First responders gather at the site of an Israeli airstrike in the village of Habbouch, southern Lebanon on April 10, 2026. (Photo by Abbas FAKIH / AFP)
First responders gather at the site of an Israeli airstrike in the village of Habbouch, southern Lebanon on April 10, 2026. (Photo by Abbas FAKIH / AFP)
The head of Israel’s military, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, has said that the “main combat arena is in Lebanon.”
The mission is to keep weakening Hezbollah, Zamir said.
He was speaking on Thursday to Israeli troops inside Lebanon, on the outskirts of the town of Bint Jbeil.
“Our main combat arena is here in Lebanon,” he stated.
Zamir said the army’s mission is to “continue deepening the damage and to continue weakening Hezbollah.”
He added that the objective is to remove the direct threat to residents of northern Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has offered a potential boost to ceasefire efforts in the region when saying he had approved direct talks with Lebanon.
The announcement came after Israel’s pounding of Beirut Wednesday killed more than 300 people. The negotiations are expected next week in Washington.
Who Is Wassim al-Assad, Who Used Syrian Regime Influence to Lead Captagon Trade?https://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5288126-who-wassim-al-assad-who-used-syrian-regime-influence-lead-captagon-trade
Who Is Wassim al-Assad, Who Used Syrian Regime Influence to Lead Captagon Trade?
Wassim al-Assad appears in court. (Syrian Justice Ministry)
Wassim Badih al-Assad, a cousin of ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, faces charges of forming and leading armed groups, suppressing civilians, involvement in wide-ranging abuses and illicit enrichment during the rule of the former regime.
He appeared in court on Wednesday to stand trial as Syria’s new rulers pursue transitional justice.
Syrian Justice Minister Mazhar al-Wais said: “The trial of Wassim al-Assad is only one stage in a comprehensive national process.”
In a post on X, he pledged that “justice will remain a firm approach, and state institutions will move with confidence and resolve toward building a state of law and institutions.”
Wassim al-Assad was born in Qardaha, in the countryside of Latakia, in 1980. His name has appeared on sanctions lists over his alleged role in drug smuggling and support for the former regime.
Syrian authorities arrested Wassim al-Assad in June 2025 during a security operation carried out by the General Intelligence Service in cooperation with units from the ministry.
He was lured from Lebanon to Syria in an intelligence operation and arrested in an ambush as part of a campaign to pursue people accused of committing crimes during the rule of the former regime.
Wassim al-Assad’s name emerged in Syria in the first years after the 2011 uprising against Bashar al-Assad, when he became known as one of the commanders of militias auxiliary to the former regime’s forces.
He led the “Military Security Shield” militia, later known as the “Assad Shield,” and also led and formed groups affiliated with the Baath Brigades and the National Defense militia.
Those groups were active mainly in the provinces of Latakia and Tartous, as well as the cities of Qardaha and Jableh. They pursued and arrested opponents of the Assad regime and fought as auxiliary forces alongside regime troops in other Syrian provinces.
Noah Zaiter (R) and Wassim al-Assad. (Facebook)
The groups were also active at ports and crossings on the border with Lebanon in the Tal Kalakh area of rural Homs, facilitating the smuggling of Captagon and fuel.
The political and security cover he enjoyed enabled him to use his influence to impose payments on merchants along the coast and run cross-border smuggling networks. The names of those militias were linked to killings, kidnappings, extortion and theft.
Wassim al-Assad did not hide his ties with drug traffickers in Lebanon. He appeared in photos on social media with notorious drug baron Noah Zaitar, who has been detained in Lebanon for drug and arms trafficking.
Unlike other leaders of militias auxiliary to the former regime’s forces, Wassim al-Assad flaunted his lavish lifestyle, cars and apartments in Latakia and Tartous in videos on social media. In those videos, he called for opponents of Bashar al-Assad to be stripped of Syrian nationality.
According to international reports, Wassim al-Assad oversaw Captagon shipments from manufacturing facilities in Syria to the Lebanese border, as well as to Gulf Arab states and Europe, all under the protection of security networks affiliated with the former regime.
In 2023, the US Treasury Department sanctioned Wassim al-Assad, citing his role in supporting the former regime through Captagon smuggling and the regional drug trade.
The European Union also listed him, along with other Assad family members, for his active participation in organized networks for the manufacture and export of drugs, and for illegal and criminal activities and cross-border money laundering.
In his last public security activity, Wassim al-Assad announced in early 2024 the formation of “special support and protection groups,” pledging to pay monthly salaries of $300 to volunteers from the coastal region who supported the former regime, in an attempt to counter the Deterrence of Aggression Operation led by now President Ahmed al-Sharaa, which succeeded in ousting Bashar al-Assad.
Israeli Forces Kill Man in West Bank Raid, Palestinians Sayhttps://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5288102-israeli-forces-kill-man-west-bank-raid-palestinians-say
Israeli bulldozers guarded by Israeli soldiers demolish the home belonging to the Palestinian al-Atrash family, citing the lack of a building permit, in the village of Qilqes, a few kilometers from the Israeli settlement of Beit Hagai, just south of the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Hebron on June 23, 2026. (AFP)
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Israeli Forces Kill Man in West Bank Raid, Palestinians Say
Israeli bulldozers guarded by Israeli soldiers demolish the home belonging to the Palestinian al-Atrash family, citing the lack of a building permit, in the village of Qilqes, a few kilometers from the Israeli settlement of Beit Hagai, just south of the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Hebron on June 23, 2026. (AFP)
Israeli forces killed a Palestinian man during a house raid in a town in the northern occupied West Bank on Wednesday, the Palestinian health ministry, a paramedic and a local resident said.
The health ministry said that the Palestinian body in charge of coordinating with Israeli authorities had notified it of the death of 29-year-old Mohammed Zayed, who was "shot dead by the occupation (Israeli) forces in Yamun".
The ministry added that Israeli forces had kept Zayed's body.
The military told AFP it was looking into reports of the man's death.
Sanad Abu Toul, a local resident whose family owns the house raided by Israeli forces, said the raid occurred around 12:30 pm local time (0930 GMT) and Zayed was killed as he tried to escape the premises the army had surrounded.
"Zayed tried to flee the house, but the soldiers shot him at close range in the yard of the house, even though they could have arrested him," Abu Toul told AFP.
Murad Khamayseh, a Palestinian paramedic who was dispatched to the scene, told AFP that the Palestinian Red Crescent received a call about the raid around 1:00 pm local time, and sent teams who were blocked by the army from reaching the besieged house.
"About an hour and a half after we arrived, we heard gunfire, and then local residents found traces of blood on the ground in the yard of the house," said Khamayseh.
Violence has escalated in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023.
Israeli soldiers or settlers have killed at least 1,083 Palestinians since then, including both gunmen and civilians, per an AFP tally based on Palestinian health ministry data, according to which 71 people were killed in 2026.
Official Israeli figures show at least 46 Israelis, both civilians and soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations in the same period.
Israeli Defense Minister Says ‘No US Demand’ to Withdraw from Lebanonhttps://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5288075-israeli-defense-minister-says-%E2%80%98no-us-demand%E2%80%99-withdraw-lebanon
A man walks past the rubble of buildings destroyed in previous Israeli airstrikes in the town of Nabatieh, southern Lebanon, Wednesday, June 24, 2026, after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. (AP)
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Israeli Defense Minister Says ‘No US Demand’ to Withdraw from Lebanon
A man walks past the rubble of buildings destroyed in previous Israeli airstrikes in the town of Nabatieh, southern Lebanon, Wednesday, June 24, 2026, after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. (AP)
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Wednesday that the United States has not demanded that Israel withdraw its troops from southern Lebanon, a condition set by Lebanon in ongoing ceasefire negotiations.
"We have announced that in any case we are not withdrawing and, as of this moment -- and this is a diplomatic achievement -- there is no American demand for Israel to withdraw from Lebanon," Katz said in an interview at a convention of local leaders in Tel Aviv.
When asked if the army would adhere to such a US request if it was made, Katz said he told US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US President Donald Trump that "we are there to protect the residents of the north" of Israel.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun rejected Israel's occupation of the south and foreign interference in his country's affairs -- an allusion to Hezbollah's backer Iran -- as a fifth round of Israel-Lebanon talks began in Washington on Tuesday.
Tehran has also reiterated that peace in Lebanon was a fundamental pillar of reaching a definitive agreement with Washington for an overall end to the Middle East war.
Washington and Tehran signed a memorandum of understanding last week aimed at reaching a permanent settlement between the two countries, following the war launched by the US and Israel on Iran on February 28.
Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war on March 2 with rocket fire at Israel to avenge the killing of Iran's supreme leader in US-Israeli strikes.
Israel responded with airstrikes and a ground offensive that Lebanon says have killed more than 4,100 people, which led to the occupation of a 10-kilometer (six-mile) security zone in southern Lebanon along the border with Israel.
Israeli officials have insisted that the country will retain control of that zone.
On Monday, Netanyahu said Israeli forces in Lebanon retained "full freedom of action to thwart any direct or developing threat".
Israel and Lebanon are currently involved in a US-mediated round of talks in Washington to seek a diplomatic solution to the conflict and the disarmament of Hezbollah and the withdrawal of Israeli troops.
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