Tensions continue on all fronts. Lebanon’s Health Ministry said on Wednesday, August 21, that Israeli strikes had killed one person and injured 19 in the eastern Bekaa Valley. On Tuesday, Israel had already targeted the area, with the army claiming it was home to “Hezbollah weapons warehouses.” The Lebanese Shiite movement, supported by Iran and allied with Hamas, had for its part announced the death of four of its fighters in other bombings attributed to the Israeli army, this time in southern Lebanon. Follow our live coverage.
Return fire towards Israel. Hezbollah claimed on Tuesday to have fired rockets at several military positions in northern Israel, as well as at the occupied Golan Heights, presenting these strikes as a response to the death of four of its fighters in Israeli bombardments. The Israeli army reported 115 projectiles fired from Lebanon. “Csome” have been “intercepted”, when others are “fallen into uninhabited areas”, without causing any injuries.
“Time is running out” for a ceasefire. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has once again urged Hamas to accept the latest proposal for a truce in the Gaza Strip. While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accepted the plan, Blinken has also urged him to show “maximum flexibility”. He concluded a new visit to the Middle East on Tuesday, with stops in the two key mediator countries, Qatar and Egypt, as well as in Israel.
105 people still detained in Gaza. “That I am still sitting here (…) is a miracle,” Noa Argamani told reporters from Japan, pmore than two months after her release by the Israeli army. Kidnapped during the Nova festival, the former Israeli hostage was held for eight months by Hamas in the Gaza Strip before being released in early June. Israel announced yesterday that it had recovered the bodies of six hostages in a tunnel. Of the 251 people taken hostage on October 7, 105 are still being held in Palestinian territory.