Middle Eastern Headlines at 9:06 p.m. GMT
US charges Hamas leader, other militants in connection with Oct. 7 massacre in Israel
US charges Hamas leader, other militants in connection with Oct. 7 massacre in Israel
For years Hezbollah was seen as the world’s premiere non-state actor: the well-equipped, well-trained, well-led, highly disciplined and secretive jewel in the crown of Iran’s allies across the Middle East.
BEIRUT (AP) — Walkie-talkies exploded in Beirut and other parts of Lebanon on Wednesday in a second wave of attacks targeting devices a day after pagers used by Hezbollah blew up, state media and officials for the militant group said. At least 20 people were killed and more than 450 wounded in the second wave, the Health Ministry said.
NEW YORK (AP) — Just one day after pagers used by hundreds of members of the militant group Hezbollah exploded, more electronic devices detonated in Lebanon Wednesday in what appeared to be a second wave of sophisticated, deadly attacks that targeted an extraordinary number of people.
CULIACAN, Mexico (AP) — Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador blamed the United States on Thursday for the surge in cartel violence terrorizing the northern state of Sinaloa which has left at least 30 people dead in the past week.
A senior adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has presented to the Biden administration a new proposed ceasefire and hostage deal with Hamas, an Israeli official told CNN.
Chris Knayzeh was in a town overlooking Lebanon's capital when he heard the rumbling aftershock of the 2020 Beirut port blast. Like many other Lebanese, he quit his job and booked a one-way ticket out of Lebanon. Knayzeh, now a lecturer at a university in France, was visiting Lebanon when news broke Tuesday of a deadly attack in which thousands of handheld pagers were blowing up in homes, shops, markets and streets across the country.
Israeli fighter jets pounded Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon late on Thursday, striking hundreds of rocket launcher barrels that were set to be used to immediately fire toward Israeli territory, the military said. It said that since the afternoon, fighter jets struck some 100 rocket launchers consisting of about 1,000 barrels. "The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) will continue to operate to degrade the Hezbollah terrorist organization’s infrastructure and capabilities in order to defend the State of Israel," the IDF said.
Police said the suspect was twice smuggled into Iran from Turkey, where he demanded $1 million in advance for killing the Israeli prime minister.
BEIRUT (AP) — The leader of Hezbollah vowed Thursday to keep up daily strikes on Israel despite this week's deadly sabotage of its members' communication devices, and said Israelis displaced from homes near the Lebanon border because of the fighting would not be able to return until the war in Gaza ends.
QABATIYA, West Bank (AP) — Israeli soldiers pushed three apparently lifeless bodies from rooftops during a raid in the northern part of the occupied West Bank on Thursday, according to an Associated Press journalist at the scene and video obtained by AP.
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. General Assembly strongly supported a nonbinding Palestinian resolution Wednesday demanding that Israel end its “unlawful presence” in Gaza and the occupied West Bank within a year.
STORY: :: As hundreds injured by exploding pagers began to arrive at a Beirut hospital, this doctor recalls the scene:: September 18, 2024:: Hazmieh, Lebanon:: Dania El Hallak, Internal medicine specialist"We didn't know what to do. We didn't understand what was happening. At that moment, we started receiving text messages about pagers exploding. Again, we were scared. We had pagers in the hospital. So just like that, at that moment, all pagers in the hospital were shut down.""The hardest thing I saw was young patients completely blown out everywhere with their bowels out and I still had to talk to them, take their names, ask them about their allergies, ask them if they had any past medical histories that I should know about so I could treat them. It was very difficult for me to witness, a patient speaking to me and his intestines were hanging out.""I feel numb, I feel numb. I am still thinking that I have a lot of work to do at night and I am just thinking - how am I going to still have energy for tonight's shift."Twelve people were killed on Tuesday (September 17) and nearly 3,000 were injured when pagers used by Hezbollah members - including fighters and medics - detonated simultaneously across Lebanon.Over 2,700 people arrived at 20 Lebanese hospitals after Tuesday's blasts, caretaker Health Minister Firas Abiad said, some 300 in a critical condition.More than 400 surgeries were carried out on Tuesday, the majority for facial and eye injuries.El Hallak was speaking on Wednesday about treating those injured by pager explosions. Later on Wednesday, hand-held radios used by Hezbollah detonated across Lebanon's south in the country's deadliest day since cross-border fighting erupted between the militants and Israel nearly a year ago, stoking tensions after similar explosions of the group's pagers the day before.Lebanon's health ministry said 20 people were killed and more than 450 injured on Wednesday in Beirut's suburbs and the Bekaa Valley.
KYIV (Reuters) -Russian forces hit a geriatric centre in the Ukrainian city of Sumy and targeted its energy sector in a new wave of airstrikes on Thursday, killing at least one civilian, Ukrainian officials said. A U.N. monitoring body said attacks on the power grid probably violated humanitarian law while the International Energy Agency said in a report that Ukraine's electricity supply shortfall in the critical winter months could reach about a third of expected peak demand. During a daytime strike on the northern city of Sumy, a Russian guided bomb hit a five-storey building, regional and military officials said.
China has renewed calls for "peace and stability" in the Middle East after a string of deadly communications equipment explosions in Lebanon. "China is highly concerned about the relevant incidents, and opposes any infringement on Lebanon's sovereignty and security," foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said in Beijing on Thursday. "[China] is also concerned that the incident may cause an escalation of tensions in the region, and [we] call on all parties concerned to effectively maintain peace an
Sudan's army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) said they are open for peaceful solutions to a war that has been ongoing for more than 17 months, in response to U.S. President Joe Biden's call on warring parties to re-engage in talks. Army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan said on Wednesday the Sudanese government remains open to all constructive efforts aimed at ending the war, before RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo followed suit with a similar sentiment early on Thursday.
The suspected conversion by Israel of basic communication devices into bombs to attack Hezbollah demonstrates the deadly and confusing potential of unconventional warfare.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed frustration Wednesday at surprise escalations that threaten to derail efforts to broker a cease-fire deal in Gaza, noting that the United States is assessing a deadly attack that caused pagers used by Hezbollah to explode in Lebanon. Blinken spoke to reporters in Cairo, where he traveled for talks on the cease-fire negotiations and U.S.-Egyptian relations. While Israel has not publicly spoken on responsibility in the pager attack, a U.S. official has said Israel briefed the United States after the explosions.
A firm in Hungary's capital has been linked to thousands of pagers that exploded in Lebanon in an apparent Israeli operation targeting Hezbollah militants, killing 12 people and seriously injuring thousands. Images of the destroyed devices showed a format and stickers consistent with the AR-924 model of pagers with Gold Apollo branding - a Taiwan-based company. BAC's address in Budapest is a small gated building.
BANGKOK (AP) — Eight former state security personnel accused of responsibility for the deaths of 78 Muslim protesters who were arrested in southern Thailand in 2004 will be indicted on murder charges, the prosecutor’s office announced Wednesday.
SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Voting for the first phase of a staggered election to choose a local government concluded Wednesday in Indian-controlled Kashmir, the first such vote since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government stripped the disputed region of its special status five years ago.