Lebanon: Geagea Against Hariri’s Designation

Samir Geagea, leader of the Christian Lebanese Forces, listens during an interview with Reuters, October 31, 2014. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir/File Photo
Samir Geagea, leader of the Christian Lebanese Forces, listens during an interview with Reuters, October 31, 2014. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir/File Photo
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Lebanon: Geagea Against Hariri’s Designation

Samir Geagea, leader of the Christian Lebanese Forces, listens during an interview with Reuters, October 31, 2014. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir/File Photo
Samir Geagea, leader of the Christian Lebanese Forces, listens during an interview with Reuters, October 31, 2014. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir/File Photo

The leader of the Lebanese Forces party, Samir Geagea, said his parliamentary bloc would not designate former Prime Minister Saad Hariri to head the new government, asserting his unwillingness to cooperate with whom he described as the “ruling trio”, represented by Hezbollah, Amal Movement, and the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM).

The binding parliamentary consultations to nominate a new prime minister are scheduled to be held on Thursday at the Baabda Palace.

The Future Movement, the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), and the Amal party are pushing for the designation of Hariri, along with other parliamentary blocs such as the Marada, the Independent Center, and other independent Christian representatives.

This is enough to give Hariri the required number of votes that would secure his assumption to the premiership for the fourth time since the assassination of his father, late former Premier Rafik Hariri, in February 2005.

Geagea said his bloc’s decision was based on “our decision not to enter into any joint initiative with the ruling trio.”

“Any government that will be established today must focus on reforms, reforms, and nothing but reforms; thus, which reforms will be carried out in the presence of those we named above in the government?” He asked.

President Michel Aoun had postponed the consultations, which were supposed to be held last week, citing requests raised by Christian parties.

In addition to the LF, the Free Patriotic Movement, led by former Minister Gebran Bassil, expressed its rejection to Hariri’s designation.

Geagea said that the postponement of the consultations came as the Lebanese president wanted “Saad Hariri to negotiate with Bassil” before the designation, in order to meet the latter’s requests in the government lineup.

He continued: “When the Shiite duo [Hezbollah and Amal] declare publicly that their condition for joining the government is to obtain the Ministry of Finance and then name Shiite ministers and review the ministerial statement, what is left of the government in this case?”

The LF leader reiterated his insistence on forming a government of specialists, who do not belong to any political party.

“If there is a possibility of a truly independent government, its effectiveness will be much higher than a government of politicians,” he remarked.

He renewed the call for “holding early parliamentary elections because they will enable us to remove the ruling group and bring a new generation of politicians to power.”



Israeli Airstrikes Kill 10 in School Housing Displaced Families, Hit Children's Hospital in Gaza

23 April 2025, Palestinian Territories, Gaza: Palestinian children inspect the damage after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Gaza City. Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
23 April 2025, Palestinian Territories, Gaza: Palestinian children inspect the damage after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Gaza City. Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
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Israeli Airstrikes Kill 10 in School Housing Displaced Families, Hit Children's Hospital in Gaza

23 April 2025, Palestinian Territories, Gaza: Palestinian children inspect the damage after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Gaza City. Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
23 April 2025, Palestinian Territories, Gaza: Palestinian children inspect the damage after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Gaza City. Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa

An Israeli airstrike on a school sheltering displaced families in northern Gaza killed at least 10 people, while another hit a children's hospital, local health authorities said, taking Wednesday's death toll to 20.
Medics said the airstrike on the Yaffa School in the Tuffah area of Gaza City set fire to tents and classrooms. There has been no Israeli comment on the school attack.
Some furniture was still in flames several hours after the strike as people sifted through blackened classrooms and the schoolyard in search of their belongings, Reuters reported.
“We were sleeping and suddenly something exploded, we started looking and found the whole school on fire, the tents here and there were on fire, everything was on fire," said eyewitness, Um Mohammed Al-Hwaiti.
"People were shouting and men were carrying people, charred (people), charred children, and were walking and saying: ‘Dear God, dear God, we have no one but you.’ What can we say? Dear God, only,” she told Reuters.
Medics said at least 10 other people were killed in separate Israeli strikes across the enclave. Since a January ceasefire collapsed on March 18, Israeli attacks have killed more than 1,600 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health authorities, and hundreds of thousands have been forced from their homes as Israel seized what it calls a buffer zone of Gaza's land.
On Wednesday, the Gaza Health Ministry said an Israeli missile also hit the upper building of the Durra Children's Hospital in Gaza City, damaging the intensive care unit and destroying the solar panel system that feeds the facility with power. No one was killed in the hospital strike.
Gaza's healthcare system is close to collapse due to an Israeli blockade on all supplies to Gaza, including fuel and electricity, since the beginning of March, when it relaunched military operations.
It says the blockade is aimed at pressuring the Hamas militants who run Gaza to release 59 remaining Israeli hostages captured in the October 2023 attacks that precipitated the war. Hamas says it is prepared to free them but only as part of a deal that ends the war.
The health ministry said many Palestinian victims of Israeli military strikes remained trapped under rubble and on the roads, as rescue teams are unable to reach them because of ongoing bombardments. The attacks have also hit dozens of bulldozers and machinery used to clear roads, remove debris and to carry out rescue operations.
The Israeli military said on Tuesday it had hit 40 "engineering vehicles" that were used for "terrorist actions", including Hamas' October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
Some of those heavy vehicles were parked on the road and others inside the garages of municipalities.
“The machinery, because they open the streets and retrieve martyrs from under the houses. For a year now, some people have still not been retrieved from under the rubble," said Gaza man Nasser Mohammed Nasser, standing close to the mangled skeletons of destroyed bulldozers and trucks in Jabalia, in the north of the enclave.
Even before Tuesday's Israeli attack, Palestinians had complained they were short of heavy machinery, accusing Israel of refusing to allow the equipment into Gaza in violation of the January ceasefire deal.