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Israel Strikes Houthi Targets in Yemen 10/04 06:14
(AP) -- Hezbollah on Sunday confirmed the death of high-ranking official
Nabil Kaouk in an Israeli airstrike, a day after the Lebanese militant group
acknowledged the killings of multiple commanders, including longtime leader
Hassan Nasrallah.
Israel struck Houthi targets in Yemen in response to the militants' recent
attacks, and is continuing to carry out strikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.
Meanwhile, the number of people displaced by the conflict from southern
Lebanon has more than doubled and now stands at more than 211,000, according to
the United Nations.
Hezbollah and Israel have traded near-daily strikes since the Israel-Hamas
war started after the Gaza-based Palestinian militant group stormed into Israel
almost a year ago on Oct. 7, sparking fears of regional war.
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Here is the latest:
An apparent Israeli airstrike hits central Beirut for first time in nearly a
year of conflict
An apparent Israeli airstrike hit central Beirut early Monday, for the first
time in nearly a year of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, witnesses said.
The strike near the Cola intersection, a major transportation hub, hit a
multi-story residential building, according to an Associated Press journalist
at the scene. Videos from the scene showed ambulances and a crowd gathered
under the building, where the strike appeared to have targeted one apartment.
In the past week, Israel has frequently targeted Beirut's southern suburbs,
where the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has a strong presence - including a
major strike on Friday that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah - but had
not hit locations near the city center. The area where the strike took place is
a primary Sunni district with a busy thoroughfare lined with shops and
residentials buildings.
There was no immediate comment from Israeli officials.
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Biden to talk to Netanyahu, says wider war must be avoided
President Joe Biden says he will speak with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu, and believes an all-out war in the Middle East must be avoided.
"It has to be," Biden told reporters Sunday as he boarded Air Force One for
Washington. "We really have to avoid it."
Biden would not say when he planned to speak with the Israeli leader.
Biden's remarks came after Iran's president said Sunday that a "decisive
response" was needed following a string of heavy blows in recent days against
the Hezbollah militant group, including the killing of its overall leader,
Hassan Nasrallah, by Israel.
The White House sees the death of Nasrallah as a major setback to
Iran-backed Hezbollah. But the administration has sought to tread carefully in
hopes of preventing an even broader regional conflict.
Israel eases restrictions in country's north but strikes continue
TEL AVIV, Israel -- The Israeli army has eased restrictions in parts of the
country's north even as it continued on Sunday to strike targets in neighboring
Lebanon.
The changes applied to parts of the Haifa Bay area and several adjacent
towns. Schools will be allowed to operate if they have quickly-accessible
shelters and restrictions on gatherings will ease.
The loosening of restrictions appears to reflect a determination that the
threat of incoming rocket fire has slightly diminished, though restrictions in
the north remain much stricter than other parts of the country.
Shortly after the announcement, sirens warned of incoming rockets throughout
the Haifa area and Israel's northern coast. Israeli police said fragments of
interceptors fell in several sites but no injuries were reported.
Earlier, the army said some 35 rockets were launched from Lebanon at
northern Israel and two drones that crossed from Lebanon into the territorial
waters of Israel were intercepted.
Thousands of Israeli students have been kept home from schools for the past
week across the country's north as fighting between Israel and the Lebanese
militant group Hezbollah escalated.
Houthi media says Israeli strikes kill at least 4 people
Israeli strikes on a Houthi-controlled city in Yemen on Sunday killed at
least 4 people and wounded 33 others, Houthi-run media reported.
The dead include a worker at the port in the city of Hodeida and three
engineers at the city's Hali power plant, al-Masirah TV reported. Rescue teams
were still searching for missing people under the rubble at the plant.
The Houthis said the strikes hit the Hodeida and Rass Issa ports along with
two power plants in Hodeida, which is a stronghold for the Iranian-backed
rebels.
The strikes came a day after Houthis launched a missile attack on Israel's
Ben Gurion airport as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was arriving.
Iran's president says "decisive response" needed after strikes on Hezbollah
TEHRAN -- Iran's president said Sunday that a "decisive response" was needed
following Israel's killing of numerous leaders of the Lebanese militant group
Hezbollah in recent days.
President Masoud Pezeshkian characterized the Israeli attacks on Hezbollah
as crimes.
"The Lebanese fighters should not be left alone in this battle," Pezeshkian
said during a Sunday cabinet meeting, his office reported.
Iran has armed and trained Hezbollah for decades and relied on it to put
pressure on Israel, its chief regional rival.
Iran on Sunday also condemned Israeli airstrikes against power plants and
port facilities in Yemen that targeted Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
Pezeshkian called Israel a brutal regime and urged all Islamic countries not
to be indifferent. And he criticized Western countries over a promised
cease-fire in the region after Iran did not respond to the killing of top Hamas
leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July.
"The claims by the United States and European countries' leaders, who
promised a ceasefire in exchange for Iran's non-response to the assassination
of martyr Haniyeh, were complete lies," he said.
Netanyahu appoints a former rival to his Cabinet, cementing his own position
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin on Sunday appointed a former rival, Gideon
Saar, as a member of his Cabinet.
The move expands Netanyahu's governing coalition and helps entrench the
Israeli leader in office.
Under their agreement, Netanyahu said, Saar will be given a spot in the
Security cabinet, the body that oversees the management of the ongoing war.
Saar had hoped to replace Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, another rival of
Netanyahu's. But a deal to become defense minister fell through several weeks
ago after fighting intensified with Hezbollah.
Lebanon says at least 24 people have been killed in airstrikes in the south
BEIRUT -- Lebanon's Health Ministry says at least 24 people were killed in
Israeli airstrikes that hit two buildings in the country's south.
The consecutive strikes Sunday on Ain el-Delb, east of Sidon, were caught on
camera by neighbors in the area. The Health Ministry said the strikes also
injured at least 29 people.
In video verified by The Associated Press, one strike caused a huge plume of
smoke. The second one hit an adjacent building, causing to sway and then
collapse.
Separately, the Health Ministry said Israeli strikes in the northern
province of Baalbek Hermel killed 21 people and injured at least 47.
Israel says it has struck Houthi targets in Yemen in response to the group's
attacks
TEL AVIV, Israel -- Israel's military says dozens of aircraft have struck
Houthi targets in Yemen in response to the militants' recent attacks on Israel.
The military says it targeted power plants and sea port facilities in the
city of Hodeida.
The Houthi media office said the Israeli strikes hit the Hodeida and Rass
Issa ports along with two power plants in Hodeida city, which is a stronghold
for the Iranian-backed rebels. Fire and plumes of smoke could be seen in the
air over Hodeida after the strikes.
The group said it had taken precautionary measures and Israel's strikes
would not stop Houthi attacks on shipping routes and on Israel.
The Houthis launched a ballistic missile attack on Israel's Ben Gurion
airport on Saturday as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was arriving on a
flight from the United States.
UN says 70,000 people have fled Lebanon for Syria
DAMASCUS, Syria -- The United Nations' refugee agency says 70,000 people
have crossed from Lebanon into Syria to escape Israeli bombardment.
The total includes both Lebanese citizens and Syrians who had moved to
Lebanon but are now returning.
Sarah Haj Hassan fled Shmustar near Lebanon's eastern city of Baalbek, on
Saturday after intense Israeli strikes.
She's one of some 7,500 people who has registered in the Sayyida Zeinab
suburb of Damascus.
"I lost my house, and my parents' house was damaged," she told The
Associated Press. "At the end of the day, we need to care for our children."
Italy's defense minister hopes Italian peacekeepers' presence will encourage
de-escalation
ROME -- Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto says he hopes the presence
of Italian soldiers in Lebanon as part of peacekeeping missions will encourage
de-escalation.
Crosetto said Sunday that "the presence of our military is an element of
guarantee that we hope can induce the parties to de-escalation, creating the
conditions to reopen the dialogue and start mediation."
Italy has troops in Lebanon as part of the United Nations mission known as
UNIFIL and a bilateral mission, MIBIL.
Crosetto said Italy has arrangements in place to evacuate Italian civilians
from Lebanon if the situation deteriorates.
White House says Israel has 'wiped out' Hezbollah leadership but the group
will try to rebuild
WASHINGTON -- A senior White House official says Israel has "wiped out"
Hezbollah's command structure with a barrage of airstrikes, but warned that the
militant group will work to quickly rebuild.
National security spokesman John Kirby said "they will try to recover. We're
watching to see what they do to try to fill this leadership vacuum."
Referring to the strike that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, Kirby
said, "I think people are safer without him walking around." But, speaking on
CNN's "State of the Union," he sidestepped questions about whether the
administration agreed with how the Israelis are going about targeting Hezbollah
leaders. Lebanese officials say the strikes have killed many civilians.
The White House continues to call on Israel and Hezbollah to agree to a
21-day temporary cease-fire that was floated by the U.S., France and other
countries last week, but rejected by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Hezbollah confirms the death of a 7th senior leader in an Israeli strike
BEIRUT -- Hezbollah has confirmed the death of high-ranking official Nabil
Kaouk in an Israeli airstrike, the seventh senior commander killed in just over
a week.
The Israeli military had earlier said it killed Kaouk in a strike in a
southern Beirut suburb on Saturday.
Kaouk was deputy head of Hezbollah's Central Council. He also served as
Hezbollah's military commander in south Lebanon from 1995 until 2010.
He is the seventh senior leader of the Lebanese militant group to be killed
since Sept. 20, including Hassan Nasrallah, who was Hezbollah's top leader for
more than three decades.
Israeli strike on a school has killed at least 4 people, Gaza authorities say
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip -- Palestinian officials say an Israeli airstrike
has killed at least four people in a school sheltering the displaced in
northern Gaza.
The Israeli military said it carried out a precise strike Sunday on Hamas
militants who were using the Umm al-Fahm school in the northern town of Beit
Lahiya as a command-and-control center, without providing evidence.
The Civil Defense, first responders who operate under the Hamas-run
government, confirmed the toll and said several others were wounded. It did not
say whether those killed and wounded were civilians or combatants.
Footage circulating online showed first responders racing into the damaged
school. They could be seen treating a woman and a minor who had burns on his
hand.
Israel has repeatedly struck schools-turned-shelters in Gaza, accusing
militants of hiding out in them.
Some 90% of Gaza's population of 2.3 million people have been displaced by
the nearly yearlong war, with hundreds of thousands living in shuttered schools
or squalid tent camps.
Iran says its response to Israeli strikes will come 'at the appropriate time'
TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran's Vice-President Mohammad Javad Zarif says Supreme
Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei will decide on a response to Israel's strikes in
Lebanon "at the appropriate time."
The semi-official ISNA news agency quoted Zarif as saying that "Iran's
reaction will be done at the appropriate time and according to Iran's choice
against the crimes of the Zionist regime, and decisions will be made at the
leadership and high level of the government in this regard."
Zarif made the comments when he attended Hezbollah's office in Tehran to
express condolences over the killing of its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in an
Israeli airstrike in Beirut on Friday.
The US says it has killed 37 militants in airstrikes in Syria
BEIRUT -- The U.S. military says it killed 37 militants linked to al-Qaida
and the Islamic State group in two strikes in Syria this month.
U.S. Central Command said it struck northwestern Syria on Tuesday targeting
a senior militant in charge of military operations for the al-Qaida-linked
Hurras al-Deen group and eight others.
It also said a large-scale airstrike on Sept. 16 targeted an IS training
camp in a remote location in central Syria. That attack killed 28 militants
including "at least four Syrian leaders," the U.S. said.
There are some 900 U.S. forces in Syria, along with an undisclosed number of
contractors, mostly trying to prevent any comeback by the extremist IS group,
which swept through Iraq and Syria in 2014, taking control of large swaths of
territory.
Hezbollah confirms death of a senior commander in charge of its southern
front
BEIRUT -- Hezbollah has confirmed the death of a senior commander in charge
of its southern front.
The Lebanese militant group says Ali Karaki was killed in an intense Israeli
airstrike on Friday that also killed the group's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in
Beirut.
It says Karaki was responsible for all of Hezbollah's units in southern
Lebanon in the ongoing conflict with Israel.
He is among a handful of senior officials in the militant group killed in
Israeli strikes in Lebanon in recent days.
The Israeli military said Sunday that it killed another high-ranking
Hezbollah official, Nabil Kaouk, in an airstrike on Saturday.
World Food Program launches a mission to provide food to up to 1 million in
Lebanon
BEIRUT -- The World Food Program says it has launched an emergency operation
to provide food to up to 1 million people displaced by violence in Lebanon.
The U.N. agency said Sunday it distributes ready-to-eat food rations, bread,
hot meals and food parcels to families in shelters across the country.
The agency says it needs $105 million to help it continue the work until the
end of the year and has urged the international community to support the
humanitarian response.
Corinne Fleischer, the agency's regional director for the Middle East, North
Africa, and Eastern Europe, said: "Lebanon is at a breaking point and cannot
endure another war."
Lebanese Environment Minister Nasser Yassin said the government estimates
that about 250,000 people are in shelters while four times as many may be
displaced outside the shelters.
Iranian foreign minister says Nilforushan's k illing won't go 'unanswered'
TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said the "horrific"
killing of General Abbas Nilforushan wouldn't "go unanswered," the foreign
ministry's website reported Sunday.
Nilforushan, a senior officer in Iran's Revolutionary Guard, was killed in
the same Israeli strike on Beirut Friday that targeted Hezbollah leader Hassan
Nasrallah.
Araghchi called the killing a "horrible and cowardly act" and vowed to use
all political, diplomatic, legal, and international channels to pursue those
behind it and their supporters.
Israeli military says it has dismantled a Hamas tunnel in central Gaza
JERUSALEM -- The Israeli military says it has uncovered and dismantled a
Hamas tunnel in central Gaza that was over a kilometer (0.6 miles) long.
It said Sunday that the tunnel ran near residential buildings, and that
inside were several rooms and equipment used by militants for prolonged stays.
The military released footage showing the entrance to the tunnel, a long
staircase leading down and what appeared to be an iron blast door.
Hamas is believed to have built hundreds of kilometers (miles) of tunnels
across Gaza to evade Israeli airstrikes. The militants have also used the
tunnels to hold hostages captured in the Oct. 7 attack that triggered the war
and to launch ambushes against Israeli forces.
Suez Canal revenue drops by 60%
CAIRO -- Egypt's president says its revenues from the Suez Canal have
dropped by 60%, or more than $6 billion, in recent months as attacks by Yemen's
Houthi rebels disrupt Red Sea shipping.
The canal is a major source of foreign currency for Egypt's battered economy.
President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi spoke during a graduation ceremony Sunday at
the Police Academy in Cairo.
"The ongoing developments are very serious and could lead to expanding the
conflict's theater," he said.
Attacks by the Iran-backed Houthis have led shipping firms to divert traffic
around the Red Sea and, by extension, the Suez Canal linking it to the
Mediterranean.
Israel says it killed another high-ranking Hezbollah official
The Israeli military said it killed Nabil Kaouk, a high-ranking Hezbollah
official, in a strike in a southern Beirut suburb on Saturday.
Sunday's announcement came a day after Hezbollah confirmed the killing of
leader Hassan Nasrallah. There was no immediate comment from the Lebanese
militant group.
Kaouk is the deputy head of Hezbollah's Central Council. He also served as
Hezbollah's military commander in south Lebanon from 1995 until 2010.
In 2020, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned Kaouk and another member of
Hezbollah's council, Hassan al-Baghdadi.
Israeli strikes kill at least 4 people in the Gaza Strip
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip -- Palestinian officials say Israeli strikes have
killed at least four people in the Gaza Strip.
Two people were killed in separate strikes early Sunday in the built-up
Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. That's according to the nearby Awda
Hospital, which received the bodies. It said another six people were wounded.
In northern Gaza, first responders recovered two bodies after a strike on a
house early Sunday, according to the Civil Defense, which operates under the
Hamas-run government.
The Gaza Health Ministry says over 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in
the Israel-Hamas war, more than half of them women and children. It does not
say how many of those killed were militants. Israel says it has killed over
17,000 fighters, without providing evidence.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct.
7, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 hostage.
Around 100 captives are still being held in Gaza, a third of whom are believed
to be dead.
Iran-backed militants killed and wounded in eastern Syria
BAGHDAD -- A number of Iran-backed militants were killed and wounded in
eastern Syria early Sunday near a strategic border crossing with Iraq in
apparent airstrikes, media and the militant groups said.
Two officials from Iran-backed Iraqi militias said the nine dead militiamen
and 10 others wounded were all Syrian nationals in groups backed by Tehran.
The militants, who spoke on condition on anonymity in accordance with
regulations, said the five airstrikes hit a military headquarters, a radar
installation near the Deir el-Zour airport, and several sites near the
strategic Boukamal crossing on the Syrian-Iraqi border.
Pan-Arab television network Al-Mayadeen said Israeli jets were behind the
strikes, without saying how it had determined that.
--Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad
Nearly 250,000 people are in shelters following Israeli strikes, Lebanese
official says
BEIRUT -- Lebanon's Environment Minister Nasser Yassin says about 250,000
people have left their homes and taken refuge in government-run shelters and
informal ones amid the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel. But he told the
Associated Press the total number displaced is about "four times as many."
The United Nations said that as of Friday, 211,319 people were forced to
relocate, and that was before some intensive Israeli airstrikes over Beirut's
southern suburbs in recent days.
The Lebanese government has converted schools and other facilities into
temporary shelters. Still, many are sleeping on the streets or in public
squares, as the government and non-governmental organizations try to find them
places to stay.
Thousands in Iran protest Nasrallah's killing
TEHRAN, Iran -- Thousands of people have gathered across Iran to protest the
killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli airstrike.
State TV aired footage of protests in several major cities on Sunday. At
Iran's parliament, lawmakers chanted "Death to America" and "Death to Israel."
Iran helped establish Hezbollah in the 1980s and has provided the Lebanese
militant group with sophisticated weaponry and training.
The airstrike that killed Nasrallah on Friday also killed Gen. Abbas
Nilforushan, a senior officer in Iran's Revolutionary Guard. The Guard
officially confirmed Nilforushan's death on its website Sunday, after it had
been widely reported in state media the day before.
Lebanese military calls for calm
BEIRUT -- In its first statement since the recent escalation with Israel and
following the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, Lebanon's military
called for calm "at this dangerous and delicate stage."
Government officials fear that the country's deep political divisions at a
time of war could rekindle sectarian strife and violence in the small
Mediterranean country.
"The Israeli enemy is working to implement its destructive plans and spread
division among the Lebanese," the military said.
Military vehicles have been deployed in different parts of the capital as
thousands of displaced people continue moving from the south to Beirut.
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