DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Hamas says it has released Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander. An Israeli official confirmed that the transfer was underway without providing specifics. The official was not authorized to brief media and spoke on condition of anonymity. Hamas said it was releasing Alexander on Monday as a goodwill gesture to try to revive talks on ending the war. The release comes ahead of President Donald Trump’s visit to the Middle East this week.… Continue Reading
ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (AP) — President Donald Trump says he would like to see Arab nations increase the number of Palestinian refugees they are accepting from the Gaza Strip, potentially moving out enough of the population to “clean out” the area to create a virtual clean slate. He told reporters aboard Air Force One on Saturday that he has discussed his vision on a call with King Abdullah II of Jordan and would speak Sunday with Egypt’s president. Trump also says he has ended his predecessor’s hold on sending 2,000-pound bombs to Israel. That lifts a pressure point meant to reduce civilian casualties during Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza that is now halted by a tenuous ceasefire.… Continue Reading
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel has approved a United States-brokered ceasefire agreement with Lebanon’s Hezbollah, setting the stage for an end to nearly 14 months of fighting linked to the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip. Israeli warplanes meanwhile carried out the most intense wave of strikes in Beirut and its southern suburbs since the start of the conflict and issued a record number of evacuation warnings. At least 24 people were killed in strikes across the country, according to local authorities, as Israel signaled it aims to keep pummeling Hezbollah before the ceasefire is set to take hold at 4 a.m. local time on Wednesday. President Joe Biden, speaking in Washington, called the agreement “good news” and said his administration would make a renewed push for a ceasefire in Gaza.… Continue Reading
BEIRUT (AP) — A rare Israeli airstrike on central Beirut has killed Hezbollah’s chief spokesman. An official with the militant group confirmed that Mohammed Afif was killed on Sunday. The latest in targeted killings of senior Hezbollah officials came as Lebanese officials consider a United States-led cease-fire proposal. Israel also bombed several buildings in Beirut’s southern suburbs, where Hezbollah has long been headquartered. In Gaza, Israeli strikes killed at least 12 people. And two flares fired overnight at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence have been blamed on domestic critics as frustrations over the war in Gaza remain high.… Continue Reading
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An Israeli attack on Iran damaged facilities at a secretive military base southeast of the Iranian capital that experts in the past have linked to Tehran’s onetime nuclear weapons program and at another base tied to its ballistic missile program. That’s according to satellite photos analyzed Sunday by The Associated Press. Some of the buildings damaged sat in Iran’s Parchin military base, where the International Atomic Energy Agency suspects Iran in the past conducted tests of high explosives that could trigger a nuclear weapon. The other damage could be seen at the nearby Khojir military base, which analysts believe hides an underground tunnel system and missile production sites. Iran’s military has not acknowledged damage at either Khojir or Parchin.… Continue Reading
BEIRUT (AP) — The Israeli military says a top Hezbollah official who had been widely expected to be the group’s next leader was killed in an Israeli airstrike in southern Beirut in early October. Earlier on Tuesday the Israeli military leveled a building in a suburb of Beirut that it said housed Hezbollah “facilities,” sending smoke and debris into the air a few hundred meters from where a spokesperson for the militant group had just briefed journalists about a weekend drone attack that damaged the Israeli prime minister’s house. Also on Tuesday U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Blinken aims to revive cease-fire efforts after last week’s killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.… Continue Reading
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Gaza’s Health Ministry says 87 people are dead or missing after Israeli strikes on multiple homes in northern Gaza. It says another 40 people were wounded in the strikes on the town of Beit Lahiya overnight and into Sunday. Beit Lahiya, on the northern edge of Gaza, was among the first targets of Israel’s ground invasion nearly a year ago. There was no immediate comment on the strikes from the Israeli military, which said it was “continuing to operate across Gaza in both aerial strikes and ground operations.”… Continue Reading
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States is investigating an unauthorized release of classified documents that assess Israel’s plans to attack Iran and note that Israel continues to move military assets in place to conduct a military strike in response to Iran’s blistering ballistic missile attack on Oct. 1. Three U.S. officials told The Associated Press an investigation is ongoing, and it is still known if the documents were leaked or hacked. A fourth U.S. official said the documents appear to be legitimate. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment over the leak of the two documents that first appeared online Friday on the messaging app Telegram. The information appeared entirely gathered through the use of satellite image analysis.… Continue Reading
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is examining a plan to seal off humanitarian aid to northern Gaza in an attempt to starve out Hamas militants. If implemented, the plan could trap without food or water hundreds of thousands of Palestinians unwilling or unable to leave their homes. Israel has issued many evacuation orders for the north throughout the yearlong war. The plan proposed to Netanyahu by a group of retired generals would escalate the pressure, giving Palestinians a week to leave the northern third of the Gaza Strip. Those who remain would be denied food, water, medicine and fuel. The chief architect of the plan says it is the only way to break Hamas in the north and pressure it to release Israeli hostages.… Continue Reading
BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s health ministry says at least 22 people have been killed and 117 wounded in Israeli airstrikes that hit two areas in central Beirut. An Associated Press photographer who went to the scene Thursday evening said the first strike, in Ras al-Nabaa, appeared to have hit the lower half of an eight-story apartment building and explosions were ongoing inside the building. The second strike, in Burj Abi Haidar, collapsed an entire building, which was engulfed in flames. The Israeli military said it was looking into the reported strikes. Earlier in the day, a strike on a central Gaza school-turned-shelter killed 27 people.… Continue Reading