Israel army says Nasrallah’s death makes world safer

Israel army says Nasrallah’s death makes world safer
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah gestures during his speech at the massive “divine” rally in the southern suburbs of Beirut, in Sept. 2006. (AFP)
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Updated 28 September 2024
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Israel army says Nasrallah’s death makes world safer

Israel army says Nasrallah’s death makes world safer
  • “Nasrallah was one of the greatest enemies of the State of Israel of all time... his elimination makes the world a safer place,” military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said
  • “We continue, even at this very moment, to strike, eliminate and kill the commanders of the Hezbollah organization “

JERUSALEM: Israel’s military said on Saturday that its killing of one its “greatest enemies” Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah made the world safer, while vowing to go after other senior members of his Iran-backed group.
“Nasrallah was one of the greatest enemies of the State of Israel of all time... his elimination makes the world a safer place,” military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told a televised briefing.
“We continue, even at this very moment, to strike, eliminate and kill the commanders of the Hezbollah organization, and we will continue to do so,” Hagari said of the Lebanese armed movement, an ally of Palestinian group Hamas.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, in a statement directed to the people of Lebanon, said: “Our war is not with you.”
“To our enemies I say: We are strong and determined,” Gallant added.
With tensions soaring since the deadly Friday strike on Hezbollah’s south Beirut stronghold that killed Nasrallah, Israeli authorities have announced new public safety regulations.
The military’s Home Front Command announced that gathering of more than 1,000 people would be banned in central Israel, far from the Lebanese border.
The change is likely to affect weekly demonstrations that have been taking place on Saturdays throughout the war in Tel Aviv, Israel’s commercial hub, and other locations.
The anti-government protests have sought to highlight the plight of hostages held in the Gaza Strip since Hamas’s October 7 attack that triggered the ongoing war, urging the Israeli government to agree a truce and hostage release deal.


Israel strikes Syria bases again despite EU warning

Israel strikes Syria bases again despite EU warning
Updated 56 min 46 sec ago
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Israel strikes Syria bases again despite EU warning

Israel strikes Syria bases again despite EU warning
  • Israeli military: The IDF struck military capabilities that remained at the Syrian military bases of Tadmur and T4
  • Israel said Friday it struck the same bases after a war monitor first reported the raids

JERUSALEM: The Israeli army said Tuesday that it had again struck two military bases in central Syria, a day after the European Union’s foreign policy chief warned strikes there and in Lebanon risked escalation.
“A short while ago, the IDF struck military capabilities that remained at the Syrian military bases of Tadmur and T4,” the Israeli military said, referring to bases in Palmyra and another 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of the city.
“The IDF will continue to act in order to remove any threat posed to the citizens of the State of Israel,” it added.
Israel said Friday it struck the same bases after a war monitor first reported the raids.
On Monday during a visit to Jersalem, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas warned that Israeli strikes on Syria and Lebanon were threatening to worsen the situation.
“Military actions must be proportionate, and Israeli strikes into Syria and Lebanon risk further escalation,” Kallas said at a joint news conference with Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar.
“We feel that these things are unnecessary because Syria is right now not attacking Israel and that feeds more radicalization that is also against Israel,” Kallas told journalists.
In Syria, Israel has launched hundreds of strikes on military sites since Islamist-led rebels overthrew Bashar Assad in December.
Israel says it wants to prevent weapons from falling into the hands of new authorities it considers militants.
And despite a ceasefire, Israel has continued to carry out strikes on Lebanon — with both sides repeatedly accusing the other of violating the truce.
Israel launched air strikes on southern Lebanon on Saturday, killing eight people, in response to rocket fire that hit its territory for the first time since a ceasefire took effect on November 27.
No party has claimed responsibility for the rocket fire.
The Israeli military has also deployed to the UN-patrolled buffer zone on the Golan Heights, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has demanded the demilitarization of southern Syria.
Syria’s foreign ministry has accused Israel of waging a campaign against “the stability of the country.”
When asked about Israel’s stance toward Syria’s new leaders, Kallas said: “Of course our worries are the same. They say the right things, will they do the right things?”
“But we have discussed this in the European Union and among all the member states, and our view is that we need a stable Syria,” she added.


US airstrikes targeting Yemen’s Houthis kill at least 2 people, group says

People look at the site of a U.S. strike in Sanaa, Yemen March 24, 2025. (REUTERS)
People look at the site of a U.S. strike in Sanaa, Yemen March 24, 2025. (REUTERS)
Updated 59 min 20 sec ago
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US airstrikes targeting Yemen’s Houthis kill at least 2 people, group says

People look at the site of a U.S. strike in Sanaa, Yemen March 24, 2025. (REUTERS)
  • The American strikes on the militia, who threaten maritime trade and Israel, entered their 10th day without any sign of stopping

DUBAI: US airstrikes targeting Yemen’s Houthi militia pounded sites across the country into early Tuesday, with the group saying one attack in the capital killed at least two people and wounded more than a dozen others.

The American strikes on the militia, who threaten maritime trade and Israel, entered their 10th day without any sign of stopping. They are part of a campaign by US President Donald Trump targeting the rebel group while also trying to pressure Iran, the Houthis’ main benefactor.

So far, the US has not offered any specifics on the sites it is striking, though Trump’s national security adviser Mike Waltz claimed the attacks have “taken out key Houthi leadership, including their head missileer.” That’s something so far that’s not been acknowledged by the Houthis, though the militia have downplayed their losses in the past and exaggerated their attacks attempting to target American warships.

“We’ve hit their headquarters,” Waltz told CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “We’ve hit communications nodes, weapons factories and even some of their over-the-water drone production facilities.”

An apparent US strike Sunday hit a building in a western neighborhood of Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, killing at least two people and wounding 13 others, the rebel-controlled SABA news agency said, citing health officials. Footage released by the militia showed the rubble of a collapsed building and pools of blood staining the gray dust covering the ground.

A building next to the collapsed structure still stood, suggesting American forces likely used a lower-yield warhead in the strike.

The Houthis also described American airstrikes targeting sites around the city of Saada, a Houthi stronghold, the Red Sea port city of Hodeida and Marib province, home to oil and gas fields still under the control of allies to Yemen’s exiled central government. Those strikes continued into early Tuesday as the Houthis separately launched a missile attack on Israel.

The campaign of airstrikes targeting the militia, which killed at least 53 people immediately after they began March 15, started after the Houthis threatened to begin targeting “Israeli” ships again over Israel blocking aid entering the Gaza Strip. The militia in the past have had a loose definition of what constitutes an Israeli ship, meaning other vessels could be targeted as well.

The Houthis had targeted over 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two vessels and killing four sailors during their campaign targeting ships from November 2023 until January of this year. They also launched attacks targeting American warships, though none have been hit so far.

The attacks greatly raised the Houthis’ profile as they faced economic problems and launched a crackdown targeting any dissent and aid workers at home amid Yemen’s decadelong stalemated war that has torn apart the Arab world’s poorest nation.


Israeli military intercepts missile launched from Yemen

Israeli military intercepts missile launched from Yemen
Updated 25 March 2025
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Israeli military intercepts missile launched from Yemen

Israeli military intercepts missile launched from Yemen
  • Houthis spokesman Yahya Saree said the group also targeted “the US aircraft carrier Truman, using ballistic and cruise missiles and drones”

SANAA: The Israeli military said it had intercepted a missile over Israel on Monday that had been launched from Yemen, according to a statement.
The Houthis, undeterred by waves of US strikes since March 15, fired two ballistic missiles toward Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, the group’s military spokesman said in a televised statement early on Tuesday.
US President Donald Trump also threatened to punish Iran over its perceived support for Yemeni Houthi militants.
Earlier, warning sirens sounded in several areas of Israel, including Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
The Houthis have vowed to escalate attacks, including those targeting Israel, in response to the US campaign.
Houthis spokesman Yahya Saree said the group also targeted “the US aircraft carrier Truman, using ballistic and cruise missiles and drones.”
The Houthis have carried out over 100 attacks on shipping since Israel’s war with Hamas began in late 2023, saying they were acting in solidarity with Gaza’s Palestinians.
The attacks have disrupted global commerce and prompted the US military to launch a costly campaign to intercept missiles.
The Houthis are part of what has been dubbed the “Axis of Resistance” — an anti-Israel and anti-Western alliance of regional militias including Hamas, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and armed groups in Iraq, all backed by Iran.

 


One killed in southern Lebanon by Israeli strike: state media

One killed in southern Lebanon by Israeli strike: state media
Updated 25 March 2025
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One killed in southern Lebanon by Israeli strike: state media

One killed in southern Lebanon by Israeli strike: state media

BEIRUT, Lebanon: One person was killed in an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon late Monday, after a wave of intensive air attacks in the region over the weekend, state media reported.
“A raid by an enemy Israeli drone on a vehicle in the area of Qaqaiyat Al-Jisr left one dead,” the National News Agency (ANI) said, attributing the toll to the Lebanese health ministry.
Israel launched air strikes on southern Lebanon on Saturday, killing eight people, in response to rocket fire that hit its territory for the first time since a ceasefire took effect on November 27.
No party has claimed responsibility for the rocket fire, which a military source said was launched from an area north of the Litani River, between the villages of Kfar Tebnit and Arnoun, near the zone covered by the ceasefire agreement.
The agreement stipulates that only the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers may be deployed south of the Litani River, with Hezbollah required to dismantle its infrastructure and withdraw north of the river.
But the war has severely weakened Hezbollah, which remains a target of Israeli air strikes despite the ceasefire.
Over the weekend Lebanese officials held discussions with Washington and Paris to prevent Israel from bombing Beirut, a source told AFP on Monday on condition of anonymity.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday that following rocket fire on Metula, a town in northern Israel, “Metula’s fate is the same as Beirut’s.”


Palestinian children denied access to quality education by Israeli violence and repression

Palestinian children denied access to quality education by Israeli violence and repression
Updated 25 March 2025
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Palestinian children denied access to quality education by Israeli violence and repression

Palestinian children denied access to quality education by Israeli violence and repression

BEIRUT: A lost generation of Palestinian children is being denied an education by Israeli violence and repression, experts said on Monday.

In the occupied West Bank and annexed East Jerusalem, constant fighting has paralyzed movement and more than 800,000 young people had their access to school restricted in 2024, according to a new report by the Occupied Palestinian Territory Education Cluster, which includes UN agencies.

In Gaza, where almost every school has been reduced to rubble by Israeli bombing, children had just begun to return to classes in bombed-out buildings when Israeli airstrikes resumed on March 18. Nearly half of the 400 people killed that day were children.

“The ability of Palestinian children to access quality education in the West Bank or in Gaza has never been under more stress,” said Alexandra Saieh, global head of humanitarian policy and advocacy at the charity Save the Children.

The Palestinian Ministry of Education recorded more than 2,200 incidents of violence targeting the education system in the West Bank in 2024, according to the new report. These included attacks on schools by armed settlers and the detention of students or teachers by Israeli security forces.

At least 109 schools were attacked or vandalized. More than half of Palestinian students reported being delayed or harassed on their way to school, and many were physically assaulted. Every day, children in the West Bank run the gauntlet of Israeli roadblocks, checkpoints and settler attacks on their way to school.

"Checkpoints are also increasing risks of violence for students, their caregivers and teachers from Israeli forces or from settlers who, in some areas, have taken advantage of the fact that cars are not able to move to damage them and attack passengers,” the report said.

Since January, thousands of Israeli troops have swept through refugee camps and cities and demolished houses and infrastructure, including roads children use to get to school.