United News of Bangladesh

At least 25 people have been killed in days of clashes between armed Shiites and Sunni Muslims over a lingering land dispute in northwest Pakistan, officials said Wednesday. The clashes — which started over the weekend in Kurram, a district in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan — continued on Wednesday. Officials said dozens of people from both sides have been wounded since Saturday. Kurram has been a scene of sectarian violence in recent years. Authorities said they were trying to prevent the land dispute from turning into sectarian violence in the restive northwest, where extremist groups from the two sides have a strong presence. Barrister Saif Ali, a spokesman for the provincial government, said authorities with the help of tribal elders were trying to defuse tension and both sides had agreed to a cease-fire following peace talks in Kurram. Shiite Muslims make up about 15 percent of the 240 million population of Sunni-majority Pakistan, which has a history of sectarian animosity between the two communities. Although both live together largely peacefully in the country, tensions between them have existed for decades in some areas, especially in Kurram, where Shiites dominate in parts of the district. Dozens of people from the two sides were also killed over the same dispute in July.  

Sri Lanka's new President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said Wednesday that he will soon resume discussions with the International Monetary Fund and foreign creditors to plot a way out of the worst economic crisis in the country's history. “We expect to discuss debt restructuring with the relevant parties and complete the process quickly and obtain the funds.,” he said. The future of the economic recovery plan drafted by former liberal President Ranil Wickremesinghe was called into question after Dissanayake, a Marxist, won the presidential election on Saturday. During the campaign, Dissanayake said that he will renegotiate the bailout agreement with the IMF agreed by Wickremesinghe. He said he wants to make austerity measures more bearable for the poor. Sri Lanka declared bankruptcy in 2022 and suspended repayments on some $83 billion in domestic and foreign loans. That followed a severe foreign exchange crisis that led to a severe shortage of essentials such as food, medicine, fuel and cooking gas, and extended power outages. Wickremesinghe, however, had warned that any move to alter the basics of the agreement could delay a fourth tranche of nearly $3 billion from the IMF package, which is crucial for economic stability. Days before the election Wickremesinghe's administration also agreed in principle to restructure Sri Lanka's foreign debt. Despite the election pledges, Dissanayake has shown signs that he may continue with the IMF agreement without much changes by retaining the governor of the Central Bank and the secretary to the ministry of finance who were at the forefront of implementing the reform program. Sri Lanka's economic upheaval led to a political crisis that forced then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to resign in 2022. Parliament then elected the then-Prime Minister Wickremesinghe to replace him. The economy was stabilized, inflation dropped, local currency strengthened and foreign reserves increased under Wickremesinghe. Nonetheless, he lost the election in what is seen as the people's rejection of the old guard who they hold responsible for the economic crisis.

A strike by more than 1,000 workers at a Samsung India Electronics plant has entered its third week, and management is at an impasse over their demands for recognition of the employees’ union and higher pay, a workers union spokesman said on Wednesday, The employees strike in the plant near Chennai, the capital of the southern state of Tamil Nadu, started on Sept. 9 with a key demand for a 25-30% pay hike in the average monthly salary of 30,000-35,000 rupees ($425), said K.C. Gopi Kumar, the spokesman for the Samsung India Electronics workers union. “Our foremost demand is recognition of the union and its rights by the management,” Kumar said. A Samsung official said that management was prepared to discuss the workers’ demands. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to talk to reporters, said the company wanted to negotiate directly with the employees’ representatives rather than through the Center of Indian Trade Unions, or CITU. The CITU is an Indian trade union aligned with a communist party. Samsung said that it paid 1.8 times more in India than the average salary of similar workers employed at other regional companies. The workers’ union says that up to 70% of production has been disrupted at the Sriperumbudur facility in southern India, which produces televisions, refrigerators and washing machines. However, the Samsung official said that after an initial disruption of 50% production, the plant was running at near average capacity with nonstriking workers, apprentices and newly hired staff on the job. The electronics company appealed to striking workers to resume their jobs. In a communication with the workers, Samsung assured them that it wouldn't take action against those employees who wished to resume work, but warned them of termination if they continued with their protest, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.

The Marxist lawmaker who won Sri Lanka’s presidency faces a key challenge in how to balance ties with his country’s two most crucial partners, India and China, as he seeks to draw foreign investment and pull the economy out of the doldrums. Anura Kumara Dissanayake, 55, won the weekend election in an extraordinary political upset against an old political guard that voters blame for tipping the country into its worst economic crisis two years ago. Dissanayake must now deliver on promises to improve Sri Lankans’ lives, clean up government and ease austerity measures imposed by international lenders. But looking beyond Sri Lanka's borders, he also must navigate the rivalry between regional powerhouses India, the country's next-door neighbor, and China, which Dissanayake's party traditionally has leaned toward. Located on one of the world’s busiest shipping routes, Sri Lanka has long been eyed by the two regional rivals. Sri Lanka governments have swung between the two camps, and New Delhi and Beijing have intensely jockeyed for influence in the island nation of 22 million. “Dissanayake will try to keep both India and China at an equal distance” but his ability to balance them is likely to be tested in the coming weeks, said Veeragathy Thanabalasingham, a Colombo-based political analyst. “It’s going to be a tightrope walk,” he added. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping both congratulated Dissanayake soon after he won. The victory was by the National People's Power coalition led by Dissanayake's People's Liberation Front — also known as Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, or JVP — which considers itself Marxist, though it now expresses support for a free market economy. Dissanayake and his party have in the past been seen as more ideologically aligned with China. Analysts say that could mean drawing more Chinese investment, which slowed after the Sri Lankan government was blamed for taking on too many Chinese loans that added to the country’s debt as its economy collapsed in 2022. Chinese money quickly became a cautionary tale in the country, while the economic crisis allowed India to gain some sway as it stepped in with massive financial and material assistance to its neighbor. Just after Dissanayake was sworn in, Beijing said it wants to work with the new government on boosting development and cooperation in building China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Under Dissanayake, “there’s a possibility of more Chinese money coming into Sri Lanka,” said Happymon Jacob, founder of the New Delhi-based Council for Strategic and Defense Research, adding that this could concern India. For New Delhi, Dissanayake and his JVP party could throw up fresh challenges. The party has previously criticized what it called “Indian expansionism” in the region, and Dissanayake has rejected devolving more power to Sri Lanka’s north and east, where most of the country’s Tamil minority lives - an issue close to India, given the community’s cultural links to the country’s Tamil Nadu state. While campaigning, Dissanayake also said he would shut down a wind power project funded by Indian billionaire Gautam Adani who is seen to be close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, calling it a “corrupt deal." Indian analysts say that Dissanayake's victory comes as a number of neighboring countries have recently drifted towards Beijing, including Nepal and the Maldives, which now have more pro-China leaders, and Bangladesh, where the ouster of a pro-India leader last month is also testing New Delhi’s regional power. But Chinese grants and lines of credit into South Asia overall have slowed down in the past four years, said Constantino Xavier, senior fellow at the Centre for Social and Economic Progress. This has made countries in the region “realize that they have to reset their relations with India,” he added. Similarly, Dissanayake has been pragmatic in his approach towards India so far, with New Delhi also keen to engage. In February, months before the election was announced, the leader was invited to India where he met with the country’s foreign minister. And the Indian envoy in Colombo was the first to meet Dissanayake after the results were announced. As a neighboring country, “we need to be concerned over India’s stability, national interests and national security when taking decisions,” Dissanayake told The Associated Press in an interview a few weeks before the election. “Our main objective is the safety of the region and we will not allow any party to use our land, sea and air to create instability,” he added. In the past, Chinese research ships docked at Sri Lankan ports have stoked security concerns in New Delhi over Beijing’s growing influence in the Indian Ocean. Thanabalasingham, the Colombo-based analyst, said Dissanayake’s party has largely transformed into a liberal democratic party for practical purposes so that it is easier to deal with a range of countries and partners. Although he remains head of a Marxist party, he now says he supports a free market economy. But Dissanayake may need to woo domestic voters who backed him, including a nationalist segment of the population that is anti-India, which could add pressure to court China more. “He is likely to initially play up China to polish his credentials at home - even if only to extract maximum bargaining power with India,” said Xavier.

Under elaborate security, residents in Indian-controlled Kashmir began casting their votes Wednesday in the second phase of a staggered election for a local government. About 2.6 million residents are eligible to elect 26 of the 239 candidates in six districts, including in the biggest regional main city of Srinagar, where voters in some polling booths queued outside early in the morning. It is the first such election in a decade, and the first since Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government scrapped the Muslim-majority region’s semi-autonomy in 2019. The former state was also downgraded and divided into two centrally governed union territories, Ladakh and Jammu-Kashmir. Both are ruled directly by New Delhi, allowing it to appoint administrators to run them along unelected bureaucrats and security setup. The region has since been on edge with civil liberties curbed and media freedoms gagged. The vote also comes for the first time in over three decades without any boycott call from separatists who challenge Indian’s sovereignty over Kashmir. Polls in the past have been marked with violence, boycotts and vote-rigging, even though India called them a victory over separatism. Authorities erected checkpoints and laid razor wire in the voting districts as government forces wearing flak jackets and carrying assault rifles patrolled the constituencies. The third phase is scheduled for Oct. 1 and votes will be counted on Oct. 8, with results expected that day. Voting began Sept. 18 with about 59% voter turnout in what the region’s chief electoral officer said was an “incident-free and peaceful" first round of polls. Authorities have limited access of foreign media to polling stations and denied press credentials to most journalists working with international media, including to The Associated Press, without citing any reason. India and Pakistan each administer part of Kashmir, but both claim the territory in its entirety. Militants in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989. Many Muslim Kashmiris support the rebels’ goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country. India insists the Kashmir militancy is Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. Pakistan denies the charge, and many Kashmiris consider it a legitimate freedom struggle. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict. The multistage election will allow Kashmir to have its own truncated government and a local legislature, called an assembly, rather than being directly under New Delhi’s rule. However, there will be a limited transition of power from New Delhi to the local assembly as Kashmir will remain a “Union Territory” — directly controlled by the federal government — with India’s Parliament as its main legislator. Kashmir’s statehood must be restored for the new government to have powers similar to other states of India.

Small tsunami waves splashed ashore on remote Japanese islands Tuesday morning after an earthquake that may have been triggered by volcanic activity. The offshore quake was not felt, and the tsunami advisory was lifted about three hours later. No damage or injuries were reported. The Japan Meteorological Agency had advised that waves up to 1 meter (yard) above tide levels could occur on the coasts of the Izu and Ogasawara island chains after the magnitude 5.8 quake occurred off the Izu Islands. The U.S. Geological Survey measured the quake's strength at 5.6 magnitude. About 21,500 people live on the islands in the Izu group and about 2,500 on the Ogasawara Islands. JMA said a tsunami of about 50 centimeters (about 20 inches) was detected in the Yaene district on Hachijo Island about 30 minutes after the quake. Smaller waves were detected on three other islands — Kozushima, Miyakejima and Izu Oshima. The offshore quake occurred about 180 kilometers (111 miles) south of Hachijo island, which is about 300 kilometers (186 miles) south of Tokyo. Television footage showed waves splashing against a wharf on Hachijo island but no major swelling was seen. Residents on Hachijo said they did not feel the quake and only heard the tsunami advisory, Japan's NHK public television said. Ryuji Minemoto, a Hachijo resident, told NHK that he was on high ground overlooking the ocean but didn't notice changes in the water. “I can see some ships but they don't seem to be moving violently,” he said. Minemoto said he did not feel the earlier quake. Fumihiko Imamura, a Tohoku University seismologist, said the tsunami is believed to be related to undersea volcanic activity that might have caused a rise or sinking of parts of the seabed. Imamura told NHK that such movement, unlike ordinary quakes, may not have caused rattling. Japan sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” a line of seismic faults encircling the Pacific Ocean, and is one of the world’s most earthquake and tsunami-prone countries.

Marxist leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake was sworn in as Sri Lanka's president on Monday after an election that saw voters reject an old guard accused of leading the country into economic crisis. Dissanayake, 55, who ran as head of the Marxist-leaning National People's Power coalition, defeated opposition leader Sajith Premadasa and 36 other candidates in Saturday's election. Dissanayake received 5,740,179 votes, followed by Premadasa with 4,530,902. Meanwhile on Monday, Chinese president Xi Jinping congratulated Dissanayake on his victory, saying he looks forward to working together “to jointly carry forward our traditional friendship.” The U.S. and India previously congratulated Dissanayake. In a brief speech after assuming duty, the new president pledged to work with others to take on the country's challenges. “We have deeply understood that we are going to get a challenging country," Dissanayake said. “We don’t believe that a government, a single party or an individual would be able to resolve this deep crisis.” Just before the swearing in, Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena resigned, clearing the way for the new president to appoint a prime minister and a cabinet. The election came as the country seeks to recover from its worst economic crisis and resulting political upheaval. He's the ninth person to hold Sri Lanka's powerful executive presidency, created in 1978 when a new constitution expanded the office's powers. Dissanayake's coalition is led by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, or People’s Liberation Front, a Marxist party that waged two unsuccessful armed insurrections in the 1970s and 1980s to capture power through socialist revolution. After its defeat, the JVP entered democratic politics in 1994 and has been mostly in opposition since then. However, they have supported several previous presidents and been part of governments briefly. The NPP also includes groups representing academics, civil society movements, artists, lawyers and students. Dissanayake was first elected to Parliament in 2000 and briefly held the portfolio of agriculture and irrigation minister under then-President Chandrika Kumaratunga. He ran for president for the first time in 2019 and lost to Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Dissanayake's first major challenge will be to act on his campaign promise to ease the crushing austerity measures imposed by his predecessor Ranil Wickremesinghe under a relief agreement with the International Monetary Fund. Wickremesinghe has warned that any move to alter the basics of the agreement could delay the release of a fourth tranche of nearly $3 billion. That economic crisis resulted from excessive borrowing to fund projects that did not generate revenue, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the government’s insistence on using scarce foreign reserves to prop up its currency, the rupee. It led to shortages of essentials such as foods, medicines, cooking gas and fuel in 2022, triggering massive protests that forced then-president Rajapaksa to flee the country and resign. Wickremesinghe, then prime minister, was elected by Parliament to fill the remainder of Rajapaksa's term.  

Israeli troops raided the offices of the satellite news network Al Jazeera in the Israeli-occupied West Bank early Sunday, ordering the bureau to shut down amid a widening campaign by Israel targeting the Qatar-funded broadcaster as it covers the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. Al Jazeera aired footage of Israeli troops live on its Arabic-language channel ordering the office to be shut for 45 days. It follows an order issued in May that saw Israeli police raid Al Jazeera's broadcast position in East Jerusalem, seizing equipment there, preventing its broadcasts in Israel and blocking its websites. The move marked the first time Israel has ever shuttered a foreign news outlet operating in the country. However, Al Jazeera has continued operating in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and in the Gaza Strip, territories that the Palestinians hope to have for their future state. The Israeli military didn't respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press. Al Jazeera denounced the move as it continued broadcasting live from Amman, Jordan, even as Israeli troops welded shut its office doors in Ramallah. Armed Israeli troops entered the office and told a reporter live on air that it would be shut down, saying that staff needed to leave immediately. The network later aired what appeared to be Israel troops tearing down a banner on a balcony used by the Al Jazeera office. Al Jazeera said it bore an image of Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American journalist shot dead by Israeli forces in May 2022. “There is a court ruling for closing down Al Jazeera for 45 days,” an Israeli soldier told Al Jazeera’s local bureau chief, Walid al-Omari, in the live footage. “I ask you to take all the cameras and leave the office at this moment.” Al-Omari said that Israeli troops began confiscating documents and equipment in the bureau, as tear gas and gunshots could be seen and heard in the area. Speaking later to the AP, al-Omari said that the Israeli military cited laws dating back to the British Mandate of Palestine to support its closure order. The Palestinians secured limited self-rule in Gaza and parts of the occupied West Bank through the 1993 Oslo agreements. While Israel occupies and controls vast areas of the West Bank, Ramallah is under full Palestinian political and security control, making the Israeli raid on the Al Jazeera office that much more surprising. The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate denounced the Israeli raid and order. “This arbitrary military decision is a new aggression against journalistic work and media outlets," it said. The Palestinian Authority administers parts of the West Bank. Its forces were driven from Gaza when Hamas seized power in 2007, and it has no power there. The Authority's Foreign Ministry condemned the raid. Israeli Communication Minister Shlomo Karhi later described the raid as affecting “the mouthpiece of Hamas and Hezbollah,” the Shiite militia in Lebanon that Israel targeted with strikes Sunday after cross-border fire from the militants. “We will continue to fight the enemy channels and ensure the safety of our heroic fighters,” Karhi posted on X. He didn't address what authority Israel cited to order the bureau closed. Israel’s Foreign Press Association also said it was “deeply troubled by this escalation, which threatens press freedom, and urges the Israeli government to reconsider these actions.” “Restricting foreign reporters and closing news channels, signals a shift away from democratic values,” it said. The network has reported on the Israeli-Hamas war nonstop since the militants’ initial cross-border attack on Oct. 7. Al Jazeera has maintained 24-hour coverage in the Gaza Strip amid Israel’s grinding ground offensive that has killed and wounded members of its staff. It remained unclear whether the Israeli military would target Al Jazeera's operation in Gaza as well. While including on-the-ground reporting of the war’s casualties, Al Jazeera's Arabic arm often publishes verbatim video statements from Hamas and other regional militant groups. That has led to Israeli claims by officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, that the network has “harmed Israel’s security and incited against soldiers.” Those claims have been vehemently denied by Al Jazeera, whose main funder, Qatar, has been key in negotiations between Israel and Hamas to reach a cease-fire to end the war. An order closing Al Jazeera in Israel has been repeatedly renewed in the time since, but it hadn't as of yet ordered the Ramallah offices closed. The Israeli government has taken action against individual reporters over the decades since its founding in 1948, but broadly allows for a media scene that includes foreign bureaus from around the world, even from Arab nations. It also blocked the foreign broadcasts of the Hezbollah-affiliated, Beirut-based Al Mayadeen news channel at the start of the war. Criticism of Al Jazeera isn't new. Washington singled out the broadcaster during the U.S. occupation of Iraq after its 2003 invasion toppled dictator Saddam Hussein and for airing videos of the late al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden. Al Jazeera has been closed or blocked by other governments in the Middle East. Most notably in 2013, Egyptian authorities raided a luxury hotel used by Al Jazeera as an operating base after the military takeover that followed mass protests against President Mohammed Morsi. Three Al Jazeera staff members received 10-year prison sentences, but were released in 2015 following widespread international criticism. The Israel-Hamas war began when Hamas-led fighters killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in an Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel. They abducted another 250 people and are still holding around 100 hostages. Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed at least 41,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between fighters and civilians. The closure of Al Jazeera's Ramallah office also comes as tensions continue to rise over a possible expansion of the war to Lebanon, where electronic devices exploded last week in a likely sabotage campaign by Israel targeting the Shiite militia Hezbollah. The explosions Tuesday and Wednesday killed at least 37 people — including two children — and wounded around 3,000 others.

Heavy rain pounded Japan’s northcentral region of Noto on Saturday which triggered landslides and swollen rivers to overflow, flooding homes and stranding some residents in the region still recovering from a deadly earthquake earlier this year. The Japan Meteorological Agency issued the highest level of heavy rain across several cities in the Ishikawa prefecture, including the worst-hit Wajima where authorities said one person was missing. At least 12 rivers in Ishikawa breached their banks as of late Saturday morning, according to the Land and Infrastructure Ministry. Residents were urged to use maximum caution against possible mudslides and building damage. Up to 20 centimeters (7.8 inches) of rainfall is predicted in the region within the next 24 hours through Sunday noon, due to the rainbands that cause torrential rain above the Hokuriku region, JMA said. “Heavy rain is hitting the region that had been badly damaged by the Noto earthquake, and I believe many people are feeling very uneasy," said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi. Hayashi said the government “puts people's lives first” and its priority was search and rescue operations. He also called on the residents to pay close attention to the latest weather and evacuation advisories and take precautions early, adding that the Self Defense Force troops have been dispatched to Ishikawa to join rescue efforts. So far, there have been no reports of injuries from the heavy rain. But many homes were flooded and some residents in two districts in Wajima have been stranded following landslides, according to the prefecture. A number of roads flooded by muddy water were also blocked. Hokuriku Electric Power Co. said about 6,500 homes were without power. Heavy rain also fell in nearby northern prefectures of Niigata and Yamagata, threatening flooding and other damages, officials said. A 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck the region on Jan. 1, killing more than 370 people and damaging roads and other key infrastructure. Its aftermath still affects the local industry, economy and daily lives.

Israel launched a rare airstrike that killed a senior Hezbollah military official in a densely populated southern Beirut neighborhood on Friday. It was the deadliest such strike on Lebanon’s capital in decades, with Lebanese authorities reporting at least 14 people killed and dozens more wounded in the attack. The Israeli military’s chief spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said the strike on Beirut's southern Dahiya district killed Ibrahim Akil, a commander of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force, as well as 10 other Hezbollah operatives. “We will continue pursuing our enemies in order to defend our citizens, even in Dahiya, in Beirut,” said Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, describing the Israeli strike that targeted Akil as part of “a new phase of war.” Several hours later, Hezbollah confirmed Akil's death. In a statement, the Lebanese militant group described Akil as “a great jihadist leader” and said he had “joined the procession of his brothers, the great martyr leaders, after a blessed life full of jihad, work, wounds, sacrifices, dangers, challenges, achievements, and victories.” Akil served on Hezbollah’s highest military body, the Jihad Council. He was sanctioned by the United States for his alleged involvement in the 1983 bombing that killed more than 300 people at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and the U.S. Marine Corps barracks. Last year, the U.S. State Department posted a $7 million reward for information leading to his identification, location, arrest or conviction, citing his role in the embassy bombing and in the taking of American and German hostages in Lebanon in the 1980s. The strike came as a new cycle of escalation between the enemies raised fears of a full-out war erupting in the Middle East. Hours before the Israeli strike, Hezbollah pounded northern Israel with 140 rockets as the region awaited the revenge promised by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah over this week’s mass explosions of pagers belonging to members of the Shiite militant group. The Israeli military did not provide the identities of the other Hezbollah commanders allegedly killed in its strike on the crowded neighborhood just kilometers from downtown Beirut. Lebanon's Health Ministry said at least 14 people were killed and 66 others were wounded in the attack, which leveled the apartment building where the Israeli army claimed Akil had been meeting with other militants in the basement. Nine of the wounded were in serious condition, the ministry added. Local networks in Lebanon broadcast footage showing first responders sifting through the rubble of a collapsed high-rise in the Jamous area in the heart of Dahiya, where Hezbollah conducts many of its political and security operations. The rescue operation continued into the late hours of Friday, hours after the attack, as first responders wrestled to remove the rubble to reach the basement of the building where apparently many of the bodies were located. Friday's airstrike — the deadliest such attack on a neighborhood of Beirut since Israel and Hezbollah fought a bloody, monthlong war in 2006 — hit during rush hour, as people were leaving work and children heading home from school. At Beirut's St. Therese Hospital near the scene of the airstrike, crowds flocked to donate blood for those wounded in the attack. “We are all together in this situation, so it’s my obligation,” said Hussein Harake, who lined up to donate blood. From Israel, Gallant said he briefed senior military officials on the strike and vowed Israel would press on against Hezbollah "until we achieve our goal, ensuring the safe return of Israel’s northern communities to their homes.” The strike came after Hezbollah launched one of its most intense bombardments of northern Israel in nearly a year of fighting, largely targeting Israeli military sites. Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted most of the Katyusha rockets. The few that got through sparked small fires but caused little damage and no Israeli casualties. Hezbollah described its latest wave of rocket salvos as a response to past Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon — not as revenge for the mass explosions of Hezbollah pagers and walkie-talkies on Tuesday and Wednesday that killed at least 37 people - including two children - and wounded 2,900 others in attacks widely attributed to Israel. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied involvement in this week's sophisticated attacks, which signaled a major escalation in the past 11 months of simmering conflict along the Israel-Lebanon border. Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire regularly since Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel ignited the Israeli military’s devastating offensive in Gaza. But previous cross-border attacks have largely struck areas in northern Israel that had been evacuated and less-populated parts of southern Lebanon. The last time Israel hit Beirut was in a July airstrike that killed senior Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukur. “The attack in Lebanon is to protect Israel,” Hagari said at a news conference following Friday's strike, describing both Shukr and Akil as the two military officials closest to Hezbollah leader Nasrallah. Hagari also accused Akil of plotting a series of attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians dating back decades, including a never-realized plan to invade northern Israel in a similar way to the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attacks. After Friday's Israeli airstrike, Hezbollah announced attacks on northern Israel, two of which it said targeted an intelligence base from where it claimed Israel directed assassinations. Israel remains on edge, with Nasrallah vowing Thursday to keep up strikes on Israel despite the humiliating “blow” he said Hezbollah suffered in the sabotage of its communication devices. “We are in a tense period,” Hagari told reporters Friday. “We are prepared on high alert both offensively and defensively.” In recent days, Israel has sent a powerful fighting force to the northern border, designated as an official war goal the return of tens of thousands of displaced residents to their homes in northern Israel and ordered citizens near Israel's border with Lebanon to stay close to bomb shelters. Hezbollah has maintained that it will only halt its fire when there is a cease-fire in Gaza. Hamas, which continues to fight Israel in Gaza, condemned the Israeli strike targeting Akil as a “new crime” and “violation of Lebanese sovereignty.” Even as the world's attention turns to the surge in Israel-Hezbollah tensions, Palestinian casualties in the besieged Gaza Strip continued to mount. Palestinian health authorities early Friday reported that 15 people, including children, were killed in Israeli strikes that targeted a family home and a group of people on the street in Gaza City. Israel's campaign in Gaza has already killed at least 41,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza-based Health Ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between fighters and civilians. In response to a request for comment on the latest Gaza strikes, the Israeli military insisted on Friday that it took “feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm” and accused Hamas of endangering civilians by operating in residential areas. Israel's bombardment and invasion of the Gaza Strip — launched in response to Hamas killing 1,200 people and taking 250 hostage in southern Israel on Oct. 7 — has wreaked vast destruction and displaced about 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million.