Gemayel Says Will Paralyze Presidential Election If Candidate Supports Hezbollah’s Weapons

Samy Gemayel (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Samy Gemayel (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Gemayel Says Will Paralyze Presidential Election If Candidate Supports Hezbollah’s Weapons

Samy Gemayel (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Samy Gemayel (Asharq Al-Awsat)

The leader of Lebanon’s Kataeb party, Samy Gemayel, on Friday threatened to “paralyze” the Lebanese presidential election if Hezbollah’s candidate plans to “protect the weapons” of the Shiite party.

Gemayel’s threat, which was made during an address to Kataeb's 32nd general congress, will hardly be effective if he does not coordinate with the rest of Lebanon’s opposition forces.

“Today’s battle isn’t against a certain group of Lebanese. It is against the existential threat which affects Lebanese Christians and Muslims alike,” said Gemayel, adding that the fight was against a group that is seeking to destroy the country by promoting sectarian strife.

“We are witnessing a blow to the judiciary, institutions, freedom of expression and free media, and we want to preserve the freedom of our country and its identity, but we will not succeed unless we are united,” added Gemayel.

Moreover, Gemayel launched veiled criticism of Hezbollah’s Christian ally, the Free Patriotic Movement.

He accused the Lebanese party of handing over the country to Hezbollah under the false pretext of protecting Christians.

“We were only able to achieve the withdrawal of the Syrian army when we united in Martyrs' Square, and we will not preserve Lebanon unless we all unite,” stressed Gemayel.

Gemayel also emphasized that there is a shadow state, controlled by Hezbollah, vying for control over Lebanon.

“It is no longer possible for us to submit to the will of (Hezbollah) in Lebanon, and we call on all Lebanese to shoulder their responsibilities,” said Gemayel.

Lebanon has been without a president since Oct. 31, when the mandate of Michel Aoun— an ally of Hezbollah — came to an end. The country has also been governed by a caretaker cabinet since May 2022, while 11 parliamentary sessions have failed to elect a president.



Israeli Forces Kill 14 People in Gaza, Force New Displacement in the North

 A Palestinian man inspects the site of an Israeli strike on a house in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip November 13, 2024. (Reuters)
A Palestinian man inspects the site of an Israeli strike on a house in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip November 13, 2024. (Reuters)
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Israeli Forces Kill 14 People in Gaza, Force New Displacement in the North

 A Palestinian man inspects the site of an Israeli strike on a house in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip November 13, 2024. (Reuters)
A Palestinian man inspects the site of an Israeli strike on a house in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip November 13, 2024. (Reuters)

Israeli military strikes killed at least 14 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, as Israeli forces deepened their incursion into Beit Hanoun town in the north, forcing most remaining residents to leave.

Residents said Israeli forces besieged shelters housing displaced families and the remaining population, which some estimated at a few thousand, ordering them to head south through a checkpoint separating two towns and a refugee camp in the north from Gaza City.

Men were held for questioning, while women and children were allowed to continue towards Gaza City, residents and Palestinian medics said.

Israel's campaign in the north of Gaza, and the evacuation of tens of thousands of Palestinians from the area, has fueled claims from Palestinians that it is clearing the area for use as a buffer zone and potentially for a return of Jewish settlers.

"The scenes of the 1948 catastrophe are being repeated. Israel is repeating its massacres, displacement and destruction," said Saed, 48, a resident of Beit Lahiya, who arrived in Gaza City on Wednesday.

"North Gaza is being turned into a large buffer zone, Israel is carrying out ethnic cleansing under the sight and hearing of the impotent world," he told Reuters via a chat app.

Saed was referring to the 1948 Middle East Arab-Israeli war which gave birth to the state of Israel and saw the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their hometowns and villages in what is now Israel.

NO PLANS FOR SETTLERS' RETURN

The Israeli military has denied any such intention, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he does not want to reverse the 2005 withdrawal of settlers from Gaza. Hardliners in his government have talked openly about going back.

It said forces have killed hundreds of Hamas fighters in Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun during its new military offensive, which began more than a month ago. Hamas and the Islamic Jihad armed wing claimed killing several Israeli soldiers during ambushes and anti-tank rocket fire.

On Tuesday, the United States stressed at the United Nations that "there must be no forcible displacement, nor policy of starvation in Gaza" by Israel, warning such policies would have grave implications under US and international law.

Medics said five people were killed in an Israeli strike that hit a group of people outside Kamal Adwan Hospital near Beit Lahiya, while five others were killed in two separate strikes in Nuseirat in central Gaza Strip where the army began a limited raid two days ago.

In Rafah, near the border with Egypt, one man was killed and several others were wounded in an Israeli airstrike, while three Palestinians were killed in two separate Israeli airstrikes in Shejaia suburb of Gaza City, medics added.

Hamas-led gunmen attacked Israel last October, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

More than 43,500 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza over the past year, Palestinian health officials say, and Gaza has been reduced to a wasteland of wrecked buildings and piles of rubble, where more than 2 million Gazans are seeking shelter in makeshift tents and facing shortages of food and medicines.