A demonstrator holds a Palestinian flag during a protest in support of UNRWA outside of its Beirut headquarters on Jan. 30, 2024. (Credit: Mohammed Yassine)
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Catch up on yesterday’s LIVE coverage of Day 116 of the Israel-Hamas war here.
Israeli shelling destroyed several houses in Aita al-Shaab and Khiam, local residents told L’Orient Today, as Hezbollah and Israel continued cross-border fighting. Hezbollah members marched alongside residents from Harouf, Nabatieh in the funeral procession of a slain party member. The party’s announcements of cross-border strikes yesterday said it targeted Israeli soldiers and surveillance equipment.
During a sit-in near the United Nations Agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) Beirut headquarters, nearly 200 people decried the suspension of funding to the organization, amid accusations that some members participated in the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack. Protesters denounced the threat posed by defunding the agency to Palestinians in Gaza and elsewhere. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Sunday called on the 13 donor countries that suspended funding, including the US, the UK, Germany and Japan, to revert their decisions, noting that the accused employees had been terminated. Last January, UNRWA commissioner Philippe Lazzarini lamented the chronic underfunding facing the agency, saying it had to “scramble” to meet budget requirements. Last year, the organization requested over $15 million in funding for restorations and reparations after weeklong deadly clashes in the Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp.
The union of fuel importers announced they would halt deliveries as of today to protest a tax in the 2024 budget on imported products that were previously subsidized by the Central Bank, the state-run National News Agency reported. The union’s statement, protesting that subsidies benefited consumers rather than importers, warned that they would not replenish their stocks once depleted unless a solution is reached. In September 2022, the Central Bank, hemorrhaging foreign reserves, completed its gradual removal of fuel subsidies which had been granted in October 2019 at the onset of the economic crisis. Parliament approved the 2024 budget on Friday after three days of discussion during which MPs criticized, among other things, the levies included in the text.
The US, French, Saudi Arabian, Qatari, and Egyptian ambassadors to Lebanon met with Parliamentary Speaker Nabih Berri to discuss the prolonged presidential vacancy. Berri said the meeting, which followed last Thursday’s discussions between the five states’ representatives, was “useful and promising.” The five states have held several meetings attempting to mediate an end to the presidential impasse. Since the end of Michel Aoun’s presidential term in October 2022, repeated calls by the international community, threats of sanctions, visits by foreign diplomats, interruptions to Parliament and cabinet’s functioning as well as to official appointments have done little to help achieve a breakthrough.
At least 26,751 people have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7, according to latest figures from the enclave’s health ministry.
Israeli forces ordered displaced individuals and Palestinian Red Crescent Society members to evacuate al-Amal hospital, pushing into its courtyard as firing raged in the surrounding area of Khan Younis, the organization said. The Israeli army denied this account.
Pushing forward the latest truce talks, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is set to visit Israel on Saturday while Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh is set to visit Cairo to review the terms of a deal forwarded from a Paris meeting between American, Israeli, Egyptian and Qatari officials. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu emphasized that any deal would stop short of Israel’s military withdrawal from Gaza and its release of “thousands of prisoners.”
In case you missed it, here’s our must-read story from yesterday: “Reviewing the Fahd Plan of 1981, outlining the contours of an Arab-Israeli peace”
Compiled by Abbas Mahfouz