US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday met Israel’s prime minister to push for a ceasefire in Gaza after the US called for an end to the war in Lebanon “as soon as possible.”
It was his 11th trip to the Middle East since Hamas’ attack on Israel more than a year ago triggered the Gaza war, and his first since Israel’s conflict with Hezbollah escalated late last month.
His meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top officials came as Israel weighs its response to Iran’s Oct. 1 missile attack.
Photo: AFP
In Lebanon, Israel hit an area of south Beirut housing the nation’s largest public health facility, killing 13 people, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health.
The Rafic Hariri Hospital, located outside Hezbollah’s traditional strongholds, sustained minor damage in the strike which flattened four nearby buildings.
Previous US efforts to end the Gaza war and contain the regional fallout have failed, as did a bid spearheaded by US President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron to secure a temporary ceasefire in Lebanon.
After Israel, Blinken is to visit Jordan today and discuss humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip, an official on the plane with him said.
Blinken also plans to speak to Israeli leaders about the expected strike on Iran and discourage any move that could massively escalate regional conflict, the official said.
US envoy to Lebanon Amos Hochstein on Monday said his administration was seeking an end to the war “as soon as possible,” as he pushed for a ceasefire based on a UN resolution that ended an earlier Israel-Hezbollah war.
Under UN Resolution 1701, Hezbollah should have withdrawn from areas in south Lebanon near the Israeli border, leaving only the nation’s weak military and UN peacekeepers deployed there, but Hezbollah remained south of Lebanon’s Litani River and in October last year began launching low-intensity cross-border strikes into Israel, in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas.
After nearly a year of war in Gaza, Israel shifted its focus to Lebanon, vowing to secure its northern border to allow tens of thousands of Israelis displaced by the cross-border fire to return to their homes.
Israel ramped up its airstrikes on Hezbollah strongholds around the nation and sent in ground troops late last month, in a war that has killed at least 1,489 people since Sept. 23, according to a tally of health ministry figures.
The strike on Monday night came as Israel targeted Beirut’s southern suburbs with heavy fire after issuing evacuation warnings for multiple districts.
Hezbollah spokesman Mohammed Afif confirmed that the group carried out a drone attack targeting the Israeli prime minister’s home last week, and acknowledged that some of its fighters had been captured by the Israeli army.
Netanyahu on Saturday accused Hezbollah of attempting to assassinate him and his wife after a drone was launched toward his residence in the central town of Caesarea.
A Lebanese security official said that the nation’s national airline had to switch landing strips after Israeli strikes near Beirut’s only international airport hit close to the main runway.
In the heavily bombarded south, the Lebanese Red Cross said an Israeli strike wounded three of its paramedics in the city of Nabatiyeh who were responding to reports of casualties from an earlier strike.
State media reported Israeli airstrikes near the coastal city of Tyre.
Hezbollah said it launched rockets at two positions in the suburbs of Israel’s commercial hub Tel Aviv and a naval base near the northern city of Haifa.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats