Page 144 - Latest Updates on West Asia Conflict

Freedom of expression threatened most in Gaza as media targeted: UN expert

Freedom of expression has been threatened more seriously in Gaza than in any recent conflict, with journalists targeted in the war-torn territory and Palestinian supporters targeted in many countries, a United Nations expert said Friday. Irene Khan, the U.N. independent investigator on the right to freedom of opinion and expression, pointed to attacks on the media and the targeted killings and arbitrary detention of dozens of journalists in Gaza. The banning of Al Jazeera, the tightening of censorship within Israel and in the occupied territories, seem to indicate a strategy of the Israeli authorities to silence critical journalism and obstruct the documentation of possible international crimes, she said. Khan also sharply criticized the discrimination and double standards that have seen restrictions and suppression of pro-Palestinian protests and speech. She cited bans in Germany and other European countries, protests that were crushed harshly on U.S. college campuses, and ...

Israeli forces unearth Hezbollah's web of tunnels in southern Lebanon

Israeli forces have spent much of the past year destroying Hamas' vast underground network in Gaza. They are now focused on dismantling tunnels and other hideouts belonging to Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon. Scarred by Hamas' deadly raid into Israel last year that sparked the war in Gaza, Israel says it aims to prevent a similar incursion across its northern border from ever getting off the ground. The Israeli military has combed through the dense brush of southern Lebanon for the past two weeks, uncovering what it says are Hezbollah's deep attack capabilities highlighted by a tunnel system equipped with weapons caches and rocket launchers that Israel says pose a direct threat to nearby communities. Israel's war against the Iran-backed militant group stretches far inside Lebanon, and its airstrikes in recent weeks have killed more than 1,700 people, about a quarter of whom were women and children, according to local health authorities. But its ground campaign has centered

Russia willing to seek compromises between Iran and Israel, says Putin

Putin said, "We are in contact with Israel, we are in contact with Iran. We have quite trusting relations. And we would very much like this endless exchange of blows to be stopped at some point"

Hezbollah claims war with Israel enters new phase, introduces new weaponry

Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group said Friday it is entering a new phase in its fight against invading Israeli troops, as the region continued to reckon with Israel's claim that top Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar has been killed in a battle with Israeli forces in Gaza the previous day. Hamas has still not responded to the Israeli announcement, but its ally Iran released a statement commemorating the Palestinian militant leader via its mission to the United Nations. Sinwar was a chief architect of the attack on southern Israel that precipitated the latest escalating conflicts in the Middle East. Many, from the governments of Israeli allies to exhausted residents of Gaza, expressed hope that Sinwar's death would pave the way for an end to the war, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a speech announcing the killing that Our war is not yet ended. On October 7, 2023, Hamas-led militants blew holes in Israel's security fence and stormed in, killing some 1,200 people, mostly

Sinwar threw stick at drone just before death, reveals Israel video

According to accounts in Israeli media, tank shells and a missile were also fired at the building

Hezbollah declares escalation against Israel after Yahya Sinwar's death

Sinwar, who was named as Hamas' overall leader following the assassination of political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July, was believed to have been hiding in the warren of tunnels Hamas

Pepsi, Coke bottlers face can, sugar shortage in West Bank; prices soar

Sugar and cans previously were transported to West Bank bottlers from Jordan via the bridge, which has been closed for quite some time now

Hamas chief Sinwar's death came after months of searching by Israel

Head of Israel's military, Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, said Israel's pursuit of Sinwar over the past year drove him 'to act like a fugitive, causing him to change locations multiple times'

Will not rest until bring back all hostages: IDF after killing Sinwar

IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari informed that 101 hostages are still in Hamas captivity

Sinwar's killing opens up opportunity, uncertainty for war in Gaza

Israel's killing of Yahya Sinwar, Hamas' top leader and the mastermind of the group's Oct. 7 attack, is a dramatic turning point in the brutal yearlong war that it touched off. Sinwar's killing on Thursday decapitates the Palestinian militant group that has already been reeling from months of assassinations up and down its ranks. And it is a potent symbolic achievement for Israel in its battle to destroy Hamas. The killing, coming just 10 days after Israelis and Palestinians marked a year since the deadliest fighting in their decades-old conflict erupted, could set the stage for how the remainder of the war plays out, or even prompt its conclusion depending on how Israel and Hamas choose to proceed. Sinwar's death could serve as an off-ramp for Israel toward ending the warSinwar, who was appointed head of Hamas after its previous leader was killed in a blast in July blamed on Israel, spent years building up Hamas' military strength and is believed to have devised the Oct. 7, 2023,

Sinwar's death 'good day' for world, opportunity for hostage deal: Biden

President Joe Biden said Thursday that the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar by Israeli troops is a good day for Israel, for the United States, and for the world, and called it an opportunity" to free Israeli hostages held by Hamas and end the yearlong war in Gaza. Biden, in a statement, compared it to the feeling in the US after the killing of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, who was responsible for the Sept 11, 2001, attacks, saying the killing of the mastermind of the Oct 7, 2023, attack on Israel proves once again that no terrorists anywhere in the world can escape justice, no matter how long it takes. Biden said he would speak with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders to congratulate them and to discuss the pathway for bringing the hostages home to their families, and for ending this war once and for all. Biden said with Sinwar's death there is now the opportunity for a day after' in Gaza without Hamas in power, and for a political settlement .

Hamas top leader Yahya Sinwar killed, confirms Israel's foreign minister

Israel's foreign minister has confirmed that Israeli troops in Gaza have killed Hamas' top leader Yahya Sinwar, a chief architect of last year's attack on Israel that sparked the war. Sinwar has topped Israel's most wanted list since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war just over a year ago, and his killing strikes a powerful blow to the militant group. There was no immediate confirmation from Hamas of his death. Foreign Minister Katz called Sinwar's killing a military and moral achievement for the Israeli army. The assassination of Sinwar will create the possibility to immediately release the hostages and to bring a change that will lead to a new reality in Gaza - without Hamas and without Iranian control, he said in a statement.

Gaza strip remains at risk of famine due to war, say hunger experts

The Gaza Strip is still at risk of famine more than a year into the Israel-Hamas war, even as the number of people facing the most extreme level of hunger has declined in recent months, the international authority on hunger crises said on Thursday. The findings come after the United States warned Israel that it might cut off military aid if its ally does not do more to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Hundreds of thousands of people there are displaced from their homes and packed into squalid tent camps and schools-turned-shelters. In recent weeks Israel has once again ordered the evacuation of the northern third of Gaza, and it launched another major military operation there. It allowed no food to enter the north for roughly the first two weeks of October before resuming shipments on Monday. In a statement announcing a second shipment on Wednesday, the military said it will continue to act in accordance with international law "to facilitate and ease the entry of humanitari

US launches strikes on underground weapons storage facilities in Yemen

The Pentagon condemned Houthis for their relentless attacks on US and international vessels

Israeli strike on Iran 'now a matter of time' as IDF locks in targets

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has reportedly agreed to limit his country's response to Iran's October 1 missile attacks on Israel

Israeli strikes kill 25 in Lebanese town 'Qana' known for civilian deaths

Israeli strikes have killed at least 15 people in the southern Lebanese town of Qana, which has long been associated with civilian deaths after Israeli strikes during previous conflicts with Hezbollah. Israel meanwhile struck Beirut's southern suburbs early Wednesday for the first time in nearly a week. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the strikes in Qana late Tuesday. Lebanon's Civil Defence said 15 bodies had been recovered from the rubble of a building and that rescue efforts were still underway. In 1996, Israeli artillery shelling on a United Nations compound housing hundreds of displaced people in Qana killed at least 100 civilians and wounded scores more, including four UN peacekeepers. During the 2006 war, an Israeli strike on a residential building killed nearly three dozen people, a third of them children. Israel said at the time that it struck a Hezbollah rocket launcher behind the building. Israel also carried out a wave of airstrikes on the ..

Israeli jets strike southern Beirut for first time in nearly a week

Israeli jets struck the southern suburbs of Beirut early Wednesday for the first time in six days, Lebanese state media reported. The casualty count was not yet clear. The attack comes just one day after caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said the United States government gave him some assurances of Israel easing its strikes in the Lebanese capital. Israel says it is striking Hezbollah assets in the suburbs, where the militant group has a strong presence, but it is also a busy residential and commercial area. The Israeli military said the Wednesday strike hit a weapons warehouse under a residential building. The Israeli military posted an evacuation warning on the X platform saying it is targeting a building in the Haret Hreik neighbourhood. An Associated Press photographer who witnessed the strikes said there were three in the area. The first strike was documented less than an hour after the notice. Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel on Oct. 8 in solidarity with the ...

Israeli airstrikes on southern Gaza kill nearly 15 people overnight

Israeli strikes in the southern Gaza Strip killed at least 15 people overnight, including six children and two women, Palestinian medical officials said on Tuesday. In northern Gaza, where Israel has been waging an air and ground campaign in Jabaliya for more than a week, residents said families were still trapped in their homes and shelters. It's been more than a year since Hamas-led militants blew holes in Israel's security fence and stormed in, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250. They are still holding about 100 people captive inside Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead. Israel's offensive in Gaza has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not say how many were fighters but say women and children make up more than half of the fatalities. The war has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced about 90 per cent of its population of 2.3 million people. In solidarity with Hamas, Lebanese militant .

Israel agrees to limit retaliation against Iran over Oct 1 missile attacks

On October 1, Iran launched a wave of missile attacks against Israel in response to the killing of Lebanon-based Hezbollah Chief Hassan Nasrallah. In response, Israel had vowed retaliation

UNSC voices 'strong concern' for peacekeepers after Israeli attacks

The UN Security Council expressed strong concern Monday as Israel has fired on and wounded UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon during intensified fighting, reiterating its support for their role in supporting security in the region. It's the first statement by the UN's most powerful body since Israel's attacks on the positions of the peacekeeping force known as UNIFIL began last week, drawing international condemnation. UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Marie Lacroix told reporters that Secretary-General Antnio Guterres confirmed Monday that peacekeepers will remain in all their positions even as Israel has urged the peacekeepers to move 5 kilometers (3 miles) north during its ground invasion in Lebanon. Israel has been escalating its campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon across a UN-drawn boundary between the two countries. The sides have been clashing since the Iranian-backed militant group started firing rockets a year ago in solidarity with its ally Hamas in Gaza. Hamas' deadly attacks