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Arab World

Israel Kills 40 Palestinians in Gaza Airstrikes amid Fears of Wider War

Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike on a house, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, August 4, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike on a house, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, August 4, 2024. (Reuters)
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Israel Kills 40 Palestinians in Gaza Airstrikes amid Fears of Wider War

Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike on a house, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, August 4, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike on a house, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, August 4, 2024. (Reuters)

Israeli forces stepped up strikes across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, killing at least 40 people, Palestinian medics said, in further battle with Hamas-led militants as Israel braced for potential wider war in the region.

Israeli airstrikes hit a cluster of houses in central Gaza's Al-Bureij camp, killing at least 15 people, and the nearby Al-Nuseirat camp, killed four, medics said. Nuseirat and Bureij are among the densely populated enclave's eight historic camps and seen by Israel as strongholds of armed militants, Reuters reported.

Israeli aircraft also bombed a house in the heart of Gaza City in the north, killing five Palestinians, while another airstrike in the southern city of Khan Younis killed one person and wounded others, according to medics, Reuters reported.

The armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad said they were firing anti-tank rockets and mortar bombs at Israeli forces operating across Gaza, causing deaths and injuries among them.

Israel's military said it had struck dozens of military targets across Gaza over the past 24 hours, including rocket launching pads.

Since the Gaza war started on Oct. 7 last year, at least 39,699 Palestinians have been killed, including 22 within the past 24 hours, and 91,722 injured in Israel's devastating air and ground war in Gaza, the Gaza health ministry said in an update on Thursday.

The ministry in the Hamas-run territory does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its death lists.

As Gaza's war churns on, Israel has been battening down for another attack expected in the coming days following vows from Iran and its Lebanon proxy Hezbollah to retaliate for the assassinations last week of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and Hezbollah military commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut.

A relatively contained conflict between Israel and Hezbollah along its northern border, a spillover from the Gaza fighting, now threatens to spiral into an all-out regional war.

 

- MORE BURIALS IN GAZA

 

On Thursday dozens of Palestinians rushed into Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis to bid farewell to slain relatives before carrying them away for burials.

Reuters footage showed relatives moving out the bodies of their loved ones in plastic bags with names written on them, and holding special prayers before the funerals.

The Israeli military renewed evacuation orders to Palestinian residents in several districts in eastern Khan Younis, saying it would act forcefully against militants who had unleashed rockets from those areas.

The army posted the evacuation order on X, and residents said they had received text and audio messages.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Arab World

Lebanese Army Faces Criticism over Delay in Enforcing Monopoly on Arms

Lebanese Army Commander Rodolphe Haikal and troops inspect the border with Israel. (Army Command)
Lebanese Army Commander Rodolphe Haikal and troops inspect the border with Israel. (Army Command)
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Lebanese Army Faces Criticism over Delay in Enforcing Monopoly on Arms

Lebanese Army Commander Rodolphe Haikal and troops inspect the border with Israel. (Army Command)
Lebanese Army Commander Rodolphe Haikal and troops inspect the border with Israel. (Army Command)

Several Lebanese MPs from the Change parliamentary bloc and independent lawmakers launched a wave of criticism against Lebanese Army Commander General Rodolphe Haikal, suggesting that the army has been lenient in implementing government decisions regarding the disarmament of Hezbollah north of the Litani River.

The criticism prompted counter-reactions from other officials expressing solidarity with the army and voicing support for its role.

On Saturday, Haikal said that “Israeli attacks targeting Lebanon and its citizens are hindering the implementation of the army’s plan”.

He stressed that the “command makes its decisions in line with the complex circumstances on the ground, with the primary goal of preserving Lebanon, safeguarding its unity, and maintaining the military institution”.

He added that the “army is operating under severe internal and external pressure and with limited resources, while exerting every effort to protect domestic stability and national unity”.

Independent MPs and lawmakers from the Change bloc criticized Haikal.

MP Michel Moawad said the army’s stance contradicts its constitutional role and could undermine efforts by the government and the international community to move Lebanon out of the war and reinforce a clear separation between the state and Hezbollah.

MP Mark Daou also expressed surprise at the stance of the Lebanese army command, saying it should have clearly affirmed its commitment to government decisions and explicitly stated that the military wing of Hezbollah is now an outlaw under those decisions.

MP Waddah Sadek said the Lebanese army command is not a political body that expresses opinions on developments or proposes solutions. Rather, he stressed, it is responsible for an institution tasked with implementing the decisions of the executive authority, including the recent government’s decision declaring Hezbollah an outlaw.

The army command is required to implement government decisions immediately. It does not have the authority to assess them, according to Sadek.

The criticism of the army also drew backlash from other MPs.

Former MP Fares Souaid said attacks on the military at this stage are irresponsible, stressing that any mistakes should be addressed within state institutions rather than through public criticism of a body that safeguards civil peace.

Meanwhile, Lebanon and France postponed an international conference to support the Lebanese Army and Internal Security Forces that had been scheduled in Paris on March 5, citing unsuitable conditions amid the ongoing regional tensions linked to the Iranian–US–Israeli confrontation.

Arab World

US Only Guarantees Security of Beirut Airport, Road Leading to it

Departures area inside Beirut–Rafik Hariri International Airport, following an escalation between Hezbollah and Israel, amid the US-Israel conflict with Iran, in Beirut, Lebanon, March 4, 2026. (Reuters)
Departures area inside Beirut–Rafik Hariri International Airport, following an escalation between Hezbollah and Israel, amid the US-Israel conflict with Iran, in Beirut, Lebanon, March 4, 2026. (Reuters)
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US Only Guarantees Security of Beirut Airport, Road Leading to it

Departures area inside Beirut–Rafik Hariri International Airport, following an escalation between Hezbollah and Israel, amid the US-Israel conflict with Iran, in Beirut, Lebanon, March 4, 2026. (Reuters)
Departures area inside Beirut–Rafik Hariri International Airport, following an escalation between Hezbollah and Israel, amid the US-Israel conflict with Iran, in Beirut, Lebanon, March 4, 2026. (Reuters)

An official Lebanese source revealed to Asharq Al-Awsat that the only guarantee the United States has offered Lebanon in the latest war with Israel is the safety of Rafik Hariri International Airport and the road leading to it.

The Americans “are not responding to Lebanese contacts because they have grown convinced that the Lebanese authorities are incapable of meeting their pledges,” it added.

The source said Washington informed Lebanese officials that “lessons are learned from implementing decisions, not taking them,” a reference to the government’s decision last week to ban Hezbollah’s military and security activities.

Lebanon was dragged into conflict with Israel after Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel last week in support of Iran, its main backer.

Lebanon's health minister Rakan Nassereddine said on Sunday that Israeli strikes on Lebanon had killed 394 people over the past week, including 83 children and 42 women.

Arab World

HRW Accuses Israel of 'Unlawfully' Using White Phosphorus in New Lebanon Attacks

A picture taken from Israel, along the border with southern Lebanon on March 4, 2024, shows smoke billowing following Israeli bombardment on the Lebanese village of Markaba. Jalaa Marey, AFP
A picture taken from Israel, along the border with southern Lebanon on March 4, 2024, shows smoke billowing following Israeli bombardment on the Lebanese village of Markaba. Jalaa Marey, AFP
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HRW Accuses Israel of 'Unlawfully' Using White Phosphorus in New Lebanon Attacks

A picture taken from Israel, along the border with southern Lebanon on March 4, 2024, shows smoke billowing following Israeli bombardment on the Lebanese village of Markaba. Jalaa Marey, AFP
A picture taken from Israel, along the border with southern Lebanon on March 4, 2024, shows smoke billowing following Israeli bombardment on the Lebanese village of Markaba. Jalaa Marey, AFP

Human Rights Watch on Monday accused Israel of "unlawfully" using white phosphorus over residential parts of a southern Lebanese town last week.

"The Israeli military unlawfully used artillery-fired white phosphorus munitions over homes on March 3, 2026, in the southern Lebanese town of Yohmor," the New York-based rights group said in a report.

HRW added that it "verified and geolocated seven images showing airburst white phosphorus munitions being deployed over a residential part of the town and civil defense workers responding to fires in at least two homes and one car in that area".

White phosphorus, a substance that ignites on contact with oxygen, can be used to create smokescreens and to illuminate battlefields, said AFP.

But the munition can also be used as an incendiary weapon and can cause fires, horrific burns, respiratory damage, organ failure and death.

Israel -- which kept up strikes targeting Hezbollah despite a 2024 ceasefire -- launched multiple waves of strikes across Lebanon since last week and sent ground troops into border areas after the Iran-backed group attacked it.

The Israeli army has since repeatedly called on people living south of the Litani River, around 30 kilometers (20 miles) north of the Israeli border, to leave.

At least 394 people have been killed in Israeli attacks, Lebanese authorities said, registering more than half a million people as displaced.

"The Israeli military's unlawful use of white phosphorus over residential areas is extremely alarming and will have dire consequences for civilians," Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon researcher at HRW, was quoted saying in the report.

"Israel should immediately halt this practice and states providing Israel with weapons, including white phosphorus munitions, should immediately suspend military assistance and arms sales and push Israel to stop firing such munitions in residential areas," he added.

Lebanese authorities and HRW have over the past years accused Israel of using controversial white phosphorus rounds, in attacks authorities say have harmed civilians and the environment.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency on Sunday said Israeli forces targeted the towns of Khiam and Tal Nahas, near the border with Israel, "with artillery and phosphorus shelling".

Last month, Lebanon accused Israel of spraying the herbicide glyphosate on the Lebanese side of their shared border, with President Joseph Aoun decrying it as a "crime against the environment".