عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Arab World

US Warns Situation in Lebanon Cannot Persist

US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf meets with head of the Progressive Socialist Party Walid Jumblatt. (PSP)
US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf meets with head of the Progressive Socialist Party Walid Jumblatt. (PSP)
TT
20
TT

US Warns Situation in Lebanon Cannot Persist

US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf meets with head of the Progressive Socialist Party Walid Jumblatt. (PSP)
US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf meets with head of the Progressive Socialist Party Walid Jumblatt. (PSP)

US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf warned Lebanese officials on Friday that the situation in their country cannot persist amid the crippling economic, living and political crises it is enduring.

Leaf had arrived in Beirut as part of a tour of the region that includes Jordan, Egypt and Tunisia.

A State Department statement said she would stress to Lebanese officials the pressing need to elect a president, form a government and carry out economic reforms that would restore stability in Lebanon.

Leaf met with parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, caretaker Prime Minister Najib MIkati, Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib and head of the Progressive Socialist Party Walid Jumblatt.

The International Monetary Fund had warned on Thursday that Lebanon was in a very dangerous situation a year after it committed to reforms it has failed to implement and said the government must stop borrowing from the central bank.

"One would have expected more in terms of implementation and approval of legislation" related to reforms, IMF mission chief Ernesto Rigo said from Beirut, noting "very slow" progress.

Lebanon signed a staff-level agreement with the IMF nearly one year ago but has not met the conditions to secure a full program, which is seen as crucial for its recovery from one of the world's worst financial crises.

Without implementing rapid reforms, Lebanon "will be mired in a never-ending crisis," the IMF warned in a written statement after Rigo's remarks.

Following her meeting with Berri, Leaf told reporters that she informed him that the situation in Lebanon cannot persist, urging an agreement with the IMF over a solution as soon as possible.

Her talks with FM Bou Habib tackled the impact the Saudi-Iranian deal to restore relations would have on the region, said local media.

Most Viewed

 
Arab World

Israeli Settlers Seen on Camera Assaulting a Palestinian Village. Police Arrest Only Palestinians

Hamdan Ballal, Oscar-winning Palestinian co-director of "No Other Land," is checked at a hospital in Hebron, a day after being detained by the Israeli army following an attack by Jewish settlers in the village of Susiya in Masafer Yatta, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP)
Hamdan Ballal, Oscar-winning Palestinian co-director of "No Other Land," is checked at a hospital in Hebron, a day after being detained by the Israeli army following an attack by Jewish settlers in the village of Susiya in Masafer Yatta, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP)
TT
20
TT

Israeli Settlers Seen on Camera Assaulting a Palestinian Village. Police Arrest Only Palestinians

Hamdan Ballal, Oscar-winning Palestinian co-director of "No Other Land," is checked at a hospital in Hebron, a day after being detained by the Israeli army following an attack by Jewish settlers in the village of Susiya in Masafer Yatta, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP)
Hamdan Ballal, Oscar-winning Palestinian co-director of "No Other Land," is checked at a hospital in Hebron, a day after being detained by the Israeli army following an attack by Jewish settlers in the village of Susiya in Masafer Yatta, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP)

Over a dozen Israeli settlers attacked a Palestinian village in the southern Israeli-occupied West Bank on Friday, beating residents with sticks and rocks, in an incident captured with rare clarity by security cameras. The video obtained by AP and testimonies from Palestinian witnesses appeared to conflict with the account of the attack provided by Israeli police and military, who arrested over 20 Palestinians afterwards.
The violence in the village of Jinba follows a settler attack earlier this week in a nearby village in which Hamdan Ballal, a Palestinian co-director of the Oscar-winning documentary “No Other Land," was left bloodied and bruised before being detained by Israeli soldiers for about 20 hours.
The videos provide uncommonly stark images of the type of settler assault Palestinians in the West Bank say now occurs frequently. They say radical Jewish settlers rarely, if ever, face repercussions for attacking Palestinian communities, while Palestinians are often rounded up in droves and detained by Israeli forces.
Settlers descend on Jinba
AP obtained footage from two security cameras belonging to the Al-Amur family, whose home came under attack. Footage from one camera shows a jeep, an ATV and a white pick-up truck speed up to the edge of the village.
A number of settlers pile out of them and run out of the frame, and the screams of Palestinian women can be heard. The settlers then return into view, and at least 15 of them ascend a slope, getting closer to the camera.
Many are masked, at least three are carrying bats or sticks, and one is armed with an assault rifle. One can be seen throwing a rock, then bending to collect more.
The matriarch of the Al-Amur family, Oula Awad, said she saw the settlers approaching her house between 8:00 AM and 9:00 AM, as she was doing laundry outside with her daughter. Her son, Qusai, 17, and husband, Aziz, 63, were washing up to prepare for Ramadan prayers when the settlers pulled up in vehicles and emerged.
“The settler runs toward me and told me, ‘Don’t wave. Do not move forward. We will hit you,’” she said.
In security footage taken from a different camera at the house, she and her daughter, 16-year-old Handa, are seen screaming and waving clothes in the air, calling for help. At one point, Awad makes a motion waving her arms. It is not clear if she throws something at a settler rushing toward her.
The settlers are then seen converging on Qusai. One settler begins hitting him with a stick as he tries to run away. Another settler smashes his head with a rock, sending him to the ground. Four settlers then kick and beat him before running away.
Awad said the settlers locked her and her daughter in a side room as they beat her younger son, Ahmad, and her husband Aziz.
“They entered the room and hit the windows,” said Awad. They tried to burn the furniture. “My husband was standing on the stairs, and they started beating him.”
A video taken by Qusai and shared with the AP showed Ahmad on the ground with a head laceration. Aziz lies nearby, his face bloodied.
Five Palestinians remain in hospitals. Aziz had a chest injury and underwent surgery for skull fractures; Ahmed, 16, is in intensive care. Qusai suffered a broken arm, bruises and cuts. Another villager, Maher Mohammed, had cuts and bruises, as did his son Osama, who was also undergoing kidney examinations.
Nidal Younis, the head of the Masafer Yatta village council, witnessed part of the attack and was detained by police for two hours afterward. He said soldiers who arrived on scene following the attack prevented Palestinians from nearby villages from helping and threw stun grenades at homes, a claim to which the military did not respond.
Police and military provide a conflicting account Following the incident, Israeli police said they detained 22 Palestinians from the village on suspicion of stone throwing and brought them in for further investigation.
They said Palestinians had attacked two settler shepherds nearby, minorly injuring them.
“The security forces view the series of attacks in the area seriously, and will take strong action to bring those involved to justice,” the police said. They did not respond when asked by the AP why no Israeli civilians were arrested.
The military gave a somewhat different account, saying an Israeli civilian had been attacked and injured by militants near an Israeli settlement.
Then, it said “a violent confrontation developed between a number of Israeli civilians and Palestinians,” injuring another Israeli civilian.
Masafer Yatta was designated by the Israeli military as a live-fire training zone in the 1980s, and the military has ordered the expulsion of the residents, mostly Arab Bedouin. Around 1,000 residents have largely remained in place, but soldiers regularly come in to demolish homes, tents, water tanks and olive orchards.
Palestinians and rights groups say Israeli forces usually turn a blind eye or intervene on behalf of the settlers.
The war in Gaza has sparked a surge of violence in the West Bank, with the Israeli military carrying out widescale military operations that have killed hundreds of Palestinians and displaced tens of thousands. There has been a rise in settler violence as well as Palestinian attacks on Israelis.