Fifteen civil defence workers were killed in an Israeli airstrike on Baalbek, with an additional five killed in a separate attack on the village of Arabsalim in southern Lebanon’s Nabatieh region.
Josep Borrell, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, condemned the deaths of 15 paramedics in Baalbek, describing the incident as a serious breach of international humanitarian law.
Meanwhile, Israeli warplanes launched a second wave of strikes on Damascus’s Mazzeh suburb in as many days, according to Syria’s state news agency, SANA.
In Gaza, at least 28 Palestinians have been killed and 120 injured within the past 24 hours, according to the Health Ministry.
A senior Israeli official told Hebrew-language newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth that those recently in contact with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, including top aides to US President Joe Biden, believe he sees the captives' fate as decided.
Netanyahu "emphasises the dead more than those who are alive," the official said anonymously.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has unveiled $230 million in funding for "recovery and development programmes" in the West Bank and Gaza.
This comes in addition to $2.1 billion in humanitarian aid provided since 7 October 2023, according to a USAID press release.
The new funding is aimed at "reducing the influence of Hamas," the statement added.
Notably, the announcement, made on Friday, appears to have been dated incorrectly as 17 November 2024.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during the Sir Bani Yas Forum in the UAE.
The two officials emphasised the urgent need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon, alongside the unrestricted delivery of humanitarian aid, according to a statement from Egypt’s Foreign Ministry.
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said that an artillery shell hit its West Sector headquarters in Southern Lebanon's Shama on Thursday.
There was no injury among peacekeepers, and only minor damages to a facility, UNIFIL added in a statement.
Italy on Friday said an unexploded artillery shell hit the base of the Italian contingent in the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon and Israel promised to investigate.
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani spoke with Israeli counterpart Gideon Saar and protested Israeli attacks against its personnel and infrastructure in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, an Italian statement said.
Tajani said the safety of the soldiers in UNIFIL had to be ensured and stressed "the unacceptability" of the attacks.
The Italian statement said Saar had "guaranteed an immediate investigation" into the shell inciden
An Israeli airstrike on the southern Lebanese town of Ain Qana has killed a family of five, according to the National News Agency.
Ni’mat Allah Hussein Malah, his wife, and their three children were killed when the strike destroyed their home.
The agency also reported multiple airstrikes across southern Lebanon, targeting the towns of Rmadiyeh, Jebchit, al-Shaitiya, Jouaiya, and Khirbet Selm.
The Lebanese government is reviewing a US truce proposal in the Israel-Hezbollah conflict, Lebanese officials told news agency AFP on Friday, more than a month since cross-border clashes escalated into a full-blown war.
A top government official in Beirut, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said US Ambassador Lisa Johnson discussed with senior Lebanese officials on Thursday a 13-point proposal that includes a 60-day truce, during which Lebanon will redeploy troops at the border.
The official added that Israel has yet to respond to the plan.
Hezbollah said on Friday evening it targeted a "gathering of Israeli enemy army forces" near the town of Dovev on the Israeli frontier.
The rocket strikes follow a day of frequent exchanges of fire against Israeli military in Tulsa and Manara.
Hezbollah fighters have also targeted Israeli troops around the Lebanese village of Maroun al-Ras which has been at the centre of attacks for weeks.
Lebanon's health ministry said on Friday that 59 people were killed in Israeli attacks on Lebanon yesterday, bringing the total killed since October last year to at least 3,445, with 14,599 wounded.
Looting of aid reaching Gaza has been made easier by Israel's army targeting the local police which would otherwise be able to prevent it, a group of non-governmental organisations said Friday.
A report by the 29 NGOs, including Save the Children, Oxfam and Care, said that humanitarian aid entering the Palestinian territory had fallen to an all-time low, averaging 37 humanitarian trucks per day in October, and 69 in the first week of November.
This compared with an average of 500 a day before the October 7, 2023, unprecedented attack by Hamas militants on Israel.
The NGOs said that "merely counting the number of trucks" was no longer an adequate measure of gauging the amount of aid reaching the people in the Gaza Strip.
"Looting is an ongoing issue," they said, calling the theft of goods "a consequence of Israel's targeting of the remaining police forces in Gaza" as well as of scarcity of essential goods, lack of routes and the closure of most crossing points which had resulted in "desperation of the population amid those dire conditions".
Lebanese officials are reviewing a US-Israeli ceasefire proposal that includes strict measures for southern Lebanon, though doubts remain about its viability.
The draft deal was reportedly handed to Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Thursday by the US ambassador to Lebanon Lisa Johnson. It was then passed onto the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group.
A response by Hezbollah and Lebanese officials is expected in the coming days, Israel’s Kan broadcaster said Friday. Earlier reports suggested Lebanon was given a 24-hour ultimatum.
"We are serious in implementing a ceasefire deal and do not want war, but it needs to be two-sided. The other side needs to also be realistic – Israel cannot force Lebanon to compromise over its own sovereignty, this is a red line," Lebanon’s caretaker Culture Minister Mohamad Mortada told The New Arab.
Mortada reiterated the stance taken by Lebanese officials repeatedly, which is the full implementation of UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1701.
European Union foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said he condemned Israel's strike on a town in Baalbek on Thursday which killed 15 emergency workers.
Borrell wrote on X on Friday that "Attacks on healthcare workers and facilities are a grave violation of international humanitarian law".
"The protection of medical personnel in conflict zones is non-negotiable."
The strike hit a building in the town of Douris near Baalbek.
The EU strongly condemns the killing of 12 paramedics in an Israeli strike near Baalbek.
— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) November 15, 2024
Attacks on healthcare workers and facilities are a grave violation of international humanitarian law. The protection of medical personnel in conflict zones is non-negotiable.
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The head of the UN nuclear watchdog visited two Iranian nuclear sites on Friday as part of a visit to Iran, ahead of an expected European diplomatic push over Tehran's atomic activities before Donald Trump's return to the White House.
During the visit, Iran's foreign minister told International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi that Tehran is willing to resolve outstanding disputes over its nuclear programme but won't succumb to pressure.
Grossi visited the Natanz nuclear plant and the Fordow enrichment site, which is dug into a mountain around 100 km (60 miles) south of the capital Tehran, state media reported, without giving details.
Relations between Tehran and the IAEA have soured over several long-standing issues including Iran barring the agency's uranium-enrichment experts from the country and its failure to explain uranium traces found at undeclared sites.
"The ball is in the EU/E3 court," Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi wrote on X following talks in Tehran with Grossi on Thursday, referring to three European countries - France, Britain and Germany - which represent the West alongside the United States at nuclear talks.
"Willing to negotiate based on our national interest and inalienable rights, but not ready to negotiate under pressure and intimidation," Araqchi said.
(Reuters)
The health ministry in Gaza said Friday that at least 43,764 people have been killed in more than 13 months of war between Israel and Palestinian militants.
The toll includes 28 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry, which said 103,490 people have also been wounded in the Gaza Strip.
Iran will back any decision taken by Lebanon in talks to secure a ceasefire with Israel, a senior Iranian official said on Friday, signalling Tehran wants to see an end to a conflict that has dealt heavy blows to its Lebanese ally Hezbollah.
Ali Larijani, an advisor to Iran's supreme leader, spoke during a visit to Beirut as Israel kept up its intensified bombardment of Hezbollah-controlled areas of the Lebanese capital.
Israel has this week stepped up airstrikes against the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs - an escalation that has coincided with indications of movement in U.S.-led diplomatic contacts towards ending the conflict.
The U.S. ambassador to Lebanon submitted a draft truce proposal on Thursday to Lebanon's parliament speaker Nabih Berri, who is endorsed by Hezbollah to negotiate, two senior Lebanese political sources told Reuters.
The draft was Washington's first written proposal to halt fighting between its ally Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah in at least several weeks, the sources said. The sources did not provide details about the contents of the proposal.
Speaking to reporters after meeting Berri, Larijani said Berri had provided him with "good clarifications".
"We are not looking to sabotage anything," Larijani said, responding to a reporter who asked whether he had come to Beirut to wreck the American draft.
Syrian state-run media said Israel struck the upscale Mazzeh district of Damascus on Friday, the second such attack in as many days to hit the neighbourhood home to embassies, security headquarters and United Nations offices.
"Israeli aggression targets Mazzeh area in Damascus," the official SANA news agency said, after reporting a deadly Israeli strike on the district a day earlier.
Some 15 people were killed and 16 more injured in an strike on Damascus on Thursday, one of the deadliest strikes in months to hit the capital. Israel claimed to be striking Islamic Jihad facilities in Syria, though women and children were reportedly among the dead.
A senior Hamas official said Friday that the group is "ready for a ceasefire" in Gaza and urged US President-elect Donald Trump to "pressure" Israel to "end the aggression".
"Hamas is ready to reach a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip if a ceasefire proposal is presented and on the condition that it is respected" by Israel, Hamas political bureau member Bassem Naim told AFP. "We call on the US administration and Trump to pressure the Israeli government to end the aggression."
The number of bodies recovered in an Israeli strike on a civil defense centre in a town near Baalbek on Thursday has risen to 15, local authorities said on Friday.
All of those killed in the strike on the town of Douris, just a few kilometres south of Baalbek, were employees or volunteers of the local emergency services agency, Lebanese civil defense said.
Bachir Khodr, governor of Baalbek-Hermel governorate, said on Friday that 10 of the bodies had been identified while teams were working to identify the final five which were found "in pieces".
Israeli military Arabic spokesperson Avichay Adraee ordered residents near two buildings in neighbourhoods in Beirut's suburb known as Dahiyeh, in the third such order since early this morning.
Adraee warned that attacks were imminent in the vicinity of Haret Hreik and Hadath.
A previous strike on the edge of Ghobeiry caused a huge fireball and a tower block to collapse. The city has been under heavy strikes since Tuesday.
Lebanon's caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, said on Friday the Lebanese government prioritises the implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 in its entirety without any amendments.
The resolution ended the last round of conflict between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006 and stipulates that southern Lebanon must be free of arms that do not belong to the Lebanese state.
"Calls are ongoing to reach an understanding", Mikati said in a post on X.
Mikati has been holding a meeting with Iranian special envoy Ali Larijani in Beirut.
(Reuters)
Gaza's health ministry said on Friday that 28 people have been killed and 120 others injured as a result of Israeli attacks over the past day.
This brings the total number of killed and wounded throughout the war to 43,764 dead and 103,490 injured.
Gaza authorities fear the death toll could be higher considering the number of people trapped under rubble and out of reach of health services. The ministry's report only includes those who have reached hospitals and does not distinguish between civilians and fighters.
Iranian special envoy Ali Larijarni held meetings with Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri to discuss the latest ceasefire proposal between Israel and Hezbollah on Friday.
After the meeting, Larijani, who is a senior adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader, said Iran would support "any decision" taken by the Lebanese government and "the resistance" referring to the Shia group Hezbollah.
A Palestinian militant group allied with Hamas released a new clip Friday of Israeli hostage Sasha Trupanov, held in Gaza since the October 2023 attack, after releasing a first video earlier this week.
Trupanov, identified by his relatives in the first video released on Monday, appealed to Aryeh Deri, leader of the Sephardi ultra-Orthodox party Shas, a member of Israel's governing coalition, to help free him and the other hostages held in Gaza.
Iran's special envoy to the Supreme Leader Ali Larijani is travelling to Beirut today for meetings with Lebanese officials in the wake of a new ceasefire proposal between Israel and Hezbollah.
Larijani will hope to craft a more favourable position for Hezbollah after the United States and Israel presented Lebanon's Prime Minister Najib Mikati and House Speaker Nabih Berri with a deal based on UN Resolution 1701.
A key point includes Hezbollah pushing back to north of the Litani River, a considerably territorial push back from the frontier which also requests the group to disarm.
Larijani said on Friday morning he would fly from Damascus where he has been meeting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
A building in Beirut's southern suburbs collapsed in a gigantic cloud of smoke and dust following a strike attributed to Israel, an AFP photographer reported.
A series of images from the strike captures a falling projectile slamming into the lower floors of the building, which erupt in a huge fireball, causing the structure to collapse.
Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported a "heavy raid carried out by aircraft of the Israeli enemy" in the area of Ghobeiri, near Horsh Beirut, the capital's largest park.
A fresh strike targeted Beirut's southern suburbs on Friday following an evacuation order issued by the Israeli army, according to an AFP journalist, who witnessed a column of grey smoke rising from the area.
Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported a "heavy strike" carried out with two missiles fired by an "enemy aircraft" in the area of Bourj al-Barajneh.
Footage of the Israeli strike on Ghobeiry this morning shows widespread destruction with rubble strewn across a main highway in the southern surbub after multiple airstrikes.
Huge plumes of smoke can be seen wafting over the city with one the attacks reportedly hitting a local radio station Al-Risala.
It is the fourth consecutive day Israel has been hitting south Beirut.
The aftermath of Israeli airstrikes that targeted residential buildings in Al-Ghobeiry neighborhood in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, Beirut. pic.twitter.com/Pscs8wnCXp
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) November 15, 2024
Israeli army said on Friday it "eliminated" a senior member of the Islamic Jihad group in Gaza City.
It said Alkaman Abed Eslam Khalil Anbar was responsible for "fire support" for Islamic Jihad, a smaller armed group in Gaza City, where Israel has been pushing back against Hamas for over a month.
In a statement on Telegram, the army said it was still operating in Jabalia, Beit Lahia, and Rafah in south Gaza.
At least two people have been killed and more wounded in a drone strike on Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood of Gaza City on Friday morning, Al Jazeera Arabic reported.
Other strikes hit areas west of Jabalia refugee camp, also in the north. Civilians in the north have been trapped by Israeli forces for six weeks with aid agencies warning that famine is imminent.
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