WASHINGTON: The US military said on Thursday its forces had no role in the Israeli operation that killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, even if US intelligence has contributed to Israel’s understanding of Hamas leaders who took hostages last year.
“This was an Israeli operation. There (were) no US forces directly involved,” said Air Force Major General Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesperson.
“The United States has helped contribute information and intelligence as it relates to hostage recovery and the tracking and locating of Hamas leaders who have been responsible for holding hostages. And so certainly that contributes in general to the picture.”
“But again, this was an Israeli operation. And I would refer you to them to talk about the details of how the operation went down.”
No US role in Israel operation that killed Hamas leader, Pentagon says
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No US role in Israel operation that killed Hamas leader, Pentagon says
- “This was an Israeli operation. There (were) no US forces directly involved,” said a Pentagon spokesperson
Lebanon crowdfunded ambulances under fire in Israel-Hezbollah war
BEIRUT: Lebanese data scientist and volunteer rescue worker Bachir Nakhal started a crowdfunding effort to buy new ambulances for south Lebanon months ago, fearing Israel’s war in Gaza could spread to his country.
But weeks into Israel’s war with Hezbollah, his worst fears came true when an ambulance he had helped purchase was bombed.
“We were trying to get the number of ambulances up to the bare minimum level,” he told AFP.
“We weren’t expecting the ambulances ... to get directly targeted or bombed,” said Nakhal, who says the vehicle he had raised money for was destroyed in an Israeli strike just four days after the volunteers had received it.
The October 9 strike, which took place in the southern village of Derdghaiya, killed five rescue workers, including the head of the local team and his son, according to the civil defense.
The incident was among what the United Nations says is a growing number of attacks on healthcare in Lebanon, with paramedics, first responders and ambulances increasingly in the firing line.
“More attacks continue to be reported where ambulances and relief centers are targeted or hit in Lebanon,” UN humanitarian agency OCHA said after the Derdghaiya strike.
The Israeli army has accused Hezbollah of using ambulances to transport weapons and fighters, though it has yet to produce any evidence.
“Necessary measures will be taken against any vehicle transporting gunmen, regardless of its type,” Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee wrote in Arabic on social media platform X.
Nakhal said a second crowdfunded ambulance, dispatched to the southern city of Nabatiyeh on Monday, was barely on the road for a day when it had a close call with heavy strikes.
Israel had earlier in the war issued an evacuation warning for Nabatiyeh, where Hezbollah and its ally Amal hold sway.
US announces ‘immigration reprieve’ due to Lebanon conflict
- So-called Temporary Protected Status designation will provide an “immigration reprieve” to eligible Lebanese due to the “ongoing armed conflict”
WASHINGTON: Washington will allow some Lebanese nationals to temporarily remain in the United States and apply for work authorization due to unsafe conditions in their home country, the Department of Homeland Security announced Thursday.
The so-called Temporary Protected Status designation will provide an “immigration reprieve” to eligible Lebanese due to the “ongoing armed conflict and extraordinary and temporary conditions in Lebanon,” the department said in a statement.
Those who are approved “will be able to remain in the country while the United States is in discussions to achieve a diplomatic resolution for lasting stability and security across the Israel-Lebanon border,” it added.
Hezbollah began low-intensity attacks on Israeli troops a day after its Palestinian ally Hamas staged an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which triggered war in the Gaza Strip.
The Lebanon conflict has rapidly escalated in recent weeks, with Israel carrying out extensive strikes at both the border and further inside the country and launching ground operations inside its neighbor to the north.
The United Nations recently said one quarter of Lebanese territory was under Israeli military displacement orders, while the International Organization for Migration has said at least 690,000 people have been displaced by the conflict.
Biden says Sinwar’s death is ‘good day’ for world, ‘opportunity’ for hostage deal, end to Gaza war
- Biden, in a statement, compared it to the feeling in the US after the killing of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden
- Biden said with Sinwar’s death “there is now the opportunity for a ‘day after’ in Gaza without Hamas in power”
ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE: President Joe Biden said Thursday that the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar by Israeli troops is a “good day for Israel, for the United States, and for the world,” and called it an “opportunity” to free Israeli hostages held by Hamas and end the yearlong war in Gaza.
Biden, in a statement, compared it to the feeling in the US after the killing of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who was responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, saying the killing of the mastermind of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel “proves once again that no terrorists anywhere in the world can escape justice, no matter how long it takes.”
Biden said he would speak with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders to congratulate them “and to discuss the pathway for bringing the hostages home to their families, and for ending this war once and for all.”
Biden said with Sinwar’s death “there is now the opportunity for a ‘day after’ in Gaza without Hamas in power, and for a political settlement that provides a better future for Israelis and Palestinians alike.”
He praised US special operations forces and intelligence operatives who helped advise Israeli allies on tracking and locating Sinwar and other Hamas leaders over the last year — though the US said the operation that killed Sinwar was an Israeli one.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan called Sinwar a “massive obstacle” to peace. He added, “his removal from the battlefield does present an opportunity to find a way forward that gets the hostages home.”
Hezbollah enters new phase in war as Netanyahu insists on dismantling its structure
- Lebanese MP says the enemy has not managed to take control of or settle in any village
BEIRUT: Hezbollah confirmed that it has “no option in Lebanon except for the realities imposed by its members in the field, and anything else is betting on an illusion.”
MP Hassan Fadlallah, a member of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, said in a press conference that “Israel’s war on Hezbollah aims to eliminate the resistance, wipe it out from the region, and subjugate Lebanon.”
He said that the enemy “has been planning this war for years and has adopted a scorched-earth policy along the borders, attempting to create a buffer zone to annex the area south of the Litani, which the resistance will thwart.”
Fadlallah said that the party “has entered a new phase of resisting aggression. We are operating on three fronts, the first being in the field, and so far, the enemy has not managed to take control of or settle in any village. Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Najib Mikati are negotiating with international envoys to reach a ceasefire, and we are closely following this matter with Berri.”
Fadlallah refused to confirm or deny reports circulating in the south about Hezbollah capturing Israeli soldiers. He simply said: “If any Israeli soldier is captured, the resistance will announce it through its statements.”
On Thursday, the sounds of airstrikes and artillery fire drowned out any diplomatic talk paving the way for a ceasefire.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu renewed his escalatory stance, stating Israel’s intent to “destroy all of Hezbollah’s military structure, which has been built over two decades,” and that his goal “in Lebanon is to return the northern residents to their homes and dismantle Hezbollah's military structure.”
A German Ministry of Defense spokesperson on Thursday told Reuters that “a German warship that operates as part of UNIFIL’s peacekeeping mission intercepted a drone off the Lebanese coast.”
He said that the drone “fell into the water,” and caused no damage to the ship.
The spokesperson said that “the origin of the drone brought down by the air defense system is unknown,” adding that “the warship, known as Ludwigshafen am Rhein and deployed as part of the UN’s peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, is continuing its duties.”
Several UNIFIL positions, as well as the headquarters’ watchtower, were subject to Israeli hostilities, in which several peacekeepers were injured.
The goal of the attacks was to make UNIFIL peacekeepers evacuate their positions in the Lebanese border area and relocate 5 km north. However, the UN strongly rejected the matter and condemned the attacks.
UNIFIL peacekeepers at a position near Kafer Kela on Wednesday observed “an Israeli Merkava tank firing at their watchtower, destroying two cameras and damaging the tower.”
In an official statement, UNIFIL said: “Yet again we see direct and apparently deliberate fire on a UNIFIL position.”
Meanwhile, evacuation threats were sent on Thursday to Lebanese in diplomatic, media and residential buildings in Beirut, Bekaa and the south.
The evacuation warning messages were received by workers in a Beirut building housing offices of the Al-Jazeera news network and the Norwegian Embassy, the Markazia Suites hotel, and buildings in the vicinity of Starco Center, which includes ministries and company offices.
Evacuation warnings were also sent to workers in the main Hamra street next to the American University of Beirut’s campus, including the Commodore Hotel, where foreign journalists usually stay.
A judge at the court of audit received a similar message.
After the army’s investigation of the source of the warnings, it appeared that the calls received on people’s phones were “fake,” according to a security source.
The source considered that “all are rumors other than the warnings issued by the spokesperson for the Israeli army, Avichay Adraee, on his social media account, which include maps specifying the targets, remain inaccurate, especially the phone calls received by citizens, officials, mayors, judges, embassies and media offices.”
On Thursday, Adraee issued a series of urgent warnings to residents in northern Bekaa to evacuate before attacking the targeted areas less than an hour later with airstrikes.
Adraee’s warnings included areas in the south, especially the Tyre region.
Israeli airstrikes continued in the border area, particularly in the areas of Tyre, Nabatiyeh, Iqlim Al-Tuffah and Jezzine, reaching the eastern sector with the shelling of Shebaa. The airstrikes focused on the northern Bekaa region, up to the border with Syria.
In a series of statements, Hezbollah said it had repelled Israeli forces in Labbouneh Heights and the Kfarkela and Odaisseh axes.
Adraee claimed that “a Hezbollah battalion commander, Hussein Mohammed Awada, was eliminated in the Bint Jbeil area and that he was responsible for launching shells toward Israeli territory.”
Houthis say US will ‘pay the price’ for airstrikes on Yemen
- Houthi media official said the US would “pay the price” for attacking their areas in Yemen and that the US was trying to put pressure on them to stop attacks on ships
AL-MUKALLA: Yemen’s Houthi militia on Thursday threatened to punish the US for launching a series of airstrikes on areas under their control in Yemen and vowed to continue attacking ships in international shipping lanes in support of the Palestinian people.
Nasruddin Amer, a Houthi media official, said that the US would “pay the price” for attacking their areas in Yemen and that the US was trying to put pressure on them to stop their attacks on ships as well as lift their ban on US ships passing through the Red and Arabian seas.
“We confirm that our position on Gaza and Lebanon will remain unchanged and that they will pay the price for their continued aggression against our country,” Amer said in a post on X.
The threat came as US Central Command said on Thursday that its forces carried out a series of airstrikes on hardened underground storage facilities in Yemen where the Houthis conceal missiles and other weapons that are used to strike ships in international shipping lanes.
The US military said the airstrikes, which used the B-2 Spirit long-range stealth bombers for the first time, were intended to weaken Houthi military power and push them to stop threatening US and international naval forces as well as commercial vessels.
“These actions were taken to degrade the Houthis’ capability to continue their reckless and unlawful attacks on international commercial shipping and on US, coalition, and merchant personnel and vessels in the Red Sea, Bab Al-Mandeb Strait, and the Gulf of Aden, and to degrade their ability to threaten regional partners,” the US Central Command said, adding there had been no reported human casualties as a result of their airstrikes.
Residents in Sanaa reported large explosions in various areas on Thursday morning, with amateur videos showing large fireballs and thick smoke billowing from the targeted locations.
The Houthis’ Political Bureau strongly condemned the US airstrikes in their areas, describing them as “cowardly aggression” that would not “go unpunished.”
Since November, the Houthis have launched hundreds of ballistic missiles, drones and drone boats at international naval and commercial ships in the Red Sea and other seas off Yemen, sinking two ships and forcing international shipping companies to avoid the Red Sea in favor of the longer and more expensive route round South Africa.
The Houthis claim that they target only ships with links to Israel and those sailing to Israel as a means to pressure Israel to end its war in the Palestinian Gaza Strip.
The US responded to the Houthi ship attacks by designating the Yemeni militia a terrorist organization, forming marine task forces to protect ships and launching waves of strikes on Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.
At the same time, Abdulrahman Barman, a Yemeni human rights advocate and director of the American Center for Justice, told Arab News on Thursday that the Houthis are preparing to try six abducted Yemenis who work for the US and US-funded organizations after their investigations are completed.
The Houthis have referred to the criminal prosecution of Abdul Kader Al-Saqqaf, a retired Yemeni worker, as well as five other current and former Yemeni employees of the US Embassy in Sanaa, the US Agency for International Development, and an American English language institute who were abducted by the Houthis in 2021, Barman said.
The abducted individuals appeared in a video released by the Houthis in which they confessed to spying for the US, confessions Yemeni activists say were taken at gunpoint.
“After years in prison, the Houthis turned them over to the prosecution to legalize their arrest, torture and violation of the law,” Barman said.
