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)
Short Url
Updated 06 July 2024
Follow

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.

 


Electrical generator explosion at Beirut’s Hamra district torches cars, building

Electrical generator explosion at Beirut’s Hamra district torches cars, building
Updated 13 sec ago
Follow

Electrical generator explosion at Beirut’s Hamra district torches cars, building

Electrical generator explosion at Beirut’s Hamra district torches cars, building

CAIRO: A large explosion on Beirut’s Hamra district on Saturday sparked a fire that engulfed several cars at a parking lot and caused smoke to spread massively across the area, local media reports reported.
Video footage showed some parked cars engulfed in flames as the blaze, which resulted from the electrical generator explosion, intensified.
The fire also spread to a nearby building, the Lebanese National News Agency (NNA) said. 
The incident triggered panic as firefighting teams rushed to the scene, battling the blaze that remained out of control. 
Civil defense teams were working to extinguish the blaze and evacuate adjacent buildings, NNA added.


Famine looming in north Gaza: UN-backed report

Famine looming in north Gaza: UN-backed report
Updated 09 November 2024
Follow

Famine looming in north Gaza: UN-backed report

Famine looming in north Gaza: UN-backed report
  • UN projects the number of people in Gaza facing ‘catastrophic’ food insecurity between November and April 2025 would reach 345,000
  • Vast areas of the Gaza Strip have been devastated by Israel’s retaliatory assault

ROME: Famine is looming in the northern Gaza Strip amid increased hostilities and a near-halt in food aid, a UN-backed assessment said Saturday.
The alert from the Famine Review Committee warned of “an imminent and substantial likelihood of famine occurring, due to the rapidly deteriorating situation in the Gaza Strip.”
“Famine thresholds may have already been crossed or else will be in the near future,” said the alert.
On October 17, the body projected that the number of people in Gaza facing “catastrophic” food insecurity between November and April 2025 would reach 345,000, or 16 percent of the population.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report classified that as IPC Phase 5 — a situation when “starvation, death, destitution and extremely critical acute malnutrition levels are evident.”
Since that report, conditions have worsened in the north of Gaza, with a collapse of food systems, a drop in humanitarian aid and critical water, sanitation and hygiene conditions, the committee said.
“It can therefore be assumed that starvation, malnutrition, and excess mortality due to malnutrition and disease, are rapidly increasing in these areas,” it read.
Vast areas of the Gaza Strip have been devastated by Israel’s retaliatory assault launched after the October 7 attack last year by Hamas.
Israeli forces have intensified their operations in large swathes of the Gaza Strip’s north since early October, where evacuation orders are in place.
Aid shipments allowed to enter the Gaza Strip were now lower than at any time since October 2023, said the report.
Access to food continues to deteriorate, with prices of essentials on the black market soaring. Cooking gas rose by 2,612 percent, diesel by 1,315 percent and wood by 250 percent, it said.
“Concurrent with the extremely high and increasing prices of essential items has been the total collapse of livelihoods to be able to purchase or barter for food and other basic needs,” said the alert.
The body expressed concern over Israel’s cutting ties last month with the UN aid agency for Palestinians (UNRWA), warning of “extremely serious consequences for humanitarian operations” in Gaza.


Gaza rescuers say 14 killed in Israeli strikes

Gaza rescuers say 14 killed in Israeli strikes
Updated 09 November 2024
Follow

Gaza rescuers say 14 killed in Israeli strikes

Gaza rescuers say 14 killed in Israeli strikes

GAZA STRIP: Gaza’s civil defense agency said on Saturday that Israeli air strikes killed at least 14 Palestinians overnight, including women and children.
An air strike hit tents housing displaced Palestinians in the southern area of Khan Yunis, killing at least nine people, including children and women, civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.
The Palestinian Red Crescent also confirmed the toll, saying 11 others were wounded in the strike and were taken to Nasser Hospital.
A second air strike killed five people, including children, and injured about 22 when “Israeli warplanes hit Fahad Al-Sabah school,” which had been turned into a shelter for “thousands of displaced people” in the Al-Tuffah district of Gaza City, Bassal said.
The dead and injured were taken to Al-Ahli Arab Hospital, he added.

In recent months, the military has struck several schools-turned-shelters where Israel has said Palestinian militants are operating.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military said its troops killed “dozens of terrorists” in the Jabalia area of northern Gaza, where it has been conducting a sweeping air and ground operation for more than a month to prevent Hamas from regrouping.
Israeli forces also killed several militants in the area of Rafah in the territory’s south, the military added.
The military is currently engaged in a two-front war, with troops fighting Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.
“Over the past day, the IAF (air force) struck over 50 terror targets in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip,” the military said in a statement.
“Among the targets struck were military structures, weapons storage facilities and launchers,” it added.
Israel’s war in Gaza broke out after Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7 last year, which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people on Israeli side, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures, which included those who died and were killed in captivity.
During the attack, militants abducted 251 people, 97 of whom are still held captive in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive in Gaza has killed at least 43,508 people, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the United Nations considers to be reliable.


South Sudan floods affect 1.4 million, displace 379,000: UN

South Sudan floods affect 1.4 million, displace 379,000: UN
Updated 09 November 2024
Follow

South Sudan floods affect 1.4 million, displace 379,000: UN

South Sudan floods affect 1.4 million, displace 379,000: UN
  • The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said about 1.4 million people were affected by floods in 43 counties

Nairobi: Devastating flooding in South Sudan is affecting around 1.4 million people, with more than 379,000 displaced, according to a United Nations update that warned about an upsurge in malaria.
Aid agencies have said that the world’s youngest country, highly vulnerable to climate change, is in the grip of its worst flooding in decades, mainly in the north.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said about 1.4 million people were affected by floods in 43 counties and the disputed Abyei region, which is claimed by both South Sudan and Sudan.
“Over 379,000 individuals are displaced in 22 counties and Abyei,” it added in a statement issued late on Friday.
A surge in malaria has been reported in several states, it said, “overwhelming the health system and exacerbating the situation and impact in flood-hit areas.”
Since gaining independence from Sudan in 2011, the world’s youngest nation has remained plagued by chronic instability, violence and economic stagnation as well as climate disasters such as drought and floods.

The World Bank said last month that the latest floods were “worsening an already critical humanitarian situation marked by severe food insecurity, economic decline, continued conflict, disease outbreaks, and the repercussions of the Sudan conflict,” which has seen several hundred thousand people pour into South Sudan.
More than seven million people are food insecure in South Sudan and 1.65 million children are malnourished, according to the UN’s World Food Programme.
The country also faces another period of political paralysis after the president’s office announced in September yet another extension to a transitional period agreed in a 2018 peace deal, delaying elections by two years to December 2026.
Key provisions of the transitional agreement remain unfulfilled — including the creation of a constitution and the unification of the rival forces of President Salva Kiir and his foe Reik Machar.
The delay has left South Sudan’s partners and the United Nations exasperated, with UN envoy Nicholas Haysom on Thursday describing it as a “regrettable development.”
All local and international parties involved “must collectively seize the opportunity to make this extension the last, and deliver the peace and democracy that the people of South Sudan deserve,” added Haysom.
South Sudan boasts plentiful oil resources but the vital source of revenue was decimated in February when an export pipeline was damaged in neighboring war-torn Sudan.


Iraqi PM urges Trump to ‘work toward ending’ Mideast wars

Iraqi PM urges Trump to ‘work toward ending’ Mideast wars
Updated 09 November 2024
Follow

Iraqi PM urges Trump to ‘work toward ending’ Mideast wars

Iraqi PM urges Trump to ‘work toward ending’ Mideast wars
  • About 2,500 American troops are deployed in Iraq as part of a US-led coalition that was formed to help battle the Daesh group.

Baghdad: Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani expressed hopes during a phone call with US President-elect Donald Trump that he would keep his “promises to work toward ending wars” in the Middle East.
Amid Israel’s wars in Gaza and Lebanon, Sudani — who was named premier by a majority bloc of Iran-backed political factions — has been in a delicate balancing act to ensure his country is not drawn into the fighting.
In the phone call, the Iraqi premier pointed to Trump’s “campaign statements and promises to work toward ending wars in the region,” a statement from Sudani’s office said late Friday.
“The two sides agreed to coordinate efforts in achieving this goal,” it added.
About 2,500 American troops are deployed in Iraq as part of a US-led coalition that was formed to help battle the Daesh group.
Bases hosting the American troops have been the target of dozens of rocket and drone attacks launched by Iran-backed groups in Iraq, which have also claimed attacks against Israel.
Baghdad has for years called on Washington to provide a clear timeline for the withdrawal of their remaining coalition troops.
The US and Iraq announced in late September that the international coalition would end its decade-long military mission in federal Iraq within a year, and by September 2026 in the autonomous Kurdistan region.
But the joint statement and US officials did not say whether any American troops would remain in Iraq.
Under Trump’s first term in office, relations deteriorated between the two countries after a US drone strike in January 2020 killed Iranian general Qasem Soleimani — the chief of the Quds Force and the architect of the Islamic republic’s military operations abroad.
Also killed in that strike was Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis, the deputy head of Iraq’s former paramilitary Hashed Al-Shaabi that have been integrated into the armed forces.
As part of their investigations into Muhandis’s assassination, the Iraqi judiciary issued a warrant for Trump’s arrest in January 2021.