Middle East latest: Israel strikes Beirut for first time since ceasefire with Hezbollah

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A U.S. State Department spokeswoman called on Lebanon’s government to take action against militant groups in the country.

“Israel is defending its people and interests by responding to rocket attacks from terrorists in Lebanon,” the spokeswoman, Tammy Bruce, said Friday. “We expect the Lebanese Armed Forces to disarm these terrorists to prevent further hostilities.”

The U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, said the escalation was “deeply concerning” and had created “a critical period for Lebanon and the wider region.”

“A return to wider conflict in Lebanon ... must be avoided at all costs," she said.

The grim reality of the ongoing war in Gaza means Palestinians will have a somber Eid al-Fitr holiday this year, instead of celebrating with family gatherings, new clothes and delicious meals.

“We don’t have anything for Ramadan or Eid al-Fitr,” said Mohamed Attia. “We lost our house.”

AP video footage shows a bustling market in northern Gaza surrounded by the ruins of destroyed buildings. Stalls display clothing, accessories and other items, while several people gather around a cart selling sweets.

“We got clothes from a charity," said Ghada al-Borei, a mother of seven, who says she's heavily reliant on aid and could only buy clothing for he youngest child.

"Most of my relatives were killed during the war. This Eid is harder than the previous one,” said al-Borei, who used to work as a private tutor.

Eid al-Fitr, celebrated by Muslims worldwide each year at the end of Ramadan, is typically a joyous three-day holiday.

The aid group World Central Kitchen says an Israeli airstrike killed one of its volunteers near a charity kitchen in Gaza distributing meals to besieged Palestinians. The strike wounded six other people, the U.S.-based charity said.

In a statement Friday, World Central Kitchen said it would continue to “operate our field kitchens where possible, based on daily assessments.” The statement didn’t give the location of the strike. The Israeli military did not immediately comment.

Last spring, Israel killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers in Gaza — three British nationals, an Australian, a Polish national, an American-Canadian dual citizen and a Palestinian.

The killings reverberated around the world and prompted multiple charities to suspend food deliveries to Gaza. Since the beginning of this month, Israel has again been blocking all food and other aid from entering Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his military's strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut marked an “example” of Israel’s “determination” to act against its northern neighbor.

“We will not allow firing on our communities, not even a trickle,” Netanyahu said in a statement Friday. “We will continue to vigorously enforce the ceasefire, we will attack everywhere in Lebanon, against any threat to the State of Israel, and we will ensure that all our residents in the north return to their homes safely.”

Israel's military says rocket fire from Lebanon targeted Israel earlier in the day, prompting the military to flatten a building in Beirut which it said was a Hezbollah drone storage site. Hezbollah denied firing rockets into Israel.

The Israeli defense minister threatened to keep striking Lebanon following his country's first strike in Beirut since the ceasefire with Hezbollah late last year.

Israel Katz said that without peace in the northern Israeli region near Lebanon, called the Galilee, “there will be no peace in Beirut. For any attempt to harm the Galilee communities, the roofs of the houses in the Dahiyeh district of Beirut will shake.”

Israel struck Dahiyeh, the southern suburbs of Beirut, Friday afternoon, saying it had targeted a Hezbollah drone storage facility. It came after Israel said rockets from Lebanon crossed into Israel earlier in the day.

“I am sending a clear message from here to the Lebanese government: If you do not enforce the ceasefire agreement we will enforce it,” said Katz.

Palestinian shepherds were attacked by Israeli settlers in the south of the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Friday, according to Palestinian paramedics and the head of the Palestinian governing body in the area.

One 70-year old man was sent to the hospital because of the attacks and videos from the scene showed at least two Palestinian men lying on the ground, their faces covered with lacerations.

The episode in Jinba follows a nearby settler attack earlier this week that bloodied a Palestinian Oscar-winning co-director, and comes amid a surge of reported attacks in the area of the West Bank known as Masafer Yatta.

Palestinian paramedics said five Palestinians were injured in the attack.

Nidal Younis, the head of the Masafer Yatta village council, witnessed part of the attack and was detained for two hours shortly after by police. Following his release, he said “dozens of settlers came with Jeeps, ATVs, and some on foot,” descending on the village and attacking residents, including two elderly shepherds.

Younis said Israel’s military prevented Palestinians from nearby villages from helping and threw stun grenades at homes, a claim to which the military did not immediately respond.

Israeli police said they had detained 22 Palestinians from the village on suspicion of stone throwing and injuring two settler shepherds, who they said were minorly injured and evacuated by Israeli paramedics.

Masafer Yatta was designated by the Israeli military as a live-fire training zone in the 1980s, and the military has ordered the expulsion of the residents, mostly Arab Bedouin. Around 1,000 residents have largely remained in place, but soldiers regularly come in to demolish homes, tents, water tanks and olive orchards.

Palestinians and rights groups say Israeli forces usually turn a blind eye or intervene on behalf of the settlers.

The war in Gaza has sparked a surge of violence in the West Bank, with the Israeli military carrying out widescale military operations that have killed hundreds of Palestinians and displaced tens of thousands. There has been a rise in settler violence as well as Palestinian attacks on Israelis.

Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun has condemned the Israeli airstrike on Beirut’s southern suburb and any attempt to “bring back the circle of violence” to the small nation.

Speaking during a news conference in Paris, Aoun said Lebanese army is investigating who fired the rockets and “we will not allow anyone to use Lebanon as a launching pad."

“I call on Lebanon’s friends to act quickly to stop the deterioration and help Lebanon implement international resolutions,” Aoun said.

Speaking alongside Aoun, French president Emmanuel Macron urged Israel to withdraw from five posts it is holding inside Lebanon.

French president Emmanuel Macron condemned Friday what he called “unacceptable strikes on Beirut” after Israel launched an attack on the Lebanese capital for the first time since a ceasefire ended the latest Israel-Hezbollah war in November.

Speaking at a joint press conference alongside Lebanon president Joseph Aoun, Macron said the renewed tensions “mark a turning point."

“Today’s strikes and the failure to respect the ceasefire are unilateral actions that betray a given promise and play into Hezbollah’s hands,” he said.

He said he will speak with U.S. President Donald Trump and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the coming hours over the situation in Lebanon.

He added that France will continue to be at Lebanon’s side to help it preserve its sovereignty and guarantee its security.

“This is what we want to do alongside you in the south. This is also what we want to do on the border with Syria, where the situation is also extremely delicate,” Macron said.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry says an Israeli airstrike on a southern Lebanese village has killed three and wounded 18 others.

The ministry added that those wounded in the airstrike on the village of Kfar Tibnit earlier Friday included six children and eight women.

The strike came hours after Israel said two rockets were fired from Lebanon toward northern Israel. Lebanon’s Hezbollah group denied it fired the rockets.

The Israeli military confirmed striking a Hezbollah drone storage site in Dahiyeh, the southern suburbs of Beirut.

The military said it carried out the strike after rockets were fired at Israel from Lebanon earlier in the morning in “blatant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon.” It pledged to continue operations “in order to remove any threat to the civilians of the State of Israel.”

Chaos engulfed the southern suburbs of Beirut as Lebanese tried to flee the area, and a large smoke cloud rose over the city following the strike.

Tens of thousands of Muslims gathered at the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem for Ramadan prayers, marking the last Friday observance of a holiday which has passed tensely but without the violence of years past in the contested capital.

The Islamic Trust, which oversees the site, said that 75,000 worshippers gathered, kneeling before the golden Dome of the Rock on the sprawling mosque compound.

Israeli police said they deployed thousands of officers across the city to maintain order and pledged to continue operations.

The Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha is set to begin within the coming days.