50 children among hundreds of Lebanese killed in 2 days of Israeli strikes

50 children among hundreds of Lebanese killed in 2 days of Israeli strikes
Smoke billows over southern Lebanon following Israeli strikes, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Tyre, southern Lebanon. (Reuters)
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Updated 24 September 2024
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50 children among hundreds of Lebanese killed in 2 days of Israeli strikes

50 children among hundreds of Lebanese killed in 2 days of Israeli strikes
  • Human remains seen on vehicles parked in front of building targeted on Tuesday
  • The sources identified the commander who was killed as Ibrahim Qubaisi

BEIRUT: The Israeli military resumed its attacks on the southern suburbs of Beirut on Tuesday, targeting a building in the Ghobeiry area a day after hundreds of airstrikes across various regions in Lebanon killed over 550 people, including 50 children.

Tuesday’s operation, which was intended to eliminate Abu Jawad Haraka, the commander of the Iran-backed Hezbollah’s missile unit, resulted in the deaths of two people and a further 11, including Iraqis, sustaining injuries, along with the destruction of part of a six-story residential building.

Israeli army radio announced that the airstrike was carried out by F-35 aircraft.

Images circulated from the site of the attack showed human remains on the vehicles parked in front of the targeted building, along with the significant destruction of property.

Further Israeli assaults targeted paramedics associated with the Islamic Health Organization, linked to Hezbollah in the Nabatieh area, as well as the Sajjad food supply establishment, which is also connected to Hezbollah, in Sarein in the Bekaa region.

Following a day of deadly strikes on southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley, Israeli Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi said that the Israeli military would “accelerate the offensive operation today,” and added that “we should not give Hezbollah a rest.”

Lebanon’s Health Minister Firas Abiad reported that hundreds of Israeli airstrikes across various regions of the country on Monday resulted in 558 fatalities, including 50 children.

It marked the most intense airstrikes against Lebanon since Hezbollah initiated operations on the southern front about a year ago.

A UNICEF official spoke of “children missing under rubble.”

The intensity in the fighting between Hezbollah and Israel escalated last week following explosions that targeted pagers and wireless devices used by Hezbollah members and civilian employees.

Hezbollah accused Israel of carrying out the attacks, which resulted in the deaths of 39 people and injuries to 2,931 others, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health.

The Israeli airstrikes impacted residential areas in the southern regions up to Mount Hermon, as well as the western Bekaa and a significant portion of the villages and towns in central and eastern Bekaa.

The attacks also affected an area adjacent to the archaeological site in Baalbek.

Displaced people who managed to reach Beirut spread out along the roads with their belongings and at the front of mosques, while the Ministry of Education opened public schools to accommodate them.

The Masnaa Border Crossing witnessed severe traffic congestion due to the significant movement of displaced people from Lebanon to Syria, including both Lebanese citizens and Syrian workers.

Heavy traffic jams meanwhile continued on roads in south Beirut.

People remained trapped in their cars without food or water due to the chaos in organizing the flow of tens of thousands of cars, especially between Ghazieh and Sidon, and Sidon and Beirut.

Displaced people expressed concerns about the “absence of state institutions in resolving this tragedy.”

They also lamented the “lack of organizational support from Hezbollah during such critical times, leaving people to face their fate alone.”

The health minister told a press conference that “the number of hospitals that received casualties on Monday reached 54,” noting that “four paramedics lost their lives.”

He mentioned “a significant number of remains that the security forces are working to identify.”

As the Israeli strikes on the neighborhoods of southern Beirut have intensified, an increasing number of people have decided to evacuate their homes, in contrast to the situation in 2006 when Hezbollah instructed residents to leave the area within hours of the onset of Israeli aggression.

Numerous neighborhoods have appeared deserted, with shops, restaurants, and gas stations closed, resulting in an almost complete lack of activity.

Meanwhile, both Arab and foreign airlines have suspended all flights to Beirut until further notice.

Minister of Education Abbas Halabi announced the death of Suzi Kojok, director of Kawthariyet El Seyad Intermediate Public School; Layali Ayach, a teacher at the Ansar Public High School, who was killed along with her husband and their two children; and Zeinab and Fatimah Hreibi, teachers at the Shoukin Public School.

Halabi said the victims had died “following the aggressive Israeli shelling that targeted their houses or killed them while they were carrying out their work at school.”

The state-owned Electricite du Liban announced the death of Farah Kojok, an engineer at the Zahrani thermal power plant who died along with her husband, children, father, mother and sister in an Israeli raid that targeted their home.

The Lebanese TV channel Al-Mayadeen announced the death of journalist Hadi Al-Sayed, who was killed in an Israeli raid that targeted his house in southern Lebanon.

The Israeli military again dropped leaflets over southern Lebanon, calling on people to avoid Hezbollah members, following voice messages telling residents to evacuate their houses.

The leaflets said that “whoever stays near Hezbollah members or weapons is putting their life at risk.”

In a series of strikes targeting Israeli outposts, Hezbollah retaliated while affirming that its firepower had not been affected by Israeli attacks.

The group announced that it had “bombarded the Eliakim military camp of the Israeli Northern Command, south of Haifa, with a barrage of Fadi-2 rockets.”

Hezbollah’s operations targeted “the Megiddo Military Airport, west of Afula, with a barrage of Fadi-1 missiles in the first round, and a barrage of Fadi-2 missiles in the second and third rounds.”

It also bombed “the explosive materials factory in the Zikhron area, 60 km from the border, with a barrage of Fadi-2 rockets.”

Hezbollah also targeted “the Amos base — the main logistical support and transportation hub for the northern region — with a salvo of Fadi-1 rockets, as well as the Ramat David base and airport with a salvo of Fadi-2 missiles.”

The group also targeted “the logistical warehouses of the 146th Division at the Naftali base with a rocket salvo, in addition to the Samson base and the Rosh Pina settlement with a rocket salvo.”

According to the Israeli side, Hezbollah’s strikes also reached Safad, while Israel called on “residents in Kiryat Shmona and its surroundings to stay near fortified areas.”

On the diplomatic front, Jean-Yves Le Drian, the French presidential envoy, met in Beirut several Lebanese officials, including Prime Minister Najib Mikati; Nabih Berri, parliamentary speaker; Gen. Joseph Aoun, commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces; Samir Geagea, head of the Lebanese Forces Party; and Gebran Bassil, head of the Free Patriotic Movement.

Le Drian said that “France stands by Lebanon in all circumstances,” and added he hoped that “diplomatic calls would lead to a resolution that halts the cycle of violence.”

 


US airstrike in Syria kills senior operative of Al-Qaeda affiliate

US airstrike in Syria kills senior operative of Al-Qaeda affiliate
Updated 31 January 2025
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US airstrike in Syria kills senior operative of Al-Qaeda affiliate

US airstrike in Syria kills senior operative of Al-Qaeda affiliate

The US military said it killed a senior operative of an Al-Qaeda-affiliated militant group in an airstrike in northwest Syria on Thursday.
The airstrike, part of an ongoing effort to disrupt and degrade militant groups in the region, resulted in the death of Muhammad Salah Al-Za’bir of the Hurras Al-Din group, the US Central Command said in a statement.


Who are the Palestinian prisoners released in exchange for Israeli hostages?

Who are the Palestinian prisoners released in exchange for Israeli hostages?
Updated 31 January 2025
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Who are the Palestinian prisoners released in exchange for Israeli hostages?

Who are the Palestinian prisoners released in exchange for Israeli hostages?
  • U.N. data shows that one in five Palestinians in the West Bank has passed through Israeli jail
  • 23 prisoners serving life sentences were transferred to Egypt before further deportation

RAMALLAH: Israel released 110 Palestinian prisoners on Thursday in exchange for three Israeli hostages held in Gaza. Five Thai workers held captive in the enclave were also freed in a separate deal with Thailand. Thursday's prisoner-for-hostage swap marked the third round of exchanges as a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas entered its second week.
Most of the prisoners stepped off the Red Cross bus and onto the shoulders of jubilant supporters in the occupied West Bank, where U.N. data shows that one in five Palestinians has passed through Israeli jail and the release of prisoners is a source of joyous national celebration — a homecoming in which almost all Palestinians felt they could partake.
But 23 of them serving life sentences were transferred to Egypt before further deportation.
The prisoners released Thursday were all men, ranging in age from 15 to 69.
Here's a look at some prominent Palestinian prisoners released since the ceasefire deal went into effect on Jan. 19.
Zakaria Zubeidi
Zakaria Zubeidi is a prominent former militant leader and theater director whose dramatic jailbreak in 2021 thrilled Palestinians across the Middle East and stunned the Israeli security establishment.
Zubeidi once led the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade — an armed group affiliated with Fatah, the secular political party that controls the Palestinian Authority — that carried out deadly attacks against Israelis during the second intifada, or Palestinian uprising, between 2000 and 2005.
After the intifada in 2006, Zubeidi co-founded a theater in his hometown of Jenin refugee camp, a hotbed of Palestinian militancy, to promote what he described as cultural resistance to Israel. Even today, the Freedom Theater in Jenin refugee camp puts on everything from Shakespeare to stand-up comedy to plays written by residents.
In 2019, after Zubeidi had already served years in prison for attacks in the early 2000s, Israel arrested him again over his alleged involvement in shooting attacks that targeted buses of Israeli settlers but caused no injuries.
Zubeidi, who was released Thursday, had been awaiting trial in prison. He denies the charges, saying that he gave up militancy to focus on his political activism after the intifada.
In 2021, he and five other prisoners tunneled out of a maximum-security prison in northern Israel, an escape that helped solidify Zubeidi’s image among Palestinians as a folk hero. All six were recaptured days later.
In a room packed with family members and supporters smiling, laughing, and jostling for a view of him, Zubeidi shouted to be heard over the frenzy and expressed thanks for God and his loved ones. He searched for words as reporters thrust microphones toward him, offering Islamic prayers to those wounded and killed in Gaza.
Rather than set off to Jenin camp after being freed, he stayed in Ramallah on Thursday night. Israel launched an extensive military raid earlier this month in the Jenin camp that so far has killed at least 18 Palestinians and sent scores of families fleeing.
“May God grant victory to our brothers in the Jenin camp,” Zubeidi said. His son, Mohammed, was killed in an Israeli drone strike last September in the camp.
Palestinian medics, who have raised concerns about the conditions of detainees emerging from Israeli detention, said Zubeidi looked weak and malnourished. Dr. Mai Al-Kaileh, who examined him, said his ribs had been shattered and he had lost a startling amount of weight.
“His condition is very difficult,” she said. “It's not good.”

A crowd welcomes Palestinians formerly jailed by Israel as they arrive in a Red Cross convoy to Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, Jan. 30 (AFP)

Mohammed Abu Warda
A Hamas militant during the second intifada, Abu Warda helped organize a series of suicide bombings that killed over 40 people and wounded more than a hundred others. Israel arrested him in 2002, and sentenced him to 48 terms of lifetime imprisonment, among the longest sentences it ever issued.
As a young student, Abu Warda joined Hamas at the start of the intifada following Israel's killing of Yahya Ayyash, the militant group's leading bomb maker, in 1996.
Palestinian authorities said at the time that Warda had helped to recruit suicide bombers — including his cousin, his cousin’s neighbor and a classmate at the Ramallah Teachers College — whose attacks targeting crowded civilian areas in Israeli cities killed scores of people in the early 2000s.
Warda was released on Thursday.

Mohammed Aradeh, 42
An activist in Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Aradeh, was sentenced to life in prison for a range of offenses going back to the second intifada. Some of the charges, according to the Israeli Prison Service, included planting an explosive device and attempting murder.
He was credited with plotting the extraordinary prison escape in 2021, when he and five other detainees, including Zubeidi, used spoons to tunnel out one of Israel’s most secure prisons. They remained at large for days before being caught.
From an impoverished and politically active family in Jenin, in the northern occupied West Bank, Aradeh has three brothers and a sister who have all spent years in Israeli prisons.
He was welcomed as a sort of cult hero in Ramallah on Saturday as family, friends and fans swarmed him, some chanting “The freedom tunnel!” in reference to his jailbreak. When asked how he felt, Aradeh was breathless.
Over and over he muttered, “Thank God, thank God.”
Mohammed Odeh, 52, Wael Qassim, 54, and Wissam Abbasi, 48
All three men hail from the neighborhood of Silwan, in east Jerusalem, and rose within the ranks of Hamas. Held responsible for a string of deadly attacks during the second intifada, the men were sentenced to multiple life sentences in 2002.
They were accused of plotting a suicide bombing at a crowded pool hall near Tel Aviv in 2002 that killed 15 people. Later that year, they were found to have orchestrated a bombing at Hebrew University that killed nine people, including five American students. Israel had described Odeh, who was working as a painter at the university at the time, as the kingpin in the attack.
All three were transferred to Egypt last Saturday. Their families live in Jerusalem and said they will join them in exile.
The Abu Hamid brothers
Three brothers from the prominent Abu Hamid family of the Al-Amari refugee camp in Ramallah — Nasser, 51, Mohammad, 44, and Sharif, 48 — were also deported to Egypt last Saturday. They had been sentenced to life in prison over deadly militant attacks against Israelis in 2002.
Their brother, a different Nasser Abu Hamid, was one of the founders of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade. He was also sentenced to life in prison for several deadly attacks. His 2022 death from lung cancer behind bars unleashed a wave of angry protests across the West Bank as Palestinian officials accused Israel of medical neglect.
The family has a long arc of Palestinian militancy. The mother, Latifa Abu Hamid, 72, now has three sons exiled, one still imprisoned, one who died in prison and one who was killed by Israeli forces. Their family house has been demolished at least three times by Israel, which defends such punitive home demolitions as a deterrent against future attacks.
Mohammad al-Tous, 67
Al-Tous had held the title of longest continuous Israeli imprisonment until his release last Saturday, Palestinian authorities said.
First arrested in 1985 while fighting Israeli forces along the Jordanian border, the activist in the Fatah party spent a total of 39 years behind bars. Originally from the West Bank city of Bethlehem, he was among the prisoners exiled.


Syrian leader Sharaa pledges to form inclusive government

Syria’s President Ahmed Al-Sharaa delivers a speech at the Presidential Palace in Damascus, Syria. (Reuters)
Syria’s President Ahmed Al-Sharaa delivers a speech at the Presidential Palace in Damascus, Syria. (Reuters)
Updated 30 January 2025
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Syrian leader Sharaa pledges to form inclusive government

Syria’s President Ahmed Al-Sharaa delivers a speech at the Presidential Palace in Damascus, Syria. (Reuters)
  • Al-Sharaa said he would form a small legislative body to fill parliamentary void until new elections were held, after the Syrian parliament was dissolved on Wednesday

DAMASCUS: Syria’s newly appointed president, Ahmed Al-Sharaa, said on Thursday he will form an inclusive transitional government representing diverse communities that will build institutions and run the country until it can hold free and fair elections.
Sharaa addressed the nation in his first speech since being appointed president for the transitional period on Wednesday by armed factions that ousted former Syrian President Bashar Assad in a lightning offensive last year.
The armed group that led the offensive, Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, has since set up an interim government that has welcomed a steady stream of senior Western and Arab diplomatic delegations keen to help stabilize the country after 13 years of civil war.
Sharaa in his speech said he would form a small legislative body to fill the parliamentary void until new elections were held, after the Syrian parliament was dissolved on Wednesday.
He said he would also in the coming days announce the formation of a committee that would prepare to hold a national dialogue conference that would be a platform for Syrians to discuss the future political program of the nation.
That would be followed by a “constitutional declaration,” he said, in an apparent reference to the process of drafting a new Syrian constitution.
Sharaa has previously said the process of drafting a new constitution and holding elections may take up to four years. 


Sudanese teenager raps of loss and hope amid war

Sudanese teenager raps of loss and hope amid war
Updated 30 January 2025
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Sudanese teenager raps of loss and hope amid war

Sudanese teenager raps of loss and hope amid war

PORT SUDAN: In a makeshift shelter carved out of a schoolyard in eastern Sudan, 14-year-old Hanim Mohammed uses her rap music to comfort families displaced by the country’s ongoing war.

For a few fleeting moments, the scars of 21 months of war seem to fade when families huddle together to hear Mohammed’s nostalgic rap lyrics about life before the war.

“When I play rap songs, everyone sings with me,” said Mohammed.

“This makes me so happy,” she said, lighting up with a radiant and captivating smile.

At a UN-sponsored space in the shelter, the young rapper, Nana, commanded the stage with electrifying energy.

Laughter and claps echoed through the air as women and children swayed and twirled to the beat — defying a war that has gripped the country since April 2023.

The conflict in Sudan has claimed the lives of tens of thousands, uprooted over 12 million people, and pushed Sudanese to the brink of famine.

The war, which has pitted army chief Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan against his erstwhile ally Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, triggered the “biggest humanitarian crisis ever recorded,” according to the International Rescue Committee.

Nana’s fans say her songs resonate deeply.

“The joy she brings is indescribable,” said Najwa Abdel Rahim, who attends Mohammed’s performances.

“I feel comfort and excitement when I listen to her music,” said Deir Fathi, another jubilant fan.

When the war erupted, Mohammed fled her hometown of Omdurman, the twin city of the capital Khartoum, with her family.

Now residing in a secondary school in Port Sudan, she uses rap to articulate her grief and preserve cherished memories of home, she said.

Her recollections of a once-vibrant city now fuel her creative expression, particularly in her poignant track “The Omdurman Tragedy.”

“You sit silently, and a fire breaks out. What do you do? Your brain itself is confused,” goes the song.

Mohammed’s love for rap took root for years, but the outbreak of war brought it home, pushing her to start writing her lyrics, she said. 

She has so far written nine songs.

“Most of the songs I composed were for the place I love the most and where I grew up — Omdurman,” she said.

“When the war erupted, this gave an even greater drive,” she added.

The teen rapper and her family share cramped quarters with dozens of displaced families at the shelter. Basic necessities are a daily struggle.

“The most difficult thing I faced was the water,” she said.

“Sometimes I found it salty, and other times it was bitter,” she added.

Conflict-ravaged Sudan, despite its many water sources, including the mighty Nile River, has long been parched and grappling with a water crisis.

Even before the war, a quarter of the population had to walk over 50 minutes to fetch water, according to the United Nations.

Now, from the arid western deserts of Darfur, through the lush Nile Valley, and to the shores of the Red Sea, a water crisis has hit 48 million war-weary Sudanese.

Yet Mohammed refuses to let such hardships keep her down.

Her music has become a lifeline for herself and the people who gather to watch her perform.

And Mohammed is not stopping there. In a small room at the shelter, she sat bent over her books — hoping to fulfill her dreams of becoming both a surgeon and a celebrated rapper.

But above all, she has one overriding wish: “The biggest wish I hope for is for the war to stop.”


EU to hold talks with Israel, Palestinians

EU to hold talks with Israel, Palestinians
Updated 30 January 2025
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EU to hold talks with Israel, Palestinians

EU to hold talks with Israel, Palestinians

BRUSSELS: The EU will hold separate talks with Israel and the Palestinian Authority in the coming weeks, the European Commission said on Thursday, as a ceasefire in Gaza continued to hold.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar is expected to meet with his counterparts from the EU’s 27 nations and the bloc’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, in Brussels on Feb. 24, the commission said.

“We will discuss the full range of issues with Israel, including the war in Gaza, regional issues, global issues, and bilateral EU-Israel relations,” said commission spokesman Anouar El-Anouni.

The gathering will take place on the sidelines of the EU’s foreign affairs council.

Similarly, Kallas will co-chair with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa “the first ever EU Palestinian high-level dialogue” on the margins of the following foreign affairs council — a meeting of EU top diplomats — on March 17.

“This will be an opportunity to discuss the EU support for the Palestinians and the full range of regional and bilateral issues,” El-Anouni said.

Mustafa represents the Palestinian Authority, which governs the West Bank.

The announcement came as Israel and the Palestinians took part in the third prisoner-hostage exchange under the Gaza ceasefire.

EU countries, which include staunch allies of Israel as well as firm supporters of the Palestinians, have struggled for a unified position in the Gaza war.

“The EU is fully committed to a just, comprehensive, and lasting peace based on the two-state solution, where Israel and Palestine live side-by-side in peace and security,” the commission said.