Lebanon says Israeli strikes kill four in south

A man douses the flames of a car hit by an Israeli strike in the southern Lebanese village of Burj Al-Muluk on March 15, 2025, in which one person was reportedly killed. (AFP)

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Updated 2 min 56 sec ago

AFP

March 16, 2025 06:56

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Lebanon says Israeli strikes kill four in south

A man douses the flames of a car hit by an Israeli strike in the southern Lebanese village of Burj Al-Muluk on March 15, 2025.

“The Israeli enemy strike this evening on the town of Ainata led to the death of two people,” NNA said
Earlier, health ministry confirmed one person was killed in an Israeli strike on Mais Al-Jabal and NNA reported one other fatality in Bint Jbeil

Updated 2 min 56 sec ago

AFP

March 16, 2025 06:56

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BEIRUT: Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon killed four people on Sunday, Lebanese state media and the health ministry said, as Israel’s military said it had killed two Hezbollah militants.
“The Israeli enemy strike this evening on the town of Ainata led to the death of two people,” Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) said, citing the health ministry’s emergency service.
Earlier, the health ministry confirmed one person was killed in an Israeli strike on Mais Al-Jabal and NNA reported one other fatality in Bint Jbeil.
The agency reported that an Israeli drone carried out “a strike on a vehicle in the town of Mais Al-Jabal, resulting in one fatality.”
The NNA said it was the third Israeli strike on southern Lebanon within 24 hours.
Earlier on Sunday, the health ministry said an Israeli drone strike killed one person and wounded another when it targeted a four-wheel-drive vehicle near Yater in Bint Jbeil district at around 2:00 am, the NNA reported.
“The Israeli enemy’s air strike on a vehicle in the town of Yater resulted in the martyrdom of a citizen and the injury of another,” the ministry said in a statement carried by the news agency.
Israel’s military said that it killed two Hezbollah militants Sunday in two separate strikes on Lebanon.
“Earlier today, the IDF struck and eliminated two Hezbollah terrorists who were surveillance operatives and took part in directing terror attacks in the area of Yatar and Meiss El Jabal in southern Lebanon,” the military said in a statement.
It comes a day after Lebanon’s health ministry said one person was killed in an Israeli strike on a vehicle in the southern border town of Burj Al-Muluk.
Following that raid, the Israeli military said it “struck a Hezbollah terrorist who took part in terrorist activity in the area of Kfarkela in southern Lebanon.”
And on Tuesday, the Israeli military said it carried out a strike in southern Lebanon that killed a senior Hezbollah militant.
That came as Lebanon received four detainees who had been taken to Israel during fighting with Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group, with a fifth detainee, a soldier, released on Thursday after he was taken earlier this month.
A November 27 truce largely halted more than a year of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel, including two months of full-blown war in which Israel sent in ground troops.
Israel has continued to carry out periodic strikes on Lebanese territory since the agreement took effect.
Israel had been due to withdraw from Lebanon by February 18 after missing a January deadline, but it has kept troops at five locations it deems “strategic.”
The ceasefire also required Hezbollah to pull back north of the Litani River, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border, and to dismantle any remaining military infrastructure in the south.

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Topics: Battlefield Lebanon Lebanon Israel

Libya education minister convicted over textbook scandal

Updated 16 March 2025

AFP

March 16, 2025 17:42

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Libya education minister convicted over textbook scandal

Libya’s education minister has been sentenced to three and a half years in prison

Updated 16 March 2025

AFP

March 16, 2025 17:42

TRIPOLI: Libya’s education minister has been sentenced to three and a half years in prison because of a textbook shortage dating back to 2021, the attorney-general’s office announced on Sunday.
The Tripoli court of appeal also fined Moussa Al-Megarief 1,000 dinars (about $200) and deprived him of his civil rights for the duration of his sentence and a year afterwards, the same source said in a statement on Facebook.
Megarief, a member of the national unity government, was accused of “violating the principle of equality,” interceding in favor of an unnamed party, and “favoritism in contract management ... over the printing of textbooks.”
The case dates to the start of the 2021 school year, when a textbook shortage forced parents to spend money on photocopies of textbooks supposed to be provided free in public schools.
An investigation began into Megarief over his management of “contractual procedures for printing textbooks and the reasons behind this shortage.”
He was then placed in preventive detention as part of an investigation into “negligence in the exercise of his functions.”
Megarief was later released from custody for lack of evidence, and resumed his post as education minister.
He attributed the textbook shortage to unifying the school curriculum among the North African country’s three regions, saying this delayed payments owed to suppliers.
Before the attorney-general’s announcement on Sunday, the education ministry’s Facebook page posted a picture showing Megarief at work.

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Topics: Libya Moussa Al-Megarief

Israeli strikes kill 14 people in Gaza over past day, Palestinian medics say

Mourners gather by the shrouded bodies of victims killed by Israeli bombardment in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip.

Updated 16 March 2025

Reuters

March 16, 2025 16:35

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Israeli strikes kill 14 people in Gaza over past day, Palestinian medics say

Palestinian officials say dozens of people have been killed by Israeli fire despite the January 19 truce that halted large-scale fighting in Gaza

Updated 16 March 2025

Reuters

March 16, 2025 16:35

CAIRO: Israeli military strikes have killed at least 14 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip over the past 24 hours, the enclave’s Health Ministry said on Sunday, as Arab and US mediators work to shore up a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
Palestinian officials say dozens of people have been killed by Israeli fire despite the January 19 truce that halted large-scale fighting in Gaza.
Israel’s military has said its forces have intervened to thwart threats by “terrorists” approaching its troops or planting bombs since the ceasefire took effect.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said most of the latest deaths took place on Saturday when an Israeli airstrike killed nine Palestinians including four journalists in the town of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip.
The Israeli military said six men that it had identified as members of the armed wings of Hamas and the allied Islamic Jihad militant group had been killed in the strike. It said some of the militants had operated “under the cover of journalists.”
Salama Marouf, the head of the Hamas-run Gaza government media office, said the military’s statement about the incident included the names of people who were not present.
It was based on inaccurate social media reports “without even bothering to verify the facts,” Marouf said.
At least four more Palestinians were killed in separate Israeli strikes on Saturday, the Gaza health officials said.
An Israeli drone had fired a missile at a group of Palestinians in the town of Juhr Eldeek in central Gaza on Sunday, killing a 62-year-old man and wounding several others, the medics said. Several others were hurt when an Israeli drone fired a missile toward a group of people in Rafah, they added.
The Israeli military said it was not familiar with the reported drone strikes.
Ceasefire talks
Persistent bloodshed in Gaza underscores the fragility of the three-stage ceasefire agreement mediated by Qatar, Egypt, and the United States, which have stepped in to hammer out a deal between Israel and Hamas over how to proceed.
Israel wants to extend the ceasefire’s first phase, a proposal backed by US envoy Steve Witkoff. Hamas says it will resume freeing hostages only under the second phase that was due to begin on March 2.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Saturday negotiators had been instructed to be ready to continue talks based on the mediators’ response to a US proposal for the release of 11 living hostages and half of the dead captives.
Hamas on Friday said it had agreed to release American-Israeli soldier Edan Alexander and four bodies of the hostages if Israel agreed to begin talks immediately on implementing the second phase of the agreement. Israel responded by accusing Hamas of waging “psychological warfare” on the families of hostages.
An Israeli delegation was in Egypt discussing a possible deal with senior Egyptian officials that would release more hostages, Netanyahu’s office said on Sunday.
The war began when Hamas carried out a cross-border raid into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and capturing 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s subsequent assault on Gaza has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials, displaced most the population and reduced much of the territory to rubble.

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Topics: War on Gaza Gaza Palestinian

Israel’s military campaign in northern West Bank still ongoing after almost 50 days

Updated 16 March 2025

Arab News

March 16, 2025 19:01

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Israel’s military campaign in northern West Bank still ongoing after almost 50 days

Israeli forces hand eviction notices to residents in Dhannaba neighborhood, told to leave by noon on Sunday
Forces evict last residents of Al-Murabba’at Hannoun district in Tulkarm refugee camp

Updated 16 March 2025

Arab News

March 16, 2025 19:01

LONDON: Israeli forces have demolished several homes in the Palestinian city of Tulkarm and its refugee camps as part of a military campaign in the northern-occupied West Bank which has lasted nearly 50 days.

Israel’s military campaign in Tulkarm and its refugee camp has been ongoing for 49 days, and 36 days in the Nour Shams refugee camp, the Palestine News Agency reported.

Nearly 24,000 have been displaced from the Tulkarm and Nour Shams camps, and 13 have been killed since Israel launched its campaign in late January.

Israeli forces raided several homes in the Tulkarm refugee camp on Sunday, forcing residents from the Al-Murabba’at Hannoun, Qaqoon, and Abu Al-Foul neighborhoods. WAFA also reported that forces had handed eviction notices to residents in the Dhannaba district, compelling them to leave their homes by noon on Sunday.

Israeli forces had evicted the last residents of Al-Murabba’at Hannoun district in Tulkarm refugee camp the previous day, warning that anyone still in their homes would be arrested. Israel deployed infantry units inside the camp’s alleys on Sunday, barring residents from returning for essential supplies.

Israeli forces set fire to a home and destroyed others in the Nour Shams camp after displacing residents on Sunday. They also raided homes in the Al-Jabal, Al-Nasr, and Al-Mahjar neighborhoods and interrogated some residents, WAFA said.

The Israeli military campaign has caused significant damage to the infrastructure of Tulkarm city and its refugee camps, affecting water, electricity, sewage, and communication networks, along with the destruction of homes, businesses, and vehicles.

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Topics: Palestine Tulkarem Israeli occupation

US will keep hitting Houthis until shipping attacks stop, Hegseth says

Smoke rises from a location reportedly struck by US airstrikes in Sanaa, Yemen, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP)

Updated 16 March 2025

Reuters

March 16, 2025 14:27

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US will keep hitting Houthis until shipping attacks stop, Hegseth says

Hegseth said US campaign was response to scores of attacks the Houthis have launched on ships since Nov. 2023
Houthi movement’s political bureau described US attacks as a “war crime” and said Houthi forces were ready to “meet escalation with escalation”

Updated 16 March 2025

Reuters

March 16, 2025 14:27

WASHINGTON/ADEN: The United States will keep attacking Yemen’s Houthis until they end attacks on shipping, the US defense secretary said on Sunday, as the Iran-aligned group signalled it could escalate in response to deadly US strikes the day before.
The airstrikes, which killed at least 31 people, are the biggest US military operation in the Middle East since President Donald Trump took office in January. One US official told Reuters the campaign might continue for weeks.
The Houthi movement’s political bureau described the attacks as a “war crime” and said Houthi forces were ready to “meet escalation with escalation,” while Moscow urged Washington to cease the strikes.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Fox News: “The minute the Houthis say we’ll stop shooting at your ships, we’ll stop shooting at your drones, this campaign will end, but until then it will be unrelenting.”
“This is about stopping the shooting at assets ... in that critical waterway, to reopen freedom of navigation, which is a core national interest of the United States, and Iran has been enabling the Houthis for far too long,” he said. “They better back off.”
The Houthis, who have taken control of most of Yemen over the past decade, said last week they would resume attacks on Israeli ships passing through the Red Sea if Israel did not lift a block on aid entering Gaza.
They had launched scores of attacks on shipping after Israel’s war with Hamas began in late 2023, saying they were acting in solidarity with Gaza’s Palestinians.
Trump also told Iran, the Houthis’ main backer, to stop supporting the group immediately. He said if Iran threatened the United States, “America will hold you fully accountable and, we won’t be nice about it!“

Iran warns US not to escalate
In response, Hossein Salami, the top commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, said the Houthis took their own decisions.
“We warn our enemies that Iran will respond decisively and destructively if they carry out their threats,” he told state media.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told CBS News’ “Face the Nation” program:
“There’s no way the ... Houthis would have the ability to do this kind of thing unless they had support from Iran. And so this was a message to Iran: don’t keep supporting them, because then you will also be responsible for what they are doing in attacking Navy ships and attacking global shipping.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called Rubio to urge an “immediate cessation of the use of force and the importance for all sides to engage in political dialogue,” Moscow said.
Trump has been pressing Russia to sign a US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire in its war with Ukraine, which Kyiv accepted last week, but Moscow has said needs to be reworked.
Trump is also increasing sanctions pressure, and hoping to enlist Russian help, to try to bring Tehran to the negotiating table over its nuclear program.
Most of the 31 people confirmed killed in the US strikes were women and children, said Anees Al-Asbahi, spokesperson for the Houthi-run health ministry. More than 100 were injured.
Residents in Sanaa said the strikes hit a neighborhood known to host several members of the Houthi leadership.
“The explosions were violent and shook the neighborhood like an earthquake. They terrified our women and children,” said one of the residents, who gave his name as Abdullah Yahia.
In Sanaa, a crane and bulldozer were used to remove debris at one site and people used their bare hands to pick through the rubble. At a hospital, medics treated the injured, including children, and the bodies of several casualties were placed in a yard, wrapped in plastic sheets, Reuters footage showed.
Strikes also targeted Houthi military sites in the city of Taiz, two witnesses said on Sunday.

Houthis’ Red Sea attacks disrupt global trade route
Another strike, on a power station in the town of Dahyan, led to a power cut, Al-Masirah TV reported early on Sunday. Dahyan is where Abdul Malik Al-Houthi, the enigmatic leader of the Houthis, often meets visitors.
The Houthi attacks on shipping have disrupted global commerce and set the US military off on a costly campaign to intercept missiles and drones.
The group suspended its campaign when Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire in Gaza in January.
But on March 12, the Houthis said their threat to attack Israeli ships would remain in effect until Israel reapproved the delivery of aid and food into Gaza.
Joe Biden’s previous US administration had also sought to degrade the Houthis’ strike power. But US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Trump had authorized a more aggressive approach.
The US military’s Central Command described Saturday’s strikes as the start of a large-scale operation across Yemen.
The strikes were carried out in part by fighter aircraft from the aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman in the Red Sea, officials said.
Iran condemned the strikes as a “gross violation” of the UN Charter and international law.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said the US government had “no authority, or business, dictating Iranian foreign policy.”

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Topics: War on Gaza Houthis US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth

Turkiye calls on EU to lift Syria sanctions ahead of international conference

Updated 16 March 2025

AFP

March 16, 2025 12:47

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Turkiye calls on EU to lift Syria sanctions ahead of international conference

The EU will host the ninth international conference in support of Syria on Monday
For the first time, representatives of Syria’s new interim government have been invited to attend

Updated 16 March 2025

AFP

March 16, 2025 12:47

ISTANBUL: Turkiye on Sunday called on the European Union to unconditionally lift sanctions on the Syrian Arab Republic, ahead of an international aid conference in Brussels to which the war-torn country’s new authorities have been invited.
Ankara, allied with Syria’s new rulers who ousted president Bashar Assad and took power in December, views such a step as necessary for a “peaceful transition” in the country, Turkiye’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
The European Union on Monday will host the ninth international conference in support of Syria. For the first time, representatives of Syria’s government — the new interim authorities — have been invited to attend.
The event aims to raise international support for Syria’s transition and recovery after more than 13 years of civil war.
The European bloc on February 24 already announced an easing of sanctions on Syria’s energy, transport and banking sectors to relieve some of the challenges facing Ahmed Al-Sharaa, Syria’s interim president.
But Europe and other powers remain wary over what direction Sharaa’s Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) — which spearheaded the lightning offensive that toppled Assad on December 8 — may take Syria.
While there are hopes Sharaa’s authorities can stabilize the country and usher in an inclusive future, recent deadly violence targeting the Alawite minority to which Assad belongs has kept doubts floating.
EU foreign ministers have warned that the sanctions they eased could be reimposed if Syria’s new leaders break promises to respect the rights of minorities and move toward democracy.
“Syria’s economic security is essential for the country’s stability and security,” Turkiye’s ministry said, adding that “economic opportunities and jobs need to be created.”
“The sanctions must be lifted unconditionally and for an indeterminate period,” it said.
Turkiye, which hosts nearly three million Syrian refugees, also urged reconstruction of Syria “to encourage returns.”
Turkish deputy foreign minister Nuh Yilmaz will attend the Brussels conference.

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Topics: Syria Turkiye

Lebanon says Israeli strikes kill four in south

Lebanon says Israeli strikes kill four in south

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Turkiye calls on EU to lift Syria sanctions ahead of international conference

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Lebanon says Israeli strikes kill four in south

Lebanon says Israeli strikes kill four in south

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