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 and said he hopes for a pause in the fighting in Gaza in time for the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in March. Alexander Schallenberg said on Thursday in Beirut that the Middle East has witnessed enough devastation and cruelty. Overnight, Israeli airstrikes on Lebanese villages along the southern border killed two people and wounded 14 others in the village of Kafra, state-run National News Agency reported.