Lebanese minister denies Hezbollah weapons at Beirut airport

Ali Hamieh. (Twitter @alihamie_lb)
Ali Hamieh. (Twitter @alihamie_lb)
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Updated 24 June 2024
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Lebanese minister denies Hezbollah weapons at Beirut airport

Ali Hamieh. (Twitter @alihamie_lb)
  • Israel has for years accused Hezbollah of keeping precision rockets and missiles in different installations throughout Lebanon, including on a site near Beirut airport

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s transport minister denied on Sunday that Hezbollah was storing weapons at Beirut airport, as fears grow of all-out war between the militant group and Israel.
Ali Hamieh called a press conference to deny the allegations of “absurd articles” in the media, and attacked the British daily The Telegraph.
The newspaper said the Shiite militant group is storing missiles and rockets at the airport, where “whistleblowers” had reported the arrival of “unusually big boxes.”
Backed by Iran, Hezbollah has been exchanging near-daily fire with Israeli forces in support of its ally, Hamas. The Palestinian movement has been at war with Israel since October 7 when Hamas militants from Gaza attacked southern Israel.
“I am holding this press conference to clarify that everything that has been written in The Telegraph is false and to say that there are no weapons entering or leaving Beirut airport,” Hamieh told journalists.
He spoke from Beirut International Airport, located in an area south of the capital where Hezbollah is influential.
Hamieh invited ambassadors and journalists to inspect the airport on Monday morning in a visit “open to all“
The Lebanese air transport union condemned in a statement “simply erroneous statements and lies aimed at endangering Beirut airport and its employees, all civilians, and those who frequent it.”
Israel has for years accused Hezbollah of keeping precision rockets and missiles in different installations throughout Lebanon, including on a site near Beirut airport.
Hezbollah denies this.
More than eight months of exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and Israeli forces have left 480 people dead in Lebanon, mostly fighters, but also 93 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
Israeli authorities say at least 15 soldiers and 11 civilians have been killed in the country’s north.
Cross-border exchanges and tension have escalated over the past two weeks after an Israeli air strike killed a senior Hezbollah commander.
 

 


Qatar PM sees some progress on Gaza truce

Qatar PM sees some progress on Gaza truce
Updated 9 sec ago
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Qatar PM sees some progress on Gaza truce

Qatar PM sees some progress on Gaza truce
DOHA: Gaza mediator Qatar said Sunday there was some progress in talks in Doha this week aimed at securing a new truce in the Israel-Hamas war.
Speaking at a news conference, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani reported “a bit of progress,” in response to questions about reports of a Thursday meeting in Doha between Israel’s Mossad spy agency chief David Barnea and the Qatari prime minister.
“We need to find an answer for the ultimate question: how to end this war. That’s, that’s basically, I think, the key point of the entire negotiations,” Sheikh Mohammed added.
Qatar, alongside Egypt and the United States, brokered a truce between Israel and Hamas in Gaza which came into effect on January 19 but which did not bring a complete end to the war.
The initial phase of the truce ended in early March, with the two sides unable to agree on the next steps. Israel resumed air and ground attacks across the Gaza Strip on March 18 after earlier halting the entry of aid.
Sheikh Mohammed met with Barnea in the Qatari capital to discuss a potential hostage deal on Thursday, according to Israeli media.
“The meeting that took place on Thursday is part of these efforts where we’re trying to find a breakthrough,” the Qatari prime minister said without further elaborating on the details of the meeting.
Hamas is open to an agreement to end the war in Gaza that would see all hostages released and secure a five-year truce, an official told AFP on Saturday as the group’s negotiators met in Cairo.
The Qatari PM said efforts were focused on the “best comprehensive deal possible that ends the war, brings the hostages out and not dividing (a deal) into other phases.”
Hamas has insisted that the negotiations should lead to a permanent end to the war.
According to the Palestinian group, it rejected an earlier Israeli offer that included a 45-day ceasefire in exchange for the return of 10 living hostages.

Four dead, 13 injured in Algeria landslide

Four dead, 13 injured in Algeria landslide
Updated 27 April 2025
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Four dead, 13 injured in Algeria landslide

Four dead, 13 injured in Algeria landslide
  • Four people have died and 13 others injured in a landslide in Algeria’s western coastal city of Oran, authorities said on Sunday

ALGIERS: Four people have died and 13 others injured in a landslide in Algeria’s western coastal city of Oran, authorities said on Sunday.
The landslide occurred late Saturday in the city’s Hai Essanouber district, the civil defense agency said.
It said the four “deceased were between five and 43 years old,” and that “13 other victims, aged between 12 and 75, suffered various injuries.”
Authorities did not comment on the reasons behind the landslide, which the interior ministry said “caused the collapse of five tin houses.”
With no one still missing from the landslide, the ministry said the death toll was “final.”


Gaza Health Ministry reports 51 deaths from Israeli strikes, bringing overall toll to over 52,000

Gaza Health Ministry reports 51 deaths from Israeli strikes, bringing overall toll to over 52,000
Updated 27 April 2025
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Gaza Health Ministry reports 51 deaths from Israeli strikes, bringing overall toll to over 52,000

Gaza Health Ministry reports 51 deaths from Israeli strikes, bringing overall toll to over 52,000
  • Hospitals in the Gaza Strip have received the remains of 51 Palestinians over the past 24 hours, killed in Israeli strikes

DEIR AL-BALAH: Hospitals in the Gaza Strip received the remains of 51 Palestinians over the past 24 hours who were killed in Israeli strikes, the local Health Ministry said Sunday, bringing the Palestinian death toll from the 18-month-old Israel-Hamas war to 52,243.
The overall toll includes nearly 700 bodies for which the documentation process was recently completed, the ministry said in its latest update. The daily toll includes bodies retrieved from the rubble after earlier strikes.
Israel ended its ceasefire with Hamas by launching a surprise bombardment on March 18, and has been carrying out daily waves of strikes since then. Ground forces have expanded a buffer zone and encircled the southern city of Rafah, and now control around 50 percent of the territory.
Israel has also sealed off the territory’s 2 million Palestinians from all imports, including food and medicine, for nearly 60 days. Aid groups say supplies will soon run out and that thousands of children are malnourished.
Israeli authorities say the renewed offensive and tightened blockade are aimed at pressuring Hamas. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to continue the war until Hamas is destroyed or disarmed, and all the hostages are returned.
Hamas has said it will only release the remaining 59 hostages — 24 of whom are believed to be alive — in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, as called for in the now-defunct ceasefire reached in January.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says women and children make up most of the Palestinian deaths, but does not say how many were militants or civilians. It says another 117,600 people have been wounded in the war.
The overall tally includes 2,151 dead and 5,598 wounded since Israel resumed the war last month.
Israel says it has killed around 20,000 militants, without providing evidence. The military says it tries to avoid harming civilians and it blames Hamas for their deaths because the militants operate in densely populated areas.
Israel’s offensive has destroyed vast parts of Gaza and displaced around 90 percent of its population, leaving hundreds of thousands of people sheltering in squalid tent camps or bombed-out buildings.


Putin offers Iran Russian help after blast at Iranian port of Bandar Abbas

Putin offers Iran Russian help after blast at Iranian port of Bandar Abbas
Updated 27 April 2025
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Putin offers Iran Russian help after blast at Iranian port of Bandar Abbas

Putin offers Iran Russian help after blast at Iranian port of Bandar Abbas

MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin has offered Iran Russian help in dealing with the aftermath of a blast that rocked the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas and expressed his condolences over the loss of life, the state RIA news agency reported on Sunday.
Iranian state media reported that a huge blast probably caused by the explosion of chemical materials killed at least 18 people and injured more than 700 on Saturday at Bandar Abbas, Iran’s biggest port.


Lebanon says one killed in Israeli drone strike

Lebanon says one killed in Israeli drone strike
Updated 27 April 2025
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Lebanon says one killed in Israeli drone strike

Lebanon says one killed in Israeli drone strike

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s health ministry said an Israeli drone strike Sunday on a border town killed one person, the latest attack despite a November ceasefire that ended a war between Israel and Hezbollah militants.
The health ministry reported in a statement “one martyr” from “the drone strike launched by the Israeli enemy on the town of Halta,” in southern Lebanon.