BEIRUT: The head of Lebanon’s Hezbollah said on Tuesday that his armed group’s cross-border shelling into Israel would only end when Israel’s “aggression” on the Gaza Strip stops, saying diplomatic efforts so far to bring a halt to hostilities along Lebanon’s border seemed to only benefit Israel.
Iran-backed Hezbollah has been trading fire with the Israeli military across Lebanon’s southern border in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas, which launched a cross-border assault from the Gaza Strip into Israel on Oct. 7 that was met with heavy Israeli bombardment by land, air and sea.
Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said his group would only stop its exchanges of fire if a full ceasefire was reached for Gaza.
“On that day, when the shooting stops in Gaza, we will stop the shooting in the south,” he said in a televised address.
He said many foreign “delegations” had traveled to Beirut with “proposals” to end hostilities in southern Lebanon, but said they only seemed to “have one goal, which is: the security of Israel, the protection of Israel.”
The foreign ministers of France, Britain, and other countries have traveled to Lebanon in recent weeks in an attempt to bring calm to the border.
France’s foreign minister delivered a written proposal to Beirut that calls for fighters including Hezbollah’s elite Radwan unit to withdraw 10 km (6 miles) from the border, among other measures, according to a document seen by Reuters.
Without specifying the French proposal, Nasrallah said one delegation had “presented a paper as a mediator.”
“You read the paper — there’s nothing. There’s Israel’s security,” he said.
Nasrallah said that if Israel widened the war further in Lebanon, his group would do the same.
The cross-border shelling has already killed around 200 people in Lebanon, including more than 170 Hezbollah fighters, as well as 10 Israeli troops and five Israeli civilians. It has also displaced tens of thousands of people in each country.
Nasrallah said residents of northern Israel “will not return” to their homes, and threatened that even more would be displaced.
Hezbollah chief says shelling on Israel will stop only when ‘aggression’ on Gaza ends
https://arab.news/vdkce
Hezbollah chief says shelling on Israel will stop only when ‘aggression’ on Gaza ends
- Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said his group would only stop its exchanges of fire if a full ceasefire was reached for Gaza
- “On that day, when the shooting stops in Gaza, we will stop the shooting in the south”
Israeli settlers force Palestinian families to leave village
- Mughayyir Al-Deir in occupied West Bank was home to shepherds, farming families
- Settlers built illegal outpost under protection of Israeli police, military
LONDON: Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank have forced about 150 Palestinians from their village through a violent five-day campaign carried out under the protection of Israeli authorities.
Last weekend, the settler group had constructed an illegal outpost close to a Palestinian home in Mughayyir Al-Deir, east of Ramallah, The Guardian reported.
The village is home to shepherds and farmers, and by Friday this week dozens of villagers had moved their flocks away and had gathered their belongings to leave the area.
“Settlers stalked between Palestinian men who worked fast and largely in silence, grappling with the grim reality of leaving the place where most were born and grew up,” The Guardian reported. “A child cried as he was driven away on a truck loaded with the family’s red sofas.”
Israeli settlers belonging to the extremist group Hilltop Youth celebrated as Palestinian families left the village.
The group’s unofficial spokesperson, Elisha Yered, said: “This is what redemption looks like! This is a relatively large outpost that contained about 150 people from the enemy population, but it was broken.”
Several of the settlers involved in the illegal campaign, including Yered, are subject to UK and EU sanctions.
Yered was “part of a group of armed settlers” that carried out an attack in 2023 that killed Qusai Jammal Mi’tan, a 19-year-old Palestinian, sanctions files show.
Neria Ben Pazi and Zohar Sabah, two Israeli settlers under British sanctions, visited the illegal outpost at Mughayyir Al-Deir this week.
The hills surrounding the village are dotted with the ruins of other abandoned Palestinian homes, as settlers have waged a campaign to clear the area of locals.
In Mughayyir Al-Deir, Israeli police and military personnel stood guard and patrolled as the settlers began to build the outpost.
Zvi Sukkot, a far-right MP who said on TV last week that Israel “can kill 100 Gazans in one night during a war and nobody in the world cares,” visited the village to support the settlers.
A Palestinian family from Mughayyir Al-Deir filed a petition in Israel’s Supreme Court on Thursday.
They demanded an injunction and urgent hearing on the settler campaign, and asked why Israeli authorities had failed to intervene over the illegal outpost and evictions.
Many of the Palestinian families forced to leave the village had relatives who were forced to leave Beersheba during the Nakba in 1948, when some 750,000 Palestinians were forced to leave their homeland.
An Israeli military spokesperson said troops worked “to ensure the security of the state of Israel and Judea and Samaria (Israel’s name for the occupied West Bank).” The military will respond to the Palestinian family’s petition in court, the spokesperson said.
A hearing is scheduled for next week, but all Palestinian families will have left Mughayyir Al-Deir by then.
Egypt flies home 71 nationals from Libya after unrest
Friday’s special flight by flag carrier EgyptAir “enabled the repatriation of 71 Egyptian citizens who had expressed a desire to come home,” the ministry said.
From May 12 to 15, the Libyan capital was rocked by fighting between an armed group aligned with the Tripoli-based government and factions it has sought to dismantle.
The clashes, which saw artillery exchanges in the city center, killed at least eight people, according to the United Nations.
Although relative calm has since returned to the city, the situation remains highly volatile as calls grow for the resignation of Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah.
Turkiye evacuated 82 of its nationals from Tripoli on a similar repatriation flight last week.
Libya is split between the UN-recognized government in Tripoli led by Dbeibah, and a rival administration in the east.
The North African country has remained deeply divided since the 2011 NATO-backed revolt that toppled and killed longtime leader Muammar Qaddafi.
UK’s ruling Labour under internal pressure to recognize Palestine
- Holocaust survivor Lord Dubs among party grandees saying govt must take step ahead of any peace deal
- Saudi Arabia, France co-chairing conference on two-state solution next month
LONDON: The UK government is under pressure from senior Labour figures to recognize Palestinian statehood.
Ahead of a UN conference on a two-state solution in New York next month, Labour peer and Holocaust survivor Lord Dubs said such a move would strengthen the Palestinians’ hand in future peace talks with Israel, and would give them “self-respect.”
He told The Guardian: “Even if it doesn’t lead to anything immediately, it would still give Palestinians a better standing.”
Lord Hain, a former government minister, said “delaying recognition until negotiations are concluded simply allows Israel’s illegal occupation to become permanent,” and recognition should be “a catalyst, not a consequence” of peace negotiations.
The UN conference could see both the UK and France formally recognize a Palestinian state. Saudi Arabia, which is co-chairing the conference with France, urged countries to view Palestinian statehood as “a precondition for peace, and not its product.”
France and Saudi Arabia say the aim of the conference is not “to ‘revive’ or to ‘relaunch’ another endless process, but to implement, once and for all, the two-state solution.”
They have asked participants “to highlight the actions they are willing to undertake, individually or collectively, in fulfilment of their obligations and in support of the international consensus on the peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine and the two-state solution.”
French President Emmanuel Macron has previously hinted that his government would join the 147 states that already recognize Palestine.
UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy told Parliament that discussions are underway with French counterparts over recognition, but that Britain is angling for more than just a symbolic gesture at the conference.
Earlier in May, 69 Labour politicians — including a number of government ministers — signed a letter drafted by Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East calling on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to recognize Palestine, in what they called a “unique window of opportunity.”
Labour MP Alex Ballinger, a member of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, said: “We can no longer speak in platitudes about two states while blocking the very steps that could help make one of them real.”
Afzal Khan, a former Labour shadow minister, said: “Recognition would now be a positive first step towards securing a peaceful two-state solution, end unlawful settlement expansions and blockades, and unlock the diplomatic and humanitarian pathways to lasting justice.”
Syria hails US lifting of sanctions as ‘positive step’
- The United States lifted comprehensive economic sanctions on Syria on Friday
- Marks a dramatic policy shift following the December overthrow of Bashar Assad
DAMASCUS: Syria on Saturday hailed the formal lifting of sanctions by the United States as a “positive step” that will help its post-war recovery.
“The Syrian Arab Republic welcomes the decision from the American government to lift the sanctions imposed on Syria and its people for long years,” a foreign ministry statement said.
The United States lifted comprehensive economic sanctions on Syria on Friday, marking a dramatic policy shift following the December overthrow of Bashar Assad and opening the door for investment in the country’s reconstruction.
The ministry described the move as “a positive step in the right direction to reduce humanitarian and economic struggles in the country.”
It formalized a decision announced by US President Donald Trump during a visit to Saudi Arabia earlier this month.
The sanctions relief extends to Syria’s new government with conditions that the country does not provide safe haven for terrorist organizations and ensure security for religious and ethnic minorities, the US Treasury Department said.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the waiver would “facilitate the provision of electricity, energy, water and sanitation, and enable a more effective humanitarian response across Syria.”
The authorization covers new investment in Syria, provision of financial services and transactions involving Syrian petroleum products.
“Today’s actions represent the first step on delivering on the president’s vision of a new relationship between Syria and the United States,” Rubio said.
The United States had imposed sweeping restrictions on financial transactions with Syria during the country’s 14-year civil war and made clear it would use sanctions to punish anyone involved in reconstruction as long as Assad remained in power.
Since Assad’s ouster, Syria’s new government, led by Islamist former rebels, some of them with past links to Al-Qaeda, has been looking to build relations with Western governments and roll back sanctions.
Israeli soldiers and former detainees detail widespread use of human shields in Gaza
- Palestinians and soldiers claim the Israeli military is forcing civilians to act as human shields in Gaza.
- Despite Israel's refutes, human rights groups say Israeli military used human shields in Gaza and the West Bank for decades.
TEL AVIV: The only times the Palestinian man wasn’t bound or blindfolded, he said, was when he was used by Israeli soldiers as their human shield.
Dressed in army fatigues with a camera fixed to his forehead, Ayman Abu Hamadan was forced into houses in the Gaza Strip to make sure they were clear of bombs and gunmen, he said. When one unit finished with him, he was passed to the next.
“They beat me and told me: ‘You have no other option; do this or we’ll kill you,’” the 36-year-old told The Associated Press, describing the 2-1/2 weeks he was held last summer by the Israeli military in northern Gaza.
Orders often came from the top, and at times nearly every platoon used a Palestinian to clear locations, said an Israeli officer, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.
Several Palestinians and soldiers told the AP that Israeli troops are systematically forcing Palestinians to act as human shields in Gaza, sending them into buildings and tunnels to check for explosives or militants. The dangerous practice has become ubiquitous during 19 months of war, they said.
In response to these allegations, Israel’s military says it strictly prohibits using civilians as shields — a practice it has long accused Hamas of using in Gaza. Israeli officials blame the militants for the civilian death toll in its offensive that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians.
In a statement to the AP, the military said it also bans otherwise coercing civilians to participate in operations, and “all such orders are routinely emphasized to the forces.”
The military said it’s investigating several cases alleging that Palestinians were involved in missions, but wouldn’t provide details. It didn’t answer questions about the reach of the practice or any orders from commanding officers.
The AP spoke with seven Palestinians who described being used as shields in Gaza and the occupied West Bank and with two members of Israel’s military who said they engaged in the practice, which is prohibited by international law. Rights groups are ringing the alarm, saying it’s become standard procedure increasingly used in the war.
“These are not isolated accounts; they point to a systemic failure and a horrifying moral collapse,” said Nadav Weiman, executive director of Breaking the Silence — a whistleblower group of former Israeli soldiers that has collected testimonies about the practice from within the military. “Israel rightly condemns Hamas for using civilians as human shields, but our own soldiers describe doing the very same.”
Abu Hamadan said he was detained in August after being separated from his family, and soldiers told him he’d help with a “special mission.” He was forced, for 17 days, to search houses and inspect every hole in the ground for tunnels, he said.
Soldiers stood behind him and, once it was clear, entered the buildings to damage or destroy them, he said. He spent each night bound in a dark room, only to wake up and do it again.
The use of human shields ‘caught on like fire’
Rights groups say Israel has used Palestinians as shields in Gaza and the West Bank for decades. The Supreme Court outlawed the practice in 2005. But the groups continued to document violations.
Still, experts say this war is the first time in decades the practice — and the debate around it — has been so widespread.
The two Israeli soldiers who spoke to the AP — and a third who provided testimony to Breaking the Silence — said commanders were aware of the use of human shields and tolerated it, with some giving orders to do so. Some said it was referred to as the “mosquito protocol” and that Palestinians were also referred to as “wasps” and other dehumanizing terms.
The soldiers — who said they’re no longer serving in Gaza — said the practice sped up operations, saved ammunition, and spared combat dogs from injury or death.
The soldiers said they first became aware human shields were being used shortly after the war erupted on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel, and that it became widespread by the middle of 2024. Orders to “bring a mosquito” often came via radio, they said — shorthand everyone understood. Soldiers acted on commanding officers’ orders, according to the officer who spoke to the AP.
He said that by the end of his nine months in Gaza, every infantry unit used a Palestinian to clear houses before entering.
“Once this idea was initiated, it caught on like fire in a field,” the 26-year-old said. “People saw how effective and easy it was.”
He described a 2024 planning meeting where a brigade commander presented to the division commander a slide reading “get a mosquito” and a suggestion they might “just catch one off the streets.”
The officer wrote two incident reports to the brigade commander detailing the use of human shields, reports that would have been escalated to the division chief, he said. The military said it had no comment when asked whether it received them.
One report documented the accidental killing of a Palestinian, he said — troops didn’t realize another unit was using him as a shield and shot him as he ran into a house. The officer recommended the Palestinians be dressed in army clothes to avoid misidentification.
He said he knew of at least one other Palestinian who died while used as a shield — he passed out in a tunnel.
Troops unsuccessfully pushed back, a sergeant says
Convincing soldiers to operate lawfully when they see their enemy using questionable practices is difficult, said Michael Schmitt, a distinguished professor of international law at the US Military Academy at West Point. Israeli officials and other observers say Hamas uses civilians as shields as it embeds itself in communities, hiding fighters in hospitals and schools.
“It’s really a heavy lift to look at your own soldiers and say you have to comply,” Schmitt said.
One soldier told the AP his unit tried to refuse to use human shields in mid-2024 but were told they had no choice, with a high-ranking officer saying they shouldn’t worry about international humanitarian law.
The sergeant — speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal — said the troops used a 16-year-old and a 30-year-old for a few days.
The boy shook constantly, he said, and both repeated “Rafah, Rafah” — Gaza’s southernmost city, where more than 1 million Palestinians had fled from fighting elsewhere at that point in the war.
It seemed they were begging to be freed, the sergeant said.
‘I have children,’ one man says he pleaded
Masoud Abu Saeed said he was used as a shield for two weeks in March 2024 in the southern city of Khan Younis.
“This is extremely dangerous,” he recounted telling a soldier. “I have children and want to reunite with them.”
The 36-year-old said he was forced into houses, buildings and a hospital to dig up suspected tunnels and clear areas. He said he wore a first-responder vest for easy identification, carrying a phone, hammer and chain cutters.
During one operation, he bumped into his brother, used as a shield by another unit, he said.
They hugged. “I thought Israel’s army had executed him,” he said.
Palestinians also report being used as shields in the West Bank.
Hazar Estity said soldiers took her Jenin refugee camp home in November, forcing her to film inside several apartments and clear them before troops entered.
She said she pleaded to return to her 21-month-old son, but soldiers didn’t listen.
“I was most afraid that they would kill me,” she said. “And that I wouldn’t see my son again.”
