Benjamin Netanyahu Archives

The US is investigating an unauthorized release of classified documents on Israel’s attack plans

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States is investigating an unauthorized release of classified documents that assess Israel’s plans to attack Iran and note that Israel continues to move military assets in place to conduct a military strike in response to Iran’s blistering ballistic missile attack on Oct. 1. Three U.S. officials told The Associated Press an investigation is ongoing, and it is still known if the documents were leaked or hacked. A fourth U.S. official said the documents appear to be legitimate. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment over the leak of the two documents that first appeared online Friday on the messaging app Telegram. The information appeared entirely gathered through the use of satellite image analysis.… Continue Reading

Netanyahu mulls plan to empty northern Gaza of civilians and cut off aid to those left inside

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is examining a plan to seal off humanitarian aid to northern Gaza in an attempt to starve out Hamas militants. If implemented, the plan could trap without food or water hundreds of thousands of Palestinians unwilling or unable to leave their homes. Israel has issued many evacuation orders for the north throughout the yearlong war. The plan proposed to Netanyahu by a group of retired generals would escalate the pressure, giving Palestinians a week to leave the northern third of the Gaza Strip. Those who remain would be denied food, water, medicine and fuel. The chief architect of the plan says it is the only way to break Hamas in the north and pressure it to release Israeli hostages.… Continue Reading

Hezbollah confirms that an Israeli strike killed a top official, the 7th such death in recent days

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli military says it has killed another high-ranking Hezbollah official in an airstrike. The announcement came as the Lebanese militant group is reeling from a string of devastating blows and the killing of its overall leader, Hassan Nasrallah. The military said Nabil Kaouk, the deputy head of Hezbollah’s Central Council, was killed on Saturday. There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah, and it was not known where the strike took place. If confirmed, he would be the seventh senior Hezbollah leader slain in Israeli strikes in a little over a week. The Israeli military said it carried out another targeted strike on Beirut later on Sunday, with details to follow.… Continue Reading

Israel strikes Hezbollah in a huge blast targeting the militant group’s leader

BEIRUT (AP) — The Israeli military says it struck the headquarters of Hezbollah in Beirut, causing massive explosions that leveled multiple buildings. Two sources told The Associated Press that the strikes Friday targeted the leader of the militant group, Hassan Nasrallah. At least six people were killed and 91 were wounded in the most powerful blasts in the Lebanese capital in the past year. To a degree unseen in past conflicts, Israel this past week has aimed to eliminate Hezbollah’s senior leadership. Israel’s air forces followed with a new set of strikes early Saturday shortly after an Israeli military spokesman warned residents of several buildings to evacuate, saying they were being used by the militant Hezbollah group.… Continue Reading

Netanyahu, at UN, vows that Israel will keep ‘degrading Hezbollah’ until its objectives are met

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told world leaders at the United Nations that his nation will “continue degrading Hezbollah” until its objectives are met along the Lebanon border. He says his government will would no longer tolerate daily rocket fire from the area. He used a comparison with the United States, asking what Washington would do if attacks turned El Paso and San Diego into ghost towns. He said “enough is enough.” Netanyahu was armed with visual aids as he has been in the past. He defended his nation’s response to the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas on Israel that triggered an Israeli military operation that has devastated the Gaza Strip.… Continue Reading

Netanyahu vows to use ‘full force’ against Hezbollah and dims hopes for a cease-fire

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — The Israeli prime minister appears to be downplaying hopes of an imminent truce with Hezbollah after the United States and its allies called for an “immediate” 21-day cease-fire to “provide space for diplomacy.” In a statement released as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was headed to the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday, his office said there was only a proposal on the table and that he had not yet responded to it. The statement also denied that there had been any directive to ease up on fighting on the northern border with Lebanon. The comments raised questions about a new international initiative to halt increasingly heavy exchanges of fire that have killed hundreds of people in Lebanon and threatened to trigger an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah.… Continue Reading

Israeli strikes kill 492 in Lebanon’s deadliest day of conflict since 2006

MARJAYOUN, Lebanon (AP) — Lebanon’s health ministry says Israeli strikes on Monday killed more than 490 Lebanese, including more than 90 women and children, in the deadliest barrage since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war as the Israeli military warned residents in southern and eastern Lebanon to evacuate ahead of a widening air campaign against Hezbollah. Thousands of Lebanese fled the south, and the main highway out of the southern port city of Sidon was jammed with cars heading toward Beirut in the biggest exodus since 2006. The health ministry said the strikes killed 492 people, including 35 children and 58 women, and wounded 1,645 people — a staggering one-day toll for a country still reeling from a deadly attack on communication devices last week.… Continue Reading