Middle East & North Africa

BEIRUT, Lebanon, Aug 17 (NNN-NNA) – Hezbollah Leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, warned that, if Israel wages a war against Lebanon, Hezbollah will destroy Israeli troops, Al Manar local TV Channel reported.

“If Israel enters Lebanese territories, its troops will be destroyed live on television, in front of the whole world,” Nasrallah said, in a speech marking the 13th anniversary of the end of the Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006.

GAZA, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- At least 63 Palestinians were injured on Friday afternoon during clashes with Israeli soldiers in eastern Gaza Strip, close to the border with Israel, medics said.

Ashraf al-Qedra, Health Ministry Spokesman in Gaza, told reporters that 63 Palestinian demonstrators were injured, including 32 who were shot by live ammunition and taken to hospitals for medical treatment.

He said that among the casualties, there were 17 children and three women.

GAZA, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- Israeli war jets struck early on Saturday facilities of militant groups in the Gaza Strip in response to earlier rockets attack from the coastal enclave into southern Israel, security sources and local media said.

The sources and the Gaza-based local media said that Israeli war jets struck a military facility that belongs to Islamic Hamas movement in eastern Gaza, and another one in central Gaza Strip.

Residents in eastern and central Gaza Strip heard the noise of the Israeli fighter jets and the bombings. No injuries or damage were reported.

ANKARA, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- As the Turkish-U.S. Joint Operations Center for a safe zone in northern Syria is expected to start operation soon, Turkey's ambitious plan to return the large number of Syrian refugees in its territories will also be put in motion.

On Friday, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said the Joint Operations Center will fully function next week in Turkey's southeastern province of Sanliurfa near the Syrian border.

GIBRALTAR (AP) — The captain of an Iranian supertanker at the center of a diplomatic standoff no longer wants to keep command of the ship, which is in need of repairs that could impede its immediate departure from Gibraltar, the sailor’s lawyer said Friday.

Any delay in the Grace 1′s departure could provide a window for the U.S. to mount further legal action in Gibraltar seeking to seize the tanker amid a growing confrontation with Tehran.

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Latest on Israel banning U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib and fellow Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar’s planned tour, and subsequent reversal allowing Tlaib entry to West Bank for a family visit (all times local):

9:45 p.m.

U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota disputes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim that she and Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan didn’t ask to meet with Israeli government or opposition officials before he barred them from visiting Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank next week.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s interior minister said Friday he has received and granted a request by Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib to enter the Israeli-occupied West Bank on humanitarian grounds.

The decision marked the latest sharp reversal over what had been a planned visit by Tlaib and fellow Democrat, Rep. Ilhan Omar, to Jerusalem and the West Bank.

TEHRAN, August 16. /TASS/: Tehran has not provided any guarantees that the Grace 1 supertanker will stay away from Syria following its release by Gibraltar’s authorities, spokesman for Iran's Foreign Ministry Abbas Mousavi said on Friday.

"Iran did not give any guarantees that the Grace 1 tanker will not head to Syria," Iran’s Tasnim News Agency quoted him as saying.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran has made no commitments to gain the release of its tanker from detention in Gibraltar, an Iranian government spokesman was quoted as saying on Friday, reiterating that Grace 1 was never bound for Syria as alleged by its captors.

Fabian Picardo, chief minister for the British territory, said the detention order was lifted after written assurances from Tehran that the ship would not discharge oil in Syria in violation of European Union sanctions.

Tehran, Aug 16, IRNA - A prominent lawyer from Geneva Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies believes the UK’s bitter experience of seizing Grace 1 supertanker indicates how expensive it would be for the countries to follow the extremist elements in Trump administration from political, strategic and prestige point of view.