عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Arab World

Israel Targets Hezbollah's Leadership, Operatives

Rubble at the site of an Israeli air strike near Baalbek, the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, 26 February 2024. EPA/WAEL HAMZEH
Rubble at the site of an Israeli air strike near Baalbek, the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, 26 February 2024. EPA/WAEL HAMZEH
TT
TT

Israel Targets Hezbollah's Leadership, Operatives

Rubble at the site of an Israeli air strike near Baalbek, the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, 26 February 2024. EPA/WAEL HAMZEH
Rubble at the site of an Israeli air strike near Baalbek, the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, 26 February 2024. EPA/WAEL HAMZEH

The Israeli military's Arabic spokesperson Avichay Adraee said on Monday that Israel launched raids on complexes used by Hezbollah’s air defense unit in the Bekaa, in response to the firing of surface-to-air missiles at a Zik drone.

Arab World Press quoted Adraee as saying on social media that the army “will continue to protect Israel and operate in Lebanese airspace against Hezbollah.”

Hezbollah responded by firing 60 rockets at an Israeli army headquarters in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The Israeli military also announced launching raids aimed at Hezbollah installations situated in southern Lebanon. This action comes amidst reports from Lebanese sources detailing the loss of four lives, with Hezbollah acknowledging the death of two of its associates.

Adraee asserted that Hezbollah entered the conflict against Israel in solidarity with Hamas in Gaza, jeopardizing Lebanon, its people, and regional stability.

He highlighted continuous attacks on Israeli territory since October 8, along with repeated attempts to target Israeli and allied aircraft within Lebanese airspace.

Adraee emphasized Israel's proactive measures to safeguard its borders, noting recent strikes against numerous "Hezbollah operatives" across southern Lebanon.

He elaborated that Israel's operations have specifically focused on hitting Hezbollah's strategic assets, including military compounds and terrorist infrastructure spread across southern Lebanon, notably in Aita al-Shaab and other locations.

Recent days have witnessed a series of precision strikes, directly targeting Hezbollah's leadership, operatives, and military installations.

Furthermore, Adraee emphasized the proactive stance of Israeli forces along the Lebanese border, characterizing their actions as “defensive measures” aimed at thwarting Hezbollah's attempts to inflict harm on Israeli military personnel, civilians, and communities.

Most Viewed

 
 
Arab World

Gaza Health Ministry Confirms Received Bodies of 15 Palestinians under Truce Deal

Temporary tents stretch along the beachfront in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025. (AP)
Temporary tents stretch along the beachfront in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025. (AP)
TT
TT

Gaza Health Ministry Confirms Received Bodies of 15 Palestinians under Truce Deal

Temporary tents stretch along the beachfront in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025. (AP)
Temporary tents stretch along the beachfront in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025. (AP)

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza confirmed Saturday it had received the bodies of 15 Palestinians the day before under the US-brokered ceasefire exchange deal.

"The Ministry of Health announces the receipt of 15 bodies of martyrs who were released yesterday, Friday, by the Israeli occupation through the Red Cross. This brings the total number of bodies received to 330" as part of the deal, the ministry said, adding it had so far identified 97.

They were returned in exchange for the remains of 73-year-old Israeli hostage Meny Godard, which Hamas returned via the Red Cross on Thursday.

Arab World

After Assad's Fall, Syrians and EU Officials Hold Rare Meeting in Damascus

Syrian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Asaad al-Shaibani leaves the stage after addressing delegates during a day of dialogue with Syrian civil society, a first step towards structured dialogue with the Syrian government and the European Union, at Conference Palace near Damascus on November 15, 2025. (AFP)
Syrian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Asaad al-Shaibani leaves the stage after addressing delegates during a day of dialogue with Syrian civil society, a first step towards structured dialogue with the Syrian government and the European Union, at Conference Palace near Damascus on November 15, 2025. (AFP)
TT
TT

After Assad's Fall, Syrians and EU Officials Hold Rare Meeting in Damascus

Syrian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Asaad al-Shaibani leaves the stage after addressing delegates during a day of dialogue with Syrian civil society, a first step towards structured dialogue with the Syrian government and the European Union, at Conference Palace near Damascus on November 15, 2025. (AFP)
Syrian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Asaad al-Shaibani leaves the stage after addressing delegates during a day of dialogue with Syrian civil society, a first step towards structured dialogue with the Syrian government and the European Union, at Conference Palace near Damascus on November 15, 2025. (AFP)

Representatives of Syria’s civil society held rare open discussions Saturday in Damascus in the presence of officials from the European Union and the transitional government. They touched on sensitive topics including sectarian tensions, ethnic divisions and people killed by different sides.

The EU-organized meetings known as “The Day of Dialogue” are the first to be held in Damascus after taking place in past years in Brussels. Saturday's meetings came nearly a year after the fall of the 54-year Assad family rule in Syria in a stunning offensive by opposition groups in early December.

The meetings that used to take place within the framework of the Brussels Conferences were mostly boycotted by then-President Bashar al-Assad’s government. The EU said Saturday's meetings were organized in cooperation with Syrian civil society and the Syrian transitional authorities.

“The meeting that used to be held to talk about Syria is now being held in Syria,” Syria’s Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani said in a speech at the opening session held at a conference center in the southern outskirts of Damascus.

Al-Shaibani added that Saturday’s meetings represent “a solid partnership with the civil society and our partners in the European Union.”

Michael Ohnmacht, chargé d’affaires of the EU delegation to Syria, said 500 people from Syria’s different religious and ethnic groups took part in the meetings and “this is something very positive.”

“This is what we hope for Syria’s future, to see this inclusive state which will be a state in the form of all its citizens,” Ohnmacht said.

Despite the changes in Syria over the past year, sectarian violence in the country’s coastal region in March and the southern province of Sweida in July between pro-government gunmen and members of the country’s Druze and Alawite minorities left hundreds of people dead.

Such acts of violence show that Syria still faces major crises in the 14-year conflict that has left half a million people dead.

“Today’s dialogue is the beginning of change and rebuilding Syria only happens through partnership based on respect between the state and civil society,” said Social Affairs Minister Hind Kabawat.

During one of the sessions on transitional justice and the fate of the missing, Syrians demanded answers on issues still pending, such as more than 130,000 people who went missing under Assad's rule while an ethnic Kurd spoke about state discrimination they have faced for decades. Another spoke about violence against some women who belong to minority sects.

Mazen Darwish, a Syrian lawyer and one of the country’s most prominent activists who was repeatedly jailed in Syria before he went into exile years ago, said no one regrets the fall of the Assad family rule adding that this does not mean that “the future of Syria will be rosy and great.”

“Today we have an opportunity in Syria and we have to take advantage of it,” Darwish said.

Arab World

Trump's Africa Envoy Says Sudan 'World's Biggest Humanitarian Crisis'

US Department of State's senior advisor to the president for Arab and African Affairs, Massad Boulos, speaks during the signing ceremony of the Doha Framework for a Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the DRC Government and the Congo River Alliance/March 23 Movement (AFC/M23) in Doha on November 15, 2025.
US Department of State's senior advisor to the president for Arab and African Affairs, Massad Boulos, speaks during the signing ceremony of the Doha Framework for a Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the DRC Government and the Congo River Alliance/March 23 Movement (AFC/M23) in Doha on November 15, 2025.
TT
TT

Trump's Africa Envoy Says Sudan 'World's Biggest Humanitarian Crisis'

US Department of State's senior advisor to the president for Arab and African Affairs, Massad Boulos, speaks during the signing ceremony of the Doha Framework for a Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the DRC Government and the Congo River Alliance/March 23 Movement (AFC/M23) in Doha on November 15, 2025.
US Department of State's senior advisor to the president for Arab and African Affairs, Massad Boulos, speaks during the signing ceremony of the Doha Framework for a Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the DRC Government and the Congo River Alliance/March 23 Movement (AFC/M23) in Doha on November 15, 2025.

US President Donald Trump's Africa envoy Massad Boulos on Saturday called the war in Sudan "the world's biggest humanitarian crisis", telling AFP he hoped to see diplomatic progress towards peace.

Since its outbreak in April 2023, the war between Sudan's army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced nearly 12 million.

At the end of October, the paramilitary group seized control el-Fasher, the conclusion of a bitter 18-month siege for the strategic hub in western Sudan's Darfur region and marked by reports of mass killings and sexual violence.

"The conflict in Sudan, the humanitarian side of this conflict, is the world's biggest humanitarian crisis today, and the world's biggest humanitarian catastrophe," Boulos told AFP in an interview in Doha.

"Especially what happened in el-Fasher in the last two or three weeks. We've all seen those videos. We've seen those reports. Those atrocities are absolutely unacceptable. This must stop very quickly."

Washington has urged the warring parties to finalize a truce in Sudan.

The country's army-aligned government has indicated it will press on with the war following an internal meeting on a US ceasefire proposal.

And while the RSF has said it agrees to the humanitarian truce presented by mediators, the paramilitary group has also continued its offensive.

Boulos said the US and its mediating partners in Sudan were calling on the two sides to agree to a "three-month humanitarian truce".

"It's being discussed and it's being negotiated... we're urging them to accept this proposal and implement it immediately, without delay," he said.

In September the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt jointly called for a humanitarian truce followed by a permanent ceasefire and a transition toward civilian rule, but suggested that no warring party should be part of that transition.

Boulos said the US hopes, with its partners, to "achieve some breakthrough in the coming weeks" on the larger plan including on a transition to a civilian-led government.

"The top priority right now remains the humanitarian aspect and the humanitarian truce," he said.