Lebanon

BEIRUT, Nov 11 (Reuters) - The head of Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah said on Saturday that his armed group had used new types of weapons and struck new targets in Israel in recent days, and pledged that the front in the south against its sworn enemy would remain active.

It was Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's second speech since the war between Israel and Hamas began in October. In his first address earlier this month he said there was a possibility of fighting on the Lebanese front turning into a full-fledged war.

BEIRUT, Nov 7 (Reuters) - A Hezbollah lawmaker said on Tuesday that the Lebanese militant group would respond "double" to any Israeli attacks on civilians after a strike that killed three children and their grandmother in south Lebanon.

The remarks reflect the volatile situation on the Israeli-Lebanese border, where deadly clashes between Israeli troops and Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters are fuelling fears of a wider regional war while Israel invades the Gaza Strip.

BEIRUT, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- The Gaza Strip has lost at least 61 percent of its employment, equivalent to some 182,000 jobs, since the start of the current Israel-Hamas conflict, said a report released by the International Labor Organization (ILO) on Monday.

The conflict in Gaza also caused a loss of 24 percent of employment in the West Bank, equivalent to 208,000 jobs.

"The total estimated 390,000 job losses in the two areas ... translate into losses of 16 million U.S. dollars in daily labor income," the report said.

BEIRUT (AP) — Four civilians, three of them children, were killed by an Israeli airstrike in south Lebanon Sunday evening, a local civil defense official and Lebanese state-run media said.

Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee said in a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, that one Israeli was also killed Sunday in a strike launched by the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. He did not specify whether the person was a civilian or a soldier.

BEIRUT, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Lebanon's Hezbollah said it carried out simultaneous attacks on Israeli positions at the Lebanese border on Saturday, as residents of south Lebanon reported some of the fiercest Israeli strikes yet during weeks of cross-border clashes.

The Israeli army said its warplanes had struck Hezbollah targets in response to an earlier attack from Lebanese territory, and was accompanying the air strikes with artillery and tank shelling.

BEIRUT, Nov 3 (Reuters) - The leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah warned the United States on Friday that preventing a regional war depended on stopping the Israeli attack on Gaza, and there was a realistic possibility of fighting on the Lebanese front turning into a "wide war".

Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, in his first speech since the Israel-Hamas war erupted on Oct. 7, also threatened Israel's main ally the United States, hinting his Iran-backed group was ready to confront U.S. warships in the Mediterranean.

BEIRUT, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah will on Friday make his first public comments since the Palestinian group Hamas and Israel went to war, a speech which will be closely watched for clues on how the group's role in the conflict might evolve.

A formidable military force backed by Iran, Hezbollah has been engaging Israeli forces along the border, where 50 of its fighters have been killed in the deadliest escalation since it fought a war with Israel in 2006.

BEIRUT, Oct 31 (Reuters) - With dozens of Hezbollah fighters killed in three weeks of border clashes with Israel, the Lebanese group is working to stem its losses as it prepares for the possibility of a drawn-out conflict, three sources familiar with its thinking said.

The Iran-backed group has lost 47 fighters to Israeli strikes at Lebanon's frontier since its Palestinian ally Hamas and Israel went to war on Oct. 7 - about a fifth of the number killed in a full-scale war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006.

30 October 2023; MEMO: Lebanon’s Hezbollah said, on Sunday, it shot down an Israeli drone over southern Lebanon with a surface-to-air missile, the first time it has announced such an incident, as clashes on the Lebanese border escalate, Reuters reports.

The drone was hit near Khiam, about 5 km (3 miles) from the border with Israel, and was seen falling in Israeli territory, Hezbollah added. Two security sources in Lebanon said it was the first time Hezbollah had announced downing an Israeli drone.

BEIRUT, Oct 26 (Reuters) - With an economy in ruins and a crumbling state, Lebanon can ill afford another war between Hezbollah and Israel.

Iran-backed Hezbollah knows this and is keeping Lebanon's crises in mind as it plots the next steps in the conflict with Israel, sources say.

As the war between Israel and Hezbollah's Palestinian ally Hamas reverberates across the Middle East, the risk of war between Hezbollah and Israel remains higher than at any point since their last big conflict in 2006.