JERUSALEM: Israel and Lebanon on Monday rushed to ease tensions following a deadly border skirmish that left one Israeli soldier dead, with the enemy countries holding a face-to-face meeting with UN peacekeepers and pledging their commitment to a seven-year-old cease-fire.
The UN peacekeeping force along the volatile border, UNIFIL, said it called the meeting to “establish the facts and circumstances” behind the flare-up in violence and to restore a cease-fire that has been in place since a 2006 war. It said both sides pledged to preserve “calm and stability.”
In Sunday’s incident, a Lebanese sniper opened fire at an Israeli vehicle traveling near the border area of Rosh Hanikra, killing a soldier inside. Several hours later, the Israeli military said it shot two Lebanese soldiers after spotting “suspicious movement” in the same area. It was the heaviest fighting between the enemy countries in more than three years and drew condemnations and threats of retaliation from Israel.
Late Monday, the Lebanese army distanced itself from the incident, saying the shooting was the result of an “individual act” by a soldier.
It said a military committee was investigating the incident and was coordinating with the UN peacekeeping mission. With the shooter in custody, there was no word on a motive for the attack and no mention of the two soldiers allegedly shot by Israel. The Lebanese army stressed its full commitment to UN resolutions, including maintaining the 2006 cease-fire.
The tame language, and near apology for the incident, was rare for the Lebanese military, which is usually quick to point out Israeli border transgressions. It suggested that Lebanon was keen to avoid a conflagration on its border at a time of severe tensions resulting from the civil war in neighboring Syria.
Likewise, Israeli officials tried to lower the tensions. “The idea is to bring the situation back to normal and not aggravate the situation,” said Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a military spokesman.
The border has remained mostly quiet since the monthlong war in the summer of 2006, though there have been sporadic outbursts of violence. In the most serious incident, Lebanese forces killed a high-ranking Israeli officer in 2010, claiming the Israeli army had crossed the border while uprooting a tree. Israel responded with artillery fire that killed three Lebanese. Given the years of enmity between the two countries, even the smallest incident raises the risk of sparking a wider conflagration.
The UN Security Council on Monday issued a statement condemning the killing of the Israeli soldier, but noting that “UNIFIL confirmed the Lebanese government’s preliminary findings which indicate that the shooting was an individual action by a soldier.”
Late Monday, UNIFIL said it had convened a meeting of senior Israeli and Lebanese officers at the Naqoura border crossing, near the site of the shooting. UNIFIL’s commander, Maj. Gen. Paolo Serra, and the UN special coordinator for Lebanon, Derek Plumbly, also attended.
In a statement, Serra said preliminary findings indicated the Lebanese sniper had acted alone, in violation of operational rules and procedures. He said the sides discussed “concrete steps” to strengthen security arrangements, and emphasized their interest in preserving “calm and stability.”
“I was encouraged by the discussion at the tripartite meeting and by the way the parties approached the issues at hand,” Serro said. “They affirmed their full commitment to the cessation of hostilities.”
Lebanon and Israel have been officially at war since Israel’s creation in 1948. Each country bans its citizens from visiting the other, and there are no direct trade ties or diplomatic relations.
Their armies do not communicate directly, but in cases of increased tension exchange messages through the UN Face-to-face meetings under UN auspices like Monday’s sporadically take place, Israeli officials said.
The 2006 war broke out after Iranian-backed Hezbollah guerrillas crossed into Israel and captured two Israeli soldiers. The ensuing monthlong conflict killed about 1,200 Lebanese and 160 Israelis.
Hezbollah has an arsenal of tens of thousands of missiles and rockets aimed at Israel, and Israeli officials say it is only a matter of time for renewed fighting against the Shiite militia. But it was not involved in Sunday’s shooting and officials believe it is not interested in fighting at the current time because it is preoccupied with the war in Syria, where it is aiding the forces of President Bashar Assad.
Israel and Lebanon have fought several wars before. In 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon with the stated intention of driving Palestinian guerrillas out of the south. The Israeli military battled halfway through the country into Beirut and occupied south Lebanon until 2000.
The Lebanese are banned from calling or traveling to Israel or having contacts with Israelis. Such an offense is punishable by anything from a few weeks to life in prison with hard labor, depending on the kind and level of contact. All Israeli products are banned in the country, including Israeli films.
Israel restrictions are slightly less stringent, with phone calls to Lebanon and Lebanese film screenings permitted, though it is a punishable offense for an Israeli to visit Lebanon.
The two nation’s carriers do not fly over each other’s airspace. Travelers coming from Israel to Lebanon usually go through Jordan or Egypt. Those with Israeli stamps in their passports are deported, which forces travelers to carry a second passport.
Those who have visited in Lebanon and arrive in Israel are heavily questioned at the border or airport.
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Associated Press writers Ryan Lucas and Zeina Karam in Beirut, and Daniel Estrin in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
Israel, Lebanon move to ease tensions after border skirmish
Israel, Lebanon move to ease tensions after border skirmish
UN launches probe into first international staff killed by unidentified strike in Rafah
- Retired Indian army officer Waibhav Anil Kale was on route to the European Hospital in Rafah along with a colleague, who was also injured in the attack
NEW DELHI: The United Nations has launched an investigation into an unidentified strike on a UN car in Rafah on Monday that killed its first international staff in Gaza since Oct. 7, a spokesperson for the UN Secretary General said.
The staff member, a retired Indian Army officer named Waibhav Anil Kale, was working with the UN Department of Safety and Security and was on route to the European Hospital in Rafah along with a colleague, who was also injured in the attack.
Israel has been moving deeper into Rafah in southern Gaza, where more than a million people had sought shelter, and its forces pounded the enclave’s north on Tuesday in some of the fiercest attacks in months.
Israel’s international allies and aid groups have repeatedly warned against a ground incursion into Rafah, where many Palestinians fled, and Israel says four Hamas battalions are holed up. Israel says it must root out the remaining fighters.
In a statement on Monday after Kale’s death, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres reiterated an “urgent appeal for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and for the release of all hostages,” saying the conflict in Gaza was continuing to take a heavy toll “not only on civilians, but also on humanitarian workers.”
Palestinian health authorities say Israel’s ground and air campaign in Gaza since Oct. 7 has killed more than 35,000 people and driven most of the enclave’s 2.3 million people from their homes.
His deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said on Tuesday the UN has established a fact-finding panel to determine the responsibility for the attack.
“It’s very early in the investigation, and details of the incident are still being verified with the Israeli Defense Force,” he said.
There are 71 international UN staff members in Gaza currently, he said.
In its only comment on the matter yet, India’s mission to the UN confirmed Kale’s identity on Tuesday, saying it was “deeply saddened” by his loss.
Israel, which launched its Gaza operation after an attack on Oct. 7 by Hamas-led gunmen who killed some 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages, according to its tallies, has ordered civilians to evacuate parts of Rafah.
The main United Nations aid agency in Gaza, UNRWA estimates some 450,000 people have fled the city since May 6. More than a million civilians had sought refuge there.
Libya war crimes probe to advance next year: ICC prosecutor
- The Security Council referred the situation in Libya to the ICC in February 2011 following a violent crackdown on unprecedented protests against the regime of Muammar Qaddafi
UNITED NATIONS, United States: The International Criminal Court prosecutor probing war crimes committed in Libya since 2011 announced Monday his plans to complete the investigation phase by the end of 2025.
Presenting his regular report before the United Nations Security Council, Karim Khan said that “strong progress” had been made in the last 18 months, thanks in particular to better cooperation from Libyan authorities.
“Our work is moving forward with increased speed and with a focus on trying to deliver on the legitimate expectations of the council and of the people of Libya,” Khan said.
He added that in the last six months, his team had completed 18 missions in three areas of Libya, collecting more than 800 pieces of evidence including video and audio material.
Khan said he saw announcing a timeline to complete the investigation phase as a “landmark moment” in the case.
“Of course, it’s not going to be easy. It’s going to require cooperation, candor, a ‘can do’ attitude from my office but also from the authorities in Libya,” he added.
“The aim would be to give effect to arrest warrants and to have initial proceedings start before the court in relation to at least one warrant by the end of next year,” Khan said.
The Security Council referred the situation in Libya to the ICC in February 2011 following a violent crackdown on unprecedented protests against the regime of Muammar Qaddafi.
So far, the investigation opened by the court in March 2011 has produced three cases related to crimes against humanity and war crimes, though some proceedings were abandoned after the death of suspects.
An arrest warrant remains in place for Seif Al-Islam Qaddafi, the son of the assassinated Libyan dictator who was killed by rebel forces in October 2011.
Libya has since been plagued by fighting, with power divided between a UN-recognized Tripoli government and a rival administration in the country’s east.
Palestinians rally at historic villages in northern Israel
- The descendants of the 160,000 Palestinians who managed to remain in what became Israel presently number about 1.4 million, around 20 percent of Israel’s population
- Israel has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory
SHEFA-AMR: Thousands of people took part Tuesday in an annual march through the ruins of villages that Palestinians were expelled from during the 1948 war that led to Israel’s creation.
Wrapped in keffiyeh scarves and waving Palestinian flags, men and women rallied through the abandoned villages of Al-Kassayer and Al-Husha — many holding signs with the names of dozens of other demolished villages their families were displaced from.
“Your Independence Day is our catastrophe,” reads the rallying slogan for the protest that took place as Israelis celebrated the 76th anniversary of the proclamation of the State of Israel.
The protest this year was taking place against the backdrop of the ongoing war in Gaza, where fighting between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas has displaced the majority of the population, according to the United Nations.
Among those marching Tuesday was 88-year-old Abdul Rahman Al-Sabah.
He described how members of the Haganah, a Zionist paramilitary group, forced his family out of Al-Kassayer, near the northern city of Haifa, when he was a child.
They “blew up our village, Al-Kassayer, and the village of Al-Husha so that we would not return to them, and they planted mines,” he said, his eyes glistening with tears.
The family was displaced to the nearby town of Shefa-Amr.
“But we continued (going back), my mother and I, and groups from the village, because it was harvest season, and we wanted to live and eat,” he said.
“We had nothing, and whoever was caught by the Israelis was imprisoned.”
Palestinians remember this as the “Nakba,” or catastrophe, when around 760,000 Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes during the war that led to the creation of Israel.
The descendants of the 160,000 Palestinians who managed to remain in what became Israel presently number about 1.4 million, around 20 percent of Israel’s population.
Many of today’s Arab Israelis remain deeply connected to their historic land.
At Tuesday’s march, one man carried a small sign with “Lubya,” the name of what was once a Palestinian village near Tiberias.
Like many other Palestinian villages, Al-Husha and Al-Kassayer witnessed fierce battles in mid-April 1948, according to historians of the Haganah, among the Jewish armed groups that formed the core of what became the Israeli military.
Today, the kibbutz communities of Osha, Ramat Yohanan and Kfar Hamakabi can be found on parts of land that once housed the two villages.
“During the attack on our village Al-Husha, my father took my mother, and they rode a horse to the city of Shefa-Amr,” said Musa Al-Saghir, 75, whose village had been largely made up of people who immigrated from Algeria in the 1880s.
“When they returned to see the house, the Haganah forces had blown up the village and its houses,” said the activist from a group advocating for the right of return for displaced Arabs.
Naila Awad, 50, from the village of Reineh near Nazareth, explained that the activists were demanding both the return of displaced people to their demolished villages within Israel, as well as the return of the millions of Palestinian refugees living in the West Bank, Gaza and other countries.
“No matter how much you try to break us and arrest us, we will remain on our lands,” she insisted.
Egypt rejects Israel’s denial of role in Gaza aid crisis
- Sameh Shoukry: “Egypt affirms its categorical rejection of the policy of distorting the facts and disavowing responsibility followed by the Israeli side”
CAIRO: Egypt’s foreign minister on Tuesday accused Israel of denying responsibility for the humanitarian crisis in Gaza after his Israeli counterpart said Egypt was not allowing aid into the war-torn territory.
Israeli troops on May 7 said they took control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing to Egypt as part of efforts to root out Hamas militants in the east of Rafah city.
The move defied international opposition and shut one of the main humanitarian entry points into famine-threatened Gaza. Since then, Egypt has refused to coordinate with Israel aid access through the Rafah crossing.
Sameh Shoukry, Egypt’s foreign minister, said in a statement that “Egypt affirms its categorical rejection of the policy of distorting the facts and disavowing responsibility followed by the Israeli side.”
In a tweet on social media platform X, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz had said, “Yesterday, I spoke with UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock about the need to persuade Egypt to reopen the Rafah crossing to allow the continued delivery of international humanitarian aid to Gaza.”
Katz added that “the key to preventing a humanitarian crisis in Gaza is now in the hands of our Egyptian friends.”
Shoukry, whose country has tried to mediate a truce in the Israel-Hamas war, responded that “Israel is solely responsible for the humanitarian catastrophe that the Palestinians are currently facing in the Gaza Strip.”
He added that Israeli control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing and its military operations exposes “aid workers and truck drivers to imminent dangers,” referencing trucks awaiting entry to Gaza.
This, he said, “is the main reason for the inability to bring aid through the crossing.”
UN chief Antonio Guterres said he is “appalled” by Israel’s military escalation in Rafah, a spokesman said.
Guterres’ spokesman Farhan Haq said “these developments are further impeding humanitarian access and worsening an already dire situation,” while also criticizing Hamas for “firing rockets indiscriminately.”
Since Israeli troops moved into eastern Rafah, the aid crossing point from Egypt remains closed and nearby Kerem Shalom crossing lacks “safe and logistically viable access,” a UN report said late on Monday.
Daesh claims attack on army post in northern Iraq
- Daesh said in a statement on Telegram it had targeted the barracks with machine guns and grenades
BAGHDAD: Daesh claimed responsibility on Tuesday for an attack on Monday targeting an army post in northern Iraq which security sources said had killed a commanding officer and four soldiers.
The attack took place between Diyala and Salahuddin provinces, a rural area that remains a hotbed of activity for militant cells years after Iraq declared final victory over the extremist group in 2017.
Security forces repelled the attack, the defense ministry said on Monday in a statement mourning the loss of a colonel and a number of others from the regiment. The security sources said five others had also been wounded.
Daesh said in a statement on Telegram it had targeted the barracks with machine guns and grenades.
Iraq has seen relative security stability in recent years after the chaos of the 2003-US-led invasion and years of bloody sectarian conflict that followed.
