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US Senator Accuses Hamas and Hezbollah of Rearming

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) speaks to reporters after Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio attend closed door meetings with lawmakers on Capitol Hill on December 16, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images via AFP)
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) speaks to reporters after Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio attend closed door meetings with lawmakers on Capitol Hill on December 16, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images via AFP)
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US Senator Accuses Hamas and Hezbollah of Rearming

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) speaks to reporters after Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio attend closed door meetings with lawmakers on Capitol Hill on December 16, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images via AFP)
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) speaks to reporters after Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio attend closed door meetings with lawmakers on Capitol Hill on December 16, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images via AFP)

US Senator Lindsey Graham accused Hamas and Hezbollah of rearming during a visit to Israel on Sunday, and charged that the Palestinian group was also consolidating power in Gaza.

After two years of war between Israel and Hamas in the Palestinian territory, a fragile ceasefire has held since October, despite both sides trading accusations of violations.

A separate ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanese movement Hezbollah came into effect in November 2024 after more than a year of hostilities, though Israel continues to carry out strikes on Lebanese territory.

Israel has made dismantling the arsenals of both groups, allies of its arch-foe Iran, a key condition for any lasting peace.

"My impression is that Hamas is not disarming, they are rearming," Graham said in a video statement issued by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office.

"It's my impression that they are trying to consolidate power (and) not give it up in Gaza."

The South Carolina Republican -- a staunch ally of US President Donald Trump, who helped broker the Gaza ceasefire -- added that he believed Hezbollah was likewise seeking to rearm itself.

"My impression is that Hezbollah is trying to make more weapons... That's not an acceptable outcome," he said.

"On both counts you are right," responded Netanyahu, praising the senator as a "great friend of Israel".

Graham's remarks came a day after mediators the United States, Qatar, Egypt and Türkiye urged both sides in the Gaza war to uphold the ceasefire.

The mediators are pressing for the implementation of the second phase of the truce, which would involve an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, the establishment of an interim authority to govern the territory in place of Hamas and the deployment of an international stabilization force.

The second phase also envisages the demilitarization of Gaza, including the disarmament of Hamas.

Hamas has called on the mediators and Washington to stop Israeli "violations" of the ceasefire.

On Friday, six people, including two children, were killed in an Israeli bombing of a school serving as a shelter for displaced people, according to the civil defense agency in Gaza, which operates under the authority of Hamas.

The Lebanese government, meanwhile, has committed to disarming Hezbollah, starting in the country's south.

Israel, however, has questioned the effectiveness of the Lebanese military, and Hezbollah itself has repeatedly refused to lay down its weapons.

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Arab World

Sudan Drone Attack on Darfur Market Kills 10

Sudanese refugee girls carry water supplies near a polling station in the refugee camp of Zamzam, on the outskirts of el-Fasher, Darfur, Sudan, on April 13, 2010. (AP)
Sudanese refugee girls carry water supplies near a polling station in the refugee camp of Zamzam, on the outskirts of el-Fasher, Darfur, Sudan, on April 13, 2010. (AP)
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Sudan Drone Attack on Darfur Market Kills 10

Sudanese refugee girls carry water supplies near a polling station in the refugee camp of Zamzam, on the outskirts of el-Fasher, Darfur, Sudan, on April 13, 2010. (AP)
Sudanese refugee girls carry water supplies near a polling station in the refugee camp of Zamzam, on the outskirts of el-Fasher, Darfur, Sudan, on April 13, 2010. (AP)

A drone attack on a busy market in Sudan's North Darfur state killed 10 people over the weekend, first responders said on Sunday, without saying who was responsible.

The attack comes as fighting intensified elsewhere in the country, leading aid workers to be evacuated on Sunday from Kadugli, a besieged, famine-hit city in the south.

Since April 2023, Sudan's army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have been locked in a conflict which has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced nearly 12 million and created the world's largest displacement and hunger crisis.

The North Darfur Emergency Rooms Council, one of hundreds of volunteer groups coordinating aid across Sudan, said a drone strike hit Al-Harra market in the RSF-controlled town of Malha on Saturday.

The attack killed 10 people, it said.

The council did not identify who carried out the attack, which it said had also sparked "fire in shops and caused extensive material damage".

There was no immediate comment from either the Sudanese army or the RSF.

The war's current focal point is now South Kordofan and clashes have escalated in Kadugli, the state capital, where a drone attack last week killed eight people as they attempted to flee the army-controlled city.

A source from a humanitarian organization operating in Kadugli told AFP on Sunday that humanitarian groups had "evacuated all their workers" from the city because of the security conditions.

The evacuation followed the United Nations' decision to relocate its logistics hub from Kadugli, the source said on condition of anonymity, without specifying where the staff had gone.

- Measles outbreak -

Kadugli and nearby Dilling have been besieged by paramilitary forces since the war erupted.

Last week, the RSF claimed control of the Brno area, a key defensive line on the road between Kadugli and Dilling.

After dislodging the army in October from the western city of el-Fasher -- its last stronghold in the Darfur region -- the RSF has shifted its focus to resource-rich Kordofan, a strategic crossroads linking army-held northern and eastern territories with RSF-held Darfur in the west.

Like Darfur, Kordofan is home to numerous non-Sudanese Arab ethnic groups. Much of the violence that followed the fall of el-Fasher was reportedly ethnically targeted.

Communications in Kordofan have been cut, and the United Nations declared a famine in Kadugli last month.

According to the UN's International Organization for Migration, more than 50,000 civilians have fled the region since the end of October.

Residents have been forced to forage for food in nearby forests, according to accounts gathered by AFP.

Doctors without Borders (MSF) said on Sunday that measles was spreading in three of the four states in Darfur, a vast region covering much of western Sudan.

"A preventable measles outbreak is spreading across Central, South and West Darfur," the organization said in a statement.

"Since September 2025, MSF teams have treated more than 1,300 cases. Delays in vaccine transport, approvals and coordination, by authorities and key partners are leaving children unprotected."

Arab World

Foreign Press Group Welcomes Israel Court Deadline on Gaza Access

A Palestinian man carries the body of his 5-month-old brother, Ahmed Al-Nader, who was reportedly killed the previous day along with other family members in an Israeli shelling on a school-turned-shelter in the Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza City, ahead of his funeral on December 20, 2025. (AFP)
A Palestinian man carries the body of his 5-month-old brother, Ahmed Al-Nader, who was reportedly killed the previous day along with other family members in an Israeli shelling on a school-turned-shelter in the Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza City, ahead of his funeral on December 20, 2025. (AFP)
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Foreign Press Group Welcomes Israel Court Deadline on Gaza Access

A Palestinian man carries the body of his 5-month-old brother, Ahmed Al-Nader, who was reportedly killed the previous day along with other family members in an Israeli shelling on a school-turned-shelter in the Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza City, ahead of his funeral on December 20, 2025. (AFP)
A Palestinian man carries the body of his 5-month-old brother, Ahmed Al-Nader, who was reportedly killed the previous day along with other family members in an Israeli shelling on a school-turned-shelter in the Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza City, ahead of his funeral on December 20, 2025. (AFP)

The Foreign Press Association in Jerusalem on Sunday welcomed the Israeli Supreme Court's decision to set January 4 as the deadline for Israel to respond to its petition seeking media access to Gaza.

Since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, sparked by Palestinian group Hamas's attack on Israel, Israeli authorities have prevented foreign journalists from independently entering the devastated territory.

Israel has instead allowed, on a case-by-case basis, a handful of reporters to accompany its troops into the blockaded Palestinian territory.

The Foreign Press Association (FPA), which represents hundreds of foreign journalists in Israel and the Palestinian territories, filed a petition to the supreme court last year, seeking immediate access for international journalists to the Gaza Strip.

On October 23, the court held a first hearing on the case, and decided to give Israeli authorities one month to develop a plan for granting access.

Since then, the court has given several extensions to the Israeli authorities to come up with their plan, but on Saturday it set January 4 as a final deadline.

"If the respondents (Israeli authorities) do not inform us of their position by that date, a decision on the request for a conditional order will be made on the basis of the material in the case file," the court said.

The FPA welcomed the court's latest directive.

"After two years of the state's delay tactics, we are pleased that the court's patience has finally run out," the association said in a statement.

"We renew our call for the state of Israel to immediately grant journalists free and unfettered access to the Gaza Strip.

"And should the government continue to obstruct press freedoms, we hope that the supreme court will recognize and uphold those freedoms," it added.

Arab World

One Dead in Israeli Strikes on South Lebanon

Smoke rises from the site of a series of Israeli airstrikes that targeted the outskirts of the southern Lebanese village of al-Katrani on December 18, 2025. (AFP)
Smoke rises from the site of a series of Israeli airstrikes that targeted the outskirts of the southern Lebanese village of al-Katrani on December 18, 2025. (AFP)
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One Dead in Israeli Strikes on South Lebanon

Smoke rises from the site of a series of Israeli airstrikes that targeted the outskirts of the southern Lebanese village of al-Katrani on December 18, 2025. (AFP)
Smoke rises from the site of a series of Israeli airstrikes that targeted the outskirts of the southern Lebanese village of al-Katrani on December 18, 2025. (AFP)

Israeli strikes in south Lebanon on Sunday killed one person and wounded another, the Lebanese health ministry said, as Israel's military said it targeted Hezbollah members.

Israel has kept up regular strikes on Lebanon, usually saying it is targeting Hezbollah infrastructure or operatives, despite a November 2024 ceasefire that sought to end more than a year of hostilities with the Iran-backed group that erupted over the Gaza war.

It has also kept troops in five south Lebanon areas that it deems strategic.

The health ministry in Beirut said "two Israeli enemy strikes today, on a vehicle and a motorbike in the town of Yater" killed one person and wounded another.

Yater is around five kilometers (three miles) from the border with Israel.

In separate statements, the Israeli military said it "struck a Hezbollah terrorist in the area of Yater", adding shortly afterwards that it "struck an additional Hezbollah terrorist" in the same area.

Also on Sunday, Lebanon's army said in a statement that troops had discovered and dismantled "an Israeli spy device" in Yaroun, elsewhere in south Lebanon near the border.

Under heavy US pressure and amid fears of expanded Israeli strikes, Lebanon has committed to disarming Hezbollah and plans to do so south of the Litani River, about 30 kilometers from the border with Israel, by year end.

Israel has questioned the Lebanese military's effectiveness and has accused Hezbollah of rearming, while the group itself has rejected calls to surrender its weapons.

During a visit to Israel on Sunday, US Senator Lindsey Graham also accused Hezbollah of rearming.

"My impression is that Hezbollah is trying to make more weapons... That's not an acceptable outcome," Graham said in a video statement issued by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office.

More than 340 people have been killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon since the ceasefire, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry reports.

This week at talks in Paris, Lebanon's army chief agreed to document the military's progress in disarming Hezbollah, the French foreign ministry said.

On Friday, Lebanese and Israeli civilian representatives took part in a meeting of the ceasefire monitoring committee for a second time, after holding their first direct talks in decades earlier this month under the committee's auspices.

Israel said Friday's meeting was part of broader efforts to ensure Hezbollah's disarmament and strengthen security in border areas.