Headline
Netanyahu Vows No Mercy After Deadly Hezbollah Drone Strike

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday vowed to hit Hezbollah without mercy, a day after the Iran-backed Lebanese group’s deadliest strike on Israel since the start of the war in late September.
Hezbollah’s drone attack on an Israeli base killed four soldiers on Sunday, while volunteer rescuers said another 60 people were injured.
“We will continue to mercilessly strike Hezbollah in all parts of Lebanon –- including Beirut,” Netanyahu said on a visit to the base near Binyamina, south of Haifa.
Hezbollah said it launched the “squadron of attack drones” in response to Israeli attacks, including one last week that Lebanon’s health ministry said killed at least 22 people in central Beirut.
Since Israel on September 23 escalated its bombing against targets in Lebanon the war has killed at least 1,315 people, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures, though the real toll is likely to be higher.
Prior to Netanyahu’s comments, new air strikes had already occurred against targets around Lebanon, including one in a northern Christian-majority village which killed at least 21 people on Monday, according to the health ministry.
Hezbollah said on Monday around midday that it had launched rockets at a naval base near Haifa before a further “big rocket salvo” in the early evening at the northern Israeli town of Safed.
Its fighters were also “engaged in violent clashes” in the Lebanese frontier village of Aita al-Shaab, and were fighting elsewhere as well, it said.
READ ALSO: Body of Hezbollah Leader Recovered As Israel Kills Another Top Leader
Air raid sirens sounded across central Israel in the early evening, including in the commercial hub of Tel Aviv, the military said, after it earlier reported the interception of two drones approaching from Syria.
– ‘Never-ending’ strikes –
After almost a year of tit-for-tat exchanges between Hezbollah and Israeli forces over the Lebanon border, Israel intensified its strikes against targets in Lebanon late last month before sending ground troops across the frontier.
Israel wants to push back Hezbollah in order to secure its northern boundary and allow tens of thousands of people displaced by rocket fire since last year to return home safely.
Redrawing the map of the world in blood, by Owei Lakemfa
Hezbollah says its strikes are in support of Palestinian militants Hamas who attacked Israel on October 7 last year, triggering the ongoing war with Israel in the Gaza Strip.
The International Organization for Migration said last week it had verified 690,000 people displaced by the war in Lebanon.
Israel’s deadly air strike on the village of Aito in northern Lebanon on Monday marked a departure from the usual pattern, being located in a mostly Christian area and far from areas usually bombed.
Israel has focused its firepower mostly on Hezbollah strongholds in Shiite Muslim-majority areas, including in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
An AFP photographer in Aito said the strike levelled a residential building. Body parts were scattered in the rubble.
READ ALSO: Fight-to-finish: No End To Gaza War Until Hamas Total Elimination, Israel PM Insists
In the southern border town of Marjayoun, civil defence chief Anis Abla told AFP his rescue teams were exhausted.
“Our rescue missions are becoming more and more difficult, because the strikes are never-ending and target us,” he said.
The International Committee of the Red Cross’s regional director, Nicolas Von Arx, appealed for the protection of ambulances and other health facilities and personnel.
“Attacks on health facilities are deeply worrying,” he said.
Israel faced new criticism over injuries and damage sustained by the UN peacekeeping force which has been deployed in Lebanon since 1978 after a previous Israeli invasion.
Netanyahu on Monday said Israel’s military “is doing its utmost to prevent such incidents” and repeated his request that the peacekeepers “get out of harm’s way.”
UNIFIL has refused.
– Anti-missile defence –
READ ALSO: Israel: Benjamin Netanyahu Coasts To Victory After 97% Of Votes Counted
Prime Minister Simon Harris of Ireland, which has troops in the UNIFIL mission, on Monday told Israeli President Isaac Herzog in a phone call that UNIFIL has “a clear mandate from the Security Council, and that it must be allowed to carry out its functions unimpeded,” Harris’s office said.
The Hamas attack on Israel last year which triggered war in Gaza resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
The number includes hostages killed in captivity.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has killed, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, 42,289 people, the majority civilians. The UN has described the figures as reliable.
Since the Gaza war began hundreds of Palestinians have also been killed in the occupied West Bank. On Monday Palestinian officials said Israeli forces killed two more during a raid. Israel said it was “looking into the reports.”
In Gaza, despite escalating Israeli military operations in central and northern areas, the second round of a polio vaccination campaign for hundreds of thousands of children began on Monday.
With the war there, and in Lebanon, showing no sign of abating, fears of even wider regional conflict have seen Iran, which backs Hezbollah and Hamas, engage in diplomatic efforts with allies and other powers.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met a senior official from Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi movement in Oman, his latest stop on a regional diplomatic tour.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II warned of “a regional war that will be costly for everyone,” during a meeting with Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Monday.
Israel is still weighing its response to an October 1 missile attack by Iran, the latest of two it has carried out against Israel this year.
Headline
Russian Strikes Kill Five In Ukraine, Cause Power Outages

Russian strikes Sunday on Ukraine killed five people and badly damaged energy infrastructure, temporarily severing power supplies to tens of thousands and prompting neighbouring Poland put ground defence on high alert.
Russia has stepped up strikes on energy networks, increasing fears Moscow would resume its widespread campaign of attacks on power facilities, which have plunged millions into darkness in past winters.
Russian forces fired 496 drones and 53 missiles at Ukraine, the majority of which were shot down, according to the Ukrainian air force.
“Sadly, five people were killed. My sincere condolences to everyone who lost loved ones to this terror,” Ukraine’s leader Volodymyr Zelensky said.
Strikes killed four people near Lviv, which lies in western Ukraine and is hundreds of kilometers from the front line, and has been largely spared the attacks that have hit cities further east.
“Near Lviv, an entire family of four was killed in their home, including a teenage girl,” Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said.
READ ALSO:Russia Arrests Woman For Detonating Bomb On Railway
Emergency services released photos showing firefighters battling flames in a destroyed building, and helping elderly residents to safety.
Attacks also killed one person in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia and wounded people near the eastern front, local authorities said.
“Russians once again targeted our infrastructure -– everything that ensures normal life for our people,” Zelensky said.
The strikes cut power to over 110,000 subscribers across several regions, Ukraine’s emergency services said, with the hardest hit being Zaporizhzhia.
– ‘Gas, heat and light’ –
Overnight, more than 73,000 people in Zaporizhzhia were left without electricity, regional head Ivan Fedorov said, though power had been partially restored by the afternoon.
Ukraine’s state-run gas company Naftogaz network also reported damage to its network.
“These maniacal terrorist strikes are aimed solely at one thing — depriving Ukrainians of gas, heat, and light,” Naftogaz CEO Sergii Koretskyi said in a statement.
READ ALSO:Badenoch Unveils Strict UK Immigration Plan, Targets 150,000 Yearly Deportations
The Russian army said it launched an attack “against enterprises of the military-industrial complex of Ukraine and gas and energy infrastructure facilities that ensured their operation.”
Russian attacks have also rattled Ukraine’s European allies after a spate of alleged Russian airspace violations into Europe.
NATO boosted its defences along its eastern borders throughout the month as it accused Moscow of testing the alliance’s air defences with drone incursions into several members and by flying military jets in Estonian airspace.
Overnight Poland’s armed forces said on X that they had mobilised planes and put ground defences on high alert to secure the country’s airspace, especially in areas close to Ukraine.
Ukraine also said Russia was intensifying a campaign of air strikes on its railway network in an attempt to isolate frontline communities ahead of winter.
Russia launched drones at two passenger trains in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region on Saturday, killing one person and wounding dozens, according to Ukrainian officials.
Headline
Badenoch Unveils Strict UK Immigration Plan, Targets 150,000 Yearly Deportations

Kemi Badenoch, leader of the United Kingdom’s Conservative Party, has unveiled an aggressive immigration reform plan aimed at detaining and deporting 150,000 illegal migrants annually, in what she described as the “toughest reforms Britain has ever seen” in border policy. The announcement was made in a video message posted on her X account on Sunday.
The plan, dubbed the Radical Borders Plan, envisages the establishment of a new Removals Force modelled after the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which would replace the current Home Office Immigration Enforcement unit. According to Badenoch, the Removals Force will have a mandate to remove all illegal entrants, foreign criminals, and undocumented migrants, while also monitoring illegal work. She stated, “My message is clear: if you’re here illegally, you will be detained and deported.”
Badenoch sharply criticised previous administrations, accusing both Conservative and Labour governments of failing to manage the migration crisis effectively. “Successive governments have failed on immigration. Labour promised to smash the gangs. Instead, in just a year, they delivered record small boat crossings, over 50,000 illegal arrivals, 32,000 people in asylum hotels, billions wasted. It’s pure weakness. Britain needs a serious, credible plan and the backbone to deliver it,” she said.
READ ALSO:Badenoch Slams UK’s Palestine Recognition Decision As ‘Absolutely Disastrous’
The proposed plan includes several controversial measures. Asylum claims from illegal entrants would be banned, the Human Rights Act repealed, and the United Kingdom withdrawn from the European Convention on Human Rights. Badenoch added that all new illegal arrivals would be deported within a week, with legal obstacles to mass removals removed and visa sanctions imposed on countries that refuse to repatriate their citizens. She also pledged to “shut down the asylum hotel racket,” which she said would save taxpayers billions and restore public confidence in the UK’s border controls.
The Removals Force, if approved, will operate with an annual budget of £1.6 billion, double that of the current Immigration Enforcement unit, funded by savings from the closure of asylum hotels and other measures within the asylum system. The force will have sweeping powers, including the use of facial recognition technology without prior warning, and will integrate closely with the police. Priority for removals will include new illegal entrants, foreign criminals, failed asylum seekers, visa over-stayers, and others identified as residing in the UK illegally.
In an interview on BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Badenoch faced criticism for her refusal to specify the destinations to which deported migrants would be sent. She responded, “I’m tired of all of these irrelevant questions about where they should go. They will go back to where they should be or another country, but they should not be here.” When pressed further, she added, “They will go back to where they came from.”
READ ALSO:Badenoch Slams UK PM For Cutting Defence Funding Amid Global Threats
According to the Conservative Party document detailing the plan, the proposed measures are intended to increase removals from the current 34,000 per year to approximately 150,000, marking a five-fold increase in enforcement activity. The party argues that the reforms are necessary to address what it describes as uncontrolled migration and to strengthen public trust in the country’s border system.
Badenoch’s announcement has intensified the ongoing debate in the UK over immigration policy, balancing border security with human rights considerations. Critics have expressed concern over the repeal of the Human Rights Act and the use of facial recognition technology without oversight, while supporters have welcomed the proposed measures as a decisive step in tackling illegal immigration.
The Radical Borders Plan is expected to be submitted for parliamentary consideration in the coming months, with its implementation contingent on legislative approval and coordination with existing law enforcement structures.
Headline
Trump Threatens To Unleash ‘Hell’ On Hamas

US President Donald Trump has given Hamas until 2200 GMT on Sunday to accept his 20-point plan for peace in Gaza, warning the Palestinian militant group faced “all hell” if it did not agree to the terms.
The US leader set the deadline — which would fall at 1:00 a.m. Monday in Gaza — after an official for the Islamist movement told AFP earlier on Friday that the group still needed time to study the proposal to end nearly two years of devastating war in the Palestinian territory.
“If this LAST CHANCE agreement is not reached, all HELL, like no one has ever seen before, will break out against Hamas,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.
The proposal, backed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calls for a ceasefire, the release of hostages within 72 hours, Hamas’s disarmament and a gradual Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
READ ALSO:Israeli Forces Strike Gaza Despite Trump’s Ceasefire Call
That would be followed by a post-war transitional authority headed by Trump himself.
“Hamas is still continuing consultations regarding Trump’s plan… and has informed mediators that the consultations are ongoing and need some time,” the official said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak publicly on the matter.
On Tuesday, Trump gave Hamas “three or four days” to accept his plan, which has been welcomed by world powers, including Arab and Muslim nations.
Mohammad Nazzal, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, said in a statement Friday that the “plan has points of concern, and we will announce our position on it soon.”
READ ALSO:Israel Strikes Hamas Leadership, Explosions Reported In Qatar’s Capital
As Hamas mulled Trump’s peace plan this week, a Palestinian source close to the group’s leadership told AFP on Wednesday that the Islamist movement wanted to amend some clauses, including the one on disarmament.
Hamas leaders also want “international guarantees” for a full Israeli withdrawal and that no assassination attempts would be made inside or outside Gaza, the source added.
Another source familiar with the negotiations told AFP that the group was split over Trump’s plan.
Structurally, the group’s leadership is divided between officials based in the Gaza Strip and those abroad, particularly in Qatar.
READ ALSO:Spain Cancels $825m Israel Arms Deal Over Gaza
Much of Hamas’s leadership has also been wiped out in Israeli attacks throughout the war.
The source told AFP that “the first (opinion) supports unconditional approval, as the priority is a ceasefire under Trump’s guarantees, with mediators ensuring Israel implements the plan”.
“The second has serious reservations regarding key clauses… They favour conditional approval with clarifications reflecting Hamas’s and the resistance factions’ demands,” the source added.
Hugh Lovatt, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said “ultimately it’s not just about convincing Hamas leadership in Doha, but also the leadership in Gaza, as well as Hamas members and fighters in Gaza.”
READ ALSO:Israel Begins Ground Offensive In Gaza Despite International Criticism
“Additionally, Hamas must then be able to convince other factions in Gaza,” he added.
The war was triggered by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 66,288 Palestinians, according to health ministry figures in the Hamas-run territory that the United Nations considers reliable.
Their data does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but indicates that more than half of the dead are women and children.
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