Qatari envoy Jassem bin Fahed Al-Thani is continuing his meetings in Beirut on Lebanon’s presidential file, a media report said.
“The developing situation in the region has become part of the envoy’s discussions,” al-Liwaa newspaper reported on Monday.
Full StoryCaretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati stressed Monday that the government's priority is to maintain security in south Lebanon, a day after Hezbollah and Israel exchanged fire.
In an attack it said had been carried out "in solidarity" with Hamas, which launched a surprise assault on Israel the day before, Hezbollah fired Sunday on Israeli positions in the contested Shebaa Farms border area.
Full StoryIsrael has exerted intensive diplomatic efforts to avoid Hezbollah’s involvement in the ongoing war with Hamas, media reports said.
“The ambassadors of world powers informed Lebanese officials of the threats and repercussions that might result from dragging Lebanon into the current conflict, asking them to exert all the necessary pressures on Hezbollah so that it doesn’t take a decision to get involved in the ongoing fighting,” highly informed Lebanese political sources told ad-Diyar newspaper.
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Iranian security officials helped plan Hamas’ Saturday surprise attack on Israel and gave the green light for the assault at a meeting in Beirut last Monday, the Wall Street Journal quoted “senior Hamas and Hezbollah members” as saying.
Full StoryThe surprise assault by Hamas against Israel was a meticulously planned offensive that the Palestinian militant group is capable of keeping up, with a risk of even greater escalation, analysts say.
Hamas can count on a deep arsenal of rockets to use against Israel but key questions include how much support it has received from Iran, which has expressed its backing for the offensive, and whether Hezbollah will enter the fray.
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Smoking shisha on a balcony overlooking where Hezbollah and Israel exchanged fire only hours before, Lebanese villager Abu Rami brushes it off, saying he is now used to such confrontations.
Full StoryAn Israeli drone fired a missile Sunday on the al-Khraibeh area in Rashaya al-Fukhar's outskirts, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported.
Israel’s Patriot air defense system had earlier fired a missile at a drone that crossed from Lebanon, Israeli media outlets said.
Full StorySenior Hezbollah official Sayyed Hashem Safieddine on Sunday warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that “this battle is not only Gaza’s battle,” hours after Hezbollah attacked Israeli military posts in the occupied Shebaa Farms.
“The responsibility obliges all the sons of our nation not to be neutral and we are not neutral,” Safieddine said during a pro-Palestine rally in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Full StoryHezbollah on Sunday said it fired “a large number of artillery shells and guided missiles” at three Israeli military posts in the occupied Shebaa Farms as part of "liberating what's left of occupied Lebanese land and in solidarity with the Palestinian resistance."
Israel responded by firing artillery shells at areas in south Lebanon as one of its drones struck “Hezbollah infrastructure” in the Shebaa Farms area in response to the early morning attack. The "infrastructure" turned out to be the tent that Hezbollah had erected in the summer in the disputed area. The move had sparked months of tensions with Israel and the U.N. has been working to persuade Hezbollah to remove the tent.
Full StoryHundreds of people took to the streets Saturday in some Lebanese areas and in the country’s Palestinian refugee camps in celebration of Hamas’ unprecedented operation that has stunned Israel.
In the Bourj al-Barajneh camp south of Beirut, residents danced in the streets, while young men in the northern city of Tripoli distributed celebratory sweets to passersby in the streets.
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