Israeli forces bomb eastern Lebanon despite ceasefire
A Lebanese security source has told Al Jazeera that Israeli aircraft fired two missiles at an open area near Jennata in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa region. The air strikes took place after an Israeli drone killed five people, including three children from the same family, earlier this week.
Israel has frequently targeted what it calls Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon despite a US-brokered truce that took effect in November following more than a year of conflict sparked by its war on Gaza.
Death toll in Israeli strikes on Yemeni capital rises to 9, say Houthis
Yemen’s Houthis have said the death toll from Thursday’s Israeli air raids on the capital, Sanaa, has risen to nine killed, including four children and two women. At least 174 others were wounded, among them 59 children, it said.
It added that civil defence and rescue teams are still searching through the rubble for victims.
The Houthis condemned Thursday’s strikes, which they said targeted residential neighbourhoods and civilian infrastructure. The rebel group have controlled Sanaa since 2014. Yemen’s internationally recognised government is based in Aden.
Last-minute Israeli demand for land corridor in Suwayda jeopardises Israel-Syria talks
An Israeli demand that it have access to a land corridor in Syria’s southwestern province of Suwayda has derailed plans to announce a security agreement between the two countries this week, reports the Reuters news agency.
Israel had previously demanded the corridor, but it was rejected by Syria as a breach of sovereignty. The US had believed that a deal was close, but the Israelis have recently reintroduced the demand, causing the current deadlock.
The Israelis say the land corridor is necessary to provide aid, but Syria is unlikely to accept that argument, considering the repeated Israeli attacks on its territory in recent months, and fears that Israel is trying to establish control over Suwayda, where a large Druze community live.
Netanyahu told the UN General Assembly in his speech on Friday that a deal with Damascus could be reached, but a Syrian official told Reuters that no conversations had been had with Israeli officials this week.
Israel has bombed Syria heavily and occupied more territory since the fall of the latter’s longtime President Bashar al-Assad in December, saying that a 1974 security agreement between the two neighbours was void following the president’s overthrow.
