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Arab World

Lebanon Suffers its Share of Devastating Earthquake

Lebanese soldiers leave for Türkiye to help in rescue missions(AP)
Lebanese soldiers leave for Türkiye to help in rescue missions(AP)
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Lebanon Suffers its Share of Devastating Earthquake

Lebanese soldiers leave for Türkiye to help in rescue missions(AP)
Lebanese soldiers leave for Türkiye to help in rescue missions(AP)

Lebanon has had its share of fear and terror of the massive earthquake that struck southern Türkiye and northern Syria on Monday. At around 3 a.m. local time in Lebanon, residents were startled awake due to a 5.0-magnitude tremor that lasted for around 40 seconds.

The earthquake, however, gave Lebanon only material damage.

While the death toll from the overnight earthquake is so far in the thousands in both Türkiye and Syria, no injuries or fatalities have been reported in Lebanon, according to caretaker Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi and Secretary General of Lebanese Red Cross Georges Kettaneh.

Mawlawi, however, declared a state of municipal emergency and mobilized cadres, unions, and district governors to conduct a survey of the damage resulting from the earthquake.

The minister also ordered providing necessary assistance to prevent any damage that might threaten the lives and safety of citizens.

“Lebanon has a national plan for natural disasters that was completed four years ago,” Secretary-General of Lebanon’s High Relief Committee, Maj. Gen. Mohammed Kheir, revealed to Asharq Al-Awsat.

According to Kheir, the plan calls for immediate action by relevant ministries and their affiliated administrations across the country.

Nevertheless, Kheir pointed to the plan being “primitive” as it solely offers instructions and guidelines for dealing with natural disasters.

“This is because earthquakes and tremors cannot be predicted,” said Kheir.

Kheir pointed out that “coordination is underway with all municipalities.”

Beirut Governor Marwan Abboud, in coordination with the Municipal Council of the City of Beirut, had asked technical departments in the municipality to be on standby to intervene in the event of any emergency that might occur due to natural factors or others.

Abboud also asked the citizens and residents of the capital to contact the municipality upon spotting any visible cracks or fissures in buildings or homes because of the earthquake. This is so that engineers and technicians can be sent for immediate inspection.

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Arab World

Arab Parliament Speaker Condemns Knesset Approval of Bill on Palestinian Tax Revenues

One of the meetings in the Israeli Knesset (Parliament) (Knesset website)
One of the meetings in the Israeli Knesset (Parliament) (Knesset website)
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Arab Parliament Speaker Condemns Knesset Approval of Bill on Palestinian Tax Revenues

One of the meetings in the Israeli Knesset (Parliament) (Knesset website)
One of the meetings in the Israeli Knesset (Parliament) (Knesset website)

Arab Parliament Speaker Mohamed Al-Yamahi condemned the Israeli Knesset's approval of a bill allowing broader seizure of Palestinian tax revenues, saying the move violates international law and signed agreements and reflects Israel's continued use of collective punishment against the Palestinian people, the Saudi Press Agency said on Wednesday.

In a statement, Al-Yamahi said the continued withholding of Palestinian tax revenues constitutes a direct violation of the economic rights of the Palestinian people and a deliberate attempt to weaken the Palestinian National Authority and undermine its ability to fulfill its basic obligations.

He called on the international community, the United Nations Security Council, and regional and international parliaments to take urgent action to pressure Israeli authorities to immediately and unconditionally release Palestinian tax funds.

He also urged efforts to hold them accountable for repeated violations of international law and international legitimacy resolutions and to suspend the Knesset's participation in international parliamentary forums.

Arab World

Israeli Settlers Impeded Firefighting Near West Bank Village, Palestinians Say

Smoke rises after Israeli settlers reportedly set fire to agricultural fields surrounding the village of Taybeh, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on June 10, 2026. (AFP)
Smoke rises after Israeli settlers reportedly set fire to agricultural fields surrounding the village of Taybeh, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on June 10, 2026. (AFP)
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Israeli Settlers Impeded Firefighting Near West Bank Village, Palestinians Say

Smoke rises after Israeli settlers reportedly set fire to agricultural fields surrounding the village of Taybeh, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on June 10, 2026. (AFP)
Smoke rises after Israeli settlers reportedly set fire to agricultural fields surrounding the village of Taybeh, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on June 10, 2026. (AFP)

Israeli settlers obstructed Palestinians putting out a large blaze near a Christian village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank late on Tuesday, a local priest and Palestinian civil defense firefighters said.

The incident comes amid rising strife in the West Bank, where some Western countries announced sanctions on settler groups this week over violent Israeli attacks on Palestinians.

Father Bashar Fawadleh, parish priest of Taybeh, said settlers had shot firearms and surrounded people trying to take a water tanker to the site to fight the fire.

The Israeli military also temporarily stopped firefighters reaching the blaze while they arranged security coordination, Palestinian Authority Civil Defense spokesperson Nael ‌al-Azza said.

The firefighters were ‌eventually able to reach the fire and put it out, ‌though ⁠settlers continued trying ⁠to obstruct them, Fawadleh and Azza said.

Israel's military did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the incident.

'ONGOING PATTERN OF INTIMIDATION'

Reuters visited the village on Wednesday and smoke was still rising from a large area of burned hillside.

Fawadleh said he believed the fire was a result of arson, but he did not say who he thought was responsible.

"What we are experiencing is not a series of isolated incidents, but an ⁠ongoing pattern of intimidation and unjustified violence that undermines our ‌fundamental right to safety, security, and dignity," he said ‌in a statement.

The West Bank and Jerusalem are home to around 50,000 Palestinian Christians, members ‌of a religious community there stretching back to antiquity in a region that is ‌home to many of the faith's most important holy sites.

Taybeh is one of the only Christian villages remaining in the West Bank and was visited last year by the Greek Orthodox patriarch and the Roman Catholic cardinal of Jerusalem.

Around 700,000 Israeli settlers live among 3.4 million Palestinians ‌in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, territories Israel captured from Jordan in the 1967 war, which Palestinians see as part ⁠of a future ⁠state.

A UN inquiry released on Tuesday found that Israeli authorities were directly involved in settler attacks that have killed, injured and displaced Palestinians in the West Bank.

Israel's mission in Geneva rejected that report's findings. Israel says its military and police maintain security in the West Bank and condemn any forms of violence.

Governance in the West Bank has been split since the 1993 Oslo Accords into different zones delineating Israeli military and Palestinian Authority control.

Parts of Taybeh are located in Area B, where the PA runs civil administration but where security control must be coordinated with Israeli authorities.

The movement and deployment of Palestinian emergency responders into Area B generally requires coordination with Israeli security bodies, Palestinians say.

Although the PA has a Civil Defense center in Taybeh, the Israeli military prevented them accessing the site of the fire until the security coordination was complete, Azza said.

Arab World

Asharq Al-Awsat Publishes Palestinian Factions’ Amendment to 8th Clause of Gaza Agreement

Palestinians are seen at a school sheltering displaced people in Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza on Tuesday. (AFP)
Palestinians are seen at a school sheltering displaced people in Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza on Tuesday. (AFP)
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Asharq Al-Awsat Publishes Palestinian Factions’ Amendment to 8th Clause of Gaza Agreement

Palestinians are seen at a school sheltering displaced people in Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza on Tuesday. (AFP)
Palestinians are seen at a school sheltering displaced people in Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza on Tuesday. (AFP)

Mediators of Gaza’s fragile ceasefire, along with Palestinian factions, are counting on US President Donald Trump’s administration to press Israel to accept the agreed wording on a 15-point roadmap received by Hamas last April.

Palestinian factions reached “close” positions with mediators from Egypt, Qatar, and Türkiye on amendments to the roadmap, focusing mainly on the disputed eighth clause on weapons in Gaza.

The amended wording of the eighth clause, seen by Asharq Al-Awsat, calls for the inventorying and storage of weapons, including infrastructure, to be carried out gradually and in stages, according to a timetable.

The process would take place in parallel with Israel’s withdrawal from the areas it controls in the Gaza Strip and the completion of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement with all its requirements.

Those include “the full implementation of the humanitarian protocol, the halt to targeted attacks, Israel’s commitment to withdrawal from the enclave, the entry of the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza and its assumption of duties, the deployment of the International Stabilization Force, and the dismantling of armed militias.”

The amendment added that implementation shall be carried out through the national committee, with the support of international forces and in cooperation with Palestinian organizations.

All of this comes within the framework of Trump’s plan and in accordance with relevant international resolutions and laws.

Indirect talks between Israel on one side and Hamas and other factions on the other have stalled over moving to new phases of the Gaza ceasefire announced last October, which Israel has repeatedly breached, killing more than 970 Palestinians since then.

The Palestinian side has insisted on implementing the requirements of the first phase, including the Israeli army’s withdrawal from the territory it occupies and the entry of aid and goods into Gaza. Tel Aviv, meanwhile, is pressing for the factions to disarm, describing this as the most prominent provision of the second phase.

Hamas delegation stays in Cairo

According to two Hamas sources and other sources from Palestinian factions involved in the Cairo meetings, the Hamas delegation was asked to stay in Cairo and await the response to the agreed wording.

Other faction delegations that had come from abroad left, while some members who had recently been based in Egypt remained.

A Hamas source said the movement’s delegation in Egypt would likely be asked to hold further consultations with the mediators on some issues that Israel, and even the Trump administration, may object to in the proposed amendments, mainly over the text rather than the substance.

According to the four sources, the mediators told the factions that took part in the meetings that they would seek agreement with the US administration and Israel on the wording reached and would brief them on developments from consultations with all parties.

Another Hamas source said Türkiye was playing “an important and major role” in persuading the US administration, while Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani was in direct contact with US envoy Steve Witkoff to push for the success of the important step that had been reached.

Nickolay Mladenov, the High Representative for Gaza at the Board of Peace, is expected to arrive in Cairo on Wednesday or Thursday.

But a source close to the Board of Peace team told Asharq Al-Awsat that Mladenov would likely begin his visit “in Israel first, to reach understandings with officials there before moving on to Cairo.”

Palestinian sources were pessimistic about Israel’s response and expected it to be “negative” toward the wording of the roadmap amendments.