UN Chief Calls for Immediate Ceasefire in Lebanon

Smoke billows after an Israeli Air Force air strike on a village in southern Lebanon, amid cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel, as seen from northern Israel October 1, 2024. (Reuters)
Smoke billows after an Israeli Air Force air strike on a village in southern Lebanon, amid cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel, as seen from northern Israel October 1, 2024. (Reuters)
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UN Chief Calls for Immediate Ceasefire in Lebanon

Smoke billows after an Israeli Air Force air strike on a village in southern Lebanon, amid cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel, as seen from northern Israel October 1, 2024. (Reuters)
Smoke billows after an Israeli Air Force air strike on a village in southern Lebanon, amid cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel, as seen from northern Israel October 1, 2024. (Reuters)

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed on Tuesday for an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon and for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country to be respected, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.

"An all-out war must be avoided in Lebanon at all costs," Dujarric said in a statement, adding that Guterres spoke with Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati earlier on Tuesday, telling him the UN was ready to help those in need.

"The Secretary-General will continue his contacts, and his representatives on the ground will also continue their efforts to de-escalate the situation," Dujarric said.

He later told reporters at a briefing that UN peacekeepers in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, had seen sporadic incursions by the Israeli military.

"The information they have and they've received ... is that they've seen sporadic incursions by the IDF," Dujarric said. "They have not witnessed a full-scale invasion."



Israeli Attack Targets Syria’s Homs Countryside, Syrian State Media Says

A man rides a motorbike past a damaged building in Homs, Syria November 7, 2024. (Reuters)
A man rides a motorbike past a damaged building in Homs, Syria November 7, 2024. (Reuters)
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Israeli Attack Targets Syria’s Homs Countryside, Syrian State Media Says

A man rides a motorbike past a damaged building in Homs, Syria November 7, 2024. (Reuters)
A man rides a motorbike past a damaged building in Homs, Syria November 7, 2024. (Reuters)

An Israeli attack targeted the area of Qusayr in the southern countryside of Homs province in central Syria, Syria's state media said on Wednesday.

Israel says it has been carrying out strikes to reduce the transfer of weapons from Iran through Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon, which it said had spread to the town of Al-Qusayr, near the Syrian-Lebanese border.

Syrian media said that air defenses intercepted "hostile" targets over the Homs countryside.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Israel has been carrying out strikes against Iran-linked targets in Syria for years but has ramped up such raids since the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by armed group Hamas on Israel.