World
Israel’s Gallant rejects French initiative to defuse Lebanon tensions
Defence minister says Israel will not participate in trilateral group with US and France because of Paris’s ‘hostile policies’.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has rejected a French initiative aimed at defusing the growing tensions between Israel and Hezbollah as fears of an all-out war between the two sides grow.
Gallant said on Friday that Israel would not take part in a French-proposed trilateral group with the United States and France as he slammed Paris’s position on the war on Gaza.
“As we fight a just war, defending our people, France has adopted hostile policies against Israel,” Gallant said in a statement. “In doing so, France ignores the atrocities committed by Hamas against Israeli children, women and men. Israel will not be a party to the trilateral framework proposed by France.”
It was unclear whether Gallant, who is the subject of a war crimes investigation by International Criminal Court prosecutors, was speaking for the entire Israeli government or his own office.
Israeli ministers have sometimes released contradictory statements on the same subject, including recently on whether the country accepts the US proposal for an “enduring” ceasefire in Gaza.
Later on Friday, several Israeli media outlets said officials from Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejected Gallant’s statement against France, calling it “incorrect and inappropriate”.
Paris has repeatedly denounced Hamas’s deadly October 7 attacks in Israel, but it has also criticised the Israeli offensive in Rafah in southern Gaza and called on the country to respect international humanitarian law. Israeli attacks in Gaza have killed more than 37,000 Palestinians since October 7.
French President Emmanuel Macron put forward the Lebanon proposal on Thursday after days of escalation at the Lebanese-Israeli border. France, which enjoys close relations with Lebanon, has tried to advance a negotiated resolution.
“With the United States, we agreed on the principle of a trilateral [contact group] – Israel, the United States and France – to advance on the roadmap that we proposed, and we will do the same with the Lebanese authorities,” Macron said.
In February, Paris presented a plan to end hostilities that would see Hezbollah withdraw 10km (6 miles) from the border, Israel halt its attacks on southern Lebanon and negotiations over disputed border areas.
Hezbollah has said any diplomatic agreement can materialise only after an end to Israel’s war on Gaza. The Lebanese organisation started attacking military bases in northern Israel after the outbreak of the war on Gaza in what it says is a “support front” to back Palestinian armed groups.
Israel responded by bombing villages across southern Lebanon and targeting Hezbollah positions. Despite the near-daily exchanges of fire, the confrontations have largely been limited to the border area.
But cross-border clashes have intensified in recent weeks, raising the prospects of a major war.
On Thursday, Hezbollah said it fired 150 rockets and launched 30 suicide drones at Israeli military positions in response to the killing of one of its top commanders this week. Later that day, an Israeli air raid killed two women and injured 15 other civilians in the southern Lebanese village of Jinata.
Hezbollah announced several military operations against Israel on Friday, including claiming a rocket attack against a building housing Israeli soldiers.
Tens of thousands of people in southern Lebanon and northern Israel have fled their homes to escape the violence.
Hezbollah says it is ready for war if Israel launches a major attack. Meanwhile, Israeli officials have pledged to push Hezbollah fighters farther away from the country’s border.
US and Western officials have warned against an escalation in Lebanon.
“We’re going to continue to work to try to advance calm in the north of Israel and achieve a diplomatic resolution that would allow the tens of thousands of Israelis who have been displaced from their homes and the tens of thousands of Lebanese who have been displaced from their homes to return home,” US Department of State spokesman Matthew Miller said on Thursday.
“We continue to believe … a ceasefire in Gaza is the best way to achieve that diplomatic resolution.”
World
Investors brace for a bigger backlash from Middle East war
World
Tel Aviv analyst shelters from 30 missile sirens in 48 hours, says Iran ‘won’t recover’
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
The past 48 hours in Tel Aviv have been unlike anything seen before, a leading security analyst has said, as sirens blared amid missile threats following Operation Epic Fury and U.S.-Israeli strikes in Iran.
“We are facing a biblical event — nothing less,” Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies and the Misgav Institute, told Fox News Digital, speaking from his shelter in the city.
Like many Israelis, Michael said he had spent hours in reinforced rooms during the ongoing barrage, adding that he was “very experienced in this.”
“But this all requires time and determination, and I do hope that Trump will also have them both,” he said, speaking shortly after the president released a video message stating that the military operation would continue “until all of our objectives are achieved.”
Explosions from projectile interceptions by Israel’s Iron Dome missile defence system over Tel Aviv. (JACK GUEZ / AFP via Getty Images)
“Trump is the only one who can make the change — and that change will impact the entire region and the international order for years to come,” Michael added.
As of Sunday, Tel Aviv remained under a state of emergency following Iranian missile attacks that caused casualties and widespread damage.
According to The Associated Press, Iranian missile and drone strikes have killed approximately 11 Israeli civilians and wounded dozens more in retaliation for the U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran.
Shrapnel from missile impacts damaged at least 40 buildings in Tel Aviv, and authorities reported at least one death in the area from falling debris.
The Philippine Embassy in Israel confirmed the death of a Filipino national after a missile strike hit Tel Aviv on Saturday.
TOMAHAWKS, B-2 STEALTH BOMBERS AND ATTACK DRONES POUND OVER 1,000 IRANIAN TARGETS IN 24-HOUR BLITZ
People take shelter as Iran launched missiles and drones towards Israel following the US-Israeli attacks. ( Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“We enter our shelter once the siren is heard and stay there until the Home Front Command announces that we can leave,” Michael said.
“Usually, it is about 20 to 30 minutes — unless there are further sirens during our stay. Since yesterday morning, it has happened around 30 times.”
Israel’s President Isaac Herzog also visited an impact site in Tel Aviv Sunday, delivering a message of resilience.
“The people of Israel and the people of Iran can live in peace. The region can live in peace. But what undermines peace time and again is terror instigated by this Iranian regime,” Herzog said.
EXILED IRANIAN CROWN PRINCE SAYS US STRIKES MARK ‘BEGINNING OF THE VERY END’ FOR REGIME
Israeli emergency service officer walks past building debris at the scene of a Iranian missile attack. (Ahmad GHARABLI / AFP via Getty Images)
Following the reported killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and roughly 40 senior Iranian officials, Iran formed a provisional leadership council.
Iran named Ayatollah Alireza Arafi, President Masoud Pezeshkian and Judiciary Chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’i to lead roles.
“The Supreme Leader did not complete the necessary groundwork regarding his own succession,” Michael added.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
“Pezeshkian will face very troubling challenges due to their heavy losses, severe disruptions to control and command systems, and the massive bombing and attacks across Iran, including Tehran,” he said.
“Even if this regime doesn’t collapse, it will never be able to reconstitute itself, recover or return to its previous position,” Michael added.
World
Israel FM says Europe too divided, slams Spanish PM
Israeli minister Gideon Sa’ar said Europe “does not have unified position” on what role it should play in Iran as European ministers sought to establish a joint approach Sunday.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
As Israel and the United States conducted a joint military strike on Iran, leading to the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Europe was kept on the sidelines.
EU member states did not participate in the operation and, in some cases, they were not informed prior as it is customary among strategic allies.
Asked whether Israel sought to keep Europe on the margins, Sa’ar said internal divisions within EU member states had kept them out of critical exchanges of operational details, unlike the United States, which the minister described as his country’s greatest ally.
“In Europe, you have all kinds of approaches,” he told Euronews. “You have countries like the Czech Republic which is strongly supporting this operation and then you have Spain, which is standing with all the tyrants of the world.”
On Saturday, Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez was among the most critical voices in Europe, suggesting the US-Israeli strikes on Iran risk plunging the region into total war.
“We reject the unilateral military action of the United States and Israel, which represents an escalation and contributes to a more uncertain and hostile international order,” Sánchez said Saturday. The Spanish PM reiterated that message on Sunday.
“We urge for de-escalation and call to respect international law in all conflicts,” Sánchez added. “You can be against a heinous regime, like the Iranian regime, while also rejecting a military intervention that is unjustified, dangerous and outside of international law.”
Sa’aar said Israel considers the operation “fully justified” citing the right to self-defense from a regime that “has called for the destruction of Israel” and lashed at the Spanish prime minister for sending an “anti-Israeli, anti-American message.”
“Read the statement, they are standing with Iran!” he added.
When asked if any of his European counterparts had manifested an interest in joining the military operation or provide support on the ground, Sa’ar said he held multiple exchanges with European ministers over the weekend and suggested that “if others want to join, they will know have to convey the message.”
On Sunday, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen appeared to back regime change in Iran in line with Israel and the US, saying that the “risk of further escalation is real. This is why a credible transition in Iran is urgently needed” in comments on Sunday.
Sa’ar told Euronews said the strategic strikes and the elimination of Khamenei alongside top regime commanders could “create the conditions to weaken the regime enough to allow the Iranians to take their future into their own hands”.
“The future leadership of Iran should be determined by the Iranian people through free elections. Our only requirement is that whoever comes to power in Iran must not pursue the destruction of Israel,” he said.
Watch the full interview on Euronews from 8pm CET
-
World4 days agoExclusive: DeepSeek withholds latest AI model from US chipmakers including Nvidia, sources say
-
Massachusetts5 days agoMother and daughter injured in Taunton house explosion
-
Denver, CO5 days ago10 acres charred, 5 injured in Thornton grass fire, evacuation orders lifted
-
Louisiana1 week agoWildfire near Gum Swamp Road in Livingston Parish now under control; more than 200 acres burned
-
Technology1 week agoYouTube TV billing scam emails are hitting inboxes
-
Politics1 week agoOpenAI didn’t contact police despite employees flagging mass shooter’s concerning chatbot interactions: REPORT
-
Technology1 week agoStellantis is in a crisis of its own making
-
News1 week agoWorld reacts as US top court limits Trump’s tariff powers