An Israeli drone strike targeted Wednesday a car in southern Lebanon near the coastal city of Tyre, killing a member of the Palestinian militant Hamas group and a civilian.
Hamas said the strike killed Hadi Mustafa, a member of its armed wing in Lebanon from the Palestinian refugee camp of Rashidiyeh.
Full StoryThe Israeli army said Tuesday it hit about 4,500 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon and Syria over the past five months, killing 300 of the group's fighters and wounding more than 750.
The targets were hit from the air and from the ground, the army said in a statement, and included "weapons storage facilities, military structures intended for Hezbollah's offensive activity and operational command and control centres".
Full StoryCaretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib met Tuesday with Cyprus Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos in Beirut and discussed the bilateral relations between their countries, the refugee crisis and the border clashes.
In a news conference after their meeting, Kombos encouraged "all parties to engage in a diplomatic dialogue" to "peacefully settle" the Israeli-Lebanese conflict.
Full StoryIsraeli strikes on eastern Lebanon killed one person Tuesday, a security source said, in an escalation of cross-border fire with the powerful Hezbollah movement that has raised fears of spiralling violence.
Since the day after the Israel-Hamas war erupted in October, Hamas ally Hezbollah and Israel have exchanged near-daily fire across Lebanon's southern frontier, but several Israeli strikes have recently hit Hezbollah positions further north.
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Ahead of the U.N. Security Council consultations on Resolution 1701 that ended the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Joanna Wronecka said she discussed with caretaker PM Najib Mikati “the importance of adhering to Security Council resolutions for protecting Lebanon from a broader conflagration.”
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Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil on Tuesday condemned Israel’s war on Gaza and attacks on Lebanon.
Full StoryIsraeli opposition chief Yair Lapid has said that he is opposed to military service exemption for ultra-Orthodox Jews, saying Israel’s military “is stretched to the limit.”
“If there is a flare-up in the north (on Lebanon’s front), there are not enough soldiers to manage it,” Lapid warned.
Full StoryFrench envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian and the five-nation group on Lebanon, which comprises the U.S., France, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt, support a presidential initiative by the National Moderation Bloc.
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said in a televised interview that Le Drian has informed him, in a phone call Sunday, that he and the quintet support the initiative.
Full StoryHezbollah fired Tuesday 100 rockets at two military bases in the Golan Heights, in some of the heaviest fire emanating from Lebanon since the start of the war in Gaza.
The Israeli military confirmed that about 100 projectiles have been launched from Lebanon into Israel. In retaliation, Israeli warplanes carried out two airstrikes on the towns of Sareen and al-Nabi Sheet near the country’s northeastern city of Baalbek. Warplanes had earlier bombed the southern border towns of Houla and Markaba.
Full StoryHezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah met with a top Hamas official involved in negotiations for a cease-fire in Gaza, the Lebanese group said in a statement Tuesday.
Nasrallah’s meeting with Khalil Hayeh in Beirut came at the start of Ramadan after Qatar- and Egyptian-mediated negotiations for a truce before the holy month broke down.
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