Threat of expanding hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli army

People wait in line at Lebanese customs at the Beirut–Rafic Hariri International Airport, in Beirut, Lebanon July 30, 2024. (REUTERS)
People wait in line at Lebanese customs at the Beirut–Rafic Hariri International Airport, in Beirut, Lebanon July 30, 2024. (REUTERS)
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Updated 04 August 2024
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Threat of expanding hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli army

Threat of expanding hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli army
  • Hezbollah broadens list of targets while Israeli military attacks infrastructure

BEIRUT: Israeli warplanes conducted five airstrikes on the border town of Kfar Kila on Sunday, demolishing five vacant homes and reducing them to rubble.

An Israeli drone strike also targeted a house in the town center of Beit Lif, causing “severe injuries to two individuals and minor injuries to a third person,” according to the Ministry of Health’s Emergency Operations Center.

The attack came hours after Iran-backed Hezbollah expanded its military operations against the Israeli army on Saturday night, targeting the settlement of Beit Hillel for the first time since hostilities began between the two sides 10 months ago.

The threat of expanding hostilities between Hezbollah and the Israeli army has increased due to Hezbollah’s decision to avenge the assassination of its prominent field commander Fuad Shukr, who was killed in the southern suburbs of Beirut last week.

The situation has raised Lebanese concerns about open war, especially as it has coincided with warnings from Arab and foreign embassies for their citizens in the country to leave immediately.

The Israeli army fired incendiary bombs at the forests near the Blue Line after its heavy machine guns combed the town of Aita al-Shaab.

In addition, an Israeli drone conducted an operation against a motorcycle in the town of Rab El-Thalathine but it failed to hit its target.

In a separate incident, another drone targeted a water distribution power station in the town of Taybeh in southern Lebanon. The strike ignited a fire at the facility, causing a disruption in water supply.

Hezbollah declared that it had “successfully targeted the espionage equipment at the Ramia military site, resulting in its destruction.”

Additionally, the group launched rockets at the Manara military complex, “hitting it directly.”

Hezbollah also said it had used artillery shells to target “the Birkat Risha site, achieving hits,” and “Al-Malikiyah … hitting it directly.”

The group launched around 50 rockets toward the settlement of Beit Hillel on Saturday night.

Hezbollah said in a statement that it had included the location on its target list and attacked it for the first time with dozens of Katyusha rockets in response to Israeli attacks on Kfar Kila and Deir Siriane, which had targeted civilians.

The Israeli military responded to Hezbollah’s action by expanding its own targets to include “a Hezbollah missile-launch pad and an additional infrastructure located in Marjayoun, southern Lebanon.”

It added that it had “eliminated dangers in the Odaisseh area (in) southern Lebanon.”

Israeli media reported on Sunday afternoon that “a factory in Kiryat Shmona in Upper Galilee was directly hit by a missile fired from southern Lebanon.”

Meanwhile, three rockets were fired toward an Israeli site in the occupied Shebaa Farms.

Saudi Arabia’s Embassy has reiterated its request for nationals to depart from Lebanon without delay, while the Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has urged Jordanians “not to travel to Lebanon at present, for their safety,” and requested its citizens “residing and present in Lebanon to leave as soon as possible.”

The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs has requested its citizens to “take immediate measures to leave Lebanon as soon as possible,” describing the situation in the country as “a very volatile security context.”

The statement released by the US Embassy on Saturday requested US citizens to “book any available travel ticket” and contact the embassy if any citizen did not have enough funds to return to the US.

The offices of Middle East Airlines have witnessed some pressure from those wishing to bring forward their departure date from Lebanon.

An employee working in the call center said: “We receive between 6,000 and 8,000 calls a day to change the travel date. Most callers are Lebanese expatriates who have come to Lebanon to spend their summer vacation.”

Arab and foreign airlines have suspended flights to Lebanon, with the exception of a few that have reduced the number of daily flights to one, including Turkish Airlines.

Beirut International Airport saw no new arrivals throughout the night until the early-morning hours although, according to a government source: “Lebanon’s officials have not been warned of the possibility of Israel targeting the airport like it did during the 2006 war.

“However, nothing is guaranteed in this confrontation, and any mistake could lead to dire consequences.”

Adel Al-Masri, an attorney living in the Ruwais area of Beirut, said many people want to leave the city’s southern suburb.

The attorney said: “The reassurances that minimize the likelihood of a war breaking out are no longer convincing us, as we are seeing what is happening in Gaza, and we do not want our children to live this bitter experience as we did.”

 

 


Tunisia flag blunder lands 4 behind bars

Updated 11 sec ago
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Tunisia flag blunder lands 4 behind bars

Tunisia flag blunder lands 4 behind bars
Footage circulated online in recent days showed the Turkish flag flying over the Tunis headquarters of the national railway company SNCFT
It said the Turkish flag had been purchased by mistake, and that staff “didn’t notice until it was raised“

TUNIS: Four Tunisians have been arrested after Turkiye’s red-and-white flag, which bears a strong resemblance to Tunisia’s but is not the same, was raised atop a government building, local media said Wednesday.
Footage circulated online in recent days showed the Turkish flag flying over the Tunis headquarters of the national railway company SNCFT, prompting a formal apology and arrests.
The two flags have the same colors and both bear the Islamic symbols of a star and crescent, with the most noticeable difference being a white circle on the Tunisian one.
SNCFT on Tuesday announced it had removed the wrong flag, apologizing in a statement for the mix-up and saying an investigation had been launched.
It said the Turkish flag had been purchased by mistake, and that staff “didn’t notice until it was raised.”
The blunder did not go unnoticed on social media, and on Wednesday Mosaique FM radio and other Tunisian news outlets said four railway workers had been arrested.
The media reports did not elaborate on the identities of those arrested or the charges they may face.
In May, the covering of the national flag at a sporting event in Tunis, due to sanctions from the World Anti-Doping Agency, led to the arrests of three officials.
The sports officials faced charges including “attack on the flag of Tunisia” and “plot against the internal security” of the state, and were released last week after a three-month sentence.
The incident had provoked outrage from Tunisian President Kais Saied, who has been readying for elections next month which he is widely expected to win.
Photos from the May flag incident showed Kais in tears during a visit to the venue.

Gaza carpenter crafts wooden sandals for daughters as war rages

Gaza carpenter crafts wooden sandals for daughters as war rages
Updated 11 September 2024
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Gaza carpenter crafts wooden sandals for daughters as war rages

Gaza carpenter crafts wooden sandals for daughters as war rages
  • “When we were displaced, we started running and the sandals broke,” said Heba
  • “I threw them off and started running. Our feet became very hot. So, we had to make sandals from wood,” she said, walking on hot sand with her new footwear

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza: Twelve-year-old Heba Dawas lost her footwear in the chaos while fleeing Israel’s military offensive in Gaza.
So, her carpenter father made wooden-soled sandals for her so she can tread more safely through the tons of rubble, hot sand and twisted metal of the besieged Palestinian enclave.
“When we were displaced, we started running and the sandals broke,” said Heba, who lives in a tent camp with her family in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis.
“I threw them off and started running. Our feet became very hot. So, we had to make sandals from wood,” she said, walking on hot sand with her new footwear.
Her father Saber Dawas, 39, came up with the idea after finding the price of sandals too expensive. Now his daughter does not have to go barefoot amid the ruins of Gaza.
“I had to make a tailored size for each daughter,” he said.
SANDALS IN DEMAND
Soon enough, his neighbors noticed him making the sandals and started asking him to make some for their children.
Using basic carpentry tools, he made them for “a symbolic price,” he says.
The sandals have a wooden sole and a strap made of a rubber strip or fabric. But there was a challenge in finding more wood because Palestinians needed it for cooking and fires.
“Everything here in Gaza is difficult to find,” Dawas said, rubbing the base of a sandal with one of his young daughters watching by his side.
Making wooden sandals may ease the pressure of the war but life is still fraught with challenges in Gaza, where the Israeli offensive against Hamas has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health ministry.
Nearly 2 million people have been displaced, often repeatedly, Gazan health officials say.
Hamas triggered the war on Oct. 7 when the Palestinian militant group attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking over 250 hostage, according to Israeli tallies.
A humanitarian crisis has gripped Gaza since then with Palestinians struggling to find food, water and fuel as they move up and down the territory seeking a safe place to shelter.
The United States, Qatar and Egypt have failed to secure a ceasefire through mediation after many attempts.
The border crossing with Egypt has been shut, bringing the flow of aid and basic goods such as shoes to a halt.
“People now are walking around with mismatched shoes,” said Momen Al-Qarra, a Palestinian cobbler repairing old shoes in a little market in Khan Younis.
“If the situation continues like this for two weeks or a month at the most, without the opening of the border, people will be barefoot.”


Casbah building collapse kills woman in Algiers

Casbah building collapse kills woman in Algiers
Updated 11 September 2024
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Casbah building collapse kills woman in Algiers

Casbah building collapse kills woman in Algiers
  • The uninhabited building fell shortly after midnight onto a neighboring home

ALGIERS: A building collapse in the UNESCO-listed Casbah of Algiers killed a woman and injured three of her family members on Wednesday, emergency services said.
The uninhabited building fell shortly after midnight onto a neighboring home where the woman lived, said the civil defense agency in the Algerian capital.
The Casbah, a historic city built on a hill overlooking the Mediterranean, has suffered multiple building collapses in recent years.
In 2019, five people, including a baby, died when their home collapsed in the old city. Following that incident, the mayor of Algiers was sacked.
Originally fortified under Ottoman rule in the 16th century, the Casbah played a key role during Algeria’s 1954-1962 war for independence.
Despite ongoing conservation efforts, many structures remain at risk, propped up solely by wooden and metal supports.


Tunisia jails critic of president for eight months: lawyer

Tunisia jails critic of president for eight months: lawyer
Updated 11 September 2024
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Tunisia jails critic of president for eight months: lawyer

Tunisia jails critic of president for eight months: lawyer
  • Sonia Dahmani, 56, was arrested on May 11 when masked police raided Tunisia’s bar association, where she had sought refuge

TUNIS: A Tunisian appeals court sentenced a lawyer and media figure to eight months in prison, her lawyer said Wednesday, over comments deemed critical of President Kais Saied.
Sonia Dahmani, 56, was arrested on May 11 when masked police raided Tunisia’s bar association, where she had sought refuge, following her remarks made on television.
Initially sentenced to one year in prison on July 6, she appealed.
Her lawyer, Pierre-Francois Feltesse, said the eight-month sentence was issued late Tuesday without her legal representatives being able to enter a plea, after the hearing was suspended.
The defense team said in a statement to AFP that Dahmani had been “subjected a disgraceful body search” in custody and forced to wear a “long white veil” usually reserved for women prosecuted for sexual offenses, despite no legal basis for it.
Feltesse said her case would be referred to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.
The charges stemmed from comments Dahmani made on TV, sarcastically questioning Tunisia’s state of affairs in response to claims sub-Saharan migrants were settling in the country.
“What extraordinary country are we talking about?” she said at the time.
A judicial report said her comments referenced a speech by Saied, who said Tunisia would not become a resettlement zone for migrants blocked from going to Europe.
Saied, democratically elected in 2019, has ruled Tunisia by decree since a 2021 power grab.
He leads the race for an October 6 presidential election, after several hopefuls were barred. One of his two challengers, Ayachi Zammel, is in prison.
Decree 54, enacted by Saied in 2022, criminalizes “spreading false news.”
The National Union of Tunisian Journalists says it has been used to prosecute more than 60 journalists, lawyers and opposition figures.
Human Rights Watch has said at least eight prospective candidates had been prosecuted, convicted or imprisoned in the run-up to the election.
“Holding elections amid such repression makes a mockery of Tunisians’ right to participate in free and fair elections,” said the New York-based advocacy group.


Jordan’s Islamists bounce back in election clouded by Gaza war

Jordan’s Islamists bounce back in election clouded by Gaza war
Updated 11 September 2024
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Jordan’s Islamists bounce back in election clouded by Gaza war

Jordan’s Islamists bounce back in election clouded by Gaza war
  • The Islamist Action Front (IAF), the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, won up to a fifth of the seats under the revamped electoral law
  • Under Jordan’s constitution, most powers still rest with the king who appoints governments and can dissolve parliament

AMMAN: Jordan’s moderate Islamist opposition made significant gains in Tuesday’s parliamentary election, initial official results showed on Wednesday, boosted by anger over Israel’s war in Gaza.
The Islamist Action Front (IAF) also benefited from a new electoral law that encourages a bigger role for political parties in the 138-seat parliament, though tribal and pro-government factions will continue to dominate the assembly.
The IAF, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, won up to a fifth of the seats under the revamped electoral law, which for the first time allocated 41 seats for parties, according to preliminary figures seen by Reuters and confirmed by independent and official sources.
“The Jordanian people have given us their trust by voting for us. This new phase will increase the burden of responsibility for the party toward the nation and our citizens,” Wael al Saqqa, head of the IAF, told Reuters.
The election represents a modest step in a democratization process launched by King Abdullah as he seeks to insulate Jordan from the conflicts at its borders, and speed up the slow pace of political reforms.
Under Jordan’s constitution, most powers still rest with the king who appoints governments and can dissolve parliament. The assembly can force a cabinet to resign by a vote of no confidence.
Turnout among Jordan’s 5.1 million eligible voters in Tuesday’s poll was low at 32.25 percent, initial official figures showed, up slightly from 29 percent at the last election in 2020.
Jordanian officials say the fact that elections are being held at all while the war in Gaza and other regional conflicts are raging demonstrates their country’s relative stability.
The Muslim Brotherhood has been allowed to operate in Jordan since 1946.