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Beirut, Lebanon – Before Israel’s war on Lebanon, Ali (full name withheld for safety reasons) lived in Haddatha, a village in the Bint Jbeil district in the south, about 12km (7.5 miles) from the border with Israel, surrounded by nature where agriculture was intrinsic to life.

Then came Israel’s “hellfire”.

At least nine people were killed and some 3,000 injured, including the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon, when thousands of pagers exploded, nearly simultaneously, overwhelming hospitals on September 17, 2024.

Six days later, Israel escalated its attacks across the south, killing nearly 600 people, in what was the country’s deadliest day since the country’s ruinous civil war ended in 1990, and displacing more than one million people.

“Our house was destroyed,” he told Al Jazeera. Ali took refuge in a town about 20km (12.5 miles) north of Haddatha, called Burj Qalaway.

But more than a year later, he is yet to return home despite a ceasefire. He is one of tens of thousands who are still displaced from their homes around Lebanon and who say that what little they have received in support from the Lebanese state or Hezbollah is not enough to rebuild their lives or homes destroyed during the war.

South ‘not safe’

On November 27, 2024, a ceasefire came into effect between Hezbollah and Israel. The agreement brought to an end more than a year of cross-border attacks and a two-month-long Israeli intensification that killed thousands in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and devastated civilian infrastructure.

Under the ceasefire, cross-border attacks were supposed to stop, Hezbollah was to withdraw north of the Litani River, which runs across south Lebanon, and Israel was to withdraw troops that had invaded south Lebanon in October.

Israel, however, never stopped attacking. Its army still occupies five points in southern Lebanon, and during the ceasefire, it razed several villages to the ground.

An estimated 1.2 million people, more than a quarter of the Lebanese population, had been displaced during the war. On the morning of November 27, hundreds of thousands of people streamed south to their villages to return home. But tens of thousands more have been left behind and are still unable to go home.

“The south is not safe,” Ali said. “I am afraid that I might be walking somewhere and a raid will attack a car next to me.”

Israeli attacks continue across the south and the Bekaa Valley in the east on a near-daily basis, with the Lebanese government counting more than 2,000 Israeli violations of the 2024 ceasefire deal in the last three months of 2025.

Ali is not alone. The International Organization for Migration estimates that more than 64,000 people are still internally displaced in Lebanon, according to figures compiled in October 2025.

Entire villages ‘razed’

Some of the 64,000 cannot return to their homes along the border region with Israel. Israeli soldiers still hold five points on Lebanese territory, managing large swaths of south Lebanon through violence and technology: using drones, air raids, shelling or gunfire. Since the ceasefire, Israel has killed more than 330 people in Lebanon, including at least 127 civilians.

Melina*, from Odaisseh, a village on the southern border, lived most of her life in Nabatieh. During the war, she was displaced to Sidon, a southern city about 44km (27 miles) south of Beirut.

“I haven’t been able to visit my village,” she told Al Jazeera. “Psychologically, I can’t bear to see our house, which was completely destroyed, and the entire village was razed to the ground.”

“The security situation remains extremely dangerous,” she said. “You could be shot at by the Israeli side at any moment, and it’s unsafe to travel without a Lebanese army escort.”

Ali runs a market in Burj Qalaway, but he says the income is not enough to rebuild his home. There are also other concerns. Israel has attacked reconstruction equipment in southern Lebanon, drawing criticism from human rights groups.

“Amid the ceasefire, Israeli forces have carried out attacks that unlawfully target reconstruction-related equipment and facilities,” Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch, said in a December 2025 report. “After reducing many of Lebanon’s southern border towns to rubble, the Israeli military is now making it much more difficult for tens of thousands of residents to rebuild their destroyed homes and return to their towns.”

Some Lebanese also fear a renewed Israeli offensive similar to the one in 2024.

‘Couldn’t see 2cm in front of me’

On July 30, 2024, at about 7:40pm, Ramez* was sitting in his bedroom at home in Haret Hreik, a neighbourhood in Beirut’s southern suburbs referred to locally as Dahiyeh, an area often targeted in the past by Israel for the Hezbollah presence there.

His cats were roaming around the room, and he was busy on his phone when he heard loud explosions.

The war had been raging in the south, but attacks on Beirut and its suburbs were not yet as common. “I heard more than nine bangs,” Ramez said. He ran out of his bedroom to help his family evacuate. He left his door open, he said, so his cats could escape. While telling his mother to grab her things, he heard the loudest bang.

“The whole neighbouring building just collapsed and fell on us,” he said. Israel had just levelled the building next to his, killing Fuad Shukr, a top Hezbollah commander.

“I couldn’t see 2cm in front of me because of the fog and the dust.”

Ramez’s family escaped unscathed, though their house was badly damaged and his sister’s car was destroyed. His cats also survived. He found them the next day.

“I always wondered how people just go through something like this and just move on, saying, OK, Alhamdulillah, everyone is alive,” he says, though, “at that point I kind of understood it”.

Since the end of the war, he has been able to return to his family home in Haret Hreik. But his family had to pay for most of the reconstruction themselves, with little help from the government or any group.

They registered with the government for assistance but said they received only a one-time payment of 30 million Lebanese pounds (a little more than $330).

Hezbollah also sent engineers to assess the damage. In December 2024, the Reuters news agency reported that Hezbollah would pay about $77m and rent to families affected by war. Some locals said payments from the group helped a bit, but others said it had stopped paying nonmembers or tried to undervalue their losses.

“They were very stingy with payments,” Ramez said. “They tried to make us accept low payments, but my mom stood her ground and said it is enough.”

Other people who were displaced by the war told Al Jazeera that the aid provided by the state and Hezbollah was very limited.

War is ‘most terrible’

Reports are mixed over Hezbollah’s financial capability, and it is difficult to determine how badly they have been hit financially after the group’s political and military leadership was devastated by 2024’s war and suffered several Israeli assassinations, including their longtime charismatic leader, Hassan Nasrallah.

The fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria also dealt Hezbollah a serious blow, disrupting the land route to its main benefactor, Iran – itself now reeling from deadly protests and bracing for a possible US attack. The group is under immense pressure from the Lebanese government to disarm, with the United States and Israel applying pressure.

Further compounding the crisis is the fact that Lebanon is now almost seven years into one of the worst economic crises in more than 150 years, according to the World Bank. This has hit locals hard, with many having their bank accounts frozen and the currency devaluing by more than 90 percent.

This has left many of the displaced feeling abandoned and unsure of how to continue.

There were violent Israeli air raids in the south on Saturday, which continued on Sunday. In the meantime, people like Ali have to continue figuring out ways to survive as their displacement carries on well past the one-year mark.

“We love life, but the situation is not good. Wars break your back,” Ali said. “War is the most terrible thing in the world.”

*Real names withheld for safety reasons.

Joao Sousa contributed to this report.

The Kremlin says it’s agreed to halt attacks on Kyiv and surrounding towns until February 1, after a request from US President Donald Trump pointing to the ‘record-setting cold’ gripping the region. Many Ukrainians have no heating, after Russian attacks on power infrastructure.

A writer for a right-wing website asked the White House spokesperson a leading question about the killing of Alex Pretti by immigration agents in Minnesota, prompting an attack on the “liberal biased media.”

Mérida, January 26, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Delegates from governments, parliaments, and social movements across the globe gathered in Bogotá, Colombia, on January 25 for the inaugural “Nuestra América” summit.

Convened by the Progressive International at the San Carlos Palace, the emergency congress aimed to establish a unified strategy against what participants described as a “rapidly escalating assault” on Latin American sovereignty.

The high-level meeting, featuring 90 people from more than 20 countries, took place against a backdrop of heightened regional tensions and the Trump administration’s express intent to impose its dictates in the Western hemisphere.

The summit was triggered by the events of January 3, when US forces launched “Operation Absolute Resolve,” involving targeted bombings in Caracas and surrounding areas. The attacks killed over 100 people and drew near-universal condemnation from progressive forces who blasted the operation as a flagrant violation of the UN Charter.

The military incursion saw special forces kidnap Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores. The pair will face trial in New York on charges including narco-trafficking conspiracy, to which both pleaded not guilty during the arraignment hearing on January 5. Venezuelan officials have repeatedly denounced the kidnapping and demanded Maduro and Flores’ release and return.

The “San Carlos Declaration,” adopted at the close of the Bogotá summit on Sunday, characterized the current moment as a “new age of colonial violence” driven by a “revived Monroe Doctrine and a new ‘Trump Corollary’”.

The text asserted that “the defense of sovereignty in the hemisphere is inseparable from the defense of international law at the global level,” calling for a “coordinated international solidarity” to halt US coercive actions.

“We, the delegates at the inaugural convening of Nuestra América in Bogotá, Colombia, affirm the shared horizon of: a hemisphere that governs itself, defends its peoples, and speaks in its own voice,” the document read. Delegates committed to a “common strategy” to “project Nuestra América as a force for sovereignty and solidarity.”

The gathering featured high-level bilateral exchanges, as well as working groups led by grassroots movements. The final statement emphasized the importance of popular power to defend working-class interests and build international solidarity.

In the coming weeks, the “Nuestra América” movement plans to intensify its diplomatic activity, with a second major meeting already scheduled to take place in Havana, Cuba.

Code Pink’s Latin America coordinator Michelle Ellner attended the Bogotá summit and told Venezuelanalysis that it is urgent to confront a US project of “hemispheric domination that combines military intervention, lawfare, and repression.”

“No country or movement alone can confront the US military and financial apparatus,” she argued. “But together, states, peoples and social movements can continue building an anti-imperialist movement that can sustain those who are currently fighting politically.”

Ellner noted that progressive movements have historically been fractured but that they need to go from “reaction to action.” The Venezuelan-US organizer explained that Code Pink and allied groups are coordinating legislative pressure and mobilizations within the US to challenge the “normalization of intervention.”

Acting government promotes “coexistence and peace”

In Venezuela, Acting President Delcy Rodríguez launched the “Program for Democratic Coexistence and Peace” on Friday during a televised broadcast.

According to Rodríguez, the initiative seeks to “heal the fractures” caused by political violence and “eradicate expressions of hate” that threaten national stability in the wake of the US’ recent attacks and threats.

The program is overseen by a diverse committee led by Minister of Culture Ernesto Villegas alongside several other cabinet members, former business leader Ricardo Cusanno, and various social activists. 

The acting president emphasized the need for political dialogue among different Venezuelan political forces without meddling from Washington and other foreign actors. The government announced plans to present a new law to the National Assembly to institutionalize the initiative.

In recent weeks, Venezuelan judicial authorities have likewise released opposition agents, some of them having been accused of treason and terrorism, as well as people accused of involvement in the unrest that followed the July 2024 presidential elections. Caracas has reported 626 released and invited the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to accompany the process.

Edited by Ricardo Vaz in Caracas.

At least five health centres in the Lubero territory of the North Kivu region were shut down following persistent attacks and civilian killings by the Ugandan Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

On the night of Jan. 21,  the rebels killed five civilians, injured many others, and destroyed at least ten houses during an attack that took place in the Mavwe-Mavwe village. 

Congolese officials revealed that the health centres recently shut down include Mausa, Pombi, Mandelya, Musenge, and the Masoya referral health facility, which was closed last week. The awful situation intensifies the dire humanitarian crisis in the region, which is heavily impacted by insecurity.

Some civil society organisations have expressed concerns over the authorities’ silence amid persistent insecurity, which has paralysed all socio-economic activities within the Baswagha chiefdom, leaving the people feeling completely abandoned.

“In view of the situation we are passing through, we think the nurses have very much helped the population. Already, members of armed groups and their wives receive medical treatment free of charge. The pressure on the Biambwe health centre has forced our nurses to close down our structure. That complicates the lives of the population, because all the health facilities have closed their doors in Mandelia, Pombi, Mausa, Masoya, and Musenge. They have locked themselves everywhere,” said Kambale Muthano, the leader of the Congolese New Civil Society.

Kambale noted that the civil society community has no issues with health agents. He said their main demand from the government is to guarantee the safety of the populations, including healthcare facilities, so that health professionals can work under suitable conditions.

Amid the ongoing crisis, however, health professionals have made an urgent appeal to military authorities to intervene and reactivate “Operation Shujaa”, a joint military effort between the Congolese army and the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF).

Since 2024, the Mwenye tribal group in the North Kivu region has been gripped by chronic instability marked by the massacre of civilians, massive displacement of populations, the closure of schools, and health facilities. A similar incident occurred in 2022 when eighteen healthcare facilities in Kamango were shut down due to repeated attacks by the  Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels, leaving civilians at risk. 

Lebanese government says it documented 2,036 Israeli breaches of Lebanon’s sovereignty in the last three months of 2025.

Lebanon has filed a complaint with the United Nations about repeated Israeli violations of a November 2024 ceasefire, calling on the Security Council to push Israel to end its attacks and fully withdraw from the country.

The Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants said the complaint, sent on Monday, stressed that Israeli abuses are a “clear” violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended a war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006.

The ministry said it called on the 15-member body to compel Israel to “completely withdraw to beyond the internationally recognised borders”, end its repeated violations of Lebanon’s sovereignty and release Lebanese prisoners it is holding.

“The complaint included three tables detailing Israeli violations of Lebanese sovereignty on a daily basis during the months of October, November and December 2025. The number of these violations amounted to 542, 691 and 803 respectively, totaling 2,036 violations,” it added.

The complaint was made a day after Israel launched a wave of air strikes across Lebanon, killing at least two people.

Despite the 2024 ceasefire, the Israeli military has been launching near-daily attacks in Lebanon, which have killed hundreds of people. In November last year, the UN put the number of civilians killed in Israeli attacks at at least 127.

Israel also continues to occupy five points within Lebanese territory as it blocks the reconstruction of several border villages that it levelled to the ground, preventing tens of thousands of displaced people from returning to their homes.

Meanwhile, Israel is estimated to be holding more than a dozen Lebanese prisoners, including Hezbollah fighters and civilians who were taken from border villages in 2024. Israel has resisted calls to submit a list of the Lebanese citizens it is holding, leaving the fate of many missing people in southern Lebanon in limbo.

Israeli forces have also repeatedly opened fire at peacekeepers in the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in southern Lebanon.

The Foreign Ministry in Beirut said on Monday that “it called for pressure to be exerted on Israel to stop its attacks on UNIFIL, which continues to make the ultimate sacrifices to bring security and stability to the region.”

Lebanon has filed similar complaints to the UN in the past, but Israeli attacks have not relented.

On Monday, Israeli drones dropped two stun grenades in the southern village of Odaisseh, Lebanese news outlets reported.

Israel had severely weakened Hezbollah in an all-out war late in 2024, killing most of the group’s military and political leaders. Israel’s campaign has helped it establish a new balance of power and allowed it to launch regular assaults in Lebanon without a response.

Meanwhile, the Lebanese government has been pushing to disarm Hezbollah.

This month, Beirut said it had completed the removal of the group’s weapons south of the Litani River, 28km (17 miles) from the Israeli border.

Despite that announcement, Israeli air strikes have continued both south and north of the Litani.

Hezbollah has tacitly agreed to disarmament south of the Litani in accordance with UN Resolution 1701, but it has warned that it will not completely give up its weapons, arguing that they are necessary to stop Israel’s expansionism.

The next phase of the Lebanese government’s plan to remove Hezbollah’s weapons will target the region about 40km (25 miles) north of the Litani River to the Awali River.