Rai Accuses Lebanese Leaders of ‘Starving the People’

Rai during Sunday mass. (NNA)
Rai during Sunday mass. (NNA)
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Rai Accuses Lebanese Leaders of ‘Starving the People’

Rai during Sunday mass. (NNA)
Rai during Sunday mass. (NNA)

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rai again lashed out at Lebanon’s political leaders for failing to form a new cabinet, accusing them of sharing a common interest in obstructing any political agreement to resolve the deepening crisis and of starving the Lebanese people.

He said the leaders have proven to everyone in Lebanon and the world that they do not want to form a new government.

“They have a common interest, which is obstruction and bringing the people to their knees for no reason, by starving, humiliating and impoverishing them and stripping hope from their hearts,” Rai said during a Mass service held at Bkirki on Sunday.

The patriarch stressed that the formation of a new government is a top priority.

“A fully empowered government is the key to resolving the rest of the basic issues, whether in terms of reforms or political, security or economic and social issues,” he explained.

Rai said the government is required to strengthen its capacity and move away from any tutelage that limits aid from donor countries, and to work on returning looted funds and expediting the implementation of the reform plan that would help the people.

“Without a government, divisions would deepen and state authority that safeguards Lebanon would be undermined,” he warned.

Addressing officials, he said: “Positive work demands the formation of a government for the sake of the people. You should be ashamed before the Arab and international communities and before Arab and foreign visitors.”

He also called for a “serious, not a selective, forensic audit, which cannot take place without the formation of a government.”

He made his remarks in reference to President Michel Aoun who last week criticized the central bank’s delay in launching the audit. His comments had sparked political debate with several officials echoing Rai’s remarks that a government needed to be formed first so that it can oversee the audit.

“Officials concerned with the government formation should cease their obstruction - through fabricating constitutional norms, fictitious privileges and pointless conditions for the sake of covering the main hurdle, which is that some sides have offered Lebanon as a hostage to the regional/international conflict,” Rai remarked.



Israeli Strikes Kill 35 in Gaza, Many Near an Aid Site, Medics Say 

A military vehicle maneuvers in Gaza, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, June 10, 2025. (Reuters)
A military vehicle maneuvers in Gaza, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, June 10, 2025. (Reuters)
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Israeli Strikes Kill 35 in Gaza, Many Near an Aid Site, Medics Say 

A military vehicle maneuvers in Gaza, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, June 10, 2025. (Reuters)
A military vehicle maneuvers in Gaza, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, June 10, 2025. (Reuters)

Israeli military strikes killed at least 35 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, most of them at an aid site operated by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in central Gaza, local health officials said.

Medical officials at Shifa and Al-Quds Hospitals said at least 25 people were killed as they approached the aid site near the former settlement of Netzarim, and dozens were wounded.

Ten other people were killed in other Israeli military strikes in Khan Younis in the south of the enclave, they added.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment.

On Tuesday, when Gaza health officials said 17 people were killed near another GHF aid site in Rafah in southern Gaza, the army said it fired warning shots to distance "suspects" who were approaching the troops and posed a threat.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday there had been "significant progress" in efforts to secure the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza, but that it was "too soon" to raise hopes that a deal would be reached.

Despite efforts by the United States, Egypt, and Qatar to restore a ceasefire in Gaza, neither Israel nor Hamas has shown willingness to back down on core demands, with each side blaming the other for the failure to reach a deal.

Two Hamas sources told Reuters they did not know about any new ceasefire offers.

The war erupted after Hamas-led fighters took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in an October 7, 2023, attack, Israel's single deadliest day.

Israel's military campaign has since killed nearly 55,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to health authorities in Gaza, and flattened much of the coastal enclave.