Israel carries out series of airstrikes on Baalbeck-Hermel, Nabatieh regions | Live

A source confirmed to Israeli army radio that it struck southern Lebanon and "deep" into Lebanese territory following Hezbollah's "violations" of the terms of the ceasefire and "attempts to smuggle weapons" across the border.

“It was terrifying. Unfortunately, I don’t think anyone can stop Israel anymore,” Saniya Moussawi, who lives in Nabi Sheet, told L'Orient Today. “And it seems that Hezbollah is not going to retaliate.”

She added that her two young children woke up in a panic after the strike. But she calmed them by assuring them that "the strikes were very far away ... even though they only hit two blocks away."

At least one Israeli strike also targeted a valley in the Nabatieh region of southern Lebanon, according to local media.

The Israeli air force carried out four strikes in the Baalbeck-Hermel region, on the border with Syria, according to information from L'Orient Today's correspondent. These strikes targeted in particular the region of Nabi Sheet, Janta and the Anti-Lebanon Mountains.

The border area between Lebanon and Syria, in the Bekaa, has been regularly bombarded by the Israeli army, even since the cease-fire came into force on Nov. 27. The army says it is targeting infrastructure used for Hezbollah's smuggling and arms trafficking operations.

Thank you for joining us for our live coverage today. Be sure to come back tomorrow for the latest updates.

Goodnight!

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that U.S. President Donald Trump's plan for Gaza would not involve "troops on the ground" and that "American taxpayers would not fund it."

Leavitt told Fox News that Trump was "trying to find a deal so that Gaza becomes a habitable place for human beings who want to live in peace and have real economic development," adding that "partners in the region have started talking to the administration about it."

The Israeli army blew up residential buildings west of Mais al-Jabal (Marjayoun) in the Mfailha area, according to L'Orient Today's correspondent. 

Leaders of the seven largest Reform Jewish groups in the United States rejected President Donald Trump's remarks about expelling Palestinians from Gaza and a U.S. takeover, calling the plan "unacceptable," according to a statement carried by Haaretz.

"We strongly condemn the proposal outlined by President Donald Trump for a U.S. takeover of the Gaza Strip in the form of a real estate development plan," a joint statement said. "Trump's proposal is "unrealistic and dangerous."

"The transfer of two million Palestinians from Gaza to unspecified locations and the imposition of U.S. control over Gaza would lead to further regional instability. It would pose serious security risks to Israel. It undermines Palestinian self-determination. It jeopardizes the current cease-fire and the hostage release agreement, as well as its future phases. And it undermines the long-standing principle of a negotiated two-state solution, which, despite everything, remains the best possibility for peace, stability and a secure and viable future for all people in the region," the authors of the statement added.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on Channel 14 on Thursday, endorsing Donald Trump's plan to take control of and displace the Palestinian population of Gaza, Haaretz reported.

"They have been talking to us all the time about the 'day after', and now Trump is coming with a completely new and different idea," Netanyahu said, indirectly addressing his opponents in Israel and internationally, who criticize him for not having a plan for the enclave after the war.

He added that he knew the outline of the project before its presentation, saying that " the rest of the world was surprised."

Egypt launched a behind-the-scenes diplomatic offensive against U.S. President Donald Trump's proposal to empty Gaza of its population, warning that doing so would jeopardize its peace deal with Israel, officials said, according to Reuters.

Egypt's Foreign Ministry said on Thursday it rejected and will not participate in any proposal to displace Palestinians from Gaza.

The head of the Blida municipality(Marjayoun), Hajj Hassan Hijazi, called on residents to gather next Sunday at 10 a.m. at the entrance to the town, in the direction of Aitaroun, next to the Wahid Hamad station, carrying the Lebanese flag and the banner of the resistance, to support the Lebanese army during its upcoming deployment.

The Israeli army's Arabic-language spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, once again called on residents of southern Lebanon not to return to areas still occupied by the Israeli army, which has until Feb. 18 to complete its withdrawal.

"Anyone moving south does so at their own risk," he wrote on X.

Gaza

Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem said Thursday that his movement was calling for an urgent “Arab summit” in response to President Donald Trump's proposal for a U.S. takeover of Palestinian territory and displacement of its population, AFP reports.

“We call for an urgent Arab summit to confront the plan to displace” Palestinians from Gaza, Qassem said in a statement, urging "Arab countries to resist Trump's pressure and stand firm," while calling on "international organizations to take strong action against Trump's plan."

The Palestinians will not leave Gaza, he said, according to Reuters.

Lebanon-Syria

Following the end of clashes between Syrian clans in Hawik, on the border between Lebanon and Syria, and elements of the Syrian security forces, our correspondent reports military equipment that has fallen into the hands of the tribes and the kidnapping of two members of the security forces.

Gaza

U.S. President Donald Trump said Israel would "hand over" the Gaza Strip to the U.S. after the fighting ends and that no U.S. soldiers would be needed there, according to Reuters.

“The Gaza Strip would be handed over to the United States by Israel at the end of the fighting. The Palestinians ... would have already been resettled in much safer and more beautiful communities, with new and modern homes, in the region,” Trump said in a message published on Truth Social.

Iran

Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian said on Thursday that his country was not seeking nuclear weapons, after U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran should not have them.

“We are not seeking nuclear weapons,” Pezeshkian said at a meeting with foreign diplomats in Tehran, adding that it was "easy" to verify the claim, AFP reports.

Syria/Lebanon

Clashes between rival clans in Hawik, Syria, near the border with Lebanon, finally came to an end after two hours when Syrian forces entered the village, according to our correspondent Sarah Abdallah. The village's Lebanese inhabitants left the area.

Shortly before the tensions ended, a shell from Syria crashed into the village of Qasr on the Lebanese side of the border, injuring one person.

Gaza

Gaza's Health Ministry announced a new death toll of at least 47,583 in the Palestinian territory as a result of the war with Israel, reports AFP.

Despite the entry into force of a fragile truce on Jan. 19, the death toll published by the Ministry continues to rise daily, as bodies discovered under rubble are identified or people die from their injuries.

In the last 24 hours, an additional 31 deaths have been recorded, according to the Ministry, which puts the number of war-wounded at 111,633.

Israel has regularly questioned the credibility of the Ministry's figures, but they are considered reliable by the United Nations.

A study published in early January in the British medical journal The Lancet estimates that the number of deaths in the Gaza Strip during the first nine months of hostilities is some 40 percent higher than that recorded by the Ministry.

The war was triggered on Oct. 7, 2023, by an unprecedented Hamas attack on Israeli territory.

AFP is not in a position to independently verify the outcome of the conflict.

Israel

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak called Trump's plans to resettle Gaza's population elsewhere “fantasies” in an interview with Israel Radio on Thursday, Haaretz reports. He made virtually identical remarks on Wednesday in an interview with Sky News.

“This doesn't sound like a plan anyone has seriously considered. It sounds more like a trial balloon, or perhaps an attempt to signal support for Israel,” he told Israeli radio. “Many Israelis are very enthusiastic, but I think the feasibility of this plan is deeply doubtful.”

Barak suggested that Trump's comments could be an attempt to pressure Arab leaders, warning, “This is what awaits you if you don't wake up, if you don't propose a practical way forward for Gaza and if you don't help drive Hamas from power.” On Sky News, he spoke of a pressure tactic used “deliberately or unconsciously.”

It is entirely conceivable that the moderate Arab states of the region will propose a better approach in response to Trump's plan, Barak concluded on Israeli radio.

Lebanon/Syria

Lebanese Army reinforcements have been deployed at the Bekaa border with Syria to prevent the entry of armed elements from Syria, according to our correspondent Sarah Abdallah. This mobilization took place at a time when armed clashes in Syria have been raging since the morning, even in border villages.

Gaza

Humanitarian aid entering Gaza since the January 19 ceasefire has seen “a massive increase”, said a senior UN official due to visit the Palestinian territory, AFP reported.

“We have brought in more than 10,000 trucks in the two weeks since the ceasefire, which represents a massive increase,” wrote Tom Fletcher, head of the UN's humanitarian aid coordinating agency (Ocha) on social network X.

Iran

At the inauguration ceremony for Iran's first drone carrier, Revolutionary Guards chief General Hossein Salami stressed that Iran was not seeking to intimidate anyone, “but we will not bow to the threat of any power.” Iran “will not engage in any war with the governments we recognize,” he added.

Iran

⚡The Revolutionary Guards have unveiled the country's first drone-carrying vessel in Gulf waters, the naval commander of Iran's ideological army announced on state television, AFP reports.

The “Martyr Bahman Bagheri,” a former commercial vessel, has been converted into a drone carrier over the past two and a half years, said Rear Admiral Alireza Tangsiri at the presentation ceremony.

Described by the latter as the “largest naval military project” in the history of the Islamic Republic, founded in 1979, the drone carrier is capable of launching long-range missiles and also carrying helicopters. It is also designed for electronic warfare and can operate at sea for up to a year without dropping anchor, according to the rear admiral. According to the official Iranian news agency Irna, it can carry up to 60 drones.

Gaza

In the Gaza Strip, many of the residents who returned to their homes under the cease-fire have ruled out leaving, following the controversy sparked by Donald Trump's shocking remarks.

“We came back despite the massive destruction ... because we categorically refuse to be displaced,” Ahmed al-Minawi, who has returned to Gaza City in the north, told AFP.

Gaza

Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares has rejected Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz's suggestion that Spain should take in Palestinians displaced from Gaza.

“The land of the Gazans is Gaza, and Gaza must be part of the future Palestinian state,” said Albares in an interview with Spanish radio station RNE.

Gaza

The Israeli army reported that two of its soldiers from the Golani infantry brigade were killed, and eight others were injured, when a crane collapsed during construction work in the northern Gaza Strip “due to bad weather,” according to Haaretz.

Gaza

⚡Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has ordered the army to prepare a plan for any Gazans who wish to leave, following U.S. President Donald Trump's statements on the potential displacement of Palestinians from the territory, AFP reports.

“I have ordered the Israeli army to prepare a plan that will allow any Gazan who wishes to do so to leave for any place in the world that agrees to receive them,” Katz said in a statement, specifying that the plan would include "exit options at land crossings as well as special provisions for sea and air exits."

Trump's polemical remarks on Gaza

For his part, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stressed that Donald Trump only wanted Palestinians to temporarily leave the Gaza Strip while it was rebuilt. He wants to “rebuild the buildings” so that “people can go back in,” said Marco Rubio, explaining that this is “a very generous gesture, the offer to rebuild and be in charge of rebuilding.”

Trump's polemical remarks on Gaza

"No U.S. taxpayers' dollars to rebuild Gaza, temporary rather than permanent population displacement": U.S. officials appeared to tone down Donald Trump's dramatic remarks about the U.S. taking control of the Palestinian territory, reports AFP.

After the U.S. president's dramatic announcement yesterday that the United States would “take control” of the war-torn territory, whose inhabitants would move elsewhere, his administration appeared to temper his words.

President Trump said that “the United States will not fund the reconstruction of Gaza,” White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told reporters. “His administration will work with [its] partners in the region to rebuild” the Palestinian territory reduced to rubble after 16 months of war and beset by a terrible humanitarian crisis, she added. “The United States must be involved in this reconstruction effort,” she said. But “this does not mean that there will be [American] troops on the ground in Gaza, nor that American taxpayers will finance this effort,” explained Leavitt.

Syria

Syria's new interim leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa, received a telephone call from French President Emmanuel Macron, who congratulated him and invited him to France, the Syrian presidency said on Wednesday, reports AFP.

Sharaa thanked Macron for his call and “for France's support for the Syrian people over the past 14 years,” the presidency said, adding that the Syrian leader referred to “current challenges, including the economic sanctions imposed” on Syria.

Gaza

Donald Trump's plan for an American takeover of Gaza and the displacement of its population is a “21st-century form of colonization,” the Secretary General of the NGO Amnesty International denounced to AFP overnight.

“It's a nightmare worthy of the 19th century when the most powerful countries took over the least powerful, a form of colonization for the 21st century,” reacted Agnès Callamard, who was ‘breathless’ to hear Donald Trump's words. This project, which Amnesty International describes as “revolting” and “illegal,” has been condemned by many countries and by the U.N., at a time when delicate negotiations on the continuation of the truce between Israel and Hamas are due to resume.

Gaza

Iran has said it considers “outrageous” the “forced displacement” of Gaza Strip residents mooted by U.S. President Donald Trump, who has said he wants to take control of the Palestinian territory, reports AFP.

“The plan to empty Gaza and subject Palestinians to forced displacement in neighboring countries is part of the Zionist regime's continuation of completely annihilating the Palestinian nation,” said Iranian diplomatic spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei.

Baqaei described the American plan as “an unprecedented attack on the fundamental principles and foundations of international law and the United Nations Charter.” He also called on the international community to recognize “the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and freedom from ... occupation and apartheid.”

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of events in the Middle East, particularly three weeks after the truce in Gaza came into effect, bringing to an end (at least temporarily) a 471-day war that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

We will also be following the latest developments in Lebanon, where the period of application of the terms of the cease-fire agreed on Nov. 27 between Israel and Hezbollah has been extended by 22 days. We will also be covering the situation in Syria, almost two months after the fall of the Assad regime.