BEIRUT: The Arab League on Friday warned against “the dangerous challenges that would threaten Lebanon and its stability, as well as the whole region’s stability, in case the war expanded on the southern border.”
Speaking in Beirut, Assistant Secretary-General Hossam Zaki stressed the importance of UN Resolution 1701 in containing the current escalation.
Zaki met various political figures during his visit to Lebanon, including former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.
He said the secretary-general of the Arab League had warned since the outset of the “monstrous” war on Gaza of the risk of its expansion to other countries in the region, including Lebanon.
The international community must carry out its responsibilities and stop the war, Zaki said, adding that the only way to contain the escalation in southern Lebanon was a complete ceasefire.
Zaki’s most prominent meeting was with Mohammed Raad, the head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc. It was the first meeting between the two sides since 2016, when the Arab League labeled Hezbollah a terrorist group.
At the end of his visit, Zaki said he counted on the Lebanese leaders’ “wisdom and their complete awareness of the dangerous threats surrounding Lebanon politically and on the ground.”
The Arab League, he said, was “fully ready to help the country with anything that might contribute to overcoming this difficult phase safely” and expressed the organization’s solidarity with Lebanon and its people.
He also emphasized the need to end the 19-month presidential vacuum.
Also on Friday, the EU expressed its concern over the “escalating tensions in the region, especially along the Blue Line between Lebanon and Israel.”
It called on all parties to “exercise self-restraint and take part in the diplomatic efforts to reduce the escalation.”
On Thursday, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed its “deep concern over the seriousness of the situation in Lebanon” and called on all parties to exercise maximum self-restraint.
The ministry’s deputy spokesperson, Christophe Lemoine, said hostilities in southern Lebanon had been escalating dramatically.
France, which has called for the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, “remains fully committed to preventing any risk of escalation along the Blue Line and reaching a diplomatic solution,” he said.
Some countries have warned their citizens against traveling to Lebanon due to the worsening security situation in the south of the country.
The Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs advised its citizens to “avoid traveling to Lebanon during this period, except for urgent necessity.”
The border area in southern Lebanon continues to face attacks from Israel, while Hezbollah has been targeting Israeli military sites.
In the town of Kfarkela, an Israeli airstrike destroyed a three-story commercial building comprising 10 shops. Mayor Hassan Sheet told Arab News that Israel had destroyed 76 residential buildings in the town, each containing more than 10 apartments.
“One could say entire neighborhoods have been leveled to the ground. We are in a state of war,” he said.
The current level of destruction was unparalleled, outstripping even the 2006 aggression, and people had abandoned the town to nearby villages, he said.
Only civil defense personnel remain in the town to extinguish fires and remove rubble.
Israeli artillery also shelled the outskirts of the coastal town of Naqoura, while warplanes attacked the town of Chihine.
Hezbollah, meanwhile, said it had targeted “espionage equipment at the Birkat Risha site with appropriate weapons, achieving direct hits.”
Sirens sounded in Kfar Blum and Amir in Upper Galilee. Israeli Channel 12 reported that the Iron Dome intercepted a suspicious aerial target in the Galilee panhandle, triggering the alarm due to fear of falling debris.
Also on Friday, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah for the first time received his new Sunni ally in operations in southern Lebanon — the secretary-general of the Islamic Group in Lebanon, Sheikh Mohammed Takkoush.
A statement issued by the two sides said: “The latest political and security developments in Lebanon and Palestine were discussed and the importance of cooperation among resistance forces in the battle to support the valiant resistance in Gaza and its steadfast and honorable people was emphasized.”
Arab League calls for adherence to UN Resolution 1701 to contain escalation in southern Lebanon
https://arab.news/wfsuc
Arab League calls for adherence to UN Resolution 1701 to contain escalation in southern Lebanon
- Israel has ‘destroyed entire neighborhoods,’ mayor of Kfarkela says
- EU urges restraint, Jordan advises citizens to avoid Lebanon
Gaza hospital chief among Palestinians freed by Israel
- Al-Shifa director Mohammed Abu Salmiya was detained in November
- Successive raids have seen the hospital reduced to rubble since Oct. 7
JERUSALEM: Israel released the head of Gaza’s biggest hospital, who had been detained for more than seven months, among dozens of Palestinian prisoners returned Monday to the besieged territory for treatment.
His release was confirmed on social media by Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and by a medical source inside the Gaza Strip.
Al-Shifa director Mohammed Abu Salmiya was detained in November.
Successive raids have seen the hospital where he worked largely reduced to rubble since Israel launched its assault on Gaza after the October 7 Hamas attacks on southern Israel.
Salmiya and the other freed detainees crossed back into Gaza from Israel just east of Khan Younis, a medical source at the Al-Aqsa hospital in Deir El-Balah said.
Five detainees were admitted to Al-Aqsa hospital and the others were sent to hospitals in Khan Younis, the source added.
An AFP correspondent at Deir El-Balah saw some detainees have emotional reunions with their families.
Israel’s military said it was “checking” reports about the prisoner release.
However, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir confirmed the release when he posted on X, formerly Twitter, that Salmiya’s release “with dozens of other terrorists is security abandonment.”
Israel has accused Hamas of using hospitals in the Gaza Strip as a cover for military operations and infrastructure.
The militant group, which has run the territory since 2007, denies the allegations.
In May, Palestinian rights groups said a senior Al-Shifa surgeon had died in an Israeli jail after being detained. Israel’s army said it was unaware of the death.
The war started with Hamas’s October 7 attack which resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 37,877 people, also mostly civilians, according to data from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.
Turkiye arrests 67 after mob attacks Syrian properties
ISTANBUL: Turkish police were holding 67 people Monday after a mob went on the rampage in a central Anatolian city after a Syrian man was accused of harassing a child.
A group of men targeted Syrian businesses and properties in Kayseri on Sunday evening, with videos on social media showing a grocery store being set on fire.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the latest bout of violence against Turkiye’s large community of Syrian refugees.
“No matter who they are, setting streets and people’s houses on fire is unacceptable,” he said, warning that hate speech should not be used for political gains.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said the Syrian national, identified only by his initials as I.A., was caught by Turkish citizens and delivered to the police.
Yerlikaya said on X that the Syrian man was suspected of harassing a Syrian girl, who was his relative.
He said Turks who gathered in the area acted “illegally” and in a manner “that does not suit our human values,” damaging houses, shops and cars belonging to Syrians.
Sixty-seven people were detained after the attacks, he said.
“Turkiye is a state of law and order. Our security forces continue their fight against all crimes and criminals today, as they did yesterday.”
In one of the videos a Turkish man was heard shouting: “We don’t want any more Syrians! We don’t want any more foreigners.”
Local authorities called for calm and revealed the victim was a five-year-old Syrian national.
Turkiye, which hosts some 3.2 million Syrian refugees, has been shaken several times by bouts of xenophobic violence in recent years, often triggered by rumors spreading on social media and instant messaging applications.
In August 2021, groups of men targeted businesses and homes occupied by Syrians in the capital Ankara, after a brawl which cost the life of a 18-year-old man.
The fate of Syrian refugees is also a burning issue in Turkish politics, with Erdogan’s opponents in last year’s election promising to send them back to Syria.
KSrelief treats thousands as health work continues in Yemen, Syria
- The dialysis center in Al-Ghaydah, in Yemen’s eastern province of Al-Mahra, treated 125 patients
RIYADH: A dialysis service by Saudi aid agency KSrelief treated scores of patients during May, Saudi Press Agency reported.
The dialysis center in Al-Ghaydah, in Yemen’s eastern province of Al-Mahra, treated 125 patients, including 53 who underwent a collective total of 441 scheduled kidney dialysis sessions and three emergency sessions.
Additionally, 75 patients were examined and received medical consultations at the center’s kidney disease clinic, said the report.
Of the total number of patients, 45 percent were male and 55 percent female. Residents made up 84 percent of those who were treated, while 1 percent were refugees and 15 percent were displaced.
Meanwhile KSrelief has continued to implement a project to enhance healthcare services for Syrian refugees and the host community in the town of Arsal, in Baalbek, Lebanon.
During May 2024, the Arsal Healthcare Center saw 12,789 patients who accessed services including clinics, pharmacy, laboratory, nursing, community health and psychological health programs.
The patients comprised 41 percent male and 59 percent female, with r
Some 41 percent of the patients were male and 59 percent female. Refugees made up 75 percent of the total, while the remaining 25 percent were residents.
More Palestinians forced onto jeep bonnet by Israeli soldiers: BBC report
LONDON: Two Palestinian men shot during a military operation in the occupied West Bank told the BBC how Israeli soldiers forced them onto the bonnet of an army jeep and then drove along village roads at high speeds.
Their testimonies come in the wake of footage showing 23-year-old Mujahid Abadi Balas clinging to the bonnet of what appears to be the same Israeli army jeep which has sparked international outrage.
Samir Dabaya, currently hospitalized in Jenin, recounted how he was shot in the back by Israeli forces during the operation in Jabariyat on Saturday. He said he lay face-down for hours, bleeding, until soldiers approached him. On finding the 25-year-old alive, they allegedly beat him with a gun before lifting him onto the vehicle.
“They took off my (trousers). I wanted to hold onto the car, but [one soldier] hit my face and told me not to. Then he started driving,” said Dabaya. “I was waiting for death.”
Dabaya provided the BBC with security camera footage purportedly showing him semi-naked on a fast-moving jeep which was marked with the number 1.
Another Palestinian, Hesham Isleit, also told the BBC he was shot twice during the Jabariyat operation and forced onto the same jeep.
Isleit described there being “shooting from all sides” and said he was collected by an army unit as he tried to flee after being shot in the leg.
He said the jeep was so hot “it felt like fire.”
“I was barefoot and undressed. I tried to put my hand on the jeep and I couldn’t, it was burning hot. I was telling them it was very hot, and they were forcing me to get on — telling me that if I didn’t want to die, I should do it,” he said.
Responding to the original video of Balas, the Israeli army stated he was tied to the jeep in “a violation of orders and procedures” and that an investigation would be conducted into the incident.
Gaza hospital chief among Palestinians freed by Israel
- Mohammed Abu Salmiya, other freed detainees cross back into Gaza from Israel just east of Khan Younis
JERUSALEM: Israel released the head of Gaza’s biggest hospital, who had been detained for more than seven months, among dozens of Palestinian prisoners returned Monday to the besieged territory for treatment.
His release was confirmed on social media by Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and by a medical source inside the Gaza Strip.
Al-Shifa director Mohammed Abu Salmiya was detained in November.
Successive raids have seen the hospital where he worked largely reduced to rubble since Israel launched its assault on Gaza after the October 7 Hamas attacks on southern Israel.
Salmiya and the other freed detainees crossed back into Gaza from Israel just east of Khan Younis, a medical source at the Al-Aqsa hospital in Deir El-Balah said.
Five detainees were admitted to Al-Aqsa hospital and the others were sent to hospitals in Khan Younis, the source added.
An AFP correspondent at Deir El-Balah saw some detainees have emotional reunions with their families.
Israel’s military said it was “checking” reports about the prisoner release.
However, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir confirmed the release when he posted on X, formerly Twitter, that Salmiya’s release “with dozens of other terrorists is security abandonment.”
Israel has accused Hamas of using hospitals in the Gaza Strip as a cover for military operations and infrastructure.
The militant group, which has run the territory since 2007, denies the allegations.
In May, Palestinian rights groups said a senior Al-Shifa surgeon had died in an Israeli jail after being detained. Israel’s army said it was unaware of the death.
The war started with Hamas’s October 7 attack which resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 37,877 people, also mostly civilians, according to data from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.
