How the life and death of Walid Daqqah in an Israeli jail encapsulates Palestinian Prisoners’ Day

Walid Daqqa. (Social Media)
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Updated 17 April 2024
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How the life and death of Walid Daqqah in an Israeli jail encapsulates Palestinian Prisoners’ Day

  • Palestinian detainees and prisoners have been subjected to gruesome levels of inhumane treatment, says Amnesty
  • Daqqah is the 251st Palestinian to have died in Israeli custody since 1967 — and the 14th since the Gaza war began

LONDON: When he was arrested by Israeli forces on March 25, 1986, Walid Daqqah was just 24 years old. When he died of cancer on April 7 this year, aged 62 and still a prisoner, he had spent all of the intervening 38 years in Israeli custody.

In the process Daqqah earned the dubious distinction of becoming Israel’s longest-serving Palestinian prisoner and was one of only a handful of inmates who had been in prison since before the Oslo Accords in the 1990s.

On Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, the story of Daqqah’s life and death has profound significance for every Palestinian jailed by Israel — and especially for the record number thrown behind bars since Oct. 7.

According to the Palestinian Commission of Detainee Affairs, Daqqah is the 251st Palestinian to have died in Israeli custody since 1967 and the 14th since the Hamas attack on Israel last year.

Daqqah was sentenced to life in prison in March 1987, following the abduction and killing of an Israeli soldier by a unit of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in 1984.




A freed prisoner waves from a bus during a welcome ceremony following the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails in exchange for Israeli hostages held in Gaza by Hamas last year. (AFP)

He was not found guilty of killing the soldier but of commanding the unit, a charge he consistently denied. Furthermore, Amnesty International said “his conviction was based on British emergency regulations dating back to 1945, which require a much lower standard of proof for conviction than Israeli criminal law.”

What happened next, said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty’s senior director for research, advocacy, policy and campaigns, was “a cruel reminder of Israel’s disregard of Palestinians’ right to life.”

Daqqah’s original 37-year sentence had been due to expire in March 2023, but in 2018 was extended by two years after he was implicated in a scheme to smuggle mobile phones to prisoners desperate to contact their families.

He was, in effect, sentenced to die in prison.

In 2022 Daqqah had been diagnosed with terminal bone marrow cancer, but his appeal for parole on humanitarian grounds was rejected, even after he had served his original sentence.

“It is heart-wrenching that Walid Daqqah has died in Israeli custody despite the many calls for his urgent release on humanitarian grounds,” Guevara-Rosas said.




Ahmed Manasra was accused of taking part in the stabbing of two Israelis in 2015. (AFP)

“For Daqqah and his family, the last six months in particular were an endless nightmare, during which he was subjected to torture or other ill-treatment, including beatings and humiliation by the Israeli Prison Service, according to his lawyer.

“He was not permitted a phone call with his wife since Oct. 7. His final appeal for parole on humanitarian grounds was rejected by the Israeli Supreme Court, effectively sentencing him to die behind bars.”

Even when Daqqah was on his deathbed, “Israeli authorities continued to display chilling levels of cruelty … not only denying him adequate medical treatment and suitable food, but also preventing him from saying a final goodbye to his wife Sanaa Salameh and their 4-year-old daughter Milad,” Guevara-Rosas said.

Milad was the couple’s small miracle. When they were denied the privilege of conjugal rights, their child was conceived after a unique prison “breakout” — her father’s sperm was smuggled out of prison.

He was, however, only allowed to see his daughter once in person, in October 2022, and even then only after “a daunting legal battle.”

Worse, his wife, Sanaa Salameh, “who tirelessly campaigned for his release, could not embrace her dying husband one last time before he passed,” Guevara-Rosas said.

In death, Daqqah will live on in the collective memory of his people as one of the million or more Arab citizens imprisoned by Israel since 1948 and whose incarceration has been commemorated every year since 1974 on April 17 as Palestinian Prisoners’ Day.




the Ofer military prison located between Ramallah and Baytunia in the occupied West Bank. (AFP)

This year, there are more Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons than ever before.

According to figures released by the Israel Prison Service, as of this month, Israel is holding 9,312 “security inmates” in jails under its jurisdiction, including Ofer Prison in the West Bank.

That figure does not include the thousands of Palestinians detained by the Israeli military in the Gaza Strip, who are believed to be held incommunicado in military camps, including the Sde Teiman base in the desert.

On April 4 a group of nongovernmental organizations including the Committee Against Torture wrote to Israel’s Military Advocate General demanding the immediate closure of the facility. They cited the testimonies of innocent Palestinians who had been released from the camp who painted “a horrifying picture of inhumane prison conditions, humiliation and torture.”

The detainees, they said, “are held in a kind of cage, crowded, sitting on their knees in a painful position for many hours every day. They are handcuffed at all hours of the day and blindfolded. This is how they eat, relieve themselves and receive medical care.”

Even without this unknown number of detainees, the 9,312 prisoners acknowledged by the IPS is a record, beating even the previous highest number, established during the Gaza War of 2008-09.

Of these, just 2,071 have been tried and sentenced. A further 3,661 are what are euphemistically termed “administrative detainees” who have not been charged, tried or found guilty of any offense.

According to B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, administrative detention is when “a person is held without trial, without having committed an offense, on the grounds that he or she plans to break the law in the future.”

The tactic is disturbingly reminiscent of the 2002 science fiction film “Minority Report,” in which police arrest people for crimes that psychic “precogs” predict they might commit.




Israeli soldiers arrest Palestinian youth during an incursion in the West bank town of Nablus in 2007. (AFP)

Amnesty said it was a particularly invidious legal device under which military authorities “may place individuals in administrative detention for up to six months at a time, if the commander has ‘reasonable grounds to believe that reasons of regional security or public security require that a certain person be held in detention.’”

The order may be extended for an additional six-month period “from time to time” and there is no time limit to administrative detention.

“The person is detained without legal proceedings, by order of the regional military commander, based on classified evidence that is not revealed to them.

“This leaves the detainees helpless — facing unknown allegations with no way to disprove them, not knowing when they will be released and without being charged, tried or convicted.”

A smaller but significant number of residents from the Gaza Strip — 849 — are being held under Israel’s controversial Incarceration of Unlawful Combatants Law, which was introduced in 2002 and also allows arbitrary detention without trial.

Amnesty said the official figure was doubtless wide of the mark.

“We know there are thousands of Palestinians from Gaza held arbitrarily under said unlawful law for weeks and months on end,” a spokesperson told Arab News.

For many, incarceration is just the beginning of the nightmare.

“Palestinian detainees and prisoners have been subjected to gruesome levels of inhumane treatment that reached unprecedented levels of cruelty as part of the Israeli authorities’ retaliation campaign against Palestinians following Oct. 7,” Waed Abbas, a research and campaigns officer at Amnesty’s regional office in Ramallah and Jerusalem, told Arab News.

Drawing on the testimonies of Palestinians who have been released from prison and detention, and evidence gleaned through rarely allowed visits by lawyers, Amnesty said “a chilling image of a terrifying reality” was emerging.

“They’ve been tortured, starved, denied adequate medical care, cut off from the outside world, including from their families, put in solitary confinement, humiliated and degraded,” Abbas said.

The use of torture, she said, “has witnessed a spine-chilling spike and at least 40 Palestinian prisoners and detainees have died in Israeli custody over the past six months, either in military detention centers or in prisons run by the Israel Prison Service.”

And this is only the number of deaths officially acknowledged by the Israeli authorities. “The actual death toll may yet be higher,” Abbas said.




Wissam Tamimi, 17, reunited with his mother Hunaida and his younger brother and sister. (CNN videograb)

In many cases, the imprisonment of individuals has continued even after their death. “Families have been denied the right to mourn them with peace and dignity as Israel continues to withhold their bodies.”

Noa Sattath, executive director of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, said the deteriorating conditions facing Palestinians in Israeli prisons was of “grave concern.”

Recent policy changes instigated by the IPS following an order by Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s right-wing minister of national security, “have resulted in the arbitrary denial of basic rights, including access to medical care and legal counsel,” he told Arab News.

ACRI had petitioned Israel’s Supreme Court, protesting against “the policy of starving security prisoners, highlighting testimonies of extreme hunger and poor food quality among detainees,” and also called for the immediate resumption of Red Cross visits to Palestinian detainees.

“Even, and perhaps especially, amid conflicts and hostage situations, upholding detainees’ rights remains imperative for ensuring justice and dignity for all,” Sattah said.

For Miriam Azem, international advocacy and communications associate at Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, the extent to which the wider world is turning a blind eye to Israel’s abuse of human rights and legal norms is shocking.

“To be frank, this has gone under the radar, in terms of both the mainstream global media and most of the Western world, including the UN,” she said.

In a bid to put the issue on the global agenda, on Feb. 19, four NGOs, including Adalah and Physicians for Human Rights Israel, submitted a joint plea for action to Dr Alice Edwards, the UN special rapporteur on torture, drawing her attention to the “marked and severe escalation in the abuse of Palestinian detainees and prisoners incarcerated in Israeli prisons and detention facilities” since Oct. 7.

Among other things, the signatories urged Edwards to “call on Israel to immediately halt the systematic abuse, torture and ill-treatment inflicted upon Palestinian prisoners and detainees,” to ensure that “all persons deprived of liberty are afforded all legal safeguards from the very outset” and guarantee adequate medical care generally and “specifically for victims of abuse, torture and ill-treatment.”

As part of the appeal the NGOs documented 19 “very concrete” cases backed by “substantive evidence and testimonies of torture and ill treatment.”

The dossier makes for disturbing reading.

“Prisoner A,” released from Gilboa Prison, and other inmates “were subjected to beatings in their cells (and) were forced to curse themselves and to crawl while carrying an Israeli flag on their back and were threatened with beatings if they failed to do so.”




A Palestinian prisoner hugs his mother after being released from an Israeli jail in exchange for Israeli hostages released by Hamas from the Gaza Strip last year. (AFP)

Throughout Detainee E’s detention in the Russian Compound Detention Center in Jerusalem between Oct. 29 and Nov. 12, 2023, “he was beaten on four occasions by wardens, including kicking, punching and the use of batons.”

In a hearing at Judea Military Court on Nov. 13, “female detainee A’s attorney reported that A had sustained repeated abuse; among other incidents, wardens had beaten A in her cell, without cameras, while she was naked.”

Two days later, at a hearing at Haifa District Court, it was reported that another female detainee from Hasharon Prison “had been threatened with rape and bodily assault.”

Several of the highlighted cases documented in distressing detail incidents of sexual abuse and daily violence suffered by male prisoners in Ketziot Prison.

Azem said that given the difficulties of collecting evidence, the 19 submitted cases were merely a representative sample of a far larger problem.

“One of the themes we have highlighted in the document is that prisoners face extreme threats of reprisals for speaking out.”

On March 8, the UN rapporteur said she was investigating the allegations of torture and mistreatment of Palestinian detainees in Israel and was in talks to visit the country.

In a statement to Reuters, the UN human rights office said it had received “numerous reports of mass detention, ill-treatment and enforced disappearance of Palestinians in northern Gaza by the Israeli military and has recorded the arrests of thousands in the West Bank.”

Responding to the allegations in a statement to AFP, a spokesperson for the Israel Prison Service said: “All prisoners are detained according to the law.”

It said the service was “not aware of the claims” against it, but stressed that any complaints filed by detainees “will be fully examined and addressed by official authorities.”

In many ways the life and death of Walid Daqqah symbolizes the wider suffering of the tens of thousands of men, women and children who have followed him into Israeli custody over the almost four decades since he was first incarcerated.

How he lived his limited life behind bars, however, lives on as an example of how hope can survive in even the most seemingly hopeless of circumstances.




Israeli border policemen detain a Palestinian stone-throwing youth during clashes on October 5, 2009 in the east Jerusalem Shuafat refugee camp. (AFP)

In an obituary published on April 8, the day after his death, Amnesty said that while behind bars Daqqah “wrote extensively about the Palestinian experience in Israeli prisons.”

“He acted as a mentor and educator for generations of young Palestinian prisoners, including children,” it said.

“His writings, which included letters, essays, a celebrated play and a novel for young adults, were an act of resistance against the dehumanization of Palestinian prisoners.”

A line he once wrote shines as a beacon of hope for the tens of thousands of Palestinians who since 1986 have followed him into captivity: “Love is my modest and only victory against my jailer.”

The children in Israel’s prisons
Ongoing hostage-for-prisoners exchange opens the world’s eyes to arrests, interrogations, and even abuse of Palestinian children by Israeli authorities

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Israel’s Supreme Court opens hearing on security chief’s dismissal

Updated 3 sec ago
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Israel’s Supreme Court opens hearing on security chief’s dismissal

JERUSALEM: Israel’s Supreme Court on Tuesday began hearing petitions challenging a government decision to dismiss the head of the Shin Bet domestic security agency, Ronen Bar, that cited “lack of trust.”
Opposition politicians and non-profit groups have contested the move, which Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara said was “tainted by personal conflict of interest” on the part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

An Israeli strike hit near a charity kitchen in Gaza as Palestinians gathered for food

Updated 08 April 2025
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An Israeli strike hit near a charity kitchen in Gaza as Palestinians gathered for food

  • The strike hit around noon as the kitchen was distributing meals to displaced people living in tent camps
  • Israel’s campaign has killed more than 1,000 health workers and at least 173 journalists, according to the UN and the Committee to Protect Journalists

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip: An Israeli strike on Monday hit next to a charity kitchen where Palestinians crowded to receive cooked meals as food supplies dwindle under Israel’s month-long blockade of the Gaza Strip, one of a string of attacks in the territory that killed more than 30 people, mostly women and children, hospital officials said.
Another strike hit a media tent outside a hospital, killing two people, including a local reporter, and wounding six other journalists, medics said. The Israeli military said the strike targeted a man whom it identified as a Hamas militant posing as a journalist.
Video footage showed people carrying the body of a little girl, her face covered with blood, from the blast that witnesses said hit a tent next to the charity kitchen outside the southern city of Khan Younis. Six other people were killed, including two women, and at least 10 people were wounded, hospital officials said.
The strike hit around noon as the kitchen was distributing meals to displaced people living in tent camps. Samah Abu Jamie said her nephew was among those killed and her young daughter was wounded as they waited with their pots to collect meals for their families.
“They were going to get food. I told her, ‘Daughter, don’t go’,” she said. “These were children, and they had nothing with them but a pot. Is a pot a weapon?”
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the strike.
‘Bombed and starved again’
Charity kitchens have been drawing bigger crowds of Palestinians because other sources of food are running out. More than a month ago, Israeli cut off all food, fuel, medicine and other supplies for Gaza’s population of more than 2 million people, forcing aid groups to ration their stocks.
The World Food Program has warned that its supplies to keep kitchens going could be depleted by next week. It had to stop distributing boxes of food staples directly to families last week, spokesperson Abeer Etefa said Monday. The bakeries it ran have also shut down for lack of flour, ending a main source of bread for hundreds of thousands of people.
Since it ended its ceasefire with Hamas last month, Israel has carried out bombardments across Gaza, killing hundreds of people, and ground forces have carved out new military zones. Israel says it is pressuring Hamas to free its remaining hostages, disarm and leave the territory. Under the ceasefire deal, it had agreed to negotiate for the hostages’ release.
The heads of six UN agencies operating in Gaza said in a joint statement Monday that the blockade has left Gaza’s population “trapped, bombed and starved again.” They said Israeli claims that enough supplies entered during the ceasefire “are far from the reality on the ground, and commodities are running extremely low.”
“We are witnessing acts of war in Gaza that show an utter disregard for human life,” they said. “Protect civilians. Facilitate aid. Release hostages. Renew a ceasefire.”
Strikes hit journalists and homes
The strike outside Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis about 2 a.m. set the media tent ablaze, killing Yousef Al-Faqawi, a reporter for the Palestine Today news website, and another man, according to hospital officials.
The military said the strike targeted Hassan Eslaiah, claiming he was a Hamas militant who took part in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel that ignited the war. Eslaiah was among six journalists who were wounded in the strike, according to the hospital.
Eslaiah had occasionally contributed images to The Associated Press and other international media outlets as a freelance journalist, including on Oct. 7. The AP has not worked with him for over a year.
A strike that hit a street in Gaza City killed an emergency room doctor, the Gaza Health Ministry said. Israel’s campaign has killed more than 1,000 health workers and at least 173 journalists, according to the UN and the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Hospitals in Khan Younis and the central town of Deir Al-Balah said they received the bodies of 33 people, 19 of them women and children, from strikes overnight and into the day on Monday, including those from the kitchen and the media tent attack.
Some of the strike reduced houses to rubble. Imad Maghari said the blast that hit his neighbors in Deir Al-Balah at 2 a.m. was like “an earthquake,” followed by the screams of women and children. He said one neighbor lost five family members and another a young boy.
“I don’t know what danger he poses. He’s 7 years old,” Maghari said.
Israel’s military offensive in retaliation for Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza health ministry, whose count does not distinguish between militants and civilians. The offensive has destroyed vast areas of the Gaza Strip and displaced around 90 percent of its population.
Israel says it tries to avoid civilian casualties and blames Hamas for their deaths because it operates among the population.
In the Oct. 7 attack, Hamas-led militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 people. They are still holding 59 captives — 24 of whom are believed to be alive — after most of the rest were released in ceasefires or other deals.
Protests in Israel as Netanyahu meets Trump
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with US President Donald Trump in Washington on Monday to discuss Gaza and other issues.
Dozens of protesters gathered outside Netanyahu’s official residence in Jerusalem to call for an agreement to release the captives. Many fear that Netanyahu’s decision to resume the fighting has put the remaining hostages in grave danger and hope Trump can help broker another deal.
“Now the moment of truth has come,” said Varda Ben Baruch, grandmother of Israeli American hostage Edan Alexander, addressing Netanyahu. “You are in the United States and you have to sit there with President Trump and close a deal so that everyone will be released home.”
 

 


Syria appoints finance expert as new central bank governor

Updated 07 April 2025
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Syria appoints finance expert as new central bank governor

  • Hasriya takes over from Maysa Sabreen, who had been appointed caretaken governor in late December, after an Islamist-led offensive toppled longtime president Bashar Assad

DAMASCUS: Syria’s interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa on Monday appointed Abdul Qadir Al-Hasriya as governor of the war-battered country’s central bank, state media reported.
State news agency SANA posted a picture of Hasriya taking the oath as the new central bank chief in front of Sharaa, who on Monday led a first cabinet meeting to “discuss government priorities for the next phase.”
Sharaa announced the formation of a new government on March 29.
Syria’s national currency is considered the foremost challenge for the central bank post, after its value plummeted during 13 years of civil war.
Hasriya takes over from Maysa Sabreen, who had been appointed caretaken governor in late December, after an Islamist-led offensive toppled longtime president Bashar Assad.
Sabreen, a banking expert, had been the first woman to head the financial establishment, having served as first deputy governor since 2018.
Hasriya was born in 1961 and previously lived between the United Arab Emirates and Syria.
He studied at the American University of Beirut before completing his PhD in finance at the University of Durham in Britain.
He previously worked for accountancy firms EY, previously known as Ernst & Young, and Arthur Andersen, as well as having been a member of the financial committee of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Geneva.
He was a consultant on reforms to Syria’s central bank in cooperation with the United Nations Development Programme.
The Syrian pound has lost about 90 percent of its value since the start of the civil war in 2011, sinking from 50 pounds to currently around 10,000-12,000 to the US dollar.


Netanyahu says Israel working on fresh Gaza hostage deal

Updated 44 min 11 sec ago
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Netanyahu says Israel working on fresh Gaza hostage deal

  • The recent truce had allowed the return of 33 Israeli hostages, eight of whom were dead, in exchange for the release of some 1,800 Palestinians held in Israeli jails

WASHINGTON: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday during a White House appearance with President Donald Trump that new negotiations were in the works aimed at getting more hostages released from Hamas captivity in Gaza.
“We’re working now on another deal that we hope will succeed, and we’re committed to getting all the hostages out,” Netanyahu told reporters in the Oval Office.
Trump for his part said: “We are trying very hard to get the hostages out. We’re looking at another ceasefire, we’ll see what happens.”
Netanyahu added that “the hostages are in agony, and we want to get them all out.”
The Israeli leader, seated next to Trump, highlighted an earlier hostage release agreement negotiated in part by Trump’s regional envoy Steve Witkoff that “got 25 out.”
Netanyahu’s visit follows the collapse of Israel’s six-week truce with Palestinian group Hamas, whose militants launched an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 that triggered the war.
The fragile ceasefire ended with Israel’s resumption of air strikes on Gaza on March 18.
The recent truce had allowed the return of 33 Israeli hostages, eight of whom were dead, in exchange for the release of some 1,800 Palestinians held in Israeli jails.
The prime minister and his government maintain — against the advice of most hostage families — that increased military pressure is the only way to force Hamas to return the remaining hostages, dead or alive.
Of the 251 hostages abducted during Hamas’s October 7 attack, 58 remain in captivity in Gaza, including 34 who the Israeli military says are dead.


Aoun meets US delegation amid latest Israeli strikes 

Updated 07 April 2025
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Aoun meets US delegation amid latest Israeli strikes 

  • Motorcyclist killed in southern border area accused by Israel of being Hezbollah commander
  • Aoun urges Washington to pressure Israel, as US official insists on reform 

BEIRUT: An Israeli strike Monday in southern Lebanon killed one person, according to the Health Ministry, with Israel’s military saying it had “eliminated” a Hezbollah commander.

The attack was conducted by an Israeli drone which targeted a motorcycle repair shop in the border town of Taybeh, with Israel claiming to have struck “a commander in Hezbollah’s artillery system.”

A Lebanese security source said the attack targeted “a motorcycle as its rider stopped in front of a motorcycle repair shop on the Taybeh-Adaisseh road, resulting in his death and a fire breaking out at the location.”

Hezbollah later identified the deceased man as Mohammed Adnan Mansour.

Under the terms of the ceasefire agreement, Hezbollah was meant to withdraw fighters from south of the Litani River and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure there.

Israel was to withdraw all its forces from southern Lebanon but continues to hold five positions that it deems “strategic.”

Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun has urged Washington to pressure Israel to withdraw from the five border points, saying the ongoing troop presence “complicates the situation.”

On Monday, the Lebanese government received a message from the US confirming the need to disarm Hezbollah and implement necessary reforms for the country to receive financial aid, with Washington anticipating swift action on these issues.

A delegation from the American Task Force on Lebanon, headed by Edward Gabriel, conveyed the message to Aoun.

Aoun said there is no place for any weapons or armed groups outside the framework of the Lebanese state.

Aoun on Monday said the issue needed to be resolved “through communication and dialogue because, in the end, Hezbollah is a Lebanese component.”

Authorities would soon begin drafting a “national security strategy,” he added.

During a meeting with the delegation, Aoun reaffirmed Lebanon’s full commitment to UN Resolution 1701, commending the work of UNIFIL south of the Litani River.

Aoun pointed to “Israeli violations of the ceasefire agreement,” saying that “Israel’s continued presence in the five hills it occupied will not be beneficial for Lebanon and will further complicate the situation.

“Therefore, we call on the US to pressure Israel to withdraw from them,” he added.

“The Lebanese Army, north of the Litani River, dismantled six camps that were under the control of Palestinian groups outside the refugee camps,” Aoun continued.

“They are now empty, and the weapons found were either confiscated or destroyed.”

Aoun confirmed that “the priority is to reduce tension in the south.”

He added: “The will is there, and the UNIFIL are doing their job to the fullest. But we must take into account that they are bearing many responsibilities. Lebanon needs time to resolve matters calmly.”

Aoun noted that “three weeks ago, the government approved the recruitment of 4,500 soldiers to boost our preparedness in the south.”

He emphasized to the American delegation that “reforms and the disarmament of weapons are demands from Lebanon, as well as from the international community and the US. We are committed to working towards these goals, and building trust is a step we have already initiated.”

Gabriel spoke about the “significant recognition of the efforts made by the Lebanese Army and the commendable work of the president.”

He stated: “I understand that your contribution to this was extremely important, and there are still many tasks that need to be completed, which we have been made aware of. The sooner these are carried out, the quicker we can assist you.”

Gabriel revealed that “a funding bill is being prepared in Congress for the upcoming year, along with three significant pieces of legislation included in the economic package.”

Aoun also met on Monday with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri to discuss the outcomes of the visit of US Deputy Envoy to the Middle East Morgan Ortagus to Lebanon last weekend.

According to a political observer, the emphasis was placed on “expediting the approval of reform laws in parliament” after “constructive and positive” discussions with Ortagus.

Less than 24 hours before the strike on the motorcycle repair shop in Tayah, an Israeli drone targeted a vehicle in Naqoura.

Israeli Army spokesman Avichay Adraee claimed that the “targeted people were two members of Hezbollah who worked on an engineering vehicle in the Zebqin area of southern Lebanon, attempting to reconstruct infrastructure associated with Hezbollah.”

Meanwhile, in more positive news, Pierre Achkar, president of the Federation for Tourism and the Hotel Association in Lebanon, said that Eid Al-Fitr brought a significant influx of Qatari and Kuwaiti tourists to the Mediterranean country.

“While Iraqis had historically been the top tourist group, followed by Jordanians, Egyptians, and Syrians, Qataris and Kuwaitis now make up a larger portion of visitors to Lebanon,” he said.

“The occupancy rate in hotels located in safe areas and downtown reached 70 percent to 80 percent, while others saw 50 percent to 60 percent occupancy rates,” he added.

Achkar expressed hope that, with the increasing number of Gulf tourists, travel bans on Saudi and Emirati nationals visiting Lebanon would be lifted “as their presence could significantly benefit the Lebanese tourism sector.”

Elsewhere protests broke out in Lebanon on Monday across the country in response to a global call for solidarity with the people of Gaza. Many educational institutions and markets went on strike, and the Lebanese military implemented strict security measures around the US Embassy to prevent protesters from gathering in the area.