Middle East: Israel strikes Beirut, rejects cease-fire

Sixteen people were killed in Israeli strikes that hit a municipal building in the southern Lebanesetown of Nabatiyeh, Lebanon's Health Ministry said, with more than 50 others injured.

Nabatiyeh's mayor Ahmed Kahil was among those killed, according to the governor of Nabatiyeh province.

The Israeli army said its warplanes struck dozens of Hezbollahtargets in the southern city, where the Lebanese group and its ally, the armed Amal group, hold sway.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the strikes, saying that the world should do more to prevent Israel from carrying out such attacks.

Israel's government has come under criticism over its strikes in Lebanon, including from the country's top ally and arms supplier the United States.

Former Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Muasher says Israel's campaign in Gaza and the killing of thousands of people, "even if some of them are combatants," do not serve Israel's security.

In an interview with DW's Conflict Zone, Muasher, who is currently vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, argues the escalation in the Middle East has contributed to the radicalization of Palestinians and Israelis alike.

According to Muasher, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "has pushed peace prospects farther away, leaving people who no longer believe in peace, but in armed resistance."

Muasher says Palestinians need new leadership, which can only be achieved through elections, but that none of the parties involved are interested in such elections taking place, including the Palestinians, Israel and the US.

The former Jordanian foreign minister says he also sees a risk to Jordan's peace treaty with Israel.

"We signed the peace treaty primarily to preserve Jordanian borders and to guard against the 'Jordan-is-Palestine' argument. If Israel [does] not respect this anymore, what purpose [does] the treaty serve?"

Watch the full interview here:

The major Euronaval defense show in Paris will not feature any stands of Israeli companies, the organizers said on Wednesday.

This comes after French President Emmanuel Macron criticized the number of civilian casualties in the Israeli wars against Shiite militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon and Islamist group Hamas in Gaza.

Israeli citizens and companies will still be allowed to take part, with the condition that they don't have their own stand or exhibit any equipment. 

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant called the move a "disgrace" in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

Euronaval is a biennial event that attracts naval defense companies from around the world. According to the organizers, seven Israeli companies are affected by the decision.

Back in May, Israeli defense manufacturers were banned from the Eurosatory land defense and security exhibition by the French government, although the decision was later overturned by the courts. 

The UK is considering sanctioning two Israeli ministers over comments they made about civilians in Gaza, Prime Minister Keir Starmer confirmed on Wednesday. 

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, both considered part of Israel's far-right, voiced their support for blocking aid from entering the Gaza Strip, as well as backing the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements in the enclave and in the occupied West Bank.

Asked during Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday whether he would sanction the two men, Starmer said: "We are looking at that."

Former UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron revealed on Tuesday that the previous Conservative government had been working on sanctions against the two politicians, whom he called "extreme."

Current Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced that the UK, France and Algeria had called an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council following UN reports that "barely any food has entered" northern Gaza in the past two weeks.

Israel says it has allowed 50 trucks carrying humanitarian aid into northern Gaza, after the US warned it to boost aid efforts or risk losing military support.

According to COGAT, the Israeli military body supervising civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories, the aid included food, water, medical supplies and shelter equipment. The aid was provided by Jordan.

This comes after the US administration criticized Israel for not letting enough humanitarian aid enter the northern part of the enclave amid its military campaign in the Gaza Strip. 

COGAT said the delivery was made at the direction of Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and the "political echelon."

The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, warned Wednesday that a famine or acute malnutrition in Gaza "is unfortunately again a likelihood."

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has promised to continue supporting Israel with arms deliveries.

In the past eight weeks, the German government has approved military equipment and munitions exports to Israel worth around €31 million ($33.7 million) — more than twice as much as during the entire rest of the year, the German news agency DPA reported. 

"There are deliveries and there will always be further deliveries. Israel can rely on that," Scholz said in remarks to Germany's lower house of parliament, the Bundestag.

Germany must keep Israel "in a position to defend its country," Scholz emphasized. "Israel can rely on our solidarity — now and in the future," he added.

The chancellor's comments came after conservative opposition lawmakers accused the government of failing to provide enough support and of delaying approvals for weapons shipments to Israel.

Scholz also said in his speech that there was still a need for humanitarian aid for civilians in the Gaza Strip and called for the rules of international law to be observed in the conflict in the Middle East. 

The German chancellor contended that hope for a two-state solution in which Israel would grant Palestinians their own country is also needed. 

Officials in Lebanon said the Israeli airstrike on Nabatiyeh targeted a municipal building where a meeting coordinating relief efforts was taking place. The mayor of the city is said to have been killed by the strike.

Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati accused Israel of "deliberately targeting" the meeting.

Mikati "condemned the new Israeli aggression against civilians in the city of Nabatiyeh, which deliberately targeted a meeting of the municipal council that was discussing the city's services and relief situation," he said in a statement. 

Mikati accused the international community of being "silent" about Israeli strikes that have killed civilians and attacks on peacekeepers. "What solution can be hoped for in light of this reality?" he added.

Lebanese Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi said in a separate statement that a civil defense member was among those killed during the meeting held to coordinate relief work and aid distribution for people who have remained in southern Lebanon.

The UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) said in a news conference in Berlin that it is close to a possible breaking point for its operations in the Gaza Strip.

The organization cited increasingly complicated conditions for carrying out its work.

"I will not hide the fact that we might reach a point that we won't be able anymore to operate," UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said.

"We are very near to a possible breaking point. When will it be? I don't know. But we are very near [to] that," he added.

Lazzarini also called for more access for international media organizations to Gaza to report on the situation on the ground, saying that "most of the information that we are receiving is either by ... local journalists or by organizations operating in Gaza."

Five people were killed in Israeli strikes on the southern Lebanese town of Nabatiyeh, Lebanon's Health Ministry said. Sources told Reuters and AFP news agencies that the town's mayor was among those killed.

"The Israeli enemy raid ... on two buildings, that of the Nabatieh municipality and the union of municipalities, killed five people in a preliminary toll," the ministry said in a statement, adding that rescuers were searching for survivors under the rubble.

Israel's army also struck surrounding areas, including Zebdine and Kfar Tebnit.

The mayor of Nabatiyeh is believed to be among those killed.

"The mayor of Nabatieh, among others ... was martyred. It's a massacre," Nabatiyeh municipal governor Howaida Turk told AFP, adding the mayor had been in the building at the time of the strike.

Israel commented on the strike by saying it had struck dozens of targets in the Nabatiyeh area and dismantled underground infrastructure.

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi urged the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to do something to stop "crimes and invasions" and to provide humanitarian aid to Lebanon and Gaza.

Araghchi also said that "Iran, while making all-out efforts to protect the peace and security of the region, is fully prepared for a decisive and regretful response to any adventures" by Israel.

"Responsibility of consequences of spreading insecurity in the region will be on the regime and the United States as [the] main supporter," of Israel, he added.

Iran is Hezbollah's main backer in the region and the country also supports Israel's foe to the south, Palestinian Hamas.

Over the past week, the Iranian foreign minister has visited Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iraq and Oman in an effort to ease tensions.

An Israeli strike hit southern Beirut on Wednesday, media sources reported. Israel's army said its jets hit a Hezbollah underground strategic weapons storage depot.

It was the first strike on the Lebanese capital in five days.

It comes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the idea of a cease-fire in Lebanon.

Netanyahu told French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday that he was "opposed to a unilateral cease-fire, which does not change the security situation in Lebanon, and which will only return it to the way it was," according to a statement from his office.

The strike occurred less than an hour after the Israeli military ordered residents to leave part of the city. Black smoke billowed from between buildings in Haret Hreik.

Earlier, the Israeli military urged residents to evacuate a specific building in the southern suburbs of Beirut.

The military gave the warning in a statement on X, formerly Twitter, that it was set to hit Hezbollah targets there.

Israel has been criticized for its evacuation warnings, with Amnesty International calling them "inadequate," "misleading" and "issued at short notice."

Seeking ways to avoid a "general conflagration" in the Middle East will be at the top of the agenda when European Union and Gulf leaders attend a summit in Brussels, according to European officials.

Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman will be in attendance on Wednesday along with heads of state and government from six Gulf countries.

Israel's conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon, and the risk of a broader regional war, are expected to be "the main topic" at the summit, EU officials said.

"One of the objectives is to avoid a general conflagration," the news agency AFP reported one official as saying. "Both sides are worried about this."

The EU is seeking closer ties with nations from the Gulf Cooperation Council, which brings together Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

jcg,js/ab (AFP, Reuters, AP, dpa)