Israeli Airstrike Kills Two in Gaza Including Girl, Hospital Staff Say

A Palestinian boy looks for his belongings amid the debris of a collapsed house that was previously damaged by an Israeli strike, at the Maghazi refugee camp in the central of Gaza Strip on January 5, 2026. (AFP)
A Palestinian boy looks for his belongings amid the debris of a collapsed house that was previously damaged by an Israeli strike, at the Maghazi refugee camp in the central of Gaza Strip on January 5, 2026. (AFP)
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Israeli Airstrike Kills Two in Gaza Including Girl, Hospital Staff Say

A Palestinian boy looks for his belongings amid the debris of a collapsed house that was previously damaged by an Israeli strike, at the Maghazi refugee camp in the central of Gaza Strip on January 5, 2026. (AFP)
A Palestinian boy looks for his belongings amid the debris of a collapsed house that was previously damaged by an Israeli strike, at the Maghazi refugee camp in the central of Gaza Strip on January 5, 2026. (AFP)

Israel killed at least two Palestinians including a girl, and wounded four others including other children, in an airstrike on Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on Monday, officials at the city's main Nasser Hospital said.

The Israeli military said the strike, carried out in an area controlled by Hamas, had targeted a Hamas fighter who was planning to attack Israeli troops in southern Gaza.

Israel has carried out repeated air ‌strikes in Gaza ‌since a US-brokered deal took ‌effect ⁠in October ‌that halted most fighting. Israel says its strikes are aimed at preventing attacks or destroying militant infrastructure.

Gaza's health ministry says 422 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire took effect. Gaza fighters have killed three Israeli soldiers during the same period.

Under the first phase ⁠of the deal, brokered by US President Donald Trump, Israel has ‌retained control of 53% of Gaza. ‍Hamas agreed to release ‍living hostages and hand over remains in exchange ‍for the freeing of Palestinians detained by Israel.

The final hostage remains still to be handed over belong to an Israeli police officer killed on October 7, 2023 - the day Gazan gunmen invaded Israel, killing 1,200 and taking some 250 hostages, according to Israeli ⁠tallies.

Israel's offensive in Gaza has killed more than 71,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to local health authorities. Most of the territory is in ruins, with the population of more than 2 million living mainly in makeshift homes or damaged buildings in areas where Israeli forces withdrew.

Earlier on Monday, a father and son in Gaza were killed in the collapse of their house which had been damaged in ‌an earlier Israeli strike, authorities in Gaza said.



Syria Arrests Former Assad-era Air Force Chief of Staff

FILE PHOTO: Guard standing near an image of Syria's Bashar al-Assad at the fourth division headquarters in Damascus, Syria, January 23, 2025 REUTERS/Yamam Al Shaar/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Guard standing near an image of Syria's Bashar al-Assad at the fourth division headquarters in Damascus, Syria, January 23, 2025 REUTERS/Yamam Al Shaar/File Photo
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Syria Arrests Former Assad-era Air Force Chief of Staff

FILE PHOTO: Guard standing near an image of Syria's Bashar al-Assad at the fourth division headquarters in Damascus, Syria, January 23, 2025 REUTERS/Yamam Al Shaar/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Guard standing near an image of Syria's Bashar al-Assad at the fourth division headquarters in Damascus, Syria, January 23, 2025 REUTERS/Yamam Al Shaar/File Photo

Syrian authorities said Tuesday that they had arrested a former air force chief of staff under Bashar al-Assad who was sanctioned by the European Union including for his role in chemical attacks.

Since Assad's December 2024 overthrow, Syria's new authorities have periodically announced the arrest of military and security officials involved in atrocities during Syria's more than decade-long civil war.

Last month, authorities launched the first trials for such senior figures as part of their commitment to providing justice for victims and their families.

An interior ministry statement announced the arrest of Jayez al-Moussa, "chief of staff for the air force during the era of the former regime" in a security operation.

Moussa served for more than four decades in Syria's military under the Assad dynasty.

After the civil war erupted in 2011, he took control of the 20th division, which ran six military airports, before becoming air force chief of staff in early 2015.

For a time, he was responsible for coordinating with Russian forces, which intervened militarily in Syria's conflict on Assad's behalf later that year.

After retiring in 2016, Moussa was named governor of northeast Syria's Hasakah province.

He hails from an Arab tribe in the eastern Deir Ezzor province and is known for his absolute loyalty to Assad and his calls to crush the former leader's adversaries.

The EU added Moussa to its sanctions list in 2017, saying he was responsible "for the violent repression of the civilian population in Syria, including the use of chemical weapons attacks" during his tenure as air force chief.

Syrian authorities have recently announced the arrest of a number of Assad-era figures, including two former generals detained on Friday, one of whom is accused of involvement in a 2013 chemical attack on a Damascus suburb.


ISIS Claims Deadly Attack on Syrian Government Forces 

Syrian security forces in Aleppo (File/Reuters)
Syrian security forces in Aleppo (File/Reuters)
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ISIS Claims Deadly Attack on Syrian Government Forces 

Syrian security forces in Aleppo (File/Reuters)
Syrian security forces in Aleppo (File/Reuters)

ISIS claimed responsibility on Tuesday for an attack in eastern Syria that killed two Syrian army soldiers, the militant group's first deadly operation against the Syrian government since February.

Monday's attack in the eastern province of Hasakah points to the lingering threat posed by ISIS as President Ahmed al-Sharaa seeks to consolidate government authority over the country, nearly 1-1/2 years after he ousted Bashar al-Assad.

The Syrian state news agency SANA reported on Monday that two Syrian army soldiers were killed and others wounded in an attack by unknown assailants on a bus in the Hasakah countryside, Reuters reported.

ISIS, in a brief statement posted on its Amaq News Agency, said its fighters had killed and wounded six members of "the apostate Syrian army" during an ambush in the same area.

ISIS controlled around a quarter or more of Syria at the peak of its power during the Syrian civil war a decade ago, before it was beaten out of the territory by a US-led coalition and other foes.

The Syrian government under Sharaa last year joined the US-led coalition to combat ISIS.

ISIS in February declared a new phase of operations against Sharaa's government, and carried out a spate of attacks including one that killed four Syrian government security personnel near Raqqa city.


Lebanon Says Israeli Strike Kills Two Civil Defense Personnel

Smoke rises from Israeli bombardment on the outskirts of the village of el-Qatrani as seen from nearby Marjayoun (Marjeyoun) in southern Lebanon on May 11, 2026.. (Photo by AFP)
Smoke rises from Israeli bombardment on the outskirts of the village of el-Qatrani as seen from nearby Marjayoun (Marjeyoun) in southern Lebanon on May 11, 2026.. (Photo by AFP)
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Lebanon Says Israeli Strike Kills Two Civil Defense Personnel

Smoke rises from Israeli bombardment on the outskirts of the village of el-Qatrani as seen from nearby Marjayoun (Marjeyoun) in southern Lebanon on May 11, 2026.. (Photo by AFP)
Smoke rises from Israeli bombardment on the outskirts of the village of el-Qatrani as seen from nearby Marjayoun (Marjeyoun) in southern Lebanon on May 11, 2026.. (Photo by AFP)

Lebanon's civil defense agency said two of its personnel were killed in an Israeli strike on Tuesday while they were on duty in the country's south.

The personnel were killed in "an Israeli airstrike that targeted them while they were carrying out a rescue mission" after a previous strike in the city of Nabatieh, a civil defence statement said.

According to AFP, Israeli strikes on Lebanon have killed 380 people since a ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war began on April 17, citing Lebanon's Health Minister Rakan Nassereddine.

The overall toll in Israeli strikes since the war erupted between Israel and Hezbollah on March 2 has reached 2,882 people including 279 women and 200 children, he added.

Since the ceasefire, "380 people have been killed and 1,122 wounded," Nassereddine said.

A ministry official told AFP that the toll includes 39 women and 22 children.

Under the terms of the truce released by Washington, Israel reserves the right to act against "planned, imminent or ongoing attacks".

In addition to carrying out ongoing airstrikes, Israeli troops have been operating behind a so-called "yellow line" that runs around 10 kilometres (six miles) north of the border between the two countries.

Some 108 emergency and health workers are among the overall death toll while 249 others have been wounded and "16 hospitals have been damaged" since the start of the conflict, Nassereddine said.

"It's a massacre... there are no armed men or fighters in these (ambulance) vehicles, just medical equipment and wounded, contrary to what Israel says," he added.

Lebanese leaders on Monday urged the United States to pressure Israel to halt its attacks, which have intensified in recent days.

The appeal came as Lebanese and Israeli representatives are set to meet later this week in Washington for a third round of direct talks.