That concludes our live coverage of events in the region, thanks for joining us and have a good night.
Turkey has decided to allow parliament's pro-Kurdish DEM Party to hold face-to-face talks with militant leader Abdullah Ocalan on his island prison, the party said, setting up the first such visit in nearly a decade, Reuters reports.
DEM requested the visit last month, soon after a key ally of President Tayyip Erdogan expanded on a proposal to end the 40-year-old conflict between the state and Ocalan's outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Ocalan has been serving a life sentence in a prison on the island of Imrali, south of Istanbul, since his capture 25 years ago.
Rifaat al-Assad, an uncle of the ousted Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad charged in Switzerland with war crimes over the bloody suppression of a revolt in 1982, has flown from Beirut to Dubai in recent days, two Lebanese security officials told Reuters, while Associated Press reported that the wife and daughter of Rifaat's son were arrested today at the Beirut airport, as they attempted to fly out with allegedly forged passports.
A new wave of bombings have targeted Yemen, according to a statement from the Houthis who say they believe the U.S. and U.K. are behind the attack.
The airstrikes have targeted the capital, Sanaa, marking the second day in a row the city is coming under the bombs. “US-British aggression” was to be blamed for the attack, the Houthis said, cited by AFP. The bombings come a day after Israel launched air attacks on the main airport in Sanaa and on the port city of Hodeidah. A total of six people were killed in those attacks, while dozens of others were wounded.
Satellite imagery obtained by Palestinian journalist Younis Tirawi shows Israel's military using the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza as a base of operations, Middle East Eye (MEE) reports.
The satellite imagery shows more than a dozen Israeli military vehicles parked on the premises of the hospital grounds. Tirawi said that the hospital is being used as a "headquarters" by the Israeli military, "where soldiers operate and hide behind."
Israel forcibly evacuated the Indonesian Hospital on Monday, MEE recalls, and then on Tuesday stormed the hospital and forced anyone inside to leave the premises.
Israel frequently claims Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups use hospitals in Gaza as bases of operations and uses these claims as justification to carry out devastating attacks directly on the healthcare facilities. The top prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, Andrew Cayley, who is leading the Palestine investigation has said that Israel's claims regarding Gaza's hospitals have been "grossly exaggerated."
An advanced U.S. military anti-missile system was used in Israel to try to intercept a projectile for the first time since President Joe Biden placed the system in Israel in October, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The THAAD, or Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, was used to try to intercept a projectile from Yemen sometime during the last 24 hours, and an analysis would determine its success, said the source who spoke on condition of anonymity. The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In October, Biden placed the THAAD system, built by Lockheed Martin, in Israel along with about 100 U.S. soldiers to help defend the country. THAAD is a critical part of the U.S. military's layered air defense systems and added to Israel's already formidable anti-missile defenses.
The Civil Defense announced that it had extracted two more bodies in the southern Lebanese town of Khiam, from under the rubble of buildings destroyed by Israeli bombardment before the cease-fire came into effect on Nov. 27.
The bodies have been transferred to the government hospital in Marjayoun, and search operations will continue tomorrow until all missing persons have been found, the rescue team announced.
According to our correspondent, the bodies of nine Hezbollah members and a Syrian national have been found in the locality since the Lebanese Army entered on Dec. 11. Khiam was the scene of violent clashes between Hezbollah and the Israeli army, which was unable to enter before the cease-fire but had advanced into the village following the implementation of the 'cease-fire.'
According to our correspondent in southern Lebanon, explosions were heard around an hour ago in the vicinity of Naqoura, in Sour district, and Yaroun, in Bint Jbeil district, likely the result of the Israeli army detonating buildings there, as it continues to lay waste to much of southern Lebanon despite now a month of truce. Artillery fire also targeted Aita al-Shaab, in Bint Jbeil district.
The French Foreign Ministry "condemns" the visit on Thursday of Israeli National Security Minister Ben Gvir to al-Aqsa Mosque, "in violation of the historical status quo of the Holy Places in Jerusalem," in a statement on Friday.
"In Jerusalem, the now systematic questioning of the status quo on al-Aqsa Mosque creates a risk of generalized conflagration," stated the spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry.
Paris "recalls the need to preserve the historical status quo in the Holy Places in Jerusalem and underlines the importance of Jordan's specific role in this regard," they added.
France "firmly" condemned the missile and drone attacks against Israel carried out in recent days by Houthi rebels in Yemen, in a statement by the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
"France reiterates that these attacks like the many others carried out by the Houthis against commercial vessels in the Red Sea and against Israeli territory for over a year, are unacceptable, destabilizing and must cease immediately," the spokesperson added, recalling that Paris reaffirmed "its commitment to regional stability and the security of Israel."
More than 30,000 Syrian refugees have crossed the Turkish border to return to their country in the past 17 days, Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on Friday. "The number of people who have left [for Syria] in 17 days is 30,663. This flow will not stop," he told Turkish private channel TGRT.
A previous report released by the Turkish authorities indicated "more than 25,000" returns from Turkey in fifteen days. "Our consulate general will open in Aleppo in a few days ... We are opening a migration management office there. Children have been born here, there have been marriages, divorces, deaths. We are taking measures to meet their needs," the minister said.
Israeli Air Force Commander Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar confirmed Friday that Israel struck eight crossings on the Syrian-Lebanese border overnight Thursday to Friday, according to a statement posted on the Telegram account of the Israeli army's Arabic-language spokesperson, Avichay Adraee. According to Israel, these crossings are allegedly used by Hezbollah to obtain weapons.
"We targeted eight border crossings between Lebanon and Syria last night, after realizing that Hezbollah is trying to test us and get weapons again. They are trying to raise their heads and see how well we are implementing the [cease-fire] agreement. We will not give in," Bar said during a tour of the Northern Command, during which he inspected Hezbollah weapons confiscated by the Israeli army.
Iran's foreign minister warned during his visit to Beijing against any "destructive interference or foreign meddling" in Syria, stressing that decisions should rest solely with the Syrian people.
Iran "considers that decision-making regarding the future of Syria is the sole responsibility of the people, without destructive interference or foreign interference," Abbas Araghchi wrote in a Chinese-language article published in the People's Daily on Friday. The diplomat also stressed Iran's respect for Syria's "unity, national sovereignty and territorial integrity."
A family home was destroyed by an Israeli attack in the Sheikh Radwan area of Gaza City overnight. It housed about 40 people displaced from other family homes, according to the Gaza Civil Defense team. The bodies of 15 people killed were recovered, and the rest are now missing under the rubble, the agency's spokesperson said on Telegram. "Our teams were unable to retrieve them due to the absence of heavy machinery and equipment," they added.
The Israeli army has targeted several homes housing displaced people in the northern Gaza Strip in recent days, the statement added.
The Palestinian Health Ministry in Ramallah in the West Bank called on the international community to intervene and protect hospitals in the Gaza Strip .
In a statement posted on social media, the ministry called for patients, medical staff and treatment centers to be protected from Israeli attacks. It said Israel's "genocidal war" in Gaza was continuing, following the raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia this morning, after 50 Palestinians were killed the previous day in airstrikes outside the facility.
Gaza health ministry officials said earlier that 350 people were forced out of the hospital by Israeli troops.
A Palestinian security officer was shot dead by gunmen in the Jenin refugee camp, according to a statement by Palestinian security forces cited by Haaretz. The officer, Ibrahim Jumaa al-Qadoumi, is the third Palestinian security officer to be killed since the start of the Palestinian Authority operation in the camp, launched about two weeks ago. The operation aims to re-establish Palestinian Authority control over the refugee camp, which is in the hands of armed factions hostile to Fateh.
One of its aims is to arrest the militants, most of whom are also wanted by Israel. However, Palestinian security forces and the government have strongly rejected allegations that the operation was launched under Israeli pressure. Palestinian Authority officials have acknowledged that the operation is a test for the Ramallah leadership, with implications for other areas of the West Bank and potentially Gaza, if they return to Palestinian control.
Medical sources told L'Orient Today's correspondent that Najwa Ghasham, the 75-year-old whose remains were found by the Lebanese Red Cross and UNIFIL in Yaroun, was shot dead.
Al Jazeera correspondents and local media reported that fires broke out in parts of the Kamal Adwan Hospital after the Israeli army ordered medical staff and patients to evacuate the last functioning medical facility in the northern Gaza Strip.
According to the reports, the fires broke out in the operating room, laboratory and emergency rooms. The reports come hours after the Health Ministry said the Israeli military forcibly evacuated medical staff and patients from the hospital.
The Gaza Health Ministry released a new toll stating that at least 45,436 Palestinians have been killed and 108,038 injured since the start of the Israeli offensive against the Palestinian enclave on Oct. 7, 2023.
According to local sources of L'Orient Today's correspondent, two Syrian workers have been missing since yesterday, while they were near Wadi Hujeir, a strategic valley in which the Israeli army was deployed. The two men, Taher Rimi and Ahmad Amin have not been heard from since Thursday. The initial information available indicates a possible kidnapping by the Israeli army when it was in the area.
In addition to the three morning strikes on the heights of Qoussaya, in the Anti-Lebanon, the Israeli air force also bombed the Majdel Anjar landfill, in the Bekaa, near the Masnaa border post, according to information from L'Orient Today's correspondent.
The Israeli army fired artillery shells at Aita al-Shaab (Bint Jbeil) in the morning. During the night, it blew up several buildings in Yaroun (Bint Jbeil) and Kfar Kila.
A 75-year-old Lebanese woman was found dead in Yaroun, a village located a few kilometers from the border with Israel which has been heavily destroyed in recent months, the mayor of the village Ali Tahfeh told L'Orient Today's correspondent.
According to the information, Najwa Ghasham had refused to leave Yaroun despite the regular Israeli strikes and the ground offensive launched on Sept. 30, during which the Israeli army blew up dozens of houses. Ghasham's remains were found on Friday by the Lebanese Red Cross and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) after an initial attempt to rescue her about a week ago failed following Israeli gunfire, according to the mayor. A forensic doctor will examine the body to determine the exact circumstances of her death.
The Israeli army announced that it had struck an "infrastructure used to transport military equipment to the Syrian-Lebanese border." These strikes were carried out at the "Janta border crossing," used to "transport equipment via Syria for Hezbollah," in the Bekaa.
This morning, the Israeli army carried out three strikes on the heights of Qoussaya, a few kilometers from the border.
A woman aged around 80 was killed in a stabbing attack in the city of Herzliya, north of Tel Aviv, an Israeli hospital said, with police reporting the arrest of a suspect.
"She was taken to hospital with multiple stab wounds," Tel Aviv's Ichilov Hospital said in a statement. Despite "resuscitation efforts, hospital staff pronounced her dead upon arrival," it added.
Yemeni Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for a missile attack on Tel Aviv airport, hours after Israeli strikes on sites they control in Yemen, including Sanaa International Airport.
The Houthis also said in a statement that they had attacked the city of Tel Aviv and a ship in the Arabian Sea with drones. "The Israeli aggression will only increase the determination ... of the great Yemeni people to continue supporting the Palestinian people," they said. Israel did not immediately respond to these attacks.
A local Al Jazeera correspondent reported that the Israeli army entered the compound of Kamel Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza Strip.
According to him, Israeli troops evacuated the majority of the health personnel from the facility, both men and women, as well as patients and many residents living nearby, to move them to the al-Fakhoura school, where they are being held in the courtyard.
According to local media, three strikes targeted the heights of Qoussaya, in the Bekaa Valley, near the border with Syria, in the morning. Earlier, the state-run National News Agency (NNA), mentioned "explosions" heard in the Anti-Lebanon, a region intensively overflown by Israeli drones.
The new authorities in Syria arrested a leader of the ousted regime of Bashar al-Assad, allegedly responsible for numerous death sentences in the infamous Sednaya prison near Damascus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said.
Marked by deadly clashes, the operation to arrest General Mohammad Kanjo Hassan was launched on Wednesday by security forces in Tartous, a stronghold of the Alawite minority.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the "escalation" of tensions between Yemen's Houthi rebels and Israel after "particularly alarming" Israeli airstrikes targeting Sanaa airport, a spokesperson said. "The Secretary-General condemns the escalation ... Today's Israeli airstrikes on Sanaa International Airport, Red Sea ports and power plants in Yemen are particularly alarming," the spokesperson said in a statement.
Israel confirmed that it targeted sites controlled by the Houthis yesterday, including the airport in the capital Sanaa, where six people were killed, according to the Houthi's Telegram channel.
The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, was at Sanaa airport at the time of the bombing and reported on X that he was "safe and sound."
This morning, the Israeli military announced that it had intercepted a new missile from Yemen "before it entered Israeli airspace." Air raid sirens went off in central Israel "for fear of debris" following the interception, the military said.
Including journalists from a television channel affiliated with Islamic Jihad to hospital staff, at least 45 people were killed yesterday in several Israeli strikes on the war-torn Gaza Strip, according to various Palestinian sources.
The director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, one of only two still operational in the north, had launched an appeal for help on Monday. Saying that his establishment was being targeted by the Israeli army, Dr. Hossam Abou Safiya had asked the international community to intervene "urgently before it is too late." He announced last night that five members of his staff had died due to an Israeli strike: A pediatrician, a laboratory technician, two ambulance workers and a maintenance worker.
Be sure to read the Morning Brief to catch up with what has been happening.
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