Rai Refuses Involving ‘Our People’ in South Lebanon in War

Smoke rises from the village of Arab El Louaizeh southern Lebanon following Israeli shelling, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, 03 March 2024. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
Smoke rises from the village of Arab El Louaizeh southern Lebanon following Israeli shelling, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, 03 March 2024. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
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Rai Refuses Involving ‘Our People’ in South Lebanon in War

Smoke rises from the village of Arab El Louaizeh southern Lebanon following Israeli shelling, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, 03 March 2024. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
Smoke rises from the village of Arab El Louaizeh southern Lebanon following Israeli shelling, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, 03 March 2024. EPA/ATEF SAFADI

Political divisions in Lebanon over the five-month escalating war in the South of the country between Hezbollah and Israel intensified lately.
Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rai refused on Sunday to involve the people of south Lebanon in a war they have nothing to do with.
“The Lebanese and our people in south Lebanon have nothing to do with it,” said Rai in his Sunday sermon.
Replying to Rai’s remarks, Jaafarite Mufti Sheikh Ahmad Qabalan said: “Lebanon’s sovereignty, yesterday and today, is up to what the people of the south decide”.
The recent positions come amid a planned visit by US envoy Amos Hochstein to Beirut on Monday.
The US envoy is expected to meet with Lebanese officials as part of efforts to appease the situation on the Israel-Lebanon border.
Lebanese sources familiar with European positions towards Lebanon said that diplomatic western efforts are pushing in the same direction to prevent the situation from escalating into a war in Lebanon.
“In Lebanon, no one should drive our country into war, destruction, killing and displacement. It is useless to involve the Lebanese in general, and our people in the south in particular, in matters of no concern to them”, said Rai in his sermon.
For his part, Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Bishop of Beirut Elias Aude cautioned against the expansion of the Israeli war into Lebanon.
“We all know that our enemy is criminal and vicious, no humanity or conscience can stop it”, said Aude, adding that Lebanon can not bear the brutality of Israel’s crimes.
MP Ali Fayyad of Hezbollah Loyalty to the Resistance parliamentary bloc said on Sunday: “Our right for resistance remains unquestionable as long as our presence is targeted (by Israel) and our land remains occupied...our duty is to respond to deter the enemy and restore security to our villages”.
Qabalan for his part said: “What the Resistance is doing on the southern Lebanese front is a sovereign necessity..maintaining silence through it is a crime”.



Israel Says it Killed a Hezbollah Member in Drone Strike in South Lebanon

A picture taken from the southern Lebanese region of Marjayoun, shows the destruction in Khiam on November 28, 2024, a day after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect. (AFP)
A picture taken from the southern Lebanese region of Marjayoun, shows the destruction in Khiam on November 28, 2024, a day after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect. (AFP)
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Israel Says it Killed a Hezbollah Member in Drone Strike in South Lebanon

A picture taken from the southern Lebanese region of Marjayoun, shows the destruction in Khiam on November 28, 2024, a day after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect. (AFP)
A picture taken from the southern Lebanese region of Marjayoun, shows the destruction in Khiam on November 28, 2024, a day after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect. (AFP)

An Israeli drone strike hit a car in south Lebanon on Saturday, killing one person who the Israeli military said was a member of Hezbollah.

State-run National News Agency did not give further details about the strike in the village of Bourj el-Mlouk.

The airstrike was the latest in a wave of such attacks since a US-brokered ceasefire went into effect in late November ending the 14-month Israel-Hezbollah war.

The Israeli military said the Hezbollah member who was killed was active in the border village of Kfar Kila.

The strike came a day after Lebanon’s military court sentenced two people to prison terms for giving digital information to Israel.

Four judicial officials told The Associated Press Saturday that one of those sentenced received a 15-year prison term while the other was sentenced to 10 years in jail. A third was set free for lack of evidence against him, the officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to share information with the media.

The officials said the two scanned the cellular telephones network in wide areas of Beirut and its southern suburbs that is home to Hezbollah’s headquarters using sophisticated equipment.

The officials said the two, who were detained last year, also supplied Israel with about 1,500 photographs from Beirut’s southern suburbs.