Israel strike on Lebanon kills two
BEIRUT: Lebanon said an Israeli drone strike on Tuesday killed a man and his son in a southern village, the latest deadly attack despite a November ceasefire, with Israel claiming the two.
The Lebanese health ministry said in a statement that 'an Israeli enemy drone carried out a strike in the village of Shebaa, killing two people and wounding one'.
The two dead were a father and his son, with the state-run National News Agency saying the man wounded was also his son.
The Israeli military said it had killed a Hezbollah member and an operative with the Lebanese Resistance Brigades, which is affiliated with the group.
A military statement said the two men were 'handling weapons used by Hezbollah for terrorist purposes and for observation of (Israeli) soldiers in the area', near the border.
Israel strike on south Lebanon kills one
Israel has repeatedly bombed its northern neighbour despite the November ceasefire that ended more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah including two months of full-blown war.
In the capital Beirut, a Lebanese military official told AFP that army forces had launched a search in a building in the city's southern suburbs, a densely populated area where Hezbollah holds sway.
The official said the forces were looking for weapons at the request of a five-member committee supervising the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire.
Israel warned on Friday that it would keep up its strikes on Hezbollah targets across Lebanon.
The Lebanese government has condemned a massive Israeli strike on south Beirut last week, on the eve of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.
Hezbollah said the Israeli air raid levelled nine residential blocks. The Israeli military said the strikes targeted underground drone factories.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemned the attack as 'a flagrant violation' of the ceasefire agreement.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Business Recorder
13 minutes ago
- Business Recorder
Oman to host US-Iran nuclear talks on Sunday: FM
MUSCAT, OMAN: Oman said Thursday it will host a sixth round of nuclear talks between the United States and Iran over the weekend amid escalating tensions between the long-time foes. 'I am pleased to confirm the 6th round of Iran US talks will be held in Muscat this Sunday,' Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi said in a post on X. Tehran and Washington have held five rounds of talks since April to thrash out a new nuclear deal to replace the 2015 accord that Trump abandoned during his first term in 2018. The announcement by Oman came just hours after President Donald Trump said US personnel were being moved from the potentially 'dangerous' Middle East. Trump also reiterated that he would not allow Iran to have an atomic bomb amid mounting speculation that Israel could strike Iranian nuclear facilities. Iran threatened Wednesday to target US military bases in the region if conflict breaks out. Trump says he's less confident about nuclear deal with Iran Trump had until recently expressed optimism about the talks, but said in an interview published Wednesday that he was 'less confident' about reaching a deal. Since returning to office in January, Trump has revived his 'maximum pressure' campaign on Tehran, backing nuclear diplomacy but warning of military action if it fails. The US president says he has pressed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to hold off striking Iran's nuclear facilities to give the talks a chance, but has increasingly signalled that he is losing patience.
Business Recorder
33 minutes ago
- Business Recorder
United Nations to vote to demand immediate Gaza ceasefire over US, Israel opposition
UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations General Assembly will vote on Thursday on a draft resolution that demands an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in the war in Gaza after the United States vetoed a similar effort in the Security Council last week. The 193-member General Assembly is likely to adopt the text with overwhelming support, diplomats say, despite Israel lobbying countries this week against taking part in what it called a 'politically-motivated, counter-productive charade.' General Assembly resolutions are not binding but carry weight as a reflection of the global view on the war. Previous demands by the body for an end to the war between Israel and Hamas have been ignored. Unlike the UN Security Council, no country has a veto in the General Assembly. Thursday's vote also comes ahead of a UN conference next week that aims to reinvigorate an international push for a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians. The United States has urged countries not to attend. In a note seen by Reuters, the U.S. warned that 'countries that take anti-Israel actions on the heels of the conference will be viewed as acting in opposition to U.S. foreign policy interests and could face diplomatic consequences.' Israeli gunfire, airstrikes kill 60 in Gaza, many near aid site, medics say The U.S. last week vetoed a draft UN Security Council resolution that also demanded an 'immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire' and unhindered aid access in Gaza, arguing it would undermine U.S.-led efforts to broker a ceasefire. The other 14 countries on the council voted in favor of the draft as a humanitarian crisis grips the enclave of more than 2 million people, where the UN warns famine looms and aid has only trickled in since Israel lifted an 11-week blockade last month. 'False and defamatory' The draft resolution to be voted on by the General Assembly on Thursday demands the release of hostages held by Hamas, the return of Palestinian prisoners detained by Israel and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. It demands unhindered aid access and 'strongly condemns the use of starvation of civilians as a method of warfare and the unlawful denial of humanitarian access and depriving civilians … of objects indispensable to their survival, including willfully impeding relief supply and access.' Israeli forces seize Gaza aid boat carrying Greta Thunberg 'This is both false and defamatory,' Israel's UN Ambassador Danny Danon wrote in a letter to UN member states, sent on Tuesday and seen by Reuters. Danon described the General Assembly draft resolution as an 'immensely flawed and harmful text,' urging countries not to take part in what he said was a 'farce' that undermines hostage negotiations and fails to condemn Hamas. In October 2023 the General Assembly called for an immediate humanitarian truce in Gaza with 120 votes in favor. In December 2023, 153 countries voted to demand an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. Then in December last year the body demanded – with 158 votes in favor - an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire. Israel responded with a military campaign that has killed over 54,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities. They say civilians have borne the brunt of the attacks and that thousands more bodies have been lost under rubble.
Business Recorder
12 hours ago
- Business Recorder
US slams UN conference on Israel-Palestinian issue, warns of consequences
PARIS: U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is discouraging governments around the world from attending a U.N. conference next week on a possible two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians, according to a U.S. cable seen by Reuters. The diplomatic demarche, sent on Tuesday, says countries that take 'anti-Israel actions' following the conference will be viewed as acting in opposition to U.S. foreign policy interests and could face diplomatic consequences from Washington. The demarche, which was not previously reported, runs squarely against the diplomacy of two close allies France and Saudi Arabia, who are co-hosting the gathering next week in New York that aims to lay out the parameters for a roadmap to a Palestinian state, while ensuring Israel's security. 'We are urging governments not to participate in the conference, which we view as counterproductive to ongoing, life-saving efforts to end the war in Gaza and free hostages,' read the cable. President Emmanuel Macron has suggested France could recognise a Palestinian state in Israeli-occupied territories at the conference. French officials say they have been working to avoid a clash with the U.S., Israel's staunchest major ally. UN conference on two-state solution to Mideast conflict set for June 'The United States opposes any steps that would unilaterally recognise a conjectural Palestinian state, which adds significant legal and political obstacles to the eventual resolution of the conflict and could coerce Israel during a war, thereby supporting its enemies,' the cable read. The United States for decades backed a two-state solution between the Israelis and the Palestinians that would create a state for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza alongside Israel. Trump, in his first term, was relatively tepid in his approach to a two-state solution, a longtime pillar of U.S. Middle East policy. The Republican president has given little sign of where he stands on the issue in his second term. But on Tuesday, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, a long-time vocal supporter of Israel, said he did not think an independent Palestinian state remained a U.S. foreign policy goal. Gaza war 'Unilaterally recognizing a Palestinian state would effectively render Oct. 7 Palestinian Independence Day,' the cable read, referring to when Palestinian Hamas carried out a cross-border attack from Gaza on Israel in 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages. Hamas' attack triggered Israel's air and ground war in Gaza in which almost 55,000 Palestinians have been killed, most of the 2.3 million population displaced and the enclave widely reduced to rubble. If Macron went ahead, France, home to Europe's largest Jewish and Muslim communities, would become the first Western heavyweight to recognise a Palestinian state. This could lend greater momentum to a movement hitherto dominated by smaller nations generally more critical of Israel. Macron's stance has shifted amid Israel's intensified Gaza offensive and escalating violence against Palestinians by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, and there is a growing sense of urgency in Paris to act now before the idea of a two-state solution vanishes forever. The U.S. cable said Washington had worked tirelessly with Egypt and Qatar to reach a ceasefire in Gaza, free the hostages and end the conflict. 'This conference undermines these delicate negotiations and emboldens Hamas at a time when the terrorist group has rejected proposals by the negotiators that Israel has accepted.' This week Britain and Canada, also G7 allies of the United States, were joined by other countries in placing sanctions on two Israeli far-right government ministers to pressure Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to bring the Gaza war to an end. 'The United States opposes the implied support of the conference for potential actions including boycotts and sanctions on Israel as well as other punitive measures,' the cable read. Israel has repeatedly criticised the conference, saying it rewards Hamas for the attack on Israel, and it has lobbied France against recognising a Palestinian state. 'Nothing surprises me anymore, but I don't see how many countries could step back on their participation,' said a European diplomat, who asked for anonymity due to the subject's sensitivity. 'This is bullying, and of a stupid type.' The U.S. State Department and the French Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
