Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service.
Hello, I'm Ankur Desai, and in the early hours of Friday, the 29th of May, these are our main stories. As Israel intensifies attacks in Lebanon, we have a special report on how Hezbollah is responding with a new drone threat of its own.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he's ordered the military to further increase its occupation of the Gaza Strip, contradicting the terms of the ceasefire deal. The United Nations has added Israel and Russia to its blacklist on sexual violence in conflict.
Chapter 2: How are Hezbollah's drones changing the conflict with Israel?
Also in this podcast, an Austrian court has handed a 15-year jail sentence to a man who planned a jihadist attack at a Taylor Swift concert. And the heatwave across Europe affects the French Open.
You heard a tennis player today saying he was dizzy. That's one of the symptoms of heat stress or heat illness.
Yannick Sinner suffers a shock defeat after feeling unwell on court. We begin in Lebanon, where leaders there have sharply criticised deadly Israeli attacks near UNESCO-protected historic landmarks. The Prime Minister, Nawaf Salam, said nothing could justify ongoing strikes on the Tyre and Nabatea regions and the destruction of their landmarks.
He said Israel orders for residents to evacuate swathes of southern Lebanon amounted to a collective punishment condemned by all international norms and laws. Israel has intensified attacks on Lebanon in recent days and has also hit the capital Beirut, saying it's targeting Hezbollah. But the Iran-backed group is fighting back.
It's developed a new drone that has become the main threat faced by Israel's soldiers in southern Lebanon and on civilians in northern Israel. The BBC's Lucy Williamson has been to the Israeli border community of Shomera. And a brief warning, this piece begins with air raid warning sounds. Minutes after arriving in Israel's border town of Shomerah, a warning.
Explosive fiber-optic drones, the newest threat from Hezbollah in Lebanon. It's close to the border. The warnings and the weapons come seconds apart. In the field? All the time. And all Israel's firepower. It's occupation of Lebanon. Can't stop them. We've just ducked inside the bomb shelter here in Shomera because we've had three separate alerts.
This community has been the target of Hezbollah drones over and over again. From the entrance to the shelter, we scan the sky, but there's no sign of a drone. Israel's army later told us it lost contact with it, but that an Israeli soldier was killed in a separate drone attack outside Shomera an hour earlier.
Outside, near a bus stop hit by a drone this week, Shomera's council chief, Sami Zanetti, told me there was sometimes no warning at all.
The problem is you don't feel them coming, he said. You're sitting there and suddenly it arrives. And if you run, it follows you. The day before we arrived, Shomera's security team were chased by a drone, firing at it right above the house of Amichai Ben David, a peach farmer with seven children, whose roof already has a large hole from a Hezbollah rocket attack last year.
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Chapter 3: What actions has Israel taken in the Gaza Strip recently?
Its forces still occupy large areas of southern Lebanon, and its prime minister this week vowed to deal Hezbollah a crushing blow. But none of it stops the small, low-flying fiber-optic drones. Israel's military has been criticized for not learning from Ukrainian forces. facing the same threat for two years.
On a visit to the northern border today, Israel's military spokesman, Efi Deferin, addressed the threat.
We are constantly formulating responses to the drone threat. The best minds in the IDF and outside it are working tirelessly. There are no limits on the use of strength and resources when it comes to the security of our troops and our civilians.
Several Israeli companies are working on ways to intercept the drones, including specialist ammunition and a project that links sensors to computers on soldiers' personal weapons, which can lock on to targets and provide a firing window.
But Sarid Zahavi, head of Israel's Alma Research Center, which monitors the conflict, says Hezbollah is increasingly using its drones to target civilian communities like Shomera. they intensified the amount of attacks that are border crossing into Israel.
I think that it's direct order from Iran. And this is all with the background of what is happening with the deal. Iran wants to see a situation that Israel is attacking Hezbollah and everything explodes here. Everything goes back to the beginning and the regular Iranian back and forth.
A return to full conflict with both Hezbollah and its backer Iran would please some in Shomera. Along with many Israelis, Council Chief Sami Zanetti is frustrated at the US desire to wind up the region's wars. I'd like the country to take a brave decision and finish off Hezbollah, he told me. Today, our hands are tied by President Trump. Lucy Williamson reporting.
Meanwhile, on another front of the conflict in the Middle East, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered his troops to take control of even more of the Gaza Strip, far beyond what was agreed in the US-brokered ceasefire deal with Hamas last October. Speaking at an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank, Mr Netanyahu said he wants the IDF to occupy 70% of Gaza.
We are currently squeezing Hamas. We now control 60% of the territory of the Strip. You know this. We were at 50. We moved to 60. My directive is to go to 70. We're pressing them from all sides. We're dealing with the remnants.
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Chapter 4: What is the significance of the UN's blacklist on sexual violence?
We're seeing them doing the opposite here. Israel is insisting it is meeting its aid obligations, its humanitarian obligations, but the UN and aid agencies are saying the opposite, that much of the aid remains blocked. And this board of peace that is backed by the US, created by the US, has shown itself ineffective in brokering a way forward, finding solutions in order to progress effectively.
the ceasefire process. Now, there's a couple of things that should be noted. One, Israel is very anxious about this emerging US-Iran ceasefire deal. Of course, Iran is insisting that the deal should include a ceasefire on all fronts in the war in the region. That would include Lebanon.
Chapter 5: What was the outcome of the jihadist attack plot on a Taylor Swift concert?
It would include Gaza. And for Israel, its government, it's thinking that this is going to stop it being able to declare a military victory in all of these different arenas on the terms that it wants. And then you also have this trend in Israeli politics of people who want to see Gazans, Palestinians forced out of the Gaza Strip.
Just yesterday, you had the Minister of Defence, Israel Katz, vowing once again to implement what he called voluntary emigration from the Gaza Strip at the correct time, which for Palestinians, they read that as a euphemism for forced ethnic cleansing. And it should also be borne in mind that Israel is entering election season. So Prime Minister Netanyahu and the other ministers want to
speak to their different audiences, and they want to show that they are still calling the shots. And all of this must be held in mind when you look at what Israel is doing in Gaza and elsewhere in the region, be it Iran, be it Lebanon. The United Nations has added Israel and Russia to its blacklist on sexual violence in conflict.
Chapter 6: How has the European heatwave impacted the French Open?
In an annual report, the UN says that despite warnings, it's continued to document patterns of sexual violence in the wars in Ukraine and Gaza and the occupied Palestinian territories. A correspondent in New York, Pratiksha Gildial, told me more.
We have obtained a copy of this report and it has been shared with the Security Council as well by the Secretary General's office, I'm told. It says that in general, the cases of conflict-related sexual violence went up significantly last year in 2025 as compared to 2024.
And as you were saying just now, Israeli and Russian security forces have been added to this blacklist on sexual violence and conflict in Israel. Particularly, they say they have documented patterns of sexual violence against Palestinians detained in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. They say they documented cases against 14 men detained.
seven women, nine boys and one girl from Gaza and the West Bank. These violations consisted of rape, gang rape and violence to genitals, among others. But it's important to note that the UN says that these cases are indicative of a multi-year trend rather than a comprehensive report, since they say that the Israeli government denies them access to detention centres.
In response, the Israeli ambassador to the UN denounced this report. He called it unacceptable. He said that it was unacceptable to put Israel and Hamas terrorists, as he called them, on the same list.
And any reaction from Russia? You mentioned Israel there.
We haven't seen any formal reaction from Russia yet. But again, this report highlights sexual violence in the occupied Ukrainian territories and even within Russia. And the U.N. says that Russia continues to deny access to U.N. monitors in its territory. The report goes on to say 310 cases of conflict related sexual violence reported. were documented.
These include an overwhelming number of men, which is 280 men, 26 women and six girls. The UN accusing that these were all perpetrated by Russian armed and security forces.
And just very briefly, for any victims, will any justice be served or handed out?
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