Lebanon’s grand mufti highlights Arab solidarity and support for Lebanon

Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdel Latif Derian. (AFP file photo)
Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdel Latif Derian. (AFP file photo)
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Updated 06 July 2024
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Lebanon’s grand mufti highlights Arab solidarity and support for Lebanon

Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdel Latif Derian. (AFP file photo)
  • UN warns of ‘danger of miscalculation’ leading to a wider Israel-Hezbollah war, calls for diplomatic solution
  • Hezbollah says exhaustion of Israeli army and failure to achieve its goals will end assault

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s highest Sunni religious authority, Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdel Latif Derian, has thanked “the brotherly Arab countries and friendly countries that are rushing to support and stand by Lebanon.”

Derian’s remarks in Beirut on Saturday came as Lebanese politicians and the general public found themselves divided regarding Hezbollah’s decision to open the southern front without consulting the government.

Derian said: “What Israel is doing in the villages and towns of steadfast southern Lebanon and other regions are deliberate war crimes against all Lebanese, and awareness and wisdom are required in dealing with this dangerous aggression.

FASTFACT

Cross-border fire between Israel and the Hezbollah movement has occurred almost daily since the Gaza war began, but has escalated notably over the past month.

“During the 2006 war which Israel launched against Lebanon, we managed to stay together, supported by the Arabs and the international community,” he continued. “The country survived a major disaster.

“The problems are more significant now, but solidarity is less. However, there is still compassion for Lebanon, evidenced by Arab and international visits.

“This reality calls for solidarity to elect a president and stop the repercussions of the division we are witnessing in public opinion.”

Derian’s appeal came as the Supreme Islamic Shariah Council emphasized the importance of “local and international initiatives and efforts to help Lebanon get out of the dark tunnel it is in and return to the right path.”

The council called for “national unity to stand against Israeli aggression in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa.”

The council also condemned the international community’s “silence on the most heinous crimes committed by Israel in Gaza, the occupied West Bank, and Lebanese territories.”
International efforts are focused both on containing the confrontations in southern Lebanon within their current boundaries and stopping the exchange of fire, pending the outcome of Hamas-Israel negotiations.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reiterated “the risk of the confrontations between Hezbollah and Israel escalating into a full-scale war” and emphasized “the necessity of reaching a political solution.”

The secretary-general’s spokesperson, Stephane Dujarric, expressed the UN’s concern about “the increasing intensity of fire exchanges across the Blue Line, which heightens the risk of a wide-scale war.”

Dujarric said: “Escalation can and must be avoided, and we reiterate that the danger of miscalculation leading to a sudden and wider conflagration is real. A political and diplomatic solution is the only viable way forward.”

The diplomatic pressure to avoid an escalation into full-scale war continues through US-French coordination.

One report suggests that German-led negotiations over a settlement related to southern Lebanon are also progressing, with the German side advocating stepping back from the borders, pending the end of diplomatic negotiations regarding the Gaza Strip.

Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadlallah clarified his party’s position on the efforts to enforce a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip on Saturday.

He said: “When Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip stops, the supporting fronts will stop. Our front in Lebanon is a supporting one to pressure the enemy’s army to stop this aggression.”

Hezbollah’s new stance coincided with relative calm on the southern front. The ongoing mutual exchange of fire between Hezbollah and the Israeli army significantly decreased on Saturday after significant escalation over the previous two days.

MP Fadlallah emphasized that “the day following the end of aggression against Lebanon (will be) a Lebanese day par excellence.”

He asserted that the decisions “made on this day (will be) solely Lebanese, created by the people of Lebanon and those involved in the conflict from official institutions and the resistance under the roof of protecting sovereignty.”

This, he continued, will prevent Israel from attaining in politics what it failed to achieve through “war, combat, bombings, destruction, and assassinations.”

Fadlallah also said that “the exhaustion of the Israeli army and its inability to achieve its goals” would stop the war.

“We are facing a new phase,” he said, adding that Israel was finding it difficult to sustain fighting across Gaza because resistance in Palestine has lasted for nine months.

Maj. Gen. Israel Ziv, former head of operations for the Israeli army, warned that “increased military action in the north is the wrong tactic unless we want to wage war.”

He added: “Waging war in Lebanon would lead to a confrontation with Iran. This is the worst time to open multiple fronts.”

Hezbollah said it executed an aerial attack with a squadron of assault drones on an artillery site belonging to the 403rd Battalion of the 91st Division in Beit Hillel on Saturday morning, causing fires at the site in response to “Israeli attacks on southern resilient villages, safe homes, and civilians on Friday.”

The Israeli army claimed that it had intercepted an aerial target from Lebanon in the Galilee, and that two targets had fallen in “an open area” in Beit Hillel.

The Israeli army also launched barrages of fire from its positions facing the town of Aita Al-Shaab toward Birkat Risha and the outskirts of the town of Ramyah.

 


Iran Guards chief says Netanyahu ICC warrant ‘political death’ of Israel

Iran Guards chief says Netanyahu ICC warrant ‘political death’ of Israel
Updated 58 min 37 sec ago
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Iran Guards chief says Netanyahu ICC warrant ‘political death’ of Israel

Iran Guards chief says Netanyahu ICC warrant ‘political death’ of Israel
  • Revolutionary Guards chief General Hossein Salami calls the ICC warrant ‘a welcome move’
  • Salami adds it is a ‘great victory for the Palestinian and Lebanese resistance movements’

TEHRAN: The head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on Friday described the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a former defense minister as the “end and political death” of Israel, in a speech.
“This means the end and political death of the Zionist regime, a regime that today lives in absolute political isolation in the world and its officials can no longer travel to other countries,” Revolutionary Guards chief General Hossein Salami said in the speech aired on state TV.
In the first official reaction by Iran, Salami called the ICC warrant “a welcome move” and a “great victory for the Palestinian and Lebanese resistance movements,” both supported by the Islamic republic.
Israel and its allies criticized the ICC’s decision to issue an arrest warrant on Thursday for Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu and the country’s former defense minister Yoav Gallant.
The court also issued a warrant for the arrest of Hamas’s military chief Mohammed Deif.
The warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant were issued in response to accusations of crimes against humanity and war crimes during Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, sparked by the Palestinian militant group’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
The move drew angry reactions from Netanyahu, who denounced it as antisemitic and from Israel’s closest allies, including the United States, but was welcomed by rights groups including Amnesty International.
The ICC’s move theoretically limits the movement of Netanyahu, as any of the court’s 124 national members would be obliged to arrest him on their territory.
The court’s chief prosecutor Karim Khan urged the body’s members to act on the warrants, and for non-members to work together in “upholding international law.”


Israel armys say ‘eliminated’ five Hamas militants in north Gaza raid

Israel armys say ‘eliminated’ five Hamas militants in north Gaza raid
Updated 22 November 2024
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Israel armys say ‘eliminated’ five Hamas militants in north Gaza raid

Israel armys say ‘eliminated’ five Hamas militants in north Gaza raid
  • Israeli military: Slain militants had ‘led the murders and kidnappings in the area of Mefalsim’

JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said on Friday it had “eliminated” five Hamas militants, including two commanders, in an overnight raid in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahia.
In a statement, the military and the Shin Bet security agency said they had “eliminated five Hamas terrorists, including a Nukhba (commando) company commander and an additional company commander who participated in the Oct. 7 massacre” that sparked the Gaza war last year, adding that the slain militants had “led the murders and kidnappings in the area of Mefalsim,” a kibbutz in southern Israel.


Strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs after Israeli evacuation call

Strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs after Israeli evacuation call
Updated 22 November 2024
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Strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs after Israeli evacuation call

Strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs after Israeli evacuation call
  • Latest raids follow intense Israeli attacks on south Beirut as well as other areas in Lebanon’s south and east

BEIRUT: Strikes hit the southern suburbs of Beirut, a bastion of Hezbollah militants, shortly after an Israeli evacuation warning early on Friday, according to Lebanese official media and AFPTV footage.

The state-run National News Agency said “enemy warplanes” had carried two raids on south Beirut, and that “thick smoke was seen rising from the vicinity of the Lebanese University” in the Hadath neighborhood.

Live AFPTV footage showed plumes of smoke over the area after the Israeli military called for the evacuation of three locations, warning on social media of imminent attacks.

The military later said in a statement its “fighter jets completed a new round of strikes” on Beirut’s southern suburbs.

The latest raids follow intense Israeli attacks on south Beirut as well as other areas in Lebanon’s south and east, where Israel says it has been targeting Iran-backed Hezbollah militants.

More than 11 months of cross-border fire between Israel and Hezbollah over the Gaza conflict escalated into all-out war in September, with Israel conducting an extensive bombing campaign, primarily targeting Hezbollah strongholds, and sending ground troops into southern Lebanon.

The Lebanese health ministry said at least 52 people were killed on Thursday in Israeli strikes, including some 40 dead in Lebanon’s east.

On Friday, the Israeli army also issued evacuation warnings for parts of the coastal city of Tyre and the nearby Burj Al-Shemali Palestinian refugee camp.

The pace of the strikes across Lebanon has increased since US envoy Amos Hochstein ended his visit to Beirut on Wednesday, seeking to broker an end to the Israel-Hezbollah war.

Lebanon’s health ministry said Thursday that at least 3,583 people had been killed in the violence since October 2023. Most of the deaths have been since September this year.


UN could meet with Israel PM despite warrant: UN

UN could meet with Israel PM despite warrant: UN
Updated 22 November 2024
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UN could meet with Israel PM despite warrant: UN

UN could meet with Israel PM despite warrant: UN
  • UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and Netanyahu have not spoken since the war started
  • UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said UN policy on contacts with people facing arrest warrants dates back to a document issued in 2013

UNITED NATIONS: The arrest warrant issued against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the war in Gaza does not bar UN officials from meeting with him in the course of their work, the UN said Thursday.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and Netanyahu have not spoken since the war started as a result of the Hamas attack against Israel on October 7, 2023, although there have been contacts with the Israeli leader by UN officials in the region.
Guterres has been declared persona non grata by Israel, which accuses him of being biased in favor of the Palestinians. So talks between him and Netanyahu are very unlikely.
After the warrants issued Thursday by the International Criminal Court against Netanyahu, former defense minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas’s military chief Mohammed Deif, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said UN policy on contacts with people facing arrest warrants dates back to a document issued in 2013.
“The rule is that there should not be any contacts between UN officials and individuals subject to arrest warrants,” Dujarric said.
But limited contacts are allowed “to address fundamental issues, operational issues, and our ability to carry out our mandates,” he added.
In late October, at a summit of the BRICS countries in Russia, Guterres met with President Vladimir Putin, who faces an arrest warrant from the ICP over the war in Ukraine.
That meeting, during which Guterres reiterated his condemnation of the Russian invasion, angered Ukraine.


Palestinians welcome ICC arrest warrants for Israeli PM and former defense minister

Palestinians welcome ICC arrest warrants for Israeli PM and former defense minister
Updated 22 November 2024
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Palestinians welcome ICC arrest warrants for Israeli PM and former defense minister

Palestinians welcome ICC arrest warrants for Israeli PM and former defense minister
  • Palestinian Authority calls on UN member states to ensure the warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, who are accused of war crimes, are acted upon
  • The EU’s chief diplomat, Josep Borrel, says decision is ‘binding’ on all members of the International Criminal Court

LONDON: Palestinians welcomed the decision by the International Criminal Court on Thursday to issue arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former minister of defense, Yoav Gallant.

The Palestinian Authority said the court’s decision comes as Israeli forces continue to bomb Gaza in a conflict that has killed nearly 45,000 Palestinians since the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas, and it hopes the ruling will help to restore faith in international law, the official Palestinian WAFA news agency reported.

Netanyahu and Gallant are the first leading officials from a nation allied with the West against whom the ICC has issued arrest warrants since the court was established in July 2002. It also issued an arrest warrant for Mohammed Deif, the head of the military wing of Hamas. Israeli authorities said in August he was killed by their forces in an attack the previous month, though Hamas have not confirmed this.

All three men are accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity over their actions during the war in Gaza or the Oct. 7 attacks.

The PA said the decision to issue warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant was important because Palestinians “are being subjected to genocide and war crimes, represented by starvation as a method of warfare,” as well as mass displacement and collective punishment.

The PA, which signed up to the ICC in 2015, called on all UN member states to ensure the warrants are acted upon and to “cut off contact and meetings with the international wanted men, Netanyahu and Gallant.” Israel is not a member of the ICC.

The EU’s chief diplomat, Josep Borrel, posted a message on social media platform X on Thursday in which he described the court’s decisions as “binding” on all those who have signed up to it.

“These decisions are binding on all states party to the Rome Statute (the treaty that established the ICC), which includes all EU member states,” he wrote.

Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister who has spent 17 years in office during three spells in charge since 1996, denounced the decision by the ICC to issue the warrant as “antisemitic.”

He said it would “have serious consequences for the court and those who will cooperate with it in this matter.”