Opposition MPs call for state of emergency in southern Lebanon
Opposition MPs call for state of emergency in southern Lebanon/node/2541601/middle-east
Opposition MPs call for state of emergency in southern Lebanon
An Israeli firefighter and a man from the immediate responders team work to take control over a fire on the Israeli side of the Israel-Lebanon border amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, July 1, 2024. (Reuters)
Opposition MPs call for state of emergency in southern Lebanon
UNIFIL mobilizes organizations to support remaining communities in the south
Arab League official says Hezbollah no longer to be labeled a terrorist organization
Updated 01 July 2024
NAJIA HOUSSARI
BEIRUT: Several independent MPs, reformists, and opposition parties urged Lebanon’s caretaker government on Monday to declare a state of emergency in southern Lebanon and hand over control to the military.
They asked parliament to adopt a “roadmap to de-escalate and spare Lebanon a war that the Lebanese do not want, and the official legitimate Lebanese institutions have not decided to wage.”
Ashraf Rifi MP called for immediate action to stop all “unauthorized military activities and its apparatuses” in southern Lebanon.
At a press conference held by the MPs, Rifi, speaking on the group’s behalf, also said the Lebanese Armed Forces should be deployed to confront any threats.
The MPs urged the government to step up diplomatic moves to return to the armistice agreement signed in 1949 and to implement UN Resolution 1701 in full.
Their appeal comes amid fears of military escalation in the region by Israel against Hezbollah.
Rifi said the ongoing war has cost “us the lives of hundreds of Lebanese, thousands of destroyed residential units, in addition to the economic and environmental damages caused by daily Israeli attacks.”
He said that he and his fellow MPs “strongly oppose Lebanon’s participation in a war it has no connection to, and they (represent) the majority of Lebanese.”
Rifi emphasized “the need to separate the Lebanese and Palestinian tracks regarding what is happening in Gaza.”
He added: “We strongly condemn Israel’s actions at all levels, including systematic killing, displacing people, and colonization.
“We want to protect our country and prevent it from being dragged into a broader war that has no goal other than strengthening Iran’s position in the regional equation, does not benefit the Palestinian cause, and destroys Lebanon.
“We will not accept that armed groups, whether local or foreign, operating on Lebanese territory, impose the logic of the unity of the arenas, which is rejected by the majority of the Lebanese, as it brings hostility to Lebanon from the Arab and international communities, the latest of which is Cyprus and the EU.”
He also stressed “the importance of implementing UN Resolution 1701 in all its aspects by all parties, supporting the Lebanese Army and security institutions to control the international borders in the south, east, and north, and implementing international resolutions 1559, 1680, and other international treaties and related Taif Agreement provisions.”
Rifi urged opposition MPs to “convene a parliamentary debate on the ongoing war in the south and its potential escalation and to endorse the points of the initiative they put forward.”
The appeal came as UNIFIL and various other organizations met in Shama to discuss security and support for communities affected by fighting in southern Lebanon.
UNIFIL said the needs of displaced people “are great and require a comprehensive approach.”
It added said the meeting was strongly supported by UNIFIL Sector West Commander Brig. Gen. Enrico Fontana, who stressed the importance of “complementarities between humanitarian organizations and UNIFIL in efforts to support both the displaced and the remaining communities in southern Lebanon.”
Fontana spoke about improving essential services such as waste management, water, electricity, and education.
He said there was a noticeable upward trend in demand for firefighting equipment, humanitarian aid, medical services and medicines.
The meeting included five UN agencies, the representative of the Humanitarian Forum of Lebanese International Non-Governmental Organizations and 11 international NGOs including Mouvement Social, Oxfam, the Norwegian Refugee Council, Save the Children and American East Refugee Aid.
Three national non-governmental organizations — Imam Sadr Foundation, NUSANED, Najee, and the International Committee of the Red Cross — also participated.
In another development, a top Arab League official confirmed that the bloc “no longer classifies Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.”
Hossam Zaki, the league’s assistant secretary-general, made the announcement in a televised statement broadcast by Al-Qahira news channel on Saturday evening.
Zaki, who visited Lebanese officials last week, said that “previous decisions of the Arab League labeled Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, resulting in a communication breakdown. However, the agreement of member states not to use this language allowed for communication with the party.”
The Arab League “does not have official terrorist lists, and its efforts do not involve categorizing entities as terrorist organizations,” said Zaki.
In March 2016, the Arab League labeled Hezbollah as a terrorist organization and “urged them to stop promoting extremism and sectarianism, meddling in other countries’ internal affairs, and backing terrorism in the region.”
The decision was met with reservations from the governments in Lebanon and Iraq.
Zaki’s visit to Lebanon last week, which aimed to contain the escalation in the south, included a meeting with the head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, Mohammed Raad.
Also on Monday, Israeli aircraft violated Lebanese airspace over Beirut and its suburbs as well as Mount Lebanon.
Three Hezbollah members were also killed an Israeli strike that targeted a house in the border town of Houla.
Sudan’s two years of war have ‘shattered’ children’s lives: UNICEF
The number of children in need of humanitarian assistance has doubled in two years
Updated 15 April 2025
AFP
UNITED NATIONS, United States: The number of major violations against children in Sudan, from killings to abductions, has increased by 1,000 percent following two years of civil war, UNICEF said Monday, calling for increased global awareness.
The United Nations children’s agency said that such incidents — which also include maiming and attacks on schools and hospitals — had previously been confined to a few regions.
But the ongoing nature of the conflict between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and Sudan’s army had resulted in their spread to further areas.
“Two years of violence and displacement have shattered the lives of millions of children across Sudan,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said in a statement.
“The number of grave violations against children has surged by 1,000 percent in two years,” the statement said.
For example, the number of children killed or maimed has increased drastically from 150 verified cases in 2022 to an estimated 2,776 across 2023 and 2024, according to figures provided to AFP by UNICEF, which are likely underestimates.
Attacks on schools and hospitals have also gone up from 33 verified cases in 2022 to around 181 over the two prior years.
Furthermore, the number of children in need of humanitarian assistance has doubled in two years, from 7.8 million at the beginning of 2023 to more than 15 million today, UNICEF said.
“Sudan is the biggest humanitarian crisis in the world today, but it is not getting the world’s attention,” Russell said, adding “we cannot abandon the children of Sudan.”
“We have the expertise and the resolve to scale up our support, but we need access and sustained funding,” she said.
The war between army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and his former deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, first erupted in April 2023.
Since then, the conflict has left tens of thousands dead and displaced 13 million people, according to the UN.
Famine has additionally been declared in at least five locations, including the Zamzam displacement camp in Darfur, where the RSF recently wrested control.
With the arrival of the rainy season and the risk of flooding, the situation in Sudan could worsen further. According to UNICEF, this year’s rainy season could result in 462,000 children suffering severe acute malnutrition.
The UN experts also said fighters had been recruited in neighboring countries like Chad, Libya and the Central African Republic and sent to South Sudan
Updated 15 April 2025
AFP
UNITED NATIONS, United States: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Monday he is worried that weapons and fighters keep flowing into Sudan, perpetuating a civil war about to enter its third year.
The war, which erupted on April 15, 2023, has left tens of thousands dead, pushed parts of Sudan into famine and fractured the country into warlord-run territories.
“The external support and flow of weapons must end,” Guterres said without naming any specific country in a statement issued a day before the third anniversary of the start of the war between Sudan’s army and its paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
“Those with greatest influence on the parties must use it to better the lives of people in Sudan — not to perpetuate this disaster,” said Guterres.
But in their last report early this year the experts said they could not confirm actual transfers of military material along this route from Chad to Darfur.
They said, however, that weapons had come in from Libya but could not identify who sent them.
The UN experts also said fighters had been recruited in neighboring countries like Chad, Libya and the Central African Republic and sent to South Sudan.
They added there were credible accusations that Colombian mercenaries were fighting with the paramilitary side in Sudan.
“The only way to ensure the protection of civilians is to end this senseless conflict,” Guterres said Monday.
Israeli makes new Gaza ceasefire proposal but prospects appear slim
Hamas insists Israel commit to ending the war and pull out its forces from the Gaza Strip as agreed in the three-phase ceasefire accord that went into effect in late January
“Handing over the resistance’s weapons is a million red lines and is not subject to consideration, let alone discussion,” Abu Zuhri said
Updated 15 April 2025
Reuters
CAIRO: Mediator Egypt has presented a new Israeli proposal for a Gaza ceasefire to Hamas, Egyptian state-affiliated Al Qahera News TV said on Monday, but a senior Hamas official said at least two elements of the proposal were non-starters.
Citing sources, Al Qahera said mediators awaited Hamas’ response.
Hamas said in a statement later in the day that it was studying the proposal and that it will submit its response “as soon as possible.”
The militant group reiterated its core demand that a ceasefire deal must end the war in Gaza and achieve a full Israeli pull-out from the strip.
Earlier, senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters that the proposal did not meet the Palestinian group’s demand that Israel commit to a complete halt of hostilities.
In the proposal, Israel also for the first time called for the disarmament of Hamas in the next phase of negotiations, which the group will not agree to, Abu Zuhri said.
“Handing over the resistance’s weapons is a million red lines and is not subject to consideration, let alone discussion,” Abu Zuhri said.
Israel did not immediately comment on the reported proposal.
The head of the Egyptian state information service told Al Qahera: “Hamas knows very well the value of time now and I believe that its response to the Israeli proposal will be quick.”
Israel restarted its offensive in the enclave in March, ending a ceasefire that went into effect in late January.
The latest round of talks on Monday in Cairo to restore the ceasefire and free Israeli hostages ended with no apparent breakthrough, Palestinian and Egyptian sources said.
Hamas insists Israel commit to ending the war and pull out its forces from the Gaza Strip as agreed in the three-phase ceasefire accord that went into effect in late January.
Israel has said it will not end the war unless Hamas is eliminated and returns the remaining hostages held in Gaza.
“Hamas is ready to hand over the hostages in one batch in exchange for the end of war and the withdrawal of Israeli military” from Gaza, Abu Zuhri said.
Since restarting its military offensive last month, Israeli forces have killed more than 1,500 Palestinians, Gaza health authorities have said. It has displaced hundreds of thousands of people and imposed a blockade on all supplies entering the enclave.
Meanwhile, 59 Israeli hostages remain in the hands of the militants. Israel believes 24 of them are alive.
Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi visits Kuwait as part of short Gulf tour
He was expected to discuss with the country’s emir enhanced cooperation in the industrial, environmental, tourism, construction, housing, media and sports sectors
Kuwait was the 2nd stop on a 2-state tour that began in Doha, where he discussed economic partnerships with Qatar’s emir
Updated 14 April 2025
Arab News
LONDON: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi arrived in Kuwait on Monday afternoon on the second leg of a two-state tour of the Arabian Gulf.
He was greeted at the Amiri Airport by Kuwait’s emir, Sheikh Meshal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, senior ministers and other officials. The national anthems of both countries were played and the Egyptian president and his delegation were honored with a 21-gun salute.
The two leaders were expected to discuss several of issues of mutual interest, as well as enhanced cooperation between their countries, following the signing of 10 memorandums of understanding in September last year covering the industrial, environmental, tourism, housing, construction, media and sports sectors, the Kuwait News Agency reported.
The emir of Kuwait visited Egypt in April last year, his first state visit after assuming power in December 2023.
El-Sisi flew to Kuwait from Qatar, where he discussed economic partnerships with Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani. They agreed to a package of direct investments worth up to $7.5 billion, with the aim of supporting and strengthening sustainable economic development in both countries, the Middle East News Agency reported.
How Israeli settlers are able to seize Palestinian land with impunity in the West Bank
Israeli settlers and IDF soldiers are increasingly acting together, blurring the lines between military force and mob violence
Palestinians face growing displacement, home demolitions, and intimidation under punitive laws and unchecked settler expansion
Updated 14 April 2025
Jonathan Gornall
LONDON: Attacks on Palestinian villagers in the West Bank by Israeli settlers, and the seizure or demolition of their properties under lopsided laws, are nothing new. But, ever since the start of the war in Gaza, the number and nature of such incidents has intensified.
Several attacks over the past few weeks have added to the impression that not only have settlers been given carte blanche to do as they please, but also that discipline within the ranks of the Israeli army operating in the West Bank is breaking down.
Since the Gaza war began in October 2023, Israeli troops and settlers have killed at least 917 Palestinians, including militants, in the West Bank.
On March 27, the UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, revealed that in the first three months of this year alone, 99 Palestinians had been killed during operations by Israeli forces in the West Bank.
Tens of thousands had been displaced from their homes, 10 UN-run schools had been forced to close, and 431 homes lacking impossible-to-acquire Israeli-issued building permits had been demolished — twice as many as over the same period last year.
An Israeli army soldier walks with a blindfolded man being detained, towards an armoured vehicle during a military operation in Nablus in the occupied West Bank on April 8, 2025. (AFP)
Occasionally, such attacks are caught on camera. That was the case at the beginning of this month, when footage circulated purportedly showing masked settlers attacking the village of Duma in the northern West Bank, setting fire to homes.
On Feb. 29, dozens of settlers, accompanied by Israel Defense Forces personnel, descended on Jinba, a shepherding community, where, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, “uniformed and civilian-dressed Israelis raided the village, broke into all the homes, dumped food, vandalized appliances and terrorized the locals.”
The supposed trigger for the attack on the village, after which dozens of Palestinian men were rounded up and arrested, was an alleged assault on a settler shepherd. In fact, phone footage later emerged appearing to show the man in question approaching Palestinians and their flock on an all-terrain vehicle and physically assaulting one of them.
“Land seizures and violence by settlers is not new, but there has been a huge increase,” Alon Cohen-Lifshitz, an architect and adviser to the Israeli nongovernmental organization Planners for Planning Rights, or Bimkom, told Arab News.
“What has changed is that there is now widespread collaboration between the settlers, the army, the authorities, and the police. Now, the army is the settler.”
Charred cars sit at the entrance of the occupied West Bank village of Duma, in the aftermath of an Israeli settler attack, on April 17, 2024. (AFP)
Often those involved in violence and intimidation are from IDF reserve units, whose members are settlers and are deployed near their own settlements, and “sometimes they are wearing uniforms, sometimes not.”
Rarely is anyone arrested. “The police put obstacles in the way of Palestinians who come to submit complaints,” said Cohen-Lifshitz.
“The army, the police, and the settlers have become a single unit, working together against the poorest, most fragile and marginalized communities that don’t do any harm. These people are not involved in anything, but they live in fear of the settlers.”
Their “crime” is that “they are living on land which Israel and the settlers want to control and ethnically cleanse,” he added.
Planning law is also being deployed against Palestinians in the West Bank. “Israel is using it like a weapon to conquer land,” said Cohen-Lifshitz.
According to Cohen-Lifshitz, “The army, the police, and the settlers have become a single unit, working together against the poorest, most fragile and marginalized communities that don’t do any harm.” (AFP)
It was planning law, he said, that led to the creation of settlements and the fragmentation of the West Bank, and “there are plans for the Palestinians, too, but the aim of these is to limit the development, to create very small areas in which building is allowed, but at a very high density, which is not how it used to be in Palestinian villages.
“There, it was about 10 units per hectare. Now the plans for Palestinian areas propose urban densities of 100 units, allowing the authorities to justify demolitions outside these areas.”
Over the past two years, however, “there has been a huge expansion in settlement outposts and farms. But, as far as we know, not a single permit for Palestinian building has been approved.”
Apparent indiscipline in the IDF ranks has not escaped the notice of the military top brass, who appear keen to ascribe poor conduct to reserve soldiers rather than core personnel.
Israeli excavators carry out the demolition of Palestinian buildings constructed without a permit in the village of Al-Samua, south of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, on April 8, 2025. (AFP)
Although he did not comment on the violence in Duma, Israel’s top commander in the occupied West Bank, Major General Avi Bluth, condemned the actions of reservists during a raid on the Dheisheh refugee camp near Bethlehem on April 2.
Images shared on social media showed vandalized apartments, where furniture was broken and Israeli nationalist slogans spray painted on walls. In a video shared by the army last week, Bluth said that “the conduct in Dheisheh by our reserve soldiers is not what we stand for.”
“Vandalism and graffiti during an operational mission are, from our perspective, unacceptable incidents. It is inconceivable that IDF soldiers do not act according to their commanders’ orders,” he added.
A Palestinian man walks past graffiti reading in Hebrew: “Revenge (R), Fight the enemy, not the ally (L)”, in a building after an attack by Israeli settlers, near the West Bank city of Salfit on April 8, 2025. (AFP)
It would be a mistake, however, to interpret the escalation in violence in the West Bank as the result of a collapse of discipline, said Ahron Bregman, a senior teaching fellow in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London, who served in the Israeli army for six years and took part in the 1982 Lebanon war.
“This is not about discipline. This is something else — the execution of a plan,” he said. “The war in Gaza is all but over. The main front now is the West Bank, where I think the Israelis are trying to implement a big plan to empty it of its people and annex it.”
The IDF, in Bregman’s view, has changed.
“Many IDF units, especially infantry, are now dominated by right-wing settlers. They have managed to penetrate these units to such an extent that I think it is not an exaggeration to say that many units, especially infantry, which is relevant because they are on the ground, are led by settlers.”
The driving force, he believes, is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, who is also a defense minister and is responsible for the administration of the West Bank.
Ahron Bregman, a senior teaching fellow in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London, who served in the Israeli army for six years said that many IDF units, especially infantry, are now dominated by right-wing settlers. (AFP)
Leader of the far-right Religious Zionism party, Smotrich is himself a settler, who, in the words of a profile in The Times of Israel, “has long been a vociferous supporter of West Bank settlements and just as strongly opposes Palestinian statehood, subscribing to the view that Jews have a right to the whole land of Israel.”
The support of Israeli ministers for the settlers goes beyond mere words. Last year, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir gave more than 120,000 firearms to settlers. More recently, Smotrich and Orit Strock, the settlements and national missions minister, gifted 21 ATVs to illegal farms and outposts in the South Hebron hills, to be used “for security purposes.”
Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, a US-registered non-profit that collects data on conflict and protest around the world, says its findings support the anecdotal evidence that violence against Palestinians in the West Bank is escalating.
“It is not always clear who is responsible,” Ameneh Mehvar, ACLED’s senior Middle East analyst, told Arab News.
“Is it always settlers, or soldiers, security squads, regional defense battalions? There is a blurring of lines. But we have definitely seen problematic behavior by soldiers in the past few weeks.”
Palestinians inspect the damage at a shop on January 21, 2025, after it was burnt in overnight Israeli settler attacks in Jinsafot village east of Qalqiliya in the occupied West Bank. (AFP)
Traditionally, she said, “the IDF’s rules of engagement in the West Bank were different. The policy of the Central Command was to limit violence and maintain the status quo — for practical reasons, as much as anything else, because settlers and Palestinians live side by side.
“But since Oct. 7, things have become much worse. There is a spirit of revenge and the soldiers feel they have the support of the rhetoric of far-right, pro-settler politicians. It isn’t necessarily that senior commanders are ordering more violence, but that junior commanders on the ground are allowing it.
“So what we’re seeing is a mix of this permissible environment, and the redeployment to the West Bank of soldiers from Gaza, coming back from the war there with the mindset that Palestinians are not humans. They use the same rules of engagement — that everyone is dangerous, anything is allowed, shoot first, and ask questions later.”
The pro-settlement parties in Israel, she said, “are no longer fringe actors, but are part of the mainstream in Israeli politics, and their aim is obviously annexation of parts of the West Bank.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu’s biggest interest is staying in power, and in order to keep his coalition together he has been giving a lot of incentives to the pro-settlement parties and politicians.”
Israeli soldiers fire teargas at Palestinian farmers as they leave their land after they were attacked by Israeli settlers as they farmed in Salem village east of Nablus in the occupied West Bank on November 28, 2024. (AFP)
The IDF’s ongoing so-called “Iron Ball” operation in the northern West Bank is taking place against this background. According to the UN Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, the assault on Jenin Camp, which began two months ago, is “by far the longest and most destructive operation in the occupied West Bank since the Second Intifada in the 2000s.”
The UN says that tens of thousands of residents from Jenin, Tulkarm, Nur Shams, and Far’a refugee camps have been displaced, as the IDF has embarked on “systematic destruction of civilian infrastructure and homes, aiming to permanently change the character of Palestinian cities and refugee camps at a scale unjustifiable by any purported military or law enforcement aims.”
Although the world’s attention has been focused on Israeli actions in Gaza and Lebanon, “what is happening in the West Bank is not a sideshow,” said Mehvar.
“Before Oct. 7, settler attacks were already on the rise. But now the West Bank is a powder keg that could explode at any time.”
