The Lebanese pro-Iranian movement Hezbollah will stop attacking Israel only when there is a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, where Israel is fighting the Palestinian movement Hamas - Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said.
"When the aggression in Gaza stops and there is a ceasefire, the attacks from the south" of Lebanon against Israel will also stop, Nasrallah said, adding that he would respond if Israel escalates the conflict.
Nasrallah responded to repeated threats by Israeli officials to go to war against Lebanon.
Since the start of the Hamas attack in Israel on October 7, which sparked the war in the Gaza Strip, Hezbollah has targeted Israeli military positions on the border in support of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, its ally.
Israel frequently bombs southern Lebanon and carries out targeted attacks against Hezbollah officials.
The violence has displaced tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border.
Nasrallah warned that if Israel provokes a war against Lebanon, the displaced from the north of Israel "will not return" and that in that case the Israeli authorities should "prepare shelters, hotels, schools and tents for the two million displaced from the north" of Israel.
The Hezbollah leader also criticized the foreign mediators who are trying to calm the conflict because, as he said, "all the delegations that came to Lebanon in the last four months had one goal - to protect Israel."
France has a plan which, according to diplomatic sources, foresees the cessation of attacks on both sides of the border and the withdrawal of Hezbollah fighters 12 to XNUMX kilometers north.
The Hezbollah leader said that "no one thinks they can impose conditions on us."
According to AFP, 243 people, including 175 Hezbollah fighters and 30 civilians, were killed in southern Lebanon, near the border with Israel, in more than four months, and 15 people were killed on the Israeli side, according to the Israeli army.
(BETA)
The relative of the hostage who was released by Israel this Sunday from the Gaza Strip, stated today that during his stay in captivity, he did not receive medication, which should have been provided to him based on the agreement mediated by Qatar and France, according to which the sick hostages were supposed to be supplied with medicine, in exchange for more aid to the Palestinians.
Majan Segal-Koren said that her mother's exonerated partner, Louis Harr, did not receive the hearing aid, glasses and medication that were sent to him.
Seventy-year-old Har suffers from, among other things, diabetes and hypertension, which is why he needed medication, according to the Forum of Families of Hostages and Missing Persons.
Sigal-Koren said the fact that Harr was not taking his medication worsened the detainee's condition, including psychological difficulties and lack of freedom.
Israeli hospital officials said Har and Fernadno Marman, who were freed on Monday, were in good condition.
Based on the agreement brokered by Qatar and France, it was planned to deliver a three-month supply of medicine for the 45 hostages. Qatar announced earlier this month that the drugs had arrived in Gaza, but there was no confirmation that they had actually been delivered to the hostages.
(BETA)
Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Abul Gheit said today that he is strongly against Israel's policy, which he described as the forced displacement of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
Abul Gheit condemned what he called the "Israeli mentality" in trying to seize the land Palestinians want for their future state.
He warned that any seizure of the Gaza Strip or the West Bank would mean "conflict for the next thousand years."
"The US must order Israel to stop such policies or the Middle East will explode like never before," the head of the Arab League said.
In addition, he called on Israel to "empty (Jewish) settlements" on Palestinian land.
Abul Gheit, a former ambassador to the UN and Egypt, who was Egypt's last foreign minister during the reign of ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, spoke at the World Government Summit in Dubai.
(Beta)
The United Nations (UN) has announced that it will not participate in the forced displacement of Palestinians in Gaza, stressing that there is no safe place to go in the territory where the Israeli military offensive is ongoing.
UN spokesman Stefan Dijarik responded to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's request that the army prepare a plan for the evacuation of around 1,5 million Palestinian civilians who fled the conflict to Rafah in the south of Gaza, in order to continue the operation against Hamas and reports that from that world organization requested help.
Dizarik said last night that the majority of Palestinians in the south of Gaza cannot be sent back to the northern and central areas, which are full of unexploded mines, where apartments are destroyed and the humanitarian situation is extremely difficult due to minimal deliveries of food and other necessities.
He added that the cooperation with the Israeli authorities is "weak".
Israeli government spokesman Aylon Levy accused UN agencies of being more concerned with pressuring Israel to end the war with Hamas and resisting efforts to vacate Hamas strongholds, in accordance with obligations under international law, and that such measures amount to forced displacement.
"We appeal to UN agencies to cooperate with Israeli efforts to protect civilians from Hamas and evacuate them from the war zone where terrorists are trying to use them as human shields. Don't say it can't be done. Work with us to find a way," he said. Levy.
Later, when asked by the Associated Press, Levi said that Israel is not asking the UN for help in evacuating Rafah, but in protecting the Palestinians "instead of helping Hamas."
Dižarik emphasized that "there is no place that is currently safe in Gaza" and that the UN wants to ensure that "everything that happens is done with full respect for international law, full respect for the protection of civilians", and that the UN will not participate in the forced displacement of people.
A total of 28.473 Palestinians have been killed and 68.146 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7, the Gaza Ministry of Health announced today, Reuters reports.
In the last 24 hours, around 133 Palestinians were killed and 162 wounded, the ministry added.
Civilians in Rafah, in the Gaza Strip, are exposed and vulnerable and must be protected, US President Joseph Biden said and again called for the protection of the civilian population.
Biden said that Israel must make a credible effort to protect the more than one million Palestinians who are in the southern Gaza city, Radio Free Europe reports.
Rafa has come under heavy Israeli airstrikes in recent days, with a certain number of casualties.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced last week that he had ordered troops to prepare to expand the ground operation in Rafah and said they would defeat Hamas gunmen hiding in the city.
The head of the United Nations for human rights, Volker Turk, said that any attack would be terrifying and that many civilians "will probably be killed".
More than half of the Gaza Strip's population of 2,3 million are now in the city on the border with Egypt, which was home to just 250 people before the war between Israel and Hamas broke out in October.
(MINE)
Today, China called on Israel to stop the military operation in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip "as soon as possible" in order to "prevent an even more serious humanitarian disaster".
International pressure is mounting for a truce deal between Israel and Hamas, including a new release of hostages, despite the threat of an Israeli offensive on the Rafah, the last refuge of more than a million people in Gaza.
"China is closely following the development of events in the Rafah region, opposes and condemns actions that harm civilians and violate international law," the statement of the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China stated.
"China calls on Israel to end its military operation as soon as possible, to do everything possible to avoid innocent civilian casualties, in order to prevent an even more serious humanitarian disaster in the Rafah region," added the statement, reported by France Press.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently ordered the army to prepare for an offensive in Rafah, where 1,4 million Palestinians, more than half of the total population, have fled the conflict.
On Monday, he reiterated that he would continue "military pressure until the complete victory" over Hamas and the release of all hostages, and labeled Rafah as Hamas's "last bastion."
A few hours earlier, Israel released two of its hostages, two Israelis who also have Argentine citizenship, in Rafah on the border with Egypt.
Israel's nighttime commando operation was followed by a bombing that killed around 100 people, according to Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007.
The US State Department then announced that, according to Washington's assessment, the Israeli airstrikes that night during the release of the hostages did not represent the start of a full-scale offensive in the area.
(Beta)
Israeli forces have killed dozens of Palestinian gunmen in fighting in the southern and central Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours, the army announced today, Reuters reports.
More than 30 gunmen were said to have been killed in Khan Younis, a southern town near Rafah on the Egyptian border with Gaza, where Israeli leaders said they were planning the next operations in an attempt to destroy the remaining Hamas battalions.
Jordan's King Abdullah II appealed in Washington for a complete ceasefire to end the war in Gaza after talks with US President Joseph Biden, who is seeking a shorter six-week break to give Israel time to defeat Hamas.
Speaking at the White House, the two leaders spoke out against Israel's ground offensive on the town of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, where more than a million Palestinians have fled the conflict.
"We cannot allow the Israeli attack on Rafah. It is certain that it will produce another humanitarian disaster," said the Jordanian monarch.
"We cannot stand by and allow this to continue. We need a permanent ceasefire, the war must end," added King Abdullah, who has repeatedly called for a full ceasefire to end the conflict that began with Hamas attacks on Israel 7 October last year.
The US is worried about some Middle Eastern allies because they have repeatedly rejected calls for a full ceasefire. Washington has announced that it supports Israel's efforts to defeat Hamas, and has called for short breaks in negotiations on the release of hostages.
Biden said the United States was working on a hostage deal between Israel and Hamas that would bring a lull of at least six weeks, adding that key elements were in place, but gaps remained.
He also said civilians sheltering in Rafah on the Egyptian border "must be protected" as Israel considers a ground incursion. Now seeking re-election as president, Biden has taken a tougher line on civilian casualties and said last Sunday that the Israeli offensive was "overkill."
Biden and Abdullah met last night for the first time since the October 7 attacks, and the US president branded the leader of an ally as a key player in the turbulent Middle East.
The two leaders also discussed efforts to prevent the conflict from spreading to the region.
The Jordanian monarch will also visit Canada, France and Germany amid international efforts to reach an agreement on a pause in the conflict in Gaza and the release of hostages held there by Hamas.
On Monday, Biden alluded to the fact that "more than 27.000 Palestinians" had been killed, apparently now accepting the Palestinian figures he questioned in October, and now said that "too many children" were among the victims.
The war in Gaza broke out after an unprecedented attack by Palestinian extremists in October, in which around 1.160 people, mostly civilians, were killed, according to France Presse.
Israel responded with bombing and a ground offensive on the Palestinian territory, in which, according to the latest data from the Ministry of Health there, at least 28.340 people were killed, most of them women and children.
(Beta)
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