\n Lebanon said an Israeli air strike killed three journalists on Friday, in an attack on the country's south that the minister of information branded as a \"war crime\".\n<\/p>\n
\n Pro-Iran Lebanese television channel Al Mayadeen said a cameraman and broadcast engineer were killed in the strike targeting a journalists' residence in Hasbaya, south Lebanon.\n<\/p>\n
\n Another TV outlet, Al-Manar, run by Hezbollah, said one of its video journalists was also killed in the strike.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"The Israeli enemy waited for the journalists' nighttime break to betray them in their sleep,\" Information Minister Ziad Makary said in a post on X.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"This is an assassination, after monitoring and tracking, with prior planning and design, as there were 18 journalists there representing seven media institutions. This is a war crime.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n Journalists from other media organisations, including Lebanese broadcaster Al-Jadeed, Sky News Arabic and Al Jazeera English, were also resting nearby when the strike hit overnight.\n<\/p>\n
\n Israel has not commented on the strike, which, according to Lebanon's health ministry, also wounded three other people.\n<\/p>\n
\n The area where the journalists were located is outside Hezbollah's traditional strongholds.\n<\/p>\n
\n Israel has been at war with Hezbollah in Lebanon since late last month, in a bid to secure its northern border after nearly a year of cross-border fire from the Iran-backed armed group.\n<\/p>\n
\n Hezbollah began low-intensity strikes on Israel in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas following the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, the deadliest in its history.\n<\/p>\n
\n After nearly a year of war in Gaza sparked by the attack, Israel expanded its focus to Lebanon and last month launched a massive bombing campaign targeting mainly Hezbollah strongholds across the country, sending in ground troops on September 30.\n<\/p>\n
\n The war in Lebanon has killed at least 1,580 people, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures.\n<\/p>\n
\n Israel's military on Friday said it had struck more than 200 militant targets in Lebanon over the past day.\n<\/p>\n
\n - Talks gain momentum -\n<\/p>\n
\n The Lebanon strike came as stalled efforts to end the war in Gaza appeared to gain new momentum.\n<\/p>\n
\n The war began with Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.\n<\/p>\n
\n Israel's retaliatory campaign in Gaza has killed 42,847 people, the majority civilians, according to data from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, data which the United Nations considers reliable.\n<\/p>\n
\n Previous bids to stop the war have failed, though the United States has voiced hope the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar last week could serve as an opening for a deal.\n<\/p>\n
\n A senior Hamas official told AFP that a delegation from the group's Doha-based leadership discussed \"ideas and proposals\" related to a Gaza truce with Egyptian officials in Cairo on Thursday.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Hamas has expressed readiness to stop the fighting, but Israel must commit to a ceasefire, withdraw from the Gaza Strip, allow the return of displaced people, agree to a serious prisoner exchange deal and allow the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza,\" the official said, reiterating the Islamist group's position.\n<\/p>\n
\n Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he welcomed mediator Egypt's readiness to reach a deal \"for the release of the hostages\" still held by militants in Gaza.\n<\/p>\n
\n After the Cairo meeting, Netanyahu directed the head of Israel's Mossad spy agency to leave for Qatar on Sunday to \"advance a series of initiatives that are on the agenda\", his office said.\n<\/p>\n
\n Qatar, Egypt and the United States have long tried to mediate a ceasefire in the Gaza war.\n<\/p>\n
\n US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Qatar's leaders in Doha on Thursday on his 11th trip to the region since the start of the Gaza war.\n<\/p>\n
\n - 'Time is running out' -\n<\/p>\n
\n During the trip, which comes less than two weeks before US elections, Blinken said mediators would explore new options.\n<\/p>\n
\n He said they were seeking a plan \"so that Israel can withdraw, so that Hamas cannot reconstitute, and so that the Palestinian people can rebuild their lives and rebuild their futures\".\n<\/p>\n
\n Israeli and US officials as well as some analysts said Sinwar had been a key obstacle to a deal allowing for the release of 97 hostages still held in Gaza, 34 of whom the Israeli military says are dead.\n<\/p>\n
\n Critics of Netanyahu, too, have regularly accused him of obstructing truce and hostage release negotiations.\n<\/p>\n
\n An Israeli group representing families of hostages called on Netanyahu and Hamas to secure an agreement to free the remaining captives.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Time is running out,\" the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said.\n<\/p>\n
\n On Thursday, hostage supporters marched outside Netanyahu's Jerusalem residence demanding action for their release.\n<\/p>\n
\n Blinken landed late Thursday in London, where a US official said he would meet on Friday with the foreign ministers of Jordan and the United Arab Emirates.\n<\/p>\n
\n The official said Blinken would also hold talks with Lebanon's Prime Minister Najib Mikati on the parallel war in that country.\n<\/p>\n
\n - Hundreds dead in days -\n<\/p>\n
\n On the battlefield, Israel's military has kept up pressure on Hamas, this month besieging the north of Gaza where tens of thousands of civilians are trapped.\n<\/p>\n
\n The military on Friday said dozens of militants were killed around Jabalia, north Gaza, over the previous day, and others were killed during fighting in central and southern Gaza.\n<\/p>\n
\n Gaza civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said \"more than 770 people have been killed\" in north Gaza in the 19 days since the Israeli operation began there.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Israeli military says the goal of its assault is to destroy the operational capabilities it says Hamas is trying to rebuild in the north -- where the military in January had declared the Hamas command structure dismantled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lebanon said an Israeli air strike killed three journalists on Friday, in an attack on the country's south that the minister of information branded as a \"war crime\". Pro-Iran Lebanese television channel Al Mayadeen said a cameraman and broadcast engineer were killed in the strike targeting a journalists' residence in Hasbaya, south Lebanon. Another TV […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-137499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n