Middle Eastern Headlines at 10:49 p.m. GMT
Israel strikes Hezbollah in a huge blast targeting the militant group's leader
Israel strikes Hezbollah in a huge blast targeting the militant group's leader
BEIRUT (AP) — Rescue workers searched through the rubble of a collapsed building in central Beirut on Friday morning, hours after two Israeli strikes hit the Lebanese capital, killing at least 22 people and wounding dozens.
Hezbollah critics and supporters alike are voicing frustration over what many view as the group's miscalculations.
Ukraine said it has caused damage at a key Russian ammunition depot, a drone storage facility, and now an airfield over the past two days.
BEIRUT (AP) — Since Israel launched its ground invasion of Lebanon, Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants have clashed along the border while the Lebanese army has largely stood on the sidelines.
PAPHOS, Cyprus (AP) — The leaders of nine southern European Union countries on Friday pledged support for Lebanon’s armed forces to reassert control over the country’s southern territory in hopes of bringing peace to an area plagued by fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.
BEIRUT (AP) — Israeli airstrikes on central Beirut on Thursday left two neighborhoods smoldering, killed 22 people and wounded dozens, Lebanon’s health ministry said, as well as further escalating Israel’s bloody conflict with Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.
The Ukrainian military said on Thursday it had struck an ammunition depot overnight at an airfield in Russia's Adygeya region in the North Caucasus, about 450 km (280 miles) from the frontline in eastern Ukraine. Some 57 Russian combat and training aircraft and helicopters, including Su-34s, Su-35s and Mi-8s, were stationed at Khanskaya airfield during the drone attack, a source in Ukraine’s state security service (SBU) told Reuters. "Russia is using this airfield in Krasnodar Krai ... for refueling and missile and bomb attacks on the units of the Defence Forces and Ukrainian settlements," the source said.
Israeli forces have acted illegally by shooting at positions used by U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon, Italian Defence Minister Guido Crosetto said on Thursday, denouncing it as a possible war crime. The U.N. peacekeeping mission known as UNIFIL is stationed in southern Lebanon to monitor hostilities along the demarcation line with Israel -- an area that has seen serious clashes between Israeli troops and Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Friday that Israel should "stop killing innocent people", and that its actions in the Middle East were backed by the United States and the European Union. Pezeshkian was speaking to a Russian state TV reporter on the sidelines of an international meeting in Turkmenistan. Israel in recent weeks has sharply escalated its assault on Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah movement, including by killing its top leaders, sending ground troops into southern Lebanon and bombing the capital Beirut.
Israel's military said its troops opened fire near a UNIFIL base in the area of Naqoura in southern Lebanon after instructing U.N. forces in the area to remain in protected spaces on Thursday morning. It said in a statement that Hezbollah fighters operate from within and near civilian areas in southern Lebanon, including areas near UNIFIL posts. The UNIFIL force said two of its peacekeepers were injured in an incident when an Israeli tank fired at a watchtower at the force's main headquarters in Ras al-Naqoura, hitting the tower and causing them to fall.
(Reuters) -Thousands of people are trapped in Gaza's Jabalia camp as Israeli forces attack the area, Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) said on Friday, a week after Israel launched an offensive there which it says is aimed at stopping Hamas regrouping. At least 20 Palestinians were killed and dozens more were wounded late on Friday by Israeli strikes in Jabalia, which also damaged four nearby homes, medics told Reuters. Israeli military strikes killed at least 61 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Friday, the medics added.
Palestinian and Dutch organisations on Thursday filed a legal complaint against the state of the Netherlands over its alleged failure to prevent Israel from committing possible genocide in Gaza and other violations of international law. The case argues that the Netherlands has a legal obligation to do everything in its power to stop alleged violations of international law and the 1948 Genocide Convention by Israel.
An Israeli airstrike killed two Lebanese soldiers and wounded three on Friday, Lebanon's military said, just hours after the Israeli military fired on the headquarters of U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, injuring two of them for the second day in a row. The incidents entangling both Lebanon's official army — which has largely stayed on the sidelines of the conflict between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah — and the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Lebanon raised alarm as Israel broadens its campaign against Hezbollah with waves of heavy airstrikes across the country and a ground invasion at the border.
A UN inquiry has accused Israel of carrying out a concerted policy to destroy Gaza's healthcare system in actions that amount to war crimes and "extermination".
OTTAWA — The prime minister offered condolences today to the family of a Canadian who was killed in the ongoing fighting in Lebanon.
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Hundreds of passengers were stranded in the French Caribbean island of Martinique on Friday after its airport was briefly forced to close because protesters overran the tarmac and tried to break in, the airport and local authorities said.
During a press conference in Toronto on Thursday, Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre called upon the federal government to list Yemen’s Houthis as a terrorist organization in Canada. “All Canadians deserve to feel safe,” Poilievre said. “They deserve to know that they will not be targeted by terrorist groups that operate here, launder money here, finance organized crime here and foment hatred here,” he added.
North Korea has entered the Ukraine war by providing artillery ammunition and military technology to Russia, and is now deploying soldiers to the Donetsk Oblast to assist in rebuilding infrastructure in Donetsk City.
STORY: In the West Bank city Tulkarm, Aminah Ghannam is visiting the graves of her children.Four of her sons were killed by Israeli forces in the past year, in raids on Nur Shams refugee camp.Two died in an airstrike in October 2023. A third was killed in clashes with Israeli forces during a raid last April. And the fourth died the next day, the family says, shot in the head by a sniper while at home.Ghannam said she him in her arms for seven hours, but no ambulance came during the raid.The Israeli army has said the raids on the Nur Shams camp were in order to 'neutralise potential threats'.The Israeli-occupied West Bank has seen less international attention since October 7 when Palestinian Hamas raided Israel.Most of the focus has been on Gaza, and now Lebanon, where Israel is waging a retaliatory war.But more than 680 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank over the past year, according to Palestinian health authorities.They say that includes both fighters and unarmed civilians.As for Ghannam, she says people around her have started refering to her as "Al Khansaa".That's the name of a famous Arabian poet who lost her four sons in one battle. And despite her losses, she remains unbowed."What should I do? I have to submit to God's will, we cannot beat them, God willing he will be able do so. But we aren't able to hold up to them, they damage and destroy things, but we say Praise be the lord, we will stay steadfast on the land of Palestine."Ghannam has lived under dire conditions in the Nurs Sham camp her entire life, and is still there now.
Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Friday it was "outraged" by what it said was an Israeli military attack on U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon and demanded that Israel refrain from any "hostile actions" against them. A U.N. source said that Israeli forces had fired at an observation post belonging to the UNIFIL peacekeeping force at its main base at Naqoura in southern Lebanon on Friday, wounding two people.