In the face of the ongoing suffering of the Palestinian and Lebanese people amid Israel's wars in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon, Ahram Online provides you with live updates of the most recent developments across the Middle East on Tuesday, 26 November, as they unfold.
23:05 US President Joe Biden has welcomed a US and French-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The deal will come into force on Wednesday at 4:00 am local time (0200 GMT), Biden said, speaking at White House.
22:50 President Joe Biden called Israel and Hezbollah’s ceasefire agreement “good news” and expressed hope that the pause in Israel’s weekslong operations in Lebanon will be catalyst to also end fighting in Gaza.
Biden made his comments in a Rose Garden speech. He stressed that Israel reserved the right to quickly resume operations in Lebanon if Hezbollah breaks the terms of the truce.
Biden added that the deal between Israel and Hezbollah “was designed to be a permanent cessation of hostilities.”
22:40 Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's office says the Israeli cabinet has approved the proposed ceasefire deal with Hezbollah by 10 votes to one.
22:30 Israel's military said sirens sounded across central and northern Israel Tuesday, after PM Benjamin Netanyahu said his cabinet would vote for a ceasefire.
"Sirens sounded in a number of areas in central and northern Israel following projectiles that crossed from Lebanon," the military said in a statement.
"Three projectiles that crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory were successfully intercepted by the Israeli air force."
22:00 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Tuesday that the security cabinet has approved a US-brokered ceasefire deal with Hezbollah in Lebanon.
"I will present the ceasefire outline with Hezbollah to the full cabinet for approval," Netanyahu said in a televised statement.
21:30 A strike has hit a central Beirut shopping district, shortly after Israel's Netanyahu said his cabinet would agree to a ceasefire with Hezbollah.
An AFP video journalist saw smoke rising from the targeted building in the normally busy Hamra district, home to residential buildings, restaurants, offices, shops, the American University of Beirut and its associated hospital, where a huge crowd had gathered to flee the Israeli bombings.
21:10 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday he would bring a US-brokered proposal for a ceasefire with Hezbollah in Lebanon to his security cabinet for a vote as soon as this evening.
20:55 Lebanon's Prime Minister Najib Mikati demanded in a statement on Tuesday that the international community "act swiftly" to halt Israeli aggression "and implement an immediate ceasefire".
His comments came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an address that the country's security cabinet would agree "this evening" on a truce deal in its war against Hezbollah.
20:50 A senior Hezbollah leader, told Al Jazeera that the Lebanese government and the resistance will look closer self at what Netanyahu agreed to before making their decision.
He stressed that Hezbollah and the government would never agree to any wording in the deal that violates Lebanese sovereignty.
“Netanyahu is a war criminal who is experienced in deceit and maneuvers and it is logical not to trust him.”
20:30 The Israeli PM has announced he will recommend a proposal for a ceasefire with Hezbollah to his full cabinet for approval, setting the stage for an end to nearly 14 months of fighting.
Netanyahu said he expected the cabinet to agree on the ceasefire deal "this evening".
19: 30 US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said efforts to secure a ceasefire in Lebanon were "in the final stages".
"We're not there yet, but I believe we are in the final stages," Blinken told reporters after a meeting near Rome with G7 counterparts, adding that "by de-escalating tensions in the region, it can also help us to end the conflict in Gaza".
19:05 Israel's military says it identified at least 20 projectiles crossing from Lebanon into northern Israel.
"Following the sirens that sounded between 17:26 (1526 GMT) and 17:35 in the Western Galilee area, approximately 10 projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanon," the army said in a statement, adding that some were intercepted.
It also said that in a separate incident, a "suspicious aerial target was identified crossing from Lebanon into Israeli territory", but that no injuries were reported.
Earlier, the military said it had identified another 10 projectiles crossing into Israeli territory, including five that were intercepted over the coastal city of Haifa.
Israeli Iron Dome missile defense system fires to intercept rockets that were launched from Lebanon, as seen from Haifa, northern Israel. AP
19:00 G7 Foreign Ministers meeting in Italy have said they "will comply with (their) respective obligations" regarding the arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
"We reiterate our commitment to International Humanitarian Law and will comply with our respective obligations", the ministers said in a joint statement issued following two days of talks near Rome.
The ICC's arrest warrant for Netanyahu has prompted outrage from Israel and its closest allies – including the US, which is a not member of the ICC and has rejected its jurisdiction.
All of the other G7 countries are members of the ICC – meaning they would have to arrest Netanyahu if he travelled there.
18:40 An Israeli airstrike targeted the village of Al-Aminiyah in northern Homs, Syrian state television reported on Tuesday. Syrian media also reported powerful explosions heard in the skies above Homs.
18:10 Israeli forces launched widespread attacks in Lebanon on Tuesday, targeting what the military described as the largest number of objectives identified by its intelligence division. The strikes come as Israel escalates pressure on Lebanon ahead of an anticipated ceasefire announcement.
The Lebanese Health Ministry reported two fatalities and 22 injuries in an initial toll from an airstrike on the Rashidieh area in southern Lebanon. Meanwhile, Israeli military officials confirmed the continuation of their operations in the south.
Hezbollah MP Amin Sherri told Reuters that none of the locations targeted in Beirut earlier in the day contained Hezbollah facilities, dismissing Israeli claims about the strikes' objectives.
Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the Palestinian refugees camp of Rashidieh near the southern Lebanese city of Tyre. AP
17:50 For the first time, the Israeli military has issued evacuation warnings for buildings in Beirut outside the southern suburbs.
In southern Lebanon, rockets were launched toward Israel's Upper Galilee, triggering sirens in Nahariya, Metula, and Kfar Yuval.
Meanwhile, Israeli media reported that the air force is pursuing a drone spotted in the Upper Galilee, with the Israeli military confirming that it is tracking a suspected aerial infiltration from Lebanon.
17:30 Iran's Chief of General Staff, Major General Mohammad Bagheri, warned on Tuesday that Tehran would deliver a response to recent Israeli attacks that will surpass the expectations of Israeli leaders.
Speaking to the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA), Bagheri stated that the Zionists have crossed red lines, and we will not tolerate any aggression against our territory.
Bagheri emphasized that Iran's retaliation would be precise and proportionate but beyond what Israel anticipates.
File Photo: Iran's Chief of General Staff, Major General Mohammad Bagheri. AFP
17:15 US President Joe Biden is expected to announce a ceasefire agreement in Lebanon at 10 pm local time on Tuesday, Israeli officials told local media.
The truce is anticipated to take effect Wednesday morning, according to Axios, citing a senior Israeli official.
Israel’s security cabinet convened earlier on Tuesday to finalize and approve the agreement.
Israeli Army Radio reported that Washington would be notified of the government’s approval after the meeting concludes.
Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who supports efforts to reestablish Israeli settlements in Gaza, expressed conditional support for the ceasefire, demanding that Lebanon be held accountable for any violations and proposing retaliatory strikes on Lebanese infrastructure if the truce is breached.
17:00 An Israeli airstrike on Al-Zaytoun neighbourhood in Gaza City killed 15 Palestinians and wounded tens others on Tuesday afternoon.
The Israeli army has pushed forward with its genocidal war on Gaza as the war cabinet meets on Tuesday afternoon to vote on a proposal for a ceasefire in the war in Lebanon.
The deadly airstrikes across Gaza capped a day in which heavy rains washed away 10,000 tents used by displaced Palestinians in the strip, worsening an already dire humaintarian situation.
Quds News Network posted a short video of a little girl soothing her toddler sister in Gaza with a little milk amid an Israeli blockade on food and water in the strip that resulted in widespread starvation.
16:45 Hezbollah launched missile attacks against various Israeli targets in the Western Galilee immediately after the Israeli airstrikes on Dahiya on Tuesday afternoon.
Israei air defenses were intercepting rockets launched against Haifa.
Sirens blurred and exploions were reported in and around the Mediterranean city.
16:30 The Israeli war cabinet started its meeting to vote on a ceasefire proposal to end the war in Lebanon, according to Israeli media.
Minister on National Security Itamar Ben-Gevir is expected to vote NO on the deal.
The Israeli rqdio reported that US President Joe Biden is expected to announce a ceasefire deal to end the war between Israel and Lebanon later on Tuesday evening.
16:10 Israeli warplanes launched the most significant wave of airstrikes against southern Beirut since the start of the war against Lebanon.
The Israeli army claimed that the airstrikes targeted 13 Hezbollah-affiliated sites in Dahiya in southern Beirut.
Journalists on the ground reported that the targets were residential buildings.
The Lebanese authorities said three civilians were killed and 26 wounded in a casualty initial toll.
Cameras captured images of fires raging in various parts of the Lebanese capital.
The bombing of Beirut was coupled with heavy airstrikes on the south and east of the country all day Tuesday.
15:30 The Israeli army radio has announced plans to carry out 20 airstrikes on various parts of the Lebanese capital on Tuesday.
The army issued "evacuation orders" for residents in Hadath in the centre of the capital, Haret Hrik neighbourhood and Burj Al-Barajneh Palestinian refugee camp in Dahiya in southern Beirut.
A firefighter battles a blaze at the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the Shiyah neighborhood in Beirut’s southern suburbs. AFP
15:15 Israeli airstrikes pounded multiple locations across Lebanon on Tuesday, targeting residential areas and infrastructure and leaving more widespread damage and casualties behind.
In southern Lebanon, Israeli warplanes struck the town of Khiyam and demolished residential buildings as fighting with Hezbollah fighters intensified around the strategic city.
There were airstrikes also on Zefta near the Marwaniyah junction.
Heavy artillery shelling hit the eastern neighbourhood of Jdeidet Marjayoun.
Airstrikes also targeted residential areas in Nabatieh, destroying a residential building near the city’s Hussainiyah mosque.
Bazourieh, Ma'aroub, and Srifa in the Tye province were heavily bombed.
Israeli airstrikes on Deir Qanoun Ras Al Ain levelled several homes.
In the southern suburbs of Beirut, Israeli jets attacked residential buildings in Burj Al-Barajneh and Raml Al-Ali in Tahwita Al-Ghadir.
Additional airstrikes were reported in the Iqlim Al-Tuffah region, hitting Basliya near Jbaa.
This picture taken from northern Israel along the border with southern Lebanon shows smoke billowing above the Lebanese village of Khiam during Israeli bombardment. AFP
14:45 Hezbollah targeted the Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona in Galilee with two rocket salvos on Tuesday morning.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah fighters also destroyed an Israeli Merkava tank near the municipal centre of Khiyam on Tuesday, as fierce battles between the Lebanese group and the Israeli army have continued around the strategic town in south Lebanon for days now.
14:30 The Israeli army launched simultaneous attacks on two schools in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, causing injuries and widespread panic.
In Bethlehem’s town of Al-Khadr, several female students suffered suffocation after Israeli forces fired tear gas canisters as they were leaving school grounds, according to WAFA.
In the Al-Zaytoun neighbourhood in Gaza City, Al Jazeera reported that over 30 people were injured and taken to Al-Ahly Hospital after Israeli forces targeted a school sheltering displaced individuals.
13:30 Strong winds, heavy rain, and rising seawater have destroyed and washed away more than 10,000 tents housing displaced civilians in the Al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis.
According to Bashar Murad, director of health programs at Al-Quds Hospital of the Red Crescent Society, the rain forced families to relocate further inland, where they faced harsh conditions.
“The winter season presents a new challenge for Gaza’s population, who are forced to live in tattered tents across the enclave, lacking warm clothes, blankets, and mattresses,” Murad said.
He added that the displaced, particularly the elderly and children, are suffering from various chest diseases due to the cold and lack of heating devices.
Residents in displaced camps said the Israelis have blocked the entry of new tents into the Gaza Strip for months now, according to a recent report by Al Jazeera.
More than 40 percent of children in southern Gaza are suffering from malnutrition amid a near-total Israeli embargo on humanitarian aid to the region.
Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of residents in northern Gaza face imminent starvation as Israel continued to block all food and water to the region since early October.
Palestinian officials say Israel is allowing less than six percent of food and water needed by 2.3 million Palestinians to stay alive into the strip.
12:40 Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bouhabib said he hoped a ceasefire with Israel would be agreed later on Tuesday, explaining his country was waiting for the vote by the Israeli war cabinet on the ceasefire proposal.
Bouhabib said the Lebanese army would be ready to have at least 5,000 troops deployed in southern Lebanon as Israeli troops withdraw and that the United States could play a role in rebuilding infrastructure destroyed by Israeli strikes.
He noted that Lebanese resistance would continue so long as Israeli aggression continued.
11:30 Israel has no reason to refuse a ceasefire with Lebanon along the lines proposed by France and the United States, EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Tuesday.
"There is no excuse for not implementing a ceasefire... No more excuses. No more additional requests. Stop this fighting. Stop killing people," Borrell said at a G7 foreign ministers meeting in Italy.
11:20 Gaza's civil defence agency said Tuesday morning that 11 people were killed in nighttime Israeli airstrikes and artillery shelling across the Palestinian territory.
In the northern city of Jabalia, seven people were killed and several others wounded in an air strike on a residential building, civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.
Another person was killed in a strike on a house in nearby Beit Lahia.
Two people were killed by artillery shelling on Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, Bassal said.
In the southern city of Rafah, an airstrike killed one and wounded several, he added.
People dig channels to ease flooding at a camp for displaced Palestinians in al-Zaywayda in the central Gaza Strip. AFP
11:00 Benny Gantz, a leading Israeli politician and former defence minister, rejected a reported ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah in Lebanon in a post on social media on Tuesday.
The details of a potential agreement that would end the Israeli war in Lebanon remain undisclosed.
10:45 An Israeli airstrike on a residential building in Gaza City killed and wounded six civilians.
10:15 The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported that 4,000 women in Gaza are expected to give birth this month under dire conditions and without access to essential medical services.
It highlighted that approximately 155,000 pregnant or nursing women are struggling to survive in worsening circumstances.
Women and children are the most affected by the ongoing genocide, facing grave violations of fundamental human rights in direct contradiction to international agreements such as UNSC Resolution 1325.
09:45 Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir states that he will vote today against a ceasefire agreement with Lebanon and will attempt to persuade other ministers to do the same.
Ben-Gvir said Israel should press on with the war until "absolute victory".
He addressed the Israeli prime minister on X: "It is not too late to stop this agreement!"
Meanwhile, Lebanese authorities have said any ceasefire deal should be limited to the terms of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the Israeli 2006 war on Lebanon.
09:00 Israel’s security cabinet was due to meet Tuesday to vote on a proposed ceasefire in its war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, an Israeli official said.
Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli strikes killed at least 31 people on Monday, mainly in the south.
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