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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)
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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

Iraq PM Vows to Prevent Attacks After French Soldier Killed

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani attends an event in Baghdad, Iraq, Jan. 9, 2024. (Reuters)
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani attends an event in Baghdad, Iraq, Jan. 9, 2024. (Reuters)
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Iraq PM Vows to Prevent Attacks After French Soldier Killed

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani attends an event in Baghdad, Iraq, Jan. 9, 2024. (Reuters)
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani attends an event in Baghdad, Iraq, Jan. 9, 2024. (Reuters)

Iraq's Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani vowed on Friday to prevent attacks after the killing of a French soldier in an attack in the autonomous Kurdistan region.

Sudani expressed his "solidarity" with France in a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron.

He said that "the necessary measures will be taken to prevent the recurrence of such incidents", and an investigation will be conducted into the attack.

The president of Iraq's Kurdistan region Nechirvan Barzani, in a call with Macron, also expressed his condolences and called for the Iraqi government to "set limits on outlaw groups".

Arab World

Report: Lebanon’s Offer for Direct Talks with Israel Falls on Deaf Ears

A fireball erupts from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted a building in the southern Lebanese village of Abbasiyeh on March 13, 2026. (AFP)
A fireball erupts from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted a building in the southern Lebanese village of Abbasiyeh on March 13, 2026. (AFP)
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Report: Lebanon’s Offer for Direct Talks with Israel Falls on Deaf Ears

A fireball erupts from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted a building in the southern Lebanese village of Abbasiyeh on March 13, 2026. (AFP)
A fireball erupts from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted a building in the southern Lebanese village of Abbasiyeh on March 13, 2026. (AFP)

Israel has rebuffed a historic offer of direct talks from Lebanon, deeming it too little too late from a government that shares its goal of disarming Hezbollah but cannot act against the heavily armed Lebanese group without risking a civil war.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun expressed the state's willingness to begin direct negotiations with Israel this week, seeking to secure an end to the conflict that erupted on March 2 when Hezbollah entered the regional war in support of its patron Iran.

Two sources familiar with Aoun's position said he has begun appointing a negotiating delegation and in some private meetings, he went as far as to say he was ready to move toward normalizing ties.

"Everything is on the table," a third source familiar with his position told Reuters, when asked about normalization.

The Lebanese state's stance reflects unprecedented levels of domestic opposition to Hezbollah's status as an armed group: the government last week banned the group from military activities.

But with Hezbollah still wielding a powerful arsenal and backed by a significant portion of Lebanon's Shiite community, carrying out the order ‌is easier said than ‌done for a fragile Lebanese state now facing one of its most precarious moments since the 1975-90 ‌civil ⁠war.

On Friday, Aoun ⁠told United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that he had not received a response to his offer, according to a statement from the presidency.

LEBANON SEEN AS LACKING CREDIBILITY

Just a few years ago, such an offer from a Lebanese president would have been a major diplomatic overture - and a chance for the United States to claim success in ending nearly 80 years of hostilities between the two countries.

But Aoun's proposal generated little interest from either Israeli or US officials, according to the two sources, a Lebanese official and two foreign officials.

The sources all said Lebanon's inability to rein in Hezbollah over the last year and prevent the group's March 2 attack left Beirut with little credibility and nothing tangible to offer at a negotiating table.

Israel's Foreign ⁠Minister Gideon Saar told the Times of Israel this week that his country was ready for ‌dialogue with the Lebanese government to normalize ties.

"But the current problem is that dialogue with ‌the Lebanese government cannot stop the fire from Lebanese territory," he said.

Israel's ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon told the UN Security Council this week ‌that Israel could not negotiate with Lebanon "while rockets are flying into our northern border."

"The time has come to decide: will Lebanon stick ‌to declarations or actually act?" he said.

Lebanon's presidency, Israel's foreign ministry and the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

A State Department spokesperson said the US government regularly communicates with its Lebanese counterparts and does not comment on private diplomatic communications.

US SEES WINDOW AS CLOSED, OFFICIAL SAYS

Over the last year, Lebanese authorities have been treading carefully to confiscate the group's weapons in the country's south.

The moves would have previously been unimaginable, ‌when Hezbollah was at the zenith of its power and exercised immense sway over Lebanon's multi-sectarian political system.

The measures have had mixed results.

Hezbollah was still able to spend months re-arming, even stationing new ⁠rockets in southern Lebanon as the ⁠Lebanese army said it had secured full operational control of the area.

After the new war started, Lebanese authorities detained around 50 people for carrying arms without a license in southern Lebanon and near Beirut, Lebanese security sources told Reuters, saying the detained men were suspected of being Hezbollah members.

But several were swiftly released after paying a small fine, the sources said.

When Lebanon tried to reach out to US officials this week to make the offer on negotiations, they were rebuffed, a Lebanese official said.

"They said that 2025 was our window to confront Hezbollah and we didn't, so there's nothing they can do now," the official said.

Three people familiar with US policymaking on the Middle East told Reuters that Washington also had little bandwidth to deal with Lebanon given its current war on Iran and was allowing Israel to deal with Lebanon as it saw fit.

WAR WITH ISRAEL, OR WAR AT HOME

Israel still wants to see Lebanese troops dismantle Hezbollah's rocket and drone launch sites and seize the group's weapons, Danon told the Security Council.

The army has avoided directly confronting Hezbollah, worried about inflaming tensions with the Shiite community and fracturing the army, which split during Lebanon's 15-year civil war.

"That is the problem: Lebanon cannot deliver. And I understand that. This is a multi-sectarian society and Lebanon cannot afford to declare war on a community," the Carnegie Middle East Center's Michael Young told Reuters.

Arab World

UN Seeks $308 Million for Lebanon as War Displaces 800,000 People

In this photo released by the Lebanese Presidency press office, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, right, meets with United National Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, at the presidential place in Baabda, east of Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, March 13, 2026. (Lebanese Presidency press office via AP)
In this photo released by the Lebanese Presidency press office, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, right, meets with United National Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, at the presidential place in Baabda, east of Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, March 13, 2026. (Lebanese Presidency press office via AP)
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UN Seeks $308 Million for Lebanon as War Displaces 800,000 People

In this photo released by the Lebanese Presidency press office, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, right, meets with United National Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, at the presidential place in Baabda, east of Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, March 13, 2026. (Lebanese Presidency press office via AP)
In this photo released by the Lebanese Presidency press office, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, right, meets with United National Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, at the presidential place in Baabda, east of Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, March 13, 2026. (Lebanese Presidency press office via AP)

The United Nations launched a $308 million flash appeal on Friday to help Lebanon cope with the fallout of a war that has forced more than a seventh of its population from their homes.

"Solidarity in words must be matched by solidarity in action," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said as he announced the campaign from Beirut.

Israel launched an offensive against Hezbollah last week after the Iran-backed Lebanese group opened fire on it ‌on March 2, ‌saying it was avenging the killing of Iran's ‌supreme leader.

Hezbollah ⁠has kept up ⁠daily rocket and drone attacks, while Israel has expanded its ground operations and air strikes, bombing the capital on Thursday along with other parts of the country on Friday.

Nearly 700 people have been killed in the attacks and more than 800,000 displaced by Israel's orders for people to leave ever larger swathes of Lebanon.

But aid organizations say funding constraints have already forced ⁠them to ration supplies and that substantial new contributions ‌are essential.

"We're only targeting those who ‌are really on the verge of starvation or in starvation," said Carl Skau, ‌the World Food Program's deputy executive director.

"There isn't any more margin, ‌so with needs going up, resources will have to come up - and they can certainly not drop," Skau told Reuters.

'TIGHT FUNDING LANDSCAPE'

Humanitarian organizations say global crises have restricted their response in Lebanon, a country already hit hard by a 2019 economic ‌collapse, the 2020 Beirut port explosion and the 2024 war between Hezbollah and Israel.

Skau said the WFP ⁠fears donor ⁠governments will face new budget constraints following the spike in global energy prices triggered by the Iran war.

The UN's refugee agency UNHCR last September said it had only received 25% of the resources required for Lebanon in 2025, forcing it to slash cash assistance programs.

"The current spike or the current escalation of hostilities compounds an already tight funding landscape," said Kirollos Fares, Lebanon country director at humanitarian organization Medair.

Aid group Solidarités International had already seen a drop in both the number and size of grants, said Lebanon country director Daniele Regazzi.

“...Unless fresh money comes out, what we are deploying now as emergency response...will be gone in the next roughly couple of weeks," he said.