Commander of UN peacekeepers in Lebanon warns of escalation danger in Israel-Hezbollah conflict

The Lebanese-Israeli border has witnessed near-daily exchanges of fire since the outbreak of war between Hamas and Israel on Oct. 7. (AFP)
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Updated 10 April 2024
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Commander of UN peacekeepers in Lebanon warns of escalation danger in Israel-Hezbollah conflict

  • Gen. Aroldo Lazaro calls for permanent ceasefire, says there can be no military solution to the current hostilities
  • Meanwhile, a man missing for days, and sanctioned in 2019 by the US for helping to funnel money from Iran to Hamas, is found shot dead near Beirut

BEIRUT: The commander of the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, Gen. Aroldo Lazaro, warned on Wednesday of the continuing danger of escalation in the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah along Lebanon’s southern border.

He said the UN Interim Force in Lebanon “calls for a return to the cessation of hostilities and a move toward a permanent ceasefire and a long-term solution to the conflict.” There can be no military solution, he added, a political and diplomatic solution is the only way forward.

“Almost 50 countries send peacekeepers to southern Lebanon out of a sense of commitment, friendship and a belief that long-term peace is possible for the region,” said Lazaro. “Over 46 years, we have developed strong bonds with the communities in which we have lived and worked.

“Since October, UNIFIL has continued to call on the parties to respect their commitments under Resolution 1701 and has maintained its operational activities aimed at lowering tensions and preventing escalation.”

Resolution 1701 was adopted by the UN Security Council in 2006 with the aim of resolving the war at the time between Israel and Hezbollah.

“The mission has also provided medical, dental, and veterinary care in villages across south Lebanon; supplied solar-energy systems to villages, civil defense and schools; donated needed equipment to schools, hospitals and first responders; and given infant formula and flour to people in need, among many other projects,” Lazaro continued.

“We have also liaised with the parties to ensure the safety of workers repairing critical civilian infrastructure damaged in the exchanges of fire or to facilitate the provision of humanitarian assistance. We will continue to be here for the people and to stand for peace, as long as it takes.

“Regardless of faith or background, we urge all parties to embrace the spirit of unity and compassion that Eid represents and seek the path of peace.”

Lazaro’s appeal came as Israeli forces carried out air and artillery strikes on Wednesday in the vicinity of several border towns, including Kfarkela, Dhaira, Yarine and Alma Al-Shaab. Residential neighborhoods in the towns of Odaisseh, Kfarkela and Blida came under machine gun fire and intermittent shelling.

In Israel, the Kiryat Shmona settlement was targeted by missiles. Israeli media said sirens sounded in the vicinity of the settlement, the Iron Dome air-defense system was activated, and an interceptor missile exploded over the Lebanese border town of Blida.

On the first day of the Eid Al-Fitr holiday, the movement of civilian residents of towns close to the front lines of the fighting was largely limited to visits to cemeteries.

Hezbollah has reported 274 deaths among its members in the six months since the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas on Israel, mostly in border towns and the Baalbek-Hermel region.

Meanwhile, Mohammed Srour, a 57-year-old money changer who had been missing for days, was found shot dead inside a house in Beit Meri, Mount Lebanon. He was reportedly under sanctions by the US Department of the Treasury for “facilitating the transfer of funds from Iran to the military wing of Hamas.”

His body was discovered on Tuesday along with an undisclosed sum of money his killers ignored, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported. Other media sources said “the gun used to kill the victim was found soaked with bleach to remove fingerprints and glove traces,” and security cameras “showed that he entered the house and never left. The tenant of the house went off the grid once the crime was committed.”

In August 2019, the US Treasury imposed sanctions on several people, including Srour, for funneling “tens of millions of dollars” from the foreign operations arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards through Hezbollah in Lebanon “to Hamas for terrorist attacks originating from the Gaza Strip.”

Officials in Washington said Srour “served as a middle man” between the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force and Hamas, “and worked with Hezbollah operatives to ensure funds were provided” to Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigade, the armed wing of Hamas.

“As of 2014, Srour was identified as in charge of all money transfers,” the Treasury said, adding that he had “an extensive history working at Hezbollah’s sanctioned bank, Bayt Al-Mal.”

Washington blacklisted the bank in 2006. The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control described it as “an institution owned, controlled or operated by, for or on behalf of Hezbollah.”


Israel releases video of a Gaza tunnel where it says militants killed 6 hostages

Updated 6 sec ago
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Israel releases video of a Gaza tunnel where it says militants killed 6 hostages

The release of the new video could add to the pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu to reach a ceasefire deal

JERUSALEM: The Israeli military has released video footage of a Gaza tunnel where it says six hostages were recently killed by Hamas.
The video shows a low, narrow passageway deep underground that had no bathroom and poor ventilation.
The discovery of the hostages’ bodies last month sparked a mass outpouring of anger in Israel and the release of the new video could add to the pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reach a ceasefire deal with Hamas to bring the remaining hostages home.
Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said Tuesday the footage of the Gaza tunnel had been shown to the hostages’ families, and that it “was very hard for them to see how their loved ones survived in those conditions.”

Israel close to completing Gaza missions, focus on north, defense minister says

Updated 10 September 2024
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Israel close to completing Gaza missions, focus on north, defense minister says

  • “The center of gravity is moving northward, we are near to completing our tasks in the south, but our mission here is not yet done,” Gallant told troops
  • “These instructions that you are waiting for here today, I gave in the south and saw the forces operate“

JERUSALEM: Israeli forces are near to fulfilling their mission in Gaza and their focus will turn to the country’s northern border with Lebanon as daily exchanges of fire with Hezbollah take place, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Tuesday
“The center of gravity is moving northward, we are near to completing our tasks in the south, but our mission here is not yet done,” Gallant told troops on Israel’s northern border in a video sent by his office.
Gallant was attending a ground combat drill, his office said.
“These instructions that you are waiting for here today, I gave in the south and saw the forces operate,” Gallant said referring to Israel’s ground invasion of the Gaza Strip three weeks after the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that triggered the war.
The Lebanese group Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel on Oct. 8 and the two sides have been trading fire since, with tens of thousands of civilians displaced on both sides of the border.
Israeli leaders have said they would prefer to resolve the conflict through an agreement that would push Iran-backed Hezbollah away from the border. Hezbollah has said that it will continue fighting Israel as long as the war in Gaza is ongoing.
In separate remarks to journalists on Tuesday, Gallant said:
“While we pursue an agreement, I have directed the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) to prepare for every scenario, including directing our attention to the northern arena. We are committed to changing the security situation on the northern front and to bringing our citizens home safely.”
The Israeli military on Tuesday said it killed a commander in Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force. The group confirmed his death but not his role and said it fired rockets at Israeli army targets across the border in retaliation.


Israel strike on Lebanon kills Hezbollah commander: source, army

Updated 10 September 2024
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Israel strike on Lebanon kills Hezbollah commander: source, army

  • Mohammad Qassem Al-Shaer, “a field commander” in the group’s elite Radwan Force, “was targeted in an Israeli strike on a motorcycle in the Bekaa” Valley
  • Hezbollah earlier announced Shaer had been killed by Israeli fire, but did not refer to him as a commander

BEIRUT: An Israeli strike Tuesday on eastern Lebanon killed a Hezbollah commander, a source close to the group and the Israeli military said, the latest in near-daily exchanges throughout the Gaza war.
The Iran-backed Lebanese group has traded fire with Israeli forces in support of ally Hamas since the Palestinian militant group’s October 7 attack triggered war in the Gaza Strip, with repeated escalations during more than 11 months of the cross-border violence.
A source close to Hezbollah told AFP that Mohammad Qassem Al-Shaer, “a field commander” in the group’s elite Radwan Force, “was targeted in an Israeli strike on a motorcycle in the Bekaa” Valley in Lebanon’s east, far from the Israeli border.
Hezbollah earlier announced Shaer had been killed by Israeli fire, but did not refer to him as a commander.
The Israeli military said its air force had “eliminated the terrorist Mohammad Qassem Al-Shaer in the area of Qaraoun,” in the Bekaa Valley.
It referred to Shaer as “a Hezbollah Radwan Force commander.”
Elsewhere in Lebanon, the health ministry said an “Israeli enemy” strike on a building in the southern city of Nabatiyeh “caused light injuries to nine people.”
The cross-border violence since early October has killed some 615 people in Lebanon, mostly fighters but also including 138 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
On the Israeli side, including in the annexed Golan Heights, authorities have announced the deaths of at least 24 soldiers and 26 civilians.


Cousin of Israeli slain in captivity says military pressure is killing the hostages

Updated 10 September 2024
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Cousin of Israeli slain in captivity says military pressure is killing the hostages

  • Gat’s body and those of five fellow hostages were recovered by Israeli troops on Sept 1, triggering an outpouring of grief and mass protests among Israelis demanding a hostage deal
  • Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly said increased military pressure would ultimately bring the hostages home

JERUSALEM: Gil Dickmann’s worst nightmare came true when he was told his cousin Carmel Gat, who had survived 11 months in Hamas captivity, had been killed in a tunnel in Gaza just before Israeli forces arrived.
“She was so close to hugging her father,” Dickmann, 32, told Reuters outside the Israeli Knesset, where he was lobbying lawmakers to push for a deal to secure the hostages’ release.
“We failed as a country, we failed as a community.”
Gat’s body and those of five fellow hostages were recovered by Israeli troops on Sept 1, triggering an outpouring of grief and mass protests among Israelis demanding a hostage deal.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly said increased military pressure would ultimately bring the hostages home.
An autopsy revealed that Gat and the other five hostages had been shot in the back of the head at close range, less than 48 hours before Israeli forces recovered the bodies in a tunnel under Gaza.
“Military pressure kills the hostages,” said Dickman. “We know that for a fact.”
Hamas has said in separate statements that Israel is responsible for killing the hostages, or that Netanyahu is responsible for killing them by obstructing a ceasefire agreement.
Oct. 7 was the deadliest day for Israel in its 75 year history, with around 1,200 people killed and some 250 seized and taken as hostages into Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. Hamas released 105 hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in a hostage deal in November.
Carmel Gat was taken hostage on October 7th, while staying at her parents’ home in Kibbutz Be’eri, in southern Israel.
Talks to bring the hostages back and end the fighting in Gaza, where Israel’s campaign to crush Hamas has destroyed much of the Gaza Strip and killed more than 40,000 people according to Palestinian figures, have stalled.
Esther Buchshtav, whose son Yagev was killed in captivity earlier this year, said on Monday at a meeting in Israel’s parliament that a military investigation found her son had been executed by Hamas when soldiers came close to where he was being held.
Dickmann has become one of the most recognizable faces in the movement to push for a hostage deal. He has appeared often on Israeli nightly news shows and clips have circulated widely on social media showing him in screaming matches with Israeli lawmakers and giving passionate speeches in Israel’s Knesset.
Last month, he went to Israel’s southern border along with a group of hostage families who ran toward the border in an effort to gather sympathy for their cause.
The high volume of protesters who demonstrated after Gat’s death, Dickmann said, showed that the Israeli government is disconnected from the will of the people.
“The Israeli people want life,” Dickmann said. “We fight for the lives of the hostages. We don’t fight for revenge.”


Arab League’s chief calls for Denmark’s recognition of Palestinian state

Updated 10 September 2024
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Arab League’s chief calls for Denmark’s recognition of Palestinian state

  • Ahmed Aboul Gheit expresses appreciation for Denmark’s supportive positions
  • Arab League’s chief urged Denmark to follow the lead of several European countries that had recently recognized the independent state of Palestine

CAIRO: Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit has called on Denmark to recognize the state of Palestine.

Aboul Gheit made the remarks as he received Lars Lokke Rasmussen, Denmark’s minister of foreign affairs, at the headquarters of the General Secretariat in Cairo.

Gamal Roshdy, a spokesman for the secretary-general, said that the meeting between the two focused on enhancing bilateral cooperation in areas of mutual interest.

Aboul Gheit expressed appreciation for Denmark’s supportive positions on the Palestinian cause.

Aboul Gheit spoke of his confidence that Denmark would continue to play a constructive role in promoting peace, security, and stability in the Arab region — particularly in light of Copenhagen’s recent success in securing a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council for the 2025-2026 term.

The Arab League’s chief urged Denmark to follow the lead of several European countries that had recently recognized the independent state of Palestine within the borders of June 4, 1967, and with East Jerusalem as its capital.

He stressed that such recognition was crucial to realizing the two-state solution.

The foreign minister reaffirmed his country’s support for Arab issues and concerns and outlined Denmark’s current foreign policy priorities.

He also stressed his country’s keen interest in strengthening relations with Arab nations across all sectors.