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☆ U.S. Embassy in Lebanon Targeted With Gunfire
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-05 | by ( Euan Ward | More About Euan Ward | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The U.S. Embassy in Lebanon was targeted with gunfire early on Wednesday, and an attacker was wounded before being arrested, the country’s army said. The embassy said that no staff had been harmed in the attack and that Lebanese security forces and the embassy’s security team had responded to “small-arms fire” near the entrance of the fortified compound, which overlooks the Lebanese capital, Beirut. The embassy added in its statement that the episode was under investigation. The Lebanese army said that in response it had deployed troops around the embassy. Security forces blocked the road leading to the embassy, the country’s state news agency reported.

Organizations: U.S, Embassy, Security Locations: Lebanon, Beirut

Even as the Biden administration renewed its push for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel threatened “very intense”military action against Hezbollah in Lebanon. “Whoever thinks he can hurt us and we will respond by sitting on our hands is making a big mistake,” he said, according to the Israeli government. “We are prepared for very intense action in the north.”Against the backdrop of escalating tensions on the Israel-Lebanon border, the C.I.A. director, William J. Burns, met on Wednesday with top Qatari and Egyptian officials in the latest effort to broker a deal to end the fighting in Gaza and free the hostages taken captive during the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7. Mr. Burns met in Doha with the Qatari prime minister, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, and the chief of Egypt’s General Intelligence Service, Abbas Kamel, according to an official briefed on the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door encounter.

Persons: Biden, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel, Netanyahu, ”, William J, Burns, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman, Abbas Kamel Organizations: Qatari, Egypt’s General Intelligence Service Locations: Gaza, Lebanon, Israel, ”, Doha, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani

College Democrats of America, the student organization of the Democratic Party, endorsed pro-Palestinian campus protests on Tuesday and called on President Biden to support a permanent cease-fire in Gaza. Overnight from Monday into Tuesday, protesters at Columbia took over a building on campus. “As College Democrats, we are committed to the re-election of President Biden and Democrats across down-ballot races in every corner of our nation,” the statement said. “We’re realizing that our duty as College Democrats is to be representatives of college students to the party, rather than vice versa,” Mr. Muralitharan said. And throughout the nation, we’re witnessing Joe Biden, Democrats across the ballot, losing scores of young voters over this issue.”The statement was written largely by the organization’s Muslim Caucus.

Persons: Biden, ”, “ MAGA, “, Mr, —, Netanyahu, Sunjay Muralitharan, ” Mr, Muralitharan, Joe Biden, Hasan Pyarali, Biden’s, Pyarali, Donald J, Trump, won’t, Joshua Martin, you’re, we’re, Martin, Indiana University —, ’ Organizations: Democrats of America, Democratic Party, College Democrats, Columbia University, Students, Columbia, Protesters, Portland State University and California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, “ MAGA Republicans, Jewish, “, Democratic National Committee, University of California, Muslim Caucus, Wake Forest University, Mr, College Democrats ’, University of Houston, Hamas, College Democrats of, Yale, New York University, Indiana University Locations: Gaza, United States, Israel, San Diego, Palestine, Biden’s Israel, College Democrats of America

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken will visit Israel next week, an Israeli official said on Friday, as talks on a cease-fire deal have stalled and tensions have risen between Israel and the United States over the treatment of civilians in the war. The Israeli official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, said talks with Mr. Blinken would center on the remaining hostages held in Gaza and an impending Israeli military operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Mr. Blinken last visited Israel in March, when he warned that its plans to invade Rafah, where more than a million displaced Palestinians are sheltering, would pose severe risks to the population. Since then, the Biden administration has continued to raise concerns about the planned incursion, saying it should not be carried out without a credible plan to protect civilians. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has vowed to press ahead with the invasion, saying it is necessary to eliminate Hamas battalions in the city.

Persons: Antony J, Blinken, Biden, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel, Blinken’s Organizations: Israeli, United Locations: Israel, United States, Gaza, Rafah

☆ Israel’s Claim of Killing ‘Half’ of Hezbollah Commanders in Southern Lebanon Draws Skepticism
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-25 | by ( Euan Ward | Hwaida Saad | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Israel’s defense minister has said that the country’s military has eliminated half of Hezbollah’s commanders in southern Lebanon. But analysts doubt whether Israel’s increasing use of targeted killings would weaken the militant group. “Half of the Hezbollah commanders in southern Lebanon have been eliminated,” Israel’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, said during a visit on Wednesday to Israeli troops along the northern border with Lebanon. “The other half are in hiding,” he added, without providing a specific number or evidence of his claim. A Hezbollah official and a senior Lebanese intelligence official, both of whom spoke anonymously to discuss the sensitive subject, denied Mr. Gallant’s numbers on Thursday.

Persons: Yoav Gallant, ”, Israel’s Organizations: Hezbollah Locations: Lebanon, Israel, Lebanese

☆ Hezbollah Claims Drone Attack 10 Miles Inside Israel
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-23 | by ( Euan Ward | More About Euan Ward | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah on Tuesday claimed that it had made its deepest attack into Israel since October, striking with aerial drones north of the city of Acre and setting off sirens across the country’s northern coastline. In the latest strike, it said it had launched a drone attack on an Israeli military barracks roughly 10 miles from the Lebanese border. The Israeli military said that fighter jets had targeted “military structures” in the area where Hezbollah were operating, according to a statement. The drone attack in Israel came after targeted killings by Israel of two Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon, both of whom the Israeli military claimed were involved in Hezbollah’s aerial operations. Last week, Hezbollah claimed responsibility for a drone and missile attack into northern Israel that left one soldier dead and 16 soldiers and two civilians injured, in one of the group’s most damaging attacks in Israel in recent months.

Persons: “, Hwaida Saad, Johnatan Reiss, Arijeta Lajka Organizations: Hezbollah, The New York Times Locations: Lebanese, Israel, Acre, Gaza, Hanin, Lebanon

☆ Attack by Hezbollah Injures at Least 13 in Israeli Border Village
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-17 | by ( Euan Ward | More About Euan Ward | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah claimed responsibility for a cross-border drone and missile attack in northern Israel on Wednesday that emergency officials said had injured at least 13 people, four of them critically. Clashes between Israel and Hezbollah, Iran’s most powerful regional proxy, have intensified in the wake of Israel’s targeted killing of two Hezbollah commanders. And there are growing fears of a broader conflict between Israel and Tehran, which mounted a wide aerial attack on Israel over the weekend. Hezbollah said its attack on an Israeli Bedouin border village, Arab al-Aramshe, was in response to the Israeli airstrikes a day earlier which Israel’s military said had killed the commanders. Those strikes triggered a series of retaliatory attacks by Hezbollah on Israeli military bases and barracks.

Locations: Lebanese, Israel, Tehran, Arab

☆ U.N. Peacekeepers Injured in Lebanon Blast as Tensions Rise
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-30 | by ( Aaron Boxerman | Euan Ward | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

The Israeli authorities have denied blocking UNRWA, but Israel and the aid agency have been locked in a dispute over not only responsibility for the crisis, but also the status of UNRWA itself. UNRWA suspended the staff members and opened an investigation, but some of its biggest donors have since suspended funding. U.N. officials and international aid groups have reported severe and deadly malnutrition in Gaza and have blamed Israel, which inspects every truckload aid. In some cases, crowds of people have swarmed the trucks, stripping them of supplies. The World Food Program said that only 11 of its convoys carrying food had reached the north since the start of the year.

Persons: Philippe Lazzarini, Israel, Lazzarini, Benjamin Netanyahu, Mr, Natalia Kanem, “ Organizations: Nations, International Court of Justice, United Nations, UNRWA, “, Food Program Locations: Israel, Gaza, The Hague

The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah fired more than 100 rockets into northern Israel on Tuesday morning, according to Israel’s military. Israel’s military said its fighter jets had retaliated by striking a number of sites linked to Hezbollah in Lebanon. The group is a key ally of Hamas, whose Oct. 7 attacks on Israel led to the war in Gaza. Since Israel’s bombardment of Gaza began, Hezbollah has been firing rockets into northern Israel on a near-daily basis. The Israeli military regularly responds with strikes against Hezbollah-linked targets inside Lebanon.

Persons: Hassan Nasrallah, Khalil al, Euan Ward, Adam Sella Organizations: Hamas’s Locations: Lebanese, Israel, Gaza, Lebanon, Lebanon’s Bekaa, Cairo, United States, Egypt, Qatar, Iran

Israeli airstrikes inside Lebanon on targets associated with the Hezbollah militia hit deeper than any in recent years on Monday, targeting an area close to the Syrian border. The Israeli military said that its fighter jets had struck Hezbollah air defenses in the Bekaa Valley, about 60 miles from the Israeli border. It said that the strikes were in response to a surface-to-air missile attack that downed an Israeli drone over southern Lebanon. At least two Hezbollah fighters were killed in the Israeli airstrikes and at least six other people were wounded, according to Bachir Khodor, mayor of the nearby city of Baalbek. The fighting has displaced more than 150,000 people on both sides of the Lebanese-Israeli border and left hundreds dead.

Persons: Bachir Khodor Organizations: Mr, Lebanese Locations: Lebanon, Bekaa, Baalbek, Israel, Lebanese

Israel’s military launched new attacks on targets in Lebanon on Thursday, a day after its strikes in southern Lebanon killed at least 10 civilians, the most in months of cross-border fighting. On Thursday, Lebanon’s state media reported that 10 civilians had been killed in the Israeli strikes, including seven members of one family in the city of Nabatieh. Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, on Thursday condemned the Israeli military “aggression” and requested that an urgent complaint against Israel be brought before the U.N. Security Council, according to a statement from his office. Soon after, Israel’s military said that its fighter jets had carried out more strikes inside Lebanon against Hezbollah targets. Hezbollah, a key ally of Hamas, has vowed to respond to the Israeli strikes — and Israeli leaders signaled that they, too, were prepared to fight.

Persons: Najib Mikati, ”, Israel, Yoav Gallant, Lloyd J, Austin III, Gallant, Herzi Halevi Organizations: Lebanese, . Security, Hamas Locations: Lebanon, Nabatieh, Gaza, United States, Israel

☆ Israel-Hamas War Blinken’s Mission in Israel: Conveying Support While Pushing to Reduce Harm to Civilians
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-03 | by ( Adam Entous | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +8 min

On Tuesday, after the first strike in Jabaliya, the hospital received about 40 people who did not survive, and 250 others who were wounded, he said. Image A wounded girl received treatment on Thursday at Kamal Adwan Hospital after an Israeli strike on a United Nations school being used as a shelter. “We wish for death,” said Dr. Abu Safyia. “The children’s screams during surgeries can be heard from outside,” Dr. Abu Safyia said. Dr. Abu Safyia is among them, and barely sleeping.

Persons: Mohammed Saber, Hussam Abu Safyia, Kamal Adwan, “ I’ve, Dr, Abu Safyia, Abdul Qader Sabbah, Jabaliya, “, ”, Avishag Shaar, Ashraf Al, Ghassan Abu, Gaza —, Ahmad Sardah, Ghassan Khatib, —, Khan Younis, Yousef Masoud, Tamara Alrifai, ” Euan Ward, Abu Bakr Bashir Organizations: Kamal, Kamal Adwan Hospital, United Nations, UNRWA, Associated Press, Hamas, ., Yashuv, The New York Times, Health Ministry, Al, Shifa Hospital, Gazan Health Ministry, Communications, Humanitarian Affairs, Birzeit University, West Bank Locations: Gaza’s Jabaliya, Credit, Gaza City, Jabaliya, Beit Lahia, Gaza, British, Palestinian, Shifa, Al, Hilo, Khan, Nablus, People

Palestinians walking among the rubble in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City on Monday. As the Israeli tanks started rolling near Gaza City on Monday, the whispers began to spread — terrifying in their specificity, terrifying in their vagueness. I don’t want them to go through this.”Israel has warned for weeks that civilians in northern Gaza, including those in Gaza City, should evacuate south to avoid the violence. The New York Times has verified that the video was filmed this morning south of Gaza City on Salah Al-Din Road. “They call us directly and they warn us, telling us to leave and evacuate now, but the bombardments are relentless,” Ms. ElSayed told Al Jazeera.

Persons: Motaz, hunkered, Salah Al, Youssef Al Saifi, Hamda, Mr, Israel, ” Bilal Assabti, “, Daniel Hagari, Jamal Azzam, ”, Assabti, “ We’ve, Youmna ElSayed, ElSayed, Ms, Al Jazeera, Christoph Koettl, Neil Collier Organizations: Credit, New York Times, Times, Turkish Palestinian Friendship Hospital, Al Locations: Tel, Gaza City, Gaza, Palestinian, Turkish, “, ”, Al Jazeera

The government in the predominantly Muslim republic said that the outburst had been calmed and vowed to prevent further clashes. Russian aviation authorities said that the airport, in Makhachkala, the republic’s capital, would reopen on Tuesday. Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesman, said on Monday that Mr. Putin had been receiving reports about the events in Dagestan. Some people in the videos held Palestinian flags and carried signs opposing the war in Gaza, and some chanted “God is great” in Arabic. The local authorities in Dagestan blamed “extremist” outlets administered by “Russian enemies” for inciting the unrest.

Persons: Vladimir V, Putin, Dmitri S, Peskov, “, ”, Sergei Melikov, Ilya Ponomaryov, Volodymyr Zelensky, ” Aric Toler Organizations: The New York Times, Red Wings, The Times, Telegram, Kremlin Locations: Makhachkala, Dagestan, Russian, Tel Aviv, Russia, Kremlin, Israel, North Caucasus, Ukraine, Gaza, ”, Caucasus, Khasavyurt

The Al Shifa hospital was lit up in Gaza City on Tuesday. But to the Israeli military, it is a threat, and, perhaps, a target. Among Al Shifa’s current patients are about 130 newborns who were orphaned just as they were born, according to doctors at Al Shifa. Born premature, they were placed in incubators in Al Shifa’s neonatal intensive care unit. Video A doctor treating premature babies at Al Shifa Hospital said that many of the newborns were now orphaned.

Persons: Al Shifa, Al, ”, Daniel Hagari, Salama Marouf, Israel, Hagari, Dawood Nemer, “, I’ve, Tamir Kalifa, The New York Times Al Shifa’s, Al Shifa’s, obstetricians, Bisan, Mohammed Al, Masri, Ghassan Abu Sittah, —, ” Iyad Abuheweila, Isabel Kershner Organizations: Agence France, Shifa, The New York Times, Population, Al Shifa Hospital, Reuters, Al, CNN Locations: Gaza City, Gaza, Al, —, Tel Aviv, Israel, Hamas’s, British, Palestinian, Lebanese

“There is no time to mourn — more death is on the way,” Mr. Mansour said. “The answer to the killing of Palestinian civilians is not the killing of Israeli civilians,” Mr. Mansour said. Mr. Mansour, the Palestinian representative, also directly responded to a speech the Israeli foreign minister, Eli Cohen, made at the U.N. Security Council this week. Mr. Cohen called for Israeli hostages to be brought home, but “for millions of Palestinians, there is no home to go back to,” Mr. Mansour said. “For thousands, there is no family left to embrace.”“He told you how horrible it was to kill civilians,” Mr. Mansour continued, “just before justifying the killing of Palestinian civilians by the thousands.

Persons: Riyad Mansour, —, ” Mr, Mansour, ”, Gilad Erdan, Erdan, Mr, Eli Cohen, Cohen, “, Dennis Francis of Trinidad, Jordan, Ayman Safadi, ” Anushka Patil Organizations: United Nations, United Nations General Assembly, Palestinian, Islamic, . Security, Arab Locations: Gaza ., Israel, Gaza, Islamic State, Iran, Dennis Francis of Trinidad and Tobago, Jordan

Aid convoy trucks waiting at the Rafah border crossing to enter Gaza from Egypt on Thursday. As Gaza grapples with an escalating humanitarian crisis, the prospect of getting aid through the closed Rafah border crossing with Egypt has taken on particular urgency. Hopes are high that the aid trucks would be able to cross into Gaza on Friday, according to European Union officials coordinating aid from the bloc. The American, U.N. and Egyptian officials are discussing who would carry out those cargo inspections, a person directly familiar with the matter said, requesting anonymity to speak about the delicate negotiations. “All of Gaza is waiting for the aid,” Wael Abu Omar, the spokesman for Hamas’s interior ministry, said Thursday.

Persons: Biden, Israel, ”, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, “, António Guterres, Martin Griffiths, Samar Abu Elouf, Wael Abu Omar, Israel readies, Abood, Okal, ” Iyad Abuheweila, Yazbek Organizations: Diplomats, European Union, World Health Organization, International Committee, The New York Times, Palestinian Locations: Rafah, Gaza, Egypt, Israel, Arish, Palestine, Cairo, U.S, Samar, E.U, Palestinian American, Jerusalem

In video clips verified by The New York Times, scores of Palestinian bodies were filmed strewn across the courtyard of the Ahli Arab Hospital, some bloodied, charred, mangled or in pieces. The explosion at the hospital came a day after Iran warned that “other multiple fronts will open” if Israeli attacks continued to kill civilians in Gaza. Hundreds of families had fled to the hospital in search of refuge after 11 days of Israeli strikes elsewhere in Gaza. Image Two Palestinian children injured in the explosion at Ahli Arab Hospital were taken to another hospital in Gaza, Al-Shifa, for treatment. The Health Ministry in Gaza said that Ahli Arab Hospital was also struck on Sunday.

Persons: ”, Ali Jadallah, Israel, Biden’s, King Abdullah II of Jordan, Mahmoud Abbas, Abbas, Jordan, Biden, Jadallah, Mr, Ghassan Abu, Dr, Abu, Sitta, Abed Khaled, Ahmed Hijazi, “ I’ve, Hijazi, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Abu Bakr Bashir, Haley Willis, Euan Ward, Yousur, Abu Hweila Organizations: Israel Defense Forces, The New York Times, Ahli Arab Hospital, Anadolu Agency, Shifa, Lebanese, Palestinian, Islamic, Palestinian Authority, Israel, ”, West Bank, West Bank . Video, The Times, Arab Hospital, Episcopal, Health Ministry, World Health Organization, Twitter Locations: Gaza City, Palestinian, Ahli, Al, Israel, Lebanon, Iran, Gaza, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Saudi, Egypt, Zeitoun, Jerusalem, ”, Canterbury, London, Berkeley, Calif, Beirut, Cairo

President Biden’s trip to Israel on Wednesday will put him in a region where grief and fury are mounting, not only toward Israel, but also toward the United States, the world power that has declared unyielding support for its chief Middle East ally. On Tuesday, widespread condemnation of Israel rippled across the region after a huge explosion at a hospital in the Gaza Strip killed hundreds of Palestinians who had been seeking treatment and refuge. Israel has denied being behind the blast, blaming a Palestinian group, Islamic Jihad, for a failed rocket launch. But even before that, many people across the region had come to view Israel’s war with Hamas — the Palestinian armed group that carried out a shocking attack on southern Israel more than a week ago, slaughtering 1,400 people — as an American-backed massacre of Palestinian civilians in the blockaded territory of Gaza. Israel has cut off water, medicine and electricity in the enclave and continued to target Gaza with deadly airstrikes, bringing the death toll to at least 2,800 before the hospital explosion.

Persons: Biden’s, Israel rippled Organizations: Gaza, Islamic Locations: Israel, United States, American, Gaza

An aerial view of a music festival that was the site of a Hamas attack. The next images are of Ms. Schem, who disappeared from the site of a music festival where at least 260 people were killed, speaking directly to the camera in Hebrew. “At the moment I am in Gaza,” Ms. Schem says in a solemn, clipped voice. “She called me to say she was going to a party down south,” Keren Schem said. Keren Schem said one person who was at the show described having seen her daughter walking toward a kibbutz nearby.

Persons: Mia Schem, —, Schem, “, Ms, ”, Shem, Schem’s, Keren Schem, ” Keren Schem, Keren Schem’s, Mia, Nadav Gavrielov Organizations: Hamas, The New York Times Locations: Gaza, Israel, Tel Aviv

An aerial view of a music festival that was the site of a Hamas attack. “At the moment I am in Gaza,” Ms. Schem says in a solemn, clipped voice. Ms. Schem’s mother, Keren Schem, said last week that she had last spoken to her on Oct. 6, the day before the attack. “She called me to say she was going to a party down south,” Keren Schem said. Keren Schem said one person who was at the show described having seen her daughter walking toward a kibbutz nearby.

☆ In Ukraine, They’re Doctors; in Britain, They’re Unemployed
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-08 | by ( Euan Ward | More About Euan Ward | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Dr. Samer al-Sheikh stared numbly at the photograph of himself on his phone. The doctor pictured at the operating table was now almost unrecognizable to him. After fleeing the Iraq war at age 16, Dr. al-Sheikh built a life in Ukraine as a trauma surgeon, gaining admiration for his work at the City Clinical Hospital in Kharkiv even as the Russian shells began falling. But now, the pings of job rejection emails, not racing heart monitors, mark his time. But I didn’t want my family to see what I saw in Iraq,” said Dr. al-Sheikh, 33, who had a temporary job unloading trucks at a London supermarket but is now unemployed again.

Persons: Samer, Sheikh, numbly, “, ”, al Organizations: Clinical Hospital, Ukraine Locations: Iraq, Ukraine, Kharkiv, Russian, Britain, London

☆ Under the Hollywood Spotlight, a Fading Welsh Town Is Reborn
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-29 | by ( Euan Ward | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

In the Welsh language, the virtually untranslatable word “hiraeth” (pronounced here-ayeth) describes a blend of nostalgia and longing for a time that can never be recreated. For Wrexham, a working-class town in northern Wales, it was a feeling that came to define a postindustrial malaise that descended in the 1980s as the last remaining coal mines shuttered their rickety gates and, later, the furnaces at the nearby steelworks ran cold. Only the beloved soccer club, Wrexham A.F.C., remained: the oldest team in Wales, a perennial also-ran but still an indomitable source of local pride. “We went through so much as a town,” said Terry Richards, 56, a lifelong fan of the club as he sat at home in the team’s bright scarlet jersey. “Those were difficult times.”

☆ Gunman Kills Five People in Texas Home, Authorities Say
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-29 | by ( Euan Ward | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Four people were pronounced dead at the scene in Cleveland, Texas, and a fifth person died at the hospital, the San Jacinto County Sheriff’s Office said. The sheriff’s office said it received a call reporting a harassment just after 11:30 p.m. Friday. When officers responded to the home, they found multiple gunshot victims, Sheriff Greg Capers told local news reporters. Sheriff Capers added that the bodies of two women were found in a bedroom lying on top of two children, both of whom survived. The victims were all from Honduras, the sheriff said, adding that 10 people were inside the home at the time of the shooting.

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