Lebanon Ends 'Rupture' with Syria to Get Access to Egyptian Gas

Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Miqdad and Lebanese Deputy Prime Minister Zeina Akar in Damascus on Saturday (AFP).
Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Miqdad and Lebanese Deputy Prime Minister Zeina Akar in Damascus on Saturday (AFP).
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Lebanon Ends 'Rupture' with Syria to Get Access to Egyptian Gas

Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Miqdad and Lebanese Deputy Prime Minister Zeina Akar in Damascus on Saturday (AFP).
Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Miqdad and Lebanese Deputy Prime Minister Zeina Akar in Damascus on Saturday (AFP).

The Lebanese government ended on Saturday a rupture in official relations with Syria, with a high-ranking ministerial delegation visiting Damascus and holding talks to obtain its approval to allow the entry of gas and electric energy from Egypt and Jordan through Syrian territories.

Lebanon’s deputy Prime Minister, Zeina Akar, led the first official government visit to Syria since the outbreak of the conflict there, as Lebanon had officially followed the principle of “disassociation,” amid major divisions between the political forces over the relationship with Damascus and Hezbollah’s participation in the fighting alongside the Syrian regime forces.

Two weeks after the announcement of the Lebanese presidency of Washington’s approval to help Lebanon import electric energy and gas from Egypt and Jordan, through Syria, the Lebanese delegation headed to Damascus to meet with Foreign Minister Faisal Miqdad and Minister of Oil Bassam Tohme.

In a press conference following the meeting, the Secretary-General of the Lebanese-Syrian Higher Council, Nasri Khoury, said: “The Lebanese side demanded Syria’s assistance to Lebanon in obtaining Egyptian gas and Jordanian electricity through Syrian territory. The Syrian side affirmed Syria’s readiness to meet that request.”

The two sides agreed to follow up on technical matters through a joint technical team.

Tohme told reporters that the goal of the joint team was to determine the “readiness and safety of the infrastructure,” which suffered “significant damage” during the conflict.

Following the acute fuel crisis in Lebanon, the US effort led to an initiative to draw electrical energy from Jordan through Syria, by providing quantities of Egyptian gas to Jordan, enabling it to produce additional quantities of electricity to be placed on the grid linking Jordan with Lebanon via Syria.

The initiative also provides for facilitating the transport of Egyptian gas through Jordan and Syria, to reach northern Lebanon.

A similar agreement allows Egyptian gas to reach Lebanon to operate gas-fired power stations, which have been out of service for 11 years.

The Arab Gas Pipeline extends by land from Egypt to Syria and Lebanon via Jordan, and crosses from the Homs region in central Syria, all the way to Deir Ammar in northern Lebanon.



Israeli Army Orders Gaza City Suburb Evacuated, Spurring New Displacement Wave

A Palestinian man points at a damaged building in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on November 20, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
A Palestinian man points at a damaged building in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on November 20, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
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Israeli Army Orders Gaza City Suburb Evacuated, Spurring New Displacement Wave

A Palestinian man points at a damaged building in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on November 20, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
A Palestinian man points at a damaged building in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on November 20, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)

The Israeli military issued new evacuation orders to residents in areas of an eastern Gaza City suburb, setting off a new wave of displacement on Sunday, and a Gaza hospital director was injured in an Israeli drone attack, Palestinian medics said.
The new orders for the Shejaia suburb posted by the Israeli army spokesperson on X on Saturday night were blamed on Palestinian militants firing rockets from that heavily built-up district in the north of the Gaza Strip.
"For your safety, you must evacuate immediately to the south," the military's post said. The rocket volley on Saturday was claimed by Hamas' armed wing, which said it had targeted an Israeli army base over the border.
Footage circulated on social and Palestinian media, which Reuters could not immediately verify, showed residents leaving Shejaia on donkey carts and rickshaws, with others, including children carrying backpacks, walking.
Families living in the targeted areas began fleeing their homes after nightfall on Saturday and into Sunday's early hours, residents and Palestinian media said - the latest in multiple waves of displacement since the war began 13 months ago.
In central Gaza, health officials said at least 10 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes on the urban camps of Al-Maghazi and Al-Bureij since Saturday night.
HOSPITAL DIRECTOR WOUNDED BY GUNFIRE
In north Gaza, where Israeli forces have been operating against regrouping Hamas militants since early last month, health officials said an Israeli drone dropped bombs on Kamal Adwan Hospital, injuring its director Hussam Abu Safiya.
"This will not stop us from completing our humanitarian mission and we will continue to do this job at any cost," Abu Safiya said in a video statement circulated by the health ministry on Sunday.
"We are being targeted daily. They targeted me a while ago but this will not deter us...," he said from his hospital bed.
Israeli forces say armed militants use civilian buildings including housing blocks, hospitals and schools for operational cover. Hamas denies this, accusing Israeli forces of indiscriminately targeting populated areas.
Kamal Adwan is one of three hospitals in north Gaza that are barely operational as the health ministry said the Israeli forces have detained and expelled medical staff and prevented emergency medical, food and fuel supplies from reaching them.
In the past few weeks, Israel said it had facilitated the delivery of medical and fuel supplies and the transfer of patients from north Gaza hospitals in collaboration with international agencies such as the World Health Organization.
Residents in three embattled north Gaza towns - Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun - said Israeli forces had blown up hundreds of houses since renewing operations in an area that Israel said months ago had been cleared of militants.
Palestinians say Israel appears determined to depopulate the area permanently to create a buffer zone along the northern edge of Gaza, an accusation Israel denies.
Israel's campaign in Gaza has killed more than 44,000 people, uprooted nearly all the enclave's 2.3 million population at least once, according to Gaza officials, while reducing wide swathes of the narrow coastal territory to rubble.
The war erupted in response to a cross-border attack by Hamas-led militants on Oct. 7, 2023 in which gunmen killed around 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.