Live: WHO to evacuate 1,000 women and children from Gaza for medical care

WHO to evacuate 1,000 Gazan women, children for urgent medical care

One thousand women and children needing medical care will shortly be evacuated from Gaza to Europe, the head of the World Health Organization’s Europe branch said in comments published on Monday.

Israel, which is besieging the war-devastated Palestinian territory, “is committed to 1,000 more medical evacuations within the next months to the European Union”, Hans Kluge said in an interview with AFP, adding that the evacuations would be facilitated by the WHO and the European countries involved.

Iran says it has warned UN nuclear watchdog about Israeli threats against its nuclear sites

Iran has warned the UN nuclear watchdog about Israel’s threats against its nuclear sites, foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said on Monday at a weekly news conference.

THAAD anti-missile system ‘in place’ in Israel, US says

The US military has rushed its advanced anti-missile system to Israel and it is now “in place”, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said.

Austin declined to say whether the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, or THAAD was operational. But he added: “We have the ability to put it into operation very quickly and we’re on pace with our expectations.”

US envoy Hochstein to hold ceasefire talks with Lebanese officials, sources say

US envoy Amos Hochstein will be in Beirut on Monday for talks with Lebanese officials on conditions for a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, two sources in Lebanon told Reuters, as Israel expanded its air campaign on the group’s assets overnight.

Israeli strikes late on Sunday hit several branches of a financial institution linked to Hezbollah in Beirut, Lebanon’s south and the Bekaa Valley, but no casualties were immediately reported.

Israel has reportedly given the United States a document with its conditions for a diplomatic solution to end the war in Lebanon, Axios reported on Sunday, citing two US officials and two Israeli officials.

Israel targets Hezbollah’s financial arm and begins striking Beirut

Israel’s military announced Sunday it is now taking aim at the Lebanon-based Hezbollah’s financial arm and will attack a “large number of targets” in Beirut and elsewhere. Explosions began in Beirut’s southern suburbs about an hour later.

Evacuation warnings affected southern Beirut, the eastern Bekaa valley and parts of southern Lebanon. AP video showed strikes near Lebanon’s only airport but it continued to operate.

The strikes will target al-Qard al-Hassan “all over Lebanon,” a senior Israeli intelligence official said. Al-Qard al-Hassan is a Hezbollah unit that’s used to pay operatives of the Iran-backed militant group and help buy arms, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with army regulations.

The registered nonprofit, sanctioned by the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, provides financial services and is also used by ordinary Lebanese. Its name in Arabic means “the benevolent loan,” and Hezbollah has used it to entrench its support among the Shiite population in a country where state and financial institutions have failed in recent years.

Heavy financial cost for Israel’s wars against Hamas and Hezbollah

The Israeli government is spending much more per month on the military, from $1.8 billion before Hamas started the fighting by attacking Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, to around $4.7 billion by the end of last year, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

The government spent $27.5 billion on the military last year, according to the institute, ranking 15^th globally behind Poland but ahead of Canada and Spain, all of which have larger populations. Military spending as a percentage of annual economic output was 5.3%, compared with 3.4% for the United States and 1.5% for Germany. That pales in comparison to Ukraine, which spent 37% of its GDP and more than half its entire government budget on fighting off Russia’s invasion.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah says downed Israeli drone

Hezbollah said it had downed an Israeli drone Sunday, without saying where, after Lebanon state media reported heavy Israeli strikes across the country targeting branches of a financial institution linked to the militants.

Hezbollah fighters from the group’s “air defence units… downed an Israeli Hermes 450 drone”, the armed movement said. The official National News Agency had reported Israeli bombardment in Beirut, south Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley.

Israel gives the US its demands for ending war in Lebanon, Axios reports

Israel gave the United States a document last week with its conditions for a diplomatic solution to end the war in Lebanon, Axios reported on Sunday, citing two US officials and two Israeli officials.

Israel has demanded its IDF forces be allowed to engage in “active enforcement” to make sure Hezbollah doesn’t rearm and rebuild its military infrastructure close to the border, Axios reported, citing an Israeli official.

Israel also demanded its air force have freedom of operation in Lebanese air space, the report added. A US official told Axios it was highly unlikely that Lebanon and the international community would agree to Israel’s conditions.