Israeli Military Says it Struck 'Key' Hamas Figure in Lebanon's Tripoli
In a statement, Israel's military did not give the identity of the targeted person. There was no immediate comment from Hamas.
Lebanese state media said a car had been hit near Tripoli and the health ministry reported two people were killed and three others wounded, without identifying them, Reuters reported.
Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups maintain a presence in various areas of Lebanon, mostly in camps that have housed displaced Palestinians for decades.
Since Hamas' cross-border attack from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel in 2023, Israel has carried out targeted strikes on Lebanese armed group Hezbollah as well as members of Palestinian factions in Lebanon.
Hamas' deputy chief was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Beirut's southern suburbs in early 2024, and other strikes hit Palestinian camps in northern Lebanon.
A US-brokered ceasefire last year ended the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, though Israel has continued to carry out strikes on what it says are Hezbollah arms depots and fighters, mostly in southern Lebanon.
Tuesday's strike near Tripoli was the first time a targeted assassination had taken place in the area since the truce.
Meanwhile, US envoy Thomas Barrack continued a two-day visit to Lebanon to discuss disarming Hezbollah and other militant groups.
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Arab News
an hour ago
- Arab News
Cabinet commends HRC adoption of resolution to protect children in cyberspace
RIYADH: The Cabinet commended on Tuesday the Human Rights Council's unanimous adoption of a resolution submitted by the Kingdom to protect children in cyberspace. The resolution, submitted by Saudi Arabia, aims to protect children in cyberspace and is rooted in the global initiative 'Child Protection in Cyberspace' launched by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in October 2024. The Cabinet said that Saudi Arabia maintaining its position as the top-ranked country in global cybersecurity according to this year's edition of the International Institute for Management Development World Competitiveness Yearbook adds to a series of achievements made by this sector in record time. Saudi Minister of State and Cabinet member Issam bin Saad bin Saeed said the Kingdom's first-place ranking globally in the ICT Development Index 2025 issued by the International Telecommunication Union is a confirmation of the strength of the its digital infrastructure. It was also testament to the attractiveness of its investment environment and the development of the local digital economy, which has reached SR 495 billion ($132 billion) in size, he added. The Cabinet also discussed the Kingdom's efforts and contributions at the international level to support multilateral action and enhance global economic growth rates, including continued cooperation with OPEC+ producers to maintain stability in oil markets. The crown prince also briefed the Cabinet on the contents of his discussions with the President of Indonesia Prabowo Subianto and a phone call he received from German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
Arab News
an hour ago
- Arab News
Why Israeli settler violence against Palestinians is surging in the West Bank
LONDON: It began with an incident of the type that has become all too familiar in the West Bank, and yet has lately been overlooked by global media coverage distracted by the wars in Gaza and Iran. On June 25, a force of about 100 of Israeli settlers, many of them masked, descended on the Palestinian West Bank town of Kafr Malik, 17 kilometers northeast of Ramallah. It wasn't the first time the town had been attacked, but this time was different. Emboldened by right-wing ministers in Israel's coalition government, settlers across the West Bank have become increasingly aggressive toward their Arab neighbors. Kafr Malik, which sits close to an illegal settlement established in 2019, has been attacked again and again. But this time, the consequences went beyond harassment, beatings, and the destruction of property. Accounts of what happened vary, but the basic facts are clear. In what The Times of Israel described as 'a settler rampage,' the attackers threw stones at residents and set fire to homes and cars. Men from the town formed a cordon to protect their families. In the words of a statement issued by the Israeli army, which until this point had not intervened, 'at the scene, friction erupted between Israeli civilians and Palestinians, including mutual stone-throwing.' The Israel Defense Forces then opened fire on the Palestinians, killing three men and wounding seven more, adding to a toll of more than 900 Palestinians killed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since Oct. 7, 2023. Five of the settlers were detained and handed over to the police. No charges have been forthcoming. Daylight attacks like these have become increasingly commonplace in the West Bank, and routinely go unnoticed by the international community. Attention was drawn to this one in part thanks to Saudi Arabia's Foreign Ministry, which issued a statement denouncing 'the continued violence perpetrated by Israeli settlers, under the protection of the occupation forces, against Palestinian civilians, including the attacks in the village of Kafr Malik.' A statement released by Israeli human rights organization Yesh Din, which monitors settler violence in the West Bank, also condemned the latest violence. 'Under the auspices of (the) government and (with) military backing, settler violence in the West Bank continues and becomes more deadly by the day,' it said. 'This is what ethnic cleansing looks like.' In the wake of the attack on Kafr Malik, Hussein Al-Sheikh, deputy to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, also laid the blame for settler violence on the Israeli government. 'The government of Israel, with its behavior and decisions, is pushing the region to explode,' he posted on X. 'We call on the international community to intervene urgently to protect our Palestinian people.' The 'sad truth,' said Ameneh Mehvar, senior Middle East analyst at the independent conflict data organization ACLED, 'is that this feels like deja vu, the same story repeating again and again. 'Although it's not a new story, what is new is that settler violence is now increasing, with settlers becoming increasingly emboldened by the support that they're receiving from the government. 'There is a culture of impunity. They don't fear arrest, they don't fear prosecution, and they don't fear convictions. In the few cases when settlers are charged with an offense, less than three percent end in conviction.' In November, Israel's new defense minister, Israel Katz, announced that settlers would no longer be subject to military 'administrative detention orders,' under which suspects can be held indefinitely without trial. The orders remain in force for Palestinians, of whom, according to the Palestinian Prisoners' Society, more than 1,000 remain detained, without charge or trial. On July 3, figures released by the UN children's fund, UNICEF, revealed that between Oct. 7, 2023, and June 30 this year, at least 915 Palestinians, including 213 children, have been killed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. More than 9,500, including 1,631 children, have been injured. Reflecting the recent Israeli military activity in the area, 77 percent of child killings in 2025 have been in the northern governorates of the West Bank, with the highest number of fatalities — 35 percent of the total — in Jenin. According to figures compiled by ACLED, among the dead are 26 Palestinians killed in West Bank incidents involving settlers or soldiers escorting or protecting settlers. Settlers have killed around a dozen people, while five more have died at the hands of 'settlement emergency squads' — civilians armed by the Israeli government in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on southern Israel. Seven were killed by the IDF, which intervened after arriving at scenes of violence initiated by settlers — exactly what happened at Kafr Malik. In addition, ACLED recorded more than 820 violent incidents involving settlers in the first six months of 2025 alone — a more than 20 percent increase compared to the same period last year. 'This means that this year is on track to become one of the most violent years for settler violence since ACLED began its coverage in Palestine in 2016,' said Mehvar. Demonstrating just how emboldened settlers have become, many have clashed with units of the IDF in a series of incidents that began with the attack on Kafr Malik. The settlers, who had been trying to establish an illegal outpost on Palestinian land near the village, turned on the soldiers, accusing the commander of being 'a traitor.' According to the IDF, they beat, choked, and hurled rocks at the troops, and slashed the tyres of a police vehicle. Later that same evening, an army patrol vehicle in the vicinity was ambushed and stoned. The soldiers, who at first didn't realize that their attackers were fellow Israelis, fired warning shots, one of which wounded a teenager, prompting further settler violence. According to IDF reports, gangs of settlers tried to break into a military base in the central West Bank, throwing rocks and spraying pepper spray at troops, while in the Ramallah area an IDF security installation was torched. These events have come as a shock to Israeli public opinion. In an editorial published on July 1, The Jerusalem Post condemned 'the growing cancer of lawbreakers in (the) West Bank,' which 'must be cut out, before it's too late.' It added that the 'aggression by certain Jewish residents of Samaria (the Jewish name for the central region of the West Bank) against Palestinians' had been 'overlooked during the past 20 months amid the hyperfocus on the Israel-Hamas war and the plight of hostages and then the lightning war with Iran,' but 'it can't be ignored — or swept under the rug — any longer. 'These fringe elements within the Jewish population … are not just terrorizing Palestinians — itself an affront — but they have no qualms about directing their violence against their fellow Israelis serving in the IDF.' But singling out the extremist settlers for condemnation overlooks the reality that they have been encouraged and emboldened by the actions of ministers within the Israeli government, said Mehvar. On May 29, defense minister Katz and finance minister Bezalel Smotrich authorized the construction of 22 new settlements and 'outposts' in the West Bank. They made no secret of the motive. The new settlements 'are all placed within a long-term strategic vision,' they said in a statement. The goal was 'to strengthen the Israeli hold on the territory, to avoid the establishment of a Palestinian state, and to create the basis for future development of settlement in the coming decades.' It was telling that the new settlements will include Homesh and Sa-Nur, two former settlements that were evacuated in 2005 along with all Israeli settlements in Gaza. Last year, the Knesset repealed a law that prevented settlers returning to the areas. 'The reality is that there have been so many incidents of violence, either by the army or by settlers, for a long time,' said Yair Dvir, spokesperson for Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories. 'There is a state of permanent violence in the West Bank, which is happening all the time, and it's part of the strategy of the apartheid regime of Israel, which seeks to take more and more land in the West Bank,' he told Arab News. He accused the government of pursuing a policy of ethnic cleansing against the whole of Palestine. 'And of course, it has used the war in Gaza to do the same also in the West Bank,' he added. Keeping up with the unchecked proliferation of illegal outposts and settlements in the West Bank is extremely difficult because of the sheer pace and number of developments. In November 2021, B'Tselem published a report revealing there were 280 settlements, of which 138 had been officially established by the state. In addition there were 150 outposts, often referred to as 'farms,' not officially recognized by the state but allowed to operate freely. Settlers had taken over vast areas in the West Bank, to which Palestinians had little or no access, B'Tselem reported in 'State Business: Israel's misappropriation of land in the West Bank through settler violence.' Some land had been 'officially' seized by the state through military orders declaring an area 'state land,' a 'firing zone,' or a 'nature reserve.' Other areas had been taken over by settlers 'through daily acts of violence, including attacks on Palestinians and their property.' The two methods of land seizure are often directly linked. 'Settler violence against Palestinians serves as a major informal tool at the hands of the state to take over more and more West Bank land,' said the report. 'The state fully supports and assists these acts of violence, and its agents sometimes participate in them directly. As such, settler violence is a form of government policy, aided and abetted by official state authorities with their active participation.' The report concluded that, in 2021, settlements in the West Bank were home to more than 44,000 settlers. But today, said Dvir, the figure is closer to 700,000. 'There has been a huge increase in the establishment of new outposts all over the West Bank in the past couple of years, even though all the settlements and outposts are illegal under international law,' he said. 'According to Israeli law, only the outposts are illegal, but they still get funding and infrastructure and, of course, are defended by the Israeli authorities.' Mehvar fears the growth in officially sanctioned settlements is bound to see settler violence increase. 'There have always been attacks, but they were usually carried out at night, by a few individual criminals,' she said. 'But more and more we are seeing attacks in broad daylight, often in the presence of Israeli security forces, coordinated by settlers said to be communicating and organizing on WhatsApp groups. 'If more settlements are built, deep inside Palestine, not only will it make any hope of a Palestinian state almost impossible, but with so many settlers living in close proximity to Palestinian communities it will also make violence a lot more likely.'
Al Arabiya
an hour ago
- Al Arabiya
US envoy Barrack: Trump fiercely supports Lebanon, but won't wait forever
US envoy Tom Barrack urged Lebanon on Tuesday to act swiftly on reforms and disarm Hezbollah, warning that while US President Donald Trump is committed to Lebanon, his patience is not unlimited. 'I don't think there's ever been a president since Dwight Eisenhower who came out with such ferocity for Lebanon, on his own,' Barrack said. 'He has the courage, he has the dedication, he has the ability. What he doesn't have is patience.' He added: 'So, if Lebanon wants to just keep kicking this can down the road, they can... but we're not going to be here in May having this discussion.' Barrack, who also serves as Washington's ambassador to Turkey and Trump's special envoy for Syria, spoke from Beirut during his second visit in less than a month. On Monday, he praised Lebanon's initial response to a proposed roadmap that calls for sweeping reforms and a clear timeline to disarm Hezbollah and other non-state militias in exchange for international economic and political support. Some reports have suggested Lebanese officials are stalling, hoping to delay implementation until next May's parliamentary elections. 'The Lebanese political culture is deny, detour and deflect. This is the way it has been for 60 years. It has to change,' Barrack said, while expressing his feeling that the president, prime minister and parliament speaker were all being candid in their talks. Barrack reaffirmed the US stance on Hezbollah, calling it a 'foreign terrorist organization,' and stressing: 'This is a Lebanese problem, not a world problem.' He also delivered a direct warning during his interview aired on LBCI: 'If they mess with us anywhere… they're going to have a problem with us. They don't want to have a problem with us.' In response to recent remarks by Hezbollah's secretary-general that the group would never give up its weapons, Barrack said: 'It's a typical Lebanese negotiation. We go to the bazaar, it's the same thing; it's a negotiation until everybody is ready to really make a deal.' Barrack said Washington would assist in Lebanon's border demarcation issues with Syria and Israel but emphasized urgency. 'The timeframe… this is an opportunity. If anybody doesn't see what's happening around us, they're mistaken. We're here… we're just here to usher the speed of that opportunity. But we're not going to influence. We can't.'
