Israeli army says suspicious aerial targets intercepted
An Israeli army statement says the objects were shot down by jets after crossing into Israeli airspace from Lebanon in the morning. The projectiles triggered sirens in northern Israel.
Separately, it said it identified fighters crossing from Jordan into the south of the Dead Sea region and killed two of them after they opened fire on Israeli forces.
Jordan rejects claim its soldiers crossed into Israel
Jordan’s official news agency, quoting a military source, says Israeli claims that the country’s soldiers crossed the border into Israel are not true. The agency posted on its website that there was “no truth” in the reports.
The Israeli military said it had identified what it called “a number of terrorists” crossing from Jordan into Israel south of the Dead Sea region and had killed two of them after they opened fire on Israeli forces.
Israeli military members walk next to the Dead Sea near the scene of a shooting attack after Israel’s military said it identified attackers crossing from Jordan, in southern Israel, Friday
Suspicion, resentment, trauma, destruction – Beirut on the edge
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/10/18/suspicion-resentment-trauma-destruction-beirut-on-the-edge
“No phones!” barks a burly man as he sails past us on his scooter.
I’m out in the city working with Al Jazeera’s correspondent, Ali Hashem. His friend and fellow journalist, Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, who is with us, has just taken a picture of a beautiful old building, nestled among the usual shopfronts and apartments in a busy street in Basta, central Beirut.
An Al Jazeera cameraman describes his crew’s attempts to report from Beirut, navigating the fear and anger palpable on the bombed-out streets.
A scene in central Beirut, captured on October 11. A digger clears a mountain of rubble following an airstrike
UNIFIL promises to stay in Lebanon
A UNIFIL peacekeeping mission spokesperson says the 10,000-strong mission would remain in Lebanon despite several direct attacks by Israeli forces in recent days which he described as deliberate.
“We need to stay, they asked us to move,” said UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti by videolink from Beirut. “The devastation and destruction of many villages along the Blue Line, and even beyond, is shocking,” he said, referring to a UN-mapped line separating Lebanon from Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Asked about the downing of a drone near its ship off the Lebanese coast on Thursday, he said: “The drone was coming from the south but circling around the ship and getting very, very close, a few metres away from the ship.”
Lebanon’s PM says he rejects Iranian interference in Lebanese matter
Lebanon’s caretaker PM Mikati said he rejected Iranian interference in a Lebanese matter, after the speaker of Iran’s parliament said Tehran was ready to negotiate with France on implementing a UN resolution concerning southern Lebanon.
UN Resolution 1701, adopted in 2006, calls for the border area of southern Lebanon to be free of weapons or troops other than those of the Lebanese state, with the aim of keeping peace on the border with Israel.
The speaker of Iran’s parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, made his comments in an interview published on Thursday.
“We are surprised by this position, which constitutes a blatant interference in Lebanese affairs and an attempt to establish a rejected guardianship over Lebanon,” a government statement quoted Mikati.
He added that negotiating to implement UN resolution 1701 was a matter for the Lebanese state.
