Category Archives: Lebanon

Israeli strikes on Lebanon kill eight including journalists and Hamas official

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Broadcaster accuses Israel of targeting its journalists as death toll in Lebanon from rising hostilities surpasses 80

Two Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon have killed eight people, including two journalists working for a Lebanese TV channel and a senior Hamas official, according to Lebanese state media and official sources.

The deaths bring those killed in Lebanon since the beginning of hostilities along the border to more than 80 people, mostly fighters from the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.

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18 Israelis injured in Hezbollah missile strikes as border tensions grow

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One person critically hurt after vehicles hit by anti-tank missiles as Israel denies Hezbollah claim it was targeting soldiers

Eighteen Israelis have been injured, one critically, after the Iranian backed Hezbollah militia fired anti-tank missiles from southern Lebanon in a further sign that the skirmishes along the border are steadily escalating.

Several vehicles near the northern community of Dovev were hit in the missile strike, whose victims included Israel Electric Corporation employees who had arrived to repair power lines damaged by previous fire from Lebanon. Hezbollah sources had claimed they were soldiers, an assertion denied by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF). The Magen David Adom emergency service said one of the civilians injured in the attack was in a critical condition.

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Israel kills seven more Hezbollah fighters on border with Lebanon

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Iranian foreign minister says wider regional conflict inevitable as death toll among militant group rises to 78

Israel has killed a further seven Hezbollah fighters on its northern border with Lebanon, taking the total death toll of Hezbollah fighters to 78 since the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October.

The rising death toll in Lebanon and the killing of 18 Palestinians by Israeli security forces in the West Bank on Thursday prompted the Iranian foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, to declare that a wider regional escalation of the conflict was inevitable.

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UK withdraws some embassy staff from Lebanon and tells nationals to leave

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Foreign Office says situation has ‘potential to deteriorate quickly’ after Israeli and Hezbollah forces clash

The Foreign Office has withdrawn some embassy staff from Lebanon and is advising British nationals to leave the country while they still can amid increasing concern about violence and unrest connected to the conflict in Gaza.

“Events in Lebanon are fast moving. The situation has potential to deteriorate quickly and with no warning,” the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said in a statement, which advised Britons in Lebanon to register with the embassy and make plans to leave while possible.

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Israel launches major strikes on Gaza as violence flares up on Lebanon boundary

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Huge explosions reported in Gaza Strip, and communities in northern Israel come under mortar and rocket fire from Hezbollah

Gaza was rocked by a series of huge explosions on Sunday evening and communications with the coastal strip were cut, as violence also escalated on Israel’s northern boundary with Lebanon.

The strikes on Gaza came as the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) indicated that Israeli troops were planning to enter Gaza City in force perhaps within the next 48 hours, according to reports in Israeli media.

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Antony Blinken meets Arab leaders in fresh effort to stop Gaza conflict escalating

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US secretary of state meets officials from Jordan, Lebanon, Qatar and UN as further civilian casualties reported in Gaza

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, met senior Jordanian and other Arab officials in Amman on Saturday in the latest effort by Washington to avert a regional escalation of the war between Israel and Hamas, ease the acute humanitarian crisis in Gaza and build support for planning a post-conflict future for the territory.

The trip was Blinken’s second to the Middle East since the conflict began almost a month ago but came against the backdrop of further civilian casualties in Gaza and an apparent snub from the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

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Tension escalates on Lebanese frontier amid Hamas and Hezbollah barrages

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Hamas armed wing the al-Qassam brigades says it hit border town, while Hezbollah claims attack on 19 Israeli positions

Hamas’s armed wing, the al-Qassam brigades, said its fighters in southern Lebanon were behind the shelling of the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona, where four rockets landed in an industrial area, injuring two people and damaging buildings.

In a second barrage, Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shia militant group, said it had simultaneously attacked 19 positions in Israel on Thursday evening in the latest escalation on Israel’s northern border.

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Israel-Hamas war live: women and children make up nearly 70% of people reported killed in Gaza, says UN

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UNRWA chief says ‘human tragedy unfolding under our watch is unbearable’; Netanyahu says ‘this is a time for war’ as he says no to ceasefire

Australia’s foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, has urged Israel to “listen” when its friends ask it to protect innocent lives in Gaza and warned that the world “will not accept continuing civilian deaths”.

Wong’s comments reflect a strengthening of the Labor government’s calls for Israel to minimise civilian deaths in Gaza. The foreign minister said civilians on both sides had been “murdered” in the “dreadful, tragic conflict”.

“It is a dreadful, tragic conflict. We are seeing loss of life. We are seeing civilians on both sides [who] have been murdered,” Wong told Radio National.

“We have seen civilians up on both sides in a lot of pain, and obviously, we still have Israeli hostages who have been taken, that Hamas is still holding.”

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Israeli military discussing alternatives to full Gaza invasion with US, says Biden

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US officials warn that a ground assault could bring conflict with Hezbollah and risk a two-front war

Joe Biden has said that the US and Israeli militaries are discussing alternatives to the full invasion of Gaza widely expected since the Hamas attack on 7 October.

On the flight back to Washington after a day of talks in Israel, Biden was asked about the prospect of a large-scale ground assault by the 300,000-strong Israeli force arrayed along the border.

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More protests expected across Middle East after Gaza hospital blast

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Hezbollah calls for ‘day of rage’ as both sides in war continue to trade blame for deadly explosion

Further furious rallies and protests are expected across the Middle East and north Africa on Wednesday after the blast at a Gaza hospital that left hundreds dead and injured.

Hamas has blamed Tuesday’s explosion at al-Ahli Arab hospital on an Israeli airstrike. The Israeli military says the hospital was hit by a rocket barrage launched by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group, which has denied responsibility.

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Shelling on south Lebanon border kills one journalist and injures six

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Shell, reportedly Israeli, struck group of international journalists covering clashes at border

A group of international journalists covering clashes on the border in south Lebanon have been hit by shelling, with one killed and six injured. The Associated Press and Al Jazeera said the weapon was an Israeli shell.

Reuters said: “We are deeply saddened to learn that our videographer Issam Abdallah has been killed. Issam was part of a Reuters crew in southern Lebanon who was providing a live signal. Our thoughts are with their families at this terrible time.”

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US, UK and Canada impose sanctions on ex-governor of Lebanon’s central bank

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Riad Salameh accused of corrupt actions to enrich himself and associates ‘contributing to breakdown of the rule of law’

The US, Britain and Canada have announced sanctions against the former governor of Lebanon’s central bank, Riad Salameh, accusing him of corrupt actions to enrich himself and his associates.

Salameh, in messages to Reuters, denied the allegations made by the three sanctioning countries and said he would challenge them. Some of his assets had already been frozen in previous investigations, he said.

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Lebanon in move to ban Barbie film for ‘promoting homosexuality’

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Culture minister asks general security agency to act to prevent screening as anti-LGBT rhetoric ramps up

Lebanon’s culture minister moved to ban the film Barbie from the country’s cinemas on Wednesday, saying it “promoted homosexuality” and contradicted religious values.

Mohammad Mortada is backed by the powerful Shia Muslim armed group Hezbollah, whose head, Hassan Nasrallah, has ramped up his rhetoric against the LGBT community, saying it poses an “imminent danger” to Lebanon and should be “confronted”.

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Tensions escalate between Israel and Hezbollah in border region

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Lebanese militant group appears to be trying new tactics to test Israel’s resolve

Tensions between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah are at their highest level in years after a series of inflammatory incidents on the UN-controlled boundary between the two countries.

Seventeen years after the Iran-backed movement’s last devastating war with Israel, Hezbollah appears to be trying new tactics in the volatile border region to test Israel’s resolve. Such brinkmanship is not unknown, but the increasing frequency of the border skirmishes is raising the likelihood of miscalculation – and escalation.

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Six dead as fighting breaks out at Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon

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At least seven injured after violence between Fatah and Islamists in Ain al-Hilweh camp

At least six people have been killed after fighting broke out in Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp near the southern port city of Sidon, Palestinian officials said on Sunday.

UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, put the death toll at six, and Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said two children were among seven people wounded at the Ain al-Hilweh camp.

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Disgraced Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn sues former employer for $1bn

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Executive who jumped bail in Japan and escaped to Beirut has filed claim in Lebanese court

Carlos Ghosn, the disgraced former Nissan executive who jumped bail in Japan and fled to Lebanon, has filed a $1bn lawsuit against his former employer.

Ghosn, the mastermind of a carmaking alliance with Renault that also later involved Mitsubishi Motors, was detained in Japan in November 2018 amid allegations of financial misconduct involving a plot to deliberately underreport his remuneration.

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Saudi-Iranian detente is fragile but potential for the Middle East is huge

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Should rapprochement solidify it could augur well for Yemen, Lebanon and Syria – and spell disaster for Israel

Tehran’s embassy in Riyadh has reopened for the first time since 2016, the Iranian foreign ministry quietly confirmed in April, in the latest of a series of gestures showing that the two Middle East powers are determined to dial down a rivalry that has disfigured the region for 40 years.

All kinds of signs, trivial and large, suggest the rapprochement is genuine: civilian flights between the two countries are to resume; an Iranian won an $800,000 Saudi Qur’an-reading competition; Iranian steel is making its way to Saudi markets; officials from the two countries were seen embracing after the Saudi navy rescued 60 Iranians trapped in Sudan; and Ibrahim Raisi is expected to announce a visit to Riyadh soon, the first by an Iranian president since 2007.

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UK imposes sanctions on art collector accused of financing Hezbollah

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Nazem Ahmad, who has owned works by Picasso and Warhol, suspected of laundering money for militant group

A high-profile art collector has been put on a Treasury sanctions list and charged in the US over claims that he uses his collection, which has included masterpieces by Pablo Picasso, Antony Gormley and Andy Warhol, to launder money for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

Nazem Ahmad, a diamond and art dealer who once posed in his Beirut penthouse for a glossy magazine and featured in a piece about the “world’s most beautiful homes and the fascinating people who live in them”, has been targeted in the UK under new counter-terrorism powers.

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Holiday rites without clashes in Jerusalem but region braces for further violence

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Al-Aqsa mosque compound tensions have triggered cross-border fighting in Gaza and drawn in Lebanon and Syria

Simultaneous Muslim and Jewish holiday rites at Jerusalem’s flashpoint Temple Mount or al-Aqsa mosque compound have passed without major clashes after rare cross-border airstrikes and rocket fire between Israel and Syria overnight, and fears of wider conflict in the Middle East after escalations on multiple fronts.

About 15,000 Jewish worshippers gathered at the Western Wall in occupied East Jerusalem, the holiest site at which Jews can pray, on Sunday morning for a benediction prayer marking Passover. At the same time, thousands of Palestinians performed dawn and midday Muslim prayers at al-Aqsa, an esplanade on the other side of the wall, as part of observances during the holy month of Ramadan. Christian pilgrims also flooded the Old City to mark Easter Sunday, in a rare convergence of celebrations in the three different faiths.

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Tensions run high across Israel after car ramming attack leaves tourist dead

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Further violence feared after Arab-Israeli man drives his vehicle into busy city promenade following a West Bank shooting

On 8 April 2022, a Palestinian gunman entered a crowded bar in Tel Aviv, Israel’s commercial capital, and opened fire, killing three people and wounding 10. This weekend, on the anniversary of that attack, an Arab-Israeli man rammed his car into pedestrians on the city’s seaside promenade, killing an Italian tourist and injuring seven more people.

That attack followed a shooting earlier in the day in the north of the occupied West Bank that killed two British-Israeli sisters, aged 15 and 20, and left their 48-year-old mother in critical condition after their car veered off the road.

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