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Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah held talks with a Hamas delegation in Beirut, including the group's deputy chief in the Gaza Strip, Khalil Al Hayya.
The two men discussed the situation in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, as well as negotiations for a ceasefire in Gaza, Hezbollah said in a statement. Hamas's representative in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan, also attended the meeting.
It's the most high profile public meeting between Mr Nasrallah and Hamas officials since the assassination on January 2 of Hamas deputy Saleh Al Arouri in an Israeli drone attack on southern Beirut.
Mr Al Arouri is the most senior Hamas official to be killed since October 7, and had operated as a go-between between the two Iran-backed groups.
The meeting between Mr Nasrallah and Hamas representatives comes after international efforts to secure a truce in Gaza before Ramadan failed to find agreement between Israel and Hamas.
Hezbollah has repeatedly said it would only agree to a ceasefire on the Lebanon-Israel border once Israel halted its military offensive in Gaza.
Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, has been engaged in near daily cross-border exchanges since October 8.
According to the powerful Lebanese group, part of its rationale is to ease the pressure on Hamas, who are battling Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip. More than 200 Hezbollah fighters have been killed by Israel in the border violence.
Hamas launched a deadly incursion into southern Israel on October 7, killing more than 1,110 people and taking more than 200 hostages back into Gaza.
Israel has besieged the Palestinian enclave in response, killing more than 31,000 people there.
While clashes in Lebanon were initially contained to the border areas, they have gradually increased in their scope and intensity. There are fears they could spill over into a much wider war.
On Tuesday, for the second day in a row, Israeli warplanes struck deep into Lebanon, with alleged Hezbollah positions in the Bekaa Valley the targets.
The Israeli military said its fighter jets “struck two Hezbollah military command centres” in the Baalbek area, in response to Hezbollah rocket launches towards northern Israel earlier in the day.
Hezbollah said it fired more than 100 Katyusha rockets at 7am local time, aiming to hit several Israeli military posts, in response to Israeli shelling of the Bekaa Valley on Monday night that killed at least one civilian.
Tax authority targets shisha levy evasion
The Federal Tax Authority will track shisha imports with electronic markers to protect customers and ensure levies have been paid.
Khalid Ali Al Bustani, director of the tax authority, on Sunday said the move is to "prevent tax evasion and support the authority’s tax collection efforts".
The scheme’s first phase, which came into effect on 1st January, 2019, covers all types of imported and domestically produced and distributed cigarettes. As of May 1, importing any type of cigarettes without the digital marks will be prohibited.
He said the latest phase will see imported and locally produced shisha tobacco tracked by the final quarter of this year.
"The FTA also maintains ongoing communication with concerned companies, to help them adapt their systems to meet our requirements and coordinate between all parties involved," he said.
As with cigarettes, shisha was hit with a 100 per cent tax in October 2017, though manufacturers and cafes absorbed some of the costs to prevent prices doubling.
Janet Yellen's Firsts
- In 2014, she became the first woman to lead the US Federal Reserve
- In 1999, she became the first female chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
If you go
The flights
Return flights from Dubai to Santiago, via Sao Paolo cost from Dh5,295 with Emirates.
The trip
A five-day trip (not including two days of flight travel) was split between Santiago and in Puerto Varas, with more time spent in the later where excursions were organised by TurisTour.
When to go
The summer months, from December to February are best though there is beauty in each season
Family reunited
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was born and raised in Tehran and studied English literature before working as a translator in the relief effort for the Japanese International Co-operation Agency in 2003.
She moved to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies before moving to the World Health Organisation as a communications officer.
She came to the UK in 2007 after securing a scholarship at London Metropolitan University to study a master's in communication management and met her future husband through mutual friends a month later.
The couple were married in August 2009 in Winchester and their daughter was born in June 2014.
She was held in her native country a year later.
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