Lebanon

November 7, 2024 9:32 AM

Israel strikes on Lebanon kill 40 people around Baalbek, health ministry says

Israeli strikes on Lebanon killed 40 people and wounded 53 around the eastern city of Baalbek in the Bekaa Valley on Wednesday, according to the country's health ministry, and at dusk more strikes hit Beirut's southern suburbs. Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah have exchanged fire for over a year in parallel with the Gaza war but fighting has escalated since late September, with Israeli troops intensifying bombing of Lebanon's south and east and making ground incursions into border villages. Is...

October 25, 2024 10:54 AM

Three journalists killed in Israeli strike in southern Lebanon, media report

An Israeli strike early on Friday morning killed at least three journalists as they slept in a guesthouse in Hasbaya in southern Lebanon, Lebanese media reported. Those killed included cameraman Ghassan Najjar and engineer Mohamed Reda who worked for pro-Iranian news outlet Al-Mayadeen and one cameraman who worked for Hezbollah's Al-Manar, Al-Mayadeen reported. Reporters at the scene said the bungalow where the men were sleeping was directly targeted. "The occupation's targeting of the journa...

October 25, 2024 11:31 AM

India hands over first tranche of humanitarian assistance to Lebanon

India's Ambassador to Lebanon, Noor Rahman Sheikh, on Thursday, handed over the first tranche of humanitarian assistance sent by India to Lebanon. Lebanon's Health Minister Firas Abiad received the consignment of medicines. Indian Embassy in Lebanon expressed India's commitment to strengthening close ties with Lebanon. In a post on X, the Indian Embassy in Lebanon stated, "First tranche of India's humanitarian assistance arrives in Beirut. Lebanon's Health Minister HE Dr Firas Abiad received th...

October 24, 2024 11:54 PM

Nepal Army prepares contingency plans to rescue peacekeepers from Syria and Lebanon

The Nepal Army is preparing contingency plans to rescue Nepali peacekeepers deployed in Syria and Lebanon should the situation deteriorate further. The ongoing conflict between the militant group Hezbollah and Israel in Lebanon has created a slightly uncomfortable situation for some Nepali peacekeepers deployed under the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). Currently, 877 Nepali peacekeepers are stationed in Lebanon as part of UNIFIL, while 452 are deployed at a border point in Syr...

October 22, 2024 11:36 AM

Blinken heads to Middle East for new ceasefire push as Israel strikes Beirut

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken headed to the Middle East on Monday to launch another push for an elusive ceasefire, seeking to revive negotiations to end the Gaza war and defuse the spillover conflict in Lebanon. Blinken's trip to the region is his 11th since the attack on Israel by the Palestinian militant group Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, that triggered the Gaza war. It comes as Israel intensifies its military campaign against Iran-backed militants - Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbolla...

October 21, 2024 10:20 AM

Lebanese flee as blasts hit Beirut, Israel warns of strikes on Hezbollah finance arm

Hundreds of Beirut residents fled their homes late on Sunday with multiple explosions heard across the Lebanese capital, as Israel prepared to attack sites linked to the financial operations of Lebanon's Hezbollah group and told people to leave those areas immediately. Dense plumes of black smoke were seen billowing in the air after at least 10 blasts, Reuters reported. Eyewitnesses, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said a building located in the Chiyah neighbourhood in the southern s...

October 18, 2024 3:28 PM

Lebanese PM says he rejects Iranian interference in Lebanese matter

Lebanon's caretaker prime minister said on Friday he rejected Iranian interference in a Lebanese matter, after the speaker of Iran's parliament said Tehran was ready to negotiate with France on implementing a U.N. resolution concerning southern Lebanon. U.N. Resolution 1701, adopted in 2006, calls for the border area of southern Lebanon to be free of weapons or troops other than those of the Lebanese state,with the aim of keeping peace on the border with Israel. The speaker of Iran's parliamen...

October 17, 2024 12:43 PM

Israeli strike on Lebanese municipal building kills 16, including mayor

The mayor of a major town in south Lebanon was among 16 people killed when an Israeli airstrike destroyed its municipal headquarters in the biggest attack on an official Lebanese state building since the Israeli air campaign began. Lebanese officials denounced the incident, which also wounded more than 50 people in Nabatieh, a provincial capital, saying it was proof that Israel's campaign against the Hezbollah armed group was now shifting to target the Lebanese state. The Israelis "intentional...

October 15, 2024 6:58 PM

U.N. refugee agency says 25% of Lebanon under Israeli evacuation orders

The U.N. human rights office said on Tuesday it had received reports that most of the 22 victims of an Israeli air strike on a building in northern Lebanon were women and children. "What we are hearing is that amongst the 22 people killed were 12 women and two children," U.N. human rights office spokesperson Jeremy Laurence told a Geneva press briefing in response to a question about a strike on Aitou on Monday. "We understand it was a four-story residential building that was struck. With thes...

October 15, 2024 10:47 AM

Israel strikes north Lebanon town, UN expresses concern about peacekeepers

Israel expanded its targets in its war with Hezbollah militants in Lebanon on Monday, killing at least 21 people in an airstrike in the north, health officials said, while millions of Israelis took shelter from projectiles fired back across the border. So far the main focus of Israel's military operations in Lebanon has been in the Bekaa Valley in the east, the suburbs of Beirut, and in the south, where incidents involving Israeli troops and U.N. peacekeepers have created tension. The U.N. Sec...