South Korea passes impeachment bill on President Yoon Suk Yeol
South Korean Presidential Office via Getty Images
(SEOUL) — The South Korean National Assembly has voted to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol on Saturday in a divisive vote.
Thousands of people celebrated outside the National Assembly compound as the news was delivered while, across the city, thousands of President Yoon’s supporters gathered in the city center to express their anger and rage at the result.
All 300 assembly members cast their votes for the impeachment bill on Saturday as the bill passed with a total of 204 votes for impeachment, 85 against, 3 abstentions and 8 invalid votes.
“I vow to do my best for South Korea until the end,” President Yoon said in a televised speech right after the impeachment bill passed.
The constitutional court now has up to six months to decide whether to reinstate or formally oust him.
The country’s Prime Minister Han Duk-su is to take charge until that time, according to the law.
Meanwhile, the opposition Democratic Party is trying to impeach Prime Minister Han as well for not being able to stop the president from putting the country under emergency martial law, which lasted six hours.
In addition to the impeachment, the Democratic Party is seeking to arrest the president for perpetrating an insurrection.
The police have already arrested the Defense Minister, the chief of the National Police, the head of the Metropolitan Police and the military counterintelligence commander for collaborating in the insurrection.
Insurrection in South Korea is punished by death or life-long prison sentences.
(DAMASCUS, Syria) — The parents of Austin Tice, the American freelance journalist and Marine Corps veteran who was kidnapped while reporting in Syria more than a decade ago, spoke out in an interview with ABC News Live Prime on Thursday as the U.S. works to uncover their son’s whereabouts after the collapse of Bashar Al-Assad’s authoritarian regime.
Debra and Marc Tice told ABC News’ Linsey Davis they are “hopeful” that their son will be back home soon.
“We’re feeling very hopeful. You know, we’re making sure that our arms are warmed up to get a big hug,” Debra Tice said in the interview. “We’re waiting, and not exactly on pins and needles, but just very expectantly.”
Marc Tice suggested that this is the best hope they’ve had since their son disappeared in August 2012.
“We’ve always had hope and always been confident that our son’s alive and is going to come home to us,” he said. “But this is different and it feels much more immediate and much more promising than any time in memory.”
Marc Tice said that the family has been urging the U.S. to “move towards a diplomatic resolution” to bring Austin home for over a decade and “that never really took place,” but he added that this moment feels “different.”
“Now that there’s a new authority in Damascus, whom I understand is interested in developing good relationships with the United States, it just feels like a great time for whoever can help Austin get home,” he said.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters on Thursday that the U.S. is “determined to find” Austin Tice and “working to bring home” another American in Syria. Blinken would not confirm the other American’s name, citing “privacy reasons.” His comments came amid reports that the U.S. made contact with Travis Pete Timmerman, an American who went missing from Hungary earlier in the year.
On Tuesday, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters the U.S. has asked rebel groups to search for Tice as they empty Assad regime prisons in Syria.
“We do continue to believe that [Austin Tice] is alive and we continue to make clear in all of our conversations, either with entities on the ground in Syria or with entities that may be in communication with those on the ground in Syria, that we have no higher priority than the safe return of Austin Tice to his family,” Miller said.
Tice, a Houston native, disappeared in Aug. 2012 while reporting in Darayya — a suburb of Syrian capital Damascus.
As Syria descended into chaos, with rebel groups taking over the country last week and eventually toppling the tyrannical Assad regime on Dec. 8, the Tice family visited the White House on Dec. 6, where they met with National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.
Following the meeting, the Tice family announced that they have been in contact with someone who confirmed their son’s status.
“We have from a significant source that has already been vetted all over our government that Austin Tice is alive, Austin Tice is treated well, and there is no doubt about that,” his mother Debra Tice said during a Dec. 6 press conference.
Asked by reporters about the source of the information, the Tices said they could not share more, claiming that the U.S. government is restricting the family from doing so for reasons that they do not understand.
However, his father Marc Tice said during the press conference that the family is “working toward” making more information public and that the source is “very different” from others who had given the family false hope in the past.”We are confident, in that this information is fresh,” Marc Tice said. “It indicates as late as earlier this year that Austin is alive and being cared for.”
President Joe Biden addressed U.S. efforts to bring Austin Tice back home while delivering remarks on the fall of the Assad regime on Dec. 8, telling reporters that the U.S. believes he is still alive.
“We are mindful that there are Americans in Syria, including those who reside there, as well as Austin Tice, who was taken captive more than 12 years ago,” Biden said. “We remain committed to returning him to his family.”
The president noted that the U.S. remains “committed” to bringing Tice home.
“We think we can get him back, but we have no direct evidence of that yet. And Assad should be held accountable,” Biden added.
Asked if the White House has directed an operation to retrieve Tice, Biden said, “we want to get him out,” before noting that “we have to identify where he is.”
Asked how his six siblings are doing, Marc Tice told Davis on Thursday that when Austin first went missing he and his wife urged their kids to “keep doing what you’re doing and pursuing your passions,” but they did not expect that their son would be missing for over 12 years.
“They finished university, got new jobs, got married, had babies … it’s been a very heartbreaking but also uplifting thing to see,” Debra Tice said.
As the family continued to fight for Austin’s release his siblings “made a circle” and have been “taking care of each other,” she noted.
Ahead of Biden’s Dec. 8 speech, Tice’s siblings Naomi and Jacob Tice spoke with ABC News about their agonizing 12-year fight to get their brother home and how they hope that the fall of the Syrian regime could be a turning point.
“We did keep hearing in the meetings that we were having that within chaos there is opportunity. And that is really how we’re viewing this situation,” Naomi Tice said.
Jacob Tice called on the U.S. to “take advantage of this singular moment” to bring Austin back home.
“We’re overwhelmed and our arms are open,” he said. “We are reaching to anyone and everyone asking for their help, asking for help from the people on the ground, from the media, from the White House, from the State Department, to do what they can.”
Tice’s siblings told ABC News that they are not fully satisfied with the Biden administration’s response so far and received vague answers when they met with White House officials two days earlier.
“We wanted to know that they had a plan in place. If they do, that’s definitely not something they shared with us,” Naomi Tice said.
“If they do, we hope Austin is in the forefront of those plans,” Jacob Tice added.
Since Austin Tice disappeared, the U.S. government has continuously operated under the assumption that he is still alive, but this belief is primarily founded on a lack of evidence of his death, rather than direct evidence proving he is alive, multiple sources told ABC News.
The Syrian government has never publicly acknowledged playing any part in Tice’s disappearance. However, during talks under the Trump administration, Syrian officials said they would provide proof of life in exchange for the U.S fulfilling sweeping demands, according to officials familiar with the private negotiations. The Trump administration did not comply, and the Syrian government did not hand over any information about Tice.
The FBI has offered a reward of up to $1 million for information leading to the safe location, recovery and return of Tice.
ABC News’ Molly Nagle, Christopher Boccia and David Brennan contributed to this report.
DONETSK OBLAST, UKRAINE – NOVEMBER 24: Ukrainian soldiers repair drones in a laboratory at an undetermined location in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, on November 24, 2024. (Photo by Diego Herrera Carcedo/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(LONDON) — Ukrainian drones attacked Crimea overnight into Wednesday, the Russian Defense Ministry said, during another night of UAV exchanges between the two warring nations.
“Air defense systems on duty destroyed and intercepted 25 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles over the Black Sea and the territory of the Republic of Crimea,” the ministry wrote on Telegram, using Moscow’s name for the peninsula annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
The Kremlin-installed governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhaev, wrote on Telegram that air defenses were activated to repulse the combined air attack on the city, which is home to Russia’s Black Sea Fleet and the nucleus of Moscow’s power projection over the occupied peninsula.
Razvozhaev said several drones were shot down over the Black Sea in the areas of Orlovka and Kacha, as well as over Victory Park in the outskirts of the city. Two missiles were also downed over the Black Sea, the governor said.
Rescue services reported falling fragments near the Kachinsky highway, Razvozhaev added.
In total, Russia’s Defense Ministry said it downed at least 54 drones over Russian-controlled regions on Tuesday night.
Ukraine’s air force reported 89 Russian drones launched into the country on Tuesday night, of which 36 were shot down and another 48 lost during flight. Five UAVs flew into Belarus, the air force said on Telegram.
It added that drone debris damaged buildings in the Kyiv region, though reported no casualties.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday morning praised the country’s anti-drone defense teams, which he said are active every night.
Tuesday’s night drone attack was significantly smaller than the record-breaking 188-drone barrage launched into Ukraine on Monday night.
Zelenskyy said that attack caused “damage to our critical infrastructure” and urged foreign partners to do more to curtail Moscow’s use of foreign components in its drones and missiles.
On Tuesday evening, Zelenskyy said in a statement posted to X that continued attacks into Ukraine show the necessity for Kyiv to strike military targets inside Russia — a sensitive political issue that has caused tensions with Ukraine’s Western partners and prompted nuclear threats from Moscow.
Referring to a deadly rocket artillery attack in the eastern city of Sumy, the president said the “only effective way to protect ourselves from this is to eliminate Russian weapons and Russian launchers directly on Russian territory.”
“That is why the ability to strike Russian territory is so important to us,” Zelenskyy added.
“This is the only factor that can limit Russian terror and Russia’s capacity to wage war in general,” he said. “I am grateful to all the partners who understand this and convey it to other partners.”
(LONDON) — The Israel Defense Forces continued its intense airstrike and ground campaigns in Gaza — particularly in the north of the strip — and in Lebanon, with Israeli attacks on targets nationwide including in the capital Beirut. The strikes form the backdrop for a fresh diplomatic push by the White House ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the Oval Office in January.
Tensions also remain high between Israel and Iran after the former launched what it called “precise strikes on military targets” in several locations in Iran following Tehran’s Oct. 1 missile barrage.
At least 11 dead, more injured in powerful Israeli strikes on central Beirut
Rescue efforts were underway after Israeli airstrikes targeted central Beirut on Saturday morning, killing at least 11 people, Lebanese authorities said.
The powerful strikes occurred at around 4 a.m. local time, destroying an eight-story residential building in the densely populated Basta neighborhood in the heart of Lebanon’s capital. So far, emergency responders have pulled 23 people alive but wounded from the rubble as well as the lifeless bodies of 11 others, according to the Lebanese Civil Defense, which noted that the casualty count was provisional as search and rescue operations were still underway as of 10:30 a.m. local time.
ABC News has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment on the strikes.
It’s the fourth round of Israeli strikes to hit Beirut in less than a week, shaking the city as the Israeli military presses its offensive against the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. The escalation comes on the heels of U.S. special envoy Amos Hochstein’s trip to the region earlier this week in an attempt to clinch a cease-fire deal to end the more than 13 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, which has erupted into full-on war in the past two months with Israeli ground troops invading southern Lebanon as warplanes bomb Hezbollah strongholds in both the south and in the capital.
Israeli forces conduct airstrike in southern suburbs of Beirut
Israeli forces conducted a strike in Beirut’s southern suburb Friday evening, causing a bright flash in the dark.
At least 62 people were killed and 111 people were wounded from Israeli attacks in Lebanon Thursday, the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said in a post on X.
Israeli forces issued an evacuation order to residents of the southern suburbs of Beirut Friday in a post on X.
At least 3,645 people have been killed and 15,355 people have been wounded since Israel’s increased attacks on Lebanon began in mid-September, the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said.
-ABC News’ Bruno Nota
38 killed in Gaza Friday, IDF conducts operations in northern and central Gaza
At least 38 people have been killed in Gaza since Friday morning, the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health said Friday.
Israeli forces said they conducted an operation in Beit Lahia in the northern area of the Gaza Strip during the night between Wednesday and Thursday. During the operation, two Hamas company commanders were killed, the IDF said in a statement about the operation.
Israeli forces also killed the commander of the Islamic Jihad’s Rocket Unit in central Gaza with an Israeli airstrike Wednesday, the IDF said in a separate statement.
The director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza said Israeli forces targeted the hospital with bombings two days in a row Thursday and Friday. One doctor and a number of patients were injured from the attacks, the director said.
-ABC News’ Sami Zyara, Diaa Ostaz and Jordana Miller
Hungary prime minister says Netanyahu won’t be arrested in his county
Hungarian Prime Viktor Orban said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would face no risk of arrest if he visited Hungary, after the International Criminal Court issued arrest a warrant for the Israeli official.
Orban branded the arrest warrants a “brazen, cynical and completely unacceptable decision.”
Orban, who is often at odds with his European Union peers, has forged close ties with Netanyahu.
“Today I will invite Israel’s prime minister, Mr. Netanyahu, for a visit to Hungary and in that invite I will guarantee him that if he comes, the ICC ruling will have no effect in Hungary, and we will not follow its contents,” Orban said in a statement Friday.
Multiple countries and blocs, including Ireland, Norway, the EU, the Netherlands and Canada, said they would carry out the ICC arrest warrant commitment issued on Thursday.
The U.S., which is not a party to the court, said the ICC does not have jurisdiction to issue the warrants. Netanyahu called the arrest warrants “absurd” and “anti-semitic.”
More health workers, patients killed proportionally in Lebanon than anywhere else
The World Health Organization said Friday that more health workers and patients have been killed proportionally in Lebanon than anywhere else in the world over the past year, including Gaza and Ukraine.
Data shows that 47% of attacks on health care have proven fatal to at least one health worker or patient in Lebanon since Oct. 7, 2023. This is a higher percentage than in any active conflict today across the globe, with nearly half of all attacks on health causing the death of a health worker, according to the WHO.
White House rejects ICC warrants for Israeli officials
The White House said it rejects the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrants for senior Israeli officials, saying the U.S. is working with its partners on steps that could include possible sanctions against the court.
“Let me just say more broadly that we fundamentally reject the court’s decision to issue arrest warrants for senior Israel officials. We remain deeply concerned by the prosecutors’ rush to seek arrest warrants and the troubling process errors that led to this decision,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Thursday.
“The United States has been clear that the ICC does not have jurisdiction over this matter,” Jean-Pierre said.
-ABC News’ Fritz Farrow
At least 66 killed in massive strike in northern Gaza
At least 66 people were killed and dozens more suffered serious injuries in a strike on Northern Gaza near the Kamal Adwan Hospital. Rescue operations are continuing with some people still missing.
Kamal Adwan Hospital has been under siege for nearly a month.
Israeli carries out 4 rounds of airstrikes on Beirut
Israeli forces carried out four rounds of airstrikes on Beirut and continued striking areas in southern Lebanon on Thursday, according to IDF statements and IDF evacuation orders posted on X.
At least 47 people were killed and 22 others were wounded in various Israeli attacks on the region Thursday, Lebanese governate Baalbeck-Hermel said in a post on X.
Several UNESCO World Heritage sites are located in Baalbeck, including ancient Roman temples.
At least 25 people were killed and 121 people were wounded from Israeli attacks across Lebanon on Wednesday, the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said in a post on X.
Israeli forces issued three separate evacuation orders for areas of southern Beirut on Thursday, according to posts on X. The IDF also issued evacuation orders for several Lebanese villages and Tyre in southern Lebanon, according to posts on X.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
US envoy had ‘constructive’ meeting with Israeli minister for strategic affairs
U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein met with Israeli officials on Thursday about a potential cease-fire agreement between Israel and Lebanon. He arrived in Israel after meeting with Lebanese officials earlier this week in Beirut.
Hochstein had a constructive meeting with Israeli Minister for Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer Wednesday night, an Israeli official told ABC News.
Hochstein is expected to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz Thursday.
Netanyahu’s office ‘rejects with disgust’ ICC arrest warrant
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Israel “rejects with disgust the absurd and false actions and charges against it,” after the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for the arrest of the prime minister and his former defense minister.
The arrest warrant issued Thursday morning alleges that Netanyahu and the minister, Yoav Gallant, were party to alleged war crimes in Gaza.
The statement issued by Netanyahu said the court, which is based in The Hague, was “a biased and discriminatory political body.”
“There is nothing more just than the war that Israel has been waging in Gaza since the October 7, 2023, coup, after the terrorist organization Hamas launched a murderous attack against us, committing the greatest massacre committed against the Jewish people since the Holocaust,” his office said.
The statement pointed a finger at Karim Khan, accusing the ICC’s chief prosecutor of bias and describing him as “corrupt.”
– ABC News’ Joe Simonetti and Kevin Shalvey
ICC issues arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants on Thursday for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant.
The Hague issued the warrants for alleged war crimes in Gaza, according to a statement. The ICC said that there were “reasonable grounds” to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant committed war crimes, and added that Israel’s acceptance of the court’s jurisdiction is not required
Dozens killed in massive strike in northern Gaza Dozens of people have been killed and many more are feared dead after a large strike hit a residential neighborhood in northern Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health.
The strike occurred in a neighborhood near Kamal Adwan Hospital, officials said.
-ABC News’ Joe Simonetti and Kevin Shalvey
Israel wants freedom to strike Hezbollah under any cease-fire deal, foreign minister says
Israel wants to “keep the freedom to act if there will be violations” by Hezbollah in any cease-fire agreement reached between Lebanon and Israel, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said in comments Wednesday.
U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein is in Beirut meeting with officials about the proposed cease-fire deal and is expected to travel to Israel Wednesday night to continue discussions.
Israeli forces kill Hezbollah commanders, strike over 100 targets in Lebanon, IDF says
The Israel Defense Forces said it killed Hezbollah’s anti-tank missile and operations commanders “in the coastal area” on Sunday.
Israeli forces “struck over 100 terror targets in Lebanon” in the last day, the Israeli Defense Forces said Wednesday. Israel said it is continuing “limited, localized, targeted raids in southern Lebanon.”
On Tuesday, 14 people were killed, and 87 people were wounded in Lebanon, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
US vetos Gaza UN Security Council cease-fire resolution
The U.S. vetoed another United Nations Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire in Gaza because it did not include a hostage release.
This is the 12th time the Security Council voted on a draft resolution since the war in Gaza started 13 months ago.
At least 43,972 people have been killed in Gaza since October 2023, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health.
In June, the Security Council passed a U.S.-drafted cease-fire deal that President Joe Biden approved. At the time, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield said “we voted for peace.”
US sanctions Hamas leaders as officials say group’s political wing has rebased in Turkey
The U.S. is rolling out sanctions against six senior Hamas leaders accused of facilitating the transfer of weapons and funds into Gaza to support the group’s terror activities as well as smuggling in construction materials to build the underground tunnels critical to its operations, according to the Biden administration.
“There is no distinction between Hamas’ so-called military wing and its political leadership,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement announcing the tranche of sanctions.
Three of the targeted individuals are based in Turkey, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.
Despite the denials coming from Hamas and the Turkish government, two U.S. officials say that the bulk of Hamas’ political wing has now relocated to Turkey following the group’s ouster from Qatar.
The U.S. has turned a blind eye to Hamas’ relationship with NATO ally Turkey for years, which allows the U.S. designated terror group to openly recruit, fundraise and interface with its government officials.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he hopes to strengthen ties with the U.S. when President-elect Donald Trump takes office. However, Trump’s cabinet is expected to feature many staunchly pro-Israel voices who will object to Turkey’s tolerance of Hamas — potentially complicating Erdogan’s plans.
-ABC News’ Shannon K. Kingston
Hospitals in northern Gaza running out of medical supplies, requesting patient transfers as attacks continue
Kamal Adwan Hospital is running out of medical supplies, and more people with cases of malnutrition are arriving at the hospital because of the lack of food and water allowed into northern Gaza, the hospital director said in comments Tuesday.
“There are a number of cases of malnutrition that have begun to arrive, including children and the elderly,” Dr. Hussam Abu Safia, the director of Kamal Adwan hospital said.
“The health system is working under extremely harsh conditions to the point that we have started losing numbers of infected people due to the lack of medical supplies,” Abu Safia added.
At least 50 people were killed, and 110 people were injured in Gaza over the past 24 hours, the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health said.
The International Committee of the Red Cross and the Palestine Red Crescent Society transferred 15 patients from Al Awda Hospital in north Gaza to Al Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City Sunday, the ICRC said in a statement Tuesday. The patient transfers were requested by the hospitals, the ICRC said.
The organizations also delivered medical supplies to three hospitals in Gaza City Monday, the ICRC said in a post on X.
“The delivery and medical transfer came in the wake of another large-scale attack in the Beit Lahia area of the Northern Governorate, in which dozens of people were killed and many more injured,” the ICRC said.
-ABC News’ Diaa Ostaz and Sami Zyara
UN peacekeepers, buildings targeted in 3 incidents in south Lebanon
United Nations peacekeeping forces in Lebanon and facilities were targeted in “three separate incidents in south Lebanon,” Tuesday, UNIFIL said in a post on X.
Four Ghanian peacekeepers on duty “sustained injures as a rocket … hit their base,” UNIFIL said in a post on X. Three of the injured peacekeepers were transferred to a hospital in Tyre, Lebanon for treatment, UNIFIL said.
In a different attack, a UNIFIL building was “impacted by five rockets,” UNIFIL said.
“In another incident, UNIFIL Sector West Headquarters in Shama was impacted by five rockets, which struck the maintenance workshop,” UNIFIL said. “Although it caused heavy damage to the workshop, no peacekeeper was injured. This was the second time this UNIFIL base was impacted by the ongoing clashes in the area in less than a week.”
In a third incident, a UNIFIL patrol was “passing through” a village, and “an armed person directly fired at the patrol,” UNIFIL said. No injuries were reported from this incident.
UNIFIL is investigating the incidents and has informed the Lebanese armed forces about them, UNIFIL said.
“UNIFIL once again reminds all actors involved in the ongoing hostilities to respect the inviolability of United Nations peacekeepers and premises,” UNIFIL said in a post on X.
5 killed, 31 injured after Israeli strike on central Beirut
At least five people were killed, 31 were injured and at least two people remain missing after an Israeli airstrike in the Zuqaq al-Blat neighborhood of central Beirut, the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said.
The Israeli Defense Forces did not issue a warning before conducting this airstrike on central Beirut Monday.
At least 28 people were killed and 107 were wounded across Lebanon from Israeli attacks Monday, the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said.
Overall, 3,544 people have been killed, and 15,036 have been injured since Israel’s increased attacks on the country began in mid-September, the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said in a post on X.
U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein met with Lebanese House Speaker Nabih Berri in Beirut Tuesday, according to Lebanese state media.
After meeting with Hochstein for two hours, Berri said the cease-fire negotiations were “good in principle,” but warned Israel could change its minds about the proposal as it has done before.
Berri said the U.S. is managing guarantees about Israel’s position on the proposal, according to Lebanese state media.
-ABC News’ Morgan Winsor
Israel kills 5 in central Beirut strike, officials say
At least five people were killed and 31 wounded by an Israeli strike in the Zuqaq al-Blat neighborhood of central Beirut on Monday, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health. Two other people are missing.
The Israel Defense Forces did not appear to issue any public evacuation order prior to the strike. ABC News has reached out to the IDF for comment on the target of the strike.
The attack made Monday the second consecutive day of Israeli strikes within central Beirut. To date, the vast majority of airstrikes on the capital have hit the southern Dahiya suburb, known as a Hezbollah stronghold.
Israel has intensified its bombardment in and around Beirut over the past week, while Hezbollah has continued missile fire into Israel. Fresh discussions are ongoing as to a potential cease-fire to end the fighting.
-ABC News’ Morgan Winsor, Jordana Miller and Joe Simonetti
Israel demands ‘immediate’ action against pro-Iran militias in Iraq
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar on Tuesday published a letter sent to the president of the United Nations Security Council in which he called for “immediate action regarding the activity of the pro-Iranian militias in Iraq, whose territory is being used to attack Israel.”
“The Iraqi government is responsible for everything that happens on its territory,” Saar wrote, noting Israel’s right to self-defense.
“I called on the Security Council to act urgently to make sure that the Iraqi government meets its obligations under international law and to make these attacks on Israel stop,” Saar said.
Iran-backed Iraqi militias have been launching drone attacks into Israel from the east in support of Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon, with whom Israeli forces have been engaged since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack into southern Israel.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
Nearly 100 aid trucks looted: UNRWA
The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said Monday their aid convoy was “violently” looted over the weekend, one of the largest such cases of looting since the war began.
The 109-truck U.N. convoy was carrying food supplies to people in Gaza when it was looted on Saturday, UNRWA said.
“The vast majority of the trucks, 97 in total, were lost and drivers were forced at gunpoint to unload aid,” UNRWA said in a statement.
UNRWA said the Israel Defense Forces made the convoy leave a day earlier than planned.
The IDF has not yet commented on this incident.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
Israel’s October attack damaged some of Iran’s nuclear program: Netanyahu
Israel damaged some of Iran’s nuclear program in its October attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday.
Iran’s air defense, ballistic missile production and ability to produce “solid fuel” were impacted, Netanyahu said during remarks to Israel’s parliament.
“There is a certain element of their nuclear program that was damaged in this attack,” he said, though added that its ability to operate “has not yet been thwarted.”
Netanyahu said Iran’s nuclear threat must be dealt with.
“If we don’t deal with the nuclear program, then all the other problems will come back and resurface, both in the axis, and in armaments, and in other things,” Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu also said Israel is “currently talking about possible negotiations for a settlement” to be reached between Israel and Lebanon, but added, “Even if there is a cease-fire, no one says it will last.”
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
US envoy en route to Lebanon for cease-fire talks, official says
U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein is on his way to Lebanon for talks on a cease-fire between Hezbollah and Israel, an official familiar with the plans confirmed to ABC News.
Hochstein left from the U.S. for Lebanon on Monday, the official said.
Israel is getting close to being ready to agree to the U.S.-backed cease-fire proposal, which is very similar to the proposal that was floated by the U.S. at the end of September. The U.S. needs to see how Hezbollah feels about this proposal, which is what Hochstein aims to do during his trip, according to the official.
-ABC News’ Shannon K. Kingston
4 killed in Israeli attack in Beirut: Health ministry
Four people were killed and at least 18 injured in an Israeli attack in Beirut, the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said Monday.
-ABC News’ Ellie Kaufman
1 killed, 10 injured in strike on residential building in Israel: Officials
A woman was killed and 10 people injured after a Hezbollah rocket directly hit a residential building in northern Israel, Israeli emergency services said Monday.
Dozens of projectiles were fired by Hezbollah from Lebanon into Israel Monday afternoon, the Israel Defense Forces said. Not all of the projectiles were intercepted, the IDF said.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
US sanctions entity, 3 individuals tied to West Bank violence
The State Department said Monday it is sanctioning three individuals and one entity for allegedly undermining “peace, security, and stability in the West Bank.”
The department accuses the entity, Eyal Hari Yehuda Company LTD, of having supported Yinon Levi, an Israeli settler who was sanctioned by the Biden administration over accusations of attacks and harassment against Palestinians earlier this year.
The three impacted individuals are Itamar Levi, Shabtai Koshlevsky and Zohar Sabah, the State Department said. Itamar Levi, the brother of Yinon Levi, is being designated for his role as the owner of the aforementioned company, while Koshlevsky is accused of holding a leadership position at Hashomer Yosh, an Israeli nongovernmental organization that provides material support to U.S.-designated outposts in the West Bank and was sanctioned in August of this year.
Sabah is accused of engaging “in threats and acts of violence against Palestinians, including in their homes” as well as “a pattern of destructiveness targeting the livestock, grazing lands and homes of local Palestinians to disrupt their means of support,” the State Department said in a press release.
-ABC News’ Shannon K. Kingston
Hamas denies that leaders relocated from Qatar to Turkey
Hamas denied reports in Israeli media that its leadership has relocated from Qatar to Turkey amid a breakdown in Doha-supported cease-fire talks earlier this month.
Hamas dismissed the news reports as “rumors” spread by Israeli authorities in a statement posted to its official website.
Qatar told Israel and Hamas earlier this month it could not continue to mediate cease-fire and hostage release talks “as long as there is a refusal to negotiate a deal in good faith.”
Doha is under U.S. pressure to expel Hamas leaders. A senior administration official told ABC News earlier this month that the group’s “continued presence in Doha is no longer viable or acceptable.”
-ABC News’ Diaa Ostaz, Shannon K. Kingston and Somayeh Malekian
Gaza death toll nears 44,000, health officials say
The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said Monday that 43,922 people have been killed in Israeli attacks since Oct. 7, 2023, with nearly 104,000 more injured.
Israeli airstrikes killed at least 96 people and wounded at least 60 in Gaza through the weekend, officials said. The dead included 72 people in north Gaza and more than 20 from other areas of the strip.
Most of those killed were displaced women and children sheltering in residential buildings in the northern town of Beit Lahiya, officials said.
Beit Lahiya is at the heart of the Israel Defense Forces’ recent northern offensive, which has been accompanied with sweeping evacuation orders and spiking civilian casualties.
-ABC News’ Samy Zyara and Joe Simonetti
Hezbollah positive on US cease-fire proposal, reports say
Hezbollah responded positively to the U.S.-proposed cease-fire deal between Israel and Lebanon, Israeli and Lebanese media reported Monday.
U.S. special envoy for Lebanon Amos Hochstein is expected to arrive in Beirut on Tuesday to discuss the proposal before heading to Israel to speak with leaders there.
The proposal is reportedly based on the United Nations Security Council’s resolution 1701 that sought to end the last major cross-border conflict in 2006.
That deal ordered Hezbollah to withdraw all military units and weapons north of the Litani River, which is around 18 miles north of the Israeli border. The resolution also prohibited Israeli ground and air forces from crossing into Lebanese territory.
Israeli leaders have demanded open-ended freedom to act against threats in Lebanon, a stipulation reportedly opposed by Hezbollah and Lebanese leaders.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller and Joe Simonetti
Khamenei meets with ambassador injured in pager attacks
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei met with the country’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, as the latter continues his recovery from injuries sustained during Israel’s detonation of Hezbollah communication devices in September.
Khamenei’s official X account posted a short video of their interaction on Monday, in which Amani told the Iranian leader he lost around half of the vision in his right eye in the attack.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
Hezbollah media relations chief killed in Israeli strike
Mohammed Afif, Hezbollah’s media relations chief, was killed in an Israeli strike Sunday, Hezbollah confirmed.
The strike on central Beirut partially collapsed a building and injured three others, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health.
The Israel Defense Forces also confirmed Afif’s death. In a statement, the IDF said he joined Hezbollah in the 1980s and went on to become a “central and veteran figure in the organization who greatly influenced Hezbollah’s military activity.”
Citing one particular incident, the statement claimed that he had played a key role in the drone attack on Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s home in Caesarea in October.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
Pope calls for investigation to determine whether Israeli attacks on Gaza are ‘genocide’
Pope Francis, in an upcoming book to be released ahead of his 2025 jubilee, called for an investigation to determine whether Israel’s actions in Gaza constitute genocide, according to the Vatican.
“In the Middle East, where the open doors of nations like Jordan or Lebanon continue to be a salvation for millions of people fleeing conflicts in the region: I am thinking above all of those who leave Gaza in the midst of the famine that has struck their Palestinian brothers and sisters given the difficulty of getting food and aid into their territory,” he wrote in a passage released by the Vatican.
“According to some experts, what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide,” the pope wrote. “It should be carefully investigated to determine whether it fits into the technical definition formulated by jurists and international bodies.”
