Frankly Speaking: How Saudis view the war in Gaza

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Updated 29 April 2024
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Frankly Speaking: How Saudis view the war in Gaza

  • Former intelligence chief Prince Turki Al-Faisal believes a Saudi-Israeli normalization will not happen without establishment of a Palestinian state
  • The Kingdom’s former ambassador says the ⁠US now recognizes Saudi Arabia as a valuable partner, not a pariah
  • Calls out not just Abraham Accords’ “failure” to bring peace but also the world community’s role since Israel’s occupation of Palestine

DUBAI: Saudi Arabia is using its leverage to help bring an end to the conflict in Gaza but stands by its original position that normalization with Israel will not occur without the establishment of a Palestinian state, according to former Saudi intelligence chief Prince Turki Al-Faisal.

Appearing on “Frankly Speaking,” the weekly Arab News current affairs podcast, he said the Kingdom has a role to play in brokering peace.

“Saudi Arabia is trying to do that to its best ability,” Prince Turki said. “The summit conferences that were held in the Kingdom since the beginning of this conflict indicate that Saudi Arabia very much wants to establish peace and security for everybody and not just for the Israelis.”

Just days before the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel that triggered the latest round of bloodletting in Gaza, Saudi Arabia and Israel had appeared to be on the brink of a historic normalization deal brokered by the US.

However, the outbreak of war in Gaza, which has resulted in more than 30,000 Palestinian deaths, according to local health authorities, seems to have killed that process and further set back the Middle East peace process.

Prince Turki said the terms of such an agreement remain the same regardless — that Saudi Arabia would only normalize ties with Israel once the two-state solution had been implemented, granting the Palestinians an independent state.

“What I’ve seen from statements from Saudi officials, from the crown prince and from our foreign minister is that so-called normalization of Israel, if it were to happen, will not happen before the establishment of a Palestinian state with all of the necessary arrangements for that state to be viable and survivable,” he said.

“That has been the official position of Saudi Arabia from the beginning.

“Saudi Arabia has reiterated its commitment to the Arab Peace Initiative as the only viable way to achieve total peace between Israel and the Arab world.”




Former intelligence chief Prince Turki Al-Faisal told Katie Jensen he believes a Saudi-Israeli normalization deal would not happen until the establishment of a Palestinian state. (AN Photo)

Prince Turki added: “The Palestinians are the main victims of the Israeli occupation of Palestine. And achieving their rights and giving them their ability to have their own state and identity has been the main aim of not just Saudi Arabia, but (of) the Arab world in general and the Muslim world in more general terms. 

“That has been a goal of the Kingdom since the beginning of the conflict many decades ago, and still is.”

If negotiations for a lasting solution to the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict are to make any headway, Prince Turki said the talks would have to be balanced, especially if the Israeli side insists Hamas is excluded from any dialogue.

“In any consideration for peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis, if there are going to be conditions placed on who represents who around the negotiating table, those conditions should be evenly placed on both sides,” he told Katie Jensen, the host of “Frankly Speaking.”

“If they’re going to exclude certain parties from the Palestinian side, like Hamas, for example, because of what it did on Oct. 7, then they should exclude equally Israeli political parties for what they’re doing in Gaza now. 

“And on that basis, there should be a fair distribution of blame, if that is the right word for it, or representation for the Palestinians and the Israelis. So, the Israelis are just as culpable and just as vicious as any fighter in Hamas or any of the parties on the Palestinian side.”

Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, coupled with its restrictions on the flow of humanitarian aid and commercial goods permitted to enter the enclave, has resulted in accusations of genocide against the Palestinian people — claims Israel vehemently rejects.

South Africa, long a supporter of the Palestinian cause, brought a case against Israel before the International Court of Justice at The Hague in January accusing it of committing acts of genocide in Gaza.

Asked whether he believes Israel’s military campaign in Gaza amounts to a breach of the genocide convention, Prince Turki said: “I’m not the only one who believes that.

“I think we’ve seen the reaction of the world populations everywhere, the demonstrations that have gone out in the streets of major cities in Europe, in America, in Asia, in Africa, in Latin America. 

“Everywhere you go, people have gone out in the streets condemning Israel’s brutal attacks on the Palestinian people in general and more specifically in Gaza. 

“And, definitely, the ICJ has already said that there are grounds to believe that Israel is committing genocide in these territories. So, I’m not the only one who believes that.”




Parachutes drop supplies into the northern Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel, Sunday, March 24, 2024. (AP)

He added: “The Israelis are just there portraying themselves as innocent bystanders, or victims of Hamas brutality, when they are the ones who are committing the major crimes there. And the ICJ definitely has put its mark on the world to require the end of the hostilities there and the stopping of the carnage that Israel is causing.”

In 2020, the US-brokered normalization deals known as the Abraham Accords between Israel and several Arab states, including the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan. The implicit understanding was that Israel would become less aggressive toward Palestinians.

In reality, many prominent Arabs believe there has been little in the way of tangible evidence to suggest that Arab normalization agreements have advanced the cause of peace in the Middle East.

In this sense, have the Abraham Accords failed? “Definitely,” said Prince Turki.

“It is not just a failure of the Abraham Accords, but it’s a failure of the world community since the Israeli occupation of Palestine. It’s more than 75 years since the creation of Israel, and yet we’re still, as it were, walking in place without moving forward on establishing a Palestinian state with Palestinian rights and the necessity of peace between Israel and its neighbors. 

“So, I hope that the recent events have convinced the world of the need to walk the walk, not only talk the talk, about establishing peace in the Middle East.”

Meanwhile in Gaza, Israel has continued to accuse Hamas of using civilians as human shields by deliberately digging tunnels under hospitals, schools and places of worship. 

Prince Turki, who is an expert in the tactic of guerilla warfare, having written extensively on the topic in relation to the Mujahideen campaign against the Soviet Red Army in Afghanistan, said there is ⁠no evidence that Hamas has used these tunnels for anything more than to hide from Israeli attacks.

More interesting still is the origins of these subterranean networks, which were, it seems, built by the Israelis years earlier.

“There is a very interesting interview that the former Prime Minister of Israel Ehud Barak gave to one of the news media in which, out of the blue, he made the observation that it was Israel who first built tunnels in Gaza when they occupied Gaza,” Prince Turki said, referring to an exchange in November last year between Barak and CNN’s Cristiane Amanpour about the bunkers under Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.

“And the interviewer was taken aback and totally surprised and she asked the question again to get Barak to clarify that. And he said, yes, we built them when we were in occupation because it made our occupation easier, and other words to that effect. 

“So, building the tunnels was not just Hamas’ idea but the Israelis when they were in occupation used that method as well to further their occupation of Gaza.”

As for Israeli claims that the tunnels have been used by Hamas as command centers, to store weapons, and to conceal hostages, Prince Turki said these were still unproven.




In Gaza, Israel has continued to accuse Hamas of using civilians as human shields by deliberately digging tunnels under hospitals, schools and places of worship. (AFP)

“I have seen no specific evidence of the Israeli claims that these tunnels are used as command headquarters for Hamas,” he said.

“You remember the scenes that they showed at the beginning of this recent fighting of going into one of these tunnels and then claiming that, yes, here is the proof of military use of the tunnels and showing absolutely nothing. 

“There has been no evidence other than that the Hamas is using these tunnels, not only for their own protection but also to move from one place to another.”

In fact, far from exposing the barbarity of Hamas, Prince Turki said the Israelis have demonstrated their own disregard for human life with their bombardment of densely populated civilian areas, even though Israeli hostages were likely to be killed in the crossfire.

“The Israelis have not minded killing their own people, civilians as well, in their attempts to meet the challenge of Hamas fighters,” he said.

“There’s been Israeli news media that have covered this aspect of the initial fighting there, that Israel itself is killing their own people in order to kill the Hamas fighters and the kibbutzim that they occupied before the Israeli assault on Gaza itself.

“The Israelis themselves don’t show any concern for human life, even to their own people. Remember the three Israeli hostages that had come out of one of these areas where they were held by the Hamas and they were shot by the Israeli forces.”

The war in Gaza has spilled over into other parts of the region, with exchanges of fire between Israel and Hezbollah on the Lebanese border, assaults on US positions by Iran-backed militias in Iraq and Syria, and attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden by Yemen’s Houthi militia.

These Houthi attacks have forced the US to make a screeching U-turn. Having delisted the militia as a terrorist group when it assumed office in 2021, the administration of President Joe Biden has now reimposed the designation and mounted repeated strikes against Houthi positions in Yemen.

“Irony is a good word to describe what has happened in that consideration,” Prince Turki said. 

“Having delisted the Houthis from the terrorist list and then working with Saudi Arabia to achieve some kind of ceasefire in Yemen and having succeeded in that, the Palestinian issue impinged on any such considerations, not just for the US, but for us as well. 

“And the US has shown that when issues affected it directly, they were willing to take the measures that Saudi Arabia had taken before against the Houthis when they took over in Sanaa. So, it’s a matter of self-preservation, or self-interest on the part of the US that they changed their mind. 

“I would not be willing to try to explain or to understand American considerations other than to say that it is very ironic that once having taken that view of the Houthis and delisting them from the terrorist list and now they’re putting them back on it, it’s very much an irony there.”




During his appearance on Frankly Speaking, Prince Turki called out not just the Abraham Accords’ “failure” to bring about peace but also the world community’s role since Israel’s occupation of Palestine. (AN Photo)

And this is not the only U-turn the Biden administration has made in relation to the region. 

At the start of his presidency, Biden had promised to make Saudi Arabia a global pariah. Since then, as the war in Ukraine destabilizes global energy prices and Middle East conflicts again dominate the foreign policy agenda, the US has changed its tone.

“I hope that the Americans realize that such brouhaha and hyperbolic positions they take and public statements about pariah status for the Kingdom really should not be practiced by a big power like the US, but rather to look at reality on the ground and see mutual interest and where those should be, rather than wishful thinking on the part of political campaigning in the US,” Prince Turki said. 

“We’re coming up to an election in the US in the next few months and I hope both sides will keep that in mind when they’re referring to Saudi Arabia. As you know, the Kingdom in previous elections also had been stigmatized by statements from politicians going back many years. 

“But reality subsequently has forced itself on American policymakers and made them recognize that Saudi Arabia is a valuable partner for the US and therefore this is how they should look upon the Kingdom rather than allow party politics to dictate policy in the US.”

Prince Turki would not be drawn on the expected outcome of the presidential election but said that both candidates now recognized the value of Washington’s relationship with Riyadh.

“It’s really a very, very tough contest between two known factors,” he said. “Both Biden and Trump are well known to the American people. All the polling that I see is very much undecided so far. And we’ll just have to wait and see what happens in November of this year.

“My only wish, as I said, is that both sides consider Saudi Arabia as an important partner in maintaining economic welfare for the world, in hoping to achieve peace in our part of the world and going forward for the betterment of mankind, rather than as a political punching bag that either side can feel free to punch every once in a while.”

 

 

 


Prospect of Lebanon ceasefire leaves Gazans feeling abandoned

Updated 7 sec ago
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Prospect of Lebanon ceasefire leaves Gazans feeling abandoned

CAIRO: The prospect of a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah without a similar deal with Hamas in Gaza has left Palestinians feeling abandoned and fearful that Israel will focus squarely on its onslaught in the enclave.
The Iran-backed Hezbollah began firing missiles at Israel in solidarity with Hamas after the Palestinian militant group attacked Israel in October of 2023, triggering the Gaza war.
Hostilities in Lebanon have drastically escalated in the last two months, with Israel stepping up airstrikes and sending in ground forces to Lebanon’s south and Hezbollah sustaining rocket fire on Israel.
Now Israel looks set to approve a US plan for a ceasefire with Hezbollah when its security cabinet meets on Tuesday, while Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib expressed hope that a ceasefire would be reached by Tuesday night.
While diplomacy focuses on Lebanon, Palestinians feel let down by the world after 14 months of conflict which has devastated the Gaza Strip and killed more than 44,000 people. “It showed Gaza is an orphan, with no support and no mercy from the unjust world,” said Abdel-Ghani, a father of five who only gave a first name.
“I am angry against the world that has failed to bring one solution to the two regions,” Abdel-Ghani. “Maybe, there will be another deal for Gaza, maybe.”
An Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire without a deal for Gaza would be a blow to Hamas, whose leaders had hoped the expansion of the war into Lebanon would pressure Israel to reach a comprehensive ceasefire. Hezbollah had insisted that it would not agree to a ceasefire until the war in Gaza ends, but it dropped that condition.
“We had high hopes that Hezbollah would remain steadfast until the end but it seems they couldn’t,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman, who like most Gazans has been displaced from his home. “We are afraid the Israeli army will now have a free hand in Gaza.”
While a Lebanon deal could leave some Hezbollah commanders in place after Israel killed the heavily armed group’s veteran leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and his successor, Israel has vowed to eliminate Hamas completely.
“We hoped the expansion of the war meant one solution for all, but we were left alone in the face of the monstrous (Israeli) occupation,” said Zakeya Rezik, 56, a mother of six.
“Enough is enough, we are exhausted. How many more had to die before they stopped the war? Gaza war must stop, the people are being wiped out, starved, and bombed every day.”

Three bodies recovered from capsized tourist boat off Egypt’s Red Sea coast, 13 missing

Updated 26 November 2024
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Three bodies recovered from capsized tourist boat off Egypt’s Red Sea coast, 13 missing

CAIRO: Three bodies have been recovered from a capsized tourist boat that sank off Egypt’s Red Sea coast on Monday, and 13 people were still reported missing, Red Sea Governor Amr Hanafi told Reuters on Tuesday.


Israel expected to approve ceasefire with Hezbollah: Israeli official

Updated 29 min 29 sec ago
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Israel expected to approve ceasefire with Hezbollah: Israeli official

  • EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Tuesday that Israel has no reason to refuse a ceasefire with Lebanon along the lines proposed by France and the United States
  • UN demands ‘permanent ceasefire’ in Lebanon, Gaza, Israel

JERUSALEM/BEIRUT: Israel looks set to approve a US plan for a ceasefire with Lebanon’s Hezbollah on Tuesday, a senior Israeli official said, clearing the way for an end to the conflict that has killed thousands of people since it was ignited by the Gaza war 14 months ago.
Israel’s security cabinet is expected to convene later on Tuesday to discuss and likely approve the text at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the official said.

EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Tuesday that Israel has no reason to refuse a ceasefire with Lebanon along the lines proposed by France and the United States. 
“There is not an excuse for not implementing a ceasefire... No more excuses. No more additional requests. Stop this fighting. Stop killing people,” Borrell said at a G7 foreign ministers meeting near Rome.
As truce talks intensified, Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli strikes killed at least 31 people on Monday, mostly in the south.
An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the security cabinet “will decide on Tuesday evening on the ceasefire deal.”
US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the talks were progressing but not finalized.
“We believe we’ve reached this point where we’re close,” he said, adding “we’re not there yet.”

Meanwhile the UN rights chief is gravely concerned over the escalating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon and wants a “permanent ceasefire” there and in war-ravaged Gaza, his spokesman said Tuesday.
“The only way to end the suffering of people on all sides is a permanent and immediate ceasefire on all fronts: in Lebanon, in Israel and in Gaza,” Jeremy Laurence, a spokesman for Volker Turk, told reporters in Geneva.


While Israel presses its offensive on Palestinian militants Hamas in Gaza, the United States and France have led efforts to broker a ceasefire in Lebanon, where Israel is battling the Iran-backed Hezbollah on a second front.
France reported “significant progress” in ceasefire talks, and Italy, which holds the rotating presidency of the G7 group of nations, expressed “optimism” over a truce in Lebanon.
US news outlet Axios reported the draft agreement includes a 60-day transition period.
Israeli forces would withdraw, the Lebanese army would redeploy near the border, and Hezbollah would move heavy weapons north of the Litani River, said Axios.
A US-led committee would oversee implementation, with provisions allowing Israel to act against imminent threats if Lebanese forces fail to intervene, it added.
News of the security cabinet meeting came as the Israeli military said it carried out a wave of strikes on Monday, including on Beirut’s southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold that Israel has repeatedly bombed since late September when it escalated its air campaign in Lebanon.
The latest strikes hit around two dozen Hezbollah targets across Lebanon in one hour, the military said. A statement said “command centers, and intelligence control and collection centers, where Hezbollah commanders and operatives were located,” were targeted.
The strikes followed intense Hezbollah fire over the weekend, including some attacks deep into Israel.


Israeli media reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was likely to endorse the US ceasefire proposal.
Asked in New York about the possible truce agreement, Israel’s UN ambassador Danny Danon said “we are moving forward on this front,” adding the cabinet would meet to discuss it.
The war in Lebanon followed nearly a year of limited cross-border exchanges of fire initiated by Hezbollah. The Lebanese group said it was acting in support of Hamas after the Palestinian group’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which sparked the war in Gaza.
Lebanon says at least 3,768 people have been killed in the country since October 2023, most of them in the past few weeks.
On the Israeli side, the Lebanon hostilities have killed at least 82 soldiers and 47 civilians, authorities say.


The initial exchanges of fire forced tens of thousands of Israelis to flee their homes, and Israeli officials have said they are fighting so the residents can return safely.
Some northern residents expressed fears as to whether that was possible under a ceasefire.
“In my opinion, it would be a serious mistake to sign an agreement as long as Hezbollah has not been completely eliminated,” said Maryam Younnes, 29, a student from Maalot-Tarshiha.
“It would be a mistake to sign an agreement as long as Hezbollah still has weapons.”
Dorit Sison, a 51-year-old teacher displaced from Shlomi, said: “I don’t want a ceasefire, because if they do it along the lines that they’ve announced, we’ll be in the same place in five years.”
Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir warned on X that reaching a Lebanon ceasefire deal would be a “historic missed opportunity to eradicate Hezbollah.”
Ben Gvir has repeatedly threatened to bring down the government if it agrees to a truce deal with Hamas in the Gaza Strip or Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Efforts this year by mediators to secure a truce and hostage-release deal in the Gaza war have failed.
Qatar early this month said it was suspending its mediation role until the warring sides showed “seriousness.”
With an intensive Israeli military operation in besieged north Gaza continuing, remaining residents were left “scavenging among the rubble” for food, said Louise Wateridge, spokeswoman for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.
Such scavenging puts Gazans at risk of encountering unexploded and unused ordnance that can be found in many populated areas of the territory, the Danish Refugee Council said.


Israeli airstrikes intensify in Lebanon amid rumors of imminent ceasefire agreement

Updated 26 November 2024
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Israeli airstrikes intensify in Lebanon amid rumors of imminent ceasefire agreement

  • Latest attacks cause further destruction in areas stretching from border region to distant areas as far north as Bekaa and beyond
  • Israel escalates attacks to put pressure on Lebanese authorities whenever peace talks advance, says deputy speaker of Lebanese parliament

BEIRUT: Israeli attacks on targets in Lebanon intensified on Monday, as rumors circulated in Tel Aviv and Beirut about the possibility of a ceasefire agreement within two days.

US envoy Amos Hochstein has been leading complex negotiations between Israeli and Lebanese authorities with the aim of ending the conflict, which began on Sep. 23 with Israeli airstrikes, followed by ground incursions into border areas on Oct. 1.

Since then, Israel has assassinated senior Hezbollah leaders, and the confirmed death toll from the fighting stands at about 3,800. This figure does not include Hezbollah members killed on the battlefield, the numbers of which are difficult to ascertain because of intense shelling in southern areas.

The escalating war has also resulted in the destruction of thousands of residential and commercial buildings in areas stretching from the south of the country to the southern suburbs of Beirut and northern Bekaa. Tensions continue to run high as the population lives in fear of the intense airstrikes, with ambulances and fire trucks remaining on standby in all regions.

MP Elias Bou Saab, the deputy speaker of Lebanon’s parliament, said: “We are optimistic about a ceasefire and there is hope. But nothing can be confirmed with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. What might put pressure on him is the battlefield.”

Israeli aggression intensifies whenever peace negotiations move closer to an agreement, he added, in an attempt to put pressure on Lebanese authorities.

“We insist on our position regarding the inclusion of France in the committee overseeing the ceasefire implementation,” said Bou Saab.

“We did not hear anything about Israel’s freedom of movement in Lebanon, and we still speak only about UN Resolution 1701, with no additions and with an implementation mechanism.”

Resolution 1701 was adopted by the Security Council in 2006 with the aim of resolving the conflict that year between Israel and Hezbollah. It calls for an end to hostilities, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon, the withdrawal of Hezbollah and other forces from parts of the country south of the Litani River, and the disarmament of Hezbollah and other armed groups.

News channel CNN quoted a spokesperson for the Israeli prime minister as saying talks were moving toward a ceasefire. Another regional source told the network: “The agreement is closer than ever. However, it has not been fully finalized yet.”

Israel’s ambassador to the US, Michael Herzog, said an agreement “could happen in a few days” but “there are still some sticking points that need to be resolved.”

The Israeli Broadcasting Authority quoted the country’s education minister as saying that Hochstein has the green light to proceed with an agreement. It added that a deal with Lebanon had been finalized and Netanyahu was considering “how to explain it to the public.”

Also on Monday, diplomat Dan Shapiro from the US Department of Defense held meetings with senior Israeli officials that focused on the members of a proposed committee to monitor the ceasefire, most notably the participation of France, and the details of a monitoring mechanism to be led by the US.

One report suggested Washington had agreed to provide Israel with a guarantee it would support any military action in response to threats from Lebanon and to disrupt any Hezbollah presence along the border.

According to news website Axios, the draft agreement for a ceasefire includes a 60-day transitional period during which the Israeli army would withdraw from southern Lebanon, to be replaced by the Lebanese army in areas close to the border, and Hezbollah would move its heavy weapons from the border region to areas north of the Litani Line.

Against this backdrop of peace negotiations, the continual Israeli airstrikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut intensified on Monday, following 10 strikes the previous evening. The attacks targeted Haret Hreik, Hadath, Ghobeiry, Bir Al-Abed and Sfeir.

Hundreds of buildings have been damaged or destroyed, and as Arab News visited targeted areas, residents said “there have never been any Hezbollah offices in these structures, neither now nor in the past, and the buildings are mainly for residential purposes.”

A lawyer called Imad said the apartment building in the Hadath area in which he lived collapsed when it was hit by an airstrike.

“It is unbelievable that they use Hezbollah as a pretext to destroy our homes, which we purchased through financial loans to provide shelter for our families. They intend to annihilate us all,” he said.

The Israeli army said on Monday that an airstrike that hit the Basta area of central Beirut early on Saturday had “targeted a command center affiliated with Hezbollah.”

Efforts to help the injured and recover the bodies of the dead continued at the scene of the attack until Sunday evening. The Lebanese Health Ministry said at least 29 people were killed and 67 wounded.

The Israeli army also carried out numerous airstrikes in southern Lebanon, mainly targeting the cities of Tyre and Nabatieh. Ten people were killed, including a woman and a member of the Lebanese army, and 17 injured in three airstrikes on Tyre.

Also in Tyre, an Israeli drone killed a motorcycle rider in a parking lot near the Central Bank of Lebanon. And three civilians were killed by an airstrike in the town of Ghazieh, south of Sidon.

From the southern border to the northern banks of the Litani River, no area has been spared from Israeli airstrikes, which have extended as far north as the city of Baalbek, and the town of Hermel close to the border with Syria.

In the east, back-and-forth operations between the Israeli army and Hezbollah continued as the former attempted to gain control over the town of Khiam. Its forces advanced, supported by Merkava tanks, from the southern outskirts under the cover of airstrikes and artillery bombardment, moving into the center of the town and toward Ebel Al-Saqi and Jdidet Marjeyoun.

The Israeli army also deployed tanks between olive groves in the town of Deir Mimas after an incursion into the town last week. It began advancing toward the Tal Nahas-Kfar Kila-Qlayaa triangle. Elsewhere, Hezbollah and Israeli forces clashed in the western sector of the Maroun Al-Ras-Ainata-Bint Jbeil triangle.

Hezbollah said it targeted Israeli army positions on the outskirts of the towns of Shamaa and Biyada. Israeli forces carried out house-demolition operations in Shamaa.

Hezbollah also continued to launch attacks against northern Israel. The group said its rockets “reached the Shraga base, north of the city of Acre, and targeted an Israeli army gathering in the settlement of Meron.”

Israeli medical services said one person was injured in Nahariya by falling fragments from a rocket.


Hamas-run Gaza’s health ministry says war death toll at 44,235

Updated 26 November 2024
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Hamas-run Gaza’s health ministry says war death toll at 44,235

  • Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 777 Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war, according to the Ramallah-based health ministry

GAZA CITY: The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Monday that at least 44,235 people have been killed in more than 13 months of war between Israel and Palestinian militants.
The toll includes 24 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry, which said 104,638 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.