Clashes broke out between Hezbollah and Israel in southern Lebanon on Sunday, as the Israeli army carried out a series of strikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut, stronghold of the Lebanese movement, which fired around 250 projectiles towards Israeli territory. .
Earlier, the head of European Union diplomacy, Josep Borrell, visiting the capital, called for an “immediate ceasefire” in the war between Israel and Hezbollah, which began two months ago .
The day after a day of particularly deadly Israeli bombings in Lebanon, Hezbollah announced on Sunday several drone and missile attacks against targets and military bases in the Tel Aviv region (center) and in southern Israel.
In Israel, warning sirens sounded, particularly in the large suburbs of Tel Aviv, the army said, reporting around 250 projectiles fired from neighboring Lebanon.
According to medical sources, at least eleven people were injured, including a man in his sixties who is in “moderate to serious” condition. In the occupied West Bank, 13 Palestinians were also lightly or moderately injured when an interceptor missile fell on several houses in the Tulkarem camp (west).
Death of a rabbi in the Emirates, three suspects arrested
A Moldovan-Israeli rabbi reported missing in the United Arab Emirates has been found murdered, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office announced Sunday, denouncing his death as a “hateful anti-Semitic terrorist act”.
Zvi Kogan, who worked in the Emirates for the Orthodox Jewish group Chabad, which assists several thousand Jewish tourists and residents in this Gulf country, had been missing in Dubai since Thursday.
“The State of Israel will use all means at its disposal to bring to justice the criminals responsible for his death,” the Prime Minister's Office said in a statement.
Zvi Kogan's body was found in the Emirati town of Al Ain, near Oman, but it is not yet clear whether he was killed there or elsewhere, the former man told Reuters Israeli Druze politician Ayoob Kara.
The UAE Interior Ministry announced late Sunday that three people suspected of the murder had been arrested. “The Emirati authorities arrested in record time the three perpetrators of the murder of Zvi (which can also be spelled Tzvi, editor’s note) Kogan”, said the UAE Ministry of the Interior in a press release relayed by the national agency Wam.
Washington condemns this murder which it describes as a “horrible crime”
The United States on Sunday condemned the killing of Israeli-Moldovan rabbi Tzvi Kogan in the United Arab Emirates, a « horrible crime » according to the White House.
« It was also an attack on the United Arab Emirates and its rejection of violent extremism,” White House National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett wrote in a statement.
In Beirut, suspension of classes in schools and universities
Lebanon announced on Sunday the suspension of classes on Monday in Beirut and its surrounding areas, citing reasons of “ security » after a series of deadly Israeli strikes on the capital in a week.
This measure, taken due to “current dangerous conditions” and for “guarantee the safety of students”will be effective Monday and online courses will be offered until the end of December.
Paris calls for seizing a “window of opportunity” towards a ceasefire
The head of French diplomacy Jean-Noël Barrot on Sunday called on Israel and the Lebanese to seize a “window of opportunity” which opened in order to conclude a ceasefire in the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. “A window of opportunity is opening and I call on all parties to seize it,” declared the Minister of Foreign Affairs on France 3.
“Through diplomacy, through working with the parties involved on the parameters which make it possible to ensure both the security of Israel, but also the territorial integrity of Lebanon, we are, I believe, in the process of reach a solution that can be acceptable to all parties and that they must seize so that the fire stops and the humanitarian catastrophe also stops”he added, while saying he was “cautious”.
His comments echo those of the US president's special envoy, Amos Hochstein, who reported “further progress” towards a truce during a tour of Lebanon and Israel this week.
Supported by Paris, Washington presented to the Lebanese authorities last week a 13-point plan providing for a 60-day truce and the deployment of the army in southern Lebanon, one of Hezbollah's strongholds.
