By Laila Bassam and Parisa Hafezi
BEIRUT/NEW YORK (Reuters) -Hezbollah's effort to blunt international pressure on Lebanon to disarm the group by appealing to Saudi Arabia last week was the result of back-channel diplomacy by Iran, two Iranian sources and a source with knowledge of Hezbollah thinking said.
By Maya Gebeily
BEIRUT (Reuters) -Efforts to reach a security pact between Syria and Israel have hit a last-minute snag over Israel's demand that it be allowed to open a "humanitarian corridor" to Syria's southern province of Sweida, four sources familiar with the talks said.
Syria and Israel had come close in recent weeks to agreeing the broad outlines of a pact after months of U.S.-brokered talks in Baku, Paris and London that accelerated in the lead-up to the United Nations General Assembly in New York this week.
Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli forces killed at least 50 people across the Palestinian territory on Friday, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed in a defiant UN address to "finish the job" against Hamas.
The Israeli military is pressing an offensive against the Palestinian Islamist movement in Gaza City, from which hundreds of thousands have been forced to flee in recent weeks.
The civil defence agency -- a rescue force operating under Hamas authority -- reported at least 50 people killed across the territory since dawn, 30 of them in Gaza City.
By Olivia Le Poidevin
GENEVA (Reuters) -More than 150 companies are doing business in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank that have been declared illegal by the United Nations' highest court, a report by the organisation's human rights office showed on Friday.
Israel, which cites biblical and historical ties to the West Bank, disputes the 2024 ruling by the U.N. court, arguing that the Palestinian territory is not occupied in legal terms because the land is disputed.
The United Nations on Friday released a long-awaited update of its database of companies with activities in Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories, listing 158 firms from 11 countries.
UN rights chief Volker Turk has condemned as a war crime Israel's policy of settlements on Palestinian territory in the occupied West Bank.
While several companies including Alstom and Opodo had been removed from the non-exhaustive database, major firms such as Airbnb, Booking.com, Motorola Solutions and TripAdvisor remained on the list.
Lebanon's former central bank governor Riad Salameh walked free from a year in custody over embezzlement allegations Friday after posting more than $14 million in bail, a judicial official told AFP.
"Salameh left the Bhannes Hospital (in north Beirut) where he was being held and treated under guard," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Salameh, 75, who headed the central bank for three decades, has faced numerous accusations including embezzlement, money laundering and tax evasion in separate probes in Lebanon and abroad.
By Michelle Nichols
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -Arab and Muslim countries warned Donald Trump about the grave consequences of any Israeli annexation of the West Bank -- a message the U.S. president "understands very well," Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said on Thursday.
Speaking to reporters at the White House later, Trump signaled he had received the message, saying: “I'm not allowing Israel to annex the West Bank.”
BERLIN (Reuters) -Switzerland plans to take in about 20 injured children from the Gaza Strip for medical treatment, the government said on Friday.
It is unclear when the evacuation of the children can be carried out due to the situation on the ground in Gaza, but coordination efforts are underway, it added in a statement.
The selection will be made in close coordination with the World Health Organization, which maintains lists of patients, and security checks will be conducted on the selected children and their accompanying family members, the government added.
By Michael Holden
LONDON (Reuters) -Six people appeared in a London court on Friday charged with some 50 offences for organising support for the proscribed pro-Palestinian group Palestine Action which prosecutors said was an attempt to make its ban unenforceable.
Britain banned Palestine Action under anti-terrorism laws in July, making it a crime to be a member with a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.
LONDON (Reuters) -A member of Irish rap group Kneecap was charged with a terrorism offence for allegedly displaying a flag of Iran-backed Lebanese militia Hezbollah too late, a London court ruled on Friday, throwing out his prosecution.
Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, who was initially charged under the Anglicised name Liam O'Hanna and whose stage name is Mo Chara, is alleged to have waved the flag of the banned militant group Hezbollah during a Kneecap gig in London in November 2024.
