SIDON: An Israeli airstrike hit two vehicles near a Lebanese army checkpoint in south Lebanon on Sunday, killing a Hezbollah member and wounding several other people, including civilians, Lebanese state media and health officials reported.
The strike appeared to be part of a shift in Israeli strategy toward targeted killings in Lebanon after more than three months of near-daily clashes with Hezbollah militants on the border against the backdrop of the war in Gaza.
Hezbollah announced that one of its members, identified as Fadel Shaar, had been killed in the strike in the town of Kafra. Local civil defense and hospital officials said seven people were wounded, including two women, one of whom was in critical condition.
Video from the scene showed a passenger sedan in flames next to a small truck stopped in the middle of the road.
The Israeli military did not comment on the strike.
Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7, Hezbollah forces have engaged in near-daily clashes with Israeli troops along the border.
While the clashes had previously been limited mainly to a narrow strip within a few kilometers (miles) from the border, Israel in recent weeks appears to have moved to a strategy of targeted killings of figures from Hezbollah and allied groups, sometimes hitting in areas relatively far from the border, as was the case in Sunday’s strike.
On Saturday, another strike near the Lebanese port city of Tyre killed two people in a car — one of them a Hezbollah commander — and two people in a nearby orchard. The commander, Ali Hudruj, was buried Sunday in south Lebanon. The other occupant of the car, tech sector businessman Mohammad Baqir Diab, was identified as a civilian and was buried in Beirut on Sunday.
On Jan. 2, a presumed Israeli airstrike killed a top Hamas official, Saleh Arouri, in a suburb of Beirut, the first such strike in Lebanon’s capital since Israel and Hezbollah fought a brutal one-month war in 2006.
Speaking at Hudruj’s funeral Sunday, Hezbollah Member of Parliament Hussein Jeshi said Israel had “resorted to the method of assassinating some members of the resistance" to compensate for being unable to reach a military victory against Hamas after more than 100 days of war in Gaza.
The Lebanese militant group said in a statement later Sunday that it had launched an attack against the town of Avivim in northern Israel in retaliation for a civilian woman killed in the Israeli strike in Kafra and for other “attacks that targeted Lebanese villages and civilians.”
It later modified the statement to remove the reference to the civilian death after hospital officials and family members said the woman was still alive.
Israel did not comment on the strike in Kafra but announced it had struck Hezbollah targets in several locations in Lebanon on Sunday. It later said that an anti-tank missile had hit a house in Avivim and no injuries were reported.
With dangers of a regional conflict flaring on multiple fronts, officials from the United States and Europe have engaged in a flurry of shuttle diplomacy in recent weeks between Israel and Lebanon, attempting to head off an escalation of the conflict into a full-on war on the Lebanese front.
Strike kills Hezbollah official in Lebanon, amid apparent Israeli shift to targeted killings
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Strike kills Hezbollah official in Lebanon, amid apparent Israeli shift to targeted killings
- Hezbollah announced that one of its members, identified as Fadel Shaar, had been killed in the strike in the town of Kafra
Gaza’s ‘tragic story’ shows ‘unraveling of international law,’ Pakistan’s Ambassador to UN Asim Iftikhar Ahmad tells Arab News
- As Pakistan assumes Security Council’s rotating presidency, its permanent representative decries international failure to put pressure on Israel
- Views upcoming conference on Saudi-France-led two-state solution as “another golden opportunity … to reaffirm support for Palestinian cause”
NEW YORK CITY: A long-standing advocate of the Palestinian cause, Pakistan is using its presidency of the UN Security Council to help refocus global attention on the crisis in Gaza and the wider Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, Pakistan’s permanent representative to the UN, outlined his country’s vision in a wide-ranging interview with Arab News as the South Asian country assumed the rotating presidency of the Security Council
“It’s a tragic story. It is an unraveling of international law, international humanitarian law,” Ahmad said, decrying the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and the international community’s failure to pressure Israel to put an end to it.
Reiterating his country’s position at the UN, he said: “We want clear movement in the direction of Palestinian statehood, on the basis of the right to self-determination, on the basis of international legitimacy and UN Security Council resolutions.”
He also highlighted the significance of the upcoming conference on implementing the two-state solution — to be co-chaired by Saudi Arabia and France from July 28 to 30 — calling it “another golden opportunity for the international community to come together and to reaffirm that support for the Palestinian cause.”
Pakistan’s deputy prime minister and foreign minister are expected to attend, offering the country’s full political and diplomatic backing.
In preparation, Ahmad said Pakistan has actively participated in eight preparatory roundtables addressing the political, security, humanitarian and legal dimensions of the two-state solution.
“We have described how we are going to support many of those actions,” he said.
Regarding coordination with Saudi Arabia and others involved in ceasefire negotiations, Ahmad noted that while Pakistan is “not directly involved,” it remains in close contact with key stakeholders.
“We hope that this ceasefire should be announced sooner rather than later,” he said.
Asked whether Pakistan would consider normalizing relations with Israel if a Palestinian state were recognized and the violence in Gaza ended, Ahmad was unequivocal.
“There are no indications, unfortunately, from the Israeli side on moving forward with recognition,” he said. “What we are looking at this point of time is Palestinian statehood in the context of the two-state solution.”
Another unresolved conflict concerns the disputed Kashmir region between India and Pakistan.
In May, India launched Operation Sindoor, firing missiles at what it claimed were militant targets in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, in retaliation for a deadly April 22 attack in Pahalgam, Indian-administered Kashmir, that killed 26 civilians.
India, which has accused Pakistan of supporting terrorism in Indian-administered Kashmir, said that Pakistan-based insurgents were behind the attack — claims that Islamabad denies.
Pakistan responded to India’s attacks with missile, drone and artillery strikes along the Line of Control and on military installations, in what it called Operation Bunyan-ul-Marsoos, sparking intense cross-border exchanges until a ceasefire was brokered on May 10.
Ahmad linked these events to the broader unresolved status of the region.
“This recurring conflict was the result of Indian unprovoked aggression against Pakistan, which Pakistan had to respond to in accordance with the right to self-defense, in accordance with the UN Charter,” he said.
He welcomed international mediation efforts and reiterated Pakistan’s position. “We want to have this dialog with India. We want to address the issues between us, and in particular the core issue of Jammu and Kashmir.”
He restated the legal basis for Pakistan’s claims. “This position derives itself from the resolutions of the UN Security Council on Jammu and Kashmir,” which call for a plebiscite for the Kashmiri people.
However, “that plebiscite has not been held because India has refused to comply.”
Ahmad argued that lasting peace in South Asia is unlikely without resolving this “core issue.”
Turning to the credibility of the Security Council itself, Ahmad was blunt in his critique. “It’s very clear; resolutions are there. The problem is about implementation,” he said, citing both Kashmir and Palestine as long-neglected issues.
He referred to Article 25 of the UN Charter, which affirms that all Security Council resolutions are binding, whether under Chapter VI or Chapter VII.
“There should be a review, an assessment of how the Security Council has been able to implement many of its resolutions,” he said.
He proposed that special envoys or representatives of the secretary-general could help advance implementation. “More important than adopting those resolutions is to have them implemented,” he said.
Ahmad spoke at length about the leadership role Pakistan envisioned at the Security Council — including its commitment to multilateralism and its strategic engagement across UN agencies.
Beyond peace and security, Pakistan remains actively engaged in the UN’s development, humanitarian and environmental work.
“Pakistan, being a developing country, has development challenges. We are particularly impacted by climate change,” said Ahmad, recalling the devastating floods that have repeatedly afflicted the country in recent years.
He highlighted Pakistan’s leadership in climate diplomacy, emergency response and poverty reduction through collaboration with specialized UN agencies.
“We are among the lead countries who are leading this international discourse on development, on climate change,” he said.
According to Ahmad, Pakistan is active not only in New York, but also across other UN hubs — including Geneva, Rome and Nairobi — contributing to human rights, sustainable development and climate resilience.
On issues from Palestine and Kashmir to Security Council reform, he said, Pakistan is pushing for action grounded in the UN Charter and international law. As Ahmad sees it, the July presidency is an opportunity “to bring that focus back” to the principles on which the UN was founded.
At the heart of this approach is a renewed emphasis on multilateralism — a value Ahmad calls “the cornerstone of Pakistan’s foreign policy.”
In an increasingly divided world, he stressed that “the attachment to the UN, the charter, international law, and this ability for the member states to work together through the UN” remains vital.
Pakistan, he said, aims to advance peace and security through constructive cooperation with all member states, both inside and outside the council.
Reflecting that goal, Pakistan’s signature open debate next week will focus on “how we can better use multilateralism and peaceful settlement of disputes to promote international peace and security.”
The aim, he added, is to “bring that discussion back to the council” and reaffirm the tools provided in the UN Charter — particularly Chapter VI on peaceful dispute resolution, Chapter VIII on regional arrangements, and the secretary-general’s role in preventive diplomacy.
“We want to bring together and reaffirm the commitment of the Security Council to really utilize these tools,” Ahmad said.
Although some expected Pakistan’s signature event to spotlight national concerns, Ahmad clarified that the debate “is not specific to any situation.” Rather, it is intended to promote “a comprehensive approach to conflict prevention, preventive diplomacy,” and “peacefully address disputes.”
“Pakistan does not believe that we are in the Security Council only to promote our own issues or agendas. Our agenda is broad, based on international law,” he said.
Ahmad argued that such a holistic approach is essential to resolving many of the crises currently on the council’s agenda — including Gaza and Kashmir.
Sudan crisis worsens as violence escalates in Kordofan and Darfur
- “The suffering in Kordofan deepens with each passing day,” Mercy Corps Country Director for Sudan, Kadry Furany, said in a statement
CAIRO: Fighting in Sudan’s Kordofan region that has killed hundreds and ongoing violence in Darfur — the epicenters of the country’s conflict — have worsened Sudan’s humanitarian crisis, with aid workers warning of limited access to assistance.
The UN said more than 450 civilians, including at least 35 children, were killed during the weekend of July 12 in attacks in villages surrounding the town of Bara in North Kordofan province.
“The suffering in Kordofan deepens with each passing day,” Mercy Corps Country Director for Sudan, Kadry Furany, said in a statement. “Communities are trapped along active and fast-changing front lines, unable to flee, unable to access basic needs or lifesaving assistance.”
Sudan plunged into war after simmering tensions between the army and its rival, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, escalated to fighting in April 2023.
BACKGROUND
The violence has killed at least 40,000 people and created one of the world’s worst displacement and hunger crises.
In recent months, much of the fighting has been concentrated in the Darfur and Kordofan regions.
On Thursday, the UN human rights office confirmed that since July 10, the RSF has killed at least 60 civilians in the town of Bara, while civil society groups reported up to 300 people were killed, the office said.
A military airstrike on Thursday in Bara killed at least 11 people, all from the same family.
Meanwhile, between July 10 and 14, the army killed at least 23 civilians and injured over two dozen others after striking two villages in West Kordofan.
An aid worker with Mercy Corps said his brother was fatally shot on July 13 during an attack on the village of Um Seimima in El-Obeid City in North Kordofan.
Furany said that movement between the western and eastern areas of the Kordofan region is “practically impossible.”
The intensified fighting forced Mercy Corps to temporarily suspend operations in three out of four localities, with access beyond Kadugli, the capital of South Kordofan, now being in “serious doubt,” Furany said, as a safe sustained humanitarian corridor is needed.
Mathilde Vu, an aid worker with the Norwegian Refugee Council who is often based in Port Sudan, said that fighting has intensified in North Kordofan and West Kordofan over the past several months.
West Bank ‘plane chalet’ helps aviation dreams scale newer heights
- Red and white concrete ‘plane’ has become a local landmark
- ‘So many kids want to come,’ said 27-year-old Harsha, who built the guest house in the hills of the northern West Bank. However, the price tag, between $300 and $600 per night, is out of reach for most Palestinians, particularly as unemployment soars due
QAFFIN, West Bank: A guest house in the shape of a plane would stand out anywhere in the world, but in the occupied West Bank, devoid of airports, Minwer Harsha’s creation helps aviation dreams take flight.
“So many kids want to come,” said 27-year-old Harsha, who built the guest house in the hills of the northern West Bank, within view of the separation barrier between Israel and the Palestinian territory.
“And that’s the goal: Since we don’t have planes or airports, people come here instead,” he said.
Harsha said he designed the concrete plane himself, with a master bedroom in the cockpit and a children’s bedroom in the tail.
The price tag, between 1,000 and 2,000 shekels (about $300-$600) per night, is out of reach for most Palestinians, particularly as unemployment soars due to the war in Gaza.
He has nonetheless been pleased with the reactions to his chalet, having initially faced skepticism.
“I wanted to bring something unique, something new to the area and to Palestine,” Harsha said of the unit, which opened a month ago.
Since its launch, his red and white concrete plane has become a local landmark, featuring in local media and on social networks.
Harsha said he originally wanted to place a Palestinian flag on his chalet and call it the “Palestinian Queen,” but avoided such signs out of caution.
The guest house is located in the West Bank’s Area C, which covers more than 60 percent of the territory and is under full Israeli control.
“I just made it look like a plane. I avoided politics entirely because of the hardships our people are going through,” he said.
“We’re a people who are constantly losing things — our land, our rights, our lives.”
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, and frequently demolishes homes it says are built without permission in the mostly rural Area C.
Though no airport currently services the Palestinian territories, both the West Bank and Gaza once had their own terminals, in East Jerusalem and the southern Gaza city of Rafah, respectively.
Both were closed during the Second Intifada, the Palestinian uprising of the early 2000s, and what remains of East Jerusalem’s airport is now isolated from the rest of the West Bank by Israel’s separation barrier.
Despite difficulties and threats of demolition, Harsha believes that Palestinians can find freedom and fulfilment in projects like his.
“I encourage everyone who has land to work on it and invest in it — with creativity and ambition,” he said, flanked by his two brothers who helped him build the unit.
Harsha himself has more plans for his land.
“After this airplane, we’ll build a ship next year,” he said.
“It will be something unique and beautiful,” he said, pointing out that while many West Bank Palestinians have seen planes flying overhead, a large number of people from the landlocked territory have never seen a real ship at all.
Sudan PM vows to rebuild Khartoum on first visit to war-torn capital
- “Khartoum will return as a proud national capital,” Idris said
- Idris on Saturday visited the army headquarters and the city’s airport, two national symbols
KHARTOUM: Sudan’s Prime Minister Kamil Idris on Saturday pledged to rebuild Khartoum on his first visit to the capital, ravaged by more than two years of war, since assuming office in May.
Touring the city’s destroyed airport, bridges and water stations, the new premier outlined mass repair projects in anticipation of the return of at least some of the millions who have fled the violence.
“Khartoum will return as a proud national capital,” Idris said, according to Sudan’s state news agency.
The war between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces began in the heart of the capital in April 2023, quickly tearing the city apart.
Tens of thousands are estimated to have been killed in the once-bustling capital which 3.5 million people have fled, according to the United Nations.
According to Khartoum state’s media office, Idris on Saturday visited the army headquarters and the city’s airport, two national symbols whose recapture along with the presidential palace earlier this year cemented the army’s victory in the capital.
But reconstruction is expected to be a herculean feat, with the government putting the cost at $700 billion nationwide, around half of which in Khartoum alone.
The army-aligned government, which moved to Port Sudan on the Red Sea early in the war and still operates from there, has begun to plan the return of ministries to Khartoum even as fighting rages on in other parts of the country.
Authorities have begun operations in the capital to properly bury corpses, clear thousands of unexploded ordnances and resume bureaucratic services.
On a visit to Sudan’s largest oil refinery, the Al-Jaili plant just north of Khartoum, Idris promised that “national institutions will come back even better than they were before.”
The refinery — now a blackened husk — was recaptured in January, but the facility which once processed 100,000 barrels a day will take years and at least $1.3 billion to rebuild, officials told AFP.
Idris is a career diplomat and former UN official who was appointed in May by army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, Sudan’s de facto leader, to form an administration dubbed a “government of hope.”
The war has created the world’s largest hunger and displacement crises, with nearly 25 million
people suffering dire food insecurity and over 10 million internally displaced across the country.
A further four million people have fled across borders.
In Sudan’s southern Kordofan and western Darfur regions, the fighting shows no signs of abating, with the paramilitaries accused of killing hundreds in recent days in attempts to capture territory.
Druze Sheikh Akl in Lebanon calls for Arab and Turkish sponsorship to reassure Syrian people
- Former prime ministers emphasize with Jumblatt the role of the Syrian state in promoting national unity
BEIRUT: Former Lebanese prime ministers Najib Mikati, Fouad Siniora, and Tammam Salam announced during their meeting on Saturday with former Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt at his home in Beirut their support for the steps and positions taken by the Syrian state to “heal the national rift in Syria,” against the backdrop of escalating events in Sweida between the Druze and the Bedouins.
The Sunni former prime ministers emphasized “the need to prioritize dialogue, openness, and tolerance among our Syrian brothers in order to nip sedition in the bud, and to do everything possible to strengthen internal national unity among all Syrian citizens on the basis of citizenship and justice for all.”
The attendees praised Jumblatt’s stance on the ongoing events. They denounced “Israel’s interference and aggression against Syria, stressing that this interference in Syria’s internal affairs is unacceptable and condemned. It aims to fragment and divide the Syrian people, and to incite and turn certain forces and parties against each other, under the pretext of protecting our true Arab Druze brothers from the Bani Ma’rouf in Jabal Al-Arab, who believe that what Israel is doing is the implementation of a malicious, exposed, and unacceptable plan to perpetuate its occupation of the Syrian Golan.”
The statement issued by the attendees called for “the need to initiate an immediate ceasefire and affirm full commitment by all parties to it, to free the kidnapped, lift the siege, and restore public services. They also called for efforts to establish communication, understanding, and tolerance among all Syrian citizens to prevent strife and stop the bloodshed. This should then lead to constructive dialogue among them, based on the unity of the Syrian identity, the principles of citizenship, the unity of the Syrian homeland, the sovereignty of a single, capable, and just state, and the integrity of all Syrian territory.”
The attendees stressed “the necessity of an impartial investigation committee to hold accountable those who instigated the sedition and those who carried out and perpetrated the killings and attacks against peaceful civilians, regardless of their affiliation.”
They also denounced “attempts to exploit the dangerous events in Syria to spread tension and sedition to Lebanon,” affirming that the Lebanese Army and state security agencies will stand guard against these malicious and despicable attempts.
Lebanese Army Commander General Rodolphe Heikal visited the Sheikh of the Druze community, Sheikh Sami Abi Al-Muna, on Saturday evening, accompanied by Chief of Staff Major General Hassan Odeh. Discussions focused on “ways to contain the repercussions of the events in Syria on the Lebanese scene and preserve internal security stability,” according to a statement issued by the attendees.
Abi Al-Muna called on everyone in Sweida “to unite under the umbrella of the state.” He said: “However, this places the responsibility on the Syrian state to reassure its people and instill confidence among the people, so that citizens will surrender their weapons and commands to it. This is a difficult task, but not impossible, and Arab and Turkish sponsorship is essential.”
Arab tribes in Lebanon have also taken action to prevent any repercussions from the events in Sweida. A delegation from the Arab Zreikat tribes visited Sheikh Abi Al-Muna and affirmed their “solidarity with the Druze community and their condemnation of the painful events in Sweida Governorate.”
Sheikh Abi Al-Muna described what is happening in Jabal Al-Arab as “something alien to our customs and traditions, and we are trying to calm our youth so that things do not slide into an absurd confrontation in Lebanon and undermine coexistence.”
Sheikh Kamel Al-Daher, on behalf of the tribal delegation, stressed the need to “quell the strife in the face of those who throw words and money at it, and for the Syrian state, headed by Sharaa, to stop the bloodshed, address the issue, and establish reconciliation, as is our tradition.”
Representatives of the Progressive Socialist Party, the largest party under which most of Lebanon’s Druze are united, met this morning with representatives of the Arab tribes in the Bekaa and agreed that “Lebanon should not be a crossing point for any tensions.”
