QLAYAA, Lebanon: In the Lebanese Christian border village of Qlayaa, the priest urged his parish to keep the Christmas spirit alive despite clashes between Hezbollah and Israel forcing many to flee.
Nestled among lush, green fields and flowing olive groves, Qlayaa has echoed to the sound of bombing on an almost daily basis since October 7.
“Of course we are upset and bothered by the war... but we want to feel the joy of Christmas,” father Pierre Rai told a dwindling number of parishioners in Qlayaa’s Maronite Saint George Church.
“So long as we have decided to remain in this village, and in other southern Lebanon border villages, we must live and enjoy each thing in its right time.”
For nearly three months, Israeli rockets have been falling close to Qlayaa, which lies less than five kilometers (three miles) from the border.
So far, however, the Christian villages in the area have been spared destruction.
Since hostilities began, more than 140 people have been killed on the Lebanese side, most of them Hezbollah fighters but also including more than a dozen civilians, three of them journalists, according to an AFP tally.
On the Israeli side, at least four civilians and eight soldiers have been killed, according to officials.
Despite the violence, the church has put up lights, a life-sized manger and is planning recitals and activities for the community’s children.
A massive Christmas tree decorated with red ornaments sits in the village’s empty square, with reindeer statues nearby.
Lebanon’s south is home to a plethora of religious communities, but it is mainly dominated by the powerful, Iran-backed Shiite Hezbollah movement.
The region was battered by a years-long Israeli occupation that ended in 2000 and again in the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel.
Residents along the border are used to “difficult times,” said father Antonios Farah, “but we have decided that this year we will celebrate Christmas as usual.”
“This is our way to pray for peace,” he said, dressed in a black robe and sitting in the church.
The streets of the small village are usually bustling with visitors around Christmas, when many of those living abroad return.
But this year, “only about 60 percent of the village population is still here” with none of the expatriates coming home, he said, adding that the streets were deserted after nightfall.
According to updated figures from the International Organization for Migration, the hostilities have displaced more than 72,000 people in Lebanon, most of them in the country’s south.
Qlayaa resident Suzy Salameh, 47, has put up a voluminous tree in her home and said she was praying for peace.
“We are trying to celebrate Christmas despite... the war, the bombings,” she said, standing beside a conifer decorated with silver ornaments, garlands and purple lights.
“God willing, the birth of Jesus will bring about peace in our country and in all the countries around us.”
But not everyone in the village was so optimistic.
In a house close to the church, Layla Wana sat alone with her husband under a big Christmas tree.
“We’re not feeling the Christmas spirit at all,” said Wana, 67, dressed in a black tracksuit.
“Some of our children are abroad, others are in Beirut,” she said.
“But we will remain in our house and we will not leave, even if it means we will die here.”
War dampens Christmas spirit in southern Lebanon
https://arab.news/w4j6e
War dampens Christmas spirit in southern Lebanon
- “Of course we are upset and bothered by the war... but we want to feel the joy of Christmas,” father Pierre Rai told a dwindling number of parishioners
- So far, however, the Christian villages in the area have been spared destruction
At least 20 die, five rescued as migrant boat sinks off Tunisia
- Boat sank off the coast of Sfax city, a major departure point especially for African migrants
- Tunisia is grappling with an unprecedented migration crisis and has replaced Libya as the major departure point for Europe
Last Thursday, the Tunisian coast guard also recovered the bodies of nine migrants, while six others are still missing after their boat sank while they were sailing toward Europe.
The national guard said that coast guard on Wednesday rescued five others who were on the same boat and search operations were underway for anyone still missing.
The boat sank off the coast of Sfax city, a major departure point especially for African migrants.
Tunisia is grappling with an unprecedented migration crisis and has replaced Libya as the major departure point for both Tunisians and people from elsewhere in Africa seeking a better life in Europe.
Harness momentum from Assad’s fall and Lebanon ceasefire to end war in Gaza, says UK envoy
- Ambassador James Kariuki also calls on Israel to halt illegal expansion of settlements on Palestinian lands
- Report from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says Israel’s actions in besieged northern Gaza is making life untenable for Palestinians there
NEW YORK CITY: The UK’s deputy permanent representative to the UN on Wednesday told members of the Security Council that the fall of longtime Syrian dictator Bashar Assad and November’s ceasefire agreement in Lebanon offer a moment of hope to the people of the region.
He called for the momentum generated by these developments to be harnessed and used to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza, secure the release all Israeli hostages held by Hamas and other militant groups, and end the humanitarian crisis and the suffering of civilians in the battered enclave.
Ambassador James Kariuki was speaking during a meeting of the Security Council to discuss the latest report by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on the implementation of the council’s Resolution 2234. Adopted in 2016, it demands that Israel cease all settlement activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including East Jerusalem, and calls for immediate steps to prevent violence against civilians, including acts of terror.
Kariuki called on Israeli authorities to halt the illegal expansion of settlements on Palestinian land and to hold violent settlers to account.
“Continued instability and settler violence in the West Bank should not be tolerated by Israel, and the culture of impunity must end,” he said. “This does nothing to bring about peace and security for Palestinians or Israelis.”
The secretary-general’s quarterly report, covering the period from September to December, states that the “relentless bombardment of Gaza by Israeli forces, the large number of civilian casualties, the blanket destruction of Palestinian neighborhoods, and the worsening humanitarian situation by the day are appalling.”
The Israel’s military operations in Northern Gaza, which has been under siege since early October, “are making the conditions of life untenable for the Palestinian population,” it adds.
Kariuki said northern Gaza must not be cut off from the south.
“The UK is clear: There must be no forcible transfer of Gazans from, or within, Gaza. There must be no reduction of the territory of the Gaza Strip,” he said.
“Israel’s expansion of military infrastructure and the destruction of civilian buildings and agricultural land across the Strip is unacceptable.”
In his report, Guterres condemned Israel’s use of “explosive weapons with wide-area effects in densely populated areas, that has caused massive casualties and damage to residential buildings, schools, hospitals, mosques and UN premises.”
He again denounced the terror attacks by Hamas that targeted Israeli towns on Oct. 7, 2023, and the taking of more than 250 hostages.
Kariuki echoed this condemnation and reiterated his country’s demand for “the immediate and unconditional release” of all hostages.
The envoy also described the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza as appalling. More than 45,000 Palestinians have died since the Oct. 7 attacks, and the past two months have been the worst for aid efforts since the conflict began, he said.
“The UN has reported a shocking increase in cases of acute malnutrition in children, and that Gaza now has the highest number of child amputees, per capita, in the world,” Kariuki added.
“The UK continues to urge Israel to do much more to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure and to abide by their international obligations. This includes facilitating rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian aid and basic services to the Palestinian people.
The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees plays a crucial role in delivering this life-saving aid, he said, and the UK has committed an additional $16.5 million of funding for the agency, raising its total contributions since April to $52 million.
Paramilitary shelling of besieged Darfur city kills 10
PORT SUDAN: Ten civilians were killed and 20 wounded in paramilitary shelling of North Darfur’s besieged capital El-Fasher which hit the city’s main hospital and other areas, activists said.
The attack left “10 civilians killed and 20 others injured ... as a result of recent shelling inside the city of El-Fasher and the Saudi Hospital,” said the local resistance committee, one of hundreds of volunteer groups that have been coordinating aid across Sudan during 20 months of fighting between the regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
Sudanese doctor Mohamed Moussa has grown so accustomed to the constant sound of gunfire and shelling near his hospital that it no longer startles him. He continues attending to his patients.
“The bombing has numbed us,” the 30-year-old general practitioner said by phone from Al-Nao Hospital, one of the last functioning medical facilities in Omdurman, part of greater Khartoum.
Gunfire rattles in the distance, warplanes roar overhead and nearby shelling makes the ground tremble, more than a year and a half into a grinding war between rival Sudanese generals.
Embattled health workers “have no choice but to continue,” said Moussa.
Since April 2023, Sudan has been torn apart by a war between army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, leader of the Rapid Support Forces.
Blinken to announce more funding for Sudan at UN on Thursday, official says
WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will announce at the United Nations on Thursday additional funding for humanitarian assistance to Sudan and efforts to support civil society in the country, where a conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and driven millions from their homes.
Deputy US Representative to the United Nations Ned Price told reporters on Wednesday that Blinken will make a number of announcements when he chairs on Thursday a UN Security Council meeting on Sudan, which will focus on humanitarian assistance and protection of civilians.
The announcements will include additional funding for humanitarian assistance, and efforts to support civil society and, ultimately, the transition back to democracy, Price said.
“Sudan, unfortunately, has risked becoming a forgotten conflict,” Price said.
“So part of the reason the secretary ... opted to convene a signature event on this very topic is to make sure it remains in the spotlight,” Price said.
Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have been locked in conflict for more than 18 months, triggering a profound humanitarian crisis in which more than 12 million people have been driven from their homes and UN agencies have struggled to deliver relief.
The war erupted in April 2023 amid a power struggle between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the RSF ahead of a planned transition to civilian rule.
US-mediated talks in Geneva this year failed to achieve progress toward a ceasefire as the army refused to attend, but did secure promises from the warring parties to improve aid access.
Price said the United States would continue to work with allies for improved humanitarian access in Sudan and ultimately a cessation of hostilities before the end of President Joe Biden’s term next month.
“We are going to leave nothing on the field in our efforts to work with allies, with partners, with the Sudanese stakeholders themselves, on the issues that matter most — humanitarian access, the provision of humanitarian assistance, ultimately, the process by which we can work to get to a cessation of hostilities, which is most urgently needed,” he said.
Erdogan says Turkiye, Lebanon agree to act together on Syria
- “The stability of Syria means the stability of the region,” Erdogan said
- Turkiye and Lebanon are home to a large number of Syrian refugees
ISTANBUL: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday said Turkiye and Lebanon would work together on Syria after the overthrow of Bashar Assad by militants.
“A new era has now begun in Syria. We agree that we must act together as two important neighbors of Syria,” Erdogan told a news conference, alongside Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati.
“The stability of Syria means the stability of the region,” he said, adding that reconstruction of the war-ravaged country on their borders would be their priority.
Assad fled to Russia after a lightning offensive spearheaded by Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) wrested city after city from his control until the militants reached the Syrian capital earlier this month.
The ousting of Assad sparked celebrations around Syria and beyond, and has prompted many refugees to begin returning home.
Turkiye and Lebanon are home to a large number of Syrian refugees.
To rebuild Syria, Erdogan said: “This is a critical period in which we need to act with unity, solidarity and mutual reconciliation.”
