BEIRUT: Rafi Tabakian’s clothing store in a Beirut suburb is usually buzzing with customers during the holiday season, but with Lebanon’s economy in ruins, shoppers are in short supply.
“We’ve been in business for 30 years, and I’ve never seen anything like this,” he said, adding that sales have dropped 80 percent in December even though he has cut his prices.
“Now we see customers entering, asking for the price, and then leaving. It’s scary,” Tabakian, who produces and sells clothes in the densely populated, commercial Burj Hammoud neighborhood of the capital, said.
Lebanon is suffering its worst economic crisis, rooted in decades of state corruption and waste, since the 1975-1990 civil war, leaving streets dimmer and shopping centers emptier, with many stores and restaurants void of customers.
The economic woes have sparked huge protests against the ruling elite, banks are imposing capital controls, pressure has piled on the pegged Lebanese pound, and a hard currency crunch has pushed importers to hike prices.
Hotel bookings, flights and events have plunged during what is usually a busy commercial season for Lebanon, which has the Arab world’s biggest proportion of Christians.
Many from Lebanon’s large diaspora normally return home to streets packed with cars and decked out with lights.
But Pierre Ashkar, the head of Lebanon’s hotel association, said December bookings have plummeted from a usual 65-75 percent occupancy to 7-15 percent this year.
“Hotels have closed some parts of their buildings, are giving employees unpaid leave and removing services such as free shuttle transportation to the airport to minimize losses.”
Some local councils have opted to either re-use old decorations or do without.
“We put up last year’s decorations, without adding anything because these are exceptional circumstances,” said Raymond Atieh, head of the Jdeideh municipality, north of Beirut.
“The holidays are coming, but they’re coming with a pinch. People are angry ... People are getting fired, paid half-salaries, or not working,” Atieh added.
Charbel Daccache, a priest in Mount Lebanon’s largely Christian town of Adma, said it was better to help feed the poor in tough times “than to decorate and throw glitter.”
“Some days are harsh; others are better but it’s not the end. That’s why I tell people, let it be a joyous time.”
Christmas in Lebanon not so merry as economic crisis bites
https://arab.news/m5ujx
Christmas in Lebanon not so merry as economic crisis bites
- Lebanon is suffering its worst economic crisis, rooted in decades of state corruption and waste
- The economic woes have sparked huge protests against the ruling elite
Gaza rescuers say eight dead in Israel strike on school building
The Israeli military, in a statement, acknowledged it conducted a strike on the facility
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: Gaza’s civil defense agency said an Israeli air strike on a school-turned-shelter on Saturday killed eight people, including two children, while the Israeli military said it targeted Hamas militants.
Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal confirmed eight people, including two children and two women, were killed by Israeli shelling on the Halwa school in the northern Gaza city of Jabalia.
Bassal said the strike wounded 30 people, including 19 children, and that the Halwa school housed “thousands of displaced people.”
The Israeli military, in a statement, acknowledged it conducted a strike on the facility.
It said the air force “conducted a precise strike on terrorists in a command-and-control center” that had previously served as the Halwa school in Jabaliya.
It said it targeted the premises because “the school had been used by Hamas terrorists to plan and execute attacks.”
The attack was the latest in a series of Israeli strikes on school buildings housing displaced people in Gaza, where fighting has raged for more than 14 months.
A strike on the United Nations-run Al-Jawni school in central Gaza on September 11 drew international outcry after the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said six of its staff were among the 18 reported dead.
The Israeli military accuses Hamas of hiding in school buildings where thousands of Gazans have sought shelter — a charge denied by the Palestinian militant group.
At least 46,537 Palestinians, a majority of them civilians, have been killed in Israel’s military campaign in Gaza since the war began, according to data provided by the health ministry. The United Nations has acknowledged these figures as reliable.
The October 7 attack that triggered it resulted in the deaths of 1,208 people on the Israeli side, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures, which includes hostages killed in captivity.
Sudan army says entered key RSF-held Al-Jazira state capital
- The armed forces “congratulated” the Sudanese people in a statement on “our forces entering the city of Wad Madani this morning“
- A video the army shared on social media showed fighters claiming to be inside Wad Madani
PORT SUDAN: The Sudanese military and allied armed groups launched an offensive Saturday on key Al-Jazira state capital Wad Madani, entering the city after more than a year of paramilitary control, the army said.
The armed forces “congratulated” the Sudanese people in a statement on “our forces entering the city of Wad Madani this morning.”
Sudan’s army and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitaries have been at war since April 2023, leading to what the UN calls the world’s worst displacement crisis and declarations of famine in parts of the northeast African country.
A video the army shared on social media showed fighters claiming to be inside Wad Madani, after an army source told AFP they had “stormed the city’s eastern entrance.”
The footage appeared to be shot on the western side of Hantoub Bridge in northern Wad Madani, which has been under RSF control since December 2023.
The office of army-allied government spokesman and Information Minister Khalid Al-Aiser said the army had “liberated” the city.
With a months-long communications blackout in place, AFP was not able to independently verify the situation on the ground.
“The army and allied fighters have spread out around us across the city’s streets,” one eyewitness told AFP from his home in central Wad Madani, requesting anonymity for his safety.
Eyewitnesses in army-controlled cities across Sudan reported dozens taking to the streets celebrating the army offensive.
In the early months of the war between the army and the RSF, more than half a million people had sought shelter in Al-Jazira, before a lightning offensive by paramilitary forces displaced upwards of 300,000 in December 2023, according to the United Nations.
Most have been repeatedly displaced since, as the feared paramilitaries — which the United States this week said have “committed genocide” — moved further and further south.
The war has killed tens of thousands and uprooted more than 12 million overall, more than three million of whom have fled across borders.
Franco-Algerian influencer to stand trial in March
- A diplomatic row between France and Algeria has flared up over the arrests of several Algerian social media influencers accused of inciting violence
- Sofia Benlemmane, a Franco-Algerian woman in her fifties, was arrested on Thursday
LYON: A Franco-Algerian influencer, arrested as part of an investigation into online hate videos, appeared before French prosecutors on Saturday and will stand trial in March, authorities said.
A diplomatic row between France and Algeria has flared up over the arrests of several Algerian social media influencers accused of inciting violence.
Sofia Benlemmane, a Franco-Algerian woman in her fifties, was arrested on Thursday.
Followed on TikTok and Facebook by more than 300,000 people, she is accused of spreading hate messages and threats against Internet users and against opponents of the Algerian authorities, as well as insulting statements about France.
She was ordered to appear before a criminal court on March 18, the public prosecutor’s office said.
She is being prosecuted for a series of offenses including incitement to commit a crime, death threats and “public insult based on origin, ethnicity, nation, race or religion.”
The blogger had insulted a woman during a live broadcast in September, shouting “I hope you get killed, I hope they kill you.”
Her lawyer Frederic Lalliard argued that Benlemmane had committed no criminal offense, even though her comments “may irritate or shock.”
Benlemmane, a former football player, made headlines in 2001 when she was given a seven-month suspended prison sentence for entering the Stade de France pitch outside Paris with an Algerian flag during a France-Algeria friendly match.
Although she was firmly opposed to the government in Algiers in the past, her views have since changed and she now supports the current authorities in Algeria.
Several other Algerian influencers have been the target of legal proceedings in France for hate speech.
Former prime minister Gabriel Attal said that France should cancel a 1968 accord with Algeria that gives Algerians special rights to live and work in France because of the dispute over what he called “preachers of hate.”
Algeria won independence from France in 1962 after a seven-year war.
Health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says 32 killed in 48 hours
- The ministry said at least 109,571 people have been wounded in more than 15 months of war
- The ministry of health added 499 deaths to its death toll on Saturday
JERUSALEM: The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Saturday that 32 people were killed in the Palestinian territory over the past 48 hours, taking the overall death toll to 46,537.
The ministry said at least 109,571 people have been wounded in more than 15 months of war between Israel and Hamas, triggered by the Palestinian group’s October 7, 2023 attack.
The ministry of health added 499 deaths to its death toll on Saturday, specifying they have now completed the data and confirmed identities on files whose information was incomplete.
A source in the ministry’s data collection department told AFP that all the 499 additional deaths were from the past several months.
The number of dead in Gaza has become a matter of bitter debate since Israel launched its military campaign against Hamas in response to the Palestinian militant group’s unprecedented attack last year.
Israeli authorities have repeatedly questioned the credibility of the Gaza health ministry’s figures.
But a study published Friday by British medical journal The Lancet estimated that the death toll in Gaza during the first nine months of the Israel-Hamas war was around 40 percent higher than recorded by the health ministry.
The new peer-reviewed study used data from the ministry, an online survey and social media obituaries, but only counted deaths from traumatic injuries. It did not include those from a lack of health care or food, or the thousands of missing believed to be buried under rubble.
The UN considers the Gaza health ministry’s numbers to be reliable.
Lebanon’s new president says to visit Saudi Arabia on first official trip
- Lebanese leader tells crown prince that ‘Saudi Arabia would be the first destination in his visits abroad’
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s newly-elected president, Joseph Aoun, will visit Saudi Arabia following an invitation from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, according to a statement posted on the Lebanese presidency’s X account on Saturday.
ولي العهد السعودي وجه دعوة للرئيس عون لزيارة المملكة. ورئيس الجمهورية اكد ان المملكة العربية السعودية ستكون اول مقصد له في زياراته الخارجية تلبية لدعوة سمو ولي العهد وايمانا بدور المملكة التاريخي في مساندة لبنان والتعاضد معه وتاكيدا لعمق لبنان العربي كاساس لعلاقات لبنان مع محيطه
— Lebanese Presidency (@LBpresidency) January 11, 2025
Prince Mohammed has congratulated Aoun, during a phone call, on his election and conveyed to him the congratulations of Saudi King Salman.
The Crown Prince also expressed his sincere congratulations and hopes for success to Aoun and the people of Lebanon, with wishes for further progress and prosperity.
Aoun told the crown prince that “Saudi Arabia would be the first destination in his visits abroad,” it said, after the Saudi prince called to congratulate him on taking office on Thursday following a two-year vacancy in the position.
The statement did not specify a date for the visit.
Aoun, 61, was elected as the country’s 14th president by parliamentarians during a second round of voting on Thursday, breaking a 26-month deadlock over the position.
In his speech after taking his oath of office before parliament, he said that the country was entering a new phase.
The Mediterranean country has been without a president since the term of Michel Aoun – not related – ended in October 2022, with tensions between the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement and its opponents scuppering a dozen previous votes.
