Source: Al Jazeera & News Agencies
Security & Justice
Southern Lebanon Endures Massive Damage: 40,000 Homes Leveled Across 37 Towns
Israeli forces have systematically destroyed entire neighborhoods in southern Lebanon, leveling more than 37 towns and wiping out over 40,000 residential units, according to Lebanon's National News Agency.
Tuesday, November 5, 2024
Gaps in Coastal Radar Enabled Israeli Raid in Batroun, Army Commander Says
Lebanon’s army chief, General Joseph Aoun, detailed to Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati how Israeli forces likely exploited gaps in the country's coastal radar system during the recent raid carried out in Batroun. The briefing comes as Lebanese officials seek answers on how Israel’s elite Shayetet 13 unit carried out the landing undetected.
Monday, November 4, 2024
Opinion
The Emptying of Baalbek Is a Moment to Take Stock
“Large numbers of people continue to flee their homes every day, as Israel’s military operations in Lebanon have been going on unabated.” These disturbing words could be from almost any news report about Israel’s invasion of its northern neighbour over the past month. However, they can be found in a report by the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre issued on July 27, 2006.
Saturday, November 2, 2024
A Future Without Hezbollah
At the end of September, when Israel’s campaign to destroy Hezbollah was reaching its height, I met one of the group’s supporters in a seaside café in western Beirut. He was a middle-aged man with a thin white beard and the spent look of someone who had not slept for days. He was an academic of sorts, not a fighter, but his ties to Hezbollah were deep and long-standing.
Thursday, October 31, 2024
Sports
Tottenham Forward Son Heung-min Crowned Asia’s International Player of the Year
Tottenham forward Son Heung-min was crowned as Asia’s International Player of the Year for the fourth time by the Asian Football Confederation at its annual awards ceremony Tuesday.
Wednesday, October 30, 2024
Real Madrid Launch Investigation into Racist Insults After El Clasico Defeat
Real Madrid has launched an investigation into racist insults directed at players during Saturday’s 4-0 home loss to Barcelona in LaLiga, it said on Sunday.
Monday, October 28, 2024
Wednesday 8 November 2023 16:18:34
G7 Calls For ‘Humanitarian Pauses’ in Israel’s Bombardment of Gaza
Top diplomats from the Group of Seven (G7) have called for “humanitarian pauses” in Israel’s bombardment in order to deliver aid to desperate Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip.
The foreign ministers from the leading industrial democracies announced on Wednesday that they have agreed upon a unified stance on the Israel-Hamas war, following intensive meetings in Tokyo.
They released a statement that condemned Hamas and supported Israel’s right to self-defence but called for humanitarian pauses in Israel’s shelling of Gaza.
The G7 statement sought to balance criticism of Hamas’s attacks and support for Israel with a push for “urgent action” to help civilians in the besieged Palestinian enclave, who are in desperate need of food, water, medical care and shelter.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the foreign ministers of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and Italy emphasised that they “support humanitarian pauses to facilitate urgently needed assistance, civilian movement and release of hostages”.
There was also condemnation of “the rise in extremist settler violence committed against Palestinians”, which the ministers said is “unacceptable, undermines security in the West Bank, and threatens prospects for a lasting peace”.
At least 154 Palestinians have been killed and 2,150 arrested by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank since the Israel-Hamas war broke out a month ago, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Society.
As the diplomats met in central Tokyo, a United Nations agency said thousands of Palestinians are fleeing south on foot in Gaza with only what they can carry after running out of food and water in the north.
Israel said its troops were battling Hamas fighters deep inside Gaza City, which was home to about 650,000 people before the war and where the Israeli military says Hamas has its central command and a vast labyrinth of tunnels.
Since October 7, the Israeli bombardment has killed more than 10,000 Palestinians, about 40 percent of them children, according to counts by Gaza’s health officials.
Nearly two-thirds of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents are internally displaced, according to UN figures, with thousands seeking refuge at hospitals, including in makeshift canvas shelters in their car parks.
Hospitals across the enclave have come under fire, with many struggling to continue operating amid shortages of fuel and medical supplies.
The UN says Gaza’s health, sanitation, water and food services are nearing “breaking point”.
