Hezbollah members at Hassan Nasrallah's Quds Day speech. (Credit: Mohammed Yassin/L'Orient Today)
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Catch up on our LIVE coverage of Day 182, Day 183 and Day 184 of the Gaza war.
A local official for the Lebanese Forces in Hakel (Jbeil) was kidnapped Sunday afternoon by four armed men who forced them into their vehicle. Pascasl Sleiman, who is the party’s coordinator in Jbeil, was on his way back from Khrabeh, where he was paying his condolences when he was forced off of the road. Upon the news of the kidnapping, an investigation was immediately opened into the abduction. In a statement on Monday morning, the Lebanese army released a statement saying that, along with the intelligence services, a "number of Syrians participating in the kidnapping" were arrested and that they were working to "determine the location of the kidnapped person and the motives for the operation." Kataeb Party leader Samy Gemayel warned “against this dangerous development” while his cousin and fellow party member, Nadim Gemayel called on the security forces to work “seriously and quickly to find Pascal Sleiman and free him,” noting that the abduction took place “in broad daylight in a residential area.” Head of the Lebanese Forces Samir Geagea visited the party center in Mestita (Jbeil) later that evening where he urged all allied parties and independent politicians to “stand together in condemnation and repel any attack on freedoms in Lebanon.” The Lebanese Forces also called on “ the associations of Jbeil merchants, its notables, its municipalities, and its mukhtars to close all shops in Jbeil and the Jbeil region” on Monday to denounce Sleiman’s kidnapping. This is a developing story.
Israeli strikes killed a civilian, a rescuer, six Hezbollah members and three Amal Movement members between Friday and Sunday. Israeli airstrikes on Friday killed two Hezbollah members after hitting a house in Aita al-Shaab (Bint Jbeil) and three members of the Amal Movement in a strike targeting a party office in Marjayoun (South Lebanon). Hezbollah on Saturday announced the deaths of two of its members killed overnight. Another Hezbollah member's death was announced late Sunday night. An Amal Movement-affiliated rescuer succumbed to their injuries Saturday, the Risala Scout Association said, after having been hit days earlier by Israeli gunfire, a medical source told L’Orient Today. The same day, a civilian woman succumbed to injuries suffered from an Israeli drone strike days prior. Overnight from Saturday to Sunday, Israel attacked the Bekaa, hitting a warehouse already struck in March, in response to Hezbollah downing one of its drones.
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in a Friday speech warned that Lebanon must be prepared for “all eventualities” following Iran’s “inevitable” response to the Israeli attack on an Iranian diplomatic mission in Damascus that left 16 people dead last week. Nasrallah reiterated that the party’s border clashes with Israel would continue, telling Israel it does not fear escalation. Yesterday, the Israeli army announced the completion of “another phase” of its plan to reach war readiness to the north.
The Jounieh cable car reopened on Friday, three months after a malfunction left 44 people trapped aboard for five hours. The cable car’s management told L’Orient Today it undertook a $100,000 repair that involved replacing 200 meters of cable and seven clamps, though only a few centimeters of the former and one of the latter had been damaged. Late last December, the cable car’s passengers were left suspended in mid-air for hours after two cabins collided and the line’s automatic safety system went off. The Civil Defense, the Red Cross, and the Lebanese Army worked to successively rescue groups of people from the cars until they’d been cleared.
The Constitutional Council suspended eight articles in the 2024 budget law and modified eight others, ruling in favor of several appeals against the text. Several additional levies were suspended as a result of the council’s ruling, including an additional tax on tobacco products as well as a retroactive tax on profits from products previously subsidized by the Central Bank (such as fuel and pharmaceuticals). Other suspended items include allowing the Lebanese University, Lebanon’s sole public higher learning institution, to freely set its fees, managing State property lease tenders, mokhtar stamp prices. While being the first budget passed on time in nearly 20 years, the 2024 finance law faced criticism for including several riders, lacking socio-economic vision and imposing excessive levies, resulting in appeals to the constitutional council by several parliamentary groups.
Years-old cluster munitions severely injured a shepherd near Jezzine (South Lebanon) on Saturday, L’Orient Today’s correspondent reported. The shepherd tending to his flock was left in critical condition with severe injuries to his hands, legs and various parts of his body, a Jezzine Governmental Hospital source told L’Orient Today’s correspondent. Unexploded cluster munitions and landmines continue to cause injuries across Lebanon. Last week, an explosion that injured three UN military observers and a language assistant was linked by Lebanese authorities to a landmine detonation.
Relatives of a recently deceased patient at the Dar al-Shifa hospital in Tripoli (North Lebanon) assaulted medical staff and broke equipment in response to her death, security and medical sources told L’Orient Today. The hospital source said it was taking legal action against the attackers after they injured three nurses. The Syndicate of Hospital Owners in Lebanon condemned the incident and blamed the Lebanese government’s laxity in response to previous such incidents.
At least 33,175 people have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7, according to the latest figures from the enclave’s health ministry. The Israeli army announced its withdrawal from southern Gaza, Khan Younis particularly, after months of fighting “to prepare for future operations,” AFP reported. An Al-Jazeera correspondent in southern Gaza described parts of Khan Younis as having “95 percent of residential buildings, infrastructure, and public facilities have been – not partially or severely – but completely destroyed.” After weeks of international organizations’ pleas for ramped-up aid to Gaza where levels of starvation continued to rise amid Israeli restrictions and the barriers to delivery imposed by fighting, Israel approved the opening of additional ports and crossings. The decision follows stern warnings from the US that it would shift its policy towards Israel if it makes no safeguards to protect civilians after an Israeli strike killed seven aid workers Monday.
In case you missed it, here’s our must-read story from over the weekend: “What fault has my 12-month-old daughter committed to deserve this?”
Compiled by Abbas Mahfouz