Waiting game continues for Lebanon residents as fear of Hezbollah-Israel war persists 

Special Waiting game continues for Lebanon residents as fear of Hezbollah-Israel war persists 
1 / 2
In Lebanese border towns seen as Hezbollah stronghold, residents remain on edge, affected daily by Israeli shelling and airstrikes. (AFP)
Special Waiting game continues for Lebanon residents as fear of Hezbollah-Israel war persists 
2 / 2
​ Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the outskirts of the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Hamam on August 9, 2024. (AFP) ​
Short Url
Updated 03 September 2024
Follow

Waiting game continues for Lebanon residents as fear of Hezbollah-Israel war persists 

Waiting game continues for Lebanon residents as fear of Hezbollah-Israel war persists 
  • Residents of country’s south cautiously resume routines as border tension eases slightly
  • Confrontation may have paused, but likelihood of a conflict in the future remains high

BEIRUT: After weeks of tension, residents of Beirut’s southern suburbs as well as towns and villages in south Lebanon have resumed semi-normal routines, yet they remain cautious, keeping evacuation kits at their doorsteps.

Since Hezbollah’s retaliation for the killing of a senior military commander and close associate of its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, residents feared that Israel might exploit the situation to launch a devastating assault on the Iran-backed Shiite Lebanese group.

Hezbollah’s muted response, coupled with Israeli indications that it did not want a full-scale war, has brought some relief to residents of south Lebanon. Yet many of them consider the reprieve merely temporary and the risk of a future conflict as high, in the absence of an agreement to calm the border front with Israel and a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

Hezbollah and Israel each claimed victory on Aug. 25, when the former lobbed hundreds of missiles and drones at the latter to avenge the elimination of Fuad Shukr on July 30.

Hezbollah launched its assault in two stages — first with 340 rockets aimed at Israeli intelligence and military bases, then with drones targeting the Glilot base near Tel Aviv. Israel claimed it pre-emptively thwarted the attacks, destroying 90 percent of the Hezbollah rockets in the process.

 

The short confrontation on that day was regarded as mutually satisfactory, allowing a return to “business as usual” and rules of engagement in place since Oct. 8, 2023.

“From the start, Hezbollah has declared it doesn’t want war, but it is ready to confront any Israeli aggression,” a source close to Hezbollah told Arab News, adding that the group’s aim is to protect Lebanese civilians.

Analysts and experts have a somewhat different opinion. Some believe that a strong American military presence in the region played a role in deterring further escalation. The UN Security Council’s unanimous vote to extend UNIFIL’s mandate by another year was viewed by politicians, including caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, as a sign that Lebanon’s stability is an international priority.

Lebanon has been in a state of financial meltdown that started in October 2019. The crisis, believed to be the world’s worst since the mid-19th century, has created dire living conditions for its population.




In this photo taken on July 27, 2022, long lines form outside a bakery in north Lebanon's port city of Tripoli as a years-long economic crisis depleted state coffers. (AFP)

To make matters worse, political divisions have prevented the election of a new president and the adoption of economic reforms needed for Lebanon to qualify for international loans. Analysts say the last thing the country can afford now is a bigger war.

Yet questions linger. Can Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, prevent future conflicts, despite the limitations that have become evident over the past 11 months?

“The southern front has returned to traditional patterns of confrontation,” Ali Fadlallah, a Lebanese expert in international relations, told Arab News. “Israel’s claim of pre-empting Hezbollah’s attack was false. Hezbollah’s drones reached their targets. Israel’s quick declaration of the end of its military operation suggested that Hezbollah’s response had acted as a deterrent.”

Nevertheless, he acknowledges that cross-border tensions are high, although they have eased slightly. “I expect this situation to continue until the US elections in November,” he said.




Israeli soldiers evacuate an injured man following a cross-border attack by Hezbollah fighters from Lebanon on September 1, 2024. (REUTERS)

Israel has solid reasons to avoid a full-scale war with Hezbollah, at least for now. Its soldiers have been fighting on two fronts since the Hamas-led attack of Oct. 7, without being able to destroy the Palestinian militant group and secure the release of scores of Israelis still held captive in Gaza.

Since Oct. 8, the Israeli military has also failed to push Hezbollah fighters at least 10 to 12 kilometers from its border to allow the safe return of 80,000 displaced people to northern Israel.

Against this backdrop, Israel’s demand for a ceasefire, rather than a cessation of hostilities as called for in Resolution 1701, is seen as reflecting a continuing view of southern Lebanon as an active front.

Citing repeated Israeli breaches of Lebanon’s airspace and sovereignty, as well as territorial disputes along the border claimed by Lebanon, Fadlallah said Resolution 1701 was flawed from the beginning since UNIFIL forces were stationed only on Lebanese soil.

Still, he said, “despite its flaws, 1701 remains the most accepted framework for maintaining stability.”

Resolution 1701 led to UNIFIL peacekeepers being deployed in southern Lebanon to monitor a ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel. Yet provisions of the resolution remain unfulfilled, including full Lebanese sovereignty over border areas.

INNUMBERS

• 130-plus civilians killed in Lebanon since Hezbollah joined fight with Israel on Oct. 8, 2023.

• 110,000 Lebanese displaced from border villages by Hezbollah-Israel fighting.

• More than 90 percent of Syrian and Palestinian refugees in Lebanon live below the poverty line.

Robert Wood, the US ambassador to the UN, recently highlighted what he called continued efforts by Hezbollah to undermine the resolution, threatening both UNIFIL’s mandate and regional security.

“Resolution 1701 is the best hope for stability amid Hezbollah’s war of attrition,” Mehiedine Le Chehimi, an international law expert, told Arab News.

Disconnected from Lebanese state institutions, Hezbollah’s unilateral decisions have not protected the country from Israeli aggression or civilian displacement, he said




UNIFIL peacekeepers man a position near Khiam in southern Lebanon on August 23, 2024, as Israel and Hezbollah continue to exchange fire. (AFP)

At least 130 civilians have been killed in Lebanon since Hezbollah joined the fight with Israel as a “support front” on Oct. 8. According to Imran Riza, the UN humanitarian coordinator in Lebanon, more than 110,000 people have been displaced from the border villages and a further 150,000 remain within 10 kilometers of the UN-patrolled “Blue Line” in areas of south Lebanon.

Le Chehimi warned of a dead-end situation, with unregulated engagement and Hezbollah undermining state authority. “Resolution 1701 remains key to any solution, and the recent decision to extend UNIFIL’s mandate took on unusual importance due to the escalating situation,” he said.

Despite widespread breaches by Hezbollah and Israel, he believes Resolution 1701 still holds value even though it has failed to earn the full respect of either side

Opinion

This section contains relevant reference points, placed in (Opinion field)

Fares Souaid, a political analyst and former Lebanese MP, believes Hezbollah chief Nasrallah’s speech after Shukr’s elimination by Israel clarified a few things.

“Hezbollah proved that Israel cannot win a war without US support, just as Hezbollah and Hamas need Iran. With US-Iran indirect communication ongoing, we might see a temporary truce,” he said.

Souaid also pointed to Nasrallah’s announcement that Hezbollah had moved its arsenal north of the Litani River before Shukr’s killing, saying that it offered Israel a kind of security assurance.

Under the circumstances, Souaid believes a full-blown war is not imminent. Instead, he sees instead indirect negotiations between the US and Iran as a driving force in future developments




A portrait of slain Hezbollah military commander Fuad Shukr is displayed during a demonstration in the Lebanese coastal city of Sidon on August 2, 2024, to denounce his killing during an Israeli airstrike. (AFP)

Nevertheless, late on Friday the Israeli air force reportedly struck military structures and launchers allegedly belonging to Hezbollah in the Tayr Harfa area of south Lebanon. Warplanes also launched strikes at Maryamine and Yaroun in southern Lebanon while Hezbollah fired about 40 rockets into Israel that landed in the Upper Galilee.

“War could break out at any time,” said MP Bilal Abdullah of Lebanon’s Democratic Gathering political bloc, adding that the killings of Shukr in Beirut and Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran were a hint that Israel might take more unilateral actions to reshape the region’s geopolitical landscape.

Abdullah said the unresolved Palestinian issue has been a source of instability since 1948. “The failure to grant Palestinians their natural rights fuels instability,” he said




Iranians take part in a funeral procession for late Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, on August 1, 2024, ahead of his burial in Qatar. (AFP)

Despite an overall decrease in tensions along the southern border, Lebanon faces two stark possibilities: either reaching a significant agreement with international powers, or the postponement of an inevitable war, as Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has suggested.

Meanwhile, residents of border towns affected daily by Israeli shelling and airstrikes remain on edge, fearing further escalation. Recently, images circulated of trucks carrying goods from the southern border town of Mays Al-Jabal to safer areas, prompting worries about future displacement.

Some say these departures amount to a permanent move by local residents out of a war-prone area, but Hezbollah has rejected this theory. Activists of the group called the evacuation “a step to minimize losses” rather than an abandonment of border towns.

Whatever the truth, intense Western-led diplomatic efforts continue with a view to de-escalating the situation and preventing a major miscalculation.

 


Hamas officials say ‘ready’ for negotiations on phase two of Gaza truce

Hamas officials say ‘ready’ for negotiations on phase two of Gaza truce
Updated 14 sec ago
Follow

Hamas officials say ‘ready’ for negotiations on phase two of Gaza truce

Hamas officials say ‘ready’ for negotiations on phase two of Gaza truce
CAIRO: Hamas is ready to begin talks on the details of a second phase of the ongoing truce in Gaza, two officials from the Palestinian militant group told AFP on Monday.
“Hamas has informed the mediators, during ongoing communications and meetings held with Egyptian mediators last week in Cairo, that we are ready to start the negotiations for the second phase,” one official said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks.
“We call on the mediators to ensure that the occupation adheres to the agreement and does not stall,” they added.
A second official said the group was “waiting for the mediators to initiate the next round.”
Under the terms of the ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel — the first phase of which came into effect on January 19 — indirect talks to hammer out the details of phase two were due to start Monday.
The 42-day phase one revolves around the release of 33 Israeli hostages in exchange for around 1,900 prisoners, most of them Palestinian, being held in Israeli jails.
The second phase is expected to cover the release of the remaining hostages and include discussions on a more permanent end to the war.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has said he will begin discussions about the second phase with US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff on Monday.
The Israeli premier is currently in Washington, and is due to meet Trump on Tuesday.

Queen Rania calls for protecting children at Vatican summit

Queen Rania calls for protecting children at Vatican summit
Updated 8 min 14 sec ago
Follow

Queen Rania calls for protecting children at Vatican summit

Queen Rania calls for protecting children at Vatican summit
  • Queen Rania explained that one in six children globally lives in conflict-affected areas
  • Around 96% of vulnerable children in the Gaza Strip feel their death is imminent

LONDON: Queen Rania Abdullah of Jordan called on Monday for respecting and protecting children’s rights during the World Summit on Children’s Rights held by the Holy See at the Vatican.

The queen spoke at “The Rights of the Child in Today’s World” panel, following the opening remarks of Pope Francis at the international summit.

“Whether they are missing their two front teeth or have lost limbs to war wounds, every child has an equal claim to our protection and care,” Queen Rania said, according to Petra agency.

She explained that one in six children globally lives in conflict-affected areas, where dozens are killed or injured each day, Petra added.

Queen Rania highlighted shocking findings from a December study showing that 96 percent of vulnerable children in the Gaza Strip feel their death is imminent following more than a year of Israeli bombardment.

“Almost half said they wanted to die,” she added. “Not to become astronauts or firefighters like other children, they wanted to be dead. How did we let our humanity come to this?”

At least 47,000 Palestinians have died as a result of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip since October 2023, with the majority being women and children.

“From Palestine to Sudan, Yemen to Myanmar, and beyond, this ‘un-childing’ creates chasms in our compassion,” she said.

“It stifles urgency in favor of complacency. It allows politicians to sidestep blame, and put narrow agendas above collective obligations.”

The Pontifical Committee for World Children’s Day initiated the World Summit on Children’s Rights to further the Roman Catholic Church’s mission of advocating for the rights of children.

The summit was attended by Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Antonio Tajani; former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi; Climate Reality Project founder and chairman, Al Gore; and Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi, among others.


Gazans in Egypt reject displacement, grapple with decision when to go home

An Egyptian medic cares for a young Palestinian patient evacuated from Gaza through the Rafah crossing.
An Egyptian medic cares for a young Palestinian patient evacuated from Gaza through the Rafah crossing.
Updated 18 min 17 sec ago
Follow

Gazans in Egypt reject displacement, grapple with decision when to go home

An Egyptian medic cares for a young Palestinian patient evacuated from Gaza through the Rafah crossing.
  • “We, the people of Gaza, can only live in Gaza,” a displaced Gazan said
  • “If they give us residencies, the cause will be lost,” she added

CAIRO: Weeks into the ceasefire in Gaza, thousands of Palestinians who left for neighboring Egypt are grappling with the question of when they might go home, though they reject the prospect of a mass displacement proposed by US President Donald Trump.
“A lot of people are torn, and I am one of them,” said Shorouk, who earns a living selling Palestinian food in Cairo, going by the name Gaza Girl. “Do you choose to go back and sit in the destruction and a place that still needs to be reconstructed or stay and go back when it is reconstructed?“
Whether or not she is able to go home soon, she does not want people like her to be accepted as residents outside Palestinian land.
“We, the people of Gaza, can only live in Gaza,” she said. “If they give us residencies, the cause will be lost.”
A proposal by Trump that much of the population of Gaza be cleared out and residents sent en masse to Egypt and Jordan has been universally denounced across the Arab world as a form of ethnic cleansing.
“You’re talking about a million and half people, and we just clean out that whole thing,” Trump said. Asked if it would be a temporary or long term solution, he said: “Could be either.”
Egypt says it will never participate in the mass displacement of Palestinians, which President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi described as an “act of injustice.”
But there are already about 100,000 Palestinians in Egypt, who say they do not know how or when they will be able to return.
During the war in Gaza, the border was mostly sealed and the vast majority of the 2.3 million residents were made homeless and forced into temporary shelters within the territory.
There were however months when some people were permitted to leave, including Palestinians with foreign passports, their close relatives or severely ill patients evacuated for humanitarian reasons.
Most have no long-term permission to stay in Egypt and view their stays as temporary, surviving on small trade or savings. The ceasefire agreement that paused the fighting in January has yet to resolve their fate.
Some say they will return as soon as they have a chance.
“There is nothing better than one’s country and land,” said Hussien Farahat, a father of two.
But others say the personal decision is more complicated, without a home to go back to.
“Even if the war were over, we still do not know our fate and nobody mentioned those stranded in Cairo. Are we going back or what will happen to us? And if we go back, what will happen to us? Our houses are gone,” said Abeer Kamal, who has lived in Cairo since Nov. 2023 and sells handmade bags with her sisters.
“There is nothing, not my house, or my family, or siblings, nothing,” she said.
Israel launched its assault on Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed Israeli towns, killing 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Since then, Israel’s campaign has killed more than 46,000 Palestinians, according to health authorities there, driven most Gazans from their homes and laid swathes of the territory to waste.
While Gazans in Egypt may vary in their personal plans, all said they reject any proposal by Trump to clear large numbers of Palestinians from Gaza.
“This is our land and it’s not his to control us,” said Fares Mahmoud, another Gazan in Cairo. “It’s our land, we leave it and go back to it when we want.”


Palestinians appeal for help with short-term shelter in Gaza

Palestinians appeal for help with short-term shelter in Gaza
Updated 03 February 2025
Follow

Palestinians appeal for help with short-term shelter in Gaza

Palestinians appeal for help with short-term shelter in Gaza
  • Gaza needs $6.5 billion in temporary housing aid, PA official says
  • Hamas requests 200,000 tents, 60,000 caravans for displaced Gazans

CAIRO/RAMALLAH: With fighting in Gaza paused, Palestinians are appealing for billions of dollars in emergency aid — from heavy machinery to clear rubble to tents and caravans to house people made homeless by Israeli bombardment.
One official from the Palestinian Authority estimated immediate funding needs of $6.5 billion for temporary housing for Gaza’s population of more than two million, even before the huge task of long-term reconstruction begins.
US special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff estimated last week that rebuilding could take 10-15 years. But before that, Gazans will have to live somewhere.
Hamas, the militant Palestinian group that has moved quickly to reassert control of Gaza after a temporary ceasefire began last month, says Gaza has immediate needs for 200,000 tents and 60,000 caravans.
In addition, it says there is an urgent need for heavy digging equipment to begin clearing millions of tons of rubble left by the war, both to clear the ground for housing and to recover more than 10,000 bodies estimated to be buried there.
Two Egyptian sources said heavy machinery was waiting at the border crossing and would be sent into Gaza starting Tuesday.
World Food Programme official Antoine Renard said Gaza’s food imports had surged since the ceasefire and were already at two or three times monthly levels before the truce began.

'Dual use' goods face impediments
But he said there were still impediments to importing medical and shelter equipment, which would be vital to sustain the population but which Israel considers to have potential “dual use” – civilian or military.
“This is a reminder to you that many of the items that are dual use need also to enter into Gaza like medical and also tents,” he told reporters in Geneva.
More than half a million people who fled northern Gaza have returned home, many with nothing more than what they could carry with them on foot. They were confronted by an unrecognizable wasteland of rubble where their houses once stood.
“I came back to Gaza City to find my house in ruins, with no place else to stay, no tents, no caravans, and not even a place we can rent as most of the city was destroyed,” said Gaza businessman Imad Turk, whose house and wood factory in Gaza City were destroyed by Israeli airstrikes during the war.
“We don’t know when the reconstruction will begin, we don’t know if the truce will hold, we don’t want to be forgotten by the world,” Turk told Reuters via a chat app.
Countries from Egypt and Qatar to Jordan, Turkiye and China have expressed readiness to help, but Palestinian officials blame Israel for delays. Egypt and Qatar both helped broker the ceasefire that has, for now, stopped the fighting.
There was no immediate response from the Israeli military to a request for comment.


Palestinians accuse Israel of ‘ethnic cleansing’ as 70 killed in West Bank

Smoke rises during an Israeli army operation in the Jenin camp for Palestinian refugees in the north of the occupied West Bank.
Smoke rises during an Israeli army operation in the Jenin camp for Palestinian refugees in the north of the occupied West Bank.
Updated 03 February 2025
Follow

Palestinians accuse Israel of ‘ethnic cleansing’ as 70 killed in West Bank

Smoke rises during an Israeli army operation in the Jenin camp for Palestinian refugees in the north of the occupied West Bank.
  • Palestinian presidency “condemned the occupation authorities’ expansion of their comprehensive war on our Palestinian people in the West Bank

RAMALLAH: The office of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas denounced an Israeli operation in the occupied West Bank as “ethnic cleansing” on Monday, with the health ministry saying Israeli forces killed 70 people in the territory this year.
In a statement, spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said the Palestinian presidency “condemned the occupation authorities’ expansion of their comprehensive war on our Palestinian people in the West Bank to implement their plans aimed at displacing citizens and ethnic cleansing.”
Later the Palestinian health ministry in Ramallah said there had been “70 martyrs in the West Bank since the beginning of this year,” with 10 children, one woman and two elderly people among the dead.
The ministry confirmed to AFP they were “killed by the Israeli occupation.”
The figures showed 38 people killed in Jenin and 15 in Tubas in the north of the West Bank. One was killed in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, it added.
The Israeli military launched a major offensive in the West Bank on January 21 aimed at rooting out Palestinian armed groups from the Jenin area, which has long been a hotbed of militancy.
“We demand the intervention of the US administration before it is too late, to stop the ongoing Israeli aggression against our people and our land,” Rudeineh told the Palestinian official news agency WAFA in a statement coinciding with a visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington.
On Sunday, the army said it had killed more than 50 “terrorists” during the operation that began on January 21 and in air strikes the preceding week.
Netanyahu is visiting Washington, where he is expected to begin talks on a second phase of Israel’s truce with Hamas in Gaza on Monday.
The next stage is expected to cover the release of the remaining captives and include discussions on a more permanent end to the war.