Israeli hostage in Gaza dead, say families

Israeli hostage in Gaza dead, say families
Israeli police stand guard as relatives of Israeli hostages held in Gaza since the October 7 attacks by Hamas militants, gather in protest during a Purim parade in Jerusalem on March 25, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 27 March 2024
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Israeli hostage in Gaza dead, say families

Israeli hostage in Gaza dead, say families
  • Israel believes around 130 captives remain in Gaza, including 34 presumed dead

JERUSALEM: One of the Israeli hostages kidnapped during the October 7 Hamas attack has been killed and his body is being held in Gaza, two groups representing hostage families said Tuesday.
Uriel Baruch, 35, a father of two, was taken from the Supernova music festival, where 364 people were killed by Hamas militants during the unprecedented attack that sparked the war in Gaza.
The Israeli army told his family that his body was being held in Gaza, the Tikva Forum hostages group said in a statement.
Another group, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, also said Baruch had been killed.
It described the techno fan, whose children are aged eight and five, as “a joyful person who loved life and loved to have fun.”
“Uriel’s body is still being held captive by Hamas,” it added.
Militants seized 253 Israeli and foreign hostages during the October 7 attack on Israel that triggered the war and resulted in the deaths of around 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
Around 100 hostages were released during a truce at the end of November, some in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
Israel believes around 130 captives remain in Gaza, including 34 presumed dead.


Lebanon files complaint against Israel at UN labor body over deadly pager explosions, minister says

Lebanon files complaint against Israel at UN labor body over deadly pager explosions, minister says
Updated 06 November 2024
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Lebanon files complaint against Israel at UN labor body over deadly pager explosions, minister says

Lebanon files complaint against Israel at UN labor body over deadly pager explosions, minister says
  • Lebanese Labor Minister Moustafa Bayram said he traveled to Geneva to formally file the complaint against Israel at the International Labor Organization
  • Bayram said the casualty count was even higher than first reported

GENEVA: A Lebanese government minister said Wednesday his country was filing a complaint against Israel at the UN’s labor organization over the string of deadly attacks involving exploding pagers, saying workers were among those killed and injured.
The explosions in mid-September were widely blamed on Israel, which has neither confirmed nor denied involvement. The blasts killed at least 37 people, including two children, wounded more than 3,000 and deeply unsettled even Lebanese who have no Hezbollah affiliation.
Lebanese Labor Minister Moustafa Bayram said he traveled to Geneva to formally file the complaint against Israel at the International Labor Organization, a sprawling UN agency that brings together governments, businesses and workers.
Bayram said the casualty count was even higher than first reported, saying “more than 4,000 civilians fell — between martyrs and injured and maimed — in a few minutes by this attack.”
“This method of warfare and conflicts may open the way for many who are evading international humanitarian law to adopt this method of warfare,” the minister told reporters at the UN compound in Geneva.
“It’s a very dangerous precedent, if not condemned,” he said. “We are in a situation where ordinary objects — objects used in daily life — become dangerous and lethal.”
Speaking in Arabic, Bayram insisted that ILO conventions guarantee the safety and security of workers, who “were in their workplace and had their pagers or walkies-talkies exploding all of a sudden,” according to an interpreter.
“I do not know where the outcome (of the complaint) will go, but at least we raised our voices to say and warn against this dangerous approach that strikes at human relations and leads to more conflicts,” he added.
An ILO spokeswoman said she was not immediately aware of the complaint or what redress might be possible through it.


Hezbollah says tens of thousands of fighters ready to battle Israel

Hezbollah says tens of thousands of fighters ready to battle Israel
Updated 52 min 54 sec ago
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Hezbollah says tens of thousands of fighters ready to battle Israel

Hezbollah says tens of thousands of fighters ready to battle Israel
  • The Iran-backed group’s leader also warned that nowhere in Israel would be “off-limits” to attacks
  • “What will stop this... war is the battlefield” he said, citing fighting in south Lebanon and Hezbollah attacks on Israel

BEIRUT: Hezbollah said Wednesday that tens of thousands of its militants were ready to fight Israel, adding that the US election result would have no bearing on the war in Lebanon.
The Iran-backed group’s leader also warned that nowhere in Israel would be “off-limits” to attacks, as the Israeli military said about 120 projectiles had been fired across the border on Wednesday.
The Israeli military struck Hezbollah’s main bastion of south Beirut after issuing an evacuation warning.
Israel and Hezbollah have been at war since late September, when the Israeli military widened the focus of its war in Gaza to securing its northern border with Lebanon.
Hezbollah began launching low-intensity cross-border attacks on Israel last year, in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas following its October 7, 2023 attack.
Efforts to end the war in Gaza that was sparked by the Hamas attack have yet to bear fruit, and the war in Lebanon has killed nearly 2,000 people, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures.
“We have tens of thousands of trained resistance combatants” ready to fight, Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem said in a televised speech marking 40 days since his predecessor Hassan Nasrallah was killed in a strike.
The address was aired after Donald Trump’s victory in the US election was announced, but had been recorded earlier.
He said the result in the race between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris would have no impact on any possible ceasefire deal for Lebanon.
“We don’t base our expectations for a halt of the aggression on political developments,” he said.
“Whether Harris wins or Trump wins, it means nothing to us.
“What will stop this... war is the battlefield” he said, citing fighting in south Lebanon and Hezbollah attacks on Israel.
Earlier on Wednesday, Hezbollah said it targeted a military base near Israel’s main airport close to commercial hub Tel Aviv, an attack that Israel’s Airports Authority said did not disrupt operations.
Earlier Wednesday, Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported Israeli air strikes on the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon and the southern city of Nabatiyeh.
An AFP correspondent in the eastern city of Baalbek reported intense strikes in and around the city.
The speech was Qassem’s second since he was named Hezbollah secretary-general last week.
Israel is “betting on prolonging the war so it becomes a war of attrition... We are ready,” he said.
He also called for Lebanese sovereignty to be safeguarded in any truce talks.
Qassem demanded explanations from the Lebanese army after Israeli naval commandos seized a man from north Lebanon on Saturday who they said was a senior Hezbollah operative.
He said the operation was “a great offense to Lebanon” and a “violation” of its sovereignty.
On Tuesday, a Lebanese judicial official told AFP that Israeli commandos used a speedboat equipped with advanced devices capable of jamming UN peacekeepers’ radars for the operation, according to a preliminary probe.
The UN Maritime Task Force has helped the Lebanese military to monitor territorial waters and prevent the entry of arms or related material by sea since 2006, according to the mission’s website.
In Gaza, where the 13-month war has had a devastating impact, people were desperate for a solution and voiced hope Trump might be able to offer one.
Hamas’s October 7 attack resulted in 1,206 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed 43,391 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry the United Nations considers reliable.
“We were displaced, killed... there’s nothing left for us, we want peace,” said Mamdouh Al-Jadba, who was displaced to Gaza City from Jabalia.
“I hope Trump finds a solution, we need someone strong like Trump to end the war and save us, enough, God, this is enough,” the 60-year-old told AFP.
Umm Ahmed Harb, from the Al-Shaaf area east of Gaza City, was also counting on Trump to “stand by our side” and end the territory’s suffering.
“God willing the war will end, not for our sake but for the sake of our young children who are innocent,” she told AFP.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his part feted Trump’s return as “history’s greatest comeback.”
“Your historic return to the White House offers a new beginning for America and a powerful recommitment to the great alliance between Israel and America. This is a huge victory!” Netanyahu said in a statement issued by his office.
The United States is Israel’s top ally and military backer, and the election came at a critical time for the Middle East.
While maintaining the steady flow of aid to Israel, US President Joe Biden’s administration had for months piled pressure on Netanyahu to agree to a truce.
Analysts say Netanyahu had been hoping for a Trump return, given their longstanding personal friendship as well as the former president’s hawkishness on Israel’s arch-foe Iran.


Iran plays down importance of US election, voices readiness for confrontation

Iran plays down importance of US election, voices readiness for confrontation
Updated 06 November 2024
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Iran plays down importance of US election, voices readiness for confrontation

Iran plays down importance of US election, voices readiness for confrontation
  • Arab and Western officials tell Reuters Trump may reimpose “maximum pressure policy” through more sanctions on Iran
  • They fear Trump may also empower Israel to strike Iranian nuclear sites and conduct assassinations

DUBAI: Iranians’ livelihoods will not be affected by the US elections, government spokesperson Fatemeh MoHajjerani was reported as saying on Wednesday after Donald Trump claimed victory in the presidential vote.
Arab and Western officials have told Reuters Trump may reimpose his “maximum pressure policy” through heightened sanctions on Iran’s oil industry and empower Israel to strike its nuclear sites and conduct assassinations.
“The US elections are not really our business. Our policies are steady and don’t change based on individuals. We made the necessary predictions before and there will not be change in people’s livelihoods,” MoHajjerani said, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency.
The Revolutionary Guards did not directly react to Trump’s claimed electoral victory but said Tehran and its allied armed groups in the region are ready for confrontation with Israel.
“The Zionists do not have the power to confront us and they must wait for our response... our depots have enough weapons for that,” the Guards’ deputy chief Ali Fadavi said on Wednesday, as Tehran is expected to respond to Israel’s Oct. 25 strikes on its territory which killed four soldiers.
He added Tehran does not rule out a potential US-Israel pre-emptive strike to prevent it from retaliating against Israel.
In his first term, Trump re-applied sanctions on Iran after he withdrew from a 2015 nuclear pact between Iran and world powers that had curtailed Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for economic benefits.
The reinstatement of US sanctions in 2018 hit Iran’s oil exports, slashing government revenues and forcing it to take unpopular steps, such as increasing taxes and running big budget deficits, policies that have kept annual inflation close to 40 percent.
Iran’s national currency has weakened at the prospect of a Trump presidency, reaching an all-time low of 700,000 rials to the US dollar on the free market, according to Iranian currency tracking website Bonbast.com.


Iranian Revolutionary Court sentences four individuals to death over charges of spying for Israel

Iranian Revolutionary Court sentences four individuals to death over charges of spying for Israel
Updated 06 November 2024
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Iranian Revolutionary Court sentences four individuals to death over charges of spying for Israel

Iranian Revolutionary Court sentences four individuals to death over charges of spying for Israel

DUBAI: Four people were sentenced to death by a revolutionary court in northwestern Iran over charges of spying for Israel, the semi-official Fars news agency reported on Wednesday.
Fars said three of the defendants — whose nationalities it did not give — were accused of helping Israel’s spy agency Mossad move equipment used in the 2020 assassination of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.
Fakhrizadeh was viewed by Western intelligence services as the mastermind of a covert Iranian program to develop nuclear weapons capability. The Islamic Republic has long denied any such ambition.
The Jewish Chronicle newspaper reported in February 2021, citing intelligence sources, that Fakhrizadeh was killed by a one-ton gun smuggled into Iran in pieces by Mossad agents, both Israeli and Iranian nationals.
Israel declined to comment at the time of his killing and on Wednesday an Israeli government spokesman said in response to the Fars report: “We never comment on such matters. There has been no change in our position.”
Fars said the fourth defendant sentenced to death was linked to another unspecified espionage case.


Israeli army expands its assaults to the south, Bekaa, and Beirut’s southern suburbs

A resident of a building damaged in an Israeli airstrike on Tuesday night, returns to collect his family’s belongings in Barja.
A resident of a building damaged in an Israeli airstrike on Tuesday night, returns to collect his family’s belongings in Barja.
Updated 13 min 9 sec ago
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Israeli army expands its assaults to the south, Bekaa, and Beirut’s southern suburbs

A resident of a building damaged in an Israeli airstrike on Tuesday night, returns to collect his family’s belongings in Barja.
  • Number of casualties from the airstrike targeting a building in Barja on Tuesday night rose to 30
  • Naim Qassem: The battlefield alone can halt the war, and we do not rely on the American elections

BEIRUT: Israeli military operations against Lebanon escalated on Wednesday.

The Israeli military resumed airstrikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut after a week-long pause. The number of casualties from the airstrike targeting a building in Barja on Tuesday night rose to 30, including children and women.

Additionally, an airstrike on Wednesday resulted in the deaths of eight civilians in the town of Al-Ain in the Baalbek region. The airstrikes also affected the cities of Baalbek and Hermel, causing significant destruction, particularly in the areas of Zahrani and Nabatieh.

A devastating airstrike on a residential building in Al-Shahabiya claimed five lives, while emergency teams recovered seven bodies from rubble in Byout Al-Saiyad following an overnight bombardment. Civil defense crews continue searching for survivors for a second day.

In Al-Burghliyeh, a two-phase attack on a building and vehicle left three dead and seven wounded, with three additional fatalities reported near Al-Abbasiyeh.

Breaches of the sound barrier were recorded in the southern regions, extending to the southern suburbs of Beirut. Reconnaissance aircraft flew at low altitudes over Lebanese airspace, particularly concentrated above the Port of Beirut. This left the population with a sense of being under constant surveillance and that they might be potential targets.

An Israeli hot air balloon flew for the first time, accompanied by drones in the skies over the villages of Baalbek District toward the eastern mountain range of Lebanon.

The caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, during a session of the Council of Ministers, strongly condemned the “ongoing Israeli war on Lebanese territory and its escalation, which has turned into crimes against humanity.” He said that “Israel disregards all international efforts to establish a ceasefire.”

“Israel continues to destroy towns, villages and essential facilities, including hospitals and places of worship,” Mikati said. “It also continues to kill civilians, assassinate members of the Lebanese army and target UNIFIL forces, and medical and relief personnel, in a clear violation of international law. Lebanon adheres to its right to preserve its dignity and national sovereignty, and will not hesitate to confront any Israeli violation or aggression.”

Mikati congratulated the American people on their “exercise of democracy following the preliminary results of the US presidential elections.” He said that “the primary pathway to any acceptable solution for Lebanon was the complete cessation of Israeli aggression, the implementation of Resolution 1701, and the election of a president, which would facilitate the restoration of stability and the activation of national institutions.”

Meanwhile, the secretary-general of Hezbollah, Sheikh Naim Qassem, said that the party “does not rely on the American elections, whether Harris succeeds or Trump prevails; this holds no significance for us,” emphasizing that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “cannot win.”

In his second televised appearance since he was appointed as Hezbollah’s secretary-general, Qassem said: “This Israeli war of aggression can only be stopped by one thing; the battlefield. This is not a war Israel will win, and Israel must know that all resistance fighters are prepared for martyrdom.” He added: “We are not counting on the general political movement or Netanyahu gaining some advantages; we are counting on the battlefield.”

Qassem said: “The Israeli aggression on Lebanon has lasted for a month and ten days, and it no longer matters how it started or what pretexts were used.

“Israel has exceptional air capabilities, therefore, it controls the skies, along with the communications network, giving it significant power, especially since this capability is also backed by the endless support of America, ‘The Greatest Satan.’”

However, he said that “Hezbollah’s resources are available, whether in storage, places of positioning or by various means.”

On Wednesday, Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Walid Bukhari conveyed to Lebanese Army Commander Gen. Joseph Aoun “the Kingdom’s support for the military institution.”

Meanwhile, internal political tensions escalated as Lebanese leaders voiced opposition to Iranian influence.

MP Camille Chamoun, addressing the Sovereign Front, linked Lebanon’s current crisis to years of Iranian intervention.

“Lebanon is not a battlefield for others,” Chamoun said, making a pointed appeal to the Shiite community to prioritize national interests. “We want to rebuild this country without foreign intervention and elect a president, ” he said.

The Maronite Bishops Council, meeting under Patriarch Bechara Al-Rahi, expressed dismay at “the magnitude of catastrophe that has befallen Lebanon, resulting in numerous casualties and widespread destruction across villages, towns, and cities in the southern suburbs, South Lebanon, Bekaa, and other Lebanese regions.”

The Maronite bishops demanded immediate diplomatic action to end the Hezbollah-Israel conflict and implement UN Resolution 1701. They condemned recent Israeli operations, including a naval raid in Batroun that resulted in the abduction of a Lebanese citizen.

The council emphasized the urgent need for a ceasefire, pointing to the critical conditions faced by displaced residents who lacked adequate protection from harsh weather conditions.