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Israel ignores truce as bulldozers enter Lebanon border towns

Special Israel ignores truce as bulldozers enter Lebanon border towns
Israel forces caused massive destruction in the southern Lebanese village of Khiam before their pullout under the ceasefire deal. (AFP/File)
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Updated 17 December 2024

Israel ignores truce as bulldozers enter Lebanon border towns

Israel ignores truce as bulldozers enter Lebanon border towns
  • World Bank in talks with Lebanese govt over reconstruction efforts
  • Rubble from attacks will be used to fill quarries, environment minister says

BEIRUT: Israeli forces bulldozed roads and destroyed houses early on Tuesday in the village of Naqoura, near the southern Lebanese border.

Troops continued to violate the ceasefire agreement, firing bursts of machine-gun fire inside the coastal town, while bulldozing local landmarks.

Remaining houses in the border village of Kfarkila were also bulldozed.

Israeli forces invaded the Lebanese southern border region on Oct. 1 as part of their expanded war against Hezbollah.

Troops are slowly withdrawing from the area, taking advantage of the 60 days agreed in the ceasefire deal for their complete withdrawal.

The agreement took effect three weeks ago.

Israeli artillery on Monday targeted the outskirts of Halta, Kfarshouba, and Shebaa, while reconnaissance planes continued around-the-clock flights over the south and Beirut, mainly the southern suburbs.

The Lebanese army in coordination with UNIFIL is set to retrieve the bodies of 37 Hezbollah fighters killed in confrontations in the border villages of Odaisseh and Taybeh.

Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Manar TV said that the army is waiting on communications from UNIFIL before entering the towns. No implementation date has been set, it added.

The network also said Israel’s slow withdrawal from Al-Hamames Hill is delaying the Lebanese army’s entry into Khiam.

The withdrawal was part of the first phase of the agreement with UNIFIL.

Maj. Gen. Patrick Gauchat, head of the UN Truce Supervision Organization, held talks with Lebanese officials, including caretaker Foreign Minister Abdullah Bou Habib, in a bid to solve disputes over the withdrawal.

Habib emphasized the importance of clearly establishing the borders between Lebanon and Israel.

Six sections of the 120 km border between the two countries are still disputed.

Meanwhile, Jean-Christophe Carret, World Bank country director for the Middle East, met with Lebanese officials to discuss reconstruction programs, and the rebuilding and repair of infrastructure.

Carret said the bank wanted to ensure the “effective operation, implementation, and sustainability of the work.”

Lebanon’s government is still discussing possible disposal sites for debris from Israeli attacks on residential buildings and facilities.

Environment Minister Nasser Yassin said that the rubble is likely to be taken to quarries around the country.

Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi told governors in southern Lebanon and Nabatieh, Bekaa, Baalbek-Hermel, and other municipalities to ensure the Litani River and its tributaries area protected during reconstruction work.

Debris must not be dumped in the river or left on open land overlooking the waterway, he said.

On Monday, two Lebanese lawyers, Majd Harb and Eli Kirolos, submitted a complaint to the judiciary accusing the Al-Qard Al-Hassan Association, affiliated with Hezbollah, of violating monetary and credit laws.

Al-Qard Al-Hassan Association offices in various locations around Lebanon were hit by Israeli attacks during the final two weeks of the conflict.

Hezbollah announced the resumption of operations in some of the offices following the ceasefire.


Jordan dispatches trucks with flour as starvation spreads in war-torn Gaza

Jordan dispatches trucks with flour as starvation spreads in war-torn Gaza
Updated 51 min 17 sec ago

Jordan dispatches trucks with flour as starvation spreads in war-torn Gaza

Jordan dispatches trucks with flour as starvation spreads in war-torn Gaza
  • Jordan Hashemite Charity Organization dispatched four food convoys to Gaza this week with a total of 147 trucks of essential food supplies and humanitarian aid
  • Efforts to deliver aid through international organizations have encountered persistent challenges, especially at the Israeli border, where convoys are often delayed

LONDON: Jordan has dispatched dozens of food trucks to the Palestinian coastal enclave of the Gaza Strip this week, with the latest delivery of flour on Wednesday to help Palestinians amid the Israeli military campaign in the territory.

The country’s charitable arm, Jordan Hashemite Charity Organization, or JHCO, announced that the latest aid convoy entered through the Zikim border crossing, also known as Erez West, in northern Gaza.

This week, the JHCO coordinated with the country’s armed forces, World Central Kitchen, or WCK, and the World Food Program, or WFP, to dispatch four food convoys to Gaza. A total of 147 trucks delivered essential food supplies and humanitarian aid, primarily flour.

The JHCO and WFP facilitated the entry of 111 trucks, while WCK arranged for the remaining 36 trucks, reaffirming their commitment to oversee the distribution of supplies to affected residents.

Videos on social media shared by Jordanian journalists show Palestinians carrying sacks of flour from distribution points in northern Gaza on Wednesday.

Efforts to deliver aid through international organizations have encountered persistent challenges, especially at the Israeli border, where convoys are often delayed, according to JHCO. Some obstacles include the use of live ammunition against individuals approaching the crossings to obtain aid, it added.

The Gaza Strip continues to face instability and occasional direct attacks on aid convoys as well as attempts to loot supplies and hinder the safe delivery of humanitarian assistance, the charity added.


Italy and Algeria agree to tackle terrorism and migration at summit

Italy and Algeria agree to tackle terrorism and migration at summit
Updated 23 July 2025

Italy and Algeria agree to tackle terrorism and migration at summit

Italy and Algeria agree to tackle terrorism and migration at summit
  • A memorandum will be signed between Italy and Algeria on fighting terrorism and its financing
  • The document did not say which threats the countries were focused on

ROME: Italy and Algeria agreed to work together to fight terrorism and control migration during an intergovernmental meeting in Rome on Wednesday, documents showed, while companies signed off on deals on sectors including energy and telecommunications.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni met Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune at the 17th-century Villa Doria Pamphili, after a trip to Algiers by Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani in March.

Algeria is Rome’s leading trading partner in Africa, with trade worth almost 14 billion euros ($16.4 billion) while Rome’s investments there amount to 8.5 billion, Italy said.

According to a document seen by Reuters, a memorandum will be signed between Italy and Algeria on fighting terrorism and its financing. The document did not say which threats the countries were focused on.

The two nations will also agree on a plan to coordinate the search and rescue operations for migrants who attempt the dangerous sea crossing from North Africa to Europe. Meloni’s right-wing government was elected in 2022 on a mandate to curb migrant arrivals.

On the business side, Italian energy group Eni this month signed a production sharing contract with oil and gas company Sonatrach worth $1.3 billion to explore and develop hydrocarbons in Algeria.

A document said the two companies will sign an additional agreement on the sidelines of the summit to strengthen their cooperation.

Eni buys gas from Sonatrach under a long-term contract that has made the north African country one of the key fuel suppliers for Italy after Rome severed ties with Russia’s Gazprom following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

A separate deal will involve Submarine cable company Sparkle, a unit of Telecom Italia (TIM), which is set to be sold to a consortium led by Italy’s Treasury later this year.

Sparkle will sign a preliminary agreement with Algerie Telecom for a new subsea cable connecting the two countries.

“Algeria is a strategic partner, and we are working hard to make this partnership ever broader, stronger and more diversified,” Foreign Minister Tajani said during a speech at a business forum with over 400 companies from the two nations.


More than 100 NGOs warn ‘mass starvation’ spreading across Gaza

More than 100 NGOs warn ‘mass starvation’ spreading across Gaza
Updated 23 July 2025

More than 100 NGOs warn ‘mass starvation’ spreading across Gaza

More than 100 NGOs warn ‘mass starvation’ spreading across Gaza
  • Israel is facing mounting international pressure over the catastrophic humanitarian situation
  • A statement with 111 signatories, including Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Save the Children and Oxfam, warned that “our colleagues and those we serve are wasting away“

JERUSALEM: More than 100 aid organizations and human rights groups warned on Wednesday that “mass starvation” was spreading in Gaza, as the United States said its top envoy was heading to Europe for talks on a possible ceasefire and aid corridor.

Israel is facing mounting international pressure over the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza, where more than two million people are facing severe shortages of food and other essentials after 21 months of conflict.

But it denied blocking supplies, saying that 950 trucks’ worth of aid were in Gaza waiting for international agencies to collect and distribute.

“We have not identified starvation at this current point in time but we understand that action is required to stabilize the humanitarian situation,” an unnamed senior Israeli security official was quoted as saying by the Times of Israel.

On the ground, the Israeli military said it was operating in Gaza City and the north, and had hit dozens of “terror targets” across the Palestinian territory.

Gaza’s civil defense agency told AFP that Israeli strikes killed 17 people overnight, including a pregnant woman in Gaza City.

The United Nations said on Tuesday that Israeli forces had killed more than 1,000 Palestinians trying to get food since the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) started operations in late May — effectively sidelining the longstanding UN-led system.

A statement with 111 signatories, including Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Save the Children and Oxfam, warned that “our colleagues and those we serve are wasting away.”

The groups called for an immediate negotiated ceasefire, the opening of all land crossings and the free flow of aid through UN-led mechanisms.

The United States said its envoy Steve Witkoff will head to Europe this week for talks on Gaza and may then visit the Middle East.

Witkoff comes with “a strong hope that we will come forward with another ceasefire as well as a humanitarian corridor for aid to flow, that both sides have in fact agreed to,” State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told reporters.

Even after Israel began easing a more than two-month aid blockade in late May, Gaza’s population is still suffering extreme scarcities.

Israel says humanitarian aid is being allowed into Gaza and accuses Hamas of exploiting civilian suffering, including by stealing food handouts to sell at inflated prices or shooting at those awaiting aid.

GHF said the United Nations, which refuses to work with it, “has a capacity and operational problem” and called for “more collaboration” to deliver life-saving aid.

COGAT, the Israeli defense ministry body that oversees civil affairs in the Palestinian territories, said nearly 4,500 trucks entered Gaza recently, with flour, baby food and high-calorie food for children.

But it said there had been “a significant decline in the collection of humanitarian aid” by international organizations in the past month.

“This collection bottleneck remains the main obstacle to maintaining a consistent flow of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip,” it added.

Aid agencies, though, said permissions from Israel were still limited and coordination to move trucks to where they are needed — and safely — was a major challenge.

The humanitarian organizations said warehouses with tons of supplies were sitting untouched just outside the territory, and even inside, as they were blocked from delivering the goods.

“Palestinians are trapped in a cycle of hope and heartbreak, waiting for assistance and ceasefires, only to wake up to worsening conditions,” the signatories said.

“It is not just physical torment, but psychological. Survival is dangled like a mirage,” they added.

“The humanitarian system cannot run on false promises. Humanitarians cannot operate on shifting timelines or wait for political commitments that fail to deliver access.”

The head of Gaza’s largest hospital said Tuesday that 21 children had died due to malnutrition and starvation in the Palestinian territory over the previous three days.

Mediators have been shuttling between Israeli and Hamas negotiators in Doha since July 6 in search of an elusive truce, with expectations that Witkoff would join the talks as they entered their final stages.

More than two dozen Western governments called on Monday for an immediate end to the war, saying suffering in Gaza had “reached new depths.”

Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has killed 59,219 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which sparked the war, resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.


As Gaza hunger crisis deepens, where do truce talks stand?

As Gaza hunger crisis deepens, where do truce talks stand?
Updated 23 July 2025

As Gaza hunger crisis deepens, where do truce talks stand?

As Gaza hunger crisis deepens, where do truce talks stand?
  • Mediators have been shuttling between Israeli and Hamas negotiators since July 6 as they scramble to end nearly two years of war in Gaza where fears of mass starvation are growing

DOHA: Mediators have been shuttling between Israeli and Hamas negotiators since July 6 as they scramble to end nearly two years of war in Gaza where fears of mass starvation are growing.
Through 21 months of fighting both sides have clung to long-held positions preventing two short-lived truces being converted into a lasting ceasefire.
The stakes are higher now with growing numbers of malnutrition deaths in the Palestinian territory casting a spotlight Israel’s refusal to allow in more aid.
With pressure for a breakthrough mounting, Washington said top envoy Steve Witkoff will travel to Europe this week for talks on a Gaza ceasefire and aid corridor.
US officials said he might head on to the Middle East.
As the humanitarian situation in Gaza deteriorates drastically, are the two sides closer to reaching an agreement?
After more than two weeks of back and forth, efforts by mediators Qatar, Egypt and the United States are at a standstill.
The proposal on the table involves a 60-day ceasefire and the release of 10 living hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
Hamas insists any agreement must include guarantees for a lasting end to the war.
Israel rejects any such guarantees, insisting that Hamas must give up its capacity to fight or govern as a prerequisite for peace.
“The cold hard truth is that for domestic political considerations neither (Israeli Prime Minister) Benjamin Netanyahu nor Hamas leaders in Gaza have an interest in seeing a swift outcome and a comprehensive ceasefire,” said Karim Bitar, a lecturer in Middle Eastern studies at Paris’s Sciences Po university.
“Both would have to answer serious questions from their own constituencies,” he added.
While Israeli officials have said they are open to compromise, troops have expanded their operations this week into areas of Gaza that had largely been spared any ground offensives since the war began in October 2023.
Israeli media have reported that Hamas negotiators in Doha have been unable to communicate directly with the military leadership in Gaza to approve Israeli pullback maps.
Logistical issues compound existing rifts within the militant group.
There are “technical aspects which are quite difficult to overcome because there is a growing disconnect between Hamas leadership in Gaza and the negotiators in Doha,” Bitar said.
For Andreas Krieg, a Middle East analyst at King’s College London, “the talks are technically progressing, but in practical terms, they are approaching a stalemate.”
“What is on the table now is effectively just another prisoner swap deal, not a real ceasefire deal,” he said.
Hamas faces a dilemma: it is under pressure to secure some Israeli concessions but “on the other hand, it faces an increasingly desperate humanitarian situation.”
“The leadership may be debating how far it can compromise without appearing to surrender politically,” he said.
More than two million people in Gaza are facing severe food shortages, with more than 100 NGOs warning of “mass starvation.”
On Tuesday, the head of Gaza’s largest hospital said 21 children died of malnutrition and starvation in three days.
“Humanitarian pressure is mounting fast,” Krieg said, with Hamas facing “rising desperation among the population, which could force it to accept an interim deal to alleviate suffering.”
But even if Hamas makes concessions, Israel has the upper hand and there can be no lasting ceasefire unless it wants one.
“Unless the United States and Qatar... increase significantly their pressure on Israel, I am afraid that this round of negotiations will fail like the previous rounds,” Bitar said.


Human Rights Watch says Houthi cargo ship attacks amount to war crimes

Human Rights Watch says Houthi cargo ship attacks amount to war crimes
Updated 23 July 2025

Human Rights Watch says Houthi cargo ship attacks amount to war crimes

Human Rights Watch says Houthi cargo ship attacks amount to war crimes
  • The Houthis struck the Magic Seas and Eternity C cargo ships in the Red Sea, part of a campaign against maritime traffic they accuse of having links to Israel

BEIRUT: Human Rights Watch on Wednesday condemned Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels for deadly attacks that sank two commercial vessels this month, calling them violations of the laws of war.
The Houthis struck the Magic Seas and Eternity C cargo ships in the Red Sea, part of a campaign against maritime traffic they accuse of having links to Israel, launched over the Gaza war.
Fifteen people — including four confirmed dead — remain missing after the July 7 attack on the Eternity C.
The Yemeni rebels claimed to have “rescued” an unspecified number of crew, whose whereabouts are still unknown.
The attacks were “violations of the laws of war amounting to war crimes,” Human Rights Watch said in a statement, adding it found “no evidence that the ships were military targets.”
“They deliberately attacked commercial vessels that could clearly be identified as civilian,” the New York-based group said, adding that “detaining rescued crew members is also prohibited.”
Rebel leader Abdel Malek Al-Houthi justified the attacks, saying both ships belonged to companies serving Israeli ports.
But HRW said the ships had no connection to Israel and were not heading there.
The Magic Seas was en route to Turkiye from China carrying fertilizer and steel billets when it was attacked on July 6.
The Eternity C was heading to ֱ from Somalia after delivering humanitarian aid for the United Nations World Food Programme.
“The Houthis have sought to justify unlawful attacks by pointing to Israeli violations against Palestinians,” said Niku Jafarnia, HRW’s Yemen and Bahrain researcher.
“The Houthis should end all attacks on ships not taking part in the conflict and immediately release the crew members in their custody,” she added.
Since November 2023, the rebels have carried out more than 100 attacks on vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, according to the Joint Maritime Information Center, run by a Western naval coalition.
HRW said it had previously found those actions to be war crimes.
It also warned of environmental risks, citing findings by Wim Zwijnenburg of Dutch peace organization PAX.
Zwijnenburg said satellite imagery showed large oil slicks trailing from the sites where both vessels sank, threatening wildlife in a protected nature reserve off Eritrea’s coast.
Oil was also reportedly washing ashore near a fishing community, he was quoted as saying.