'Widening Israeli aggression will lead to a wider response,' Hezbollah warns: Gaza war, day 204

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We will continue our coverage of the conflict tomorrow morning.

Hezbollah claims to have fired rockets at the Israeli site of al-Samaqa in the Kfar Shuba hills at 6:30 p.m.

In response to the Israeli attacks on the Lebanese southern villages of Kfar Kila and Kfar Shuba, Hezbollah announced that it launched a combined attack with drones and guided missiles on the "military command headquarters" in the village of Manara, in northern Israel, and a "position of the 51st battalion forces of the Israeli Golani Brigade."

Meanwhile, local officials from the northern Israeli region of Upper Galilee said that one rocket landed in the village of Manara near the Lebanese border, according to Haaretz.

Citing the Israeli army, Haaretz also reported that one "suspicious aerial target was intercepted and two launches into Israel were identified."

Latest updates from the Lebanese-Israeli border:

* Israel shelled the villages of Blida and Mais al-Jabal (Marjayoun district), residents told our correspondent in the south.

* Israeli warplanes launched thermal balloons over an area between the villages of Mais al-Jabal and Houla (Marjayoun district), residents told L'Orient Today. Incendiary or thermal balloons are balloons that contain gas and an explosive, and are released with the intention that the wind carries the bomb to its target.

* Sirens were activated in the town of Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel, "warning of possible rocket fire and hostile aircraft infiltration," according to Haaretz. Alerts were also activated in a number of nearby villages.

After meeting with the youngest American hostage released by Hamas, Abigail Mor Edan, American President Joe Biden said on X that he "will not rest until every hostage, like Abigail, ripped from their families and held by Hamas is back in the arms of their loved ones."

"They have my word. Their families have my word," he added.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is among the leaders expected to attend the economic summit opening in Saudi Arabia tomorrow, with a particular focus on the war in Gaza, organizers said.

Blinken "will come directly after his visits to China and before going to Israel," said Borge Brende, President of the World Economic Forum (WEF), at a press conference in Riyadh today.

The WEF, which runs until Monday, will also welcome Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and several leaders from the Middle East and Europe.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan will visit Saudi Arabia tomorrow and Monday as part of the Islamic Conference's efforts to bring about a cease-fire in Gaza, diplomatic sources have announced, according to AFP.

"During his visit to Riyadh, Minister Fidan will meet with members of the Contact Group formed by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the Arab League to end the massacre in Gaza and ensure permanent peace," according to these sources.

At the launch of a "national meeting" at his party's headquarters in Meerab, entitled "1701, to defend Lebanon," Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said Hezbollah must withdraw inside Lebanon and make way for the Lebanese Army along the country's border.

➡️ Details here.

Image: Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea. (Credit: NNA)

An Israeli strike has targeted an area near the city of Daraa in southern Syria, Haaretz reports, citing media outlets affiliated with the Syrian opposition.

According to the same sources, the attack came in response to a rocket fired from Syrian territory towards the Golan Heights.

Israeli artillery shelling targeted the outskirts of Yarin, Jibbayn and Dhaira (Sour district), residents told our correspondent in the south about an hour ago.

No other incident has been recorded along the Lebanese-Israeli border in the past hour.

Iran is considering the release of the crew members of a Portuguese-flagged ship seized on April 13 in the Gulf by Iranian forces who accused it of having links with Israel, the Iranian Foreign Ministry has announced.

"The release of the ship's crew is of great concern to us as a humanitarian issue," Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said in a telephone conversation with his Portuguese counterpart, Paulo Rangel, according to an official statement relayed by AFP.

➡️ Find out more here.

China will host Palestinian unity talks between Islamist militant group Hamas and its rival Fatah, the two groups and a Beijing-based diplomat say, Reuters reports.

The two rival Palestinian factions have failed to heal their political disputes since Hamas fighters expelled Fatah from Gaza in a short war in 2007. Washington is wary of moves to reconcile the two groups, as it supports the PA but has banned Hamas as terrorists.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and several international officials will be in Riyadh this week for talks aimed at pushing for a peace agreement in Gaza to be held on the sidelines of a World Economic Forum meeting, the WEF's president says, Reuters reports.

"We do have the key players now in Riyadh and hopefully the discussions can lead into a process towards reconciliation and peace," Børge Brende said at a news conference in Riyadh, adding that Gaza's humanitarian crisis would be on the agenda. ➡️ More details here.

⚡ Israel directed machine-gun fire toward farmers working on the plain of al-Mari village (Hasbaya district) this morning, residents and the village's mukhtar told our correspondent in the south.

The mukhtar, Salman Abou al-Ola, was with the farmers when the incident happened. Several bullets struck the mukhtar's car and a car belonging to one of the farmers.

Abou al-Ola told L'Orient Today that he and the farmers fled the targeted area and took refuge in the village, adding that the farmers stopped their work as a result of the attack.

Image: The al-Mari mukhtar's car after it was hit by Israeli bullets. (Credit: Courtesy of Muntasser Abdallah)

Gaza casualty toll update: At least 34,388 Palestinians have been killed and 77,437 others injured in Israel's military offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, Reuters reports, citing the Gaza Health Ministry.

Some 32 have been killed and 69 others wounded over the past 24 hours, the report adds.

"The fact that the resistance's [Hezbollah's] suicide drones have reached Acre, Beit Helal and Arab al-Aramshe proves their ability to outmaneuver all Israeli air defense systems," Hezbollah central council member Nabil Kaouk said today.

According to Kaouk, the party's suicide drones have been "96 percent" successful in slipping through the cracks of the Israeli defense system. The devices "are capable of getting to where the resistance [Hezbollah] wants them," Kaouk claimed, speaking at a tribute in southern Lebanon to a Hezbollah fighter "who died on the road to Jerusalem," the description the party uses for deaths that have occurred in the conflict with Israel since the outbreak of fighting following Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

Kaouk also emphasized that Hezbollah "responds on the ground to any aggression against civilians in a strong and swift manner" and reiterated his party's position that any halt to fighting on the "axis of resistance" in Lebanon, Iraq or Yemen depends on an end to hostilities in Gaza.

Image: Nabil Kaouk speaks during a tribute to a Shiite party fighter in south Lebanon on April 27, 2024. (Credit: Photo provided by our correspondent Muntasser Abdallah)

A UK ship which will house hundreds of US army personnel building a jetty to speed up aid delivery to Gaza has set sail from Cyprus, a UK defense source says, AFP reports.

The Royal Navy support ship "Cardigan Bay" will assist the international effort to construct the temporary floating pier, which is set to be completed early May, according to the Pentagon.

The pier will initially facilitate the delivery of 90 truckloads of international aid a day into Gaza, rising to up to 150 truckloads once fully operational, according to US estimates. ➡️ More details here.

Hezbollah has announced the deaths of two more of its fighters: Farajallah Hamoud, from the village of Kfar Kila (Marjayoun), and Rafeh Hassan, from Khiam (Marjayoun).

According to our correspondent in south Lebanon, the two men were killed in the Israeli airstrike that targeted the village of Kfar Kila at around 5.30 p.m. on Friday.

By our count, 289 Hezbollah fighters have been killed in Lebanon and Syria since hostilities began last October.

Here's what's been happening last night and this morning at the Lebanese-Israeli border:

* Israeli warplanes carried out two raids at 12 a.m., targeting the village of Shebaa and a house in the village of Kfar Shuba (Hasbaya district), according to security sources who spoke to our correspondent in south Lebanon. The airstrike on Kfar Shuba killed a man, a medical source and residents of the village told L'Orient Today.

* Israeli artillery shelling this morning targeted the outskirts of Naqoura, Alma al-Shaab and Tayr Harfa (Sour district), residents told our correspondent.

* Hezbollah announced that it fired rockets, at 8:30 a.m., targeting "new positions of Israeli soldiers west of the Shomera" village, which faces the Lebanese village of Marwahin (Sour).

Fighting between Hezbollah and the Israeli army also continued on the Lebanese-Israeli border.

Israel announced yesterday that a civilian working on a construction site in the north of the country, close to the Lebanese border, had been killed by missiles fired from southern Lebanon.

In the evening, Jamaa Islamiya, which is close to Hamas, announced the deaths of two of its members in an Israeli strike in Lebanon.

Yemen's Houthi rebels claimed another attack on vessels in the Red Sea overnight.

“A British tanker, the Andromeda Star, was hit by naval missiles; the boat was directly hit,” the Houthis said in a statement.

According to the US Middle East Military Command (CENTCOM), the Houthis on Friday night launched attacks toward a number of vessels in the Red Sea, with the MV Andromeda Star sustaining damage.

Meanwhile, on the ground in Gaza, Palestinians reported overnight Israeli strikes near Rafah, where Israel is preparing to launch a ground offensive despite the international community's repeated warnings that to do so would spell humanitarian disaster. 

The war between Israel and Hamas will also be at the center of talks between top Arab and European diplomats expected this weekend in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, including Germany's and France's foreign ministers.

Details of Israel's latest proposal have not been released, but the Israeli press reported earlier this week that 20 hostages considered as "humanitarian cases" might be released initially.

This counter-proposal comes as an Egyptian delegation arrived in Israel on Friday to discuss a "comprehensive framework for a cease-fire" in Gaza, according to the Egyptian media outlet Al-Qahera News, quoting a senior Egyptian official.

According to Israeli media reports, the delegation will attempt to revive negotiations, which have been at a standstill for several weeks, and press for a truce agreement involving the release of "dozens" of hostages held in Gaza.

In a statement on April 13, Hamas said it had submitted its response to Egyptian and Qatari mediators on a proposed truce with Israel, insisting on a permanent cease-fire.

Without explicitly rejecting the content of the draft truce, it reaffirmed its "demands,"  namely "a permanent cease-fire," the withdrawal of the Israeli army "from the entire Gaza Strip," "the return of displaced persons to their areas and places of residence," and "the intensification of the entry of humanitarian aid."

Israel, however, is opposed to a permanent cease-fire, insisting instead on a break of several weeks in the fighting and refusing to withdraw from the entire territory.

Hamas says it is "studying" a new Israeli proposal for a truce in the fighting in Gaza combined with the release of hostages.

"Today, Hamas received the official response from the Zionist occupation to our position, which was handed over to the Egyptian and Qatari mediators on April 13," said Khalil al-Hayya, Hamas's political wing's No. 2 in Gaza.

"The movement will study this proposal and submit its response once its study is complete," he added in a statement. ➡️ More details here.

Good morning,

This is the 204th day of the war in the Gaza Strip. It is also the 203rd day since the opening of a front in southern Lebanon between Hezbollah and the Israeli army.

Join us here to follow our live updates of events as they unfold across the region.