Lebanese Executives Council praises Saudi Arabia’s humanitarian support for Lebanon

A second Saudi relief plane, operated by the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center, left from Riyadh on Monday, carrying food, medical supplies and shelter aid to Beirut International Airport. (SPA)
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Updated 14 October 2024
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Lebanese Executives Council praises Saudi Arabia’s humanitarian support for Lebanon

  • Rabih El-Amine thanked King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for their efforts to assist the Lebanese people

LONDON/BEIRUT: The president of the Lebanese Executives Council thanked the government and people of Saudi Arabia for their “unwavering support” for his country amid Israel’s attacks on Hezbollah.

In a press briefing on Monday, Rabih El-Amine thanked King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for their efforts to assist the Lebanese people and acknowledged the Kingdom’s continued solidarity and “steadfast allyship” with Lebanon.

A second Saudi relief plane, operated by the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center, left from Riyadh on Monday, carrying food, medical supplies and shelter aid to Beirut International Airport.

El-Amine highlighted the immediate establishment of a humanitarian aid bridge as a testament to Saudi Arabia’s support, adding: “The Kingdom has yet again shown itself to be Lebanon’s big sister.”

He continued: “In addition to the generous support from Saudi Arabia, we are also receiving aid from the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Turkiye, Egypt, and many others. We are immensely grateful to these brotherly nations and are seeking their continued support in helping Lebanon achieve a ceasefire to preserve what remains of our beautiful country.”

El-Amine issued an urgent appeal for more humanitarian assistance to address the devastation affecting millions across the country wrought by the Israeli offensive, especially in large parts of Beirut, the south of the country and the Bekaa regions, which have been heavily impacted.

“Since last October, Lebanon has been thrust into a conflict that the country neither desired nor can sustain. Despite our solidarity with Gaza, the situation has escalated into devastation,” he said.

According to the LEC, the destruction has left many Lebanese citizens displaced, with homes reduced to rubble and temporary shelters springing up across streets, beaches and overcrowded displacement centers.

“The aid we anticipate from generous and concerned nations should be directed precisely where it’s most needed — toward the innocent Lebanese civilians who have been swept into this conflict against their will.

“Consequently, we earnestly urge the Lebanese government to rise to the occasion and effectively assist its people during these trying times, with the eyes of the world upon us, it is imperative that we act with integrity to acknowledge the suffering and losses endured by our citizens.

“In all fairness, we should commend the resilience and resourcefulness of the Lebanese people as they navigate these uncertain waters. The spontaneous solidarity among the citizens has played a vital role in welcoming and supporting the displaced, often stepping in where official institutions have faltered,” he added.

El-Amine acknowledged it would be difficult to ensure all of the aid went to the people who required it most.

“Unfortunately, guaranteeing that aid reaches the right people is beyond our control, we can only hope and appeal to the government and its institutions to fulfill their responsibilities and ensure that assistance reaches those in most need,” he said.

“Thankfully, organizations like KSrelief are collaborating closely with trusted local partners to ensure the aid is effectively distributed to those who require it most, which gives us a sense of optimism,” he said.

Lebanon’s humanitarian crisis is further exacerbated by economic difficulties and the large refugee population, including 1.5 million Syrians and half a million Palestinians. El-Amine highlighted the significance of Saudi Arabia’s diplomatic role in addressing these challenges.

“Saudi Arabia’s role on the international stage, alongside other partners, is crucial in alleviating regional tensions,” he said.

The conflict has brought attention to Lebanon’s political impasse, as the country has been without a president for months. The council praised Saudi Arabia’s continued efforts to help resolve the political deadlock by urging the Lebanese parliament to elect a new president and form an effective government.

“This task has been challenging, largely due to Iran’s influence through Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Lebanese people, in general, do not desire war or to fight for Iran. While they sympathize with Gaza, they are not willing to sacrifice Lebanon in the process,” El-Amine said.

“They are calling for an immediate ceasefire, the election of a new president, and the formation of an effective government; our ultimate goal is to rebuild the country and foster national reconciliation while upholding the constitution, ensuring that only the Lebanese army has the authority to bear arms in defense of the nation.”


Israel-backed aid organization in Gaza says 20 killed at distribution site, mostly in stampede

Updated 3 sec ago
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Israel-backed aid organization in Gaza says 20 killed at distribution site, mostly in stampede

  • The Gaza Humanitarian Fund said 19 people were trampled in a stampede and one person was fatally stabbed

TEL AVIV: An Israeli-backed American organization that runs an aid program in the Gaza Strip said Wednesday 20 Palestinians were killed near a distribution site. This comes as Israeli strikes killed 22 others, including 11 children, according to hospital officials.
The Gaza Humanitarian Fund said 19 people were trampled in a stampede and one person was fatally stabbed in the violence near a distribution hub in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis.
The group, which rarely acknowledges trouble at its distribution sites, accused Hamas of fomenting panic and spreading misinformation that led to the violence, though it provided no evidence to support the claim.


Israel defense minister says military will continue to strike Syrian forces until they withdraw

Updated 5 min 53 sec ago
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Israel defense minister says military will continue to strike Syrian forces until they withdraw

  • Katz also said the Syrian government should “leave Druze alone” following recent clashes in Sweida

Israel Defense Minister Israel Katz said that the military will continue to strike Syrian forces until they withdraw, warning that the level of response will escalate if the message is not understood, according to local media reports on Wednesday.
Katz also said the Syrian government should “leave Druze alone” following recent clashes in Syria’s Sweida city, Israeli media reported.


Iran seizes foreign tanker for smuggling 2 million liters of fuel

Updated 16 July 2025
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Iran seizes foreign tanker for smuggling 2 million liters of fuel

  • The judiciary official added that 17 crew members were arrested

DUBAI: A foreign tanker was seized by Iran in the Gulf of Oman for smuggling 2 million liters of fuel, the chief justice of Hormozgan province said on Wednesday, according to Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency.
“During the continuous process of monitoring and surveilling suspicious fuel smuggling movements in the Gulf of Oman, officers inspected a foreign tanker due to its lack of legal documents regarding its cargo and seized it on charges of carrying 2 million liters of smuggled fuel,” Hormozgan’s Chief Justice Mojtaba Ghahremani said, according to the report.
The judiciary official added that 17 crew members were arrested and that a judicial case was opened at the Jask county prosecutor’s office.
There was no additional information regarding the name of the tanker or the flag to which it is registered.
Iran, which has some of the world’s lowest fuel prices due to heavy subsidies and the plunge in the value of its national currency, has been fighting rampant fuel smuggling by land to neighboring countries and by sea to Gulf Arab states.
“The actions of fuel smugglers, who in coordination with foreigners, attempt to plunder national wealth will not remain hidden from the judiciary and punishment of perpetrators, if their crimes are proven, will be without leniency,” Ghahremani said, according to the report. 


Syria announces ceasefire after sectarian clashes, but more fighting and abuse alleged

Updated 16 July 2025
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Syria announces ceasefire after sectarian clashes, but more fighting and abuse alleged

  • Tuesday’s announcement follows deadly sectarian clashes between Druze factions and Sunni Bedouin tribes that killed over 30 people
  • That’s according to Syria’s Interior Ministry. However, fighting and allegations of civilian abuses by security forces continue

BUSRA AL-HARIR: Syria ‘s defense minister announced a ceasefire shortly after government forces entered a key city in southern Sweida province on Tuesday, a day after sectarian clashes killed dozens there. Neighboring Israel again launched strikes on Syrian military forces, saying it was protecting the Druze minority.
The latest escalation under Syria’s new leaders began with tit-for-tat kidnappings and attacks between local Sunni Bedouin tribes and Druze armed factions in the southern province, a center of the Druze community.
Syrian government forces, sent to restore order on Monday, also clashed with Druze armed groups.
A ceasefire announcement
On Tuesday, Syrian Defense Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra said an agreement was struck with the city’s “notables and dignitaries” and that government forces would “respond only to the sources of fire and deal with any targeting by outlaw groups.”
However, scattered clashes continued after his announcement — as did allegations that security forces had committed violations against civilians.
Syria’s Interior Ministry said Monday that more than 30 people had been killed, but has not updated the figures since. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, said Tuesday that 166 people had been killed since Sunday, including five women and two children.
Among them were 21 people killed in “field executions” by government forces, including 12 men in a rest house in the city of Sweida, it said. It did not say how many of the dead were civilians and also cited reports of members of the security forces looting and setting homes on fire.
Syrian interim President Ahmad Al-Sharaa said in a statement that he had tasked authorities with “taking immediate legal action against anyone proven to have committed a transgression or abuse, regardless of their rank or position.”
Associated Press journalists in Sweida province saw forces at a government checkpoint searching cars and confiscating suspected stolen goods from both civilians and soldiers.
Israel’s involvement draws pushback
Israeli airstrikes targeted government forces’ convoys heading into the provincial capital of Sweida and in other areas of southern Syria.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said the strikes sought to “prevent the Syrian regime from harming” the Druze religious minority “and to ensure disarmament in the area adjacent to our borders with Syria.” In Israel, the Druze are seen as a loyal minority and often serve in the armed forces.
Meanwhile, Israeli Cabinet member and Minister of Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli called on X for Al-Sharaa to be “eliminated without delay.”
A soldier’s story
Manhal Yasser Al-Gor, of the Interior Ministry forces, was being treated for shrapnel wounds at a local hospital after an Israeli strike hit his convoy.
‘We were entering Sweida to secure the civilians and prevent looting. I was on an armored personnel carrier when the Israeli drone hit us,” he said, adding that there were “many casualties.”
The Syrian Foreign Ministry said Israeli strikes had killed “several innocent civilians” as well as soldiers, and called them “a reprehensible example of ongoing aggression and external interference” in Syria’s internal matters.
It said the Syrian state is committed to protecting the Druze, “who form an integral part of the national identity and united Syrian social fabric.”
Suspicion over Syria’s new government
Israel has taken an aggressive stance toward Syria’s new leaders since Al-Sharaa’s Sunni Islamist insurgents ousted former President Bashar Assad in December, saying it doesn’t want militants near its borders. Israeli forces have seized a UN-patrolled buffer zone on Syrian territory along the border with the Golan Heights and launched hundreds of airstrikes on military sites in Syria.
Earlier Tuesday, religious leaders of the Druze community in Syria called for armed factions that have been clashing with government forces to surrender their weapons and cooperate with authorities. One of the main Druze spiritual leaders later released a video statement retracting the call.
Sheikh Hikmat Al-Hijri, who has been opposed to the government in Damascus, said in the video that the initial Druze leaders’ statement had been issued after an agreement with the authorities in Damascus but that “they broke the promise and continued the indiscriminate shelling of unarmed civilians.”
“We are being subjected to a total war of annihilation,” he claimed, without offering evidence.
Some videos on social media showed armed fighters with Druze captives, beating them and, in some cases, forcibly shaving men’s moustaches.
Sectarian and revenge attacks
The Druze religious sect began as a 10th-century offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam. More than half the roughly 1 million Druze worldwide live in Syria. Most of the other Druze live in Lebanon and Israel, including in the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast War and annexed in 1981.
Since Assad’s fall, clashes have broken out several times between forces loyal to the new Syrian government and Druze fighters.
The latest fighting has raised fears of more sectarian violence. In March, an ambush on government forces by Assad loyalists in another part of Syria triggered days of sectarian and revenge attacks. Hundreds of civilians were killed, most of them members of Assad’s minority Alawite sect. A commission was formed to investigate the attacks but no findings have been made public.
The videos and reports of soldiers’ violations spurred outrage and protests by Druze communities in neighboring Lebanon, northern Israel and in the Israel-annexed Golan Heights, where the Israeli military said dozens of protesters had crossed the border into Syrian territory.
The violence drew international concern. The US envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, called the violence “worrisome on all sides” in a post on.
“We are attempting to come to a peaceful, inclusive outcome for Druze, Bedouin tribes, the Syrian government and Israeli forces,” he said.


UN says 875 Palestinians have been killed near Gaza aid sites

Updated 16 July 2025
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UN says 875 Palestinians have been killed near Gaza aid sites

  • The United Nations has called the GHF aid model “inherently unsafe” and a violation of humanitarian impartiality standards

GENEVA: The UN rights office said on Tuesday it had recorded at least 875 killings within the past six weeks at aid points in Gaza run by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and convoys run by other relief groups, including the United Nations.
The majority of those killed were in the vicinity of Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites, while the remaining 201 were killed on the routes of other aid convoys.
The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to get supplies into Gaza, largely bypassing a UN-led system that Israel alleges has let Hamas-led militants loot aid shipments intended for civilians. Hamas denies the allegation.
The GHF, which began distributing food packages in Gaza in late May after Israel lifted an 11-week aid blockade, previously told Reuters that such incidents have not occurred on its sites and accused the UN of misinformation, which it denies.
The GHF did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the latest UN figures.
“The data we have is based on our own information gathering through various reliable sources, including medical human rights and humanitarian organizations,” Thameen Al-Kheetan, a spokesperson for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, told reporters in Geneva.
The United Nations has called the GHF aid model “inherently unsafe” and a violation of humanitarian impartiality standards.
The GHF said on Tuesday it had delivered more than 75 million meals to Gaza Palestinians since the end of May, and that other humanitarian groups had “nearly all of their aid looted” by Hamas or criminal gangs.
The Israeli army previously told Reuters in a statement that it was reviewing recent mass casualties and that it had sought to minimize friction between Palestinians and the Israel Defense Forces by installing fences and signs and opening additional routes.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has previously cited instances of violent pillaging of aid, and the UN World Food Programme said last week that most trucks carrying food assistance into Gaza had been intercepted by “hungry civilian communities.”