Arab-Islamic summit adopts resolution on Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people

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Updated 12 November 2023
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Arab-Islamic summit adopts resolution on Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people

RIYADH: The Joint Arab Islamic Extraordinary Summit, which concluded in Riyadh on Saturday, adopted the following resolution:

 We, the leaders of the states and governments of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the League of Arab States, have decided to merge the two summits that the OIC and the Arab League had decided to hold. This came in response to the kind invitations of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (the chair of the two summits) and the State of Palestine. We express our joint stance in condemning the brutal Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank, including Al-Quds Al-Sharif. We affirm addressing together this aggression and the humanitarian catastrophe that it causes. We seek to stop and end all Israeli illegal practices that perpetuate the occupation and deprive the Palestinian people of their rights, especially their right to freedom and to have an independent sovereign State on all their national territory.
 We express our thanks to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, King of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Crown Prince and Prime Minister, for their kind hospitality.
 We reaffirm all resolutions of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the Arab League regarding the Palestinian cause and all occupied Arab territories.
 We recall all resolutions of the United Nations and other international organizations regarding the Palestinian cause, the crimes of the Israeli occupation and the right of the Palestinian people to freedom and independence in all its territories, which have been occupied since 1967 and constitute a sole geographical unit.
 We welcome the UN General Assembly Resolution A/ES-10/L.25 adopted by the tenth emergency session on 26 October 2023.
 We affirm the centrality of the Palestinian cause and our standing with all our powers and capabilities by the brotherly Palestinian people in their legitimate struggle to liberate all their occupied territories and to meet all their inalienable rights. This particularly includes their right to self-determination and to live in their independent and sovereign state on the borders of June 4th, 1967 with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.
 We reaffirm that a just, lasting and comprehensive peace, which is a strategic option, is the only way to establish security and stability for all peoples of the region and protect them from cycles of violence and wars. This, we stress, will not be achieved without ending the Israeli occupation and resolving the Palestinian cause on the basis of the two-state solution.
 We affirm that it is impossible to achieve regional peace while overlooking the Palestinian cause or attempting to ignore the rights of the Palestinian people. We stress that the Arab Peace Initiative, backed by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, is an essential reference to this end.
 We hold Israel, the occupying force, responsible for the continuation and aggravation of the conflict, which is the result of its violation of the rights of the Palestinian people, and of the Islamic and Christian sanctities. This is also the result of its systematic aggressive policies and practices, its illegal unilateral steps that perpetuate the occupation, violate international law, and prevent the realization of a just and comprehensive peace.
 We affirm that Israel, and all countries of the region, will not enjoy security and peace unless the Palestinians enjoy theirs and regain all their stolen rights. We stress that the continuation of the Israeli occupation is a threat to the security and stability of the region and to international security and peace.
 We condemn all forms of hatred and discrimination, and all acts that perpetuate hatred and extremism.
 We warn of the disastrous repercussions of the retaliatory aggression by Israel against the Gaza Strip, which amounts to a war crime, and the barbaric crimes committed also in the West Bank and Al-Quds Al-Sharif.
 We warn of the real danger of the expansion of the war as a result of Israel’s refusal to stop its aggression and of the inability of the Security Council to enforce international law to end this aggression.

 

We decide to:
 Condemn the Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip and the war crimes as well as the barbaric, inhumane and brutal massacres being committed by the colonial occupation government against the strip and the Palestinian people in the occupied West Bank, including East Al-Quds. We demand ceasing this aggression immediately.
 Reject describing this retaliatory war as self-defense or justifying it under any pretext.
 Break the siege on Gaza and impose the immediate entry of Arab, Islamic and international humanitarian aid convoys, including food, medicine and fuel into the Gaza Strip. We call on international organizations to participate in this process, stressing the need for their entry to the strip and for protecting their teams to enable them to fully fulfill their role. We affirm the necessity of supporting the United Nations Relief and Works for Palestine Refugees Agency (UNRWA).
 Support all steps taken by the Arab Republic of Egypt to confront the consequences of the brutal Israeli aggression on Gaza. We support its efforts to bring aid into the strip in an immediate, sustainable and adequate manner.
 Call on the UN Security Council to take a decisive and binding decision that imposes a cessation of aggression and curbs the colonial occupation authority that violates international law, international humanitarian law, and international legitimacy resolutions, the latest of which is United Nations General Assembly Resolution No. A/ES-10/L.25 dated 26/10/2023. Inaction is considered a complicity that allows Israel to continue its brutal aggression that kills innocent people, children, the elderly, and women, and turns Gaza into ruin.
 Call on all countries to stop exporting weapons and ammunition to the occupation authorities that are used by their army and terrorist settlers to kill the Palestinian people and destroy their homes, hospitals, schools, mosques, churches and all their capabilities.
 Call on the Security Council to promptly pass a resolution condemning Israel’s barbaric destruction of hospitals in the Gaza Strip, the obstruction of medicine, food and fuel and the severing of crucial services like electricity, water, communication and internet access. These acts of collective punishment amount to war crimes under international law. We emphasize the need to impose this resolution on Israel, the occupying power, to ensure compliance with international laws and to immediately cease these barbaric and inhumane measures. We stress the necessity of lifting the blockade that Israel has imposed on the Gaza Strip for years.
 Call on the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to complete the investigation into war crimes and crimes against humanity being committed by Israel against the Palestinian people in all the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Al-Quds. We assign the General Secretariats of the OIC and the Arab League to follow up on the implementation of this investigation and establish two specialized legal monitoring units to document Israeli crimes committed in the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023. The units will then prepare legal proceedings on all violations of international law and international humanitarian law committed by Israel, the occupying power, against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Al-Quds. Each unit shall submit its report 15 days after its formation to be presented to the Arab League Council at the level of foreign ministers and to the Council of Foreign Ministers of the OIC. Subsequently, monthly reports should be submitted thereafter.
 Support legal and political initiatives for the State of Palestine to hold Israeli occupying authorities accountable for their crimes against the Palestinian people, including the advisory opinion process at the International Court of Justice, and allow the investigative committee established by the Human Rights Council resolution to investigate these crimes without obstruction.
 Assign the two secretariats of to establish two media monitoring units to document all the crimes committed by the occupying authorities against the Palestinian people, alongside digital media platforms to publish and expose their illegitimate and inhumane practices.
 Assign the Foreign Minister of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in its capacity as the presidency of the 32nd Arab and Islamic Summit, along with counterparts from Jordan, Egypt, Qatar, Türkiye, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Palestine, and any other interested countries, and the Secretary-General of both organisations to initiate immediate international action on behalf of all member states of the OIC and the Arab League to formulate an international move to halt the war in Gaza and to pressure for a real and serious political process to achieve permanent and comprehensive peace in accordance with established international references.
 Call upon member states of the OIC and the Arab League to exert diplomatic, political, and legal pressures, and take any deterrent actions to halt the crimes committed by the colonial occupation authorities against humanity.
 Condemn the double standards in applying international law; warn that this duality seriously undermines both the credibility of countries shielding Israel from international law and placing it above the law, as well as the credibility of multilateral action, exposing the selectivity in applying the system of humanitarian values; and emphasize that the positions of Arab and Islamic countries will be affected by such double standards that lead to a rift between civilizations and cultures.
 Condemn the displacement of nearly one and a half million Palestinians from the northern to the southern areas of the Gaza Strip as a war crime under the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 and its 1977 Protocol; call on the parties to the Convention to collectively denounce and reject this action; call on all United Nations organizations to confront the attempt of the colonial occupation authorities to perpetuate this miserable inhuman reality; and stress the immediate necessity for the return of these displaced individuals to their homes and regions.
 Fully and absolutely reject, along with collectively opposing, any attempts at individual or mass forced displacement, deportation, or exile of the Palestinian people whether within the Gaza Strip, the West Bank including Al-Quds (Jerusalem), or outside their territories to any destination, considering it a red line and a war crime.
 Condemn the killing and targeting of civilians, as a principled stance based on our humanitarian values and in line with international law and humanitarian principles, and emphasize the immediate and swift steps the international community must take to cease the killing and targeting of Palestinian civilians, in a way that confirms the absolute equivalence of every single life, rejecting any discrimination based on nationality, race, or religion.
 Emphasize the necessity of releasing all prisoners and civilians; condemn the heinous crimes committed by the colonial occupation authorities against thousands of Palestinian prisoners; and call on all concerned nations and international organizations to put pressure for the cessation of these crimes and the prosecution of those responsible.
 Stop the occupation forces’ killing crimes and the settlers’ terrorism and crimes in the Palestinian villages, cities and refugee camps in the occupied West Bank and all assaults on the Al Aqsa Mosque and all Islamic and Christian sanctities.
 Emphasize Israel's need to fulfil its obligations as the occupying power by ceasing all illegal actions that perpetuate the occupation, especially settlements' construction and expansion, land confiscation, and the forced displacement of Palestinians from their homes.
 Condemn the military operations launched by occupying forces against Palestinian cities and camps; denounce settler terrorism; and urge the international community to list these groups and organizations on global terrorism lists, so that the Palestinian people can enjoy all the rights afforded to other nations, including human rights, the right to security, self-determination, the realization of their state's independence on their land, and the provision of international protection for them.
 Condemn the Israeli assaults on Jerusalem’s Islamic and Christian holy sites and the Israeli illegitimate measures which violate freedom of worship; emphasize the importance of respecting the existing legal and historic status quo in the holy sites; emphasize that the Al Aqsa Mosque/ Al Haram Al Sharif, with its entire 144,000 square meters, is a place of worship solely for Muslims, with the Jordanian Awqaf and the Al-Aqsa Mosque Affairs Department being the exclusive sole legitimate authority responsible for managing, maintaining, and regulating access to Al Aqsa Mosque, within the framework of the historic Hashemite custodianship of Jerusalem’s Islamic and Christian holy sites; and support the roles of the Al-Quds Committee and its efforts in addressing the practices of the Israeli occupation authorities in the Holy City.
 Condemn the extremist and racist hate speech and actions by ministers within the Israeli occupying government, including one minister’s threat to use nuclear weapons against the Palestinian people in Gaza, and considering them a serious threat to international peace and security, necessitating support for the conference aimed at establishing a nuclear-weapon-free zone and eliminating all other weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East, conducted within the framework of the United Nations and its goals to address this threat.
 Condemn the killing of journalists, children, and women, the targeting of medics, and the use of internationally banned white phosphorus in the Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip and Lebanon; denounce the repeated Israeli statements and threats to return Lebanon to the “Stone Age”; emphasize the importance of preventing the expansion of the conflict; and call on the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to investigate Israel’s use of chemical weapons.
 Emphasize on that the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) is the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, and call on all Palestinian factions and parties to unite under its umbrella and shoulder their responsibilities under a PLO-led national partnership.
 Emphasize commitment to peace as a strategic choice, aiming to end Israeli occupation and resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict in accordance with international law and relevant legitimate decisions, including UN Security Council Resolutions 242 (1967), 338 (1973), 497 (1981), 1515 (2003), and 2334 (2016); emphasizing adherence to the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002 in its entirety and priorities as the unified Arab consensus and the foundation for any peace revitalization efforts in the Middle East. The precondition for peace with Israel and the establishment of normal relations rests on ending its occupation of all Palestinian and Arab territories. It also includes establishing an independent, fully sovereign Palestinian state based on the June 4, 1967, borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, restoring the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including the right to self-determination, return, and compensation for Palestinian refugees, resolving their issue justly per UN General Assembly Resolution 194 of 1948.
 Emphasize the immediate need for the international community to launch a serious peace process to establish a two-state solution that fulfils all legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, notably their right to realize an independent, sovereign state along the June 4, 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital to in security and peace alongside Israel, aligning with international legitimacy and the complete framework of the Arab Peace Initiative.
 Emphasize that the failure to resolve the Palestinian cause over more than 75 years, the lack of response to the Israeli colonial occupation's crimes, its deliberate policies undermining the two-state solution through settlement building and expansion, alongside unconditional support to Israel and shielding it from accountability, as well as disregarding continual warnings about the dangers of ignoring these crimes and their serious implications on international security and peace, has led to a severe deterioration of the situation.
 Reject any proposals that perpetuate the separation of Gaza from the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and emphasize that any future approach to Gaza must be within the framework of working towards a comprehensive solution ensuring the unity of Gaza and the West Bank as part of the Palestinian state, which must materialize as a free, independent, sovereign entity with its capital in East Jerusalem on the borders of June 4, 1967.
 Call for convening an international peace conference, as soon as possible, through which a credible peace process will be launched based on international law, legitimate resolutions, and the principle of land for peace, within a defined timeframe and international guarantees, ultimately leading to the end of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories since 1967, including East Jerusalem, the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, the Shebaa Farms, the Kfar Shuba Hills, and the outskirts of the Lebanese village of al-Mari, and the implementation of a two-state solution.
 Activate the Arab and Islamic Financial Safety Net in line with the decisions of the fourteenth session of the Islamic Summit Conference and the Arab Summit resolutions, to provide financial contributions and support — economic, financial, and humanitarian — to the government of the State of Palestine and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). Emphasize the necessity of mobilizing international partners to reconstruct Gaza and alleviate the comprehensive destruction caused by the Israeli aggression immediately upon cessation.
 Assign both the Secretary-General of the Arab League and the OIC to closely oversee the implementation of the resolution and present a report on it at the upcoming sessions of their respective councils.


Israeli planes bomb southern Lebanon after radio blasts

Updated 9 sec ago
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Israeli planes bomb southern Lebanon after radio blasts

  • Attacks on Hezbollah's communications equipment killed 37, wounded around 3,000 in past two days 
  • Israel says its conflict with Hezbollah, like war in Gaza, is part of a wider regional confrontation with Iran

BEIRUT/JERUSALEM: Israel bombed southern Lebanon on Thursday and said it had thwarted an Iranian-led assassination plot after explosions in booby-trapped radios and pagers in the past two days caused bloody havoc in the ranks of its arch-foe Hezbollah.

The attacks on Hezbollah’s communications equipment killed 37 people and wounded around 3,000, raising fears that a full-blown war was imminent. The action also sowed disarray across Lebanon as panicked residents abandoned their mobile phones.

“This isn’t a small matter, it’s war. Who can even secure their phone now? When I heard about what happened yesterday, I left my phone on my motorcycle and walked away,” said Mustafa Sibal on a street in Beirut.

Israel has neither confirmed nor denied being behind the attacks but multiple security sources have said they were carried out by its spy agency Mossad.

The Lebanese army said on Thursday it was blowing up pagers and suspicious telecom devices in controlled blasts in different areas. It called on citizens to report any suspicious devices.

Lebanese authorities banned walkie-talkies and pagers from being taken on flights from Beirut airport until further notice, the National News Agency reported. Such devices were also banned from being shipped by air.

In Beirut on Thursday, a distant roar in the skies could be heard from what state media said was Israeli warplanes breaking the sound barrier — a noise that has become common in recent months.

Hezbollah fired missiles at Israel on the day after the Oct. 7 cross-border attack by the Palestinian militant group Hamas which triggered the Gaza war, and since then constant exchanges of fire have occurred, although neither side has allowed this to escalate into a full-scale war.

Israel said its warplanes struck villages in southern Lebanon overnight, and a security source and Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV reported airstrikes near the border began again on Thursday just after midday.

Hand-held radios used by Hezbollah detonated on Wednesday across Lebanon’s south.

The previous day, hundreds of pagers — used by Hezbollah to evade mobile phone surveillance — exploded at once, killing 12 people including two children, and injuring more than 2,300.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati called on the United Nations Security Council to take a firm stand to stop what he called Israel’s “aggression” and “technological war” against his country.

Israel says its conflict with Hezbollah, like its war in Gaza against Hamas, is part of a wider regional confrontation with Iran, which sponsors both groups as well as armed movements in Syria, Yemen and Iraq.

Assassination plot

Also on Thursday, Israeli security forces said that an Israeli businessman had been arrested last month after attending at least two meetings in Iran where he discussed assassinating Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the defense minister or the head of the Shin Bet spy agency.

Last week, Shin Bet uncovered what it said was a plot by Hezbollah to assassinate former Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon.

Israel has been accused of assassinations including a blast in Tehran that killed the leader of Hamas and another in a Beirut suburb that killed a senior Hezbollah commander within hours of each other in July.

Despite the events of the past few days, a spokesperson for the UN peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon said the situation along the frontier had “not changed much in terms of exchanges of fire between the parties.”

“There was an intensification last week. This week it is more or less the same. There are still exchanges of fire. It is still worrying, still concerning, and the rhetoric is high,” the spokesperson, Andrea Tenenti, said.

Tens of thousands of people have had to flee the Israel-Lebanon border area on both sides since the hostilities began in October.

Shifting focus

The Israeli military said its overnight air strikes hit Hezbollah targets in Chihine, Tayibe, Blida, Meiss El Jabal, Aitaroun and Kfarkela in southern Lebanon, as well as a Hezbollah weapons storage facility in the area of Khiam.

On Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the war was moving into a new phase, with more resources and military units being shifted to the northern border.

According to Israeli officials, the forces being deployed there include the 98th Division, an elite formation including commando and paratrooper elements that has been fighting in Gaza.


Hezbollah chief says group suffered ‘major’ blow in device blasts

Updated 15 min 35 sec ago
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Hezbollah chief says group suffered ‘major’ blow in device blasts

  • Nasrallah struck a defiant tone, warning that Israel would receive “just punishment” for the attacks
  • Describing the attacks as a possible “act of war,” he said Israel would face “tough retribution and just punishment, where it expects it and where it does not“

BEIRUT: Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah acknowledged Thursday his powerful group had suffered an “unprecedented” blow when thousands of operatives’ communication devices exploded in attacks it blamed on Israel.
Israel has not commented on the attacks that killed 37 people and wounded nearly 3,000 across Lebanon over two days but has said it will widen the scope of its war in Gaza to include the Lebanon front.
Delivering a speech after the attacks on Tuesday and Wednesday, which plunged Lebanon into panic, Nasrallah struck a defiant tone, warning that Israel would receive “just punishment” for the attacks.
Describing the attacks as a possible “act of war,” he said Israel would face “tough retribution and just punishment, where it expects it and where it does not.”
“It could be a war crime or a declaration of war,” he said of the attacks, which he branded a “massacre.”
Nasrallah also vowed to keep up Hezbollah’s fight against Israel until a ceasefire in Gaza is reached.
“The Lebanese front will not stop until the aggression on Gaza stops” despite “all this blood spilt,” he said.
Nasrallah addressed Israeli officials’ promises to return thousands of Israelis displaced by exchanges of fire across the border with Lebanon to their homes.
“You will not be able to return the people of the north to the north,” he said, warning that “no military escalation, no killings, no assassinations and no all-out war can return residents to the border.”
Hezbollah is an ally of Palestinian militant group Hamas, which on October 7 launched an unprecedented attack on Israel that sparked Gaza’s deadliest ever war.
Up until now, the focus of Israel’s firepower had been on Gaza.
But Israel’s northern border with Lebanon has seen exchanges of fire between Israeli troops and Hezbollah militants almost every day since October.
The violence has killed hundreds of people, mostly fighters, on the Lebanese side, and dozens on the Israeli side.
Israeli warplanes broke the sound barrier over Beirut as Nasrallah spoke, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said, with AFP correspondents in Beirut reporting loud booms.
Nasrallah announced the launch of an internal probe into the attacks, which experts and some Israeli media have said bear all the hallmarks of Israeli intelligence agency Mossad.


EU’s Borrell says Lebanon attacks aimed to ‘spread terror’

Updated 19 September 2024
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EU’s Borrell says Lebanon attacks aimed to ‘spread terror’

  • “The indiscriminate method used is unacceptable due to the inevitable and heavy collateral damages among civilians,” Borrell said
  • At least 37 people were killed and more than 3,000 wounded

BEIRUT: The EU foreign policy chief condemned attacks which targeted mobile communication devices used by Hezbollah this week, saying whoever was behind them aimed “to spread terror in Lebanon,” a statement from the EU’s Beirut delegation said on Thursday.
“The indiscriminate method used is unacceptable due to the inevitable and heavy collateral damages among civilians, and the broader consequences for the entire population, including fear and terror, and the collapse of hospitals,” Josep Borrell said.
At least 37 people were killed and more than 3,000 wounded when first pagers, then walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah members exploded in two waves of attacks on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Lebanon and Hezbollah say Israel carried out the attack. Israel has not claimed responsibility.
Hezbollah, a heavily armed group backed by Iran, and Israel have been trading fire across the Lebanese-Israeli border for almost a year in a conflict triggered by the Gaza war.


Hezbollah attacks Israel with drones as fears of a widening war mount

Updated 19 September 2024
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Hezbollah attacks Israel with drones as fears of a widening war mount

  • Hezbollah said early Thursday it had targeted three military positions in northern Israel near the border, two of them with drones
  • The Israeli military said the drones crashed near communities

BEIRUT: Hezbollah fired a new barrage into northern Israel on Thursday, continuing its drumbeat of exchanges with the Israeli military as fears of a greater war rise.
Hundreds of electronic devices used by Hezbollah exploded in Lebanon earlier this week, killing at least 37 people and wounding some 3,000 others.
The device explosions appeared to be the culmination of a monthslong operation by Israel to target as many Hezbollah members as possible all at once. Over two days, pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah detonated, wounding and even crippling some fighters, but also maiming civilians connected to the group’s social branches and killing at least two children.
It was unclear how the attack fit into warnings by Israeli leaders in recent weeks that they could launch a stepped-up military operation against Hezbollah, Lebanon’s strongest armed force.
The Israeli government has called it a war aim to end the Iranian-backed group’s cross-border fire in order to allow tens of thousands of Israelis to return to homes near the border.
Speaking to Israeli troops on Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said, “We are at the start of a new phase in the war — it requires courage, determination and perseverance.” He made no mention of the exploding devices but praised the work of Israel’s army and security agencies, saying “the results are very impressive.”
Gallant said that after months of fighting Hamas in Gaza, “the center of gravity is shifting to the north by diverting resources and forces.”
Hezbollah said early Thursday it had targeted three military positions in northern Israel near the border, two of them with drones. The Israeli military said the drones crashed near communities. Hospitals reported they treated at least eight patients lightly or moderately injured. The military said early Thursday it had struck several militant sites in southern Lebanon overnight.
The volley of strikes was a signal by Hezbollah that it would continue its near daily fire, which it says is a show of support for Hamas. Israel’s 11-month-old war with Hamas in Gaza began after its militants led the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
Israel has responded to Hezbollah’s fire with strikes in southern Lebanon, and has struck senior figures from the group in the capital Beirut. The exchanges have killed hundreds in Lebanon and dozens in Israel and forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of residents on each side of the border.
Israel and Hezbollah have repeatedly pulled back from an all-out war under heavy pressure from the United States, France and other countries.
But in their recent warnings, Israeli leaders have said they are determined to change the status quo dramatically.
Israel began moving more troops to its border with Lebanon on Wednesday as a precautionary measure, Israeli officials said. Israel’s army chief, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, said plans have been drawn up for additional action against Hezbollah, though media reported the government has not yet decided whether to launch a major offensive in Lebanon.
Lebanon is still reeling from the deadly device attacks of Tuesday and Wednesday.
The explosions have rattled anxious Lebanese fearing a full-scale war. The Lebanese Army said it has been locating and detonating suspicious pagers and communication devices, while the country’s civil aviation authorities banned pagers and walkie-talkies on all airplanes departing from Beirut’s international airport until further notice.
The attack was likely to severely disrupt Hezbollah’s internal communication as it scrambles to determine safe means to talk to each other. Hezbollah announced the death of five combatants Thursday, but didn’t specify if they were killed in the explosions or on the front lines.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was scheduled to speak later Thursday as the group vowed to retaliate against Israel.
The blasts went off wherever the holders of the pagers or walkie-talkies happened to be in multiple parts of Beirut and eastern and southern Lebanon — in homes and cars, grocery stores and cafes and on the street, even at a funeral for some killed in the bombings, often with family and other bystanders nearby.
Many suffered gaping wounds on their legs, abdomens and faces or were maimed in the hand. Tuesday’s pager blasts killed 12 people, including two children, and wounded some 2,300 others. The following day’s explosion killed 25 and wounded more than 600, Health Minister Firas Abiad said, giving updated figures.
Abiad told reporters that Wednesday’s injuries were more severe than the previous day as walkie-talkies that exploded were bigger than the pagers. He praised Lebanon’s hospitals, saying they had managed to deal with the flood of wounded within hours. “It was an indiscriminate attack. It was a war crime,” he said.


Israel media say new Gaza deal mooted to free hostages, give Sinwar safe passage

Updated 19 September 2024
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Israel media say new Gaza deal mooted to free hostages, give Sinwar safe passage

  • The proposal would also call for the release of Palestinian prisoners and a new governance system in Gaza, though no details were provided
  • Hostage envoy Gal Hirsch “presented the plan to the Americans, who were expected to pass it on to unspecified Arab officials“

JERUSALEM: Israeli media reported on Thursday that Israel has proposed a new deal that would see hostages released from Gaza in exchange for safe passage for Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and the cessation of fighting.
Public broadcaster Kan reported that the proposal would also call for the release of Palestinian prisoners and a new governance system in Gaza, though no details were provided.
The Times of Israel said an Israeli official had confirmed that hostage envoy Gal Hirsch “presented the plan to the Americans, who were expected to pass it on to unspecified Arab officials.”
Asked about the reports by AFP at a press conference on Thursday, government spokesman David Mencer did not specifically address them, instead referring to previous statements calling for the international community to pressure Hamas to make concessions to reach a deal.
“Whoever wants to assist in the effort to release our hostages needs to pressure the murderous Sinwar and not the prime minister of the State of Israel,” he said.
The October 7 attacks that sparked the Gaza war resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures that include hostages killed in captivity.
Out of 251 hostages seized by militants, 97 are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,272 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to figures provided by the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The United Nations has acknowledged the figures as reliable.



Israeli media reported on Thursday that Israel has proposed a new deal that would see hostages released from Gaza in exchange for safe passage for Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and the cessation of fighting. (AFP/File)