Israel has carried out airstrikes on southern and northeastern Lebanon. Thursday's strikes come as the deadline to disarm Hezbollah looms. The attacks happened a day before a meeting of a committee monitoring a U.S.-brokered ceasefire. The ceasefire ended the latest war between Israel and Hezbollah a year ago. The Israeli military said that it targeted Hezbollah infrastructure and military sites. Lebanon's National News Agency reported that the strikes stretched from Mount Rihan to the northeastern Hermel region. The U.S. has increased pressure on Lebanon to disarm Hezbollah in recent weeks.
Pope Leo XIV is embarking on his first foreign trip. His pilgrimage to Turkey and Lebanon would be delicate under any circumstances but is even more fraught given Mideast tensions and the media glare that will document history's first American pope on the road. Leo is fulfilling a trip Pope Francis had planned to make. In Turkey, he'll mark an important anniversary with the Orthodox church. In Lebanon, he'll try to boost a long-suffering Christian community and country still demanding justice from the 2020 Beirut port blast. Leo, who spent 12 years as the global superior of his Augustinian religious order and two decades as a missionary in Peru, says he loves to travel. In recent weeks he has shown diplomatic dexterity in answering questions on the fly from reporters.
A U.S. envoy is reaffirming Washington's support for Syria's new government and telling The Associated Press in an exclusive interview that there is "no Plan B" for uniting the country. Tom Barrack also criticized Israel's recent intervention in Syria, calling it poorly timed and complicating efforts to stabilize the region. Israel last week struck Syrian government targets during clashes in Sweida between Druze militias and Sunni Bedouin tribes that left hundreds dead. A ceasefire was announced Saturday. The violence deepened the distrust of Syria's minority religious and ethnic groups toward the new government, which is led by Sunni Muslim former insurgents
By TIA GOLDENBERG, FATMA KHALED and WAFAA SHURAFA Associated Press
Updated
The Israeli military says five soldiers have been killed in an attack in northern Gaza. Health officials in the Palestinian territory say Israeli strikes killed 51 people. The bloodshed came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was visiting the White House on Tuesday for talks with President Donald Trump about a ceasefire plan. There was no announcement of a breakthrough from that meeting. But there were signs of progress toward a deal. The soldiers' deaths could add to pressure on Netanyahu to strike a deal in Israel where polls have shown widespread support for ending the 21-month war.
By JON GAMBRELL, JOSEF FEDERMAN and JULIA FRANKEL Associated Press
Updated
Israel launched blistering attacks on the heart of Iran's nuclear and military structure, deploying warplanes and drones previously smuggled into the country to attack key facilities and kill top generals and scientists — a barrage it said was necessary before its adversary got any closer to building an atomic weapon. Iran retaliated late Friday by unleashing scores of ballistic missiles on Israel, where explosions flared in the skies over Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and buildings shook below. Israel's ongoing airstrikes and intelligence operation and Iran's retaliation raised fears of all-out war between the countries and propelled the region, already on edge, into even greater upheaval.
The Lebanese army has condemned Israel's airstrikes on suburbs of Beirut, warning that such attacks are weakening the role of Lebanon's armed forces that might eventually suspend cooperation with the committee monitoring the truce that ended the Israel-Hezbollah war. The army's statement Friday came hours after the Israeli military struck several buildings in Beirut's southern suburbs that it said held underground facilities used by Hezbollah for drone production. The Lebanese army said it started coordinating with the committee observing the ceasefire after Israel's military issued a warning and sent patrols to the areas that were to be struck to search them.
Israel has launched an attack on the Lebanese capital Beirut for the first time since a ceasefire ended the latest Israel-Hezbollah war in November. The attack Friday was the first strike on Beirut since a ceasefire took hold on Nov. 27, 2024, between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group, although Israel has struck targets in southern Lebanon almost daily since then. After the strike, Israel's army said it attacked a Hezbollah drone storage facility in the area of Dahiyeh, which it called a key Hezbollah stronghold. Israel said it issued a warning in advance for people to leave.
By AAMER MADHANI, COLLEEN LONG and MATTHEW LEE Associated Press
As President Joe Biden prepares to leave office next week, he's insistent that his one-term presidency has made strides in restoring American credibility on the world stage and has proved that the U.S. remains an indispensable partner around the globe. That's the message he delivered Monday in a capstone address at the State Department to reflect on his foreign policy legacy. Yet, Biden's case for his achievements will be shadowed and shaped, at least in the near term, by the messy counterfactual that American voters are returning the country's stewardship to Donald Trump and his protectionist worldview.
