Syria, too, desperately needs a ceasefire, says UN commission of inquiry

Chairman of the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Syria, Paulo Pinheiro gives a press conference to present the latest report on rights violations in Geneva. (AFP file photo)
Chairman of the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Syria, Paulo Pinheiro gives a press conference to present the latest report on rights violations in Geneva. (AFP file photo)
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Updated 12 March 2024
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Syria, too, desperately needs a ceasefire, says UN commission of inquiry

Syria, too, desperately needs a ceasefire, says UN commission of inquiry
  • Its latest report says recent escalations of violence have included attacks on civilians and essential infrastructure that could amount to war crimes
  • Commission chief Paulo Pinheiro calls for more intensive international efforts to halt the fighting in the country

NEW YORK CITY: In the past six months, Syria has experienced the worst surge of violence since 2020, the UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic said on Monday.
During that time, it added, various forces have targeted civilians and essential infrastructure across several battlefronts, committing acts that could amount to war crimes.
“Since October, Syria has seen the largest escalation in fighting in four years,” said the chair of the commission, Paulo Pinheiro, as he called for more intensive international efforts to halt the fighting. “Syria, too, desperately needs a ceasefire.”
Syrians cannot endure any further escalation of fighting as they continue to reel from the effects of an unparalleled humanitarian emergency that is pushing them further into despair, he added.
The latest report by the commission, published on Monday, said that more than 90 percent of Syrians now live in poverty, and more than 16.7 million are in need of humanitarian assistance to survive, the most since the conflict in the country began. Meanwhile, it added, the economy continues to be in free fall amid tightening international sanctions, and rising levels of lawlessness are driving armed forces and militias to engage in predatory behavior and extortion.
The surge in violence began on Oct. 5, when several explosions rocked a graduation ceremony at a military academy in the government-controlled city of Homs, killing at least 63 people, including 37 civilians, and injuring dozens.
Syrian government and Russian forces responded with bombardments targeting at least 2,300 sites in opposition-controlled areas in the space of just three weeks, killing or injuring hundreds of civilians. These targets of these “indiscriminate” attacks, which the commission said might amount to war crimes, included hospitals, schools, markets and camps for internally displaced persons. The attacks continue.
“Syrian government forces again used cluster munitions in densely populated areas, continuing devastating and unlawful patterns that we have documented in the past,” said Commissioner Hanny Megally.
The attacks have forced more than 120,000 people to flee, he added, many of whom had already been displaced several times, including by the devastating twin earthquakes in February last year.
“It should be no surprise that the number of Syrians seeking asylum in Europe last October reached the highest level in seven years,” Megally said.
“Syria remains the world’s largest displacement crisis, with over 13 million Syrians unable to return to their homes.”
Since the beginning of the war in Gaza in October last year, the report said, tensions have risen among the six foreign forces involved in Syria, in particular between Israel, Iran and the US, triggering fears of a wider regional conflict.
Israel has launched more than 30 strikes against Iran-affiliated forces and sites in Syria, and targeted Aleppo and Damascus airports, forcing the temporary suspension of crucial UN humanitarian air operations.
Meanwhile, pro-Iranian militias have attacked US bases in northeastern Syria more than 100 times, the report stated, prompting retaliatory airstrikes by American forces.
In addition, the Turkish army has intensified its attacks on the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in retaliation for an attack in Ankara in October for which the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, also known as PKK, claimed responsibility.
Several civilians were killed in Turkish airstrikes on power plants that left nearly 1 million people without water or electricity for weeks, in what was denounced as a violation of international humanitarian law.
“Such attacks may amount to war crimes,” the commission said in its report.
Breakdowns of military alliances and intense clashes between the Syrian Democratic Forces and a coalition of tribal fighters in Dayr Al-Zawr additionally have led to numerous incidents of violence that caused civilian casualties. This ongoing conflict stems from longstanding grievances, with the cash-strapped, Kurdish-led administration that controls the area accused of failing to adequately deliver essential services and ensure basic rights.
In Central Syria, intensified assaults by Daesh have targeted military sites and civilians alike in urban areas with “attacks likely amounting to war crimes,” the commission said.
Confrontations between Jordanian forces and drug traffickers have also escalated along the border between Syria and Jordan, with casualties among civilians caught in the crossfire.
The commission’s report also said the Syrian government continues to disappear, torture and ill-treat detainees. It documented further examples of deaths in custody, including at the notorious Sednaya Prison.
“Four months after the International Court of Justice ordered the government to prevent torture and destruction of evidence, Syrian authorities still deliberately obstruct and profit from families’ efforts to ascertain the whereabouts and fate of their detained loved ones, engaging in extortion,” the commissioners said.
In Idlib, they added, Hayat Tahrir El-Sham militants continue to commit acts of torture, violence and unlawful detention, with reports of executions based on summary trials at which the charges have included witchcraft, adultery and murder.
Commissioner Lynn Welchman said: “And as much as the world may wish to forget, five years after the fall of Baghuz when (Daesh) lost its territorial control in Syria, almost 30,000 children are still held in internment camps, prisons or rehabilitation centers in northeast Syria.
“These children were already victimized during (Daesh’s) rule, only to be subjected to years of continued human rights violations and abuses.”
The commission concluded that living conditions in Al-Hawl and Al-Rawj camps amount to “cruel and inhuman treatment and outrages on personal dignity.”
Welchman said: “No child should ever be punished for their parents’ actions or beliefs. We urge all states to immediately allow all children, including Syrian children, to return home from the camps and take measures to ensure their reintegration into society, and accountability for the crimes they have suffered.
“These children were all only 12 years old or younger at the time of (Daesh’s) rule — what crimes could possibly justify their continued detention? End the inertia, now.”
Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, told Arab News: “I think these (reports) show how important these tools are to the international community, these commissions.
“For our part, I think the Secretariat has been talking about, and condemning very openly since the beginning of this conflict, all attacks against civilians in Syria.”
The Commission will present its latest mandate report to the UN Human Rights Council on March 18.
The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic was established on Aug. 22, 2011, by the UN Human Rights Council. Its mandate is to investigate all alleged violations of international human rights law in the country since March 2011.

 


French FM in Beirut, despite air strikes: ministry

French FM in Beirut, despite air strikes: ministry
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French FM in Beirut, despite air strikes: ministry

French FM in Beirut, despite air strikes: ministry
  • Israel's military on Sunday said it struck more targets of Lebanon's Iran-backed group Hezbollah, after its leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed in a Beirut air raid on Friday

BEIRUT, Lebanon: French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot arrived in Lebanon on Sunday night, his ministry said, making him the first high-level foreign diplomat to visit since Israeli air strikes intensified one week ago.
The arrival of Barrot, who earlier called for an immediate halt to the strikes, came as the foreign ministry announced that a second French national had been killed in Lebanon, though details were unclear.
Barrot oversaw delivery of 11.5 tonnes of French humanitarian aid, Lebanon's Health Minister Firass Abiad said.
After a meeting about the status of French nationals, Barrot on Monday will meet officials including Prime Minister Najib Mikati.
He is also due to meet the UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon and members of the UN peacekeeping force in the south.
"We confirm the death of a second French national," his ministry said Sunday, adding that further details will be supplied later.
The death comes after an 87-year-old French woman died last Monday after a blast in a village in south Lebanon.
Israel's military on Sunday said it struck more targets of Lebanon's Iran-backed group Hezbollah, after its leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed in a Beirut air raid on Friday.
The violence has raised strong fears of even further escalation in the Middle East.
French President Emmanuel Macron has also appointed a former foreign and defence minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, as special envoy to Lebanon.
Le Drian has visited the country six times, most recently at the beginning of the week.
 

 


4 killed as Israel strikes apartment in central Beirut, first hit outside Hezbollah-controlled Dahiyeh

4 killed as Israel strikes apartment in central Beirut, first hit outside Hezbollah-controlled Dahiyeh
Updated 4 min 7 sec ago
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4 killed as Israel strikes apartment in central Beirut, first hit outside Hezbollah-controlled Dahiyeh

4 killed as Israel strikes apartment in central Beirut, first hit outside Hezbollah-controlled Dahiyeh
  • Various reports said the targets in the strike were not Hezbollah but senior members of Jamaa Islamiya in Lebanon
  • Video footage showed the partially flattened floor of the building targeted by the strike, in the predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Kola

BEIRUT: Four people have been killed in an Israeli strike targeting an apartment in Beirut’s Kola district on Sunday, the first such attack in central Beirut in nearly a year of conflict.

There have been conflicting reports on who the intended targets were, with some news outlets claiming they were officials of The Islamic Party or Islamic Group, also known as Jamaa Islamiya — and others claiming they were members of the Palestinian Popular Front.

Sources close to Arab News identified those killed in the strike as senior Jamaa Islamiya members Zakariya Bazzi and Ali Rahal and two others

Agence France Presse also quoted its own source, and the The Associated Press, quoting an unnamed official with Lebanese Civil Defense, said the targets were Jamaa Islamiyah members.

Formed in 1960, Jamaa Islamiya, like Hamas, traces its origins to the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood. It has been the target of several Israeli strikes since the escalation began on the Israeli-Lebanese border.

The strike marks the first time Israel has carried out attacks within Beirut’s city walls since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel last year.

Television footage showed the partially flattened floor of the building targeted by the strike, in the predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Kola, near the road linking the capital to Beirut airport.

The strike happened  hours after Israel hit targets across Lebanon and killed at least 105 people as Hezbollah sustained heavy blows to its command structure, including the killing of its leader, Hassan Nasrallah.

In the past week, Israel has frequently targeted Beirut’s southern suburbs, where the militant group Hezbollah has a strong presence — including a major strike on Friday that killed Nasrallah — but had not hit locations near the city center.

There was no immediate comment from Israeli officials.

Earlier, Hezbollah confirmed that Nabil Kaouk, the deputy head of the militant group’s Central Council, was killed Saturday, making him the seventh senior Hezbollah leader slain in Israeli strikes in a little over a week. They include founding members who had evaded death or detention for decades.

Hezbollah also confirmed that Ali Karaki, another senior commander, died in an airstrike Friday strike that killed Nasrallah. Israel says at least 20 other Hezbollah militants were killed, including one in charge of Nasrallah’s security detail.

The Lebanese health ministry documented at least 105 people killed around the country in airstrikes Sunday. Two strikes near the southern city of Sidon, about 45 kilometers (28 miles) south of Beirut, killed at least 32 people, the Lebanese health ministry said. Separately, Israeli strikes in the northern province of Baalbek Hermel killed 21 people and injured at least 47. There were other strikes.

The Israeli military previously said it also carried out another targeted strike on Beirut, but did not immediately provide details.

Lebanese media reported dozens of strikes in the central, eastern and western Bekaa and in the south, besides strikes on Beirut. The strikes have targeted buildings where civilians were living and the death toll was expected to rise.

In a video of a strike in Sidon, verified by The Associated Press, a building swayed before collapsing as neighbors filmed. One TV station called on viewers to pray for a family caught under the rubble, posting their pictures, as rescuers failed to reach them. The Lebanese health ministry reported at least 14 medics were killed over two days in the south.

Meanwhile, wreckage from the strike on Friday that killed Nasrallah was still smoldering. AP journalists saw smoke over the rubble as people flocked to the site, some to check on what was left of their homes and others to pay respects, pray or simply to see the destruction.

In response to the dramatic escalation in Israeli strikes on Lebanon, Hezbollah significantly increased its attacks in the past week, from several dozen to several hundred daily, the Israeli military said. The attacks injured several people and caused damage, but most of the rockets and drones were intercepted by Israel’s air defense systems or fell in open areas.

The army says its strikes have degraded Hezbollah’s capabilities and the number of launches would be much higher if Hezbollah had not been hit.


’We will reach everyone’: how Israel hunted Nasrallah

An Israeli Hermes 450 UAV drone flies over Beirut, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024. (AP)
An Israeli Hermes 450 UAV drone flies over Beirut, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024. (AP)
Updated 30 September 2024
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’We will reach everyone’: how Israel hunted Nasrallah

An Israeli Hermes 450 UAV drone flies over Beirut, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024. (AP)
  • Analysts said the operation reflected huge strides by Israel’s Unit 8200 signals intelligence group in penetrating Hezbollah’s communications devices
  • The Wall Street Journal reported that Israel spent months planning how to use “a series of timed explosions” in the bunker beneath residential buildings where Nasrallah would be, “with each blast paving the way for the next one”

JERUSALEM: Israel’s killing of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in an air strike on Friday was a feat of spycraft capping days of operations highlighting its deep infiltration of the Iran-backed group.
Here’s what we know about how Israel marshalled its intelligence resources to pull off the attack:

Hezbollah began firing into northern Israel the day after its ally Hamas staged the brutal October 7 attack on southern Israel, triggering the ongoing war in Gaza.
Israel’s relatively low-level campaign against Hezbollah escalated dramatically on September 17 with sabotage attacks on pagers used by Hezbollah, followed the next day by explosions targeting the group’s two-way radios.
Exploding devices, which Israel has not claimed, killed at least 39 people, wounded almost 3,000 and “threw Hezbollah’s communications back to the stone-age,” wrote Robert Satloff of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
Analysts said the operation reflected huge strides by Israel’s Unit 8200 signals intelligence group in penetrating Hezbollah’s communications devices.
In February Nasrallah himself warned that “the cell phone that you hold in your hand is a spying device,” prompting use of the pagers that were later weaponized.
Yet military spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani told journalists the intelligence-gathering that led to Friday’s Beirut strike on Nasrallah went back years.
“We had used the intelligence we’ve been working for years to gather, and we had real-time information, and we carried out this strike,” he said.
Retired Col. Miri Eisen, a senior fellow at Israel’s International Institute for Counter-Terrorism at Reichman University, also said the strike was the product of extensive work.
“Israel’s capabilities when it comes to Hezbollah show the depth of the intelligence infiltration into Hezbollah lines,” she said, adding these were “not things that were invented in the last 11 months” after Hezbollah began striking the north.

Israeli officials have said Nasrallah and other Hezbollah leaders gathered on Friday for a meeting at the group’s “central headquarters” in its main stronghold, located in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Warplanes had been pounding the area extensively as Israel ramped up operations against Hezbollah.
A military video showed F15 jets taking off from Hatzerim Airbase on Friday to carry out the operation.
Just before 6:30 p.m. (1530 GMT) the sound of powerful explosions was heard across the Lebanese capital.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Israel spent months planning how to use “a series of timed explosions” in the bunker beneath residential buildings where Nasrallah would be, “with each blast paving the way for the next one.”
But the paper also cited Israeli officials as saying the strike’s timing “was opportunistic, coming after Israeli intelligence learned about the meeting hours before it occurred.”
It coincided with the UN General Assembly, meaning Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was out of the country at the time.
His office would later publish a photograph it said showed him approving the strike, which The Times of Israel said was apparently taken “at his hotel in New York.”
Israel has not specified the weaponry used in the strike.
However, the New York Times said analysis of a military video indicates the aircraft used had been “fitted with at least 15 2,000-pound bombs.”
Senior officials told the paper that “more than 80 bombs were dropped over a period of several minutes to kill” Nasrallah. The Wall Street Journal said Israel hit the bunker with “80 tons of bombs.”

The air strikes left craters up to five meters (16 feet) across, AFP photographers said.
Lebanon’s health ministry gave a preliminary toll of six dead and 91 wounded in the raid.
Middle East expert James Dorsey said there was no question that the strike represented a “very sophisticated” intelligence coup.
“It demonstrates not only significant technological capacity but just how deeply Israel has penetrated Hezbollah,” he said.
Heiko Wimmen of International Crisis Group said the long-term effects on Hezbollah’s operations were unclear.
“While Hezbollah is too well-institutionalized to collapse by decapitation, the staggering loss of its human resources will inevitably have a degrading effect sooner rather than later,” said Wimmen, the think tank’s project director for Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.
“Their extensive intelligence infiltration also makes it doubtful that they can launch a strategic response or keep up the rocket attacks on northern Israel for much longer.”
For now, Israeli officials are celebrating Nasrallah’s death while weighing whether to press on with ground operations intended to tackle the threat posed by Hezbollah along the northern border.
The military on Saturday distributed a transcript quoting the commander of the squadron that struck Nasrallah as saying “We will reach everyone, everywhere.”

 


Israel’s prime minister appoints a former rival to strengthen his hold on office

Israel’s prime minister appoints a former rival to strengthen his hold on office
Updated 30 September 2024
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Israel’s prime minister appoints a former rival to strengthen his hold on office

Israel’s prime minister appoints a former rival to strengthen his hold on office
  • Saar is a veteran politician who himself has had a strained relationship with the prime minister

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appointed Sunday a former rival, Gideon Saar, as a member of his Cabinet, expanding his coalition and strengthening his hold on office.
Under their agreement, Netanyahu said Saar would serve as a minister without portfolio and serve in the Security Cabinet, the body that oversees the management of the ongoing war against Israel’s enemies across the Middle East.
Saar, 57, had hoped to replace Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, another rival of Netanyahu’s. But a deal to become defense minister fell through several weeks ago after fighting intensified with Hezbollah along Israel’s northern border, leaving the popular Gallant in office for the time being.
Saar is a veteran politician who himself has had a strained relationship with the prime minister. He was once a rising star in Netanyahu’s Likud party, but angrily left it four years ago after accusing the prime minister of turning it into a “cult of personality” as he battled corruption charges.
Since then, however, Saar has struggled as leader of a small conservative party, enjoying little support with the broader public. While he and Netanyahu have little love for one another, they share a hard-line ideology toward Israel’s Arab adversaries.
In recent months, Saar has said Israel must fight until Hamas is destroyed. He also has called for tougher action against Hezbollah’s sponsor, Iran. And like Netanyahu, he strongly opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state.
In a joint statement, they said they had put their differences aside for the good of the nation.
Netanyahu’s decision appears to have been driven in part by domestic politics. He faces a number of key political battles in the coming weeks — including the contentious issue of drafting ultra-Orthodox men into the army, passing a budget and taking the stand in his long-running corruption trial. Saar is expected to help Netanyahu on many of these issues.
His appointment also will likely scale back the influence of ultranationalist members of his coalition. Bezalel Smotrich, the Israeli finance minister, and Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s minister of national security, are religious ideologues who have threated to bring down the government if Netanyahu makes too many concessions in any ceasefire deal. Ben-Gvir has also drawn international criticism for provocative visits to a contested Jerusalem holy site.
Sunday’s agreement gives Saar, who hopes to be prime minister one day, an opportunity to revive his political career, while expanding Netanyahu’s majority coalition to 68 seats in the 120-seat parliament.


Frankly Speaking: Is a new civil war inevitable in Lebanon?

Frankly Speaking: Is a new civil war inevitable in Lebanon?
Updated 29 September 2024
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Frankly Speaking: Is a new civil war inevitable in Lebanon?

Frankly Speaking: Is a new civil war inevitable in Lebanon?
  • Far from deepening sectarianism, Israeli strikes are creating solidarity between Lebanon’s factions, says health minister
  • Dr. Firass Abiad accuses Israel of refusing to negotiate an end to conflict and of committing war crimes by killing health personnel

DUBAI: Hassan Nasrallah, the longstanding Hezbollah leader who was killed in an Israeli strike on his Beirut stronghold over the weekend, was the author of deep divisions in Lebanon, which have long threatened to drag the nation back into the mire of civil war.

Since the latest hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah suddenly escalated in mid-September, reports have circulated on social media about flare-ups in sectarian tensions in different parts of Lebanon as a result of mass displacement of people from the south.

Appearing on the Arab News current affairs program “Frankly Speaking,” Firass Abiad, Lebanon’s minister of public health, insisted the conflict had not created a sectarian split in society, as even many Shiites, who form Hezbollah’s support base, now appear to oppose the militia’s actions.

“There’s clearly a lot of people in Lebanon who oppose the politics and what Hezbollah is doing. There’s no denying that, if you talk to people,” Abiad told “Frankly Speaking” host Katie Jensen.

“This is across the board. This is not sectarian, (it’s) among all sects, including Shittes, you have people who oppose Hezbollah.”

Dr. Firass Abiad, Lebanon’s minister of public health, insisted the conflict had not created a sectarian split in society, even as many Shiites, who form Hezbollah’s support base, appear to oppose the militia’s actions. (AN photo)

At the same time, however, Abiad said Israel’s strikes on Lebanon had created a spirit of solidarity across Lebanon’s multiconfessional society, similar to the sympathy generated across the Arab world for the Palestinians — even among those who oppose Hamas — in the wake of Israel’s assault on Gaza.

“What Israel is doing by these indiscriminate attacks, when they attack a Christian or even when they are attacking Shiite areas … this will only increase the feeling of solidarity with the community where Hezbollah is based,” he said.

“We’ve seen this also with Gaza. If you look at the Arab world, the support for Hamas is not high. But when people see the atrocities, the carnage that Israel is perpetrating in Gaza, I think that, unanimously, a lot of people have a lot of sympathy with the people of Palestine.

“And Israel, in the way it is conducting its war on Lebanon, has fostered this environment of solidarity.”

Abiad said this sense of solidarity was evident on Sept. 16 and 17, when Hezbollah communication devices, including pagers and walkie-talkies, exploded simultaneously in a coordinated attack blamed on Israel that killed at least 32 and injured more than 3,000.

“You could see this on the day of the attack on the explosive devices,” said Abiad. “We at the Ministry of Health were sending patients all across the country because we had to have a full response from all hospitals.

“And even when we were sending patients into hospitals that were in areas that are politically, or from a religious perspective, diametrically opposite to Hezbollah, the people who were injured were welcomed, they were cared for, they were given attention.

“This is something that Israel has repeatedly failed to understand; that its indiscriminate targeting or its dehumanization of all, for example, Arabs, or communities, would only lead to more sympathy with the ‘said’ enemies.”

On Saturday, Hezbollah confirmed Nasrallah had been killed in an Israeli strike on the group’s Dahiyeh stronghold in Beirut. The attack follows days of Israeli strikes across Lebanon, which, as of Saturday, had left 1,030 people — including 156 women and 87 children — dead.

Hezbollah began rocketing northern Israel last October in solidarity with the Palestinian militant group Hamas, whose Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel triggered the war in Gaza. Israel retaliated by mounting strikes on Hezbollah targets.

Since mid-September, Israeli strikes on Hezbollah targets across the country have rapidly escalated. However, the roots of the conflict run deeper than last October. The two sides have been locked in an intermittent confrontation since the Lebanese civil war.

Hezbollah was formed during Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon. Major escalations occurred in 1993, 1996, and particularly in 2006, when a full-scale war erupted, causing significant destruction in Lebanon.

Hezbollah has since strengthened its military capabilities, while maintaining its role in Lebanese politics. Tensions continued, with periodic border clashes, as the group has evolved into a key player in the broader Israel-Iran proxy conflict.

Israel withdrew its troops from Lebanon in 2000, creating the possibility of stability for Lebanon. However, territorial disputes remained, which Hezbollah exploited to build support and to justify continued resistance to Israel.

Does a share of the blame for the continuation of hostilities, therefore, belong to Hezbollah?

“No, that’s the exact opposite,” said Abiad. “If you go back to the UN resolutions — especially 1701. In 1701, it was very clear that, first of all, Israel has to withdraw from all the areas in Lebanon, which did not happen. And up till now, Israel still occupies Lebanese territory.”

UN Security Council Resolution 1701, adopted in 2006, called for a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, ending the Lebanon War. It demanded the disarmament of Hezbollah, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon, and the deployment of Lebanese and UN peacekeeping troops to stabilize the region and prevent future conflict.

“Secondly, it very clearly mentioned that Israel should not violate Lebanese airspace, which also did not happen; Israel has been violating Lebanese airspace continuously since the 2000 partial withdrawal from Lebanon,” said Abiad.

“So, indeed, unfortunately, these actions by Israel gave the pretext for Hezbollah to continue today what it is doing now. But let’s be very clear, Israel didn’t fulfill that part of 1701. And even now, Lebanon is saying we are ready to abide by the UN Security Council resolutions.”

One particularly irksome issue relates to the Shebaa Farms — a dispute that centers on a small strip of land claimed by Lebanon but occupied by Israel since 1967.

While Israel and the UN consider it part of Syria’s Golan Heights, Lebanon argues the area is Lebanese, fueling tensions, especially involving Hezbollah, over its sovereignty.

Given what is now occurring in Lebanon, does Abiad believe continuing the Shebaa Farms dispute with Israel has been worthwhile? Surely a negotiated deal would have been a far better option?

“But that depends on the other party accepting a negotiation,” said Abiad. “And, up to now, it has been very clear that Israel is not interested in a negotiated outcome.”

Whoever is ultimately to blame for prolonging the conflict, the result today is mass displacement, civilians killed, thousands injured, and public health system under extreme strain.

The ongoing conflict has created a massive humanitarian crisis, with widespread displacement across the country. According to the Lebanese government’s estimates, nearly 500,000 people have been forced to flee their homes due to escalating violence.

Abiad highlighted the magnitude of the displacement from the south. “Before the attacks, the number released by the disaster management side was 130,000 displaced,” he said.

“Remember that by that time, there was an escalation of hostilities by Israel, and the populations were internally displaced still into southern areas.”

Abiad said the Lebanese government has established 400 public shelters, which currently house about 70,000 people. However, he said the total number of displaced people is far higher.

“We estimate that usually, from our past experience in the 2006 war, the number of people, whether they are living with friends, family, in homes they rented, or even across the border into neighboring countries, is four to five times as many as there are in shelters,” he said.

“And that’s why we really believe that the tally of people who have been displaced is probably around 400,000 to 500,000.”

The pressure on hospitals, in particular, is reaching breaking point.

“The daily tally of casualties keeps rising, as hospitals get overwhelmed with casualties,” said Abiad. “Can we continue all this? The answer is we are working at nearly full capacity, I would say. And it is becoming more tough as the war drags on.”

He added: “I think the most challenging would be fuel. I think that, concerning nurses, hospital beds, medical supplies, medications, as I said, we have been stocking up on our inventory. But really, fuel is going to be a critical issue.

“Hospitals, ambulances, they all require fuel to function. Now we have been increasing the renewable-energy budgets in our hospitals — 15 of our public hospitals now have renewable energy, constituting almost 40 percent of their energy requirements.

“Almost 200 of our primary health care centers now completely can work or function on renewable energy. But clearly I would say fuel is going to be critical if there is a further escalation.”

On top of this, Abiad accused Israel of deliberately targeting medical personnel — something he says constitutes a war crime.

“Do we consider this a war crime? Of course, we consider this a war crime,” said Abiad, adding that this was not just the view of the Lebanese government but echoed by international legal bodies.

“When we listen to the International Court of Justice, these are the experts on what is international humanitarian law and whether it has been violated. So these are the experts telling us that what Israel is doing constitutes war crimes.”