Region

BEIRUT — Lebanon's Iran-backed Hizbollah movement said on Thursday that five of its fighters, including the son of a senior lawmaker, had been killed, amid skirmishes at the Israel-Lebanon border since the Israeli war on Gaza began.

Abbas Raad, son of the head of Hizbollah's parliamentary bloc Mohammed Raad, was "martyred on the road to Jerusalem", the group said in a statement, the phrase it has been using to announce the death of its members due to Israeli fire since the war started on October 7.

It issued separate statements with the identities and photographs of four other fighters who were also killed.

A source close to the family, requesting anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media, told AFP that Abbas Raad "was killed with a number of other Hizbollah members" in an Israeli strike Wednesday on a house in south Lebanon's Beit Yahun.

Lebanon's official National News Agency said Wednesday that "an air strike launched by the Israeli enemy... on a house in Beit Yahun killed four people". It did not identify the victims.

Since October 7, the frontier between Lebanon and Israel has seen escalating exchanges of fire, mainly between Israel and Shiite Muslim movement Hizbollah, but also Palestinian groups, raising fears of a broader conflagration.

Israel's army said in statements on Wednesday evening that it had struck a number of Hizbollah targets and sources of fire from Lebanon, including a Hizbollah "terrorist cell" and infrastructure.

Since the cross-border exchanges began, 107 people have been killed on the Lebanese side, according to an AFP tally. At least 75 are Hizbollah fighters but the toll also included at least 14 civilians, three of them journalists.

On the Israeli side, six soldiers and three civilians have been killed, according to authorities.

The strike came just hours after a four-day truce in Gaza was announced between Israel and Hamas, a Hizbollah ally.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, who visited Beirut on Wednesday, warned in an interview that if the Hamas-Israel ceasefire begins but “does not continue... the conditions in the region will not remain the same as before the ceasefire and the scope of the war will expand”.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM/DOHA — Israel and Hamas announced a deal on Wednesday allowing at least 50 hostages and scores of Palestinian prisoners to be freed, while offering besieged Gaza residents a four-day truce after weeks of all-out war.

In the first major diplomatic breakthrough in the Israeli war on Gaza, Palestinian fighters will release during a four-day truce 50 women and children.

Qatar confirmed on Wednesday that Hamas and Israel had reached an agreement on a four-day humanitarian pause in exchange for the release of 50 hostages in Gaza.

"The starting time of the pause will be announced within the next 24 hours and last for four days, subject to extension," Qatar's foreign ministry said in a statement.

"The agreement includes the release of 50 civilian women and children hostages currently held in the Gaza Strip in exchange for the release of a number of Palestinian women and children detained in Israeli prisons. The number of those released will be increased in later stages of implementing the agreement," it added.

Qatar has been engaged in weeks of intense, behind-the-scenes negotiations aimed at freeing some of the 240 hostages held in Gaza in return for a temporary ceasefire and access for humanitarian aid.

Qatar said the deal had been undertaken with Egypt and the United States as well as Hamas and Israel and would include "the entry of a larger number of humanitarian convoys and relief aid, including fuel designated for humanitarian needs".

Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that the Gulf state hoped the deal would “establish a comprehensive and sustainable agreement” that would “put an end to the war and the bloodshed and lead to serious talks for a comprehensive and just peace process”.

Qatar’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed Al Ansari told AFP the release of 50 hostages held by Hamas would be staggered over the four-day truce.

“The truce begins and then every day within the four days we will have a number of hostages coming out... and that number should reach 50 by day four,” he said.

The expectation was that the initial 50 women and children hostages released by Hamas would be followed by further releases to extend the initial four-day truce.

“If by then the Palestinians can commit to an additional number, then the truce can be extended,” Ansari said.

“It will take some time to get all the civilians out within these parameters, it will take some time also to... ascertain how many we have left,” he said.

The temporary cessation of hostilities would not come into effect immediately and would “need some time to be prepared on the ground”, he said.

Hamas released a statement welcoming the “humanitarian truce” and said it would also see 150 Palestinians released from Israeli jails.

“The resistance is committed to the truce as long as the occupation honours it,” a Hamas official told AFP.

Israeli launched a major bombing campaign and ground offensive in Gaza, which, according to the Hamas government in the territory, has killed 14,100 people, thousands of them children.

Israel said that to facilitate the hostage release it would initiate a four-day “pause” in its six-week-old air, land and sea assault of Gaza, while it stressed that the agreement did not spell the end of the war.

For every 10 additional hostages released, there would be an extra day’s “pause”, the Israeli government said.

‘Brave souls’ 

Sources from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, another group that took part in the October 7 surprise attacks, had earlier told AFP the truce would include a ceasefire on the ground and a pause in Israeli air operations over southern Gaza.

The negotiations have involved the US Central Intelligence Agency, Israel’s overseas spy agency Mossad, Egyptian intelligence, and leaders in Doha, Cairo, Washington, Gaza and Israel.

A senior US official said three Americans, including three-year-old Abigail Mor Idan, were among the 50 earmarked for staggered release from Thursday.

US President Joe Biden said he was “extraordinarily gratified that some of these brave souls... will be reunited with their families once this deal is fully implemented”.

Qatar’s foreign ministry confirmed the deal, saying that “a number of Palestinian women and children detained in Israeli prisons” would be released in exchange for the hostages.

“The starting time of the pause will be announced within the next 24 hours and last for four days, subject to extension,” the ministry said.

Misgivings 

Ahead of the Israeli Cabinet vote, Netanyahu had faced criticism from within his right-wing coalition, some of whom thought the deal gave too much to the Palestinian militants.

Hardline Minister for National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir signalled he would vote against the agreement, saying it should include the release of Israeli soldiers also taken by Hamas.

But with dozens of families in Israel who are beyond desperate to have their loved ones returned home, and the Israeli public gripped by the hostages’ fate, the government ultimately set aside any misgivings.

Israel’s hawkish Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said before the crunch meeting that he had won assurances that the deal would not spell the end of the war.

“Immediately after we have exhausted this phase” he said, security operations would “continue in full force”.

In a statement, the Israeli government underscored that the truce agreement would not mean the end of the war in Gaza.

‘Unbearable situation’ 

Earlier, Gaza resident Hamza Abdel Razeq said he would welcome any ceasefire agreement, hoping it would bring some respite for people who have endured Israel’s bombing and expanding ground offensive.

“The people are really suffering,” he told AFP. “I believe it will pave the way for longer truces or even a total ceasefire.”

A US official said there was also hope that the deal would lead to a “full pause” in fighting along the Israel-Lebanon border between Israel and Hizbollah, which like Hamas is backed by Iran.

Another Gaza resident, Mahmud Abu Najm, said: “We... pray to God for its success because the people are enduring an unbearable situation.”

Large parts of Gaza have been flattened by thousands of air strikes, and the territory is under siege, with minimal food, water and fuel allowed in.

Six weeks into the war, Israel has come under intense international pressure to implement a humanitarian ceasefire.

But in recent days it has pressed its offensive into northern Gaza.

The Israeli military said air strikes had hit “around 250” Hamas targets in the past day, destroying three underground shafts in the Jabalia area, which it said it had fully surrounded.

At Jabalia’s Indonesian Hospital, the Hamas-run health ministry said strikes had killed dozens, but there was no independent confirmation of the toll.

The Israeli forces said later its troops had “directly targeted” the source of fire from within the Indonesian Hospital.

Doctors Without Borders said three doctors, including two it employed, were killed in an Israeli strike on the Al Awda hospital in Jabalia refugee camp.

Israel says Hamas uses medical facilities to hide fighters and as bases for operations, making them legitimate military objectives while insisting it does everything possible to limit harm to civilians.

RAMALLAH, Occupied West Bank — Palestinian doctor Ahmed Al Beytawi lived through the bloody clashes of two intifadas in the occupied West Bank, but the war in Gaza has reached new levels of violence.

Every day the 62-year-old doctor walks past a memorial outside the Ramallah hospital he runs honouring 22 Palestinians killed by the Israeli forces in 2000 at the start of the second intifada, or uprising.

But the images of death and destruction seen since the start of the war between Hamas and Israel on October 7 are something he says he "has never seen" before.

In 2000, the "bodies were piling up, the morgues were full "and we couldn't go out" to bury them.

But the latest war in Gaza "is much more violent", he said.

Israel launched a major bombing campaign and ground offensive in Gaza, which the Hamas authorities say has killed 14,100 people, thousands of them children.

More than two thirds of hospitals in the besieged Palestinian territory are out of service, there is no electricity in the morgues, and bodies line the streets.

In Gaza, Beytawi's colleagues have been digging mass graves under Israeli tank fire and even in the courtyards of their hospitals.

Former soldier Wassef Erakat, 76, who fought in Lebanon during the 1975-1990 civil war, agrees this war is "the hardest and the most violent" he has ever witnessed.

Nearly half of the homes in the coastal Gaza Strip have been destroyed in relentless Israeli bombardments, UN officials say.

And some 1.5 million Gazans — more than half the 2.4 million population — have been internally displaced.

But for the former artillery officer for the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) the Hamas and Islamic Jihad operations against Israel are also “unprecedented” and “meticulously planned”.

Unprecedented 

death tolls 

The information war has added a new dimension, igniting social networks.

Every day, the groups publish propaganda videos showing their fighters firing rocket launchers at tanks or stuffing explosives into Israeli armoured vehicles.

The conflict has moved way beyond the stone-throwing days of the first Intifada, which exploded in 1987 and ended with the 1993 Oslo accords signed by then PLO leader Yasser Arafat, and former Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin.

And with the increased violence, the death tolls have reached unprecedented levels.

The October 7 surprise attack by Hamas on southern Israeli communities left 1,200 people dead — the worst death toll since the creation of Israel in 1948.

On the Palestinian side more people have died in Gaza in the current wave of Israeli strikes than during the two Intifadas put together.

And in the West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967, more than 200 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli fire — more than the total of the previous nine months.

For the first time in two decades, Israeli F-16s are again striking the West Bank from the air.

Heavily-armed Israeli troops are also again carrying out raids in Palestinian towns, manoeuvres supposedly eliminated in some areas of the West Bank by the Oslo accords.

“Israel felt it had been victorious because of its weapons and believed it had done away with the resistance,” said Mohammed Zaghloul, recently released from prison after serving 20 years for attempted murder of Israeli soldiers.

But the fierce fighting in Gaza has changed the dynamic, said the former fighter with the armed wing of Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas’s Fateh movement.

“We have entered a totally different phase from the earlier ones in the conflict,” he said, highlighting the fears of the “regional ramifications” of the conflict.

Once the current violence has died down however, it “could bring something politically positive” for advancing the Palestinian cause, he added.

BAGHDAD — US fighter jets struck two targets in Iraq early on Wednesday, killing eight pro-Iran fighters in retaliation for repeated attacks on American troops, US and Iraqi sources said.

The twin strikes, which followed similar bombardment of Iran-backed forces on Tuesday, drew condemnation from the Iraqi government, which said it had not been consulted about the military action on its soil.

The US military "conducted discrete, precision strikes against two facilities in Iraq", US Central Command said on X, previously Twitter.

"The strikes were in direct response to the attacks against US and coalition forces by Iran and Iran-backed groups," the post added.

The Iran-backed Hizbollah Brigades, which form part of the Hashed Al Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation) force within Iraq’s armed forces, said the strikes killed eight of its fighters.

Hours earlier, a warplane struck the vehicle of Iranian-backed fighters after they had fired a short-range ballistic missile at US and allied personnel, the Pentagon said.

It was the first time the United States has announced a strike on Iran-backed forces in Iraq since they launched a flurry of attacks against US targets in response to Washington’s support for Israel in its war to destroy Hamas.

Washington has targeted Iran-backed groups in neighbouring Syria, however, carrying out strikes on three occasions in recent weeks.

Since the Gaza war on October 7, US forces deployed in Iraq and Syria have been attacked at least 66 times, most recently on Monday night, according to Pentagon officials.

“We can confirm an attack last night by Iran-backed militias using a close-range ballistic missile against US and coalition forces at Al Asad Airbase, which resulted in eight injuries and some minor damage to infrastructure,” Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said on Tuesday.

‘Self-defence strike’ 

The Ain Al Asad Airbase lies in Anbar province, west of Baghdad, and hosts forces of the US-led coalition fighting the Daesh terror group in Iraq.

“Immediately following the attack, a US military AC-130 aircraft in the area conducted a self-defence strike against an Iranian-backed militia vehicle and a number of Iranian-backed militia personnel involved in this attack. This self-defence strike resulted in several enemy KIA [killed in action],” Ryder said.

Government spokesman Bassem Al Awadi said the pre-dawn strikes on Tuesday and Wednesday were carried out “without the knowledge of Iraqi government agencies” and constituted an “unacceptable violation of Iraqi sovereignty”.

But he also criticised the Iran-backed groups that have repeatedly attacked Iraqi bases used by forces of the US-led coalition fighting Daesh.

“Any armed action or activity outside the military institution is deemed condemnable and an unlawful endeavour that jeopardises the national interest,” he said in a statement.

Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters in Washington that US forces “have been attacked approximately 66 times since October 17, 32 separate times in Iraq and 34 separate times in Syria”.

She said the attacks had resulted in approximately 62 injuries to US personnel, but that number did not include the eight cited by Ryder.

While US forces have been targeted in both Iraq and Syria, Washington had until now only responded with strikes in Syria in an apparent bid to avoid inflaming political tensions in Iraq, which the United States invaded in 2003 and where Iran wields substantial influence.

There are roughly 2,500 US troops in Iraq and some 900 in Syria as part of efforts to prevent a resurgence of Daesh.

GAZA STRIP, Palestine — Gaza's Hamas government said on Tuesday the death toll in the Palestinian territory had reached 14,128 since war began on October 7 between Israeli forces and Hamas fighters.

The Hamas government said 5,840 children and 3,920 women were among the dead, with another 33,000 people wounded. Its health ministry has previously said it can no longer give exact tolls as intense fighting has prevented bodies from being recovered.

The UN warned on Tuesday that fuel shortages, a lack of water and worsening sanitation in Gaza, along with attacks on healthcare and mass displacement, are creating "a perfect storm for tragedy".

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said Tuesday that already around 160 children are killed every day in Gaza, and the UN children's agency UNICEF warned that the number could skyrocket.

"If children's access to water and sanitation in Gaza continue to be restricted and insufficient, we will see a tragic, yet entirely avoidable,  surge in the number of children dying," spokesman James Elder said.

Elder said the daily minimum need in emergency situations was 15 litres of water per person, for drinking, hygiene and cooking, but that in parts of Gaza as little as 3 litres per day is available, and none on some days.

“We have then a perfect storm for the spread of disease,” he said, pointing to “a desperate lack of water, faecal matter strewn across densely-populated settlements [and] an unacceptable lack of latrines”.

He stressed the urgent need for sufficient fuel to be allowed into the territory, among other things, to get water pumps, desalination stations and waste management working again.

After weeks of no fuel entering Gaza, an agreement has been reached to allow 70,000 litres per day, but the UN says 200,000 litres are needed daily for humanitarian operations.

Overcrowded shelters 

More than 1.7 million of Gaza’s 2.4 million inhabitants are estimated to be internally displaced within the enclave, nearly half of them children, the UN said on Tuesday.

Nearly 900,000 of those displaced are staying in severely overcrowded shelters run by UNRWA, the UN agency that supports Palestinian refugees.

On average, there are 700 people to one shower unit and 150 people to a toilet in those shelters, Elder said.

The WHO said last week that only 10 of the territory’s 36 hospitals were still functioning, with the situation deteriorating since then. 

It said on Monday there are no functioning hospitals in northern Gaza.

WHO said it had been asked by health personnel to help evacuate three non-functioning hospitals in the north: Al Shifa and Al Ahli in Gaza City and the Indonesian hospital near the Jabalia refugee camp.

The WHO, which has described Al Shifa as a “death zone”, helped evacuate 31 premature babies on Saturday.

But WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier said on Tuesday that two others had died prior to the evacuation.

Three of the evacuated babies were at a hospital in southern Gaza, while 28 arrived in Egypt on Monday.

Lindmeier said on Tuesday that the WHO was making plans to bring out the remaining 200 patients and 50 health workers still stuck in Al Shifa.

He said around 180 babies were born every day in Gaza, with more than 20 needing specialised care.

WHO warned that Gaza’s health system was struggling to cope amid an influx of casualties and sharp increases in diseases.

More than 72,000 cases of upper respiratory infections had been detected in displacement shelters, Lindmeier said.

There had also been nearly 49,000 cases of diarrhoea among children under five, 31 times the monthly average.

Cases of scabies, lice, chicken pox and skin rashes are also surging.

UNICEF said no cholera had yet been detected in Gaza, but stressed that an outbreak could see the number of children dying in Gaza rise “exponentially”.

PARIS — Fifty-three journalists and media workers have been killed in the latest Israeli war on Gaza, according to a tally by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) published on Tuesday.

The toll includes 46 Palestinians, four Israelis and three Lebanese killed since the war began on October 7, the New York-based organisation said.

The most recent casualties were two journalists from the Lebanese channel Al Mayadeen, killed by Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon on Tuesday according to state-run media.

The CPJ said 11 journalists have been injured and three are missing since the start of the conflict, while 18 have been arrested.

“Journalists in Gaza face particularly high risks as they try to cover the conflict during the Israeli ground assault, including devastating Israeli air strikes, disrupted communications, supply shortages and extensive power outages,” the NGO said on its website.

GAZA STRIP, Palestine — Hopes mounted on Tuesday that dozens of hostages seized by Hamas could be released from war-torn Gaza, after the group's leader and key mediator Qatar both said a truce agreement with Israel was in sight.

"We are close to reaching a deal on a truce," Ismail Haniyeh said, according to a statement sent by his office to AFP, after US President Joe Biden indicated an accord was on the cards on Monday.

In Qatar, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Majed Al Ansari told reporters: "We are at the closest point we ever had been in reaching an agreement.

"We're very optimistic, very hopeful," he added.

Hopes of a breakthrough have been mounting since Qatar on Sunday said only "minor" practical issues remained to secure a deal.

Speculation grew further when the International Committee of the Red Cross, which is often involved in prisoner exchanges and hostage releases, said on Monday that its president had met Haniyeh in Qatar.

Sources from Hamas and Islamic Jihad told AFP on condition of anonymity that their groups had agreed to the terms of a truce deal.

The tentative agreement would include a five-day truce, comprised of a complete ceasefire on the ground and an end to Israeli air operations over Gaza, except in the north, where they would only halt for six hours daily.

Under the deal, which the sources said could yet change, between 50 and 100 Israeli civilian and foreign hostages would be released, but no military personnel.

In exchange, some 300 Palestinians would be freed from Israeli jails, among them women and minors.

An agreement could bring some respite for Gazans who have endured more than six weeks under Israel bombardment and an expanding ground offensive.

Large parts of Gaza have been flattened by thousands of air strikes, and the territory is under siege, with minimal food, water and fuel allowed to enter.

According to the Hamas and Islamic Jihad sources, the proposed deal would also allow for up to 300 trucks of food and medical aid to enter Gaza.