Gaza death toll surpasses 40,000, health ministry says

BEIRUT: Israel confirmed the release of five Lebanese detainees held by its military, Israeli media reported on Tuesday, citing the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

They were captured during Israel’s ground offensive in southern Lebanon that began on Oct. 1 last year, and after the Nov. 27 ceasefire went into effect.

This move followed deliberations by the committee overseeing the implementation of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah.

It came as a direct result of intensified Lebanese diplomatic pressure on the supervisory committee.

“President Joseph Aoun met US Gen. Jasper Jeffers, head of the international committee monitoring the implementation of the ceasefire agreement, along with his team, the US Ambassador to Lebanon Lisa Johnson, the US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Middle East Natasha Franceschi, and the US Defense Attaché in Lebanon Col. Joseph Becker,” a source inside the Presidential Palace told Arab News.

“President Aoun urged the committee to pressure Israel into a full withdrawal from the Lebanese border region, particularly from the five hills still under Israeli occupation. He also called for the release of the Lebanese individuals taken hostage by Israel, emphasizing that Lebanon does not hold any Israeli hostages. Therefore, there is no justification for delaying the process under the pretext of a prisoner swap, and holding Lebanese people hostage offers no advantage to Israel,” the source added.

According to a statement from the president’s office, Aoun requested that “these demands be raised during the committee’s meeting on Tuesday.”

Reports from southern Lebanon indicate that Israel currently holds 11 Lebanese citizens — seven Hezbollah members, three civilians, and a soldier.

Earlier on Monday, the Lebanese Army Command announced that “the Israeli Army captured Lebanese soldier Ziad Shibli on the southern border after communication with him was lost.

It was later revealed that Israeli forces shot him while he was in civilian clothing on the outskirts of the border town of Kfarchouba. The soldier was injured and subsequently transferred to occupied Palestinian territories.

Israeli violations of Lebanese sovereignty persist, with a military drone targeting a vehicle on the road between the towns of Romin and Wadi Al-Zahrani in the heart of southern Lebanon. The attack resulted in the death of the driver, identified as Hassan Ezzeddine from the town of Houmine Al-Tahta, and a member of Hezbollah.

Israeli Army radio later claimed that “the dead man was an official in Hezbollah’s air defense unit.”

Israeli drones have been used in a campaign pursuing Hezbollah members in the south, despite a ceasefire agreement being in effect for less than four months.

On Dec. 7, an Israeli drone killed a biker in Deir Seryan, whose identity was not revealed.

Another drone killed a Hamas official on Feb. 17 in Saida Mohammed Chahine.

On March 4, an Israeli drone killed Khodr Hachem, a Hezbollah official, who “held the position of commander of the naval forces in Hezbollah’s Radwan Unit,” according to Israeli claims.

As part of the efforts to accelerate the Israeli withdrawal from the south, Speaker Nabih Berri met the ambassadors of the Quintet Committee.

Following the meeting, Egyptian Ambassador to Lebanon Alaa Moussa said the discussion focused on “the importance of the Israeli withdrawal from the south.”

He added: “The Quintet Committee is currently working on reaching a formula that leads to the complete Israeli withdrawal.”

The diplomat clarified that “they didn’t discuss the details of ceasing hostilities, but focused on the importance of the Israeli withdrawal.”

He said Berri “affirmed his commitment to implementing the ministerial statement and the oath speech.”

DAMASCUS: A Syrian fact-finding committee investigating sectarian killings during clashes between the army and loyalists of Bashar Assad said on Tuesday that no one was above the law and it would seek the arrest and prosecution of any perpetrators.
Pressure has been growing on Syria’s Islamist-led government to investigate after reports by witnesses and a war monitor of the killing of hundreds of civilians in villages where the majority of the population are members of the ousted president’s Alawite sect.
“No one is above the law, the committee will relay all the results to the entity that launched it, the presidency, and the judiciary,” the committee’s spokesperson Yasser Farhan said in a televised press conference.
The committee was preparing lists of witnesses to interview and potential perpetrators, and would refer any suspects with sufficient evidence against them to the judiciary, Farhan added.
The UN human rights office said entire families including women and children were killed in the coastal region as part of a series of sectarian killings by the army against an insurgency by Assad loyalists.
Syria’s interim president Ahmed Al-Sharaa told Reuters in an interview on Monday that he could not yet say whether forces from Syria’s defense ministry — which has incorporated former rebel factions under one structure — were involved in the sectarian killings.
Asked whether the committee would seek international help to document violations, Farhan said it was “open” to cooperation but would prefer using its own national mechanisms.
The violence began to spiral on Thursday, when the authorities said their forces in the coastal region came under attack from fighters aligned with the ousted Assad regime.
The Sunni Islamist-led government poured reinforcements into the area to crush what it described as a deadly, well-planned and premeditated assault by remnants of the Assad government.
But Sharaa acknowledged to Reuters that some armed groups had entered without prior coordination with the defense ministry.