UNIFIL accuses Israeli army of deliberately destroying property in southern Lebanon
UNIFIL accuses Israeli army of deliberately destroying property in southern Lebanon/node/2585251/middle-east
UNIFIL accuses Israeli army of deliberately destroying property in southern Lebanon
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) on Saturday accused the Israeli army of deliberately destroying its property and critical infrastructure in southern Lebanon. (AFP/File Photo)
UNIFIL accuses Israeli army of deliberately destroying property in southern Lebanon
Alleged that Israeli army bulldozer destroyed blue barrel marking withdrawal line between Lebanon and Israel
Updated 05 January 2025
Arab News
LONDON: The UN Interim Force in Lebanon on Saturday accused the Israeli army of deliberately destroying its property and critical infrastructure in southern Lebanon, leading to a serious escalation in tensions along the border.
In a statement on Saturday, UNIFIL said: “This morning, peacekeepers witnessed an Israeli army bulldozer destroying a blue barrel marking the withdrawal line between Lebanon and Israel in Al-Labbouneh, as well as a watchtower belonging to the Lebanese Armed Forces adjacent to a UNIFIL site in the area.”
The blue barrels, which are markers for the withdrawal line — commonly referred to as the Blue Line — delineate the boundary established after Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000.
UNIFIL condemned the actions, describing them as a “deliberate and direct destruction” of its property and infrastructure clearly identifiable as belonging to the Lebanese Armed Forces. The statement further characterized the incident as “a blatant violation of (UN Security Council) Resolution 1701 and international law.”
Resolution 1701, adopted in 2006 to end hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah during the Second Lebanon War, calls for respect for Lebanon’s territorial integrity and the cessation of all aggressive actions in the area.
UNIFIL further urged all parties to exercise restraint and avoid any actions that could jeopardize the fragile ceasefire.
“We urge all parties to refrain from any actions, including the destruction of property and civilian infrastructure, that could jeopardize the cessation of hostilities,” the statement added.
The incident comes as tensions increase along the Lebanon-Israel border, with several exchanges of fire reported in recent weeks.
There has been no immediate comment from the Israeli military regarding the accusations.
Israeli army said ‘eliminated’ attacker who killed pregnant woman
A resident of the Israeli settlement of Bruchin, 37-year-old Tzeela Gez died after she was shot in her vehicle
Updated 59 min 15 sec ago
AFP
JERUSALEM: Israel’s military announced Wednesday it “eliminated” the perpetrator of an attack that left one pregnant woman dead in the occupied West Bank last week.
In a joint statement with Israel’s internal security agency and the police, the army said that its forces were approached by an armed man in the West Bank town of Bruqin Saturday, near the site of last week’s attack.
They said the man was “running toward the forces while holding a backpack suspected to be rigged with explosives, shouting at them,” as they were conducting search operations.
An intelligence assessment said that “Nael Samara, the terrorist who was eliminated, was the terrorist who carried out the shooting attack adjacent to Bruchin on Thursday, May 14, 2025, in which a pregnant woman, Tzeela Gez, was murdered.”
A resident of the Israeli settlement of Bruchin, 37-year-old Tzeela Gez died after she was shot in her vehicle as she headed to the hospital to give birth.
Her baby was delivered by C-section, but was still in serious condition Tuesday, according to the father.
“We will catch the killers as we always do, we will fight them and we will defeat them,” Netanyahu said in a video released by his office later that day.
Israeli army chief Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir had earlier said “we will use all the tools at our disposal and reach the murderers in order to hold them accountable.”
Since the beginning of the Gaza war, sparked by Palestinian militant group Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, the West Bank has seen a surge in violence.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, and Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territory are considered illegal under international law.
The UN says no aid that has entered Gaza this week has reached Palestinians
Food security experts have warned that Gaza risks falling into famine unless the blockade ends
Updated 22 May 2025
AP
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza: The UN said Wednesday it was trying to get the desperately needed aid that has entered Gaza this week into the hands of Palestinians amid delays because of fears of looting and Israeli military restrictions. Israeli strikes pounded the territory, killing at least 86 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Under international pressure, Israel has allowed dozens of aid trucks into Gaza after blocking all food, medicine, fuel and other material for nearly three months. But the supplies have been sitting on the Gaza side of the Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the majority of supplies that had entered since Monday had been loaded onto UN trucks, but they could not take them out of the crossing area. He said the road the Israeli military had given them permission to use was too unsafe. Talks were underway for an alternative, he said.
A UN official later said some trucks had left the crossing area, heading for warehouses in Gaza, but there was no immediate confirmation they arrived. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press.
Food security experts have warned that Gaza risks falling into famine unless the blockade ends. Malnutrition and hunger have been mounting. Aid groups ran out of food to distribute weeks ago, and most of the population of around 2.3 million relies on communal kitchens whose supplies are nearly depleted.
At a kitchen in Gaza City, a charity group distributed watery lentil soup.
Somaia Abu Amsha scooped small portions for her family, saying they have not had bread for over 10 days and she can’t afford rice or pasta.
“We don’t want anything other than that they end the war. We don’t want charity kitchens. Even dogs wouldn’t eat this, let alone children,” she said.
Aid groups say the small amount of aid that Israel has allowed is far short of what is needed. About 600 trucks entered daily under the latest ceasefire. Israeli warning shots shake diplomats
Israeli troops fired warning shots as a group of international diplomats was visiting the Jenin refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Footage showed a number of diplomats giving media interviews as rapid shots ring out nearby, forcing them to run for cover. No one was reported injured.
The Israeli military said their visit had been approved, but the delegation “deviated from the approved route.” The military said it apologized and will contact the countries involved in the visit.
Israeli troops have raided Jenin dozens of times as part of a crackdown across the West Bank. The fighting displaced tens of thousands of Palestinians. Netanyahu says population will be moved south
Israel has said its slight easing of the blockade is a bridge until a new distribution system it demands is put in place. The UN and other humanitarian groups have rejected the system, saying it enables Israel to use aid as a weapon and forcibly displace the population.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters the plan will begin “in coming days.”
He said in a subsequent phase, Israel would create a “sterile zone” in the south, free of Hamas, where the population would be moved “for the purposes of its safety.” There, they would receive aid, “and then they enter – and they don’t necessarily go back.”
The plan involves small number of distribution hubs directed by a private, US-backed foundation known as the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Armed private contractors would guard the distribution.
Israel says the system is needed because Hamas siphons off significant amounts of aid. The UN denies that claim.
Initially, four hubs are being built, one in central Gaza and three at the far southern end of the strip, where few people remain.
A GHF spokesman said the group would never participate in or support any form of forced relocation of civilians. The spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity in accordance with the group’s rules. said there was no limit to the number of sites and additional sites will open, including in the north, within the next month. The trickle of aid is jammed
Currently, after supplies enter at Kerem Shalom, aid workers are required to unload them and reload them onto their own trucks for distribution.
Antoine Renard, the World Food Program’s country chief for Palestine, said 78 trucks were waiting. He told The Associated Press that “we need to ensure that we will not be looted.”
Looting has plagued aid deliveries in the past, and at times of desperation people have swarmed aid trucks, taking supplies.
A UN official and another humanitarian worker said the Israeli military had designated a highly insecure route known to have looters. The military also set a short window for trucks to come to Kerem Shalom and rejected a number of individual truck drivers, forcing last-minute replacements, they said. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press.
COGAT, the Israeli defense body overseeing aid for Gaza, did not immediately respond when asked for comment. Hospitals surrounded
Israeli strikes continued across Gaza. In the southern city of Khan Younis, where Israel recently ordered new evacuations pending an expanded offensive, 24 people were killed, 14 from the same family. A week-old infant was killed in central Gaza. In the evening, a strike hit a house in Jabaliya in northern Gaza, killing two children and their parents, according to hospital officials.
The Israeli military did not comment on the strikes. It says it targets Hamas infrastructure and accuses Hamas militants of operating from civilian areas.
Israeli troops also have surrounded two of northern Gaza’s last functioning hospitals, preventing anyone from leaving or entering the facilities, hospital staff and aid groups said this week.
The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251 others. The militants are still holding 58 captives, around a third believed to be alive, after most were returned in ceasefire agreements or other deals.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has destroyed large swaths of Gaza and killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count.
War-displaced Sudanese return to collapsed cities, disease and dwindling aid
Humanitarian agencies face security threats, access restrictions and deep funding cuts while trying to support returning populations
Areas reclaimed by the SAF often lack clean water, electricity, shelter and healthcare, forcing returnees to survive in dire conditions
Updated 21 May 2025
Sherouk Zakaria
DUBAI: As Sudan’s civil war grinds through its second year, a new chapter is unfolding — the slow and uncertain return of families to towns and cities recently recaptured by the Sudanese Armed Forces from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
But as they do so, aid agencies say, they are finding not assurances of normalcy but scenes of devastation, disease and dwindling humanitarian support.
Nowhere is this more visible than in the capital, Khartoum. Once the heart of Sudan’s political and economic life, it was among the first cities to be consumed by violence when a violent factional struggle erupted on April 15, 2023.
Fighters loyal to the army patrol a market area in Khartoum on March 24, 2025. (AFP photo)
Following months of intense urban warfare and the occupation of the city by the RSF, Khartoum was retaken by government troops in early March.
Since then, an estimated 6,000 returnees have arrived in the city each day, according to state police. Most return with few possessions and even fewer options, compelled by necessity rather than optimism.
The International Organization for Migration estimates that roughly 400,000 people returned to Khartoum and surrounding states such as Al-Jazirah and Sennar between December and March.
The figures mark the first recorded decline — a modest 2.4 percent — in Sudan’s displaced population since the conflict began. Yet for many, the homecoming is fraught with hardship.
“Many of those returning home from abroad or from elsewhere in the country remain with critical needs, often coming back with only what can be easily carried, or returning to find their previous homes unsafe for dignified living,” Natalie Payne, program support officer in IOM’s emergency response team, told Arab News.
Much of Khartoum’s infrastructure — homes, schools, hospitals, power grids, and water treatment facilities — lies in ruins. In many neighborhoods, rubble clogs the streets, health clinics are shuttered, and there is no running water or electricity.
A man walks in the shrapnel-riddled ward of a hospital in Khartoum on April 28, 2025. (AFP photo)
Sudanese people gather at a camp for displaced people, in Port Sudan, on April 15, 2025. (AFP)
With no functioning schools or job opportunities, families are forced to rely on the overstretched aid system for survival.
Across Sudan, the needs are immense. Payne said IOM has recorded large-scale gaps in access to food, basic household goods, clean water, healthcare, and sanitation — not only for returnees but for communities that hosted them during the war.IN NUMBERS:
• 24.6 million People facing acute food insecurity in Sudan (World Food Programme)
• 12.5 million People displaced (inside and outside) since April 2023 (International Organization for Migration).
• 13.2 percent Proportion of humanitarian funding received for Sudan’s $4.2 billion UN appeal in 2025 (OCHA).
• 17 million Children out of school in Sudan (Oxfam).
Livelihood support is also urgently needed to help people rebuild some measure of stability.
However, international agencies face mounting challenges in responding. The war has displaced more than 11.3 million people inside Sudan and forced nearly four million more to seek refuge in neighboring countries — including Egypt, Chad, and South Sudan — making it the world’s largest displacement crisis.
Displaced Sudanese sit at a shelter after they were evacuated by the Sudanese army to a safer area in Omdurman, on May 13, 2025, amid the ongoing war in Sudan. (AFP)
At the same time, the conflict has sparked what the UN calls the world’s worst hunger crisis. Famine has already been declared in 10 areas, and aid officials fear this number will grow without immediate intervention.
“Given that the fighting has destroyed health, water, and sanitation infrastructure, IOM looks to operate mobile clinics, rehabilitate primary health care centers, and rehabilitate water infrastructure at gathering sites, as well as major border entry areas, such as the Askheet and Argeen border crossing point in Northern state between Sudan and Egypt,” said Payne.
To operate in insecure or hard-to-reach areas, aid agencies partner with local organizations that have access and trust. One such partner is Sudan Zero Waste Organization, a grassroots NGO based in Khartoum, which is helping prevent disease outbreaks in communities of return.
In a statement to Arab News, SZWO said cholera cases are rising in the capital and nearby Jebel Aulia due to a lack of safe drinking water and basic sanitation.
“Many returnees are being affected by cholera as a result of contact with the affected ones due to lack of awareness, lack of clean water access, and improper hygiene practices,” the organization said.
SZWO is collaborating with NGOs and UN agencies to rehabilitate water points and hygiene facilities. It also plans to scale up community kitchens to combat food insecurity and distribute cash to the most vulnerable households.
A victim of unexploded ordnance lies on a bed at a hospital in Omdurman on April 28, 2025, as the Sudanese army deepens control in the city. (REUTERS)
Long term, it hopes to support local healthcare centers in newly accessible areas, though it acknowledges that needs are currently far greater than capacity.
Meanwhile, global humanitarian funding is drying up. The UN’s Humanitarian Needs Response Plan for Sudan in 2025 is seeking $4.2 billion to reach nearly 21 million people. As of mid-May, only 13.2 percent of that amount had been secured.
Humanitarians also face logistical challenges, particularly during Sudan’s rainy season, which runs from June to October. Flooded terrain makes it difficult to reach remote or newly liberated areas, many of which are in desperate need of food and medical assistance.
“Access in Sudan is restricted at different times of the year due to adverse weather conditions,” said Payne. “Shocks throughout the rainy season can lead to increased needs with limited opportunities to respond.”
A van drives down a street in the capital Khartoum's southern neighborhood of al-Kalakla on April 29, 2025. (AFP)
And while some areas are stabilizing, violence is flaring elsewhere. Port Sudan, the de facto wartime capital and humanitarian hub, recently came under attack — prompting the UN to warn that continued hostilities there could disrupt aid operations across the country.
Other areas remain perilously unstable. West Kordofan and West Darfur have seen renewed fighting. In North Darfur, the SAF-held capital of Al-Fasher is under siege, and the nearby Zamzam and Abu Shouk displacement camps — already gripped by famine — have come under attack.
These offensives have pushed new waves of displacement, with an estimated 450,000 people recently fleeing the region.
Displaced Sudanese sit at a shelter after they were evacuated by the Sudanese army to a safer area in Omdurman, on May 13, 2025, amid the ongoing war in Sudan.
Beyond Sudan’s borders, neighboring countries are also straining under the weight of the crisis. According to UNHCR, more than 2,000 people are crossing into Chad every day, with rising numbers arriving in Libya and Uganda.
Host countries, many of which are grappling with their own economic or security challenges, are running out of resources.
“Countries and communities receiving refugees have nothing to offer but a big heart,” Mamadou Dian Balde, UNHCR’s regional refugee coordinator for Sudan, told Arab News.
“In Eastern Chad today, we have more refugees than nationals. South Sudan, itself mired in poverty, is further struggling to meet the needs of Sudan’s refugees. If we do not put an end to this conflict, its repercussions will expand to other countries.”
A Sudanese refugee completes her biometric registration with UNHCR teams in the Tine transit center, in Tine, Wadi Fira province, Chad, on April 9, 2025. (AFP)
Within Sudan, the influx of returning and displaced populations into devastated neighborhoods is stretching local resources to breaking point. The economic collapse, lack of essential services, and ongoing violence have created perfect conditions for a humanitarian catastrophe.
Balde said while returns from abroad have begun, the conditions are far from ideal.
“We have started seeing people returning, but these returns happen in adverse circumstances,” he said. “Some people consider going back home or some families have decided to divide the family into two, sending some members first to go and see what properties they have left.”
Internally displaced people walk along a street in Juba, South Sudan, on Feb. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga, File)
He added: “People need support, but it needs to be balanced because there are returns that are not in large numbers versus the large number of refugees outside the country. I don’t know whether we will still see this large number of people returning if we continue hearing about all these attacks.”
Ultimately, aid agencies say the success of any return initiative hinges on far more than food or tents. It depends on a sustained ceasefire, political will and a long-term commitment from donors to rebuild essential infrastructure — from hospitals and schools to power stations and roads.
Until then, Sudan’s returnees in Khartoum must remain in a bleak and dangerous limbo while the SAF and RSF slug it out in other parts of the country.
Netanyahu says ready for Gaza ‘temporary ceasefire’
Netanyahu's remarks came hours after Israeli troops fired what it called 'warning shots' near a delegation of foreign diplomats visiting the occupied West Bank
A European diplomat said the group had traveled to the area to witness the destruction caused by months of Israeli military raids
Updated 21 May 2025
AFP
JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday he was open to a “temporary ceasefire” in Gaza, as international pressure intensified over Israel’s renewed offensive and aid blockade in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.
“If there is an option for a temporary ceasefire to free hostages, we’ll be ready,” Netanyahu said, noting that at least 20 hostages were confirmed alive.
But he added the Israeli military aimed to bring all of Gaza under its control by the end of its current operation.
“We must avoid a humanitarian crisis in order to preserve our freedom of operational action,” he said.
His remarks came hours after Israeli troops fired what the army called “warning shots” near a delegation of foreign diplomats visiting the occupied West Bank, triggering global condemnation and fresh diplomatic tension.
The Palestinian foreign ministry accused Israeli forces of “deliberately targeting by live fire an accredited diplomatic delegation” near the flashpoint city of Jenin.
A European diplomat said the group had traveled to the area to witness the destruction caused by months of Israeli military raids.
The Israeli army said “the delegation deviated from the approved route” and entered a restricted zone.
Troops opened fire to steer the group away, it said, adding no injuries were reported and expressing regret for the “inconvenience caused.” Gazans are not receiving aid
European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas called on Israel to investigate the shooting and to hold those responsible “accountable.”
The incident came as anger mounted over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where Palestinians are scrambling for basic supplies after weeks of near-total isolation.
Palestinian rescue teams said overnight Israeli strikes had killed at least 19 people, including a week-old baby.
No one is distributing anything to us. Everyone is waiting for aid, but we haven’t received anything
Umm Talal Al-Masri, displaced Palestinian in Gaza City
A two-month total blockade was only partially eased this week, with aid allowed into the territory for the first time since March 2, a move leading to critical food and medicine shortages.
Israel said 100 trucks with aid entered Gaza on Wednesday, following 93 the day before which the United Nations has said had been held up.
Humanitarian groups have said that the amount falls far short of what is required to ease the crisis.
Umm Talal Al-Masri, 53, a displaced Palestinian in Gaza City, described the situation as “unbearable.”
“No one is distributing anything to us. Everyone is waiting for aid, but we haven’t received anything,” she said.
“We’re grinding lentils and pasta to make some loaves of bread, and we barely manage to prepare one meal a day.”
The army stepped up its offensive at the weekend, vowing to defeat Gaza’s Hamas rulers, whose October 7, 2023 attack on Israel triggered the war.
Israel has faced massive pressure, including from traditional allies, to halt its expanded offensive and allow aid into Gaza.
Kallas said “a strong majority” of EU foreign ministers backed the move to review its trade cooperation with Israel. EU pressure on Israel
Sweden said it would press the 27-nation bloc to impose sanctions on Israeli ministers, while Britain suspended free-trade negotiations with Israel and summoned the Israeli ambassador.
Pope Leo XIV described the situation in Gaza as “worrying and painful” and called for “the entry of sufficient humanitarian aid.”
Israel’s foreign ministry has said the EU action “reflects a total misunderstanding of the complex reality Israel is facing.”
Germany defended a key EU-Israel cooperation deal as “an important forum that we must use in order to discuss critical questions” over the situation in Gaza.
In Gaza, Israel resumed its operations across the territory on March 18, ending a two-month ceasefire.
Hamas’s October 2023 attack 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 military says are dead.
Gaza’s health ministry said Tuesday at least 3,509 people have been killed since Israel resumed strikes on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 53,655.
Rubio says some ‘optimism’ Gaza war could end ‘pretty quickly’
“We may have breakthrough achievements,” Rubio told a congressional hearing
“I don’t want to be disappointed on it again, but I want you to know there are efforts ongoing”
Updated 21 May 2025
AFP
WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio voiced guarded optimism Wednesday for a solution “pretty quickly” to end the Gaza war.
“I have some level of optimism that we may have breakthrough achievements here pretty quickly, hopefully on an end to this and the release of all the hostages,” Rubio told a congressional hearing.
Rubio acknowledged that he has made such predictions before and said he did not “want to get ahead of myself.”
“I have felt that way now at least four separate times in the last couple of months, and for one reason or another at the last minute, it didn’t happen,” he said.
“I don’t want to be disappointed on it again, but I want you to know there are efforts ongoing to both provide more humanitarian assistance and bring about the end of this conflict.”
