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Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli air strikes killed two people in the south on Friday, with Israel announcing attacks in the same areas targeting Hezbollah militants.Despite a November 27 ceasefire that sought to halt more than a year of conflict between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah, Israel has continued to conduct near-daily strikes in Lebanon.An Israeli attack on “a car on the Sidon-Ghaziyeh road resulted in one dead”, a Lebanese health ministry statement said on the fourth straight day of Israeli attacks in the south.Hours later, the ministry said another Israeli strike on a vehicle around Aita al-Shaab had also killed one.Israel’s military said it had “conducted a precise strike in the area of Sidon and eliminated the Hezbollah terrorist Muhammad Jaafar Mannah Asaad Abdallah”.It said Abdallah was “responsible, among other things, for the deployment of Hezbollah’s communication systems throughout Lebanon”.On Friday evening, it announced “a Hezbollah terrorist was struck and eliminated by the IDF (military) in the area of” Aita al-Shaab.An AFP journalist said the Israeli attack in Sidon had hit a four-wheel-drive vehicle, sending a column of black smoke into the sky.At the scene of the strike, members of the security forces stood guard as a crowd gathered to look at the charred remains of the vehicle after firefighters had put out the blaze.The Israeli military has also said it was behind other attacks this week that it said killed Hezbollah members.Hezbollah, significantly weakened by the war, insists it is adhering to the November ceasefire, even as Israeli attacks persist.

The deaths of three Tunisian sixth-formers in a school wall collapse in the small inland town of Mezzouna has fuelled anger over underinvestment and neglect in the nation’s hinterland.Since Monday’s accident, angry residents have blocked roads leading to the town’s National Guard post with burning tyres, as young men clashed repeatedly with security forces.”We’re asking for the most basic things: healthcare and education,” said Najet Messaadi. “Instead, they sent us 112 police cars. What are we? Terrorists?”Messaadi’s 18-year-old nephew, Mohanad Jedaida, was shot in the head with a gas grenade during the protests, leaving him in hospital unable to speak.”They’re adding pain on top of pain,” she said. “We buried three people, and it’s possible we will bury more.”Mohanad’s mother, Mounira Messaadi, said she fainted from tear gas while trying reaching her injured son.”Our young people are lost, with nothing to do and only cafes to go to,” she said. “Then they ask us what the problem is?”We’re not seeking a second revolution. We just want our rights.”Mezzouna lies just 70 kilometres (45 miles) from the central town of Sidi Bouzid, where in December 2010 young university graduate Mohamed Bouazizi burnt himself to death in a protest against police harassment and unemployment that triggered the Arab Spring uprisings of the following year.- ‘Basic needs’ -Tunisia’s arid interior has suffered from decades of underinvestment in public services and infrastructure as successive governments have prioritised the tourist resorts of the Mediterranean coast.With the country now mired in public debt that amounts to some 80 percent of GDP, even less money has been available for investment.”Our needs are basic and don’t require a miracle,” said human rights activist Walid Jed. “We won’t accept to live as we did.”He said ambulances had taken too long to reach the victims of Monday’s wall collapse because they had to make the 30 kilometre (20 miles) drive from the town of Regueb, further north.”That delay worsened the situation,” he said. “It probably led to the death of some who could have been saved.”He said the lack of access to clean water was another pressing issue.”When one of the students died, they couldn’t find water to wash his body before the burial,” Jed said. “That’s no longer acceptable.”President Kais Saied visited the town of some 40,000 people on Friday but he did so at 4:00 am when few people were about and only after all trace of this week’s protests had been removed.Saied blamed “traitors” for the poor public services in the town and alleged that troublemakers had been sent to provoke the National Guard.- Youth exodus -Among those killed in the wall collapse was 18-year-old Mohamed Amine Messaadi, a keen footballer who had hopes of pursuing a professional career.Football cleats still sit on a table in the family home, while schoolbooks are piled on a tiny desk.He had attempted to leave Mezzouna multiple times, playing with teams in bigger cities like Sfax, an hour and a half’s drive east.But a recruitment freeze had forced his latest club to let him go last autumn.”He was sad to come back to Mezzouna,” his father, Salem Messaadi, recalled. “He was not the same person anymore. He stopped praying and would sometimes skip class.”His mother, Chafia Fahem, is an Arabic teacher at the school where he was killed. She said it wasn’t just the walls that were dilapidated. “Whole classrooms are at risk of collapsing,” she said.Fahem said that both she and her husband had devoted their lives to teaching but now feel betrayed by it.”We’re victims of the education system, of bad governance,” she said.

Lebanon’s health ministry said an Israeli strike Friday on a vehicle near the southern coastal city of Sidon killed one person, with Israel announcing that an attack in the same area had targeted a Hezbollah operative.Despite a November 27 ceasefire that sought to halt more than a year of conflict between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah, Israel has continued to conduct near-daily strikes in Lebanon.”The attack carried out by the Israeli enemy against a car on the Sidon-Ghaziyeh road resulted in one dead,” a health ministry statement said on the fourth consecutive day of Israeli attacks in the south.Israel’s military later said it had killed a member of Hezbollah in the area.”Earlier today (Friday), the IAF (Israeli Air Force) conducted a precise strike in the area of Sidon and eliminated the Hezbollah terrorist Muhammad Jaafar Mannah Asaad Abdallah,” a military statement said.It added that Abdallah was “responsible, among other things, for the deployment of Hezbollah’s communication systems throughout Lebanon”.An AFP journalist said the Israeli attack hit a four-wheel-drive vehicle, sending a pillar of black smoke into the sky.At the scene of the strike, members of the security forces stood guard as a crowd gathered to look at the charred remains of the vehicle after firemen had put out the blaze.The Israeli military has also said it was behind other attacks this week that it said had killed Hezbollah members.Hezbollah, significantly weakened by the war, insists it is adhering to the November ceasefire, even as Israeli attacks persist.

US strikes on a Yemeni fuel port killed at least 74 people, Huthi rebels said Friday, in the deadliest attack of Washington’s 15-month campaign against the Iran-backed group.The strikes on Ras Issa aimed at cutting off supplies and funds for the rebels that control large swathes of the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest country, the United States military said.Images broadcast by a Huthi-run television station showed large blazes lighting up the night sky, following the latest in an intensified barrage of attacks under US President Donald Trump.Huthi health ministry spokesman Anees Alasbahi said rescuers were still searching for victims at the fuel terminal on the Red Sea, suggesting the number of dead could rise.”The death toll… has risen to 74 martyrs and 171 wounded in a non-final count,” he said. AFP was not able to verify the figures independently.The Huthis later announced missile attacks on Israel and two US aircraft carriers. Israel’s military earlier Friday said it had intercepted a missile launched from Yemen.Protesters chanting “Death to America! Death to Israel!” gathered in rebel-held cities around the country, including one major demonstration in the capital Sanaa on Friday.”The American military build-up and continued aggression against our country will only lead to more counter-attack and attack operations, clashes and confrontations,” Huthi military spokesman Yahya Saree told the crowd in Sanaa.- ‘Signal to Tehran’ -The strikes on Thursday came just before the US resumes negotiations with Iran over its nuclear programme in Rome on Saturday, following warnings that Tehran is getting closer to building an atomic weapon.”The military actions in Yemen are clearly sending a signal to Tehran,” Mohammed Albasha, a US-based consultant, told AFP.The US military has hammered the Huthis with near-daily air strikes for the past month in a bid to stamp out their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. Claiming solidarity with Palestinians, the rebels began attacking the key maritime routes and Israeli territory after the Gaza war began in October 2023.They paused their attacks during a recent two-month ceasefire.In a statement, United States Central Command (CENTCOM) said: “US forces took action to eliminate this source of fuel for the Iran-backed Huthi terrorists and deprive them of illegal revenue that has funded Huthi efforts to terrorise the entire region for over 10 years.”The US strikes began in January 2024 but have resumed and multiplied under Trump, starting with an offensive that killed 53 people on March 15.Footage broadcast early Friday by Al-Masirah showed a fireball igniting off the coast as thick columns of smoke rose above what appeared to be an ongoing blaze.The Huthi TV station later screened interviews with survivors lying on stretchers, including one man with burns on his arms.”We ran away. The strikes came one after the other, then everything was on fire,” one man who said he worked at the port told Al-Masirah.- Shipping attacks -Israel carried out air strikes on Ras Issa and elsewhere in Yemen in January, describing the targets as military infrastructure. Similar Israeli strikes that also included Ras Issa took place in September.Iran called the latest US strikes “barbaric”, while Hamas Palestinian militants denounced them as “blatant aggression”.The US bombing campaign intensified last month following Huthi threats to resume attacks on international shipping in protest at Israel’s blocking aid to the Gaza Strip.”The message today is unmistakable: the US is targeting not only Huthi military assets and personnel, but also their economic infrastructure,” Albasha said.Huthi attacks on the Red Sea shipping route, which normally carries about 12 percent of global trade, have forced many companies into costly detours around the tip of southern Africa.Separately, US State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce accused the Chinese satellite firm Chang Guang Satellite Technology Company of “directly supporting” Huthi attacks on “US interests”.Bruce did not initially provide details, but later referred to “a Chinese company providing satellite imagery to the Huthis”.

Gaza’s civil defence rescue agency said Friday that Israeli strikes killed at least 24 people, including 10 from the same family, after Hamas signalled its rejection of Israel’s latest ceasefire proposal.The Palestinian militants’ chief negotiator dismissed what he called Israel’s “partial agreements” and called for a “comprehensive deal” to halt the 18-month-long war.Khalil al-Hayya also urged international pressure to end Israel’s complete blockade of Gaza that began on March 2.The appeal comes after the United Nations warned of worsening conditions and shortages of medicine and other essentials for the Palestinian territory’s 2.4 million besieged people.Gaza’s civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said early Friday that crews had “recovered the bodies of 10 martyrs and a large number of wounded from the house of the Baraka family and the neighbouring houses” following Israeli strikes east of Khan Yunis in Gaza’s south.Civil defence reported at least 14 others killed in multiple Israeli strikes across the territory, including at least two strikes which hit tents sheltering displaced people. Hundreds of thousands of people have taken refuge in such shelters while trying to escape from the war, which began when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.The Israeli military has intensified its aerial bombardments and expanded ground operations in the Gaza Strip since resuming its offensive on March 18.A previous ceasefire and hostage release deal began on January 19 but collapsed two months later. Israel wanted to extend the first phase, while Hamas insisted that negotiations be held for a second phase as outlined by former US President Joe Biden last year.- ‘Comprehensive deal’ -A source from Hamas told AFP that the militants sent a written response Thursday to mediators on Israel’s proposal for a 45-day ceasefire. Israel had wanted the release of 10 living hostages held by the group, according to Hamas.It also called for the freeing of 1,231 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails and the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza.A Hamas official said the proposal further sought Hamas’s disarmament to secure a complete end to the war, a demand the group rejects.”Partial agreements are used by (Israeli Prime Minister) Benjamin Netanyahu as a cover for his political agenda… we will not be complicit in this policy,” Hayya said in a televised statement late Thursday.He said Hamas “seeks a comprehensive deal involving a single-package prisoner exchange in return for halting the war, a withdrawal of the occupation from the Gaza Strip, and the commencement of reconstruction” in the territory.At least 1,691 people have been killed in Gaza since the military resumed its offensive, bringing the total death toll since the war erupted to at least 51,065, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.Hamas’s attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.- ‘No food’ -Hayya also called on the international community to “intervene immediately and exert the necessary pressure to end the unjust blockade imposed on our people in the Gaza Strip”.The United Nations warned on Monday that Gaza is facing its most severe humanitarian crisis since the war began.In a statement, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said no supplies had reached Gaza for a month and a half.Gazan fisherman Abdel Halim Qanan told AFP his family had resorted to eating turtle meat.”There is no food. So it is an alternative for other sources of protein,” he said.Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz on Wednesday said the country would keep blocking humanitarian aid from entering Gaza as a means of pressuring Hamas.The blockade comes as Israel transforms large swathes of Gaza into buffer zones, displacing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.An AFP calculation based on maps issued by the military found that the total area under Israeli control was more than 185 square kilometres (about 70 square miles), or around 50 percent of the territory.

Hamas on Friday urged the international community to exert immediate pressure to end Israel’s complete blockade of the Gaza Strip that has been in place since March 2.The appeal from the militants comes after the United Nations warned of worsening conditions and shortages of medicine and other essentials.”The international community is required to intervene immediately and exert the necessary pressure to end the unjust blockade imposed on our people in the Gaza Strip,” Hamas’s chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya said in a statement.The Palestinian militant group on Thursday signalled its rejection of Israel’s latest truce proposal and called for a “comprehensive” deal to end the 18-month-long war.The United Nations warned on Monday that Gaza, which has a population of about 2.4 million, is facing its most severe humanitarian crisis since the war began in October 2023.”The humanitarian situation is now likely the worst it has been in the 18 months since the outbreak of hostilities,” said the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.In a statement, OCHA said no supplies had reached Gaza for a month and a half.Medical supplies, fuel, water and other essentials are in short supply, the UN has specified.Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz on Wednesday said the country would keep preventing humanitarian aid from entering the Gaza Strip.”Blocking this aid is one of the main pressure levers preventing Hamas from using it as a tool with the population,” Katz said in a statement.A Hamas source told AFP that the group sent a written response Thursday to mediators on Israel’s latest proposal for a 45-day ceasefire. Israel had wanted the release of 10 living hostages held by the group, according to Hamas.It also called for the freeing of 1,231 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails and the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza.The proposal called for Hamas to disarm to secure a complete end to the war, a demand the group rejects.

US strikes on a Yemeni fuel port killed at least 58 people, Huthi rebels said Friday, in the deadliest attack of Washington’s campaign against the Iran-backed group.The strikes also injured more than 100 people, according to a Huthi-run television station that broadcast footage of large blazes lighting up the night sky.The US military said its attack on the Ras Issa fuel terminal on the Red Sea aimed to cut off a source of supplies and funds for the Huthis, who control large swathes of the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest country.The strikes, the latest in an intense wave of attacks under President Donald Trump, came a day before the US resumes negotiations in Rome with Iran over its nuclear programme.”The death toll… has risen to 58 martyrs and 126 wounded,” the Huthis’ Al-Masirah TV said, quoting health authorities in rebel-held Hodeida, about 50 kilometres (30 miles) southeast of the terminal.AFP could not independently verify the figures.The US military has hammered the Huthis with near-daily air strikes in a bid to end their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. Claiming solidarity with Palestinians, the rebels began attacking the key maritime routes and Israel after the Gaza war began in October 2023. They paused their attacks during a recent two-month ceasefire.The attacks under Trump began with a series of strikes on March 15 that left 53 people dead, according to the Huthis.In a statement, United States Central Command (CENTCOM) said: “US forces took action to eliminate this source of fuel for the Iran-backed Huthi terrorists and deprive them of illegal revenue that has funded Huthi efforts to terrorise the entire region for over 10 years.”Ships “have continued to supply fuel via the port of Ras Issa” despite Washington this year designating the rebels a foreign terrorist organisation, CENTCOM added, without specifying the source of the fuel.- ‘Everything was on fire’ -In images broadcast early Friday by Al-Masirah, a fireball was seen igniting off the coast as thick columns of smoke rose above what appeared to be an ongoing blaze.The Huthi TV station later screened interviews with survivors lying on stretchers, including one man with burns on his arms.”We ran away. The strikes came one after the other, then everything was on fire,” one man who said he worked at the port told Al-Masirah.US strikes on the Huthis began in January 2024 under former president Joe Biden but have resumed and multiplied under Trump.The Huthis are part of Iran’s “axis of resistance” also including Gaza’s Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah — both hit hard by wars with Israel and killings of top leaders.In January Israel carried out air strikes in Ras Issa and elsewhere in Yemen, describing the targets as military infrastructure. Similar Israeli strikes that also included Ras Issa happened in September.Iran called the latest US strikes “barbaric”, while Hamas denounced them as “blatant aggression”.On Saturday, the US and Iran are to continue talks aimed at curbing Tehran’s nuclear programme, following warnings it is getting ever closer to building an atomic weapon.”The military actions in Yemen are clearly sending a signal to Tehran,” Mohammed Albasha, a US-based consultant, told AFP.”The message today is unmistakable: the US is targeting not only Huthi military assets and personnel, but also their economic infrastructure,” he added.The latest US campaign was triggered by Huthi threats to resume attacks on international shipping in protest at Israel’s blocking aid to the Gaza Strip.Also on Friday, Israel’s military said it intercepted an incoming missile from Yemen that set off sirens in “several areas”.- ‘Death to America!’ -In Saada, the Huthis’ stronghold in rugged northern Yemen, hundreds of people chanted “Death to America! Death to Israel!” in rebel-organised protests, Al-Masirah footage showed.Separately, US State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce accused the Chinese satellite firm Chang Guang Satellite Technology Company of “directly supporting” Huthi attacks on “US interests”.Bruce did not initially provide details, but later referred to “a Chinese company providing satellite imagery to the Huthis”.Huthi attacks on the Red Sea shipping route, which normally carries about 12 percent of global trade, forced many companies into costly detours around the tip of southern Africa.

Iran staged military parades on Friday to mark its annual Army Day celebrations, showcasing a wide array of its latest domestically built drones, missiles, tanks, and other hardware.The events coincided with the eve of the second round of nuclear talks between Iran and the United States, which will be held in Rome on Saturday.Domestically developed drones, including the jet-powered Karrar, Arash, and Mohajer models, were shown in the parade in Tehran, state television reported.In addition to the capital, military parades were also staged in other major cities.The Tehran event also featured Russian-made S-300 air defence systems.It was attended by President Masoud Pezeshkian, who praised the army as the nation’s “strong fortress” and credited it with asserting the country’s regional influence.The military display came a day before delegations from Iran and the United States were set to meet in the Italian capital for a second round of indirect nuclear talks mediated by Oman.The first round, held in Muscat last Saturday, was described by both sides as “constructive”.In March, US President Donald Trump sent a letter to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urging renewed negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear programme and warning of military action if diplomacy fails.On Thursday, Trump said he is “not in a rush” to attack Iranian nuclear facilities, adding: “I think Iran wants to talk.”Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who represents Tehran in the talks, said on Thursday “we are fully serious in these talks”, and “based on the other side’s approach, will assess how to proceed”.US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff represents Washington in the talks.A  New York Times report on Wednesday said Trump had blocked an Israeli plan to strike Iranian nuclear facilities, deciding instead to prioritise diplomatic outreach.On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that Israel will not allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons, even as the Iran-US talks continue.

The new US ambassador to Israel prayed at the Western Wall in Jerusalem on Friday, delivering a handwritten message from President Donald Trump calling for peace in Israel.Mike Huckabee, a former Republican governor, has long been an outspoken supporter of Israel, backing calls to annex the Israeli-occupied West Bank before such talk became increasingly mainstream.He presented his diplomatic credentials to Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Thursday, as Israel’s 18-month war against Hamas Palestinian militants continues in the Gaza Strip.Located in east Jerusalem -— a sector of the holy city that is occupied and annexed by Israel —- the Western Wall is the last remaining remnant of the Second Temple, destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE, and is the holiest site where Jews are permitted to pray.”It was such an honour, an incredible privilege, to place on behalf of the president of the United States President Donald J Trump, a prayer that he wrote in his own hand, and initialled,” Huckabee, wearing a traditional Jewish kippa cap, told reporters at the site.He said Trump handed him the message at the White House with an instruction that the first thing he should do as an ambassador to Israel would be to deliver his message.Trump gave the note “with the hope that I would bring it and place it in the wall, with the best wishes and the prayers of the American people for the peace of Jerusalem,” Huckabee said, showing the small, handwritten note.It read: “For Peace in Israel”. The note had Trump’s initials “D.T”.Huckabee said that he too offered his own prayer at the holy site, calling for the return of all hostages still held in Gaza.”We will bring them home, and that is the prayer of the president as well,” he said.On October 7, 2023, the Hamas Islamist movement launched an unprecedented attack on Israel, triggering the ongoing Gaza war. During the assault, militants captured 251 individuals, 58 of whom remain hostage in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.On Friday, Hamas rejected the latest Israeli proposal for a ceasefire deal.According to a senior Hamas official, it called for a 45-day truce in exchange for the release of 10 living Israeli hostages, the freeing of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, and authorisation for humanitarian aid to enter Gaza.However, Hamas chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya said the group would not agree to a “partial deal”.He said Hamas “seeks a comprehensive deal involving a single-package prisoner exchange in return for halting the war, a withdrawal of the occupation from the Gaza Strip, and the commencement of reconstruction” in the territory.