Friday, September 20, 2024
2238 GMT — US believes Gaza truce deal unlikely in Biden's term — report
US officials now believe that a ceasefire deal between Israel and Palestinian resistance group Hamas in Gaza is unlikely before President Joe Biden leaves office in January, the Wall Street Journal has reported.
The newspaper cited top-level officials in the White House, State Department and Pentagon without naming them. Those bodies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
"I can tell you that we do not believe that deal is falling apart," Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh told reporters before the report was published.
2200 GMT — Taiwan questions head of pager firm linked to Lebanon blasts
The president and founder of a Taiwanese pager company linked to the Israeli detonation of thousands of pagers in Lebanon has been questioned by prosecutors and then released.
Taiwan-based Gold Apollo's president and founder Hsu Ching-kuang has said it did not manufacture the devices used in the attack, and that they were made by a Budapest-based company BAC which has a licence to use its brand.
Images of destroyed pagers analysed by the Reuters news agency showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo.
2215 GMT — Israel says Iran and Hezbollah sent texts to millions of Israelis
Israel has accused Iran and Hezbollah of bombarding millions of Israelis with threatening text messages as the conflict between the Israeli military and the Lebanese group escalated.
Israel's National Cyber Directorate said that a flood of Hebrew-language text messages popped up on cellphones nationwide, falsely purporting to be a communication from the Israeli Home Front Command.
The regime said roughly 5 million suspicious SMS texts were sent to Israelis late on Wednesday.
2030 GMT — Israel and Hezbollah trade missiles, rockets
Israel has heavily bombed several towns in southern Lebanon while Hezbollah group fired rockets on northern Israel in return as fears grow over a wider war in the Middle East.
The Lebanese National News Agency reported that Israeli warplanes "conducted a series of strikes on Mahmoudiyeh area near Aaichiyeh village and Kasarat al-Aroosh in the Jezzine area."
"Israeli enemy aircraft launched ten missiles toward the Birket Jabbour area," it said.
In a separate incident, four people were wounded in an Israeli air strike targeting the town of Hanniyeh in the Tyre district of southern Lebanon, according to the Health Ministry.
2100 GMT — France, US urge all parties to avoid 'escalatory actions'
France and the US have called on all parties in the Middle East to avoid escalatory actions.
"France and the United States are united in calling for restraint, and urging de-escalation when it comes to the Middle East in general, and when it comes to Lebanon in particular," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a joint news conference after a meeting with his French counterpart Stephane Sejourne in Paris.
"We continue to work to get a cease-fire for Gaza over the finish line … We believe that remains both possible and necessary, but meanwhile, we do not want to see any escalatory actions by any party that makes that more difficult," Blinken added.
For our live updates from Thursday, September 19, 2024, click here.
