LONDON: The EU’s top court opted to keep Palestinian group Hamas on the EU terrorism blacklist on Wednesday.
Judges at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) overruled the General Court’s view of 2014 that the Council of the EU had insufficient evidence to maintain asset freezes and travel bans on Hamas.
The lower court had found that the listing was based on media and Internet reports rather than decisions by a “competent authority.” But the ECJ said such decisions were not required for groups to stay on the list, only for their initial listing.
Experts offered mixed opinions on what the decision might mean. Scott Lucas, professor of international politics at the University of Birmingham, told Arab News that “on the face of it, the decision is based on a legal interpretation but there is a wider political context around this. The political environment today is very concerned about extremists. Terrorism is higher up on the agenda than it was in 2014.”
Lucas said that should the General Court not decide to review the ruling in the near future, this move “would contextualize Hamas as ‘terrorists’ and set the political tone for the EU going forward.”
The professor added that he would be “interested to see if the UK creates its own ruling on Hamas following its divorce from the EU in the coming years.”
Tally Helfont, director of the Foreign Policy Research Institute’s Programme on the Middle East, said that Hamas has not taken any actions that would warrant its removal from the EU terrorism blacklist.
She told Arab News: “Daily activities in Gaza are evidence of this. What’s more, the recent amendment of Hamas’ charter seems to have brought no substantive change to the militant group’s activities, amounting to little more than a poorly received PR stunt.”
EU keeps Hamas on terror blacklist
EU keeps Hamas on terror blacklist
Almost 700,000 displaced in Lebanon as war enters second week
- Lebanon has been pulled deep into the war in the Middle East since Hezbollah opened fire to avenge the killing of Iran’s supreme leader
BEIRUT/JERUSALEM: Escalating hostilities have forced nearly 700,000 people to flee their homes in Lebanon over the past week, a UN agency said on Monday, as the war between Israel and the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah entered a second week.
Lebanon has been pulled deep into the war in the Middle East since Hezbollah opened fire to avenge the killing of Iran’s supreme leader, igniting an Israeli offensive which has killed nearly 500 people in Lebanon, according to Lebanese authorities, with the death toll rising by around 100 a day.
On Monday, Israeli strikes sent columns of smoke billowing from Beirut’s Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs, and over the hilltops of southern Lebanon.
Security sources in Lebanon said Israeli airstrikes hit five branches of a financial institution run by Hezbollah, Al-Qard Al-Hassan, in the southern suburbs after Israel announced it would act against it.
Hezbollah fired missiles deep into Israel, setting off air raid sirens in central Israel and its commercial hub Tel Aviv, as interception blasts sounded as far as Jerusalem.
‘Children are being killed’
The Israeli military has in recent days ordered people out of the southern suburbs, a swathe of south Lebanon, and parts of the eastern Bekaa Valley region — all areas that have served as political and security strongholds of Shiite Muslim Hezbollah.
“Mass displacement across Lebanon has forced nearly 700,000 people – including around 200,000 children – from their homes, adding to the tens of thousands already uprooted from previous escalations,” Edouard Beigbeder, UNICEF regional director, said in a statement.
“Children are being killed and injured at a horrifying rate, families are fleeing their homes in fear, and thousands of children are now sleeping in cold and overcrowded shelters,” he said.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry reported on Sunday that the dead in Lebanon included at least 83 children and 42 women. The toll does not otherwise distinguish between combatants and civilians.
An Israeli military official said that the evacuation orders were a legal obligation meant to keep civilians out of harm’s way before attacks on Hezbollah targets.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz, visiting his military’s northern command on Monday, said the mass evacuations presented an opportunity “to make this area even safer.”
The Israeli military announced on Sunday that two of its soldiers had been killed in southern Lebanon, its first fatalities of the conflict. No fatalities have been reported in Israel as a result of Hezbollah rocket and drone attacks.
Lebanon, with a population of some 6 million, has turned its largest sports venue, the Camille Chamoun Stadium in Beirut, into a displacement center. On Monday, families sifted through boxes of donated clothes, pulling out coats and sweaters to help them bear the cold weather. Tents have gone up across the city.
“We hope this crisis doesn’t last,” Naji Hammoud, the director general of Lebanon’s sports facilities, told Reuters.
More than 1 million people were forced to flee their homes in Lebanon during a war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2024.
Israel sent more troops into Lebanon
At least four people were hurt in central Israel on Monday after Hezbollah fired missiles at what it said was a military base south of Tel Aviv.
Earlier, Hezbollah announced attacks including a rocket salvo targeting the town of Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel, and a rocket attack on a gathering of Israeli soldiers and military vehicles in south Lebanon near the village of Al-Adaissah.
Air raid sirens sounded in Israeli towns and villages near the border, sending people fleeing to their shelters. There were no reports of civilian casualties in those areas.
The Israeli military has sent more troops into southern Lebanon since the start of the war, establishing what it described as forward defensive positions to guard against Hezbollah attacks into Israel.
