Israeli forces carried out new deadly bombings targeting Hamas in Gaza on Wednesday, as international mediators prepared to propose a short-term truce to free hostages and avert a humanitarian catastrophe.
News of the potential breakthrough in truce talks came a day after an Israeli strike on a single Gaza residential block killed nearly 100 people and triggered international revulsion.
US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators have for months been trying to negotiate a truce between Israel and Hamas in Gaza to allow a prisoner swap, humanitarian access and talks on a longer-term peace.
Israel’s Mossad spy chief David Barnea, CIA director Bill Burns and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani held their latest round of secretive talks on Sunday and Monday in Doha.
On Wednesday, a source close to the talks said on condition of anonymity that the senior officials discussed proposing to the parties a “short-term” truce of “less than a month.”
The proposal included the exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, and an increase in aid to Gaza, the source added.
“US officials believe that if a short-term deal can be reached, it could lead to a more permanent agreement,” the source said.
A strike Tuesday in the northern Gaza district of Beit Lahia collapsed a building and left at least 93 dead, including a large number of children, according to the territory’s civil defense agency.
The US State Department described the bombing was “a horrifying incident with a horrifying result” and a spokesman said Washington had asked Israel for an explanation.
The United Nations aid coordination agency UNOCHA said the strike was only one of at least seven mass casualty incidents over the past week in the Palestinian territory.
“Only two... out of 20 health service points and two hospitals, Kamal Adwan and Al Awda, remain functional, although partially, hampering the delivery of life-saving health services,” UNOCHA said.
“Across the Gaza Strip, October has seen very limited food distribution due to severe supply shortages,” it warned, adding that 1.7 million people, 80 percent of the population, did not receive rations.
Israel launched a renewed offensive to root out Palestinian fighters in northern Gaza in recent weeks, one year after the October 7, 2023 cross-border Hamas attack that left 1,206 Israelis dead.
Israel’s response has led to the deaths of 43,061 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which the United Nations considers reliable.
The violence continued on Wednesday.
The Israeli military said it had conducted a precision strike on Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters “conducting terrorist activity” in Khan Yunis, the south of Gaza.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said three people, including a girl and a woman, were killed in a strike on a house in Khan Yunis and two more died when a tent was hit in Deir el-Balah.
Fighting also continued in Lebanon, where Israel has launched an air and ground campaign to destroy the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia, which has launched cross-border strikes and expressed solidarity with Hamas.
The Israeli military, which in recent days has hit targets in several southern Lebanese cities, issued a new evacuation call on Wednesday, warning Lebanese residents to flee the Baalbek region.
Military spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a social media post that included a map of the eastern Bekaa valley that the army would “act forcefully against Hezbollah interests within your city and villages.”
Meanwhile, a Lebanese security official said that an Israeli strike on a Hezbollah van carrying munitions near Beirut killed the driver.
An AFP correspondent saw a vehicle on fire and said the Kahhale road, which links Beirut to Damascus, had been blocked in both directions.
Israel targets key routes between Syria and Lebanon to disrupt Hezbollah’s supply lines for weapons and munitions from Iran.
Hezbollah said it launched a “squadron of attack drones” against an Israeli naval base new Haifa, and the Lebanese state news agency NNA said Israeli ground forces were assaulting the southern village of Khiam.
The NNA also said Israeli airstrikes had hit several villages in the south of the country.
The war has killed at least 1,754 people in Lebanon since September 23, according to an AFP tally of health ministry figures, though the real number is likely to be higher due to gaps in the data.
Mediators to propose Gaza truce amid deadly Israeli strikes
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Mediators to propose Gaza truce amid deadly Israeli strikes
- News of the potential breakthrough in truce talks came a day after a deadly Israeli strike
- Senior officials discussed proposing to the parties a ‘short-term’ truce of ‘less than a month’
Iran appoints first Baluch governor in restive province
- Mansour Bijar’s appointment follows attack in Sistan-Baluchistan that killed at least 10 policemen
- Sistan-Baluchistan straddles border with Afghanistan and Pakistan, is one of Iran’s most impoverished areas
TEHRAN: Iran’s government on Wednesday appointed the first governor from the Baluch minority in the country’s restive southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan.
“Mansour Bijar was chosen as the governor of Sistan-Baluchistan,” government spokeswoman Fatemeh MoHajjerani said after a cabinet meeting.
Bijar, 50, hails from the Baluch community, a mainly Sunni Muslim ethnic group in a majority Shiite country.
His appointment follows an attack in Sistan-Baluchistan that killed at least 10 policemen, later claimed by the jihadist group Jaish Al-Adl (Army of Justice).
Sistan-Baluchistan straddles the border with Afghanistan and Pakistan, and is one of the Islamic republic’s most impoverished provinces.
It has long been a flashpoint for cross-border attacks by separatists and other militants, and clashes between security forces and armed groups are common.
Jaish Al-Adl, which was formed in 2012 by Baluch separatists, is considered a “terrorist organization” by both Iran and the United States.
In September, Iran appointed the first Sunni governor for Kurdistan province since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
In August, President Masoud Pezeshkian named Abdolkarim Hosseinzadeh, a politician from the Sunni minority, as his vice president for rural development.
Lawmakers later blocked his appointment, with one of them, Mehrdad Lahouti, saying parliament had voted in favor of keeping Hosseinzadeh in the legislature due to “capabilities and experience.”
But they agreed to his resignation on Wednesday in a subsequent vote.
The parliament did not provide further details on the reason for the change.
Also last week, the government named Mohammad Reza Mavalizadeh as the first Arab governor for southwestern Khuzestan province, which has a large Arab minority.
Sunnis account for about 10 percent of Iran’s population. Shiite Islam is the official state religion.
KDP wins Iraqi Kurdish parliamentary election, commission says
- Turnout among registered voters was reported at 72 percent
BAGHDAD: The ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) came first in a parliamentary election in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq, winning 39 seats, the election commission said on Wednesday, positioning it to lead the next regional government.
The KDP’s historic rival and junior coalition partner in government, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), was second with 23 seats, the commission told a news conference.
It said turnout among registered voters was reported at 72 percent.
The Iraqi Kurdistan Parliament has 100 seats with five reserved for minority groups.
With opposition parties weak, the KDP and PUK, which have been sharing power since 1992, are likely to continue governing together, but the results suggest that Masoud Barzani’s KDP will take a dominant position.
Originally planned for 2022, the elections were repeatedly delayed by disputes between the KDP and PUK.
Unresolved disagreements between the two major political parties are expected to complicate the formation of a new government, analysts and regional officials expect.
The largest Kurdish opposition party, New Generation, was a distant third with 15 seats.
Israel slams UN expert over ‘eradication’ of Palestinians claim
- UN rights expert Francesca Albanese said Israel was committing ‘genocide’ in Gaza
- Israel’s mission in Geneva: ‘This distorted reality is a smokescreen to hide her hatred for Israel’
GENEVA: Outspoken UN rights expert Francesca Albanese is a “political activist” abusing her mandate “to hide her hatred for Israel,” the country’s mission in Geneva charged Wednesday.
Albanese, UN special rapporteur on rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, reiterated an allegation that Israel is committing “genocide” in Gaza, saying it is seeking the “eradication of Palestinians” from their land.
Albanese said the offensive Israel unleashed after the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks was “part of a long-term international, systematic state-organized forced displacement and replacement of the Palestinians.”
Israel’s Geneva UN mission said in a statement: “According to her hate-filled paradigm, the state of Israel has no historic reason to exist, no right to defend its population, and both the attack of October 7 and the rescue of hostages are merely used by Israel as an excuse.
“This distorted reality is a smokescreen to hide her hatred for Israel.
“Francesca Albanese is nothing but a political activist who abuses an already discriminatory UN mandate. She is regularly spewing anti-Semitism, shielding and encouraging terrorism, and distorting the law.
“As a UN mandate holder, she has breached every possible rule of the UN code of conduct. She must immediately be held accountable for her continuous abuses.”
Albanese has long faced harsh criticism, allegations of anti-Semitism and demands for her removal, from Israel and some of its allies, over her relentless criticism and longstanding accusations of “genocide.”
UN special rapporteurs are independent experts appointed by the Human Rights Council. They do not speak on behalf of the United Nations itself.
On October 7 last year, Hamas militants attacked inside Israel resulting in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 43,000 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The UN considers the figures reliable.
Albanese wrote in a report released Tuesday: “The genocide of the Palestinians appears to be the means to an end: the complete removal or eradication of Palestinians from the land so integral to their identity, and which is illegally and openly coveted by Israel.
“Since its establishment, Israel has treated the occupied people as a hated encumbrance and threat to be eradicated, subjecting millions of Palestinians, for generations, to everyday indignities, mass killing, mass incarceration, forced displacement, racial segregation and apartheid.”
Israel’s long-thorny relationship with the UN has also worsened since the Gaza war started.
Residents flee Lebanon’s Baalbek after Israel evacuation warning
- Israeli military spokesman: ‘The (Israeli army) will act forcefully against Hezbollah interests within your city and villages’
BAALBEK: Residents of Baalbek rushed out of their homes Wednesday after the Israeli army ordered Lebanon’s main eastern city and its outskirts evacuated for the first time in more than a month of war.
The Israeli army urged residents of Baalbek and surrounding villages to leave immediately, warning it was preparing attacks on Hezbollah targets.
The main roads out of the city were jammed with vehicles as civilians fled in panic, an AFP correspondent reported.
Civil defense vehicles drove around the city urging everyone to leave immediately over loudspeaker.
“The city is almost empty,” the correspondent said about an hour after the evacuation warning.
“The (Israeli army) will act forcefully against Hezbollah interests within your city and villages,” military spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a post on X.
The post included a map of the entire city in the eastern Bekaa Valley and its outskirts, an area where the Iran-backed Hezbollah holds sway.
On Monday, Lebanon’s health ministry said at least 60 people were killed in Israeli raids on the Bekaa, most of them in the Baalbek region.
After nearly a year of cross-border fire with Hezbollah, Israel last month ramped up strikes on the group’s strongholds and then sent ground forces across the border.
The war has killed at least 1,754 people in Lebanon since September 23, according to an AFP tally of health ministry figures, though the real number is likely to be higher due to gaps in the data.
Iran missile production not disrupted by Israeli strikes: state media
- Israel struck several military facilities in Iran on Saturday
DUBAI: Iran’s missile production has not been disrupted following Israeli air strikes on the Islamic Republic on Oct. 26, Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh was quoted as saying on Wednesday by state media. On Monday, Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant congratulated Israeli pilots for damaging Iran’s production capabilities in airstrikes meant to respond to Iran’s Oct. 1 missile barrage against Israel.
“Their supplies are now set, and this affects their calculus. Both their attack and defensive capabilities have been weakened,” Gallant said.
Two American researchers said last week that Israeli air strikes hit buildings that Iran used for mixing solid fuel for ballistic missiles and that this “may have significantly hampered Iran’s ability to mass produce missiles.”
“The enemy has sought to hurt both our defensive and offensive systems but was not very successful because we had made arrangements and were in the know,” Iran’s defense minister said on Wednesday.
“The (production) knowledge is indigenous, so there is no disruption in the manufacturing process of missiles,” Nasirzadeh said, also implying that a defense system may have been damaged in the attack as he said it was “replaced the day after.”
Iranian state media also reported on Tuesday that Nasirzadeh said the country was still able “to carry a dozen more missile barrages” against Israel as seen on Oct. 1 and April 13.
