Arab League calls for adherence to UN Resolution 1701 to contain escalation in southern Lebanon

Arab League calls for adherence to UN Resolution 1701 to contain escalation in southern Lebanon
Interceptions of rockets launched from Lebanon to Israel over the border, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, close the Israeli border with Lebanon, on Jun. 27, 2024. (Reuters)
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Updated 28 June 2024
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Arab League calls for adherence to UN Resolution 1701 to contain escalation in southern Lebanon

Arab League calls for adherence to UN Resolution 1701 to contain escalation in southern Lebanon
  • Israel has ‘destroyed entire neighborhoods,’ mayor of Kfarkela says
  • EU urges restraint, Jordan advises citizens to avoid Lebanon

BEIRUT: The Arab League on Friday warned against “the dangerous challenges that would threaten Lebanon and its stability, as well as the whole region’s stability, in case the war expanded on the southern border.”
Speaking in Beirut, Assistant Secretary-General Hossam Zaki stressed the importance of UN Resolution 1701 in containing the current escalation.
Zaki met various political figures during his visit to Lebanon, including former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.
He said the secretary-general of the Arab League had warned since the outset of the “monstrous” war on Gaza of the risk of its expansion to other countries in the region, including Lebanon.
The international community must carry out its responsibilities and stop the war, Zaki said, adding that the only way to contain the escalation in southern Lebanon was a complete ceasefire.
Zaki’s most prominent meeting was with Mohammed Raad, the head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc. It was the first meeting between the two sides since 2016, when the Arab League labeled Hezbollah a terrorist group.
At the end of his visit, Zaki said he counted on the Lebanese leaders’ “wisdom and their complete awareness of the dangerous threats surrounding Lebanon politically and on the ground.”
The Arab League, he said, was “fully ready to help the country with anything that might contribute to overcoming this difficult phase safely” and expressed the organization’s solidarity with Lebanon and its people.
He also emphasized the need to end the 19-month presidential vacuum.
Also on Friday, the EU expressed its concern over the “escalating tensions in the region, especially along the Blue Line between Lebanon and Israel.”
It called on all parties to “exercise self-restraint and take part in the diplomatic efforts to reduce the escalation.”
On Thursday, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed its “deep concern over the seriousness of the situation in Lebanon” and called on all parties to exercise maximum self-restraint.
The ministry’s deputy spokesperson, Christophe Lemoine, said hostilities in southern Lebanon had been escalating dramatically.
France, which has called for the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, “remains fully committed to preventing any risk of escalation along the Blue Line and reaching a diplomatic solution,” he said.
Some countries have warned their citizens against traveling to Lebanon due to the worsening security situation in the south of the country.
The Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs advised its citizens to “avoid traveling to Lebanon during this period, except for urgent necessity.”
The border area in southern Lebanon continues to face attacks from Israel, while Hezbollah has been targeting Israeli military sites.
In the town of Kfarkela, an Israeli airstrike destroyed a three-story commercial building comprising 10 shops. Mayor Hassan Sheet told Arab News that Israel had destroyed 76 residential buildings in the town, each containing more than 10 apartments.
“One could say entire neighborhoods have been leveled to the ground. We are in a state of war,” he said.
The current level of destruction was unparalleled, outstripping even the 2006 aggression, and people had abandoned the town to nearby villages, he said.
Only civil defense personnel remain in the town to extinguish fires and remove rubble.
Israeli artillery also shelled the outskirts of the coastal town of Naqoura, while warplanes attacked the town of Chihine.
Hezbollah, meanwhile, said it had targeted “espionage equipment at the Birkat Risha site with appropriate weapons, achieving direct hits.”
Sirens sounded in Kfar Blum and Amir in Upper Galilee. Israeli Channel 12 reported that the Iron Dome intercepted a suspicious aerial target in the Galilee panhandle, triggering the alarm due to fear of falling debris.
Also on Friday, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah for the first time received his new Sunni ally in operations in southern Lebanon — the secretary-general of the Islamic Group in Lebanon, Sheikh Mohammed Takkoush.
A statement issued by the two sides said: “The latest political and security developments in Lebanon and Palestine were discussed and the importance of cooperation among resistance forces in the battle to support the valiant resistance in Gaza and its steadfast and honorable people was emphasized.”


Syria vows ‘no leniency’ after detainee death: state media

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Syria vows ‘no leniency’ after detainee death: state media

Syria vows ‘no leniency’ after detainee death: state media
The man, identified as Louai Tayara, was arrested on Wednesday for “not settling his legal status, and for carrying undeclared weapons“
The city has seen security sweeps since Assad was toppled, with hundreds of people arrested

DAMASCUS: Syrian authorities have opened an investigation and vowed no leniency after a detainee died in Homs, state media reported on Saturday, less than two months after rebels ousted Bashar Assad.
The man, identified as Louai Tayara, was arrested on Wednesday for “not settling his legal status, and for carrying undeclared weapons,” the SANA news agency said, citing the head of the General Security department in the central Syrian city.
Without identifying the security chief by name, SANA said Tayara had been a member of the National Defense, a militia affiliated with the former government, in Homs.
The city has seen security sweeps since Assad was toppled, with hundreds of people arrested.
Tayara was transferred to a detention center but “some security personnel assigned with transporting him” carried out “violations,” leading to his death, the news agency reported.
“An official investigation was opened” and “all personnel responsible were arrested and referred to the military judiciary,” it said.
SANA cited the security official as saying that the incident “is being dealt with in all seriousness, and there will be no leniency.”
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said Tayara had been “hit in the head with a sharp object.”
Since Islamist-led rebels toppled Assad on December 8, Syria’s new authorities have sought to provide assurances that will be no revenge for Assad-era brutality.
However, they have also begun operations against “regime remnants,” amid reports of violence including extra-judicial killings.
Assad ruled Syria with an iron fist, and his bloody crackdown down on anti-government protests in 2011 sparked a war that has killed more than 500,000 people and displaced millions.
The new authorities have also sought to reassure religious and ethnic minorities that they will not be harmed, with members of Assad’s Alawite sect in particular fearing a backlash.
Civil Peace Group, a civil society organization, called Tayara’s death a “crime” and an “attack on human values and dignity and the right to life.”
In a statement, it described the incident as a “threat to stability in the city.”
SANA reported the official as saying that “General Security affirms its full commitment to protecting citizens’ rights... and all legal measures will be taken to guarantee justice and transparency.”
“Justice will take its compete course, irrespective of the identity of the person concerned or their previous affiliation,” it said, adding that the results of the investigation would be announced promptly.
The Observatory said on Saturday that it had documented 10 deaths in custody in Homs province since Tuesday, including Tayara.
It also said that gunmen on Friday killed 10 people in a “massacre” in an Alawite village in Hama province, north of Homs.

Israel demands ‘information’ from mediators on Bibas family after father’s release

Israel demands ‘information’ from mediators on Bibas family after father’s release
Updated 17 min 7 sec ago
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Israel demands ‘information’ from mediators on Bibas family after father’s release

Israel demands ‘information’ from mediators on Bibas family after father’s release
  • “Yarden has returned home. But his wife Shiri and his children Ariel and Kfir have not,” Gal Hirsch, Israel’s hostage coordinator, said
  • “We continue to demand information about their condition from the mediators“

JERUSALEM: Israel on Saturday demanded information from mediators who brokered the ceasefire in Gaza about the fate of three family members of freed hostage Yarden Bibas.
“Yarden has returned home. But his wife Shiri and his children Ariel and Kfir have not. We have been searching for them for a long time, tracking their traces and investigating their fate,” Gal Hirsch, Israel’s hostage coordinator, said in a statement.
“The Bibas family... has been living in constant fear for their lives for a long time... We continue to demand information about their condition from the mediators.”
Like Bibas, his wife Shiri and their two boys were seized by militants on October 7, 2023 during Hamas’s attack on Israel and taken to Gaza.
Bibas’s sons — Kfir, the youngest hostage, whose second birthday fell in January, and his older brother Ariel, whose fifth birthday was in August — have become symbols of the hostages’ ordeal.
Hamas has previously declared that Shiri and the children were killed in an Israeli air strike in November 2023, but Israel has not confirmed their deaths.


Israeli hostages, Palestinian prisoners released in latest Gaza exchange

Israeli hostages, Palestinian prisoners released in latest Gaza exchange
Updated 56 min 19 sec ago
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Israeli hostages, Palestinian prisoners released in latest Gaza exchange

Israeli hostages, Palestinian prisoners released in latest Gaza exchange
  • Latest stage in multi-phase ceasefire deal to end Gaza war
  • At the newly reopened Rafah crossing, Palestinian patients to be allowed to leave Gaza

GAZA/CAIRO: Palestinian militant group Hamas handed over three Israeli hostages on Saturday, and dozens of Palestinian prisoners and detainees were released in exchange, in the latest stage of a truce aimed at ending the 15-month war in Gaza.

Ofer Kalderon, a French-Israeli dual national, and Yarden Bibas were handed over to Red Cross officials in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis before being transferred to Israel. Israeli-American Keith Siegel was separately handed over at the Gaza City seaport.

Hours later, 183 Palestinian prisoners and detainees were released in the exchange. Among them, 150 arrived in Gaza while 32 got off a bus in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, where they were greeted by large crowds. One freed prisoner will be exiled to Egypt, according to the Hamas prisoners’ media office.

“I feel joy despite the journey of pain and hardship that we lived,” said Ali Al-Barghouti, who was serving two life sentences in an Israeli jail.

“The life sentence was broken and the occupation will one day be broken,” added Barghouti, as the crowd around him in Ramallah chanted “Allah Akbar (God is the most great).”

Ofer Kalderon, center, is released by Hamas militants in this still image taken from a video in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip on Feb. 1, 2025. (Reuters/Reuters TV)

At the newly reopened Rafah crossing on the southern border, [alestinian patients to be allowed to leave Gaza for medical treatment in Egypt.

Mohammad Zaqout, a senior official in Gaza’s health ministry, however, criticized the limited number of patients allowed to travel for treatment, saying that around 18,000 people needed better health care.

In Israel, crowds gathered at the location in Tel Aviv known as Hostage Square to watch the release in the morning of the Israeli hostages on giant outdoor screens, mixing cheers and applause with tears as the three men appeared.

Kalderon, whose two children Erez and Sahar were released in the first hostage exchange in November 2023, and Bibas both briefly mounted a stage in Khan Younis, in front of a poster of Hamas figures including Mohammad Deif, the former military commander whose death was confirmed by Hamas this week, before being handed over to the Red Cross officials.

“Ofer Kalderon is free! We share the immense relief and joy of his loved ones after 483 days of unimaginable hell,” French President Emmanuel Macron said in a statement.

Saturday’s handover saw none of the chaotic scenes that overshadowed an earlier transfer on Thursday, when Hamas guards struggled to shield hostages from a surging crowd in Gaza.

But it was once again an occasion for a show of force by uniformed Hamas fighters who paraded in the area where the handovers took place in a sign of their re-established dominance in Gaza despite the heavy losses suffered in the war.

Israeli hostage Yarden Bibas waves on a stage before being handed over to members of the Red Cross in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on Feb. 1, 2025. (AFPTV/ AFP)

Negotiations on release of remaining hostages

The total number of hostages freed so far is 18, including five Thais who were part of an unscheduled release on Thursday.

After Saturday’s exchange, Israel will have released 583 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, including militants serving life sentences for deadly attacks as well as some detained during the war but not charged.

As the fighting has abated, diplomatic efforts to build a wider settlement have stepped up.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to meet US President Donald Trump on Tuesday with the ceasefire in Gaza, and a possible normalization of relations with Saudi Arabia as part of a postwar deal likely to be a focus.

During the first phase of the ceasefire, 33 children, women and older male hostages as well as sick and injured, were due to be released, with more than 60 men of military age left for a second phase which must still be worked out.

Negotiations are due to start by Tuesday on agreements for the release of the remaining hostages and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza in a second phase of the deal, which is intended to lead to a final end of the war in Gaza.

The initial six-week truce, agreed with Egyptian and Qatari mediators and backed by the United States, has mostly remained intact despite incidents that have led both sides to accuse the other of violating the deal.

Netanyahu’s government, which has hard-liners who opposed the ceasefire deal, and Hamas say they are committed to reaching an agreement in the second phase.

But prospects for a durable settlement remain unclear. The war started with a Hamas-led attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people, and saw more than 250 taken as hostages. The Israeli military campaign has killed more than 47,000 Palestinians. Gaza is in ruins and a deep legacy of bitterness and mistrust remains.

Israeli leaders continue to insist that Hamas cannot remain in Gaza, but the movement has taken every opportunity to demonstrate the control it continues to exert despite the loss of much of its former leadership and thousands of fighters during the war.


Arab foreign ministers reject Trump call for transfer of Palestinians

Arab foreign ministers reject Trump call for transfer of Palestinians
Updated 24 min 13 sec ago
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Arab foreign ministers reject Trump call for transfer of Palestinians

Arab foreign ministers reject Trump call for transfer of Palestinians
  • “We affirm our rejection of [any attempts] to compromise Palestinians’ unalienable rights,” the joint statement read
  • They were looking forward to working with Trump’s administration to achieve a just and comprehensive peace in the Middle East based on a two-state solution

CAIRO: Arab foreign ministers on Saturday rejected the transfer of Palestinians from their land under any circumstances, presenting a unified stance against US President Donald Trump’s call for Egypt and Jordan to take in residents of the Gaza Strip.
In a joint statement following a meeting in Cairo, the foreign ministers and officials from Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, the Palestinian Authority and the Arab League said such a move would threaten stability in the region, spread conflict and undermine prospects for peace.
“We affirm our rejection of [any attempts] to compromise Palestinians’ unalienable rights, whether through settlement activities, or evictions or annex of land or through vacating the land from its owners...in any form or under any circumstances or justifications,” the joint statement read.
They were looking forward to working with Trump’s administration to achieve a just and comprehensive peace in the Middle East based on a two-state solution, they added.
The meeting comes after Trump said last week that Egypt and Jordan should take in Palestinians from Gaza, which he called a “demolition site” following 15 months of Israeli bombardment that rendered most of its 2.3 million people homeless. Critics have called his suggestion tantamount to ethnic cleansing.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi on Wednesday rejected the idea that Egypt would facilitate the displacement of Gazans and said Egyptians would take to the streets to express their disapproval.
However, on Thursday, Trump reiterated the idea, saying: “We do a lot for them, and they are going to do it,” in apparent reference to abundant US aid, including military assistance, to both Egypt and Jordan.
Any suggestion that Palestinians leave Gaza, territory they want to form part of an independent state, has been anathema to the Palestinian leadership for generations and repeatedly rejected by neighboring Arab states since the Gaza war began in October 2023.
Jordan is already home to several million Palestinians, while tens of thousands live in Egypt. The foreign ministries of Egypt and Jordan have both rejected Trump’s suggestion in recent days.
The Arab ministers also welcomed Egypt’s plans to hold an international conference with the United Nations that would be focused on rebuilding Gaza, which has been mostly flattened during the 15 months war between Israel and Hamas. No date has been set yet for the conference.


Sick, wounded Palestinians leave for Egypt as Rafah crossing reopens

Sick, wounded Palestinians leave for Egypt as Rafah crossing reopens
Updated 01 February 2025
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Sick, wounded Palestinians leave for Egypt as Rafah crossing reopens

Sick, wounded Palestinians leave for Egypt as Rafah crossing reopens
  • The reopening of the Rafah crossing represents a significant breakthrough
  • Israel agreed to reopen the crossing after Hamas released the last living female hostages in Gaza

RAFAH CROSSING, Egypt: A group of 50 sick and wounded Palestinian children began crossing to Egypt for treatment through Gaza’s Rafah crossing on Saturday, in the first opening of the border since Israel captured it nearly nine months ago.
The reopening of the Rafah crossing represents a significant breakthrough that bolsters the ceasefire deal Israel and Hamas agreed to earlier this month. Israel agreed to reopen the crossing after Hamas released the last living female hostages in Gaza.
Egyptian television showed an Palestinian Red Cross ambulance pulling up to the crossing gate, and several children were brought out on stretchers and transferred to ambulances on the Egyptian side.