Lebanon will file an urgent complaint with the UN Security Council over what it called Israel's violation of its sovereignty by disrupting its navigation systems, the foreign ministry said on Friday.
In a statement, the foreign ministry said Israel's action is affecting the safety of civil aviation in the airspace of Beirut's Rafic Hariri International Airport.
Go to the full article >>Next week's meeting at the White House between members of the Biden administration and Israeli military and intelligence officials leaves room for Israel to opt against a full-scale ground invasion in Rafah, National Security spokesman John Kirby said Friday, despite recent comments from Netanyahu and his cabinet members suggesting otherwise.
Kirby acknowledged the White House is aware of Netanyahu's remarks that Israel will invade Rafah with or without US support.
United Nations aid chief Martin Griffiths on Friday called for an immediate ceasefire and said Israel needs to lift all impediments to aid distribution to Gazans.
"Limits to aid distribution within Gaza are set by those who block the movements of convoys meant to feed tens of thousands of critically hungry people," Griffiths said in a post on social media platform X.
Go to the full article >>Hostile aircraft intrusion sirens sounded in several areas in northern Israel, including Dafna and Hagoshrim, on Friday evening.
The sirens later were reported as false alarms.
Go to the full article >>UN Secretary General António Guterres will meet with UN humanitarian workers on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border on Saturday during his multi-country Ramadan solidarity trip, Guterres' Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq said Friday during a briefing.
Guterres has no plans to go into Gaza as Haq said the security implications of going into Gaza would draw resources from civilians who need it.
Guterres will then travel to Jordan where he will visit UNRWA facilities and have a Ramadan Iftar with Palestinian refugees and UN staff in Amman.
The IDF is investigating leaked drone footage showing IDF drones targeting four individuals in Khan Yunis, Gaza, the military stated on Friday.
The incident, which according to the IDF occurred in early February, was reported on by Al Jazeera. The leaked video of the incident was widely circulated across social media sites in recent days in both Arabic and in English.
In the video, published by Al Jazeera, four individuals are walking through rubble-lined streets when an IDF drone fires at them. They are all immediately killed. It is unclear in the video if they are carrying any weapons.
Go to the full article >>A dozen family members of American hostages held in Gaza - including the parents of Itay Chen, who was confirmed dead just a few weeks ago - met with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday in Israel during his trip to the Middle East.
The families reiterated that anything short of a total release of all hostages – both the living and deceased – is not enough, according to a statement from the group representing the families.
Eight American citizens, including the remains of Chen and married couple Gad Haggai and Judy Weinstein, are still being held by Hamas.
The families meeting with Blinken came as the US draft resolution to the United Nations Security Council calling for an immediate ceasefire and return of the hostages failed to pass.
Go to the full article >>Seven humanitarian aid trucks entered the Gaza Strip on Thursday through a security fence, the IDF announced Friday afternoon.
The entrance of the trucks was facilitated by the Coordination and Liaison Administration to Gaza (COGAT) and was secured by IDF soldiers.
The aid packages, sent by the World Food Program, were closely inspected at the Kerem Shalom Crossing, the IDF added.
The IDF confirmed that it planned to continue to allow and facilitate the entrance of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip by land, air, and sea in accordance with international law.
Go to the full article >>Russia and China vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution Friday that condemned Hamas for its October 7 attack against Israel authored by the United States.
“Russia and China still could not bring themselves to condemn Hamas as terrorist attacks on October 7,” US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas Greenfield told the 15-member body which has yet to take a stand against the terror group.
“Can we just pause on that for a moment?,” Thomas-Greenfield said.
“Russia and China refuse to condemn Hamas from burning people alive for gunning down innocent civilians at a concert for raping women and girls for taking hundreds of people hostage,” the ambassador said.
“This was the deadliest single attack on Jews since the Holocaust,” she explained as she referenced Hamas’s invasion of southern Israel.
Go to the full article >>US Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday said there was no way for civilians to escape the city of Rafah in southern Gaza, where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans to send troops as Washington presses for more humanitarian aid.
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