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MPs Stall Lifting Immunity in Beirut Port Blast Probe

A man who lost his son during last year's massive blast at Beirut's seaport, shouts slogans as he is pushed back by a Lebanese army soldier after he tries with others to reach the tightly-secured residence of parliament speaker Nabih Berri, in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, July 9, 2021. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
A man who lost his son during last year's massive blast at Beirut's seaport, shouts slogans as he is pushed back by a Lebanese army soldier after he tries with others to reach the tightly-secured residence of parliament speaker Nabih Berri, in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, July 9, 2021. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
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MPs Stall Lifting Immunity in Beirut Port Blast Probe

A man who lost his son during last year's massive blast at Beirut's seaport, shouts slogans as he is pushed back by a Lebanese army soldier after he tries with others to reach the tightly-secured residence of parliament speaker Nabih Berri, in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, July 9, 2021. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
A man who lost his son during last year's massive blast at Beirut's seaport, shouts slogans as he is pushed back by a Lebanese army soldier after he tries with others to reach the tightly-secured residence of parliament speaker Nabih Berri, in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, July 9, 2021. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Lebanon’s parliament on Friday held up an investigation into last year’s Beirut port blast, demanding more proof before lifting the immunity of ex-ministers wanted for questioning.

Earlier this month, the lead judge in the case, Tareq Bitar, said he had demanded that parliament lift the immunity of ex-finance minister Ali Hassan Khalil, former public works minister Ghazi Zoaiter and ex-interior minister Nohad al-Mashnouq.

Bitar said he was looking at possible charges of "probable intent to murder" and "negligence".

Hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate exploded on the dockside at Beirut port on Aug. 4, killing more than 200 people, injuring thousands and ravaging swathes of the capital.

Afterwards, it emerged that officials had known about the explosive substance being stored unsafely at the port for years.

Deputy speaker Elie Ferzli said Friday parliament's administration and justice committee met on Friday and decided to "request all evidence available in the investigation, as well as all documents that prove suspicions".

He said the committee would reconvene once it had received a reply, to decide whether or not to waive immunity.

Lawyer and activist Nizar Saghieh said the committee's request went against the separation of powers between the judiciary and the legislature, and "violated the confidentiality of the investigation".

"They're just trying to buy time," he charged.

The hashtag #lift_immunity_now began trending in Lebanon as protesters gathered outside the residence of Speaker Nabih Berri where the committee meeting took place.

"Immunity has to be lifted immediately," said Ibrahim Hoteit, a representative of families of those killed in the explosion.

The activist, who lost his brother in the disaster, said stalling the decision was "shameful, in view of the size of the crime".

“Shame on them. They are bringing riot police to face the families of martyrs,” he shouted.

Lebanese troops pushed the protesters back from the tightly secured building.

Many Lebanese blame the country's ruling elites for negligence that led to the port explosion.

“You blew up Beirut and put people in coffins,” read a banner carried by one of the protesters.

Protesters then headed to the interior ministry following media reports that the caretaker minister had not allowed Bitar to question General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim over the blast.

Ibrahim said he abides by the law but urged against any "political calculations".

He said someone is trying to tarnish his image.

The outgoing premier, Hassan Diab, has been charged in the probe and Bitar has called him in for questioning.

The judge has also said he is looking at interrogating former public works minister Yusef Fenianos.

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Arab World

Egyptian Gaza Relief Group Says Israeli Strike on Photographers Was Deliberate

An aid distribution point in northern Gaza operated by the Egyptian Relief Committee (Egyptian Relief Committee)
An aid distribution point in northern Gaza operated by the Egyptian Relief Committee (Egyptian Relief Committee)
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Egyptian Gaza Relief Group Says Israeli Strike on Photographers Was Deliberate

An aid distribution point in northern Gaza operated by the Egyptian Relief Committee (Egyptian Relief Committee)
An aid distribution point in northern Gaza operated by the Egyptian Relief Committee (Egyptian Relief Committee)

The spokesperson for the Egyptian Relief Committee in Gaza, Mohamed Mansour, said Israel deliberately targeted three photojournalists while they were carrying out a humanitarian mission inside the Netzarim camp, an area located about six kilometers away from Israeli army forces.

Mansour told Asharq Al-Awsat that the attack was “a continuation of Israeli pressure on the committee’s work since it began operating, as part of the occupation’s efforts to tighten restrictions on anyone attempting to provide relief work and humanitarian services to the people of Gaza.”

The Israeli army killed three photojournalists on Wednesday who were working as a media team for the Egyptian Relief Committee for Gaza.

Field sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the victims were Mohammed Salah Qashta, Abdul Raouf Shaat, and Anas Ghneim.

They were carrying out a filming mission using a small drone and cameras to document stages of work at camps that the Egyptian committee is helping to establish.

Mansour stressed that “the targeting of the photographers will only increase the committee’s determination to provide relief services and shelter to the Palestinian people.”

He said the committee would continue its work as usual to be “a genuine support for the people of the Strip, amid extremely complex security conditions.”

Israeli Army Radio reported, citing sources, that Egypt sent an angry message to Israel following the attack in Gaza in which Palestinians working for the Egyptian committee for the reconstruction were killed.

According to the radio report, Egypt expressed its protest that the attack took place outside the boundaries of the so-called yellow line, in an area that does not pose a threat to Israeli forces.

For its part, the Israeli army claimed it had targeted suspects operating a “Hamas-affiliated drone” in central Gaza.

In a statement on Wednesday, the army said: “Following the identification of the drone and due to the threat it posed to the forces, the Israeli army precisely struck the suspects who were operating the drone.”

The army said the details were under review.

Arab World

Israel Launches Wave of Fresh Strikes on Lebanon

Smoke and sparks ascend from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted a building in the southern Lebanese village of Kfour on January 21, 2026. (AFP)
Smoke and sparks ascend from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted a building in the southern Lebanese village of Kfour on January 21, 2026. (AFP)
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Israel Launches Wave of Fresh Strikes on Lebanon

Smoke and sparks ascend from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted a building in the southern Lebanese village of Kfour on January 21, 2026. (AFP)
Smoke and sparks ascend from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted a building in the southern Lebanese village of Kfour on January 21, 2026. (AFP)

Israel launched fresh strikes on what it said were Hezbollah targets in south Lebanon after raids earlier Wednesday killed two people, the latest violence despite a year-old ceasefire with the group.

The state-run National News Agency said Israeli warplanes launched raids on buildings in several south Lebanon towns including Qanarit and Kfour, after the Israeli army issued evacuation warnings to residents identifying sites it intended to strike there.

An AFP photographer was slightly wounded along with two other journalists who were working near the site of a heavy strike in Qanarit.

The Israeli army said it was striking Hezbollah targets in response to the group's "repeated violations of the ceasefire understandings".

Under heavy US pressure and fears of expanded Israeli strikes, Lebanon has committed to disarming Hezbollah.

But Israel has criticized the Lebanese army's progress as insufficient and has kept up regular strikes, usually saying it is targeting members of the Iran-backed group or its infrastructure.

Earlier Wednesday, the health ministry said an Israeli strike on a vehicle in the town of Zahrani, in the Sidon district, killed one person.

An AFP correspondent saw a charred car on a main road with debris strewn across the area and emergency workers in attendance.

Later, the ministry said another strike targeting a vehicle in the town of Bazuriyeh in the Tyre district killed one person.

Israel said it struck Hezbollah operatives in both areas.

A Lebanese army statement decried the Israeli targeting of "civilian buildings and homes" in a "blatant violation of Lebanon's sovereignty" and the ceasefire deal.

It also said such attacks "hinder the army's efforts" to complete the disarmament plan.

This month, the army said it had completed the first phase of its plan to disarm Hezbollah, covering the area south of the Litani river, around 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the Israeli border.

Most of Wednesday's strikes were north of the river.

More than 350 people have been killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon since the ceasefire, according to an AFP tally of health ministry reports.

The November 2024 truce sought to end more than a year of hostilities, but Israel accuses Hezbollah of rearming, while the group has rejected calls to surrender its weapons.

Arab World

Syria’s Rifaat Al-Assad, ‘Butcher of Hama’, Dies Aged 88, Say Sources

Rifaat al-Assad, uncle of deposed Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad. (AP file)
Rifaat al-Assad, uncle of deposed Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad. (AP file)
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Syria’s Rifaat Al-Assad, ‘Butcher of Hama’, Dies Aged 88, Say Sources

Rifaat al-Assad, uncle of deposed Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad. (AP file)
Rifaat al-Assad, uncle of deposed Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad. (AP file)

Rifaat al-Assad, uncle of deposed Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad and dubbed the "Butcher of Hama" for suppressing an uprising in the 1980s, has died aged 88, two sources close to the family said Wednesday.

Once a pillar of the Assad family's dynastic rule, Rifaat "died after suffering from influenza for around a week", one source who worked in Syria's presidential palace for over three decades told AFP.

A second source, an ex-officer of Syria's army in the Assad era, confirmed the death, saying Rifaat had moved to the United Arab Emirates after his nephew's government was toppled by opposition factions in December 2024, without specifying if he died there.

Rifaat's role in a February 1982 massacre as part of a crackdown on an armed revolt by the Muslim Brotherhood earned him the nickname "the Butcher of Hama", referring to the central Syrian city.

His brother Hafez al-Assad, who ruled Syria at the time, launched the campaign, which government forces carried out under the command of Rifaat, who was the head of the elite "Defense Brigades".

The death toll from 27 days of violence, which took place under a media blackout, has never been formally established, though estimates range from 10,000 to 40,000.

Swiss prosecutors had accused Rifaat of a long list of crimes, including ordering "murders, acts of torture, inhumane treatment and illegal detentions" while an officer in the Syrian army.

He also served as vice president under his brother Hafez but went into exile in 1984 after a failed attempt to overthrow him, moving to Switzerland then France.

He later presented himself as an opponent of his nephew Bashar, who succeeded Hafez in 2000.

In 2021, he returned to Syria from France to escape a four-year prison sentence for money laundering and misappropriation of Syrian public funds.

Two years later, he appeared in a family photo alongside Bashar, the ruler's wife Asma and other relatives.

Shortly after Bashar's ouster, Rifaat crossed into Lebanon and then flew out of Beirut airport, a Lebanese security source said at the time, without specifying his final destination.