Calls for calm in Lebanon as Bsharri killings raise fears of sectarian violence

A police officer checks a motorcyclist in the Lebanese capital Beirut. (AFP file photo)
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Updated 02 July 2023
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Calls for calm in Lebanon as Bsharri killings raise fears of sectarian violence

  • PM condemns incident, says perpetrators will be caught
  • Suspects arrested as speculation over reasons for shootings grows

BEIRUT: Tensions were running high in the northern Lebanese town of Bsharri on Sunday after a young man was shot dead by a sniper there on Saturday.

Haitham Touk, 36, was shot dead near Qurnat As Sawda, or Black Peak, the highest point in Lebanon and the Levant.

A second man, 50-year-old Malik Touk, was killed a few hours later as soldiers were combing the area in search of the sniper.

Political and religious figures moved quickly to try and prevent any violent spillover from the killings.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Haitham Touk, 36, was shot dead near Qurnat As Sawda, or Black Peak, the highest point in Lebanon and the Levant.

• A second man, 50-year-old Malik Touk, was killed a few hours later as soldiers were combing the area in search of the sniper.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the incident and said the perpetrators would be pursued and arrested. He also spoke to Army Commander Gen. Joseph Aoun as well as security and judicial authorities.

Mikati stressed the “need for everyone to exercise wisdom and not to be drawn into any reactions, especially in this critical situation that we are living through.”




Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati meets with France’s special envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian in Beirut on June 22. (AFP)

He made the remarks during a call to Strida Geagea, a Bsharri politician and wife of the Lebanese Forces party leader Samir Geagea.

The apparent lack of a motive for the shootings sparked suggestions they might have been intended to put pressure on the Lebanese Forces party, which is opposed to Hezbollah.

There was also concern about attempts to intervene on the side of the people of Dennieh and build relationships with its politicians — who are allies of Hezbollah — to confirm that the strategic Qurnat As Sawda and the surrounding area belong to Dennieh district and not Bsharri district.

Hezbollah sources denied any involvement in the killings.

The party said it had taken precautionary measures to prevent any escalation of the situation and to control any interaction with its supportive environment, which is located close to Bsharri.

Dennieh has a Sunni majority, while Bsharri area has a Maronite majority.

Bsharri is considered a stronghold for the Lebanese Forces party and has two parliamentary deputies because it is the most populous in the district.

A few hours after Haitham Touk was killed, a group of men from Bsharri headed to Qurnat As Sawda to retrieve his remains. But that coincided with an army operation to find the killer and other armed men stationed on the peak. It was at that time that Malik Touk was fatally shot.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri urged Tripoli lawmaker Faisal Karami to “exercise wisdom” in dealing with the incident. He also urged the people of Dennieh not to be swayed by prejudice and rumors, and to wait for the whole story to be revealed.

Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Latif Darian urged Karami to “contribute to calming the situation.”

Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rahi said in his Sunday sermon: “We rely on the army to impose security for the benefit of everyone and on the people of Bsharri to exercise self-restraint and leave the chronic dispute in Qurnat As Sawda in the hands of the judiciary.”

Sheikh Ali Al-Khatib, the highest official religious authority in the Shiite community, called on “the wise and prudent to avert the sedition that we warn against.”

He warned about Israel’s “targeting of Lebanon to sabotage it and drag it into the quagmire of sedition and disturbances.”

Bsharri lawmaker William Touk accused “a lawless group that has been encroaching on our land for years with the aim of seizing it and attempting to lure us into an internal fight that we do not want with our people in Dennieh and Bqaa Safrine.”

“Calling for self-restraint does not at all mean tolerance or compromise on the blood of the martyr, but rather means a commitment to our ethical and national values, and the insistence on taking our rights into our own hands in case of failure of the authorities and relevant agencies,” he said.

The army said that Qurnat As Sawda was a military training zone and people had been warned against approaching it. Several people had been arrested and a number of weapons and ammunition had been seized, it added.

Five people from Bsharri and several others from Dennieh were among those arrested, security sources said.

Bsharri Mayor Freddy Kairouz told Arab News that civil peace in Lebanon could not be achieved on the spilled blood of “our town’s youth.”

Qurnat As Sawda is located in an area of northern Lebanon that has not yet been delineated.

Kairouz speculated that the killings might have been the result of “accumulated property disputes … and the failure of the Lebanese security forces and judiciary to resolve these disputes by demarcating the boundaries of the lands, as well as the armed lawlessness in these mountains.”

“All of this contributed to the targeting of a young man who was in an area considered to be part of Bsharri. He was deliberately shot from behind at a distance of 1,000 meters.”

The Bsharri municipality said the town would observe full mourning for the victims on Monday and that their funerals would be held at Our Lady of Bsharri Church.

 

 


Tens of thousands of Palestinians flee West Bank refugee camps

Updated 19 February 2025
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Tens of thousands of Palestinians flee West Bank refugee camps

  • The camps, built for descendants of Palestinian refugees who fled or were driven from their homes in the 1948 war around the creation of the state of Israel, have long been major centers for armed militant groups

JERUSALEM: Tens of thousands of Palestinians living in refugee camps in the occupied West Bank have left their homes as a weeks-long Israeli offensive has demolished houses and torn up vital infrastructure in the heavily built up townships, Palestinian authorities said.
Israeli forces began their operation in the refugee camp in the northern West Bank city of Jenin on Jan. 21, deploying hundreds of troops and bulldozers that demolished houses and dug up roads, driving almost all of the camp’s residents out.
“We don’t know what’s going on in the camp but there is continuous demolition and roads being dug up,” said Mohammed Al-Sabbagh, head of the Jenin camp services committee.

An Israeli army excavator demolishes a residential building in the Tulkarem camp for Palestinian refugees during an ongoing Israeli military operation in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)

The operation, which Israel says is aimed at thwarting Iranian-backed militant groups in the West Bank, has since been extended to other camps, notably the Tulkarm refugee camp and the nearby Nur Shams camp, both of which have also been devastated. The camps, built for descendants of Palestinian refugees who fled or were driven from their homes in the 1948 war around the creation of the state of Israel, have long been major centers for armed militant groups. They have been raided repeatedly by the Israeli military but the current operation, which began as a ceasefire was agreed in Gaza, has been on an unusually large scale. According to figures from the Palestinian Authority, around 17,000 people have now left Jenin refugee camp, leaving the site almost completely deserted, while in Nur Shams 6,000 people, or about two thirds of the total, have left, with another 10,000 leaving from Tulkarm camp.
“The ones who are left are trapped,” said Nihad Al-Shawish, head of the Nur Shams camp services committee. “The Civil Defense, the Red Crescent and the Palestinian security forces brought them some food yesterday but the army is still bulldozing and destroying the camp.” The Israeli raids have demolished dozens of houses and torn up large stretches of roadway as well as cutting off water and power, but the military has denied forcing residents to leave their homes.
“People obviously have the possibility to move or go where they want, if they will. But if they don’t, they’re allowed to stay,” Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani told reporters.
The operation began as Israel moved to banish the main UN Palestinian relief organization UNRWA from its headquarters in East Jerusalem and cut it off from any contact with Israeli officials.
The ban, which took effect at the end of January, has hit UNRWA’s work in the West Bank and Gaza, where it provides aid for millions of Palestinians in the refugee camps.
Israel has accused UNRWA of cooperating with Hamas and said some UNRWA workers even took part in the Hamas-led attack on communities in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 that set off the 15-month war in Gaza.

 


Tens of thousands of Palestinians flee West Bank refugee camps

Updated 18 February 2025
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Tens of thousands of Palestinians flee West Bank refugee camps

  • The camps, built for descendants of Palestinian refugees who fled or were driven from their homes in the 1948 war around the creation of the state of Israel, have long been major centers for armed militant groups

JERUSALEM: Tens of thousands of Palestinians living in refugee camps in the occupied West Bank have left their homes as a weeks-long Israeli offensive has demolished houses and torn up vital infrastructure in the heavily built up townships, Palestinian authorities said.
Israeli forces began their operation in the refugee camp in the northern West Bank city of Jenin on Jan. 21, deploying hundreds of troops and bulldozers that demolished houses and dug up roads, driving almost all of the camp’s residents out.
“We don’t know what’s going on in the camp but there is continuous demolition and roads being dug up,” said Mohammed Al-Sabbagh, head of the Jenin camp services committee.

An Israeli army excavator demolishes a residential building in the Tulkarem camp for Palestinian refugees during an ongoing Israeli military operation in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)

The operation, which Israel says is aimed at thwarting Iranian-backed militant groups in the West Bank, has since been extended to other camps, notably the Tulkarm refugee camp and the nearby Nur Shams camp, both of which have also been devastated. The camps, built for descendants of Palestinian refugees who fled or were driven from their homes in the 1948 war around the creation of the state of Israel, have long been major centers for armed militant groups. They have been raided repeatedly by the Israeli military but the current operation, which began as a ceasefire was agreed in Gaza, has been on an unusually large scale. According to figures from the Palestinian Authority, around 17,000 people have now left Jenin refugee camp, leaving the site almost completely deserted, while in Nur Shams 6,000 people, or about two thirds of the total, have left, with another 10,000 leaving from Tulkarm camp.
“The ones who are left are trapped,” said Nihad Al-Shawish, head of the Nur Shams camp services committee. “The Civil Defense, the Red Crescent and the Palestinian security forces brought them some food yesterday but the army is still bulldozing and destroying the camp.” The Israeli raids have demolished dozens of houses and torn up large stretches of roadway as well as cutting off water and power, but the military has denied forcing residents to leave their homes.
“People obviously have the possibility to move or go where they want, if they will. But if they don’t, they’re allowed to stay,” Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani told reporters.
The operation began as Israel moved to banish the main UN Palestinian relief organization UNRWA from its headquarters in East Jerusalem and cut it off from any contact with Israeli officials.
The ban, which took effect at the end of January, has hit UNRWA’s work in the West Bank and Gaza, where it provides aid for millions of Palestinians in the refugee camps.
Israel has accused UNRWA of cooperating with Hamas and said some UNRWA workers even took part in the Hamas-led attack on communities in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 that set off the 15-month war in Gaza.

 


More than one million Syrians return to their homes: UN

People walk past shops in Homs on February 10, 2025. (AFP)
Updated 19 February 2025
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More than one million Syrians return to their homes: UN

  • “Since the fall of the regime in Syria we estimate that 280,000 Syrian refugees and more than 800,000 people displaced inside the country have returned to their homes,” Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees

GENEVA: More than one million people have returned to their homes in Syria after the overthrow of Bashar Assad, including 280,000 refugees who came back from abroad, the UN said on Tuesday.
Assad was toppled in December in a rebel offensive, putting an end to his family’s decades-long grip on power in the Middle Eastern country and bookmarking a civil war that broke out in 2011, with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.
Syria’s war has killed more than half a million people and displaced millions from their homes.
The Islamist-led rebels whose offensive ousted Assad have sought to assure the international community that they have broken with their past and will respect the rights of minorities.
“Since the fall of the regime in Syria we estimate that 280,000 Syrian refugees and more than 800,000 people displaced inside the country have returned to their homes,” Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, wrote on the X social media platform.
“Early recovery efforts must be bolder and faster, though, otherwise people will leave again: this is now urgent!” he said.
At a meeting in Paris in mid-February, some 20 countries, including Arab nations, Turkiye, Britain, France, Germany, Canada and Japan agreed at the close of a conference in Paris to “work together to ensure the success of the transition in a process led by Syria.”
The meeting’s final statement also pledged support for Syria’s new authorities in the fight against “all forms of terrorism and extremism.”
 

 


Israeli military says it struck weapons belonging to former Syrian administration in southern Syria

Updated 19 February 2025
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Israeli military says it struck weapons belonging to former Syrian administration in southern Syria

CAIRO: The Israeli military said on Tuesday that it struck weapons which it said belonged to the former Syrian administration in southern Syria.

 


Algiers slams French minister’s visit to W. Sahara

Updated 18 February 2025
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Algiers slams French minister’s visit to W. Sahara

  • France’s stance on Western Sahara has been ambiguous in recent years, often straining its ties with Morocco

ALGIERS: Algeria on Tuesday denounced a visit by French Culture Minister Rachida Dati to Western Sahara, after Paris recognized Moroccan sovereignty over the disputed territory, as “objectionable on multiple levels.”
The vast desert territory is a former Spanish colony largely controlled by Morocco but claimed for decades by the Algeria-backed Polisario Front.
Dati, who described her visit as “historic,” launched with Moroccan Culture Minister Mohamed Mehdi Bensaid a French cultural mission in the territory’s main city, Laayoune.
An Algerian foreign ministry statement posted on social media Tuesday said the visit “reflects blatant disregard for international legality by a permanent member of the UN Security Council.”
“This visit reinforces Morocco’s fait accompli in Western Sahara, a territory where the decolonization process remains incomplete and the right to self-determination unfulfilled,” it said.
Dati’s trip, a first for a French official, “reflects the detestable image of a former colonial power in solidarity with a new one,” the statement added.
The United Nations considers Western Sahara to be a “non-self-governing territory” and has had a peacekeeping mission there since 1991, whose stated aim is to organize a referendum on the territory’s future.
But Rabat has repeatedly rejected any vote in which independence is an option, instead proposing autonomy under Morocco.
France’s stance on Western Sahara has been ambiguous in recent years, often straining its ties with Morocco.
But in July, French President Emmanuel Macron said Rabat’s autonomy plan was the “only basis” to resolve the Western Sahara dispute.
Algeria has backed the separatist Polisario Front and cut diplomatic relations with Rabat in 2021 — the year after Morocco normalized ties with Israel under a deal that awarded it US recognition of its annexation of the Western Sahara.
In October, the UN Security Council called for parties to “resume negotiations” to reach a “lasting and mutually acceptable solution” to the Western Sahara dispute.
In November 2020, the Polisario Front said it was ending a 29-year ceasefire with Morocco after Moroccan troops were deployed to the far south of the territory to remove independence supporters blocking the only road to Mauritania.
The Polisario Front claims the route is illegal, arguing that it did not exist when the ceasefire was established in 1991.