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Hamas Warns Israel against Deteriorating Conditions

Senior Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya is seen in the Egyptian capital Cairo on November 22, 2017. (AFP Photo/Mohamed El-Shahed)
Senior Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya is seen in the Egyptian capital Cairo on November 22, 2017. (AFP Photo/Mohamed El-Shahed)
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Hamas Warns Israel against Deteriorating Conditions

Senior Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya is seen in the Egyptian capital Cairo on November 22, 2017. (AFP Photo/Mohamed El-Shahed)
Senior Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya is seen in the Egyptian capital Cairo on November 22, 2017. (AFP Photo/Mohamed El-Shahed)

A senior Hamas official warned that recent Israeli policies in the Gaza Strip are endangering ceasefire understandings reached after last month’s two-day skirmishes between Israel and Hamas.

“The Israeli occupation is manipulating the fishing zone and stopping fuel supply to the power stations,” Khalil al-Hayya told the Hamas-affiliated Shehab news agency. “This puts the understandings in a dangerous situation.”

Hayya also warned “the Israeli occupation not to export its internal crises” to Palestinians. His comment comes in reference to Israel holding national elections in September for the second time in under six months.

Israeli authorities had taken the decision to halt Qatari-sponsored fuel from operating the Gaza power station.

The decision was taken in response to releasing arson balloons from Gaza into Israel.

At least 13 brush fires were sparked in southern Israel on Monday by balloon-borne incendiary devices launched from the coastal Palestinian territory, the local fire service said.

In response to the attacks, Israel also decided to downsize the fishing zone accessible to Gazans from 10 nautical miles to six.

Tensions rose in Gaza last week as Hamas militants fired rockets against settlements near the Strip, leading Israel to respond with counter raids.

On implementing understandings, Hamas said that if Israel continued to stall protests would escalate.

“Israel's decision to stop the shipment of fuel to Gaza power station will badly influence the schedule of electricity distribution all over the Gaza Strip,”director general of Electricity Distribution Company in Gaza Zeyad Thabet said.

“Consequently, this would certainly badly influence the general daily life and increase the people's suffering in the Gaza Strip,” he stressed.

“The Gaza Strip will lose 75 megawatts of electricity if the power station completely stops,” Thabet added.

He pointed out that the basic reservoirs were completely destroyed in the aggression of 2014.

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Arab World

Gaza Health Officials Say 4 Killed in Israeli Strikes, Including Child

People operate on a destroyed vehicle following an Israeli airstrike in Gaza city, Saturday, Sept. 19, 2026. (AP)
People operate on a destroyed vehicle following an Israeli airstrike in Gaza city, Saturday, Sept. 19, 2026. (AP)
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Gaza Health Officials Say 4 Killed in Israeli Strikes, Including Child

People operate on a destroyed vehicle following an Israeli airstrike in Gaza city, Saturday, Sept. 19, 2026. (AP)
People operate on a destroyed vehicle following an Israeli airstrike in Gaza city, Saturday, Sept. 19, 2026. (AP)

Gaza's health officials said on Saturday that Israeli fire killed at least four people in the Palestinian territory, including a 10-year-old girl and the son of a top government official.

A statement from Gaza's health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority, said that the child "succumbed to wounds sustained this morning from Israeli army fire north of the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip".

An airstrike also killed Baseer al-Barsh, the son of Munir al-Barsh who serves as director-general of Gaza's health ministry, in an encampment for displaced people in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, the ministry said.

Speaking during his son's funeral, Munir Al-Bursh said the killing was "a continuation of (Israel's) crimes", according to a ministry statement.

In addition, two Palestinians were killed and several others injured in two separate strikes near Gaza City, according to Gaza's al-Shifa hospital and the territory's civil defense, a rescue agency operating under Hamas authority.

The Israeli army did not immediately respond to an AFP inquiry on the strikes.

Israel in October last year agreed to a ceasefire brokered by the United States but since then has advanced further into Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed no let-up in strikes targeting Hamas, which led the unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack against Israel, and no pullout from Gaza until Hamas gives up all of its weapons.

The 2023 attack killed 1,221 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. The gunmen also dragged into Gaza some 251 hostages, 44 of them already dead.

The massive Israeli offensive in response has left most of Gaza in ruins and killed more than 73,800 people, according to the Gaza health ministry, which is under Hamas authority and whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.

Israeli strikes have killed more than 1,300 people since the ceasefire was announced last year, according to the Gaza health ministry, whose figures are considered generally reliable by the United Nations.

The Israeli army has identified five deaths in its ranks over the same period, as well as the death of one civilian contractor.

Arab World

Syria Says Arrested Assad-Era General Who Led Attacks on Opposition

Former Major General Ahmed Mohammad Ismail after his arrest. (Syrian Internal Security Forces)
Former Major General Ahmed Mohammad Ismail after his arrest. (Syrian Internal Security Forces)
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Syria Says Arrested Assad-Era General Who Led Attacks on Opposition

Former Major General Ahmed Mohammad Ismail after his arrest. (Syrian Internal Security Forces)
Former Major General Ahmed Mohammad Ismail after his arrest. (Syrian Internal Security Forces)

Syrian authorities on Saturday said they arrested a general who served under the rule of ousted president Bashar al-Assad, saying he led operations against formerly opposition-held areas during the country's 13-year civil war.

In a statement, security forces announced "the arrest of former Major General Ahmed Mohammad Ismail, a high-ranking commander in the Republican Guard of the former regime's army".

Military records indicate that "he began his service as a platoon commander, then served as a company commander in the 2nd Battalion of the 101st Airborne Regiment. He was subsequently promoted, at the beginning of 2016, to Chief of Operations of the same regiment, and directly participated in commanding military assaults on the cities of Aleppo and Daraa, as well as on Eastern Ghouta."

Located near Damascus, Eastern Ghouta was an opposition stronghold during the civil war until 2018, and the site of a major chemical attack five years prior.

US intelligence says more than 1,000 people were killed with sarin nerve gas in the suburb of the Syrian capital Damascus, in 2013 during Syria's civil war.

The attack was attributed to the Syrian government under the rule of Assad, who was toppled in late 2024.

The government at the time denied involvement and blamed the opposition factions.

Since Assad was overthrown in December 2024, Syria's new authorities have arrested dozens of former security officials, while trials began in April.

Earlier this month Syrian authorities said they had arrested nine former pilots including three generals accused of taking part in lethal bombings of towns and villages under Assad's rule.

Syria sentenced Bashar al-Assad, his brother Maher, and five other security officials to death in absentia in August for atrocities committed during the civil war.

The former president fled Syria as his government fell and is believed to be living in Russia.

Arab World

UN Peacekeeping Chief in Lebanon Says Smooth Transition Is Critical Before Pullout

Head of Mission and Force Commander of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) Major General Diodato Abagnara of the Italian Army at the UNIFIL base, near Mansouri, Southern Lebanon, September 19, 2026. (Reuters)
Head of Mission and Force Commander of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) Major General Diodato Abagnara of the Italian Army at the UNIFIL base, near Mansouri, Southern Lebanon, September 19, 2026. (Reuters)
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UN Peacekeeping Chief in Lebanon Says Smooth Transition Is Critical Before Pullout

Head of Mission and Force Commander of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) Major General Diodato Abagnara of the Italian Army at the UNIFIL base, near Mansouri, Southern Lebanon, September 19, 2026. (Reuters)
Head of Mission and Force Commander of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) Major General Diodato Abagnara of the Italian Army at the UNIFIL base, near Mansouri, Southern Lebanon, September 19, 2026. (Reuters)

The head of United Nations peacekeepers in Lebanon said on Saturday it was critical to ensure other UN agencies and Lebanese troops could assume the tasks carried out by the force before it begins withdrawing at the end of this year.

Major General Diodato Abagnara of Italy spoke to Reuters in southern Lebanon at a position operated by the UN peacekeeping force known as UNIFIL, which has been monitoring hostilities in southern Lebanon for nearly 50 years.

Since a new war erupted between Israel and Iran-backed Lebanese armed ‌group Hezbollah in ‌March, the force has also provided security escorts for humanitarian aid ‌convoys ⁠to residents in a ⁠small cluster of predominantly Christian southern Lebanese towns now encircled by Israeli troops. Residents in much of the rest of southern Lebanon have been forcibly displaced by Israeli strikes and evacuation orders.

The UN Security Council has ordered UNIFIL to begin withdrawing at the end of 2026, triggering concerns over whether aid deliveries can continue and how the force can transfer its positions to Lebanese troops.

“There are other United Nations entities here in the south, and so what is ⁠very important for us (is) to conduct a very smooth transition to ‌different entities, or for the future of a new ‌mission,” Abagnara told Reuters.

He said UNIFIL was already working with the UN’s country team to ensure ‌humanitarian assistance in Israeli-occupied areas and information sharing with the Lebanese army about “sensitive areas (and) how ‌they can manage this situation.”

Abagnara acknowledged that it could be “very difficult” to hand over some of UNIFIL's posts to Lebanese troops given that more than half lie within areas now controlled by Israeli troops.

ISRAEL DEMOLISHES TOWN NEAR UN POST

Diplomats worry UNIFIL’s departure will mean an end to the UN's "eyes and ‌ears" in southern Lebanon.

Abagnara spoke to Reuters at a position overlooking Mansouri, a town where Israeli forces have been carrying out demolitions ⁠since ordering residents ⁠to leave in June, despite a ceasefire. Reuters reporters could see excavators in the town knocking down trees and multi-storey homes.

Abagnara described demolitions as “another violation” of UN Security Council resolutions on Lebanon. Israel's military has said it is destroying Hezbollah infrastructure across southern Lebanon.

As a US-backed plan for Lebanon's army to disarm Hezbollah and take control of southern Lebanon has stalled, a diplomatic scramble is underway to address the vacuum that will be left by UNIFIL’s withdrawal.

Lebanon wants an extension. Other countries have discussed a new multinational mission, though it remains unclear what kind of mandate it would have.

Abagnara said an extension would be “a great honor” but that without a new Security Council decision, his force would need to stop operating at the end of the year.

“It's not a long time," he said. "The presence of United Nations in the South is very, very essential. And according to me, more now than ever.”