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Arab World

Abbas Says Only US Can Halt Israel’s Attack on Rafah, Expected in Days

A Palestinian child stands amid the debris of a house destroyed by overnight Israeli bombardment in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on April 27, 2024, as the conflict between Israel and Hamas continues. (AFP)
A Palestinian child stands amid the debris of a house destroyed by overnight Israeli bombardment in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on April 27, 2024, as the conflict between Israel and Hamas continues. (AFP)
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Abbas Says Only US Can Halt Israel’s Attack on Rafah, Expected in Days

A Palestinian child stands amid the debris of a house destroyed by overnight Israeli bombardment in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on April 27, 2024, as the conflict between Israel and Hamas continues. (AFP)
A Palestinian child stands amid the debris of a house destroyed by overnight Israeli bombardment in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on April 27, 2024, as the conflict between Israel and Hamas continues. (AFP)

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Sunday only the United States could stop Israel attacking the border city of Rafah in Gaza, adding that the assault, which he expects within days, could force much of the Palestinian population to flee the enclave.

"We call on the United States of America to ask Israel to not carry on the Rafah attack. America is the only country able to prevent Israel from committing this crime," Abbas told a special meeting of the World Economic Forum in the Saudi capital Riyadh.

Israel, which has threatened for weeks to launch an all-out assault on the neighborhood saying its goal is to destroy Hamas' remaining battalions there, stepped up airstrikes on Rafah last week.

Western countries, including Israel's closest ally the United States, have pleaded with it to hold back from attacking the southern city, which abuts the Egyptian border and is sheltering more than a million Palestinians who fled Israel's seven-month long assault on much of the rest of Gaza.

"What will happen in the coming few days is what Israel will do with attacking Rafah because all the Palestinians from Gaza are gathered there," Abbas said, adding that only a "small strike" on Rafah would force the Palestinian population to flee the Gaza strip.

"The biggest catastrophe in the Palestinian people's history would then happen."

Abbas reiterated that he rejects the displacement of Palestinians into Jordan and Egypt and said he is concerned that once Israel completes its operations in Gaza, it will then attempt to force the Palestinian population out of the West Bank and into Jordan.

Israel launched its offensive in Gaza after Hamas led an attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7 in which Israel said 1,200 people were killed and 253 taken hostage.

More than 34,000 Palestinians have since been killed, according to the Gaza health ministry, and most of the population displaced.

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Arab World

Iraq and Syria Sign Memorandum for Security Cooperation

Iraq’s Interior Minister Abdul Amir Al-Shammari welcomes his Syrian counterpart, Muhammad Khaled Al-Rahmoun in Baghdad (Iraqi Interior Ministry)
Iraq’s Interior Minister Abdul Amir Al-Shammari welcomes his Syrian counterpart, Muhammad Khaled Al-Rahmoun in Baghdad (Iraqi Interior Ministry)
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Iraq and Syria Sign Memorandum for Security Cooperation

Iraq’s Interior Minister Abdul Amir Al-Shammari welcomes his Syrian counterpart, Muhammad Khaled Al-Rahmoun in Baghdad (Iraqi Interior Ministry)
Iraq’s Interior Minister Abdul Amir Al-Shammari welcomes his Syrian counterpart, Muhammad Khaled Al-Rahmoun in Baghdad (Iraqi Interior Ministry)

Iraq and Syria inked on Sunday a memorandum of understanding for security cooperation in various areas, including combating terrorism.
“The agreement included a number of articles related to cooperation in combating drug trafficking, border control, extradition of wanted persons, combating organized crime, and money laundering,” said Iraq’s Interior Minister Abdul Amir Al-Shammari.
His remarks came in a joint press conference with his Syrian counterpart, Muhammad Khaled Al-Rahmoun.
In January, Iraq built a concrete wall of 160-km -- 3 meters deep and 3 meters across -- along part of its border with Syria to stop people and vehicles crossing the vast, sparsely populated desert that joins western Anbar province to Syria.
On Sunday, Al-Shammari spoke of a “good” intelligence cooperation between Baghdad and Damascus, saying the two countries “have joint work in exchanging information.”
For his part, the Syrian Minister said: “Cooperation in all fields, especially security, was discussed, as we suffered from terrorism in our countries. There is a criminal phenomenon managed by drug trafficking and human trafficking gangs, so we signed a memorandum of joint security cooperation.”
In a related security development, the Security Media Cell, an affiliate of the Iraqi Joint Operations Command, announced in a statement that Iraqi security forces have successfully dismantled two international networks engaged in human and drug trafficking and arrested 40 foreigners across the country.
Security forces arrested the suspects in Baghdad and several other Iraqi provinces based on intelligence reports, the statement read.
“The Iraqi National Intelligence Service, in collaboration with the Interior Ministry, arrested 40 foreigners suspected of being involved in crimes of kidnapping, extortion, forgery, as well as human and drug trafficking,” it added.
The statement said the majority of the victims targeted by these two rings were foreigners residing in Iraq.

Arab World

Türkiye Erdogan Says US, Europe Not Doing Enough to Pressure Israel into Gaza Truce

FILE PHOTO: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attends a press conference during his visit, in Baghdad, Iraq April 22, 2024. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani/Pool/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attends a press conference during his visit, in Baghdad, Iraq April 22, 2024. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani/Pool/File Photo
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Türkiye Erdogan Says US, Europe Not Doing Enough to Pressure Israel into Gaza Truce

FILE PHOTO: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attends a press conference during his visit, in Baghdad, Iraq April 22, 2024. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani/Pool/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attends a press conference during his visit, in Baghdad, Iraq April 22, 2024. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani/Pool/File Photo

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday that the United States and European countries were not doing enough to pressure Israel to agree to a ceasefire in Gaza, after Palestinian group Hamas' move to accept a truce proposal.
Türkiye has denounced Israel's attacks on Gaza, called for an immediate ceasefire, and criticized what it calls unconditional support for Israel by the West.
Ankara has halted all trade with Israel and said it had decided to join South Africa's initiative to have Israel tried for genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Reuters said.
Speaking to Muslim scholars in Istanbul, Erdogan said Hamas had accepted a ceasefire proposal by Qatar and Egypt in a "step in the path toward a lasting ceasefire", but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government did not want the war to end.
"The response of the Netanyahu government was to attack the innocent people in Rafah," he said, referring to the Gazan city that Israel is targeting. "It has become clear who sides with peace and dialogue, and who wants clashes continuing and more bloodshed.
"And did Netanyahu see any serious reaction for his spoiled behavior? No. Neither Europe nor America showed a reaction that would force Israel into a ceasefire."
Erdogan's intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin met with Hamas leaders in Doha on Sunday to discuss ceasefire talks and the access of humanitarian aid into Gaza, a Turkish security source said.
Israel's military conduct in Gaza has come under increasing scrutiny in recent weeks, as the civilian death toll and devastation in the enclave mount.
Its planned assault on Rafah, hosting some 1.4 million Palestinians mostly displaced in the war, has helped fuel the deepest tensions in relations between Israel and its main ally Washington in generations.
Ankara on Friday welcomed the United Nations General Assembly's backing for a Palestinian bid to become a full UN member. Erdogan on Sunday called on countries not recognizing a Palestinian sovereign state to do so after the vote, but slammed Washington and others who voted against.
"We saw that countries who lecture us on human rights and freedoms at every opportunity openly support those who massacred 35,000 Gazans," he said, citing figures from Gaza's health ministry. "We saw that those who said the right to protest was sacred until yesterday can't tolerate demonstrations that support Palestine."

 

Arab World

At Least 27 Killed in Renewed Clashes in Sudan's Al-Fasher 

Internally displaced women wait in a queue to collect aid from a group at a camp in Gadaref on May 12, 2024. (AFP)
Internally displaced women wait in a queue to collect aid from a group at a camp in Gadaref on May 12, 2024. (AFP)
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At Least 27 Killed in Renewed Clashes in Sudan's Al-Fasher 

Internally displaced women wait in a queue to collect aid from a group at a camp in Gadaref on May 12, 2024. (AFP)
Internally displaced women wait in a queue to collect aid from a group at a camp in Gadaref on May 12, 2024. (AFP)

Clashes reignited between the Sudanese army and rival paramilitaries in recent days in the key Darfur town of al-Fasher, the United Nations said Sunday, killing at least 27 people in one day.

Eyewitnesses have reported air strikes, artillery fire and machine gun clashes battering the city since Friday, when an hours-long battle left an estimated 850 people displaced, according to the UN.

It also killed at least 27 that day, based on what the UN said were "unconfirmed reports", as the city suffers a near-total communications blackout, with medics and human rights defenders barely able to get news to the world.

The fighting has since continued, eyewitnesses said Sunday, reporting air strikes and artillery shelling that left "houses on fire", one resident told AFP.

According to French medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF), two children and a caregiver were killed in an intensive care unit Saturday following a nearby military air strike.

Since April of last year, Sudan has been in the grips of a devastating war between the army, headed by commander Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), commanded by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

The RSF has seized four out of five state capitals in Darfur, a region about the size of France and home to around one quarter of Sudan's 48 million people.

Al-Fasher is the last major city in Darfur that is not under paramilitary control. The international community, including the UN and the United States, have for weeks warned against a looming offensive on the city.

MSF said Sunday that an air strike carried out by the army -- which maintains a functional monopoly on the skies -- landed 50 meters (164 feet) from the Babiker Nahar Pediatric Hospital.

It caused the roof of the ICU to collapse, resulting in "the death of two children who remained receiving treatment there, as well as the death of at least one caregiver," according to a statement.

"The children who were killed were in a critical condition in our ICU, but their lives could have been saved," MSF's head of emergency operations Michel-Olivier Lacharite said.

Across Sudan, over 70 percent of hospitals have been forced out of service during the war, according to the UN, compounding multiple health crises.

Fighters have targeted medical personnel, turned hospitals into barracks and routinely looted and prevented medical supplies from getting through.

Lacharite added that "115 children were receiving treatment in this hospital -– now no one is," after many patients fled the fighting to the nearby al-Fasher Southern Hospital, the city's only remaining facility.

A medical source at that hospital told AFP "the morgue had become completely full of bodies" on Friday.

MSF said that "160 wounded people -- including 31 women and 19 children" had arrived at the hospital, which the UN says only has "a 100-bed capacity".

"During the fighting, the hospital did not have an ambulance to transport the injured people and it has limited medical equipment and medicines needed to treat the injured and no surgical supplies," the UN said in its Sunday statement.

For weeks, fear has mounted over what the US has called "a disaster of epic proportions" if the warring parties descend on the city in full force.

Al-Fasher's erstwhile fragile peace had made it a key hub for displaced people and aid, serving the rest of Darfur, where 1.7 million people are on the brink of famine, according to the UN.

The city itself is home to 1.5 million people, including about 800,000 displaced during this and previous conflicts.

Across Sudan, the conflict has killed tens of thousands of people, plunged millions into dire need and uprooted more than 8.7 million people -- more than anywhere else in the world.

Arab World

Israel’s Army Chief Says ‘Fully Responsible’ for Oct 7 Attack 

Chief of the General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Herzi Halevi attends a wreath-laying ceremony marking Israel's national Holocaust Remembrance Day in the Hall of Remembrance at Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Centre, in Jerusalem, 06 May 2024. (EPA)
Chief of the General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Herzi Halevi attends a wreath-laying ceremony marking Israel's national Holocaust Remembrance Day in the Hall of Remembrance at Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Centre, in Jerusalem, 06 May 2024. (EPA)
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Israel’s Army Chief Says ‘Fully Responsible’ for Oct 7 Attack 

Chief of the General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Herzi Halevi attends a wreath-laying ceremony marking Israel's national Holocaust Remembrance Day in the Hall of Remembrance at Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Centre, in Jerusalem, 06 May 2024. (EPA)
Chief of the General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Herzi Halevi attends a wreath-laying ceremony marking Israel's national Holocaust Remembrance Day in the Hall of Remembrance at Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Centre, in Jerusalem, 06 May 2024. (EPA)

Israel’s army chief Herzi Halevi said on Sunday he was "fully responsible" for what happened on October 7 when Hamas launched its unprecedented attack on Israel.

"Every day, I feel its weight on my shoulders, and in my heart I fully understand its significance," he said.

"I am the commander who sent your sons and daughters into battle, from which they did not return, and to positions from which they were kidnapped."

The Hamas attack resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Some 250 Israelis and foreigners were kidnapped by militants and taken to Gaza during the October 7 attack by Hamas.

Israel estimates that 128 are still being held captive there, including 36 who the military says are dead.

Israel's retaliatory military campaign aimed at eliminating Hamas in Gaza has killed at least 35,034 people, most of them women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.

Arab World

Palestinian Public Sector Salaries Squeezed as Israel Withholds Tax Revenue

Palestinian women shop at a roadside stand near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, May 3, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinian women shop at a roadside stand near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, May 3, 2024. (Reuters)
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Palestinian Public Sector Salaries Squeezed as Israel Withholds Tax Revenue

Palestinian women shop at a roadside stand near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, May 3, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinian women shop at a roadside stand near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, May 3, 2024. (Reuters)

The Palestinian Authority said on Sunday the Israeli finance ministry was continuing to withhold tax revenues and as a result only a part of public sector salaries would be paid this week, keeping up a squeeze on payrolls that has lasted for months.

The Authority said it would pay Palestinian public sector employees 50% of their March salaries on Tuesday, after Israel withheld a transfer due for the month of April.

It said the arrears would be paid once the financial situation allowed.

The Israeli finance ministry confirmed it had been decided not to transfer tax revenues this month but declined to provide details.

The squeeze on public sector salaries, and the fact that tens of thousands of Palestinians have been prevented from working in Israel since the start of the war in Gaza in October, have added to growing economic hardship in the occupied West Bank.

Israel collects tax on goods that pass through Israel into the West Bank on behalf of the Palestinian Authority and transfers the revenue to Ramallah under a longstanding arrangement between the two sides.

But since the Hamas-led attack on Israel, the Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has withheld sums earmarked for administration expenses in Gaza.

Although the Hamas movement wrested control of Gaza from the rival Fatah faction in 2007, the Palestinian Authority, which is dominated by Fatah, continues to fund some health and education services in the enclave.

Arab World

Rafah Residents Flee ‘Hell’ of Israeli Onslaught

Displaced Palestinians travel in a vehicle as they flee Rafah, after Israeli forces launched a ground and air operation in the eastern part of southern Gaza city, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip May 12, 2024. (Reuters)
Displaced Palestinians travel in a vehicle as they flee Rafah, after Israeli forces launched a ground and air operation in the eastern part of southern Gaza city, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip May 12, 2024. (Reuters)
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Rafah Residents Flee ‘Hell’ of Israeli Onslaught

Displaced Palestinians travel in a vehicle as they flee Rafah, after Israeli forces launched a ground and air operation in the eastern part of southern Gaza city, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip May 12, 2024. (Reuters)
Displaced Palestinians travel in a vehicle as they flee Rafah, after Israeli forces launched a ground and air operation in the eastern part of southern Gaza city, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip May 12, 2024. (Reuters)

War-weary Gazans flooded towards coastal areas of the Gaza Strip's southern city of Rafah on Sunday, fleeing heavy bombardment in eastern zones after Israel ordered them to evacuate.

"We endured three days that can be considered hell," said Mohammed Hamad, a 24-year-old resident of eastern Rafah who was among the 300,000 Palestinians that Israel says have fled the fighting.

Despite international opposition to any major military operation in Rafah, Israel has shifted its focus to the heavily populated area in what it says is an effort to destroy the last bastion of Hamas.

Eastern parts of the city have been heavily bombarded in recent days, according to witnesses, as Israel sent tanks and ground troops into the areas in "targeted raids".

"They were among the worst nights for us since the beginning of the war," Hamad told AFP from Al-Mawasi, an area Israel has designated a "humanitarian zone" despite aid groups warning that it is unprepared for such an influx.

Rafah's population had swelled to around 1.4 million after hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled fighting in other areas of the Gaza Strip and sought shelter there during more than seven months of war.

"They started by distributing flyers in the morning, and immediately began brutal artillery and aerial bombardment without giving people a chance to think or organize their belongings properly," Hamad said.

- 'We wish for death' -

AFP photographers saw dozens of families loading furniture and household items on trucks and fleeing from Rafah, many heading for Khan Yunis, the main city in the south of the Palestinian territory.

Many people, especially women and children, lingered on streets outside their homes before moving out.

The war began with Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 35,034 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.

Israeli forces on Tuesday seized and closed the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing into Egypt -- through which all fuel passes into Gaza.

"There are no medical services or humanitarian aid being provided to the displaced people in the northern Gaza Strip," said Mahmud Basal, spokesman for Gaza's civil defense agency.

"What we are witnessing in terms of killing and destruction reminds us of the early days of the aggression."

Umm Mohammed Al-Mughayyir said she has had to move her family seven times to escape the fighting.

"We have reached a point where we wish for death," she said.

"We have people with special needs, elderly individuals, and children with us. Where do we go when the bombardment never stops, day and night?"

Volker Turk, the UN high commissioner for human rights, said on Sunday that a full-scale Israeli assault on Rafah "cannot take place", insisting that it cannot be squared with international law.

"The latest evacuation orders affect close to a million people in Rafah. So where should they go now? There is no safe place in Gaza!" he said in a statement.

Arab World

Banning UK Arms Exports to Israel Would Strengthen Hamas, Says Cameron

A handout picture released by the BBC, taken and received on May 12, 2024, shows Britain's Foreign Secretary David Cameron appearing on the BBC's 'Sunday Morning' political television show with journalist Laura Kuenssberg. (Photo by JEFF OVERS / BBC / AFP)
A handout picture released by the BBC, taken and received on May 12, 2024, shows Britain's Foreign Secretary David Cameron appearing on the BBC's 'Sunday Morning' political television show with journalist Laura Kuenssberg. (Photo by JEFF OVERS / BBC / AFP)
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Banning UK Arms Exports to Israel Would Strengthen Hamas, Says Cameron

A handout picture released by the BBC, taken and received on May 12, 2024, shows Britain's Foreign Secretary David Cameron appearing on the BBC's 'Sunday Morning' political television show with journalist Laura Kuenssberg. (Photo by JEFF OVERS / BBC / AFP)
A handout picture released by the BBC, taken and received on May 12, 2024, shows Britain's Foreign Secretary David Cameron appearing on the BBC's 'Sunday Morning' political television show with journalist Laura Kuenssberg. (Photo by JEFF OVERS / BBC / AFP)

Stopping British arms sales to Israel if it launches a ground assault on Rafah in the Gaza Strip would strengthen Hamas, Britain's Foreign Secretary David Cameron said on Sunday.

Israel ordered Palestinians to evacuate more of the southern city on Saturday in an indication it was pressing ahead with its plans for a ground attack, despite US President Joe Biden's threat to withhold the supply of some weapons if it did so.

Cameron said he did not support an operation in Rafah in the absence of a plan to protect hundreds of thousands of civilians sheltering in the southern border city.

However, Britain was in a "completely different position" to the United States in terms of providing arms to Israel, he said, noting that the less than 1% of Israel's weapons that came from Britain were already controlled by a strict licensing system.

"We could, if we chose to, make a sort of political message and say we are going to take that political step," he told the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg.

"The last time I was urged to do that (...), just a few days later there was a brutal attack by Iran on Israel, including 140 cruise missiles," he added.

Cameron said the "better answer" would be for Hamas, which controls Gaza, to accept a hostage deal.

"Just to simply announce today we're going to change our whole approach to arms exports rather than go through our careful process, it would strengthen Hamas, it would make a hostage deal less likely, I don't think it would be the right approach," he said.

Hamas attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people and taking more than 250 people hostage, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel's military response in Gaza has killed close to 35,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's health ministry.

Arab World

Israel Lacks ‘Credible Plan’ to Safeguard Rafah Civilians, Says Blinken

A boy looks on as Palestinians prepare to flee Rafah after Israeli forces launched a ground and air operation in the eastern part of the southern Gaza city, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip May 12, 2024. (Reuters)
A boy looks on as Palestinians prepare to flee Rafah after Israeli forces launched a ground and air operation in the eastern part of the southern Gaza city, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip May 12, 2024. (Reuters)
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Israel Lacks ‘Credible Plan’ to Safeguard Rafah Civilians, Says Blinken

A boy looks on as Palestinians prepare to flee Rafah after Israeli forces launched a ground and air operation in the eastern part of the southern Gaza city, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip May 12, 2024. (Reuters)
A boy looks on as Palestinians prepare to flee Rafah after Israeli forces launched a ground and air operation in the eastern part of the southern Gaza city, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip May 12, 2024. (Reuters)

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday defended a decision to pause a delivery to Israel of 3,500 bombs over concerns they could be used in the Gazan city of Rafah, saying Israel lacked a "credible plan" to protect some 1.4 million civilians sheltering there.

Speaking to ABC News' This Week, Blinken said that President Joe Biden remains determined to help Israel defend itself and that the shipment of 3,500 2,000-pound and 500-pound bombs was the only US weapons package being withheld.

That could change, he said, if Israel launches a full-scale attack on Rafah, which Israel says it plans to invade to root out fighters of the ruling Hamas group.

Biden has made clear to Israel that if it "launches this major military operation to Rafah, then there are certain systems that we're not going to be supporting and supplying for that operation," said Blinken.

"We have real concerns about the way they're used," he continued. Israel needs to "have a clear, credible plan to protect civilians, which we haven't seen."

Rafah is hosting some 1.4 million Palestinians, most of them displaced from elsewhere in Gaza by fighting and Israeli bombardments, amid dire shortages of food and water.

The death toll in Israel's military operation in Gaza has now passed at least 35,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry.

The war was triggered by the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7 in which some 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 people taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel says 620 soldiers have been killed in the fighting.

Arab World

Lebanon’s Security Authorities Adopt Strict Measures to Curb Violations Committed by Syrians

Notices to close stores in Nabatieh after a raid by the General Security (National News Agency)
Notices to close stores in Nabatieh after a raid by the General Security (National News Agency)
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Lebanon’s Security Authorities Adopt Strict Measures to Curb Violations Committed by Syrians

Notices to close stores in Nabatieh after a raid by the General Security (National News Agency)
Notices to close stores in Nabatieh after a raid by the General Security (National News Agency)

Members of the Lebanese General Security started implementing strict measures and procedures in various regions and villages, in implementation of instructions issued by the Acting Director General of the General Security, Major General Elias Al-Bisari, to address violations related to the Syrian presence in Lebanon.
Security personnel carried out massive campaigns in Beirut, and in various Lebanese regions, during which Syrians were arrested for violating the residency and work system and entering the country illegally, while a large number of illegal shops run by Syrian workers were closed.
The head of the Lebanese Forces Party, Samir Geagea, praised the General Security measures, saying in a post on X social media platform that more efforts should be done in this regard.
Al-Nashra website reported that patrols conducted by the General Security Information Division in the South and the Investigation Division of the Qana General Security Center in the Tyre District carried out a campaign in the region’s villages and towns to “address violations and monitor Syrian workers.”
Meanwhile, the Lebanese Army announced on Friday that during an attempt by its unit, supported by a patrol from the Intelligence Directorate, to arrest a number of smugglers in the Deir Al-Ashayer area in the Bekaa (east of the country), a Syrian national tried to stab one of the unit’s members. The army opened fire at the man, who later succumbed to his injuries after being rushed to a nearby hospital.
The National News Agency (NNA) reported that night guards in the municipality of Jbeil arrested a Syrian gang at dawn on Saturday for smuggling Syrians into Lebanon.
Meanwhile, the head of the Free Patriotic Movement, MP Gebran Bassil, stressed the role of municipalities in addressing the displacement crisis.
Speaking during a conference of municipalities in the Batroun region (northern Lebanon), Bassil pointed to a lack of political decision to deal with the presence of Syrians, due to an “external desire to keep the displaced on our land.”

Arab World

Lebanon Judiciary Issues New Indictments in TikTok Gang Case

TikTok app. (AP)
TikTok app. (AP)
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Lebanon Judiciary Issues New Indictments in TikTok Gang Case

TikTok app. (AP)
TikTok app. (AP)

The first investigating judge in Mount Lebanon, Judge Nicolas Mansour, begins interrogating 10 detainees from the TikTok gang involved in sexual assaults on children.
The judicial circles are also eagerly awaiting the warrants that the investigating judge will issue against the involved suspects residing outside Lebanon to convert them into international arrest warrants.
On Thursday, Attorney General at the Mount Lebanon Court of Appeal Tanios Saghbini, indicted 12 individuals involved in the case.
On Friday, he indicted another five detainees, including Ghadir Saleh Ghanawi, aka as Gigi, a female suspect believed to have played a significant role in luring children through the TikTok application and then handing them over to the gang.
“The new defendants have been charged with criminal offenses carrying penalties ranging from 3 years to 20 years of hard labor”, a judicial source familiar with the details of the case confirmed.
Human Trafficking, Money Laundering, and Rape
The source told Asharq Al-Awsat that the “judiciary has charged these individuals with offenses including establishing a criminal network for human trafficking and money laundering, utilizing electronic applications, especially TikTok, using fake identities, luring children, committing violence against them, threatening them with murder and rape, and engaging in indecent acts”.
The judicial source said that the Cybercrime Combating Bureau also has its investigations focused on pursuing all the names that have appeared in the investigation, as well as tracking down all sides involved.
Dangerous Tasks for “Gigi”
Just a few days after a search and arrest warrant was issued against Ghadir Saleh Ghanawi, aka Gigi Ghanawi, the Cybercrime Bureau detained her bringing the total number of detainees in this case to 11 individuals.
A source following up closely on the investigations said that Ghanawi had a dangerous task in luring the children via TikTok under the pretext of securing employment for them in a reputable company.
“She set appointments for them with the alleged company manager, and upon their arrival at the predetermined address, she would receive them at the door of the apartment. Inside the apartment, they would be offered a drink containing a narcotic substance, then they would be raped”, said the source.
The source added that her most dangerous task was in filming the children being raped, she then sends the photos to the heads of the network outside Lebanon who were identified as Paul Meouch, known as (Jay), residing in Sweden, and Pierre Naffaa, located in Dubai, in addition to others.
A new list of names of ten suspects is expected to be issued next week including a lawyer registered with the North Bar Association in Tripoli called Khaled Merheb; and Hassan Sinjer, who according to information is residing in Switzerland.
Interpol Warrants
The warrants in absentia will be referred to the public prosecution office which will immediately refer them to the Interpol, according to the source.
“The Lebanese judiciary received positive signals from countries where some members of the gang reside. This indicates that the warrants will be promptly reviewed and executed if they do not conflict with the laws of those countries”, concluded the source.