Hezbollah rockets land near Tel Aviv after large Israeli strike on Beirut

BEIRUT: Lebanese President Joseph Aoun requested the population on Monday to view Lebanon as a state for all rather than continue to view it through sectarian and partisan lenses.

Aoun cautioned his visitors during a meeting that “if we remain prisoners of our narrow perspectives, we will lose many opportunities available to us.”

He added: “We have significant Arab and international support, and everyone claims to be with us. However, Lebanon is required to implement the necessary reforms.”

Aoun’s statement followed controversial remarks by Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem during an interview on the group’s Al-Manar channel.

He said: “The resistance will not cease and will not relinquish its capabilities in the face of Israeli aggression and occupation.”

He added: “The ceasefire agreement with Israel includes the phrase ‘south of the Litani River’ five times, which is the framework we must rely upon.”

He stressed that “the resistance views Israel as a threat to Lebanon and that there is no objection to the army and the state defending the country.”

He added: “The resistance has the right to continue its efforts to protect Lebanon. We do not consider the president’s remarks regarding the exclusivity of weapons to be directed at us.”

Qassem criticized Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji, who is affiliated with the Lebanese Forces team in the government.

The Lebanese Forces Party said that Hezbollah had not learned from past experiences and added that the group continued to act on the same logic despite tragedies and destruction.

The party said that Rajji had highlighted a truth understood by decision-makers: reconstruction of southern Lebanon would only occur under a state that had sole authority over war, controlled weapons, and maintained sovereignty over all Lebanese territory.

The statement also said that the international community was reluctant to rebuild what Hezbollah might destroy again.

It added: “Sheikh Qassem understands that reconstruction is an international responsibility.”

Mustafa Alloush, a former minister, told Arab News: “Hezbollah is ignoring what it knows to delay the surrender.”

Alloush added that Hezbollah had said that “it exists and will remain, and perhaps the party is counting on certain circumstances and changes.”

Alloush added: “When Hezbollah hands over its weapons, it cannot transform into a political party, as the justification for its establishment is primarily military, and it has no choice but to be stubborn to survive.

“The party is trying to continue with full encouragement from Iran, and perhaps it is counting on returning to what it used to be through the events on the Syrian coast. This is how I understand Naim Qassem’s stubbornness.

“But, in return, the new Lebanese government must not resort to settlements that would set back its launch and undermine the confidence granted to it by parliament.”

Alloush said Hezbollah’s supporters “must hold the party accountable when they see the procrastination in rebuilding the human and material losses caused by the war and that Hezbollah destroyed."

The Lady of the Mountain Gathering cautioned against Hezbollah’s “denial of its defeat and its attempt to evade responsibility by refusing to surrender its illegal weapons to the state, in violation of both the constitution and international legitimacy resolutions. They seem to believe that time is on their side.”

The meeting said that Hezbollah was once again placing its members and the entire Lebanese population in a dangerous situation.

It added: “By refusing to hand over its weapons to the state, Hezbollah is providing Israel with a pretext to threaten Lebanon’s safety. Surrendering these weapons to the state, on the other hand, is essential for the reconstruction and safety of Lebanon.”

The meeting urged Lebanon’s president, parliamentary speaker, and prime minister to “exert maximum diplomatic pressure to ensure the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanese territories and to compel Hezbollah to implement Resolution 1701 across Lebanon. The failure of any party to do so could lead to Lebanon’s downfall.”

Meanwhile, across the Lebanese border, Israeli media reported that the UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert had been informed by Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Moshe Sa’ar that Iran was smuggling funds to Hezbollah.

Hennis-Plasschaert is overseeing the implementation of the ceasefire agreement and UN Resolution 1701 from Tel Aviv.

More than a week ago, Lebanese airport security thwarted an attempt to smuggle $2.5 million.

The money was being transported by a passenger who claimed that an Iranian had given him the funds. The passenger remains in custody for attempting to smuggle undeclared money.

Additionally, about two months ago, Lebanon’s border security agencies pursued people who had abandoned $4 million in bags at an illegal crossing point.

A Lebanese judicial source informed Arab News that the situation likely forms part of Iran’s ongoing efforts to provide financial support to Hezbollah.

JERUSALEM: Israel’s negotiating team left for Qatar Monday for talks aimed at extending the fragile Gaza ceasefire, after Israel cut the Palestinian territory’s electricity supply to ramp up pressure on Hamas.
Ahead of the negotiations, Israel disconnected the only power line to a water desalination plant in Gaza, a move Hamas denounced as “cheap and unacceptable blackmail.”
The first phase of the truce deal expired on March 1 with no agreement on subsequent stages that should secure a lasting end to the war that erupted with Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
There are differences over how to proceed — Hamas wants immediate negotiations on the next phase, but Israel prefers extending phase one.
Hamas accused Israel of reneging on the ceasefire deal, saying in a statement Monday Israel “refuses to commence the second phase, exposing its intentions of evasion and stalling.”
An Israeli official familiar with the negotiations told AFP the country’s team had left for Doha. Media reports said the delegation was led by a top official from the domestic security agency Shin Bet.
Israel has halted aid deliveries to Gaza amid the deadlock, and said Sunday it was cutting the electricity supply.
“We will use all the tools at our disposal to bring back the hostages and ensure that Hamas is no longer in Gaza the day after” the war, Energy Minister Eli Cohen said.
The move echoed the early days of the war when Israel announced a “complete siege” on the Palestinian territory, severing the electricity supply which was only restored in mid-2024.
Hamas spokesman Abdul Latif Al-Qanoua said Israel’s move will impact its hostages still held in Gaza.
“The decision to cut electricity is a failed option and poses a threat to its (Israeli) prisoners, who will only be freed through negotiations,” Qanoua said in a statement on Monday.
Germany and Britain both criticized Israel over its latest decisions.
Germany foreign ministry spokeswoman Kathrin Deschauer said Gaza was “again threatened with a food shortage” and that cutting off electricity was “unacceptable and not compatible with (Israel’s) obligations under international law.”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s official spokesman told reporters: “We’re deeply concerned by these reports and urge Israel to lift these restrictions.”
The Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority also slammed Israel, calling the move an “escalation in the genocide” in Gaza.
The sole power line between Israel and Gaza supplies its main desalination plant, and Gazans now mainly rely on solar panels and fuel-powered generators to produce electricity.
Hundreds of thousands now live in tents across Gaza, where temperatures currently reach a night-time low of about 12 degrees Celsius (54 Fahrenheit).
Top Hamas official Izzat Al-Rishq called Israel’s decision “to cut off electricity to Gaza, after depriving it of food, medicine, and water” a “desperate attempt to pressure our people and their resistance.”
Gaza residents told AFP the electricity cut will only worsen their situation.
“The decision to cut off electricity is proof of a war of extermination,” Dina Al-Sayigh said from Gaza City.
“The occupation never stops killing Palestinian civilians, whether by bombing, missiles or by starvation.”
Hamas has repeatedly demanded that the second phase of the truce — brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the United States — include a comprehensive hostage-prisoner exchange, a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, a permanent ceasefire and the reopening of border crossings to end the blockade.
Spokesman Hazem Qassem told AFP Hamas wanted the mediators to ensure Israel “complies with the agreement... and proceeds with the second phase according to the agreed-upon terms.”
Former US president Joe Biden had outlined a second phase involving hostage releases and the withdrawal of all Israeli forces from Gaza.
US envoy Adam Boehler, who has held unprecedented direct talks with Hamas, told CNN Sunday a deal could be reached “within weeks” to secure the release of all remaining hostages, not just the five dual US-Israelis, most of whom have been confirmed dead.
Of the 251 hostages taken during the October 7 attack, 58 are still held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military has confirmed dead.
Boehler told CNN a “long-term truce” was “real close,” but later Sunday he told Israel’s Channel 12 that Washington would back any Israeli decision, including a return to war.
In late February, US President Donald Trump issued what he called a “last warning” to Hamas, threatening further destruction if it does not release all remaining hostages.
The initial 42-day phase of the truce, which began on January 19, reduced hostilities after more than 15 months of relentless fighting that displaced nearly all of Gaza’s 2.4 million people.
During phase one, 25 living Israeli hostages and eight bodies were exchanged for about 1,800 Palestinians in Israeli custody.
The truce also allowed in much-needed food, shelter and medical assistance.
Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, most of them civilians, while Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 48,467 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to data from both sides.