Category Archives: Hezbollah

Lebanon explosions ‘an extremely concerning escalation’, says UN official, as Hezbollah threatens retaliation – as it happened

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German news media outlets have called on Israel to grant them access to Gaza, and for neighbouring Egypt to allow entry to the territory via the Rafah border crossing.

“After almost a year of war, we call on the Israeli government: allow us to enter the Gaza Strip,” a group of newspapers, agencies and broadcasters wrote in an open letter.

To date, CPJ has determined that at least five journalists were directly targeted by Israeli forces in killings which CPJ classifies as murders: Issam Abdallah, Hamza Al Dahdouh, Mustafa Thuraya, Ismail Al Ghoul, and Rami Al Refee. CPJ is still researching the details for confirmation in at least 10 other cases that indicate possible targeting.

Immediately stop the process of replacing (Gallant). The firing of the minister weakens Israel in the eyes of her enemies, and will further deepen the division in the people of Israel…

The prime minister knows better than anyone that all the economic indicators also prove that Israel is deteriorating into an economic abyss and sinking into a deep recession.

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Israel expands war goals to include return of residents near border with Lebanon

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Statement from Benjamin Netanyahu comes after defence minister says the possibility for an agreement with Hezbollah was ‘running out’

Israel will expand its war goals to include the return of northern residents who were evacuated due to attacks by Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, according to prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The decision was approved during an overnight meeting of the security cabinet, Netanyahu’s office said. Israeli forces have exchanged near-daily strikes with Hezbollah since Hamas’s 7 October attack sparked the war in the Gaza.

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Alarm in UK and US over possible Iran-Russia nuclear deal

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US president Joe Biden and British PM Keir Starmer fear secret arms link-up amid talks in Washington over Ukraine

Britain and the US have raised fears that Russia has shared nuclear secrets with Iran in return for Tehran supplying Moscow with ballistic missiles to bomb Ukraine.

During their summit in Washington DC on Friday, Keir Starmer and US president Joe Biden acknowledged that the two countries were tightening military cooperation at a time when Iran is in the process of enriching enough uranium to complete its long-held goal to build a nuclear bomb.

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‘Reservoir of the resistance’: the Lebanese valley reviving its role in Hezbollah-Israel conflict

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Known for its wineries and Roman temples, and as the home of Hezbollah, the Beqaa has become a theatre of war again

On a recent morning near the town of Nabi Chit in Lebanon’s eastern Beqaa region, a dozen men were clearing away debris. Israeli jets had thundered through the valley a week earlier, the second such raid in three days. The explosions turned the night sky red, yellow and orange, and filled the air with the smell of dust and gunpowder.

“They hit Nabi Chit because our village is the mother of the resistance,” said Mohammed al-Moussawi, an ardent supporter of Hezbollah, the Shia militant group, political party and social movement known here as the resistance. He stood on the ground-floor terrace of his house in front of a pile of rubble and a twisted metal awning. The windows were blown out, the facade pockmarked with shrapnel.

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Middle East crisis: Gaza hostage Qaid Farhan Alkadi rescued in ‘complex operation’, says IDF – as it happened

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The Biden administration remains in an intense phase of Middle East diplomatic activity working to avoid a regional war while optimistically spinning the prospects for a Gaza breakthrough deal.

Following the latest round of provocative Israeli extrajudicial killings in Tehran and Beirut and the intensified exchange of fire between Israel and Hezbollah over the weekend, the region appeared to lurch further in the direction of all-out war. Preventing that is a worthy cause in itself.

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Netanyahu faces Israeli calls for broader strikes against Hezbollah

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Benny Gantz and Itamar Ben-Gvir say prime minister needs to remove the threat in the north completely

Benjamin Netanyahu is facing a political backlash in Israel for the limited nature of Sunday’s airstrikes against Hezbollah, amid calls for a broader offensive in Lebanon.

Some of the fiercest criticism came from the far-right wing of the prime minister’s own fractious coalition, which is also increasingly divided over the status of Jerusalem’s holiest site.

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Netanyahu says attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon ‘not the end of the story’

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Israeli air raids on rocket sites are part of dangerous rise in hostilities, increasing fears a major conflict could erupt

Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed that Israeli air raids targeting Hezbollah rockets in southern Lebanon in the early hours of Sunday morning were “not the end of the story”, after the two sides exchanged their heaviest fire since the war in Gaza began, raising fears of an all-out regional conflict.

The Israeli prime minister did not specify what further action, if any, was planned after the intense exchanges but he suggested Israel’s moves would be aimed at “changing the situation in the north”.

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Israel and Hezbollah have good reason to avoid war – but it remains possible

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Neither side seems prepared for realities of land warfare, but a small mistake may have deadly consequences

If Israel and Hezbollah wanted an all-out war it would have happened a long time ago. Each side would welcome the destruction of the other, but the time has not been right so far for either of them to plunge into a full-scale conflict.

The intense exchange of hostilities across the Israel-Lebanese border on Sunday morning once more took the parties to brink of such a war, but once again they paused and pulled back.

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Israel and Hezbollah trade strikes as Hamas plays down talk of imminent ceasefire deal in Gaza – as it happened

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IDF launches waves of what it calls ‘pre-emptive’ strikes into Lebanon as Hezbollah fires hundreds of rockets in major escalation of tensions

Circling back to Lloyd Austin and Yoav Gallant speaking, the Pentagon said the US defence secretary reaffirmed Washington’s commitment to Israel’s defence.

Reuters reports that a Pentagon readout of the call said Austin spoke with the Israeli defence minister “to discuss Israel’s defence against Lebanese [Hezbollah] attacks”.

Secretary Austin reaffirmed the United States’ ironclad commitment to Israel’s defence against any attacks by Iran and its regional partners and proxies.

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US officials say Gaza ceasefire ‘in sight’ but Israel and Hamas downbeat

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Warring sides indicate breakthrough not imminent as renewed fighting rages in parts of Palestinian territory

US officials have expressed optimism that a ceasefire deal in the war in Gaza “is in sight”, despite growing indications from Israel and Hamas that a breakthrough is not imminent and as renewed fighting rages in parts of the Palestinian territory.

Washington has put pressure on both parties to accept a bridging proposal suggested during internationally mediated talks in Qatar last week, dispatching the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, on his ninth visit to the region since the conflict broke out 10 months ago. The latest round of negotiations, in which Hamas is not directly participating, were scheduled to restart in Cairo by Thursday but appear to have been postponed.

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Israel launches reprisal strikes against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon

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The attacks came after US president Joe Biden pressed Benjamin Netanyahu on the urgency of sealing a ceasefire deal

Israel launched strikes on more than 10 areas across southern Lebanon, a spokesperson for the army said, hours after Hezbollah launched more than 50 rockets and a swarm of drones, hitting homes in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights and wounding one person.

Israeli warplanes struck weapons depots, military buildings and a launcher used by Hezbollah in an overnight operation, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Daniel Hagari said on Thursday.

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Hezbollah launches barrage of rockets and drones towards Israel

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Number of homes struck in Golan Heights, with one person wounded

Hezbollah has launched more than 50 rockets and a swarm of drones towards northern Israel, hitting a number of homes in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights and wounding one person.

The strikes on Wednesday by the Lebanese militant group came the day after the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, met mediators from Egypt and Qatar, even as Hamas and Israel poured cold water on any prospect of any imminent pause in the fighting in Gaza.

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Israel-Gaza war: at least 12 Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrike on school, say Gaza defence authorities – as it happened

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Israeli military says it struck Hamas militant base inside the school but civil defence agency spokesperson says bodies of men and children recovered

Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi warned on Tuesday of the risk of the Gaza war expanding regionally in a way “difficult to imagine” during a meeting with U.S. secretary of state Antony Blinken, the Egyptian presidency said.

He added:“The ceasefire in Gaza must be the beginning of broader international recognition of the Palestinian state and the implementation of the two-state solution, as this is the basic guarantor of stability in the region.”

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Fighting intensifies between Israel and Hezbollah despite diplomatic drive

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Hezbollah fires 55 missiles at town in Israel after Israeli strike killed 10 Syrian workers and their relatives in Lebanon

Fighting between Hezbollah and Israel has intensified over the weekend despite diplomatic efforts to de-escalate tensions between the two and prevent an expected Hezbollah and Iranian attack against Israel.

An Israeli attack on Saturday was one of the bloodiest for civilians since fighting began in October, killing 10 Syrian workers and their family members in what Israel said was a strike on a Hezbollah weapons depot in Nabatieh, south Lebanon. In response, Hezbollah launched a 55-missile barrage at the town of Ayelet HaShahar, in north Israel.

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David Lammy warns of rising risk of full-scale regional war in Middle East

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The UK foreign secretary and his French counterpart write in the Observer about their fears over Israel’s escalating tensions with Iran

• It’s never too late for peace in the Middle East – we must break the cycle of violence

There is a rising risk of “full-scale regional war” in the Middle East, the foreign secretary, David Lammy, has warned, amid frantic international efforts to calm tensions with Iran and reach a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.

With the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, flying into Israel this weekend to push for a deal, Lammy has joined forces with his French counterpart, Stéphane Séjourné, to warn that now is a “perilous moment” for the region in the midst of widespread fears of escalation involving Tehran and allied militias in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen.

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Both Israel and Hamas’s leaders believe there is more to gain by fighting on

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Decision-makers on either side of the conflict are biding their time in order to secure the best ceasefire deal

With the most recent round of talks now over, any hopes of a ceasefire in Gaza in the immediate future appear this weekend to have been dashed. There are further discussions scheduled for this week, but these feel more like a desperate attempt to keep the process alive than offering a real chance of peace.

This is not the first time there has been similar disappointment. A dozen or more rounds of mediated negotiations, a UN resolution, pressure from Washington and other powers, and much else has failed to push either the leaders of Israel or Hamas to make the concessions necessary to stop the 10-month-old war.

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Israel-Gaza war: Gaza death toll passing 40,000 is ‘grim milestone’, says UN; UK foreign secretary ‘to meet Netanyahu’ – as it happened

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The president of New York’s Columbia University resigned yesterday, citing the toll taken by a “period of turmoil” after she faced scrutiny for her handling of demonstrations at the institution over the Israel-Hamas war, AFP reports.

British-American economist Minouche Shafik is the fourth president of an Ivy League university to step down in the wake of the bitter divisions and anti-war protests that swept campuses across the US.

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New round of Gaza ceasefire negotiations begin without Hamas

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US, Qatar, Egypt and Israel meet in Doha in effort to prevent fighting spiralling into region-wide Middle East conflict

A new round of negotiations aimed at brokering a ceasefire in the war in Gaza and preventing the fighting from escalating into a region-wide conflict got under way in Doha, as the death toll in the Palestinian territory reached a grim milestone of 40,000 people, according to local health authorities.

Mediators from the US, Qatar and Egypt met an Israeli delegation in the Qatari capital on Thursday afternoon, with talks expected to continue into the next day. Hamas, the Palestinian militant group, is not directly participating in the talks, meaning expectations of a breakthrough are low.

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Hamas unlikely to take part in new round of Gaza ceasefire talks

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Islamist group says it won’t ‘negotiate just to negotiate’, raising fears of Iranian attacks on Israel if no deal is agreed

Hamas appears unlikely to participate in a new round of talks on a Gaza ceasefire deal on Thursday, further eroding hopes of an agreement that might stave off expected retaliatory strikes by Iran against Israel for the killing of a Hamas leader in Tehran last month.

Most observers already had low expectations of the ceasefire talks, with Israel hardening its position in recent weeks and fears that Hamas, now led by its most hardline faction, would offer few concessions.

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Iran may rethink reprisals against Israel over killing of Hamas’s leader

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Other Islamic countries are not openly backing military response by Tehran and more targeted action appears likely

Iran may be rethinking the scale and format of its planned reprisal against Israel after the assassination of Hamas’s political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, but is not likely to be put off by the absence of explicit support from Muslim states for an Iranian military response, officials have suggested.

Meanwhile, Israeli officials have reportedly concluded that the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah is determined to carry out an attack in the next few days in response to Israel’s killing of senior commander Fuad Shukr, but the degree to which it will coordinate with Iran is unclear.

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