Lebanon on Edge after Deadliest Border Clashes Since 2006

A member of the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) patrols the southern Lebanese plain of Khiam along the border with the northern Israeli town of Metulla (background) on October, 10 2023. (AFP)
A member of the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) patrols the southern Lebanese plain of Khiam along the border with the northern Israeli town of Metulla (background) on October, 10 2023. (AFP)
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Lebanon on Edge after Deadliest Border Clashes Since 2006

A member of the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) patrols the southern Lebanese plain of Khiam along the border with the northern Israeli town of Metulla (background) on October, 10 2023. (AFP)
A member of the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) patrols the southern Lebanese plain of Khiam along the border with the northern Israeli town of Metulla (background) on October, 10 2023. (AFP)

Many residents of south Lebanon who just days ago were preparing to harvest their olives have instead fled for fear of another ruinous conflict with Israel after the deadliest day of cross-border violence since the 2006 war.

For villagers in southern Lebanon, Monday's clashes stirred memories of the devastating 2006 war between Israel and the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah as the conflict between Israel and Palestinian militants, 200 km (120 miles) away to the south, arrived at their doorstep.

On the Israeli side of the frontier, villages appeared deserted on Tuesday - a possible result of residents sheltering indoors rather than evacuating. The Israeli military said it had not issued them with any orders to leave. Some people, however, said they were relocating southward as a temporary precaution.

Israeli tanks were deployed in the far northern border town of Metulla as rain came down near the heavily fortified border.

Six people were killed on Monday - three Hezbollah members, an Israeli officer, and two Palestinian militants who touched off the violence by infiltrating Israel from Lebanon.

"I was here in 2006 - those were terrifying scenes. And the shelling yesterday was very heavy," Charbel Alam, a barber in the border town of Rmeish, said. Hundreds of people had left, mostly families with children or elderly relatives, he said.

"People with kids left because in 2006, there was no bread, no milk, no medicine. Lebanon is already like that now, so imagine what it would be like if things escalate," Alam said, referring to the financial crisis that has impoverished many Lebanese over the last four years.

Nazimiya Damouch, an elderly woman, said children had been taken to shelter in a nearby UN peacekeeper base during Monday's shelling. "I'm not afraid of shelling like this, but you get scared for the kids."

It marked the most serious escalation at the volatile frontier in rugged highlands since the summer war 17 year ago that killed 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 157 Israelis, mostly soldiers.

Tensions have spiked since Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip on Saturday, killing 900 people, abducting dozens, and setting off a war in which nearly 700 Palestinians have also been killed.

Monday's violence at the Lebanese-Israeli frontier began when militants from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, which is fighting alongside Hamas in Gaza, slipped across the frontier from Lebanon into Israel.

Israeli forces killed two of the militants in the ensuing confrontation, in which the Israeli officer also died, though Islamic Jihad said the Israeli death toll was higher than that published by Israel so far.

The Hezbollah fighters were then killed during retaliatory Israeli shelling. Hezbollah responded by firing on two Israeli army positions, with no casualties reported. Hezbollah called it an initial response, signaling more to come.

Streets were quiet in Lebanese villages and towns near the frontier on Tuesday, with schools shut. A storm put many people in Lebanon on edge as thunder was mistaken for Israeli bombardment.

People were also jittery in Kiryat Shmona, a northern Israeli town near Metulla. "This is not the best feeling in the world," resident Orel Sigon said. "We've experienced rockets here, we've been through a lot, but this time we feel that there will be chaos."

Economic hardship

Hezbollah, founded by Iran's Revolutionary Guards in 1982, has close ties to the Palestinian groups fighting Israel.

Hezbollah has voiced support for the Palestinians, saying its "guns and rockets" are with them. On Sunday, Hezbollah fired at three Israeli positions in the disputed Shebaa Farms along the border, declaring it an act of solidarity with the Palestinians, an attack that caused no Israeli casualties.

But the heavily armed, Shiite Hezbollah has so far not opened a major second front against Israel.

Lebanon took years to rebuild from the 2006 war, during which Israeli bombardment pounded Hezbollah-controlled south Lebanon and destroyed wide areas of its stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut.

Mutual threats of destruction have helped ward off a major conflagration since then, while neighboring Syria has served as a theater for the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

Lebanon can ill-afford another big war with Israel, four years into a financial meltdown that has spread impoverishment and paralyzed state institutions.

In the south, Bassam al-Sweit's house was blown up in the 2006 war, but he said tougher economic times in Lebanon meant he would not be able to do so for a second time.

"The economic situation for people today means, if you want to leave the house, where do you go? If you want to buy a loaf of bread, I mean, some people can't. People can't fill their cars with gasoline if they want to flee," he said.

"Okay, you want to start a war. The least you can do is secure the citizens you have, give them protection or food."



Syrians Commemorate Uprising Anniversary for First Time Since Assad's Fall

This is the first celebration of the Syria's 2011 uprising since the fall of Bashar al-Assad (AFP/Bakr ALKASEM)
This is the first celebration of the Syria's 2011 uprising since the fall of Bashar al-Assad (AFP/Bakr ALKASEM)
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Syrians Commemorate Uprising Anniversary for First Time Since Assad's Fall

This is the first celebration of the Syria's 2011 uprising since the fall of Bashar al-Assad (AFP/Bakr ALKASEM)
This is the first celebration of the Syria's 2011 uprising since the fall of Bashar al-Assad (AFP/Bakr ALKASEM)

Syrians gathered on Saturday to commemorate the 14th anniversary of their uprising in public demonstrations in Damascus for the first time since president Bashar al-Assad was toppled.

The demonstration in Damascus's Umayyad Square is the first in the capital after years of repression under Assad, during which the square was the sole preserve of the ousted president's supporters.

Activists also called on people to gather in the cities of Homs, Idlib and Hama at demonstrations under the slogan "Syria is victorious".

By the afternoon, dozens of people had gathered in the capital's Umayyad Square, amid a heavy security presence and with military helicopters overhead dropping leaflets bearing the slogan "there is no room for hate among us".

Security forces were stationed at all entrances to the square, with some of them handing out flowers to demonstrators while speakers blared revolutionary and Islamic songs, AFP reported.

Many attendees waved the Syrian flag -- officially changed from one used under Assad to the design from the independence era -- and held signs reading "the revolution has triumphed".

Hanaa al-Daghri, 32, was among those in the square and told AFP "what is happening now is a dream we never dared to imagine".

"I left Damascus 12 years ago because I was wanted, and I would have never had any hope of returning were it not for the liberation," she said.

"We are missing many friends who are no longer with us, but their bloodshed brought us to where we are today."

Under bright sunlight, Abdul Moneim Nimr, 41, stood surrounded by his friends who raised a large flag and began dancing and singing.

"We used to celebrate the anniversary of the revolution in northern Syria and today we are celebrating in Umayyad Square. This is a blessed victory," he said.

Syria's conflict began with peaceful demonstrations on March 15, 2011, in which thousands protested against Assad's government, before it spiralled into civil war after his violent repression of the protests.

This year's commemoration marks the first since Assad was toppled on December 8 by opposition factions.

Ahmed al-Sharaa, who headed the group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) which spearheaded the offensive, has since been named interim president.

Hundreds also gathered at the main square in the opposition's former stronghold of Idlib, an AFP journalist saw, raising the flags of Syria and HTS amid a heavy security presence and despite the Ramadan fast and relatively hot weather.

On Thursday, Sharaa signed into force a constitutional declaration regulating a five-year transition period before a permanent constitution is to be put into place.

Analysts have criticised the declaration, saying it grants too much power to Sharaa and fails to provide sufficient protection to the country's minorities.

It also came a week after Syria's Mediterranean coast, the heartland of Assad's Alawite minority, was gripped by the worst wave of violence since his overthrow.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor, security forces and allied groups killed at least 1,500 civilians, mainly Alawites, in the violence that began on March 6.

The United Nations special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, said on Friday: "It is fourteen years since Syrians took to the streets in peaceful protest, demanding dignity, freedom and a better future."

He added in a statement that despite the brutal civil war, "the resilience of Syrians and their pursuit of justice, dignity and peace endure. And they now deserve a transition that is worthy of this."

He called for "an immediate end to all violence and for protection of civilians".

On the occasion of the anniversary, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Council in northeast Syria reiterated its objection to the constitutional declaration, saying it "did not adequately reflect the aspirations of the Syrian people to build a just and democratic state".