BEIRUT: When Lebanon holds its Parliamentary election soon, almost one-fourth of the 128 seats are expected to be passed on from an older relative to another member of the family. Nineteen candidates are attempting to inherit the seats of their parents.
They are:
1. Nezar Mohsen Dalloul (Shiite) for Zahle district in Central Bekaa
2. Ziad Nazem Al-Qadery (Sunni) for Western Bekaa and Rashaya
3. Ali Sabri Bek Hmadeh (Shiite) for Baalbeck – Hermel
4. Amin Edmond Rizk (Greek Catholic) for Jezzine in South Lebanon
5. Abdulrahman Nazih Al-Bizri (Sunni) for Saida district in South Lebanon
6. Ahmed Mouhammed Kamel Al-Assaad (Shiite) for Nabatiyeh district
7. Riad Saeed Al-Assaad (Shiite) for Zahrani district in South Lebanon
8. Fadi Issam Abou Jamra (Greek Orthodox) for Marjayoun and Hasbayya district
9. Walid Wajeeh Al-Baarini (Sunni) for Akkar district in North Lebanon
10. Mohammed Tareq Talal Al-Maraabi (Sunni) for Akkar district
11.Sami Ahmad Shawki Fatfat (Sunni) for Al-Danniyeh district in North Lebanon
12.Michel René Mouawwad (Maronite) for Zgharta district
13.Tony Suleiman Frangieh for Zgharta
14.Michelle Gebran Tueni (Greek Orthodox) for Beirut
15.Nadim Bachir Gemayel (Maronite) for Beirut
16.Omar Najah Wakim (Greek Orthodox) for Beirut
17.Zaher Walid Eido (Sunni) for Baabda district in Mount Lebanon
18.Taymour Walid Jumblatt (Druze) For the Shouf district in Mount Lebanon
19.Camille Michel Dory Chamoun (Maronite) for Al-Shouf district in Mount Lebanon.
All in the family: Lebanese politicians seeking to inherit their parents’ seats
All in the family: Lebanese politicians seeking to inherit their parents’ seats
Doctors urge medical evacuations from war-torn Gaza to east Jerusalem
- Israel controls all points of departure from the Gaza Strip which has been battered by over a year of war between Israel and militants led by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas
JERUSALEM: Medics and rights groups on Tuesday called for the immediate opening of a humanitarian corridor from Gaza to allow the urgent evacuation of patients to hospitals in east Jerusalem.
Israel controls all points of departure from the Gaza Strip which has been battered by over a year of war between Israel and militants led by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.
Rare medical evacuations have been organized by international organizations or foreign countries in coordination with Israeli authorities.
But amid mounting casualties from the war, the East Jerusalem Hospitals Network and Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) called for the immediate reopening of the Gaza to east Jerusalem medical corridor, estimating that about 25,000 patients in Gaza were in need of urgent care.
Fadi Atrash, the director of the Augusta Victoria Hospital in east Jerusalem, said the reopening of the evacuation corridor “is essential to allow us to continue to provide vital treatments in hospitals in east Jerusalem, where we have both the space and the medical expertise.”
Prior to the war, patients in Gaza who were in need of medical care unavailable in the Palestinian territory could be evacuated to hospitals in the Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem or the occupied West Bank, and in some cases in Israel.
But since the Gaza war broke out last year, that mechanism has been defunct.
During an exceptional evacuation of about 200 patients from Gaza in early November, the World Health Organization said about 14,000 people were awaiting medical evacuations.
Days later, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said “Israeli authorities blocked, without explanation, the medical evacuation of eight children and their caretakers from Gaza who are in need of medical care, including a two-year-old with leg amputations, to the MSF hospital in Jordan.”
“We strongly denounce this decision,” it said.
On Tuesday, “31 patients and caregivers left Gaza” through the Kerem Shalom crossing between Gaza and Israel, COGAT, the Israeli Defense Ministry agency managing civil affairs in the Palestinian territories, said.
It added that the patients were to be transferred to Jordan and the United States for treatment.
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post on X that the 31 comprised 11 children with cancer awaiting treatment and 20 companions.
“Thousands of patients across Gaza still need medical evacuations for life-saving medical care. We urge that all corridors be utilized for the safe transfer of patients outside the Gaza Strip,” he said.
More than 105,000 people have been wounded in Gaza since the war erupted on October 7, 2023, according to figures from the territory’s health ministry which the United Nations deems reliable.
Gaza’s health care system has largely been decimated by the war, with only a handful of medical facilities now able to provide care.
Palestinian factions Hamas, Fatah close to deal on postwar Gaza governance
CAIRO: Palestinian officials say Fatah and Hamas are closing in on an agreement to appoint a committee of politically independent technocrats to administer the Gaza Strip after the war. It would effectively end Hamas’ rule and could help advance ceasefire talks with Israel.
The two factions have made several failed attempts to reconcile since Hamas seized power in Gaza in 2007. Israel has meanwhile ruled out any postwar role in Gaza for either Hamas or the Western-backed Palestinian Authority, which is dominated by Fatah.
A Palestinian Authority official on Tuesday confirmed that a preliminary agreement had been reached following weeks of negotiations in Cairo. The official said the committee would have 12-15 members, most of them from Gaza.
It would report to the Palestinian Authority, which is headquartered in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and work with local and international parties to facilitate humanitarian assistance and reconstruction.
A Hamas official said that Hamas and Fatah had agreed on the general terms but were still negotiating over some details and the individuals who would serve on the committee.
The official said an agreement would be announced after a meeting of all Palestinian factions in Cairo, without providing a timeline.
Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media on the talks. There was no immediate comment from Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to continue the war until Hamas is dismantled and scores of Israeli hostages are returned. He says Israel will maintain open-ended security control over Gaza, with civilian affairs administered by local Palestinians unaffiliated with the Palestinian Authority or Hamas.
No Palestinians have publicly volunteered for such a role, and Hamas has threatened anyone who cooperates with the Israeli military.
The United States has called for a revitalized Palestinian Authority to govern both the West Bank and Gaza ahead of eventual statehood.
Lebanese refugees return home from Iraq despite widespread destruction
NAJAF: Lebanese families displaced in Iraq by the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah have begun returning to their homes in southern Lebanon following a recently brokered ceasefire.
The cessation of hostilities has allowed many to return despite widespread destruction.
“After two months, we are returning to our homeland. We will return even if we find our homes destroyed; we will sit on the ground,” said Ali Abdulla, a southern Lebanon resident, waiting along with dozens of others at Najaf airport in Iraq to fly back to Beirut with his family.
More than 20,000 Lebanese have sought refuge in Iraq since the outbreak of the war, according to official figures.
“Returning home was faster than we expected. A ceasefire has been achieved. We, the southerners, have not and will not abandon our land,” said Yousef Barakat, who was also waiting in Najaf to board a Middle East Airlines flight to Beirut. Najaf airport officials said around 800 Lebanese were leaving for Beirut every week, while others were using government-provided buses to travel to the Qaim border crossing with Syria and then on to Lebanon.
Iraqi local officials said at least 1,000 Lebanese had been crossing into Syria daily for three days.
But then an escalation of hostilities in Syria following a militant offensive against Syrian government forces led many to shun the land route, fearing for their safety.
They now prefer to wait for flights.
Iraq’s government and some institutions in Najaf and Kerbala have provided essential support, including free accommodation, healthcare, and meals, ensuring that displaced families have a safe, supportive environment during their stay.
The ceasefire, brokered by the US and France, aims to end the conflict across the Israeli-Lebanese border that has killed at least 3,768 people in Lebanon since it was ignited by the Gaza war last year, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
However, not all Lebanese are eager to return, saying their homes are uninhabitable due to damaged water and electricity networks.
They are uncertain about what will happen once the 60-day ceasefire ends.
Israel says killed three Hamas members in strike on West Bank
- Following the strike, “soldiers conducted a targeted raid in the vicinity of the strike, locating four weapons,” it added
- The Palestinian health ministry had earlier said an Israeli strike on a vehicle in Aqaba killed two Palestinians and wounded one
WEST BANK, Palestinian Territories: The Israeli military on Tuesday said it killed three Hamas members in an air strike near the occupied West Bank city of Tubas, after the Palestinian health ministry reported two dead.
“Three Hamas terrorists who planned an imminent terrorist attack were eliminated” when the Israeli air force struck vehicles in the Aqaba area near Tubas, the military said.
Following the strike, “soldiers conducted a targeted raid in the vicinity of the strike, locating four weapons,” it added.
The Palestinian health ministry had earlier said an Israeli strike on a vehicle in Aqaba killed two Palestinians and wounded one.
All three Palestinians were transported to a hospital in Tubas, it added, but later said Israeli forces raided the same hospital, which the army denied in a statement to AFP.
The Israeli military had earlier told AFP that the air force, “acting on intelligence, struck a terror cell that was about to carry out an attack” in the Aqaba area.
It said an army unit “was then dispatched to collect the bodies and operated in the area of the Turkish Hospital in Tubas.”
However, it added, “they did not enter the hospital.”
Israel often seizes the bodies of Palestinians killed during operations, particularly those who belonged to militant groups, although an AFP journalist present near the hospital at the time of the operation did not see soldiers carrying bodies.
The Palestinian health ministry said the Israeli army besieged the hospital, before breaking into it, shooting inside, “assaulting staff and patients, and arresting a number of them.”
The AFP journalist in Tubas saw Israeli armored vehicles stationed outside the hospital and soldiers deployed around it.
The journalist saw Israeli soldiers exiting the hospital and detaining staff, some of them wearing scrubs or doctor’s gowns, before loading them into the armored vehicles.
Violence in the West Bank has soared since the war in Gaza erupted on October 7 last year after Hamas’s attack on Israel.
Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 787 Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war, according to the Ramallah-based health ministry.
Palestinian attacks on Israelis have also killed at least 24 people in the West Bank in the same period, according to Israeli official figures.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.
Israel says killed Hezbollah liaison with Syria army in Damascus strike
- “The (Israeli Air Force) conducted an intelligence-based strike in Damascus targeting Hezbollah’s representative to the Syrian military, Salman Nemer Jomaa,” the military said
- “Jomaa was responsible for coordination between Hezbollah agents and the Syrian army“hezbolla
JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said it killed the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah’s liaison with the Syrian army in an air strike on Damascus on Tuesday as a fragile six-day-old ceasefire stutters.
“The (Israeli Air Force) conducted an intelligence-based strike in Damascus targeting Hezbollah’s representative to the Syrian military, Salman Nemer Jomaa,” the military said, adding he played a key role in weapons deliveries between Syria and the militant group.
“As part of his duties, Jomaa was responsible for coordination between Hezbollah agents and the Syrian army, including to support the smuggling of weapons between Syria and Hezbollah,” it added.
Syrian state news agency SANA had reported an Israeli strike on a car on the road to Damascus’s international airport, while a war monitor reported one person killed.
“A car exploded after it was targeted in an Israeli aggression on the road to Damascus International Airport,” SANA reported, citing a police source.
According to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the car was targeted by an Israeli drone.
“A man who was inside was killed and another was injured,” said the Observatory, without providing details of their identities.
The strike occurred near a military airfield, added the Observatory, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria.
Since Syria’s war broke out in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria, mainly targeting the army and Iran-backed groups including Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
Israel rarely comments on such strikes but has repeatedly said it will not allow Iran to expand its presence in the country.
The strike on Damascus came amid mutual accusations between Israel and Hezbollah of violating the ceasefire that came into effect in Lebanon on November 27.
