Council in May 2021 to investigate alleged international law violations in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

THE HAGUE — The International Court of Justice will hold hearings next month on Israel's humanitarian obligations towards Palestinians, amid claims the Israeli government is blocking aid access to Gaza.

The United Nations General Assembly approved a resolution in December requesting that the world body's top court give an advisory opinion on the matter.

The hearings will open on April 28 at the court's seat in The Hague, it said in a statement. 

The resolution, submitted by Norway in October, was adopted by a large majority.

It calls on the ICJ to clarify what Israel is required to do to "ensure and facilitate the unhindered provision of urgently needed supplies essential to the survival of the Palestinian civilian population".

Although the ICJ's decision are legally binding, the court has no concrete means to enforce them.

But they increase the diplomatic pressure on Israel. 

Last July, the ICJ issued an advisory opinion stating that Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory was "illegal" and must end as soon as possible.

Israel strictly controls all inflows of international aide vital for the 2.4 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip hit by a humanitarian crisis.

The Israeli government often criticises humanitarian organisations for their inability to distribute large quantities of aid.

Norway's initiative was triggered by an Israeli law banning from the end of January the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA from operating on Israeli soil and coordinating with the Israeli government.

The Israeli authorities accuse some UNRWA employees of taking part in the attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 by Hamas.

Israeli forces reported fresh arrests as they kept up raids in the northern occupied West Bank on Wednesday, a day after troops shot dead three Palestinians as part of an ongoing military operation.

Overnight, Israeli troops conducted raids in the villages of Qabatiya and Arraba, arresting about a dozen Palestinians. Several of those arrested, their eyes blindfolded, were escorted by Israeli soldiers to military vehicles before being taken to a building in Arraba that was used by troops as an interrogation centre, an AFP correspondent reported.

In Qabatiya, army bulldozers were seen tearing up sections of road, the correspondent added. 

The Israeli military frequently destroys roads in the West Bank. 

The Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority confirmed the deaths and reported that a Palestinian woman was also killed Tuesday by Israeli forces.

The operation, dubbed "Iron Wall", has resulted in dozens of deaths, including Palestinian children and Israeli soldiers, according to the UN.