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- LA Times
Israel is spying on Hezbollah commanders — and killing them one by one
Israel has assassinated two dozen Hezbollah commanders in Lebanon since last fall amid an intelligence war employing cellphones, drones and fake rocks.
- Reuters
Analysis-Battered Hamas confounds Israel's bid to declare victory
Senior figures in Israel's government have said it is closing in on its war aims of defeating Hamas militarily and the return of hostages seized on Oct. 7. After nine months of pummelling by one of the most powerful militaries in the Middle East, Hamas is much weakened from the force that carried out the cross-border attack on Israel on Oct. 7. Early in the war, Hamas propaganda videos showed well-drilled fighters in body armour and battle fatigues, their torsos wrapped with ammunition belts.
- AFP News
Harris 'will not be silent' on Gaza after tough talks with Netanyahu
Kamala Harris signaled a major shift on US Gaza policy Thursday, with the presidential hopeful telling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to seal a peace deal and insisting she would not be "silent" on the suffering in the Palestinian enclave."As I just told Prime Minister Netanyahu, it is time to get this deal done," she said.
- BBC
Scorn as Bangladesh PM weeps at train station damage
Many said she did not appear to express the same level of sympathy towards those who had died.
- BBC
Gang kills women and children in Papua New Guinea massacre - reports
Police say a gang attacked three remote villages in Papua New Guinea, killing at least two dozen.
- Reuters
Israeli troops battle Palestinian fighters in Gaza city of Khan Younis
Israeli troops battled Palestinian fighters in Khan Younis in southern Gaza and destroyed tunnels and other infrastructure, as they sought to suppress small militant units that have continued to hit troops with mortar fire, the military said on Friday. The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) said troops had killed around 100 Palestinian fighters since Israeli troops began their latest operation in Khan Younis on Monday, which continued as pressure mounted for a deal to halt the fighting. It said seven small units that had been firing mortars at the troops were hit in an air strike, while further south, in Rafah, four fighters were also killed in air strikes.
- The Hill
Trump tells Netanyahu there will be ‘third world war’ if he loses in November
Former President Trump on Friday claimed there will be a major war in the Middle East and potentially a “third world war” if he does not win November’s election. Trump met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, one day after Netanyahu met at the White House with President Biden…
- CNN
‘We cannot remain silent about what we saw.’ US doctors who volunteered in Gaza demand ceasefire in letter to White House
A group of 45 American doctors and nurses describe bloodshed in Gaza in an open letter to the White House, and demand immediate ceasefire.
- The Telegraph
Why suspicions are surrounding Left-wing radicals over France rail line attack
French intelligence sources hinted that the massive sabotage attack on rail lines leading to Paris on Friday may have been the work of Left-wing radicals.
- BBC
Israeli military recovers five hostages' bodies in Gaza
The remains of a teacher and four soldiers were found in an operation in Khan Younis on Wednesday.
- The Independent
Maggots and worms released at Benjamin Netanyahu’s Washington hotel amid Gaza war protests
Video posted on social media shows insects crawling inside Watergate Hotel in Washington DC
- Reuters
Exclusive-Israel seeks changes to Gaza truce plan, complicating talks, sources say
WASHINGTON/CAIRO (Reuters) -Israel is seeking changes to a plan for a Gaza truce and the release of hostages by Hamas, complicating a final deal to halt nine months of combat that have devastated the enclave, according to a Western official, a Palestinian and two Egyptian sources. Israel says that displaced Palestinians should be screened as they return to the enclave's north when the ceasefire begins, retreating from an agreement to allow civilians who fled south to freely return home, the four sources told Reuters. Israeli negotiators "want a vetting mechanism for civilian populations returning to the north of Gaza, where they fear these populations could support” Hamas fighters who remain entrenched there, said the Western official.
- Reuters
Harris pushes Netanyahu to ease suffering in Gaza: 'I will not be silent'
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris pressured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday to help reach a Gaza ceasefire deal that would ease the suffering of Palestinian civilians, striking a tougher tone than President Joe Biden. "It is time for this war to end," Harris said in a televised statement after she held face-to-face talks with Netanyahu. Harris, the likely Democratic presidential nominee after Biden dropped out of the election race on Sunday, did not mince words about the humanitarian crisis gripping Gaza after nine months of war between Israel and Hamas militants.
- The Guardian
The bombshell legal ruling that made it impossible for Australia to delay sanctions against Israeli settlers
Labor is ‘carefully considering’ the ICJ findings on the occupied Palestinian territories – and soon it will have to give its view
- AFP News
Bangladesh protest leaders taken from hospital by police
Bangladeshi police detectives on Friday forced the discharge from hospital of three student protest leaders blamed for deadly unrest, taking them to an unknown location, staff told AFP. Nahid Islam, Asif Mahmud and Abu Baker Majumder are all members of Students Against Discrimination, the group responsible for organising this month's street rallies against civil service hiring rules.Islam, 26, the chief coordinator of Students Against Discrimination, told AFP from his hospital bed on Monday that
- Associated Press
Palestinian Olympic team greeted with cheers and gifts in Paris
Palestinian Olympic athletes were greeted with a roar of a crowd and gifts of food and roses as they arrived in Paris on Thursday, ready to represent war–torn Gaza and the rest of the territories on a global stage. As the beaming athletes walked through a sea of Palestinian flags at the main Paris airport, they said they hoped their presence would serve as a symbol amid the Israel-Hamas war that has claimed more than 39,000 Palestinian lives. Athletes, French supporters and politicians in the crowd urged the European nation to recognize a Palestinian state, while others expressed outrage at Israel's presence at the Games after U.N.-backed human rights experts said Israeli authorities were responsible for “war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
- AFP News
Bangladesh PM surveys destruction as unrest recedes
Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina wept on Thursday as she surveyed the destruction wrought by days of deadly unrest, as student leaders weighed the future of the protests that sparked the disorder. "We demand an apology from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to the nation for the mass murder of students," Asif Mahmud, one of the group's coordinators, told AFP. "We also want the sacking of the home minister and education minister."
- Reuters
How Biden’s Gaza pier project unraveled
The first time President Joe Biden's administration considered ordering the U.S. military to build a floating pier off Gaza to deliver aid in late 2023, it was put on the backburner. The United States was under pressure to ease the humanitarian crisis in the war-torn Palestinian enclave, which had been worsened by Israel's closure of many land border crossings, and sea deliveries were seen as a possible solution. U.S. Admiral Christopher Grady, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a career Navy surface warfare officer, told a meeting that he was very concerned that the sea could become too rough for a pier to deliver humanitarian aid and laid out weather-related risks, a former U.S. official and a current U.S. official said.
- Associated Press
Italy plans to return an ambassador to Syria to reflect new diplomatic developments, minister says
Italy plans to send an ambassador back to Syria after a decade-long absence, the country’s foreign minister said, in a diplomatic move that could spark divisions among European Union allies. Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, speaking in front of relevant parliamentary committees Thursday, announced Rome’s intention to re-establish diplomatic ties with Syria to prevent Russia from monopolizing diplomatic efforts in the Middle Eastern country. Moscow is considered a key supporter of Syrian President Bashar Assad, who has remained in power despite widespread Western isolation and civilian casualties since the start of Syria’s civil war in March 2011.
- Associated Press
A year has passed since Niger's dramatic coup. Life has become more dangerous and desperate
When a group of military officers appeared on state television in Niger one year ago to make a dramatic announcement of a coup, they said they deposed the West African nation's elected government for two key reasons: its security, and economic crises. The country's 26 million people — among the world's youngest and poorest — are struggling after the junta severed ties with key international partners, who have imposed sanctions and suspended security and development support affecting close to half of Niger’s budget. The coup was the latest and perhaps most significant of the recent military takeovers in Africa's Sahel, the vast, arid expanse south of the Sahara Desert that has become a global hot spot for extremist violence.