Israeli strike in West Bank ‘kills 18’ as more huge blasts hit Beirut

Published

9 months ago

October 4, 2024

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At least 18 Palestinians are said to have died in an Israeli attack in the West Bank – as airstrikes in Lebanon continued with large blasts seen near Beirut airport.

The Hamas-run health ministry said Thursday’s deaths occurred in the Tulkarm refugee camp.

In a post on X, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa called it a “massacre” and said Israel was “ignoring global calls for justice”.

Israel-Iran latest: Powerful explosions near Beirut airport

Israel’s military confirmed the airstrike and said it had killed the main Hamas figure in Tulkarm.

It said Zahi Yaser Abd al-Razeq Oufi supplied weapons to terrorists in the West Bank and was planning a terror attack in the “immediate” future.

Israel Defence Forces added “multiple other significant terrorists” were eliminated.

In Lebanon, health authorities said 27 people were killed and 151 wounded in Israeli attacks on Thursday.

At least 1,276 have reportedly died since mid-September.

Israel said it hit 200 targets and told people in another 20 or so Lebanese towns to evacuate, as it continues targeting Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters.

It says its aim is to allow its citizens displaced by rocket fire to return to their homes near the border. Those Hezbollah attacks began a year ago in response to the Israel-Hamas war.

Most of Israel’s strikes so far in Lebanon have been in the south and officials there say 1.2 million have been forced to flee.

Attacks continued on Thursday night with more blasts in Beirut’s southern suburb of Dahieh.

Reuters news agency said witnesses reported some hit close to the city’s international airport, which borders the area.

Hezbollah also said it launched rockets at two bases for military industry in Haifa Bay in northern Israel on Thursday.

Israel’s military said they were either intercepted or allowed to fall on open ground, and that about 230 projectiles had been fired from Lebanon in total.

Hezbollah, designated a terror entity by countries including the US and UK, said it killed 17 Israeli personnel in combat yesterday.

Israel did not comment on the claim, but did confirm the death of one soldier.

That followed the announcement of eight deaths on Wednesday as it conducts what it says is a limited ground invasion.

The crisis in the region escalated rapidly and dramatically after booby-trapped pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah personnel exploded two weeks ago – an attack widely blamed on Israel.

Its warplanes then began striking targets in Lebanon and a number of Hezbollah’s top commanders have been killed, including Hassan Nasrallah, its leader.

The situation took another grave turn on Tuesday when Iran responded by launching around 200 missiles at Israel – a move Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu labelled a “major mistake”.

President Joe Biden has said America is now “discussing” whether it will support an Israeli retaliation on Iran’s oil industry – a comment that has caused the oil price to spike.

But in comments to reporters, he added: “I don’t believe there is going to be an all-out war. I think we can avoid it.”

On Wednesday, Mr Biden said the US would not support any attack on Iran’s nuclear sites.

An American official told Reuters yesterday that Washington did not believe Israel had yet decided how to respond.

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Trump announces weapons deal with NATO to help Ukraine – as he gives Putin 50-day ultimatum

Published

8 hours ago

July 14, 2025

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Trump announces weapons deal with NATO to help Ukraine - as he gives Putin 50-day ultimatum

Donald Trump has agreed to send “top of the line weapons” to NATO to support Ukraine – and threatened Russia with “severe” tariffs if it doesn’t agree to end the war.

Speaking with NATO secretary general Mark Rutte during a meeting at the White House, the US president said: “We’ve made a deal today where we are going to be sending them weapons, and they’re going to be paying for them.

“This is billions of dollars worth of military equipment which is going to be purchased from the United States,” he added, “going to NATO, and that’s going to be quickly distributed to the battlefield.”

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Weapons being sent include surface-to-air Patriot missile systems and batteries, which Ukraine has asked for to defend itself from Russian air strikes.

Mr Trump also said he was “very unhappy” with Russia, and threatened “severe tariffs” of “about 100%” if there isn’t a deal to end the war in Ukraine within 50 days.

The White House added that the US would put “secondary sanctions” on countries that buy oil from Russia if an agreement was not reached.

It comes after weeks of frustration from Mr Trump against Vladimir Putin’s refusal to agree to an end to the conflict, with the Russian leader telling the US president he would “not back down” from Moscow’s goals in Ukraine at the start of the month.

During the briefing on Monday, Mr Trump said he had held calls with Mr Putin where he would think “that was a nice phone call,” but then “missiles are launched into Kyiv or some other city, and that happens three or four times”.

“I don’t want to say he’s an assassin, but he’s a tough guy,” he added.

Earlier this year, Mr Trump told Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy “you’re gambling with World War Three” in a fiery White House meeting, and suggested Ukraine started the war against Russia as he sought to negotiate an end to the conflict.

After Mr Trump’s briefing, Russian senator Konstantin Kosachev said on Telegram: “If this is all that Trump had in mind to say about Ukraine today, then all the steam has gone out.”

Meanwhile, Mr Zelenskyy met with US special envoy Keith Kellogg in Kyiv, where they “discussed the path to peace” by “strengthening Ukraine’s air defence, joint production, and procurement of defence weapons in collaboration with Europe”.

He thanked both the envoy for the visit and Mr Trump “for the important signals of support and the positive decisions for both our countries”.

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At least 30 dead and 100 injured as armed groups clash in Syria, officials say

Published

20 hours ago

July 14, 2025

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At least 30 dead and 100 injured as armed groups clash in Syria, officials say

At least 30 people have been killed in the Syrian city of Sweida in clashes between local military groups and tribes, according to Syria’s interior ministry.

Officials say initial figures suggest around 100 people have also been injured in the city, where the Druze faith is one of the major religious groups.

The interior ministry said its forces will directly intervene to resolve the conflict, which the Reuters news agency said involved fighting between Druze gunmen and Bedouin Sunni tribes.

It marks the latest episode of sectarian violence in Syria, where fears among minority groups have increased since Islamist-led rebels toppled President Bashar al Assad in December, installing their own government and security forces.

The violence reportedly erupted after a wave of kidnappings, including the abduction of a Druze merchant on Friday on the highway linking Damascus to Sweida.

Last April, Sunni militia clashed with armed Druze residents of Jaramana, southeast of Damascus, and fighting later spread to another district near the capital.

But this is the first time the fighting has been reported inside the city of Sweida itself, the provincial capital of the mostly Druze province.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reports the fighting was centred in the Maqwas neighbourhood east of Sweida and villages on the western and northern outskirts of the city.

It adds that Syria’s Ministry of Defence has deployed military convoys to the area.

Western nations, including the US and UK, have been increasingly moving towards normalising relations with Syria.

Concerns among minority groups have intensified following the killing of hundreds of Alawites in March, in apparent retaliation for an earlier attack carried out by Assad loyalists.

That was the deadliest sectarian flare-up in years in Syria, where a 14-year civil war ended with Assad fleeing to Russia after his government was overthrown by rebel forces.

The city of Sweida is in southern Syria, about 24 miles (38km) north of the border with Jordan.

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Meredith Kercher’s killer faces new trial over sexual assault allegations

Published

1 day ago

July 13, 2025

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Meredith Kercher's killer faces new trial over sexual assault allegations

The man convicted of the murder of British student Meredith Kercher has been charged with sexual assault against an ex-girlfriend.

Rudy Guede, 38, was the only person who was definitively convicted of the murder of 21-year-old Ms Kercher in Perugia, Italy, back in 2007.

He will be standing trial again in November after an ex-girlfriend filed a police report in the summer of 2023 accusing Guede of mistreatment, personal injury and sexual violence.

Guede, from the Ivory Coast, was released from prison for the murder of Leeds University student Ms Kercher in 2021, after having served about 13 years of a 16-year sentence.

Since last year – when this investigation was still ongoing – Guede has been under a “special surveillance” regime, Sky News understands, meaning he was banned from having any contact with the woman behind the sexual assault allegations, including via social media, and had to inform police any time he left his city of residence, Viterbo, as ruled by a Rome court.

Guede has been serving a restraining order and fitted with an electronic ankle tag.

The Kercher murder case, in the university city of Perugia, was the subject of international attention.

Ms Kercher, a 21-year-old British exchange student, was found murdered in the flat she shared with her American roommate, Amanda Knox.

The Briton’s throat had been cut and she had been stabbed 47 times.