Skip to main content

Foreign nationals told to leave Lebanon as war fears surge

Urgent calls for foreign nationals to leave Lebanon grew on Sunday with France warning of "a highly volatile" situation as Iran and its allies ready their response to high-profile killings blamed on Israel.

Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah movement, which has traded near-daily fire with Israeli forces since the Gaza war broke out in October, announced its fighters had fired a barrage of rockets at Israel's north overnight.

The Israeli military said 30 projectiles were launched from Lebanon, with most of them intercepted.

Rockets fired from southern Lebanon are intercepted by Israeli air defences

Four years and no justice: Lebanon marks port blast anniversary

Hundreds gathered near Beirut's port on Sunday to mark four years since a catastrophic explosion devastated the capital and to demand accountability, with the spectre of war weighing over commemorations.

Nobody has been held responsible for the August 4, 2020 blast -- one of history's biggest non-nuclear explosions -- which killed more than 220 people, injured at least 6,500 and devastated swathes of the capital.

Sculpted figures representing people staring at the devastation are lined up along the road overlooking Beirut's port,  four years after a catastrophic explosion there that killed more than 220 people

Hundreds march for Palestinians held in Israeli jails

Hundreds of Palestinians marched to protest the treatment of prisoners held in Israeli jails on Saturday, following reports of abuse and even torture.

Relatives held up pictures of prisoners and waved Palestinian flags during separate demonstrations in Ramallah and Nablus in the occupied West Bank.

"Even if the whole world submits, we will not recognise Israel," chanted the protesters in Ramallah.

Palestinians hold up pictures of loved ones in Israeli custody at a rally in the West Bank city of Nablus called to protest recent reports of abuse and even torture

Gaza burns cases surge as medical supplies dwindle

In Gaza City's Al-Ahli Hospital, five-year-old Amir Habib al-Habeel screams out in pain from the burns he suffered from an Israeli air strike on his home in Shujaiya a fortnight earlier.

He occupies a bed far from his mother, who also suffered burns, and who cannot move to be by her son's side.

Instead, her brother cares for him, the only available guardian after his "father was martyred", as the tearful child says, struggling to remove one of many IV tubes.

A Palestinian girl injured in Israeli bombardment in central Gaza receives care at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir el-Balah

'I want to inspire': Algeria's woman boxer fighting prejudices

Born in a poor village some 300 kilometres from Algiers, boxer Imane Khelif had to overcome obstacles in a conservative country where women are considered unfit for the sport.

With braided hair and a powerful 1.79 metre (5 foot 9 inch) physique, the 25-year-old is the object of a Paris Olympic Games gender controversy.

With smiles and a soft voice, Imane told her story on television channel Canal Algerie one month before the start of the games.

Algeria's Imane Khelif has spoken of the difficulty conservative life in Tiaret's semi-desert surroundings

Fears of Middle East war grow after Hamas leader's killing

Middle East tensions soared as Iran and its allies readied their response to the assassination of Hamas's political leader, blamed on Israel, spurring fears of a regional war.

Israel ally the United States said it would move warships and fighter jets to the region, while Western governments called on their citizens to leave Lebanon -- where the powerful Iran-backed Hezbollah movement is based -- and airlines cancelled flights.

A portrait of slain Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh provides a backdrop to a demonstration, in Lebanon's Sidon city, denouncing his killing and that of a senior Hezbollah's commander

Thousands of Moroccans protest after Hamas leader's killing

Thousands of Moroccans protested in Rabat on Saturday in support of Palestinians and to condemn normalisation with Israel, holding portraits of killed Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, AFP journalists reported.

Hamas called for a "day of rage" on Friday for the burial of its chief Ismail Haniyeh, killed two days earlier in a strike in Iran which the Islamist movement and Tehran have blamed on Israel.

Thousands gathered in the Moroccan capital Rabat to protest the killing of Ismail Haniyeh and the war in Gaza

Nine killed in two Israeli West Bank air strikes

Israeli forces killed nine Palestinians in separate air strikes in the occupied West Bank on Saturday, the Palestinian press agency Wafa reported, while the Israeli military said it had "eliminated terrorist cells".

Five people were killed in an Israeli drone strike in the Tulkarem area, Wafa reported, while the Israeli military said it struck "five terrorists" on their way to carry out an attack.

According to Wafa, the drone fired two missiles at a vehicle which caught fire, killing five men.

People near Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank check the remains of a car reportedly hit by an Israeli drone strike, which Palestinian sources said killed five people

Thousands throng Beirut show as Hezbollah vows revenge

As Hezbollah's leader threatened Israel with crushing retaliation for killing their top commander, thousands in Beirut flocked to a dance extravaganza in a stark illustration of Lebanon's deep divisions.

In the capital's southern suburbs -- a Hezbollah stronghold -- tens of thousands of black-clad women and men in military uniform joined Thursday's funeral procession for slain commander Fuad Shukr.

A dance extravaganza by Lebanese troupe Mayyas, who won "America's Got Talent" in 2022, draws thousands to the Beirut waterfront hours after Hezbollah's top commander Fuad Shukr is laid to rest after his death in an Israeli air strike

Cleric held over Haniyeh sermon at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque: lawyer

A senior Muslim cleric was detained on suspicion of inciting "terrorism" on Friday after he mourned slain Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh at Jerusalem's flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque, his lawyer told AFP.

Sheikh Ekrima Sabri, 85, the former grand mufti of Jerusalem and current head of its Supreme Islamic Council, called Haniyeh a "martyr" in his sermon at the mosque in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, the lawyer said.

Haniyeh was killed in Tehran early on Wednesday in an attack that Iran and the Palestinian group blamed on Israel. Israel has not commented on Haniyeh's death.

The former grand mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Ekrema Sabri, 85, arrives for questioning by Israeli police in May over a previous sermon he gave at the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque