DAMASCUS: Israel has launched an air attack targeting a site in the vicinity of the Syrian city of Baniyas that caused some material losses, the Syrian state news agency said on Tuesday quoting a military source.
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Israel launches airstrike near Syria’s Baniyas, Syrian news agency says
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Israel launches airstrike near Syria’s Baniyas, Syrian news agency says
Hezbollah says targets Israel army base near Haifa
- The group dedicated the attack to its leader Hassan Nasrallah, killed in an Israeli strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs last month
BEIRUT, Lebanon: Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group said early Monday it had targeted an Israeli military base near the northern city of Haifa, the third attack on a military position in the area in one day.
Hezbollah fighters launched “a salvo of Fadi 1 rockets at the Carmel base south of Haifa,” late Sunday the group said in a statement, having earlier reported two attacks on another base also south of Haifa. The group dedicated the attack to its leader Hassan Nasrallah, killed in an Israeli strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs last month.
Hamas praises ‘glorious’ Oct 7 attack ahead of anniversary
- At least 41,870 Palestinians, a majority of them civilians, have been killed in Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip since the war began, according to data provided by the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza
DOHA: Palestinian militant group Hamas on Sunday praised its October 7 attack on Israel in a video message ahead of the first anniversary of the deadly storming of southern Israel which sparked the war in Gaza.
“The crossing of the glorious 7th of October shattered the illusions the enemy had created for itself, convincing the world and the region of its supposed superiority and capabilities,” Qatar-based Hamas member Khalil Al-Hayya said in a video statement.
Last year’s October 7 attack 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.
At least 41,870 Palestinians, a majority of them civilians, have been killed in Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip since the war began, according to data provided by the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. The UN has acknowledged these figures as reliable.
Al-Hayya, said a year after the October 7 attack, “all of Palestine, particularly Gaza, and our Palestinian people are writing a new history with their resistance, blood, and steadfastness.”
The Hamas member, who has emerged as the Islamist group’s public face following the killing of its former leader Ismail Haniyeh in July, said Gazans had remained “resilient to all attempts at displacement... despite the kinds of torture and terrorism you have endured, and the horrific genocide and daily massacre.”
Iran’s Quds Force chief out of contact since Beirut strikes, Iranian officials say
- The second Iranian official also said Qaani had traveled to Lebanon after the killing of Nasrallah and the Iranian authorities had not been able to contact him since the strike against Safieddine, who was widely expected to be the next Hezbollah chief
DAMASCUS: Iran’s Quds Force commander Esmail Qaani, who traveled to Lebanon after the killing last month of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli airstrike, has not been heard from since strikes on Beirut late last week, two senior Iranian security officials told Reuters.
One of the officials said Qaani was in Beirut’s southern suburbs, known as the Dahiyeh, during a strike that was reported to have targeted senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine but the official said he was not meeting Safieddine.
A Hezbollah official said Israel was not allowing a search for Safieddine to progress after it bombed Beirut’s southern suburbs on Thursday. The officials said the group would only announce Safieddine’s fate when the search concluded.
Safieddine is seen as a likely successor to Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli strike on Dahiyeh on Sept. 27.
The Iranian official said Iran and Hezbollah had not been able to contact Qaani, named by Tehran as the head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps’ overseas military-intelligence service, or Quds Force, after the United States assassinated his predecessor Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike in Baghdad in 2020.
Israel has been hitting multiple targets in Dahiyeh as it pursues a campaign against Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah.
The second Iranian official also said Qaani had traveled to Lebanon after the killing of Nasrallah and the Iranian authorities had not been able to contact him since the strike against Safieddine, who was widely expected to be the next Hezbollah chief.
Asked about reports that Qaani may have been killed in an Israeli strike in Beirut, Israeli military spokesperson Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said the results of the strikes were still being assessed.
He said that Israel had conducted an attack late last week against Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters in Beirut.
“When we have more specific results from that strike, we will share it. There’s a lot of questions about who was there and who was not,” he told a briefing with reporters.
The Quds Force, the overseas arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, oversees dealings with militias allied with Tehran across the Middle East, such as Hezbollah.
Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander Brig. Gen. Abbas Nilforoushan was killed with Nasrallah in his bunker when it was hit on Sept. 27 by Israeli bombs.
Fate of hostages in Gaza remains uncertain
- Israel says 251 Israelis and people of other nationalities were seized and taken back to Gaza during the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7
- A month ago, according to the latest Israeli assessment, about 100 were still in captivity, with at least 33 thought to be dead.
LONDON: The exact number and fate of the remaining hostages held in Gaza for the past year is still not clear.
In all, Israel says 251 Israelis and people of other nationalities were seized and taken back to Gaza during the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7.
Many were captured while they were attending the open-air Supernova music festival, where more than 360 people were killed during the Oct. 7 attack.
Several rescue attempts have been mounted by the Israeli military — some successfully, others with disastrous results.
In June, amid fierce fighting in which dozens of Palestinians were killed in the Nuseirat area of central Gaza, four Israeli hostages were rescued from two buildings in a raid by Israeli forces.
Another raid in the southern Gaza strip on Aug. 27 led to the rescue of a single hostage.
But three days later Israeli soldiers recovered the bodies of six hostages from a tunnel near Rafah in southern Gaza. Held by Hamas for almost 11 months, it is thought they were killed by their captors as Israeli forces closed in on their position.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a group representing those held hostage in Gaza, accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of “abandoning the hostages” by refusing to sign a ceasefire deal with Hamas.
“The delay in signing the deal has led to their deaths and those of many other hostages,” they said in a statement.
Further disaster struck in December when three hostages, mistaken for enemy combatants, were shot dead by Israeli soldiers.
Hopes that a permanent ceasefire in Gaza might be achievable were raised in November last year when about 100 hostages were released as part of a temporary truce negotiated by Qatar.
On Nov. 24, the first day of the ceasefire, 24 hostages were released — 13 Israelis, including four children, 10 Thais and one Filipino.
They were handed over to representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross, who escorted them from Gaza through the Rafah crossing into Egypt. There they were met by medics and officers of the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal intelligence agency, and flown by helicopter to hospitals in Tel Aviv.
A month ago, according to the latest Israeli assessment, 101 people, including four taken hostage in 2014 and 2015, were still in captivity. Of these, at least 33 are thought to be dead.
On Aug. 31, the Israeli army said it had found “a number of bodies during combat in the Gaza Strip,” prompting new accusations from the Hostages and Missing Families Forum that Netanyahu had abandoned the hostages.
Thousands joined rallies throughout Israel to demand that the prime minister sign a ceasefire-for-hostages deal.
Worldwide protests against Israel demand end to war in Palestine, Lebanon
- Thousands of people across the globe hit the streets to end conflict on Gaza and Lebanon
RIYADH: People have hit the streets around the world to protest against Israel’s deadly military offensives in Gaza and Lebanon.
Demonstrators expressed outrage against the Israeli aggression, demanding an end to the war in Gaza, describing the situation as “genocide,” and calling upon the global community to act.
Protests have taken place from the Middle East to Europe, the US, India, Pakistan and Far East Asia.
Israel has killed 41,615 Palestinians in Gaza since it launched its brutal offensive in October 2023, according to local health authorities.
The military action has sparked a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza that has inflamed opinion globally.
Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg joined thousands of protesters in Stockholm last week to condemn Israel’s “genocide” in Palestine and urged global action to intervene.
“On Saturday, thousands of people and a large number of solidarity movements and organizations filled the streets of Stockholm to stand against oppression and for justice,” Thunberg posted on X.
The demonstration, organized by various NGOs, demanded an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and unhindered humanitarian aid access.
Thunberg said remaining silent during a genocide is to be complicit and underlined the importance of boycotting Israel, Israeli companies and institutions, and imposing sanctions.
Swedish artist and activist Samuel Girma called Israel “a terrorist state” and urged a boycott of trade with Israel following “terror attacks in Beirut, Lebanon.”
Fellow Swede Dr. Uno Horn condemned Israel’s operations. “They are killing children,” said Horn. “It’s not war; it’s a terror attack.”
Multiple demonstrations broke out in New York City last Thursday, ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to the UN General Assembly on Friday.
Thousands of people also gathered at the steps of the New York Public Library and marched toward the UN to hold a rally.
In Pakistan, protesters hit the streets of Karachi on Sunday and clashed with police who stopped them from reaching the US Consulate during demonstrations over Israel’s killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
The Indonesian Council of Ulema on Tuesday urged citizens to keep up the fight for “Palestinian independence” by continuing to boycott products over their links to Israel as the war in Gaza nears its one-year mark.
Cholil Nafis, chairman of the council, called on Indonesians to “never stop the boycott movement because the genocide has not stopped either.”
Indian-administered Kashmir was rocked by large anti-Israel, pro-Palestine and pro-Lebanon protests on Sunday that continued on Monday.
Nasrallah’s assassination by Israel has raised political temperatures amid ongoing Jammu and Kashmir regional assembly elections.
Following the Israeli attacks on Beirut, protests unfolded in Helsinki, Finland, where demonstrators demanded an immediate end to Israeli operations in Lebanon.
In Paris, protesters gathered near the famous Fontaine des Innocents, holding banners that read “End the Genocide in Gaza” and “Boycott Israel.”
Many wore keffiyehs and carried images of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was killed by Israeli forces in 2022.
Pro-Palestinian protests have been held at universities across the UK since the early days of Israeli offensive in Gaza.
At Newcastle University, a pro-Palestinian encampment was set up on a lawn in front of the college’s buildings. The group responsible describes itself as a “student-led coalition fighting for an end to Newcastle University’s partnership with defense companies supplying Israel.”
Students in the cities of Leeds, Bristol and Warwick have also set up tents outside their university buildings to protest the war in Gaza.
In Paris, pro-Palestinian protests erupted at the Sciences Po university and the Sorbonne University in late April.
As demonstrations escalated in April 2024, more than 2,000 people were arrested on US campuses amid polarized debates over the right to protest, and the limits of free speech.
Clashes with police at New York’s Columbia University, Portland State and UCLA in particular captured global attention.
Several universities across Australia joined the pro-Palestinian protests, with the University of Queensland in Brisbane and University of Sydney becoming gathering points.
Demonstrations and sit-ins have also long been held on campuses in parts of Asia and the Middle East
Jawaharlal Nehru University and Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi saw protests with students expressing solidarity with Palestine.
Demonstrations also swept campuses across Canada. At McGill University in downtown Montreal, pro-Palestinian student protesters set up an encampment and like their counterparts in the US, students demanded to divest from companies with ties to Israel.
Campus protests in Lebanon also escalated in late April, with demonstrators waving Palestinian flags and renewing the calls for a boycott.
Protesters demonstrated around the University of Amsterdam campus in the Netherlands in May while in Austria, dozens of protesters camped on the campus of Vienna University, pitching tents and stringing up banners.
Protests also spread to three universities in Lausanne, Geneva and Zurich in Switzerland, and at Free University in the German capital Berlin, a demonstration was held with people erecting a protest camp in a campus courtyard.
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