Lebanon

BEIRUT, October 25. /TASS/: The international community should exert pressure on Israel to lift its siege on the Gaza Strip and protect civilians, King Abdullah II of Jordan told visiting French President Emmanuel Macron.

"The international community must act immediately to put pressure on Israel so that it would stop the war, protect civilians and lift its siege on the Gaza Strip," the Jordan News Agency, or Petra, quoted the Jordanian monarch as saying.

BEIRUT (AP) — A top official with Hezbollah vowed that Israel will pay a high price whenever it starts a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip and said Saturday that his militant group based in Lebanon already is “in the heart of the battle.”

The comments by Hezbollah’s deputy leader, Sheikh Naim Kassem, came as Israel shelled and made drone strikes in southern Lebanon and Hezbollah fired rockets and missiles toward Israel. Hezbollah said six of its fighters were killed Saturday, the highest daily toll since the violence began two weeks ago.

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group said Monday it has started destroying surveillance cameras on several Israeli army posts along the border as tension rose following the Israel-Hamas war that began Oct.7.

Hezbollah’s military media arm released a video showing snipers shooting at and destroying surveillance cameras placed on five points along the Lebanon-Israel border including one outside the Israeli town of Metula.

BEIRUT, October 15. /TASS/: The Palestinian movement Hamas believes that Russia is capable of playing a key role to put an end to the military escalation in the Middle East, which was triggered by Israeli aggression, Ali Baraka, head of Hamas National Relations Abroad, told TASS.

BEIRUT, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- An Israeli drone on Saturday morning launched several missiles toward an armed group at a border point in southern Lebanon, Lebanese military sources told Xinhua.

The unnamed sources added that the drone flew for several minutes along the borderline and then launched several air-to-surface missiles towards the axis of Hunin Hill in the central sector of the border area.

Initial information indicated that the drone targeted three armed individuals trying to approach the border fence separating Lebanon and Israel on this axis.

KHIAM, Lebanon (AP) — A Reuters videographer killed in Israeli shelling of southern Lebanon was laid to rest in his hometown Saturday in a funeral procession attended by hundreds of people.

Draped in a Lebanese flag, Issam Abdallah’s body was carried on a stretcher through the streets of the southern town of Khiam, from his family’s home to the local cemetery.

Dozens of journalists and Lebanese lawmakers attended the funeral.

14 October 2023; AA: The Israeli army said air defenses intercepted two flying aircraft overnight Friday above the northern city of Haifa. 

A statement said the aircraft were shot down after air-raid sirens blared near the Arab-majority city of Shefa-Amr in Israel.

No injuries were reported.

BEIRUT (AP) — Iran’s foreign minister on Saturday called on Israel to stop its attacks on Gaza, warning that the war might expand to other parts of the Middle East if Hezbollah joins the battle, and that would make Israel suffer “a huge earthquake.”

Hossein Amirabdollahian told reporters in Beirut that Lebanon’s Hezbollah group has taken all the scenarios of a war into consideration and Israel should stop its attacks on Gaza as soon as possible.

13 October 2023; MEMO: Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib yesterday warned of the outbreak of a “severe regional war” if the Israeli escalation in the Gaza Strip does not cease.

This came during a phone call between Bou Habib and his Austrian counterpart, Alexander Schallenberg, according to the official Lebanese News Agency (ANN).

BEIRUT, Oct 13 (Reuters) - Hezbollah deputy chief Naim Qassem said on Friday that the group would not be swayed by calls for it to stay on the sidelines of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, saying the party was "fully ready" to contribute to the fighting.

"The behind-the-scenes calls with us by great powers, Arab countries, envoys of the United Nations, directly and indirectly telling us not to interfere will have no effect," he told supporters gathered in the southern Beirut suburb for a rally.