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Moroccan Authorities Stop Migration Attempt into Spanish Enclave of Ceuta

Members of Morocco's police arrest a man as they deploy to prevent illegal crossings of the land border fence with Spain's African enclave of Ceuta near Fnideq in northern Morocco on September 15, 2024. (Photo by AFP)
Members of Morocco's police arrest a man as they deploy to prevent illegal crossings of the land border fence with Spain's African enclave of Ceuta near Fnideq in northern Morocco on September 15, 2024. (Photo by AFP)
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Moroccan Authorities Stop Migration Attempt into Spanish Enclave of Ceuta

Members of Morocco's police arrest a man as they deploy to prevent illegal crossings of the land border fence with Spain's African enclave of Ceuta near Fnideq in northern Morocco on September 15, 2024. (Photo by AFP)
Members of Morocco's police arrest a man as they deploy to prevent illegal crossings of the land border fence with Spain's African enclave of Ceuta near Fnideq in northern Morocco on September 15, 2024. (Photo by AFP)

Moroccan security forces stopped groups of people who sought to force their way across the border into Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta following a call on social networks for a mass migration attempt, authorities said.
Some attempted to breach a border fence that has long been a flashpoint for sporadic migration tensions, but none successfully made it into Spain, the Spanish Interior Ministry said Monday. It said Spanish and Moroccan security efforts over recent days ″allowed the situation to be brought under control."
Online messages in recent days had called for people to head for Ceuta on Sunday to cross the border into Europe. Videos posted by local networks showed groups of people in the hills around the Moroccan border town of Fnideq, and a heightened Moroccan security presence, including helicopters.
Moroccan authorities also arrested 60 people suspected of inciting a mass migration attempt on social networks, Moroccan intelligence agency DGSN said in a Facebook post.

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Returning Residents to North Israel Now a War Goal, Netanyahu Says 

Smoke rises above Lebanon following an Israeli strike, amid the ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Israel's border with Lebanon, in Israel, September 16, 2024. (Reuters)
Smoke rises above Lebanon following an Israeli strike, amid the ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Israel's border with Lebanon, in Israel, September 16, 2024. (Reuters)
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Returning Residents to North Israel Now a War Goal, Netanyahu Says 

Smoke rises above Lebanon following an Israeli strike, amid the ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Israel's border with Lebanon, in Israel, September 16, 2024. (Reuters)
Smoke rises above Lebanon following an Israeli strike, amid the ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Israel's border with Lebanon, in Israel, September 16, 2024. (Reuters)

Israel on Tuesday expanded its stated goals of the war in Gaza to include enabling residents to return to communities in northern Israel that have been evacuated due to attacks by Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The decision was approved during an overnight meeting of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's security cabinet, Netanyahu's office said.

Hamas' Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel sparked the war in Gaza. Hezbollah opened a second front against Israel a day later and fighting across the Israel-Lebanon border has since escalated, threatening to ignite a regional conflict.

Tens of thousands of Israelis were evacuated from towns along the northern frontier that have been badly damaged by rocket fire and they have yet to return.

Israel's defense minister said on Monday: "The possibility for an agreement is running out as Hezbollah continues to 'tie itself' to Hamas, and refuses to end the conflict. Therefore, the only way left to ensure the return of Israel's northern communities to their homes will be via military action."

On Monday, White House senior adviser Amos Hochstein told Netanyahu and other Israeli officials that intensifying the conflict with Hezbollah would not help achieve the goal of getting Israelis back in their homes, according to a US official.

The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to lack of authorization to discuss the private talks, said Hochstein stressed to Netanyahu during Monday’s talks that he risked sparking a broad and protracted regional conflict if he moved forward with a full-scale war in Lebanon.

Hochstein also underscored to Israeli officials that the Biden administration remained committed to finding a diplomatic solution to the tensions on Israel’s northern border in conjunction with a Gaza deal or on its own, the official said.

Netanyahu told Hochstein that it would "not be possible to return our residents without a fundamental change in the security situation in the north."

The prime minister said Israel "appreciates and respects" US support but "will do what is necessary to maintain its security and return the residents of the north to their homes safely."