Hankash: Various Risks Threaten Lebanon if Neutrality is Not Adopted

Kataeb MP Elias Hankash. (NNA)
Kataeb MP Elias Hankash. (NNA)
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Hankash: Various Risks Threaten Lebanon if Neutrality is Not Adopted

Kataeb MP Elias Hankash. (NNA)
Kataeb MP Elias Hankash. (NNA)

Born in 1977, around two years after the eruption of Lebanon’s civil war, Kataeb MP Elias Hankash says it is difficult for him to forget the sound of explosions and shells and the scenes of people running towards shelters.

“If there is anything that we must have learned from this war is not to repeat it, because no one is prepared for their children to live what we went through,” he told Asharq Al-Awsat as Lebanon marks on Tuesday the anniversary of the eruption of the conflict.

According to Hankash, the Kataeb party “played a fundamental role in defending Lebanon and its land, and in confronting the plots targeting the Lebanese.”

“I have the honor of belonging to a party that did not raise its weapon in the war against any Lebanese, because we fought our main battles against the Palestinians and the Syrians who were undermining this country’s dignity and sovereignty,” he emphasized.

Asked about the main reason for the outbreak of the war, Hankash said: “It was the lack of awareness at the time by the Lebanese, who sympathized and expressed solidarity with strangers against their fellow countrymen.”

He stressed that the failure to adopt neutrality and some parties’ commitment to foreign agendas will keep the country open to various security risks.

“What reassures us that this war will not be repeated, is the awareness of the Lebanese people not to fall into this trap again. This was manifested in its most beautiful form during the uprising of October 17, 2019,” he underlined.

On whether he believed that there were parties inside Lebanon pushing towards war again, Hankash said: “I don’t know whether some sides have an interest in pushing for a war. What we hope for is that those who are affiliated with foreign powers would not implement agendas that seek sedition in Lebanon.”

He continued: “A war needs two parties. In Lebanon, only one side is armed and capable of waging a war, without neglecting the Palestinians’ weapons that need to be controlled exactly as Hezbollah’s.”

“Nevertheless, I think that everyone believes that war is a loss for all parties, and I do not see the factors that would ignite it,” the MP told Asharq Al-Awsat.



UN Agency Says Israel Shuts 4 Schools in East Jerusalem

A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
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UN Agency Says Israel Shuts 4 Schools in East Jerusalem

A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees says Israeli forces raided four of its schools in east Jerusalem, ordering their closure.

Israel has severed all ties with the agency, known as UNRWA, and bars it from operating in its territory. It says the agency allowed itself to be infiltrated by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, allegations denied by UN officials.

UNRWA said police entered a training center by force on Tuesday, firing tear gas and sound grenades and ordering its evacuation. It said 350 students and 30 staff were present during the raid on the Qalandiya Training Center.

It said police and city officials ordered the closure of three other schools in east Jerusalem, two of which proceeded with the school day.

Israeli police spokesman Dean Elsdunne said police did not enter the UN buildings and that Jerusalem municipal authorities carried out the closures. He said police were deployed to protect the city workers, using “riot dispersal” means in one case where a crowd threw stones at them outside a UN facility.

Roland Friedrich, UNRWA director for the occupied West Bank, including east Jerusalem, said the raids were an “unacceptable violation of United Nations privileges and immunities,” and a “denial of the right to education for children and trainees.”