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Israel's path of destruction in south Lebanon raises fears of attempt to create buffer zone

Perched on a hilltop a short walk from the Israeli border, the tiny southern Lebanese village of Ramyah has almost been wiped off the map. In a neighboring village, satellite photos show a similar scene: a hill once covered with houses, now reduced to a gray smear of rubble.

Israeli warplanes and ground forces have blasted a trail of destruction through southern Lebanon the past month. The aim, Israel says, is to debilitate Hezbollah, push it away from the border and end more than a year of Hezbollah fire into northern Israel.

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Khamenei threatens Israel and US with 'crushing response' over attacks on Iran, allies

Iran's supreme leader on Saturday threatened Israel and the U.S. with "a crushing response" over attacks on Iran and its allies.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei spoke as Iranian officials are increasingly threatening to launch yet another strike against Israel after its Oct. 26 attack on the Islamic Republic that targeted military bases and other locations and killed at least five people.

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Death toll rises to 25 from Israeli strikes on Thursday in central Gaza

Hospital officials in Gaza said on Friday that the death toll from Israeli strikes on the central parts of the territory the day before has risen from 16 to 25 as more bodies have been recovered.

The Palestinians killed in the series of strikes on central Gaza include five children and seven women, the officials said.

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Israel fights a seemingly endless war in Gaza's most devastated region

More than a year into a war that has ricocheted across the Middle East, Israeli troops are still battling Hamas in the most heavily destroyed and isolated part of the Gaza Strip.

In northern Gaza, Hamas militants carry out hit-and-run attacks from bombed-out buildings. Residents say Israeli forces have raided shelters for the displaced, forcing people out at gunpoint. First responders say they can barely operate because of the Israeli bombardment.

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Israeli Cabinet approves 2025 budget ramping up defense spending amid fighting in Gaza and Lebanon

Israel’s Cabinet on Friday passed a budget for 2025 Friday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said, ramping up defense spending amid the war in Gaza and Israel’s invasion of Lebanon.

The budget, which must still be approved by Israel’s parliament before taking effect, increased allotted defense spending to at least $27.2 billion, Israeli media reported, though that could increase to $40 billion pending further cabinet discussions.

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UN aid agency says there's a new wave of displacement from Dahieh after Israeli strikes

The U.N. humanitarian aid coordination agency is pointing to a new “wave of displacement” in Beirut's southern suburbs after the Israeli army issued new orders for people to leave.

Spokesman Jens Laerke of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aid, citing local officials, says the new displacement orders for the capital’s southern suburbs were followed shortly afterward by heavy airstrikes.

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Israeli airstrike on the edge of Qmatiyeh kills 3 and wounds 5

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said an Israeli airstrike on a mountain town overlooking Beirut has killed three people and wounded five.

The ministry gave no further details about the early Friday airstrike on the edge of Qmatiyeh, in the Aley district southeast of Beirut.

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Israel pounds Beirut's southern suburbs overnight with airstrikes

Israel’s air force resumed airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs overnight, destroying buildings in several neighborhoods, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said.

There was no immediate word on casualties.

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Former central bank governor Salameh faces new corruption charge

Lebanon charged the country's former central bank governor with illicit enrichment and issued an arrest warrant against the detained banker, the second in less than two months, judicial officials said Thursday.

Riad Salameh, 74, was charged by the first examining magistrate of Mount Lebanon Nicola Mansour over an apartment that was rented in France to be a substitute office for the central bank if needed, the four official said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

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7 killed by Hezbollah fire in Israel's Metula, Krayot

Rockets fired from Lebanon killed two more people in northern Israel on Thursday, Israeli medics said, raising the death toll there to seven in what marked the deadliest strikes to hit Israel since its military invaded southern Lebanon earlier this month.

The attack came as senior U.S. diplomats were in the region to push for cease-fires in Lebanon and Gaza, hoping to wind down the wars in the Middle East in the Biden administration's final months.

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