Family of Amer Fakhoury Who Was Held in Lebanon Builds Support for Hostages

In this Nov. 5, 2019, photo, from left, Guila, Macy and Zoya Fakhoury, three of Amer Fakhoury's four daughters, gather in US. (The Associated Press)
In this Nov. 5, 2019, photo, from left, Guila, Macy and Zoya Fakhoury, three of Amer Fakhoury's four daughters, gather in US. (The Associated Press)
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Family of Amer Fakhoury Who Was Held in Lebanon Builds Support for Hostages

In this Nov. 5, 2019, photo, from left, Guila, Macy and Zoya Fakhoury, three of Amer Fakhoury's four daughters, gather in US. (The Associated Press)
In this Nov. 5, 2019, photo, from left, Guila, Macy and Zoya Fakhoury, three of Amer Fakhoury's four daughters, gather in US. (The Associated Press)

Four sisters who started a foundation in the name of their father, an American who was jailed in his native Lebanon for months before he died, are reaching out to help the families of other hostages and were invited to share their story in Washington.

The goal of the Amer Fakhoury Foundation is to be a support network for people like their dad and their families, “just to amplify their voice, share their story with as many people as we can, and help them financially,” Zoya Fakhoury, one of his four daughters, told The Associated Press in an interview Saturday.

The daughters returned from a visit Thursday to Washington, where they met with State Department officials and US Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who had worked with New Hampshire Democrat Jeanne Shaheen on a bill to ban visas and freeze assets of Lebanese officials involved in Fakhoury’s detention.

“We saw our dad when he came back, how difficult it was for him to even function,” daughter Guila Fakhoury said. “He would wake up in the middle of the night screaming. So, the recovery is very important with hostages.”

Amer Fakhoury, a restaurant owner in Dover, New Hampshire, made his first trip to Lebanon in 2019 in nearly 20 years to see family. His passport was seized and he was accused of decades-old murder and torture charges that he and his family always denied. He was released in March 2020 and died of cancer in August at age 57.

The family is still running the restaurant, which has displays a photo of Fakhoury and a “Hostage Spotlight” on cases.

The foundation also is helping the family of Paul Whelan, a former corporate security executive from Novi, Michigan, who was arrested in Moscow in 2018. His lawyer said Whelan was handed a flash drive that had classified information on it that he didn’t know about. Whelan was convicted in June and sentenced to 16 years in prison.



Netanyahu Denounces Tactical Pauses in Gaza Fighting to Get in Aid

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) attends the Knesset plenum vote on the ultra-Orthodox conscription to military service law, in the Knesset, Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, 10 June 2024. (EPA)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) attends the Knesset plenum vote on the ultra-Orthodox conscription to military service law, in the Knesset, Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, 10 June 2024. (EPA)
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Netanyahu Denounces Tactical Pauses in Gaza Fighting to Get in Aid

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) attends the Knesset plenum vote on the ultra-Orthodox conscription to military service law, in the Knesset, Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, 10 June 2024. (EPA)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) attends the Knesset plenum vote on the ultra-Orthodox conscription to military service law, in the Knesset, Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, 10 June 2024. (EPA)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized plans announced by the military on Sunday to hold daily tactical pauses in fighting along one of the main roads into Gaza to facilitate aid delivery into the Palestinian enclave.

The military had announced the daily pauses from 0500 GMT until 1600 GMT in the area from the Kerem Shalom Crossing to the Salah al-Din Road and then northwards.

"When the prime minister heard the reports of an 11-hour humanitarian pause in the morning, he turned to his military secretary and made it clear that this was unacceptable to him," an Israeli official said.

The military clarified that normal operations would continue in Rafah, the main focus of its operation in southern Gaza, where eight soldiers were killed on Saturday.

The reaction from Netanyahu underlined political tensions over the issue of aid coming into Gaza, where international organizations have warned of a growing humanitarian crisis.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who leads one of the nationalist religious parties in Netanyahu's ruling coalition, denounced the idea of a tactical pause, saying whoever decided it was a "fool" who should lose their job.

DIVISIONS BETWEEN COALITION, ARMY

The spat was the latest in a series of clashes between members of the coalition and the military over the conduct of the war, now in its ninth month.

It came a week after centrist former general Benny Gantz quit the government, accusing Netanyahu of having no effective strategy in Gaza.

The divisions were laid bare last week in a parliamentary vote on a law on conscripting ultra-Orthodox Jews into the military, with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant voting against it in defiance of party orders, saying it was insufficient for the needs of the military.

Religious parties in the coalition have strongly opposed conscription for the ultra-Orthodox, drawing widespread anger from many Israelis, which has deepened as the war has gone on.

Lieutenant-General Herzi Halevi, the head of the military, said on Sunday there was a "definite need" to recruit more soldiers from the fast-growing ultra-Orthodox community.

RESERVISTS UNDER STRAIN

Despite growing international pressure for a ceasefire, an agreement to halt the fighting still appears distant, more than eight months since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas fighters on Israel triggered a ground assault on the enclave by Israeli forces.

Since the attack, which killed some 1,200 Israelis and foreigners in Israeli communities, Israel's military campaign has killed more than 37,000 Palestinians, according to Palestinian health ministry figures, and destroyed much of Gaza.

Although opinion polls suggest most Israelis support the government's aim of destroying Hamas, there have been widespread protests attacking the government for not doing more to bring home around 120 hostages who are still in Gaza after being taken hostage on Oct. 7.

Meanwhile, Palestinian health officials said seven Palestinians were killed in two air strikes on two houses in Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza Strip.

As fighting in Gaza has continued, a lower level conflict across the Israel-Lebanon border is now threatening to spiral into a wider war as near-daily exchanges of fire between Israeli forces and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia have escalated.

In a further sign that fighting in Gaza could drag on, Netanyahu's government said on Sunday it was extending until Aug. 15 the period it would fund hotels and guest houses for residents evacuated from southern Israeli border towns.