WindowIsraeli Women Mobilise Against Ultra-Orthodox Military Exemptions

This is Beirut 2024-12-23 09:20 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Israel Benjamin Netanyahu Gaza Lebanon Syria

Exhausted by more than 14 months of war, the wives and mothers of Israeli soldiers are uniting in protest against exemptions from conscription for ultra-Orthodox men. For several Saturday evenings, the bridge over a key highway that runs between Bnei Brak, an ultra-Orthodox suburb of Tel Aviv, and Givat Shmuel, a bastion of religious Zionists ...

Despite Hopes Of a Ceasefire, Violence Continues In Gaza

This is Beirut 2024-12-23 03:20 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Ceasefire Hamas Israel Palestine Pope Francis USA

Despite growing hopes of a ceasefire, the violence continues in the Gaza Strip, where 35 people have been killed in the last 24 hours according to the Civil Defence of the Palestinian territory, ravaged by more than a year of war between Hamas and Israel. The Islamist movement Hamas and two other Palestinian groups had suggested on Saturday that ...

UN Investigator Says Possible To Find 'Enough' Proof For Syria Prosecutions

This is Beirut 2024-12-22 22:25 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Syria United Nations

The visiting head of a UN investigative body for Syria said it was possible to find "more than enough" evidence to convict people of crimes against international law, but there was an immediate need to secure and preserve it. The doors of Syria's prisons were flung open after an Islamist-led rebel alliance ousted longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad ...

Netanyahu Vows to Act With 'Force, Determination' Against Yemen's Houthis

This is Beirut 2024-12-22 20:48 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Benjamin Netanyahu Israel Yemen Houthi Movement

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday vowed to retaliate against Yemen's Houthi rebels after they fired a missile at Tel Aviv, warning that Israel would target what he described as the last remaining arm of "Iran's axis of evil". The Houthis struck Israel's commercial hub on Saturday with what they claimed was ...

Syrian Leader Vows State Monopoly Over Weapons

This is Beirut 2024-12-22 20:10 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Syria Ahmad al-Sharaa

Syria's new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa said Sunday all weapons would come under state control during a press conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, who urged the lifting of sanctions on Syria. Sharaa said that after upcoming consultations with defense and military officials on a new structure for the military, armed "factions will ...

Turkish FM Calls For Removal of Sanctions Imposed on Syria

This is Beirut 2024-12-22 18:59 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Damascus Turkey Syria HTS

International sanctions on Damascus must be lifted "as soon as possible" to allow Syria to get back on its feet and refugees to return home, Turkey's top diplomat said Sunday. "The sanctions imposed on the previous regime need to be lifted as soon as possible," Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on a visit to ...

Women-Only Flight Lands in Iranian Holy City for First Time

This is Beirut 2024-12-22 16:50 - Reading : 1 minute(s)

Iran Women's Rights

An Iranian airline conducted a rare women-only flight on Sunday, landing for the first time in the holy city of Mashhad in the northeast, state media reported. The Aseman Airlines flight by Shahrzad Shams -- one of Iran's pioneering women pilots -- carried 110 passengers on board, according to the official IRNA news agency. Dubbed the "Iran ...

Gaza Rescuers Say Israeli Strikes Kill 28

This is Beirut 2024-12-22 14:25 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Hamas Palestine Gaza Israel war

Gaza's civil defense agency said Israeli strikes overnight and early Sunday killed at least 28 Palestinians, including at one family's home and at a school building the Israeli military said was used by Hamas. On the ground in Gaza, civil agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said that at least 13 people were killed in an air strike on a house in ...

Pope Again Condemns 'Cruelty' of Israeli Strikes on Gaza

This is Beirut 2024-12-22 14:10 - Reading : 1 minute(s)

Israel Palestine Pope Francis war Gaza

Pope Francis doubled down Sunday on his condemnation of Israel's strikes on the Gaza Strip, denouncing their "cruelty" for the second time in as many days. "And with pain I think of Gaza, of so much cruelty, of the children being machine-gunned, of the bombings of schools and hospitals. What cruelty," the pope said after his weekly Angelus ...

WindowFestive Spirit on the French Riviera: Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus Join Traditional Christmas Bath in Nice

This is Beirut 2024-12-22 14:00 - Reading : 1 minute(s)

On December 22, 2024, bathers gathered on the French Riviera in Nice to take part in the traditional Christmas bath, a festive event held annually on the shores of the Mediterranean. This year, the scene was filled with participants dressed in Christmas-themed attire, with many donning costumes of Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus, while others wore ...

Khamenei Says Iran Does not Have or Need Regional Proxy Forces

This is Beirut 2024-12-22 13:30 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Hamas Hezbollah Israel Iran

Iran's supreme leader denied Sunday that militant groups around the region functioned as Tehran's proxies, warning that if his country chose to "take action", it would not need them anyway. The remarks came after a year in which Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza suffered heavy losses in wars with Israel, and two weeks after the ...

Russia Claims Capture of Two More East Ukraine Villages

This is Beirut 2024-12-22 12:10 - Reading : 1 minute(s)

Kyiv Ukraine russia war

Russia said Sunday it had captured two more villages in east Ukraine, the latest territorial gains for Moscow's advancing army. The defense ministry said on Telegram that its troops had "liberated" the villages of Lozova in the northeastern Kharkiv region and Krasnoye, called Sontsivka in Ukraine. The latter is close to the resource hub of ...