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Speaker of the House Nabih Berri is currently meeting with the Ambassadors of the Quintet Committee in Ain el-Tineh. The committee includes US Ambassador Lisa Johnson, French Ambassador Hervé Magro, KSA Ambassador Walid Bukhari, Egyptian Ambassador Alaa Moussa, and Qatari Ambassador Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.
Source: National News Agency – Lebanon
In an interview with Fox News Channel’s “MediaBuzz,” former President Donald Trump urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to swiftly end the ongoing conflict in Gaza. Trump’s call for peace marks the first time he has publicly addressed the situation since the Hamas attack in Israel on October 7. This follows previous remarks made by Trump on Friday during a conversation with FNC’s “Fox and Friends” host Brian Kilmeade, where he asserted that Israel should “finish the problem” swiftly. Trump criticized the invasion, stating, “It would have never happened if I was president, by the way.” However, during Sunday’s interview, Trump did not outline any specific conditions or mention hostages concerning a potential ceasefire. When asked by “MediaBuzz” host Howard Kurtz what message he would convey to Netanyahu regarding the Gaza conflict, Trump emphasized the importance of swiftly resolving the situation and returning to a state of peace. He also criticized Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer for his stan
ce on Israel, suggesting that Schumer’s criticism was politically motivated and influenced by domestic considerations rather than genuine concern for peace in the Middle East. Trump accused Schumer of prioritizing Palestinian interests over Israel’s and claimed that Schumer had “dumped Israel.”
Source: National News Agency – Lebanon
In an interview with Fox News Channel’s “MediaBuzz,” former President Donald Trump urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to swiftly end the ongoing conflict in Gaza. Trump’s call for peace marks the first time he has publicly addressed the situation since the Hamas attack in Israel on October 7. This follows previous remarks made by Trump on Friday during a conversation with FNC’s “Fox and Friends” host Brian Kilmeade, where he asserted that Israel should “finish the problem” swiftly. Trump criticized the invasion, stating, “It would have never happened if I was president, by the way.” However, during Sunday’s interview, Trump did not outline any specific conditions or mention hostages concerning a potential ceasefire. When asked by “MediaBuzz” host Howard Kurtz what message he would convey to Netanyahu regarding the Gaza conflict, Trump emphasized the importance of swiftly resolving the situation and returning to a state of peace. He also criticized Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer for his stan
ce on Israel, suggesting that Schumer’s criticism was politically motivated and influenced by domestic considerations rather than genuine concern for peace in the Middle East. Trump accused Schumer of prioritizing Palestinian interests over Israel’s and claimed that Schumer had “dumped Israel.”
Source: National News Agency – Lebanon
The war in Gaza has become a “graveyard for many of the most important principles of humanitarian law,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said today.
The European Union’s top diplomat described the conflict in the Gaza strip as “the greatest open-air graveyard” in reference to civilian casualties among the Palestinian population.
EU foreign ministers are in Brussels to discuss the Israel-Hamas war with sanctions on Israeli settlers in the West Bank to be decided after the increased violence towards Palestinians in the wake of the October 7 Hamas attacks.
Borrell said EU foreign ministers would also debate the bloc’s association agreement with Israel but stressed that it was too early in the process to discuss suspending the agreement.
Borrell also urged EUcountries to take action over Israeli obstacles to humanitarian aid access in Gaza.
Germany has made clear to the Israeli government that humanitarian aid in Gaza must be allowed to be delivered, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said.
“The
millions of people in Gaza, many, many children who have not had enough food for weeks,” need to be cared for, Baerbock said.
“The suffering is simply unbearable,”Baerbock said, adding that Germany and the EUare working every day to secure a humanitarian ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war
Source: Oman News Agency
Dozens of Palestinians were martyred and injured today as a result of the Israeli occupations bombing of Al Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza city.
According to medical sources, a fire broke out at the gate of Al Shifa Medical Complex, with cases of suffocation among the displaced women and children in the hospital, during the occupation forces’ storming of the hospital and its complete siege, coinciding with cutting off communication services for about 30,000 displaced people inside the complex, the Palestinian News Agency (WAFA) reported.
The sources added that the occupation forces stormed the specialized surgeries building and opened fire directly at anyone who moved, with medical teams unable to save the injured due to the intensity of the fire and targeting anyone approaching the windows in another crime against health institutions.
Local sources also reported that the occupation forces arrested dozens of citizens from inside Al Shifa Medical Complex.
The World Health Organization (WHO) affirmed in a re
port that the unrelenting war in Gaza has not spared hospitals, their staff, or the people sheltering there, as it unveiled data indicating more than 350 attacks on healthcare centers carried out by the Israeli occupation forces in the Strip since 7 October.
Source: Oman News Agency
The Israeli occupation forces today arrested at least 25 Palestinians in the West Bank.
In a joint statement, Palestinian Prisoners Society and Palestinian Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs said that the arrests were concentrated in the governorates of Ramallah, Bethlehem, Hebron, Jenin, Nablus, Tulkarm and Occupied Jerusalem, noting that the occupation forces arrested a Palestinian woman who happens to be one of the hostages that were released as part of the recent exchange deals.
After 7 October, the number of Israeli arrests in the West Bank has risen to 7,655 people, which included those who were arrested from homes, through military checkpoints, as well as those who were forced to surrender themselves under pressure, and those who were held hostages, the statement added.
The occupation forces also arrested yesterday a group of Palestinians in the town of Al-Isawiya in Occupied Jerusalem, the statement added, indicating that neither the number or identity of the detainees is known yet.
The Israeli occupation forces continue to carry out widespread raids and torture during arrest operations against Palestinian civilians, accompanied by field investigations, attacks, threats, and widespread sabotage and destruction of private property.
Source: Oman News Agency
Commissioned by the Lebanese government and under the guidance of Major General Tony Saliba, the Deputy Director General of State Security, Brigadier General Hassan Shoucair, met today with the Prime Minister of Iraq, Muhammed Al Sudani, where he presented issues assigned to him by the cabinet which were greatly welcomed by the Iraqi PM.
Source: National News Agency – Lebanon
Maronite Patriarch Cardinal Mar Bechara Boutros Rahi pointed out that ‘the root of our political crisis lies in violating the Constitution, which is sacred and untouchable worldwide’ asking: ‘How is it be possible to keep violating the Constitution without electing a president? And electing a president restores confidence in Lebanon and its institutions.”
Patriarch Rahi added, in his Sunday sermon in Bkerke: ‘We stand united with the mothers of the August 4th explosion victims, demanding justice, and this cause will not be forgotten, nor will their demands fade away.
Source: National News Agency – Lebanon
The Israeli entity continued to bomb villages and towns in southern Lebanon.
According to field sources, an Israeli warplane fired an unexploded missile targeting a house in the town of Aitaroun. Israeli warplanes also carried out an airstrike against the town of Marwahin for the second time and carried out an airstrike targeting the town of Meiss El Jabal.
In a related context, Israeli army artillery targeted the western outskirts of Houla and the outskirts of Zahajra and Tayr Harfa.
The Israeli entity stepped up aerial and artillery shelling of towns and villages in southern Lebanon, resulting in civilian deaths and injuries, and forcing hundreds of families from their homes, in conjunction with the ongoing aggression against the Gaza Strip since 7 October.
Source: Oman News Agency
Human Rights Watch called on the international community to impose sanctions on the Israeli entity for not complying with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) order to take precautionary measures to prevent a genocide in the Gaza Strip.
Sanctions and an arms embargo should be imposed on Israel in order to comply with the order issued by the International Court of Justice, Human Rights Watch posted on X.
It added that the Israeli entity did not comply with court orders and did not work to deliver aid and basic services to the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
On 26 January 2024, the ICJ adopted provisional measures that include requiring Israel to prevent genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, enable the provision of basic services and humanitarian assistance, and prevent and punish incitement to commit genocide.
Source: Oman News Agency
The death toll from the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, since the start of the aggression, has risen to 31,645 martyrs most of them children and women, Palestinian medical sources reported today.
The sources added that the number of injuries has risen to 73,676, with thousands of victims still under the rubble, pointing out that the Israeli occupation forces have committed 9 massacres in the Strip during the past 24 hours which claimed the lives of 92 martyrs, along with 130 injuries.
Source: Oman News Agency
Human Rights Watch called on the international community to impose sanctions on the Israeli entity for not complying with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) order to take precautionary measures to prevent a genocide in the Gaza Strip.
Sanctions and an arms embargo should be imposed on Israel in order to comply with the order issued by the International Court of Justice, Human Rights Watch posted on X.
It added that the Israeli entity did not comply with court orders and did not work to deliver aid and basic services to the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
On 26 January 2024, the ICJ adopted provisional measures that include requiring Israel to prevent genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, enable the provision of basic services and humanitarian assistance, and prevent and punish incitement to commit genocide.
Source: Oman News Agency
The Free Patriotic Movement organized its annual general conference in commemoration of March 14th, attended by the Movement Chief, MP Gebran Bassil, its vice-presidents and members of the ‘Strong Lebanon’ parliamentary bloc, alongside a crowd of supporters and cadre members.
Addressing the attendees, Bassil said: ‘Our political work requires a lot of communication with people, from within the Movement and the country and from outside and at all levels.’
He added that ‘this effort corrects the image that was distorted by the media assassination campaigns to which we were subjected…’ He considered that the corruption accusations that FPM has faced were due to its reform approach that exposed those who were actually corrupt and who financed the media to distort FPM’s image.
‘They accused us of sectarianism because we are patriots and our demand for a civil state strikes their sectarianism. They accused us of confrontation because we seek understanding and unison,’ Bassil went on.
He continued to stress, ‘
Our choice is the state and coexistence in full partnership, because the state brings us together and organizes our lives and prevents the disintegration of society and institutions and the destruction of national unity, and from here we propose three components: the state and living together within it, unity and partnership, national sovereignty and a defense strategy.”
‘The state is our goal,” underlined Bassil, adding, ‘As for power, it is a means, and the goal is to win the country and preserve the Movement within it, and when power conflicts with the goal, we abandon it and shift to the opposition.’
However, Bassil considered that the only risk of being in the opposition is abandoning FPM’s pioneering role in representing an essential component of the country, stressing that the Movement must not close in on itself but rather combine flexibility in behavior and firmness in principles, i.e. maintaining balance between principle and realism, accepting settlement and rejecting bargains.
The FPM Chief bel
ieved that his Movement ‘must remain the link between the inside and the outside, and as Lebanese we must remain the link between the East and the West, and be free in culture, belief and politics without being isolationist, rejecting and negative.’
Bassil reiterated the Lebanese message of coexistence, considering that the biggest challenge for Christians is establishing equal partnership in the country.
Source: National News Agency – Lebanon
Lebanese Forces Party Chief, Samir Geagea, considered that “the Syrian objection to the towers that Lebanon established on its border is because of their ability to monitor the Syrian regime’s drug smuggling, as it has become the most important drug dealer in the region.’
He said in an issued statement on Sunday: ‘In recent weeks, the Syrian government sent a letter of protest to Lebanon against the towers it erected on its land to control its borders and stop the smuggling of drugs, weapons, goods, and prohibited materials.”
Geagea considered that Syria’s letter aims to state that these towers pose a threat to its national security, a component that does not exist at this stage amidst the presence of Iranian militias and Russian, Turkish, American, and other armies, as he explained. “So what national security is this government talking about and what Syrian sovereignty?” he wondered.
Geagea went on, “All these towers which are the subject of the Syrian government’s objection, are located on Lebanese terri
tory and Lebanon certainly has the right to establish towers on its borders to monitor and control the smuggling of contraband, weapons, prohibited materials, people, and drugs…”
He added, “Most likely, what disturbed the Syrian regime was monitoring its drug smuggling, as it has become the most important drug dealer in the region, and even in the world, and the clashes we witness daily on the Syrian-Jordanian border are the most blatant evidence of that…’
Finally, Geagea considered that the Syrian government’s objection to the towers shows that its regime is still hostile and negative towards Lebanon. “What is important is for the Lebanese, all Lebanese, to be aware of this matter, and for those who are still conspiring with the Syrian regime to stop conspiring with a defunct regime in a way that contradicts with the interests of their country,’ he underscored.
Source: National News Agency – Lebanon