Lebanon

Hezbollah has called for Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanese territory before any discussion on disarmament.

Hezbollah supporters have gathered in the Lebanese capital to protest against the group’s disarmament ahead of a government cabinet meeting on the issue.

The demonstrations occurred in Beirut on Monday night amid pressure by the United States on Lebanon to get Hezbollah to lay down its arms.

Hezbollah emerged weakened from a war with Israel last year that eliminated most of the group’s leadership, killed thousands of its fighters, and left tens of thousands of its supporters displaced from their destroyed homes.

In recent months, the US and Lebanon have been holding talks on a roadmap for disarmament. Lebanon’s new leadership has pledged to extend its authority across all its territory, but has so far avoided acting against Hezbollah.

Hezbollah supporters protested because they believe disarmament will have implications for their political standing and security, said Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr.

“Hezbollah has made its position clear: it will not disarm because to do so would serve Israel’s interests, not Lebanon’s sovereignty,” said Khodr, reporting from Beirut.

Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem has told the country’s leadership that the group feels blackmailed – that if they don’t disarm, they will not be given funds for reconstruction, she reported.

Ahead of Tuesday’s cabinet meeting, Hezbollah, through Lebanese MP Ali Fayyad, reiterated its demand that the issues of Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanese territory, the release of Lebanese prisoners, and the cessation of hostilities take place before any discussion on disarmament, Lebanon’s National News (NNA) agency reported.

By force?

Lebanon’s political leadership, however, is pushing for the move – even if it may come by force.

“If there is a cost to be able to centralise the weapons with the … Lebanese armed forces, [it may be] better like that,” Elias Hankash, another member of the Lebanese parliament, told Al Jazeera.

“But everything has been done so far … to avoid any clash with Hezbollah.”

The Lebanese army will take on Hezbollah if and when there’s a political decision to disarm the group by force, Khodr said.

“I call on all political parties to approach the issue of arms control with full responsibility,” Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun said on Friday, also stating that the issue of disarmament is sensitive due to sectarian divisions, with consequences for national peace.

In 2008, a government decision to dismantle the group’s telecommunication network led to street violence.

Lebanon’s Agriculture Minister Nizar Hani told NNA that the president has set a clear timetable for the disarmament process. He added that the Lebanese army has already taken over hundreds of Hezbollah sites and weapons depots.

Hani stressed that the group is a part of the “Lebanese fabric” and has played a major role in “liberating the land,” but “the next phase requires that the state alone be the decision maker of war and peace”.

Hezbollah was the most powerful military and political actor in Lebanon for years, and while it lost some military capabilities in its conflict last year with Israel, it has not been defeated entirely, Khodr said.

“Hezbollah is still strong in the state because of the monopoly [it has] over Shia representation as well as the appointment of key figures in all of the states,” Mark Daou, another MP, told Al Jazeera.

Lebanon’s political landscape and society have long been divided with differing views on Hezbollah’s role and the need for disarmament.

The issue has dominated Lebanese politics for decades, but there is now a sense of urgency with increasing international pressure – as well as increasing military pressure from Israel, which regularly targets Hezbollah despite the ceasefire between the two since November 2024.

“The government is now expected to formally commit to disarming Hezbollah, a decision that could at the least ignite a political crisis,” said Khodr.

Hundreds gathered in Beirut to mark five years since the deadly port explosion that killed over 218 people, renewing calls for justice and accountability. Protesters urged Lebanon’s leaders to act, hoping the stalled judicial investigation will soon be completed.

When 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate exploded in Beirut’s port on August 4, 2020, it ripped through the city, killing more than 218 people. Among them was three-year-old Alexandra Naggear.

Five years later, the investigation into who is at fault for the blast has been delayed, and at times derailed, by political interference.

“The most important thing for us is not for the decision, but for full justice to happen,” Tracy Naggear, Alexandra’s mother and a key activist advocating for the blast’s victims, told Al Jazeera by phone. “And we won’t accept a half-truth or half-justice.”

As the fifth anniversary of the tragedy approaches, there is some optimism that the judicial investigation is finally moving in the right direction after facing obstacles, mostly from well-connected politicians refusing to answer questions and the former public prosecutor blocking the investigation.

A decision from the lead prosecutor is expected soon, activists and legal sources familiar with the matter told Al Jazeera. And while the road to justice is still long, for the first time, there is a feeling that momentum is building.

Justice derailed

“You can feel a positive atmosphere [this time],” lawyer Tania Daou-Alam told Al Jazeera.

Daou-Alam now lives in the United States, but is in Lebanon for the annual commemoration of the blast, which includes protests and a memorial.

Her husband of 20 years, Jean-Frederic Alam, was killed by the blast, which was one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in modern history.

Daou-Alam is also one of nine victims suing the US-based company TGS in a Texas court for $250m, claiming it was involved in chartering the Rhosus, a Moldovan-flagged ship that carried the ammonium nitrate into Beirut’s port in 2013.

She told Al Jazeera that the case is more about  “demanding accountability and access to documents that would shed more light on the broader chain of responsibility” than it is about compensation.

The population of Beirut is used to facing crises without government help. Numerous bombings and assassinations have occurred, with the state rarely, if ever, holding anyone accountable.

Frustration and a sense of abandonment by the state, the political system, and the individuals who benefit from it already boiled over into an uprising in October 2019, less than a year before the blast.

In the immediate aftermath of the explosion, residents cleaned up the city themselves. Politicians who came for photo opportunities were chased out by angry citizens, and mutual aid filled the gap left by the state.

The end of Lebanon’s 15-year civil war in 1990 set the tone for the impunity that has plagued the country ever since. Experts and historians say militia leaders traded their fatigues for suits, pardoned each other, awarded themselves ministries and began rerouting the country’s resources to their personal coffers.

Preliminary investigations found that the explosion was caused by ammonium nitrate stored at Beirut port in improper conditions for six years.

They also found that many top officials, including then-President Michel Aoun, had been informed of the ammonium nitrate’s presence, but chose not to act.

Judge Fadi Sawan was chosen to lead the full investigation in August 2020, but found himself sidelined after calling some notable politicians for questioning. Two ministers he charged with negligence asked that the case be transferred to another judge.

A court decision, seen by Reuters, claimed that because Sawan’s house had been damaged in the blast, he would not be impartial.

Replacing him in February 2021 was Judge Tarek Bitar. Like Sawan, Judge Bitar called major political figures in for questioning and later issued arrest warrants for them. Among them are Ali Hassan Khalil and Ghazi Zeiter, close allies of Lebanon’s Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri, who still refuse to respond to Judge Bitar’s requests and claim they have parliamentary immunity.

Despite much popular support, many of Judge Bitar’s efforts were impeded, with Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces at times refusing to execute warrants and the former Court of Cassation public prosecutor, Ghassan Oueidat, ordering his investigation halted.

A new era

In early 2025, Lebanon elected a new president, Joseph Aoun, and a new prime minister, Nawaf Salam.

In their inaugural addresses, both spoke about the importance of finding justice for the victims of the port explosion.

“The current justice minister seems determined to go all the way, and he has promised that the judge will no longer face any hurdles and that the ministry will provide all help required,” Karim Emile Bitar, a Lebanese political analyst with no relation to the judge investigating the port explosion, told Al Jazeera.

Human Rights Watch reported in January 2025 that Judge Bitar had resumed his investigation, “after two years of being stymied by Lebanese authorities”.

On July 29, Salam issued a memorandum declaring August 4 a day of national mourning. On July 17, Aoun met with the families of victims killed in the explosion.

“My commitment is clear: We must uncover the whole truth and hold accountable those who caused this catastrophe,” Aoun said.

Oueidat, the former public prosecutor, was replaced by Judge Jamal Hajjar in an acting capacity in 2024, before being confirmed as his successor in April 2025.

In March 2025, Hajjar reversed Oueidat’s decisions and allowed Judge Bitar to continue his investigation.

Legal experts and activists have been pleased by the progress.

“Actual individuals implicated in the case are showing up to interrogations,” Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch, told Al Jazeera. Among them are Tony Saliba, the former director-general of State Security, Abbas Ibrahim, former director-general of the General Directorate of General Security, and Hassan Diab, prime minister at the time of the explosion.

But this is still not enough for those wanting justice to be served after five years of battles, activists and experts note.

“We are asking for laws that are able to protect and support the judiciary and the appointments of vacant judge [posts], so these things will show the government is on our side this time,” Daou-Alam said.

Even with the new government pushing for accountability, some are still trying to disrupt the process.

Hassan Khalil and Zeiter still refuse to appear before Judge Bitar, and a fight has emerged over the country’s judicial independence.

“We can only get justice if the judiciary acts independently so that they can go after individuals and so the security services can act independently without political interference,” Kaiss said.

Time for accountability

The last few years have been a turbulent period of myriad crises for Lebanon.

A banking collapse robbed many people of their savings and left the country in a historic economic crisis. Amid that and the COVID-19 pandemic came the blast, and international organisations and experts hold the Lebanese political establishment responsible.

“The time has come to send a signal to Lebanese public opinion that some of those responsible, even if they are in high positions, will be held accountable,” political analyst Bitar said.

“Accountability would be the first step for the Lebanese in Lebanon and the diaspora to regain trust,” he said, “and without trust, Lebanon will not be able to recover.”

Still, Bitar maintained, progress on the port blast dossier doesn’t mean every answer will come to the forefront.

“This crime was so huge that, like many similar crimes in other countries, sometimes it takes years and decades, and we never find out what really happened,” he said.

Blast victim Tracy Naggear noted that “[our] fight… is mainly for our daughter, for Alexandra, of course”.

“But we are [also] doing it for all the victims and for our country,” she said. ‘[It’s] for every single person that has been touched by the 4th of August, from a simple scratch to a broken window.”

Despite US pressure, Hezbollah has rejected calls for its disarmament, saying that to do so would be ‘serving the Israeli project’.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has reiterated calls for Hezbollah to hand over its weapons to the army, a move rejected by the group despite growing pressure from Israel’s main ally, the United States.

In a televised speech on Thursday at the Defence Ministry’s headquarters, Aoun said authorities were demanding “the extension of the Lebanese state’s authority over all its territory, the removal of weapons from all armed groups, including Hezbollah and their handover to the Lebanese army”.

He added it was every party’s duty “to seize this historic opportunity and push without hesitation towards affirming the army and security forces’ monopoly on weapons over all Lebanese territory … in order to regain the world’s confidence”.

Aoun’s comments came a day after Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem dismissed calls for the group’s disarmament, saying that “anyone calling today for the surrender of weapons, whether internally or externally, on the Arab or the international stage, is serving the Israeli project”.

Hezbollah officials have said they will not discuss giving up the group’s remaining arsenal until Israel, with which it fought an all-out war recently, withdraws from all of Lebanon and ends its strikes.

“For the thousandth time, I assure you that my concern in having a [state] weapons monopoly comes from my concern to defend Lebanon’s sovereignty and borders, to liberate the occupied Lebanese territories and build a state that welcomes all its citizens”, said Aoun on Thursday, addressing Hezbollah’s supporters as an “essential pillar” of society.

The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah began on October 8, 2023, as the Lebanese group launched strikes in solidarity with the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza, which was coming under Israeli attack. Although a ceasefire was reached last November, Israel has kept up its air attacks on Lebanon and has threatened to continue until Hezbollah has been disarmed.

Under the terms of the ceasefire, Hezbollah was to withdraw its fighters north of the Litani River, about 30km (20 miles) from the Israeli border. Israel, meanwhile, was meant to pull all of its troops out of Lebanon, but has kept them in five areas it deems strategic.

Aoun in his speech also demanded the withdrawal of Israeli troops, the release of Lebanese prisoners and “an immediate cessation of Israeli hostilities”.

“Today, we must choose between collapse and stability,” he said.

Lebanon presents proposal for Hezbollah disarmament

The ceasefire was based on a previous United Nations Security Council resolution that said only the Lebanese military and UN peacekeepers should possess weapons in the country’s south, and that all non-state groups should be disarmed.

However, that resolution went unfulfilled for years, with the Iran-backed political party and armed group’s arsenal before the latest war seen as far superior to the army’s, and the group wielding extensive political influence.

The US has been pushing Lebanon to issue a formal cabinet decision committing to disarm Hezbollah before talks can resume on a halt to Israeli military operations in the country, five sources familiar with the matter told the Reuters news agency.

Lebanon has proposed modifications to “ideas” submitted by the US on Hezbollah’s disarmament, Aoun said in his speech, and a plan would be discussed at a cabinet meeting next week to “establish a timetable for implementation”.

Under the Lebanese proposal, there would be an “immediate cessation of Israeli hostilities” in Lebanon, including air strikes and targeted killing, a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon and the release of Lebanese prisoners held in Israel, the president added.

Aoun said Lebanon’s proposal also calls for international donors to contribute $1bn annually for 10 years to beef up the Lebanese army’s capabilities and for an international donor conference to raise funds in the autumn for reconstruction of Lebanese areas damaged and destroyed during last year’s war between Israel and Hezbollah.

Lebanon, for its part, would implement the “withdrawal of the weapons of all armed forces, including Hezbollah, and their surrender to the Lebanese Army”, he said.

Israel’s government seems able to act however it pleases with few consequences. But will short-term military gains outweigh regional and international isolation? Al Jazeera’s Abubakr Al-Shamahi explains.

The trailblazing artist, son of legendary Fairuz and composer Assi Rahbani, was also a playwright, pianist and political provocateur.

Lebanese musician and composer Ziad Rahbani, son of the iconic singer Fairuz and a pioneer of fusion jazz, has died at the age of 69 of a heart attack.

“On Saturday at 9:00am, the heart of the great artist and creator Ziad Rahbani stopped beating,” said a statement from the hospital where he was being treated in the capital, Beirut, on Saturday.

Rahbani influenced generations of Lebanese people with his songs and especially his plays, whose lines are known by heart by both young and old.

He was the son of Fairuz, the last living legend of Arabic song – and one of the most famous Arab women worldwide – and composer Assi Rahbani, who, along with his brother Mansour, modernised Arabic song by blending classical Western, Russian, and Latin American pieces with Middle Eastern rhythms.

“I admire the music of composers like Charlie Parker, Stan Getz and Dizzy Gillespie,” Rahbani once said. “But my music is not Western, it’s Lebanese, with a different way of expression.”

Fairouz also became an icon for young people when Rahbani composed songs for her influenced by jazz rhythms – he called it “oriental jazz”.

Lebanon’s leaders paid a heartfelt tribute to the Lebanese composer, who was also a playwright, pianist and political provocateur.

President Joseph Aoun called Rahbani “a living conscience, a voice that rebelled against injustice, and a sincere mirror of the oppressed and marginalised”.

“Lebanon has lost an exceptional and creative artist, a free voice that remained faithful to the values of justice and dignity” and who said “what many did not dare to say”, said Prime Minister Nawaf Salam.

Rahbani’s works reflected the hybrid heritage of Lebanon, which, until the civil war erupted in 1975, was a cultural melting pot. It also reflected the ensuing sectarian strife, which involved bloody street battles between rival militias and three years of violent Israeli occupation after the 1982 invasion.

While Fairuz transcended the powerful sectarian divides in the country, her son chose to be resolutely left-wing and secular, denouncing Lebanon’s longstanding divisions. His breakout play, Nazl el-Sourour (Happiness Hotel), premiered in 1974 when he was only 17, portrayed a society disfigured by class inequality and repression.

The play follows a group of workers who take over a restaurant to demand their rights, only to be dismissed by the political elite.

In another play, Bennesbeh Labokra Chou? (What About Tomorrow?), he plays a jaded bar pianist in post-civil war Beirut. The work features some of Rahbani’s most poignant music and biting commentary, including the famous line, “They say tomorrow will be better, but what about today?”

Rahbani was also a composer of staggering range. He infused traditional Arabic melodies with jazz, funk and classical influences, creating a hybrid sound that became instantly recognisable. His live performances were legendary, when he often played piano in smoky clubs in Hamra, one of Beirut’s major commercial districts.

In recent years, Rahbani appeared less in the public eye, but younger generations rediscovered his plays online and sampled his music in protest movements. He continued to compose and write, speaking often of his frustration with Lebanon’s political stagnation and decaying public life.

“I feel like everything is over, I feel like Lebanon has become empty,” wrote Lebanese actress Carmen Lebbos, his former partner, on X.

Rahbani is survived by his mother, now 90, his sister Reema and brother Hali.

Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon – Fatima Kandeel, 43, and her two sons moved into a new rented apartment in the southern suburbs of Beirut in March.

They had been staying with her sister Aida nearby for four months after a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon had stopped the worst, but not all, of Israel’s attacks on Lebanon, and it felt good to have their own place.

In their barely furnished living room in Laylake, Dahiyeh, with only two armchairs and a shisha pipe between them, the walls make clear where the family stands.

A framed photo of slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah hangs beside a martyr’s portrait of Fatima’s 21-year-old nephew, a Hezbollah fighter killed in an Israeli air strike in Jnoub in October.

In the rubble, scraps of home

When the war in Gaza began on October 7, 2023, Hezbollah declared its support for Palestine and escalated tensions along the Israel-Lebanon border for about a year until Israel invaded and launched full-scale war.

The suburbs of Dahiyeh have been repeatedly targeted in Israeli strikes as it is widely recognised as a Hezbollah stronghold.

The family’s previous home in Dahiyeh’s Hay el-Selom, a 10-minute walk from Laylake, was destroyed by an Israeli air strike in October.

Yet Fatima was warm and hopeful in early June, her hazel eyes still smiling from below her hijab while recounting the pain of loss, displacement and hardship.

Energetic and confident, she spoke expressively, using her hands as if she were on stage.

Like many Lebanese hosts, she offered drinks and an invitation for lunch while chatting about what it was like to feel under attack in Dahiyeh and whether that changed her relationship with her neighbourhood.

After her family’s home was destroyed and they fled to Aida’s, Fatima said, her sons, 24-year-old Hassan and 20-year-old Hussein, managed to salvage two wardrobes and a bed from the rubble along with other scraps from their lives there.

Proud of that small victory, Fatima flung open the bedroom doors to show off the two wardrobes restored to the point where it would be hard to guess they had been in a bombing. The rescued bed is used by one of her sons after getting new slats and a new lease on life.

“These are the most important pieces of furniture in the house,” she said, gently running her hand over one of the damaged surfaces.

“They’re historical [because they survived]. I was so happy we got them back.”

Hassan and Hussein found more in the rubble of their home: a stuffed toy that Hassan used to play with and a few of the books from their mother’s library.

As she spoke, Fatima held the stuffed toy in her hands, smiling and looking at it. Hussein was quietly observing his mother as she shared her thoughts.

“He used to sleep with it beside him every night,” Fatima recalled. “I couldn’t save much from their childhood after my divorce, but I kept this, and now it survived the war too.”

In her bedroom, a small table holds a stack of books about history, religion and culture – a fragment of what she once owned.

Scars, visible and invisible

From the living room balcony, the scars of war are visible. The top floors of a neighbouring building have been destroyed, the lower floors still standing – a daily reminder of what was lost.

Yet Fatima holds Dahiyeh dear and is determined to stay.

“I love the people here,” she said. “Everyone is kind. … Dahiyeh is home.”

Hussein agreed that he feels most at home in Dahiyeh with its strong sense of community and friends and neighbours all around.

During the war, he struggled emotionally, constantly stressed and getting into fights. He has seen two therapists but hasn’t felt much improvement.

Unlike his mother, Hussein is open to the idea of leaving Dahiyeh, but he pointed out practicalities – rents and the overall cost of living outside Dahiyeh are much higher if they could find a place to rent.

And, he said, they could face sectarian discrimination if they relocate.

The family had to leave Dahiyeh briefly during Israel’s war on Lebanon and sought shelter in the nearby coastal Beirut suburb of Jnah. Fatima still carries a painful memory from that time.

A Jnah grocery store owner snidely remarked: “Look at those trashy Shia people,” as he looked at newly arrived families dressed in the slippers and pyjamas they fled in.

The comment left a scar, and she refuses to leave Dahiyeh again.

“If war comes again, what do you teach the next generation?” she asked. “That it’s OK to give up your home? Or that you stand your ground?”

‘If it were just me, I’d stay’

While Fatima has chosen to stay in Dahiyeh, her 55-year-old sister, Iman, wants to leave.

Iman lives with her husband, Ali, a plastering foreman, and their four children: Hassan, 25, a programmer; Fatima, 19, a university student; and 16-year-old twins Mariam and Marwa, both in school.

All the children still share a single bedroom in their modest but light and joyful home.

The living room was full of laughter as Iman sat with Mariam and Hassan, passing around chocolate and juice while cousins chatted in the background.

There was teasing as they shared memories of fear, displacement and resilience.

Dahiyeh has never been entirely safe. Its history has been shaped by the 1975-1990 Lebanese Civil War and Israeli assaults, including the devastating 2006 war.

It’s a cycle, Iman said – another war, another wave of fear and displacement. During Israel’s most recent war on Lebanon, the family fled multiple times.

They first went to Kayfoun village in the Mount Lebanon governorate in late September, but tensions there were high, and a local man spread rumours of imminent Israeli strikes, trying to scare displaced families away.

They left Kayfoun after a week and fled to Tripoli in the north, where life was quieter and the presence of nearby relatives offered some comfort, but mistrust lingered.

Iman was often judged by her hijab, which marked her as “resistance-aligned” to people who blamed Hezbollah for Israel’s attacks on Lebanon.

“We all became introverts,” Hassan recalled. “We stayed home most of the time, but we had relatives nearby and met some good friends. We’d sit together, play cards. It helped.”

In early October, they followed friends to Iraq’s capital, Baghdad, where they were welcomed warmly – more warmly, they said, than in parts of Lebanon.

After the ceasefire, they returned. “There’s no place better than our country,” Iman insisted, but Dahiyeh does not feel safe to her any more despite her deep ties to the neighbourhood, so she is searching for a new home – anywhere that’s safer.

“If it were just me, I’d stay,” she said. “But I have kids. I have to protect them.”

‘They don’t rent to Shia families’

Iman’s son Hassan recalls the first time Israel bombed near their apartment – on April 1 in breach of the November ceasefire.

“I just wanted out,” he said. “I don’t care where we go. Just somewhere that isn’t a target.”

But finding a new place to rent is far from simple.

They considered moving to Hazmieh. It is close to Dahiyeh but not part of it, making it relatively safer. And it would be closer to Iman’s sister Mariam, who lives there.

But Iman said: “In Hazmieh, most of them don’t rent to Shia families, or they would double the price.”

Despite the mounting fear, the family does not want to leave Lebanon, and Hassan has turned down a job offer abroad. They’re exhausted, they said, but not ready to abandon their country.

Even in the midst of war, Hassan said, his parents did not want to leave Dahiyeh. He had to work on convincing them to go first to Kayfoun, then eventually Iraq.

It was the same after the ceasefire with long discussions about whether to leave, and it was his mother’s fear for her children that made her eventually agree.

But more than a month after they spoke to Al Jazeera in early June, they’re still searching for a place that will take them and that they can afford.

Georges Ibrahim Abdallah flown to Lebanon from France after incarceration ends.

France has released Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, a pro-Palestinian Lebanese fighter jailed since 1984, and put him on a flight to Beirut after he spent nearly four decades behind bars.

Shortly before 3:40am (01:30 GMT) on Friday, a convoy of six vehicles with flashing lights was seen leaving the Lannemezan prison in southern France, according to journalists with the AFP news agency on the ground. A source confirmed the 74-year-old had been freed and later boarded a flight to Lebanon.

Abdallah, who was convicted in 1987 for his role in the killings of United States military attache Charles Robert Ray and Israeli diplomat Yacov Barsimantov in Paris, had long been eligible for release. However, repeated applications were rejected, often due to pressure from the US, which was a civil party in Abdallah’s case.

Last month, the Paris Court of Appeal ruled in favour of his release, effective on Friday, on the condition that Abdallah leave French territory and never return.

His lawyer, Jean-Louis Chalanset, told AFP that the former fighter appeared “very happy” during their final visit “even though he knows he is returning to the Middle East in an extremely tough context for Lebanese and Palestinian populations”.

Abdallah, the founder of the now-defunct Lebanese Revolutionary Armed Factions, had declared during a recent visit by a lawmaker that he remained a “militant with a struggle”. French police uncovered submachine guns and communication equipment in one of his flats at the time of his arrest.

Abdallah has never expressed regret for his actions and has always insisted he is a “fighter” who has battled for the rights of Palestinians and is not a “criminal”.

The Paris court described his behaviour in prison as irreproachable and said in November that he posed “no serious risk in terms of committing new terrorism acts”.

The appeals court cited the length of Abdallah’s detention and his advanced age, calling his continued imprisonment “disproportionate”. In France, inmates serving life sentences are typically released after less than 30 years.

Abdallah’s family said they would greet him at Beirut’s airport before travelling to his hometown of Kobayat in northern Lebanon, where a reception has been planned.

BEIRUT, Lebanon, July 24 (UPI) — The United Nations has warned that war-torn Lebanon is at “a turning point” and must undertake urgent and immediate recovery efforts to avoid prolonging its six-year multifaceted crisis that has been exacerbated by the recent Israel-Hezbollah war, according to a U.N. report released Thursday.

The report, prepared by the United Nations Development Program and United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, in collaboration with other U.N. agencies, highlighted the devastating impact of the Israel-Hezbollah conflict — that began Oct. 8, 2023, and escalated in September 2024 — by examining its effects on Lebanon’s economy, infrastructure and society.

More than 4,285 people, including 292 children and 861 women, have been killed and some 17,200 wounded as of Jan. 9. Since the Nov. 27 cease-fire agreement took effect on Feb. 18, an additional 200 people, including civilians and Hezbollah operatives, also have been killed.

The war, moreover, displaced over 1.2 million people, damaged or destroyed nearly 64,000 buildings and disrupted education for hundreds of thousands of students, according to the U.N. report.

It indicated that micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, which make up 90% of Lebanon’s economy, were hit especially hard: 15% shut down permanently, 75% suspended operations during the war and nearly 30% lost their entire workforce.

In the most heavily bombed areas, up to 70% of businesses were forced to close permanently.

Moreover, about 500,000 students experienced severe educational disruptions during the war, with 69% of children out of school until the cease-fire. Child nutrition also reached critical levels, particularly in the eastern Baalbek-Hermel and Bekaa governorates, where more than 51% and 45% of children under the age of 2, respectively, suffered from severe food shortages.

Some 1.6 million people are expected to face high levels of acute food insecurity, including 928,000 Lebanese citizens, the report warned.

The proportion of Lebanese citizens living below the poverty line more than tripled between 2012 and 2022 — rising to 33% from 11% — and that the 2024 war, particularly in eastern and southern Lebanon, further exacerbated poverty.

Moreover, the war significantly deepened Lebanon’s labor market crisis. During the conflict, employment among private sector workers declined by 25%. In the areas most heavily affected by bombardments, 36% of workers lost their jobs, compared to 17% in regions less impacted. Even after the cease-fire, 14% of workers remained unemployed.

The report explained that the economic impact has been profound, with Lebanon’s economy contracting by 38% between 2019 and 2024, while the country’s Human Development Index fell back to 2010 levels; marking a 14-year setback caused by the compounded effects of the crisis and war.

Key sectors of the economy have been severely affected, including tourism, agriculture, manufacturing, trade and finance. The tourism sector has taken a significant hit, with its contribution to the economy in 2024 expected to have declined to just 5.5%.

“Lebanon is at a turning point,” said Blerta Aliko, the resident representative of the U.N. Development Program in Lebanon, emphasizing the need for Lebanon to shape “a nationally led recovery plan.”

Aliko said it was imperative that “state institutions are strong and well-equipped” to drive a sustainable and inclusive recovery process.

The report indicated that a reform-driven recovery could help reverse the economic decline, with projections estimating GDP growth of 8.2% in 2026 and 7.1% in 2027. However, even with these necessary reforms, GDP would remain 8.4% below its pre-crisis 2017 peak of $51.2 billion. To sustain recovery, key sectors such as agriculture, construction, tourism and manufacturing must be prioritized, it said.

It recommends the Lebanese government to focus on four key areas for its recovery: rebuilding and strengthening state institutions; revitalizing the economy and generating employment; restoring basic services and expanding social protection; and rehabilitating damaged environmental ecosystems.

Tarik Alami, the economic and social commission cluster leader on governance and prevention, said Lebanon continues to face a “polycrisis” that was made worse by the recent devastating war.

“This critical juncture calls for the urgent and accelerated implementation of essential reforms; particularly within public administration, as well as across socio-economic and financial sectors,” Alami said.

He emphasized that “the root causes of recurring hostilities along Lebanon’s southern border must be addressed decisively and sustainably,” in full accordance with international law and relevant U.N. resolutions.

The U.N. report noted that Lebanon’s path to recovery requires urgent, coordinated action between the government, donors, U.N. agencies and non-governmental organizations, while substantial financing will be required from domestic resources, private sector investments, international development assistance and foreign direct investment.

“Without immediate intervention, economic rebound will take longer, poverty will deepen, state institutions will further weaken and Lebanon’s social stability will be at risk,” it warned.

Last March, the World Bank estimated that Lebanon would need $11 billion for its reconstruction and recovery needs after the Israel-Hezbollah war.

However, any international or Arab financial support remains unlikely unless Lebanon implements the necessary reforms and fully disarms Hezbollah — a condition Israel has set as a prerequisite for halting its ongoing attacks on the country.

Knockback deals potential blow to US diplomat Thomas Barrack’s efforts to press on with ‘go-forward plan’ for Israel-Lebanon peace.

Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem appeared to dismiss a proposal that his group disarm, as presented by the United States to Lebanon’s leadership last month.

Qassem argued on Friday that the Israeli army would expand in Lebanon if there was no “resistance” in the country.

“We will not surrender or give up to Israel; Israel will not take our weapons away from us,” he said in a video message.

Qassem’s comments dealt a potential blow to US diplomat Thomas Barrack’s efforts last month to secure a deal between Lebanon and Israel that would involve disarmament of the Lebanese armed group.

Barrack, Washington’s ambassador to Turkiye and special envoy to Syria, had declared he was “unbelievably satisfied” earlier this month after receiving a response to his proposals from the Lebanese authorities, adding that a “go-forward plan” was in the works.

Lebanese leaders who took office after more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah have promised a state monopoly on bearing arms, while demanding Israel adhere to a ceasefire with the group reached last November.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said in an interview with Al Jadeed TV on Friday that fear of Israeli escalation was warranted, but that the US proposal was an “opportunity” that could lead to Israel’s withdrawal.

Salam acknowledged Hezbollah’s weapons played a leading role in liberating South Lebanon from Israel in 2000, but insisted that they must now be under the command of the Lebanese state.

Qassem, however, said Lebanon is facing an existential danger that should be prioritised over the issue of giving the state monopoly over using weapons.

“After we address that danger, we are ready to discuss a defence strategy or a national security strategy,” he said.

Hezbollah claims the Lebanese armed forces have failed to confront Israeli abuses since Israel’s inception in 1948.

‘Ready for a defensive confrontation’

Under the ceasefire, Hezbollah was to pull its fighters back north of the Litani River, some 30km (18 miles) from the Israeli frontier.

Israel was to withdraw its troops from Lebanon, but has kept them deployed in five areas that it deemed strategic and has breached the ceasefire on a near-daily basis with deadly strikes.

Israel dealt Hezbollah significant blows in last year’s war, assassinating its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, along with other commanders and destroying much of its arsenal.

Qassem appeared to acknowledge that Hezbollah was not in a position to hit back or attack Israeli troops occupying parts of South Lebanon.

But he said the group would not disarm under the threat of a renewed all-out war.

“We are proceeding, prepared and ready for a defensive confrontation,” the Hezbollah chief said.

Georges Ibrahim Abdallah’s prison release on July 25 is conditional: He must leave France and never return. 

A French court has ordered the release of pro-Palestinian Lebanese fighter Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, who has been imprisoned for 40 years for his role in the killings of two foreign diplomats in France in the early 1980s.

The Paris Appeals Court ordered on Thursday that Abdallah, 74, be freed from a prison in southern France on July 25 on the condition that he leave French territory and never return.

The former head of the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Brigade was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1987 for complicity in the 1982 murders of United States military attache Charles Robert Ray and Israeli diplomat Yacov Barsimantov in Paris and the attempted murder of US Consul General Robert Homme in Strasbourg in 1984.

First detained in 1984 and convicted in 1987, Abdallah is one of the longest serving prisoners in France as most prisoners serving life sentences are freed after less than 30 years.

The detainee’s brother, Robert Abdallah, told the AFP news agency in Lebanon on Thursday that he was overjoyed by the news.

“We’re delighted. I didn’t expect the French judiciary to make such a decision nor for him to ever be freed, especially after so many failed requests for release,” he was quoted as saying. “For once, the French authorities have freed themselves from Israeli and US pressures.”

Abdallah’s lawyer Jean-Louis Chalanset also welcomed the decision: “It’s both a judicial victory and a political scandal that he was not released earlier.”

Abdallah is expected to be deported to Lebanon.

Prosecutors may file an appeal with France’s highest court, the Court of Cassation, but it is not expected to be processed quickly enough to halt his release next week.

Abdallah has been up for release for 25 years, but the US – a civil party to the case – has consistently opposed his leaving prison. Lebanese authorities have repeatedly said Abdallah should be freed from jail and had written to the appeals court to say they would organise his return home to Beirut.

In November, a French court ordered his release on the condition Abdallah leaves France.

But French prosecutors, arguing that he had not changed his political views, appealed the decision, which was consequently suspended.

A verdict was supposed to have been delivered in February, but the Paris Appeals Court postponed it, saying it was unclear whether Abdallah had proof that he had paid compensation to the plaintiffs – something he has consistently refused to do.

The court re-examined the latest request for his release last month.

During the closed-door hearing, Chalanset told the judges that 16,000 euros ($18,535) had been placed in the prisoner’s bank account and were at the disposal of civil parties in the case, including the US.

Abdallah, who has never expressed regret for his actions, has always insisted he is a “fighter” who battled for the rights of Palestinians and not a “criminal”.

The Paris court has described his behaviour in prison as irreproachable and said in November that he posed “no serious risk in terms of committing new terrorism acts”.

Abdallah still enjoys some support from several public figures in France, including left-wing members of parliament and Nobel Prize-winning author Annie Ernaux, but has mostly been forgotten by the general public.

The strikes targeted areas in the Bekaa Valley, including a Syrian refugee camp, Lebanon’s state news agency says.

Israeli air strikes have killed at least 12 people, including five Hezbollah fighters, in eastern Lebanon, according to Lebanese state media reports, in what Israel said was a warning to the armed group against trying to re-establish itself.

Eight other people were wounded on Tuesday in the Israeli air strikes that hit the Wadi Fara area in the northern Bekaa Valley, including a camp for displaced Syrians, Lebanon’s National News Agency said.

The Israeli military said its air strikes targeted training camps used by elite Hezbollah fighters and warehouses the group used to store weapons.

The air strikes were the deadliest on the area since a United States-brokered ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel last November – a truce repeatedly violated by Israel, which has carried out near-daily strikes across parts of the country.

Bachir Khodr, governor of the Bekaa region, said seven of the dead were Syrian nationals.

Israel dealt Hezbollah significant blows in last year’s war, assassinating its leader Hassan Nasrallah along with other commanders and destroying much of its arsenal.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said Tuesday’s strikes sent a “clear message” to Hezbollah, accusing it of planning to rebuild the capability to raid Israel through the elite Radwan force.

Israel “will respond with maximum force to any attempt at rebuilding”, he said. He added that strikes were also a message to the Lebanese government, saying it was responsible for upholding the ceasefire agreement.

There was no immediate public response from Hezbollah or from the Lebanese government to the latest Israeli strikes.

Under the November ceasefire deal, Hezbollah was to pull its fighters back north of the Litani River, about 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the Israeli border, leaving the Lebanese army and United Nations peacekeepers as the only armed parties in the region.

Israel was required to fully withdraw its troops from the country, but has kept them in five places it deems strategic.

The US has submitted a proposal to the Lebanese government aimed at securing Hezbollah’s disarmament within four months in exchange for Israel halting air strikes and withdrawing troops from the positions they still hold in south Lebanon.

Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun says his country seeks peace with Israel, but is not ready to normalise ties.

Lebanon’s president says his country wants peace but not normalisation with Israel, as health authorities said an Israeli air strike killed one person in the south of the country.

As well as causing one death on Friday, the drone attack on a car in Nabatieh district wounded five other people, according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Health.

It comes as Israel continues to launch regular strikes against sites in Lebanon, particularly in the south, despite a November 27 ceasefire agreement between it and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.

Under the terms of the truce, Hezbollah had to retreat to the north of the Litani River, which is about 30km (20 miles) from the Israeli border, while Israel had to fully withdraw its troops, leaving only the Lebanese army and United Nations peacekeepers in the area.

However, Israel still occupies five strategic locations in southern Lebanon.

Speaking on Friday, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun expressed a desire for peaceful relations with his country’s neighbour. But he stressed that Beirut was not currently interested in normalising ties with Israel, something mentioned as a possibility by Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar last week.

“Peace is the lack of a state of war, and this is what matters to us in Lebanon at the moment. As for the issue of normalisation, it is not currently part of Lebanese foreign policy,” said Aoun, who urged Israel to withdraw completely from Lebanon.

In a reference to the US’s ongoing call for Lebanon to fully disarm Hezbollah, the Lebanese president also expressed Beirut’s desire to “hold the monopoly over weapons in the country”, but he did not give further details.

Hezbollah, which is considerably weakened after more than a year of hostilities with Israel, has dismissed questions about disarmament.

“We cannot be asked to soften our stance or lay down arms while [Israeli] aggression continues,” its leader Naim Qassem told crowds in southern Beirut on Sunday.

On Wednesday, the Israeli military confirmed that some of its troops had entered southern Lebanon, with the army saying they sought to dismantle Hezbollah infrastructure and to stop the group from “reestablishing itself in the area”.

The following day, a man was killed by an Israeli drone strike on a motorbike in the village of al-Mansouri near Tyre, the Lebanese Ministry of Health said. Two others were injured in the attack, it added.

Israel claims it targeted a ‘key figure’ from the Palestinian group Hamas near the coastal Lebanese city of Tripoli.

An Israeli strike on a vehicle near the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli has killed at least three people and injured 13 others, Lebanon’s Health Ministry says, in the latest breach of a ceasefire between the two countries.

The attack in the Ayrounieh area on Tuesday came as Israel intensifies its strikes in Lebanon amid Hezbollah’s weakened position, the Lebanese army’s inability to fight back and the international community’s failure to pressure Israel to abide by the truce.

The strike near Lebanon’s northernmost major city – more than 180km (110 miles) from the Israeli border – highlights Israel’s willingness to launch assaults across the country, not just in the south.

The Israeli military claimed that it struck a “key” figure from the Palestinian group Hamas without identifying the target.

A Hamas source in Lebanon told Al Araby TV that no senior official from the group was killed in the strike. Lebanon’s Annahar newspaper reported that initial reports indicated that the assassination attempt might have failed.

Hamas and other Palestinian groups maintain a presence in various areas of Lebanon, mostly in refugee camps that have housed Palestinians for decades. Tripoli is home to the large Beddawi Palestinian refugee camp.

Since the outbreak of the war in Gaza in October 2023, Israel has carried out attacks against the Lebanese group Hezbollah and members of Palestinian factions in Lebanon.

Hamas’s deputy chief Saleh al-Arouri was killed in an Israeli air strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs in early 2024.

While the ceasefire last year ended the conflict, Israel has continued to carry out strikes on what it says are Hezbollah arms depots and fighters, mostly in southern Lebanon. Israeli attacks have also targeted homes, municipal workers and civilian infrastructure.

On Monday, at least one person was killed in a suspected Israeli air attack on a van in the town of Deir Kifa in southern Lebanon.

The recent attacks were launched as United States envoy Thomas Barrack was in Lebanon for a two-day visit to discuss disarming Hezbollah.

On Monday after meeting Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, Barrack told reporters he was “unbelievably satisfied” with Lebanon’s reply to a US proposal on taking away Hezbollah’s weapons.

Barrack, a longtime adviser to US President Donald Trump who also serves as US ambassador to Turkiye and special envoy for Syria, said he believed “the Israelis do not want war with Lebanon”.

“Both countries are trying to give the same thing – the notion of a stand-down agreement, of the cessation of hostilities and a road to peace,” he said.

On Sunday, Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem ruled out giving up the group’s weapons before Israel withdraws from the areas it still occupies in southern Lebanon in violation of the ceasefire.

This is a story about two Europeans who devoted their lives to the Palestinian cause and paid the ultimate price.

Francoise Kesteman was a French nurse who worked in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon in the late 1970s and early 80s. She was a communist and saw the displacement of millions of Palestinians as a fundamental injustice that needed to be addressed. She joined armed Palestinian groups resisting the Israeli occupation.

Franco Fontana was an Italian photographer who cofounded a Marxist-Leninist political group in the 1970s and organised exhibitions to raise awareness of the Palestinian cause. As a photojournalist, he visited Palestine and Lebanon, where he also joined groups fighting to liberate Palestine.

Kesteman was killed in 1984 in a paramilitary operation in Lebanon. Fontana fell ill in 2015 and chose to return to a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, where he died and was buried, as was his dying wish.

Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun received American diplomat Thomas Barrack in Beirut on Monday and gave him the Lebanese state’s reply to a proposal from the United States about disarming Hezbollah.

Barrack, ambassador to Turkiye and special envoy for Syria, said Lebanon’s response was “something spectacular” and that he was “unbelievably satisfied” by the reply, which has not been made public as of yet.

The visit comes amid continued Israeli attacks on alleged Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, which have killed civilians, since a ceasefire went into effect on November 27, 2024.

Here’s what you need to know about the visit and what it means for Lebanon and Israel:

Why did the US envoy visit Lebanon?

Not for the summer weather.

Barrack went to receive the Lebanese state’s official response to a US proposal, delivered to Lebanon on June 19, to disarm the Hezbollah group.

Under the terms of a ceasefire deal with Israel from last November, Hezbollah was to withdraw its fighters from south of the Litani River – which runs across south Lebanon and up into the Bekaa Valley – and turn over military infrastructure and bases there.

However, according to diplomatic and political sources with knowledge of the agreement, the language was purposefully undefined, leaving it open to interpretation by both sides.

The US and Israel have chosen to interpret the ceasefire as contingent on Hezbollah’s complete disarmament in the entirety of the country.

Barrack insinuated in his statement after the meeting that support for Lebanon would be contingent on the Lebanese government acting in line with what he said was a “region moving at Mach speed”, although he did not specify what it was moving towards.

Over the past two years, Israel has waged war on Gaza, Iran, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen, with full US support.

Developments have often been touted as victories against Iran and its allies in the region.

What was the Lebanese government’s response to the US demand?

The response has not yet been made public.

But reports indicate the government demanded that Israel withdraw from all Lebanese territories, including five points it occupied during the recent ceasefire and areas it stayed in after the 2000 withdrawal from southern Lebanon.

It also reportedly called on the US to pressure Israel to:

• abide by the ceasefire,
• return Lebanese prisoners it took, and
• adhere to United Nations  Security Council Resolution 1701, which calls for a cessation of hostilities, for Hezbollah to withdraw from south of the Litani, and for financial and economic reforms, among other provisions.

Barrack said he received a seven-page reply from Aoun’s team and had not yet had time to study it, but that he was satisfied.

His comments also seemed to suggest Lebanon needs to meet certain expectations if it wants US support, talking about Lebanon turning over a new leaf, similar to neighbouring Syria, which has indicated it is willing to have a peace agreement with Israel.

“If you don’t want change, it’s no problem,” Barrack said, before adding: “The rest of the region is moving at high speed.”

Barrack did not specify if US support would be in the form of reconstruction financing – the World Bank says Lebanon needs $11bn for recovery following the latest Israeli aggression – or in terms of reining in Israel, which continues daily attacks on southern Lebanon and occasionally on Beirut and its periphery.

What are the demands for Hezbollah to disarm?

There are external and internal demands.

The external demands come mostly from the US and Israel. Before Hezbollah was battered in this latest war and lost much of its military leadership, Israel saw the group as a military threat.

Many Gulf states have also opposed Hezbollah and its benefactor Iran’s influence over Lebanon and the Levant.

Internally, Lebanon’s president and prime minister, as well as a variety of political parties and figures, want Hezbollah to disarm and for the Lebanese army and state to control the use of force and decisions of war and peace.

In much of Lebanon’s post-civil war period (1990 onwards), Hezbollah has been Lebanon’s political and military hegemon. Its support comes mostly from the Shia community, and most elected Shia officials are members of Hezbollah or their allies, the Amal Movement.

The group’s critics say the party has isolated Lebanon from good relations with regional and international countries and has grown from a party outside the corrupt Lebanese political system to that system’s protector.

What pressures are there on the Lebanese government to comply?

The US seems to have become the only power that can rein in Israel’s attacks, which are undermining the new government’s efforts at reform and at helping a segment of the population that feels they are not being properly supported by the state.

Historically, Hezbollah filled the void left by the state, while at times undermining the state’s attempts to fill that void.

Further pressure is on the country because it is badly in need of foreign investment and aid for reconstruction, which the US has signalled may be tied to disarming Hezbollah.

Here, Hezbollah seems to agree with the Lebanese government and has expressed some willingness to cooperate, as it knows many of its supporters need their homes or villages liberated or rebuilt.

What are the obstacles to Hezbollah disarming?

There are a few.

One is the continued Israeli attacks and presence in south Lebanon, in the five points that the Israeli military occupied during the ceasefire period and the continued occupation of the Shebaa Farms and Kfarchouba Hills.

Few in Hezbollah or among their supporters believe the group should disarm as long as Lebanese territory is under occupation or attack.

“We cannot be asked to soften our stance or lay down arms while [Israeli] aggression continues,” Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem told supporters in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Sunday for Ashura, an important Shia commemoration.

Hezbollah says it is unwilling to disarm as long as Israeli presence remains in the south of the country and as long as the fear of invasion exists. Israel invaded Lebanon in 1978 and again in 1982, occupying the south until Hezbollah drove them out in 2000.

They reinvaded last year.

Hezbollah has also raised concerns about the Lebanon-Syria border, where clashes erupted earlier this year.

While both countries said they want border delineation, a resumption of tensions is not out of the question.

What about Israel?

That is the big question.

Whether Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will heed any pressures from the US to stop attacking Lebanon and to implement fully the terms of the agreements between the two countries remains to be seen.

It is unclear if Barrack’s visit to Beirut and the Lebanese state’s response had any effect on a meeting between Trump and Netanyahu in Washington, DC, on Monday.

What is clear from Lebanon is that it is hoping the US will get the Israelis to stop attacking the country, enforce the ceasefire, and support the Lebanese state as it attempts to complete the fragile task of bringing Hezbollah’s weapons under state control without isolating the Shia community from the nation-building project.

BEIRUT — A U.S. envoy said Monday he was satisfied with the Lebanese government’s response to a proposal to disarm the militant Hezbollah group, adding that Washington is ready to help the small nation emerge from its long-running political and economic crisis.

The U.S. envoy to Lebanon, Tom Barrack, spoke to journalists after meeting President Joseph Aoun, saying he will study the government’s seven-page response. Barrack said the American and Lebanese sides are committed “to get a resolution.”

“What the government gave us was something spectacular in a very short period of time and a very complicated manner,” Barrack said during his 20-minute news conference at the presidential palace southeast of Beirut.

His meetings in Lebanon came amid fears that Hezbollah’s refusal to immediately disarm would renew war with Israel after a shaky ceasefire agreement went into effect in November.

Last month, Barrack gave Lebanese officials a proposal that aims to disarm Hezbollah and move on with some economic reforms to try get Lebanon out of its nearly six-year economic crisis, the worst in its modern history. The economic meltdown is rooted in decades of corruption and mismanagement by Lebanon’s political class.

Barrack said Lebanon should change in the same way Syria has following the fall in December of Syrian President Bashar Assad,who was replaced by a new leadership that is moving ahead with major economic reforms.

Barrack said President Trump and the U.S. are ready to help Lebanon change and “if you don’t want change, it’s no problem. The rest of the region is moving at high speed,” he said.

Hezbollah’s weapons have been one of the principal sticking points since Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000, ending an 18-year occupation. The two sides fought a destructive war in 2006 that ended in a draw.

The latest Israel-Hezbollah war began a day after the Hamas Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel and intensified in September, leaving the Iran-backed group badly bruised and much of its political and military leadership dead.

Since a U.S.-brokered ceasefire went into effect in November, Hezbollah has almost ended all its military presence along the border with Israel, which is insisting that the group disarms all over Lebanon. Aoun said Sunday that the number of Lebanese troops along the border with Israel will increase to 10,000, adding that only Lebanese soldiers and U.N. peacekeepers will be armed on the Lebanese side of the border.

On Sunday night, hours before Barrack arrived in Beirut, Israel’s air force carried out strikes on southern and eastern Lebanon, wounding nine people, according to state media. The Israeli army said the airstrikes hit Hezbollah’s infrastructure, arms depots and missile launchers.

Earlier Sunday, Hezbollah leader Naim Kassem reiterated the militant group’s refusal to lay down its weapons before Israel withdraws from all of southern Lebanon and stops its airstrikes.

The Hezbollah-Israel war left over 4,000 people dead in Lebanon and caused destruction estimated at $11 billion. In Israel, 127 people, including 80 soldiers, were killed during the war.

Since the November ceasefire, Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes on different parts of Lebanon, killing about 250 people and injuring over 600. Israel is also still holding five strategic posts inside Lebanon that it refused to withdraw from earlier this year.

Chehayeb and Mroue write for the Associated Press.

BEIRUT, Lebanon, July 7 (UPI) — U.S. special envoy Thomas Barrack said Monday he was “unbelievably satisfied” with Lebanon’s response to Washington’s proposals to disarm Hezbollah, saying Israel seeks peace with its neighbor and Hezbollah needs to see that there is a path forward for them.

Barrack, however, warned that war-ravaged Lebanon risks being left behind if it fails to seize the current opportunities with the region changing at high speed.

The envoy, who was speaking after a meeting with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun shortly after his arrival in Beirut, praised the Lebanese officials for presenting “a thoughtful and considered” seven-page response to his June 19 roadmap.

His initial proposals include a phased approach to disarm Hezbollah and other militant groups, the implementation of necessary reforms to unlock funds for reconstruction and help solve its acute financial crisis as well as the need to improve ties with neighboring Syria.

According to a statement released by the Presidential Palace, Barrack was handed over Lebanon’s reply with “ideas for a comprehensive solution.”

“We are creating a go-forward plan. To create that, we need dialogue. What the government gave us was something spectacular,” Barrack said. “We are both committed to get to the details and get a resolution. So, I am very, very hopeful.”

He said the mechanism set up to monitor the Nov. 27 cease-fire accord that ended 14 months of a devastating Israel-Hezbollah war “wasn’t sufficient” and “had no ability to correct a default,” referring to the mistrust between Israel and Hezbollah.

Israel has continued striking southern Lebanon and other areas of the country since the cease-fire accord, which was brokered by the United States and France, went into effect Feb. 18. It has also refused to fully withdraw and retained five strategic positions inside south Lebanon to force the full disarmament of Hezbollah.

More than 200 Lebanese civilians and Hezbollah field commanders were killed in the ongoing strikes, which Israel claims to target suspected Hezbollah positions and foil the group’s attempts to reorganize its ranks and rearm in violations of the cease-fire accord. Lebanon and Hezbollah on their part recorded more than 3,700 Israeli violations.

In line with the cease-fire agreement, the Lebanese Army has taken control of most of Hezbollah’s positions and military facilities, pushing the militant group away from the border with Israel and preventing it from having a military presence south of the Litani River. The Army could not complete its deployment because of Israel’s continued occupation of the five points inside south Lebanon.

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam explained after a meeting with the U.S. envoy that Barrack “wouldn’t have come with new ideas” if the mechanism to monitor the ceasefire succeeded in ending the ongoing hostilities.

“These are ideas for implementing the cessation of hostilities arrangements … based on the principle of parallel and reciprocal steps — not that Israel withdraws first and then we start talking about the issue of exclusive arms control, or that if there is no exclusivity of arms, Israel doesn’t withdraw,” Salam said.

“That’s not how this process works. There are interlinked steps that unfold over time.”

He said Lebanon’s demands include the necessity of a full Israeli withdrawal from all Lebanese territory, a comprehensive and complete cessation of hostile activities, the immediate start of reconstruction efforts and the release of the remaining Lebanese prisoners held by Israel.

“The exclusivity of weapons must be in the hands of the Lebanese state, and it alone must reclaim the decision over war and peace,” Salam said. “This authority must lie solely with the Lebanese state, without any partnership with any other party.”

On Sunday, Hezbollah leader Sheikh Naim Qassem said his group, which has repeatedly refused to lay down arms, was ready for both choices: peace and building Lebanon, but also for defending it and confronting Israel until it ends its air strikes and pulls out from south Lebanon.

The U.S. envoy said there is “an opportunity in the air,” calling on Lebanon not to miss it as the region is changing and “everything is moving at warp speed.”

Barrack said that he believes Israel wants peace, not war, with Lebanon while Hezbollah needs to see that “there is a future for them … that there is an intersection of peace and prosperity for them.”

“It has been a nightmare on both sides, for both countries and everybody is tired of it,” he said. “I think both countries are trying to give the same thing: the notion of a stand down agreement of the cessation of hostilities and a road to peace… but everybody will have to give up something.”

Barrack said while Syria “went from absolute chaos to hope of the world standing behind it” and started a dialogue with Israel, Lebanon “can’t be left behind.”

He warned Lebanon that the region “the region is moving at mach speed,” and will be “left behind sadly” if it refuses to change.

But if it does change, Barrack said Washington will support it, adding that U.S. President Donald Trump “for some reason, believes that Lebanon still is the key to the region and can be the Pearl of the Mediterranean.”

Naim Qassem says his group will not surrender or lay down weapons in response to Israeli threats, despite pressure on the group to disarm.

The Hezbollah chief says the Lebanese group remains open to peace, but it will not disarm or back down from confronting Israel until it ends its air raids and withdraws from southern Lebanon.

“We cannot be asked to soften our stance or lay down arms while [Israeli] aggression continues,” Naim Qassem told thousands of supporters gathered in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Sunday for Ashura, an important day in the Shia Muslim calendar.

Ashura commemorates the 680 AD Battle of Karbala, in which Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, Imam Hussein, was killed after he refused to pledge allegiance to the Umayyad caliphate. For Shia Muslims, the day symbolises resistance against tyranny and injustice.

The Beirut area, a Hezbollah stronghold, was draped in yellow banners and echoed with chants of resistance as Qassem delivered his speech, flanked by portraits of his predecessor, Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed by Israel in September last year.

Israel launched a wide-scale assault on Lebanon on October 8, 2023 – a day after Palestinian group Hamas, which counts Hezbollah as an ally, stormed the Israeli territory, killing some 1,100 people and taking about 250 others captive.

The Hamas attack was immediately followed by Israel’s bombing of the Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 57,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children. The Israeli genocidal campaign was accompanied by a brutal blockade on entry of food and medical aid, bringing the enclave’s 2.3 million residents to the brink of starvation.

Israel’s simultaneous attack on Lebanon escalated into a full-scale war by September 2024, killing more than 4,000 people, including much of Hezbollah’s top leadership, and displacing nearly 1.4 million, according to official data. A United States-brokered ceasefire nominally ended the war in November.

However, since the ceasefire, Israel has continued to occupy five strategic border points in southern Lebanon and has carried out near-daily air strikes that it says aim to prevent Hezbollah from rebuilding its capabilities. Those strikes have killed some 250 people and wounded 600 others since November, according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Health.

“How can you expect us not to stand firm while the Israeli enemy continues its aggression, continues to occupy the five points, and continues to enter our territories and kill?” Qassem said in his video address.

“We will not be a part of legitimising the occupation in Lebanon and the region. We will not accept normalisation,” he added, in an apparent response to Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar saying his government was “interested” in such a move.

Qassem said Hezbollah’s weapons would not be on the negotiating table unless Israel “withdraws from the occupied territories, stops its aggression, releases the prisoners, and reconstruction begins”.

“Only then,” he said, “will we be ready for the second stage, which is to discuss national security and defence strategy.”

On Saturday, Israeli drones carried out four strikes on southern Lebanese towns, killing one person and wounding several others. Most of the Israeli attacks have targeted areas near the border, but Israeli warplanes have also hit residential neighbourhoods in Beirut’s southern districts, causing panic and mass evacuations.

Qassem’s speech came as the US envoy to Turkiye and Syria, Tom Barrack, was expected in Beirut on Monday. Lebanese officials say the US has demanded that Hezbollah disarm by the end of the year. Israel has warned it will continue striking Lebanon until the group is disarmed.

But Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun has repeatedly called on the US and its allies to rein in Israel’s attacks, noting that disarming Hezbollah is a “sensitive, delicate issue”.

July 4 (UPI) — The United States has sanctioned seven senior officials and one firm linked to Al-Qard Al-Hasan, a U.S.-designated, Hezbollah-controlled financial institution that came under attack last fall during Israel’s war against the Iran-proxy militia in Lebanon.

Thursday’s sanctions are the latest in a series by the U.S. Treasury targeting Hezbollah and follow U.S. actions against various revenue-generating operations of the militia during Israel’s war against Hamas, another Iran-backed group, in Gaza, which began in October 2023.

Al-Qard Al-Hasan was blacklisted by the U.S. Treasury in July 2007, and its group of so-called shadow bankers in Lebanon was sanctioned in 2021.

On Thursday, the Treasury sanctioned Nehme Ahmad Jamil, 54, and his Tashilat SARL company he co-owns with Ahmad Mohamad Yazbeck, who was among the shadow bankers designated nearly five years ago.

Other senior officers at Al-Qard Al-Hasan sanctioned Thursday include Issa Hussein Kassir, 47, Samer Hasan Fawaz, 50, Imad Mohamad Bezz, 47, Ali Mohamad Karnib, 38, Ali Ahmad Krisht, 47, and Mohammed Suleiman Badir, 49.

According to the U.S. Treasury, these designations aim to disrupt Hezbollah’s sanctions-evasion schemes and help the Lebanese government curb the group’s influence.

“Through their roles at AQAH, these officials sought to obfuscate Hezbollah’s interest in seemingly legitimate transactions at Lebanese financial institutions, exposing these banks to significant AML/CFT risk while allowing Hezbollah to funnel money for its own benefit,” Deputy Secretary Michael Faulkender said in a statement.

“As Hezbollah seeks money to rebuild its operations, Treasury remains strongly committed to dismantling the group’s financial infrastructure and limiting its ability to reconstitute itself.”

Hezbollah became involved in the Israel-Gaza war a day after it began, launching rockets into northern Israel.

In October, with much of Gaza destroyed and tens of thousands of Palestinians killed, Israel intensified its attacks against Hezbollah in Lebanon, launching ground and artillery operations, seeking to eradicate the militant group in order to prevent it from further attacking Israel.

Among its targets was Al-Qard Al-Hasan, with dozens of its branches destroyed in Beirut’s southern suburbs and southern and eastern Lebanon.