Author: AFP

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…

UN peacekeepers in south Lebanon expressed worry Monday over deadly strikes on Lebanese soldiers, which Beirut blames on Israel, despite the army staying out of the war between Hezbollah and Israel. “UNIFIL is seriously concerned by numerous strikes on the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) inside the Lebanese territories,” the peacekeepers said in a statement, using the acronym for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon. The army has reported 19 members killed while on active duty. The army’s “role remains vital for the full implementation of Resolution 1701 (2006), which is essential to ending the ongoing violence between Hizbullah and…

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said Monday he was “optimistic” for a cessation of hostilities in Lebanon, as Middle East tensions dominated a G7 meeting near Rome. The Group of Seven foreign ministers also discussed the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Hamas military chief. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken attended the talks in the towns of Fiuggi and Anagni with ministers from Britain, Canada, Germany, France, Japan and host Italy. “I am optimistic about Lebanon,” Tajani told a press conference as international efforts for a ceasefire intensify — even if it…

International humanitarian NGO Danish Refugee Council warned on Monday that Gazans are at long-term risk from unexploded and unused ordnance in the densely populated Palestinian territory. “These remnants of war, which fail to detonate upon impact or may have been abandoned during warfare, pose a long-term threat to civilian populations, often causing injuries and deaths long after the fighting ceases,” said DRC’s Corinne Linnecar. The NGO, which has a presence in the Gaza Strip, said in a report that ammunition, exploded or otherwise, can be found in many populated areas of the territory. The report said 70 percent of Gazans…

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…