BEIRUT: Hezbollah said it launched an aerial assault on the Israeli Metula site in retaliation for “the attacks on villages and homes in southern Lebanon by the Israeli enemy.”
Israel’s Channel 12 reported on Wednesday that a Hezbollah drone crashed close to a military base in Metula, but added nobody was hurt.
The situation in southern Lebanon is escalating as the US works for a humanitarian ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. Najib Mikati, the Lebanese premier, said during a televised interview a response to American envoy Amos Hochstein’s proposal would be sent within 48 hours.
Meanwhile, amid threats of a wider war on Lebanon, Israeli news sites released a video clip they said the organization had sent to residents of settlements in northern Israel.
It was reported that several people received messages on WhatsApp and Telegram from unknown numbers claiming to be from Hezbollah. The messages featured a propaganda video showing rockets falling, fires and threats. Recipients included the heads of local authorities.
The messages are alleged to have said: “We have aimed our missiles at you. You have until the end of the week. You won’t make it. It’s recommended to escape to the southern cities.”
Safed was mentioned as a potential target for Hezbollah missile strikes, according to news reports.
On Tuesday night, Hezbollah used Katyusha rockets to bomb buildings in the Kiryat Shmona and Kfar Blum settlements. Kfar Blum is more than 5 km from the Lebanese border and not part of Israel’s settlement evacuation. The Avivim settlement in the Upper Galilee was attacked on Wednesday morning.
Around 70 missiles targeted the Kiryat Shmona settlement. Hezbollah said this was in retaliation for an Israeli airstrike on a civilian house in the Lebanese border town of Hula which resulted in the deaths of Hassan Hussein, his wife Ruwayda Mustafa, and their son Ali Hassan Hussein.
A report released by Hezbollah, detailing its activities on the southern front over the past 150 days, said 1,194 military operations had targeted 107 settlements, 841 border sites, 74 rear sites and 134 border points. In addition, 38 drones and aircraft destroyed 570 settlement units, killing or injuring 2,000 people.
The Council of Maronite Bishops, in a statement on the developments, affirmed their “categorical refusal to involve Lebanon in the Palestinian-Israeli war, from whose flames all Arab countries have distanced themselves.”
They called on “concerned local parties to help our people suffering in the south, regardless of their religious and political affiliations.”
The bishops cautioned “the consequences of linking the southern border dispute with settlements that affect Lebanon’s sovereignty, its oil and water resources, and its geographical rights.”
They also stressed that “any Lebanese negotiation in these issues should be handled by Lebanon’s president and should be put on hold until the election takes place.”
Hezbollah targets Israeli site, tells settlers to leave
https://arab.news/9329t
Hezbollah targets Israeli site, tells settlers to leave
- Meanwhile, amid threats of a wider war on Lebanon, Israeli news sites released a video clip they said the organization had sent to residents of settlements in northern Israel
- It was reported that several people received messages on WhatsApp and Telegram from unknown numbers claiming to be from Hezbollah
Hamas official says Gaza ceasefire talks have begun in Doha
“We hope that the current round of negotiations leads to tangible progress toward beginning the second phase“
CAIRO: A senior Hamas official said that a fresh round of Gaza ceasefire talks began on Tuesday in the Qatari capital Doha, with the Palestinian movement approaching the negotiations “positively and responsibly.”
“A new round of ceasefire negotiations began today,” Abdul Rahman Shadid said in a statement. “Our movement is dealing with these negotiations positively and responsibly.”
Israel has also sent a team of negotiators for talks aimed at extending the fragile ceasefire in Gaza, but has so far not commented on the talks.
“We hope that the current round of negotiations leads to tangible progress toward beginning the second phase,” Shadid said.
He also expressed hope that US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff would help “initiate negotiations for the second phase of the ceasefire agreement.”
“The US administration bears responsibility due to its unwavering support for the occupying (Israeli) government.”
The first 42-day phase of the truce deal expired in early March without agreement on subsequent stages meant to secure a lasting end to the war, which erupted after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
There are differing views on how to proceed, with Hamas seeking immediate negotiations for the next phase, while Israel wants to extend the first phase.
Hamas has accused Israel of reneging on the ceasefire deal, stating in a statement on Monday that Israel “refuses to commence the second phase, exposing its intentions of evasion and stalling.”
Ahead of the current round of talks, Israel halted the supply of electricity to Gaza’s only desalination plant, a move Hamas condemned as “cheap and unacceptable blackmail.”
Israel has already stopped aid deliveries to Gaza amid the deadlock over the ceasefire.
“Denying the flow of food, medicines, fuel and basic relief means has led to a spike in food prices and a severe shortage of medical supplies, exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in Gaza,” Hamas said in a separate statement.
The initial phase of the truce brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the United States began on January 19, and helped reduce hostilities after more than 15 months of relentless fighting that displaced nearly all of Gaza’s 2.4 million residents.
While the fate of the ceasefire remains uncertain, both sides have largely refrained from all-out hostilities.
However, in recent days, Israel has conducted daily strikes targeting militants in Gaza.
On Tuesday, an Israeli airstrike killed four men in Gaza City, according to the territory’s civil defense agency.
The Israeli military said that its air forces had struck “several terrorists engaged in suspicious activity posing a threat to IDF (Israeli) troops.”
During the ceasefire’s first phase, 25 living Israeli hostages and eight bodies were exchanged for around 1,800 Palestinians in Israeli custody.
Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack led to the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, most of them civilians, while Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 48,503 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to data from both sides.
In recent days, US hostages envoy Adam Boehler held unprecedented direct talks with Hamas and said an agreement for releasing more captives was expected “in the coming weeks.”
But US Secretary of State Marco Rubio talked down the prospects of a breakthrough from those discussions.
“That was a one-off situation in which our special envoy for hostages, whose job it is to get people released, had an opportunity to talk directly to someone who has control over these people and was given permission and encouraged to do so,” Rubio told journalists late on Monday in Jeddah.
“It hasn’t borne fruit. But it... doesn’t mean he was wrong to try.”
Erdogan says Syria’s agreement with Kurds will ‘serve peace’
- Recep Tayyip Erdogan: ‘The winner will be all of our Syrian brothers’
- Turkiye has pressed Syria’s new rulers to address the issue of the YPG’s control over wide parts of the country
ISTANBUL: An agreement to integrate autonomous Kurdish institutions in Syria’s northeast into the new Syrian national government will “serve peace,” Turkiye’s president said on Tuesday.
“The full implementation of the agreement reached yesterday will serve Syria’s security and peace. The winner will be all of our Syrian brothers,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a Ramadan fast breaking dinner.
Syria’s new authorities under interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa have sought to disband armed groups and establish government control over the entirety of the country since ousting long-time leader Bashar Assad in December after more than 13 years of civil war.
On Monday, the Syrian presidency announced an agreement with the head of the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to integrate the autonomous Kurdish administration that has governed much of the northeast for the past decade into the national government.
The new accord is expected to be implemented by the end of the year.
The SDF — seen essential in the fight against Daesh terrorists — is dominated by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara views as an offshoot of the PKK, an outlawed group dominated by ethnic Kurds in Turkiye which has waged a bloody insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984.
Turkiye, which has forged close relations with Sharaa, has pressed Syria’s new rulers to address the issue of the YPG’s control over wide parts of Syria.
On Tuesday, Erdogan said Turkiye attached “great importance to preserving the territorial integrity and unitary structure of our neighbor Syria.”
He added: “We see every effort to cleanse Syria of terrorism as a step in the right direction.”
The agreement comes nearly two weeks after a historic call by jailed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) founder Abdullah Ocalan for the militant group to lay down its weapons and disband.
Israel says killed Hezbollah militant in Lebanon strike
- IAF conducted a strike in Lebanon, eliminating Hassan Abbas Ezzedine, the military stated
JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said it carried out an air strike in southern Lebanon on Tuesday that killed a senior Hezbollah militant who was reportedly responsible for a drone and rocket arsenal.
“Earlier today, the IAF (air force) conducted a precise intelligence-based strike in the area of Nabatiyeh in southern Lebanon, eliminating Hassan Abbas Ezzedine, the head of Hezbollah’s aerial array in the Bader regional unit,” the military said in a statement.
Israel confirms release of five Lebanese detainees
- Move followed deliberations by the committee overseeing the implementation of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah
- Result of intensified Lebanese diplomatic pressure on the supervisory committee
BEIRUT: Israel confirmed the release of five Lebanese detainees held by its military, Israeli media reported on Tuesday, citing the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
They were captured during Israel’s ground offensive in southern Lebanon that began on Oct. 1 last year, and after the Nov. 27 ceasefire went into effect.
This move followed deliberations by the committee overseeing the implementation of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah.
It came as a direct result of intensified Lebanese diplomatic pressure on the supervisory committee.
“President Joseph Aoun met US Gen. Jasper Jeffers, head of the international committee monitoring the implementation of the ceasefire agreement, along with his team, the US Ambassador to Lebanon Lisa Johnson, the US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Middle East Natasha Franceschi, and the US Defense Attaché in Lebanon Col. Joseph Becker,” a source inside the Presidential Palace told Arab News.
“President Aoun urged the committee to pressure Israel into a full withdrawal from the Lebanese border region, particularly from the five hills still under Israeli occupation. He also called for the release of the Lebanese individuals taken hostage by Israel, emphasizing that Lebanon does not hold any Israeli hostages. Therefore, there is no justification for delaying the process under the pretext of a prisoner swap, and holding Lebanese people hostage offers no advantage to Israel,” the source added.
According to a statement from the president’s office, Aoun requested that “these demands be raised during the committee’s meeting on Tuesday.”
Reports from southern Lebanon indicate that Israel currently holds 11 Lebanese citizens — seven Hezbollah members, three civilians, and a soldier.
Earlier on Monday, the Lebanese Army Command announced that “the Israeli Army captured Lebanese soldier Ziad Shibli on the southern border after communication with him was lost.
It was later revealed that Israeli forces shot him while he was in civilian clothing on the outskirts of the border town of Kfarchouba. The soldier was injured and subsequently transferred to occupied Palestinian territories.
Israeli violations of Lebanese sovereignty persist, with a military drone targeting a vehicle on the road between the towns of Romin and Wadi Al-Zahrani in the heart of southern Lebanon. The attack resulted in the death of the driver, identified as Hassan Ezzeddine from the town of Houmine Al-Tahta, and a member of Hezbollah.
Israeli Army radio later claimed that “the dead man was an official in Hezbollah’s air defense unit.”
Israeli drones have been used in a campaign pursuing Hezbollah members in the south, despite a ceasefire agreement being in effect for less than four months.
On Dec. 7, an Israeli drone killed a biker in Deir Seryan, whose identity was not revealed.
Another drone killed a Hamas official on Feb. 17 in Saida Mohammed Chahine.
On March 4, an Israeli drone killed Khodr Hachem, a Hezbollah official, who “held the position of commander of the naval forces in Hezbollah’s Radwan Unit,” according to Israeli claims.
As part of the efforts to accelerate the Israeli withdrawal from the south, Speaker Nabih Berri met the ambassadors of the Quintet Committee.
Following the meeting, Egyptian Ambassador to Lebanon Alaa Moussa said the discussion focused on “the importance of the Israeli withdrawal from the south.”
He added: “The Quintet Committee is currently working on reaching a formula that leads to the complete Israeli withdrawal.”
The diplomat clarified that “they didn’t discuss the details of ceasing hostilities, but focused on the importance of the Israeli withdrawal.”
He said Berri “affirmed his commitment to implementing the ministerial statement and the oath speech.”
HRW says Syria must protect civilians after ‘killing spree’
- “Grave abuses on a staggering scale are being reported against predominantly Alawite Syrians,” said HRW’s deputy regional director Adam Coogle
- “Government action to protect civilians and prosecute perpetrators of indiscriminate shootings, summary executions, and other grave crimes must be swift and unequivocal”
BEIRUT: Human Rights Watch on Tuesday called on the Syrian Arab Republic’s new authorities to ensure accountability for the mass killings of hundreds of civilians in recent days in the coastal heartland of the Alawite minority.
Violence broke out Thursday as security forces clashed with gunmen loyal to former president Bashar Assad, who is Alawite, in areas along the Mediterranean coast.
Since then, war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said security forces and allied groups had killed at least 1,093 civilians, the vast majority Alawites.
“Syria’s new leaders promised to break with the horrors of the past, but grave abuses on a staggering scale are being reported against predominantly Alawite Syrians in the coastal region and elsewhere in Syria,” said HRW’s deputy regional director Adam Coogle.
“Government action to protect civilians and prosecute perpetrators of indiscriminate shootings, summary executions, and other grave crimes must be swift and unequivocal,” he said in a statement decrying the “coastal killing spree.”
The New York-based rights group said it was “not able to verify the number of civilians killed or displaced, but obituaries circulating on Facebook indicate hundreds were killed, including entire families.”
The wave of violence is the worst since forces led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) launched a lightning offensive that toppled Assad on December 8, capping a 13-year civil war.
Syria’s interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa, who led HTS, has vowed to “hold accountable, firmly and without leniency, anyone who was involved in the bloodshed of civilians.”
The defense ministry announced on Monday the end of the “military operation” seeking to root out “regime remnants” in the coastal areas.
But according to the Britain-based Observatory, another 120 civilians have been killed since then, the majority of them in Latakia and Tartus provinces on the coast — where much of the earlier violence since last week had occurred.
Authorities have announced the arrest of at least two fighters seen in videos killing civilians, the official news agency SANA reported.
HRW said that “accountability for atrocities must include all parties,” including groups like HTS and the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army that “now constitute Syria’s new security forces.”
“These groups have a well-documented history of human rights abuses and violations of international law,” it added.
HTS, which has its roots in the Syrian branch of jihadist network Al-Qaeda, is still proscribed as a terrorist organization by several governments including the United States.
Since toppling Assad and taking power, Sharaa has vowed to protect Syria’s religious and ethnic minorities.
In its statement, HRW called on the authorities to “fully cooperate with and ensure unhindered access to independent monitors.”
Syria’s presidency had announced that an “independent committee” was formed to investigate the killings.
The panel is due to hold its first press conference later Tuesday.
