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Rai Refuses Involving ‘Our People’ in South Lebanon in War

Smoke rises from the village of Arab El Louaizeh southern Lebanon following Israeli shelling, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, 03 March 2024. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
Smoke rises from the village of Arab El Louaizeh southern Lebanon following Israeli shelling, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, 03 March 2024. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
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Rai Refuses Involving ‘Our People’ in South Lebanon in War

Smoke rises from the village of Arab El Louaizeh southern Lebanon following Israeli shelling, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, 03 March 2024. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
Smoke rises from the village of Arab El Louaizeh southern Lebanon following Israeli shelling, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, 03 March 2024. EPA/ATEF SAFADI

Political divisions in Lebanon over the five-month escalating war in the South of the country between Hezbollah and Israel intensified lately.
Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rai refused on Sunday to involve the people of south Lebanon in a war they have nothing to do with.
“The Lebanese and our people in south Lebanon have nothing to do with it,” said Rai in his Sunday sermon.
Replying to Rai’s remarks, Jaafarite Mufti Sheikh Ahmad Qabalan said: “Lebanon’s sovereignty, yesterday and today, is up to what the people of the south decide”.
The recent positions come amid a planned visit by US envoy Amos Hochstein to Beirut on Monday.
The US envoy is expected to meet with Lebanese officials as part of efforts to appease the situation on the Israel-Lebanon border.
Lebanese sources familiar with European positions towards Lebanon said that diplomatic western efforts are pushing in the same direction to prevent the situation from escalating into a war in Lebanon.
“In Lebanon, no one should drive our country into war, destruction, killing and displacement. It is useless to involve the Lebanese in general, and our people in the south in particular, in matters of no concern to them”, said Rai in his sermon.
For his part, Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Bishop of Beirut Elias Aude cautioned against the expansion of the Israeli war into Lebanon.
“We all know that our enemy is criminal and vicious, no humanity or conscience can stop it”, said Aude, adding that Lebanon can not bear the brutality of Israel’s crimes.
MP Ali Fayyad of Hezbollah Loyalty to the Resistance parliamentary bloc said on Sunday: “Our right for resistance remains unquestionable as long as our presence is targeted (by Israel) and our land remains occupied...our duty is to respond to deter the enemy and restore security to our villages”.
Qabalan for his part said: “What the Resistance is doing on the southern Lebanese front is a sovereign necessity..maintaining silence through it is a crime”.

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Arab World

Israeli Forces Surround Lebanon’s Khiam Ahead of Storming it

Smoke rises as a result of an Israeli airstrike on the village of al-Khiam in southern Lebanon, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, northern Israel, 22 November 2024, amid cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel. (EPA)
Smoke rises as a result of an Israeli airstrike on the village of al-Khiam in southern Lebanon, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, northern Israel, 22 November 2024, amid cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel. (EPA)
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Israeli Forces Surround Lebanon’s Khiam Ahead of Storming it

Smoke rises as a result of an Israeli airstrike on the village of al-Khiam in southern Lebanon, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, northern Israel, 22 November 2024, amid cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel. (EPA)
Smoke rises as a result of an Israeli airstrike on the village of al-Khiam in southern Lebanon, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, northern Israel, 22 November 2024, amid cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel. (EPA)

Israeli forces have blocked supply routes to the southern Lebanese border city of al-Khiam ahead of storming it.

They have also surrounded the strategic city with Hezbollah fighters still inside, launching artillery and air attacks against them.

Hezbollah fighters have been holding out in Khiam for 25 days. The capture of the city would be significant and allow Israeli forces easier passage into southern Lebanon.

Field sources said Israeli forces have already entered some neighborhoods of Khiam from its eastern and southern outskirts, expanding their incursion into its northern and eastern sectors to fully capture the city.

They cast doubt on claims that the city has been fully captured, saying fighting is still taking place deeper inside its streets and alleys, citing the ongoing artillery fire and drone and air raids.

Israel has already cut off Hezbollah’s supply routes by seizing control of Bourj al-Mamlouk, Tall al-Nahas and olive groves in al-Qlaa in the Marayoun region. Its forces have also fanned out to the west towards the Litani River.

The troops have set up a “line of fire” spanning at least seven kms around Khiam to deter anti-tank attacks from Hezbollah and to launch artillery, drone and aerial attacks, said the sources.

The intense pressure has forced Hezbollah to resort to suicide drone attacks against Israeli forces.

Hezbollah’s al-Manar television said Israeli forces tried to carry out a new incursion towards Khiam’s northern neighborhoods.

Lebanon’s National News Agency reported that since Friday night, Israeli forces have been using “all forms of weapons in their attempt to capture Khiam, which Israel views as a strategic gateway through which it can make rapid ground advances.”

It reported an increase in air and artillery attacks in the past two days as the forces try to storm the city.

The troops are trying to advance on Khiam by first surrounding it from all sides under air cover, it continued.

They are also booby-trapping some homes and buildings and then destroying them, similar to what they have done in other southern towns, such as Adeisseh, Yaround, Aitaroun and Mais al-Jabal.

Khiam holds symbolic significance to the Lebanese people because it was the first city liberated following Israel’s implementation of United Nations Security Council 425 on May 25, 2000, that led to its withdrawal from the South in a day that Hezbollah has since declared Liberation Day.