Hezbollah Admits Impasse with Bassil

Gebran Bassil speaks during an interview with Reuters in Sin-el-fil, Lebanon October 13, 2022. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir/File Photo
Gebran Bassil speaks during an interview with Reuters in Sin-el-fil, Lebanon October 13, 2022. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir/File Photo
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Hezbollah Admits Impasse with Bassil

Gebran Bassil speaks during an interview with Reuters in Sin-el-fil, Lebanon October 13, 2022. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir/File Photo
Gebran Bassil speaks during an interview with Reuters in Sin-el-fil, Lebanon October 13, 2022. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir/File Photo

Hezbollah has most likely reached the conclusion that it was not possible to reach an understanding with the head of the Free Patriotic Movement, MP Gebran Bassil, over the election of Marada Movement chief Sleiman Franjieh as Lebanon’s president.
 
Communication between the two sides has sharply declined over the recent weeks, according to information obtained by Asharq Al-Awsat, which prompted Bassil to accuse the party of reneging on its pledge not to nominate any candidate who does not enjoy the FPM’s support.
 
However, a Lebanese figure concerned with the stalled presidential elections stressed that the regional breakthrough will have its impact on Lebanon “sooner or later, in the form of a settlement leading to the election of a president for the republic and the formation of a government with a clear program.”
 
According to the source, Bassil was pushing “in all his meetings to nominate former Minister Jihad Azour for the presidency, but he avoids announcing his candidacy in order not to limit his chances.”
 
The source added that the potential nomination of the army commander, General Joseph Aoun, has waned with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri’s announcement that his election requires a constitutional amendment.
 
Berri has yet to decide on holding a session to elect a president after Eid al-Fitr, as he prefers, according to information, to secure the necessary quorum to achieve a breakthrough.
 
The opposition parties, for their part, are still locked in their differences. The Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) withdrew its support for MP Michel Moawad, thus making any understanding between these forces over a new candidate an “impossible mission,” as expressed by a deputy from the opposition.
 
In a press conference on Wednesday, the head of the Kataeb Party, MP Sami Gemayel, voiced his rejection to a president imposed by Hezbollah, saying: “Such a president would be the president of Hezbollah’s republic and not that of all the Lebanese.”



Israel Orders Evacuation of Area Designated as Humanitarian Zone in Gaza

 A picture taken in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing during Israeli army operations in areas east of Khan Younis city on July 26, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)
A picture taken in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing during Israeli army operations in areas east of Khan Younis city on July 26, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)
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Israel Orders Evacuation of Area Designated as Humanitarian Zone in Gaza

 A picture taken in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing during Israeli army operations in areas east of Khan Younis city on July 26, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)
A picture taken in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing during Israeli army operations in areas east of Khan Younis city on July 26, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)

Israel’s military ordered the evacuation Saturday of a crowded part of Gaza designated as a humanitarian zone, saying it is planning an operation against Hamas militants in Khan Younis, including parts of Muwasi, a makeshift tent camp where thousands are seeking refuge.

The order comes in response to rocket fire that Israel says originates from the area. It's the second evacuation issued in a week in an area designated for Palestinians fleeing other parts of Gaza. Many Palestinians have been uprooted multiple times in search of safety during Israel's punishing air and ground campaign.

On Monday, after the evacuation order, multiple Israeli airstrikes hit around Khan Younis, killing at least 70 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, citing figures from Nasser Hospital.

The area is part of a 60-square-kilometer (roughly 20-square-mile) “humanitarian zone” to which Israel has been telling Palestinians to flee to throughout the war. Much of the area is blanketed with tent camps that lack sanitation and medical facilities and have limited access to aid, United Nations and humanitarian groups say. About 1.8 million Palestinians are sheltering there, according to Israel's estimates. That's more than half Gaza’s pre-war population of 2.3 million.

The war in Gaza has killed more than 39,100 Palestinians, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. The UN estimated in February that some 17,000 children in the territory are now unaccompanied, and the number is likely to have grown since.

The war began with an assault by Hamas fighters on southern Israel on Oct. 7 that killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took about 250 hostages. About 115 are still in Gaza, about a third of them believed to be dead, according to Israeli authorities.