JERUSALEM: Israel’s army chief told troops on Wednesday to be prepared for possible entry into Lebanon as Israeli fighter jets bombarded Hezbollah targets across the border.
“You can hear the planes here; we are attacking all day, both to prepare the ground for the possibility of your entry, but also to continue striking Hezbollah,” Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi told a tank brigade, according to a statement issued by the military.
“We are not stopping. We will keep attacking and harming them everywhere,” Halevi said.
“To do this, we are preparing for the course of the maneuver, and the sense is that your military boots, your maneuver boots, will enter enemy territory,” Halevi said.
“Your entry there with force... will show (Hezbollah) what it is like to meet a professional combat force,” he said.
“You are coming in much stronger than them, much more experienced than them; go in, destroy the enemy there, and go destroy the infrastructure,” Halevi said.
“These are the things that will allow us to safely repatriate the residents of the north later.”
Israel army chief tells troops to be ready for possible Lebanon entry
https://arab.news/y34mu
Israel army chief tells troops to be ready for possible Lebanon entry
- “You can hear the planes here; we are attacking all day, both to prepare the ground for the possibility of your entry, but also to continue striking Hezbollah,” Halevi said
Hezbollah's slain former chief Hassan Nasrallah to be buried in February
- Hassan Nasrallah would be laid to rest nearly five months after he was killed in an Israeli air attack
- He will be buried on the outskirts of Beirut
BEIRUT: The funeral for Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, killed last year in an Israeli strike, will be held on Feb. 23, said the Iran-backed group’s current chief Naim Qassem on Sunday.
“After security conditions prevented holding a funeral” during two months of all-out war between the group and Israel that ended on Nov. 27, Hezbollah has decided to hold “on February 23 a grand... public funeral” for Nasrallah, Qassem said in a televised speech.
Nasrallah, who was born in 1960, would be laid to rest nearly five months after he was killed in an Israeli air attack on Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Nasrallah was killed on Sept. 27 and had been buried discretely and temporarily according to religious decree, as Hezbollah officials had deemed the security situation too unsafe for officials and religious leaders to appear publicly to honor him.
He will be buried on the outskirts of Beirut “in a plot of land we chose between the old and new airport roads,” Qassem said.
Hezbollah's chief also confirmed for the first time that leading official Hashem Safieddine had been chosen to succeed Nasrallah before he, too, was killed in an Israeli raid in October.
The group will hold Safieddine’s funeral on the same day, Feb. 23, and he will be buried in his hometown of Deir Qanun in southern Lebanon.
Safieddine will be buried “as Secretary-General” or leader of Hezbollah, because “we had... elected His Eminence Sayyed Hashem as Secretary-General... but he was martyred on October 3, a day or two before the announcement,” Qassem said.
King of Jordan to meet US President Donald Trump in Washington
- King Abdullah will be the first Arab leader to meet with Trump in his second term
LONDON: Jordan’s King Abdullah II will meet with US President Donald Trump in Washington, D.C., the Jordan News Agency, also known as Petra, reported.
King Abdullah will be the first Arab leader to meet with Trump since his inauguration to the Oval Office in January.
Petra announced on Sunday afternoon that the monarch will meet Trump on Feb. 11 after receiving an invitation from the White House.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to visit Washington on Tuesday, making him the first foreign leader to meet with Trump since his inauguration.
Analysts say Trump will discuss various issues with the two Middle Eastern leaders, including the terms of a second phase of the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip and the flow of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian coastal enclave.
Omani army chief of staff meets French counterpart in Muscat
- Thierry Burkhard also met Omani Deputy Prime Minister for Defense Affairs
LONDON: Vice-Admiral Abdullah Khamis Al-Raisi, the Omani Armed Forces’ chief of staff, received French Chief of Defence General Thierry Burkhard in his office at Al-Murta’a'a Garrison on Sunday.
During the meeting, both sides exchanged views and reviewed various military matters of mutual interest, reported the Oman News Agency.
Burkhard and his delegation were also received by Omani Deputy Prime Minister for Defense Affairs Sayyid Shihab bin Tarik Al-Said.
The meeting was attended by Nabil Hajlaoui, the French ambassador to Muscat, and the French military attache.
Arab League calls scientists to develop AI as technology becomes dominant
- Saudi Arabia is a key player in the Middle East in adopting AI technologies
- Ahmed Aboul Gheit said rapid advancements in AI resemble an 'arms race' between China and the US
LONDON: Ahmed Aboul Gheit, the secretary-general of the Arab League, called on Arab scientists to develop regulations and standards for artificial intelligence during a dialogue meeting on Sunday.
The two-day meeting, “Artificial Intelligence in the Arab World: Innovative Applications and Ethical Challenges,” held at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo, will explore the development of generative AI technologies, including drones and robotics.
Aboul Gheit said that computer scientists must set up standards for AI projects as the technology has become increasingly prevalent in several sectors in the past decade.
During the opening session, he noted that many Arab countries focused on maximizing AI’s benefits.
Saudi Arabia is a key player in the Middle East in adopting AI technologies across various sectors, including industry and energy. In 2019, the Kingdom established a dedicated organization called the Saudi Data and AI Authority to regulate, develop, and implement data and AI strategies.
Aboul Gheit noted the rapid advancements in AI, particularly in large language models and generative intelligence, resemble an “arms race” among major powers, including China and the US.
“Our scientists, politicians, and thinkers must keep pace with everything that is going on with AI in the world. This general-purpose technology will reshape the way we work, interact, and live,” he added.
Israeli military blows up several buildings in West Bank’s Jenin, Palestinian news agency says
- Jenin Government Hospital Director Wisam Baker told the Palestinian state news agency that part of the hospital was damaged in the explosions
- Palestinian state news agency said a 27 year-old man had been killed on Sunday by Israeli forces raiding a refugee camp near Hebron
RAMALLAH/JERUSALEM: The Israeli military blew up several buildings in the occupied West Bank on Sunday in a series of simultaneous explosions that the Palestinian state news agency said had leveled around 20 buildings in the Jenin refugee camp.
Thick clouds were seen rising from the Palestinian city where Israeli forces have been conducting a massive operation for nearly two weeks that the Israeli military says is targeted at local militants, including seizing weapons stockpiles.
Asked about the simultaneous demolition of buildings in Jenin, a spokesperson for the military said “several structures used as terrorist infrastructure” had been dismantled. More details would be released later, the person said.
Jenin Government Hospital Director Wisam Baker told the Palestinian state news agency that part of the hospital was damaged in the explosions but that there had been no casualties.
Jenin is a crowded township built for descendants of Palestinians who were driven out, or fled their homes, in the 1948 war when the state of Israel was established.
The refugee camp there has been a center of militant activity for decades and the target of repeated raids by Israeli security forces. Israeli forces, backed by helicopters and armored bulldozers, began the assault on the city on Jan. 21, two days after Israel reached a ceasefire in Gaza with militant group Hamas.
Hamas on Sunday called for an “escalation in the resistance” against Israel following the demolition of buildings in Jenin.
The Palestinian Authority, a Hamas rival, exercises limited governance over the West Bank where around 3 million Palestinians live and over which Israel maintains overall military control. Israeli forces have engaged in gunbattles with local militants since the operation began.
Defense Minister Israel Katz on Wednesday said security forces would stay until the operation is complete, without saying when that would be.
At least 25 Palestinians have been killed since the Israeli military operation began, including nine members of armed groups, a 73 year-old man and a two-year-old girl, according to Palestinian officials. The Israeli military says it has killed at least 35 militants and detained over 100 wanted individuals.
Dozens of homes and roads have been destroyed by Israeli forces in the latest campaign. The Palestinian state news agency also said that a 27 year-old man had been killed on Sunday by Israeli forces raiding a refugee camp near Hebron.
