NAPLES: The European Union’s foreign policy chief said on Saturday a ceasefire was a priority in the Middle East and the killing of Hamas leader Yaya Sinwar by Israeli forces could increase the chances of achieving it.
“After the killing of Sinwar a new perspective is open and we have to use it to reach a ceasefire, a release the remaining (Israeli) hostages and to look for a political perspective,” Josep Borrell, the EU’s top diplomat, told reporters at a meeting of G7 defense ministers in Naples.
He also said the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, could be strengthened, having come under fire in clashes between Israel and its Lebanese enemy Hezbollah.
“UN forces have to be respected all over the world ... maybe the mission of the UNIFIL has to be reviewed but the first thing to do is a ceasefire,” Borrell said, adding it would be up to the United Nations’ Security Council to make decisions on UNIFIL.
EU chief diplomat calls for ceasefire in Middle East after Sinwar’s death
https://arab.news/z8h4k
EU chief diplomat calls for ceasefire in Middle East after Sinwar’s death
Gaza rescuers say over 400 killed in past two weeks in Israel assault on territory’s north
- “We have recovered more than 400 martyrs from the various targeted areas,” Gaza civil defense agency spokesman, Mahmud Bassal, told AFP
GAZA STRIP: Gaza’s civil defense agency said Saturday more than 400 Palestinians were killed in the north of the territory over the past two weeks during an ongoing military assault Israel says is aimed at preventing Hamas militants from regrouping.
“We have recovered more than 400 martyrs from the various targeted areas in the northern Gaza Strip, including Jabalia and its camp, Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun, since the start of the military operation by the occupation army” on October 6, Gaza civil defense agency spokesman, Mahmud Bassal, told AFP.
Lebanon media says mayor among 4 killed in Israeli strike in east
- The strike hit a residential building in the town of Baaloul
BEIRUT: Lebanon state media said four people including a mayor were killed on Saturday in an Israeli strike on a town in the eastern Bekaa Valley region.
The strike hit a residential building in the town of Baaloul, killing four, the official National News Agency said, adding that the dead include Haidar Shahla, the mayor of the nearby town of Sohmor.
Israel army issues new evacuation call for south Beirut residents
- “Urgent warning to residents of the southern suburb (of Dahiyeh), specifically those in ...Haret Hreik neighborhood,” military spokesman Avichay Adraee wrote on X
JERUSALEM: The Israeli military on Saturday called on residents to leave parts of southern Beirut, a warning usually followed by strikes on those areas of the Lebanese capital.
“Urgent warning to residents of the southern suburb (of Dahiyeh), specifically those in ...Haret Hreik neighborhood: You are located near facilities and interests belonging to Hezbollah, against which the IDF (Israeli military) will be operating in the near future,” military spokesman Avichay Adraee wrote in Arabic on X.
Shortly after the warning, at least two Israeli airstrikes hit the southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold, a security source told AFP.
AFP footage showed plumes of smoke rising over the area, less than an hour after the Israeli military issued an evacuation order.
Hezbollah fires rockets into northern Israel as Israeli strikes pound Gaza
- Two patients had died in the territory’s Indonesian Hospital due to a siege that has cut off power and medical supplies
- Israel has also been pounding Jabalia, the largest of Gaza’s eight historic refugee camps
JERUSALEM/BEIRUT: The Israeli military said Hezbollah had fired dozens of rockets and several drones into northern Israel on Saturday killing one person, with one drone directed at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s holiday home, according to his spokesman.
The volley came as health officials in the Gaza Strip said Israeli strikes had killed at least 11 people in Al Maghazi refugee camp in the center of the territory, and at least seven people in Gaza City’s Shati camp.
Two patients had died in the territory’s Indonesian Hospital due to a siege that has cut off power and medical supplies, while a nurse had been killed at Kamal Adwan hospital, they said.
Pledges from Israel and its enemies Hamas and Hezbollah to keep fighting in Gaza and Lebanon have dashed hopes that the death of Palestinian militant leader Yahya Sinwar might hasten an end to more than a year of escalating war in the Middle East.
Hamas leader Sinwar, a mastermind of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the Gaza war, was killed by Israeli soldiers in the Palestinian enclave on Wednesday.
Israel has also been pounding Jabalia, the largest of Gaza’s eight historic refugee camps, in what it says is an effort to stop Hamas fighters regrouping.
As Israel continues military offensives on two fronts, Lebanon’s health ministry said at least two people had been killed in an Israeli strike near the Christian-majority town of Jounieh, north of Beirut, in the first such attack on the area.
The Israeli military was looking into the report of the strike in Jounieh, a spokesperson said. There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah, the Lebanese armed group that is fighting Israeli troops on Lebanon’s southern border and whose top leadership has suffered blows from targeted Israeli strikes.
'Missiles Seized'
Separately, the Israeli military said its aircraft killed Hezbollah’s deputy commander of the Bint Jbeil area on Friday and that its troops had seized weapons, including anti-tank missiles.
Hezbollah by midday on Saturday had claimed 11 attacks on Israeli military targets since midnight, all of them with salvos of rockets. There was no immediate comment from it on any drone attacks or attacks targeting Netanyahu’s home.
In northern Israel, some of the rockets were intercepted but one hit a residential building, according to police.
One person was killed and at least nine people were injured in different locations, the Israeli ambulance service said. Air raid sirens sent people running to shelters.
Netanyahu’s spokesman said the prime minister was not in the vicinity of his holiday home in Caesarea and there were no casualties.
A resident of the coastal town told Israel’s N12 News that helicopters were heard above the town before a large explosion shook the streets.
Stalled talks
Iran-backed Hezbollah has been trading fire with Israel since the war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas began in Gaza last October.
Some 2,400 people have been killed in Lebanon, most of them in the last month, according to Lebanon’s health ministry, while 59 people have been killed in northern Israel and the occupied Golan Heights, according to Israeli authorities.
Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people and took 250 hostage in their attack on Oct. 7, 2023, according to Israeli tallies. Israel’s military response has left more than 42,500 people dead, Palestinian officials say.
The Israeli offensive has made most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people homeless, maimed tens of thousands, caused widespread hunger and destroyed hospitals and schools.
Western leaders, including US President Joe Biden, have said Sinwar’s death offered a chance for a deal for a truce in Gaza and the release of the remaining hostages.
Negotiations for such a deal have been stalled for weeks.
Biden said on Friday that there was a possibility of working toward a ceasefire in Lebanon but it would be harder in Gaza.
Turkiye says Israel pushing Iran to take ‘legitimate steps’
ISTANBUL: Israel’s attacks in Lebanon and Gaza are pushing Iran to take “legitimate steps,” Turkiye’s foreign minister said Saturday in a joint press conference in Istanbul with his Iranian counterpart.
“Israel’s aggressive stance is forcing Iran to take legitimate steps,” Turkiye’s Hakan Fidan said alongside Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was “constantly opening new fronts in the region” and “trying to draw Iran into this war,” he said.
“The risk of war spreading to the entire region should not be underestimated.”
Iran backs the Islamist groups Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, whose top leaders have been killed by Israel in the widening Middle East crisis.
Iran also backs Houthi rebels in Yemen and Shiite militias in Iraq, as well as Syria’s armed forces. Tehran collectively calls these proxies and militias an “axis of resistance” against Israel.
On October 1, Iran launched a barrage of around 200 missiles in retaliation for the September 27 killing of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut and the July 31 killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.
Israel, which has vowed to strike back at Iran for that barrage, on Wednesday in Gaza killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, mastermind of the October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel that triggered the current escalating conflict.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have warned they would hit Israel “painfully” if it attacks Iranian targets.
