Hamas Official Said Killed by Israeli Strike in Lebanon

Debris is strewn along a street and vehicles after a residential apartment block was struck in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburb of Haret Hreik on March 15, 2026. (AFP)
Debris is strewn along a street and vehicles after a residential apartment block was struck in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburb of Haret Hreik on March 15, 2026. (AFP)
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Hamas Official Said Killed by Israeli Strike in Lebanon

Debris is strewn along a street and vehicles after a residential apartment block was struck in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburb of Haret Hreik on March 15, 2026. (AFP)
Debris is strewn along a street and vehicles after a residential apartment block was struck in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburb of Haret Hreik on March 15, 2026. (AFP)

A Hamas source said an Israeli strike on south Lebanon on Sunday killed an official from the Palestinian group as Hezbollah said it fired an "advanced missile" at an air base near Tel Aviv. 

Israel said no direct talks were planned with Lebanon to end the latest war which has been raging for two weeks. The statement came a day after a Lebanese official said Beirut was preparing a delegation to negotiate with Israel. 

Lebanon was dragged into the Middle East war on March 2 when Iran-backed Hezbollah attacked Israel in response to the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli strikes, with Israel launching air raids on the neighboring country and troop incursions into border areas. 

Lebanese authorities said the death toll in Israeli attacks rose to 850, while more than 830,000 people have registered as displaced. 

Driving rain on Sunday piled more misery on displaced people, hundreds of whom have been sleeping rough or in tents near central Beirut's seafront. 

Coffee shop owner Nader, 42, displaced from Beirut's southern suburbs, said he had rebuilt his home after it was destroyed in 2024 during the previous Israel-Hezbollah conflict but "I am sure they have destroyed it again... but I haven't been able to check." 

"Here we have nothing and the situation is very bad with the heavy rains and wind -- it's very cold, lots of babies are sick and we can't protect them," he told AFP. 

- 'No' talks - 

The state-run National News Agency said Israel struck "an apartment in a residential building" in a northern district of the coastal city of Sidon, killing one person and causing a fire. 

An AFP correspondent saw damage to the third storey of an apartment building as the army cordoned off the area and rescue teams worked to extinguish the blaze and residents rushed into the street, some carrying belongings. 

The Hamas source, requesting anonymity, said the strike killed official Wissam Taha. 

Israel has repeatedly struck Hamas targets in Lebanon in recent years, including during previous hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah that erupted over the Gaza war, and after a 2024 ceasefire. 

Hezbollah claimed a series of attacks on sites in Israel and on Israeli troops in south Lebanon on Sunday, including one that it said targeted the Palmachim air base south of Tel Aviv, around 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the Lebanese-Israeli border, with "an advanced missile". 

The Israeli military said in a statement Sunday it continued to strike infrastructure used by Hezbollah throughout Lebanon. 

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has proposed direct negotiations with Israel, but Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar on Sunday responded "no" when asked whether Israel was set to hold such talks. 

- Debris - 

A Lebanese official had told AFP on Saturday that the country was preparing to form a delegation to negotiate with Israel but that there was no agenda, timing or location yet decided for any talks. 

French President Emmanuel Macron has said the Lebanese government was ready to engage in "direct talks" with Israel and he offered to host negotiations in Paris, warning that "everything must be done to prevent Lebanon from descending into chaos". 

The NNA reported Israeli strikes on various areas of the country's south and east, while Israel's military renewed an evacuation warning for Beirut's southern suburbs, which it has repeatedly struck in the past fortnight. 

An AFP photographer in south Beirut saw empty streets covered with debris and buildings flattened, with smoke still rising in the area after strikes in previous days. 

Southeast of Sidon, in the village of Al-Qatrani, three people were killed in an overnight Israeli strike, according to Lebanon's health ministry. 

The Israeli military said it hit "several Hezbollah launch sites" in Al-Qatrani, where it said the armed group was preparing to fire off missiles. 

It also said it had destroyed "command centers" belonging to Hezbollah's elite Radwan Force in Beirut. 

Meanwhile, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon said its peacekeepers were fired upon three times on Sunday "likely by non-state armed groups" in the country's south, two days after another position was hit by fire. 

"Today, UNIFIL peacekeepers were fired upon, likely by non-state armed groups, on three separate occasions while conducting patrols around their bases" in south Lebanon, the force said, adding that "two patrols returned fire in self-defense and after brief exchanges, the patrols resumed their planned activities. No peacekeeper was injured." 



Israeli Army Kills Palestinian Man in West Bank Raid

Flowers are placed on the body of a 54-year-old Palestinian man killed by Israeli forces during a raid, as people mourn over him at a hospital in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, September 15, 2026. (Reuters)
Flowers are placed on the body of a 54-year-old Palestinian man killed by Israeli forces during a raid, as people mourn over him at a hospital in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, September 15, 2026. (Reuters)
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Israeli Army Kills Palestinian Man in West Bank Raid

Flowers are placed on the body of a 54-year-old Palestinian man killed by Israeli forces during a raid, as people mourn over him at a hospital in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, September 15, 2026. (Reuters)
Flowers are placed on the body of a 54-year-old Palestinian man killed by Israeli forces during a raid, as people mourn over him at a hospital in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, September 15, 2026. (Reuters)

Israel's military shot and killed a Palestinian man during a raid in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, Palestinian health officials said, while the army said it fired at someone who tried to seize a soldier's weapon.

The Palestinian health ministry announced the death of 54-year-old Ziad Mohammad Jaber by "Israeli army gunfire in Umm al-Sharayet, in the city of Al-Bireh", near Ramallah in the central West Bank.

In the early hours of Tuesday, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said its crews were treating someone who sustained "a critical live-fire gunshot wound to the abdomen and thigh" during a military raid in Umm al-Sharayet.

It said the casualty was being transferred to hospital.

When contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said troops were carrying out "counterterrorism activity" in the area overnight when "a terrorist attempted to seize a weapon from one of the soldiers".

"The soldier responded by firing towards the terrorist. A hit was identified," it added.

Jaber's brother, Ramadan Mohammad Jaber, told AFP that the military raided his home at around 4 am (0100 GMT) after blowing up the front door.

He said soldiers handcuffed him and held him with his daughter in a room before arresting his son.

He added that soldiers had also blown up the door of the adjacent apartment where his brother lived.

"I heard him screaming but I did not hear the sound of gunfire," he said, adding that his brother "was left bleeding in the apartment for about an hour and a half before the army allowed ambulance crews to take him to the hospital".

A spokesperson for the Palestinian health ministry confirmed that Jaber was pronounced dead on arrival at hospital.

The West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967, has seen a surge in violence since the outbreak of war in the Gaza Strip following Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

At least 1,109 Palestinians, including a number of gunmen, have been killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers, according to an AFP tally based on Palestinian official figures.

Settler attacks against Palestinians have soared, often with little or no legal consequence.

At least 48 Israelis, both civilians and security forces, have been killed in the West Bank in attacks carried out by Palestinians or during clashes with Israeli forces, according to Israeli official figures.


UN Urges Access for International Investigators to Gaza After Bodies Found

Men walk through rubble at the Bureij camp for Palestinian refugees in the central Gaza Strip on September 14, 2026. (AFP)
Men walk through rubble at the Bureij camp for Palestinian refugees in the central Gaza Strip on September 14, 2026. (AFP)
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UN Urges Access for International Investigators to Gaza After Bodies Found

Men walk through rubble at the Bureij camp for Palestinian refugees in the central Gaza Strip on September 14, 2026. (AFP)
Men walk through rubble at the Bureij camp for Palestinian refugees in the central Gaza Strip on September 14, 2026. (AFP)

The United Nations called Tuesday for international investigators to be granted to access to all of Gaza "to assist with evidence-gathering" as hundreds of bodies are pulled from the rubble.

The ongoing recovery of extensive human remains in Gaza, mostly of women and children, nearly three years after Israel heavily bombed their homes, highlights the possibility that war crimes have been committed, the UN warned.

"The remains of what appears to be entire families are now being unearthed at locations that were pulverized by Israeli attacks," UN rights chief Volker Turk pointed out in a statement.

"I worry the remains recovered so far may only be the tip of the iceberg," he said, pointing to how "much of Gaza has been flattened by Israeli bombing or demolition and clearing by heavy machinery and explosives".

"Today, many areas in Gaza where the Israeli military is deployed continue to be levelled by bulldozers with no respect for the dead under the rubble," he lamented.

The rights office said it was critical that evidence of violations, including at destroyed sites, calling for "international investigators to be allowed into all parts of Gaza to assist with evidence-gathering".

It pointed out that the Palestinian Civil Defense had reported that more than 630 bodies and other human remains had been recovered from beneath destroyed buildings across Gaza since last November.

"It estimates the total number of missing under the rubble at over 8,000," it said.

Turk insisted that "every feasible effort must be taken to document and identify these victims, preserve forensic information and biological samples, record their burial locations and inform their families".

"The discovery of extensive remains under the rubble in Gaza City resurfaces (the) concerns of war crimes and other atrocity crimes," he warned.

Israel's full-scale war on Gaza, which began after a Hamas attack inside Israel on October 7, 2023, reduced much of the Palestinian territory to rubble.

The relentless Israeli bombardment and ground offensive has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians, including more than 1,350 since a ceasefire agreed last October, according to Gaza's health ministry, which is under Hamas authority.

Hamas's October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.


Fuel Shortage in Yemen Hampers Migrants Fleeing Conflict and Seeking Safety in Djibouti

This handout picture taken and released by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Djibouti shows refugees from Yemen fleeing fighting between government forces and Iran-backed Houthi militants as they arrive at a Djibouti Coast Guard post in Khor Angar on September 13, 2026. (Handout / IOM Djibouti / AFP)
This handout picture taken and released by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Djibouti shows refugees from Yemen fleeing fighting between government forces and Iran-backed Houthi militants as they arrive at a Djibouti Coast Guard post in Khor Angar on September 13, 2026. (Handout / IOM Djibouti / AFP)
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Fuel Shortage in Yemen Hampers Migrants Fleeing Conflict and Seeking Safety in Djibouti

This handout picture taken and released by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Djibouti shows refugees from Yemen fleeing fighting between government forces and Iran-backed Houthi militants as they arrive at a Djibouti Coast Guard post in Khor Angar on September 13, 2026. (Handout / IOM Djibouti / AFP)
This handout picture taken and released by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Djibouti shows refugees from Yemen fleeing fighting between government forces and Iran-backed Houthi militants as they arrive at a Djibouti Coast Guard post in Khor Angar on September 13, 2026. (Handout / IOM Djibouti / AFP)

A fuel shortage in Yemen is hampering the movement of people fleeing the country’s escalating fighting and seeking safety across the Red Sea in Djibouti, with the UN migration agency warning that more Yemenis are ready to make the crossing by boat.

More than 2,000 Yemenis are currently in Djibouti, where the country's government and the International Organization for Migration are providing food and shelter.

Yemen’s legitimate government has been battling the Iranian-backed Houthi militants for 12 years. The recent escalation has ended a ceasefire that had largely stopped civil war across Yemen since 2022. The Houthis kept to the sidelines during the initial, heavy phase of the Iran war, but in July they resumed attacks on Saudi Arabia and escalated attacks in Yemen.

Now the number of people from Yemen fleeing the fighting is soaring, with nearly 94,000 people displaced in the country.

IOM Regional Director for East and Southern Africa Frantz Celestin told The Associated Press on Monday that arrivals had slowed because of the fuel shortage, but warned that more people were expected to make the dangerous crossing.

“We expect more to come. What we were told is that there are a lot of people who are willing and ready to come. They simply don’t have fuel to make the journey,” Celestin said. “There’s a fuel shortage in Yemen that may explain the lull that we’ve seen today.”

The prospect of more arrivals is raising concerns that Djibouti, the small Horn of Africa nation, could struggle to accommodate the influx.

“When you have that many people come in a short amount of time, it’s bound to overwhelm the system,” Celestin said. “But so far, they (Djibouti) are managing it quite well. But there may be a time, if they continue to come, where they may overwhelm the capacity of the country to house and accommodate all of them.”

Djiboutian Finance Minister Ilyas M. Dawaleh said on X that the situation was “becoming increasingly difficult for our country, despite our unwavering commitment to humanitarian assistance.”

“We cannot allow those who have sought refuge among us to suffer. I am proud of my fellow Djiboutians for their collective mobilization and their remarkable solidarity with our Yemeni brothers and sisters,” he wrote.

Dawaleh also praised residents of Obock, a coastal town in northern Djibouti that has been on the front line of the humanitarian response.

The IOM's Celestin said the arrivals were putting additional pressure on communities and called for more international support, including additional tents and medical services.

Djibouti sits across the Bab al-Mandeb Strait from Yemen, making it one of the closest places of refuge for Yemenis fleeing the conflict.