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Israeli Strikes Deep in Lebanon Kill 60 Hezbollah Terrorists
An explosion takes place as Israeli strikes hit southern Lebanon, amid cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Zibqin, Lebanon, Aug. 25, 2024, in this still image obtained from a video. Photo: Reuters TV via REUTERS
JNS.org — Sixty Hezbollah terrorists were killed over the past day in Israeli airstrikes on 20 targets north of Lebanon’s Litani River, including in Baalbek, the Israel Defense Forces said on Thursday morning.
Among the targets hit was the launcher used in Wednesday’s rocket barrage on central Israel, the largest on the center since the war began over a year ago. Weapons storage facilities and terrorist infrastructure were also destroyed.
Strikes were also conducted on Hezbollah targets in Nabatieh and the Dahieh area south of Beirut on Wednesday, according to the IDF.
Among the targets hit in Dahieh, a Hezbollah stronghold, were command centers, weapons storage facilities, and terror infrastructure, according to the military.
“All of the targets were embedded in the heart of a civilian area, an additional example of Hezbollah’s cynical exploitation of Lebanese civilians as human shields,” the IDF said.
“Prior to the strikes, numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk to civilians, including using precise munitions, surveillance, and issuing advance warnings to the population in the area.”
According to Lebanese media reports, slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s uncle and his family were killed by an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon on Wednesday. Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli strike on his bunker in Beirut on Sept. 27.
Israeli ground forces continued to dismantle Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, including a weapons storage facility and a rocket launcher.
Israel hits Hezbollah target at Beirut Airport
In the early hours of Thursday morning, Israel conducted an airstrike on a Hezbollah target “within yards’ of runways at Beirut-Rafic Hariri Airport, according to The Daily Telegraph.
According to the British newspaper, which published a video of the strike, up to three missiles were fired at a building located between two runways at Lebanon’s only international airport. The IDF had previously issued an evacuation notice for the area.
The Telegraph noted that all scheduled passenger flights had departed or arrived prior to the attack.
One of the 10 rockets launched at central Israel by Hezbollah shortly before noon on Wednesday hit a parking lot at Ben Gurion Airport, temporarily halting flights at the country’s main international airport. There were no injuries reported.
The IDF said on Thursday morning that overnight the Israeli Air Force struck Hezbollah command centers and terrorist infrastructure sites in the Beirut area.
Hezbollah rocket kills Israeli soldier
Hezbollah launched 170 projectiles into Israeli territory in total on Wednesday, one of which killed an IDF soldier in the country’s north.
The soldier was identified on Thursday morning as Sgt. Ariel Sosnov Sasonov, 20, of the 605th Combat Engineering Battalion, from Jerusalem.
Sasonov was killed by one of 50 rockets launched at the moshav of Avivim near the border in the Upper Galilee, with over 10 reportedly scoring direct hits. Three other soldiers were lightly wounded in the attack.
His death brings the IDF’s casualty toll on all fronts since the start of the war on Oct. 7, 2023, to 781.
Hezbollah said on Thursday that the attack on Avivim was carried out using “Noor-1” rockets, which caused widespread property damage, with 12 homes and agricultural facilities hit.
The rocket strikes ignited fires that took 15 crews hours to get under control.
“Large parts of the moshav were destroyed,” Eyal Peretz, a community board member, told Ynet. “Homes, property, packing houses, and farmland — the damage is heartbreaking.”
Amid Sofer, head of the Merom HaGalil Regional Council, told Ynet: “I don’t understand how residents are expected to even consider returning when rockets are still falling. Security means no sirens, no rockets.”
On Wednesday evening, Sivan Sadeh, 18, of Kibbutz Kfar Masaryk, south of Acre, was killed by a Hezbollah rocket in the Western Galilee.
Magen David Adom first responders discovered Sadeh’s body in an agricultural field near the kibbutz. He had suffered severe shrapnel wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Initial reports had suggested that the victim was a foreign worker, but local authorities later confirmed his identity.
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Iran, US Task Experts to Design Framework for a Nuclear Deal, Tehran Says
Atomic symbol and USA and Iranian flags are seen in this illustration taken, September 8, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
Iran and the United States agreed on Saturday to task experts to start drawing up a framework for a potential nuclear deal, Iran’s foreign minister said, after a second round of talks following President Donald Trump’s threat of military action.
At their second indirect meeting in a week, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi negotiated for almost four hours in Rome with Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, through an Omani official who shuttled messages between them.
Trump, who abandoned a 2015 nuclear pact between Tehran and world powers during his first term in 2018, has threatened to attack Iran unless it reaches a new deal swiftly that would prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon.
Iran, which says its nuclear program is peaceful, says it is willing to discuss limited curbs to its atomic work in return for lifting international sanctions.
Speaking on state TV after the talks, Araqchi described them as useful and conducted in a constructive atmosphere.
“We were able to make some progress on a number of principles and goals, and ultimately reached a better understanding,” he said.
“It was agreed that negotiations will continue and move into the next phase, in which expert-level meetings will begin on Wednesday in Oman. The experts will have the opportunity to start designing a framework for an agreement.”
The top negotiators would meet again in Oman next Saturday to “review the experts’ work and assess how closely it aligns with the principles of a potential agreement,” he added.
Echoing cautious comments last week from Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, he added: “We cannot say for certain that we are optimistic. We are acting very cautiously. There is no reason either to be overly pessimistic.”
There was no immediate comment from the US side following the talks. Trump told reporters on Friday: “I’m for stopping Iran, very simply, from having a nuclear weapon. They can’t have a nuclear weapon. I want Iran to be great and prosperous and terrific.”
Washington’s ally Israel, which opposed the 2015 agreement with Iran that Trump abandoned in 2018, has not ruled out an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities in the coming months, according to an Israeli official and two other people familiar with the matter.
Since 2019, Iran has breached and far surpassed the 2015 deal’s limits on its uranium enrichment, producing stocks far above what the West says is necessary for a civilian energy program.
A senior Iranian official, who described Iran’s negotiating position on condition of anonymity on Friday, listed its red lines as never agreeing to dismantle its uranium enriching centrifuges, halt enrichment altogether or reduce its enriched uranium stockpile below levels agreed in the 2015 deal.
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Hamas Says Fate of US-Israeli Hostage Unknown After Guard Killed in Israel Strike
Varda Ben Baruch, the grandmother of Edan Alexander, 19, an Israeli army volunteer kidnapped by Hamas, attends a special Kabbalat Shabbat ceremony with families of other hostages, in Herzliya, Israel October 27, 2023 REUTERS/Kuba Stezycki
Hamas said on Saturday the fate of an Israeli dual national soldier believed to be the last US citizen held alive in Gaza was unknown, after the body of one of the guards who had been holding him was found killed by an Israeli strike.
A month after Israel abandoned the ceasefire with the resumption of intensive strikes across the breadth of Gaza, Israel was intensifying its attacks.
President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff said in March that freeing Edan Alexander, a 21-year-old New Jersey native who was serving in the Israeli army when he was captured during the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks that precipitated the war, was a “top priority.” His release was at the center of talks held between Hamas leaders and US negotiator Adam Boehler last month.
Hamas had said on Tuesday that it had lost contact with the militants holding Alexander after their location was hit in an Israeli attack. On Saturday it said the body of one of the guards had been recovered.
“The fate of the prisoner and the rest of the captors remains unknown,” said Hamas armed wing Al-Qassam Brigades’ spokesperson Abu Ubaida.
“We are trying to protect all the hostages and preserve their lives … but their lives are in danger because of the criminal bombings by the enemy’s army,” Abu Ubaida said.
The Israeli military did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Hamas released 38 hostages under the ceasefire that began on January 19. Fifty-nine are still believed to be held in Gaza, fewer than half of them still alive.
Israel put Gaza under a total blockade in March and restarted its assault on March 18 after talks failed to extend the ceasefire. Hamas says it will free remaining hostages only under an agreement that permanently ends the war; Israel says it will agree only to a temporary pause.
On Friday, the Israeli military said it hit about 40 targets across the enclave over the past day. The military on Saturday announced that a 35-year-old soldier had died in combat in Gaza.
NETANYAHU STATEMENT
Late on Thursday Khalil Al-Hayya, Hamas’ Gaza chief, said the movement was willing to swap all remaining 59 hostages for Palestinians jailed in Israel in return for an end to the war and reconstruction of Gaza.
He dismissed an Israeli offer, which includes a demand that Hamas lay down its arms, as imposing “impossible conditions.”
Israel has not responded formally to Al-Hayya’s comments, but ministers have said repeatedly that Hamas must be disarmed completely and can play no role in the future governance of Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to give a statement later on Saturday.
Hamas on Saturday also released an undated and edited video of Israeli hostage Elkana Bohbot. Hamas has released several videos over the course of the war of hostages begging to be released. Israeli officials have dismissed past videos as propaganda.
After the video was released, Bohbot’s family said in a statement that they were “deeply shocked and devastated,” and expressed concern for his mental and physical condition.
“How much longer will he be expected to wait and ‘stay strong’?” the family asked, urging for all of the 59 hostages who are still held in Gaza to be brought home.
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Oman’s Sultan to Meet Putin in Moscow After Iran-US Talks
FILE PHOTO: Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said gives a speech after being sworn in before the royal family council in Muscat, Oman January 11, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Sultan Al Hasani/File Photo
Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said is set to visit Moscow on Monday, days after the start of a round of Muscat-mediated nuclear talks between the US and Iran.
The sultan will hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, the Kremlin said.
Iran and the US started a new round of nuclear talks in Rome on Saturday to resolve their decades-long standoff over Tehran’s atomic aims, under the shadow of President Donald Trump’s threat to unleash military action if diplomacy fails.
Ahead of Saturday’s talks, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi met his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow. Following the meeting, Lavrov said Russia was “ready to assist, mediate and play any role that will be beneficial to Iran and the USA.”
Moscow has played a role in Iran’s nuclear negotiations in the past as a veto-wielding U.N. Security Council member and signatory to an earlier deal that Trump abandoned during his first term in 2018.
The sultan’s meetings in Moscow visit will focus on cooperation on regional and global issues, the Omani state news agency and the Kremlin said, without providing further detail.
The two leaders are also expected to discuss trade and economic ties, the Kremlin added.
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