United News of Bangladesh

The leader of Hezbollah vowed Thursday to keep up daily strikes on Israel despite this week's deadly sabotage of its members' communication devices, and said Israelis displaced from homes near the Lebanon border because of the fighting would not be able to return until the war in Gaza ends. Hezbollah and Israel launched fresh attacks across the border as Hassan Nasrallah spoke for the first time since the mass bombing of devices in Lebanon and Syria that he described as a “severe blow” — and for which he promised to retaliate. The two days of attacks targeting thousands of Hezbollah pagers and walkie-talkies have been widely blamed on Israel, heightening fears that 11 months of near-daily exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and Israel will escalate into all-out war. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied involvement in the attacks. During Nasrallah's speech, Hezbollah struck at least four times in northern Israel, and two Israeli soldiers were killed in a strike earlier in the day. Israeli warplanes flew low over Beirut while Nasrallah spoke and broke the sound barrier, scattering birds and prompting people in houses and offices to quickly open windows to prevent them from shattering. Israel also launched attacks in southern Lebanon on Thursday, saying it struck hundreds of rocket launchers and other Hezbollah infrastructure, though it was not immediately clear if there were any casualties. The army claimed the launchers were about to be used “in the immediate future.” At the same time, the army ordered residents in parts of the Golan Heights and northern Israel to avoid public gatherings, minimize movements and stay close to shelters in anticipation of possible rocket fire. In recent weeks, Israeli leaders have stepped-up warnings of a potential larger military operation against Hezbollah, saying they are determined to stop the group’s fire to allow tens of thousands of Israelis to return to homes near the border. In a Thursday briefing, the Israeli defense minister said Hezbollah would “pay an increasing price” as Israel seeks to make conditions near its border with Lebanon safe enough for residents to return. “The sequence of our military actions will continue,” he said. The attack on electronic devices appeared to be the culmination of a monthslong operation by Israel to target as many Hezbollah members as possible all at once — but civilians were also hit. At least 37 people were killed, including two children, and some 3,000 wounded in the explosions Tuesday and Wednesday. Nasrallah said the group is investigating how the bombings were carried out. “Yes, we were subjected to a huge and severe blow,” he said. “The enemy crossed all boundaries and red lines,” he said. Pointing to the number of pagers and walkie-talkies, he accused Israel of intending to kill thousands of people at one time. "The enemy will face a severe and fair punishment from where they expect and don’t expect.” He said Hezbollah will continue its barrages into northern Israel as long as the war in Gaza continues, vowing that Israel will not be able to bring its people back to the border region. “The only way is stop the aggression on the people of Gaza and the West Bank,” he said. "Neither strikes, nor assassinations nor an all-out war will achieve that.” Earlier Thursday, Hezbollah said it had targeted three Israeli military positions near the border, two of them with drones. Israeli hospitals reported eight people lightly or moderately injured. Hezbollah says its near daily fire is a show of support for Hamas. Israel’s 11-month-old war with Hamas in Gaza began after its militants led the Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Israel has responded to Hezbollah’s attacks with strikes in southern Lebanon, and has struck senior figures from the group in the capital Beirut. The exchanges have killed hundreds in Lebanon and dozens in Israel and forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of residents on each side of the border. Israel and Hezbollah have repeatedly pulled back from an all-out war under heavy pressure from the United States, France and other countries. But in their recent warnings, Israeli leaders have said they are determined to change the status quo dramatically. Speaking to Israeli troops on Wednesday, Gallant said, “We are at the start of a new phase in the war — it requires courage, determination and perseverance.” He made no mention of the exploding devices but praised the work of Israel’s army and security agencies, saying “the results are very impressive.” He said that after months of fighting Hamas in Gaza, “the center of gravity is shifting to the north by diverting resources and forces.” Israel began moving more troops to its border with Lebanon on Wednesday as a precautionary measure, Israeli officials said. Israel’s army chief, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, said plans have been drawn up for additional action against Hezbollah, though media reported the government has not yet decided whether to launch a major offensive in Lebanon. Lebanon is still reeling from the deadly device attacks of Tuesday and Wednesday. The explosions have rattled anxious Lebanese fearing a full-scale war. The Lebanese Army said it has been locating and detonating suspicious pagers and communication devices, while the country’s civil aviation authorities banned pagers and walkie-talkies on all airplanes departing from Beirut’s international airport until further notice. The attack was likely to severely disrupt Hezbollah’s internal communication as it scrambles to determine safe means to talk to each other. Hezbollah announced the death of five combatants Thursday, but didn’t specify if they were killed in the explosions or on the front lines. The blasts went off wherever the holders of the pagers or walkie-talkies happened to be in multiple parts of Beirut and eastern and southern Lebanon — in homes and cars, grocery stores and cafes and on the street, even at a funeral for some killed in the bombings, often with family and other bystanders nearby. Many suffered gaping wounds on their legs, abdomens and faces or were maimed in the hand. Tuesday’s pager blasts killed 12 people, including two children, and wounded some 2,300 others. The following day’s explosion killed 25 and wounded more than 600, Health Minister Firas Abiad said, giving updated figures. Abiad told reporters that Wednesday’s injuries were more severe than the previous day as walkie-talkies that exploded were bigger than the pagers. He praised Lebanon’s hospitals, saying they had managed to deal with the flood of wounded within hours. “It was an indiscriminate attack. It was a war crime,” he said.

Hezbollah fired a new barrage into northern Israel on Thursday, continuing its drumbeat of exchanges with the Israeli military as fears of a greater war rise after hundreds of electronic devices exploded in Lebanon, killing at least 32 people and wounding more than 3,000 others. The device explosions appeared to be the culmination of a monthslong operation by Israel to target as many Hezbollah members as possible all at once. Over two days, pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah detonated, wounding and even crippling some fighters, but also maiming civilians connected to the group’s social branches and killing at least two children. It was unclear how the attack fit into warnings by Israeli leaders in recent weeks that they could launch a stepped-up military operation against Hezbollah, Lebanon’s strongest armed force. The Israeli government has called it a war aim to end the Iranian-backed group’s crossborder fire in order to allow tens of thousands of Israelis to return to homes near the border. Speaking to Israeli troops on Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said, “We are at the start of a new phase in the war — it requires courage, determination and perseverance.” He made no mention of the exploding devices but praised the work of Israel’s army and security agencies, saying “the results are very impressive.” Gallant said that after months of fighting Hamas in Gaza, “the center of gravity is shifting to the north by diverting resources and forces.” Hezbollah said early Thursday it had targeted military positions in northern Israel, without specifying what weapons it used. Israeli hospitals reported that they treated at least eight patients injured in the attacks. The military said early Thursday that it had struck several militant sites in southern Lebanon overnight. The volley of strikes was a signal by Hezbollah that it would continue its near daily fire, which it says is a show of support for Hamas amid Israel’s 11-month-old campaign in Gaza in retaliation for the Palestinian militants’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Israel has responded to Hezbollah’s fire with strikes in southern Lebanon, and has struck senior figures from the group in the capital Beirut. The exchanges have killed hundreds in Lebanon and dozens in Israel and forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of residents on each side of the border. Israel and Hezbollah have repeatedly pulled back from an all-out war under heavy pressure from the United States, France and other countries. But in their recent warnings, Israeli leaders have said they are determined to change the status quo dramatically. Israeli began moving more troops to its border with Lebanon on Wednesday as a precautionary measure, Israeli officials said. Israel’s army chief, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, said plans have been drawn up for additional action against Hezbollah, though media reported the government has not yet decided whether to launch a major offensive in Lebanon. Meanwhile, Lebanon was still reeling from the unprecedented mass bombings of Tuesday and Wednesday. The explosions have rattled anxious Lebanese fearing a full-scale war. The Lebanese Army said it has been locating and detonating suspicious pagers and communication devices, while the country’s civil aviation authorities banned pagers and walkie-talkies on all airplanes departing from Beirut’s international airport until further notice. The attack was likely to severely disrupt Hezbollah’s internal communication as it scrambles to determine safe means to talk to each other. Hezbollah announced the death of five combatants today, but didn’t specify if they were killed in the explosions or on the front lines. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was scheduled to speak later Thursday as the group vowed to retaliate against Israel. The blasts went off wherever the holders of the pagers or walkie-talkies happened to be in multiple parts of Beirut and eastern and southern Lebanon — in homes and cars, grocery stores and cafes and on the street, even at a funeral for some killed in the bombings, often with family and other bystanders nearby. Many suffered gaping wounds on their legs, abdomens and faces or were maimed in the hand. Tuesday’s pager blasts killed 12 people, including two children, and wounded some 2,800 others. The following day’s explosion killed 20 and wounded more than 450. Health Minister Firas Abiad praised Lebanon’s hospitals, saying they had managed to deal with the flood of wounded within hours. “It was an indiscriminate attack. It was a war crime,” he said. Mary Ellen O’Connell, a professor of law and international peace studies at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, said booby-traps are banned under international law. “Weaponizing an object used by civilians is strictly prohibited,” she said.

Hundreds of handheld pagers exploded near simultaneously in parts of Lebanon and Syria on Tuesday, killing at least nine people — including members of the militant group Hezbollah and a young girl — and wounding several thousand, officials said. They pointed the finger at Israel in what appeared to be a sophisticated, remote attack. Among those wounded was Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon. The mysterious incident came amid rising tensions between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah, which have exchanged fire across the Israel-Lebanon border since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that sparked the war in Gaza. The pagers that exploded had been newly acquired by Hezbollah after the group’s leader ordered members to stop using cell phones, warning they could be tracked by Israeli intelligence. A Hezbollah official told The Associated Press the pagers were a new brand the group had not used before. At about 3:30 p.m. local time on Tuesday, pagers started heating up and then exploding in the pockets and hands of those carrying them -- particularly in a southern Beirut suburb and the Beqaa region of eastern Lebanon where Hezbollah has a strong presence, and in Damascus, where several Hezbollah members were wounded, Lebanese security officials and a Hezbollah official said. The Hezbollah official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press. The AP reached out to the Israeli military, which declined to comment. The explosions came hours after Israel’s internal security agency said it had foiled an attempt by Hezbollah to kill a former senior Israeli security official using a planted explosive device that could be remotely detonated. Experts said the pager explosions showed signs of being a long-planned operation – though the means were not immediately known. Investigators had no immediate word on how the pagers were detonated or if explosives had somehow been sneaked into each pager. Whatever the means, it targeted an extraordinary breadth of people with hundreds of small explosions — all at once, wherever the pager carrier happened to be — that left some maimed. One video circulating online showed a man picking through produce at a grocery store when the bag he’s carrying at his hip explodes, sending him sprawling to the ground and bystanders running. AP photographers at area hospitals said the emergency rooms were overloaded with patients. Some had missing hands or chunks blown out of their legs near the pocket area. Lebanon’s health minister, Firas Abiad, said at least nine people were killed, including an 8-year-old girl, and 2,750 wounded — 200 of them critically — by the explosions. Most had injuries in the face, hand, or around the abdomen. Hezbollah said in a statement that two of its members were among those killed. The Hezbollah official who spoke anonymously identified one of the dead as Ali Ammar, the son of one of the group’s members in the Lebanese parliament. “We hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression that also targeted civilians,” Hezbollah said, adding that Israel will “for sure get its just punishment.” Iranian state-run IRNA news agency said that the country’s ambassador, Mojtaba Amani, was superficially wounded by an exploding pager and was being treated at a hospital. Previously, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah had warned the group’s members not to carry cellphones, saying that they could be used by Israel to track their movements and to carry out targeted strikes. The images seen Tuesday showed signs of detonation, said Alex Plitsas, a weapons expert at the Atlantic Council. “A lithium ion battery fire is one thing, but I’ve never seen one explode like that. It looks like a small explosive charge,” Plitsas said. That raises the possibility Israel was aware of a shipment of pagers heading to Hezbollah and managed to modify the pagers before delivery, he said. Another possibility is an electronic pulse “that was sent from afar and burnt the devices and caused their explosion,” said Yehoshua Kalisky, a scientist and senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies, a Tel Aviv think tank. “It is not some random action; it was deliberate and known.” Israel has a long history of carrying out deadly operations behind enemy lines. In January, Saleh Arouri, a senior Hamas official, was killed in an airstrike on a Beirut apartment building blamed on Israel. In July, Israel assassinated Hezbollah’s top commander in another airstrike. Hours later, Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’ supreme leader, died in a mysterious explosion in Iran, also blamed on Israel. Israel has killed Hamas militants in the past with booby-trapped cellphones and it’s widely believed to have been behind the Stuxnet computer virus attack on Iran’s nuclear program in 2010. Tuesday's explosions came at a time of heightened tensions between Lebanon and Israel. Hezbollah and Israeli forces have been clashing near-daily for more than 11 months against the backdrop of war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, a Hezbollah ally that is also backed by Iran. The clashes have killed hundreds in Lebanon and dozens in Israel and displaced tens of thousands on both sides of the border. On Tuesday, Israel said that halting Hezbollah’s attacks in the north to allow residents to return to their homes is now an official war goal.

Palestinian officials say Israeli airstrikes have killed 16 people in the Gaza Strip, including five women and four children. A strike early Monday flattened a home in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing at least 10 people, including four women and two children. The Awda Hospital, which received the bodies, confirmed the toll and said another 13 people were wounded. Hospital records show that the dead included a mother, her child and her five siblings. Another strike on a home in Gaza City killed six people, including a woman and two children, according to the Civil Defense, first responders who operate under the Hamas-run government. Israel says it only targets militants and accuses Hamas and other armed groups of endangering civilians by operating in residential areas. The military rarely comments on individual strikes, which often kill women and children. The Gaza Health Ministry says over 41,000 Palestinians have been killed since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack triggered the war nearly a year ago. It does not distinguish between fighters and civilians in its count but says a little over half of those killed were women and children. Israel says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.

Israeli airstrikes hit central and southern Gaza overnight into Saturday, killing at least 14 people as the friends and family members of a Turkish-American activist killed by an Israeli solider prepared to honor her in a funeral. The airstrikes in Gaza City hit one home housing 11 people, including three women and four children, and another strike hit a tent in Khan Younis housing Palestinians displaced by the Israel-Hamas war, Gaza's Civil Defense said Saturday. They followed airstrikes earlier this week that hit a tent camp on Tuesday and a United Nations school housing displaced people on Wednesday. They hit as a campaign to inoculate children in Gaza against polio drew down and the World Health Organisation said about 560,000 under 10 have recovered from their first dose, seven out of every eight children the campaign aimed to vaccinate. The second doses are expected to begin later this month as part of an effort for which the WHO said parties had already agreed to. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described the campaign as “a massive success amidst a tragic daily reality of life” in a post on X on Friday. Meanwhile, the body of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, the Turkish-American activist killed Sept. 6 by an Israeli soldier, was returned to her hometown late Friday accompanied by a police honor guard, the official Turkish news agency reported. Draped in a Turkish flag, the coffin carrying her remains was carried from a hearse to a hospital in Didim by six officers in ceremonial uniform. Her funeral is due to be held in the coastal town in western Turkey later Saturday. The 26-year-old activist from Seattle, who held United States and Turkish citizenship, was killed after a demonstration against Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, according to an Israeli protester who witnessed the shooting. The Israeli military said Tuesday that Eygi was likely shot “indirectly and unintentionally” by Israeli forces. Turkey announced it will conduct its own investigation into her death. Anadolu Agency reported her body arrived in Didim after an autopsy at the Izmir Forensic Medicine Institute. As Eygi’s family watched the coffin being unloaded, her mother had to be helped by medics, the agency said. Her death earned condemnation from U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken as the United States, Egypt and Qatar push for a cease-fire and the release of the hostages. Talks have repeatedly bogged down as Israel and Hamas accuse each other of making new and unacceptable demands. The war began when Hamas-led fighters killed some 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 after releasing most of the rest in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel during a weeklong cease-fire in November. Around a third of the remaining hostages are believed to be dead. It has caused vast destruction and displaced around 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million, often multiple times, and plunged the territory into a severe humanitarian crisis. Gaza’s Health Ministry says over 41,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and militants in its count, but says women and children make up just over half of the dead. Israel says it has killed more than 17,000 militants in the war.

Iran launched a satellite into space Saturday with a rocket built by the country's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, state-run media reported, the latest for a program the West fears helps Tehran advance its ballistic missile program. Iran described the launch as a success, which would be the second such launch to put a satellite into orbit with the rocket. There was no immediate independent confirmation of the launch's success, nor did Iranian authorities immediately provide footage or other details. The launch comes amid heightened tensions gripping the wider Middle East over the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, during which Tehran launched an unprecedented direct missile-and-drone attack on Israel. Meanwhile, Iran continues to enrich uranium to nearly weapons-grade levels, raising concerns among nonproliferation experts about Tehran's program. Iran identified the satellite-carrying rocket as the Qaem-100, which the Guard used in January for another successful launch. Qaem means “upright” in Iran's Farsi language. The solid-fuel rocket put the Chamran-1 satellite, weighing 60 kilograms (132 pounds), into a 550-kilometer (340-mile) orbit, state media reported. The U.S. State Department and the American military did not immediately respond to requests for comment over the Iranian launch. The United States had previously said Iran’s satellite launches defy a U.N. Security Council resolution and called on Tehran to undertake no activity involving ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons. U.N. sanctions related to Iran’s ballistic missile program expired last October. Under Iran’s relatively moderate former President Hassan Rouhani, the Islamic Republic slowed its space program for fear of raising tensions with the West. Hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi, a protege of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who came to power in 2021, has pushed the program forward. Raisi died in a helicopter crash in May. It's unclear what Iran's new president, the reformist Masoud Pezeshkian, wants for the program as he was silent on the issue while campaigning. The U.S. intelligence community’s worldwide threat assessment this year said Iran's development of satellite launch vehicles “would shorten the timeline” for Iran to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile because it uses similar technology. Intercontinental ballistic missiles can be used to deliver nuclear weapons. Iran is now producing uranium close to weapons-grade levels after the collapse of its nuclear deal with world powers. Tehran has enough enriched uranium for “several” nuclear weapons, if it chooses to produce them, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency repeatedly has warned. Iran has always denied seeking nuclear weapons and says its space program, like its nuclear activities, is for purely civilian purposes. However, U.S. intelligence agencies and the IAEA say Iran had an organized military nuclear program up until 2003. The launch also came ahead of the second anniversary of the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, which sparked nationwide protests against Iran's mandatory headscarf, or hijab, law and the country's Shiite theocracy.

Iraqi forces and American troops have killed a senior commander with the Islamic State group who was wanted by the United States, as well as several other prominent militants, Iraq's military said on Friday. The operation in Iraq's western Anbar province began in late August, the Iraqi military said, and involved also members of the Iraqi National Intelligence Service and Iraq’s air force. Among the dead was an IS commander from Tunisia, known as Abu Ali Al-Tunisi, for whom the U.S. Treasury Department had offered $5 million for information. Also killed was Ahmad Hamed Zwein, the IS deputy commander in Iraq. Despite their defeat, attacks by IS sleeper cells in Iraq and Syria have been on the rise over the past years, with scores of people killed or wounded. Friday's announcement was not the first news of the operation. Two weeks ago, official has said that the United States military and Iraq launched a joint raid targeting suspected IS militants in the country’s western desert that killed at least 15 people and left seven American troops hurt. Five of the American troops were wounded in the raid itself, while two others suffered injuries from falls during the operation. One who suffered a fall was transported out of the region, while one of the wounded was evacuated for further treatment, a U.S. defense official said at the time, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss details of the operation that had not yet been made public. In Friday's announcement, the Iraqi military said the operation also confiscated weapons and computers, smart phones and 10 explosive belts. It added that 14 IS commanders were identified after DNA tests were conducted. It made no mention of the 15th person killed and whether that person had also been identified. The Islamic State group seized territory at the height of its power and declared a caliphate in large parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014 but was defeated in Iraq in 2017. In March 2019, the extremists lost the last sliver of land they once controlled in eastern Syria. At its peak, the group ruled an area half the size of the United Kingdom where it enforced its extreme interpretation of Islam, which included attacks on religious minority groups and harsh punishment of Muslims deemed to be apostates. Despite their defeat, attacks by IS sleeper cells in Iraq and Syria have been on the rise over the past years, killing and wounding scores of people. The U.S. military has not commented on the August raid. Earlier Friday, the U.S. Central Command said its forces killed an IS attack cell member in a strike in eastern Syria. It added that the individual was planting an improvised explosive device for a planned attack against anti-IS coalition forces and their partners, an apparent reference to Syria’s Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. In August last year, the U.S. had agreed to enter into talks to transition U.S. and anti-IS coalition forces from their long-standing role in assisting Iraq in combating IS. There are approximately 2,500 U.S. troops in the country, and their departure will take into account the security situation on the ground, and the capabilities of the Iraqi armed forces.

As the world’s attention focuses on the deadly war in Gaza, less than 80 miles away scores of Palestinian teens have been killed, shot and arrested in the West Bank, where the Israeli military has waged a monthslong crackdown. More than 150 teens and children 17 or younger have been killed in the embattled territory since Hamas’ brutal attack on communities in southern Israel set off the war last October. Most died in nearly daily raids by the Israeli army that Amnesty International says have used disproportionate and unlawful force. Amjad Hamadneh lost son Mahmoud when the 15-year-old's school dismissed students at the start of a May raid. “He didn’t do anything. He didn’t make a single mistake,” says Amjad Hamadneh, whose son, a buzz-cut devotee of computer games, was one of two teens killed that morning by a sniper. “If he’d been a freedom fighter or was carrying a weapon, I would not be so emotional,” says his father, an unemployed construction worker. “But he was taken just as easily as water going down your throat. He only had his books and a pencil case.” It is clear from statements by the Israeli military, insurgents and families in the West Bank that a number of the Palestinian teens killed in recent months were members of militant groups. Many others were killed during protests or when they or someone nearby threw rocks or homemade explosives at military vehicles. Still others appear to have been random targets. Taken together, the killings raise troubling questions about the devaluation of young lives in pursuit of security and autonomy. The Israeli army said in a statement to The Associated Press that it has stepped up raids since Oct. 7 to apprehend militants suspected of carrying out attacks in the West Bank and that “the absolute majority of those killed during this period were armed or involved in terrorist activities at the time of the incident.” On the June afternoon that 17-year-old Issa Jallad was killed, video from a neighbor’s security camera shows, he was on a friend’s motorbike with an Israeli armored vehicle in close pursuit. Days later, a poster outside his family's home in Jenin showed him cradling an assault rifle and declared him a holy warrior. But the grainy tape, reviewed by AP days after the raid, and others from nearby cameras do not explain where he fit in the conflict. The Israeli army said that its soldiers had spotted two militants handling a powerful explosive device. When the pair tried to flee, troops opened fire and “neutralized them.” But an Israeli human rights group, B’Tselem, says its review of multiple security camera videos showed Jallad and his friend posed no threat. “We all expected to be in this situation,” said the teen's brother, Mousa Jallad. "It could happen to any of us.” Jenin’s refugee camp has long been notorious as a hotbed of Palestinian militancy, raided repeatedly by Israeli forces who have occupied the West Bank since seizing control in their 1967 war with neighboring Arab states. The embattled territory was already seeing deadly clashes before the war began. But Israeli forces, which police about 3 million Palestinians while assigned to protect 500,000 Jewish settlers, has significantly stepped up raids in the months since. Youths represent almost a quarter of the nearly 700 Palestinians slain in the West Bank since the war began, the most since the violent uprising known as the Second Intifada in the early 2000s. More than 20 Israeli civilians and soldiers have been killed in the territory since October. A military spokesman said the Israeli army makes great efforts to avoid harming civilians during raids and “does not target civilians, period.” He said human rights groups focus on a few outlier cases. Military operations in the West Bank are fraught because forces are pursuing militants, many in their teens, who often hide among the civilian population, said the spokesman, Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani. “In many cases many of them are 15, 16 years old who are not wearing uniforms and might surprise you with a gun, with a knife,” he said. Critics say the crackdown is shaped by retribution, not only military strategy. When sirens erupted at the start of the May raid, Amjad Hamadneh says, he called Mahmoud on his cellphone and was relieved to hear that the brothers had reached their school. But then Mahmoud's twin brother, Ahmed, called back to say that the principal had dismissed classes. As students poured into the street, the brothers were separated in the chaos. Four bullets hit Mahmoud as he fled, and another pierced his skull. He was the third student from his school killed in a raid since the war began. A former classmate, Osama Hajir, who had dropped out of school to work, was also killed, along with a teacher from a nearby school and a doctor from the hospital down the street. “Now when I hear the sound of sirens I go to my room and stay there,” says Karam Miazneh, another classmate, who was shot during the raid but survived. “I’m still in fear that they will come to shoot me and kill me.” Immediately after the May raid, a spokesman for the army said it had carried out the operation with Israeli border police and the country’s internal security agency, destroying an explosive device laboratory and other structures used by militants. But police recently declined to comment, and three weeks after the AP asked the military to answer questions about the May raid, an army spokesman said he was unable to comment until he could confer with police. When Amjad Hamadneh heard his son had been wounded, he sped through Jenin’s twisting streets, drawing gunfire as he neared the hospital. But Mahmoud was already gone. Nearby, Osama’s father, Muhamad, broke down as he leaned over his son’s body. Months earlier he’d snapped a photo of the smiling teen beside graffiti touting Jenin as “the factory of men,” tirelessly cranking out fighters in the resistance against Israel. Now, he pressed that same, still-smooth face between his hands. “Oh, my son. Oh, my son,” he sobbed. “My beautiful son.” Since Mahmoud Hamadneh was killed, his siblings ask frequently to visit his grave. His younger sister now sleeps in his bed so her surviving brother, Ahmed, will not be in the room alone. “I feel like I cannot breathe. We used to do everything together,” Ahmed says. His father listens closely, despairing later that such grief could drive the teen into militancy. If the risk is so clear to a Palestinian father, he says, why don’t Israeli soldiers see it? “They think that if they kill us that people will be afraid and not do anything,” he says. “But when the Israelis kill someone, 10 fighters will be created in his place."

 The Sudanese government accused the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday of providing weapons to its rival paramilitary force and prolonging the 17-month war. The UAE called the allegations “utterly false” and “baseless” and accused the government of refusing to negotiate peace with its enemy. Their latest clash came during a U.N. Security Council meeting where its 15 members voted unanimously to extend an arms embargo in Sudan’s vast western Darfur region – a key battleground of the rival forces – until Sept. 12, 2025. Sudan plunged into conflict in mid-April 2023, when long-simmering tensions between its military and paramilitary leaders broke out in the capital, Khartoum, and spread to Darfur and other regions. More than 13 million people have been forced to flee their homes, the country is engulfed in a humanitarian crisis, and the head of the U.N. World Health Organization said Sunday that over 20,000 people have been killed. Sudanese Ambassador Al-Harith Mohamed accused the UAE of providing the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, known as the RAF, with heavy weapons, missiles and ammunition – and of “profiting from this war through the illegal exploitation of gold.” As evidence, he cited a recent weapons shipment that went through Chad to the RSF. He said Chad's recently reopened Adre border crossing for humanitarian aid was being “abused” to get weapons to the paramilitary force. He also claimed that a European bullion market has confirmed that the UAE is profiting from Sudanese gold. The Sudanese envoy called for a new examination of arms export policies to the UAE, and called for targeted sanctions against the RSF and countries that support the paramilitary force. The UAE’s ambassador, Mohamed Abushahab, who rushed to the council chamber to respond, called Sudan’s claims “a cynical attempt to deflect attention from the failings of the Sudanese Armed Forces", or SAF. He accused its military of showing “zero political courage,” using starvation as a weapon of war, and refusing to heed calls to end the war and come to the negotiating table. “To end this conflict, the SAF must take the vital step of participating in the peace talks and summon the political courage to negotiate with their enemy,” Abushahab said. Sudan's military boycotted negotiations in Geneva, Switzerland, last month aimed at spurring humanitarian aid and starting peace talks despite international pleas that it take part. The RSF sent a delegation to Geneva. In July, global experts said that starvation at a massive camp for displaced people in Darfur had grown into famine. And experts from the Famine Review Committee warned that about 25.6 million people — more than half of Sudan’s population — will face acute hunger. U.S. deputy ambassador Robert Wood told the council that people in Darfur “live in danger and desperation and despair,” and face intense floods, restrictions on humanitarian aid, persistent human rights violations and mass displacement every day. Adoption of the resolution extending the arms embargo in Darfur “sends an important signal to them that the international community remains focused on their plight and is committed to advancing peace and security in Sudan and the region,” Wood said. Some countries sought but failed to have the arms embargo extended throughout Sudan. Human Rights Watch’s Jean-Baptiste Gallopin called the council’s failure to extend sanctions “a missed opportunity” that should be corrected as soon as possible “to limit the flow of arms and curb widespread atrocities being committed in the country.” The Security Council meeting followed last Friday’s release of the first report by U.N. backed human rights investigators who also called for the expansion of the arms embargo to the entire country and urged the creation of an “independent and impartial force” to protect civilians in Sudan’s war. The fact-finding team, created by the Geneva-based Human Rights Council, blamed both sides for war crimes including murder, mutilation and torture and warned that foreign governments which arm and finance them could be complicit. It also accused the paramilitary RSF and its allies of crimes against humanity, including rape, sexual slavery and persecution on ethnic or gender grounds. Two decades ago, Darfur became synonymous with genocide and war crimes, particularly by the notorious Janjaweed Arab militias, against populations that identify as Central or East African. Up to 300,000 people were killed and 2.7 million were driven from their homes. It seems that legacy has returned, with the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor Karim Khan saying in late January there are grounds to believe both sides are committing possible war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide in Darfur. “We urgently call on states to refrain from enhancing either side’s fighting capability,” Britain’s deputy ambassador James Kariuki told the council. “Instead, those who have influence with the parties must use it to bring them to the negotiating table.”

An Israeli strike hit a crowded Palestinian tent camp early Tuesday in Gaza, killing at least 19 people and wounding 60, Palestinian officials said. Israel said it targeted senior Hamas militants with precise munitions. The overnight strike occurred in Muwasi, a sprawl of crowded tent camps along the Gaza coast that Israel designated as a humanitarian zone for hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians to seek shelter from the nearly year-old Israel-Hamas war. Associated Press video showed three large craters at the scene. First responders dug through the sand and rubble with garden tools and their bare hands, using mobile phone flashlights until the sun came up. They pulled body parts from the sand, including what appeared to be a human leg. “We were told to go to Muwasi, to the safe area ... Look around you and see this safe place," said Iyad Hamed Madi, who had been sheltering there. “This is for my son,” he said, holding up a bag of diapers. “He's 4 months old. Is he a fighter? There's no humanity.” Gaza’s Health Ministry said the death toll may rise as more bodies are recovered. The Civil Defense, first responders who operate under the Hamas-run government, had earlier said 40 people were killed. The Israeli military disputed that toll. The ministry is also part of the Hamas-run government, but its figures are widely seen as reliable. Neither the ministry nor the Civil Defense immediately responded to a request for comment on the discrepancy of their tolls. An Associated Press cameraman at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis saw 10 bodies in the morgue, including two children and three women. It was one of three medical centers that received casualties, according to the Civil Defense. “We were sleeping, and suddenly it was like a tornado," Samar Moamer told the AP at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, where she was being treated for wounds from the strike. She said one of her daughters was killed and the other was pulled alive from the rubble. The Israeli military said it struck Hamas militants in a command-and-control center embedded in the area. It identified three of the militants, saying they were senior operatives who were directly involved in the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that triggered the war and other recent attacks. Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, an Israeli military spokesperson, disputed the initial casualty reports in a post on the social media platform X, saying they “do not line up with the information available to the (Israeli army), the precise weapons used and the accuracy of the strike.” Hamas released a statement denying that any militants were in the area and calling the Israeli allegations a “blatant lie.” Neither Israel nor Hamas provided evidence to substantiate their claims. Israel says it tries to avoid harming civilians and blames Hamas for their deaths because the militants often operate in residential areas and are known to position tunnels, rocket launchers and other infrastructure near homes, schools and mosques. In July, Israel carried out a strike in the humanitarian zone that killed at least 90 Palestinians. The military said it targeted and killed Mohammed Deif, the shadowy leader of Hamas' military wing, but Hamas says Deif is still alive. International law allows for strikes on military targets in areas where civilians are present, provided the force used is proportionate to the military objective — something that is often disputed and would need to be settled in a court, which almost never happens. The war has caused vast destruction and displaced around 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million, often multiple times. Israeli evacuation orders, which now cover around 90% of the territory, have pushed hundreds of thousands of people into Muwasi, where aid groups have struggled to provide even basic services. Gaza’s Health Ministry says over 41,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and militants in its count, but says women and children make up just over half of the dead. Israel says it has killed more than 17,000 militants in the war. Hamas-led fighters killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the Oct. 7 attack. They abducted another 250 people and are still holding around 100 hostages after releasing most of the rest in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel during a weeklong cease-fire last November. Around a third of the remaining hostages are believed to be dead. The United States and mediators Egypt and Qatar have spent much of this year trying to broker an agreement for a cease-fire and the release of the hostages, but the talks have repeatedly bogged down as Israel and Hamas have accused each other of making new and unacceptable demands. British Foreign Secretary David Lammy, speaking at a news conference in London with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, said the continued violence underscored the importance of a cease-fire. “The shocking deaths in Khan Younis only reinforce how desperately needed that cease-fire is,” Lammy said. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told reporters on Monday that conditions are ripe for at least a six-week pause in the fighting that would include the release of many of the hostages still held in Gaza. However, he would not commit to a permanent end to the fighting — a central Hamas demand. The war has plunged Gaza into a severe humanitarian crisis, and aid groups have struggled to operate because of ongoing fighting, Israeli restrictions, and the breakdown of law and order. Experts say Gaza is at high risk of famine. The main United Nations agency providing aid to Palestinians said Israeli troops stopped a convoy of staff taking part in a polio vaccination campaign for more than eight hours on Monday, despite the agency's efforts to coordinate with the military. UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini wrote on the social media platform X that the convoy was stopped at gunpoint and that “heavy damage was caused by bulldozers" to the U.N. armored vehicles. The staff members were later released, and the vaccination campaign continued as planned. The Israeli military said it held up the convoy based on intelligence indicating the presence of suspected militants. Israel has long accused UNRWA of having ties to militant groups, allegations the U.N. agency denies. The vaccination drive, launched after doctors discovered the first polio case in the Palestinian enclave in 25 years, aims to vaccinate 640,000 children during a war that has destroyed the health care system.