Austria’s top diplomat appeals for a pause in Mideast fighting for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan
By BASSEM MROUE
Associated Press
BEIRUT (AP) — Austria’s foreign minister has urged Israel and Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group against escalating the conflict along the volatile Israel-Lebanon border. Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg also said Thursday that he hopes for a pause in the fighting in Gaza in time for the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in March. Schallenberg said in Beirut that the Middle East has witnessed enough devastation and cruelty. Lebanese state-run National News Agency reported that Israeli airstrikes on Lebanese villages along the southern border killed two people and wounded 14 others overnight in the village of Kafra.