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Arab World

Lebanon: Rahi Says EU Exploiting Syrian Refugee Crisis for Political Ends

Maronite Patriarch Beshara el-Rahi. (Reuters)
Maronite Patriarch Beshara el-Rahi. (Reuters)
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Lebanon: Rahi Says EU Exploiting Syrian Refugee Crisis for Political Ends

Maronite Patriarch Beshara el-Rahi. (Reuters)
Maronite Patriarch Beshara el-Rahi. (Reuters)

Lebanon’s Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi accused the European Union of exploiting the crisis of Syrian refugees in Lebanon for political ends.
Rahi has repeatedly criticized the EU after a $1 billion was announced by EU chief Ursula Von der Leyen to help Lebanon tackle illegal migration.
The EU chief said the aid was designed to strengthen basic services such as to bolster border management, education and health amid a severe economic crisis, and will continue until 2027.
In his Sunday sermon, Rahi said the accumulating crises in Lebanon and the region necessitate the election of a new head of state.
“The situation in the region calls for the election of a president, so does the war in Palestine, and the issue of Syrian refugees residing illegally on Lebanese soil”, said Rahi.
He voiced calls for their swift return to safe areas in Syria. “Safe areas in Syria are much more spacious than Lebanon”.
He criticized the “lack of international and EU cooperation” to help Lebanon resolve the refugee crisis impacting the country’s already fragile economy.
“These countries are exploiting the refugee crisis for political gains in Syria. They do not want to draw a line separating the political crisis from the return of refugees to their homeland. They are making Lebanon carry this immense burden and its dangerous consequences”, he said.
On May 2, the EU chief announced a financial package of $1 billion for Lebanon that would be available from this year until 2027.
The aid will be disbursed "in grants", with 736 million euros earmarked to support Lebanon "in response to the Syrian crisis", an EU official said.
The grant sparked political and popular criticisms in Lebanon, mainly among Christian political parties, and after the killing incident of a Lebanese Forces official, Pascal Sleiman, by a Syrian gang. The perpetrators took his corpse to Syria.

Von der Leyen said the EU was committed to maintaining "legal pathways open to Europe" and resettling refugees, but "at the same time, we count on your good cooperation to prevent illegal migration and combat migrant smuggling".

Lebanon's economy collapsed in late 2019, turning it into a launchpad for migrants, with Lebanese joining Syrians and Palestinian refugees making perilous Europe-bound voyages.
Lebanon says it currently hosts around two million people from neighboring Syria -- the world's highest number of refugees per capita -- with almost 785,000 registered with the United Nations.

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Arab World

Sources to Asharq Al-Awsat: Meshaal Contacts Gaza Factions on Fate of Weapons

Fighters from Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades in Rafah, southern Gaza. (Reuters, file)
Fighters from Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades in Rafah, southern Gaza. (Reuters, file)
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Sources to Asharq Al-Awsat: Meshaal Contacts Gaza Factions on Fate of Weapons

Fighters from Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades in Rafah, southern Gaza. (Reuters, file)
Fighters from Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades in Rafah, southern Gaza. (Reuters, file)

Hamas is holding internal talks and consulting Palestinian factions on the fate of weapons in Gaza, an issue central to US President Donald Trump’s plan, which calls for full disarmament and links it to reconstruction.

Talks have slowed in recent weeks amid the US-Israeli war on Iran. Still, Hamas and faction sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that Khaled Meshaal, head of Hamas’ political bureau abroad and a contender to lead the movement, has contacted leaders in Gaza to discuss the weapons file.

A Hamas source said most contacts took place before the war on Iran, as part of ongoing coordination to forge a unified Palestinian position on “resistance weapons,” their future, and how to preserve core Palestinian principles.

A source from a Gaza faction involved in the consultations said leaders told Meshaal there are no longer “heavy weapons” as defined by Israel, including long or short-range rockets.

Remaining capabilities are limited, including small numbers of anti-armor rounds, improvised explosive devices, and light arms such as Kalashnikov rifles, as well as some DShK machine guns mounted on pickup trucks, which they said do not pose a threat.

The source said factions proposed handing over a limited number of pickup trucks fitted with DShK weapons, which Israel classifies as heavy arms. They also suggested exploring mechanisms with mediators to allow the “resistance” to retain light weapons under guarantees, with mediators overseeing the process in exchange for a long-term truce.

On tunnels, sources said most have been targeted and largely destroyed by Israeli forces, with only a few remaining that do not affect Israel.

Both sources said the ideas remain at the consultation stage, adding the weapons issue has not been formally raised by mediators, though informal contacts have taken place.

Israel insists on the surrender of all weapons. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently said he wants Hamas to hand over 60,000 Kalashnikov rifles.

Palestinian sources said such numbers are not available in Gaza, calling the demand unrealistic after a two-year war that devastated the enclave.

Palestinian factions and mediators are awaiting a formal US proposal outlining its disarmament vision, but it has been delayed by the war on Iran. Limited recent contacts with mediators on humanitarian issues could revive discussions.

Leaders and field commanders in Gaza factions insist on discussing any approach to the weapons file and reject imposing terms on the “resistance.” A Hamas source said factions cannot easily give up their weapons after decades of sacrifices.

A Hamas delegation has been in Cairo for about a week discussing ways to ease Gaza’s dire humanitarian situation amid ongoing Israeli breaches, with expectations that mobilization could resume on issues related to a Gaza administrative committee and an international stabilization force.

Arab World

Lebanon’s Electricity Authority Says Israeli Attack Put a Main Substation in South Out of Service

Smoke rises from Khiam, a Lebanese village near the border with Israel, amid escalation between Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel, and amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, as seen from northern Israel, March 18, 2026. (Reuters)
Smoke rises from Khiam, a Lebanese village near the border with Israel, amid escalation between Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel, and amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, as seen from northern Israel, March 18, 2026. (Reuters)
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Lebanon’s Electricity Authority Says Israeli Attack Put a Main Substation in South Out of Service

Smoke rises from Khiam, a Lebanese village near the border with Israel, amid escalation between Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel, and amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, as seen from northern Israel, March 18, 2026. (Reuters)
Smoke rises from Khiam, a Lebanese village near the border with Israel, amid escalation between Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel, and amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, as seen from northern Israel, March 18, 2026. (Reuters)

The Lebanese state electricity company said on Thursday that Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon earlier that day ‌had put ‌a main ‌power ⁠substation out of service, ⁠a sign of expanding Israeli attacks on Lebanese infrastructure.

In a ⁠statement carried ‌by ‌Lebanon’s state ‌media, the electricity ‌authority said the attack damaged various parts of the ‌station in Bint Jbeil, impacting ⁠power ⁠provision in the city and surrounding towns.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

Arab World

Palestinians Were Bystanders to the Iran War. Now They’re Victims Too

Family members mourn the death of one of the three Palestinian women killed in Iranian missile attacks, in Beit Awa town near the occupied West Bank city of Hebron on March 19, 2026. (AFP)
Family members mourn the death of one of the three Palestinian women killed in Iranian missile attacks, in Beit Awa town near the occupied West Bank city of Hebron on March 19, 2026. (AFP)
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Palestinians Were Bystanders to the Iran War. Now They’re Victims Too

Family members mourn the death of one of the three Palestinian women killed in Iranian missile attacks, in Beit Awa town near the occupied West Bank city of Hebron on March 19, 2026. (AFP)
Family members mourn the death of one of the three Palestinian women killed in Iranian missile attacks, in Beit Awa town near the occupied West Bank city of Hebron on March 19, 2026. (AFP)

For nearly three weeks, Palestinians in the occupied West Bank have mostly been bystanders as Israel and Iran have exchanged airstrikes. But on Wednesday, four women became victims of the war.

In the town of Beit Awa, women and their daughters were inside a small beauty salon when an Iranian missile struck only steps away, sending shrapnel tearing through walls and shelves stacked with boxes of acrylic nails and bottles of turquoise and scarlet polish.

More than a dozen were injured and four were killed, including a single mother who was six months pregnant and her daughter, the Palestinian Red Crescent and eyewitnesses said.

The morning after the strike, hundreds of coffee cups and acrylic nails lay scattered across a floor red with dried blood. The salon — a business run out of a metal container in a family’s yard — was pocked with holes, with parts laying in debris piles beside a small crater where the strike hit.

Ambulances delayed in critical ‘golden hour’

Salon owner Hadeel Masalmeh lost friends and her business partner, Sahera Atileh. She said she heard sirens from the Israeli settlement of Negohot about 2 miles (3 kilometers) away. “We didn’t pay much attention and didn’t expect any shrapnel or anything like that to fall on us,” she said.

Much of life in Israel has been centered around those sirens and alerts since the war started, sending Israeli's running to shelters, often several times a day. But Palestinians, who have not been targeted by Iranian strikes, have gone about their business as usual throughout much of the last three weeks, barely pausing when distant sirens blare or the rare phone with Israeli service sounds a warning alert.

The drive to Beit Awa should have taken less than 10 minutes but stretched to 25, leaving the victims without medical care for crucial minutes, Abedullraziq Almasalmeh said. He heard rockets whoosh overhead and then fall, his house shaking as he reached to dial for ambulances after 10 p.m.

The Palestinian Red Crescent attributed delays to Israeli gates outside Beit Awa that forced ambulances to take a longer route.

Wednesday's victims were the first Palestinian fatalities in the West Bank since the start of the Iran war. But the Red Crescent had warned that the hundreds of new Israeli gates and roadblocks slicing up the territory were increasingly preventing them from reaching Palestinians in need of emergency care.

Qusai Jabr, the manager of the group’s disaster risk management department, told The Associated Press that in the first week of the war that included women in labor, elderly men having strokes and victims of a growing number of Israeli settler attacks.

“This forced closure caused significant delays, compelling ambulances to take long, rugged alternative routes, which critically impacted the ‘golden hour’ essential for life-saving interventions,” Palestinian Red Crescent said in a statement.

Israeli authorities have not imposed the kind of full lockdown seen during last year’s 12-day war with Iran. But for emergency crews like Palestinian Red Crescent, movement hasn't gotten easier and ambulances have found many gates often closed. Jabr said there were about 800 gates during last year’s war and now there are roughly 1,100, both manned and unmanned.

Palestinians lack shelters

The beauty salon strike underscored how Palestinians who live close enough to see Israel from their homes lack the shelters and medical assistance that have effectively minimized Israeli deaths and injuries throughout nearly three weeks of Iranian airstrikes.

Israel operates a system of sirens and phone alerts directing residents to fortified shelters that can protect them from incoming missiles or their remnants, which fall after being intercepted by Israel’s air defense systems.

Not all of Israel enjoys equal access to shelters, especially Arab-majority towns, but its building codes have required them in homes since the first Gulf War and public shelters are nearby for those who don't have them.

Palestinians in the occupied West Bank — both in crowded cities and rural areas — lack such protections. The West Bank isn't an Iranian target but had previously been hit by shrapnel pieces and debris.

Israel operates a system of sirens and phone alerts directing residents to fortified shelters that can protect them from incoming missiles or their remnants, which fall after being intercepted by Israel’s air defense systems.

The nature of the strike Wednesday was unclear. Israel’s military called it a direct hit, rather than debris or shrapnel that fell after being intercepted by Israel’s air defense system and said it was a submunition from a cluster bomb. Those missiles can explode midair and disperse smaller bomblets across wide areas, trading precision for coverage.