Cease-fire 'could influence' response, Iran says; Iran says; 'Iranian agent' recently abducted in Syria by Israel: Day 394 of the Gaza and Lebanon wars

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An Israeli airstrike targeted the small town of Mashghara in West Bekaa, reported L'Orient Today's correspondent.

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid and National Unity party chairman Benny Gantz issued a joint statement in Tel Aviv on Sunday, criticizing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after security documents were leaked from his office, Haaretz reported.

Yair Lapid said that "this matter comes from the Prime Minister's Office and the investigation must verify whether (this leak) is on his orders or not. If Netanyahu knew it, he is complicit in one of the most serious security offenses stipulated by law. If Netanyahu did not know it, then what does he know? If it is true, he is not fit to carry out his duties."

Benny Gantz added that contrary to the impression they are trying to create within Netanyahu's office, "this is not an alleged leak, but a trafficking of state secrets for political purposes. If sensitive security information is stolen and becomes a political campaign tool, this is not just a criminal offense, it is a national crime."

In parallel with the conference, an Israeli court authorized the publication of the name of Eli Feldstein, a spokesman for Benjamin Netanyahu's entourage suspected of leaking the classified documents. The decision follows petitions filed by Haaretz and other media outlets. The court also revealed that four people are currently being questioned in connection with the investigation.

In a statement to the Washington Post, Parliamentary Speaker Nabih Berri called for a cease-fire "yesterday, today and tomorrow."

Asked by journalist David Ignatius about Iran's influence in Lebanon, the head of the legislature replied: "Iran helps Hezbollah, the latter does not hide it. But if the United States helped Lebanon, we would not take orders from Tehran."

In a statement released later, Berri denied the comments attributed to him, saying he had said: "Iran funds Hezbollah and you support Israel."

A senior Hamas official told the movement's Al-Aqsa television that "the dialogue between Palestinian factions in Cairo is positive but we do not want to jump to conclusions," Reuters reported.

Senior officials from rival Palestinian groups Fatah and Hamas are currently in Cairo to discuss the formation of a committee to manage post-war governance in Gaza.

Yemen's Houthis said they would maintain their maritime blockade against Israeli ships in response to "intelligence reports" that Israeli shipping companies were selling their assets to other companies, according to Reuters.

Yahya Sarea, the group's military spokesman, said in a televised address that the Houthis would not recognize any change of ownership and warned against collaborating with such companies.

Hezbollah targeted the Haifa technical base (an Israeli Air Force base that includes a training school for air force technicians) with a salvo of rockets at 5 p.m.

An Israeli strike took place near the monastery in the village of Deir Qanoun Al-Naher (Sour), according to L'Orient Today's correspondent.

Israeli military aircraft targeted the town of Qlayaa in West Bekaa, reports L'Orient Today's correspondent. 

The Israeli military aviation carried out a strike between the towns of Ansar (Nabatieh) and Al-Zararia (Saida), reported L'Orient Today's correspondent.

Hezbollah claimed responsibility for an airstrike with a squadron of attack drones on the "Eliakim" base (containing training camps belonging to the Northern Command of the Israeli army ), located south of Haifa, carried out at 6 p.m. and which hit "its targets with precision."

Israeli military planes targeted the village of Jibsheet (Nabatieh), reported L'Orient Today's correspondent.

Israeli jets targeted a house in the town of Sohmor (West Bekaa), completely destroying it without causing any casualties, L'Orient Today's correspondent reported.

The Israeli army carried out strikes targeting Al-Tiri, Tebnine, Safed al-Batikh-Ain al-Mizrab and the outskirts of Haris, according to L'Orient Today's correspondent.

The Israeli military announced on Sunday that during a ground operation in Syria in recent months, Israeli forces captured an operative of the Iranian infrastructure in Syria and that he is currently under investigation in Israel, according to Haaretz and Reuters.

The Israeli military identified the operative as Ali Suleiman Al-Assi, a Syrian citizen who lives in southern Syria. He was recruited by Iran and was involved in gathering intelligence on Israeli army forces on the Syrian-Israeli border for future terrorist activity, the military said.

The Israeli army added that the operation to arrest Al-Assi exposed the operational methods of Iranian entities on the Golan Heights front.

In a statement, the Lebanese Health Ministry reported that Tebnine (Bint Jbeil) hospital suffered "serious damage" from nearby Israeli airstrikes, injuring seven people inside the hospital and three others outside.

"The Baalbek government hospital, full of patients, also suffered material damage due to the strikes nearby. In addition, Israel targeted an ambulance point for the civil defense of the Islamic Health Society in Bazourieh (Sour), killing two paramedics," the statement said.

"The relentless efforts of medical teams in public and private hospitals, particularly in Tebnine and Baalbek, highlight the essential role of health workers who stand alongside citizens on the front lines," the ministry said. "Since October, Tebnine Hospital has treated 1,458 injured people, despite serious damage," the ministry said.

The ministry warned that Israel "bears full responsibility for violating international and humanitarian laws" and said it was surprised by the "deafening silence of the international community" amid these "grave humanitarian violations."

On the Lebanese-Israeli border, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened Hezbollah with a "firm response."

The toll of the Israeli airstrike on the targeted building in Haret Saida stands at four dead and 13 injured, in addition to the considerable material damage caused to the targeted apartment and neighboring apartments, reported L'Orient Today's correspondent.

Haret Saida municipal teams, in cooperation with a number of volunteers, worked to clear and remove debris from the roads around the targeted building and reopened the streets.

Hezbollah, for the third time, claimed to have targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers on the eastern outskirts of the town of Mais al-Jabal (Marjayoun).

Update on the latest attacks claimed by Hezbollah against Israel:

- Hezbollah said its fighters targeted a gathering of Israeli forces on the eastern outskirts of the town of Mais al-Jabal (Marjayoun) with a missile barrage at 5:05 p.m.

- Hezbollah claimed to have targeted the Israeli base of Beit Lid, part of the Israeli army's central command (home to training camps for the Nahal Brigade and the Paratroopers Brigade), east of Netanya, with a barrage of advanced missiles, "hitting its targets with precision."

- The party also stated that its fighters observed and targeted a group of Israeli forces attempting to establish a command room in Metula, which faces the town of Khiam (Marjayoun), with a guided missile at 4:40 p.m.. "The missile hit its target accurately, causing casualties and injuries among those present," the Hezbollah statement said.

- Hezbollah said it targeted a gathering of Israeli forces in Saar, which faces Kfar Kila (Marjayoun), with a missile barrage at 11:10 a.m.

- Hezbollah said it targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers a second time at 5:10 p.m. in Mais al-Jabal (Marjayoun) with a barrage of missiles.

Hezbollah's "War Media" channel released a video titled Imad 5 , which provides a glimpse of a network of interconnected underground tunnels also dubbed "Imad 5," in reference to former Hezbollah military commander Imad Mughniyeh, who was assassinated in Damascus in 2008.

The video, titled "We will not leave the battlefield or our weapons," also contains an audio clip of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah saying the phrase. Inside the tunnels, an image of Nasrallah, who was assassinated by Israel on Sept. 27 in the southern suburbs of Beirut, can also be seen.

Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian said Sunday that a possible cease-fire between Tehran's allies and Israel could influence his country's response to Israeli strikes on Iran on Oct. 26.

If Israel "accepts a cease-fire and stops massacring the oppressed and innocent populations of the region, this could influence the intensity and nature of our response," he said, quoted by the official IRNA news agency.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the Lebanese border today, his office said in a statement reported by Al-Jazeera.

The war in Lebanon has left 2,986 dead and 13,402 injured since the start of the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, which began on Oct. 8, 2023, according to the health ministry's report.

On Saturday, Israeli strikes left 18 dead and 83 injured.

In the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army said its forces had killed Raafat Qodeih, a member of Hamas's Noukhba unit who, according to Israel, had infiltrated Kibbutz Nir Oz during the Oct. 7, 2023 attack, where some 30 residents were killed and more than 70 taken hostage and taken to Gaza, AFP reported.

In a press briefing, Dr. Abbas Shukur, director of the Baalbek government hospital, said that "a strike took place near the hospital," stressing that the hospital had been damaged but that "everything will be repaired within 24 hours." The director, however, specified that the hospital was still operational.

Following his statement, some health workers raised their fists and chanted: "Labaik (at your command) ya Hussein (religious figure venerated in Shiism), Labaik ya Nassrallah (Hassan Nasrallah, the former secretary general of Hezbollah killed on September 27 by an Israeli strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut)."

The special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, said Sunday on X that Palestinian children are “targeted in so many perverse ways – killing them, maiming them, starving them, torturing them, depriving them of school, of dreams, of a future, of hope … Look at the totality of Israel’s behavior, in the totality of the territory it illegally occupies, against the totality of the Palestinian people who live there. And when you see how children, in particular, are targeted … You see the destructive spirit and intent at work, in the realization of a plan that has been going on for a long time.”

Albanese was referring to an incident that took place on Sunday morning in which the Israeli army prevented children from reaching the Haj Ziad Jaber school in the Jaber neighborhood of Hebron, in the southern occupied West Bank, by closing the road with barbed wire, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported. Israeli forces closed an access road with barbed wire in the Old City of Hebron, preventing students from reaching the Ziad Jaber elementary school, Wafa reported.

At the scene, Aref Jaber, a local human rights activist, told the Palestinian news agency that the blocked road left more than 40 students stranded near the street, less than 30 meters from their school, unable to reach it. He added that such closures often occur during Jewish holidays to facilitate the passage of Israeli settlers to the Ibrahimi Mosque in the heart of the city. The mosque, which is believed to have been built on the tomb of the Prophet Abraham, has been divided into two parts, one for Muslims and one for Jews, since 1994, following the killing of 29 Palestinians by a settler during dawn prayers on February 25 of that year.

The Israeli army targeted Bazourieh (Sour) and Harouf (Nabatieh), according to locals, reports L'Orient Today's correspondent.

The Israeli army's Arabic-language spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, announced on X that the army's 36th Division and its Naval Commando Unit 13 attacked a Hezbollah combat compound "used to plan incursions and attacks against Israeli forces."

"Inside, troops discovered underground infrastructure and concealed areas with logistical and medical supplies, as well as military tents and combat positions stocked with various weapons," he said. "Launching platforms for rockets, anti-tank missiles, mortars, rifles and surface-to-air missiles" intended to target Israeli cities were located and destroyed.

"During the raid, Israeli forces engaged and neutralized militants hiding underground, and secondary explosions indicated the presence of an ammunition depot as the compound was destroyed," he stated.

Here’s an update on the Hezbollah attacks against Israeli positions:

- Hezbollah targeted the Israeli Zvulon military industry base north of the city of Haifa with a rocket barrage at noon.

- The party also said it targeted a gathering of Israeli forces at the al-Baghdadi site, facing Kfar Shouba (Hasbaya) with a rocket barrage at 12:30 pm.

- Hezbollah also targeted the Natofa Nimra base, facing Mais al-Jabal (Marjayoun) with a rocket barrage at 1:30 pm.

Turkey submitted to the U.N. a joint letter, signed by 52 countries and two organizations, demanding a halt to the supply and delivery of weapons to Israel, the Turkish Foreign Minister announced on Sunday.

"We must repeat at every opportunity that selling weapons to Israel means participating in its genocide," Hakan Fidan said at a press conference in Djibouti, where he went for a meeting of the Turkey-Africa Partnership, specifying that the letter is "an initiative launched by Turkey."

The letter was signed by 52 countries, including Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Algeria, China, Iran and Russia, and two organizations, the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

In mid-October, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on the United Nations to impose an arms embargo on Israel, which he said would be an "effective solution" to end the conflict in the Gaza Strip.

Hezbollah said that at 12 pm it targeted an Israeli army gathering in Khallet al-Bardousha near Manara, opposite the Lebanese town Markaba (Marjayoun), with a rocket barrage.

Hezbollah claimed to have targeted an Israeli Merkava tank near Metula, opposite the town of Khiam, at 3:05 p.m., "with a guided missile, which caused the tank to set on fire and casualties among its crew, including deaths and injuries."

Update on the security situation in southern Lebanon:

- An Israeli drone strike targeted a car on the road to Beit Yahoun (Bint Jbeil), locals reported.

- Israeli airstrikes targeted the towns of Siddiqine, Rashknanay, Dhour Bayyad, Hariss, Burj al-Shemali, Bazourieh, and an area located between Qana and Ramadieh (Sour), residents reported.

In the Bekaa, Israeli jets targeted an area between Lebbaya and the Nabi Safa farm, according to L'Orient Today's correspondent.

After the afternoon strike on Tebnine (Bint Jbeil), the village’s mayor, Nabil Fawaz, told AFP that the local government hospital could be declared out of service within hours due to significant damage caused by Israeli bombings. The Health Ministry also informed AFP that the hospital had been severely damaged.

Hezbollah stated that it targeted an Israeli Merkava tank at the Metula crossing, facing Khiam in the Marjayoun district, at 3:05 p.m., "with a guided missile, resulting in the tank’s burning and casualties among its crew, including both dead and wounded."

Here's an update on the security situation:

- An Israeli airstrike targeted a car on the road to Beit Yahoun (Bint Jbeil district), local residents reported.

- Israeli airstrikes targeted the towns of Siddiqine, Rashknaniyeh, Dhour al-Bayyad, Haris, Burj al-Shemali, Bazourieh and an area located between Qana and al-Ramadieh (all in the Sour district), local residents reported.

- Israeli warplanes targeted the area between the town of Lebbaya and the Nabi Safa farm in the western Bekaa district, according to our correspondent Sarah Abdallah.

The situation in South Lebanon:

- An Israeli strike targeted Berghoz (Hasbaya district).

- Baissariyeh, in the Saida district, was bombed.

- A strike targeted Sour. According to initial information, it was a drone strike on a vehicle near the city's nature reserve.

- A drone strike targeted Zawtar Sharqieh.

The situation in the Bekaa, in addition to the strikes on Baalbeck:

- Sohmor, in West Bekaa, was bombed by the Israeli army.

- Another strike targeted an area between Sohmor and Qaraoun.

- A house in Mashghara was hit by airstrikes, as well as the village of Lebbaya.

The strikes on Baalbeck and its surroundings specifically targeted, according to our correspondent, a building on Kayal Road, the al-Rida restaurant near the government hospital, a building close to the local branch of the Lebanese University and the Lakkis neighborhood in Douris.

Palestinian Civil Defence spokesperson Mahmoud Basal told al-Jazeera that Israeli forces are preventing medical supplies and equipment from reaching northern Gaza.

“We call on the world to work to enable the Civil Defense to reach the northern Gaza Strip,” he said.

Nearly three and a half hours after Israeli threats targeting five buildings in Baalbeck and Douris, an initial Israeli strike targeted Baalbeck, according to information from our correspondent Sarah Abdallah.

Baalbeck and its region have been heavily hit by the Israeli air force since Monday, in strikes that have resulted in dozens of deaths. Additionally, the army has issued two calls for the entire city to evacuate during the week, triggering mass departures.

Three people were killed and nine injured in the Israeli strike that targeted an apartment in Haret Saida, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. According to information from our correspondent Muntasser Abdallah, search operations are ongoing and the toll could rise.

The Israeli airstrike partially destroyed the upper floors of the targeted building and damaged nearby structures.

Manchester police said they are investigating after the pro-Palestinian group Palestine Action claimed responsibility for stealing two busts of Israel’s first president from the University of Manchester (northern England), among other actions carried out by the group across the country.

In a statement released yesterday, the group said it had stolen “two sculptures of Israel’s first president, Chaim Weizmann, displayed at the University of Manchester” to mark “107 years since the Balfour Declaration.” Manchester police confirmed they were contacted overnight from Friday to Saturday “regarding a theft at the university.” “An investigation is ongoing,” they added.

Read more here.

A resident of Nahariya, in northern Israel, has succumbed to his injuries, Haaretz reports. He had been critically injured following the interception of a rocket by the Israeli army’s air defense system.

The Gaza Health Ministry announced today a new toll of 43,341 deaths in the Palestinian territory since the start of the war with Israel over a year ago.

At least 27 people were killed in the past 24 hours, the ministry said in a statement, adding that 102,105 people have been injured in the Gaza Strip since the war began, triggered by an unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Here’s an update on the security situation:

- One person killed and seven injured in the Israeli airstrike on Ghazieh (Saida district). The deceased was a municipal police officer, local residents told L'Orient Today.

- An airstrike struck the outskirts of Haret Saida, local residents reported.

Here's an update on the security situation in southern Lebanon:

- Israeli warplanes targeted the town of Ghandourieh in the Bint Jbeil district with several missiles.

- A drone strike hit Hamoud Restaurant near the Tebnine Government Hospital (Bint Jbeil district), causing several cars to catch fire.

- An airstrike targeted a house in the town of Arab Salim (Nabatieh district), and another airstrike targeted Ghazieh (Saida district), according to local residents.

- Three people were reported killed in an airstrike on the town of Burj Qalaway (Bint Jbeil district), local residents reported.

Israeli MP Yitzhak Kroizer, from the far-right Otzma Yehudit party (translated as Jewish Power), was removed from his position as a combat reservist in the army after being photographed in a house in southern Lebanon with graffiti behind him reading “MP Kroizer's Office,” reports Haaretz. The army reassigned Kroizer from a combat role to a reservist unit for government officials, thereby ending his current service, the Israeli newspaper adds.

Find here the reaction of the MP to the Israeli army's decision, as well as that of far-right Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

Scene of destruction in Wata el-Khiam after recent fighting between Hezbollah and Israeli army, Nov. 3, 2024. (Credit: Muntasser Abdallah/L'Orient Today)

The 20 people who had been reported missing since the beginning of last week in Khiam, in the Marjayoun district of southern Lebanon, have been confirmed dead, according to local residents and rescuers from the International and Lebanese Red Cross, who were contacted by the municipal council president of Wazzani, where the victims were originally from.

Ahmad Chehadeh al-Mohammad, a mokhtar of the border village of Wazzani, told our correspondent Muntasser Abdallah that a rescue team from the International and Lebanese Red Cross had traveled to Khiam to search for these two families, with whom all contact had been lost since Monday evening when the Israeli army began its attempt to advance on Khiam.

Read more here.

Here's an update on the security situation in southern Lebanon, according to our correspondent Muntasser Abdallah:

- Israel targeted Qana with two strikes, Bayyad with two strikes, and Siddiqine and Rashknaniyeh — all located in the Sour district — according to local residents.

- Two airstrikes were reported in the Sharnieh area, situated between the towns of Bazourieh and Burj al-Shemali, both in the Sour district, as reported by local residents.

Hezbollah reported striking Qatsrin, referred to as the 'capital of the occupied Syrian Golan Heights,' with a rocket barrage at 11:00 a.m., as an update on recent attacks against Israeli positions.

CENTCOM Commander General Michael Erik Kurilla arrived in Israel on Thursday as an official guest of Chief of Staff General Herzi Halevi, according to the Israeli army's Arabic-speaking spokesperson, Avichay Adraee.

Adraee stated that they conducted “an assessment of the situation regarding strategic security issues and joint readiness in the region, as part of the response to threats facing the Middle East, particularly Iran.” General Kurilla also inspected the U.S. THAAD air defense system, which was deployed in Israel in recent weeks to bolster defense against threats.

Following General Kurilla’s arrival in Israel, Washington announced the deployment of missile defense systems, fighter jets, B-52 bombers and other military aircraft to the region.

The Israeli army stated that approximately 25 rockets were launched from Lebanon toward the Golan Heights, and around 10 were fired toward western Galilee, reports Haaretz. According to the Israeli military, some rockets were “intercepted, and others landed in open areas.”

Earlier in the morning, Hezbollah claimed responsibility for a strike on 'Kidmat Tzvi' in the occupied Syrian Golan at 8:30 a.m., as well as a series of rocket attacks on several localities in northern Israel.

🔴 The Arabic-speaking spokesperson for the Israeli army, Avichay Adraee, has called on residents of several buildings in Baalbeck and the neighboring village of Douris to evacuate, ahead of planned Israeli strikes. Four buildings have been identified in Baalbeck, including one in close proximity to the city's government hospital and the Dar Baalbeck school, as well as one in Douris.

Hezbollah claimed responsibility for two new rounds of rocket attacks on Israeli positions at 8:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m.

The first series of operations targeted Israeli soldiers in Matzuva, Shlomi and Rosh Hanikra, localities opposite the villages in the Sour district in the western border sector, as well as Bar'am, which faces Rmeish in the Bint Jbeil district. At 10:00 a.m., a second round of rocket fire again hit Shlomi and struck Shamir, a village in northern Israel at the border with the occupied Syrian Golan.

The party also claimed responsibility for a strike on Kadmat Tzvi in the occupied Syrian Golan at 8:30 a.m.

In the Bekaa region, an Israeli strike described as “violent” by local sources of our correspondent Sarah Abdallah targeted Mashghara in the morning. This village had already been bombed multiple times yesterday.

In Ras al-Ain, near Baalbeck, a building adjacent to one hit by an Israeli airstrike on Friday collapsed in the morning.

“Dozens of rockets” were also launched from southern Lebanon this morning, targeting positions in northern Israel. Shortly after, Hezbollah claimed responsibility for three rocket attacks carried out at 7:30 a.m., aimed at Israeli soldiers stationed in Zar'it, Even Menachem and Shomera, neighboring localities near the border, opposite the Lebanese village of Ramaya (Bint Jbeil).

This morning, in southern Lebanon, Israeli strikes targeted Zawtar Sharqieh in the Nabatieh district, Jwaya, the outskirts of Bazourieh and Burj al-Shemali in the Sour district.

During the night, Shaqra (Bint Jbeil) and the outskirts of Ansariyeh were bombed.

In southern Lebanon, the village of Khiam, where the Israeli army has been attempting to advance for nearly a week, was targeted by artillery and machine-gun fire overnight, according to reports from our correspondent Muntasser Abdallah.

In the morning, the Israeli army stated via a post on X by its Arabic-speaking spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, that it had “eliminated Farouk Amine el-Achi,” the Hezbollah commander for the Khiam region. According to the Israeli claim, this fighter was “responsible for rocket and guided missile fire” targeting Israeli border villages, including Metula. Youssef Ahmad Noun, another leader of the al-Radwan force, Hezbollah’s elite unit, in Khiam was also killed, according to Adraee.

The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that “six people, including four children, were injured” after a polio vaccination center was “hit” yesterday in northern Gaza. Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus did not specify the exact nature of the “attack” or who was responsible for it.

A member of Gaza’s Civil Defense told AFP that at least three people were injured by debris from a missile fired by an Israeli drone at a wall of the health center, located west of Gaza City.

Read more here.

The president of the Akroum municipality also noted that another nearby road, the one connecting Halouas to Nassoub, had been bombed. However, it is an unpaved agricultural path used only by two-wheelers and tractors. Repair work is also set to begin on this route.

In northern Lebanon's Akkar region, yesterday's Israeli airstrike on the road connecting Kfartoun to Akroum, near the Syrian border, has completely isolated Akroum and its surrounding areas, according to the village's mayor, Ali Asbar, who spoke with our correspondent Michel Hallak. The strike created a crater approximately two and a half meters deep and more than six meters in diameter.

In a phone interview, the mayor stated that the explosion damaged the potable water distribution network but noted that the issue should be “quickly resolved” by the municipality.

Repairs to the road have already begun, as ordered by the outgoing Minister of Public Works, Ali Hamieh.

A Bangladeshi worker was killed in an airstrike in Lebanon, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Dhaka announced, as Israeli bombings complicate efforts to repatriate citizens. Mohammad Nizam, 31, was killed the previous afternoon in a strike when he stopped at a café on his way to work in Beirut, according to a statement by Bangladesh’s ambassador to Lebanon, Javed Tanveer Khan.

The ambassador did not provide further details on the strike that killed Mohammad Nizam, but only one air raid targeted Beirut’s southern suburb on Saturday afternoon, in the area known as the Galerie Semaan in Hadath.

Read more here.

Illustration photo AFP

American B-52 fighter jets have arrived in the Middle East, the U.S. armed forces stated yesterday, following the Pentagon’s announcement of new military deployments to “defend Israel” and warn Iran. “Strategic B-52 bombers from Minot Air Force Base [in North Dakota] are now under the responsibility of Centcom,” the U.S. Central Command for military operations in the Middle East, according to a brief message on social media.

Read more here.

Good morning,

Thank you for joining us for this new live coverage of events on the 394th day of the Gaza war, which is also the 393rd day of the war in Lebanon between Hezbollah and Israel, as well as their impacts in the region.