Category World News

Israeli air attacks on a southern Lebanese village have killed one person and wounded seven others, temporarily severing a key route connecting Beirut to the country’s south, in the latest near-daily violation by Israel of the November 2024 ceasefire it signed with Hezbollah.

The strikes hit Msayleh village in the early hours of Saturday morning, targeting a site that sold heavy machinery and destroying numerous vehicles.

A Syrian national was killed and seven others were wounded when a passing vegetable truck was caught in the attack, the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said.

Separately, Israeli drones were reported flying over the capital, Beirut, and southern suburbs since early on Saturday, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency.

Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun condemned the attack, describing it as an assault on civilian infrastructure. “Once again, southern Lebanon is under fire from a blatant Israeli aggression against civilian facilities, without any justification or pretext,” he said, adding that the strike was particularly alarming given it came after the Gaza ceasefire agreement.

Israel’s military said the strike targeted equipment intended to rebuild infrastructure for Hezbollah. The Israeli military has claimed that such operations are necessary to prevent Hezbollah from restoring its military capabilities.

The United Nations human rights chief, Volker Turk, said at the start of October that Israeli strikes had killed 103 verified civilians in Lebanon since the ceasefire took effect.

Israeli forces remain stationed at several positions inside Lebanese territory.

The incident marks the latest in an almost daily pattern of Israeli strikes on Lebanese territory since the United States brokered a ceasefire. Days earlier, Israeli drone strikes killed two men it claimed were Hezbollah operatives.

Lebanese authorities said on Friday they had foiled an Israeli plot to carry out bombings and assassinations at a commemoration for late former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was assassinated by Israel, arresting several suspects.

Hezbollah has rejected mounting pressure to disarm. Speaking at the tomb of Hassan Nasrallah, current secretary-general Naim Qassem told thousands of supporters that Hezbollah would never relinquish its weapons.

US special envoy Tom Barrack told Al Jazeera last month that convincing Hezbollah to disarm “is the job of the Lebanese government”, though he acknowledged the group’s legitimacy as a political party complicates the issue.

The Lebanese government, under intense US and Israeli pressure, tasked the army in early September with preparing a plan to disarm the group.

The original war killed at least 4,000 people in Lebanon and caused an estimated $11bn in damage. In Israel, 127 people died, including 80 soldiers. Fighting erupted when Hezbollah began launching rockets into northern Israel on October 8, 2023, one day after a Hamas-led assault on southern Israel triggered the war in Gaza.

Guatemala has received its first deportation flight from the United States carrying both Guatemalan and foreign immigrants, the country’s migration authority confirmed, as President Donald Trump’s administration pursues its hardline anti-immigration crackdown.

The flight arrived on Friday, bringing three Hondurans and 56 Guatemalan nationals, according to Guatemala’s IGM migration agency. The Honduran passengers were taken to a migration centre before being transferred to their home country.

The Guatemalan government has said it remains open to receiving citizens from neighbouring Central American nations deported by the US as it seeks to strengthen ties with the Trump administration.

Earlier this year, President Bernardo Arevalo’s government agreed to increase the number of deportation flights it would receive following a visit from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Arevalo has also indicated that Guatemala is prepared to take in some non-citizens deported from the US.

This is not the first time Guatemala has received deportation flights from the US, with Guatemalan nationals being sent back as early as January under the latest Trump administration.

Last month, a US judge ordered the Trump administration to refrain from deporting Guatemalan unaccompanied migrant children with active immigration cases while a legal challenge plays out. The children, who had arrived alone, remain in federal custody while their asylum claims are reviewed.

Arevalo criticised the ruling, saying he would continue working to repatriate the children through a pilot programme discussed with Trump.

White House immigration adviser Stephen Miller condemned the judge’s decision, as the Trump administration moves forward with its broader deportation campaign.

Under the previous Joe Biden administration, the Central American country handled about 14 flights a day. According to the Reuters news agency, nearly 66,000 Guatemalans were deported from the US during fiscal year 2024 – the highest figure recorded in recent years.

Trump has made curbing migration a key priority of his second term. His administration has pressed Central American and Caribbean nations to cooperate with US deportation efforts.

In December, Trump had approached several Caribbean governments, including those of the Bahamas, Grenada, and the Turks and Caicos Islands, to accept migrants from third countries, though the island leaders rejected the proposal.

Voters in Seychelles have been casting their ballots in a tightly fought presidential run-off between incumbent Wavel Ramkalawan and opposition leader Patrick Herminie.

Polls opened in the African island nation on Saturday, with results expected on Sunday.

The election will determine whether Ramkalawan of the governing Linyon Demokratik Seselwa party secures a second five-year term or Herminie’s United Seychelles party returns to power after losing control five years ago.

The United Seychelles party, led by Herminie, was the governing party between 1977 and 2022, before losing power.

It regained ground in last month’s parliamentary elections, winning 15 of 26 seats.

Neither candidate won outright in the first round two weeks ago.

Herminie led with 48.8 percent of the vote compared with Ramkalawan’s 46.4 percent, forcing a final round run-off in the nation of 120,000 people.

Early voting began on Thursday at special locations including elderly care homes, schools and several outer islands. Main polling stations opened after 7am (03:00 GMT) on Saturday for the more than 77,000 registered voters.

Several contentious issues have dominated this electoral cycle.

A controversial land lease has emerged as a central campaign flashpoint, with the government granting a Qatari company a 70-year agreement to build a luxury resort on Assumption Island for $20m.

Environmental groups filed a legal challenge to halt the project, arguing it threatens a fragile ecosystem near the UNESCO-protected Aldabra atoll, home to 400 unique species.

Herminie has pledged to cancel the hotel development if elected, while also promising to lower the retirement age and reduce public transport costs. Ramkalawan, the incumbent, has defended the Qatar deal as a necessary investment for the tourism-dependent economy.

Drug addiction has also dominated voter concerns. The country faces one of the world’s highest rates of heroin use, with an estimated 10 percent of working-age residents struggling with addiction. Critics say both candidates failed to adequately address the crisis during their time in government.

Ramkalawan, a former Anglican priest, became the first opposition leader to win the presidency in 2020, ending United Seychelles’ 43-year hold on power. His opponent Herminie served as parliamentary speaker and previously chaired the national drug prevention agency.

Tens of thousands of forcibly displaced Palestinians are making their way back to devastated areas in northern Gaza as Israeli forces stop operations as agreed under phase one of the ceasefire plan with Hamas, and partially withdraw.

Gaza’s al-Rashid Street, which has witnessed massive population movements northward and southward over recent months as Palestinians fled Israeli attacks, is once again witnessing a tide of humanity on the move.

Now, with the ceasefire in effect and Israeli forces withdrawn from the Netzarim Corridor that previously divided the road, tens of thousands of Palestinians are journeying north – hoping this time to return permanently.

“Once again [displaced Palestinians] are taking the same exact road, the only lifeline for Palestinians now to go back to their homes in Gaza and the northern part [of the enclave],” reported Al Jazeera correspondent Hani Mahmoud from the central Gaza coastal highway.

Mahmoud noted that the critical highway has been extensively damaged by Israeli bulldozers, creating a difficult passage for those carrying their belongings.

Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Al Nuseirat, Gaza, said: “Since this morning, we have seen families walking towards Gaza City. We saw children, women, elderly, cars, vans, donkey carts loaded with furniture. Families removed their makeshift tents to take and reset them over the ruins of their destroyed homes in Gaza City.”

These residents were originally forced to abandon Gaza City due to bombardment, only to find overcrowded conditions in central and southern Gaza upon arrival.

“While this return marks a historic moment, it must be accompanied by substantive measures to address the humanitarian crisis,” Abu Azzoum added.

Most returnees are discovering barely any intact buildings in Gaza City following Israel’s relentless bombardment and ground invasion there. There is now an urgent need for temporary shelters and mobile housing units for these returning families.