Israel Raises its Flag in Southern Lebanon
The Israeli army raised on Wednesday a large Israeli flag on the Hamames hilltop it had occupied during its war with Hezbollah last year.
The area, one kilometer deep inside Lebanese territory, overlooks the Wazzani River in the South. Lebanese media said Israel raised several flags in the area that is located southeast of the city of Khiam.
Images circulated on social media showed two new flags in the region.
Even though Israel claims to be holding five hilltops in Lebanon since the end of the war, it is actually occupying seven areas in the country, revealed Lebanese security sources.
The two undeclared areas are one inside the town of Kfar Kila and the other near the border town of al-Dhaira.
In Kfar Kila, Israel is holding a road that extends around 200 meters from the border. In Dhaira, Israeli troops blocked a road in the area where they are deployed.
The other positions that are openly occupied are in Hamames, one near the southeastern town of Markaba, another in the Aitaroun region, one in Jabal Blat and the fifth in al-Labbouneh near the coast and overlooking al-Naqoura.
The raising of the Israeli flag is the latest in its violations of the ceasefire that ended the war. Overnight on Monday, Israeli troops infiltrated Mais al-Jabal and set up sand barriers.
The Lebanese army swiftly contacted the quintet committee overseeing the ceasefire and removed the barriers on Tuesday.
An Israeli drone also fired a sound bomb in Kfar Kila. Another targeted the main road in the town of al-Abbasiyeh north of the southern coastal city of Tyre. The drone fired two rockets; one did not explode.
Israel also fired artillery on the outskirts of the town of Kfar Shouba and its forces opened fire at citizens in the town of Blida. No injuries were reported.
On Wednesday morning, Israeli forces carried out a sweep of an area near the Marjeyon plain and flew drones at low altitude over the al-Zahrani region.
An Israeli strike on the outskirts of the town Yater killed a Hezbollah official in the area.
Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee said the official sought to reestablish operations in the area in violation of the ceasefire.
Israel had also assassinated a Hezbollah member in the southern town of Majdal Zoun on Monday.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Arab News
3 hours ago
- Arab News
Ukraine and Russia agree to swap dead and wounded troops but report no progress toward ending war
ISTANBUL: Representatives of Russia and Ukraine met Monday for their second round of direct peace talks in just over two weeks, but aside from agreeing to swap thousands of their dead and seriously wounded troops, they made no progress toward ending the 3-year-old war, officials said. The talks unfolded a day after a string of stunning long-range attacks by both sides, with Ukraine launching a devastating drone assault on Russian air bases and Russia hurling its largest drone attack of the war against Ukraine. At the negotiating table, Russia presented a memorandum setting out the Kremlin's terms for ending hostilities, the Ukrainian delegation said. Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, who led the Ukrainian delegation, told reporters that Kyiv officials would need a week to review the document and decide on a response. Ukraine proposed further talks on a date between June 20 and June 30, he said. After the talks, Russian state news agencies Tass and RIA Novosti published the text of the Russian memorandum, which suggested that Ukraine withdraw its forces from the four regions that Russia annexed in September 2022 but never fully captured as a condition for a ceasefire. As an alternate way of reaching a truce, the memorandum presses Ukraine to halt its mobilization efforts and freeze Western arms deliveries, conditions were suggested earlier by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The document also suggests that Ukraine stop any redeployment of forces and ban any military presence of third countries on its soil as conditions for halting hostilities. The Russian document further proposes that Ukraine end martial law and hold elections, after which the two countries could sign a comprehensive peace treaty that would see Ukraine declare its neutral status, abandon its bid to join NATO, set limits on the size of its armed forces and recognize Russian as the country's official language on par with Ukrainian. Ukraine and the West have previously rejected all those demands from Moscow. In other steps, the delegations agreed to swap 6,000 bodies of soldiers killed in action and to set up a commission to exchange seriously wounded troops. Kyiv officials said their surprise drone attack Sunday damaged or destroyed more than 40 warplanes at air bases deep inside Russia, including the remote Arctic, Siberian and Far East regions more than 7,000 kilometers (4,300 miles) from Ukraine. The complex and unprecedented raid, which struck simultaneously in three time zones, took over a year and a half to prepare and was 'a major slap in the face for Russia's military power,' said Vasyl Maliuk, the head of the Ukrainian security service, who led its planning. Zelensky called it a 'brilliant operation' that would go down in history. The effort destroyed or heavily damaged nearly a third of Moscow's strategic bomber fleet, according to Ukrainian officials. Russia on Sunday fired the biggest number of drones — 472 — at Ukraine since its full-scale invasion in 2022, Ukraine's air force said, in an apparent effort to overwhelm air defenses. That was part of a recently escalating campaign of strikes in civilian areas of Ukraine. Hopes low for peace prospects US-led efforts to push the two sides into accepting a ceasefire have so far failed. Ukraine accepted the proposed truce, but the Kremlin effectively rejected it. Recent comments by senior officials in both countries indicate they remain far apart on the key conditions for stopping the war. The previous talks on May 16 in the same Turkish city were the first direct peace negotiations since the early weeks of Moscow's 2022 invasion. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the fact that the two sides met again Monday was an achievement in itself amid the fierce fighting. 'The fact that the meeting took place despite yesterday's incident is an important success in itself,' he said in a televised speech. Zelensky said during a trip to Lithuania on Monday that a new release of prisoners of war was being prepared after the Istanbul meeting. The May 16 talks also led to a swap of prisoners, with 1,000 on both sides being exchanged. During the talks, Zelensky said, the Ukrainian delegation handed over a list of nearly 400 abducted children. Russia responded by proposing to 'work on up to 10 children.' 'That's their idea of addressing humanitarian issues,' Zelensky said Monday during an online briefing with journalists. The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant in 2023 for Putin and the country's commissioner for children's rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, accusing them of abducting children from Ukraine. The head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, an aide to Putin, said Kyiv had made a 'show' out of the topic and that children would be returned if their parents or guardians could be located. Zelensky also told journalists that the Russian side said it was ready for a two- to three-day ceasefire to collect bodies from the battlefield, not a full ceasefire. 'I think they're idiots, because the whole point of a ceasefire is to prevent people from being killed in the first place. So you can see their mindset — it's just a brief pause in the war for them,' he added. The relentless fighting has frustrated US President Donald Trump's goal of bringing about a quick end to the war. A week ago, he expressed impatience with Putin as Moscow pounded Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities with drones and missiles for a third straight night. Trump said on social media that Putin 'has gone absolutely CRAZY!' Ukraine upbeat after strikes on air bases Ukraine was triumphant after targeting the distant Russian air bases. The official Russian response was muted, with the attack getting little coverage on state-controlled television. The Russia-1 television channel on Sunday evening spent a little over a minute on it with a brief Defense Ministry statement read out before images shifted to Russian drone strikes on Ukrainian positions. Zelensky said the setbacks for the Kremlin would help force it to the negotiating table, even as its pursues a summer offensive on the battlefield. 'Russia must feel what its losses mean. That is what will push it toward diplomacy,' he said Monday in Vilnius, Lithuania, meeting with leaders from the Nordic nations and countries on NATO's eastern flank. Ukraine has occasionally struck air bases hosting Russia's nuclear-capable strategic bombers since early in the war, prompting Moscow to redeploy most of them to the regions farther from the front line. Because Sunday's drones were launched from trucks close to the bases in five Russian regions, military defenses had virtually no time to prepare for them. Many Russian military bloggers chided the military for its failure to build protective shields for the bombers despite previous attacks, but the large size of the planes makes that challenging. The attacks were 'a big blow to Russian strategic air power' and exposed significant vulnerabilities in Moscow's military capabilities, said Phillips O'Brien, a professor of strategic studies at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Edward Lucas, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Center for European Policy Analysis, called it 'the most audacious attack of the war' and 'a military and strategic game-changer.' 'Battered, beleaguered, tired and outnumbered, Ukrainians have, at minimal cost, in complete secrecy, and over vast distances, destroyed or damaged dozens, perhaps more, of Russia's strategic bombers,' he said. Front-line fighting and shelling grinds on Fierce fighting has continued along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, and both sides have hit each other's territory with deep strikes. Russian forces shelled Ukraine's southern Kherson region, killing three people and wounding 19 others, including two children, regional officials said Monday. Also, a missile strike and shelling around the southern city of Zaporizhzhia killed five people and wounded nine others, officials said.
Arab News
6 hours ago
- Arab News
Syria reopens Lebanon border crossing for Eid Al-Adha travel
BEIRUT: Syrian authorities announced the reopening of Al-Arida border crossing with Lebanon, which closed in December 2024 due to an Israeli raid during the war with Hezbollah. Syria's Land and Sea Ports General Authority said in a statement that the border crossing located in Rif Tartus was reopening. It informed travelers that Al-Arida border crossing would be manned on Tuesday morning, despite ongoing restoration and maintenance work, to facilitate movement during Eid Al-Adha. The crossing is located on Lebanon's northern border and connects the ports of Tripoli and Tartus. Israeli warplanes struck the crossing on Nov. 27, 2024. Ten days after the Syrian authorities removed the rubble and rehabilitated the crossing, it was struck again by Israel, leading to its permanent closure. Dozens of Syrian families who had fled to Lebanon are now returning to their villages in Syria, while legal crossings are witnessing active overland tourism between Syria and Lebanon. The two countries share five legal border crossings, including the Masnaa crossing, which is the closest to Damascus, and the Jdeidet Yabous crossing located in the Rif Dimashq Governorate. Additionally, there is the Aboudieh crossing, which consists of a 45 km bridge passing through the Syrian village of Dabousieh, and the Jousieh crossing, situated in the Qusayr area of Rif Homs, which serves as the gateway from northern Bekaa to Homs and is located 40 km from the city. The Talkalakh crossing in the Wadi Khaled area of northern Lebanon connects to Syrian territory in western Rif Homs, alongside Al-Arida crossing. It was primarily designated for transporting goods and trucks carrying phosphate and sand from Syria to Lebanon, and other goods in the other direction. Despite the measures that Syrian and Lebanese authorities have started to implement to regulate border crossings and close many illegal routes in the mountainous border regions, smuggling activities have resumed on both sides. Recently, the Syndicate of Pharmaceutical Importers in Lebanon raised concerns, urging action to combat the issue of illegal, smuggled, and counterfeit medicines flooding the Lebanese market. The Lebanese judiciary is continuing its investigations into the smuggling of medications from Egypt and Turkiye into Lebanon. So far, they have detained several Lebanese and Syrian nationals suspected of being involved in these operations. The investigations have focused on around 50 pharmacists and 60 pharmaceutical traders in Lebanon. The Parliamentary Health Committee held a meeting dedicated to the issue of smuggled and counterfeit medicines. Lebanon previously lifted subsidies on medicines — except for those designated for patients with chronic illnesses — during the economic crisis that struck the country in 2019. Public Health Minister Rakan Nasreddine, Justice Minister Adel Nassar, and representatives from the Interior and Defense Ministries participated in the meeting, along with the heads of relevant security agencies. MP Bilal Abdallah told Arab News the committee thoroughly discussed methods to regulate the pharmaceutical market in Lebanon and safeguard citizens from medication smuggling operations. 'The danger arises from smuggled medicines, which may be expired, improperly stored, or non-compliant with safety standards. 'This poses a serious threat to patients, particularly since smuggling often targets costly medications intended for cancer patients and individuals with chronic illnesses. 'The Ministry of Health has documented dozens of cases where citizens' health deteriorated after consuming such medicines.' Abdallah, who is both a legislator and a practicing physician, stated that the parliamentary committee had instructed customs and security forces to enhance inspection protocols. He highlighted the positive influences of Syria's political transition, stating that 'Syrian authorities are now more effectively monitoring the situation and preventing smuggling through unauthorized border points.' The Lebanese Pharmaceutical Importers Association, participating in parliamentary hearings, confirmed that all medications registered with the Health Ministry and distributed by international manufacturers are continuously available in Lebanese markets. However, the association emphasized an important distinction regarding smuggled substances, clarifying that 'products entering Lebanon through illegal channels cannot be regarded as legitimate pharmaceuticals, as authentic medications require verified component analysis and official documentation submitted to authorized regulatory bodies.'
Asharq Al-Awsat
9 hours ago
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Russia and Ukraine Reach Deal on New POW Swap and Handover of Bodies
Russia and Ukraine said they had agreed at peace talks on Monday to exchange more prisoners of war and return the bodies of 12,000 dead soldiers. The warring sides met for barely an hour in the Turkish city of Istanbul, for only the second such round of negotiations since March 2022. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan described it as a great meeting and said he hoped to bring together Russia's Vladimir Putin and Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskiy for a meeting in Türkiye with US President Donald Trump. But there was no breakthrough on a proposed ceasefire that Ukraine, its European allies and Washington have all urged Russia to accept. Moscow says it seeks a long-term settlement, not a pause in the war; Kyiv says Putin is not interested in peace. Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky said Russian negotiators had handed their Ukrainian counterparts a detailed memorandum outlining Moscow's terms for a full ceasefire. Medinsky, who heads the Russian team, said Moscow had also suggested a "specific ceasefire of two to three days in certain sections of the front" so that the bodies of dead soldiers could be collected. Each side said it would hand over the bodies of 6,000 dead soldiers to the other. In addition, they said they would conduct a further big swap of prisoners of war, after 1,000 captives on each side were traded following a first round of talks in Istanbul on May 15. Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, who headed Kyiv's delegation, said the new exchange would focus on those severely injured in the war and on young people. Umerov also said that Moscow had handed a draft peace accord to Ukraine and that Kyiv, which has drawn up its own version, would review the Russian document. Ukraine has proposed holding more talks before the end of June, but believes that only a meeting between Zelenskiy and Putin can resolve the many issues of contention, Umerov said. Zelenskiy's chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said Kyiv's delegation had requested the return of a list of children who it said had been deported to Russia. Moscow says such children were moved in order to protect them from fighting. Medinsky said there were 339 names on Ukraine's list but that the children had been "saved", not stolen. LOW EXPECTATIONS FOR ISTANBUL BREAKTHROUGH Ukraine had a day earlier launched one of its most ambitious attacks of the war, using drones to target Russian nuclear-capable long-range bomber planes in Siberia and elsewhere. Angry war bloggers urged Moscow to retaliate strongly. While both countries, for different reasons, are keen to keep Trump engaged in the peace process, expectations of a breakthrough on Monday had been low. Ukraine regards Russia's approach to date as an attempt to force it to capitulate - something Kyiv says it will never do - while Moscow, which advanced on the battlefield in May at its fastest rate in six months, says Kyiv should submit to peace on Russian terms or face losing more territory. Putin set out his opening terms for an immediate end to the war last June: Ukraine must drop its ambitions to join the Western NATO alliance and withdraw its troops from the entirety of the four Ukrainian regions claimed and largely controlled by Russia. According to a proposed roadmap drawn up by Ukraine, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, Kyiv wants no restrictions on its military strength after any peace deal, no international recognition of Russian sovereignty over parts of Ukraine taken by Moscow's forces, and reparations. Russia currently controls just under one fifth of Ukraine, or about 113,100 sq km, about the area of the US state of Ohio. Putin sent his army into Ukraine on February 24, 2022, after eight years of fighting in eastern Ukraine between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian forces. The United States, which under Trump's predecessor Joe Biden was Ukraine's main source of advanced weaponry in the war, says over 1.2 million people have been killed and injured in the conflict since 2022. Trump has called Putin "crazy" and berated Zelenskiy in public in the Oval Office, but the US president has also said he thinks peace is achievable and that if Putin delays, the US could impose tough sanctions on Russia.
