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Arab World

Israeli Attacks Kill Three Palestinians in Gaza, Testing Fragile Truce

Smoke rises from Gaza after an explosion, on the day the Israeli military said it had resumed enforcing the Gaza ceasefire agreement after a series of strikes across the Gaza Strip, as seen from Israel, October 29, 2025. REUTERS/Ammar Awad
Smoke rises from Gaza after an explosion, on the day the Israeli military said it had resumed enforcing the Gaza ceasefire agreement after a series of strikes across the Gaza Strip, as seen from Israel, October 29, 2025. REUTERS/Ammar Awad
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Israeli Attacks Kill Three Palestinians in Gaza, Testing Fragile Truce

Smoke rises from Gaza after an explosion, on the day the Israeli military said it had resumed enforcing the Gaza ceasefire agreement after a series of strikes across the Gaza Strip, as seen from Israel, October 29, 2025. REUTERS/Ammar Awad
Smoke rises from Gaza after an explosion, on the day the Israeli military said it had resumed enforcing the Gaza ceasefire agreement after a series of strikes across the Gaza Strip, as seen from Israel, October 29, 2025. REUTERS/Ammar Awad

The Israeli military attacked the Gaza Strip for a fourth day on Friday, killing three people, Palestinian health authorities said, in another test of a fragile ceasefire agreement.

Residents reported Israeli shelling and gunfire in northern Gaza on Friday, as Israel continued to bombard areas of the enclave despite saying that it remains committed to a ceasefire brokered by US President Donald Trump.

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

Another Palestinian died of wounds sustained from previous Israeli shelling, the Palestinian WAFA news agency reported.

The US-brokered ceasefire, which left thorny issues like the disarmament of Hamas and a timeline for Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip unresolved, has been tested by periodic outbreaks of violence since it came into place three weeks ago.

Between Tuesday and Wednesday, Israel retaliated for the death of an Israeli soldier with bombardments that Gaza health authorities said killed 104 people.

MORE BODIES HANDED OVER

Gaza's health ministry said the Red Cross had delivered to it 30 bodies of Palestinians killed by Israel during the war, a day after Hamas handed over two bodies of hostages.

Under the ceasefire accord, Hamas released all living hostages held in Gaza in return for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and wartime detainees, while Israel agreed to pull back its troops, halt its offensive and increase aid.

Hamas also agreed to hand over the remains of all 28 dead hostages in exchange for 360 Palestinians killed in the war. After Thursday's release, it had handed over 17 bodies, while 225 Palestinian bodies have so far been returned to Gaza.

Hamas has said that it will take time to locate and retrieve the bodies of all the remaining hostages. Israel has accused Hamas of violating the truce by stalling in the handover.

Two years of conflict in Gaza have killed over 68,000 Palestinians, according to Gazan health authorities and left the enclave in ruins. Israel launched the war after Hamas-led fighters attacked southern Israel in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and bringing 251 hostages back to Gaza.

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Arab World

Panic in Lebanon as Israel Carries out Most Violent Strikes on Capital

Smoke rises following several Israeli airstrikes in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Smoke rises following several Israeli airstrikes in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
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Panic in Lebanon as Israel Carries out Most Violent Strikes on Capital

Smoke rises following several Israeli airstrikes in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Smoke rises following several Israeli airstrikes in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Lebanon's government said Wednesday Israeli strikes killed dozens and wounded hundreds across the country, with the capital Beirut hit by the most violent bombardment since the start of the war with militant group Hezbollah.

AFPTV's live broadcast showed plumes of smoke rising over Beirut and the suburbs, while AFP journalists saw panic in the streets before the Lebanese health ministry issued an emergency call for the capital's roads to be cleared for ambulances.

"In a very serious escalation, Israeli warplanes launched a wave of simultaneous airstrikes on several Lebanese areas, resulting in, in an initial count, dozens of martyrs and hundreds of wounded," the ministry said in a statement.

Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz said the military had carried out a surprise attack on Wednesday targeting hundreds of Hezbollah members across Lebanon, calling it the largest blow against the group since a 2024 operation involving pager bombs.

It came despite a deal for a two-week ceasefire between the United States and Hezbollah's backer Iran.

Simultaneous strikes on Beirut came without warning, prompting people on the street to start running and motorists to honk their horns in an effort to clear the way, according to AFP journalists.

"I saw the blast, it was very strong, and there were children killed, some with their hands cut off," Yasser Abdallah, who works in an appliance store in central Beirut, told AFP.

One of the strikes hit Corniche al-Mazraa, one of the main roads in the capital.

An AFP photographer saw widespread damage, buildings ablaze and destroyed cars.

The strikes came as Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah, which drew Lebanon into the Middle East war by attacking Israel on March 2, claimed it was close to a "historic victory".

- Displaced warning -

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had said earlier that the truce excluded his country's fight with Hezbollah.

Israel renewed an evacuation order for an area more than 40 kilometres (25 miles) inside Lebanon, saying "the battle in Lebanon is ongoing", before also reiterating its call for residents of Beirut's southern suburbs to leave.

It also issued a warning for a building in the coastal city of Tyre, after striking another one near it.

The state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported several strikes across the south.

Israel's attacks in recent weeks have killed more than 1,500 people and displaced over a million, according to Lebanese authorities, especially in the country's south, east and Beirut's southern suburbs, areas where Hezbollah holds sway.

On Wednesday an AFP correspondent in southern Lebanon saw small numbers of people heading south, some in cars and others carrying their children on motorcycles.

But Lebanon's military warned displaced people against returning south "since they may be exposing themselves to the ongoing Israeli attacks".

Hezbollah meanwhile said displaced people must "not head to the targeted villages, towns, and areas in the south, the Bekaa, and the southern suburbs of Beirut before the official and final ceasefire declaration in Lebanon is issued".

Staying in a tent near Beirut's southern suburbs, 50-year-old delivery worker Ali Youssef said he was "waiting for Hezbollah to issue an official statement".

Youssef said he was confident that "Iran will not let us down" if Israel keeps attacking Lebanon.

- 'Regional peace' -

In a statement, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun welcomed the two-week truce between Tehran and Washington, and said his government "continued efforts to ensure that the regional peace includes Lebanon in a stable and lasting manner".

Aoun noted that "the decision regarding war and peace ... rests solely with the Lebanese state".

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam also welcomed the truce but called on the country's friends to help put an end to Israeli attacks following the series of deadly strikes across the country.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who has acted as a mediator in the regional conflict, said the two-week ceasefire between Iran and the United States applied "everywhere including Lebanon".

But Netanyahu later said the country was excluded, and a Lebanese official told AFP that authorities "have not been informed" of Lebanon being included in the truce.

Arab World

Lebanon PM Calls on Country's Friends to Help End Israeli Attacks

Smoke rises from the site of Israeli airstrikes in Beirut and its southern suburbs on April 8, 2026. Israel launched a series of strikes on Beirut on April 8, hitting several parts of the capital as well as its southern suburbs, Lebanese state media reported. (Photo by anwar amro / AFP)
Smoke rises from the site of Israeli airstrikes in Beirut and its southern suburbs on April 8, 2026. Israel launched a series of strikes on Beirut on April 8, hitting several parts of the capital as well as its southern suburbs, Lebanese state media reported. (Photo by anwar amro / AFP)
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Lebanon PM Calls on Country's Friends to Help End Israeli Attacks

Smoke rises from the site of Israeli airstrikes in Beirut and its southern suburbs on April 8, 2026. Israel launched a series of strikes on Beirut on April 8, hitting several parts of the capital as well as its southern suburbs, Lebanese state media reported. (Photo by anwar amro / AFP)
Smoke rises from the site of Israeli airstrikes in Beirut and its southern suburbs on April 8, 2026. Israel launched a series of strikes on Beirut on April 8, hitting several parts of the capital as well as its southern suburbs, Lebanese state media reported. (Photo by anwar amro / AFP)

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam on Wednesday called on his country's friends to help put an end to Israeli attacks following a series of deadly strikes across the country.

In a statement, Salam said that while Beirut "welcomed the agreement between Iran and the United States and intensified our efforts to reach a ceasefire agreement in Lebanon, Israel continues to escalate its attacks".

"All of Lebanon's friends are called upon to help us stop these attacks by all available means," he added, after Israeli strikes that Lebanon's health ministry said killed dozens of people and wounded hundreds more.

Arab World

Spain Summons Israel Envoy after Spanish UN Soldier briefly Held in Lebanon

A soldier of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL)
A soldier of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL)
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Spain Summons Israel Envoy after Spanish UN Soldier briefly Held in Lebanon

A soldier of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL)
A soldier of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL)

Spain summoned Israel's top representative to Madrid on Wednesday after the Israeli military briefly arrested a Spanish soldier from the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, foreign ministry sources said.

Israel's charge d'affaires was summoned "to protest the unjustifiable detention of a Spanish UNIFIL soldier by the Israeli army", the sources said, AFP reported.

UNIFIL on Tuesday said Israeli forces had held one of its peacekeepers "after blocking a logistics convoy", without revealing the nationality. The soldier "was released in less than an hour".