Sabra, Shatila: A Heinous Massacre

Dozens of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon participated in commemorating the 42nd anniversary of the Sabra and Shatila massacre at the shrine of the victims of the massacre in the Palestine Martyrs Cemetery near Shatila camp, south Beirut.

The event was held at the invitation of the “Popular Conference of Palestinians Abroad” (an independent international body) and Palestinian institutions in Lebanon to commemorate the anniversary of the bloody massacre that was committed on the 16-17-18, 1982 September, under the supervision of the Israeli occupation army.

In his speech, Yasser Ali, a member of the General Secretariat of the PCPA, stressed the “necessity of holding the Israeli occupation entity and all countries that provide support to the killing machine accountable for committing massacres against the Palestinian people and bringing them to justice.”

“We must all, as Palestinian refugees, mobilize all energies to support and back the Palestinian people inside the Gaza Strip and the West Bank with all available means and capabilities,” he said.

In turn, Sami Hamoud, director of the “Thabit for the Right of Return” organization (civil society) and a member of the PCPA, called for “the necessity of holding the occupation accountable in international forums to achieve justice for the victims of the Palestinian people who are still being subjected to the crimes of the occupation in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.”

He called for “mobilizing international energies and supporting the case filed by the State of South Africa at the International Court of Justice to achieve some justice for the Palestinian people who have been suffering the scourge of wars for more than 76 years.”

Hamoud said that “the massacres committed by the Israeli occupation entity on a daily basis will not deter the Palestinian people from continuing their just and legitimate resistance to seize their rights guaranteed by international laws and charters to liberation and self-determination,” according to Quds Press.

Meanwhile, the Israeli occupation army has continued its aggression on the Gaza Strip for 345 days, with American and European support, as its warplanes bomb the vicinity of hospitals, buildings, towers and homes of Palestinian civilians and destroy them over the heads of their residents, and prevent the entry of water, food, medicine and fuel.

The ongoing aggression by the occupation on Gaza has led to the martyrdom of more than 41,206 martyrs, the injury of 95,337 others, and the displacement of 90% of the population of the Strip, according to data from the United Nations.

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Palestine Bids Farewell to Elias Khoury

Palestine will miss him greatly. Elias Khoury, a leading Lebanese novelist and writers and a staunch advocate for the Palestinian cause, gave up and died, Sunday.

Khoury, a leading voice of Arab literature, had been ill for months and admitted and discharged from hospital several times over the past year until his death, the Al-Quds Al-Arabi daily for which he worked stated.

One of his best-known novels, Gate of the Sun, tells the story of Palestinian refugees expelled from their homes in 1948 during the war that coincided with heartache creation of Israel.

“The Catastrophe began in 1948 and it is still going on,” he once wrote referring to Israel’s illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.

On 16 July, he published an article, titled A Year of Pain, recounting his time bedridden in hospital and enduring “a life filled with pain, which stops only to herald in more pain”. He ended his piece by alluding to the Israeli war in the besieged Gaza Strip, which by had rthen aged on for more than nine months.

“Gaza and Palestine have been brutally bombarded for almost a year now, but they stand steadfast and unshakable,” Khoury wrote. “A model from which I have learned to love life every day.”

The Institute for Palestine Studies honored the late Lebanese novelist for his contributions in support of the Palestinian people.

“Elias Khoury was a staunch advocate for Palestine, contributing to the struggle nationally and intellectually,” the institute said in a statement posted on X.

“Even while hospitalised due to illness, Khoury continued to work on the publication of the institute’s Majallat al-Dirasat al-Filastiniyya journal, “especially during the genocide in the Gaza Strip”, the institute pointed out in a statement

He “paid exceptional attention to the plight of prisoners and detainees in Israeli prisons, devoting pages of the journal to this crucial cause”, the statement added according to the Quds News Network.

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Israel is Losing Parts of its North

Head of the Higher Galilee Council Giora Zaltz stated, Saturday, Hezbollah’s military operations in the north of Israel are becoming more deadly and powerful and the level of security in these northern regions on the Lebanese border is deteriorating.

Zaltz mocked the government’s handling of the security situation in the north in an interview on the official Israeli channel, Kan,  saying the Netanyahu government discovered in recent weeks there is an enemy on the northern border called Hezbollah, and is waiting for its response to the assassination of Commander Foad Shukr in the southern suburb of Beirut.

He pointed out the situation here is deteriorating from bad to worse, as sirens sound daily because of drones and missiles by Hezbollah on this area, adding there are dozens of destroyed homes, thousands of burned dunams, and there are dead and wounded among the soldiers and settlers, and the fact that more than 100,000 settlers who have been evacuated here:

“We are now without any vital services such as health, banks, educational systems, and others,” he stressed.

Losing parts of the north

Zaltz pointed out Israel is losing parts of the north whether it be settlements, paralyzed economy, and paralyzed education, calling for a changing in the rules and working on a clear strategy to return the Israeli settlers back to the Galilee.

An earlier report aired by the Israeli Channel 12 stated the Israeli settlers have no future horizon, are desperate for news that barely reaches them, and they do not know when they will return to their homes as many said.

Psychologically trauma

Israeli newspaper Maariv revealed in the past few days, there has been a significant increase in the number of calls to psychological treatment centers in the northern regions, following the drone attacks and rockets launching from Lebanon on the western Galilee region.

Director of the Social Development Dept Uri Charles Friedland said that there has been a significant increase in the number of recorded calls to psychological treatment centers as the escalation of security incidents continue

Friedland explained the Department “is working on three main pillars: Individual care, community support, and rehabilitating authorities in the field of mental health in emergency situations.”

The Israeli media previously revealed an increase in the number of psychological injuries among settlers, admitting they collapsing psychologically, and that a number of officers and soldiers committed suicide after the events of 7 October, 2023 according to Jo.24.

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Hezbollah Promises to Hit Back For Israeli Attack on Beirut    

Israel may have finally carried out its threat with its deadly military strike, Tuesday, on the southern suburb of Beirut.

The strike as reported by the media is devastating with pictures of large explosions trending on the social media.

Different scenarios are being draw up. Reports range from the strike being near the Hezbollah Shura headquarters, a nearby hospital and an apartment in a building belonging Fouad Shukr, a senior director of the Hezbollah’s missile accuracy project and a senior advisor to Hassan Nasrallah.

Reports also say the target through an Israeli drone with missiles was aimed at the Rabie building in Haret Hreik, a Hezbollah stronghold. The building subsequently collapsed with at least  two people reported killed.

Lebanese sources four say floors were leveled to the ground with rescue and ambulance crews continuing to remove the rubble and transport the injured with the number of injuries initially rising to 10.

However, the injuries continued to rise with a four killed and 80 injured including six children that arrived at the Bahman hospital.

While Israeli sources point to the success of the operation Hezbollah denies that Shukr was targeted and killed. The Israeli army said it targeted the commander responsible for the military operation on a school in Majdal Shams in the occupied Golan Heights in which 12 children were killed, Saturday.

An Israeli military source said: “This is our response to the shooting of Majdal Shams…we have no intention of starting an all-out war. If Hezbollah does not respond, the event will end.”

But people in the southern suburb of Beirut are up-in-arms. They are calling for retaliation with chats of support for Hezbollah and its chief Hassan Nasrallah who is promising to hit back at Israel. He has already warned that if Beirut and the southern suburbs are hit, Tel Aviv will also be hit.

And this suggests that this is the beginning of escalation between Hezbollah and Israel that could lead to an all-out war.

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Lebanese Flock to Beaches Despite Expected Israel Attacks

Amid sweltering temperatures, Lebanese people are flocking to the beaches and shores of the country to cool off. This is despite a mounting threat of an Israeli attack on Lebanon that could happen any day now.

For the past 10 months, there have been reciprocal attacks between the Israeli army and the Lebanese Hezbollah group along the 120-kilometer (75-mile) border between Israel and Lebanon.

Tensions have escalated further following a missile attack on a football field in the town of Majdal Shams in the occupied Golan Heights.

The missile strike on Saturday killed 12 people. Israel blames Hezbollah for the attack. But Hezbollah denies playing any part in the attack.

Despite Israel’s threat of all-out war, Lebanese people, especially residents of Tyre, a city about 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) from the conflict zone, continue to head to the beach.

An Anadolu reporter interviewed people in Tyre who were swimming in the sea as they cooled off with their families and friends at a public beach.

Rayan Fayad, a Lebanese expat from Abidjan, Ivory Coast who was visiting his hometown with his family, said he loves the beach in Tyre.

“Everyone is happy and no one is afraid. People are carrying on with their lives as usual,” he said.

Another resident, Abdullah Yahya, subtly referring to Hezbollah said there is a force in Lebanon to prevent Israel from targeting civilians, which is why civilians continue to live normal lives.

“Our home is very close to Israel. Yet we still go out, come to Tyre, and continue our lives as we did before,” Yahya said.

Fears of a full-blown war between Israel and Hezbollah have grown amid an exchange of cross-border attacks between the two side according to the Turkish news agency.

The escalation comes against the backdrop of a deadly Israeli onslaught on Gaza which has killed more than 39,300 people since last October following a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas.

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