Israel says army to stay in evacuated West Bank camps for ‘coming year’

PORT SUDAN: The Sudanese army said Sunday it had broken the siege imposed by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces on a key southern Sudanese state capital since the war began in April 2023.

Army spokesman Nabil Abdallah said in a statement that forces in North Kordofan state had “managed to reopen the road to El-Obeid and merge” with soldiers east of the city.
El-Obeid — the heart of Sudan’s Kordofan region — sits at a crucial crossroads connecting Khartoum to the country’s western region of Darfur, which the RSF has all but conquered.
“El-Obeid’s strategic importance, especially its airport and its position linking western Sudan with the center and south, makes today’s operation one of the most critical militarily,” a military source said.
Sudan’s finance minister in the government described breaking the siege as a turning point in the conflict.
“This strategic victory represents a qualitative shift in the path of a larger triumph,” Gibril Ibrahim said in a post on Facebook.
He added that it is also “a significant step toward lifting the siege” on North Darfur’s besieged capital of El-Fasher, which has been under RSF siege since May.
Reopening the routes would allow the delivery of essential food and medicine to the Kordofan region, he added.
Witnesses said that thousands of residents had taken to the streets of El-Obeid to celebrate.
The war, which has pitted army chief Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan against the RSF for nearly two years, has killed tens of thousands, uprooted over 12 million, and created the world’s largest hunger crisis.
Famine has been declared in three displacement camps in the western region of Darfur and parts of the Nuba Mountains in the south.
According to a UN-backed assessment, it is expected to spread to five more areas by May.
Sudan “will not accept” any recognition of a parallel government, Foreign Minister Ali Youssef said on Sunday at a press conference in Cairo.
“We will not accept any other country recognizing a so-called parallel government,” Youssef said, a day after the RSF and a coalition of political and armed groups signed a charter to form a rival administration in rebel-held areas.
Among those who agreed to the charter was a faction of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North, led by Abdelaziz Al-Hilu, which controls parts of the South Kordofan and Blue Nile states in the country’s south.
Abdel Rahim Dagalo, deputy and brother of RSF commander Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo — who was notably absent — also signed.
The charter calls for “a secular, democratic, decentralized state based on freedom, equality, and justice, without bias toward any cultural, ethnic, religious, or regional identity.”
It also outlines plans for a “new, unified, professional, national army” with a military doctrine that “reflects the diversity and plurality characterizing the Sudanese state.”
The proposed government aims to end the war, ensure unhindered humanitarian aid, and integrate armed groups into a single, national force.

BEIRUT: Lebanon “is tired of others’ wars on its soil,” its President Joseph Aoun told an Iranian delegation in Beirut on Sunday.

The delegation was in Lebanon to attend the funeral of slain Hezbollah leaders Hassan Nasrallah and Hashem Safieddine.

They were killed around five months ago in devastating Israeli airstrikes targeting the group.

On Sunday, hundreds of thousands of supporters of Hezbollah and its allies, along with delegations from Iran, Iraq, Yemen, and other countries, participated in the delayed funerals of Nasrallah and Safieddine.

The funeral ceremony took place from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

It was attended by Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammed Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, along with an Iranian delegation that arrived in Beirut in the morning on a private Iranian aircraft.

Before the funeral, the Iranian delegation met with Aoun at the presidential palace.

Aoun said at the meeting: “I agree with you that countries should not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries, and the best way to confront any loss or aggression is through the unity of the Lebanese.”

According to the presidency’s media office, Aoun referenced the Iranian constitution, which stipulates in Article Nine that a country’s freedom, independence, territorial integrity, and security are inviolable.

He said: “The constitution asserts that the government and all citizens bear the responsibility to preserve them, and no individual, group, or official has the right to inflict any harm on the political, cultural, economic, or military independence of the country nor to undermine the territorial unity of the nation under the pretext of exercising freedom.”

Aoun called attention to the outcomes of the recent Riyadh summit in which Iran participated, especially the “affirmation of the two-state solution regarding the Palestinian issue, and that the Palestinian Authority is the legitimate representative of the Palestinians.”

He said that “Lebanon paid a heavy price in defense of the Palestinian issue,” expressing his hope for “a just solution to it.”

Ghalibaf affirmed the “unity of Lebanese territory, its integrity, and the sovereignty of the state over it,” expressing his country’s “readiness to collaborate with Arab and Islamic nations in the reconstruction of what has been destroyed by Israeli aggression against Lebanon.”

He emphasized his nation’s “desire to see Lebanon as a stable, secure, and prosperous country,” noting that Iran “supports any decision made by Lebanon away from any external interference in its affairs.”

The funeral ceremony took place at the Sports City, near the southern entrance of Beirut.

Nasrallah was buried in a shrine constructed for him on a vast plot of land purchased by Hezbollah on the old airport road, parallel to Beirut’s southern suburb.

The land had previously belonged to the American Life Insurance Co. before Lebanon’s civil war in the 1970s. Safieddine will be buried Monday in his hometown in southern Lebanon.

After his death on Sept. 27, Nasrallah was temporarily buried next to his son Hadi in a cemetery in Beirut’s southern suburb.

Hadi was also killed during a confrontation with the Israeli army in 1997.

Violations of Lebanese sovereignty accompanied the event on Sunday as Israeli warplanes conducted multiple airstrikes in the south and Bekaa and flew twice at a very low altitude over the mourners within the premises of the Sports City.

In the morning and during Nasrallah’s funeral, Israeli planes carried out a series of airstrikes on the outskirts of Hermel and Bouday in northern Bekaa and on southern villages in the Tyre district, injuring a Syrian girl.

They also targeted Jabal Al-Rayhan in Jezzine, with reconnaissance planes flying over Beirut and its southern suburb throughout the day.

The Israeli army claimed that it targeted “military sites that contained rockets and weaponry in Baalbek and southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah activities were detected.”

It noted that Hezbollah’s operations “are a violation of the ceasefire agreement and pose a threat to Israel and its citizens. We will continue working to eliminate any threats.”

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz claimed that these warplanes’ flyovers “send a clear message: Whoever threatens and attacks Israel will seal their fate.”

Hezbollah Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem, who appeared onscreen and did not attend the funeral in person, said: “Today we are facing an occupation and aggression. Be assured that the resistance is present and strong in numbers, resources, and popular support.

“We will not allow America to dominate our country. We have reorganized ourselves, and our heroic fighters have stood firm along the borders.”

Qassem added: “We agreed to the ceasefire (with Israel) in light of a lack of political field prospects.

“Today, we enter a new phase with different tools, methods and approaches.

“We will participate in building a strong and just state under the framework of the Taif Agreement, under three pillars: swiftly implementing the rescue plan, ensuring the state assumes responsibility for liberating the land, and following up on the state’s moves to expel the occupation through diplomatic means, then building on the results accordingly.

“We are discussing the defense strategy, as we believe in the army’s crucial role in defending Lebanon.”

Qassem emphasized the state’s role in securing “the release of prisoners and rebuilding what has been destroyed.”

He stated: “For us, Lebanon is a final homeland for all its children, and we are its children.

“Inside Lebanon, there is no winner or loser. Let us compete for the benefit of our people.”

From the early hours of dawn, mourners flocked to the sports stadium amid freezing temperatures that dropped to less than 7 degrees Celsius. They had already filled the stands by 6 a.m., even though the funeral was scheduled for 1 p.m.

Despite the stadium’s 60,000-seat capacity, the crowd overflowed the sports stadium as men, women, and children filled the surrounding squares, where an additional 50,000 chairs were set up.

The masses extended to the highways connecting Beirut’s southern suburb to the city’s airport.

At the event, Hezbollah reassured its supporters regarding the strength of the party and its refusal to accept the occupation and addressed national partners about the need to rebuild the state.