BEIRUT: American Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Thursday that the US regarded Hezbollah as a terrorist organization and “we do not differentiate between its military and political arms, and it is unacceptable for militias like Hezbollah to act outside the rule of law.”
Tillerson added in a press conference with the Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri in Beirut that “the Lebanese army is the only defender of the Lebanese State.”
“The people of Lebanon should also be concerned about how Hezbollah’s actions and its growing arsenal bring unwanted and unhelpful scrutiny on Lebanon,” Tillerson said. “Hezbollah’s presence in Syria has only perpetuated the bloodshed, increased the displacement of innocent people and propped up the barbaric Assad regime.”
“The Lebanese government must distance itself from external conflicts and Hezbollah must stop its activities abroad,” he said.
Tillerson held talks with Lebanese President Michel Aoun. The presidential palace press office said that Aoun asked that the US “work on preventing Israel from continuing its assaults on Lebanese sovereignty” by land and sea and to abide by the implementation of Resolution 1701 (guaranteeing Lebanon's territorial sovereignty) to preserve the stability that South Lebanon has enjoyed since 2006.”
Lebanon “can no longer bear the repercussions of Syrian refugees on its security, stability and economy, especially as international aid is insufficient,” the statement said.
It called for “a secure and gradual return of the Syrians to their country and a peaceful solution to the Syrian crisis,” noting that “the decision of the United States to reduce its contribution to the UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees) will add to the burden placed on Lebanon in caring for these refugees.”
Aoun said: “Lebanon is fully committed to the self-distancing policy, but is not responsible for what happens because of the interventions from abroad due to its inability to influence that.”
Tillerson also held talks with Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri. A statement later said that Berri talked about “the daily Israeli violations, the construction of the concrete wall at points inside Lebanese territory, and Israel’s claims to the special economic zone (of Lebanon).”
Tillerson and the delegation then held talks with Prime Minister Saad Hariri. During a joint press conference Hariri stressed Lebanon’s “commitment to the self-distancing policy” and Lebanon’s interest in “maintaining the best relations with Arab countries and the international community.”
Hariri said that he “assured secretary Tillerson of Lebanon’s right to explore, invest and develop our natural resources in our territorial waters. We also agreed that the Lebanese banking sector is the cornerstone of our economy, and I reiterated that this sector is solid and sound … and in full compliance with international laws and regulations.”
Hariri noted that “Lebanon is committed to Resolutions 1701 and 2373 (renewing the mandate of the UN interim force in Lebanon) and we want to move to a permanent cease-fire with Israel, but the Israeli violations of our sovereignty are hampering this process, let alone the Israeli rhetoric.”
Secretary Tillerson said that the US stands by the Lebanese people and its legitimate institutions against regional challenges and threats. He also praised the American partnership with the Lebanese military and the internal security forces in the fight against Daesh and Al-Qaeda.
On Syrian refugees, Tillerson said that “the United States has provided $1.6 billion to help with refugee affairs and host Lebanese communities. The United States stands side by side with the Lebanese people in confronting these challenges that threaten Lebanon’s stability, independence and sovereignty.”
On the Iranian nuclear agreement, Tillerson said that President Trump had indicated that he wanted the flaws in this agreement to be addressed. “We are working with the other signatories to this agreement and with European partners to move forward to deal with the imbalances in the agreement.”
On the recent escalation between Israel on one side and Iran and Syria on the other, Hariri said: “We are with all its types of pacification because the region is not lacking additional tensions and wars.”
Asked about the situation between Turkey and the US over Syria, Tillerson said: “Turkey is an important ally to us in the battle against Daesh and has always been supportive of all efforts. The relationship is very positive and we intend to build on the important aspects that we share. There may be tactical differences about achieving the goals, but the main goal is to eliminate incitement, terrorism, reduce violence, protect the innocent and reach a peaceful settlement of the conflict in Syria.”
On Turkey’s demand that the US take back heavy weapons from the Kurdish YPG, Tillerson said: “We have never given heavy arms to the YPG so there is none to take back.”
Hezbollah is destabilizing Lebanon, region: Tillerson
Hezbollah is destabilizing Lebanon, region: Tillerson
How Israeli settlers are forcing Palestinian farmers off their land with near-total impunity
- From pepper spray to armed threats, Palestinian farmers say intimidation has become routine in the Jordan Valley
- Activists and rights groups say settler attacks on Palestinian farmers are not isolated events but part of a broader campaign
LONDON: In a scene that Palestinian officials and rights groups say has become routine in the occupied West Bank, Israeli settlers reportedly attacked farmers from the Bisharat family in mid-January as they plowed their land in Mofiya, in the northern Jordan Valley.
Witnesses said the settlers assaulted the farmers with pepper spray before calling in Israeli soldiers. Israeli forces later detained two sons of Youssef Hussein Asmar Bisharat, Hussein and Mohammed, according to Mutaz Bisharat, a Palestinian official from Tubas.
“This is the daily reality in the Jordan Valley,” Bisharat told Arab News. “It is repeated across all Palestinian communities.”
He described a consistent pattern: “Settlers assault citizens; the occupation army intervenes in favor of the settlers; Palestinians who try to defend themselves and their land are arrested; the occupation police file complaints against Palestinians.”
In late December, Israeli settlers ambushed farmers from the Palestinian Abu Al-Tayyib family as they worked their land east of the Khirbet Yarza area. The settlers held the farmers for more than three hours, filming the encounter as it unfolded, according to Bisharat.
The incident, which took place on Dec. 26 east of the Khirbet Yarza area, escalated further when a settler pointed a weapon at Mahdi Daraghmeh, head of the Malih village council, and threatened to shoot him.
The settler confiscated Daraghmeh’s car keys and detained him for nearly an hour.
Rights groups and activists say such attacks are not isolated but part of a broader strategy to force Palestinians off their land.
“The settlers who are perpetrating the attacks explicitly say their goal is expulsion of Palestinians,” Israeli activist Aviv Tatarsky told Arab News.
“Israeli police and army give no protection to the attacked communities but rather often join the attacking settlers and arrest, assault and at times shoot their Palestinian victims.”
He said that perpetrators “enjoy almost complete impunity.” Prosecution of settler crimes in the Israeli courts “rarely happens,” he said.
“The violent settlers enjoy vocal support from prominent Israeli rabbis and government ministers along with funding and weapons which the state gives them.
“All these indicate that the goal of expelling Palestinian communities, and ultimately ethnically cleansing the West Bank (to) become an Israeli state project.”
Data collected by humanitarian organizations underscore the scale of the violence. In a June 2025 report, Insecurity Insight said Palestinian farmers were attacked or threatened at least 276 times between Oct. 7, 2023, and Dec. 31, 2024.
Those incidents, the group said, involved settlers and Israeli security forces using firearms to intimidate farmers or physically assaulting them — in some cases with crowbars — “to force them to leave their land.” More than a third occurred during the olive harvest.
The Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission reported in November that at least 259 attacks against Palestinian farmers had been recorded since the harvest season began in October, including 41 carried out by the Israeli army and 218 by settlers.
UN data indicates a wider pattern. In 2025, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, documented more than 1,800 settler attacks causing casualties or property damage across about 280 West Bank communities.
That amounts to an average of five incidents a day — the highest daily rate since OCHA began tracking such attacks in 2006, the agency said in a humanitarian update on Jan. 7.
Israeli human rights group B’Tselem said Israeli violence in the West Bank is part of a wider campaign across the occupied Palestinian territories.
In its July 2025 report, “Our Genocide,” the group said that alongside the onslaught on Gaza following the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack, a parallel campaign has unfolded in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
“The regime and the military perpetrating genocide in Gaza are the same ones bombing refugee camps, killing hundreds of civilians, and carrying out policies of forcible transfer and dispossession on an unprecedented scale across the West Bank,” the organization wrote.
Local groups have echoed those warnings. On Jan. 13, Jordan Valley Solidarity, a grassroots community network, said Palestinian villages in the northern Jordan Valley face relentless attacks by “armed settlers and occupation forces.”
“Settlers are roaming around the villages, intimidating and attacking local Palestinians, often followed by occupation forces acting on spurious allegations, coming to arrest the victims of settler attacks or to issue further threats,” the group wrote on its website.
Days earlier, the Times of Israel reported that 26 Palestinian families fled Ras Ein El-Auja, one of the last remaining Palestinian Bedouin villages in the Jordan Valley, after harassment by settlers from nearby unauthorized outposts became unbearable.
The outlet said Israel’s military and the local settlement council did not respond to requests for comment.
Israel routinely says it condemns such violence and investigates specific incidents.
On the ground, however, rights groups and media reports allege the army and police largely enable or ignore attacks on Palestinian farmers, with only limited, case-by-case disciplinary action when abuses are exposed.
The Jordan Valley makes up about 30 percent of the West Bank. About 90 percent of its lands were categorized under the Oslo Agreement as Area C — over which Israel retains control of security and land-management.
The area was intended to form a core part of a future Palestinian state. However, there are 37 Israeli settlements and dozens of settler outposts in this area, according to Rasheed Khudeiri, a farmer and activist with the Jordan Valley Solidarity campaign.
He told Amnesty International in December that the outposts are not established by the state but by settlers who take over the land and natural resources with impunity.
Around 39 percent of the Jordan Valley lands are categorized by the Israeli authorities as natural reserves and military firing zones and are off limits for Palestinians.
Khudeiri said Israeli authorities have granted sweeping powers to settlement councils, allowing them to seize land and water resources. “In the northern Jordan Valley area alone, settlers have taken over seven water springs that Palestinians depend on for livelihoods,” he said.
“Herding settlers don’t only steal our natural resources, they also appropriate our culture, heritage and lifestyle. Settlers in outposts herd cattle and sheep, build mud houses and make Palestinian dairy products.”
Recent weeks have seen an escalation in land seizures. On Jan. 4, Bisharat said, settlers drove a herd of cattle into the Humsah Basaliya community, trampling wheat fields belonging to Palestinian farmers Hail Mahmoud Bisharat and Mahmoud Hail Mahmoud Bisharat.
In late December, settler groups fenced off land near homes in the Al-Hadidiya area “to besiege residents and prevent them from cultivating their land,” Bisharat said.
Despite the pressure, Palestinian farmers have returned in recent weeks to plow the fields they say were seized by settlers, seeking to reclaim their land amid mounting restrictions.
On Dec. 26, a settler attempted to stop farmers in the Humsah Al-Fouqa area from plowing their fields, threatening to involve the Israeli army and confiscate their tractors.
The Palestinian farmers, however, refused to comply and defied the settlers’ threats. They continued working and managed to plow more than 40 hectares by evening, Bisharat said.
Earlier, on Dec. 14, about 20 hectares in the Al-Farisiya area were plowed by Palestinian landowners and residents with support from the Al-Maleh and Bedouin Communities Village Council, international solidarity activists, and lawyers.
“These lands that we were able to cultivate had been seized and fenced off by settlers a month earlier,” Bisharat said.
The following day, however, Israeli forces raided agricultural land in Ein Al-Hilweh and Wadi Al-Faw while it was being cultivated. They confiscated tractors belonging to the Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture, but the tractors were later released after ownership documents were presented, Bisharat said.
On Dec. 16, “as part of continued efforts to reclaim seized land, about 300 dunams (30 hectares) in Khirbet Al-Farisiya and Ein Al-Hilweh were planted and plowed,” he added, noting that funding was provided by international institutions, the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, and local officials.
International reactions have increasingly framed attacks on Palestinian farmers as part of a broader pattern of forcible displacement and de facto annexation. Concrete consequences, however, have remained limited and largely symbolic.
In an October 2025 statement, UN human rights offices in Palestine said rising settler violence, often backed by Israeli forces, is being used to “consolidate annexation” in clear violation of international law, destroying livelihoods and pushing Palestinian communities off their land.
