Spotlight
U.S. President Joe Biden believes there can still be a diplomatic resolution to escalating tensions between Israel and Hezbollah following a series of pager and walkie-talkie bombings and amid Israeli threats to escalate the conflict, his spokeswoman said.
Full StoryFrench President Emmanuel Macron said that a "diplomatic path exists" in Lebanon, where fears of an all-out war between Hezbollah and Israel spiked after deadly explosions of hand-held devices.
War is "not inevitable" and "nothing, no regional adventure, no private interest, no loyalty to any cause merits triggering a conflict in Lebanon," Macron said in a video to the Lebanese people posted on social media.
Full StoryIsrael’s military killed two Hezbollah members who were planting explosives along the border over the weekend, Israel’s military and an official with a Lebanese group said.
The official with a Lebanese group said the two members of Hezbollah were killed Sunday and their bodies were taken by Israeli troops because they were too close to the fence along the tense frontier. The official spoke Friday on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Full StoryHezbollah said it launched Katyusha rockets at a north Israel intelligence base it blamed for targeted killings, claiming its first attack after Israel launched a deadly strike on the group's south Beirut stronghold, a day after the group's leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah vowed to retaliate against Israel for the device blasts carnage.
The Iran-backed group said its fighters had targeted "the main intelligence headquarters in the northern region responsible for assassinations... with volleys of Katyusha rockets", adding the attack was "in response to the Israeli enemy's attacks" on south Lebanon.
Full Story
An initial investigation by Lebanese authorities has found that hand-held devices that exploded this week were booby-trapped before they entered the country, Lebanon's mission to the United Nations said.
Full StoryThe head of the World Health Organization says it is working with Lebanon’s Health Ministry as it deals with those wounded by exploding communications devices.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanon Ghebreyesus said the strikes have “severely disrupted Lebanon’s already-fragile health system.”
Full StoryThe UK’s top diplomat is urging British nationals to leave Lebanon.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the situation could deteriorate rapidly after consecutive rounds of explosive attacks that hit devices carried by Hezbollah members, killing 37 people and wounding around 3,000 others.
Full StoryIsrael is accusing Iran and Hezbollah of bombarding millions of Israelis with threatening text messages as the conflict between the Israeli military and the Lebanese militant group escalated.
Israel's National Cyber Directorate said Thursday that a flood of Hebrew-language text messages popped up on cellphones nationwide, falsely purporting to be a communication from the Israeli Home Front Command.
Full StoryIsraeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has said Hezbollah would “pay an increasing price” as Israel claims to be seeking to make conditions near its border with Lebanon safe enough for residents to return.
"Hezbollah is feeling chased and the sequence of our military operations will continue," Gallant added, in a possible hint that Israel was behind the deadly pager and walkie-talkie blasts that rocked Lebanon on Tuesday and Wednesday leaving 37 people dead and around 3,000 injured, many of them severely.
Full StoryTwo people from Taiwanese companies were questioned as part of a probe into pagers that exploded while being used by Hezbollah operatives in Lebanon, investigators said Friday, as top officials insisted the devices were not from the island.
Questions and speculation have swirled over where the devices came from and how they were supplied to the Lebanese group after hundreds of pagers and walkie-talkies detonated across Lebanon on Tuesday and Wednesday, killing at least 37 people and wounding nearly 3,000.
Full Story