Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Galant said today that there are "significant opportunities, but also grave risks" at a time when Israel is entering, as he said, a new phase of the war, announcing the continuation of military actions.
"This is a new phase in the war, it has significant opportunities, but also serious risks. Hezbollah feels pursued and the sequence of our military operations will continue," said Galant in front of the head of the Israeli army.
Galant reiterated that Israel's goal is the safe return of residents of the northern part of the country, displaced by cross-border conflicts with Hezbollah, to their homes.
"As time goes by, Hezbollah will pay a higher price," announced the Israeli minister.
He added that efforts to return the hostages and destroy Palestinian Hamas in the Gaza Strip will continue at the same time, Israeli media reported.
The leader of the Lebanese Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah, in his first address since the explosions of pagers and walkie-talkies across Lebanon on Tuesday and Wednesday, announced that he will prevent Israel from achieving the new war goal of returning the residents of the Israeli north to their homes.
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The United Nations (UN) Committee has accused Israel of seriously violating the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, judging that Israel's military actions in Gaza have had disastrous consequences for them.
In addition, this attitude towards children's rights is counted among the worst violations in recent history.
Hamas authorities in Gaza say that more than 41.000 people have been killed in the Palestinian territory since the beginning of the Israeli military campaign, Israeli media reports, adding that these figures cannot be verified and that it is not stated how many of the victims are fighters and how many are civilians.
Israel claims to have killed more than 17.000 terrorist operatives.
Hamas states that at least 11.355 children were killed in Gaza, and that thousands were wounded.
"The horrifying death of children is historically almost unique. It is an extremely dark place in history," the vice president of the committee, Bragi Gadbrandson, told reporters.
"I don't think we've seen an earlier violation that's as massive as what we've seen in Gaza. These are extremely serious violations that we don't see very often," he added.
Israel, which ratified the agreement in 1991, sent a large delegation to the UN hearing in Geneva on September 3 and 4.
She claimed that the agreement does not apply to Gaza and the West Bank, and that Israel is committed to respecting international humanitarian law.
Israel claims that the aim of the military campaign in Gaza is to eliminate the Hamas rulers and that it does not target civilians, but that terrorists are among them, that the tunnels are under residential areas and in hospitals and schools.
The committee commended Israel for attending, but said it deeply regretted the repeated denial of legal obligations.
The 18-member committee oversees compliance with the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child, which protects children from violence and other abuses.
Israel has been urged to provide emergency aid to thousands of children maimed or wounded in the war, support for orphans and allow more medical evacuations from Gaza.
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An unnamed Israeli official confirmed today media reports that the Israeli government has drafted a proposal for a peace agreement, which foresees the release of all hostages and an end to the fighting in the Gaza Strip, with the safe departure of the Palestinian Hamas leader from that territory.
He told The Times of Israel that Israeli official Gal Hirsch presented the proposal to the Americans and that they are expected to submit it to Arab officials.
He stated that the agreement, if its provisions are fulfilled, would mean the end of the war between Israel and Hamas, which began on October 7, 2023, with the attack of Palestinian extremists on the southern part of the Israeli territory.
Israel's public service Khan previously announced that the government of Israel had drawn up a framework agreement that would, among other things, enable the safe departure of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and his associates from the Gaza Strip.
The proposal envisages the release of all Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons, the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip and the establishment of a new management system in that Palestinian territory. Other details have not been released.
The Hostage and Missing Families Forum welcomed the proposed agreement, stating that the release of the 101 hostages is the wish of all Israeli citizens, and called on all members of the Israeli government to support it.
The announcement of the Forum states that the proposal has already been presented to the leaders of the Arab countries and that their response is positive.
In the attack of Palestinian extremists on the south of Israel on October 7, about 1.200 people were killed, while about 250 were kidnapped and taken to Gaza. Israel responded with an offensive on the Gaza Strip that killed more than 41.000 Palestinians.
According to data from August 28, 117 hostages have been returned to Israel since the beginning of the war. In November, Hamas freed 105 hostages, who were exchanged for Palestinian prisoners, later unilaterally freed four more, while eight were rescued by the Israeli army.
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The United Nations committee has condemned Israel for "serious violations" of the global agreement on the protection of children's rights, stating that its military actions in Palestine since last October have had a catastrophic impact on children, the Guardian reports.
"The committee condemns in the strongest possible terms the grave violations of rights under the convention in the OPT (Occupied Palestinian Territories), including the massive loss of life as a result of the state's military actions," the four-member committee said in the document, referring to the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The Israeli delegation argued during a series of UN hearings earlier this month that the agreement did not apply to Gaza or the West Bank, and said it was committed to respecting international humanitarian law.
The death toll from the walkie-talkie blasts that rocked Lebanon on Wednesday rose to 25, Lebanese Health Minister Firas Abijad said.
Speaking at the press conference, he added that another 608 people were injured.
Three Palestinians were killed and four others were injured by Israeli fire during a military raid in the occupied West Bank town of Kabati, Reuters reported, citing the official Palestinian news agency WAFA.
Lebanon's state news agency NNA, citing a statement from the Lebanese army, reports that pagers and other electronic devices are being detonated in a controlled manner as a precautionary measure.
They quote the military as saying that specialized units are detonating pagers and suspicious communication devices in various regions and urging citizens to stay away from detonation sites and report any suspicious device or object.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said it is worrying" that the conflict in the Middle East seems to be escalating.
"The escalation in the region is worrying. We see that Israel is gradually increasing its attacks on Lebanon," he told AFP.
Al Jazeera carried an additional quote from Fidan, who said that "Iran, Hezbollah and elements close to them have no choice" but to respond to recent actions that are largely attributed to Israel.
"We have reached the point where the operations carried out by Israel have become more and more provocative," he added.
The man Israeli security forces say they arrested for plotting to assassinate senior political figures in Israel has been identified as 73-year-old Moti Maman.
Maman, from Ashkelon, was arrested last month and charged this morning. The Shin Bet and the Israeli police claim that Iran was behind the plot, the Guardian reports.
Israeli planes and artillery hit multiple targets in southern Lebanon, the Israeli military said.
The airstrikes are said to have hit Hezbollah targets in Chihine, Tayibe, Blida, Meis El Jabal, Aitarun and Kfarkela in southern Lebanon, as well as a Hezbollah weapons depot in the Qama area, Radio Free Europe reports.
Israeli media reported that a number of Israeli civilians were wounded by anti-tank rocket fire from Lebanon, but there was no official confirmation.
The latest Israeli strikes follow a period of heightened concern over an escalating conflict on the border with southern Lebanon, where Israeli forces have been exchanging fire with Iran-backed Hezbollah for months.
Hezbollah fired about 20 missiles at Israel on Wednesday, most of which were intercepted by air defense systems without causing any damage.
About ten missiles were fired at the Mount Hermon area of the Golan Heights occupied by Israel, which has key surveillance, espionage and air defense facilities there.
This week, dozens of people were killed and thousands wounded in a sophisticated attack on communications devices used by Hezbollah operatives.
Israel has not directly commented on the attacks, which multiple security sources said were carried out by its Mossad spy agency.
On Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galan said that the war that Israel has been waging in Gaza since last October is entering a new phase, with a focus on the northern border.
He said that more military units and resources are being sent to the border.
According to Israeli officials, the forces deployed on the border include the 98th Division, an elite formation that includes commandos and paratroopers fighting in Gaza.
Hezbollah launched a rocket barrage on Israel the day after the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, and since then there has been a constant exchange of fire.
Tens of thousands have been evacuated on both sides of the border, and there is increasing pressure in Israel for the government to return the evacuees home.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised on Wednesday to return the evacuated Israelis "safely to their homes".
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The head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine - UNRWA, said on Thursday that too many of his staff were killed as their facilities were attacked in Gaza.
Filipe Lazarini added that this UN agency is still the target of an avalanche of misinformation, the Guardian reports.
"This includes attempts to justify the killing of personnel by labeling people as operatives of armed groups like Hamas. Such horrific claims, made publicly, are unsupported by evidence and dangerous. Most importantly, they spread fear among our aid workers on the front lines in Gaza.
Several colleagues have told us that they no longer feel safe wearing UNRWA vests. Their children beg them not to go to work for fear that they might be killed while in UNRWA facilities. The disinformation attacks are not related to the neutrality of UNRWA or our humanitarian workers," he said.
Lazarini said that these attempts are aimed at distracting attention from the crimes of this war, dehumanizing by justifying and undermining and eliminating UNRWA
"Everyone has a responsibility to control the spread of false or malicious information. Before sharing, check the facts to avoid the danger of endangering the lives of others," he added.
The Lebanese state news agency NNA reports that fires have been noticed inside the border of Lebanon, near the UN blue line that separates that country from Israel. The fires are the result of fire from Israel, it added, while Israeli drones and reconnaissance planes fly over southern Lebanon.
Israeli media reports that at least eight people were injured in the attack by an anti-tank guided missile from Lebanon.
In a joint statement, the Shin Bet and Israeli police claim that an Israeli civilian was arrested last month allegedly recruited by Iran to assassinate the Israeli prime minister, defense minister or Shin Bet chief, as well as to have participated in other espionage and sabotage missions.
The Times of Israel reports that the suspect, who security forces say was smuggled in and out of Iran during the planning, has not been named and was indicted on Thursday.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports that several Israelis were wounded by anti-tank rockets fired from Lebanon into northern Israel.
In the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that Israeli security forces are conducting raids in Hebron and in the town of Idna, west of Hebron.
Lebanese Hezbollah announced that 20 of its members were killed between Wednesday evening and this morning, in explosions of walkie-talkie communication devices attributed to Israel.
A new wave of Hezbollah communications device explosions killed 20 people and wounded more than 450 across Lebanon on Wednesday, authorities said.
The blasts came a day after the first wave of blasts on pagers, a radio messaging system used by the pro-Iranian Islamist movement, that killed 12 people and wounded nearly 2.800, according to Lebanon's health ministry.
A source close to the group told France Press that those 20 members of Hezbollah were killed in the explosions of the walkie-talkies.
Hezbollah blamed Israel for the explosions and threatened to respond. Israel has not commented on the explosions.
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah is scheduled to address the public this afternoon.
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