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In First, Lebanese Resistance Brigades Join Military Operations against Israel in the South

Family and the wife of Israeli reservist Master Sgt. Valeri Chefonov gather around his grave during his funeral at the military cemetery in Netanya, Israel, on Friday, July 12, 2024. Chefonov, 33, was killed, in northern Israel on Thursday in an explosive drone attack from Lebanon. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Family and the wife of Israeli reservist Master Sgt. Valeri Chefonov gather around his grave during his funeral at the military cemetery in Netanya, Israel, on Friday, July 12, 2024. Chefonov, 33, was killed, in northern Israel on Thursday in an explosive drone attack from Lebanon. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
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In First, Lebanese Resistance Brigades Join Military Operations against Israel in the South

Family and the wife of Israeli reservist Master Sgt. Valeri Chefonov gather around his grave during his funeral at the military cemetery in Netanya, Israel, on Friday, July 12, 2024. Chefonov, 33, was killed, in northern Israel on Thursday in an explosive drone attack from Lebanon. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Family and the wife of Israeli reservist Master Sgt. Valeri Chefonov gather around his grave during his funeral at the military cemetery in Netanya, Israel, on Friday, July 12, 2024. Chefonov, 33, was killed, in northern Israel on Thursday in an explosive drone attack from Lebanon. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

The Lebanese Resistance Brigades, a Lebanese paramilitary group affiliated with Hezbollah, claimed responsibility on Saturday for a military operation against Israel in southern Lebanon.
The announcement is the first for the group, founded by Hezbollah in 1997, since the Israeli war on Gaza. The group includes volunteer fighters from different sects in Lebanon.
According to a statement issued by the Brigades on Friday, it began its engagement in the war by shelling with rockets the Israeli 'Rweisat al-Qarn' site in the occupied Lebanese Shebaa Farms, scoring a “direct hit”, it said.
Hezbollah and Israel have been trading near daily exchanges of fire since the Israel-Hamas war broke out last year.
Hezbollah says it is striking Israel in solidarity with Hamas, another Iran-allied group that ignited the war in Gaza with its Oct. 7 attack into southern Israel. The group’s leadership says it will stop its attacks once there is a cease-fire in Gaza, and that while it does not want war, it is ready for one.
Diplomatic talks to end the confrontation between Israel and Hezbollah have failed so far.
Hezbollah and the Lebanese government rejected Israel’s demands to evacuate the border area in Lebanon from Hezbollah fighters.
The parliamentary bloc of Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, an ally of Hezbollah, made that clear by welcoming any international efforts aiming at quelling Israel’s aggression against the Palestinian people in Gaza.
The bloc affirmed “rejection of discussions regarding the establishment of buffer zones on Lebanon’s sovereign territory, whether in southern Lebanon or in its north."
Meanwhile cross-border fire continues in south Lebanon. A Lebanese army vehicle of type 'Humvee' came under Israeli machine gun fire from the village of Ghajar near Wazzani.
Reports said the vehicle was directly hit with four bullets. However, the personnel miraculously escaped unharmed from this attack.

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Arab World

Reduced to Rubble: Palestinians Return to ‘Unrecognizable’ Gaza

Gazans tour their destroyed neighborhood on Sunday. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Gazans tour their destroyed neighborhood on Sunday. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Reduced to Rubble: Palestinians Return to ‘Unrecognizable’ Gaza

Gazans tour their destroyed neighborhood on Sunday. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Gazans tour their destroyed neighborhood on Sunday. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Palestinians returning to their homes in Gaza were shocked at the extent of the destruction and devastation left behind by the Israeli war machine after 15 months of war and as a ceasefire took effect on Sunday.

Asharq Al-Awsat accompanied residents of Jabalia as they returned to their homes and assessed the extent of the destruction.

“Where are our homes?!” asked Amal al-Asakry in despair as she arrived at Jabalia camp, which has been reduced to rubble by Israel. Her house and others have been razed to the ground.

“We have nothing left. Our lives and future... they destroyed our homes and the future of our children,” she told Asharq Al-Awsat.

“I returned to Jabalia hoping to find something left of my house, my clothes and my furniture, but I found nothing. The house has been completely destroyed,” she lamented.

Israel carried out a military operation in Jabalia, Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun for over a hundred days, using its entire military might to carry out air strikes, ground operations and bomb houses, hospitals and other buildings.

Another resident, Mahmoud al-Sahhar, believed that his house would still be standing after he came across a photograph taken by an Israeli soldier that showed that his house was partially damaged.

When he returned to Jabalia, he was shocked to find out that it had been totally destroyed. “I built this house brick by brick so that I can secure my family’s future,” he told Asharq Al-Awsat, pointing to his home that may have been destroyed shortly before the Israeli withdrawal.

Asharq Al-Awsat's tour of the area showed that no party could come up with a close estimate of the extent of the damage given how massive it is. The area has become unrecognizable due to the destruction and damage.

Plans to remove the rubble from the streets are no longer viable because it is just everywhere. Jabalia has effectively been turned into Gaza’s largest pile of rubble.

Residents couldn’t even get their vehicles and carts to move across the area because roads have been destroyed.

Nemr al-Nimnim told Asharq Al-Awsat: “I was raised in the camp, but I couldn’t recognize any of its roads. It will take years to remove the rubble from Gaza, especially Jabalia and the nearby areas. Reconstruction may take decades.”

He said he was hoping to make a quick return to the camp, “but the area is unlivable. There’s no water or any place that can shelter us. It’s as if an earthquake had destroyed the camp.”

It appears that Israeli forces had deliberately sought to destroy UNRWA centers and other facilities offering services. Infrastructure was also completely destroyed to prevent people from resuming their lives any time soon.

Confronted with the devastation, the residents urged their loved ones to avoid returning to Jabalia and instead head to other areas.

Another resident, Duaa Munir, told Asharq Al-Awsat that she urged her relatives to head to southern Gaza because there is nothing to return to in Jabalia. “There isn’t even any space to set up camps” because of the rubble, she said.

Over a million people are internally displaced in Gaza with the majority seeking refuge in camps along the coast and in central and southern parts of the enclave.

The United Nations has said that Gaza’s reconstruction could take more than 350 years if it remains under an Israeli blockade. Using satellite data, the United Nations estimated last month that 69% of the structures in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, including more than 245,000 homes. With over 100 trucks working full time, it would take more than 15 years just to clear the rubble away.