Middle East latest: Israeli minister reports some progress toward cease-fire but Hezbollah unaware

Israel’s new foreign minister said Monday that there has been “certain progress” in efforts to end the fighting with Lebanon’s Hezbollah. But a spokesman for the militant group said it had not received any official proposal and was prepared to wage a long war if needed.

The Biden administration has spent months trying to broker a cease-fire, and there were reports that U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein might return to the region in the coming days.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said any agreement would have to include enforcement mechanisms to prevent Hezbollah from reconstituting its military infrastructure near the border.

“There is certain progress on the issue. We are working with the Americans,” he told reporters.

Hezbollah began firing into Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, in solidarity with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Since the conflict erupted, more than 3,200 people have been killed and more than 14,000 wounded in Lebanon, the Health Ministry reported.

The Israel-Hamas war began after Palestinian militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducting 250 others. Israel’s military response in Gaza has killed more than 43,000 people, Palestinian health officials say. The officials do not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but say more than half of those killed were women and children.

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Israel denied or impeded 85% of aid convoys to northern Gaza last month, UN says

UNITED NATIONS – The U.N. humanitarian office says 85% of its attempts to coordinate aid convoys and humanitarian visits to northern Gaza — where hunger is acute and Israel is carrying out a major offensive — were denied or impeded last month.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs made 98 requests to Israeli authorities for authorization to go through the checkpoint along Wadi Gaza but only 15 made it, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Monday.

The humanitarian office, known as OCHA, “is worried about the fate of Palestinians remaining in North Gaza, as the siege there continues, and urgently calls on Israel to open up the area to humanitarian operations at the scale needed, given the massive needs.” Dujarric said.

In a new report published Monday, OCHA said humanitarian organizations submitted 50 requests to the Israeli authorities to enter North Gaza governorate in October and 33 were rejected while eight were accepted but faced impediments including delays that prevented their completion, he said.

Over the past three days, Dujarric said, teams from OCHA, the U.N. human rights and de-mining agencies and other humanitarian groups visited nine sites in Gaza City to assess the needs of hundreds of displaced families, many from North Gaza.

The teams say that some were in shelters, abandoned homes, destroyed clinic and some were sleeping in the streets or open fields where they feared stray dogs at night, Dujarric said.

In a severely damaged structure, the team found more than a dozen families — including people with disabilities and some in urgent need of medical care — sheltering in the basement which had no electricity and was full of sewage, he said,.

“The assessment teams say that urgent assistance is needed, including medical treatment and essential medication,” Dujarric said. “Palestinians in Gaza city also need blankets, warm clothing, shoes, heaters, and fuel as winter approaches” as well as tarpaulins and flood-resistant tents.

A senior Israeli diplomat meets with top U.S. officials in Washington as Lebanon cease-fire efforts appear to gain momentum

WASHINGTON — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s top strategic adviser met with U.S. officials on Monday in Washington.

Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer was meeting Monday with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the State Department said. He also met White House senior advisers Amos Hochstein and Brett McGurk at the White House, according to a U.S. official. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly, said that Dermer is also expected to meet on Tuesday with national security adviser Jake Sullivan.

Dermer is also expected to meet with Trump officials during his time in the U.S.

Earlier Monday, Israel’s new foreign minister told reporters there has been “certain progress” in cease-fire efforts with Hezbollah in Lebanon. Dermer is a close confidant of Netanyahu and last week traveled to Russia as part of cease-fire efforts, said an official familiar with the matter.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss behind-the-scenes diplomacy, said Dermer is trying to rally Russian support for enforcing a cease-fire by helping ensure that Iran will no longer smuggle weapons to Hezbollah through Syria, which is a Russian ally.

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Aamer Madhani in Washington and Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed.

UN peacekeeping chief will travel to Lebanon

UNITED NATIONS – The U.N. peacekeeping chief is heading to Lebanon for a three-day visit to support peacekeepers on the front line monitoring the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict and to amplify U.N. calls for de-escalation and a cease-fire.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters Monday that’s the message Undersecretary-General Jean-Pierre Lacroix will be delivering starting on Tuesday when he arrives in Lebanon.

In Beirut, Lacroix is scheduled to meet with caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati; Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri, the caretaker foreign and defense ministers, armed forces chief and the diplomatic corps, Dujarric said.

Lacroix is also scheduled to visit the headquarters of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Naqoura in southern Lebanon and front-line positions along the U.N.-drawn boundary between Lebanon and Israel to meet peacekeepers and “thank them for their dedication in carrying out their work under extremely difficult conditions.” Dujarric said.

The force, known as UNIFIL, has continued to monitor the escalating conflict between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah across the boundary known as the Blue Line despite Israeli calls for peacekeepers to pull back 5 kilometers (3 miles) for their safety. UNIFIL has accused Israel of deliberately destroying observation equipment, and a number of peacekeepers have been injured in the military action.

Israeli strike in northern Lebanon kills at least 8, health officials say

BEIRUT — An Israeli airstrike destroyed a home in northern Lebanon on Monday, killing at least eight people and wounding 14 others, the Health Ministry said.

Rescue teams scrambled to pull survivors from under the rubble, Lebanon’s state media said, and video widely circulated on social media showed the Lebanese Red Cross moving corpses encased in body bags.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strike and the target was not clear. The strike hit the village of Ain Yaaqoub in the northern Akkar region, which is home to Greek Orthodox and Sunni Muslim communities and is far from the Hezbollah militant group’s main areas of influence in the south and east.

Israel has struck deeper into Lebanon since its military escalation and ground invasion against Hezbollah in late September. Israel's first strike in the Akkar region was on Nov. 2 and targeted a bridge near a Lebanese army checkpoint, cutting a key road leading to Syria.

On Monday, another Israeli airstrike hit a residential building in southern Lebanon, killing seven people and wounding seven others, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. Israel's military said 190 rockets were fired from Lebanon on Monday, with rescue services saying at least five people were injured.

Israeli minister says he will push to annex parts of the occupied West Bank once Trump takes office

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Israel’s finance minister says he will push for Israel to annex parts of the occupied West Bank after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump takes office.

Bezalel Smotrich said in a speech Monday that he will push “for the inclusion of Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria,” using the biblical term for the territory. “2025 will be the year ... of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria,” he added.

Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war and has built scores of settlements to cement its control over the area. But it has never annexed the territory, which is home to 3 million Palestinians who live under military rule.

The Palestinians seek the West Bank, along with east Jerusalem and Gaza, for an independent state.

The international community overwhelmingly considers the settlements, where some 500,000 Israelis live, to be illegal and obstacles to peace.

Smotrich, along with other settler leaders, are counting on Trump to resume the pro-settler positions he took during his first term as president. During the first Trump administration, the U.S. reversed longstanding U.S. policy and said settlements do not violate international law. Trump's secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, made an unprecedented visit to a Jewish settlement.

Lebanon death toll jumps to more than 3,240 people, Health Ministry says

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s Health Ministry said Monday that 54 people were killed and 56 wounded on Sunday, raising the total toll from a year of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah to 3,243 killed and 14,134 wounded.

One-quarter of them were women and children, the ministry said, with 2,325 men, 634 women and 201 children killed since the Israel-Hezbollah war began 13 months ago. Before the war intensified on Sept. 23, Hezbollah had said that nearly 500 of its members were killed but the group has stopped updating its death toll since.

On Monday, an Israeli airstrike on a residential building in Al-Saksakiyeh town in Sidon province, South Lebanon, killed seven people and wounded seven others, the Health Ministry said.

Most of those casualties were women and children, Lebanon’s state media said, adding that rescue teams were still searching for more missing people under the rubble.

In the health care sector, the ministry said that 191 health workers have been killed, 308 wounded and 244 medical vehicles damaged since Oct. 8, 2023. Additionally, 88 medical and ambulatory centers have been affected, along with 65 hospitals.

Israel says 190 rockets were fired from Lebanon, with reports that nearly half targeted the area around Haifa

TEL AVIV — Israel’s military said at least 190 rockets were fired from Lebanon into Israel on Monday, just as the country’s new foreign minister said efforts to reach a cease-fire deal with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah were moving forward.

At least 90 rockets were fired toward Haifa, one of the largest barrages towards the northern port city since the war began last year, according to Israeli media. Israel’s rescue services said four people were wounded in the area around Haifa, and another person earlier in the day.

Israel's military said most of the rockets were intercepted, without elaborating.

The volley came the same day Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said “certain progress” was being made toward a U.S.-brokered cease-fire with Lebanon’s Hezbollah. The group's leader has said it had not received a proposal and is prepared to keep fighting.

Hezbollah did not immediately claim the volley on Monday evening, but said it was responsible for two rocket attacks in the afternoon it said targeted Israeli military bases near Haifa. Israel said its forces had targeted the Hezbollah launchers responsible for the attack.

Hezbollah began firing rockets at Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, in solidarity with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Israel's foreign minister isn't worried over US deadline for increased aid to Gaza

JERUSALEM — Israel’s new foreign minister appeared to downplay a looming U.S. deadline for increased aid to Gaza, saying he was confident “the issue would be solved.”

The Biden administration warned Israel last month to increase the amount of food and other urgently needed aid entering Gaza to 350 trucks per day or risk a scaling back of American military support. It set a 30-day deadline that expires this week.

The amount of aid entering the war-ravaged territory plummeted in October to its lowest level since the first month of the war, with an average of 57 trucks entering each day, according to Israeli figures.

U.N. agencies say even less is actually being distributed because Israeli restrictions, ongoing fighting and lawlessness often prevent them from retrieving the aid on the Gaza side of the border.

Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said Monday that he was “sure we can also reach understanding with our American friends and that issue will be solved.”

U.S. President Joe Biden may have less leverage over Israel as it awaits Donald Trump’s return to the White House in January.

Trump was a staunch supporter of Israel during his previous term. He has vowed to end the wars in the Middle East without saying how.

Lebanon's caretaker prime minister calls for a cease-fire along the border with Israel

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Monday called for an immediate cease-fire along the Lebanon-Israel border, saying the war has had devastating effects on the small nation.

Mikati called for the implementation of a U.N. resolution that ended the Israel-Hezbollah war in the summer of 2006, and the deployment of Lebanese troops along the border with Israel in coordination with U.N. peacekeepers.

Mikati spoke at the opening session of the Arab-Islamic summit in the Saudi capital of Riyadh. He said the war has caused “unprecedented losses” with more than 3,000 people dead, including 775 women and children.

He said the war also had caused $8.5 billion in losses, including $3.4 billion caused by the destruction or damage of about 100,000 housing units in different parts of the country.

“No state can take the burden of this huge destruction,” Mikati said, adding that Beirut is about to set up a fund that will be funded by friendly states for the reconstruction process. He said the fund will be under international supervision and subject to international auditing.

Mikati urged other nations to support the Lebanese state rather than the country’s political factions.

Saudi Arabia hosts a summit to discuss Mideast wars

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabia on Monday hosted a summit over the ongoing Mideast wars.

Speaking before leaders, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said the kingdom renewed “its condemnation and categorical rejection of the genocide committed by Israel against the brotherly Palestinian people, which has claimed the lives of 150,000 martyrs, wounded and missing, most of whom are women and children.”

“We affirm that Israel’s continued crimes against innocent people, its persistence in violating the sanctity of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, and its detraction from the pivotal role of the Palestinian National Authority in all Palestinian territories will undermine the efforts aimed at obtaining the Palestinian people’s legitimate rights and establishing peace in the region,” he added.

The summit is a follow-up from the 2023 Arab-Islamic Summit.

The new Israeli foreign minister says there's ‘certain progress’ in efforts to end war with Hezbollah

JERUSALEM — Israel’s new foreign minister says there has been “certain progress” in efforts to end the fighting with Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

But a spokesman for the militant group said Monday that it had not received any official proposal and was prepared to wage a long war if needed.

The Biden administration has spent months trying to broker a cease-fire, and there were reports that U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein might return to the region in the coming days.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said any agreement would have to include enforcement mechanisms to prevent Hezbollah from reconstituting its military infrastructure near the border.

“There is certain progress on the issue. We are working with the Americans,” he told reporters.

“The most important thing will not (be) the words but the enforcement,” he said, adding that if any agreement is breached, Israel “will act immediately, militarily.”

The U.N. Security Council resolution that ended the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war required both Hezbollah and Israeli forces to withdraw from a buffer zone in southern Lebanon that was to be patrolled by U.N. peacekeepers and the Lebanese army.

Israel says Hezbollah maintained a military presence right up to the border, while Lebanon accused Israel of violating other terms of the resolution. Lebanese officials are opposed to any changes to the resolution.

In Beirut, Hezbollah spokesman Mohammed Afif said the group has enough weapons and supplies to fight a long war with Israel. He said Israeli forces had failed to hold territory six weeks into their ground invasion, pointing to what he said was a failed Israeli attempt last week to enter the southern town of Khiyam.

“As long as you are not able to control areas in the field you will not achieve your political goals,” Afif said.

He also denied claims by Israeli officials that Hezbollah has lost most of its missile capabilities, pointing to the fact that it is still launching dozens of projectiles a day and targeting areas in central Israel.

Hezbollah began firing rockets, missiles and drones into Israel, and drawing retaliatory strikes, the day after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack out of Gaza ignited the war there. All-out war erupted in September, when Israel carried out a wave of heavy airstrikes and killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and most of his top commanders.

An Israeli strike closes Syria’s main north-south highway

DAMASCUS, Syria — Israel’s air force attacked an aid convoy and forced the closure of Syria’s main north-south highway, Syria state media reported.

There was no immediate word on casualties from Monday’s strike, and state TV did not provide details about the convoy.

Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria in recent years. Israeli officials rarely acknowledge them, but say Israel is determined to disrupt arms shipments to Lebanon’s Hezbollah and to prevent Iran from developing military infrastructure near its borders.

Monday’s airstrike occurred in Shamsin, around 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the border with Lebanon. People often gather there after fleeing the war, state TV said.

It said the strike forced the closure of the M5 highway that links the capital, Damascus, with the northern city of Aleppo.

On Sunday, an Israeli airstrike hit a residential building in the Damascus suburb of Sayyida Zeinab. The Syrian Defense Ministry said seven civilians were killed. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor linked to the Syrian opposition, suggested that Hezbollah was targeted.

UN says more than 200 children have been killed in war in Lebanon

BEIRUT — The United Nations children’s agency says the war between Israel and Hezbollah has killed more than 200 children in Lebanon.

They include seven children who were among 23 people killed in an Israeli airstrike in northern Lebanon on Sunday.

UNICEF said protecting children from harm during war is a legal obligation and called for a cease-fire.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry says at least 3,189 people have been killed and over 14,000 wounded in Lebanon in more than a year of conflict between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group. Some 1.2 million people have been displaced.

On the Israeli side, 68 soldiers and 41 civilians have been killed in the fighting since October 2023, according to the prime minister’s office. More than 60,000 people have been displaced from their homes.

Hezbollah began firing rockets, missiles and drones into Israel, and drawing retaliatory strikes, the day after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack out of Gaza ignited the war there. Hezbollah and Hamas are allies backed by Iran.

Hezbollah acknowledged the killing of nearly 500 of its fighters in the first 11 months of the conflict but stopped updating that toll after all-out war erupted in September.

Yemen's Houthi rebels say they launched a missile targeting Israel

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Monday claimed they launched a missile targeting Israel.

Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree made the claim in a prerecorded video message, claiming that the rebels launched a Palestine-2 ballistic missile he described as a “hypersonic” toward a military base.

The Israeli military said it “intercepted one projectile that approached Israel from the direction of Yemen.” The Israelis also said the fire did not enter Israeli territory.

The Houthis have launched missiles and targeted ships through the Red Sea corridor over the ongoing Mideast wars. The rebels separately said sites in the country came under attack in likely U.S. airstrikes early Monday morning, something not immediately acknowledged by the Americans.

Senior UAE diplomat calls for de-escalation in Mideast wars

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A senior diplomat for the United Arab Emirates called on the world to focus on the plight of civilians and de-escalate the ongoing Mideast wars.

Anwar Gargash’s remarks Monday, made at the Abu Dhabi Strategic Debate, followed the pattern of comments made by the UAE amid the Mideast wars. The UAE, a federation of seven sheikhdoms home to Dubai, diplomatically recognized Israel in 2020.

“The complexities of the region require a steady hand and a clear and consistent vision,” Gargash said. “The recent cycle of escalation between Israel and Iran cannot become a permanent feature of the strategic landscape of our region. This must be addressed through a political framework.”

He called for “pragmatism” and a “serious political horizon” to resolve the wider Israeli-Palestinian conflict and reach a two-state solution. He described the war in the Gaza Strip as being “driven by extremists on both sides, from the Israeli and Arab side.” Yet he also called the “systemic violence” faced by Palestinians in Gaza “criminal and unacceptable.”

He added: “At the present time, it is vital to identify that not all crises stem from the Palestinian issue, yet it undeniably remains central to the conflict in our region.”

The UAE has provided aid for both the Gaza Strip and Lebanon in the wars, while maintaining its diplomatic ties with Israel. The UAE has, however, strenuously criticized Israel’s conduct at times in public in the wars.

Gargash also offered criticism of governance in both the Palestinian territories and Lebanon.

“In both Palestine and Lebanon, a drastic reform is essential for the world to step in and provide considerable support,” Gargash said.