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Arab World

West Bank Palestinians across Political Divides March in Solidarity with Gaza

This aerial view shows supporters of the Fatah and Hamas movements marching in a rally in solidarity with Gaza after the weekly Muslim Friday prayers in the city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank on October 13, 2023. (AFP)
This aerial view shows supporters of the Fatah and Hamas movements marching in a rally in solidarity with Gaza after the weekly Muslim Friday prayers in the city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank on October 13, 2023. (AFP)
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West Bank Palestinians across Political Divides March in Solidarity with Gaza

This aerial view shows supporters of the Fatah and Hamas movements marching in a rally in solidarity with Gaza after the weekly Muslim Friday prayers in the city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank on October 13, 2023. (AFP)
This aerial view shows supporters of the Fatah and Hamas movements marching in a rally in solidarity with Gaza after the weekly Muslim Friday prayers in the city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank on October 13, 2023. (AFP)

Israeli security forces killed nine Palestinians and wounded dozens in confrontations across the West Bank on Friday, the Palestinian health ministry said, after the Israeli military ordered almost half of Gaza's population to leave their homes.

The Hamas movement ruling Gaza and its West Bank rival Fatah called on Palestinians to march in solidarity with the blockaded enclave, which Israel has been heavily bombarding in retaliation for a Hamas attack in southern Israeli towns on Saturday.

More than 1,700 Palestinians at least 1,300 Israelis have been killed.

On Friday, Israel called for all civilians in the northern half of Gaza, more than 1 million people, to relocate south within 24 hours as it amassed tanks for an expected ground assault. The United Nations warned this could not happen "without devastating humanitarian consequences".

In a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Jordan on Friday, Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA), said that the forced displacement of Palestinians in Gaza would constitute a repeat of 1948, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were driven from what is now Israel. Most Gazans are the descendants of such refugees.

The escalation in Gaza has worsened violence that had already been surging for months in East Jerusalem and in the West Bank, where Israeli troops have killed at least 43 Palestinians during clashes since Saturday, according to Palestinian officials.

In Hebron, thousands of men and women took to the streets, waving the flags of both Hamas and Fatah. They carried signs that read "Stop the Gaza genocide" and "US capitalism is addicted to war."

In the northern city of Nablus, youths clashed with the Israeli military, flipping cars and setting tires and garbage cans on fire to block roads. By Friday afternoon, Palestinian fighters were still engaged in gunfights with Israeli soldiers in different areas of the Palestinian territory, where the Palestinian Authority exercises limited self-rule.

The Israeli military has said it is prepared for an escalation in the West Bank and its forces have been on high alert, carrying out arrests and thwarting possible attacks.

The Palestinian Prisoners Association said Israel arrested at least 60 people in the West Bank on Friday, among them Hamas leaders.

The Palestinian Authority wants an independent state in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza, areas Israel captured in a 1967 Middle East war. That prospect seems as far away as ever amid expanding Israeli settlements on Palestinian land, cutting communities from each other, and a freeze in US-sponsored negotiations.

Abbas has condemned violence against civilians and said the PA would pursue political action to achieve its goals. Statements by his Fatah party have said Palestinians had a right to resist Israel's decades-old occupation and confront Israel's military.

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Arab World

Israeli Foreign Minister Says No Plans for Talks with Lebanese Govt

Israeli tanks maneuver on the Israeli side of the Israel-Lebanon border, amid escalation between Hezbollah and Israel, and amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in northern Israel, March 15, 2026. (Reuters)
Israeli tanks maneuver on the Israeli side of the Israel-Lebanon border, amid escalation between Hezbollah and Israel, and amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in northern Israel, March 15, 2026. (Reuters)
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Israeli Foreign Minister Says No Plans for Talks with Lebanese Govt

Israeli tanks maneuver on the Israeli side of the Israel-Lebanon border, amid escalation between Hezbollah and Israel, and amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in northern Israel, March 15, 2026. (Reuters)
Israeli tanks maneuver on the Israeli side of the Israel-Lebanon border, amid escalation between Hezbollah and Israel, and amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in northern Israel, March 15, 2026. (Reuters)

Israel's foreign minister on Sunday denied reports that Israel could soon hold direct talks with Lebanon and rejected claims it had told the United States it was running low on interceptors. 

Israel's Haaretz newspaper reported on Saturday that ‌Israel and Lebanon were ‌expected to hold ‌direct ⁠talks in the ⁠coming days. Semafor also reported that Israel had informed Washington it was running critically low on ballistic missile interceptors. 

Both reports cited unnamed sources. 

Asked about the weekend ⁠reports, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said: "For ‌the ‌two questions, the answer is no." 

He also ‌said that Israel sees "eye-to-eye" ‌with the US in the war with Iran, now in its 16th day, and that the two allies were ‌determined to continue until their goals are achieved. 

"We want ⁠to ⁠remove the existential threats from Iran for the long term. We don't want to go every year to another war," he told reporters. 

Saar was speaking from a Bedouin Arab town in northern Israel near an Israeli Air Force base where homes were damaged in an Iranian missile attack last week. 

Arab World

At Least Four Killed in Overnight Israeli Strikes in Lebanon

Debris is strewn along a street and vehicles after a residential apartment block was struck in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburb of Haret Hreik on March 15, 2026. (AFP)
Debris is strewn along a street and vehicles after a residential apartment block was struck in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburb of Haret Hreik on March 15, 2026. (AFP)
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At Least Four Killed in Overnight Israeli Strikes in Lebanon

Debris is strewn along a street and vehicles after a residential apartment block was struck in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburb of Haret Hreik on March 15, 2026. (AFP)
Debris is strewn along a street and vehicles after a residential apartment block was struck in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburb of Haret Hreik on March 15, 2026. (AFP)

Overnight strikes in southern Lebanon killed at least four people, Lebanese state media and the government said on Sunday, as Israel said it was pressing its campaign against Iran-backed Hezbollah.

Israel is fighting a second front in the war in the Middle East in southern Lebanon, against Hezbollah, alongside the air campaign against Iran it launched with the United States more than two weeks ago.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency (NNA) said Israel struck "an apartment in a residential building" in a northern district of the coastal city of Sidon, killing one person and causing a fire.

An AFP journalist at the scene saw damage to the third storey of an apartment building as the Lebanese army cordoned off the area and rescue teams worked to extinguish the blaze.

Nearby residents rushed into the street, some carrying belongings.

To the southeast of Sidon, in the village of Al-Qatrani, three people were killed in an overnight Israeli strike, according to Lebanon's health ministry.

The Israeli military said in a statement Sunday it continued to strike infrastructure used by Hezbollah throughout Lebanon and hit "several Hezbollah launch sites" in Al-Qatrani, where it said the armed group was preparing to fire off missiles.

It also said it destroyed "command centers" belonging to Hezbollah's Radwan Force in Beirut.

Hezbollah said Sunday it was targeting several Israeli troop positions in villages close to the border.

According to Lebanon's health ministry, Israeli air strikes have killed 826 people in Lebanon since the start of the latest war, which began March 2 with Hezbollah firing missiles at Israel.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has proposed negotiations with Israel, but has yet to receive a response.

A Lebanese official told AFP on Saturday that the country was preparing to form a delegation to negotiate with Israel but that there was no agenda, timing or location yet decided for any talks.

French President Emmanuel Macron has said the Lebanese government was ready to engage in "direct talks" with Israel and he offered to host negotiations in Paris, warning that "everything must be done to prevent Lebanon from descending into chaos".

Arab World

Israeli Ground Incursions in South Lebanon Shift Hezbollah’s Combat Priorities

Two Israeli tanks deployed along the border barrier with Lebanon during fighting with Hezbollah (EPA). 
Two Israeli tanks deployed along the border barrier with Lebanon during fighting with Hezbollah (EPA). 
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Israeli Ground Incursions in South Lebanon Shift Hezbollah’s Combat Priorities

Two Israeli tanks deployed along the border barrier with Lebanon during fighting with Hezbollah (EPA). 
Two Israeli tanks deployed along the border barrier with Lebanon during fighting with Hezbollah (EPA). 

Hezbollah has scaled back attacks deep inside Israel as it focuses on confronting expanding Israeli ground incursions into southern Lebanon, while Israel has widened its list of targets across Lebanese territory.

By Saturday afternoon, Hezbollah had issued 22 statements claiming attacks against Israeli forces. Most operations targeted Israeli military positions along the border, air-defense and surveillance systems, and northern Israeli settlements.

The group also said it struck Israeli soldiers and vehicles inside Lebanese territory, including near the municipality of Khiam, the town of Maroun al-Ras, and newly established Israeli positions at Blat and Nimr al-Jamal opposite the border town of Alma al-Shaab. Hezbollah also reported attacks around the Khiam detention center, west of Blida and near Khazzan Hill in Adaisseh.

Efforts to repel Israeli ground advances now appear to top Hezbollah’s battlefield priorities after the Israeli army launched incursions along at least four axes, according to sources in southern Lebanon. They said Hezbollah had mobilized forces since the start of the war in preparation for a possible ground confrontation.

Israeli forces have sought to prevent reinforcements of fighters and equipment from reaching Hezbollah units in the south. Airstrikes severed key routes by hitting two bridges and two crossings linking areas south of the Litani River with those to the north, as well as roads between villages.

Sources stressed that these steps broaden Israel’s target list. “Israel also appears to be trying to empty the area by targeting ambulances and civil defense units in the south,” one source said.

Lebanon’s National News Agency reported that Israeli warplanes launched two airstrikes shortly after midnight on the Khardali road and bridge linking Nabatieh and Marjayoun near a Lebanese army checkpoint. The strikes left a large crater and completely cut the road.

Medical Facilities Targeted

Israeli strikes on ambulance centers and medical facilities since the start of the war have killed 22 paramedics, according to Lebanese officials.

The deadliest attack occurred Friday when an Israeli strike hit a primary health care center run by Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health in the town of Burj Qalaouiyeh, killing 12 doctors, paramedics and nurses. The Health Ministry described the strike as a “flagrant attack on the country’s official health care network.”

Another strike hit a gathering point for the Islamic Health Authority and the Al-Risala Scouts Association in the town of Souwaneh, killing two people.

The Israeli military said Hezbollah was using ambulances and medical facilities for military purposes and accused the group of transporting rockets and other weapons in civilian trucks along Lebanon’s coastal areas.

Heavy Strikes Across the South

Israeli airstrikes also intensified across southern Lebanon, targeting towns including Majdal Zoun, Yater, Taybeh, Sajd in the Iqlim al-Tuffah region and Zawtar al-Sharqiyah in the Nabatieh district, where a strike destroyed a house belonging to the Harb family.

Two heavy strikes hit the town of Khiam in the Marjayoun district, while Naqoura came under artillery fire and warplanes targeted Kharayeb.

In the Hasbaya district, Israeli artillery shelled the outskirts of Shebaa. Later, Israeli forces targeted Bint Jbeil, Ainata, Aitaroun and the outskirts of Maroun al-Ras as clashes intensified with Hezbollah fighters along several fronts. The Wadi al-Hujayr area also came under artillery fire.

The escalation also affected UN peacekeepers. Kandice Ardiel, spokeswoman for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, said a UN position near Mais al-Jabal was hit, likely by heavy machine-gun fire, sparking a fire at the site and slightly injuring a peacekeeper.

UNIFIL said it had opened an investigation and reminded all parties of their obligation to ensure the safety of peacekeepers at all times.