We are now closing our LIVE coverage of events in the region for tonight. We will be back tomorrow morning with more news updates.
Syria
The Sweida cease-fire is to be implemented in three phases, according to the Syrian news agency SANA.
The Interior Ministry and security forces have begun deploying in the region to implement the first stage of the cease-fire agreements, which involve putting an end to clashes between local armed groups and Arab tribal forces, intending to restore stability, releasing detainees and evacuating those held back, SANA reported, citing Information Ministry sources.
An emergency cell, bringing together various ministries and government agencies, has also been formed to expedite the delivery of necessary humanitarian and medical aid, provide basic services, and repair infrastructure. This initiative is part of the second phase of implementing the cease-fire agreements with the mediators.
The source added that the third phase will begin once the truce has been consolidated, with the gradual and organized reactivation of state institutions and the deployment of internal security forces throughout the governorate, in line with the previously reached agreements, to ensure the rule of law under the state's aegis.
Syria
According to information relayed by local media and originating from the Syrian agency SANA, the Syrian and Jordanian foreign ministers, together with U.S. special envoy for Syria Tom Barrack, have agreed on the following steps to be taken to support the Syrian government's efforts to implement the cease-fire agreement in Sweida, southern Syria, as well as throughout Syrian territory.
Barrack wrote on X, “We anticipate positive steps to support a unified and stable Syria, living in peace with its neighbors.” He stressed that Jordan would play a leading role in the region.
Gaza
In the last 48 hours, Gaza's Health Ministry has recorded 98 deaths and 511 injuries as a result of Israeli strikes.
The total death toll since the start of Israel's onslaught on Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023, now stands at 58,765 killed and 140,485 injured.
The Palestinian Ministry statement added that, at present, “many victims remain under rubble or in the streets, as rescue teams are unable to reach them.”
West Bank
The U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, has called for accountability after an attack on a church in the occupied West Bank.
He visited a Christian village in the occupied West Bank on Saturday and called for justice to be done after an attack on a fifth-century Byzantine church, which locals blame on Israeli settlers.
Huckabee, an evangelical Christian and fervent supporter of Israel, explained that his visit was intended to “express solidarity with people who simply want to live in peace, to have access to their land and their places of worship.”
Lebanon-Syria
The former head of the Progressive Socialist Party, Walid Joumblatt, is currently meeting with former prime ministers Fouad Siniora, Tammam Salam and Najib Mikati at Clemenceau, according to LBCI.
Gaza
Ten hostages will soon be released from Gaza, U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday in a White House address relayed by several media outlets, without providing further details.
Southern Lebanon
An Israeli drone strike targeted the village of Yohmor Shqeef, in the Nabatieh district, reports our correspondent. The target turned out to be a motorcycle, hit by two rockets. The driver was wounded before succumbing to his injuries.
According to our correspondent, the man killed in the latest Israeli strike in southern Lebanon is Ahmad Saleh. He is the brother of another man killed during the war.
Southern Lebanon
Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee wrote on his X account that the Israeli army had “eliminated one of the members of Hezbollah's Radwan force,” pointing out that he was “involved in an attempt to rebuild a terrorist infrastructure in the Khiam region of southern Lebanon.
“These activities represent a violation of the agreements of understanding between Israel and Lebanon, and the Defense Army will continue to destroy any threat against the State of Israel,” he continued.
Gaza
The Gaza Humanitarian Fund denied reports of “incidents at or near our aid sites” on Saturday, according to Haaretz.
The U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation issued a statement Saturday afternoon denying reports that Israeli gunfire had killed at least 32 Palestinians near its facilities in the southern Gaza Strip.
“The Israeli army activity that caused casualties occurred a few hours before the opening of our sites, and we believe that most of the casualties fell several kilometers from GHF's nearest site,” the statement continued.
The organization assured that it had “repeatedly warned aid seekers not to visit the sites during the night and early morning.” “The reality is this: we are the only organization feeding the people of Gaza right now,” the text continued.
The foundation called on the U.N. to “come out of inactivity and find a way to deliver aid, or let us help it do so.”
Syria
Fighting broke out on Saturday between Sunni tribes and Bedouins and Druze fighters in the southern Syrian town of Sweida, despite calls for a cease-fire, on the seventh day of intercommunal violence which, according to an NGO, has left 940 people dead.
Earlier, the Syrian government announced the start of the deployment of its forces in the predominantly Druze province of Sweida, and called on “all parties to respect” the cease-fire it had declared.
Syria
The European Union (EU) welcomes the cease-fire announced in Syria and calls for the protection of all civilians, according to a diplomatic source quoted by AFP.
Israel-West Bank
The U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, visited the Palestinian village of Taybeh, east of Ramallah, as settler violence against the town intensifies, Haaretz reports.
Recently, settlers set fire to a cemetery near the fifth-century Green Church, and in early July, they had already set fire to the village's St. George's Church.
In June, Israelis set up an illegal outpost on the ruins of a house belonging to a family forcibly evicted from the area.
On Monday, a delegation comprising representatives from over 20 countries, as well as delegates from Jerusalem's Christian communities, traveled to Taybeh to address these rising tensions.
Southern Lebanon
An Israeli tank crossed the border and advanced about one kilometer into Lebanese territory, in the locality of Aitaroun/Maroun al-Ras (Bint Jbeil district), before withdrawing, reports our correspondent.
Gaza
The Israeli army admitted opening fire near an aid site overnight in Gaza, saying the incident is “under investigation,” according to Haaretz.
The Israeli army said it had fired on “suspects who approached” its troops in the southern Gaza Strip overnight on Saturday.
The army added in its statement that the “suspects... approached them during operational activity in the Rafah area, posing a threat to the troops.” It claimed that its soldiers “asked them to keep their distance and, when they did not comply, the troops fired warning shots.”
At least 940 people have been killed in Syria's Sweida province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said Saturday in an updated toll for a week of violence in the heartland of the Druze minority.
According to the NGO, 588 Druze — 326 fighters and 262 civilians — were killed, including 182 “summarily executed by members [of forces under] the Defense and Interior Ministries.”
The dead also include 312 members of government forces and 21 Sunni Bedouins, including three civilians “summarily executed by Druze fighters,” according to the SOHR. In addition, 15 members of government forces were killed in Israeli strikes, according to the NGO.
Hezbollah organized a grand funeral for one of its cadres assassinated by Israel, Hassan Ahmad Sabra, in his home village of Jibsheet in southern Lebanon.
Sabra had been killed by an Israeli strike on the main road to the village of Kfour, Nabatieh, on July 17.
Israel says it's “very dangerous” to be a minority in Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa's Syria, reports AFP.
Inter-community violence has claimed 718 lives since July 13 in the province of Sweida, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Nearly 80,000 people have been displaced, according to the International Organization for Migration.
The Israeli army declared that the 14-year-old Palestinian child killed in the West Bank was a “terrorist who threw an explosive device,” writes Haaretz.
The army added that another ready-to-use device had been found in the area.
The Syrian Social Affairs and Labor Minister, Hind Kabawat, said that the government was ready to send humanitarian, medical and food aid in order to respond optimally to the appeals of the inhabitants of the south of the country, according to the Syrian agency Sana.
A new Israeli drone strike on the area of Mutal al-Jabal in Khiam (Marjayoun district) has claimed one victim, according to our correspondent in the South.
In an interview with Al Jadeed on Friday, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam confirmed that American envoy Tom Barrack was scheduled to visit Beirut next week, without specifying whether he would arrive on Monday or Tuesday.
The head of government also specified that the American envoy's roadmap “brings together a series of ideas” designed to implement the cessation of hostilities agreed last November between Israel and Hezbollah.
This cease-fire, which had been agreed by the previous government of Najib Mikati (replaced in early 2025 by the current cabinet, which also approved it), is “enshrined in the ministerial declaration.”
Still according to the head of government, the main idea of this roadmap is the “complementarity” between the Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon and the re-establishment of the State's monopoly on arms, which could only be held by a limited number of bodies in the country: the Lebanese Army, the Internal Security Forces, General Security, State Security, customs and the municipal police, as included in the text of the November cease-fire agreement.
"The American envoy's roadmap proposes ideas for implementing these two complementary objectives in practice. There's the idea of complementarity and phased implementation. It doesn't happen overnight. We have discussed and commented on this roadmap."
Former Lebanese Minister Wadih Khazen emphasized the need to shield the domestic scene from the repercussions of the incidents in Sweida, as stated in a press release relayed by the National News Agency.
"In light of the regrettable events shaking the province of Sweida, and out of concern for the stability of Lebanon and its civil peace, we affirm the need to protect the domestic scene from all attempts at discord and division. We remain convinced that Lebanon's stability can only be ensured by the unity of its sons and their national consciousness," he declared.
“We commend the efforts of the Lebanese Army and internal security forces for the responsible measures they have taken to maintain security and prevent discord, and affirm our full support for their efforts to protect civil peace and prevent the country from descending into confrontation or tension,” he added.
On X, the MP for the Lebanese Forces, a Christian party and political opponent of Hezbollah, criticized the remarks made the previous day by the Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem.
"Sheikh Naim ... So there would be no handing over of weapons. That's the final answer. Now, the hero must convince the state. Sheikh Naim, to clarify: When you say ‘the resistance’, ‘the resistance environment’ and ‘the partisans’, do you mean the Shiites?
Can you explain to me what the existential threat to the Shiites is? By whom? In what form? And how do you intend to protect them? You can call on a friend, if you still have one left."
Hamas calls for day of solidarity in Arab world on Sunday
The Palestinian movement has called for a day of solidarity on Sunday in the face of “international silence, cowardice and impotence to put an end to this aggression and war of extermination and famine,” reads the statement.
“Let tomorrow, Sunday July 20, and the days that follow be remarkable global days and an international outpouring of solidarity involving all the world's forces and freemen, to denounce and condemn the crimes of extermination and starvation perpetrated by the Zionist occupation against the innocent civilians of Gaza, especially children, women and the sick,” Hamas said.
This Saturday morning, an Israeli drone dropped a sound bomb on the outskirts of the village of Rmeish, in the Bint Jbeil district, according to our correspondent in southern Lebanon.
Later in the morning, an Israeli drone dropped a bomb on the village of Dhaira, in the Sour district, without causing any injuries.
In Lebanon, Friday's news was marked by a new speech from Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem, as the question of disarming the party remains at the center of discussions involving the Lebanese authorities and the U.S.
Qassem asserted on Friday that his party would not give up “its strength” and that it was “ready to confront” Israel.
Violence continues in Gaza.
The Gaza Strip's Civil Defense said that 26 Palestinians had been killed and more than 100 wounded on Saturday by Israeli fire near two humanitarian aid centers in the war-torn south of the Palestinian territory.
Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Bassal told AFP that 22 people had died near one center southwest of Khan Younis and four near another northwest of Rafah, attributing both attacks to “Israeli fire.”
According to medical sources in Gaza, at least 30 people were killed.
Violence in southern Syria has claimed 718 lives since last Sunday, according to a new death toll released on Saturday by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
According to the NGO, 391 Druze are among the dead, including 146 fighters and 245 civilians, 165 of whom were “summarily executed by members [of forces under] the Defense and Interior Ministries” in the early days of the fighting.
The dead also include 287 members of government forces and 21 Sunni Bedouin fighters, including three civilians “summarily executed by Druze fighters,” according to the SOHR. In addition, 15 members of government forces were killed in Israeli strikes, according to the NGO.
The main news this morning concerns Syria.
On Saturday, the Syrian presidency announced an “immediate ceasefire” in the southern province of Sweida, where security forces have begun to deploy following intercommunal clashes that have left over 700 people dead in a week.
In a statement, the presidency called on “all parties to fully respect” the cease-fire and halt the violence.
“The Syrian state is committed to protecting all the country's minorities and communities ... We condemn all the crimes committed” in Sweida, said Sharaa in a televised speech shortly after the cease-fire was announced.
Syrian security forces began deploying in this predominantly Druze province on Saturday, following the announcement by the United States of an agreement between Syria and Israel, previously opposed to the presence of Syrian government forces in the region.
Dozens of young Israeli Druze reached the Syrian border on the Golan Heights on Friday night. They clashed with Israeli soldiers and forced their way through the border fence into Syrian territory.
The Israeli border police arrested them, but the army said in a statement quoted by Haaretz that efforts were continuing to recover all those who had crossed the border.
Good morning ☀️ We are now launching our live coverage of events in the Middle East for today.
We will be posting updates on Gaza, where the Israeli army is continuing its strikes, on Lebanon, where Israel continues its regular bombardment of several regions, including the South and the Bekaa, despite the truce, and on Iran and Syria.
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