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Israel Strikes Kill Senior Hamas Commander, Palestinians Fire Rockets

The remains of a building destroyed by Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City, Wednesday, May 12, 2021. (AP Photo)
The remains of a building destroyed by Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City, Wednesday, May 12, 2021. (AP Photo)
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Israel Strikes Kill Senior Hamas Commander, Palestinians Fire Rockets

The remains of a building destroyed by Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City, Wednesday, May 12, 2021. (AP Photo)
The remains of a building destroyed by Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City, Wednesday, May 12, 2021. (AP Photo)

Israel said it killed 16 members of the Hamas armed wing in Gaza in a barrage on Wednesday and Palestinian militants rained rockets into Israel as Washington said it would send an envoy to try to calm their most intense hostilities in years.

At least 56 people have been killed in Gaza since violence escalated on Monday, according to the enclave's health ministry. Six people have been killed in Israel, medical officials said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the brigade commander for Gaza City was among senior members of the militant group who had been killed. "This is just the beginning. We'll hit them like they've never dreamed possible," he said.

Soon after the announcement, a new rocket barrage was fired at the Israeli city of Ashdod and Israeli media said the military was preparing for new salvoes on the Tel Aviv area.

Hamas confirmed the death of the commander and of "other leaders and holy warriors" in a statement. Its leader Ismail Haniyeh added: "The confrontation with the enemy is open-ended."

A Palestinian source said truce efforts by Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations had made no progress to end violence that flared this week after tension during the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan and clashes in East Jerusalem.

Describing the scenes of destruction as "harrowing", US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said a senior aide, Hady Amr, would be sent to urge Israelis and Palestinians to seek calm.

Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin reaffirmed "ironclad support for Israel's legitimate right to defend itself". Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said Israel would continue to strike Hamas to restore long-term calm, according to a statement on their call.

The fighting is the heaviest between Israel and Hamas since a 2014 war in the Hamas-ruled enclave, and concern is growing that the situation could spiral out of control.

In Gaza, a multi-storey residential building and a tower housing Hamas and other media outlets collapsed after Israel warned occupants in advance to evacuate, and another structure was heavily damaged in the air strikes.

Other air strikes hit what Israel's military said were rocket launch sites, Hamas offices and homes of Hamas leaders.

"Israel has gone crazy," said a man on a Gaza street, where people ran out of their homes as explosions rocked buildings.

Twenty-four people were killed in Israeli air strikes on Gaza on Wednesday, Gaza's health ministry said. Witnesses and health officials in Gaza said one Israeli air strike killed three people, including a woman, in a car.

Many Israelis also spent a sleepless night as waves of rockets hit Israel's heartland.

"The children have escaped the coronavirus, and now a new trauma," an Israeli woman in the coastal city of Ashkelon told Channel 11 TV.

Israelis ran to shelters or lay on pavements in some communities far from Gaza.

"All of Israel is under attack. It's a very scary situation to be in," said Margo Aronovic, a 26-year-old student, in Tel Aviv.

Along the Gaza border, an Israeli soldier was killed by an anti-tank missile, the military said. Two people were killed by a rocket in Lod, near Tel Aviv.

Child casualties

US energy corporation Chevron said it had shut down the Tamar natural gas platform off the Israeli coast on the instructions of the Energy Ministry. Israel said its energy needs would continue to be met.

Hamas said it fired 210 rockets towards Beersheba in southern Israel and at Tel Aviv overnight in response to the strikes on a tower building in Gaza City.

"If they (Israel) want to escalate, the resistance is ready, if they want to stop, the resistance is ready," Haniyeh said.

For Israel, the targeting of Tel Aviv, its commercial capital, posed a new challenge in the confrontation with Hamas, regarded as a terrorist organization by Israel and the United States.

The violence followed weeks of tension during Ramadan, with clashes between Israeli police and Palestinian protesters near Al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem.

These escalated ahead of a court hearing - now postponed - that could lead to the eviction of Palestinian families from East Jerusalem homes claimed by Jewish settlers.

The conflict has led to the freezing of talks by Netanyahu's opponents on forming a governing coalition to unseat him after Israel's inconclusive March 23 election.

Violence has also flared in the occupied West Bank. Medical sources said a 16-year-old Palestinian was killed in clashes with Israeli forces on Wednesday. Gaza's health ministry said 14 of the people reported killed in the enclave were children. The Israeli military said 200 of more than 1,000 rockets fired by Gaza factions had fallen short, potentially causing some Palestinian civilian casualties.

Israel has dispatched infantry and armor to reinforce tanks already gathered on the border, evoking memories of its last ground incursion into Gaza to stop rocket attacks in 2014.

Although the latest problems in Jerusalem were the immediate trigger for hostilities, Palestinians have also been frustrated as their aspirations for an independent state have suffered setbacks in recent years.

These include Washington's recognition of disputed Jerusalem as Israel's capital, a US plan to end the conflict that they saw as favorable to Israel, and continued settlement building.

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Arab World

Lebanon Pushes to Retain UN Presence in the South

Members of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in southern Lebanon (Reuters)
Members of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in southern Lebanon (Reuters)
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Lebanon Pushes to Retain UN Presence in the South

Members of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in southern Lebanon (Reuters)
Members of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in southern Lebanon (Reuters)

Lebanon is stepping up a political and diplomatic drive to maintain a UN presence in the south while rallying support for its army, as Beirut and Paris push to revisit the deadline to end UNIFIL’s mission.

Beirut is treating that issue separately from proposals for a European initiative to support the military.

A UNIFIL peacekeeper during a patrol by the UN mission in southern Lebanon (UNIFIL)

Beirut insists on UN presence

An informed source told Asharq Al-Awsat that the proposed European force “is being discussed on a separate track from the southern Lebanon file and is not directly linked to UNIFIL’s future or to any arrangements concerning the international force in southern Lebanon.”

The European track is largely focused on supporting and training the army, as well as on domestic military and institutional matters, the source said.

“It should not be confused with the debate over the form of the international presence in the south after UNIFIL’s mission ends,” the source added.

Lebanon remains committed to keeping a UN force in the south, though discussions could cover a smaller mission or one with a different structure and mandate.

“For Lebanon, the priority is to preserve a UN framework and an international presence in the south,” the source said. “Diplomatic efforts are continuing, but the proposals remain broad ideas, with no final details.”

International discussions over the next phase are continuing alongside a Paris-launched initiative to train, support and strengthen the Lebanese army. The shape of any future international presence in the south remains undecided.

UNIFIL soldiers conducting a foot patrol near the border fence with Israel in southern Lebanon (UNIFIL)

Push for an extension

Lebanese lawmakers are also rallying support for UNIFIL’s continued presence.

MP Fadi Alame, head of the Lebanese parliament’s Foreign Affairs and Emigrants Committee, said the position presented during meetings with representatives of UN Security Council member states was “very clear: Lebanon insists on extending UNIFIL’s mandate and preserving an effective UN presence in southern Lebanon.”

Current conditions make that presence “more necessary than ever,” he told Asharq Al-Awsat.

“The committee hosted representatives of Security Council member states in the presence of the defense minister and a representative of the foreign minister,” Alame said.

“We focused clearly on the need to extend UNIFIL’s mandate. What matters to us is maintaining the UN presence and ensuring that international forces remain active and effective on the ground.”

With parts of southern Lebanon occupied and devastated, the situation increasingly recalls conditions the country faced from the late 1970s onward, he said.

“The south needs an effective UN presence more than ever,” Alame added. “We stressed that point to the ambassadors and diplomatic missions we met.”

UNIFIL vehicles traveling along the coastal road towards Naqoura town in southern Lebanon (UNIFIL)

Lebanon, therefore, insists on maintaining a UN mandate and keeping Security Council Resolution 1701 as the guiding framework, he said.

“Implementing that resolution requires UN forces on the ground.”

Mission deadline under scrutiny

The Security Council decided in August 2025 to extend UNIFIL’s mandate for the final time, until Dec. 31, 2026. Operations are due to end on that date, followed by an orderly and safe drawdown and withdrawal over one year.

Alame said the decision to end the mission this year should be reconsidered.

“We, as parliament and as the Lebanese state, are working to convince the countries concerned that the current situation requires this force to remain,” he said. “It must play an effective role, continue its duties, cooperate with the Lebanese army and assist it.”

When Resolution 1701 was adopted, only limited areas remained under Israeli occupation, Alame said. Today, there are both occupied and devastated areas.

“That makes a UN force on the ground more necessary — not only to monitor and record violations, but also to help stabilize the situation and support the Lebanese army’s deployment.”

Members of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in southern Lebanon (Reuters)

Diplomatic drive in New York

Lebanon and France are meanwhile pushing to keep UNIFIL in place for an additional period.

The Financial Times reported that Beirut had told the Security Council that ending the mandate under current conditions would be premature and called for a limited extension. France and most council members backed the Lebanese request, while Israel opposed it.

Foreign Minister Youssef Raggi has left for New York to attend the UN General Assembly and meet international officials and Arab and foreign counterparts.

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam will lead the Lebanese delegation. The high-level general debate begins on Tuesday, Sept. 22.

In Washington, contacts over Lebanon and negotiations with Israel are continuing after a round of talks scheduled for Rome in September was postponed until October.

A Lebanese presidency statement gave no details about the planned meeting or its participants.

Arab World

Iraq Reopens Airspace to Civilian Flights After Years of Military Restrictions

The exterior of Baghdad International Airport (Reuters)
The exterior of Baghdad International Airport (Reuters)
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Iraq Reopens Airspace to Civilian Flights After Years of Military Restrictions

The exterior of Baghdad International Airport (Reuters)
The exterior of Baghdad International Airport (Reuters)

Iraq said on Friday it had reopened parts of its airspace that had been reserved for military operations against ISIS to civilian aviation after a 10-year closure.

The areas are now available to civilian aircraft, including flights transiting Iraqi airspace, in a move economists said could lower aviation operating costs.

Iraq’s airport management company said areas designated for military operations within the country’s airspace were no longer being used for that purpose and were now ready for civilian air traffic.

The state news agency quoted the company’s director, Ehab Karim, as saying that airspace previously reserved across western Iraq, from north to south, had been handed over to the General Company for Airports and Air Navigation Management for civilian aviation use.

The areas, stretching from the northernmost reaches of Nineveh province to the southern Anbar desert, had largely been reserved for sorties by the international coalition fighting ISIS and the Iraqi Air Force. Iraq began closing them in late 2016.

Karim said procedures to reopen the areas to civilian aviation would pave the way for Iraq’s Aeronautical Information Publication to be updated and made available to international airlines.

Returning the areas to civilian use would provide greater flexibility to establish new air routes, increase revenue, streamline civilian air traffic and support the national economy, Karim said.

He added that Iraqi airports were ready to provide services to all domestic and foreign airlines once the routes opened.

Iraq’s recovery

The Office of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces said it was ready to support the General Company for Airports and Air Navigation Management following the formal closure of the file on restricted zones in Iraqi airspace.

“This announcement represents an important step towards restoring Iraq’s regional and international standing in air navigation and confirms the country’s recovery and security stability,” the office said in a statement.

It said the move would help improve the management of Iraqi airspace, increase national revenue from aircraft transit fees and facilitate civilian air traffic between continents.

Iraq’s Transport Ministry said in a statement that an airspace management team at the Air Operations Center had established on a technical basis that the military air zones listed in Iraq’s Aeronautical Information Publication were no longer being used for military operations.

The development would pave the way for the completion of technical and regulatory procedures to remove the zones from the publication in coordination with the relevant authorities, the ministry added.

Security expert Fadel Abu Raghif told Asharq Al-Awsat that Iraq was capable of efficiently managing and securing its airspace after the routes were opened.

He also noted the importance of the decision coinciding with the withdrawal of international coalition forces from Iraq by Sept. 30, 2026.

Major shift

Economic expert Ziad al-Hashimi described the decision as a “major shift” for Iraq’s aviation sector, saying it would allow greater traffic and flexibility in the movement and management of air routes through Iraqi airspace.

Al-Hashimi said the decision was likely to shorten flight times and reduce operating costs for airlines transiting Iraqi airspace, particularly those arriving from Europe and Asia.

He added that it would help attract more airlines that had previously regarded alternative or restricted routes as costly to operate.

“The more flights that transit Iraqi airspace, the greater the revenue received by the Iraqi government,” he said.

Al-Hashimi cautioned, however, that European restrictions continued to impede the effective use of Iraqi airspace, with a warning remaining in effect until the end of this month.

After that, he said, the Iraqi government would need to persuade the European Union Aviation Safety Agency to allow European airlines to resume using Iraqi airspace and provide the necessary assurances, particularly regarding the safety of new and existing air routes.

Arab World

Diplomatic, Military Push for Lebanon in Paris

Group photo of participants in a meeting to support the Lebanese Armed Forces in Paris on Thursday (French president’s account)
Group photo of participants in a meeting to support the Lebanese Armed Forces in Paris on Thursday (French president’s account)
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Diplomatic, Military Push for Lebanon in Paris

Group photo of participants in a meeting to support the Lebanese Armed Forces in Paris on Thursday (French president’s account)
Group photo of participants in a meeting to support the Lebanese Armed Forces in Paris on Thursday (French president’s account)

Senior officials and military officers gathered in Paris on Thursday to discuss support for the Lebanese Armed Forces and security services.

French President Emmanuel Macron first met Lebanese President Joseph Aoun at the Elysee Palace before the two joined Jordan’s King Abdullah II for a trilateral summit at Les Invalides.

The three leaders later opened a technical-military meeting attended by military commanders, chiefs of staff and senior officers from 17 countries and organizations.

“Paris is today the place where our partners are coming together to strengthen Lebanon’s sovereignty and enable it to fully ensure its own security,” Macron wrote on X.

“A Lebanon at peace offers renewed hope for the entire Middle East. A sovereign and stable Lebanon is a decisive step toward peace and stability across the region.”

“Together with the Lebanese president and the king of Jordan, and in close coordination with the United States, Saudi Arabia and our international partners, we support the Lebanese Armed Forces, which are indispensable to asserting the authority of the Lebanese state throughout its territory,” he added.

Turning to wider regional tensions, Macron argued that “diplomacy and dialogue alone” could end an escalation with no prospect of resolution.

He reiterated France’s solidarity with Jordan and condemnation of Iranian attacks, while stressing the importance of freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab Strait.

Regional Dimension

Aoun revealed measures taken by the state and urged support for its armed forces as an investment in regional security and stability.

King Abdullah’s participation, within the framework of the Aqaba Process, gave the meeting a broader regional dimension.

According to Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA), citing presidential sources, the three leaders discussed the “dangerous regional situation” and stressed the need to intensify international efforts toward comprehensive and sustainable de-escalation. They also discussed developments in Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem.

Aoun stressed the interconnected nature of regional security and called for a common regional security strategy based on joint energy projects and economic, security and political cooperation.

The Lebanese president also sought to put behind him a period of strained relations with France, thanking Macron for France’s support for Lebanon and its efforts to strengthen state authority, sovereignty and official institutions.

He praised Macron’s efforts, in cooperation with the Italian prime minister, to find an alternative to UNIFIL to prevent a security vacuum in South Lebanon, and called for broader economic and energy cooperation, including the resumption of oil and gas exploration in Lebanese blocks.

‘A Moment for Decision’

Aoun painted a bleak picture of conditions in South Lebanon because of Israeli attacks and practices, but said the country now had an opportunity based on “a clear determination to rebuild the state and its institutions and move forward with the reforms the country needs.”

He said the goal was to establish “a strong state and effective institutions,” with the army and security services playing a central role.

While emphasizing the importance of the state’s monopoly on weapons, Aoun insisted that this was “first and foremost a Lebanese choice and a Lebanese interest.”

He also defended negotiations with Israel, warning that agreements succeed not merely by being signed but by being respected and implemented by all parties.

He called on Lebanon’s “friends and partners” to help ensure the full implementation of what had been agreed and to treat Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity as a principle “not subject to selectivity.”

Aoun detailed the army’s responsibilities, including extending state authority, maintaining security and stability, preventing border violations and combating smuggling. He also highlighted the role it would be expected to assume after UNIFIL’s mission ends to prevent a security vacuum.

“There can be no strengthening of state authority without strong, effective military and security institutions present throughout Lebanese territory,” he underlined.

The Lebanese president called for concrete results from the preparatory meeting, including a roadmap and clear timetable for an international conference to support the army and Internal Security Forces, as well as a long-term approach to assisting Lebanon’s security institutions.

He pledged “full transparency and accountability” and said the Lebanese state would assume a growing share of financing its security institutions.

“Invest in the success of the Lebanese state and in the stability of the region,” Aoun concluded. “This is a moment for decision, not a moment for waiting.”