Lebanese leaders urge congressional delegation for US pressure on Israel to leave occupied areas

Men sit around a table in front of their destroyed house in the southern Lebanese border village of Wazzani after Israeli forces pulled out, on February 19, 2025. (AFP)
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Updated 21 February 2025
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Lebanese leaders urge congressional delegation for US pressure on Israel to leave occupied areas

  • PM: Lebanon is committed to restoring its position among Arab states
  • Security meetings held in preparation for funeral processions

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam on Friday emphasized the need for the US to exert pressure on Israel for a prompt and complete withdrawal from the territories it continues to occupy.

Salam made the remarks during his meeting at the Grand Serail with a delegation from the US Congress led by Rep. Darrell Issa.

“There is no military or security justification for Israel’s occupation of these points,” Salam said.

“This is a continued violation of the ceasefire arrangements, Resolution 1701, international law, and Lebanon’s sovereignty.”

FASTFACT

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam briefed members of the Arab diplomatic corps, led by Palestinian Ambassador to Lebanon Ashraf Dabbour, on the discussions he had with various Arab officials to apply diplomatic pressure on Israel to withdraw from all Lebanese territories as soon as possible.

According to Salam’s office, the US delegation reaffirmed its support for Lebanon and the Lebanese army.

President Aoun received a phone call from US National Security Adviser Michael Waltz two days earlier.

Waltz assured Aoun that the US administration was keeping track of developments in southern Lebanon following Israel’s “incomplete withdrawal and its continued occupation of several border points.”

He commended the Lebanese army’s role in deploying to the positions vacated by the Israelis.

He highlighted the US commitment to Lebanon to solidify the ceasefire and resolve outstanding issues diplomatically.

Salam briefed members of the Arab diplomatic corps, led by Palestinian Ambassador to Lebanon Ashraf Dabbour, on the discussions he had with various Arab officials to apply diplomatic pressure on Israel to withdraw from all Lebanese territories as soon as possible.

He emphasized “the importance of a unified Arab stance in facing common challenges, especially the plan to displace Palestinians.”

Salam informed the diplomatic delegation that the “ministerial statement prepared by his government, which is currently pending parliamentary approval, commits to restoring Lebanon’s standing among its Arab neighbors and ensuring that Lebanon does not serve as a platform for attacking Arab and friendly nations.”

Salam called on Arab communities to return to investing in and engaging in tourism in Lebanon in light of the new government and the favorable conditions it aims to create.

Meanwhile, the European Commissioner for the Mediterranean Dubravka Suica held meetings with President Aoun and Salam.

The European Commission confirmed that it has allocated a €1 billion ($1.045 billion) package for Lebanon, with an additional €500 million to be provided.

However, this extra funding depends on specific conditions, including restructuring the banking sector and reaching an agreement with the International Monetary Fund.

A security meeting was held at the presidential palace two days before Hezbollah is set to hold the funeral for its former Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah and his successor Hashem Safieddine.

Aoun presided at the meeting.

Defense Minister Michel Menassa, Interior Minister Ahmad Hajjar, Acting Army Commander Maj. Gen. Hassan Audi and senior officers from security agencies attended the talks.

Preparations are being made at Sports City, located at the southern entrance of Beirut, to accommodate mourners in the stadium and nearby areas.

Hezbollah expects attendees to exceed the stadium’s capacity of around 60,000 people.

Large posters of Nasrallah, Safieddine, and Lebanese flags were displayed on the outer walls.

The Lebanese army and Internal Security Forces will ensure safety in the surrounding areas and streets, while Hezbollah members will oversee the discipline and organization of the event.

During a security meeting at the Interior Ministry, the protocols and measures for maintaining order and ensuring the safety of attendees and citizens were reviewed.

The measures also aim to ensure the smooth flow of traffic, according to Interior Minister Ahmad Al-Hajjar Hussein Fadlallah, head of the funeral organizing committee.

He provided details about the logistical arrangements for the event at a press conference.

“We have secured 50 parking lots and set up giant screens along the roads to broadcast the funeral for those unable to attend in person,” Fadlallah said.

“Both the presidency and parliament of Lebanon will be participating in the funeral.”

 

 


Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has failed in its mission, UN says

Updated 6 sec ago
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Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has failed in its mission, UN says

  • Medics say hospitals are inundated with people wounded while trying to obtain food amid hunger crisis

The US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has been a failure from a humanitarian standpoint, the UN said on Friday.

The UN and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with the foundation over concerns it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives.
“GHF, I think it’s fair to say, has been, from a principled humanitarian standpoint, a failure,” Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA, told a press briefing in Geneva.
“They are not doing what a humanitarian operation should do, which is providing aid to people where they are, safely and securely.
“We have the operation ready to roll with food and other supplies ready. We have them in the region; they are pre-cleared by the Israelis.
“We need the borders open to get in, and of course, we need the safety and security and some resemblance of law and order inside Gaza to distribute it.”
An officially private effort with opaque funding and backed by Israel, GHF began operations on May 26 after Israel completely cut off supplies into Gaza for more than two months, sparking warnings of mass famine.
GHF claimed on Thursday it had distributed nearly 2.6 million meals on Thursday and more than 18.6 million to date.
The Palestinian Authority said internet and fixed-line communication services were down in Gaza on Thursday following an attack on the territory’s last fiber optic cable, which it blamed
on Israel.
“There was and still is a massive comms blackout,” said Laerke.
“If there is no communication, it really is damaging” for aid services, he said.
“There is an active effort to try to fix it, of course, and everybody is looking into that, because things kind of ground to a halt when these things happen.”
The distribution of food and basic supplies in the blockaded and war-ravaged Gaza has become increasingly fraught and perilous, exacerbating the territory’s deep hunger crisis.
The GHF said a bus carrying its staff to a distribution site near the southern city of Khan Younis was “brutally attacked by Hamas” around 10 p.m. on Wednesday.
Israel charged that Hamas was “weaponizing suffering in Gaza” after the US and the GHF accused the Palestinian group of killing its aid workers in the territory.
Asked to respond to the GHF accusation, the Hamas government media office in Gaza said GHF was a “filthy tool” of Israeli forces and was being used to “lure civilians into death traps.”
Dozens of Palestinians have been killed while trying to reach GHF distribution points since they began operating in late May, according to Gaza’s civil defense agency.
The agency said another 21 people were killed while waiting for aid on Thursday, adding that they were among 29 people across the territory who were killed by Israeli fire.
Contacted by AFP about reports of a deadly incident near an aid distribution point close to the Netzarim corridor in central Gaza, the Israeli military said it had “conducted warning shots hundreds of meters from the aid distribution site, prior to its opening hours.”
Gaza medics have said hospitals are being inundated with people wounded while trying to obtain food.
At Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital on Wednesday, the emergency department said it had received dozens of people who had been killed or wounded while waiting for aid in recent days, including 200 in a single day.
“Many Gazans went to the Nabulsi and Netzarim areas to receive aid and were shot at and shelled with tanks,” said Mutaz Harara, head of Al-Shifa’s emergency department.
But with few medical supplies and no operating theaters, “many patients died while waiting for their turn,” he said.
The war has caused major damage to infrastructure across Gaza, including water mains, telecommunication cables, power lines, and roads.

 


Cholera spreads to 13 states in Sudan, including Darfur

This picture shows the destruction on the grounds of a hospital in Khartoum on April 28, 2025. (AFP)
Updated 11 min 48 sec ago
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Cholera spreads to 13 states in Sudan, including Darfur

  • Funding cuts create overcrowded and unsanitary conditions that increase risks, WHO official warns

GENEVA: The World Health Organization warned on Friday that cholera cases in Sudan are set to rise and could spread to neighboring countries, including Chad, which hosts hundreds of thousands of refugees from Sudan’s civil war in crowded conditions.

The more than two-year-old war between the Sudanese army — which took full control of Khartoum state this week — and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has spread hunger and disease and destroyed most health facilities. Drone attacks in recent weeks have interrupted electricity and water supplies in the capital, Khartoum, driving up cases there.

FASTFACT

Dr. Shible Sahbani, WHO Representative for Sudan, called for humanitarian corridors and temporary ceasefires to allow mass vaccination campaigns against cholera and other disease outbreaks, such as Dengue fever and malaria.

“Our concern is that cholera is spreading,” Dr. Shible Sahbani, WHO Representative for Sudan, said in Geneva by video link from Port Sudan.
He said that cholera had reached 13 states in Sudan, including North and South Darfur, which border Chad, and that 1,854 people had already died in the latest wave as the dangerous rainy season sets in.
“We assume that if we don’t invest in the prevention measures, in surveillance, in the early warning system, in vaccination and in educating the population, for sure, the neighboring countries, but not only that, it can maybe spread to the sub-region,” he said.
He called for humanitarian corridors and temporary ceasefires to allow mass vaccination campaigns against cholera and other disease outbreaks, such as Dengue fever and malaria.
Cholera, a severe, potentially fatal diarrheal disease, spreads quickly when sewage and drinking water are not treated adequately.
Sahbani said that this posed a high risk for Sudanese refugees, including some who had survived attacks on a displacement camp in Darfur, and who are living in cramped, makeshift border sites on the Chadian side of the border.
“In overcrowded, unsanitary conditions, a potential outbreak could be devastating,” said François Batalingaya, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Chad, at the same briefing, describing the conditions for some 300,000 people stranded there with few aid services due to funding shortages.
The disease has not yet been confirmed in Chad, although a WHO spokesperson said that suspected cases had been reported in Geneina, Sudan, just 10 km away.
Sahbani also said that disease surveillance was low on the Libyan border and that it could possibly spread there.
Case fatality rates have fallen in recent weeks in and around the capital, Khartoum, thanks to an oral cholera vaccination campaign that started this month, Sahbani said.
UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said Sudan had become a grim example of impunity and the world’s indifference.
Fletcher called on “all with influence” to do more to safeguard civilians and to enable humanitarian aid to reach millions in the war-shattered country.
Despite repeated international pledges to protect Sudan’s people, “their country has become a grim example of twin themes of this moment: indifference and impunity,” he said in a statement.
Fletcher, the UN’s Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, underlined that half of Sudan’s population, some 30 million people, need lifesaving aid in the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.
“Indiscriminate shelling, drone attacks, and other air strikes kill, injure, and displace people in staggering numbers. The health system has been smashed to pieces, with cholera, measles, and other diseases spreading,” he said.
The human cost of the war, including “horrific” sexual violence, has been repeatedly condemned, “but talk has not translated into real protection for civilians or safe, unimpeded and sustained access for humanitarians,” he said.
“Where is the accountability? Where is the funding?“

 


UN conference for two-state solution postponed, Macron says

Updated 13 June 2025
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UN conference for two-state solution postponed, Macron says

  • Postponed for logistical reasons as members of Palestinian Authority could not travel to New York

PARIS: President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that a United Nations conference co-hosted between France and Saudi Arabia to work toward a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians has been postponed after Israel launched a military attack on Iran.

Macron told reporters that the conference, which had been planned for June 17-20, had been postponed for logistical reasons as members of the Palestinian Authority could not travel to New York and that it would be re-scheduled as soon as possible.

“While we have to postpone this conference for logistical and security reasons, it will take place as soon as possible,” Macron said.


Activists stopped in Libya and Egypt ahead of planned march on Gaza

Updated 5 min 46 sec ago
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Activists stopped in Libya and Egypt ahead of planned march on Gaza

  • Organizers on Friday said authorities confiscated the passports of 40 activists at what they called a “toll booth-turned-checkpoint” being patrolled by riot gear-clad officers and armored vehicles

MOROCCO: Egyptian authorities detained more activists planning to march to Gaza in protest of restrictions on aid reaching the territory, while security forces in eastern Libya blocked a convoy of activists en route to meet them.
Demonstrators from 80 countries planned to march to Egypt’s border with Gaza to spotlight the deepening humanitarian crises facing Palestinians since Israel began blocking aid trucks from entering the coastal enclave in March.
Israel slightly eased restrictions last month, allowing limited aid in, but experts warn the measures fall far short.
The Global March on Gaza was slated to be among the largest demonstrations of its kind in recent years, coinciding with other efforts, including a boat carrying activists and aid that was intercepted by Israel’s military while on its way to Gaza earlier this week.

BACKGROUND

Friday’s detentions come after hundreds arriving in Cairo were earlier detained and deported to their home countries in Europe and North Africa.

Organizers on Friday said authorities confiscated the passports of 40 activists at what they called a “toll booth-turned-checkpoint” being patrolled by riot gear-clad officers and armored vehicles.
Others were detained at hotels.
The group’s spokespeople urged officials from the activists’ home countries to push Egypt to release their citizens.
Friday’s detentions come after hundreds arriving in Cairo were earlier detained and deported to their home countries in Europe and North Africa.
Before authorities confiscated their passports, the activists said they planned to gather at a campsite on the road to the Sinai to prepare for Sunday’s march.
They said authorities had not yet granted them authorization to travel through the Sinai, which Egypt considers a highly sensitive area.
“We continue to urge the Egyptian government to permit this peaceful march, which aligns with Egypt’s own stated commitment to restoring stability at its border and addressing the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza,” the activists said in a statement.
As activists at the checkpoint languished in the heat, Hicham El-Ghaoui, one of the group’s spokespeople, said they would refrain from demonstrating until they were clear on whether Egypt would authorize their protest.
The planned demonstrations cast an uncomfortable spotlight on Egypt, one of the Arab countries that has cracked down on pro-Palestinian activists even as it publicly condemns aid restrictions and calls for an end to the war.
The government has arrested and charged 186 activists with threatening state security since the war began, according to the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights.
Many of them said they were protesting peacefully and collecting donations for Gaza.
Still, the severity of the crackdown surprised European activists.
Antonietta Chiodo, who traveled to Cairo from Italy, said those awaiting further instruction had been detained, interrogated, treated harshly by Egyptian authorities, or deported.
Alexis Deswaef, a Belgian human rights lawyer, said he woke up to dozens of security vehicles packed with uniformed officers surrounding Talat Harb Square, where activists had found hotels.
Members of his group snuck out of the lobby as security entered, asking an officer for assistance booking taxis to the Pyramids of Giza, where they’ve been since.
“I am so surprised to see the Egyptians doing the dirty work of Israel,” he said from the Pyramids.
He hoped there would be too many activists outside Cairo at the new meeting point for Egyptian authorities to arrest en masse.
In a divided Libya, Egypt-backed authorities stop a convoy
Meanwhile, an aid convoy traveling overland from Algeria picked up new participants along the route in Tunisia and Libya but was stopped in the city of Sirte, about 940 km from the Libya-Egypt border.
Organizers of the overland convoy said late Thursday night they had been stopped by authorities governing eastern Libya, which has for years been divided between dueling factions.
The convoy was allowed to cross from Tunisia to Libya but was halted near the front line.
The Benghazi-based government urged activists to “engage in proper coordination with the official Libyan authorities through legal and diplomatic channels to ensure the safety of all participants and uphold the principles of solidarity with the Palestinian people.”
It said they should return to their home countries and cited Egypt’s public statements that marchers had not been granted authorization.
Organizers leading the overland convoy said authorities had allowed them to camp in Sirte and await further approval.
Their group, which includes thousands of participants, had already traversed parts of Algeria, Tunisia, and the western Libyan cities of Tripoli and Misrata.
Jawaher Shana, one of the convoy’s organizers, said it would eventually continue.
“We didn’t cross 2,000 km all for nothing!” she yelled to a crowd at Sirte Gate, referencing the length of the Mediterranean coastline the convoy had traveled.
The efforts — the activist flotilla, the overland convoy, and the planned march — come as international outcry grows over conditions in Gaza.
Israel has continued to pummel the territory with airstrikes while limiting the flow of trucks carrying food, water, and medication that can enter.
The UN has said the vast majority of the population relies on humanitarian aid to survive, and experts have warned the coastal enclave will likely fall into famine if Israel doesn’t lift its blockade and stop its military campaign.
Over UN objections, a US-backed group has taken control of the limited aid entering Gaza.
But as desperate Palestinians crowd its distribution sites, chaos has erupted, and almost 200 people have been killed near aid sites.
Nearly half a million Palestinians are on the brink of possible starvation, and 1 million others can barely get enough food, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a leading international authority.
Israel has rejected the findings, saying the IPC’s previous forecasts had proven unfounded.

 


Palestinian ambassador: UK should recognize statehood to help end ‘deadly status quo’

Updated 13 June 2025
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Palestinian ambassador: UK should recognize statehood to help end ‘deadly status quo’

  • Husam Zomlot urges Britain to ‘right historic wrongs,’ show ‘political courage’
  • UN conference on 2-state solution could see states, including France, Canada, recognize Palestine

LONDON: The Palestinian ambassador to the UK has called on the Labour government to fulfill its manifesto pledge and recognize his nation as an independent sovereign state.

Husam Zomlot wrote in The Guardian that the move was “long overdue” ahead of a UN conference on the two-state solution next week in New York, and that it would help end the “deadly status quo” with Israel.

“I call on the British government to end this vicious path, right its historic wrongs and officially recognize the state of Palestine while the conditions are uniquely ripe to do so,” Zomlot wrote.

“Recognition is neither a reward for one party nor a punishment for another. It is a long-overdue affirmation of the Palestinian people’s unconditional right to exist and live freely in our homeland,” he added.

“Peace is not made between occupier and occupied. It can only exist between equals.”

Ahead of the UN conference on June 17, set to be co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia, several states yet to recognize Palestine have begun discussions about doing so, including the UK and Canada. 

Middle East Minister Hamish Falconer came under pressure in the House of Commons on Tuesday for the government to recognize Palestine unconditionally.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy recently told Parliament the UK had held direct talks with France about Palestinian statehood, but added the UK wanted the move to amount to more than just a symbolic gesture.

But Zomlot wrote: “Recognition (should not) be subject to ever more conditions on the Palestinian side. Delaying recognition simply reinforces the deadly status quo, denying Palestinians’ equal rights until Israel consents, thus granting our occupier a permanent veto over the future.”

Ahead of the conference, the French government, which is also believed to be among those set to recognize Palestine, published a letter laying out political commitments made by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, including that a future Palestinian state would require Hamas “laying down its weapons” and “no longer ruling Gaza.”

The commitments included holding democratic presidential elections within a year, and Hamas accepting nonviolence, disarmament, and the two-state solution. Abbas also condemned the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel by the militant group, and demanded the release of all remaining hostages in Gaza.

Hugh Lovatt, from the European Council on Foreign Relations, told The Guardian: “Recognition would certainly allow London and Paris to press the PA towards political renewal, including the holding of long-overdue elections, but it does not provide them with much leverage over Hamas which does not consider recognition by itself as being of sufficient value of itself to disarm before a peace agreement with Israel is reached.”

A senior diplomat from a Gulf state told The Guardian that Hamas had agreed to the proposal to end its rule in Gaza, but not to disarming.

Another Gulf diplomat told the paper: “Israel is seeking the total annihilation of Hamas and will not be willing to hand security in Gaza to the PA or a multinational force.”

The US government sent a diplomatic cable on Tuesday urging countries not to attend the conference, calling it “counterproductive to ongoing, lifesaving efforts to end the war in Gaza and free hostages.”

But Zomlot wrote: “This is a moment of historic consequence. It demands moral clarity and political courage. I urge the UK to rise to the moment and act now.”