Page 145 - Latest Updates on West Asia Conflict

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

Over 400K children in Lebanon displaced in 3 weeks by ongoing war: UN

More than 400,000 children in Lebanon have been displaced in the past three weeks, a top official with the U.N. children's agency said Monday, warning of a lost generation in the small country grappling with multiple crises and now in the middle of war. Israel has escalated its campaign against the Lebanon-based Hezbollah militant group, including launching a ground invasion, after a year of exchanges of fire during its war with Hamas in Gaza. The fighting in Lebanon has driven 1.2 million people from their homes, most of them fleeing to Beirut and elsewhere in the north over the past three weeks since the escalation. Ted Chaiban, UNICEF's deputy executive director for humanitarian actions, has visited schools that have been turned into shelters to host displaced families. What struck me is that this war is three weeks old and so many children have been affected, Chaiban told The Associated Press in Beirut. As we sit here today, 1.2 million children are deprived of education. Thei

Inflation horse brought to the stable, has to be kept on a tight leash: RBI

While the September inflation print may see a significant pick-up as base effects turn adverse and food prices register an upturn, food inflation, the RBI said, is expected to ease by Q4:2024-25

Israeli minister denounces UN peacekeepers as fighting with Hezbollah rages

Israel and the United Nations have been trading accusations over the peacekeepers in south Lebanon

More than 40 killed, including 13 children in Israeli strikes on Gaza

Meanwhile, in northern Gaza, five children were killed in an Israeli airstrike while playing marbles in Al Shati camp

Iran's missile strikes offer lessons for US in countering China's threats

The picture is much different in the Indo-Pacific region for the US and its allies, which use the Lockheed Martin and Raytheon Patriot, THAAD and sea-based Aegis systems for missile defence

Drone strike in Israel injures almost 40 as Hezbollah claims responsibility

Israeli rescue services said almost 40 people were wounded on Sunday in a drone strike in the central city of Binyamina, three of them critically. The Lebanon-based Hezbollah militant group claimed responsibility for one of the most serious strikes to land in Israel in a year of war. Israel's advanced air-defence systems mean that it's rare for so many people to be hurt by drones or missiles. Israeli media reported that two drones were launched from Lebanon, and the military said one was intercepted. It was not immediately clear who was hurt, military members or civilians, or what was hit. Hezbollah said in a statement that it targeted an Israeli military training camp in retaliation for two Israeli strikes in Beirut on Thursday that killed 22 people. It was the second time in two days that a drone has struck in Israel. On Saturday, during the Israeli holiday of Yom Kippur, a drone struck in a suburb of Tel Aviv, causing damage but no injuries. The latest strike came on the same d

At least 15 dead in Israeli strikes on areas outside Hezbollah strongholds

The ministry reported the highest death toll from an attack on the village of Maaysra, situated north of Beirut

Hezbollah, Israel battle on border as Lebanon's army watches from sidelines

Since Israel launched its ground invasion of Lebanon, Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants have clashed along the border while the Lebanese army has largely stood on the sidelines. It's not the first time the national army has found itself watching war at home from the discomfiting position of bystander. Lebanon's widely beloved army is one of the few institutions that bridge the country's sectarian and political divides. Several army commanders have become president, and the current commander, Gen. Joseph Aoun, is widely regarded as one of the front-runners to step in when the deadlocked parliament fills a two-year vacuum and names a president. But with an aging arsenal and no air defenses, and battered by five years of economic crisis, the national army is ill-prepared to defend Lebanon against either aerial bombardment or a ground offensive by a well-equipped modern army like Israel's. The army is militarily overshadowed by Hezbollah. The Lebanese army has about 80,000 troops,

US sees window for new push to break deadlock in Lebanon, ease conflict

With Israel's sabotage and military operations in Lebanon taking out many of Hezbollah's senior leaders, some in Washington and elsewhere believe there may be a window for a new push to break the political deadlock in Lebanon to try to ease escalating war. To that end, Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke by phone separately Friday with acting Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati and parliament speaker Nabhi Berri about the need to resolve the situation, the State Department said. Earlier in the week, Blinken talked with his Saudi, Qatari and French counterparts about how a resolution particularly the election of a new Lebanese president might reduce tensions in the Middle East by getting Hezbollah to move its forces away from Israel's northern border to the line set out in a U.N. Security Council resolution ending the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah. It's clear that the people of Lebanon have an interest, a strong interest, in the state asserting itself and taking ...

Israel under lens for 'extermination' in destruction of Gaza health system

UN inquiry's statement also accused Israeli forces of deliberately killing and torturing medical personnel, targeting medical vehicles and restricting permits for patients to leave besieged Gaza Strip

Israel yet to reach decision on Iran as it steps up strikes in Beirut

A security cabinet meeting on Thursday night ended without a decision on what the response should be, the official said

Israel's airstrike warnings terrify Lebanese civilians as war intensifies

As the war between Israel and Hezbollah intensifies, Lebanese civilians are increasingly paying the price and this dangerous reality often becomes clear in the middle of the night: That's when the Israeli military typically warns people to evacuate buildings or neighbourhoods to avoid airstrikes. Moein Shreif was recently awakened at 3 a.m. by a neighbor calling to alert him that Israel planned to strike a nearby building in his middle-class suburb south of Beirut where Hezbollah has a strong presence. Shreif, his wife and their three children quickly fled their multi-story apartment building and drove away. Within minutes, explosions rang out, he said later that day upon returning to see the smoldering ruins of his building and the one next door. I didn't even have time to dress properly, as you can see, said Shreif, a well-known Lebanese folk and pop singer who was still wearing his pajamas from the night before. I didn't take anything out of the house. Israel and Hezbollah have

Toll rises to 22 in Israeli strikes in central Beirut, 27 in Gaza school

Israeli airstrikes hit central Beirut on Thursday evening, killing at least 22 people and wounding dozens, Lebanon's health ministry said, leaving two neighbourhoods smoldering and further escalating Israel's bloody conflict with Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon. The strikes apparently targeted two residential buildings in separate neighbourhoods of western Beirut, according to an AP photographer at the scene, bringing down one multi-story building and wiping out the lower floors of another. The Israeli military said it was looking into the reported strikes on the Lebanese capital. Israeli airstrikes have been far more common in Beirut's tightly packed southern suburbs, where Hezbollah bases many of its operations. Thursday's strikes followed a year of tit-for-tat exchanges between Hezbollah and Israel that boiled over into all-out war in recent weeks, with Israel carrying out waves of heavy strikes across Lebanon and launching a ground invasion. Hezbollah has expanded its

Israeli strike on Gaza shelter kills 27, say Palestinian officials

An Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people in Gaza killed at least 21 people on Thursday, with the toll likely to rise, Palestinian medical officials said. Israel has continued to strike at what it says are militant targets across the Palestinian enclave even as attention has shifted to its war against Hezbollah in Lebanon and rising tensions with Iran. It launched a large-scale air and ground operation against Hamas in northern Gaza earlier this week. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where the bodies were brought, confirmed the toll from the strike in the central town of Deir al-Balah. It said several other people were wounded in the strike. An Associated Press reporter saw ambulances streaming into the hospital and counted the bodies, many of which arrived in pieces. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. Witnesses said the strike targeted a makeshift post of the Hamas-run police inside the shelter. Israel has repeatedly attacked ...

Israel eliminates Hezbollah 'Golan Heights' member, airstrikes Syria

Israel, which has carried out strikes against Iran-linked targets in Syria for years, has ramped up its raids since the Oct. 7

500 Hezbollah targets including HQs hidden in nature reserve destroyed

282nd Artillery Brigade provide covering fire for the forces maneuvering in Lebanese territory and in close cooperation with Air Force, dozens of Hezbollah infrastructure and launchers were destroyed

It has been stock picker's market since quite some time now: Rajesh Bhatia

Our emphasis is on careful stock selection within sectors, rather than making significant overweight or underweight sector bets, Bhatia said

Turkey navy evacuates its citizens from Beirut amid Israel-Hezbollah clash

Over 2,000 Turkish citizens and some foreign started boarding a Turkish military ship late Wednesday that brought in aid and will take them out of a country being hit by Israeli airstrikes targeting Hezbollah. Zehra Cibbin, an ethnic Arab from the southeastern Turkish city of Mardin who lives in Beirut with her Lebanese husband, got off a bus packed with the other evacuees, her two children in tow and luggage in hand. It's indescribable. They bombed the street below our house. From that moment on, it was over for me, I said I didn't want to stay in Beirut anymore, said Cibbin, 46. Cibbin said they decided to leave Beirut out of fear for their lives, putting no thought into what will happen when they arrive in Turkiye. She spoke to The Associated Press before getting in line to board the TCG Bayraktar amphibious landing vessel, which along with the TCG Sancaktar will take on evacuees. They are part of a six-ship convoy including escorts that set sail from the southern Turkish port