Israeli strike kills senior Hamas figure in south Lebanon

Lebanese firefighters and security forces work around a burnt car following an Israeli strike in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon on August 9, 2024. (AFP)
Lebanese firefighters and security forces work around a burnt car following an Israeli strike in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon on August 9, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 10 August 2024
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Israeli strike kills senior Hamas figure in south Lebanon

Israeli strike kills senior Hamas figure in south Lebanon
  • Drone-launched guided missile hits car in port city of Sidon
  • Two Hezbollah members killed in earlier attack on Naqoura

BEIRUT: Fears of a major escalation in southern Lebanon grew on Friday as separate Israeli attacks killed two Hezbollah and two Hamas members.

One of the Hamas members was Samer Al-Hajj, the group’s security official in the Ain Al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp, who was killed when the car he was in was hit by a missile launched from an Israeli drone. The incident occurred in Sidon, 44 kilometers from Beirut, and was the first time the town has been targeted.

Two Hezbollah members were killed in an earlier attack on Naquora.

Hostilities continued on Friday as the Lebanese government — in which Hezbollah is also represented — welcomed a joint statement from the leaders of Egypt, Qatar and the US.

The statement emphasized “the need to put an immediate end to the suffering of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, reach a ceasefire, and conclude an agreement to release hostages and detainees.”

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The fear of the conflict expanding in the Middle East has led more airlines to suspend their flights to Lebanon.

It also called on the two parties to the conflict “to resume urgent discussions to overcome the remaining obstacles to reaching the desired agreement.”

Lebanon’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that “what the trilateral statement included embodies Lebanon’s vision to diffuse tension in the region and avoid an all-out regional war according to a basic first step, which is the immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 2735, which is based on the initiative of US President Joe Biden.”

It stressed “the need to exert maximum pressure on Israel to oblige it to sit at the negotiating table and implement UN Security Council Resolution 2735 without delay.”

The Lebanese statement came as the Israeli Broadcasting Authority announced that “residents of the towns on the border with Lebanon are required to remain near safe areas until further notice.”

Also on Friday, Israeli drones were seen flying over border villages, including Yahoun, Kounine and Bint Jbeil, using loudspeakers to broadcast provocative messages in Arabic against Hezbollah and its Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, prompting armed people to respond by firing machine guns at them.

The government in Cyprus declared “its readiness to help evacuate European civilians from Lebanon.”

The US Embassy in Beirut reiterated in a statement on Friday that it “encourages those who wish to depart Lebanon to book any ticket available to them, even if that flight does not depart immediately or does not follow their first-choice route.”

It recommended that “US citizens who choose not to depart Lebanon prepare contingency plans for emergencies and be prepared to shelter in place for an extended period.”

The fear of the conflict expanding in the Middle East has led more airlines to suspend their flights to Lebanon, including Air Algerie and Air India.

Royal Jordanian resumed flights to Beirut after having suspended them since July 29.

Britain advised airlines in the UK “not to enter Lebanese airspace from Aug. 8 until Nov. 4,” citing “a potential risk to aviation from military activity.”

On the first day of the 11th month of ongoing hostilities, more Israeli assassinations of Hezbollah field cadres were reported after further Israeli breaches of Lebanese airspace, as well as its ability to infiltrate landline and cell calls and the internet network.

Hezbollah announced the death of Mehdi Mahmoud Ksaibani, 30, from Harouf, and Hadi Jihad Deeb, 27, from Bafliyeh, southern Lebanon, who died in an Israeli raid on Naqoura on Friday morning.

Israel on Thursday night and Friday morning targeted Aita Al-Shaab and a house in Hanaouay. The house was empty, but five civilians in nearby houses were injured, according to the Ministry of Health.

Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee said that Israel’s target was “Hezbollah’s command headquarters in Hanaouay and infrastructure in Aita Al-Shaab.”

A Lebanese security source said Hezbollah responded with a series of attacks that were limited to “Israeli military, strategic and logistical bases, in response to specific Israeli attacks, while avoiding civilian targets.

Israel’s Army Radio reported “several attacks on the (Kiryat Shmona) settlement,” adding that “the last salvo included 10 rockets launched from Lebanon toward the settlement.”

Israeli media outlets said that five explosions were heard and that a missile landed in Kiryat Shmona.

Hezbollah said that it bombed “the command headquarters of the 769th Brigade in the Kiryat Shmona barracks with a salvo of Katyusha rockets, in response to Israel’s attacks on Hanaouay.” It also targeted a “gathering of Israeli soldiers in the vicinity of Metula with missile weapons.”

In response to the attack on Naqoura, Hezbollah launched a squadron of precision drones on the command headquarters of the coastal battalion belonging to the newly established Western Brigade in Liman, “targeting the positions and concentrations of its officers and soldiers.”

The group said that “it hit its targets accurately and inflicted confirmed casualties.”

Hezbollah attacked the “Al-Sammaqa site in the occupied Lebanese Kfarchouba Hills with rocket weapons” and “a building used by soldiers in the Manara settlement.”

Israeli airstrikes hit the town of Tallouseh in the Marjeyoun district, coinciding with artillery shelling on the city.

 


Syria’s new leaders zero in on Assad’s business barons

Syria’s new leaders zero in on Assad’s business barons
Updated 5 sec ago
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Syria’s new leaders zero in on Assad’s business barons

Syria’s new leaders zero in on Assad’s business barons

DAMASCUS: Syria’s new rulers are combing through the billion-dollar corporate empires of ousted President Bashar Assad’s allies, and have held talks with some of these tycoons, in what they say is a campaign to root out corruption and illegal activity.

After seizing power in December, the new administration that now runs Syria pledged to reconstruct the country after 13 years of brutal civil war and abandon a highly-centralized and corrupt economic system where Assad’s cronies held sway.

To do so, the executive led by new President Ahmed Al-Sharaa has set up a committee tasked with dissecting the sprawling corporate interests of high-profile Assad-linked tycoons including Samer Foz and Mohammad Hamsho, three sources told Reuters. Days after taking Damascus, the new administration issued orders aimed at freezing companies and bank accounts of Assad-linked businesses and individuals, and later specifically included those on US sanctions lists, according to correspondence between the Syrian Central Bank and commercial banks reviewed by Reuters.

Hamsho and Foz, targeted by US sanctions since 2011 and 2019 respectively, returned to Syria from abroad and met with senior HTS figures in Damascus in January, according to a government official and two Syrians with direct knowledge of the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The two men, who are reviled by many ordinary Syrians for their close ties to Assad, pledged to cooperate with the new leadership’s fact-finding efforts, the three sources said.

Accused by the US Treasury of getting rich off Syria’s war, Foz’s sprawling Aman Holding conglomerate has interests in pharma, sugar refining, trading and transport.

Hamsho’s interests, grouped under the Hamsho International Group, are similarly wide-ranging, from petrochemicals and metal products to television production.

Hamsho, whom the US Treasury has accused of being a front for Assad and his brother Maher, did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. Foz could not be reached. The establishment of the committee, whose members are not public, and the conversations between Syria’s new government and two of the Assad government’s closest tycoons who control large parts of Syria’s economy have not been previously reported.

The new Syrian government’s approach toward powerful Assad-linked businesses, yet to be fully clarified, will be key in determining the fate of the economy as the administration struggles to convince Washington and its allies to remove sanctions, Syrian analysts and businessmen say.

Trade Minister Maher Khalil Al-Hasan and Syrian investment chief Ayman Hamawiye both confirmed to Reuters the government had been in contact with some Assad-linked businessmen, but did not identify them or provide further details.

Khaldoun Zoubi, a long-term partner of Foz, confirmed his associate had held talks with Syrian authorities but did not confirm if he had been in the country.

“Foz told them he is ready to cooperate with the new administration and provide all the support to the Syrian people and the new state,” Zoubi said from the gilded lobby of the Four Seasons hotel in central Damascus, which Foz’s group majority owns. “He is ready to do anything asked of him.”

The two Syrian sources said Foz, who holds a Turkish citizenship, had left Damascus after the talks. Reuters could not ascertain Hamsho’s whereabouts.

The US has sanctioned Foz, Hamsho and others with a prominent economic role, including Yasser Ibrahim, Assad’s most trusted adviser.

Syrian analysts say around a dozen men make up the close ring of business barons tied to the former regime. HTS-appointed government officials consider all of them to be persons of interest.

Syrian authorities have ordered companies and factories belonging or linked to the tycoons to keep working, under supervision of HTS authorities, while the committee investigates their various businesses.

“Our policy is to allow for their employees to continue working and supplying goods to the market while freezing their money movements now,” Trade Minister Hasan told Reuters in an interview early in January. “It’s a huge file. (Assad’s business allies) have the economy of a state in their hands. You can’t just tell them to leave,” he added, explaining the new government could not avoid engaging with the tycoons.

Hamsho International Group is among those put under HTS supervision, according to the sources with direct knowledge.

A Reuters visit in late January showed little work was being carried out at its modern multi-story headquarters in Damascus, where some offices had been looted in the wake of Assad’s fall.

Staff have been instructed to cooperate fully with the new Syrian administration, members of whom regularly visit the company seeking information, said one employee, who asked not to be identified by name.

Some economists say the country’s dire economic situation required major domestic corporations to continue to operate regardless of who they may be affiliated with.

The UN says 90 percent of Syrians live below the poverty line. While basic goods shortages have eased after strict trade controls dissolved in the aftermath of Assad’s fall, many Syrians still struggle to afford them.

“Syrian authorities need to be wary of a harsh crackdown on former regime cronies because this could create significant shortages (of goods),” said Karam Shaar, director of a Syria-focused economic consultancy bearing his name.

Assad’s rapid fall, culminating with his Dec. 8 escape to Russia, left many Syrian oligarchs with no time to dispose of or move their local assets that have since been frozen, giving Syria’s new rulers strong leverage in dealing with the tycoons, according to two prominent businessmen and the government official.


Vatican says Palestinians must ‘stay on their land’

Vatican says Palestinians must ‘stay on their land’
Updated 19 min 11 sec ago
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Vatican says Palestinians must ‘stay on their land’

Vatican says Palestinians must ‘stay on their land’
  • Secretary of State Pietro Parolin: ‘This is one of the fundamental points of the Holy See: no deportations’
  • Parolin: ‘The solution in our opinion is that of two states because this also means giving hope to the population’

VATICAN CITY: A top Vatican official on Thursday rejected US President Donald Trump’s proposal to move Palestinians from Gaza, saying “the Palestinian population must remain on its land.”
“This is one of the fundamental points of the Holy See: no deportations,” Secretary of State Pietro Parolin said on the sidelines of an Italy-Vatican meeting, according to the ANSA news agency.
Moving Palestinians out would cause regional tensions and “makes no sense” as neighboring countries such as Jordan are opposed, he continued.
“The solution in our opinion is that of two states because this also means giving hope to the population,” he said.
Trump has proposed taking over the war-ravaged Gaza Strip and moving its more than two million residents to Jordan or Egypt. Experts say the idea would violate international law but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called it “revolutionary.”
Pope Francis this week criticized Trump’s plans for mass deportations of undocumented migrants in the United States — drawing a sharp response.
In a letter to US bishops, the head of the Catholic Church called the deportations a “major crisis” and said sending back people who had fled their own countries in distress “damages the dignity” of the migrants.
Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, responded: “I wish he’d stick to the Catholic Church and fix that and leave border enforcement to us.”


Israel asserts presence in five strategically significant high points in southern Lebanon

Israel asserts presence in five strategically significant high points in southern Lebanon
Updated 13 February 2025
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Israel asserts presence in five strategically significant high points in southern Lebanon

Israel asserts presence in five strategically significant high points in southern Lebanon
  • Lebanon rejects any extension of Israeli forces’ presence in the border areas
  • Egyptian foreign minister: Resolution 1701 must be implemented by all parties

BEIRUT: Ahead of the scheduled Friday meeting of the five-member committee overseeing the implementation of the ceasefire agreement in southern Lebanon, Israel preemptively announced its decision to maintain a military presence in five strategic points overlooking the southern sectors.

The Israeli announcement — through both its officials and Israeli media — came four days before the extended deadline for withdrawing its forces, which have advanced into Lebanese territory.

On Wednesday night, Israeli warplanes conducted low-altitude flights, breaking the sound barrier over Beirut and several other regions, including the Bekaa Valley.

The maneuver came only hours after Lebanon rejected any extension of Israeli forces’ presence in the border areas, which they had advanced into since Oct. 1.

Political analysts interpreted the aerial incursion as “an act of intimidation designed to pressure Lebanon into accepting the situation.”

Lebanon has rejected any extension of the Israeli occupation of its territory. On Thursday, President Joseph Aoun reaffirmed that “Lebanon is intensifying diplomatic efforts to ensure Israel’s withdrawal by February 18.”

He said that the country was actively engaging with influential global powers, particularly the US and France, to secure a sustainable resolution.

During his meeting with Lebanese Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji in the newly formed government, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty underscored the need to enforce the ceasefire agreement in southern Lebanon and demanded the immediate, full withdrawal of Israeli forces. He also stressed the importance of enforcing Resolution 1701, ensuring that all parties complied without exception.

On Thursday, Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer announced that Israel would retain control over five strategic high points inside Lebanon following the expiry of the ceasefire next Tuesday. He emphasized that while the Israeli army would redeploy, it would maintain its presence in these key positions until Lebanon met its commitments under the agreement.

“Lebanon’s obligations do not entail removing Hezbollah from the border, but rather disarming it,” Dermer told Bloomberg.

While the Israeli minister did not specify how long the Israeli army would remain in the strategic high points, he said: “The army will not withdraw in the near future.”

On Wednesday, Ori Gordin, the chief of the Israeli army’s Northern Command, made a call “to solidify Israel’s presence in these positions under American cover and with international support.”

The Israeli Broadcasting Authority quoted senior officials in the Security Cabinet of Israel as saying that “the US has granted Israeli forces permission to remain in several locations in Lebanon long-term beyond Feb. 18.”

Israeli media reported that “the Israeli army has received US approval to establish observation points to monitor Hezbollah’s activities, while the US side rejected postponing the Israeli withdrawal from the villages where it is still carrying out incursions.”

These Israeli positions coincided with a round of talks conducted by US Maj. Gen. Jasper Jeffers, representative of the US in the committee monitoring the implementation of the ceasefire agreement, with Israeli officials on Thursday. As a result, the committee’s meeting in Ras Naqoura was postponed to Friday after originally being scheduled for Thursday.

Lebanon has rejected a joint US-French proposal to take control of these five strategic positions along the border, insisting instead that UN peacekeeping forces — UNIFIL — assume control of these points in coordination with the Lebanese army.

The disputed hills, which the Israeli military refuses to evacuate, include Jabal Blat, Labouneh, Aziziyah, Awida and Hamames. All these positions are strategically located but uninhabited.

According to local media reports in Beirut, Israeli forces have begun constructing prefabricated structures with guard posts along the Markaba-Houla road, adjacent to an existing UNIFIL position near the border. 


Abbas thanks China over support for two-state solution, rejection of Gaza displacement

Abbas thanks China over support for two-state solution, rejection of Gaza displacement
Updated 13 February 2025
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Abbas thanks China over support for two-state solution, rejection of Gaza displacement

Abbas thanks China over support for two-state solution, rejection of Gaza displacement
  • Palestinian Authority leader sends letter to Chinese President Xi Jinping
  • He commends Beijing’s call for international community to reach just resolution to Palestinian issue

LONDON: Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has thanked Chinese President Xi Jinping for his country’s rejection of plans to displace Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.

In a letter to the Chinese leader on Thursday, Abbas commended Beijing’s call for the international community to stop the violence in the Middle East and reach a just resolution to the Palestinian issue.

Abbas said that the PA is confident in China’s support for Palestinian and Arab “efforts to consolidate the ceasefire in Gaza, stop the current Israeli aggression on the cities and camps of the West Bank, accelerate the reconstruction of Gaza, reconnect it to the West Bank, move toward implementing the two-state solution, end the Israeli occupation and embody the independent, geographically integrated state, with East Jerusalem as its capital, so that we can live with all the peoples of the region in security, peace and stability,” according to Wafa agency.

Since early February, US President Donald Trump has repeatedly insisted that the US will take over Gaza and that its Palestinian inhabitants should be relocated from the enclave to other countries, including Egypt and Jordan, which have both rejected the proposal.

The PA labeled Trump’s plan — which was welcomed by the Israeli government and settler leaders — as ethnic cleansing. Arab and some European countries, including France, also denounced the US idea and called for reconstruction in Gaza without displacing its residents.


Kuwait’s PM affirms country’s diplomatic neutrality, leads delegation to Munich Security Conference

Kuwait’s PM affirms country’s diplomatic neutrality, leads delegation to Munich Security Conference
Updated 13 February 2025
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Kuwait’s PM affirms country’s diplomatic neutrality, leads delegation to Munich Security Conference

Kuwait’s PM affirms country’s diplomatic neutrality, leads delegation to Munich Security Conference
  • Kuwait committed to leading humanitarian efforts in disaster-hit countries

LONDON: Kuwait’s Prime Minister Sheikh Ahmad Abdullah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah arrived in Germany on Thursday to participate in the 61st session of the Munich Security Conference, which is being held from Feb. 14 to 16.

Sheikh Ahmad is leading the Kuwaiti delegation at a conference that brings together hundreds of decision-makers and opinion leaders to discuss global security.

The prime minister reaffirmed Kuwait’s commitment to building strong connections with the international community while advocating for the resolution of conflicts through dialogue and supporting efforts for peace and security.

Sheikh Ahmad said Kuwait had maintained its diplomatic ties by upholding neutrality and remaining at an equal distance from conflicting parties, the Kuwait Press Agency reported.

He added that Kuwait was committed to leading humanitarian efforts in disaster-stricken countries, and actively mediating to resolve regional and international crises.

Reem Mohammed Al-Khaled, Kuwait’s ambassador to Germany, along with embassy staff, received the prime minister on his arrival.