Lebanon Health Ministry Says Woman Dead in Israeli Strikes

 This picture taken from a position in northern Israel bordering Lebanon shows smoke billowing during Israeli bombardment of a southern Lebanese area on September 4, 2024. (AFP)
This picture taken from a position in northern Israel bordering Lebanon shows smoke billowing during Israeli bombardment of a southern Lebanese area on September 4, 2024. (AFP)
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Lebanon Health Ministry Says Woman Dead in Israeli Strikes

 This picture taken from a position in northern Israel bordering Lebanon shows smoke billowing during Israeli bombardment of a southern Lebanese area on September 4, 2024. (AFP)
This picture taken from a position in northern Israel bordering Lebanon shows smoke billowing during Israeli bombardment of a southern Lebanese area on September 4, 2024. (AFP)

Lebanon's health ministry said Israeli strikes killed a woman and wounded five other people in the country's south on Wednesday, nearly 11 months since hostilities broke out between Israel and Hezbollah.

Iran-backed Hezbollah has exchanged near daily cross-border fire with Israeli forces since Palestinian group Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, triggering war in the Gaza Strip.

"Israeli enemy artillery fire targeting the locality of Qabrikha killed a woman and wounded two other people, including a 12-year-old," the ministry said in a statement.

Three other people were wounded in an Israeli strike targeting the border locality of Hula, the ministry said.

The Israeli military said on Wednesday that its air force had struck the Qabrikha region which Hezbollah had used to fire rockets at Israel during the past few days.

The military also said 65 projectiles were fired from Lebanon, and that it intercepted several of them, while others fell into open fields and started fires.

Hezbollah said it launched several attacks on Wednesday, including Katyusha rocket salvos on a barracks and artillery positions in two separate areas in Israel's north.

The cross-border violence since October has killed some 610 people in Lebanon, mostly Hezbollah fighters but including at least 135 civilians, according to an AFP tally.

On the Israeli side, including in the occupied Golan Heights, authorities have announced the deaths of at least 24 soldiers and 26 civilians.



Erdogan Says Türkiye Can ‘Crush’ All Terrorists in Syria

Türkiye's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gives a press conference during the G20 Leaders' Meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on November 19, 2024. (AFP)
Türkiye's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gives a press conference during the G20 Leaders' Meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on November 19, 2024. (AFP)
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Erdogan Says Türkiye Can ‘Crush’ All Terrorists in Syria

Türkiye's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gives a press conference during the G20 Leaders' Meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on November 19, 2024. (AFP)
Türkiye's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gives a press conference during the G20 Leaders' Meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on November 19, 2024. (AFP)

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned on Wednesday that Türkiye had the power and ability to "crush" all terrorists in Syria, including ISIS and Kurdish militants, while urging all countries to "take their hands off" Syria.

Since last month's fall of Bashar al-Assad, Türkiye has said repeatedly it was time for the Kurdish YPG militia to disband. Ankara considers the group, which spearheads the US-allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), as a terrorist organization.

Ankara has said the new Syrian administration must be given an opportunity to address the YPG presence, but also threatened to mount a new cross-border operation against the militia based in northeast Syria if its demands are not met.

Speaking in parliament, Erdogan said the YPG was the biggest problem in Syria now, and added that the group would not be able to escape its inevitable end unless it lays down its arms.

"Regarding fabricated excuses like ISIS, these have no convincing side anymore," Erdogan said, referring to the US position that the YPG was a key partner against ISIS in Syria and that it plays a vital role guarding prison camps where the extremist militants are kept.

"If there is really a fear of the ISIS threat in Syria and the region, the biggest power that has the will and power to resolve this issue is Türkiye," he said.

"Everyone should take their hands off Syria and we, along with our Syrian siblings, will crush the heads of ISIS, the YPG and other terrorist organizations in a short time."

Türkiye has repeatedly asked its NATO ally the United States to halt support for the SDF, and has said the new administration in Syria had offered to take over the management of the prisons.