People watch as smoke billows over hills near the southern Lebanese village of Adaisseh on the border with Israel on Jan. 20, 2024 during Israeli bombardment, as fighting continues between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza. (Credit: AFP)
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Catch up on our LIVE coverage of Day 105, Day 106 and Day 107 of the Israel-Hamas war.
An Israeli drone strike yesterday near a Lebanese Army roadblock in Kafra, Bint Jbeil killed at least two people and injured at least seven others, including a woman who was hospitalized for severe wounds and later succumbed to her injuries, L’Orient Today’s correspondent in the area reported. Security sources told Reuters that the two people killed in the strike were Hezbollah fighters although, since the strike, Hezbollah has only announced the death of one of its members. On Saturday, a similar attack targeting a car near Sour killed two people, one of whom was a Hezbollah member. At least 164 Hezbollah members have been killed since Oct. 8, by our count. The Hezbollah-affiliated Islamic Health Organization yesterday announced that an Israeli attack on one of their centers in Kfar Kila injured two rescuers and destroyed three ambulances. On Friday, Israeli air strikes completely destroyed three houses in Kfar Kila, the state-run National News Agency reported. The same day, Hezbollah MP Mohammad Raad, whose son was killed in an Israeli attack last November, threatened Israel that it would not be prepared for a war with Hezbollah. The party’s deputy chief, Naim Qassem, warned that Hezbollah was prepared to repel an “endless aggression” by Israel. Hezbollah announced several cross-border strikes on Israeli military targets over the weekend, continuing what the party calls a “support front” for Gaza.
Parliament is scheduled to vote on the 2024 budget this Thursday. Legislators will convene a day earlier to discuss the text after weeks of review by the Parliamentary Finance and Budget Committee. If Parliament passes the text before the end of the month, it will be the first time a budget is passed on time in nearly 20 years. Committee chief Ibrahim Kanaan has repeatedly criticized the budget’s lack of “vision” due to its focus on adjusting and increasing taxes — which he found superfluous if the tax collection rate increases — instead of implementing investments and reforms. During its review, the committee adjusted or removed several levies originally included in the government.
Dozens of depositors’ rights activists protested outside Banque du Liban’s Beirut headquarters to call for the restitution of foreign currency deposits, informally frozen by commercial banks since October 2019. Depositors’ Outcry president Alaa Khorchid opposed an alleged government plan to “make savings disappear,” while the group’s spokesperson Moussa Agathy said they opposed a measure “to eliminate savings above $100,000.” Protesters also gathered near Bankmed in Ain al-Mreisseh and a BBAC subsidiary in the Clemenceau district. The government, depositors’ rights groups and the Association of Banks in Lebanon remain at odds over the frozen deposits’ future after attempts to pass capital control measures and regulate a potential restitution were met with criticism from all sides. Depositors facing restricted access to their funds — as mediated by BDL circulars allowing the withdrawal of limited sums — have attempted legal action against banks, locally and overseas, with varying success, while depositors’ rights groups have at times supported armed incursions into banks to forcibly recover deposits.
At least 25,105 Palestinians have been killed by Israel in Gaza since Oct. 7, the enclave’s health ministry reported yesterday, while Israel repeated its readiness to wage war for “many months” to release hostages held by Hamas and destroy the group’s military capabilities. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday said he “categorically” rejects Hamas’s conditions to release the more than 100 hostages who remain in Gaza since their abduction on Oct. 7. The same day, Israel airdropped leaflets on Rafah, requesting information on the hostages. Hamas Political Bureau member Moussa Abou Marzouk, in comments to Russian news agency Sputnik, reported by Al Jazeera on Saturday, said “Israel will be forced to conclude an agreement because it has failed, during more than a hundred days of war, to recover prisoners by force.” The US’s refusal of a total cease-fire in Gaza, while supporting pauses to the conflict, was reiterated Friday by National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby, Reuters reported. International actors have repeatedly called, failing to reach a cease-fire, for pauses to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
AFP reported intense fighting in Khan Younis, southern Gaza’s largest city, and continued bombardments on Rafah, Gaza City and other regions to the north of the enclave. Humanitarian organizations have repeatedly warned that fighting has impaired the delivery of aid.
The longest telecoms blackout to date in Gaza passed the one-week mark, cybersecurity watchdog NetBlocks reported, warning of “limited visibility into events on the ground.” UN Human Rights Representative in Palestine Ajith Sunghay told AFP that the number of Gazan men who were detained by Israel since Oct. 7 is “believed to number in the thousands.” Released detainees reported that prisoners were being “beaten, humiliated [and] subjected to ill-treatment,” Sunghay continued.
In case you missed it, here’s our must-read story from over the weekend: “Hussein Madi, the Arab world’s Picasso, dies at 86”
Compiled by Abbas Mahfouz