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Aoun Expresses Hope for Israel Border Talks

In this photo released by the Lebanese government, Lebanese president Michel Aoun addressees a speech, in the presidential palace, in Baabda, east of Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2019. (Dalati Nohra/Lebanese government via AP)
In this photo released by the Lebanese government, Lebanese president Michel Aoun addressees a speech, in the presidential palace, in Baabda, east of Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2019. (Dalati Nohra/Lebanese government via AP)
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Aoun Expresses Hope for Israel Border Talks

In this photo released by the Lebanese government, Lebanese president Michel Aoun addressees a speech, in the presidential palace, in Baabda, east of Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2019. (Dalati Nohra/Lebanese government via AP)
In this photo released by the Lebanese government, Lebanese president Michel Aoun addressees a speech, in the presidential palace, in Baabda, east of Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2019. (Dalati Nohra/Lebanese government via AP)

Lebanon’s president said Wednesday he wants maritime border talks with Israel to succeed and that disagreements during the last round of negotiations can be resolved based on international law.

President Michel Aoun spoke during a meeting with John Desrocher, the US mediator for the negotiations, who was in Beirut for discussions with Lebanese leaders.

The fourth round of talks, which was scheduled to take place Wednesday, was postponed until further notice, officials in the two countries said.

The negotiations are the first non-security talks to be held between the two countries, which have no diplomatic relations and are technically in a state of war following decades of conflict. Resolving the border issue could pave the way for lucrative oil and gas deals on both sides.

Israel and Lebanon each claim about 860 square kilometers (330 square miles) of the Mediterranean Sea. During the second round of the talks the Lebanese delegation — a mix of army officers and experts — offered a new map that pushes for an additional 1,430 square kilometers (550 square miles).

Israel’s Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said in an interview with Army Radio last week that “the Lebanese presented positions that are a provocation,” but he added that all negotiations start with “excessive demands and provocations.”

“I hope that in a few months we’ll be able to reach a breakthrough,” he added, The Associated Press reported.

A statement released by Aoun’s office quoted him as telling Desrocher that Lebanon wants the talks to succeed because “this will strengthen stability in the south and allow us to invest in natural resources of oil and gas.”

He said difficulties that surfaced during the last round can be solved through discussions based on the Law of the Sea. Aoun said if the talks stall then “other alternatives can be put forward,” without elaborating.

The last round of talks were held in November and hosted by the United Nations in a border post between the two countries.

Israel has already developed offshore natural gas rigs, producing enough for domestic consumption and export abroad. Lebanon hopes that its own oil and gas discoveries will help alleviate its long-running economic troubles.

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Arab World

Israeli Police Arrest a Man Suspected of Attacking a Nun Near Jerusalem’s Old City

A nun passes by the last supper room area outside of Jerusalem old city, 01 May 2026. (EPA)
A nun passes by the last supper room area outside of Jerusalem old city, 01 May 2026. (EPA)
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Israeli Police Arrest a Man Suspected of Attacking a Nun Near Jerusalem’s Old City

A nun passes by the last supper room area outside of Jerusalem old city, 01 May 2026. (EPA)
A nun passes by the last supper room area outside of Jerusalem old city, 01 May 2026. (EPA)

Israeli police said Friday that they arrested a 36-year-old caught on video attacking a nun in the latest incident targeting Christians near Jerusalem's Old City.

Police said the unnamed man was arrested after the attack Wednesday near David’s Tomb — a holy site outside Zion’s Gate on the southern side of the Old City — “on suspicion of a racially motivated attack,” and remained in custody.

Police video showed the nun bruised and the attacker wearing tzitzit, a fringed undergarment worn by some observant Jewish men.

Olivier Poquillon, the director of the French School of Biblical and Archaeological Research, said the nun was a researcher at the school. He called the attack an “act of sectarian violence" in a post on X.

The Old City in Israel-annexed east Jerusalem is a centuries-old walled enclave built atop millennia of history and home to some of the holiest sites for Jews, Christians and Muslims. It is a flash point for tensions as access and ownership to the sites are deeply entangled with the historic and political claims that lie at the heart of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Religious groups have documented a rise in acts of harassment and violence against Christian pilgrims and clergy as well as Palestinian Christian residents, including assaults and spitting, often by ultra-Orthodox Jewish yeshiva students.

Wadie Abunassar, the coordinator of the Holy Land Christian Forum, called attacks targeting Christians a growing phenomenon. He attributed the quick response to the attack on the nun to the fact that it was caught on video.

He said he felt “great anger on the system and great sadness because I feel that this will not end anytime soon.” One of the problems, he said, was the deterrence against such violence.

“Many times in such cases there are no arrests and if there are arrests, sometimes after one or two days, (suspects) are released,” he added. “In some cases, the police do not recommend the prosecution to file charges or to indict them. And in some cases, when there is indictment, the indictment is mild.”

The arrest comes as Israeli treatment of religious minorities is under scrutiny, weeks after police limited access for holiday worship to Muslims, as well as Christians, up to Latin Patriarch Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa.

Israel also drew international criticism after a soldier photographed himself having bludgeoned a fallen statue of Jesus on the cross with an ax in southern Lebanon. Israeli leaders later disavowed the incident and said he would be reprimanded.

“In a city sacred to Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike, we remain committed to protecting all communities and ensuring those responsible for violence are held accountable,” Israeli police said in a social media post about the man arrested for attacking the nun.

Arab World

Hezbollah Says Reinforced Fighters in South Lebanon Despite Disarmament

Smoke rises in Habboush, Nabatiyeh Governorate, in southern Lebanon, following Israeli strikes, Lebanon, May 1, 2026. (Reuters)
Smoke rises in Habboush, Nabatiyeh Governorate, in southern Lebanon, following Israeli strikes, Lebanon, May 1, 2026. (Reuters)
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Hezbollah Says Reinforced Fighters in South Lebanon Despite Disarmament

Smoke rises in Habboush, Nabatiyeh Governorate, in southern Lebanon, following Israeli strikes, Lebanon, May 1, 2026. (Reuters)
Smoke rises in Habboush, Nabatiyeh Governorate, in southern Lebanon, following Israeli strikes, Lebanon, May 1, 2026. (Reuters)

Lebanese group Hezbollah has brought reinforcements and weapons to the south of the country since the start of the war with Israel on March 2, the organization's director of media relations said on Friday.

The Lebanese army said in January it had finished disarming the group near the Israeli border in southern Lebanon, the scene of multiple wars between Israel and Hezbollah, the most recent of which was brought to a halt on April 17 by a ceasefire.

The army had been enacting a plan that it drew up after a 2024 ceasefire agreement that ended the last war between the two.

Speaking during an interview with a group of journalists including from AFP, Youssef Al Zein said the group had been able to "introduce forces and arms in the course of the battle" with Israel.

Zein said the reinforcements did not use roads controlled by the Lebanese army.

"We are convinced that the army is a national army" that "will not enter into a confrontation with Hezbollah", he said.

He said that if Israel had been able to penetrate deeper into Lebanese territory it was because Hezbollah had been disarmed south of the Litani River, which runs around 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border, and its infrastructure there, including tunnels, destroyed.

Nevertheless, he insisted that Hezbollah was able to "reconstitute its forces" after the last war with Israel, and that it was "prepared for a long battle".

Israel announced on April 7 that it had completed the deployment of its ground forces in southern Lebanon and would maintain a 10-kilometer-deep "security zone".

Asked about Hezbollah's recent use of cheap one-way attack drones controlled via fiber-optic cable against Israeli forces, Zein said it was one of the group's tactics.

"We are aware of the enemy's superiority, but at the same time we are exploiting its weak points," he said.

The use of such drones which, unlike radio-controlled UAVs, can't be electronically jammed and are hard to track, was popularized by the Ukraine conflict.

Zein, whose predecessor Mohammed Afif was killed in Israeli strikes on Beirut during the 2024 war, said the drones were "manufactured in Lebanon".

Attacks using such drones have killed two Israeli soldiers and a civilian contractor in under a week, according to the Israeli military.

Hezbollah dragged Lebanon into the wider regional war started by US-Israeli attacks on Iran, when it launched rockets at Israel.

Israel's retaliation has killed more than 2,600 people, with its strikes on Lebanon continuing despite the truce.

Arab World

Israel Strikes Southern Lebanon, Killing 6; Hezbollah Drone Wounds 2 Israeli Soldiers

Smoke rises in Habboush following Israeli strikes, as seen from Nabatiyeh, Lebanon, May 1, 2026. (Reuters)
Smoke rises in Habboush following Israeli strikes, as seen from Nabatiyeh, Lebanon, May 1, 2026. (Reuters)
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Israel Strikes Southern Lebanon, Killing 6; Hezbollah Drone Wounds 2 Israeli Soldiers

Smoke rises in Habboush following Israeli strikes, as seen from Nabatiyeh, Lebanon, May 1, 2026. (Reuters)
Smoke rises in Habboush following Israeli strikes, as seen from Nabatiyeh, Lebanon, May 1, 2026. (Reuters)

Lebanon's health ministry said six people including a woman and a child were killed Friday in two Israeli strikes on a southern town where Israel's army had issued an evacuation order despite a ceasefire.

The ministry statement said eight other people including a woman and a child were wounded in the strikes on Habboush, where the state-run National News Agency had reported casualties after Israeli warplanes "launched a series of heavy strikes... less than an hour after warning" residents there to evacuate.

Meanwhile, the Hezbollah group said it fired rockets and drones, including one that crashed in northern Israel and wounded two soldiers.

Israel’s military and Hezbollah kept up their attacks despite a ceasefire in place since April 17. 

Israel’s military on Friday afternoon urged residents of the village of Habboush near the southern city of Nabatiyeh to evacuate, warning that those close to Hezbollah’s facilities would be putting their lives in danger if they stay.

Friday’s exchanges came after paramedics recovered the bodies of five people, including a man and his three sons, from under rubble in the village of Kfar Rumman, also near Nabatiyeh, a day after they were killed.

The NNA reported that the five were killed in an airstrike late Thursday on Kfar Rumman. The agency identified those whose bodies were recovered as Malek Hamza and his sons, Ali, Fadel and Hamza. It said the strike also killed a Lebanese soldier. The Lebanese army confirmed that a soldier, Ali Jaber, was killed in the strike.

By Friday afternoon, Hezbollah had issued six statements saying it launched drones and rockets at Israeli military positions.

The Israeli military confirmed that Hezbollah launched an explosive drone that fell in northern Israel near the border with Lebanon.

Israeli media reported a drone strike near Margaliot in northern Israel, saying it caused a localized fire, and that two soldiers were lightly wounded in a separate Hezbollah drone impact in the area.

Despite the war, residents have continued to return to homes in southern Lebanon after being displaced for weeks because of the hostilities.

One of them was Umm Ali Khodor, whose apartment in the southern port city of Tyre was damaged during the previous Israel-Hezbollah war in 2024 and again in the current conflict.

“We were displaced, we rented a house, but as you know the situation is very difficult,” the woman said. “We could not continue so we returned to our home.”

The latest war between Israel and Hezbollah began on March 2, when Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel two days after the United States and Israel launched a war on its main backer, Iran. Israel has since carried out hundreds of airstrikes and launched a ground invasion of southern Lebanon, capturing dozens of towns and villages along the border.

Since then, Lebanon and Israel have held their first direct talks in more than three decades. The two countries have formally been in a state of war since the founding of the state of Israel in 1948.

A 10-day ceasefire declared in Washington went into effect on April 17. The ceasefire was later extended by three weeks.

The Health Ministry said Friday that the war's death toll reached 2,618 while 8,094 were wounded.