Page 8 - Israel

Israel's path of destruction in Lebanon raises fears of buffer zone

Perched on a hilltop a short walk from the Israeli border, the tiny southern Lebanese village of Ramyah has almost been wiped off the map. In a neighbouring village, satellite photos show a similar scene: a hill once covered with houses, now reduced to a gray smear of rubble. Israeli warplanes and ground forces have blasted a trail of destruction through southern Lebanon the past month. The aim, Israel says, is to debilitate the Hezbollah militant group, push it away from the border and end more than a year of Hezbollah fire into northern Israel. Even United Nations peacekeepers and Lebanese troops in the south have come under fire from Israeli forces, raising questions over whether they can remain in place. More than 1 million people have fled bombardment, emptying much of the south. Some experts say Israel may be aiming to create a depopulated buffer zone, a strategy it has already deployed along its border with Gaza. Some conditions for such a zone appear already in place, ...

UAE to provide subsidised bread to Gazans under 'Chivalrous Knight 3' op

The continuous relief initiatives and campaigns implemented by the UAE aim to support displaced Palestinian families

UAE attends Global Alliance for two-state solution meeting in Riyadh

Ninety-four countries and international organisations joined the two-day conference in Riyadh from 30-31 October

Israel Defence Forces announces elimination of Hamas' political chief

According to IDF, Kassab played a crucial role in overseeing connections between Hamas and other terrorist organisations

Israeli strikes kill 25 persons in central Gaza, 13 people in Lebanon

The death toll from Israeli strikes in the central Gaza Strip rose to 25, including five children, as more bodies were recovered, while officials said that 13 people were killed in airstrikes in Lebanon on Friday. Sixteen people had initially been reported killed in two strikes on Thursday on the Gaza Strip's central Nuseirat refugee camp, but officials from the Al-Aqsa hospital said bodies continued to be brought in. Overall, the hospital said they had received 21 dead from the strikes, including some transferred from the Awda hospital, where they had been brought the day before. One of the strikes killed an 18-month-old and his 10-year-old sister the children's mother was missing as of Friday while the father was killed by an Israeli airstrike four months ago, the family told The Associated Press at Aqsa hospital. Strikes on a motorcycle in Zuwaida and on a house in Deir al-Balah on Friday killed four more people, the hospital officials said, bringing the overall toll to 25. Th

Oil climbs more than 2% on reports of Iran preparing strike on Israel

Israeli intelligence suggested that Iran is preparing to attack Israel with a large number of drones and ballistic missiles

Israel hits Dahiyeh suburb in Beirut with airstrikes causing major damage

Israel's air force pounded Beirut's southern suburb of Dahiyeh overnight, destroying dozens of buildings in several neighborhoods, Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said Friday. There was no immediate word on casualties. Recently, Israel has intensified its airstrikes on the northeastern city of Baalbek and nearby villages, as well as different parts of southern Lebanon. International mediators are ramping up efforts to halt the wars in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, circulating new proposals to wind down the regional conflict. Lebanon's Heath Ministry said more than 2,800 people have been killed and 13,000 wounded since Oct. 8, 2023, when Hezbollah began firing rockets almost daily into Israel, drawing retaliation. The death toll from more than a year of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza has passed 43,000, Palestinian officials reported this week, without distinguishing between civilians and combatants. The war began after Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, ..

US defence secy discusses regional de-escalation with Israeli counterpart

Their conversation highlighted the US' support for Israel's security, particularly in the face of threats from Iran and Iranian proxies

Rocket fire from Lebanon on Israel kills 5, including 4 foreign workers

Rocket fire from Lebanon killed five people in northern Israel on Thursday, including four foreign workers, in the deadliest such attack since Israel's invasion earlier this month. The attack came as senior US diplomats were in the region to push for cease-fires in Lebanon and Gaza, hoping to wind down the wars in the Middle East in the Biden administration's final months. The Hezbollah militant group has been firing rockets, drones and missiles into Israel, and drawing retaliatory strikes, since Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attack out of the Gaza Strip triggered the war there. Hezbollah and Hamas are allies backed by Iran. The conflict along the border escalated into a full-blown war last month, when Israel launched a wave of heavy airstrikes across Lebanon and killed Hezbollah's top leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and most of his deputies. Israeli ground forces pushed into Lebanon at the start of October. The Metula regional council reported Thursday's attack, without detailing the number or ty

Israel warns Iran again after Oct 26 attack: 'Will hit places we spared'

Israel targeted Iran's military bases on Saturday as a response to the October 1 attack, in which Iran launched a barrage of missiles on Israel

Who is Sheikh Naim Qassem - the new face of Hezbollah after Nasrallah?

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant labels Sheikh Naim Qassem's appointment a 'temporary' measure while predicting his term would not last

Israeli strike in northern Gaza killed 34 people, says Palestinian official

An Israeli strike on a five-story building where displaced Palestinians were sheltering in the northern Gaza Strip killed at least 34 people early Tuesday, more than half of them women and children, Gaza's Health Ministry said. The ministry's emergency service said another 20 people were wounded in the strike in the northern town of Beit Lahiya, near the Israeli border. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which has been waging a large-scale operation in northern Gaza for more than three weeks, targeting what it says are pockets of Hamas militants who have regrouped there. The dead included a mother and her five children, some of them adults, and a second mother with her six children, according to an initial casualty list provided by the emergency service. Dr. Hossam Abu Safiya, the director of the nearby Kamal Adwan Hospital, said it was overwhelmed by the wave of wounded people from the strike. Israeli forces raided the medical facility over the weekend, ...

Israel approves two bills that may halt UNRWA's aid delivery to Gaza

Israel's parliament has passed two laws that could prevent the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, a main provider of aid to Gaza, from being able to continue its work. The laws ban the agency, UNRWA, from operating in Israel, designate it a terror organisation, and cut all ties between the agency and the Israeli government. It's the culmination of a long-running campaign against the agency, which Israel contends has been infiltrated by Hamas. But supporters say Israel's real aim is to sideline the issue of Palestinian refugees. The agency is the major distributor of aid in Gaza and provides education, health and other basic services to millions of Palestinian refugees across the region, including in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The head of the agency, Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini, called the move unprecedented on X following the vote and said the bills will only deepen the suffering Palestinians, especially in Gaza where people have been going through more than a year

Israel's strikes into Lebanon heighten fear in communities with refugees

Dany Alwan stood shaking as rescue workers pulled remains from piles of rubble where his brother's building once stood. An Israeli airstrike destroyed the three-story residential building in the quiet Christian village of Aito a day before. His brother, Elie, had rented out its apartments to a friend who'd fled here with relatives from their hometown in southern Lebanon under Israeli bombardment. Things were fine for a few weeks. But that day, minutes after visitors arrived and entered the building, it was struck. Almost two dozen people were killed, half of them women and children. Israel said it targeted a Hezbollah official, as it has insisted in other strikes with high civilian death tolls. This strike in northern Lebanon, deep in Christian heartland was particularly unusual. Israel has concentrated its bombardment mostly in the country's south and east and in Beirut's southern suburbs Shiite-majority areas where the Hezbollah militant group has a strong presence. Strikes in

Yemen's Houthi rebels strike ship in Bab el-Mandeb Strait near Red Sea

Yemen's Houthi rebels targeted a ship travelling through the narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait off the Red Sea on Monday, though it escaped undamaged, authorities said. The attack ended an 18-day lull in reported assaults attributed to the Houthis, who have been attacking ships travelling through the Red Sea corridor for nearly a year now over the Israel-Hamas war raging in the Gaza Strip. The violence has disrupted international shipping through the region, once valued at USD 1 trillion in goods annually. The vessel passing through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which separates the Red Sea from the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Peninsula from East Africa, reported the attack, the British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre said. The ship's captain reported two explosions near the ship, though the vessel and all crew are reported as safe, the UKMTO added. The private security firm Ambrey also described the attack as involving two close proximity explosions. It said the

S Africa submits legal claim to UN court which accuses Israel of genocide

The South African legal team delivered a nearly 5,000-page document to the United Nations' top court on Monday, the latest step in a case the country brought accusing Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. The document, which the International Court of Justice will not make public until a later stage in the proceedings, puts forth the main case that Israel has a special intent to commit genocide, according to a statement from South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa. Israel has fiercely denied the allegations. The government called the case blood libel when South Africa launched the complaint in Dec. 2023. On Monday a court official at the ICJ confirmed that they had received the document. The filing takes place as the Israeli military has called on Palestinians to evacuate northern Gaza, where it has been waging a large offensive for more than three weeks. The U.N. said earlier this month at least 400,000 people are still in northern Gaza and hunger is rampant

100,000 residents trapped in Israel's north Gaza offensive: Palestinians

The Gaza Strip's health ministry said at least 19 people were killed by Israeli airstrikes and bombardment on Monday, 13 of them in the north of the devastated coastal territory

Detained 100 suspected militants in raid on Gaza hospital, says Israel

Israel's military said it detained 100 suspected Hamas militants in a raid on a hospital in northern Gaza over the weekend. Israeli forces raided Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya on Friday, detaining 44 male staff, according to the World Health Organisation. Palestinian medical officials said the hospital, which was treating some 200 patients, was heavily damaged in the raid. Israel has raided several hospitals in Gaza over the course of the yearlong war, saying Hamas and other militants use them for military purposes. Palestinian medical officials deny those allegations and accuse the military of recklessly endangering civilians. The Israeli military has called on Palestinians to evacuate northern Gaza, where it has been waging a large offensive for more than three weeks. The UN said earlier this month at least 400,000 people are still in northern Gaza and hunger is rampant as the amount of humanitarian aid reaching the north has plummeted over the past month. Israel's offensiv

What is happening to oil prices amidst Israel-Iran conflict?

Israel, Iran playing dangerous game that will be impossible to contain

Though Tehran has played down the extent of the damage, the Iranian regime has not ruled out a response