Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Saar says 'certain progress' made in ending conflict with Hezbollah, but militant group disagrees
Gideon Saar says there has been progress in efforts to end the fighting with Hezbollah.
In short:
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar says there has been progress in efforts to end the conflict with Hezbollah.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has confirmed he approved the fatal pager attacks on the Iran-backed Lebanese armed group.
The mayor of the northern Lebanese town of Ain Yaaqoub says an Israeli air strike has killed at least 14 people there.
Israel's new foreign minister says there has been "certain progress" in efforts to end the fighting with Hezbollah.
But a spokesman for the militant group said on Monday, local time, 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 ceasefire and there were reports that US 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 … the most important thing will not [be] the words but the enforcement," he said.
He added Israel "will act immediately militarily" if any agreement is breached.
The UN Security Council resolution which ended the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war required both Hezbollah and Israeli forces to withdraw from a buffer zone in southern Lebanon.
Instead, it allowed UN peacekeepers and the Lebanese army to patrol the zone.
Israel said 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.
Israel acknowledges its role in fatal pager attacks
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved the fatal pager attacks on the Iran-backed Lebanese armed group Hezbollah in September, a spokesperson for his office has said.
"Netanyahu confirmed Sunday that he green-lighted the pager operation in Lebanon," his spokesman Omer Dostri told AFP on Monday, local time, regarding the attacks.
Thousands of pagers simultaneously exploded in the southern suburbs of Beirut and other Hezbollah strongholds on September 17.
Israel says it approved the fatal pager attacks on Hezbollah in September.
The Israeli military, which has been fighting Hezbollah since the start of the Gaza war in October last year, declined to respond to questions about the detonations at first.
A Hezbollah official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the incident was the "biggest security breach" for the group in nearly a year of conflict with Israel.
The day after the exploding pagers, walkie-talkies used by members of the Hezbollah militant group detonated.
The pager and walkie-talkie attack killed a total of 39 people and injured more than 3,400.
Israeli media have reported that Mr Netanyahu claimed responsibility for the pager attack during a recent cabinet meeting.
According to local media, Mr Netanyahu told ministers that senior defence officials and political figures were opposed to the detonation of the pagers but he went ahead with the operation.
Reuters said sources have told them Hezbollah fighters use pagers as a low-tech means of communication to evade Israeli location-tracking.
Israel followed up the pager detonations with the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in an air strike and launching incursions in south Lebanon.
Hezbollah is designated as a terrorist organisation by Australia.
Taiwan says it was not involved in the pager explosion
Taiwan investigators said on Monday there was no evidence that Taiwanese individuals or firms were involved in the deadly pager attacks targeting Hezbollah.
"Our investigation has verified that no nationals or domestic companies were involved in Lebanon's high-profile pager detonation incidents," Taiwan prosecutors said in a statement.
Speculations have swirled over where the pager and walkie-talkie devices came from and how they were supplied to Hezbollah since the attacks.
The New York Times reported previously that Israel had inserted explosive material into a shipment of pagers from Taiwan's Gold Apollo, citing American and other anonymous officials.
However, Gold Apollo has staunchly denied producing the devices.
Taiwan investigators cleared the company, its chairman and its employees of any involvement this week and the case has been consequently closed.
"No concrete evidence of criminal activity has been discovered in this case, nor have any specific individuals been implicated in any criminal activity," said the prosecutors' office in Taipei's Shilin district.
Ambulances arrive to American University of Beirut Medical Center in Beirut after thousands were injured in the attack.
The prosecutors said they found that the AR-924 model pager had been designed, manufactured and shipped "outside Taiwan" by the "multinational group" Frontier Group Entity.
The prosecutors added Gold Apollo had authorised Frontier Group Entity to use its trademark under an agreement signed with a subsidiary of that company in June 2022.
Investigators did not say where Frontier Group Entity is based or identify its subsidiary.
"There are no import or export records of AR-924 model pagers being exported from Taiwan to other countries or regions," the prosecutors said.
Gold Apollo had initially pointed the finger at its Hungary-based partner BAC Consulting KFT, which the Taiwanese company had allowed to use its trademark.
But a Hungarian government spokesman said BAC Consulting KFT was "a trading intermediary, with no manufacturing or operational site in Hungary".
Northern Lebanese town of Ain Yaaqoub hit by Israeli air strike, mayor says
At least 14 people were killed and 15 others injured in an Israeli air strike on the northern Lebanese town of Ain Yaaqoub on Monday, according to the town's mayor.
The strike, which marks the northernmost point in Lebanon hit by Israeli forces since hostilities began in October 2023, hit a building where 30 people were residing including Syrian refugees, Mayor Majed Drbes told Reuters. He said some people were still trapped under the rubble.
Israeli military said on Monday its forces targeted a "military structure with a terrorist inside" based on precise intelligence, taking measures to minimise collateral damage, adding that reports of uninvolved casualties were exaggerated.
Earlier on Monday, an Israeli raid in Al-Saksakieh in Sidon District killed at least seven and injured seven more according to the Lebanese health ministry.
Syria state media says Israel strikes near Homs
Syrian state media have reported an Israeli strike on Monday on a village near the city of Homs, a day after a deadly strike on a building in the Damascus area.
State news agency SANA said an "Israeli aggression" targeted the "surroundings of the Shinshar region south of Homs, while the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said the strike targeted a Hezbollah munitions warehouse.
The Britain-based SOHR, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria, added that successive blasts had sounded in the warehouse without providing further details.
Meanwhile, SANA reported the motorway connecting Homs to the capital was temporarily cut off after the strike, which "targeted an aid gathering point for displaced Lebanese".
There was no immediate word on casualties from Monday's strike.
About 200,000 Lebanese have fled to neighbouring Syria to escape Israeli bombardment targeting the country, according to Lebanese authorities.
On Sunday, SOHR reported Israel struck an apartment belonging to Hezbollah in a stronghold of pro-Iran groups south of Damascus, killing nine people including a commander.
ABC/wires
By：ABC(责任编辑：admin)
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