Lebanese army fully redeployed in western sector villages

Residents of the southern Lebanese village of Yaroun talk to soldiers of the Lebanese army and UNIFIL at the entrance of their town where Israeli forces remain on Jan. 28, 2025. (AFP)
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Updated 28 January 2025
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Lebanese army fully redeployed in western sector villages

  • Israeli forces are still stationed at Labbouneh Heights and Jabal Blat
  • Lebanon and the US have approved extending the deadline for the Israeli forces’ withdrawal from southern Lebanon to Feb. 18

BEIRUT: The Lebanese army continued on Tuesday to be deployed in the western sector’s villages, from the coastal city of Naqoura to Marwahin.

Israeli forces are still stationed at Labbouneh Heights and Jabal Blat.

Lebanon and the US have approved extending the deadline for the Israeli forces’ withdrawal from southern Lebanon to Feb. 18.

The deadline falls within the framework of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah that went into force on Nov. 27.

The Lebanese army continued to be deployed in the central sector’s villages, following the Israeli withdrawal. On Tuesday, it entered Yaroun’s old town on the border. The army’s bulldozers also reopened all the village’s roads.

The Lebanese Red Cross retrieved the bodies of Hezbollah fighters, which had been trapped under rubble since the confrontations began between Israel and Hezbollah.

Israeli forces invaded Lebanese territory as part of Israel’s expanded war against Hezbollah last October.

Meanwhile, Israeli hostilities continue to hinder residents’ attempts to return to their villages.

An Israeli drone dropped stun grenades near several civilians while they were trying to enter Yaroun following the Lebanese army’s entry into the village.

Kfarkila’s residents blocked the Khardali highway to protest the delayed entry of the Lebanese army to their village.

In a statement, they said that “their village is disaster-stricken, and that the bodies of the victims who defended their town are still under rubble.”

They called on the Lebanese state to “assume its full responsibility toward its people and land and pressure the international community into forcing the occupation to abide by international laws.”

The residents re-opened the road after receiving official promises reassuring them that the matter would be addressed.

The mayor of Aitaroun informed its residents that Israeli forces had not cleared the area yet, which prevented them from returning. Aitaroun residents have been waiting at the village entrance for days.

In a post on social media, Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee reminded border area residents of the deadline extension for the withdrawal of Israeli forces.

He said: “The redeployment in certain sectors where Israeli forces are stationed may be delayed as additional time is required to ensure that Hezbollah is not able to reestablish its military strength.”

Adraee added that in the near future, Israel would inform them about the locations residents can return to. “Until that time, we ask you to wait and not allow Hezbollah to return and exploit you in an attempt to cover up the devastating consequences of its irresponsible decisions at the expense of the security of the State of Lebanon.”

Israeli forces have opened fire on unarmed civilians attempting to return to their villages along the border since Sunday, resulting in a total of 26 fatalities, including women, and injuring 160 civilians, including children.

The UN said: “Israel’s use of lethal force against civilians returning to their homes in southern Lebanon constitutes a violation of international law.”

It called for “the transformation of the ceasefire into a lasting and sustainable peace in the region.”

The Regional Office for the Middle East and North Africa of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a post via its official social media account: “We are concerned by reports that at least 24 people were killed and more than 100 others injured in recent days as civilians attempted to return to their homes in southern Lebanon.”

The commission stressed that “civilians must be allowed to return to their villages under voluntary, dignified and safe conditions.”

Lebanon has recorded no fewer than 670 violations of the ceasefire agreement by Israel since its implementation, resulting in dozens of deaths and injuries.

Israeli forces freed six Lebanese civilians on Monday evening as a result of diplomatic efforts led by caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati.

They were apprehended while making their way back to their hometowns of Houla and Markaba on Sunday and Monday, with two women among those released.

The footage captured by residents returning to their villages revealed the extent of the destruction caused by Israel, particularly during the ceasefire period, during which entire villages were obliterated.

The Israeli military conducted a demolition operation near a mosque in the town of Al-Wazzani.

Several residences and structures in the Al-Mufilha region, west of Mays Al-Jabal, were bulldozed.


Calls mount for lifting of Western sanctions on Syria

Updated 13 sec ago
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Calls mount for lifting of Western sanctions on Syria

  • Human Rights Watch: Country ‘in desperate need of reconstruction and Syrians are struggling to survive’
  • Current sanctions were imposed on regime of Bashar Assad who was deposed in December

LONDON: Sanctions imposed on the regime of former Syrian President Bashar Assad by the West are harming the country’s recovery, Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday.

Sanctions put in place by the US, the UK, the EU and others are “hindering reconstruction efforts and exacerbating the suffering of millions of Syrians,” and have no clear removal mechanism, HRW added.

Hiba Zayadin, HRW’s senior Syria researcher, said the country “is in desperate need of reconstruction and Syrians are struggling to survive. With the collapse of the former government, broad sanctions now stand as a major obstacle to restoring essential services such as health care, water, electricity, and education.”

HRW said the country’s long-running civil war has left its economy and infrastructure devastated, with millions of people having fled and 90 percent of the remaining population living in poverty.

Around 13 million are unable to access sufficient food, and 16.5 million are reliant on humanitarian aid.

The organization said sanctions, some of which have been in place for almost half a century but which were ramped up by the West in 2011 after the outbreak of the conflict, are making it harder to alleviate this suffering and to deliver aid despite humanitarian exemptions.

HRW said sanctions should be lifted to allow “access to basic rights,” including “restoring Syria’s access to global financial systems, ending trade restrictions on essential goods, addressing energy sanctions to ensure access to fuel and electricity, and providing clear legal assurances to financial institutions and businesses to mitigate the chilling effect of overcompliance.”

US sanctions hinder nearly all trade and financial transactions with Syria, while the Caesar Act sanctions foreign companies doing business with the government, “particularly in oil and gas, construction, and engineering,” HRW said.

EU and UK sanctions focus largely on Syrian crude oil exports, investments, and the activities of Syrian banks.

Western powers have proposed changes to the sanctions regime since Assad’s ouster in December, but the head of the Syrian Arab Republic’s Investment Agency, Ayman Hamawiye, said earlier this year that the only concrete changes — tweaks to US sanctions affecting energy remittance payments — were “inadequate” so far. 

“Rather than using broad sectoral sanctions as leverage for shifting political objectives, Western governments should recognize their direct harm to civilians and take meaningful steps to lift restrictions that impede access to basic rights,” Zayadin said.

“A piecemeal approach of temporary exemptions and limited waivers is not enough. Sanctions that harm civilians should immediately be lifted, not refined.”

HRW said Syria requires at least $250 billion to begin its reconstruction, focusing on essential infrastructure.

It highlighted the crumbling water network and overwhelmed healthcare system as two examples in desperate need of financial help, as well as the education sector, with around 2 million Syrian children out of fulltime school.

HRW said sanctions should not “have a disproportionately negative impact on human rights or create unnecessary suffering,” and “should not be punitive, but should instead be designed to deter and correct human rights abuses.”

It added: “To be effective, sanctions must be tied to clear, measurable, and attainable conditions for their removal, with regular monitoring to assess progress.

“The Caesar Act in the United States was designed to punish the Assad government, but in a post-Assad world, its broad and indefinite restrictions risk harming civilians without advancing clear human rights objectives.”


Arab League summit on Gaza postponed to March 4: Egypt

Updated 3 min 3 sec ago
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Arab League summit on Gaza postponed to March 4: Egypt

  • The meeting was called in response to US President Donald Trump’s proposal to take over the war-battered Gaza Strip

CAIRO: An extraordinary Arab League meeting on Gaza, initially set for next week, has been postponed to March 4, host Egypt said on Tuesday.
The Egyptian foreign ministry said the new date was agreed with Arab League members as part of “substantive and logistical preparations” for the summit.
The meeting was called in response to US President Donald Trump’s proposal to take over the war-battered Gaza Strip and move its Palestinian inhabitants elsewhere, including to Egypt and Jordan.
On Thursday, Saudi Arabia is set to host the leaders of Egypt, Jordan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to present their own plan for Gaza’s reconstruction while ensuring that Palestinians remain on their land.
Trump’s Gaza plan has sparked outcry across the Arab world, prompting a rare show of unity among Arab nations to block it.


UN says delay in Israel’s Lebanon withdrawal ‘violation’ of resolution on ending war

Updated 18 February 2025
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UN says delay in Israel’s Lebanon withdrawal ‘violation’ of resolution on ending war

  • UN: ‘Another delay in this process is not what we hoped would happen, not least because it continues a violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 (2006)’

BEIRUT: The UN’s Lebanon envoy and peacekeeping force on Tuesday warned Israel’s delayed withdrawal from the country violated the UN resolution that ended the 2006 Hezbollah-Israel war and formed the basis for a recent truce.

“Today marks the end of the period set for the withdrawal of the Israel Defense Forces... and the parallel Lebanese Armed Forces deployment to positions in southern Lebanon,” the joint statement said, adding: “Another delay in this process is not what we hoped would happen, not least because it continues a violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 (2006).”

Israeli troops withdrew from all but five points in south Lebanon on Tuesday, allowing displaced residents to return to border villages largely destroyed in more than a year of hostilities.

“The entire village has been reduced to rubble. It’s a disaster zone,” said Alaa Al-Zein, back in Kfar Kila after the delayed withdrawal deadline expired Tuesday morning under an Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire deal.

Unable to reach Kfar Kila by car because of the rubble and army restrictions, residents had parked at the entrance of the village and returned on foot.

Many were returning to destroyed or heavily damaged homes, farmland and businesses, after more than a year of clashes that included two months of all-out war an ended with a November 27 ceasefire.

Israel had announced just before the pullout deadline that it would keep troops in “five strategic points” near the border, and on Tuesday its defense minister, Israel Katz, confirmed the deployment and vowed action against any “violation” by militant group Hezbollah.

On Tuesday, Lebanon said any Israeli presence on its soil constituted “occupation,” warning it would refer to the UN Security Council to push Israel to withdraw and that its armed forces were ready to assume duties at the border.

Lebanon’s army announced it had deployed in 11 southern border villages and other areas from which Israeli troops have pulled, starting Monday evening.

In a joint statement, UN envoy Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert and the UNIFIL peacekeeping force said that at “the end of the period set” for Israel’s withdrawal and the Lebanese army’s deployment, any further “delay in this process is not what we hoped would happen” and a violation of a 2006 Security Council resolution that ended a past Israel-Hezbollah war.

Jonathan Conricus, a senior fellow at US think tank the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a former Israeli army spokesman, said that once Lebanon’s army was “fully deployed” in the south, the Israeli army “will likely complete its withdrawal... as long as Hezbollah continues to adhere to the agreement.”

In Lebanon, the cost of reconstruction is expected to reach more than $10 billion, while more than 100,000 people remain displaced, according to the United Nations.

But despite the devastation, Zein said villagers were adamant on returning.

“The whole village is returning, we will set up tents and sit on the ground” if needed, he said, striking a defiant tone.

Others were going south to look for the bodies of their relatives under the rubble.

Among them was Samira Jumaa, who arrived in the early hours of the morning to look for her brother, a Hezbollah fighter killed in Kfar Kila with others five months ago.

“We have not heard of them until now. We are certain they were martyred,” she said.

“I’ve come to see my brother and embrace the land where my brother and his comrades fought,” she added.

Further south, dozens of cars were waiting at a Lebanese army checkpoint to be allowed into the southern villages of Taybeh and Odaisseh, an AFP photographer saw.

Nearby, women were carrying pictures of relatives who died fighting for Hezbollah in the war, while others raised the Iran-backed group’s yellow flag.

Hezbollah strongholds in south and east Lebanon as well as Beirut suffered heavy destruction during the hostilities, initiated by Hezbollah in support of ally Hamas in the wake of the Gaza war.

Under the ceasefire, brokered by Washington and Paris, Lebanon’s military was to deploy alongside United Nations peacekeepers as the Israeli army withdrew over a 60-day period that was extended to February 18.

Hezbollah was to pull back north of the Litani River, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border, and dismantle remaining military infrastructure there.

Since the cross-border hostilities began in October 2023, more than 4,000 people have been killed in Lebanon, according to the health ministry.

On the Israeli side of the border, 78 people including soldiers have been killed, according to an AFP tally based on official figures, with an additional 56 troops dead in southern Lebanon during the ground offensive.

Around 60 people have reportedly been killed since the truce began, two dozen of them on January 26 as residents tried to return to border towns on the initial withdrawal deadline.

On Monday, Lebanon’s government said the state should be the sole bearer of arms, in a thinly veiled message on Hezbollah’s arsenal.

Calls for the group’s disarmament have multiplied since the end of the war that has weakened the group.


Lebanese government to seek new IMF program, policy statement says

Updated 18 February 2025
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Lebanese government to seek new IMF program, policy statement says

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s new government will negotiate with the International Monetary Fund for a new program and will work to deal with the country’s financial default and public debt, according a policy statement approved by the cabinet late on Monday.
The statement, a copy of which was reviewed by Reuters, said the government would work for an economical revival that could only be achieved through restructuring the banking sector.
The statement did not include language used in previous years that was seen to legitimize a role for the Iran-backed Hezbollah in defending Lebanon, saying instead “we want a state that has the decision of war and peace.”


UN peacekeepers report deadly clashes in South Sudan

Updated 18 February 2025
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UN peacekeepers report deadly clashes in South Sudan

  • Fighting broke out between the South Sudan People’s Defense Forces (SSPDF) and “armed youth” in Nassir in Upper Nile state

Nairobi: The United Nations on Tuesday reported deadly clashes in northern South Sudan which killed civilians and left a peacekeeper wounded.
The oil-rich but impoverished nation, which only achieved independence in 2011, is plagued by instability with frequent clashes and political infighting.
Fighting broke out between the South Sudan People’s Defense Forces (SSPDF) and “armed youth” in Nassir in Upper Nile state — which borders Sudan — on February 14 and 15, the UN mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said in a statement.
It did not identify the armed groups clashing with the SSPDF, a national military force led by President Salva Kiir, head of the country’s unity government.
The statement said some fighters used “heavy weaponry which has, reportedly, resulted in deaths and injuries to civilians as well as armed personnel.”
It did not give any details on the number of people hurt, but added that a UN peacekeeper on a scheduled patrol was wounded during mortar shelling.
Nicholas Haysom, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General and Head of UNMISS, urged restraint and condemned violence toward the UN peacekeepers.
The UN statement also warned of “persistent tensions” in Western Equatoria — on the other side of the country — between “organized forces.” It did not give details.
Haysom said that the situation in both locations underscored the need for the full deployment of South Sudan’s unified armed forces.
The country endured a vicious five-year civil war between Kiir and his bitter rival, Vice President Riek Machar.
A 2018 peace deal required the unification of armed forces, ahead of repeatedly delayed elections.
UNMISS has said the unification of the army has yet to be achieved.