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Israel Says Targeting Hezbollah in Beirut as South Lebanon Struck

Debris cover the site of Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV headquarters after it was hit in an Israeli airstrike on Dahieh, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, March 3, 2026. (AP)
Debris cover the site of Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV headquarters after it was hit in an Israeli airstrike on Dahieh, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, March 3, 2026. (AP)
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Israel Says Targeting Hezbollah in Beirut as South Lebanon Struck

Debris cover the site of Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV headquarters after it was hit in an Israeli airstrike on Dahieh, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, March 3, 2026. (AP)
Debris cover the site of Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV headquarters after it was hit in an Israeli airstrike on Dahieh, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, March 3, 2026. (AP)

The Israeli military said it launched a wave of strikes on Beirut claiming to target the Iran-backed group Hezbollah early Saturday, while Lebanese state media reported strikes in the country's south.

Lebanon was pulled into the Middle East war when Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel on March 2 to avenge the killing of Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

Israel has since launched strikes across Lebanon and sent ground troops into the country's south.

In a brief statement on Saturday, the Israeli military said its forces were "currently striking Hezbollah terrorist organization targets in Beirut".

A military spokesman earlier issued a warning to residents of Beirut's southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold, to evacuate ahead of strikes.

Lebanon's official National News Agency (NNA) reported strikes on two neighborhoods in the area, without immediately saying what had been hit or whether there were any casualties.

In southern Lebanon, close to the border, the NNA said an Israeli airstrike hit a house in the town of Ghandouriyeh, killing at least one person and wounding two others.

The agency reported more strikes overnight and in the early morning on several areas of southern Lebanon, as well as an "extensive combing operation" carried out by Israeli troops in the area of Khiam town.

Hezbollah also said its fighters had targeted Israeli troops in six villages in southern Lebanon.

The group said it had also launched rockets across the border, where air raid sirens were activated, according to the Israeli military's Home Front Command.

The US ambassador to Lebanon, Michel Issa, gave his backing on Friday to a truce initiative proposed by Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, telling reporters that "matters are not resolved without talking".

He said, however, he believed Israel "has decided not to stop" striking Lebanon yet.

"That means Lebanon has to decide whether it can meet the Israelis in this case," the ambassador added.

Lebanon's health ministry says the war has killed more than 1,000 people in Lebanon and displaced more than one million more.

Two Israeli soldiers have been killed in southern Lebanon, according to the military.

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Arab World

Lebanon: Hezbollah Claims Targeting 10 Israeli Merkava Tanks

Israeli tanks near the Israeli side of the border with Lebanon, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran continues, in northern Israel, March 25, 2026. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
Israeli tanks near the Israeli side of the border with Lebanon, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran continues, in northern Israel, March 25, 2026. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
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Lebanon: Hezbollah Claims Targeting 10 Israeli Merkava Tanks

Israeli tanks near the Israeli side of the border with Lebanon, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran continues, in northern Israel, March 25, 2026. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
Israeli tanks near the Israeli side of the border with Lebanon, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran continues, in northern Israel, March 25, 2026. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu

Lebanon's Iran-aligned Hezbollah group said Thursday that it struck10 Israeli Merkava tanks in three southern towns along the border.

In a series of separate statements, Hezbollah said that its members targeted the advanced Israeli tanks with guided missiles in the towns of Deir Siryan, Debel, and Al-Qantara, and achieved confirmed hits.

Earlier, Hezbollah said it targeted the headquarters of the Israeli Ministry of War in the center of Tel Aviv, and the Dolphin barracks of the Military Intelligence Division north of Tel Aviv with a number of missiles.

The Israeli military said an Israeli soldier was killed in fighting in south Lebanon after the army announced it was conducting ground operations against Hezbollah.

"Staff sergeant Ori Greenberg, aged 21, from Petah Tikva, a soldier of the Reconnaissance unit, Golani Brigade, fell during combat in southern Lebanon," the military said.

In total, three Israeli soldiers have been killed in fighting in south Lebanon since Hezbollah drew the country into the Israel and US war on Iran by launching rocket attacks against Israel on March 2 to avenge the killing of Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

Israel is responding by launching large-scale raids on Lebanon, while its forces have advanced into southern Lebanon.

After the Lebanese Presidency repeatedly announced its readiness to open direct negotiations with Israel in order to end the war, Hezbollah announced its refusal to negotiate "under fire."

Its Secretary-General, Naim Qassem, said Wednesday in a statement: "When negotiating with the Israeli enemy under fire is proposed, it is an imposition of surrender and a deprivation of all of Lebanon's capabilities."

He called on the government to "reverse its decision to criminalize resistance and the resistance fighters," after announcing a ban on the party's security and military activities, as part of a series of unprecedented measures it has taken since the outbreak of the war.

Arab World

At Least 28 Civilians Killed in Sudan Drone Strikes

Displaced Sudanese families from Kurdufan at a football stadium in the town of Kadugli, south of the region (AP)
Displaced Sudanese families from Kurdufan at a football stadium in the town of Kadugli, south of the region (AP)
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At Least 28 Civilians Killed in Sudan Drone Strikes

Displaced Sudanese families from Kurdufan at a football stadium in the town of Kadugli, south of the region (AP)
Displaced Sudanese families from Kurdufan at a football stadium in the town of Kadugli, south of the region (AP)

Two drone strikes in Sudan, one at a market in Darfur and the other along a road in Kordofan, killed at least 28 civilians, health workers told AFP Thursday.

The three-year war between Sudan's army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has seen a recent uptick in near-daily drone strikes that kill dozens at a time.

On Wednesday, a strike hit a market in North Darfur state's Saraf Omra town, killing "22 people, including an infant, and injuring 17 more", one health worker at the local clinic told AFP.

"The drone hit a parked oil truck, which caught fire along with part of the market," said Hamid Suleiman, a vendor at the market, which serves Saraf Omra and the surrounding towns in the remote Darfur area.

Some 800 kilometers (500 miles) east of the RSF's strongholds in Darfur, another drone strike set fire to a truck travelling on a North Kordofan road in army territory.

"Six bodies arrived at the hospital yesterday, three of them charred, in addition to 10 wounded," a medical source at the local hospital in El-Rahad told AFP, blaming the RSF for the attack.

The civilians were travelling between the army-controlled towns of El-Rahad and Um Rawaba.

Drones from both sides have repeatedly attacked Sudan's central east-west highway, which runs through North Kordofan state capital El-Obeid and connects Darfur to the army-controlled east.

Sudan's war has killed tens of thousands and left some 11 million displaced, in the world's largest hunger and displacement crisis.

Arab World

Guterres Names Envoy for Middle East… Warns of a Wider War

FILED - 14 May 2025, Berlin: United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres holds a press conference at the Federal Chancellery. Photo: Kay Nietfeld/dpa
FILED - 14 May 2025, Berlin: United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres holds a press conference at the Federal Chancellery. Photo: Kay Nietfeld/dpa
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Guterres Names Envoy for Middle East… Warns of a Wider War

FILED - 14 May 2025, Berlin: United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres holds a press conference at the Federal Chancellery. Photo: Kay Nietfeld/dpa
FILED - 14 May 2025, Berlin: United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres holds a press conference at the Federal Chancellery. Photo: Kay Nietfeld/dpa

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday named veteran French diplomat Jean Arnault as his personal envoy to support efforts to end the Middle East conflict, saying the “world is staring down the barrel of a wider war.”

Guterres told reporters that he had been in close contact with many in the region and around the world and that a number of initiatives ⁠for dialogue and peace were underway.

“It is time to stop climbing the escalation ladder – and start climbing the diplomatic ladder,” he said in New York.

The UN chief also warned that prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz was choking movement of oil, gas, and fertilizer at a critical moment in the global food planting season.

Guterres said ⁠Gulf countries are important suppliers of raw materials for nitrogen fertilizers crucial for developing countries.

“Without fertilizers today, we might have hunger tomorrow,” he noted.

Guterres said UN mediators have offered their services and Arnault would do “everything possible” to support peace efforts.

The UN says Arnault has more than ⁠30 years' experience in international diplomacy focusing on peace settlements and mediation, with a background in UN missions in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America.

His most recent assignment was in 2021 as Guterres' personal envoy on Afghanistan and regional issues.

Disrupted fertilizer shipments and soaring energy ⁠prices are threatening to unleash a fresh food-price surge across vulnerable nations, risking a years-long setback just as many were recovering from successive global shocks, UN and other experts warn.

An analysis released by ⁠the UN World Food Programme last week warned that tens of millions more people will face acute hunger if the Iran war continues through to June.