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  • Israeli strikes across Lebanon kill more than 55 as US officials push for ceasefire


Israeli strikes across Lebanon kill more than 55 as US officials push for ceasefire

Rescuers sift through the rubble of a levelled building, following an overnight Israeli airstrike that targeted Beirut’s Basta Al-Fawqa neighborhood on Nov. 23, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 24 November 2024
NAJIA HOUSSARI
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Israeli strikes across Lebanon kill more than 55 as US officials push for ceasefire

  • At least 20 were killed and 66 wounded in a strike in the heart of Beirut
  • Air strikes also killed 24 in eastern Lebanon and 14 in the south, health ministry says
Updated 24 November 2024
NAJIA HOUSSARI

BEIRUT: Lebanon said Israeli air strikes on Saturday killed more than 55 people, many of them in central Beirut, as Israel’s defense minister vowed decisive action against Hezbollah, in a call with his US counterpart.

It was one of the deadliest strikes in a day since Israel escalated air strikes against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon on September 23, after nearly a year of limited cross-border exchanges of fire, in which Lebanon’s Hezbollah said it was acting in support of Hamas.

One strike on Saturday in the heart of Beirut brought down a residential building and jolted residents across the city.

The strike on the working-class Basta neighborhood killed at least 20 people and wounded 66, Lebanon’s health ministry said in a revised toll.

A Lebanese security source told AFP that the central Beirut strike had “targeted a leading Hezbollah figure,” but a Hezbollah lawmaker, Amin Sherri, denied to Lebanese media that any official was present at the time of the attack.

Similar strikes carried out without warning outside of Hezbollah’s traditional bastions — which include southern Beirut but not the center — have tended to target senior figures.

The health ministry said Israeli air strikes also hit eastern Lebanon, killing 24 people including 13 in the town of Shmostar overlooking the Bekaa Valley, another Hezbollah stronghold.

In Lebanon’s south, at least 14 were killed including five in the coastal city of Tyre, the ministry said.

Rude awakening

Residents in Beirut's Basta neighborhood were asleep and had not been given prior warning to evacuate, according to a civil defense source.

Four bunker buster missiles hit the building in the densely populated Al-Ma’moun Street.

It resulted in the complete or partial destruction of adjacent structures, while the targeted building was reduced to rubble, leaving a deep crater.

The sheer number of residents who sustained various injuries overwhelmed local hospitals that issued urgent calls for blood donations.

“We saw two dead people on the ground... The children started crying and their mother cried even more,” said Samir, 60, who lives in a building facing the one destroyed.

The attack in the capital was followed by others in the city’s southern suburbs after calls by the Israeli military to evacuate.

Israel has not commented on the strike in central Beirut but said it had again hit Hezbollah targets in the city’s southern suburbs, a stronghold of the Iran-backed group.

A military statement said that over the past week, the air force “struck dozens of Hezbollah command centers, weapons storage facilities, and terrorist infrastructure in the Dahieh area.”

Survivors recounted the moments of terror they experienced during the airstrikes and how they narrowly escaped death as parts of their homes collapsed.

Among the victims of the raid was a family of 10 from the southern town of Shaqra’s Hourani family. They had been displaced to the Al-Salam neighborhood in the southern suburbs of Beirut but chose to move to Basta, “believing it offered greater security than the southern suburbs,” according to a relative.

The bunker buster munitions resembled those used in the assassinations of the former chief of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, and another top official, Hashem Safieddine.

A building about 100 meters from the new target was attacked about a month ago.

Confusion over the targets

About 12 hours after the raid that shook Beirut and its suburbs, Hezbollah MP Amin Sherri, while inspecting the targeted site in Basta, said: “There was no Hezbollah member in the targeted building.”

Information circulating at the time of the airstrikes suggested that the target of the raid was a “prominent Hezbollah leader” taking part in a leadership meeting.

Israeli Channel 12 reported that the “target was Sheikh Naim Qassem, the secretary-general of Hezbollah.”

But the Israel Broadcasting Authority reported in the morning, citing a security source, that the target was Hezbollah official Mohammed Haidar.

However, the Israeli source did not confirm at the time whether he was killed or survived.

Haidar, a former member of Lebanese parliament, represented the Marjayoun-Hasbaya district from 2005 to 2009.

He served as a military aide to Nasrallah and was a member of the Jihad Council, regarded as Hezbollah’s highest executive leadership for military and security operations.

Haidar is one of the three prominent members of the council alongside Talal Hamieh and Khudar Yussuf Nader.

Additionally, Haidar serves as head of Hezbollah’s operations room.

Channel 12’s military reporter said that the official “was residing in a hidden apartment,” adding that the Basta attack “was an attempt to assassinate him.”

Israeli attacks against Beirut, especially against Hezbollah commanders, prompted internal backlash.

Independent MP Waddah Sadek said: “Hezbollah should take the moral and courageous decision of protecting Beirut’s residents and displaced people.

“Beirut is not an operation area, but a city that welcomed our displaced people only.”

Former Beirut MP Rola Al-Tabesh said: “The magnitude of the Israeli enemy’s criminality and blood-shedding is condemned and indescribable.”

Diplomatic solution

In a telephone call with Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz on Saturday, Washington's Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin “reiterated US commitment to a diplomatic resolution in Lebanon that allows Israeli and Lebanese civilians to return safely to their homes on both sides of the border,” a Pentagon spokesperson said.

A spokesman for Katz said he commended the US efforts toward “de-escalation in Lebanon” and underscored that Israel would “continue to act decisively in response to Hezbollah’s attacks on civilian populations in Israel.”

United States envoy Amos Hochstein was in Lebanon and Israel this week, meeting with both countries’ senior officials, to try to negotiate an end to the war.

After talks in Beirut he said a deal was “within our grasp” but as he headed to Israel both sides put out statements that dented hopes of rapid progress.

Lebanon says more than 3,670 people have been killed in the country since October 2023. Most of the deaths have been since September this year.

Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the Gaza war resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign in Gaza has killed at least 44,176 people, most of them civilians, according to data from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which the United Nations considers reliable.

In the pre-dawn darkness of Gaza on Saturday, one strike killed seven people including children at a house in the Zeitun area of Gaza City, civil defense agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.

AFPTV footage showed victims being brought in to Al-Ahli Arab Hospital including a bloody and dust-covered man, as a boy on a bed beside him struggled to reach the man and called for his father.

“We were sleeping, I was lying here. What happened?” one survivor, Abu Shaker Shaldan, said, lost for words at the scene of the strike, with blood trickling down his head.

Tensions escalate

Meanwhile, confrontations between the Israeli army and Hezbollah have escalated, reaching the second line of villages across the southern Lebanese border.

The escalation included Baalbek, Brital and Chmistar, where three children and their mother were killed.

Israeli drones targeted several fishermen on the beach of Tyre, killing two.

Hezbollah said it was now using cruise missiles to target Israeli military outposts in northern Israel.

Beirut’s southern suburb has been subject to a series of Israeli raids since the early morning. The airstrikes targeted not only single houses and buildings, but also residential and commercial compounds.

The attacks were preceded by evacuation warnings issued by the Israeli army, along with a map showing the targeted locations.

Raids reached Burj Al-Barajneh, Hadath, Choueifat, Amrousieh near the Lebanese University and Haret Hreik.

The Israeli army claimed that it targeted “many Hezbollah headquarters, weapon depots and military infrastructure.”

Clashes intensified in the southern town of Khiam between Hezbollah and the Israeli army amid fierce militant resistance.

The Israeli army carried out detonations, described as “very violent,” in the heart of the town, and homes were destroyed in Shamaa and Tayr Harfa, which the Israeli army entered a few days earlier.

Reports suggested that the Israeli army took control of large areas of the coastal town of Al-Bayada.

Media reports spoke of Israeli soldiers entering between the border towns of Al-Taybeh and Rab Al-Thalathin.

The Israeli army fired heavy munitions toward the outskirts of the town of Naqoura.

Several people were killed in Israeli airstrikes targeting motorcycles on the roads in the Tyre and Bint Jbeil districts.

Airstrikes targeted frontline and second-line towns, and in the city of Bint Jbeil, about 50 shells hit residential neighborhoods within a two-hour period.

Israeli jets struck Chehabiyeh and Zefta, killing three people, and the vicinity of Al-Bazourieh, Chaaitiyeh and Roumine, where five people were killed, as well as Khirbet Selm and Mayfadoun.

Airstrikes hit the town of Roum in the Jezzine district, resulting in three deaths and two injuries.

- With Agencies

Turkiye’s soaring costs are creating a ‘lost generation’ of kids forced to help their families get by

Updated 2 sec ago
AP
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Turkiye’s soaring costs are creating a ‘lost generation’ of kids forced to help their families get by

  • About 7 million of Turkiye’s roughly 22.2 million children live in poverty
Updated 2 sec ago
AP
ISTANBUL: In a dim one-room apartment in one of Istanbul’s poorest neighborhoods, 11-year-old Atakan Sahin curls up on a threadbare sofa with his siblings to watch TV while their mother stirs a pot of pasta.
The simple meal is all the family of six can look forward to most evenings. Atakan, his two younger brothers and 5-year-old sister are among the one-third of Turkish children living in poverty.
“Look at the state of my children,” said Rukiye Sahin, 28. “I have four children. They don’t get to eat chicken, they don’t get to eat meat. I send them to school with torn shoes.”
Persistently high inflation, triggered by currency depreciation and unconventional economic policies that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pursued but later abandoned, has left many families struggling to pay for food and housing. Experts say it’s creating a lost generation of children who have been forced to grow up too quickly to help their families eke out an existence.
According to a 2023 joint report by UNICEF and the Turkish Statistical Institute, about 7 million of Turkiye’s roughly 22.2 million children live in poverty.
That deprivation is brought into stark focus in neighborhoods such as Istanbul’s Tarlabasi, where the Sahin family lives just a few minutes’ walk from Istiklal Avenue, a tourism hot spot bristling with brightly lit shops and expensive restaurants.
Meanwhile, the Sahins eat sitting on the floor of their room — the same floor Rukiye and her husband sleep on while their children occupy the room’s sofas. In the chilly early December night, a stove burns scraps of wood to keep them warm. They sometimes fall asleep to the sound of rats scuttling through the building.
Atakan spends his days helping his father scour dumpsters in search of recyclable material to earn the family a meager income.
Poor children in Istanbul also earn money for their families by selling small items such as pens, tissues or bracelets at the bars and cafes in the city’s entertainment districts, often working late into the night.
“I can’t go to school because I have no money,” he said. “We have nothing. Can you tell me how I can go? On sunny days, when I don’t go to school, I collect plastic and other things with my father. We sell whatever we find.”
The cash helps buy basic foodstuffs and pay for his siblings to attend school. On the days Atakan can attend, he is ill-equipped to succeed, lacking proper shoes, a coat and textbooks for the English class he loves.
The Sahins struggle to scrape together the money to cover the rent, utilities and other basic expenses as Turkiye’s cost-of-living crisis continues to rage. Inflation stood at 47 percent in November, having peaked at 85 percent in late 2022. Prices of food and nonalcoholic drinks were 5.1 percent higher in November than in the previous month.
Under these circumstances, a generation of children is growing up rarely enjoying a full meal of fresh meat or vegetables.
Rukiye and her husband receive 6,000 lira ($173) per month in government welfare to help toward school costs, but they pay the same amount in rent for their home.
“My son says, ‘Mom, it’s raining, my shoes are soaking wet.’ But what can I do?” Rukiye said. “The state doesn’t help me. I’m in this room alone with my children. Who do I have except them?”
The picture of children rummaging through garbage to help support their families is far from the image Turkiye presents to the world: that of an influential world power with a vibrant economy favorable to foreign investment.
Erdogan is proud of the social programs his party has introduced since he came to power more than 20 years ago, boasting that the “old days of prohibitions, oppression, deprivation and poverty are completely behind us.”
Speaking at the G20 summit in November, Erdogan described Turkiye’s social security system as “one of the most comprehensive and inclusive” in the world. “Our goal is to ensure that not a single poor person remains. We will continue our work until we achieve this,” he said.
Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek, tasked with implementing austerity and taming inflation, said the 17,000 lira ($488) monthly minimum wage isn’t low. But he has pledged to raise it as soon as possible.
Although the government allocates billions of lira to struggling households, inflation, which most people agree is far above the official figure, eats into any aid the state can give.
In districts such as Tarlabasi, rents have risen five-fold in recent years due to gentrification in central Istanbul that puts pressure on the housing market for low-income families.
Experts say welfare payments aren’t enough for the millions who rely on them, forcing many parents to make impossible choices: Should they pay the rent or buy clothing for the children? Should they send them to school or keep them home to earn a few extra lira?
Volunteers are trying to ease the cycle of deprivation.
Mehmet Yeralan, a 53-year-old former restaurant owner, brings essentials to Tarlabasi’s poor people that they can’t afford, including coats, notebooks and the occasional bag of rice.
“Our children do not deserve this,” he said, warming himself by a barrel of burning scrap wood on the street. “Families are in very difficult situations. They cannot buy food for their children and send them to school. Children are on the streets, selling tissues to support their families. We are seeing deep poverty here.”
Hacer Foggo, a poverty researcher and activist, said Turkiye is raising a lost generation who are forced to drop out of school to work or are channeled into vocational programs where they work four days and study one day per week, receiving a small fraction of the minimum wage.
“Look at the situation of children,” she said. “Two million of them are in deep poverty. Child labor has become very common. Families choose these education-work programs because children bring in some income. It’s not a real education, just cheaper labor.”
Foggo points to research showing how early childhood education can help break cycles of poverty. Without it, children remain trapped — stunted physically and educationally, and condemned to lifelong disadvantages.
UNICEF placed Turkiye 38th out of 39 European Union or Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries in terms of child poverty between 2019 and 2021, with a child poverty rate of 34 percent.
The tragic consequences of this destitution occasionally burst into the public arena.
The deaths of five children in a fire in the western city of Izmir in November happened while their mother was out collecting scrap to sell. The image of their sobbing father, who was escorted from prison in handcuffs to attend his children’s funeral, caused widespread outrage at the desperation and helplessness facing poor families.
It is a situation Rukiye fully understands.
“Sometimes I go to bed hungry, sometimes I go to bed full,” she said. “We can’t move forward, we always fall behind. ... When you don’t have money in your hands, you always fall behind.”
Her eldest son, meanwhile, clings to his childhood dreams. “I want my own room,” Atakan said. “I want to go to school regularly. I want everything to be in order. … I’d like to be a football player one day, to support my family.”

Israeli military intercepts missile launched from Yemen, army says

Updated 37 min 31 sec ago
Reuters
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Israeli military intercepts missile launched from Yemen, army says

  • The Iran-backed Houthi group has repeatedly fired drones and missiles toward Israel in what it has described as acts of solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
Updated 37 min 31 sec ago
Reuters

CAIRO: Israel’s military intercepted a missile early on Wednesday that was launched from Yemen and crossed into Israeli territory, the army said.
Sirens were activated due to the possibility of falling shrapnel from the interception, the army said in a statement.
Magen David Adom ambulance service said in a statement that it had received reports of approximately nine people injured on their way to the protected area.
“For the 5th time in a week, millions of Israelis were sent to shelter as Houthi terrorists in Yemen launched a missile attack,” the Israeli military said in a post on X.
The Iran-backed Houthi group has repeatedly fired drones and missiles toward Israel in what it has described as acts of solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

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Israeli military says a commander injured during operation in West Bank

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CAIRO: The Israeli military said on Wednesday that a commander was moderately injured after his vehicle was hit by an explosive device during a “counter-terrorism” operation in the area of Tulkarm in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

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Israel probe finds troops’ presence led to killing of six Gaza hostages

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Israel probe finds troops’ presence led to killing of six Gaza hostages

  • The military probe into their deaths found that Israeli “ground activities in the area, although gradual and cautious, had a circumstantial influence on the terrorists’ decision to murder the six hostages,” the army said in a statement on Tuesday
Updated 25 December 2024
AFP

JERUSALEM: The Israeli army said on Tuesday it had concluded that military operations in southern Gaza likely led to the killing by Hamas of six hostages in August.
As the fighting churns on, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meanwhile said that an Israeli delegation returned from a “significant” round of talks in Qatar aiming to secure a truce and the release of dozens of hostages still held in the Gaza Strip.
In late August, after troops found the six hostages’ bodies in an underground shaft in Rafah, the military said they were killed just before soldiers reached them.

This handout picture released by the Israeli army on January 1, 2024 shows Israeli soldiers operating in the Gaza Strip amid continuing battles between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. (AFP)

Netanyahu said at the time that the six — Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi and Ori Danino — were “executed” with a bullet “to the head.”
The military probe into their deaths found that Israeli “ground activities in the area, although gradual and cautious, had a circumstantial influence on the terrorists’ decision to murder the six hostages,” the army said in a statement on Tuesday.
It said that “based on the investigation, the hostages were murdered by gunfire from Hamas terrorists” while Israeli forces were operating in the Tel Al-Sultan area.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum campaign group responded to the army’s statement by calling for action to bring back all remaining hostages.
“The time has come to bring back all the hostages. We need a deal that will ensure the return of all hostages within a quick and predetermined timeframe,” it said in a statement.
Indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas, mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States, have taken place in Doha in recent days, rekindling hope of an agreement that has proven elusive.
On Monday, Netanyahu told parliament that there was “some progress” in the negotiations, and on Tuesday his office said Israeli negotiators had returned from Qatar after “significant negotiations.”
“The team is returning for internal consultations in Israel regarding the continuation of negotiations for the return of our hostages,” it added.
Hamas and other Palestinian groups have also reported progress this week toward a ceasefire.
The war was sparked by Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel, during which militants seized 251 hostages.
Ninety-six of them are still held in Gaza, including 34 the army says are dead.
The attack resulted in 1,208 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 45,338 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the UN considers reliable.
 

 

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War-weary villages in Lebanon’s south find hope in Christmas festivities

Updated 24 December 2024
Sherouk Zakaria
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War-weary villages in Lebanon’s south find hope in Christmas festivities

  • Despite ceasefire violations, a fragile calm in Lebanon allows Christian-majority villages to celebrate the festive season
  • Municipalities in war-torn areas bordering Israel pledge to support locals in rebuilding their homes, restoring hope
Updated 24 December 2024
Sherouk Zakaria

DUBAI: After being caught in the crosshairs of the 13-month Hezbollah-Israel conflict, predominantly Christian border villages in southern Lebanon are cautiously optimistic as they celebrate the Christmas season and displaced families return home.

Earlier this month, municipalities adorned the streets of these villages with Christmas lights and decorations, expecting the festive atmosphere and a gradual return to normalcy to encourage more displaced residents to come back.

The economic toll of the war, which began as a spillover from the Hamas-Israel conflict in Gaza, has forced villages to scale back holiday preparations. However, mayors have vowed to preserve the Christmas spirit and pledged support for families recovering from the war’s devastating economic and social tolls.

On Oct. 7, 2023, militants from the Palestinian group Hamas carried out a surprise attack in southern Israel, resulting in 1,200 deaths and the abduction of 240 others. In retaliation, Israel launched a large-scale bombing campaign that has so far killed at least 45,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health authority.

Cross-border clashes started between the Lebanese group Hezbollah and the Israeli military on Oct. 8, 2023. Within less than a year, Israel launched a barrage of airstrikes across Lebanon. Over more than 13 months, the airstrikes have displaced more than 1.3 million people, according to UN figures, killed at least 4,000 Lebanese, and destroyed entire villages in southern Lebanon.

Workers clear the rubble at the site of an overnight Israeli airstrike that targeted the Shiyah neighborhood in Beirut’s southern suburbs on November 26, 2024. (AFP)

Ain Ebel, a Christian-majority village in southern Lebanon, is among the hardest-hit areas. Its residents were ordered by the Israeli military to evacuate ahead of the ground invasion on Oct. 1. However, the ceasefire agreement signed on Nov. 27 has offered a glimmer of hope.

Imad Lallous, the village’s mayor, said Ain Ebel is holding Christmas festivities — albeit on a smaller scale than in previous years — to celebrate the community’s resilience and hopes for a brighter future.

“We were worried that we would not be able to celebrate this year,” he told Arab News. “However, after the ceasefire and the return of Ain Ebel’s residents, it was impossible to let this holiday pass without celebrations, decorations, a Christmas tree, and Jesus Christ’s nativity scene.”

“We are working on restoring the joyful spirit in Ain Ebel,” he added.

A man sets up a Christmas tree amidst the rubble of the Melkite Church, which hit by an Israeli airstrike on October 9, in the southern Lebanese village of Derdghaya on December 20, 2024. (AFP)

The village, once alive with street celebrations, bustling church squares, and vibrant Christmas markets showcasing local products, has been overshadowed by the economic hardships of war in a country already grappling with a severe financial crisis since 2019.

Lallous called for community solidarity through donations to restore the spirit of Christmas and support families returning to their war-wrecked homes.

“There is serious damage to the houses, and we will see what we can do to help the owners repair or rebuild them,” he said.

“I hope we can celebrate Christmas and other holidays peacefully. I hope we don’t relive wars, destruction and bombardment anymore. I hope no one loses their home and everything they own. I hope this year’s war will be the last in the region.”

Located just a few miles from Lebanon’s border with Israel, Ain Ebel is currently home to 240 families. Lallous hopes the number will rise to 330 after the festive season. “This will boost the economic activity of shops and businesses,” he said.

He also believes the reopening of schools, a symbol of life returning to normal, could encourage those who relocated to Beirut to return to Ain Ebel.

Lebanese and Palestinian children gather in Martyrs Square in central Beirut to send a message of love to the children of Gaza on the occasion of Christmas, on December 26, 2023. (AFP)

“Classes resumed this week for attending students, but most of those receiving an education in Beirut will return to Ain Ebel’s school — College des Sœurs des Saint Coeurs — to continue their studies here.”

Christian-majority villages near the Israeli border have been badly affected by the hostilities, including Debel, Ain Ebel, Rmeich, and Al-Quzah in Bint Jbeil; Alma Shaab in Tyre District; and Deir Mimas and Qlayaa in Marjeyoun.

Several of these, namely Ain Ebel, Deir Mimas, Qlayaa, and Alma Shaab, were among the 27 areas ordered to evacuate.

And while some residents, including priests, refused to leave their homes, most fled north or to Beirut.

Since the ceasefire was announced on Nov. 27, more than 900,000 people have begun returning to their areas of origin, but nearly 179,000 remain displaced, according to UN figures.

Smoke billows in the background from Israeli bombardment as children pick olives during the harvest season in Rmeich in southern Lebanon on October 23, 2024. (AFP)

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri urged people to return to their homes in the south, even if it means having to “live on the rubble,” he said in a televised speech.

The 13-month war has partially or fully destroyed around 100,000 homes across Lebanon. The World Bank estimates the damage at approximately $8.5 billion, further deepening the country’s financial crisis.

Despite both Hezbollah and Israel accusing each other of violations, the ceasefire also represents a hopeful step toward a permanent cessation of hostilities and the enforcement of UN Resolution 1701, which called for a demilitarized zone, free of armed personnel except for the Lebanese army.

The US-brokered ceasefire agreement requires Israel to gradually withdraw its forces from southern Lebanon, to be replaced by Lebanese troops over 60 days. Hezbollah must also pull its forces north of the Litani River and dismantle its military infrastructure in the south.

Mayor Lallous said Christmas offers an opportunity to emphasize the solidarity and unity of the Lebanese people, countering fears of sectarian divisions sparked by mass displacement and the targeting of Christian villages.

This picture shows destruction in the southern Lebanese village of Bint Jbeil, on November 27, 2024. (AFP)

“We have always lived peacefully together in our region and have not seen any divisions,” he said. “I hope the war we have experienced has not left any consequences here. We deal with our neighbors in a civilized way, and we wish we could always remain like this.”

He added: “We must be convinced that we need to seek our community’s well-being rather than society’s suffering.

“I hope the experience we have gone through will be a lesson for everyone so that we can move toward peace and family and keep our young people here instead of seeing them leave. I hope we won’t have to rebuild our homes in 10-15 years.”

Among the Christian areas that displayed deep solidarity during the war was Rmeich. The village, neighboring Ain Ebel, sheltered hundreds of displaced Lebanese — both Shiite Muslims and Christians — from other villages in the region at a local monastery.

Others, including those who fled from Ain Ebel, found refuge in fellow villagers’ homes.

A man walks towards Saint George church in the southern Lebanese Christian village of Qlayaa on October 10, 2024. (AFP)

Miled Alam, mayor of Rmeich, said: “Lebanon cannot rise without the participation of all its sects, communities and religions.

“Since its establishment, Lebanon has been made up of several sects, and nobody can eliminate the other,” he told Arab News. “All its components can, together, build a new Lebanon that relies on hope, its culture, state, institutions, and judiciary.”

Emphasizing the importance of celebrating Christmas this year, Alam expressed hope that all of Rmeich’s more than 8,000 residents would attend the festivities, along with those from the nearby villages of Ain Ebel and Debel.

“The occurrence of war does not mean we will not carry out customs, traditions, and religious rituals,” he said. “Last year, we celebrated amidst the war and bombardment.”

“We also organized an event for the children in the church square, rang the bells, prayed and held masses.”

Rmeich, while maintaining a sense of safety with its schools remaining open, still felt the effects of war. Commercial activities came to a halt, and residents faced severe shortages of food and essential resources.

Smoke from an explosion due to Israeli bombardment rises in the hills of Rmeich in southern Lebanon, near the border with Israel, on October 22, 2024. (AFP)

“People were left without work for 14 months and zero productivity. Those who had small sums of money had to spend them,” Alam said.

Rmeich is known for its red-tiled houses, nestled among green hills renowned for tobacco cultivation.

Alam noted that Christian festivities aim to bring hope and joy to families who have suffered and lost during the war. He promised to find ways to support those in pain.

“Despite all these circumstances, we will identify means through which we can help them and stand by them,” he said. 

“We will bring joy to their hearts, as this is the least we can do after the resilience they demonstrated over the course of 14 months.”

 

Topics: xmas2024 Lebanon Christmas Editor’s Choice

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