Lebanon: Shouf-Aley District to Turn into Electoral Battleground

Lebanon’s Parliament. AFP file photo
Lebanon’s Parliament. AFP file photo
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Lebanon: Shouf-Aley District to Turn into Electoral Battleground

Lebanon’s Parliament. AFP file photo
Lebanon’s Parliament. AFP file photo

The Shouf-Aley district in Mount Lebanon is heading towards a fierce electoral confrontation between several parties, after failing to reach an understanding over the names of candidates for the parliamentary polls, except for an alliance between the Mustaqbal Movement and the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP).

On Tuesday midnight, the Interior Ministry officially closed candidate registration for the May elections.

At least 3 lists backed by Lebanon’s ruling political parties would compete in the Shouf-Aley district, in addition to a list supported by civil society groups.

According to some observers, the Lebanese Forces objected to include pro-March 8 candidate, Naji Boustani, on a joint list with the Mustaqbal and PSP parties and instead, insisted on naming two candidates, George Adwan and Anis Nassar.

“Contacts between the LF and the PSP are ongoing. All sorts of things could happen,” LF sources told Asharq Al-Awsat on Tuesday.

In the Shouf-Aley district, Sunnis represent 19 percent of eligible voters, while the Druze constitute 40 percent and the Christian Maronites 27 percent.

Therefore, three lists supported by political parties in power are expected to compete during the next elections in case all contacts fail to reach an agreement between the LF, the PSP and Mustaqbal. 

Bilal Abdullah, a PSP candidate, told Asharq Al-Awsat that an agreement was already finalized between the PSP and Mustaqbal.

“We have failed to strike any deal with the Free Patriotic Movement. However, the doors are still open to a possible alliance with the LF,” he said.

Informed sources said the FPM was negotiating a possible alliance with either the Lebanese Democratic Party, headed by Minister for the Displaced Talal Arslan, or head of the Arab Tawhid Party Wiam Wahhab.  

There are 322,000 voters in the Shouf-Aley district, which is allotted 13 seats - 5 for Maronite MPs, one Chatholic, four Druze, two Sunnis and one Orthodox.



Israel Military Strikes Kill 32 Palestinians in Gaza, Medics Say

Palestinians inspect a destroyed vehicle on Salah al-Din Road following Israeli military strikes, east of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, 30 November 2024. (EPA)
Palestinians inspect a destroyed vehicle on Salah al-Din Road following Israeli military strikes, east of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, 30 November 2024. (EPA)
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Israel Military Strikes Kill 32 Palestinians in Gaza, Medics Say

Palestinians inspect a destroyed vehicle on Salah al-Din Road following Israeli military strikes, east of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, 30 November 2024. (EPA)
Palestinians inspect a destroyed vehicle on Salah al-Din Road following Israeli military strikes, east of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, 30 November 2024. (EPA)

The Israeli military said it killed a Palestinian it accused of involvement in Hamas' October 7 attack on Israel in a vehicle strike in Gaza, and is investigating claims that the individual was an employee of aid group World Central Kitchen.

At least 32 Palestinians were killed in Israeli military strikes across Gaza overnight and into Saturday, with most casualties reported in northern areas, medics told Reuters.

Later on Saturday medics said seven people were killed when an Israeli air strike targeted a vehicle near a gathering of Palestinians receiving aid in the southern area of Khan Younis south of the enclave.

According to residents and a Hamas source, the vehicle targeted near a crowd receiving flour belonged to security personnel responsible for overseeing the delivery of aid shipments into Gaza.

Among the 32 killed, at least seven died in an Israeli strike on a house in central Gaza City, according to a statement from the Gaza Civil Defense and the official Palestinian news agency WAFA early on Saturday.

The Gaza Civil Defense also reported that one of its officers was killed in attacks in northern Gaza's Jabalia, bringing the total number of civil defense workers killed since October 7, 2023, to 88.

Earlier on Saturday, WAFA reported that three employees of the World Central Kitchen, a US-based, non-governmental humanitarian agency, were killed when a civilian vehicle was targeted in Khan Younis, southern Gaza.

The World Central Kitchen has not yet commented on the incident.  

At least 44,382 Palestinians have been killed and 105,142 injured in Israel's military offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, Gaza's health ministry said on Saturday.