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Political Reactions After Haniyeh Threatened Israel From Lebanon

Hamas' political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh greets supporters during a visit to the Ein el-Hilweh camp, Lebanon's largest Palestinian refugee camp, near the southern coastal city of Sidon on September 6, 2020. (Mahmoud ZAYYAT / AFP)
Hamas' political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh greets supporters during a visit to the Ein el-Hilweh camp, Lebanon's largest Palestinian refugee camp, near the southern coastal city of Sidon on September 6, 2020. (Mahmoud ZAYYAT / AFP)
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Political Reactions After Haniyeh Threatened Israel From Lebanon

Hamas' political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh greets supporters during a visit to the Ein el-Hilweh camp, Lebanon's largest Palestinian refugee camp, near the southern coastal city of Sidon on September 6, 2020. (Mahmoud ZAYYAT / AFP)
Hamas' political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh greets supporters during a visit to the Ein el-Hilweh camp, Lebanon's largest Palestinian refugee camp, near the southern coastal city of Sidon on September 6, 2020. (Mahmoud ZAYYAT / AFP)

Several Lebanese officials criticized on Monday comments delivered by Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh during his visit to Lebanon last weekend when he announced that his organization has missiles capable of striking the city of Tel Aviv, Israel’s commercial and cultural center, and areas beyond it.

“Haniyeh’s visit comes as part of political propaganda planned by forces of the resistance axis to prove their presence in Lebanon,” Mustafa Alloush, former MP and leading official at the Mustaqbal Movement told Asharq Al-Awsat.

He said: “There are some parties that planned the visit to send a message to the inside and outside: If you tighten the noose on us, we will find a way out from somewhere else.”

Alloush said Haniyeh’s comments violated Lebanon’s sovereignty, adding that he was not surprised to see no official statements condemning the Hamas leader’s threats, “because the issue is related to Hezbollah.”

During a visit to Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian camp in the southern port city of Sidon, Haniyeh said, “Our missiles had a range of several kilometers (miles) from the border with Gaza.”

For his part, member of the Strong Republic (Lebanese Forces) parliamentary bloc, MP Wehbe Katisha also denounced the fact that Haniyeh threatened Israel from Lebanon.

“Did we go back to the year 1969 with plans to open a new road to Palestine passing through another Lebanon’s Jounieh (in reference to a popular PLO slogan that said "the road through Jerusalem leads through Jounieh,” a northern, coastal Lebanese city),” the MP wrote on his Twitter account.

Also, resigned MP Nadim Gemayel (Phalange Party) wrote Monday, “Lebanon is not a podium from which positions are announced, one day to express support for Syria, another day for Iran, and another for Palestine.”

Haniyeh had arrived in Beirut last Tuesday, in his first visit to Lebanon in 27 years. The Hamas leader met with Speaker Nabih Berri, caretaker PM Hassan Diab, director-general of the Security General, Major General Abbas Ibrahim, and the Grand Mufti of Lebanon, Sheikh Abdul Latif Derian.

He also met with Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah and head of the Progressive Socialist Party Walid Jumblatt.

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Anxiety Clouds Easter for West Bank Christians

Residents of the West Bank town of Zababdeh say its church bells are often drowned out by the roar of Israeli air force jets headed for action nearby. - AFP
Residents of the West Bank town of Zababdeh say its church bells are often drowned out by the roar of Israeli air force jets headed for action nearby. - AFP
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Anxiety Clouds Easter for West Bank Christians

Residents of the West Bank town of Zababdeh say its church bells are often drowned out by the roar of Israeli air force jets headed for action nearby. - AFP
Residents of the West Bank town of Zababdeh say its church bells are often drowned out by the roar of Israeli air force jets headed for action nearby. - AFP

In the mainly Christian Palestinian town of Zababdeh, the runup to Easter has been overshadowed by nearby Israeli military operations, which have proliferated in the occupied West Bank alongside the Gaza war.

This year unusually Easter falls on the same weekend for all of the town's main Christian communities -- Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican --- and residents have attempted to busy themselves with holiday traditions like making date cakes or getting ready for the scout parade.

But their minds have been elsewhere.

Dozens of families from nearby Jenin have found refuge in Zababdeh from the continual Israeli military operations that have devastated the city and its adjacent refugee camp this year.

"The other day, the (Israeli) army entered Jenin, people were panicking, families were running to pick up their children," said Zababdeh resident Janet Ghanam.

"There is a constant fear, you go to bed with it, you wake up with it," the 57-year-old Anglican added, before rushing off to one of the last Lenten prayers before Easter.

Ghanam said her son had told her he would not be able to visit her for Easter this year, for fear of being stuck at the Israeli military roadblocks that have mushroomed across the territory.

Zabadeh's Anglican church was busy in the runup to Easter but across the West Bank Christian communities have been in sharp decline as people emigrate in search of a better life abroad.

Zabadeh looks idyllic, nestled in the hills of the northern West Bank, but the roar of Israeli air force jets sometimes drowns out the sound of its church bells.

"It led to a lot of people to think: 'Okay, am I going to stay in my home for the next five years?'" said Saleem Kasabreh, an Anglican deacon in the town.

"Would my home be taken away? Would they bomb my home?"

- 'Existential threat' -

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967 and in recent months far-right ministers in its coalition government have called for the annexation of swathes of the territory.

Kasabreh said this "existential threat" was compounded by constant "depression" at the news from Gaza, where the death toll from the Israel's response to Hamas's October 2023 attack now tops 51,000, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.

Work has been hard to find for Zababdeh's mainly Christian residents since Israel rescinded Palestinian work permits following the October 2023 attack by Hamas that sparked the Gaza war.

Zababdeh has been spared the devastation wreaked on Gaza, but the mayor's office says nearly 450 townspeople lost their jobs in Israel when Palestinian work permits were rescinded after the Hamas attack.

"Israel had never completely closed us in the West Bank before this war," said 73-year-old farmer Ibrahim Daoud. "Nobody knows what will happen".

Many say they are stalked by the spectre of exile, with departures abroad fuelling fears that Christians may disappear from the Holy Land.

"People can't stay without work and life isn't easy," said 60-year-old maths teacher Tareq Ibrahim.

Mayor Ghassan Daibes echoed his point.

"For a Christian community to survive, there must be stability, security and decent living conditions. It's a reality, not a call for emigration," he said.

"But I´m speaking from lived experience: Christians used to make up 30 percent of the population in Palestine; today, they are less than one percent.

"And this number keeps decreasing. In my own family, I have three brothers abroad -- one in Germany, the other two in the United States."

Catholic priest Father Elias Tabban insists the hard times his congregation has been going though have deepened their faith.

Catholic priest Elias Tabban adopted a more stoical attitude, insisting his congregation's spirituality had never been so vibrant.

"Whenever the Church is in hard times... (that's when) you see the faith is growing," Tabban said.