Categories
Small Business Lifestyle

Arrests made in 96 Triad home break-in cases across 6 counties [Video]

DAVIDSON COUNTY, N.C. (WGHP) Multiple Triad law enforcement agencies collaborated to make arrests in 96 home break-in cases across multiple Triad counties, Davidson County Sheriff Richie Simmons announced in a Monday morning press conference. Background On Aug. 15, the Yadkin County Sheriffs Office announced on Facebook that they were working with surrounding agencies to []

Categories
Small Business Lifestyle

Yoav Gallant declares a ‘special situation on the home front’ [Video]

Israel launched a series of intense airstrikes in southern Lebanon early Sunday in what it said was a pre-emptive strike against the Hezbollah militant group, threatening to trigger a broader region-wide war that could torpedo efforts to forge a cease-fire in Gaza.The army said Hezbollah was planning to launch a heavy barrage of rockets and missiles toward Israel. The Iranian-backed group had been promising to retaliate for Israel’s assassination of a top commander late last month.Video above: Gazan father went to register his twins births. They were killed in an Israeli airstrike, hospital officials sayAir raid sirens were reported throughout northern Israel, and Israel’s Ben-Gurion International Airport began diverting incoming flights and delaying takeoffs.Soon afterward, Hezbollah announced it had launched an attack on Israel with a large number of drones as an initial response to the killing of Fouad Shukur, a top commander with the group, in a strike in Beiruts southern suburbs last month.Hezbollah said the attack was targeting a qualitative Israeli military target that will be announced later as well as targeting a number of enemy sites and barracks and Iron Dome platforms.The attack came as Egypt hosts a new round of talks aimed at ending Israels war against Hamas, now in its 11th month. Hezbollah has said it will halt the fighting if there is a cease-fire.In the U.S., a spokesman for the National Security Council, Sean Savett, said President Joe Biden was “closely monitoring events in Israel and Lebanon.At his direction, senior U.S. officials have been communicating continuously with their Israeli counterparts, Savett said. “We will keep supporting Israels right to defend itself, and we will keep working for regional stability.In recent weeks, diplomats from the U.S. and European countries have made a flurry of visits to Israel and Lebanon in an attempt to tamp down the escalation that they fear could spiral into a regional war, potentially pulling in the U.S. and Iran.Last week, Israels defense minister said he was moving more troops toward the Lebanese border in anticipation of possible fighting with the Iranian-backed group.Israels military spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said early Sunday: In a self-defense act to remove these threats, the (Israeli military) is striking terror targets in Lebanon, from which Hezbollah was planning to launch their attacks on Israeli civilians.We can see that Hezbollah is preparing to launch an extensive attack on Israel, while endangering the Lebanese civilians,” he added, without providing details. We warn the civilians located in the areas where Hezbollah is operating to move out of harms way immediately for their own safety, he added.Lebanese media reported strikes in the countrys south without immediately providing more details. Social media footage showed what appeared to be strikes in southern Lebanon.Israeli media cited the Israel Airports Authority for news of the flight cancellations. Flight-tracking data showed at least two El Al flights swinging far south and diverting after the announcement.Hagari said dozens of Israeli warplanes were striking targets in southern Lebanon. He said air defenses, warships and warplanes were defending Israels skies and were involved in the operation.Hezbollah began attacking Israel almost immediately after the war with Hamas erupted on Oct. 7 with a Hamas cross-border attack. Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging fire nearly daily, displacing tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border and raising fears that the fighting could escalate into all-out war. But until Sunday, both sides have been careful to avoid a broader conflagration.Hezbollah is considered much more powerful than its ally, Hamas, with an estimated arsenal of arsenal of 150,000 rockets and missiles, including precision-guided missiles. In recent months, the group has also stepped up its use of drones, against which Israel is less well-equipped to defend.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he and his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, were managing the latest operation from military headquarters in Tel Aviv. Gallant declared a special situation on the home front, and Netanyahu’s Security Cabinet was set to meet later Sunday morning.Associated Press journalist Aamer Madhani in Buellton, California, contributed to this report.

Categories
Small Business Lifestyle

Strikes kill dozens in southern Gaza as cease-fire talks prepare [Video]

At least three dozen Palestinians were killed in multiple Israeli strikes in the southern Gaza Strip, officials said Saturday, even as preparations moved ahead for high-level cease-fire talks in the Egyptian capital.Related video above: US increases military presence in Middle East as Israel-Hamas War escalatesAmong the dead were 11 members of the same family, including two children, when an Israeli airstrike hit their home in the city of Khan Younis early Saturday, according to Nasser Hospital, where the bodies and wounded were taken.The hospital received a total of 33 dead who were killed in three separate strikes in and around Khan Younis. The city’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said it had received another three bodies from an early Saturday strike.Seventeen others were killed when a strike hit a road south of Khan Younis, including the passengers on a tuk-tuk and passers-by, Nasser Hospital said. Another strike hit a tuk-tuk east of Khan Younis, killing at least five people.The Israeli military said it was looking into the reports but had no immediate comment.First responders also recovered 10 bodies from a residential block west of Khan Younis, six from the Hamad City area of Khan Younis, and two farther south in Rafah. The circumstances of their deaths were not immediately clear, the hospital said, but the areas were repeatedly bombed by the Israeli military over the past week.An Associated Press journalist at the hospital counted the bodies and filmed the funeral service in the hospital’s courtyard.The war in Gaza broke out on Oct. 7 when Hamas and other militants staged a surprise attack on Israel, killing some 1,200 people, primarily civilians. More than 100 hostages were released during a cease-fire last year, but Hamas is still believed to be holding around 110 more, about a third of whom are dead, according to estimates from Israeli authorities.Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count. The ministry said Saturday that a total of 69 dead and 212 wounded had been brought to hospitals across the strip over the past 24 hours.The conflict has also caused widespread destruction and forced the vast majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents to flee their homes.Experts were meeting Saturday to work through technical issues and pave the way for the high-level talks Sunday on a possible cease-fire mediated by the United States, Egypt and Qatar.A Hamas delegation arrived Saturday in Cairo to meet with Egyptian and Qatari officials, senior Hamas official Mahmoud Merdawy told the AP. He stressed that Hamas will not take part directly in the Sunday talks, but instead will be briefed by Egypt and Qatar.An Israeli delegation that arrived Thursday included David Barnea, the head of Israel’s Mossad foreign intelligence service, the head of Israel’s Shin Bet security service, and top general Maj. Gen. Eliezer Toledano.CIA Director William Burns and Brett McGurk, a senior adviser on the Middle East to President Joe Biden, are leading the U.S. side of negotiations amid major differences between Israel and Hamas over Israel’s insistence that it maintain forces in two strategic corridors in Gaza.The White House on Friday said the talks had been constructive and that progress had been made, without providing specific details.The U.S. has been pushing a bridging proposal that aims at closing the gaps between Israel and Hamas, as pressure mounts for a cease-fire and fears grow over a wider regional war after the recent targeted killings of leaders of the militant Hamas and Hezbollah groups, both blamed on Israel.Biden called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday to stress the urgency of reaching a cease-fire and hostage release deal, and discussed developments with the leaders of Qatar and Egypt on Friday.A major impasse has been the Philadelphi corridor alongside Gaza’s border with Egypt and the Netzarim east-west corridor across the territory.Hamas is demanding a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, while Netanyahu has insisted that Israel must retain control of the corridors.Hamas political official Bassem Naim said last week that the working proposal at the time had adopted Netanyahu’s demands, including that Israeli forces remain in control of both the Philadelphi and Netzarim corridors.Ahead of Sunday’s talks, Merdawy said Hamas’ position had not changed from accepting an earlier draft that would include the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza._____ Rising reported from Bangkok. Associated Press writer Wafaa Shurfa in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, contributed to this report.