Lebanon’s Hezbollah chief: Hamas negotiates on behalf of the entire Axis of Resistance

Hamas is negotiating on behalf of the entire "Axis of Resistance", the head of Lebanon's Hezbollah Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Wednesday. (AFP/File)
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Updated 10 July 2024
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Lebanon’s Hezbollah chief: Hamas negotiates on behalf of the entire Axis of Resistance

  • “Hamas is negotiating on its own behalf and on behalf of the Palestinian factions, and also on behalf of the entire Axis of Resistance,” Nasrallah said
  • Nasrallah said that, for Hezbollah, a Gaza ceasefire would be enough to do that

BEIRUT: Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said Hamas was conducting Gaza ceasefire talks with Israel on behalf of the entire “Axis of Resistance” and, if a deal was reached, Hezbollah would stop its operations with no need for separate talks.
At the same time, Nasrallah warned that Hezbollah was ready for and did not fear a war and pointed to the ever-larger salvos of rockets and drones the group has fired at Israel as evidence.
The Axis of Resistance is an alliance built up over years of Iranian support against Israel and US influence in the Middle East. It includes the Yemen’s Houthis and Shiite armed groups in Iraq.
“Hamas is negotiating on its own behalf and on behalf of the Palestinian factions, and also on behalf of the entire Axis of Resistance. What Hamas accepts, we all accept,” Nasrallah said, speaking in a televised address to mourn the recent killing of a senior Hezbollah commander.
Hezbollah began firing at Israeli targets on the border in support of Palestinians after its ally Hamas launched the Oct. 7 attack on Israel that precipitated the war in Gaza.
It has repeatedly labeled its attacks as a “support front” aimed at drawing Israeli military resources away from Gaza and supporting Palestinians.
Tens of thousands of Israelis and Lebanese have been forced to evacuate from the area around the border between the two countries and international observers have warned in recent weeks of the growing risk of a wider conflict.
The US and France have spearheaded diplomatic efforts to try to secure a deal that would prevent the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah expanding.
Nasrallah said that, for Hezbollah, a Gaza ceasefire would be enough to do that.
“If there is a ceasefire in Gaza then our front will also cease fire without discussion, irrespective of any other agreement or mechanisms or negotiations.”


Syria’s driest winter in nearly 7 decades triggers a severe water crisis in Damascus

Updated 5 sec ago
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Syria’s driest winter in nearly 7 decades triggers a severe water crisis in Damascus

Now, there is only a trickle of water following the driest winter in decades
“I have been working at the Ein Al-Fijeh spring for 33 years and this is the first year it is that dry,” Bashi said


BARADA VALLEY, Syria: Inside a mountain above the Syrian capital, Hassan Bashi walked through tunnels that used to be filled with water from a spring famous for its pure waters.

The spring rises inside the ruins of a Roman temple in the Barada Valley and flows toward Damascus, which it has been supplying with drinking water for thousands of years. Normally, during the winter flood season, water fills all the tunnels and washes over much of the temple.

Now, there is only a trickle of water following the driest winter in decades.

Bashi, who is a guard but also knows how to operate the pumping and water filtration machines in the absence of the engineer in charge, displayed an old video on his cell phone of high waters inside the ruins.

“I have been working at the Ein Al-Fijeh spring for 33 years and this is the first year it is that dry,” Bashi said.

The spring is the main source of water for 5 million people, supplying Damascus and its suburbs with 70 percent of their water.

As the city suffers its worst water shortages in years, many people now rely on buying water from private tanker trucks that fill from wells.

Government officials are warning that the situation could get worse in the summer and are urging residents to use water sparingly while showering, cleaning or washing dishes.

“The Ein Al-Fijeh spring is working now at its lowest level,” said Ahmad Darwish, head of the Damascus City Water Supply Authority, adding that the current year witnessed the lowest rainfall since 1956.

The channels that have been there since the day of the Romans two millennia ago were improved in 1920 and then again in 1980, he said.

Darwish said the springwater water comes mainly from rainfall and melted snow off the mountains along the border with Lebanon, but because of this year’s below-average rainfall, “it has given us amounts that are much less than normal.”

There are 1.1 million homes that get water from the spring, and in order to get through the year, people will have to cut down their consumption, he said.

The spring also feeds the Barada River that cuts through the capital. It is mostly dry this year.

In Damascus’s eastern area of Abbasids, Bassam Jbara is feeling the shortage. His neighborhood only gets water for about 90 minutes a day, compared with previous years when water was always running when they turned on the taps.

Persistent electricity cuts are making the problem worse, he said, as they sometimes have water but no power to pump it to the tankers on the roof of the building. Jbara once had to buy five barrels of undrinkable water from a tanker truck that cost him and his neighbors $15, a large amount of money in a country where many people make less than $100 a month.

“From what we are seeing, we are heading toward difficult conditions regarding water,” he said, fearing that supplies will drop to once or twice a week over the summer. He is already economizing.

“The people of Damascus are used to having water every day and to drinking tap water coming from the Ein Al-Fijeh spring, but unfortunately the spring is now weak,” Jbara said.

During Syria’s 14-year conflict, Ein Al-Fijeh was subjected to shelling on several occasions, changing between forces of then- President Bashar Assad and insurgents over the years.

In early 2017, government forces captured the area from insurgents and held it until December when the five-decade Assad dynasty collapsed in a stunning offensive by fighters led by the Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham group, or HTS, of current President Ahmad Al-Sharaa.

Tarek Abdul-Wahed returned to his home near the spring in December nearly eight years after he was forced to leave with his family and is now working on rebuilding the restaurant he owned. It was blown up by Assad’s forces after he left the area.

Abdul-Wahed looked at the dry area that used to be filled with tourists and Syrians who would come in the summer to enjoy the cool weather.

“The Ein Al-Fijeh spring is the only artery to Damascus,” Abdul-Wahed said as reconstruction work was ongoing in the restaurant that helped 15 families living nearby make a living in addition to the employees who came from other parts of Syria.

“Now it looks like a desert. There is no one,” he said. “We hope that the good old days return with people coming here.”

Vance denies axing Israel visit over Gaza onslaught fears

Updated 3 min 27 sec ago
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Vance denies axing Israel visit over Gaza onslaught fears

  • US vice president: ‘Logistically, it was just a little bit too hard’
  • Advisers reportedly raised concerns after launch of new offensive

LONDON: US Vice President JD Vance has denied an Axios report that he skipped a planned visit to Israel amid concerns over its new military offensive in Gaza.

Vance, according to a senior US official, was reportedly hesitant to signal Washington’s support for the renewed onslaught, which was launched on Sunday.

The vice president labeled the Axios report as an “overstatement,” saying: “We thought about going to Israel, we also thought about going to a couple of other countries that the president would like me to visit some time in the next few months.

“Logistically, it was just a little bit too hard on basic things like, who the hell is going to take care of our kids if we take another couple of days overseas?”

He also highlighted “more serious” considerations relating to the proposed visit, “like how do we provide security, how do we make sure that we get over all the assets that we need in order to do the right official delegation?”

The US government is believed to have informed Israel on Saturday that Vance was considering a trip to the country after attending Pope Leo XIV’s inauguration at the Vatican.

Axios was told by a top Israeli official that Vance had believed a hostage and ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas was imminent.

Israeli media reported that he was likely to visit the country this week. But the launching of the new offensive was viewed as having disrupted those plans.

He reportedly canceled the trip when advisers raised concerns that his presence in Israel might be perceived in the Middle East as giving support to the Gaza offensive.

A White House official denied reports that Vance had planned to fly from Rome to Tel Aviv. His Secret Service protection had “engaged in contingency planning for the addition of several potential countries” to travel to, the official said, but “no additional visits were at any point decided upon, and logistical constraints have precluded an extension of his travel.”

Vance on Monday said he would visit Israel “some time in the future.”


Israeli strikes ‘shredding people to pieces’ in Gaza: British surgeon

Palestinian mourn relatives who were killed in Israeli army airstrike on the Gaza Strip, at the morgue of Al-Aqsa Hospital.
Updated 20 May 2025
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Israeli strikes ‘shredding people to pieces’ in Gaza: British surgeon

  • Tom Potokar: ‘It is difficult to imagine how human beings can treat other human beings in this way’
  • ‘This will be a stain on humanity when people look back in years to come’

LONDON: Israeli strikes on Gaza are “shredding people to pieces,” a British surgeon working in hospitals there has told the Daily Telegraph.

Tom Potokar, a plastic surgeon working in southern Gaza, said he was at the European Hospital when it was attacked by Israel.

Its new offensive has been met by international condemnation, with Gaza’s Health Ministry saying hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in recent days.

Potokar, who is now stationed at Al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis, said: “You have to consider that the Gaza Strip is, geographically, a very small area and yet there are nearly two million people living here.

“So, when you drop ordnance — with the amounts being used and the type of weapons being used in such a small, densely populated area — you are literally shredding people to pieces.”

Potokar was forced to move hospital three times in the past week to avoid Israeli bombing. Describing the attack on the European Hospital, he said: “It is difficult to imagine how human beings can treat other human beings in this way. To see children particularly with horrific injuries and amputations, to see pregnant women requiring major surgery — it’s absolute brutality.”

Israeli attacks on hospitals have drawn widespread condemnation from humanitarian organizations.

The UN Human Rights Office and Human Rights Watch said Israeli bombardment is pushing Gaza’s already-damaged healthcare system to the brink of collapse.

Potokar was also near an airstrike that hit Al-Amal Hospital. “It was around 6 a.m. and a massive strike happened about 400 meters from the hospital, with heavy machine gun fire and helicopters,” he said.

“Thankfully, there were no casualties in the hospital, but a huge piece of shrapnel landed in front of the emergency room.”

He added: “What is the West doing, what is the rest of the world doing? Churning out press statement after press statement but nothing is changing.

“This will be a stain on humanity when people look back in years to come, when we say ‘how did we allow this to happen?’ We’ve been here before, and no lessons are being learned.”

Potokar said: “The killing goes on, the slaughter goes on and these are people like you and me.”


Lebanon says 9 wounded in Israeli strike

Updated 20 May 2025
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Lebanon says 9 wounded in Israeli strike

  • Nine people were wounded in the attack
  • Israel has continued to launch strikes on its northern neighbor despite the November truce

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s health ministry said an Israeli strike on Tuesday wounded nine people in the country’s south, the latest attack despite a ceasefire between Israel and militant group Hezbollah.
The latest reported strike, which the Israeli military did not immediately comment on, came a day after Israel said it had killed a member of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force in the border area of Hula.
The Lebanese health ministry on Tuesday said that an “Israeli enemy drone” hit a motorcycle in the coastal Tyre district.
Nine people were wounded in the attack including three in “critical condition,” the ministry said, adding that two children were among the victims.
Israel has continued to launch strikes on its northern neighbor despite the November truce that sought to halt more than a year of hostilities with Iran-backed Hezbollah including two months of full-blown war.
Under the terms of the ceasefire deal, only UN peacekeepers and the Lebanese army should be deployed in southern Lebanon, though Israel has retained its forces in five areas it has declared strategic.
Lebanon has called on the international community to pressure Israel to end its attacks and withdraw all its troops.


UN has permission for 100 more aid trucks to enter Gaza, official says

Updated 20 May 2025
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UN has permission for 100 more aid trucks to enter Gaza, official says

GENEVA: The United Nations said on Tuesday it has received permission to send “around 100” trucks of aid into the war-shattered Gaza Strip, as humanitarian assistance trickled back in to the territory.
“We have requested and received approval of more trucks to enter today, many more than were approved yesterday,” Jens Laerke, spokesman for UN Office for Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told reporters in Geneva, adding that “we expect, of course, with that approval, many of them, hopefully all of them, to cross today to a point where they can be picked up and get further into the Gaza Strip for distribution.”