BEIRUT: Islamic and Christian spiritual authorities in Lebanon have called unanimously for “the immediate and full implementation of Resolution 1701,” which includes supporting the Lebanese army, enhancing its capabilities to defend the country, and ensuring its widespread deployment south of the Litani River and across all Lebanese territories.
The summit took place on Wednesday at the Maronite Patriarchate headquarters in Bkerke amidst escalating Israeli attacks and included Shiite representatives, despite previous differences between the sect and Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rahi over Lebanon’s neutrality and Hezbollah’s weapons.
The UN Interim Force in Lebanon was praised for “remaining at their positions despite unjustified Israeli harassment and warnings aimed at removing any witnesses to the brutal massacres Israel is committing against our nation.”
In its closing statement, it added: “Solutions for Lebanon will only, and must only, come through comprehensive national solutions.
“These solutions should be based on adherence to the Lebanese constitution, the Taif Agreement, the Lebanese state, its unified authority, its free decision-making, and its responsible role in protecting the nation, national sovereignty, and its responsibilities toward its people, ensuring their security, stability, and prosperity.”
The summit stressed the need for “reforming constitutional institutions, especially for parliament to immediately begin the election of a president who enjoys the trust of all Lebanese, in accordance with the provisions of the constitution, with as much understanding and consensus as possible, based on a collective Lebanese will, adhering to the spirit of the National Pact, prioritizing the national interest, and surpassing external interests.”
It also called on the government to “fully assume its responsibilities and to cooperate with parliament according to the Constitution, to mobilize the efforts of Arab brothers and the many friends around the world, to contribute with the Lebanese in saving Lebanon.”
Parallel to the summit, Israeli attacks and confrontations continued along the border.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health announced a case of cholera 01 in a Lebanese woman in the Akkar region As a result, the national cholera plan and containment measures were being deployed.
Some 1.2 million people have been displaced from the south, Bekaa and Beirut’s southern suburb as a result of the war, moving toward central and northern Lebanon. Hundreds are without shelter, sleeping outdoors or in their cars.
Israeli airstrikes have targeted the southern suburb of Beirut — specifically the uninhabited area of Haret Hreik — following a week-long cessation of such attacks. It came after a warning to evacuate residential buildings was issued by Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee on social media, claiming the raids “targeted, with precise intelligence guidance from the Military Intelligence Service, a strategic weapons depot for Hezbollah that was stored in an underground warehouse in the southern suburb.”
Airstrikes targeted the city of Nabatieh, 56 km from Beirut, unleashing a series of missiles that destroyed the municipal building.
At the time, the mayor, council members and administrative personnel were organizing humanitarian aid for displaced people in the region. The attack left six people dead, including Mayor Dr. Ahmad Kahil, and 43 injured.
Condemning the attack, Prime Minister Najib Mikati said it was “a message to the world that remains deliberately silent on the crimes of the occupation, which encourages it to persist in its transgressions and crimes.”
He added: “If all the countries in the world are unable to deter a blatant aggression against the Lebanese people, what is the point of turning to the Security Council to demand a ceasefire? What can possibly dissuade the enemy from committing atrocities that have escalated to the point of targeting peacekeeping forces in the south? What solution can be anticipated in light of this reality?”
The UN’s special coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, called for “the protection of civilians at all times.”
She said “violations of international humanitarian law are entirely unacceptable. It is imperative that all concerned parties immediately cease hostilities and pave the way for diplomatic solutions.”
Media reports indicated that Israel had captured three additional members of Hezbollah after initially detaining four on Tuesday. This was not confirmed by the organization.
Airstrikes on the town of Qana at dawn left three people dead and 54 more injured. The Ministry of Health confirmed rescuers were working to clear rubble in an effort to reach those trapped beneath it, while an infant who was found still alive had been taken to hospital.
Mourners and rescue teams in cemeteries in Jouya were also targeted by airstrikes as they tried to buy the victims of previous attacks, resulting in additional injuries.
Direct confrontations between the Israeli army and Hezbollah continued along the routes of Taybeh, Rab El-Thalathine, Markaba, Hula, Ramya, Aita Al-Shaab, and Qaouzah.
Shebaa also experienced heavy artillery shelling, prompting the intervention of the Lebanese Red Cross to evacuate several elderly individuals who insisted on remaining in the town rather than relocating to Hasbaya.
The Israeli army reported 13 injured soldiers along the Lebanese front in the past 24 hours. A statement said: “Israeli naval forces attacked dozens of Hezbollah terrorist targets, in cooperation with the fighters on the ground.”
Meanwhile, it also waged psychological warfare by calling civilians directly.
The Ghandour Hospital in Nabatieh Al-Fawqa, which closed some years ago, received warnings to evacuate after hosting displaced people from border villages. A man driving his car on the coast ride in Sidon was also prompted to flee his vehicle after he received a call.
Six people were wounded in airstrikes on the town of Yammoune, while Israeli drones flew at low altitude over the Lebanese-Syrian border area in Hermel in an attempt to prevent the reopening of crossings shelled in previous attacks.
Hezbollah announced a series of targets on the Israeli side, including Safed, the Yeftah settlement and Israeli army artillery positions in Dalton, Dishon and Misgav Am.
The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation reported that two Israelis were wounded after five Lebanese rockets struck the yard of a house in Safed.
The Israeli army said 50 missiles had been launched from Lebanon toward the north of the country at dawn, some of which were intercepted.
Spiritual summit in peace push amid continued Israeli massacres in southern Lebanon
https://arab.news/g9pd3
Spiritual summit in peace push amid continued Israeli massacres in southern Lebanon
- The summit took place on Wednesday at the Maronite Patriarchate headquarters in Bkerke amidst escalating Israeli attacks and included Shiite representatives
- In its closing statement, it added: “Solutions for Lebanon will only, and must only, come through comprehensive national solutions
Israel far-right minister says ‘time to go in with full force’ in Gaza
- Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said Friday it was time to use “full force” in Gaza, after Hamas said a new US-backed truce proposal failed to meet its demands
“Mr Prime Minister, after Hamas rejected the deal proposal again — there are no more excuses,” Ben Gvir said on his Telegram channel. “The confusion, the shuffling and the weakness must end. We have already missed too many opportunities. It is time to go in with full force, without blinking, to destroy, and kill Hamas to the last one.”
Macron: France may toughen stance on Israel if it continues blocking Gaza aid
- French leader: ‘The humanitarian blockade is creating a situation that is untenable on the ground’
- Under growing international pressure, Israel partially ended an 11-week long aid blockade on Gaza 10 days ago
SINGAPORE: France could harden its position on Israel if it continues to block humanitarian aid to Gaza, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday, reiterating that Paris was committed to a two-state solution to resolve the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
“The humanitarian blockade is creating a situation that is untenable on the ground,” Macron said at a joint press conference in Singapore with Prime Minister Lawrence Wong.
“And so, if there is no response that meets the humanitarian situation in the coming hours and days, obviously, we will have to toughen our collective position,” Macron said, adding that France may consider applying sanctions against Israeli settlers.
“But I still hope that the government of Israel will change its stance and that we will finally have a humanitarian response.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has hit back at growing international pressure over the war in Gaza, the deadliest fighting in decades of conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
Macron was in Singapore on a state visit and he will also deliver the keynote address at the Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia’s premier security forum, which runs this year from May 30-June 1.
Deep differences between Palestinian militant group Hamas and Israel have stymied previous attempts to restore a ceasefire that broke down in March.
Under growing international pressure, Israel partially ended an 11-week long aid blockade on Gaza 10 days ago. It has allowed a limited amount of relief to be delivered via two avenues — the United Nations or the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
The French president said Paris is commaitted to working toward a political solution and reiterated his support for a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
Macron is leaning toward recognizing a Palestinian state, diplomats and experts say, a move that could infuriate Israel and deepen Western splits.
French officials are weighing up the move ahead of a United Nations conference, which France and Saudi Arabia are co-hosting between June 17-20, to lay out the parameters for a roadmap to a Palestinian state, while ensuring Israel’s security.
Israel launched its campaign in Gaza in response to a Hamas attack in its south on October 7, 2023, that killed some 1,200 people and saw 251 Israelis taken hostage into Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
The war since then has killed around 54,000 Palestinians, Palestinian health authorities say, more than in any other of the countless rounds of fighting between the two sides.
China, Japan close to resuming seafood imports after Fukushima ban
- In 2023, Japan began gradually releasing treated wastewater from the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean
- The move was backed by the International Atomic Energy Agency, but drew sharp criticism from Beijing
BEIJIG: China and Japan said Friday they were moving closer to ending a years-long dispute over Tokyo’s handling of nuclear wastewater that prompted Beijing to ban imports of Japanese seafood.
In 2023, Japan began gradually releasing treated wastewater from the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean.
The move was backed by the International Atomic Energy Agency, but drew sharp criticism from Beijing, which banned Japanese seafood imports as a result.
China indicated on Friday that it was edging closer to lifting the ban, saying talks with Japanese officials in Beijing this week had “achieved substantial progress.”
“So far this year, the two sides have carried out several rounds of technical exchanges,” Beijing’s customs administration said in a statement, without giving further details.
Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said Beijing and Tokyo had “reached an agreement on the technical requirements necessary to resume exports of fishery products to China.”
“Exports to China will resume as soon as the re-registration process for export-related facilities is completed,” Hayashi said on Friday.
“We regard this as a major milestone,” he told a press conference.
China previously said it had found no abnormalities in seawater and marine life samples it independently collected near the Fukushima plant in February, but indicated more tests were needed before revoking the ban.
In 2011, a huge earthquake triggered a deadly tsunami that swamped the Fukushima nuclear facility and pushed three of its six reactors into meltdown.
China, whose ties with Japan have long been strained by Tokyo’s imperial legacy, vociferously opposed the release of the treated wastewater, casting it as environmentally irresponsible.
Witnesses in Gaza describe more chaos at food distribution sites
- Multiple witnesses on Thursday reported a free-for-all of people grabbing aid, and they said Israeli troops opened fire to control crowds.
- Witnesses said it was Israeli troops who fired the projectiles to clear large crowds of Palestinians after the center ran out of supplies
NUSEIRAT: Chaos erupted again Thursday as tens of thousands of desperate Palestinians in the Gaza Strip tried to collect food from distribution sites run by a new US- and Israeli-backed foundation. Multiple witnesses reported a free-for-all of people grabbing aid, and they said Israeli troops opened fire to control crowds.
In central Gaza, Associated Press video showed smoke bombs arching through the air around a distribution center, and gunfire was audible as an Israeli tank moved nearby. Witnesses said it was Israeli troops who fired the projectiles to clear large crowds of Palestinians after the center ran out of supplies Thursday.
“I came to get a sack of flour … a sardine tin or anything,” said Mahmoud Ismael, a man on crutches from an earlier leg injury who said he walked for miles to get to the center, only to leave empty-handed.
“There is no food in my house, and I can’t get food for my children,” he said.
Turmoil has plagued the aid system launched this week by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which runs three distribution centers in the territory. Israel has slated GHF to take over food distribution in Gaza despite opposition from the United Nations and most humanitarian groups.
Over the past three days, there have been reports of gunfire at GHF centers, and Gaza health officials have said at least one person has been killed and dozens wounded.
The Israeli military said it has facilitated the entry of nearly 1,000 truckloads of supplies into Gaza recently and accused the UN of failing to distribute the goods. It claimed Hamas was responsible for the crisis by stealing aid and refusing to release the remaining hostages.
The military’s spokesman, Brig. Gen. Effei Defrin, said the army will continue “to provide for the humanitarian needs of the civilian population while taking necessary steps to ensure that the aid does not reach the hands of Hamas.”
With media not allowed to access the centers, the circumstances remain unclear. The distribution points are guarded by armed private contractors, and Israeli forces are positioned in the vicinity. On Tuesday, the Israeli military said it fired warning shots to control a crowd outside one center.
Dr. Khaled Elserr, a surgeon at Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, told the AP he treated two people wounded at distribution centers on Thursday — a 17-year-old girl and a man in his 20s. Both had gunshot wounds in the chest and stomach, he said, adding that other casualties had come in from the centers but that he did not have an exact number.
In a statement Thursday, GHF said no shots had been fired at any of its distribution centers the past three days and there have been no casualties, saying reports of deaths “originated from Hamas.”
Separately on Thursday, Israeli strikes in Gaza killed at least 34 people, according to local health officials. Israel said it would establish 22 more Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank. Most of the international community views settlements as illegal and an obstacle to resolving the decades-old conflict.
Turmoil at aid distribution sites
Hunger and malnutrition have mounted among Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians since Israel barred entry of food, fuel, medicine and other supplies nearly three months ago, allowing a trickle of aid in only the past two weeks.
GHF has opened hubs in three locations – two in the far south around the city of Rafah, and the other in central Gaza near the Netzarim corridor, a strip of territory controlled by Israeli forces. The large crowds have to walk miles to reach the locations.
More than a dozen Palestinians described chaos at all three Thursday.
At one of the Rafah sites near the Morag Corridor, another Israeli-held strip, one man told the AP he and his cousin arrived at 5:30 a.m., and found thousands of people massed outside, waiting to be let in. When it was opened, the crowd flowed into an outdoor area ringed by barbed wire and earth berms, where pallets of food boxes had been left.
Armed contractors stood on the berms watching, and beyond them Israeli troops and tanks were visible, said the 41-year-old man, who spoke on condition he be identified only by his first name, Shehada, for fear of reprisals. The crowd descended on the food boxes, and pushing and shoving got out of control, he said.
Shehada said the contractors pulled back and Israeli troops shot at people’s feet. His cousin was wounded in the left foot, he said. “The gunfire was very intense,” he said. “The sand was jumping all around us.”
At the other Rafah site, several people told AP of a similar scene of pallets of food boxes left on the ground for the crowds to take whatever they could with no control by staff. Mohammad Abu-Elinin, said “gangs” carried off cartloads of flour bags and multiple aid boxes.
Samira Z’urob said by the time she arrived at 6.a.m, “the thieves had stolen people’s aid.” When she begged, one person gave her a bag of pasta and a can of beans. “I said, Thank God, and took it to my children,” she said. “I haven’t had flour for more than a week.”
Another woman, Heba Joda, said people tore down metal fences and took wooden pallets. When the food boxes ran out, staff told people to leave, then fired sound grenades to disperse them, she said.
As people fled through a nearby roundabout outside the center, Israeli troops fired gunshots, causing a panic, she said. Abu-Elinin said he saw one man wounded by shrapnel.
At the center in central Gaza, witnesses told the AP that Israeli troops fired tear gas and smoke grenades to disperse the crowds when aid ran out. AP video showed crowds of people returning from the site, some with carts full of boxes and many with nothing.
Aisha Na’na said all she managed to grab were some sticks to use as firewood. “We had come to get food for our children, but it was all in vain — we returned with nothing,” she said.
Israel says the GHF system will replace the massive aid operation that the UN and other aid groups have carried out throughout the war. It says the new mechanism is necessary, accusing Hamas of siphoning off large amounts of aid. The UN denies that significant diversion takes place.
In its statement Thursday, GHF said it has distributed more than 32,200 boxes of food since Monday. It says each box, which contains basics like sugar, lentils, pasta and rice, can make 58 meals. It said it will scale up to start operations at a fourth center and will build additional hubs in the weeks ahead.
The UN and other aid groups have refused to participate in the mechanism, saying it violates humanitarian principles. They say it allows Israel to use food as a weapon, forcing people to move to the hubs, potentially emptying large swaths of Gaza. They also say it cannot meet the massive needs of the population.
Israel has allowed in some trucks of aid for the UN to distribute, but the UN has struggled to deliver the material amid looting and Israeli military restrictions.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters Thursday that Israeli authorities hadn’t given permission for UN trucks to move to the border to retrieve the arriving supplies for the previous three days.
Paramilitaries claim capture of key Sudan towns
- For more than two years Africa’s third-largest country has been engulfed by a war between the army and the paramilitary forces
- The war has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced 13 million and created was described as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis
PORT SUDAN, Sudan: Paramilitary forces fighting Sudan’s military have said they captured two strategic towns in the war-ravaged nation, which has been hit by a cholera outbreak that killed 70 people in the capital this week.
For more than two years Africa’s third-largest country has been engulfed by a war between the army, led by the nation’s de facto ruler, General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
The surge in cholera infections comes weeks after drone strikes blamed on the RSF knocked out water and electricity supplies across the capital Khartoum, which now faces a mounting health emergency.
The RSF announced Thursday that its forces had retaken the key towns of Dibeibat, in South Kordofan state, and Al-Khoei, in West Kordofan state, which border South Sudan.
“The liberation of Dibeibat, followed by Al-Khoei, not only means a field victory; it also consolidates the complete control of the RSF over most of the Kordofan region,” an RSF spokesman said in a statement.
Al-Khoei, located around 100 kilometers (62 miles) from El-Obeid — a crossroads between Khartoum and the Darfur region — had been briefly recaptured by the army this month.
Residents confirmed to AFP that Dibeibat, which links the states of North and South Kordofan, was now under RSF control.
The conflict has effectively split Sudan in two: the army controls the center, east and north of the country, while paramilitaries hold almost all of Darfur in the west and parts of the south.
The war has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced 13 million and created what the United Nations has described as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
Last week, the military-backed government said it had dislodged RSF fighters from their last bases in Khartoum state, two months after retaking the heart of the capital from the paramilitaries.
Khartoum has been a battleground throughout the war and remains devastated, with health and sanitation infrastructure barely functioning.
Up to 90 percent of hospitals in the conflict’s main battlegrounds have been forced out of service by the fighting.
Now the capital is facing a major health crisis.
A cholera outbreak claimed 70 lives on Tuesday and Wednesday, the health ministry for Khartoum state said Thursday.
Health officials also recorded more than 2,100 new infections over the same two days.
But the UN’s humanitarian agency, OCHA, said it is “difficult to assess the true scale of the outbreak” with “significant discrepancies” in official data.
The federal health ministry reported 172 deaths in the week to Tuesday, 90 percent of them in Khartoum state.
Authorities said 89 percent of patients in isolation centers are recovering, but warn that deteriorating environmental conditions are driving a surge in cases.
Cholera vaccinations have begun in Jebel Awila, the hardest-hit district in Khartoum, UN chief Antonio Guterres’s spokesman said Thursday.
Meanwhile the World Health Organization had delivered more than 22 metric tons of cholera and emergency health supplies, spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
Cholera is endemic to Sudan, but outbreaks have become worse and more frequent since the war broke out.
Since August, health authorities have recorded more than 65,000 cases and over 1,700 deaths across 12 of Sudan’s 18 states.
“Sudan is on the brink of a full-scale public health disaster,” said Eatizaz Yousif, the International Rescue Committee’s Sudan director.
“The combination of conflict, displacement, destroyed critical infrastructure and limited access to clean water is fueling the resurgence of cholera and other deadly diseases.”
Aid agencies warn that without urgent action, the spread of disease is likely to worsen with the arrival of the rainy season next month, which severely limits humanitarian access.
Sudan’s government also faces US sanctions over allegations by Washington that the Sudanese military used chemical weapons last year in its war against the RSF.
On Thursday, Sudan’s foreign ministry announced the creation of a national committee to investigate the charge, while expressing its “disbelief in the validity of the US administration’s accusations.”
