Middle East
Lebanon conflict pushes Gaza truce out of focus
Palestinians fear the crisis in Lebanon is diverting the world’s attention from Gaza, where Israeli strikes killed dozens more people this week, and diminishing already dim prospects for a ceasefire a year into an offensive that has shattered the enclave.
Lebanon invasion / How might Israel strike back against Iran?
Israel has sworn it will retaliate for Iran’s missile barrage on Tuesday, which involved more than 180 ballistic missiles and was largely thwarted by Israel’s air defense systems. Below are some ways Israel, backed by the United States, could strike back.
Iran’s allies will keep fighting Israel
Iran’s supreme leader yesterday vowed in a rare address that his allies around the region would keep fighting Israel, as he defended his country’s missile strike on its arch-foe.
US President Biden does not believe there will be 'all-out-war' in Middle East
U.S. President Joe Biden said he did not believe there is going to be an "all-out war" in the Middle East, as Israel weighs options for retaliation after Tehran's largest ever assault on its arch-enemy.
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.
Two-day holiday in Iran over severe heat
Iran yesterday declared a two-day holiday for government workers and banks nationwide as searing temperatures sweep across the country, state media reported.
Fighting in Lebanon Palestinian camp kills eight: new toll
Clashes in south Lebanon’s Ain al-Helweh Palestinian refugee camp killed at least two people yesterday, medics told AFP, bringing the death toll to eight since fighting erupted over the weekend.
No Palestinian concessions to secure deal on Saudi ties
A key party in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government will not agree to any concessions to the Palestinians as part of a deal on normalising relations with Saudi Arabia, one of its cabinet ministers said yesterday.
Lebanon clashes kill six in Palestinian refugee camp
At least six people were killed yesterday in clashes in south Lebanon’s restive Ain al-Helweh Palestinian refugee camp, said Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah movement and a source at the camp.
6 killed in Syria blast
A bomb killed six people and wounded scores on Thursday when it exploded near the Sayeda Zeinab mausoleum in Damascus, Syria’s most visited Shiite pilgrimage site, the authorities said.
Israel judicial reform ‘minor correction’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday minimised his hard-right government’s judicial reform package in interviews with US media, calling it a “minor correction” while dismissing international and domestic criticism.
Israel Supreme Court to hear appeal
Israel’s Supreme Court said yesterday it would hear an appeal against a new law that curbs some of its own powers, pitting it against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government that is seeking an overhaul of the judicial system.
3 Palestinians killed by Israeli troops in West Bank
Israeli troops killed three Palestinians in the occupied West Bank yesterday, the Palestinian health ministry said, the latest deaths in a surge of violence in the territory since early last year.
Israel braces for unrest
Israel braced for fresh strikes and protests yesterday following a divisive parliamentary vote on a controversial judicial reform which has split the nation and drawn criticism from allies abroad.
Israel curbs SC powers
Israel’s parliament yesterday ratified the first bill of a judicial overhaul sought by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, after last-gasp compromise efforts collapsed and failed to ease a constitutional crisis convulsing the country for months.