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Arab World

Israeli Airstrike Kills 1 and Wounds 11 Including Students in Southern Lebanon

Paramedics and people gather near damaged cars at the site of the Israeli strike that killed several people yesterday night, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry, inside the Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp in the southern city of Sidon, Lebanon, November 19, 2025. (Reuters)
Paramedics and people gather near damaged cars at the site of the Israeli strike that killed several people yesterday night, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry, inside the Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp in the southern city of Sidon, Lebanon, November 19, 2025. (Reuters)
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Israeli Airstrike Kills 1 and Wounds 11 Including Students in Southern Lebanon

Paramedics and people gather near damaged cars at the site of the Israeli strike that killed several people yesterday night, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry, inside the Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp in the southern city of Sidon, Lebanon, November 19, 2025. (Reuters)
Paramedics and people gather near damaged cars at the site of the Israeli strike that killed several people yesterday night, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry, inside the Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp in the southern city of Sidon, Lebanon, November 19, 2025. (Reuters)

An Israeli airstrike on a car in southern Lebanese village of Tiri on Wednesday killed one person and wounded 11 including students aboard a nearby bus, the Health Ministry and state media said.

State-run National News Agency said a school bus with students happened to be passing near the car that was hit Wednesday morning. The bus driver and several students were wounded, the report said.

The identity of the person who died in the car wasn't immediately clear. The Israeli military did not comment Wednesday.

Also on Wednesday, the Israeli military said it had killed two Hezbollah members in strikes the previous day in south Lebanon, where Israel has carried out repeated attacks despite the ceasefire between Israel and the Iran-backed group.

The military said in a statement it had "struck and eliminated two Hezbollah terrorists in the areas of Bint Jbeil and Blida in southern Lebanon" on Tuesday.

It said the Hezbollah member killed in Bint Jbeil was involved in rebuilding the group's military capacities, severely weakened by the recent war with Israel.

The statement said the Hezbollah member killed in Blida had been gathering intelligence on the Israeli military.

The Israeli announcement comes a day after at least 13 people were killed in an Israeli strike Tuesday night on the Ain al-Hilweh camp for Palestinian refugees in southern Lebanon, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health.

The Israeli army said it targeted a "training compound" belonging to the Palestinian group Hamas.

The Israeli army announced Monday it had killed a Hezbollah member in south Lebanon, accusing him of being responsible for coordination between Hezbollah and the residents in the Mansouri area, where Israel conducted the strike.

Lebanon accuses Israel of violating the ceasefire agreement reached under US and French sponsorship on November 27, 2024 through its strikes and by maintaining forces inside its territory.

Israel accuses Hezbollah of working to rebuild its military capabilities and of breaking the ceasefire terms.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently accused Hezbollah of attempting to rebuild its capabilities and rearm itself.

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Arab World

Lebanon FM Urges Iran to Find ‘New Approach’ on Hezbollah Arms

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi (L) shakes hands with Lebanese Minister of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants Youssef Raggi (R) at the Foreign Ministry in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, 09 January 2026. (EPA)
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi (L) shakes hands with Lebanese Minister of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants Youssef Raggi (R) at the Foreign Ministry in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, 09 January 2026. (EPA)
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Lebanon FM Urges Iran to Find ‘New Approach’ on Hezbollah Arms

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi (L) shakes hands with Lebanese Minister of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants Youssef Raggi (R) at the Foreign Ministry in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, 09 January 2026. (EPA)
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi (L) shakes hands with Lebanese Minister of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants Youssef Raggi (R) at the Foreign Ministry in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, 09 January 2026. (EPA)

Lebanese Foreign Minister Youssef Raggi on Friday urged his visiting Iranian counterpart to find a "new approach" to the thorny issue of disarming the Iran-backed Hezbollah group.

Lebanon is under heavy US pressure to disarm Hezbollah, which was heavily weakened in more than a year of hostilities with Israel that largely ended with a November 2024 ceasefire, but Iran and the group have expressed opposition to the move.

Iran has long wielded substantial influence in Lebanon by funding and arming Hezbollah, but as the balance of power shifted since the recent conflict, officials have been more critical towards Tehran.

"The defense of Lebanon is the sole responsibility of the Lebanese state", which must have a monopoly on weapons, Raggi told Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, a Lebanese foreign ministry statement said.

Raggi called on Iran to engage in talks with Lebanon to find "a new approach to the issue of Hezbollah's weapons, drawing on Iran's relationship with the party, so that these weapons do not become a pretext for weakening Lebanon".

He asked Araghchi "whether Tehran would accept the presence of an illegal armed organization on its own territory".

Last month, Raggi declined an invitation to visit Iran and proposed meeting in a neutral third country.

Lebanon's army said Thursday that it had completed the first phase of disarming Hezbollah, doing so in the south Lebanon area near the border with Israel, which called the efforts "far from sufficient".

Araghchi also met President Joseph Aoun on Friday and was set to hold talks with several other senior officials.

After arriving on Thursday, he visited the mausoleum of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in a massive Israeli air strike on south Beirut in September 2024.

Last August, Lebanese leaders firmly rejected any efforts at foreign interference during a visit by Iran's security chief Ali Larijani, with the prime minister saying Beirut would "tolerate neither tutelage nor diktat" after Tehran voiced opposition to plans to disarm Hezbollah.

Arab World

Hamas Says Israeli Strikes on Gaza ‘Cannot Happen without American Cover’

Palestinians inspect damaged tents at a displacement camp following an Israeli strike in Gaza City, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP)
Palestinians inspect damaged tents at a displacement camp following an Israeli strike in Gaza City, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP)
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Hamas Says Israeli Strikes on Gaza ‘Cannot Happen without American Cover’

Palestinians inspect damaged tents at a displacement camp following an Israeli strike in Gaza City, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP)
Palestinians inspect damaged tents at a displacement camp following an Israeli strike in Gaza City, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP)

A Hamas official said Friday that Israeli strikes on Gaza "cannot happen without American cover", the day after Israeli attacks killed at least 13 people according to the Palestinian territory's civil defense agency.

Since October 10, a fragile US-sponsored truce in Gaza has largely halted the fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas, but both sides have alleged frequent violations.

Gaza's civil defense agency -- which operates as a rescue force under Hamas authority -- said Israeli attacks across the territory on Thursday killed at least 13 people, including five children.

In a statement on Friday morning, the Israeli military said it "precisely struck Hamas terrorists and terror infrastructure" in response to a "failed projectile" launch.

"Just yesterday, 13 people were killed in different areas of the Strip on fabricated pretexts, in addition to the hundreds of killed and wounded who preceded them after the ceasefire," Hamas political bureau member, Bassem Naim, wrote on Telegram.

"This cannot happen without American cover or a green light."

Israeli forces have killed at least 439 Palestinians in Gaza since the ceasefire took effect, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

The Israeli military said gunmen have killed three of its soldiers during the same period.

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by both sides.

Naim also accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of "evading his commitments and escalating in order to sabotage the agreement and return to war".

He said the Palestinian movement had "complied with all its obligations under the agreement" and was "ready to engage positively and constructively with the next steps of the plan".

Israel has previously said it is awaiting the return of the last hostage body held in Gaza before beginning talks on the second phase of the ceasefire and has insisted that Hamas disarm.

Hamas officials told AFP that search operations for the remains of deceased hostage Ran Gvili resumed on Wednesday after a two-week pause due to bad weather.

Arab World

Germany Calls on Israel to Halt E1 Settlement Plan

A view of Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, in the West Bank, Sunday, June 18, 2023. (AP)
A view of Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, in the West Bank, Sunday, June 18, 2023. (AP)
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Germany Calls on Israel to Halt E1 Settlement Plan

A view of Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, in the West Bank, Sunday, June 18, 2023. (AP)
A view of Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, in the West Bank, Sunday, June 18, 2023. (AP)

Germany calls on Israel to halt its controversial ​E1 settlement project, said a foreign ministry spokesperson in Berlin on Friday, warning that construction carries the risk of ‌creating more ‌instability in the ‌West ⁠Bank ​and ‌the region.

"The plans for the E1 settlement project, it must be said, are part of a comprehensive ⁠intensification of settlement policy in ‌the West Bank, ‍which ‍we have recently ‍observed," said the spokesperson at a regular government press conference.

"It carries the ​risk of creating even more instability, as it ⁠would further restrict the mobility of the Palestinian population in the West Bank," as well as jeopardize the prospects of a two-state solution, the spokesperson added.