Dogs in Lebanon ‘pay the price of being abandoned amid economic crisis’

Dogs in Lebanon ‘pay the price of being abandoned amid economic crisis’
An animal rights activist told Arab News perpetrators of dog poisoning use lannate, which is a banned substance in Lebanon, but readily available. (Supplied)
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Updated 24 July 2023
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Dogs in Lebanon ‘pay the price of being abandoned amid economic crisis’

Dogs in Lebanon ‘pay the price of being abandoned amid economic crisis’
  • Anger over canine deaths due to poisoning as activists call for tougher actions against abusers

BEIRUT: There was anger and grief in the town of Chekka in northern Lebanon on Monday after several dogs were poisoned.

One resident, Maurice Boulos, aged 52, was walking his eight-year-old dog Wind one evening when the animal ate some chicken laced with poison that had been left in the street. Wind was dead within half an hour.

Boulos said a local vet confirmed the dog died of poisoning. Having discovered the cause, Boulos then rushed to prevent other dogs on the street eating the contaminated chicken. He said he was able to get two to the vet in time to save them, but that several other dogs died. 

Police began an investigation after Boulos asked them to check cameras in the vicinity of where the dogs were poisoned.

An animal rights activist told Arab News perpetrators of dog poisoning use lannate, which is a banned substance in Lebanon, but readily available.

The development comes as authorities in Tripoli investigate the case of a stray dog that rescued an abandoned baby left to die in a trash bag. 

The dog was seen carrying the bag by a passerby who heard the newborn baby’s cries coming from inside.

The bruised infant, who is believed to have only been a few hours old, was taken to hospital for treatment in Tripoli.

The scene shook Lebanese public opinion and social media users have hailed the dog as a hero. 

Ghina Nahfawi, an animal rights activist, told Arab News: “It turned out that it was a female dog and it was dragging the newborn baby to the place where it laid its eight puppies.

“The dog did not hold on to the bag but rather gave it up to the person who approached to take it without attacking him.”

Cases of abandoned and mistreated dogs have increased in Lebanon in recent years. Roger Akkawi, head of the PAW charity, said the reasons went beyond the country’s economic situation, adding many Lebanese “don’t know how to deal with a dog.”

There have been numerous incidents of dogs being tortured and killed either by shooting them, poisoning them, or even burning them, with some boasting of their crimes on social media and a number of people arrested.

Akkawi said the punishments for mistreating dogs in Lebanon are not severe enough.

“We know that some of the perpetrators were released after presenting medical certificates that they were insane ... for example,” he told Arab News.

Bashir Khedr, governor of Baalbek-Hermel, announced recently that the legal punishment for the crime of killing animals was insufficient.

He said the judiciary should “compel those who burn dogs to undergo psychological treatment and to work during the summer holidays in a shelter for stray dogs under the strict supervision of volunteers, with the aim of rehabilitating them.”

Akkawi said that the process of educating the public on how to be kind to animals requires addressing younger generations because older people have preconceived ideas that are difficult to change.

He suggested mandatory microchipping of dogs “so that dog owners can bear their responsibility” and added that stray dogs should be “neutered, vaccinated, and returned to the street with tags, as is done in Istanbul.

“Also, shelters should be secured by municipalities to avoid cases of loss of control over stray dogs.”

Nahfawi and Akkawi agreed that there were serious issues over unlicensed pet shops in Lebanon, with some breeding animals in their homes and then selling the animals on the street.

Nahfawi said: “We, as activists, are trying to inspect pet shops and ensure that animals are safe and well taken care of.

“However, it requires the efforts of the state, such as the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Environment.”

Nahfawi estimates the number of stray dogs in Lebanon at about 55,000, while there are no statistics on the number of domestic dogs.

“Since the start of the economic crisis in Lebanon, we have begun to see pet dogs that have been abandoned and thrown in the streets of Beirut and other cities,” she said.

Many people do not know how to deal with these animals in the absence of an animal welfare culture, she added.


Israel dismissed advance warning of Hamas attack: NYT

Israel dismissed advance warning of Hamas attack: NYT
Updated 11 sec ago
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Israel dismissed advance warning of Hamas attack: NYT

Israel dismissed advance warning of Hamas attack: NYT
New York: Israeli officials had intelligence that Palestinian militant group Hamas was preparing a wide-ranging attack before its October 7 assault but dismissed the reports, The New York Times reported Thursday.
The newspaper said a document obtained by Israeli authorities “outlined, point by point, exactly the kind of devastating invasion that led to the deaths of about 1,200 people.”
The document, which was reviewed by the newspaper, did not specify when the attack might happen, but provided a blueprint that Hamas appears to have followed: an initial rocket barrage, efforts to knock out surveillance, and waves of gunmen crossing into Israel by land and air.
The Times said the document, which included sensitive security information about Israeli military capacity and locations, circulated widely among the country’s military and intelligence leaders, though it was not clear if it was reviewed by senior politicians.
But a military assessment last year determined it was too soon to say the plan had been approved by Hamas, and when an analyst with the country’s signals intelligence warned the group had carried out a training exercise in line with the plan, she was dismissed.
She warned it was a “plan designed to start a war,” the newspaper said, but a colonel reviewing her assessment suggested: “let’s wait patiently.”
The warnings did not suggest that Hamas was likely to carry out the plan imminently, and the intelligence community continued to believe that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was not pursuing war with Israel, the Times said, likening the intelligence failure to those in the United States before the September 11, 2001 attacks.
The Hamas attack killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and saw around 240 people taken hostage, according to Israeli officials.
Israel’s retaliatory ground and air offensive in Gaza has killed more than 15,000 people, also mostly civilians, according to Hamas authorities.

Israel resumes combat as truce expires, accuses Hamas of violation

Israel resumes combat as truce expires, accuses Hamas of violation
Updated 26 min 24 sec ago
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Israel resumes combat as truce expires, accuses Hamas of violation

Israel resumes combat as truce expires, accuses Hamas of violation
  • Israel says it has resumed combat against Hamas in Gaza
  • Qatar and Egypt have been making intensive efforts to extend the truce

GAZA/TEL AVIV: Israel’s military said it had resumed combat against Hamas in Gaza on Friday after accusing the Palestinian militant group of violating a seven-day temporary truce by firing toward Israeli territory.
The seven-day pause, which began on Nov. 24 and was extended twice, had allowed for the exchange of dozens of hostages held in Gaza for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and facilitated the entry of humanitarian aid into the shattered coastal strip.
In the hour before the truce was set to end at 7 a.m. (0500 GMT), Israel said it intercepted a rocket fired from Gaza.
Further sirens warning of rockets sounded again in Israeli areas near Gaza just minutes before the deadline, the Israeli military said.
Palestinian media reported Israeli air and artillery strikes across the enclave after the truce expired.
There was no immediate comment from Hamas or claim of responsibility for the launches.
Qatar and Egypt have been making intensive efforts to extend the truce following the exchange on Thursday of the latest batch of eight hostages and 30 Palestinian prisoners.
Israel had previously set the release of 10 hostages a day as the minimum it would accept to pause its ground assault and bombardment.
“We’re ready for all possibilities.... Without that, we’re going back to the combat,” Mark Regev, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said on CNN ahead of the expiry of the truce.
Israel has sworn to annihilate Hamas, which rules Gaza, in response to the Oct. 7 rampage by the militant group, when Israel says gunmen killed 1,200 people and took 240 hostages.
Israel retaliated with intense bombardment and a ground invasion. Palestinian health authorities deemed reliable by the United Nations say more than 15,000 Gazans have been confirmed killed.

These children are pictured in the courtyard of a government school in Gaza’s Rafa. The UN estimates that 1.7 million of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have been displaced by the fighting. (AFP)

Hostages head home
Thursday’s releases brought the totals freed during the truce to 105 hostages and 240 Palestinian prisoners.
Among those released were six women aged 21 to 40 including one Mexican-Israeli dual national and 21-year-old Mia Schem, who holds both French and Israeli citizenship.
Photos released by the Israeli prime minister’s office showed Schem, who was captured by Hamas along with others at an outdoor music festival in southern Israel on Oct. 7, embracing her mother and brother after they were reunited at Hatzerim military base in Israel.
The other two newly released hostages were a brother and sister, Belal and Aisha Al-Ziadna, aged 18 and 17 respectively, according to the Israeli prime minister’s office. They are Bedouin Arab citizens of Israel and among four members of their family taken hostage while they were milking cows on a farm.
One of Qatar’s lead negotiators, career diplomat Abdullah Al Sulaiti, who helped broker the truce through marathon shuttle negotiations, acknowledged in a recent Reuters interview the uncertain odds of keeping the guns silent.
“At the beginning I thought achieving an agreement would be the most difficult step,” he said in an article that detailed the behind-the-scenes efforts for the first time. “I’ve discovered that sustaining the agreement itself is equally challenging.”
 

The warring sides had agreed a further extension to the pause in fighting, but soon after that ended Israeli troops resumed their attacks. (FILE/AFP)

Israel agrees to protect civilians Blinken says
The truce had allowed some humanitarian aid into Gaza after much of the coastal territory of 2.3 million people was reduced to wasteland in the Israeli assault.
More fuel and 56 trucks of humanitarian supplies entered Gaza on Thursday, Israel’s defense ministry and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said.
But deliveries of food, water, medical supplies and fuel remain far below what is needed, aid workers say.
At an emergency meeting in Amman, Jordan’s King Abdullah on Thursday urged UN officials and international groups to pressure Israel to allow more aid into the beleaguered enclave, according to delegates.
When the cease-fire first came into effect a week ago, Israel was preparing to turn the focus of its operation to southern Gaza after its seven-week assault to the north.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in Israel during his third visit to the Middle East since the war began, said he told Netanyahu that Israel cannot repeat in south Gaza the massive civilian casualties and displacement of residents it inflicted in the north.
“We discussed the details of Israel’s ongoing planning and I underscored the imperative for the United States that the massive loss of civilian life and displacement of the scale that we saw in northern Gaza not be repeated in the south,” Blinken told reporters in Tel Aviv.
“And the Israeli Government agreed with that approach,” he said. This would include concrete measures to avoid damaging critical infrastructure such as hospitals and water facilities and clearly designating safe zones, he said.


Hamas frees eight hostages to Israel as talks seek to extend Gaza truce

Hamas frees eight hostages to Israel as talks seek to extend Gaza truce
Updated 01 December 2023
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Hamas frees eight hostages to Israel as talks seek to extend Gaza truce

Hamas frees eight hostages to Israel as talks seek to extend Gaza truce
  • Hamas is expected to demand greater concessions for many of the remaining captives
  • Blinken is expected to press for further extensions of the truce and the release of more hostages

GAZA/TEL AVIV: Hamas on Thursday released eight Israeli hostages in Gaza under a last-minute extension of a truce deal and Israel freed 30 Palestinian prisoners as negotiators sought to renew the pause in fighting again.
Israel identified two women who were released first on Thursday as 21-year-old Mia Schem, among those seized at a dance party that Hamas militants attacked on Oct. 7, and 40-year-old Amit Soussana.
Photos released by the Israeli prime minister’s office showed Schem, who also holds French nationality, embracing her mother and brother after they were reunited at Hatzerim military base in Israel.
The Palestinian militant group Hamas then freed six more hostages, transferring them to the Red Cross, the Israeli military said. Four were women aged 29 to 41 including one Mexican-Israeli dual national, according to official information.
Television images showed some of the women walking past ambulances once they reached Israeli territory.
The other two newly released hostages were a brother and sister, Belal and Aisha Al-Ziadna, aged 18 and 17 respectively, according to the Israeli prime minister’s office. They are Bedouin Arab citizens of Israel and among four members of their family taken hostage while they were milking cows on a farm.
Wahid Alhuzail, who chairs a group for Bedouins kidnapped on Oct. 7, said he was happy they were freed. “But it’s not completely fulfilling. We want everyone to come home and for nobody to be stuck in the hands of the terror organization Hamas,” he told Reuters.
As part of the agreement, 30 Palestinians were released from jails, the Israeli prison service said.
Israel has sworn to annihilate Hamas, which rules Gaza, in response to the Oct. 7 rampage by the militant group, when Israel says gunmen killed 1,200 people and took 240 hostages.
Until the truce, Israel bombarded the territory for seven weeks. Palestinian health authorities deemed reliable by the United Nations say more than 15,000 Gazans have been confirmed killed.
While Israel required Hamas to release 10 hostages daily in to continue the Qatari-mediated truce, a Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson said there would be no more hostages freed on Thursday beyond the eight.
Israeli officials accepted eight rather than 10 hostages because Hamas on Wednesday released two extra hostages, the Qatari spokesperson said. They were Israeli-Russian women whose liberty the Palestinian faction described as a goodwill gesture to Moscow.
Israel and Hamas agreed to add a seventh day of a humanitarian pause on Thursday, while Egyptian and Qatari mediators were working to negotiate a further extension of two days, Egypt’s official state media agency said.
With fewer Israeli women and children left in captivity, extending the truce could require setting new terms for the release of Israeli men, including soldiers. Thus far during the truce, Palestinian militants have freed 105 hostages and Israel has released 240 Palestinian prisoners.
The truce has allowed some humanitarian aid into Gaza after much of the coastal territory of 2.3 million people was reduced to wasteland in the Israeli assault.
More fuel and 56 trucks of humanitarian supplies entered Gaza on Thursday, Israel’s defense ministry and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said.
But deliveries of food, water, medical supplies and fuel remain far below what is needed, aid workers say. At an emergency meeting in Amman, Jordan’s King Abdullah on Thursday urged UN officials and international groups to pressure Israel to allow more aid into the beleaguered enclave, according to delegates.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in Israel during his third visit to the Middle East since the war began, agreed that the flow of aid into Gaza was not sufficient.
Blinken said he told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel must do more to protect civilians before any further military operations, and Netanyahu and his cabinet supported this approach.
“Israel has ... one of the most sophisticated militaries in the world. It is capable of neutralizing the threat posed by Hamas while minimizing harm to innocent men, women and children. And it has an obligation to do so,” Blinken told reporters in Tel Aviv.
Separately, the armed wing of Hamas claimed responsibility for a deadly shooting in Jerusalem, which Israel called further proof of the need to destroy the militants, although there were no signs of this scuppering the truce or release of hostages.
Shortly after the last-minute extension of the truce, two Palestinian attackers opened fire at a bus stop during morning rush hour at the entrance to Jerusalem, killing at least four people. Both attackers were “neutralized,” police said.
“This event proves again how we must not show weakness, that we must speak to Hamas only through (rifle) scopes, only through war,” said hard-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir at the site of the attack.
Hamas said the attackers were its members, and its armed wing claimed responsibility for the attack in response “to the occupation’s crimes of killing children and women in Gaza.”
But neither side appeared to treat the attack as an explicit renunciation of the truce. A Palestinian official familiar with the truce talks said its terms did not apply to what he characterised as responses to Israeli attacks in the West Bank and Jerusalem.


UN Security Council due to vote to close Sudan political mission

UN Security Council due to vote to close Sudan political mission
Updated 01 December 2023
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UN Security Council due to vote to close Sudan political mission

UN Security Council due to vote to close Sudan political mission

UN: The United Nations Security Council is due to vote on Friday to end a political mission in war-torn Sudan, diplomats said, after the country’s acting foreign minister requested the move earlier this month and described the mission’s performance as “disappointing.”
A war erupted on April 15 between the Sudanese army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces after weeks of rising tension between the two sides over a plan to integrate forces as part of a transition from military rule to civilian democracy.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the situation to reporters on Tuesday: “You have two generals that completely disregard the interests of their population.”
When asked whether the conflict was a failure of the United Nations or African Union, Guterres said: “It’s time to call a spade a spade. This is the fault of those that sacrificed the interests of their people for a pure struggle for power.”
The draft council resolution terminates the mandate of the UN mission, known as UNITAMS, on Dec. 3 and requires it to wind down over the next three months. UNITAMS was established by the 15-member council in June 2020 to provide support to Sudan during its political transition to democratic rule.
The draft text “recognizes the importance of UN agencies, funds and programs, underlines the necessity of an orderly UNITAMS transition and liquidation in order to ensure the safety of UN personnel and the effective functioning of all UN operations, including humanitarian and development assistance.”
A UN country team providing humanitarian and development aid will remain in the country.
Violence against civilians in Sudan is “verging on pure evil,” a senior United Nations official warned earlier this month, as a humanitarian crisis in the country worsens and ethnic violence escalates in the western region of Darfur.
“The United Nations is not leaving Sudan,” UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on Thursday.
“Despite what is going on with the political mission, I think it is very important for people to remember that we have humanitarian colleagues in large numbers who remain present in Sudan, assisting people who are in need of dire humanitarian aid,” he said.
The UN special envoy to Sudan announced in September that he was stepping down, more than three months after Sudan declared him unwelcome.
Last week Guterres appointed veteran Algerian diplomat Ramtane Lamamra as his personal envoy for Sudan. The draft Security Council resolution encourages all parties to cooperate with the envoy.


Israel’s Herzog meets UAE counterpart to push for hostage release

Israel’s Herzog meets UAE counterpart to push for hostage release
Updated 01 December 2023
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Israel’s Herzog meets UAE counterpart to push for hostage release

Israel’s Herzog meets UAE counterpart to push for hostage release
  • During his meeting with UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Herzog underlined ‘the necessity to act in any way possible to free the Israeli hostages’
  • Since the truce began on Nov. 24, 70 Israeli hostages have been freed in return for 210 Palestinian prisoners

DUBAI: Israeli President Isaac Herzog met his Emirati counterpart on the sidelines of UN climate talks on Thursday as part of a diplomatic push to release hostages held by Hamas.
Herzog’s visit to the United Arab Emirates comes nearly eight weeks into the Israel-Hamas war and coincides with a day-long extension to a truce that has seen Israeli hostages freed in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners.
During his meeting with UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Herzog underlined “the necessity to act in any way possible to free the Israeli hostages held captive by the murderous terrorist organization Hamas,” a statement from his office said.
He “appealed” to his Emirati counterpart “to employ his full political weight to promote and speed up the return home of the hostages,” the statement said.
In a separate statement on X, formerly Twitter, Herzog said he would hold “a series of diplomatic meetings” in Dubai to push for the release of hostages.
More than 140 heads of state and government are due to address COP28 on Friday and Saturday, including Herzog, who is scheduled to make a speech lasting three minutes on Friday.
“In my meetings with world leaders I intend to raise the firm demand for the immediate and unconditional release of all the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza,” Herzog said.
“In addition, I will detail and emphasize efforts to provide more and more humanitarian aid to the civilians of Gaza,” he added.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas was also scheduled to speak at COP28 but his office said he was no longer going and his foreign minister would take his place.
Since the truce began on November 24, 70 Israeli hostages have been freed in return for 210 Palestinian prisoners.
Around 30 foreigners, most of them Thais working in Israel, have been freed outside the terms of the deal.
Israel has made clear it sees the truce as a temporary halt intended to free hostages, but there are growing calls for a more sustained pause in the conflict.
Fighting began on October 7 when Hamas and other militants from the Gaza Strip poured over the border into Israel, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping about 240, according to Israeli authorities.
In response, Israel vowed to destroy Hamas and unleashed an air and ground campaign that the Hamas government in Gaza says has killed nearly 15,000 people, also mostly civilians.
The war has cast a shadow over the UN climate talks in Dubai with activists demanding a permanent cease-fire and an end to Israel’s 17-year blockade of the Gaza Strip.
The UAE is one of the few Arab states to recognize Israel, having established ties in 2020 as part of the US-brokered Abraham Accords. But it is at pains to show solidarity with Palestinians.
It has dispatched a 150-bed field hospital to Gaza and has pledged to take in 2,000 Palestinians, including 1,000 children and an equal number of cancer patients, for treatment.