One killed by Israeli strike on pickup truck in Aita al-Shaab

L'Orient-Le Jour

7 days ago

According to L'Orient Today's correspondent, the man killed in southern Lebanon was Moustafa Harissi. He worked collecting scrap metal. After dropping his children off at home, he went to a grocery store to buy a few items when he was targeted by a missile fired by an Israeli drone.
16:43 Beirut Time
Israel's Shin Bet internal security service arrested a man suspected of involvement in a car-ramming attack earlier Thursday at a bus stop in central Israel, in which eight soldiers were injured, according to Israeli media.
The service suspects that this man helped the attacker or was aware of his intentions.
16:43 Beirut Time
Israel recalls negotiators for consultations after Hamas's response to Gaza truce, AFP reported.
16:41 Beirut Time
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called on the United States to press for the immediate entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, Haaretz reports.
16:31 Beirut Time
'The entire Gaza Strip will be Jewish,' says an Israeli minister
Israeli Heritage Minister Amichay Eliyahu declared that "the entire Gaza Strip will be Jewish," while calling criticism of the Israeli government over widespread famine in the Palestinian enclave a "crazy political attack," in a radio interview Thursday, according to Haaretz.
'There will be no settlements within the cantons. All of Gaza will be Jewish. There will be no fenced-in settlements,' said the minister, a member of the Religious Zionism party.
'Meanwhile, the government is rushing to erase Gaza, to erase this evil, and to erase a population educated on Mein Kampf,' he added, referring to the book by Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.
Eliyahu also denied the existence of a famine in the Gaza Strip, where at least 113 people have died of starvation since the start of the war, including two in the last 24 hours. 'Have we gone crazy? Do we really need to worry about this? Every time they show you pictures of starving children, look to the side, there's a fat guy eating properly. No nation feeds its enemies,' he said.
16:17 Beirut Time
Syria: At least four dead and 116 injured in explosion in the north
At least four people were killed on Thursday and 116 others injured in an explosion of unknown origin in northwestern Syria, according to the official Syrian news agency Sana, as cited by AFP.
'Four people were killed and 116 others wounded in the explosion in the town of Maaret Misrin, in the north of Idlib province,' Sana said, citing a preliminary toll from the Health Ministry.
A huge plume of white smoke was visible in the distance, according to AFP images, which also showed several children among the injured. It was not yet clear whether the explosion was accidental or the result of an air strike.
16:15 Beirut Time
41 killed in Gaza today
Israeli attacks have killed at least 41 Palestinians across Gaza since dawn, according to medical sources speaking to Al Jazeera Arabic.
The latest killings were confirmed by a source at Nasser Hospital, which received seven bodies after an Israeli air raid east of the southern city of Khan Younis.
16:13 Beirut Time
Israeli and Syrian minister to meet in Paris
A meeting is scheduled for Thursday in Paris between Syrian Foreign Minister Assaad al-Shaibani and Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer, a senior diplomat told AFP.
According to the diplomat, who requested anonymity, U.S. special envoy for Syria Tom Barrack, who is expected in Paris, is 'laying the groundwork' for this meeting, the first of its kind, between the ministers of the two countries, which remain at war.
16:10 Beirut Time
Heritage Minister Amichay Eliyahu said that "all of Gaza will be Jewish" and called the widespread starvation a "crazy" political hit, in a radio interview on Thursday, according to Haaretz.
15:47 Beirut Time
South Lebanon
Israeli forces carried out two explosions around the occupied Hammames Hills in Khiam (Marjayoun), according to L'Orient Today's correspondent in the South.
The Israeli army also threw flares over the Wazzani plain to start fires in the orchards and crops, our correspondent added.
15:39 Beirut Time
Israeli parliament approves $275 million for funding infrastructure in occupied West Bank
The Knesset Finance Committee has approved 918 million shekels (nearly $275m) in funding for roads and transport infrastructure in the occupied West Bank in a move supported by far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, according to The Times of Israel.
'This is how you do de facto sovereignty. This is how you bring in a million residents [to the West Bank]. This is how you take the idea of a Palestinian terrorist state off the table,' Smotrich said, according to the report.
The investment was part of a plan for ' strengthening settlement, physically and politically connecting the region to the State of Israel, and making sovereignty a fait accompli on the ground,' he said.
More than 60 members of the European Parliament (MEPs) demand an emergency meeting to push actions against Israel in a letter sent to EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas.
Marc Botenga, a Belgian MEP from the Left group, said on X: 'No more silence, no more complicity.'
'We are writing to you today to demand that immediate action be taken, given the appalling humanitarian situation in Gaza and the continued Israeli attacks on Palestinians at aid distribution sites, which have so far resulted in the deaths of over 1,000 people,' the MEPs wrote.
They said the recent EU-Israel aid agreement delivered 'no tangible change' in conditions on the ground. Earlier in July, Kallas said Israel had agreed to expand humanitarian access to Gaza, including increasing the number of aid trucks, crossing points and routes to distribution hubs.
The MEPs demanded that Kallas impose sanctions against Israel, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and individuals within the organisation. They also demanded that the EU top diplomat lobby member states to implement an arms embargo on Israel.
14:50 Beirut Time
Hezbollah condemns Knesset vote on occupied West Bank
'Today's vote by the Zionist Knesset in favor of a proposal to impose Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank and the Jordan Valley is nothing more than a reflection of the colonial and expansionist nature of the Zionist project,' Hezbollah said in a statement.
'We affirm that allowing this rampant monster to gnaw at the body of the nation will push it to go even further. It will not stop at the West Bank, Jerusalem, or Palestine: its plans target the entire region. No one will be safe from these diabolical plans. What is happening in Lebanon and Syria — through repeated attacks, continuous incursions, and occupation of territories — as well as the aggression against beloved Yemen, is a direct extension of this," the statement continued.
14:20 Beirut Time
South Lebanon
Israeli forces occupying the Hamames hill south of Khiam (Marjayoun district) are conducting a search operation with medium-caliber automatic weapons in the surrounding area and firing at shepherds on farms in Serda and al-Amra, according to L'Orient Today's correspondent in the South.
An Israeli drone struck a forested area on the outskirts of the town of Beit Lif in the Bint Jbeil district with two missiles, causing a fire, our correspondent added.
13:55 Beirut Time
Barrack to meet with Israeli and Syrian ministers in Paris
U.S. envoy Tom Barrack is set to meet on Thursday with Israel's minister for strategic affairs and Syria's foreign minister in Paris to discuss security in southern Syria, Axios' Barak Ravid reported on X, citing sources familiar with the matter.
13:47 Beirut Time
Hospitals in Gaza have reported two more Palestinians dying 'from starvation and malnutrition' in the past 24 hours, according to the enclave's Health Ministry.
A total of 113 people have died of starvation in the Israeli-besieged territory as Israel blocks the entry of humanitarian aid, according to a statement posted on Telegram by the ministry.
13:43 Beirut Time
Two killed, two injured in Gaza fires
Gaza's Civil Defense crews retrieved two bodies from a family home following a fire in a residential apartment in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, according to Al Jazeera.
Rescue workers recovered a body from another fire in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza. Two people were injured.
Both fires have been extinguished, they said.
13:43 Beirut Time
Israel minister in Paris ahead of Iran nuclear talks
Israel's Minister of Strategic Affairs arrived in Paris today ahead of nuclear talks between European powers and Iran on Friday in Istanbul, said four sources to Reuters, including a source close to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Two of the sources said Ron Dermer would discuss those upcoming talks and Iran's nuclear programme with officials in the French capital.
Senior diplomats from France and Germany will hold direct face-to-face talks with Iran since Israel and the United States struck Iran's nuclear facilities in June.
13:04 Beirut Time
Explosion heard in Syria's Idlib, state media reports
An explosion was heard in the northwestern Syrian city of Idlib on Thursday, Syria's state-owned Al Ekhbariah television reported, as cited by Reuters. The cause was not immediately known, it said.
12:39 Beirut Time
Hamas says car ramming attack near Kfar Yona 'natural response' to Israeli crimes
Earlier in the day, a car drove into a busy bus stop in Kfar Yona in central Israel, injuring eight people. The driver fled the scene, but the vehicle was later found in the occupied West Bank.
Hamas said the attack injured nine Israeli soldiers and it was 'a natural response to the crimes of the occupation,' including the killing of four Palestinian minors in the West Bank in the past 48 hours, Al Jazeera reported. No group has claimed the attack yet.
12:18 Beirut Time
Israeli army 'completely destroyed' Khan Younis
Satellite photographs taken in recent days show that Israel's military has almost entirely destroyed Khan Younis, the second-largest city in the Gaza Strip, and its surroundings, an area encompassing 90 square kilometers and thousands of homes, Haaretz reported.
The brunt of the destruction occurred in the nearby towns of Bani Suheila and Abasan al-Kabira, where most of the buildings have been completely razed. Another town, Khuza'a, was mostly destroyed at the start of the Gaza war and has now been completely razed. It appears that most of the destruction was done by bulldozers.
In recent months, the military accelerated the pace of destruction in southern Gaza, using private contractors who receive thousands of shekels (1,000 shekels is $299) per building razed.
12:13 Beirut Time
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry condemned the Israeli parliament's vote on the non-binding motion to impose Israeli sovereignty on the occupied West Bank, calling it 'colonial and racist.'
The ministry said the Knesset's decision highlights how futile it is to bet on the possibility that Israel would pull back from its plans to expand its occupation and implement a two-state solution.
It called for international sanctions to deter Israel from committing crimes against the Palestinian people.
12:04 Beirut Time
Israeli army claims rocket launched from Khan Yunis at aid distribution site
The Israeli army claimed in a post on X that it had identified a rocket launched from Khan Yunis in southern Gaza at an aid distribution site in Rafah, near the Morag Corridor.
In a statement, it wrote that the aid distribution site in the Morag area was nevertheless opened on Thursday.
"The launch is yet another example of the ongoing attempts by the terror organizations to systematically and brutally sabotage the aid distribution program ... actively working to disrupt the distribution of humanitarian aid to Gaza's civilians," the army wrote.
11:50 Beirut Time
115 killed in Gaza by Israeli-imposed famine
Gaza's Government Media Office said the enclave is 'in dire need of no less than 500,000 bags of flour per week to avoid a comprehensive humanitarian collapse.'
It added that Gaza's hospitals have recorded more than 115 deaths related to 'famine and malnutrition' amid a near-total Israeli blockade.
The statement issued on Telegram warned against spreading 'false narratives' about the entry of hundreds of aid trucks into Gaza.
'We categorically deny these claims, as they are completely untrue and represent a dangerous alignment with the misleading narrative of the 'Israeli' occupation, and a deliberate distortion of the truth of the ongoing crime,' it added. 'We call on all countries of the world, without exception, to immediately break the siege, permanently open the crossings, and allow the entry of baby milk and aid to more than 2.4 million people besieged in the Gaza Strip.'
11:48 Beirut Time
Saudi Arabia invests billions in Syrian real estate and infrastructure
Saudi Arabia will invest $2.93 billion in real estate and infrastructure projects in Syria as part of a broader $6.4 billion in deals, Investment Minister Khalid al-Falih said on Thursday at a conference in Damascus.
11:46 Beirut Time
Israel stalls Gaza cease-fire talks
A senior Israeli official was quoted by local Israeli media as saying the new text was something Israel could work with, Reuters reported. However, Israel's Channel 12 said a rapid deal was not within reach, with gaps remaining between the two sides, including over where the Israeli military should withdraw to during the truce.
A Palestinian official close to the talks told Reuters the latest Hamas position was "flexible, positive and took into consideration the growing suffering in Gaza and the need to stop the starvation."
11:33 Beirut Time
Israel continues to starve Gaza
"The situation for children is nothing short of horrific. We see a dramatic surge of acute malnutrition among children, specifically under the age of five," Tarek Abou Azzoum, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, reported.
"Parents say children go to sleep and wake up crying from hunger. Sometimes they lose consciousness because they have not eaten in days. These are heartbreaking testimonies that we continue to hear from the ground," he reported.
11:31 Beirut Time
Pro-Gaza protests in Tel Aviv
Dozens of protesters demonstrated outside the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, protesting the humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip and the malnutrition suffered by the population in Gaza, according to Haaretz.
The protesters held empty pots and pans, referencing images of Palestinians in Gaza waiting to receive food from aid distribution sites.
11:26 Beirut Time
Three aid seekers are among 17 Palestinians killed in Gaza since dawn, according to medical sources speaking to Al Jazeera.
10:36 Beirut Time
25 Palestinians arrested in occupied-West Bank
Since dawn, Israeli forces have been storming several towns throughout the occupied West Bank and have arrested at least 25 Palestinians, according to the Wafa news agency, cited by Haaretz.
09:59 Beirut Time
At least two Palestinians killed in southern Gaza's al-Mawasi
An Israeli attack on a tent for displaced people in al-Mawasi in southern Gaza's Khan Younis governorate has killed at least two Palestinians.
That's according to a medical source speaking to our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic from the Nasser Hospital in the city of Khan Younis.
09:58 Beirut Time
Iran used cluster munitions, Amnesty says
Iran fired cluster munitions at civilian areas in Israel during the war between the two countries in June, in what Amnesty International called 'a blatant violation of customary international humanitarian law.'
'Iranian forces last month fired ballistic missiles containing cluster munitions at densely populated residential areas in Israel, putting civilians at risk,' the group said in a statement. Amnesty documented three strikes on June 19, 20 and 22 in Gush Dan (center), Beersheba (south), and Rishon LeZion, just south of Tel Aviv.
09:56 Beirut Time
Turkey condemns West Bank annexation as 'illegitimate and provocative'
Turkey on Wednesday condemned the Israeli parliament's resolution in favor of annexing the occupied West Bank, calling it 'an illegitimate and provocative move aimed at undermining peace efforts.'
More than 70 Israeli lawmakers voted in favor of urging the government to annex the West Bank to remove any plans for a Palestinian state 'from the agenda.'
Turkey's Foreign Ministry denounced the measure as 'null and void under international law and without any validity,' reminding that the West Bank has been 'Palestinian territory under Israeli occupation since 1967.'
The ministry added, 'Prime Minister Netanyahu's efforts to survive through aggressive policies and illegal actions lead daily to new crises and pose a serious threat to international order and regional security. Ankara calls for 'urgent, binding deterrent measures' and respect for the legal and moral obligations of the international system.'
09:50 Beirut Time
Lebanese Army dismantles Israeli spy device near Shebaa farms
The night appeared calm in South Lebanon. On Wednesday evening, the Lebanese army announced it had 'discovered and dismantled a surveillance device disguised as a camera' placed by Israeli forces in the Bastara area, near the Chebaa Farms in the Hasbaya district. The army urged citizens to 'stay away from any suspicious object and report it.'
09:47 Beirut Time
At least eight Palestinians killed in Gaza since dawn
As cease-fire negotiations continue, Israeli bombings in central Gaza killed at least eight people, according to medical sources at al-Aqsa Martyrs and al-Awda hospitals, cited by Al-Jazeera.
09:47 Beirut Time
Hamas confirms cease-fire proposal response
Hamas confirmed this morning that it had submitted its response to Israel's 60-day cease-fire proposal in Gaza, as indirect talks between the two sides continued in Qatar. 'Hamas has just submitted its response, along with that of the Palestinian factions, to the mediators,' the group said in a statement on Telegram around 5 a.m.
According to a Palestinian source close to the ongoing negotiations in Doha, the response included proposed amendments regarding humanitarian aid entry, maps of the areas from which the Israeli army would withdraw, and guarantees for a permanent end to the war.
09:46 Beirut Time
Gaza truce talks drag on with no breakthrough
Negotiators are trying to reach an agreement on a truce that would see 10 Israeli hostages freed in exchange for an unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners. Talks have dragged on for over two weeks with no breakthrough, with each side accusing the other of refusing to compromise on key demands.
Israel insists that dismantling Hamas' military and governing capabilities is non-negotiable. Hamas is demanding firm guarantees of a lasting cease-fire, full withdrawal of Israeli troops, and unhindered humanitarian aid to Gaza.
09:46 Beirut Time
Israel is 'examining' Hamas's response to the cease-fire proposal
The office of the Israeli prime minister said Thursday morning that Israel's negotiating team had received Hamas' response to a proposed cease-fire and hostage deal mediated by third parties, and that the response was 'being examined.'
09:41 Beirut Time
Israeli army crosses into southern Lebanon, blows up house
At dawn, the Israeli army infiltrated several hundred meters into Lebanese territory near the village of Houla, in the Marjayoun district, and blew up a house, according to L'Orient Today's correspondent in the South. The home was completely destroyed.