Israel says it hits Hezbollah 'intelligence assets' near Damascus
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04/11/2024 - 21:42
Israel hostages forum demands probe into secrets leak case
An Israeli group campaigning for the release of hostages held in Gaza called on Monday for a probe into the alleged leak of confidential documents by an ex-aide to the prime minister, which may have undermined efforts to secure the captives’ release.
An Israeli court announced on Sunday that Eliezer Feldstein, a former aide to Benjamin Netanyahu, had been detained along with three others for allegedly leaking documents to foreign media.
FRANCE 24’s Noga Tarnopolsky reports from Jerusalem.
04/11/2024 - 21:27
‘Gaza aid situation not much improved,’ US says as deadline for Israel looms
Israel has taken some measures to increase aid access to Gaza but has so far failed to significantly turn around the humanitarian situation in the enclave, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Monday, as a deadline set by the US to improve the situation approaches.
The Biden administration told Israel in an Oct. 13 letter it had 30 days to take specific steps to address the dire humanitarian crisis in the Strip, which has been pummeled for more than a year by Israeli ground and air operations that Israel says are aimed at rooting out Hamas militants.
“As of today, the situation has not significantly turned around. We have seen an increase in some measurements. We’ve seen an increase in the number of crossings that are open. But just if you look at the stipulated recommendations in the letter, those have not been met,” Miller said.
He declined to say what consequences Israel would face if it failed to implement the recommendations. “What I can tell you that we will do is we will follow the law,” he said.
04/11/2024 - 21:06
Israel issues 7,000 new draft orders for ultra-Orthodox members
Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant issued 7,000 additional army draft orders Monday for individuals from the country’s ultra-Orthodox community, historically exempted from mandatory service until a June Supreme Court decision.
Gallant approved the Israeli army’s “recommendation to issue an additional 7,000 orders for screening and evaluation processes for ultra-Orthodox draft-eligible individuals in the upcoming phase, which is expected to begin in the coming days", the defence ministry said in a statement.
The order comes after a first round of 3,000 draft orders were sent out in July, sparking protests from the ultra-Orthodox community.
Monday’s orders come at a time when Israel is struggling to bolster troop numbers as it fights a multi-front war, with ground forces deployed to fight Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
04/11/2024 - 05:04
- Israel on Monday formally told the United Nations it was cancelling its ties with UNRWA, a move the relief agency said would lead to the "collapse" of humanitarian work in Gaza.
- The Israeli military said it killed a senior Hezbollah commander it accused of overseeing rocket and anti-tank missile attacks against its forces in southern Lebanon.
- The Israeli military said it carried out a ground raid into Syria, seizing a Syrian citizen involved in Iranian networks.
- Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said that the Israeli military had killed 43,374 Palestinians in the enclave since Oct. 7, 2023.
- Israeli forces have bombarded Kamal Adwan Hospital, the last partially functioning hospital in north Gaza and an area of intense military operations for the past month.
- The death toll in Lebanon has topped 3,000 in the 13-month Israel-Hezbollah war, the enclave's health ministry said.
- Israel’s military said its air force struck the intelligence headquarters of Hezbollah’s Syrian branch in a strike on Damascus on Monday, an attack a war monitor said killed two people.
04/11/2024 - 20:26
Hamas says held Gaza war discussions with Fatah in Cairo
Hamas said on Monday it held talks with rival Palestinian faction Fatah in Cairo to discuss the war in Gaza and moves towards national consensus.
“A meeting was held with the brothers in the Fatah movement at a generous Egyptian invitation. They discussed various national issues, especially the war on Gaza and pathways for national action,” senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan said in a video message.
Hamas and Fatah are long-term rivals that fought a brief but bloody war in 2007 in which the former seized control of Gaza.
Fatah continues to dominate the Palestinian Authority, which has limited administrative control over urban areas of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
04/11/2024 - 20:09
UNRWA ban in Gaza ‘will not make Israel safer’, says WHO
The chief of the World Health Organization on Monday denounced Israel’s decision to cut ties with the UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees, saying it would not make the country safer while increasing civilian suffering in Gaza.
“Let me be clear: There is simply no alternative to UNRWA,” the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a video posted on X.
“This ban will not make Israel safer. It will only deepen the suffering of the people of Gaza and increase the risk of disease outbreaks,” Tedros added.
His comments came after Israel said it had formally notified the UN of its decision to sever ties with UNRWA, after Israeli lawmakers backed the move last week.
04/11/2024 - 19:38
US concerned by increasing settler violence in Israeli-occupied West Bank, says State Dept
The United States is "deeply concerned" by reports of increasing violence by extremist Israeli settlers on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Monday, after Jewish settlers set fire to cars on the outskirts of Ramallah.
Miller said the US had made these concerns clear to the Israeli government and it was incumbent on authorities to do everything possible to de-escalate and hold all perpetrators accountable.
04/11/2024 - 19:37
Israel says it hits Hezbollah 'intelligence assets' near Damascus
Israel’s military said its air force struck the intelligence headquarters of Hezbollah’s Syrian branch in a strike on Damascus on Monday, an attack a war monitor said killed two people.
It was a rare acknowledgement by Israeli authorities of an attack against Syria.
The military has intensified its strikes on targets in Syria since launching its war against Hezbollah in neighbouring Lebanon more than a month ago.
Warplanes “conducted an aerial operation and struck Hezbollah terror targets belonging to Hezbollah's intelligence headquarters in Syria”, the military said in a statement.
The Syria branch “includes an independent intelligence gathering, coordination, and assessment network”, the military said, adding that the attack aimed to degrade Hezbollah's intelligence capabilities.
04/11/2024 - 19:09
Israel army says killed Hezbollah intel chief for Syria in Damascus, 'intelligence assets' hit
The Israeli army said Monday it killed the Hezbollah intel chief for Syria in an attack on key infrastructure in Damascus.
Israel's Air Force also said that it struck Hezbollah intelligence assets near the capital.
04/11/2024 - 18:40
Death toll in Lebanon tops 3,000 in the 13-month Israel-Hezbollah war, health ministry says
Lebanon’s Health Ministry said more than 3,000 people have been killed during 13 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. At least 13,492 have been injured.
Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel the day after Hamas’ surprise attack into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 ignited the war in Gaza. Hezbollah and Hamas are both allied with Iran.
04/11/2024 - 18:27
Pro-Palestinian supporters stage protest at French soccer federation over Israel game
Pro-Palestinian supporters staged a protest Monday at the French soccer federation to call for the cancellation of a Nations League game between France and Israel this month.
Video footage of their action posted on social media and circulating in French media showed protesters inside the federation’s headquarters in Paris lying on the floor or holding placards with political slogans and Palestinian flags.
04/11/2024 - 18:10
Two killed in Israel strikes south of Damascus, war monitor says
At least two Hezbollah members were killed Monday near the Sayyeda Zeinab area south of Damascus, home to an important Shiite sanctuary and guarded by pro-Iranian groups, a war monitor said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said the strikes hit a house “used by members of Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard", in a farm in the Sayyeda Zeinab area.
Two Hezbollah members were killed and several others were wounded, according to the monitor.
Syrian state media also reported the strikes but said they only caused material damage.
04/11/2024 - 17:51
Video verified by AFP shows massive detonations in Lebanon border village
Footage verified by AFP on Monday showed massive detonations in a southern Lebanese border village, where a local official said hundreds of houses have been wiped out by Israel since last year.
The video, shared widely online on Monday, showed more than a dozen simultaneous detonations that ripped through Mais al-Jabal and razed homes to dust.
Similar aerial scenes have been captured from several border villages, including Mhaibib and Odaisseh, since Israel sent ground troops into southern Lebanon in late September.
Israel says it is targeting Hezbollah infrastructure near the frontier in a bid to push the Iran-backed group away from the border and allow for its residents to return to northern Israel.
Lebanese TV station LBCI News posted the video on its X account.
04/11/2024 - 16:50
'Israeli strike' hits area near Damascus, Syrian state media says
Syrian state media reported an Israeli strike on Monday near the Sayyeda Zeinab area south of Damascus, home to an important Shiite sanctuary and guarded by pro-Iranian groups, including Hezbollah.
“At approximately 5:18pm (14:15 GMT), the Israeli enemy launched an air aggression from the direction of the occupied Golan Heights, targeting a number of civilian sites south of Damascus, which led to some material losses,” the official SANA news agency said, citing a military source.
04/11/2024 - 16:47
Gaza health ministry says Israel bombarding hospital in territory's north
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Monday that Israeli forces are bombarding the last partially functioning hospital in north Gaza, the area of intense Israeli military operations for the past month.
“At this moment, occupation forces are continuing to violently bombard and destroy Kamal Adwan Hospital, targeting all parts of the hospital,” the ministry said of the hospital in the northern Gaza city of Beit Lahia.
Hospital director Hossam Abu Safieh said in a statement that the situation was “catastrophic”, and that “the army did not contact the hospital before directly targeting it”.
“Several of our staff have been injured, and we are unable to leave the hospital,” he said. “We do not understand the purpose behind this bombing that is targeting the hospital.”
04/11/2024 - 16:16
Death toll rises after Israeli strike on Gaza, medics say
In the latest Israeli air strike on the enclave, medics revised the death toll to at least 12 Palestinians killed in Gaza.
Residents said Monday they feared new air and ground attacks and forced evacuations were aimed at emptying areas in the enclave’s north to create buffer zones against Hamas militants.
04/11/2024 - 14:48
Israeli strikes kill 10 Palestinians in Gaza, keep up pressure on north
Israeli air strikes killed at least 10 Palestinians in Gaza on Monday, with seven dead in an attack on two houses in the north Gaza town of Beit Lahiya and three fatalities in a strike on a house in Nuseirat camp in the enclave’s centre, medics told Reuters.
Several people were wounded in both attacks, they said, adding that Israeli forces had sent tanks into the northeast of Nuseirat camp earlier on Monday.
Israel deployed tanks into Jabalia, Beit Hanoun, and Beit Lahiya on Oct. 5, 2024, saying it intended to prevent Hamas from regrouping.
FRANCE 24 has this report.
04/11/2024 - 13:31
Caught in the crossfire: FRANCE 24 speaks to family of slain Lebanese soldier
The Lebanese military has been caught in the crossfire as Israel steps up its offensive against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, with at least 11 army soldiers killed so far.
FRANCE 24’s Achraf Abid and Johan Bodin met the family of Mohammed Farhat, a Shia Muslim from southern Lebanon who was killed last month.
His family has been sheltering with his best friend, a Christian in northern Lebanon. Click on the player below to watch the report.
04/11/2024 - 13:25
Israel says it killed commander in Hezbollah's Radwan force
The Israeli military says it eliminated Riad Rida Ghazzawi, the commander of an anti-tank missile unit in Hezbollahs Radwan force, in the al-Sultaniyah village in southern Lebanon.
04/11/2024 - 13:20
Israeli settlers torch cars on Ramallah outskirts, residents say
Israeli settlers torched 20 cars during an attack on Palestinian property on the outskirts of Ramallah, residents said, in one of the most brazen raids yet in the area that serves as the Palestinians' seat of government in the occupied West Bank.
Around a dozen attackers, masked and carrying petrol bombs, targeted the Al-Bireh area, which adjoins Ramallah, at around 3am (01:00 GMT), torching the cars in a matter of minutes, they said.
Resident Ihab al-Zaben said he yelled at the settlers but they carried on burning the vehicles regardless.
"When we came down to try to extinguish the fire, they started shooting at us," he said.
The Israeli police and the Shin Bet security agency were investigating after receiving a report that a number of Palestinian cars had been burned, the Israeli police spokesperson said in a statement.
Yesterday's key developments:
- Israel on Sunday pressed on with its campaigns in Lebanon and Gaza, launching several deadly strikes as Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu visited his country's northern border.
- More than 30 people were killed in Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip on Sunday, Palestinian medics said. Nearly half of the deaths were recorded in the enclave's north.
- A former spokesman for Netanyahu has been detained for allegedly leaking confidential documents that may have harmed Gaza hostage deal negotiations, a court said on Sunday.
- Yemen’s Houthis said on Sunday they would maintain their maritime blockade against Israeli vessels in response to “intelligence information” regarding Israeli shipping companies selling their assets to other companies.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
About casualty figures from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry:
Gaza’s health ministry collects data from the enclave’s hospitals and the Palestinian Red Crescent. For more on the health ministry’s casualty figures, click here.