BEIRUT: Following a night of violence, calm was restored in Beirut and other parts of Lebanon on Sunday, with the army warning against dragging the country into chaos that could endanger “national unity.”
Riots broke out in central Beirut and other areas after videos circulated on social media showing some supporters of the Amal Movement, and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah, chanting sectarian insults targeting revered religious figures.
The overnight violence left 25 soldiers injured. The Lebanese Army issued a statement vowing action against those who jeopardize the “state’s security.”
Riot police fired tear gas at protesters, after Saturday’s attempt to reboot anti-government demonstrations quickly degenerated into rioting and stone-throwing confrontations between opposing camps. Lebanese troops deployed to separate the rival groups, and the tensions eventually subsided before dawn on Sunday.
Protesters also called for Hezbollah’s disarmament. According to the army’s statement, seven people — four Syrians, one Palestinian and two Sudanese nationals — were arrested for rioting.
All political and religious parties unanimously condemned the sectarian incident and sought to contain the strife.
President Michel Aoun called on all political and religious leaders and citizens, who lived through the events of 1975-1976, to take all possible measures against such elements to ensure national cohesion.
Aoun warned: “Any security setback — if it occurs — will not be in anyone’s interest.”
The head of the Bar Association, Melhem Khalaf, said: “Were the 17 years of senseless fighting, 200,000 deaths and displacement of 1 million people was not enough?”
As people in the street and on social media expressed their anger and disgust at what happened during the civil protest, it was announced that a protest scheduled to take place on Sunday outside the US Embassy in Beirut had been canceled.
The protest, which was going to be organized by Hezbollah supporters, was to denounce US interference in Lebanon’s internal affairs.
Dr. Ziad Abdel Samad, researcher in development and public affairs, told Arab News: “Indeed, people are repulsed by what happened, but it will not prevent them from taking to the streets again to demand their rights.”
He said: “The movement that resumed on Saturday is a continuation of the Oct. 17 revolution. People are free to voice their demands. The majority raised economic slogans, and if some called for disarming Hezbollah, that does not mean they should be accused of treachery. Saturday’s demonstrations surprised the authorities, so they decided to respond with violence in which they reminded us that they can repeat what they did on May 7, 2008, when Hezbollah militarily seized control of Beirut after clashing with the Future Movement as well as the Progressive Socialist Party in Mount Lebanon. About 100 people were killed then.”
Abdel Samad added: “What happened on Saturday will not eliminate the civil movement, which is committed to its demands and to pressuring for the reestablishment of the authority by forming a government with powers that allow it to draft a new electoral law, as happened in Tunisia.”
He said: “The current government is unable to accomplish anything. Even the negotiation between the government and the International Monetary Fund were not serious. It seems as if the government, and especially Hezbollah, do not want to resort to this option to save the country’s economy. They want to resort to their choice: Iran. In this sense, Hezbollah does not care about Lebanon — either it takes control or the country gets burned down.”
Public affairs expert and activist Dr. Walid Fakhreddin told Arab News: “Hezbollah previously caused such tensions four or five times since the protests started on Oct. 17. However, this is the first time this happened under the government of Hassan Diab. This means that Diab’s government is in crisis, and this is Hezbollah’s way (of operating) when it does not want a government to continue.”
Fakhreddin added: “On the other hand, no one is ready to stand up to Hezbollah. I believe Diab’s government is unable to continue and will not manage to obtain funds to prevent economic collapse.”
He said whatever happened on Saturday was a response to the protesters’ demand to disarm Hezbollah “because another protest with this demand took place a few days ago outside the Palace of Justice in Beirut, and Hezbollah did not respond that time.”
He added: “I think Hezbollah was surprised that people took to the streets despite being intimidated and amid a pandemic.”
Political analyst Ghassan Hajjar, though, told Arab News: “What happened is new. It is not an extension of Oct. 17, but rather it will mark the start of a new stage.
“Hezbollah is in crisis more than ever because it believes the threat against it is increasing and has become direct. The civil movement is targeting Hezbollah by raising the demand for its disarmament. Hezbollah is afraid of what is introduced regionally by federations that are tearing apart the Iranian axis.
“No one won on Saturday — not the government, the Hezbollah nor the protesters. Everyone lost,” he added. “I do not think that toppling the Diab’s government needs these clashes. Bringing it down requires a political decision by Hezbollah. It is true that there is talk about a government change, but it will only happen if Hezbollah is convinced that Saad Hariri will return to head the government and control the Sunnis.
“Hariri’s return to the government is in the interest of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) after the losses it suffered as it does not have a Sunni cover, and the Shiite cover is not enough if the FPM considered the republic’s presidency. However, no agreement with Hariri has been reached.”
Lebanon overcomes sectarian strife as army declares zero tolerance
https://arab.news/px5z9
Lebanon overcomes sectarian strife as army declares zero tolerance
- Riot police fired tear gas at protesters, after Saturday’s attempt to reboot anti-government demonstrations quickly degenerated into rioting
- The Lebanese Army issued a statement vowing action against those who jeopardize the “state’s security”
Israeli troops reach deepest point in Lebanon since October 1 invasion
- Media reports: Israeli ground forces pull back early Saturday after fierce battles with Hezbollah fighters
- Israeli troops earlier captured a strategic hill in the southern Lebanese village of Chamaa
BEIRUT: Israeli ground forces reached their deepest point in Lebanon since they invaded six weeks ago, before pulling back early Saturday after fierce battles with Hezbollah militants, Lebanese state media reported.
Israeli troops captured a strategic hill in the southern Lebanese village of Chamaa, about 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the Israeli border early Saturday, the state-run National News Agency reported. It said Israeli troops were later pushed back from the hill.
It added that Israeli troops detonated the Shrine of Shimon the Prophet in Chamaa as well as several homes before they withdrew, but the claim could not be immediately verified.
Israel’s military said in a statement that its troops “continue their limited, localized, and targeted operational activity in southern Lebanon.” The military did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the Lebanese media reports.
The push on the ground came as Israeli warplanes pounded Beirut’s southern suburbs as well as several other areas in southern Lebanon including the port city of Tyre.
The morning strike in Beirut hit an area known as Dahiyeh, which the Israeli military called a Hezbollah stronghold, saying its planes had hit multiple sites used by the militant group. Residents were given advance warning by Israel, and it was not immediately clear whether there were any casualties.
The increase of violence came as Lebanese and Hezbollah officials are studying a draft proposal presented by the US earlier this week on ending the war.
Since late September, Israel dramatically escalated its bombardment of Lebanon, vowing to cripple Hezbollah and end its barrages in Israel. More than 3,400 people have been killed in Lebanon by Israeli fire – 80 percent of them in the eight weeks – according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.
On Friday, Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister apparently urged Iran to try and convince Hezbollah to agree to a ceasefire deal with Israel, which would require the group to pull back from the Israel-Lebanon border. The proposal is based on UN Security Council resolution 1701, which ended the last Israel-Hezbollah war in the summer of 2006.
A copy of the draft proposal was handed over earlier this week by the US ambassador to Lebanon to Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who has been negotiating on behalf of Hezbollah, according to a Lebanese official. The official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the secret talks said Berri is expected to give Lebanon’s response on Monday.
Another Lebanese politician said Hezbollah officials had received the draft, were studying it and would express their opinion on it to Berri. The politician also spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media about the ongoing talks.
Berri told the pan-Arab Asharq Al-Awsat daily newspaper that the draft does not include any item that allows Israel to act in Lebanon if the deal is violated.
“We will not accept any infringement of our sovereignty,” Berri was quoted as saying.
He added that one of the items mentioned in the draft that Lebanon does not accept is the proposal to form a committee to supervise the agreement that includes members from Western countries.
Berri added that talks are ongoing regarding this point as well as other details in the draft, adding that “the atmosphere is positive but all relies on how things will end.”
There is also a push to end the war between Israel and Hamas, which began after Palestinian militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people – mostly civilians – and abducting 250 others.
The UN Security Council’s 10 elected members on Thursday circulated a draft resolution demanding “an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire” in Gaza.
The US, Israel’s closest ally, holds the key to whether the UN Security Council adopts the resolution. The four other permanent members – Russia, China, Britain and France – are expected to support it or abstain.
Israel’s bombardment and ground offensives since the initial Hamas attack have killed more than 43,000 people in Gaza, Palestinian health officials say. The officials don’t distinguish between civilians and combatants but say more than half of those killed have been women and children.
Lebanon state media reports strike on Tyre city in south
- Israeli strikes kill at least two medics in south Lebanon, ministry
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s state news agency reported a strike on Saturday on the southern city of Tyre, in a neighborhood near historical ruins listed as a UNESCO world heritage site.
“The raid on Tyre targeted the ‘ruins district’, resulting in the destruction of two buildings and damage to other surrounding buildings,” the official National News Agency said, referring to a neighborhood near Tyre’s ancient hippodrome.
Since Tuesday, Israel has carried out several strikes on the Beirut’s southern suburbs, a stronghold of Hezbollah.
Israeli strikes on villages in south Lebanon killed at least two medics early on Saturday, the Lebanese health ministry said.
Airstrikes killed a medic in the town of Borj Rahal in the Tyre District, south of Lebanon, and strikes on an emergency response team in the southern town of Kfartebnit killed one medic and injured four others while two medics were missing.
AFPTV video showed three plumes of smoke rising over the buildings in the south on Saturday morning.
Shortly before the attack, Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee posted on X a call for residents of the Haret Hreik suburb to evacuate.
“You are close to facilities and interests belonging to Hezbollah, against which the Israeli military will be acting with force in the near future,” the post said in Arabic, identifying specific buildings and telling residents to move at least 500 meters away.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) said “the enemy” carried out three air raids, including one near Haret Hreik.
“The first strike near Haret Hreik destroyed buildings and caused damage in the area,” it said.
Repeated Israeli air strikes on south Beirut have led to a mass exodus of civilians from the area, although some return during the day to check on their homes and businesses.
In southern Lebanon, Israel carried out several strikes on Friday night and early Saturday, according to NNA.
Overnight, Hezbollah also claimed two rocket attacks targeting the headquarters of an infantry battalion in northern Israel.
Since September 23, Israel has ramped up its air campaign in Lebanon, later sending in ground troops following almost a year of limited, cross-border exchanges begun by Hezbollah over the Gaza war.
Lebanese authorities say that more than 3,440 people have been killed since October last year, when Hezbollah and Israel began trading fire.
The conflict has cost Lebanon more than $5 billion in economic losses, with actual structural damage amounting to billions more, the World Bank said on Thursday.
Hamas ready for ceasefire ‘immediately’ but Israel yet to offer ‘serious’ proposal
- Hamas official Basem Naim says Oct. 7 attack ‘an act of self defense’
- ‘I have the right to live a free and dignified life,’ he tells Sky News
LONDON: A Hamas official has claimed that Israel has not put forward any “serious proposals” for a ceasefire since the assassination of its leader Ismail Haniyeh, despite the group being ready for one “immediately.”
Dr. Basem Naim told the Sky News show “The World With Yalda Hakim” that the last “well-defined, brokered deal” was put on the table between the two warring sides on July 2.
“It was discussed in all details and I think we were near to a ceasefire ... which can end this war, offer a permanent ceasefire and total withdrawal and prisoner exchange,” he said. “Unfortunately (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu preferred to go the other way.”
Naim urged the incoming Trump administration to do whatever necessary to help end the war.
He said Hamas does not regret its attack against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which left 1,200 people dead and prompted Israel’s invasion of Gaza that has killed in excess of 43,000 people and left hundreds of thousands injured.
Naim said Israel is guilty of “big massacres” in the Palestinian enclave, and when asked if Hamas bore responsibility as a result of the Oct. 7 attack, he called it “an act of self defense,” adding: “It’s exactly as if you’re accusing the victims for the crimes of the aggressor.”
He continued: “I’m a member of Hamas, but at the same time I’m an innocent Palestinian civilian because I have the right to live a free and dignified life and I have the right to defend myself, to defend my family.”
When asked if he regrets the Oct. 7 attack, Naim replied: “Do you believe that a prisoner who is knocking (on) the door or who is trying to get out of the prison, he has to regret his will to be? This is part of our dignity ... to defend ourselves, to defend our children.”
Italy protests to Israel over unexploded shell hitting Italian base in Lebanon
- Tajani said the safety of the soldiers in UNIFIL had to be ensured and stressed “the unacceptability” of the attacks
- The Italian statement said Saar had “guaranteed an immediate investigation” into the shell incident
ROME: Italy on Friday said an unexploded artillery shell hit the base of the Italian contingent in the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon and Israel promised to investigate.
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani spoke with Israeli counterpart Gideon Saar and protested Israeli attacks against its personnel and infrastructure in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, an Italian statement said.
Tajani said the safety of the soldiers in UNIFIL had to be ensured and stressed “the unacceptability” of the attacks.
The Italian statement said Saar had “guaranteed an immediate investigation” into the shell incident.
Established by a UN Security Council resolution in 2006, the 10,000-strong UN mission is stationed in southern Lebanon to monitor hostilities along the “blue line” separating Lebanon from Israel.
Since Israel launched a ground campaign in Lebanon against Hezbollah fighters at the end of September, UNIFIL has accused the Israel Defense Forces of deliberately attacking its bases, including by shooting at peacekeepers and destroying watch towers.
Lebanon rescuer picks up ‘pieces’ of father after Israel strike
- Karkaba then rushed back to the bombed civil defense center to search for her fellow first responders under the rubble
- Israel struck the center, the main civil defense facility in the eastern Baalbek area, while nearly 20 rescuers were still inside
DOURIS, Lebanon: Suzanne Karkaba and her father Ali were both civil defense rescuers whose job was to save the injured and recover the dead in Lebanon’s war.
When an Israeli strike killed him on Thursday and it was his turn to be rescued, there wasn’t much left. She had to identify him by his fingers.
Karkaba then rushed back to the bombed civil defense center to search for her fellow first responders under the rubble.
Israel struck the center, the main civil defense facility in the eastern Baalbek area, while nearly 20 rescuers were still inside, said Samir Chakia, a local official with the agency.
At least 14 civil defense workers were killed, he said.
“My dad was sleeping here with them. He helped people and recovered bodies to return them to their families... But now it’s my turn to pick up the pieces of my dad,” Karkaba told AFP with tears in her eyes.
Unlike many first-responder facilities previously targeted during the war, this facility in Douris, on the edge of Baalbek city, was state-run and had no political affiliation.
Israel’s military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Friday morning, dozens of rescuers and residents were still rummaging through the wreckage of the center. Two excavators pulled broken slabs of concrete, twisted metal bars and red tiles.
Wearing her civil defense uniform at the scene, Karkaba said she had been working around-the-clock since Israel ramped up its air raids on Lebanon’s east in late September.
“I don’t know who to grieve anymore, the (center’s) chief, my father, or my friends of 10 years,” Karkaba said, her braided hair flowing in the wind.
“I don’t have the heart to leave the center, to leave the smell of my father... I’ve lost a part of my soul.”
Beginning on September 23, Israel escalated its air raids mainly on Hezbollah strongholds in east and south Lebanon, as well as south Beirut after nearly a year of cross-border exchanges of fire.
A week later Israel sent in ground troops to southern Lebanon.
More than 150 rescuers, most of them affiliated with Hezbollah and its allies, have been killed in more than a year of clashes, according to health ministry figures from late October.
Friday morning, rescuers in Douris were still pulling body parts from the rubble, strewn with dozens of paper documents, while Lebanese army troops stood guard near the site.
Civil defense worker Mahmoud Issa was among those searching for friends in the rubble.
“Does it get worse than this kind of strike against rescue teams and medics? We are among the first to... save people. But now, we are targets,” he said.
On Thursday, Lebanon’s health ministry said more than 40 people had been killed in Israeli strikes on the country’s south and east.
The ministry reported two deadly Israeli raids on emergency facilities in less than two hours that day: the one near Baalbek, and another on the south that killed four Hezbollah-affiliated paramedics.
The ministry urged the international community to “put an end to these dangerous violations.”
More than 3,400 people have been killed in Lebanon since the clashes began last year, according to the ministry, the majority of them since late September.
