Middle East
Israel strikes Beirut, south Lebanon
Israel’s military urged residents of more than 20 towns in south Lebanon to evacuate their homes immediately yesterday as it pressed on with incursions after suffering its worst losses in a year of fighting the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah.
Food aid to Gaza falls as Israel sets new rule
Food supplies to Gaza have fallen sharply in recent weeks because Israeli authorities have introduced a new customs rule on some humanitarian aid and are separately scaling down deliveries organized by businesses, people involved in getting goods to the territory told Reuters.
Iran warned Nasrallah of Israeli plot to kill him
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned Hezbollah leader Syyed Hassan Nasrallah to flee Lebanon days before he was killed in an Israeli strike and is now deeply worried about Israeli infiltration of senior government ranks in Tehran, three Iranian sources said.
ISRAEL-HEZBOLLAH CONFLICT / Hezbollah losses strengthen Turkey against Iran: analysts
Israel’s onslaught against Hezbollah in Lebanon is reassuring for Turkey, which could seize the opportunity to strengthen its regional influence in the face of its rival Iran, analysts told AFP.
Iranian strike shows capability for greater scale
The Iranian ballistic missile attack against Israel on Tuesday was larger, more complex and involved more advanced weapons than the strikes in April, experts say, putting greater stress on missile defences and allowing more warheads to get through.
Iran says attack on Israel is over as fears grow of wider conflict
"Our action is concluded unless the Israeli regime decides to invite further retaliation," Iranian foreign minister said in a post on X early on Wednesday.
Iran confirms firing 200 missiles at Israel: state TV
Iran fired 200 missiles at Israel, state TV reported Wednesday, a barrage that Israel vowed to make Tehran "pay" for
Israeli airstrikes kill 37 in Gaza
Israeli airstrikes killed at least 37 people in Gaza yesterday, Palestinian medics said and fighting ramped up, as the Israeli military said it had been targeting command centres used by Hamas members.
Israel targeting hospitals, schools
Israeli air strikes hit three Gaza hospitals and a school yesterday, killing at least 22 people, and a ground battle was under way at another hospital, Palestinian officials said, as Israel’s forces took on Hamas in the heart of the enclave.
50,000 Gazans flee to south in a single day
Israeli forces fought Hamas fighters among ruined buildings in the north of the Gaza Strip yesterday, inching their way closer to two big hospitals as the plight of civilians in the besieged Palestinian territory worsened.
Gazans bury their dead in orchards, football fields
Before he fled his home in northern Gaza, where intense fighting now rages between Israel and Hamas, Mahmud al-Masri had a grim job to do: bury his three brothers and their five children in a nearby citrus orchard.
Thousands flee north Gaza as war escalates
Thousands of Palestinian civilians trudged in a forlorn procession out of the north of Gaza yesterday seeking refuge from Israeli air strikes and fierce ground fighting between Israeli troops and Hamas fighters.
Destruction of Gaza infrastructure war crime
Israel’s widespread and systematic bombardment of housing and civilian infrastructure in Gaza is a war crime, as are the indiscriminate Hamas rocket attacks that hit Israeli dwellings, an independent UN expert said yesterday.
Gaza health crisis deepens
Tahreer Azzam, a nurse at Makassed Hospital in east Jerusalem, has been caring for young, desperately-ill Palestinian patients for 16 years. Since the Israel-Hamas war erupted last month, she now struggles to find them.
IS attacks kill 30 pro-government forces in Syria: monitor
Islamic State group attacks killed at least 30 pro-government forces and soldiers in the Syrian desert, a war monitor said Wednesday, in one of the deadliest such assaults this year
Tanks poised to attack Gaza City
Israel gave civilians still trapped inside freshly encircled Gaza City a four-hour window to leave yesterday and escaping residents said they passed tanks in position to storm it.
Nobel laureate Mohammadi goes on hunger strike
Imprisoned Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi began a hunger strike on Monday in protest against what she said was the jail’s failure to give her access to medical care, the activist HRANA news agency reported.
Broad push, narrow achievements from US
One month into the Israel-Hamas war, the achievements of US-led diplomacy have been small or subtle, but both supporters and critics say that is partly by design.