BEIRUT: The Beirut Bar Association on Wednesday handed the public prosecutor almost 700 criminal complaints from victims of the city’s deadly August 4 port blast, Lebanon’s National News Agency said.
The explosion of a massive stockpile of ammonium nitrate in a dockside warehouse killed more than 200 people, wounded thousands and ravaged swathes of the capital Beirut.
“We presented 679 complaints today, in the name of the families of those killed, wounded and affected,” Bar Association head Melhem Khalaf said, according to the NNA.
“We cannot stop until a verdict is pronounced,” Khalaf said, calling the blast “a horrific catastrophe.”
It was the first wave of complaints to be filed of around 1,400 cases being compiled by the Bar Association.
“We need to go deep with the ongoing investigations,” Khalaf added.
The blast was the country’s worst peacetime disaster.
It reignited popular outrage against the political class, after it emerged officials had known the ammonium nitrate had been stored unsafely at the port for years.
Lebanese officials have rejected an international probe, despite demands both from home and abroad for an impartial investigation.
A local investigation has led to the arrest of at least 25 suspects, including the chief of the port and its customs director.
Experts from France and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation took part in the preliminary investigation.
A judicial source told AFP that Lebanon had received the report from the American experts, and was expecting one from France within the next two weeks.
“Much hinges on the French report to determine the causes of the explosion,” the source said.
According to Khalaf, the FBI report relies on information from the Lebanese agencies, whereas the French one will draw on “the results of laboratory tests.”
Lebanon has complained it has yet to receive satellite images of the port before, during and after the blast that it requested from France and Italy.
Lebanon blast victims file almost 700 legal complaints
https://arab.news/wpb96
Lebanon blast victims file almost 700 legal complaints
- The explosion of a massive stockpile of ammonium nitrate in a dockside warehouse killed more than 200 people
Syria arrests Assad-era officer accused of ‘war crimes’: ministry
The interior ministry announced in a statement that security forces in the coastal province of Latakia had arrested the “criminal brigadier-general Sultan Al-Tinawi,” saying he was a key officer in the air force intelligence, one of the Assad family’s most trusted security agencies.
The statement accused Tinawi of involvement in “committing war crimes against civilians, including a massacre” in the Damascus countryside in 2016.
It said he was responsible for “coordinating between the leadership of the Lebanese Hezbollah militia and a number of sectarian groups in Syria.”
Tinawi has been referred to the public prosecution for further investigation, the statement said.
A security source, requesting anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the media, said that Tinawi held senior administrative positions in the air force intelligence when Jamil Hassan was head of the notorious agency.
Hassan has been sentenced in absentia in France for complicity in crimes against humanity and war crimes, while the United States has accused him of “war crimes,” including overseeing barrel bomb attacks on Syrian people that killed thousands of civilians.
Tinawi had been “head of the information branch of the air force intelligence” before Assad’s ouster late last year, the security source told AFP, describing the branch as “one of the most powerful and secret security agencies in the country.”
Since taking power in December, Syria’s new authorities have announced a number of arrests of Assad-era security officials.
Assad fled to Moscow with only a handful of confidants, abandoning senior officials and security officers, some of whom have reportedly fled to neighboring countries or taken refuge in the coastal heartland of Assad’s Alawite minority community.
Jerusalem patriarch hails pope’s commitment to Gaza
- Patriarch thanked numerous Palestinian and Israeli public figures who offered condolences, did not comment on lack of any official message from Netanyahu
JERUSALEM: The Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, on Tuesday hailed Pope Francis’s support for Gazans and engagement with the small Catholic community in the war-battered Palestinian territory.
The Catholic church’s highest authority in the region, who is considered a potential successor to the late pontiff, Pizzaballa told journalists in Jerusalem that “Gaza represents, a little bit, all what was the heart of his pontificate.”
Pope Francis, who died on Monday aged 88, advocated peace and “closeness to the poor... and to the neglected one,” said the patriarch.
These positions became particularly evident in Francis’s response to the Israel-Hamas war which broke out in October 2023, Pizzaballa said.
“He was very close to the community of Gaza, the parish of Gaza, he kept calling them many times — for a certain period, also every day, every evening at 7 pm,” said the patriarch.
He added that by doing so, the pope “became for the community something stable, and also comforting for them, and he knew this.”
Out of the Gaza Strip’s 2.4 million people, about 1,000 are Christians. Most of them are Orthodox, but according to the Latin Patriarchate, there are about 135 Catholics in the territory.
Since the early days of the war, members of the Catholic community have been sheltering at Holy Family Church compound in Gaza City, and some Orthodox Christians have also found refuge there.
Pope Francis repeatedly called for an end to the war. The day before his death, in a final Easter message delivered on Sunday, he condemned the “deplorable humanitarian situation” in the besieged territory.
“Work for justice... but without becoming part of the conflict,” said Pizzaballa of the late pontiff’s actions.
“For us, for the Church, it leaves an important legacy.”
The patriarch thanked the numerous Palestinian and Israeli public figures who have offered their condolences, preferring not to comment on the lack of any official message from Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Even as “the local authorities... were not always happy” with the pope’s positions or statements, they were “always very respectful,” he said.
Pizzaballa said he will travel to Rome on Wednesday, after leading a requiem mass for the pope at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem in the morning.
As one of the 135 cardinal electors, the Latin patriarch will participate in the conclave to elect a new pope.
Pizzaballa, a 60-year-old Italian Franciscan who also speaks English and Hebrew, arrived in Jerusalem in 1990 and was made a cardinal in September 2023, just before the Gaza war began.
His visits to Gaza and appeals for peace since then have attracted international attention.
UAE FM meets Sri Lankan president in Colombo visit
- Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan highlighted the UAE’s commitment to enhancing cooperation with Sri Lanka
- He attended the signing of a deal to establish the UAE-Sri Lanka Joint Business Council
LONDON: Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, the UAE minister of foreign affairs, met Sri Lanka’s president and foreign minister in Colombo during an official visit on Tuesday.
Sheikh Abdullah and President Anura Kumara Dissanayake discussed ways to enhance bilateral cooperation in various sectors, building on strong and evolving ties between the UAE and Sri Lanka.
He highlighted the UAE’s commitment to enhancing cooperation with Sri Lanka to support the development goals of both countries, the Emirates News Agency reported.
The UAE is committed to partnering with friendly countries to enhance prosperity and sustainable development, he added. President Dissanayake commended the strong relationship between Abu Dhabi and Colombo, WAM reported.
Sheikh Abdullah spoke with his Sri Lankan counterpart, Vijitha Herath, about opportunities for enhancing cooperation in areas such as the economy, trade, tourism and development.
The ministers exchanged views on several regional and international issues, and attended the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the Federation of UAE Chambers of Commerce and Industry and the National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka.
The memorandum, signed on Tuesday by Saeed Mubarak Al-Hajeri, the Emirati assistant minister for economic and trade affairs, and Lakmal Fernando, vice president of the National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka, aims to establish the UAE-Sri Lanka Joint Business Council.
Khaled Nasser Al-Ameri, the UAE’s ambassador to Sri Lanka, attended the meetings along with senior Emirati officials.
South Sudan opposition says under fresh govt military attack
- “The South Sudan People’s Defense Forces has attacked Panyume cantonment site,” Gabriel said
- “Clashes are still ongoing and details will follow later“
JUBA: South Sudan’s opposition accused government forces of attacking one of its military positions in Central Equatoria State on Tuesday as their fragile power-sharing agreement continues to unravel.
Central Equatoria State, which includes the capital Juba, was split into areas controlled by government and opposition forces under a 2018 power-sharing deal that ended South Sudan’s five-year civil war, in which an estimated 400,000 people died.
The agreement brought President Salva Kiir and his long-time rival, Vice President Riek Machar, together in a unity government.
But the deal has been unraveling in recent months as Kiir moves to sideline Machar, who was placed under house arrest last month.
“The SSPDF (South Sudan People’s Defense Forces) has attacked Panyume cantonment site from multiple directions this morning,” opposition party spokesman Lam Paul Gabriel said on Facebook.
“Clashes are still ongoing and details will follow later,” he added.
Facing sustained attacks on its positions, the opposition forces commander directed his troops to prepare for conflict, according to another statement by Gabriel on Tuesday.
“Lt. Gen. Peter Thok Chuol hereby directs all sectors, divisions and all units of the SPLA-IO (Sudan People’s Liberation Army in Opposition) to be vigilant and promptly defend themselves and the civilians under their control areas,” he said.
Israeli strikes kill 14 in Gaza and destroy heavy equipment needed to clear rubble
- An Israeli strike on Jabaliya municipality's parking garage destroyed nine bulldozers provided by Egypt and Qatar
- The strikes also destroyed a water tanker and a mobile generator provided by aid groups
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip: Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip killed at least 14 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and destroyed bulldozers and other heavy equipment that had been supplied by mediators to clear rubble.
Israel’s 18-month offensive against Hamas has destroyed vast areas of Gaza, raising fears that much of it may never be rebuilt. The territory already had a shortage of heavy equipment, which is also needed to rescue people from the rubble after Israeli strikes and to clear vital roads.
A municipality in the Jabaliya area of northern Gaza said a strike on its parking garage destroyed nine bulldozers provided by Egypt and Qatar, which helped broker the ceasefire that took hold in January. Israel ended the truce last month, renewing its bombardment and ground operations and sealing the territory’s 2 million Palestinians off from all imports, including food, fuel and medical supplies.
The strikes also destroyed a water tanker and a mobile generator provided by aid groups, and a truck used to pump sewage, the Jabaliya Al-Nazla municipality said.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the strikes.
Israeli strikes kill 14, mostly children
An Israeli airstrike early Tuesday destroyed a multistory home in the southern city of Khan Younis, killing nine people, including four women and four children, according to Nasser Hospital, which received the bodies. The dead included a 2-year-old girl and her parents.
“They were asleep, sleeping in God’s peace. They had nothing to do with anything,” said Awad Dahliz, the slain girl’s grandfather. “What is the fault of this innocent child?“
A separate strike in the built-up Jabaliya refugee camp killed three children and their parents, according to the Gaza Health Ministry’s emergency service.
Israel’s air and ground war has killed over 51,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the ministry.
The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 people hostage. They are still holding 59 hostages, 24 of whom are believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.
Hamas has said it will only free the remaining hostages in return for the release of Palestinian prisoners, a full Israeli withdrawal and a lasting ceasefire. Israel has said it will keep fighting until the hostages are returned and Hamas has been either destroyed or disarmed and sent into exile. It has pledged to hold onto so-called security zones in Gaza indefinitely.
