BEIRUT: Syria’s defense ministry said an Israeli air strike Wednesday killed a girl and wounded 10 civilians on the country’s coast, with a war monitor reporting another raid killed three pro-Hezbollah fighters.
“The Israeli enemy launched an air attack from the direction of Lebanon, targeting a central site and a residential building in Baniyas city in the coastal region, killing a girl and wounding 10 civilians,” a ministry statement said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said the girl was killed after an Israeli missile and Syrian air defense missile exploded and then fell on the coast.
“Two explosions resonated... in the coastal city of Baniyas, killing a girl,” said the Britain-based monitor, which put the number of civilians wounded higher at 20.
The Observatory said “the explosions resulted from an Israeli missile and a Syrian air defense missile falling.”
The Observatory also said the Israeli strike on central Syria killed three Syrian fighters working with Lebanon’s Hezbollah group.
“Three Syrian fighters working with the Lebanese Hezbollah group were killed in an Israeli strike targeting a military site... in the eastern countryside of Homs,” said the Observatory.
Earlier on Wednesday, state media had said air defenses intercepted Israeli “targets” over central Syria, and the Observatory reported an Israeli attack on a military site.
“Syrian air defense intercepts enemy targets in the skies of the city of Homs,” the official SANA news agency reported.
The Observatory said the Israeli strikes targeted “at least one military site... in the eastern countryside of Homs, causing plumes of smoke to rise.”
The monitor, which has a network of sources inside Syria, said the area also housed members of Iran-backed groups including Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah.
On Saturday, an Israeli drone strike in central Syria, near the border with Lebanon, killed two Hezbollah fighters, the Observatory had said.
Israel rarely comments on individual strikes in Syria but has repeatedly said it will not allow its arch-enemy Iran to expand its presence there.
Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria since the outbreak of the civil war in its northern neighbor, mainly targeting army positions and Iran-backed fighters including from Hezbollah.
The strikes have increased since Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip began on October 7, when the Iran-backed Palestinian militant group launched an unprecedented attack against Israel.
Syria’s war has killed more than half a million people and displaced millions more since it erupted in 2011 after Damascus cracked down on anti-government protests.
Syria says Israeli strike kills girl, wounds 10 civilians
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Syria says Israeli strike kills girl, wounds 10 civilians
- The girl was killed after an Israeli missile and Syrian air defense missile exploded and then fell on the coast
- The Observatory said the Israeli strikes targeted “at least one military site... in the eastern countryside of Homs, causing plumes of smoke to rise“
Lebanese PM reviews security measures at Beirut airport
- UNIFIL forces announce discovery of more than 225 weapon caches south of Litani River
BEIRUT: Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam made an unexpected visit to Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport on Tuesday to review flight and safety measures.
The premier highlighted his commitment to maintaining the facility as a bright gateway for Lebanon to the world.
Salam, accompanied by Minister of Public Works and Transport Fayez Rasamny, held a meeting with airport security chief Brig. Gen. Fadi Kfoury and other officials.
According to Salam’s media office, the airport officials briefed him “on the measures implemented to enhance security and safety at the airport, facilitate the entry and exit of travelers, expedite transit operations, reduce waiting times and improve the overall travel experience.”
The visit fulfilled a request by the ambassadors of Gulf countries to Lebanon, who held a meeting with Salam last week to encourage the return of Gulf tourists to Lebanon.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun concluded his visit to Kuwait on Monday, which included discussions with Emir Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah at Bayan Palace. The emir highlighted Kuwait’s commitment to strengthening Lebanese-Gulf and Arab relations.
Lebanon has a historic opportunity to define its future and overcome all past challenges, he said.
According to a statement from the Lebanese presidency, the Kuwaiti emir expressed “Kuwait’s satisfaction with the results of the meeting of the ambassadors of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries with the Lebanese prime minister, which discussed the return of GCC citizens to Lebanon.”
Al-Sabah also praised the security cooperation between the two countries and condemned Israeli attacks on Lebanon.
Meanwhile, UNIFIL forces on Monday announced the discovery of more than 225 weapon caches south of the Litani River.
All weapons were transferred to Lebanese military authorities.
A UNIFIL statement said that the Lebanese Armed Forces have reestablished a presence at more than 120 permanent positions throughout southern Lebanon with peacekeeping support.
However, complete border deployment remains hindered by Israel’s “military presence on Lebanese territory.”
Gaza rescuers says Israeli strikes kill 28 near hospital
- Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal said “according to our crews on the ground, 28 martyrs have been recovered from the area“
- The Israeli military said in a statement that they had struck “Hamas terrorists”
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: Gaza’s civil defense agency said that Israeli strikes on Tuesday killed at least 28 people in the area surrounding the European Hospital in Khan Yunis, where the Israeli military said it hit a Hamas “command and control center.”
Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that “according to our crews on the ground, 28 martyrs have been recovered from the area” surrounding the hospital in the south of the Palestinian territory.
Ahmad Radwan, civil defense media officer in the southern Gaza Strip, had previously put the initial toll at seven dead and 30 injured “following the occupation’s bombing of the vicinity and courtyard of the European Hospital.”
The Israeli military said in a statement that they had struck “Hamas terrorists in a command and control center located in an underground terrorist infrastructure site beneath the European hospital in Khan Yunis.”
“The Hamas terrorist organization continues to use hospitals in the Gaza Strip for terrorist activity, demonstrating its cynical and brutal use of the civilian population in the hospital and its surroundings,” it added.
“It was an utterly catastrophic scene,” Amro Tabash, a local photojournalist, told AFP.
“Everyone inside the hospital — patients and wounded alike — was running in fear, some on crutches, others screaming for their children, while others were being dragged on beds,” he said.
Earlier in the day, the Israeli military said it had struck Hamas militants “operating from within a command and control center” at Nasser Hospital, also in Khan Yunis.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said the strike killed two people and wounded several others.
Bassal said that “the Israeli army bombed the surgery building at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis at dawn on Tuesday, killing journalist Hassan Aslih.”
The Israeli military had previously accused Aslih of participating in Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel.
Israel resumed its military offensive in Gaza on March 18 after a two-month truce in its war against Hamas, which was triggered by the Palestinian group’s 2023 attack.
Israeli authorities release 9 Gazan detainees
- Since October 2023, Israel has arrested more than 10,700 Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and inside Israel
- The number of those arrested in the Gaza Strip is estimated to be in the thousands
LONDON: Israeli authorities released nine Palestinian detainees from Gaza among the thousands arrested during military actions in the enclave since late 2023.
Israel has arrested more than 10,700 Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and inside Israel since October 2023. The number of those arrested in the Gaza Strip is estimated to be in the thousands, according to the Wafa news agency. However, Israel’s prison authority acknowledged that until April, there were 1,747 prisoners from the Gaza Strip in its jails.
The Palestinian Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society, two organizations monitoring prisoners’ conditions, have consistently accused Israel of implementing torture practices against Palestinians in detention, including starvation, medical negligence, solitary confinement and abuse.
At least 66 Palestinian prisoners have died in Israeli prisons since the outbreak of the Gaza war in 2023. Among those who died, 40 were from the Gaza Strip.
Since Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian Territories in 1967, 303 Palestinian prisoners have died in Israeli custody, with 75 bodies still being held by Israel.
17 Palestinian children return to Gaza after medical treatment in Jordan
- The nation’s ‘Medical Corridor’ initiative aims to alleviate humanitarian suffering of Palestinians amid war in Gaza
- 12 other children from Gaza continue to receive medical treatment at Jordanian hospitals
LONDON: Seventeen Palestinian children and their families crossed the King Hussein Bridge on Tuesday on their way back to the Gaza Strip after receiving medical treatment at hospitals in Jordan.
Their care was provided as part of the country’s “Medical Corridor” initiative, which provides urgent medical aid for people from the coastal territory in coordination with the Jordanian Armed Forces, the Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization. The children were part of the first group of evacuees brought from Gaza on March 4.
All 17 fully recovered after receiving specialized medical care, the Jordan News Agency reported. Twelve others are still being treated in Jordanian hospitals.
More than 52,000 Palestinians have been killed during the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, which began in October 2023. According to a UNICEF report, about 15,000 children have died during the conflict, more than 34,000 have been injured, and nearly 1 million displaced.
The Medical Corridor is one of several Jordanian initiatives that aim to alleviate the suffering of Palestinians amid the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Others include the deployment of field hospitals, humanitarian convoys carrying medical and food aid, a mobile bakery, and the evacuations of children and the wounded.
Netanyahu says there is ‘no way’ Israel halts the war in Gaza until Hamas is defeated
- Netanyahu said Israeli forces were just days away from a promised escalation of force
- “There will be no way we will stop the war,” Netanyahu said
TEL AVIV: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says there is “no way” Israel will halt its war in Gaza, even if a deal is reached to release more hostages.
His comments are likely to complicate talks on a new ceasefire that had seemed to gain momentum after Hamas released the last living American hostage on Monday in a gesture to US President Donald Trump, who is visiting the region but skipping Israel.
They pointed to a potentially widening rift between Netanyahu and Trump, who had expressed hope that Monday’s release of Israeli-American soldier Edan Alexander would be a step toward ending the 19-month war.
In comments released by his office Tuesday from a visit to wounded soldiers the previous day, Netanyahu said Israeli forces were just days away from a promised escalation of force and would enter Gaza “with great strength to complete the mission. ... It means destroying Hamas.”
Any ceasefire deal reached would be temporary, the prime minister said. If Hamas were to say they would release more hostages, “we’ll take them, and then we’ll go in. But there will be no way we will stop the war,” Netanyahu said. “We can make a ceasefire for a certain period of time, but we’re going to the end.”
Hamas has said it will only release the remaining hostages in return for more Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. The dispute over whether to end the conflict has been the main obstacle in negotiations going back more than a year.
Israel says 58 hostages remain in captivity, with as many as 23 of them said to be alive, although authorities have expressed concern about the condition of three of them. Many of the 250 hostages taken by Hamas-led militants in the Oct. 7, 2023 attack that started the war were freed in ceasefire deals.
