Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on March 28-29/2024
Elias Bejjani/Text and video: The Hezbollah terrorist organization once again perpetrated an attack on the town of Rmeish
Elias Bejjanii/Thursday of the Holy Mysteries: Sacraments, Humility and Temptation
Hezbollah fires heavy rockets at northern Israel after deadliest day of Israeli strikes on Lebanon
Report: Paris seeking to contain Lebanon-Israel escalation
Report: Safa told UAE Hezbollah ready to accept demilitarized zone in south
Israeli General says army conducting 'very significant strikes' against Hezbollah
Hezbollah strikes north Israel in response to 'Naqoura massacre'
Report: Israeli official says Israeli army to enter Lebanon after Rafah op
UK delivers 60 tons of Land Rover spare parts and tyres to Lebanese Army
Sami Gemayel to Nasrallah: Stop the farce of the Gaza support front
Italian PM Meloni meets Mikati in Beirut
‘Utmost importance’ for Israel, Lebanon to restore calm: US
UN ‘deeply disturbed’ by strikes on Lebanon rescue workers
Jamaa Islamiya, from 'marginal role' to spotlight
9 killed in two Israeli strikes on Tayr Harfa, Naqoura
Bou Habib: We will continue to push for the full implementation of Resolution 1701
Pierre Achkar affirms: Holiday season 'positives' won't affect hotel establishments
Lebanon's springtime splendor: A journey through nature's canvas in pictures
Ministry of Energy urges TotalEnergies to deliver Block 9 drilling results report: LBCI Sources confirm
UNHCR and WFP aid reduction: A threat to Syrian families in Lebanon
Rafah Battle a Precursor to War in Lebanon?/Bassam Abou Zeid/This Is Beirut/ 28 March 2024
Giorgia Meloni Begins 24-Hour Visit to Beirut
Geagea Sceptical about the Outcome of the Bkerke Meetings
UNIFIL Urges Diplomatic Solution in Southern Lebanon
UN Deplores ‘Unacceptable’ Attacks on Rescue Workers in Lebanon
Douaihy to TIB: We Ask for an Immediate Ceasefire
No Respite on the Southern Border After Deadly Wednesday Attack
LAU Launches Campus in New York
Hezbollah offensive would be ‘Oct. 7 on steroids’....The Lebanese terror group is the strongest Iranian proxy in the Middle East./David Isaac/JNS/March 28/2024
Former MP Fouad Saad Dies at 83

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on March 28-29/2024
Israeli airstrike injures two individuals outside Damascus
Netanyahu says Rafah civilians can 'just move' away from ground invasion
Israel has not received everything it has asked for, top US general says
Talks resume on bringing Israeli officials to US to discuss Gaza operation
In rare speech, head of Hamas fighters calls on Muslims to liberate Al-Aqsa
Palestinian fighters battle Israeli forces around Gaza's Al Shifa Hospital
Talks resume on bringing Israeli officials to US to discuss Gaza operation
Netanyahu asks Israeli court to defer deadline on conscription controversy
ICJ orders Israel to take necessary measures to allow aid into Gaza without obstacles
UN top court orders Israel to open more land crossings for aid into Gaza
Doctors visiting Gaza hospital stunned by war's toll on Palestinian children
Israel politics trigger Democrats to withdraw support from sexual violence bill
French parliament condemns 1961 Paris massacre of Algerians
US says it downed four Yemen rebel drones in Red Sea
ISIS spokesperson praises the group's attack on Russian concert hall
Russia vetoes renewal of North Korea sanctions monitors

Titles For The Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on March 28-29/2024
Hungary Calls Out Western Hypocrisy on Christian Persecution/Raymond Ibrahim/March 28, 2024
Feminist Silence: Hamas's Sexual Violence/Nils A. Haug/Gatestone Institute./March 28, 2024
Time to step up our efforts to achieve goal of clean water and sanitation for all/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/March 28/2024
UN ceasefire resolution must be a building block for Israel-Hamas peace talks/Daoud Kuttab/Arab News/March 28, 2024
GCC vision for regional security unveiled for the first time/Dr. Abdel Aziz Aluwaisheg/Arab News/March 28, 2024

Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on March 28-29/2024
Elias Bejjani/Text and video: The Hezbollah terrorist organization once again perpetrated an attack on the town of Rmeish
Elias Bejjani/March 26, 2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/128193/128193/
Today, social media platforms were flooded with reports of Hezbollah's incursion into the border town of Rmeish, where armed members of this extremist group attempted to launch missiles towards Israel from residential areas (read related reports in Arabic & English below). However, the Rmeish civilian citizens courageously confronted these militants, compelling them to retreat after a tense standoff during which shots were fired into the air, endangering the lives of innocent bystanders. The tolling of church bells echoed throughout the town, underscoring the collective outrage at this brazen and provocative act.
This latest incident adds to a long list of aggressions perpetrated by Hezbollah against the people of Rmeish, including previous attacks by the so-called "Green Without Borders" organization, a Hezbollah affiliate entity.
It is imperative to unequivocally condemn and denounce such flagrant and unlawful violations.
Questions must be raised about the absence of the Lebanese army and UNIFIL forces, whose mandate includes safeguarding areas like Rmeish in accordance with UN Resolution 1701, which expressly prohibits Hezbollah's presence and activities.
UNIFIL and the Lebanese Army are duty-bound to protect Rmeish and other areas covered by the UN resolution, and to prevent Hezbollah from committing further atrocities. Additionally, Patriarch Al-Rahi and the Vatican are urged to appoint a high-ranking church representative to reside in Rmeish, as a symbol of solidarity and support for its inhabitants.
It is abundantly clear that Hezbollah remains a pernicious force, undermining Lebanon's sovereignty and perpetuating sectarian strife. Lebanon cannot reclaim its independence until UN resolutions, including the Armistice Accord,  1559, 1701, and 1680, are enforced through decisive military action.

Thursday of the Holy Mysteries: Sacraments, Humility and Temptation
Elias Bejjanii/March 28, 2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/38445/38445/
On the Thursday that comes before the “Good Friday, when Jesus was crucified, Catholics all over the world, including our Maronite Eastern Church celebrates with prayers and intercessions the “Thursday of the Holy Mysteries”, which is also known as the “Washing Thursday “, the “Covenant Thursday”, and the “Great & Holy Thursday”. It is the holy day feast that falls on the Thursday before Easter that commemorates the Last Supper of Jesus Christ with His 12 Apostles as described in the gospel. It is the fifth day of the last Lenten Holy Week, that is followed by the, “Good Friday”, “Saturday Of The Light and “Easter Sunday”. Christianity in its essence and core is Love, Sacrifice, honesty, transparency, devotion, hard work and Humility. Jesus during the last supper with His 12 Apostles reiterated and stressed all these Godly values and principles. In this holy and message proclaiming context He executed the following acts : He, ordained His Apostles as priests, and asked them to proclaim God’s message. “You have stayed with me all through my trials; 29 and just as my Father has given me the right to rule, so I will give you the same right. 30 You will eat and drink at my table in my Kingdom, and you will sit on thrones to rule over the twelve tribes of Israel. (Luke 22/28 and 29)
He, taught His Apostles and every body else, that evil temptation and betrayal can hit all those who detach and dissociate themselves from God, do not fear Him, lack faith, lose hope and worship earthly treasures. He showed them by example that even a disciple that He personally had picked and choose (Judas, the Iscariot) has fell a prey to Satan’s temptation. “But, look! The one who betrays me is here at the table with me! The Son of Man will die as God has decided, but how terrible for that man who betrays him!” Luke 22/21)
He, washed His Apostles’ feet to teach them by example modesty, devotion and humility. “So when he had washed their feet and put his garments back on and reclined at table again, he said to them, “Do you realize what I have done for you? You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘master,’ and rightly so, for indeed I am. If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet. I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do. Amen, amen, I say to you, no slave is greater than his master nor any messenger greater than the one who sent him” (John 13/12-16). Modesty was stressed and explained by Jesus after His Apostles were arguing among themselves who is the greatest: “An argument broke out among the disciples as to which one of them should be thought of as the greatest. Jesus said to them, “The kings of the pagans have power over their people, and the rulers claim the title ‘Friends of the People.’ But this is not the way it is with you; rather, the greatest one among you must be like the youngest, and the leader must be like the servant. Who is greater, the one who sits down to eat or the one who serves? The one who sits down, of course. But I am among you as one who serves.” (Luke 22/24 till 27)
Thursday of the “Holy Mysteries”, is called so because in His Last Supper with the 12 disciples, Jesus Christ established the Eucharist and Priesthood Sacraments when “He received a cup, and when he had given thanks, he said, “Take this, and share it among yourselves, for I tell you, I will not drink at all again from the fruit of the vine, until the Kingdom of God comes.” “He took bread, broke it and gave it to the disciples saying: This is my body which is given for you. Do this in memory of me. And when He Likewise, took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you”. Thursday of the Holy Mysteries (Secrets-Sacraments) is the heart of the last Lenten holy week, in which the Maronite Catholic Church lives with reverence and devotion the Lord’s Last Supper spirit and contemplation through prayers and deeply rooted religious rituals and traditions:
The Patriarch prays over and blesses the chrism (Al-Myroun), as well as the oil of baptism and anointing that are to are distributed on all parishes and churches.
During the mass that is held on this Holy Day, the priest washes the feet of twelve worshipers, mainly children (symbolizing the apostles numbers). Jesus washed His disciples feet and commanded them to love each other and follow his example in serving each other.
Worshipers visit and pray in seven Churches. This ritual denotes to the completion of the Church’s Seven sacraments (Secrets) : Priesthood, Eucharist, Holy Oil, Baptism, Confirmations, anointing and Service.
This tradition also denotes to the seven locations that Virgin Mary’s went to look for Her Son, Jesus, after she learned about His arrest. The detention place, The Council of the Priests, twice the Pilate’s headquarters, twice the Herod Headquarters, till She got to the Calvary.
Some Christian scholars believe that this tradition was originated in Rome where early pilgrims visited the seven pilgrim churches as an act of penance. They are Saint John Lateran, Saint Peter, Saint Mary Major, Saint Paul-outside-the-Walls, Saint Lawrence Outside the Walls, Holy Cross-in-Jerusalem, and traditionally Saint Sebastian Outside the Walls. Pope John Paul II replaced St. Sebastian with the Sanctuary of the Madonna of Divine Love for the jubilee year of 2000.
The Mass of the Lord’s Supper is accompanied by the ringing of bells, which are then silent until the Easter Vigil. Worshipers used to kneel and pray the rosary in front of the Eucharist (Blessed Sacrament) all Thursday night. The Blessed Sacrament remains exposed all night, while worshipers are encouraged to stay in the church as much as they can praying, meditating upon the Mystery of Salvation, and participating in the “agony of Gethsemane” (Garden at the foot of the Mount of Olives) in Jerusalem where Jesus spent his night in prayer before His crucifixion on Good Friday.
After the homily washing of feet the service concludes with a procession taking the Blessed Eucharist (Sacrament) to the place of reposition. The altar is later stripped bare, as are all other altars in the church except the Altar of Repose.
Thursday of the “Holy Mysteries”, is called so because in His Last Supper with the 12 disciples, Jesus Christ established the Eucharist and Priesthood Sacraments when “He received a cup, and when he had given thanks, he said, “Take this, and share it among yourselves, for I tell you, I will not drink at all again from the fruit of the vine, until the Kingdom of God comes.” “He took bread, broke it and gave it to the disciples saying: This is my body which is given for you. Do this in memory of me. And when He Likewise, took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you”. Jesus ordained His disciples as priests of the New Testament when he said to them during the Last Supper: “But you are those who have continued with me in my trials. I confer on you a kingdom, even as my Father conferred on me, that you may eat and drink at my table in my Kingdom. You will sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”
Before Celebrating the Resurrection Day (Easter) worshipers live the “Paschal Mystery” through the Thursday Of the Sacraments, Good Friday and Saturday Of The Light.
Because He loves us and wants us to dwell in His Eternal Heaven, Jesus Christ for our sake willingly suffered all kinds of torture, pain, humiliation and died on the Cross to pave our way for repentance and salvation.
Let us pray on this Holy Day that we always remember Jesus’ love and sacrifices and live our life in this context of genuine, faith, love, meekness and forgiveness.
N.B: The Above Piece was first published in 2013

Hezbollah fires heavy rockets at northern Israel after deadliest day of Israeli strikes on Lebanon
BEIRUT (AP)/Thu, March 28, 2024
The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah fired rockets with heavy warheads at towns in northern Israel, saying it used the weapons against civilian targets for the first time Thursday in retaliation for Israeli airstrikes the night before that killed nine, including what the group said were several paramedics. There were no reports of Israelis hurt in the rocket attack, local media said. The Israeli military did not immediately offer comment on the rocket attack. Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza on Oct. 7, concerns have grown that near-daily clashes along the border between Israel and Lebanon could escalate into a full-scale war. Airstrikes and rocket fire Wednesday killed 16 Lebanese and one Israeli, making it the deadliest day of the current conflict. Israel’s chief military spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said Israel had killed 30 Hezbollah militants in the past week and had destroyed dozens of Hezbollah military sites in an effort to push the Iran-backed group away from the border. The recent increase in violence has raised alarm in Washington and at the United Nations. “Restoring calm along that border remains a top priority for President Biden and for the administration," White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters, saying the U.S. is closely monitoring developments. “We’ve also been very, very clear: We do not support a war in Lebanon.”Kirby said the U.S. is working to halt the fighting through diplomatic efforts. This needs to be a top priority for Israel and Lebanon, he said, and would allow displaced civilians to return home. Tens of thousands of people on both sides have fled the fighting. At around sunset Thursday, a barrage of Katyusha and Burkan rockets was fired toward the Israeli village of Goren and Shlomi, a statement from Hezbollah said. Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV said the group had not previously fired Burkan rockets at civilian targets, but was now responding to the recent spate of Israeli airstrikes. Lebanon’s state media reported that 10 paramedics were among those killed Wednesday. The Israeli military said it struck targets for Hezbollah and an allied Sunni Muslim group.Hezbollah has frequently used Russian-made portable anti-tank Kornet missiles in recent months. More rarely, it has launched Burkan rockets which, according to the group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah, can carry a warhead that weighs between 300 kilograms (660 pounds) and 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds).
Hezbollah says its attacks aim to keep some Israeli divisions busy and away from Gaza, and Nasrallah says attacks on the border will only stop when Israel halts its offensive in Gaza. The U.N. peacekeeping force in south Lebanon known as UNIFIL said it was imperative that “this escalation cease immediately.”“We urge all sides to put down their weapons and begin the process toward a sustainable political and diplomatic solution,” UNIFIL said. It added that the peacekeeping force remains ready to support that process in any way it can. The fighting has killed nine civilians and 11 soldiers in Israel. More than 240 Hezbollah fighters and about 50 civilians have died in Lebanon.

Report: Paris seeking to contain Lebanon-Israel escalation
Naharnet/March 28, 2024 
Paris is exerting efforts in many directions in the region in a bid to contain the explosive situations and “weaken the possibilities of a broad war starting from south Lebanon’s front,” a diplomatic source in Paris said.
“Paris has received reassurances from the Lebanese and Israeli sides that they do not want an escalation or an expansion of the confrontations,” the source told al-Joumhouria newspaper in remarks published Thursday. “We have stressed to both sides that there is no interest for any side in escalation, and accordingly there is an urgent need to halt military operations immediately,” the source added.

Report: Safa told UAE Hezbollah ready to accept demilitarized zone in south
Naharnet/March 28, 2024  
The head of Hezbollah’s Coordination and Liaison Committee, Wafiq Safa, told Emirati officials during his latest visit to the UAE that his leadership is willing to halt the fighting on Lebanon’s southern front, a media report said. Hezbollah is also ready to accept a “demilitarized zone” along the Blue Line that would only contain Lebanese Army troops and UNIFIL peacekeepers, an article published in Saudi Arabia’s Asharq al-Awsat newspaper quoted sources close to Hezbollah as saying. “Following the ceasefire, there should be an agreement on the delineation of the land border, as happened regarding the maritime border,” the sources quoted Safa as telling the Emiratis.

Israeli General says army conducting 'very significant strikes' against Hezbollah
Associated Press/March 28, 2024 
A series of Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon killed 16 people and a barrage of rockets fired by the militant group Hezbollah killed one Israeli man, making Wednesday the deadliest day in more than five months of fighting along the border. Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, concerns have grown about further escalation along the Israel-Lebanon frontier. Tens of thousands of people on both sides have been displaced by the violence. Maj. Gen. Ori Gordin, the head of the Israeli army's Northern Command, said Wednesday that Israel was operating against the Islamic Group and had struck a "large number of operatives" and was also conducting "very significant strikes" against Hezbollah. "We are at war. We have been at war for almost half a year now, and it doesn't end with Hezbollah," he told a gathering of commanders. The near-daily violence has mostly been confined to the area along the border, and international mediators are scrambling to prevent an all-out war. The fighting has killed nine civilians and 11 soldiers in Israel. Nearly 240 Hezbollah fighters and about 40 civilians have died in Lebanon. Hezbollah began launching rockets toward Israel on Oct. 8, the day after Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel in a surprise attack that sparked the crushing war in Gaza.

Hezbollah strikes north Israel in response to 'Naqoura massacre'
Associated Press/March 28, 2024 
Hezbollah attacked Thursday two settlements in northern Israel in retaliation to what it called a "massacre" on the southern border town of Naqoura. The group said it targeted the Shlomi and Goren settlements in response to the attacks on civilians and especially the Israeli strikes on Naqoura and Tayr Harfa that killed Hezbollah and Amal paramedics. Four of Hezbollah fighters and two rescuers were killed Wednesday and three members of the Amal movement, including a rescuer. An earlier Israeli airstrike had hit a paramedic center affiliated with the Islamic Group (Jamaa Islamiya), killing seven of its members in the village of Hebariyeh, making Wednesday the deadliest day in more than five months of fighting along the border. Later on Thursday, Hezbollah targeted a "newly created" command center in Liman in support of Gaza. The near-daily violence has mostly been confined to the area along the border, and international mediators are scrambling to prevent an all-out war. The fighting has killed nine civilians and 11 soldiers in Israel. Nearly 240 Hezbollah fighters and about 40 civilians have died in Lebanon. Hezbollah began launching rockets toward Israel on Oct. 8, the day after Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel in a surprise attack that sparked the crushing war in Gaza.

Report: Israeli official says Israeli army to enter Lebanon after Rafah op
Naharnet/March 28, 2024 
The Israeli army will “enter into Lebanon” after finishing the Rafah operation, the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation has quoted an unnamed Israeli official as saying. Gaza's far-southern Rafah city is crowded with displaced civilians and world leaders have warned against an offensive there, fearing it would worsen a catastrophic humanitarian situation for the Palestinian territory's 2.4 million residents, many of whom are sheltering in Rafah along the Egyptian border. Hezbollah had activated Lebanon’s southern front with Israel on October 8 in solidarity with the Palestinians and the Hamas Movement following the latter’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel and the brutal war that ensued. There have been near-daily clashes between Hezbollah and Israel ever since, resulting in the death of at least 346 people in Lebanon, most of them Hezbollah fighters but also over 60 civilians. Tens of thousands of people have also been displaced by the violence in Lebanon's south and Israel's north and Israel has threatened to launch a military operation against Hezbollah to push it away from the border.

UK delivers 60 tons of Land Rover spare parts and tyres to Lebanese Army
Naharnet/March 28, 2024  
The British Embassy has delivered 60 tons of Land Rover spare parts and tyres to the Lebanese Army. The British Ambassador to Lebanon Hamish Cowell oversaw the handover Wednesday at the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) Logistics Base in Kfarshima. "This contribution – worth £2 million – underscores the United Kingdom's commitment to supporting the LAF in their efforts to maintain stability and security," the British Embassy in Beirut said in a statement Thursday. "The package of 225 engines, 737 brand new tyres, and essential Land Rover spare parts will facilitate the servicing, repairs, and maintenance of over 440 military vehicles. This will strengthen operational readiness, mobility and road safety for the Land Border Regiments," the statement said. Ambassador Cowell said that he is proud that the UK is able to contribute to the Lebanese Armed Forces’ resilience and operational readiness. "The LAF plays a critical role, under the leadership of General Joseph Aoun, in safeguarding Lebanon and its people amid the prevailing challenges, especially with the ongoing cross border fighting in South Lebanon," he added. Cowell went on to say that the equipment is vital for the operations of the Land Border Regiments tasked with securing Lebanon's borders and combating smuggling and terrorist activities, as he reaffirmed the UK's "commitment to supporting the LAF and to strengthening Lebanon's security and stability."

Sami Gemayel to Nasrallah: Stop the farce of the Gaza support front
Naharnet/March 28, 2024  
Kataeb Party chief Sami Gemayel on Thursday warned that “we are on the verge of repeating the Gaza experience in south Lebanon,” as he offered condolences over the civilians and paramedics who were killed by Israeli strikes over the past days. “The Israeli killing has started to take an indiscriminate nature and the condemned and deplorable criminality is now targeting innocents and unarmed people,” Gemayel said in a post on the X platform. Hezbollah chief “Sayyed Hassan (Nasrallah), stop the farce of the support front and Israel’s distraction, seeing as you are bringing destruction to the south,” Gemayel added.
Hezbollah had activated Lebanon’s southern front with Israel on October 8 in solidarity with the Palestinians and the Hamas Movement following the latter’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel and the brutal war that ensued. There have been near-daily clashes between Hezbollah and Israel ever since, resulting in the death of at least 346 people in Lebanon, most of them Hezbollah fighters but also over 60 civilians. Tens of thousands of people have also been displaced by the violence in Lebanon's south and Israel's north and Israel has threatened to launch a military operation against Hezbollah to push it away from the border.

Italian PM Meloni meets Mikati in Beirut
Associated Press/March 28, 2024 
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni met Thursday with caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati at the government palace in Beirut. Meloni is on a two-day visit to Lebanon during which she will meet some Lebanese officials and visit Italian peacekeepers based in southern Lebanon near the border with Israel.

‘Utmost importance’ for Israel, Lebanon to restore calm: US
AFP/March 28, 2024
WASHINGTON: The White House called Thursday on Israel and Lebanon to put a high priority on restoring calm after new deadly border crossfire and Israeli strikes targeting Hezbollah. “Restoring calm along that border remains a top priority for President Biden and for the administration and it has to be of utmost importance, we believe, as well for both Lebanon and Israel,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.

UN ‘deeply disturbed’ by strikes on Lebanon rescue workers
AFP/March 28, 2024
BEIRUT: The United Nations on Thursday said it was “deeply disturbed” by attacks on health care facilities, a day after several strikes blamed on Israel killed 10 emergency rescue workers in southern Lebanon. “The tragic events of the past 36 hours have resulted in a significant loss of life and injuries in south Lebanon. Up to 11 civilians were killed in a single day, including 10 paramedics,” said Imran Riza, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator for Lebanon. There has been near-daily cross-border fire between Lebanon’s Hezbollah, an ally of Palestinian militant group Hamas, and Israel since Hamas gunmen launched an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7, triggering war in Gaza. Lebanese groups say three separate Israeli strikes on Wednesday, including on a health center in the border village of Habariyeh, killed the 11 civilians. “I am deeply disturbed by the repeated attacks on health facilities and health workers who risk their lives to provide urgent assistance to their local communities,” Riza added. “Attacks on health care violate international humanitarian law and are unacceptable,” the UN official said in a statement. Several militant groups in Lebanon operate health centers and emergency response operations. Hezbollah said four of its fighters and two rescuers were killed in Wednesday’s strikes, while its ally the Amal movement said it had lost two members, including a rescuer. An official from the Jamaa Islamiya militant group had earlier told AFP that “seven rescuers” were killed in Israeli strikes on the emergency center in Habariyeh. The Israeli military said the target of one of the strikes was “a military compound” and those killed were Jamaa Islamiya militants. It said a “significant terrorist operative” and other members of the group were planning attacks against Israel at the time of the strike. Hezbollah responded to the deadly strikes by sending a barrage of rockets into northern Israel, killing one civilian in Kiryat Shmona on Wednesday. The group on Thursday said they targeted the northern Israeli town of Shlomi and agricultural village of Goren in retaliation for the previous day’s attacks.
The uptick in violence has raised fears of a broader escalation in the conflict. At least 346 people have been killed in Lebanon — mostly Hezbollah fighters, but also including at least 68 civilians — in clashes with Israel over the last six months, according to an AFP tally.
The fighting has also displaced tens of thousands of people in southern Lebanon and in northern Israel, where the military says 10 soldiers and eight civilians have been killed.

Jamaa Islamiya, from 'marginal role' to spotlight
Agence France Presse/March 28, 2024 
Jamaa Islamiya has a much lower profile than other militant groups in Lebanon, but the escalation of strikes over the border with Israel is pushing it into the spotlight. Formed in the 1960s, Jamaa Islamiya claims to have carried out operations with Palestinian militant group Hamas in southern Lebanon and said seven affiliated rescuers were killed in an overnight Israeli strike. Several groups allied to Hamas have exchanged near-daily fire with Israeli forces along Lebanon's southern border since war erupted in the Gaza Strip following Hamas's October 7 attacks on southern Israel. The groups say they are acting in solidarity with Hamas and Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Jamaa Islamiya has carried out "joint operations with Hamas" in Lebanon, according to an official from the small Sunni Muslim movement who requested anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the media. "All forces that operate in south Lebanon coordinate their actions," Ali Abu Yassin, head of Jamaa Islamiya's political bureau, told AFP. As the group announced the death of the seven medics on Wednesday, the Israeli military said those killed were Jamaa Islamiya "terrorists". Mohanad Hage Ali, from the Carnegie Middle East Center, said Jamaa Islamiya was "operating as an extension of Hamas in Lebanon", describing the two movements' relationship as "organic". Over the weekend, a Jamaa Islamiya official reportedly survived an Israeli drone strike in eastern Lebanon and earlier this month the group said three of its fighters were killed in Lebanon's south. The official requesting anonymity said two Jamaa Islamiya members were serving as bodyguards to Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri and were killed along with him in a January 2 strike on Beirut's southern suburbs.
'In the same trench' -
Hage Ali said Jamaa Islamiya had "around 500 armed men" but played only a "marginal political role" in Lebanon with just one lawmaker in the national parliament. Jamaa Islamiya and Hamas both come from the same ideological school as the Muslim Brotherhood, a Sunni Islamist group with origins in Egypt, the official requesting anonymity said. Jamaa Islamiya established its armed wing, the Fajr Forces, in 1982 to fight the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. The official said the group stayed out of Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war. Relations with Hezbollah have seen ups and downs but improved recently, analyst Hage Ali said, particularly since Jamaa Islamiya elected a new leadership closer to Hamas in 2022. But Hage Ali noted Jamaa Islamiya "is not subservient" to Hezbollah. The two groups differ in particular over the Syrian conflict, with Hezbollah supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad since his 2011 repression of anti-government protests sparked war, unlike Hamas and Jamaa Islamiya. Jamaa Islamiya political official Abu Yassin acknowledged his group had "differences of opinion with Hezbollah due to its participation in the Syrian war on the side of the regime". The Jamaa Islamiya official requesting anonymity said that though the groups differ over Syria, "today, we are in the same trench as Hezbollah on the Palestinian issue".

9 killed in two Israeli strikes on Tayr Harfa, Naqoura
Associated Press/March 28, 2024 
Israeli airstrikes killed nine people in southern Lebanon late Wednesday, including paramedics who were preparing to respond to the first strike, the state-run National News Agency said. That raises the number of people killed by Israeli strikes Wednesday to 16, after an overnight attack hit a different paramedic center linked to a Lebanese Sunni Muslim group, killing seven of the group's members. Earlier Wednesday, Hezbollah claimed responsibility for firing a barrage of rockets into the northern Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona and a military base, which killed one person. It said the rockets were in response to the deadly strike on the paramedics center. The Lebanese news agency said Israel bombed the village of Tayr Harfa after sunset, killing five, and a second strike killed four people as paramedics gathered near a cafe in the coastal town of Naqoura. Hezbollah’s Islamic Health Society said two of its paramedics were killed in Tayr Harfa while the Amal Movement-affiliated Islamic Risala Scout Association, also a paramedic group, said one of its members was killed in the strike on Naqoura. Hezbollah said four of its fighters were killed without saying where they were struck. The Amal movement said the strike on Naqoura killed one of its local commanders, identified as Ali Mahdi. Israel’s military said it had struck a Hezbollah military compound in Tayr Harfa and a “terrorist cell” in Naqoura. Israel said the earlier strike in Hebbariye killed a member of the Sunni al-Jamaa al-Islamiya, or the Islamic Group, and several other militants. It said the man was involved in attacks against Israel. Hezbollah has been firing rockets into northern Israel since the day after Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7. The near-daily violence has mostly been confined to the area along the Lebanon-Israel border. Nearly 240 Hezbollah fighters and about 40 civilians have died in Lebanon. The fighting has killed nine civilians and 11 soldiers in Israel.

Bou Habib: We will continue to push for the full implementation of Resolution 1701
LBCI/March 28, 2024 
The caretaker Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Minister, Abdallah Bou Habib, during a meeting with the United Nations Special Coordinator in Lebanon, Joanna Wronecka, confirmed that "We will continue to push for the full implementation of Resolution 1701 as it is the best way to achieve the desired stability."Bou Habib met with US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Ethan Goldrich, accompanied by Ambassador Lisa Johnson, and discussed the situation in the south and the war in Gaza. He reiterated "the necessity of supporting diplomatic initiatives to restore stability in the south and the region."
The importance of ending the presidential vacuum and electing a President of the Republic was also highlighted.

Pierre Achkar affirms: Holiday season 'positives' won't affect hotel establishments
LBCI/March 28, 2024 
Pierre Achkar affirmed in a statement that the "positive" aspects of the holiday season will not affect hotel establishments, adding that "this is something confirmed by the reservation rate," considering that "it is early to speculate whether hotel occupancy will increase during Eid al-Fitr."
The President of the Lebanese Hotel Association, the Federation for Tourism Industries in Lebanon, and the National Council of Tourism in Lebanon considered that "the bigger problem today is that the Israeli war against Lebanon is expanding to include new areas like Baalbek and Hermel."
He added, "All these issues worry tourists and prevent them from visiting Lebanon."He emphasized that "the effects of the holiday season will impact the tourism sector in general, as some sectors will see improvement with the arrival of thousands of [Lebanese] expatriates from abroad, especially the café, restaurant, and entertainment sectors."He stressed that "hotel establishments are resilient as they have no choice but to endure, knowing that 100 percent of these establishments are partially closed after the events of October 8, when the country was in a state of war, after having witnessed significant improvement during 2023, specifically until October 7 of that year."

Lebanon's springtime splendor: A journey through nature's canvas in pictures
LBCI/March 28, 2024 
Amidst the anticipation of the Easter holiday and the vibrant observance of Ramadan, Lebanon enjoys the delightful sunshine, celebrating the arrival of the much-awaited spring season. Lebanon, a small yet stunning country on the Eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, marvels at the spring season, hosting a ray of refreshing colors through its stunning flora and fauna, making it a beautiful escape in the Middle East through its four seasons. After a long winter, the Lebanese await this season to enjoy the fresh fragrances of nature, marvel at the green valleys, and celebrate the holidays by hopping into the traditions preparing delicious dishes and traditional sweets. The capital, Beirut, and other cities and villages transform into picturesque places where flowers blossom into beautiful colors. Spring's mild temperatures also allow many to enjoy fun activities such as hiking, picnicking, and exploring its natural wonders. Even through the tough times and days of instability, spring in Lebanon is an awaited season that encapsulates this diverse country's beauty, vitality, and cultural richness. So, if you are daydreaming of visiting Lebanon during the coming holidays, here are some pictures capturing the spring season with all its magnificent aspects!

Ministry of Energy urges TotalEnergies to deliver Block 9 drilling results report: LBCI Sources confirm
LBCI/March 28, 2024 
LBCI sources confirmed that the Ministry of Energy sent a letter to TotalEnergies requesting the submission of the drilling results report for Block 9 before mid-April. The sources clarified that this date constitutes the 6-month deadline for issuing the report, adding that TotalEnergies had promised many times to submit the report to the Lebanese Petroleum Administration and discuss it. In this context, a delegation from the Administration was supposed to travel to Paris on March 26, but the French company postponed the visit.

UNHCR and WFP aid reduction: A threat to Syrian families in Lebanon
LBCI/March 28, 2024 
Recent statements from the Social Affairs Ministry have highlighted a concerning trend: a reduction in international aid. On November 23, 2023, a report by LBCI revealed that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) intends to reduce aid to 32% of Syrian families residing in Lebanon, approximately 88,000, starting in early 2024. The decision was not formally communicated to the Lebanese government until about 20 days later, in coordination with the World Food Program (WFP). Today, both UNHCR and WFP have issued a new warning to the Lebanese government. According to information obtained by LBCI, after discontinuing cash assistance to 88,600 displaced Syrian families in Lebanon in December 2023, the WFP will also halt monthly food voucher assistance to nearly 35,000 families starting in May 2024. With this latest reduction, the number of Syrian refugee families deprived of assistance from UNHCR and WFP now exceeds 123,000, as acknowledged by the UNHCR. LBCI contacted UNHCR for official comment but was directed to the WFP, which did not respond to inquiries.

Rafah Battle a Precursor to War in Lebanon?
Bassam Abou Zeid/This Is Beirut/ 28 March 2024
Lebanese officials have received information suggesting that if efforts to secure the release of hostages between Israel and Hamas fail and if the Israeli army initiates an operation in Rafah, a comprehensive Israeli assault on Hezbollah in Lebanon could be imminent. Signs of this escalation include the widening scope of Israeli airstrikes, which have targeted the region of Hermel (Bekaa Governorate), as well as the specific nature of the targets and the death toll. Reports suggest that warnings from American and European officials to Lebanon have intensified in the past week, emphasizing the importance for Hezbollah to acknowledge the risks to Lebanon and its people and urging the party to embark on a de-escalation process on the southern front, ultimately leading to a ceasefire that would pave the way for intense negotiations for the implementation of UN Resolution 1701.
Reports suggest that mediators—both local and abroad—have not yet received any response from Hezbollah via Lebanese channels, despite relentless pressure. These mediators were surprised by statements suggesting that Lebanese officials cannot press Hezbollah for a reply, citing the intricate interplay of military and political factors shaping the party’s decisions. This includes consultations with Iran, Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, hinting that any response might be subject to extensive deliberations and might take a while to materialize.
Western diplomats closely monitoring the situation in Lebanon have asserted that Hezbollah has been resistant to every possible effort to prevent a full-scale war in the country. They argued that the Lebanese government has failed in trying to persuade the Shiite faction, which seems unaffected by the opposing viewpoints of the Lebanese population regarding the war. These diplomats stressed that they are not advocating for miracles to ward off the direst repercussions on Lebanon, especially since Lebanese officials continue to tread carefully around Hezbollah through their statements and positions. None has explicitly voiced opposition to the ongoing events in southern Lebanon or directly called on Hezbollah to halt hostilities. This stance effectively places the Lebanese government in line with supporters of war and its potential repercussions.

Giorgia Meloni Begins 24-Hour Visit to Beirut
This Is Beirut/ 28 March/2024
Giorgia Meloni, head of the Italian government, arrived in Beirut on Wednesday evening for a 24-hour visit during which she will inspect the Italian contingent of UNIFIL and hold talks with its commanding officers. She was welcomed off the plane by caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, with whom she immediately held a meeting at the Serail in the presence of the members of the delegation accompanying her and the Italian Ambassador to Beirut, Nicoletta Bombardiere. On the Lebanese side, the meeting was attended by the caretaker Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abdallah Bou Habib, and Mikati’s advisors Nicolas Nahas, Boutros Assaker and Ziad Mikati. According to a press release issued by the Serail, the two Prime Ministers said they were in favor of a rapid implementation of the UN Security Council Resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, especially as it could extend to the southern border with Israel. Regarding the situation in this part of the country, Mikati insisted on Lebanon’s commitment to the full implementation of Security Council Resolution 1701. He stressed the need for Israel to comply with the resolution and end its repeated violations of Lebanese sovereignty. Meloni and Mikati discussed the issue of Syrian migrants in Lebanon and that of illegal migrants in the Mediterranean countries in general. They both agreed on the need for concerted international efforts and bilateral coordination to find lasting solutions to this phenomenon.

Geagea Sceptical about the Outcome of the Bkerke Meetings
This Is Beirut/ 28 March/2024
The leader of the Lebanese Forces (LF), Samir Geagea, expressed skepticism about the success of the Bkerke initiative, which is sponsoring inter-Christian meetings to achieve a unified political stance around a roadmap that brings back the Lebanese constants. The aim of this initiative is to put an end to the dysfunctions that have been blocking the country for years, and to pave the way for the holding of the presidential election. In an interview with Télé Liban on Wednesday, Mr. Geagea made no secret of the fact that he has few illusions about the outcome of these meetings, which are being held far from the limelight, justifying his skepticism by the calculations and the interests of the FPM leader Gebran Bassil. “I’m not convinced by these meetings, but the LF are taking part for different reasons, mainly for the Church”, he said, stressing that he was “familiar with the approaches, practices and views of the Free Patriotic Movement, which has been in power for almost 15 years without doing anything”. On the other hand, he did not comment on the decision of the Marada (whose leader, Sleiman Frangieh, is the candidate of the Amal-Hezbollah tandem for the presidency) not to join the Bkerke talks. For the Maronite Patriarchate’s initiative to succeed, Samir Geagea advocated an initiative focusing solely on Christian groups sharing the same principles and political positions. Because,” he said, “if Hezbollah agrees with Gebran Bassil on a candidate other than Sleiman Frangieh for the presidency of the Republic, the head of the FPM will hasten to follow him”. For the LF leader, it is “indisputable that Bassil is using Bkerke to bail himself out politically”. “His party has no historical political line. In the 90s, it succeeded in destroying the only free region in the country under the pretext of a “unification of arms” (…) then in 2005, it endorsed the illegal arms (of Hezbollah) under the pretext of the weakness of the State. This party has no political constants, but interests that drive it to associate with whoever can guarantee them”. In addition, the head of the LF said he was ready to discuss a third candidate (other than Sleiman Frangieh and Jihad Azour) for the presidency, but “on condition that he has the same characteristics as Mr. Azour”, the candidate of the opposition and the FPM.

UNIFIL Urges Diplomatic Solution in Southern Lebanon
This Is Beirut/ 28 Mar 2024
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) expressed deep concern over the escalation of violence currently taking place across the Blue Line, which has caused a large number of civilian deaths and the destruction of homes and livelihoods. “The escalation must stop immediately, and all parties must lay down their arms and start working towards a sustainable political and diplomatic solution,” UNIFIL urged in a statement on Thursday. UNIFIL emphasized that it “remains ready to support this process in any way possible, including through a tripartite meeting at the request of the parties.”
The southern border witnessed its deadliest attack in the past couple of days. Some 16 people, including 10 rescue workers, have been killed in Israeli strikes on Hebbariyeh and Tayr Harfa. At least 331 people have been killed in cross-border hostilities since October 8, most of them Hezbollah fighters, including some 57 civilians, according to an AFP count. On the Israeli side, at least 10 soldiers and seven civilians have been killed in northern Israel, according to the Israeli military.

UN Deplores ‘Unacceptable’ Attacks on Rescue Workers in Lebanon
This Is Beirut/ 28 Mar 2024
The United Nations deplored on Thursday what it described as “unacceptable” attacks on rescue workers in Lebanon, after 10 were killed in Israeli strikes in the South of the country over the past two days. “The tragic events of the last 36 hours have resulted in numerous casualties and injuries in southern Lebanon. Up to 11 civilians have been killed in a single day, including 10 rescue workers,” said the UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Imran Riza. Seven rescue workers were killed in Hebbariyeh on Tuesday night when strikes targeted an emergency and rescue center affiliated to Jamaa Islamiya, a Lebanese Islamist group close to Hamas. On Wednesday evening, Hezbollah announced the death of four of its fighters and two rescue workers, while its ally Amal reported the death of two of its members, including a rescue worker. “Attacks on medical facilities violate international humanitarian law and are unacceptable,” Riza added in a statement. On Thursday, the pro-Iranian group announced that it had bombed several localities in northern Israel in retaliation for the “massacre” the previous day in Naqoura and “the aggression” against the village of Tayr Harfa and its medical teams. At least 346 people have been killed in Lebanon—mostly Hezbollah fighters, but also at least 68 civilians—in clashes with Israel in almost six months, according to an AFP count. The border violence has also displaced thousands of people in southern Lebanon, as well as in northern Israel, where, according to the army, 10 soldiers and eight civilians have been killed.

Douaihy to TIB: We Ask for an Immediate Ceasefire
Chelsea Al Arif /This Is Beirut/ 28 March/2024
MP Michel Douaihy told This is Beirut that the Lebanese government is not meeting the standards to fight what is happening on the southern border of Lebanon and that an immediate ceasefire should be attained. Douaihy also stressed that the pillar for the implementation of all those strategies is the election of a president.

No Respite on the Southern Border After Deadly Wednesday Attack
This Is Beirut/ 28 March/2024
Amid the announcement of the adoption of a UN resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza three days ago, the hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel on the southern border in Lebanon seems to ablaze further.
The Iran-backed group claimed several rocket and shell attacks on the Shlomi and Goren settlements and the new headquarters of the (Israeli) Liman Battalion “in response to Israeli attacks on civilian homes in southern Lebanon on Wednesday evening, particularly the raids on Naqoura and Tayr Harfa.” The Israeli media reported that twenty missiles had been launched on Thursday from Lebanon in the direction of the Upper Galilee. Nine Hezbollah and Amal movement members were killed in the aforementioned raids on Wednesday. Additionally, the Israeli Channel 12 also reported that a missile launched from Lebanon had landed in an open area in the Western Galilee. According to the Israeli Army, alarm sirens sounded in Ras el-Naqoura in northern Israel, on the border with Lebanon, as well as in several areas of the Western Galilee. Moreover, the Israeli artillery targeted the villages of Dhayra, Zebqine, Alma al-Shaab, Naqoura, Majdelzoun, Tayr Harfa, Labbouneh, and Wadi Hamoul. On Wednesday night, Israeli artillery targeted the outskirts of Marouahine, Dhayra, and Aita al-Shaab. Simultaneously, surveillance aircraft flew over villages in the western and central sectors, as far as the outskirts of Tyre, firing flares at the cazas of Tyre and Bint Jbeil.

LAU Launches Campus in New York
This Is Beirut/ 28 March 2024
The Lebanese American University (LAU) announced in a press release on Thursday that it has converted its academic center in New York City into a branch campus.Located in midtown Manhattan, LAU New York will now confer master’s and bachelor’s degrees. Students will be able to register in five remote and in-person programs tailored to the needs of the global job market, mainly in International Business, Business Analytics, Global Business Administration, Computer Science and Applied Artificial Intelligence. The BS in International Business program is said to be launched in September 2025.
“Through this move, we are expanding the boundaries of higher education and forging a path toward a future where cross-cultural exchange, experiential learning and global connectivity are seamlessly woven into the fabric of our academic excellence,” said LAU President Michel E. Mawad. LAU will also open exchange programs enabling Lebanon-based students to spend a semester or more at LAU New York, immersing themselves in the cultural, educational and professional scenes of the world’s most diverse city. “These exchanges are core to the current educational needs of students, offering a truly international experience from LAU, and very differentiated employability prospects,” said Dr. Barbar Akle, Associate Provost and Executive Director of LAU New York.

Hezbollah offensive would be ‘Oct. 7 on steroids’....The Lebanese terror group is the strongest Iranian proxy in the Middle East.
David Isaac/JNS/March 28/2024
Thousands of rockets, thousands of casualties and devastating strikes to major infrastructure, cutting off water and electricity to Israel’s citizens—this is the likely scenario of an attack by Hezbollah across the Jewish state’s northern border, experts tell JNS. Award-winning director and producer Eli Katzoff explores the frightening question on the minds of Israelis and others. What if Hezbollah decides to go to war with Israel in the north? What will that look like, and will other regional actors get involved? Has the plan already begun, and what can Israel do about it? Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy based in Lebanon, has the capability and the desire to strike the Jewish state, they say. The terrorist group has already fired more than a thousand rockets at Israel in the last several months. It has forced Israel to temporarily relocate 60,000 northern residents to other parts of the country in case of an escalation.
The Alma Research and Education Center, an institute two miles from the Lebanese border that’s focused on the security challenges along Israel’s northern front, obtained a Hezbollah video in which the terrorist group laid out an almost identical plan to the one carried out on Oct. 7 by Hamas: a rocket barrage followed by a ground invasion into Israeli towns and villages. “All we have to do is listen to their own words, what they’re saying in Arabic, and cross it with their capabilities,” Alma Center founder Lt. Col. (res.) Sarit Zehavi told JNS. Hezbollah’s capabilities go far beyond what Hamas brought to bear, as terrible as the Oct. 7 attack was. Hezbollah has about 140,000 short-range rockets, 65,000 rockets that can reach Haifa, and others that can reach Jerusalem and even Israel’s southern region. It also has some 10,000 drones. Hezbollah is the most professional and experienced of Iran’s proxy militias in the Middle East, Zehavi said. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah once pointed to a map and said his missiles could reach various places in Israel, pointing to hospitals, power stations and other infrastructure.
‘Bomb shelters almost all day’
Once it starts, thousands of rockets will rain down not just from Lebanon, but also from Syria, Iraq and the Houthis in Yemen. Ben Yaakov said that once Hezbollah targets electricity infrastructure it will be only days before water runs out. Israel, which has largely solved its water problems, derives 80% of its water from desalination plants. Those plants are energy-intensive. “You will find Israel’s citizens in [bomb] shelters not five minutes a day, not 10 minutes a day, not one hour a day, but almost all day,” Ben Yaakov said. The casualties could number in the hundreds of thousands on both sides. “I believe the retaliation will be very, very high scale,” he said. Zehavi said that Israel’s strategy until now had been containment, avoiding a large-scale confrontation and managing the situation: “We changed. We are no longer willing to sit next to these monsters because we saw that if you postpone the war, they get stronger.”

Former MP Fouad Saad Dies at 83
This Is BeirutThis Is Beirut/ 28 March 2024
Former Aley MP and lawyer Fouad el-Saad passed away on Thursday at the age of 83. Born on April 3, 1941 in Ain Trez, Aley, Saad received a Bachelor’s Degree in Law, Political Science, History and Geography at Saint-Joseph University of Beirut (USJ). In 1964, he joined the Bar Association to practice law and was later elected as the Maronite MP for Aley in 1992. He voted against the re-election of President Elias Hraoui in 1995 and failed to win the re-election in 1996 against candidates supported by the leader of the Progressive Socialist Party, Walid Joumblatt. However, he later reconciled with Joumblatt and was re-elected MP for Aley in 2000. He was also appointed Minister of State for Administrative Reform under Prime Minister Rafic Hariri until 2003. In 2004, Saad was one of the 29 MPs who prevented the extension of President Emile Lahoud’s term and convened the Bristol rally of the anti-Syrian opposition. He was re-elected in June 2005 and June 2009 on the March 14th Alliance list. Saad was the 10th signatory to counter the Parliament’s decision to increase the salaries of public civil servants, which contributed in the making of the financial crisis in Lebanon.

Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on March 28-29/2024
Israeli airstrike injures two individuals outside Damascus
Reuters/March 28, 2024 
The Syrian Ministry of Defense said in a statement that two people were injured in an Israeli airstrike in the vicinity of Damascus on Thursday. The ministry added that the strike targeted a residential building and resulted in 'some material losses.'

Three Israelis wounded in Jordan Valley terror shooting
JNSMarch 28, 2024
Three Israelis were wounded on Thursday morning in a terrorist attack in the Jordan Valley. A Palestinian gunman opened fire on a school bus and several cars traveling along Route 90, near Al-Auja, north of Jericho.The terrorist ambushed passing vehicles from the side of the road, firing at them from a standing position and then immediately fleeing the scene, according to eyewitnesses. The terrorist was masked and wearing clothing resembling an IDF uniform. Israeli forces launched a manhunt for the perpetrator. Amid the search, the head of the IDF’s Central Command, Maj. Gen. Yehuda Fox, held a situational assessment at the scene of the attack. Magen David Adom emergency medics treated a 30-year-old man with moderate gunshot wounds and another man in his 20s who was lightly injured. A 13-year-old boy was also lightly injured by glass shards. The two adult victims were evacuated to Hadassah-Ein Kerem Medical Center in Jerusalem while the teen was being treated at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in the capital.Victims of a Palestinian terror shooting arrive at Jerusalem’s Hadassah-Ein Kerem Medical Center, March 28, 2024. “We must defeat the enemy while deepening our roots in the land of our forefathers. Precisely now is the time to apply sovereignty to the Jordan Valley, an area whose importance is not disputed in Israeli society,” said Israeli lawmaker Dan Illouz, a member of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. “This would be a victory remembered for generations,” he added. Yesha Council chairman Shlomo Ne’eman demanded that the tide be turned, saying: “The Palestinian Authority is waging a war against us, and only action with the same force as in Gaza will eliminate all threats throughout Judea and Samaria. “We call on the government of Israel and its leader to on the one hand allow the development of settlements without restrictions and on the other hand to go to war to eliminate the vile enemy. Jewish blood will not be spilled in vain,” added Ne’eman. Separately on Thursday, a Palestinian suspect was arrested after refusing to be checked by IDF soldiers at the Bekaa crossing and subsequently driving through the barrier.A chase ensued and soldiers apprehended the suspect. There were no injuries to Israeli forces and the suspect was transferred for questioning. The Bekaa crossing is located on Route 90 in the northern Jordan Valley, near the village of Tayasir in Samaria. On Friday, IDF Sgt. First Class Ilay David Garfinkel, 21, was killed and six other soldiers wounded in a shootout with a Palestinian terrorist in Samaria. The attack began when the terrorist, identified as Mujahid Barakat Mansour, opened fire with a sniper rifle on an Israeli minibus traveling near Dolev, located west of Ramallah in the Binyamin region. No one was injured in the attack, but during the ensuing manhunt, Israeli forces engaged Mansour in gun battles that lasted several hours, resulting in the casualties. The IDF deployed additional troops to the area along with aerial support, including a combat helicopter, and the terrorist was eventually killed by a missile strike.

Netanyahu says Rafah civilians can 'just move' away from ground invasion
Associated Press/March 28, 2024 
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has downplayed U.S. fears of a humanitarian catastrophe if Israel launches a planned ground invasion into Gaza’s southernmost city, saying civilians would be able to flee the fighting into other parts of the war-torn territory. Speaking Wednesday to a bipartisan U.S. Congressional delegation visiting Israel, Netanyahu said people sheltering in Rafah – now more than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million population – will be able to move away from the fighting. “People just move, they move with their tents,” Netanyahu said. “People moved down (to Rafah). They can move back up.”Israel says a ground offensive is needed to destroy thousands of Hamas fighters in Rafah. The planned incursion has raised global alarm because the city on the Gaza-Egypt border is jammed with 1.4 million Palestinians in sprawling tent camps and U.N. shelters, most of whom have fled fighting elsewhere.The United States, Israel’s top ally, has urged Israel not to carry out the operation without a “credible” plan to evacuate civilians. Rafah is also the main entry point for desperately needed aid into Gaza, where the U.N. says 100% of the population is at severe levels of food insecurity. Netanyahu suggested that the dispute over Rafah was just another in a series of disagreements between the allies and that he “appreciates” President Joe Biden’s support, but that Israel will act alone “if we have to.”Israel’s military has said it plans to direct the civilians to “humanitarian islands” in central Gaza ahead of the planned offensive.

Israel has not received everything it has asked for, top US general says
WASHINGTON (Reuters)/March 28, 2024
The United States' top general said on Thursday that Israel had not received every weapon that it has asked for, in part because President Joe Biden's administration was not willing to provide at least some of them. Washington gives $3.8 billion in annual military assistance to Israel, its longtime ally. The United States has been rushing air defenses and munitions to Israel, but some Democrats and Arab American groups have criticized the Biden administration's steadfast support of Israel, which they say provides it with a sense of impunity. "Although we've been supporting them with capability, they've not received everything they've asked for," said General Charles Q. Brown, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff. "Some of that is because they've asked for stuff that we either don't have the capacity to provide or not willing to provide, not right now," Brown added, while speaking at an event hosted by the Defense Writers Group. More than 32,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip by Israel's devastating offensive, according to health authorities in the territory. Israel retaliated following an attack by militant group Hamas on southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and abducting 253 hostages according to Israeli tallies. The Israeli offensive prompted opposition from within Biden's Democratic Party, leading thousands to vote "uncommitted" for him in recent party presidential primaries. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met with Israel Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in Washington earlier this week and the Pentagon said security assistance to Israel was discussed. "It is a constant dialogue," Brown said.

Talks resume on bringing Israeli officials to US to discuss Gaza operation
Associated Press/March 28, 2024 
Talks have restarted aimed at bringing top Israeli officials to Washington to discuss potential military operations in Gaza, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled a planned visit this week because he was angry about the U.S. vote on a U.N. cease-fire resolution, the White House said Wednesday.
"So we're now working with them to find a convenient date that's obviously going to work for both sides," said press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. No date has been finalized yet. One U.S. official said strategic affairs minister Ron Dermer and national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi would be among the delegation to come to Washington. The official were not authorized to speak publicly about the sensitive discussions and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. An Israeli official said the White House had reached out with the goal of setting a new meeting. The official was not authorized to talk to the media and spoke on condition of anonymity. Netanyahu's office said the prime minister "did not authorize the departure of the delegation to Washington."The prime minister canceled the trip this week after the U.N. vote to demand a cease-fire in Hamas-run Gaza; the U.S. abstained from the vote but did not veto it. Netanyahu accused the United States of "retreating" from a "principled position" by allowing the resolution to pass without conditioning the cease-fire on the release of hostages held by Hamas. The delegation to the U.S. was meant to discuss a promised ground invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah, which is overflowing with displaced civilians. Israel has so far rejected American appeals to call off the planned operation. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant was already in Washington by the time Netanyahu canceled the trip by other officials. Gallant met with Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. The Gaza operation was one of many topics they discussed. Netanyahu on Wednesday said his decision to cancel was meant to deliver a message to Hamas that international pressure against Israel will not prompt it to end the war without concessions from the militant group, an apparent attempt to smooth over the clash between the allies. Speaking to visiting Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., Netanyahu said the canceled visit "was a message first and foremost to Hamas: Don't bet on this pressure, it's not going to work."Netanyahu said the U.S. abstention on the U.N. vote was "very, very bad," and that it "encouraged Hamas to take a hard line and to believe that international pressure will prevent Israel" from achieving its war aims. Israel wants to destroy Hamas' military and governing capabilities and free the hostages taken by the militant group during its Oct. 7 attack against Israel. The U.S. abstention and Netanyahu's subsequent decision to cancel the delegation represented the strongest public dispute between the two allies since the war in Gaza began.

In rare speech, head of Hamas fighters calls on Muslims to liberate Al-Aqsa
Associated Press/March 28, 2024 
Hamas has released a rare recording of what it says is the shadowy head of its military wing calling on Muslims around the world to liberate Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque.Wednesday’s recording was a reminder of the difficulty Israel has faced in realizing its stated goal of destroying Hamas’ military capabilities.
Mohammed Deif delivered the message in a voice recording posted Wednesday on the militant group’s channel in the messaging app Telegram. “Start marching today, now, not tomorrow, toward Palestine,” Deif says in a message aimed at Muslims globally, calling them to join “the honor of jihad and participation in the liberation of Al-Aqsa Mosque.”Al-Aqsa is the third-holiest site in Islam, and sits on a disputed hilltop revered by Jews and Muslims in Jerusalem’s Old City. No image of Deif appears in the recording, and it was not possible to authenticate it. It was not clear when the recording was made. The leader of Hamas’ Qassam Brigades has not been seen in public in decades, and the last time Hamas published a voice recording of him was the day of the Oct. 7. attack that triggered the war. Israel says Deif is one of the masterminds of the attack, and he tops Israel’s most-wanted list alongside Yehya Sinwar, the overall leader of Hamas in Gaza. Deif is thought to be paralyzed after surviving multiple assassination attempts. Israel has released a small number of photos of what it says are Deif.

Palestinian fighters battle Israeli forces around Gaza's Al Shifa Hospital
CAIRO (Reuters)/ By Nidal al-Mughrabi/March 28, 2024
Israeli forces and Palestinian fighters battled in close combat around Gaza's Al Shifa Hospital on Thursday, where the armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad said they attacked Israeli soldiers and tanks with rockets and mortar fire. The Israeli army said it continued to operate around the hospital complex in Gaza City after storming it more than a week ago. Its forces had killed around 200 gunmen since the start of the operation "while preventing harm to civilians, patients, medical teams, and medical equipment", it said. Gaza's health ministry said wounded people and patients were being held inside an administration building in Al Shifa that was not equipped to provide them with healthcare. Five patients had died since the Israeli raid began due to shortages of foodhttp://content.reuters.com/auth-server/content/tag:reuters.com,2024:newsml_RC2YU6AIHVI6:928720859/tag:reuters.com,2024:binary_RC2YU6AIHVI6-BASEIMAGE?action=download&mediatype=picture&mex_media_type=picture&token=QxzOjyVpRjnJpWQsJhA%2B3piq8seifFQLImvrSv5CoSE%3D, water and medical care, the Hamas-run ministry said. Al Shifa, the Gaza Strip's biggest hospital before the war, had been one of the few healthcare facilities even partially operational in north Gaza before the latest fighting. It had also been housing displaced civilians. Unverified footage on social media showed its surgery unit blackened by flames and nearby apartments on fire or destroyed. The armed wings of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad militant groups said in a statement they "bombed, with a barrage of mortar shells, gatherings of Israeli soldiers in the vicinity of the Al-Shifa Complex" in a joint operation. Islamic Jihad targeted an Israeli tank with an anti-tank rocket outside the hospital, it said in another statement. The Israeli military said militants fired at its troops from inside and outside the ER building.Israel says it is targeting Hamas militants who use civilian buildings, including apartment blocks and hospitals, for cover. Hamas denies doing so.At least 32,552 Palestinians have been killed and 74,980 wounded in Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, the territory's health ministry said on Thursday.Thousands more dead are believed to be buried under rubble and over 80% of Gaza's 2.3 million population is displaced, many at risk of famine.The war erupted after Hamas militants broke through the border and rampaged through communities in southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and abducting 253 hostages according to Israeli tallies.
TWO MORE HOSPITALS BESIEGED
Israeli forces continued to blockade Al-Amal and Nasser hospitals in Khan Younis, while several other areas in the southern Gaza city came under Israeli fire, residents said. The Palestinian Red Crescent said seven people working for the organisation arrested in a raid on Al-Amal hospital on Feb. 9 had been released after 47 days in Israeli prisons. Among them was the director of ambulance and emergency services in the Gaza Strip, Mohammed Abu Musabeh. Eight members of the association were still being detained, it said in a statement. Israel said soldiers from its Commando Brigade had arrested dozens of Palestinian militants in the Al-Amal area and discovered explosives and dozens of Kalashnikov-type weapons. The World Health Organization said Al-Amal Hospital had ceased to function due to fighting, leaving just 10 of 36 hospitals in the Gaza Strip partially operational. "Once more, WHO demands an immediate end to attacks on hospitals in Gaza, and calls for protection of health staff, patients, and civilians," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X on Thursday. In Rafah, where over a million people have been sheltering, health officials said an Israeli airstrike on a house killed eight people and wounded others. Israel says it plans a ground offensive into Rafah, where it believes most Hamas fighters are now sheltering. Its closest ally and main arms supplier the United States opposes such an assault, arguing it would cause too much harm to civilians who have sought refuge there. (Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi and James Mackenzie, Additional reporting by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber in Geneva; Writing by Ros Russell; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Talks resume on bringing Israeli officials to US to discuss Gaza operation
Associated Press/March 28, 2024 
Talks have restarted aimed at bringing top Israeli officials to Washington to discuss potential military operations in Gaza, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled a planned visit this week because he was angry about the U.S. vote on a U.N. cease-fire resolution, the White House said Wednesday.
"So we're now working with them to find a convenient date that's obviously going to work for both sides," said press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. No date has been finalized yet. One U.S. official said strategic affairs minister Ron Dermer and national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi would be among the delegation to come to Washington. The official were not authorized to speak publicly about the sensitive discussions and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. An Israeli official said the White House had reached out with the goal of setting a new meeting. The official was not authorized to talk to the media and spoke on condition of anonymity. Netanyahu's office said the prime minister "did not authorize the departure of the delegation to Washington." The prime minister canceled the trip this week after the U.N. vote to demand a cease-fire in Hamas-run Gaza; the U.S. abstained from the vote but did not veto it. Netanyahu accused the United States of "retreating" from a "principled position" by allowing the resolution to pass without conditioning the cease-fire on the release of hostages held by Hamas. The delegation to the U.S. was meant to discuss a promised ground invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah, which is overflowing with displaced civilians. Israel has so far rejected American appeals to call off the planned operation. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant was already in Washington by the time Netanyahu canceled the trip by other officials. Gallant met with Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. The Gaza operation was one of many topics they discussed. Netanyahu on Wednesday said his decision to cancel was meant to deliver a message to Hamas that international pressure against Israel will not prompt it to end the war without concessions from the militant group, an apparent attempt to smooth over the clash between the allies. Speaking to visiting Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., Netanyahu said the canceled visit "was a message first and foremost to Hamas: Don't bet on this pressure, it's not going to work." Netanyahu said the U.S. abstention on the U.N. vote was "very, very bad," and that it "encouraged Hamas to take a hard line and to believe that international pressure will prevent Israel" from achieving its war aims. Israel wants to destroy Hamas' military and governing capabilities and free the hostages taken by the militant group during its Oct. 7 attack against Israel. The U.S. abstention and Netanyahu's subsequent decision to cancel the delegation represented the strongest public dispute between the two allies since the war in Gaza began.

Netanyahu asks Israeli court to defer deadline on conscription controversy
JERUSALEM (Reuters)/March 28, 2024
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked Israel's top court on Thursday to defer a deadline for the government to come up with a new military conscription plan that would address mainstream anger at the exemptions granted to ultra-Orthodox Jews. The draft issue is especially sensitive as Israel's armed forces, made up mostly of teenaged conscripts and civilians mobilised for reserve duty, wage a nearly six-month-old war in Gaza to try to eliminate the Islamist group Hamas that rules the Palestinian enclave. One senior Israeli official estimated that 5% of the population was taking part in the conflict, which has spread to the Lebanese front and drawn missile salvoes from Yemen. Yet the ultra-Orthodox, Israel's fastest-growing religious minority, have a waiver from conscription. The Supreme Court scrapped this in 2018 in the name of equality. Parliament failed to come up with a new arrangement, and a government-issued stay on mandatory conscription of ultra-Orthodox expires on March 31. Those favouring a review of the exemption include Netanyahu's defence minister and other cabinet members managing the war. They predict months of more fighting that will strain manpower and stoke public demands for more equitable call-ups. But ultra-Orthodox parties in the governing coalition, to which the conservative leader has long looked for support, want to preserve the waivers, which are designed to keep their constituents in seminaries and preserve the religious lifestyle. In a letter to the Supreme Court published by his office, Netanyahu said he had "made salient progress on the draft issue" but asked for a 30-day extension "in order to draft agreements". The war against Hamas militants has dominated the government's attention and is now at a decisive point, he said. There was no immediate comment from court spokespersons. The ultra-Orthodox make up 13% of Israel's 10 million population, a figure expected to reach 19% by 2035 due to their high birth rates. Economists argue that the waiver from the draft keeps some unnecessarily in seminaries and out of the workforce, spelling a growing welfare burden for middle-class taxpayers. Israel's 21% Arab minority are also mostly exempted from the draft, under which men and women are generally called up at age 18, with men serving three years and women, two.

ICJ orders Israel to take necessary measures to allow aid into Gaza without obstacles
Reuters/March 28, 2024
The judges of the International Court of Justice unanimously ordered Israel on Thursday to take all necessary and effective measures to ensure the entry of essential food supplies to the residents of Gaza without delay. The court stated that Palestinians in Gaza are facing difficult living conditions amid the spread of famine.

UN top court orders Israel to open more land crossings for aid into Gaza
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP)/March 28, 2024
The top United Nations court on Thursday ordered Israel to take measures including opening more land crossings to allow food, water, fuel and other supplies into Gaza to tackle crippling shortages in the war-ravaged enclave. The International Court of Justice issued two new so-called provisional measures in a case brought by South Africa accusing Israel of acts of genocide in its military campaign launched after the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas. Israel stringently denies it is committing genocide and says its military campaign is self defense. Thursday’s order came after South Africa sought more provisional measures, including a ceasefire, citing starvation in Gaza. Israel urged the court not to issue new orders. In its legally binding order, the court told Israel to take “all necessary and effective measures to ensure, without delay, in full co-operation with the United Nations, the unhindered provision at scale by all concerned of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance” including food, water, fuel and medical supplies. It also ordered Israel to immediately ensure “that its military does not commit acts which constitute a violation of any of the rights of the Palestinians in Gaza as a protected group under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, including by preventing, through any action, the delivery of urgently needed humanitarian assistance.”The court told Israel to report back in a month on its implementation of the orders.

Doctors visiting Gaza hospital stunned by war's toll on Palestinian children
Associated Press/March 28, 2024 
An international team of doctors visiting a hospital in central Gaza was prepared for the worst. But the gruesome impact Israel's war against Hamas is having on Palestinian children still left them stunned. One toddler died from a brain injury caused by an Israeli strike that fractured his skull. His cousin, an infant, is still fighting for her life with part of her face blown off by the same strike. An unrelated 10-year-old boy screamed out in pain for his parents, not knowing that they were killed in the strike. Beside him was his sister, but he didn't recognize her because burns covered almost her entire body.
These gut-wrenching casualties were described to The Associated Press by Tanya Haj-Hassan, a pediatric intensive-care doctor from Jordan, following a 10-hour overnight shift at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the town of Deir al-Balah. Haj-Hassan, who has extensive experience in Gaza and regularly speaks out about the war's devastating effects, was part of a team that recently finished a two-week stint there. After nearly six months of war, Gaza's health sector has been decimated. Roughly a dozen of Gaza's 36 hospitals are only partially functioning. The rest have either shut down or are barely functioning after they ran out of fuel and medicine, were surrounded and raided by Israeli troops, or were damaged in fighting. That leaves hospitals such as Al-Aqsa Martyrs caring for an overwhelming number of patients with limited supplies and staff. The majority of its intensive care unit beds are occupied by children, including infants wrapped in bandages and wearing oxygen masks. "I spend most of my time here resuscitating children," Haj-Hassan said after a recent shift. "What does that tell you about every other hospital in the Gaza Strip?"A different team of international doctors working at Al-Aqsa Martyrs in January stayed at a nearby guesthouse. But because of a recent surge of Israeli Israel strikes nearby, Haj-Hassan and her co-workers stayed in the hospital itself. That gave them a painfully vivid look at the strain the hospital has come under as the number of patients keeps rising, said Arvind Das, the team leader in Gaza for the International Rescue Committee. His organization and Medical Aid for Palestinians organized the visit by Haj-Hassan and others. Mustafa Abu Qassim, a nurse from Jordan who was part of the visiting team, said he was shocked by the overcrowding. "When we look for patients, there are no rooms," he said. "They are in the corridors on a bed, a mattress, or on a blanket on the floor." Before the war, the hospital had a capacity of around 160 beds, according to the World Health Organization. Now there are some 800 patients, yet many of the hospital's 120 staff members are no longer able to come to work.
Health care workers face the same daily struggle as others in Gaza in finding food for their families and trying to ensure some safety for them. Many bring their children with them to the hospital to keep them close, Abu Qassim said.
"It's just miserable," he said.
Thousands of people driven from their homes by the war are also living in the hospital grounds, hoping it will be safe. Hospitals have special protections under international law, though those protections can be removed if combatants use them for military purposes. Israel has alleged that hospitals serve as command centers, weapons storage facilities and hideouts for Hamas, but has presented little visual evidence. Hamas has denied the allegations. Israel has been carrying out a large-scale operation in Gaza's largest hospital, Shifa, for the past week. Israeli troops have not raided or besieged Al-Aqsa Martyrs but have attacked surrounding areas, sometimes striking close to the hospital. In January, many doctors, patients, and displaced Palestinians fled the hospital after a flurry of strikes. Israel's bombardment and offensive in Gaza have killed more than 32,000 Palestinians and wounded nearly 75,000 more in the territory of 2.3 million people, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. The count does not differentiate between combatants and civilians, but the ministry says about two-thirds of those killed have been women and children. Roughly half of Gaza's 2.3 million people are 17 or younger, the U.N.'s agency for children estimates. Israel holds Hamas responsible for non-combatants' deaths and injuries because the militants in Gaza operate from within civilian areas. It says over one-third of the dead are Hamas militants, though it has not backed up the claim with evidence. The war was triggered on Oct. 7 by Hamas and other militants who attacked southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking some 250 hostages. The Israeli government believes around 100 hostages being held in Gaza are still alive. In the early stages of the war, Israel severely limited the entry of food, fuel and medical supplies into Gaza. While the flow of aid has increased — and Israel says there are no longer any limits — the international community has called on Israel to let in more. Aid groups say complicated inspection procedures at the border, continued fighting, and a breakdown in public order have caused massive slowdowns in convoys. Israel accuses the U.N. of disorganization. The result has been catastrophic, with hospital staff struggling to cope with a shortage of spare parts to maintain medical equipment. Al-Aqsa Martyrs has also been short on anesthetics, meaning surgeries and other procedures are frequently performed without painkillers. Haj-Hassan says there is only one way to end Gaza's health care crisis. "They need the war to stop," she said.

Israel politics trigger Democrats to withdraw support from sexual violence bill
Taylor Giorno/The Hill/March 28, 2024
Several House Democrats have withdrawn their support for legislation condemning sexual violence, claiming they were unaware the measure was amended to include controversial language regarding Israel. But an email obtained by The Hill shows the lawmakers were notified of changes and offered an opportunity to remove their names two weeks before the bill was introduced by Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.). The intraparty drama lays bare the complicated conversations around sexual violence in the war between Israel and Hamas, which has influenced policy discussions on U.S. support for Israel.
“After circulating the resolution, a few changes were made to the text to incorporate new feedback. An email was sent to all co-sponsoring offices highlighting the changes and they were given two weeks to remove their name prior to introduction,” Michaela Johnson, a spokesperson for Dingell, told The Hill. Dingell introduced the resolution March 8 with 21 co-sponsors, all Democrats. Since March 19, seven of the bill’s original co-sponsors have removed themselves from the bill. In the email, dated Feb. 23, Dingell chief of staff Meg Makarewicz noted changes to lines referencing Palestinian women “to better contextualize the historical risks they faced, and how this has been compounded by the conflict in the Middle East.” The final text of the resolution argues that “high levels of poverty, instability, and deteriorating living conditions in Gaza” as a result of “decades of conflict with Israel” have “increased the risk of violence for Palestinian women and girls.” Those risks, the resolution argues, have been compounded since conflict erupted after Hamas killed about 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped another 240 people on Oct. 7. Lawmakers who withdrew from resolution opposed the inclusion of reported harassment Palestinian women have faced at checkpoints and in custody, as well as back-to-back but unrelated references to Israel’s war on Hamas and a United Nations Population Fund report that found 59 percent of Palestinian women have faced some form of gender-based violence.
A spokesperson for Rep. Mike Levin (D-Calif.), who withdrew his support last Tuesday, told The Hill that the congressman “did not affirmatively consent to remaining on the updated resolution after the language was changed.”
Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) said he removed his name because the amended language added “unsubstantiated claims that created a false equivalency between Israel and Hamas.”
“As confirmed by the United Nations, sexual violence has most recently been used in horrific ways by Hamas on October 7 and subsequently on hostages held in their captivity. On the other hand, there have been no confirmed reports of Israel using sexual violence as a weapon of war,” Goldman said in a statement. Reps. Goldman, Levin, Susan Wild (D-Pa.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Juan Vargas (D-Calif.), Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.) and Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.) — all original co-sponsors of the resolution — have withdrawn their support since March 19. The Hill has requested comment from each of the resolution’s former co-sponsors. A spokesperson for Schiff declined to comment on the record.
Dingell’s resolution broadly condemns violence against women as a “global crisis” and states “horrific” acts of rape, sexual violence and gender-based violence are “especially heinous when weaponized during conflicts.”
It also references a report from Physicians for Human Rights Israel that found “systemic and intentional” use of rape by Hamas attackers on Oct. 7, along with other allegations of sexual violence against women used in conflicts in countries including Ukraine, Sudan and Myanmar. “I stand by my condemnation of sexual violence as a weapon of war around the world and look forward to supporting an accurate resolution addressing this deplorable practice,” Goldman said. Johnson, Dingell’s spokesperson, told The Hill that the congresswoman “understands the seriousness and strong feelings members have regarding the subject of the resolution.”Dingell’s own constituents have strong feelings about how the U.S. government is handling Israel’s war on Hamas and the ongoing civilian casualties in Gaza, which have climbed to nearly 32,000 Palestinians killed and 74,000 injured since Oct. 7, according to U.N. estimates.
Voters in Michigan handed President Biden a message in the Democratic primary last month that they were “uncommitted” to his reelection due to his administration’s handling of the war in Gaza.
More than 101,000 “uncommitted” votes were cast in the Michigan Democratic primary, or around 13 percent of the vote, according to Decision Desk HQ. More than 8,000 of uncommitted votes came from Washtenaw County, which is within Dingell’s district, accounting for 17 percent of that county’s votes in the primary. Reports of the use of sexual violence in the Israel-Hamas war have deepened tensions in conversations among policymakers.
Following U.N. special representative of the Secretary-General Pramila Patten’s official visit to Israel in January, a U.N. report released earlier this month found “reasonable grounds” to believe that Hamas committed rape and sexual violence on Oct. 7 and “clear and convincing information” of sexual violence against hostages, and called for an investigation into allegations of conflict-related sexual violence committed by Hamas during the attack. Patten also met with “Palestinian officials and civil society representatives,” according to a readout of the trip, who “raised concerns about cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of Palestinians in detention, including various forms of sexual violence in the form of invasive body searches, threats of rape, and prolonged forced nudity, as well as sexual harassment and threats of rape, during house raids and at checkpoints.”“This information will complement information already verified by other UN entities on allegations of CRSV in Gaza and the occupied West Bank for potential inclusion in the annual Report of the Secretary-General on Conflict-Related Sexual Violence,” the readout says.
The $1.2 trillion government funding signed by President Biden this week provides $3.3 billion in security assistance for Israel and blocks U.S. contributions to the UNRWA, the U.N. agency supporting Palestinians displaced by the war. Israel accused a dozen individuals among the thousands of UNRWA staff members of participating in the Oct. 7 attack. Each of the lawmakers who removed their support voted for the spending package, as did Dingell and several other co-sponsors. Several members who co-sponsored the sexual violence bill — Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), Gwen Moore (D-Wis.), Summer Lee (D-Pa.), Greg Casar (D-Texas) and Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) — voted against the spending bill.
“I am also very concerned that this package continues funding for the Netanyahu government with no conditions, while at the same time prohibiting funding for [UNRWA],” Jayapal said in a statement explaining her “no” vote on the spending bill. “As the largest contributor of funding to Israel, we should use our funding leverage to demand that humanitarian aid enter Gaza and that we have a lasting ceasefire and a return of all hostages.” U.N. experts have called on the international community to stop arms exports to Israel, citing the risk that they could be used to violate international humanitarian law. One of those experts, Reem Alsalem, the U.N.’s special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, told The Hill that there are “very good reasons to believe that Israel has committed sexual violence [against Palestinians],” pointing to the remarks on Patten’s trip. Last month, Alsalem and other U.N. experts, who have unequivocally condemned the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, also said they had received reports of Palestinian women and girls being sexually assaulted, including the rape of two Palestinian women in detention.
Allegations of sexual assault and violence against female Palestinian detainees predate the latest conflict between Israel and Hamas. An August 2023 report by the U.N.’s special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories documented “instances of torture and cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment include sexual assaults.”“The international community needs to send the message that it is very concerned about increased use of sexual violence against women in conflict and needs to end the impunity around it,” Alsalem said.

French parliament condemns 1961 Paris massacre of Algerians
Associated Press/March 28, 2024 
The French parliament's lower house on Thursday approved a resolution condemning as "bloody and murderous repression" the killing by Paris police of dozens of Algerians in a crackdown on a 1961 protest to support Algerian independence. In recent years France has made a series of efforts to come to terms with its colonial past in Algeria. Dozens of peaceful demonstrators died during a crackdown by Paris police on a protest by Algerians in 1961. The scale of the massacre was covered up for decades by French authorities before President Emmanuel Macron condemned it as "inexcusable" in 2021. The text of the resolution stressed the crackdown took place "under the authority of police prefect Maurice Papon" and also called for the official commemoration of the massacre. The bill, put forward by Greens lawmaker Sabrina Sebaihi and ruling Renaissance party MP Julie Delpech, was approved by 67 lawmakers, with 11 against. Sebaihi said the vote represented the "first step" towards the "recognition of this colonial crime, the recognition of this state crime." The term "state crime" however does not appear in the text of the resolution, which was jointly drafted by Macron's party and the Elysee Palace. On the 60th anniversary of the bloodshed in 2021, Macron acknowledged that several dozen protesters had been killed, "their bodies thrown into the River Seine." The precise number of victims has never been made clear and some activists fear several hundred could have been killed. "Let us spare a thought here today for these victims and their families, who have been hit hard by the spiral of violence", Dominique Faure, the minister for local and regional authorities, said on Thursday. She noted that efforts had been made in the past to recognise the massacre. In 2012, then president Francois Hollande paid "tribute to the victims" of a "bloody crackdown" on the men and women demonstrating for "the right to independence". The rally was called in the final year of France's increasingly violent attempt to retain Algeria as a north African colony, and in the middle of a bombing campaign targeting mainland France by pro-independence militants.
However, Faure expressed reservations about establishing a special day to commemorate the massacre, pointing out that three dates already existed to "commemorate what happened during the Algerian war". "I think it is important to let history do the work before considering a new day of commemoration specifically for the victims of October 17, 1961." France has made several attempts over the years to heal the wounds with Algeria, but it refuses to "apologize or repent" for the 132 years of often brutal rule that ended in 1962.

US says it downed four Yemen rebel drones in Red Sea
AFP/March 28, 2024
WASHINGTON: The United States military said Wednesday it had downed four drones launched by Iran-backed Houthi forces in Yemen aimed at a US warship in the Red Sea. US Central Command said in a statement on X, formerly Twitter, that its forces had “engaged and destroyed four long-range unmanned aerial systems” at around 2 am Sanaa time (2300 GMT), adding there were no injuries or damage reported to US or coalition ships. “It was determined these weapons presented an imminent threat to merchant vessels and US Navy ships in the region,” the statement said. “These actions are taken to protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer and more secure for US Navy and merchant vessels,” it added. In November, the Houthis launched a campaign of drone and missile strikes against vessels in the Red Sea, an area vital for world trade, in professed solidarity with Palestinians during Israel’s war against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. US and British forces have responded with strikes against the Houthis, who have since declared American and British interests to be legitimate targets as well.

ISIS spokesperson praises the group's attack on Russian concert hall
Reuters/March 28, 2024
The spokesperson for the Islamic State praised the attack carried out by the group on the concert hall near Moscow, which resulted in the killing of more than 140 people. The spokesperson's praise was contained in a recorded message published on Thursday on the organization's Telegram application channel.

Russia vetoes renewal of North Korea sanctions monitors
Reuters/March 28, 2024
Russia on Thursday vetoed the annual renewal of a panel of experts monitoring enforcement of longstanding United Nations sanctions against North Korea over its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs. The move comes amid US-led accusations that North Korea has transferred weapons to Russia for use in its war in Ukraine. Moscow and Pyongyang have denied the accusations but vowed to deepen military relations in 2023. "This is almost comparable to destroying a CCTV to avoid being caught red-handed," said South Korea's UN Ambassador Joonkook Hwang of Russia's veto. China abstained from Thursday's vote, while the remaining 13 UN Security Council members voted in favor. "Moscow has undermined the prospect of the peaceful, diplomatic resolution of one of the world's most dangerous nuclear proliferation issues," deputy US Ambassador to the UN Robert Wood told the council.

Latest English LCCC  analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on March 28-29/2024
Hungary Calls Out Western Hypocrisy on Christian Persecution
Raymond Ibrahim/March 28, 2024 
Hungary’s Tristan Azbej during a humanitarian mission in Nigeria
While Western media portray Hungary as lacking in compassion—unlike most Western nations, it refuses to take in (and suffer from) Muslim migrants—Hungary continues to expose Western hypocrisy.
Last year, for instance, Hungary condemned the West “for denying” the ongoing pandemic of Christian persecution. According to one report,
Hungary’s rightwing government has condemned the West for allegedly playing down the persecution of Christians after Islamists in Africa killed and injured dozens of believers on Sunday, including a priest.
Tristan Azbej, state secretary at Hungary’s foreign ministry, said politicians in the West “must stop their denial.” He added that “a dozen Christians a day are not murdered because of climate change or local clashes, but because of their religion. Indeed, as part of their gross denial, Western leaders and media, who have nearly exhausted every possible pretext to downplay the Muslim persecution of Christians—“grievances,” “economics,” etc.—have most recently added “climate change” to their arsenal of excuses.
Thus, on Pentecost Sunday, Jun. 5, 2022, after Muslims massacred some 50 Christians as they peacefully worshipped inside their church, the president of Ireland, Michael Higgins, issued a statement condemning, not Muslim violence, but climate change and global warming. Others have done the same thing. Meanwhile, back in the real world, Christians in Nigeria are being purged in a widely acknowledged genocide: some 60,000 Christians “have been butchered or hacked to death” in Nigeria since 2009, and approximately 20,000 churches and Christian schools have been torched by “Allahu Akbar” screaming Muslims.
As Sister Monica Chikwe, a Nigerian nun, once observed, “It’s tough to tell Nigerian Christians this isn’t a religious conflict since what they see are Fulani fighters clad entirely in black, chanting ‘Allahu Akbar!’ and screaming ‘Death to Christians.’” Or as the Christian Association of Nigeria once asked, “How can it be a [secular or economic] clash when one group [Muslims] is persistently attacking, killing, maiming, destroying, and the other group [Christians] is persistently being killed, maimed and their places of worship destroyed?”
While calling out Western indifference, Hungary’s Tristan Azbej pointed to the burning alive of a Christian priest—one of many Nigerians to be burned alive by Muslims in recent times—and said that “condolences were not enough” and that the “international community should take proactive steps.”Far from doing anything “proactive” against the genocide of Christians in Nigeria, the Biden administration—which perhaps best embodies the hypocrisy—has taken the “denial” one step further: In late 2021, the Biden State Department removed Nigeria—this nation where one Christian is butchered every two hours—from its list of Countries of Particular Concern, that is, nations which engage in, or tolerate violations of, religious freedom. Many observers responded by slamming the Biden administration for this inexplicable move. As Sean Nelson, of the Alliance Defending Freedom, noted:
Outcry over the State Department’s removal of Country of Particular Concern status for Nigeria’s religious freedom violations is entirely warranted. No explanations have been given that could justify this decision. If anything, the situation in Nigeria has grown worse over the last year. Thousands of Christians … are targeted, killed, and kidnapped, and the government is simply unwilling to stop these atrocities. … Removing Country of Particular Concern status for Nigeria will only embolden the increasingly authoritarian government there. Similarly, John Eibner, president of Christian Solidarity International, frankly said:
The State Department’s decision to de-list a country where thousands of Christians are killed every year reveals Washington’s true priorities…. Removing this largely symbolic sign of concern is a brazen denial of reality and indicates that the U.S. intends to pursue its interests in western Africa through an alliance with Nigeria’s security elite, at the expense of Christians and other victims of widespread sectarian violence…. If the U.S. CPC list means anything at all—an open question at this point—Nigeria belongs on it.
Such is the current state of affairs: jihads of genocidal proportions are being waged against Christians in various parts of the world—along with Nigeria, one can add Armenia—even as American media and government cover for the terrorists, deflect to “climate change,” and pretend that the real humanitarian problem is that nations such as Hungary do not want to take in and suffer from Muslim migrants like the rest of Europe.

Feminist Silence: Hamas's Sexual Violence
Nils A. Haug/Gatestone Institute./March 28, 2024
In November 2023, it was reported that the United Nations' Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls, Reem Alsalem, notwithstanding overwhelming evidence to the contrary, claimed the evidence against Hamas "was 'not solid' enough to warrant a statement" -- to which London's Victims' Commissioner, Claire Waxman, replied: "How can we talk about eliminating violence against women and girls if we are tacitly saying its acceptable to rape Jewish ones?"
Alsalem, from Jordan, claims the charges against Israeli forces are "reasonably credible," but refuses to divulge the source. In reality, no credible or proven instance of this behaviour by Israel's forces in Gaza since October 7 has been publicly recorded.
"Organizations that fight for LGBT rights condemned the country that allows freedom, and marched for a terrorist organization that punishes gay people with death." — Jared Kushner, townhall.com, March 7, 2024.
"Above all, we must at all times remember what intellectuals habitually forget: that people matter more than concepts and must come first. The worst of all despotisms is the heartless tyranny of ideas." — Paul Johnson, historian, thepublicdiscourse.com, January 23, 2023.
Early women's liberation movements, forerunners to present feminist activism, were founded to proclaim women's rights to social equality. Radical feminism, as a narrow expression of the original movement, fails spectacularly in exemplifying society's moral and ethical precepts. Its advocates appear to prioritize narcissistic, egocentric identity ideologies over the sanctity, dignity, and ontological security of the individual woman.
"We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented." — Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, December 10, 1986.
For all advocates for women's welfare, especially in the area of sexual violence, the crucial concern at this time should be the terror perpetrated on defenceless females of all ages through acts of sexual depravity, torture, and death by Hamas in Israel on October 7.
In November 2023, the UK Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy penned a poem, "We See You," celebrating the triumph of female soccer players. Success of women in traditional men's sports is certainly something to celebrate. Even so, a Poet Laureate's task is surely also to reflect deep contemporary issues affecting the nation. Duffy, a devoted feminist, gender activist, and supporter of the oppressed, has yet to address the most seminal issue of the moment for women's welfare: the horrific and systemic gender-based violence suffered by innocent Israeli girls and women, many raped to death, abused, tortured, massacred, with their sexual organs carved from their bodies by Hamas murderers on October 7, 2023. Perhaps she still might comment or pen an emotive poem, perhaps not.
The reality is that for all advocates for women's welfare, especially in the area of sexual violence, the crucial concern at this time should be the terror perpetrated on defenceless females of all ages through acts of sexual depravity, torture, and death by Hamas in Israel on October 7.
The moral obligation of lovers of peace, and those who hold to the sanctity of human life, is to speak out against injustice. This is particularly so in crimes of violence against the defenceless. It is therefore fitting to expect women's rights groups to speak out on behalf of traumatized females of all ethnic and religious categories. This approach was ratified in by Nobel Peace Prize winner Eli Wiesel in his 1986 acceptance speech:
"We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented."
Archbishop Charles Chaput remarked that "tolerating grave evil within a society is itself a form of serious evil."
By and large, citizens of many nations are outraged at the lack of widespread condemnation of atrocities purposefully inflicted on vulnerable females of all ages, from toddlers to seniors, by Hamas terror squads on October 7. Particularly shocking is the paucity of denunciation by post-modern Western feminists. To his credit, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken immediately issued a statement to the effect that Hamas violence against Israeli women was "beyond anything that I've seen." In an oblique allusion to Wiesel's principle, Blinken questioned "why countries, leaders, international organizations were so slow to focus on this." Blinken, however, overlooks the inference that the Biden Administration's promotion of leftist, neo-Marxist, identity construals, particularly that of radical feminism, could be a pertinent factor.
In November 2023, it was reported that the United Nations' Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls, Reem Alsalem, notwithstanding overwhelming evidence to the contrary, claimed the evidence against Hamas "was 'not solid' enough to warrant a statement" -- to which London's Victims' Commissioner, Claire Waxman, replied:
"How can we talk about eliminating violence against women and girls if we are tacitly saying its acceptable to rape Jewish ones?"
That is the crux of the matter, namely, widespread hypocrisy, apparently emanating from pervasive anti-Semitism, which intersects with anti-Zionism and extreme feminist gender ideology.
The following instances clearly show the prejudice of certain women's groups when it comes to Jewish and Israeli victims of sexual violence arising from October 7 events:
For two months after October 7 terror, representatives of the UN Women's Agency for Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment refused to meet with an Israeli women's group, despite the Agency's laudatory slogans of "a global champion for women and girls" and women's "right to live free from violence."
During the last days of November 2023, the women's rights group, UN Women, eventually issued a statement criticising the "numerous accounts of gender-based atrocities and sexual violence" perpetrated by Hamas on October 7. This statement was released nearly eight long weeks after the event and, no doubt, solely due to pressure from concerned human rights groups. A critic of UN Women, lamented their silence on the issue, "It seems like they forgot they fighting for all women; and if they are not fighting for all women then they are fighting for none."
On November 20, Miriam Schler, director of a Tel Aviv crisis center alleges international women's rights groups largely remain silent and "bend over backwards to justify atrocities and rationalize rape."
Samantha Pearson, Director of the University of Alberta's Sexual Assault Center, "signed an open letter denying women were raped by Hamas terrorists." She was later fired from her post;
The UK's Sisters Uncut ­claimed that allegations of sexual assault against Israeli women on October 7 were "Islamophobic and a racist weaponization of sexual violence";
The US National Women's Studies Association, while condemning gender violence in war generally, failed to mention the sexual assaults against Israeli women;
Typical of many prominent feminists, Pramila Jayapal, US Representative (D-WA) and human right's advocate "hedged her condemnation of Hamas' terrorists raping Israeli women" when interviewed on CNN, December 3. She refused to unconditionally censure Hamas's actions.
A month after October 7 events, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women was celebrated by the UN internationally. At various related "conferences, roundtables and events," not one "word against these horrible acts that have just recently been committed on Israeli land was made, and it is a real shame on them," claimed Ms. Granot-Lubaton, a concerned protestor in New York. No resolution was passed condemning Hamas's mass rape and sexual assault against the innocent girls and women of Israel;
Despite a widely-released statement on October 13, 2023, by the Physicians for Human Rights recounting October 7 instances of rape and torture of females, both young and old, the UN and feminist rights groups mostly remained silent on the issue.
In early December 2023 and due to Israeli insistence, the UN convened a session in New York to investigate Hamas' sexual crimes. Against much opposition, the former CEO of Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg, together with US Democratic Senator, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, addressed the meeting. Sandberg said, "If we can't agree that rape is wrong, then we have accepted the unacceptable." Her colleague, Senator Gillibrand, expressed she "nearly choked" when she saw "how many women's rights organizations chose to stay silent."
It was only on March 4 2024, some five months after October 7, that the UN compiled a report acknowledging, "clear and convincing information that sexual violence including rape, sexualized torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment." Predictably, arising from interviews conducted in Palestinian occupied areas of the West Bank, the UN asserted "cruel, inhuman and degrading" actions by the IDF like "sexual violence in the forms of body searches and threats of rape." It is believed the allegation emanates from conspiracy theorist and virulent anti-Semite Richard Falk via his foundation, Euro-Med Monitor. The UN Rapporteur Alsalem, from Jordan, claims the charges against Israeli forces are "reasonably credible," but refuses to divulge the source. In reality, no credible or proven instance of this behaviour by Israel's forces in Gaza since October 7 has been publicly recorded.
Notwithstanding the report, the UN Secretary General António Guterres has not summoned a meeting of the Security Council "to declare Hamas a terror group and place sanctions on its supporters." Foreign Minister Israel Katz responded that Israel has not heard "one word" from Guterres on the issue of sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas.
On March 6, 2024, former adviser to President Trump, Jared Kushner pointed to the hypocrisy of progressive feminists concerning Jews and Israel: "When women were brutally raped on October 7, most liberal women's groups in America stayed silent." Kushner then highlighted the irrationality and anti-Semitism of gender ideologues, "Organizations that fight for LGBT rights condemned the country that allows freedom, and marched for a terrorist organization that punishes gay people with death."
On November 27, 2023, former Italian parliamentarian, Fiamma Nirenstein, suggested that the primary cause of feminist silence -- and the absence of feminist-led protest marches, against Hamas's sexual violence -- is unmitigated Jew-hatred.
Hamas's diabolical stance on sexual terror was further exposed on March 6, 2024, when spokesman Osama Hamdan denied October 7 sexual assaults on innocent females. "[T]he woman who wrote it should be fired", he said; then alleged that one of them underwent cosmetic surgery because she thought that she was not assaulted because she was not pretty enough."
To be expected, radical feminist groups rebel against criticism of their failure to firmly condemn Hamas's sexual assaults. An article published February 29, 2024 in Portside Magazine, by an anonymous group, projected the blame onto Israel:
"Israel's current campaign to discredit feminists – especially feminists of color, Arab feminists, and Jewish anti-Zionist feminists – and others critical of its lethal offensive against Palestinians is insulting and dishonest, but it is nothing new."
They did not write a single word condemning Hamas's use of systemic rape and mutilation as terror.
In striving for purported social justice, contemporary radical feminists seem to perceive crucial issues like race and gender through the lens of "critical race theory." In terms of ethnicity, social revolutionaries allege that Western culture is systemically biased against minorities. The feminists themselves, however, are biased against Jews. Typical Marxist revolutionary policy dictates that the oppressed class, the "workers," should overthrow the masters, the "captains of industry" who control them. For feminists, the same principles apply to issues of gender. In their solipsistic view, a reset society along lines that are supposedly more egalitarian is required, thereby entrenching a bigoted form of social justice.
Marxian class-dualist theory, the foundation of identity politics, ostensibly provides its followers with an ideological basis for viewing Palestinians as an oppressed class. This doctrine might explain the vociferous October 13 march in Hebron by Palestinian women, who are often all too familiar with femicidal crimes, in support of Hamas's attacks against Israeli females. These Palestinian feminists perhaps identify with Hamas as social liberators irrespective of terror heaped upon innocent females in the process, and possibly understand their own role in the conflict as part and parcel of tribal solidarity. Even so, their manifest Schadenfreude -- their delight at the sexual violence perpetrated upon females of a differing faith -- is there for all to witness.
In publicly aligning with terrorists, these Palestinian women, possibly feeling an obligation to their society, then go on to raise children as indoctrinated as they are, modelling to them a future of hatred and violence.
Erika Bachiochi, a lawyer, criticizing post-modern feminism, noted that the "enduing moral principles" which earlier feminist movements "employed to make a reasoned critique," no longer exist. Instead, she said, the aims of contemporary, woke, feminists are "bereft of noble purpose and ultimately dangerous."
Historian Paul Johnson also decried the primacy of ideology generally:
"Above all, we must at all times remember what intellectuals habitually forget: that people matter more than concepts and must come first. The worst of all despotisms is the heartless tyranny of ideas."
Early women's liberation movements, forerunners to present feminist activism, were founded to proclaim women's rights to social equality. Radical feminism, as a narrow expression of the original movement, fails spectacularly in exemplifying society's moral and ethical precepts. Its advocates appear to prioritize narcissistic, egocentric identity ideologies over the sanctity, dignity, and ontological security of the individual woman. They resent certain categories of other females, especially those who are not supporters of gender ideology, such as women who celebrate gender differences; women who have a high opinion of the nuclear family and their pivotal role in fostering it; women who understand civilization is founded on the crucial roles of wife, mother and family; and women who celebrate their femininity.
Finding ideological origins within cultural Marxism, these feminists seem to favour the underdogs of society, which is probably how they view themselves. They extol victory over the oppressive establishment whether by Hamas or any other revolutionary group. Revolutionary movements that result in rearrangement of the culture's systemic bias against some minority groups -- but not others -- and which are supposedly essential for attaining equality and social justice, are, in their view, to be glorified.
Radical feminist ideology is directed at all Western societies, with the religious precepts underpinning society's values a prime target for eradication. This is especially true against the Jewish people, as custodians of foundational values and purveyors of a reliance on facts, a trait many might find inconvenient. As in all instances where the termination of the Jews and their ancestral homeland is sought, the seminal issue is one of faith, land, and historical evidence. The exclusive claim by all revolutionary movements to legitimacy, purporting to act in the interests of fairness, freedom and economic opportunity -- as with Lenin's Russia, Mao's China, Castro's Cuba or Chavez and Maduro's Venezuela impoverishing their people -- makes Judaism a crucial target.
What else can be said to these "liberators of women of the world," these campaigners for women's rights, these supposed opponents of gender-based violence, these vociferous feminists allegedly in pursuit of social justice, and self-proclaimed advocates of the "sisterhood of all women" but, yes, "We see you" and your silence shocks all who actually do care about justice to the core.
* A. Haug is an author and columnist. A trial lawyer by profession, he is member of the International Bar Association, the National Association of Scholars, the Academy of Philosophy and Letters. Retired from law, his particular field of interest is political theory interconnected with current events. He holds a Ph.D. in Apologetical Theology. Dr. Haug is author of Politics, Law, and Disorder in the Garden of Eden – the Quest for Identity; and Enemies of the Innocent – Life, Truth, and Meaning in a Dark Age. His work has appeared in First Things, The American Mind, Quadrant, Minding the Campus, and Gatestone Institute.
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Time to step up our efforts to achieve goal of clean water and sanitation for all
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/March 28/2024
March 22 was annual World Water Day and in the aftermath of this annual observance it is critical to acknowledge that the world is still far from achieving the aim of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 6, which is to ensure there is clean water and sanitation for all by 2030.
Some progress has been made in certain regions but millions of people worldwide continue to lack access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation facilities. The global water crisis persists, exacerbated by issues such as pollution, climate change and inadequate infrastructure. This ongoing challenge underscores the urgent need for governments, organizations and communities to intensify their efforts, prioritize sustainable water-management practices, and implement inclusive policies that ensure equitable access to clean water and sanitation for all.
Around the globe, disparities in access persist, disproportionately affecting marginalized communities in both urban and rural areas.
In sub-Saharan Africa, a region characterized by its diverse landscapes and vibrant cultures, millions of people continue to grapple with lack of access to basic sanitation services, perpetuating a cycle of widespread health challenges and economic disparities. The burden of poor sanitation disproportionately falls on vulnerable populations, including women, children and the elderly
Across this vast expanse, where communities range from bustling urban centers to remote rural villages, the absence of adequate sanitation infrastructure poses significant threats to public health. Without access to safe sanitation facilities, people are forced to resort to open defecation, which contaminates water sources and increases the risk of waterborne diseases such as cholera, typhoid and diarrhea. Moreover, the burden of poor sanitation disproportionately falls on vulnerable populations, including women, children and the elderly, who often bear the brunt of preventable illnesses.
Beyond the immediate health consequences, lack of sanitation perpetuates a cycle of poverty, hindering educational opportunities, limiting economic productivity and exacerbating social inequalities
In regions such as South Asia, rapid urbanization and population growth have put a strain on existing water and sanitation infrastructure, exacerbating the challenges of providing clean water to all residents.
Additionally, indigenous communities in countries such as Australia and Canada face unique challenges related to water access and quality, stemming from historical injustices and lack of investment in infrastructure.
Pollution further compounds the global water crisis, with contaminants ranging from industrial chemicals to agricultural runoff contaminating water sources worldwide. In regions such as Southeast Asia, for example, rapid industrialization has led to severe pollution of water, threatening public health and ecosystems. Similarly, in Latin America, unregulated mining activities have contaminated rivers and groundwater, depriving communities of safe drinking water and jeopardizing biodiversity. Addressing pollution requires concerted efforts from governments, industries and civil society to implement strict regulations, invest in wastewater-treatment infrastructure, and promote sustainable practices to safeguard water quality. Climate change poses another significant threat to water security, exacerbating scarcity, floods and droughts in many regions. In arid and semi-arid regions such as the Middle East and North Africa, changing patterns of precipitation and rising temperatures have caused water stress to intensify, leading to conflicts over dwindling resources.
In arid and semi-arid regions such as the Middle East and North Africa, changing patterns of precipitation and rising temperatures have caused water stress to intensify
Meanwhile, coastal communities worldwide are vulnerable to the effects of rising sea levels and saltwater intrusion, which threatens freshwater supplies and exacerbates sanitation challenges.
Adaptation measures such as water conservation, rainwater harvesting and integrated water resource management are essential for building resilience to climate change and ensuring future generations will have access to sustainable water supplies.
Inadequate infrastructure remains a barrier to universal access to clean water and sanitation. In many developing countries, outdated or poorly maintained water-supply systems contribute to water loss and contamination, perpetuating the cycle of water insecurity.
Rural areas, in particular, often lack access to centralized water and sanitation services, forcing communities to rely on unsafe water sources or practice open defecation. Investing in modern infrastructure, including piped water networks, sewage-treatment plants and sanitation facilities is critical for improving access to water and hygiene standards, particularly in underserved areas.
Efforts to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 6 require a multi-faceted approach that addresses the root causes of the global water crisis and promotes sustainable solutions. Governments can play a central role in the process by setting policies, allocating resources and regulating water-management practices to ensure equitable access to clean water and sanitation.
International cooperation and partnerships are also essential as they enable the sharing of knowledge, mobilization of financial resources, and support for capacity-building initiatives in water-stressed regions.
Civil society organizations and grassroots movements can play a vital role by advocating for water rights, raising awareness of water-related issues, and empowering communities to participate in decision-making processes.
Innovative technologies and techniques, such as decentralized water-treatment systems or mobile applications used to monitor water quality, also help to address water-related challenges.
In India, for example, the Swachh Bharat Mission leverages technology to improve sanitation infrastructure and enhance campaigns that encourage people to change their behavior regarding water. This has resulted in significantly improved access to toilets and a reduction in open defecation.
Similarly, water-sensitive urban-design concepts, such as green infrastructure and permeable pavements, can help mitigate the effects of urbanization on water resources, and enhance urban resilience to climate change.
Education and public-awareness campaigns are also crucial components of efforts to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 6, by empowering individuals to make more-informed choices about water conservation, hygiene practices and advocacy for water rights.
School-based education programs, community workshops and media campaigns can help raise awareness of the importance of clean water and sanitation, and foster a culture of responsible water stewardship.
By engaging citizens as active participants in water governance and management, communities can collectively work toward ensuring sustainable water access for present and future generations.
There is an urgent need for action to properly address the global water crisis and achieve the goal of universal access to clean water and sanitation by 2030. From the shores of Africa to the rivers of Asia and the urban centers of Latin America, millions of people around the world are still deprived of this basic human right.
It is time for governments, organizations and communities to prioritize water security, invest in sustainable infrastructure and promote inclusive policies that leave no one behind. By working together toward this common goal, we can build a more resilient and equitable future in which clean water flows freely for all.
*Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard-educated Iranian American political scientist. X: @Dr_Rafizadeh

UN ceasefire resolution must be a building block for Israel-Hamas peace talks
Daoud Kuttab/Arab News/March 28, 2024
For months, protesters around the world have been calling for a ceasefire in the brutal Israeli war of revenge against Palestinians in Gaza. On Monday, March 25, after 171 days of carnage, the UN Security Council finally took notice and voted to adopt a resolution calling for a ceasefire.
The vote at the UN headquarters in New York came amid the high cost of the war in Gaza in terms of the blood of Palestinians and the destruction of their property. The Security Council resolution must now serve as a building block for a genuine effort to reach a breakthrough in the indirect peace talks between Israel and Hamas, with the assistance of regional and international mediators.
Although there are inherent problems with the resolution, the fact that the international community finally uttered the word “ceasefire” in unison should be enough to prompt real change on the ground in Gaza.
The text of the resolution seems to have some contradictory time frames, however. On the one hand, it “demands an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan” but then states that it expects this cessation of hostilities to lead to “a lasting, sustainable ceasefire.”
UN officials said that the reference to Ramadan also includes the Eid Al-Fitr holidays, normally a three-day period at the end of the holy month, which means that at best, a Ramadan ceasefire would continue until around April 13.
The resolution is not perfect, then, but at least the world’s leading mechanism for peace and security finally adopted a position that demands that the warring sides end this madness. Hamas was quick to accept the resolution and express willingness to abide by it. Israel, on the other hand, poured scorn on their biggest, most loyal ally, the US, for failing to block it.
The key is for both sides not to become bogged down on minor issues, and to recognize the importance of this resolution.
Before the Security Council vote took place, Hamas negotiators in Doha had made some demands when presented with a US-sponsored offer of a six-week humanitarian ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement. The offer, which had been accepted by Israel, was rejected by Hamas because it made no reference to a permanent ceasefire, the robust provision of humanitarian aid, the withdrawal of the Israeli military from Gaza, or permission for the 1.1 million displaced Palestinians now crowded into the southern city of Rafah, and facing the threat of a major Israeli offensive there, to return to their homes in central and northern Gaza. While some of those demands are addressed by the Security Council resolution, it still lacks clarity about a permanent ceasefire. Nonetheless, the acceptance of it by Hamas signals the group’s trust in the decision of the international community.
If Israel does not retract its prior support for the proposal that was presented by the Americans before the UN vote, and if Hamas shows some degree of flexibility during the ongoing negotiations in Qatar, there might just be light at the end of this tunnel.
The Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire, incomplete though it might be, nonetheless provides negotiators in Qatar with a chance to build on a clear decision taken by the international community.
The deal offered in Qatar, based on a proposal presented by William Burns, director of the CIA, could actually provide a longer ceasefire duration of six weeks, rather than the three weeks or so indicated by the Security Council resolution. The key is for both sides not to become bogged down on minor issues, and to recognize the importance of this resolution, which has the support of the world behind it.
To back this up, the international community, and especially those countries with the most influence on Israel, must make it clear, in no uncertain terms, that they say what they mean and mean what they say.
The fact is that diplomatic hints, press leaks and public threats are clearly not enough to motivate an Israeli government led by a four-time-indicted prime minister who knows that when the war ends, he will be the first held accountable for it by the people of Israel.
The decision of the US to abstain from the vote but not block it is the first step in matching words with actions, but it will be a useless act if it is not backed by other, more powerful actions, such as sanctions.
Supplying military weapons to Israel, a country clearly defying international law and binding resolutions of the UN Security Council should not be off the books. The UN charter provides in Chapter VII a clear mechanism for enforcing resolutions that countries fail to adhere to. Such use of Chapter 7 should be made clear to Israel and its friends and allies who have until now been continuing to supply it with weapons and ammunition. No one is above international law no matter who your friends and allies are.
The same logic can be applied to the Paris Olympics this summer. In the past, countries that clearly fail to adhere to the rules of international law have been barred from participating in the world’s top international sporting events; for example, South Africa during the era of its racist Apartheid government.
The UN Security Council resolution sadly is too little too late for the tens of thousands of civilians who have already lost their lives in this vengeful war by Israel on the Palestinian people.
But if this important resolution is to be taken seriously and prevent more bloodshed, further steps are required from the Security Council that adopted it, and the individual member states that allowed it to pass.
All eyes are now on the peace talks in Doha. Israeli authorities need to understand that the world will no longer allow them to persist with their genocidal war without a reckoning.
**Daoud Kuttab is an award-winning Palestinian journalist and a director of Community Media Network. X: @daoudkuttab

GCC vision for regional security unveiled for the first time
Dr. Abdel Aziz Aluwaisheg/Arab News/March 28, 2024
On Thursday, the Gulf Cooperation Council unveiled its vision for regional security for the first time in its 43-year history. In the past, that vision was reflected in the communiques issued by the GCC heads of state at the conclusion of their annual summits. It has also informed the statements issued by the Ministerial Council, composed of the foreign ministers of the six member states, at the conclusion of their quarterly meetings.
There have been attempts by outsiders to define regional security, often articulated in formulations that overlooked the centrality of the GCC itself to regional security and underestimated its agency to define the architecture of its own security.
In addition to the published document, there is an underlying framework for regional security and a detailed accounting of security threats and challenges and how the GCC is facing them. They are reviewed regularly and updated, but are used as working internal documents. There are several dedicated bodies in the GCC military, security and political branches whose task is to monitor new developments and develop policy options, taking as inputs the views of each member state, to reach at common positions adopted collectively.
Besides the novelty of its publication, the new vision represents a substantive revision of earlier formulations, reflecting new internal and external developments since the last major revision. The starting point of the vision is the centrality of the GCC to any regional security framework and of collective defense — that the security of GCC states is indivisible. The Joint Defense Treaty, concluded in 2000, stipulates that any attack against one GCC member state is an attack on all members, and a threat against one is a threat against all.
Deterrence is another: The GCC states are actively reinforcing their capabilities to deter dangers and sources of threat against their security and territorial integrity and stand together against any aggression directed at any member state.
The GCC states are actively reinforcing their capabilities to deter dangers and sources of threat against their security and territorial integrity
In addition, GCC states play a pivotal role, when requested, in supporting the security of neighboring countries, and their political and economic stability. They believe in multilateralism and contributing a fair share in ensuring international peace and security, and the stability of the global economic order.
The guiding principles for the vision are based on those of international law, including the UN Charter, including respect for the sovereignty of states, non-interference in their internal affairs, as well as the principles of good neighborliness, refraining from the threat or use of force and resolving disputes through peaceful means.
The vision calls for building upon the GCC states’ growing role in resolving differences through negotiations, diplomacy and dialogue, and avoiding force or threats. It anticipates a more effective leadership role, providing good offices and supporting mediation efforts.
The objective of the newly formulated vision is clearly to preserve the security and stability of the GCC states and the prosperity of its people, but also to contribute significantly to regional and international peace and security. This means tackling regional challenges, transforming them into opportunities for development and prosperity, building the future through settling disagreements by peaceful means, and finding consensus-based solutions that ensure respect for the legitimate interests of all parties while avoiding polarization.
It also means building strategic partnerships to deal with regional and global sources of threat and tension, including through GCC states’ role in ensuring security of energy supplies and stability of oil markets, enhancing maritime security and freedom of navigation, and the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
A clear objective is to address climate challenges and achieve environmental security and the Sustainable Development Goals. The vision recognizes the importance of securing and defending GCC states’ vital economic resources, creating investment opportunities to preserve their prosperous development trajectory, which has seen the combined GCC GDP growing from less than $200 billion to currently more than $2.2 trillion and social development indicators jumping to be among the highest in the world in one generation.
To bolster both their own economic development and regional prosperity, the vision calls for greater diversified strategic partnerships, which will contribute to sustainable peace, security and prosperity, regionally and internationally.
In addition to stating the guiding principles, the vision touches upon a number of key issues, providing insights into GCC policies, starting with the Palestine issue, a resolution of which is central to regional security. The war on Gaza has only reaffirmed this truism.
The vision includes important sections on non-proliferation of all weapons of mass destruction, and on combating terrorism and extremism, demanding the criminalization of all groups carrying out terrorist acts, irrespective of their political or religious affiliations, or ties to state institutions.
The new document calls for raising cybersecurity levels and countering cybercrime. Taking account of the GCC states’ role and recent challenges to energy security, it calls for additional efforts to ensure the stability of global energy markets serving the interests of both producers and consumers, while sparing the world from the negative effects of market fluctuations and disruptions to global supply chains. It called for avoiding the politicization of these issues and instead building bridges to address common challenges.
Reflecting the GCC’s growing role finding effective solutions to climate change challenges, the vision called for a realistic, responsible and balanced approach within the principles of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement, and the need to make progress toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. It called for the universal adoption of the circular carbon economy approach, which enhances the development of renewable energy resources and the optimized use of hydrocarbons, as a comprehensive and integrated framework to deal with emissions contributing to greenhouse effects, while preserving the natural environment, raising the level of vegetation cover, and increasing reliance on clean technologies for all energy sources.
As water scarcity and creeping desertification represent existential regional threats, the vision stressed the need for greater efforts in finding sustainable solutions to tackle them and safeguard global food supply chains and price stability. Strengthening the GCC’s collective capabilities has been the main instrument in the past to face security and economic challenges. The new vision adds an emphasis on regional and international partnerships to safeguard shared strategic interests, including maritime security. It calls for exerting effective and integrated efforts to preserve regional and international security and stability, address chronic crises, and establish new platforms for mediation and direct negotiations to bridge differences.
*Dr. Abdel Aziz Aluwaisheg is the Gulf Cooperation Council assistant secretary-general for political affairs and negotiation. The views expressed here are personal and do not necessarily represent the GCC. X: @abuhamad1