JUST IN: Israeli PM Netanyahu sacks defence minister amid Gaza conflict – Newstrends
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JUST IN: Israeli PM Netanyahu sacks defence minister amid Gaza conflict

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

JUST IN: Israeli PM Netanyahu sacks defence minister amid Gaza conflict

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, naming Israel Katz as his successor.

The announcement, shared through a video on Netanyahu’s official X (formerly Twitter) account, underscores ongoing tensions within Israel’s leadership amid the Gaza conflict, which erupted after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel.

“In the midst of a war, more than ever, full trust is required between the Prime Minister and Defence Minister,” Netanyahu said.

He elaborated that while initial cooperation was productive, trust had “cracked” over recent months due to significant policy disagreements.

The two leaders had frequently clashed over the direction of Israel’s military efforts in Gaza.

While Netanyahu advocated for relentless military pressure on Hamas, Gallant reportedly viewed the ongoing operations as setting the stage for potential negotiations to secure the release of Israeli hostages.

“The security of the state of Israel always was, and will always remain, my life’s mission,” Gallant, a former general, stated following his removal.

The political repercussions of Gallant’s dismissal could be significant.

Alistair Bunkall, Sky News’ Middle East correspondent, described the move as “reckless,” adding that many might interpret it as a step taken for Netanyahu’s political survival.

“To fire your Defence Minister at this moment will be seen as a reckless move by many,” Bunkall noted.

This leadership change occurs amidst broader political debates, including discussions on the drafting of Haredi Jewish students into the Israel Defence Forces (IDF)—a policy Gallant supported.

His removal mirrors a previous attempt by Netanyahu in March 2023, which triggered mass protests and a reshuffle.

The agency reported that Netanyahu announced “Gideon Saar as the incoming Foreign Minister.”

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Tens of thousands of fighters ready to battle Israel says Hezbollah

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Hezbollah says tens of thousands of fighters ready to battle Israel

BEIRUT: Hezbollah said Wednesday that tens of thousands of its militants were ready to fight Israel, adding that the US election result would have no bearing on the war in Lebanon.

The Iran-backed group’s leader also warned that nowhere in Israel would be “off-limits” to attacks, as the Israeli military said about 120 projectiles had been fired across the border on Wednesday.

The Israeli military struck Hezbollah’s main bastion of south Beirut after issuing an evacuation warning.

Israel and Hezbollah have been at war since late September, when the Israeli military widened the focus of its war in Gaza to securing its northern border with Lebanon.

Hezbollah began launching low-intensity cross-border attacks on Israel last year, in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas following its October 7, 2023 attack.

Efforts to end the war in Gaza that was sparked by the Hamas attack have yet to bear fruit, and the war in Lebanon has killed nearly 2,000 people, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures.

“We have tens of thousands of trained resistance combatants” ready to fight, Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem said in a televised speech marking 40 days since his predecessor Hassan Nasrallah was killed in a strike.

The address was aired after Donald Trump’s victory in the US election was announced, but had been recorded earlier.

He said the result in the race between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris would have no impact on any possible ceasefire deal for Lebanon.

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“We don’t base our expectations for a halt of the aggression on political developments,” he said.

“Whether Harris wins or Trump wins, it means nothing to us.

“What will stop this… war is the battlefield” he said, citing fighting in south Lebanon and Hezbollah attacks on Israel.

Earlier on Wednesday, Hezbollah said it targeted a military base near Israel’s main airport close to commercial hub Tel Aviv, an attack that Israel’s Airports Authority said did not disrupt operations.

Earlier Wednesday, Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported Israeli air strikes on the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon and the southern city of Nabatiyeh.

An AFP correspondent in the eastern city of Baalbek reported intense strikes in and around the city.

The speech was Qassem’s second since he was named Hezbollah secretary-general last week.

Israel is “betting on prolonging the war so it becomes a war of attrition… We are ready,” he said.

He also called for Lebanese sovereignty to be safeguarded in any truce talks.

Qassem demanded explanations from the Lebanese army after Israeli naval commandos seized a man from north Lebanon on Saturday who they said was a senior Hezbollah operative.

He said the operation was “a great offense to Lebanon” and a “violation” of its sovereignty.

On Tuesday, a Lebanese judicial official told AFP that Israeli commandos used a speedboat equipped with advanced devices capable of jamming UN peacekeepers’ radars for the operation, according to a preliminary probe.

The UN Maritime Task Force has helped the Lebanese military to monitor territorial waters and prevent the entry of arms or related material by sea since 2006, according to the mission’s website.

In Gaza, where the 13-month war has had a devastating impact, people were desperate for a solution and voiced hope Trump might be able to offer one.

Hamas’s October 7 attack resulted in 1,206 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed 43,391 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry the United Nations considers reliable.

“We were displaced, killed… there’s nothing left for us, we want peace,” said Mamdouh Al-Jadba, who was displaced to Gaza City from Jabalia.

“I hope Trump finds a solution, we need someone strong like Trump to end the war and save us, enough, God, this is enough,” the 60-year-old told AFP.

Umm Ahmed Harb, from the Al-Shaaf area east of Gaza City, was also counting on Trump to “stand by our side” and end the territory’s suffering.

“God willing the war will end, not for our sake but for the sake of our young children who are innocent,” she told AFP.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his part feted Trump’s return as “history’s greatest comeback.”

“Your historic return to the White House offers a new beginning for America and a powerful recommitment to the great alliance between Israel and America. This is a huge victory!” Netanyahu said in a statement issued by his office.

The United States is Israel’s top ally and military backer, and the election came at a critical time for the Middle East.

While maintaining the steady flow of aid to Israel, US President Joe Biden’s administration had for months piled pressure on Netanyahu to agree to a truce.

Analysts say Netanyahu had been hoping for a Trump return, given their longstanding personal friendship as well as the former president’s hawkishness on Israel’s arch-foe Iran.

Tens of thousands of fighters ready to battle Israel says Hezbollah

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Israeli strikes kill at least 40 in east Lebanon – health ministry

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People search through rubble following a strike in the town of Al-Ain in the Baalbek region on Wednesday

Israeli strikes kill at least 40 in east Lebanon – health ministry

At least 40 people were killed in Israeli strikes in eastern Lebanon on Wednesday, according to the Lebanese health ministry.

An Israeli official said the strikes, in the governorates of Baalbek and Bekaa, targeted operatives of the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah.

Lebanon’s culture minister said one of the strikes also seriously damaged an Ottoman-era building in the vicinity of the Roman ruins in the city of Baalbek, which is a Unesco World Heritage site.

Israeli strikes also hit southern Beirut on Wednesday, after the IDF issued evacuation warnings. The military said it struck Hezbollah command centres, weapons stores and other infrastructure.

A later IDF warning covered four neighbourhoods in southern Beirut including an area near Lebanon’s international airport, which has continued to operate despite Israel’s air strikes on the capital city.

Soon after, pictures showed a large fireball and thick black smoke rising into the night sky above Beirut.

Meanwhile, a rocket fired by Hezbollah fighters from Lebanon killed an Israeli man near a kibbutz in northern Israel, paramedics said.

Lebanon’s Civil Defence agency has also said the bodies of 30 people were recovered from a four-storey apartment building hit by an Israeli strike on Tuesday evening that destroyed one side of the building and sparked a fire.

The building, in Barja, a predominantly Sunni Muslim coastal town south of Beirut, was reportedly housing displaced people.

The Israeli military said it had struck “terror infrastructure” belonging to Hezbollah.

A man who lived on one of the upper floors of the apartment building that was hit said his son and wife were injured by falling masonry.

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“These rocks that you see here weigh 100kg, they fell on a 13kg kid,” Moussa Zahran told Reuters news agency as he surveyed the damage.

“I removed [the rocks] and… handed my son to the civil defence through the window. I carried my wife and came downstairs and got out behind the building… I thank God, glory be to Him, for this miracle.”

An Irish Times correspondent cited a member of the civil defence at the scene as saying that those killed whose bodies were found complete included seven women and three children – a seven-month-old baby and two girls aged seven and 12.

Neighbours also said the building was housing displaced people who had fled from other areas, she added.

There was no evacuation warning ahead of the strike, according to Reuters.

The Lebanese health ministry gave a preliminary death toll of 20 from the strike on Barja late on Tuesday but did not provide an updated figure on Wednesday.

On Wednesday evening, the ministry said 40 people had been killed and 53 others injured in a series of Israeli strikes in Bekaa and Baalbek governorates, which make up most of the eastern Bekaa Valley. They included 16 people killed in the village of Nasriyah and 11 in Baalbek city, it added.

Lebanese Culture Minister Mohammad Mortada also told the director-general of Unesco that one of the strikes had “caused serious damage to the ancient Manshiya building” in Baalbek city, which he said dated back to the Ottoman period and was located in the vicinity of the ruins of several Roman temples.

“The destruction of this exceptional monument next to a Unesco World Heritage site is an irremediable loss for Lebanon and for world heritage,” he warned.

An AFP news agency correspondent also reported that the famous 19th Century Palmyra Hotel near the Roman ruins was damaged by nearby strikes, which the health ministry said killed two people.

An Israeli military official said its aircraft had carried out strikes based on precise intelligence indicating the presence of Hezbollah operatives in the Baalbek area.

The military also said it had killed the commander of Hezbollah’s forces in the southern border region of Khiam, and that a number of other Hezbollah fighters had been killed by air strikes and by troops operating inside southern Lebanon over the past day.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah’s new secretary general, Naim Qassem, said in a speech that the group had “tens of thousands of trained resistance combatants” ready to fight and that nowhere in Israel was “beyond the reach of our drones and missiles”.

“I will tell you very clearly, our conviction is that only one thing can stop this war of aggression, and that is the battlefield,” he declared, adding that he did not believe “political action” would end the conflict.

The Israeli military said Hezbollah fired about 170 rockets into northern and central Israel on Wednesday.

In the evening, the Magen David Adom ambulance service said a man was killed by a rocket near the kibbutz of Kfar Masaryk, which is south of the coastal town of Acre.

Paramedics said the man was found in a field with severe shrapnel wounds and that he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Later, Israeli media identified him as Sivan Sade, an 18-year-old resident of Kfar Masaryk who had been working in the field.

Also on Wednesday, Israeli media said one rocket hit a car park near Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport, but the Israel Airport Authority said its operations were not affected. Hezbollah said it targeted the Tzrifin military base near the airport.

A large section of a rocket also hit a parked car in the town of Raanana, just north of Tel Aviv.

Since the escalation of the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah six weeks ago, at least 2,400 people have been killed and more than 1.2 million displaced across Lebanon, according to Lebanese authorities.

Israeli air strikes have eliminated most of the group’s leadership, including Qassem’s predecessor Hassan Nasrallah, and caused widespread destruction in parts of southern and eastern Lebanon and Beirut’s southern suburbs – areas where Hezbollah has a strong presence.

Israel went on the offensive against Hezbollah after almost a year of cross-border fighting sparked by the war in Gaza.

It says it wants to ensure the safe return of tens of thousands of residents of northern Israeli border areas displaced by rocket attacks, which Hezbollah launched in support of Palestinians the day after its ally Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel on 7 October 2023.

Israeli authorities say more than 70 people have been killed by Hezbollah attacks in Israel and the occupied Golan Heights over the past year.

Israeli strikes kill at least 40 in east Lebanon – health ministry

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Trump wins US election, Netanyahu, Starmer react

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Trump wins US election, Netanyahu, Starmer react

Republican Party candidate Donald Trump has won the United States presidential election after garnering 279 electoral college votes.

Kamala Harris of the Democratic Party, who now has 223 electoral college votes, is preparing her concession speech which will be delivered soon.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the UK’s Keir Starmer have been among the first world leaders to congratulate Donald Trump on winning the US presidential election.

In his statement, Netanyahu – who has had a difficult relationship with President Joe Biden – spoke of “history’s greatest comeback”, adding that Trump’s return to office offered a “new beginning for America, a powerful recommitment to the great alliance between Israel and America”.

UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said: “I look forward to working with Trump in the years ahead.”

He added: “From growth and security to innovation and tech, I know that the UK-US special relationship will continue to prosper on both sides of the Atlantic for years to come.”

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