Israeli helicopter gunships and tanks fired on Hezbollah guerrilla positions in southern Lebanon yesterday, killing one guerrilla, Lebanese officials reported.
A Hezbollah spokesman confirmed the death of the guerrilla.
Witnesses in southern Lebanon said two Israeli helicopters fired two rockets at the guerrilla positions near the border village of Aita Shaab, some 15km southeast of the coastal city of Tyre.
The renewed fighting came amid heightened tension between Israel and Hezbollah along the border in southern Lebanon that followed a Beirut bombing on Monday that killed a veteran Hezbollah commander. Hezbollah blamed Israel for the assassination.
The security officials said an Israeli tank opened fire on a Hezbollah position near Aita el-Shaab, killing a Hezbollah guerrilla.
The guerrillas returned fire at Israeli positions across the border. Israeli helicopter gunships later scrambled into the air, firing missiles at the source of fire, the officials said.
Earlier, Israeli missiles twice hit a Gaza militants' safe house, wounding five, a spokesman for a Palestinian group said, the first Israeli air strikes there since internal turmoil broke out over the weekend.
In a related development, Is-rael's moderate Labor Party on Monday demanded legislation to back up Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Gaza pullout plan as part of its price for shoring up his shaky government.
The two air strikes, one on Monday afternoon and the second after midnight, targeted the same house in the Shati refugee camp next to Gaza City, said witnesses and a spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committee.
The spokesman, Abu Abir, said the house was used by Abed Quka, the group's leader in northern Gaza. He was wounded in the first attack.
In other violence on Monday, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a 17-year-old Palestinian in a refugee camp next to the West Bank city of Nablus at nightfall. Palestinians said he was throwing rocks at soldiers. The Israeli military said he was holding a rifle.
The air strike came as Palestinian President Yasser Arafat moved to defuse three days of tension and violence over his appointment of a relative, Moussa Arafat, as head of security in Gaza.
On Monday, Arafat reinstated the officer his relative replaced -- Abdel Razek al-Majaide -- but retained Moussa Arafat in a powerful position, satisfying some of his critics but infuriating others.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia said on Monday he was intent on resigning but made no move to leave office.
He told reporters that in a phone call to Arafat, he said, ``It is time to reactivate all our security branches based on the correct principles. It is now time to appoint the right man to the right position.''
Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erakat said Arafat and other Palestinian leaders would meet in an emergency session yesterday to decide Qureia's fate.
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
MORE BANS: Australia last year required sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, with a few countries pushing for similar action at an EU level and India considering its own ban Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction. “Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said. “The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said. The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their
RSS