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Lebanon’s Aita al-Shaab Unlivable after Israeli Withdrawal

Lebanese citizens return to their destruction homes caused by the Israeli air and ground offensive, in Aita al-Shaab, a Lebanese border village with Israel, south Lebanon, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025. (AP)
Lebanese citizens return to their destruction homes caused by the Israeli air and ground offensive, in Aita al-Shaab, a Lebanese border village with Israel, south Lebanon, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025. (AP)
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Lebanon’s Aita al-Shaab Unlivable after Israeli Withdrawal

Lebanese citizens return to their destruction homes caused by the Israeli air and ground offensive, in Aita al-Shaab, a Lebanese border village with Israel, south Lebanon, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025. (AP)
Lebanese citizens return to their destruction homes caused by the Israeli air and ground offensive, in Aita al-Shaab, a Lebanese border village with Israel, south Lebanon, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025. (AP)

Asharq Al-Awsat assessed the massive destruction caused by Israel in the southern Lebanese border town of Aita al-Shaab in wake of the war with Hezbollah.

Even after a ceasefire took effect in November, Israel continued to shell the town and systematically destroy its buildings.

Israeli forces withdrew from the town last week, leaving devastation and rubble in their wake. The Lebanese army and United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) have since deployed there.

Returning residents and visiting reporters were able to witness firsthand the destruction of Aita al-Shaab where over 90 percent of homes have been destroyed. Remaining buildings and structures were heavily damaged.

The town is completely unrecognizable and unlivable after 14 months of war. Entire residential blocks have been reduced to rubble, while electricity and water infrastructure have been destroyed.

Aita al-Shaab lies in the central sector, southwest of Bint Jbeil city. On the other side of the border lie the large Israeli settlements of Shtula, al-Raheb, Netua and Tal Shaar.

Aita al-Shaab had witnessed constant Israeli attacks since October 8, 2023, when Hezbollah opened its “support front” with Hamas in Gaza. Aita al-Shaab was also where Hezbollah had abducted two Israeli soldiers in 2006, sparking a 33-day war with Israel.

Residents have acknowledged that the town is now unlivable. They inspected what remains of their homes after the Israeli withdrawal and decided to head back to their temporary residences where they were staying during the latest war.

They vowed to return to Aita al-Shaab when the conditions are right so that they can rebuild.

The town is home to some 14,000 people, the majority of whom lived there all year long before the eruption of the war. They mostly work in agriculture, such as growing tobacco and olives.

Israel did not spare the crops, destroying the majority of the fields.

Israeli forces continue to be deployed in nine Lebanese towns.

The Lebanese army is readying to enter the town of Aitaroun after Israel withdraws.

The Aitaroun municipality urged residents against heading home before the deployment of the army.

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Arab World

Lebanon to Press Israel to Ceasefire as Latest Washington Talks Begin

Mourners react over the coffin of Lebanese Civil Defense member, Ahmad Noura, who was killed the previous day in an Israeli airstrike during a funeral procession in the coastal city of Sidon, Lebanon, Wednesday, May 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
Mourners react over the coffin of Lebanese Civil Defense member, Ahmad Noura, who was killed the previous day in an Israeli airstrike during a funeral procession in the coastal city of Sidon, Lebanon, Wednesday, May 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
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Lebanon to Press Israel to Ceasefire as Latest Washington Talks Begin

Mourners react over the coffin of Lebanese Civil Defense member, Ahmad Noura, who was killed the previous day in an Israeli airstrike during a funeral procession in the coastal city of Sidon, Lebanon, Wednesday, May 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
Mourners react over the coffin of Lebanese Civil Defense member, Ahmad Noura, who was killed the previous day in an Israeli airstrike during a funeral procession in the coastal city of Sidon, Lebanon, Wednesday, May 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

Lebanon will demand Israel cease fire at face-to-face talks that began in Washington on Thursday, a senior Lebanese official said, as Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel continued to trade blows despite a US-backed truce declared last month.

A State Department official confirmed that a meeting of Lebanese and Israeli envoys, along with US officials, had started at about 9 a.m. EDT (1300 GMT).

The talks, which are expected to continue on Friday, are the sides' third meeting since hostilities reignited between Hezbollah and Israel on March 2. Beirut is attending despite strong objections from Shi'ite Muslim Hezbollah.

An Israeli government spokesperson said the talks were taking place with the goal of disarming Hezbollah and reaching a peace agreement.

Fought in parallel to the US-Iran conflict, the Hezbollah-Israel war has rumbled on since US President Donald Trump declared a ceasefire on April 16 - though hostilities have largely been contained to southern Lebanon since then. The ceasefire is due to expire on Sunday.

With Lebanon's health ministry reporting 22 people killed in Israeli strikes on Wednesday, including eight children, the senior Lebanese official said the Lebanese delegation would seek "a ceasefire that Israel implements". The Israeli military said an explosive drone launched by Hezbollah fell within Israeli territory near the border and injured several Israeli civilians. Israel has kept troops in a self-declared security zone in south Lebanon, saying this aims to shield northern Israel from attack by Hezbollah, which fired hundreds of rockets and drones at Israel during the war.

The Israeli military said it carried out a new wave of attacks on Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon on Thursday. Hezbollah said it carried out 17 attacks on Israeli troops in the south on Wednesday.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun's decision to pursue the talks reflects deep divisions in Lebanon over Hezbollah.

When the April 16 ceasefire was announced, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hezbollah's disarmament would be a fundamental demand in peace talks with Lebanon.

The Washington meetings mark the highest-level contact between Lebanon and Israel in decades.

Both Lebanon and Israel are broadening their delegations for this round, after the sides were represented by their ambassadors to Washington in the previous two meetings.

The Lebanese health ministry says the war has killed 2,896 people in Lebanon since March 2, including 589 women, children and medics. Its toll does not say how many combatants have been killed.

Some 1.2 million people have been driven from their homes in Lebanon, many of them fleeing from the south.

Israel says 17 of its soldiers have been killed in southern Lebanon, along with two civilians in northern Israel.

 

 

 

Arab World

New Gaza-bound Flotilla Sets Sail from Türkiye

Global Sumud Flotilla Steering Committee members Susan Abdallah, Muhammad Nadir Al-Nuri, Suemeyra Akdeniz Ordu, Maimon Herawati, Thiago Avila and Saif Abukeshek, Eva Saldana, Greenpeace Spain; Maria Serra, GSF Catalunya and Oscar Camps, Open Arms attend a press conference as humanitarian flotilla prepares to depart for Gaza, from Barcelona, Spain, April 12, 2026. REUTERS/Albert Gea
Global Sumud Flotilla Steering Committee members Susan Abdallah, Muhammad Nadir Al-Nuri, Suemeyra Akdeniz Ordu, Maimon Herawati, Thiago Avila and Saif Abukeshek, Eva Saldana, Greenpeace Spain; Maria Serra, GSF Catalunya and Oscar Camps, Open Arms attend a press conference as humanitarian flotilla prepares to depart for Gaza, from Barcelona, Spain, April 12, 2026. REUTERS/Albert Gea
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New Gaza-bound Flotilla Sets Sail from Türkiye

Global Sumud Flotilla Steering Committee members Susan Abdallah, Muhammad Nadir Al-Nuri, Suemeyra Akdeniz Ordu, Maimon Herawati, Thiago Avila and Saif Abukeshek, Eva Saldana, Greenpeace Spain; Maria Serra, GSF Catalunya and Oscar Camps, Open Arms attend a press conference as humanitarian flotilla prepares to depart for Gaza, from Barcelona, Spain, April 12, 2026. REUTERS/Albert Gea
Global Sumud Flotilla Steering Committee members Susan Abdallah, Muhammad Nadir Al-Nuri, Suemeyra Akdeniz Ordu, Maimon Herawati, Thiago Avila and Saif Abukeshek, Eva Saldana, Greenpeace Spain; Maria Serra, GSF Catalunya and Oscar Camps, Open Arms attend a press conference as humanitarian flotilla prepares to depart for Gaza, from Barcelona, Spain, April 12, 2026. REUTERS/Albert Gea

Dozens of ships set sail from southwestern Türkiye as part of a Gaza-bound aid flotilla on Thursday, an organizer told AFP.

"Around 50 ships sailed from Marmaris around an hour ago," Gorkem Duru, a member of the Türkiye branch of the Global Sumud Fleet said.

"They will be joined by four or five ships from the Freedom Flotilla Coalition in international waters. Now they are sailing for Gaza," he added, AFP reported.

The Global Sumud Flotilla will be the third initiative in a year aiming at breaking an Israeli blockade on war-ravaged Gaza, which has suffered severe shortages of food, water, medicine and fuel since the Israel-Hamas war broke out in October 2023.

Israeli forces intercepted the second flotilla in international waters off Greece on April 30, expelling most of the activists to Europe, but arrested two of them who were held for 10 days.

Rights groups said the arrests were illegal and that the men suffered abuse while they were in Israeli detention.

Israeli authorities have rejected the abuse allegations but have filed no charges against them.

Arab World

Palestinian President Pledges to Hold Elections, Pursue Reforms

FILED - 16 August 2022, Berlin: Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority, answers questions from journalists at a press conference after his meeting with the German Chancellor. Photo: Wolfgang Kumm/dpa
FILED - 16 August 2022, Berlin: Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority, answers questions from journalists at a press conference after his meeting with the German Chancellor. Photo: Wolfgang Kumm/dpa
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Palestinian President Pledges to Hold Elections, Pursue Reforms

FILED - 16 August 2022, Berlin: Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority, answers questions from journalists at a press conference after his meeting with the German Chancellor. Photo: Wolfgang Kumm/dpa
FILED - 16 August 2022, Berlin: Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority, answers questions from journalists at a press conference after his meeting with the German Chancellor. Photo: Wolfgang Kumm/dpa

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday pledged to press ahead with reforms within the Palestinian Authority, saying he was prepared to hold long-delayed presidential and parliamentary elections.

Abbas's Fatah party began a three-day conference to elect a new central committee, its highest leadership body, for the first time in 10 years as it faces existential challenges in the wake of the Gaza war.

"We renew our full commitment to continuing work on implementing all the reform measures we pledged... We are ready to hold presidential and legislative elections," Abbas said in an address to the congress, though he did not provide a timeline for the vote, AFP reported.

"The Palestinian people are the only people in the world living under occupation. Holding our conference today on our homeland's soil confirms our determination to continue on the democratic path and open the way for youth and women," the 90-year-old veteran leader said.

Fatah's central committee is expected to play a key role in the post-Abbas era, with many observers wondering whether he might finally step down after more than two decades at the helm, despite the lack of a clear successor.

The conference comes as the Palestinian national movement faces some of its "most serious challenges in our struggle", Jibril Rajoub, the current secretary general of the committee, told AFP ahead of the congress.

He expressed hope that the conference, repeatedly delayed, would contribute to "ensuring and protecting the establishment of a Palestinian state on the world's agenda and protecting the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people".

Key figures competing to replace Abbas include Rajoub and PA deputy Hussein al-Sheikh.

Meanwhile, the president's eldest son, Yasser Abbas, is on the ballot to join the central committee, having risen in prominence over recent years after he was named the president's special representative despite largely residing in Canada.