BEIRUT: Clashes resumed in Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp overnight, with heavy gunfire and shelling wounding at least 20 people and prompting residents of the camp and the surrounding area to flee on Friday.
The cease-fire between the Fatah movement in the Ain Al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon and extremist groups present in adjacent neighborhoods did not hold for more than five weeks.
On Friday, a new round of fighting erupted, and rocket fire hit the city of Sidon, while about 2,500 families from the camp were displaced.
The issue of handing over those involved in the assassination of the Fatah leader Brig. Gen. Abu Ashraf Al-Armoushi in the Ain Al-Hilweh camp late in July to the Lebanese authorities remains unresolved, despite the extremist groups announcing their agreement to it happening.
Among the groups are Jund Al-Sham and Al-Shabab Al-Muslim (Muslim Youth).
The UNRWA school complex in the camp has become a barricade between the warring factions, separated by the common school playground, which now serves as a line of contact.
Extremist groups occupy three schools within their territory in the neighborhoods of Al-Tawarek, Al-Taameer, and Al-Sikkah, while Fatah advanced toward three other schools facing them in the previous round of clashes and remained inside them.
UNRWA had urged the conflicting parties to vacate the schools and suspended operations in the camp as a warning measure.
Leaders in Sidon informed the Palestinian factions that schools cannot accommodate Palestinian students in the upcoming academic year, emphasizing the need for everyone to vacate UNRWA schools to restore normalcy.
A Palestinian security source told Arab News: “Clashes erupted on Wednesday night following news that the Fatah movement had been tasked by the Joint Palestinian Action Committee, comprising all Palestinian factions, including Islamist forces, to apprehend those responsible for the Al-Armoushi assassination.
“In response, extremist groups threw two hand grenades toward a location where Palestinian National Security Forces were stationed. Violent clashes persisted throughout the night, with efforts made by Lebanese and Palestinian leaders to de-escalate the situation. Clashes soon renewed Friday noon.”
Maher Shabaita, secretary of Fatah in Sidon, said: “The meeting of the Joint Palestinian Action Committee emphasized key objectives: preserving the camp’s security and stability, vacating schools occupied by militants, and surrendering the killers to the Lebanese state.
“The clashes were sparked by shots fired at Fatah positions, and Fatah was acting in self defense.”
A rocket landed on the roof of the government building of Sidon Saray, and an office of the General Security, causing minor injuries to a policeman and material damage.
Classes at the Lebanese University in Sidon were suspended, and scheduled exams were postponed to a later date. Measures were implemented in the vicinity of the camp to protect people from stray bullets.
The Palestinian source noted: “Fatah will not back down from its demand to arrest the wanted individuals, especially since it was tasked by the Joint Palestinian Action Committee to do so, and it will not abandon this mission.
“The clashes have broader implications, especially in light of a media campaign by resistance forces in Lebanon, holding Fatah responsible for bombing Sidon and occupying UNRWA schools. This suggests that the clashes aim to weaken Fatah in Lebanon’s largest camps in favor of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad.”
The source added: “Extremist groups are situated in an area considered outside the camp, making it a Lebanese jurisdiction. This matter needs resolution by the Lebanese authorities, especially since this area has become a haven for wanted individuals and fugitives.
“What is essential is the implementation of the plan to station the joint Palestinian security force inside UNRWA schools controlled by extremist group members. If they withdraw, Fatah militants will automatically vacate the schools they occupy.”
Meanwhile, Lebanese political party representatives and leaders engaged in extensive discussions with Palestinian counterparts to broker a new cease-fire. By Friday afternoon, the intensity of the clashes had diminished, with only sporadic gunfire heard.
A prominent Palestinian official told Arab News: “Our current priority is securing a cease-fire, with the implementation of the terms agreed upon by the Joint Palestinian (Action) Committee to be addressed later.”
A source familiar with the situation in Sidon said: “The city’s leaders will not take sides in these clashes but will instead stand against both parties and support the security of the camp and the security of Sidon.”
Displaced Lebanese residents from the vicinity of the Ain Al-Hilweh camp found shelter with their relatives in Sidon and the surrounding area.
UNRWA also opened its complex in the Sibline area, 14 km from Sidon, to accommodate displaced refugees.
Clashes resume between factions in Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp
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Clashes resume between factions in Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp
- On Friday, a new round of fighting erupted, and rocket fire hit the city of Sidon, while about 2,500 families from the camp were displaced
- The UNRWA school complex in the camp has become a barricade between the warring factions
Lacking aid, Syrians do what they can to rebuild devastated Aleppo
- Aleppo, Syria’s second largest city and a UNESCO World Heritage site, was deeply scarred by more than a decade of war
- While Syria lobbies for sanctions relief, the grassroots reconstruction drive is gaining momentum and providing work opportunities
ALEPPO: Moussa Hajj Khalil is among many Syrians rebuilding their homes from the rubble of the historic and economically important city of Aleppo, as Syria’s new leaders struggle to kick-start large-scale reconstruction efforts.
Aleppo, Syria’s second largest city and a UNESCO World Heritage site, was deeply scarred by more than a decade of war between government and rebel forces, suffering battles, a siege, Russian air strikes and barrel bomb attacks.
Now, its people are trying to restore their lives with their own means, unwilling to wait and see if the efforts of Syria’s new Islamist-led government to secure international funding come to fruition.
“Nobody is helping us, no states, no organizations,” said Khalil, 65, who spent seven years in a displacement camp in Al-Haramain on the Syrian-Turkish border.
Impoverished residents have “come and tried to restore a room to stay in with their children, which is better than life in camps,” he said, as he observed workers repairing his destroyed home in Ratyan, a suburb in northwestern Aleppo.
Khalil returned alone a month ago to rebuild the house so he can bring his family back from the camp.
Aleppo was the first major city seized by the rebels when they launched an offensive to topple then-leader Bashar Assad in late November.
Assad was ousted less than two weeks later, ending a 14-year war that killed hundreds of thousands, displaced millions and left much of Syria in ruins.
’Doing what we can’
While Syria lobbies for sanctions relief, the grassroots reconstruction drive is gaining momentum and providing work opportunities.
Contractors labor around the clock to meet the growing demand, salvaging materials like broken blocks and cement found between the rubble to repair homes.
“There is building activity now. We are working lots, thank God!” Syrian contractor Maher Rajoub said.
But the scale of the task is huge.
The United Nations Development Programme is hoping to deliver $1.3 billion over three years to support Syria, including by rebuilding infrastructure, its assistant secretary-general told Reuters earlier this month.
Other financial institutions and Gulf countries like Qatar have made pledges to help Syria, but are hampered by US sanctions.
The United States and other Western countries have set conditions for lifting sanctions, insisting that Syria’s new rulers, led by a faction formerly affiliated to Al-Qaeda, demonstrate a commitment to peaceful and inclusive rule.
A temporary suspension of some US sanctions to encourage aid has had limited effect, leaving Aleppo’s residents largely fending for themselves.
“We lived in the camps under the sun and the heat,” said Mustafa Marouch, a 50-year-old vegetable shop owner. “We returned and are doing what we can to fix our situation.”
Syrian Druze leaders slam ‘unjustified armed attack’ near Damascus
- The clashes reportedly left at least four Druze fighters dead
DAMASCUS: Syrian Druze leaders on Tuesday condemned an “unjustified armed attack” overnight on the Damascus suburb of Jaramana, after clashes with security forces that a war monitor said killed at least four Druze fighters.
Jaramana’s Druze religious leadership in a statement condemned “the unjustified armed attack” that “targeted innocent civilians and terrorized” residents, adding that the Syrian authorities bore “full responsibility for the incident and for any further developments or worsening of the crisis.”
Tunisia’s Saied slams ‘blatant interference’ after international criticism
- Tunisian President Kais Saied rejected foreign criticism of opposition trials, calling it unacceptable interference in internal affairs
TUNIS: Tunisian President Kais Saied on Tuesday lashed out at “comments and statements by foreign parties” following sharp international criticism of a mass trial targeting opposition figures.
“The comments and statements by foreign parties are unacceptable... and constitute blatant interference in Tunisia’s internal affairs,” he said in a statement posted on the presidency’s Facebook page.
“While some have expressed regret over the exclusion of international observers, Tunisia could also send observers to these parties, who have expressed their concerns... and also demand that they change their legislation and amend their procedures,” he added.
Earlier this month, a Tunisian court handed down sentences of between 13 and 66 years to defendants accused of “conspiracy against state security” and “belonging to a terrorist group.”
The trial involved about 40 defendants, including well-known opposition figures, lawyers and business people, with some already in prison for two years and others in exile or still free.
Those abroad were tried in absentia, including French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy who received a 33-year jail term, lawyers said.
The United Nations and Western countries including France and Germany criticized the trial.
“The process was marred by violations of fair trial and due process rights, raising serious concerns about political motivations,” said the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk.
In a statement on Thursday, Turk urged “Tunisia to refrain from using broad national security and counterterrorism legislation to silence dissent and curb civic space.”
Germany meanwhile said it regretted the “exclusion of international observers from the final day of the trial,” including representatives from the German embassy in Tunis.
Since Saied launched a power grab in the summer of 2021 and assumed total control, rights advocates and opposition figures have decried a rollback of freedoms in the North African country where the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings began.
France tries Syrian Islamist rebel ex-spokesman on war crime charges
- French authorities arrested Majdi Nema in the southern city of Marseille in 2020
- He was spokesman for a Syrian Islamist rebel group called Jaish Al-Islam
PARIS: A Syrian Islamist rebel ex-spokesman is to go on trial in France on Tuesday under the principle of universal jurisdiction, accused of complicity in war crimes during Syria’s civil war.
French authorities arrested Majdi Nema, now 36, in the southern city of Marseille in 2020, after he traveled to the country on a student exchange program.
He was detained and charged under the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows states to prosecute suspects accused of serious crimes regardless of where they were committed.
This is the first time that crimes committed in Syria’s civil war have been tried in France under the universal jurisdiction.
Nema – better known by his nom-de-guerre of Islam Alloush – has been charged with complicity in war crimes between 2013 and 2016, when he was spokesman for a Syrian Islamist rebel group called Jaish Al-Islam.
However, Nema has said he only had a “limited role” in the armed opposition group that held sway in the rebel-held suburbs of Damascus during that period.
Jaish Al-Islam was one of the main opposition groups fighting Bashar Assad’s government before Islamist-led fighters toppled him in December but it has also been accused of terrorizing civilians in areas it controlled.
Nema, who faces up to 20 years in jail if found guilty, has in particular been accused of helping recruit children and teenagers to fight for the group.
His arrest came after rights groups, including the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), filed a criminal complaint in France in 2019 against members of Jaish Al-Islam for their alleged crimes.
It was the FIDH that discovered Nema was in France during research into Jaish Al-Islam’s hierarchy and informed the French authorities.
Marc Bailly, a lawyer for the FIDH and some civil parties in the trial that runs to May 27, said the case would be “the opportunity to shed light on all the complexity of the Syrian conflict, which did not just involve regime crimes.”
Born in 1988, Nema was a captain in the Syrian armed forces before defecting in 2012 and joining the group that would in 2013 become known as Jaish Al-Islam.
He told investigators that he left Eastern Ghouta in May 2013 and crossed the border to Turkiye, where he worked as the group’s spokesman, before leaving the group in 2016.
He has cited his presence in Turkiye as part of his defense.
Nema traveled to France in November 2019 under a university exchange program and was arrested in January 2020.
The defendant was initially indicted for complicity in the enforced disappearances of four activists in Eastern Ghouta in late 2013 – including prominent rights defender Razan Zaitouneh – but those charges have since been dropped on procedural grounds.
Jaish Al-Islam has been accused of involvement in the abduction, though it has denied this.
France has since 2010 been able to try cases under the principle of universal jurisdiction, which argues some crimes are so serious that all states have the obligation to prosecute offenders.
The country’s highest court upheld this principle in 2023, allowing for the investigation into Nema to continue.
A previous trial in May of Syrians charged over their actions in the war took place because French nationals were the victims, rather than under the principle of universal jurisdiction.
A Paris court in that trial ordered life sentences for three top Syrian security officials linked to the former Assad government for their role in the torture and disappearance of a French-Syrian father and son in Syria in 2013.
They were tried in absentia.
Syria’s conflict has killed more than half a million people and displaced millions more from their homes since it erupted in 2011 with a brutal crackdown on anti-government protests.
Amnesty accuses Israel of ‘live-streamed genocide’ against Gaza Palestinians
- Rights group charges that Israel acted with ‘specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza, thus committing genocide’
- Israel’s relentless bombardment of the Gaza Strip has left at least 52,243 dead
PARIS: Amnesty International on Tuesday accused Israel of committing a “live-streamed genocide” against Palestinians in Gaza by forcibly displacing most of the population and deliberately creating a humanitarian catastrophe.
In its annual report, Amnesty charged that Israel had acted with “specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza, thus committing genocide.”
Israel has rejected accusations of “genocide” from Amnesty, other rights groups and some states in its war in Gaza.
The conflict erupted after the Palestinian militant group Hamas’s deadly October 7, 2023 attacks inside Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Militants also abducted 251 people, 58 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel in response launched a relentless bombardment of the Gaza Strip and a ground operation that according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory has left at least 52,243 dead.
“Since 7 October 2023, when Hamas perpetrated horrific crimes against Israeli citizens and others and captured more than 250 hostages, the world has been made audience to a live-streamed genocide,” Amnesty’s secretary general Agnes Callamard said in the introduction to the report.
“States watched on as if powerless, as Israel killed thousands upon thousands of Palestinians, wiping out entire multigenerational families, destroying homes, livelihoods, hospitals and schools,” she added.
Gaza’s civil defense agency said early Tuesday that four people were killed and others injured in an Israeli air strike on displaced persons’ tents near the Al-Iqleem area in Southern Gaza.
The agency earlier warned fuel shortages meant it had been forced to suspend eight out of 12 emergency vehicles in Southern Gaza, including ambulances.
The lack of fuel “threatens the lives of hundreds of thousands of citizens and displaced persons in shelter centers,” it said in a statement.
Amnesty’s report said the Israeli campaign had left most of the Palestinians of Gaza “displaced, homeless, hungry, at risk of life-threatening diseases and unable to access medical care, power or clean water.”
Amnesty said that throughout 2024 it had “documented multiple war crimes by Israel, including direct attacks on civilians and civilian objects, and indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks.”
It said Israel’s actions forcibly displaced 1.9 million Palestinians, around 90 percent of Gaza’s population, and “deliberately engineered an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.”
Even as protesters hit the streets in Western capitals, “the world’s governments individually and multilaterally failed repeatedly to take meaningful action to end the atrocities and were slow even in calling for a ceasefire.”
Meanwhile, Amnesty also sounded alarm over Israeli actions in the occupied Palestinian territory of the West Bank, and repeated an accusation that Israel was employing a system of “apartheid.”
“Israel’s system of apartheid became increasingly violent in the occupied West Bank, marked by a sharp increase in unlawful killings and state-backed attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinian civilians,” it said.
Heba Morayef, Amnesty director for the Middle East and North Africa region, denounced “the extreme levels of suffering that Palestinians in Gaza have been forced to endure on a daily basis over the past year” as well as “the world’s complete inability or lack of political will to put a stop to it.”
