Author: AFP

Russia said Monday that its air defences had shot down eight ballistic missiles fired by Ukraine, amid heightened tensions over Kyiv’s use of Western-supplied long-range arms against Russia. “Air defence forces shot down eight ballistic missiles,” Moscow’s defence ministry said in a daily briefing. It did not say what kind of ballistic missile Ukraine used or where they were shot down.

Pope Francis on Monday railed against the conflicts in Ukraine and the Palestinian territories, where he said “the arrogance of the invader prevails over dialogue”. The 87-year-old’s words, to diplomats at the Vatican, came just days after he called for an investigation into claims Israel was conducting “genocide” of Palestinians in Gaza. Marking 40 years of a peace deal between Chile and his native Argentina, Francis recalled ongoing conflicts and criticised the arms trade, highlighting “the hypocrisy of speaking about peace and playing at war”. “This hypocrisy always leads us to failure,” he said in Spanish, adding that “dialogue must…

A senior UN official on Monday called on all parties involved in the conflict in Lebanon to “accept a ceasefire,” as new Israeli strikes targeted Beirut’s southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold. The violence follows top European Union diplomat Josep Borrell calling for an immediate ceasefire on Sunday and after a US envoy said last week that a deal was within grasp. “The situation remains grave across the region,” senior envoy Muhannad Hadi told the Security Council on behalf of UN Middle East envoy Tor Wennesland. “Israeli military operations continued across the Blue Line with Lebanon, as did the firing of…

With an intensive Israeli military operation in Gaza’s besieged north in its 50th day, remaining residents are left “scavenging among the rubble” for food, UNRWA spokeswoman Louise Wateridge told AFP. The Israeli army announced it would intensify operations in the ravaged north of the territory on October 6, with troops encircling the northern city of Jabalia and adjacent areas at the time. Speaking to AFP from Gaza City, where many of the north’s residents have fled since the operation began, Wateridge gave insights gleaned from speaking to displaced Palestinians and colleagues from the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. She said…

Lebanon’s Hezbollah said on Sunday it fired dozens of missiles and drones at Israel, as the Lebanese army announced it lost a soldier in an Israeli attack in the south. The Iran-backed resistance group said in a statement that it had “launched, for the first time, an aerial attack using a swarm of strike drones on the Ashdod naval base” in southern Israel. In a separate statement, it said it had also carried out an operation against a “military target” in Tel Aviv using “a barrage of advanced missiles and a swarm of strike drones”. The Israeli military did not…

Air raid sirens were activated in several areas of central and northern Israel on Sunday, the army said, adding that it had intercepted projectiles fired from Lebanon. The sirens sounded in “a number of areas in central Israel” and in different parts of the country’s north, the military said. It added in two separate statements that 18 projectiles crossed from Lebanon towards central Israel, while around 30 projectiles were “identified crossing from Lebanon into Israeli territory” in the north. Some of the projectiles were intercepted, the army added.

Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group said it launched missiles at an Israeli army intelligence base in the Tel Aviv suburbs in the second such attack on and near the city on Sunday. Hezbollah fighters launched “a volley of qualitative missiles” at the “Glilot base (the headquarters of the 8200 Military Intelligence Unit)… in the Tel Aviv suburbs,” the group said in a statement.

Iran said on Sunday that it would hold nuclear talks in the coming days with the three European countries that initiated a censure resolution against it adopted by the UN’s atomic watchdog. Foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said the meeting of the deputy foreign ministers of Iran, France, Germany and the United Kingdom would take place on Friday, without specifying a venue. “A range of regional and international issues and topics, including the issues of Palestine and Lebanon, as well as the nuclear issue, will be discussed,” the spokesman said in a foreign ministry statement. Baghaei described the upcoming meeting…

The Iran-backed Hezbollah group said it destroyed six Israeli Merkava tanks in Lebanon’s south on Sunday afternoon, five of them in the strategic coastal area of Bayada. Hezbollah fighters “destroyed” five Israeli tanks “on the eastern outskirts of the town of Bayada” including one that had “attempted to advance to withdraw one of the destroyed tanks”, also knocking out a sixth Merkava tank in the Deir Mimas area close to the border, the group said in separate statements.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin stressed that the United States was dedicated to a diplomatic resolution in Lebanon and urged Israel to improve “dire” conditions in Gaza, in a call Saturday with his Israeli counterpart. Austin “reiterated US commitment to a diplomatic resolution in Lebanon that allows Israeli and Lebanese civilians to return safely to their homes on both sides of the border” in his call with Israel Katz, according to a Pentagon spokesperson. Austin also “urged the Government of Israel to continue to take steps to improve the dire humanitarian conditions in Gaza and emphasized the US commitment to securing…