The United States and Britain, Saudi Arabia’s biggest arms suppliers, are stepping up their pressure for a ceasefire in the Yemen war, the world’s worst man-made humanitarian disaster.
A rocket fired from Gaza landed on a Be’er Sheva home while another landed in the sea off the shores of a city in central Israel early Wednesday morning, prompting an IAF retaliatory attack in the strip.
The UN Security Council warned Thursday that violations of the ceasefire agreement between Lebanon and Israel could lead to a new conflict and urged international support for Lebanon’s armed forces and their stepped-up deployment in the south and at sea.
Israel will restore total quiet its southern region near the border with the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Sunday.
After two days that saw the worst exchange of fire between Israel and Hamas since the 2014 war, a fragile truce prevailed Friday in Gaza, with no rocket attacks or airstrikes since an apparent ceasefire went into effect at midnight.
Talks between the Syrian opposition and Russian negotiators to reach a ceasefire in a rebel-held town in southwestern Syria have resumed after mediation by Jordan that has been seeking a ceasefire, an opposition spokesman said.
Russian jets struck an opposition held town in southwest Syria on Sunday, opposition sources said, in the first air cover provided by Moscow to an expanding Syrian army offensive to recapture the strategic area bordering Jordan and the Israeli Golan Heights.
Israeli warplanes hit some 25 Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip late Tuesday and early Wednesday in a second wave of retaliatory strikes, the army said, as Palestinian terror groups continued to fire mortars and rockets into Israel.
Warplanes pounded the last rebel enclave near Syria’s capital for a fifth day running on Thursday as the U.N. Security Council considered demanding a 30-day ceasefire across the country to allow emergency aid deliveries and medical evacuations.
Russia proposed a two-day ceasefire on Monday in the last major rebel stronghold near the Syrian capital Damascus, where warplanes killed at least 41 people in two days of air strikes as Russian-backed government forces tried to capture the area.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke Tuesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone about a ceasefire deal in the Syrian civil war and Iranian presence near Israel’s borders with the war-torn country, the Prime Minister’s Office said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov went on a PR offensive this week to counter Israeli warnings that a ceasefire imposed by Moscow in Syria is enabling Iran and its terror proxy, Hezbollah, to amass fighters and weapons near the Jewish state’s northern border in preparation for a future war.
A senior Israeli official has issued a warning to Russia that the Israeli military will bomb Syrian President Bashar Assad’s palace in Damascus if Russia allows Iran to make military advances in Syria.
Secrets talks over ‘safe zones’ in Syria were held between Israel, the United States and Russia in early July, Haaretz reported Wednesday.
The major players involved in the long-running Syrian conflict have agreed to a cease-fire set to begin at midnight on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier in the day.
Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday that he and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov hope to meet by Thursday to find a way to boost the deteriorating ceasefire in Syria.
President Obama said Sunday at an international summit that America stands with France in its pursuit of those who committed the ‘horrific’ terror attacks in Paris and met informally with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Prime Minister Netanyahu met in secret with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Jordan before the Gaza ceasefire was announced Tuesday.
As a ceasefire has been holding overnight, Hamas claimed victory in the recent conflict as Senior Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar said Palestinians would build their own airport and seaport without asking for anyone’s permission to prepare for the “project of liberation” of all of Palestine.
Israeli and Palestinian delegations restarted indirect talks in Cairo over the weekend, however Israeli officials were skeptical a truce could be reached by Monday’s midnight deadline. Over the weekend, Hamas threatened a “war of attrition” if its demands were not met. Meanwhile, Israel threatened “harsh strikes” if Hamas broke the ceasefire with any type of fire against the Jewish state and Israeli officials said “quiet and security’ will be restored ‘one way or another.’