PARIS (AP) — France's prime minister said Friday that firefighters and other rescuers have been involved in about 2,300 operations, some of them lifesaving, in what appears to be the biggest flooding in 40 years in central France.
Michel Barnier visited French authorities' crisis center in Paris and said there hadn't been such violent rain in many people's memory. Over 1,000 people were evacuated. Most of them were able to go back home on Friday.
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A car is seen in a parking lot of a shopping mall in Givors, central France, after torrential rains and flooding submerged roads and railways, Friday, Oct. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Laurent Cirpiani)
Shopping trolleys are seen in a parking lot of a shopping mall in Givors, central France, after torrential rains and flooding submerged roads and railways, Friday, Oct. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Laurent Cirpiani)
A car is seen in a parking lot of a shopping mall in Givors, central France, after torrential rains and flooding submerged roads and railways, Friday, Oct. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Laurent Cirpiani)
An overturned car is seen in a parking lot of a shopping mall in Givors, central France, after torrential rains and flooding submerged roads and railways, Friday, Oct. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Laurent Cirpiani)
A rugby pitch is flooded in Givors, central France, after torrential rains and flooding submerged roads and railways, Friday, Oct. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Laurent Cirpiani)
Firefighters pump out water in Givors, central France, after torrential rains and flooding submerged roads and railways, Friday, Oct. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Laurent Cirpiani)
An overturned car is seen in a parking lot of a shopping mall in Givors, central France, after torrential rains and flooding submerged roads and railways, Friday, Oct. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Laurent Cirpiani)
A car drives in a flooded street near a shopping mall in Givors, central France, after torrential rains and flooding submerged roads and railways, Friday, Oct. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Laurent Cirpiani)
Barnier also praised an alert system, used for the first time, that sent text messages urging people in the concerned areas to delay or cancel their planned trips and stay in a safe place.
French weather agency Meteo France said as much as 700 millimeters (27.5 inches) of rain fell in in 48 hours in some local areas in the regions of Ardeche and Lozere.
National railway operator SNCF halted regional trains between the cities of Lyon and Saint-Étienne on Thursday saying the tracks were impassable. Local train services will remain disrupted for several days, it said.
A main highway between the two cities also was inundated and remained closed on Friday.
Meteo France lifted its red alert for bad weather on Friday morning but still warned of potential heavy rain and floods in southwestern France.
A car is seen in a parking lot of a shopping mall in Givors, central France, after torrential rains and flooding submerged roads and railways, Friday, Oct. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Laurent Cirpiani)
Shopping trolleys are seen in a parking lot of a shopping mall in Givors, central France, after torrential rains and flooding submerged roads and railways, Friday, Oct. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Laurent Cirpiani)
A car is seen in a parking lot of a shopping mall in Givors, central France, after torrential rains and flooding submerged roads and railways, Friday, Oct. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Laurent Cirpiani)
An overturned car is seen in a parking lot of a shopping mall in Givors, central France, after torrential rains and flooding submerged roads and railways, Friday, Oct. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Laurent Cirpiani)
A rugby pitch is flooded in Givors, central France, after torrential rains and flooding submerged roads and railways, Friday, Oct. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Laurent Cirpiani)
Firefighters pump out water in Givors, central France, after torrential rains and flooding submerged roads and railways, Friday, Oct. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Laurent Cirpiani)
An overturned car is seen in a parking lot of a shopping mall in Givors, central France, after torrential rains and flooding submerged roads and railways, Friday, Oct. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Laurent Cirpiani)
A car drives in a flooded street near a shopping mall in Givors, central France, after torrential rains and flooding submerged roads and railways, Friday, Oct. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Laurent Cirpiani)
Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group said Friday it is entering a new phase in its fight against invading Israeli troops, as the region continued to reckon with Israel's claim that top Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar has been killed in a battle with Israeli forces in Gaza the previous day.
Hamas has still not responded to the Israeli announcement, but its ally Iran released a statement commemorating the Palestinian militant leader via its mission to the United Nations. Sinwar was a chief architect of the attack on southern Israel that precipitated the latest escalating conflicts in the Middle East.
Many, from the governments of Israeli allies to exhausted residents of Gaza, expressed hope that Sinwar's death would pave the way for an end to the war, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a speech announcing the killing that “Our war is not yet ended.”
On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led militants blew holes in Israel’s security fence and stormed in, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250. Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not distinguish combatants from civilians. The war has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced about 90% of its population of 2.3 million people.
Here's the latest:
GENEVA — Forces in the U.N. peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon are maintaining their positions despite “demands” to move from the Israeli Defense Forces, a spokesperson said Friday.
Andrea Tenenti of UNIFIL, the interim force in Lebanon, says a “unanimous” decision was taken by its 50 troop-contributing countries and the U.N. Security Council to hold its positions and continue efforts to monitor the conflict and ensure aid gets to civilians.
“The IDF has repeatedly targeted our positions, endangering the safety of our troops, in addition to Hezbollah launching rockets toward Israel from near our positions, which also puts our peacekeepers in danger,” he told a U.N. news briefing in Geneva by video.
Tenenti said deteriorating security in recent weeks in the fighting between Hezbollah and Israeli forces had forced UNIFIL — which has some 10,000 personnel — to suspend most, but not all, of its patrols near the “blue line” boundary along the Lebanon-Israel border.
“We are seeing at the moment hundreds of trajectories, and sometimes more, crossing the blue line each day, forcing our peacekeepers to spend extended hours in shelters to ensure their safety, which remains our top priority,” he said from Beirut.
Tenenti said UNIFIL was maintaining its positions “despite IDF demands to move from positions close to the blue line.”
JERUSALEM — Israel’s military said that two soldiers were injured in a gunfight with militants from Jordan who crossed into Israel Friday.
At least two militants crossed into Israeli territory south of the Dead Sea Friday morning, before being shot dead by Israeli troops. The two soldiers were injured during the exchanges of fire, the military said. It added that troops were searching the area for another militant who may have infiltrated.
The identities of those who crossed the border remained unclear.
Hamas praised the incursion but did not claim responsibility, calling it an “important development” in the war in Gaza and a “natural response” to the “brutal crimes of the occupation against our Palestinian people.”
The statement was one of the first public comments by Hamas since Israel killed its leader, Yahya Sinwar, Thursday in Gaza.
BEIRUT — A statement issued by one of Hamas’ political leaders abroad Friday tacitly — but not directly — confirmed the death of the group’s leader, Yahya Sinwar, in Gaza, and said that Israel is mistaken if it “believes that killing our leaders means the end of our movement and the struggle of the Palestinian people.”
Hamas political bureau member Bassem Naim said that past leaders in the organization had also been killed and “Hamas each time became stronger and more popular, and these leaders became an icon for future generations to continue the journey towards a free Palestine.” He added that it is “painful and distressing to lose beloved people, especially extraordinary leaders” but that the Palestinian militant group is sure it will be “eventually victorious.”
When asked if the statement was a confirmation of Sinwar’s death, Naim said it was not.
JERUSALEM — Israel’s military said Friday that its forces killed two militants who crossed into south Israel from neighboring Jordan.
The militants entered Israeli territory south of the Dead Sea, the military said.
Such infiltrations into Israeli territory are relatively rare, especially as Israel has ramped up border security since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, when militants from Gaza stormed southern Israel and killed around 1,200 people.
JERUSALEM — Israeli prosecutors are set to indict a Palestinian from East Jerusalem on Friday who police say planned to carry out an attack on a hostage protest in Tel Aviv.
In a statement Friday, the police and Israel’s Shin Bet security agency said the man was a supporter of Hamas and other militant groups, and planned to carry out multiple attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers in retribution for Israel’s offensive in Gaza.
The man had not yet acquired a weapon or explosives to carry out any of the attacks, the police said, adding that he was planning to attack a protest calling for the return of the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. Such protests occur weekly in Tel Aviv.
BEIRUT — Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group says it is entering a new phase in its fight against invading Israeli troops, adding that it has introduced new weapons over the past days.
A statement from the group’s operations room early Friday said that Hezbollah’s fighters have used new types of precision-guided missiles and explosive drones for the first time.
The statement appears to refer to a drone laden with explosives that evaded Israel’s multilayered air-defense system and slammed into a mess hall at a military training camp deep inside Israel, killing four soldiers and wounding dozens.
The group also announced earlier this week that it fired a new type of missile called Qader 2 toward the suburbs of Tel Aviv.
The statement also said that Hezbollah’s air defense units shot down this week two Israeli Hermes 450 drones.
Hezbollah said its fighters are working according to “plans prepared in advance” to battle invading Israeli troops in several parts of south Lebanon.
UNITED NATIONS — Iran’s Mission to the United Nations issued a statement honoring Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas, after Israel said Thursday he had been killed in fighting:
“When U.S. forces dragged a disheveled Saddam Hussein out of an underground hole, he begged them not to kill him despite being armed. Those who regarded Saddam as their model of resistance eventually collapsed. However when Muslims look up to martyr Sinwar standing on the battlefield — in combat attire and out in the open, not in a hideout, facing the enemy — the spirit of resistance will be strengthened. He will become a model for the youth and children who will carry forth his path for the liberation of Palestine. As long as occupation and aggression exist, resistance will endure, for the martyr remains alive and a source of inspiration.”
Iran and Iraq fought a brutal war in the 1980s that began when Hussein launched an invasion of Iran. It killed more than 1 million people on both sides.
An Israeli security forces officer examines the damage to a home struck by a rocket fired from Lebanon in the town of Majd al-Krum, northern Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Smoke rises following Israeli bombardment in southern Lebanon as seen from northern Israel, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Israelis celebrate the news of the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, near Kibbutz Erez, southern Israel, on Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024, (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)
FILE - Yahya Sinwar, head of Hamas in Gaza, delivers a speech during at a hall on the seaside of Gaza City, on April 30, 2022. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)
FILE - Yahya Sinwar speaks to foreign correspondents in his office in Gaza City on May 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra, File)
A demonstrator holds a sign about the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar during a protest calling for a cease-fire deal and the immediate release of hostages held by Hamas on Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024, in Tel Aviv, Israel. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Displaced men fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in Beirut's Dahiyeh suburb, eat as sit at Beirut's seaside promenade, along the Mediterranean Sea while the sun sets over the capital Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
