War in the Middle East

Israel's Security Cabinet Approves 19 New Settlements in West Bank

This is Beirut 21/12 13:16 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

Israel West Bank Israeli Settlements Palestinians

Israel's security cabinet approved the establishment of 19 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, a move the country's far-right finance minister said on Sunday was aimed at preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state. The decision brings the total number of settlements approved over the past three years to 69, according to a ...

Netanyahu Set to Present Iran Strike Options to Trump

This is Beirut 20/12 20:10 - Reading : 1 minute(s)

Israel United States Benjamin Netanyahu Donald Trump Iran

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to present plans for a potential strike on Iran to U.S. President Donald Trump during his forthcoming visit to the United States, NBC News reports, citing several unnamed officials. According to the report, Israel is increasingly alarmed that Iran is rebuilding, and possibly expanding, its ballistic ...

Israeli Military Says Detained Suspected IS Jihadist in Syria

This is Beirut 20/12 20:10 - Reading : less than a minute

Israel Syria Islamic State Group

The Israeli military said on Saturday its forces had arrested a suspected Islamic State group jihadist in Syria earlier this week and taken him back to Israel. In a statement, the military said that on Wednesday "soldiers completed an operation in the area of Rafid in southern Syria to apprehend a suspected terrorist affiliated with ISIS." "The ...

Decisive Paris Meeting: Can the Lebanese Army Deliver?

Natasha Metni Torbey 17/12 13:55 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

Lebanese Army Lebanon Hezbollah Joseph Aoun France Litani

On Thursday in Paris, one of the most sensitive moments in Lebanon’s current diplomatic timeline will unfold. A closed-door meeting on the Lebanese Armed Forces’ (LAF) needs will bring together the army’s commander-in-chief, General Rodolph Haykal; US Special Envoy Morgan Ortagus; Saudi envoy Prince Yazid bin Farhan; France’s special envoy ...

White House: U.S. Backs Israel Against Hezbollah, Warns of Military Action

This is Beirut 15/12 22:00 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Iran Hezbollah Lebanon White House Disarmament

The U.S. administration supports Israel’s military efforts to eliminate the threat posed by Hamas and Hezbollah, arguing that diplomacy has failed to disarm Hezbollah in Lebanon. “The United States backs Israel’s efforts to eliminate the threat posed by Hamas and Hezbollah, as diplomacy has failed to disarm Hezbollah in Lebanon,” a ...

Op-edLebanon Must Pick the Abraham Accords over the Muslim Brotherhood

Hussain Abdul-Hussain 15/12 14:25 - Reading : 8 minute(s)

Lebanon Hezbollah Abraham Accords Israel Iran Turkey

Lebanon must pick a side in the regional map of alliances. One seeks peace, prosperity and higher standards of living for all and consists of the United Arab Emirates, Israel, Bahrain, and Morocco, enshrined by the Abraham Accords. The rival alliance—Qatar, its ATM, and Turkey, its NATO muscle, as well as Syria, Algeria, and Tunisia—dismisses ...

Syrian Who Killed Americans Was Part of Security Forces

This is Beirut 14/12 15:30 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

United States Syria Palmyra U.S. Army Islamic State Group

Syria's interior ministry said Sunday the gunman who killed three Americans in the central Palmyra region the previous day was a member of the security forces who was to have been fired for extremism. Two U.S. troops and a civilian interpreter died in what the Syrian government described as a "terrorist attack" on Saturday, while Washington said ...

Hamas Says Weapons Are 'Legitimate Right', Open to Proposals That Preserve It

This is Beirut 14/12 12:35 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Hamas Gaza Israel Khalil al-Hayya

Hamas's Gaza chief Khalil al-Hayya said on Sunday that the militant group had a "legitimate right" to hold weapons and that any proposal for the next phases of the Gaza ceasefire must uphold that right. "Resistance and its weapons are a legitimate right guaranteed by international law and are linked to the establishment of a Palestinian state," ...

U.S. and Syrian Soldiers Wounded as Shots Fired at Delegation

This is Beirut 13/12 19:53 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

Syria U.S. Army Palmyra

Two American troops and an interpreter were killed in central Syria on Saturday after an alleged member of the Islamic State group opened fire on a joint US-Syrian patrol, officials said. US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced the deaths on X after Syria's state media earlier reported that an attack in the city of Palmyra had wounded American ...

Senior Hamas Military Leader Raed Saad Killed in Israeli Airstrike

This is Beirut 13/12 18:41 - Reading : 1 minute(s)

Hamas Raed Saad Israel Gaza

Israel said it killed the head of weapons production in Hamas's military wing in a strike in the Gaza Strip on Saturday. "In response to the activation of a Hamas explosive device that wounded our forces today... Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz instructed the elimination of the terrorist Raad Saad, ...

Hamas Proposes Weapons 'Freeze' in Return for Long-Term Truce

This is Beirut 10/12 23:46 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

Israel Hamas Gaza Khaled Meshaal

A top Hamas leader told Qatari news channel Al Jazeera on Wednesday that the militant group is open to a weapons "freeze" but rejects the demand for disarmament put forward in the US-sponsored peace plan for Gaza. "The idea of total disarmament is unacceptable to the resistance (Hamas). What is being proposed is a freeze, or ...

Israel’s Power Vacuum Dilemma

Seth J. Frantzman 10/12 17:10 - Reading : 6 minute(s)

Israel Benjamin Netanyahu USA Lebanon Syria Gaza

On December 2 Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Israel Defense Forces soldiers wounded in recent fighting in southern Syria. Their injuries followed a November 26 IDF raid on the village of Beit Jinn in southern Syria, an operation that left several Syrians dead and wounded a number of Israeli soldiers. Netanyahu had a ...