Mikati Calls for Distancing Lebanon from Syria Developments as Opposition Rejoices at Regime’s Demise

25 June 2024, Lebanon, Beirut: Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati looks on during a meeting with Germany's Foreign Minister Baerbock. (dpa)
25 June 2024, Lebanon, Beirut: Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati looks on during a meeting with Germany's Foreign Minister Baerbock. (dpa)
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Mikati Calls for Distancing Lebanon from Syria Developments as Opposition Rejoices at Regime’s Demise

25 June 2024, Lebanon, Beirut: Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati looks on during a meeting with Germany's Foreign Minister Baerbock. (dpa)
25 June 2024, Lebanon, Beirut: Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati looks on during a meeting with Germany's Foreign Minister Baerbock. (dpa)

Lebanese officials called on Sunday for distancing Lebanon from the developments in Syria amid the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati carried out a series of contacts with the heads of security agencies, urging them to tighten security measures at the border with Syria and to keep Lebanon away from the fallout of the regime’s ouster.

He also called on the Lebanese people, regardless of their differences, to “act wisely and steer clear of provocative reactions during this sensitive time.”

He contacted the concerned authorities and tasked them to follow up on the case of Lebanese people forcibly detained in Syrian jails.

Meanwhile, opponents of the regime, which for several years suffered at the hands of Damascus’ brutal policies and practices, stressed that the downfall was a victory for justice against oppression.

The regime is widely blamed for the assassination of several of its opponents in Lebanon.

Former head of the Progressive Socialist Party Walid Jumblatt telephoned former Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri, stressing to him that “divine justice has been achieved for slain former PM Rafik al-Hariri and all of the martyrs of the March 14 movement who were killed by Bashar al-Assad's regime.”

For his part, Saad replied: “May God have mercy of Kamal Jumblatt’s soul.”

Walid’s father Kamal was a major Druze political leader who is widely believed to have been assassinated by Damascus in 1977.

Rafik Hariri, Saad’s father, was assassinated in a major car bombing in February 2005. Members of Hezbollah, a regime ally, were indicted in his killing, which the opposition says was ordered by Damascus. His assassination sparked massive anti-regime protests in Lebanon that culminated in Syria withdrawing its forces from the country.

Syrian and Lebanese people celebrate the fall of the Syrian regime on December 8, 2024, in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, after the Syrian capital Damascus fell into the hands of anti-government fighters. (AFP)

“Greetings to the Syrian people at long last,” said Jumblatt in a post on the X platform commenting on Assad’s downfall.

In a post on X, head of the Kataeb party MP Samy Gemayel recalled his uncle slain president-elect Bashir Gemayel, whom Syria is accused of killing in 1982, and his brother former minister Pierre, who was gunned down in 2006.

“The oppressor has fallen, and Lebanon and the Kataeb remain. Your names will continue to breathe freedom, sovereignty and independence,” he added.

The Mustaqbal Movement congratulated the Syrian people over the “victory of justice against oppression and for toppling Bashar al-Assad's regime.”

It called on the Lebanese people to maintain national unity during this critical time and to protect the gains of the Syrian people from attempts to create instability.

Marada Movement leader Tony Franjieh, whose father Suleiman is a personal friend of Assad, said on X: “The priority for Syria is the peaceful transition of power and for stability to prevail in the country.”

“Lebanon’s stability has long been closely connected to Syria’s,” he noted.

Head of the Free Patriotic Movement MP Gebran Bassil, a former ally of Hezbollah, said on X: “The developments in Syria concern Syria. We hope that it will reflect positively on Syria and Lebanon and lead to the rapid return of Syrian refugees back to their homes.”

He also hoped for the establishment of “positive and balanced ties” between Lebanon and Syria that preserve the sovereignty of each country without meddling in the other’s affairs.



Hundreds of Thousands Flee as Israel Seizes Rafah in New Gaza 'Security Zone'

A youth rides a bicycle as people commute along the al-Rashid road, the only route linking the northern and southern parts of the Palestinian territory, on April 2, 2025. (Photo by Bashar TALEB / AFP)
A youth rides a bicycle as people commute along the al-Rashid road, the only route linking the northern and southern parts of the Palestinian territory, on April 2, 2025. (Photo by Bashar TALEB / AFP)
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Hundreds of Thousands Flee as Israel Seizes Rafah in New Gaza 'Security Zone'

A youth rides a bicycle as people commute along the al-Rashid road, the only route linking the northern and southern parts of the Palestinian territory, on April 2, 2025. (Photo by Bashar TALEB / AFP)
A youth rides a bicycle as people commute along the al-Rashid road, the only route linking the northern and southern parts of the Palestinian territory, on April 2, 2025. (Photo by Bashar TALEB / AFP)

Hundreds of thousands of fleeing Gazans sought shelter on Thursday in one of the biggest mass displacements of the war, as Israeli forces advanced into the ruins of the city of Rafah, part of a newly announced "security zone" they intend to seize.

A day after declaring their intention to capture large swathes of the crowded enclave, Israeli force pushed into the city on Gaza's southern edge which had served as a last refuge for people fleeing other areas for much of the war, reported Reuters.

Gaza's health ministry reported at least 97 people killed in Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours, including at least 20 killed in an airstrike around dawn in Shejaia suburb of Gaza City.

Rafah "is gone, it is being wiped out," a father of seven among the hundreds of thousands who had fled from Rafah to neighboring Khan Younis, told Reuters via a chat app.

"They are knocking down what is left standing of houses and property," said the man who declined to be identified for fear of repercussions.

After a strike killed several people in Khan Younis, Adel Abu Fakher was checking the damage to his tent.

"Is anything left for us? There’s nothing left for us. We’re being killed while asleep," he said.

The assault to capture Rafah is a major escalation in the war, which Israel restarted last month after effectively abandoning a ceasefire in place since January.

GAZANS FEAR PERMANENT DEPOPULATION

Israel has not spelled out its longterm aims for the security zone its troops are now seizing. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanayahu said troops were taking an area he called the "Morag Axis", a reference to an abandoned former Israeli settlement once located between Rafah on Gaza's southern edge and the adjacent main southern city Khan Younis.

Gazans who had returned to homes in the ruins during the ceasefire have now been ordered to flee communities on the northern and southern edges of the strip.

They fear that Israel's intention is to depopulate those areas indefinitely, leaving many hundreds of thousands of people permanently homeless in one of the poorest and most crowded territories on earth. The security zone includes some of Gaza's last agricultural land and critical water infrastructure.

Since the first phase of the ceasefire expired at the start of March with no agreement to prolong it, Israel has imposed a total blockade on all goods reaching Gaza's 2.3 million residents, recreating what international organizations describe as a humanitarian catastrophe after weeks of relative calm.

Israel's stated goal since the start of the war has been the destruction of the Hamas group which ran Gaza for nearly two decades and led the attack on Israeli communities in October 2023 that precipitated the war.

But with no effort made to establish an alternative administration, Hamas-led police returned to the streets during the ceasefire. Fighters still hold 59 dead and living hostages which Israel says must be handed over to extend the truce; Hamas says it will free them only under a deal that ends the war.

Israeli leaders say they have been encouraged by signs of protest in Gaza against Hamas, with hundreds of people demonstrating in north Gaza's Beit Lahiya on Wednesday opposing the war and demanding Hamas quit power. Hamas calls the protesters collaborators and says Israel is behind them.

The war began with a Hamas attack on Israeli communities on October 7, 2023 with gunmen killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages according to Israeli tallies. Israel's campaign has so far killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, Gaza health authorities say.

Rafah residents said most of the local population had followed Israel's order to leave, as Israeli strikes toppled buildings there. But a strike on the main road between Khan Younis and Rafah stopped most movement between the two cities.

Movement of people and traffic along the western coastal road near Morag was also limited by bombardment, said residents.

"Others stayed because they don't know where to go, or got fed up of being displaced several times. We are afraid they might be killed or at best detained," said Basem, a resident of Rafah who declined to give a second name.

Markets have emptied and prices for basic necessities have soared under Israel's total blockade of food, medicine and fuel.

The Palestinian Health Ministry, which is based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank but has nominal authority over hospitals in Gaza, said Gaza's entire healthcare system was at risk of collapse.