A photo taken from southern Lebanese village of Khirbet Silm on the border with Israel shows an Israeli observation balloon on Feb. 28, 2024. (Credit: Hassan Fneich/AFP)
Catch up on our LIVE coverage of Day 145 of the Gaza war here.
Hamas, for the first time in months, claimed responsibility for rocket launches towards Israel from southern Lebanon. The group said the strikes were in retaliation for Israel’s “massacres” in Gaza and its assassination of Hamas deputy political chief Saleh al-Arouri in a January drone strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs. Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh urged the Iran-led and backed "Axis of Resistance" to step up its support for Gaza through political leverage, money and weapons.
Israeli attacks leveled homes in southern Lebanon, killing an elderly couple in Kafra (Bint Jbeil) and injuring several others elsewhere, while Israel and the US aligned their calls for a diplomatic solution to the cross-border clashes. Israel’s continued damaging and destruction of houses in southern Lebanon injured at least three people, one of whom was hospitalized, while Israeli drone fire forced workers and farmers to flee their field in Wazzani (Marjayoun) after missiles exploded near them without causing injuries. Meanwhile, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said Lebanon is counting on the US and France to “dissuade” Israel from further attacking Lebanon. The US has received assurances from Israel in seeking a “diplomatic path” to resolve clashes with Hezbollah that would make “military action unnecessary,” according to a Tuesday AFP report quoting State Department spokesman Matthew Miller. The emphasis on diplomacy aligns with Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu’s Arabic-language spokesperson Ofir Gendelman’s claim that diplomatic efforts are underway. Mikati emphasized an end to Israeli violations while urging for the application of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which mediated the end of the 2006 Hezbollah-Israel war. The resolution, among other things, calls for the army to maintain, alongside UNIFIL, its monopoly on the use of force between the Blue Line and the Litani River, which caretaker Defense Minister Maurice Slim, requesting foreign support further enabling the national military and refuting Saudi daily al-Sharq al-Awsat's claims, asserted the army could do.
The caretaker cabinet increased public sector compensation, approved a feasibility study for a Beirut-Bekaa highway and postponed discussions on bank restructuring during its meeting yesterday. Depositors and Lebanese Army retirees protested outside the Grand Serail ahead of the meeting. The caretaker cabinet granted three additional salaries to current and retired Lebanese Army personnel’s salaries and two additional salaries to administrative civil servants — totaling nine salaries for each category. The salary adjustments will be effective retroactively from Dec. 1, 2023. The government also approved productivity bonuses as well as daily attendance payments to civil servants worth between eight to 16 gasoline canisters — priced at LL 1.5 million per canister. Public sector retirees, the cabinet’s statement continues, will be granted a temporary bonus worth three salaries and no less than LL 8 million. As for the Beirut-Bekaa tunnel, approved for a Build-Operate-Transfer contract by Parliament in 2020, the government tasked the Council for Development and Reconstruction with conducting an economic and technical assessment of the project, which caretaker Public Works Minister Ali Hamieh, as quoted by the state-run National News Agency, said was the priority for potential partners and investors, emphasizing that the tunnel would have “vital geopolitical importance.” Discussion of the much-awaited draft law on bank restructuring has been postponed for the next week or two, caretaker Information Minister Ziad Makari said.
An unprecedented medical error ruling sentenced a neurologist accused of mistakenly paralyzing infant patient Sophie Mechleb to two months imprisonment and a LL 1 billion fine for “perjury.” Baabda judge Nadine Najm accused the doctor of false testimony after determining he had auscultated Mechleb after her admission, despite his claims that he did not examine her. In June 2016, then-one-year-old Sophie Mechleb became paralyzed after an operation to remove a benign tumor from her back. Between 2016 and 2018, when the case went to trial, Mechleb’s parents maintained that their child was the victim of medical error and negligence on the part of the medical staff.
The Committee to Protect Journalists, local and regional rights groups, Lebanese lawmakers and media outlets petitioned UN rights chief Volker Turk to investigate “the Israeli forces' apparent deliberate targeting of journalists” in Lebanon. Investigations by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW), as well as AFP and Reuters, concluded that on Oct. 13 Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah was killed and six others were injured by a deliberate Israeli strike.
Food importers’ union chief Hani Bohsali warned that the more than weeklong civil servant strike risks stranding over 1,200 containers at the Beirut port by this weekend. Bohsali told L’Orient Today the containers cannot be processed until striking Agriculture and Economy Ministry employees test samples from the cargo. Similar pile-ups are occurring at the Tripoli port, director Ahmad Tamer told L’Orient Today. Civil servant strikes have previously led to similar delays in container processing.
At least 29,954 people have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7, according to the latest figures from the enclave’s Health Ministry. Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and French President Emmanuel Macron harmonized in voicing their wishes for a “very rapid cease-fire” in Gaza; meanwhile, Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh said the group would be flexible in negotiations that have otherwise stalled. US President Joe Biden claimed to have obtained guarantees from Israel for a halt in fighting during Ramadan, the Muslim holy month set to begin on Monday.
In case you missed it, here’s our must-read story from yesterday: “Stories Coffee: Lebanon’s Starbucks replacement?”
Compiled by Abbas Mahfouz