Israel close to completing Gaza missions, focus on north, defense minister says

Israel close to completing Gaza missions, focus on north, defense minister says
Smoke rises near the Israel Lebanon border, after Hezbollah fired projectiles toward Israel from Lebanon, amid cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in Northern Israel, Sept. 10, 2024. (Reuters)
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Updated 10 September 2024
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Israel close to completing Gaza missions, focus on north, defense minister says

Israel close to completing Gaza missions, focus on north, defense minister says
  • “The center of gravity is moving northward, we are near to completing our tasks in the south, but our mission here is not yet done,” Gallant told troops
  • “These instructions that you are waiting for here today, I gave in the south and saw the forces operate“

JERUSALEM: Israeli forces are near to fulfilling their mission in Gaza and their focus will turn to the country’s northern border with Lebanon as daily exchanges of fire with Hezbollah take place, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Tuesday
“The center of gravity is moving northward, we are near to completing our tasks in the south, but our mission here is not yet done,” Gallant told troops on Israel’s northern border in a video sent by his office.
Gallant was attending a ground combat drill, his office said.
“These instructions that you are waiting for here today, I gave in the south and saw the forces operate,” Gallant said referring to Israel’s ground invasion of the Gaza Strip three weeks after the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that triggered the war.
The Lebanese group Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel on Oct. 8 and the two sides have been trading fire since, with tens of thousands of civilians displaced on both sides of the border.
Israeli leaders have said they would prefer to resolve the conflict through an agreement that would push Iran-backed Hezbollah away from the border. Hezbollah has said that it will continue fighting Israel as long as the war in Gaza is ongoing.
In separate remarks to journalists on Tuesday, Gallant said:
“While we pursue an agreement, I have directed the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) to prepare for every scenario, including directing our attention to the northern arena. We are committed to changing the security situation on the northern front and to bringing our citizens home safely.”
The Israeli military on Tuesday said it killed a commander in Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force. The group confirmed his death but not his role and said it fired rockets at Israeli army targets across the border in retaliation.


Israel army says ‘more than 20’ Hezbollah members killed alongside Nasrallah

Israel army says ‘more than 20’ Hezbollah members killed alongside Nasrallah
Updated 58 min 45 sec ago
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Israel army says ‘more than 20’ Hezbollah members killed alongside Nasrallah

Israel army says ‘more than 20’ Hezbollah members killed alongside Nasrallah
  • Ibrahim Hussein Jazini and Samir Tawfiq Dib who were “among Nasrallah’s closest associates” had been killed

BEIRUT: The Israeli military said on Sunday the strike that killed Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah this week in Beirut also “eliminated” more than 20 other members of the Lebanese armed group.
“More than 20 other terrorists of varying ranks, who were present at the underground headquarters in Beirut located beneath civilian buildings, and were managing Hezbollah’s terrorist operations against the state of Israel, were also eliminated,” the military said in a statement that listed some of them.
According to the statement, Ibrahim Hussein Jazini and Samir Tawfiq Dib who were “among Nasrallah’s closest associates” had been killed.
“Due to their proximity to him, they served a significant role in the day-to-day operations of Hezbollah and Nasrallah in particular,” it said.
Hezbollah on Saturday confirmed Nasrallah’s death, and on Sunday said Ali Karake, the group’s top commander in south Lebanon, were killed in the Friday attack.
Other names listed by the Israeli military include Abed Al-Amir Muhammad Sablini and Ali Naaf Ayoub.
In recent days, Israel has shifted the focus of its military operations from Gaza to Lebanon, after nearly a year of low-level cross-border fire with Hezbollah, killing hundreds in Lebanon.
The group began firing on Israel in what it described as a show of solidarity with ally Hamas a day after the Palestinian militant group’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel, which triggered war in the Gaza Strip.


Blasts heard in vicinity of Syria’s Damascus, state news agency says

Blasts heard in vicinity of Syria’s Damascus, state news agency says
Updated 29 September 2024
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Blasts heard in vicinity of Syria’s Damascus, state news agency says

Blasts heard in vicinity of Syria’s Damascus, state news agency says

CAIRO: Blasts were heard in the vicinity of Syrian capital Damascus, state news agency SANA reported on Sunday, adding that an investigation was being conducted to establish the cause.


French foreign minister to visit Lebanon on Sunday, foreign ministry says

French foreign minister to visit Lebanon on Sunday, foreign ministry says
Updated 29 September 2024
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French foreign minister to visit Lebanon on Sunday, foreign ministry says

French foreign minister to visit Lebanon on Sunday, foreign ministry says

PARIS: French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot will travel to Lebanon on Sunday, his office said, as Israel continued to strike multiple targets in the country.
“We confirm that the minister is going to Lebanon this weekend to talk with local authorities and provide French support, particularly humanitarian support,” the foreign ministry said.


Israeli airstrikes kill 11 Palestinians in Gaza

Israeli airstrikes kill 11 Palestinians in Gaza
Updated 29 September 2024
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Israeli airstrikes kill 11 Palestinians in Gaza

Israeli airstrikes kill 11 Palestinians in Gaza
  • Almost 41,600 Palestinians killed in Gaza since Oct 7
  • Israeli army says it struck a Hamas command center

CAIRO: Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip have killed at least 11 Palestinians, health officials in the enclave said on Sunday, as Israeli planes bombarded several northern, central and southern areas.
A school sheltering displaced Palestinians in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip was among buildings hit, killing four people and wounded several others, Gaza medics said.
The Israeli military said it struck Hamas militants operating from a command center embedded in a compound that had previously served as Um Al-Fahm School. It accused Hamas of exploiting civilian facilities and its population for military purposes, which Hamas denies.
In another strike, three people were killed in a house in Gaza City, medics said. Four others were killed in three separate airstrikes in Nuseirat and Khan Younis in central and southern parts of the Gaza Strip.
Israeli forces pursued their operations in Rafah, near the border with Egypt, and in Gaza City’s suburb of Zeitoun, where forces blew up several houses, according to residents and Hamas media.
On Sunday the Israeli military said forces continue the fight in a “multi-front war” and are operating in Gaza to bring Israeli and foreign hostages home and to “dismantle” Hamas.
It said troops discovered and dismantled an underground tunnel route that is approximately 1km long near residential buildings and civilian spaces in central Gaza, adding that they found several rooms and equipment used by Hamas for prolonged periods.
Fighting and Israeli military activities in Gaza have declined in the past week as Israel escalated its military offensive against Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, killing its leader Hassan Nasrallah in an airstrike on Friday. The group announced Nasrallah’s death on Saturday.
Most of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million have been displaced by the war, in which 41,500 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza health authorities.
Israel and Hamas have been fighting since gunmen from the Palestinian militant group stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and capturing about 250 hostages, going by Israeli tallies.


US airstrikes on Syria kill 37 militants affiliated with extremist groups

US airstrikes on Syria kill 37 militants affiliated with extremist groups
Updated 29 September 2024
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US airstrikes on Syria kill 37 militants affiliated with extremist groups

US airstrikes on Syria kill 37 militants affiliated with extremist groups
  • US Central Command said it struck northwestern Syria targeting a senior militant from the Al-Qaeda-linked Hurras Al-Deen group and eight others

BEIRUT: In Syria, 37 militants affiliated to the extremist Daesh group and an Al-Qaeda-linked group were killed in two strikes, the United States military said Sunday.
Two of the dead were senior militants, it said.
US Central Command said it struck northwestern Syria on Tuesday, targeting a senior militant from the Al-Qaeda-linked Hurras Al-Deen group and eight others. They say he was responsible for overseeing military operations.
They also announced a strike from earlier this month on Sept. 16, where they conducted a “large-scale airstrike” on a Daesh training camp in a remote undisclosed location in central Syria. That attack killed 28 militants, including “at least four Syrian leaders.”
“The airstrike will disrupt Daesh’ capability to conduct operations against US interests, as well as our allies and partners,” the statement read.
There are some 900 US forces in Syria, along with an undisclosed number of contractors, mostly trying to prevent any comeback by the extremist Daesh group, which swept through Iraq and Syria in 2014, taking control of large swaths of territory.
US forces advise and assist their key allies in northeastern Syria, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, located not far from strategic areas where Iran-backed militant groups are present, including a key border crossing with Iraq.