World
UN Security Council demands immediate Gaza ceasefire after US abstains
The United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution on Monday demanding an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas and the release of all hostages after the United States abstained from the vote, Reuters reported.
The remaining 14 council members voted for the resolution, which was proposed by the 10 elected members of the body. There was a round of applause in the council chamber after the vote.
"The Palestinian people has suffered greatly. This bloodbath has continued for far too long. It is our obligation to put an end to this bloodbath before it is too late," Algeria's U.N. Ambassador Amar Bendjama told the council after the vote.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the failure of the U.S. to veto the resolution was a "clear retreat" from its previous position and would hurt Israel's war efforts and bid to release more than 130 hostages still held by Hamas.
"Our vote does not, and I repeat that does not represent a shift in our policy," White House spokesperson John Kirby told reporters. "Nothing has changed about our policy. Nothing."
Following the U.N. vote, Netanyahu canceled a visit to Washington by a high-level delegation that was due to discuss a planned Israeli military operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where some 1.5 million people have sought shelter.
Washington had been averse to the word ceasefire earlier in the nearly six-month-old war in the Gaza Strip and had used its veto power shield ally Israel as it retaliated against Hamas for an Oct. 7 attack that Israel says killed 1,200 people, read the report.
But as famine looms in Gaza and amid growing global pressure for a truce in the war that Palestinian health authorities say has killed some 32,000 people, the U.S. abstained on Monday to allow the Security Council to demand an immediate ceasefire for the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which ends in two weeks.
Hamas welcomed the Security Council resolution, saying in a statement that it 'affirms readiness to engage in immediate prisoner swaps on both sides'.
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the U.S. fully supported "some of the critical objectives in this nonbinding resolution," but added that Washington did not agree with everything in the text, which also did not condemn Hamas.
"We believe it was important for the council to speak out and make clear that any ceasefire must come with the release of all hostages," she told the council after the vote. "A ceasefire can begin immediately with the release of the first hostage and so we must put pressure on Hamas to do just that."
According Reuters the resolution demands the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages. Israel says Hamas took 253 hostages during its Oct. 7 attack.
"It was the Hamas massacre that started this war," Israel's U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan said. "The resolution just voted upon makes it seem as if the war started by itself ... Israel did not start this war, nor did Israel want this war."
The resolution also "emphasizes the urgent need to expand the flow of humanitarian assistance to and reinforce the protection of civilians in the entire Gaza Strip and reiterates its demand for the lifting of all barriers to the provision of humanitarian assistance at scale."
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged Israel on Monday to lift all obstacles to aid into Gaza and allow convoys of the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA into the north of the coastal enclave.
Famine is imminent and likely to occur by May in northern Gaza and could spread across the enclave by July, according to a U.N.-backed report by a global authority on food security released last week.
The U.S. has vetoed three draft council resolutions on the war in Gaza. It has also previously abstained twice, allowing the council to adopt resolutions that aimed to boost aid to Gaza and called for extended pauses in fighting.
Russia and China have also vetoed two U.S. drafted resolutions on the conflict - in October and on Friday, Reuters reported.
"This must be a turning point," an emotional Palestinian U.N. envoy Riyad Mansour told the Security Council after the vote on Monday. "This must lead to saving lives on the ground."
World
Dubai’s Emirates Airlines bans pagers, walkie-talkies after Lebanon attacks
Several other airlines have also suspended flights to Beirut and other regional airports amid heightened tensions.
Dubai's Emirates Airlines has banned passengers from carrying pagers and walkie-talkies on its flights, following last month's attacks on Lebanese group Hezbollah involving communication devices that exploded, Reuters reported.
"All passengers traveling to, from, or via Dubai are prohibited from transporting pagers and walkie-talkies in checked or cabin baggage," the airline said in a statement on its website on Friday. It added that any prohibited items found will be confiscated by Dubai Police as part of heightened security measures.
In the deadly September attacks, thousands of booby-trapped Hezbollah pagers and hundreds of radios exploded - attacks that were widely blamed on Israel but which it has not claimed, read the report.
The Middle East's largest airline also announced that flights to Iraq and Iran will remain suspended until Tuesday, while services to Jordan will resume on Sunday.
Flights to Lebanon will remain suspended until Oct. 15 due to escalating Israeli attacks against Iran-backed Hezbollah, including strikes near Beirut's airport.
Several other airlines have also suspended flights to Beirut and other regional airports amid heightened tensions, Reuters reported.
World
US to give $157 million in humanitarian aid in response to Lebanon crisis
The United States will provide nearly $157 million in new humanitarian assistance to support populations affected by conflict in Lebanon and the region, the State Department said in a statement on Friday.
"This funding will address new and existing needs of internally displaced persons and refugee populations inside Lebanon and the communities that host them. The assistance will also support those fleeing to neighboring Syria," the State Department said.
World
US President Biden does not believe there will be ‘all-out-war’ in Middle East
Asked by reporters in Washington on Thursday how confident he was that such a war could be averted, Biden said, “How confident are you it’s not going to rain? Look, I don’t believe there is going to be an all-out war. I think we can avoid it.
U.S. President Joe Biden said he did not believe there is going to be an "all-out war" in the Middle East, as Israel weighs options for retaliation after Tehran's largest ever assault on its arch-enemy.
However, Biden said more needed to be done to avoid a Middle East war, as Israel's military hit Beirut with new air strikes in its battle against Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, Reuters reported.
Asked by reporters in Washington on Thursday how confident he was that such a war could be averted, Biden said, "How confident are you it's not going to rain? Look, I don't believe there is going to be an all-out war. I think we can avoid it.
"But there is a lot to do yet, a lot to do yet."
While the United States, the European Union, and other allies have called for an immediate 21-day ceasefire in the Israel-Lebanon conflict, Biden said the U.S. was discussing with Israel its options for responding to Tehran's assault, which included Israel striking Iran's oil facilities.
"We're discussing that," Biden told reporters.
His comments contributed to a surge in global oil prices, and rising Middle East tension has made traders worry about potential supply disruptions.
However, Biden added: "There is nothing going to happen today." Asked later if he was urging Israel not to attack Iran's oil installations, Biden said he would not negotiate in public.
On Wednesday, the president said he would not support any Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear sites.
On Thursday, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, told CNN his country had "a lot of options" for retaliation and would show Tehran its strength "soon".
A U.S. official said Washington did not believe Israel had decided yet how to respond to Iran.
Beirut's southern suburb of Dahiye, a stronghold of the Iran-backed Hezbollah, came under renewed strikes near midnight on Thursday after Israel ordered people to leave their homes in some areas, residents and security sources said.
The air raids targeted Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine, rumoured successor to its assassinated leader Hassan Nasrallah, in an underground bunker, Axios reporter Barak Ravid said on X, citing three Israeli officials.
Safieddine's fate was not clear, he said.
Israel's military declined comment.
Israel said Hezbollah launched about 230 rockets from Lebanon towards Israel on Thursday.
Hezbollah said it targeted what it called Israel's "Sakhnin base" for military industries in Haifa Bay on the Mediterranean coast of northern Israel with a salvo of rockets.
Late on Thursday, Hezbollah said it also targeted Israel's "Nesher base" in Haifa with a salvo of Fadi 2 rockets.
G7 CALLS FOR RESTRAINT
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed Iran will pay for Tuesday's missile attack, and Washington said it would work with its longtime ally to ensure Iran faced "severe consequences."
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, speaking in Doha, said on Thursday that Tehran would be ready to respond.
"Any type of military attack, terrorist act or crossing our red lines will be met with a decisive response by our armed forces," he said.
Israel, which has been fighting Hamas in the Palestinian territory of Gaza for almost a year, sent troops into southern Lebanon on Tuesday after two weeks of intense airstrikes in a worsening conflict that has drawn in Iran and risks involving the United States.
The Group of Seven nations, which includes the U.S., Britain and allies, on Thursday condemned Iran's missile attack on Tuesday and reaffirmed their commitment to Israel's security.
But the group also called for restraint, a ceasefire in Gaza and halt to hostilities in Lebanon.
"A dangerous cycle of attacks and retaliation risks fuelling uncontrollable escalation in the Middle East, which is in no one's interest," it said in a statement.
Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani also urged serious ceasefire efforts to stop what he called Israel's aggression.
The chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee urged the U.S. president on Thursday to speed up weapons shipments to Israel, including 2000-pound (907 kg) bombs held up for months over human rights concerns.
One 2,000-pound bomb can rip through thick concrete and metal, creating a wide blast radius.
Representative Michael McCaul said in a letter sent to Biden and seen by Reuters that such large bombs were operationally necessary as Hamas and Hezbollah were using deeply buried subterranean bunkers and tunnels.
HEZBOLLAH SAYS IT KILLED 17 ISRAELI TROOPS
Israel says its operations in Lebanon seek to allow tens of thousands of its citizens to return home after Hezbollah bombardments during the Gaza war forced them to evacuate from its north.
More than 1.2 million Lebanese have been displaced by Israeli attacks, and nearly 2,000 people have been killed since the start of the Israeli attacks on Lebanon over the last year, most of them in the past two weeks, Lebanese authorities said.
Early on Friay, Lebanon's health ministry said 27 people were killed and 151 wounded over the prior day.
Hezbollah says it has repelled several land operations by Israeli troops, with measures such as ambushes and direct clashes.
The group said it killed 17 Israeli military personnel in combat in southern Lebanon on Thursday, citing its field and security sources. Israeli forces did not comment on the claim.
An Israeli strike killed at least 18 people on Thursday in the Tulkarm refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said, and Israel said it killed a Hamas official in Tulkarm.
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