GENEVA: The United Nations said Wednesday it had verified the deaths of 103 civilians in Lebanon since the November 2024 ceasefire with Israel, demanding a halt to the ongoing suffering.
The UN Human Rights Office called for renewed efforts for a durable truce, more than 10 months on from the agreed ceasefire.
“We are still seeing devastating impacts of jet and drone strikes in residential areas, as well as near UN peacekeepers in the south,” UN rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement.
Israel has kept up near daily strikes on Lebanon, usually saying it is targeting Hezbollah operatives or sites, despite the truce that sought to end more than a year of hostilities including two months of open war with the Iran-backed group.
“Families are simply unable to make a start on rebuilding their homes and their lives, and instead are faced by the real and present danger of more strikes,” Turk said.
“Hundreds of damaged schools, health facilities, places of worship, among other civilian sites, are still no-go zones, or at best, only partly useable.”
The Human Rights Office said that until the end of September, it had verified 103 civilians killed in Lebanon since the ceasefire.
There have been no reports of killings from projectiles fired from Lebanon toward Israel since the truce, it said.
Turk’s office said five people, including three children, were killed when an Israeli drone struck a vehicle and a motorcycle in the border area of Bint Jbeil on September 21.
Turk demanded an independent and impartial investigation into the incident, along with others he said raised concerns about compliance with international humanitarian law.
Lebanon’s health ministry said one person was killed and five others wounded in an Israeli strike on Wednesday on the country’s south, without specifying whether the casualties were civilians.
More than 80,000 people remain displaced in Lebanon as a result of ongoing violence, with around 30,000 people from northern Israel reportedly still displaced.
“At all times during the conduct of hostilities, civilians and civilian infrastructure must be protected and international humanitarian law fully respected, irrespective of claims of breaches of a ceasefire,” said Turk.
“Good faith implementation of the ceasefire is the only path toward a durable peace, and its terms need to be respected.”
UN verifies 103 civilians killed in Lebanon since ceasefire
https://arab.news/6chxx
UN verifies 103 civilians killed in Lebanon since ceasefire
- UN Human Rights Office called for renewed efforts for a durable truce, more than 10 months on from the agreed ceasefire
- Israel has kept up near daily strikes on Lebanon despite the truce that sought to end more than a year of hostilities
Soleimani warned Al-Assad about ‘spy’ Luna Al-Shibl: Al-Majalla
LONDON: The late Iranian General Qassem Soleimani confronted Syria’s National Security Bureau chief Ali Mamlouk in late 2019 after seeing Luna Al-Shibl leaving his office. Al-Majalla magazine claims its reporters reviewed a document containing the full Arabic transcript of their exchange.
Soleimani reportedly asked, “Who is this?” and Mamlouk replied, “She is Louna Al-Shibl, the president’s adviser.”
The Quds Force commander pressed further: “I know, I know… but who is she really? Where did she work?”
According to Al-Majalla, a sister publication of Arab News, he said her former salary was “ten thousand dollars,” compared with her current salary of “five hundred thousand Syrian pounds,” before asking: “Does it make sense for someone to leave ten thousand dollars for five hundred thousand pounds? She is a spy.”
Both Soleimani and Maher Al-Assad, commander of the Syrian army’s powerful Fourth Division, had warned the ousted president’s inner circle about Al-Shibl, Al-Majalla reported.
‘Suspicious’ car crash
On July 2, 2024, Al-Shibl was involved in what officials described as a traffic accident on the Damascus-Dimas highway. She was hospitalized and died four days later.
But Al-Majalla reported that photos of her armored BMW showed only minor damage, raising immediate questions among those close to the case.
Eyewitnesses told the magazine that the crash was intentional. One said, “a car approached and rammed her vehicle,” and before her bodyguard could exit, “a man attacked her and struck her on the back of the head,” causing paralysis that led to her death.
She was first taken to Al-Saboura clinic, then transferred to Al-Shami Hospital. Several senior regime-linked figures, including businessman Mohammed Hamsho and an aide to Maher Al-Assad, were present when her condition deteriorated. One witness told Al-Majalla that when her bodyguard tried to explain what had happened, “he was arrested immediately in front of the others.”
The presidency later issued a brief statement announcing her death. Her funeral was attended only by a handful of officials. Then president Al-Assad did not attend.
