Lebanon to Resolve Syrian Rebel Group Withdrawal ahead of ISIS Border Battle

A Lebanese army soldier takes up a position overlooking an area held by ISIS at the edge of the town of Arsal, in northeast Lebanon, June 19, 2016. (AP)
A Lebanese army soldier takes up a position overlooking an area held by ISIS at the edge of the town of Arsal, in northeast Lebanon, June 19, 2016. (AP)
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Lebanon to Resolve Syrian Rebel Group Withdrawal ahead of ISIS Border Battle

A Lebanese army soldier takes up a position overlooking an area held by ISIS at the edge of the town of Arsal, in northeast Lebanon, June 19, 2016. (AP)
A Lebanese army soldier takes up a position overlooking an area held by ISIS at the edge of the town of Arsal, in northeast Lebanon, June 19, 2016. (AP)

The Syrian rebel group of Saraya Ahl al-Sham will withdraw from the northeaster border region of Arsal in Lebanon ahead of an imminent offensive the Lebanese army is set to launch against ISIS terrorists deployed along the border area.

Head of Lebanon’s General Security Abbas Ibrahim told Reuters that the fighters will start to withdraw from the area on Saturday. They will leave the area with some 3,000 civilians and head to Syria.

About 300 fighters, along with their families and some other civilians who wish to return to Syria, will be escorted to the border by security forces, Ibrahim told Reuters by phone.

Those civilians who had asked to leave along with Saraya Ahl al-Sham would go to the regime-held Assal al-Ward district near the border. The fighters would go to a place that had been agreed upon, he said.

Ibrahim did not name the place. But a military media unit run by “Hezbollah” - which is closely allied to Syrian regime leader Bashar al-Assad - reported that the fighters and their families would go to the rebel-held town of al-Ruhaiba in the Eastern Qalamoun district.

The group's departure follows that of the Nusra Front, which quit its enclave on the border early this month for rebel-held Idlib, in northwest Syria, after its defeat in a six-day “Hezbollah” offensive.

During that evacuation and others of rebel groups inside Syria to insurgent-held areas, the Syrian regime has allowed them to travel under protection in buses and carry small arms. This time, civilians will be allowed to travel in their own cars, Ibrahim said.

The pull-out by Saraya Ahl al-Sham will leave an ISIS pocket in the same area as the only remaining militant stronghold on the border.

In the past few days, the Lebanese army's artillery shells and multiple rocket launchers have been pounding the mountainous areas on the Lebanon-Syria border where ISIS held positions, in preparation for the offensive. Drones could be heard around the clock and residents of the eastern Bekaa Valley reported seeing army reinforcements arriving daily in the northeastern district of Hermel to join the battle.

On Tuesday, the army's top brass conferred with President Michel Aoun, Prime Minister Saad Hariri and interior and defense ministers at the presidential palace in Baabda to plan operations in the Bekaa Valley.

The committee took the "necessary counsel and decisions to succeed in the military operations to eliminate the terrorists," Major General Saadallah Hamad said after the meeting.

Experts say more than 3,000 troops, including elite special forces, are in the northeastern corner of Lebanon to take part in the offensive. The army will likely use weapons it received from the United States, including Cessna aircraft that discharge Hellfire missiles.

The movement of rebel and militant factions across Syria's border with Lebanon represented the biggest military spillover of its civil war into its tiny neighbor.

The factions took positions in the hills that straddle the border around the northeastern Lebanese town of Arsal, home to tens of thousands of Syrian refugees. More than 1 million Syrians have sought shelter in Lebanon during the war.



EU Ministers Discuss Deal with Israel to Increase Gaza Aid

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, center, talks with Poland's Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, left, and Luxembourg's Foreign Minister Xavier Bettel, right, during the EU foreign ministers meeting at the EU Council building in Brussels, Tuesday, July 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)
European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, center, talks with Poland's Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, left, and Luxembourg's Foreign Minister Xavier Bettel, right, during the EU foreign ministers meeting at the EU Council building in Brussels, Tuesday, July 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)
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EU Ministers Discuss Deal with Israel to Increase Gaza Aid

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, center, talks with Poland's Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, left, and Luxembourg's Foreign Minister Xavier Bettel, right, during the EU foreign ministers meeting at the EU Council building in Brussels, Tuesday, July 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)
European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, center, talks with Poland's Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, left, and Luxembourg's Foreign Minister Xavier Bettel, right, during the EU foreign ministers meeting at the EU Council building in Brussels, Tuesday, July 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

The European Union is seeking updates from Israel on implementation of a new deal to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, according to Kaja Kallas, the bloc's foreign policy chief.

Foreign ministers from the EU's 27-member nations are meeting Tuesday in Brussels in the wake of a new aid deal for Gaza largely forged by Kallas and Israeli foreign minister Gideon Saar, The AP news reported.

Saar met with EU leaders on Monday after agreeing last week allow desperately needed food and fuel into the coastal enclave of 2.3 million people who have endured more than 21 months of war.

“We have reached a common understanding with Israel to really improve the situation on the ground, but it’s not about the paper, but actually implementation of the paper," Kallas said before the meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council.

“As long as it hasn’t really improved, then we haven’t all done enough,” she said, before calling for a ceasefire.

Details of the deal remain unclear, but EU officials have rejected any cooperation with the Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Fund over ethical and safety concerns. Opening more border crossings and allowing more aid trucks into Gaza is the priority, but officials say eventually they’d like to set up a monitoring station at Kerem Shalom crossing.

Kallas said the ministers will also discuss Iran’s nuclear program, concerns over developments in Georgia and Moldova, and new sanctions on Russia. The EU is readying its 18th package of sanctions on Russia, with holdouts within the bloc arguing over the keystone policy of capping oil prices to cut into Moscow’s energy revenues.

European nations like Ireland, the Netherlands and Spain have increasingly called for the EU's ties with Israel to be reassessed in the wake of the war in Gaza.

A report by the European Commission found “ indications ” that Israel’s actions in Gaza are violating human rights obligations in the agreement governing its ties with the EU — but the block is divided over what to do in response.

That public pressure over Israel's conduct in Gaza made the new humanitarian deal possible even before a ceasefire, said Caspar Veldkamp, the Dutch foreign minister. “That force of the 27 EU member states is what I want to maintain now," he said.

“The humanitarian deal announced last week shows that the Association Agreement review and use of EU leverage has worked," said one European diplomat.

Spain's Foreign Minister José Manual Albares Bueno said details of the deal were still being discussed and that the EU would monitor results to see if Israel is complying with those.

“We don’t know whether it we will know how it works,” he said. “It's very clear that this agreement is not the end — we have to stop the war."

The war began after Hamas attacked Israel in 2023 on October 7. Israel responded with an offensive that has killed more than 58,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

The ministry, which is under Gaza’s Hamas-run government, doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants. The UN and other international organizations see its figures as the most reliable statistics on war casualties.

The EU has observed some aid trucks entering Gaza, but “not enough,” said Hajda Lahbib, the EU Commissioner for humanitarian air and crisis management.

“The situation is still so dangerous, so violent, with strikes still continuing on the ground, that our humanitarian partners cannot operate. So, this is the reality we need to have a ceasefire," she said.