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UN Force in Lebanon Urges Swift Probe into Irish Peacekeeper’s Death 

The United Nations and the Ireland flags fly at half-staff, at the UNIFIL headquarters in the southern Lebanese town of Naqoura, Lebanon, Friday Dec. 16, 2022. (AP)
The United Nations and the Ireland flags fly at half-staff, at the UNIFIL headquarters in the southern Lebanese town of Naqoura, Lebanon, Friday Dec. 16, 2022. (AP)
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UN Force in Lebanon Urges Swift Probe into Irish Peacekeeper’s Death 

The United Nations and the Ireland flags fly at half-staff, at the UNIFIL headquarters in the southern Lebanese town of Naqoura, Lebanon, Friday Dec. 16, 2022. (AP)
The United Nations and the Ireland flags fly at half-staff, at the UNIFIL headquarters in the southern Lebanese town of Naqoura, Lebanon, Friday Dec. 16, 2022. (AP)

The United Nations' peacekeeping force in south Lebanon on Friday urged Beirut to ensure a "speedy" investigation into an Irish soldier's shooting death near the Israeli border.  

The peacekeeper's convoy came under fire late Wednesday near the village of Al-Aqbiya, the Irish military said, wounding three other members of the UN force UNIFIL.  

Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and army chief Joseph Aoun visited on Friday the UNIFIL headquarters in the border town of Naqura, denouncing the attack that claimed private Sean Rooney's life. 

UNIFIL spokesman Andrea Tenenti called it "a very serious incident" and told reporters it was "important" for the Lebanese authorities to bring the perpetrators to justice. 

"It is a crime against the international community, against peacekeepers who are here... to maintain stability," he added. 

It is the first death of a UNIFIL member in a violent incident in Lebanon since January 2015, when a Spanish peacekeeper was killed during retaliatory Israeli fire.  

"Peacekeepers are continuing with their activities and patrolling," Tenenti said.  

UNIFIL was set up in 1978 to monitor the withdrawal of Israeli forces after they invaded Lebanon in reprisal for a Palestinian attack.  

Now with nearly 10,000 troops, the UN force acts as a buffer between Israel and Lebanon, which remain technically at war.  

Israel withdrew from south Lebanon in 2000 but fought a devastating 2006 war with the Iran-backed movement Hezbollah and its allies.  

UNIFIL was beefed up to oversee the ceasefire that ended that conflict.  

Bullet to the head  

Witnesses said villagers in the Al-Aqbiya area, a Hezbollah stronghold, blocked Rooney's vehicle after it took a road along the Mediterranean coast not normally used by the United Nations force.  

A Lebanese judicial source told AFP that the peacekeeper was killed by a bullet to the head when seven projectiles pierced the vehicle.  

The three others were injured when the vehicle hit a pylon and overturned, the source added.  

Following a meeting in Naqura with the force's commander, Major General Aroldo Lazaro, Lebanon's Mikati said "the investigation continues in order to determine the circumstances of the incident."  

The Lebanese premier said it was "important" to prevent similar attacks, and promised "those who will be proven guilty will be punished".  

A spokesman for Ireland's army told AFP that a specialist team was expected in Lebanon on Saturday to launch an investigation of the attack.  

Over the years there have been a number of incidents between Hezbollah supporters and the UN force in border areas loyal to the armed group.  

Wafiq Safa, Hezbollah's security chief, told Lebanon's LBCI television that the incident was "unintentional" and called for investigators to be given time to establish the facts.  

Relations between UNIFIL and communities in south Lebanon have "always been very positive", the force's spokesman said on Friday.  

"The support of the communities is paramount in order for us to implement our mandate." 

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Arab World

UN Agency Begins Clearing Huge Gaza City Waste Dump as Health Risks Mount

Palestinians walk near a landfill, in Gaza City, February 11, 2026. (Reuters)
Palestinians walk near a landfill, in Gaza City, February 11, 2026. (Reuters)
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UN Agency Begins Clearing Huge Gaza City Waste Dump as Health Risks Mount

Palestinians walk near a landfill, in Gaza City, February 11, 2026. (Reuters)
Palestinians walk near a landfill, in Gaza City, February 11, 2026. (Reuters)

The United Nations Development Program began clearing a huge wartime garbage dump on Wednesday that has swallowed one of Gaza City’s oldest commercial districts and is an environmental and health risk.

Alessandro Mrakic, head of the UNDP Gaza Office, said work had started to remove the solid-waste mound that has overtaken the once busy Fras Market in the Palestinian enclave's main city.

He put the volume of the dump at more than 300,000 cubic meters (390,000 cubic yards) and 13 meters (14 yards) high.

It formed after municipal crews were blocked from reaching Gaza’s main landfill in the Juhr al-Dik area - adjacent to the border with Israel - when the Gaza war began in October 2023.

The area in Juhr ‌al-Dik is now ‌under full Israeli control.

Over the next six months, UNDP plans ‌to ⁠transfer the waste to ⁠a new temporary site prepared in the Abu Jarad area south of Gaza City and built to meet environmental standards.

The site covers 75,000 square meters and will also accommodate daily collection, Mrakic said in a statement sent to Reuters. The project is funded by the Humanitarian Fund and the European Union's Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations.

Some Palestinians sifted through the garbage, looking for things to take away, but there was relief that the market space would eventually be cleared.

"It needs to be moved to a ⁠site with a complex of old waste, far away from people. There's ‌no other solution. What will this cause? It will cause ‌us gases, it will cause us diseases, it will cause us germs," elderly Gazan Abu Issa said ‌near the site.

The Gaza Municipality confirmed the start of the relocation effort in collaboration with the ‌UNDP, calling it an urgent step to contain a worsening solid-waste crisis after about 350,000 cubic meters of rubbish accumulated in the heart of the city.

'A SYMBOL OF THE WAR'

Fras Market, an historic quarter that before the war served nearly 600,000 residents with items ranging from food to clothes and household tools, has been ‌buried under garbage for more than a year.

Amjad al-Shawa, head of the Palestinian NGOs Network and a liaison with UN and international agencies, ⁠said the dump had fueled “serious ⁠health and environmental problems and the spread of insects and illnesses.”

“It is a symbol of the war that continued for two years,” he told Reuters. “Its removal may give people a sense of hope that the ceasefire (agreed last October) is moving forward.”

Shawa said the waste would be transported to a transitional site near the former Netzarim settlement in central Gaza until Israeli forces withdraw from eastern areas and municipal access to the permanent landfills can be restored.

UNDP said it had collected more than 570,000 tons of solid waste across Gaza since the war began as part of its emergency response to avert a further deterioration in public health conditions.

The number of temporary dumpsites has decreased from 141 to 56 as part of efforts in 2024-25 to remove smaller dumping sites, a UNDP report last December said.

"However, only 10 to 12 of these temporary dumping sites are accessible and operational, and Gaza’s two main sanitary landfills remain inaccessible. The environmental and public health risks remain critical," it added.

Arab World

Israel Says Killed Hamas Operative Responsible for 2004 Bus Bombings

Destroyed buildings are pictured in the Jabalia camp for Palestinian refugees in the northern Gaza Strip on February 8, 2026. (AFP)
Destroyed buildings are pictured in the Jabalia camp for Palestinian refugees in the northern Gaza Strip on February 8, 2026. (AFP)
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Israel Says Killed Hamas Operative Responsible for 2004 Bus Bombings

Destroyed buildings are pictured in the Jabalia camp for Palestinian refugees in the northern Gaza Strip on February 8, 2026. (AFP)
Destroyed buildings are pictured in the Jabalia camp for Palestinian refugees in the northern Gaza Strip on February 8, 2026. (AFP)

The Israeli military said on Wednesday it killed a senior Hamas operative who had been convicted of orchestrating two bus bombings in 2004 that left 16 civilians dead and dozens more wounded.

The bombings were among the deadliest attacks during the second intifada, the Palestinian uprising of the early 2000s.

In a joint statement, the military and the Shin Bet domestic security agency said their forces killed Bassem Hashem Al-Haymouni in a strike in the Gaza Strip last week.

They described him as "a senior operative" for Hamas who "had been active since 2004" as part of a cell responsible for carrying out deadly attacks in Israel.

They identified him as the mastermind of an August 2004 attack in the southern Israeli city of Beer Sheva, in which suicide bombers blew up two buses.

He "dispatched several suicide bombers to carry out a coordinated attack on two buses in Beer Sheva, in which 16 Israeli civilians were murdered and approximately 100 others were injured", the statement said.

Haymouni was apprehended and sentenced, but was released in 2011 as part of the so-called "Shalit deal", in which Israel freed more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the release of soldier Gilad Shalit.

Palestinian fighters had seized Shalit in 2006 during a cross-border raid near the Kerem Shalom crossing and held him hostage for five years.

His case became a major national issue in Israel.

The military and Shin Bet statement said that after Haymouni was released, he "resumed recruiting attackers and directing terrorist activity".

It added that the strike on Haymouni was also in response to violations of the ongoing ceasefire in Gaza.

"During the war he was involved in the production and placement of explosive devices intended to harm Israeli troops," it said, referring to the war in Gaza sparked by Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

The US-brokered Gaza ceasefire entered its second phase last month, and foresees a demilitarization of the territory -- including the disarmament of Hamas -- along with a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces.

Hamas has said that disarmament is a red line, although it has indicated it could consider handing over its weapons to a future Palestinian governing authority.

A Palestinian technocratic committee has been set up with a goal of taking over day-to-day governance in the Strip, but it remains unclear whether, or how, it will address the issue of demilitarization.

Arab World

Somali President to Asharq Al-Awsat: Working with Saudi-led Partners to Void Israel’s Somaliland Recognition

Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Crown Prince and Prime Minister meets with Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud Makkah. (SPA file)
Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Crown Prince and Prime Minister meets with Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud Makkah. (SPA file)
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Somali President to Asharq Al-Awsat: Working with Saudi-led Partners to Void Israel’s Somaliland Recognition

Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Crown Prince and Prime Minister meets with Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud Makkah. (SPA file)
Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Crown Prince and Prime Minister meets with Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud Makkah. (SPA file)

Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud unveiled a three-pronged political and legal strategy to nullify what he described as Israeli recognition of the breakaway region of Somaliland, warning that such a move threatens Somalia’s sovereignty and regional stability.

Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat, Mohamud said his government is acting in close coordination with partners led by Saudi Arabia to safeguard stability and shield the Horn of Africa from what he called “reckless escalation.”

Without naming specific countries, the Somali leader said some regional states may see the Israeli recognition as an opportunity to pursue “narrow, short-term interests at the expense of Somalia’s unity and regional stability.”

“I do not wish to name any particular country or countries,” he said. “But it is clear that some may view this recognition as a chance to achieve limited gains.”

He stressed that Somalia’s unity is a “red line,” adding that Mogadishu has taken firm positions to protect national sovereignty. “We warn against being misled by reckless Israeli adventurism,” he said.

Three parallel steps

Mohamud was referring to recognition announced by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of the self-declared Republic of Somaliland as an independent state.

“I affirm with the utmost clarity and firmness that any recognition of Somaliland as an independent state constitutes a blatant violation of the sovereignty and unity of the Federal Republic of Somalia,” he said.

He described the move as a grave breach of international law, the UN Charter, and African Union resolutions that uphold respect for inherited African borders.

On that basis, Somalia has adopted and will continue to pursue three parallel measures, he revealed.

The first involves immediate diplomatic action through the UN, African Union, and Organization of Islamic Cooperation to reject and legally and politically invalidate the recognition.

Mohamud said Somalia called for and secured a formal session at the UN Security Council to address what he termed a “flagrant Israeli violation” of Somalia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

The session, he said, marked a significant diplomatic victory for Mogadishu, particularly given Somalia’s current membership on the council.

He expressed “deep appreciation” for statements of solidarity and condemnation issued by the African Union, Arab League, OIC, Gulf Cooperation Council, Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), and the EU, among others.

The second step centers on coordinating a unified Arab, Islamic, and African position. Mohamud praised Saudi Arabia for being among the first to issue a clear statement rejecting any infringement on Somalia’s unity.

He said the Saudi position reflects the Kingdom’s longstanding commitment to state sovereignty and territorial integrity, reinforced by the Saudi cabinet’s “firm and principled” support for Somalia during what he described as a delicate moment.

The third step focuses on strengthening internal national dialogue to address political issues within the framework of a single Somali state, free from external interference or dictates.

Regional security

Mohamud warned that if left unchecked, the recognition could set a “dangerous precedent and undermine regional and international peace and security.”

He said it could embolden separatist movements not only in the Horn of Africa but across Africa and the Arab world, citing developments in countries such as Sudan and Yemen as evidence of the high cost of state fragmentation.

“This concerns a vital global shipping artery and core Arab national security,” he said, referring to the Red Sea.

“Any political or security tension along Somalia’s coast will directly affect international trade and energy security.”

He added that instability would impact Red Sea littoral states, particularly Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, Yemen, and Jordan. “Preserving Somalia’s unity is a cornerstone of collective Red Sea security,” he said.

Strategic foothold

Mohamud argued that Israel’s objective goes beyond political recognition.

“We believe the goal extends beyond a political gesture,” he told Asharq Al-Awsat. “It includes seeking a strategic foothold in the Horn of Africa near the Red Sea, enabling influence over the Bab al-Mandeb Strait and threatening the national security of Red Sea states.”

He described the move as a test of Somali, Arab, and African resolve on issues of sovereignty and territorial unity, emphasizing that Somalia’s opposition to secession is a principled and enduring national stance supported widely in the Arab and African worlds, “foremost by Saudi Arabia.”

He rejected any attempt to turn Somalia into a battleground for regional or international rivalries. “We will not allow Somalia to become an arena for settling conflicts that do not serve our people’s interests or our region’s security,” he declared.

Saudi ties

Regarding Saudi-Somali relations, Mohamud described the partnership as “deep-rooted and strategic, rooted in shared history, religion, and a common destiny.” Saudi Arabia, he said, “remains a central partner in supporting Somalia’s stability, reconstruction, development, and Red Sea security.”

He voiced admiration for Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 and the economic and development gains achieved under the leadership of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Crown Prince and Prime Minister.

Asked about the recent Saudi Cabinet decision rejecting any attempt to divide Somalia, Mohamud said the federal government received it with “great appreciation and relief.”

He said the position extends the Kingdom’s historic support for Somalia’s territorial unity and sovereignty, reinforces regional stability, and sends an important message to the international community on the need to respect state sovereignty and refrain from interference in internal affairs.