AÏTAROUN, Lebanon: In the war-devastated southern Lebanese village of Aitaroun on Monday, residents marked the Muslim holiday of Eid Al-Fitr among their dead.
Relatives crowded the village’s cemeteries to pray for the more than 100 residents, including fighters from Hezbollah, killed during the war between the militant group and Israel that ended with a fragile ceasefire in November.
“We defied the entire world by being here in Aitaroun to celebrate Eid with our martyrs,” Siham Ftouni said near the grave of her son, a rescuer with an Islamic health organization affiliated with Hezbollah.
“Their blood permitted us to come back to our village,” she said.
During the war, Lebanese state media reported that Israeli troops used explosives in Aitaroun and two nearby villages to blow up houses. The town square is heavily damaged.
Few people have returned to live or to reopen businesses.
The story is the same in other villages in southern Lebanon.
In Aitaroun, more than 90 of the village’s dead — including some who died from natural causes — were buried only a month ago when Israeli troops pulled out.
Under the ceasefire, Israel had 60 days to withdraw its troops from southern Lebanon, but it did not pull most of them back until February 18 after the initial deadline was extended.
On Monday, beneath yellow Hezbollah flags, Ftouni and other women clad in black let their grief pour out.
A young girl sat near the grave of a woman, holding her photo surrounded by flowers.
Other pictures, of infants and young men in military uniform, lay on top of graves, and the sound of funeral orations triggered tears.
Some visitors handed out sweets and other foods to mourners who came from further away.
“This year, Eid is different from the years before,” said Salim Sayyed, 60, a farmer originally from Aitaroun. “Aitaroun, which lost more than 120 martyrs including many women and children, is living a sad Eid.”
He added: “The will to live will remain stronger than death.”
The war saw the killing of Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah and other commanders, and the group’s military infrastructure was devastated. Yet it continues to proclaim victory after more than a year of conflict that escalated to full-blown war and killed more than 4,000 people in Lebanon.
Despite the ceasefire deal, Israeli troops remain inside Lebanon at five points it deems strategic.
Both Hezbollah and Israel have accused each other of truce violations.
Israel has regularly carried out often-deadly air raids in south and east Lebanon since the ceasefire, striking what it says are Hezbollah military targets that violated the agreement.
On Friday Israel bombed southern Beirut for the first time since the truce after rockets were fired toward its territory.
Imad Hijazi, 55, a taxi driver, said the security uncertainty was no deterrent to those wanting to spend Eid beside the graves of their loved ones.
“The sadness was immense. Everyone was shaken by the loss of loved ones. I lost 23 members of my family in an Israeli strike,” Hijazi said.
“I was ashamed to convey Eid greetings to my relatives or my friends.”
Devastated Lebanon village marks Eid among its dead
https://arab.news/zafvm
Devastated Lebanon village marks Eid among its dead
- Israel has regularly carried out often-deadly air raids in south and east Lebanon since the ceasefire, striking what it says are Hezbollah military targets that violated the agreement
UN, US warn of increasing Daesh activity in Syria
- Terror group could try to free fighters from prison camps: Experts
- American troop numbers in the country have increased
LONDON: The UN and US have warned that Daesh is increasing its activities in Syria, raising fears that it could try to free thousands of fighters currently held in prison camps run by Syrian-Kurdish forces.
The US has sent troops to Syria in a bid to help stabilize the situation, nearly doubling the size of its presence in the country.
Up to 10,000 Daesh fighters, as well as 40,000 of their relatives, are incarcerated in the camps in northeast Syria.
“The crown jewel for the Islamic State (Daesh) is still the prisons and camps,” Colin Clarke, head of research for the Soufan Group, a global intelligence and security firm, told the New York Times.
“That’s where the experienced, battle-hardened fighters are,” he said. “In addition to whatever muscle they add to the group, if those prisons are open, the pure propaganda value” would serve Daesh’s recruitment efforts for months, Clarke added.
It is thought that the recent upheaval caused by the collapse of the Assad regime has provided Daesh with an opportunity to expand its operations in Syria.
US intelligence experts fear that the group could now use this as a springboard to sow instability across the Middle East.
President Donald Trump, however, has voiced doubts about America’s need for a permanent military presence in Syria.
It was hoped that the successor government to the Assad regime would provide a dependable partner to the US, but the outbreak of sectarian violence in parts of Syria last month has raised concerns about how much control it has over the country.
Despite its defeat by 2020, Daesh, which at one point controlled a vast swathe of territory across Syria and Iraq, has continued to spread its propaganda, having shot to prominence for its violence and repression, as well as a series of terror attacks in Europe.
Last year, the group orchestrated high-profile attacks in Iran, Pakistan and Russia. A US Defense Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the NYT that Daesh claimed 294 attacks in 2024, up from 121 the year before.
The committee established by the UN to monitor Daesh said it believed around 400 attacks were committed by the group last year.
Prison breaks are not unprecedented. In 2022, nearly 400 people escaped after Daesh attacked a facility in Hasaka, which required US intervention to repel.
A recent UN report revealed that Daesh fighters had escaped from Syria’s largest prison camp, Al-Hol, during the fall of the Assad regime.
Iraq, US sign deal on projects including power plants
- Another MOU between Iraq’s Ministry of Electricity and US company UGT Renewables will establish solar energy project
DUBAI: Iraq and the United States signed on Wednesday a memorandum of understanding for projects in the Gulf country, including 24,000 megawatts of power plants, the Iraqi prime minister’s media office said.
Another MOU has been inked between Iraq’s Ministry of Electricity and US company UGT Renewables to establish an integrated solar energy project with a capacity of 3,000 MW, the media office said in a statement.
US President Donald Trump’s administration last month rescinded a sanctions waiver that since 2018 has allowed Iraq to pay Iran for electricity as Washington presses on with its “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran.
Iraq, OPEC’s second-largest producer after Saudi Arabia, uses Iranian power imports to generate electricity and has been under pressure from the US to reduce its reliance on power and gas imports from Iran.
Sudan FM expresses disapproval at exclusion from UK conference for resolving country’s civil war
- Rapid Support Forces, who are locked in a deadly struggle with the Sudanese Armed Forces, have also been excluded from the conference
- UK, along with conference co-hosts Germany and France, is bringing together foreign ministers from nearly 20 countries
LONDON: Sudan’s Foreign Minister Ali Youssef has expressed his disapproval, via a letter to UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy, at his exclusion from a UK-hosted conference aimed at resolving the African country’s prolonged civil war.
The Rapid Support Forces, who are locked in a deadly struggle with the Sudanese Armed Forces, have also been excluded from the conference.
Instead, the UK, along with conference co-hosts Germany and France, is bringing together foreign ministers from nearly 20 countries, and organizations, in an attempt to establish a group that can drive the warring factions in Sudan closer towards peace.
The conference at Lancaster House in London on April 15 comes on the second anniversary of the start of a civil war that has led to the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis, but has been persistently left at the bottom of the global list of diplomatic priorities. Half of Sudan’s population are judged to be desperately short of food, with 11 million people internally displaced.
The initiative holds risks for Lammy, since it may require him to place pressure on some of the UK’s Middle Eastern allies to make good on their promises to no longer arm the warring parties.
A harsh spotlight is also very likely to fall in London on the impact of USAID cuts on the provision of humanitarian aid in Sudan as well as the withdrawal of funding by the US from academic groups that have been monitoring war crimes and the build-up of famine.
NGOs such as Human Rights Watch are also urging the ministerial conference to emphasize the importance of civilian protection, independent of a ceasefire.
At an event previewing the conference, Kate Ferguson, the co-director of the NGO Protection Approaches, said: “The conference comes at a critical moment for civilians in Sudan as areas of control under various armed forces rapidly evolve and civilians face an increasing spectrum of varied attack.”
She added: “A new vehicle is needed to take forward civilian protection. This is a moment here to create something new that is desperately needed — whether that is a coalition of conscience or a contact group.”
Ferguson added that “citizens were facing an unimaginable triple threat of armed conflict, identity-based atrocity crimes and humanitarian catastrophe.”
Lebanese PM says there is no threat of a return to war if no timetable is set for ‘limiting weapons’
Lebanese PM says there is no threat of a return to war if no timetable is set for ‘limiting weapons’
- Comment follows reports from Western security agencies that Hezbollah is transporting weapons from Iran by sea, and a recent visit from US envoy Morgan Ortagus
- The prime minister’s office says ‘Lebanon is committed to all security measures to protect the Port of Beirut’ and the city’s airport
BEIRUT: Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said on Wednesday he has not received “any threat, neither from the Deputy US Special Envoy to the Middle East Morgan Ortagus nor from anyone else, regarding the possibility of a return to war if the government does not set a timetable for limiting weapons.”
A source in the prime minister’s office told Arab News: “Lebanon is committed to all security measures to protect the Port of Beirut, as well as the airport, and we have not received any information indicating complaints in this regard.” The government has “a clear security plan to protect its vital facilities,” the source added.
On Tuesday, news channel Al-Hadath said reports by Western security agencies suggested “Hezbollah has begun using the sea to transport weapons from Iran, following air restrictions and the collapse of Syrian regime control. The Port of Beirut is considered the focal point for this activity, with Hezbollah operating freely through collaborators in customs and oversight mechanisms.”
Salam said: “The constitution, which is based on the Taif Agreement, stipulates the extension of state authority over all its territory through its own forces. All ministers are committed to this matter.
“A ministerial statement also affirmed the exclusivity of weapons in the hands of the state, and all ministers are committed to that. The matter of war and peace lies solely in the hands of the state.”
Salam was speaking after a meeting on Wednesday with Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rahi at the latter’s office in Bkerke, during which he briefed the religious leader on the outcomes of his meeting with Ortagus last week.
In his comments following the meeting, the prime minister also emphasized the “urgent need for Israel to withdraw from the five occupied points” in Lebanon “as they hold no military, security or strategic value.
“We are currently in an era dominated by technology, satellites and surveillance, and military aircraft. Unfortunately, there are also networks of spies on the ground, which we have reiterated, particularly to Ortagus. This is a matter we are actively pursuing.”
Also on Wednesday, Lebanon’s public works and transportation minister, Fayez Rassamni, toured the Port of Beirut and met representatives of the security agencies operating there. In response to the reports of weapons passing through the port, he said: “Operations at the port are proceeding with the same intensity as those at the airport, and security here is firmly under control. We will not allow anyone to cast doubt, and if there is any information please provide us with evidence.”
Omar Itani, chairperson of the board and general manager of the port, said: “The port management does not have the authority to inspect the nature or content of the goods arriving at the port. Their role is limited to facilitating and overseeing logistics.
“Inspections and audits are conducted in coordination with the customs administration, the Lebanese army, and other security agencies present within the port, as part of a unified regulatory system aimed at preventing any potential violations. In recent years, these procedures have been significantly strengthened, particularly by the Lebanese army, to ensure that no infractions or smuggling occur.
“An agreement has been reached to enhance oversight and update equipment, including the introduction of modern scanning devices similar to those used in international ports. This initiative aims not only to bolster security but also to facilitate export activities, especially towards Gulf and European countries, thereby benefiting farmers and production sectors while increasing state revenues.”
Iranian airlines continue to be denied landing permits at Rafic Hariri International Airport in Beirut following Israeli allegations that Tehran was using them to deliver funds and weapons to Hezbollah.
Ortagus, the US envoy, visited Lebanon last weekend and held meetings with a wide range of politicians and economists in what was described as a constructive atmosphere. She also toured the National Museum in Beirut.
After leaving the capital, however, she raised her tone and in a series of statements since the start of the week has stressed that Hezbollah must be fully disarmed. She said the group “is like a cancer and Lebanon must eradicate it if it is to recover.”
During an interview with Sky News, she accused Iran of “dragging the Middle East into a perilous new phase of instability.” She said that “the Lebanese army, with its current capabilities, is able to disarm Hezbollah” and “disarming Hezbollah is part of President Donald Trump’s maximum-pressure policy on Iran.”
Ortagus added: “The only way for Lebanon to emerge from its crisis is to reject any role for Iran and its allies, and the US has optimistic expectations regarding Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri’s role in the next phase.
“We expect reforms in Lebanon but the Trump administration’s patience has limits. We want the Lebanese to feel safe when depositing their money in banks. I informed Lebanese officials not to count on the World Bank meeting without the approval of reforms by parliament. Lebanese officials must show the World Bank that they are serious, not just talking.”
Meanwhile, a new Israeli violation of Lebanese sovereignty was reported when Israeli warplanes carried out an airstrike deep inside the country. The target was a residential building between the towns of Aadous and Hosh Tal Safiya in the Baalbek region of the eastern Bekaa. The strike was preceded by a warning raid that gave the Syrian residents time to evacuate the building.
Queen Rania of Jordan addresses Gaza’s humanitarian crisis with Italy’s Giorgia Meloni
- Queen Rania emphasized the severe shortage of food, medical supplies and shelter in Gaza
- Jordanian queen and Giorgia Meloni reaffirmed the strong ties between Rome and Amman
LONDON: Queen Rania of Jordan addressed the humanitarian crisis in Gaza during a meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Wednesday, during her brief visit to the country.
Meloni hosted Queen Rania at Villa Doria Pamphili in Rome, where they discussed the humanitarian crisis caused by Israeli military actions in Gaza, the official Petra agency reported.
Queen Rania emphasized the severe shortage of food, medical supplies and shelter following the Israeli suspension of aid relief deliveries to Gaza. She highlighted the increasing orphan crisis in Gaza, where more than 39,000 Palestinian children have lost one or both parents since October 2023.
Queen Rania and Meloni reaffirmed the strong ties between Rome and Amman. They highlighted the significance of educational projects and family protection initiatives in Jordan, which the Italian Development Cooperation supports.
