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US Offers Some Lebanese Nationals Protected Status Amid War

Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Khiam on October 17, 2024, amid the continuing war between Irsael and Hezbollah. (Photo by AFP)
Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Khiam on October 17, 2024, amid the continuing war between Irsael and Hezbollah. (Photo by AFP)
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US Offers Some Lebanese Nationals Protected Status Amid War

Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Khiam on October 17, 2024, amid the continuing war between Irsael and Hezbollah. (Photo by AFP)
Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Khiam on October 17, 2024, amid the continuing war between Irsael and Hezbollah. (Photo by AFP)

The United States said on Thursday it was authorizing certain Lebanese nationals currently in the country to remain for the next 18 months and apply for work permits, as hostilities flare between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah.

Certain individuals from Lebanon who were already in the US as of Oct. 16 can apply for the so-called Temporary Protected Status, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.

Israel launched its ground and air campaign in Lebanon to dismantle Hezbollah after a year during which the Iran-backed group fired across the border in support of Hamas in Gaza.

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Israeli Military Checking Possibility that Sinwar Has Been Killed

FILE PHOTO: Yahya Sinwar, Gaza Strip chief of the Hamas movement, waves to Palestinians during a rally to mark the annual al-Quds Day (Jerusalem Day), in Gaza, April 14, 2023. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Yahya Sinwar, Gaza Strip chief of the Hamas movement, waves to Palestinians during a rally to mark the annual al-Quds Day (Jerusalem Day), in Gaza, April 14, 2023. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/File Photo
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Israeli Military Checking Possibility that Sinwar Has Been Killed

FILE PHOTO: Yahya Sinwar, Gaza Strip chief of the Hamas movement, waves to Palestinians during a rally to mark the annual al-Quds Day (Jerusalem Day), in Gaza, April 14, 2023. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Yahya Sinwar, Gaza Strip chief of the Hamas movement, waves to Palestinians during a rally to mark the annual al-Quds Day (Jerusalem Day), in Gaza, April 14, 2023. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/File Photo

The Israeli military said on Thursday that it was checking the possibility that it has killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar following an operation in the Gaza Strip that it said had targeted three militants.
"At this stage, the identity of the terrorists cannot be confirmed," it said in a statement.
It said there were no signs that Israeli hostages had been present in the building where the three militants were killed.
There was no immediate comment from Hamas.
If confirmed, the death of Sinwar would represent a major boost to the Israeli military and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after a string of high-profile assassinations of prominent leaders of its enemies in recent months.
Israel's Army Radio said the incident had occurred during a targeted ground operation in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip during which Israeli troops killed three militants and took their bodies.
It said visual evidence suggested it was likely that one of the men was Sinwar and DNA tests were being conducted. Israel has samples of Sinwar's DNA from his period in an Israeli jail.

Sinwar, the chief architect of the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the Gaza war, has been at the top of Israel's wanted list ever since. But he has so far eluded detection, possibly hiding in the warren of tunnels Hamas has built under Gaza over the past two decades.

Previously leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, he was named as its overall leader following the assassination of former political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July.

Israel also killed Hasan Nasrallah, leader of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement, in Beirut last month as well as much of the top leadership of the group's military wing.