Tag: lebanon

US-Israeli scheme for Lebanon includes forced displacement, turning Beirut suburb into ‘refugee camp’: Report

There is a new US plan for a “clampdown” on Beirut’s southern suburb, which could potentially see the area come under the control of a foreign or Arab security force, according to a report released by Al-Akhbar newspaper on 27 August. 

The southern suburb, a strong base of support for Hezbollah, was heavily bombarded by Israel during its brutal war on Lebanon last year. The suburb has been repeatedly hit by airstrikes since the ceasefire took effect. 

According to Al-Akhbar, the plan aims to “treat the southern suburbs just like Palestinian refugee camps.”

The 1969 Cairo Agreement for years allowed Palestinian groups a degree of autonomy over refugee camps in Lebanon. Despite the agreement being declared null in the 1980s, the status of the camps has remained more or less the same. 

However, Lebanese troops maintain checkpoints and a heavy presence around the camps. Palestinian camps in Lebanon have recently begun a symbolic disarmament process in line with the state’s efforts to monopolize control of weapons in the country. 

The Al-Akhbar report frames the new US plan as part of Washington’s broader goal of disarming Hezbollah, which the Lebanese government vowed to achieve in a cabinet session in early August. 

“The US proposal envisions checkpoints at all entrances [of the Beirut suburb], thorough searches of individuals and vehicles, and a tight control on goods, materials, and money flows. This mission would not be handed to the Lebanese army. Instead, the plan calls for a foreign security force, possibly an Arab one, to take on the task,” it said. 

Al-Akhbar also said the plan falls in line with US efforts to “empty the southern border region.”

A recent report by Axios said there is a US plan for a “Trump economic zone” near the southern border, aimed at preventing Hezbollah from re-establishing its presence there. The report said this would happen with the help of Gulf financing. 

During a press conference in Lebanon’s Presidential Palace on Tuesday, US envoy Tom Barrack confirmed plans for the economic zone. 

“We have to have money coming into the system. The money will come from the Gulf. Qatar and Saudi Arabia are partners and are willing to do that for the south (of Lebanon) if we’re asking a portion of the Lebanese community to give up their livelihood,” Barrack said. 

“We have 40,000 people that are being paid by Iran to fight. What are you gonna do with them? Take their weapon and say ‘by the way, good luck planting olive trees?’ It can’t happen. We have to help them,” he added, referring to Hezbollah members.

“We, all of us, the Gulf, the US, the Lebanese are all gonna act together to create an economic forum that is gonna produce a livelihood,” he went on to say.

This economic zone reportedly serves as an ethnic cleansing plan to remove residents of the southern border villages and prevent the return of those already displaced from there. 

Lebanese MP and former head of Lebanon’s General Security Directorate Jamil al-Sayyed said in a post last week that “Envoy Tom Barrack has received the Israeli response to his mediation over the south.”

Keep reading

Report: Syria Talks With Israel Involve Seizing North Lebanon

Israeli media began reporting new specificities about the Syria-Israel peace talks that have been ongoing for awhile, and incredibly they seem to suggest that the deal is centering around discussions of carving off parts of Lebanon to give to Syria’s Islamist government.

The normalization was centering heavily around the Israeli occupation of the Golan Heights. Israel invaded and occupied parts of Golan in 1967, and invaded further parts of Golan in December after the ouster of the Assad government. The new Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) government has argued that public opinion obliges them to try to get the Golan back.

Or at least part of the Golan. Israeli media are suggesting that a compromise under discussion would see Israel return one third of the Golan to Syria, at least nominally, though potentially with Israel being allowed to continuing leasing it, and then compensating Syria with parts of Lebanon.

The HTS is reportedly keen to seize Tripoli, historically Tripoli of the Levant to distinguish it from the one in Libya, arguing it is a Sunni majority city and was separated from Syria proper during the French mandate. They also reportedly want the Bekaa Valley.

This seems like it would be a non-starter for Lebanon, of course, but there is no indication they’re even involved in the discussion. This gives this talk the appearance of Israel and Syria discussing how to carve up their smaller neighbor.

Tripoli is Lebanon’s second largest city, and over 8% of the city’s population is Alawites. That’s another potential problem with Syria annexing the city, because there have been on-again, off-again massacres of Alawites in northwest Syria, resulting in over ten thousand fleeing into northern Lebanon and the Tripoli area. Now, it seems, the city they fled is also up for grabs.

Keep reading

Israel Pummels South Lebanon In Biggest Airstrikes Since November Hezbollah Ceasefire

In an dangerous sign that hostilities involving Iran and Israel could quickly ratchet again, Israel on Friday is pounding southern Lebanon, where Iran-backed Hezbollah is entrenched, in the biggest escalation there since a November ceasefire was agreed to.

Massive plumes of smoke have been observed over the region, with Lebanon’s official National News Agency reporting that a residential building in Nabatieh was directly struck, resulting in the death of at least one person and the wounding of 21 more.

Local media further says there over twenty strikes in only under 15-minutes, making it the most intense attack in well over six months.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed what it said were airstrikes targeting a “significant underground project” used by Hezbollah. The statement touted that the site was “completely taken out of use” following the strikes,

But questions remain as the IDF said that it targeted a Hezbollah site identified as Beaufort Ridge, which actually lies some five miles from Nabatieh.

“In recent days, the IDF identified attempts by the Hezbollah terror organization to restore the site, and therefore the terror infrastructure in the area was struck,” the Israeli military said.

Keep reading

Israeli Drone Strike Killed South Lebanon Municipal Worker Fixing Water Well

Israel continues to carry out its daily airstrikes against southern Lebanon, and continues to claim they’re killing Hezbollah figures despite evidence to the contrary. Thursday, the deadly drone strike came against the town of Nabatieh al-Fawqa.

The strike hit a forest on the town’s periphery, killing one person who Israel described as a “Hezbollah terrorist” and was working on restoring some sort of Hezbollah site involved in firing on Israeli territory. That’s the official Israeli story at least, and as usual, they provided no evidence to confirm it.

Mayor Zein Ali Ghandour was quick to offer a correction, however. Ghandour reported that the man killed was Mahmoud Hasan Atwi, a municipal employee, and that he was in the forest to work on a water well in the area.

This is just the latest of several thousand Israeli ceasefire violations since the truce went into effect in November. Those strikes have killed over 200 people, most of whom have never been conclusively identified.

The IDF though, when it comments at all on who they killed, virtually always declares the slain to be Hezbollah commander of some sort or another, and declares their very existence to be a violation of the ceasefire.

Since the ceasefire, Hezbollah has not launched a single strike on Israel. The group has handed over functionally all of its sites south of the Litani River to the Lebanese Army, and the Lebanese government reported some 80% of those sites have already been dismantled.

It’s difficult to say Lebanon will ever destroy all those sites to Israeli satisfaction, however, because every time a Lebanese government bulldozer is clearing a farmer’s field, Israel declares it to be the revitalization of a Hezbollah infrastructure and attacks the bulldozer.

Keep reading

UN Peacekeepers Post Hit by Direct Fire From Israeli Troops in southern Lebanon

UNIFIL peacekeepers continue to struggle with active Israeli military operations in southern Lebanon, issuing a statement today expressing concern about Israel’s increasingly aggressive military posture. One of the peacekeepers’ outposts near Kfar Chouba came under direct fire from Israeli troops across the border.

The fire was the first direct fire by Israeli troops against an UNIFIL post since the ceasefire went into effect in November. The post was hit, but officials said the peacekeepers are all safe after the incident.

Israel repeatedly targeted UNIFIL sites during the war in 2024, often damaging or destroying property. Shortly before the ceasefire went into effect in late November, an Israeli drone attacked a bus carrying UNIFIL peacekeepers, injuring six of them.

There have been incidents of UNIFIL patrols being targeted by Israeli forces since the ceasefire went into effect. French UNIFIL personnel found Israeli spy devices near the border village of Rmieh, and Israeli troops shot at them to drive them away, though no peacekeepers were actually hit and injured in that incident.

Yesterday, an Irish UNIFIL patrol operating near Maroun al-Ras reported being targeted by laser sights by nearby Israeli troops. No shots were fired, but the UNIFIL said such targeting was “unwelcome.”

Keep reading

Dozens of Israeli raids hit Nabatieh region in south Lebanon in major escalation

Israeli warplanes carried out a wide-scale air attack on the Nabatieh region in southern Lebanon on the morning of 8 May, Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reported. The violent raids came in two waves, targeting valleys, heights, and forests extending between the towns of Kfar Tibnit, Nabatieh al-Fawqa, and Kfar Reman.

Most of the raids focused on the Ali al-Taher extraction site and the former archaeological site. 

The Israeli military said in a statement that it targeted an “infrastructure site” used by Hezbollah that included “terrorists, weapons, and tunnel shafts.” 

The sound of huge explosions caused by the strikes echoed in most areas of Nabatieh and the south, sparking “an atmosphere of terror and panic among citizens, most of whom rushed to schools to evacuate their students,” NNA wrote.

The panic caused traffic jams on the roads, while dozens of ambulances were seen heading towards the vicinity of the targeted areas. Most official government departments also closed their doors.

While Israel regularly bombs southern Lebanon despite signing a ceasefire with the country reached on 27 November of last year, Thursday’s attacks were an “unusually high number.” The Times of Israel noted.

Late last month, Israel conducted an airstrike on a residential neighborhood of Dahiye in the southern suburbs of Beirut. 

Videos showed three bombs hitting a building. Rescue crews worked to put out fires after the blast. The Israeli military issued an evacuation warning before the bombing, prompting panic as residents fled the area.

Keep reading

Lebanon PM Warns of Risk of ‘New War’ as Israeli Airstrikes Pound Southern Lebanon

The 2024 Israel War in Lebanon never really completely ended, the invasion was somewhat stopped by a ceasefire, though near daily Israeli attacks continued throughout that ceasefires. With strikes escalating Friday, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam is warning that a “new war” may be brewing.

The attacks targeting southern Lebanon are more intense Friday than what is normally seen, with Israel reporting they are targeting Hezbollah after rocket fire against the Israeli border village of Metula. This is the first rocket fire from Lebanon into Israel since the ceasefire went into effect.

Israel’s attacks included dozens of airstrikes, and at least two people were killed, one of them a child, and eight others wounded. Lebanese President Aoun warned the attacks were a sign of a deterioration in the security situation in the south.

Keep reading

Media Downplay Israeli Violations of Hezbollah Ceasefire

Israel and Hezbollah signed a ceasefire agreement at the end of November that required both sides to refrain from attacks on each other. The terms also included a mutual pullback from southern Lebanon after 60 days.

Despite the deal, Israel has subsequently launched repeated strikes on Lebanon against targets it claimed were Hezbollah, killing hundreds of Lebanese civilians. The violations began immediately, with Israel attacking journalists and vehicles mere hours after the deal was signed.

Within a week of signing the deal, the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) reported that Israel had violated the ceasefire around 100 times, killing 15 people. Shortly after these initial strikes, Hezbollah launched two strikes into the disputed border zone that it called an “initial defensive and warning response” to Israel against continued ceasefire violations. These strikes did not kill or injure any Israelis. Despite this, Israel responded by continuing its ceasefire violations, killing more and more, bringing the post-ceasefire death toll to more than 30.

Despite the overwhelming number of Israeli attacks in the post-ceasefire period, news audiences have heard that a “tense ceasefire holds” (AP, 12/1/24). Media repeatedly reported on these violations as both sides “trading” or “exchanging” fire (New York Times, 12/2/24; AP, 12/3/24; NBC, 12/3/24; Semafor, 12/4/24; Financial Times, 12/3/24; Wall Street Journal, 12/3/24). While technically accurate, such reporting frames both sides as equally culpable in violating the ceasefire, allowing media to avoid acknowledging that Israel that Israel is by far the primary and more consistent violator.

Keep reading

Israeli airstrikes, artillery shelling pound south Lebanon in latest ceasefire violations

Tel Aviv continued its relentless attacks on southern Lebanon on 10 December, carrying out several strikes, including an attack on the Lebanese Civil Defense – violating the ceasefire reached between Lebanon and Israel late last month. 

Several Israeli attacks struck south Lebanon on Tuesday. Al Mayadeen’s correspondent reported that a Lebanese citizen was killed in an Israeli airstrike on the town of Bint Jbeil. 

Israeli forces also targeted rescue teams trying to retrieve bodies in the south. 

“An Israeli helicopter chased Lebanese Civil Defense personnel while they were trying to retrieve the bodies of martyrs from the southern Lebanese town of Shamaa, forcing them to withdraw, and targeting the location they were in with artillery shelling,” Al-Akhbar newspaper reported. 

It reported earlier on 10 December that “a joint patrol of the Lebanese army and the Polish unit in UNIFIL was subjected to warning fire from Israeli forces while trying to open the Aitaroun–Bint Jbeil highway, which had been blocked by the Israelis last Thursday.”

According to Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA), Israeli troops opened fire at the outskirts of the town of Shaqra and other areas in the south, and fired artillery at the outskirts of Sheheen and Al-Jubain. 

NNA also reported “massive bombings” in the town of Khiam, while Israeli troops continued to demolish homes and buildings in the area. 

Keep reading

Ceasefire Violations Rage In Southern Lebanon

Ceasefire violations are raging across southern Lebanon as Iranian proxy army Hezbollah attempts to regain positions lost to the IDF in recent months.

The IDF is warning residents of the region to not return to their homes or they could be fired upon.

The IDF does not intend to shoot at you,” the IDF spokesman said in his announcement, “and therefore, at this stage, you should not return to your homes south of this line. Anyone who moves south will expose themselves to danger.”

*Prime Minister’s Office Statement*

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz have directed the IDF to not allow the entry of the population to the area of the villages adjacent to the border with southern Lebanon, as per the first stage of implementing the framework of the ceasefire.

The IDF has arrested four Hezbollah militants, including a local commander, who entered the prohibited area, and will continue to take strong action against any violation.

Keep reading