Middle East

Israel planted explosives in 5,000 Hezbollah’s pagers, say sources

By Laila Bassam and Maya Gebeily BEIRUT (Reuters) -Israel’s Mossad spy agency planted explosives inside 5,000 pagers imported by Lebanese group Hezbollah months before Tuesday’s detonations, a senior Lebanese security source and another source told Reuters. The operation was an unprecedented Hezbollah security breach that saw thousands of pagers detonate across Lebanon, killing nine people and wounding nearly 3,000 others, including the group’s fighters and Iran’s envoy to Beirut. The Lebanese security source said the […]

Meta bans RT and other Russian state media networks

By Katie Paul NEW YORK (Reuters) -Facebook owner Meta said on Monday it was banning RT, Rossiya Segodnya and other Russian state media networks from its platforms, claiming the outlets had used deceptive tactics to carry out covert influence operations online. “After careful consideration, we expanded our ongoing enforcement against Russian state media outlets. Rossiya Segodnya, RT and other related entities are now banned from our apps globally for foreign interference activity,” the social media […]

Israel shares video of cramped, bloody tunnel where hostages were held and killed

By Maayan Lubell JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Blood on the ground of a dark, cramped tunnel sealed by an iron door, bullets and a chess set are seen in a video released by the Israeli military of the passageway deep underground where it said six slain hostages were held and killed by Hamas. The video was filmed by the military last Friday, its spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said, as a forensic team investigated the hostage […]

Massive protests hit Israel after six hostages killed in Gaza

  By Emily Rose and Nidal al-Mughrabi JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Massive protests swept Israel on Sunday following the death of six hostages in Gaza as frustration mounted over the failure of the country’s leadership to secure a ceasefire deal that would free Israeli captives. Crowds estimated by Israeli media to number up to 500,000 strong demonstrated in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and other cities, demanding that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu do more to bring home the remaining […]

Israel recovers six hostage bodies in Gaza as polio vaccinations start

By Ari Rabinovitch and Nidal al-Mughrabi JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israel recovered the bodies of six hostages from a tunnel in southern Gaza where they were apparently killed not long before Israeli troops reached them, the military said on Sunday. The Israeli military announced the recovery of the bodies from underground in the southern city of Rafah as a polio vaccination campaign began in the war-shattered territory and violence flared in the occupied West Bank. The bodies […]

Israel recovers bodies of six hostages in Gaza, including Goldberg-Polin

By Ari Rabinovitch and Stephanie Kelly JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israel recovered the bodies of six hostages from a tunnel in southern Gaza where they were apparently killed not long before Israeli troops reached them, the military said on Sunday. “According to our initial estimation, they were brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists a short time before we reached them,” military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told reporters in a briefing. The bodies of Carmel Gat, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, […]

UN food agency suspends staff movement in Gaza after vehicle fired on

By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -The United Nations World Food Programme temporarily suspended movement of its employees across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, saying at least 10 bullets struck one of its clearly marked vehicles as it approached an Israeli military checkpoint. WFP said in a statement that a convoy of two armoured vehicles received “multiple clearances by Israeli authorities to approach” the Wadi Gaza bridge checkpoint on Tuesday evening. Bullets hit one of […]

Israeli military rescues hostage from Gaza tunnel

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israeli special forces have recovered an Israeli hostage from a tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip in “a complex rescue operation”, the military said on Tuesday, more than 10 months after he was abducted by Hamas-led gunmen on Oct. 7. It said 52 year-old Qaid Farhan Alkadi, a member of the Bedouin community in southern Israel, had been transferred to hospital and his condition was stable. Military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said […]

Major Israel-Hezbollah missile exchange as region watches for escalation

By Maytaal Angel and Maya Gebeily JERUSALEM/BEIRUT (Reuters) -Hezbollah launched hundreds of rockets and drones at Israel early on Sunday, as Israel’s military said it struck Lebanon with around 100 jets to thwart a bigger attack, in one of the biggest clashes in more than 10 months of border warfare. Missiles were visible curling up through the dawn sky, dark vapour trails behind them, as an air raid siren sounded in Israel and a distant […]

Israeli military retrieves bodies of six hostages from Gaza

By Maytaal Angel JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israel retrieved the bodies of six hostages from the Gaza Strip, the military said on Tuesday, as negotiations continued in an effort to bring back more than 100 captives who remain in the besieged Palestinian enclave. A total of 109 hostages are believed to remain in Gaza, around a third of whom are thought to be dead, with the fate of the others unknown. Most of them were seized by […]

Hamas, Islamic Jihad claim responsibility for bomb blast in Tel Aviv

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -The armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility on Monday for a bomb blast near a synagogue in Tel Aviv that Israeli police and the Shin Bet intelligence agency described as a terrorist attack. A man who was carrying the bomb was killed and a passerby was injured in the incident late on Sunday, according to police at the scene in Israel’s commercial capital. Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer said the […]

Israeli sonic booms rattle Lebanese capital after Hezbollah launches drones

BEIRUT (Reuters) -Israeli warplanes swooped low over the Lebanese capital Beirut on Tuesday, setting off a series of sonic booms that rattled windows across the city minutes before the head of Lebanon’s Hezbollah was set to give an address. The loud booms sent residents rushing to open their windows to prevent the glass from shattering, or standing on their balconies to get a glimpse of the planes flying over. There was no comment from the […]