With strong ties to Lebanon, Latin Americans suffer in the wake of Israeli attacks

Brazilians deplane after the Air Force evacuated them from Lebanon amid Israeli airstrikes, at the Air Force base in Guarulhos, greater Sao Paulo area, Brazil, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP)
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Updated 06 October 2024
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With strong ties to Lebanon, Latin Americans suffer in the wake of Israeli attacks

  • Brazil’s government estimates 21,000 Brazilian nationals living in Lebanon

BRASILIA: With millions of people of Lebanese descent living in Latin America — certain analysts think there are more people of Lebanese ancestry in Brazil alone than in Lebanon itself — the number of Latin Americans in Lebanon is equally high.

Since the Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon and on Beirut intensified, countries like Colombia and Brazil have sent planes to rescue groups of their citizens.

A massive evacuation from cities near the border with Israel has been ordered by the invading forces over the past few days. At least 70 towns have been included in the evacuation list by Israel. The strikes on Beirut led hundreds of thousands of people to move as well.

In many such locations, there are groups of Latin American families, many the sons and daughters of Lebanese immigrants to the New World who decided to go back to their parents’ homeland.

Cases of Latin American women, with or without Lebanese ancestry, who married Lebanese men in Latin America and decided to move with them to Lebanon are also pretty common.

That is the case with Leni Souza, a 48-year-old Brazilian woman from Parana state, which has one of the largest Lebanese communities in Brazil.

Souza spent her childhood in Foz do Iguacu, on the border with Ciudad del Este in Paraguay, and Puerto Iguazu, in Argentina, an area with hundreds of thousands of Lebanese nationals. She met her husband, a Lebanese-born man with dual (Lebanese and Brazilian) citizenship, in the city. Some 11 years ago, already with three daughters, the couple decided to move to a city in the south of Lebanon. The eldest is 20 and a university student; the other two are 13-year-old twins.

“Our region has been hardly hit. We finally managed to escape on Oct. 1, after a long time trying to put fuel in our cars. We spent nine hours stuck on the road. Everybody was trying to run away,” she told Arab News.

Souza said her daughters are traumatized by the sound of the bombs. The night before they escaped, there was a terrible strike on the area. They spent the night at their grandparents’ house, thinking it would be safer. Souza, who was also there, said it was a nightmare.

She added: “The bomb’s noise was so loud that we thought they were exploding the house. We had to touch ourselves to confirm we were alive.”

Her eldest daughter lost a college colleague that night. The building where she lived was destroyed and the young lady died.

The family left the city without a definite destination. Shelters were all full of displaced people. They eventually found a second-floor free space to rent, in a mountainous region. It has no furniture or any home appliances, but they feel better now that they have a place to stay.

Brazil’s government estimates at 21,000 the number of Brazilian nationals living in Lebanon. After sending questionnaires to the whole community, the Brazilian Embassy in Beirut learned that about 3,000 of them wished to be evacuated to the South American country.

Souza said: “I confirmed that we want to be taken to Sao Paulo. But it will not be easy for us. Our whole life is in Beirut. We’ll begin our lives from scratch in Brazil.”

The region’s Brazilian women keep a group on social media and stand by each other in difficult situations. Souza said many people are facing serious health problems now and need to be immediately taken from Lebanon.

She said: “I would be happy to give my place to those people, if my name appears on the next list. I feel safer now on the mountains and don’t care if we have to wait a little longer in order to go to Brazil.”

Brazil’s first plane had to wait longer than had been planned in Portugal due to security reasons, but it finally landed in Beirut on Oct. 5, rescuing 229 Brazilians and three pets. Operation Cedar Roots, as President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s administration called it, may take several weeks until it is finally concluded.

Up until now, two Brazilians have died as a result of Israeli aggression, 15-year-old Kamal Abdallah and 16-year-old Mirna Raef Nasser.

Another significant Latin American community in Lebanon is the one formed by Argentines. There are no reliable estimates of their number and President Javier Milei’s administration still has not announced an evacuation plan.

“I called the Argentine Embassy and I was told that the government is not taking anyone out of Lebanon,” an Argentine woman, who preferred to remain anonymous due to safety concerns, told Arab News. The embassy directed her to leave Lebanon through Syria.

On Oct. 5, however, Said Chaya, the secretary-general of the Lebanese-Argentine Culture Union, known as the UCAL, told Arab News that the government had begun to ask Lebanon’s residents if they wanted to be rescued and taken to Argentina.

Chaya told Arab News: “People who can’t leave endangered areas are being consulted. But, as far as I know, most of them don’t want to escape from Lebanon. They prefer to remain there on the mountains and wait to see what will happen.”

The Argentine woman who talked to Arab News has been feeling those contradictory sentiments. On the one hand, she has thought about fleeing the region after the strikes on Beirut, where she lives, had led her and her family to leave the capital, but, on the other, she said her husband’s extended family cannot be left behind.

“We can’t flee the country and leave them here. Either we all go or no one goes,” she said, adding they are a group of 20 people who are all together now in a small house with only one bathroom.

An Argentine woman with no Arab ancestry, she has been living in Lebanon since 2003 and has three children: two of them, aged 20 and 25, are with her now.

She said: “We came in order to live a safer life with our kids, for their education, for religion. Except for the 2006 attacks, it used to be a safe country.”

Her two children now get extremely anxious when they hear the sound of bombs exploding.

She added: “Israel wants to create a second Gaza here. I’m terribly sad, because most of the world pretends that nothing is happening. They don’t care about us.”

She said that her family is tired and that she fears for her relatives’ safety.

She said: “The truth is that I don’t want to go anywhere else. I just want this to end tomorrow and to go back to my house.”

Lebanese families in Latin America follow the events in the Middle East and their country’s rescue plans with anguish. Lawyer Hanna Mtaneos Hanna Jr., an honorary consul of Lebanon in Goiania, Brazil, told Arab News the atmosphere among Lebanese Brazilians is tense.

“The Lebanese community is saddened and disgusted with the situation. Things have been escalating and the world keeps watching without doing anything,” he told Arab News.

Hanna Jr. himself has relatives in the northern part of Lebanon. Despite the fact that his four cousins are relatively safe now, he has been worried like everybody else.

He said: “A friend of mine has two sons living in Beirut. He has been extremely concerned. They’ve been trying to come back, but all commercial flights are constantly canceled.”

He thinks that the Brazilian government has been acting with the necessary haste since the crisis began, despite the difficulties involved in an operation during war.

That is not the case with Argentina, where Milei’s own particular views concerning Israel — he is very interested in Judaism and even promised, during the campaign, that he would move the Argentine Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem — have reportedly been affecting his work with the Lebanese community.

Chaya said: “He keeps, for instance, a distant relationship with Muslims, who are part of the Lebanese community. Maybe that’s why it took so long for the government to organize the rescue.”

The UCAL and dozens of other Lebanese organizations published a letter last week in which they repudiated Israeli aggression. Protests against the attacks have been promoted in cities like Rosario and Cordoba.

The Islamic Center of the Argentine Republic, known as CIRA and founded mainly by Lebanese and Syrian immigrants decades ago, has been directly impacted by the attacks, said Hassan El-Bacha, its secretary-general.

“Israel is destroying the cities from which our ancestors came,” he told Arab News.

He said the community is appalled by the strikes, adding: “The Zionist occupation will not be detained unless the international community takes the matters in its hands.”

Other countries in Latin America are also involved in the crisis. A flight carrying 116 Colombian nationals and a few foreigners arrived in Bogota last week. New flights have already been scheduled and Peru’s government has also been helping a group of Peruvian nationals sheltering in the north.


Sudan’s RSF falters amid blunders, supply shortfalls

Updated 57 min 37 sec ago
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Sudan’s RSF falters amid blunders, supply shortfalls

  • After nearly two years of fighting, the RSF’s supplies have dwindled and its recruitment efforts have faltered
  • Many of its members lack formal military training, making them increasingly vulnerable in prolonged combat, Hudson said

PORT SUDAN: Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces are losing ground to the army due to strategic blunders, internal rifts and dwindling supplies, analysts say.
The regular army has made major gains, seeming to reverse the tide of a nearly two-year war that has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted more than 12 million.
Last month, the army surged through central Sudan, reclaiming the Al-Jazira state capital of Wad Madani before setting its sights on Khartoum.
Within two weeks, it shattered RSF sieges on key Khartoum military bases, including the General Command headquarters, and overran the Al-Jaili oil refinery, the country’s biggest, just north of the capital.
Cameron Hudson, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Africa program, said while “the RSF outperformed at the start of the war because it was more prepared,” its weaknesses were now showing.
After nearly two years of fighting, the RSF’s supplies have dwindled and its recruitment efforts have faltered.
Many of its members lack formal military training, making them increasingly vulnerable in prolonged combat, Hudson said.
The army, which “was caught off guard” at the start of the war, has “had time to rebuild, recruit and rearm,” he added.
According to a former general in the Sudanese military, the army has broadened its fighter base, mobilizing volunteers, allied militias and other branches of the security apparatus.
One “critical” addition to the army’s operations has been reinstating the Special Operations Forces, part of state intelligence, the former general told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The special forces, who are trained in urban warfare according to the former general, have helped reverse what Rift Valley Institute fellow Eric Reeves called the army’s “cowardly willingness to engage only in ‘stand-off tactics’, namely artillery and aircraft strikes,” particularly in the capital.
The RSF meanwhile has overstretched its resources and exposed vulnerabilities in its military strategy, analysts say.
More than 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) separate RSF strongholds in Darfur — the vast western region nearly entirely under their control — from Khartoum, the fiercely contested metropolis.
Darfur’s strong tribal networks have supplied troops to the RSF, while crucial support from abroad has funnelled through the region’s borders with Chad and Libya, experts and the UN have said.
But attempting to expand their control into central and eastern Sudan, the paramilitaries have “stretched themselves too thin,” said Reeves, a veteran Darfur expert.
The long road — increasingly contested by the army in areas such as North Kordofan — has made resupply missions “both difficult and dangerous,” said Hamid Khalafallah, a Britain-based Sudanese researcher.
“It has become very costly for the RSF to get supplies from Darfur to the center and east,” he told AFP.
Beyond logistics, analysts say internal rifts have added to the RSF’s troubles.
“Their ability to command their forces in a coherent and organized way across the country has been severely tested,” said Magnus Taylor, deputy director of the Horn of Africa project at International Crisis Group.
In Wad Madani, the high-profile defection of an RSF commander in late 2024 has weakened the group’s hold.
The commander, Abu Aqla Kaykal — widely accused of atrocities against civilians — has since led troops on behalf of the army, according to a source in his Sudan Shield Forces militia.
Analysts say the RSF’s setbacks do not necessarily signal their defeat or an imminent end to the fighting.
They say the paramilitary force has changed its strategy, targeting civilian infrastructure in central Sudan while consolidating its hold on Darfur.
“It seems the RSF’s current strategy is to create chaos,” Hudson said.
“It is not targeting military sites, but civilians... to punish the people and the state,” he added.
RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo has remained defiant, vowing again on Friday to “expel” the army from Khartoum.
In recent weeks, the RSF has struck power plants, the only functioning hospital in the North Darfur state capital of El-Fasher and a market in Omdurman, Khartoum’s twin city.
But the prize most critical to the RSF’s continued war effort is 1,000 kilometers west of Khartoum: El-Fasher, the only major city in Darfur out of its control.
Since May, the RSF has laid siege to the city as its fighters have been repeatedly repelled by the military and its allied militias.
Should the paramilitaries succeed in taking El-Fasher, “then the de facto bifurcation of the country will become much more formalized,” said Hudson.
And the RSF would put “itself in a more advantageous negotiating position, as it controls one third of the country,” he added.


Lebanese army prevents Israeli forces from entering Kfar Hamam

Updated 04 February 2025
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Lebanese army prevents Israeli forces from entering Kfar Hamam

  • Israeli convoy had crossed the border line at Shebaa Farms, and advanced toward Kfarshouba in the eastern sector of southern Lebanon
  • Convoy headed toward the surroundings of Kfar Hamam, where the Lebanese army is deployed - intense gunfire was heard, and the Israeli force withdrew two hours later

BEIRUT: The Lebanese army on Tuesday blocked the main road connecting Kfar Hamam and Rashaya Al-Foukhar to prevent an Israeli force with six vehicles from advancing toward the area.

The Israeli convoy had crossed the border line at Shebaa Farms, and advanced toward Kfarshouba in the eastern sector of southern Lebanon.

It then headed toward the surroundings of Kfar Hamam, where the Lebanese army is deployed. Intense gunfire was heard, and the Israeli force withdrew two hours later.

The Lebanese response to the incursion was a step up in tactics against Israeli forces stationed in the border area.

The Israeli presence in the border region has been extended until Feb. 18 upon US approval, although the ceasefire agreement had initially stipulated that Israeli forces should completely withdraw from southern Lebanon within a 60-day period that ended on Jan. 27.

The Lebanese army has avoided entering any village subject to Israeli incursions, instead waiting for notification of their withdrawal from UN peacekeeping forces.

A ceasefire agreement that went into force on Nov. 27 last year put an end to the Israel-Hezbollah war and saw the Lebanese army redeployed in the border area.

Lebanese Army Command said on Tuesday morning: “Military troops were redeployed in Taybeh-Marjayoun in the eastern sector, as well as other regions in south of Litani, following the Israeli withdrawal.”

It added that the deployment was carried out “in cooperation with the Quintet Committee overseeing the implementation mechanism of the ceasefire agreement.”

It also repeated its call for citizens “to adhere to the directives issued in its official statements, and abide by the instructions of the military units deployed in the southern regions, to safeguard their lives and safety.”

Taybeh municipality called on the town’s residents “to cooperate with the army members and abide by their directives, until they make sure that the town is safe, with no Israeli presence.”

In another development, Lebanese Army Intelligence seized a truck loaded with weapons and ammunition left over from a warehouse targeted by Israel in the Al-Wardaniyah area in Iqlim Al-Kharroub.

A security source reported: “The truck driver and his companion noticed an Israeli military drone pursuing them from the air, prompting them to disembark from the truck and flee.

“The truck contained explosives, detonators and rocket shells, and its cargo was concealed under a large cover that obscured the contents from view.”

Meanwhile, Israeli forces across the border area continued demolishing homes and facilities that they claim belong to Hezbollah members.

On Tuesday, Israeli troops destroyed a wastewater treatment plant in the Marjeyoun plain toward Kfar Kila.

An Israeli drone released two sonic weapons in the airspace over the town of Al-Jabin. Additionally, Israeli forces destroyed trees and agricultural land, and burned several homes in the town of Houla.

Israeli forces once again violated the ceasefire agreement by conducting mock airstrikes in the skies over the northern Litani River, specifically above the regions of Nabatieh and the Western Bekaa, at a medium altitude.

The Ministry of Agriculture described the bulldozing of agricultural lands in Houla as a “painful aggression, as the bulldozing included olive groves and fruit trees, in addition to burning some houses in the town.”

The ministry said in a statement: “The Israeli enemy deliberately bulldozed the surroundings of the Israeli Al-Abbad site adjacent to the border, which contains large numbers of oak and pine trees, which causes the destruction of the environment and natural resources that are the source of livelihood for farmers.”

It is “working with the relevant authorities to follow up on the damage caused to the agricultural field in this area. We are also coordinating with international bodies to document these attacks and apply pressure for compensation to the affected farmers.”

The ministry also called on the international community “to take urgent measures to protect Lebanon’s environment and natural resources.

“We urge all relevant authorities to intensify their efforts to help farmers rebuild after the destruction caused by the Israeli aggression, especially under these critical circumstances.”

On Tuesday, Hezbollah released a statement condemning the “unjust decision” by Australia to impose sanctions on its secretary-general, Naim Qassem.

The party said: “This decision has no legal or moral basis; it is a clear bias in favor of the Zionist entity and a cover-up of its aggression and terrorism. The decision will not affect the morale of the loyal resistance supporters in Lebanon or Hezbollah’s position.”

Hezbollah also said that Feb. 23 will mark the day of the popular funerals for former secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah and his successor, Hashem Safieddine, who were both killed in Israeli raids five months ago in the southern suburb of Beirut.

Nasrallah will be buried in a field located along the old road connecting Beirut to the airport, while Safieddine will be laid to rest in his hometown of Deir Kanoun in the Sour district.

The field where Nasrallah will be buried contains a large building constructed by American Insurance in the early 1970s.

Overlooking the western lane of the old airport road, the site spans more than 20,000 sq. meters.

The building was eventually purchased by a Shiite contractor and financier close to Hezbollah for $40 million.

Mahmoud Qomati, a member of Hezbollah’s political council, said on Tuesday that the funeral “will serve as a popular referendum demonstrating adherence to the resistance and commitment to Hezbollah’s principles and Lebanon’s liberation cause.”

He added: “The funeral will be held with the utmost consideration for security and national arrangements. We will be inviting figures from Lebanon and abroad to participate in the event.”


Germany’s president arrives in Jordan to meet King Abdullah II

Updated 04 February 2025
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Germany’s president arrives in Jordan to meet King Abdullah II

  • Frank-Walter Steinmeier has served as president of Germany since 2017
  • President’s Middle East tour began in Saudi Arabia

LONDON: Germany’s President Frank-Walter Steinmeier arrived in Jordan on Tuesday as part of a tour of the Middle East that began in Saudi Arabia this week.

Steinmeier, who has served as president of Germany since 2017, is set to meet the King of Jordan Abdullah II in Amman, the Jordan News Agency reported.

Steinmeier was received at Marka International Airport by senior Jordanian officials, the Jordanian Ambassador to Berlin Fayez Khouri, and the German Ambassador to Amman Bertram von Moltke.

Steinmeier met Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at Al-Yamamah Palace in Riyadh on Monday.

The parties held official talks after the crown prince had hosted a reception ceremony in honor of the president.


Bahraini king receives call from Egyptian president

Updated 04 February 2025
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Bahraini king receives call from Egyptian president

  • King Hamad praised Egypt’s efforts that led to Gaza ceasefire agreement
  • Leaders agreed on the need to hold an international peace conference for the Middle East

LONDON: The king of Bahrain, Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa, received a phone call from the president of the Arab Republic of Egypt, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, on Tuesday.

King Hamad praised Egypt’s efforts that resulted in a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, ending more than a year of conflict in the Gaza Strip in January.

The leaders agreed on the need to hold an international peace conference for the Middle East, as proposed by King Hamad during the Arab Summit hosted by Bahrain in September.

During the call, the leaders discussed prospects of cooperation between Manama and Cairo in the economic and investment sectors, the Bahrain News Agency reported.

King Hamad stressed the importance of fully implementing the ceasefire agreement in Gaza and initiating a political process for lasting peace in the region, the BNA added.

El-Sisi said that reconstructing the Gaza Strip after 15 months of Israeli bombardment is vital and highlighted the necessity of a unified Arab stance to support stability in the Middle East.

They also discussed Syria, Lebanon, Libya, and Sudan and the lack of stability in these countries, the BNA added.


Some Palestinian prisoners freed in ceasefire arrive in Turkiye

Updated 04 February 2025
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Some Palestinian prisoners freed in ceasefire arrive in Turkiye

  • Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said the 15 former prisoners had arrived via Egypt
  • “We think it would be beneficial for some regional countries to take a role in this matter,” Fidan said

CAIRO/ANKARA: Fifteen Palestinian prisoners freed by Israel under the Jan. 19 ceasefire agreement with Hamas arrived in Türkiye on Tuesday after being deported first to Egypt, the Turkish foreign minister and the Hamas prisoners media office said.
Among dozens of such former prisoners, they are the first to be taken in by a third country other than Egypt under the terms of the ceasefire, which bar prisoners convicted by Israel of violent attacks from returning to the Palestinian Territories.
Palestinians view those jailed for fighting Israel as resistance heroes.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said the 15 former prisoners had arrived via Egypt, after Ankara responded positively to a request under the ceasefire deal provisions.
“We think it would be beneficial for some regional countries to take a role in this matter... Egypt and Qatar would play a role in that respect,” Fidan said at a joint press conference in Ankara with his Egyptian counterpart Badr Abdelatty.
The first phase of the ceasefire in Gaza has led to Hamas’ release of 18 hostages and Israel’s release of 583 jailed Palestinians, of whom at least 79 were sent to Egypt.
As well as Türkiye, some may be sent on to Algeria or Qatar, Hamas sources say.
Fidan rejected criticism by what he called “Zionist circles” of Turkiye’s decision to take in the former Palestinian prisoners, saying Ankara was acting to help end “the humanitarian drama in Gaza.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to discuss the situation in Gaza and other regional issues with US President Donald Trump at the White House on Tuesday.
The Gaza war started with a Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, on Israel that killed 1,200 people, and saw more than 250 taken as hostages, according to Israeli tallies. The Israeli military campaign has killed more than 47,000 Palestinians and left the enclave in ruins, Gaza authorities say.