War in the Middle East

Russia Invites Hamas and Other Palestinian Factions for Talks
Russia Invites Hamas and Other Palestinian Factions for Talks

Russia has invited Hamas and other Palestinian factions, including Fatah, to Moscow for talks on the Israel-Hamas war and other issues in the Middle East. Moscow, which for years tried to court good relations with all major players in the region, has grown increasingly critical of Israel and its Western backers amid the ongoing war in Gaza. ...

Seven Lebanese Villages Were Annexed to Israel
Seven Lebanese Villages Were Annexed to Israel

In a series of four articles, This is Beirut revisits three key elements of the Lebanese-Israeli border dispute and a fourth, which is now forgotten. The first focuses on the Ras el Naqoura tunnel, owned by the Lebanese State and registered under land registry number 28/Naqoura. However, following Israel’s occupation, it has been transformed ...

South Lebanon: Beirut Requests Security Council Intervention
South Lebanon: Beirut Requests Security Council Intervention

At the request of caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, the caretaker Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abdallah Bou Habib, instructed Lebanon's Permanent Representative to the United Nations to submit a complaint to the UN Security Council, dated Thursday, February 15, against Israel. This official complaint follows a series of deadly attacks by the ...

Growing Concerns Over Gaza Hospital After Israeli Raid
Growing Concerns Over Gaza Hospital After Israeli Raid

There was growing concern on Friday over a key Gaza hospital a day after a raid by the Israeli Army, with the Hamas-run territory's Health Ministry saying several patients had died there due to a lack of oxygen. The ministry said the power was cut off and the generators stopped after the raid at the Nasser hospital in the southern city of Khan ...

Netanyahu Rejects any International Recognition of a Palestinian State
Netanyahu Rejects any International Recognition of a Palestinian State

Netanyahu once again affirmed his unwilligness to support the establisment of a Palestinian state at the end of the war. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said late Thursday that he rejected a plan for international recognition of a Palestinian state, saying such an initiative "would offer an enormous reward to terrorism". Netanyahu's ...

South Lebanon: Five Dead, Extensive Damage in Israel Strikes
South Lebanon: Five Dead, Extensive Damage in Israel Strikes

Israeli warplanes launched a series of airstrikes shortly after midnight, targeting several towns in southern Lebanon. The attacks caused extensive damage to the targeted areas' homes, properties and crops. The towns of Naqoura, Jabal al-Labbouneh, Alma al-Shaab, Tayr Harfa and Yarine in the western sector were among those hit in the initial wave ...

Retaliation Attacks Intensify Along Southern Border
Retaliation Attacks Intensify Along Southern Border

Cross-border violence continued unabated on Thursday, following the grave developments in South Lebanon a day before, described as the deadliest since October 8. Israeli airstrikes targeted the village of Blida in the early evening. Initial reports said four people were wounded as a result of the attacks on a residential building and a civilian ...

War Diary: Day 132
War Diary: Day 132

This Is Beirut brings you a daily recap of the situation in southern Lebanon and Gaza. Here are the main highlights for February 15th, 2024.

Wronecka: Time Pressing for Political Solution in South Lebanon
Wronecka: Time Pressing for Political Solution in South Lebanon

United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon Joanna Wronecka resorted to her X account on Thursday to condemn the escalating hostilities in South Lebanon, which reached territory far from the Blue Line. She expressed “deep concern” about the increasing violence, particularly its devastating impact on civilian lives and property. Wronecka's ...

French Initiative for the South Brought to a Halt
French Initiative for the South Brought to a Halt

In a televised appearance, Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah responded to French Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Séjourné regarding the French initiative and the implementation of Resolution 1701. The French were dissatisfied with Nasrallah’s answer and are now fully convinced they will not be able to achieve a thing when it ...

Tenenti: Alarming Shift in Escalation of South Lebanon Violence
Tenenti: Alarming Shift in Escalation of South Lebanon Violence

UNIFIL Spokesperson Andrea Tenenti expressed deep worry over the “alarming shift” in the escalating situation in South Lebanon, reaching areas “far from the Blue Line.” “The escalation of the conflict has claimed too many lives, including, tragically, the lives of children. It has also caused extensive damage to homes and public ...

Israel Vows 'Powerful' Operation on Rafah
Israel Vows 'Powerful' Operation on Rafah

After firing a new wave of deadly strikes on southern Gaza on Thursday, Israel vowed to launch a "powerful" operation in Rafah, an overcrowded city in the southern Gaza Strip, despite growing international condemnation. After more than four months of a war that has flattened vast swathes of Gaza, displaced most of the territory's population, and ...