Category: 2. Middle East

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Tuesday he had reversed a decision to appoint former navy commander Vice Admiral Eli Sharvit as security agency chief following criticism, including from a key US senator.

Netanyahu had announced Sharvit’s appointment on Monday, pushing back against a supreme court decision to freeze his government’s move to dismiss incumbent director Ronen Bar.

It later emerged that the former naval chief had publicly opposed key policies of the…

An Israeli strike on Beirut killed at least three people on Tuesday, Lebanon’s health ministry said after Israel announced its second strike on the country’s capital in a fragile four-month truce.

Israel’s military said it “targeted a Hezbollah terrorist” just days after striking the city in response to rocket fire from Lebanon which it blamed on the militant group.

The raid in Hezbollah’s Dahieh stronghold left “three martyrs and seven wounded” according to a Lebanese health ministry toll,…

An Israeli strike on south Beirut killed at least three people on Tuesday, Lebanon said after Israel announced its second strike on the country’s capital in a fragile four-month truce.

The attack that came without warning at around 3:30 am (0030 GMT) during the Eid al-Fitr Muslim holiday. It came after Israel struck Beirut’s southern suburbs, a bastion of Hezbollah support, on Friday after issuing an evacuation warning.

The Israeli military said “the strike targeted a Hezbollah terrorist who…

An Israeli strike Tuesday killed three people, Lebanon said, as a source close to Hezbollah said one of the group’s officials was targeted in the second such strike on south Beirut during a fragile four-month ceasefire.

The attack came without warning at around 3:30 am (0030 GMT) during the Eid al-Fitr Muslim holiday marking the end of the Ramadan fasting period.

It struck after Israel also raided Beirut’s southern suburbs — a bastion of support for Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah armed group…

A Hezbollah official handling Palestinian affairs was among four people killed in an Israeli strike on south Beirut on Tuesday, Israel and a Hezbollah source said, the second such raid on the capital during a four-month ceasefire.

Lebanon’s leaders condemned the attack, which came without warning at around 3:30 am (0030 GMT) during the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

Israel previously struck the capital on Friday, hitting the south Beirut stronghold…

Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa said Monday a new transitional government would aim for consensus in rebuilding the war-torn country but acknowledged it would be unable to satisfy everyone.

The transitional 23-member cabinet — without a prime minister — was announced Saturday, more than three months after Sharaa’s Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) led an offensive that toppled longtime president Bashar al-Assad.

Sharaa said the new government’s goal was rebuilding the…

The US government will review $9 billion of funding for Harvard University over alleged anti-Semitism on campus, authorities said Monday, after it cut millions from Columbia University, which has also seen fierce pro-Palestinian student protests.

President Donald Trump has aggressively targeted prestigious universities that saw bitter protests sparked by Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, stripping their federal funds and directing immigration officers to deport foreign student…

Eid al-Fitr in Syria was charged with newfound joy this year, as thousands freely celebrated the holiday for the first time after the fall of Bashar al-Assad.

From the early morning hours, crowds of men, women and children flocked to pray at Damascus’s historic Umayyad Mosque in the Old City.

“This is the first time we truly feel the joy of Eid, after getting rid of Assad’s tyrannical regime,” Fatima Othman told AFP.

Following prayer, worshippers exchanged Eid greetings while street vendors…