Relentless Israeli strikes kill dozens in Gaza and Lebanon

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The Israeli military carried out multiple raids on West Bank towns on Monday night and fired live ammunition and sprayed tear gas, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa.

The town of Al-Khader south of Bethlehem was stormed by Israeli forces who fired bullets and threw grenades and gas canisters at residents and their vehicles which traumatized the local population, Wafa said.

Udda south of Nablus was also met by the Israeli army who detained one man after confrontations with residents.

The army said earlier it was carrying out "counterterrorism activity" in Al-Khader and claimed  that a vehicle drove into an army checkpoint in a "ramming attack".

The occupied West Bank has been embroiled by violence as Israel has stepped up assaults on towns and villages and largely failed to halt settler violence against Palestinians living there.

Palestinian group Hamas on Monday called on Arab and Muslim countries to translate their pledges of support into action and take measures to stop Israeli "aggression".

"The establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital would require more immediate efforts and practical solutions to force (Israel) to stop its aggression and genocide against our people," Hamas said in a statement after Arab and Muslim leaders demanded at a summit in Riyadh that Israel withdraw from occupied Palestinian territories as a precondition for regional peace.

Israeli military says it intercepted a drone which had "infiltrated into Israeli territory" from the east in the Negev desert area.

In a statement on Telegram, the army did not specify any further detail but follows a pattern of drone launches from Iraqi groups backed by Iran.

Earlier on Monday evening, Israel said it intercepted drones from Lebanon which had entered the western Galilee region.

American forces carried out strikes Monday against nine targets associated with Iranian-backed groups in Syria in response to attacks on Washington's troops in that country, the US military said.

"These strikes will degrade the Iranian-backed groups' ability to plan and launch future attacks on US and coalition forces," the US Central Command said on social media, referring to the international coalition against the Islamic State jihadist group.

Saudi Arabia's crown prince and de facto ruler condemned what he called the "genocide" committed by Israel against Palestinians when he spoke at a summit of Muslim and Arab leaders on Monday.

"The Kingdom renews its condemnation and categorical rejection of the genocide committed by Israel against the brotherly Palestinian people," Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said at an Arab Islamic summit, echoing comments by Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud late last month.

He urged the international community to stop Israel from attacking Iran and to respect Iran's sovereignty.

The crown prince said in September the kingdom would not recognise Israel unless a Palestinian state were created.

(Reuters)

An Israeli airstrike killed at least seven people at a cafe west of southern Gaza's Khan Younis, medics said on Monday. 

Local sources said the strike hit a cafe in al-Mawassi area, a designated 'safe-zone' by the Israeli army.

Videos shared on social media site Telegram, not independently verified by The New Arab, showed blood-strewn plastic table and chairs knocked over as people rushed to help the wounded, with at least two men lying on the sand.

Arab and Muslim leaders on Monday condemned what they described as "continuous attacks" by Israel against the United Nations, during a summit in Saudi Arabia focused on ongoing regional wars.

The leaders condemned "the continued attacks by the Israeli occupation authorities and their representatives on the United Nations and its Secretary-General," a statement said, citing restrictions on officials trying to enter "the territory of the State of Palestine".

The leaders also called for a ban on the export of weapons to Israel.

Lebanon said an Israeli strike on the northernmost Akkar region killed at least eight people Monday in one of the farthest attacks from the border since war erupted in September.

"The Israeli enemy strike on Ain Yaacoub in Akkar killed eight people and injured 14 others," the health ministry said in a statement, giving what it said was a preliminary toll.

Arab and Muslim leaders on Monday called for the unification the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the Gaza Strip and annexed east Jerusalem under a Palestinian state, during a summit in Saudi Arabia.

In the summit's closing statement, the leaders called for "providing all forms of political and diplomatic support to the Palestinian people and to the State of Palestine for achieving Palestinian national unity, and for its effective assumption of its responsibilities over all the occupied Palestinian territories, including the Gaza Strip, unifying it with the West Bank, including the city of" Jerusalem, which Israel claims as its capital.

Israel's newly appointed Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Monday that "there will be no ceasefire and there will be no break in the strikes against Hezbollah" militants in Lebanon.

But, Katz told a forum of top military generals that "if the possibility arises and a good proposal is put forward that would allow us to claim victory... we will certainly consider it very seriously".

An Israeli strike on a home in Lebanon's northern Akkar region has killed and wounded 28 people so far, the country's state-run media said. 

"An enemy strike targeted a house in the village of Ain Yaacoub," some 150 kilometres (93 miles) from Israel, said Lebanon’s  National News Agency confirmed.

According to locals, displaced people and Syrian nationals lived in the area. which is the northernmost area Israel has attacked since the escalation of the war in September. 

Lebanese state-run media said Israel struck a house in the northern Akkar region on Monday, one of the farthest attacks from the border in its war on Lebanon.

"An enemy strike targeted a house in the village of Ain Yaacoub," some 150 kilometres (93 miles) from Israel, said Lebanon's official National News Agency, with local official Rony al-Hage telling AFP that displaced people lived there and that it was the northernmost Israeli attack since a full-blown war on the country erupted in September.

Iran on Monday said the "world is waiting" for Donald Trump's incoming US government to stop Israel's wars on Gaza and Lebanon, as it condemned a wave of Israeli assassinations as "organised terrorism".

"The American government is the main supporter of the actions of the Zionist regime (Israel)," First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref told a joint Arab League and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation summit in Riyadh.

"The world is waiting for the promise of the new government of this country to immediately stop the war against the innocent people of Gaza and Lebanon."

Since October 2023, Israel has killed a number of senior figures including Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar and Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's long-time leader.

Israel is also widely believed to have carried out the killing of former Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in the Iranian capital Tehran.

The "'targeted killing' (operations)... are nothing but lawlessness and organised terrorism and turn the security apparatus into a tool to kill leaders and citizens of the countries," Aref said.

While Trump has promised peace in the Middle East, during the campaign he said outgoing President Joe Biden should let Israel "finish the job" in Gaza.

Israeli attacks on Lebanon on Sunday killed 54 people, the country's Ministry of Health said on Monday.

The ministry added at least 56 others were wounded in the attacks. 

A top Iranian official condemned Israel's assassinations of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders as "organised terrorism", in remarks to a joint Arab League and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation summit on Monday.

"The operations that are conceptualised with the deceptive phrasing of 'targeted killing', and during which Palestinian elites and leaders of other countries in the region are killed one by one or en masse, are nothing but lawlessness and organised terrorism," First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref said.

Israeli member of Knesset, Ofer Cassif, has defended earlier comments he made criticising the Israeli army's actions in Gaza.

According to the Times of Israel, he reiterated his comments when the Knesset Ethics Committee voted to suspend him today for six months. 

"My political statements against the occupation, ethnic cleansing, war crimes and genocide committed by the Israeli government in Gaza – witnessed by the entire world – are well-founded statements protected under the freedom of political expression," he said in a statement. 

"My punishment is a continuation of the political persecution of opponents of the war and critics of [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s bloody rule," he added.

Cassif said that he would not be silenced and he is proud to be a "partner of the good people who are persecuted by this evil government".

He concluded his comments by stating he will continue to fight for the return of Israeli captives from Gaza as well as the end to the occupation and the "establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel".

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas addressed the Arab League-Islamic Cooperation summit in Riyadh on Monday, where he said Gaza "must be under the jurisdiction of the State of Palestine and the Palestine Liberation Organisation".

He added the need to "implement the U.N. Security Council resolution to stop the war and withdraw Israel from Gaza".

Jordan's King Abdullah II insisted on the need for "an immediate end to the Israeli wars, to put an end to the destruction and prevent the region from sinking into all-out war."

He made the comments during the Arab summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he is joined by other world leaders.

Three people have been wounded in barrages from Lebanon, Haaretz reported on Monday.

The rocket barrages targeted northern Israel, and moderately wounded a 52-year-old man, the Israeli Magen David Adom emergency service said. 

An Israeli air raid has targeted the vicinity of Gaza City's Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital, Al-Jazeera reported on Monday.

Reporters for the network said there was a violent explosion at the site. This is not the first time Israel has targeted the hospital's vicinity.

Israel's far-right finance minister said on Monday that he hopes Israel will extend sovereignty into the occupied West Bank in 2025.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also wields a defence ministry supervisory role for settlers as part of his coalition deal with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said he hopes the incoming Trump administration in Washington will recognise an Israeli sovereignty push, according to a statement from Smotrich's office.

Smotrich has for years called for Israeli sovereignty in the West Bank, land illegally occupied by Israel since 1967 where Palestinians hope to form a future state.

(Reuters & The New Arab Staff)

 Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer will meet US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday in Washington, the State Department said.

The meeting will take place at 1700 ET (2200 GMT) on Monday, according to the State Department's public schedule.

The meeting will come amid hopes of a truce in Israel's war in Gaza suffering a setback with Qatar suspending its mediation role in the negotiations. Israel separately said on Monday there was progress in talks about a ceasefire in its war in Lebanon. 

(Reuters)

German airline group Lufthansa said on Monday it was extending the suspension of flights to Tel Aviv up to and including 15 December, due to Israel's wars in Gaza and Lebanon.

The extension applied to all airlines within the group, which includes SWISS, Austrian Airlines and Eurowings.

In addition, flights to Tel Aviv from Frankfurt and Munich with flagship airline Lufthansa will also now be suspended to the end of the year, the group said.

Previously, all of the group's flights had been suspended up to and including 25 November.

The Lufthansa group has repeatedly modified its flight schedule in recent months due to heightened tensions in the Middle East, as have other carriers.

Its flights to the Iranian capital have also already been suspended until the end of January next year, while services to Lebanese capital Beirut have been suspended until the end of February.

Israeli forces detained at least 20 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank on Monday, the Palestinian Prisoners Society and the Palestinian Authority's Commission for Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs said. 

The groups added that some of those arrested were former prisoners. 

The arrest campaign happened overnight, in various cities including Ramallah, Nablus, Jerusalem and Qalaqilya. 

The figure takes the number of Palestinians arrested in the West Bank and east Jerusalem since 7 October 2023 to 11,600.

Lebanon's Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Monday warned that his country was suffering an "unprecedented" crisis that threatens its existence, as Israel expanded its war on Lebanon.

"Lebanon is going through an unprecedented historical and existential crisis that threatens its present and future," he told a joint Arab League and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation summit in Riyadh.

France's foreign minister said on Monday that a new round of sanctions targeting violent Israeli settlers could happen soon.

"We were instrumental in setting up the (EU) sanctions regime that was already activated two times, and that might be activated a third time soon," Jean-Noel Barrot told the Paris Peace Forum.

"We believe that those violent settlers and these intensive settlement activities are illegal, that it should stop in the interest of Israel and its security."

As much of the world's attention has focused on Israel's war on Gaza, growing violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and land grabs in the occupied territory have raised concern among some of Israel's Western allies. 

Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince, Mohammed Bin Salman, urged Israel to end the war on Gaza at a summit in Riyadh on Monday.

"We demand an immediate halt to the Israeli aggression on Palestinian territories and Lebanon," he said.

"Ongoing Israeli crimes against innocent civilians and the continued violation of our holy site, Al-Aqsa Mosque, undermine all efforts aimed at restoring the lawful rights of the Palestinian people," he added.

In his statement, he also highlighted the plight of Palestinians in Gaza amidst dwindling aid caused by obstructions from Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved pager attacks that killed scores in Lebanon in September, Omer Dostri, spokesperson for his office, said on Monday.

The Israeli military, which has been engaged in cross-border fighting with Hezbollah since the start of the war on Gaza on October 2023, at first declined to respond to questions about the detonations.

On 17 September, thousands of pagers simultaneously exploded in the southern suburbs of Beirut and other areas across the country, in most cases after the devices beeped, indicating an incoming message.

A Hezbollah official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the incident was the "biggest security breach" for the group in nearly a year of conflict with Israel.

Among the victims rushed to hospital, many had eye injuries, missing fingers or gaping holes in their abdomens, Reuters witnesses saw, indicating their proximity to the devices at the time of detonation.

In total, the pager attack, and a second on the following day that activated weaponised walkie-talkies, killed 39 people and wounded more than 3,400.

Israeli media reported that Netanyahu claimed responsibility for the attack during a cabinet meeting, telling ministers that senior defence officials and political figures were opposed to the detonation of the pagers but that he went ahead with the operation.

Hezbollah fighters have been using pagers as a low-tech means of communication in an attempt to evade Israeli location-tracking, two sources familiar with the group's operations told Reuters this year. A pager is a wireless telecommunications device that receives and displays messages.

Israel followed up the pager detonations with the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in an air strike and launching incursions in south Lebanon.

Hezbollah has not received any proposals on a truce for Lebanon, a spokesperson said on Monday, after Israel's foreign minister said diplomatic efforts had made "progress" and amid Israeli media reports that the cabinet had approved a ceasefire proposal.

"So far, according to my information, nothing official has reached Lebanon or us in this regard," the head of Hezbollah's media office, Mohammad Afif, said in news conference in the southern suburbs of Beirut.

"I believe that we are still in the phase of testing the waters and presenting initial ideas and proactive discussions, but so far there is nothing actual yet," he added.

Israeli foreign minister Gideon Saar said on Monday that progress had been made in Lebanon's ceasefire talks but that enforcement remained the most important element.

"There is progress," Saar told a press conference on Monday, adding: "the main challenge will be to enforce what will be agreed."

Israel Hayom reported on Sunday that substantial progress has been made in diplomatic negotiations over a proposed Lebanon ceasefire that would require Hezbollah to withdraw north of the Litani River, barring its military presence near the Israeli border, while the Israeli army would return to the international border.

The Israeli Yedioth Ahronoth, also reported on Monday that Israel and Lebanon have exchanged drafts through U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein, signalling progress in efforts to reach a final agreement. 

Syria's main Homs-Damascus highway has been temporarily cut off after an Israeli strike targeted an aid gathering centre for displaced Lebanese south of the city of Homs, Reuters reported citing the Syrian state news agency SANA.

Earlier today, the report stated there was an Israeli attack on the Chenchar area in Homs' southern countryside in central Syria. 

Hamas has called for the formation of an Arab-Islamic coalition to end Israel's wars on Gaza and Lebanon.

The group urged leaders of Arab and Muslim countries, who are set to meet at a summit in Saudi Arabia's Riyadh today, to form the coalition and "pressure" Israel into ending the wars.

The groups senior official, Osama Hamdan, posted the statement on Telegram on Sunday where he reiterated that they must work towards lifting Israel's siege on Gaza.

He clarified Hamas had a "positive" stance towards any proposals aimed at stopping "the aggression, withdrawing the [Israeli] occupation forces from Gaza, facilitating the return of displaced people, ending the siege, reconstructing [Gaza] and reaching a genuine hostage exchange deal".

Hamdan concluded by calling on Arab and Muslim countries to boycott Israel and terminate all normalisation agreements with it.

The Reuters news agency reported on Monday that there are initial reports of an Israeli attack on Syria's Homs countryside, citing the Syrian state news agency.

Hezbollah spokesman Mohammad Afif said earlier today in a news conference that Israel has not yet been able to occupy a single Lebanese village. 

"We tell the enemies that you will not win your war with air strikes" he said, adding that Israeli claims that Hezbollah is facing a significant decline in missile stockpiles are "lies".

"Our forces on the front lines have enough equipment for a long war," he continued.

Hezbollah said on Monday that the Israeli military has been unable to occupy even a single village in Lebanon since intensifying attacks on the country in September.

"After 45 days of bloody fighting, the enemy is still unable to occupy a single Lebanese village," Hezbollah spokesman Mohammad Afif told a news conference in south Beirut, which Israel has pounded with air strikes.

Iran on Monday said US president-elect Donald Trump must end the war in Gaza, as the death toll in the besieged Strip has surpassed 43,600 people. 

Foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said during a news conference in Tehran that the incoming American president should "stop the continued genocide" in the Gaza Strip.

Yemen's Houthis on Monday said they carried out an attack on central Israel, which comes after the Israeli military stating they intercepted a missile fired from the Arabian Peninsula.

In a statement, the Houthis said they carried out a "military operation targeting the Nahal Sorek military base" southeast of Jaffa, adding the "hit was accurate and led to a fire".

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI), a coalition of factions, claimed responsibility early on Monday for five drone attacks targeting military points in Israel. 

The group made the announcement on Telegram, where they said they struck military targets in northern and southern Israel. 

They added the strikes were "in support of our people in Palestine and Lebanon, and in response to the massacres committed by the usurping entity against civilians, including children, women and the elderly".

Israeli strikes on Gaza's north killed at least 36 people overnight, as bombing targeted residential buildings in Jabalia.

According to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, at least 24 people were killed when an Israeli strike targeted a three-story building at dawn.

Video footage circulating online showed dozens of bodies wrapped in white cloth laying on the ground outside a hospital in Jabalia following the attacks. 

The Israeli military issued a statement saying they struck a site in Jabalia, where "terrorists were operating" without providing any evidence.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces also shot a young man in the occupied West Bank, and detained two others early on Monday.

According to the Wafa news agency, Israeli forces stormed the Jalazone refugee camp near Ramallah and opened fire and tear gas at residents while they were in their homes.

At least two young men, aged 18 and 29, were detained following searches of their homes.