Israel’s bombs flatten swaths of Lebanon village amid fears of wider war

Israel’s bombs flatten swaths of Lebanon village amid fears of wider war
A satellite image shows damage in the Lebanese village of Aita Al-Shaab near the Israeli border, following months of ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, on June 5, 2024. 2024. (Reuters)
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Updated 27 June 2024
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Israel’s bombs flatten swaths of Lebanon village amid fears of wider war

Israel’s bombs flatten swaths of Lebanon village amid fears of wider war
  • The images from private satellite operator Planet Labs PBC, taken on June 5 and analyzed by Reuters, show at least 64 destroyed sites in Aita Al-Shaab
  • Aita Al-Shaab was a frontline in 2006 when Hezbollah fighters successfully repelled Israeli attacks during the full-scale, 34-day war

BEIRUT: Satellite images showing much of the Lebanese village of Aita Al-Shaab in ruins after months of Israeli air strikes offer a glimpse of the scale of damage in one of Hezbollah’s main bastions in south Lebanon.
The images from private satellite operator Planet Labs PBC, taken on June 5 and analyzed by Reuters, show at least 64 destroyed sites in Aita Al-Shaab. Several of the sites contain more than one building.
Located in southern Lebanon where Hezbollah enjoys strong backing from many Shiite Muslims, Aita Al-Shaab was a frontline in 2006 when its fighters successfully repelled Israeli attacks during the full-scale, 34-day war.
While the current fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Shiite Islamist movement is still relatively contained, it marks their worst confrontation in 18 years, with widespread damage to buildings and farmland in south Lebanon and northern Israel.
The sides have been trading fire since the Gaza war erupted in October. The hostilities have largely depopulated the border zone on both sides, with tens of thousands of people fleeing their homes.
The destruction in Aita Al-Shaab is comparable to the damage done in 2006, a dozen people familiar with the damage said, at a time when escalation has prompted growing concern of another all out war between the heavily-armed adversaries.
Reuters does not have satellite images from 2006 to compare the two periods.
Israel says fire from Lebanon has killed 18 soldiers and 10 civilians. Israeli attacks have killed more than 300 Hezbollah fighters and 87 civilians, according to Reuters tallies.
At least 10 of Hezbollah’s dead came from Aita Al-Shaab, and dozens more from the surrounding area, according to Hezbollah death notices reviewed by Reuters. Six civilians have been killed in the village, a security source said.
The village, just 1 km (0.6 miles) from the border, is among the most heavily bombarded by Israel, Hashem Haidar, the head of the government’s regional development agency the Council for South Lebanon told Reuters.
“There is a lot of destruction in the village center, not just the buildings they hit and destroyed, but those around them” which are beyond repair, said Aita Al-Shaab mayor Mohamed Srour.
Most of the village’s 13,500 residents fled in October, when Israel began striking buildings and woodland nearby, he added.
The bombing campaign has made a swath of the border area in Lebanon “unfit for living,” Haidar said.
The Israeli military has said it has hit Hezbollah targets in the Aita Al-Shaab area during the conflict.
In response to Reuters questions, Israeli military spokesperson Nir Dinar said Israel was acting in self-defense.
Hezbollah had made the area “unliveable” by hiding in civilian buildings and launching unprovoked attacks that made “ghost towns” of Israeli villages, Dinar said.
“Israel is striking military targets, the fact that they’re hiding inside civilian infrastructures is Hezbollah’s decision,” Dinar said.
The military did not give further details of the nature of its targets in the village. It said Hezbollah was escalating attacks, firing over 4,800 rockets into northern Israel, “killing civilians and displacing tens of thousands.”
Hezbollah’s media office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Hezbollah has said that displacing so many Israelis has been an accomplishment of its campaign.

’CONTINUING THREAT’
The current conflict began a day after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, when Hezbollah opened fire in solidarity with its Palestinian ally. Hezbollah has said it will stop when the Israeli assault on Gaza ends.
Aita Al-Shaab is perched on a hilltop looking into Israel and is one of many Shiite villages experts say are Hezbollah’s first line of defense against Israel.
The 2006 war started when Hezbollah fighters infiltrated Israel from an area near Aita Al-Shaab, capturing two Israeli soldiers.
A source familiar with Hezbollah’s operations said the village had played a strategic role in 2006 and would do so again in any new war. The source did not give more details of the group’s activities there.
Hezbollah fighters held out in the village for the entire 2006 war. An Israeli-government appointed inquiry found that Israeli forces failed to capture it as ordered, despite encircling the village and dealing a serious blow to Hezbollah. Anti-tank missiles were still being fired from the village five days before the war ended, it said.
Seth G. Jones, senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said the area was militarily important in several ways, allowing Hezbollah to fire its shorter-range rockets into Israel.
“If there was a ground incursion, these would be frontline locations for Hezbollah to defend, or to try to attrite” Israeli forces, he said.
Hezbollah, far stronger than in 2006, has announced attacks on targets directly across the border from Aita Al-Shaab during the current hostilities, including in the Israeli village of Shtula 1.9 km (1.18 miles) away and nearby areas.
Satellite images of Shtula and nearby Israeli villages taken on June 5 do not show visible damage to buildings. Israel’s Defense Ministry said 60 homes in Shutla had been damaged including 11 severely damaged, according to a May report by newspaper Calcalist. The ministry did not respond to Reuters requests for data.
Throughout northern Israel, around 2,000 buildings have been damaged, the country’s tax authority said. Across the border, some 2,700 homes have been completely destroyed and 22,000 more damaged, significantly below the 2006 conflict, the Council for South Lebanon said, though these numbers were preliminary.
Fires sparked by the fighting have affected hundreds of hectares of farmland and forest either side of the border, authorities said.

HEAVY ORDNANCE
Andreas Krieg of King’s College in London said the structural damage in Aita Al-Shaab was in keeping with wide-impact-area ordnance dropped by fighter jets or drones. Images of strikes indicated bombs of up to 2,000 lbs (900 kg) had been dropped, he said.
Hezbollah, which frequently announces its own strikes, has occasionally used the short-range Burkan, with a warhead of up to 500 kgs (1,100 pounds). Many of the attacks it has announced have used weapons with far smaller warheads, such as guided anti-tank rockets that typically carry warheads of less than 10 kg.
“Hezbollah does have much ... heavier warheads on their ballistic missiles that have not been used yet,” Krieg said.
Israel’s military and Hezbollah did not respond to questions about ordnance.
Hezbollah’s goal, Krieg said, was to drive out Israeli civilians.
“For that, Hezbollah doesn’t need to cause massive structural damage to civilian areas or civilian buildings.”


Trump’s team proposes 6-month waiver to ease Syria sanctions

Trump’s team proposes 6-month waiver to ease Syria sanctions
Updated 5 sec ago
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Trump’s team proposes 6-month waiver to ease Syria sanctions

Trump’s team proposes 6-month waiver to ease Syria sanctions
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump’s advisers are proposing that he grant Syria a six-month waiver from one crippling set of sanctions as well as ease restrictions on businesses as a first step in his pledge to end a half-century of penalties, three US officials said Friday.
It would be the first move to start fulfilling Trump’s announcement last week to ease heavy US financial penalties targeting Syria’s former autocratic rulers — in a bid to give the new interim government a better chance of survival after a 13-year civil war.
The initial step is expected as soon as Friday or on Tuesday, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.
In addition to a temporary waiver on a tough set of sanctions imposed by Congress six years ago, officials also support broadening Treasury Department rules setting out what foreign businesses can do in Syria, the officials said. They said there could still be changes to what is announced in the initial round of relief.
For more permanent relief, administration officials are debating the extent to which Syria’s transitional government should be required to meet tough security conditions.
“The Syria sanctions are a complex web of statutes, executive actions and United Nations Security Council resolutions that have to be unwound thoughtfully and cautiously,” White House National Security Council spokesman Max Bluestein said Thursday.
Syria is now led by Ahmad Al-Sharaa, a former militant leader in charge of the overthrow of longtime leader Bashar Assad late last year. The US and other allies hope Al-Sharaa can stabilize Syria after a conflict that has left millions dead or displaced, the economy in ruins and thousands of foreign fighters still in-country.
US presidents have piled up penalties against Syria’s former leaders over the decades because of their support for Iranian-backed militias, a chemical weapons program and abuses of civilians. Those could be quickly lifted or waived through executive action.
But Congress imposed some of the strictest measures and would have to permanently remove them.
Some Trump administration officials are pushing for relief as fast as possible without demanding tough conditions first. Others have proposed a phased approach, giving short-term waivers right away on some sanctions then tying extensions or a wider executive order to Syria meeting conditions. Doing so could substantially slow — or even permanently prevent — longer-term relief.
That would impede the interim government’s ability to attract investment and rebuild Syria after the war, critics say.
A welcome US announcement in Syria
People danced in the streets of Damascus after Trump announced in Saudi Arabia last week that he would be ordering a “cessation” of sanctions against Syria.
“We’re taking them all off,” Trump said a day before meeting the country’s new leader. “Good luck, Syria. Show us something special.”
In testimony before US lawmakers, Secretary of State Marco Rubio pushed for sanctions relief to start quickly, saying Syria’s transition government could be weeks from “collapse and a full-scale civil war of epic proportions.”
But asked what sanctions relief should look like overall, Rubio gave a one-word explanation: “Incremental.”
The sanctions include penalties for outside companies or investors doing business there. Syria needs tens of billions of dollars in investment to restore its battered infrastructure and help the estimated 90 percent of the population living in poverty.
Syria’s interim leaders “didn’t pass their background check with the FBI,” Rubio acknowledged to lawmakers this week. The group that Al-Sharaa led, Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, was originally affiliated with Al-Qaeda, although it later renounced ties and took a more moderate tone. It is still listed by the US as a terrorist organization.
But Al-Sharaa’s government could be the best chance for rebuilding the country and avoiding a power vacuum that could allow a resurgence of the Islamic State and other extremist groups.
“If we engage them, it may work out, it may not work out. If we do not engage them, it was guaranteed to not work out,” Rubio said.
Mouaz Moustafa, executive director of the US-based Syrian Emergency Task Force and an advocate who has been influential in helping shape past US policy on Syria, said he has been circulating a framework for a proposed executive order that envisions Trump quickly revoking many sanctions outright.
Moustafa asserted that some in the administration were trying to “water down” Trump’s pledge, which he said was aimed at “preventing a failed state and ending perpetual violence.”
Proposals are circulating among administration officials, including one shared this week that broadly emphasized taking all the action possible, as fast as possible, to help Syria rebuild, according to one of the US officials familiar with the plan.
Another proposal — from State Department staff — that circulated last week proposes a three-phase road map, starting with short-term waivers then laying out sweeping requirements for future phases of relief or permanent lifting of sanctions, the official said.
Removing “Palestinian terror groups” from Syria is first on the list of conditions to get to the second phase. Supporters of sanctions relief say that particular condition might be impossible, given the subjectivity of determining which groups meet that definition and at what point they can be declared removed.
Other conditions for moving to the second phase are for the new government to take custody of detention facilities housing Islamic State fighters and to move forward on absorbing a US-backed Kurdish force into the Syrian army.
To get to phase three, Syria would be required to join the Abraham Accords — normalized relations with Israel — and to prove that it had destroyed the previous government’s chemical weapons.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu previously pushed for the Trump administration not to lift sanctions on Syria. Israel has been suspicious of the new government, although Syrian officials have said publicly that they do not want a conflict with Israel.
Since Assad fell, Israel has launched hundreds of airstrikes and seized a UN-patrolled buffer zone in Syria.

NGO calls for probe of US-backed Gaza aid group

NGO calls for probe of US-backed Gaza aid group
Updated 42 min 33 sec ago
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NGO calls for probe of US-backed Gaza aid group

NGO calls for probe of US-backed Gaza aid group

GENEVA: Swiss authorities should investigate the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a controversial US-backed group preparing to move aid into the Gaza Strip, justice watchdog TRIAL International said on Friday.
Describing the foundation as a private security company, it said aid distribution should be left to UN organizations and humanitarian agencies.
“The dire humanitarian situation in Gaza requires an immediate response,” TRIAL International’s executive director, Philip Grant, said in a statement.
“However, the planned use of private security companies leads to a risky militarization of aid,” he added.
That, he argued, “is not justified in a context where the UN and humanitarian NGOs have the impartiality, resources, and expertise necessary to distribute this aid without delay to the civilian population.”
TRIAL International said it had filed legal submissions calling on Switzerland, where GHF is registered, to check that the group was complying with its own statutes and the Swiss legal system.

FASTFACT

Gaza’s Health Ministry said at least 3,673 people had been killed in the territory since Israel resumed strikes on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 53,822, mostly civilians.

The GHF has said it will distribute some 300 million meals in its first 90 days of operation.
But the UN and traditional aid agencies have already said they will not cooperate with the group, which some have accused of working with Israel.
On Thursday, the UN cited concerns about “impartiality, neutrality, and independence.”
Aid began trickling into the Gaza Strip on Monday for the first time in more than two months, amid mounting condemnation of an Israeli blockade that has sparked severe shortages of food and medicine.
Israel launched its war on Gaza after the October 2023 attack.
On Friday, Gaza’s Health Ministry said at least 3,673 people had been killed in the territory since Israel resumed strikes on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 53,822, mostly civilians.


UN chief says Gaza war in ‘cruelest phase’ as aid trucks looted

UN chief says Gaza war in ‘cruelest phase’ as aid trucks looted
Updated 45 min 37 sec ago
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UN chief says Gaza war in ‘cruelest phase’ as aid trucks looted

UN chief says Gaza war in ‘cruelest phase’ as aid trucks looted
  • Antonio Guterres demands Israel 'allows and facilitates humanitarian deliveries
  • World Food Programme says15 of its trucks were looted in southern Gaza

GAZA CITY: The United Nations chief said Friday that Palestinians were enduring “the cruelest phase” of the war in Gaza, where more than a dozen food trucks were looted following the partial easing of a lengthy Israeli blockade.
Aid was just beginning to trickle back into the war-torn territory after Israel announced it would allow limited shipments to resume as it pressed a newly expanded offensive aimed at destroying Hamas.
Gaza civil defense agency official Mohammed Al-Mughayyir told AFP at least 71 people were killed, while “dozens of injuries, and a large number of missing persons under the rubble have been reported as a result of Israeli air strikes” on Friday.
UN chief Antonio Guterres said “Palestinians in Gaza are enduring what may be the cruelest phase of this cruel conflict,” adding that Israel “must agree to allow and facilitate” humanitarian deliveries.
He pointed to snags, however, noting that of the nearly 400 trucks cleared to enter Gaza in recent days, only 115 were able to be collected.
“In any case, all the aid authorized until now amounts to a teaspoon of aid when a flood of assistance is required,” he added in a statement.
“Meanwhile, the Israeli military offensive is intensifying with atrocious levels of death and destruction,” he said.
The World Food Programme said Friday that 15 of its “trucks were looted late last night in southern Gaza, while en route to WFP-supported bakeries.”
“Hunger, desperation, and anxiety over whether more food aid is coming, is contributing to rising insecurity,” the UN body said in a statement, calling on Israeli authorities “to get far greater volumes of food assistance into Gaza faster.”
Aid shipments to the Gaza Strip restarted on Monday for the first time since March 2, amid mounting condemnation of the Israeli blockade, which has resulted in severe shortages of food and medicine.
“I appeal to people of conscience to send us fresh water and food,” said Sobhi Ghattas, a displaced Palestinian sheltering at the port in Gaza City.
“My daughter has been asking for bread since this morning, and we have none to give her.”
COGAT, the Israeli defense ministry body that oversees civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories, said that 107 humanitarian aid trucks entered Gaza on Thursday.
But Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said Friday that the UN had brought in 500 to 600 per day on average during a six-week ceasefire that broke down in March.
“No one should be surprised let alone shocked at scenes of precious aid looted, stolen or ‘lost’,” he said on X, adding that “the people of Gaza have been starved” for more than 11 weeks.
The Israeli military said that over the past day, its forces had attacked “military compounds, weapons storage facilities and sniper posts” in Gaza.
“In addition, the (air force) struck over 75 terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip,” it added.
The military said on Friday afternoon that air raid sirens were activated in communities near Gaza, later reporting that “a projectile that crossed into Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip was intercepted” by the air force.
In Gaza’s north, Al-Awda hospital reported Friday that three of its staff were injured “after Israeli quadcopter drones dropped bombs” on the facility.
The civil defense agency later said it had successfully contained a fire at the hospital.
An AFP journalist saw large plumes of smoke billowing above destroyed buildings in southern Gaza after Israeli bombardments.
“Have mercy on us,” said a distraught Youssef Al-Najjar, whose relatives were killed in an air strike in the main southern city of Khan Yunis.
“We are exhausted from the displacement and the hunger — enough!“
Israel resumed operations in Gaza on March 18, ending the ceasefire that began on January 19.
On Friday, Gaza’s health ministry said at least 3,673 people had been killed in the territory since then, taking the war’s overall toll to 53,822, mostly civilians.
Hamas’s October 2023 attack that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Militants also took 251 hostages, 57 of whom remain in Gaza including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.


Netanyahu accuses France, Britain and Canada of ‘emboldening’ Hamas

Netanyahu accuses France, Britain and Canada of ‘emboldening’ Hamas
Updated 23 May 2025
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Netanyahu accuses France, Britain and Canada of ‘emboldening’ Hamas

Netanyahu accuses France, Britain and Canada of ‘emboldening’ Hamas
  • France dismisses Israeli leader's accusations and said there needs to be a lasting peace solution for Israel and and Palestine
  • Israel fears more European countries will officially recognize a Palestinian state

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the leaders of France, Britain and Canada of wanting to help the Palestinian militant group Hamas after they threatened to take “concrete action” if Israel did not stop its latest offensive in Gaza.

The criticism, echoing similar remarks from Foreign Minister Gideon Saar on Thursday, was part of a fightback by the Israeli government against the increasingly heavy international pressure on it over the war in Gaza.

“You’re on the wrong side of humanity and you’re on the wrong side of history,” Netanyahu said.

The Israeli leader, facing an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court over alleged war crimes in Gaza, has regularly criticized European countries as well as global institutions from the United Nations to the International Court of Justice over what he says is their bias against Israel.

But as the flow of images of destruction and hunger in Gaza has continued, fueling protests in countries around the world, Israel has struggled to turn international opinion, which has increasingly shifted against it.

“It’s hard to convince at least some people, definitely on the far left in the US and in some countries in Europe, that what Israel is doing is a war of defense,” said former Israeli diplomat Yaki Dayan.

“But this is how it is perceived in Israel and bridging this gap is sometimes an impossible mission,” he said.

Israeli officials have been particularly concerned about growing calls for other countries in Europe to follow the example of Spain and Ireland in recognizing a Palestinian state as part of a two-state solution to resolve decades of conflict in the region.

Netanyahu argues that a Palestinian state would threaten Israel and he has framed the killing of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington on Tuesday by a man who allegedly shouted “Free Palestine” as a clear example of that threat.

He said “exactly the same chant” was heard during the attack on Israel by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023.

“They don’t want a Palestinian state. They want to destroy the Jewish state,” he said in a statement on the social media platform X.

“I could never understand how this simple truth evades the leaders of France, Britain, Canada and others,” he said, adding that any moves by Western countries to recognize a Palestinian state would “reward these murderers with the ultimate prize.”

Instead of advancing peace, the three leaders were “emboldening Hamas to continue fighting forever,” he said.

The Israeli leader, whose government depends on far-right support, said Hamas, which issued a statement welcoming the move, had thanked French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Canada’s Mark Carney over what he said was their demand for an immediate end to the war.

The leaders’ statement on Monday did not demand an immediate end to the war, but a halt to Israel’s new military offensive on Gaza and a lifting of its restrictions on humanitarian aid. Israel had prevented aid from entering Gaza since March, before relaxing its blockade this week.

“By issuing their demand – replete with a threat of sanctions against Israel, against Israel, not Hamas – these three leaders effectively said they want Hamas to remain in power,” Netanyahu said.

“And they give them hope to establish a second Palestinian state from which Hamas will again seek to destroy the Jewish state.”

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said France, which like Britain and Canada designates Hamas as a terrorist organization, was “unwaveringly committed to Israel’s security” but he said it was “absurd and slanderous” to accuse supporters of a two-state solution of encouraging antisemitism or Hamas.

French government spokesperson Sophie Primas said France did not accept Netanyahu’s accusations, adding: “We need to de-escalate this rising tension between our two states and work to find lasting peace solutions, for Israel and for Palestine.”

Asked about Netanyahu’s remarks, Britain’s armed forces minister Luke Pollard said London stood with Israel in their right to self-defense. “But that self-defense must be conducted within the bounds of international humanitarian law,” he said.

“At this moment, we stand fast against terrorism, but we also want to make sure that the aid is getting into Gaza,” Pollard told Times Radio.

Israel’s offensive in Gaza was launched in retaliation for the October 7, 2023 attack, which killed some 1,200 people and saw 251 taken as hostage into Gaza. It has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians and devastated the enclave, where wide areas have been reduced to rubble.


Lebanese army to begin disarming Palestinians in Beirut camps in mid-June

Lebanese army to begin disarming Palestinians in Beirut camps in mid-June
Updated 23 May 2025
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Lebanese army to begin disarming Palestinians in Beirut camps in mid-June

Lebanese army to begin disarming Palestinians in Beirut camps in mid-June
  • The Lebanese and Palestinian sides agreed on starting a plan “to remove weapons from the camps, beginning mid-June,” the source told AFP
  • By longstanding convention, the Lebanese army stays out of the Palestinian camps

BEIRUT: The joint Lebanese-Palestinian committee, which convened on Friday in the presence of Prime Minister Nawaf Salam of Lebanon, agreed to begin implementing the directives outlined in the joint statement issued by the Lebanese-Palestinian summit held on Wednesday in Beirut, in terms of restricting weapons to the hands of the Lebanese state.

A source in Salam’s office told Arab News: “June 16 will mark the beginning of the Lebanese army’s deployment to Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut, namely Shatila, Mar Elias and Burj Al-Barajneh camps, to take control of the Palestinian factions’ weapons.

“This will involve Lebanese army patrols inside these camps, followed by subsequent phases targeting camps in the Bekaa, northern Lebanon and south, particularly Ain Al-Hilweh, the largest, most densely populated and factionally diverse Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, encompassing factions affiliated or non-affiliated with the liberation organization.

The source said the “implementation date will be communicated to all Palestinian factions, including Hamas,” and that “the factions will convene to agree on the mechanism, and that pressure will be applied to any group that refuses to relinquish its weapons.”

Addressing Hamas’s earlier stance linking the surrender of its weapons to that of Hezbollah, the source said “there is no connection between the two issues. Once the disarmament process begins, neither Hamas nor any other faction will be able to obstruct or impede it.”

The source said that Arab and regional actors are actively supporting Lebanon in facilitating the disarmament process.

Salam welcomed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s decision to “resolve the issue of Palestinian weapons in the camps,” noting the “positive impact of this decision in strengthening Lebanese-Palestinian relations and improving the humanitarian and socio-economic conditions of Palestinian refugees.”

He affirmed Lebanon’s “adherence to its national principles.”

Salam called for “the swift implementation of practical steps through a clear execution mechanism and a defined timeline.”

According to a statement, both sides agreed “to launch a process to hand over weapons based on a set timetable, accompanied by practical steps to enhance the economic and social rights of Palestinian refugees, and to intensify joint meetings and coordination to put in place the necessary arrangements to immediately begin implementing these directives.”

A statement issued after talks between Abbas and Joseph Aoun, Lebanon’s president, reaffirmed “their commitment to the principle that weapons must be exclusively in the hands of the Lebanese state, to end any manifestations that contradict the logic of the Lebanese state, and the importance of respecting Lebanon’s sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity.”

Since the Nakba — the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians through their violent displacement and dispossession of land, and the suppression of their political rights — Lebanon has had 12 Palestinian refugee camps.

According to the Population and Housing Census in the Palestinian Camps and Gatherings in Lebanon, 72.8 percent of Palestinians in the camps face dire living conditions. The rest are Syrians, Lebanese, and other foreigners, the majority of whom are foreign workers.

Abbas, during his visit, reiterated that “the refugee camps are under the sovereignty of the Lebanese state and the Lebanese army, and the presence of weapons in the camps outside the state’s authority weakens Lebanon. Any weapon that is not under the command of the state is weakening Lebanon and endangering the Palestinian cause.”

Hisham Debsi, director of the Tatweer Center for Strategic Studies and Human Development and a Palestinian researcher, characterized the Lebanese-Palestinian joint statement as “a foundational document that functions as a political, ethical, and sovereign framework. Opposition to its declared positions would be tantamount to rejecting the Lebanese government’s oath of office and ministerial declaration.”

Debsi said: “The joint statement has blocked any potential maneuvering by Hamas to retain its weapons, since the declaration provides the Lebanese state with complete Palestinian legitimacy to remove protection from any armed Palestinian individual. Abu Mazen (Abbas) has reinforced this position repeatedly throughout his Beirut meetings.”

In his assessment, “no faction can now challenge both Lebanese and Palestinian authority given this unified stance.”

Debsi highlighted “a fundamental division within Hamas’s Lebanon branch, with one camp advocating transformation into a political party with the other supporting maintaining ties to Iranian-backed groups.”

He added: “Those opposing Hamas disarmament will face political and security consequences, particularly as camp residents seek to restructure their communities beyond armed resistance, which has become obsolete and must evolve into peaceful advocacy.”