Israeli strikes intensify on three fronts as Lebanon talks reach critical stage

IDF hits Gaza, Syria and Beirut suburbs, as analysts say raids could be aimed at forcing hand of Hezbollah in negotiations

Israel has intensified its air offensives on three fronts, launching dozens of new strikes in Lebanon, Gaza and Syria as negotiations for a ceasefire on its northern border reach a critical point.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said about 30 targets had been struck in the southern suburbs of Beirut in 48 hours and described continuing efforts to “dismantle and degrade” the military capabilities of the militant Islamist organisation.

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Middle East crisis: Israeli strike kills six in southern Lebanon, health ministry says – as it happened

This live blog is now closed. You can read all our coverage of the Israel-Gaza war here and all our coverage of Israel’s war on Lebanon here

Overnight the IDF announced that six soldiers had been killed in clashes with Hezbollah inside southern Lebanon.

The Times of Israel reports “it was one of the heaviest single-day losses in the operation that began in late September,” and that “according to an initial IDF probe, the soldiers were killed in an exchange of fire with at least four Hezbollah operatives inside a building in a village in southern Lebanon.”

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Dozens killed as Israeli strikes destroy home, Gaza officials say

Gaza’s civil defence agency says 25 people killed, including 13 children, as Israel continues attacks in north of territory

Israeli warplanes carried out more strikes in northern Gaza on Sunday, reportedly destroying a home in the Jabaliya area that had been under siege for weeks, killing and wounding dozens, including many women and children.

The death toll is one of the biggest in a single strike so far in Jabaliya, where hundreds of people have died since a major Israeli operation in the area began last month.

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Israel braces for another Iranian attack after threats from leaders in Tehran

Iran’s supreme leader issues new threat after initially playing down Israeli strikes on Iranian military facilities

Israel is bracing itself for another Iranian attack after a crescendo of threatening rhetoric from leaders in Iran saying the country would retaliate for Israeli missile strikes last month.

Iran initially played down the impact of the 26 October Israeli strikes on its military facilities, which were in turn a response to an Iranian ballistic missile attack on Israel at the beginning of October.

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World leaders call for restraint after Israel’s airstrikes on Iran

US and European states urge Tehran not to respond, while Middle Eastern countries condemn Israeli operation

World leaders have called for restraint after the first open Israeli airstrikes on Iran, after Tehran reiterated that it was “entitled and obligated to defend itself”.

The Israeli air force struck about 20 military bases across Iran, including missile and drone manufacturing sites and air defence systems, in the early hours of Saturday.

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Turkey strikes in Syria and Iraq after attack on defence firm near Ankara

Airstrikes launched against suspected Kurdish militant targets after PKK blamed for Tusaş attack

Turkey has launched airstrikes against suspected Kurdish militant targets in Syria and Iraq after blaming the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK) for a deadly attack on the headquarters of the Turkish national aerospace company on Wednesday that killed five people.

Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization said it had targeted numerous “strategic locations” used by the PKK, or by Syrian Kurdish militia affiliated with the militants, the Anadolu Agency reported.

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Iraq militias step up Israel attacks as Iran looks to junior proxies

Analysts suggest proxies in Syria, Iraq and Yemen fighting hidden conflict could be targets for Israel as it considers retaliation against Tehran

Iran-linked militias in Iraq have launched about 40 attacks involving missiles, drones or rockets on Israel in the past two and a half weeks, the latest escalation in a largely clandestine proxy battle fought across a swath of the Middle East.

The attacks began in October last year when the war in Gaza started, but data compiled by the Washington Institute, a US-based thinktank, shows a sharp increase in their pace after Israel killed the Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in an airstrike on 27 September.

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ECHR ruling for Cyprus asylum seekers may embolden refugees in buffer zone

Lawyers predict more claims after ‘perfect win’ for two Syrian asylum seekers pushed back to Lebanon

A ruling by the European court of human rights ordering authorities in Cyprus to pay damages to two Syrian refugees found to have been prevented from applying for asylum has been welcomed as a “perfect” victory by campaigners.

Lawyers said Tuesday’s judgment would encourage others to follow suit, including an ever-growing group of asylum seekers stranded in the UN-patrolled buffer zone of the war-split country.

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Middle East crisis: Israeli strikes on Syria kill at least 25 people, war monitor says – as it happened

Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the dead include civilians as well as soldiers and ‘Syrians working with pro-Iran groups’

The UN human rights chief has said that ending the war in Gaza is a priority and asked countries to act on what he called Israel’s “blatant disregard” for international law in the occupied Palestinian territories.

“States must not – cannot – accept blatant disregard for international law, including binding decisions of the (UN) security council and orders of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), neither in this nor any other situation,” the UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Turk, said in a speech at the opening of the UN human rights council in Geneva.

The court considers that the violations by Israel of the prohibition of the acquisition of territory by force and of the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination have a direct impact on the legality of the continued presence of Israel, as an occupying power, in the occupied Palestinian territory.

The sustained abuse by Israel of its position as an occupying power, through annexation and an assertion of permanent control over the occupied Palestinian territory and continued frustration of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, violates fundamental principles of international law and renders Israel’s presence in the occupied Palestinian territory unlawful.

Forcible evictions, extensive house demolitions and restrictions on residence and movement.

The transfer by Israel of settlers to the West Bank and East Jerusalem and maintenance of their presence.

Its failure to prevent or to punish attacks by settlers.

Restricting the access of the Palestinian population to water.

Israel’s use of the natural resources in the occupied Palestinian territory.

The extension of Israel’s law to the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

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Israeli strikes in Syria kill at least 25, war monitor says

State media says more than 40 injured as military research centre for arms production hit, according to sources

Israeli jets have launched a substantial strike on targets in Syria, killing at least 25 people, according to an opposition war monitor that said it was one of the most violent such attacks in years.

The main target appeared to be a military research centre in Masyaf associated with Syria’s chemical and ballistic missiles programme, but explosions were also heard in Damascus, Homs and Tartus. Syrian state media had put the death toll at 16 with 40 wounded.

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Biden calls for ‘immediate release’ of US journalist Austin Tice from Syria

Syrian government denies claims that Tice, who vanished while reporting in Daraya 12 years ago, is being held captive

Joe Biden has called for the immediate release of Austin Tice, the American journalist and former marine who disappeared in Syria in 2012, and who US authorities believe is being held by the Syrian government.

“This week marks 12 long, terrible years since American Austin Tice was abducted in Syria,” the US president said on Wednesday. “We have repeatedly pressed the government of Syria to work with us so that we can, at last, bring Austin home. Today, I once again call for his immediate release.”

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Middle East crisis: Israel confirms death of Hamas military chief who masterminded 7 October attack – as it happened

This live blog is now closed, you can read more on this story here

The head of Hamas’ military wing, Mohammed Deif, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza last month, the Israeli military said on Thursday, a day after the group’s political leader was assassinated in Teheran.

“The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) announces that on 13 July 2024, IDF fighter jets struck in the area of Khan Younis, and following an intelligence assessment, it can be confirmed that Mohammed Deif was eliminated in the strike,” the military said.

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Israeli drones hit southern Lebanon as tensions mount over Golan Heights attack

Two reported dead as Israeli officials weigh up response to rocket strike blamed on Hezbollah that killed 12 children

Israeli drones struck a remote road in southern Lebanon, underscoring tensions as the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, promised a “harsh” response to the rocket strike on the occupied Golan Heights that killed 12 children.

“The state of Israel will not and cannot let this pass. Our response will come, and it will be harsh,” he said during a visit to the remote town of Majdal Shams, a majority Druze village in a region annexed by Israel from Syria in 1981.

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‘It was indescribable’: Golan Heights town mourns 12 children killed in strike

Majdal Shams residents tell of scenes of horror after children who had gathered to play football were struck

The funeral lament rang out across Majdal Shams, from the centre of the town, from balconies and from rooftops. Thousands of mourners packed the narrow streets and squares, carrying small coffins covered in white shrouds to their final resting place.

Men from the town in the occupied Golan Heights, some wearing traditional white hats topped with red, linked arms and sung a mourners’ chant. “The mother cries: ‘Where is my son? Don’t say he is among the victims,’” they intoned. “Oh, children, tears are pouring from the eyes of girls and young men.”

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Gaza conflict could fuel IS and al-Qaida revival, security experts warn

Officials and analysts warn of evidence of increased Islamic State and al-Qaida militant activity across Middle East

Security services across the Middle East fear the conflict in Gaza will allow Islamic State (IS) and al-Qaida to rebuild across the region, leading to a wave of terrorist plots in coming months and years.

Officials and analysts say there is already evidence of increased Islamic militant extremism in many places, although multiple factors are combining to cause the surge.

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Syrian official who ran prison where detainees alleged torture arrested in US

Samir Ousman al-Sheikh, 72, who oversaw notorious Adra prison, detained at LAX on immigration fraud charges

A former Syrian military official who oversaw a prison where human rights officials say torture and abuse routinely took place has been arrested in Los Angeles, court documents show.

Samir Ousman al-Sheikh, 72, was taken into custody last week at Los Angeles international airport on immigration fraud charges, specifically that he denied on his US visa and citizenship applications that he had ever persecuted anyone in Syria, according to a criminal complaint filed on 9 July. Investigators are considering additional charges, the complaint shows.

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Government could repatriate Australian women and children from Syrian detention camps if it had ‘political will’, court says

The federal court dismissed the case brought by Save the Children and ruled that the government had no legal obligation to bring them home

If the federal government had “the political will” to repatriate Australian women and children from Syrian detention camps “it would be a relatively straightforward exercise”, the full bench of the federal court has said in a judgment.

But there is no legal obligation on the government to bring its citizens back to Australia, the court ruled.

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French court finds three Syrian officials guilty of crimes against humanity

Members of Assad regime sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment on Friday after landmark trial in Paris

A French court has found three Syrian officials of the regime of Bashar al-Assad guilty of crimes against humanity and war crimes, sentencing them in absentia to life imprisonment on Friday after a landmark trial in Paris.

The verdicts against Ali Mamlouk, head of the Syrian secret services and security adviser to Assad, Jamil Hassan, who was head of the Syrian air force intelligence unit until 2019 and a member of Assad’s entourage, and Abdel Salam Mahmoud, intelligence director at the notorious Mezzeh detention centre, send a strong message about the long arm of international justice.

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Children and elderly people tortured at Syria military prison, Paris court told

Three top officers close to Bashar al-Assad are on trial in absentia over the deaths of a student and his father

Witnesses have told a Paris court how children and elderly people considered enemies of the ruling Syrian regime were tortured in a notorious military prison, at the trial of three high-ranking officers close to the country’s president, Bashar al-Assad.

The three are being tried in absentia for crimes against humanity and war crimes in connection with the deaths of two French-Syrian dual nationals, Patrick Dabbagh, a 20-year-old student, and his father, 48.

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Assad officials face landmark Paris trial over killing of student and father

Prosecution of three high-ranking Syrian officials to be tried in absentia could pave way for president’s case

At midnight on 3 November 2013, five Syrian officials dragged arts and humanities student Patrick Dabbagh from his home in the Mezzeh district of Damascus.

The following day, at the same hour, the same men, including a representative of the Syrian air force’s intelligence unit, returned with a dozen soldiers to arrest the 20-year-old’s father Mazzen.

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