Spotlight
The U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon said Tuesday there was "no ground incursion" going on in the south of the country after Israel said it was carrying out limited raids there.
UNIFIL spokesman Andrea Tenenti told AFP there was "no ground incursion right now", after Israel's military said it began "limited, localized and targeted raids" against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
Full StoryA Syria war monitor said six people including three civilians were killed in Israeli strikes early Tuesday targeting Damascus and its vicinity, amid fears of broader Israeli raids on the country.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strikes targeted two vehicles in Damascus's upscale Mazzeh district, as well as "air defense batteries at the (city's) airport, and the vicinity of the Kisweh area", south of the capital.
Full StoryHezbollah on Tuesday said it fired salvos of a new kind of medium-range missile, called the Fadi 4, at the headquarters of two Israeli intelligence agencies near Tel Aviv.
The Iran-backed group "launched salvoes of Fadi 4 rockets at the Glilot base of the military intelligence's unit 8200 and the Mossad headquarters located on the outskirts of Tel Aviv," it said in a statement.
Full StoryA Lebanese security official said Israel had conducted at least six strikes on south Beirut in the night from Monday to Tuesday, after Israel's army called on residents in the Hezbollah stronghold to evacuate.
"Six or seven Israeli strikes hit the southern Beirut suburbs," the official told AFP, requesting anonymity.
Full StoryA Palestinian camp official told AFP that an Israeli strike targeted a top Palestinian militant on Tuesday in the community in the south Lebanon city of Sidon.
"The Israeli raid targeted the house of the son of Mounir Maqdah" in the Ain el-Helweh camp, the largest of Lebanon’s 12 refugee camps, the official said, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
Full StoryGerman airline group Lufthansa said Tuesday it had extended its suspension of flights to Beirut and Tel Aviv, citing "the current situation in the Middle East".
Flights to Beirut will now be suspended up to and including November 30, while those to Tel Aviv will be cancelled until October 31, the group said in a statement. Flights to Tehran remain cancelled until October 14. "We regret the inconvenience caused to our passengers," it added.
Full StoryCaretaker prime minister Najib Mikati said Tuesday his country was facing "one of the most dangerous phases of its history", urging the United Nations to provide aid for one million people displaced by Israeli air strikes.
"Around a million of our people have been displaced because of the devastating war that Israel is waging on Lebanon," the National News Agency reported Mikati as saying. "We urgently call for more aid to reinforce our ongoing efforts to provide basic support to displaced civilians," he added in a meeting with U.N. representatives.
Full StoryThe Israeli military said "intense fighting" was taking place Tuesday after it launched a ground offensive against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and warned Lebanese residents not to travel by vehicle in the region.
"Intense fighting is taking place in southern Lebanon," wrote Avichay Adraee, a spokesman for the Israeli army, in a message published in Arabic on Telegram. "For your personal safety, we ask you not to travel by vehicles from the north to the south of the Litani River" in south Lebanon.
Full StoryIsrael is "currently conducting" limited ground operations targeting Hezbollah inside Lebanon, the U.S. State Department said Monday.
"This is what they have informed us that they are currently conducting, which are limited operations targeting Hezbollah infrastructure near the border," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told journalists.
Full StoryLebanon's army is repositioning troops stationed on its southern border, a Lebanese military official told AFP Monday, after the US said Israel had informed it about limited ground operations inside Lebanon.
The Lebanese army is "repositioning and regrouping forces" at the southern border following threats of an Israeli incursion against Hezbollah targets, the official said, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
Full Story