Free Republic

Four Israeli soldiers and dozens of people in Lebanon were killed during fighting, authorities said TEL AVIV—Israel and Hezbollah agreed to a renewed ceasefire Friday, U.S. and Israeli officials said, after fighting intensified between the two sides and threatened to derail peace talks between the U.S. and Iran.The overnight strikes marked one of the most serious escalations in Lebanon since a ceasefire in April, after the U.S. and Iran reached an agreement earlier in the week to stop the fighting and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Strikes had mostly subsided on Friday but some clashes continued after the fresh ceasefire...

A much deeper crisis appears to be taking shape behind the public clash between President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, with Israeli officials saying that Trump’s pressure for a withdrawal from southern Lebanon and the Syrian Hermon is far from over and is expected to intensify as the anticipated signing of the memorandum of understanding with Iran approaches on Friday, Maariv reported on Thursday. Israeli officials told Maariv that Trump’s demands are not merely theoretical and that issues concerning Lebanon, Syria, and the Syrian Hermon were raised in recent discussions with Netanyahu, adding that the prime minister made...

@atrupar JD Vance ends his press conference by turning on Israel: "What does bother me is you've seen people in Bibi's cabinet who have come out and attacked the deal and in some ways very personally attacked the president. My message to them is Donald J Trump is the only head in the state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time.

President Trump publicly dinged Israel for striking near Beirut as the US and Iran prepared to sign a peace deal that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz. “This morning’s attack on Beirut should not have happened, particularly on a special day when we are so close to a Peace Deal with Iran,” Trump posted on Truth Social. ” Israel has the right to defend itself against threats, but the attack it was responding to was very small and meaningless.” “We are very close to a Deal that will bring peace to the region, including to Lebanon, and all sides should...

One hundred days after they went to war together to thwart Iran’s rogue nuclear weapons program, radically degrade its ballistic missile industry, end its support for the Hezbollah and Hamas terror armies, and create the conditions for the fall of the regime, the US-Israel alliance against the Islamic Republic on Sunday reached its nadir. With its north battered relentlessly by Hezbollah in recent weeks, Israel resorted to a largely symbolic strike on the terror group’s Dahiyeh stronghold in Beirut, reportedly without telling the disapproving Trump administration ahead of time that it was doing so. And, as it had warned it...

The Lebanese armed group Hezbollah has emphatically rejected the terms of a US-backed ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon. In a strongly worded statement, the Iran-backed group's leader Naim Qassem said negotiations had been "futile" and "humiliating" for Lebanon, and rejected categorically by "broad segments of the Lebanese people". It comes after Israel and Lebanon announced a renewal of their fragile ceasefire with the creation of "pilot" security zones inside Lebanon in which Hezbollah operatives would be banned. It also required Hezbollah to stop attacking Israel. Donald Trump later said he had spoken to Hezbollah and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu...

A Ukrainian drone attack has destroyed more than 40 Russian planes deep in Russia's territory, a Ukrainian security official told The Associated Press on Sunday, while Russia pounded Ukraine with missiles and drones a day before the two sides meet for a new round of direct talks in Istanbul. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to disclose operational details, said the attack took over 1 1/2-year to execute and was personally supervised by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The operation saw drones transported in containers carried by trucks deep into Russian territory, he said. The drones reportedly hit 41...