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.



Gaza Civil Defense Says Israeli Strikes Kill at Least 29

A Palestinian girl, wounded in an Israeli strike that killed people, who gathered to collect water from a distribution point, according to medics, receives treatment at Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip July 13, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer
A Palestinian girl, wounded in an Israeli strike that killed people, who gathered to collect water from a distribution point, according to medics, receives treatment at Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip July 13, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer
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Gaza Civil Defense Says Israeli Strikes Kill at Least 29

A Palestinian girl, wounded in an Israeli strike that killed people, who gathered to collect water from a distribution point, according to medics, receives treatment at Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip July 13, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer
A Palestinian girl, wounded in an Israeli strike that killed people, who gathered to collect water from a distribution point, according to medics, receives treatment at Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip July 13, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer

Gaza's civil defense agency said Israeli airstrikes on Sunday killed at least 29 Palestinians, including six children near a water distribution point.

The attacks came with apparent deadlock in a week of indirect talks in Qatar between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas for a ceasefire in the territory.

Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that Gaza City was hit by several strikes overnight and in the early morning, killing eight, "including women and children" and wounding others.

An Israeli airstrike hit a family home near the Nuseirat refugee camp, south of Gaza City, resulting in "10 martyrs and several injured", Bassal said.

In central Gaza, six children were among eight people killed when a drone "hit a potable water distribution point in an area for displaced people" in the Nuseirat camp, he added.

Several other people were wounded, he said.

In the territory's south, three people were killed when Israeli jets hit a tent sheltering displaced Palestinians in the coastal Al-Mawasi area, according to the civil defense spokesman.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which has recently intensified its operations across Gaza, more than 21 months into the war triggered by Hamas's October 2023 attack.

On Saturday, the military said fighter jets had hit more than 35 "Hamas terror targets" around Beit Hanun in northern Gaza.

The vast majority of Gaza's population of more than two million people have been displaced at least once during the war, which has created dire humanitarian conditions in the territory.

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify tolls and details provided by the civil defense agency and other parties.