Israel begins destruction of Baalbek following mass evacuation
Naim Qassem: We are facing an Israeli-American-European war to dismantle the resistance
Updated 30 October 2024
NAJIA HOUSSARI
BEIRUT: Israel launched a large-scale assault on Baalbek and its surroundings on Wednesday following the forced evacuation of thousands of residents.
The offensive coincided with the first public appearance of Hezbollah’s newly appointed secretary-general, Sheikh Naim Qassem, who succeeded the assassinated Hassan Nasrallah.
In a televised address, Qassem said: “The party is ready to make great sacrifices, and we are confident that victory will be ours.”
He added: “We are facing a massive campaign — an Israeli-American-European war aimed at dismantling the resistance and oppressing our people across the region. This effort uses all forms of genocide and crime, and it must be met with steadfast opposition.”
He said his agenda was a continuation of Nasrallah’s aims: “We will carry forward the war strategy he laid out, following the established political directives. We will also continue to support Gaza. We are not fighting on behalf of anyone or for any external agenda; we are fighting for our own cause — to protect and liberate Lebanon. Iran supports us in this mission without seeking anything in return.”
Qassem characterized Hezbollah’s opening of the southern front over a year ago as an act of “preemptive defense” and said: “It was not international resolutions that pushed Israel out of Lebanon; it was the resistance.”
Israeli attacks targeting Hezbollah have focused on Baalbek and its surrounding areas, including Ain Bourday, Douris, and Iaat, following a three-hour evacuation warning issued by the Israeli army. Thousands of residents remain in these areas despite previous attacks.
Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee issued the warning to Baalbek residents, accompanied by a map highlighting extensive target areas that included the UNESCO World Heritage Site.
There were also recorded phone calls to residents and official centers, including the regional civil defense office, urging evacuation via designated routes.
Residents scrambled to secure transportation and take whatever belongings they could. The city was soon congested with traffic as evacuation calls echoed through mosques, churches and civil defense teams. The Labweh-Arsal road witnessed heavy traffic towards the town of Arsal, where there are several shelters.
The governor of Baalbek-Hermel, Bashir Khadr, said: “We are facing a catastrophic situation, and there is a state of panic among the residents following the Israeli evacuation warnings.”
Minister of Culture Mohammed Wissam Al-Mortada issued an urgent appeal to the UN Security Council and to “whatever remains of conscience in this world, urging them to deter the Israeli enemy from carrying out its threat to bomb the Baalbek citadel, which represents a world cultural heritage that belongs not only to Lebanon but to all of humanity.”
In the afternoon, the Israeli army issued an evacuation warning to the residents of seven towns in the Nabatieh area — Sajd, Kfarjoz, Nabatieh, Zefta, Jarjouh, Houmin El-Tahta and Kfar Rumman.
Drones actively monitored vehicles on mountainous routes as the Israeli military tried to track down Hezbollah leaders and prevent the transfer of weapons and ammunition to the group.
A driver managed to escape after his vehicle was targeted in the town of Bchamoun, while another was killed after his van was hit on the Dahr Al-Wahsh road in Aria. Several rockets which fell from the van were later detonated by the Lebanese army.
The municipalities of Araya and Kahale condemned what it described as “the use of international roads and civilian vehicles to transport armed men and weapons and ammunition, which exposes passers-by and residents of the two towns to dangers that threaten their lives and property.”
They expressed their hope that the Lebanese Army and legitimate security agencies would “intervene immediately to implement measures that prevent the use of international roads and safe areas for military purposes, thereby alleviating the threat posed to civilians.”
Meanwhile, Israeli forces resumed their incursion into the city of Khiam from both the east and south, with intense clashes involving machine gun fire, artillery shells and tank fire.
Airstrikes targeted the city of Nabatiyeh and the town of Sinay in the Sidon district, where around 15 people, including children, were killed or injured as they picked olives.
The final death toll of a strike on Sarafand on Tuesday has been given as 15. Rescue efforts concluded on Wednesday, with a child being pulled alive from beneath the rubble.
Strikes carried out over two days on two residential buildings in Haret Saida destroyed the area and left 10 people dead with a further 36 wounded.
Attacks were also carried out on government buildings, with a gendarmerie station destroyed following an airstrike on the town of Doueir. A number of military vehicles were also damaged.
Anger turns toward Washington in West Bank town mourning two men killed by settlers
Residents of area call for stronger action from Washington
Many residents have American citizenship, family ties to US
Updated 22 sec ago
Reuters
AL-MAZRA’A ASH-SHARQIYA, West Bank: Frustration among Palestinians grew toward the United States on Sunday as mourners packed the roads to a cemetery in the Israeli-occupied West Bank town of Al-Mazr’a Ash-Sharqiya for the burial of two men, one of them a Palestinian American, killed by settlers.
Palestinian health authorities and witnesses said Sayfollah Musallet, 21, was beaten to death, and Hussein Al-Shalabi, 23, was shot in the chest by settlers during a confrontation on Friday night.
Most of the small town’s roughly 3,000 residents share family ties to the United States and many hold citizenship, including Musallet, who was killed weeks after flying to visit his mother in Al-Mazr’a Ash-Sharqiya, where he traveled most summers from Tampa, Florida.
“There’s no accountability,” said his father Kamel Musallet, who flew from the United States to bury his son.
“We demand the United States government do something about it ... I don’t want his death to go in vain.”
Israeli killings of US citizens in the West Bank in recent years include those of Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, Palestinian American teenager Omar Mohammad Rabea and Turkish American activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi.
A US State Department spokesperson said on Friday it was aware of the latest death, but that the department had no further comment “out of respect for the privacy of the family and loved ones” of the victim.
Many family and community members said they expected more, including that the United States would spearhead an investigation into who was responsible.
A US State Department spokesperson on Sunday referred questions on an investigation to the Israeli government and said it “has no higher priority than the safety and security of US citizens overseas.”
The Israeli military had earlier said Israel was probing the incident. It said confrontations between Palestinians and settlers broke out after Palestinians threw rocks at Israelis, lightly injuring them.
‘Betrayal’
Musallet’s family said medics tried to reach him for three hours before his brother managed to carry him to an ambulance, but he died before reaching the hospital.
Local resident Domi, 18, who has lived in Al-Mazr’a Ash-Sharqiya for the last four years after moving back from the United States, said fears had spread in the community since Friday and his parents had discussed sending him to the United States. “If people have sons like this they are going to want to send them back to America because it’s just not safe for them,” he said.
He had mixed feelings about returning, saying he wanted to stay near his family’s land, which they had farmed for generations, and that Washington should do more to protect Palestinians in the West Bank.
“It’s a kind of betrayal,” he said.
Settler violence in the West Bank has risen since the start of Israel’s war against Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza in late 2023, according to rights groups.
Dozens of Israelis have also been killed in Palestinian street attacks in recent years and the Israeli military has intensified raids across the West Bank.
Around 700,000 Israeli settlers live among 2.7 million Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, territories Israel captured from Jordan in the 1967 war.
US President Donald Trump in January rescinded sanctions imposed by the former Biden administration on Israeli settler groups and individuals accused of being involved in violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.
Malik, 18, who used to visit Musallet’s ice-cream shop in Tampa and had returned to the West Bank for a few months’ vacation, said his friend’s death had made him question his sense of belonging.
“I was born and raised in America, I only come here two months of a 12-month year, if I die like that nobody’s going to be charged for my murder,” he said, standing in the cemetery shortly before his friend was buried. “No one’s going to be held accountable.”
Trump says hopes to get Gaza ‘straightened out’ over next week
The US is backing a 60-day ceasefire with a phased release of hostages, Israeli troop withdrawals from parts of Gaza and talks to end the conflict
Updated 14 July 2025
AFP
JOINT BASE ANDREWS, United States: US President Donald Trump told reporters on Sunday that talks are ongoing over Israel’s conflict in Gaza and he hopes for progress in the next week, even as ceasefire negotiations in Doha stalled.
“Gaza — we are talking and hopefully we’re going to get that straightened out over the next week,” Trump said, echoing similarly optimistic comments he made July 4.
Search called off for crew of Houthi-hit ship, maritime agencies say
The strikes on the two ships marked a resumption of a campaign by the Iran-aligned fighters who attacked more than 100 ships from November 2023 to December 2024 in what they said was solidarity with the Palestinians
Updated 14 July 2025
Reuters
ATHENS: Maritime agencies Diaplous and Ambrey said on Sunday they had ended their search for the remaining crew of the Eternity C cargo ship that was attacked by Yemen’s Houthi militants last week.
The decision was made at the request of the vessel’s owner, both agencies said.
The Liberia-flagged, Greek-operated Eternity C sank on Wednesday morning following attacks over two consecutive days, according to sources at security companies involved in the rescue operation.
Ten of the ship’s complement of 22 crew and three guards were rescued. The remaining 15 are considered missing, including five who are believed to be dead, maritime security sources said. The Houthis said they had rescued some of the crew.
The crew included 21 Filipinos and one Russian. Three armed guards were also on board, including one Greek and one Indian, who were both rescued.
“The decision to end the search has been taken by the vessel’s Owner reluctantly but it believes that, in all the circumstances, the priority must now be to get the 10 souls safely recovered alive ashore,” maritime risk management firm Diaplous and British security firm Ambrey said in a joint statement.
The Houthis also claimed responsibility for a similar assault last Sunday targeting another ship, the Magic Seas. All crew from the Magic Seas were rescued before it sank.
The strikes on the two ships marked a resumption of a campaign by the Iran-aligned fighters who attacked more than 100 ships from November 2023 to December 2024 in what they said was solidarity with the Palestinians.
Israel’s Netanyahu aide faces indictment over Gaza leak
Netanyahu’s close adviser, Jonatan Urich, has denied any wrongdoing in the case which legal authorities began investigating in late 2024
The prime minister has described probes against Urich and other aides as a witch-hunt.
Updated 13 July 2025
Reuters
JERUSALEM: An aide to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces indictment on security charges pending a hearing, Israel’s attorney general said on Sunday, for allegedly leaking top secret military information during Israel’s war in Gaza.
Netanyahu’s close adviser, Jonatan Urich, has denied any wrongdoing in the case which legal authorities began investigating in late 2024. The prime minister has described probes against Urich and other aides as a witch-hunt.
Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara said in a statement that Urich and another aide had extracted secret information from the Israeli military and leaked it to German newspaper Bild. Their intent, she said, was to shape public opinion of Netanyahu and influence the discourse about the slaying of six Israeli hostages by their Palestinian captors in Gaza in late August 2024.
The hostages’ deaths had sparked mass protests in Israel and outraged hostage families, who accused Netanyahu of torpedoing ceasefire talks that had faltered in the preceding weeks for political reasons.
Netanyahu vehemently denies this. He has repeatedly said that Hamas was to blame for the talks collapsing, while the militant group has said it was Israel’s fault no deal had been reached.
Four of the six slain hostages had been on the list of more than 30 captives that Hamas was set to free were a ceasefire to be reached, according to a defense official at the time.
The Bild article in question was published days after the hostages were found executed in a Hamas tunnel in southern Gaza.
It outlined Hamas’ negotiation strategy in the indirect ceasefire talks and largely corresponded with Netanyahu’s allegations against the militant group over the deadlock.
Bild said after the investigation was announced that it does not comment on its sources and that its article relied on authentic documents.
A two-month ceasefire was reached in January this year and included the release of 38 hostages before Israel resumed attacks in Gaza. The sides are presently engaged in indirect negotiations in Doha, aimed at reaching another truce.
How unequal shelter access puts Israel’s Arab and Bedouin communities at greater risk
Decades of infrastructure neglect have left Arab and Bedouin areas without basic protections enjoyed by Jewish communities
Residents are calling for equal emergency planning, arguing that safety during conflict should be a right, not a privilege
Updated 14 July 2025
ANAN TELLO
LONDON: As Iranian rockets shook East Jerusalem in mid-June, Rawan Shalaldeh sat in the dark while her seven-year-old son slept. She had put him to bed early and hid her phone to prevent the constant alerts from waking him, hoping sleep would shield her child from the terror above.
“The bombing was very intense; the house would shake,” Shalaldeh, an architect and urban planner with the Israeli human rights and planning organization Bimkom, told Arab News.
While residents in nearby Jewish districts rushed into reinforced shelters, Shalaldeh and her family in the Palestinian neighborhood of Jabal Al-Zaytoun had nowhere to go.
Israelis gather in a underground shelter in Tel Aviv on June 24, 2025, after sirens sounded in several areas across the country after missiles were fired from Iran. (AFP/File)
“East Jerusalem has only about 60 shelters, most of them inside schools,” she said. “They’re designed for students, not for neighborhood residents. They’re not available in every area, and they’re not enough for the population.”
Her home is a 15-minute walk from the nearest shelter. “By the time we’d get there, the bombing would already be over,” she said.
Instead, her family stayed inside, bracing for the next strike. “We could hear the sound but couldn’t tell if it was from the bombs or the interception systems,” she recalled. “We couldn’t sleep. It was terrifying. I fear it will happen again.”
That fear is compounded by infrastructure gaps that make East Jerusalem’s residents more vulnerable. “Old homes in East Jerusalem don’t have shelters at all,” she said. “New homes with shelters are rare because it’s extremely hard to get a building permit here.”
Arab and Bedouin communities were left without basic protections enjoyed bytheir Jewish neighbors. (AFP)
Israeli law requires new apartments to be built with protected rooms. However, homes built without permits are unlikely to follow the guidelines, leaving most without safe space.
The contrast with West Jerusalem is stark. “There’s a big difference between East and West Jerusalem,” Shalaldeh said. “In the west, there are many shelters, and things are much easier for them.”
Indeed, a June 17 report by Bimkom underscored these disparities. While West Jerusalem, home to a mostly Jewish population, has about 200 public shelters, East Jerusalem, which is home to nearly 400,000 Palestinians, has just one.
Even where shelters do exist they are often inaccessible. The municipality’s website fails to clearly mark their locations, and many residents are unaware they exist. Some shelters even remain locked during emergencies — especially at night.
The report concluded that the current infrastructure is grossly inadequate, leaving most East Jerusalem residents without access to basic protection during attacks.
Men inspect the destruction to a home in the northern Arab-Israeli city of Tamra, on June 24, 2025, days after after an Iranian ballistic missile slammed into the neighborhood. (AFP)
Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem hold temporary residency IDs that lack any listed nationality and must be renewed every five years. Unlike Arab citizens of Israel — often referred to as “48 Arabs” — or residents of southern Israel, they do not have Israeli citizenship.
For many Palestinian and Arab citizens of Israel, the 12-day Israel-Iran war in June laid bare a deeper inequity — one that extends beyond conflict and into the fabric of everyday life.
“I haven’t spoken with any of my friends in the north yet, but I saw videos on Instagram,” Shalaldeh said. “Arab families tried to enter shelters and were prevented — because they’re Arab.”
The war, she said, exposed an uncomfortable truth for many Arab citizens of Israel. “After the war, many realized they’re not treated like Israelis — even though they have citizenship, work in Israel and speak Hebrew.”
This picture shows Bedouin shelters at Khirbat Khlayel near al-Mughayyir village, north of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on June 1, 2025. (AFP)
“There’s an Israeli policy that tries to blur their identity. But the war opened a lot of people’s eyes. It became clear they’re not equal, and the issue of shelters was shocking for many.”
One town where this inequity became alarmingly visible was Tira, a predominantly Arab community in central Israel with roughly 27,000 residents. Though well within the range of missile attacks, Tira lacks adequate public shelters.
“Most of the few shelters that exist are outdated, insufficient, or located far from residential areas,” Fakhri Masri, a political and social activist from Tira, told Arab News. “In emergencies, schools are often opened as temporary shelters, but they only serve nearby neighborhoods and can’t accommodate everyone.
“Many homes do not have protected rooms, and this leaves families, especially those with children or elderly members, extremely vulnerable.”
Israeli air defence systems are activated to intercept Iranian missiles over the Israeli city of Tel Aviv early on June 18, 2025. (AFP)
When sirens sounded during the attacks, panic set in. “It was the middle of the night,” Masri said. “Many of us had to wake our children, some still half asleep, and scramble for any kind of cover.
With official shelters scarce, families resorted to improvised solutions. “People ran into stairwells, lay on the ground away from windows, or tried to reach school shelters — if they were even open or nearby,” he said.
Others simply fled to their cars or huddled outdoors, hoping distance from buildings would offer some safety.
“It was chaotic, frightening, and it felt like we were left completely on our own,” Masri said. “The fear wasn’t just of rockets — it was also the fear of having no place to run to.”
Underlying this crisis, he argued, is a deeper pattern of state neglect. “Arab towns like Tira were never provided with proper infrastructure or emergency planning like Jewish towns often are,” he said. “That in itself feels like a form of discrimination.
Israeli police officers check the damage following a rocket attack from southern Lebanon that targeted the central Israeli-Arab city of Tira, on November 2, 2024. (AFP File)
“It makes you feel invisible — like our safety doesn’t matter. It’s a constant reminder that we’re not being protected equally under the same state policies.
“We are not asking for anything more than what every citizen deserves — equal rights, equal protection, and the right to live in safety and dignity. It is a basic human right to feel secure at our own home, to know that our children have somewhere safe to go during an emergency.”
Masri, who has long campaigned for equal emergency protections, called on the Israeli government to end discrimination in shelter planning.
“Treat Arab towns with the same seriousness and care as any other town,” he said. “We are people who want to live in peace. We want our children to grow up in a country where safety is not a privilege but a right — for everyone, Jewish and Arab alike.
“Until that happens, we will keep raising our voices and demanding fairness, because no one should be left behind.”
The picture is similar for the roughly 100,000 Bedouin who live across 35 unrecognized villages in the Negev and Galilee regions, often in makeshift homes that provide little protection. Many of these villages are near sensitive sites targeted by Iran.
A bedouin shepherd leads his flock atop his donkey in the hills near the city of Rahat in the north of Israel's Negev desert on August 28, 2024. (AFP)
One such village is Wadi Al-Na’am, the largest unrecognized village in Israel, home to about 15,000 Bedouin residents in the southern Negev desert.
“When we say unrecognized, it means we have nothing,” said Najib Abu Bnaeh, head of the village’s emergency team and a member of its local council. “No roads, no electricity, no running water — and certainly no shelters.
“During wars, people flee the villages. They hide in caves, under bridges — any place they can find.”
IN NUMBERS
• 250 Shelters built across Negev since Oct. 7, 2023 — half of them by the state.
• 60 School-based shelters in East Jerusalem, concentrated in select locations.
• 1 Public shelter in East Jerusalem.
• 200 Public shelters in West Jerusalem.
(Source: Bimkom)
After the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, the army began installing a small number of shelters in unrecognized villages. But Abu Bnaeh said that these efforts have fallen short.
“In our village, they built two structures,” he said. “But they have no ceilings, so they don’t protect from anything.”
He estimates that more than 45,000 protective buildings are needed across all unrecognized villages.
Cars destroyed in a rocket attack allegedly fired from the Gaza strip are seen through a damaged window of a house in the village of Arara in the Negev Desert, a place residents say is constantly hit by rockets, on October 14, 2023. (AFP)
As the head of Wadi Al-Na’am’s emergency response team, Abu Bnaeh leads a group of 20 volunteers. Together, they assist residents during missile alerts, evacuating families to shelters in nearby townships such as Segev Shalom and Rahat, and delivering food and medicine.
“We train people how to take cover and survive,” he said. “We also help train teams in other villages how to respond to injuries, missiles and emergencies.
“The best way to protect people is simple. Recognize the villages. Allow us to build shelters.”
This picture shows a view of the Bedouin community of al-Auja west of Jericho in the Israel-occupied West Bank on March 16, 2025, which was attacked the previous week by Israeli settlers who reportedly stole sheep. (AFP)
Even recognized villages face issues. In Um Bateen, officially recognized in 2004, basic infrastructure is still missing.
“Although our village is recognized, we still don’t have electricity,” Samera Abo Kaf, a resident of the 8,000-strong community, told Arab News.
“There are 48 Bedouin villages in northern Israel. And even those recognized look nothing like Jewish towns nearby.”
Building legally is nearly impossible. “The state refuses to recognize the land we’ve lived on for generations,” she said. “So, we build anyway — out of necessity. But that means living in fear; of winter collapsing our roofs, or bulldozers tearing our homes down.”
Bedouins from the Zanun family, which is part of the Azazme tribe, eat a holiday meal after slaughtering one of their sheep on the first day of the Eid al-Adha holiday in their village of Wadi Naam, currently unrecognized by Israeli authorities, near the southern city of Beersheba in the Israeli Negev desert. (AFP/File)
Abo Kaf said that the contrast is obvious during her commute. “I pass Beer Sheva and Omer — trees, paved roads, tall buildings. It’s painful. Just 15 minutes away, life is so different.
“And I come from a village that is, in many ways, better off than others,” she added.
With each new conflict, the fear returns. “Israel is a country with many enemies — it’s no secret,” Abo Kaf said. “Every few years, we go through another war. And we Bedouins have no shelters. None.
Bedouins protest against the Israeli government's demolition of houses in the area, in the southern town of Beersheba, on June 12, 2025. (AFP)
“So not only are our homes at risk of demolition, but we also live with the threat of rockets. It’s absurd. It’s infuriating. If something doesn’t change, there’s no future.”
Michal Braier, Bimkom’s head of research, said that no government body had responded to its report, though many civil society organizations have supported its findings based on specific cases.
“There are stark protection gaps between high- and low-income communities,” she told Arab News. “And most Arab and Palestinian communities rank low on socio-economic indicators.
“This is a very neo-liberal planning and development policy that, by definition, leaves the weak behind.”
