Israel’s military confirms killing of potential heir to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah
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23/10/2024 - 00:07
Blinken pushes Israel to reach ceasefire deal, allow more military aid in Gaza
Blinken is on his 11th trip to the Middle East since Hamas's attack on Israel more than a year ago triggered the Gaza war, and his first since Israel's conflict with Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah escalated last month.
The top US diplomat told Israel's leaders that the army's killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar last week presented an "opportunity" for a truce and the release of the hostages Hamas seized during the October 7, 2023 attack.
"I believe very much that the death of Sinwar does create an important opportunity to bring the hostages home, to bring the war to an end and to ensure Israel's security," Blinken said as he met Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Tel Aviv.
22/10/2024 - 22:53
US lawmakers seek probe into Israel strike that hit American journalist
US lawmakers called Tuesday for an independent investigation into an Israeli attack in Lebanon last year that wounded Dylan Collins, an American citizen and journalist for Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Collins and five others—including AFP’s Christina Assi, who had to have her right leg amputated—were wounded and Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah was killed by Israeli shellfire while they were reporting in southern Lebanon in October 2023.
22/10/2024 - 22:48
Lebanon says Israeli strikes hit Beirut southern suburbs after evacuation call
At least three Israeli strikes targeted Beirut’s southern suburbs Tuesday evening, following calls to evacuate, Lebanon’s official ANI news agency reported, hours after a strike flattened a building in the Hezbollah stronghold.
Two of the strikes hit the Laylake district, near a stadium, ANI reported, while AFP footage captured plumes of smoke rising from the area regularly shelled by Israel since intensifying its offensive last month.
22/10/2024 - 22:10
Israel says Hezbollah official said to be group's next leader was killed in an Israeli airstrike
Israel’s military confirmed on Tuesday the killing of Hashem Safieddine, of Lebanon’s Hezbollah, who is the apparent heir to Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli attack.
22/10/2024 - 22:03
Israel minister says he expects US support 'following attack on Iran'
Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told visiting US top diplomat Antony Blinken that his government expects Washington’s support when it attacks Iran in response to a missile strike earlier this month.
“The United States’ stance with Israel following our attack on Iran will strengthen regional deterrence and weaken the axis of evil,” Gallant said according to a statement from his office, referring to Tehran-aligned armed groups in the Middle East, after Israel has vowed retaliation for the October 1 missile attack.
22/10/2024 - 21:20
Blinken's visit to Jordan postponed, Jordanian foreign ministry says
The visit of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Jordan, planned to be on Wednesday, was postponed, Jordanian foreign ministry said on Tuesday without giving any reason for the decision.
22/10/2024 - 21:07
Israel army issues new evacuation call for southern Beirut
Israel’s army on Tuesday called on residents of Beirut’s southern suburbs, a Hezbollah bastion, to evacuate ahead of military operations targeting the Lebanese armed group “in the near future”.
The military’s Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee posted on social media platform X a map showing specific buildings in south Beirut, saying: “You must evacuate these buildings and those adjacent to them immediately and stay away from them at a distance of no less than 500 metres (0.3 miles).”
22/10/2024 - 21:06
Lebanon says 10 killed, 31 wounded in two Israeli strikes
Lebanon’s health ministry said two separate Israeli strikes on Tuesday evening killed at least 10 people in the country’s south and northeast as Israel pummels targets in its fight against Hezbollah.
In two separate statements, the ministry said five people were killed and 10 others wounded in the northeastern Hermel region near the Syrian border, and five more killed and 21 wounded in the southern city of Nabatiyeh, which has endured Israeli attacks for days.
22/10/2024 - 21:04
Israeli deputy commander of battalion killed in southern Lebanon, media says
The deputy commander of battalion (9308), Major Aviram Harib, 42, was killed in battle in southern Lebanon, Israeli media said on Tuesday
22/10/2024 - 21:04
Blinken to visit Saudi Arabia on Wednesday on Gaza truce tour, US official says
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday for talks on normalisation with Israel as he pushes for a ceasefire in Gaza, a US official said.
Blinken, who is on a regional tour expected to last throughout the week, will travel to Saudi capital Riyadh instead of previous plans to head to Jordan due to scheduling issues, the official said on condition of anonymity.
22/10/2024 - 21:02
Israel vows to address US concerns over Gaza aid as Blinken visits, US official says
Israel promised to address US concerns over the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza as Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visited the region and told officials their efforts so far were insufficient, according to a US State Department official.
The official told reporters that Blinken, in his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, discussed the need for more humanitarian aid to reach civilians in Gaza. They also discussed other concrete steps moving forward, including setting up post-war structures in the Palestinian territory, the official said.
22/10/2024 - 21:00
Iran, Saudi plan joint military exercises, Iranian media reports
Iran and Saudi Arabia are planning to conduct joint military exercises in the Red Sea, according to an Iranian report not confirmed by Riyadh, in what would be a first for the regional heavyweights.
The two Middle East rivals, which have long backed opposing sides in conflict zones across the region, severed diplomatic ties in 2016.
However Shiite Muslim-dominated Iran and Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia resumed relations last year under a surprise China-brokered deal.
“Saudi Arabia has asked that we organise joint exercises in the Red Sea,” the commander of Iran’s navy, Admiral Shahram Irani, was quoted as saying by the Iranian news agency ISNA.
Saudi Arabia did not immediately confirm whether it would hold joint military exercises with Iran.
22/10/2024 - 20:58
A UN report says it could take 350 years for Gaza to rebuild if it remains under a blockade
The UN Conference on Trade and Development said in a report released Monday that if the war ends tomorrow and Gaza returns to the status quo before Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, it could take 350 years for its battered economy to return to its precarious prewar level.
Before the war, Gaza was under an Israeli and Egyptian blockade imposed after Hamas seized power in 2007. Four previous wars and divisions between Hamas and the Western-backed Palestinian Authority in the West Bank also took a toll on Gaza’s economy.
22/10/2024 - 19:30
Hezbollah says it launched attack drones at north Israel army base
Hezbollah said it launched attack drones at an Israeli military base south of the coastal city of Haifa on Tuesday, with the group also saying it struck seven tanks at the border.
Fighters launched “attack drones” on a “base south of Haifa,” the group said, also claiming throughout the day that it had fired on a total of five Israeli tanks inside Lebanese territory and two across the border in Israel’s north.
22/10/2024 - 18:58
Lebanon needs $250 million a month for displaced, minister says ahead of Paris summit
Lebanon will need $250 million a month to help more than a million people displaced by Israeli attacks, its minister in charge of responding to the crisis said on Tuesday, ahead of a conference on Thursday in Paris to rally support for Lebanon.
Nasser Yassin told Reuters the government response, helped by local initiatives and international aid, only covered 20 percent of the needs of some 1.3 million people uprooted from their homes and sheltering in public buildings or with relatives.
22/10/2024 - 18:57
Ireland seeks way to restrict trade with Israeli settlements in occupied territories
Ireland’s government is seeking to introduce a bill restricting trade with Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories after it said a UN court decision freed Dublin to make trade decisions independently of the European Union.
The Occupied Territories Bill was first tabled in 2018 by an independent lawmaker and despite receiving broad support in Ireland’s parliament, the government said it could not bring it forward because the European Union, not member nations, is responsible for the bloc’s trade policy.
22/10/2024 - 18:55
On the ground: Four children among 18 killed after Israeli strike near Beirut hospital
Israel kept up its bombing of Lebanon Tuesday after a late night strike near a Beirut hospital. At least 18 people were killed, including four children, and 60 were wounded, the health ministry said on Tuesday. FRANCE 24’s Senior Reporter Catherine Norris Trent visited the site.
22/10/2024 - 18:31
Israel PM says discussed joint Iran action with Blinken
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said he held talks on Tuesday with visiting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Jerusalem on joining forces to counter threats from Iran.
“During the meeting, the Iranian threat and the need for both countries to unite forces against it were raised,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement, adding that “the prime minister thanked the US secretary of state for the United States’ support in the fight against Iran’s axis of evil and terror,” referring the Iran-aligned armed groups in the region.
22/10/2024 - 18:24
Netanyahu meets Blinken, urges political and security changes in Lebanon
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, said there was a need for a security and political change in Lebanon that would allow displaced Israelis to return safely to their homes.
Netanyahu met with Blinken for 2-1/2 hours on Tuesday and the meeting was friendly and productive, according to a statement from the prime minister’s office.
Netanyahu also said Israel was working hard to bring back hostages still held in Gaza and that the elimination of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar “may have a positive effect on the return of the hostages, the achievement of all the goals of the war, and the day after the war”.
22/10/2024 - 18:22
Israeli air strike destroys building in Beirut as Blinken presses for Gaza ceasefire
The Israeli military leveled a building in a suburb of Beirut on Tuesday that it said housed Hezbollah “facilities,” sending smoke and debris into the air a few hundred meters (yards) from where a spokesperson for the militant group had just briefed journalists about a weekend drone attack that damaged the Israeli prime minister’s house.
The airstrike came 40 minutes after Israel issued an evacuation warning for two buildings in the area that it said were used by Hezbollah.
Yesterday's key developments:
- Lebanon's health ministry said four people including a child had been killedon Monday evening in Israeli strikes near the country's biggest public hospital close to the southern suburbs of Beirut.
- Israeli media said that two men killed alongside Hamas head Yahya Sinwar last week were his bodyguards, and that one of them worked for UNRWA.
- Two Hamas sources said the Palestinian militant group is moving towards appointing a Doha-based ruling committee rather than a single successor to chief Yahya Sinwar.
- Visiting US envoy Amos Hochstein said Monday the basis of a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah was a 2006 United Nations resolution but that it would require more than just commitments from the warring parties.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP, and Reuters)