The Israeli military confirmed this evening that it had killed a high-ranking member of the Lebanese Hezbollah who was working with the Syrian army to re-arm and supply the Lebanese extremist organization.
Syrian state media reported that today a drone hit a vehicle in the suburbs of the capital Beirut and that one person was killed, but the name of the victim was not given.
The Israeli military said that Salam Nemer Joma, "Hezbollah's representative for the Syrian army," was killed and that his killing "degrades both Hezbollah's presence in Syria and Hezbollah's efforts to build up its forces."
Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes against targets in parts of war-torn Syria controlled by the government in Damascus.
The country rarely takes responsibility for its actions in Syria, but has confirmed that it is targeting bases of pro-Iranian extremist organizations.
Iran supports both Hezbollah and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government, which is currently fighting to push back jihadist-led rebels who have captured Syria's second-largest city, Aleppo.
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Health authorities under the leadership of Hamas in Gaza presented new data on the victims of the conflict, stating that in the last 24 hours, 36 people were killed in Israeli attacks, while 96 were injured.
According to their claims, the total number of dead in Gaza as of October 7, 2023 is now 44.502, while 105.454 people have been injured.
Political sources in Lebanon told Reuters that senior officials had asked Washington and Paris to pressure Israel over alleged violations of the terms of the ceasefire.
Lebanon's interim Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Hezbollah ally Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri reportedly spoke with White House and French presidency officials late Monday night, expressing concern over the state of the ceasefire.
Israel's Defense Minister, Israel Katz, threatened that if the ceasefire in Lebanon collapses, Israeli forces "will no longer distinguish between Lebanon and Hezbollah."
The Lebanese Ministry of Health announced that the death toll from Israeli attacks inside Lebanon since October 7, 2023 has exceeded 3.000, while more than 13.000 people have been injured.
According to Reuters, Katz said during a visit to northern Israel that the Lebanese government must "authorize the Lebanese army to assume its role, remove Hezbollah from the Litani River and dismantle all their infrastructure."
"If the truce collapses, Lebanon will no longer be exempt. We will implement the agreement with maximum effect and without tolerance. If until now we made a distinction between Lebanon and Hezbollah, that will no longer be the case," the minister pointed out.
The Israeli Air Force said it carried out the strike in Aqaba, in the northern occupied West Bank, claiming that a "terrorist cell" had been hit.
According to the reports of the Wafa agency, a vehicle was hit on that occasion, killing two people and wounding one.
The Israeli military has issued a statement claiming that troops operating in the central corridor of the Gaza Strip have killed seven identified participants in the October 7, 2023 Hamas surprise attack in southern Israel over the past two weeks.
"We conducted several targeted raids in the area, during which our soldiers destroyed Hamas military terrorist facilities, including military structures, observation posts and sniper positions," the statement said, according to the Guardian.
The Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that Israeli forces have arrested 18 people in the Israeli-occupied West Bank since last night.
According to reports, since October 7, 2023, Israeli forces have arrested over 11.900 people in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
The death toll in Israeli attacks on Gaza has risen to 14 today, the Guardian reports.
In today's Israeli strike, a vehicle was targeted on the road leading to the international airport in Damascus, the official Syrian news agency Sana reported, while a non-governmental organization reported that one person was killed in the strike.
Sana reported, referring to the police report, that the vehicle exploded after being hit by an "Israeli aggressor" on the way to the airport.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an Israeli drone targeted a vehicle and the impact killed one man and wounded another.
The identity of the people in the affected vehicle has not been released.
The strike took place near the military airport, the Observatory said.
Since the start of the Syrian conflict in 2011, Israel has conducted hundreds of strikes in Syria targeting government forces and pro-Iranian allies.
Three strikes on the central Syrian city of Palmyra and pro-Iranian groups killed 20 fighters on November 106, according to the Observatory.
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Fierce fighting broke out today between the Syrian army and a coalition of rebels led by radical Islamists, who are trying to advance towards the strategically important city of Hama, in the province of the same name in the center of the country, reports the non-governmental organization Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Israeli media reports that the government will meet in the coastal city of Nahariya today, a symbolic act indicating renewed security in the country's north following the entry into force of a ceasefire agreement with Lebanon.
However, the move has drawn some criticism, with the Hebrew portal Inet reporting that local government leaders in northern Israel are angry that they were not invited to participate.
Reuters reports that today's Israeli attacks have so far killed at least 12 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip, most of them in the city of Beit Lahiya, while the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) issued new orders for the forced evacuation of the population in the south of the territory.
Reuters says the casualty figures were obtained from local medics, but have not been independently confirmed. Eight people were killed in a series of attacks in Beit Lahia, where the Israeli army has been operating since October.
The Israeli army issued evacuation orders to residents of the northern districts of Khan Yunis, citing rocket fire from those areas as the reason. The statement stated that civilians should move to the "humanitarian zone". However, Palestinian and UN officials claim that there are no safe areas in Gaza, where most of the 2,3 million residents have already been internally displaced several times.
The Palestinian Wafa news agency reports that the three victims in Beit Lahia were members of the Al-Masri family, who died "while going to visit their homes."
"A four-story building was destroyed in Gaza City. Dozens of civilians are feared to be trapped under the rubble. Civil protection forces, with the help of civilians, are trying to find survivors under the remains of the building," writes Tarek Abu Azum, Al Jazeera reporter from Deir Al Balah in the central He treads.
The Syrian army and allied forces have clashed with groups linked to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance in villages in the north of Deir Ez Zur province, Reuters reports, citing the state-run Sana news agency.
The SDF, which was formed in 2015, is considered the de facto army of the Kurds. These forces form an alliance of fighters including Kurds, Syrian Christians and Arab Muslim factions.
The SDF controls about a quarter of Syria's territory and is considered the second most powerful military force in the country, after the Syrian Army. Turkey considers the SDF a terrorist group.
Unicef's regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, Edouard Beygbeder, also issued a statement regarding the recent escalation of violence in Syria, saying that "children are bearing the brunt of the conflict."
"I am deeply concerned by the recent escalation of hostilities in northwestern Syria, which have reportedly led to the tragic deaths of at least seven children and the wounding of 32 more. Since November 27, more than 48.500 people have been displaced, mostly women and children. The majority of children has already been expelled several times due to previous crises.
In Syria, children are surviving one of the most complex humanitarian crises in the world – a combination of protracted conflicts, repeated displacement of civilians, economic recession, disease epidemics and devastating earthquakes. UNICEF calls on all parties to immediately cease hostilities," it said.
Al Jazeera reports that eight people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since this morning. Five in Beit Lahia, two in Gaza City and one person in Rafah.
In a statement released overnight, the Israeli military claimed that strikes inside Lebanese territory "hit Hezbollah terrorists, dozens of rocket launchers and terrorist infrastructure throughout Lebanon."
"Hezbollah's attacks tonight are a violation of the cease-fire agreement between Israel and Lebanon. The State of Israel demands that the relevant parties in Lebanon fulfill their obligations and prevent hostile activities by Hezbollah from Lebanese territory. The State of Israel remains committed to fulfilling the terms of the cease-fire agreement in Lebanon. The IDF is ready to continue operating wherever necessary and will continue operations to protect Israeli civilians," the statement said.
Israel launched its biggest wave of airstrikes across Lebanon since agreeing to a cease-fire with Hezbollah last week, killing at least 11 people on Monday after the Lebanese militant group fired a barrage of missiles as a warning against what it said was an Israeli ceasefire violation.
This is the first time that Hezbollah has targeted Israeli forces since the ceasefire took effect last week, Radio Free Europe reports.
Lebanon's Ministry of Health announced that an Israeli airstrike on the southern village of Haris killed five people and wounded two others. In the second air attack on the village of Talusa, four people were killed and two were wounded.
Before the Hezbollah missile, the Israelis had carried out at least four airstrikes in southern Lebanon, including a drone strike that killed a man on a motorcycle, Lebanese state media reported. In the second attack, a corporal in the Lebanese security services was killed.
Israeli soldiers stationed in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron have stepped up a campaign of arbitrary arrests, beatings and abuse of Palestinians, according to Guardian interviews with targeted residents and new research by the human rights group B'Tselem.
Three people described to the Guardian how soldiers caught them in the street while going about their daily business, using flimsy excuses such as photos of Palestinian flags found on their phones or accusations of stone-throwing. They tied their hands, blindfolded them and took them to nearby military stations, where they were exposed to mental and physical abuse for hours.
A 60-year-old man, Bader A-Tamimi, said he was punched in the torso and thrown against a wall after he asked the soldiers to stop destroying goods in his souvenir shop.
The Guardian's findings support a new report by B'Tselem, based on more than 20 similar testimonies collected in Hebron, which is under a heavy Israeli military presence, between May and August.
B'Tselem claims that since October 7, 2023, there has been a change in the scope, type and intensity of violence used by Israeli forces against Palestinians in the West Bank. In several cases, the attackers filmed or broadcast the abuse live via video call, apparently without concern for possible consequences.
The report shows, according to the executive director of this respected organization based in Jerusalem, Juli Novak, "a shocking picture of the violent behavior patterns of the Israeli soldiers."
Regarding the broader range of allegations made by the detainees and in the B'Tselem report, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they "cannot adequately investigate this case or provide an answer without concrete details."
"After more than a year of Israel's continuous war against the Palestinian people, the abuse of Palestinian passers-by has become a preferred, even mandatory, practice. These are not isolated incidents or deviations from operating procedures, but a pattern that reflects systemic attitudes, which are themselves the result of the dehumanization of Palestinians, aimed by the Israeli government," Novak pointed out.
Violence in the West Bank has escalated in parallel with the Israeli war in Gaza, triggered by the Hamas attack on Israel in October last year. According to the Ramallah-based Palestinian Ministry of Health, nearly 800 people have been killed by Israeli fire, including 160 children, and the number of arrests - including administrative detention, which allows indefinite detention without charge - has reached historically high levels.
Israel has been conducting almost nightly raids on historic West Bank refugee camps and other urban centers since the start of the war, saying the aim is to prevent a significant increase in Palestinian attacks on Israelis originating in the area. Settler violence has also reached record levels.
Hebron, in the southern West Bank, has suffered some of the worst consequences, which Palestinians and rights groups say are aimed at forcing residents to flee the area or live in constant fear of arbitrary violence.
This ancient city is home to the Mosque of Ibrahim, also known as the Tomb of the Patriarchs, a holy site for both Jews and Muslims. Unlike other parts of the West Bank, except for East Jerusalem, the city center was divided into two parts in the 1s as a temporary measure. That arrangement is now de facto permanent: H2 is administered by the Palestinian Authority, while HXNUMX is under Israeli military control.
Today, 2 Palestinians and about 33.000 Israeli settlers live in H900, which is protected by between 1.000 and 1.500 Israeli soldiers. Daily life for Palestinians in the area – one of the most contested and militarized places in the occupied territories – has long been difficult. After the October 7 attack, restrictions on freedom of movement imposed by the IDF escalated into a full-scale quarantine that lasted for weeks; a year later, the night curfew is still in place.
US President-elect Donald Trump on Monday warned militants in the Gaza Strip of dire consequences if the hostages kidnapped in Israel are not released before he takes office.
The outgoing administration of President Joe Biden has conducted extensive diplomatic activities, but so far has failed to secure an agreement that would end the war in the Gaza Strip and free the hostages who were kidnapped 14 months ago by members of Hamas, which the US and the EU consider a terrorist organization.
"If the hostages are not released before January 20, 2025, the date I proudly take office as President of the United States, there will be hell to pay in the Middle East," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
He added that those responsible for the hostage-taking "will be hit harder than anyone else has been hit" in US history.
Trump's threat came hours after the Israeli government confirmed the death of another hostage, an American-Israeli citizen. His body is believed to be still being held by Hamas members in the Gaza Strip.
A few days earlier, Hamas released a video of a member of the Israeli army who was among the hostages taken to the Gaza Strip. Apparently recorded under duress, he urged Trump to work on negotiations to free the remaining hostages.
Trump has pledged firm support for Israel, as well as ending the Biden administration's occasional criticism of Israel over the war in the Gaza Strip. Trump aides have said he hopes to reach an agreement on a ceasefire and the release of hostages before he returns to office in January.
Of the 251 hostages taken by Hamas to Gaza, 97 are believed to be still in the Palestinian territory, with 35 dead, according to the Israeli military.
In response to the attack by Hamas on October 7, 2023, when, according to Israeli data, around 1.200 people were killed, Israel launched a devastating offensive against Hamas and other radical Palestinian movements in the Gaza Strip. Those attacks killed more than 44.000 people, according to health authorities in Hamas-controlled Gaza.
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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Monday that the situation in the war-torn Gaza Strip was "terrible and apocalyptic" and warned that the conditions facing Palestinians could be described as "the worst international crimes".
In a statement read on his behalf at a conference in Cairo aimed at increasing humanitarian aid, Guterres called on the international community to "build the foundation for sustainable peace in Gaza and across the Middle East".
He pointed to the devastating consequences of the conflict and the urgent need for international action, AFP reported.
"Malnutrition is increasing. Hunger is inevitable. Meanwhile, the health system has collapsed," said the UN Secretary General.
Guterres said Gaza now has "the highest number of child amputees per capita anywhere in the world" and that many surgeries are performed without anesthesia.
The Gaza war erupted when the Palestinian group Hamas - an organization considered a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union - attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1.208 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli figures.
Israel launched a retaliatory campaign that killed 44.429 people in Gaza, according to the territory's Ministry of Health.
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