BEIRUT, Lebanon: Hezbollah’s new leader says the beleaguered Lebanese militia could agree to a ceasefire under certain terms, as Israeli forces warn civilians to flee more cities as they expand their bombardment of the group’s bastions.
His statement came as Israel’s security cabinet met to discuss a possible truce, but also as Israel attacked the eastern Lebanese city of Baalbek and said it had claimed the scalp of yet another senior Hezbollah commander.
Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem became leader of the Iran-backed armed movement on Tuesday, after the long-serving former chief Hassan Nasrallah was assassinated by Israel in a massive air strike last month.
In his first speech since taking over, Qassem insisted he would follow his slain predecessor’s “work program” and that Hezbollah could continue to resist Israel’s air and ground attacks inside Lebanon for months to come.
But he also opened the door to a negotiated truce, if presented with an Israeli offer.
“If the Israelis decide that they want to stop the aggression, we say we accept, but under the conditions that we see as appropriate and suitable,” he said.
Qassem insisted Hezbollah would not “beg for a ceasefire,” however, and warned that it had not yet received a credible proposition.
Meanwhile, in a sign of political machinations behind the scenes of the devastating military conflict, Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen said the country’s security cabinet was meeting to discuss what terms it might offer to secure a truce.
“There are discussions, I think it will still take time,” Cohen told Israeli public radio.
According to Israel’s Channel 12 television, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held talks with ministers on Tuesday evening on Israel’s demands in return for a 60-day truce.
These include that Hezbollah withdraw to the north of the Litani River, some 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the Israeli frontier, and that the Lebanese state’s army deploy along the border.
An international intervention mechanism would be established to enforce the truce, but Israel would demand a guarantee that it will maintain freedom of action in case of threats.
“Thanks to all the army’s operations these past months and particularly these past weeks ... Israel can come in a position of strength after the entire Hezbollah leadership was eliminated and over 2,000 Hezbollah terrorist infrastructures were hit,” said Cohen, a former intelligence minister.
According to Israeli media, US President Joe Biden’s Middle East adviser Brett McGurk and special envoy Amos Hochstein will head to the region Wednesday to meet Netanyahu and other Israeli officials to discuss conditions for a ceasefire with Hezbollah.
Their goal is to implement the deal prepared by Hochstein, which is reported to be based on UN Security Council Resolution 1701.
Under the resolution, which ended Israel’s last war with Hezbollah in 2006, only the Lebanese army and UN peacekeeping force UNIFIL would be deployed in areas south of the Litani.
On the ground explosions rocked the eastern Lebanese city of Baalbek shortly after Israel’s military warned residents it would “act forcefully against Hezbollah interests within your city and villages.”
Baalbek mayor Mustafa Al-Shall confirmed strikes hit in and around the city, while state media said “enemy warplanes launched a series of strikes on the Asira area of the city of Baalbek.”
The war in Lebanon began late last month, nearly a year after Hezbollah began low-intensity cross-border fire into Israel in support of Hamas following its October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
The war has killed at least 1,754 people in Lebanon since September 23, according to an AFP tally of health ministry figures, although the real number is likely to be higher due to gaps in the data.
Israel’s military says it has lost 37 soldiers in Lebanon since ground operations began on September 30.
In the year-old parallel conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, there were more deadly strikes on Wednesday, as international mediators prepared to propose a short-term truce to free hostages and avert a humanitarian catastrophe.
News of a 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 told AFP 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 Hamas official said the group would discuss any ideas for a Gaza ceasefire that included an Israeli withdrawal, but had not officially received any comprehensive proposals.
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 as “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 just one of at least seven mass casualty incidents over the past week in Gaza.
“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 against 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 43,163 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, figures which the United Nations consider reliable.
New Hezbollah chief open to truce with Israel if offer is made
https://arab.news/pmxng
New Hezbollah chief open to truce with Israel if offer is made
- Naim Qassem: ‘If the Israelis decide that they want to stop the aggression, we say we accept, but under the conditions that we see as appropriate and suitable’
- Qassem insisted Hezbollah would not ‘beg for a ceasefire,’ however, and warned that it had not yet received a credible proposition
Netanyahu leaves for Washington looking to deepen ties with Trump
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is the first foreign leader to visit Donald Trump since his inauguration last month
- Netanyahu had strained relations with Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden and has not visited the White House since the end of 2022
JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepared to leave Israel on Sunday for a meeting with US President Donald Trump, looking to strengthen ties with Washington after tensions with the previous White House administration over the war in Gaza.
Netanyahu, the first foreign leader to visit Trump since his inauguration last month, leaves with the ceasefire in Gaza still holding and negotiations aimed at a second phase expected to begin this week.
“The decisions we made in the war have already changed the face of the Middle East,” he said at the airport before his departure.
“Our decisions and the courage of our soldiers have redrawn the map. But I believe that working closely with President Trump, we can redraw it even further and for the better.”
Netanyahu, who faces an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court over allegations of war crimes in Gaza, had strained relations with Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden and has not visited the White House since returning to office at the end of 2022.
Gaza ceasefire sees its smoothest exchange yet of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners
- Hamas freed three male hostages on Saturday, Israel released 183 Palestinian prisoners
- Ceasefire’s second phase calls for release of remaining hostages, indefinite extension of truce
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip: The ceasefire in Gaza saw its smoothest exchange yet of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners on Saturday, and the crucial Rafah border crossing reopened two days before discussions on the truce’s far more difficult second phase begin.
And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet with US President Donald Trump at the White House on Tuesday, giving him a chance to showcase his ties to Israel’s closest ally and press his case for what should come next after 15 months of war.
The ceasefire’s second phase calls for the release of remaining hostages and an indefinite extension of the truce in the deadliest and most destructive war ever between Israel and Hamas. The fighting could resume in early March if an agreement isn’t reached.
Netanyahu’s office said he spoke Saturday evening with Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. They agreed that negotiations on the second phase will begin at their meeting Monday, and Witkoff later in the week will speak with the other mediators, Qatar and Egypt.
Hamas on Saturday freed three male hostages, and Israel released 183 Palestinian prisoners in the fourth such exchange. Another exchange is planned for next Saturday.
Militants handed Argentinian-Israeli Yarden Bibas and French-Israeli Ofer Kalderon to Red Cross officials in the southern city of Khan Younis, while American-Israeli hostage Keith Siegel, looking pale and thin, was handed over in Gaza City.
All three were taken during the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel that sparked the war. Eighteen hostages have now been released since the ceasefire began on Jan. 19.
The latest releases were quick and orderly, in contrast to chaotic scenes on Thursday when armed militants appeared to struggle to hold back a crowd. On Saturday, the militants stood in rows as the hostages walked onto a stage and waved.
Hamas has sought to show it remains in control in Gaza even though a number of its military leaders have been killed.
A bus later departed Ofer Military Prison with over two dozen Palestinian prisoners bound for the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Jubilant crowds cheered and hoisted the prisoners on their shoulders. Many appeared frail and thin.
The Israeli Prison Authority said all 183 prisoners set for release had been freed. In another sign of progress in the ceasefire, they included 111 who were arrested after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack but who weren’t involved in it. They had been held without trial and were released to Gaza. Seven serving life sentences were transferred to Egypt.
Joy and relief, but fears for those still held
Siegel, 65, originally from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, was taken hostage from Kibbutz Kfar Aza, along with his wife, Aviva, who was released during a brief 2023 ceasefire.
There were sighs of relief and cheers as kibbutz members watched Siegel’s release.
“You can see that he’s lost a lot of weight, but still he’s walking and talking and you can feel that it’s still him. And one of the first things he told us is that he’s still vegan,” said Siegel’s niece, Tal Wax.
The release of Bibas, 35, brought renewed attention to the fate of his wife, Shiri, and their two sons, Ariel and Kfir, who were 4 years old and 9 months old when they were abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz.
Kfir was the youngest of the roughly 250 people who were taken captive on Oct. 7, and his plight came to represent the helplessness and anger in Israel.
Israel expressed “grave concern” for Bibas’ wife and children and pleaded with negotiators to provide information. Hamas has said they were killed in an Israeli airstrike, but Israel has not confirmed it.
After his release, Bibas closed his eyes as his father, Eli, and sister Ofri hugged him and cried. “Sweetheart,” his father said.
“A quarter of our heart has returned to us,” the Bibas family said in a statement.
Kalderon, 54, was also captured from Kibbutz Nir Oz. His two children, Erez and Sahar, were taken alongside him and released during the earlier ceasefire.
“I am here. I am here. I didn’t give up,” Kalderon said as they embraced.
There were similar scenes among the released Palestinians.
“Certainly, it’s an indescribable feeling, and undoubtedly a mixed feeling of both sadness and joy, as we have left our brothers in captivity,” said Mohammad Kaskus, who had been sentenced to 25 years over attacks against Israelis.
Yaser Abu Hamad, arrested for involvement in the Islamic militant group in 2006, found that 20 family members including his mother and sisters had been killed by Israeli airstrikes during the war. He visited their graves.
Palestinians who had been sentenced over their connection to deadly attacks against Israelis described harsh conditions, beatings and other abuse in prison. The Israeli Prison Authority didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ceasefire brings respite to battered Gaza
The ceasefire has held for two weeks, allowing for hundreds of trucks of aid to flow into the tiny coastal territory and for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to return to shattered homes in northern Gaza.
And on Saturday, 50 sick and wounded Palestinian children were leaving Gaza for treatment through the Rafah border crossing to Egypt as the enclave’s sole exit opened for the first time since Israel captured it nine months ago.
During the ceasefire’s six-week first phase, 33 Israeli hostages are to be freed in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. Israel says it has received information from Hamas that eight of those hostages are dead. About 80 hostages remain in Gaza.
“We will not allow you to blow up this deal. We will not allow you to force us back into war or to sentence the hostages left behind to death,” Naama Weinberg, cousin of deceased hostage Itay Svirsky, told a weekly gathering in Tel Aviv, addressing the warring sides.
Israel says it is committed to destroying Hamas. The militant group says it won’t release the remaining hostages without an end to the war and a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
About 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the attack that sparked the war. More than 47,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory air and ground offensive, over half women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t say how many of the dead were militants.
The Israeli military says it killed over 17,000 fighters, without providing evidence. It blames civilian deaths on Hamas because its fighters operate in residential neighborhoods.
Gaza ceasefire sees its smoothest exchange yet of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners
- Militants handed Argentinian-Israeli Yarden Bibas and French-Israeli Ofer Kalderon to Red Cross officials in the southern city of Khan Younis, while American-Israeli hostage Keith Siegel, looking pale and thin, was handed over in Gaza City
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip: The ceasefire in Gaza saw its smoothest exchange yet of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners on Saturday, and the crucial Rafah border crossing reopened two days before discussions on the truce’s far more difficult second phase begin.
And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet with US President Donald Trump at the White House on Tuesday, giving him a chance to showcase his ties to Israel’s closest ally and press his case for what should come next after 15 months of war.
The ceasefire’s second phase calls for the release of remaining hostages and an indefinite extension of the truce in the deadliest and most destructive war ever between Israel and Hamas. The fighting could resume in early March if an agreement isn’t reached.
Netanyahu’s office said he spoke Saturday evening with Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. They agreed that negotiations on the second phase will begin at their meeting Monday, and Witkoff later in the week will speak with the other mediators, Qatar and Egypt.
Hamas on Saturday freed three male hostages, and Israel released 183 Palestinian prisoners in the fourth such exchange. Another exchange is planned for next Saturday.
Militants handed Argentinian-Israeli Yarden Bibas and French-Israeli Ofer Kalderon to Red Cross officials in the southern city of Khan Younis, while American-Israeli hostage Keith Siegel, looking pale and thin, was handed over in Gaza City.
All three were taken during the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel that sparked the war. Eighteen hostages have now been released since the ceasefire began on Jan. 19.
The latest releases were quick and orderly, in contrast to chaotic scenes on Thursday when armed militants appeared to struggle to hold back a crowd. On Saturday, the militants stood in rows as the hostages walked onto a stage and waved.
Hamas has sought to show it remains in control in Gaza even though a number of its military leaders have been killed.
A bus later departed Ofer Military Prison with over two dozen Palestinian prisoners bound for the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Jubilant crowds cheered and hoisted the prisoners on their shoulders. Many appeared frail and thin.
The Israeli Prison Authority said all 183 prisoners set for release had been freed. In another sign of progress in the ceasefire, they included 111 who were arrested after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack but who weren’t involved in it. They had been held without trial and were released to Gaza. Seven serving life sentences were transferred to Egypt.
Joy and relief, but fears for those still held
Siegel, 65, originally from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, was taken hostage from Kibbutz Kfar Aza, along with his wife, Aviva, who was released during a brief 2023 ceasefire.
There were sighs of relief and cheers as kibbutz members watched Siegel’s release.
“You can see that he’s lost a lot of weight, but still he’s walking and talking and you can feel that it’s still him. And one of the first things he told us is that he’s still vegan,” said Siegel’s niece, Tal Wax.
The release of Bibas, 35, brought renewed attention to the fate of his wife, Shiri, and their two sons, Ariel and Kfir, who were 4 years old and 9 months old when they were abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz.
Kfir was the youngest of the roughly 250 people who were taken captive on Oct. 7, and his plight came to represent the helplessness and anger in Israel.
Israel expressed “grave concern” for Bibas’ wife and children and pleaded with negotiators to provide information. Hamas has said they were killed in an Israeli airstrike, but Israel has not confirmed it.
After his release, Bibas closed his eyes as his father, Eli, and sister Ofri hugged him and cried. “Sweetheart,” his father said.
“A quarter of our heart has returned to us,” the Bibas family said in a statement.
Kalderon, 54, was also captured from Kibbutz Nir Oz. His two children, Erez and Sahar, were taken alongside him and released during the earlier ceasefire.
“I am here. I am here. I didn’t give up,” Kalderon said as they embraced.
There were similar scenes among the released Palestinians.
“Certainly, it’s an indescribable feeling, and undoubtedly a mixed feeling of both sadness and joy, as we have left our brothers in captivity,” said Mohammad Kaskus, who had been sentenced to 25 years over attacks against Israelis.
Yaser Abu Hamad, arrested for involvement in the Islamic militant group in 2006, found that 20 family members including his mother and sisters had been killed by Israeli airstrikes during the war. He visited their graves.
Palestinians who had been sentenced over their connection to deadly attacks against Israelis described harsh conditions, beatings and other abuse in prison. The Israeli Prison Authority didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ceasefire brings respite to battered Gaza
The ceasefire has held for two weeks, allowing for hundreds of trucks of aid to flow into the tiny coastal territory and for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to return to shattered homes in northern Gaza.
And on Saturday, 50 sick and wounded Palestinian children were leaving Gaza for treatment through the Rafah border crossing to Egypt as the enclave’s sole exit opened for the first time since Israel captured it nine months ago.
During the ceasefire’s six-week first phase, 33 Israeli hostages are to be freed in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. Israel says it has received information from Hamas that eight of those hostages are dead. About 80 hostages remain in Gaza.
“We will not allow you to blow up this deal. We will not allow you to force us back into war or to sentence the hostages left behind to death,” Naama Weinberg, cousin of deceased hostage Itay Svirsky, told a weekly gathering in Tel Aviv, addressing the warring sides.
Israel says it is committed to destroying Hamas. The militant group says it won’t release the remaining hostages without an end to the war and a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
About 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the attack that sparked the war. More than 47,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory air and ground offensive, over half women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t say how many of the dead were militants.
The Israeli military says it killed over 17,000 fighters, without providing evidence. It blames civilian deaths on Hamas because its fighters operate in residential neighborhoods.
Palestinian ministry says Israeli forces kill 5 in West Bank
- "After the strike that killed the child (Sadi), an Israeli drone strike hit a car in Qabatiya and killed two youths," Jenin governor Kamal Abu al-Rub told AFP
RAMALLAH: The Israeli army said Sunday that it had killed several Palestinians in three air strikes the previous day in the occupied West Bank, where a new operation was underway around the village of Tamun.
Eyewitnesses reported a “large” deployment of Israeli forces around Tubas and Tamun, the scene of recent violence.
An AFP journalist said the army was blocking the exits of the nearby Faraa refugee camp and entering homes. Drones were also visible in the sky.
The army said early on Sunday that a “tactical group” had begun operations around Tamun and uncovered weapons.
It added it was “extending the counterterrorism operation... to five villages.”
The day before, the air force “struck and eliminated a terrorist cell on its way to carry out an imminent terrorist attack” in Qabatiya the day before, the military said.
“After the strike, secondary explosions due to explosives that were inside the vehicle were identified,” it added.
The military said one of those killed had been released from Israeli detention in 2023 as part of the first truce in the Gaza war.
It also reported conducting two strikes in Jenin on Saturday.
The Palestinian health ministry said five people were killed by the army in separate strikes in Jenin.
16-year-old Ahmad al-Sadi was killed and two other people were critically wounded, the ministry said.
A second strike targeted a car, killing two people in the nearby town of Qabatiya, the ministry said, while a third killed two people in central Jenin.
“After the strike that killed the child (Sadi), an Israeli drone strike hit a car in Qabatiya and killed two youths,” Jenin governor Kamal Abu al-Rub told AFP.
“Minutes later another drone strike in Jenin killed two more youths who were on a motorcycle.”
The Israeli military confirmed it struck a car in the Qabatiya area.
“As part of the counterterrorism operation in northern Samaria (the far north of the West Bank), an Israeli Air Force aircraft... struck a vehicle with terrorists inside in the area of Qabatiya," it said.
When asked about the strike that killed Sadi, the military told AFP that the air force "struck armed terrorists in the Jenin area".
Last month, the Israeli military launched an assault dubbed “Iron Wall” aimed at rooting out Palestinian militant groups from the Jenin area of the West Bank.
Jenin and its adjacent refugee camp have long been a hotbed of Palestinian militancy and violence there and across the territory has soared since the Gaza war broke out in 2023.
Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 881 Palestinians, including many militants, in the West Bank since the start of the war, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
At least 30 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks or Israeli military raids in the territory over the same period, according to Israeli official figures.
On Thursday, the Palestinian health ministry said Israeli forces had killed two Palestinians in Jenin after the military announced a soldier had also been killed.
‘Jordan: Dawn of Christianity’ exhibition opens in Rome
- Display will promote Jordan’s religious heritage to global audience
- Event coincides with Vatican’s Jubilee Year, themed ‘Pilgrims of Hope’
LONDON: Visitors to the “Jordan: Dawn of Christianity” exhibition, now open in Rome, will gain a rare insight into Jordan’s deep-rooted and wide-ranging religious history.
The exhibition, which opened on Friday and runs to Feb. 28, coincides with the Vatican’s Jubilee Year, themed “Pilgrims of Hope,” and aims to raise awareness of Jordan’s Christian heritage among Italian and international visitors.
It focuses on Bethany Beyond the Jordan (Al-Maghtas), believed to be baptism site of Jesus Christ, and Jordan’s longstanding efforts to preserve religious history under Hashemite leadership.
The opening ceremony was attended by Jordan’s Minister of Tourism, Lina Annab, and Ambassador to Italy Qais Abu Dayyeh, as well as officials from the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, the Jordan Tourism Board, and the Department of Antiquities, along with a delegation from the senate, and international media representatives.
Showcasing more than 90 rare artifacts, the exhibition features intricate mosaics, ancient Christian symbols, and interactive historical narratives spanning from the baptism of Christ in the Jordan River to the Byzantine and Islamic periods and into the modern Hashemite era.
Speaking at the event, Annab underscored the exhibition’s role in promoting Jordan’s Christian and Islamic heritage to a global audience.
“This initiative reflects Jordan’s deep-rooted religious and cultural history, highlighting the country’s efforts under His Majesty King Abdullah II’s leadership to preserve Christian presence in the region as an integral part of our shared heritage,” she said.
The exhibition also commemorates the 25th anniversary of Pope John Paul II’s recognition of Bethany Beyond the Jordan as a Christian pilgrimage site.
