عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Arab World

Israel Kills at Least 50 in Gaza, Tanks Deepen Raid in the North

Palestinians walk through the destruction in the wake of an Israeli air and ground offensive in Jabalia, northern Gaza Strip, on May 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Enas Rami, File)
Palestinians walk through the destruction in the wake of an Israeli air and ground offensive in Jabalia, northern Gaza Strip, on May 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Enas Rami, File)
TT
TT

Israel Kills at Least 50 in Gaza, Tanks Deepen Raid in the North

Palestinians walk through the destruction in the wake of an Israeli air and ground offensive in Jabalia, northern Gaza Strip, on May 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Enas Rami, File)
Palestinians walk through the destruction in the wake of an Israeli air and ground offensive in Jabalia, northern Gaza Strip, on May 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Enas Rami, File)

Israeli military strikes killed at least 50 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip as Israeli forces tightened their squeeze around Jabalia in the north of the enclave on Tuesday, amid fierce battles with Hamas-led fighters.

Palestinian health officials said at least 17 people were killed by Israeli fire near Al-Falouja in Jabalia, the largest of Gaza's eight historic refugee camps, while 10 others were killed in Bani Suhaila in eastern Khan Younis in the south when an Israeli missile struck a house.

Earlier on Tuesday, an Israeli airstrike destroyed three houses in the Sabra suburb of Gaza City, and the local civil emergency service said they recovered two bodies from the site, while the search continued for 12 other people who were believed to have been in the houses at the time of the strike.

Eight others were killed when a house was struck in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza.

Later on Tuesday, the Gaza health ministry said one doctor was killed when he tried to help the people wounded by Israeli strikes in Al-Falouja in Jabalia. It added that several medics were wounded when their ambulance came under Israeli fire in the northern and southern Gaza Strip.

Jabalia has been the focus of an Israeli offensive for more than 10 days, with troops returning to areas of the north that came under heavy bombardment in the early months of the year-long war.

The operation has raised concerns among Palestinians and UN agencies that Israel wants to clear residents from the north of the crowded enclave, a charge it has denied. Residents said Israeli forces destroyed dozens of houses in the past 10 days.

The United Nations human rights office said on Tuesday the Israeli military appeared to be "cutting off North Gaza completely from the rest of the Gaza Strip."

"Amid intense ongoing hostilities and evacuation orders in northern Gaza families are facing unimaginable fear, loss of loved ones, confusion, and exhaustion. People must be able to flee safely, without facing further danger," Adrian Zimmerman, ICRC Gaza head of sub-delegation, said in a statement.

"Many, including the sick and disabled, cannot leave, and they remain protected under international humanitarian law – all possible precautions must be taken to ensure they remain unharmed. Every person displaced has the right to return home in safety," he added.

The Israeli military's humanitarian unit, COGAT, which overseas aid and commercial shipments to Gaza, said in a statement on Tuesday that the operations in Jabalia were targeting terrorist infrastructure and operatives embedded inside civilian areas. It said it was facilitating humanitarian and in particular medical aid to residents.

Hamas denies it embeds its operatives amongst civilians.

JABALIA ENCIRCLED

The Israeli military has now encircled the Jabalia camp and sent tanks into nearby Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun towns, with the declared aim of stamping out Hamas fighters who are trying to regroup there.

The Israeli military has told residents to leave their homes and head to safety in southern Gaza. Palestinian and UN officials say there was no place safe in Gaza.

Hamas' armed wing said fighters were engaged in fierce battles with Israeli forces in and around Jabalia.

Zimmerman also urged for health facilities in the north to be protected, saying hospitals there were struggling to provide medical services.

Gaza's health ministry said the army ordered the three hospitals operating there to evacuate but medical staffers said they were determined to continue their services even though they are overwhelmed by the growing number of casualties.

COGAT said in recent days it had facilitated the transfer of 33 patients, medical staff and accompanying personnel from the Kamal Adwan Hospital in the north to functioning facilities elsewhere in Gaza.

It said it has also provided 68,650 liters of fuel to hospitals and coordinated the delivery of 800 blood transfusion units.

Ismail Al-Thawabta, the director of the Hamas-run Gaza government media office, said Israel was trying to give a misleading impression and that its forces had been preventing ambulance and civil emergency teams from recovering the bodies of dozens of people from the streets.

Israel "aims to completely destroy the health system and hospitals," Thawabta said, adding that Israel's military has maintained a siege on the region for more than 170 consecutive days, closing all humanitarian access points.

On Monday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the level of civilian casualties in northern Gaza.

The northern part of Gaza is home to well over half the territory's 2.3 million people and hundreds of thousands of residents were forced to flee their homes amidst heavy bombing in the first phase of Israel's assault on the territory.

Around 400,000 people remained, according to United Nations estimates.

Israel launched the offensive against Hamas after the armed group's Oct. 7 attack on Israel, in which 1,200 people were killed and around 250 taken hostage to Gaza, by Israeli tallies. More than 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in the offensive so far, according to Gaza's health authorities. 

Most Viewed

 
 
Arab World

Israel Says Soldier Killed in South Lebanon Fighting

An Israeli military vehicle operates by the Israeli‑Lebanese border, in northern Israel, May 14, 2026. REUTERS/Shir Torem
An Israeli military vehicle operates by the Israeli‑Lebanese border, in northern Israel, May 14, 2026. REUTERS/Shir Torem
TT
TT

Israel Says Soldier Killed in South Lebanon Fighting

An Israeli military vehicle operates by the Israeli‑Lebanese border, in northern Israel, May 14, 2026. REUTERS/Shir Torem
An Israeli military vehicle operates by the Israeli‑Lebanese border, in northern Israel, May 14, 2026. REUTERS/Shir Torem

Israel's military said Friday that one of its soldiers died in combat in southern Lebanon, bringing its losses to 20 personnel since the war with Hezbollah began in early March.

Staff Sergeant Negev Dagan, 20, "fell during combat in southern Lebanon", the military said, without providing additional information.

Since the war began, 19 Israeli soldiers and one civilian contractor have been killed.

Arab World

War Worsens Lebanon's Economic Crisis with Job Losses, Price Gouging and Slow Business

A man inspects his damaged car amid the rubble of shops destroyed in previous Israeli airstrikes in the Hosh neighborhood of Tyre, southern Lebanon, April 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
A man inspects his damaged car amid the rubble of shops destroyed in previous Israeli airstrikes in the Hosh neighborhood of Tyre, southern Lebanon, April 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
TT
TT

War Worsens Lebanon's Economic Crisis with Job Losses, Price Gouging and Slow Business

A man inspects his damaged car amid the rubble of shops destroyed in previous Israeli airstrikes in the Hosh neighborhood of Tyre, southern Lebanon, April 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
A man inspects his damaged car amid the rubble of shops destroyed in previous Israeli airstrikes in the Hosh neighborhood of Tyre, southern Lebanon, April 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Ayman al-Zain watched on a recent afternoon as a bulldozer cleared the rubble of what used to be his sports clothing store, which was one of dozens of buildings destroyed in Israeli strikes against the Hezbollah militant group.

With a nominal truce in place that has reduced but not halted the fighting, Al-Zain tried to assess whether to rebuild the shop in Beirut’s southern suburbs that he once hoped to pass down to his kids. But it's unlikely he will be able to do so anytime soon, and not only because of the fear of more airstrikes.

“Everything is expensive,” he told The Associated Press. “If I want to open a new store and get mannequins, hangers and some accessories, the prices are very different than before.”

The US-Israeli war with Iran, and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, have sent economic shock waves across the Mideast. In Lebanon, those woes have been compounded by the country's existing economic problems and by largely unregulated markets that are vulnerable to price gouging.

“This continues to be a major economic shock, one of honestly an existential nature,” said Economy Minister Amer Bisat, who is part of the Lebanese Cabinet that came into office over a year ago on a reformist agenda.

Problems have piled up for years

Since 2019, the tiny Mediterranean country has been in the throes of an economic crisis that pulverized the value of its local currency and its banking system.

That's when Lebanese banks collapsed, which evaporated depositors’ savings and plunged about half of the population of 6.5 million into poverty, after decades of rampant corruption, waste and mismanagement. The country suffered some $70 billion in losses in its financial sector, further compounded by about $11 billion in the 2024 war between Israel and Hezbollah, according to the World Bank. The Lebanese pound has since lost over 90% of its value against the US dollar.

The cash-strapped state electricity company provides only a few hours of power a day, and most Lebanese rely on diesel generators to make up the difference. That makes the economy particularly vulnerable to fuel price increases.

Lebanon was already “grappling with multiple rounds of crises,” said Mohamad Faour, professor of finance at the American University of Beirut. "So this round of war only made an already fragile situation more fragile.”

With this new war, 1.2 million Lebanese have been displaced, largely from southern Lebanon and Beirut's southern suburbs. Many are sheltering in schools with no work or draining whatever money they have renting out apartments or hotel rooms.

Economy suffers job losses and crippling inflation

In an interview with the AP from his office, Bisat estimated that the country faces an economic loss of around 7% of its gross domestic product due to the war because “companies are closing, people are losing their jobs, tourists are not showing up.”

Evidence of inflation abounds.

In the usually bustling produce market in Sabra, south of Beirut, vendor Ahmad al-Farra looked dejected as an elderly woman shopping for watermelon, tomatoes and potatoes walked away without buying anything after checking the price tags.

Prices have spiked since the US and Israel launched a war against Iran on Feb. 28, followed quickly by a resurgence of war between Israel and Hezbollah.

“We're keeping our prices low so we can sell, and even then we're not selling,” al-Farra said as the sound of an Israeli drone whizzed overhead.

Even consumers who can afford to spend are anxious and cutting back on nonessential purchases, leaving many businesses empty.

Riad Aboulteif, who runs several restaurants and bars in the capital, said his revenue has dropped by some 90% since the war began, as Lebanon’s shrinking middle class cuts costs.

People are saving more money for their survival and not making plans to celebrate birthdays or other special occasions, he said at one of his bars in the bustling Hamra district of Beirut, where the loud chatter of customers once overpowered the jazz music coming through the sound system.

That night, only a few tables were occupied. He's had to downsize his staff and restructure his menus to offer more affordable items.

War fuels price gouging

Meanwhile, the country’s bankrupt government has struggled to crack down on unfair and illicit profiteering and the hoarding of fuel and other essential items.

Many agricultural areas in southern and eastern Lebanon are no longer accessible because of airstrikes and clashes, but al-Faraa believes suppliers have raised prices beyond what is necessary to cover cost increases.

Some of the starkest increases have been in generator bills.

Families and businesses for years have paid multiple utility bills to cover privately supplied electricity and water in the absence of government services. Neighborhood generator owners charge a monthly fee, and some landlords have their own generators and charge the cost to tenants.

Frustrated business owners have said that generator bills have doubled at times, forcing them to shorten their hours of operation or even close on some days to cut costs.

“If we didn’t take these measures, we cannot continue,” Aboulteif said.

Bisat said his ministry has conducted over 4,000 inspections of private generators, gas stations and shops across the country since the start of the war in March and lodged dozens of complaints to the courts. But the issue will not be quickly resolved.

In the meantime, the government has little ability to crack down on the handful of companies that import and distribute fuel and other goods.

No sign of relief on the horizon

With no end to the war in sight, the economic situation shows no sign of easing.

A tenuous ceasefire is in place between the US and Iran, but talks between Washington and Tehran are gridlocked. A nominal truce between Israel and Hezbollah has reduced but not stopped the fighting in Lebanon.

For now, Lebanese families and business owners are confronting the challenges day by day and hoping for the best.

“Only God knows how we’ve been trying to manage ourselves," al-Farra said.

Arab World

US Casts Israel-Lebanon Talks on Thursday as ‘Positive and Productive’

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern village of Al-Halloussiyah on May 13, 2026. (AFP)
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern village of Al-Halloussiyah on May 13, 2026. (AFP)
TT
TT

US Casts Israel-Lebanon Talks on Thursday as ‘Positive and Productive’

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern village of Al-Halloussiyah on May 13, 2026. (AFP)
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern village of Al-Halloussiyah on May 13, 2026. (AFP)

The United States cast Israel-Lebanon talks held in Washington on Thursday as "productive and positive" and a State Department official said more discussions aimed at ending their conflict will continue on Friday.

A senior Lebanese official said earlier that Lebanon will demand that US ally Israel cease fire in the face-to-face talks, as Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah continued to trade blows despite a US-backed truce declared last month.

An Israeli government spokesperson said the talks were taking place with the goal of disarming Hezbollah and reaching a peace agreement.

A State Department official said a meeting of Lebanese and Israeli envoys, along with US officials, started at about 9 a.m. EDT (1300 GMT) and ended eight hours later.

The US official said there was a "full day of productive and positive talks" on Thursday that will continue on Friday.

The talks are the sides' third meeting since Israel intensified air attacks on Lebanon after Hezbollah fired missiles at Israel on March 2, three days into the US-Israeli ‌war on Iran. ‌Israel had widened its ground invasion into Lebanon's south last month. Beirut is attending despite strong ‌objections ⁠from Hezbollah.

Fought ⁠in parallel to the US-Iran conflict, Israel's war in Lebanon has rumbled on since US President Donald Trump declared a ceasefire on April 16, though hostilities have largely been contained to southern Lebanon since then.

The fragile ceasefire is due to expire on Sunday.

With Lebanon's health ministry reporting 22 people killed in Israeli strikes on Wednesday, including eight children, the senior Lebanese official said the Lebanese delegation would seek "a ceasefire that Israel implements".

The Israeli military said an explosive drone launched by Hezbollah fell within Israeli territory near the border and injured several Israeli civilians. Israel has kept troops in a self-declared security zone in south Lebanon, saying this aims to shield northern Israel from attack by Hezbollah, which ⁠fired hundreds of rockets and drones at Israel during the war.

The Israeli military said it ‌carried out a new wave of attacks on Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon on ‌Thursday.

Hezbollah said it carried out 17 attacks on Israeli troops in the south on Wednesday.

LEBANON, ISRAEL BROADEN DELEGATIONS

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun's decision to ‌pursue the talks reflects deep divisions in Lebanon over Hezbollah, founded by Iran's Revolutionary Guards in 1982. The Beirut government has sought ‌its disarmament since last year.

When the April 16 ceasefire was announced, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hezbollah's disarmament would be a fundamental demand in peace talks with Lebanon.

The Washington meetings mark the highest-level contact between Lebanon and Israel in decades.

Both Lebanon and Israel are broadening their delegations for this round, after the sides were represented by their ambassadors to Washington in the previous two meetings.

Lebanese Presidential Special Envoy Simon Karam and ‌Israel's Deputy National Security Adviser Yossi Draznin were participants in the talks, as well as senior Israeli military representatives, a State Department official said.

The US-led mediation between Lebanon and Israel has emerged ⁠in parallel to diplomacy aimed at ⁠ending the US-Iran conflict. Iran has said that ending Israel's war in Lebanon is one of its demands for a deal over the wider conflict.

Trump hosted the last meeting between the Lebanese and Israeli ambassadors to Washington at the Oval Office, saying at the time he looked forward to hosting Netanyahu and Aoun in the near future, and that he saw "a great chance" the countries would reach a peace deal this year.

Aoun later said the timing was not right for a meeting with Netanyahu, and that Lebanon must first secure "a security agreement and a halt to the Israeli attacks, before we raise the issue of a meeting between us".

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, in a May 10 interview with the pan-Arab broadcaster Al Arabiya, said Lebanon's principles in negotiations were shoring up the ceasefire, securing a timetable for Israeli withdrawal, and winning the release of Lebanese prisoners held by Israel.

The Lebanese health ministry says Israeli attacks have killed 2,896 people in Lebanon since March 2, including 589 women, children and medics.

Some 1.2 million people have been driven from their homes in Lebanon, many of them fleeing from the south.

Israel says 17 of its soldiers have been killed in southern Lebanon, along with two civilians in northern Israel.